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Indonesian Mud Volcano is Collapsing
Posted on Thursday, May 29, 2008 @ 5:36 am by Dave Schumaker
In 2006, a drilling accident near the city of Sidoarjo, Indonesia caused a large and rapidly growing mud volcano to form. The volcano, named Lusi, eventually went on to become the fastest growing mud volcano in the world, engulfing upwards of 7 square kilometers and forcing 30,000 people from their homes.
New research from Durham University suggests that if the volcano continues erupting at current levels, the area will significantly subside, resulting in the creation of a caldera.
Source: Reuters
Their research used GPS and satellite data recorded between June 2006 and September 2007 that showed the area affected by Lusi had subsided by between 0.5 metres and 14.5 metres per year.
The scientists found that if Lusi continued to erupt for three to 10 years at the constant rates measured during 2007 then the central part of the volcano could subside by between 44 metres and 146 metres – 26 metres longer than a football pitch.
They propose the subsidence is due to the weight of mud and collapse of rock strata due to the excavation of mud from beneath the surface.
Their study has also found that while some parts of Sidoarjo are subsiding others are rising suggesting that the Watukosek fault system has been reactivated due to the eruption.
We previously wrote about this eruption last year.
More Information:
About.com - Watch Lusi Collapse
Highly Allochthonous - Lusi in Time
Guardian - Mud Volcano on Brink of Collapse
[Via Eurekalert]
Bad Luck with the Blog
Posted on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 @ 9:10 pm by Dave Schumaker
My apologies for apparently spamming the geoblogosphere RSS feed this weekend. I’ve been having some issues with the blog. The first issue deals with some weird sort of remote injection flaw in Wordpress. Basically, some bot came by and inserted hundreds of hidden spam links into the footer of my page. I noticed this after wondering why my page was taking so long to load. I believe I’ve fixed the problem and it shouldn’t happen again.
However, as a result of this, Google temporarily de-indexed my website from their search engine! My top-5 ranking for the term “Geology News” disappeared. And so did much of my traffic. It was impressive (and horrifying) to see the drop off. Fortunately, I’ve been re-indexed, but my Google ranking took a huge hit. Ouch.
Secondly, a plugin I was using decided to misbehave, posting about 20 USGS related articles, which ended up making it into the RSS feed that we all use. Yikes! I think I’ve fixed that problem as well.
My apologies once again! Happy blogging!
Congrats to the Phoenix Mars Mission Team
Posted on Sunday, May 25, 2008 @ 9:47 pm by Dave Schumaker
Phoenix landed on the surface of Mars at 4:35pm (PDT) earlier today. The NASA/JPL briefing is happening as I type this.
First photos have been beamed back to Earth!
It will be exciting to see what this little “robot geologist” discovers when they start digging into the Martian soil.
More Information:
Phoenix Mars Mission - Univ. of Arizona
Phoenix Mars Mission - JPL
Phoenix Mars Mission Twitter Page
Mars Exploration Rover Mission
Earthquakes Can Cause Remote Events Worldwide
Posted on Sunday, May 25, 2008 @ 12:31 pm by Dave Schumaker
Kris Pankow, a seismologist at the University of Utah, analyzed 15 major M7.0 or greater earthquakes that have occurred since 1992 and found that in many cases, the quakes were directly responsible for causing smaller earthquakes hundreds or thousands of miles away.
Source: Aaron Velasco, University of Texas at El Paso
“Previously it was thought seismically active regions or geothermal areas were most vulnerable to large earthquake triggers,” says Kris Pankow, a seismologist at the University of Utah Seismograph Stations and a co-author of the new study.
But Pankow and colleagues analyzed 15 major earthquakes stronger than magnitude-7.0 since 1992, and found that at least 12 of them triggered small quakes hundreds and even thousands of miles away, according to the findings published online Sunday, May 25, 2008 in the journal Nature Geoscience.
“We conclude that dynamic triggering is a ubiquitous phenomenon,” they wrote.
Pankow conducted the study with seismologist Aaron Velasco and undergraduate student Stephen Hernandez, both at the University of Texas at El Paso; and seismologist Tom Parsons, of U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif.
They analyzed data from more than 500 seismic recording stations five hours before and five hours after earthquakes that registered more than 7.0 on the “moment magnitude” scale, which scientists say is the most accurate scale for large earthquakes. (The frequently cited Richter scale measures only relatively small, nearby quakes).
The data – obtained from the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology, a consortium of universities – included 15 major earthquakes from 1992 through 2006, including the 1992 Landers quake in California 800 miles southwest of Yellowstone, the magnitude-7.9 Denali fault quake in Alaska in 2002, and the magnitude-9.2 Sumatra-Andaman Islands quake near Indonesia in 2004 that generated a catastrophic tsunami blamed for most of the quake’s 227,898 deaths in South Asia and East Africa.
Scientists previously noted that those three major quakes triggered not only nearby aftershocks, but small quakes at great distances. The new study is the first to systematically analyze all the world’s big quakes during 1992-2006 and find that most of them triggered distant, smaller tremors. These are different than aftershocks, which occur fairly close to the main quake. After the devastating 2004 Sumatra earthquake, triggered quakes even occurred in Ecuador, on the opposite side of the Earth.
[Via Eurekalert]
PodClast - Episode 4: Sichuan Earthquake and Mars Phoenix Lander
Posted on Sunday, May 25, 2008 @ 10:37 am by Dave Schumaker
The fourth episode of the Goodschist PodClast is out today. This episode features Chris Town and myself. Due to technical difficulties, Chris and I decided to each record a separate segment of the PodClast, dealing with topics we were planning on discussing.
Show notes for Episode 4 are available on Chris’ webpage and relevant links will posted on the PodClast del.icio.us account.
Discussions this week feature a brief discussion on the Sichuan earthquake in China and the pending landing of the Mars Phoenix Lander.
Chris is always looking for new voices from the geoblogosphere to join in on the PodClast. If you’d like to participate next time, check out his information on joining the PodClast.
[Via GoodSchist]