Earthquakes And Volcanoes

[Gary Oak]

I was working in a bar once where there was a table full of Maori's At first they thought i was American and if I had have been they most likely would have attacked me. Fortunately being Canadian saved me from a very dangerous stituation. I doubt that they had any experience with Americans either. All the waitresses wanted to serve the Americans because they were the best tippers and they never were a problem for me.

[Blue Frost]

I didn't know they dislikes Americans, wonder if it was just them. What i have seen in the past they where alright people, but who knows.

[Gary Oak]

I think that there is a very good chance that all these west coast earthquakes will erupt during my lifetime.

San Andreas Catastrophe Looks Worse Than We Thought

A recent study found that California’s San Andreas Fault could actually rupture along its entire 800-mile length. It was previously believed that “The Big One” could only occur in confined segments, and this new information is now being used by insurers to make some unnerving predictions.

For years, the scientific consensus was that a statewide earthquake couldn’t occur in California. But a 2014 study by federal, state and academic researchers determined that a quake that begins at either end of the fault could zip up the line for hundreds of miles.
Morgan Page, a USGS research geophysicist who participated in the 2014 study tells the Wall Street Journal, “Scientists weren’t really sure if you could have a rupture through the creeping section of the San Andreas. Now we think it’s not very probable, but it is possible.”

That means insurers have to figure out their potential payouts in the event that the worst case scenario comes true. CoreLogic Inc. is a real-estate analytics firm in Irvine, California, that has now crunched the numbers. It’s safe to say that premiums could be rising. The Wall Street Journal summarizes some of the CoreLogic findings:
As many as 3.5 million homes could be damaged in an 8.3-magnitude quake along a roughly 500-mile portion of the fault—compared with 1.6 million homes damaged if only the northern part of the fault were to break, or 2.3 million if the southern piece ruptured.
The damage to homes alone could total $289 billion, compared with a previous range of $137 billion on the southern portion of the fault and $161 billion in the north, according to the CoreLogic analysis.
One of the best points of reference for an earthquake this size is the 9.0 earthquake that hit Tohoku, Japan in 2011. It’s believed that an 8.0 or higher is likely to hit California every 2,500 years. Maiclaire Bolton, a seismologist and senior product manager for CoreLogic, emphasized, “We are talking about very rare earthquakes here.”
[Wall Street Journal]

http://gizmodo.com/the-big-one-in-calif ... 1789190907

[Blue Frost]

There has been evidence found in the past of most it having a quake all at once, i wonder why they are just finding it out again. back in the 80s the same thing has been said.

[Gary Oak]

They all I believe are overdue

[Blue Frost]

Overdue could be in the next few hundred years in geological terms, sometimes thousands. .

[Gary Oak]

I would still put money down that they will go off in our lifetimes. However of course it might be difficult to pay up if I am wrong

[Blue Frost]

[Gary Oak]

Hopefully this one will wait until I am no longer on earth. This supervolcano would do far worse damage than Yellowstone I believe.

Set to blow? Supervolcano Campi Flegrei reawakening near Naples, could hit 500,000 people


https://www.rt.com/news/371144-italy-su ... ns-naples/

[Blue Frost]

I think more than 500000 would be affected, more like Billions.

[Blue Frost]

This is interesting

An accelerating river of molten iron has been discovered under Alaska and Siberia
http://www.sciencealert.com/an-accelera ... nd-siberia
Almost as hot as the surface of the Sun.
BEC CREW
20 DEC 2016

A fast-flowing river of molten iron has been found surging under Alaska and Siberia, some 3,000 km (1,864 miles) below the surface - and it appears to be speeding up.

This colossal jet stream, which is estimated to be about 420 km wide (260 miles) and nearly as hot as the surface of the Sun, has tripled in speed in less than two decades, and is now headed towards Europe.

"We know more about the Sun than Earth’s core," says one of the team, Chris Finlay from the Technical University of Denmark. "The discovery of this jet is an exciting step in learning more about our planet’s inner workings."

Finlay and his team detected the jet stream while analysing data from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) trio of satellites, called Swarm.

Launched in 2013 to measure fluctuations in Earth's magnetic field, these satellites allowed the researchers to create a kind of x-ray of the planet’s inner structure, revealing vast components that we didn’t even know existed before.

"The European Space Agency's Swarm satellites are providing our sharpest X-ray image yet of the core," says lead researcher Phil Livermore from the University of Leeds in England.

"We've not only seen this jet stream clearly for the first time, but we understand why it's there."

Earth's magnetic field is thought to be generated by the activity going on deep inside the planet’s core.

The core itself is a solid lump, two-thirds the size of the Moon, and composed mainly of iron. With a temperature of around 5,400 degrees Celsius (9,800 degrees Fahrenheit), it’s almost as hot as the surface of the Sun, which hits an intense 5,505 °C (9,941 °F).

Surrounding the solid inner core is Earth's outer core - a 2,000-km-thick (1,242-mile) layer made primarily of liquid iron and nickel.

Differences in temperature, pressure, and composition in this layer create movements and whirlpools in the liquid metal, and together with Earth’s spin, they generate electric currents, which in turn produce magnetic fields.

When the researchers examined satellite data from the outer core area in the northern hemisphere, they found strange 'lobes' of magnetic flux beneath Alaska and Siberia.

But the lobes weren't stuck in those positions - they're moving in the direction of the European continent, and the team says they're being pushed along by a jet stream of molten iron.

"Because their motion could originate only from the physical movement of molten iron, the lobes served as markers, allowing the researchers to track the flow of iron," Andy Coghlan reports for New Scientist.

The team found that this jet stream has accelerated in speed since 2000, and is now pushing the lobes under Alaska and Siberia at a rate three times faster than typical outer core speeds, and hundreds of thousands of times faster than the speed of Earth’s tectonic plates.

"This jet of liquid iron is moving at about 50 kilometres per year," Finlay told at BBC News.

"That might not sound like a lot to you on Earth's surface, but you have to remember this a very dense liquid metal and it takes a huge amount of energy to move this thing around, and that's probably the fastest motion we have anywhere within the solid Earth."

At this stage, it's not clear why the jet stream is accelerating, but the researchers suspect it's a natural part of Earth's inner cycle that's been going on for billions of years.

If we can figure out where in the cycle we're at right now, we could predict how Earth's magnetic field will change over time - including how it might reverse in the coming centuries.

As New Scientist explains, since Earth’s magnetic field seems to have been weakening at a rate of about 5 percent per century, the magnetic field is expected to flip, at which point the magnetic north and south poles will trade places.

"Further surprises are likely," ESA’s Swarm mission manager, Rune Floberghagen, said in a press statement.

"The magnetic field is forever changing, and this could even make the jet stream switch direction."

The study has been published in Nature Geoscience.

[Gary Oak]

I donèt know what to make of this. If the magnetic field switches will this cause massive disasters ?

[Blue Frost]

It switches occasionally, I doubt there is much to make of it besides maybe a compass malfunction.

[Blue Frost]

[video][/video]

[Gary Oak]

I read Krakatoa by Simon Winchester a number of years ago and of course I remember the 2005 boxing day tsunami that slaughtered so many. This video really shows the scale of tsunamis. I didn't think that the Japan 2011 tsunami was nearly so high.

[Blue Frost]

I saw a documentary on tsunami's years ago, and it showed most of that, and there was actually sea bed embedded 400foot up a mountain side. That was in Washington state.
There is risk today like the great crack in Hawaii, a large part of the island could come off, the Canary Island crack mentioned in the video.

[Gary Oak]

I am stashed in the Rocky Mountains so I think that I am safe when any of the three earthquakes off of Vancouver finally go. They are all overdue for erupting. If I was to bet on that Canary Island one I think that it will happen in our lifetime.

[Blue Frost]

It's been talked about since I was a kid, lets hope that it doesn't happen till someone finds a way to stop it.
I'm surprised someone hasn't tried to set it off, bury a nuke there, and there goes the east coast.

[Gary Oak]

I wonder if these small earthquakes are nudging some of the big west coast faults closer to letting go ?

Swarm of earthquakes hit California on New Year’s Eve

https://www.rt.com/usa/372447-brawley-c ... rthquakes/

[Blue Frost]

Well good there is small ones, and not big, little ones is at least letting tension off the fault.