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pharflung
Joined: 29 Mar 2007
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 Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 6:51 am Post subject: |
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I apologize if I appear long-winded on this topic. I happen to enjoy writing, and if one person out there finds this interesting, so much the better.
After writing the earlier posts, I got to wondering whether warming of the earth's atmosphere and oceans could cause the expansion of the earth's crust, leading to an increase in earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Would the melting of permafrost and glaciers lead to an increased warming of the earth, etc.?
More to the point, is there a recurrent mechanism resulting from global warming that would lead to massive volcanic eruptions that then would cool down the earth, but also wipe out much of the life on earth?
If so, there would be a sort of macabre humor to this cosmic pattern. Let's say that 1/100th of 1 percent of the planets in the universe develop intelligent life. Most likely they would eventually follow a pattern similar to that on Earth, of industrialization and overpopulation, leading to global warming. If there is also a consistent geological mechanism on these planets, then they would pretty much all suffer the same fate. Sort of like God having the last laugh. Well, it appears the last laugh may be on us.
I figured that if there is a pattern of increased geological activity associated with periods of increased planetary warming, then this should be apparent in our geological history. So I did a search.
It is.
I didn't quite find what I initially theorized. The effect is less direct, but potentially more powerful.
Scientists believe that the key factor is the melting of glacial ice and ice sheets. (Ice that doesn't move, such as that covering Greenland or Antarctica, is an "ice sheet.") The reason is simple: All this frozen water is heavy: 1 cubic meter of ice weighs 0.9 tonnes.
When the ice melts and runs off, a weight is lifted off that section of crust that may have been there for millenia. This can trigger earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Scientists call it "isostatic rebound."
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University of Alberta geologist Patrick Wu compares the effect to that of a thumb pressed on a soccer ball - when the pressure of the thumb is removed, the ball springs back to its original shape.
Because the earth is so viscous the rebound happens slowly, and the quakes that occasionally shake Eastern Canada are attributed to ongoing rebound from the last ice age more than 10,000 years ago.
Melting of the ice that covers Antarctica or Greenland would have a similar impact, but the process would be accelerated due to the human-induced greenhouse effect.
"What happens is the weight of this thick ice puts a lot of stress on the earth," says Wu. "The weight sort of suppresses the earthquakes but when you melt the ice the earthquakes get triggered." |
http://www.heatisonline.org/contentserver/objecthandlers/index.cfm?ID=5966&Method=Full
Also see: http://reports.discoverychannel.ca/servlet/an/discovery/1/20060704/discovery_climatechange_060704?s_name=&no_ads=
The article continues with a discussion of the connection of climate and volcanic activity:
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The Earth's crust is more sensitive than some might think. There are well-documented cases of dams causing earthquakes when the weight of the water behind a dam fills a reservoir.
Alan Glazner, a volcano specialist at the University of North Carolina, said he was initially incredulous when he found a link between climate and volcanic activity off the coast of California.
"But then I went to the library and did some research and found that in many places around the world especially around the Mediterranean they see similar sorts of correlations."
"When you melt glacial ice, several hundred metres to a kilometre thick . . . you've decreased the load on the crust and so you've decreased the pressure holding the volcanic conduits closed.
"They're cracks, that's how magmas gets to the surface . . . and where they hit the surface, that's where you get a volcano." |
Glaciers can be up to about a mile deep, several miles long, and perhaps a half mile wide. The weight of this ice is enormous.
Here is an excerpt from an article by Bill McGuire in the New Scientist:
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The climate interacts with the Earth's crust via the changing mass of water and ice that is shifted around the planet. The pressure of water and ice on the crust is considerable: 1 cubic metre of water weighs 1 tonne, while the same volume of ice weighs slightly less, up to 0.9 tonnes. With this in mind, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the loading and unloading of the Earth's crust by ice or water can trigger seismic and volcanic activity and even landslides. Dumping the weight of a kilometre-thick ice sheet onto a continent or removing a deep column of water from the ocean floor will inevitably affect the stresses and strains on the underlying rock.
Although these forces on the Earth's crust are subtly changing all the time, their effects are most obvious at times of major or sudden climate change, such as at the beginning and end of an ice age or during the period of climate change we are expected to experience over the coming centuries. As the balance changes between the stresses acting on the crust and the strains held within it, the result can be an increase in volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
The Earth has seen this pattern many times before....
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You should read the entire article:
http://www.appliedforesight.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=132
It would appear that the effect of melting glaciers would be greatest when they are near geologically active areas, such as areas with dormant volcanoes and active fault lines.
There is one area where all these factors come together: Southcentral Alaska, Southeastern Alaska and the West Coast of Canada. These are at the northern arch of the Ring of Fire, a geological formation notorious for its volcanic eruptions and earthquake activity. The ring runs through Japan, and just south of Korea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Pacific_Ring_of_Fire.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rim_of_fire
Southeastern Alaska and Northwestern Canada are an area loaded with glaciers because of the combination of cold winters and lots of percipitation from the moist Pacific Ocean air. You don't have to be an explorer, you can see some of them from the side of the road, and just sit and wait for one to calve on a warm summer day, as I have.
But an expert on glaciers predicted 18 years ago that just a 3 degree rise in annual temperature might be enough to cause these glaciers to gradually melt and recede. It appears that prediction is coming true.
http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=92959&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=Maynard+Miller&start=0
The Good Friday Earthquake measured 9.2 on the Richter Scale and was centered 125 km southeast of Anchorage, pretty much in the center of this northern arch of the Ring of Fire. It was the largest quake recorded in North America, and the third largest ever recorded by seismograph. So the region is susceptible to major earthquakes.
It is also home to countless volcanoes, some of the worst in geological history. That's why they call it the Ring of Fire. Kamachatka, Sumatra, and Mt. St. Helens are all along the Ring of Fire.
But the only places I see with significant numbers of glaciers are in Alaska, western Canada and southwestern Russia. The rest is too warm. Melting of glaciers in these areas would have the most direct effect upon this geological fault line. But I suppose melting elsewhere, such as in Greenland or Antactica could also have a similar effect, as both have volcanoes. And there could be an indirect effect, but I am not a geologist.
Has it happened before? McGuire says it has.
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The Earth has seen this pattern many times before. In the past 650,000 years alone, the polar ice caps have expanded far beyond their current limits on sevenoccasions, locking up huge volumes of water in frozen oceans and vast continental ice sheets before retreating again to higher latitudes. These huge reorganisations of the Earth's water resulted in dramatic and repeated swings in sea level, with falls as far as 130 metres below today's level followed by equally spectacular rises. They also led to shifting loads on volcanoes and geological faults. As ice sheets that had pinned down volcanoes and active faults melted away, the Earth's crust bounced back in a process known as isostatic rebound. As it did so, faults were reactivated and seismic activity increased sharply.
In the early 1970s John Chappell of the Australian National University in Canberra was the first to make the link between glacial advances and retreats and the rate of global volcanism. We now know that the warming that heralded the start of the current interglacial period around 10,000 years ago brought forth a burst of volcanic activity in Iceland, as melting ice caps reduced pressures on the magma chambers below. Allen Glazner of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill identified a similar pattern in eastern California over the past 800,000 years. Increased levels of volcanic activity are also recorded at mid-latitude ice-covered volcanoes in the Cascades Range of the US and in the Andes.
Earthquake activity shows a similar pattern. Nils-Axel M�rner of Stockholm University in Sweden first noted that this isostatic rebound triggered earthquakes in post-ice-age Scandinavia, and the effect has since been noted in Scotland and North America. Patrick Wu of the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, and Paul Johnston of the University of Western Australia in Perth have even gone so far as to suggest that the effect may still be playing a role today. In particular, they have speculated that the continuing rebound of the North American continent may have contributed to the great New Madrid earthquakes that shook the central Mississippi valley in 1811 and 1812. |
At the minimum, if the theory presented by McGuire is correct, there will be increased geoligical activity. But there is also the potential for unleashing a super volcano, on the scale of a Toba Catastrophe. Several such volcanoes lie dormant on the Ring of Fire. And it turns out that the world has seen worse even than Toba.
By now, chances are you have heard of the theory linking the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago with an asteroid colliding with earth. It turns out there was a worse mass extinction 250 million years ago. And it was associated with a monstrous volcanic eruption in Siberia. It is east of the Ring of Fire, outside of it.
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| In the early 1990s, the hunt for evidence headed for a region of Siberia known as the Traps. Today it's a sub-Arctic wilderness but 250 million years ago, over 200,000km� of it was a blazing torrent of lava. The Siberian Traps were experiencing a 'flood basalt eruption', the biggest volcanic effect on Earth. Instead of isolated volcanoes spewing out lava, the crust split and curtains of lava were released. And the Siberian flood eruption lasted for millions of years. Could volcanic activity over such a long time alter the climate enough to kill off 95% of life on Earth? |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2002/dayearthdied.shtml
Surely we will never see anything this big, but it does help put things into perspective. And smaller, simlar events have occcurred in recent history:
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| Vincent Courtillon used a much smaller flood basalt eruption, in Iceland in 1783, as the basis for some calculations. Writing in the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin (then American Ambassador in Paris) described 1784 as a year without a summer. Ash from the eruption blacked out the sky and crops failed across Europe. Courtillon extrapolated the climatic impact of the Siberian Trap eruption from the records of the Icelandic event. He deduced that a 'nuclear winter' lasting decades would be followed by rapid global warming due to the increased level of greenhouse gases in the post-eruption atmosphere. |
The reason this article from the BBC showed up in my search appears at the end, where it talks about how the eruption contributed to global warming, directly and indirectly, through the melting of frozen methane hydrate sitting dormant in coastal seabeds.
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When Paul Wignall learned of Dickens' (Di*ck*ens') findings, he used his carbon-12 data to estimate how much methane hydrate would have to be released to affect the isotope balance. Methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases and he deduced that unlocking frozen methane hydrate would have caused a temperature rise of 4-5�C over time. Not enough to kill off 95% of life on Earth but he realised this was a compounded effect. A rise of about 5�C must already have occurred to prompt the frozen methane to melt. The combined temperature rise of 10�C is generally accepted as a figure able to cause truly mass extinction.
So it seems likely there were two Permian killers. The Siberian Traps did erupt, contributing first to a nuclear winter cooling effect (caused by dust) and and then to global warming (due to greenhouse gases). Over 40,000 years, some land animals gradually died out while life in the seas lived relatively calmly on, as the water temperature gently rose. Then the seas gave up their frozen methane. In just 5,000 years, there was massive loss of species from the world's oceans. In a third and final phase of the extinction, the Permian killer returned to stalk the land for another 35,000 years. By the end of that process, 95% of the Earth's species were extinct.
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McGuire is concerned that the current warming, combined with increased volcanic activity, could again trigger release of this trapped methane:
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A particular worry is that this in turn will contribute to large-scale releases of methane gas from the solid gas hydrate deposits that are trapped in marine sediments. Gas hydrates have been identified around the margins of all the ocean basins, and outbursts of gas may occur as sea temperatures climb or as rising sea levels trigger underwater quakes in the vicinity.
Being a highly effective greenhouse gas, these additional methane "burps" could bump up rising global temperatures even further, although the hope is that the extra load of higher sea levels might actually help to keep the gas hydrates solid and stable. |
This isn't something just coming from a liberal media conspiracy or highbrow scientific journals. Here is an excerpt from the Wall Street Journal:
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The Wall Street Journal reports that melting of glaciers will increase earthquake and seismic activity. [How Melting Glaciers Alter Earth�s Surface, Spur Quakes, Volcanoes] The idea is that melting glaciers changes the weight distribution on the earth�s surface and that the earth rebounds:
The reason is that one cubic meter of ice weighs just over a ton, and glaciers can be hundreds of meters thick. When they melt and the water runs off, it is literally a weight off Earth�s crust. The crust and mantle therefore bounce back, immediately as well as over thousands of years. That �isostatic rebound,� according to studies of prehistoric and recent earthquakes and volcanoes, can make the planet�s seismic plates slip catastrophically, and cause magma chambers that feed volcanoes to act like bottles of shaken seltzer.
The main evidence is from prior geologic history:
That link has reared its ugly head in the past, especially during periods of rapid climate change such as the end of ice ages. When ice sheets retreated 10,000 years ago, for instance, Iceland experienced a surge in volcanic eruptions. Volcanoes in the Mediterranean, Antarctica and eastern California also seem to have been awakened by retreating ice.
When he analyzed 800,000 years of activity from about 50 volcanoes in eastern California (the age of rocks formed from volcanic ash can be determined by radioactive dating), Prof. Glazner found that �the peaks of volcanic activity occurred when ice was retreating globally. At first I thought it was crazy, but other scientists also found evidence that climate affects volcanism.� The likely mechanism: glacial retreat lifts pressure that had kept the magma conduit closed. |
In short, we've been through this before, and it looks like we're going to go through this again, as a planet. Makes you wonder whether other planets experience the same thing.
McGuire gets the last word:
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As for volcanoes, 57 per cent of the world's 600 or so active volcanoes form islands or occupy coastal sites, while 38 per cent are located within 250 kilometres of the coast. Many, or all, could be susceptible to the stress changes in the crust that will accompany sea-level rise if wholesale melting of the great polar ice sheets really gets going.
Evidence from the end of the last ice age suggests that an increase in continental-margin earthquakes must also be expected, making it more likely that sea-floor landslides will be triggered in areas that are unstable, including the east coast of the US, the northern Caribbean and offshore California....
Not every volcanic eruption and earthquake in the years to come will have a climate-change link, whatever you might read on the web. Yet as the century progresses we should not be surprised by more geological disasters as a direct and indirect result of dramatic changes to our environment.
The only saving grace is that a significant increase in volcanic activity would pump large volumes of sulphate gases into the stratosphere, which would cool the Earth's surface and slow global warming, at least for a time. It's a hell of a price to pay, though, for ignoring a phenomenon that could be far more easily sorted if we lived more considered and sustainable lives. |
Last edited by pharflung on Thu Jul 26, 2007 7:07 am; edited 3 times in total |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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| Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 6:54 am Post subject: |
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| pharflung wrote: |
I apologize if I appear long-winded on this topic. I happen to enjoy writing, and if one person out there finds this interesting, so much the better.
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No, keep it coming. Interesting stuff, and it saves me from having to research these things on my own (which wouldn't happen, as I am a lazy f-er). |
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pharflung
Joined: 29 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 1:58 pm Post subject: |
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I'm sure our hearts are all with the people of Sumatra who have lost their homes in the recent earthquakes. The largest was an 8.4, which is a truly major earthquake. All considered, they are lucky there have not been more deaths reported, and they escaped a devastating tsunami.
But judging from this story, the geologists are still worried.They are worried there could be more earthquakes, perhaps an even bigger one.
And what is not stated, is there are undoubtedly some geologists who are wondering if the rearrangement in the earth's crust could open vents to some of the islands dormant volcanoes. If so, the devastation could be worse, potentially far worse, perhaps for the entire planet.
No one knows.
It seems to me we have been seeing more earthquake activity in the last few years than normal. I believe I saw a chart somewhere that indicates a bit of a rise. These statistics are generally viewed in geologic time frames, of course. But I'm not the only one who is wondering whether the melting of the glaciers is contributing to movements in the Earth's crust.
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September 13, 2007
More Earthquakes Strike in Indonesia
By PETER GELLING and SETH MYDANS
PADANG, Indonesia, Sept. 13 � Two more strong earthquakes shook the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra today, following the major quake that hit Wednesday, but the area escaped a major tsunami like the one that devastated the region nearly three years ago.
Just over a dozen people were reported to have died in the earthquakes, although hundreds of buildings were damaged in the coastal cities of Padang and Bengkulu in western Sumatra.
The shaking continued through the day today, keeping residents on edge. Some fled to higher ground away from the coastline; many more camped outdoors in the streets and parks.
The first and biggest of the shocks, with a magnitude of 8.4 on Wednesday evening, was the third in a cluster of earthquakes that measured greater than 8.0 in the area in the past three years.
That cluster could be a signal that the 1,100-mile-long western coast of Sumatra could face still more danger, scientists say.
�I am more convinced than ever that we are going to be seeing a significantly larger earthquake in the area,� said Kerry Sieh, a seismologist from the California Institute of Technology who has spent several decades studying earthquake risk around Sumatra.
�These three big earthquakes, they just encircle this big patch that has not failed, a big strong part of the fault that hasn�t broken yet,� he said. �The million-dollar question is, is it over?�
Wednesday�s major earthquake was followed by a series of aftershocks, one of which, this morning, was a serious earthquake on its own.
It struck about 200 miles northwest of the epicenter of the earlier earthquake and had a magnitude of 7.8, according to the United States Geological Survey.
In turn, it was followed shortly before noon by another significant earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1.
As the earth shook along the Sumatran coast, tsunami warnings were repeatedly issued and then withdrawn by governments in Asian and African countries along the Indian Ocean.
The range of nations on the alert illustrated the damage done in 2004 when tsunamis took an estimated 230,000 lives in a dozen nations, most of them in Aceh Province in north Sumatra.
In recent months, the city of Padang has stepped up a campaign of public education, drawing on the lessons of Aceh. Residents there headed for higher ground in a relatively orderly way, one earthquake monitor said.
�A few people panicked, but the city is under control,� said Patra Rina Dewi, who heads an organization called Kogami that has been educating residents about the dangers of earthquakes and tsunamis. �Our mayor was on the radio giving instructions to the community and to agencies about what they should do.�
His reports were relayed by mosques with the loudspeakers commonly used to call Muslims to prayer.
A radio and Internet early warning system installed in Padang in response to the 2004 tsunami failed to work, however.
�We are studying what went wrong,� said Willy Wicaksono, speaking by telephone from the Padang Emergency Command Center. �We were only using the two-meter band radio and the phone. Fortunately the phones were quite O.K.�
Roads and communications were damaged, making it difficult to assess the full scope of the damage and casualties.
Bengkulu, a city of 1.2 million, was the closest large community to the latest earthquakes and it was the worst damaged. The epicenter of the first was 65 miles southwest of the city; the second was 125 miles to the northwest.
Vice Governor Syamlan said 10 people died in Bengkulu. He said 2,406 buildings were destroyed or heavily damaged, and 13 bridges and roads were badly damaged.
A local journalist, Mardyansyah, said about 10,000 people were living in hastily erected refugee camps. The ground continues to shake, and they are afraid to return home for fear of another major shock, he said.
�People are running out of food, water, clothes and medicine,� he said. �Many are injured, but they cannot be taken to the hospital because part of the hospital building has collapsed.�
The hospital in Padang was also damaged, and patients were camping out in tents in the parking lot today. One woman gave birth in the parking lot.
One resident of Bengkulu, Yunus, 46, loaded his family into a car and fled one of the worst-hit areas, Mukumuku.
�The first earthquake was so strong,� he said. �I heard people shouting, �Earthquake! Tsunami! Earthquake! Tsunami!� The ground was shaking and we all ran from our houses.�
One person died in Padang and three others died in the surrounding area, said a local journalist, Sofiardi, quoting official figures.
In the city of Padang, just two buildings were officially reported to have collapsed, with another 159 heavily damaged.
Despite the relatively light damage, many residents of Padang appeared traumatized by the continuing strong shocks.
�We are very stressed,� said Wawan, 36. �Every time we think it�s safe, another tremor rolls underneath our feet and we don�t know what to expect.�
Many, like Charli Josal, 25, who works in hardware store, fled to higher ground inland and said they would stay there. �It�s not safe down there,� he said. |
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skindleshanks
Joined: 10 May 2004
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| Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 6:24 am Post subject: |
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| As far as eating mammoth meat, my grandparents lived in Elephant Point, Alaska, back in the 1940s. Some frozen mammoths were discovered there, and either he or people he knew in the village ate the meat, just to see what it was like. (He's passed away, so unfortunately I can't go back and find the details--just going from what I remember him saying.) He had a few sections of mammoth tusks, though, which he kept and which my father has now. |
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pharflung
Joined: 29 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 6:05 am Post subject: |
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That's very interesting, skindleshanks. These well preserved woolly mammoths is one of the great mysteries of the world. And solving it might give us some useful insights.
I may have gotten a bit off the subject, but the point is that the evidence keeps pointing to that we live in an unstable world. And with the ever increasing population, if something does go seriously wrong, it is just going to be that much worse. If we have a major crop failure, it will be more difficult to feed nearly 7 billion people than the 3 billion on the planet not so long ago.
Such a disaster could occur in 1,000 years, or it could occur next month. We don't know.
And here is one more reason why it could, possibly, happen sooner than later:
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/09/17/indonesia.quake/
While this article focuses on the direct effects of a major earthquake and tsunami, what is not said is that this is one of the most dangerous volcanic zones in the world, historically. A shift in the fault lines could reduce the chance of a major eruption or increase it. We don't know what the future holds. And life must go on. But if disaster strikes, people will wonder why the world's leaders ignored what in hindsight will look obvious. And one reason will be that they were busy worrying about terrorism. There are other dangers in the world.
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Indonesia's big one 'on its way'
Story Highlights
Experts: 3 major quakes in past week increase chance of major disaster
On the equator, Sumatra holds the deadliest stretch of ocean in the world
Driven by the plate beneath the Indian Ocean, the entire coastline is flexing
By Hugh Riminton
CNN
PADANG, Indonesia (CNN) -- An international team of earthquake specialists says Indonesia faces another potential "giant" quake in the near future.
The scientists, including a team from the California Institute of Technology, says three major quakes in the last week have increased the likelihood of a major disaster.
CNN traveled to the earthquake zone with a scientist who deliberately puts himself in the path of the world's most powerful quakes.
Smack on the equator, Indonesia's Sumatra island holds the deadliest stretch of ocean in the world.
"You'd see a strip 30 meters high, stripped down to bedrock," says John Galetzka, a former U.S. Army ranger who is now adventuring on another frontline as an earthquake geologist. He is investigating the fault line that sparked the 2004 tsunami and, in recent days, three more powerful quakes.
Last Friday, Galetzka shot video footage of the shaking beach, with startled locals scrambling upshore.
His thoughts turned immediately to the tsunami danger, and his command ship offshore. Just moments later he caught the panic near the beach, as he saw families evacuating to the hills about 200 meters behind their village.
The day before, another big quake struck -- larger, but further away. Galetzka recalls the long slow waves and a shivering water bottle. For the American geologist, this is where theory meets reality.
"I just felt like the luckiest man alive to feel two strong events," he says. "You can almost hear the excitement in my voice -- oh my gosh, this is it, this is it ..."
Galetzka is now examining the evidence that his team believes indicates the arrival another giant earthquake, and possible tsunami.
He has established a network of position-markers, linked by satellite, that show a constant creep, northeast, among the islands on Indonesia's Indian Ocean frontier. The first one was placed in August 2002.
The 30 measuring stations along Sumatra's western coast tell an ominous tale. Driven by the plate beneath the Indian Ocean, the entire coastline is flexing, as the earth literally bends. The pressures are already enormous, and at some point probably soon, they will become intolerable.
The implications are terrifying.
"Eventually it has got to release in (the form) of giant earthquake," states Galetzka matter-of-factly.
It could be a rare magnitude-9 quake, and with the plates so tightly sprung, it will happen sooner, he believes, rather than later.
Knowing what he knows, does he worry about the people living along this coast?
"I absolutely do," he replies. "I tell them to be prepared. Whenever I am in Padang I think about my escape routes, almost every moment."
As he criss-crosses around the islands, searching for data, Galetzka says his aim is to save lives. But he, more than anyone, knows the risks -- that one day he'll confront a giant wave, a tsunami powerful enough to swallow islands.
The geologist's voice quivers as he imagines "the big one."
"If we saw it, we'd just head right into it. I'd shake your hand and say, good luck!" |
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Zutronius
Joined: 16 Apr 2007
Location: Suncheon
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| Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 11:07 am Post subject: |
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| I've heard of many tusks being found in Siberia by nomadic hunters. I wonder what else we'll find when the Arctic, Antarctica, and Greenland all melt. |
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pharflung
Joined: 29 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 2:00 am Post subject: |
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A volcano has gone off, apparently without warning, in an area not known for seismic activity, the Red Sea. Yet there is an unusual amount of seismic activity there.
Plus there is significant earthquake activity on the other side of the globe.
Do others get the feeling there is more activity than usual?
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Four soldiers killed as volcano erupts off Yemen
October 01, 2007: 05:44 AM EST
HODEIDA, Oct. 1, 2007 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) -- At least four Yemeni soldiers were burned to death when a volcano erupted on a Red Sea island, soldiers evacuated to the port city of Hodeida told Agence France Presse.
'Four of our comrades have died, burned by the lava,' said one
soldier who was evacuated from the island of Jabal al-Tair, some 100
km from Hodeida.
'They were killed immediately after the eruption of the volcano
at 5:30 pm on Sunday,' another soldier said.
Earlier eight Yemeni soldiers had been reported as missing after the eruption, sparking a major rescue effort that was joined by the Canadian navy.
'Military personnel on the island of Jabal al-Tair were rescued by navy ships and the search continues for eight missing personnel,' Yemen's official Saba news agency said.
The Canadian navy said the frigate HMCS Toronto joined the rescue mission at the request of the Yemen coast guard following the eruption.
The ship was on its way to the Suez (NYSE:SZEZY) Canal on a NATO deployment when it received the request for assistance from Yemeni authorities, the navy added.
There had been considerable seismic activity around the island ahead of the eruption, the Yemeni defence ministry said on its website, adding that an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale had been recorded on Friday.
The volcano erupted last erupted in the 19th century, Saba quoted geologists as saying.
The CNN news channel broadcast footage of the eruption, showing the volcano spewing lava and ash. |
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/AFX-0013-19936866.htm
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Quake Occurs Near Guam, Agencies Report
1 day ago
TOKYO (AP) � A strong earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean and was felt in Guam on Sunday morning, officials and various agencies said. No injuries, damage or tsunamis were immediately reported.
The U.S. Geological Survey reported the quake magnitude at 6.8 and said it occurred about 215 miles south-southeast of the U.S. territory of Guam. It had a depth of about 6.2 miles beneath the sea floor, according to the USGS.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.1 and that it occurred around 11:09 a.m. Japan time. The agency cited information provided by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Although the Japanese agency issued no tsunami warnings, it said there may be a chance of a tsunami near the epicenter.
However, a Hawaii center official said it had not received any tsunami reports.
"It's very unlikely any destructive tsunami was created by this earthquake," said Stuart Weinstein, assistant director of the Hawaii center. "It would have reached Guam by now."
"We haven't received any reports of tsunami activity in Guam, but we did hear that the earthquake was felt in Guam," Weinstein said. |
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g5IgwzKsStVs5sFHkA5uIawpldqAD8RVIU2G1
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Magnitude 7.3 quake strikes south of New Zealand, 7.1 quake near Guam: no injuries
The Associated Press
Published: September 30, 2007
WELLINGTON, New Zealand: Strong earthquakes with magnitudes over 7 separately rocked Pacific islands south of New Zealand and the U.S. territory of Guam on Sunday, monitoring agencies said. No injuries, damage or tsunamis were reported.
A destructive tsunami was not expected, said a bulletin issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center or PTWC in Honolulu, Hawaii.
A magnitude 7.3 earthquake occurred at sea at around 4:24 p.m. New Zealand time (0524 GMT), near the country's uninhabited Auckland Islands, 475 kilometers (295 miles) southwest of its southernmost city of Invercargill and 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) below the earth's surface, the United States Geological Survey said on its Web site.
There were no immediate reports of damage on the islands. New Zealand disaster monitoring authorities did not issue a tsunami warning.
Invercargill police senior Sgt. Brock Davis said one of his staff "thought they felt something" when the quake hit.
The PTWC in Hawaii issued a statement saying a destructive tsunami was not expected.
At 11:09 a.m. Japan time (0209 GMT) Sunday, a magnitude 7.1 quake struck the Pacific Ocean near the island of Guam, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. No injuries, damage or tsunami were immediately reported.
The Hong Kong Observatory said the epicenter appeared to be about 350 kilometers (220 miles) south-southeast of the U.S. island territory. No injuries, damage or tsunami were reported.
Japan's agency did not issue an official tsunami warning, though it had initially said there may be a chance of a tsunami near the epicenter. However, a PTWC official said it not received any reports of one.
"It's very unlikely any destructive tsunami was created by this earthquake," said PTWC's assistant director, Stuart Weinstein.
He said that the Guam quake was in an isolated part of the Pacific Ocean where they seldom occur, and that it was probably felt on Guam as well as Saipan, part of the U.S. commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Guam and Saipan have a combined population of about 225,000.
"It was probably too far away from populated areas to cause much damage," Weinstein said. |
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/30/asia/AS-GEN-New-Zealand-Guam-Earthquakes.php |
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pharflung
Joined: 29 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 4:55 pm Post subject: |
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You think yellow dust is annoying?
It is nothing compared to the ash from a volcanic eruption, especially a supervolcano. If you think it is a little surprising that so much dust can travel so far, imagine what could happen from an enormous volcanic eruption. Imagine trying to breathe, imagine trying to travel, imagine trying to grow food. And the melting of the vast fields of glacial ice could be increasing the risk of such a supervolcano erupting, according to some scientists.
Here is an article in today's New York Times about scientists alarmed by the rate of melting of the Greenland ice field:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/science/earth/08gree.html
Here is some more information on the Toba supervolcano, a topic covered earlier in this thread:
http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/reviews/reviews-books/JonesSavino2007.htm
http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/originals/Weber-Toba/ch4_climate/textr4.htm
http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/originals/Weber-Toba/
A supervocano in Indonesia wiped out more than 99.99 percent of the world's human population about 70,000 years ago. And now some believe a supervolcano may be coming to life under Yellowstone National Park:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17629668/
http://www.earthmountainview.com/yellowstone/yellowstone-news.htm
http://www.earthmountainview.com/yellowstone/yellowstone.htm
I wish this were a joke, but it's not. Whether we will see an event like this in our lifetime, or even in the next 10,000 years, no one knows for sure. But global warming is increasing the probability, and the rate of global warming keeps moving faster than generally predicted. |
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