What is the interrelation between fault zones and electromagnetic systems?
Shaping Faults | Part 2
Energy Generation
“To cross the seas, to traverse the roads, and to work machinery by galvanism, or rather electro-magnetism, will certainly, if executed, be the most noble achievement ever performed...”
- Alfred Smee
Machines whiz and whir, electricity sparks and engines turn. As a species we are often so caught up (and in many ways, rightly so) with our own human innovation, heads wrapped up high in the clouds of invention, we often forget what is all around us. From within its cosmic cradle, the machinations of the Earth produce some pretty astounding energy. Yes, it is hard to ignore the kinetic power of earthquakes because they feel familiarly mechanical to our senses. What is harder to pick up, harder to observe, harder to feel, are the more subtle planetary cogs. Those turns, those slips, those movements: combined, it all produces energy.
In the previous Part 1.2 - Correlation vs Causation: Don’t Shoot the Messenger we looked at three human markers - Cult-Tech Innovation, Belief Systems and Conflict - that seem to correlate on some level with global fault lines. The possible causative relations remained “physical” in nature. Geographical determinism moulded our behaviour around novel ecological features, where mythological frameworks provided a clever way of mapping and transmitting knowledge of catastrophic events. Iterative innovation became a response to constant calamity, as did instability and cultural collapse. But now we transcend the mere physical. As we continue our investigation into the collective effects of fault lines on human life, it is that energy - that shadowy whisper - we now follow head first into the dimming light.
Kinetic Energy
The Global Earthquake Model: Global Seismic Hazard Map 2023 (CC BY-SA 4.0/CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Upon seeing the word “earthquake” within one or two thoughts you have probably arrived at a situation involving the ground shaking. That’s fair. If you have read Part 1.1 - Seismically Dense, or if you haven’t been living under a rock in Antarctica for your entire life, you would be aware that earthquakes certainly do that.
Movement like the one you imagined is primarily caused by “surface waves” - seismic waves that travel across the surface of the Earth. The rather inappropriately named “Love” waves cause the ground to shear (pull apart). “Rayleigh” waves cause a rolling motion, similar to how waves behave along a beach - only this time moving solid material instead of water. Whereas surface waves are responsible for the surface level damage caused by earthquakes, “body waves” instead travel through the subsurface material body of the Earth.
Body waves take two distinct forms: primary (P) and secondary (S) waves. P waves are higher frequency, - measured in hertz (Hz). A higher frequency means more wave “cycles” pass through a certain point in space per second - imagine you shake one end of a rope faster and faster: more “waves” with higher peaks will travel down the length of the rope. Because of this higher frequency P waves travel faster than S waves, compressing and stretching the solid or liquid material around them in the same direction they travel, a bit like the back and forth motion of an accordian. While P waves can travel through solid, liquid and gas (including the Earth’s molten core), S waves (being the slower of the two) are lower frequency - imagine your arms now ache, shaking the rope less and less vigorously, resulting in a flatter rope with less “waves” and lower peaks. S waves can only affect the solid material perpendicular to their direction of travel, producing an “up and down” motion throughout the surrounding adjacent rock.
But the link between seismic activity and mechanical stress has already been established and I need not go into it in any more detail here. Instead, we should be asking how fault lines are involved in generating other forms of energy.
Kinetic to Acoustic
When an earthquake strikes, P and Rayleigh waves undulate out from the fault-based epicentre. Along their destructive travels they come into contact with different materials like soil, rock, water and air and, upon collision, the first law of thermodynamics1 means that the energy is not completely destroyed but is instead transformed into different forms of energy. Some of this new energy becomes infrasonic sound (acoustic) waves. Acoustic waves then continue on into the surrounding environment. Actually, “surrounding environment” might be a bit of an understatement.
Infrasound is any sound travelling below the threshold of human hearing (less than 20 Hz) and is often produced seismically at a frequency between 0.05-4.4 Hz, which is classified as very low frequency (VLF). While we may not be able to hear it, it has been observed that “earthquakes impact the upper atmosphere first through vertical displacements of the Earth's crust or ocean surfaces producing, as one effect, low-frequency acoustic”2 energy aka, yep, you guessed it - infrasound.
This observation suggests that, due to the interaction between energy waves and the surrounding environment, mechanical stress produced by an earthquake can cause acoustic waves that travel far up into the heavens. Earthquakes produce kinetic waves, kinetic waves turn into acoustic waves, and acoustic waves travel up into the atmosphere. Those pesky fault lines! Adding to the growing selection of seismically-induced energy, when an earthquake occurs under the ocean and is large enough to produce tsunamis (like the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami) the kinetic energy not only generates infrasound but also produces “gravity waves”. Whilst not directly related to the very fabric of space and time itself,3 these ripples of air do cause intense disturbances in the mid to high atmosphere.4 And it is this bottom-up seismic effect that will become paramount to our investigation shortly.
These intense low-frequency acoustic waves can reach an altitude of 40 to 60 km,5 causing atmospheric disturbances as far up as the “ionosphere” - a part of Earth’s atmosphere which starts around 50 km above the planet's surface and continues up for another 900 km.6 Earth’s surface acts like one conductive boundary, the ionosphere acts as another. Roughly 50 km of space known as the “Earth-ionosphere cavity” lies between the surface and the start of the ionosphere. This cavity consists of a highly conductive plasma layer, rich in ionised particles and photons.7
Changes in the ionospheric layers from night to day (CCA-SA 4.0)
Acting as an influential mechanism within the overall planetary system, the “Earth-ionosphere cavity guides the electromagnetic waves around the Earth over long distances such that the incoherent superposition of electromagnetic waves from many lightning flashes causes a global electromagnetic wave field.”8 Or, put another way, this cavity is “charged” by the innumerable multitude of lightning strikes that occur every second across the planet.
The cavity is part of the electromagnetic environment surrounding Earth. When hit with infrasound waves this supercharged cavity reacts by causing slight variations in atmospheric pressure and density. These disturbances can modulate the electron density in the ionosphere, resulting in local changes in the distribution of charged particles. Acoustic waves, generated by seismic activity along fault zones, can thus change the conductivity of the ionosphere as well as the Earth-ionosphere cavity by causing fluctuations in ionisation levels, especially in regions already sensitive due to external factors like solar activity.9
For the incense lovers out there, imagine watching smoke gently rise through the light of a nearby window. If you were to blow air towards the smoke it would respond to the slight changes in air movement, moving up and down. In a similar way, when acoustic and gravity waves travel through the atmosphere, they reach the Earth-ionosphere cavity and cause fluctuations in the density of the ionosphere’s charged plasma. This can create temporary ‘downward motions’ or shifts within the charged particles, influenced by the pressure and buoyancy effects of these waves. Technically speaking, movements like this “will tend to result in enhanced charge exchange… and “the effect of the downflow is, then, a conversion of O+ [positively charged “ionised” oxygen atoms - an irregular version of plain old O2] into molecular ions” within the lower atmosphere.10 Changes in the charge of air shift from the higher to the lower atmosphere. We will look at the significance of these changes in charge, as well as charged ions being formed as a knock-on effect of seismically-derived activity shortly.
Non-scientific representations of the lightning-charged Earth-ionosphere cavity where acoustic and gravity waves interfere
In the meantime, it is of value to our exploration of fault lines to understand a causal link briefly mentioned earlier. The link lies between how seismically generated infrasound and gravity waves cause perturbations in the Earth-ionosphere cavity, and how this in turn affects electromagnetic (EM) waves travelling through the atmospheric space. And it is here that we have stumbled upon the first important point to note: in many ways “seismic activity is correlated to solar activity”.11
Head back into the clouds for a minute. But, if you head high enough into the Earth-ionosphere cavity watch out because “at any given moment about 2,000 thunderstorms roll over Earth, producing some 50 flashes of lightning every second.”12 Combined, the sum total of this electrical energy generates what some have labelled “a repeating atmospheric heartbeat”.13 (And we will see shortly how this may not just be scientific hyperbole.) As lightning strikes “charge” the Earth-ionosphere cavity, EM waves resonate out around the planet through the cavity, forming a fertile “EM environment”. Throughout this environment we hear the faint beating of an electric drum. Drumming to the beat of Earth’s heart. The name on the side of the drum reads: “Schumann resonance.”
Whilst low in frequency (fluctuating between 7.8, 14, 20, 26, 33, and 39 Hz), the Schumann resonances circulate around our planet through the Earth-ionosphere cavity, representing a form of EM energy trapped between the Earth's surface and the ionosphere. If we are thinking in terms of a planetary system, the Shumann resonances represent the “planetary resonance frequencies”.14 Just as a tuning fork vibrates at a specific frequency when struck, producing a distinct tone, the Schumann resonances are the Earth's EM equivalent of mechanical or acoustic resonance frequencies. Hence the comparison to a “heartbeat”, reflecting the natural rhythm of the Earth's EM environment within the overall planetary system.
Whilst seismically generated infrasound waves do not directly produce Schumann resonances, they do interact with the Earth-ionosphere cavity, changing its conductivity. Considering the Schumann resonance is EM energy influenced by the conductivity of the Earth-ionosphere cavity, it could be thus theorised that acoustic and gravity waves produced along fault zones could alter and interfere with the Earth resonance as they travel and transform from kinetic to acoustic, up, into the atmosphere. One important sky-ground connection, we can imagine this through the following causal chain:
Tectonic Movement → Seismic Activity → Generation of P-waves → Conversion into Surface waves (Rayleigh waves) → Mechanical Ground Motion → Mechanical Movement Produces Infrasound & Gravity Waves→ Infrasound & Gravity Waves Reach Ionosphere → Variations in Ionospheric Conductivity → Ionospheric Perturbations Affect EM Wave Propagation → Resulting EM Disturbances → Alteration of EM dynamics (e.g. Schumann Resonances) within the Earth-ionosphere cavity.
Implications of this causal chain in the context of human experience are explored later, but for now the important point to note is that acoustic and gravity waves generated along fault zones sit upstream in the causal flow between seismic activity and EM energy generation on our planet. By understanding this we can understand the next important point: body and surface waves not only turn kinetic energy into acoustic energy, but they also turn kinetic energy directly into EM energy.15
Kinetic to Electromagnetic
Whilst almost every single minute of every single day we do not think twice about harnessing EM energy to power ourselves - our phones, our Tesla’s, our office buildings, our stove tops, our toothbrushes - we tend to forget that Earth’s underlying geological system, our geosphere, is constantly producing EM energy as a by-product of its inherent seismic activity.16
Seismic EM (often labelled as seismo-electric effects but for ease referred to here as “SEM”) waves can be used to describe the EM energy that is generated as a by-product of an earthquakes kinetic waves after they interact with conductive spaces in the surrounding environment, like the ionised plasma of the Earth-ionosphere cavity.17 Changes in the effectiveness of certain EM frequencies in travelling through the atmosphere occurs as a result of changing conductivity at different altitudes, which influences how well different frequencies travel or are absorbed in the atmosphere.18 It is thus important to grasp the range of these SEM waves.
To imagine this, let us compare SEM waves to body waves. Just like P and S waves move outwards from the seismic epicentre in wave-like formations,19 so to do SEM waves. However, unlike purely seismic/kinetic/mechanical waves - which need a physical medium to travel through (e.g. solid rock or liquid ocean) - SEM waves can freely travel through the vacuum of space. Instead, the potential distance SEM waves travel depends on other factors like the frequency at which the waves move.20
Continuing to imagine how these SEM waves move out from the epicentre of fault zones we can use a standard model to express the structure of regular EM fields, literally known as “lines of force”. Lines of force were conceptualised to highlight the influence between electric charges and magnetic poles. Whilst we are taught to think of these lines as simply imaginary - serving only to draw diagrams and act as a heuristic for grasping the broad concept of EM fields - Michael Faraday, one of the great nineteenth-century scientists and innovators obsessed with EM energy (and the person who actually coined the term “line of force”) - has been interpreted by some to have believed these EM lines have a physical and tangible structure.21 There is a strong case to be made later (when studying patterns of animal behaviour across the world, for example) that indeed, these lines of force have a material quality to them. However, whatever the case, imaginary or real, these lines of force are a useful heuristic when thinking about how SEM waves move from sub-surface to above-surface and throughout various other materials following seismic activity.
Frequency in mind, if we return to the two main types of seismic activity mentioned in the first part of this article: sudden and slow slip events, but now with the added context of SEM energy, what more can we extrapolate? Sudden slips often generate higher end of the low-frequency spectrum seismic waves, which in turn may generate EM waves ranging from 3 Hz to 100 Hz. Slow slips produce lower end of the low-frequency spectrum seismic waves, in turn generating EM waves around 0.005 Hz to 10 Hz. Even in seismically active regions like the Cascadia Subduction Zone22 across North America, the Nankai Trough off Honshu Japan and the Hikurangi Subduction Zone around New Zealand, much of Earth's seismic activity (especially slow slips) often goes physically unnoticed, even though EM energy is being released intermittently. Slowly a picture is forming: global fault lines experience heightened electromagnetic energy.
Bottom-Up
Before we look into this picture in more detail, let us take a step back for a minute. Earth’s EM activity is part of a giant complex system, yet a system whose dynamics are not strictly governed by Earth-borne components and processes alone. But before we leave the safe confines of our somewhat refreshing atmosphere, why don’t we simplify the situation involving Earth’s production of EM energy via kinetic energy. To do this we can think about the movement and behaviour of the four key planetary components through the popular Four Spheres Model (FSM):
the atmosphere (grey)
the biosphere (green)
the geosphere (brown)
the hydrosphere (blue)
Using the FSM, we can see how our earlier example of underwater earthquakes connects the hydrosphere to the atmosphere through the generation of infrasonic and gravity waves. Shining a light on a new example, anecdotally it has long since been suggested that earthquakes produce visible electrical discharges. Many people report seeing lights accompanying earthquakes. Again, reframed using the FSM, we can think of this as mechanical movements in the geosphere (like two plates subducting along a fault zone) producing EM phenomena that pass through the biosphere and interact with additional processes in the atmosphere.
One specific example of this “kinetic-electric” mechanism is the rather mysterious phenomenon of “earthquake lights” (EQLs). Whilst the total energy outputted by EQLs is hard to quantify, it is interesting to note how “luminous events correlate well with the seismic activity that occurred 150 km from the epicenter” and that “seismic waves seem to be responsible for the local generation of the electric field and the luminous events far from the epicenter”.23
First off, this seems to imply a chain of causation starting from seismic activity in the geosphere (e.g. P waves), causing SEM energy generation (e.g. electrical charges released from Earth’s surface) through the biosphere, ending with the eery visual manifestation of this process in the atmosphere (e.g. EQLs). Whatsmore, detailing how this luminesce EQL phenomena occurred 150km away from the epicentre teases at a range in which this SEM energy can travel.
Seismic Rayleigh waves have also been known to cause disturbances within the Earth’s geomagnetic field24 (GMF) at an amplitude of 0.2 - 1.2 nano Teslas (nT) and “appear at distances ranging from 190 - 4600 km from the epicenter.”25 Once again this indicates that EM energy can be generated bottom-up,26 and transmitted over vast distances. Whilst EM energy generation in this instance is small (barely registering with modern sensors) we will see later how the GMF itself can fluctuate massively, day-in day-out, and how such fluctuations become more extreme when external energy is added to the mix.
Top-Down
Reversing this causal flow, the process of “EM induction” can also be seen as top-down. Rather than the geosphere generating EM energy, low-frequency lines of force enter the Earth from outside our planet's sphere of influence.
Solar “corpuscular” radiation in the form of solar wind (a constant stream of charged particles and magnetic fields released from the Sun’s surface) hits our magnetosphere27 - an integral part of Earth’s GMF that extends past our upper atmosphere into outer-space. Interactions between solar wind and Earth's magnetosphere causes geomagnetic storms and, as a result of this atmospheric disturbance, changes in the Earth-ionosphere cavity causes EM energy in the form of “telluric currents” to spread throughout the lithosphere (an integral layer of the geosphere).28 Schumann resonances and other EM waves act like a driver, generating low-frequency EM waves that affect telluric currents by creating areas of alternating electric potential above the Earth's surface, which telluric currents follow from the surface.
Telluric currents often take a “direct” form (heading steadily in one direction only, with zero frequency) or become quasi-static alternating currents (multi directional and low-frequency). Once these currents are generated in the geosphere by changes in our atmosphere they can be attracted to conductive materials, passing below and through certain regions of the biosphere - the place where Life inhabits. Then, one of two routes are taken:
One route enters into whatever part of the hydrosphere - the sum total of all our oceans, lakes and other bodies of water on Earth - is local to the telluric current. Water is a strong electrical conductor, especially when it contains dissolved salts and minerals. When telluric currents reach a section of the hydrosphere, the connection between land and water causes coastal regions to become highly conductive.29 Telluric currents tend to then spread out across the water's surface and down into the depths; the reverse happens if they emanate from events within (underneath) the hydrosphere itself.30 As telluric currents pass through water, they can initiate electrochemical reactions, affecting the water chemistry and potentially altering pH levels.31 This process can influence the ion balance in the water, potentially affecting aquatic life and the health of aquatic ecosystems in the biosphere, once again pointing to the connection alluded to within the FSM.
The second route takes telluric currents across and through the geosphere. As they pass through the lithosphere the currents seek out conductive mineral deposits buried within the geological structure.32 That last part is important.
Not-to-scale depictions of telluric currents flowing through the layers of the geosphere
Compositionally those fault zones that undergo subduction (e.g. the Cascadia Subduction Zone) often contain highly conductive materials.33 In these more conductive geospherical regions EM energy (e.g. telluric currents) experience less attenuation,34 meaning that the high energy of the waves can continue over longer distances. If we now speculatively connect the machinations of the geosphere to the atmosphere, the regions within the subsurface lithosphere that are higher in conductivity (like subduction zones) might work in tandem with surface level EM energy (like telluric currents), in turn allowing atmospheric EM energy (like Schumann resonance waves) to travel more effectively, potentially resulting in stronger signals or a higher concentration of EM energy within these fault zones. Conductive geospherical structures also make for ideal channels for telluric currents to flow along, generating additional electric currents in porous, liquid-filled materials as they pass on through.35 Telluric currents, unlike strictly seismically-derived EM outputs, can reach in some cases (like the one presented in this study) 300-150 mA. Converted into 0.15 and 3 watts, that is about the same amount of energy used when listening to a portable bluetooth speaker.
Sure, we are not talking power grid levels. But the point remains: there are mechanisms at play, largely based on the interaction between the Earth’s various sub-systems, that can produce EM energy around conductive fault zones. Our picture is slowly loading.
Telluric currents, a result of external solar activity on the magnetosphere, interact with fault lines. Studies have suggested that “geomagnetic pulsations arise from effects in the magnetosphere and typically cover the frequency range from 1 MHz to 1 Hz. At mid-latitudes during periods of moderate activity up to several tens of nanotesla [nT] can be attributed to pulsations”.36 Whilst this range is not perceptible to human senses, a mechanism linking solar flares and their associated telluric currents to seismic activity has been hypothesised, claiming that, when the flow of telluric current in the geosphere occurs along conductive fault zones, earthquakes may be triggered.37 Now we have a mechanism linking external stimulus (e.g. solar flares) to EM energy (e.g. telluric currents) and seismic activity. And we can certainly feel earthquakes.
Sometimes geomagnetic storms can lead to what is known as “geomagnetic induced currents” (GICs). GICs are sudden surges in electricity, generated by changes in the Earth’s geomagnetic field, particularly during geomagnetic storms triggered by solar flares or coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Imagine the network of water pipes that connect your house to neighbouring houses. There is just enough water in those pipes for your everyday needs. If, all of a sudden, a big storm forces more water into those pipes, the network is not designed to handle such excess pressure and flooding will occur. Now swap water for electricity and we can imagine something similar to the process powering GICs. Before modern technology, GICs would still have flowed through naturally conductive pathways like the Earth’s surface (e.g. soil, water, and rock) and subsurface geological structures (e.g. quartzite).
However, natural pathways are much more resistive than modern systems like metal pipelines and power grids. On March 13, 1989 a geomagnetic storm caused by a CME became one of the most infamous examples of how GICs can disrupt a modern power grid. Following the storm, induced GICs reached magnitudes of hundreds of amperes and produced electric fields around 5-10 volts per kilometre (V/km) - around 20 - 40 mA at the surface in some regions.38 Whilst a mere gentle trickle compared to everyday household electricity, this trickle might as well have been a torrent as Quebec’s power grid was still fried and disturbances were felt throughout North America.
Another incident, one right on the edge of our records, the Carrington Event of 1859 is remembered as the most powerful geomagnetic storm on record. Auroras (usually only visible high in the Northern Hemisphere) were visible as far south as the Caribbean and the GIC even caused the disruption of early telegraph systems. In some regions, electric fields are estimated to have reached values of 10-30 V/km - around 40 - 120 mA,39 significantly higher than the values observed during the 1989 storm. Instead of a gentle trickle, the associated GICs in this case were more akin to a sudden torrential downpour, reaching magnitudes of thousands of amperes. If the same event occurred today no doubt widespread failures in key infrastructure within major metropolitan parts of the world would be just the start of the disastrous knock-on consequences.
Whilst GICs are not commonly connected to seismic activity, in the same vein that telluric currents can be concentrated within conductive areas of the lithosphere, and in some cases even induce seismic activity, the fact that GICs can be orders of magnitude more intense than their telluric counterparts suggests the possibility that they also may have an upstream influence on seismic activity, especially if concentrated around conductive fault zones. No doubt EM energy is generated from the top-down as well as the bottom-up. Or, as some have put it: as above, so below.
Types of SEM Energy
Over time the large-scale movements of tectonic plates cause constant low-level friction along plate boundaries. Alluded to earlier, the lithosphere of fault zones can contain high crystalline mineral structures (e.g. quartz within granite or schist). Tectonic movement and friction, when combined with this conductive material, can lead to the production of two possible SEM energy types:
Piezoelectricity occurs when certain materials (like quartz) generate an electric charge in response to mechanical stress (external pressures) or deformation (changes in shape and size) caused by tectonic movements. Internal “imbalance” resulting from this friction generates an electric field (or voltage) throughout the material,40 known as “piezoelectric charge”.41 During an earthquake the rapid release of accumulated stress in the Earth's crust can release piezoelectric currents into the surrounding geosphere, as well as into the neighbouring biosphere and atmosphere. The mysterious EQLs mentioned earlier might derive themselves from this SEM mechanism.
Conversely, triboelectricity is the result of friction between rocky materials, where contact and separation cause a transfer of electrons, creating static electricity (like rubbing a balloon on your head passes electrons from your hair to the surface of the balloon, making your hair stand on end). Whilst triboelectric charges do not necessarily require high crystalline structures like piezoelectricity does, if materials like quartz are present in the material being stressed it can further enhance the SEM production.
Bombastic representations of SEM energy emanating from the geospherical structure
While piezoelectric and triboelectric effects are caused by different tectonic mechanisms, both contribute to EM phenomena during seismic events, including instances of earthquake lights and various other seismo-electric effects, as well as the generation of localised electrical fields that influence (and in some cases, enhance) the flow of top-down effects like telluric currents.
A highly undervalued point that has massive implications for the role of fault lines on the human experience, the steps from kinetic to electromagnetic go something like :
Tectonic Movement → Seismic Activity → Generation of Body and Surface Waves (Kinetic Energy) → Interaction With Surrounding Environment (Rock Deformation, Fluid Migration, and Fracturing) → Various Physical and Chemical Processes (Piezoelectric) → Seismo-Electromagnetic Effects (SEM Energy)
Caught in the Middle… of What?!
Clearly our planet's tectonic system does not operate in a vacuum;42 a causal relationship exists both from the bottom-up and the top-down. So far we have EM activity like piezo- and triboelectric currents released upwards from tectonic movements, as seen by such phenomena as EQLs, and additional EM activity like telluric currents being influenced downwards from solar-born forces interacting with the magnetosphere and the GMF. All of this activity forms a large, multi-level, multi-directional system of causal relationships.
But our picture is still missing something. The FSM has four spheres… Where does the biosphere, specifically Life, fit into all this talk of electromagnetic energy and general fault line-based shenanigans? After all, we are supposed to be investigating the role fault lines have had on the human experience. As I squint in frustration at the fuzziness I can hear a low hum, the hairs on the back of my hand begin to straighten.
What about if we add an observational lens? What about a bioelectric lens? Bioelectricity reveals to us that biological organisms are, just like Earth, also highly conductive open electrical circuits, with components like cells, neurons, tissues and organs all utilising and relying on electrical signals to communicate and function properly.
Telluric currents are influenced by EM changes in the atmosphere above our heads, moving them through the ground below our feet into the lithosphere. Taking a top-down perspective it is clear we are playing the leading role in Malcolm In The Middle. But to be caught in the middle there must be something at either end. Well, further research suggests that earthquake “preparation phases” can release SEM waves (between 0.1Hz - 30 kHz), stretching up into areas of our ionosphere sometimes thousands of kilometres away from the seismic epicentre. This suggests bottom-up EM energy also has the range to hit biological life situated even thousands of metres above sea level. “You're not the boss of me now, and you're not so big…” Oh, wait, hang on a damn minute…
Time to look at that picture once and for all. Albeit fuzzy, the finer details are beginning to come into focus. So that there is… Earth? It looks like a quasi-open electrical circuit.43 We can just about make out electrical and magnetic fields which “affect everything within their range of influence that is electrically charged”, “magnetized or magnetizable”.44 Now floating into view, the geosphere and the atmosphere work as facilitators for EM and SEM energy to flow across Earth’s natural circuit, the water of the hydrosphere acting as a conductor for EM energy released around it, and an enhancer for the kinetic → acoustic → electromagnetic chain.
Just as the gentle hum turns into a deafening roar, the full picture emerges: us humans along with other forms of life, whether it be hoarded into big cities, dispersed throughout remote villages or inhabiting the biodiverse ecosystems of Earth, are being constantly bombarded from above and below with largely unseen and unfelt EM energy. And, if we backtrack far enough, if we follow the causal chains into the weeds and out the other side, much of this energy is in some way or another related to fault lines.
Before we get too excited and run off into the bushes, now is an important time to emphasise time-scales. “Constantly” does not necessarily mean every single second of every single day when we are talking about evolutionary time-scales. In the case of Life in general, this top-down and bottom-up energy bombardment has been going on for millions, if not billions, of years. In the case of human (or hominin) life, EM and SEM energy has been passing throughout our biosphere for the entirety of our hundreds of thousands of years (plus some) worth of existence. Put more simply:
Biological life exists in a bubble consistently run through with electrical and magnetic energy.
Consequently, an image like the one finally held before us begs the question:
What does it mean to exist in the middle of an electromagnetic shooting gallery?
Hyperbole? Perhaps. But no doubt our species gets hit. And hit more frequently than we may care to imagine. Given our position in physical space it appears unavoidable. And, given this revelation, it is only fair to ask what effects this EM bombardment has had, from our earliest development to modern times, on the conscious human experience.
To answer such a question, to run head first into those bushes and emerge on the other side with nothing but a crazed smile and a bead of intrigue clenched in our fist, we need to concede the possibility that seismically-derived effects, including related geomagnetic and solar mechanisms, have helped shape human life in very profound way. In the previous Part 1.2 we saw a line of correlation connecting fault lines and fundamental human markers and attempted a surface-level exploration. Now, in light of the clear energetic preponderance fault lines contain, not just kinetic but also the various forms of seismoelectromagnetic energy, as well as the interconnected Four Sphere occurences like telluric currents and other geomagnetic, atmospheric and geospheric fluctuations, where best to dust for fault line fingerprints next? Much deeper, it seems, than the surface-level destruction we have all become so accustomed to thinking about.
So what next? Our human species, as well as Life in general, maximises its consumption of “free energy”.45 If we were to ask where are the most energetic areas of our planet, from what we have just seen, fault zones are clearly high on that list. From this starting point, then, the next part of this article series will explore the connection between the existence of “free”46 EM energy across our planetary fault lines and the attraction to, and development of, Life in these niches. Could this energy be another causative mechanism that has attracted us into the hard yet subtle fault line embrace?
No, don’t fret - unlike other clubs, you are allowed to speak about this one.
Not to get confused with “gravitational waves”
Explored shortly…
Ibid.
EM will be the umbrella term for all electric or magnetic-derived forces coming from (tectonic movement) and interacting with the Earth (solar and lunar influenced), including telluric currents and geomagnetic forces, unless stated otherwise. Whilst it is noted that piezoelectricity is technically an electrostatic force rather than an electromagnetic force, it will also be put under this category for ease of dialogue.
At risk of overgeneralization when I say “constant”, I am talking about the entire H.sapien experience - all the 350,000+ years of it. I am thus referring to a “constant” over large time scales, not over a few generations of modern history.
See: Gao et al, 2014
“Outwards” here may be a bit misleading; EM energy can travel in any direction from the seismic hotspot (north, south, east or west, or any combination of all four). “Outwards” instead is used to signify the energy moving away from the seismic point of origin.
Because frequency denotes wavelength and together both frequency and wavelength denote the speed, which together with time allows us to work out the distance these waves can travel.
For example, see: Faraday, 1845, P.6. (Update: the free Internet Archive has recently come under attack from various lawsuits and is thus drastically reduced in scale. I am not sure if this book/link will be available for free by the time this article is released…) Also,see Sheldrake, 2024.
“the GMF can be considered as a sum of several different fields, such as a uniform magnetic field, continental magnetic field, anomalous magnetic field, external magnetic field, and a variation field” or, more succinctly, “The GMF could be also considered as a sum of two components, such as the Internal or the Main Field… and the External Field [magnetosphere]” Erdmann et al, 2021.
Not wanting to be misleading, it must be stated that EM energy generation exists along a continuum, and the spatial metaphor of bottom-up is merely used to denote some directionality in this context e.g. from the sub-surface → above-surface: fault zones → seismic waves → GMF.
Which to me looks suspiciously like a giant ant…
See: Zhang et al, 2018
See: Helman, 2014
See: Reynard et al, 2014 for description of how the type of subduction zone (e.g. hot or cold) can itself affect conductivity of a specific fault zone.
"Attenuation" here refers specifically to the dissipation or loss of energy as EM waves or currents travel through conductive materials. Highly conductive fault zones reduce this attenuation compared to non-conductive regions.
Assuming an average ground resistance of 250 ohms.
Assuming an average ground resistance of 250 ohms. See also: Caglar & Eryildiz, 2000.
When mechanical stress from tectonic movement is applied, it causes a shift in the position of atoms within the crystal lattice, creating an imbalance in distribution of the electrical charge across a material.
Whilst it is related to EM forces (as it interacts with them) piezoelectricity is more accurately seen as an electrostatic force itself, but for ease of discussion it will remain under the umbrella EM category in this work.
Unless you are counting the vacuum of space.
Open in the sense that it is constantly interacting with the space around it. Of course any statement like this will no doubt be an oversimplification, and an “electrical circuit” implies directed current, whereas the currents running through Earth are far more complex and less structured. Yet, as we have seen, the Earth is full of EM energy and is technically a giant open electrical circuit, so the metaphor still stands.
Whilst this will be a focus of the next part in this article series, see: Schneider & Kay, 1994, Morowitz & Smith, 2006 & Kleidon, 2023.
“Free” in airq uotes because there is certainly a price to pay for consuming fault zone energy, just not a price many of us are used to paying.