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Sat, 23 Oct 2021
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Bizarro Earth

New Faults, and Earthquake Risks, Found in Washington

New Faults
© Kelsey et al./USGS
This LiDAR image (acquired in 2006 by the USGS) shows five paleoseismic study sites (red dots with block perimeters) and three Holocene faults (solid red lines) inferred from the data.
Tectonically speaking, there's a lot going on in the Pacific Northwest. From the Cascadia subduction zone, where the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate is slowly pushing its way underneath the North American plate, to the Seattle Fault, where Native American legends recorded a massive earthquake 1,100 years ago, the region has its fair share of seismic hazards.

Now add to that three more potentially dangerous faults in the Bellingham Basin, a tectonically active area along the coast of Washington, near the Canadian border.

A team of researchers has discovered active tectonic faults in this region nearly 40 miles (60 kilometers) north of any previously known faults.

"We've known for a long time that the whole Pacific Northwest region is contracting very slowly north-to-south, at the rate of a few millimeters per year," said Richard Blakely, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., who was part of the study.

"It doesn't sound like very much, but when you concentrate that contraction on specific faults, they can become rather dangerous."

Umbrella

Drought-hit areas of England told to prepare for floods

Image
© Matt Dunham/AP
A man tries to shelter under a copy of the Financial Times as he runs through a heavy rain shower in London.
Heavy rain leads the Environment Agency to issue eight flood warnings and 22 flood alerts across southern England

No sooner had 20 million people in southern and eastern England been banned from using hosepipes than the heavens opened, and now parts of the country have been told to prepare for flooding.

April has seen day after day of wet and chilly weather, and heavy rain on Wednesday morning led the Environment Agency to issue eight flood warnings and 22 flood alerts across southern England.

Paul Mott, forecaster at MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said the weather was set to remain wet: "It's going to stay unsettled over the next seven days with frequent showers and persistent rain.

"Sunday looks to be a washout with up to an inch of rain falling across England and Wales."

Nick Prebble at MeteoGroup said: "Throughout April we have seen 175% more rain than would be normal, totalling 94.3mm (3.7in)."

However, the environment secretary, Caroline Spelman, said the rain would not avert the drought and water companies were right to impose a hosepipe ban.

Bizarro Earth

Underwater Volcanism - Antarctic ice melting from below

"Underwater volcanism is also sublimating portions of the Antarctica ice mass from underneath. In 2004, a research team led by Eugene Domack, aboard the research vessel Lawrence M. Gould, made a remarkable discovery of a massive underwater volcano off the coast of Antarctica using a deep water submersible vehicle equipped with a cadre of sensors and video cameras. The volcano was 2300 feet (700 meters) tall. The British team findings confirmed the volcano was still active and was contributing to the melting of the ice sheet from beneath the Antarctica land mass." - The Extinction Protocol, page 160 - 2010


Nuke

Poison skies: Hanging over Japan is a Fukushima nuclear crisis that's far from over

Spent reactor fuel, containing roughly 85 times more long-lived radioactivity than released at Chernobyl, still sits in pools vulnerable to earthquakes.

More than a year after the Fukushima nuclear power disaster began, the news media is just beginning to grasp that the dangers to Japan and the rest of the world are far from over. After repeated warnings by former senior Japanese officials, nuclear experts, and now a U.S. senator, it's sinking in that the irradiated nuclear fuel stored in spent fuel pools amidst the reactor ruins pose far greater dangers than the molten cores. This is why:
  • Nearly all of the 10,893 spent fuel assemblies sit in pools vulnerable to future earthquakes, with roughly 85 times more long-lived radioactivity than released at Chernobyl
  • Several pools are 100 feet above the ground and are completely open to the atmosphere because the reactor buildings were demolished by explosions. The pools could possibly topple or collapse from structural damage coupled with another powerful earthquake.
  • The loss of water exposing the spent fuel will result in overheating and can cause melting and ignite its zirconium metal cladding resulting in a fire that could deposit large amounts of radioactive materials over hundreds, if not thousands of miles.

Question

Green mysterious clouds spark disaster fears in Moscow

Mysterious green clouds have been spotted over the Russian capital, sparking fears of a chemical disaster and even some doomsday theories.
green clouds
© Image from ntv.ru
But the Emergencies Ministry is advising the public to calm down. It says the clouds are actually composed of birch pollen, not of chemicals from an allegedly burning factory in the Moscow region, as some reported.

Some people, however, got so scared that even the official comments could not convince them. Russian Twitter users have been posting alarming messages like "Moscow schools are closed because of the blast! Children are sent home," "Sky has turned completely green in Moscow's south!" and "The factory in Kaluga is destroyed!" A flood of 911 calls was also registered.

Bizarro Earth

Long Valley super-volcano caldera rattled by earthquake swarm

Mammoth Lakes, California - A series of 6 tremors have erupted at the Long Valley super-volcano caldera over the last 24 hours- two yesterday, and four tremors today. The tremors today were a 1.1 mag (3.2 km), a 2.5 mag (4.5 km), a 1.6 mag (4.5 km) and a 1.2 mag (2.8 km). This could be the beginning of a swarm so we'll keep monitoring events and look for updates.
Image
© ANSS

Bizarro Earth

Strong activity continues at Indonesia's Mount Lokon volcano

Head of Data Center for Information and Public Relations of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), Sutopo Purwo Nugrogo said Lokon was shaken by another volcanic tremor in Tomohon, North Sulawesi. In addition, the volcano is stirred by 1 to 3 shallow tremors every 5 minutes. If activity continues to increase at the volcano, officials fear an eruption could be imminent. The volcano remains at alert status 3 for now. The public is admonished to monitor the news for the latest updates about the volcano and a 2.5 kilometer exclusion zone remains in effect around the volcano's parameter.
Image
© Unknown
Mount Lokon volcano

Bizarro Earth

Shiveluch volcano spews ash 10.7km above sea level

The Shiveluch volcano on Russia's Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula on Thursday ejected an ash cloud to as high as nearly 11km above the sea level, the Itar-Tass news agency reported. An ash column from the volcano rose to a height of 10.7km above the sea level.

There was no immediate threat for the population, and no emissions of volcanic dust were monitored in neighboring villages. Two earthquakes were registered at the volcano over the past 24 hours, which was given the highest Red Aviation Code. This was the most powerful eruption of ash registered at Shiveluch this year. Shiveluch has been active for more than four weeks.
Image
© Google

Fish

11,000 Fish Deaths in Little Beaver Creek a Mystery

More than 11,000 fish died in one of three fish kills to occur in the Dayton area since April 17, state wildlife officials said Wednesday.

The large amount of deaths occurred on Little Beaver Creek in Kettering, from Research Boulevard upcreek about three miles, said Joel Buddelmeyer, the acting law enforcement supervisor for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife District 5 office in Xenia.

Smaller kills were on an unnamed tributary of the Great Miami River near Leston Avenue in Huber Heights that killed 330 fish. There was another fish kill in Vandalia, but it was not related to the R.D. Holder oil fire, Buddelmeyer said. The fire in Clark County caused fish kills in the vicinity of the blaze.

Spring fish kills have been linked to lawn chemicals sprayed on larger properties just before a rain storm, Buddelmeyer said. The chemicals quickly travel with water run-off into the area streams.

"Until we develop a suspect, our investigators are trying to make contact with businesses in the areas," Buddelmeyer said. "It's hard telling."

The dead included bass, catfish, suckers, darters, salamanders, frogs and crayfish. The kills were reported on April 17 and 21.

Buddelmeyer said lawn companies should use caution when spraying and to postpone spraying when rain is in the forecast.

Bizarro Earth

Volcano Watch: Heavy Breathing in Santorini

Santorini volcano
© Simm, Wikimedia Commons
Buildings perched on the rim on Santorini volcano.
The iconic white roofs of the Greek isles of Santorini may not stay that way forever. Those buildings are perched, after all, on the rim of a massive underwater volcano blamed for destroying the Minoan civilization of Crete. And it's restless.

About 3600 years ago, at the height of Minoan civilization, Santorini let loose with one of the largest volcanic eruptions in history. The explosion blanketed nearby islands with piles of ash hundreds of feet thick and sent out a gigantic tsunami that devastated Crete, about 68 miles to the south.

Smaller eruptions across the ensuing millennia ended abruptly in 1950. Then, after 60 years of calm, the caldera reawakened early last year with an escalating swarm of earthquakes. When geologists took a closer look, they could see the ground was swelling as well, as though the sleeping giant were yawning.

The earthquakes and ground deformation scientists observed between 2011 and early 2012 are unprecedented since the 1950 eruption. But just because a volcano is sucking in breath doesn't mean it will spew. Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull stratovolcano really let loose in 2010 after its own swarm of deformation-driven tremors, but Long Valley caldera in California has been breathing heavily since 1980 with no eruption at all.

So, what's in store for Santorini?