Earthquakes
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Bizarro Earth

Uzbekistan: Earthquake Magnitude 6.4

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© USGS
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake hit Uzbekistan, the U.S. Geological Survey said on Tuesday.

It said it struck 30 km south-southeast of Ferghana, a city in the east of the Central Asian country. It said the earthquake was 1 km deep.

Bizarro Earth

Quake in Costa Rica Causes River to Disappear

Guacalito River disappears
© n/aGuacalito River disappears in Costa Rica after Earthquake
Following a series of moderate earthquakes that struck the country Tuesday, residents around the Guacalito River in Costa Rica discovered that the river had disappeared.

Earthquake-report.com reported that sometime after the earthquakes, villagers living near the river, which is located near Armenia de Upala, discovered that the river was dry.

It was not immediately known if the waters of the river had disappeared due to sinkhole activity that can occur after earthquakes or if the earth shaking caused damming that dried up the river near the Miravalles volcano. The quakes were centered near the Nicaragua and Costa Rica border in the same vicinity as the Miravalles volcano.

An entire body of water disappears? Strange but true, and this isn't the first time this odd event has happened.

In 2010, the Iska River in Slovenia disappeared after local residents heard loud crashing and banging overnight. The next morning, the river was dry and the riverbed was full of fish and other creatures. It was believed that the waters of the river had drained through a large crack into an underground riverbed. This disappearance was not believed to have been related to an earthquake.

Radar

US: Small 3.0 Magnitude Earthquake Rattles North Texas

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A small earthquake rattled North Texas Sunday morning, but no major damage was reported.

The quake which had a magnitude of 3.0 was reported at 1:57 a.m.. Sunday about 13 miles west of Waxahachie and 12 miles east, northeast of Cleburne.

An official with the U.S. Geological Survey said Sunday that the quake was at its "most strong" near Venus in Ellis County.

"There might be some cracks in sidewalks and houses may have been shaking a little," said geophysicist Paul Caruso on Sunday. "We don't expect damage from this."

Caruso said that a quake with a magnitude of 5.5 or higher would cause major damages and casualties.

As of Sunday afternoon, the USGS had received 69 reports from residents about the quake in the North Texas area.

Radar

Iceland: Small earthquake swarm in Katla volcano caldera

At the moment there appears to be a small earthquake swarm in Katla volcano. Currently this is just a earthquake swarm. All the tremor plots are normal and show no signs of harmonic tremors and magma on the move. The largest earthquake in this earthquake swarm in inside Katla volcano caldera was a ML1.3 with the depth of 1.7 km according to reviewed data from Icelandic Met Office.
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© Icelandic Met Office
The ML1.3 earthquake as I did record it on my Heklubyggð geophone. Given the shape and how low period this earthquake is. I would say that it was created by magma pushing upwards in the crust inside Katla volcano caldera.
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© Creative Commons licence
The ML1.3 earthquake as I did record it on my Heklubyggð geophone. Given the shape and how low period this earthquake is. I would say that it was created by magma pushing upwards in the crust inside Katla volcano caldera.

Bizarro Earth

7,500 Earthquakes Hit Shattered New Zealand City

Christchurch earthquake
© unknown
It's been 10 months since the first big earthquake struck New Zealand's second-largest city. It's been nearly five months since a far more devastating one killed 181 people and crippled the downtown. But it's been just a few hours since yet another aftershock startled Christchurch residents during the night.

"I stop breathing," said Sheridan Cattermole, a bartender and a mom. "I get pins and needles all over. I either freeze or run. I just want things to be back to what they were like this time last year. I had my vege garden, and my sunflowers."

Seismologists have recorded 7,500 earthquakes in Christchurch since September - an average of more than 20 a day. The rumblings are rattling the psyche of the still-battered city. They have left the land under thousands of homes unsafe to build on. Some people have left town entirely. Yet many have proven resilient, and some now see a reconstruction boom on the horizon.

Christchurch is the disaster that the world forgot. When the deadly quake toppled the iconic Cathedral spire and flattened buildings in this city of 390,000, people around the globe paid attention. But two weeks later, the massive earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 20,000 in Japan took center stage.

In New Zealand, the events in Christchurch continue to reverberate.

In a country of 4 million, the cost of the quakes - estimated at more than $12 billion - amounts to eight percent of the country's annual economic output. Compare that to Hurricane Katrina, whose costs were less than 1 percent of U.S. gross domestic product. Christchurch will likely eclipse the Japan disaster in cost per person.

And nobody knows if the worst is over. Not even the experts.

Bizarro Earth

California, US: 3.3 Magnitude Quake Gives Early Wake-Up Jolt

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Many people in the Bay Area were jolted awake at 3:51 a.m. this morning, July 16, by a minor earthquake centered in Berkeley.

A 3.3-magnitude earthquake hit the East Bay at 3:51 a.m. today, Saturday. No injuries or damage have been reported.

The U.S. Geological Survey map places the epicenter just west of UC Berkeley's Clark Kerr Campus. The quake had a depth of 4 miles, according to the USGS.

The tremor jolted some folks awake in El Cerrito, Kensington and farther away, in the North Bay, San Francisco, Daly City, Concord, San Ramon, Walnut Creek and several other cities.

Bizarro Earth

US: Alaska Peninsula - Earthquake Magnitude 6.1

Alaska Quake_160711
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time
Saturday, July 16, 2011 at 19:59:14 UTC

Saturday, July 16, 2011 at 11:59:14 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location
54.895°N, 161.267°W

Depth
48.2 km (30.0 miles)

Region
ALASKA PENINSULA

Distances
70 km (43 miles) SW of Sand Point, Alaska

98 km (60 miles) ESE of Cold Bay, Alaska

971 km (603 miles) SW of Anchorage, Alaska

1674 km (1040 miles) W of WHITEHORSE, Yukon Territory, Canada

Radar

Moderate 5.5 Magnitude Earthquake Briefly Rattles Tokyo, but Causes No Apparent Damage and No Tsunami

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© Shizuo Kambayashi/Associated PressChildren from Fukushima release LED balls into the river by Tokyo’s historic landmark Nihonbashi Bridge, seen in the background, in Tokyo Thursday, July 14, 2011, at the opening ceremony of a centenary event of the stone bridge-building. The children participated in the event, praying for the quick recovery of northeastern Japan from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, at the bridge, which was originally built in 1603, the starting points of Japan’s five main roads that connect Tokyo and other regions including Fukushima.
A moderate earthquake has been felt in Tokyo.

But the minor shaking caused no apparent damage and no tsunami.

The magnitude 5.5 quake hit at 9:01 p.m. Friday. The epicenter was about 70 kilometers (43 miles) north of Tokyo in southern Ibaraki prefecture. It was about 60 kilometers (37 miles) underground.

A magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11 devastated Japan's northeast coast. Nearly 23,000 people are dead or missing in the disaster that also crippled a nuclear power plant.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Friday's quake was felt at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant but caused no further damage to it.

Source: The Associated Press

Bizarro Earth

Earthquake Magnitude 6.0 - Offshore Valparaiso, Chile

Chile Qukae_160711
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time
Saturday, July 16, 2011 at 00:26:13 UTC

Friday, July 15, 2011 at 08:26:13 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location
33.798°S, 72.074°W

Depth
22.9 km (14.2 miles)

Region
OFFSHORE VALPARAISO, CHILE

Distances
47 km (29 miles) WSW of San Antonio, Valparaiso, Chile

94 km (58 miles) SSW of Valparaiso, Valparaiso, Chile

128 km (79 miles) WNW of Rancagua, Libertador O'Higgins, Chile

136 km (84 miles) WSW of SANTIAGO, Region Metropolitana, Chile

Bizarro Earth

US: California Hit By Earthquake Swarm

More than fifty earthquakes have shaken the US State of California in the 14-hour period up to 2:00 p.m. GMT (6:00 a.m. PDT) Friday, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

The quakes occurred throughout the Pacific coastal state, including the Greater Los Angeles area, San Diego and the San Francisco Bay area. The majority of the earthquakes ranged between 2-4 magnitude. Other areas to experience earth tremors include Holtville, Pinnacles, Johnville, Valle Vista, La Jolla, Anderson Springs, Hawthorns, Anza, The Geysers, San Carlos, Hemet and Keene.
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© USGS
Earthquake swarms are events where a local area experiences sequences of many earthquakes striking in a relatively short period of time. The length of time used to define the swarm itself varies, but the United States Geological Survey (USGS) points out that an event may be on the order of days, weeks, or months. They are differentiated from earthquakes succeeded by a series of aftershocks by the observation that no single earthquake in the sequence is obviously the main shock. Earthquake swarms also are one of the events typically preceding eruptions of volcanoes.