[Rockhounds] Volcanos, earthquakes and things

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

Kitty,

Most earthquake researchers tend to agree that each earthquake reduces
stress locally, but transfers it to adjacent regions. NASA has a pretty
good predictive system if you care about where but not when. It
continues to get better.

There is also good evidence that earthquakes emit ELF/VLF radio signals
hours to days before, and also during, the seismic event. I know of
several groups working to make this reliable. Even minutes of warning
for an earthquake would save many lives.

If you are at all interested in earthquakes I suggest you visit

	http://www.iris.edu/seismon/

The global view is a great summary, but you can drill down to raw data
from most of the seismic stations in the world. It is a great resource.

Kreigh





Kitty & Bill Heacox wrote:
> 
> I remember as a young child (more than half a century ago) asking my
> parents why it seemed that when there was an earthquake on one side
> of the world there often was another one soon after on the other side
> of the world.  My father (who was an electrical engineer at Bell
> Labs) said it was just coincidence.  My mom (who was the Franklin
> fluorescent mineral fan, but with no college education) used the
> opportunity to show me a globe and see that some of those events that
> I thought were directly opposite, were not (we often forget how truly
> large the Pacific Ocean is!).   I had actually thought maybe there
> was a kind of slosh effect from the liquid magma in the center of the
> earth.  My dad simply laughed, and my mom said it was a good idea but
> scientists hadn't talked about it.
> 
> Now, JR & Martha, here is a copy of part of an email I sent just this
> last August 16.  I sent it to a friend of ours, George Polman, a
> geologist and fluorescent mineral dealer, after he asked how we were
> doing after news of a hurricane heading for Hawaii:
> 
> <Yeah, we've had a scary several days here on the Big
> Island.  Hurricane Flossie actually petered out last night leaving
> only a lot of rain and high surf---and frayed nerves.  Then yesterday
> we had a few hours of worry about a potential tsunami caused by the
> earthquake in Peru, which also turned out not to happen.  And we've
> had three earthquakes here this week, the last was at 3 this morning
> at 4.5 intensity.  Do you have any ideas as a geologist if there is
> any connection between earthquakes around the world?  August 8: Java
> - 7.6, August 12: Spain- 5.4, August 13: Kilauea 5.4, August 15: Peru
> - 7.9, August 16: Kilauea 4.5.  I'd imagine the ones here are
> different because they are due to magma shifting.  As for other
> volcanoes:  Philippines' Bulusan July 31, Indonesia's Sulawesi August
> 14, and Alaska's Cleveland in the Aleutians is beginning to act up a
> bit.  What do you think? >
> 
> His answer was that there was no evidence that he knew of to connect
> earthquakes in different locations.
> 
> Aloha, Kitty
> 
> At 03:42 PM 1/6/2008, you wrote:
> >Hi:
> >
> >Well, Martha got a book about the 1906 SF earthquake, which is
> >loaded with geo facts.  She reads me some of the factoids that
> >strike her as interesting or surprising.
> >
> >One recent one was that there was a huge volcanic eruption
> >(Vesuvius  I think?) 17 days before the 'quake. Then today on one of
> >the news shows there was a mention of someone being killed in an
> >eruption.  We didn't catch where, so she said "Google it" so I did.
> >
> >Much to my surprise, there were a lot of new volcanic eruptions in
> >the news today!  One was in Chile, where they were rescuing
> >tourists, and one was in the Red Sea, near Yemen, where they talked
> >about how bright the glow was from the lava.  I think there were others too...
> >
> >Should I be strapping the bookcases to the wall?  I'm being
> >deliberately - what's the word, maybe obtuse? - here, but isn't it a
> >little odd to have several volcanoes go off at once?
> >
> >I'm in WV, where there are several thousand feet of stable
> >sedimentary rock between me and the real basement.
> >
> >I did feel an earthquake here once, 3.? on the Richter scale, while
> >I was driving on a bridge over the Kanawha River, I thought a
> >towboat had hit a bridge pier - it wasn't too long after the Silver
> >Bridge collapsed.  It would have been really scary in an underground
> >coal mine, you bet!
> >
> >Speaking of Richter, Martha tells me (the earthquake book says) he
> >was an avid nudist and famously sexually active - I guess that's
> >easier in California.  Is there some famous geo-gossip about him
> >beyond his work on earthquakes?
> >
> >JR