Scientist Baffled by Land Uplifted in Alaska - Nothing to Explain it

Last week (7/2 or 7/3) land uplifted 20 feet and 1000 feet long in Alaska and scientist have no explaination for the uplift and are baffled. I find this of great interest for various reasons.

link to article: www.homernews.com...

Like a giant fist punching through the earth, a 1,000-foot long section of the beach below Bluff Point rose up 20 feet from the tidelands sometime last Friday or late Thursday, pushing boulders up from the ocean bottom, cracking sandstone slabs and toppling rocks upside down.

"There was just beach before," said Ron Hess, who lives on Bluff Road above the new uplift. "Now there are tidal pools."

There was no huge Earthquake to cause the uplift - which would be the reasonable explaination for it.

Scientists don't know exactly what caused the uplift. It would take an earthquake over magnitude 7 to cause an uplift that high, said Peter Haeussler, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Anchorage.

"I have no idea," he said when he first learned of the uplift. "This sounds really, really bizarre."

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/30c51f84c736.jpg[/atsimg]

Caption below picture

Photo by Michael Armstrong

Two men climb an uplift on the beach below Bluff Point on Sunday.

You can see it was a large amount of land uplifted.

The uplift runs in an arc around a small cove about 1.3 miles east of Diamond Creek Beach, a pleasant day hike accessible from a trailhead near Diamond Ridge Road and the Sterling Highway (see Outdoors, page 16). Where tide-covered boulders had once been, the ground now rises up in a long ridge of gray clay, sandstone, coal and barnacle-covered boulders. In last weekend's heat, rockweed had dried up and mussels rotted. The cobble beach itself seemed higher. Small rockfalls trickled down to the beach.

Visitors to the beach on Friday morning after low tide reported the rockweed remained wet and fresh, suggesting the uplift happened sometime early July 3 or late July 2.

The Hesses said they didn't feel any major earthquakes, and none were measured by USGS. They said they felt some small earthquakes last week.

In the article they quote scientist mentioning all kinds of possibilites of why it occured - including from events from 9000 to 12000 years ago ( a land slide). They are also questioning why now?

Why the uplift happened now -- and didn't happen in the 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake -- is unknown.

"That's what's really mysterious here is 'Why now?'" Higman said. "There weren't any substantial earthquakes. The ground wasn't really wet."

"It's very intriguing," Higman said. "It certainly threw me for a loop," he added.

Why would land lift up - without any concrete cause?

OH, dare I say this? Sure - why not - I can feel the flames coming on now.

But a certain computer project predicted that "new lands would come to the surface over the summer".

So is this just more - but with no explaination? besides the Tonga area - where the volcano erupted a couple of months ago and created some new land due to the volcano.


Edit for grammer






[edit on 9-7-2009 by questioningall]

I wonder if it could be early effects of Niburu, or the brown dwarf star starting to impact Earth somehow.

"Continents will rise and shift" is something i have read pertaining to the arrival of this Star.

Interesting and baffling - I wonder what else could cause such a localised uplift of land? Usually magma pressing up from underneath is the cause such as the lifting over the Yellowstone caldera.

reply to post by questioningall


Just throwing this out there

The growing earth theory (video)


www.nealadams.com...
www.nealadams.com...

Because you just never know

interesting stuff! thanks for posting this

It has to be pressure of some kind, obviously, tectonic, volcanic or hydrothermal would be the reasonable choices here but with no earthquake measured by the USGS this is very odd. What else is there at work underground apart from the obvious which could account for this? Is it possible that humans are responsible in some way? hmmm, looking forward to reading the theories which get thrown up about this one!

reply to post by warrenb


That is interesting - I have looked at that theory before - I am still on the fence about it. Yet the continental shapes do fit perfectly together - though there are few explainations why by different groups.

reply to post by warrenb


Ahh you beat me to it. I was think the same thing when I read this. I have always found the growing Earth theory intriguing. I also wonder if it could be a a huge pocket of gas below the surface pushing up the earth just in that are...that might explain why there was no record of earthquake.

reply to post by questioningall


IMO it also helps explain many things, although not stated in the theory; it could possibly explain why some animals and plants mysteriously appear on different continents. Elephants, tigers and monkeys to name a few are found all over the world and the Alaskan land bridge is not a plausible explanation for their appearance in so many distant places.

So we have web bot, Niburu, a brown dwarf and growing earth as the candidates for this so far.


Interesting...

I hope everyone caught the bit where they say:

No field work by state or federal geologists has yet to be done, although Haeussler said he would be interested in examining the site. Berg thought the uplift could begin to erode with the next cycle of high tides and fall storms. The uplift is accessible on low tides and visible on high tides.

So it's all an educated guess at the moment, unlike the above theories.

Oh yeah, don't forget that HAARP is in Alaska and Alaska is also quite close to the arctic circle, maybe it got hit with a concentrated solar flare?





[edit on 9/7/09 by Chadwickus]

I totally subscribe to the growing earth theory - it is entirely likey that this is the explanation.

The mountain range along the west coast of south America is also caused by this expansion of the crust.

The problem with dinosaurs size caused to me to do a great deal of research - and so far I am totally sold on the growing earth as the solution.

There is a strong possibility that the earth is entirely hollow and that a black hole resides inside the earth producing the magnetic field that surrounds us - also that the sun has basically the same design, but runs much hotter. Sun spots are simply whirlpool vortex's caused by the flux carrying plasma deep inside the sun to feed its black hole.

reply to post by Amagnon


errr, what? a black hole in the centre of the Earth? Wow, I've never heard that one before! So how is the Earth itself not being pulled in? Why would the Earth expand in such a situation? Where is the massive gravitational field which would be produced by definition If there was a black hole present? The expanding Earth theory in itself is attractive in some respects but In my opinion, what you're suggesting is ridiculous!

reply to post by warrenb


Thanks for bringing that theory in. I must admit to being a fan of Neil Adams 'Growing/Expanding Earth theory. Though not all his science adds up, it is very compelling nonetheless.

However, I don't think it really applies here.

IRM

[edit on 9/7/09 by InfaRedMan]

As this thread has shifted way off into kooky sci fi land and there's clearly not going to be any chance of a serious discusion on the geological causes of this rather minor, but intriguing, event there's probably really not much point in me saying this. But I think the answer is given in the article:

Below Bluff Point, a new fissure opened up at the base of the 800-foot high cliff. The uplift could be a re-activation of a landslide that happened perhaps 12,000 years ago.

Though of course we'd need a geological map and a field visit to confirm that.

It does not at this stage appear to be caused by the mutant space goats and therefore those still awaiting their tickets to board the 'B' Ark need not panic. Unless you really want to.

reply to post by Chadwickus


Dont forget the weakening magnectic field that could have a loosening effect on the earths crust whenever its bombarded by a fresh batch of solar activity.

Originally posted by Essan
As this thread has shifted way off into kooky sci fi land and there's clearly not going to be any chance of a serious discusion on the geological causes of this rather minor, but intriguing, event...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/38f5f801e69e.jpg[/atsimg]

I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones. ~ John Cage (1912 - 1992)

Originally posted by Chonx
reply to post by Amagnon

 

errr, what? a black hole in the centre of the Earth? Wow, I've never heard that one before! So how is the Earth itself not being pulled in? Why would the Earth expand in such a situation? Where is the massive gravitational field which would be produced by definition If there was a black hole present? The expanding Earth theory in itself is attractive in some respects but In my opinion, what you're suggesting is ridiculous!

You could look into Nassim Haramein for some info regarding black holes at the center of things... That would be where that information came from, I believe.

The theory actually is very sound once you get into the maths of it, but as to if it's truth, hard to say

Oh, I am sure all kinds of theories will be thrown out there from every realm and group of people, from geologist, scientist, alternative theorist.

Just as some have already been thrown out - already on this thread.

What the answer is - who knows - it is quite intriguing that land just UPLIFTED on it's own.

How scientist are possibly relating it to events from 9000 to 12000 years ago in the article - is also "out there" in my own opinion.

wonder if Sarah Palin knows whats up and has decided to ditch AK in search of a safer place? Or maybe AK is reacting to her decision?

now THATS a conspiracy

muahahahaha

Anyone know is the area has underlying permafrost? One possiblity as a cause of the landslip would be an ice lens lying under the beach melting - this causes the land adjacent to the cliff to collapse forward, pushing up a stretch of the foreshore in the process. Unlikely, but worthy of consideration ahead of mutant space goats I think

Other obvious questions are what is the bedrock? Is it overlain by glacial deposits? Loess? Clay? Peat? Was the slippage preceded by heavy rain or a unusual dry spell? And, of course, what is thought to have caused the previous landslip?

reply to post by mahtoosacks


Funny you mention that. I heard on the news this morning that she is going to be campaigning with the Governor of Texas.

To OP- S&F Cool find!!!! Very intriguing. I'm wondering if it's related to the landslide that someone else mentioned above. That would explain the lack of seismic activity.