Experts Issue 2018 Warning: Earth "Had It Easy This Year" With Only 6 Severe Earthquakes

Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

Scientists are warning that 2018 won’t be as “easy” on us as 2017 was when it comes to the number of severe earthquakes they predict.

In 2018, Earth, and one billion of its inhabitants could face 20 severe earthquakes due to the slowing rotation of the planet.

Tiny changes in the speed of our planet’s rotation will trigger huge seismic activity by releasing vast amounts of underground energy causing severe earthquakes, experts claim. Although their research has been rejected by some scientists, they are intent on sounding the alarm. The slowing of Earth’s rotation could disrupt the crust of the Earth making it possible to see 20 severe earthquakes next year.

According to the Daily Mail, the planet’s rotation is slowing down because of tidal forces between Earth and the moon. The side of Earth closest to the moon feels its pull the strongest, while the side farthest from the moon feels its gravity less. That difference in gravitational pull stretches the Earth, which causes tidal bulges. These bulges pull the moon closer or farther away from Earth by around 4cm per year. The moon exerts the opposite force on them, pulling them back toward it, creating friction and slowing down the planet’s rotation. The time the Earth takes to make a complete rotation on its axis varies by about a millionth of a second per day. While the rotational rate hasn’t declined evenly,  the average day has grown longer by between 15 millionths and 25 millionths of a second every year.

Researchers found five periods in the past century when there were more earthquakes than other times. On these five occasions, there was a 25 to 30 percent increase in the number of earthquakes with a magnitude of 7 or above. These all coincided with a slowing in the rotation of the Earth. Scientists from the University of Colorado in Boulder and the University of Montana say that even fluctuations of a millisecond could increase seismic activity.

The minuscule variations in Earth’s rotation cause a shift in the shape of the Earth’s iron and nickel “inner core.” This, in turn, changes the liquid outer core on which the Earth’s tectonic plates rest. “The mechanism we’ve come up with is that as the Earth slows down it’s like a skater spinning on ice. As the Earth slows down its equatorial diameter reduces,” Dr. Rger Bilham of the University of Colorado told BBC Inside Science. “Its (the Earth’s) waistline gets smaller, but its clothes, the tectonic plates on Earth, remain the same size, which means they get rumpled up. These tiny changes to the overall shape of the Earth are enough, if there are faults that are already ready to go … to kind of kick them over into failure,” he said.

“The correlation between Earth’s rotation and earthquake activity is strong and suggests there is going to be an increase in numbers of intense earthquakes next year,” Dr. Bilham said.

This research comes just after a 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck Iran, leaving at least 400 people killed and more than 6,000 injured. The quake hit 19 miles southwest of Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan at around 9.20pm on Sunday, when many people would have been at home. More than 100 aftershocks followed.

Powerful Geomagnetic Storms Hit Earth - Will Stocks Fall Next Week?

Via StockBoardAsset.com,

Overnight and continuing into this morning a large space weather event has signaled a G-3 ‘Strong’ geomagnetic storm. On April 22, 2017, I wrote an article titled: Yesterday’s Broad Power Outage Likely Caused By Geomagnetic Storm  outlining how the grid failures in San Fransisco, New York, and Los Angeles were likely due to a strong geomagnetic storm. As we know, geomagnetic storms can influence the functioning and reliability of spaceborne and ground-based systems and services or endanger property or human health. 

The Planetary K-Index is used to measure geomagnetic storms at Boulder, Fredericksburg, Est. Planetary, and College. The graphs below indicate a strong geomagnetic storm is currently underway and in some locations literally off the chart.

via watchers.news

A coronal mass ejection (CME) produced during the early UTC hours of May 23, 2017 hit Earth’s magnetic field at 15:36 UTC on May 27, more than 24 hours after it was expected. Although the solar wind speed is relatively slow, the embedded magnetic field had a prolonged period of southward Bz that managed to spark G3 – Strong geomagnetic storm.

G3 – Strong geomagnetic storm (K-index of 7) threshold was reached at 04:19 UTC. Under G3 conditions, the area of impact is primarily poleward of 50 degrees Geomagnetic Latitude. Power system voltage irregularities are possible and false alarms may be triggered on some protection devices. Spacecraft systems may experience surface charging and increased drag on low Earth-orbit satellites and orientation problems may occur. Intermittent satellite navigation (GPS) problems, including loss-of-lock and increased range error may occur. HF (high frequency) radio may be intermittent, aurora may be seen as low as Pennsylvania to Iowa to Oregon.

Conclusion: According to Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta:

"Specifically, people affected by geomagnetic storms may be more inclined to sell stocks on stormy days because they incorrectly attribute their bad mood to negative economic prospects rather than bad environmental conditions."

Could this weekend’s geomagnetic storm lead to stock market losses next week? 

Yesterday's Broad Power Outage Likely Caused By Geomagnetic Storm

Via StockBoardAsset.com,

Yesterday, a massive US power grid failure was seen across the entire United States in one simultaneous fashion. San Fransisco, New York, and Los Angeles were the three main areas that were hit the hardest. Each of the areas experienced challenges or shut downs in business commerce. Also, basic infrastructure such as communication networks, mass transportation, and supply chains experienced challenges. To many this seemed apocalyptic with anaylst citing possible cyber attacks amid mounting geopolitical turmoil across the globe. We’re shocked that mainstream media didn’t revive the failing Russian narrative for another round of fake news to confuse the masses. Personally, I don’t think it was a cyber attack or the Russians, but more of a Space Weather Event.

Space weather refers to the environmental conditions in Earth’s magnetosphere, ionosphere and thermosphere due to the Sun and the solar wind that can influence the functioning and reliability of spaceborne and ground-based systems and services or endanger property or human health.

Here is PG&E outage map from yesterday’s event. Widespread. 

This is the Planetary K-Index, which 5 or greater indicates storm-level geomagnetic activity around earth. The latest space weather data signals a geomagnetic storm rolled in on April 20, 2017. During the elevated K-waves >5, San Fransisco, New York, and Los Angeles experienced power grid failures simultaneously.

 

Latest Space Weather Warnings

April 22, 2017 @ 08:40 UTC - Geomagnetic Storm Warning (UPDATED)

A moderate (G2) geomagnetic storm is currently in progress thanks to a high speed solar wind stream above 700 km/s. More storming is expected over the next several days as a coronal hole stream rattles our geomagnetic field. Sky watchers at middle to high latitudes should be alert for visible aurora during the next several nights.ALERT: Geomagnetic K-index of 6
Threshold Reached: 2017 Apr 22 0559 UTC
Synoptic Period: 0300-0600 UTC
Active Warning: Yes
NOAA Scale: G2 – Moderate

April 21, 2017 @ 02:40 UTC - Large Coronal Hole Returns / G2 Storm Watch

A large recurrent coronal hole last seen in March will become geoeffective beginning April 23rd. A moderate (G2) geomagnetic storm watch was added and high latitude sky watchers may be in for an aurora treat once an expected solar wind stream arrives past Earth. More updates in the days ahead. As always, stay tuned to SolarHam.com where you will find the most up to date information.

According to http://www.solarham.net/, who uses NOAA data, Geomagnetic Storm has been declared for the past few days.

Piecing together the puzzle, we understand the sun can unleash space weather that can have profound effects on ground based systems, as well as human health. In a report from NOAA titled: Geomagnetic Storms and the US Power Grid, the paper mentions how the US power grid is highly interconnected and susceptible to damage from geomagnetic storms.

US Power Grid is an interconnected system which may explain why San Fransisco, New York, and Los Angeles all experienced power failures relatively at the same time.

The report shows that the sun is the source of ‘GICs’ Geomagnetically Induced Current.

GICs can enter the earth’s surface through transformers in the power grid.

GICs can force a transformer tank wall to overheat

Just maybe thats what happened in San Fransisco with the substation fire

 

What is a substation?

A substation is a part of an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system. Substations transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or perform any of several other important functions. Between the generating station and consumer, electric power may flow through several substations at different voltage levels. A substation may include transformers to change voltage levels between high transmission voltages and lower distribution voltages, or at the interconnection of two different transmission voltages.

2003 Substation fire due to a geomagnetic storm overheating a transformer

Take away points

Looking ahead, the growth of the US transmission grid has exploded in the past 60 years. This leaves an abundant amount of the US grid susceptible to more power outages and possibly widespread events.

Bonus: Executive Order — Coordinating Efforts to Prepare the Nation for Space Weather Events (Fall 2016). What does our Gov’t know that we don’t?

Bonus: ATL FED-> Playing the Field: Geomagnetic Storms and the Stock Market