Thursday, December 9, 2010

The Physics of the Super-Shear Earthquake Part 4

In our last episode, our heroes were about to let go the big quake.

This is the geological model.  Note the upper rock is pretty soft and crappy.

The lower rock is more like Ontario.

Now, for the show.

WHAM, BLAM KABLOOEY, BATMAN!

Look at the mess on the 15 m supershear!  The rock is shattered.  And this is where they get their 5 m/s.  At that PGV, the rock itself turns to dust.  Nothing can stand, and the whole Yuckky thing collapses.  The most damage is on the hanging wall, and that's where you'll see the highest PGV.

This is not realistic for the site.  To get supershear, you need highly stressed hard rock that has been ground smooth by previous earthquake activity.  This will be apparent by a low b-value.  For example, Haiti which goes every 300 years without a lot of small activity is such a situation.  Shattered rock like Yuck would have  a high b-value.

I believe the Hamilton fault is also primed for supershear.  As shown in the plot, you can confirm earlier activity by drilling into the hanging wall.  The rock should be shattered, with high fluid flow, and natural gas should be seeping out.  You can examine the lake sediments and look for hanging wall damage in the sediments, and natural gas pockmarks.

GUESS WHAT?   Hamilton has all that!

End of series

2 comments:

Tesla Weapon said...

Nikola Tesla caused Earthquake Milne Shide No. 333 the 1899 Cape Yakataga and Yakutat bay earthquakes,
with The Knob Hill Apparatus from his Colorado Springs lab.
That is why he spent his last ten years and died in Room #3327.
3h03m27s on September 3, 1899.

A second divisible by 3,
in a minute divisible by 3,
in an hour divisible by 3,
on a day divisible by 3,
in a month divisible by 3,
in a year divisible by 3
TIMES THREE.

And for Christ's sake it was Earthquake Milne Shide No. 333

"All repeated acts or operations I performed had to be divisible by three
and if I missed I felt impelled to do it again,
even if it took hours." -Nikola Tesla (After Causing Earthquakes)
"If you only knew the magnificence of the 3, 6 & 9;

then you would have a key to the universe."
-Nikola Tesla

Earthquake Shide No. 333
Three plus three is six, plus three is nine.

A three squared 27 day man-made seismic event.
Sept. 3"69"
Professional Paper 69
U.S. Geological Survey 69
by Lawrence Tarr and Ralph Martin
Published 1912
http://tinyurl.com/twentyseven

--
CALL 1-888-823-2679 YOURPENGUY

Harold Asmis said...

That wasn't very nice of him...