Ring of Quakes and Oklahoma

I know, it's the Ring of Fire and while that is appropriate today, also, today's quakes circle the Pacific nicely...and then there's Oklahoma. The big action is at the junction of the Australian plate and the Pacific plate in the vicinity of Fiji and the Solomon Isles. Some pre-quakes set the stage for the biggest quake at 6.4. Aftershocks will likely be the order of the day in that collision/subduction zone. How long before all that slippin' and slidin' of rock will lead to the melting and spewing of liquid rock that brought  those islands to life; nothing on the volcano list today. It will likely be soon... but only in Earth time, and that and human time are far from synched.
Where human and Earth time are more closely synched: Oklahoma (and now Kansas). Still more measured quakes in Oklahoma than California on a daily basis but the oil industry doesn't mention the quakes in their commercial singing the praises of fracking. No water pollution, lots of jobs, cheap gas; you'd think that fracking was a wonderful thing and that blowing up the earth to free the hydrocarbons trapped in shale formations was the best thing ever. Back to Earth time and not quarterly, corporate time there is likely another outcome: water pollution is an issues in many (most?) fracking regions, the fire still burning Backen shale oil in WVa, pipeline leaks (of course, they leak, just not news worthy), truck crashes and fires (local news...unless it hits a bus) and earthquakes, hundreds of quakes.
Sitting somewhere that's not shaking daily, quakes in the 2 and 3 and 4 magnitude range seem cute and harmless. Take it from a resident on the recently very shaky Central Va. Quake zone, they are neither cute nor harmless; they take a psychological toll and EVERY earthquake is the earth readjusting itself and means change. Tiny changes that over time stirs volcanoes and moves continents, builds mountains, unleashes tsunamis and results in the planet we see today, but, only today. Earth time can be very slow, but abrupt changes to the system (the Earth cares not about cause) can make those changes speed up to a time very noticeable by humans.
Will fracking in Oklahoma trigger the New Madrid quake zone along the Mississippi to fire back up? If St. Louis shifts half a mile toward (or away from) Memphis will the oil companies be there to help? No one driving a Hummer in the US takes any blame for the giant typhoons that hammered the Philippines the last two years.  How has coal burning in the world to produce the electricity we "need" changed jet stream patterns that has Boston buried in deep snow and below zero temps headed for the south tonight, here deep into February. We don't know, but while knowledge is difficult to obtain, denial is easy, ask any lawyer or oil company executive: you can't prove it was me!!
7+ billion humans and we all want it all. We'll see how that works out long (and short) term here on the shaky planet, shifting on today and everyday: Earth.

Indo-Australian Plate Action

The mid-ocean ridges of the Indian ocean continue to drive the Indian and Australian plates north and north east and that continues to cause issues - aka: earthquakes - all along the convergent boundaries those plates "share" with the Asian and Pacific plates.  A 6.1 quake yesterday at the northeast corner of the Indian plate in southern China caused well over 100 deaths, thousands of injuries and destroyed tens of thousands of buildings.  Over the last week, quakes of magnitudes just below that follow all along that Indo-Asian boundary and the shaking continued with lots of 4 and 5 magnitude quakes following the island arcs created by the subduction of the northern edge of the Aussie plate with the basalt of the Pacific sea floor.  Just a guess...but that is likely to continue...for the next 10 to 50 or 100 million years.
Across the Pacific, central and northern South America were shifting and shaking pretty good over the last 7 days.  A 6.3 quake in southern Mexico in late August leads the list but the quakes continued down the isthmus that is central America and all the way down to Peru along the western edge of South America.
The US was mostly quiet this week; small quakes in California, Alaska and fracking quakes in Oklahoma were about it.  Central Va. has been still since the 2.1 shake the last Friday in August and as we approach the 3rd anniversary of the quake that changed thinking along the east coast those of us in the shaky zone would like to see it stay that way.  If wishes were horses...  We know that quiet is not something the earth is likely to be, for at least another billion years or so, get out and enjoy what ever the planet throws your way, today on Earth.

Big Quakes Straddle the IDL

Two major quakes occurred today within a couple of degrees of the International Dateline: first a 6.9 magnitude quake, quickly followed by a 6.6 quake, rocked the southern reaches of the line just north of New Zealand and the northern quake, with 10 times more ground movement at 7.9, shook up the western Aleutians of Alaska just to the east of the dateline and sent tsunami warnings flying around and across the Pacific .  Tsunami warnings for both big quakes have now been cancelled with sea level changes of less than a foot even near the epicenters.  Aftershocks continue with great frequency in both regions making today's USGS list rather lengthy and almost constantly updating as new shakes occur.  If you're not near the line where the old day ends and the new begins you are likely in a quiet zone today, but if you are reading this from earth, just remember that could change...at most any time, Today On Earth.

A Quiet, But Still Shaky, Quake Week

While those at the epicenters of the last few days of quakes may not think it was quiet, they should get over it because they all live on plate boundaries and that's where the quakes are! Nothing above 5.7 for the entire 7 day period and most all are at subduction zones around the Pacific and the ongoing India/Asia collision (ongoing for 40 or so million years). No surprises! Earth is still exhaling heat and that heat is slowly pushing the thin, broken pieces of the lithosphere about on the weak, plastic/gooey/oozy layer of the mantle, the asthenosphere.
We see what's happening, have a handle on why it's happening, know where the quakes and volcanoes are going to be and are working on the details but it's only been 50 years, so saying we understand it all would be a bit pompous.  It appears this planet has been trying to chill down ever since it all came together 4.5ish billion years ago and plate tectonics is the result of that cooling.  But it was hot when it formed and it's a big chunk of rock (tiny in the universe picture but... we aren't in the whole universe, only here) and lots of mass holds heat nicely.  Radioactive elements, we now know, break down and add to the heat so, I'm guessing the heat loss, plate movement, earthquake and volcano scene will continue for some time to come.  Longer than we can really be concerned about...
Hang On!! Somewhere, at any time things WILL get shaky, Today On Earth.

3.2 in CentralVaQuakeZone

The plate boundaries keep shifting, sending waves of energy through our planet but there are little reminders in off boundary sites, as well. The Central Va. Earthquake Zone got that reminder Wednesday night with a good little shake centered along the Powhatan/Amelia county border. For those of us in Louisa that felt it, there was no sound; something we've come to expect with our hundreds of after shocks.  It felt like a quake, shaking for several seconds, but the lack of sound left me wondering, what the...  Just farther away than the many in my neighborhood.
Oklahoma, formerly quite quiet, continues to experience quakes in the 2 - 4 Richter range every day. That started soon after fracking began in earnest in the area, a connection, no doubt, denied by the oil giants blowing up the earth to release the hydrocarbons we Americans crave but don't want to pay the the true cost of.  The earth just does what it does, we blow it up, it shifts to adjust, action/reaction; a clever guy named Newton pointed that out several hundred years ago.  We know it but don't want to "believe" it if we don't like the reaction(Carbon dioxide and global warming??).  Want jobs and cheap oil, better be willing to hang on Oklahoma!!

4.1 in South Carolina

Southwest South Carolina got rocked yesterday with a 4.1 quake, an uncommon but hardly unknown event for the area still digging out and rewiring from the recent snow/ice storm that hammered the entire east coast. Charleston, SC has been the epicenter of large quakes in the past - and, guess what, likely in the future- so this recent quake is hardly a big surprise.  The problem with earthquakes is that they ARE always a surprise, no real warning, just a jolting realization that the world you take for granted as stable really isn't. Central Va. got that reminder 2 1/2 years ago, Japan a big reminder about 3 years ago and if you live on the ring of fire or near any of  the plate boundary "zones of shake" you too, always have that thought of potential shakiness not far below you level of consciousness.
Current geologic thought, in explanation of the shake zone near SC/GA's Savannah River, postulates that the state boundary/river is an old suture zone formed during the smashing and crashing that formed Pangaea. When the rift zone that has lead us to the Atlantic Ocean began to form and separate North America and Africa a chunk got left behind, the edge of that chunk (and therefore weak spot - and rivers find the weak spots) being the Savannah River that now separates the two states (going back to a decree creating Georgia out of the Carolinas). Old fault zones are hard to see in the deeply soil covered east but are there nonetheless, ready to slip and slide when unseen pressures build and need release: an earthquake.
Oklahoma continues to be on the daily list, almost as common as California and Alaska. I'm not sure what's going on out there, I never felt any when working in the area (although I was mostly in western OK). I'm still guessing and blaming fracking and am still guessing the oil & gas industries, blowing up the earth in the area to slurp out the fossil hydrocarbons craved by ALL Americans, are still in denial of any connection at all to the quakes; no couldn't be us...
Hope your world is not shaky, today on Earth.

Greek Aftershocks and Other Good Shakes

Aftershocks in the Richter 4's continue off the coast of Greece following the 6.1 quake 3 days ago. Burma stays on the list with another 5.1 quake and Iran has a couple in the mid-4's; shaky along the southern Eurasian boundary. Japan and the Solomon Isles register quakes in the low to mid-5's and while not large, Indonesia has quakes on the list. The eastern edge of the Philippine plate has calmed a little after a few shaky days.
In the western hemisphere, Chile, a frequent visitor to any earthquake list is back today with a 5.5 quake and the North Atlantic Ridge (Reykjanes Ridge, actually) has been rocking of late; today a 5.1 with lots of slightly smaller quakes over the last several days.  Things have calmed in Bolivia - earthquake wise, anyway, if not politically, after a pretty good shake a few days back.
In the US, Utah, Oklahoma and Arkansas are back/still on the list (yes, Cali and Ak, too), a little more than probably any of those states would like. Respectively, 4.0, 3.2 and 2.6 - wonder how many are related -denied, of course- to fracking or other human/oil/water related activities??
But, what are we going to do on this cracked and broken and shifting planet? Hang on and get out and enjoy (a snowy), Today on Earth.