A 15-year study led by the Carnegie Institution for Science details the origins and diversity of every known mineral on Earth, a landmark body of work that will help reconstruct the history of life on Earth, guide the search for new minerals and ore deposits, predict possible characteristics of future life, and aid the search for habitable planets and extraterrestrial life.
In twin papers published today by American Mineralogist and sponsored in part by NASA, Carnegie scientists Robert Hazen and Shaunna Morrison detail a novel approach to clustering (lumping) kindred species of minerals together or splitting off new species based on when and how they originated.
Once mineral genesis is factored in, the number of "mineral kinds"—a newly-coined term—totals more than 10,500, a number about 75% greater than the roughly 6,000 mineral species recognized by the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) on the basis of crystal structure and chemical composition alone.
Fiber Optic Sensing Detects Tremor From Icelandic Subglacial Volcano July 6, 2022
Introduction:
(EurekAlert) Researchers used a fiber optic cable on the ice cap of an Icelandic subglacial volcano to detect low-frequency volcanic tremor, suggesting this technology could be useful in monitoring other ice-covered volcano systems.
Their research published in The Seismic Record indicates that the floating ice cap, part of the Vatnajökull glacier, acted as a natural amplifier of the tremor signals generated by the Grímsvötn volcano, one of Iceland’s most hazardous.
This appears to be the first observation of a floating ice sheet acting as an amplifier of tremor, said Andreas Fichtner, a professor of seismology and wave physics at ETH Zürich. “Oscillations of ice shelves in Antarctica or Greenland have been known for a long time,” he explained, “but they are mostly excited by ocean waves.”
Although the exact mechanisms behind volcanic tremor can differ, it can be an indicator of deep volcanic or geothermal activity, Fichter said. “In addition to providing information about the underlying processes, tremor may also serve as a precursor of volcanic eruptions that should be monitored closely.”
Grímsvötn is one of Iceland’s largest and most active volcanoes, with major eruptions taking place on average every ten years. Geothermal heating melts the ice cap, creating a subglacial lake on the volcano that occasionally bursts forth and floods the coastal plains. Its explosive eruptions create towering ash plumes that affect agriculture, human health and aviation. Ash from the last major eruption in May 2011 closed Iceland’s main airport and led to the cancellation of 900 flights.
A novel three-dimensional model of the fluid stored deep in Earth's crust along the Cascadia Subduction Zone provides new insight into how the accumulation and release of those fluids may influence seismic activity in the region.
The fluid collects near but does not penetrate a thickened section of the crust known as Siletzia lies beneath much of western Oregon and Washington. The pressure associated with these fluids could be a factor in the seismic phenomenon known as episodic tremor and slip, or ETS, said Gary Egbert, an electromagnetic geophysicist in Oregon State's College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences and lead author of a new paper detailing the findings.
Episodic tremor and slip is a fault behavior that includes both localized non-volcanic tremors and slow-slip events that may occur over hours or days. It occurs throughout the Cascadia Subduction Zone, from northern California to British Columbia, but is less frequent and intense beneath the central core of Siletzia, which runs primarily under the Oregon Coast range and ends near Roseburg.
The findings, just published in the journal Nature Geosciences, have applications for increasing understanding of seismic activity along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, Egbert said.
"Water is a key player in both seismic activity and volcanism in Cascadia," he said. "This is a new view of these fluids. It's information that could be used in conjunction with other data, and more detailed model studies, to better understand large earthquakes in Cascadia."
Japan's Sakurajima volcano erupts, triggering evacuation
Source: AP
By MARI YAMAGUCHI
TOKYO (AP) — A volcano on Japan’s main southern island of Kyushu erupted Sunday night, spewing ash and rocks. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries in nearby towns but residents were advised to evacuate.
Japan’s Meteorological Agency said Sakurajima volcano erupted at around 8:05 p.m., blowing off large rocks as far as 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) away in the southern prefecture of Kagoshima.
Footage on Japan’s NHK public television showed orange flames flashing near the crater and dark smoke of ash billowing from the mountaintop high up into the night sky.
“We will put the people’s lives first and do our utmost to assess the situation and respond to any emergency,” Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihiko Isozaki told reporters. He called on residents in the area to pay close attention to the latest update from the local authorities to protect their lives.
A 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck the Philippines on Tuesday, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
The quake struck in northern Luzon, the country's most populous island, at 8:43 a.m. local time (8:43 p.m. ET), according to USGS.
Its epicenter was about 13 kilometers (8 miles) southeast of the small town of Dolores, with a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), according to USGS.
The impact was felt in the capital city, Manila, more than 400 kilometers (about 250 miles) away, where workers and residents evacuated from buildings and gathered on the street.
Scientists Reveal the Full Danger of the World's Largest Active Volcano by David Nield
August 3, 2022
Introduction:
Active for at least the last 700,000 years, and dominating the landscape of Hawaii, Mauna Loa is the largest shield volcano on Earth (above water, at least) – and scientific data reveals more about what might be enough to set off future eruptions.
Looking at shifts in the ground tracked by GPS and satellite data, researchers in 2021 were able to model the flow of magma on the inside of the volcano, as well as figuring out what would and wouldn't be likely to trigger the next major eruption from Mauna Loa.
In the 'would be likely' column: a sizable earthquake. That conclusion is based on measurements of magma influx that have happened since 2014, directed by the topographic stress of the surrounding rock.
"An earthquake of magnitude 6 or greater would relieve the stress imparted by the influx of magma along a sub-horizontal fault under the western flank of the volcano," said Bhuvan Varugu, a geologist at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami, in a press release accompanying the 2021 study.
Scientists Find that Volcanic Super Eruptions are Millions of Years in the Making – Followed by Swift Surge August 3, 2022
Introduction:
(EurekAlert) Researchers at the University of Bristol and Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre have discovered that super-eruptions occur when huge accumulations of magma deep in the Earth’s crust, formed over millions of years, move rapidly to the surface disrupting pre-existing rock.
Using a model for crustal flow, an international team of scientists were able to show that pre-existing plutons – a body of intrusive rock made from solidified magna or lava - were formed over a few million years prior to four known gigantic super eruptions and that the disruption of these plutons by newly emplaced magmas took place extraordinarily rapidly. While the magma supplying super eruptions takes place over a prolonged period of time, the magma disrupts the crust and then erupts in just a few decades.
The findings, published today in Nature, explain these extreme differences in time ranges for magma generation and eruption by flow of hot but solid crust in response to ascent of the magma, accounting for the infrequency of these eruptions and their huge volumes.
Professor Steve Sparks of Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences explained: “The longevity of plutonic and related volcanic systems contrasts with short timescales to assemble shallow magma chambers prior to large-magnitude eruptions of molten rock. Crystals formed from earlier magma pulses, entrained within erupting magmas are stored at temperatures near or below the solidus for long periods prior to eruption and commonly have very short residence in host magmas for just decades or less.”
1 in 6 chance of catastrophic volcano eruption within a hundred years
19th August 2022
The world is "woefully underprepared" for a massive volcanic eruption and the likely repercussions on global supply chains, climate and food, according to experts from the University of Cambridge's Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER), and the University of Birmingham.
The initial tsunami wave created by the eruption of the underwater Hunga Tonga Ha'apai volcano in Tonga in January 2022 reached 90 meters in height, around nine times taller than that from the highly destructive 2011 Japan tsunami, new research has found.
An international research team says the eruption should serve as a wake-up call for international groups looking to protect people from similar events in future, claiming that detection and monitoring systems for volcano-based tsunamis are '30 years behind' comparable tools used to detect earthquake-based events.
Dr. Mohammad Heidarzadeh, Secretary-General of the International Tsunami Commission and a senior lecturer in the University of Bath's Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering, authored the research alongside colleagues based in Japan, New Zealand, the UK and Croatia.
By comparison, the largest tsunami waves due to earthquakes before the Tonga event were recorded following the Tōhoku earthquake near Japan in 2011 and the 1960 Chilean earthquake, reached 10 meters in initial height. Those were more destructive as they happened closer to land, with waves that were wider.
The eruption of the underwater volcano in Tonga that triggered a tsunami earlier this year (January 2022), released more energy than the Tsar Bomba—the most powerful nuclear bomb ever detonated—according to a new study.
Researchers from the University of Sheffield harvested data from weather stations and social media worldwide and compared it against historical data to determine that the eruption released more energy than the largest human-made explosion in history.
On January 15, 2022, the volcano at Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Island erupted producing a devastating tsunami and volcanic plumes that reached the stratosphere. Another recent study revealed the explosion generated acoustic-gravity waves that reached the edge of space and were recorded by satellites and instruments across the globe, including in the U.K.
Weather stations all over the world, including sites in London, Fife and the Scottish Highlands, registered the passing of a type of acoustic-gravity wave called a Lamb wave. Data from the sites shows how local atmospheric pressure suddenly increased with a pressure pulse, followed by a negative phase, before returning to ambient conditions that typically lasted for around 45 minutes—in comparison, earthquakes typically last for a few seconds to only a few minutes.
Weather enthusiasts in every continent began sharing screenshots of their measurements on social media, including location, local time of arrival of the Lamb wave, and pressure data, which were a valuable source of scientific information to help researchers determine the size of the volcanic eruption.
Major volcanic eruptions are a bigger threat to civilization than most people realize. Some scientists say we should study ways to detect such eruptions farther in advance, and the defuse them by drilling small vent shafts into the magma chambers.
Over the next century, large-scale volcanic eruptions are hundreds of times more likely to occur than are asteroid and comet impacts, put together4. The climatic impact of these events is comparable, yet the response is vastly different. ‘Planetary defence’ receives hundreds of millions of dollars in funding each year, and has several global agencies devoted to it. In September, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission will try to nudge an asteroid’s trajectory, testing capabilities for future asteroid deflection. That advance-preparation project will cost over US$300 million. By contrast, there is no coordinated action, nor large-scale investment, to mitigate the global effects of large-magnitude eruptions. This needs to change.
...Being able to affect volcanic behaviour directly might seem inconceivable, but so did the deflection of asteroids until the formation of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office in 2016. Numerous examples from geothermal exploration show that it is technically possible to penetrate magmatic bodies in the crust with little collateral damage. In 2024, researchers plan to drill into a magma pocket at the Krafla test bed in Iceland, to provide a ‘long-term magma observatory’ and test sensing equipment to potentially improve volcanic prediction. Research should also be undertaken to assess if it is possible to manipulate the magma or surrounding rocks to moderate eruption explosivity — one such project, Magma Outgassing During Eruptions and Geothermal Exploration, has funding from the European Research Council to 2026.
What are some future earthquakes which could plausibly happen within a few centuries (Or even decades)?
I'll start with one that I'm surprised is not at the FutureTimeline timeline: The earthquake that will hit Peru (Especially Lima, with a population of over 10 million), within decades
This is a news article from the Governmentof Peru mentioning this: https://www.gob.pe/institucion/igp/noti ... luso-mayor
It's in Spanish, but the title can be roughly translated as "The Central Region of Peru could experience an earthquake like Pisco's ((A 2007 earthquake)) or even worse in the future"
Surprising Discovery Shows a Slowing of Continental Plate Movement Controlled the Timing of Earth’s Largest Volcanic Events September 9, 2022
Introduction:
(Science Alert) Scientists have shed new light on the timing and likely cause of major volcanic events that occurred millions of years ago and caused such climatic and biological upheaval that they drove some of the most devastating extinction events in Earth’s history.
Surprisingly the new research, published today in leading international journal Science Advances, suggests a slowing of continental plate movement was the critical event that enabled magma to rise to the Earth’s surface and deliver the devastating knock-on impacts.
Earth’s history has been marked by major volcanic events, called Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) – the largest of which have caused major increases in atmospheric carbon emissions that warmed Earth’s climate, drove unprecedented changes to ecosystems, and resulted in mass extinctions on land and in the oceans.
Using chemical data from ancient mudstone deposits obtained from a 1.5 km-deep borehole in Wales, an international team led by scientists from Trinity College Dublin’s School of Natural Sciences was able to link two key events from around 183 million years ago (the Toarcian period).
The team discovered that this time period, which was characterised by some of the most severe climatic and environmental changes ever, directly coincided with the occurrence of major volcanic activity and associated greenhouse gas release on the southern hemisphere, in what is nowadays known as southern Africa, Antarctica and Australia.
Strong earthquake detected in Papua New Guinea
Source: AP
The U.S. Geological Survey has detected a 7.6-magnitude earthquake in northeastern Papua New Guinea. The quake hit at 6:46 a.m. Initial readings put the quake at a depth of some 50 to 60 kilometers (30 to 40 miles) located 67 kilometers (42 miles) east of Kainantu, a sparsely populated area.
NOAA has since advised there is no tsunami threat for the area. The extent of damage is not yet clear, but the USGS estimates “some casualties and damage are possible and the impact should be relatively localized.”
Papua New Guinea is located on the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, to the east of Indonesia and north of eastern Australia. It sits on the Pacific’s “Ring of Fire,” the arc of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean where much of the world’s earthquakes and volcanic activity occurs.
A magnitude 7.5 earthquake in 2018 in the nation’s central region killed at least 125 people. That quake hit areas that are remote and undeveloped, and assessments about the scale of the damage and injuries were slow to filter out.
Scientists have shed new light on the timing and likely cause of major volcanic events that occurred millions of years ago and caused such climatic and biological upheaval that they drove some of the most devastating extinction events in Earth's history.
Surprisingly, the new research, published today in Science Advances, suggests a slowing of continental plate movement was the critical event that enabled magma to rise to the Earth's surface and deliver the devastating knock-on impacts.
Earth's history has been marked by major volcanic events, called large igneous provinces (LIPs)—the largest of which have caused major increases in atmospheric carbon emissions that warmed Earth's climate, drove unprecedented changes to ecosystems, and resulted in mass extinctions on land and in the oceans.
Using chemical data from ancient mudstone deposits obtained from a 1.5 km-deep borehole in Wales, an international team led by scientists from Trinity College Dublin's School of Natural Sciences was able to link two key events from around 183 million years ago (the Toarcian period).
The team discovered that this time period, which was characterized by some of the most severe climatic and environmental changes ever, directly coincided with the occurrence of major volcanic activity and associated greenhouse gas release on the southern hemisphere, in what is nowadays known as southern Africa, Antarctica and Australia.
On further investigation—and more importantly—the team's plate reconstruction models helped them discover the key fundamental geological process that seemed to control the timing and onset of this volcanic event and others of great magnitude.
Micha Ruhl, assistant professor in Trinity's School of Natural Sciences, led the team. He said, "Scientists have long thought that the onset of upwelling of molten volcanic rock, or magma, from deep in Earth's interior, as mantle plumes, was the instigator of such volcanic activity but the new evidence shows that the normal rate of continental plate movement of several centimeters per year effectively prevents magma from penetrating Earth's continental crust.
"It seems it is only when the speed of continental plate movement slows down to near zero that magmas from mantle plumes can effectively make their way to the surface, causing major large igneous province volcanic eruptions and their associated climatic perturbations and mass extinctions.
Strong 6.9-magnitude earthquake hits Taiwan, triggers tsunami warning https://www-nbcnews-com.cdn.ampproject. ... -rcna48209
Japan issues a tsunami warning near Okinawa, where officials advised residents to stay clear of the coastline.
Earthquakes which occur at depths of several hundred kilometers in the mantle are called "deep-focus earthquakes". Such earthquakes occasionally result in serious disasters such as the 1994 Bolivian earthquake, which occurred at a depth of 638 km with a magnitude of 8.3.
The cause of deep-focus earthquakes, however, has been a mystery, because earthquakes occur with the rapid sliding of a fault, which is difficult under the great pressures of the deep mantle. Attempts have been made to understand the mechanism of occurrence of deep-focus earthquakes based on laboratory deformation experiments, but experiments under deep mantle conditions have not been made due to technological limitations.
A team has, for the first time, performed deformation experiments on natural olivine, the major mineral of the mantle and subducting oceanic lithosphere (slab), by our state-of-the-art, large-volume, deformation apparatus in combination with synchrotron X-ray observations. They observed the occurrence of major faulting in the sample by X-ray imaging under deep mantle conditions and associated "earthquakes" by ultrasonic acoustic emission measurements.
After careful analyses of the recovered sample, they found the faulting was induced by the growth of "new" olivine with ultra-fine grains of tens of nanometers upon the phase transformation of "old" olivine, which worked as a lubricant for the rapid sliding of the fault. They also found evidence that the sample was locally melted along the fault due to the very high temperature caused by the rapid sliding. Their model, based on these laboratory experiments, well explains the distribution of deep-focus earthquakes, which increase with depths from ~400 km to ~600 km, where the metastable "old" olivine is expected to form ultra-fine grained "new" olivine.
TAIPEI, Sept 18 (Reuters) - A 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit the sparsely populated southeastern part of Taiwan on Sunday, the island's weather bureau said, derailing train carriages, causing a convenience store to collapse and trapping hundreds on mountain roads.
The weather bureau said the epicentre was in Taitung county, and followed a 6.4 magnitude temblor on Saturday evening in the same area, which caused no casualties.
The U.S. Geological Survey measured Sunday's quake at a magnitude 7.2 and at a depth of 10 km (six miles).
Taiwan's fire department said one person had died and 146 were injured by the quake.
At Least One Dead After Mexico's Pacific Coast Shaken by Magnitude 7.6 Earthquake September 19, 2022
Introduction:
(CBS) A magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Mexico's central Pacific coast on Monday, killing at least one person and setting off a seismic alarm in the rattled capital on the anniversary of two earlier devastating quakes. There were no immediate reports of significant damage from the quake that hit at 1:05 p.m. local time, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, which had initially put the magnitude at 7.5.
It said the quake was centered 23 miles southeast of Aquila near the boundary of Colima and Michoacan states and at a depth of 9.4 miles.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said via Twitter that the secretary of the Navy told him one person was killed in the port city of Manzanillo, Colima, when a wall at a mall collapsed.
Michoacan's Public Security department said there were no immediate reports of significant damage in that state beyond some cracks in buildings in the town of Coalcoman.
Mexico's National Civil Defense agency said that based on historic data of tsunamis in Mexico, variations of as much as 32 inches were possible in coastal water levels near the epicenter. The U.S. Tsunami Warning Center said that hazardous tsunami waves were possible for coasts within 186 miles of the epicenter.
7.6 'quake off Mexico, tsunami up
"A 7.6-magnitude earthquake has struck just off the southwestern coast of Mexico, in Michoacan state, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has said that tsunami waves reaching up to 3 meters could hit Mexico.
Mexico earthquake: Major quake in Michoacan state followed by tsunami warning - CNN
