![]() Hey there. I have a few things I want to show real quick. Steamboat erupted for the 28th time just a little bit ago (at the time of writing this). It was not as strong as most 2018 eruptions but lasted for quite a while. It was also preceded by a very small micro quake swarm near the Norris area. The swarm actually occurred during the Steamboat eruption too but the quakes were very tiny. Maybe around -0.3 to 0.5 with the largest probably being about 0.9 or so. Idaho also saw a very strong earthquake, but not in Soda Springs! It was all the way on the opposite side of the state. Alaska also saw a large, and deep, 5.7 earthquake just as volcanic activity at Veniaminof volcano in Alaska started to skyrocket. Could that 5.7 be related to the increase in activity? PLEASE CLICK THE TITLE OF THIS POST OR "READ MORE" TO READ MORE! Idaho M4.1 Quake: At 22:39UTC November 20, 2018 (3:39pm Mountain Time; Same date) a very strong M4.1 earthquake occurred in northwest Idaho, near the border of Oregon and Washington. This earthquake, at the time of writing this, was submitted a total of 93 felt reports. Remember not everyone knows where to report an earthquake. So when you see a felt-total like this, it is highly likely many more people felt it. In my opinion, according to the data and submissions by other agencies, this earthquake really seemed more like a magnitude 4.5 or 4.6 at the max. It was very strong. The first image is obviously the event report from USGS. The second image here shows the location of the earthquake (the orange circle) and the location of the closest seismic station to this event, PLID in the IW network (marked by orange triangle). You can see the city of Walla Walla which resides in Washington state, just above the Oregon border. This was a very odd location for an earthquake of this magnitude, just like the recent M4.1 that occurred under the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. How come such weird locations are seeing larger earthquakes as of late? Is there a "seismic wave of energy" passing us by? Who knows. Below are the seismic images of this event. First shown in the helicorder plot for station PLID, the closest station to this event. The seismogram/spectrogram/spectral plots will be shown after. As always, please read chart labels FIRST before reading the data and pay attention to any captions beneath any images. ![]() This was a mighty powerful earthquake! And in a strange location too. This was a high frequency earthquake with dominant mid-low frequencies. Check out how powerful the S waves were! Sometimes they can represent a rise in strength and a drop in frequency, but this is crazy! The S waves were far stronger than the P waves. Pretty cool quake! I bet it really startled some people that live in the area. Especially since this area doesn't get large quakes like these very often. M5.7 Quake in Alaska During Heightened Volcanic Activity at Veniaminof: At 18:21UTC November 21, 2018 (11:21am Mountain Time; Same date) a magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck pretty deep at 145.5km in depth 65km SSW of the famous Redoubt Volcano in Alaska, striking almost directly under the Iliamna volcano. In the image above, you can see this earthquake marked with a red circle. Now this earthquake did not occur very near the Veniaminof volcano (marked by a red triangle), but it did occur within about less than a day or so of volcanic activity skyrocketing at Veniaminof. I am not saying it is connected, but the activity did increase around the same time as the large, deep earthquake. I have no proof as of yet they are connected but it is interesting nonetheless. I have talked about Veniaminof on my YouTube channel once, even including seismic audio of its harmonic tremor sequence, so please go check that out. Just search my name on YouTube, goto my channel, click "videos" and scroll through my videos. Veniaminof has been in a state of unrest since September of this year, 2018. Without any breaks whatsoever, harmonic and non-harmonic (volcanic) tremor has been occurring at a constant rate. It would wax and wane throughout the days but has been getting stronger lately, now coinciding with ash emissions around 13,000-15,000 feet drifting SE about 100 miles or so. The activity does not seem to be stopping and is still increasing. Could a much larger eruption be approaching? Who knows. Well let's get to the data of this 5.7. The first of the two images above is obviously the event page for this M5.7 earthquake. Although striking deep at about 145.5km, this earthquake was reportedly felt by 586 people. I know the image above says 545, but the count was updated by the time I wrote this. That is only the people that reported this guys! Remember not everyone reports feeling an earthquake to the USGS! So this was felt by alot of people even though it was at about 145.5km in depth. In the image directly above, you can see the location of the earthquake marked by an orange circle. Seismic station ILSW in the AV network, location marked by an orange triangle, was the closest seismic station to this event. I have downloaded the data for this earthquake and will post the helicorder and analysis plots directly below. Please remember, as always, that you must read chart labels FIRST before you read the data and please pay attention to any captions beneath any images. ![]() Now check this out guys. Remember how this station, ILSW, resides pretty much right at the epicenter of this earthquake? That means we should see some dominant high frequencies, right? After all they say this was caused by oblique tectonic forces? Well take a look at the spectral plots. I had to add two different ones just to show you. You can even see this on the spectrogram. This 5.7 quake, on a station right at the epicenter, saw dominant frequencies below 5Hz. But that is not the most interesting thing. This earthquake had dominant frequencies at about 1Hz or so! That is extremely low for a M5.7, even at 145.5km in depth. So did magma cause this? The professionals don't think so. But remember magma can also cause tectonic activity too! Regardless, this was a very weird quake. What is up with all the weird quakes lately? 28th Steamboat Eruption of 2018: At about 2:10UTC November 22, 2018, which is also 7:10pm Mountain Time November 21, 2018, Steamboat erupted for the 28th time of this year, 2018. It now needs to erupt 1 more time to match, and 2 more times to beat, the all-time record of 29 eruptions in one year, which occurred in 1964. Steamboat geyser is one of the world's largest geysers and is most likely, currently, the largest active geyser in the world. It resides in the Norris Geyser Basin closest to seismic station YNM. Since the seismic trace from Steamboat eruptions are only the surface vibrations, YNM is always the station that feels it the strongest. Sister station YNR usually feels the mid-high strength eruptions but rarely sees the smaller ones. This eruption was smaller than most of the 2018 eruptions but lasted a really long time! This eruption also saw some micro-quake activity just prior and during the eruption that showed on a few neighboring stations but mysteriously barely registered on YNM (YHH and YNR showed stronger arrivals). Above are the helicorder images for the closest and only seismic stations to detect Steamboat eruptions. Of course YNM showed the event as usual, but YNR didn't pick it up at all. Probably because it was a weaker eruption, although more lengthy, than we have seen as of late. Will this eruption trend continue? It only needs to erupt 2 more times before 2018 is over to beat the record! Below are the seismogram/spectrogram/spectral plots for station YNM of this steamboat eruption. I would usually post YNR as well but it didn't show up at all on the plots. As always, please remember to read all chart labels FIRST before you read the data and pay attention to any captions beneath any images. ![]() Here is the seismic trace of the 28th Steamboat hydrothermal eruption of 2018. Notice this is probably one of the weakest ones we have seen so far. No wonder it didn't show on YNR. The amplitude count barely goes past 20,000 (the last eruption prior to this on the 15th did show on YNR, but just barely but had an amplitude count of about 50,000 or so). So are the eruptions getting weaker? Who knows. Notice the dominant high frequencies once again. This eruption lasted longer than an hour. ![]() Now here is the discharge plot for water discharge at the Tantalus creek at Norris Junction. This instrument records the amount of water that is being discharged through the stream. Notice there was a large spike on November 15, the last Steamboat eruption. Notice there was also a spike between November 21-22 indicating this eruption was very real and put alot of water into Tantalus creek. Now notice the end of the data stream seems to be growing. I hope this station does not get taken down. We need as many data sources as possible while searching for truth! After all that is what true science should be about, right?
3 Comments
Enjoyed reading your post. I do have a couple questions regarding the Alaska quake. Is it possible to have two quakes of the same magnitude, doing the same amount of work. One moving a large area over a small distance, and the second moving a small area over a larger distance? If so, I would think that the larger mass would produce a lower frequency waveform than the smaller mass. It should also be felt over a larger area.
Reply
Ben
11/22/2018 10:09:57 pm
Two earthquakes occurring at the same time, one shallow and one deep, could potentially cause what you are referring to. That is very interesting indeed! I didn't think of that. Regardless, this was an odd quake. Especially right when Veni pretty much blows its top!
Reply
I'm just a 'citizen scientist' when it comes to earth science. Main interest is to understand the true driving force behind earthquakes and volcanoes. Also to get a better understanding of the true way they operate. Some of the old things I was taught, make absolutely no logical sense in the real world.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorBen Ferraiuolo is a fast learner and someone who will always stand for the truth. Visit "About Me" for more! Archives
November 2019
Categories |