S. California fishermen ‘skunked… haven’t seen a squid’, usually 10,000+ lbs/day — ‘Complete crashes’ at oyster hatcheries — Sardines, mackerel missing in areas — Pelican sites alarmingly deserted — Record # of sick sea lions — Ultra-rare whales appear after decades — Mammals, birds, fish in odd places
Junw 11, 2014: Unusual Fish Catches Off San Diego Signal Large-Scale El Niño […] “We’ve already started to see very unusual fish catches here,” [Tim Barnett, Scripps Institution of Oceanography said.] “Yellowfin tuna was caught in May — that has never happened before to anybody’s recollection [and] dorado Mahi Mahi — first of June […] has never happened” […]
Pete Thomas Outdoors, June 13, 2014: Unusual catches, whales in odd places, pelican woes could be signs that impending El Niño will be significant […] mammals, birds and fish showing up where they don’t typically belong […] Earlier this week two Bryde’s whales [were] off Huntington Beach […] Sightings off California, however, are extremely rare. […] between 1991 and 2005, there was only one […] Less than a week earlier, a large pod of pilot whales showed off Dana Point […] nearly 20 years since they were last spotted off Southern California. In late March, false killer whales, another ultra-rare visitor [were] off Orange County. […] Sam Anderson, a UC Davis biologist […] would typically encounter tens of thousands of breeding pairs of pelicans, there were only sparse numbers. Some nesting sites were alarmingly deserted. […] Anderson, however, was reluctant to place all of the blame for the pelicans’ plight on the developing El Niño.
Wall St. Journal, June 7, 2014: Record numbers of distressed sea lions have washed ashore in California for a second straight year […] a record 367 California sea lions have been admitted to the Marine Mammal Center here just north of San Francisco, nearly five times the average. […] The problem may have implications for humans, researchers say. “Sea lions are living and feeding on the same resource as humans are.” […] Evidence suggests a problem with one of the animal’s major food sources, sardines […] Some researchers suggest rising toxicity […]
Marin Independent Journal, June 16, 2014:”We are seeing an issue of availability of (oyster) seed […] There have been complete crashes at these hatcheries.”
Long Beach Press-Telegram, June 13, 2014: The squid boats that net the market squid commercially get an average of six tons nightly […] This year the boats are getting “skunked” and haven’t seen a squid for the last three nights.
Gaia’s psychic scream: why ecological destruction leads to human conflict
Thursday, August 07, 2014
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
(NaturalNews) Can you feel it? Something isn’t right with the world. Viral pandemics, wars, droughts, escalations of violence, irrational behavior, corporate greed gone wild, open border conflicts, media madness and more…
Clearly, something has shifted away from balance. At first, I thought these events were lining up just by coincidence, but now I’m convinced there’s a common cause behind it all. Something, in other words, is driving humanity into a state of madness. But what is it?
I’ve pondered this issue at great length, and I’ve come to the conclusion that we, the more sensitive members of the human species, are sensing and reflecting what might be called “Gaia’s psychic scream” — the reverberations of an intricate web of life experiencing extreme suffering as human civilization plunges the planet toward ecological collapse.
Pandemics, droughts and “natural” disasters are mere symptoms
All the superbugs and viral pandemics coming out of the woodwork are merely a symptom of that ecological collapse. The extreme droughts, earthquakes, floods and sudden sinkholes are yet more signs that humanity has pushed this global ecosystem beyond its natural limits.
Humanity has poisoned the oceans with mercury, blanketed the land with remnants of radiation, devastated genetic diversity with monoculture farming, strip-mined the hills and valleys for industrial metals, over-fished the oceans into a state of near-collapse, sprayed deadly chemicals on crops that have nearly wiped out honey bee pollinators, and bulldozed endless acres of rainforest to make way for GM soy fields.
The resources of the planet are dwindling. Fossil fuels, fossil water, old growth forests and natural artesian springs are all disappearing by the day. The shocking loss of living species has scientists declaring our planet to be in its “Sixth Great Extinction” event. Genetic pollution from biotech agriculture is now irreversible, and mysterious diseases are sweeping through banana crops, orange crops and even the horse populations of central Texas.
Because we are connected with nature, we feel this devastation in our hearts and minds
I believe we are all connected with nature. As nature suffers and dies, we feel the pain in our hearts and minds. We feel the suffering of the aquatic ecosystem as more agricultural chemicals are washed downstream and empty into the oceans. When life dies around us, those of us with empathy and compassion feel that pain.
It is my belief and observation that humans are becoming more agitated and frightened today precisely because the death and destruction of our natural world has reached a breaking point. The destruction being unleashed upon our world is sensed in our own hearts in the same way a pocket radio device can tune in and sense a broadcast station many miles away.
Gaia’s “psychic scream” is becoming so loud and so urgent that each day more people are affected by it. For some, they feel uncertainty and fear. Others feel anger and agitation. Still others experience sadness and depression. It is important for us all to recognize that because we are tuned in to nature, we are sometimes pained by its suffering. Yet the ability to feel compassion and empathy for the living world around us is a great gift… and a great burden. Having heard the desperate cries for survival, we are simultaneously burdened with doing our best to help protect Mother Nature from the poisoners of our world who are destroying her.
We cannot be at peace with each other unless we are first at peace with nature
Because the natural world is full of conscious, self-aware beings, their experience is ultimately inseparable from our own consciousness. When the natural world suffers pain and death, we feel an echo of that same pain and death. And it hurts us deeply if we dare to stay tuned in to the natural world around us. While some people can close their hearts and promote pesticides, GMOs, herbicides and other deadly chemicals, those people actually feel intense pain in their own hearts, and they quite literally seek the destruction of the world as a way to lash out from their own self-hatred.
That is why people who are not in balance with the natural world can never be in balance with themselves or others. In other words, we cannot be at peace with each other unless we are at peace with nature. The idea of attempting to achieve geopolitical peace while all our nations are waging aggressive chemical warfare against nature is ludicrous.
War between humans is a reflection of humanity’s war against nature. The kinetic weapons of human warfare are merely the physical counterparts of the chemical weapons deployed against Mother Nature each and every day.
Chemical agriculture is chemical warfare against Mother Nature
As it is practiced today, chemical agriculture is the aggressor against nature, poisoning her rivers and oceans while destroying that delicate ecological balance that once brought us “abundance” in the form of cheap food, free water and rich soils.
Now the price of food is skyrocketing, the water is disappearing and the soils have been chemically sterilized or nearly blown to dust. The abundance we once took for granted is rapidly evaporating, leaving behind a barren wasteland wholly unable to support sustainable human life. In desperation, we humans drill deeper for more water and oil, clear-cut more lands for increased profits and spray triple or quadruple the chemicals to combat the superweeds which have arisen from our foolish shortsightedness. Even in this, we utterly fail to realize the problem is not that we haven’t yet exploited enough natural resources; the problem is that we treat this planet as if we were an invading enemy force seeking to destroy it.
If we destroy our natural world, we will destroy ourselves. The process, in fact, is already well under way and may be too far along to reverse. Those who can hear Gaia’s psychic scream are very likely the last chance for human survival on an unimaginably rare and valuable planet that we have foolishly forsaken.
As Always, do your research — many conflicting reports:
Yellowstone Evacuated: Experts Claim ‘Super Volcano’ Could Erupt Within Weeks
By Chudasi Delhi – Published: 08/03/2014 – Section: WorldYellowstone National Park has been hastily evacuated as fear of the Yellowstone Caldera’s eruption is deemed to be approaching sooner than previously expected. Researchers on-site claim that the 640,000 year-old super volcano has exhibited a sudden spike of activity which indicates that it could erupt in as little as two weeks. The explosion caused by the volcano would very well throw all of United States into a 200 year long volcanic winter, with ash blotting out the sun, and pyroclastic flow irreparably damaging the surrounding ecosystem.
The scientific community is split on when exactly the volcano will erupt. Some say weeks, while other camps suggest that it could be several months. One thing they all agree on, however, is that it will happen very, very soon. Senior Volcanologist Richard Dunn gave the following report in regards to the volcano’s alarming activity. “This is something which could have never been accurately determined ahead of time. This unpredictable flux of activity is quite concerning, and flies in the face of all our previous studies in regards to this particular volcano. Our chief concern at this point is getting people to safety.”
Deadly earthquake in South Africa in Orkney and Klerksdorp – 1 fatality and 38 injured
Last update: August 6, 2014 at 4:22 pm by By Armand Vervaeck –
Update August 6, 16:12 UTC : Thirty-four workers at AngloGold Ashanti’s Vaal river operations have been treated for minor injuries and released from hospital. To be added 3 people in a training center at the gold mine and 1 man in Orkney, brings our total to 38 injured people.
Update 18:25 UTC : An aftershock has frightened the population of Orkney again late this afternoon. No specific Magnitude has been given.
Update 17:08 UTC : The earthquake shaking damaged 400 houses!
Update 17:02 UTC : The shaking map as published by the USGS. The max. theoretical shaking calculated by the USGS was MMI 6 or “strong shaking”. We however have the impression, based on the experience reports we have received, that the shaking as experienced in Orkney and Kerksdorp was MMI VII or very strong shaking.
Update 16:05 UTC : AngloGold Ashanti, a mining company, said 17 employees at two mines in the Orkney region sustained minor injuries. Earlier in the day 3 people were slightly injured in a training venue from the gold mine and 1 man was rescued from below a collapsed house. A total of 21 injured people
Update 15:47 UTC : Seismicity in South Africa, an excerpt of a ReInsurance report :
The south-western Cape has one of the highest levels of seismicity in South Africa, which is characterized by its dual source of seismicity comprising mine related events and tectonic origin earthquakes.
According to new research from Professor Kijko, director of the Aon Benfield Natural Hazard Centre Africa, the Western Cape Province, with Cape Town as the capital city, can expect a maximum earthquake close to magnitude 7.0. By comparison, the largest mine related event in the Johannesburg gold mine area is estimated at magnitude 5.6.
Historically, the most severe earthquake of magnitude 6.3 occurred on 29 September 1969 in Ceres, 100 km northeast of Cape Town. The event resulted in 12 lost lives and numerous damaged buildings in the town of Tulbagh.
On 4 September 1809, a seismic event estimated at magnitude 6.3, occurred at the Milnerton Fault, a mere 10km from Cape Town CBD and the location of the Cape Town Stadium. The largest mine related event in the history of South Africa occurred on 5 March 2005 in the Klerksdorp (Stilfontein) gold mining district, 200km west of Johannesburg, which reached a magnitude of 5.3. Below ground, substantial damage was observed within the mines, while above ground, the structural damage to property was relatively low.
South Africa Spotlight on Earthquake Mining related events add a low magnitude, high frequency facet to earthquake risk in Johannesburg. It is also believed that accumulation of water within old mine shafts of several kilometres deep can trigger small, and occasionally moderate sized, seismic events.
The tectonic origin and mining related events are considered to be largely uncorrelated. As mining activity around Johannesburg diminishes with the depletion of gold reserves, so has the risk of mining induced seismic events originating below the city.
Based on this study, there is a very big chance that also this earthquake was Mining Induced and NOT tectonic. In other words a human triggered earthquake .
(Thank you Stéphane BAIZE for this related information.)
Update 15:28 UTC : The damage at the asphalt at the Waterbeesdam. Image via Twitter courtesy and copyright @MvanRyneveld. This kind of opening in the ground normally indicates a divergent or normal faulting earthquake (2 plates are pulling way from each other). Far too soon, as said earlier what the origin from the quake would be. Our map below shows however another quake who occurred right on the same spot on June 15 ! It was nearly as strong as this one but without being felt all over South Africa. The June 15 one was shallower which explains in part the radius that is was felt. Click here for our report on June 15!
Update 15:19 UTC : We are HAPPY tot report that NO MINERS are being trapped in the Orkney mines any longer.
Johannesburg:Paramedics on Tuesday confirmed no miners were trapped in mines around Orkney in the North West following an earthquake that shook the region.
ER24 officials who had been sent to one mine following reports that some miners were trapped in 11 shafts were standing down, said spokeswoman Luyanda Majija. “There are no entrapments. Most miners working in various mines have been brought out,” Majija said.” Most shafts have been evacuated.”Around 2.30pm, only one person had been confirmed dead. “A 31-year-old man was found deceased in an old mining village,” Majija said. “He was found lying under some debris. “The incident occurred close to the epicentre of the earthquake, recorded at a magnitude of 5.5 by the Council for Geosciences in SA. (Source : Africa News Network)
Update 14:03 UTC : This was a violent earthquake for South African standards, but was “only” M5.3. We have to remark however that the shaking lasted extremely long for an earthquake from this Magnitude. Below an image from the damage in Orkney (courtesy and copyright News24).
Update 13:29 UTC : The South Africa earthquake is the 4th deadly earthquake in only 8 days time!
Update 13:12 UTC : The situation in the gold mine(s) shafts is far from sure. In 1 mine, everybody was safely brought at the surface, which is really great news.
Update 12:57 UTC : We are of course far from sure but the source of the earthquake may not be mining induced but tectonic based on the experience reports we receive from the direct epicenter area and the fact that this earthquake was felt in a 500 km radius.
Update 12:54 UTC : Every I HAVE FELT IT REPORT we receive from Klerksdorp and Orkney describes damage. This will be by far the most damaging earthquake in South-Africa since a long time.
Update 12:54 UTC : An impressive Experience Report from an ER reader living in Orkney, the direct epicenter
I could hear it coming.. at first I thought it was just the normal mining operations but then when it hit us, the whole house was shaking and stuff started falling out of the cupboards and off shelfs. I stormed outside to see if my 75 year old father was okay and I found him in the garden. The quake knocked him off his feet and his head hit a rock in the garden. He was in total shock but he is okay. My house is full of cracks. Scary !!
Update 12:28 UTC : 3 people were hurt at a training center in the Orkney Gold mine
Update 12:08 UTC : Some mineworkers at Orkney in the North West were trapped following an earth tremor on Tuesday, said emergency workers. ER24 spokesperson Luyanda Majija said they had received reports that the tremor has had a significant impact on one mine (source: http://www.timeslive.co.za/) Old buildings, old mining houses have collapsed, lots of debris, says ER24′s Werner Vermaak
Update 1200 UTC : We have now confirmation that a man in his 30′s was killed in the Orkney/Klerksdorp
Update 11:44 UTC : We have unconfirmed reports of 1 fatality. A man was caught by a collapsing wall in Orkney, the direct epicenter area
Update 11:44 UTC : Some people are trapped below a collapsed building in Orkney
Update 11:43 UTC : We have still server problems due to too many concurrent users. We apologize for that.
Update 11:36 UTC : There are now unconfirmed reports that a building has collapsed in Klerksdorp
Update 11:34 UTC : Klerksdorp : Massive shaking was working under vehicle when it started moving in the air ! A bunch of businessess roofs fell in and evaquated
Update 11:33 UTC : At least 2 minors have been injured in the Orkney mine + damage reported on buildings (mainly cracks, no collapses)
Update 11:31 UTC : Klerksdorp : Our entire school building shook and we were thrown off balance. Our school has 3 storeys and I was in the middle when it shook, we dove for the door along with our geography teacher and we were told to evacuate the building. We are on the football field, damage done to multiple classrooms.
Update 11:06 UTC : The earthquake has been felt as far as Durban and Cape Town. Offices were evacuated in Durban and Johannesburg. Our biggest concern is now the many mines and their underground workers in the area.
Important message : Due to the too high demand our servers have a hard time to cope.
Update 10:49 UTC : This report came in a couple of moments ago from Kerksdorp, the direct epicenter area, mentioning severe shaking
No structural damage so far. No electricity. Photo frames falling off walls and breaking. Hope the mines in vicinity is ok but doubt it.
Update 10:39 : This earthquake is severely dangerous because the epicenter is located right below Orkney and Klerksdorp. The breaking point is extremely shallow, which increases the risk on damage a lot.
BREAKING NEWS: We have detected a strong readers increase in Johannesburg, which normally indicates that an earthquake was felt. Are you one of the people who felt the shaking of this earthquake ? If yes, may we kindly request you to let us know what you have felt and if you have damage or not. Please use the form below. Update 10:30 UTC : The earthquake was also felt in Botswana, no other details yet Update 10:35 UTC : Preliminary data is showing a Magnitude 6.0 (Geofon), which is for sure a damaging earthquake if true. Epicenter is located (preliminary) in Klerksdorp
6km (4mi) E of Orkney, South Africa
15km (9mi) S of Stilfontein, South Africa
16km (10mi) SSE of Klerksdorp, South Africa
32km (20mi) NW of Viljoenskroon, South Africa
199km (124mi) SW of Pretoria, South Africa
144 km SW of Soweto, South Africa / pop: 1,695,047 / local time: 12:22:36.4 2014-08-05
18 km SE of Orkney, South Africa / pop: 145,801 / local time: 12:22:36.4 2014-08-05
Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 5.4
Local Time (conversion only below land) : 2014-08-05 12:22:36
Rare “Supersonic” Alaskan Quake Prompts Mass Russian Troop Move
By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers
A new report by the Emergency Situations Ministry (EMERCOM) circulating in the Kremlin today states that President Putin has ordered 5,000 additional military personal to “immediately embark” to both the Far Eastern Military District and Cuba after receiving confirmation earlier today that Alaska had been hit with a rare 6.0 magnitude supersonic earthquake.
To be noted, this report says, are that EMERCOM forces being dispatched to Cuba are not signals intelligence operatives as previously described by the propaganda emanating from the US as Putin denied their media reports that Russia was planning to reopen the Soviet-age SIGINT facility in Lourdes, Cuba which was once was the largest foreign listening post of its kind.
Instead, EMERCOM officials say in their report, the military forces being deployed to both the Far East and Cuba consist of highly trained experts needed to confront catastrophic natural disasters “in all of their forms”, including massive population relocation.
Raising the fears of EMERCOM, this report continues, were reports last month from the European Space Agency (ESA) that the data collected by their Swarm Satellites revealed that the Earth’s magnetic field has changed significantly during the past six months, with the biggest weak spots in the magnetic field having been found over the Western Hemisphere [photo top left], but has strengthened over the southern Indian Ocean since January 2014.
Where ESA scientists state these recent changes to our planets magnetic field may indicate that the Earth’s magnetic poles are about to flip, this report says, Russian experts “strongly disagree” by saying these dramatic readings give “continuing confirmation” to what is called “The Expanding Earth Theory” and may herald the complete destruction of the western regions of North America bordering the Pacific Ocean.
So concerned have Russian officials become of the events now happening, and as we reported on in our 13 June report Russia Issues Grim Report On North American Magnetic Anomaly, both scientific missions and satellite surveillance of North America have confirmed not only ESA’s findings, but have further identified “critical magnetic anomalies” radiating across nearly this entire region.
Critical to remember in understanding this EMERCOM report were the great concerns raised by Russian experts relating to the 24 May 2013 8.3 magnitude earthquake occurring off the coast of Russia in the Sea of Okhotsk, and at a depth of 642 kilometers (398 miles) was the deepest earthquake in the recorded history of mankind and was thought to be impossible to occur.
Even more critical, this report says, was the rare supersonic quake which followed this unprecedented event which upended ideas about where these unusual earthquakes strike.
Only six supersonic (or supershear) earthquakes have ever been identified, all in the last 15 years. Until now, they all showed similar features, occurring relatively near the Earth’s surface and on the same kind of fault. But the remarkably super-fast and super-deep earthquake that hit below Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula in the Sea of Okhotsk broke the pattern.
Now with today’s Alaskan quake joining this select group of supersonic earthquakes, EMERCOM officials in this report warn, it must be recognized by Western authorities that the “old rules” no longer apply and that North America may indeed be entering a period of seismic instability unheard of in modern times.
And with big earthquakes doubling in size the world over in 2014, this report further warns, the Western refusal to link these quakes with the rapidly deteriorating magnetic field is leaving tens-of-millions of their citizens at risk.
Being strongly linked by “disturbing magnetic anomalies” to the Yellowstone supervolcano region where roads there are now melting into “asphalt soup”, this report further notes, those peoples now living in the Cascadia Subduction Zone would receive the least warning when disaster strikes.
And with new reports coming from the United States that their military forces are now aggressively training at the US Army base called “Doomsday Disneyland” to control their own citizens, this report concludes, the Obama regime, apparently, knows the dangers coming to their nation as well as EMERCOM officials do.
US officials, it should be noted, characterized this purely scientific mission as a “bombing run” that came within 50 miles of California, but which their Air Forces were able to repel by their launching of F-15 fighter jets.
This report, however, states that this scientific mission was necessitated by a “severe mysterious magnetic anomaly” detected by the Kosmos 2473 satellite on 3 June occurring in the Yellowstone region of the Western United States which resulted in what is called an “earthquake swarm.”
The information relating to the linking of these two “events”, this report says, was further verified by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) magnetic anomaly maps and data for North America showing a strange magnetic “disturbance/ripple” emanating from Brooks Range and ending at Yellowstone on 3 June, both of these areas, it is important to note, being part of the Rocky Mountains that stretch more than 4,830 km (3,000 miles) from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States.
Of grave concern to Russian military authorities relating to these “events”, General Bondarev says in his report, was the “catastrophic effect” they had on the advanced “magnetoception” inertial navigation systems employed by many US-NATO-Russian warplanes which use these highly sophisticated aircraft flight devices.
Though no Russia military aircraft were near the “disturbed magnetic zone” emanating our from Yellowstone on 3 June, this report says, two US military aircraft were at its “boundaries” in the Southern California region on 4 June while this “event” was still “active” causing them both to crash.
The two US fighter jets crashing on 4 June, this report continues, were identified as a US Navy F-A-183 that went down when the pilot was attempting to land aboard the carrier Carl Vinson, and a US Marine Harrier AV-8B jet that crashed into a residential community in Imperial, about 90 miles east of San Diego, both of them occurring within hours of each other.
This report notes that no civilian aircraft would have been affected by this “magnetic anomaly” as only the most advanced military aircraft employ these “geomagnetic-satellite” coordinated flight systems which enable them to “hug the terrain” not unlike the magnetic systems used by birds and insects to navigate.
Russian concerns relating to “magnetic anomalies”, it is important to note, are related to the rapidly shifting north magnetic pole which since 2005 has been moving at a rate of 40 kilometers (25 miles) a year from Arctic Canada toward Siberia.
Frightening independent research from last year (2013) further warns that this shift is still picking up speed and according to this researcher should reach Siberia in at least within 2 years. [See video HERE (banned in US)]
One of the effects of the rapidly shifting magnetic north pole being noticed the most, this report notes, are the airport runway systems being disrupted because of it, and as we can read one such 2011 example which occurred in the US:
“Tampa International Airport was forced to readjust its runways Thursday to account for the movement of the Earth’s magnetic fields, information that pilots rely upon to navigate planes. Thanks to the fluctuations in the force, the airport has closed its primary runway until Jan. 13 to change taxiway signs to account for the shift, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The poles are generated by movements within the Earth’s inner and outer cores, though the exact process isn’t exactly understood. They’re also constantly in flux, moving a few degrees every year, but the changes are almost never of such a magnitude that runways require adjusting, said Paul Takemoto, a spokesman for the FAA.”
The most chilling aspects of General Bondarev’s report relating to these “events” are the equations he uses in postulating that what is now occurring in North America with these “mysterious magnetic anomalies” occurring over a large expanse of the Rocky Mountains, and when combined with the rapidly shifting magnetic north pole and growing evidence of global climate change, give “huge credibility” to what is called “The Expanding Earth Theory”.
Or in simple terms, this report ends, “We may be on the verge of a catastrophic North American “event” that could possibly change the world forever, we should be prepared.”
In 2011 Japan was rocked by a magnitude 9 earthquake, the most powerful in the country’s recorded history, which together with a tsunami killed more than 15,000 people and caused upwards of £20.2 billion ($34.6 billion) in damage.
But it seems the effects of the earthquake are not over yet, as the huge tremor may have disrupted Mount Fuji and placed it in a critical condition.
The result could be an eruption that mimics the last in 1707, which bathed vast swathes of Japan in ash and caused untold damage, at a time when the country was much less populated.
French and Japanese scientists say that Mount Fuji is at higher risk of eruption. Its last major eruption was in 1707, at a time when the country was much less populated. In the modern day, just 60 miles (100 kilometres) south west of Tokyo (pictured), an eruption could be catastrophic
The research was carried out by scientists at the Institute of Earth Sciences in Grenoble, France and the Institute of Global Physics in Paris, working in collaboration with Japanese scientists.
ALL ABOUT MOUNT FUJI
At an elevation of 3,776 metres (12,388 feet), Mount Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan.
It is an active stratovolcano found on Honshu island that last erupted in December 1707.
Known as the Hoei eruption, this is thought to have expelled a billion cubic metres of ash and debris.
Mount Fuji lies 60 miles (100 kilometres) south west of Tokyo, which in 1707 was called Edo.
On 22 June 2014 Mount Fuji was added to the World Heritage List as a Cultural Site, one of Japan’s ‘Three Holy Mountains’.
For the first time they observed the response of Japanese volcanoes to seismic waves produced by the Tohoko earthquake of 2011.
Their conclusions, published in Science, reveal how earthquakes can impact volcanoes and should help to assess the risk of massive volcanic eruptions worldwide.
‘Our work does not say that the volcano will start erupting, but it does show that it’s in a critical state,’ Dr Florent Brenguier, lead author of the publication, told The Guardian.
After the giant Tohoku-oki earthquake of 2011, the researchers analysed over 70 terabytes of seismic data from the network.
For the first time, they showed that the regions where the perturbations of the Earth’s crust were the greatest were not those where the shocks were the strongest.
They were in fact localised under volcanic regions, especially under Mount Fuji.
The reason for this is likely due to fluids trapped under the volcano such as boiling water and liquid magma.
‘Essentially the idea is that before this study we had very few methods to know the state of pressure of the volcano at depth,’ Dr Brenguier tells MailOnline.
‘With this new method, we are able to get insights on how the interior of the volcano, the part between the magma chamber and the surface, is affected.
‘We think that these are important in the preparation of eruption.’
+6
The new research shows how volcanoes can be affected, or induce, earthquakes. Previous research suggests Mount Fuji, which is found on Honshu Island, may be sitting on a active fault 19 miles (30 kilometres) wide that could be capable of causing magnitude 7 earthquakes, possibly enough to cause an eruption
+6
The crustal seismic velocity drop induced by the Tohoku earthquake highlights a large anomaly below Mt Fuji volcano, as seen here in this 3D rendering released by the researchers
The researchers found a high anomaly beneath the volcano, despite it being 310 miles (500 kilometres) from the epicentre of the 2011 earthquake, suggesting pressure was building.
However, Dr Brenguier adds: ‘It is not possible within our results to know when an eruption will occur or what size it will be.
‘We were just able to map the fact there is an anomaly in the partly pressurised region, so the volcanic risk in that region is higher.’
‘I can’t tell about future eruptions, but what I can say is we are expecting a new earthquake rather close to Mount Fuji.
‘Within 100 kilometres a large earthquake is expected.
‘If there were this large earthquake close, again the risk would be very high of having an eruption.’
+6
In 2011 Japan was rocked by a magnitude 9 earthquake named Tohoko, the most powerful in the country’s recorded history, which together with a tsunami killed more than 15,000 people and caused upwards of £20.2 billion ($34.6 billion) in damage
+6
The last time Mount Fuji erupted was on 16 December 1707, and that eruption was preceded by the violent 8.7-magnitude Hoei earthquake 49 days before. It spread ash of varying levels across east Japan (shown). The researchers say no eruption is imminent at the moment, however
The findings were made using 800 seismic sensors and recording fluctuations underground that can map geological disturbances.
The new method thus enabled the scientists to observe the anomalies caused by the perturbations from the earthquake in volcanic regions under pressure.
Mount Fuji, which exhibits the greatest anomaly, is probably under great pressure, although no eruption has yet followed the Tohoku earthquake.
The last time Mount Fuji erupted was on 16 December 1707, and that eruption was preceded by the violent 8.7-magnitude Hoei earthquake 49 days before.
With regards to the 2011 earthquake on 11 March, it was followed by a 6.4 magnitude quake four days later.
This confirmed the criticial state of Mounti Fuji to the researchers.
They add, however, that there is no need for evacuation or any other drastic measures in Japan yet, although caution must be taken.
‘All we can say is that Mount Fuji is now in a state of pressure, which means it displays a high potential for eruption,’ Dr Brenguier added to the Guardian.
‘The risk is clearly higher.’
+6
The researchers showed for the first time that the regions where the perturbations of the Earth’s crust were the greatest after the 2011 earthquake were not those where the shocks were the strongest, but under volcanic regions, especially under Mount Fuji (pictured from space)
The ‘critical’ nature of the volcano comes from the state of the magma stored 3.1 miles (five kilometres) beneath the surface in the rock mass.
‘This part of the crust is kind of critical in a sense that perturbation from seismic waves generated by an earthquake will generate quite significantly in the crust,’ Dr Brenguier tells MailOnline.
‘It is critical in fracturation of the rock mass below the volcano.
‘This could eventually lead to transport of magma to the surface.
‘We can say that there is a high risk, there is a zone, an area that we image, that shows an anomaly of pressure.
‘There were theories that the magma should be quite pressurised because the last eruption was 300 years ago.
‘For the first time we made a direct observation of this kind of critical stage.
But he adds it is not possible within their results for the researchers to give an exact timescale for when an eruption might occur.
Two volcanoes that get the interwebs all hot and bothered have made the news in the last week. First, Katla in Iceland produced some glacial flooding (jökulhlaups) that followed some earthquakes. Second, over at everyone’s favorite caldera, Yellowstone, there has been a lot of buzz over roads melting due to heat from the volcano. Now, as odd as it might seem, these two events are connected by the same process: geothermal (and hydrothermal) activity. When it comes down to it, most volcanoes are sitting on big heat sources. One way to lose the heat is by erupting, but probably the most important way to lose the heat is by the circulation of water in the crust. This water help keep things hot by efficiently moving heat generated by the magma that might be 5-6 kilometers (or more) below the surface and bringing it up to the surface — all of this happening when there is no threat of an eruption.
When you examine the history of a volcano, you’ll quickly see it spends much of its existence not erupting. However, during those periods of quiet between eruptions, there is plenty going on beneath the volcano. The magma is cooling and releasing heat and fluids in the surrounding rocks, causing the development of a hydrothermal system above the cooling magma. This is usually the top 5 kilometers of crust above the magma, where cracks in the rocks can help hot fluids rise from the magma and cool fluids (like rainwater or snowmelt) percolate down into the crust and heat up. So, how hot does it get under a volcano? Well, by examining the exposed innards of extinct volcanoes, we can see how much alteration the rocks and minerals have experienced. This is an important step in understand how certain valuable ore deposits, like porphyry copper, form above bodies of magma under volcanoes.
Looking at these zones of hydrothermal alteration, it is clear that the subsurface temperatures get hot — upwards of 300-500°C even multiple kilometers above any cooling magma body. Now, that heat isn’t getting there by conduction alone. Rock isn’t a very good conductor, so heat won’t travel far. However, if you heat up water traveling through cracks in the rock, you can transport a lot of heat upwards. That’s because water has a high heat capacity – think about how the Gulf Stream brings warm water from the tropics to the North Atlantic to keep Europe warm. That is what allows all the alteration to occur and for hydrothermal systems to form. These hydrothermal systems are constantly changing based on the seasons (thanks to changing access to water percolating into the crust), seismicity that opens and closes cracks and yes, even magma moving. However, most of the time, the changes in the system are merely due to new routes these hot fluids take to reach the surface.
What are the manifestations of these hydrothermal fluids? You see some of them at most active volcanoes: steam vents (fumaroles), hot springs, geysers, mud pots. Each is a different way heat escapes the ground. Steam vents tend to be the hottest, releasing steam (with other volcanic gases) at temperatures of 300-500°C. Geysers are explosions of superheated water, so they will be ~100°C. Hot springs and mud pots tend to be much cooler, with temperatures usually 20-70°C, depending of the vigor of the spring or geyser.
So, even moving water through the crust can bring a lot of heat upwards and that is common at most volcanoes — as are changes in the hydrothermal system over time. So, what is happening at Katla and Yellowstone?First, at Katla, the hydrothermal system works underneath a large ice cap (Mýrdalsjökull). Especially during warmer months, more water can percolate into the crust, causing changes in the hydrothermal system (which, by itself, can generate earthquakes). If more heated water and steam is allowed to reach the surface, then more ice can melt and pond until it is catastrophically released as a flood. Reports from the Iceland Met Office support this idea – the waters are warm as they come out from under the glacier. However, unlike an eruption-driven event, the melting isn’t accompanied by a continuously increasing number of earthquakes that would betray magma moving. So, the most likely explanation for these floods is increasing melting due to changes in the hydrothermal (geothermal) system, not an eruption. These sorts of floods have happened before during this time of year at Katla, sometimes more dramatic than others.
Now, at Yellowstone, we have a different manifestation of the same thing. The news has splashed images of melting roads on Firehole Lake Drive in an area with intense hydrothermal activity. The usual suspects (e.g., the Yellowstone disaster groupies) want to say this is evidence that an eruption is in the works. Well, again, sorry to disappoint the lunatic fringe, but it isn’t. Instead, this is a sign that the hydrothermal system under Firehole Lake Drive has shifted some — maybe due to the constant seismicity that gently shakes Yellowstone, maybe due to the water table, maybe even due to the road itself — and now heat is coming up directly under the road. Now, asphalt like that can melt at temperatures as low at ~50-70°C, so well within the range of most hydrothermal features. Measures of the road surface by NPS workers are ~70°C, so we’re well within the range of temperatures needed to melt the road. Just move where that hot spring or fumarole is coming up and boom, you have heat under the road, melting it.
I’ve seen roads get damaged or destroyed by changing hydrothermal vent locations around Lassen Peak (see above) and in Rotorua in New Zealand — both places with active hydrothermal systems and shockingly, no giant eruption following the damage to the road. There are many places in Yellowstone itself where parking lots have been closed due to changes in the location of hydrothermal vents, causing them to melt and collapse due to the increased heat. This is by no means a harbinger of doom but rather exactly what we might expect in a place with an vigorous hydrothermal system. In a sense, Yellowstone is less of a “supervolcano” than a “super plumbing system” moving fluids around the crust.
Now, the real hazard from changing hydrothermal systems at Yellowstone is not a giant “super-eruption”, but rather much more dangerous (because they are far more likely) hydrothermal explosions. These are caused by superheated water and steam getting trapped and then releasing catastrophically. These can happen without warning and if you’re too close, you’ll be covered with boiling water and debris from the explosion. As usual, the place to look for the most accurate information about potentially hazards at Yellowstone is the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. If they’re worried, so should you. They monitor the temperatures of these hydrothermal features across the caldera and if there are widespread changes, they examine them to see if they could be related to magma moving (least likely) or merely the shifting of the hydrothermal system (most likely).
So, remember, the increasing heat at the surface near a volcano isn’t always from magma — it can merely be caused by changes in how hot water and steam move through the crust. It is one of the ways that volcanoes can dissipate the heat released by magma cooling underground and more importantly, it doesn’t have to be magma that is trying to erupt.
4 km S of İzmir, Turkey / pop: 2,500,603 / local time: 18:48:33.1 2014-07-19
4 km S of İzmir, Turkey / pop: 2,500,603 / local time: 18:48:33.1 2014-07-19
1 km NE of Karabağlar, Turkey / pop: 458,000 / local time: 18:48:33.1 2014-07-19
Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 3.7
Local Time (conversion only below land) : 2014-07-19 18:48:33
