WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.480 --> 00:00:06.120 It's Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm Bzy Boston's radio. 2 00:00:06.639 --> 00:00:10.599 All right, we had a big shake, big shake off 3 00:00:10.599 --> 00:00:13.439 the coast of Maine on Monday morning. We talked about 4 00:00:13.480 --> 00:00:17.359 it Monday night. I think it was Monday night. Yeah, 5 00:00:17.359 --> 00:00:21.079 I guess it was. Just the week goes by very quickly. 6 00:00:21.640 --> 00:00:26.199 And then today, as our guest on Monday Night suggested, 7 00:00:26.719 --> 00:00:29.519 we had an aftershock. So we brought our guests from 8 00:00:29.559 --> 00:00:35.679 Monday Night back. Professor John Ebel. He is a research 9 00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:42.719 scientist at Boston College's Western Observatory who studies earthquakes. Professor Ebel, 10 00:00:42.799 --> 00:00:44.439 welcome back to Nightside. How are you. 11 00:00:45.840 --> 00:00:47.640 I'm doing very well. Thank you. 12 00:00:47.840 --> 00:00:52.240 How does someone begin? When did you realize you were 13 00:00:52.240 --> 00:00:57.159 going to have a career studying earthquakes? 14 00:00:58.359 --> 00:01:01.960 Well, I was an undergrade you it, majoring in physics 15 00:01:02.039 --> 00:01:05.040 at Harvard School. You may have heard of. 16 00:01:05.400 --> 00:01:07.359 And is that one of the that's one of those 17 00:01:07.400 --> 00:01:10.519 schools across the river from Boston College, if I'm not mistaken. 18 00:01:11.319 --> 00:01:13.480 Yeah, it's another liberal, large college in the area. 19 00:01:14.359 --> 00:01:17.879 It's called the Boston College of Cambridge, if I'm not mistaken. 20 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:23.359 And that's the way I like to think of it. Anyway. Anyway, 21 00:01:23.400 --> 00:01:26.159 I was. I was a physics major, and at the 22 00:01:26.200 --> 00:01:28.879 time when I was studying physics, the the the big 23 00:01:28.920 --> 00:01:31.840 thing was high energy particle physics, you know, looking for 24 00:01:32.439 --> 00:01:35.680 smash while smashing the atom and looking for sub atomic particles. 25 00:01:35.719 --> 00:01:40.640 And while I thought that that was interesting, the geophysicists 26 00:01:40.680 --> 00:01:43.319 at at Harvard University tried to get the physics students 27 00:01:43.319 --> 00:01:47.560 interested in geophysics, and I went and took some courses 28 00:01:47.560 --> 00:01:49.719 from them and talked to the faculty there and really 29 00:01:49.719 --> 00:01:55.680 got interested in it. And a professor there, Rick O'Connell, 30 00:01:55.719 --> 00:02:01.719 who is now unfortunately passed on and couraged me to 31 00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:05.040 think about cal Tech. And when I looked at all 32 00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:08.479 the different geophysics that they had, I thought seismology, earthquake 33 00:02:08.520 --> 00:02:11.280 schismology was the most interesting, and so I applied and 34 00:02:11.319 --> 00:02:15.719 I got in, and so I cut my seismological teeth 35 00:02:15.719 --> 00:02:18.120 on earthquakes in California, and the rest is history. 36 00:02:18.120 --> 00:02:23.120 I guess, well, great place to cut your seismological teeth, 37 00:02:23.240 --> 00:02:27.319 that's for sure, and also another fabulous school. So I guess, 38 00:02:28.280 --> 00:02:30.759 let me start with some basic questions, because I know 39 00:02:30.919 --> 00:02:34.240 my audience out there wants to ask questions, and some 40 00:02:34.280 --> 00:02:39.479 of them probably aren't that they're a little apprehensive about calling, 41 00:02:39.479 --> 00:02:43.280 and I hope people will join the conversation. How far 42 00:02:43.360 --> 00:02:50.280 back are we able to trace earthquakes? I assume earthquakes 43 00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:55.319 have existed since the Earth was created billions of years ago. Correct. 44 00:02:56.479 --> 00:03:01.400 Absolutely. What an earthquake is is a place where the 45 00:03:01.439 --> 00:03:05.280 pressure in the rock has built up to the point 46 00:03:05.439 --> 00:03:09.439 where the rock cracks and slides to try to relieve 47 00:03:09.479 --> 00:03:14.479 that pressure. And rock, unlike skin, doesn't heal. So if 48 00:03:14.520 --> 00:03:19.120 the rock crack a billion years ago, geologists can still 49 00:03:19.240 --> 00:03:22.400 find that crack in the earth today, and when they 50 00:03:22.439 --> 00:03:27.879 map it, they map it it's a fault, and that fault, then, 51 00:03:28.080 --> 00:03:30.840 you know, goes onto maps as lines. People like to 52 00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:33.560 call them fault lines, although they're really surfaces in the earth. 53 00:03:34.199 --> 00:03:37.800 And if you look at for instance, New England, you 54 00:03:37.840 --> 00:03:40.639 can't actually drive more than a few miles anywhere in 55 00:03:40.680 --> 00:03:45.719 New England without crossing an old fault, So faults are everywhere. 56 00:03:46.479 --> 00:03:50.039 What's interesting for me as a seismologist is to try 57 00:03:50.039 --> 00:03:54.000 to figure out which are the modern active faults. And 58 00:03:54.039 --> 00:03:57.039 there's two possibilities there. One is that it's an old 59 00:03:57.080 --> 00:04:02.680 fault that is moving again in the modern stress or 60 00:04:02.680 --> 00:04:06.719 pressure field of the moving plates. Or the second possibility 61 00:04:06.840 --> 00:04:09.000 is that the rock cracks in a brand new spot 62 00:04:09.719 --> 00:04:11.800 and the crack runs in a different direction, and so 63 00:04:11.919 --> 00:04:14.439 you have the creation of a new fault. And everyone 64 00:04:14.560 --> 00:04:16.639 just assumes that if you have an earthquake, you have 65 00:04:16.720 --> 00:04:19.279 to have a fault. Well after the earthquake, yeah, because 66 00:04:19.319 --> 00:04:22.160 the rock crack, But before the earthquake, maybe there wasn't 67 00:04:22.240 --> 00:04:25.480 a crack running in that direction. Just as if you 68 00:04:25.480 --> 00:04:28.199 have a crack in your windshield of your car and 69 00:04:28.240 --> 00:04:30.079 the crack runs in one direction and then you get 70 00:04:30.120 --> 00:04:32.040 hit by another rock, you can have a new crack 71 00:04:32.120 --> 00:04:33.160 run in a different direction. 72 00:04:34.160 --> 00:04:36.680 How do you chart that? I mean, this earthquake on 73 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:42.040 Monday was under the Atlantic Ocean. Most earthquakes, obviously by definition, 74 00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:45.959 are underground. How can you chart that? How's it physically? 75 00:04:46.120 --> 00:04:47.519 How are you physically able to do that? 76 00:04:49.160 --> 00:04:51.319 Well, you have to be patient. What you have to 77 00:04:51.360 --> 00:04:56.000 do is you have to monitor earthquakes for a very, 78 00:04:56.199 --> 00:05:01.079 very very long period of time. So instruments for earthquake 79 00:05:01.199 --> 00:05:07.600 monitoring were invented in the eighteen eighties, although there were 80 00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:11.879 some earlier instruments that were more primitive, but eighteen eighties 81 00:05:11.920 --> 00:05:17.560 is really when earthquake modern earthquake recording started and the 82 00:05:17.639 --> 00:05:20.240 kind of seismic networks we have today where data is 83 00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:23.560 transmitted over the Internet and so I can get data 84 00:05:23.560 --> 00:05:26.600 from anywhere in the world at Western Observatory, that really 85 00:05:26.680 --> 00:05:30.279 started in the nineteen sixties and into the nineteen seventies. 86 00:05:30.639 --> 00:05:34.240 So since that time period, seismologists have put out as 87 00:05:34.279 --> 00:05:38.160 many seismic instruments as they can in all parts of 88 00:05:38.199 --> 00:05:41.000 the world, and then we collect the data. We use 89 00:05:41.079 --> 00:05:43.519 the data to locate the earthquakes, and what we do 90 00:05:43.600 --> 00:05:47.199 is we look for patterns, spatial patterns in the way 91 00:05:47.240 --> 00:05:50.879 the earthquakes line up over the time period for which 92 00:05:50.879 --> 00:05:54.480 we have data. So in California they get so many 93 00:05:54.519 --> 00:05:57.279 earthquakes that even within a few years, you see the 94 00:05:57.279 --> 00:06:01.519 earthquakes lining up on many of the heck defaults out there. Here. 95 00:06:01.600 --> 00:06:04.360 Because we have many fewer earthquakes in any given year, 96 00:06:04.759 --> 00:06:07.319 we have to wait much longer to see the earthquakes 97 00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:10.560 line up on what potentially may be act defaults. And 98 00:06:10.639 --> 00:06:13.759 that's one of the important areas of my research and 99 00:06:13.839 --> 00:06:16.879 why an earthquake are actually the pair of earthquakes that 100 00:06:16.959 --> 00:06:20.519 happened today and Monday are so interesting because I look 101 00:06:20.600 --> 00:06:24.439 for them to line up with other earthquakes and hopefully 102 00:06:24.439 --> 00:06:27.199 then use that identify where possible act defaults may be. 103 00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:31.680 So you're trying to say, Okay, the earthquake was, what 104 00:06:31.839 --> 00:06:36.000 was it twenty miles off York Maine or approximately? Are 105 00:06:36.040 --> 00:06:40.000 they able to isolate with some proximity where the earthquake 106 00:06:40.439 --> 00:06:42.839 began right right? 107 00:06:42.920 --> 00:06:46.439 So we can isolate it offshore. We can isolate it 108 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:50.920 within about probably two miles the epicenter. But if you 109 00:06:50.920 --> 00:06:53.199 were to look at the map of earthquakes since the 110 00:06:53.399 --> 00:06:57.199 mid nineteen seventies, when we started having good earthquake monitoring here, 111 00:06:57.360 --> 00:06:59.160 you would see that there would be a couple dozen 112 00:06:59.199 --> 00:07:04.920 earthquakes off shore of York, Maine, and then offshore New Hampshire, 113 00:07:05.040 --> 00:07:08.240 and even going down as far south as as offshore 114 00:07:08.319 --> 00:07:12.680 east of Cape Ann. So there's a cluster of earthquakes 115 00:07:12.680 --> 00:07:17.839 out there. And I've been studying those earthquakes, and now 116 00:07:17.839 --> 00:07:19.600 I have a couple more data points to see if 117 00:07:19.600 --> 00:07:22.680 they might be telling us of a possible active fault 118 00:07:22.839 --> 00:07:26.959 in the rock underneath the underneath in this case the 119 00:07:26.959 --> 00:07:31.240 Gulf of Maine that maybe gave us, for instance, the 120 00:07:31.240 --> 00:07:34.160 big earthquake that we had in seventeen fifty five the 121 00:07:34.240 --> 00:07:35.560 so called cape an earthquake. 122 00:07:36.759 --> 00:07:40.279 So the information that you're trying to plot, is it 123 00:07:40.800 --> 00:07:43.560 prospective or retrospective. 124 00:07:44.879 --> 00:07:50.120 It's retrospective. We cannot predict. So what I like to 125 00:07:50.199 --> 00:07:54.199 explain to people about what we're trying to do is 126 00:07:54.279 --> 00:07:57.199 if you were to go into a movie and you 127 00:07:57.279 --> 00:07:59.720 were to watch let's say one minute of the movie. 128 00:08:00.279 --> 00:08:02.959 All right, so you watch one minute of this movie, 129 00:08:03.360 --> 00:08:06.480 and then you're trying to guess the plot. You're trying 130 00:08:06.519 --> 00:08:08.680 to guess the main characters. You're trying to guess what 131 00:08:08.800 --> 00:08:11.959 happened in the past and what will happen in the 132 00:08:11.759 --> 00:08:13.759 in the rest of the movie, in the future of 133 00:08:13.759 --> 00:08:16.040 the movie. Well, that's kind of where we are right 134 00:08:16.079 --> 00:08:19.879 now with earthquake monitoring, because the earthquake patterns play out 135 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:24.319 probably over many hundreds to thousands of years, and we 136 00:08:24.480 --> 00:08:27.399 have really good data for about, you know, fifty years 137 00:08:27.600 --> 00:08:30.439 here in New England right now. So it's like watching 138 00:08:30.439 --> 00:08:32.039 one minute of the movie and trying to guess what 139 00:08:32.039 --> 00:08:33.919 the whole what the whole movie is all about. 140 00:08:34.200 --> 00:08:37.399 Well, I have more questions, and my guest is Professor 141 00:08:37.919 --> 00:08:43.200 John Ebel. He is at Boston College, a seismologist studies earthquakes. 142 00:08:43.279 --> 00:08:47.720 I think it's fascinating to think that that you're studying 143 00:08:47.799 --> 00:08:52.519 something which is it's not abstract, but it's not something 144 00:08:52.559 --> 00:08:55.519 that can be seen the nake by the naked eye, 145 00:08:56.159 --> 00:09:00.600 and yet you're able to gather information. And of course 146 00:09:00.879 --> 00:09:04.080 this has been going on for time, immemoriam, and I'd 147 00:09:04.080 --> 00:09:06.919 love to know what people five thousand or ten thousand 148 00:09:07.039 --> 00:09:10.559 years ago thought when the earth moved. I don't know 149 00:09:10.600 --> 00:09:13.159 if there's any sort of records. I got a million questions, 150 00:09:13.159 --> 00:09:14.960 and if you'd like to join the conversation, we'll be 151 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:17.639 happy to go to phone calls as well. I appreciate 152 00:09:17.679 --> 00:09:20.240 the fact that Professor Evil, who's with us tonight, he 153 00:09:20.639 --> 00:09:23.600 has had a very busy week. I would bet you 154 00:09:23.679 --> 00:09:25.679 that you probably have done more than a few interviews 155 00:09:25.679 --> 00:09:26.759 this week. Am I correct? 156 00:09:28.080 --> 00:09:31.080 You are correct, indeed, and not just in the Boston area, 157 00:09:31.200 --> 00:09:33.120 but up in Maine as well. 158 00:09:33.480 --> 00:09:35.320 Oh, I will bet, I will bet. We'll take a 159 00:09:35.360 --> 00:09:37.919 quick break six one seven, two, five, four ten thirty 160 00:09:38.240 --> 00:09:42.679 or six one seven, nine three ten thirty. Again. I 161 00:09:42.720 --> 00:09:45.639 am in the business of asking questions and learning, and 162 00:09:45.679 --> 00:09:47.919 that's what excites me about this interview. I hope that 163 00:09:47.960 --> 00:09:50.200 It's what excites me about every interview that I do. 164 00:09:50.440 --> 00:09:52.960 I hope this is of interest to you because this 165 00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:56.440 is not a new phenomenon. It's been around, as I say, 166 00:09:56.720 --> 00:10:01.960 as long as as as I guess man has recorded 167 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:03.919 it in some form of fashion movie. Back on the 168 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:05.960 night Side with my guest right after this. 169 00:10:06.720 --> 00:10:09.840 Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World 170 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:13.080 night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio. 171 00:10:13.879 --> 00:10:15.519 We've got a bunch of phone calls. We're going to 172 00:10:15.519 --> 00:10:18.240 get to phone calls, but I just want to ask 173 00:10:18.399 --> 00:10:23.639 one more sort of I would say, fundamental maybe threshold question. 174 00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:29.480 Do we know obviously earthquakes must have been going on 175 00:10:29.720 --> 00:10:37.399 since time in Memoriam, but are the writings hieroglyphics? You 176 00:10:37.399 --> 00:10:42.039 know that we can say earth in fact earthquakes occurred 177 00:10:42.480 --> 00:10:44.679 ten thousand years ago. I mean, we know, we must 178 00:10:44.720 --> 00:10:48.480 intellectually know that they had to have been occurring, But 179 00:10:48.879 --> 00:10:51.759 one of the are they recorded and obviously not like 180 00:10:51.840 --> 00:10:54.840 what you record? But is there any any what's the 181 00:10:54.879 --> 00:10:57.159 earliest writings about earthquakes? 182 00:10:58.240 --> 00:11:02.960 There's lots and lots of evidence of past earthquakes going 183 00:11:03.039 --> 00:11:07.919 through historic time, prehistoric time, and even before that. So 184 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:14.440 let's talk about the historic record. First, there's a lot 185 00:11:14.519 --> 00:11:19.559 of good historical evidence of strong earthquakes going right back 186 00:11:19.639 --> 00:11:23.279 to the time when the Pilgrims first landed. In fact, 187 00:11:23.279 --> 00:11:27.399 even before that, when European explorers were still looking you know, 188 00:11:27.440 --> 00:11:30.639 we're still landing on the North American continent and looking 189 00:11:30.679 --> 00:11:33.120 at them. I have a book I published a few 190 00:11:33.200 --> 00:11:38.840 years ago about earthquakes in New England. Just it's available 191 00:11:38.879 --> 00:11:43.159 to the general public on Amazon, and I go through 192 00:11:43.200 --> 00:11:45.360 the history of earthquakes, starting with the first one that 193 00:11:45.399 --> 00:11:48.240 the Pilgrims felt, which was in sixteen thirty eight, which 194 00:11:48.279 --> 00:11:52.440 actually was quite a strong shake, and go through earthquakes 195 00:11:52.440 --> 00:11:55.240 after that seventeen fifty five, go right up to the 196 00:11:55.279 --> 00:11:59.039 present and the earthquake in nineteen eighty eight. But what 197 00:11:59.120 --> 00:12:03.840 we know is all of the Native American tribes here 198 00:12:04.080 --> 00:12:08.080 in the northeastern part of North America had a word 199 00:12:08.279 --> 00:12:12.120 for earthquake in their languages. And you only have a 200 00:12:12.159 --> 00:12:14.240 word if there's some reason for it. 201 00:12:14.840 --> 00:12:18.600 Yeah, fascinating, just fascinating. Let's go to somep phone calls, 202 00:12:18.639 --> 00:12:24.200 let's see want to ask and again I get more 203 00:12:24.200 --> 00:12:26.840 excited about doing an hour like this than doing an 204 00:12:26.879 --> 00:12:29.000 hour on politics. Let me start it off with Jen 205 00:12:29.639 --> 00:12:32.200 in Burlington. Jen, thanks for calling in. You'll have professor 206 00:12:32.320 --> 00:12:38.639 John Ebel abel Ebel, I'm sorry, sir, go right ahead, Jen. 207 00:12:40.039 --> 00:12:44.639 Hi, thanks for taking my call. So my understanding. My 208 00:12:44.799 --> 00:12:50.279 understanding is that offshore earthquakes often times cause tsunamis like 209 00:12:50.399 --> 00:12:55.159 the gigantic Boxing Day one sounds like more often in 210 00:12:55.279 --> 00:12:59.320 Asia than around here. What an earthquake in the Gulf 211 00:12:59.360 --> 00:13:03.320 of Maine ever have the ability to cause a tsunami 212 00:13:03.320 --> 00:13:03.960 in this area. 213 00:13:05.559 --> 00:13:09.320 Yes, indeed. So let's talk a little bit about the 214 00:13:09.399 --> 00:13:13.960 history of tsunamis in the Atlantic. The most important earthquake 215 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:17.240 for US was one that occurred in nineteen twenty nine. 216 00:13:18.039 --> 00:13:22.639 It occurred the epicenter was actually south of Newfoundland, so 217 00:13:22.759 --> 00:13:26.159 it's well east of New England seven point two earthquake. 218 00:13:26.200 --> 00:13:30.279 It was felt all throughout New England and it caused 219 00:13:30.279 --> 00:13:34.240 a tsunami that actually killed probably twenty to thirty people 220 00:13:34.720 --> 00:13:38.679 in southern Newfoundland. Ten foot wall of water came in 221 00:13:38.960 --> 00:13:43.720 on shore there. That tsunami was small, but was noticed 222 00:13:43.840 --> 00:13:48.559 in Nova Scotia, about a foot high there. It was 223 00:13:48.879 --> 00:13:52.240 recorded on tide gages in Boston Harbor, although the wave 224 00:13:52.360 --> 00:13:58.000 was so small there that it wasn't noticed by people. 225 00:13:58.440 --> 00:14:01.519 But if you look at right along the edge of 226 00:14:01.559 --> 00:14:05.519 what we call the continental shelf, where the ocean where 227 00:14:05.519 --> 00:14:08.679 the continent ends and the ocean deepened to the very 228 00:14:08.759 --> 00:14:13.000 very deep part of the Atlantic Ocean, there are earthquakes 229 00:14:13.080 --> 00:14:18.039 actually all along that margin, from south of Newfoundland all 230 00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:22.720 the way down to south of Long Island. And if 231 00:14:22.720 --> 00:14:25.960 we had a magnitude let's say, seven earthquakes anywhere along 232 00:14:26.039 --> 00:14:29.759 that stretch, it very likely would cause a tsunami that 233 00:14:29.799 --> 00:14:33.679 would move on shore. And there's actually some geologic evidence 234 00:14:33.799 --> 00:14:37.159 of a tsunami that probably came on shore about twenty 235 00:14:37.240 --> 00:14:41.759 two hundred years ago in coastal New Hampshire. So tsunamis 236 00:14:41.799 --> 00:14:45.600 are a possibility here, although very rare compared to what 237 00:14:45.639 --> 00:14:48.600 they have in Indonesia and Alaskan places like that. 238 00:14:50.639 --> 00:14:56.360 Amazing, Yeah, it is, truly, it's truly amazing. This is 239 00:14:56.360 --> 00:15:00.200 a really dumb question, but are there any land masses 240 00:15:01.279 --> 00:15:04.440 that exist, either in the ocean or anywhere that a 241 00:15:04.559 --> 00:15:07.240 thought to be have been caused by an earthquake? 242 00:15:11.440 --> 00:15:17.240 So the land masses themselves are caused by basically the 243 00:15:17.320 --> 00:15:23.559 lightest material earth materials throughout Earth history floating to the top. 244 00:15:23.759 --> 00:15:25.879 So just as if you were to, you know, put 245 00:15:25.919 --> 00:15:27.919 a bunch of a dig a bunch of dirt from 246 00:15:27.960 --> 00:15:30.200 your backyard and put it in a bucket and put 247 00:15:30.200 --> 00:15:33.080 water in it, the lightest materials like you know, wood 248 00:15:33.080 --> 00:15:35.799 and grass and things like that would float to the top. Well, 249 00:15:35.840 --> 00:15:38.840 the same thing happens over a much slower rate with 250 00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:42.960 the rock, so you don't have earthquakes with that process. 251 00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:46.720 But on the other hand, as the plates move to 252 00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:49.480 as the material moves to the surface, they cool and 253 00:15:49.519 --> 00:15:53.519 they form these hard plates, and the circulation of hot 254 00:15:53.600 --> 00:15:57.840 material from the interior of the earth pushes those plates around, 255 00:15:58.320 --> 00:16:01.080 and that's where those plates rubbed together that you have 256 00:16:01.320 --> 00:16:05.039 most of the earthquakes. And so the Santa Dora's fault 257 00:16:05.080 --> 00:16:07.120 is a place where two plates are rubbing together. In 258 00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:13.159 California underneath Alaska, southern Alaska, you have Pacific Ocean plates 259 00:16:13.159 --> 00:16:16.840 sliding under the North American plate there. So anytime you 260 00:16:16.879 --> 00:16:20.679 have two plates rubbing together, you have earthquakes, and then 261 00:16:20.720 --> 00:16:24.679 you have a few earthquakes. Only about probably ten percent 262 00:16:24.720 --> 00:16:27.559 of the world's earthquakes occur within the centers of plates 263 00:16:27.960 --> 00:16:30.159 because of the pressure that builds up as the plates 264 00:16:30.159 --> 00:16:35.840 are moving around, so kindinal crust is not caused by 265 00:16:36.080 --> 00:16:40.200 earthquakes or formed by earthquakes, but earthquakes occur at the 266 00:16:40.320 --> 00:16:43.960 edges of the plates, including of many of the continents. 267 00:16:44.440 --> 00:16:48.519 All right, Jang, really good question. Thank you for joining 268 00:16:48.600 --> 00:16:49.080 us tonight. 269 00:16:50.440 --> 00:16:51.600 Thank you have a great night. 270 00:16:51.639 --> 00:16:52.799 Guys, you too. 271 00:16:52.960 --> 00:16:53.200 Thanks. 272 00:16:53.240 --> 00:16:56.240 All right, let me get one more in here if 273 00:16:56.279 --> 00:16:59.240 I can, before the we get to the nine thirty 274 00:16:59.279 --> 00:17:04.400 news in Connecticut. Rachel, you are on with Professor John Ebel. 275 00:17:04.480 --> 00:17:05.480 Go right ahead, Rachel. 276 00:17:06.160 --> 00:17:11.400 Hello, mister Ebel. I have two questions. One, are you 277 00:17:11.599 --> 00:17:21.000 familiar with the George's Bank? The water is above this 278 00:17:21.920 --> 00:17:25.359 round under the water, and that there's like a shelf, 279 00:17:26.279 --> 00:17:29.240 and would that affect. 280 00:17:32.079 --> 00:17:34.240 Rachel. I think you have a phone on and you 281 00:17:34.279 --> 00:17:36.480 have the radio one in the background, and I think 282 00:17:36.519 --> 00:17:38.960 you're being distracted by it or is someone able to 283 00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:41.000 turn the phone down. I think you're having a tough 284 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:44.359 time with the radio in the background. You're not supposed 285 00:17:44.359 --> 00:17:48.200 to have that. You got it down, Okay, go ahead, 286 00:17:48.480 --> 00:17:51.599 formulate your question again because I think that you'll you'll 287 00:17:51.599 --> 00:17:53.279 do better without the radio of the background. 288 00:17:53.319 --> 00:17:53.680 Go ahead. 289 00:17:54.359 --> 00:17:59.400 There's a place called George's Bank, Busy Coast and I 290 00:17:59.480 --> 00:18:03.480 was wondering what John Eball thought about that collapsing in 291 00:18:03.559 --> 00:18:06.279 an earthquake and causing like a tsunami like the former 292 00:18:06.359 --> 00:18:07.359 Calis mentioned. 293 00:18:07.640 --> 00:18:11.839 Okay, that's interesting. He's already mentioned George's Bank. But let's 294 00:18:12.200 --> 00:18:14.480 let's see what he has to say to that question. 295 00:18:14.519 --> 00:18:17.759 That's an interesting question, Professor. 296 00:18:18.960 --> 00:18:22.920 So, George's Bank is the part of the edge of 297 00:18:23.720 --> 00:18:29.799 the North American continent, and the continent at one time 298 00:18:30.799 --> 00:18:37.920 had uh had earthquake activity associated with collisions and splitting 299 00:18:38.039 --> 00:18:40.839 with pass plates. For instance, if you were here two 300 00:18:40.880 --> 00:18:45.680 hundred million years ago, you could walk from Boston here 301 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:49.680 to Morocco because those two land masses were connected. So 302 00:18:49.920 --> 00:18:52.839 George's Bank and actually most of the Boston area, the 303 00:18:52.960 --> 00:18:57.559 rocks are more related to northern northwestern most Africa than 304 00:18:57.599 --> 00:19:00.359 they are to the rest of North America. And so 305 00:19:00.440 --> 00:19:03.200 any time you have plates colliding or you have then 306 00:19:03.240 --> 00:19:06.319 plates splitting apart, you have faults forms. So there's very 307 00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:11.279 likely faults beneath George's Bank and the rock beneath George's Bank, 308 00:19:11.400 --> 00:19:14.000 just as there is probably all up and down the 309 00:19:15.279 --> 00:19:18.599 East coast off shore. The tsunamis seem to be most 310 00:19:18.759 --> 00:19:23.119 likely associated with where you go from the shallow water 311 00:19:24.160 --> 00:19:26.640 to the deep ocean, because you have a lot of 312 00:19:26.680 --> 00:19:33.119 sediments there and the earthquake shaking can trigger offshore slumps 313 00:19:33.279 --> 00:19:35.640 in those sediments, so you don't see them at the surface, 314 00:19:35.680 --> 00:19:40.799 but the sediment slump and that then causes the water 315 00:19:40.839 --> 00:19:43.960 to readjust and that's what causes the tsunamis. In nineteen 316 00:19:43.960 --> 00:19:46.680 twenty nine, there were actually there was a submarine slump 317 00:19:46.880 --> 00:19:49.960 that broke a lot of telephone cables between North America 318 00:19:50.039 --> 00:19:53.359 and Europe. And so that's how that slump actually got 319 00:19:53.400 --> 00:19:56.160 mapped because of the cable breaks. 320 00:19:57.680 --> 00:20:00.759 So the next question I had is a few can 321 00:20:00.839 --> 00:20:03.799 recall I had sent you a letter in twenty and 322 00:20:03.960 --> 00:20:08.039 thirteen about a summer quake, and I was curious, if 323 00:20:08.079 --> 00:20:13.759 you believe in God and if you believe that people 324 00:20:13.799 --> 00:20:18.039 that are on the Earth can be affected by earthquakes 325 00:20:18.079 --> 00:20:18.720 caused by God? 326 00:20:22.160 --> 00:20:27.200 So earthquakes caused by God, That's something that we had. 327 00:20:27.440 --> 00:20:31.880 A theological question here, not necessarily a seigebological question. Go ahead, professor. 328 00:20:33.440 --> 00:20:39.799 So my late friend father Jimskian would have been very 329 00:20:39.799 --> 00:20:42.960 happy to deal with this question too, but I'm happy 330 00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:45.920 to take it. So you know, God created the earth, 331 00:20:46.079 --> 00:20:51.079 and the Earth is evolving all the time, and the 332 00:20:51.119 --> 00:20:54.599 plates are moving, and as the plates move, there are earthquakes. 333 00:20:54.599 --> 00:20:58.680 So in that sense, God causes earthquakes because it's part 334 00:20:58.680 --> 00:21:03.000 of his natural creation. Does any particular earthquake is Did 335 00:21:03.079 --> 00:21:05.440 God point to the ground at that point and say 336 00:21:05.440 --> 00:21:08.440 there's going to be an earthquake there today? I personally 337 00:21:08.480 --> 00:21:13.000 would not believe that because I just don't think that 338 00:21:13.000 --> 00:21:16.119 that that's the way God acts. But earthquakes are a 339 00:21:16.200 --> 00:21:20.720 natural part of our ecosystem, just as as hurricanes are, as, 340 00:21:20.759 --> 00:21:24.599 snowstorms are as, as you know, meteors up in the 341 00:21:24.640 --> 00:21:29.200 sky are and all that sort of thing. So I, 342 00:21:30.119 --> 00:21:31.920 you know, now we're getting into theology. But I don't 343 00:21:31.960 --> 00:21:34.079 think God is, you know, pointing to the earth and 344 00:21:34.079 --> 00:21:36.200 say I'm going to cause an earthquake there today because 345 00:21:36.240 --> 00:21:37.400 of whatever reason. 346 00:21:38.079 --> 00:21:40.720 Rachel, I think that's a pretty good answer, Hope help. 347 00:21:41.359 --> 00:21:45.119 Thank you so much, appreciate your call. Thank you. We 348 00:21:45.240 --> 00:21:46.559 have a news break at the bottom of the hour 349 00:21:46.599 --> 00:21:49.200 of Florence's next CG and Cambridge, Row and Newton. We 350 00:21:49.240 --> 00:21:51.200 get them all in the only lines open right now 351 00:21:51.240 --> 00:21:55.039 six one, seven, nine, three, ten thirty. I just think 352 00:21:55.079 --> 00:22:00.680 it's it's it's an amazing field of study, and that's 353 00:22:00.720 --> 00:22:04.200 why it fascinates me. I hope it fascinates you. If 354 00:22:04.200 --> 00:22:06.200 you want to jump on, we'll get you on before 355 00:22:06.440 --> 00:22:08.559 the ten o'clock news, and we will have to say 356 00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:14.440 good bad good night to our professor. He's a professor 357 00:22:14.440 --> 00:22:19.079 at Boston College, also the Western Observatory, Professor John Ebel. 358 00:22:19.440 --> 00:22:21.359 We will be back on Nightside right after this. 359 00:22:22.400 --> 00:22:25.680 You're on night Side with Dan Ray. I'm w b Z, 360 00:22:26.079 --> 00:22:27.319 Boston's news radio. 361 00:22:28.079 --> 00:22:31.160 We're back to phone calls. My guest is, I'm doctor 362 00:22:31.240 --> 00:22:37.359 John Ebel. He is a Boston College professor. He works 363 00:22:37.400 --> 00:22:40.559 and has worked for many years at Boston College's Western Observatory. 364 00:22:40.640 --> 00:22:44.480 I interviewed him for Channel four probably ten years more 365 00:22:44.480 --> 00:22:46.640 than ten years ago, twenty years ago. Believe it or not, 366 00:22:46.680 --> 00:22:49.440 I'm dating us, doctor. This is it's frightening when I 367 00:22:49.519 --> 00:22:53.160 realize how long I've been doing radio after television. Florence 368 00:22:53.200 --> 00:22:55.680 is in grovelin Florence. You are on with my guest, 369 00:22:55.759 --> 00:22:56.839 doctor John Ebel. 370 00:22:56.880 --> 00:23:05.039 Go right ahead, yes, goody name, then good evening, professor, Professor. 371 00:23:05.160 --> 00:23:09.119 I have two things I want to mention. The second 372 00:23:09.119 --> 00:23:13.119 one's question. Okay, but The first thing I wanted to 373 00:23:13.200 --> 00:23:18.079 mention about several years ago, might be six or seven, 374 00:23:18.799 --> 00:23:22.839 we had I'm in the Merrimack Valley, so I'm close 375 00:23:22.880 --> 00:23:28.200 to the New Hampshire border, and we had a quake 376 00:23:28.759 --> 00:23:35.119 that menatured. They said four point zero okay, and everything 377 00:23:35.240 --> 00:23:39.000 shook in our house. The chair in the living room 378 00:23:39.240 --> 00:23:45.759 I was sitting in, all our ceiling fans were shaking. Bed. 379 00:23:47.079 --> 00:23:53.799 You must recall that, yes, I do okay. And the 380 00:23:53.960 --> 00:23:58.960 other thing, the question I wanted to ask some years back, 381 00:24:00.640 --> 00:24:04.960 something I was watching on TV and a content was 382 00:24:05.079 --> 00:24:10.920 named They were talking about earthquakes, and they said that 383 00:24:11.599 --> 00:24:17.160 in New England, here we are sitting on one of 384 00:24:17.240 --> 00:24:23.440 the largest faults in your studies. Have you ever heard 385 00:24:23.519 --> 00:24:27.000 that mentioning or do you know what? That's a fact? 386 00:24:27.240 --> 00:24:29.920 If anybody's going to know, it's this, it's the gentleman 387 00:24:29.960 --> 00:24:31.799 you're talking to, flounce, go right ahead, doctor. 388 00:24:33.640 --> 00:24:38.359 So people want to associate earthquakes with a single fault, 389 00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:43.359 and that's really a misconception. It's a misconception in California, 390 00:24:43.400 --> 00:24:47.839 it's a misconception in Japan, it's a misconception in China 391 00:24:48.200 --> 00:24:52.599 and Turkey, anywhere in the world. There's actually many, many, 392 00:24:52.640 --> 00:24:59.799 many different faults, and earthquakes in different places are associated 393 00:24:59.839 --> 00:25:05.160 with with different faults or typically are associated with different faults. 394 00:25:05.359 --> 00:25:09.359 So for example, I know, as we were talking about earlier, 395 00:25:09.440 --> 00:25:12.279 I think that there probably is a fault and an 396 00:25:12.319 --> 00:25:17.680 active fault offshore east of York, Maine and running down 397 00:25:17.759 --> 00:25:21.799 to east of Cape ann But then we have earthquakes, 398 00:25:21.839 --> 00:25:29.000 for instance, in the newberry Port area, and going back 399 00:25:29.039 --> 00:25:32.319 to a pretty strong earthquake that did damage in seventeen 400 00:25:32.359 --> 00:25:35.200 twenty seven, that would be associated with a different fault. 401 00:25:35.359 --> 00:25:38.079