Large Quakes as the Indo-Australian Plate Bends (it does not break according to the Zetas)

[Dee Sargent]

 

Scientists say the seafloor ruptures are part of a long suspected, yet never before observed,

event: the slow-motion splitting of a vast tectonic plate. The first of the quakes, a magnitude 8.7, was 20 times more powerful than California's long anticipated “big one” and tore a complex network of faults deep in the ocean floor. The violence also triggered unusually large aftershocks thousands of miles away, including four off North America's western coast. “It was jaw-dropping,” said Thorne Lay, a professor of Earth and planetary sciences at UC Santa Cruz. “It was like nothing we'd ever seen.” At first, Lay wondered whether the computer code he used to analyse earthquakes was wrong. Eventually, he and other scientists realized that they had documented the breakup of the Indo-Australian plate into two pieces, an epic process that began roughly 50 million years ago and will continue for tens of millions more. Lay and other scientists reported their findings online Wednesday in the journal Nature. Most great earthquakes occur along plate borders, where one plate dives beneath the adjoining plate and sinks deep into Earth's mantle, a process called subduction. The April 11 quakes, however, occurred in the middle of the plate and involved a number of strike-slip faults, meaning the ground on one side of the fault moves horizontally past ground on the other side. Scientists say the 8.7 main shock broke four faults. The quake lasted 2 minutes and 40 seconds — most last just seconds — and was followed by a second main shock, of magnitude 8.2, two hours later. Unlike the magnitude 9.1 temblor that struck in the same region on Dec. 26, 2004, and created a deadly tsunami, the April 11 quakes did not cause similar destruction. That's because horizontally moving strike-slip faults do not induce the massive, vertical displacement of water that thrust faults do on the borders of plates. The type of interplate faults involved in the Sumatran quakes are the result of monumental forces, some of which drove the land mass of India into Asia millions of years ago and lifted the Himalayan Mountains. As the Indo-Australian plate continues to slide northwest, the western portion of the plate, where India is, has been grinding against and underneath Asia. But the eastern portion of the plate, which contains Australia, keeps on moving without the same obstruction. That difference creates squeezing pressure in the area where the quakes occurred. The study authors say that over time, as more quakes occur and new ruptures appear, the cracks will eventually coalesce into a single fissure. “This is part of the messy business of breaking up a plate,” said University of Utah seismologist Keith Koper, senior author of one of the studies. “Most likely it will take thousands of similar large quakes for that to happen.” The quakes were also notable for triggering powerful aftershocks thousands of miles away. Though major quakes have been known to trigger aftershocks at great distance, they are usually less than 5.5 in magnitude. The April earthquakes triggered 11 aftershocks that measured 5.5 or greater in the six days that followed, including a magnitude 7. Remote shocks were felt 6,000 to 12,000 miles from the main quakes. Fred Pollitz, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., and lead author of one of the studies, said the quakes were extremely effective in transmitting seismic wave radiation around the world. Though Pollitz said the magnitude of the larger Sumatran quake is No. 10 on the list of quakes since 1900, no other temblor has triggered so many strong aftershocks so far away. “It's the most powerful earthquake ever in terms of capability of putting stress on other fault zones around the world,” he said.

ZetaTalk:

We have described the plunging of the western 2/3 of Australia as quite dramatic and steep. Meanwhile the eastern part levels off due to a bending of the plate through the center of Australia. This can almost be seen if one looks at a relief map of Australia, as the lowlands of Australia, where the bending occurs, are between the eastern and western mountain ranges. But there is more than a bending though the center of Australia. Some consider the Indo-Australian Plate to be two plates, one holding India, the other Australia, though they both operate as one. The reason for this theory is fault lines though the center, which can be seen on undersea relief maps. The eastern part of the Indo-Australian Plate will be raised, including New Zealand and eastern Australia. This is heavy lifting, and more than mere bending in the center of Australia can alleviate. As the plate is hammered under the Himalayas, there is pressure on these fault lines to bend, and bend they do in such a way as to drop that portion of the plate sliding under India sharply. This causes that portion of the plate holding western Australia to rise from that drop point at a steeper angle, but when the climb reaches the center of Australia, it levels off. Will the entire western 2/3 of Australia be under water at the hour of the pole shift? If not, any high peak will be so washed over by the ocean in turmoil, rushing into the void, that survival clinging to these mountain peaks will not be feasible. We advise no one to attempt to survive in western Australia for this reason.

http://www.zetatalk.com/info/tinfx028.htm

[Nancy Lieder]

There are two theories on whether the Indo-Australian Plate is one or two pieces. This is nothing new, the two theories. The Zetas have said that they operate as ONE plate, in how they act, and this has been born out by the rising of New Zealand and eastern Australia (documented without question this past couple years when the rivers in eastern Australia flowed backwards flooding the inland) while India is sinking being driven under the Himalayas.

[Love is the answer]

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/27/science/la-sci-sumatran-ear...