Date-Time:
Sunday, March 25, 2012 at 22:37:06 UTC
Sunday, March 25, 2012 at 06:37:06 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
35.183°S, 71.792°W

Depth:
34.8 km (21.6 miles)

Region:
MAULE, CHILE

Distances:
27 km (16 miles) NNW of Talca, Maule, Chile

55 km (34 miles) WSW of Curico, Maule, Chile

99 km (61 miles) NNE of Cauquenes, Maule, Chile

219 km (136 miles) SSW of SANTIAGO, Region Metropolitana, Chile

Santiago feels effects of 7.2 tremor with emergency agency evacuating some coastal areas, although tsunamis not expected
A magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit central Chile on Sunday, shaking buildings in the capital Santiago and the government emergency agency, ONEMI, said it was preventively evacuating some areas of the coast.

The quake struck 64 miles (103 km) west north west of the town of Talca at a depth of 6.2 miles (10 km), the US Geological Survey said.

Magnitude 7.0 quakes or greater are capable of causing widespread, heavy damage.

ONEMI said, however, that the quake was not expected to generate a tsunami off the coast.

The latest earthquake hit near the same central region that struck by a massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake in 2010 and tsnunamis in 2010 that killed about 500 people.

The central area is home to some important copper mines, but the bulk of output in the world's top copper exporting nation is concentrated in the far northern region.

Source: Reuters

The United States and Canada just basked in an unusually mild winter. Temperatures ranked fourth warmest on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and many spring flowers are already blooming. But did the birds notice? Definitely, according to the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC), an annual tally of bird sightings collected by amateur birders across the United States and Canada. The numbers reveal that the snowy owl population in particular boomed and that many other birds showed up in more northerly latitudes than usual.

GBBC, now in its 15th year, is a joint effort by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York, and the National Audubon Society, headquartered in New York City. This year, birders, who were instructed to identify and record whatever birds they happened to see in their yards and neighborhoods between 17 and 20 February, tallied 17.4 million individual sightings. Pat Leonard, GBBC's director of communications, says that it's unclear how many individuals took part because each observer can submit more than one sighting checklist, but he estimates that between 65,000 and 70,000 volunteers participated.

Ornithologists working with GBBC analyzed the data and found a number of unexpected trends. One of the biggest surprises, says Marshall Iliff, an ornithologist at the Cornell lab who co-authored the report and leads a smaller, year-long project similar to GBBC called eBird, was an explosion in sightings of the snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus). In November, reports began trickling in to eBird that the snowy owl, which primarily lives north of the Arctic Circle, was showing up in unexpectedly large numbers in the United States and southern Canada, and GBBC's tally backs that up. Observers reported 428 sightings of the owl, which is four times the number from the same time last year. "This snowy owl thing is pretty surprising," Iliff says.

A severe drought in Mexico that has cost farmers more than a billion dollars in crop losses alone and set back the national cattle herd for years, is just a foretaste of the drier future facing Latin America's second largest economy.

As water tankers race across northern Mexico to reach far-flung towns, and crops wither in the fields, the government has allotted 34 billion pesos ($2.65 billion) in emergency aid to confront the worst drought ever recorded in the country.

The water shortage wiped out millions of acres of farmland this winter, caused 15 billion pesos ($1.18 billion) in lost harvests, killed 60,000 head of cattle and weakened 2 million more livestock, pushing food prices higher in Mexico.

The overall cost to the economy is still being gauged but Mexico's drought-stung winter has been evolving for years and is expected to worsen as the effect of global climate change takes hold, according to the government.

"Droughts are cyclical - we know that - but they are growing more frequent and severe due to climate change," said Elvira Quesada, the Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources.

In separate events, mysterious booms shook residents of Alabama, Georgia, and Wisconsin. So far, government activities, earthquakes, and sonic booms are ruled out.

It is a warm, breezy afternoon with plenty of sunshine. Outside, you can smell the flowers blooming. In the horizon, the sky appears slightly tinted with a green haze as the pollen swarms the air. Birds are chirping, and the bees are flying from flower to flower. Spring has finally arrived. Everything is perfect, and care free. All of a sudden, the serene and peaceful landscape screams....

BOOOOOOOM!

The ground slightly shakes, and it feels like a large tremor is occurring.

Immediately, you tune into your television, open up your facebook and twitter feeds to find out exactly what is going on. You realize you were not the only one who felt the Earth shake from under you. Others, just like yourself, heard a loud explosion, but had no idea where it came from. Was it an earthquake? No, there was no seismic activity in your area that would register high enough to feel the Earth shake from under you. Did a meteor hit the Earth? Did a house explode? Did a plane crash nearby? No signs of a fire or smoke outside your house.

Remember New Year's Eve 2010 when thousands of birds mysteriously dropped from the sky over Beebe, Arkansas? Well, the mystery has been solved.

Last May, a crew from the National Geographic Channel dropped by the NewsChannel5 Weather Office. They wanted to see what important information we had found regarding the bird deaths over Beebe. Indeed, my research indicated a unique radar signature several thousand feet above the birds just as the mass deaths were occurring. With the help of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a unique weather phenomenon was blamed for startling the birds and causing the mayhem that resulted in the demise of thousands of birds that night.

On Thursday, an all-new National Geographic Special will debut explaining the Beebe event as well as several other mass animal deaths that occurred last winter. The show, "Omens of the Apocalypse," airs on the National Geographic Channel at 10 p.m.

Here's the original story from last January: Something weird happened in Beebe, Arkansas just before midnight on January 1st, 2010. Thousands of red-winged blackbirds literally fell from the sky throughout the town. Most of the birds were dead. A few were alive, but lthough barely. Results from preliminary testing released today by the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission Veterinary Diagnostic Lab show that red-winged blackbirds died from massive body trauma.

"This was the biggest dose of heat we've received from a solar storm since 2005," says Martin Mlynczak of NASA Langley Research Center. "It was a big event, and shows how solar activity can directly affect our planet."

Mlynczak is the associate principal investigator for the SABER instrument onboard NASA's TIMED satellite. SABER monitors infrared emissions from Earth's upper atmosphere, in particular from carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitric oxide (NO), two substances that play a key role in the energy balance of air hundreds of km above our planet's surface.

"Carbon dioxide and nitric oxide are natural thermostats," explains James Russell of Hampton University, SABER's principal investigator. "When the upper atmosphere (or 'thermosphere') heats up, these molecules try as hard as they can to shed that heat back into space."

The earthquake's epicentre was recorded at shallow depth near Ernabella, 415km north west of Coober Pedy and about 320km south west of Alice Springs, just before 8pm yesterday.

Geoscience Australia reported the quake could have been felt by people up to 500km away and damage experienced within a 40km radius of the epicentre.

Geoscience Australia seismologist David Jepsen said the quake was the biggest in Australia in 15 years.

''There are a number of Aboriginal communities near the epicentre and they would have felt the earthquake strongly,'' he said.

''It is possible there could be some minor damage up there. One of these in a major city would be a different story.

''People as far north as Alice Springs and as far south as Coober Pedy and Oodnadatta could have felt this.''

Federal geologists say a minor earthquake occurred this week near the Wisconsin city where researchers have been investigating a series of unexplained booming sounds. The U.S. Geological Survey said Thursday the 1.5 magnitude earthquake struck Tuesday just after midnight in the eastern Wisconsin city of Clintonville.

Geophysicist Paul Caruso says loud booming noises have been known to accompany earthquakes. He says it's possible the mysterious sounds are linked to the quake.

City officials have been seeking answers related to the late-night booms, which started Sunday night and have as yet defied explanation.

Officials have tried to record a series of mysterious booming sounds that have roused residents from their beds in the past few days, but their attempts have come up empty.

City administrator Lisa Kuss, addressing a crowd of about 400 people Wednesday night at a public hearing to talk about the phenomenon, said the city will spend $7,000 to hire Waukesha-based engineering firm Ruekert & Mielke, which will place four seismometers around the city to try to locate the epicenter of the strange sounds.

If the firm finds the epicenter, the next step will be to pinpoint the depth and what is causing it. The cause is likely only a couple hundred feet under the earth's surface, Kuss said.

"It's possible we'll never have a definitive answer," Kuss told the audience at the Clintonville High School auditorium.

The big shakes have elicited big attention and the room was lined with media, including reporters from CNN, NBC and a photographer taking photos for the New York Times.

See an interactive map of where the reported "booms" have occured in Clintonville