Intraplate quakes signal tectonic breakup
April temblors part of massive ongoing energy release near Indonesia
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/345387/title/Intraplate_quakes_signal_tectonic_breakup
I often get the impression that non-science types think that scientists know everything about everything and hold back the juicy bits to spite the ignorant. Of course this attitude has to be balanced with the simultaneous attitude that scientists are a bunch of dumbasses that can’t agree on anything, but humans are nothing if not flexible in their ability to hold incongruous thoughts in their noggins.
It is not that intra-plate earthquakes are unknown to science (check out the New Madrid earthquakes here in our Nation’s heartland, for instance), but it is generally very difficult to identify intra-plate seismic zones absent any earthquakes since these areas tend to have very long periods between activity allowing weathering to eliminate any visible signs of the fault. Of course, any at the bottom of the ocean might as well not exist given the near zero detailed knowledge we have there.
Also interesting to me was the dramatic increase in global earthquakes that appear to be linked to the earthquakes that were the focus of the article (btw, if the earthquake had been a uplift/subsidence type instead of a strike-slip we would likely have lost another quarter million people to the resultant tsunamis). It seems the energy of these intra-plate earthquakes propagates through the crust much more efficiently and that ‘jiggling’ triggers sizable earthquakes as far away as 1,500 kilometers.
I wonder if, from a geological perspective, if these sorts of events always run in groups where the first one triggers a series of follow-on events that ripple until enough stress has been relieved that it could be tens of thousands of years before such events are seen again. I bet our global society would wind up in a serious downward spiral if we had a dozen 2004 tsunamis in a year, coupled with a series of sensitive eruptions (like the volcano just outside of Mexico City). Perhaps there would be shreds of civilization left, but I somehow expect that the worst elements of human society would leap to the fore under such conditions and scavengers and anarchists would destroy whatever shreds had been preserved. I am reminded of the book “The Crucible of Time” by John Brunner, in it an alien society is trying to achieve an advanced civilization but their solar system is traveling through a series of debris fields and periodically their planet suffers from a number of major asteroid strikes blasting them back to their equivalent of a stone age time and time again. I wonder if we are on the verge of a trip back to the stone age. Sometimes I think it is nearly inevitable given the cussedness of the human species.
I’m not a survivalist, WTSHTF type. I don’t own a firearm or survival knife or cache of food or bag of gold. Believe me, though, I think of getting way away on the very edge of things so that I can retreat somewhere and hide out from the madmen who would come to the fore in an economic collapse. That would require some specialized tools that I don’t have, but if I weren’t so lazy, should begin to acquire.
As a paranoid who has always wanted to hide out in the Canadian Rockies it is surprisingly difficult, and expensive, to do much more than slowly starve to death (unless you kill yourself by drowning, falling off a cliff, pissing a bear off, etc.). Though clearly I could have thought a few minutes longer on our all-electric house design for our ‘ranch’ in the country and made it more off-grid capable, even doing that means you are now a stationary target for anyone who didn’t think ahead and wants to take advantage of your clear thinking. Since there are so many damn people on this planet it is _very_ difficult to get so far away that no one will pursue you and in essentially all those places there is very little water, most of the plants want to stab you and nearly every insect or animal is toxic or outright deadly.
So, unless you really want to live like a wild man, it is probably better to just wait until the axe falls and then look for some chump who invested every spare penny in arming himself and con him out of his stuff (or kill him, either works).
You’re right. I think most survivalists haven’t clearly gotten the picture. The really useful things that would make it easier will be intensely coveted and moralities revolving around theft and murder will be in short supply.
Most people don’t realize that actively hunting is not a wise expenditure in terms of caloric ROI. Those who trap and set trot-lines will probably do much better.
It ainna gonna be pretty, that’s for sure.