A new 6.4 magnitude earthquake was registered on late Wednesday off the coast of New Caledonia, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
On Wednesday, a series of tremors - with the magnitude ranging from 5.0 to 7.7 - was recorded outside the coast of New Caledonia. A tsunami alert was declared.
The earthquake was recorded at 21:23 GMT, with the tremor's epicenter located 427 kilometers (265 miles) east of the town of Vao on the island of Pines at the depth of 10 kilometers.
Chris Jewers Daily Mail Wed, 10 Feb 2021 13:38 UTC
The quake was at a depth of 18.64 miles (30 kilometres), EMSC said, and struck roughly 60 miles south of the city of Bengkulu, which is home to more than 300,000 people
A 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra Island Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said, but there was no tsunami warning or immediate reports of damage.
The strong offshore quake hit about 217 kilometres south-southwest of the city of Bengkulu at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres at 7:52 pm local time (1252 GMT).
Shallow quakes tend to cause more damage than deep ones.
It comes weeks after another powerful earthquake rocked Indonesia's Sulawesi island, killing 84 people and injuring 932.
A 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck in the South Pacific on Thursday, the US Geological Survey said, sparking a tsunami warning for New Zealand, New Caledonia, Vanuatu and other nations in the region.
The quake struck at just after midnight on Thursday local time (1320 GMT Wednesday) about 415 kilometres (258 miles) east of Vao in New Caledonia at a depth of 10 kilometres, according to the USGS.
"Hazardous tsunami waves from this earthquake are possible within the next three hours," the NWS Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.
Waves reaching between 0.3 and one metre above the tide level are possible for some coasts of Fiji, New Zealand and Vanuatu, the centre said.
The New Zealand National Emergency Management Agency released a statement telling people in coastal areas to move away from waterfronts.
"We expect New Zealand coastal areas to experience strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges at the shore following a magnitude 7.7 earthquake," the disaster agency said.
Comment: Also of note the just before this major earthquake struck two magnititude 6 quakes hit the same area (both within an hour) according to the EarthTrack website. See here and here.
Two aftershocks of magnitude 6.1 have also been registered, see here and here.
Earth was besieged by a record 50 billion-dollar weather disasters in 2020, the most such disasters ever recorded after adjusting for inflation, said insurance broker Aon (formerly called Aon Benfield) in its annual report issued January 25. The previous record was 46 billion-dollar weather disasters, set in 2010 and 2011. The annual average of billion-dollar weather disasters since records began in 1990 is 29.
The combined economic losses (insured and uninsured) from all 416 weather and earthquake disasters cataloged by Aon in 2020 was $268 billion (2020 USD). Most of the 2020 total, by far, came from weather-related disasters ($258 billion), 29% above the 2001-2020 inflation-adjusted average. Those numbers make 2020 the fifth costliest year on record for weather-related disasters.
The year was the most expensive ever for severe weather (including severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, and hail), with $63 billion in damage (previous record: $53 billion in 2011). More than 80% of the severe weather damage occurred in the U.S. in 2020, including the costliest severe weather outbreak in world history, according to Aon: an August 2020 event that featured a violent derecho in the U.S. midwest that caused $11 billion of the $12.6 billion in damage of the outbreak, the balance caused by tornadoes, hail, and other severe thunderstorms.
Insured damage from wildfires in 2020 was $12 billion - the third highest on record, behind only 2017 and 2018. The year 2020 marked the third time in the past four years that global insured losses from wildfires exceeded $10 billion - a threshold never crossed prior to 2017. Remarkably, wildfire has caused more than $70 billion in insured losses since 2000, 75% of that in the past five years alone.
Comment: It is becoming more apparent that erratic seasons, extreme weather patterns and natural disasters are increasing, which is not a consequence of "human-caused climate change" (formerly known as man-made 'global warming') as parroted relentlessly by the MSM, but part of a natural cycle.
Date & time: 7 Feb 2021 05:45:55 UTC - 3 hours 18 minutes ago
Local time at epicenter: Sunday, 7 Feb 2021 3:45 pm (GMT +10)
Magnitude: 6.3
Depth: 10.0 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 3.56°S / 145.92°E (Bismarck Sea, Papua New Guinea)
Nearest volcano: unnamed (91 km / 57 mi)
A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck at Magsaysay, Davao del Sur past noon on Sunday noon, state seismologists reported, noting aftershocks were expected.
In an earthquake bulletin, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, or Phivolcs, said the tremor struck 6 kilometers southeast of Magsaysay at 12:22 p.m.
It had a depth of 15 kilometers and was tectonic in origin, indicating it was caused by a movement in the Earth's crust.
Intensity 5, rated by Phivolcs as "strong," was felt in Kidapawan City, Arakan, Carmen, Kabacan, Makilala and M'Lang, North Cotabato; City of Koronadal and Banga, South Cotabato; Matalam, Cotabato; Bansalan, Hagonoy, Magsaysay and Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur.
Intensity 4 or "moderately strong" was recorded in Davao City; Banisilan and Midsayap, North Cotabato; Don Carlos, Bukidnon; Polomok, Sto. Nino and Norala, South Cotabato South Cotabato; Alabel, Kiamba and Malapatan, Saranggani; Palimbang and Tacurong, Sultan Kudarat.
140 EARTHQUAKES have been detected on the Island of La Palma under the Cumbre Vieja volcano.
The seismic swarms are being monitored by the Canary Islands Volcanological Institute (Involcan), that is operated by The Canary Islands Seismic Network. They have detected a new swarm of quakes below La Palma's Cumbre Vieja volcano.
According to Involcan both visitors to La Palma and local residents are not in any danger and should not be worried about the seismic swarm, as the depth of the earthquakes combined with the small magnitudes is not currently any cause for concern. What has been requested though is that the population keep aware of their environment and ensure they are fully aware of what to do if the volcanic activity starts to change.
Comment: According to a paper published in 2001, geological evidence suggests that a future eruption at Cumbre Vieja volcano could cause a catastrophic failure of its west flank and produce a 10-25m tsunami that would inundate the coast of Florida:
Cumbre Vieja Volcano -- Potential collapse and tsunami at La Palma, Canary Islands
Abstract.
Geological evidence suggests that during a future eruption, Cumbre Vieja Volcano on the Island of La Palma may experience a catastrophic failure of its west flank, drop-ping 150 to 500 km3 of rock into the sea. Using a geologically reasonable estimate of landslide motion, we model tsunami waves produced by such a collapse. Waves generated by the run-out of a 500 km3 (150 km3) slide block at 100 m/s could transit the entire Atlantic Basin and arrive on the coasts of the Americas with 10-25 m (3-8 m) height.
[...]
Figure 4. Evolution of the La Palma landslide tsunami from 2 minutes (a, upper left) to 9 hours (i, lower right). Red and blue con-tours cover elevated and depressed regions of the ocean respectively and the yellow dots and numbers sample the wave height,positive or negative, in meters. Note the strong influence of dispersion in spreading out an original impulse into a long series of waves of decreasing wavelength. See also that the peak amplitudes generally do not coincide with the first wave. Even after cross-ing the Atlantic, a lateral collapse of Cumbre Vieja volcano could impose a great sequence of waves of 10-25 m height on the shores of the Americas.
Authors:
Steven N. Ward Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz California, USA
Simon DayBenfield Greig Hazard Research Centre, Department of Geological Sciences, University College, London, UK
A tsunami was not expected after a 6.6 magnitude earthquake struck in sea southeast of Easter Island, Chile, the U.S. Tsunami Warning Center said.
The quake struck at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.21 miles)with its epicenter about 1,483 km southeast of Hanga Roa, Easter Island, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
(Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
The tremors have caused widespread alarm among local communities, with some families opting to sleep in their cars in open spaces due to fears of staying in their homes
Granada province, in southern Spain, was hit on Thursday by 49 earthquakes, according to the National Geographic Institute (IGN). The largest of these, with a magnitude of 4.3 on the Richter scale, struck at 7.49pm at a depth of three kilometers. The city of Granada and its metropolitan area had already been shaken by 42 tremors of varying magnitudes before the latest ones were felt.
Local police in the municipality of Santa Fe, the epicenter of the 4.3-magnitude quake, said that one building had suffered minor damage, but did not pose any risk. Officers did, however, warn citizens to take care when passing by certain areas of the city center, which are home to a large number of old buildings.
Comment: Seismic and geologic activity of all kinds appears to be on the rise:
The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in Central Luzon has intensified its monitoring of Mt. Pinatubo following a series of earthquakes that was detected in the area.
Julius Ceasar Sicat, DOST Region 3 director, told Bulacan Ronda Balita that they are closely monitoring the volcano with ongoing upgrades to the Pinatubo Volcano Network (PVN) and upcoming geochemical surveys of the Pinatubo crater lake and the condition of the volcano.
In an advisory, DOST-Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) showed that since January this year, the PVN and the Philippine Seismic Network (PSN) have detected a total of 826 imperceptible earthquakes east-northeast of Mt. Pinatubo in the Mabalacat, Pampanga area.
They said that although there is no threat yet from the recent earthquake activities, the communities and local government units (LGUs) near the volcano were alerted against future earthquakes and volcanic hazards.
Mount Pinatubo erupted 29 years ago and killed hundreds of people. The volcano discharged millions of tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere.
Comment: See also: Shallow M7.7 earthquake hits off Vanuatu, New Caledonia coasts - Tsunami warning sounded
Details of the other magnitude 6+ earthquakes here, here, here, here and here.