I wonder if the speed of the spreading centers in the pacific and atlantic plates has accelerated since the industrial revolution started a few centuries ago....and if they have accelerated even more in the last few decades. :-) Geology is my very most favorite science. What good would it do to be able to predict earthquakes? Look at what happened to the tsunami prediction and that was far more certain than an earthquake prediction. Big yawn. Suffice it to say there are faults and that they will inevitably move at some time in the future. Building to that eventuality will ensure less damage to life and property. Earthquakes don't kill people, falling objects do. As has been shown all around the globe, people like to build in earthquake fault zones. I wonder if that may be because they are the most interesting and beautiful places.

Geology is my very most favorite science.

Not mine, and the reason why I switched from geology major to EL my sophomore year. Although I still go rock hounding and desert-ratting. The CNN article on the difference between Haiti and Chile in extent of damage is tinker toy simplistic in regards to poverty.
Sure poverty has something to do with unenforced/nonexistant building codes and poor emergency response but so does education, cultural adaptness to rule of law, goverment corruption (can you say New Orleans?) etc. I'd be interested to see a study of poor areas that were hit by earthquakes that held up/responded best to see the cultural/governmental aspects that may have helped avoid greater devastation. And how typically msm to see a Pat Robertson slam yet no mention of Joy 'Global warming causes earthquakes and tsunamis' Behar. Apparently 'science and the enlightenment' have not yet reached all the departments at the same CNN that employs both the author and Reverend Joy.

Great Science Saturday opportunity for learning! Spotless from beginning to end (well, perhaps those mathematical equations could have been better illustrated with some visual aid, for those of us who prefer that mode...). I certainly hope we will have more diavlogs like this, on other topics as well. And I do hope that we don't ruin this diavlog by spinning out-of-context political tangents. Just saying.

This ...

Quoting Ocean: And I do hope that we don't ruin this diavlog by spinning out-of-context political tangents. Just saying.

... could be called a preemptive strike. Therefore, Ocean is JUST LIKE BUSH. .

Quoting bjkeefe: This ...

... could be called a preemptive strike. Therefore, Ocean is JUST LIKE BUSH.

.

Don't make the Ocean shudder. You know what can happen. .

Quoting Ocean: Don't make the Ocean shudder. You know what can happen.

.

Heh. ET TsUnami, Ocean? Actually, given the name of one of our diavloggers, I think the bigger worry is that this thread will devolve into a flame war about the comparative merits of various rock bands. All right, enough goofing around. Time to watch.

Quoting bjkeefe: Heh. ET TsUnami, Ocean?

Oui, monsieur.

Actually, given the name of one of our diavloggers, I think the bigger worry is that this thread will devolve into a flame war about the comparative merits of various rock bands.

I'll fall for that one.

All right, enough goofing around. Time to watch.

Yes, let's keep it serious and professional please.

Quoting harkin:

The CNN article on the difference between Haiti and Chile in extent of damage is tinker toy simplistic in regards to poverty.
Sure poverty has something to do with unenforced/nonexistant building codes and poor emergency response but so does education, cultural adaptness to rule of law, goverment corruption (can you say New Orleans?) etc.
I'd be interested to see a study of poor areas that were hit by earthquakes that held up/responded best to see the cultural/governmental aspects that may have helped avoid greater devastation.

I'm not sure I see your point. Poverty, education, rule of law, government corruption all belong in the set of 'culture'. Are you saying that it is the poverty of Haiti that was focused on to the exclusion of the other things you mentioned. With that I would disagree. I think the coverage of the causes of the devastation in Haiti vs Chile was pretty comprehensive. Besides, the reasons were not mysterious by any stretch.

As far as a study of poor areas that were hit by earthquakes....I think one huge determining factor would be what the buildings were made of. I never heard of a thatched hut

Just a quick addition that goes through the arithmetic that I was trying to talk about on the diavlog:
https://arrowsmith.blog.asu.edu/2010...iti-earthquake
ramon

Quoting jrarrowsmith: Just a quick addition that goes through the arithmetic that I was trying to talk about on the diavlog:
https://arrowsmith.blog.asu.edu/2010...iti-earthquake
ramon

Thanks!

Quoting jrarrowsmith: Just a quick addition that goes through the arithmetic that I was trying to talk about on the diavlog:
https://arrowsmith.blog.asu.edu/2010...iti-earthquake
ramon

Yes, as Ocean says, thanks for that follow-up. And thanks for doing the diavlog, overall. BTW, this is my new favorite distinction.

Quoting harkin: ... no mention of Joy 'Global warming causes earthquakes and tsunamis' Behar.

Agreed. That's crazy talk. Perhaps one reason it wasn't brought up is that unlike Pat Robertson, there aren't large numbers of people who take Behar's word as gospel, if you will. (I, for one, was not even sure who she was until I Googled her.) For the record, when I lived in Los Angeles, I had the surreal experience more than once of someone saying, "These hot, windy days ... watch out: real earthquake weather," and rather than everyone else laughing, many heads would solemnly nod. There was no correlation between political affiliation and said belief. [Added] Also, what's EL?

Quoting badhatharry: Not sure how this fits Harkin. Did one of these guys mention Robertson? (I didn't listen til the end). I notice that you do tend to flame throw now and again. I am not surprised, actually, and even have sympathy for why you do it, considering the junk which emanates from some around here.

But a little context and tie-in would be helpful to those who sympathize.

For the record, yes, Robertson was mentioned, in this context.

Quoting bjkeefe:

Quoting harkin: ... Joy 'Global warming causes earthquakes and tsunamis' Behar ...

Agreed. That's crazy talk.

On the other hand ...

"Wow, it's good to be here, just shootin' the breeze with a bunch of real, hardworking Americans who love their freedom," said Palin, her words echoing across the Idaho Falls Civic Auditorium as mighty tremors caused great unrest beneath the land and the sea. "So are the little guys like you and me gonna fight these Washington insiders with their big government agenda? You betcha we are!"

And lo, there was then a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair; and the moon became as blood; and "gosh" was spoken repeatedly; and the stars of heaven fell upon the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken by a mighty wind.

(source | via)

Quoting badhatharry: I'm not sure I see your point. Poverty, education, rule of law, government corruption all belong in the set of 'culture'.

By a strange coincidence, and something that I was not aware of till after my post, C Hitchens had thoughts along similar lines: "Taking this as an approximate analogy or metaphor, people are beginning to notice that the likelihood of perishing in an earthquake, or of being utterly dispossessed by it, is as much a function of the society in which one lives as it is of proximity to a fault. A most intriguing article in the New York Times of Feb. 24, titled "Disaster Awaits Cities In Earthquake Zones," pointed out that millions of people now live in unplanned and jerry-built mega-cities—such as Istanbul, Turkey; Karachi, Pakistan; Katmandu, Nepal; and Lima, Peru—that are earthquake-prone and could easily become the sites of mass extermination. The instruments of this would be what Dr. Roger Bilham, a seismologist at the University of Colorado, calls "an unrecognized weapon of mass destruction: houses." Across the world, millions of people either live or work in structures that have been termed "rubble in waiting."

The article told the story of increasing efforts by Turkish and Chinese authorities to "proof" their

Yes!!! I let alot of silly things people say go unchallenged (especially in regard to superstition and religion) but this is one that I actually counter every time I hear it. It drives me nuts. It's as if they think the Santa Ana winds push the plates together or are spewed forth from openings in the faults. I usually ask them how they explain the fact that earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest (where it's rainy) are more likely to happen when it's raining? I don't have data for it (Ramon probably does) but it makes the point.

So the Richter scale is a measure of how energetic an earthquake is while the Mercalli intensity scale is a measure of the surface effects that an earthquake produced. Is this correct? It is mentioned in the diavlog that the Chile earthquake was 500 times as energetic as the Haiti earthquake. Is this really relevant when discussing the relative damage that each country incurred from the earthquakes? I assume that the Chile earthquake did not have a shake amplitude or ground acceleration 500 times greater then Haiti earthquake. The USGS shakemaps seem to support me. What are the general rules used in mapping a Richter scale measurement onto a Mercalli scale measurement?

Quoting harkin: ... 3 or 4 liberals against 1 conservative (the standard msm formula) ...

Do you watch any other shows besides The View?

Quoting harkin: Electronic Engineering (as opposed to EE - Electrical)

Thx.

Quoting starwatcher: The USGS shakemaps seem to support me.

Those are great maps. I'd like to see something comparing slip displacement distance and direction as well.

Quoting bjkeefe: Originally Posted by harkin
"... 3 or 4 liberals against 1 conservative (the standard msm formula) ..."

Do you watch any other shows besides The View?

You were so close, all you had to do was finish the sentence.....

Quoting harkin: .....aren't ridiculed by the msm, they regularly make their way to the conservative blogs.

and you could have had the answer. (I hope you don't think Benen's column with broken links and complaints about the rare balanced panel on MTP signifies anything.)

In the last section Arrowsmith mentions that when it comes to real world cost-benefit analysis and ethics he has to step aside. I wonder if he said that because he is not knowledgeable about that area or if he feels as a scientist he should not get involved in order to maintain an appearance of neutrality or if it's some other reason altogether. If it is the latter reason, it would be interesting to have him back paired with a researcher who is more of an advocate.

Quoting Starwatcher162536: f he feels as a scientist he should not get involved in order to maintain an appearance of neutrality

That was my take.

Dear, if you are interested about world science earthquake forecasts,
please visit my web-page:http://earthquake-prediction.hit.bg
And, please tell of all world in media, some organized duel forecasting earthquakes.
Thank you. Boyko Iliev
/ Consultant by earthquakes in the bulgarian television bTV, show "Seismograf" /