MAJOR CATASTROPHIC EARTHQUAKE IN SEPTEMBER 2010!!!

[ewmayer]

BTW, for any of our readers contemplating sending money, the only relief organization I can support anymore (Red Cross? No thanks) is Médecins Sans Frontières.

[kladner]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

BTW, for any of our readers contemplating sending money, the only relief organization I can support anymore (Red Cross? No thanks) is Médecins Sans Frontières.

+1!

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

In terms of science, something that occurred to me in thinking about the process of the tectonic slab carrying modern-day India plowing its way northward through thousands of miles of ocean over tens of millions of years before slow-motion ramming into south-central Asia and raising up the Himalaya as part of that ongoing collision: what is it that makes it so (apparently) easy for such moving plate segments to proceed through ocean basins? The 'obvious' answer would seem to be twofold - [1] oceanic crust is much thinner than continental and [2] oceanic crust is lower, thus allowing a moving think slab to 'ride up' on top of it and shove it underneath. Picture the way an icebreaking ship plows through ice, using the same two aspects: break through by virtue of being materially stronger, and ride up onto. But later this week - assuming I can find the time - I intend to do further reading on this subject.

Wikipedia article on the late great Alfred Wegener addresses this specific point:

In his work, Wegener presented a large amount of very strong evidence in support of continental drift, but the mechanism remained elusive. While his ideas attracted a few early supporters such as Alexander Du Toit from South Africa and Arthur Holmes in England, the hypothesis was generally met with skepticism from largely conservative scientists, who were resistant to any change in the status quo. The one American edition of Wegener's work, published in 1925, was received so poorly that the American Association of Petroleum Geologists organized a symposium specifically in opposition to the continental drift hypothesis. Its opponents could argue, as did the Leipziger geologist Franz Kossmat, that the oceanic crust was too "firm" for the continents to "simply plough through", a suggestion which ignored the plasticity of all rocks at depth and at high temperatures and pressures. The comment also ignored the vast time-scale over which continental drift has occurred, effectively the total age of the earth of about 4.5 billion years.

In 1943 George Gaylord Simpson wrote a vehement attack on the theory (as well as the rival theory of sunken land bridges) and put forward his own permanentist views.[11] Alexander du Toit wrote a rejoinder in the following year,[12] but G.G.Simpson's influence was so powerful that even in countries previously sympathetic towards continental drift, like Australia, Wegener's hypothesis fell out of favour.

[kladner]

In a new paper, researchers address the "uncomfortably close" occurrence of the Chicxulub impact in the Yucatán and the most voluminous phase of the Deccan Traps flood basalt eruptions in India. Specifically, the researchers argue that the impact likely triggered most of the immense eruptions of lava in India -- that it was not a coincidence but was a cause-and-effect relationship.

http://www.science20.com/news_articl..._linked-155315

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by kladner

http://www.science20.com/news_articl..._linked-155315

Now all we need to know is whether the proposed linkage involves antipodean arithmetic.

[kladner]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Now all we need to know is whether the proposed linkage involves antipodean arithmetic.

The abstract of the published paper contains the following, which might be suggestive:

Seismic modeling of the ground motion due to the Chicxulub impact suggests that the impact could have generated seismic energy densities of order 0.1–1.0 J/m3 throughout the upper ~200 km of Earth’s mantle, sufficient to trigger volcanic eruptions worldwide based upon comparison with historical examples.

This does not address antipodean issues directly, but does provide food for thought on the subject.

EDIT: Here is another publication based on the same material. The researchers' hypothesis seems to be that the impact shook the whole planet at category 9 levels, setting off all sorts of activity.

EDIT2: And from Princeton, some variations on the theme:
http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/a.../S32/14/62G75/

[xilman]

Nepal earthquake, magnitude 7.3, strikes near Everest

[firejuggler]

yep, thats a second one in a short while.
allow me to add an article on the 'inflatable surgery room" brought by MSF ( medecins sans frontieres)
http://www.wired.com/2015/05/inside-...social_twitter

[kladner]

Originally Posted by firejuggler

yep, thats a second one in a short while.
allow me to add an article on the 'inflatable surgery room" brought by MSF ( medecins sans frontieres)
http://www.wired.com/2015/05/inside-...social_twitter

The hospital concept is truly amazing.

[kladner]

On April 25th, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, claiming over 5,000 lives and affecting millions more. Relief efforts are under way and satellite imagery is helping to visualize the damage but radar images from the ESA Sentinel-1A satellite showed why Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, experienced so much damage

The maximum land deformation, shown in before and after pictures, is 8 miles away. The two acquisition dates lead to rainbow-colored interference patterns in the combined image, known as an ‘interferogram’, enabling scientists to quantify the ground movement.

http://www.science20.com/news_articl...n_radar-155198

[firejuggler]

earthquake today in tokio, 5.6 (revised as 5.3)
http://earthquaketrack.com/jp-40-tokyo/recent