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Local Atmosphere Heated Rapidly Before Japan Quake
eldavojohn writes "A new paper presented at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland shows the rapid heating of the atmosphere directly above the fault days before the devastating earthquake hit. This is theorized to be the Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling mechanism that occurs when large amounts of radon are released due to massive stress in the fault right before the quake. This can be detected with satellites analyzing infrared waves: 'The radioactivity from this gas ionizes the air on a large scale and this has a number of knock on effects. Since water molecules are attracted to ions in the air, ionization triggers the large scale condensation of water. But the process of condensation also releases heat and it is this that causes infrared emissions.' This is a shift from the Haiti earthquake where DEMETER was used to monitor ultra low frequencies. The presence of radon could also possibly explain erratic wildlife behavior prior to an earthquake."
Or one of Japan's enemies.
You got the touch!
So does this mean we just might have a reliable earthquake detector, or is it only a sometimes-thing?
So does this mean we just might have a reliable earthquake detector, or is it only a sometimes-thing?
Or it may be a too-often-thing. Many earthquakes are small, barely noticeable. It would be more useful if the magnitude could also be predicted.
As an aside, studies have shown that naturally released radon will considerably increase the levels of radiation in the area. Could this, in part, be responsible for the increased rad levels measured around Japan in the time following the quake, and perhaps around the world (considering the magnitude of the earthquake)?
Why haven't we heard of this radiation "concern" following other quakes? Probably because no Nuclear Plants were melting down at time to draw public attention away from the quake itself.
If there was a large release of Radon days before the quake; is it possible that a certain proportion of the elevated radiation levels locally are due to this, rather than releases of radioactive material (iodine/caesium/etc) from the Fukushima power station? Was there anything detected on local radiation detectors prior to the nuclear incident?
This isn't a "there was no release from Fukushima it was all radon!!" post (because there quite clearly was), I'm just intrigued
This is a substitute for a clever sig that fits within the maximum number of characters.
...or flood zones, tsunami zones, or any other areas where natural disasters are more LIKELY to happen.
Alternatively, we could fast-track the production and efficiency of green, renewable energy which sounds like the best solution since it is extremely difficult to predict an earthquake.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
We all know this is a cover story for HAARP .
what are "knock on effects"?
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
This story is exactly why I love science. Go NASA!
www.awkwardengineer.com
:D
If this has anything with the mysterious white lights that were reported during the quake (apparently not an entirely uncommon, but still unexplained, phenomenon), and if there could be any connection with what some researchers are saying about major earthquakes being linked with solar flare activity.
In my mother country, Greece, we have a word for this: koufovrasi. Supposedly (or so the superstition goes), a few hours before an earthquake, the weather becomes hot, stale, like you're choking, and it's like the sound doesn't travel as much (that's why it's called as such, which in free translation it means "deaf, boiled weather"). In the villages of the mountain Epirus, this is a known "sign" that an earthquake might hit soon. I personally experienced this kind of weather once or twice during in my early life there, but I don't remember if an earthquake ever hit soon afterward or not.
We have been blinded by the Vast Oligarchical Masonic Banking Illuminati Conspiracy (or VOMBIC) and we can not see the forest for the trees. Please enlighten us, how did the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Project cause the release of radon, local ionization of the lower atmosphere, and subsequent water vapor condensation leading to localized lower atmospheric heating?
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Or, they were experimenting with quantum physics, and the heat up was a backwards time release of energy from the meltdown to occur days later... oOoOoOo!
I don't believe what I just said, but it sure sounds cool.
I8-D
There always exists the possibility that there could be no dependency between the earthquake and the change in the temperature of the atmosphere and it could have happened to be just an unfortunate coincidence resulting in many scientific and non-scientific heads banging themselves against the wall looking for something that isn't there at all....
A good deal of the vibrational energy of the quake eventually will end up as waste heat, so my first question would be whether there is normally a heat plume seen over the site of a quake (adjusting for wind patterns)? There had also been a significant quake already in the area a week earlier. Can it be ruled out that this heat signature could be the result of the earlier quake's energy?
While everyone was panicking over the problems with the Fukashima nuclear plants, it sounds like the real danger here is radon, which is a dangerous radioactive gas that can cause cancer after entering the respiratory tract of animals.
I'm glad to know that I've got nothing to worry about - I'm a man, not an animal.
You're also an idiot.
Radon is a gas and that part of the ocean is very deep. How would it have traveled a few miles to the surface so quickly and without dissolving? You might think that all noble gases are not soluble in water, but radon is actually fairly soluble.
> I'm a man, not an animal.
Thanks for clarifying that, my brother primate.
but it wouldn't take a lot of money to get an early warning system up and running. its worth a try at least
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
If Radon is being released BEFORE a quake occurs, wouldn't it be insignificant to the amount of Radon released DURING and AFTER an earthquake? And therefore, if the atmosphere was heating before the earthquake, wouldn't it be doing so much more significantly during and after the earthquake, so much more so as to be obvious?
"Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling" Isn't this well within the reported capabilities of the HAARP project? I'm just sayin'.
They are trying to cover up the fact that Fukushima melted down several days before the tsunami, and actually caused the quake. But they are not fooling me! *clutches tinfoil hat*
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
This reminds me of Loma Prieta. A Stanford professor reported that there was a low frequency magnetic event before that.
We already have some sophisticated strain guages being planted around California. Maybe we could combine that with radon counts, magnetic readings, and perhaps even ground temperature probes to build a better picture. It would all be networked in real time, and we could correlate it with the frequent small quakes. Sooner or later, we'll correlate it with a big one.
Of course, this takes money and the state and the Fed are both tight these days...
It's HAARP
How does one account for the fact that the fault is underwater, and the radon would have to bubble up through all that water, and not dissolve in it or be carried elsewhere by currents as it came up? Also, is the activity of the radon at the concentration it might reasonably achieve in the atmosphere sufficient to account for significant ionization?
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
They were only a few hundred miles off with the HAARP this time.. We'll quake you up yet NK...
...you mean that there is something other than man-made CO2 causing global warming? Say it ain't so...
H_A_r_/R P
I'm gluing radon detectors to all of my clothing. When "The Big One" hits, I'll be looking down from my emergency air balloon and laughing.
- Holy crap, I've got MOD points! Who thought that was a good idea.
TFA doesn't really give a time scale other than "a few days before". I wonder if at least some of this gas was released from the 7.1 preshock that occurred on the exact same fault on March 9(2 days before the big one). Could potentially explain the source.
Monstar L
Comment removed based on user account deletion
This is one of the most interesting items to float across SlashDot in a long time. This could be very useful.
Yes. Therefore please do the world a favor and stop breathing immediately.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
No, the atmosphere did not heat up rapidly as a result of the quake. This article is total bullshit.
1) Geology: There is no "buildup of unusual stresses" in the days before an earthquake. The stresses build up over decades: the only thing that changes suddenly is the Earth's motion in response to them.
2) Oceanography: Any radioactive gases released by the fault (the mechanism claimed by the authors) would be released *at the bottom of the ocean*. From there it would have to dissolve in the ocean and be carried to the surface. This takes a *LONG* time.
3) Meteorology: Any gases released will mix rapidly in the atmosphere, forming a plume stretching hundreds of miles from the source in a matter of hours. It will not form a coherent blob hovering over the fault.
4) Statistics : the plot in question is supposedly based on "NOAA OLR data". It's been massaged to within an inch of its life, using a statistical technique which is highly sensitive to what happened not just during 2011, but to the vagaries of weather in 2006-2010. The result is a massive exercise in small-number statistics, which is then amplified by:
5) Data visualization: Notice that the OLR "spikes" form nice concentric circles, and they seem to line up along a latitude line. Why? Because what you're seeing is data smoothed to a radius smaller than the actual size of the atmosphere being measured. The link below is to the *actual* raw NOAA AVHRR OLR data over Japan: there are only 9 real data points in the field of view shown by TFA, and they do not show any sign of a peak in OLR over northern Japan.
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/veC_EraWL5NUXaCbH6iROcyKBwp3MOnR9qYUE-fJ7v0?feat=directlink
I would expect it would easily dissolve in a couple of kilometers of ocean water above it, especially at those pressures.
Bert
I got pulled away from my office before submitting this, so everything has probably already been said, but in case it hasn't:
I wondered that myself, but I don't think that would be case for a couple of reasons. Many of the detections of radioactivity did identify the radioactive specific isotopes (such as iodine, cesium) that were causing them. The ones that didn't were centered around Fukushima, unlike what you would expect from a large, distributed Radon release like the article is talking about.
By definition, an increase in the temperature is Global Warming. Global Warming is only caused by Greenhouse Gases (don't you dare to claim otherwise, or the AGW folks will have you drawn and quartered). Greenhouse Gases are created only by man, and mostly by SUV's (again, see the AGW folks). Therefore, the Japan Quake was caused by SUV's.
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
Images in TFA show infrared activity from March 8.
There was actually a strong foreshock on March 8 (March 9 Japan time) http://tenki.jp/earthquake/detail-3568.html
So the infrared was probably not prior to the earthquake, but during an earthquake, i.e. the foreshock.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
When i was in Colombia I once saw the sky full of small round clouds. The locals told me that was a sign there would be an earthquake, and it effectively happened the next day. I never saw clouds like those again anywhere.
Serge, the Seal of Death!
Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
When visiting or talking to any old-timers in San Francisco, they will speak of "earthquake weather", uncharacteristically hot balmy weather...
sarcasm detection algo seems to be a bit off. you might want to adjust some thresholds.
We already monitor ULF in several high risk areas. Radon counts would be interesting. "The California Magnetic Network (CalMagNet) concept involves placing Ultra-Low-Frequency (ULF) based sensors along the major faults throughout California as a pilot network that will lay the groundwork for similar networks throughout the world. The data collected will allow researchers not only to validate the technique but also to provide data for the development of earthquake warning programs." http://www.quakefinder.com/joomla15/index.php/component/content/article/32
It would be interesting to add radon detectors to the CalMagNet ULF sensors that are already in place in California.
They already look at magnetic anomolies, air conductivity, and IR (GOES).
http://www.quakefinder.com/joomla15/index.php/earthquake-science-and-prediction
Proof H.A.A.R.P is a mass murder dvice, YO.
The tin-hatters will be convinced that the USA is using its death-star ray again.
HOWEVER, whoever wrote TFS has added other crap to an interesting paper. :
The obvious knock-on effect would be alarming readings at radiation monitors all over the area. In particular - to restate an old nuclear industry story - workers at places like Fukushima nuclear plant may well have set off alarms going into the plant for work. The evidence for this large amount of radon is ... ?
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"