“Our study describes a methodology to assimilate geologic, seismologic, and geodetic data surrounding a seismic fault to form a physical model of the cycle of earthquakes that has predictive power,” says Sylvain Barbot, a postdoctoral scholar in geology at Caltech. Quoted from the Caltech press release.
A submarine volcanic eruption at Monowai Seamount added 8.75 million cubic meters of rock in just five days. The volcano is located in the Pacific Ocean northeast of New Zealand at the southern end of the Tonga Ridge near Kermadec volcanoes.
Science on MSNBC.com has an article that explains some of the impacts of the 2010 Magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck off the cost of Chile. The earthquake made significant changes to the intertidal environment.
The Nevada Geodetic Laboratory has a map showing the displacement of Earth’s surface as measured by GPS stations during the March 11, 2011 Sendai M9.0 Earthquake. “Japan’s coastline has moved up to 5 meters (>16 feet), and the location of the North Pole has been estimated to have moved about 10 cm (4 inches).” Quote from the NGL blog post.
Erik Klemetti, author of the Eruptions Blog, does not like the earthquake and volcanic eruption predictions that he has been seeing on the internet and explains why.
An article on the ScienceNews website titled “Stop-and-go plate tectonics” explores how the process of plate tectonics might have started on the early Earth.
The Rio Grande Rift
April 13, 2012 | New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources
“The river’s course through southern Colorado and New Mexico is controlled by a geologic feature known as the Rio Grande rift, which formed when Earth’s crust stretched and thinned in an east-west direction starting about 36 million years ago (36 Ma). The stretching and thinning of the crust allowed hot mantle to well upward, creating youthful volcanoes, hot springs, and mineral deposits, as well as forming a topographically low area along which the river flows.”
Today’s magnitude 8.6 and magnitude 8.2 earthquakes off the western coast of northern Sumatra produced small tsunamis that tested warning systems developed since the 2004 Indian Oceantsunami.
“Two new studies into the “plumbing systems” that lie under volcanoes could bring scientists closer to predicting large eruptions.” Quoted from the University of Leeds press release.
“The Atlantis Massif, an undersea mountain, or seamount, formed in a very different way than the majority of the seafloor in the oceans. Unlike volcanic seamounts, which are made of the basalt that’s typical of most of the seafloor, Atlantis Massif includes rock types that are usually only found much deeper in the ocean crust, such as gabbro and peridotite.” Quoted from the National Science Foundation press release.
This recording of the 2011 Japanese earthquake was taken near the coastline of Japan between Fukushima Daiichi (the nuclear reactor site) and Tokyo. The initial blast of sound is the 9.0 mainshock. As the earth’s plates slipped dozens of meters into new positions, aftershocks occurred. They are indicated by “pop” noises immediately following the mainshock sound. These plate adjustments will likely continue for years. Created by Zhigang Peng, associate professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
“Seawater circulation pumps hydrogen and boron into the oceanic plates that make up the seafloor, and some of this seawater remains trapped as the plates descend into the mantle at areas called subduction zones. By analyzing samples of submarine volcanic glass near one of these areas, scientists found unexpected changes in isotopes of hydrogen and boron from the deep mantle.” Quoted from the Carnegie Institution for Science press release.
LiveScience has an interesting article on the forms of life encountered around a deep-sea vent system at the boundary of the Cocos and Caribbean Plates off the west coast of Costa Rica.
Could a partnership between a commercial telecommunications company planning an undersea cable across the Pacific Ocean and science researchers seeing ocean bottom monitoring be a great opportunity for both?
William Fritz and Robert Thomas have completed a second edition of the popular Roadside Geology of Yellowstone Country. This 6″x9″ paperback has 311 pages that are packed with detailed information about Yellowstone Geology.
“An eruption occurred in the Red Sea in December 2011. According to news reports, fishermen witnessed lava fountains reaching up to 30 meters tall on December 19.
By December 23, 2011, what looked like a new island appeared in the region.” Quote from the NASA image release.
Plate “boundary segments that ring the Australia plate represent some of the most seismically active elements of the global plate boundary system, and some of the most rapidly evolving plate interactions. As a result, there are some very complex structures which host many large and great earthquakes.” Quoted from the USGS publication release.
“In an attempt to better understand earthquakes and with the goal of one day being able to predict them, an international team of scientists and engineers headed to the heart of where earthquakes happen.” Quoted from the National Science Foundation news release.
A number of recent large earthquakes have caused some people to believe that such events are now occurring with greater frequency. However, events that are randomly distributed over time can occur in clusters.
Alex Guth of Michigan Technological University assisted National Geographic with a story about “why the rift exists and its impact on the local people — a people in crisis — and the delicate ecosystem that coexists”.
An article on the Scientific American website reports that seafloor movement during the Fukushima Earthquake was as much as 50 meters laterally and 16 meters vertically.
Nyamuragira is a shield volcano in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and located on the western branch of the East African Rift. It is the most active volcano in Africa. This video reports on an eruption that began on Sunday and is threatening people who live nearby.
This article on recent earthquakes in Oklahoma includes ideas of what might be causing them from geologists at Purdue University Northwestern University and the Oklahoma Geological Survey. There is no strong evidence that they are being caused by hydraulic fracturing in the Woodford Shale or other rock units.
“The “super-eruption” of a major volcanic system occurs about every 100,000 years and is considered one of the most catastrophic natural events on Earth, yet scientists have long been unsure about what triggers these violent explosions.” Quoted from the Oregon State University news release.
Numerous earthquakes have been recorded on a short portion of the Hayward Fault near Berkeley. Retired UC Berkeley seismologist, Robert Uhrhammer, explains earthquake basics and details about these recent events.
The Loma Prieta Earthquake killed 63 people on October 17th, 1989. The earthquake that interrupted the World Series killed 63 people, injured thousands and destroyed thousands of homes. This San Andreas Fault event is also known as the “Santa Cruz Mountains Earthquake“.
NOAA has a webpage that links to a large number of maps, each showing the age of the ocean floor in a different format. A great resource for teaching, publishing and research.
“Geologists at Brown University have produced the most detailed picture of southern California’s lithosphere, which is crucial to understanding the geological forces that shaped the area.” Quoted from the Brown University news release.
“At approximately five million years old, Bigach is a relatively young geologic feature. However, active tectonic processes in the region have caused movement of parts of the structure along faults, leading to a somewhat angular appearance.” Quoted from the Earth Observatory image release.
“Earthquake prediction remains an imperfect science, but the best forecasts are about 10 times more accurate than a random prediction.” Quoted from the University of California-Davis news release.
“An international team of scientists has provided new insights into the processes behind the evolution of the planet by demonstrating how salty water and gases transfer from the atmosphere into the Earth’s interior.” Quoted form the University of Melborne news release.
CNN has a photo gallery that includes two photos from the Silfra Fissure in Iceland’s Thingvellier National Park. The Silfra fissure is the pull-apart boundary between the North American and Eurasian plates.
An opportunity to attend a December-February field camp located on the Indian-Australian/Pacific plate boundary. The course provides training in basic through to more advanced field geological methods, with applications to geological problems in the varied structural and geomorphic settings of New Zealand. Many students from the USA have completed the course.
Using LIDAR mapping technology, researchers have discovered a geologically young fault on the flank Mount Hood that has escaped detection during traditional field work.
The Indonesian Centre for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation has raised the alert level from I to II for the Tambora Caldera due to increased seismic activity in the region.
“Last spring, a volcano erupted 425 kilometers (about 265 miles) off the Oregon coast and far below the surface, at Axial Seamount. No one was aware for months. Now, the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) will survey the site and stream live video of the volcano. It’s the first live video since the volcano spewed massive amounts of lava on April 6.” Quoted from the National Science Foundation news release.
“Like scars that remain on the skin long after a wound has healed, earthquake fault lines can be traced on Earth’s surface long after their initial rupture. Typically, this line of intersection is more complicated at the surface than at depth. But a new study of the April 4, 2010, El Mayor–Cucapah earthquake in Baja California, Mexico, reveals a reversal of this trend. Superficially, the fault involved in the magnitude 7.2 earthquake appeared to be straight, but at depth, it’s warped and complicated.” Quoted from the NASA press release.
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