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To: goldsheet who wrote (72344)	6/25/2001 4:54:13 PM
From: long-gone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116818

<<What impact did the Seattle earthquake have on Denver ? >> Major logistical nightmares for anyone trying to get anything in or out of Seattle for weeks.

To: goldsheet who wrote (72344)	7/18/2001 9:39:23 AM
From: long-gone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116818

OT. Seattle quake update Vast Invisible Damage from Northwest Quake 09-Jun-2001 Northwest Earthquake Zone The Northwest has discovered damage from an earthquake that happened over 3 months ago, on February 28—as well as one that occurred 12,000 years ago. The recent 6.8 magnitude quake in Washington state was strong enough to crack the Capitol dome near Olympia. The entire city of Seattle slid about 5 millimeters northeast and Olympia dropped a quarter of an inch. But no homes or businesses were leveled, so area residents thought they had missed the worst effects. Now thousands have discovered that it was an invisible disaster—that they have earthquake damage after all. Their foundations are cracking, chimneys crumbling, walls buckling. 30,000 people have reported damage to their homes. “FEMA is getting 200 to 300 damage calls per day. The magnitude of this keeps going,” says Rob Harper of Washington Emergency Management. “Initially people had no problem but now they’re finding more damage.” Harper told of one person whose home had a cracked foundation that cost $50,000 to repair. The entire front end of the house had to be shored up and the family had to move out. Neil Molenaar, a Church World Service disaster response facilitator, says, “One elderly lady told us her house feels like a chair when the train goes by.” He adds, “We’re working an invisible disaster” because they can’t drive down the street and tell which homes have been affected. Marcy DeVries, a disaster volunteer, says, “The biggest difference is that, ordinarily, a disaster is in one or at least a somewhat defined area, like a certain stretch of blocks or along a riverbank. But this is all over. That makes assessing damages very difficult. Usually we can go from house to house—in this case it’s many miles.” Geologists believe another quake of an unknown magnitude could occur at any time, because Washington sits on top of many faults. “The Puget Sound area is associated with an earthquake hazard similar to that of Chile, Alaska or Japan, where the world’s largest earthquakes occur…I think this earthquake created more awareness of all the unstable earth we live on,” says Harper. In Portland, evidence has been discovered that a major earthquake hit the downtown area about 12,000 years ago along a fault that is now considered to be an active threat. Geologists have long known about the Portland Hills fault that runs beneath the city, but they did not know how big a risk it was. John Beaulieu, the chief state geologist, says, “It’s a risk we simply can’t afford to ignore.” Surface evidence of the quake was discovered by state geologist Ian Madin, who noticed distortions in sediment exposed by workers digging a trench at a suburban Portland school. Further study of the sediment indicated that a quake occurred about 12,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age. That may seem like a long time ago, but to geologists like Madin it’s “almost yesterday.” The fault zone that triggered the quake is several thousand feet wide and passes directly through the heart of downtown Portland, stretching for 30 to 50 miles. Beaulieu says the Portland fault has the potential for an earthquake similar to the 1994 quake in the Northridge section of Los Angeles that measured 6.7, did more than $15 billion in damages and killed 72 people, or the recent quake in Washington unknowncountry.com

To: goldsheet who wrote (72344)	7/23/2001 10:11:09 PM
From: long-gone	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116818

Wonder how much this disrupted supply? Hate to be AU now with quake problems near by Colorado location & strike more near in S.A.? (will try & call & see if there was damage at their site). Only a few miles from Woodland Park to Cripple Creek / Victor. Gazette Telegraph Small earthquake hits hills Residents shaken a bit in Teller County By Becca Blond/The Gazette Peg Benzenhoefer was sitting in her Woodland Park home Sunday afternoon when she felt her chair tip forward and the ground jolt. The California native thought she was imagining an earthquake, but she wasn't. For a few seconds around 1:22 p.m., the earth beneath Woodland Park, Divide and Florissant shook from a quake that measured magnitude 3.1. No damage or injuries were reported, officials with the Teller County Sheriff's Office said. "I'm from California, and we have earthquakes all the time there," Benzenhoefer said. "This was just a tiny one, and I thought I felt an earthquake, but then I said 'No, you're just imagining it.'" Florissant resident Geri DiMatteo and her son were in their home when the earthquake began. "The whole house shook, and it felt like a car ran into the house," she said. "I lost my balance for a second -- it shook the house so hard I had to take a step forward. I ran outside. I thought a plane had crashed. I just never thought of having an earthquake around here." But many residents said they didn't feel the ground move at all. "There was an earthquake?" said Trish Chambers of Woodland Park. "I was working outside along (Colorado) Highway 67, and I didn't feel anything." Whether or not they felt the quake, many residents said they never expected earthquakes in Colorado. "It's the last thing I think of when I think of Colorado," DiMatteo said. "It makes me nervous to think they can happen here." But quakes can and do happen here more frequently than most people realize. Since 1870, more than 400 earthquakes, too small to cause much damage, have struck Colorado. "It's normal to have small earthquakes in this area," said John Minsch, a geophysicist with the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden. "We've probably had about 6-10 (quakes) in the last decade." The last time earthquakes shook the area was on Jan. 18, 1997, when three small quakes centered just north of Woodland Park startled Ute Pass residents. While small quakes are common to Colorado, experts say a quake of catastrophic proportions is unlikely. Colorado is rated a "zone one" for earthquake potential on a scale of zero to four, with four having the greatest potential for quakes. California is a zone four. But experts say it isn't out of the realm of possibility that a quake registering as much as a 6 magnitude could strike the region. The quake that struck Los Angeles with devastating force in January 1994, twisting freeways and collapsing buildings, measured a 6.7. "The largest earthquake we know of in Colorado was in the 1800s with a magnitude near 6.5," Minsch said. "There's always a possibility of that occurring again, but we just don't know. It could be in 100 years. It could be in 1,000 years." The region surrounding Colorado Springs has three active fault lines -- the Oil Creek, Ute Pass and Rampart Range faults. The Oil Creek fault stretches from west of Cheyenne Mountain through Divide and north toward Deckers. The Ute Pass fault starts south of Cheyenne Mountain, travels north, wrapping around the base of the mountain, then veers west at Bear Creek Park. It continues along the west side of Manitou Springs and through the pass. The Rampart Range fault begins near the intersection of U.S. Highway 24 and South 24th Street and runs north through Garden of the Gods, along the edge of the Front Range through the Air Force Academy and across the Palmer Divide. Seismologists use a magnitude scale to express the seismic energy released by each earthquake: Less than 3.5 -- Generally not felt, but recorded. 3.5-5.4 -- Often felt, but rarely causes damage. 6.0 -- At most, slight damage to well-designed buildings. Can cause major damage to poorly constructed buildings over small regions. 6.1-6.9 -- Can be destructive in areas up to about 62 miles across where people live. 7.0-7.9 -- Major earthquake. Can cause serious damage over larger areas. 8 or greater -- Great earthquake. Can cause serious damage in areas more than 100 miles across. gazette.com

To: goldsheet who wrote (72344)	7/24/2001 9:13:51 AM
From: Don Lloyd	Respond to of 116818

Bob - mises.org Regards, Don

To: goldsheet who wrote (72344)	7/24/2001 9:27:39 AM
From: long-gone	Respond to of 116818

Email this story Printer-friendly version Previous story Next story Source: University Of Wisconsin-Madison (http://www.wisc.edu/) Date: Posted 7/23/2001 Tiny Crystals Predict A Huge Volcano In Western United States MADISON - Reading the geochemical fine print found in tiny crystals of the minerals zircon and quartz, scientists are forming a new picture of the life history - and a geologic timetable - of a type of volcano in the western United States capable of dramatically altering climate sometime within the next 100,000 years. With insight gained from new analytical techniques to study crystals of zircon and quartz, minerals that serve as veritable time capsules of geologic events, a group of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison has proposed a new model for the origin of volcanism in young calderas. These are volcanoes that occur over "hot spots" in the Earth and they erupt every few hundred thousand years in catastrophic explosions, sending hundreds to thousands of cubic kilometers of ash into the atmosphere and wreaking climatic havoc on a global scale. In a series of papers, UW-Madison geologists Ilya N. Bindeman and John W. Valley present a life history of the hot spot volcanism that has occurred in the Yellowstone basin of the western United States over the past 2 million years. Their findings suggest a dying, but still potent cycle of volcanism, and a high probability of a future catastrophic eruption sometime within the next million years, and possibly within the next hundred thousand years. Today's Yellowstone landscape represents the last in a sequence of calderas - the broad crater-like basins created when volcanoes explode and their characteristic cones collapse - that formed in regular progression over the past 2 million years. The near-clockwork timing of eruptions there - 2 million years ago, 1.3 million years ago and 600,000 years ago - suggests a pattern that may foreshadow an eruption of catastrophic proportions, said Bindeman and Valley. Beneath Yellowstone and its spectacular landscape of hot springs and geysers is a hot spot, an upwelling plume of melted rock from the Earth's mantle. As the plume of hot, liquid rock rises in the Earth, it melts the Earth's crust and creates large magma chambers. "These magmas usually erupt in a very catastrophic way," said Bindeman. "By comparison, the eruption of Mount St. Helens sent about two cubic kilometers of ash into the atmosphere. These catastrophic types of eruptions send thousands of cubic kilometers of ash skyward." The hot spot deep beneath Yellowstone acts like a burner, said Bindeman. "It's a constant source of heat that acts on the upper crust and forms magma chambers that contain tens of thousands of cubic kilometers" of molten rock. One of the massive plates that helps make up the crust of the Earth, the North American plate, is slowly moving over the hot spot, said Bindeman. "The plate has been moving across the heat source which makes it seem like the volcanoes are moving across the continent. Moreover, we have a progression of explosive eruptions which seem to have some periodicity." Bindeman and Valley studied rocks that span the entire 2-million-year long eruptive sequence at Yellowstone with a special emphasis on lavas that erupted the last time one of the massive volcanoes popped off creating what geologists call the Yellowstone Caldera. Their conclusion is that the volcanic cycle is waning, but that there is still a very real potential of an eruption of massive proportions sometime in the near geologic future. Such an eruption would disrupt global climate by injecting millions of tons of ash into the atmosphere. Some of the ash would remain in the atmosphere for years, reflect sunlight back into space and cool the planet, significantly affecting life. In addition, a blanket of ash over a meter thick would be deposited in nearby regions and effectively smother life there. The most recent caldera is 600,000 years old and encompasses an area of more than 2,000 square kilometers. When it erupted, it blasted 1,000 cubic kilometers of volcanic rock into the atmosphere and it settled as ash over more than half of the United States. After that last major eruption, volcanism in Yellowstone continued in a quieter fashion with another, much smaller eruption occurring 70,000 years ago. Today's spectacular geysers and hot springs at Yellowstone are the most visible part of the volcanic system there. They contain heated snow and rainwater which leave a geochemical record that provides insight into the region's geologic activity. Prior to the last catastrophic eruption at Yellowstone 600,000 years ago, an even more spectacular geothermal landscape existed there, said Bindeman. "The unique thing about Yellowstone is that the volcanic rocks that erupted following the collapse of the big calderas contain up to 50 percent oxygen which was ultimately derived from rain waters," Bindeman said. "The zircon and quartz tell us that rocks near the surface were altered by heated snow and rainwater. These rocks were then remelted to become magmas." This scenario changes the view of magmatism at Yellowstone and other calderas as representing new magma coming from deep in the Earth. On the contrary, Bindeman and Valley make a case for the total remelting and recycling of previously erupted surface rocks. Their findings have been published in a series of papers, the first in the August 2000 edition of the journal Geology. Another paper is to appear this month (July) in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, and another is scheduled for publication next month (August) in the Journal of Petrology. Editor's Note: The original news release can be found at news.wisc.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University Of Wisconsin-Madison for journalists and other members of the public. If you wish to quote from any part of this story, please credit University Of Wisconsin-Madison as the original source. You may also wish to include the following link in any citation: sciencedaily.com sciencedaily.com