Monday, March 10, 2014

M4.5 Earthquake hits Gakkel Ridge


The above image shows recent large methane release over the Gakkel Ridge, the faultline that crosses the Arctic Ocean between the northern tip of Greenland and the Laptev Sea (red line on map). Methane readings were as high as 2395 ppb at 586 mb, an altitude that often shows high methane readings originating from the Arctic Ocean.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.5 hit the Gakkel Ridge at a depth of 2 km on March 6, 2014, at 11:17.17.0 UTC. The location is shown on the map below.

[ click on image to enlarge ]
The image below shows more recent methane readings, around March 8, 2014.


The image below is a Naval Research Laboratory forecast of sea ice thickness for March 8, 2014, run on March 3, 2014.


Meanwhile, the sea ice is close to record lows (for the time of the year), as illustrated by the images below. The image directly below shows sea ice area.


The image below shows sea ice extent.


The image below, by Wipneus, shows sea ice volume.
The image below, by Andy Lee Robinson, offers a different way of looking at sea ice volume, the Arctic Death Spiral.




5 comments:

  1. An earthquake at that shallow depth is very bad news.

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  2. Sam, what are you doing at your keyboard at 3:30 in the morning. Get some sleep, okay?

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  3. http://arcticicesea.blogspot.com/2014/03/morze-barentsa-bardzo-mao-lodu.html Barents Sea - catastrophe. And to the Arctic Oscillation is positive.

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  4. Of course, It seems to me that these eruptions will be so big & deep & chain reactive that they'll go off like earthquakes then volcanoes then traps as the heat eruption cycle mounts. Oh dear. This might an instance of it farting mantel methane already as likely as coincidental cause. Oh no! Getting ready to really blow?

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  5. Ken, Earth is seeing upper crust react to blockage of atmosphere to shed heat -I hope you are kidding..
    Dr Light explains how Iron Oxide II, carbonate rock and water react at depth with pressure and 1200C..

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