Archive | December 24, 2016
Sinkhole on 15 Mile in Fraser forces evacuation in Detroit, USA
A row of homes were evacuated and a roadway closed early Saturday after a leaking sewer line caused the continued collapse of at least one home and portions of the street around it, authorities said.
The homes at the corner of 15 Mile Road and Eberlein Drive were most affected, and the unknown owner of the house at the corner called police when he felt his foundation move and his walls crack. Police closed 15 mile between Utica and Hayes as a precaution.
Every few minutes, bystanders could hear the home’s foundation as well as the roadway cracking. And the changes including a row of pine trees which a day ago lined perfectly together were now uneven and visible to the eyes.
“They noticed in the house cracking, loud banging from the walls,” said Lt. Mike Pettyes of the Fraser Police Department who had been on scene most of the day. “We evacuated the house, and it’s just been getting progressively worse.”
Pettyes said road crews know that there’s a leaking problem with the main sewer line that snakes under the homes and caused the foundation to crumble. At least two other homes on Eberlein were also evacuated as a precaution.
This isn’t the first time this area had a problem with a faulty sewer line cause damage to a street. In 2004, a 120-foot sinkhole on 15 Mile outside the Villa Fontana subdivision between Hayes and Moravian roads in nearby Sterling Heights caused power outages, road closures and evacuations.
The sewer line, about 40 feet underground, was owned by the Detroit water department.
Michelle Ward, 43, who lives a few housing developments away, heard about the sinking homes and street sinking on Facebook and came out to survey the damage.
“It’s Christmas Eve and you just feel bad for the families having to leave,” said Ward, 43. “Having to evacuate on Christmas and losing their house.
Pettyes said he wouldn’t be surprised if at least one of the residents, whom he wouldn’t name, lost his house.
“It’s a two-person family and he’s obviously upset about it,” he said.
Courtesy of detroitnews.com
Europe’s Most Dangerous Supervolcano “Campi Flegrei” is Reawakening
Just below millions of people there is a supervolcano that has begun to show signs of reawakening. The supervolcano, Campi Flegrei, is 8 miles wide and sits beneath the Bay of Naples offshore Italy. Recent monitoring of the volcano points to a reawakening of one of the largest volcanoes in Europe.
An international team of geoscientists have monitored the volcano’s caldera for signs of activity and recently published results in the journal Nature Communications on the increased danger of an eruption.
Campi Flegrei, which means “burning fields” in Italian, is believed to have formed hundreds of thousands of years ago and has erupted on several occasions in recent geologic time. The initial eruption, which occurred 200,000 years ago triggered a “volcanic winter” from the massive amount of ash ejected into the atmosphere. The volcano then erupted again 40,000 and 12,000 years ago.
The eruption 40,000 years ago is thought to have wiped out most of the European Neanderthals and was one of the largest volcanic eruptions of all time. In recent memory, Campi Flegrei erupted in 1538 for 8 days straight, sending ash across Europe and forming the new mountain Monte Nuovo.
Recent measurements from the Campi Flegrei volcano indicate it is approaching what is called the critical degassing pressure (CDP), a pressure at which the volcano can begin a phase of volatility and volcanic unrest. The CDP is generally speaking a pressure where volcanic gas can release from the underlying magma, heat localized hydrothermal vents, fluids, and rocks. This increased pressure and heat can trigger deformation of the overburden rock and ultimately rock failure, i.e. a volcanic eruption.
Scientists have measured accelerated deformation of the volcano, which has literally risen recently due to increased gaseous pressures. Scientists have measured a 1.25 feet rise of the volcano’s ground since 2005. Gas at high pressures in the subsurface is exceptionally dangerous as it can easily and quickly lead to an unconstrained positive feedback loop. Imagine gas in solution in magma, which is relatively stable.
If that gas begins to escape and rise in the Earth’s subsurface through magma, the gas will subsequently reduce the overlying pressure of the magma below it. That in turn allows for more gas to come out of solution and rise in the magma column. In an instant, you can have a runaway situation whereby decompressed gas allows for more decompression and an eventual blowout. This is not dissimilar to some situations seen during oil and gas well blowouts.
The location of Campi Flegrei is especially alarming, located immediately near the metropolitan area of Naples, a very densely populated metropolitan area. The volcano is therefore actively monitored by the Italian National Institute of Geophysics located in Rome, where real time measurements are analyzed for increasing threat.
Despite the increasing signs of activity, it’s very hard to determine the “tipping point” at which the volcano begins erupting. However, the Italian government recently raised the volcano’s threat level from green to yellow, which requires constant scientific monitoring for changes in volcanic behavior. The most common signs of increased likelihood of an eruption are increased gas output (decreased gas pressure), elevation rise on the volcano’s surface, and increased seismicity within the volcano.
Unfortunately, the best thing we can currently do is actively monitor the volcano for signs of further increasing activity. However, an eruption could not happen for the next century, it’s impossible to accurately model when these events will occur. Similar to many geologic processes on Earth (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, sinkholes, etc.) the signs of decreasing stability are easy to detect but the tipping point at which the event occurs is very hard to predict.
Courtesy of chiangraitimes.com
Super typhoon heads for Christmas Day blow to Philippines
© AccuWeather Satellite of Typhoon Nock-ten approaching the Philippines
A powerful typhoon was heading for a Christmas Day collision with the central Philippines.
The U.S. military’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said Nock-Ten was a super typhoon with winds of up to 240 kph (150 mph) late Christmas Eve local time (1200 GMT), though it was expected to weaken before landfall.
The Philippines’ own weather bureau said the province of Catanduanes was likely to see sustained winds of up to 170 kph (105 mph) by the afternoon as the storm reaches its shores.
That’s equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane in the Atlantic.
The storm was about 280 kilometers (175) east of the city of Virac early Sunday and it was heading to the west-northwest at about 13 kph (8 mph).
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said it would bring storm surge as high as 2.5 meters (8 feet) in parts of the country, along with heavy rains and flooding.
The storm was projected to weaken further over 36 hours as it passes over the Manila area.
Courtesy of msn.com
MAGNITUDE 2.4 FRANCE
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=554969
Subject To Change
Depth: 2 km
Distances: 104 km NW of Monaco, Monaco / pop: 33,000 / local time: 22:18:37.1 2016-12-24
47 km E of Gap, France / pop: 42,800 / local time: 22:18:37.1 2016-12-24
10 km NW of Jausiers, France / pop: 1,100 / local time: 22:18:37.1 2016-12-24
Subject To Change
Depth: 2 km
Distances: 104 km NW of Monaco, Monaco / pop: 33,000 / local time: 22:18:37.1 2016-12-24
47 km E of Gap, France / pop: 42,800 / local time: 22:18:37.1 2016-12-24
10 km NW of Jausiers, France / pop: 1,100 / local time: 22:18:37.1 2016-12-24
MEGA UPPER AND LOWER DIP SPIKES ON THE WEAK MAGNETOSPHERE @ APPROX 13:30, 17:00, 17:15, 20:15, 20:45, 20:00, 20:15 HRS UTC
***VERY URGENT***
MEGA UPPER AND LOWER DIP SPIKES ON THE WEAK MAGNETOSPHERE @ APPROX 13:30, 17:00, 17:15, 20:15, 20:45, 20:00, 20:15 HRS UTC. FURTHER EARTHQUAKES, VOLCANO ACTIVITY & ADVERSE WEATHER PATTERNS WILL BE GREATLY INFLUENCED BY THE COSMIC RAYS STRIKING THE EARTH’S CORE
***BE ALERT***
***ALERT LEVEL RAISED TO RED*** Bogoslof Volcano, Alaska
Bogoslof Volcano, Alaska Alert Level Raised To RED
Another explosive eruption occurred at the volcano a few hours ago (at around 09:30 AKST local time), the Alaska Volcano Observatory reported. The alert level of Bogoslof was raised back to red.
“A Coast Guard ship in the vicinity reported ash emission as well as ejection of lava and fragmental material. The eruption cloud did not penetrate the regional cloud tops at 30,000 ft and winds are to the north-northeast. According to the Coast Guard, ash emission subsided at about 10:37 AKST (19:37 UTC). On the basis of this information, the Aviation Color Code is raised to RED and the Alert Level to WARNING.”
Courtesy of volcanodiscovery.com
MAGNITUDE 3.1 SANTA BARBARA CHANNEL, CALIF.
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=554914
Subject To Change
Depth: 10 km
Distances: 143 km W of Los Angeles, United States / pop: 3,793,000 / local time: 06:15:33.7 2016-12-24
7 km SW of Santa Barbara, United States / pop: 88,500 / local time: 06:15:33.7 2016-12-24
9 km SW of Mission Canyon, United States / pop: 2,400 / local time: 06:15:33.7 2016-12-24
MAGNITUDE 5.2 MAUG ISLANDS REG, N. MARIANA IS.
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=554878
Subject To Change
Depth: 40 km
Distances: 630 km N of Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands / pop: 48,300 / local time: 22:10:48.5 2016-12-24
1719 km S of Tokyo, Japan / pop: 8,337,000 / local time: 21:10:48.5 2016-12-24
2416 km E of Taipei, Taiwan, Province of China / pop: 7,872,000 / local time: 20:10:48.5 2016-12-24
MAGNITUDE 3.8 IRAQ
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=554874
Subject To Change
Depth: 6 km
Distances: 43 km N of Al Mawşil al Jadīdah, Iraq / pop: 2,066,000 / local time: 15:00:21.3 2016-12-24
12 km S of Sīnah, Iraq / pop: 129,000 / local time: 15:00:21.3 2016-12-24
Please Donate To Support My Work
Earth Extremities 
Comments