Re: Did global warming cause the Japan Earthquake/Tsunami?
Posted: Tue 07 Jun 2011, 07:38:55
Actually, F, I really just wanted to share the piece about NISA admitting that things were twice as bad as what they first reported, but I couldn't find the general Fukushima thread and I happened across this other (old) blog link so I thought I'd post it.
As I understand it, the claim in the latter is that (eventually at least) the lessening of weight at/near the poles as the ice caps melt will redistribute weight on the earth in such a way that we should see increase in seismic activity around the world. I have no idea whether that has any validity, but given the enormous tonnage that is being shifted, it did not seem totally cuckoo as a hypothesis.
The point, to me, of the former, added to our experience with the Gulf gusher last summer, is that it is generally a fair bet that any real time official pronouncements made about a major disaster are likely to be understated by at least half (or by orders of magnitude, in the case of the Deepwater Horizon fiasco.) Not a surprising conclusion, but one to keep in mind for the next inevitable set of mega-disasters.
As I understand it, the claim in the latter is that (eventually at least) the lessening of weight at/near the poles as the ice caps melt will redistribute weight on the earth in such a way that we should see increase in seismic activity around the world. I have no idea whether that has any validity, but given the enormous tonnage that is being shifted, it did not seem totally cuckoo as a hypothesis.
The point, to me, of the former, added to our experience with the Gulf gusher last summer, is that it is generally a fair bet that any real time official pronouncements made about a major disaster are likely to be understated by at least half (or by orders of magnitude, in the case of the Deepwater Horizon fiasco.) Not a surprising conclusion, but one to keep in mind for the next inevitable set of mega-disasters.