Paw, that's what I was wondering about. The Earth isn't a solid ball, but more like a mobile, only it's suspended outward from the core rather than down from the top. When one piece moves, the rest respond. Let's hope the West coast remains intact for a few more millenia.
i know of a very highly sensitive someone (not me) who was up all night and morning trying to find out what was vibrating everything in the house. "felt like an earthquake" they said. no sh!t. and this was long before the news was heard by them, of course.
anyway, the world (and its heart) got rang like a gong. fer sure. deep breath.
on a side note: sometimes i think we sadly underestimate the effects of our removing such a mass of matter from deep geologic regions (fossil feuls and such). though, this is probably has only a marginal effect, thats one camel's back i would not want to add so many straws too.
i have a friend in FEMA who is most likely already on a plane.
I may have access to several thousand acres of land in a few years with several million dollar views of a particular bay scattered about the place, hence the need for mobility ;)-->
I may have access to a couple of thousand acres of land in the near future with spectacular views of a very pretty bay scattered about hence the need for something portable ;)-->
Oh man...I saw a front page photo on CNN online yesterday of a Sri Lankan or east Indian father grieving over the body of his little son. The boy appeared to be about the age or size of my eight year old little boy. The man's face was torn with grief, and it was so terrible to see. God bless the poor man...
I guess the body count is up to 33,000 now. What bothers me though, is that there are now those environmentalists who are somehow trying to blame this tragedy on the development of our modern infrastructure in the Western world. It is so preposterous to try and place this blame on modern society, that it, well, really angers me. Next thing you know, they will be blamiong it on fossil fuel production in order to try and force the US into the Kyoto Protocol aggreement which will curtail our use of fossil fuels, or, tax us more heavily for the use thereof...
It seems to me that any energy expended here should be to the purpose of helping these poor people caught in this natural disaster, and not on how, or to whom, to assign the blame! "Mother Nature" is to blame. Not you or me...
but in an earthquake, even if it fell on me it wouldn't hurt
much
now as far as why the big earthquake happened having anything to do with gas or oil production I cannot say
but there is a limited amount of the stuff and as it gets drawn down even more it will get more expensive. This has something to do with the law of supply and demand a key feature of capitalism.
i wouldn't go as far as to say that our methods of harvesting geological things caused this earthquake, or any other large earthquake, for that matter. heck, at times, some of "it" might even help settle what might have been an larger earthquake.
but what if, lets say, qualities such as the strength or width or probability of earthquake might be pushed 1%-5% because of the man-made pockets and such?
and, considering the increasing population density of the planet, it seems another step in an ethical direction for the whomevers in the energy industry to consider these kinds of thing before drilling. after all, satellite is gonna just keep getting better at seeing this kind of techtonic stuff. but if they can and know to and dont use it for profit reasons...
my connecting oil and earthquakes was mostly one out of curiosity...my "sadness" pointing more towards the idea that the subject itself seems less likely to be approached in the public arena due to the wrestling extremes of blame and shame and greed (trapped/obsessed mega-consumptive energy industry/society vs idiot and only-retro expressions of environmental concern and care), and therefore possibly less likely to be approached by legit science means.
on a side note...(has nothing to do with earthquakes)
herbiejuan, you might be interested in a paper done on whats being called a "Peak Oil Crisis" by Matt Savinar. if any one is interested, i've got a pdf of it.
back to the subject satori started...
again, advancements in our abilities and ways to measure these global things is a rapidly evolving field, and a subject that somewhat fascinates me (growing up on a diet of sci-fi). i recall coming across some real ambitious papers and sites for such projects.
quote: LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The deadly Asian earthquake may have permanently accelerated the Earth's rotation -- shortening days by a fraction of a second -- and caused the planet to wobble on its axis, U.S. scientists said on Tuesday.
Richard Gross, a geophysicist with NASA (news - web sites)'s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, theorized that a shift of mass toward the Earth's center during the quake on Sunday caused the planet to spin 3 microseconds, or 3 millionths of a second, faster and to tilt about an inch on its axis.
When one huge tectonic plate beneath the Indian Ocean was forced below the edge of another "it had the effect of making the Earth more compact and spinning faster," Gross said.
Gross said changes predicted by his model probably are too minuscule to be detected by a global positioning satellite network that routinely measures changes in Earth's spin, but said the data may reveal a slight wobble.
The Earth's poles travel a circular path that normally varies by about 33 feet, so an added wobble of an inch is unlikely to cause long-term effects, he said.
"That continual motion is just used to changing," Gross said. "The rotation is not actually that precise. The Earth does slow down and change its rate of rotation."
When those tiny variations accumulate, planetary scientists must add a "leap second" to the end of a year, something that has not been done in many years, Gross said.
Scientists have long theorized that changes on the Earth's surface such as tide and groundwater shifts and weather could affect its spin but they have not had precise measurements to prove it, Caltech seismologist Hiroo Kanamori said.
"Even for a very large event, the effect is very small," Kanamori said. "It's very difficult to change the rotation rate substantially."
Here is a site to monitor quake activity. You will note that there has been some activity in Northern CA since the 9.0 quake. The Northridge quake back in 1994 came about a week or two after a major quake in China.
Speaking of quakes, I "survived" the 7.9 quake in Alaska back in 2003. Fortunately, the epicenter was about 200 miles due north of Big Lake where I lived at the time. But it was awesome to be in that log home and feel the whole thing moving as it did. And the trees outside looked like windshield wipers! It was weird, but kinda cool too. It lasted almost a minute, which is a long time according to earthquake standards. As it began, I couldn't figure out what was going on for a few seconds, but as it dawned on me, I said the kids; "Hey kids! We're havin an earthquake! Look outside! And since we were in a log home, which structurally speaking is very sound because of the way that the logs are interlaced, we weren't in much danger. But it was kinda hairy with things falling off the shelves and all..
Fortunately there were no fatalities because the epicenter was in such a remote area. The geologist said though, that Alaska's topography was changed dramatically.
This "wobble" could mean twubble. Spinning things that suddenly wobble may return to a nice smooth spin, or the wobble may induce a further wobble, and a further, in arithmetic proportion to the prior.
An inch off axis seems like little, but double it, say every year, and you'll get what I mean.
1 inch, 2 inches, 4 inches, 8 inches... It wouldn't be long before we wobbled ourselves kittywompus, to re-coin a phrase.
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Satori -
No, nothing major - some aftershocks here and there, but that's about it.
2 tectonic plates were pushing against each other, a lot of pressure built up, something went "snap", and the pressure released - at magnitude 9.0.
Now that the pressure is significantly reduced, there should be much less chance of a major quake in that region for some time.
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pawtucket
Most major earthquakes on the west coast of CA were shortly after seismic activity in the southeast Asia area.
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satori001
Paw, that's what I was wondering about. The Earth isn't a solid ball, but more like a mobile, only it's suspended outward from the core rather than down from the top. When one piece moves, the rest respond. Let's hope the West coast remains intact for a few more millenia.
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herbiejuan
Guess I'll hold off on that yurt for awhile
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sirguessalot
hi all.
hi satori.
god. who can't feel this one?
it hurts on so many levels.
i know of a very highly sensitive someone (not me) who was up all night and morning trying to find out what was vibrating everything in the house. "felt like an earthquake" they said. no sh!t. and this was long before the news was heard by them, of course.
anyway, the world (and its heart) got rang like a gong. fer sure. deep breath.
on a side note: sometimes i think we sadly underestimate the effects of our removing such a mass of matter from deep geologic regions (fossil feuls and such). though, this is probably has only a marginal effect, thats one camel's back i would not want to add so many straws too.
i have a friend in FEMA who is most likely already on a plane.
peace to all,
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ChattyKathy
Hubby wanted to build one of those once, had the plans and everything. I wasn't as excited about the idea.
:)-->
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herbiejuan
Those thin walls are kinda well ummm thin...
I may have access to several thousand acres of land in a few years with several million dollar views of a particular bay scattered about the place, hence the need for mobility
;)-->
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herbiejuan
Those thins walls are a bit of a turnoff
but
I may have access to a couple of thousand acres of land in the near future with spectacular views of a very pretty bay scattered about hence the need for something portable
;)-->
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ChattyKathy
The thin walls are a nada for sure.
But the circular with no flat walls would make me insane. By the way, I'm referring to the Mongolian Round House (yurt), we talking same structure?
With the portable, you have a point there, but size would be rather small for that wouldn't it?
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J0nny Ling0
Oh man...I saw a front page photo on CNN online yesterday of a Sri Lankan or east Indian father grieving over the body of his little son. The boy appeared to be about the age or size of my eight year old little boy. The man's face was torn with grief, and it was so terrible to see. God bless the poor man...
I guess the body count is up to 33,000 now. What bothers me though, is that there are now those environmentalists who are somehow trying to blame this tragedy on the development of our modern infrastructure in the Western world. It is so preposterous to try and place this blame on modern society, that it, well, really angers me. Next thing you know, they will be blamiong it on fossil fuel production in order to try and force the US into the Kyoto Protocol aggreement which will curtail our use of fossil fuels, or, tax us more heavily for the use thereof...
It seems to me that any energy expended here should be to the purpose of helping these poor people caught in this natural disaster, and not on how, or to whom, to assign the blame! "Mother Nature" is to blame. Not you or me...
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herbiejuan
A double post...
sigh
life is so unfair
but in an earthquake, even if it fell on me it wouldn't hurt
much
now as far as why the big earthquake happened having anything to do with gas or oil production I cannot say
but there is a limited amount of the stuff and as it gets drawn down even more it will get more expensive. This has something to do with the law of supply and demand a key feature of capitalism.
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ChattyKathy
Well ya have a point there herbiejuan.
:)-->
As for the rest of this thread, sorry I didn't contribute anything.
Bye for now.
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sirguessalot
for the record....
:)-->
i wouldn't go as far as to say that our methods of harvesting geological things caused this earthquake, or any other large earthquake, for that matter. heck, at times, some of "it" might even help settle what might have been an larger earthquake.
but what if, lets say, qualities such as the strength or width or probability of earthquake might be pushed 1%-5% because of the man-made pockets and such?
and, considering the increasing population density of the planet, it seems another step in an ethical direction for the whomevers in the energy industry to consider these kinds of thing before drilling. after all, satellite is gonna just keep getting better at seeing this kind of techtonic stuff. but if they can and know to and dont use it for profit reasons...
my connecting oil and earthquakes was mostly one out of curiosity...my "sadness" pointing more towards the idea that the subject itself seems less likely to be approached in the public arena due to the wrestling extremes of blame and shame and greed (trapped/obsessed mega-consumptive energy industry/society vs idiot and only-retro expressions of environmental concern and care), and therefore possibly less likely to be approached by legit science means.
on a side note...(has nothing to do with earthquakes)
herbiejuan, you might be interested in a paper done on whats being called a "Peak Oil Crisis" by Matt Savinar. if any one is interested, i've got a pdf of it.
back to the subject satori started...
again, advancements in our abilities and ways to measure these global things is a rapidly evolving field, and a subject that somewhat fascinates me (growing up on a diet of sci-fi). i recall coming across some real ambitious papers and sites for such projects.
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excathedra
oh i'm heartsick. generations of families wiped out.... all those children.... over 50,000 people they are saying now....
it's too overwhelmingly devastating
sometimes i wonder how there can be a god
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sirguessalot
i hear ya, e.
here's this:Quake May Have Made Earth Wobble--US Scientists
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Steve!
This earthquake was exactly 1 year to the hour after the earthquake in Bam, Iran, that killed 26,000 people.
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pawtucket
Satori,
Here is a site to monitor quake activity. You will note that there has been some activity in Northern CA since the 9.0 quake. The Northridge quake back in 1994 came about a week or two after a major quake in China.
Quake Info
Here is a link of the significant quakes in January 1994,including the Northridge quake.
January 1994
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jardinero
And there have been a number of quakes in and around Japan in the past few months.
Gee, now they are saying the death toll is around 100,000. How very tragic.
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ChattyKathy
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J0nny Ling0
Speaking of quakes, I "survived" the 7.9 quake in Alaska back in 2003. Fortunately, the epicenter was about 200 miles due north of Big Lake where I lived at the time. But it was awesome to be in that log home and feel the whole thing moving as it did. And the trees outside looked like windshield wipers! It was weird, but kinda cool too. It lasted almost a minute, which is a long time according to earthquake standards. As it began, I couldn't figure out what was going on for a few seconds, but as it dawned on me, I said the kids; "Hey kids! We're havin an earthquake! Look outside! And since we were in a log home, which structurally speaking is very sound because of the way that the logs are interlaced, we weren't in much danger. But it was kinda hairy with things falling off the shelves and all..
Fortunately there were no fatalities because the epicenter was in such a remote area. The geologist said though, that Alaska's topography was changed dramatically.
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satori001
This "wobble" could mean twubble. Spinning things that suddenly wobble may return to a nice smooth spin, or the wobble may induce a further wobble, and a further, in arithmetic proportion to the prior.
An inch off axis seems like little, but double it, say every year, and you'll get what I mean.
1 inch, 2 inches, 4 inches, 8 inches... It wouldn't be long before we wobbled ourselves kittywompus, to re-coin a phrase.
Coming to a theater near you.
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satori001
Paw, those servers must be pretty busy.
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krys
I don't suppose you'd like a little "fun" at a time like this, but I'm always interested in how things work, so, check this out. Too Kewwllll
A Bit About How The Earth Works
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satori001
This link provides a simulation of a tsunami striking southern California.
Surf's up.
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