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Questions tagged [earthquake]

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14 votes
2 answers
3k views

The LIGO Gravitational Wave Detection: have deep-mantle earthquakes been ruled out? [duplicate]

Everywhere I've looked so far that talks about the possibility the LIGO detection was an earthquake, involves being ruled out due to the large distance between the two LIGO sites. Two identical ...
Lucy Meadow's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
3k views

Plate tectonics and water

In a couple of places already i've read the following assertion: It is believed that plate tectonics might play an important part in maintaining the presence of water on a planet's surface one ...
lurscher's user avatar
  • 14.5k
6 votes
2 answers
2k views

Possible non-negligible physical effects that relate planetary/lunar geometry and seismic activity such as earthquakes?

Could any forces from the moon, the planets or the sun in orbit hypothetically influence seismic events on earth? And if yes how to approximately calculate and compare the magnitude of the forces? ...
Hjan's user avatar
  • 171
6 votes
3 answers
3k views

How does one explain this pattern generated by earthquake waving driving a pendulum?

How to explain this pattern generated by earthquake wave driving a pendulum? Specially, there are three groups of curves that look categorically different: 1) The group of curves outside the olive-...
qazwsx's user avatar
  • 989
5 votes
1 answer
1k views

Upper limit on the earthquake magnitude

From the Gutenberg-Richter law we know that the frequency of an earthquake is a power law, so virtually any magnitude is possible on earthquake event. But the earth has a finite size so there must be ...
Emanuele Luzio's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
59 views

Does mankind possess the technology to intentionally trigger a Yellowstone eruption? [closed]

The Yellowstone Caldera eruption will probably be an Extinction Level Event when it eventually happens. Suppose some lunatic wanted to set it off now, with drills, bombs, or whatnot. Say this lunatic ...
spraff's user avatar
  • 5,148
4 votes
1 answer
2k views

How to convert Richter magnitude scale to approximate TNT?

I know the Richter magnitude scale is often used for measuring the strength of earthquakes. At the same time, explosive/destructive releases of energy are often quoted in equivalent amounts of TNT. Is ...
hatava's user avatar
  • 41
3 votes
3 answers
276 views
+250

How much does quantum uncertainty contribute to the uncertainty of earthquakes?

More abstractly, the topic is: amplification of quantum uncertainty within dynamically unstable systems. I'd like to have a calculable toy model, e.g. maybe a quantum version of the famous "...
Mitchell Porter's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
327 views

What made the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake?

The Ocean Drilling Program recently published results indicating that the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake produced a maximum co-seismic slip of more than 50 meters near the Japan Trench. This is the ...
Mark Rovetta's user avatar
  • 3,905
3 votes
2 answers
523 views

Can the Dzhanibekov Effect celestial bodies, like Earth’s crust and/or core causing the flipping of magnetic poles?

“The tennis racket theorem or intermediate axis theorem, is a kinetic phenomenon of classical mechanics which describes the movement of a rigid body with three distinct principal moments of inertia. ...
Digcoal's user avatar
  • 151
3 votes
1 answer
237 views

What makes a book (or a stack of paper) so sturdy under pressure?

I've watched an experiment where they compress a book with a hydraulic press, and the book appears to stay relatively intact under that pressure. It is mentioned that the hydraulic press has a 100-ton ...
ermanen's user avatar
  • 175
3 votes
0 answers
261 views

Jerk Magnitudes and Earthquakes

Destruction from earthquakes depends on many factors, including magnitude, occurrence depth and closeness to epicenter. One measure that may relate destructive force for buildings and infrastructure ...
Michael Luciuk's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
338 views

What is the magnitude of a super-nova on the Richter scale?

What is the richter scale of a super-nova? If one could measure compare it to standard earthquakes measured in logarithmic richter scale, what would be the value for a super-nova?
Asaf Ravid's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
254 views

Distinguishing an underground Hydrogen bomb test from a fission bomb explosion

A related question is Hydrogen bomb radiation output, but my question is based on the seismograph data (or any other data) possibly producing a distinctive pattern. Is it possible to tell the ...
user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
175 views

Distortion of interference pattern at LIGO

Does the vibration due to the earthquakes distort the interference pattern of LIGO's interferometer?
Anil Kamat's user avatar

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