*Mysterious fires and lights... Do we really know *anything*
about the truly alien planet?
Monday, November 17 at 4:00 p.m.
The Simularium, E2-180, UC Santa Cruz
"Earth�'s Many Voices � a Unified Theory for Pre-Earthquake Signals"
Friedemann T. Freund [NASA Ames Research Center]
http://www.citris-uc.org/events/citris_distinguished_speaker_friedemann_freund_nasa
As always, these talks are free and broadcast live online at mms://media.citris.berkeley.edu/ucsc. Questions may be sent via Yahoo IM to username: citrisevents.
Abstract:
In this talk, I will discuss the solid-state physics of rocks and earthquake precursors.
Earthquake precursor phenomena have been known for some time. They are caused by stresses that build up in crustal rocks. As we have found in the laboratory, these stresses � more precisely, differential stresses and strains � activate mobile positive charge carriers (defect electrons in the oxygen anion sublattice sublattice: O� in a matrix of O2�). These positive holes (or pholes for short) flow from the generation region into the surrounding rock. They effectively turn a rock into a giant battery. (((You don't say.)))
Under specific conditions, which cause the battery circuit to close, large phole currents can flow. Such currents lead to a variety of phenomena: (i) magnetic field variations and low to ultra-low frequency EM emissions, (ii) ionospheric perturbations over the epicentral region, (iii) air ionization at the ground-air interface and corona discharges with light and radio noise, and (iv) the emission of narrow-band infrared (IR) photons around 10 µm. (((They also cause giant glowing "UFOs" to whiz around earthquake ley-lines. Just kidding. Not.)))
These excess IR photons are the cause of the so-called �thermal IR� (TIR) anomaly. Often appearing days before major earth¬quakes, TIR anomalies have been seen from space by NASA�s MODIS on TERRA and AQUA, by NOAA�s AVHRR and GEOS, by Europe�s METEOSAT satellites. These various pre-earthquake signals can be used to design an earthquake early warning monitoring system, combining space assets and ground networks.
Biography:
Friedemann T. Freund is with the NASA Ames Research Center, Earth Science Division, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000. He is Adjunct Professor, Department of Physics, San Jose State University, San Jose, and Principal Investigator at the Carl Sagan Center, SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA. Dr. Freund came to NASA Ames in 1985 after a 20-year career as professor in Germany at the universities of Göttingen and Cologne. His field of interest started with defects in crystals. This led him to questions related to the origin of Life and, as a spin-off, to the physics of pre-earthquake signals.
(((Still waiting for the inevitable tie-in to Thomas Gold's Deep Hot Biosphere.)))
