Earth news

Mystery Earthquakes In Gulf Of Mexico

Elaine Meinel Supkis

Another mid-range earthquake shakes the Gulf of Mexico. The shock waves rattled a good quarter of the USA. This is all connected to some very obscure fault lines that intersect with the infamous and extremely dangerous New Madrid complex. Also, oil has been found deep in the Gulf. Oil and earthquakes live in the same neighborhoods.

Something is making the Gulf buckle and shake.

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A strong, 6.0 earthquake in the Gulf of Mexico was felt throughout the Southeast but caused no apparent damage, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The quake was not powerful enough to trigger a tsunami warning.

The quake, about 250 miles west of Tampa, Florida, was "pretty unusual" for the area, although a 5.2 magnitude quake was recorded nearby in February, said USGS seismic analyst Jessica Sigala.

The most distant reports came from Rosman, North Carolina, and Pickens, South Carolina, both about 600 miles from the quake's center.

February 10, 2006, there was a 5.2 quake in the same place.

The 5.2 quake last winter was a surprise to me. I did some small research and discovered this was right in the center of a proposed juncture of several plates that have been pretty inactive as far as geologists have noticed. As usual, the news stories for this much bigger quake this week have been pretty thin reading. Even the National Geographic has little interesting to say.

Seems all the news media wanted to know was, did any houses fall down or any tsunami smash into houses?

AP: Florida is an unlikely spot for an earthquake because it is far from the boundaries of the massive tectonic plates that make up the Earth's crust. California, on the other hand, is perched atop the intersection of the Pacific and North American plates. On Monday alone, scientists had recorded 23 earthquakes in California by 4 p.m. None were strong enough to be noticed by residents.

*snip*

Sunday's temblor was a rare "midplate" earthquake where pent up energy from faraway plate collisions is released in random spots. There is no way to tell where the earthquake will strike. Scientists are intrigued by Sunday's temblor because the USGS recorded a magnitude 5.2 earthquake in the same spot on Feb. 10.

Well, it wasn't the 'same spot' at all unless sameness is about 400 miles apart. It was on the intersection of the hidden faultline running alongside Florida. The other quake was right below beleaguered New Orleans. It was smack dab in the middle of a great oil deposit range. There is oil along the faultline which hosted this week's quake, too.

Lots of oil deep in the seas around the planet.

Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News
September 11, 2006
Oil companies are buzzing after Chevron, Devon Energy, and Norway-based Statoil ASA last week announced the successful discovery of oil at a staggering depth beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico (map of region).

Jack 2, as the new test well is called, extends downward for more than five miles (eight kilometers).

The well delves through 7,000 feet (2,134 meters) of seawater and more than 20,000 feet (6,100 meters) of seafloor to strike oil in the lower tertiary formation—a layer of rock laid down between 65 million and 24 million years ago.

Aren't we clever! We will suck up all the world's oil in record time, just watch! Actually, all the oil from this discovery won't make any difference in overall oil extraction since it will simply fill in where other wells are dropping off. Namely, aggregate amounts of oil are at a peak and maybe even dropping despite 'discoveries' in increasingly difficult to reach places.

But the main thing to worry about is whether another New Madrid quake is pending. Like the ones in California, it isn't a matter of it never happening again, it is merely what day in the not very distant future it will happen.

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Ground Hornets (Bees) Attack Firefighters

Elaine Meinel Supkis

On top of all our other worries we seem to be in the middle of an insect invasion. This spring, a host of caterpillars attacked. Now we see the second wave of stinging flying insects. You can bet, there is a 55 Chevvy parked deep in the woods and they are responsible for the fires, too. Terrorism is their tool and they are out to get us! Gads.

Even as we try to put out the fires, they attack mercilessly.

By SUSAN GALLAGHER, Associated Press Writer 28 minutes ago
HELENA, Mont. - Firefighters battling a wildfire that has blackened nearly 290 square miles and burned 26 homes faced a new challenge, authorities said Wednesday: bees.

The blaze that started with lightning on Aug. 22 has forced hundreds to evacuate. After being grounded by smoke for a day, firefighting helicopters returned to work Wednesday, pouring water on the fire that was 45 percent contained.

Bee stings among firefighters have surged to as many as 50 a day, information officer Joan Dickerson said. Some of those stung required medical attention.

"We've had a couple of our leaders taken to the hospital," she said, but added that she had no explanation for the surge in stings.

Last month, the world was alerted to the fact that ground hornets are making mega-big nests and one colony had taken over a 55 Chevvy. Seeing the previous devastation to my own forest this last spring when caterpillars stripped every single tree of every single leaf, it doesn't surprise me to learn that the insect world is in a fight to the finish in all our forests!

All we can do is pray they don't connect with the urban terrorist cockroach cabal! These guys put bin Laden to shame, they can infiltrate anywhere, are hard to kill and even if you kill them, they hide their tiny pill shaped egg stashes in hard to find, dark corners and automatically, their spawn know who to attack and how to attack!

I already alerted Homeland Security about this but they ignore my warnings. So here it is: we are doomed!

Actually, we are pissing into nature a ton of harmones that is messing up the sex lives of aquatic creatures.

By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 6, 2006; Page A01

Abnormally developed fish, possessing both male and female characteristics, have been discovered in the Potomac River in the District and in tributaries across the region, federal scientists say -- raising alarms that the river is tainted by pollution that drives hormone systems haywire.

Flushing human waste with water is an outdated artifact of the Victorian era's 'water closets.' And we should stop doing this. Especially in deserts, everywhere, this should be forbidden. But no one takes this seriously and as the number of humans flushing waste grows each year in leaps and bounds, we also are eating more medicines with harmones which is really messing up nature and then the cows we milk, ditto!

This is one big mess that is boomeranging on us, too. I once had a bisexual cat who nearly died when it became an adult and the vet had to cut out the proto-female organs and then clip the balls. He did this for free because he never saw such a thing before.

Now, it is increasingly common and you can bet, humans will be having this problem, too, increasingly. Do note the incidence of men with women's breasts is growing. These problems don't seem to bother either the hornets (bees) or cockroaches.

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