Earthquakes
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Bizarro Earth

Earthquake Causes Panic in Indonesia

Indon Quake
© Heri Juanda/Associated PressIndonesians flee to higher ground in Banda Aceh after a tsunami warning earlier this month.
A powerful earthquake hit has waters off eastern Indonesia, sending panicked residents running from their homes, offices and schools.

Authorities said the quake did not have the potential to trigger a tsunami. The US Geological Survey said it had a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 and hit 50 miles (83km) off Papua province. It was centered just 18 miles beneath the ocean floor. There was some damage, but no immediate reports of injuries.

Children in the town of Manokwan, closest to the epicenter, were seen running from their schools screaming. Streets filled with those escaping shaking buildings.

Suharjono, an official with the country's meteorology and geophysics agency, said no tsunami warning had been issued and there were no reports of serious damage or injuries.

Indonesia, straddling a series of faultlines and volcanoes, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the Pacific "ring of fire".

Earlier this month an 8.6-magnitude earthquake and 8.2-magnitude aftershock struck off the coast of northern Indonesia, but did not trigger a tsunami despite warnings. The Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 December 2004 killed 230,000 people, half of them in Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh.

Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.6 - Near the North Coast of Papua, Indonesia

Papua Quake_210412
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Saturday, April 21, 2012 at 01:16:54 UTC

Saturday, April 21, 2012 at 10:16:54 AM at epicenterTime of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:

1.609°S, 134.232°E

Depth:

29.8 km (18.5 miles)

Region:
NEAR THE NORTH COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA

Distances:

83 km (51 miles) SSE of Manokwari, Papua, Indonesia

341 km (211 miles) ESE of Sorong, Papua, Indonesia

990 km (615 miles) S of KOROR, Palau

1258 km (781 miles) NNE of DARWIN, Northern Territory, Australia

Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.1 - Off The West Coast of Northern Sumatra (Magnitude Revised to 5.7)

Sumatra Quake_200412
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time: 
Friday, April 20, 2012 at 23:14:32 UTC

Saturday, April 21, 2012 at 05:14:32 AM at epicenterTime of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:

2.218°N, 93.395°E

Depth:

34.3 km (21.3 miles)

Region:
OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA

Distances:

427 km (265 miles) SSW of Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia

530 km (329 miles) SW of Lhokseumawe, Sumatra, Indonesia

929 km (577 miles) W of KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia

1759 km (1092 miles) WNW of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia

Attention

Humans Behind Strongest Oklahoma Quake Ever Recorded, Research Suggests

Oklahoma Quake
© USGSMap of shaking intensity from the magnitude 5.6 earthquake that hit Oklahoma on Nov. 5, 2011.
San Diego - On the night of Nov. 5, 2011, as midnight approached, a magnitude-5.6 earthquake rocked central Oklahoma, the state's most powerful quake ever recorded. The shaking injured two people, destroyed 14 homes, and bent a local stretch of highway.

Research presented here at the annual meeting of the Seismological Society of America today (April 18) suggests the quake could be related to an industrial practice of injecting fluids deep into the Earth.

"This is part of a growing number of cases of earthquakes caused by fluid injection - and if it was found to be linked, this would be the largest," said Steve Horton, a research scientist at the University of Memphis's Center for Earthquake Research and Information.

There are three wells within 3 miles (5 kilometers) of the main shock location that are actively injecting fluids nearly a mile (1.3 km) down into the subsurface, Horton told OurAmazingPlanet.

"They are not doing fracking," Horton emphasized. Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, a practice used to extract natural gas from deep rocks, has been much in the national consciousness lately; some have tried to link the practice to earthquakes, though no such evidence has surfaced, said scientists gathered at the SSA.

"We simply do not see that there is a connection between hydrofracking and earthquakes that are of any concern to society," William Ellsworth, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey said during a media briefing.

Arrow Up

Earthquake Swarm attacks New Brunswick Town - 35 Tremors in 5 Weeks

McAdam
© Kuzwa/Wikipedia CommonsMcAdam, New Brunswick, has been struck by over 35 minor tremours — called an “earthquake swarm” — in the past five weeks.
Springtime in McAdam, a tiny village in southwestern New Brunswick not far from the Maine border, is like springtime in most other parts of Canada. Locals chatter about the NHL playoffs, the garden they are planting, the grass that needs to be cut, the fish they can't wait to catch and the cottage they can't wait to get to, once the warm weather really settles in.

Lately, however, an interloper has elbowed its way into the community's daily dialogue. Pushing aside the playoffs. Pushing its way to the very top of the talking points.

"Everybody is talking about the earthquakes," says David Blair, a retired science teacher and lifetime McAdam resident from his home on Old Harvey Road, just east of downtown.

Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.2 - East of The South Sandwich Islands

Sandwich Islds Quake_170412
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:

Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 19:03:55 UTC

Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 06:03:55 PM at epicenterTime of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:

59.099°S, 16.693°W

Depth:
1 km (~0.6 mile) (poorly constrained)

Region:
EAST OF THE SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS

Distances:

563 km (349 miles) E of Bristol Island, South Sandwich Islands

677 km (420 miles) ESE of Visokoi Island, South Sandwich Islands

2685 km (1668 miles) SE of STANLEY, Falkland Islands

4091 km (2542 miles) SE of BUENOS AIRES, D.F., Argentina

Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.8 - Papua New Guinea

PNG Quake_170412
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 07:13:50 UTC

Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 05:13:50 PM at epicenterTime of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
5.474°S, 147.097°E

Depth:
208.2 km (129.4 miles)

Region:
EASTERN NEW GUINEA REG, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Distances:

139 km (86 miles) N of Lae, New Guinea, PNG

146 km (90 miles) ESE of Madang, New Guinea, PNG

440 km (273 miles) N of PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea

2516 km (1563 miles) NNW of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia

Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.7 - Valparaiso, Chile

Chile Quake_160412
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 03:50:16 UTC

Monday, April 16, 2012 at 11:50:16 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
32.692°S, 71.449°W

Depth:
37 km (23.0 miles)

Region:
OFFSHORE VALPARAISO, CHILE

Distances:
42 km (26 miles) NNE of Valparaiso, Valparaiso, Chile

81 km (50 miles) W of Los Andes, Valparaiso, Chile

101 km (62 miles) N of San Antonio, Valparaiso, Chile

112 km (69 miles) NW of SANTIAGO, Region Metropolitana, Chile

Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 5.5 - Southern Greece

Image
© USGS
Date-Time:
Monday, April 16, 2012 at 11:23:44 UTC
Monday, April 16, 2012 at 02:23:44 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
36.771°N, 21.692°E

Depth:
36 km (22.4 miles)

Region:
SOUTHERN GREECE

Distances:
55 km (34 miles) SW of Kalamata, Greece

135 km (83 miles) SSE of Zakynthos, Greece

169 km (105 miles) S of Patrai, Greece

232 km (144 miles) SW of ATHENS, Greece

Blackbox

Underground water in eastern Shasta County California mysteriously disappears

Image
© Andreas FuhrmannStephen Wolf of Cassel is a former United States Geological Survey worker who has a theory about why wells are running dry in eastern Shasta County.
Stephen Wolf thinks something strange is happening underground in eastern Shasta County and it is draining water wells and maybe even causing sinkholes and subsiding pavement.

A retired marine geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, Wolf said he has seen what is happening in eastern Shasta County before. After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, water well levels in the area of the quake fell significantly, he said.

Following the 6.9 magnitude quake in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Wolf wrote a paper for the USGS about the effects the quake had on surface and groundwater.

"The correlation is there. The behavior is identical," said Wolf, who has lived in the tiny eastern Shasta County community of Cassel since 2001.

Back in October, 131 earthquakes hit the Lassen Peak area. Most were less than 2.0 in magnitude. But since then the water table has fallen significantly, Wolf said.