Earthquake hits near Iran nuclear power plant

submitted by useless_aether from (9news.com.au)

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[–]magnora7 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

There was also a 6.5 in Puerto Rico yesterday, and a 6.2 or something in Indonesia that same day. Seems like the whole earth has been quite seismically active in the last couple days.

I wonder how long it takes a strong shock from one side of the earth to reach the other side.

[–]useless_aether[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

interesting q

primary waves aka p-waves:

Typical speeds are 330 m/s in air, 1450 m/s in water and about 5000 m/s in granite.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seismic_wave

that's 15 machs in granite. three times faster than a scramjet

edit: so, 133 minutes or more.

[–]magnora7 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Nice info, thanks! 2 hours, interesting. I wonder if the shocks can go through the core or if they have to go around the whole circumference.

I've seen info that during big earthquakes, the entire position of the center of mass of earth can shift by several centimeters, which is pretty crazy

[–]useless_aether[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

if the core is molten it should be like a shock absorber. i also remember the seafloor can shift quite a lot, maybe a whole kilometer upwards causing a tsunami.

there must be videos of simulations online, the only question is how accurate those models are.

[–]magnora7 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

if the core is molten it should be like a shock absorber.

Yeah that makes sense to me too, so it'd basically have to go around the outside. Interesting about the seafloor, didn't know that