The air guns were adopted to avoid the adverse environmental impacts of firing dynamite charges to get the same readings.
The guy makes a better case for whales and dolphins casing the Earthquake.
Big oil is now responsible for tectonic plate activity? If those darned Republicans had signed Kyoto and stopped throwing profits to their big oil buddies, Pangea would never have broken up...
The effect on the whales is plausible. I think the Navy has actually done studies on this. They know a lot about low frequency noise. But a puff of air or even many puffs of air causing an huge earthquake seems a little far fetched. I do remember the Pakistanis doing an underground nuclear test and then 2-3 weeks later, there was a huge earthquake in Afghanistan. A nuclear bomb is not a puff of air.
The article should have stopped right there.
Hey Limburg.........(author).........you dimwit, try to think for just a moment, won't ya?
To suggest that airguns can literally cause tectonic plates to shift is worse than ridiculous; it's jaw-droppingly stupid. I won't even try to discuss with you the concept of "mass" involved here (HINT: any idea how much air pressure.....or noise.....it would take to cause billions and billions of tons of earth and rock to shift? or to make two tectonic plates actually shift? Hell of a lot more than 170 db, slick.........you can get that at yer average rock concert, numbskull).
How about this for starters. Maybe, just maybe, the very geoseismic activities associated with areas where tectonic plates meet would be favorable for identification (or creation?) of undersea oil deposits.
You can't fart at a high rise and knock it down. If you happen to fart at high rise while high-explosive charges are detonated throughout its structure to bring it down, take note: you didn't do it. The explosives did it. Just wanted to let you know to save you the guilt.