Earthquakes, Plate Tectonics and Volcanism

[Luke]

btw, what is priceless in the video is seeing people do exactly what you should not do and run for the front door. It also shows a cheap plastic clock fall off a wall and onto my on duty bosses backside. She scramble and still says it hit her head. The video shows it did not.





In the 6th grade a clock fell off the wall and did hit me on the head. No apparent drain bamage though. I did however fall helplessly in love with Cindy P, for 2 weeks after that incident.

[Phil Fiord]

Good story Mr Luke.

I had a think about that clock that fell. As my duty boss has long hair, the clock may have grazed her hair making her think it hit her head.

[BRVoice]

For photos see the link


http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/...est=latestnews


Brief Tsunami Warning After Quake Strikes Alaska
Published September 02, 2011
| FoxNews.com

Sept. 2, 2011: A map from the USGS shows the location of an earthquake that struck Alaska's Aleutian island chain, an area of high earthquake activity.

A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Alaska early Friday morning, the USGS reported, leading to a brief tsunami warning for parts of the Aleutian Islands.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that it did not anticipate a widespread destructive tsunami from the earthquake, which had initially been reported at 7.1 magnitude, and quickly lifted the warning.

It had been in effect for coastal areas of Alaska from Unimak Pass to Amchitka Pass. The areas are very remote and not heavily populated, according to Jessica Sigala, geophysicist with the USGS in Golden, Colorado.

The USGS says the earthquake struck in the waters at about 6:55 a.m. EDT (1055 GMT), and there were no initial reports of injuries or damage.

A woman who answered the phone at the city hall in Unalaska, a city in the Aleutians, but declined to give her name said people at Dutch Harbor were awakened by sirens.

"We have some people on high ground, but not a lot," she told the Associated Press. "Sirens woke us all up -- everybody's moving."

The state emergency response center was being staffed early Friday morning.

In June, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 in the same area of the Aleutians also prompted a tsunami warning.


News wires contributed to this report.

[Ryan Ruck]

Indonisia: Increased Activity At 22 Volcanoes, Alert Raised

September 3, 2011

The government has requested that local administrations remain on the alert for severe risks of volcanic eruptions, as the number of volcanoes showing abnormal activity continued to raise.

As of Friday, activity in 22 volcanoes was categorized as above normal, with six at alert level three and 16 at level two. Volcano status ranges from level one, which is normal, to four, which is the highest alert.

The Volcanology and Geophysical Disaster Mitigation Center (PVMBG) raised the status of Papandayan, one of the major tourist destinations in Garut, West Java, to alert level three on Friday.

“There were 48 shallow volcanic earthquakes detected, with one deep volcanic earthquake and a white cloud emitted as high as 20 meters on Thursday,” National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

Sutopo added that his office had prepared contingency plans to anticipate worst-case scenarios if
Papandayan erupts.

“If Papandayan erupts, it would impact 171,744 people living in the five subdistricts and 20 villages,” he said.

Indonesia has been dubbed the world’s most disaster-prone country for its frequent earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, floods and droughts.

Indonesia lies in the “Ring of Fire”, where dozens of volcanoes are still active.

A 2011 report from the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN-ISDR) ranked Indonesia the third-most prone nation out of 153 countries for earthquakes, with 11,056,806 people exposed.

It said that earthquake hazards could potentially cause a loss of US$79.13 billion to the nation’s GDP.

A 2010 report from the World Bank ranks Indonesia as 12th among countries with relatively high mortality risks from the multiple hazards.

Mount Merapi, which erupted last year, caused a financial loss of Rp 3.59 trillion.

Sutopo said that his office had transferred Rp 444 billion to the Public Works Ministry to accelerate the rebuilding of infrastructure damaged by Mt. Merapi.

“From that money, some Rp 232 billion was used to rebuild roads and bridges,” he said.

The eruption of Mt. Merapi damaged at least 23 bridges, including Pabelan bridge connecting Yogyakarta and Magelang.

On Thursday, the government elevated the status of three volcanoes: Tombora, Lewatobi Perempuan and Anak Rakana in Nusa Tenggara.

Tombora, in Bima Regency, experienced 14 shallow volcanic earthquakes.

Tambora erupted in 1815, killing about 71,000.

The eruption emitted some 100 cubic kilometers of volcanic material across Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Java and Maluku.

Activity at Lewotobi Perempuan in Flores increased as well, experiencing 24 earthquakes on Thursday. There were only five the day before.

Lewotobi last erupted in 1935.

The UN ISDR also ranked Indonesia first out of 265 countries for tsunami hazards, with over five million people exposed.

[Phil Fiord]

As it pertains to Earthquakes and is really interesting...

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26773/

Atmosphere Above Japan Heated Rapidly Before M9 Earthquake

Infrared emissions above the epicenter increased dramatically in the days before the devastating earthquake in Japan, say scientists.
kfc 05/18/2011

• 137 Comments

Geologists have long puzzled over anecdotal reports of strange atmospheric phenomena in the days before big earthquakes. But good data to back up these stories has been hard to come by.

In recent years, however, various teams have set up atmospheric monitoring stations in earthquake zones and a number of satellites are capable of sending back data about the state of the upper atmosphere and the ionosphere during an earthquake.

Last year, we looked at some fascinating data from the DEMETER spacecraft showing a significant increase in ultra-low frequency radio signals before the magnitude 7 Haiti earthquake in January 2010

Today, Dimitar Ouzounov at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland and a few buddies present the data from the Great Tohoku earthquake which devastated Japan on 11 March. Their results, although preliminary, are eye-opening.

They say that before the M9 earthquake, the total electron content of the ionosphere increased dramatically over the epicentre, reaching a maximum three days before the quake struck.

At the same time, satellite observations showed a big increase in infrared emissions from above the epicentre, which peaked in the hours before the quake. In other words, the atmosphere was heating up.

These kinds of observations are consistent with an idea called the Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling mechanism. The thinking is that in the days before an earthquake, the great stresses in a fault as it is about to give cause the releases large amounts of radon.

The radioactivity from this gas ionises the air on a large scale and this has a number of knock on effects. Since water molecules are attracted to ions in the air, ionisation triggers the large scale condensation of water.

But the process of condensation also releases heat and it is this that causes infrared emissions. "Our first results show that on March 8th a rapid increase of emitted infrared radiation was observed from the satellite data," say Ouzounov and co.
These emissions go on to effect the ionosphere and its total electron content.

It certainly makes sense that the lithosphere, atmosphere and ionosphere are coupled in a way that can be measured when one of them is perturbed. The question is to what extent the new evidence backs up this idea.

The Japan earthquake is the largest to have struck the island in modern times and will certainly turn out to be among the best studied. If good evidence of this relationship doesn't emerge from this data, other opportunities will be few and far between.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1105.2841: Atmosphere-Ionosphere Response to the M9 Tohoku Earthquake Revealed by Joined Satellite and Ground Observations. Preliminary Results.

[American Patriot]

Now... we're stepping into the realm of "Star Trek" sensors.

Spock:"Captain, sensors indicate the presence of ULF radio signals above the fault lines..."

Kirk: "What the hell does that mean Spock????"

Spock: "It means, Captain, they're about to get a hell of a planet quake in the region bordering the mountains, the sea and the Capitol City".

Kirk: "Spock! You mean....??"

Spock: "Yes Captain, a billion dead before day after tomorrow from tsunami, the collapse of the mountain range and the opening up of the fault line...."

[Phil Fiord]

Cool science, yo?

[American Patriot]

7.6 Mw - KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION
Preliminary Earthquake Report
Magnitude
7.6 Mw
Date-Time
• 21 Oct 2011 17:57:17 UTC
• 22 Oct 2011 05:57:17 near epicenter
• 21 Oct 2011 10:57:17 standard time in your timezone
Location
28.941S 176.045W
Depth
39 km
Distances
• 180 km (112 miles) E (79 degrees) of Raoul Island, Kermadec Islands
• 870 km (541 miles) S (185 degrees) of NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga
• 2978 km (1851 miles) WSW (240 degrees) of PAPEETE, Tahiti, French Polynesia
Location Uncertainty
Horizontal: 15.7 km; Vertical 10.8 km
Parameters
Nph = 94; Dmin = 187.0 km; Rmss = 2.44 seconds; Gp = 50°
M-type = Mw; Version = 5
Event ID
US b0006b6p

[Ryan Ruck]

Looks like a 5.2 magnitude quake hit central Oklahoma at 10:53 CT. Epicenter looks to be between Tulsa and Oklahoma City.

Magnitude	5.2
Date-Time	Sunday, November 06, 2011 at 03:53:10 UTC Saturday, November 05, 2011 at 10:53:10 PM at epicenter
Location	35.599°N, 96.751°W
Depth	5 km (3.1 miles)
Region	OKLAHOMA
Distances	34 km (21 miles) NNE of Shawnee, Oklahoma 63 km (39 miles) SSE of Stillwater, Oklahoma 68 km (42 miles) ESE of Guthrie, Oklahoma 71 km (44 miles) ENE of OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma
Location Uncertainty	horizontal +/- 13.9 km (8.6 miles); depth +/- 3 km (1.9 miles)
Parameters	NST=298, Nph=298, Dmin=208.2 km, Rmss=1.54 sec, Gp= 22°, M-type=body wave magnitude (Mb), Version=9
Source	Magnitude: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D) Location: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID	usb0006klz

[Ryan Ruck]

Upgraded to a 5.6

[American Patriot]

I don't recall a fault through there, but there probably is.

No reports of damage?

[vector7]

Where's Michael2?

Isn't that up in his neck of the woods?

[vector7]

Oklahoma Gets 10 Earthquakes in 24 Hours

Residents rattled after 5.6 quake late Saturday — the strongest in state’s history.

By Ben Johnson | Posted Sunday, Nov. 6, 2011, at 12:37 PM ET


(Exterior sign at the entrance of NBC affiliate KFOR-TV September 13, 2006 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.) Photo by Brandi Simons/Getty Images

Oklahoma residents are recovering Sunday after a series of earthquakes and aftershocks shook the state and were felt as far away as Wisconsin — an unusual experience for many more used to scanning the skies for natural disasters.

A magnitude 4.7 earthquake shook areas from Texas to Missouri early Saturday, and was followed by a magnitude 5.6 quake just before 11 p.m. The latter was the state’s strongest on record, according to reporting by the Associated Press. Since Saturday night, the area has been struck by no less than 10 smaller quakes, or aftershocks.

Residents told of falling furniture, cracked walls and roaring sounds, and one person has been reported injured. A 25-foot tower separated from an administration building and collapsed at St. Gregory’s University in Shawnee, Okla.

“It woke me out of a dead sleep,” Oklahoma City resident Noeh Morales told The Oklahoman. “I felt the whole house shaking. I jumped and ran outside to see what was going on.”

Thousands leaving Oklahoma State's Boone Pickens Stadium after Oklahoma's Cowboys defeated Kansas State were unsettled by the largest quake, which lasted nearly a full minute.

Though the state does not sit on a major plate border, local seismologist Austin Holland told The Oklahoman that the quake came from movement along complex and prominent Seminole Uplift fault structure.

U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Paul Earle told the AP aftershocks could continue for days and even months; a sharp increase in the number of earthquakes the state typically experiences convinced researchers to install seismographs in the area last year. Thus far there is no clear explanation for the jump in seismic activity.

[vector7]

There has been 20 quakes since the first one:

MAP 3.2 2011/11/06 11:20:23 35.525 -96.883 5.0 3 km ( 2 mi) NNE of Meeker, OK
MAP 3.0 2011/11/06 11:16:20 35.523 -96.844 4.9 6 km ( 3 mi) ENE of Meeker, OK
MAP 3.4 2011/11/06 11:03:52 35.539 -96.825 5.0 8 km ( 5 mi) S of Sparks, OK
MAP 3.9 2011/11/06 10:52:35 35.567 -96.797 5.0 5 km ( 3 mi) SSE of Sparks, OK
MAP 4.0 2011/11/06 09:39:57 35.506 -96.865 5.0 3 km ( 2 mi) ENE of Meeker, OK
MAP 3.4 2011/11/06 09:22:04 35.585 -96.823 5.0 3 km ( 2 mi) S of Sparks, OK
MAP 2.7 2011/11/06 08:14:12 35.474 -96.794 5.0 7 km ( 4 mi) NNE of Johnson, OK
MAP 3.2 2011/11/06 07:32:40 35.544 -96.901 4.9 5 km ( 3 mi) N of Meeker, OK
MAP 3.8 2011/11/06 06:31:10 35.559 -96.874 5.0 7 km ( 4 mi) NNE of Meeker, OK
MAP 3.0 2011/11/06 04:54:00 35.540 -96.687 5.0 6 km ( 4 mi) N of Prague, OK
MAP 3.6 2011/11/06 04:03:41 35.554 -96.760 5.0 8 km ( 5 mi) SE of Sparks, OK
MAP 5.6 2011/11/06 03:53:10 35.537 -96.747 5.0 8 km ( 5 mi) NW of Prague, OK
MAP 3.6 2011/11/05 14:36:30 35.584 -96.789 4.9 4 km ( 2 mi) SE of Sparks, OK
MAP 3.4 2011/11/05 13:42:26 35.530 -96.766 5.0 9 km ( 5 mi) NW of Prague, OK
MAP 3.3 2011/11/05 11:24:15 35.521 -96.778 5.0 9 km ( 6 mi) WNW of Prague, OK
MAP 3.3 2011/11/05 09:12:11 35.591 -96.788 4.9 4 km ( 2 mi) SE of Sparks, OK
MAP 2.7 2011/11/05 07:50:42 35.559 -96.762 4.8 8 km ( 5 mi) SE of Sparks, OK
MAP 2.7 2011/11/05 07:44:34 35.488 -96.755 5.0 6 km ( 4 mi) W of Prague, OK
MAP 3.4 2011/11/05 07:27:20 35.566 -96.698 5.0 9 km ( 6 mi) N of Prague, OK
MAP 4.7 2011/11/05 07:12:45 35.553 -96.748 4.0 9 km ( 6 mi) SE of Sparks, OK

[American Patriot]

Welcome back to the living.

Glad you're ok.

Earthquake? What Earthquake? LOL

[vector7]

Sparks is a few hours drive away from me. I for now live in Lawton/Ft. Sill, but i'm moving back to OKC in about a week. Sparks is about an hour or so east northeast of OKC.

I'm ok, just moving, studying, trying to find a good job, and battling a bad upper respiratory infection all at once.

Glad your OK and hope you get to feeling better.

[Ryan Ruck]

Yes, good to hear you're okay michael! Been wondering where you've been.

[Phil Fiord]

Regarding the earthquakes.

A geologist who is retired from Texaco and was part of looking at the BP spill in relation to plate tectonics has posted a very interesting piece here:

http://www.aapg.org/explorer/2002/11nov/rift_zone.cfm

Geologist Offers a New Theory Gulf's Evolution Makes the Shakes

View Enlargement of Rift Zone Map Graphics courtesy of Jack Reed

The New Madrid seismic zone in Missouri has long intrigued scientists because, according to conventional geologic theory, large earthquakes clustered in a tectonically quiet region are difficult to understand. But at least one AAPG member is challenging the crowd. New Orleans independent geologist Jack M. Reed believes the origin of the earthquakes lies beneath the Gulf of Mexico. That's not all. Reed, a retired Texaco geologist-geophysicist who has been studying the region's geology for over 40 years, says the accepted theory of a quiet geologic evolution of the Gulf of Mexico Basin is fundamentally flawed and needs to be revised. According to him, the Gulf was and is tectonically active -- and it is the likely origin for not only the New Madrid seismic activity, but also for the Middleton Place-Summerville seismic zone near Charleston, S.C. "For all the years I have worked the Gulf of Mexico Basin I have been forced to accept the 'passive' Gulf formation theory, which holds that the only movement in the basin is updip sedimentary loading that moved the salt southward," Reed said. "But there is little evidence to support this theory, and it doesn't fit what is observed geologically or geophysically. "As Hugh Wilson said (1993), 'It would be geologically unusual for such a large basin as the Gulf of Mexico to remain almost tectonically undisturbed for 170 million years while major orogenic disturbances repeatedly struck bordering areas.'" Reed, over the years, has gathered evidence that supports plate motion in the Gulf basin. Thick salt and sedimentary sequences in the basin mask this tectonic motion, but there is enough basin and peripheral evidence to show plate readjustment is occurring -- evidence, he says, in the form of volcanics, earthquakes and rift zones that are accompanied by magnetic, refraction, seismic and gravity data. Questions? Answers! One piece of this evidence, according to Reed, is the apparent connection of the New Madrid seismic zone with the Gulf rift features to the south. "This northeast trending earthquake zone appears to connect with the northeast trending Monroe Uplift, the LaSalle Arch and, possibly, to an active seismic zone located in and around Sabine Lake on the Texas-Louisiana border," he said. This complex of doming and seismic centers is similar to another Cretaceous age triple juncture located in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico Basin. Doming of the DeSoto Canyon High during the Jurassic to Cretaceous created this triple juncture, which includes the Cretaceous Shelf Edge, the Suwannee Strait and the West Florida Escarpment. If the New Madrid seismic zone is indeed part of a triple juncture, he continued, there should be an expression of this limb trending along a line in a northeast direction. So Reed conducted a study using data from the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center and the USGS map "Earthquakes in the Conterminous United States." He only studied earthquakes measuring at least magnitude 5, and found that while most of the earthquake centers are random with no alignment, there is a well-defined earthquake trend extending northeastward from the New Madrid seismic zone across the United States to Canada, where it joins with the St. Lawrence River seismic zone. Within the boundaries of this earthquake alignment there are: Sixty-one seismic points that have a magnitude of 5 and greater. Several large earthquakes dating to the early 1800s, all measuring over magnitude 8, all occurring within a couple of months of each other, all centered in a northeast trending line. The two 5+ earthquakes that occurred earlier this year in northern New York state and southern Indiana. "There is definitely some form of movement occurring along this trend," Reed said, "and it appears to be active today." As he continued that trend south of New Madrid he found that it was in line with the Monroe Uplift. "Suddenly I could see that this area had doming much like I had seen at the Desoto Canyon in the Gulf," he said. "This entire zone through the United States is suffering some type of tectonic activity that I believe is tied to the deeply buried tectonics in the Gulf of Mexico." Answers? Questions! Reed has developed an interpretation, which he is quick to point out is just a theory, on this tectonic activity: As Africa jammed into North America and thrust up the Appalachians, there were compressional forces acting along the front of the mountain range. This force caused long linear thrust faults to form in front of and parallel to the uplifting mountain chain. Not only was the lithosphere thrust upward to form the Appalachians, some of the lithosphere was thrust downward into the asthenosphere. The result was a long, prominent bulge extending into the asthenosphere over the length of the Appalachians. As separation from Africa occurred and the North American continent began to move westward, tensional forces came into play in the trailing edge of this moving plate. The long lithospheric downward bulge became an impediment to this plate motion as it moved over and through the asthenosphere. This action caused a drag in plate motion with tensional forces being the greatest along a line in front of and parallel to the Appalachians. "The results would be gradual separation of the lithosphere," he said, "likely along the older thrust fault trend." Reed believes this rifting certainly impacted the Gulf of Mexico as well. He also concedes that even with the years of research, several unanswered questions still exist about the Gulf's origins: Regarding one of the most accepted theories, that updip sedimentary loading moved the salt masses in the Gulf seaward: Where is the original salt basin? "If this salt mass movement was reversed by paleo-reconstruction and moved back to the original salt deposition basin, which would be directly south of the Cretaceous Shelf Edge, the original salt thickness would have to be in a six-figure range to accommodate this huge salt mass," he said. "It would dwarf the Himalayas." Regarding salt distribution and the sub-horizontal, allochthonous salt flow theory: Wouldn't the salt have to be vented to an open, deepwater environment where it would, very questionably, remain unprotected for several geologic stages until covered by sediments of a later period? "This theory doesn't take into consideration the role of the Interior basin and the Cretaceous Shelf Edge," he said, which separates the Interior and Exterior salt basins and is described in most literature as a simple Lower Cretaceous carbonate bank build-up. "If this is true, why does a much younger Cretaceous feature divide the lower Jurassic salt basin into two parts? "Why is there a strong magnetic response along the length of the feature? "Why has there been igneous intrusives found along the shelf edge?" Triple Threat? The Cretaceous Shelf Edge along with the Suwannee Strait and the West Florida Escarpment, according to Reed, appear to be part of a triple juncture centered on the DeSoto Canyon High. "The DeSoto Canyon High is one of the largest and most significant structures found in the Gulf," he said, measuring 137 miles by 60 miles, with over 7,000 feet of structural relief at the top of the Paleozoic. "The Cretaceous Shelf Edge, the Suwannee Strait and the West Florida Escarpment all traverse different areas of the Gulf," he said, "but they each appear to have evolved during the same general time period and they all radiate from the central DeSoto Canyon High. This alignment would be similar to triple junctures found throughout the world." The Suwannee Strait is a shallow Upper Cretaceous depression that extends across southern Georgia and northwestern Florida for over 200 miles. Reed said several theories have been proposed to explain the cause of the feature, but as one geologist indicated it has been easier to infer the existence of the strait than to account for it. According to Reed, a northeastward linear projection of the Suwannee Strait would extend the feature to the earthquake cluster zone 20 miles inland from Charleston, South Carolina. The West Florida Escarpment, the third element of the DeSoto Canyon triple juncture, has been described as a simple carbonate bank build-up. While Reed acknowledged that is true, age dating of samples collected during deepwater dredging along the escarpment indicates the feature is comprised of peritidal and lagoonal limestones with back-reef faunal assemblages deposited under restricted, low-energy conditions. "If the steep slope face is made up of back reef material, then the question arises of where the fore-reef and the reef complex are located," he said. "It would be unlikely that equal erosion occurred over the entire escarpment, removing only the fore-reef and reef complex and leaving the back-reef. "It would appear that some other method," he added, "such as transform shear motion, was responsible for removal of the main part of the reef complex." Other Examples According to Reed, tectonic plate separation apparently began along the Cretaceous Shelf Edge with the separated plate moving south, causing rifting in a zone of the basin that contained a very thick section of Jurassic salt. This reorganization of tectonic plates in the basin would cause major orogenic movements along the bordering areas. The rift cutting northeast through the United States, where earthquake activity has been documented in New Madrid as well as other points, is just one of these major orogenic movements. Other geologic trends that illustrate this point include: The Late Miocene Trans-Mexico neovolcanic belt, which extends across Mexico to the Gulf Coast but apparently it never extended into the deep Gulf of Mexico Basin. The Tuxlas volcanic field is located south of this termination and these two volcanic features seem to be connected by a series of three submarine volcanoes. "When the right-lateral transform of the Gulf plate is extended south it falls along the trend of the submarine volcanoes," he said. "This path also takes the transform slightly west of the Tuxlas volcanic field and slightly east of the trans-Mexico volcanic belt, indicating that transform movement may have displaced these two volcanic fields. "South movement of the Gulf plate would be necessary for this volcanic shifting scenario," he added. The east-west trending mountain ranges of Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, which were formed under compressional forces, according to Reed. These mountain ranges extend offshore in the Caribbean Sea as seamounts. Reed asks, "Shouldn't these mountains be trending north-south to accommodate east-west compressional forces exerted by the east moving Caribbean plate? A south moving Gulf of Mexico plate would provide the compressional forces needed to build this east-west mountain trend." Also, the east-west trending seamounts do not extend further east of a point where the left lateral transform fault of the Gulf plate is projected into the Caribbean plate. "Eastward of this point there would be no north to south compressional forces," he said. Another example within the deep Cayman Trench, where there is sea-floor spreading site building in a deep trench environment. Sea-floor spreading is generally found along mid ocean ridges and forms high positive features. However, this site in the deep Cayman Trench is an extreme negative zone and prominent north-south trending spreading ridges have been generated. This zone is located east of the left lateral transform offset of the Caribbean plate. "Motion of the south-moving Gulf of Mexico plate could solve this sea floor spreading problem," he said. A southward projection of the Gulf plate's left lateral transform would connect it with the Caribbean plates left lateral transform offset zone. The ramming of the Gulf plate into the east moving Caribbean plate would generate a zone of negative pressure east of the Caribbean plate offset. "This action would bring hot magma into this portion of the Cayman Trench where it would build spreading ridges oriented north-south," he added. The earthquakes in the New Madrid seismic zone and other locations along the theorized rift zone that cuts across the United States as well as the Middleton Place-Summerville seismic zone in South Carolina are tied to the tectonic movement in the Gulf of Mexico Basin, he said. So, the obvious question for Reed is, what's the exploration potential of this rift zone that cuts through North America? "Not much," Reed conceded. "However, if you want waterfront property you should buy land around Indianapolis. In a couple of million years this acreage could be overlooking the Strait of America that separates western (and) eastern America!"

[American Patriot]

Thanks Rick. Oh, and about the 'Earthquake'....Alot of those ever since the area affected has been heavily 'Fraked' for Natural Gas and Oil Shale in recent years. Scientists on TV always mention the 'Meers fault' as a possible culprit which is in the Wichita Mountains just a few miles from where I live, not anywhere near East-Central Oklahoma really....

OMG!! MEERS BURGERS! Is that place still there? LOL!

[vector7]

Regarding the earthquakes.

A geologist who is retired from Texaco and was part of looking at the BP spill in relation to plate tectonics has posted a very interesting piece here:

http://www.aapg.org/explorer/2002/11nov/rift_zone.cfm