Word: seismicity
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...rulers might strip the Kurds of rights to negotiate their own energy deals. It was a highly risky move. Iraqi politicians remain bitterly divided over who will ultimately control the country's massive oil resources under its new constitution. Yet as that argument raged, DNO quietly hired the seismic company Terra Seis (Malta) Ltd. to survey its area. The results were stunningly clear. "We could tell very quickly that there was structure containing hydrocarbons," says Kevin Plintz, a Canadian geophysicist who owns Terra Seis. That wasn't too surprising in Tawke, where generations have watched oil seep...
...Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, over coffee in Kurdistan's capital, Arbil. "It is the future, our means of prosperity." Sarbez Hawrami, ceo of Kurdistan's government-run Oil & Gas Petrochemical Establishment, says "about seven British companies" have approached him to discuss deals. Terra Seis now has 12 seismic machines in Kurdistan working for five oil companies, with a list of others waiting for its services. In the 40-year-old Taq Taq field east of Arbil, two Turkish firms are producing oil for local consumption, and one is drilling three new wells. Last September Canada's Heritage Oil signed...
...hazards posed by earthquakes do not stop at the fault zone. Most of the damage caused by a quake comes not from the rupturing of the ground underfoot but from seismic waves that propagate out from the fault at 8,000 or more m.p.h. While the punch packed by these waves tends to diminish as the distance from the fault increases, that's not always the case. From historical accounts, USGS seismologist Jack Boatwright has assembled a ShakeMap for 1906--a map that displays the intensity of shaking in different areas. For San Francisco and other communities close...
...this area get slammed so hard? At least part of the answer lies in the loosely consolidated sediment that sits below the surface. Seismic waves pass quickly through bedrock, but they become trapped in sediment-filled basins. "It's sort of like being in a bathtub filled with water," says USGS seismologist Thomas Brocher. "When you start splashing, the waves keep bouncing up and down and from side to side." The basin effect amplifies not only the intensity of the shaking but also its duration, which is no doubt why buildings collapsed in Santa Rosa in 1906, killing some...
...Area's side. Scientists say the "shadow" of the 1906 earthquake--a kind of protective umbra generated by the enormous release of stress 10 decades ago--is already beginning to dissipate. That means the Bay Area will soon be rocked by the next cycle of seismic unrest, with smaller but still damaging earthquakes signaling the start of a new era of danger for a city that's had more than its share...