Wednesday, April 30, 2014

[californiadisasters] Re: Wildfire - San Berdo Co./Nat'l Forest - Etiwanda Incident



Etiwanda Fire News Release 4/30/14

Incident: Etiwanda Wildfire
Released: 1:27 hrs. ago

NEWS RELEASE

U.S. Forest Service, San Bernardino National Forest
For Immediate Release

Contact: John Miller at (909) 382-2788
Twitter: @sanbernardinonf

Etiwanda Fire

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif., April 30, 2014 – Firefighters braved strong winds and high temperatures above Rancho Cucamonga while fighting the Etiwanda Fire today.

The Etiwanda fire started 8:00 a.m. today in Day Canyon north of Rancho Cucamonga near the Etiwanda Preserve. Progress has been hindered by Santa Ana winds ranging from 60 to 80 mph with one gust being measured at 101 mph. Aircraft were available but were unable to fly. The fire quickly grew to 1,000 acres.

Approximately 1650 residents were under mandatory evacuation while students from five schools were taken to other area schools away from the vicinity of the fire. Several streets leading to the northern city limits were closed including Milliken, Day Creek and Etiwanda. An evacuation center was set up at Central Park in Rancho Cucamonga for people as well as small animals. As mandatory evacuations were lifted this evening only residents were being allowed past road closures. A voluntary evacuation remains in place north of Hillside Road from Haven Avenue east to Milliken Avenue.

706 personnel from the U.S. Forest Service, CAL FIRE, Rancho Cucamonga Fire Protection District and San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department are assisting in the firefighting efforts. The U.S. Forest Service and CAL FIRE, in anticipation of the Santa Ana wind event, prepositioned firefighters and aircraft in case of such an event.

About the U.S. Forest Service:

The mission of the Forest Service is to sustain the health, diversity and productivity of the nation's forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. The agency manages 193 million acres of public land, provides assistance to state and private landowners, and maintains the largest forestry research organization in the world. Public lands the Forest Service manages contribute more than $13 billion to the economy each year through visitor spending alone. Those same lands provide 20 percent of the nation's clean water supply, a value estimated at $7.2 billion per year. The agency has either a direct or indirect role in stewardship of about 80 percent of the 850 million forested acres within the U.S., of which 100 million acres are urban forests where most Americans live. Learn more at http://www.fs.usda.gov/sbnf




__._,_.___


Be sure to check out our Links Section at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/californiadisasters/links
Please join our Discussion Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/californiadisasters_discussion/ for topical but extended discussions started here or for less topical but nonetheless relevant messages.





__,_._,___

[californiadisasters] Re: Wildfire - San Berdo Co./Nat'l Forest - Etiwanda Incident



Etiwanda Fire Incident Information:
Last Updated: April 30, 2014 6:15 pm  
Date/Time Started: April 30, 2014 8:00 am  
Administrative Unit: CAL FIRE San Bernardino / USFS / Rancho Cucamonga Fire 
County: San Bernardino County  
Location: North of Rancho Cucamonga  
Acres Burned - Containment: 1,000 acres  
Structures Threatened: Structures remain threatened  
Structures Destroyed: 1 structure damaged  
Evacuations: All Mandatory evacuations have been lifted. Voluntary evacuations are still in place.

A temporary evacuation center has been at Central Park, Northwest corner of Milliken/Baseline, for residents within the mandatory evacuation area.

Chaffey College classes have been cancelled for the day.

Los Osos High School has been evacuated.

The School District has evacuated Day Creek students by bus to Heritage Intermediate School, Caryn Elementary students by bus to Perdew Elementary School, and John L. Golden Elementary students by bus to Terra Vista Elementary school.

More info on Evacuations can be found on the San Bernardino County Sheriff's website.  

Road Closures :Road Closures: Etiwanda Ave between Banyan St. and the Northern City Limit, Day Creek Blvd. between Banyan St and the Northern C  
Cause: Under Investigation 
Cooperating Agencies: CAL FIRE, US Forest Service and Rancho Cucamonga Fire  
Total Fire Personnel: 580  
Total Fire Engines: 30  
Total Fire crews: 18  
Incident Management Team: Unified Command USFS/CAL FIRE/Rancho Cucamonga Fire Department  
Long/Lat: -117.547374/34.169346  
Conditions: The fire is being pushed south by gusty winds of up to 60 mph. 

Source: http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_details_info?incident_id=953


On Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 3:04 PM, Kim Noyes <kimnoyes@gmail.com> wrote:
Now 800 acres.... more resources streaming in and staging further afield.... structures have burned in subdivisions. Evacs and closures in place.

Released: 14 min. ago

North of Banyan between Rochester and Etiwanda Avenue
North of Wilson between Day Creek Wash and Etiwanda Avenue

Central Park is open as an evacuation shelter (11800 Base Line, Rancho Cucamonga)




--


__._,_.___


Be sure to check out our Links Section at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/californiadisasters/links
Please join our Discussion Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/californiadisasters_discussion/ for topical but extended discussions started here or for less topical but nonetheless relevant messages.





__,_._,___

Re: [californiadisasters] Re: Wildfire - San Berdo Co./Nat'l Forest - Etiwanda Incident



I believe you are leaving out a ZERO. It was at 100 acres by 10 a.m. probably. :-p


On Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 4:09 PM, Joann Lavis <joalis76@hotmail.com> wrote:
 

no over 100 + now,,, burning to the south and west at this time,  squirrely winds..
,http://calfire.blogspot.com/  map of etiwanda fire ,, Joann

Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2014 15:04:52 -0700
Subject: [californiadisasters] Re: Wildfire - San Berdo Co./Nat'l Forest - Etiwanda Incident

 

Now 800 acres.... more resources streaming in and staging further afield.... structures have burned in subdivisions. Evacs and closures in place.

Released: 14 min. agoNorth of Banyan between Rochester and Etiwanda Avenue

North of Wilson between Day Creek Wash and Etiwanda Avenue

Central Park is open as an evacuation shelter (11800 Base Line, Rancho Cucamonga)


--


__._,_.___


Be sure to check out our Links Section at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/californiadisasters/links
Please join our Discussion Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/californiadisasters_discussion/ for topical but extended discussions started here or for less topical but nonetheless relevant messages.





__,_._,___

[californiadisasters] South Ops News & Notes Update (4/30/14-6:30PM)



Date

Time

News and Notes

04/30/2014

1830

School Fire CA-LPF-1126, Bitter Creek Preserve, 238.5 acres and 60% contained.  Unified Command; Kern County and Los Padres NF.  Moderate rate of spread.

04/30/2014

1830

Etiwanda Fire CA-BDF-6646, 1,000 acres, 0% contained.  FRA, Unified Command; USFS, Cal Fire, Rancho Cucamonga RD, Rancho Cucamonga PD,  The fire is north of Rancho Cucamonga in the Etiwanda Falls area. Extreme fire behavior with rapid rate of spread.  Evacuations in effect for the north end of Rancho Cucamonga. 5 schools and 1,100 residents are evacuated.  There is a Red Flag Warning in place with winds to 60 to 90 mph expected.

04/30/2014

1700

Etiwanda Fire CA-BDF-6646 East Ave x Powerline Rd, Etiwanda, San Bernardino County, 800+ acres, Unified command.   Unified command USFS/Cal Fire/Rancho Cucamonga Fire/Rancho Cucamonga Police Department. Walker IMT2 team will in-brief at 1800 hours.  Approximately 1,650 homes are under evacuation.  An evacuation center for people and animals is now north of Banyan between Rochester and Etiwanda Ave. 

04/30/2014

1200

Etiwanda Fire CA-BDF-6646 East Ave x Powerline Rd, Etiwanda, San Bernardino County. 150+ acres, 0%contained. Unified command USFS/CalFire. Walker IMT2 team has been ordered.

Source: http://gacc.nifc.gov/oscc/predictive/intelligence/news_notes/index.htm


__._,_.___


Be sure to check out our Links Section at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/californiadisasters/links
Please join our Discussion Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/californiadisasters_discussion/ for topical but extended discussions started here or for less topical but nonetheless relevant messages.





__,_._,___

[californiadisasters] Not Everyone is Ready for a Fire, but the Dangerous Conditions are Here



Hot temperatures, wind, low humidity and a prolonged drought creates a bad mix

John Palminteri, KEYT NewsChannel 3 Senior Reporter, johnp1250@aol.com
POSTED: 08:19 PM PDT Apr 30, 2014  UPDATED: 08:21 PM PDT Apr 30, 2014 

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -

A dangerous mix of hot temperatures, low humidity, wind, and a three year drought have come together to create a risky mix.   Many people are on alert in case a fire breaks out.

On May 5, 2009, the devastating Jesusita fire erupted in the Santa Barbara hills.  It ended up burning 80 homes and more than 8700 acres stretching from upper San Roque to Mission Canyon.

The nearby Tunnel trail had several hikers on it today.  The area has recovered from the fire, but some of the people using the trail did not know it was burnt out five years ago.

When asked if they were ready to evacuate in a fire, plans were formulated on the spot. 

One hiker said he was happy his cell phoned worked well there.

"I've never had a part where my service went out," said Phil Hunziker. "Even if I got stranded anywhere I could get a hold of somebody."  

Another hiker did not have water with her, and temperatures in the upper 80's.  "This
is a pretty popular trail and most of the time you can see someone who can potentially help you," said Emily Dennery.  She said she prefers to hike with a friend but went  a moderate distance alone today.

The nearby Botanic Gardens is interested in the brush conditions.  A researcher and some friends when to test the moisture content during the afternoon heat. 

"It's small twigs and leaves  and collect those in bottles  taken them back and weigh them dry them and weigh them again and it's a percent of moisture." said Bob Muller.  "It's a pretty simple process it just takes coming out here in the middle of the heat some days."

For those parking on Tunnel Road, there are rules that require vehicles to be within a marked area in case of an evacuation.  In a Red Flag weather condition, parking is banned.

Source: www.keyt.com/news/not-everyone-is-ready-for-a-fire-but-the-dangerous-conditions-are-here/25748164



__._,_.___


Be sure to check out our Links Section at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/californiadisasters/links
Please join our Discussion Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/californiadisasters_discussion/ for topical but extended discussions started here or for less topical but nonetheless relevant messages.





__,_._,___

Re: [Geology2] Earthquake chips: The best chip flavor you've never heard of



I've had 'em before... they are fairly easy to acquire out here in Earthquake Country.


On Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 4:23 PM, Lin Kerns <linkerns@gmail.com> wrote:
 

Earthquake chips: The best chip flavor you've never heard of


Earthquake chips

Earthquake-flavored potato chips. (Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times / April 29, 2014)

Jenn Harris

April 29, 2014, 5:30 p.m.

While perusing one of the many snack aisles at Smart & Final, you may notice a bag of chips that doesn't look quite like all the rest. The shiny plastic bag is gray, red and white, and the flavor written across the front is simply "Earthquake." 

Are you supposed to eat these chips during an earthquake? Maybe they're meant for your earthquake emergency kit. 

According to the back of the bag, the idea for the chips, produced by the Oxnard-based company California Chips, came after a 6.3 earthquake hit near the production facility.  

"When we came in the following morning all of our spices had fallen into the same mixing vat," reads the bag. "We thought we had a loss on our hands but then when we tasted what we had, we loved it!" 

A company representative confirmed the story.

The chips taste like someone crushed every chip flavor in the snack aisle to coat them in a pale orange, vinegary dust. There's a little bit of smoky barbecue, some creamy sour cream and onion, the bite of salt and vinegar and spice from jalapenos. 

If you're one of those people who never thinks there's enough seasoning on your favorite chips, these are for you. Just prepare for orange fingertips. 

California Chips also produces "Creamy Chipotle," "Honey Barbecue" and "Sea Salted" flavors. 


http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-earthquake-chips-the-best-chip-flavor-youve-never-heard-of-20140429,0,1383130.story#axzz30PlvaxQy
--




--


__._,_.___



__,_._,___

[Geology2] Earth's Oldest, Biggest Impact Crater Yields New Secrets



Earth's Oldest, Biggest Impact Crater Yields New Secrets

LiveScience  | by  Becky Oskin
Posted: 04/30/2014
CRATER

Geologists say they've discovered rocks long thought vanished, the youngest remains of the oldest and biggest impact crater on Earth.

In the abraded heart of South Africa's Vredefort impact crater lurk striking green-black rocks, some of the only remnants of a magma sea that once filled the gaping crater, according to a study to be published this May in the journal Geology. Until now, geologists thought nearly all of these "impact melt" rocks were lost to time. Some 6 miles (10 kilometers) of Vredefort crater has worn away since it was whacked open 2.02 billion years ago.

"It's like discovering a new rock type in the Grand Canyon," said study co-author Desmond Moser, a geochronologist at Western University in Ontario, Canada. "Vredefort has been walked over for 100 years."

A separate study in the same issue of Geology reports the best evidence yet for possible Vredefort impact ejecta. The vaporized beads of rock were blasted into the atmosphere and rained down 1,550 miles (2,500 km) away, on a proto-continent that became northwest Russia and Scandinavia, the researchers said.

"I think this is a definite step forward in trying to understand the top of the Vredefort structure," said Matthew Huber, lead author of the second study and a planetary geologist at the University of Brussels in Belgium.

Off with its head

The ancient Vredefort impact structure was once a much bigger crater, about 185 miles (300 km) across, scientists estimate. The asteroid or meteor that hit proto-Africa was 6 miles (10 km) wide and excavated a hole 10 times deeper than the Grand Canyon, Moser said. The impact's tremendous heat melted the Earth's crust, creating a magma lake. Moser and his co-author Lisa Cupelli have also explored the remains of a similar molten sea at Ontario's Sudbury crater, which is just slightly smaller and younger than Vredefort.

At Vredefort, little of this impact melt lake remains. There are messy impact-related breccias, formed as slices of crust slumped into the crater just after impact. The slices slid so fast that the resulting friction melted rock into glass called pseudotachylite. There are also lava-filled fractures called dikes, stuffed with a rock known as granophyre, forged from fingers of the impact melt that penetrated the local rock.

But Moser made a lucky find in the 1990s in the center of the crater. He was trying to pin down Vredefort's age when he accidently discovered pristine, 2.02-billion-year-old zircons — tiny minerals with no signs of violent shocks. The zircons were stuck in rare, magma-filled dikes. The dikes burrow through ancient crust once buried 12 miles (20 km) deep in the Earth. Moser thinks partially cooled magma leaked into crustal rocks that oozed in like toothpaste to plug the crater, creating the layered foliation. (The crust rose up like a dome — picture the slow-motion videos of a raindrop hitting a bowl of water.)

A rare find

Moser published his discovery in Geology in 1997, and immediately sparked a battle over whether the dikes, filled with a rock called gabbronorite, were truly remains of Vredefort's impact melt. That battle continues today. Some researchers objected because the magma had an unusual layered appearance called foliation, common in altered rocks. Perhaps it was simply another pseudotachylite, or part of the Earth's original crust, the critics said. Others suggested the young zircons could have crystallized in pre-existing rocks from the impact's heat.

zircon
A 3-billion-year-old shocked zircon that survived the Vredefort impact.

So Moser and Cupelli recently returned to South Africa and searched for definitive evidence that the magma dikes were as young as the crater itself.

"I wanted to put away all the doubts that this was impact-related," Cupelli said.

Now Cupelli, who led the new study, thinks the team can prove the magmas were born in Vredefort's impact melt. The zircons are randomly distributed and interlaced with their surrounding minerals — they couldn't have grown from the heat of impact later than their neighbors, she said. The zircons also crystallized between 1,337 to 1,702 degrees Fahrenheit (725 to 928 degrees Celsius), hotter than normal on Earth, but the same temperature as in Sudbury's impact melt.

Finally, levels of the element hafnium suggest that the magma melted from the 3-billion-year-old rocks originally overlying the crater (the same sedimentary and volcanic rocks in nearby Witwatersrand Basin), not from the very deep crust now exposed by 2 billion years of erosion.

Race for new rocks

The new study has already kicked off a search for Moser's rocks by other Vredefort researchers, who hope to confirm or deny the results.

"I think the final solution to this dilemma is still out there," said Uwe Reimold, a professor at Humboldt University in Berlin and director of the Museum für Naturkunde. Reimold is firmly in the anti-impact-melt camp, though he praised the study's zircon chemical techniques. "I still think this is consistent with an interpretation as a pseudotachylytic breccia," Reimold said. "I have not changed my mind."

lisa cupelli
Lisa Cupelli at an outcrop of gabbronorite at the Vredefort impact crater.

But Moser thinks the unusual appearance of Vredefort's impact melt could also help researchers search for older impact craters, which have been confirmed only through discovery of impact ejecta. Impact beds go back to 3.5 billion years, but confirmed craters end with Vredefort. Yet there are very old rocks with similar compositions and textures, such as the distinctive layering of Vredefort's impact melt, scattered across the Earth, the researchers said.

"What Vredefort teaches us is that we haven't been looking with the right set of eyes at some of these ancient rocks," Moser said.

Looking right round

The right set of eyes was key in finding Vredefort's impact ejecta in Karelia, Russia. The vaporized rock had originally been identified as ooids, which are tiny spheres of calcium carbonate that usually form in shallow tropical seas, such as the Bahama Banks.

But Huber noticed a resemblance to round impact glass (called spherules) and asked for permission to examine the rock samples: two drill cores acquired during the Fennoscandian Arctic Russia–Drilling Early Earth Project (FARDEEP).

"We quickly found evidence that these were impact spherules," Huber said. "We started finding some dumbbells, and some that were completely pulled apart into a teardrop shape, which is completely impossible for ooids."

The impact glass is completely replaced by minerals such as calcite and pyrite, but rare, space-linked elements such as platinum and ruthenium remain. The glass is scattered in rock whose age ranges from 2.05 billion to 1.98 billion years. That span means there's a chance a different impact could have blasted the spherules into the sky, but they do match the expected characteristics of a Vredefort-like event, Huber said.

"We're hoping to do more geochemistry on these particular rocks to try and nail down even further what the source would have been," Huber said. Future plans include trying to figure out what kind of space hunk smashed into Earth, and comparing the spherules to Vredefort's unique mineralogy.

"I hope this inspires people to look more carefully at their rocks," he said. "It's really important to look for these fine details to better understand the cratering history of the Earth."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/30/earth-biggest-crater_n_5239343.html
--


__._,_.___



__,_._,___

[Geology2] Lab volcano gives lightning clues



30 April 2014

Lab volcano gives lightning clues

By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News, Vienna

This slow-motion video shows the experiment in progress


Don't do this at home. Corrado Cimarelli makes his own volcanoes that spout ash vertically at hundreds of metres a second.

The Italian is studying the awesome sight of lightning that is often observed in eruption plumes.

His "lab volcano" allows him to recreate and study the processes that give rise to the necessary electrical conditions.

The hope eventually is to learn something about the nature of volcanoes purely from their lightning behaviour.

"That's the beauty of these experiments... things that are unconstrainable in nature can be constrained in the lab" Dr Corrado Cimarelli Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

"The lightning can tell us a lot about the structure of the eruption plume and the ash particle sizes within it," Dr Cimarelli told BBC News.

Such information could give an indication of whether a particular eruption was likely to pose a risk to aviation, he added.

The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich researcher was speaking here in Vienna at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly.

His lab volcano is no mountain; the vent is only about 3cm wide. But it is able to reproduce the conditions that trigger volcano lightning very successfully.

The set-up is essentially a hot, pressurised metal tube from which real volcano ash particles (from Popocatepetl in Mexico) are accelerated at high speed.

Slow-motion video captures mini-lighting strikes dancing around the exhaust jet.

To get discharges in a real volcano, there needs to be a large electrical potential between different regions of the eruption cloud.

Ash particles can be charged by fracturing them and by rubbing them together.

Sakurajima Sakurajima volcano in Japan produces regular, spectacular flashes

If the charges are big enough and are located in the right places in the plume, a bolt can jump from one location to another.

It is clear from the experiments that particle size is a critical factor. The smaller the particles, the higher the number of bolts.

"That's the beauty of these experiments," said Dr Cimarelli.

"Things that are unconstrainable in nature can be constrained in the lab. And that's what we did. We changed systematically the sizes of the material we were using and we noticed that if we decreased the grain size of the ash, we produced more flashes."

Dr Cimarelli's team is now taking the lessons learned out into the field to study lighting at Sakurajima volcano in Japan. It is the type of volcano that produces regular, spectacular flashes.

The scientists want to test the idea that you could extrapolate ash size from the frequency of lightning events.

"The size of the particles determines the time of residence in the atmosphere and the smaller they are, the longer they stay up to be carried by the winds," said Dr Cimarelli.

"This means, of course, that if you have smaller particles, those particles can be carried long distances. And this is bad news for aviation, which we all know from the Eyjafjallajokull eruption in 2010."

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27220909
--


__._,_.___



__,_._,___

[Geology2] Virginia Volcanoes Linked to East Atlantic Islands



Apr 30, 2014  // by Becky Oskin, LiveScience


Virginia Volcanoes Linked to East Atlantic Islands

Apr 30, 2014  by Becky Oskin, LiveScience

A microscopic image of crystals from the youngest volcanoes in eastern North America. Sarah Mazza

The youngest volcanoes on the East Coast share an unusual geological link with islands on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean, a new study reports.

The new findings could explain the enigmatic origin of the 48-million-year-old volcanoes, which punched through Virginia's fractured crust long after other fiery eruptions ceased along the East Coast. The surprisingly young volcanoes also offer clues into the tectonic forces molding eastern North America's mountains and hidden underbelly. The results appeared online April 10 in the journal Geology.

"These young volcanoes are in an area where no one would expect to see volcanic activity," said lead study author Sarah Mazza, a geologist at Virginia Tech. "These rocks are our only physical window into processes that helped shape Virginia and even the whole southeastern Appalachia as well."

The time span between when the Virginia volcanoes and the last known volcanic activity on the East Coast is about 150 million years. The older eruptions were triggered by the breakup of Pangaea, the supercontinent that included North America, Africa and South America. The stretching of Earth's crust as the supercontinent split allowed huge volumes of magma to escape from the mantle. Now, however, the East Coast is a passive margin, meaning there are no rifting or colliding tectonic plates to birth volcanoes or big earthquakes, as occurs along the West Coast. (In Images: How North America Grew as a Continent)

This long break between tectonic activity and the emergence of Virginia volcanoes has baffled researchers. So instead, many geologists said a hotspot could explain the origin of the volcanoes. Hotspots are plumes of magma that rise upward from the mantle. These long-lived mantle plumes are thought to fuel the volcanic chains in Hawaii and Yellowstone National Park. A proposed hotspot trail runs from Missouri to Maine and could have cooked Virginia about 60 million years ago.

But the results of the new study tell a more complex story — one that doesn't match with a hotspot origin, Mazza said.


Trimble Knob, one of the youngest volcanoes on the East Coast.
Virginia DMME

Mazza and her co-authors analyzed rocks from the volcanic swarm dotting Virginia and West Virginia. Two prominent examples include Mole Hill, west of Harrisonburg, Va., and Trimble Knob, in Highland County, Va. The gentle hills and knobs are long extinct. "You probably wouldn't know they were there unless you talked to a local," Mazza said.

Even though the lava chemistry is similar to hotspot volcanoes such as the Azores and Cape Verde Islands, the researchers concluded that a hotspot did not spark the Virginia volcanoes.

Here's why: First, the magma temperature is too low — roughly 2,570 degrees Fahrenheit (1,410 degrees Celsius), rather than the 2,732 F (1,500 C) measured at hotspot volcanoes, Mazza said. Second, the magma source is too shallow, she added. Third, the researchers precisely dated the eruptions to between 47 million and 48 million years ago, at least 10 million years after the hotspot passed through. "That difference is significant enough for us to think this hotspot probably wasn't the case," Mazza said.

Instead, the team proposes that magma reached the surface as pieces of the thick crust beneath Virginia peeled away like sloughing skin — a process called delamination. Afterward, magma seeped through the newly thinned crust, reaching the surface through pre-existing cracks in the overlying rock. In this model, the Virginia lava is the chemical cousin of eastern Atlantic volcanoes, because their sources are both deeply buried leftovers from the breakup of Pangaea, the supercontinent.

"The upwelling is allowing these volcanoes to sample a part of the mantle that is also seen over in the eastern part of the Atlantic," Mazza told Live Science's Our Amazing Planet.

The shedding crust under Virginia could underlie topographic changes in the Appalachians, such as their recent face-lift. The mountains are more rugged than they should be, given their age and the tectonic quiescence of the East Coast.

"I hope this project is a good stepping stone for interpreting what is going on in the crust and the mantle," Mazza said.

http://news.discovery.com/earth/virginia-volcanoes-linked-to-east-atlantic-islands-140430.htm
--


__._,_.___



__,_._,___

[Geology2] Earthquake Science: Magnitude Scales With Maturity Of Transform Faults



Earthquake Science: Magnitude Scales With Maturity Of Transform Faults
By News Staff | April 30th 2014

The oldest sections of transform faults, such as the North Anatolian Fault Zone and the San Andreas Fault, produce the largest earthquakes, putting important limits on the potential seismic hazard for less mature parts of fault zones, according to a new presentation ("Fault-Zone Maturity Defines Maximum Earthquake Magnitude") at the Seismological Society of America 2014 Annual Meeting in Anchorage.

Identifying the likely maximum magnitude for the
North Anatolian Fault Zone
is critical for seismic hazard assessments, particularly given its proximity to Istanbul  so the researchers investigated the maximum magnitude of historic earthquakes along the NAFZ, which poses significant seismic hazard to northwest Turkey and, specifically, Istanbul. 

Relying on the region's extensive literary sources that date back more than 2000 years, they used catalogs of historical earthquakes in the region, analyzing the earthquake magnitude in relation to the fault-zone age and cumulative offset across the fault, including recent findings on fault-zone segmentation along the NAFZ.


The finding suggests that maximum earthquake magnitude scales with the maturity of the fault . 

"It has been argued for decades that fault systems evolving over geological time may unify smaller fault segments, forming mature rupture zones with a potential for larger earthquake," said Marco Bohnhoff, professor of geophysics at the German Research Center for Geosciences in Potsdam, Germany, who sought to clarify the seismic hazard potential from the NAFZ. "With the outcome of this study it would in principal be possible to improve the seismic hazard estimates for any transform fault near a population center, once its maturity can be quantified.

"What we know of the fault zone is that it originated approximately 12 million years ago in the east and migrated to the west. In the eastern portion of the fault zone, individual fault segments are longer and the offsets are larger." 

The largest earthquakes of approximately M 8.0 are exclusively observed along the older eastern section of the fault zone, says Bohnhoff. The younger western sections, in contrast, have historically produced earthquakes of magnitude no larger than 7.4. "While a 7.4 earthquake is significant, this study puts a limit on the current seismic hazard to northwest Turkey and its largest regional population and economical center Istanbul."

Bohnhoff compared the study of the NAFZ to the San Andreas and the Dead Sea Transform Fault systems. While the earlier is well studied instrumentally with few historic records, the latter has an extensive record of historical earthquakes but few available modern fault-zone investigations. Both of these major transform fault systems support the findings for the NAFZ that were derived based on a unique combination of long historical earthquake records and in-depth fault-zone studies.

http://www.science20.com/news_articles/earthquake_science_magnitude_scales_with_maturity_of_transform_faults-135262


--


V
ei8-Volcanoes of the World Webcams
Roxxfoxx~~Adventures in Geology

Penguin News Today
Penguinology: The Science of Penguins
Gentoo Penguins of Gars O'Higgins Station, Antarctica
Canis lupus 101 
Through Golden Eyes
Follow me on Pinterest!


__._,_.___



__,_._,___

[Geology2] Earthquake chips: The best chip flavor you've never heard of



Earthquake chips: The best chip flavor you've never heard of


Earthquake chips

Earthquake-flavored potato chips. (Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times / April 29, 2014)

April 29, 2014, 5:30 p.m.

While perusing one of the many snack aisles at Smart & Final, you may notice a bag of chips that doesn't look quite like all the rest. The shiny plastic bag is gray, red and white, and the flavor written across the front is simply "Earthquake." 

Are you supposed to eat these chips during an earthquake? Maybe they're meant for your earthquake emergency kit. 

According to the back of the bag, the idea for the chips, produced by the Oxnard-based company California Chips, came after a 6.3 earthquake hit near the production facility.  

"When we came in the following morning all of our spices had fallen into the same mixing vat," reads the bag. "We thought we had a loss on our hands but then when we tasted what we had, we loved it!" 

A company representative confirmed the story.

The chips taste like someone crushed every chip flavor in the snack aisle to coat them in a pale orange, vinegary dust. There's a little bit of smoky barbecue, some creamy sour cream and onion, the bite of salt and vinegar and spice from jalapenos. 

If you're one of those people who never thinks there's enough seasoning on your favorite chips, these are for you. Just prepare for orange fingertips. 

California Chips also produces "Creamy Chipotle," "Honey Barbecue" and "Sea Salted" flavors. 


http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-earthquake-chips-the-best-chip-flavor-youve-never-heard-of-20140429,0,1383130.story#axzz30PlvaxQy
--


V
ei8-Volcanoes of the World Webcams
Roxxfoxx~~Adventures in Geology

Penguin News Today
Penguinology: The Science of Penguins
Gentoo Penguins of Gars O'Higgins Station, Antarctica
Canis lupus 101 
Through Golden Eyes
Follow me on Pinterest!


__._,_.___



__,_._,___
Newer Posts Older Posts Home