Icebergs and Earthquakes

Another nerdy science lecture tonight - Andrea and I are in heaven.

This one was by the same guy who talked about icebergs a few weeks ago. Tonight he focused on two things - icebergs create seismic waves as they bash about and icebergs can be moved by earthquakes from around the world.

They have set up seismographs in and around various icebergs to record the noises and vibrations that occur as these beasts move around. What they found was that when icebergs collide, the collisions release enough energy that the waves created have been detected by seismographs in the South Pacific (Tahiti - along ways away). Now I am not sure that there is anything more to this except that it is just cool but you never know.

The other part of the lecture explained how huge earthquakes can actually cause icebergs to move. Icebergs can get caught on the ocean floor, like a boat which runs into a sand bar and gets stuck. The waves from an earthquake can break the iceberg free from the ground. Essentially the waves come through the ground and break the berg free from its mooring. They have two different icebergs where they are fairly certain that this happened. Again, I am not sure that this is research which will change the world but it is interesting.

Another aspect of the whole talk is that it shows how one part of the world can have an impact on other seemingly unrelated parts of the world. Earth is full of complicated systems and it is hard to know how one thing might influence something else on the other side of the globe.