Posted on 12/10/2004 8:59:17 AM PST by NYer
Mysterious tremors deep beneath the San Andreas Fault near the quake-prone town of Parkfield are shaking the earth's brittle crust, far below the region where earthquakes normally strike -- and scientists say they can't understand what's happening or what the motions mean.
Seismic researchers are monitoring the strange vibrations closely. But whether the faint underground tremors -- termed "chatter" by some seismologists -- portend an increased likelihood of a major quake in the area is an unsolved puzzle.
Robert Nadeau, a geophysicist at the UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, charted more than 110 of the faint vibrations since they were first detected by the lab's High Resolution Seismic Network in Parkfield three years ago. What concerns Nadeau and his colleagues is that the epicenter of the great 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake, whose magnitude has been estimated at 7.8 to 8, was located almost exactly where the deep tremors are now occurring -- beneath the San Luis Obispo County village of Cholame, some 17 miles south of Parkfield.
The episodes of chatter last from four to 20 minutes and are being recorded from as deep as 40 miles beneath the surface -- up to four times the depth of normal earthquakes, which originate in what scientists call the "seismogenic zone." That zone reaches no deeper than 9 or 10 miles below the Earth's surface.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Gozirra?
Though not near you, thought you might want to read more at the link.
Let's see...deep, previously undetected tremors...salt water intrusion...Radon gas emissions...Nothing here, move along!
Yeah, sounds like rock being powderized deep below the fault. Under tremendous pressure, slipping fault lines, solid rock melting, but what can it mean? (Not to worry, I am in Texas.)
Interesting. Since I used to live near there, I'm interested in activity in that area. These unexplained deep movements are rather disturbing, IMO. Still, we haven't been monitoring such things all that long. Perhaps they're normal activity that occurs from time to time, and we just haven't seen it before.
OTOH, there was recent earthquake activity in this area, with one quake over 6.0, so it is troubling.
strange
Relax...it's just Michael Moore tripping over a loose shoelace.
Ping
The Chinese Big Dig
I think maybe a lot of peoples prayers are about to be answered.
The left Coast of California is about to be split off to form their own Communist country.
Hang on.
No, Graboids.
One of the better Bond villians.
Bush's fault. They have a secret machine in the basement of the White House that does these things.
Suspicious timing - they are just doing this to distract from the stolen election in Ohio. . /DUmmie Mode
California is going to be an island. So the song "Ocean Front Property in Arizona" is going to be true!
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