The Earth and her Power

This week there has been tons of happenings with the Earth.  Tragedies abound and the number of people displaced  grows each day- it is quite unfortunate, but we have no choice but to bow to Earth's power.  We will try to learn from these tragedies and improve our ability to predict but at the same time there are those of us that look out to space and try to find a new home.

Volcanoes

                                          April 22:  The smoke rose t o over 10km in the sky

Authorities in Chile declared a red alert and evacuated 1500 residents around Calbuco volcano.  The last known eruption was in 1972 and it has covered the sky with ash.  Check out the Atlantic for mesmerizing pictures.  Cool from far, but far from good for the Chileans.

Another less known Sarychev volcano along the Pacific Rim of Japan occurred and this time it was captured from outer space from those in the International Space Station.  They have their first projector installed, and the first movie they watched was Gravity.  

Do you see the similarity of the movie and reality?

Earthquakes

Because of the seismic gap that was in the Himalayas, an earthquake was predicted by many to occur in this area.  The devastating impact of this earthquake itself has a large capacity to destroy the light infrastructure of villages and surrounding area.  See more  from BBC of the collapsed temples and buildings that had its foundations destroyed and hope the best for the people of Nepal and surrounding villages.

It's been said by many that earthquakes are tremendously difficult to predict, but someone designed an app for smartphones named ShakeAlert  that can detect motion that can help with earthquaek prediction. If thousands of people have this app installed, all of us can serve as mini detectors of foreshocks which when appended all the information together can perhaps predict earthquakes in the future.

Liquefaction

In today's lecture I will be talking about liquefaction and its potential for destroying beach side infrastructure.  Here is the animated gif ahead of time.