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Momma Nature – Can be a Bitch

Posted by  on 27 February 2010, 10:13 pm

After today’s Earthquake in Chile and subsequent Tsunami Warning, this was of some interest. The Yellowstone Caldera I have known for a while. It’s what makes the geysers there. It’s also what is over the largest “Hot Spot” on earth and hasn’t blown for over 600 000 years. The Hawaiian Islands are the result of the earth’s crust moving over a Hot Spot there. That has caused the string of islands a thousand mile long. Some on the western edge are just dots in the water. Eventually Kauai will be that way, then Oahu. But there is new island forming SE of Hawaii.

YELLOWSTONE VOLCANO OBSERVATORY INFORMATION STATEMENT
Monday, February 8, 2010 5:57 PM MST (Tuesday, February 9, 2010 0057 UTC)

Yellowstone Volcano
44°25’48″ N 110°40’12″ W, Summit Elevation 9203 ft (2805 m)
Current Volcano Alert Level: NORMAL
Current Aviation Color Code: GREEN

The January-February, 2010, earthquake swarm at Yellowstone National Park has diminished in terms of earthquake-occurrence rate and magnitudes. A few small events continue to be recorded each day at the University of Utah Seismograph Stations (UUSS), the YVO partner responsible for earthquake monitoring at Yellowstone National Park. Seismologists cannot state that the swarm has ceased, but the rate of earthquake occurrence in the Madison Plateau area is now at background levels for this area of Yellowstone. As such, UUSS and YVO will cease to issue daily updates unless conditions change.

As of February 8, 2010 14:00 MST, there have been 1799 events recorded by the automatic earthquake system of the University of Utah. Of those, 827 have been verified by seismic analysts and forwarded to the National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) for incorporation in the permanent listing of earthquakes. Seismologists of the University of Utah will continue to analyze data from the past several weeks to finalize the earthquake information.

The largest events were a pair of earthquakes of magnitude 3.7 and 3.8 that occurred after 11 PM MST on January 20, 2010. Both events were felt throughout the park and in surrounding communities in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Other smaller events were also reported as felt.

The earthquakes were on the Madison Plateau along the northwest side of the Yellowstone caldera, in an area where previous swarms had occurred over the past 30 years. Visual observation of landforms and geothermal features by Yellowstone National Park personnel did not show any changes that could be attributed to the earthquakes.

Yellowstone National Park is in a region of active seismicity associated with regional Basin and Range extension of the Western U.S., as well as youthful volcanism of the Yellowstone volcanic field. Pressurization due to crustal magma bodies of the Yellowstone hotspot and associated shallow geothermal reservoirs can also contribute to earthquakes. Scientists will continue to research the origin of these and other Yellowstone earthquakes.

http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/

And from MSNBC They ask if Momma Nature is out of Control – No, Momma’s in Control. We’re here for the ride:

Big quake question: Are they getting worse?
Seismic shockers are to be expected, but planet seems to be more active
Chile is on a hotspot of sorts for earthquake activity. And so the 8.8-magnitude temblor that shook the region overnight was not a surprise, historically speaking. Nor was it outside the realm of normal, scientists say, even though it comes on the heels of other major earthquakes.

One scientist, however, says that relative to the time period from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s, Earth has been more active over the past 15 years or so.

The Chilean earthquake, and the tsunami it spawned, originated on a hot spot known as a subduction zone, where one plate of Earth’s crust dives under another. It’s part of the active “Ring of Fire,” a zone of major crustal plate clashes that surround the Pacific Ocean.

More at the link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35618526/

Filed under Ancient History (10+ Yrs ago), Education, Geological Event, History, Real life
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17 Comments

  1. Dana Pico says:
    28 February 2010 at 07:58

    Well, we joke about global warming and Al Gore a lot here, but for once I agree with the government:


    Snowpocalypse to snowicane: Hype reigns


    ‘Not responsible’ to use such language, say fed-up federal forecasters

    updated 1:12 a.m. ET, Sun., Feb. 28, 2010

    STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — The snowmenclature smackdown among meteorologists started with “snowmageddon” and “snowpocalypse.” When the latest snow event — laden with flakes and whipped by heavy winds — headed for the storm-weary Northeast this week, the folks at AccuWeather Inc. warned of a coming “snowicane.”

    That did it for the more reserved National Weather Service, which accused the for-profit forecasters of overhyping to the point of inciting panic. The Weather Channel, an AccuWeather competitor, also took issue with the word.

    As “snowicane” foreshadowed impending wind-and-snow doom Wednesday on AccuWeather’s Web site, National Weather Service meteorologist Craig Evanego said the federal forecasters were taking a more measured approach, because the storm hadn’t yet fully formed.

    “It’s almost inciting the public, inciting panic,” Evanego said of AccuWeather’s terminology.

    His weather service colleague, meteorologist Roy Miller in Mount Holly, N.J., put it bluntly to The Morning Call newspaper in Allentown, Pa.

    “It’s not responsible to be putting out things like this,” he said.

    Hey, this is northeastern Pennsylvania: it’s supposed to snow here. We might have gotten more than normal, but it’s not like snow is somethig unusual here.

  2. Phoenician in a time of Romans says:
    28 February 2010 at 08:28

    Excellent video on CO2 and measurement sources from the NOAA.

  3. Dana Pico says:
    28 February 2010 at 08:46

    One scientist, however, says that relative to the time period from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s, Earth has been more active over the past 15 years or so.

    One wonders how we caused this. If AGW stands for anthropogenic global warming, could there be ATA, anthropogenic tectonic activity or AVA, anthropogenic volcanic activity?

  4. Phoenician in a time of Romans says:
    28 February 2010 at 08:48

    BTW – I came across a link discussing and demolishing PB’s comments about CO2 in the past. As you might expect, he’s merely regurgitated already discredited talking points.

    When CO2 levels were higher in the past, solar levels were also lower. The combined effect of sun and CO2 matches well with climate.
    [...]
    Atmospheric CO2 levels have reached spectacular values in the deep past, possibly topping over 5000 ppm in the late Ordovician around 440 million years ago. However, solar activity also falls as you go further back. In the early Phanerozoic, solar output was about 4% less than current levels. The combined net effect from CO2 and solar variations are shown in Figure 2. Periods of geographically widespread ice are indicated by shaded areas.
    [...]
    So we see that comparisons of present day climate to periods 500 million years ago need to take into account that the sun was less active than now. What about times closer to home? The most recent period when CO2 levels were as high as today (around 400 ppm) was around 15 million years ago, during the Middle Miocene. What was climate like at the time? Global temperatures were 5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit higher than they are today. Sea level was approximately 75 to 120 feet higher. There was no permanent sea ice cap in the Arctic and very little ice on Antarctica and Greenland. The close coupling between CO2 and climate led the author to conclude that “geological observations that we now have for the last 20 million years lend strong support to the idea that carbon dioxide is an important agent for driving climate change throughout Earth’s history”. (Tripati 2009).

    If climate scientists were claiming CO2 was the only driver of climate, then high CO2 during glacial periods would be problematic. But any climate scientist will tell you CO2 is not the only driver of climate. Climatologist Dana Royer says it best: “the geologic record contains a treasure trove of ‘alternative Earths’ that allow scientists to study how the various components of the Earth system respond to a range of climatic forcings.” Past periods of higher CO2 do not contradict the notion that CO2 warms global temperatures. On the contrary, they confirm the close coupling between CO2 and climate.

    Note well that last bit – 15 million years ago, when the sun’s output was much as it is now as opposed to that 440 million years ago, CO2 hit 400 ppm. Note the results – much higher temperatures, and a greatly increased sea level, probably due to lack of Antarctic ice.

    Antarctic ice is decreasing overall. And as for 400 ppm – agin, watch this video.

  5. Phoenician in a time of Romans says:
    28 February 2010 at 08:52

    One wonders how we caused this. If AGW stands for anthropogenic global warming, could there be ATA, anthropogenic tectonic activity or AVA, anthropogenic volcanic activity?

    Or perhaps, Dana, you are attempting to confuse the issues in the hopes of smearing actual science?

  6. Yorkshire says:
    28 February 2010 at 10:30

    Phoenician in a time of Romans:
    One wonders how we caused this. If AGW stands for anthropogenic global warming, could there be ATA, anthropogenic tectonic activity or AVA, anthropogenic volcanic activity?

    Or perhaps, Dana, you are attempting to confuse the issues in the hopes of smearing actual science?

    Didn’t bother Danny Glover in Haiti’s earthquake.

  7. John Hitchcock says:
    28 February 2010 at 11:01

    I won’t quote the whole article because that would be a fair use violation, but here is part of it:

    Recent revelations from the Climategate emails, originating from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, showed how all the data centers — most notably NOAA and NASA — conspired in the manipulation of global temperature records to suggest that temperatures in the 20th century rose faster than they actually did.

    This has inspired climate researchers worldwide to take a hard look at the data proffered, by comparing it to the original data and to other data sources. An in-depth report, co-authored by myself and Anthony Watts for the Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI), compiles some of the initial alarming findings with case studies included from scientists around the world.

    We don’t dispute the fact that there has been some cyclical warming in recent decades — most notably from 1979 to 1998 — but cooling took place from the 1940s to the late 1970s, again after 1998, and especially after 2001, all while CO2 rose. This fact alone questions the primary role in climate change attributed to CO2 by the IPCC, environmental groups, and others.

    However, the global surface station data is seriously compromised.

    There was a major station dropout — and an increase in missing data from remaining stations — which occurred suddenly around 1990. Just about the time the global warming issue was being elevated to importance in political and environmental circles.

    Don’t bring me NOAA or NASA information. All that information is compromised and wholly untrustworthy. And that also means any information relying on NOAA or NASA is compromised and wholly untrustworthy. And do read the entire article.

  8. Yorkshire says:
    28 February 2010 at 12:37

    Just suppose if Yellowstone blows up?

  9. John Hitchcock says:
    28 February 2010 at 12:41

    Yorkshire, if Yellowstone blows up, that will mean the US (which would almost cease to exist as a result) will have been responsible for the cataclysmic resultant ice-age.

  10. John Hitchcock says:
    28 February 2010 at 12:42

    switch resultant and cataclysmic (and yorkie and dana, you’ve got mail)

  11. Yorkshire says:
    28 February 2010 at 19:18

    John Hitchcock:
    Yorkshire, if Yellowstone blows up, that will mean the US (which would almost cease to exist as a result) will have been responsible for the resultant cataclysmic ice-age. (corrected as above)

    What is interesting is the earthquake swarms that keep happening. The USGS plays these down. They should know best (I hope). Also, the ground around the Caldera and under the Lake has risen. Again, USGS says this is normal. But the Magma is very close to the earth’s surface.

    The first white man explorer in the area came back with these wild stories of geysers and warm springs in the middle of winter. They thought he hit the loco weed. It was considered a sacred place to the Native Americans. Fortunately, the thought came through to make this a National Park under the aspices of the US Army and the Corps of Engineers built a lot of infrastructure.

  12. Phoenician in a time of Romans says:
    1 March 2010 at 01:08

    We don’t dispute the fact that there has been some cyclical warming in recent decades — most notably from 1979 to 1998 — but cooling took place from the 1940s to the late 1970s, again after 1998, and especially after 2001, all while CO2 rose. This fact alone questions the primary role in climate change attributed to CO2 by the IPCC, environmental groups, and others.

    Uh-huh:

    To claim global warming stopped in 1998 overlooks one simple physical reality – the land and atmosphere are just a small fraction of the Earth’s climate (albeit the part we inhabit). The entire planet is accumulating heat due to an energy imbalance. The atmosphere is warming. Oceans are accumulating energy. Land absorbs energy and ice absorbs heat to melt. To get the full picture on global warming, you need to view the Earth’s entire heat content.
    [...]
    A look at the Earth’s total heat content clearly shows global warming has continued past 1998. The planet is still accumulating heat. So why do surface temperature records show 1998 as the hottest year on record? We see in Figure 1 that the heat capacity of the land and atmosphere is small compared to the ocean. Hence, relatively small exchanges of heat between the atmosphere and ocean can cause significant changes in surface temperature.

    Don’t bring me NOAA or NASA information. All that information is compromised and wholly untrustworthy.

    And you know this because two people at the SPPI have told you this.

    This SPPI run by this guy:

    Robert Ferguson is the President of the Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI), an organization that promotes the views of global warming skeptics and was founded in mid-2007. [...] He has an undergraduate degree in history from Brigham Young University, and a master’s degree in legislative affairs from George Washington University. [2]
    [...]
    Ferguson was previously the initial Executive Director of the Center for Science and Public Policy (CSSP), a project of the corporate-funded Frontiers of Freedom Institute (FOF).[3] Exxon had provided $100,000 in 2002 specifically for the “Center for Sound Science and Public Policy” (sic) as well as a further $97,000 for “Global Climate Change Outreach Activities”, and a further $35,000 for “Global Climate Change Science Projects”;[4] In subsequent years Exxon continued it support for the project including $50,000 for “Project Support – Sound Science Center” in 2003[5], $70,000 for “Project Support- Science Center & Climate Change” in 2004;[6] $140,000 to the organization in 2005 but without a specific amount for CSPP identified, $90,000 for the “Science & Policy Center” in 2006[7] and $90,000 for “energy literacy” in 2007.[8]

    How does it feel to be shown to be a dupe as well as a liar, PB?

  13. Eric says:
    1 March 2010 at 02:36

    global warming, global schwarming. It’s like a monkey’s bunch of nuts listening to these idiots issue forth predictions voming forth from teir bumhole …

  14. Eric says:
    1 March 2010 at 02:40

    oops voming should = foaming. Hard to type straigt when you’re up at midnight and cant get to sleep

  15. Eric says:
    1 March 2010 at 03:29

    Excellent video on CO2 and measurement sources from the NOAA.

    Links? Schmicks, give the monkeys some drinks!

    Global Warming = Global Laughter

  16. Yorkshire says:
    1 March 2010 at 21:43

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1254660/Climategate-expert-tells-MPs.html

    Can Climate Gate get any worse? In a phrase, It’s “Settled Bogus Science.”

  17. Yorkshire says:
    1 March 2010 at 22:14

    http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/03/baby-survives-shot-in-chest-after-parents-global-warming-murder-suicide/

    I blame Algore’s hysteria for this Murder-Suicide.

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