Earthquakes

France's earthquake caused unusual crack in Earth's crust, puzzling scientists

Maya Wei-Haas
National Geographic
Fri, 15 Nov 2019 12:00 UTC

© Jeff Pachoud, AFP via Getty Images
A 4.8 magnitude earthquake struck southeast France on November 11, damaging buildings and injuring four people. The small town of Le Teil suffered some of the worse damage, with hundreds of structures cracked and crumbling, such as the one pictured here in the town's Rouviere quarter.

A smidgen before noon, Clément Bastie and his family were preparing dinner in the small French town of Le Teil when the walls began to tremble. Glasses and plates crashed to the ground. Then a booming sound reverberated through the town.

Fears of explosions at the nearby nuclear energy plant flooded into his mind. Bastie, a high school biology and geology teacher, rushed outside expecting to see the bloom of a mushroom cloud. But as he soon discovered, the shaking came from something less devastating but still surprising for the region: an earthquake that cracked through the ground.

Clocking in at 4.8 magnitude, the temblor damaged numerous buildings and injured four people. It also left scientists buzzing over a number of curious features. For one, while France is no stranger to temblors, they are often quite small, explains seismologist Jean-Paul Ampuero of the Université Côte d'Azur in France. Monday's event was only of moderate intensity by global measures, but it was a "very large one for French standards," he says.

Comment: Just today another quake was recorded, although not in the same region, at M3.7 4 km W of Le Puy-Notre-Dame at 09:04 local time:

Everything is changing: the composition of the atmosphere; the electric charge differential between atmosphere, ground and sub-surface layers; the core itself is heating up if one theory for 'El Nino' is correct; even the Sun is behaving differently... there's gonna be a whole lotta strange in the next few years!

See also:

And check out SOTT radio's:

As well as SOTT's monthly documentary tracking these events: SOTT Earth Changes Summary - October 2019: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs

7.1 magnitude earthquake hits near Indonesia

RT
Thu, 14 Nov 2019 16:57 UTC

An earthquake of 7.1 magnitude struck in the Molucca Sea, some 134km northwest of the Indonesian island of Ternate, at 4:18pm local time on Thursday.

A tsunami threat message was issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) for all coasts within 300km of the epicenter, affecting a number of Indonesian islands within the hour. Residents were advised to remain alert and seek instructions from local authorities.

Earthquake swarm raises concerns for big volcanic eruption in Iceland

Caroline Floyd
The Weather Network
Tue, 12 Nov 2019 23:54 UTC

© Icelandic Met Office.
Earthquakes reported between November 11 and 12. The cluster of red dots corresponds to the Askja swarm.

One of the most active volcanic areas in the world is rumbling again.

Sitting atop the spreading Mid-Atlantic Ridge and one of the planet's hotspots, Iceland is famous for its seismic activity. There are about 130 volcanoes on the island and 30 active volcanic systems.

While volcanic behaviour is difficult to predict, researchers do look for certain seismic signs that indicate an eruption might be imminent. Over the past week, one of Iceland's volcanoes has been attracting attention. On November 6th, an earthquake swarm began at the Askja volcano, located on the eastern part of the island. Since then, roughly 700 earthquakes have been reported at the site, the largest of which was Magnitude 3.4.

Icelandic officials continue to monitor the volcano's activity, although, at the moment, they say the swarm is more likely due to the movement of the continental ridge rather than tremors involving the volcano itself, adding that swarms "occur regularly" around Askja.

Shallow M6.1 earthquake hits Tonga

Shi Yinglun
Xinhua
Tue, 12 Nov 2019 00:23 UTC

A 6.1-magnitude earthquake jolted 145 km NW of Pangai, Tonga at 23:03:27 GMT on Monday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The epicenter, with a depth of 10.0 km, was initially determined to be at 18.9038 degrees south latitude and 175.3695 degrees west longitude.

Comment: Last week a shallow magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck Tonga.

Several injured as rare 5.4M earthquake strikes southeast France - UPDATE: Earthquake revised down to 4.9M

Euronews
Mon, 11 Nov 2019 11:52 UTC

Comment: This is not normal. And what an auspicious day for it to occur on... Armistice Day.

Four people have been injured in an earthquake of rare intensity in France, which was felt from Lyon to Montpellier.

The quake, which didn't cause any major damage, was magnitude 5.4 and struck just before noon in the Ardèche region, in the southeast of the country, the French Central Seismological Office (BCSF) in Strasbourg said in a statement.

It was felt mainly in the Drôme and Ardèche regions, particularly around Montélimar where a person was seriously injured by falling scaffolding.

Three other people were slightly injured in the Ardèche "following a panic attack", the Drôme prefecture said on Twitter.

Montelimar's mayor, Franck Reynier, urged residents not to overload the emergency services with calls, adding: "We will keep you informed as we go along." He has been tweeting safety measures, and reported a crack in a building, and a fallen chimney.

Comment: Following the quake, they shut down a nearby nuclear power station in Cruas, Ardeche.

There have been 5 - let's say - 'significant' quakes in France in just the last year:

France's largest in the modern era was a 6.2M in 1909...

Other events in France in the last month or so:

And just 6 days ago there was an earthquake swarm in Switzerland.

Thousands evacuated and homes damaged in French quake

Many old buildings were severely affected, with the commune of Teil reporting the most damage

More than 8,500 people have been evacuated and hundreds of buildings dangerously weakened in southeast France, as the extent of the damage from yesterday's 5.4 magnitude earthquake emerges.

The quake struck on Monday, November 11, at 11h51. It lasted around 10 seconds.

6.5-magnitude quake hits 167 km SSW of Ndoi Island, Fiji

xuxin
Xinhua
Fri, 08 Nov 2019 15:09 UTC

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 jolted 167 km SSW of Ndoi Island, Fiji at 10:44:44 GMT on Friday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The epicenter, with a depth of 582.92 km, was initially determined to be at 21.9688 degrees south latitude and 179.4911 degrees west longitude.

Magnitude 6.0 earthquake in northern Iran kills at least 5, injures 300

Sputnik
Fri, 08 Nov 2019 02:00 UTC

A magnitude 5.9 earthquake has hit near Hastrud in north-west Iran

The epicenter of the 6.0-magnitude quake was registered early on Friday some 118 km east of Tabriz at a depth of 51 km, according to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC).

According to AP, citing an emergency official, a magnitude 5.9 earthquake in northwestern Iran killed at least 5 people and injured 300 others. Earlier media reports have put the death toll at 3 persons, while suggesting that only 20 people were injured.

The magnitude of the tremors was later downgraded by the EMSC to 5.6, while the initial report suggested that the northwestern region of Iran had been hit by a more powerful quake.

The epicenter of the quake, initially reported as a magnitude 6.0, was located some 65 km (40 miles) of Herowabad.

Shallow 6.3-magnitude earthquake hits east of the South Sandwich Islands

Yan
Xinhua
Wed, 06 Nov 2019 05:35 UTC

A 6.3-magnitude earthquake jolted east of the South Sandwich Islands at 20:52:01 GMT on Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The epicenter, with a depth of 10.0 km, was initially determined to be at 57.9632 degrees south latitude and 9.2681 degrees west longitude.

Comment: A shallow 6.1-magnitude quake hit the same region three days ago.

Shallow earthquake swarm strikes southwest Switzerland

Swiss.info
Tue, 05 Nov 2019 11:17 UTC

© (WIkimedia Commons)
The first tremors were recorded close to the Wildhorn peak, about 8km southeast of the Sanetsch Pass between cantons Bern and Valais.

Switzerland was hit by seven small earthquakes early on Tuesday morning in the high mountain region between cantons Bern and Valais. No damage was reported.

The first 3.3-magnitude quake struck at 1.54am on Tuesday at a depth of 5.3 kilometres, according to the Swiss Seismological Service (SED) at the Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich.

A second 3.3 tremor was recorded at 4.36am at a depth of 4.7 kilometres. The epicentre was towards the Wildhorn peak, about 8km southeast of the Sanetsch Pass.

Comment: See also:

Hundreds of earthquakes rattle US as level of seismic activity continues to rise

Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse
Sun, 03 Nov 2019 13:03 UTC

Why is the mainstream media being so quiet about all of the seismic activity that has been happening all across the United States? During the last 7 days, there has been an earthquake swarm directly along the New Madrid Fault zone, Kansas and Oklahoma have been hit by a very unusual number of significant quakes, and there have been several sizable seismic events in the vicinity of the Yellowstone supervolcano. But of course the west coast is getting hammered more than anyone else.

According to Cal Tech, there have been more than 1000 earthquakes in California and Nevada over the last week, but of course most of them have been very small. Overall, the latest USGS numbers tell us that there have been more than 2,000 earthquakes nationally during the last 7 days, and apparently we aren't supposed to be alarmed by that. But could it be possible that all of this seismic activity is leading up to something really big?

Over the weekend, we witnessed some very unusual quakes in the middle of the country. On Sunday, a magnitude 3.2 earthquake rattled Kansas...