As a result of my convalescence (coinciding with a much-needed three-day weekend, as cruel fate would have it), I have been passing several days waiting to make this post. Normally this would serve as a cool-off time for me after which I would decide that the subject just wasn't worth the effort after all. Not so this time. Since our earthquake swarm has intensified, many people have been trying to ask "Why?" Some have been reasonable but way off base; and some of them have been insanely concocted by left-wing leafblowers.
On Friday, the RG-J posted two letters to the editor, "Possible we brought this on ourselves?" and "Draining aquifers could be the cause." I was able to link to the first, but was unable to locate the second via the RG-J website; possibly some intrepid reader may have more luck than I. It is OK, I will merely have to copy it out. But first things first.
"Possible we brought this on ourselves?" brings attention to the recent explosion of residential development in the area of the recent Reno earthquake swarm. I will not dwell upon this letter, but will mention a quick point. The author notes two things: one, that the landscape has been altered, in some places rather significantly (The mountain could now easily pose for the cover of Strip Mining Quarterly.); two, that changes in the landscape have already caused other, more visible/provable problems (Anytime it rains or snows heavily in this area, the county dispatches large vacuum trucks to keep the silt from reaching the Truckee River). This author then poses the question asked in the title. At least he phrases it as a question. I will point out that there are an abundance of real mines all over the west (including Nevada) , and there is no conclusive evidence linking them to similar seismic activity. Also, the largest of the swarm, so I am told, released approximately the same amount of energy as an atom bomb. So, in order for "we humans" to have done this we would have to, well, detonate an atom bomb, not remove relatively small portions of hillside (yes, relatively small; for comparison visit the Carlin Trend). Not to mention the bombing done at the Nevada Test Site. Simply put: no, mankind would have to rape the earth far more than we could ever imagine to even coerce the planet into this kind of retaliation. It is far more likely that we will meet our Waterloo by toxic gasses of our own design long before that (and that is a stretch unto itself).
Now on to the second. This is not something I do too often: rant. But I feel that the author of the second letter has earned a most earnest, vile, and caustic diatribe.
I almost don't know where to begin with this one, but I may as well do it in the manner now famous amongst my friends and acquaintances...Draining aquifers could be the cause
"Earth tremors at unusually shallow depths" and the scientists wonder why.
Let's see: Deep water wells necessary to support endless housing developments drain the valley's underground-based aquifers of the driest state in the union.
The mountain runoff is unable to restore the volume of incompressible water necessary to support the walls of the emptied aquifer caverns, and gravity does what gravity does. The result might just be "earth tremors at unusually shallow depths.
Works for me until an answer so complex that the public can't understand it comes along.
What kind of bad blow have you been snorting? Seriously...maybe if we sacrifice a virgin to the mountain she'll relent; makes just as much sense! You know what works for me? You moving your stinky hippie self out of my state!!! Seriously, I have heard some dumb, ignorant brain sludge in my day, but that has got to be one of the most unfounded and ignorantly stupefying loads of liberal guilt-ridden tripe to come out of my hometown since the last time Jack Carter spoke here. In fact, I'm still not sure I'm completely grasping your unfathomable idiocy. But let me try, try, to take this thing point-by-grueling point...
(Okay, I have finally regained enough strength to continue; sooooo...)
Wells:
First of all, wells dredging the aquifers are nowhere close to the depths of the earthquakes. Yes, the earthquakes are shallow...by earthquake standards. Yet they exist at a depth, shallow though they are, of between 1-3 kilometers (the sciency types chose the metric system, not I, so don't hold me accountable). The deepest wells reach barely half that depth. This does not include projects such as remediation, which endeavor to replenish aquifers in the area...these wells also do not reach a depth of 1+ kilometers. These are also 'round the Truckee Meadows, the "valley" portion of our metro area, not so much the hills.
Aquifers:
In these parts, aquifers tend to exist in what we call "gravels" and other porous sediments, not in fanciful caves. Even if they did, rock is not what we call "buoyant," and the mere existence of water does not guarantee that such "caves," if they did exist, would not fail. There are, I will concede, examples of wells draining water resulting in such collapses; we see this occurring in Texas right now (saw an article about a 20+ foot sinkhole which is now home to a healthy alligator), and has been common in places like Florida for a long time. These sinkholes are not associated with any kind of seismic activity (at least not what we'd consider to be seismic activity) and result in, well, sinkholes. Do you see any sinkholes developing? DO YOU!?!?
Faults:
Which brings up another point: this is occurring along faulting...never before discovered, and possibly never before active, but faulting none the less. For every fault out there, it had to have a first time, and humans are relative newcomers to the planet, let alone in a "learned" state. Also, the faulting occurring as a result of this swarm are what are called "strike-slip," meaning that the ground is moving laterally. If this were caused by draining massive quantities of water then the temblors would be caused by the downward shift of a section of ground...not a lateral movement.
Now, allow me to indulge myself for a moment. Let's pretend you are right, and that it's mankind's "fault" (sorry for the really bad pun, but I just had to do it) for bringing this on ourselves. Then, sir, don't you dare patronize me by pretending you are not a part of the problem! If this is the case, then you live here right along side the rest of us and would be considered as guilty as the remaining nearly half million of us in Western Nevada...unless, of course, you are being brought your water from mysterious space aliens who appear only to you and your family bringing you water from Mars or some crap, in which case you are leading to the same catastrophic ecological problems on that planet as you are here!
I'm not going to rant like this often, but sometime I just gotta.
Face it, Mr. Person-Whose-Name-I'll-Leave-Off-But-People-Can-Look-Up-If-They-Really-Wanna: you are a total choad.
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