Take our user survey and make your voice heard.
national

March 11 quake even rattled upper atmosphere

16 Comments
By Charles Q. Choi

The giant earthquake that struck Japan this year not only shook the Earth, but also rattled the highest layer of the atmosphere, scientists find.

This research could lead to a new type of early warning system for devastating tsunamis and earthquakes.

The magnitude 9 quake that struck off the coast of Tohoku in Japan in March unleashed a catastrophic tsunami, ushered in what might be the world's first complex megadisaster and set off microquakes and tremors around the globe.

Past research revealed the surface motions and tsunamis that earthquakes generate can also trigger waves in the atmosphere. These waves can reach all the way to the ionosphere, one of the highest layers of the atmosphere.

Now scientists report the Tohoku quake generated the largest such disturbances seen yet, creating ripples in electrically charged particles reaching nearly 220 miles (350 kilometers) above the Earth.

Investigators measured these disruptions, called seismotraveling ionospheric disturbances, using about 1,000 global positioning system (GPS) receivers in Japan and Taiwan. Disruptions of the electrically charged particles in the ionosphere would lead to anomalies in radio signals between the ground receivers and the GPS satellites, data that scientists can measure.

Scientists detected a disc-shaped rise in electron density in the ionosphere about seven minutes after the earthquake. Concentric waves of fluctuating electron density then flowed out in the ionosphere from this disk at speeds of about 450 to 500 mph (720 to 800 kph). All in all, this disruption was about three times greater than the next largest one ever seen, which came after the 2004 magnitude 9.3 Sumatra earthquake.

The ripples that flowed from the initial disc-shaped disturbance in the ionosphere appear to be linked to the tsunami, a connection that has the potential to save lives. "This signature in space that we can see with GPS could provide early warning that a tsunami is coming," said researcher Jann-Yenq "Tiger" Liu, an atmospheric scientist at Taiwan's National Central University.

One important question in determining how much of a warning his phenomenon might provide is: "Is there any detectable precursor in the status of the ionosphere before this disturbance is actually observed?" said atmospheric physicist Gaopeng Lu at Duke University, who did not take part in this study. "In that way, we might be able to predict the occurrence of earthquakes."

© OurAmazingPlanet

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.


16 Comments
Login to comment

Wow! If this earthquake and tsunamis were such a terrible thing to so many people, maybe this research can bring something positive, like an early warning system by looking for changes in the upper atmosphere. Congrats to these scientists!

5 ( +5 / -0 )

MeLuvULongTimes,

as a Physics graduate I can tell you that if Arto Lauri is a scientist, then 'scientist' must have a different meaning from the English definition in Finland. His stuff reads like standard conspiracy theory fare: HAARP, Chemtrails - and when did Sellafield and Superphenix explode!?

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Star-viking:

" nd when did Sellafield and Superphenix explode!? "

Also, Arto Lauri seems to have moved Superphenix move from France to Japan. Quite an achievement :-)

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I found Arto Lauri on Youtube. He is no scientiest, he is an ex nuclear plant worker turned "activist".

He is telling tall tales on the other monitor as I am typing. The English subtitles are full of bizarre stuff, but in Finnish it sounds great.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

they have buoy's for that, after an earthquake any rise in the sea, however slight near the epi-center will be enough to send warnings

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I tend to view a massive earthquake as the best early warning system for tsunami's, not ionosphere anomalies detected AFTER the tsunami has been unleashed.

The article says the atmospheric waves were detected around 7 minutes after the earthquake - if I recall correctly the first tsunami waves made landfall 15 minutes after the quake - so this seems like a possible way of confirming a tsunami is on the way before it hits.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I tend to view a massive earthquake as the best early warning system for tsunami's, not ionosphere anomalies detected AFTER the tsunami has been unleashed.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

I tend to view a massive earthquake as the best early warning system for tsunami's, not ionosphere anomalies detected AFTER the tsunami has been unleashed.

Totally, unless there's some element of quantum mechanics involved which is most likely.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Meluvelongtimes:

" is methane-gas-clutter which is methane in a form of ice "

And what, pray tell, is "methane in the form of ice"?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Well spotted WilliB!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

All readers back on topic please.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Thank you all. Well, Arto Lauri may not be a scientist, and his theory may not be 100% correct, but it may hold some validity. Especially the part where he talks about the ionization of the atmosphere above Japan prior to the quake. In addition to the Chinese and Russians, NASA also detected increased ionization above Japan prior 3-11.

Also I believe he is talking about "Methane clathrate": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane_clathrate

0 ( +1 / -1 )

And as the article states the detection of seismotraveling ionospheric disturbances has now been confirmed by Taiwan and Japan. Now that is at least three and maybe five nations that have detected high levels of activity above Japan. So where did it come from?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@MeLuvULongTimes

First, do you have a source for your claim that 'increased ionization' was detected above Japan prior to 11-3?

Second the article is talking about physical waves in the ionosphere - not an increase in ionization.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

One of some Russian Institutes was prognosis 11 March. Their prognosis based on change of atmospheric absolute pressure that began in 9 March in Japan. Also they calculate 5-6 magnitude, but they not expect 9. Chinese scientific supposed that atmospheric absolute pressure changed after quake, but our scientific calculate prognosis of quake after fixed change of atmospheric absolute pressure.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This may be true and, hopefully, it will detect tsunamis in the future. However, a few days prior to the quake there was a high level of ionospheric activity discovered. Finish nuclear scientist, Arto Lauri, explains his theory based on the research he has done on the Fukushima accident:

In 2008 the production of uranium turned to be negative in terms of energy efficiency. In 2007 Putin announced that Russia will stop producing uranium, as it is unprofitable. At the end of 2008 Russia cut off the supply of uranium, thus 70% of the global supply was lost. Europe hadn’t prepared for this, so there was a need to fill the gap in production. Areva announced that they had excess uranium from the exploded facilities of Sellafield (UK) and Superphenix (Japan). The uranium however contained 3,5% of uranium-235 and 6% of lethal plutonium. Anne Lauvergeon stated that this uranium was fine and it was approved by IEA. Then a massive cargo of this plutonium was exported to Japan. During the first year everything was fine, until in 2010-2011 they started doing revisions to the reactors. When the reactors were opened they found out that there was three times more afterheat and steam than normal. It couldn’t fit in the drivers of “vetvel space” where it is supposed to normally vanish. So they opened the reactors and started blowing the air to the atmosphere. This continued, they opened more reactors are [sic] started releasing the air, this caused Ionization levels over Japan to skyrocket. Then NATO and IEA which monitor the ionization levels were alarmed about the rising levels over Japan. First they tried to push the ionization down with chemtrails so that the nitrogensphere wouldn’t explode. It didn’t help.

Then they started pushing the ionization cloud down with HAARP for 2.5 days according to Russian and Chinese sources. With this 1000 megawatt device they pushed massive amounts of energy to the atmosphere. They didn’t understand was that the ionization cloud acts as a iron nail grounding all the energy to the soil. This energy then reached the rock foundation and plezoactive quartz crystals in the ground started vibrating. These vibrations caused the rock bed to become unstable. So this tectonic boundary under Japan started moving. This caused the tectonic boundary to release its energy leading to earthquake leading to tsunami.

When the tsunami came it cut off the electricity. This prevented the after heat from the reactors to be pumped to the sea. They had to push it straight to the ether. When the hot steam was pushed upwards it started “breathing”. It took in oxygen which led to hydrogen explosion. First the reactor 1 exploded. After few days the reactor 3 exploded. At this point, as the rock foundation was tectonically active, the energy from the explosions went to the rock bed. Under Japan, about 2 kilometers deep there is methane-gas-clutter which is methane in a form of ice. It is based on the sensitive balance of pressure, the temperature has to be about 2 degrees celcius. The impact hit there. Under the reactors the leakage of neutron had drilled deep holes or pipes into the rock formation. The methane-clutter under reactor 4 increased 168-times in volume. This is the theory of Nils Axel Mo”rner. And it exploded in a second coming up trough [sic] the pipe with huge speed. It hit the reactor 4, which was stopped and contained no uranium, thus everyone wondered why it even exploded. Pictures were never shown anywhere and the public wasn’t told about this. I’ve seen a picture where a 14-meter-thick concrete wall had exploded because of the massive impact. The methane-clutter came at a cosmic speed creating a blue one kilometer high flame trogh [sic] the reactor. It made a lane of half a kilometer in diameter under the reactors.

15 minutes after the reactor 3 had exploded the reactor 2 suffered damage exploding. The whole chain of reactors exploded like this. Everywhere on the Earth, starting in 600 meters there is a layer of methane-clutter which is about 1 kilometer thick. Germany that realized this, gave an panic-alarm to shut down the inextinguishable reactors, 9 reactors were shut down immediately. They realized that these reactors couldn’t be used in any circumstances because of the methane-clutter causing the reactors to explode. In America they have lost about 10 reactors, also in France they have2 reactors releasing smoke at the moment. This is happening all over the world.

continued... http://enenews.com/discussion-thread-august-15-21-2011/comment-page-2#comment-121481

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites