Posted on 03/16/2011 6:28:17 PM PDT by decimon
SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) – Underground quartz deposits worldwide may be behind earthquakes, mountain building and other continental tectonics, a discovery that may aid in predicting tremblers, according to a study released on Wednesday.
The findings by Utah State University geophysicist Anthony Lowry and a colleague at the University of London, to be published Thursday in the journal Nature, may solve a riddle of the ages about the formation and location of earthquake faults, mountains, valleys and plains.
"Certainly the question of why mountains occur where they do has been around since the dawn of time," Lowry told Reuters.
He and research partner Marta Perez-Gussinye examined temperature and gravity across the Western United States from a movable network of seismic instruments to describe the geological properties of the earth's crust.
The scientists discovered that quartz crystal deposits are found wherever mountains or fault lines occur in states like California, Idaho, Nevada and Utah.
The Utah State geoscientist said the breakthrough came after repeated testing revealed a correlation between quartz deposits and geologic events that was "completely eye-popping."
Using newly developed remote sensing technology known as Earthscope, Lowry and Perez-Gussinye found that quartz indicates a weakness in the earth's crust likely to spawn a geologic event such as an earthquake or a volcano.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Crystal blew persuasion ping.
How would that relate to the huge overthrust in western U.S./Canada, a whole mtn range uplifted and thrust over the underlying rock?
Dunno. I gather this is a new idea so I expect these scientists to have their work cut out for them in supporting it.
The question is.... what did the crystal skulls say?
Swarovski.
Quartz is an indicator for gold.
Heard some moron on the John & Ken radio show in LA saying he could predict quakes by the number of pets that run away.
I was wondering how he tracked that and why would it only be domestic pets, not all animals?
It should be "tremblers", but I think the correct word is "temblors".
I've picked up many a rock from deep caves that have quartz mixed with other material that is less hard. It certainly got that way from being in heat high enough to make it molten - as was the material it was mixed with.
But no process I know of would make quartz in molten state separate from other material and become a predominate layer that would explain earthquakes - simply because quartz is among the least materials found at great depth in any of the great open-pit mines around the world. (I've been to several, as a visiting 'rock hound' - begging for 'finds.')
Quartz has a hardness of 9 - just below that of diamond, but it can be shattered just like glass, with great enough pressure. (So can diamonds) But, before I believe all quakes are caused by the presence of quartz, I'd like to see a great deal more of it in the deep mines around the earth - because there just isn't that much that I've seen.
Tectonic plates subverting under another plate causes movement, simply because at 20 miles down, all material becomes molten - allowing that movement. Sorry, quartz just ain't IT when it comes to earthquakes, IMHO.
Is plate tectonics not allowed?
It should be "tremblers", but I think the correct word is "temblors".
Looks like 'temblor' means 'earthquake' is borrowed from Spanish. Looks like 'trembler' is also used.
scratch that, I misread the very first sentence.
Hardness of 9? What scale, on the Mohs scale it’s 6-1/2 to 7...
OK, OK, I got it.
I don’t know whether you should be hunted down and hung for the pun, or awarded a grant.
But my hat is off to you.
Like this one: 
New measurements of quartz abundance from EarthScope data show that mountains are quartz-rich (red-orange colors). The Great Plains, Columbia Basin and Great Valley have little or no quartz (blue-green colors).
Credit: Lowry & Perez-Gussinye
The former is usually a good bet.
Don’t temblors tremble?
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