| "Seismic Swarms" 11:07 - Nov 2 with 3173 views | giant_stow |
A new term (to my lay mind) that seems suddenly very prominent in the news. In the last few days I've read stories about seismic swarms occuring now in Iceland, Tenerife and weirdly, the Alps.
Anyone know whats going on? |  |
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| "Seismic Swarms" on 11:18 - Nov 2 with 3150 views | giant_stow |
Its the Alps one that freaked me slightly - earthquakes there? wtf? | |
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| "Seismic Swarms" on 11:21 - Nov 2 with 3149 views | Guthrum |
It's been around for a while as a term.
Earthquakes are not single, individual events. They can be preceded - and are usually followed - by a series of lesser, even quite minor, tremors as tensions ramp up or settle down. Can also be a precursor of a volcanic eruption.
However, it may also be the result of a gradual movement, rather than a single big event.
The Alps are quite an active tectonic zone. The mountains are there because the African plate (plus associated fragments) is crashing into Europe, forming the spine of Italy and the higher peaks at the northern end. |  |
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| "Seismic Swarms" on 11:27 - Nov 2 with 3145 views | giant_stow |
| "Seismic Swarms" on 11:21 - Nov 2 by Guthrum |
It's been around for a while as a term.
Earthquakes are not single, individual events. They can be preceded - and are usually followed - by a series of lesser, even quite minor, tremors as tensions ramp up or settle down. Can also be a precursor of a volcanic eruption.
However, it may also be the result of a gradual movement, rather than a single big event.
The Alps are quite an active tectonic zone. The mountains are there because the African plate (plus associated fragments) is crashing into Europe, forming the spine of Italy and the higher peaks at the northern end. |
well blow me down with a feather. Never knew that about the alps. stand down everyone - it's normal. | |
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| "Seismic Swarms" on 11:47 - Nov 2 with 3106 views | giant_stow |
I've been silly haven't I. Hey ho - chalk it up. | |
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| "Seismic Swarms" on 11:55 - Nov 2 with 3097 views | connorscontract |
| "Seismic Swarms" on 11:47 - Nov 2 by giant_stow |
I've been silly haven't I. Hey ho - chalk it up. |
No. You admitted it was something you knew little about.
It just shows, though. 300 dead in the 2016 earthquake in Italy, and it has hardly registered with public consciousness here. Compare that with the death toll from continental terror attacks and look at the comparative attention. |  | | |
| "Seismic Swarms" on 11:56 - Nov 2 with 3100 views | Guthrum |
| "Seismic Swarms" on 11:27 - Nov 2 by giant_stow |
well blow me down with a feather. Never knew that about the alps. stand down everyone - it's normal. |
The UK is actually a fairly active earthquake zone, but a different sort. These are breaks and slips in the underground rock strata, rather than the major tectonic plate movements which cause the really big 'quakes.
Strata slips are much less powerful, in the range of 4Mw or often much less - barely detectable even by people in the local area (the modern MMS and the old Richter scale give pretty similar figures).
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1884_Colchester_earthquake
And more recently: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_England_earthquake [Post edited 2 Nov 2017 11:58]
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| "Seismic Swarms" on 12:00 - Nov 2 with 3092 views | giant_stow |
| "Seismic Swarms" on 11:56 - Nov 2 by Guthrum |
The UK is actually a fairly active earthquake zone, but a different sort. These are breaks and slips in the underground rock strata, rather than the major tectonic plate movements which cause the really big 'quakes.
Strata slips are much less powerful, in the range of 4Mw or often much less - barely detectable even by people in the local area (the modern MMS and the old Richter scale give pretty similar figures).
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1884_Colchester_earthquake
And more recently: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_England_earthquake [Post edited 2 Nov 2017 11:58]
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fascinating stuff - where do you get this all from?! | |
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| "Seismic Swarms" on 12:02 - Nov 2 with 3091 views | Guthrum |
| "Seismic Swarms" on 12:00 - Nov 2 by giant_stow |
fascinating stuff - where do you get this all from?! |
My father was a geography teacher, I grew up with all this kind of thing. | |
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| "Seismic Swarms" on 14:10 - Nov 2 with 3000 views | Swansea_Blue |
There was an earthquake in 2009 in Italy that's particularly relevant to this thread, as it was forwarned by a scientist on the basis of the earthquake swarms and radon release. But nothing happened immediately and he was charged with raising a false alarm. The authorities dismissed his claim, didn't evacuate and shortly afterwards a major quake hit killing over 300 people.
Experts eh!? Tsk. Who needs them. |  |
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| "Seismic Swarms" on 14:11 - Nov 2 with 2994 views | Steve_M |
| "Seismic Swarms" on 12:02 - Nov 2 by Guthrum |
My father was a geography teacher, I grew up with all this kind of thing. |
Did you inherit the beard then? |  |
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| "Seismic Swarms" on 20:36 - Nov 2 with 2930 views | Guthrum |
| "Seismic Swarms" on 14:11 - Nov 2 by Steve_M |
Did you inherit the beard then? |
No, that's all my own work ... | |
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| (No subject) on 20:52 - Nov 2 with 2924 views | WeWereZombies |
| "Seismic Swarms" on 11:56 - Nov 2 by Guthrum |
The UK is actually a fairly active earthquake zone, but a different sort. These are breaks and slips in the underground rock strata, rather than the major tectonic plate movements which cause the really big 'quakes.
Strata slips are much less powerful, in the range of 4Mw or often much less - barely detectable even by people in the local area (the modern MMS and the old Richter scale give pretty similar figures).
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1884_Colchester_earthquake
And more recently: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_England_earthquake [Post edited 2 Nov 2017 11:58]
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I guess I was walking through an old strata slip last Sunday:
 [Post edited 2 Nov 2017 20:55]
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| Quirang, not a heavy metal magazine on 07:27 - Nov 3 with 2767 views | WeWereZombies |
A couple of miles north north west at the appropriately named small township of Digg there is an ongoing landslip that, so I was told the other week, is largest ongoing one in Britain (the Quirang is more or less stable now so does not count - decent three hour walk though). | |
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