Posted on 12/29/2004 4:59:47 AM PST by shrinkermd
Now I dont claim to be an expert on seismic activity, but there has been a series of events which led up to the 9.0 earthquake of the coast of Indonesia which can not be ignored. This all could be an enormous coincidence, but one must look at the information and choose for themselves whether there is anything to it.
On November 28th, one month ago, Reuters reported that during a 3 day span 169 whales and dolphins beached themselves in Tasmania, an island of the southern coast of mainland Australia and in New Zealand. The cause for these beachings is not known, but Bob Brown, a senator in the Australian parliament, said "sound bombing" or seismic tests of ocean floors to test for oil and gas had been carried out near the sites of the Tasmanian beachings recently.
According to Jim Cummings of the Acoustic Ecology Institute, Seismic surveys utilizing airguns have been taking place in mineral-rich areas of the worlds oceans since 1968. Among the areas that have experienced the most intense survey activity are the North Sea, the Beaufort Sea (off Alaskas North Slope), and the Gulf of Mexico; areas around Australia and South America are also current hot-spots of activity.
The impulses created by the release of air from arrays of up to 24 airguns create low frequency sound waves powerful enough to penetrate up to 40km below the seafloor. The source level" of these sound waves is generally over 200dB (and often 230dB or more), roughly comparable to a sound of at least 140-170dB in air.
According to the Australian Conservation Foundation, these 200dB 230dB shots from the airguns are fired every few seconds, from 10 meters below the surface, 24 hours a day, weather permitting.
These types of tests are known to affect whales and dolphins, whose acute hearing and use of sonar is very sensitive.
On December 24th there was a magnitude 8.1 earthquake more than 500 miles southeast of Tasmania near New Zealand, with a subsequent aftershock 6.1 a little later in the morning that same day.
On December 26th, the magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck at the intersection of the Australian tectonic plate and the India tectonic plate. This is the devastating tragedy that we have all heard about. The death toll of this horrific event has reached 52,000 souls and continues to rise.
On December 27th, 20 whales beached themselves 110 miles west of Hobart on the southern island state of Tasmania.
What is interesting about this is that the same place where the whale beachings have been taking place over the last 30 days is the same general area where the 8.1 Australian earthquake took place, and this is the same area where they are doing these seismic tests. Then 2 days after the Australian tectonic plate shifted, the 9.0 earthquake shook the coast of Indonesia.
A great deal of interest and seismic testing has been taking place in this area, as the government of Australia has given great tax breaks to encourage the oil exploration.
We will be following up on this story as more information is gathered.
Photos available at URL
For the sake of some interesting conversation here, is it at all POSSIBLE that the use of heavy explosives underground could set off an earthquake (i.e. underground testing of nuclear weapons)?
BTW, I'm a conservative and NOT an environmentalist. I'm just interested in hearing opinions here if anyone here is knowledgeable in geology.
We need to see if ELF has purchased any cavitators and submarines recently:
State Of Fear, by Michael Crichton
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0066214130/103-2771781-3780647?v=glance
OR, the whales are depressed...
Can't be. According to enviroloons, the waters of the world are awash with excreted Prozac. Whales are happy campers & the ones down south are especially happy because they are on vacation, working on their tans...
Email to : editor@independent-media.tv
It isn't often that I see something so outrageous in the media that I take the time to respond.
Mr. Limburg's above mentioned article captures a certain unprofessional element of those who call themselves servants of the public. This pseudo-scientific diatribe is aimed at a demographic that consists of Socialist Tree Huggers and Eco-terrorists....who create their own science of "imagination" to support their ongoing anti-(Just about everything) and dysfunctional anger.
No where in this article was a professional geologist referenced nor was there anything even closely approaching the "Scientific Method" utilized to support the innuendo. The article did succeed in utilizing bandwidth. Wooohooo!!!
My mouse will no longer click on your garbage.
Hal Gxxxxx
End of Email
Man with his puny popguns is not going to shift the crust of the Earth. We are talking about 20 Orders of Magnitude difference in the amount of energy involved.
Now if they were exploring for oil using 20 Megaton nuclear bombs, this author might have something...
Michael Moore has the movie rights.
It's possible. But one would have to know where the most stress is on the fault. Even if you were able to know that, you would need to know alot about the surrounding geology.
I've done alot of exploding of stuff underground. And no matter how many times you've done it before, logic and experience are almost useless. The rock breaks and shears the way the rock wants to break and shear.
It's utterly amazing what you see down there. The types of rocks (even in an igneous/amorphic zone like we're working in) is incredible. And the shears where whole faces of rock disappear or have been shifted out of site are amazing.
I'm talking slates/quartzites/andesites/granedosites (and even limestone) near Yosemite.
And a tiny, tiny amount of gold/silver/molybdenum.
I haven't decided. It's either a lot of hot air or a whale of a story.
Yep! Ya done good!
Just wondering - What caused earthquakes and whale beachings before man started searching for oil? Or is whale beaching a recent phenomenon?
I've been waiting patiently to see how the evidence would unfold that this earthquake and tidal wave were ALL BUSH'S FAULT.
I see I didn't have long to wait.
My cheesecake fell on Christmas Eve...now I know which greedy corporate interests to blame.
"Next piece of crap, please!"
Ditto that.
I seem to remember a guy proposing that we set off explosives to help the San Andreas fault relieve strain in a series of very small quakes, rather than store up strain for a giant quake. Couldn't be done, not enough bombs in the world, couldn't get them deep enough, etc. Very quickly debunked by real geophysicists.
Next to the raw power of the planet, all of man's explosives are little more than bubbles in the tub, so to speak.
I don't think they ever really had it.
>>>>We will be following up on this story as more information is gathered.
and as Comedy Central finds us an appropriate time slot.
Translation: "My care providers are here to take me back to my rubber room. Ta-ta for now."
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