Earth Changes
New Zealand's emergency agency has told residents in some areas to head for higher ground after a powerful earthquake struck the Kermadec Islands region early Friday, sparking fears of a tsunami.
The 8.1-magnitude quake was the third to strike the area on Friday morning local time, according to the New Zealand National Emergency Management Agency.
People near the coast must "move immediately to the nearest high ground, out of all tsunami evacuation zones, or as far inland as possible. Do not stay at home," the New Zealand agency states on its website.
The Kermadec Islands are 500 - 620 miles northeast of New Zealand's North Island. The East Coast of the North Island from the Bay of Islands to Whangarei, from Matata to Tolaga Bay including Whakatane and Opotiki and Great Barrier Island are all included in the Pacific nation's tsunami warning.
Earthquake of magnitude 7.2 strikes Kermadec Islands - 3rd strong quake in the region within 5 hours
The quake was at a depth of 10 km (6.21 miles), EMSC said.
(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
Source: Reuters
The epicenter, with a depth of 172.14 km, was initially determined to be at 14.4487 degrees south latitude and 167.2953 degrees east longitude.
Comment: This keeps happening. In the last couple of years, strong quakes have been occurring on or very close to significant anniversaries (from the point of view of the afflicted country)...
Quake centred at 10km depth, about 178km from town of Gisborne, where people felt shaking
Authorities in New Zealand have issued a tsunami warning after a shallow, powerful earthquake struck off the country's north-eastern coast in the early hours of Friday.
The quake measured a preliminary 6.9 magnitude and was centered at a depth of 10km (six miles) approximately 178km north-east of the city of Gisborne, the US Geological Survey said. Residents of Gisborne reported light to moderate shaking, it said.
There were no immediate reports of serious damage or casualties, but the New Zealand National Emergency Management Agency warned people who had felt a powerful tremor to move to higher ground, writing in a tweet:
Comment: UPDATE 1900 CET
A second quake has struck off New Zealand - also a 7.3M - and this one was much closer, just 60 miles off the coast of North Island.
UPDATE 2100 CET
A THIRD, even bigger, quake has struck off NZ. This one has been recorded at 8.0M, and thankfully it struck much further to the north, near the Kermadec Islands. Tsunami warnings have sounded across North Island's northern coastline.
Last month, Fukushima, Japan, felt its strongest quake since the March 2011 disaster. In September 2017, Mexico City felt its strongest since the horrendous 1985 quake struck there - on the same day, 32 years earlier.
Now, we're not saying that anthropocentric dating is the key factor here, but these recent examples of 'resonating dates' do suggest some kind of role for mass consciousness in natural, otherwise 'random' events.
Human-cosmic connection, anyone? Is some 'mass mind effect' involved (sometimes) in the timing/release of certain planetary/cosmic energies?
February saw a host of environmental disasters, including floods in Turkey and Japan, a powerful volcanic eruption in Italy's Mt. Etna, and heavy monsoon rains in Indonesia.
Here is a timeline compiled by Anadolu Agency.
Feb. 1:
- The US northeast is in the midst of a massive snow storm with some areas expected to receive up to 2 feet of snow.
Feb. 2:
- Heavy rainfall in western Turkey floods some parts of Izmir province, leaving two dead.
Rivers continue to flow out of their banks from Texas to West Virginia where 18 states are on alert for flooding on Wednesday.
The Kentucky River and Ohio River are most at risk for major to moderate flooding to continue for the next several days as entire towns continue to be submerged under water in Kentucky where a state of emergency has been declared.
The rain, however, should stay away from the flooded region for the next several days.
The midday incident in Porter, north of Kingwood, happened about a year after the family moved to the area for a fresh start: A new home, church and friends.
"I'm devastated," said Stephenson's husband, Bruce Clark. "They took everything. I got nothing."
Clark is disabled and Stephenson was also his caretaker. He said they have two children together.

Mount Keilir, about 20 miles south of Reykjavik. Scientists said there was no immediate danger to the public.
"We are not saying we have signs an eruption has begun," Kristín Jónsdóttir of the Icelandic meteorological office told local media on Wednesday. "But this looks like the type of activity we expect in the run-up to an eruption."
Víðir Reynisson of the island's civil defence force told a mid-afternoon news conference it was "more likely than not" that an eruption - the first in the area since the 12th century - was about to begin, and could happen within the next few hours.
But Víðir said there was "no disaster going on and everyone can get on with their daily lives". There was no immediate danger, he said, although people should avoid travelling to the area on the Reykjanes peninsula.
Thousands of tremors measuring up to 5 on the Richter scale have been recorded on the peninsula during the past week. Freysteinn Sigmundsson, a geophysicist, said that if it came, the eruption could also be delayed by several days.
Officials stopped short of ordering evacuations following the so-called strombolian eruption, explosions that consist of relatively mild blasts but eject burning cinders and lava bombs.
One of the Central American country's most active volcanoes, Pacaya began to expel lava at dawn, creating an immense column of smoke, video footage from the institute showed.
"The Pacaya volcano has a very high level of activity, which has generated a strombolian type eruption, with strong explosions," the meteorological institute, Insivumeh, said in a statement.
Comment: The other two:
New Zealand tsunami warning after 6.9-magnitude earthquake
6.1-magnitude earthquake hits off Vanuatu