Thursday, December 8, 2016

Is A New Age Of Pressure Upon Us? - 9

Fig. 1
I. Background

We get a lot of news about direct "feedbacks" from global warming.

This series is about indirect impacts that anthropogenic global warming has engendered (Global Warming & Volcanic Eruptions).

Seeking the full picture of indirect impacts, I have wondered for quite a while about how a graph would look if I used each and every PSMSL tide gauge station (all 1,465 of them) and did a mean average sea level change on the data (more on that later).

Global pressure on the crust of the Earth is one indirect impact of global warming, as rising tides and subsequent oscillating bottom pressures caused by melt water follow:
Fig. 2
"In this post we are not considering the pressures of 21st Century life, with its myriad social stresses and concerns.

A recent post at Ecocosmology Blog indicated that scientists have studied the varying effects and pressures of ocean levels on the crust of the Earth."
(Is A New Age Of Pressure Upon Us?, May 2010). So, in today's episode I will combine some of all of that into a hypothesis.

The hypothesis is that earthquakes have increased as ice sheet and glacial melt has led to the redistribution of cryosphere mass into the oceans.

That mass is relocated widely over the Earth's crust.

Thus, it could be related to the increase of earthquake events as explained in more detail below.

II. Telltale Graphs

Fig. 3 Same trend as sea level
Using the IPCC acceleration projection numbers of ~3 ft of sea level rise by 2100, I made the graphs at Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 using all PSMSL stations as I had wanted to for quite a while.

What makes the last ~85 years look steep in those two graphs is the fact that there was a lot of sea level fall during the first part of the PSMSL recorded time-frame (1807 - 1856).

Greenland was melting back then, releasing regular melt water as well as releasing the illusive ghost water too (Proof of Concept - 3, 5; The Ghost-Water Constant, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7).

As a result, those northern hemisphere drops in sea level were predominant until other sources (Antarctica & land glaciers) began to contribute melt water too.

Fig. 4 [Zone, # of quakes]
Anyway, I created a new SQL database of earthquake events which contains (at this moment) almost 6,000 recorded earthquakes (~2000 BCE to 2016).

That earthquake data contained, among other things, the latitude and longitude of the epicenter of the quakes, so I was able to link the quakes to particular WOD Zones (e.g. Fig. 4).

The earthquake data in the graph at Fig. 3 indicates a constant increase trend in earthquake activity around the globe (see trend line @ Fig. 3).

Fig. 5 Same trend as earthquakes
The graph of the tide gauge station recorded sea level change activity in those WOD Zones, where the highest earthquake activity took place, is shown in Fig. 5.

It stands to reason that ongoing release of downward pressure on land mass as ice sheets melt, and the subsequent increase of downward pressure in other areas as the melt water and ghost-water are relocated to other ocean areas, changes the pressures placed on the Earth's crust.

Those increases and decreases in pressure can become triggers for earthquake activity in areas where just a little more or just a little less can break things loose (as in the case of fracking).

IMO, these observations that are being set forth in today's post give us sufficient accord so that we can put our lab coats on and proceed to the next task.

The next task is to falsify or verify the evolving hypothesis with more data, observations, and analysis.

III. Conclusion

If you are interested in this developing hypothesis, here is a list of the posts that have been previously published on this subject (Is A New Age Of Pressure Upon Us?, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).

Fig. 6
If you care to have any contrary or supporting data considered, which relates to the falsifying or verifying of the hypothesis, you may provide it in the comment section (Dredd Blog comment philosophy explained here).

UPDATE: It dawned on me that Zones 7300, 1400, 1401, 1402, 1300, 1301, 1302, 1303 should be the first group for consideration (Fig. 6).

That means leaving out Zones 7109, 5107, 1304, 1305, 1307, 1313, and 1012 from (Fig. 5) because they are not in the same geographical area.

The reason is that the Zones being removed from consideration at this time, are not grouped properly geographically (they can be considered later).

 Thus, the focus is on the Mediterranean Sea area (Fig. 6).

We have some specific papers and news to work with for that area (Mediterranean Faults, cf.  Jerusalem Post).

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

Bill McGuire (University College London):



5 comments:

  1. "Massive 7.8 earthquake shakes the Solomon Islands in southwest Pacific Ocean" (link)

    Add that to the earthquake database.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "6.5-magnitude earthquake strikes off California coast" (link)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Replies
    1. ... the kind of intelligence that is doing the "pumping of high-pressure liquid under the ground" (The Deconstruction of America, 2016-2050)

      Delete
  4. Went looking for 'older' research deliberately to try and avoid the taint of contemporary 'fake' news and objective based reporting. Settled on the earthquake / glacial relationship in the Himalayas where over 3000 glaciers exist--many now melting fast.

    Mountain tsunamis?

    "Glaciologists say the round of glacial melting leading to the formation of most new glacial lakes in the Himalayas began in the 1950s. The last big earthquake to hit the region was in 1934."

    https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/4310-Mountain-tsunamis-a-rising-threat

    There really is no better device than water to make small mountains out of big mountains. Add in the powerful force of gravity and it's certainly up to any earthmoving job.

    Note: Lived up Spokane WA way and have seen what large glacial lakes can 'accomplish' when they let go. ( Glacial Lake Missoula)Earthquakes can be brutal of course because they cause so much damage to things made by humans--roads, bridges, buildings etc and thus get a bad reputation through that. Take that $ based variable out of the equation and it's just geologic dislocation, some surface scarring and possibly tsunamis. Tornados/ cyclones are similar for the same reason. In terms of stored potential energy and what can happen when 'it' becomes kinetic energy, I don't think that any other event that is formed by Earth's natural laws gets anywhere near impressive as a large, inland glacial lake that determines 'today' is the day we travel to the closest ocean.
    The ancients had this figured out long ago; earth, air, fire and water. The 'elements' are connected and though we view them as threats to life and property, when 'we' are excluded from the assessment, these elements exist in a harmony of their own.

    ReplyDelete