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Core Tip: The night before last, unusual clouds appeared in the sky over Nanjing, which some netizens suspected to be "earthquake clouds". Meteorologists say the strange clouds in the sky are actually "thick cumulus clouds" before thunderstorms.
Modern Express reported on July 8 that the front page of yesterday's Express published an unusual picture of clouds over Nanjing after the earthquake. At the same time, many people also uploaded pictures on the network, said they saw "earthquake clouds". Citizen Miss Liu called the Express hotline 96060, through MMS to the reporter sent a suspected "earthquake cloud" photo, the photo of the bright sky floating in a very large cloud, like cauliflower, clouds with white edges, the middle of the fiery red color; the strange thing is that, in the back of this red cloud, but also superimposed on the other layer of clouds! that was radiant, like the Northern Lights.
So, is the unusual cloud that appeared over Nanjing the night before the legendary "earthquake cloud"? The reporter interviewed seismologists and meteorologists on this issue.
Earthquake experts: "earthquake cloud" is still a mystery
Yesterday morning, Xu Xu, deputy director of the Nanjing Municipal Bureau of Seismology, looked at a few netizens on the Internet to take a "suspected earthquake cloud" photos, he told reporters that the clouds on the photos and his Previously seen "earthquake clouds" are not the same. Information on the earthquake clouds have "line", "grass rope" or "like a long snake" and so on, but most of the netizens' photos are like mushroom clouds, a mass. These unusual clouds appear after earthquakes, so they are unlikely to be earthquake clouds.
Xu Xu told reporters that earthquake clouds are anomalies of clouds. But cloud anomalies cover a large area, it may cover the whole country or even other countries, and the time and scale is also large. Seismic clouds do not have too direct a connection to the actual judgment made by the earthquake, the actual earthquake short, pro-forecasting is not very meaningful. For the earthquake cloud, there is no uniform statement in the academic community. For the cause of the formation of earthquake clouds for a variety of opinions, although each have their own reasons, but can not fully explain the phenomenon of earthquake clouds before the earthquake, so it is still a mystery.
The night before, Jurong earthquake immediately after a thunderstorm. So, is there a link between the earthquake and the thunderstorm? Jiangsu Provincial Seismological Bureau forecasting research center researcher Xie Huazhang also told reporters that the earthquake and the cloud belongs to a solid circle, one belongs to the atmosphere, the possibility of coincidence is very small. After the Wenchuan earthquake, the reason why heavy rain, may be the crust of the earth to release a lot of heat and dust, the formation of rain conditions. But the earthquake the day before yesterday was only of magnitude 3.6, not enough to affect the earth's atmosphere. So the rain the night before was not necessarily linked to the Jurong earthquake.
Meteorological expert: strange clouds are actually "dense cumulus clouds"
At around 6 p.m. the previous evening, Yu Zhihao, a professor at the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at Nanjing University, was walking in Qingliangshan Park when he noticed that the clouds in the sky were already a bit out of sorts: they were piling up one after the other. "It might be a thunderstorm." Prof. Yu thought to himself. Prof. Yu did not agree with the idea of "earthquake clouds". He explained that the strange clouds appearing in the sky are actually "thick cumulus clouds" before a thunderstorm.
Yu Zhihao told reporters that before the thunderstorms, a piece of cloud in the sky will slowly back, like cauliflower, this time the water vapor in the air is still rushing to the high altitude, the cloud is getting thicker and thicker, the top of the cloud becomes very smooth, the formation of a cloud bubble, just like cauliflower. Since the cumulus clouds do not easily transmit sunlight, all the bumpy cloud surfaces are obviously bright and dark. As the water vapor continues to accumulate, the dense cumulus cloud becomes a cumulonimbus cloud, the cloud gradually darkens, and lightning is hidden in the cloud - this time means that a thunderstorm is coming. Generally speaking, the entire thunderstorm process lasts about two to three hours.
"Jiangsu recent earthquake" is purely rumor
5 12 Wenchuan earthquake, folk has been circulating such a statement: Li Siguang once predicted that there are four cities in China will be a major earthquake, and now the other three cities are quaked, leaving the Tanlu earthquake zone, and this earthquake zone through Jiangsu! Xuzhou Xinyi, Suqian, Sihong and other cities.
After the Wenchuan earthquake, many people began to worry about whether a major earthquake will occur in Jiangsu. To this end, the reporter specially interviewed experts from the Jiangsu Provincial Seismological Bureau. Experts told reporters that "Jiangsu will be a major earthquake in the near future," the claim does not have any scientific basis, purely rumors.
Li Siguang did not predict the "4 cities will be earthquake"
Jiangsu earthquake experts told reporters, in fact, when Li Siguang had a few major seismic zones in China's seismic risk prediction, but did not predict the "4 cities will be a major earthquake!
These are the first time that Li Siguang has predicted the risk of earthquakes in several major seismic zones in China, but he did not predict that "four cities will experience a major earthquake," so this statement circulated by the private sector is not credible.
At present, China's seismic zone is mainly distributed in Taiwan, southwest, northwest, north China, southeast coastal areas of five regions. One of the Tantanlu earthquake zone in China extends more than 2,400 kilometers, is one of the four major seismic zones in North China seismic zone, from Liaoning in the north, south to Anhui Lujiang. This seismic zone runs 170 kilometers through the territory of Jiangsu, Jiangsu Xuzhou Xinyi, Suqian, Sihong are in the Tanlu seismic zone.
Jiangsu will not have a super strong earthquake within a thousand years
Experts told reporters that as early as July 28, 1668, Tancheng 8.5 magnitude earthquake, the release of energy than the Wenchuan earthquake more than six times higher than the wave of half of China, the eastern part of China's thousand years of a mega-earthquake event. But at the same time just because this seismic zone in more than 300 years ago such a large earthquake, now the Tanlu seismic zone is instead safe.
Experts told reporters that, in general, destructive earthquakes its in situ recurrence cycle in more than 3,000 years or so. Because in 1668 to the present within a short period of more than 300 years, the earth's crust is unlikely to gather so much energy again. So the probability of another destructive earthquake of this magnitude occurring in Jiangsu within a thousand years is very small.
Experts said that being in the seismic zone indicates that the place is earthquake-prone, but it does not mean that destructive earthquakes will definitely occur in the near future in the place, and there is no need for the public to panic.
Liyang was quaked in 1979 and is safe today
How many major fault zones are there in Jiangsu? And what about their recent crustal activity?
Jiangsu Seismological Bureau Forecasting Center researcher Xie Huazhang told reporters, through the Jiangsu "main road" of the fracture zone a **** there are more than 20. Including the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the Yellow Sea Fracture Zone (Suzhong, southern Jiangsu region), Jiao Shan - Shufushan Fracture Zone (Zhenjiang, Nanjing area) Maoshan Fracture Zone (south of Zhenjiang to the Liyang area, the Binhai Fracture Zone (coastal areas), and there is the famous Tantanlu Fracture Zone.
From the present point of view, the coastal fault zone crust of small activities are more frequent. This year, since May 13, Yancheng Binhai, Dafeng and Sheyang have had seven small earthquakes of magnitude 3 or less; and on the famous Maoshan Fracture Zone, Liyang once had a magnitude 6 earthquake in 1979. Similarly, because it takes quite a long time for the earth's crust to gather energy, no large-scale destructive earthquakes will occur in the Maoshan Fracture Zone for many years to come.
So which fault zone was responsible for the 3.6-magnitude earthquake that just hit Jurong? Xie Huazhang told reporters that it could be the result of the action of the Maoshan and Jiaoshan-Moufu Mountain fault zones.
Related News
4.6-magnitude earthquake yesterday in Longjiang County, Heilongjiang Province
Yesterday, at 14:32, a 4.6-magnitude earthquake occurred in Longjiang County, Heilongjiang Province - in the last month, earthquakes of different scales around the world: July 5, Xiamen, Fujian, Longhai County, the junction of the area occurred 4.4-magnitude earthquake; the same day, in the Sea of Okhotsk in Russia, a 7.6-magnitude earthquake; the evening of July 6, Jurong 3.6-magnitude earthquake ...... earthquakes occur so frequently, in the end, what does it mean?
Jiangsu Province earthquake experts told reporters that these signs are all indicative of the Pacific Rim seismic belt all moved up and very active. This seismic zone should be closely watched by seismologists around the world.
Experts told reporters that the Pacific Rim seismic belt is the most important seismic belt on earth. It is like a huge ring, distributed around the Pacific Ocean, the United States, Canada, Colombia, Peru and Chile, New Zealand, Indonesia, the Philippines, China's Taiwan Province, the Ryukyu Islands, the Japanese archipelago are included in it, around the Pacific Ocean one week, but also the continents and oceans separated from the earth, about 80% of the earthquakes occur here.
In addition, experts also told reporters that global warming has led to a rise in sea level, so that the loss of the ice cap of the continental crust equilibrium rise, increase the sea surface of the ocean crust equilibrium decline, but also the formation of a new round of crustal equilibrium movement of one of the reasons
Seismic station disturbed Forced to relocate the Gaochun
With the rapid development of the city, is situated in the Zhongshan Mausoleum Shuixie of the Nanjing Benchmark Seismic Station ( The monitoring of geoelectricity and geomagnetism at the national level has been interfered with by various external factors, and sometimes even false anomalies in the forecasts have occurred.
The reporter learned that part of the monitoring equipment of the Nanjing Reference Seismological Station can only be forced to relocate from the city to Gaochun Xiaoyoushan, which is expected to be put into full use later this year.
Metro opening impact observation
Jiangsu Provincial Seismological Bureau of experts told reporters, "Nanjing benchmark seismic station is located in Zhongshan Mausoleum south of the water parterre, has a history of more than 60 years. At present, it has a variety of modern monitoring means such as seismometry, geomagnetism, geoelectricity, geostress and topographic variation. The main tasks are to report domestic and foreign earthquake parameters quickly, participate in international exchange of seismic data, monitor and analyze various earthquake precursor changes, and then transmit them to the China Earthquake Administration (CEA) station network center through data transmission."
"The construction of the subway has changed the magnetic field underground, seriously interfering with the geomagnetic and geoelectric monitoring of the Nanjing Benchmark Seismological Station." Experts from the Jiangsu Provincial Seismological Bureau told reporters. It is understood that the subway line 1 is less than 10 kilometers from the Nanjing geomagnetic station; and the subway line 2 is less than two kilometers from the Nanjing geomagnetic station in a straight line. According to the international requirements and "seismic monitoring facilities and seismic observation environmental protection regulations", the geomagnetic station should avoid the subway 35 kilometers. Therefore, the Seismological Bureau of Jiangsu Province decided to relocate the three observation programs of geoelectricity, geomagnetism and geodetic field of the Nanjing Reference Seismological Station to Xiaoyoushan in Gaochun.
Gaochun's new home "two in one"
Seismic experts told reporters that Gaochun away from the subway, small mountain and Gaochun's tourist attractions, free from industrial pollution, is conducive to the observation of monitoring projects; in addition, Gaochun has a seismic station, conducive to the development of seismic observation work.
In addition to this, experts also took into account geological factors. For example, the closer it is to the earthquake fault zone, the better, and there can be no iron ore underground. Gaochun County Xiaoyoushan is located in the Maoshan Fracture Zone, close to the Liyang seismic zone, which can help the seismic station quickly monitor the earthquake "three elements", and then quickly transmit the data to the provincial seismological bureau network center. Therefore, Gaochun is an important place to monitor.
The person in charge of the Nanjing Benchmark Seismological Station told reporters that at present, the geoelectric observation and geodetic field have already begun to use, and the geomagnetic observation will be activated in the second half of this year. After the opening of these 3 major observation projects, they form a powerful earthquake monitoring system and become an integrated base for seismic observation