What's Going On in The Gulf of Aden?

USGS is reporting a very unusual swarm of significant earthquakes starting early this morning in the sea between Africa and the Arabian peninusla, right off the coast of Yemen, and in one of the world’s most important and busiest shipping lanes.

earthquakes-near-yemen

But, earthquake swarms happen, even in places that are not normally known for seismic activity. What’s unusual about this particular group of earthquakes?

In this case, it seems that the vast majority of the quakes are happening at almost exactly a depth of 10 kilometers; over 20 earthquakes have occurred at that depth since the swarm began. I’m no statistician, but that seems like a pretty exceptionally unlikely scenario, especially when the region was entirely quiet in terms of seismic activity as of yesterday. It would definitely be interesting to see what real geologists make of it.

Below is a screenshot from the USGS earthquake tracking site, taken early afternoon today, and covering today and yesterday’s major seismic activity worldwide; We’ll update with more information if anything newsworthy develops.

Original link is here: Latest Earthquakes in the World – Past 7 days


15 thoughts on “What's Going On in The Gulf of Aden?”

  1. I’ve been observing this event over the whole period. USGS does not report the actual truth, because the published data does not mention all the quakes and it does not mention that different depths have been recored from the european monitoring networks. For detailed information I recommend to refer to the european databeses of this event. You may ask the public databases at EMSC eurpean mediteranian seismic network and global seismic monitor at gfz potsdam (germanies aequivalent to USGS). Then you will realize that morethan 120 quakes occured spotlike within only 3 days in different depth layers, cuting through to at least 180 km. This type of planet shift action is a “speed-up” to 30-years-movement-in-3-days.

    This event can be seen in the logic of an accelerated plate shift theory with growing magnitude release. Yemen/Somalia, Haiti, Chile, Indonesia, South East Asia, South Pacific Ridge, even the Himalaya and the North Pole experience outstanding events and frequency. Europe and the US are rattled with minor quakes but realizes a slowly increasing frequency and magnitude.

    The theory to all these facts is complex. See my news stream on facebook. Still working on the documentation a fact book will be published in 2011.

  2. The earthquake swarm is most likely due to a major intrusion of molten rock into a fracture within the crust. It is not unusual for diking events like this to happen – we see plenty of geological evidence for events like this in the past – but the last similar event probably took place about 5 years ago in northern Ethiopia.

  3. sir
    I am working on earthquake prediction snce last 16 years. These Yemen quakes are unusual..
    As per my theory following dates of November 2010 are prone to major earthquakes(6+). (Place not confirmed )
    16th November 2010
    22/23 November 2010
    29/30th November 2010
    please see my blog for detail theory nd dates till December 2010

    http://earthquake-prediction.blogspot.com/

    Amit Dave

  4. The continent of India did not hop skip or jump 5,500 miles up the Indian Ocean and “Find” a docking space in the “Himilayian Plateau” that is the exact fit of the northert part of India. What loon thought of that?
    the largest ocean bottom structure in the Indian Ocean is the 90 west longitude line. Thats where the highest part of the combined Ocean ice shell floes that passed overhead and this 90 degree structure is the reboound, a “foot print” of what moved overhead.
    The combined ice shell flow scrapped the land that will become India to its bedrock. The mantle and crust of the planet accumulated in earnest 55 million years ago, and like a giant buldozer with a 3,000 mile wide blade started pushing the Mass that will become the Himalayian Plateau. After 10 million years the mass moved north. After 45 million years the mass stopped and could not be moved any more. The Plateau was complete 10 million years ago.
    what about the “Red Sea?”
    first you must understand that the centrifical force of earths rotation was moving this large ice mass toward an ever-moving earths crust and equator. The equator was moving toward the west, toward the Red Sea. The ice mass shifted also toward the west and formed the huge arc above “India.”
    This story must be continued at a later date, have to go.

  5. When will we get it, the plates are starting to moving, and thats not the bad part, when the supervolcanos start up, then mankind is going to be in deep do- do start prepairing now, because the plant does not even know humans are here, god bless..

    1. Sweetie petite-y, the plates aren’t “starting” anything, they’ve been doing this for a long time. Africa’s gettin busted up, yo! The earth doesn’t know humans are here but even if it did, it wouldn’t give a shit because we’re just a minor infestation that will kill itself off pretty quickly. There is nothing to prepare for, unless you happen to hangout in east africa on a regular basis, and even then, there’s not much to do about it.

  6. Mike, Sam, and Al welcome. “I write as originofquake” and you sometimes you want to say hello to someone with similar interest.
    The best guess is volcanic activity. i have worked 34 years on this subject and published my book “The Origin of Mountains.” It will be attached to your e-mail if you write to [email protected] and It will be free.

    I can tell you a few things from my research. Do you see the “Mid- ocean Ridge” going up the Red Sea? All those 40,000 miles of ocean ridges have the same “guestamate” 10 killometers- 6 miles deep. 95 % of the words earthquakes ,if you include the Ocean trenches happen at these structures.
    You can look for “Subducting Plates” forever and you will not find them. You can talk about Oceans forming at the Ocean Ridges and South America is moving in the wrong direction. The strate that goes from Northern India under the Himalayian Plateau is not “subducting”, it is level.
    The volcanic activity in the area of the article has some pertinent facts. It is above the 35 million year old “large igneous province” of Ethopia, and north of the Indian LIP called the Decann flats. The “turning” of the Massive Ice shell floe moving up the “Indian Ocean” at 6 inches per year needs answering.
    It is very obvious that when the Ice shell of two oceans meet at the triple junction north of the Kergulean Plateau that time of the Plateau formation is put at 90 million years ago. The ice shell floe moved north at 6 inches per year, and in 55 million years it had traveled 5,500 miles up what will becaome the indian ocean.
    To be continued.

  7. The writer should call IRIS.GOV and complain that the government in his opinion does NOT know the Deapth of the earthquake “picks” 10 kilometers- 6 miles. It means nothing and the government site should clearly notify readers that they “guess” at the 10 kil-6 miles!

  8. This article is implying something without actually saying it….Its trying to say that the earthquakes were created by HARRP because of the mysterious circumstances of it being the same depth and happening in an area which has no real earthquake activity. The fact that it is in Yemen which is where interest has been paid to recently is also an alarming peculiarity. Who knows what it really means? If they are being created then we are all in trouble; the world is an ecosystem which is fragile and should not be played with. Lets hope God is watching the situation carefully and preparing to return soon….

  9. I have been monitoring earthquakes right across the world for six years now, and this swarm is unusual, although normally a result of the African plate tearing away from the Arabian plate. I would not be surprised to see some volcanic activity in the region soon.

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