re: Now Closed: Everything you ever wanted to know about EARTHQUAKES

is it true that if you make a P wave in a pool, it'll make a red ring around you?

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As South America collides with North America, how long until the Gulf of Mexico becomes the sea of Mexico?

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Actually, we once touched, then the Gulf of Mexico formed and separated us.

I think looking into the past to see how we got to today is way more interesting.

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is it true that if you make a P wave in a pool, it'll make a red ring around you?

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You would have to P then do that thing where you use your arm to make a huge tidal wave at your friends. You could call it a red tidal wave.

I think that chemical is an urban legend though. And if it existed it most certainly wouldn't be red.

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Go look at page one...I axed you a querstion.

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Sorry. Don't know how I missed that!

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I feel them almost daily (induced seismicity from a geothermal field). It always comes with a big boom like someone hit the side of the building but there's no extended time period of shaking. Which wave am I feeling?

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Have you noticed anything in your building move during this?

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You still didn't answer my question.


What seismic activity (anywhere) will affect S. La the most?

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Ohh.

Actually I'm glad you asked this because I can talk about something many people don't understand.

The looser the earth (sediment) beneath structures is, the easier it is for these sediments to move about each other and more shifting occurs. In areas with elevation changes this causes landslides or mudslides (if the land is saturated in water).

In Louisiana, we don't really have bedrock except for random places. Shallow earthquakes, caused by shallow epicenters and the shifting they cause by surface waves cause the most damage.

Add that to the sediments we live on in Louisiana WITH no building ready for earthquake activity WITH proximity to Baton Rouge fault and New Madrid fault...you get a composite of bad things going for you!

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You would have to P then do that thing where you use your arm to make a huge tidal wave at your friends. You could call it a red tidal wave.

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roll tide

So we should most worry about the new Madrid fault?

Not some underwater activity in the Caribbean or gulf that could cause a tsunami?

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Cool, I didn't know that, thanks

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Yeah, we started to "drift" apart in the Jurassic. that's how old the Gulf of Mexico is. It started off as a shallow sea where a whole lot of evaporation occurred so it was super salty. Kind of like the Red Sea/Dead Sea now. All that salt later turned into rock and made the salt domes that Louisiana has today!

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I always wondered what the earth would look like in 10,000,000, 100,000,000, 1,000,000,000 years.

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That's really easy to predict now that we've figured out plate tectonics and can trace tons and tons of feedback cycles across different studies like oceanography, climatology, ecology, geography, etc.

I don't know if there's a field of study dedicated to that though.

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So we should most worry about the new Madrid fault?

Not some underwater activity in the Caribbean or gulf that could cause a tsunami?

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That NPR link I posted said they were picking up activity and that was 2 years ago. If it's relieving stress with small earthquakes we are good.

I think Louisiana is fine unless the New Madrid triggered a huge force that activated the Baton Rouge Fault.


For Tsunamis in the Caribbean...LINK

I'm not too keen on these: But it looks like we are safe from the land blocking us in all direction. There is a chance for rebound of the tsunami bouncing off one wall of the Gulf and coming for us, but by then it will dissipate.

Unless it hits in a concave and grows! And goes right at us, but there's really no place it can do that.

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If you see both of those, I'd say you get all the waves at the same time P, S, and surface...meaning you are really close to the epicenter of the earthquakes.

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I kinda figured that it was both coming at the same time. This geothermal field is only 40 square miles and my office is in the middle of it. Most of our MEQs are less that two miles deep.