Earthquakes
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Radar

Pakistan: In Shishkat, Rumbling Tremors Worry Locals


The Express Tribune
Sat, 09 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© unknownThe blasts were so severe that it seemed as if the earth was moving, the villager said of the bang.
Underground tremors and blasts have created panic among the residents of villages adjacent to Attabad, a small hamlet devastated by a massive landslide early 2009, people said on Friday.

"We heard several bangs from underground all night," said Hamid Hussain, a resident of Shishkat, a village upstream of Attabad.

The landslide that struck Attabad blocked the Hunza River and formed a lake that expanded upstream, submerging the lower part of Shishkat.

The blasts were so severe that it seemed as if the earth was moving, the villager said of the bang.

The villagers said they were afraid of the tragedy repeating itself anytime as the mystery continues. At least 19 people died in the landslide that cut off Gojal from the rest of the country.
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Bizarro Earth

Quake jolts northeast Japan, nuclear workers evacuated

Kevin Krolick
Reuters
Sat, 09 Jul 2011 22:48 UTC
Tokyo - A strong earthquake jolted northeastern Japan on Sunday, triggering an evacuation at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant but there was no sign of further damage at the facility or reports of casualties along the coast.

The Japan Meteorological Agency issued, and then lifted, a tsunami alert after the 7.1 magnitude quake which hit the same area that was devastated by a massive quake and tsunami on March 11. Officials said a 10 cm wave had been recorded.

"The shaking lasted rather long and became gradually stronger," an official at Iwaki City, Fukushima told national broadcaster NHK. "I saw a book shelf shaking but nothing fell off. We are advising people not to go near the coast."

At least 21,000 people were killed or went missing during the March disaster, which also cut power to the Fukushima nuclear plant and triggered a radiation crisis.
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Radar

US: 2.6 Magnitude Earthquake Rattles Northwestern New Hampshire


Union Leader
Fri, 08 Jul 2011 06:24 UTC
Residents along the Connecticut and Ammonoosuc Rivers say they felt their homes shake after an earthquake just after 5 p.m., centered near Woodsville.

The New England Seismic Network at the Weston Observatory of Boston College reports quake measured 2.6 at 5:09 p.m. It was located about 4 miles south of Woodsville.

The social media site Facebook rocked with residents from Woodsville through Bath, Landaff and Lisbon reporting that they felt their houses shake for several seconds and that they could hear a loud bang. Some said they thought there had been an explosion nearby.

Sheila Brill of Woodsville, not far from the epicenter, said she was opening a door and heard a loud bang and then house shook.

"I thought at first my furnace had malfunctioned," she said. "I didn't know whether to stay inside or go outside, so I stayed inside just long enough to pour a glass of wine, which I took outside."

Emergency dispatchers at the Grafton County Sheriff's Department said there have been no reports of injury or damage.
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Meteor

Georgia, US: Residents Report Mysterious Loud Noise and Ground Vibrations


The Republic
Thu, 07 Jul 2011 18:49 UTC
Image
Gainesville - Hall County sheriff's deputies have been patrolling the northeast Georgia county after several people reported hearing a mysterious loud noise.

Several residents called 911 to report hearing a loud noise and feeling the ground vibrate between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. Thursday.

Hall County Maj. Jeff Strickland tells The Times of Gainesville that most reports were from the area of Browns Bridge and McEver Roads.

Lt. Col. James Wilson, a spokesman for Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, said the cause was probably not an aircraft coming to or from the base. He said its flight schedule does not indicate any aircraft would have been passing through the area then.

Base officials say they've received calls from local law enforcement agencies, and are still looking into the matter.
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Bizarro Earth

Kermadec Island Region - Earthquake Magnitude 6.0


USGS
Thu, 07 Jul 2011 09:52 UTC
Kermadec Quake_070711
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time
Thursday, July 07, 2011 at 09:10:52 UTC

Thursday, July 07, 2011 at 09:10:52 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location
28.941°S, 176.732°W

Depth
19.9 km (12.4 miles)

Region
KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION

Distances
119 km (73 miles) ENE of Raoul Island, Kermadec Islands

346 km (214 miles) NE of L'Esperance Rock, Kermadec Islands

878 km (545 miles) S of NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga

1185 km (736 miles) NE of Auckland, New Zealand
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Radar

US: Minor Earthquake Rattles Northeast Philadelphia

Robert Moran
Philly.com
Thu, 07 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC
A 0.43-magnitude earthquake gave some Northeast Philadelphia residents a tiny jolt early Wednesday.

The temblor was confirmed by Lamont-Doherty Cooperative Seismographic Network in New York, though seismologist Mitchell Gold said he had to look very hard to find the evidence. It was recorded at 6:37 a.m.

Gold said it was about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) west of Cornwells Heights, close to where a 1.72-magnitude quake struck May 27. The largest earthquakes in the region in recent decades occurred in 1994, when two quakes measuring 4.2 and 4.6 hit Reading on the same day, Gold said.
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Radar

Africa: 4.5 Magnitude Earthquake Rattles Mozambique, Eastern Zimbabwe


Times Live
Thu, 07 Jul 2011 01:39 UTC
An earthquake measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale rocked the lower Save Valley in Mozambique and was felt in eastern Zimbabwe.

According to the United States Geological Survey, the earthquake struck at 12.37PM on Wednesday in an area that has seen more than a dozen quakes in the last 20 years, including two very large ones in 2006 that were felt as far as Harare.

The earthquake was severe in Chipinge where panic-stricken residents scurried for cover.

No deaths or injuries were recorded, Zimbabwe's Herald Online reported on Thursday.

Zimbabwe's Goetz Observatory in Bulawayo said it was still busy putting together all readings.
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Radar

7.6 Pacific Earthquake Sends Tsunamis East and West


sunlive.co.nz
Thu, 07 Jul 2011 03:04 UTC
Image
© NOAAA GNS plot of the energy dispersal from the 7.6 magnitude earthquake.
Thursday morning's submarine earthquake near the Kermadec trench sent most of its energy east and west, rather than south towards New Zealand say GNS scientists.

The earthquake was magnitude 7.6 and occurred in the Pacific tectonic plate close to the Kermadecs. The epicentre was 160km from Raoul Island and 920km from Tonga.

The orientation of the earthquake's fault rupture was north-south and most of the tsunami energy radiated perpendicular to the fault plane.

The largest observed peak-to-trough wave-height caused by this was 1.9 metres at the two tsunami gauges at Raoul Island, operated by GeoNet. This puts the top of the wave at about one metre above the normal tide level.

GNS Science tsunami scientist Dr William Power says small tsunami arrivals, not much larger than normal 'sea noise', were subsequently observed on tsunami gauges at Great Barrier Island and East Cape.

"The mechanism of the rupture was that of a normal fault, rather than a subduction thrust event, but both can produce a large vertical movement of the seafloor."
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Radar

Japan: Magnitude 5.5 Quake Shakes Northern Wakayama Prefecture


The Mainichi Daily News
Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC
A fairly strong earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5 shook northern Wakayama Prefecture on Tuesday evening, the Meteorological Agency said, but caused little damage, no reported injuries, and no tsunami warning was issued.

There were no immediate reports of damage, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference after the 7:18 p.m. quake, which measured upper 5 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 and was followed by several aftershocks including one with a magnitude of 4.4 that occurred 16 minutes later.

All local train services operated by West Japan Railway Co. in the western prefecture south of Osaka were briefly suspended, but the quake did not affect expressways, bullet train services, or nuclear power plants, according to local officials.

The disaster prevention office of the Wakayama prefectural government said a boulder fell from a hillside in Hidakagawa, and broken windows were discovered in Hirogawa, but added no injuries or substantial damage to property was reported. The temblor registered upper 5 in both towns.
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Radar

7.9 quake near New Zealand


Reuters/Associated Press
Wed, 06 Jul 2011 15:13 UTC
Image
© Unknown
A powerful magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck near the Kermadec Islands in the South Pacific Ocean on Thursday, triggering a tsunami alert for New Zealand and Tonga, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

The quake struck at 7:03 a.m. Its epicenter was 131 miles east of Raoul Island, part of the Kermadec archipelago, and was only 30 miles deep, the USGS said.

The Kermadec Islands are a remote outpost that are generally uninhabited aside from a weather station and a hostel for visiting New Zealand scientists.

The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Center said that it did not yet know whether an actual tsunami had developed but said that if it had, it would hit East Cape in New Zealand within two hours and Auckland within three hours.
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