Brits Find Ruptures on Seabed

Keep an eye on earthquake reports and your ear to the ground. USGS seismic readings are showing an even greater amount of shaking going on along the entire West Coast of the United States, with some fairly large tremors in Alaska near area where several volcanos have shown recent activity. Most of this started at or shortly after the big 9.0 (or 9.2) Indonesian quake of December 26.

And speaking of that seminal quake, the Associated Press is reporting that a British undersea vessel has discovered Huge Ruptures on the Seabed :

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) - The first images of the seabed that was rocked by the earthquake that triggered Asia's catastrophic tsunami revealed huge ruptures spanning several miles along the Indian Ocean's floor.

The United States, meanwhile, said it was preparing to more than double its pledge for tsunami relief to $950 million.

[Half the story was an irrelevant rehash of yesterday's financial news. Typical AP editing.]

The images of the seabed were from a British naval ship collecting data off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra Island that could be used to help governments develop a tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean region. "
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"There are features which we would think are something like the Grand Canyon would look," Tim Henstock, a scientist aboard the HMS Scott, told BBC News. "You can see huge piles of mud maybe a few hundred meters (yards) thick." The images show "slide scars" more than six miles wide resulting from the 9.0 magnitude quake on Dec. 26, the world's biggest in 40 years.

What the AP story did not say -- apparently the reporter and his editors were not that curious -- is whether anything could be determined about near-term seismic shifts from the look of the seabed.

We're not trying to be alarmists, but we do think the public deserves better reporting than we're getting on the plentiful seismic and volcanic activity that seems to be coming in waves on all sides of the Ring of Fire since December 26. The media is focused on celebrity trials, the Democrats' new Dean of Omissions, and other assorted triva. Or it will be trivia if we are ignoring what could be the next REAL story of the 21st Century.