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Global Earthquake Watch
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Re: Global Earthquake Watch
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Re: Global Earthquake Watch
Volcanic eruptions reshape Arctic ocean floor: study
1 day ago
PARIS (AFP) — Recent massive volcanoes have risen from the ocean floor deep under the Arctic ice cap, spewing plumes of fragmented magma into the sea, scientists who filmed the aftermath reported Wednesday.
The eruptions -- as big as the one that buried Pompei -- took place in 1999 along the Gakkel Ridge, an underwater mountain chain snaking 1,800 kilometres (1,100 miles) from the northern tip of Greenland to Siberia.
Scientists suspected even at the time that a simultaneous series of earthquakes were linked to these volcanic spasms.
But when a team led of scientists led by Robert Sohn of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts finally got a first-ever glimpse of the ocean floor 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) beneath the Arctic pack ice, they were astonished.
What they saw was unmistakable evidence of explosive eruptions rather than the gradual secretion of lava bubbling up from Earth's mantle onto the ocean floor.
Previous research had concluded that this kind of so-called pyroclastic eruption could not happen at such depths due to the crushing pressure of the water.
"On land, explosive volcanic eruptions are nothing exceptional, although they present a major threat," said Vera Schlindwein, a geologist with Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute for Sea and Polar Research, which took part in the study.
But the new findings, published in Nature, showed that "large-scale pyroclastic activity is possible along even the deepest portions of the global mid-ocean ridge volcanic system."
The mid-ocean ridge runs 84,000 kilometres (52,000 miles) beneath all the world's major seas except the Southern Ocean, and marks the boundary between many of the tectonic plates that make up the surface of the Earth.
When continental plates collide into each other, they can thrust up mountain ranges such as the Himalayas.
But along most of the mid-ocean ridge -- including the Gakkal Ridge -- the plates are pulling apart, allowing molten magna and gases trapped beneath the crust to escape.
Sohn and his colleagues gathered their data in July last year aboard the ice breaker Oden, using state-of-the-art instruments including a mutlibeam echo sounder, two autonomous underwater vehicles and a sub-ice camera designed for the mission.
Both sonar and visual images showed an ocean valley filled with flat-topped volcanos up to two kilometres (1.2 miles) wide and several hundred metres high.
1 day ago
PARIS (AFP) — Recent massive volcanoes have risen from the ocean floor deep under the Arctic ice cap, spewing plumes of fragmented magma into the sea, scientists who filmed the aftermath reported Wednesday.
The eruptions -- as big as the one that buried Pompei -- took place in 1999 along the Gakkel Ridge, an underwater mountain chain snaking 1,800 kilometres (1,100 miles) from the northern tip of Greenland to Siberia.
Scientists suspected even at the time that a simultaneous series of earthquakes were linked to these volcanic spasms.
But when a team led of scientists led by Robert Sohn of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts finally got a first-ever glimpse of the ocean floor 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) beneath the Arctic pack ice, they were astonished.
What they saw was unmistakable evidence of explosive eruptions rather than the gradual secretion of lava bubbling up from Earth's mantle onto the ocean floor.
Previous research had concluded that this kind of so-called pyroclastic eruption could not happen at such depths due to the crushing pressure of the water.
"On land, explosive volcanic eruptions are nothing exceptional, although they present a major threat," said Vera Schlindwein, a geologist with Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute for Sea and Polar Research, which took part in the study.
But the new findings, published in Nature, showed that "large-scale pyroclastic activity is possible along even the deepest portions of the global mid-ocean ridge volcanic system."
The mid-ocean ridge runs 84,000 kilometres (52,000 miles) beneath all the world's major seas except the Southern Ocean, and marks the boundary between many of the tectonic plates that make up the surface of the Earth.
When continental plates collide into each other, they can thrust up mountain ranges such as the Himalayas.
But along most of the mid-ocean ridge -- including the Gakkal Ridge -- the plates are pulling apart, allowing molten magna and gases trapped beneath the crust to escape.
Sohn and his colleagues gathered their data in July last year aboard the ice breaker Oden, using state-of-the-art instruments including a mutlibeam echo sounder, two autonomous underwater vehicles and a sub-ice camera designed for the mission.
Both sonar and visual images showed an ocean valley filled with flat-topped volcanos up to two kilometres (1.2 miles) wide and several hundred metres high.
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Re: Global Earthquake Watch
Major earthquake rocks India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Posted: 2008/06/28
From: MNN
An earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale shook the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and parts of Chennai Friday triggering panic among residents.
With its epicentre near Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the quake occurring at around evening lasted a few seconds and rocked several parts of Chennai including the busy T Nagar, Nugambakkam and Koyambedu areas, PTI reported here quoting Met office sources.
Employees working in a multi-storeyed building in Venkatnarayana Road in T Nagar rushed out of office as they experienced the tremor, police said.
However, there is no immediate report about any loss of life or property due to the quake.
The Andaman and Nicobar chain of 536 islands, 58 of them inhabited, was badly hit by the 2004 tsunami, with hundreds dead and more than 3,000 still officially listed as missing. --IRNA
Posted: 2008/06/28
From: MNN
An earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale shook the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and parts of Chennai Friday triggering panic among residents.
With its epicentre near Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the quake occurring at around evening lasted a few seconds and rocked several parts of Chennai including the busy T Nagar, Nugambakkam and Koyambedu areas, PTI reported here quoting Met office sources.
Employees working in a multi-storeyed building in Venkatnarayana Road in T Nagar rushed out of office as they experienced the tremor, police said.
However, there is no immediate report about any loss of life or property due to the quake.
The Andaman and Nicobar chain of 536 islands, 58 of them inhabited, was badly hit by the 2004 tsunami, with hundreds dead and more than 3,000 still officially listed as missing. --IRNA
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Re: Global Earthquake Watch
Discovery may lead to quake early-warning system
Wed Jul 9, 2008 4:49pm EDT
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) - Scientists working at California's San Andreas Fault have detected subtle geological changes occurring hours before an earthquake that could enable them to develop an early-warning system aimed at saving lives.
Their instruments detected geological changes most likely caused by tiny fractures forming in the rock ahead of an impending earthquake due to stress in the Earth's crust, according to seismologist Paul Silver of the Carnegie Institution in Washington, one of the researchers.
"It's the opening up of cracks before an earthquake," Silver said in a telephone interview.
The research, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, was conducted using wells dug 0.6 miles (1 km) deep into the quake-prone fault at Parkfield, California.
Their equipment generated and recorded seismic waves before, during and after two small quakes, allowing them to observe these small, predictive geological changes.
In the first case, the geological signals occurred 10 hours before a magnitude 3 quake in December 2005. The same sort of signals also occurred two hours before a magnitude 1 quake that happened five days later, the researchers said.
"We are very encouraged by these observations, and we are planning for more experiments to confirm whether these changes are part of the general physical processes before an earthquake," seismologist Fenglin Niu of Rice University in Houston said in a telephone interview.
EVACUATIONS?
Scientists have made strides in understanding earthquakes, but finding changes in the Earth's crust that could allow for an advance prediction has remained difficult.
Current earthquake warning systems provide at best a few seconds notice before an earthquake strikes.
The findings were published just two months after a powerful earthquake in China. The May 12 quake in Sichuan province killed about 80,000 people, with many killed when buildings such as schools collapsed.
"To get the point where we have a practical early warning system for earthquakes, that's still a ways off -- 10 years, maybe 20," Silver said.
If more research finds this effect to be pervasive before earthquakes, these findings may make that goal attainable, the researchers said.
"No matter how much time you have, there's something you can do. Even with a few seconds, you can automatically turn off gas valves. You may even be able to get a hard hat on your head or run outside of a building," Silver said.
"But with something on the order of 10 hours, you could perhaps evacuate populations, you could certainly get people out of city centers and areas that are deemed dangerous."
(Editing by Maggie Fox and Sandra Maler)
Wed Jul 9, 2008 4:49pm EDT
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) - Scientists working at California's San Andreas Fault have detected subtle geological changes occurring hours before an earthquake that could enable them to develop an early-warning system aimed at saving lives.
Their instruments detected geological changes most likely caused by tiny fractures forming in the rock ahead of an impending earthquake due to stress in the Earth's crust, according to seismologist Paul Silver of the Carnegie Institution in Washington, one of the researchers.
"It's the opening up of cracks before an earthquake," Silver said in a telephone interview.
The research, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, was conducted using wells dug 0.6 miles (1 km) deep into the quake-prone fault at Parkfield, California.
Their equipment generated and recorded seismic waves before, during and after two small quakes, allowing them to observe these small, predictive geological changes.
In the first case, the geological signals occurred 10 hours before a magnitude 3 quake in December 2005. The same sort of signals also occurred two hours before a magnitude 1 quake that happened five days later, the researchers said.
"We are very encouraged by these observations, and we are planning for more experiments to confirm whether these changes are part of the general physical processes before an earthquake," seismologist Fenglin Niu of Rice University in Houston said in a telephone interview.
EVACUATIONS?
Scientists have made strides in understanding earthquakes, but finding changes in the Earth's crust that could allow for an advance prediction has remained difficult.
Current earthquake warning systems provide at best a few seconds notice before an earthquake strikes.
The findings were published just two months after a powerful earthquake in China. The May 12 quake in Sichuan province killed about 80,000 people, with many killed when buildings such as schools collapsed.
"To get the point where we have a practical early warning system for earthquakes, that's still a ways off -- 10 years, maybe 20," Silver said.
If more research finds this effect to be pervasive before earthquakes, these findings may make that goal attainable, the researchers said.
"No matter how much time you have, there's something you can do. Even with a few seconds, you can automatically turn off gas valves. You may even be able to get a hard hat on your head or run outside of a building," Silver said.
"But with something on the order of 10 hours, you could perhaps evacuate populations, you could certainly get people out of city centers and areas that are deemed dangerous."
(Editing by Maggie Fox and Sandra Maler)
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Re: Global Earthquake Watch
New Earthquake Predictor? Scientists Have Another Clue
Posted 1 hour ago by pbrite in Science | 14 views
The mystery of when earthquakes will take place is getting closer and closer to being solved. Scientists, on accident, have stumbled upon another predictor.
This discovery may just rock the Richter scale.
Scientists have discovered another predictor of earthquakes. It goes along with studying minute geological changes. Those changes could lead to an earthquake prediction of up to 10 hours in advance. That's much faster than the best earthquake predictors we have today, which can only give warnings a few seconds in advance.
"
Detecting stress changes before an earthquake has been the Holy Grail in earthquake seismology for years and has motivated our research," said study co-author Paul Silver of the Carnegie Institution of Science's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. "Researchers have been trying to precisely and continuously measure these velocity changes for decades, but it has been possible only recently, with improved technology, to obtain the necessary precision and reliability."
The study started in 2005. Scientists gathered info from a well dug into the San Andreas fault near Parkfield, California. Using extremely precise instruments, the scientists were able to measure air going through compressed rock. An amplification of the signals and even more precise equipment developed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory were able to zero in on the signals.
In the study, scientists were able to see the new signals 10 hours before the Magnitude 3 Christmas Eve earthquake in 2005.
The researchers are hoping to get worldwide cooperation to further the study.
"We're working with colleagues in China and Japan on follow-up studies to determine whether this physical response can be measured in other seismically active regions," said Rice University seismologist Fenglin Niu, the study's lead author. "Provided the effect is pervasive, we still need to learn more about the timing of the signals if we are to reliably use them to warn of impending quakes."
Posted 1 hour ago by pbrite in Science | 14 views
The mystery of when earthquakes will take place is getting closer and closer to being solved. Scientists, on accident, have stumbled upon another predictor.
This discovery may just rock the Richter scale.
Scientists have discovered another predictor of earthquakes. It goes along with studying minute geological changes. Those changes could lead to an earthquake prediction of up to 10 hours in advance. That's much faster than the best earthquake predictors we have today, which can only give warnings a few seconds in advance.
"
Detecting stress changes before an earthquake has been the Holy Grail in earthquake seismology for years and has motivated our research," said study co-author Paul Silver of the Carnegie Institution of Science's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. "Researchers have been trying to precisely and continuously measure these velocity changes for decades, but it has been possible only recently, with improved technology, to obtain the necessary precision and reliability."
The study started in 2005. Scientists gathered info from a well dug into the San Andreas fault near Parkfield, California. Using extremely precise instruments, the scientists were able to measure air going through compressed rock. An amplification of the signals and even more precise equipment developed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory were able to zero in on the signals.
In the study, scientists were able to see the new signals 10 hours before the Magnitude 3 Christmas Eve earthquake in 2005.
The researchers are hoping to get worldwide cooperation to further the study.
"We're working with colleagues in China and Japan on follow-up studies to determine whether this physical response can be measured in other seismically active regions," said Rice University seismologist Fenglin Niu, the study's lead author. "Provided the effect is pervasive, we still need to learn more about the timing of the signals if we are to reliably use them to warn of impending quakes."
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Re: Global Earthquake Watch
I am not endorsing the following link, but I figure it might be fun to see if this guy is right:
EQAlert
EQAlert
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