Confounding Sequence of Big Quakes Rattle Santa Cruz Islands

Don't know why everyone is freaking out. They had the "big" one - the 8.0 and everything else is an aftershock.

No foreshocks here.

In relation to this possible rupturing event taking place and the possibility of something larger occuring in the near future, just came across this local news story about the Solomon Island rescue effort, which I think is "chilling".......

www.heraldsun.com.au...

Pungent steam was reportedly rising from cracks in the ground three days after a deadly 8.0-magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami in the region, killing at least 13 people, destroying villages and leaving thousands homeless.

Sulfur maybe? Doesnt this mean that the cracks are deep....damn deep to allow sulfur gas to escape?

Looks like the scientists are dumbfounded by whats going on there.

Volcano and seismic specialists were also being called on to analyse the significance of the steam rising from the ground in parts of the Santa Cruz Islands.

"There's a lot of unusual seismic activity," a spokeswoman for the National Disaster Management Office told AFP from Honiara.

"The earth is clearly doing something there. We are asking for scientific expertise to provide us with some information about what they think might be happening. There are cracks and some steam and water coming out."

WTF does that mean? Sounds like the whole place is about to go up?

reply to post by Melbourne_Militia


Yes i read it too and put it in the quake thread .I hope some one there knows more about what it means.
I thought of that movie ,i think it's called volcano 1%

reply to post by Melbourne_Militia


No one said it was sulphur. That was just your suggestion. Pungent just means it was an unpleasant smell. Could be anything: Ammonia, sulphur, decaying matter or any number of gases including our old favourite... Swamp gas. :-)

Looks like the latest "small" 5.1, which hit about 45 minutes ago, sits on the same line being talked about above.

Originally posted by PlanetXisHERE

Originally posted by radpetey

Originally posted by TrueAmerican
Uh oh, got a big one incoming... stay tuned..

holy crap!, pulling 6e6

edit on Fri Feb 8th 2013 by TrueAmerican because: (no reason given)

that's looking like 7+

edit on Fri Feb 8th 2013 by TrueAmerican because: (no reason given)

USGS: 7.0

edit on Fri Feb 8th 2013 by TrueAmerican because: (no reason given)

Note: latest solution has that depth at 27 km, which does not fit the depth profile at all of previous seismicity for that location... Fricken weird.

edit on Fri Feb 8th 2013 by TrueAmerican because: (no reason given)

I was wrong.That 7.0 is honing in on the actual subduction depth

Hold on people this could be a release of Biblical proportions.

A 9+ is looking more likely

This will most likely affect the America's side of the Pacific plate within the next few days or weeks, the only questions are where and when. Alaska - BC and Central America have seen some massive releases over the past 1/2 year give or take a couple of months, maybe Chile or Cali/Mexico are due for a big one.

All this movement on the Pacific Plate hinge point at Santa Cruz will certainly have an follow-on adjustment affect somewhere else on the Pacific Plate, hope it's not Japan.

edit on 8-2-2013 by PlanetXisHERE because: spelling

Good call....I was wrong.

I've landed 1 correct prediction out of hundreds Better stick to flowers!!

Originally posted by Logman
Don't know why everyone is freaking out. They had the "big" one - the 8.0 and everything else is an aftershock.

No foreshocks here.

Nobody is freaking out, however you should note the title of the website.

People are worried about follow on quakes, because when there are major adjustments often other adjustments follow, like the 7.0 they just had in Colombia a few minutes ago.

Originally posted by PlanetXisHERE

This will most likely affect the America's side of the Pacific plate within the next few days or weeks, the only questions are where and when. Alaska - BC and Central America have seen some massive releases over the past 1/2 year give or take a couple of months, maybe Chile or Cali/Mexico are due for a big one.

All this movement on the Pacific Plate hinge point at Santa Cruz will certainly have an follow-on adjustment affect somewhere else on the Pacific Plate, hope it's not Japan.

edit on 8-2-2013 by PlanetXisHERE because: spelling

Wow, that is a new development with the steam.

Steam means heat. And heat means magma. We could be looking at a rising mantle plume from below which could culminate in the formation of a volcano. Could be an extension of the massive deep hotspot forming north of there, which has found a path through weakening plate edges. Holy crap!

And especially "PUNGENT" steam. Probably has sulfuric content...

Sorry to jump in I have no expertise in earthquakes but was there a thread somewhere about the area around Australia's Great Barrier Reef collapsing or having odd movement. Would that effect the Santa Cruz area ?

Originally posted by TrueAmerican
Wow, that is a new development with the steam.

Steam means heat. And heat means magma. We could be looking at a rising mantle plume from below which could culminate in the formation of a volcano. Could be an extension of the massive deep hotspot forming north of there, which has found a path through weakening plate edges. Holy crap!

Maybe that is what is forming the lines and the ones at a further distance.

2nd

reply to post by TrueAmerican


If a volcano was forming how long before it would emerge at surface level? I seem to recall a volcanic island popping up around Iceland many years ago. Would the "new" volcano, if it exists, come up in the ocean or on land? Thanks.

I don't know how long, but the theory could potentially hold some water, when you consider the shallow depth of a lot of these quakes, which are not normal relative to previous depth profiles.

Problem is, the quakes are generally too big to be volcanic...Unless...Unless...That is a new supervolcano forming. If that's the case, and there is enough eruptable magma down there to qualify it as such, that whole area could be doomed.

I'd say they'd better get the seafaring research ships out there and check out what's happening on the ocean bottom.

But granted, all this is pure speculation at this point.

You might find this interesting:

tinakula.com...

That is a website concerning a volcano just north of Santa Cruz island (or Nendo) where the swarm is currently centered. Any activity at that volcano could also be interesting to watch for, although it is remote, and not alot of information on activity may be available.

I found this image at earthquake-report. com. Unfortunately, I didn't have any success tracking down the original image by CPPgeophysics; I was trying to find a larger version.

Anyway, you can see the incredible mix of fault motions in this tortured environment surrounding the Santa Cruz islands: many normal faults both west of the trench and way out north and east of Ndende Island, a few thrust mechanisms (the big 8.0 and a few near it), and then a sprinkling of strike-slips--including the Mag 7.0 yesterday @ 15:26:39 UTC.
The plate interface is like a ribbon being stretched and twisted at this bend in the trench.

************
Speaking of volcanism in the area, how is this for a blob of heat from below?

No worries...this molten rock is near the core-mantle boundary and 100 million years or more away from erupting at the surface. Or so says the author in his Deep Roots of Catastrophe article. (article is source of image above)

And from here:

www.volcanodiscovery.com...

It says this from Feb. 8:

"After the magnitude 8 earthquake on February 6. Villagers on nearby islands have been reporting increased activity at Tinakula volcano, Santa Cruz islands (which was near the episcentre of the EQ). Reports say that people have heard "loud and strange sounds" from the volcano.

The current nature of the activity is unknown but reports say that activity is becoming "abnormal". "

And this:


"Posted at 03:56 on 08 February, 2013 UTC

The National Disaster Management Office in Solomon Islands says volcanic activity has increased on an island in Temotu province since the magnitude 8.0 earthquake two days ago.

Sipuru Rove says the uninhabited island of Tinakula, which is about 50 kilometres north of Lata, has being making loud and strange sounds.

He says help and information is needed from technical experts to assess the risk posed to the local community by the volcano as they are worried an eruption could be near.

“The volcanic activity on one of the islands that is off Lata is alarming at the moment. And this will really require scientific special people to assist us in assessing this volcanic activity which is beginning to be abnormal.”

Sipuru Rove says there are also significant aftershocks which meant a plane with supplies and medical staff couldn’t land and was forced to return to Honiara.

News Content © Radio New Zealand International
PO Box 123, Wellington, New Zealand"

Source: www.rnzi.com...

reply to post by TrueAmerican


Hi and thanks TA, and others in this thread for thier diligence in keeping this thread updated.

I have been following all week with growing interest. Without much experience on the topic ihave been reluctant to add any unneccesary info, until now.

As the news report was posted about steam my mind, like yours, turned to volcanic activity. More specifically recent articles i have read in reguards to such. One being the floating island of pumice that was attributed to an undersea volcano found by the New Zealand Royal Navy back in august.
www.livescience.com/22268-huge-pumice-island-floats-in-pacific.html

the other article was about the earths inner core moving towards the east... i remember asking myself "well, if i were at the core of a rotating sphere...which way is east?"
http:/m.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/0804/Is-the-earth-s-core-moving-eastward

sorry i couldnt make real links but i recently lost my comp and now i read from my xbox which doesnt allow pop-ups or cut/paste...

in any case i am not sure if any of that is relavant to what we are seeing in the Solomons, just that report about steam caused my mind to remember those other articles and ask "could they all be related?"

thanks again and keep up the good work!
really hoping this just another rare earth anomoly and not a precursor to disaster...

Well one thing I have been noticing from monitoring live spectro at SANVU, is that P&S differentials on some low level quakes have been shortening, meaning there has been considerable increase in activity south of this main rupture area, and directly north of Vanuato. Problem is, you all can't see it, cause it is sub- 4.5 activity. But the spider web of activity appears to be expanding.

At minimum, they need to get some portable seismometer kits into the Lata area, and fast- to help and try to diagnose wtf is going on. Site surveys for boreholes and actual installations could take months.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease, and that wheel is squeaking pretty damn loudly. At 500 km away, SANVU is not going to cut it, as far as making any kind of assessment for volcanic activity. Too much high frequency is attenuated at that distance to make any distinction between long period events and teleseisms. They need some seismos in close, and soon. I doubt Tinakula is even monitored at all at this point, otherwise there would be more definitive conclusions by now from volcanologists.

What is scary is if this was some kind of undetected extension of that massive magma body that has found a path westward and upward to cause this mess. The damn thing could blow before anyone even knew why or how what hit us.

reply to post by TrueAmerican


This is the link to the latest one I could find at 17:54:50 UTC Mag 4.8 Mb 160 km deep just north of Vanuatu islands. This link from the New Caledonia seismic network goes to the list for February earthquakes.

I'm using MARNC.ND.BHZ from Mare, Loyalty Islands and HNR.IU.BHZ Honaira, Solomon Islands. The New Caledonia seismos have been helpful when trying to gauge location.


ETA: wow, that 1st link I gave has really changed in the past 5 minutes. It now refers to the eq at the above time as near Santa Cruz, and being a 5.0 only 10 km deep. So maybe give this network to refine their analysis?

www.nature.com...

*Seismologists have suspected since the 1980s4 that the Indo-Australian plate may be breaking up. But the 11 April earthquakes represent “the most spectacular example” of that process in action, says Matthias Delescluse, a geophysicist at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris and lead author of the first paper1. Worldwide, “it’s the clearest example of newly formed plate boundaries,” he says.*

google 'Indian plate break' and there is stuff speculating that the Indian plate is breaking into smaller plates.
this could be real, real bad.