<nettime> Earthquake: Coincidence or a Corporate Oil Tragedy?

[Anivar Aravind <anivar.aravind@gmail.com>]

Earthquake: Coincidence or a Corporate Oil Tragedy?
December 28, 2004
By: Andrew Limburg
Independent Media TV
http://www.independent-media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=3D10211&fcategory_desc=
=3DEnvironment

Now I don't claim to be an expert on seismic activity, but there has
been a series of events which led up to the 9.0 earthquake of the
coast of Indonesia which can not be ignored. This all could be an
enormous coincidence, but one must look at the information and choose
for themselves whether there is anything to it.
On November 28th, one month ago, Reuters reported that during a 3 day
span 169 whales and dolphins beached themselves in Tasmania, an island
of the southern coast of mainland Australia and in New Zealand. The
cause for these beachings is not known, but Bob Brown, a senator in
the Australian parliament, said "sound bombing" or seismic tests of
ocean floors to test for oil and gas had been carried out near the
sites of the Tasmanian beachings recently.

According to Jim Cummings of the Acoustic Ecology Institute, Seismic
surveys utilizing airguns have been taking place in mineral-rich areas
of the world's oceans since 1968. Among the areas that have
experienced the most intense survey activity are the North Sea, the
Beaufort Sea (off Alaska's North Slope), and the Gulf of Mexico; areas
around Australia and South America are also current hot-spots of
activity.

The impulses created by the release of air from arrays of up to 24
airguns create low frequency sound waves powerful enough to penetrate
up to 40km below the seafloor. The "source level" of these sound waves
is generally over 200dB (and often 230dB or more), roughly comparable
to a sound of at least 140-170dB in air.

According to the Australian Conservation Foundation, these 200dB =E2=80=93
230dB shots from the airguns are fired every 10 seconds or so, from 10
meters below the surface, 24 hours a day, for 2 week periods of time,
weather permitting.

These types of tests are known to affect whales and dolphins, whose
acute hearing and use of sonar is very sensitive.

On December 24th there was a magnitude 8.1 earthquake more than 500
miles southeast of Tasmania near New Zealand, with a subsequent
aftershock 6.1 a little later in the morning that same day.

On December 26th, the magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck at the
intersection of the Australian tectonic plate and the Indian tectonic
plate. This is the devastating tsunami tragedy that we have all heard
about in the Indian Ocean. The death toll of this horrific event has
reached 120,000 souls and continues to rise.

On December 27th, 20 whales beached themselves 110 miles west of
Hobart on the southern island state of Tasmania.

What is interesting about this is that the same place where the whale
beachings have been taking place over the last 30 days is the same
general area where the 8.1 Australian earthquake took place, and this
is the same area where they are doing these seismic tests. Then 2 days
after the Australian tectonic plate shifted, the 9.0 earthquake shook
the coast of Indonesia.

A great deal of interest and seismic testing has been taking place in
this area, as the government of Australia has given great tax breaks
to encourage the oil exploration.

Two Geologists that I spoke to felt that it was highly unlikely that
these seismic tests would have had enough energy to induce the
Australian quake. On the other hand there is strong evidence that
suggests that oil exploration activities have induced earthquakes in
the past.

Again, I don't claim to be an expert. I'm writing this story to bring
attention to some interesting facts, so that those who are experts can
investigate this fully.

We will be following up on this story as more information is gathered.

/////////////////////////////////////////
anivar (at) riseup (dot) net
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