Seismologists Puzzle Over Largest Deep Earthquake Ever Recorded

Sep. 19, 2013 — A magnitude 8.3 earthquake that struck deep beneath the Sea of Okhotsk on May 24, 2013, has left seismologists struggling to explain how it happened. At a depth of about 609 kilometers (378 miles), the intense pressure on the fault should inhibit the kind of rupture that took place.

"It's a mystery how these earthquakes happen. How can rock slide against rock so fast while squeezed by the pressure from 610 kilometers of overlying rock?" said Thorne Lay, professor of Earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Lay is coauthor of a paper, published in the September 20 issue of Science, analyzing the seismic waves from the Sea of Okhotsk earthquake. First author Lingling Ye, a graduate student working with Lay at UC Santa Cruz, led the seismic analysis, which revealed that this was the largest deep earthquake ever recorded, with a seismic moment 30 percent larger than that of the next largest, a 1994 earthquake 637 kilometers beneath Bolivia.

Deep earthquakes occur in the transition zone between the upper mantle and lower mantle, from 400 to 700 kilometers below the surface. They result from stress in a deep subducted slab where one plate of Earth's crust dives beneath another plate. Such deep earthquakes usually don't cause enough shaking on the surface to be hazardous, but scientifically they are of great interest.

The energy released by the Sea of Okhotsk earthquake produced vibrations recorded by several thousand seismic stations around the world. Ye, Lay, and their coauthors determined that it released three times as much energy as the 1994 Bolivia earthquake, comparable to a 35 megaton TNT explosion. The rupture area and rupture velocity were also much larger. The rupture extended about 180 kilometers, by far the longest rupture for any deep earthquake recorded, Lay said. It involved shear faulting with a fast rupture velocity of about 4 kilometers per second (about 9,000 miles per hour), more like a conventional earthquake near the surface than other deep earthquakes. The fault slipped as much as 10 meters, with average slip of about 2 meters.

"It looks very similar to a shallow event, whereas the Bolivia earthquake ruptured very slowly and appears to have involved a different type of faulting, with deformation rather than rapid breaking and slippage of the rock," Lay said.

The researchers attributed the dramatic differences between these two deep earthquakes to differences in the age and temperature of the subducted slab. The subducted Pacific plate beneath the Sea of Okhotsk (located between the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Russian mainland) is a lot colder than the subducted slab where the 1994 Bolivia earthquake occurred.

"In the Bolivia event, the warmer slab resulted in a more ductile process with more deformation of the rock," Lay said.

The Sea of Okhotsk earthquake may have involved re-rupture of a fault in the plate produced when the oceanic plate bent down into the Kuril-Kamchatka subduction zone as it began to sink. But the precise mechanism for initiating shear fracture under huge confining pressure remains unclear. The presence of fluid can lubricate the fault, but all of the fluids should have been squeezed out of the slab before it reached that depth.

"If the fault slips just a little, the friction could melt the rock and that could provide the fluid, so you would get a runaway thermal effect. But you still have to get it to start sliding," Lay said. "Some transformation of mineral forms might give the initial kick, but we can't directly detect that. We can only say that it looks a lot like a shallow event."

Credit to Sciencedaily.com

Will the Dead Sea be eaten by sinkholes?

Estimates by Moment magazine suggest that, on the Israeli side alone, there are now over 3,000 sinkholes around the Dead Sea.

This compares to just 40 counted in 1990, with the first sinkhole appearing in the 1980s.

The Dead Sea spans more than 60 miles through Israel, the West Bank, and Jordan.

Its waters are 10 times saltier than the northern Atlantic Ocean because it has no outlet. This means that any minerals that flow there, stay there.

The increase in sinkholes is directly related to the Dead Sea drying up at a rate of one meter per year.

Sinkholes are basically bowl-shaped features that form when an empty space under the ground creates a depression.

The depression is the result of a reaction between freshwater and salt buried in a subterranean level beneath the surface.

When the freshwater dissolves the salt, it creates a void, causing the landscape around and above it to suddenly collapse.

Over the last few decades, increasing numbers of people have been drawn to the Dead Sea causing its salt water to dry up.

This leaves more fresh water in the area to dissolve the salt and create more cavities.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2424549/Will-Dead-Sea-eaten-sinkholes-Huge-chasms-appearing-region-rate-day.html#ixzz2fRBortF1

5.1-magnitude earthquake hits northwest China

BEIJING, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale jolted the junction area of northwest China's Gansu and Qinghai Provinces on Friday morning.

No casualties have been reported so far, according to local authorities.

A 5.1-magnitude earthquake hit a region between Sunan county, Gansu Province, and Menyuan county, Qinghai Province, at 5:37 a.m., the China Earthquake Networks Center said.

The epicenter, with a depth of seven km, was determined to be at 37.7 degrees north latitude and 101.5 degrees east longitude, the center said.

The quake was felt strongly in the county seat of Menyuan, said Feng Xiuying, vice director of publicity department of the Menyuan County.

Initial investigation showed no houses have been toppled in the county seat. People have rushed to a square to take refuge. As the temperature is low, some people took their cars as temporary shelters to keep warm, Feng said.

The quake was also felt in the city of Xining, capital of Qinghai Province, which is about 150 km away from Menyuan county.

No casualties have been reported in the neighboring Gansu Province, said the emergency office of the province.

The quake lasted for a dozen seconds and was felt slightly in Sunan county when most local residents were asleep.

The county has launched an emergency plan and sent quake-relief teams to the affected areas.

Further verification of the impact of the quake is under way.

Credit to News

5.3-magnitude earthquake hits Japan's Fukushima

A 5.3-magnitude earthquake has hit the Japanese prefecture that is home to the nuclear power plant crippled in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.


The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake struck early Friday at a depth of about 13 miles (22 kilometers) under Fukushima Prefecture and about 110 miles (177 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not issue an alert.

The Japanese news agency Kyodo News reported that the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., observed no abnormality in radiation or equipment after the quake.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday ordered TEPCO to scrap all six reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant and concentrate on tackling pressing issues like leaks of radioactive water.

The 2011 disaster caused three reactors to melt and damaged a fuel cooling pool at another. Officials have acknowledged that radiation-contaminated groundwater has been seeping into the Pacific Ocean since soon after the meltdowns.

The region lies on the "Ring of Fire" — an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones that stretches around the Pacific Rim. About 90 percent of the world's quakes occur in the region.

Read more: http://www.myfoxny.com/Story/23477582/53-magnitude-earthquake-hits-japans-fukushima#ixzz2fNTmS6Om

Whatever the Fed Does, Gold Will Rally

Fed’s QE Unlimited Will Lead to “Total Collapse”

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
September 19, 2013

Financial experts have slammed the Federal Reserve’s decision to proceed with “QE unlimited” by refusing to taper its money printing madness, with famed investor Mark Faber predicting the move will lead to a “total collapse” of the economic system.

Despite expectations amongst many that the Fed would scale back its $85 billion a month bond purchase plan, the central bank announced yesterday that it would prolong the policy.

Investment guru Mark Faber reacted by telling Bloomberg that the decision not to taper was all about protecting the financial interests of the elite while ordinary Americans will suffer the consequences through higher gas, food and energy prices.

“My view was that they would taper by about $10 billion to $15 billion, but I’m not surprised that they don’t do it for the simple reason that I think we are in QE unlimited. The people at the Fed are professors, academics. They never worked a single life in the business of ordinary people. And they don’t understand that if you print money, it benefits basically a handful of people maybe–not even 5% of the population, 3% of the population,” he said.

“And when you look today at the market action, OK, stocks are up 1%. Silver is up more than 6%, gold up more than 4%, copper 2.9%, crude oil 2.68%, and so forth. Crude oil, gasoline are things people need, ordinary people buy everyday. Thank you very much, the Fed boosts these items that people need to go to their work, to heat their homes, and so forth and at the same time, asset prices go up, but the majority of people do not own stocks. Only 11% of Americans own directly shares,” added Faber.

Asked what the endgame was, Faber responded, “The endgame is a total collapse, but from a higher diving board. The Fed will continue to print and if the stock market goes down 10%, they will print even more. And they don’t know anything else to do. And quite frankly, they have boxed themselves into a corner where they are now kind of desperate.”

Veteran investor Jim Rogers also slammed the Fed’s excessive money printing, warning, “The world will suffer very badly when this comes to an end. It’s an artificial sea of liquidity.”

The chairman of Rogers Holdings added that the only factor that may stop central banks around the world from printing money is if markets say, “we’re not going to take your garbage paper anymore.”

Rogers also emphasized how it doesn’t really matter who gets the top job at the Fed because the same policies would still be pursued.

“This is all a farce. They’re both of the same ilk,” he said, adding, “As long as the regular people are running things, it’s going to be the same thing…. This is not good for the world. It’s good for them and their friends.”

With Larry Summers out of the picture, Janet Yellen is firmly in the frame to be the first woman ever to chair the Federal Reserve. As Michael Snyder documents, Yellen, the architect of many of Ben Bernanke’s monetary policies, represents “Bernanke on steroids,” and is a firm believer in regular government intervention in financial markets.

Despite the media claiming Yellen has a “good track record,” in February 2007 she dismissed the notion of a housing market collapse and completely failed to anticipate the 2008 financial crisis.

“She will make Mr. Bernanke look like a hawk,” said Faber, noting that Yellen is so obsessed with artificially low inflation rates that she once advocated negative interest rates.

“She, in 2010, said if could vote for negative interest rates, in other words, you would have a deposit with the bank of $100,000 at the beginning of the year and at the end, you would only get $95,000 back, that she would be voting for that,” said Faber, adding that the Fed has no clue about the real rise in the cost of living and that the consequences of such policies inevitably lead to bigger government and less freedom.

Both Rogers and Faber said they continue to buy gold, even thought it may currently be in a “rest” period, as a protection against the ludicrous policies of the Fed and general global instability.

Meanwhile, in a bizarre Orwellian twist of logic, President Obama gave a speech in which he argued that raising the debt limit did not raise the debt of the United States.

Credit To Infowars

Hurricane Manuel slowly moves closer to Mexico's western coast

MEXICO CITY, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- Hurricane Manuel slogged very close to Mexico's Pacific coast Thursday, prompting a hurricane warning and a tropical storm watch, forecasters said.

Manuel, a small tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph, was about 20 miles northwest of Altata and 85 miles southeast of Los Mochis, traveling north at 3 mph, the National Hurricane Center in Miami reported in its 5 a.m. EDT advisory.

Mexican authorities posted a hurricane warning for La Cruz to Topolobampo and a tropical storm warning north of Topolobampo to Huatabampito.

Manuel was expected to move northward in the next 24 hours then shift toward the northwest. On its forecast track, Manuel's center is expected to gradually move a small distance inland over western Mexico during the next 24 hours, forecasters said.

Manuel is expected to produce 5- to 10 inches of rain over Sinaloa state, with isolated amounts of 15 inches possible, forecasters said. Manuel also could produce 1- to 2 inches of rain over the Baja California Peninsula and Nayarit state.

A storm surge with large and destructive waves will raise water levels by as much as 2- to 4 feet above normal tide levels along the coast near and south of where Manuel's center makes landfall.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/09/19/Hurricane-Manuel-slowly-moves-closer-to-Mexicos-western-coast/UPI-20911379588298/#ixzz2fMEvnke2