Earth - tectonics and geology

[keeha]

I would find that calculator more useful if I could find any where on the site an short explanation of what the table of results mean other than 'azimuth and GMT psvelo'. Is the last just computer code? I'm a little annoyed the several web-page site does not bother to give a short comment even just to confirm what his result table is (confirm the reference point for example).

He must be an engineer at heart.
Can someone sum up in a sentence or what an example result means for the non-GPS geologist specialist?

[Lloyd]

* On this webpage http://geology.com/articles/racetrack-p ... ocks.shtml is the following excerpt and image:

The Sliding Rocks of Racetrack Playa
One of the most interesting mysteries of Death Valley National Park is the sliding rocks at Racetrack Playa (a playa is a dry lake bed). These rocks can be found on the floor of the playa with long trails behind them. Somehow these rocks slide across the playa, cutting a furrow in the sediment as they move.
Some of these rocks weigh several hundred pounds. That makes the question: "How do they move?" a very challenging one.

* At a thread called Breakthrough on How Continents Divided at http://www.thunderbolts.info/forum/phpB ... =10&t=1462, which I started about a year ago, I referenced http://www.newgeology.us/presentation10.html, which says:

An odd phenomenon has been identified on Earth and other members of the solar system. Large landslides don't just fall to the base of the mountain the way small ones do; they often go great distances, some up to 30 times the distance they fell.
Dr. H. J. Melosh has proposed that long-runnout landslides, earthquake slip, and the making of complex craters reveal a characteristic of the crust. Put simply, it temporarily acts like a fluid when enough stress is applied.
Well known on a small scale as a Bingham Fluid, Melosh suggests that fluidization at the base of large landslides reduces friction to near zero. He calls it acoustic fluidization.

* Mike at the New Geology site said such landslides have been observed on Mars too.
* My suspicion is that this so-called acoustic fluidization may be electrical and or magnetic repulsion or levitation that produces nearly frictionless movement. And the same may be involved with these rocks in Death Valley.
* In the Breakthrough ... thread I also suggested that even continents might be able to slide in the same way, since it's very possible that the Mojo layer that underlies the continents and seafloors is plasma, as EU theorist Peter James has suggested. Thus, "continental drift" would have been an electrical event.

[Lloyd]

* Wow, I just found out that there was even one of those landslides in Death Valley, so the sliding rocks are in the same area as a long runout landslide. Since the landslides apparently occur in arid regions, i.e. Death Valley and the Mars canyon, my prediction is that the sliding rocks also slide on dry ground, not wet.
http://daveslandslideblog.blogspot.com/ ... de-in.html

Intriguing long runout landslide in Death Valley
Thanks to reader Gregory T. Farrand who brought my attention to a very intriguing feature located in Death Valley in California. This is a feature that was first identified and mapped as a long runout landslide by Michael W. Hart. Greg and Michael, together with Brian Olson and Phil Shaller, are currently studying this slide, which they are terming the "Eureka Valley Landslide". The source rocks for the landslide are Cambrian marine sediments, mostly dolomite (dolostone). The slide is partially buried by Holocene alluvial fan deposits.
The landslide shows up really well on Google Earth.

* Their image of that landslide may not seem so impressive here:

but they also have an image of the Mars landslide:

* It apparently occurred in Coprates Chasma, probably part of Valles Marineris, the Mars canyon. This image is called Coprates Chasma Landslides in IR: (Click on the link:)
http://www.nasaimages.org/luna/servlet/ ... ides-in-IR

[jjohnson]

I took your image and inverted it and got a more realistic looking landslide. ALso changed the orientation to get the sunlight coming from above and from the left, so the cliff is in shadow while the upper plateau is lit, and the slide base is raised-looking relative to the surrounding valley floor. I wonder if NASA distributes and publishes B&W pix as negatives on purpose.

Jim

Inverted and sharpened a little

[Lloyd]

* Thanks, Jim.
* I thought I posted the image of one of the rocks that slid. One of the images shows paths of many rocks that slid in various directions. Anywhere here's an image of one rock and its trail:

[seasmith]

Matt,

Been puzzling over this image since you first posted it.
Not long after, was watching something on meteorites on purportedly educational glass teat and saw a polished/etched macro-section (which is actually a microscopic view, go figure) of a meteorite piece from Meteorite Crator, Arizona, usa, which had a remarkable likeness to the image above.
Electric and heat (shock?) oriented macro-grain, i would typify, in light of a materials modification background.

But then there is also this:
(knowing you also appreciate an holistic perspective) of a purported grain-cracked rock with sedimentary inclusions lithified [which probably wont fit in the meagre local image file allocation], which you may have to cut and past in your browser gogether:

3.2 Boxwork Weathering




http://geologicalintroduction.baffl.co.uk/?cat=9

s

[seasmith]

&


http://geologicalintroduction.baffl.co. ... 40x634.jpg

[seasmith]

`
As per PM request by MattEU, re previous post (too big image- tbolt cutnpaste):

[img]http://geologicalintroduction.baffl.co. ... esite1.jpg

Magnesite after dunite, developed along the pressure release joints around the dunite pipe mined for platinum (Bushveld Igneous Complex, South Africa).

http://geologicalintroduction.baffl.co.uk/

[img]http://geologicalintroduction.baffl.co. ... drites.jpg

[MattEU]

are some of these variations of Dyke Swarms? some look like fulgurites ... are they all variations of fulgurites from the smallest to the largest like Mackenzie dike swarm? are they completely different things?

click on the text link below the image for lots more photos of these great geology features



Bingemma Gap



Bingemma Gap again near Nadur Tower


Quartz Island part of St Pauls Island Malta



Shiprock



St Marks Tower, Qrejten Point

[MattEU]

discharge lines or dyke swarms at Pembroke?


Malta's great fault line may be the result of a discharge event. the lines shown above are found at the one end of the fault line or discharge line at Pembroke. the other lines are found on its top. the or a discharge spot is found at Fomm ir-Rih bay where you have the amazing syncline. At Pembroke end you also have the amazing lines at Qrejten Point.

the lines or dyke swarms themselves go along the direction of the fault line but they dont appear to go towards the edge of the headlands


fault line malta


from reading in the past about how they create lichtenberg patterns in plastic you get a crater at the point of discharge and the pattern looks like it is fanning out from that point but it is actually the other way round. the dendritic pattern goes into the discharge point. if that is wrong please let me know as still feeling the effects of last night!


fault line malta and its geology features

so the or a discharge point looks to be Fomm ir-Rih bay where you have the syncline and a semi circular crater in the cliffside. the article in the link was one of the first i wrote and its not been updated since then so it may be even worse than normal.


Fomm ir-Rih bay discharge crater in cliffside - note the brilliant orange/red of the middle of the syncline



Fomm ir-Rih bay syncline or discharge point?

is the syncline the actual point of discharge for the fault line or where there a number of events and places involved in formation of Malta's fault line?

something amazing has happened at Fomm ir-Rih bay but is the syncline event enough energy to be the discharge point? is what the event that forms a syncline enough energy to be this specific point or was it another area in the bay or is it the bay itself? is Fomm ir-Rih bay the actual discharge area or is it somewhere else? or was Fomm ir-Rih bay where the energy come from and it pumped the energy out into malta including along to pembroke?


synclne formation geology or eu formation?

the lines of different material in synclines are interesting. how were they formed? was it by different current flows along them or by the pressure lines of some form of plasma bullet? did the discharge event that caused the Fomm ir-Rih syncline go up or downwards or horizontally?

if it went up or down is an important issue, was it the earth discharging as the initiator or was it another planet that started all the trouble? did more energy go up or downwards. did it even go out of our planet or could it have been a discharge from the land to the sea or something like that.

the image above is of the pressure waves created by a bullet. the lines in it have always fascinated me as it looks like a syncline. you even have the chaotic middle similar to synclines where you get the strange boulders/soil/conglomerate in its top center bit.

a lot of synclines also dont affect the land line above them. although there has supposedly been all this immense pressure and movement the syncline harldy pushes land up or down either above or below them.

[kmerrell]

Does anyone see a connection between the massive solar flare on Wednesday and the devastating earthquake(s) in Japan and the volcano exploding in Indonesia in the last 24 hours?

[Lloyd]

* The Global Rumblings blog sees connections in this case of the earthquake in Japan and in previous quakes elsewhere. This is from http://globalrumblings.blogspot.com/201 ... ed-by.html. And it said: Friday, March 11, 2011

Japan Earthquake And Tsunami Caused By "Solar Flare"
After four years without any X-flares, the sun has produced two of the powerful blasts in less than one month: Feb. 15th and March 9th. This continues the recent trend of increasing solar activity associated with our sun's regular 11-year cycle, and confirms that Solar Cycle 24 is indeed heating up, as solar experts have expected. Solar activity will continue to increase as the solar cycle progresses toward solar maximum, expected in the 2013 time frame.
... Solar Flare & Christchurch, New Zealand 6.3 earthquake February 22, 2011:
Last month we informed our readers, solar flare storm will hit earth on February 18, 2011, which could possible cause earthquake as well. [Link]
- And later on a strong 6.3-magnitude earthquake rocked the southern New Zealand city of Christchurch on February 22, 2011 and killed 400 + people and damaging buildings throughout the city. [Link]
- CME/Solar flares cause Spaceqauke & Spacequake cases Earthquake :
Our February earthquake prediction was actually based on the fact that same chain of action had took place on August 3, 2010 when 6.4 Earthquake hit Papua New Guinea after an enormous magnetic filament breaking away from the sun on august 1, 2010.
- Moreover even NASA admitted on their website "spacequake can cause Northern lights and magnitude 5 or 6 earthquake".

* I imagine a spacequake is an electrical effect, since electric currents seem to power the aurorae. I wonder if it's a shockwave, like thunder from lightning.
* James McCanney has talked about the new moon causing earthquakes by temporarily blocking the solar wind and then releasing it. He regards that as an electrical phenomenon, but I don't see anything on his main page at http://www.jmccanneyscience.com about the solar flare causing the earthquake.

[VeldesX]

Here, astrophysicist Piers Corbyn discusses the "Supermoon" effect and how it caused the earthquake. The combination of the closeness of the moon to the earth with the massive solar coronal ejection from yesterday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZVOnML1 ... ture=feedu

[Phorce]

Satellite project to predict earthquakes will 'help save lives'

"As stress builds up in the Earth prior to an earthquake, subtle electromagnetic signals are released that can be read from the upper atmosphere," said Professor Alan Smith, Director of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at University College, London, who was in Moscow this week to launch the project.

There are many papers and research results available through World World Science database, many of them specifically related to quake / sun relationships.

I wonder how much of a sociological phenomenon is related to quake prediction ? There seems to be a tendency to treat events such as we see in Japan as "acts of God" that cannot be protected against. Occasionally, from some distasteful factions, even as "necessary" natural events that keep the population down. Yet I've seen research that shows that the more a population is subjected to natural or man made pressures the more children they tend to have - in starvation prone parts of the world for example. So predicting and saving - potentially 10,000 lives in the case of Japan quake - would lead to lower population growth.

Anyhow I don't want to drag the discussion into contentious arguments. My point is this. Why were'nt 10,000 lives saved in Japan ? There must have been HUGE measurements coming off that fault. It stands to reason. Rocks under massive pressures must kick out a huge RF emission for a start. I don't know, maybe all the Science is in the works as I speak.

[StandingWave]

The folks at Spaceweather.com seem to be prepared to stick their necks out quite far when they emphatically state that there is no connection between earthquakes and solar activity!

http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php ... &year=2011

COINCIDENCES: Many readers have asked if this week's terrible earthquake in Japan was connected to the contemporaneous geomagnetic storms of March 10th and 11th. In short, no. There is no known, credible evidence of solar activity triggering earthquakes. Moreover, in the historical record, there are thousands of examples of geomagnetic storms without earthquakes, and similar numbers of earthquakes without geomagnetic storms. The two phenomena are not linked.