Forces of Nature

[wmenorr67]

Interesting information on how the Earth is always changing especially after large earthquakes.

http://www.livescience.com/50682-kathmandu-nepal-earthquake-photos.html

[230RN]

Fooled my proofreader's eye:

"Each colorful fringe on the European Space Agency's Nepal interferogram reflects about 1 inch (2.8 centimeters) of vertical movement."

Threw me for a second until I realized what they probably meant was,

"Each colorful fringe on the European Space Agency's Nepal interferogram reflects 2.8 cm (about 1 inch) of vertical movement."

I guess, anyhow.


"Further studies will also help researchers understand how the earthquake stressed other faults on either side of the rupture."

Or on the opposite side of the earth.

As far as I can tell, the converging shock waves on the opposite side will end up about 1000 miles off the coast of Chile. 

But I guess if anything were to happen there, it would have happened by now.

Too bad about the death toll. 

[MechAg94]

Isn't that what earthquakes are?

[RoadKingLarry]

Globular warmulating! Haliburton!
Static earth, mother Gaia never changes..

[230RN]

Wasn't there some big event 10-20 years ago  which slowed the earth's rotation a measureable (but tiny) amount per year?  Was it the Mt. St. Helen's eruption?  Something like 1 or 2 milliseconds per year, I think.

[Hawkmoon]

I can't help wondering if there's a connection between the Nepal quake and the eruption of Calbuco in Chile.

[bedlamite]

I can't help wondering if there's a connection between the Nepal quake and the eruption of Calbuco in Chile.

Of course there is:

Globular warmulating! Haliburton!
Static earth, mother Gaia never changes..

[230RN]

I can't help wondering if there's a connection between the Nepal quake and the eruption of Calbuco in Chile.

Associated Press in Santiago

Thursday 30 April 2015 14.58 EDT  Last modified on Thursday 30 April 2015 15.13 EDT

Chile’s Calbuco volcano erupted again on Thursday, sending dark bursts of ash and hot rock billowing 2.5 miles (4km) into the air and prompting officials to order a new evacuation of nearby residents.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/30/chile-calbuco-volcano-third-eruption

Huh!

I was half-kidding about the shock waves converging on the opposite side of the earth.

Or might it have been vice-versa?  There were two eruptions of Calbuco earlier in the week.

Is something like that really possible?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntQ7qGilqZE&noredirect=1

^ Analogous?

Terry

[wmenorr67]

Some of the larger earthquakes in the past have shifted the Earth on its axis.

[Jamisjockey]

Wasn't there some big event 10-20 years ago  which slowed the earth's rotation a measureable (but tiny) amount per year?  Was it the Mt. St. Helen's eruption?  Something like 1 or 2 milliseconds per year, I think.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/japanquake/earth20110314.html

[230RN]

^ Ah, thank you.

Squeaky wheels:

Funny, back in the mid-sixties, there was a sequence of quakes in the Denver area supposedly due to "them" injecting water into the rock layers around the Rocky Mountain Arsenal.  I felt a couple of them up in Boulder --was in fact sitting on the pot when one of them struck and got my tushie splashed (ick).  Supposedly this was due to the water increasing the lubrication between rock layers and allowing them to slip around a bit.

So anyhow, they stopped pumping the water down there, and sure enough, the quakes stopped.  Ah, more better, right?  Right.

Now I don't know about you, but I reckon I'd rather have a bunch of little quakes helped along by lubrication than for the stresses to keep building up enough to cause a large quake.  Ayup.  That's what I'd rather have.

Terry, 230RN

[AJ Dual]

Now I don't know about you, but I reckon I'd rather have a bunch of little quakes helped along by lubrication than for the stresses to keep building up enough to cause a large quake.  Ayup.  That's what I'd rather have.

Terry, 230RN

It may or may not work like that. Could just as easily be analogous to "Trying to set off only a little bit of the dynamite stick at a time".   

[KD5NRH]

"Each colorful fringe on the European Space Agency's Nepal interferogram reflects about 1 inch (2.8 centimeters) of vertical movement."

Threw me for a second until I realized what they probably meant was,

"Each colorful fringe on the European Space Agency's Nepal interferogram reflects 2.8 cm (about 1 inch) of vertical movement."

Nah; somebody dropped the rod so they had to redefine the centimeter.

[230RN]

^^ (AJ Dual)   Very good.

But I did say, "..I'd rather have..."

Side note:  I worked in a building with an entry atrium with a very high (6 stories) ceiling*.  From this ceiling were suspended lights on cables which hung down to the various floors, all of which were glassed in so you could look down on the atrium.

So the cable lengths varied from 2 stories long to about 5 stories long, M/L.

One day I happened to notice the lights swinging from their cables --mind you, there was no wind indoors to cause this swinging.

Only thing I could think of was we either had a very strong gust of wind which shook the building, or there had been a mild unfelt-by-me earthquake.

Sure enough, I found out later that in fact there had been been an earthquake nearby --M2 or 3, IIRC. I guess you could call the whole building a seismometer of sorts.

The "sitting on the pot" one above and this one are my only 'quake anecdotes.

Thank goodness.

Terry, 230RN

* ETA  I found a picture of that atrium on the net.  Two of the hanging lamps can be seen.  I spotted a guy flying his helicopter in there one evening after hours as I was leaving.  The management put a stop to that pretty quick, I was told later.