McDonald - Officials said Saturday they believe the latest earthquake activity in northeast Ohio is related to the injection of wastewater into the ground near a fault line, creating enough pressure to cause seismic activity.
The brine wastewater comes from drilling operations that use the so-called fracking process to extract gas from underground shale. But Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director Jim Zehringer said during a news teleconference that fracking is not causing the quakes.
"The seismic events are not a direct result of fracking," he said.
Environmentalists and property owners who live near gas drilling wells have questioned the safety of fracking to the environment and public health. Federal regulators have declared the technology safe, however.
Earth Changes
Tokyo - A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck under the sea south of Japan on Sunday, shaking buildings in the capital but causing no apparent damage or tsunami.
The quake struck near the uninhabited island of Torishima in the Pacific Ocean, about 370 miles south of Tokyo, and its epicenter was about 230 miles below the sea, the Meterological Agency said. It did not generate a tsunami.
Buildings in the Tokyo area shook, but no damage or injuries were reported. Express trains in northern and central Japan were suspended temporarily for safety checks but later resumed.
No abnormalities were reported at power plants, including the crippled nuclear power plant in northeast Japan hit by the March earthquake and tsunami, public broadcaster NHK reported.
The quake struck near the uninhabited island of Torishima in the Pacific Ocean, about 370 miles south of Tokyo, and its epicenter was about 230 miles below the sea, the Meterological Agency said. It did not generate a tsunami.
Buildings in the Tokyo area shook, but no damage or injuries were reported. Express trains in northern and central Japan were suspended temporarily for safety checks but later resumed.
No abnormalities were reported at power plants, including the crippled nuclear power plant in northeast Japan hit by the March earthquake and tsunami, public broadcaster NHK reported.
© Yoshiaki Miura
Hot or not: Hiroko Aki, a resident of Nagareyama, Chiba Prefecture, places a food sample in a radiation detector Oct. 11 at Bec-Miru, a DIY irradiation scanning store in nearby Kashiwa.
Hot or not: Hiroko Aki, a resident of Nagareyama, Chiba Prefecture, places a food sample in a radiation detector Oct. 11 at Bec-Miru, a DIY irradiation scanning store in nearby Kashiwa.
The tranquil residential city of 406,000 in Chiba Prefecture rarely enters the national spotlight, except when Kashiwa Reysol, the local soccer team, is playing at home.
But on a street just six minutes from JR Kashiwa Station, the Bec-Miru facility that Motohiro Takamatsu opened in October is turning heads by offering residents a chance to scan their own groceries, garden soil and other items for radiation.
"To have Kashiwa become contaminated with radiation, that was a big deal for me," the software engineer and accidental entrepreneur said in a recent interview with The Japan Times.
Takamatsu imported several LB 200 gamma spectroscopy machines from Germany to equip his new shop, which allows anyone to check items for contamination from the Fukushima nuclear crisis for a fee of ¥980 per 20 minutes.
Ancient Mayan legend says that 2012 will bring the end of the world.
A small Arkansas town might have shown the first example of that as approximately 5,000 blackbirds dropped dead from the sky last night in the early hours of the new year.
As if the incident was not strange enough, it is the second time in two years that the birds have fallen as the calendar year change
A small Arkansas town might have shown the first example of that as approximately 5,000 blackbirds dropped dead from the sky last night in the early hours of the new year.
As if the incident was not strange enough, it is the second time in two years that the birds have fallen as the calendar year change
© ABC news
On the streets: Estimates put the dead bird count well into the thousands.
On the streets: Estimates put the dead bird count well into the thousands.
Bad weather also expected to hit area west of DC on Monday
Winter storm warnings were issued for several states near the Great Lakes and an area west of Washington D.C. by the National Weather Service early Sunday.
It issued its "first major winter storm" warning of 2012 at 3:51 a.m. ET Sunday for parts of Michigan, saying snow, sleet and rain along with strong winds were expected Sunday.
The NWS later issued other storm warnings for parts of Pennsylvannia, Indiana, Minnesota and Wisconsin near the Great Lakes.
The Michigan warning was due to begin at noon Sunday and last until 7 p.m. ET Monday.
Winter storm warnings were issued for several states near the Great Lakes and an area west of Washington D.C. by the National Weather Service early Sunday.
It issued its "first major winter storm" warning of 2012 at 3:51 a.m. ET Sunday for parts of Michigan, saying snow, sleet and rain along with strong winds were expected Sunday.
The NWS later issued other storm warnings for parts of Pennsylvannia, Indiana, Minnesota and Wisconsin near the Great Lakes.
The Michigan warning was due to begin at noon Sunday and last until 7 p.m. ET Monday.
These satellite photos show the mine that launched Canada's controversial tar sands industry.
The mine at Fort McMurray, on the banks of the Athabasca River, in cold, remote Alberta, had already been operating for 17 years at the time a U.S. satellite pictured it.
Today the Canadian tar sands are recognised as one of the world's largest oil reservoirs.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates the recoverable oil sands reserves at more than 170million barrels - more than any other nation except Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
But extracting the resource is both economically and environmentally costly.
The mine at Fort McMurray, on the banks of the Athabasca River, in cold, remote Alberta, had already been operating for 17 years at the time a U.S. satellite pictured it.
Today the Canadian tar sands are recognised as one of the world's largest oil reservoirs.
© NASA/Landsat/USGS
July 23, 1984: The Fort McMurray tar sands mine in Alberta had been operating for 17 years by the time this photo was taken from space by the U.S. Landsat satellite
July 23, 1984: The Fort McMurray tar sands mine in Alberta had been operating for 17 years by the time this photo was taken from space by the U.S. Landsat satellite
But extracting the resource is both economically and environmentally costly.
© USGS
Sunday, January 01, 2012 at 05:27:54 UTC
Sunday, January 01, 2012 at 02:27:54 PM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location
31.416°N, 138.155°E
Depth
348.5 km (216.6 miles)
Region
IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
Distances
242 km (150 miles) SW of Hachijo-jima, Izu Islands, Japan
365 km (226 miles) S of Hamamatsu, Honshu, Japan
393 km (244 miles) S of Shizuoka, Honshu, Japan
495 km (307 miles) SSW of TOKYO, Japan
A small earthquake struck northern Riverside County today -- between Joshua Tree and Desert Hot Springs -- the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
The 3.1-magnitude temblor hit at 4:32 a.m. at a depth of 5.6 miles near the San Bernardino County line. Its epicenter was eight miles south of Joshua Tree in San Bernardino County and 11 miles east-northeast of Desert Hot Springs, according to the USGS website.
The 3.1-magnitude temblor hit at 4:32 a.m. at a depth of 5.6 miles near the San Bernardino County line. Its epicenter was eight miles south of Joshua Tree in San Bernardino County and 11 miles east-northeast of Desert Hot Springs, according to the USGS website.
© Reuters/ Simon Baker
Last week, the area was hit by three powerful aftershocks, measuring 5.3-5.8 on the Richter scale.
Last week, the area was hit by three powerful aftershocks, measuring 5.3-5.8 on the Richter scale.
First tremors were registered at 13:44 Saturday local time [0:44 GMT]. The epicenter was located at the depth of some 10 km, only 14 km from Christchurch.
© AP
The Cleveland Volcano in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska erupted in 2006 too as this photo shows.
The Cleveland Volcano in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska erupted in 2006 too as this photo shows.
The Cleveland Volcano, located on an uninhabited island 940 miles southwest of Anchorage, had been oozing lava and gas since July.
Ash from the 5,676-foot volcano is considered potentially dangerous to aircraft because Cleveland's peak lies directly below commercial flight routes between Asia and North America.
Additional explosions producing larger ash clouds are possible and could come without warning, the observatory said.
