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 ...
How is it......40 replies and not a word about Michael Moore.
See #10
Wow! You're smart, informed and sane! Go away from this place! I want to play with my tin-foil and don' need no stinkin' "logic" and "facts" gettin' in the way!
Hmm - what about the salt water intrusion? Are you referring to the wells in Monterey? Please expand for dolts.
Ha! See post #10 and pay attention lil' FReeper! ;-)
Walken was so good in the series, Sarah Plain and Tall. I really loved him. But in other movies, he is really weird!
Doncha know?! Those are the Beach Boys' GOOD Vibrations!
Same here. Sold a home in Paso Robles in 1976 for $42000 that I bought in 1975 for $30000. If only I could have held on to it for 20 more years..
It's arafart, all those muslimes, and the ragged assortment in hell's domain all having a brawl over those 72 virgin creatures.
If there's a quake and a forest fire at the same time, the movie could be entitled "Shake and Bake."
No. Gore-zilla!
"Are you still in CA or have you left the state?
"
I moved to Minnesota this past Summer. I used to live about 40 air miles from Parkfield, though.
40 miles beneath the surface. That's in the mantle, isn't it? If so, that means possibly hot, squishy rock? Would that account for the "strange vibrations", that the waves were passing through less than solid rock?
I've got just one word for all your Californians.............NEBRASKA
"Same here. Sold a home in Paso Robles in 1976 for $42000 that I bought in 1975 for $30000. If only I could have held on to it for 20 more years.."
Yup. I bought my house on the coast in SLO county in 1974 for $20,000. Sold it in June for $337,000. Moved to MN and bought a house twice its size for $174,000. Fair exchange.
No worry...It's just another Nancy Pelosi orgasm....
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