Sunday - October 09, 2005

Earthquakes: The Science And The Result

Let’s face it, our planet is going to do what it wants without any help from us puny humans. Hurricanes are always going to head for the Gulf Of Mexico and certain areas of the world will always experience earthquakes because of plate tectonics. It has nothing to do with what we humans do. We are merely fleas on an elephant’s back. Here is the science ...

Among the most dramatic and visible creations of plate-tectonic forces are the lofty Himalayas, which stretch 2,900 km along the border between India and Tibet. This immense mountain range began to form between 40 and 50 million years ago, when two large landmasses, India and Eurasia, driven by plate movement, collided. Because both these continental landmasses have about the same rock density, one plate could not be subducted under the other. The pressure of the impinging plates could only be relieved by thrusting skyward, contorting the collision zone, and forming the jagged Himalayan peaks.

About 225 million years ago, India was a large island still situated off the Australian coast, and a vast ocean (called Tethys Sea) separated India from the Asian continent. When Pangaea broke apart about 200 million years ago, India began to forge northward. By studying the history—and ultimately the closing-- of the Tethys, scientists have reconstructed India’s northward journey. About 80 million years ago, India was located roughly 6,400 km south of the Asian continent, moving northward at a rate of about 9 m a century. When India rammed into Asia about 40 to 50 million years ago, its northward advance slowed by about half. The collision and associated decrease in the rate of plate movement are interpreted to mark the beginning of the rapid uplift of the Himalayas.

Fifty kilometers north of Lhasa (the capital of Tibet), scientists found layers of pink sandstone containing grains of magnetic minerals (magnetite) that have recorded the pattern of the Earth’s flip-flopping magnetic field. These sandstones also contain plant and animal fossils that were deposited when the Tethys Sea periodically flooded the region. The study of these fossils has revealed not only their geologic age but also the type of environment and climate in which they formed. For example, such studies indicate that the fossils lived under a relatively mild, wet environment about 105 million years ago, when Tibet was closer to the equator. Today, Tibet’s climate is much more arid, reflecting the region’s uplift and northward shift of nearly 2,000 km. Fossils found in the sandstone layers offer dramatic evidence of the climate change in the Tibetan region due to plate movement over the past 100 million years.

At present, the movement of India continues to put enormous pressure on the Asian continent, and Tibet in turn presses on the landmass to the north that is hemming it in. The net effect of plate-tectonics forces acting on this geologically complicated region is to squeeze parts of Asia eastward toward the Pacific Ocean. One serious consequence of these processes is a deadly “domino” effect: tremendous stresses build up within the Earth’s crust, which are relieved periodically by earthquakes along the numerous faults that scar the landscape. Some of the world’s most destructive earthquakes in history are related to continuing tectonic processes that began some 50 million years ago when the Indian and Eurasian continents first met.

Source: US Gelogic Service

The earth’s plates are in motion and have been for millions of years. We can’t stop it but we need to be smart about where we build and live and how we build and live. Here is the result of the most recent activity as the Indian subcontinent continues to push up and under the Eurasian Plate ...

Quake Kills More Than 19,000 in South Asia
BALAKOT, Pakistan (AP)

A massive earthquake cut a swath of destruction across South Asia Saturday, killing more than 19,000 people. The worst destruction was in and near the Pakistani side of the divided and disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir, where the quake flattened dozens of villages and towns, crushing schools and mud-brick houses. At least a dozen bodies were strewn on the streets of Balakot, a devastated village of about 30,000 just west of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, where the 7.6-magnitude earthquake that struck South Asia shortly before 9 a.m. was centered. Villagers desperate to find survivors dug with bare hands through the debris of a collapsed school, searching for children that were heard crying beneath the rubble.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said 19,136 people were killed, 17,388 of them in Pakistani Kashmir. The worst-hit city in Pakistani Kashmir was its capital, Muzaffarabad, where 11,000 died, Sherpao said. He also said 42,397 were injured. Helicopters and C-130 transport planes took troops and supplies to damaged areas on Sunday. But landslides and rain hindered rescue efforts, blocking roads to some remote areas. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf appealed to the international community to help with relief efforts. He appealed for medicine, tents, cargo helicopters and financial assistance. The United States, the United Nations, Britain, Russia, China, Turkey, Japan, German and India all offered assistance.

“We do seek international assistance. We have enough manpower but we need financial support ... to cope with the tragedy,” Musharraf said. He said supplies were needed “to reach out to the people in far-flung and cut-off areas.” The president spoke in Rawalpindi, a city near the capital Islamabad, before leaving on a tour of devastated areas. The quake was felt across a wide swath of South Asia from central Afghanistan to western Bangladesh. It swayed buildings in the capitals of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, an area stretching across some 625 miles across. In Islamabad, a 10-story building collapsed. “We are handling the worst disaster in Pakistan’s history,” chief army spokesman, Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said. Authorities in India reported 360 deaths and 900 people injured, while Afghanistan reported four killed.

On Sunday, Pakistani military helicopters ferried troops and supplies to some hard-hit areas. But there was no sign of government help in Balakot, in the North West Frontier Province about 60 miles north of Islamabad. The quake leveled the village’s main bazaar, crushing shoppers and strewing gas cylinders, bricks, tomatoes and onions on the streets. Injured people covered by shawls lay in the street, waiting for medical care. Residents carried bodies on wooden planks. The corpses of four children, aged between four and six, lay under a sheet of corrugated iron. Relatives said they were trying to find sheets to wrap the bodies. “We don’t have anything to bury them with,” said a cousin, Saqib Swati.

Nearby, Faizan Farooq, a 19-year-old business administration student, stood outside the rubble of his four-story school, where at least 250 pupils were feared trapped. Dozens of villagers, some with sledgehammers but many without any tools, pulled at the debris and carried away bodies. Farooq said that he could hear children under the rubble crying for help immediately after the disaster on Saturday. “Now there’s no sign of life,” he said. “We can’t do this without the army’s help. Nobody has come here to help us.” A 40-year-old man at the scene wept. He said four of his children were buried in the debris.

Elsewhere in Balakot, shopowner Mohammed Iqbal said two primary schools, one for boys and one for girls, also collapsed. More than 500 students were feared dead. In Pakistan’s northwestern district of Mansehra, police chief Ataullah Khan Wazir said authorities there pulled 250 bodies from the wreckage of one girls’ school in the village of Ghari Habibibullah. Dozens of children were feared killed in other schools. Mansehra was believed to be a hotbed of Islamic militant activity during the time the Taliban religious militia ruled neighboring Afghanistan. Al-Qaida operatives trained suicide squads at a camp there, Afghan and Pakistani officials told The Associated Press in 2002. Some 215 Pakistani soldiers died in Pakistan’s portion of Kashmir, Sultan said. On the India side of the border, at least 39 soldiers were killed when their bunkers collapsed, said Col. H. Juneja, an Indian army spokesman.

I feel for the people of Pakistan and India, especially the children who were killed in this monumental disaster. I can only hope and pray that Osama bin Laden and his murderous thugs were buried under a pile of rubble over there.

However, as always, I believe that both India and Pakistan would be better served if their governments would spend less on nuclear weapons and missiles and spend more on earthquake detection equipment. The technology is out there and has been proven to give at least some advance notice of impending danger.

I can think of no reason why a country should spend billions to build a nuclear bomb when those same billions could install thousands of subterranean sensors, recording equipment and analysis software to help keep people alive. Not to mention building houses and buildings to standards which would allow the structures to survive a major quake. It saddens me to see this many people killed. What saddens me more is that a lot of this loss of life could have been prevented if governments would simply do their job.

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/09/2005 at 07:00 AM   
Filed Under: • Environment • News-Briefs • Science-Technology •  
• Comments (13) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner