The writing on the Wall #3

Unfortunately things are changing a little faster than I expected geologically around our planet.
More than a few blog entries back I had stated that as the ice melts, it redistributes itself around the worlds oceans, and not always in a nice-even pattern, mind you.
One important factor to consider is that the ice melt of concern is LAND MASS ice, which is predominately Greenland/Iceland/Antartica.  Here's a good summary on Antartica: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/146322/antarctica-melts-under-its-hottest-days-on-record

When then occurs, the tectonic plates experience additional pressure upon them. Some would say this to be negligible. Now we are not discussing minor melting here. This involves ice melts in the rate of gigatons per year.  That's a bit hard to get one's mind around when the numbers get that high. 

So let's continue down the action/reaction logic here.
If this redistribution of weight is causing geological instability, then we should see this in the form of an increase in earthquake and volcano activity.
Some would like to argue that we see the planet move through peaks and  valleys in activity throughout the decade, that one year can be quite active and another, well, not so much.  My argument to this is we have a "root cause" that does not "go away".  This means such events start small and continue to grow in intensity.

So what's going on now?
In the last few months earthquakes are up in frequency, and so are volcano eruptions.
We have 52 active volcano events going on this morning. What's the average per year?  It's around 60-70, so well within range...  But as we are in march, maybe something's up... take a boo at the 2020 numbers here: https://volcano.si.edu/faq/index.cfm?question=eruptionsbyyear
Something to be concerned about, weeeellll,  let's consider trends back to awhile. Here's a good set of data from the Smithsonian: https://volcano.si.edu/faq/index.cfm?question=historicalactivity The problem here is that we are INDEED on a rise of activity (or maybe that's just reflective of our ability to track such activity across the globe with greater accuracy now than before...
Great, just more confusion.... not so much.  We've been witness some pretty significant melting since the 1980's on, so if I'm right about a correlation, we should be seeing a spike, however small, but a spike nonetheless.  Just take another look at that graph...



What about earthquakes?  I found this data to be a bit challenging. Lots of detailed info for current and last year or so, but trending in total numbers over a given magnitude - little more tricky. This was a good site: https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazel/view/hazards/earthquake/event-data?maxYear=2021&minYear=1980&minEqMagnitude=6 - so not as definitive as volcanoes per se.
Do we have a problem or not?

In my opinion, this ball is rolling, geological instability has already started. It's pretty evident in the numbers, and no one is reporting this  (of course not).
IF I am correct, this activity will continue to increase until melting stops, and mother nature is satisfied with it's new balance. As far as I'm concerned, the writing is on the wall.

Can't do anything about it anyway - which is true - but if you are in a possible risk area (for either) I'd suggest getting your disaster planning sorted and get prepared. Don't live in fear, just be wary for signs, and be ready.


Here's a nice summation of today's activity on youtube... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClSCOxhRXd4
Keep an eye out on the ones in Antarctica as they can cause significant havoc.
Note the HIGHER the sulfur-dioxide the more substantial the cooling effect - fairly quickly.  So we "should" see another cold spell set in before it warms up in the northern hemisphere.