Elaine Meinel Supkis
Today is the centenary of the Great San Francisco earthquake. Once again, all parts of the many fault systems of California face tremendous pressures. The shaking of this earth launched by the Great Boxing Day Quake are not finished, not by a long shot. Scientists, drilling 2 miles deep, tapping into the fault zone itself, hope to learn more about how the earth behaves.
As this drawing shows, the entire San Andreas doesn't slip all at once. The Great Quake was unusually long as well as fast moving, the energy from the break unzippering nearly 100 miles of it moving at 8,500 mph. This is tremendous energy which was dwarfed by the energy shot out of the recent earthquake in Indonesia which was whole magnitudes worse.
Courtesy of the USGS
"Our first indication of entering the fault zone was a modest increase in drilling rate starting at about 2:30," according to the project's online daily log. The shift marked entry into a less rigid area of rock.Sensors also picked up increases in radon, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, all signs that the fault zone had been penetrated.
Some animals can sense quakes because of the gasses, I am presuming. Insects. for example, can sense the coming of storms and earthquakes, especially ants and bees. My grandfather told me that if I suddenly noticed lots of ants scurrying around, to expect a shake. He lived in California for many years. I don't know if this can be scientifically proven.
The record of three major quakes recorded at the Parkfield San Andreas zone show a remarkable mirror image each event has made. Same exact shape, each time. This is just one of many mysteries of the San Andreas.
Fossils have long provided snapshots of the human family tree, but a new find in Africa gives scientists a kind of mini home movie showing man's primal development.Because the 4.2-million-year-old fossil is from the same human ancestral hot spot in Ethiopia as remains from seven other human-like species, scientists can now fill in the gaps for the most complete evolutionary chain so far.
"We just found the chain of evolution, the continuity through time," said Ethiopian anthropologist Berhane Asfaw, co-author of the study being reported Thursday in the journal Nature. "One form evolved to another. This is evidence of evolution in one place through time."
The species, Australopithecus anamensis is not new, but its location is what helps explain the giant leap from one early phase of human-like development to the next, scientists say. All eight species were found in a region called the Middle Awash.
It seems, humans originated and evolved for several million years in the African Great Rift Zone. Perhaps we are naturally attracted to the fuana and flora of such environments which is why we are so attracted to California and consider it to be a very beautiful place!
Click here to see United States Geological Survey movie of San Andreas events.
That scared me big time. I hope it wont happen anymore.
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