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Tsunamis, earthquakes overdue in Lake Tahoe

Becky Oskin
OurAmazingPlanet
Wed, 05 Dec 2012 17:21 UTC
Lake Tahoe
© Jillian Maloney, Scripps
A lidar image of Fallen Leaf Lake in the Lake Tahoe Basin. The blue line is the West Tahoe Fault. The rainbow hues reflect the depth of the lake.
San Francisco - A tsunami-producing fault in Lake Tahoe is overdue for another earthquake, scientists said here yesterday (Dec. 4) at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

The West Tahoe Fault is capable of producing a magnitude-7.3 earthquake and tsunamis up to 30 feet (10 meters) high in the clear blue lake, where million-dollar homes line the shore, researchers said.

Earthquakes strike every 3,000 to 4,000 years on the fault, and the most recent shaker was 4,500 years ago, indicating the fault is overdue for another earthquake, said Jillian Maloney, a graduate student at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego.

The West Tahoe fault defines the west shore of the lake, coming on shore at Baldwin Beach, passing through the southern third of Fallen Leaf Lake, and then descending into Christmas Valley near Echo Summit.
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Attention

Eight dead in magnitude 5.5 earthquake in eastern Iran

Marcus George
Reuters
Wed, 05 Dec 2012 04:39 UTC
Image
Dubai - An earthquake measuring 5.5 in magnitude struck eastern Iran on Wednesday, killing eight people and injuring 12 others as emergency teams scrambled to rescue others and treat the injured, Iranian media reported.

People fled their homes as the quake struck and brought walls and buildings down. But others were left trapped under rubble in villages across the district of Zohan in South Khorasan province, Fars news agency said.

"Eight people have been killed in the earthquake area and one person is missing. Unfortunately a number of those injured have lost their lives in the last few hours," Mehr news agency quoted South Khorasan's crisis management director Mohammad Ali Akhundi as saying.

"Homes have sustained damage and people are out in public places and they need the means to keep themselves warm because of the cold," he said.

Iran's Red Crescent Society despatched 15 rescue teams to the affected areas to search for people stuck under the debris and doctors in the provincial capital of Birjand were on alert to treat those hurt, Fars new agency reported.

Rescue units of Iran's national Basij militia also joined operations, despatching three medical teams.
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Info

Hotspots for huge earthquakes revealed

Douglas Main
OurAmazingPlanet
Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:30 UTC
Earthquake Map
© John Nelson, IDV Solutions
More than 100 years of earthquakes glow on a world map.
The strongest earthquakes that strike the planet, such as the 9.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Japan last year, occur at particular "hotspot" points of Earth's crust, a new study finds.

About 87 percent of the 15 largest earthquakes in the last century occurred in the intersection between specific areas on spreading ocean plates, called oceanic fracture zones, and subduction zones, where one tectonic plate slides underneath another, according to the paper, published recently in the journal Solid Earth. The scientists used a data mining method to find correlations between locations of earthquakes over the last 100 years, the strength and geological origin.

The bottom of the ocean is crossed by underwater ridges, such as the mid-Atlantic ridge, which runs north to south between the Americas and Africa. These ridges divide two tectonic plates that move apart as lava emerges, solidifying and creating new rock. The midocean ridge jogs back and forth at offsets known as transform faults, creating zigzag-shaped plate boundaries. Fracture zones are scars in the ocean floor left by these transform faults.
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Snowflake

Global warming? Heavy snow brings Stockholm to a standstill


sverigesradio.se
Wed, 05 Dec 2012 16:11 UTC
stockholm snow
© Jessica Gow/Scanpix
A street in central Stockholm on Wednesday
Heavy snowfall in the southeast has disrupted traffic in Stockholm, where planes have been unable to take off and many bus and train lines stopped running. Several schools closed early on Wednesday. The snowfall is expected to continue through the night. The Transport Authority has advised people in the Stockholm region to avoid traveling by car.

The weather service issued a class 2 warning for Sweden's southeast due to the heavy snowfall and winds, meaning the weather could put the public in danger and disrupt infrastructure.

"Commuters can expect the snowfall to continue," meteorologist Linnea Rehn with the weather service SMHI tells Swedish Radio. There may yet be another 10 centimetres before this evening."
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Question

Explosion investigation comes up empty

Courtney Caligiuri
WPRI
Tue, 04 Dec 2012 18:49 UTC
Barrington, R.I. -- While authorities still do not know the source, residents are sticking to their story saying they heard a large explosion coming from Narragansett Bay Monday night.

Reports of the phantom boom kept crews busy in both Barrington and Warwick after residents reported hearing the strange disruption around 11:30 p.m.

"I was downstairs in my basement, I have small windows, and I was able to see a flash of light and it was basically the biggest explosion I've ever heard in my whole life," said Mark Etheridge, an eyewitness who lives near Narragansett Bay in Barrington.

"It shook the windows and made my neighbors alert too. The only way to describe it was like a single loud 'boom' noise that sounded somewhat like an explosion," said an Eyewitness News viewer via ReportIt.
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Comet 2

Two very loud booms heard across Verde Valley, Arizona

Steve Ayers
Verde Independent
Wed, 05 Dec 2012 12:47 UTC
Loud Noise
© Verde Independent
(U.S.) - Just before 5 p.m. Tuesday, a loud boom followed by a second blast that shook windows from Cornville to Jerome, rocked the Verde Valley.

By Wednesday, the noises, whatever they were, were all the buzz.

"There was a boom and I thought, thunder. But as I was looking around for clouds I heard a second one that sounded like it came from Mingus Mountain. Then I went to see if the spring on my garage door opener had broke," says Camp Verde resident John Stephens.

Kristi Gagnon, fire marshal for the Camp Verde Fire District, said she and fire Chief Clayton Young were in the administrative offices when they heard the noises. Having grown up in California, Gagnon thought it was an earthquake.

"It had that similar sound but nothing was shaking and the ground wasn't moving. It was interesting for sure," said Gagnon.

Gagnon said she did get a report from a resident living near the Camp Verde Library who said the noise actually "shook stuff off the shelf."

Their curiosity eventually drove them outside the building, believing something had hit the roof, but found nothing there.

Chief Joe Moore with the Clarkdale Fire District heard it, too, and reported that it sounded just like dynamite.

Whatever it was, it did not appear to be isolated to the Verde Valley.
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Igloo

Summer snow storm at Falls Creek, Australia


Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Wed, 05 Dec 2012 13:01 UTC
Summer Snow
© ABC/Audience submitted
Zoe 9, of Mt Beauty, makes the most of the summer snow at Falls Creek.
It is officially the fifth day of summer, but it snowed overnight at Falls Creek, in Victoria's north-east.

The ski resort received up to six centimetres of snow.

Resident photographer Chris Hocking says the wind chill took apparent temperatures to minus 6 degrees Celsius at times and the ground has turned white.

"We've probably seen four to six centimetres on the ground [and] a little more up high," he said.

"Temps are in sort of mid-winter chill and [it's] just amazing to see the ground turn pretty much white all around the resort."

Mount Baw Baw and Mount Hotham have also had snow. Gina Woodward from Mount Hotham says it is surprising, given temperatures in the north of the state broke heat records last week.

"[It's] pretty cold, minus 1.6C right now," she said.
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Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 5.6 - 42km ESE of Qayen, Iran


US Geological Survey
Wed, 05 Dec 2012 11:39 UTC
Image
© USGS
Event Time
2012-12-05 20:38:12 UTC+03:30 at epicenter

Location
33.520°N 59.570°E depth=5.4km (3.3mi)

Nearby Cities
42km (26mi) ESE of Qayen, Iran
79km (49mi) NNE of Birjand, Iran
123km (76mi) SE of Gonabad, Iran
175km (109mi) SW of Taybad, Iran
503km (313mi) SSE of Ashgabat, Turkmenistan
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Cloud Lightning

Updated Philippine death toll from Typhoon Bopha rises: 100 feared dead


The Extinction Protocol
Wed, 05 Dec 2012 08:12 UTC
Image
The death toll from a powerful storm that hit the southern Philippines is continuing to rise, as rescue teams headed for affected areas. More than 100 people are now thought to have died after Typhoon Bopha struck Mindanao island on Tuesday, bringing rain and high winds. Tens of thousands were evacuated ahead of the storm, which is now passing over the western island of Palawan. One other person was reported missing on the central island of Leyte after Bopha made landfall on Mindanao's east coast at dawn, bringing driving rain and packing gusts of up to 210 kilometres (130 miles) an hour, he said. In Andap village in east Mindanao, at least 43 were killed in flash floods. Water and mud rushed down mountainous slopes to engulf a school and a village hall serving as evacuation centers. Heavy rain caused rivers to burst their banks in some places.

"They thought that they were already secure in a safe area, but they didn't know the torrents of water would go their way," Compostela Valley Provincial Governor Arturo Uy told local media. A road into the town was blocked by debris, reports said, but the military said it was hoping to get helicopters into the area to assess the situation. Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said body bags and other emergency supplies would be rushed to affected areas. "The bodies are left lying on the ground in the open in New Bataan and we don't want to risk the spread of disease," she told Agence-France Presse news agency.
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Bizarro Earth

Seismic swarm of 2000 micro-earthquakes near the island of Nisyros - Eruption imminent?


The Extinction Protocol
Wed, 05 Dec 2012 08:05 UTC
Image
A seismic swarm of 2000 micro-earthquakes near the island of Nisyros since 24 November could indicate a start of a or coming of a volcanic eruption near Nisyros. The quakes are located between the area of Simi Island (Greece) and the Bozburun peninsula of SW of Turkey. Information is still scanty, but seismic signals from this possible eruption are very similar to those recorded from current volcanic eruptions. If an eruption is taking place, it would form a new submarine volcano near Nisyros. No proof has yet been found to prove that an eruption may be taking place. Some sources think the swarm may be tectonic (as the Aegean sea is very seismically active).

The Volcano Discovery alert will be kept at Green until further evidence is found. The island has a 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) to 4 kilometers (2.5 mi) wide caldera, and was constructed within the past 150,000 years, with 3 separate eruptive stages, ranging from explosive and effusive andesitic eruptions to effusive and extrusive dacitic and rhyolitic activity.
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