Archive for the ‘Fragile Earth’ Category

Did the Sun’s Great Magnetic Filament Spark Chile Earthquake?

Saturday, February 27th, 2010


One of the strongest earthquakes on record, a magnitude 8.8, hit central Chile early today.  Tsunami warnings have been issued all coastal areas in the path of waves radiating from the quake zone.  Numerous aftershocks nearing magnitude 7 have occurred since then and continue at this time, 12 hours after the quake.

The fault along the western side of Chile and under the Pacific ocean apparently slipped dramatically, which is an important consideration in the prediction and observation of waves capable of producing tsunamis.  The strongest earthquake on record ever hit the same area of Chile almost exactly 50 years ago.

Coinciding with this huge earthquake today we are possibly in the path of ejecta from a huge filament on the Sun that stretched over a million kilometres long and which erupted on the 24 February.  At the moment the geomagnetic effects of this filament’s activity and a possible (as yet unreported) Hyder flare are unknown.

Spaceweather.com reports in their archive for 25 February 2010 that “…The ‘Great Magnetic Filament’ on the sun that we’ve been tracking for the past week finally erupted yesterday… The event did not produce a bright solar flare, as sometimes happens when filaments erupt, but there was a coronal mass ejection (CME). SOHO coronagraphs observed at least one and possibly as many as three clouds billowing away from the sun… If any of this material is heading for Earth – a big unknown! – it would arrive on Feb. 27th or 28th.”  (italics added)

As the Sun continues to “rub its eyes” upon awakening from a exceptionally deep solar minimum, we should be aware of associated Earth changes.  We are not yet in the throes of solar max, and if current activity is any indication, we should anticipate more severe disruptions of the Earth’s geomagnetic field and tectonic/volcanic activity, which in turn impacts the surface temperature of Earth as well as her oceans, thus cascading effects on weather and climate.

We are all going to be affected by these changes in our planetary and immediate environment.  The alignment of our Solar System with ecliptic of the Milky Way, combined with unpredictable and intensifying solar activity, I feel is key to the permanent transformation of Earth and her inhabitants.  A cycle which we cannot control is taking over, so we had best hang on for the ride of our lives!

While some changes are devastating, it’s important to remember that others may prove to be helpful.  Now is the time to focus conscious intent on maximising recent DNA upgrades that may have accompanied the recent intense bombardment of Earth by cosmic rays, along with which lifeforms of all types seem to be developing new high-level abilities.

Perhaps through accelerated evolutionary changes in our DNA, which seems to be been programmed for general “improvement,” life is preparing to leave this planet and move on to other places – even other dimensions entirely – in order to survive a catastrophic demise of most or all life on Earth.  The 2012 era is upon us, and perhaps sooner rather than later we will learn the implications of that fact.

STACE TUSSEL

Yellowstone Wake-Up Call Heard in Denver?

Monday, February 1st, 2010

The current Yellowstone earthquake swarm is now “the second-largest ever recorded in the park,” according to researchers quoted in the NY Times.

Shortly after 1 AM this morning, the 1st of February 2010, I awakened and was lying in bed listening to the quiet of the night.  No traffic disturbed the silence as the city slept in anticipation of Monday morning and the new work week.  Then around 1.15 AM I heard a sudden loud, sharp cracking sound coming from my house, similar to the settling of an old building.  The noise surprised me since my house is extraordinarily quiet other than seasonal creaking associated with a massive elm’s root growth cycle.

My first thought?  Yellowstone.  Yes, Yellowstone.

There will, of course, be naysayers out there who will write off what I’m about to report as a simple coincidence.  But statistically speaking, this event stands out.  After all, I’d never before thought that any noise in my house was possibly related to seismic activity occurring 600 miles away.

Yet somehow, quickly and intuitively, I made a connection between the sound I’d just heard and Yellowstone.  I noted the time on my fairly-accurate bedside clock and determined that first thing in the morning I’d check out the Yellowstone quake log posted by the USGS to see if I could link the unusual cracking sound I heard a little before 1.15 AM with a quake.

Sure enough, this morning I booted up the computer and here’s what I found:  a modest, magnitude 2.6 quake rumbled under Yellowstone at 1.11 this morning, Monday the 1st of February.  More precisely, the USGS site noted the time of the quake as 08:10:42 UT, which is 7 hours ahead of Mountain time, and just moments before I heard the noise – accounting for the time it takes for seismic waves to travel through the Earth’s crust.

So even though I didn’t feel the Earth move, my house may have registered the quake with a bit of shifting and creaking that could easily be dismissed if certain “earthquake risk factors” I’ve written about recently didn’t exist.

For instance, an almost-overlooked mild solar wind stream arrived on the 30th, stirring up Earth’s geomagnetic field and resulting in some nice Norwegian auroras.  And last night when I got up after hearing the sound, the extraordinary glow of 2010’s perigee moon bathed the house in a soft glow that enchanted me on the one hand, and on the other made me wonder if the moon’s gravity might result in increased gravitational pull on Earth’s stressed tectonic plates.  Finally, Yellowstone hadn’t had a magnitude 2 quake in a couple of days.

With all these factors in place, pressure would likely build.

Even though I can’t prove the noise was in any way related to the quake, when it happened there was absolutely no rationalising, no sign of Occam.  There was simply a knowing, and there still is, that Mother Earth is speaking – and if we listen hard enough, we just might get her message.

STACE TUSSEL

Addendum:  A small earthquake (mag 2.5) hit near Oklahoma City the same day I wrote this article.  A line between Yellowstone and the Oklahoma quake zone near Oklahoma City just skirts the northeastern part of the Denver metro area.  Coincidence, or part of a linked fault line?  I’m simply mentioning it as food for thought…

Mid-Continent US Earthquakes Increasing Since Haiti Quake

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

seismogram

seismogram

Seismograph, 2005. Courtesy http://science.uniserve.edu.au

Is Increased Seismic Activity Related to Solar Cycle 24???

The Denver Post reported yesterday that “Yellowstone National Park has been rattled by more than 250 earthquakes in the past two days following a period of 11 months of quiet seismic activity in the park. The quakes have been gaining strength, with a magnitude 3.1 tremor recorded at 11:03 a.m…. Prof. Robert B. Smith, a geophysicist at the University of Utah and one of the leading experts on earthquake and volcanic activity at Yellowstone, said that the activity is a ‘notable swarm.'” Read more.

As I’ve been writing this article today, I’ve noticed that most recently a new Post article has come out that relays information easily obtained on the USGS website, indicating two new, stronger tremors just this afternoon that seem to be creeping toward the 4.0 mark  – see here.

Certainly Yellowstone sees its share of mild earthquakes during these occasional swarms, but as the Denver Post pointed out, this surge of recent and increasing activity follows a relatively-quiet period, so I’m monitoring the USGS earthquake activity site, which shows today that a stronger earthquake hit Yellowstone early this morning, the 19th, registering a 3.4 on the Richter Scale.

I’ve actually been writing this article all day during lulls at work today, and I’ve just learned that a couple hours ago, at about 3 PM Mountain Time (Tuesday the 29th), there were two more temblors at Yellowstone, each bigger than before, both registering a more interesting magnitude 3.6.

If I were scheduled for a Yellowstone vacation, you can bet I’d be postponing it as of today!

We may be the beginning of a somewhat disturbing trend….

In summary: the current Yellowstone swarm intensified yesterday – the same day that northern New Mexico recorded an unusually strong temblor of magnitude 4.1 (or thereabout).   And just three days prior to that, on the 15th, Oklahoma recorded its strongest quake in over 10 years, a magnitude 4.0.

This activity highlights a cluster of increased-magnitude quakes over the central United States, coinciding with the horrific Haiti earthquake on the 12th.

“There is absolutely no connection between what is occurring in Yellowstone and the magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Haiti,” reported the Denver Post. “They are completely different systems,” doctoral student Jamie Farrell told the Post. “They are not related.”

Farrell’s assertion that the earthquakes are not related because they “are completely different systems,” indicates that he’s referring to a the absence of a clear tectonic plate link.  I suspect that a different link exists between the devastating Haitian quake and the subsequent increased activity in the west-central United States during the past week, having less to do with a crustal continuity of fault lines and much more with other correlating factors which are ultimately much more difficult, if not impossible, to dismiss.  (See my post just prior to this one.)

Here’s what I’m noticing:  we’ve got quite a cluster of earthquakes going, their outbursts coinciding with active solar windstorms exerting pressure on the Earth’s fragile crust.  We should not underestimate the strength of the Sun’s awakening and its effects on Earth as a geomagnetic system – literally, to our planet’s very core.  People pay attention to the beautiful affects of solar wind; the northern lights, for instance, have been extraordinarily active in the past couple of days – but is their enchanting display lulling us into the arms of a present danger?

A few of you have probably heard that the Norway Spiral that heralded the beginning of Europe and Asia’s unseasonably snowy and cold winter may have been the result of human tampering (oh my) of the HAARP variety, puncturing the thermosphere and allowing an outflow of heat (thus, Europe’s deep freeze) and creating a window for solar wind to slam into the Earth’s crust.

I’m no scientist, but I’m thinking cosmic geomagnetic interactions between the Sun and the Earth could be impacting the molten core of Earth in ways that we could not have predicted – at the apparent dawning of Solar Cycle 24’s Solar Max.

If the thermosphere has indeed been breached and the inner core of our planet is abuzz with a polar shift accelerated by solar wind, then what possible effects could that have on the core and crust in totality?  Not just fault lines that can be connected like dots on graph paper?  Could Yellowstone’s ancient, restless magma be ready to bust at the seams?  Let’s hope not.

At this writing these mid-continent North American earthquakes are notable in both number and size, and all indications are that they’re growing.  Stay tuned!

STACE TUSSEL

PS – For all you armchair seismologists out there, take out your US map.  Put a dot on the map a bit west of Raton, NM and another dot just to the SE of West Yellowstone, MT, where two of the strongest US quakes in the last few days have happened.  Notice that the line runs through Craig, CO – where a good-sized quake made the news last August, 2009.  Hmmm…

Link Between Solar Activity and Earthquakes

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

Current solar activity related to Haiti earthquake?

The Sun is erupting; Earth is reeling.  And we had better brace ourselves.  With the increase in sunspots since December, we’re seeing more earthquakes around the world…and it’s no mere coincidence.

The surge of sunspots over the past month has culminated in the relatively behemoth 1040, actually the remains of sunspot 35, which traversed the Sun’s face about a week ago and was expected to dissipate quickly.  Instead the churning magnetic field made it all the way across the Sun’s backside and, in rare fashion, turned back into a raging sunspot again, stronger and more defined than ever.

And so it appears that the long and rather strange hibernation of the Sun is coming to an end.

Our magnetosphere is being battered by particle-charged streams coming from the Sun as well as galactic cosmic rays being propelled into our solar system.  Earth is like the ball in a cosmic tennis game.  Her crust can bear so much buffeting.  Nebraska and Oklahoma recorded earthquakes in the past month, just two odd spots along shuddering fault lines all over the planet shifting as Earth entrains with the fiery rhythm of the Sun.

In the first two weeks of the year, an active sunspot region and an equatorial, Earth-facing coronal hole have developed and become prominent, if transient, features.  Geomagnetic effects are jarring Earth’s crust and weakening the supports we depend on.  As solar activity grows, as it will, the quantifiable link between solar activity and earthquakes predicts that we’ll see more extremes:  more earthquakes, more floods. Because of the tectonics involved, more active volcanism is likely too.

The devastation might take many by surprise, as it did a few days ago.

On the afternoon of 12 January 2010, Haiti fell, collapsing in an unanticipated snapshot of time.  Port-au-Prince shook and tumbled and cried out from its deepest heart, brought down in seconds by the strongest earthquake the country has borne for two centuries.  My tears are meager offerings at this time.

The Sun was also speaking loudly that day:  a 15% chance of an M-Class flare was predicted (but didn’t occur), and the solar wind’s density was a relatively high 7.2 protons/cm3.  We still haven’t seen an M-Class flare yet in Solar Cycle 24, but the chance is higher now than in recent memory:  at the time of this writing, we face a 1-in-5 chance of experiencing an M-Class flare, and windstream density is currently just 1.6 protons/cm3.

When will the next big flare up occur?  Haiti’s the latest victim, but what other regions on Earth are vulnerable to seismic and volcanic activity?  What can we do to prepare?

All of this activity is conceivably leading up to a truly epic solar maximum, which should peak in the next few years – just in time for 2012.  If so, my friend, we either make peace with leaving or we try to save ourselves.  Therein lies the great question of our time – one we’ll surely ponder as we approach the horizon of an era.

STACE TUSSEL

See Also:
article by Alex Ansary
and this isolated abstract.