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"QUANTUM SHOT" #684
Link - article by Avi Abrams
      

      Help Japan now. Donate at Google's
        Crisis Response Center.

      We've briefly touched on this topic in
      Future Plate Tectonics, yet with another huge wake-up call earthquake (and continuing
      swarm of smaller quakes) in Japan, we feel we should cover this kind of apocalyptic
      natural disasters more broadly, as well as raise awareness about horrific
      conditions for people in North Japan right now.

      Thousands of people are left without shelter and means of transportation
      in the wake of combined earthquake/tsunami disaster - in freezing cold,
      with dwindling supplies (many stores display empty shelves, which is quite
      an unusual sight for Japan). Please keep Northern Japan in your thoughts,
      and help by donating through a respectable company - Google - at this
      link.

      The earthquake in Japan was so strong (the fifth strongest since 1900)
      that it even sped up the Earth's rotation by 1.6 microseconds, causing a
      day to get slightly shorter - more
      info

      And the earthquakes continue in this "Ring of Fire" zone. It almost became
      a non-event to feel 6.0 aftershocks in Japan today... However, remember
      that a 9.0 earthquake is 1000 times worse than a 6.0 scale earthquake -
      the Richter Scale is logarithmic.

      ---

      Historic Shakings

      The aftermath of the 1964 quake and tsunami in Alaska (shown here is 4th
      Avenue in Anchorage):

      
      
      (images via)

      The aftermath of the Great San Francisco Earthquake in 1906:

      
      (photo via 1937 issue of LIFE Magazine)

      Mega-size earthquakes usually happen when the ocean tectonic plate slips
      under the continental plate (in a process called "subduction") and catches
      there: the gradual movement of plates is then stopped (plates are locked
      together) and a huge amount of energy starts accumulating, resulting in a
      sudden release and a minimum 8.0 mega-quake.

      
      (image
        via)

      Here is an interesting graphic showing correlation between the motion of
      plates and releases of pressure, leading to major earthquakes:

      

      ---

      Building codes are paramount

      Compared to building standards in Japan, Canadian cities like Vancouver
      and Montreal (built on some of the most earthquake-prone areas in Canada)
      definitely have a problem. In case of similar disaster scenario, most of
      the older buildings will crumble... and newer buildings may not fare much
      better. Even in modern Vancouver current building standards are only meant
      to withstand a 6.0 earthquake, definitely not a 9.0 mega-quake. What's
      more, Vancouver airport and Richmond would be entirely covered by water in
      case of a tsunami, making rescue operations difficult -
      source.

      

      All these concerns are quite troubling, as the subduction zone near
      Vancouver Island is due to produce a mega-quake similar to the Japanese
      one some time in the future - these quakes happen on average once in
      300-500 years, and the last one was about 300 years ago, recorded by the
      aboriginal tribes of the Pacific Northwest. 
      
      ---

      Roads Turning into a Roller Coaster

      Upswelling makes for a bumpy ride:

      

      

      Going into the cracks after New Zealand earthquake in 2010:

      
      (image via)

      ----

      Yellowstone Time Bomb

      Sometimes an earthquake swarm can signify a much worse development, like a
      full-scale eruption of a volcano. The recent investigation into the
      earthquake swarms at Yellowstone - see
      here
      - paints a picture of magma chamber unrest and significant
      ground-swelling, which may or may not lead to a Supervolcano explosion in
      a few hundred years.

      
      (image
        via)

      Combined with the
      Cascadia Subduction Zone
      proximity, all this makes life in the American (and Canadian) Northwest
      very interesting.

      

      ---

      Canine Earthquake Rescue Jacket

      "Daschunds, the breed, was created to crawl through rabbit holes to chase
      out rabbits and groundhogs, but their size and shape makes them useful to
      crawl through rubble and collapsed buildings and locate victims... and
      bring them a small bit of food while they wait for rescuers to lift debris
      and rescue them"

      
      (image
        via)

      CONTINUE TO "FUTURE PLATE TECTONICS"! ->

      READ ALL "EXTREME WEATHER" SERIES ->




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YOUR COMMENTS::

5 Comments:

Anonymous bergn0r said...

The Picture with the title "Now this unique paving pattern was not caused by any earthquakes - but it did create an interesting urban landscape:" is showing the famous "Hundertwasserhaus" in Vienna - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundertwasserhaus
regards

___  
Blogger Bernard said...

A 9.0-scale earthquake is actually 10^(3.0*3/2)=31600 times more powerful than a 6.0-scale one.

___  
Blogger Unknown said...

Bernard is correct - seismologists phased out the Richter Scale in the 1980s in favor of the moment-magnitude scale, in which an increase of 1 in magnitude is an increase of 32 in size.

___  
Blogger Dave the Dog said...

Perhaps being pedantic here but Dachshunds were not bred for chasing rabbits down holes. The clue is in the name: Dachs = Badger i.e. Badger Hound.

___  
Anonymous Hans Broesicke said...

These pictures are absolutely horrific. It certainly makes my struggles seem less important.

___  

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