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Earthquake-Related Oddities & Weirdness

Italy scientists on trial over L'Aquila earthquake
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14981921

The earthquake devastated the city of L'Aquila and many surrounding villages

Related Stories

An extraordinary trial in L'Aquila
'Science did not do what was required'
Can earthquakes really be predicted?

The trial of six Italian scientists and a former government official for manslaughter over the 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila has opened in the city.

The 6.3 magnitude quake devastated the city and killed 309 people.

Prosecutors allege the defendants gave a falsely reassuring statement before the quake after studying hundreds of tremors that had shaken the city.

The defence argues that there is no way to predict major earthquakes even in a seismically active area.

The prosecutors accuse the seven of "negligence and imprudence... of having provided an approximate, generic and ineffective assessment of seismic activity risks as well as incomplete, imprecise and contradictory information".

Only one of the seven defendants - who include some of Italy's most distinguished geophysicist and members of the country's civil protection agency - was present on the opening day of the trial.

"I thought it was important to be here because this is my land, and I also wanted to underline the professionalism and the quality of the other public officials," said Bernardo De Bernardinis, former vice-president of the Civil Protection Agency's technical department.

"I am from Abruzzo and I owe it to the people of this area."

Continue reading the main story
DEFENDANTS

Franco Barberi, head of Serious Risks Commission
Enzo Boschi, former president of the National Institute of Geophysics
Giulio Selvaggi, director of the National Earthquake Centre
Gian Michele Calvi, director of European Centre for Earthquake Engineering
Claudio Eva, physicist
Mauro Dolce, director of the the Civil Protection Agency's earthquake risk office
Bernardo De Bernardinis, former vice-president of the Civil Protection Agency's technical department
Killed in homes
The seven defendants were members of a government panel, the Serious Risks Commission, tasked with assessing the risks after hundreds of low-level tremors had rattled the medieval city in the months before the earthquake struck.

A week before the quake, they issued a reassuring statement, while also saying that it was not possible to predict whether a stronger quake would occur. They also recommended stricter enforcement of anti-seismic measures, particularly in building construction.

In the minutes of their meeting, held on 31 March 2009, Mr Bosci, the former president of the National Institute of Geophysics, is reported to have told the group that just because a number of small tremors had been observed, it did not mean that a major earthquake was on its way.

Mr Barberi, who headed the Serious Risks Commission, was also reported as concluding that there was "no reason to believe that a series of low-level tremors was a precursor to a larger event".

On the night of the quake, many people remained in their homes and died because of this advice, while others who had decided to remain outside in the street survived, says the BBC's David Willey in Rome.

The defendants face up to 15 years in jail as well as damages of 50m euros (£45m).

The case has attracted the attention of the scientific community. Last year, more than 5,000 scientists signed an open letter to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano in support of the defendants.
 
The strange rubbing boulders of the Atacama
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-10-str ... acama.html
October 11th, 2011 in Space & Earth / Earth Sciences


These are huge boulders in Chile’s Atacama desert which appear to be rubbed very smooth about their midsections, leading University of Arizona geologist Jay Quade to wonder what could cause this in a place where water, Earth’s most common agent of erosion, is as almost nonexistent. Credit: Image courtesy of Jay Quade.

A geologist's sharp eyes and upset stomach has led to the discovery, and almost too-close encounter, with an otherworldly geological process operating in a remote corner of northern Chile's Atacama Desert.

The sour stomach belonged to University of Arizona geologist Jay Quade. It forced him and his colleagues Peter Reiners and Kendra Murray to stop their truck at a lifeless expanse of boulders which they had passed before without noticing anything unusual.

"I had just crawled underneath the truck to get out of the sun," Quade said. The others had hiked off to look around, as geologists tend to do. That's when Quade noticed something very unusual about the half-ton to 8-ton boulders near the truck: they appeared to be rubbed very smooth about their midsections. What could cause this in a place where Earth's most common agent of erosion -- water -- is as almost nonexistent?

About the only thing that came to mind was earthquakes, said Quade. Over the approximately two million years that these rocks have been sitting on their sandy plain perhaps they were jostled by seismic waves. They caused them gradually grind against each other and smooth their sides. It made sense, but Quade never thought he'd be able to prove it.

Then, on another trip to the Atacama, Quade was standing on one of these boulders, pondering their histories when a 5.3 magnitude earthquake struck. The whole landscape started moving and the sound of the grinding of rocks was loud and clear.

"It was this tremendous sound, like the chattering of thousands of little hammers," Quade said. He'd probably have made a lot more observations about the minute-long event, except he was a bit preoccupied by the boulder he was standing on, which he had to ride like a surfboard."The one I was on rolled like a top and bounced off another boulder. I was afraid I would fall off and get crushed."

He managed to stay atop his boulder, of course, and became thoroughly convinced that the earlier hypothesis about the boulders was correct.
"I was just astonished when this earthquake came along and showed us how it worked," Quade said. Quade will explain the phenomenon on Tuesday, 11 Oct. at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Minneapolis.

The whole story appears to be that the boulders tumbled down from the hills above -- probably dislodged by earthquakes. They accumulated on the sand flat, with no place else to go. Quade compares the situation to a train station where people are crowded together closely, rubbing shoulders as they waiting for a train. In this case the boulders have been stuck at the station for hundreds of millennia and the train never comes. So they just get more crowded and rub shoulders more over time.

Analyses of the boulder top surfaces suggest that they have been there one to two million years. That age, combined with the fact that seismic activity in the area generates a quake like that Quade witnessed on the average of once every four months, suggests that the average boulder has experienced 50,000 to 100,000 hours of bumping and grinding while waiting for that nonexistent train.

"It also answers a mystery that had been eating at me for years: How do the boulders get transported off the hills when there is so little rain," Quade said. "How do you erode a landscape that is rainless?"
Again the answer is seismic activity.

"It raises the question in my mind of other planets like Mars." If there is seismic activity, even from meteor impacts, might it also be creating similar landscapes? "I would predict that these kinds of crowds of boulders might be found on Mars as well, if people look for them."

More information: http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2011AM/finalp ... 188948.htm

Provided by Geological Society of America
 
This is quite odd. I'm almost tempted to get out the conspiracy-colored, secret-weapons-testing-in-the-outback glasses: :D :eek:

Earthquake rocks Northern Territory's southern region
By Gail Liston

Territorians are reporting cracked footpaths and shaking buildings after a magnitude 5.7 earthquake rocked the southern region overnight.

The epicentre of the quake was just 40 kilometres from the Aboriginal community of Ernabella.

Les Smith from the Kulgera Roadhouse said locals were shaken awake by the tremors.

"We've only got a couple of cracks actually in our cement paths going over towards the rooms," Mr Smith said.

"One of the local blokes who came (out) of his room, he said he saw a couple of the staff quarters shaking, so we'd better bolt them down."

The shaking has caught the interest of seismologists, because the area had a similar quake a year ago, but, before that, it had gone decades without one being recorded.

Seismologist Spiro Spiliopoulos from Geoscience Australia said the quake hit just before midnight, about 315 kilometres southwest of Alice Springs.

He said Ernabella suffered an earthquake of a similar size in March last year.

"We had aftershocks following the Ernabella (earthquake), and, likewise, we'd expect to have aftershocks from this one normally but they're typically much smaller than the big one and just last for days and weeks after the earthquake," Mr Spiliopoulos said.

He said, before these two similar-sized events, it had been more than 50 years since a quake was recorded in the area.

"It's unusual to get two large earthquakes within 40 kilometres of each other within Australia," Mr Spiliopoulos said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-10/q ... section=nt

[/b]
 
Wasn't there a huge explosion registered in the Australian Outback a few years ago and nobody knew what had caused it? Could this be something similar?
 
gncxx said:
Wasn't there a huge explosion registered in the Australian Outback a few years ago and nobody knew what had caused it? Could this be something similar?

I think there was a theory that Aum Shinrikyo had something to do with that.
 
Interesting. Even though I imagine that the seismic 'signatures' for an earthquake, nuclear explosion, asteroid impact, etc. are different from one another, and so someone would pick up on it if there was something truly hinky, it should also be noted that this last event happened at the rare/shallow depth of 1.1km, practically on the surface of the earth, geologically speaking.

http://www.gdacs.org/Earthquakes/report ... enttype=EQ
 
There's a lot of fracking goes on in Australia inc near Ernabella, and its known to cause earthquakes. Probably suspect no.1 for any unusual seismic activity in that area.
 
Fracking is a very good suggestion. Of course, I don't think it can be completely ruled out that they are genuine, anomalous earthquakes, though perhaps somehow related to the fairly intense period of global seismic activity the earth has been in since December 26, 2004.
 
I don't know that 'earthquakes are increasing', but in the just under 40 years between early February 1965 and late December 2004 the worldwide total of earthquakes Magnitude 8.5 or above was zero. There have been six such events in the last 8 1/2 years.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/ ... 0_date.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ea ... _magnitude

Which I think justifies a statement that the planet is seeing 'a fairly intense period of seismic activity', though perhaps my wording could have been more precise.
 
Mythopoeika said:
gncxx said:
Wasn't there a huge explosion registered in the Australian Outback a few years ago and nobody knew what had caused it? Could this be something similar?

I think there was a theory that Aum Shinrikyo had something to do with that.

:shock: THat would make them into real Bond villains.
 
27 January 2015 Last updated at 22:38
Winchester earthquake: Tremor felt in Hampshire
[Video: Regulars at the South Wonston Social Club described the moment they felt the earth tremor]

An earthquake with a magnitude of 2.9 has been recorded in Hampshire, the British Geological Survey has confirmed.
Postings on social media reported buildings in the Winchester area shaking following a tremor shortly after 18:30 GMT.
A police spokeswoman said no injuries or serious damage had been reported.
Matthew Emery, from South Winston, near Winchester described the experience as "almost as if Concorde had flown over".
The British Geological Survey (Bgs) reported a tremor at a depth of 3km (1.2miles) at Headbourne Worthy, just north east of Winchester.
BGS Seismologist David Galloway said the UK experienced about 10 quakes of such a size each year which were "usually quite widely felt around the area".

_80564647_cd917e71-3111-4ffe-ab26-93512e89e4c2.jpg

The epicentre of the quake was at Headbourne Worthy, just north of Winchester

"We live on a dynamic planet. We're actually sitting in the middle of one of the plates on the earth's crust, but because of the stresses caused by all the movement, we still get little earthquakes in the UK."

The BGS said it had received a report from a residents who said "the whole bed was visibly shaking" as well as one who said the earthquake sounded "like a bus" crashing "into the neighbours house at speed".
Hampshire Constabulary said it had initially received lots of calls from concerned residents in the Kingsworthy area following reports of something which "felt like an explosion which shook their houses".
Residents also took to social media to describe what happened.
Rowland Rees tweeted: "Quake felt in Crawley, Winchester. Whole house shook for a few seconds!"
And Jen Gupta said in a tweet: "Our house in Winchester just shook enough to rattle glasses in the cupboard, accompanied by a boom sound."
Rachel Cristofoli, in Kings Worthy, said: "Everyone felt it and came outside to see what was going on. It lasted about 5 seconds, but the houses all shook from top to bottom."
Brook Ethridge, barmaid at the South Wonston Social Club, said: "About half past six, I was sitting reading my book and all the glasses started shaking. It sounded like someone had driven into the back of the club.
"Everyone ran outside, couldn't see anything. It doesn't sound like the sort of thing that happens in a quiet little place - you just don't expect it."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-31009707
 
and just over 24 hours later, another big)ish) by UK standards quake
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31032930
An earthquake with a magnitude of 3.8 has been recorded in the East Midlands, the US Geological Survey has reported.

The tremor was recorded near the village of Cottesmore, in Rutland, shortly after 22:25 GMT on Wednesday.

People posting on social media reported buildings shaking in areas including Leicestershire, Rutland, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire.

It comes after an earthquake with a magnitude of 2.9 was recorded in Hampshire on Tuesday.

The US Geological Survey, which monitors and reports earthquakes, said the epicentre of the earthquake was 2.36 miles (3.8km) from Cottesmore.
 
Never did get to the bottom of my IHTM earth tremor the other week. Nothing was reported in the area o_O When I lived in Dorset we would get regular tremors, but I lived practically next door to the MOD.
 
Winchester area hit by second earthquake in days says British Geological Survey

Hampshire has been rocked by its second earthquake in just five days.
Tremors struck the outskirts of Winchester on Friday evening - four days after another quake hit nearby villages.

The latest earthquake happened at about 4.25pm on Friday evening near Winnall Down Copse, not far from the M3.
It measured 1.8 on the Richter scale and happened four kilometres underground.

On Tuesday night residents in villages around the city felt tremors and buildings shake when a quake measuring 2.9 on the Richter scale happened at Hurstbourne Tarrant.
Then, experts are the British Geological Survey warned of further tremors.

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/11764709.Second_earthquake_hits_Hampshire_in_five_days/
 
Are we getting more earthquakes now because of increased rainfall?
 
In the news this morning, and so close to the last earthquake in that area,
''Nepal earthquake, magnitude 7.4, strikes near Everest''
A major earthquake has struck eastern Nepal, two weeks after more than 8,000 people were killed in a devastating quake.
The latest earthquake hit near the town of Namche Bazar, near Mount Everest.
More in the story here, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32701385
 
that's the trouble with them. Even after one goes off you know there's more coming...
 
Yes, they've had 2 weeks of aftershocks. I think this is considered a "new" quake as it's in a different part of Nepal and its magnitude.
 
I'm not sure whether this would go better in Conspiracy Theories, but I'll risk it here. "Did the collider at CERN cause the Nepal Earthquakes?"

So, how could a big, underground electromagnetic circle affect a mountainous little country 4300 miles away? Ask youself “when the scientists complete thier collision, what happens next?” Where does all that energy go? My fellow Anons… it’s not like turning off a light in your home. The beams don’t circulate inside accelerators forever. As particles slow down and collide with the sides of the beam pipe or with each other, the beams degrade and become less likely to give information that could lead to interesting physics. So the energy is then focused into what is called a “beam dump”. This beam dump is sort of like a vault buried even farther underground and is filled with materials designed to absorb and disburse this “beam energy”. In the case of the LHC the “beam energy” needing to be absorbed in one, single instance equates to right around 4 Terrawatts. A little more than ¼ of our whole world’s energy usage is dumped at one time into an underground vault. Swirl that around for a minute…

The post and embedded video goes on to make claims about apparent coincidences in timings between the quake and various activities at CERN.
 
I'm not sure whether this would go better in Conspiracy Theories, but I'll risk it here. "Did the collider at CERN cause the Nepal Earthquakes?"
Highly unlikely (Scarg or not).

You only have to ask, what caused earthquakes before Cern was built?

Man-made devices, even nuclear bombs, release less energy that earthquakes, storms, volcanos, or solar storms, etc.

If Cern is really pumping vast amounts of energy into an underground beam-dump, how come the whole caboodle has not blown itself up? Or, at the very least, cooked itself, since most forms of energy degrade into heat?
 
You only have to ask, what caused earthquakes before Cern was built?
A prehistoric collider built by an old, dead, forgotten civilisation would be the most likely explanation.
There could be no other explanation. :D
 
Highly unlikely (Scarg or not).

You only have to ask, what caused earthquakes before Cern was built?

Playing devil's advocate, that's like arguing swimming pools can't drown people because people used to drown before swimming pools were invented. It could be an additional cause</devil's advocate> (although I'd be amazed if it was).
 
Yebbut it's water that drowns people, not swimming pools though they do contain water. Meanwhile the LHC doesn't contain earthquakes, nor would it be powerful to create one. Sometimes you have to sigh and admit that shit happens.
 
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