M7.7 in Pakistan

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Jay Patton

A very large earthquake in Pakistan today!
As a result of collision of the Arabia plate into the Eurasia plate, thrust faults formed in Pakistan. This collision zone is the same basic convergence region that extends from Java/Sumatra, up through Burma, across India (creating the Himalaya), through the middle east, into the Mediterranean creating the Alps.
Here is the moment tensor for this earthquake, showing the oblique mechanism.

Here is a map with the epicenter plotted in google earth.

Here is a map with the Modified Mercalli Intensity Contours plotted in google earth.

Here is a map with the MMI intensity (USGS shakemap color overlay) and Peak Ground Acceleration Contours plotted in google earth.

Here is the USGS page: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usb000jyiv#summary
Here is the USGS map for the region:

Here is the USGS page for the loss estimates below: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usb000jyiv#pager
Here is the estimate of fatalities for this earthquake:

Here is the estimate of economic loss for this earthquake:

Here is the estimate of “exposure” for this earthquake:

IPCC 5th Assessment Report Forthcoming

Posted on September 22, 2013 by Jay Patton

Coming out later this month here http://www.climatechange2013.org/report/
i pasted some text from the group I fact sheet that demonstrates why the IPCC assessment reports are the most comprehensive and peer reviewed science ever. 9,200 references! ~55,000 comments! no single paper published anywhere at any time has been so comprehensive. single papers, which may disagree with minor aspects of the ARs, pale in comparison (but continue to be used by blog writers to attempt to discredit the AR). single authors also attempt to raise questions, but frequently they are only experts in a minor or related field (eg don easterbrook, world class glaciologist, but not a climatologist).
you have questions? WG1AR5_Questions.pdf
you want to read the fact sheet? WG1AR5_Questions.pdf
The Report
1 Scoping Meeting to outline 14 Chapters Over 1000 nominations from 63 countries
209 Lead Authors and 50 Review Editors from 39 countries Over 600 Contributing Authors from 32 countries Over 2 million gigabytes of numerical data from climate model simulations Over 9200 scientific publications cited
The First Order Draft Expert Review
Nearly 1500 individuals registered 21,400 comments from 659 Expert Reviewers from
47 countries
The Second Order Draft Expert and Government Review
Over 1500 individuals registered 31,422 comments from 800 Expert Reviewers from
46 countries and 26 Governments
The Final Government Distribution
1855 comments from 32 Governments on the Final Draft Summary for Policymakers
Total Reviews
54,677 comments 1089 Expert Reviewers from 55 countries 38 Governments

Core Site 64, Core RR0705-108PC, Station Sheet

Posted on September 16, 2013 by Jay Patton

1 + 2 = 3
(1) Tonight I was reviewing some core station sheets for some notes regarding over-penetration of the sea floor. This core station sheet was filled out with pertinent information about the core deploymnent. These are basically meta-data about the core location, the coring process, and the coring results. Core coordinates, coring station number, core number, “observer (the person recording these official data), type of core, water depth, date, times, tension on the wire, coring configuration (e.g. how many weights, where the corer was deployed, length of trigger chain. stoping cable, etc.) are all listed. The lengths of the core sections are also in a table.
Other cruise-specific data are listed. The Vessel, Cruise Name, and Leg Number are listed.
(2) Before seafaring chaps and maidens make an equator crossing, they are considered “wogs” (lowly lowlife of the sea). When wogs cross the equator, they are inducted into the family of Poseidon (through a form of initiation). The details are kept secret at the risk of becoming the recipient of the full force of Poseidon. Once accepted into the realm of the depths, one is considered “shellback.”
(3) During our cruise offshore Sumatra, we crossed the equator twice before we were initiated. Poseidon was NOT happy, so our initiation lasted extra long. We continued to work the ship, take cores, plan, collect data, etc. during our initiation.
In the first two images below,
(4) Check out the name of the vessel.
(5) Check out the observer.
Here is the ship station sheet compilation in pdf format. (1.5 MB) The image below is also link to the pdf:

Here is a typical station sheet:

Here is the documentation of core 65, which is the core that got stuck. The core was stuck in the seafloor for many hours. We were lucky to get the core out. Maximum strain was about 24,000 pounds. The head engineer cut the wire after we got the core because it exceeded the elastic limit of the cable:

We thought that if we moved the ship horizontally, that might help us pull the core out. This page shows our calculations regarding this that allowed us to estimate a reasonable distance to move the ship.