Earth ChangesS


Bell

Magnitude 4.8 - Near the coast of Nicaragua

Earthquake Details

Magnitude 4.8
Date-Time

* Friday, March 11, 2011 at 16:54:52 UTC
* Friday, March 11, 2011 at 10:54:52 AM at epicenter
* Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 12.304°N, 87.514°W
Depth 64.3 km (40.0 miles)
Region NEAR THE COAST OF NICARAGUA
Distances 52 km (32 miles) SW of Chinandega, Nicaragua
70 km (43 miles) WSW of Leon, Nicaragua
136 km (84 miles) W of MANAGUA, Nicaragua
1475 km (916 miles) ESE of MEXICO CITY, D.F., Mexico

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 25.2 km (15.7 miles); depth +/- 2.2 km (1.4 miles)

Cloud Lightning

Another strong quake rattles Japan

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Earthquakes Japan can handle, but tsunamis are another story
A powerful earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale has struck the coast of Honshu in eastern Japan.

The quake struck at 8:24 a.m. local time on Sunday (2324 GMT on Saturday), according to the US Geological Survey.

The epicenter was monitored at 37.9813 degrees north latitude and 141.8492 degrees east longitude, with a depth of 24.8 kilometers (14 miles), the Xinhua news agency reported.

The quake was followed by a 6.6-magnitude aftershock two minutes later.

Japan is still conducting rescue operations in the aftermath of Friday's 8.9-magnitude earthquake, which triggered a 23-foot (7-meter) tsunami and over 50 aftershocks, with many measuring more than 6.0 on the Richter scale.

There are concerns that the death toll from the catastrophic earthquake could exceed 1,800.

Bizarro Earth

Best of the Web: US: Terrifying ordeal for 800 motorists rescued from their cars as blizzard sweeps through North Dakota

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© APGoing nowhere: Motorists had to abandon their cars in North Dakota after 60mph winds caused a blizzard and plunging temperatures turned roads to ice rinks.
Around 800 people had to be rescued from their cars after a blizzard in North Dakota made roads impassable.

Motorists were yesterday forced to abandon their vehicles after 60mph winds created whiteouts and plunging temperatures turned roads to ice rinks throughout the state.

Traffic came to a grinding halt and there were multiple pileups that caused more delay. Miraculously there were reports of only minor injuries.

Rescue workers, including around 70 soldiers, had to use military lorries and other heavy vehicles that could plough through huge snow drifts to pluck people from more than 500 cars abandoned along major highway routes.

They were taken to churches, schools, bars and gas stations that became makeshift shelters while the highways were closed.

Katie Woodbury, a North Dakota State College freshman, was driving from the school in Fargo to her family's farm in Stanley, northwest North Dakota, when road conditions forced her take shelter at a church in Medina.

'It was scary - I was talking to myself the whole time,' she said of her drive. 'I just want to get home and see my mom and dad and the 13 new piglets at the farm.'

She said she talked to her parents by phone today and, after having a hot meal, was just waiting for the weather to clear.

Nuke

Second State of Emergency Declared after radiation recorded at Onagawa plant

Onagava
© EPA/BGNES Japanese Tsunami survivors survey damage in the devastated town of Onagawa, Miyagi prefecture, Japan, 13 March 2011.
A state of emergency has been declared at a Japanese nuclear facility at Onagawa after excessive radiation levels were recorded there following Friday's earthquake, the UN atomic watchdog.

"Japanese authorities have informed the IAEA that the first or lowest state of emergency at the Onagawa nuclear power plant has been reported by Tohoku Electric Power Company," the International Atomic Energy Agency said.

The alert was declared "as a consequence of radioactivity readings exceeding allowed levels in the area surrounding the plant".

"Japanese authorities are investigating the source of radiation," the watchdog said.

According to the authorities, the three reactor units at the Onagawa nuclear power plant "are under control".

Regarding the ageing Fukushima plant, where an explosion occurred on Saturday, the IAEA said that venting of the reactor Unit 3 had started at 9:20am local time in Japan yesterday "through a controlled release of vapour".

The operation was intended to lower pressure inside the reactor containment, the IAEA said.

Camera

Best of the Web: Photos: Japan Earthquake Aftermath

Three days after a massive earthquake that is now estimated to have registered a 9.0 magnitude, Japanese rescue crews are being joined by foreign aid teams in the search for survivors in the wreckage. Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan has called the disaster the nation's worst crisis since World War II, as the incredible scope of the destruction becomes clear and fears mount of a possible nuclear meltdown at a failing power plant. It is still too early for exact numbers, but the estimated death toll may top 10,000 as thousands remain unaccounted for. Gathered here are new images of the destruction and of the search for survivors.

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© REUTERS/Mainichi ShimbunA wave approaches Miyako City from the Heigawa estuary in Iwate Prefecture after the magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck the area March 11, 2011. Picture taken March 11, 2011.

Bell

Japanese volcano erupts

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A volcano in southwestern Japan erupted Sunday after nearly two weeks of relative silence, sending ash and rocks up to four kilometres (two and a half miles) into the air, a local official says.

It was not immediately clear if the eruption was a direct result of the massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake that rocked northern areas Friday, unleashing a fierce tsunami and sparking fears that more than 10,000 may have been killed.

The 1,421-metre (4,689-feet) Shinmoedake volcano in the Kirishima range saw its first major eruption for 52 years in January. There had not been any major activity at the site since March 1.

Authorities have maintained a volcano warning at a level of three out of five, restricting access to the entire mountain.

In April last year, the eruption of the Eyjafjoell volcano in Iceland dispersed a vast cloud of ash, triggering a huge shutdown of airspace that affected more than 100,000 flights and eight million passengers.

Stop

UK: Young sperm whale washed up on Kent coast had 'starved to death'

A whale found dead off the south coast starved to death, initial findings have revealed.

The 45ft long sperm whale was found stranded on a beach in Pegwell Bay, off the Kent coast, yesterday.

The juvenile male had not eaten for some time and had become dehydrated, a preliminary post-mortem examination found.

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© Philip ToscanoTragic: A Kent Coastguard and a police officer next to the dead body of a sperm whale, showing the scale of the 45ft-long mammal at Pegwell Bay in Kent
Scientists from the Zoological Society of London carried out the investigation as part of the Defra funded collaborative UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP).

Rob Deaville, project manager of the CSIP, said: 'Preliminary results from the post-mortem examination indicate that the whale had not fed for a long time, suggesting it had become dehydrated, which most likely played a role in its live stranding.

'Further tests will now be carried out to determine the full picture'.

The mammal was spotted at yesterday morning and although rescuers were called it later died.

Whale beachings are rarely explained. Scientists attribute them to natural and environmental factors such as rough weather, weakness due to old age, hunting too close to shore and navigation errors.

X

Japan quake: Toll may cross 10,000 in Miyagi alone

The toll from a magnitude-8.9 earthquake in Japan could exceed 10,000 in the hardest-hit prefecture of Miyagi alone, police said on Sunday, as other officials tried to reassure the public that reactors at two damaged nuclear power plants posed no immediate danger.

"I have no doubt" that the death toll would rise above 10,000 in the prefecture, public broadcaster NHK quoted police chief Takeuchi Naoto as saying.

About 800 deaths had been confirmed so far in Miyagi and other areas in northeastern Japan, which were hit Friday by the quake and a tsunami. No contact could be established with about 10,000 residents of the town of Minamisanriku.

Bizarro Earth

Flashback German scientists put Earth back on track! NASA claim of axis tilt "ludicrous"

Top German scientists have said NASA's claim that the quake in Chile moved the Earth's axis and shortened the length of a day is ludicrous.

The monster tremor killed at least 800 people and supposedly moved gigantic masses around the planet. NASA had reported that the catastrophe shifted the Earth's axis and made a day shorter by a fraction.

But now German researchers have said that the claims are completely without basis.

NASA scientists said on Tuesday that the earthquake moved the Earth's axis by eight centimetres.

Richard Gross used a computer model to come to this conclusion. He also claimed that days will become shorter by 1.26 microseconds.

Better Earth

Flashback Chilean Quake Likely Shifted Earth's Axis, NASA Scientist Says

The earthquake that killed more than 700 people in Chile on Feb. 27 probably shifted the Earth's axis and shortened the day, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientist said.

Earthquakes can involve shifting hundreds of kilometers of rock by several meters, changing the distribution of mass on the planet. This affects the Earth's rotation, said Richard Gross, a geophysicist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who uses a computer model to calculate the effects.

"The length of the day should have gotten shorter by 1.26 microseconds (millionths of a second)," Gross, said today in an e-mailed reply to questions. "The axis about which the Earth's mass is balanced should have moved by 2.7 milliarcseconds (about 8 centimeters or 3 inches)."