{"id":18536,"date":"2018-12-03T08:19:55","date_gmt":"2018-12-03T14:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=18536"},"modified":"2018-12-03T08:19:55","modified_gmt":"2018-12-03T14:19:55","slug":"mayotte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2018\/12\/03\/mayotte\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayotte"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists and science geeks love nothing more than a good natural mystery, and it appears there’s one brewing off the coast of Africa, between the continent and the northern tip of the big island of Madagascar. National Geographic<\/strong><\/em> has a longish<\/a> pop-sci report:<\/p>\n

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On the morning of November 11, just before 9:30 UT, a\u00a0mysterious rumble rolled around the world<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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The seismic waves began roughly 15 miles off the shores of Mayotte, a French island sandwiched between Africa and the northern tip of Madagascar. The waves buzzed across Africa, ringing sensors in Zambia,\u00a0Kenya<\/a>, and Ethiopia. They traversed vast oceans, humming across\u00a0Chile<\/a>,\u00a0New Zealand<\/a>,\u00a0Canada<\/a>, and even\u00a0Hawaii<\/a>\u00a0nearly 11,000 miles away.<\/p>\n

These waves didn’t just zip by; they rang for more than 20 minutes. And yet, it seems, no human felt them.<\/p>\n

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Only one person noticed the odd signal on the U.S. Geological Survey’s\u00a0real-time seismogram displays<\/a>. An earthquake enthusiast who uses the handle\u00a0@matarikipax<\/a>\u00a0saw the curious zigzags and posted images of them to Twitter. That small action kicked off another ripple of sorts, as\u00a0researchers around the world<\/a>\u00a0attempted to suss out the source of the waves. Was it a meteor strike? A submarine volcano eruption? An ancient sea monster rising from the deep?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\u201cI don’t think I’ve seen anything like it,\u201d says\u00a0G\u00f6ran Ekstr\u00f6m<\/a>, a seismologist at Columbia University who specializes in unusual earthquakes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I know about as much about earthquakes plate tectonics as the next interested layperson, so I have little to contribute to the discussion. Here’s one of the tweets:<\/p>\n

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This is the recording of the ~09:30 UTC Southern Indian Ocean event from Kilima Mbogo, Kenya. The signal has had a highpass filter applied to it at 0.01 Hz, 0.05 Hz, 0.1 Hz & 0.2 Hz respectively. As can be seen the signal is very low frequency @stevenjgibbons<\/a> @ALomaxNet<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/UnAYW4mf1q<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Jamie Gurney (@UKEQ_Bulletin) November 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n