Saturday, August 11, 2012

Earthquakes of this magnitude happen very occasionally in California.

Monterey Shale of California(click here)

Some time ago a question asked by a 4th Grade Class in Southern California of the US Berkley Seismology Lab was, "How many earthquakes are recorded in California every day, week and month?

Earthquakes happen daily in Southern California, however, the majority are 1.0 and 1.5 on the Richter Scale. They grow in less frequency as the Richter Scale ratings increase.

The incidence of the 4.5 magnitude occurring repeatedly is a concern and not the usual. The incidence of daily earthquakes in Southern California being 4.5 is 0.055 in the statistics by Berkeley Seismology.


M4.5 - 2km NE of Yorba Linda, California (click here)

2012-08-08 16:33:22 UTC
Ten Hours previous.
M4.5 - 3km ENE of Yorba Linda, California (click here)2012-08-08 06:23:34 UTC

Less than 24 hours previous.
M4.5 - 24km SSW of Coalinga, California (click here)2012-08-06 07:35:49 UTC
The previous quake was 13 days previous.
M3.7 - 4km ESE of Marina del Rey, California (click here)2012-07-25 10:18:41 UTC
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Officials are scrambling to learn about a practice (click here) widely used by the oil industry, hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” even as a letter sent to the EPA by ranking U.S. House committee members found some fracking fluids violate the Safe Drinking Water Act.

The Monterey County zoning administrator in October approved a use permit for Denver-based oil company Venoco to drill up to nine exploratory wells in the Hames Valley using fracking. An appeal filed by Ventana Conservation and Land Trust of Lockwood is slated to be heard by the county planning commission on March 30. Until then, Venoco cannot proceed.
...
...“What we recommend is we look at the environmental ramifications a little deeper,” says Kinison-Brown. Although the county has been granting use permits to oil companies since the 1930s, “Fracking has just recently come to our attention in Monterey County,” he says. 

In addition to the Venoco permit, at least one oil company has expressed interest in leasing 2,445 acres of Bureau of Land Management mineral estates of the same Monterey shale formation. The BLM declined to identify that company.
...

Among citizens seeking to stop the ambitions Venoco, inc. by drilling shale are two vineyard operations in the area. To date no water quality standards have prevailed over the activities of the hydraulic fracturing, even when complaints are made by local vineyard operations.

August 04, 2011 12:30 am  •  


In an attempt to regulate hydraulic fracturing, "or fracking," (click here) as much as possible at the local level, Santa Barbara County is studying the possibility of a local moratorium on the common but controversial oil-recovery process.
The decision came after the county Board of Supervisors heard from at least 16 people at Tuesday's meeting - a number of them advocating for the safety of the process, but many expressing concerns.
The supervisors asked county staff to study the feasibility of a ban and return on Sept. 20 with more information.
"Before any more fracking is done near our groundwater basin, we need to be certain that it won't damage our water," Chris Wrather, chair of the Los Alamos Community Association, told the board. "I don't have the comfort that we have that level of certainty now."...
The legislature is obviously concerned and has only recently passed a bill demanding full disclosure of the contents of hydraulic fracturing fluids.

Wednesday, June 01 2011
SACRAMENTO - The California State Assembly by a 50-21 margin (click here) today approved a landmark bill to require oil and gas producers to disclose what chemicals they are using when they engage in hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" in California.

New technologies and drilling practices such as fracking are allowing oil companies to access previously unavailable oil and gas reserves in the state.  While industry is adapting to these new practices quickly, state regulators are falling behind.

"AB 591 would ensure that the public and regulators are aware of what chemicals are being injected into wells by oil and gas producers," Wieckowski said.  "It is critical that we take this important step to require this disclosure and add some transparency into this process.  The public has a right to know.  Other states are reevaluating fracking due to environmental concerns and we need to increase our oversight as well."...
The reasonable approach to earthquakes is early detection. Cal Tech is pursuing that ideal. Earthquakes are usually preventable, but, in the case of hydraulic fracturing earthquakes can be prevented. It can be prevented by ending hydraulic fracturing all together or defining the danger as unacceptable for a region of the country. There is no such thing as safe hydraulic fracturing, it is an 'odds game.' The odds of a person being effected by an earthquake when hydraulic fracturing is performed into the land is the best outcome expected by the petroleum industry. The industry is not interested in preventing earthquakes, so citizens have to be.

I can't believe vineyard operations aren't more important than petroleum industry designs on the land.

..."There are lots and lots of little faults all over that area," (click here) Given said of the northern Orange County region where the quakes were centered. "It's a known active area."
The shaking began with a magnitude 4.5 earthquake near Yorba Linda about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, bookended by another 4.5 quake about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, but with many smaller ones in between.
At a news conference Wednesday morning, Kate Hutton of the USGS said that of all the quakes, only three were probably felt by residents. The two 4.5 temblors were felt across a wide swath of Southern California, with people reporting shaking as far away as Thousand Oaks, the Santa Clarita Valley, the Westside and northern San Diego County.
"This is all part of the same earthquake sequence; they're all in the same area,'' Hutton told reporters. "We haven't had anything in the L.A. Basin in the last few years, but that doesn't mean we're totally quiet."...

The nightmare belongs to the nation. The only reason there are areas unattainable, as in the Rock Mountains, is because the drilling technique needed to make it profitable and/or possible doesn't exist yet.


Cluster of Earthquakes Rattle Southern California

August 11, 2012
UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite of North and West Hemisphere
0030:00 z

This is Hurricane Ernesto as it was passing over the continent. It is now known as Tropical Depression Eight in the Eastern Pacific with winds of 30 mph.

There is a reason the Onagawa Nuclear Power Station was not damaged. The power station itself was not flooded, which was the major factor with Fukushima; but the reasons for the integrity of the power station itself is far more interesting.

The Onagawa Nuclear Power Station is on land without subduction zones or major faults. In Figure 2 (click here) on page 224 clearly illustrates there are no geological features of quake potential.

The primary reason the Onagawa Nuclear Power Station was sound without any signs of damage is because there was no earth movement in the area. The reason the plant didn't malfunction is because there was no flooding and the plant could be shutdown safely. The back-up systems were intact. Let there be no doubt the circumstances at Fukushima was very different than at Onagawa. To assume nuclear plants are safe on or near seimic faults based on the experience of Onagawa is incorrect. If anything it proves having nuclear power stations in zones without seimic activity or the danger of same have the best outcomes. 

Aug 10, 2012
An International (click title to entry - thank you) Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)-led team of international experts on August 10 delivered an initial report at the end of a two-week mission to gather information about the impacts of the Great East Japan Earthquake on the three-unit Onagawa Nuclear Power Station, and concluded the plant was "remarkably undamaged."
The Government of Japan and the IAEA agreed to deploy a team of 19 members from six countries, including IAEA staff, to the Onagawa plant. The team held discussions with the operators of the plant and reviewed logbooks and repair reports documented after the earthquake.
The Onagawa plant, facing the Pacific Ocean on Japan's north-east coast, was the nuclear power plant closest to the epicenter of the March 11, 2011 magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck Japan and resulted in a tsunami, the IAEA said.
The agency also said the plant experienced very high levels of ground shaking - among the strongest of any plant affected by the earthquake - and some flooding from the tsunami that followed, but was able to shut down safely.
In its draft report, the IAEA team said "the structural elements of the NPS were remarkably undamaged given the magnitude of ground motion experienced and the duration and size of this great earthquake".
The mission's objective was to observe how structures, systems and components with significance to the safety of the plant responded to the earthquake and heavy shaking.
The IAEA said the findings from the visual investigation will be added to an IAEA data base being compiled by its International Seismic Safety Centre (ISSC) to provide knowledge for Member States about the impact of external hazards on nuclear power plants.
Recommendations have been made that follow-up missions be conducted at Onagawa and reviews be conducted at other nuclear power plants in Japan that have experienced varying magnitudes of earthquakes.
"This is an initial step in a much longer process. The level of cooperation and frank sharing of information that we received from the staff at Onagawa NPS and its owners, the Tohoku Electric Power Company, sets a very good example," said Sujit Samaddar, mission leader and Head of the IAEA's ISSC said.

A man without a nation will represent the world during the Monday marathon.


I hope he wins.

1:50 PM Saturday Aug 11, 2012
A refugee runner without a country will represent the whole world in Monday morning's marathon after surviving a war-torn childhood and being separated from his family.
Guor Marial will run under the flag of the International Olympic Committee because South Sudan, where he was born, does not have its own Olympic organisations, after splitting from the Muslim north of the country following a vicious civil war.
The 28-year-old has not seen his family for almost 20 years but said they will walk 40 miles to get to the nearest town with a TV to watch him compete. Marial now lives in Arizona but could not run for the US because he does not have a passport or citizenship.

Between the warship and music all Preibus is missing is the Olympic torch.


Ryan's proposal adds $5.1 trillion (click here) to the debt from 2012 to 2021, an average of 71.6%  of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) annually

The GOP actually expects people want to vote for this duo? The choice will keep the Red States red, and might enforce the Republican label in State races, but, as a national ticket, it lacks diversity, women and the Middle Class.

I also have to chuckle when I hear how the poor are going to be put back to work with Republican initiatives. There are poor people that are elderly. They are being forced to look for work now they that they have lost homes and equity in their investment accounts, but, they won't be moving out of poverty anytime soon. Quite the contrary, they will further into poverty with any illness that might disable them completely.

The GOP is out of touch with real Americans, they run and make policy on ideology. It is all they can do.

The GOP has opened up play in states where the retired live, including North Carolina.

Now that he’s (click title to entry - thank you) Mitt Romney’s VP pick, Paul Ryan’s conservative plans to restructure Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security take center stage, especially in Florida, where the three programs account for $96 billion in yearly spending.


08.11.12


...Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman, is the architect of the Ryan budget plan that makes big changes to Medicare and Medicaid and could allow for some privatization of Social Security.

And that’s widely seen by Democrats and most analysts as a politically risky stance in Florida, a must-win state for Republicans, where retirees cast a suspicious eye on changes to the three major government-entitlement programs that pump about $96 billion yearly into the hands of the elderly, the infirm and the hospitals, doctors and other providers who give them direct care.

By picking Ryan, Romeny shows he’s ready to fight for conservative changes to the liberal-legacy programs.

“We won’t duck the tough issues...we will lead!” Ryan said in his official acceptance speech in Norfolk, Virg. “We won’t blame others...we will take responsibility! We won’t replace our founding principles...we will reapply them!”

Democrats are ready, too, for a battle of ideas...

It makes too much sense. Senator Reid's source is Huntsman, Sr. a Bain investor.


Utah, Morman. Reid is correct. Huntsman, Jr. has no love affair with Romeny.
...But I do think Reid (click title to entry - thank you) has a real source here. Markos Moulitsas and a host of other online sleuths have compiled a pretty persuasive case that Reid’s source is Jon Huntsman Sr. Reid has described his source as a major Bain investor and a Republican. Huntsman (the father of the former candidate who’s now backing slowly out of the GOP) is a major Bain investor and a business partner with its managing director, as well as a Reid donor. Abby Huntsman curiously co-bylined a Huffington Post story claiming inside information about Romney’s returns.
So, assuming his source is Huntsman or some other legitimate figure, does Reid have a right to repeat what he heard? The answer becomes more clear if you consider it from Reid’s perspective....

Hillary on Turkish soil. That makes a great deal of sense. Turkey, while allied to the USA, has a relationship with Russia to be respected.

She is amazing. She is the best Secretary of State the USA has ever had.

ACCRA - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton landed in Turkey on Saturday morning for meetings as both countries plan for Syrian President Bashar Assad's fall.

Clinton, winding up an 11-day Africa tour, flew from the small West African state of Benin to Istanbul, where she plans to meet with Turkey's prime minister and foreign minister and hold talks with Syrians who have recently joined the growing exodus of refugees fleeing the violence.

In Washington, the Treasury and State departments announced new sanctions on Syria's state-run oil company Sytrol, saying it had supplied gasoline to Iran, and on Lebanon-based Hezbollah, charging that the group had provided training, advice and extensive logistical support to Assad's government.

The sanctions will add to Washington's arsenal of economic measures targeting both Syrian organizations and foreign entities, mostly in Iran, accused of helping Assad's government...

Rience Priebus cannot lose Wisconsin. He hung his hat on it. It is the birth place for his GOP priorities.

Ryan is the hopeful of the 1 percent. Priebus intends to make it happen. If sacrificing Romney will promote the GOP agenda, it will save Wisconsin's 1st Congressional District and further the agenda. But, the Right Wing is expecting to win by dollars, not votes.

...Given that a number (click title to entry - thank you) of Ryan’s positions fly squarely in the face of many voters in his district that have previously given the Congressman their vote, we are left to wonder if Ryan’s national stardom will carry him through with his constituency or whether the folks back home will send the message that they want a Congressman to represent their interests rather than serve as the star of a national ideological agenda that may be doing real harm to people in his district....

"Corporations are people my friend."

by STEVE MULLIS

UPDATE 1:30 a.m.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has chosen Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, to be his running mate, the Associated Press and other media organizations are reporting.
The Romney campaign said in press release that he will officially announce his choice Saturday morning in Norfolk, Va., at the Nauticus Museum following a tour of the USS Wisconsin....