7.0 Quake Near Port Au Prince

[neufer]

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7.0 Quake Near Port Au Prince
Topography Along the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden Fault, Haiti

[geckzilla]

Man, just to reinforce the fact that climate change terribly misunderstood, there's a bunch of people who think global warming is to blame for this quake. Whiskey tango foxtrot, over.

[neufer]

<<There are two contending theories as to the origin of the Caribbean Plate.



1) One holds that it is a large igneous province that formed in the Pacific Ocean tens of millions of years ago. As the Atlantic ocean widened, North America and South America were pushed westward, separated for a time by oceanic crust. The Pacific Ocean floor subducted under this oceanic crust between the continents. The Caribbean Plate drifted into the same area, but as it was less dense (although thicker) than the surrounding oceanic crust, it did not subduct, but rather overrode the ocean floor, continuing to move eastward relative to North America and South America. With the formation of the Isthmus of Panama 3 million years ago, it ultimately lost its connection to the Pacific.

2) A more recent theory asserts that the Caribbean Plate came into being from an Atlantic hotspot which no longer exists. This theory points to evidence of the absolute motion of the Caribbean Plate which indicates that it moves westward, not east, and that its apparent eastward motion is only relative to the motions of the North American Plate and the South American Plate.>>

[bystander]

NSF: Special Report: Learning from Haiti
NSF: Webcast: Learning from Haiti

[wonderboy]

Now I read somewhere that as the ice caps melt and release all the meltwater, there is an undeniable release of pressure on the earths crust. this would allow for more freedom of movement. So if the melting of the ice caps is caused by global warming, and the freedom of the plates to move more freely is caused by the melting of the ice caps due to global warming, then there is a link to global warming which could account for the recent movement in plate tectonics causing high magnitude quakes in haiti and china.

Could this not account for the volcano in iceland, maybe a tectonic shift allowed for this 200 year old dormant volcano to spew its load all over iceland. Just a thought. But I did read a fact somewhere about the meltwater thingamajig above.

Paul.

[bystander]

Now I read somewhere

'Tiny' climate changes may trigger quakes

Climate change could spark more "hazardous" geological events such as volcanoes, earthquakes and landslides, scientists warned today.

In papers published by the Royal Society, researchers warned that melting ice, sea level rises and even increasingly heavy storms and rainfall - predicted consequences of rising temperatures - could affect the Earth's crust.

Even small changes in the environment could trigger activity such as earthquakes and tsunamis.

And some evidence suggests the consequences of climate change were already having an impact on geological activity in places such as Alaska

[Chris Peterson]

Could this not account for the volcano in iceland, maybe a tectonic shift allowed for this 200 year old dormant volcano to spew its load all over iceland. Just a thought. But I did read a fact somewhere about the meltwater thingamajig above.

I think the connection between the loss of ice sheets and altered tectonic activity is reasonably well established. In the long term, global warming may well alter earthquake patterns. Indeed, the Earth is still rebounding from the loss of ice after the most recent glacial period, and that must certainly be affecting earthquakes and volcanic activity. But I don't think there has been enough ice loss from the anthropogenic warming of the last 150 years to have a significant tectonic impact- yet.

[bystander]

Could this not account for the volcano in iceland, maybe a tectonic shift allowed for this 200 year old dormant volcano to spew its load all over iceland. Just a thought. But I did read a fact somewhere about the meltwater thingamajig above.

I think the connection between the loss of ice sheets and altered tectonic activity is reasonably well established. In the long term, global warming may well alter earthquake patterns. Indeed, the Earth is still rebounding from the loss of ice after the most recent glacial period, and that must certainly be affecting earthquakes and volcanic activity. But I don't think there has been enough ice loss from the anthropogenic warming of the last 150 years to have a significant tectonic impact- yet.

http://asterisk.apod.com/vie ... 81#p119725