August 2016

Iceland's biggest volcano set to erupt

0 Natural Disasters, Tectonic, volcano 3:52 PM

Iceland's biggest volcano set to erupt

Iceland's scientists say activity at Katla volcano increasing, next eruption could be huge Awakening the Giant! Fear grows that I...

Ancient Rocks Suggest Meteorites Brought Life’s Phosphorus To Earth

0 earth, Earth History, Meteorite 5:15 PM

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ps-Qzizt-VQ/V8WUFVrwADI/AAAAAAAAJfs/oc6iDmxDMQYKbz455vXDx5lFU5txPlo1ACLcB/s1600/Ancient%2BRocks%2BSuggest%2BMeteorites%2BBrought%2BLife%25E2%2580%2599s%2BPhosphorus%2BTo%2BEarth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="498" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ps-Qzizt-VQ/V8WUFVrwADI/AAAAAAAAJfs/oc6iDmxDMQYKbz455vXDx5lFU5txPlo1ACLcB/s640/Ancient%2BRocks%2BSuggest%2BMeteorites%2BBrought%2BLife%25E2%2580%2599s%2BPhosphorus%2BTo%2BEarth.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">“I had these rocks for six years,” Pasek says, before he was able to adapt a mass spectrometry technique to analyze their phosphorus content.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Meteorites that crashed onto Earth billions of years ago may have provided the phosphorous essential to the biological systems of terrestrial life. The meteorites are believed to have contained a phosphorus-bearing mineral called schreibersite, and scientists have recently developed a synthetic version that reacts chemically with organic molecules, showing its potential as a nutrient for life.<br />
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Phosphorus is one of life's most vital components, but often goes unheralded. It helps form the backbone of the long chains of nucleotides that create RNA and DNA; it is part of the phospholipids in cell membranes; and is a building block of the coenzyme used as an energy carrier in cells, adenosine triphosphate (ATP).<br />
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Yet the majority of phosphorus on Earth is found in the form of inert phosphates that are insoluble in water and are generally unable to react with organic molecules. This appears at odds with phosphorus' ubiquity in biochemistry, so how did phosphorus end up being critical to life?<br />
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In 2004, Matthew Pasek, an astrobiologist and geochemist from the University of South Florida, developed the idea that schreibersite [(Fe, Ni)3P], which is found in a range of meteorites from chondrites to stony–iron pallasites, could be the original source of life's phosphorus. Because the phosphorus within schreibersite is a phosphide, which is a compound containing a phosphorus ion bonded to a metal, it behaves in a more reactive fashion than the phosphate typically found on Earth.<br />
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Finding naturally-formed schreibersite to use in laboratory experiments can be time consuming when harvesting from newly-fallen meteorites and expensive when buying from private collectors. Instead, it has become easier to produce schreibersite synthetically for use in the laboratory.<br />
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Natural schreibersite is an alloy of iron, phosphorous and nickel, but the common form of synthetic schreibersite that has typically been used in experiments is made of just iron and phosphorus, and is easily obtainable as a natural byproduct of iron manufacturing. Previous experiments have indicated it reacts with organics to form chemical bonds with oxygen, the first step towards integrating phosphorous into biological systems.<br />
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However, since natural schreibersite also incorporates nickel, some scientific criticism has pointed out that the nickel could potentially alter the chemistry of the mineral, rendering it non-reactive despite the presence phosphides. If this were the case it would mean that the experiments with the iron–phosphorous synthetic schreibersite would not represent the behavior of the mineral in nature.<br />
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</div>Since the natural version incorporates nickel, there has always been the worry that the synthetic version is not representative of how schreibersite actually reacts and that the nickel might somehow hamper those chemical reactions.<br />
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"There was always this criticism that if we did include nickel it might not react as much," says Pasek.<br />
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Pasek and his colleagues have addressed this criticism by developing a synthetic form of schreibersite that includes nickel.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Nickel-flavored schreibersite</b></span><br />
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In a recent paper published in the journal Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Pasek and lead author and geochemist Nikita La Cruz of the University of Michigan show how a form of synthetic schreibersite that includes nickel reacts when exposed to water. As the water evaporates, it creates phosphorus–oxygen (P–O) bonds on the surface of the schreibersite, making the phosphorus bioavailable to life. The findings seem to remove any doubts as to whether meteoritic schreibersite could stimulate organic reactions.<br />
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"Biological systems have a phosphorus atom surrounded by four oxygen atoms, so the first step is to put one oxygen atom and one phosphorous atom together in a single P–O bond," Pasek explains.<br />
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Terry Kee, a geochemist at the University of Leeds and president of the Astrobiology Society of Britain, has conducted his own extensive work with schreibersite and, along with Pasek, is one of the original champions of the idea that it could be the source of life's phosphorus.<br />
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"The bottom line of what [La Cruz and Pasek] have done is that it appears that this form of nickel-flavored synthetic schreibersite reacts pretty much the same as the previous synthetic form of schreibersite," he says.<br />
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This puts to rest any criticism that previous experiments lacked nickel.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Shallow pools and volcanic vents</b></span><br />
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Pasek describes how meteors would have fallen into shallow pools of water on ancient Earth. The pools would then have undergone cycles of evaporation and rehydration, a crucial process for chemical reactions to take place. As the surface of the schreibersite dries, it allows molecules to join into longer chains. Then, when the water returns, these chains become mobile, bumping into other chains. When the pool dries out again, the chains bond and build ever larger structures.<br />
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"The reactions need to lose water in some way in order to build the molecules that make up life," says Pasek. "If you have a long enough system with enough complex organics then, hypothetically, you could build longer and longer polymers to make bigger pieces of RNA. The idea is that at some point you might have enough RNA to begin to catalyze other reactions, starting a chain reaction that builds up to some sort of primitive biochemistry, but there's still a lot of steps we don't understand."<br />
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Demonstrating that nickel-flavored schreibersite, of the sort contained in meteorites, can produce phosphorus-based chemistry is exciting. However, Kee says further evidence is needed to show that the raw materials of life on Earth came from space.<br />
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"I wouldn't necessarily say that the meteoric origin of phosphorus is the strongest idea," he says. "Although it's certainly one of the more pre-biotically plausible routes."<br />
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Despite having co-developed much of the theory behind schreibersite with Pasek, Kee points out that hydrothermal vents could rival the meteoritic model. Deep sea volcanic vents are already known to produce iron-nickel alloys such as awaruite and Kee says that the search is now on for the existence of awaruite's phosphide equivalent in the vents: schreibersite.<br />
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</div>"If it could be shown that schreibersite can be produced in the conditions found in vents—and I think those conditions are highly conducive to forming schreibersite—then you've got the potential for a lot of interesting phosphorylation chemistry to take place," says Kee.<br />
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Pasek agrees that hydrothermal vents could prove a good environment to promote phosphorus chemistry with the heat driving off the water to allow the P–O bonds to form. "Essentially it's this driving off of water that you've got to look for," he adds.<br />
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Pasek and Kee both agree that it is possible that both mechanisms—the meteorites in the shallow pools and the deep sea hydrothermal vents—could have been at work during the same time period and provided phosphorus for life on the young Earth.<br />
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Meanwhile David Deamer, a biologist from the University of California, Santa Cruz, has gone one step further by merging the two models, describing schreibersite reacting in hydrothermal fields of bubbling shallow pools in volcanic locations similar to those found today in locations such as Iceland or Yellowstone.<br />
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Certainly, La Cruz and Pasek's results indicate that schreibersite becomes more reactive the warmer the environment in which it exists.<br />
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"Although we see the reaction occurring at room temperature, if you increase the temperature to 60 or 80 degree Celsius, you get increased reactivity," says Pasek. "So, hypothetically, if you have a warmer Earth you should get more reactivity."<br />
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One twist to the tale is the possibility that phosphorus could have bonded with oxygen in space, beginning the construction of life's molecules before ever reaching Earth. <br />
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Schreibersite-rich grains coated in ice and then heated by shocks in planet-forming disks of gas and dust could potentially have provided conditions suitable for simple biochemistry. While Pasek agrees in principle, he says he has "a hard time seeing bigger things like RNA or DNA forming in space without fluid to promote them."<br />
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<b><u><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Journal reference: <a href="http://pubs.rsc.org/en/journals/journalissues/cp" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics</a></span></i></u></b></div>

Ancient Rocks Suggest Meteorites Brought Life’s Phosphorus To Earth

“I had these rocks for six years,” Pasek says, before he was able to adapt a mass spectrometry technique to analyze their phosphorus conte...

Geologists search for Anthropocene 'golden spike'

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Geologists search for Anthropocene 'golden spike'

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X-rays reveal secrets of tiny dinosaur trapped in rock for 200 million years

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X-rays reveal secrets of tiny dinosaur trapped in rock for 200 million years

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Ancient Igneous Rocks Reveal secrets about Earth's core

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Ancient Igneous Rocks Reveal secrets about Earth's core

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Microplastics discovered in the deep, open ocean

0 earth, environmental, News, ocean 3:42 PM

Microplastics discovered in the deep, open ocean

Ethyl-acrylate particle collected at 10m depth from the PAP site. A unique study by scientists at the National Oceanography Centre (NO...

Volcanic eruption masked acceleration in sea level rise

0 climate, earth, volcano 3:15 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">In this simulation, the rise in sea level puts the coast of Louisiana underwater. Credit: NASA</span><br /></td></tr>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The cataclysmic 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines masked the full impact of greenhouse gases on accelerating sea level rise, according to a new study.</span></i><br /><br />"These scientists have disentangled the major role played by the volcanic eruption of Mount Pinatubo on trends in global mean sea level," said Anjuli Bamzai, program director in the National Science Foundation's Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences, which funded the research. "This research is vital as society prepares for the potential effects of climate change."<br /><br />Satellite observations of the ocean surface, which began in 1993, indicated the rate of sea level rise was holding fairly steady at about 3 millimeters per year. As the pace of warming oceans and melting glaciers and ice sheets accelerated, scientists expected to see a corresponding increase in the rate of sea level rise. Analysis of the satellite record has not borne that out, however.<br /><br />Researchers have now determined that the expected increase in sea level rise due to climate change was likely hidden because of a happenstance of timing: Pinatubo erupted in 1991, two years before the first satellite observations of the ocean began. The eruption, which temporarily cooled the planet, caused sea levels to drop and effectively distorted calculations of sea level rise in subsequent decades.<br /><br />The study lends support to climate model projections that show the rate of sea level rise escalating over time as the climate warms. The findings were published in the open-access journal Scientific Reports, published by Nature Publishing Group.<br /><br />"When we used climate model runs designed to remove the effect of the Pinatubo eruption, we saw the rate of sea level rise accelerating in our simulations," said National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) scientist John Fasullo, who led the study. "Now that the impacts of Pinatubo have faded, this acceleration should become evident in the satellite measurements in the coming decade, barring another major volcanic eruption."<br /><br />Study co-author Steve Nerem of the University of Colorado Boulder, added: "The study shows that large volcanic eruptions can significantly impact the satellite record of global average sea level change. So we must be careful to consider these effects when we look for the effects of climate change in the satellite-based sea level record."<br /><br />The findings have implications for the extent of sea level rise this century and may be useful to coastal communities planning for the future. Decision-makers have debated whether communities should make plans based on the steady rate of sea level rise as measured by satellites in recent decades, or based on the accelerated rate expected in the future as predicted by climate scientists.<br /><br /><b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Reconstructing a pre-Pinatubo world</span></b><br /><br />Fasullo and Nerem, along with Benjamin Hamlington of Old Dominion University, wanted to pin down how quickly sea levels were rising in the decades before the satellite record began.<br /><br />Prior to the launch of the international TOPEX/Poseidon satellite mission in late 1992, sea level was mainly measured using tide gauges. For the researchers, variations in measurement technique and location meant that the pre-satellite record was best used to get a ballpark estimate of global mean sea level.<br /><br />To complement the historic record, the research team ran the NCAR-based Community Earth System model 40 times with slightly different -- but historically plausible -- starting conditions. The resulting simulations characterize the range of natural variability in the factors that affect sea levels. The model was run on the Yellowstone system at the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center.<br /><br />A separate set of model runs that omitted volcanic aerosols -- particles spewed into the atmosphere by an eruption -- was also assessed. By comparing the two sets of runs, the scientists were able to pick out a signal (in this case, the effect of Mount Pinatubo's eruption) from the noise (natural variations in ocean temperature and other factors that affect sea level).<br /><br />"You can't do it with one or two model runs -- or even three or four," Fasullo said. "There's just too much accompanying climate noise to understand precisely what the effect of Pinatubo was. We could not have done it without large numbers of runs."<br /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Using models to understand observations</b></span><br /><br />Analyzing the simulations, the research team found that Pinatubo's eruption caused the oceans to cool and sea levels to drop by about 6 millimeters immediately before TOPEX/Poseidon began making observations.<br /><br />As the sunlight-blocking aerosols from Mount Pinatubo dissipated in the simulations, sea levels began to slowly rebound to pre-eruption levels. This rebound swamped the acceleration caused by the warming climate and made the rate of sea level rise higher in the mid- and late 1990s than it otherwise would have been.<br /><br />This higher-than-normal rate of sea level rise in the early part of the satellite record made it appear as though the rate of sea level rise was not accelerating over time. In fact, according to the study, if the Pinatubo eruption had not occurred -- leaving sea level at a higher starting point in the early 1990s -- the satellite record would have shown a clear acceleration.<br /><br />"The satellite record is unable to account for everything that happened before the first satellite was launched," Fasullo said. "This study is a great example of how computer models can give us the historical context that's needed to understand some of what we're seeing in the satellite record."<br /><br />Understanding whether the rate of sea level rise is accelerating or remaining constant is important because it drastically changes what sea levels might look like in 20, 50 or 100 years.<br /><br />Because the study's findings suggest that acceleration due to climate change is already under way, the acceleration should become evident in the satellite record in the coming decade, Fasullo said.<br /><br />Since the original TOPEX/Poseidon mission, newer satellites, including the recently launched Jason-3, will continue to track sea level.<br /><br />"Sea level rise is potentially one of the most damaging effects of climate change, so it's critical that we understand how quickly it will rise in the future," Fasullo said. "Measurements from Jason-3 will help us evaluate what we've learned in this study and help us better plan for the future."<br />
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<u><i><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The above post is reprinted from <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=189410" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials</a> provided by <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">National Science Foundation</a>. </span></i></u><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></div>

Volcanic eruption masked acceleration in sea level rise

In this simulation, the rise in sea level puts the coast of Louisiana underwater. Credit: NASA The cataclysmic 1991 eruption of Mount P...

Arctic Gives Clues on Worst Mass Extinction of Life

0 Antarctic, Earth History, extinction, Fossils 3:18 PM

Arctic Gives Clues on Worst Mass Extinction of Life

A fossil of a typical crinoid, showing (from bottom to top) the stem, calyx, and arms with cirri 96 percent of marine species, and 70 ...

Whales in the desert?

0 Earth History, Fossils 3:00 PM

Whales in the desert?

A paleontologist encases a whale fossil In Cerro Colorado, located in the Ica Desert of Peru, sedimentary sequences dating back nine m...

New insights into the relationship between erosion and tectonics in the Himalayas

0 earth, Earth History, edu, Tectonic 2:24 PM

New insights into the relationship between erosion and tectonics in the Himalayas

Through its unique topography and relationship with the Asian monsoons, the Himalayan system constitute the largest erosion system of the...

What caused the Italy earthquake?

2 Earhquakes, Geology, News, Tectonic 2:00 PM

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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Why the earthquake in Italy was so destructive<span style="font-family: sans-serif;">?</span></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Powerful earthquakes like the 6.2-magnitude temblor that rocked central Italy<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span>are surprisingly common in the region, geologists say.</i></span><br />
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The shaking was caused by movement in the Tyrrhenian Basin, a seismically active area beneath the Mediterranean Sea. Here, the ground is actually spreading apart, said Julie Dutton, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey. The same underlying geology was responsible for the devastating 2009 earthquake in the city of L'Aquila, just 34 miles (55 kilometers) away from today’s quake. That earthquake killed more than 300 people.<br />
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"It's a pretty complicated or complex area for earthquakes," Dutton told Live Science. "In this area, they have sizable earthquakes that cause destruction every so many years."<br />
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<b>Complex damaging geology</b><br />
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The epicenter of today's quake, which hit around 3:30 a.m. local time, was about 6.2 miles (10 km) southeast of the historic tourist town of Norcia. The earthquake killed at least 73 people and turned scores of charming medieval buildings into rubble. The shaking was felt all the way in Rome, about 70 miles (112 km) southwest of the city.<br />
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The temblor was caused by complicated geology. In northeastern Italy, the slow-motion collision of the African and Eurasian plates has pushed up the ground beneath the Alps. In fact, many of the quakes have occurred in towns fringing the Appenine Mountains, along the northeastern coast of Italy.<br />
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However, the quakes themselves are not caused directly by this uplift process. Instead, because the continental plate collision zone is drifting southeast, it is stretching the crust beneath a region of the Mediterranean Sea. This ground extension, which occurs at a 90-degree angle relative to the mountain range, is what was behind both the current earthquake and the 2009 L'Aquila temblor, Dutton said.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tectonic map </td></tr>
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"It's a normal fault earthquake and it's an expression of the east-west extensional tectonics where the Tyrrhenian Basin is being opened up," Dutton said. Normal faults occur when the ground on one side of the fault slides down relative to the other side, and the motion goes in the direction expected based on the pull of gravity on the Earth, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.<br />
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This region is no stranger to ground shaking. In 2009, the 6.3-magnitude-6.3 that struck L'Aquila led to a trial in which the seismologists in the area were convicted of manslaughter for failing to predict the quake. (The guilty verdict against the scientists was later overturned.) In 1997, a 6.0-magnitude earthquake killed more than 100 people and damaged 80,000 homes. And records going back nearly 700 years document terrifying earthquakes in central Italy that caused people to abandon towns during the Middle Ages.</div>

What caused the Italy earthquake?

Why the earthquake in Italy was so destructive ? Powerful earthquakes like the 6.2-magnitude temblor that rocked central Italy are ...

Fisherman found giant 34kg pearl worth $100million

0 famous, gemstones, News 1:31 PM

Fisherman found giant 34kg pearl worth $100million

The pearl, which weighs 34kg, may end up being certified as the biggest in the world. Photograph: Puerto Princesa Tourism Office/EPA Enor...

Earth's Oxygen Timeline Changed Due to First Direct Measurements

0 earth, Earth History, oxygen 4:08 PM

Earth's Oxygen Timeline Changed Due to First Direct Measurements

Microscopic view of halite (i.e. salt) with cubic fluid inclusions containing trapped ancient water and air. Ancient air trapped in ro...

Large Earthquake Strikes Central Italy, Killing Several People

0 Earhquakes, Natural Disasters 2:21 PM

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A magnitude 6.2 earthquake has struck central Italy, leaving at least 37 people dead and 150 missing, as rescuers search for survivors.<br />
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Many of the dead were in the village of Pescara del Tronto which was levelled to the ground and there were fears the number of casualties could rise.<br />
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Much of the town of Amatrice was reduced to rubble and a family of four were feared dead nearby in Accumoli.<br />
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The quake hit at 03:36 (01:36 GMT), 100km (65 miles) north-east of Rome.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hpOSMVmcgA8/V72CY2l9owI/AAAAAAAAJb4/ztLQUqKQO4Yu1gLd6ewoBvqeKyT60TN4ACLcB/s1600/These%2Bpictures%2Bshow%2Bthe%2Bmain%2Bstreet%2Bin%2BAmatrice%2Bbefore%2Band%2Bafter%2Bthe%2Bquake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hpOSMVmcgA8/V72CY2l9owI/AAAAAAAAJb4/ztLQUqKQO4Yu1gLd6ewoBvqeKyT60TN4ACLcB/s640/These%2Bpictures%2Bshow%2Bthe%2Bmain%2Bstreet%2Bin%2BAmatrice%2Bbefore%2Band%2Bafter%2Bthe%2Bquake.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> These pictures show the main street in Amatrice before and after the quake </td></tr>
</tbody></table>Although it struck at a shallow depth of 10km, its intensity was compared to the Aquila earthquake in April 2009 in which 309 people died. The epicentre was around <br />
<br />
Some buildings in the capital shook for 20 seconds as the quake struck the regional border area of Umbria, Lazio and Le Marche. It was felt from Bologna in the north to Naples in the south. Some 80 aftershocks have been reported since.<br />
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</div>Local authorities were unsure of the full extent of casualties, but 11 people were reported dead including children in the neighbouring villages of Pescara del Tronto and Arquata del Tronto. An elderly couple and a boy were among the victims.<br />
<br />
Another 20 people have been taken to hospital. Two boys aged four and seven were pulled alive from the rubble of the house they had been staying in with their grandmother, Ansa news agency reported. Rescuers said they had been sheltering under a bed.<br />
<br />
Rescuers were still trying to reach the remote village of Peracchia di Acqua Santa Terme a few kilometres to the east.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w_AF3DZPGH4/V72ClvMz6LI/AAAAAAAAJb8/4PPCry7jDsoQdOSejblfKyJB-TBYQ_-uQCLcB/s1600/An%2Baerial%2Bphoto%2Bof%2BAmatrice%2Btaken%2Bby%2Bthe%2Bfire%2Bbrigade%2Bshowed%2Bthe%2Bscale%2Bof%2Bthe%2Bdamage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w_AF3DZPGH4/V72ClvMz6LI/AAAAAAAAJb8/4PPCry7jDsoQdOSejblfKyJB-TBYQ_-uQCLcB/s400/An%2Baerial%2Bphoto%2Bof%2BAmatrice%2Btaken%2Bby%2Bthe%2Bfire%2Bbrigade%2Bshowed%2Bthe%2Bscale%2Bof%2Bthe%2Bdamage.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> An aerial photo of Amatrice taken by the fire brigade showed the scale of the damage </td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
Some of the worst damage was in the town of Amatrice, where at least five died and rescue efforts were under way to find survivors.<br />
<br />
"The roads in and out of town are cut off. Half the town is gone. There are people under the rubble. There's been a landslide and a bridge might collapse," said mayor Sergio Pirozzi.<br />
<br />
"There are tens of victims, so many under the rubble. We're preparing a place for the bodies," he said.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><b>BBC</b></i></span></div>

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2014 Napa earthquake continued to creep, weeks after main shock

0 Earhquakes, Geology, Natural Disasters 4:17 PM

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LiZbuIHhoOY/V7hYTaERLZI/AAAAAAAAJac/Rs6NfPtVkE8u6ViEFlQikgPGHnGEuxYjwCLcB/s1600/2014%2BNapa%2Bearthquake%2Bcontinued%2Bto%2Bcreep%252C%2Bweeks%2Bafter%2Bmain%2Bshock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LiZbuIHhoOY/V7hYTaERLZI/AAAAAAAAJac/Rs6NfPtVkE8u6ViEFlQikgPGHnGEuxYjwCLcB/s640/2014%2BNapa%2Bearthquake%2Bcontinued%2Bto%2Bcreep%252C%2Bweeks%2Bafter%2Bmain%2Bshock.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u><i>2014 Napa earthquake continued to creep, weeks after main shock</i></u></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
Nearly two years ago, on August 24, 2014, just  south of Napa, California, a fault in the Earth suddenly slipped,  violently shifting and splitting huge blocks of solid rock, 6 miles  below the surface. The underground upheaval generated severe shaking at  the surface, lasting 10 to 20 seconds. When the shaking subsided, the  magnitude 6.0 earthquake—the largest in the San Francisco Bay Area since  1989—left in its wake crumpled building facades, ruptured water mains,  and fractured roadways.<br />
<br />
But the earthquake wasn't quite done. In a  new report, scientists from MIT and elsewhere detail how, even after  the earthquake's main tremors and aftershocks died down, earth beneath  the surface was still actively shifting and creeping—albeit much more  slowly—for at least four weeks after the main event. This postquake  activity, which is known to geologists as "afterslip," caused certain  sections of the main fault to shift by as much as 40 centimeters in the  month following the main earthquake.<br />
This seismic creep, the  scientists say, may have posed additional infrastructure hazards to the  region and changed the seismic picture of surrounding faults, easing  stress along some faults while increasing pressure along others.<br />
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The  scientists, led by Michael Floyd, a research scientist in MIT's  Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, found that  sections of the main West Napa Fault continued to slip after the primary  earthquake, depending on the lithology, or rock type, surrounding the  fault. The fault tended to only shift during the main earthquake in  places where it ran through solid rock, such as mountains and hills; in  places with looser sediments, like mud and sand, the fault continued to  slowly creep, for at least four weeks, at a rate of a few centimeters  per day.<br />
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"We found that after the earthquake, there was a lot of  slip that happened at the surface," Floyd says. "One of the most  fascinating things about this phenomenon is it shows you how much hazard  remains after the shaking has stopped. If you have infrastructure  running across these faults—water pipelines, gas lines, roads,  underground electric cables—and if there's this significant afterslip,  those kinds of things could be damaged even after the shaking has  stopped."<br />
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</div>Floyd and his colleagues, including researchers from  the University of California at Riverside, the U.S. Geological Survey,  the University of Leeds, Durham University, Oxford University, and  elsewhere, have published their results in the journal Geophysical  Research Letters.<br />
<br />
<b>Right time, right place</b><br />
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Floyd and  co-author Gareth Funning, of UC Riverside, have been studying fault  motions in northern California for the past seven years. When the  earthquake struck, at about 3:20 a.m. local time, they just happened to  be stationed 75 miles north of the epicenter.<br />
"At the time, I did  stir, thinking, 'C'mon, go back to sleep!'" Floyd says. "When we woke  up, we turned on the news, figured out what happened, and immediately  got back in our cars, picked up the instruments we had in the field,  drove down the freeway to American Canyon, and started to put out  instruments at sites we had measured just a few weeks before."<br />
<br />
Those  instruments made up a network of about a dozen GPS receivers, which the  team placed on either side of the fault line, as close to the  earthquake's epicenter as they could. They left most of the instruments  out in the field, where they recorded data every 30 seconds,  continuously, for three weeks, to observe the distance the ground moved.<br />
"The  key difference between this study and other studies of this earthquake  is that we had the additional GPS data very close to the epicenter,  whereas other groups have only been able to access data from sites  farther away," Floyd says. "We even had one point that was 750 meters  from the surface rupture."<br />
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<b>Creeping faults, silent shadows</b><br />
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The  team combined its GPS data with satellite measurements of the region to  reconstruct the ground movements along the fault and near the epicenter  in the weeks following the main earthquake. They found that the fault  continued to slip—one side of the fault sliding past the other, like  sandpaper across wood—at a steady rate of several centimeters per day,  for at least four weeks.<br />
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"The widespread and rapid afterslip  along the West Napa Fault posed an infrastructure hazard in its own  right," the authors write in the paper. "Repeated repairs of major roads  crosscut by the rupture were required, and in some areas, water pipes  that survived the [main earthquake] were subsequently broken by the  afterslip."<br />
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The earthquake and the afterslip took many scientists  by surprise, as seismic data from the area showed no signs of movement  along the fault prior to the main shock.<br />
"I think we need to be more  alert to the possibility that even faults without previously known  surface fault creep may respond differently for reasons of material  properties in the near surface geology," says James Lienkaemper, a  researcher with the United States Geological Survey at Menlo Park,  California, who was not involved in the study. "We need to be aware that  afterslip can occur in circumstances not previously expected."<br />
<br />
Regarding  the afterslip's possible effects on surrounding faults, the researchers  found that it likely redistributed the stresses in the region,  lessening the pressure on some faults. However, the researchers note  that the afterslip may have put more stress on one particular region  near the Rodgers Creek Fault, which runs through the city of Santa Rosa.<br />
<br />
"Right  now, we don't think there's any significantly heightened risk of quakes  happening on other nearby faults, although the risk always exists,"  Floyd says<br />
Curiously, the scientists identified a large region  beneath the West Napa Fault, just northwest of Napa, which they've  dubbed the "slip and aftershock shadow"—a zone that was strangely devoid  of any motion during both the earthquake and afterslip. Floyd says this  shadow may indicate a buildup in seismic pressure.<br />
<br />
"The fact  that nothing happened there is almost more cause for concern for us than  where things actually happened," Floyd says. "It would produce a fairly  small quake if that area was to rupture, but there's just no knowing if  it would continue on to start something more."<br />
<br />
Floyd says that  in developing seismic hazard assessments, it's important to consider  afterslip and slowly creeping faults, which occur often and over long  periods of time following the more obvious earthquake.<br />
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"There are  some earthquakes where we think we might be seeing some activity even  15 years after the main quake," Floyd says. "So the more examples of an  earthquake happening followed by afterslip that we can study, the better  we can understand the entire process."<br />
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.336px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.0704px; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; padding: 0px 0px 17px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><i><u>This research was supported, in part, by NASA and the National Science Foundation.<br />
Journal reference: Geophysical Research Letters </u><u><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-spacing: 0px;">Provided by: Massachusetts Institute of Technology</span></u></i></div></div>