Earth Event Alerts

Posted by Concept Activity Research Vault ( CARV ) on May 25, 2011

[ IMAGE ( above ): IBM Stratus and Cirrus supercomputers analyze Global Environmental Intelligence ( click to enlarge ) ]

Earth Event Alerts

by, Kentron Intellect Research Vault [ E-MAIL: KentronIntellectResearchVault@Gmail.Com ]

August 17, 2012 19:00:42 ( PST ) Updated ( Originally Published: March 23, 2011 )

MARYLAND, Fort George G. Meade – August 17, 2012 – IBM Stratus and IBM Cirrus supercomputers as well as CRAY XK6m and CRAY XT5 ( Jaguar ) massive parallel supercomputers and vector supercomputers are securely controlled via the U.S. National Security Agency ( NSA ) for analyzing Global Environmental Intelligence ( GEI ) data extracted from ground-based ( terrestrial ) monitoring stations and space-based ( extraterrestrial ) spaceborne platforms studying Earth Event ( Space Weather ) effects via High-Performance Computing ( HPC ) as well as, for:

– Weather Forecasting ( including: Space Weather ); – U.S. Government Classified Projects; – Scientific Research; – Design Engineering; and, – Other Research.

[ IMAGE ( above ): CRAY XK6m supercomputers analyze Global Environmental Intelligence ( click to enlarge ) ]

CRAY INC. largest customers are U.S. government agencies, e.g. the U.S. Department of Defense ( DoD ) Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ( DARPA ) and the U.S. Department of Energy ( DOE ) Oak Ridge National Laboratory ( ORNL ), which accounts for about 3/4 of revenue for CRAY INC. – as well as other supercomputers used worldwide by academic institutions ( universities ) and industrial companies ( private-sector firms ).

CRAY INC. additionally provides maintenance, support services and sells data storage products from partners ( e.g. BlueArc, LSI and Quantum ).

Supercomputer competitors, of CRAY INC., are:

– IBM; – HEWLETT-PACKARD; and, – DELL.

On May 24, 2011 CRAY INC. announced its new CRAY XK6 supercomputer, a hybrid supercomputing system combining its Gemini InterConnect, AMD Opteron™ 6200 Series processors ( code-named: InterLagos ) and NVIDIA Tesla 20 Series GPUs into a tightly integrated upgradeable supercomputing system capable of more than 50 petaflops ( i.e. ‘quadrillions of computing operations’ per ‘second’ ), a multi-purpose supercomputer designed for the next-generation of many-core High Performance Computing ( HPC ) applications.

The SWISS NATIONAL SUPERCOMPUTING CENTRE ( CSCS ) – located in Manno, Switzerland – is the CRAY INC. first ( 1st ) customer for the new CRAY XK6 system. CSCS ( Manno, Switzerland ) promotes and develops technical and scientific services in the field of High-Performance Computing ( HPC ) for the Swiss research community, and is upgrading its CRAY XE6m system ( nick-named: Piz Palu ) into a multiple cabinet new CRAY XK6 supercomputer. The SWISS NATIONAL SUPERCOMPUTING CENTRE ( CSCS ) supports scientists working, in:

– Weather Forecasting; – Physics; – Climatology; – Geology; – Astronomy; – Mathematics; – Computer Sciences; – Material Sciences; – Chemistry; – Biology; – Genetics; and, – Experimental Medicine.

Data additionally analyzed by these supercomputers, include:

– Ultra-Deep Sea Volcanoes located in continental plate fracture zones several miles beneath ocean basin areas ( e.g. Asia-Pacific Rim also known as the “Pacific Ring of Fire” where a circum-Pacific seismic belt of earthquakes frequently impact areas far across the Pacific Ocean in the Americas ).

Global geoscience realizes Earth ‘ground movement shaking’ earthquakes hide alot, of what people are actually walking on-top-of, large geographic land mass areas known as ‘continental shelves’ or “continental plates” that move ( tectonics ) because of superheated pressurized extrasuperconducting magnetic energy properties released from within molten magma material violently exploding beneath the surface of the Earth down in ultra-deep seas.

[ IMAGE ( above ): Global Tectonic Plate Boundaries & Major Volcano HotSpots ( click to enlarge ) ]

Significant volcanoes are positioned like dots along this global 25,000-mile circular region known as the “Pacific Ring of Fire” extending from south of Australia up the ‘entire eastcoast’ of Japan, China and the Kamchatka Pennisula of Russia to across the Aleutian Islands of Alaska and then south down the ‘entire westcoast’ of North America and Latin America.

[ IMAGE ( above ): Ultra-Deep Sea Pacific Ocean Basin ( click to enlarge ) ]

March 11, 2011 Tohoku-chiho Taiheiyo-oki Japan 9.0 earthquake held several secrets, including U.S. government contractors simultaneously monitoring a significant ”moment of magnitude” ( Mw ) Earth Event occurring parallel to the eastcoast of Japan beneath the Western Pacific Ocean where an entire suboceanic mountain range was being split in-half ( south to north ) 310-miles long and split open 100-feet wide ( east to west ), which the public was unaware of nor were they told details about.

Interestingly, the March 11, 2011 Japan island earthquakes have not yet stopped, as the swarm of 4.0, 5.0, 6.0 and 7.0 Richter scale earthquakes continue as a direct and proximate cause of erupting ‘suboceanic volcanoes‘ moving these large “plates” beginning to force yet others to slam into one another thousands of miles away.

Japan’s Western Pacific Ocean ‘eastcoast’ has a ’continental plate’ slamming point meeting the ’westcoast’ of North America near the Cascade mountain range ‘plate’ reacting in one ( 1 ) of two ( 2 ) ways, i.e. ’seaward’ ( plate thrusting toward Japan ) or ‘landward’ ( plate thrusting toward the Pacific Northwest ) of the United States and/or Canada.

What The Public Never Knew

Government leadership, globally, is acutely familiar with these aforementioned types of major Earth Events, including ‘monstrous plate tectonic pushing matches’, which usually collapse one or more ‘national infrastructures’ and typically spells ‘death’ and ‘serious injuries’ for populations in developed areas.

Extremely familiar with mass public panic resulting from Earth Event catastrophes, government ‘contingency actions’ pre-approved by ‘governing bodies’ and/or ‘national leadership’ Executive Order Directives, which although not advertised is a matter of public record, ‘immediately calls’ upon ‘all military forces’ to carry-out “risk reduction” ( ‘minimization of further damages and dangers’ ) through what is referred to as “mitigation” ( ‘disaster management’ ) within “National Disaster Preparedness Planning” ( ‘national contingency measures’ ) details citizens are unaware-of. Government decision-makers know a “national emergency can bring temporary suspension of Constitutional Rights and a loss of freedoms – a volatile subject few care to discuss because ’any significant natural disaster’ will result in government infringment on many civil liberties most populations are accustomed to enjoying.

Before 1-minute and 40-seconds had passed into the March 11, 2011 Tohoku, Japan earthquake ( Richter scale: M 9.0 ), key U.S. government decision-makers discussed the major Earth Event unfolding off Japan’s eastcoast Plate-Boundary subduction zone beneath the ultra-deep sea of the Western Pacific Ocean where Japan’s monstrous volcano mountain range had split at least 100-feet wide open and cracked 310-miles long in a northern direction headed straight for the Aleutian Islands of Alaska in the United States.

U.S. Military Contingent Standby “Red Alert” Notification

U.S. Air Force ( USAF ) ‘subordinate organization’ Air and Space Operations ( ASO ) Communications Directorate ( A6 ) ‘provides support’ over ‘daily operations’, ‘contingency actions’ and ‘general’ Command, Control, Communication and Computer Intelligence ( C4I ) for the U.S. Air Force Weather Agency ( USAFWA ) saw its 1st Weather Group ( 1ST WXG ) Directorate ready its USAFWAWXGOWS 25th Operational Weather Squadron ( OWS ) at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base ( Tucson, Arizona ) responsibile for conjuntive communication notification issuance of an Earth Event “Red Alert” immediately issued directly to U.S. Army Western Command ( WESTCOM ) with a “Standby-Ready” clause pausing Western Region ( CONUS ) mobilization of Active, Reserve and National Guard military forces at specific installations based on the Japan Earth Event “moment of magnitude” ( Mw ) Plate-Boundary consequential rebound expected to strike against the North America westcoast Plate-Boundary of the Cascadia Range reactionarily triggering its subduction zone into a Cascadia ‘great earthquake’.

CALTECH Public News Suppression Of Major Earth Event

Officials, attempting to diminish any clear public understanding of the facts only knowing a Richter scale level earthquake ‘magnitude’ ( never knowing or hearing about what a major Earth Event “moment of magnitude” ( Mw ) entailed ), only served-up ‘officially-designed double-speak psycho-babble terms’ unfamiliar to the public as ‘creative attention distraction’ announcing the “Japan earthquake experienced,” a:

– “Bilateral Rupture;” and,

– “Slip Distribution.”

The facts are that, the Japan ‘earthquake’ would ‘never have occurred’, ‘unless’:

1ST – “Bilateral Rupture” ( ‘suboceanic subterranean tectonic plate split wide open  ) occurred; followed by,

2ND – “Slip Distribution” ( ‘tectonic plate movement’ ); then finally,

3RD – “Ground Shaking” ( ‘earthquake’ ) response.   Officials failed the public without any notification a major Earth Event “moment of magnitude” ( Mw ) on the “Pacific Ring of Fire” ( circum-Pacific seismic belt ) in the Western Pacific Ocean had a, huge:

1. Continental Plate Break Off;

3. Undersea Plate Mountain Range Crack Wide Open; plus,

2. Mountain Range Split Open 310-Miles Long.

There are some, laying at rest, that might ‘not consider’ the aforementioned three ( 3 ) major Earth Event occurences significant, except those ‘still living’ on Earth.

Asia-Pacific Rim

This western Pacific Ocean huge ‘undersea mountain range’ moved ‘east’, crushing into the smaller portion of its tectonic plate’ toward the continent of Asia, which commenced continous streams of day and night significant earthquakes still registering 5.0 + and 6.0 + according to Richter scale levels of magnitude now and for over 12-days throughout the area surrounding Japan, the point nearest where the tectonic plate meets the continent of Asia within the western Pacific Ocean from where this ‘monstorous undersea mountain range’ suddenly split, sending the ‘eastern half’ – with the ‘tectonic plate’ broken beneath it – slamming into the continent of Asia.

Simultaneously pushed, even greater with more force outward ( note: explosives – like from out-of a cannon or from a force-shaped explosive – project blasts outward from the ‘initial explosive blast’ is blunted by a back-stop ) away-from the Asia continent, was this ‘monstorous undersea mountain range’ split-off ( 310-miles / 500-kilometers long ) ‘western half’ slammed west up against the Americas ‘western tectonic plates’ .

This ‘is’ the ‘major’ “Earth Event” that will have consequential global impact repurcussions, ‘officially minimized’ by ‘focusing public attention’ on a ‘surface’ Earth Event earthquake 9.0 Richter scale magnitude ( once ), while even further diminishing the hundreds of significant earthquakes that are still occuring 12-days after the initial earthquake.

Asia-Pacific Rim “Ring Of Fire”

Many are unaware the “Asia-Pacific Rim” is ( also known as ) the “Ring of Fire” whereunder the ”ultra-deep sea Pacific Ocean’ exists ‘numerous gigantic volatile volcanoes’ positioned in an ‘incredibly large circle’ ( “ring” ) around a ‘huge geographic land mass area’ comprised of ‘tectonic plates’ that ‘connect’ the ‘Eastern Asias’ to the ‘Western Americas’.

Yellowstone National Park Super Volcano

Many people are still wondering ‘why’ the Japan earthquakes have not yet stopped, and why they are being plagued by such a long swarm of siginificant earthquakes still to this very day nearly 60-days later. The multiple color video clips viewed ( below ) provides information on unusual earthquake swarm patterns and reversals while studying the World’s largest supervolcano in Wyoming ( USA ) located at Yellowstone National Park, a global public attraction viewing natural underground volcano steam vents known as geyser eruptions:

[ PHOTO ( above ): Major HotSpot at Yellowstone displays Half Dome cap of granite rock above unerupted volcano magma. ]

Ultra-Deep Sea Volcanoes

When huge undersea volcanoes erupt they dynamically force incredibly large geographic land mass plates to move whereupon simultaneously and consequentially movement is experienced on ‘surface land areas’ people know as ’earthquakes’ with their ’aftermath measurements’ provided in “Richter scale level” measurements that most do not understand. These Richter scale measurements are only ‘officially provided estimates’, as ’officials are never presented with totally accurate measurements’ because many of which are ‘not obtained with any great precision for up-to 2-years after the initial earthquake’.

Rarely are ‘precise measurements’ publicly provided, and at anytime during that 2-year interim the public may hear their previously reported earthquake Richter scale level measurement was either “officially upgraded” or “officially downgraded.” Often, this is apparently dependent when one sees ’many other countries contradicting U.S. public news announcements’ about the magnitude of a particularly controversial earthquake. An example of this was seen surrounding the March 12, 2011 earthquake in Japan:

– Japan 1st public announcement: 9.2 Richter scale;

– United States 1st public announcement: 8.9 Richter scale;

– United States 2nd public announcement: 9.0 Richter scale; and,

– United States 3rd public announcement: 9.1 Richter scale.

What will the March 12, 2011 Japan earthquake be officially reported as in 2-years? Who knows?

Never publicly announced, however are measurements of an earthquake ‘force strength pressure accumulation’ transmitted through suboceanic tectonic plates grinding against one another, a major Earth Event ‘geographic pushing process’, having been seen by U.S. NSA supercomputers from global ground and space-based monitoring analysis surrounding the “Asia-Pacific Rim Ring of Fire” – stretching from the ‘Eastern Asias’ to the ‘Western Americas’ and beyond.

This ‘domino plate tectonic principle’ results from combined amounts of ‘volcanic magmatic eruptive force strength’ and ‘tectonic plate accumulative pressure build-up’ against ‘adjacent tectonic plates’ causing ‘suboceanic, subterranean and surface land to move’ whereupon ‘how significant such amounts occur determines strength’ of both consequential ‘earthquakes’ and resultant ‘tsunamis’.

Waterway Tsunamis

When most of the public ‘hears about’ a “tsunami”, they ‘think’ ‘high waves’ near “ocean” coastal regions presented with significant floods over residents of cities nearby. Few realize the ‘vast majority of Earth’s population predominantly live all along ocean coastal regions. Few realize one ( 1 ) ‘gigantic tsunami’ could ‘kill vast populations living near oceans in the wake of popular beaches, a tough trade-off for some while logical others choose ‘living further inland’ – away from large bodies of water like ‘large lakes’ where ‘tide levels are also effected by the gravitational pull of the moon’ that can also can a ‘vast deep lake body’ bring a tsunami dependent on which direction tectonic plates move a ‘force directionalized earthquake’ creating a ‘tsunami’ with significant innundating floods over residents living in cities near those ‘large shoreline’ areas too.

What most of the public does not yet fully realize is that ‘large river bodies of water’, like the Mississippi River that is a ‘north’ to ‘south’ directional river’ could easily see ‘east to ‘west’ directional ‘tectonic plates’ move adjacent states – along the New Madrid Fault subduction zone – with significant ‘earthquakes’ – from tectonic plate movement easily capable of squeezing the side banks of even the Missippi River forcing huge amounts of water hurled out onto both ‘east’ and ‘west’ sides resulting in ‘seriously significant inland flooding’ over residents living in ‘low lying’ states of the Central Plains of the United States.

Japan “Pacific Ring Of Fire” Earthquakes To Americas Cascadia Fault Zone

Japan accounts, of a co-relative tsunami, suggest the Cascadia Fault rupture occurred from one ( 1 ) single earthquake triggering a 9-Mw Earth Event on January 26, 1700 where geological evidence obtained from a large number of coastal northern California ( USA ) up to southern Vancouver Island ( Canada ), plus historical records from Japan show the 1,100 kilometer length of the Cascadia Fault subduction zone ruptured ( split cauding that earthquake ) major Earth Event at that time. While the sizes of earlier Cascadia Fault earthquakes are unknown, some “ruptured adjacent segments” ( ‘adjacent tectonic plates’ ) within the Cascadia Fault subduction zone were created over periods of time – ranging from as little as ‘hours’ to ‘years’ – that has historically happened in Japan.

Over the past 20-years, scientific progress in understanding Cascadia Fault subduction zone behavior has been made, however only 15-years ago scientists were still debating whether ‘great earthquakes’ occured at ‘fault subduction zones’. Today, however most scientists realize ‘great earthquakes’ actually ‘do occur in fault subduction zone regions’.

Now, scientific discussions focus on subjects, of:

– Earth crust ‘structural changes’ when a “Plate Boundary” ruptures ( splits ) – Related tsunamis; – Seismogenic zone ( tectonic plate ‘locations’ and ‘width sizes’ ).

Japan America Earthquakes And Tsunamis Exchange

Great Cascadia earthquakes generate tsunamis, which most recently was at-least a ’32-foot high tidal wave’ onto the Pacific Ocean westcoast of Washington, Oregon, and California ( northern portion of state ), and that Cascadia earthquake tsunami sent a consequential 16-foot high todal wave onto Japan.

These Cascadia Fault subduction zone earthquake tsunamis threaten coastal communities all around the Pacific Ocean “Ring of Fire” but have their greatest impact on the United States westcoast and Canada being struck within ’15-minutes’ to ’40-minutes’ shortly ‘after’ a Cascadia Fault subduction zone earthquake occurs.

Deposits, from past Cascadia Fault earthquake tsunamis, have been identified at ‘numerous coastal sites’ in California, Oregon, Washington, and even as far ‘north’ as British Columbia ( Canada ) where distribution of these deposits – based on sophisticated computer software simulations for tsunamis – indicate many coastal communities in California, Oregon, Washington, and even as far ‘north’ as British Columbia ( Canada ) are well within flooding inundation zones of past Cascadia Fault earthquake tsunamis.

California, Oregon, Washington, and even as far ‘north’ as British Columbia ( Canada ) westcoast communities are indeed threatened by future tsunamis from Cascadia great earthquake event ‘tsunami arrival times’ are dependent on measuring the distance from the ‘point of rupture’ ( tectonic plate split, causing earthquake ) – within the Cascadia Fault subduction zone – to the westcoast “landward” side.

Cascadia Earthquake Stricken Damage Zone Data

Strong ground shaking from a “moment of magnitude” ( Mw ) “9″ Plate-Boundary earthquake will last 3-minutes or ‘more’, dominated by ‘long-periods of further earthquakes’ where ‘ground shaking movement damage’ will occur as far inland as the cities of Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; and Vancouver, British Columbia ( Canada ).

Tsunami Optional Wave Patterns “Following Sea”

Large cities within 62-miles to 93-miles of the nearest point of the Cascadia Plate-Boundary zone inferred rupture, will not only experience ‘significant ground shaking’ but also experience ‘extreme duration ground shaking’ lasting far longer, in-addition to far more powerful tsunamis carrying far more seawater because of their consequential “lengthened  wave periods” ( ‘lengthier distances’ between ‘wave crests’ or ‘wave curls’ ) bringing inland akin to what fisherman describe as a deadly “following sea” ( swallowing everything within an ‘even more-so powerful waterpath’ ), the result of which inland causes ‘far more significant damage’ on many ‘tall buildings’ and ‘lengthy structures’ where ‘earthquake magnitude strength’ will be felt ‘strongest’ – all along the United States of America Pacific Ocean westcoast regional areas – experiencing ‘far more significant damage’.Data Assessments Of Reoccuring Cascadia Earthquakes

cascadia ‘great earthquakes’ “mean recurrence interval” ( ‘time period occuring between one earthquake with the next earthquake ) – specific ‘at the point’ of the Cascadia Plate-Boundary – time is between 500-years up-to 600-years, however Cascadia Fault earthquakes in the past have occurred well within the 300-year interval of even less time since the Cascadia ‘great earthquake’ of the 1700s. Time intervals, however between ‘successive great earthquakes’ only a few centuries up-to 1,000 years has little ‘well-measured data’ as to ‘reoccurance interval’ because the numbers of recorded Cascadia earthquakes have rarely measured over ‘five’ ( 5 ). Data additionally indicates Cascadia earthquake intermittancy with irregular intervals when they did occur, plus data lacks ‘random distribution’ ( ‘tectonic plate shift’ or ‘earth movement’ ) or ‘cluster’ of these Cascadia earthquakes over a lengthier period of time so ‘more accurate assessments are unavailable’ for knowning anything more about them. Hence, because Cascadia earthquake ‘recurrence pattern’ is so ‘poorly known’, knowing probabilities of the next Cascadia earthquake occurrence is unfortunately unclear with extremely sparse ‘interval information’ details.

Cascadia Plate-Boundary “Locked” And “Not Locked”

Cascadia Plate-Boundary zone is ‘currently locked’ off the U.S. westcoast shoreline where it has accumulating plate tectonic pressure build-up – from other tectonic plates crashing into it for over 300-years.

The Cascadia Fault subduction zone, at its widest point, is located northwest just off the coast of the State of Washington where the maximum area of seismogenic rupture is approximately 1,100 kilometers long and 50 kilometers up-to 150 kilometers wide. Cascadia Plate-Boundary seismogenic portion location and size data is key-critical for determining earthquake magnitude, tsunami size, and the strength of ground shaking.

Cascadia Plate-Boundary “landward limit” – of only its “locked” portion – where ‘no tectonic plate shift has yet to occur’ is located between the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate and North America tectonic plate were it came to be “locked” between Cascadia earthquakes, however this “ocked” notion has only been delineated from ‘geodetic measurements’ of ‘surface land deformation’ observations. Unfortunately, its “seaward limit” has ‘very few constraints’ up-to ‘no constraints’ for travelling – on its so-called “locked zone” portion – that could certainly move at any time.

Cascadia Plate Continues Sliding

Cascadia transition zone, separating its “locked zone” from its “continuous sliding zone” headed east into the continent of North America, is constrained ( held-back ) poorly so, Cascadia rupture may extend an unknown distance – from its now “locked zone” to its “continously sliding transition zone.”

On some Earth crust faults, near coastal regions, earthquakes may also experience ‘additional Plate-Boundary earthquakes’, ‘increased tsunami tidal wave size’ plus ‘intensification of local area ground shaking’.

Earth Event Mitigation Forces Global Money Flow

Primary ‘government purpose’ to ‘establishing international’ “risk reduction” is solely to ‘minimize global costs from damages’ associated with major magnitude Earth Events similar-to but even-greater than the what happend on March 11, 2011 all over Japan.

Historical earthquake damages assist in predictive projections of damage loss studies suggesting disastrous future losses will occur in the Pacific Northwest from a Cascadia Fault subduction ‘great earthquake’. National ‘loss mitigation efforts’ – studying ‘other seismically active regions’ plus ‘national cost-benefit studies’ indicate that ‘earthquake damage loss mitigation’ may effectively ‘reduce losses’ and ‘assist recovery’ efforts in the future. Accurate data acquired, geological and geophysical research and immediate ‘technological information transfer’ to ‘national key decision-makers’ was to reduce Pacific Northwest Cascadia Fault subduction zone additional risks to those of the Western North America coastal region.

Damage, injuries, and loss of life from the next great earthquake from the Cascadia Fault subduction zone will indeed be ‘great’, ‘widespread’ and ‘significantly ‘impact national economies’ ( Canada and United States ) for years to decades in the future, which has seen a global concerted increase, in:

– International Cooperative Research; – International Information Exchanges; – International Disaster Prepardeness; – International Damage Loss Mitigation Planning; – International Technology Applications; and, – More.

Tectonics Observatory

CALTECH Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis ( ARIA ) Project collaborative members of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ), University of California Institute of Technology ( Pasadena ) Tectonics Observatory ARIA Project members, CALTECH scientists, Shengji Wei and Anthony Sladen ( of GEOAZUR ) modelled the Japan Tohoku earthquake fault zone sub-surface ( below surface ) ‘tectonic plate movement’, dervived from:

– TeleSeismic Body Waves ( long-distance observations ); and,

– Global Positioning Satellites ( GPS ) ( near-source observations ).

A 3D image of the fault moving, can be viewed in Google Earth ( internet website webpage link to that KML file is found in the “References” at the bottom of this report ) projects that fault rupture in three dimensional images, which can be viewed from any point of reference, with ‘that analysis’ depicting the rupture ( ground splitting open 100-feet ) resulting in the earthquake ( itself ) ‘triggered from 15-miles ( 24-kilometers ) beneath the ultra-deep sea of the Western Pacific Ocean, with the ‘entire island of Japan being moved east’ by 16-feet ( 5 meters ) from its ‘before earthquake location’.

[ IMAGE ( above ): NASA JPL Project ARIA Tectonic Plate Seismic Wave Direction Map ( click image to enlarge and read ) ]

National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA ) Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) at the University of California ( Pasadena ) Institute of Technology ( also known as ) CALTECH Project Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis ( ARIA ) used GEONET RINEX data with JPL GIPSY-OASIS software to obtain kinematic “precise point positioning solutions” from a bias fixing method of a ‘single station’ matched-up to JPL orbit and clock products to produce their seismic displacement projection map details that have an inherent ’95% error-rating’ that is even an ‘estimate’, which ‘proves’ these U.S. government organization claims that ‘all they supposedly know’ ( after spending billions of dollars ) are what they are ‘only willing to publicly provide may be ‘only 5% accurate’. So much for what these U.S. government organizations ‘publicly announce’ as their “precise point positioning solutions.”

Pay Any Price?

More ‘double-speak’ and ‘psycho-babble’ serves to ‘only distract the public away from the ‘truth’ as to ‘precisely what’ U.S. taxpayer dollars are ‘actually producing’, and ‘now knowing this’ if ‘those same officials’ ever ‘worked for a small business’ they would either be ‘arrested’ for ‘fraud’ or ‘fired’ because of ‘incompetence’, however since ‘none of them’ will ever ‘admit to their own incometence’ their ‘leadership’ needs to see ‘those responsible’ virtually ‘swing from’ the end of an ‘incredibly long U.S. Department of Justice rope’.

Unfortunately, the facts surrounding all this only get worse.

[ IMAGE ( above ): Tectonic Plates ( brown color ) Sinking and Sunk On Earth Core. ]

Earthquake Prediction Falacy

Earthquake prediction will ‘never be an accomplished finite science for people to ever rely upon’, even though huge amounts of money are being wasted on ‘technology’ for ‘detection sensors’ reading “Seismic Waveforms” ( also known as ) “S Waves” that ‘can be detected and stored in computer databases’, because of a significant fact that will never be learned no matter how much money or time may be devoted to trying to solve the unsolvable problem of the Earth’s sub-crustal regions that consist primarily of ‘molten lake regions’ filled with ‘floating tectonic plates’ that are ‘moving while sinking’ that ‘cannot be tested’ for ‘rock density’ or ‘accumulated pressures’ existing ‘far beneath’ the ‘land surface tectonic plates’.

The very best, and all, that technology can ever perform for the public is to record ‘surface tectonic plates grinding aganist one another’ where ‘only that action’ ( alone ) does in-fact emit the generation of upward ‘accoustic wave form patterns’ named as being ‘seismic waves’ or ‘s-waves’ that ‘do occur’ but ‘only when tectonic plates are moving’.

While a ‘public early warning’ might be helpful for curtailing ‘vehicular traffic’ crossing an ‘interstate bridge’ that might collapse or ‘train traffic’ travel being stopped, thousands of people’s lives could be saved but it would fail to serve millions more living in buildings that collapse.

Early Warning Exclusivity

Knowing governments, using publicly unfamiliar terms, have ‘statisticly analyzed’ “international economics” related to “national infrastructure preparedness” ( ‘early warning systems’ ) – both “public” ( i.e. ‘utility companies’ via ‘government’ with ‘industrial leadership’ meetings ) and “private” ( i.e. ‘residents’ via ‘television’, ‘radio’, ‘newspaper’ and ‘internet’ only ‘commercial advertisements’ ) between which two ( 2 ) sees “national disaster mitigation” ‘primary designated provisions’ for “high density population centers” near “coastal or low-lying regions” ( ‘large bodies of ocean, lake and river water’ ) “early warning” but for only one ( 1 ) being “public” ( i.e. ‘utility companies’ via ‘government’ with ‘industrial leadership’ meetings ) “in the interest of national security” limiting ‘national economic burdens’ from any significant Earth Event impact ‘aftermath’.

In short, and without all the governmentese ‘psycho-babble’ and double-speak’, costs continue being spent on ‘high technology’ efforts to ‘perfect’ a “seismic early warning” for the “exclusive use” ( ‘national government control’ ) that “provides” ( ‘control over’ ) “all major utility company distribution points” ( facilities from where ‘electrical power is only generated’ ) able to “interrupt power” ( ‘stop the flow of electricity nationwide’ from ‘distribution stations’ ), thus “saving additional lives” from “disasterous other problems” ( ‘aftermath loss of lives and injuries’ caused by ‘nuclear fallout radiation’, ‘exploding electrical transformers’, and ‘fires associated with overloaded electrical circuits’ ).

Logically, ‘much’ – but ‘not all’ – of the aforementioned ‘makes perfect sense’, except for “John Doe” or “Jane Doe” ‘exemplified anonomously’ ( herein ) as individuals whom if ‘earlier warned’ could have ‘stopped their vehicle ‘before crossing the bridge that collapsed’ or simply ‘stepped out of the way of a huge sign falling on them’ being ‘killed’ or ‘maimed’, however one might additionally consider ‘how many more would ‘otherwise be killed or maimed’ after an ‘ensuing mass public mob panics’ by ‘receiving’ an “early warning.” Tough call for many, but few.

Earth Data Publicly Minimized

Tohoku-oki earthquake ‘seismic wave form data’ showing the Japan eastcoast tectonic plate “bilaterally ruptured” ( split in-half for a distance of over 310-miles ) was obtained from the USArray seismic stations ( United States ) was analyzed and later modelled by Caltech scientists Lingsen Meng and Jean-Paul Ampuero whom created preliminary data animation demonstrating a ‘super major’ Earth Event simultaneously occurring when the ‘major’ earthquake struck Japan.

U.S. National Security Stations Technology Systems Projects

United States Seismic Array ( USArray ) Data Management Plan Earthscope is composed of three ( 3 ) Projects:

1. Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology ( IRIS ), a National Science Foundation ( NSF ) consortium of universities, Data Management Center ( DMC ) is ‘managed’ by the “United States Seismic Array ( USArray )” Project;

2. UNAVCO INC. ‘implemented’ “Plate-Boundary Observatory ( PBO )” Project; and,

3. U.S. Geological Service ( USGS ) ‘operated’ “San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth ( SAFOD )” Project at Stanford University ( California ).

Simultaneous Earth Data Management

USArray component “Earthscope” data management plan is held by USArray IRIS DMC.

USArray consists of four ( 4 ) data generating components:

Permanent Network

Advanced National Seismic System ( ANSS ) BackBone ( BB ) is a joint effort – between IRIS, USArray and USGS – to establish a ‘Permanent Network’ of approximately one-hundred ( 100 ) Earth monitoring ‘receiving stations’ ( alone ) located in the Continental United States ( CONUS ) or lowere 48 states of America, in-addition to ‘other stations’ located in the State of Alaska ( alone ).

Earth Data Multiple Other Monitors

USArray data contribution to the Advanced National Seismic System ( ANSS ) BackBone ( BB ) consists, of:

Nine ( 9 ) new ‘international Earth data accumulation receiving stations’ akin to the Global Seismic Network ( GSN );

Four ( 4 ) “cooperative other stations” from “Southern Methodist University” and “AFTAC”;

Twenty-six ( 26 ) ‘other receiving stations’ from the Advanced National Seismic System ( ANSS ) with ‘upgrade funding’ taken out-of the USArray Project “EarthScope;” plus,

Sixty ( 60 ) additional stations of the Advanced National Seismic System ( ANSS ) BackBone ( BB ) network that ‘currently exist’, ‘will be installed’ or ‘will be upgraded so that ‘data channel stream feeds’ can and ‘will be made seamlessly available’ through IRIS DMC where ‘data can be continuously recorded’ at forty ( 40 ) samples per second and where 1 sample per second can and ‘will be continously transmitted in real-time back into IRIS DMC where quality assurance is held at facilities located in ‘both’ Albuquerque, New Mexico and Golden, Colorado with ‘some’ U.S. Geological Survey ( USGS ) handling ‘some operational responsiblities’ thereof.

Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory ( ASL ) –

Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory ( ASL ) supports operation and maintenance of seismic networks for the U.S. Geological Survey ( USGS ) portion of the Global Seismographic Network ( GSN ) and Advanced National Seismic System ( ANSS ) Backbone network.

ASL runs the Advanced National Seismic System ( ANSS ) depot facility supporting the Advanced National Seismic System ( ANSS ) networks.

ASL also maintains the PASSCAL Instrument Center ( PIC ) facility at the University of New Mexico Tech ( Socorro, New Mexico ) developing, testing, and evaluating seismology monitoring and recording equipment.

Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory ( ASL ) staff are based in ‘both’ Albuquerque, New Mexico and Golden, Colorado.

Top-Down Bottom-Up Data Building Slows Earthquake Notifications

Seismic waveform ( ‘seismic Wave form frequency’ ) data is received by the Global Seismic Network ( GSN ) and Advanced National Seismic System ( ANSS ) BackBone ( BB ) network by electronic transmissions sent ‘slower than real-time’ by sending only ‘near-time data’ ( e.g. tape and compact disc recordings ) to the National Earthquake Information Center ( NEIC ) ‘station’ of the U.S. Geological Survey ( USGS ) ‘officially heralded’ for so-called “rapid earthquake response,”

Unbelieveably is the fact that in-addition to the aforementioned ‘slow Earth Event data delivery process’, an additional number of ‘data receiving stations’ have absolutely ‘no data streaming telemetry’ transmission capabilities whatsoever so, those station data recordings – on ‘tapes’ and ‘compact discs’ – are delivered by ‘other even more time consuming routes’ before that data can even reach the U.S. Geological Survey ( USGS ). In short, all the huge amounts of money being spent goes to ‘increasing computer technologies, sensors, satellites, ‘data stream channel networks’ and ‘secure facility building stations’ from the ‘top, down’ instead of building ‘monitoring stations’ and ‘recording stations’ from the ‘bottom, up’ until the entire earthquake monitoring and notification system is finally built properly. As it curreently stands, the ‘apple cart stations continue being built more and more’ while ‘apple tree stations are not receiving the proper technological nutrients’ to ‘delivery apples ( ‘data’ ) and ‘fed into notification markets’ ( ‘public’ ) where all this could do some good.

U.S. National Security Reviews Delay Already Slow Earthquake Notifications

IRIS Data Management Center ( DMC ) – after processing all incoming data streams from reporting stations around the world – then distributes seismic waveform data ‘back to’ both the Global Seismic Network ( GSN ) and Advanced National Seismic System ( ANSS ) BackBone ( BB ) network operations, but only ‘after seismic waveform data has been ‘thoroughly screened’ by what U.S. national security government Project leadership has deemed its ‘need to control all data’ by “limiting requirements” ( ‘red tape’ ) because ‘all data must undergo’ a long ardous ‘secure data clearing process’ before any data can be released’. Amusingly to some, the U.S. government – in its race to create another ‘official acronym’ of ‘double-speak’ – that national security requirement clearing process’ was ever so aptly named:

“Quality Assurance Framework” ( QUACK )

Enough said.

Let the public decide what to do with ‘those irresponsible officials’, afterall ‘only mass public lives’ are ‘swinging in the breeze’ at the very end-of a now-currently endless ‘dissinformation service rope’ being paid for by the tax-paying public.

In the meantime, while we are all ‘waiting for another Earth Event to take place far beyond, what ( besides this report ) might ‘slap the official horse’, spurring it to move quickly?

How about us? What shhould we do? Perhaps, brushing-up on a little basic knowledge might help.

Inner Earth Deeper Structure Deep Focus Earthquakes Rays And Related Anomalies

There is no substitute for knowledge, seeing information technology ( IT ) at the focal point of many new discoveries aided by supercomputing, modelling and analytics, but common sense does pretty good.

The following information, although an incredibily brief overview on such a wide variety of information topics surrounding a great deal of the in’s and out’s surrounding planet Earth, scratches more than just the surface but deep structure and deep focus impacting a multitude of generations from as far back as 700 years before the birth of Christ ( B.C. ).

Clearly referenced “Encyclopaedia Britannica” general public access information is all second-hand observations of records from other worldwide information collection sources, such as:

– Archives ( e.g. governments, institutions, public and private );

– Symposiums ( e.g. white papers );

– Journals ( professional and technical publications );

– Other information collection sources; and,

– Other information publications.

Encyclopaedias, available in a wide variety of styles and formats, are ’portable catalogs containing a large amount of basic information on a wide variety of topics’ available worldwide to billions of people for increasing their knowledge.

Encyclopedia information formats vary, and through ’volume reading’, within:

– Paper ‘books’ with either ’printed ink’ ( sighted ) or ’embossed dots’ ( Braille );

– Plastic ‘tape cartridges’ ( ‘electromagnetic’ media ) or ‘compact discs’ ( ‘optical’ media ) with ‘electronic device display’; or,

– Electron ‘internet’ ( ‘signal computing’ via ‘satellite’ or ‘telecomputing’ via ’landline’ or ‘node’ networking ) with ‘electronic device display’.

After thoroughly reviewing the Encyclopedia Britannica ‘specific compilation’, independent review found reasonable a facsimile of the original reformatted for easier public comprehension ( reproduced further below ).

Suprisingly, after that Encyclopedia Britannica ‘specific compilation’ information was reformatted for clearer reading comprehension, otherwise inner Earth ‘deep-structure’ geophysical studies formed an amazing correlation with additional factual activities within an equally amazing date chronology of man-made nuclear fracturing reformations of Earth geology geophysical – activities documented worldwide more than 1/2 century ago but somehow forgotten; either by chance or secret circumstance.

How could the Encyclopedia Britannica, or for that matter anyone else, missed something on such a grand scale that is now so obvious?

… [ TEMPORARILY EDITED-OUT FOR REVISION PURPOSES ONLY –  ] …

For more details, about the aforementioned, Click: Here!

Or,

To understand how all this relates, ‘begin with a better basic understanding’ by continuing to read the researched information ( below ):

====

Circa: March 21, 2012

Source:  Encyclopaedia Britannica

Earthquakes

Definition, Earthquake: Sudden shaking of Earth ground caused by passage of seismic waves through Earth rocks.

Seismic waves are produced when some form of energy stored in the Earth’s crust is suddenly released, usually when masses of rock straining against one another suddenly fracture and “slip.” Earthquakes occur most often along geologic faults, narrow zones where rock masses move in relation to one another. Major fault lines of the world are located at the fringes of the huge tectonic plates that make up the Earth’s crust. ( see table of major earthquakes further below )

By the early 20th Century ( 1900s ), little was understood about earthquakes until the emergence of seismology, involving scientific study of all aspects of earthquakes, now yielding answers to long-standing questions as to why and how earthquakes occur.

About 50,000 earthquakes, large enough to be noticed without the aid of instruments, occur every year over the entire Earth, and of these approximately one-hundred ( 100 ) are of sufficient size to produce substantial damage if their centers are near human habitation.

Very great earthquakes, occur on average about once a year, however over centuries these earthquakes have been responsible for millions of human life deaths and an incalculable amount of property damage.

Earthquakes A -Z

Earth’s major earthquakes occur primarily in belts coinciding with tectonic plate margins, apparent since early ( 700 B.C. ) experienced earthquake catalogs, and now more readily discernible by modern seismicity maps instrumentally depicting determined earthquake epicentres.

Most important, is the earthquake Circum-Pacific Belt affecting many populated coastal regions around the Pacific Ocean, namely:

– South America;

– North America & Alaska;

– Aleutian Islands;

– Japan;

– New Zealand; and,

– New Guinea.

80% of the energy, estimated presently released in earthquakes, comes from those whose epicentres are in the Circum-Pacific Belt belt.

Seismic activity is by no means uniform throughout the belt, and there are a number of branches at various points. Because at many places the Circum-Pacific Belt is associated with volcanic activity, it has been popularly dubbed the “Pacific Ring of Fire.”

A second ( 2nd ) belt, known as the Alpide Belt, passes through the Mediterranean region eastward through Asia and joining the Circum-Pacific Belt in the East Indies where energy released in earthquakes from the Alpide Belt is about 15%of the world total.

There are also seismic activity ‘striking connected belts’, primarily along oceanic ridges including, those in the:

– Arctic Ocean;

– Atlantic Ocean;

– Indian Ocean ( western ); and along,

– East Africa rift valleys.

This global seismicity distribution is best understood in terms of its plate tectonic setting.

Forces

Earthquakes are caused by sudden releases of energy within a limited region of Earth rocks, and apparent pressure energy can be released, by:

– Elastic strain;

– Gravity;

– Chemical Reactions; and / or,

– Massive rock body motion.

Of all these, release of elastic rock strain is most important because this form of energy is the only kind that can be stored in sufficient quantities within the Earth to produce major ground disturbances.

Earthquakes, associated with this type of energy release, are called: Tectonic Earthquakes.

Tectonics

Tectonic plate earthquakes are explained by the so-called elastic rebound theory, formulated by the American geologist Harry Fielding Reid after the San Andreas Fault ruptured in 1906, generating the great San Francisco earthquake.

According to Reid theory of elastic rebound, a tectonic earthquake occurs when energy strains in rock masses have accumulated ( built-up ) to a point where resulting stresses exceed the strength of the rocks where then sudden fracturing results.

Fractures propagate ( travel ) rapidly ( see speeds further below ) through the rock, usually tending in the same direction and sometimes extending many kilometres along a local zone of weakness.

In 1906, for instance, the San Andreas Fault slipped along a plane 270-miles ( 430 kilometers) long, a line alongwhich ground was displaced horizontally as much as 20-feet ( 6 meters ).

As a fault rupture progresses along or up the fault, rock masses are flung in opposite directions, and thus spring back to a position where there is less strain.

At any one point this movement may take place not at-once but rather in irregular steps where these sudden slowings and restartings give rise to vibrations that propagate as seismic waves.

Such irregular properties of fault rupture are now included in ‘physical modeling” and ‘mathematical modeling’ earthquake sources.

Earthquake Focus ( Foci )

Roughnesses along the fault are referred to as asperities, and places where the rupture slows or stops are said to be fault barriers. Fault rupture starts at the earthquake focus ( foci ), a spot that ( in many cases ) is close to being from 5 kilometers to 15 kilometers ‘under the surface where the rupture propagates ( travels )’ in one ( 1 ) or both directions over the fault plane until stopped ( or slowed ) at a barrier ( boundary ).

Sometimes, instead of being stopped at the barrier, the fault rupture recommences on the far side; at other times the stresses in the rocks break the barrier, and the rupture continues.

Earthquakes have different properties depending on the type of fault slip that causes them.

The usual ‘fault model’ has a “strike” ( i.e., direction, from north, taken by a horizontal line in the fault plane ) and a “dip” ( i.e. angle from the horizontal shown by the steepest slope in the fault ).

Movement parallel to the dip is called dip-slip faulting.

In dip-slip faults, if the hanging-wall block moves downward relative to the footwall block, it is called “normal” faulting; the opposite motion, with the hanging wall moving upward relative to the footwall, produces reverse or thrust faulting. The lower wall ( of an inclined fault ) is the ‘footwall’, and laying over the footwall is the hanging wall.

When rock masses slip past each other ( parallel to the strike area ) movement is known as strike-slip faulting.

Strike-slip faults are right lateral or left lateral, depending on whether the block on the opposite side of the fault from an observer has moved to the right or left.

All known faults are assumed to have been the seat of one or more earthquakes in the past, though tectonic movements along faults are often slow, and most geologically ancient faults are now a-seismic ( i.e., they no longer cause earthquakes ).

Actual faulting, associated with an earthquake, may be complex and often unclear whether in one ( 1 ) particular earthquake, where total energy, is being issued from a single ( 1 ) fault plane.

Observed geologic faults sometimes show relative displacements on the order of hundreds of kilometres over geologic time, whereas the sudden slip offsets that produce seismic waves may range from only several centimetres to tens of metres.

During the 1976 Tangshan earthquake ( for example ), a surface strike-slip of about 1 meter was observed along the causative fault east of Beijing, China, and later ( as another example ) during the 1999 Taiwan earthquake the Chelung-pu fault slipped vertically up to 8 meters.

Volcanism & Earthquake Movement

A separate type of earthquake is associated with volcano activity known as a volcanic earthquake.

Although likely, even in such cases, disturbance is officially believed resultant from sudden slip of rock masses adjacent a volcano being consequential release of elastic rock strain energy, however stored energy may be partially of hydrodynamic origin due heat provided by magma flowing movements ( tidal ) throughout underground reservoirs beneath volcanoes or releasing under pressure gas, but then there certainly is a clear corresponding distinction between geographic distribution of volcanoes and major earthquakes particularly within the Circum-Pacific Belt traversing ocean ridges.

Volcano vents, however, are generally several hundred kilometres from epicentres of most ‘major shallow earthquakes’, and it is believed ’many earthquake sources’ occur ‘nowhere near active volcanoes’.

Even in cases where earthquake focus occurs where structures are marked ’directly below volcanic vents’, officially there is probably no immediate causal connection between the two ( 2 ) activities where likely both may be resultant on same tectonic processes.

Earth Fracturing

Artificially Created Inductions

Earthquakes are sometimes caused by human activities, including:

– Nuclear Explosion ( large megaton yield ) detonations underground;

– Oil & Gas wells ( deep Earth fluid injections )

– Mining ( deep Earth excavations );

– Reservoirs ( deep Earth voids filled with incredibly heavy large bodies of water ).

In the case of deep mining, the removal of rock produces changes in the strain around the tunnels.

Slip on adjacent, preexisting faults or outward shattering of rock into where new cavities may occur.

In fluid injection, the slip is thought to be induced by premature release of elastic rock strain, as in the case of tectonic earthquakes after fault surfaces are lubricated by the liquid.

Large underground nuclear explosions have been known to produce slip on already strained faults in the vicinity of test devices.

Reservoir Induction

Of the various earthquake causing activities cited above, the filling of large reservoirs ( see China ) being most prominent.

More than 20 significant cases have been documented in which local seismicity has increased following the impounding of water behind high dams. Often, causality cannot be substantiated, because no data exists to allow comparison of earthquake occurrence before and after the reservoir was filled.

Reservoir-induction effects are most marked for reservoirs exceeding 100 metres ( 330 feet ) in depth and 1 cubic km ( 0.24 cubic mile ) in volume. Three ( 3 ) sites where such connections have very probably occurred, are the:

– Hoover Dam in the United States;

– Aswan High Dam in Egypt; and.

– Kariba Dam on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia in Africa.

The most generally accepted explanation for earthquake occurrence in such cases assumes that rocks near the reservoir are already strained from regional tectonic forces to a point where nearby faults are almost ready to slip. Water in the reservoir adds a pressure perturbation that triggers the fault rupture. The pressure effect is perhaps enhanced by the fact that the rocks along the fault have lower strength because of increased water-pore pressure. These factors notwithstanding, the filling of most large reservoirs has not produced earthquakes large enough to be a hazard.

Specific seismic source mechanisms associated with reservoir induction have been established in a few cases. For the main shock at the Koyna Dam and Reservoir in India ( 1967 ), the evidence favours strike-slip faulting motion. At both the Kremasta Dam in Greece ( 1965 ) and the Kariba Dam in Zimbabwe-Zambia ( 1961 ), the generating mechanism was dip-slip on normal faults.

By contrast, thrust mechanisms have been determined for sources of earthquakes at the lake behind Nurek Dam in Tajikistan. More than 1,800 earthquakes occurred during the first 9-years after water was impounded in this 317 meter deep reservoir in 1972, a rate amounting to four ( 4 ) times the average number of shocks in the region prior to filling.

Nuclear Explosion Measurement Seismology Instruments

By 1958 representatives from several countries, including the United States and the Russia Soviet Union government, met to discuss the technical basis for a nuclear test-ban treaty where amongst matters considered was feasibility of developing effective means to detect underground nuclear explosions and to distinguish them seismically from earthquakes.

After that conference, much special research was directed to seismology, leading to major advances in seismic signal detection and analysis.

Recent seismological work on treaty verification has involved using high-resolution seismographs in a worldwide network, estimating the yield of explosions, studying wave attenuation in the Earth, determining wave amplitude and frequency spectra discriminants, and applying seismic arrays. The findings of such research have shown that underground nuclear explosions, compared with natural earthquakes, usually generate seismic waves through the body of the Earth that are of much larger amplitude than the surface waves. This telltale difference along with other types of seismic evidence suggest that an international monitoring network of two-hundred and seventy ( 270 ) seismographic stations could detect and locate all seismic events over the globe of magnitude 4.0 and above ( corresponding to an explosive yield of about 100 tons of TNT ).

Earthquake Effects

Earthquakes have varied effects, including changes in geologic features, damage to man-made structures, and impact on human and animal life. Most of these effects occur on solid ground, but, since most earthquake foci are actually located under the ocean bottom, severe effects are often observed along the margins of oceans.

Surface Phenomena

Earthquakes often cause dramatic geomorphological changes, including ground movements – either vertical or horizontal – along geologic fault traces; rising, dropping, and tilting of the ground surface; changes in the flow of groundwater; liquefaction of sandy ground; landslides; and mudflows. The investigation of topographic changes is aided by geodetic measurements, which are made systematically in a number of countries seriously affected by earthquakes.

Earthquakes can do significant damage to buildings, bridges, pipelines, railways, embankments, and other structures. The type and extent of damage inflicted are related to the strength of the ground motions and to the behaviour of the foundation soils. In the most intensely damaged region, called the meizoseismal area, the effects of a severe earthquake are usually complicated and depend on the topography and the nature of the surface materials. They are often more severe on soft alluvium and unconsolidated sediments than on hard rock. At distances of more than 100 km (60 miles) from the source, the main damage is caused by seismic waves traveling along the surface. In mines there is frequently little damage below depths of a few hundred metres even though the ground surface immediately above is considerably affected.

Earthquakes are frequently associated with reports of distinctive sounds and lights. The sounds are generally low-pitched and have been likened to the noise of an underground train passing through a station. The occurrence of such sounds is consistent with the passage of high-frequency seismic waves through the ground. Occasionally, luminous flashes, streamers, and bright balls have been reported in the night sky during earthquakes. These lights have been attributed to electric induction in the air along the earthquake source.

Tsunamis

Following certain earthquakes, very long-wavelength water waves in oceans or seas sweep inshore. More properly called seismic sea waves or tsunamis ( tsunami is a Japanese word for “harbour wave” ), they are commonly referred to as tidal waves, although the attractions of the Moon and Sun play no role in their formation. They sometimes come ashore to great heights—tens of metres above mean tide level—and may be extremely destructive.

The usual immediate cause of a tsunami is sudden displacement in a seabed sufficient to cause the sudden raising or lowering of a large body of water. This deformation may be the fault source of an earthquake, or it may be a submarine landslide arising from an earthquake.

Large volcanic eruptions along shorelines, such as those of Thera (c. 1580 bc) and Krakatoa (ad 1883), have also produced notable tsunamis. The most destructive tsunami ever recorded occurred on December 26, 2004, after an earthquake displaced the seabed off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. More than 200,000 people were killed by a series of waves that flooded coasts from Indonesia to Sri Lanka and even washed ashore on the Horn of Africa.

Following the initial disturbance to the sea surface, water waves spread in all directions. Their speed of travel in deep water is given by the formula (√gh), where h is the sea depth and g is the acceleration of gravity.

This speed may be considerable—100 metres per second ( 225 miles per hour ) when h is 1,000 metres ( 3,300 feet ). However, the amplitude ( i.e., the height of disturbance ) at the water surface does not exceed a few metres in deep water, and the principal wavelength may be on the order of hundreds of kilometres; correspondingly, the principal wave period—that is, the time interval between arrival of successive crests—may be on the order of tens of minutes. Because of these features, tsunami waves are not noticed by ships far out at sea.

When tsunamis approach shallow water, however, the wave amplitude increases. The waves may occasionally reach a height of 20 to 30 metres above mean sea level in U- and V-shaped harbours and inlets. They characteristically do a great deal of damage in low-lying ground around such inlets. Frequently, the wave front in the inlet is nearly vertical, as in a tidal bore, and the speed of onrush may be on the order of 10 metres per second. In some cases there are several great waves separated by intervals of several minutes or more. The first of these waves is often preceded by an extraordinary recession of water from the shore, which may commence several minutes or even half an hour beforehand.

Organizations, notably inJapan,Siberia,Alaska, andHawaii, have been set up to provide tsunami warnings. A key development is the Seismic Sea Wave Warning System, an internationally supported system designed to reduce loss of life in thePacific Ocean. Centred inHonolulu, it issues alerts based on reports of earthquakes from circum-Pacific seismographic stations.

Seiches

Seiches are rhythmic motions of water in nearly landlocked bays or lakes that are sometimes induced by earthquakes and tsunamis. Oscillations of this sort may last for hours or even for 1-day or 2-days.

The great Lisbon earthquake of 1755 caused the waters of canals and lakes in regions as far away as Scotland and Sweden to go into observable oscillations. Seiche surges in lakes in Texas, in the southwestern United States, commenced between 30 and 40 minutes after the 1964 Alaska earthquake, produced by seismic surface waves passing through the area.

A related effect is the result of seismic waves from an earthquake passing through the seawater following their refraction through the seafloor. The speed of these waves is about 1.5 km (0.9 mile) per second, the speed of sound in water. If such waves meet a ship with sufficient intensity, they give the impression that the ship has struck a submerged object. This phenomenon is called a seaquake.

Earthquake Intensity and Magnitude Scales

The violence of seismic shaking varies considerably over a single affected area. Because the entire range of observed effects is not capable of simple quantitative definition, the strength of the shaking is commonly estimated by reference to intensity scales that describe the effects in qualitative terms. Intensity scales date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, before seismographs capable of accurate measurement of ground motion were developed. Since that time, the divisions in these scales have been associated with measurable accelerations of the local ground shaking. Intensity depends, however, in a complicated way not only on ground accelerations but also on the periods and other features of seismic waves, the distance of the measuring point from the source, and the local geologic structure. Furthermore, earthquake intensity, or strength, is distinct from earthquake magnitude, which is a measure of the amplitude, or size, of seismic waves as specified by a seismograph reading ( see below Earthquake magnitude )

A number of different intensity scales have been set up during the past century and applied to both current and ancient destructive earthquakes. For many years the most widely used was a 10-point scale devised in 1878 by Michele Stefano de Rossi and Franƈois-Alphonse Forel. The scale now generally employed in North America is the Mercalli scale, as modified by Harry O. Wood and Frank Neumann in 1931, in which intensity is considered to be more suitably graded.

A 12-point abridged form of the modified Mercalli scale is provided below. Modified Mercalli intensity VIII is roughly correlated with peak accelerations of about one-quarter that of gravity ( g = 9.8 metres, or 32.2 feet, per second squared ) and ground velocities of 20 cm (8 inches) per second. Alternative scales have been developed in bothJapan andEurope for local conditions.

The European ( MSK ) scale of 12 grades is similar to the abridged version of the Mercalli.

Modified Mercalli scale of earthquake intensity

  I. Not felt. Marginal and long-period effects of large earthquakes.

  II. Felt by persons at rest, on upper floors, or otherwise favourably placed to sense tremors.

  III. Felt indoors. Hanging objects swing. Vibrations are similar to those caused by the passing of light trucks. Duration can be estimated.

  IV. Vibrations are similar to those caused by the passing of heavy trucks (or a jolt similar to that caused by a heavy ball striking the walls). Standing automobiles rock. Windows, dishes, doors rattle. Glasses clink, crockery clashes. In the upper range of grade IV, wooden walls and frames creak.

  V. Felt outdoors; direction may be estimated. Sleepers awaken. Liquids are disturbed, some spilled. Small objects are displaced or upset. Doors swing, open, close. Pendulum clocks stop, start, change rate.

  VI. Felt by all; many are frightened and run outdoors. Persons walk unsteadily. Pictures fall off walls. Furniture moves or overturns. Weak plaster and masonry cracks. Small bells ring (church, school). Trees, bushes shake.

  VII. Difficult to stand. Noticed by drivers of automobiles. Hanging objects quivering. Furniture broken. Damage to weak masonry. Weak chimneys broken at roof line. Fall of plaster, loose bricks, stones, tiles, cornices. Waves on ponds; water turbid with mud. Small slides and caving along sand or gravel banks. Large bells ringing. Concrete irrigation ditches damaged.

  VIII. Steering of automobiles affected. Damage to masonry; partial collapse. Some damage to reinforced masonry; none to reinforced masonry designed to resist lateral forces. Fall of stucco and some masonry walls. Twisting, fall of chimneys, factory stacks, monuments, towers, elevated tanks. Frame houses moved on foundations if not bolted down; loose panel walls thrown out. Decayed pilings broken off. Branches broken from trees. Changes in flow or temperature of springs and wells. Cracks in wet ground and on steep slopes.

  IX. General panic. Weak masonry destroyed; ordinary masonry heavily damaged, sometimes with complete collapse; reinforced masonry seriously damaged. Serious damage to reservoirs. Underground pipes broken. Conspicuous cracks in ground. In alluvial areas, sand and mud ejected; earthquake fountains, sand craters.

  X. Most masonry and frame structures destroyed with their foundations. Some well-built wooden structures and bridges destroyed. Serious damage to dams, dikes, embankments. Large landslides. Water thrown on banks of canals, rivers, lakes, and so on. Sand and mud shifted horizontally on beaches and flat land. Railway rails bent slightly.

  XI. Rails bent greatly. Underground pipelines completely out of service.

  XII. Damage nearly total. Large rock masses displaced. Lines of sight and level distorted. Objects thrown into air.

With the use of an intensity scale, it is possible to summarize such data for an earthquake by constructing isoseismal curves, which are lines that connect points of equal intensity. If there were complete symmetry about the vertical through the earthquake’s focus, isoseismals would be circles with the epicentre (the point at the surface of the Earth immediately above where the earthquake originated) as the centre. However, because of the many unsymmetrical geologic factors influencing intensity, the curves are often far from circular. The most probable position of the epicentre is often assumed to be at a point inside the area of highest intensity. In some cases, instrumental data verify this calculation, but not infrequently the true epicentre lies outside the area of greatest intensity.

Earthquake Magnitude

Earthquake magnitude is a measure of the “size” or amplitude of the seismic waves generated by an earthquake source and recorded by seismographs.

Types and nature of these waves are described in Seismic waves ( further below ).

Because the size of earthquakes varies enormously, it is necessary for purposes of comparison to compress the range of wave amplitudes measured on seismograms by means of a mathematical device.

In 1935, American seismologist Charles F. Richter set up a magnitude scale of earthquakes as the logarithm to base 10 of the maximum seismic wave amplitude ( in thousandths of a millimetre ) recorded on a standard seismograph ( the Wood-Anderson torsion pendulum seismograph ) at a distance of 60-miles ( 100 kilometers ) from the earthquake epicentre.

Reduction of amplitudes observed at various distances to the amplitudes expected at the standard distance of 100 kilometers ( 50-miles ) is made on the basis of empirical tables.

Richter magnitudes M_L are computed on the assumption the ratio of the maximum wave amplitudes at two ( 2 ) given distances is the same for all earthquakes and is independent of azimuth.

Richter first applied his magnitude scale to shallow-focus earthquakes recorded within 600 km of the epicentre in the southern California region. Later, additional empirical tables were set up, whereby observations made at distant stations and on seismographs other than the standard type could be used. Empirical tables were extended to cover earthquakes of all significant focal depths and to enable independent magnitude estimates to be made from body- and surface-wave observations.

A current form of the Richter scale is shown in the table.

Richter scale of earthquake magnitude
magnitude level	category	effects	earthquakes per year
less than 1.0 to 2.9	micro	generally not felt by people, though recorded on local instruments	more than 100,000
3.0-3.9	minor	felt by many people; no damage	12,000-100,000
4.0-4.9	light	felt by all; minor breakage of objects	2,000-12,000
5.0-5.9	moderate	some damage to weak structures	200-2,000
6.0-6.9	strong	moderate damage in populated areas	20-200
7.0-7.9	major	serious damage over large areas; loss of life	3-20
8.0 and higher	great	severe destruction and loss of life over large areas	fewer than 3

At the present time a number of different magnitude scales are used by scientists and engineers as a measure of the relative size of an earthquake. The P-wave magnitude (M_b), for one, is defined in terms of the amplitude of the P wave recorded on a standard seismograph. Similarly, the surface-wave magnitude (M_s) is defined in terms of the logarithm of the maximum amplitude of ground motion for surface waves with a wave period of 20 seconds.

As defined, an earthquake magnitude scale has no lower or upper limit. Sensitive seismographs can record earthquakes with magnitudes of negative value and have ‘recorded magnitudes up to’ about ‘9.0’ ( 1906 San Francisco earthquake, for example, had a Richter magnitude of 8.25 ).

A scientific weakness is that there is no direct mechanical basis for magnitude as defined above. Rather, it is an empirical parameter analogous to stellar magnitude assessed by astronomers. In modern practice a more soundly based mechanical measure of earthquake size is used—namely, the seismic moment (M₀). Such a parameter is related to the angular leverage of the forces that produce the slip on the causative fault. It can be calculated both from recorded seismic waves and from field measurements of the size of the fault rupture. Consequently, seismic moment provides a more uniform scale of earthquake size based on classical mechanics. This measure allows a more scientific magnitude to be used called moment magnitude (M_w). It is proportional to the logarithm of the seismic moment; values do not differ greatly from M_s values for moderate earthquakes. Given the above definitions, the great Alaska earthquake of 1964, with a Richter magnitude (M_L) of 8.3, also had the values M_s = 8.4, M₀ = 820 × 10²⁷ dyne centimetres, and M_w = 9.2

Earthquake Energy

Energy in an earthquake passing a particular surface site can be calculated directly from the recordings of seismic ground motion, given, for example, as ground velocity. Such recordings indicate an energy rate of 10⁵ watts per square metre (9,300 watts per square foot) near a moderate-size earthquake source. The total power output of a rupturing fault in a shallow earthquake is on the order of 10¹⁴ watts, compared with the 10⁵ watts generated in rocket motors.

The surface-wave magnitude M_s has also been connected with the surface energy E_s of an earthquake by empirical formulas. These give E_s = 6.3 × 10¹¹ and 1.4 × 10²⁵ ergs for earthquakes of M_s = 0 and 8.9, respectively. A unit increase in M_s corresponds to approximately a 32-fold increase in energy. Negative magnitudes M_s correspond to the smallest instrumentally recorded earthquakes, a magnitude of 1.5 to the smallest felt earthquakes, and one of 3.0 to any shock felt at a distance of up to 20 km ( 12 miles ). Earthquakes of magnitude 5.0 cause light damage near the epicentre; those of 6.0 are destructive over a restricted area; and those of 7.5 are at the lower limit of major earthquakes.

The total annual energy released in all earthquakes is about 10²⁵ ergs, corresponding to a rate of work between 10,000,000 million and 100,000,000 million kilowatts. This is approximately one ( 1 ) 1,000th the ‘annual amount of heat escaping from the Earth interior’.

90% of the total seismic energy comes from earthquakes of ‘magnitude 7.0 and higher’ – that is, those whose energy is on the order of 10²³ ergs or more.

Frequency

There also are empirical relations for the frequencies of earthquakes of various magnitudes. Suppose N to be the average number of shocks per year for which the magnitude lies in a range about M_s. Then log₁₀ N = a − bM_s fits the data well both globally and for particular regions; for example, for shallow earthquakes worldwide, a = 6.7 and b = 0.9 when M_s > 6.0. The frequency for larger earthquakes therefore increases by a factor of about 10 when the magnitude is diminished by one unit. The increase in frequency with reduction in M_s falls short, however, of matching the decrease in the energy E. Thus, larger earthquakes are overwhelmingly responsible for most of the total seismic energy release. The number of earthquakes per year with M_b > 4.0 reaches 50,000.

Earthquake Occurrences & Plate Tectonic associations

Global seismicity patterns had no strong theoretical explanation until the dynamic model called plate tectonics was developed during the late 1960s. This theory holds that the Earth’s upper shell, or lithosphere, consists of nearly a dozen large, quasi-stable slabs called plates. The thickness of each of these plates is roughly 50-miles ( 80 km ). Plates move horizontally relative to neighbouring plates at a rate of 0.4 to 4 inches ( 1-cm to 10-cm ) per year over a shell of lesser strength called the asthenosphere. At the plate edges where there is contact between adjoining plates, boundary tectonic forces operate on the rocks, causing physical and chemical changes in them. New lithosphere is created at oceanic ridges by the upwelling and cooling of magma from the Earth’s mantle. The horizontally moving plates are believed to be absorbed at the ocean trenches, where a subduction process carries the lithosphere downward into the Earth’s interior. The total amount of lithospheric material destroyed at these subduction zones equals that generated at the ridges. Seismological evidence ( e.g. location of major earthquake belts ) is everywhere in agreement with this tectonic model.

Earthquake Types:

– Shallow Earthquakes;

– Intermediate Earthquakes;

– Deep Focus ( Deep-Foci ) Earthquakes; and

– Deeper Focus ( Deeper-Foci ) Earthquakes.

Earthquake sources, are concentrated along oceanic ridges, corresponding to divergent plate boundaries.

At subduction zones, associated with convergent plate boundaries, deep-focus earthquakes and intermediate focus earthquakes mark locations of the upper part of a dipping lithosphere slab.

Focal ( Foci ) mechanisms indicate stresses aligned with dip of the lithosphere underneath the adjacent continent or island arc.

IntraPlate Seismic Event Anomalies

Some earthquakes associated with oceanic ridges are confined to strike-slip faults, called transform faults offset ridge crests. The majority of earthquakes occurring along such horizontal shear faults are characterized by slip motions.

Also in agreement with plate tectonics theory is high seismicity encountered along edges of plates where they slide past each other. Plate boundaries of this kind, sometimes called fracture zones include, the:

– San Andreas Fault system in California; and,

– North Anatolian fault system in Turkey.

Such plate boundaries are the site of interplate earthquakes of shallow focus.

Low seismicity within plates is consistent with plate tectonic description. Small to large earthquakes do occur in limited regions well within the boundaries of plates, however such ‘intraplate seismic events’ can be explained by tectonic mechanisms other than plate boundary motions and their associated phenomena.

Most parts of the world experience at least occasional shallow earthquakes – those that originate within 60 km ( 40 miles ) of the Earth’s outer surface. In fact, the great ‘majority of earthquake foci ( focus ) are shallow’. It should be noted, however, that the geographic distribution of smaller earthquakes is less completely determined than more severe quakes, partly because the ‘availability of relevant data dependent on distribution of observatories’.

Of the total energy released in earthquakes, 12% comes from intermediate earthquakes—that is, quakes with a focal depth ranging from about 60 to 300 km. About 3 percent of total energy comes from deeper earthquakes. The frequency of occurrence falls off rapidly with increasing focal depth in the intermediate range. Below intermediate depth the distribution is fairly uniform until the greatest focal depths, of about 700 km (430 miles), are approached.

Deeper-Focus Earthquakes

Deeper-focus earthquakes commonly occur in patterns called Benioff zones dipping into the Earth, indicating presence of a subducting slab where dip angles of these slabs average about 45° – with some shallower – and others nearly vertical.

Benioff zones coincide with tectonically active island arcs, such as:

– Aleutian islands;

– Japan islands;

– Vanuatu islands; and

– Tonga.

Island arcs are, normally ( but not always ) associated, with:

Ultra-Deep Sea Ocean Trenches, such as the:

South America ( Andes mountain system ).

Exceptions to this rule, include:

– Romania ( East Europe ) mountain system; and

– Hindu Kush mountain system.

Most Benioff zones,  deep-earthquake foci and intermediate-earthquake foci are usually found within a narrow layer, however recent more precise hypocentral locations – in Japan and elsewhere – indicate two ( 2 ) distinct parallel bands of foci only 12 miles ( 20 kilometers ) apart.

Aftershocks, Swarms and Foreshocks

Major or even moderate earthquake of shallow focus is followed by many lesser-size earthquakes close to the original source region. This is to be expected if the fault rupture producing a major earthquake does not relieve all the accumulated strain energy at once. In fact, this dislocation is liable to cause an increase in the stress and strain at a number of places in the vicinity of the focal region, bringing crustal rocks at certain points close to the stress at which fracture occurs. In some cases an earthquake may be followed by 1,000 or more aftershocks a day.

Sometimes a large earthquake is followed by a similar one along the same fault source within an hour or perhaps a day. An extreme case of this is multiple earthquakes. In most instances, however, the first principal earthquake of a series is much more severe than the aftershocks. In general, the number of aftershocks per day decreases with time.

Aftershock frequency, is ( roughly ):

Inversely proportional to time since occurrence of largest earthquake in series.

Most major earthquakes occur without detectable warning, but some principal earthquakes are preceded by foreshocks.

Japan 2-Years of Hundreds of Thousands Of Earthquakes

In another common pattern, large numbers of small earthquakes may occur in a region for months without a major earthquake.

In the Matsushiro region of Japan, for instance, there occurred ( between August 1965 and August 1967 ) a ‘series of earthquakes’ numbering in the hundreds of thousands – some sufficiently strong ( up to Richter magnitude 5.0 ) causing property damage but no casualties.

Maximum frequency? 6,780 small earthquakes on just April 17, 1966.

Such series of earthquakes are called earthquake swarms.

Earthquakes, associated with volcanic activity often occur in swarms – though swarms also have been observed in many nonvolcanic regions.

Study of Earthquakes

Seismic waves

Principal types of seismic waves

Seismic Waves ( S Waves ), generated by an earthquake source, are commonly classified into three ( 3 ) ‘leading types’.

The first two ( 2 ) leading types, propagate ( travel ) within the body of the Earth, are known as:

P ( Primary ) Seismic Waves; and,

S ( Secondary ) Seismic Waves ( S / S Waves ).

The third ( 3^rd ) leading types, propagate ( travel ) along surface of the Earth, are known as:

L ( Love ) Seismic Waves; and,

R ( Rayleigh ) Seismic Waves.

During the 19^th Century, existence of these types of seismic waves were mathematically predicted, and modern comparisons show close correspondence between such ‘theoretical calculations‘ and ‘actual measurements’ of seismic waves.

P seismic waves travel as elastic motions at the highest speeds, and are longitudinal waves transmitted by both solid and liquid materials within inner Earth.

P waves ( particles of the medium) vibrate in a manner ‘similar to sound waves’ transmitting media ( alternately compressed and expanded ).

The slower type of body wave, the S wave, travels only through solid material. With S waves, the particle motion is transverse to the direction of travel and involves a shearing of the transmitting rock.

Focus ( Foci )

Because of their greater speed, P waves are the first ( 1^st ) to reach any point on the Earth’s surface. The first ( 1^st ) P-wave onset ‘starts from the spot where an earthquake originates’. This point, usually at some depth within the Earth, is called the focus (also known as ) hypocentre.

Epicenter

Point ‘at the surface’ ( immediately ‘above the Focus / Foci’ ) is known as the ‘epicenter’.

Love waves and Rayleigh waves, guided by the free surface of the Earth, trail after P and S waves have passed through the body of planet Earth.

Rayleigh waves ( R Waves ) and Love waves ( L Waves ) involve ‘horizontal particle motion’, however ‘only Rayleigh waves exhibit ‘vertical ground displacements’.

Rayleigh waves ( R waves ) and Love ( L waves ) travel ( propagate ) and disperse into long wave trains, when occurring away-from ‘alluvial basin sources’, at substantial distances cause much of the Earth surface ground shaking felt during earthquakes.

Seismic Wave Focus ( Foci ) Properties

At all distances from the focus ( foci ), mechanical properties of rocks, such as incompressibility, rigidity and density play roles, in:

– Speed of ‘wave travel’;

– Duration of ‘wave trains’; and,

– Shape of ‘wave trains’.

Layering of the rocks and the physical properties of surface soil also affect wave characteristics.

In most cases, ‘elastic behaviors occur in earthquakes, however strong shaking ( of surface soils from the incident seismic waves ) sometimes result in ‘nonelastic behavior’, including slumping ( i.e., downward and outward movement of unconsolidated material ) and liquefaction of sandy soil.

Seismic wave that encounters a boundary separating ‘rocks of different elastic properties’ undergo reflection and refraction where a special complication exists because conversion between wave types usually also occur at such a boundary where an incident P or S wave can yield reflected P and S waves and refracted P and S waves.

Between Earth structural layers, boundaries give rise to diffracted and scattered waves, and these additional waves are partially responsible for complications observed in ground motion during earthquakes.

Modern research is concerned with ‘computing, synthetic records of ground motion realistic comparisons with observed actual ground shaking’, using wave theory in complex structures.

Grave Duration Long-Periods, Audible Earthquake Frequencies, and Other Earth Anomalies

Frequency range of seismic waves is widely varied, from being ‘High Frequency’ ( HF ) as an ‘audible range’ ( i.e. greater than > 20 hertz ) to, as Low Frequency ( LF ) as subtle as ‘free oscillations of planet Earth’ – with grave Long-Periods being 54-minutes ( see below Long-Period oscillations of the globe ).

Seismic wave attenuations in rock imposes High-Frequency ( HF ) limits, and in small to moderate earthquakes the dominant frequencies extend in Surface Waves from about 1.0 Hz to 0.1 Hertz.

Seismic wave amplitude range is also great in most earthquakes.

Displacement of ground ranges, from: 10⁻¹⁰ to 10⁻¹ metre ( 4⁻¹² to 4-inches ).

Great Earthquake Speed

Great Earthquake Ground Speed Moves Faster Than 32-Feet Per Second, Squared ( 9.8 Metres Per Second, Squared ) –

In the greatest earthquakes, ground amplitude of predominant P waves may be several centimetres at periods of 2-seconds to 5-seconds, however very close to seismic sources of ‘great earthquakes’, investigators measured ‘large wave amplitudes’ with ‘accelerations of the ground exceeding ( speed of gravity ) 32.2 feet per second squared ( 9.8 meters per second, squared ) at High Frequencies ( HF ) and ground displacements of 1 metre at Low Frequencies ( LF ).

Seismic Wave Measurement

Seismographs and Accelerometers

Seismographs ‘measure ground motion’ in both ‘earthquakes’ and ‘microseisms’ ( small oscillations described below ).

Most of these instruments are of the pendulum type. Early mechanical seismographs had a pendulum of large mass ( up to several tons ) and produced seismograms by scratching a line on smoked paper on a rotating drum.

In later instruments, seismograms ( also known as seismometers ) recorded via ‘rays of light bounced off a mirror’ within a galvanometer using electric current from electromagnetic induction ‘when the pendulum of the seismograph moved’.

Technological developments in electronics have given rise to ‘higher-precision pendulum seismometers’ and ‘sensors of ground motion’.

In these instruments electric voltages produced by motions of the pendulum or the equivalent are passed through electronic circuitry to ‘amplify ground motion digitized for more exactness’ readings.

Seismometer Nomenclature Meanings

Seismographs are divided into three ( 3 ) types of instruments knowingly confused by the public because of their varied names, as:

– Short-Period;

– Intermediate-Period ( also known as Long-Period );

– Long-Period ( also known as Intermediate-Period );

– Ultra-Long-Period ( also known as Broadband or Broad-Band ); or,

– Broadband ( also known as Ultra Long-Period or UltraLong-Period ).

Short-Period instruments are used to record P and S body waves with high magnification of the ground motion. For this purpose, the seismograph response is shaped to peak at a period of about 1-second or less.

Intermediate-period instruments, the type used by the World-Wide Standardized Seismographic Network ( WWSSN ) – described in the section Earthquake observatories – had about a 20-second ( maximum ) response.

Recently, in order to provide as much flexibility as possible for research work, the trend has been toward the operation of ‘very broadband seismographs’ digitizing representation of signals. This is usually accomplished with ‘very long-period pendulums’ and ‘electronic amplifiers’ passing signals in the band between 0.005 Hz and 50 Hertz.

When seismic waves close to their source are to be recorded, special design criteria are needed. Instrument sensitivity must ensure that the largest ground movements can be recorded without exceeding the upper scale limit of the device. For most seismological and engineering purposes the wave frequencies that must be recorded are higher than 1 hertz, and so the pendulum or its equivalent can be small. For this reason accelerometers that measure the rate at which the ground velocity is changing have an advantage for strong-motion recording. Integration is then performed to estimate ground velocity and displacement. The ground accelerations to be registered range up to two times that of gravity. Recording such accelerations can be accomplished mechanically with short torsion suspensions or force-balance mass-spring systems.

Because many strong-motion instruments need to be placed at unattended sites in ordinary buildings for periods of months or years before a strong earthquake occurs, they usually record only when a trigger mechanism is actuated with the onset of ground motion. Solid-state memories are now used, particularly with digital recording instruments, making it possible to preserve the first few seconds before the trigger starts the permanent recording and to store digitized signals on magnetic cassette tape or on a memory chip. In past design absolute timing was not provided on strong-motion records but only accurate relative time marks; the present trend, however, is to provide Universal Time ( the local mean time of the prime meridian ) by means of special radio receivers, small crystal clocks, or GPS ( Global Positioning System ) receivers from satellite clocks.

Prediction of strong ground motion and response of engineered structures in earthquakes depends critically on measurements of the spatial variability of earthquake intensities near the seismic wave source. In an effort to secure such measurements, special arrays of strong-motion seismographs have been installed in areas of high seismicity around the world.

Large-aperture seismic arrays (linear dimensions on the order of about 1/2 mile ( 0.6 mile ) to about 6 miles ( 1 kilometer to 10 kilometers ) of strong-motion accelerometers now used to improve estimations of speed, direction of propagation and types of seismic wave components.

Particularly important for full understanding of seismic wave patterns at the ground surface is measurement of the variation of wave motion with depth where to aid in this effort special digitally recording seismometers have been ‘installed in deep boreholes’.

Ocean-Bottom Measurements

70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water so, ocean-bottom seismometers augment ( add to ) global land-based system of recording stations.

Field tests have established the feasibility of extensive long-term recording by instruments on the seafloor.

Japan has a ‘semi-permanent seismograph’ system of this type placed on the seafloor off the Pacific Ocean eastcoast of centralHonshu,Japan in 1978 by means of a ‘cable’.

Because of mechanical difficulties maintaining ‘permanent ocean-bottom instrumentation’, different systems have been considered.

They ‘all involve placement of instruments on the ocean bottom’, though they employ various mechanisms for data transmission.

Signals may be transmitted to the ocean surface for retransmission by auxiliary apparatus or transmitted via cable to a shore-based station. Another system is designed to release its recording device automatically, allowing it to float to the surface for later recovery.

Ocean bottom seismograph use should yield much-improved global coverage of seismic waves and provide new information on the seismicity of oceanic regions.

Ocean-bottom seismographs will enable investigators to determine the details of the crustal structure of the seafloor and, because of the relative ‘thinness of the oceanic crust‘, should make possible collection of clear seismic information about Earth’s upper mantle.

Ocean bottom seismograph systems are also expected to provide new data, on Earth:

– Continental Shelf Plate Boundaries;

– MicroSeisms ( origins and propagations ); and,

– Ocean to Continent behavior margins.

MicroSeisms Measurements

MicroSeisms ( also known as ) ‘small ground motions’ are commonly recorded by seismographs. Small weak seismic wave motions ( also known as ) MicroSeisms are ‘not generated by earthquakes’ but in some instances can complicate accurate earthquake measurement recording. MicroSeisms are of scientific interest because their form relates to Earth surface structure.

Microseisms ( some ) have ‘local cause’, for example:

Microseisms due to traffic ( or machinery ) or local wind effects, storms and rough surf against an extended steep coastline.

Another class of microseisms exhibits features that are very similar on records traced at earthquake observatories that are widely separated, including approximately simultaneous occurrence of maximum amplitudes and similar wave frequencies. These microseisms may persist for many hours and have more or less regular periods of about five to eight seconds.

The largest amplitudes of such microseisms are on the order of 10⁻³ cm ( 0.0004 inch ) and ‘occur in coastal regions’. Amplitudes also depend to some extent on local geologic structure.

Some microseisms are produced when ‘large standing water waves are formed far out at sea’. The period of this type of microseism is ‘half’ of the Standing Wave.

Observations of Earthquakes

Earthquake Observatories

During the late 1950s, there were only about seven-hundred ( 700 ) seismographic stations worldwide, equipped with seismographs of various types and frequency responses – few instruments of which were calibrated; actual ground motions could not be measured, and ‘timing errors of several seconds’ were common.

The World-Wide Standardized Seismographic Network ( WWSSN ), became the first modern worldwide standardized system established to remedy that situation.

Each of the WWSSN had six ( 6 ) seismograph stations with three ( 3 ) short-period and three ( 3 ) long-period seismographs with timing and accuracy maintained by quartz crystal clocks, and a calibration pulse placed daily on each record.

By 1967, the WWSSN consisted of about one-hundred twenty ( 120 ) stations throughout sixty ( 60 ) countries, resulting in data to provide the basis for significant advances in research, on:

– Earthquakes ( mechanisms );

– Plate Tectonics ( global ); and,

– Deep-Structure Earth ( interior ).

By the 1980s a further upgrading of permanent seismographic stations began with the installation of digital equipment by a number of organizations.

Global digital seismograph station networks, now in operation, consist of:

– Seismic Research Observatories ( SRO ) within boreholes drilled 330 feet ( 100 metres ) deep in Earth ground; and,

– Modified high-gain long-period earthquake observatories located on Earth ground surfaces.

The Global Digital Seismographic Network in particular has remarkable capability, recording all motions from Earth ocean tides to microscopic ground motions at the level of local ground noise.

At present there are about 128 sites. With this system the long-term seismological goal will have been accomplished to equip global observatories with seismographs that can record every small earthquake anywhere over a broad band of frequencies.

Epicentre Earthquakes Located

Many observatories make provisional estimates of the epicentres of important earthquakes. These estimates provide preliminary information locally about particular earthquakes and serve as first approximations for the calculations subsequently made by large coordinating centres.

If an earthquake’s epicentre is less than 105° away from an earthquake observatory, the epicentre position can often be estimated from the readings of three ( 3 ) seismograms recording perpendicular components of the ground motion.

For a shallow earthquake the epicentral distance is indicated by the interval between the arrival times of P and S waves; the azimuth and angle of wave emergence at the surface indicated by somparing sizes and directions of the first ( 1st ) movements indicated by seismograms and relative sizes of later waves – particularly surface waves.

Anomaly

It should be noted, however, that in certain regions the first ( 1st ) wave movement at a station arrives from a direction differing from the azimuth toward the epicentre. This ‘anomaly is usually explained’ by ‘strong variations in geologic structures’.

When data from more than one observatory are available, an earthquake’s epicentre may be estimated from the times of travel of the P and S waves from source to recorder. In many seismically active regions, networks of seismographs with telemetry transmission and centralized timing and recording are common. Whether analog or digital recording is used, such integrated systems greatly simplify observatory work: multichannel signal displays make identification and timing of phase onsets easier and more reliable. Moreover, online microprocessors can be programmed to pick automatically, with some degree of confidence, the onset of a significant common phase, such as P, by correlation of waveforms from parallel network channels. With the aid of specially designed computer programs, seismologists can then locate distant earthquakes to within about 10 km (6 miles) and the epicentre of a local earthquake to within a few kilometres.

Catalogs of earthquakes felt by humans and of earthquake observations have appeared intermittently for many centuries. The earliest known list of instrumentally recorded earthquakes with computed times of origin and epicentres is for the period 1899 – 1903, afterwhich cataloging of earthquakes became more uniform and complete.

Especially valuable is the service provided by the International Seismological Centre ( ISC ) in Newbury, UK that monthly receives more than 1,000,000 seismic readings from more than 2,000 seismic monitoring stations worldwide and preliminary estimates locations of approximately 1,600 earthquakes from national and regional agencies and observatories.

The ISC publishes a monthly bulletin about once ( 1 ) every 2-years. The bulletin, when published, provides ‘all available information that was’ on each of more than 5,000 earthquakes.

Various national and regional centres control networks of stations and act as intermediaries between individual stations and the international organizations.

Examples of long-standing national centers include, the:

Japan Meteorological Agency; and,

U.S. National Earthquake Information Center ( NEIC ), a subdivision of the U.S. Geological Survey ( USGS ).

Centers, such as the aforementioned, normally make ‘local earthquake estimates’, of:

– Magnitude;

– Epicentre;

– Time origin; and,

– Focal depth.

Global seismicity data is continually accessible via Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology ( IRIS ) website.

An important research technique infers the character of faulting ( in an earthquake ) from recorded seismograms.

For example, observed distributions ( of the directions of the first onsets in waves arriving at the Earth’s surface ) have been effectively used.

Onsets are called “compressional” or “dilatational,” according to whether the direction is ‘away from’ or ‘toward’ the focus, respectively.

A polarity pattern becomes recognizable when the directions of the P-wave onsets are plotted on a map – there are broad areas in which the first onsets are predominantly compressions, separated from predominantly dilatational areas by nodal curves near which the P-wave amplitudes are abnormally small.

In 1926 the American geophysicist Perry E. Byerly used patterns of P onsets over the entire globe to infer the orientation of the fault plane in a large earthquake. The polarity method yields two P-nodal curves at the Earth’s surface; one curve is in the plane containing the assumed fault, and the other is in the plane ( called the auxiliary plane ) that passes through the focus and is perpendicular to the forces of the plane.

The recent availability of worldwide broad-based digital recording enabled computer programs written estimating the fault mechanism and seismic moment based on complete pattern of seismic wave arrivals.

Given a well-determined pattern at a number of earthquake observatories, it is possible to locate two ( 2 ) planes, one ( 1 ) of which is the plane containing the fault.

Earthquake Prediction

Earthquake Observations & Interpretations

Statistical earthquake occurrences are believed theorized, not widely accepted nor detecting periodic cycles, records of which old periodicities in time and space for major / great earthquakes cataloged are as old as 700 B.C. with China holding the ‘world’s most extensive catalog’ of approximately one ( 1 ) one-thousand ( 1,000 ) destructive earthquakes where ‘magnitude ( size )’ measurements were assessed based on ‘damage reports’ and experienced periods of ‘shaking’ and ‘other observations’ determining ‘intensity’ of those earthquakes.

Earthquake Attributions to Postulation

Precursor predictability approaches involve what some believe is sheer postulating what the initial trigger mechanisms are that force Earth ruptures, however where this becomes bizarre is where such forces have been attributed, to:

– Weather Severity;

– Volcano Activity; and,

– Ocean Tide Force ( Moon ).

EXAMPLE: Correlations between physical phenomena assumed providing trigger mechanisms for earthquake repetition.

Professionals believe such must always be made to discover whether a causative link is actually present, and they further believe that to-date: ‘no cases possess any trigger mechanism’ – insofaras ‘moderate earthquakes’ to ‘large earthquakes’ unequivocally finding satisfaction with various necessary criteria.

Statistical methods also have been tried with populations of regional earthquakes with such suggested, but never established generally, that the slope b of the regression line between the logarithm of the number of earthquakes and the magnitude for a region may change characteristically with time.

Specifically, the claim is that the b value for the population of ‘foreshocks of a major earthquake’ may be ‘significantly smaller’ than the mean b value for the region averaged ‘over a long interval of time’.

Elastic rebound theory, of earthquake sources, allows rough prediction of the occurrence of large shallow earthquakes – for example – Harry F. Reid gave a crude forecast of the next great earthquake near San Francisco ( theory also predicted, of-course, the place would be along the San Andreas Fault or associated fault ). Geodetic data indicated that during an interval of 50 years relative displacements of 3.2 metres ( 10-1/2 feet ) had occurred at distant points across the fault. Elastic-rebound maximum offset ( along the fault in the 1906 earthquake ) was 6.5 metres. Therefore, ( 6.5 ÷ 3.2 ) × 50 or about 100-years would again elapse before sufficient strain accumulated for the occurrence of an earthquake comparable to that of 1906; premises being regional strain will grow uniformly and various constraints have not been altered by the great 1906 rupture itself ( such as by the onset of slow fault slip ).

Such ‘strain rates’ are now, however being more adequately measured ( along a number of active faults, e.g.San Andreas Fault) using networks of GPS sensors.

Earthquake Prediction Research

For many years prediction research has been influenced by the basic argument that ‘strain accumulates in rock masses in the vicinity of a fault, resulting in crustal deformation.

Deformations have been measured in ‘horizontal directions’ along active faults via ‘trilateration’ and ‘triangulation’ and in ‘vertical directions’ via ‘precise leveling and tiltmeters’.

Investigators ( some ) believe ‘ground-water level changes occur prior to earthquakes’ with variations of such reports from China.

Ground water levels respond to an array of complex factors ( e.g. ‘rainfall’ ) where such would have to be removed if changes in water level changes were studied in relation to earthquakes.

Phenomena Precursor Premonitories

Dilatancy theory ( i.e., volume increase of rock prior to rupture ) once occupied a central position in discussions of premonitory phenomena of earthquakes, but now receives less support based on observations that many solids exhibit dilatancy during deformation. For earthquake prediction, significance of dilatancy, if real, effects various measurable quantities of crustal Earth, i.e. seismic velocity, electric resistivity and ground and water levels. Consequences of dilatancy for earthquake prediction are summarized in the table ( below ):

The best-studied consequence is the effect on seismic velocities. The influence of internal cracks and pores on the elastic properties of rocks can be clearly demonstrated in laboratory measurements of those properties as a function of hydrostatic pressure. In the case of saturated rocks, experiments predict – for shallow earthquakes – that dilatancy occurs as a portion of the crust is stressed to failure, causing a decrease in the velocities of seismic waves. Recovery of velocity is brought about by subsequent rise of the pore pressure of water, which also has the effect of weakening the rock and enhancing fault slip.

Strain buildup in the focal region may have measurable effects on other observable properties, including electrical conductivity and gas concentration. Because the electrical conductivity of rocks depends largely on interconnected water channels within the rocks, resistivity may increase before the cracks become saturated. As pore fluid is expelled from the closing cracks, the local water table would rise and concentrations of gases such as radioactive radon would increase. No unequivocal confirming measurements have yet been published.

Geologic methods of extending the seismicity record back from the present also are being explored. Field studies indicate that the sequence of surface ruptures along major active faults associated with large earthquakes can sometimes be constructed.

An example is the series of large earthquakes inTurkeyin the 20th Century, which were caused mainly by successive westward ruptures of the North Anatolian Fault.

Liquefaction effects preserved in beds of sand and peat have provided evidence ( using radiometric dating methods ) for large paleoearthquakes back more than 1,000 years in many seismically active zones, including the U.S. Northwest Pacific Ocean Coastal Region.

Less well-grounded precursory phenomena, particularly earthquake lights and animal behaviour, sometimes draw more public attention than the precursors discussed above.

Unusual lights in the sky reported, and abnormal animal behaviour, preceding earthquakes are known to seismologists – mostly in anecdotal form.

Both phenomena, are usually explained away in terms of ( prior to earthquakes ) there being:

– Gaseous emmissions from Earth ground;

– Electric stimuli ( various ), e.g. HAARP, etcetera, from Earth ground; and,

– Acoustic stimuli ( various ), e.g. Seismic Wave subsonic emmissions from Earth ground.

At the present time, there is no definitive experimental evidence supporting reported claims of animals sometimes sensing an approaching earthquake.

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Earthquake Hazard Reduction Methods

Considerable work has been done in seismology to explain the characteristics of the recorded ground motions in earthquakes. Such knowledge is needed to predict ground motions in future earthquakes so that earthquake-resistant structures can be designed.

Although earthquakes cause death and destruction via such secondary effects ( i.e. landslides, tsunamis, fires and fault rupture ), the greatest losses ( human lives and property ) result from ‘collapsing man-made structures’ amidst violent ground shaking.

The most effective way to mitigate ( minimize ) damage from earthquakes – from an engineering standpoint – is to design and construct structures capable of withstanding ‘strong ground motions’.

Interpreting recorded ground motions

Most ‘elastic waves’ recorded ( close to an extended fault source ) are complicated and difficult to interpret uniquely.

Understanding such, near-source motion, can be viewed as a 3 part problem.

The first ( 1st ) part stems from ‘elastic wave generations’ radiating ( from the slipping fault ) as the ‘moving rupture sweeps-out an area of slip’ ( along the fault plane ) – within a given time.

Wave pattern production dependencies on several parameters, such as:

Fault dimension and rupture velocity.

Elastic waves ( various types ) radiate, from the vicinity of the moving rupture, in all directions.

Geometric and frictional properties of the fault, critically affect wave pattern radiation from it.

The second ( 2nd ) part of the problem concerns the passage of the waves through the intervening rocks to the site and the effect of geologic conditions.

The third ( 3rd ) part involves the conditions at the recording site itself, such as topography and highly attenuating soils. All these questions must be considered when estimating likely earthquake effects at a site of any proposed structure.

Experience has shown that the ground strong-motion recordings have a variable pattern in detail but predictable regular shapes in general ( except in the case of strong multiple earthquakes ).

EXAMPLE: Actual ground shaking ( acceleration, velocity and displacement ) recorded during an earthquake ( see figure below ).

In a strong horizontal shaking of the ground near the fault source, there is an initial segment of motion made up mainly of P waves, which frequently manifest themselves strongly in the vertical motion. This is followed by the onset of S waves, often associated with a longer-period pulse of ground velocity and displacement related to the near-site fault slip or fling. This pulse is often enhanced in the direction of the fault rupture and normal to it. After the S onset there is shaking that consists of a mixture of S and P waves, but the S motions become dominant as the duration increases. Later, in the horizontal component, surface waves dominate, mixed with some S body waves. Depending on the distance of the site from the fault and the structure of the intervening rocks and soils, surface waves are spread out into long trains.

Expectant Seismic Hazard Maps Constructed

In many regions, seismic expectancy maps or hazard maps are now available for planning purposes. The anticipated intensity of ground shaking is represented by a number called the peak acceleration or the peak velocity.

To avoid weaknesses found in earlier earthquake hazard maps, the following general principles are usually adopted today:

The map should take into account not only the size but also the frequency of earthquakes.

The broad regionalization pattern should use historical seismicity as a database, including the following factors: major tectonic trends, acceleration attenuation curves, and intensity reports.

Regionalization should be defined by means of contour lines with design parameters referred to ordered numbers on neighbouring contour lines ( this procedure minimizes sensitivity concerning the exact location of boundary lines between separate zones ).

The map should be simple and not attempt to microzone the region.

The mapped contoured surface should not contain discontinuities, so that the level of hazard progresses gradually and in order across any profile drawn on the map.

Developing resistant structures

Developing engineered structural designs that are able to resist the forces generated by seismic waves can be achieved either by following building codes based on hazard maps or by appropriate methods of analysis. Many countries reserve theoretical structural analyses for the larger, more costly, or critical buildings to be constructed in the most seismically active regions, while simply requiring that ordinary structures conform to local building codes. Economic realities usually determine the goal, not of preventing all damage in all earthquakes but of minimizing damage in moderate, more common earthquakes and ensuring no major collapse at the strongest intensities. An essential part of what goes into engineering decisions on design and into the development and revision of earthquake-resistant design codes is therefore seismological, involving measurement of strong seismic waves, field studies of intensity and damage, and the probability of earthquake occurrence.

Earthquake risk can also be reduced by rapid post-earthquake response. Strong-motion accelerographs have been connected in some urban areas, such as Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Mexico City, to interactive computers.

Recorded waves are correlated with seismic intensity scales and rapidly displayed graphically on regional maps via the World Wide Web.

Exploration of the Earth’s interior with seismic waves

Seismological Tomography

Deep Structure Earth seismological data from several sources, including:

– Nuclear explosions containing P-Waves and S-Waves;

– Earthquakes containing P-Waves and S-Waves;

– Earth ‘surface wave dispersions’ from ‘distant earthquakes’; and,

– Earth ‘planetary vibration’ from ‘Great Earthquakes’

One of the major aims of seismology was to infer a minimum set of properties surrounding the planet interior of Earth that might explain recorded seismic ‘wave trains’ in detail.

Deep Structure Earth exploration made ‘tremendous progress during the first half of the 20th Century ( 1900s – 1950s ), realizing goals was severely limited until the 1960s because of laborious effort required just to evaluate theoretical models and process large amounts of recorded earthquake data.

Today’s application of supercomputer high-speed data processing enormous quantities of stored data and information retrieval capabilities opened information technology ( IT ) passageways leading to major advancements in the way data is manipulated ( data handling ) for advanced theoretical modeling, research analytics and developmental prototyping.

Earth structure realistic modeling studies by researchers since the middle 1970s include continental and oceanic boundaries, mountains and river valleys rather than simple structures such as those involving variation only with depth, and various technical developments have benefited observational seismology.

EXAMPLE: Deep Structure Earth significant exploration using 3D ( three dimensional ) imaging with equally impressive display ( monitor ) equipment possible from advanced microprocessor architecture redesign, new discoveries of materials and new concepts making seismic exploratory techniques developed by petroleum industry adaptations ( e.g. seismic reflection ) highly recognized as adopted procedures.

Deep Structure Earth major methods for determining planet interior is detailed analysis of seismograms of seismic waves; noting earthquake readings additionally provide estimates of, Earth internal:

– Wave velocities;

– Density; and,

– Parameters of ‘elasticity’ ( stretchable ) and ‘inelasticity’ ( fixed ).

Earthquake Travel Time

Primary procedure is to measure the travel times of various wave types, such as P and S, from their source to the recording seismograph. First, however, identification of each wave type with its ray path through the Earth must be made.

Seismic rays for many paths of P and S waves leaving the earthquake focus F are shown in the figure.

Deep-Focus Deep-Structure Earth Coremetrics

Rays corresponding to waves that have been reflected at the Earth’s outer surface (or possibly at one of the interior discontinuity surfaces) are denoted as PP, PS, SP, PSS, and so on. For example, PS corresponds to a wave that is of P type before surface reflection and of S type afterward. In addition, there are rays such as pPP, sPP, and sPS, the symbols p and s corresponding to an initial ascent to the outer surface as P or S waves, respectively, from a deep focus.

An especially important class of rays is associated with a discontinuity surface separating the central core of the Earth from the mantle at a depth of about 2,900 km (1,800 miles) below the outer surface. The symbol c is used to indicate an upward reflection at this discontinuity. Thus, if a P wave travels down from a focus to the discontinuity surface in question, the upward reflection into an S wave is recorded at an observing station as the ray PcS and similarly with PcP, ScS, and ScP. The symbol K is used to denote the part (of P type) of the path of a wave that passes through the liquid central core. Thus, the ray SKS corresponds to a wave that starts as an S wave, is refracted into the central core as a P wave, and is refracted back into the mantle, wherein it finally emerges as an S wave. Such rays as SKKS correspond to waves that have suffered an internal reflection at the boundary of the central core.

The discovery of the existence of an inner core in 1936 by the Danish seismologist Inge Lehmann made it necessary to introduce additional basic symbols. For paths of waves inside the central core, the symbols i and I are used analogously to c and K for the whole Earth; therefore, i indicates reflection upward at the boundary between the outer and inner portions of the central core, and I corresponds to the part (of P type) of the path of a wave that lies inside the inner portion. Thus, for instance, discrimination needs to be made between the rays PKP, PKiKP, and PKIKP. The first of these corresponds to a wave that has entered the outer part of the central core but has not reached the inner core, the second to one that has been reflected upward at the inner core boundary, and the third to one that has penetrated into the inner portion.

By combining the symbols p, s, P, S, c, K, i, and I in various ways, notation is developed for all the main rays associated with body earthquake waves.

Hidden Inner Earth Deep Structure Anomalies

The symbol J, introduced to correspond with S waves located within Earth’s inner core, is only evidence if such ( if ever ) be found for such waves. Use of times of travel along rays to infer a hidden structure is analogous to the use of X-rays in medical tomography. The method involves reconstructing an image of internal anomalies from measurements made at the outer surface. Nowadays, hundreds of thousands of travel times of P and S waves are available in earthquake catalogs for the tomographic imaging of the Earth’s interior and the mapping of internal structure.

Inner Earth Deep Structure

Thinest & Thickest Part of Earth’s Crust

Inner Earth, based on earthquake records and imaging studies, are officially represented, as:

A solid layer flowing patterns of a mantle, at its ’thickest point’ being about 1,800-miles ( 2,900 kilometers ) thick, although at its ‘thinest point’ less than 6-miles ( 10 kilometers ) beneath the ocean seafloor bed beneath the surface of the ultra-deep sea.

The thin surface rock layer surrounding the mantle is the crust, whose lower boundary is called the Mohorovičić discontinuity. In normal continental regions the crust is about 30 kilometers to 40 km thick; there is usually a superficial low-velocity sedimentary layer underlain by a zone in which seismic velocity increases with depth. Beneath this zone there is a layer in which P-wave velocities in some places fall from 6 to 5.6 km per second. The middle part of the crust is characterized by a heterogeneous zone with P velocities of nearly 6 to 6.3 km per second. The lowest layer of the crust ( about 10 km thick ) has significantly higher P velocities, ranging up to nearly 7 km per second.

In the deep ocean there is a sedimentary layer that is about 1 km thick. Underneath is the lower layer of the oceanic crust, which is about 4 km thick. This layer is inferred to consist of basalt that formed where extrusions of basaltic magma at oceanic ridges have been added to the upper part of lithospheric plates as they spread away from the ridge crests. This crustal layer cools as it moves away from the ridge crest, and its seismic velocities increase correspondingly.

Below Earth’s mantle at its ‘thickest point’ exists a shell depth of 1,800 miles ( 2,255 km ), which seismic waves indicate, has liquid property form, and at Earth’s ‘shallowest point’ only 6-miles ( 10 kilometers ) located beneath the ultra-deep seafloor of the planet ocean.

At the very centre of the planet is a separate solid core with a radius of 1,216 km. Recent work with observed seismic waves has revealed three-dimensional structural details inside the Earth, especially in the crust and lithosphere, under the subduction zones, at the base of the mantle, and in the inner core. These regional variations are important in explaining the dynamic history of the planet.

Long-Period Global Oscillations

Sometimes earthquakes can be so great, the entire planet Earth will vibrate like a ringing bell’s echo, with the deepest tone of vibration recorded by modern man on planet Earth is a period of measurement where the length of time between the arrival of successive crests in a wave train has been 54-minutes considered by human beings as ‘grave’ ( an extremely significant danger ).

Knowledge of these vibrations has come from a remarkable extension in the ‘range of periods of ground movements’ now able to be recorded by modern ‘digital long-period seismographs’ spanning the entire allowable spectrum of earthquake wave periods, from: ordinary P waves ( with periods of tenths of seconds ) to vibrations ( with periods on the order of 12-hours and 24-hours ), i.e. those movements occuring within Earth ocean tides.

The measurements of vibrations of the whole Earth provide important information on the properties of the interior of the planet. It should be emphasized that these free vibrations are set up by the energy release of the earthquake source but continue for many hours and sometimes even days. For an elastic sphere such as the Earth, two types of vibrations are known to be possible. In one type, called S modes, or spheroidal vibrations, the motions of the elements of the sphere have components along the radius as well as along the tangent. In the second [ 2^nd ] type, which are designated as T modes or torsional vibrations, there is shear but no radial displacements. The nomenclature is _nS_l and _nT_l, where the letters n and l are related to the surfaces in the vibration at which there is zero motion. Four ( 4 ) examples are illustrated in the figure. The subscript n gives a count of the number of internal zero-motion ( nodal ) surfaces, and l indicates the number of surface nodal lines.

Several hundred types of S and T vibrations have been identified and the associated periods measured. The amplitudes of the ground motion in the vibrations have been determined for particular earthquakes, and, more important, the attenuation of each component vibration has been measured. The dimensionless measure of this decay constant is called the quality factor Q. The greater the value of Q, the less the wave or vibration damping. Typically, for _oS₁₀ and _oT₁₀, the Q values are about 250.

The rate of decay of the vibrations of the whole Earth with the passage of time can be seen in the figure, where they appear superimposed for 20 hours of the 12-hour tidal deformations of the Earth. At the bottom of the figure these vibrations have been split up into a series of peaks, each with a definite frequency, similar to that of the spectrum of light.

Such a spectrum indicates the relative amplitude of each harmonic present in the free oscillations. If the physical properties of the Earth’s interior were known, all these individual peaks could be calculated directly. Instead, the internal structure must be estimated from the observed peaks.

Recent research has shown that observations of long-period oscillations of the Earth discriminate fairly finely between different Earth models. In applying the observations to improve the resolution and precision of such representations of the planet’s internal structure, a considerable number of Earth models are set up, and all the periods of their free oscillations are computed and checked against the observations. Models can then be successively eliminated until only a small range remains. In practice, the work starts with existing models; efforts are made to amend them by sequential steps until full compatibility with the observations is achieved, within the uncertainties of the observations. Even so, the resulting computed Earth structure is not a unique solution to the problem.

Extraterrestrial Seismic Phenomena

Space vehicles have carried equipment onto the our Moon and Mars surface recording seismic waves from where seismologists on Earth receive telemetry signals from seismic events from both.

By 1969, seismographs had been placed at six sites on the Moon during the U.S. Apollo missions. Recording of seismic data ceased in September 1977. The instruments detected between 600 and 3,000 moonquakes during each year of their operation, though most of these seismic events were very small. The ground noise on the lunar surface is low compared with that of the Earth, so that the seismographs could be operated at very high magnifications. Because there was more than one station on the Moon, it was possible to use the arrival times of P and S waves at the lunar stations from the moonquakes to determine foci in the same way as is done on the Earth.

Moonquakes are of three types. First, there are the events caused by the impact of lunar modules, booster rockets, and meteorites. The lunar seismograph stations were able to detect meteorites hitting the Moon’s surface more than 1,000 km (600 miles) away. The two other types of moonquakes had natural sources in the Moon’s interior: they presumably resulted from rock fracturing, as on Earth. The most common type of natural moonquake had deep foci, at depths of 600 to 1,000 km; the less common variety had shallow focal depths.

Seismological research on Mars has been less successful. Only one of the seismometers carried to the Martian surface by the U.S. Viking landers during the mid-1970s remained operational, and only one potential marsquake was detected in 546 Martian days.

Historical Major Earthquakes

Major historical earthquakes chronological listing in table ( below ).

Major Earthquake History
Year	Region / Area Affected	* Mag.	Intensity	Human Death Numbers ( approx. )	Remarks
c. 1500 BCE	Knossos, Crete (Greece)	…	X	…	One of several events that leveled the capital of Minoan civilization, this quake accompanied the explosion of the nearby volcanic islandof Thera.
27 BCE	Thebes (Egypt)	…	…	…	This quake cracked one of the statues known as the Colossi of Memnon, and for almost two centuries the “singing Memnon” emitted musical tones on certain mornings as it was warmed by the Sun’s rays.
62 CE	Pompeii and Herculaneum (Italy)	…	X	…	These two prosperous Roman cities had not yet recovered from the quake of 62 when they were buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79.
115	AntiochAntakya, (Turkey)	…	XI	…	A centre of Hellenistic and early Christian culture, Antiochsuffered many devastating quakes; this one almost killed the visiting Roman emperor Trajan.
1556	Shaanxi ( province ) China	…	IX	830,000	Deadliest earthquake ever recorded, possible.
1650	Cuzco (Peru)	8.1	VIII	…	Many ofCuzco’s Baroque monuments date to the rebuilding of the city after this quake.
1692	Port Royal (Jamaica)	…	…	2,000	Much of thisBritish West Indiesport, a notorious haven for buccaneers and slave traders, sank beneath the sea following the quake.
1693	southeasternSicily, (Italy)	…	XI	93,000	Syracuse, Catania, and Ragusa were almost completely destroyed but were rebuilt with a Baroque splendour that still attracts tourists.
1755	Lisbon,Portugal	…	XI	62,000	The Lisbon earthquake of 1755 was felt as far away asAlgiers and caused a tsunami that reached theCaribbean.
1780	Tabriz (Iran)	7.7	…	200,000	This ancient highland city was destroyed and rebuilt, as it had been in 791, 858, 1041, and 1721 and would be again in 1927.
1811 – 1812	NewMadrid,Missouri (USA)	7.5 – 7.7	XII	…	A series of quakes at the New Madrid Fault caused few deaths, but the New Madrid earthquake of 1811 – 1812 rerouted portions of the Mississippi River and was felt fromCanada to theGulf of Mexico.
1812	Caracas (Venezuela)	9.6	X	26,000	A provincial town in 1812,Caracasrecovered and eventually becameVenezuela’s capital.
1835	Concepción, (Chile)	8.5	…	35	British naturalist Charles Darwin, witnessing this quake, marveled at the power of the Earth to destroy cities and alter landscapes.
1886	Charleston,South Carolina (USA)	…	IX	60	This was one of the largest quakes ever to hit the easternUnited States.
1895	Ljubljana (Slovenia)	6.1	VIII	…	ModernLjubljanais said to have been born in the rebuilding after this quake.
1906	San Francisco,California (USA)	7.9	XI	700	San Franciscostill dates its modern development from the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and the resulting fires.
1908	Messina and Reggio di Calabria,Italy	7.5	XII	110,000	These two cities on theStraitofMessinawere almost completely destroyed in what is said to beEurope’s worst earthquake ever.
1920	Gansu ( province ) China	8.5	…	200,000	Many of the deaths in this quake-prone province were caused by huge landslides.
1923	Tokyo-Yokohama, (Japan)	7.9	…	142,800	Japan’s capital and its principal port, located on soft alluvial ground, suffered severely from the Tokyo-Yokohama earthquake of 1923.
1931	Hawke Bay,New Zealand	7.9	…	256	The bayside towns of Napier and Hastings were rebuilt in an Art Deco style that is now a great tourist attraction.
1935	Quetta (Pakistan)	7.5	X	20,000	The capital of Balochistan province was severely damaged in the most destructive quake to hitSouth Asiain the 20th century.
1948	Ashgabat (Turkmenistan)	7.3	X	176,000	Every year,Turkmenistancommemorates the utter destruction of its capital in this quake.
1950	Assam,India	8.7	X	574	The largest quake ever recorded inSouth Asiakilled relatively few people in a lightly populated region along the Indo-Chinese border.
1960	Valdivia and Puerto Montt, (Chile)	9.5	XI	5,700	The Chile earthquake of 1960, the largest quake ever recorded in the world, produced a tsunami that crossed the Pacific Ocean toJapan, where it killed more than 100 people.
1963	Skopje,Macedonia	6.9	X	1,070	The capital ofMacedoniahad to be rebuilt almost completely following this quake.
1964	Prince William Sound,Alaska,U.S.	9.2	…	131	Anchorage, Seward, and Valdez were damaged, but most deaths in the Alaska earthquake of 1964 were caused by tsunamis inAlaska and as far away asCalifornia.
1970	Chimbote,Peru	7.9	…	70,000	Most of the damage and loss of life resulting from the Ancash earthquake of 1970 was caused by landslides and the collapse of poorly constructed buildings.
1972	Managua,Nicaragua	6.2	…	10,000	The centre of the capital ofNicaraguawas almost completely destroyed; the business section was later rebuilt some 6 miles (10 km) away.
1976	Guatemala City,Guatemala	7.5	IX	23,000	Rebuilt following a series of devastating quakes in 1917–18, the capital ofGuatemalaagain suffered great destruction.
1976	Tangshan, (China)	7.5	X	242,000	In the Tangshan earthquake of 1976, this industrial city was almost completely destroyed in the worst earthquake disaster in modern history.
1985	Michoacán state and Mexico City,Mexico	8.1	IX	10,000	The centre of Mexico City, built largely on the soft subsoil of an ancient lake, suffered great damage in the Mexico City earthquake of 1985.
1988	Spitak and Gyumri,Armenia	6.8	X	25,000	This quake destroyed nearly one-third ofArmenia’s industrial capacity.
1989	Loma Prieta,California,U.S.	7.1	IX	62	The San Francisco–Oakland earthquake of 1989, the first sizable movement of the San Andreas Fault since 1906, collapsed a section of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge.
1994	Northridge, California (USA)	6.8	IX	60	Centred in the urbanized San Fernando Valley, the Northridge earthquake of 1994 collapsed freeways and some buildings, but damage was limited by earthquake-resistant construction.
1995	Kobe, (Japan)	6.9	XI	5,502	The Great Hanshin Earthquake destroyed or damaged 200,000 buildings and left 300,000 people homeless.
1999	Izmit,Turkey	7.4	X	17,000	The Izmit earthquake of 1999 heavily damaged the industrial city ofIzmit and the naval base at Golcuk.
1999	Nan-t’ou county,Taiwan	7.7	X	2,400	The Taiwan earthquake of 1999, the worst to hitTaiwan since 1935, provided a wealth of digitized data for seismic and engineering studies.
2001	Bhuj, Gujarat ( state ) India	8.0	X	20,000	The Bhuj earthquake of 2001, possibly the deadliest ever to hitIndia, was felt acrossIndia andPakistan.
2003	Bam (Iran)	6.6	IX	26,000	This ancientSilk Roadfortress city, built mostly of mud brick, was almost completely destroyed.
2004	Aceh ( province ) Sumatra (Indonesia)	9.1	…	200,000	The deaths resulting from this offshore quake actually were caused by a tsunami originating in the Indian Ocean that, in addition to killing more than 150,000 inIndonesia, killed people as far away asSri Lanka andSomalia.
2005	Azad Kashmir (Pakistanadministered ) ( Kashmir )	7.6	VIII	80,000	The Kashmir earthquake of 2005, perhaps the deadliest shock ever to strikeSouth Asia, left hundreds of thousands of people exposed to the coming winter weather.
2008	Sichuan ( province ) (China	7.9	IX	69,000	The Sichuan earthquake of 2008 left over 5 million people homeless across the region, and over half of Beichuan city was destroyed by the initial seismic event and the release of water from a lake formed by nearby landslides.
2009	L’Aquila, (Italy)	6.3	VIII	300	The L’Aquila earthquake of 2009 left more than 60,000 people homeless and damaged many of the city’s medieval buildings.
2010	Port-au-Prince, (Haiti)	7.0	IX	316,000	The Haiti earthquake of 2010 devastated the metropolitan area ofPort-au-Prince and left an estimated 1.5 million survivors homeless.
2010	Maule, (Chile)	8.8	VIII	521	The Chile earthquake of 2010 produced widespread damage inChile’s central region and triggered tsunami warnings throughout the Pacific basin.
2010	Christchurch,(New Zealand)	7.0	VIII	180	Most of the devastation associated with the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010–11 resulted from a magnitude-6.3 aftershock that struck on February 22, 2011.
2011	Honshu, (Japan)	9.0	VIII	20,000	The powerful Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011, which sent tsunami waves across the Pacific basin, caused widespread damage throughout easternHonshu.
2011	Erciş And Van, (Turkey)	7.2	IX	…	The Erciş-Van earthquake of 2011 destroyed several apartment complexes and shattered mud-brick homes throughout the region.
Data Sources: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ), National Geophysical Data Center ( NGDC ), Significant Earthquake Database ( SED ), a searchable online database using the Catalog of Significant Earthquakes 2150 B.C. – 1991 A.D. ( with Addenda ), and U.S. Geological Survey ( USGS ), Earthquake Hazards Program.  * Measures of magnitude may differ from other sources.

ARTICLE

AdditionalReading

Earthquakes are covered mainly in books on seismology.

Recommended introductory texts, are:

Bruce A. Bolt, Earthquakes, 4th ed. (1999), and Earthquakes and Geological Discovery (1993); and,

Jack Oliver, Shocks and Rocks: Seismology and the Plate Tectonics Revolution (1996).

Comprehensive books on key aspects of seismic hazards, are:

Leon Reiter, Earthquake Hazard Analysis – Issues and Insights (1990); and,

Robert S. Yeats, Kerry Sieh, and Clarence R. Allen, The Geology of Earthquakes (1997).

A history of discrimination, between:

Underground nuclear explosions and natural earthquakes, is given by:

Bruce A. Bolt, “Nuclear Explosions and Earthquakes: The Parted Veil” ( 1976 ).

More advanced texts that treat the theory of earthquake waves in detail, are:

Agustín Udías, Principles of Seismology (1999);

Thorne Lay and Terry C. Wallace, Modern Global Seismology (1995);

Peter M. Shearer, Introduction to Seismology (1999); and,

K.E. Bullen and Bruce A. Bolt, An Introduction to the Theory of Seismology, 4th ed. (1985).

LINKS

Year in Review

Britannica provides coverage of “earthquake” in the following Year in Review articles.

Bhutan  ( in  Bhutan )

geophysics  ( in  geophysics )

Japan

Kyrgyzstan  (in  Kyrgyzstan)

Nepal  (in  Nepal)

New Zealand  (in  New Zealand )

Chile  (in  Chile: Year In Review 2010)

China  (in  China: Year In Review 2010)

“Engineering for Earthquakes”  ( in  Engineering for Earthquakes: Year In Review 2010 (earthquake) )

geophysics  (in  Earth Sciences: Year In Review 2010)

Haiti  (in  Haiti: Year In Review 2010; in  Haiti earthquake of 2010 )

Mauritius  (in  Mauritius: Year In Review 2010)

New Zealand  (in  New Zealand: Year In Review 2010 )

Bhutan  (in  Bhutan: Year In Review 2009)

Costa Rica  (in  Costa Rica: Year In Review 2009 )

geophysics  (in  Earth Sciences: Year In Review 2009)

Indonesia  (in  Indonesia: Year In Review 2009)

Italy  (in  Italy: Year In Review 2009; in  Vatican City State: Year In Review 2009 )

Samoa  (in  Samoa: Year In Review 2009)

“Major Earthquake Shakes China’s Sichuan Province, A”  ( in  A Major Earthquake Shakes China’s Sichuan Province: Year In Review 2008 (earthquake) )

China  (in  China: Year In Review 2008; in  United Nations: Year In Review 2008 )

Congo, Democratic Republic of the  (in  Democratic Republic of the Congo: Year In Review 2008)

geology  (in  Earth Sciences: Year In Review 2008)

geophysics  (in  Earth Sciences: Year In Review 2008 )

geophysics  (in  Earth Sciences: Year In Review 2007)

paleontology  (in  Life Sciences: Year In Review 2007)

Peru  (in  Peru: Year In Review 2007 )

geophysics  (in  Earth Sciences: Year In Review 2006)

glaciers  (in  Earth Sciences: Year In Review 2006)

Mozambique  (in  Mozambique: Year In Review 2006)

archaeology  ( in  Anthropology and Archaeology: Year In Review 2005 )

geophysics  (in  Earth Sciences: Year In Review 2005)

India  (in  India: Year In Review 2005 )

Pakistan(in  Pakistan: Year In Review 2005 )

“Cataclysm in Kashmir”  (in  Cataclysm in Kashmir: Year In Review 2005 (Jammu and Kashmir))

geophysics  (in  Earth Sciences: Year In Review 2004)

Japan  (in  Japan: Year In Review 2004)

tsunami  (in  The Deadliest Tsunami: Year In Review 2004 (tsunami))

geophysics  (in  Earth Sciences: Year In Review 1996)

geophysics  (in  Earth and Space Sciences: Year In Review 1995)

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Other Britannica Sites

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Articles from Britannica encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Earthquake – Children’s Encyclopedia ( Ages 8-11 ) – During an earthquake, huge masses of rock move beneath the Earth’s surface and cause the ground to shake. Earthquakes occur constantly around the world. Often they are too small for people to feel at all. Sometimes, however, earthquakes cause great losses of life and property.

Earthquake – Student Encyclopedia ( Ages 11 and up ) – Sudden shaking of the ground that occurs when masses of rock change position below Earth’s surface is called an earthquake. The shifting masses send out shock waves that may be powerful enough to alter the surface, thrusting up cliffs and opening great cracks in the ground.

The topic earthquake is discussed at the following external Web sites.

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Reference

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Feeling ‘educated’? Think you’re out-of the earthquake and tsunami water subject?

March 23, 2012 news, however contradicts decades of professional scientific knowledge and studies so, if you were just feeling ‘overly educated’ about earthquakes and tsunamis – don’t be. You’re now lost at sea, in the same proverbial ‘boat’, with all those global government scientific and technical ( S&T ) professionals who thought they understood previous information surrounding earthquakes and tsunamis.

After comparing Japan 9.0 ‘earthquake directional arrows’, depicted on the charts ( further above ), with ocean currents, tidal charts and trade winds from the global jet stream there’s a problem that cannot be explained when on March 23, 2012 British Columbia, Canada reported its northwest Pacific Ocean coastal sea waters held a 100-foot fishing boat ‘still afloat’ – more than 1-year after the Japan tsunami from its 9.0 earthquake on March 11, 2011.

[ IMAGE ( above ): 11MAR11 Japan 9.0 earthquake tsunami vistim fishing boat ( 50-metre ) found more than 1-year later still adrift in the Pacific Ocean – but thousands of miles away – off North America Pacific Ocean west coastal territory of Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, Canada ( Click on image to enlarge ) ]

– – – –

Source: CBS News – British Columbia ( Canada )

Tsunami Linked Fishing Boat Adrift Off B.C.

Nobody Believed Aboard 50-Meter Vessel Swept Away In 2011 Japanese Disaster CBC News

March 23, 2012 21:35 ( PST ) Updated from: 23MAR12 18:59 ( PST )

A Japanese fishing boat that was washed out to sea in the March 2011 Japanese tsunami has been located adrift off the coast of British Columbia ( B.C. ), according to the federal Transport Ministry.

The 50-metre vessel was spotted by the crew of an aircraft on routine patrol about 275 kilometres off Haida Gwaii, formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, ministry spokeswoman Sau Sau Liu said Friday.

“Close visual aerial inspection and hails to the ship indicate there is no one on board,” Liu said. “The owner of the vessel has been contacted and made aware of its location.”

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, ofWashington, said in a release that the boat was expected to drift slowly southeast.

“On its current trajectory and speed, the vessel would not [ yet ] make landfall for approximately 50-days,” Cantwell said. Cantwell did not specify where landfall was expected to be.

First large debris

The boat is the first large piece of debris found following the earthquake and tsunami that struckJapanone year ago.

Scientists, at the University of Hawaii say a field of about 18,000,000 million tonnes of debris is slowly being carried by ocean currents toward North America. The field is estimated to be about 3,200 kilometres long and 1,600 kilometres wide.

Scientists have estimated some of the debris would hit B.C. shores by 2014.

Some people on the west coast of Vancouver Island believe ‘smaller pieces of debris have already washed ashore there’.

The March 11, 2011, tsunami was generated after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off the coast of northern Japan. The huge waves and swells of the tsunami moved inland and then retreated back into the Pacific Ocean, carrying human beings, wreckage of buildings, cars and boats.

Nearly 19,000 people were killed.

Reference

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/03/23/bc-fishing-boat-tsunami-debris.html?cmp=rss

– – – –

Submitted for review and commentary by,

Kentron Intellect Research Vault

E-MAIL: KentronIntellectResearchVault@Gmail.Com

WWW: http://KentronIntellectResearchVault.WordPress.Com

References

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/world/japan/031111_M9.0prelim_geodetic_slip.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moment_magnitude_scale
http://www.gsi.go.jp/cais/topic110315.2-index-e.html
http://www.seismolab.caltech.edu
http://www.tectonics.caltech.edu/slip_history/2011_taiheiyo-oki
http://supersites.earthobservations.org/ARIA_japan_co_postseismic.pdf
ftp://sideshow.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/usrs/ARIA/README.txt
http://speclib.jpl.nasa.gov/documents/jhu_desc
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/pacnw/paleo/greateq/conf.php
http://www.passcal.nmt.edu/content/array-arrays-elusive-ets-cascadia-subduction-zone
http://wcda.pgc.nrcan.gc.ca:8080/wcda/tams_e.php
http://www.pnsn.org/tremor
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqscanv/Quakes/quakes_all.html
http://nthmp.tsunami.gov
http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov
http://www.pnsn.org/NEWS/PRESS_RELEASES/CAFE/CAFE_intro.html
http://www.pnsn.org/WEBICORDER/DEEPTREM/summer2009.html
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/prepare
http://www.passcal.nmt.edu/content/usarray
http://www.iris.washington.edu/hq
http://www.iris.edu/dms/dmc
http://www.iris.edu/dhi/clients.htm
http://www.iris.edu/hq/middle_america/docs/presentations/1026/MORENO.pdf
http://www.unavco.org/aboutus/history.html
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/anss
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/asl
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/asl/data
http://www.usarray.org/files/docs/pubs/US_Data_Plan_Final-V7.pdf
http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/gis/station_comma_list.asc
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/physics/lab
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/asl/data
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/Pangaea.html
http://coaps.fsu.edu/scatterometry/meeting/docs/2009_august/intro/shimoda.pdf
http://coaps.fsu.edu/scatterometry/meeting/past.php
http://eqinfo.ucsd.edu/dbrecenteqs/anza
http://www.ceri.memphis.edu/seismic
http://conceptactivityresearchvault.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/global-environmental-intelligence-gei
http://www.af.mil/information/factsheets/factsheet_print.asp?fsID=157&page=1
https://login.afwa.af.mil/register/
https://login.afwa.af.mil/amserver/UI/Login?goto=https%3A%2F%2Fweather.afwa.af.mil%3A443%2FHOST_HOME%2FDNXM%2FWRF%2Findex.html
http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/library/news/2011/space-110225-afns01.htm
http://www.wrf-model.org/plots/wrfrealtime.php

Secret Locations

[ IMAGE ( above ): Special motion picture film and photographic imaging equipment caught this particular near still image of what Paul Bennewitz obtained certain information about ExtraTerrestrial Vehicles ( ETV ) passing in-to and out-of this particular solid rock face mountain at Wirt Canyon near Dulce, New Mexico, USA ( click on image to enlarge ) ]

Secret Locations
by, Kentron Intellect Research Vault ( KIRV )

March 17, 2011 11:08:42 (PST)

NEW MEXICO, Santa Fe – March 17, 2011 – Paul Philip Schneider, a mechanical engineer, was no slouch but a patriotic ex-military American who was found garroted to death shortly after publicly exposing a work-site area near the Archuleta Mesa ( between Colorado and New Mexico ) where an event occured while he worked under ‘contract’ for MORRISON-KNUTSON INC. that upon instructions from the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory ( LASL ) Geosciences Division – now known as – Los Alamos National Laboratory ( LANL ) caused him to be sent down an ‘old nuclear bomb borehole’ ( see further below about “Nuclear Fracturing” ) he claimed was located in a ‘remote area of northern New Mexico’ where his mission was to discover why huge plumes of ‘black soot’ were forcefully being shot up into the atmosphere’ at an active drill site where his team was located.

Schneider, by his own accounts, claimed the black soot atmosphere smelled like a sulphuric gas lingering in the air all around the drill-site, but who ever heard of a ‘carbon atmosphere’ of ’black sulphur gas’?

It is still seriously doubted if Phil Schneider knew what was actually happening down in the cavern he was ordered into through the borehole.

Did Schneider, know:

– What those plumes of ‘black soot’ actually consisted of, and ‘why’ it was being ‘forcefully shot-out of the borehole’ with such ‘pressure’;?

– How a ‘huge cavern came to be made’ at the bottom of the borehole?

– What the ‘cavern had been filled with and why’?

– Why boreholes were ‘specifically directed to be drilled precisely where they were’?

From what has been able to be gathered from in-depth research, Schneider was apparently sent by KNUTSON to perform his role as a ‘mechanical engineering consultant’, who totally by accident discovered something beyond his wildest imagination – and many other’s too.

Schneider was lowered down one of the boreholes with an ‘armed black beret military team’ that surrounded him but he could not understand ‘why’ he had such escorts – except for some unknown military security reason he wasn’t cleared to know, and being ex-military, Schneider knew-better than to ask any questions, but to ‘do what was asked of him by his superior’.

Now comes the point within this report that information becomes incredibly bizzare, however by in-depth research Schneider’s claims ( below ) have been pulled somewhat back into ‘more detailed perspective’ by ‘incredibly related facts’ that existed long ago.

Schneider and the other armed U.S. federal military employees discovered a group of what Schneider claims were ExtraTerrestrial Biological Entities ( EBEs ) that he referred to as alien “Grey talls” ( 7-foot extraterrestrial aliens with a bluish purple bioskin color.

Once lowered through the borehole, a deep underground cavern appeared and this is when Schneider claims he instantly got off several rounds of his own ammunition ( from his sidearm pistol ) before being shot by some ‘blue beam of light’ – leaving him cut wide-open in the chest as having several fingers of his cut-off  from what the first ( 1st ) alien he encountered ( down there ) apparently aimed at him ( Schneider ).

Schneider further claimed that nearly sixty ( 60 ) U.S. government personnel and contractors lost their lives during this August 1979 ‘unpublicized event’ in what Schneider described having been involved-in an underground cavern filled with alien beings.

Hard to believe, I know because at-first I totally scoffed at Schneider’s claims being utterly ridiculous, until some unrelated research studied earlier portions of what Schneider claimed.

Years earlier ( 2002 ) I was exchanging communications with someone related to Paul Philip Schneider, on an entirely ‘different subject’ related to work his ‘father’ Oscar Schneider was involved-in with the U.S. Navy, and current research now dovetailed back to that which I was researching years ago surrounding a U.S. National Security Agency ( NSA ) ‘precious metals’ scientific recycling process that involved baking ore resulting in low-yield nuclear energy transmutation of material into high-yield elements.

It appeared from further studies that Oscar Schneider’s son, Paul Philip Schneider claims required further detailed clarifications, which he either could not perform earlier due to secrecy agreements with the U.S. government or he may have felt he should ‘not’ provide too many specifics for fear of breeching a “business agreement” he made with the U.S. government, however based upon current research beyond Schneider’s claims, incredible further facts go far beyond this report sufficient to at least warrant a suitable public release of information contained herein.

In 2002, Schneider’s intinately close friend sent me “Rhyolyte 47″ ( classified ) ‘official U.S. Navy documents’ pertaining to Paul Philip Schneider’s ‘father’, U.S. Navy Captain Oscar Schneider, who from his ‘military professional medical position’ became directly involved with “Project Blue Ship” ( also known as ) “The Philadelphia Experiment.”

Phil Schneider mentions that upon drilling “boreholes” the drill-site teams were experiencing “huge plums of black soot’ or “black dust” ( that stank ) and were being ‘rapidly ejected under pressure’ into the atmosphere, which also lingered near the ground, from within these underground hole locations they were being told to drill at.

None apparently knew ‘why’ or ‘how’ these odd occurences were taking place, or why they were drilling where they were.

Initial research indicates that “Nuclear Fracturing” ( 1962 – 2005 ) had been used earlier in ‘underground nuclear blasts’ for what was said to be “oil experimentations,” which was a U.S. government cover for underground testing of nuclear warheads subsequent to Russia having exploded what it called the “Tsar Bomba,” a 100-kiloton nuclear bomb that the U.S. later claimed only yielded 50-kiloton blast with a Circular Error Probability ( CEP ) range for death from irradiation up to 60-miles away from ground-zero.

Did previously ‘large U.S. oil reserves once exist’ until subsequently becoming nuclear blasted underground, creating both a ‘high pressure black oil carbon soot atmosphere’ and simultaneously creating these ‘huge underground caverns’?

Were “Grey” alien “talls” ( 7-foot ) provided with a ‘government secret atmospheric environment’ consisting of ‘large underground cavern living where they were the only ones able to breath a high carbon pressurized atmosphere consisting of gamma irradiated particle elements” derived from ‘earlier U.S. secret military underground nuclear Projects’ publicly called “Nuclear Fracturing”? If so, could an extraterrestrial alien agreement been reached secretly with the U.S. government?

Was the LANL / LASL Geosciences Division ‘borehole drillings’ “Hot Rock” Project – publicly revealed as only seeking ‘new geothermal energy alternatives’ only a ruse?

By ‘drilling boreholes’ ( in highly ‘specific remote locations’ where contractors were ‘told to drill’ ) did that ‘actually and instantly deplete’ all of the carbon dense atmosphere used by these Grey alien “talls” whom were thereby being killed down inside these caverns? If so, why would the U.S. government destroy what it must have worked so hard to build for these aliens?

Might another “aggenda” have entered determining a take over of those Grey tall ( 7-foot + ) aliens existence underground? If so, why were these “Grey talls” suddenly considered a “threat?”

There is only rumored mentions of a percentage reduction number of Grey talls ( aliens ) being sighted on Earth, whereas “Grey shorts” ( 4-foot to 5-foot tall ) are now only but rarely sighted so, were nearly 80% of the “Grey talls” actually “wiped-out” by ‘another alien species’ – as rumored?

Is there any truth to any of this and are there any other correlations worth researching to such deep underground military bases and caverns albeit for aliens or humans?

Why have ‘sophisticated landing strips’ on “Church of Scientology” ( COS ) ‘remote properties’ been purchased by its “Church of Scientific Technology” entity that has also built ‘sophisticated underground vaults’ and ‘sophisticated long tunnel systems’ that are ‘guaranteed to last 1,000 years’ equipped with ‘sophisticated nuclear blast-proof doors’ built to withstand any direct nuclear hit? All of these have been substantiated through my research and documented by satellite photos, facility diagramatics, and land parcel details and grant information on many of these COS / CST ‘remote installation properties’.

Related points to initially consider:

– Schneider claimed his work was on a Los Alamos National Laboratory ( LANL ) Project, that my research indicates was actually performed the name “Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory” ( LASL ) Geosciences Division”  within its geothermal ( volcanic magma ) “Hot Rock” Project during August 1979 or ‘likely earlier’;

[ IMAGE ( above ): Archuleta Mesa ( top ) where ( due south ) is Dulce, New Mexico ( click to read, enlarge image ) ]

– Schneider of KNUTSON worked at this Archuleta Mesa / Kit Carson National Forest (aka) Carson National Park work-site during the August 1979 alien event;

– Schneider possibly a ‘sub-contracted engineer’ ( like Keith Millheim of CER GEONUCLEAR CORP. ) working for KNUTSON ( Tulsa, OK ) performing what that industry refers to as “high risk construction contracts;”

– New Mexico site on the Archuleta Mesa / Kit Carson National Forrest – aka – Carson National Park ( New Mexico near Colorado border ), research land grants near Edith, Colorado and Blue Lake, New Mexico ( Indian land );

– KNUTSON, which Schneider claimed to have been working for, may have been a ‘specially named adjunct’ working out-of Area 51 / S4 ( Groom Lake, Nevada ) while Schneider travelled from to work at the Archuleta Mesa ( Edith, Colorado ) site. Could Schneider have been covering-up the exact location being actually in the Kit Carson National Forest Indian land of Blue Lake, New Mexico ) near Taos, New Mexico where the phonemena of the “Taos hum” is and all the UFO sighting northeast of Taos, which would place the UFO sightings directly over Indian land of Blue Lake, New Mexico;

– Check both work and worksite connections between EG & G CHANDLER ENGINEERING ( Tulsa, OK ) and KNUTSON ( Tulsa, Oklahoma ) on work-site contracts that took place during 1979 ( or ‘earlier’ ), in the area of the Kit Carson National Forest ( New Mexico ) and /or Archuleta Mesa ( New Mexico or southern Colorado ), performing an industry referenced “high risk construction contract;” and,

– Google Earth shows a ‘gigantic cave-in’ or ‘explosion hole from something’ where scattered atop is an unusual ‘broken and caved-in lattice pattern’ of ‘huge very-very long beams / tubes’ [ cavern / cave / tunnel support beam cylinders ] that appear ‘snapped like twigs’ and sunken into a remote cave-in area nearest Edith, Colorado of the Archuleta Mesa area.

====

Part 2

COS CST & IGSS Brief Note –

Church of Scientology ( COS ) and Church of Scientific Technology ( CST ) New Mexico vault tunneling construction performed by INTERNATIONAL GROUND SUPPORT SYSTEMS ( Santa Fe, New Mexico ).

Note all ‘sub-contracts’, ‘consulting engineers’, ‘consulting architects’, ‘insurance companies’, and any other ‘related construction support firms’ for connections, between:

– INTERNATIONAL GROUND SUPPORT SYSTEMS ( Santa Fe, New Mexico ); – CER GEONUCLEAR CORPORATION of EG&G ( Las Vegas, Nevada 89114 ); – MORRISON-KNUDSEN INC. – aka – KNUTSON ( Las Vegas, Nevada ); – MORRISON KNUDSEN ENGINEERS – aka – KNUTSON ( Tulsa, Oklahoma ); – CHANDLER ENGINEERING of EG&G ( Tulsa, Oklahoma ); – Others ( e.g. AUSTRAL OIL, et al. ).

====

PART 3 –

Nuclear Fracturing Projects –

Atoms for Peace program fails oilpatch testing. Atoms for Peace was a grand idea aimed at benefiting the world and was tested in the oilpatch. It never reached its potential in ‘industrial use’, however it did set an active alternative; accelerating the nuclear arms race between the U.S. and Russia.

– –

UNITED NATIONS ( UN ) – UNITED STATES President Dwight D. Eisenhower –

It kicked off on November 28, 1953 when the United Nations ( UN ) General Assembly asked the Disarmament Commission for suggestions to halt nuclear proliferation, 10-days later U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower addressed the UN General Assembly saying:

“The United States would seek more than the mere reduction or elimination of atomic materials for military purposes. It is not enough to take this weapon out of the hands of soldiers. It must be put into the hands of those who will know how to strip its military casing and adapt it to the arts of peace.”

– –

OPERATION PLOWSHARE ( 1972 ) –

In the United States, that effort kicked-off OPERATION PLOWSHARE – named for the Biblical passage that referred to turning swords into plowshares. The United States had high hopes for Operation Plowshare. It anticipated twenty-seven ( 27 ) nuclear programs using atomic devices for peace.

– –

– PANAMA – – NICARAGUA – – COSTA RICA –

Among those plans were proposals to use more than one-hundred ( 100 ) nuclear explosions to blast a 37 mile ( 60 kilometer ) long canal across the isthmus of Panama at San Blas.

Another plan would use at least 250 blasts for a 140 mile ( 225 kilometer ) canal on the Nicaragua Costa Rica border.

– –

– ALASKA –

PROJECT CHARIOT Cape Thompson, Alaska

Another, PROJECT CHARIOT, almost went into action that would have used several hydrogen bombs to blast out a harbor at Cape Thompson, Alaska in the Chukchi Sea about 75 miles ( 121 kilometers ) from the Russia border in the Bering Sea Strait.

– –

– NEVADA –

PROJECT SEDAN ( 06JUL62 @ 10:00 a.m. ) Yucca Flats, Nevada

Concerns over the native population reduced that to a 104 kiloton proof-of-concept blast called SEDAN at Yucca Flats, Nevada on July 6, 1962. The blast displaced 12,000,000 million short tons of dirt and released a 12,000 ft. high ( 3,660 meter ) radioactive cloud.

– –

– NEW MEXICO –

PROJECT GASBUGGY ( 10DEC67 ) Kit Carson National Forest ( New Mexico ) / Archuleta Mesa adjacencies: Dulce, NM; Blue Lake, NM; and, Edith, CO. LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY ( Livermore, California ) U.S. ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION ( AEC ) EL PASO NATURAL GAS

Native American indians of the Tiwa tribe, continue cultural traditions to this day. Around 1903, by Executive Order, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt took over 48,000 acres of Tiwa tribal land ( in the “Sangre de Cristo Mountains” of New Mexico ) making it the “Kit Carson National Forest” (aka) “Carson National Forest” in New Mexico. In 1970, by Executive Order, U.S. President Richard Nixon returned part of that land to the Tiwa tribe.

A ‘tribal disaster’ ( elsewhere ) was mentioned in an official U.S. Administration letter. Pull letter from existing files under Knights of Malta member Thomas Sawyer.

Kit Carson National Forest, Sangre de Cristo Mounbtains, Archuleta Mesa, and other names ‘narrow area’ of ‘work-site location(s)’ requiring ‘further research’:

– Jemez Plateau; – Jemez Mountains; – Fenton Hill, New Mexico <?> – UNION OIL ( Baca location ) or UNOCAL Geothermal Division ( Los Angeles, CA ); – Mayrsville <?> could be “Marysville” < sp ? >; – Coso; – LASL Geosciences Division; – ERDA ( Energy Research and Development Administration ) National Laboratories Division of Geothermal Energy ( DGE ); – Drilling Third ( 3rd ) Borehole ( code name: EE-1 )

Most of the real testing took place in the oilpatch, starting with PROJECT GASBUGGY – the first test aimed at releasing natural gas from tight sands and the first use of a nuclear device for industrial purposes.

It took place on December 10, 1967 in the Carson National Forest of New Mexico – about 90 miles northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico and 25 miles southwest of the town of Dulce, New Mexico.

The U.S. ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION ( AEC ) was the oversight agency as LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY ( LLNL ) and EL PASO NATURAL GAS ( EPNG ) conducted the test. They set off a 29 kiloton blast 4,240 ft ( 1,293 m ) underground in a tight shale. According to official figures, the blast created a cavity 80 feet ( 24 m ) wide and 335 feet ( 102 m ) high filled with gas. Unfortunately, the ‘gas was too radioactive’ to use. They didn’t stop there.

– –

– COLORADO –

PROJECT RULISON ( 10SEP69 ) Rifle, Colorado; CER GEONUCLEAR CORP. ( Las Vegas, Nevada ); Keith K. Millheim ( president of Strategic Worldwide LLC The Woodlands, Texas ) under CER GEONUCLEAR CORP. contract; AUSTRAL OIL ( Denver, Colorado ); TELEDYNE ISOTOPES ( Palo Alto, California ); ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION ( AEC ).

The industry moved on to Project Rulison, probably the best known of the nuclear blasts for peace. This blast, also under the control of the ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION ( AEC ), was conducted by CER GEONUCLEAR CORP. ( Las Vegas, Nevada ) and AUSTRAL OIL ( Denver, Colorado ).

In between international assignments Keith K. Millheim ( president of Strategic Worldwide LLC The Woodlands, Texas ) was seconded by CER GEONUCLEAR CORP. to help design the drilling and testing of the Project Rulison Nuclear Gas Stimulation Experiment.

This 43 kiloton blast – 2.6 times the size of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan – was lowered 8,426 ft ( 2,568 m ) underground from a drill site on the southwest flank of Doghead Mountain in Battlement Creek Valley in Garfield County, Colorado approximately 40 miles northeast of Grand Junction, Colorado and 11 miles southwest of Rifle, Colorado. During hearings in the area, testimony revealed that the government believed the blast would fracture the tight MesaVerde gas sands and release more gas than conventional fracturing. If they could find a better way of fracturing, they might have the key to releasing more of the 317 Tcf of gas in place in tight sands, according to an article by Chester McQueary ( Parachute, Colorado resident ) writing for the High Country News. Also during the hearings, David Evans from Colorado School of Mines testified the industry would have to set off 13,000 similar blasts to get the kind of recoveries the government wanted. According to Chester McQueary, 1-week before the blast the AEC set up a 5 mile ( 8 kilometer ) quarantine zone around the well site as workers lowered the bomb into the hole. It even paid some homeowners to leave for the day. Unfortunately, winds that could have carried radiation north to Rifle, Colorado or west of Grand Junction, Colorado delayed the test until September 10, 1969. Protesters entered the quarantine area in 2s and 3s so they couldn’t be easily removed. KWSR radio station in Rifle carried a countdown for the blast. Finally, security forces just left protestors, McQueary among them, in the quarantine area. He felt a “mighty thump” that lifted him 8 inches into the air and measured 5.5 on the Richter scale in Golden, Colorado. Again, about 30-days later, the test team found the ‘gas was too radioactive to use’, but that wasn’t the end of the ‘nuclear program in natural gas’.

– –

– COLORADO –

PROJECT RIO BLANCO ( 1971 – 17MAY73 )

EG&G CER GEONUCLEAR CORP. ( Las Vegas, Nevada – 1971 – 1973 ) EQUITY OIL CO. ( Salt Lake City, Utah ) C.F. KNUTSON ( 1973 – 1975 ) D.L. Coffin ( 1968 – 1971 ); F.A. Welder ( 1968 – 1971 ); R.K. Glanzman ( 1968 – 1971 ); X.W. Dutton ( 1968 ).

<?> Virginia Glanzman ( USGS – Denver, Colorado ) <?>

The next test also took place in the Piceance Basin of Colorado, this one on May 17, 1973. It was called Project Rio Blanco and was scheduled in Rio Blanco County about 75 miles northwest of Grand Junction, Colorado and 30 miles ( 48.3 kilometer ) southwest of Meeker.

EG&G CER GEONUCLEAR CORP. ( Las Vegas, Nevada ) and EQUITY OIL CO. ( Salt Lake City, Utah ) conducted the blast where the operators set three ( 3 ) 330 kiloton devices between 5,838 feet and 6,689 feet ( 1,781 meters and 2,040 meters ) to blast out a huge cavern in the tight Mesaverde below the Green River oil shale. The blast went off, but the caverns didn’t connect.

– –

– NEVADA –

Nevada Test Site ( NTS ) ( 1993 – 1995 ) Nellis Air Force Base, Test Range Site, S-1 ( Nevada ) Area 51

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY ( LLNL – Livermore, California ) DESERT RESEARCH INSTITUTE ( P.O. Box 60220, Reno, Nevada 89506-0220 ) D.K. Smith; B.K. Esser; J.L. Thompson; J.I. Daniels; R. Andricevic; – 1994 – L.R. Anspaugh  ” ; R.L. Jacobson  ” ; I.Y. Borg; – 1976 – R. Stone  ” ; H.B. Levy  ” ; L.D. Ramspott  ” .

– –

– WYOMING – PROJECT WAGON WHEEL

AUSTRAL OIL PRESCO INC. ( The Woodlands, Texas – V-P: Kim R.W. Bennetts ) EL PASO NATURAL GAS U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY ( EPA )

The federal agency had planned to move next to PROJECT WAGON WHEEL, but that test never took place. Wagon Wheel was scheduled to loosen up the tight formations on the Pinedale Anticline in Sublette County, Wyoming – an area operators have only recently started developing with large numbers of wells.

Unlike PROJECT GASBUGGY, which was a cost-is-no-object technical test, PROJECT WAGON WHEEL was supposed to ‘test profitability of atomic fracturing’ and was the biggest test to-date with plans for five ( 5 ) 100-kiloton nuclear explosions set-off 5-minutes apart and from 9,220 feet to 11,570 feet ( 2,812 meters to 3,529 meters ) in a field discovered by EL PASO NATURAL GAS.

The operators planned to wait 4-months to 6-months before testing the well, and thought radiation released in testing would be lower than normal background radiation. But the project gathered a lot of opposition. Among the statements that killed it was testimony by Dr. Ken Perry, a geologist with the University of Wyoming.

Looking at plans for 40 to 50 nuclear explosions per year, he said for full area development.

Southwestern Wyoming would be the ‘earthquake center of the world, according to Adam Mark Lederer in a thesis entitled, “Using Public Policy Models to Evaluate Nuclear Stimulation Programs: Wagon Wheel in Wyoming.”

After the PROJECT RIO BLANCO blast, officials plugged and abandoned three ( 3 ) wells in the area, but left three ( 3 ) wells open on the RB-E-01 drill pad so they could monitor the wells. When they finally abandoned the surface facilities, the radiation was no different than the background radiation in the area except for tritium readings, which exceeded government criteria in several samples.

In 2002, officials decided to lift all restrictions on surface activity. They did mandate there should be no penetration of the surface to 1,500 feet ( 458 meters ) within 100 feet ( 30 meters ) of the well bore and no intrusion from 1,500 feet to 7,500 feet ( 458 meters to 2,288 meters ) within a 600 feet ( 183-m ) radius of the well bore. The situation was similar at the Rulison well site, but with a recent twist.

Following the $6,500,000 million ( USD ) Rulison well, also called the AUSTRAL OIL Hayward #25-95 in Section 25-7s-95w, the government continued monitoring the subsurface as it had at Rio Blanco. In both cases it wanted to monitor the possible migration of radiation. The Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) also conducts annual sampling of deep monitoring wells and water sources in the area. Except for deep radiation at both sites, the areas are clean.

Recently, however PRESCO INC. ( The Woodlands, Texas ) sought permission for 40-acre spacing over an area that would include the Rulison well site.

It already had drilled a well in prolific Rulison field 1.5 miles ( 2.4 kilometers ) from the test site with no sign of radioactivity. Approval would have allowed the company to drill multiple wells near the Hayward well bore. Kim R.W. Bennetts, vice president of exploration and production for the company, said even if it drilled into the cavity, which it didn’t plan to do, very little radiation remained. Bennetts also said the company couldn’t, and wouldn’t, sell radioactive gas. Its planned wells in the area would be 1,200 feet ( 366 meters ) to the northeast and 1,600 feet ( 488 meters ) to the southeast of the Rulison test well.

After a February 10, 2004 meeting of the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission, the company then received approval to drill only one well on 40-acre spacing within a half-mile radius of the Rulison test well.

The company even had support from the county until it raised its plans from one ( 1 ) well to four ( 4 ) wells. The Colorado commission said it would approve the wells on a case-by-case basis. Currently, with no plans by any agency to continue work with ‘nuclear devices in the oilpatch’, it looks as if that research has come to an end.

While it lasted, however, it was a daring period of research into ‘advanced methods of releasing huge volumes of natural gas’, and that research continues today.

====

PART 4

EG&G –

EG & G INC. (aka) EG and G INCORPORATED 45 William Street Wellesley, Massachusetts 02181 U.S.A. Telephone: (781) 237-5100 Fax: (781) 431-4255 WWW: http://www.egginc.com

Statistics:

Public Company

Incorporated: 1947 as Edgerton, Germehausen & Grier, Inc. Employees: 13,000 Sales: $1.41 billion (1998) Stock Exchanges: New York Ticker Symbol:EGG

NAIC: 334413 Semiconductor & Related Device Manufacturing; 334419 Other Electronic Component Manufacturing; 334513 Instruments & Related Product Manufacturing for Measuring, Displaying & Controlling Industrial Process Variables; 334519 Other Measuring & Controlling Device Manufacturing; 54133 Engineering Services; 54199 All Other Professional, Scientific, & Technical Services; 54171 Research & Development in the Physical, Engineering & Life Sciences

Company Perspectives:

Our vision is that we can create value in an environment of ever-accelerating change. Value creation is our singular aim and ultimate measure of success. We believe that the increasing drive to create value represents the surest and most consistent avenue for us to benefit our customers, employees, stockholders and constituent communities. Our value creation model focuses on growth primarily derived from internal development.

Company History:

EG & G Incorporated is a diversified technology company that develops and provides products for public and private customers in the medical, aerospace, telecommunications, semiconductor, photographic, and other industries. The company’s operations are broken into five business units: Instruments; Life Sciences; Engineered Products; Optoelectronics; and Technical Services. Its Instruments operation is based on x-ray imaging systems and provides screening and inspection systems for use in airport and industrial security, and environmental, food, and nuclear industry monitoring. The Life Sciences unit develops systems for biochemical research and medical diagnostics. The Engineered Products unit designs and produces pneumatic systems, seals, and bellows for aerospace, semiconductor, and power generation markets. EG & G’s Optoelectronics division specializes in optical sensing devices for industrial and medical applications. The company’s final unit, Technical Services, provides engineering, research, management, and support services to governmental and industrial clients.

Nuclear Management and Monitoring: 1940s – 1950s

EG & G was established by three nuclear engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology shortly after the end of World War II. These engineers, Harold E. Edgerton, Kenneth J. Germehausen, and Herbert E. Grier, had been involved in the American effort to construct an atomic bomb during the war. So valued were their contributions that after the war the government asked them to establish a company to manage further development of the country’s nuclear weapons. The three established a small partnership called Edgerton, Germehausen & Grier on November 13, 1947, and quickly began collecting contracts to advise the government on nuclear tests in Nevada and on South Pacific islands.

One of the first employees of the new company was Bernard J. O’Keefe, another MIT graduate who had worked for Dr. Grier during the war. O’Keefe served with the 21st Bomber Command in the Mariana Islands during the war, and is said to have personally wired the bomb that later destroyed the Japanese city of Nagasaki. O’Keefe was sent to Japan after its surrender to investigate that country’s progress with nuclear technology and recruit promising Japanese scientists for other atomic projects. A specialist in the design and development of electronic instrumentation and controls, O’Keefe quickly gained an important position in the growing firm.

Inconvenienced by the length of the company’s name, employees soon began to rely on the simple acronym EG & G, which later became its official name. In order to maintain close contact with MIT and its excellent nuclear and electronic engineering programs, EG & G set up its headquarters in Bedford, Massachusetts, in northwest suburban Boston.

EG & G was involved in the U.S. effort to build a more powerful nuclear weapon, the hydrogen bomb. That year, Grier and O’Keefe were present at a Nevada test site to personally witness an H-bomb detonation. After the weapon failed to explode, Grier and O’Keefe flipped a coin to determine who should scale the 300-foot test tower and disarm the bomb. Although O’Keefe lost, he won the special distinction of being the first man to disarm a live H-bomb.

O’Keefe had a second brush with disaster in 1958 when he witnessed an H-bomb detonation at Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific. There, shifting winds in the upper atmosphere caused a radioactive cloud of fallout to shower his bunker.

These experiences taught O’Keefe the awesome destructive power of nuclear weaponry and the dangers of radioactive fallout. As an engineer and manager he was bound to perform his company’s contracts, but grew personally opposed to the use of nuclear weapons. This sharpened his sense of responsibility toward the emerging form of warfare, a quality that was not lost upon the government’s Atomic Energy Commission.

As a result of EG & G’s experience with detonations, and O’Keefe’s concern for nuclear non-proliferation, the company became increasingly involved in distant monitoring projects, particularly as they related to Soviet nuclear tests. By observing changes in the atmosphere, EG & G was able to determine the incidence and strength of Soviet tests and provide important data on the progress of Moscow’s weapons program. In the process, EG & G gained highly specialized knowledge in environmental sciences. These skills had numerous applications outside the weapons industry, in such areas as pollution control and environmental management.

Exploring Commercial Markets: 1960s

As early as 1960, O’Keefe and the company’s three founders had considered establishing a new environmental analysis business, which would lessen EG & G’s dependence on low-margin government contracts and permit the company to enter new commercial markets. But at the time, neither public concern nor legislation placed a high value on such endeavors.

Three years later, the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom signed a protocol that banned nuclear tests in the atmosphere, above ground, in the water, or in outer space.

With this document, EG & G appeared to lose a major portion of its business. However, the protocol did not prevent underground tests, which were far more complicated.

EG & G remained the only company with the proper supervisory credentials to manage this type of nuclear testing.

The company was forced to develop geologic analytical capabilities and become a ‘tunneling’ and ‘mining operation’ as well.

Furthermore, the government had also laid plans to establish a kind of NASA equivalent of oceanographics ( NOAA ).

Eager to take a place in this organization, EG & G invested heavily in oceanographic research.

While the underwater NASA never materialized, the efforts enabled O’Keefe to further cultivate new commercial markets for EG & G, including excavation and water transmission.

During this time the company’s three ( 3 ) founders moved further into retirement, taking ceremonial “executive chairman emeritus” positions.

As a result, O’Keefe became the de facto head of the company.

EG & G also pursued a strong acquisition campaign, taking over thirteen ( 13 ) companies between 1964 – 1967 when a strong environmental movement began to form in the United States.

With legislation still years away, EG & G began laying plans to play an important role in the environmental projects it was sure would result.

EG & G was divided into four ( 4 ) main operating divisions.

EG & G INTERNATIONAL, primarily concerned with oceanography, was the smallest.

EG & G standard products and equipment division produced a variety of machines and electronic devices, grew fastest during the 1960s.

EG & G nuclear detonation and monitoring business segment remained its largest.

EG & G nuclear technology group, most innovative and interesting, involved design of nuclear rocket engines ( ion engines ) for interplanetary propulsion.

EG & G CER GEONUCLEAR CORPORATION Projects included “nuclear landscaping” known as nuclear explosion controlled blasts, carving out:

Harbors; Canals; and, Passageways ( Tunnels, Pipelines, etc. ).

EG & G CER GEONUCLEAR CORPORATION Unit participations tested nuclear explosions ‘used to fracture layers of rock’ for access to otherwise inaccessible reserve locations of oil and gas for exploitation. Although feasible, these EG & G’public works’ projects failed in gaining public support.

In fact, opposition to nuclear technology in-general ‘increased’ as people grew wary of the safety of nuclear energy.

In addition, nuclear excavation would have required an unlikely waiver of the 1963 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

With the evaporation of good commercial prospects for its nuclear engineering expertise, EG & G was forced to rely again on military projects. Despite efforts to step up mechanical and electrical engineering work (partly by acquiring a spate of small research companies), EG & G mustered only four percent annual growth during the late 1960s.

Failed Initiatives: 1970 – 1975

Interest in nuclear power increased dramatically during the 1973 – 1974 Arab oil embargo, in which Americans sought to reduce their costly dependence on imported oil.

Realizing that the world’s oil exporting nations stood to permanently lose their largest customer, the United States, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia promptly called for an end to the embargo. Nonetheless, while Americans regained access to Arab oil, the end of the embargo was disastrous for the U.S. nuclear energy industry and for EG & G.

The end of the embargo removed one of the great justifications for nuclear power, and gave anti-nuclear activists time to properly organize legislative battles.

While EG & G was being locked out of yet another promising commercial application of its technologies, it attempted projects in other fields.

Some years earlier, in an effort to develop a new process for purifying nuclear isotopes, EG & G developed a flash tube that was ideal for photocopiers, but by the time an application could be developed, XEROX had already saturated the market with conventional designs.

In another ill-timed move, the company bet that environmental laws would cause demand for the unconventional Wankel engine to rise.

EG & G purchased a Texas automobile testing agency in hopes of winning large emission monitoring contracts, but the oil embargo destroyed the market for the clean but gas-eating Wankel engine as automobile environmental legislation was abandoned.

During this time, with the encouragement of the government, EG & G established a minority-dominated subsidiary, EG & G Roxbury, in a neighborhood of Boston, hoping to help strengthen the economic structure of the community. The project floundered, however, when bureaucrats failed to properly support the program, causing only a few sales to be made from the subsidiary. After a few years of disastrous results, the entire program was wound up.

On the Upswing: 1976 – 1980s

In 1976, EG & G environmental division evolved into a comprehensive resource efficiency operation providing complete oceanographic, atmospheric, and geophysical analysis rather than concentrating on environmental compliance languishing after the oil embargo by conserving resources, operations could more easily achieve pollution and waste reduction targets.

EG & G port development was unable to use nuclear devices to carve custom designed harbors, became a world leader in oceanographic studies and channel engineering by designing numerous tanker ports in the Persian Gulf and bauxite harbors in South America.

In 1979, U.S. President Jimmy Carter asked Bernard O’Keefe to serve as Chairman for the Synthetic Fuels Corporation of the U.S. government. Having already been asked to serve on a transition team for then presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, O’Keefe refused President Carter’s offer.

With the election of U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1980, the United States took a sudden turn toward military armament programs.

EG & G experienced a resurgence in its flagging nuclear testing business and was tapped to develop a number of new nuclear weapons systems, including, the:

MX nuclear underground mobile railroad missile; and, Strategic Defense Initiative ( SDI ) – Star Wars Program.

A self-described “card carrying member of the military-industrial complex,” Bernard O’Keefe wrote in his book “Nuclear Hostages” that the United States and the Soviet Union were deadlocked in a nuclear arms race neither could control. Ironically, EG & G remained deeply involved in a number of Reagan administration projects O’Keefe opposed, including:

MX nuclear underground mobile railroad missile; Neutron bomb; and, Europe nuclear missile weapon stationings.

Nevertheless, EG & G pre-tax operating profit doubled from the new business.

EG & G also became involved in the space shuttle program, checking the spacecraft electrical components, loading its fuel, and managing the Cape Canaveral, Florida space center during shuttle missions.

EG & G site management abilities won it a position with the U.S. Department of Energy ( DOE ) elite Nuclear Emergency Search Team ( NEST ) which investigated nuclear extortion threats.

The company also won a contract to manage the U.S. government troubled Rocky Flats installation outside Denver, Colorado facility, widely criticized under ROCKWELL INTERNATIONAL for mismanagement, manufacturing nuclear weapon triggers.

EG & G maintained its momentum throughout the 1980s, winning contracts from diverse governmental agencies, including, the:

U.S. Department of Energy ( DOE ); U.S. Army; U.S. Air Force; U.S. Department of Defense; and, U.S. Customs Service ( now U.S. Department of Homeland Security ).

In 1988 the company hit a record high for both sales and earnings.

O’Keefe retired from EG & G during this period of strong growth, and was succeeded by John M. Kucharski.

Rapid Diversification: 1990s

Under U.S. President George Bush, and with the subsequent collapse of the Soviet military threat, the number of EG & G nuclear test projects decreased significantly.

As such, EG & G was under pressure to cultivate profitable new commercial ventures to offset the loss of revenue from military contracts.

The company responded rapidly, entering new commercial markets via a series of acquisitions.

One of the first acquisitions of the 1990s was ELECTRO-OPTICS, the optoelectronics business of GENERAL ELECTRIC ( GE ) Canada.

GENERAL ELECTRIC ELECTRO-OPTICS designed and produced advanced semiconductor emitters and detectors for defense, space, telecommunications, and industrial applications.

Other new ventures followed quickly:

WALLAC Group ( Finland-based ), which produced analytical and diagnostic systems;

IC SENSORS, a maker of sensing devices for industrial, automotive, medical, and aerospace uses; and,

NoVOCs Inc., an environmental remediation specialist.

In 1994, facing legal pressure from activists’ groups, EG & G announced that it would discontinue its nuclear-related endeavors as its various existing contracts expired. 1994, the company undertook a major reorganization to accommodate its newly acquired interests and the discontinuation of its nuclear business.

One important area of focus for the company was its Instruments division, which was rapidly becoming a leader in the field of weapons and explosives screening systems. After providing x-ray machines and metal detectors for the Democratic and Republican national conventions in 1992, the company won a contract to supply state-of-the-art explosives detection systems for U.S. federal courthouses across the nation. A subsequent contract with the Federal Aviation Administration ( FAA ) called for ten ( 10 ) of the most advanced explosives detection systems of EG & G for screening checked baggage in airports.

In 1998, EG & G president and CEO John M. Kucharski was replaced by Gregory Summe ( former president of ALLIEDSIGNAL INC. Automotive Products Group ) known for his ability to streamline and consolidate technology businesses.

He assumed his new position with the twin ( 2 ) goals, of:

1. improving operational efficiency; and,

2. restructuring EG & G portfolio, sharpen the focus on identified high-growth markets.

One of his first efforts toward better operational efficiency was to consolidate all EG & G’s business into five ( 5 ) independent strategic business units:

Life Sciences; Instruments; Engineered Products; Optoelectronics; and,Technical Services.

The company also began repositioning its portfolio by liquidating assets that fell outside these growth areas and making acquisitions that strengthened the EG & G position within its identified markets.

This strategy led to the largest acquisition in the company’s history:

LUMEN TECHNOLOGIES.

Lumen, purchased for $250,000,000 million in December 1998, was known globally as a producer of ‘specialty lighting’.

Lumen acquisition served to strengthen the company’s existing position in the medical lighting market, while at the same time allowing it entry into the areas of video and entertainment lighting.

Looking to the Future –

The consolidation efforts that Summe’s management team initiated in 1998 were expected to continue, with the goal of streamlining sites, functions, and processes so as to reduce operating costs and improve quality, consistency, and response time.

The company intended to continue its focused acquisition strategy.

It also planned to continue aggressively developing and marketing new products in its various divisions. Some of the products expected to be introduced were high-volume, cost-effective systems for drug screening, and a Point of Care system that allowed diagnosticians to determine whether or not a patient had suffered a heart attack in just 15-minutes.

In addition to introducing new products, the company also anticipated an increased emphasis on product line extensions and renewals.

EG& G Principal ( Primary List – Public ) Subsidiaries:

EG & G Alabama Inc.; EG & G ASTROPHYSICS ( England ); EG & G ATP GmbH ( Germany ); EG & G ATP GmbH & Co. Automotive Testing Papenburg KG ( Germany ); EG & G Automotive Research Inc.; EG & G CALIFORNIA INC.; EG & G Benelux BV ( Netherlands ); EG & G Canada Investments Inc.; EG & G Canada Limited; EG & G DEFENSE MATERIALS INC.; EG & G do Brasil Ltda.; EG & G E.C. ( UK ); EG & G Emissions Testing Services Inc.; EG & G ENERGY MEASUREMENTS INC.; EG & G Exporters Ltd. ( U.S. Virgin Islands ); EG & G Florida Inc.; EG & G GmbH. ( Germany ); EG & G HOLDINGS INC.; EG & G Hong Kong Ltd.; EG & G IC Sensors Inc.; EG & G Idaho Inc.; EG & G Information Technologies Inc.; EG & G Instruments GmbH. ( Germany ); EG & G Instruments International Ltd.; EG & G Instruments Inc.; EG & G International Ltd.; EG & G Japan Inc. ( USA ); EG & G Judson InfaRed Inc.; EG & G KT AEROFAB INC.; EG & G Langley Inc.; EG & G Ltd. ( UK ); EG & G Management Services of San Antonio Inc.; EG & G Management Systems Inc.; EG & G Missouri Metals Shaping Company Inc.; EG & G Mound Applied Technologies Inc.; EG & G Omni Inc.; EG & G Pressure Science Inc.; EG & G Singapore Pte Ltd.; EG & G SPECIAL PROJECTS INC.; EG & G Star City Inc.; EG & G S.A. ( France ); EG & G SpA ( Italy ); EG & G Technical Services of West Virginia Inc.; EG & G Vactec Philippines Ltd.; EG & G Ventures Inc.; EG & G Watertown Inc.; ANTARTIC SUPPORT ASSOCIATES ( Columbia ); B.A.I. GmbH. ( Germany ); Benelux Analytical Instruments S.A. ( Belgium; 92.3% ); Berthold A.G. ( Switzerland ); Berthold Analytical Instruments Inc.; Berthold France S.A. ( 80% ); Berthold GmbH & Co. KG ( Germany ); Biozone Oy ( Finland ); EC III Inc. ( Mexico; 49% ); Eagle EG & G Inc.; Eagle EG & G Aerospace Co. Ltd.; Heimann Optoelectronics GmbH ( Germany ); Heimann Shenzhen Optoelectronics Co. Ltd. ( China ); NOK EG & G Optoelectronics Corp. ( Japan; 49% ); PRIBORI Oy ( Russia ); PT EG & G Heimann Optoelectronics ( Singapore ); RETICON CORP.; Reynolds Electrical & Engineering Inc.; Science Support Corporation; SEIKO EG & G CO. LTD. ( Japan; 49% ); SHANGHAI EG & G RETICON OPTOELECTRONICS CO. LTD.; Societe Civile Immoiliere ( France; 82.5% ); THE LAUNCH SUPPORT CO. L.C.; VACTEC INC.; WALLAC ADL AG ( Germany ); WALLAC ADL GmbH ( Germany ); WALLAC A/S; WALLAC Holding GmbH ( Germany ); WALLAC Norge AS ( Norway ); WALLAC Oy ( Finland ); WALLAC SVERIGE AB ( Sweden ); WALLAC INC.; WELLESLEY B.V. ( Netherlands ); WRIGHT COMPONENTS INC.; ZAO PRIBORI.

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PART 5

Research –

Keywords:

BaneBerry; Buggy; Cannikin; Dribble; Gnome; HardTack II; Hood; Pile Driver; PlumbBob; Roller Coaster; Rulison; Sedan; Shoal; Strategic Petroleum Reserve Operation ( SPRO ); Vela Uniform; Nuclear Rocket Development Station ( NRDS ); Kit Carson National Forest ( 10DEC67 ) – GasBuggy; Kit Carson National Forest ( AUG79 ) – Schneider’ Borehole Geophysics; Four-Dimensional Process Monitoring.

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– Pittman Station ( Henderson, Nevada ) USAF personnel support for Area 51. – PAX = Pittman Air Station ( USAF ) – PAD = Area 51 Test Site – Personnel Response Phrase For Area 51 ( Nevada ) Access Entry: “I work for ‘EG And G’ at the ‘Site’.”

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DESERT RESEARCH INSTITUTE ( DRI ), New Mexico.

– –

Not likely places to be visited by many of us are those secretly hidden underground, and even more-so underwater – since at least the 1930s.

Superpower nations have reigned supreme based on financial support for programs and projects worked on by some citizens holding ‘deep underground secrets’ hidden for decades by governments reasoning to such workers that their work has been done to protect ‘people’ and ‘property’ – all “in the interest of national security.”

Rarely do ‘government contract worker ants’ ( citizens ) ever realize ‘what it is’ we need to be protected from, and all anyone can think is that it is something bad we could imagine while never being able to comprehend anything ‘unimaginable’ we need protection from. Do any of us really want to know what ‘that is’, which we’re supposedly being protected against?

This report covers ‘unexplainable encounters’ governments decline to publicly explain. Events, buried over time and matters long forgotten about from most memories, that-is until recent events began unfolding a few, putting old stories thought-of as ’myths’ back into perspective today.

Some noteworthy facts, still remain ”classified’ and ‘locked away’ by high level authorities. Some, never revealed on television, motion picture films, books, or newspapers may now be reviewed through selected intelligence bits ‘n pieces ( below ) that may begin to dawn on some of us recalling having once heard of something about one or more but could not recall the source or details.

Legacy reports and more ( below ):

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1975 – California ( Southern and Northern ) and Oregon ( Southern )

California Floats On Ocean?

John J. Williams of CONSUMERTRONICS CO. ( Alamogordo, New Mexico, USA ), said:

“Some time ago, I heard ( on a television interview show ) a man briefly mention that parts of California ( and neighboring states ) are floating on the Pacific Ocean.  He was a high ranking U.S. Navy officer aboard a top secret nuclear submarine that has been ( and is ) ‘exploring’ and ‘mapping’ enormous caverns and passageways underneath the Western U.S. for over 10-years now. A friend of mine finally tracked down the man who is now quietly living in retirement and asked that no details pointing to him be revealed as he does not want publicity and government attention. After writing this article, I destroyed my files on him.  This is his story.”

Williams explained that ‘not all’ areas in-question are actually ‘resting’ or “floating” on the ocean.

Many subterranean cavities are located beneath the western United States but not limited to just “California,” and consist of very large water-filled aquasystem passageways are explored up to several hundred miles inland, by nuclear-powered submarine, particularly in regions of southern California, northern California and southern Oregon.

Williams continues, “…When this U.S. Navy officer retired ( several years ago ), in spite of about 10-years of intensive U.S. Naval Oceanographic study, the U.S. Navy had still not gotten even a handle on their [ subterranean waterway passageway cavaties ] exacts [ oceanographic coordinates ] and dimensions. Today, the story may be different. He [ U.S. Navy officer, retired ] made the following statements from his observations:

1. These passageways are labyrinths with widths from a few [ feet ] up to thousands of feet wide, averaging roughly about a 100-feet across [ wet caverns ];

2. Much like dry caverns, heights and depths vary a great deal, and in some cases two [ 2 ] or more ‘caverns or passageways pass over or under each other’ at different depths;

3. Most of the underwater entrances lie just off the Continental Shelf;

4. Most of the underwater entrances are ‘too small for submarine investigation’, but many that are large enough lie in waters that are too deep [ ultra deep sea ];

5. Some of the caverns ( in southern California ) are topped by oil while others are filled with gases believed approximate to our atmosphere [ in very ancient times ];

6. The San Joaquin Valley [ California ] is essentially a portion of the original cavernous area that collapsed eons ago due to it’s sheer weight;

7. What is being passed-off as the “San Andreas Fault” are large unsupported chambers [ caverns ] that are in the process of collapsing.  When the ‘big one’ [ earthquake ] finally hits, many scientists in the know believe that most of California will break off like a cold Hershey bar [ chocolate candy bar ] and slide into the ocean.

8. [ this item was later deleted due to the individual’s fear that disclosure may in-part – due to recent ( 1985 ) international events – disturb a resolution to the feared problem, a similar scenario to that portrayed in a James Bond motion picture film depicting underground caverns, silicon valley technologies, nuclear weapons, and the San Andreas fault. ];

9. A well known U.S. nuclear submarine lost its way, within these passageways, resulting in its disappearance, but publicly reported as lost amidst open sea elsewhere using a recovery effort cover [ GLOMAR ( Global Marine ) Explorer ];

Williams continued, “I have no reason to doubt the man.  I can’t tell for sure whether or not these caverns and passageways exist or to their extent.  The story does sound a bit fantastic but I have no reason to doubt the man [ retired U.S. Navy officer ].  I have seen copies of documentation at least proving he was a high ranking U.S. Navy officer with nuclear-powered submarine duty, and a distinguished scientist. His scientific background and reputation are impeccable.  He definitely cannot be labeled as a crackpot, lunatic or publicity seeker.

I would very much like more information on this topic …”

Upon further inquiries, by ‘inner earth’ researchers, John J. Williams responded with the following when asked whether or not he [ Williams ] had received any replies to his request for more information about the alleged subterranean aquasystem passageways below California:

“Since publishing our article on the vast cavern network under much of California, we have received many responses and inquiries.  Some of these responses appear to have been from knowledgeable sources.  Note that the material sent to us for this article was written by someone of very high repute whose credentials I personally checked out.  Due to an agreement with him, I cannot reveal his identity.”

John J. Williams continued, “One response was from a retired submarine U.S. Navy Commander claiming to have spent many years in the waters off California and that such caverns do ‘not’ exist. Another response was from an anonymous person who cited unpublished oil company seismographic data stated, ‘Although most of the caverns you depict in your drawing are smaller, larger or located somewhat differently than the actual caverns, you are essentially correct … My information is more up-to-date than what you apparently relied upon.’  He ( or she ) did not supply any maps to pin down our differences, just some written descriptions, however some knowledgeable person could probably deduce his ( or her ) overall ‘map’ from the voluminous seismographic data sent.  I am in the process of looking for this input; it’s been several years now and it may have all been thrown out … Incidentally, the oil company seismic data had much data around the City of Fresno in Central California area if that helps any.”

–

1970s – California, County of Los Angeles, City of Long Beach

“One incident, which may lend credence to California floating on the ocean was a newspaper story that made ( in recent years ) headlines ( The Press Telegram newspaper of Long Beach, California ) involving an oil discovery beneath Long Beach, California as oil companies pumped oil out-of the ground the entire City of Long Beach began to sink up to 26-feet into the Pacific Ocean, and dikes had to be built to keep the seawater out.  The problem was ( temporarily ) being resolved by ‘water injection’ ( i.e. pumping an equivalent amount of water into the ground caverns to replace the amount of oil removed, in order to keep the City of Long Beach, California afloat.”

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1963 April 23 – SubOceania      One note of interest, in connection with the account of John J. Williams, was a statement made by Virginia Louise Swanson, a prominent investigator of the California elusive creature known as “Bigfoot,” a huge hairy creature that walks upright. Virginia L. Swanson has performed considerale studies on cave connections in relationship to the Bigfoot phenomena and its ability to hide so well, and refers to these California dry cavernous openings saying, “Somewhere I got the idea that a big portion of Death Valley [ California ] is located on a shelf of ‘false bedrock’.  A certain type of earthquake would collapse all of it down to an enormous series of caverns that would open-up into another Grand Canyon [ Arizona ].”      According to our knowledge, the only nuclear-powered submarines to ever disappear – under mysterious circumstances – were the USS SCORPION or USS THRESHER.

It is uncertain whether the retired U.S. Navy officer, who John J. Williams spoke of, was referring to the USS SCORPION or USS THRESHER, although the USS THRESHER disappearance caused more publicity as a Flagship, the World’s most advanced class nuclear attack submarine designed to operate deeper in sea depths and more silent ( noise reduction propeller screws ) than any of its predecessor submarine vessels, The U.S.S. THRESHER was also endowed with highly significant advanced sonar equipment, fire-control systems, and was the most advanced international submarine in the World at the time of its disappearance so, it could have easily been an ideal choice as a U.S. Naval Oceanographic underwater global exploratory vessel missioned top secret for caverns mentioned by the U.S. Navy officer earlier interviewed by John Williams.

On April 10, 1963 the USS THRESHER, under command of U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander John W. Harvey, a total of 129 men comprised of the ‘crew’, ‘civilian technicians’, and ‘observers’ – according to official government reports – disappeared without any explanation, trace or clue as to the fate of the vessel or occupants, nothing was ever recovered, and no indications of any oil slicks, radiation, floating debris, or similar signs of wreckage were ever seen.

It is interesting to note that, at the time almost all reports stated the USS THRESHER “disappeared” or was “lost” but no reports indicated it was “sunk” [ or “buried” or “captured” ].

One woman, whose husband was on the ill-fated USS THRESHER, reported she believed her husband was still alive.

Theologically speaking, the possibility of a long distance connection or “communion” on a deep emotional level between a husband and a wife may not always be consigned to the realm of the occult or psychic phenomena.  Many religions believe the very spiritual natures of a husband and a wife are united upon consummation of a marriage and thus become as Christian teachings indicate, “one flesh”.

The actual words of this woman, interviewed by William Carson and Jeannie Joy – two [ 2 ] writers [ columnists for Search Magazine ] devoted to pursuing strange events – shortly after the USS THRESHER disappearance, were as follows:

“My husband was on the submarine THREASHER when it disappeared.  I don’t consider myself a widow.  I don’t believe my husband is dead.  No, it’s not a matter of just not being able to believe it, to accept reality, I just can’t get over the conviction that he’s still alive somewhere.  I love my husband very much.  I know he loved – loves me.  We were very close.  We could always tell when something was wrong with each other.  Intuition, I guess.  I should have felt something the instant there was trouble, if he was really in serious trouble and knew it – a matter of life and death – but I didn’t.”

“What do you believe really happened?” Carson and Joy asked the attractive young woman.

“Most people think I’m crazy when I say this, but I believe the THRESHER was captured.”

“By whom?”

“I can’t say for sure, but there ‘was’ a Russian submarine spotted near there that day ( near ‘where it reportedly vanished 220-miles off Boston harbor ), only I can’t imagine how even the Russians could ‘capture’ a vessel like the THRESHER without leaving the slightest evidence!”

–

1989 – California, County of Inyo, City of Deep Springs ( east of Owens Valley and Bishop, CA ) and Nevada, Las Vegas

The following account, concerning an area just east of Owens Valley in Bishop, California was related by Val Valerian in his ‘Leading Edge’ newsletter ( December 1989 – January 1990 issue ) article entitled “Deep Springs, California,” stated:

“Deep Springs, California is an area that is becoming known as the site for very strange events.  According to the information released both on the air of KVEG AM radio and from other sources, the area is full of strange people wandering around in black suits. There have also been rumors that there is an underground facility in the area.

Checking with gravity anomaly maps proved that there are large cavities under the ground in that area. The wildest claims relative to the area have stated that alien life-forms are being released there … Deep Springs Lake has been probed and it appears bottomless.

Divers have traveled along an underground river 27-miles toward the Las Vegas, Nevada area before having to turn around.”

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1963 – California, County of Inyo-Kern, Bishop & Casa Diablo

In the April 1963 issue of Search Magazine, investigative reporters William Carson and Jeannie Joy, in their regular column ( “Prying Into The Unknown” ) relayed the following information:

“It has always been a mystery to us, in the first place, how Mr. and Mrs. P.E. [ names excised for privacy ] can find and afford the time to do the sort of things most of us only dream of doing.  After knowing them for more than 15-years, it is inconceivable to suspect their integrity or sanity – and yet they impose the following excise upon our credulity.

While exploring for petroglyphs, in the Casa Diablo vicinity of Bishop, California Mr. & Mrs. P.E. came upon a circular hole in the ground, about 9-feet in diameter, which exuded a sulfurous steam and seemed recently to have been filled with hot water.  A few feet from the surface the shaft took a tangent course which looked easily accessible and, upon an impulse with which we cannot sympathize, the dauntless E.’s – armed only with a flashlight – forthwith crawled down into that hole. At a depth we’ve failed to record the oblique tunnel opened into a horizontal corridor whose dripping walls, now encrusted with minerals, could only have been carved by human hands, countless ages ago; of this the E.’s felt certain.

The end of the short passage was blocked by what seemed to be a huge doorway of solid rock which, however, wouldn’t yield.  Their flashlight was turned to a corner where water dripped from a protuberance, which proved to be a delicately carved face, distorted now by the crystallized minerals, and from whose gaping mouth water issued.

As Mr. and Mrs. E. stood there in silent awe – wondering what lay behind that immovable door – the strangest thing of all happened … but our chronology will not be incorrect if we wait until they return to the surface before revealing this, for now the water began gushing from the carved mouth and from other unseen ducts elsewhere in that cave and rising at an alarming rate. They hurried to the surface, and in less than 30-minutes there was only a quite ordinary appearing pool of warm mineral water on the desert floor.

‘Do you know,’ Mrs. E. said to her husband, ‘while I stood down there I heard music – the strangest, most weird music I’d ever heard.  But it seemed to come from everywhere at once or from inside my own head.  I guess it was just my imagination.’

Mr. E. turned pale. ‘My God,’ he said, ‘I thought it was my imagination but I heard it too – like music from some other world!’

Why do they call that rock formation – near where the E’s had their strange experience in Bishop, California – ” Casa Diablo ” [ known in English as ] “Devil House”? And why was that area [ County of Inyo ] named by the Indians as ” Inyo ” [ known in English as ] dwelling place of the great spirit?”

–

1991 – New Madrid Fault Area ( Central United States & Northeast Mexico )

– Typhlichthys Fish – Interwoven Immense Cave Systems ( Central United States & Southern United States – New Madrid Fault Area ) – Sotano de las Golondrinas Cave Hole ( Aquismo, S.L.P., MEXICO )      Erich A. Aggen Jr., in his article “Top Secret: Alien UFO Bases” ( Search Magazine issue Summer 1991 ), presented the following revelations concerning the UFO subterranean connection:

“A great deal of UFO research has also led to the conclusion that various … species of aliens have set up secret underground bases in the United States and other countries.  It is logical to assume that such bases have also been established elsewhere in the solar system.  If such bases exist, where would we find them?  Existing information allows us to make a few educated guesses.

Earth bases, underground, The dark, cavernous world beneath our feet is the source of many baffling mysteries. Clandestine UFO bases may be hidden deep within the earth in natural and/or artificial caverns.

As a former member of the National Speleological Society ( NSS ), I am well aware of the vast extent of cave systems within the United States.

In my own native state of Missouri, for example, there are over 2,500 known caves and dozens of new ones being discovered every year.  Many of these caves are intricately linked together by numerous passageways and interconnecting chambers.

One particular species of blind white ( albino ) cave fish, known as the TYPHLICHTHYS, has been found in many widely separated cave systems over several states.

Typhlichthys fish been found in caves that make a great arc through the states, of:

Kentucky; Indiana; Illinois; Missouri ( ‘under’ the Mississippi River ); Arkansas; and, Oklahoma

These states rest above one [ 1 ] immense cavern system that comprises a large area of ‘both’ the Central United States and Southern United States where many caves possess rooms hundreds of feet in length, width and height as huge natural caverns only reached and explored with the utmost skill and perseverance.

There are only a few thousand National Speleological Society ( NSS ) members in the U.S. and only a few hundred of this number are active spelunkers so, with few spread over such a large area only a very small fraction of the tens of thousands of known caves in the U.S. have been carefully mapped and explored while thousands of other caves remain undiscovered and unexplored.

Extensive evidence indicates caves in the U.S. may be connected with caves in other parts of the world.

In the Municipio de Aquismo, S.L.P. of Mexico, the cave known as ” Sotano de las Golondrinas ” [ known in English as ] “Basement of the Swallows ” reaches a depth of 1,100 feet ( 334 meters ).

The Sotano de las Golondrinas cave is actually a giant ‘sink hole’ or ‘hole in the ground’. Atop Sotano de las Golondrinas hole is a ‘near circular opening hundreds of feet in diameter that is impossible to climb down the sides of because the walls of the opening are too smooth and “belled-out” so, the only way to reach the bottom is to secure – at its top – a special rope over 1,100 feet long dropped into the sinkhole.

Underground explorers [ spelunkers ] must descend – into the Sotano de las Golondrinas yawning hole – one [ 1 ] person at a time, using special cave repelling gear and climbing techniques.  At the bottom of the Sotano de las Golondrinas hole are numerous ‘leads’ ( openings ) that feed into multiple different crevices, passageways, crawlways and rooms never mapped or investigated.

Sotano de las Golondrinas cave entrance is located in one of the most primitive and uncivilized areas of Mexico, and local inhabitants are afraid to approach the cave because they believe it is full of ‘evil spirits’ luring people to their deaths.  They tell stories of people mysteriously disappearing never to be heard from again while passing near the cave entrance.

These stories may be based more on fact than fiction as they are similar in some respects to UFO [ unidentified flying objects ] abduction reports.

Because of the Sotano de las Golondrinas huge hole size, remote location and unique geological structure it would be an ideal UFO [ unidentified flying objects ] base.  Naturally camouflaged caves, in other parts of the world, may serve as excellent natural bases, way-stations or depots for UFOs.

–

1968 December – Nevada and Canada

In December 1968, the ” SCHOONER EXPERIMENT ” was an underground nuclear test conducted that substantiates the theory that caves in North America and South America are intimately linked.

The Schooner Experiment was a 35-kiloton nuclear bomb exploded under the Nevada desert, however 5-days later and 1,000 miles further away in Canada 5-days test radiation levels rose up to 20 times greater than at the Nevada test site.  The only way the radioactive dust could have traveled that far is through an interconnected system of caves extending all the way from Nevada to Canada!”

–

1932 – California, Death Valley, Panamint Mountains

Bourke Lee authored the book, ‘Death Valley Men’ ( MacMillan Co., N.Y. 1932 ), wherein Chapter “Old Gold” described a conversation Bourke Lee had with a small group of Death Valley, California residents speaking of Native American Paihute Indian legends when two ( 2 ) men ( Jack and Bill ) began describing their experience with accidentally discovering an ‘underground city’ after one of them fell through the bottom of an old mine shaft near Wingate Pass where they began following a natural underground quay like tunnel system ( apparently formerly lit by subterranean gas light ) traveling 20-miles northward on an incline taking them to a higher level with an exit out onto a ledge looking about halfway down the slope of the eastern face of the Panamint Mountains, but back down within the tunnel system they came across a huge ancient underground cavern city that contained many sights, including several perfectly preserved mummified bodies ( mummies ) still wearing thick arm bands, gold spears, a ‘large polished round table’ within another huge ancient chamber, giant statues comprised of gold, stone vaults where ‘drawers’ were filled with a variety of precious gem stones and gold bars, stone doors perfectly counterweighted easy to open, amongst other amazing sights, as well as ‘extremely heavy stone wheelbarrows’ designed with scientific counterweight construction for perfect balance so they could easily be manipulated.

From the ledge, they could see Furnace Creek Ranch and its Arroyo ( a water wash ) below them in Death Valley where they realized it was formerly filled with water so, they concluded that having previously seen the underground city system of huge archway openings could have been ancient waterway docks for large boats.

Bourke Lee was further informed that they brought some of the treasure out of the caverns and tried to set up a deal with certain people, including scientists associated with the SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE ( Washington, D.C. ) to garner assistance in further exploring and publicizing this ancient underground city as one of the wonders of the World, but there efforts ended in disappointment when a friend of theirs stole the treasure ( their ‘evidence’ ) and were consequently scoffed at and rejected by scientists because when the discoverers went to show the ‘mine’ entrance after a then apparent cloud-burst brought such severe rains upon the entire hillsides were washed down over entire countryside landscape areas rearranged to obscure the entrance location.

The last time Bourke Lee heard from his friends, Bill and Jack, they were preparing to climb the eastern face of the Panamint Mountains to locate the ancient tunnelled-out ledge opening – located half way up the side of that steep slope. Bourke Lee never saw or heard from his discoverer friends ( Jack and Bill ) again.

During their initial lengthy conversation with Bourke Lee, the two ( 2 ) discoverers ( Jack and Bill ) had previously ‘revealed secrets of the underground city’ to others, but they discussed many things, including:

An alleged ‘subterranean race’ living in deep underground caverns beneath the ‘former seabed floor area’ of what is now the desert area of Death Valley, California.

There was another conversation about a remarkable Native American ‘Paihute tribe legend’ similar to an ancient myth of Greece.

The Paihute legend surrounds the death of the wife of a tribal Chief who, according to Native American tradition, took a ‘spiritual journey to the underworld’ to locate her, and amazingly upon returning with her he forbiddenly ‘looked back’ and was then prevented from bring his wife the remainder of the back from the dead.

This would not be the same as a more tangible earlier report from the Native American Navaho indian Oga-Make who conveyed that a Native American Paihute indian tribal Chief was alleged to have been ‘physically’ taken into the Native American “Hav-musuv” tribe subterranean cities beneath the Panamint Mountains.

Paihute indian legends, of the Hav-musuvs indicate these ancient Panamint Mountain dwellers abandoned their ancient city within by migration deeper into larger caverns below.

Could these reports coincide with the Paihute legends of the Hav-musuvs?

Bourke Lee, discourse ( below ):

“… The ‘professor’, ‘Jack’ and ‘Bill’ sat in the little canvas house in ‘Emigrant Canyon’, and heard the legend all the way through.

The professor said, ‘That story, in its essentials, is the story of Orpheus and Eurydice.’ ( Greek mythology )

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘it’s also a Paiute legend. Some indians told that legend to ‘John Wesley Powell’ in the sixties.’ ( 1960s )

‘That’s very interesting,’ said the professor.  ‘It’s so close a parallel to Orpheus and Eurydice that the story might well have been lifted bodily from the Greeks.’

Jack said, ‘I wouldn’t be surprised.  I knew a Greek.  I forgot his name, but he ran a restaurant in almost every mining town I ever was in.  He was an extensive wanderer.  The Greeks are great travelers.’

Bill said, ‘They don’t mean restaurant Greeks.  The Greeks they’ve talked about have been dead for thousands of years.’

‘What of it?’ asked Jack, ‘maybe the early Greeks were great travelers, too.’

The professor said, ‘It’s very interesting.’

‘Now! About that tunnel,’ said Bill, with his forehead wrapped in a frown, ‘You said this indian went through a tunnel into a strange country, didn’t you?’

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘I think I called it a cave or a cavern, but I suppose a miner would call it a tunnel. Why?’

‘Here’s a funny thing,’ said Bill, ‘This Indian trapper living right across the canyon has a story about a tunnel, and it’s not 1,000 years old either. Tom Wilson told me that his grandfather went through this tunnel and disappeared. He was gone 3-years, and when he came back he said he’d been in a strange country living among strange people. That tunnel is supposed to be somewhere in the Panamints ( Panamint Mountains ) not awful far from where we’re sittin. Now! What do you make of that?’

Jack said, ‘I think Tom’s grandfather was an awful liar.’

I said, ‘Tom’s grandfather lived when the Paiutes ( Native American indian tribe ) were keeping their tribal lore alive. He probably knew the old legend.  Powell ( John Wesley Powell ) heard it in Nevada only 65-years ago.’

‘It’s very interesting,’ said the professor.

‘I got an idea about it,’ said Bill ( thoughtfully ), ‘Tom’s grandfather might have wandered into some tunnel all goofy from chewin’ jimson weed and then come out an found some early whites ( pioneer caucasian settlers ) and stayed with them. Tom told me that the people spoke a queer language and ate food that was new to his grandfather and wore leather clothes. They had horses and they had gold. It might have been a party in Panamint Valley, or even early explorers or early settlers in Owens Valley ( California ). How about that?’

Jack said, ‘Yeah. The Spaniards ( Spain ) were in here, too. So it might have been Spaniards ( Spanish ) or the early Greeks ( Greece ). And, where is this tunnel? And why did Tom’s grandfather have trouble speaking the language? This is an entirely different story than the one Buck told.  We are arriving at no place at all with these Indians and Greeks. To return – for a moment – to our discussion of geology, professor, ‘Have you been in Nevada much?’

From that point forward the conversation went onto another subject.

–

1970′s ( early ) – California, County of Kern, Garlock, Goler, and Mojave

An area in the [ southern California ] Mojave Desert region, that may connect to the U.S. Western Region subterranean ( subsurface ) drainage network, involves “Red Mountain” ( also known as the “Iron Mountain Range” ) [ 1-mile northwest from the old ghost town of Garlock, California ] where one [ 1 ] of its [ southeastern ] peaks in the “El Paso Mountains” – [ about 20-miles ] northeast of Mojave, California where there are many bizarre accounts connected with this mountain that apparently got it’s name in-part from the many old mines which can be found there, along with numerous natural cavities which open out to the surface in many different areas.

The area has allegedly been the site of certain activity concerning Native American Indian ritual and occult practices, as well as the site of alleged secret government activity, some of which reportedly involves the observation and monitoring of strange [ biological ] creatures and ‘automatons’ [ half and half, “Man-Machines” (aka) “Manchines” ] said to stealthily ( night cloakers ) emerge from seemingly out-of nowhere ( faint sound of electronic whirring ) that travels up and down and into the [ canyon ] areas on occasions.

Just exactly what these ‘bionic creatures’ are is uncertain, but some accounts indicate that they are dangerous!

Could it also be a ‘magnetic’ zone due to the high iron content [ within the “Iron Mountain” range ]?

During the early 1970′s, on ‘no less than’ two ( 2 ) seperate occassions have U.S. federal government employees mysteriously disappeared from ”Red Mountain” range areas, and not reported back for work the following day.

The second [ 2nd ] occassion was, when a U.S. government employee went missing while investigating the previous disappearance of the U.S. government employee during the first [ 1st ] occassion.

While all of the facts, surrounding United States missing federal employees were not released to the public, portions of information were discovered early-on into the case situation that was limitedly documented by a few additional facts:

… [ EDITED-OUT ] …

Some of this particular report is only held ‘in-part’ as ‘proprietary information’ by Kentron Intellect Research, and ‘officially’ in-full by the U.S. Geological Survey ( USGS ), U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigations, and other U.S. government authorities governing release of sensitive information. ]

–

– West Virginia, County of Webster ( Northern )

Some years ago, a woman by the name of Joan Howard – at the time living in eastern Canada although originally from Britain ( UK ) – wrote a manuscript in which she described her own paranormal experiences with small “alien” entities.

Joan had experienced several UFO type abduction / encounters while at a very young age when she still lived in Britain ( UK ), and claimed to have had ‘psychic contact’ with [ biological ] beings that claimed to be of extraterrestrial origin.

These experiences were accompanied by a great deal of occult manifestations – such as poltergeist phenomena, psychic dreams, encounters with invisible entities, etc.

Joan even admitted that she often doubted the claims of these [ biological ] ‘beings’ – their actions being manipulative and just didn’t seem to coincide with their claims of being here as some kind-of ‘group of cosmic saviors’ to ‘lead humanity’ into a ‘New Age’ of ‘enlightenment’.

She also warned other researchers, to retain a “keen analytical mind” – when dealing with alien entities – so as not to fall under possible deception or manipulation.

Perhaps, as she suggested to others, they [ alien beings ] ‘might actually be here’ to ‘prepare for a future invasion of this planet’ and were merely ‘using her for various purposes to help prepare the way’, and that all of their ‘benevolence’ talk was just that – talk!

She ‘did’ describe vivid “dreams” in which she saw ‘alien craft hovering over major cities blasting frightened and terrified people in the streets’ with powerful ‘beam weapons’ – ‘dreams’, which she suggested, might be somewhat ‘prophetic’ in nature.

She described the [ biological ] entities as being small or dwarfs, yet was unsure whether they were human or not – although they ‘did’ attempt to pass themselves off as some type of ‘evolved human species’ – something which the ‘Grays’ [ biological alien beings ] have apparently done in order to break down any natural enmity which might prevent their ‘contactees’ or ‘abductees’ from receiving the lies which they intentionally fed them as part of their program of conquest and control.

Joan Howard, incidentally, wrote a privately published book, “The Space – Or Something – Connection,” which is referred to because it dealt with some experiences her husband had – shortly after she came to America.

In fact she devoted an entire chapter of her book ( “The Space – Or Something – Connection” ) to her husband’s account, which involved some incidents that took place while he was doing some field work for a certain company requiring a great deal of activity outdoors, and her husband and his co-workers travelled through some relatively unpopulated terrain in West Virginia regional areas between Newville, West Virginia ( Braxton County ) and Helvetia, West Virginia ( Randolph County ) general around northern Webster County, West Virginia where through mountains of rolling hill forests and wilderness he encountered some very strange things and heard accounts of strange cave related incidents from the locals.

During, which at one point, her husband claimed their group ran across what appeared to be a pipe sticking up from the ground – far away from the nearest town – where there was no other sign of civilization or anything man-made for miles on either side; yet here was this large pipe or tube sticking straight up from the ground.

The most remarkable thing about the pipe was that a flame of fire was shooting straight up out-of the pipe as if it were burning-off some type of gas – they never found out just what it was – but it was ‘within this same general area’ they explored ‘caverns’ containing unexplained issues.

One ( 1 ) of the caves displayed strange hieroglyphic writings on its walls, according to some men, while others claimed also hearing faint volumes of voices – behind the walls of the cave, in-addition to faint sounds – coming from beneath the cave floor – as though machines were moving around within ‘underground’ depths.

Her husband claimed, that after a long work day in the field, one evening two ( 2 ) men fell asleep at the mouth of one particular cave that inside ( a great distance away ) contained an unexplored but apparently very deep chasm ( hole ), and the following morning one ( 1 ) of the two ( 2 ) men awoke ( in front of that cave ) but found his partner had disappeared – no trace was ever found of that missing employee.

That particular cave had been known as a place of unusual occurrences, and a place to stay away from. Some even went so far as to call it “Satan’s Lair.”   Whatever the case circumstances may actually be, all the aforementioned information may provide some additional awareness into what may have surrounded that employee’s disappearance.

One of the most remarkable accounts that Joan Howard’s husband heard involved a man claiming, that while exploring labyrinth depths of a particular cavern in the same area of north Webster County, West Virginia ( USA ), he suddenly came face to face with an attractive woman completely void of any hair on her head, and the woman spoke in a language completely foreign to the man – whereupon after unsuccessfully trying at great lengths to communicate with each other they departed and went their separate ways.

–

1989 – California ( Southern )

On November 3rd, 1989 Ken Hudnell, a well-known Los Angeles, California radio talk show host announced – over broadcast airwaves – his intention to take a group to visit ‘one of the ancient underground cities’ that had an ‘entrance’ located 60-miles from Anaheim, California. ( The Leading Edge Magazine )

–

1962 – California ( City of Mojave ), Nevada ( Carson City ), Utah ( Zion Canyon ) and Arizona ( Page )

During the 1940′s, one of the few specialized publications – that grew out-of the Palmer – Shaver ( Richard S. Shaver ) controversy – was The Hidden World ( issue A-8 ) reporting about a letter released from Charles Edwards ( aka ) Chuck Edwards, a researcher, surrounding what many people ( especially those throughout southern California ) have believed for decades based on having been officially told the United States Western Regional area subterranean drainage ultimately all flows into the Pacific Ocean.      Later, in 1962, Chuck Edwards released some of his own discoveries surrounding the “Western Subsurface Drainage Network” ( i.e. southern California, Nevada, and Utah ) that ‘does not’ “ultimately flow into the Pacific Ocean,” but actually flows ‘underground’ through a ‘vast subterranean network drainage system’ dumping elsewhere.

Addressed to Richard S. Shaver, the Chuck Edwards’ letter reply is quoted ( below ):

“This letter is in reply to your January 31 letter.  Please forgive me for not answering sooner.  Enclosed is some material I hope that you can glean something of value [ from ].  Please be as candid as you have been in the past and if I am far off base don’t hesitate to tell me. …

Our foundation has located a vast system of underground passages in the Mother Lode country of California. They were first discovered in 1936, ignored by all even with our best efforts to reveal them.

Recently a road crew blasted out an opening verifying our claims. One [ of the chambers is ] 200-feet long, 70-feet wide and 50-feet high.

We have disclosed what we believe to be a vast subterranean drainage system ( probably traversing the Great American Desert country for a distance of more than 600-miles ).

We believe this system extends out like five [ 5 ] fingers of your hand to such landmarks as Zion Canyon in Utah, the Grand Canyon [ Arizona ], another runs south from the Carson Sink in Nevada, and yet another follows [ below ] the western slope of the same range – joining it’s counterpart and ending somewhere in the Mojave Desert [ southern California ].

We believe – contrary to orthodox geologists – that the existence of this underground system, drains all surface waters running into Nevada ( none, with the exception of the Armagosa, runs out ) and accounts for the fact that it is a Great American Desert. The hairy creatures, that you have written about, have been seen in several of these areas. Certainly there has been much ‘saucer’ [ UFO ] activity in these parts. For 2-years, I have collected material pertinent to these creatures and if you have any opinions along these lines I would appreciate hearing them.

So much for now.  I hope that I am still your friend.

Much of my time has been devoted [ to ] helping a farmer near Portland [ Oregon ] who has made a fantastic discovery of incredible stone artifacts. He has several tons of them. They predate anything yet found ( or accepted ) let us say that for now.

We are making slow but steady progress in getting through the wall of orthodoxy.

– Chuck Edwards”

–

1946 – California ( Northern ), Mt. Lassen, Cascade Mountains, Cascadia Fault, Oregon, Washington and Canada ( British Columbia )

Following the Sierra Nevada [ mountain ] range from here [ California ] into the northern territories, one arrives at the Cascade Range [ mountains ], consisting mostly of dormant or extinct volcanic mountains rising at intervals through the U.S. northern State of California, Oregon, Washington, and into southwestern Canada.

The Cascade Range [ Cascadia Fault zone ] is not without it’s own peculiar accounts of subterranean recesses occupied by unknown beings – both human and non-human – apparently rediscovering what are portions of ancient antediluvian underground networks, which some say were inhabited by a race of intelligent [ biological ] but war-like hybrid reptiles genetically resembling instances of humanoid shapes.

There are many unanswered questions as to just how the subsurface world was used or exactly what role it may have played in relation to subterranean ancient legends of inhabitant races, but the following account may explain some mysteries by envisioning a clearer and broader perspective.

Around September 1946, Ralph B. Fields submitted his account to Amazing Stories Magazine ( December 1946 issue, pp. 155-157 ), with the assurance that it actually happened and his facts were true, as follows:

“In beginning this narrative and the unexplained events that befell my friend and myself, I offer no explanation, nor do I even profess to offer any reason.  In fact I have yet to find a clue that will even in part offer any explanation whatever. Yet as it did happen, there must be some rhyme or reason to the whole thing. It may be that someone can offer some helpful information to a problem that just should not exist in these times of enlightenment.

To begin with, if we had not been reading an article in a magazine telling us about the great value of guano, ( i.e. old cave bat excrement / dung droppings as being highly valued fertilizer ] that have accumulated over a great number of years, we would have continued to mend our merry way through life without ever having a thing to worry about. But having read the article as we were at the time living near a small town called Manten in Tehama County, California we thought that would be a good country to explore for a possible find of this kind.

After talking it over for some time, and as we had plenty of time just then, we decided to take a little trip up the country just back of us.

As we were almost at the foot of Mount Lassen, that seemed the best place to conduct our little prospecting tour.

Collecting a light camping outfit, together with a couple of tents to sleep in, we started out on what we expected to be a 3 or 4-day jaunt up the mountain … I guess we covered about 10 or 12-miles on the 3rd day and it was fast approaching time to begin to look for a place to spend the night and the thought was not very amusing as it had turned a little colder and we were well over 7,000 feet above sea level.

We soon found a sheltered place, beneath a large outcrop of rock, and set about making a camp.

As I was always the cook, and Joe the chore boy, I began getting things ready to fix us some grub. Joe began digging around for some dead scrub brush to burn.

I had things all ready and looked around for Joe and his firewood, but I could see no signs of him.

I began calling for him, and he soon came into sight from around the very rock where we were making our camp.

And I knew he was laboring under some great excitement and his face was lit up like a Christmas tree.

He had found a cave.

The entrance was on the other side, of that very rock.

He was all for exploration right away.

But I argued that we had better wait till morning.

But he argued that, in a cave it was always night and we would have to use flashlights anyway, so what would be the difference?

Well, we finally decided that we would give it at least a once-over after we had a bite to eat.

It wasn’t much to call a ‘cave’ – at first – as it had a very small entrance, but back about 20-feet it widened out to about 10-feet wide and around 8-feet high. And it did reach back a considerable distance as we would see at least 100-yards and it appeared to bend off to the left. The floor sloped slightly down. We followed to the bend and again we could see a long way ahead and down … At this point we became a little afraid as we were some way into the mountain …

I don’t know how far we went, but it must have been 1-mile or 2-miles, as we kept on walking and the cave never changed it’s contour or size. Noticing this I mentioned it to Joe.

And we discovered an amazing thing. The floor seemed to be worn smooth as though it had been used for a long time as a path or road. The walls and ceiling of the cave seemed to be cut like a tunnel. It was solid rock and we knew that no one would cut a tunnel there out of rock as there had been no sign of mining operations ( tailings ). And the rock in the walls and ceiling was run together like it had been melted. Or fused from a great heat.

[ UPI NOTE INSERT ( here ): It is believed the U.S. government possesses PlasMole ( aka ) “Terron Drive” ( ref.: Paul Peter Schneider ) tunneling machines that travel at 5-mph and can permeate – by melting – a 50-foot hole through solid rock. ]

While we were busy examining the cave in general, Joe swore he saw a light way down in the cave.

We started down the cave once more and found a light. Or should I say the light found us as it was suddenly flashed into our faces. We stood there blinded by it for a minute until I flashed my light at it’s source and saw we were confronted by three [ 3 ] men. These men looked to be about 50 or a little younger. They were dressed in ordinary clothing such as is worn by most working men in the locality. Levi type pants and flannel shirts and wool coats. They wore no hats. But their shoes looked strange as their soles were so thick that they gave the impression of being made of wood.

There stood three [ 3 ] men looking at us in a cave, 1-mile or so in the depths of old Mount Lassen … One of them spoke to us. He asked what we were looking for … we came to the conclusion that we had better retreat. Turning to go we were confronted by two [ 2 ] more of them. One of the strangers told us, ‘I think maybe you had better come with us.’ … So we permitted the five [ 5 ] to escort us deeper into the depths of old Mt. Lassen … They had led us farther down and I guess we had gone a couple more miles when we came to the first thing that really amazed us.”

We came to a place where the cavern widened out a little and we saw some kind of machine, if it can be called that. Though I had no chance to examine it closely at the time, I did later and it was a very strange contrivance. It had a very flat bottom, but the front was curved upward something like a toboggan. The bottom plate was about 8-inches thick and it was the color of pure copper. But it was very hard tempered. Although I have had a lot of experience in metals and alloys, I had no opportunity to examine it closely enough to determine just what it was. I doubt very much if I could.

It had a seat in the front directly behind a heavy dashboard affair and there was a dial shaped in a semi-circle with figures or markings on it. I had not the slightest idea what they stood for, but they were very simple to remember. If there was a motor, it was in the rear.

All I could see was two [ 2 ] horseshoe or magnet-shaped objects that faced each other with the round parts to the outside. When this thing was in operation, a ‘brilliant green arc’ seemed to leap between the two [ 2 ] and to continue to glow as it was in operation. The only sound it gave off was a hum or buzz that sounded like a battery charger in operation.

The seat in the front was very wide.

The only method of operation was a ‘black tear-shaped object’, which hung from the panel by a chain.

One [ 1 ] of these men – sitting in the middle – took this thing and touched the sharp end to the first [ 1st ] figure on the ‘left side’ of the dial.

When he touched the first [ 1st ] figure, the contraption seemed to move almost out from under us, but it was the smoothest and quietest take-off I ever experienced. We seemed to float. Not the slightest sound or vibration.

And after we had traveled for 1-minute he touched the ‘next [ 2nd ] figure’ on the dial and our speed increased at an alarming rate.

But when he had advanced the black object over past the center of the dial, our speed increased until I could hardly breathe.

I can’t begin to estimate the distance we had traveled or our speed, but it was terrific.

The two [ 2 ] horseshoe objects in the rear created a green light that somehow shone far ahead of us, lighting up the cavern for a long way.

I soon noticed a black line running down the center of the cavern and our ‘inner-mountain taxi’ seemed to follow that.

I don’t know how long we continued our mad ride, but it was long enough for us to become used to the terrific speed and we had just about overcome our fear of some kind of wreck when we were thrown into another spasm of fear. Another machine of the same type was approaching us head on. I could see that our captors were very nervous, but our speed continued.

As the other machine became closer our speed slowed down very fast and we came to a smooth stop about 2-feet from the front of the other machine.

Our machine had no sooner stopped than our captors leaped from the machine and started to dash away.

A ‘fine blue light’ leaped from the other machine in a ‘fine pencil beam’ and it’s sweep caught them and they fell to the cavern and lay still.

The figures dismounted from the other machine and came close to us.

Then I noticed they carried a strange object in their hands. It resembled a ‘fountain pen flashlight with a large round bulb-like affair on the back end and a grip’ – something like a German luger pistol.

They pointed them at us. After seeing what had happened to our erstwhile captors I thought that our turn was next, whatever it was.

But one [ 1 ] spoke to us.

“Are you surface people?”

I guess we are, as this is where we came from very recently.

“Where did the horlocks find you?”

If you mean those guys, I pointed to the five [ 5 ] motionless figures, back there a few hundred miles – I pointed toward the way we had come in our wild ride.

“You are very fortunate that we came this way,” ‘he’ told us, “You would have also become horlocks and then we would have had to kill you also.”

That was the first time I had realized that the others were dead. They put their strange weapons away and seemed friendly enough, so I ventured to ask them the who and why and everything we had run into.

I told them of our search for guano and how we had encountered the five [ 5 ] horlocks, as he called them, and asked ‘him’ about the machines, their operation and could we get out again?

He smiled and told us, “I could not tell you too much as you would not understand. There are so many things to explain and you could not grasp enough of what I could myself tell you. The ‘people on the surface’ are ‘not ready to have the things’ that ‘the ancients’ have left. Neither I nor any one in any of the caverns know why these things work, but we do know how to operate some of them. However, ‘there are a great many evil people here who create many unpleasant things for both us and the surface people’. They are safe because ‘no one on the surface believes us or them’. That is why I am telling you this. No one would believe that we exist. We would not care, but there are many things here that ‘the outer world must not have until they are ready to receive them’, as ‘they would completely destroy themselves, so ‘we must be sure that they do not find them’. As for the machine, I don’t know how it works, but I know some of the principles of it. It works simply by gravity. And it is capable of reverse. The bottom plate of it always is raised about 4-inches from the surface of the floor. That is why there is no friction and has such a smooth operation. This ‘object suspended from this chain is pure carbon’. It is the key to the entire operation. As I told you before, I cannot explain why it runs, but it does. We want you two [ 2 ] to ‘return to where you came’ and ‘forget about us’. We will show you ‘how to operate the sled’ and ‘we want you never again to enter the cave’. If you do – and you do not encounter the horlocks – we will have to do something about you ourselves so, ‘it would not be advisable to try to return at all events’. One thing I can tell you. ‘We never could permit you to leave another time’.”

He explained to us the operation of the machine and in some way reversed it’s direction.  So thanking them, we seated ourselves in the sled, as he had called it, and were soon on our way back.

Our return trip was really something we enjoyed, as I was sure not to advance the carbon far enough on the dial to give us such terrific speed, but we soon found ourselves where we started from.  The sled slid to a smooth stop and we jumped out and started up the cave afoot.

We must have walked a long way coming in, for we thought we never would come to the surface.  But at last we did.  And it was late afternoon when we emerged.

We lost no time in making our way down the mountain, and Joe tells me that he isn’t even curious about what is in that cave. But I am.

What is the answer to the whole thing?  I would like to know.

We had been told enough for me to believe that down there – somewhere – there are things that might baffle the greatest minds of this Earth. Sometimes I’m tempted to go back into that cave if I could find it again, which I doubt, but, then I know the warning I heard in there might be too true, so I guess I had better be of the same mind as Joe.  He says: ‘What we don’t know don’t hurt us’.

Regardless of Joe’s opinion, however, there is reason to believe that influences from these nether regions can and do affect “us” in a profound way, and even the men whom Ralph and Joe encountered, whoever they were, admitted this fact.

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Submitted for review and commentary by,

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