Tag Archive: Earthquakes


Peering Inside Yellowstone’s Supervolcano

 

 

 

” A giant reservoir of magma and hot rock beneath the Yellowstone supervolcano has been found and imaged. The newly found reservoir lies 12-28 miles below the surface, and is four-and-a-half times larger than the shallower, hot melted rock zone that powers current Yellowstone geysers and caused the caldera’s last eruption some 70,000 years ago.

  The volume of the newly imaged, deeper reservoir is a whopping 11,000 cubic-miles (46,000 cubic kilometers), which is about the volume of Long Island with 9 miles of hot rock piled on it, or 300 Lake Tahoes. The discovery begins to fill in a gray area about how Yellowstone connects to a far deeper plume of heat rising up from the Earth’s mantle.

“ It’s existence has been suspected for a while,” said University of Utah geophysicist Hsin-Hua Huang of the newly imaged hot reservoir. Huang is the lead author of a paper announcing the discovery in the Thursday issue of the journal ScienceExpress.”

 

 

Discovery.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scientists Record 5 Small Earthquakes In Connecticut

 

 

 

 

” Five small earthquakes were recorded within a 5 1/2-hour span in eastern Connecticut on Monday, including a 3.1-magnitude quake that was felt in parts of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, according to the Weston Observatory at Boston College and the U.S. Geological Survey.

  The quakes followed two in the same area last week, including a 2.0-magnitude quake Thursday and a 0.4 magnitude Friday. All the quakes were centered near Danielson and in northern Plainfield.

  Four of the quakes on Monday were within a 20-minute span starting just after 6:30 a.m., including the 3.1-magnitude quake that was felt in parts of Rhode Island, including Providence, and more than 60 miles away in Massachusetts in New Bedford and Framingham, scientists said. A 1.3-magnitude aftershock was recorded just after noon.”

AP News

Why Have 10 Major Volcanoes Along The Ring Of Fire Suddenly Roared To Life?

 

 

 

” Ten major volcanoes have erupted along the Ring of Fire during the past few months, and the mainstream media in the United States has been strangely silent about this.  But this is a very big deal.  We are seeing eruptions at some volcanoes that have been dormant for decades.  Yes, it is certainly not unusual for two or three major volcanoes along the Ring of Fire to be active at the same time, but what we are witnessing right now is highly unusual.  And if the U.S. media is not concerned about this yet, the truth is that they should be.  Approximately 90 percent of all earthquakes and approximately 80 percent of all volcanic eruptions occur along the Ring of Fire, and it runs directly up the west coast of the United States.  Perhaps if Mt. Rainier in Washington state suddenly exploded or a massive earthquake flattened Los Angeles the mainstream media would wake up.  Most Americans have grown very complacent about these things, but right now we are witnessing volcanic activity almost everywhere else along the Ring of Fire.  It is only a matter of time before it happens here too.

Sadly, most Americans cannot even tell you what the Ring of Fire is.  The following is how Wikipedia defines the “Ring of Fire”…

The Ring of Fire is an area where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean. In a 40,000 km (25,000 mi) horseshoe shape, it is associated with a nearly continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and volcanic belts and/or plate movements.  It has 452 volcanoes and is home to over 75% of the world’s active and dormant volcanoes.”

 

    Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution / USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report we have links to the ongoing and in some cases newly active volcanic activity along the Pacific rim .

 

 

 Activity for the week of 13 November-19 November 2013

 

Name Location Activity
Colima Mexico New
Etna Sicily (Italy) New
Merapi Central Java (Indonesia) New
Sinabung Indonesia New
Yasur Vanuatu New

Bagana Bougainville (Papua New Guinea) Ongoing
Chirinkotan Kuril Islands (Russia) Ongoing
Chirpoi Kuril Islands (Russia) Ongoing
Copahue Central Chile-Argentina border Ongoing
Fuego Guatemala Ongoing
Karymsky Eastern Kamchatka (Russia) Ongoing
Kilauea Hawaiian Islands (USA) Ongoing
Manam Papua New Guinea Ongoing
Rabaul New Britian (Papua New Guinea) Ongoing
Shiveluch Central Kamchatka (Russia) Ongoing
Ulawun New Britian (Papua New Guinea) Ongoing

 

 

” The Weekly Volcanic Activity Report is a cooperative project between the Smithsonian’s Global Volcanism Program and the US Geological Survey’s Volcano Hazards Program. Updated by 2300 UTC every Wednesday, notices of volcanic activity posted on these pages are preliminary and subject to change as events are studied in more detail. This is not a comprehensive list of all of Earth’s volcanoes erupting during the week, but rather a summary of activity at volcanoes that meet criteria discussed in detail in the “Criteria and Disclaimers” section. Carefully reviewed, detailed reports on various volcanoes are published monthly in the Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network.”

 

   More information on global volcanic activity may be found at the USGS volcano site  and while we are on the topic of unusual seismic activity let us consider the strange doings in the Yellowstone caldera of Wyoming and Montana . Seismic activity in the form of earthquakes and tremors are also increasing in frequency in recent months . See map below .

 

 

 

” This map shows the locations of earthquakes that registered at least M4.5 in the week of 5-11 September 2013. Image credit: USGS “

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How The New Bay Bridge Shakes Off A Quake

 

 

” Earthquake-prone California is a far from ideal place to string metal over water and hope it stays put. But engineers of the new eastern span of the San Francisco–­Oakland Bay Bridge say the structure should last at least 150 years. This fall, when the new portion opens, the Bay Bridge will stretch 2047 feet, becoming the world’s longest self-anchored suspension bridge. 

Unlike a conventional suspension bridge, in which cables anchor on shore, the Bay Bridge can’t rely on the surrounding muddy ground—which amplifies seismic movement—for support. So the bridge is anchored to itself, with a single cable looping around the roadway and held high by a steel tower. “

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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