Earthquakes, the Dummy Version

Anatomy of cuesta topography

If we had to pick a motto for the Antisocial Network, one of the candidates would most surely be the adage "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing." It's especially dangerous in the hands of someone who is eager to make a few bucks off that little bit of knowledge! That's probably because getting more knowledge is time-consuming and, face it, sometimes a little boring. So the greediest of freelancers will be happy to expound on any topic by sharing their knowledge mixed in with their misconceptions and their misinterpretations of any basic research they happen to perform. Take, for instance, the geophysical rubbish that William J. Prest (syzygyastro on HubPages.com) laid out in his post "What We Know About Earthquakes."

We figure Prest probably published this content to cash in on a recent large earthquake, perhaps the Haiti disaster of 2010. With all the experts holding forth on television news immediately after such events, there's no excuse for him make such claims as

"Causes [of earthquakes] range from fracturing faults, impacts, underground atomic detonations, planetary influences and volcanic activity."

We had a lot of problems with that vague "planetary influences" bull, and we are pretty darned certain he's conflating earthquakes with seismic waves when he says "underground atomic detonations"...

Some of Prest's other misinformation:

"...there are a few systems for measuring [earthquakes], the Richter scale of intensity being the one popular in this part of the world. " Not true: what TV talking heads call "Richter" is actually the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale, and Richter is rarely even mentioned by professionals; much less "popular." "Quakes have three main types of waves, each of them destructive in different ways. There is the up and down motion, the side to side motion and compression waves." In reality, the three types are compression, shear, and surface waves, Bill. The first two travel through the planet and the third kind moves along the surface; making it the most destructive. "If you look at geological formations you can appreciate that there were huge earthquakes at some points in Earth's history that far surpass anything ever recorded by our instruments." Please learn what a "formation" is, Bill...

We saved the best for last. According to Prest,

"...a hundred meter displacement would be caused by a quake of Richter ten, something never witnessed by humanity in recorded history, yet there are scarps that approach such displacements. A hint of the power of such a quake is the Niagara escarpment that stretches for hundreds of miles and averages some 40 meters in displacement from top to bottom."

First, Bill, the structural rigidity of the earth's crust is too low to allow sufficient stress buildup for an earthquake of "Richter 10" to occur. That's a common misconception, but it pales alongside a claim that the Niagara Escarpment is a fault scarp. You dumbass, the Niagara Escarpment is an erosional feature of the type type known as a cuesta! Congratulations on your misinformation; and on receiving our award for Dumbass of the Day!

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SI - EARTHQUAKES