Is it just me, or has there been a lot of seismic activity lately? Seems like there've been quite a few earthquakes in the news and now volcanic action in Iceland… is it all related somehow? Or just coincidence?

Compared to when?
No, I don't think there is any great geological disturbance in the force, but I did my degree 20 years ago…

Isn't it what they call zipper-rift or something like that – basically when one point "breaks" the others are loaded with more strain, meaning the whole line starts to unzip and releave the forces causing the initial crack.

Its not called that, but it's the same process as I describe – consider a spot-welded pair of panels, pull them apart and as soon as one weld shears the others are more highly loaded, so they shear etc.

All volcanic activity is inter-related on a macroscopic scale – they're all interlinked at the plate boundaries.

Or it could be co-incidence? Three of an event that happens all over the world all the time is not enough to draw a conclusion.

No, true molgrips, but I think most have been along the same fault line have they not?

China, Iceland and Haiti?

Geologist here. Stuck in New Orleans after a geology conference…

i heard ba cabin crew have been tunneling under iceland since their strike

no idea, just seems to me that I've heard lots of news lately about earthquakes etc, got me wondering if there was a link?

Haiti is on the boundary between the cocos plate and the north american plate, iceland is between the north american plate and the eurasian plate, and china is on the border between eurasian and pacific plates. So doesn't look linked. Apart from the fact that all plates are ultimately connected as it's the surface of a sphere.

Don't worry, just means Yellowstone's about to pop and we're all doomed.

yup, the end is nigh 😕

lol @ kimbers

Not laughing otherwise, I'm due to fly to Switchbacks on Saturday morning, just hoping it'll clear by then 👿

Or maybe this is the beginning of…

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It's actually the beginning of the Peak Oil prophecy…. All aircraft grounded to stop the masses travelling and to begin to conserve the oil for government 'agencies', cars will be next – on the pretence of exhaust fumes mixing with the ash to cause some kind of poisonous atmospheric mixture, they'll keep up the chirade as long as possible, slowly but surely blockading the cities blah, blah, blah. The volcano was just convenient timing…

WE ARE DOOMED!!!!!

***Pops out to stock up on pilchards, beans and an AK47***

It'll be the volcano underneath Edinburgh next, you mark my words…

While it is possible for one period of faulting and plate activity to set off others, it's probably just coincidence- you'd be talking about an extended period of increased activity, not just 3 things. All sorts of things like this happen all the time but on a smaller scale. There are eruptions and earthquakes pretty much everyday- you can monitor them here.

(don't make me get my geek on, though)

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/

http://www.volcano.si.edu/reports/usgs/index.cfm?content=worldmap

We have alternatives to oil…we're just trying make money and control the world by oil ransom wahahahha!

Closed my windows though as the ash dust can be dangerous at ground level but only in huge quantities like a huge cloud…ahhh! 😉

How has nobody blamed the LHC yet. Come on people – foil hats on and lets start apportioning blame where it is due.

We should have listened to Dr. Hans Zarkov, he saw it coming.

I think this has probably been pointed out before.. but..
more geological activity than when exactly?

As far as I'm aware there isn't any more seismic disturbance than in any other time in the last… well… forever..

maybe you're just paying more attention to this sort of news rather than other things?

Isn't it the Tories trying to win the election?

It's bound to be due to climate change and the burning of fossil fuels as this is the cause of all problems with the planet isn't it? 🙄

I am sensing a disturbance in the force.

Last night a volcano bloke on TV said when Yellowstone goes (and it's due real soon now) it will probably take out the human race 🙁

Yellowstone's not 'due'. These things are not regular. Just because it happens on average once every x years, doesnt' mean that when it's x years since the last one it's going to happen.

Last night a volcano bloke on TV said when Yellowstone goes (and it's due real soon now) it will probably take out the human race

Cobblers. And anyway, in geological terms "soon" means any time in the next few tens of thousands of years

means any time in the next few tens of thousands of years

which might be today! And there are lots more similar catastrophes pending too.

Let's hope none of use get Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis!

WE ARE DOOMED!!!!!

This isn't news; I said this yesterday.

simonfbarnes – Member

Last night a volcano bloke on TV said when Yellowstone goes (and it's due real soon now) it will probably take out the human race

nah, a dude here at work with a phd in rocks and stuff says that all the evidence we have suggests yellowstone is a spent force.

everynow and then we get a BBC horizon thing telling us about the dramatic history of yellowstone, shortly followed by an expensive BBC docudrama about a yellowstone eruption.

we all love a good disaster story…

the BBC are great at scaremongering; they'll phone up some professor of X, at university Y, and ask him/her to say something scary about subject Z, 'but that's not really going to happen' he/she says, and so the BeeB thank him, and carry on phoning people up until they find someone prepared to say something silly to get on telly.

the BBC are great at scaremongering; they'll phone up some professor of X, at university Y, and ask him/her to say something scary about subject Z, 'but that's not really going to happen' he/she says, and so the BeeB thank him, and carry on phoning people up until they find someone prepared to say something silly to get on telly.

Tell that to the folks at Mt St Helens …

Dons tin hat

H.A.A.R.P ?

the BBC are great at scaremongering;

the programme I watched was something like "The 10 biggest volcanic events", and included Mt. Pinatubo, where seismologists detected activity and evacuated 60,000 people before the thing blew its chunks…

DrJ – Member
Tell that to the folks at Mt St Helens…

pah, Mt st Helens was nothing. just 'background noise'.

pah, Mt st Helens was nothing. just 'background noise'.

When you stand on Mt St Helens, and look across the other volcanoes in the area, and think about how much lava they spilled out when they erupted, I agree with you. Just a pimple.

the BBC are great at scaremongering

That Yellowstone thing though was fictional entertainment. Can't really complain.

That Yellowstone thing though was fictional entertainment.

you mean it's extinct now ?

USGS web site is a great resource for information on earthquakes etc.

http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2439&from=rss_home

Kos in the Aegean is the one to keep your eye on, interesting site for a big band.