What’s up? The Friday links (55)

We’ve seen several magnitude 6 earthquakes last week. On 28 Januar, a shallow M6.1 strike-slip event occurred in eastern Kazakhstan. A little surprise only, we knew about thrust mechanisms in this area, but of course some strike-slip movements do not change the big picture. Would be interesting to check for surface ruptures. This is, by the way, the study area of our friend and colleague Angela Landgraf. Maybe we can convince her to write something about the paleoseismological background of that area?

Two more events of magnitude 6.1 happened within 3 hours of each other in the Santa Cruz Islands area on 30 and 31 January, respectively. Interestingly, the first one is a strike-slip event, the second one appears to be normal slip. No thrust events in the subduction zone, but extension where the plate bends.

The strongest event last week happened in Chile with a magnitude of 6.8. Medium depth (~50 km), thrust, not surprising. Here’s the USGS shake map:

Also on 31 January, a M6.0 earthquake happened in SE Alaska.

360° interactive helicopter flight over four (!!) simultaneously erupting volcanoes

This video is breathtaking and one of the best geo-science videos I’ve ever seen. In Kamchatka, at least five volcanoes are currently erupting:

• Shiveluch (Шивелуч)
• Karymski (Карымский)
• Tolbachik (Толбачик)
• Kizimen (Кизимен)
• Kliuchevskoi (Ключевской)
• Bezymianny (maybe?) (Безымянный)

This piece was made from a helicopter with a 360° camera which allows – hold on to your seat – a completely interactive video! One can zoom and control the camera to see the lava flows or the impressive ash cloud.

• See the video here.
• Check the interactive tour here.

Here’s another great video of the eruption of Tolbachik:

Eruption of Colima on webcam

Somehow, this week is volcano week. Erik Klemetti from the Eruptions blog came up with this amazing webcam footage of Colima, sending an ash column into the atmosphere:

Earthquake early warning system in California?

If there was enough money (that is, $80 million), California could soon have a nice earthquake early warning system just like Japan or Romania. Unfortunately, somehow everyone seems to be short of money nowadays.

GSA started essay series

The Structural Geology & Tectonics Division of GSA started an essay series to celebrate the Society’s 125th anniversary. Here’s the schedule, and here’s the first essay: Christian Teyssier (University of Minnesota) about Structure, Tectonics, And Metamorphic Petrology.

Plate tectonics reveal world is a chicken (or so)

Suvrat Kher from Rapid Uplift has found some convincing evidence for not creationism, but creaturism.

Structural Geology in Portuguese

Haakon Fossen’s e-learning module is now available in Portuguese, too. Very good news for everyone interested in Structural Geology.

A paper on smashed skeletons in earthquake damaged ruins!

This paper was published some months ago already, but I found it last week. Smashed skeletons as Earthquake Archaeological Effects (EAE) in Iran. Great stuff. Check out Berberian et al., 2012 – Archeoseismicity and environmental crises at the Sialk mounds, Central Iranian Plateau, since Early Neolithic.

World wide real-time Twitter activity

Tweetping.net allows a real-time monitoring of world wide twitter activity. This is very interesting – see the differences not only between different continents and countries considered poor or rich, but also the obvious national preferences. Of course most capitals appear much more active than rural areas, but for example see how popular Twitter is in the Netherlands, and how few the Germans use it. Also, there seem to be hotspots in Saudi Arabia and Indonesia:

 

Crustal thickness in Google Earth

Erik Klemetti also brought me to this great data set: A map of Earth’s crustal thickness for Google Earth. Download the data here: http://igppweb.ucsd.edu/~gabi/crust2.html oropen this KMZ.

Have a nice weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What?

I forgot something?

Cat?

Which cat?

Aah, the cat!

This cat!

Okay, here it is: