Super Seismic Me

[loCAtek]

Quake in Haiti

Quake in Chile

Quake in China

Quake in Mexcio

Quake in Soloman Islands

Quake in Tajikistan

Volcano eruption in Iceland (twice!)

Volcano eruption and quakes at Alaskan volvano Mount Redoubt

Volcano eruption in Tonga

Volcano eruption in Suwanose-jima, Japan

4[!] Volcano eruptions in Russia- Shiveluch, Klyuchevskaya, Bezymianny, and Karymsky



Need I go on and on? These were not small occurances either. All pretty major seismic activity.

I tell you a lot of California coasters are feeling rather nervous right now, and some are even turning into Chicken Little's crying, 'The Big One's coming! - The Big One's coming!' Is it just me or does this seem like a higher than normal amount of earth-shakin'?

[Gob]

No, it's not just you. Watching the news at the gym this morning, I was thinking exactly the same thing.

Let's hope we're not due a big sloughing of the earth's mantle, the economic effects alone could be devastating, to say nothing of the cost in human and animal life.


"Earthquake!! Run for the hills,! No wait, the fuckers are on fire!!!"

[Sean]

According to this lot what we're experiencing is perfectly normal.

http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2439

[The Hen]

Don't be so sensible Sean.

We need panic!

Besides, do you trust a Government site to give you the 'truth'? A US Government site at that?

: )

[Sean]

You're right!

*Runs around in circles screaming*

[BoSoxGal]

The ring of fire is as active as it ever was - but more quakes this year have occurred in highly populous areas.

On NPR this morning, they discussed how this is related to the fact that faults are generally located in the same valleys where bodies of water, and thus human population centers, are located.

[Rick]

Help fight continental drift...

[Crackpot]

With topic drift?

[Rick]

With topic drift?

Only for those not in the know...

[loCAtek]

According to this lot what we're experiencing is perfectly normal.

http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2439

Normal? Normal!? You find the ground opening up and swallowing you normal?


In a slightly related fashion; I've suddenly become obsessed with the movie poster for 2012;



The film itself was a CGI thrill ride of 'What can we smash up next?' but the poster of the serene monk calmly watching total annihilation approach, resonates with me somehow...

[Gob]

It's the end of the world I tell you...

Europe faces prolonged air chaos

The European air traffic control organisation has said flights could be disrupted for another 48 hours by ash spewing from a volcano in Iceland.

Eurocontrol spokesman Brian Flynn said a lack of wind in the area meant the ash cloud was "progressing very slowly eastwards" and remained "very dense".

Up to 5,000 flights could have been affected by the end of Thursday.

Planes have been grounded in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

France is also preparing to close its main airports.

The UK closed its entire airspace to all but emergency flights because of the risk of the ash damaging planes' engines. The restrictions are not expected to be lifted before 1300 (1200 GMT) on Friday at the earliest.

Eurocontrol, which covers 38 nations across Europe, said the ash ejected by the volcano underneath the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier in Iceland would continue to move in a south-easterly direction.

Based on the guidelines of the International Civil Aviation Organisation, normal air traffic control services could not be provided to flights in airspaces affected by volcanic ash, requiring the temporary suspension of air traffic, it added.

Experts have warned that the tiny particles of rock, glass and sand contained in the ash cloud could be sufficient to jam aircraft engines.

Mr Flynn, Eurocontrol's assistant head of operations, said the extent of the disruption was "greater than we've ever seen before in the EU" and warned that the problem could persist for a further 48 hours.

COUNTRIES AFFECTED
# Airspace closed: UK
# Republic of Ireland
# Norway
# Denmark
# Sweden
# Belgium
# Netherlands Partial or planned closures:
# Finland (northern airspace closed till 1200 GMT Friday)
# France (northern airports by 2100 GMT)

"The meteorological situation is such that the volcanic ash is progressing very slowly eastwards but there is not a lot of wind... so it is very slow and very dense," he told the Reuters news agency.

A spokesman for the UK's National Air Traffic Service (Nats) said its airspace restriction was the worst in living memory, and that it was "very unlikely that the situation over England will improve in the foreseeable future".

The restrictions silenced Heathrow airport, the world's second busiest, and stranded tens of thousands of passengers around the world.

The volcano beneath the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier began erupting on Wednesday for the second time in a month, hurling a plume of ash 11km (seven miles) into the atmosphere. By the time it reached the northern UK, it had risen to 16km.

Witnesses said two flows of floodwater had started coming off the glacier on Wednesday, and that a road along the flooded Markarfljot river had been cut in several places. As many as 800 people were evacuated from their homes.

On Thursday, the flooding was reported to have subsided, but the volcano was still producing ash that was being blown towards Europe.

"It is likely that the production of ash will continue at a comparable level for some days or weeks. But where it disrupts travel, that depends on the weather," Einar Kjartansson, a geophysicist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, told the Associated Press.

"It depends how the wind carries the ash."

The last volcanic eruption beneath the glacier was on 20 March. The eruption before that started in 1821 - and continued for two years.

Iceland lies on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the highly volatile boundary between the Eurasian and North American continental plates.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/e ... 623534.stm

Published: 2010/04/15 19:02:00 GMT

[BoSoxGal]

the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier

Icelandic is not far off from Welsh, then?

[Sean]

the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier

Icelandic is not far off from Welsh, then?

It used to be called the Tat Glacier but they changed it when they heard about the rule changes in scrabble.

[Gob]

the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier

Icelandic is not far off from Welsh, then?

Funnily enough in Welsh Eyjafjallajoekull translates to; "That's our flight to Ibiza screwed"

[Sean]

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/soci ... 004152642/

[Gob]

Here is the BBC Pronunciation Unit's guide on how to saw the glacier's name. Eyjafjallajökull (or Eyafallajökull) is pronounced AY-uh-fyat-luh-YOE-kuutl (-uh) , that is -ay as in day, -fy as in few, -oe as in French coeur, -uu as in boot, the -tl as in atlas. The (-uh) is "a" as in ago.

Stressed syllables are in capital letters.

So now you know!

[loCAtek]

Experts have warned that the tiny particles of rock, glass and sand contained in the ash cloud could be sufficient to jam aircraft engines.

Could be? I remember how they found out the hard way that ash could down an airliner.

British Airways Flight 9

It was found that City of Edinburgh's [ a 747-236B registered G-BDXH] problems had been caused by flying through a cloud of volcanic ash from the eruption of Mount Galunggung. Because the ash cloud was dry, it did not show up on the weather radar, which is designed to detect the moisture in clouds. The cloud sandblasted the windscreen and landing light covers and clogged the engines. As the ash entered the engines, it melted in the combustion chambers and adhered to the inside of the power-plant. As the engine cooled from not running and as the aircraft descended out of the ash cloud, the molten ash solidified and enough broke off to allow air to flow smoothly through the engine allowing a successful restart. The engines had enough electrical power to restart because one generator and the onboard batteries were still operative; generator or battery power is required for ignition of the engines.

... G-BDXH also entered the Guinness Book of Records as the longest glide in a non-purpose-built aircraft, until the record was broken by the Air Transat Flight 236 incident.

It was amazing that the pilots figured out how to glide the plane, (if you pardon the pun) on the fly! Before this, it had never been tried before.

[The Hen]

Experts have warned that the tiny particles of rock, glass and sand contained in the ash cloud could be sufficient to jam aircraft engines.

Could be? I remember how they found out the hard way that ash could down an airliner.

I was listening to some griping travelers on telly last night. There was the huge plume of crap that has been thrown in the sky and one women was whining about how they couldn't fly and she couldn't see why. After you love. I'd much rather have my holiday ruined and still be alive at the end of it, than trying to get to my destination and never making it.

[loCAtek]

Shoot, if one mid-sized goose could take a plane down, I wouldn't try flying through a whole atmosphere layer of flak.

[The Hen]

Hatch has seen the end result of a plane being taken across a run way to a hanger to get out of a REALLY shocking sandstorm.

Let me put it this way. The plane had a coating of paint on the outside of it before the storm arrived. It was stripped down to metal and the windscreen had been sandblasted. There was only a clearish piece where the pilot had the wiper going to try and see.