Study shows areas can be affected by mysterious temblors even a long distance away

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49983211/ns/technology_and_science-science/#.ULZfj2cutX8

By Charles Q. Choi
OurAmazingPlanet
updated 11/27/2012 3:25:52 PM ET

A note from Pastor Kevin Lea follows this article.

Major earthquakes might set off incredibly slow earthquakes thousands of miles away, new research suggests.

These findings, detailed online Sept. 11 in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth, shed light on how earthquake zones might communicate with each other over large distances, scientists added.

The cluster of devastating earthquakes that rocked the globe during the past decade from Japan to Sumatra to Haiti is one reason why scientists are investigating whether temblors in different parts of the world are linked to one another. Although research to date suggests that major quakes aren’t likely to trigger other massive quakes around the globe, they can set off tremors worldwide.

Now researchers find that large quakes might also trigger mysterious slow earthquakes thousands of miles away. One kind of slow earthquake known as a slow-slip event can last for weeks, shifting the Earth as much as an ordinary earthquake of magnitude of 7 would in mere moments.

The investigators focused on the magnitude 8.8 Maule earthquake that struck Chile in 2010. They found it generated surface waves that, within hours, set off tremors in the Guerrero region of southwestern Mexico 4,140 miles (6,660 kilometers) away. Data from GPS stations also revealed the earth there began moving southward at the same time tremors there began.

The tremors and movements of the GPS stations lasted for about six months after the 2010 Chile quake.  “Such an observation may indicate that the Maule earthquake triggered a slow-slip event in Guerrero,” said researcher Dimitri Zigone, a seismologist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Near Guerrero lies a subduction zone, where a tectonic plate under the Pacific Ocean is diving under the continental North American plate. The seismic energy from Chile apparently increased the stress in the segment of the subduction zone near Guerrero, which may explain the resulting slow-slip event.

“The fact large quakes can have effects so far away could be important because it may change the recurrence time between earthquakes in a specific location,” Zigone told OurAmazingPlanet. “Usually we assume that the seismic cycle — the recurrence between earthquakes — is regional, on a single fault system or at a plate boundary, for example. If these large-scale interactions exist, it may indicate that even at large distances, a mega-earthquake can modify the conditions in another region.”

Note from Pastor Kevin Lea:  Noticeably absent from this article is an explanation for how these long distance earthquake interactions are taking place, or the seismologist's admissions that a few years ago they would have said that these interrelationships were not possible.

 For decades, the science of seismology has been trying to fit observed data into the evolutionary model that earthquakes are the result of millions-of-years of slow movement between crustal plates.  However, they are finding that much of the observed data is not fitting nicely into this paradigm.  Before increased instrumentation proved them wrong, seismologists were saying that an earthquake in one area of the world could not (did not) affect faults and movement in other parts, especially if they were thousands of miles apart.   This stance has been changing over the years as the data pours in.  

 For example, they had to admit that the 7.9 Denali Earthquake in Alaska on November 3 of 2002 did indeed affect the geysers in Yellowstone, the sloshing of Lake Union in Washington State and Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana, the depth of wells on the East Coast, etc.  Even when they did conclude that these events were related to the Alaska quake, they did not provide a scientifically sound explanation for HOW, and they likely never will as long as they hold on to their evolutionary plate tectonic mindset.

 In February of 2012, I asked the geophysicist and seismologist Dr. Steve Malone the following question, 

 Based on what we know about plate tectonics, is it possible that all major faults around the earth would rupture at the same time causing a global earthquake?  

 Dr. Malone’s answer:

 There are a number of reasons why we don't think this is a possibility, including: The world's faults, including the circum-pacific seismic belt [Pacific Ring of Fire], are not contiguous at a scale where they can rip one to another. The stress distribution that could cause anything like this is never uniform enough to cause all or even many faults to go at the same time. We think about Mw=9.5 is about as big as an event can get; plenty big enough. 

 But the Bible says that someday the Earth will experience a global earthquake (Revelation 6, 16, and Isaiah 24 as examples).  If the current evolutionary frame of reference doesn’t allow for a global fracturing of the Earth, but the observed data contradicts long held beliefs of seismologists, and the Bible says they are definitely wrong, then there is strong justification for throwing out the current paradigm in search of another that fits the data and the Bible.  

 Not to worry, there is an alternative theory that can and does explain the interrelation between observed crustal movements, earthquakes, volcanoes and how these can, have and will affect earthquakes in other areas of the world.  It also explains why the earth will someday experience a global earthquake.  This new frame of reference is based on Dr. Walt Brown’s Hydroplate Theory explanation for the flood of Noah. 

 I have produced two videos that provide a detailed and scientifically based explanation for these interrelations.  You can watch them on YouTube or order the series in DVD format by going to Creationscience.com where you can purchase them from Dr. Brown's website for $20.  To watch on YouTube: go to Earthquakes 2012 Update (one segment about 1.5 hours long) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWUxW6B-5Ro&list=PLqkjnJeZTWF5EGMaeKazckh3-wYgpEpG1&index=3&t=2764s).   The 2012 Update explains why the March 11, 2012 earthquake was so severe and how come the ionosphere was perturbed shortly before the quake struck.