Big Quakes Weaken Faults on Other Side of Earth

[Are_grits_groceries]

Massive earthquakes on one side of the globe can weaken faults half a world away, scientists announced today.

A group of seismologists studying the massive 2004 earthquake that triggered killer tsunamis throughout the Indian Ocean found that the quake had weakened at least a portion of California's famed San Andreas Fault.

The finding, detailed in the Oct. 1 issue of the journal Nature, suggests Earth's largest earthquakes can weaken fault zones worldwide and trigger periods of increased global seismic activity.

http://www.livescience.com/environment/090930-fault-weakening.html

Okay. Now everybody can have some "fun."

[Gman2]

1. This is why climate weapons are banned.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

2. Wow, interesting.

For years I had heard that argument "pooh poohed", though it made sense to me. :shrug:

The eastern part of The Ring has been lit up like a mother fucker for several years now - many major, major quakes. Am just waiting for it to start heading our way out here in CA. :scared:

[whoneedstickets]

3. Forget CA, just wait 'til Yellowstone Caldera wakes up...

...Then we really are toast.

[Poll_Blind]

7. Dude, you got that right. That's hug my kids cover their eyes time.

Man, for some of the most advanced organisms within at least 4 cubic light years, you'd think the Universe would fucking cut us some slaaaaack.

Oh right, there is no God. (Goddamnit!)

PB

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Well that may very well be an extinction level event

on the bright side, it will solve the global warming issue for a few years, while other non apex species start recovering

Life will go on... just not with us. Or if it does... well that is another evolutionary bottleneck.

[tjwash]

37. That's gonna be awesome. Front row seats to the end of humanity.

Everyone on the western half of the continent will be toast in a matter of hours. The rest of the worlds populations will die out pretty quickly after that.

Humanity will be lucky to be pushed back to the stone age. But...the earth will heal, cleanse itself, and start all over again just like it has many many times before us. That comforts me in a way.

[XemaSab]

10. Love... is a burning thing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lhf9U5Wf3Q

[JuniperLea]

4. I have world and CA/NV shake maps up today...

And I refresh them from time to time... I've lived here all my life, but for the past four years I've been in a glass and steel tower in downtown Los Angeles... not really where I want to be right now...

http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/

[Chemisse]

27. I have CA quake info emailed to me

From that same web site. It is really nice since my daughter lives in San Francisco. I get the report at the same time the media does; the news stories pop out a few minutes later.

[JuniperLea]

29. Me too!

There are over forty in the folder I have them sent to... :scared:

I just hope I'm home, and not on the 39th floor in this building!

[Chemisse]

33. I would be nervous there too

But hopefully it was built with earthquake safety in mind.

[JuniperLea]

38. I'm told it was...

And as the office manager, I've laid in mass supplies! If the building remains standing, we will have food to last quite a while... space blankets, water, flashlights... all that stuff.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

5. Back in 2004 there were people here speculating if this were a possibility.

It's terrifying to know that not only was it, but it did.

[Cleita]

6. If that fault goes, I believe many of us can bend over and kiss our

collective asses goodby. I'm sitting on that fault fifteen miles from a nuclear plant. If you hear of such an earthquake here on the coast and you don't hear from me, well it was a pleasure knowing all of you.

[XemaSab]

12. I'm in Redding below Shasta Dam

if there's a Cascadian event, well it was a pleasure knowing all of you.

[Cleita]

31. It's beautiful there, but if the dam cracks....?

I understand that our nuke plant is built to withstand an 8 magnitude earthquake. We shall see if we have an event just what it actually will withstand. Have you checked what specs the dam is built to?

[XemaSab]

34. It's solid concrete

but I don't know what specs it was built to. :shrug:

[ORDagnabbit]

8. I dunno i kinda file this under... "duh"

[redqueen]

11. I had the same reaction...

wouldn't this be kind of expected? Many of these faults are connected, so...

[Are_grits_groceries]

19. It would seem to be a "duh" statement.

However, they have been trying to find some proof and use the knowledge to possibly make predictions. In addition, sometimes there aren't correlations where we expect them to be.
Our assumptions may make sense, but in fact they may not be true.

[redqueen]

20. Yep...

well I'm glad they managed to find the proof... hopefully it will help with predictions and planning.

And with getting funding for stuff that some morons don't seem to be too concerned about. :)

[tridim]

9. I keep wondering what the weight of rising ocean water will do to under-sea faults.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Them guys with Ph.Ds have actually also speculated on that

of course people who have no clue about science had a good laugh.

Seems them pointy head intellectuals were and are right, and them the world was created 6000 years ago crowd are wrong, as usual.

Yes I read that story some years back and linked to the Reuters version of it yesterday...

Here you go

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE58F62I20090916

[Statistical]

17. Not everything is related to global warming.

How much have oceans risen? Couple inches.
How deep is the ocean on average? 12,400 ft deep.

That is 148,800 inches. If the average ocean has risen say 3 inches that is a gain of 1/500ths of 1%.
It would be like saying if the average human (180lbs) gained 1/20th of 1 ounce how much increased stress would that place on their skeletal structure.

[tridim]

25. They're talking about a 2m rise by 2060.

That is very significant. It will alter Earth's gravity distribution, and centrifugal and tidal forces.

No idea if that's enough to start shifting plates around, but it's something to at least think about.

[Lilith Velkor]

26. Not much, but the less the weight of ice on Antarctica, the more it rises.

All the plates around it will have to shift accordingly - sometimes abruptly.

[wroberts189]

14. I always wonder if the skyscrapers in big cities collectively push on the tectonic plates.

And if some day they may come tumbling down.


Just call me Cassandra.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Don't weigh enough

now glaciers melting, water putting more pressure... now that does put some interesting pressures on them faults...

[wroberts189]

21. Glad I live inland suburbia .. 100ft above sea level.

Still I know... none of us are fully safe. My house could not take a strong quake.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

18. No.

Generally speaking the amount of dirt and rock removed to create the foundation of the tower weighs more than the tower itself.

[wroberts189]

23. That is reassuring. I hope you are right. nt

[Selatius]

28. The average continental plate is 35-40km thick. An office tower is nothing in comparison to that.

A grouping of office towers still wouldn't be anything.

[jhain]

22. well.......

shit.
dd moving to san fran next week.

like Mom wasn't obsessing on too many things already.

Sigh............

Actually, I figured this was all too true- been wondering about it since the latest quakes happened.

[bvar22]

24. Quick !.... Get out NOW!

...while you still can.
Don't forget toilet paper and extra batteries for the flashlight~

[whoneedstickets]

40. Duct Tape! Lots of duct tape....

we can rebuild civilization with that shit.

[deaniac21]

30. I dug a hole to china when I was a kid and I saw evidence all

along the trip.

[The Straight Story]

32. Just wait until oct 17th

:evilgrin:

[hootinholler]

39. What's on the 17th?

:shrug:

-Hoot

[trotsky]

35. The earth is mad that we raped the moon.

Blame the evil, rapist scientists.

[Fumesucker]

36. The planet Mercury got smacked so hard it changed terrain on the other side of the planet..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caloris_Basin

Antipodal chaotic terrain and global effects

The giant impact believed to have formed Caloris may have had global consequences for the planet. At the exact antipode of the basin is a large area of hilly, grooved terrain, with few small impact craters that are known as the Chaotic Terrain (also 'Weird Terrain'). It is thought by some to have been created as seismic waves from the impact converged on the opposite side of the planet