Earthquake Dynamics:
Sudden Cracking of the Earth's Mantle
GWO Earthquake Project
Earthquake Dynamics:
Short-term climate oscillations and occurrences of regional earthquakes have been extensively studied for decades, but meteorologists, oceanographers and geologists have had very limited success in isolating the primary physical mechanism(s) that creates and controls the oscillations.
GWO’s nineteen (26) years of ongoing research uses a combination of Meteorology, Oceanography, Climatology, Geology and Astronomy along with extensive historical weather and climate data to develop techniques for climate prediction. The most significant discovery was that of the Primary Forcing Mechanism (PFM) which is highly correlated to short-term climate cycles. The combination resulted in the development of prediction models formulated from the Lunisolar Precession of the earth, moon and sun. Very specific gravitation cycles occur during specific periods of the Lunisolar Precession. GWO has termed these cycles the "Primary Forcing Mechanism" for climate cycles.
Ever since planet Earth was created about 4.5 billion years ago, it has been exposed to natural processes and forcing mechanisms within the solar system and earth. During the course of millions of years, the interaction of these processes has implemented a natural climate and planetary rhythm. These rhythms include but are not limited to: day and night, the four annual seasons and weather events during the particular season, short-term climate fluctuations and oscillations within the seasons, and long-term climate change cycles such as glacial periods which occur approximately every 120 thousand years.
There are also rhythms within the planet , which most of us are not aware of, but do occasionally feel or see. Hundreds of earthquakes occur daily around the world, and thousands during the course of a year. Since the majority of earthquakes are of minor intensity, only a small fraction of these occurrences ever make the news. But what could possibly cause the earth's crust to suddenly break and cause an earthquake?
Earth is very complex. On the surface there is the atmosphere which is made up of nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor and other gases which move fluidly around the planet. The flow of these atmospheric gases are caused by the rotation of the earth, heating of the atmosphere and ground by the sun, proximity of mountain ranges and water bodies such as oceans, and forcing mechanisms such as gravitational tides caused by Lunisolar Precession. The gravitation oscillations cause great stress and tidal fluctuations on the earth's atmosphere and oceans: Beneath the atmosphere is the planet earth as shown in the cutaway in Figures 1 and 2 below. Earth consists of 32% iron, 30% oxygen, 15% silicon, 14% magnesium, 3% sulfur, 2% nickel, calcium, aluminum and various trace elements. The first layer of earth beneath the atmosphere is the crust, oceans and fresh water lakes. The crust is a thin layer with depths ranging from 5 to 75 kilometers. Beneath the layer of crust is the mantle which can go down to a depth of 2890 kilometers. This is the largest layer of earth and is comprised mostly of silicate rocks rich in magnesium and iron. Beneath the mantle is the outer core comprised of mostly liquid iron. Then in the center of the earth is the solid inner core which is also mostly iron.
Figure - shows a cutaway of earth with the thin outer crust, the brittle mantle, liquid hot outer hot core consisting of 80% iron, and the solid and extremely hot magnetic inner core.
Courtesy Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Figure 2 - shows the thin outer crust, the upper brittle mantle, outer core and inner core.
Based on the public domain image File: Earth-crust-cutaway-english.png by Jeremy Kemp, wikipedia
Figure 3 - shows the "Ring of Fire" around the Pacific Ocean. This is an area where tetonic plate either separate, rub together or go under each other. Plates move on an average of a couple inches each year. Red areas note Active Volcanoes.
Courtesy - United States Geological Survey (USGS) - Modified form: Tiling, Heliker, and Wright, 1987, and Hamilton, 1976.
Because the Earth’s mantle is solid and very thick with depths to 2890 kilometers, we would expect a very firm foundation under our feet. Scientists indicate that this outer layer of the earth is actually relatively thin and very brittle, and it does float on the liquid outer core of hot molten iron. Slow movement of the liquid core inside the earth causes stress on the brittle outer mantle, with the end result causing rocks to occasionally break suddenly. This brittle outer layer of earth is also fragmented into a number of pieces which are called plates. Earthquakes occur where plates rub against other, spread, or when one plate slides under another plate during these movements.
Volcanoes occur in areas where the mantle breaks through the crust and allows some of the liquid outer core to reach the earth’s surface. According to the USGS, "an earthquake is the shaking of the ground caused by an abrupt shift of rock along a fracture in the Earth, called a fault. Within seconds, an earthquake releases stress that has slowly accumulated within the rock, sometimes over hundreds of years".
Figure 4 - Earth's geomagnetic field effectively extends several tens of thousands of kilometers into space, and forms the Earth's magnetosphere that shields the surface of the Earth from the charged particles of the solar wind. This is generated by electric currents located in many different parts of the Earth. It is compressed on the day (Sun) side of earth due to the force of the arriving particles, and extended on the night side of Earth.
Courtesy - United States Geological Survey USGS and Wikepedia (Image not to scale).
What Causes a Sudden Shift in the Mantle and an Earthquake?
As described earlier, over the course of millions of years, Earth has acquired a natural rhythm in its atmosphere and oceans above the earth's crust and research by Global Weather Weather Oscillations Inc. (GWO), has found a similar
rhythm for earthquake frequencies below the earth's crust.
The earth's atmosphere is comprised of fluid gases that are easily subjected to outside forces. The earth's mantle rides and floats ontop of the hot liquid outer core, a fluid comprised mainly of iron, which is magnetic. The mantle, is easily subjected to outside forces such as oscillations in strong geomagnetic and gravity forces of the sun and our planetary system. This can cause great stress on the plates, and bulging within the core.
Research by GWO has found that the Primary Forcing Mechanism (PFM) is the trigger mechanism that controls recurring cycles of the El Niño, regional hurricane landfalls, other weather/climate cycles, and earthquake cycles. The PFM is essentially a subset of the Lunisolar Precession, and the well documented sub cycles of the Milankovitch Cycles. Oscillations of gravitational forces are caused by varying positions and distances from earth of the sun, moon and other planets within the solar system. It is these forces which are the "primary forcing mechanism" controlling the rhythm of earthquakes and the climate on earth.
The sun and lunar cycles of the Lunisolar Precession influence stress on the mantle in two ways. First, the induced gravity cycles cause stress on the mantle and bulging of the liquid outer core within the earth. Second, is the moon's influence on the sun’s well-established geomagnetic effect. As the moon's monthly elliptical path around earth crosses in back of earth during its full moon phase, the moon enters the earth's geomagnetic field on the backside of earth. With the earth sitting between the moon and the sun, both enter the earth's geomagnetic field (see Figure 4 above).
As the moon continues its monthly trek around earth, once it leaves the full moon phase it moves away from the earth's geomagnetic field, and then enters the field once again during its new moon phase as it positions itself between the earth and the sun. It is likely that the new moon's cyclical placement not only amplifies the gravitational tidal pull of the sun, but actually amplifies the geomagnetic pull on earth’s geomagnetic field, and during other cycles it impedes the geomagnetic field. Studies by Stanford University geophysicist Anthony Fraser-Smith shows a relationship between the moon and the earth’s geomagnetic field during lunar eclipses. Furthermore, studies of lunar rock samples brought back from the Apollo flights show evidence of strong magnetic fields in the rock. Researchers believe this material could cause a magnetic shift when the moon passes through the earth’s geomagnetic "tail", which happens during the new moon.
With the inner and outer cores of the earth being mostly iron, which is magnetic, the inner and outer cores of the earth are greatly affected by geomagnetic oscillations of the sun, and these oscillations have cycles due to the path of the moon around the earth. Sub cycles of the Lunisolar Precession portray gravitational tidal forces on earth which can vary by about 47 percent during the course of only a few months. It has been documented by research scientists that these cycles cause bulges in the earth's oceans (Woods 1986), displacement of atmospheric high pressure centers (Bryson 1948), and the inner and outer core of the earth (Gholibeigian et al). Thus, oscillations within these magnetic cycles cause changes in the mostly liquid core which in turn cause great stress on the brittle mantle. With plates moving a few inches per year (USGS), stress from the PFM Lunisolar Precession eventually causes the plates to slip, separate or slide under each other, any or all of which is commonly known as an earthquake.
Gholibegian et al, agree with GWO that gravity forces between the Sun, Earth and the Moon, plus their rotations cause "dislocation of the inner core of Earth. Gholibegian also indicates that the "outer core of earth has a wide bulge toward the moon and sun, with the outer core formed like an egg". The bulge in this egg shape "acts as the main cause of pressure to the bottom of the earth's mantle" (from below). Of great importance is that gravity forces between the earth, moon and sun cause an oscillation and dislocation of the inner core due to its attraction toward the moon and sun. Gholibegian indicates that the "Earth's inner core radius enlarges locally by 0.98 to 1.75 Kilometers" during gravitation interactions, and that the inner core actually "rotates 3 degrees per year faster than the mantle", as the tectonic plates the mantle float on the hot liquid outer core. This dislocation and/or oscillation cycle has a diurnal "Pulse" or rhythm in conjunction with the moon's daily and monthly cycle as it rotates around the earth. This pulsating mantle causes "Seismic waves that transverse the Earth's inner core, and at times there are sudden changes or "jerks" in the geomagnetic field.
Global Weather Oscillations's own research tracks external forcing and oscillations cycles which cause cyclical changes in the earth's oceans, atmosphere, and the inner and outer core of earth.
References:
1. Tidal Dynamics-Coastal Flooding and Cycles of Gravitational
Force. Woods, Fergus, 1986: D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland.
2. "Pulsating Mantle" Hypothesis in the Earth's Structural System Behavior
due to the Gravity Force Hassan
Gholibeigian, Abdolazim Amirshahkarami, Fatemeh Gholibeigian
AmirKabir University of Technology, Tehran Iran, Computational Research
Center, California, USAThe
http://www.solartechinovation.com/research/file/pulsatingmantle.pdf
3. Planet within a Planet: Rotation of the Inner Core of Earth
W.-J. Su and A. M. Dziewonski, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences,
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. R. Jeanloz, Department
of Geology and Geophysics, University of California, Berkeley, CA
94720-4767, USA. Science 13 December 1996: Vol. 274. no. 5294,
pp. 1883 - 1887 DOI: 10.1126/science. 274.5294.1883
4. Graphic "Earth's crust, mantle, liquid outer core, solid inner core.
Courtesy Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory http://www.physorg.com/news62952904.htm
5. United States Geological Survey (USGS)
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/historical_state.php
6. Figure 4 from NASA link http://sec.gsfc.nasa.gov/popscise.jpg