Earthquakes
S


Bizarro Earth

Philippines - Earthquakes in Mindanao to last for months, volcanic anomalies reported underground

The earthquakes experienced today in Carmen town, North Cotabato and the rest of Mindanao will possibly last for weeks or months. This was according to Jenila de Ocampo, Officer-in-charge of the Davao Seismic Station of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), in a phone interview. She added the intensity might either be "felt" or "unfelt" by humans. On Monday morning, two strong quakes struck Carmen. A 5.7 magnitude was felt at 4:08 AM with epicenter at seven Kilometers (Km) Northeast of the town. It has a depth of 10 Km. The town was placed under Intensity VI. "An Intensity VI in the PEIS (Phivolcs Earthquake Intensity Scale) means there will be a minimal damage to poorly built structures, or those with light materials and even concrete structures which do not meet building standards like the proper placement of steel bars," De Ocampo explained.
Image
Earthquakes rattle Philippines: one of many houses in Carmen, North Cotabato damaged by the 5.7 magnitude earthquake Saturday
At 7:31 AM, another quake jolted Carmen town. A 4.0 magnitude was recorded with epicenter at 7 Km Northeast of the town. It has a depth of 3 Km. Intensity II was felt in Matalam town, North Cotabato. On Saturday evening, a 5.7 magnitude earthquake rocked the town which hurt 5 people, damaged 60 houses in Kimadsil village alone, and destroyed a bridge as well as agricultural facilities, school buildings and health centers. The said quake, according to De Ocampo, "is shallow and tectonic in origin." Its depth was at 5 Km. "Strong earthquakes which are tectonic will cause aftershocks until the energy dissipates. In the case of Carmen which was hit by shallow quakes, the energy of the quake has little chance to dissipate when it reaches the surface," she said.

Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.2 - SSE of Buli, Taiwan

Taiwan Quake_020613
© USGS
Event Time
2013-06-02 05:43:06 UTC
2013-06-02 13:43:06 UTC+08:00 at epicenter

Location
24.000°N 121.000°E depth=10.0km (6.2mi)

Nearby Cities
4km (2mi) NE of Buli, Taiwan
32km (20mi) E of Zhongxing New Village, Taiwan
35km (22mi) ENE of Nantou, Taiwan
36km (22mi) ESE of Taichung, Taiwan
725km (450mi) ENE of Hong Kong, Hong KongTechnical Details

Blackbox

Video: Strange weather phenomena over the last days of May 2013


Comment: See also Video: Strange weather phenomena for the first days of May 2013

We suspect that the Cyprus fireball video midway through the above compilation of strange weather events in the second half of May is faked. Contrary to the original YT uploader's claim, there were no NASA reports of this alleged fireball event. In fact, there were no other reports at all.


Bizarro Earth

USGS: Shallow Earthquake Magnitude 3.9 - 48km W of Nefyn, United Kingdom

Image
© USGS
Event Time:
2013-05-29 03:16:23 UTC
2013-05-29 03:16:23 UTC+00:00 at epicenter

Location:
52.995°N 5.220°W depth=9.9km (6.2mi)

Nearby Cities:
48km (30mi) W of Nefyn, United Kingdom
52km (32mi) SW of Holyhead, United Kingdom
55km (34mi) E of Wicklow, Ireland
58km (36mi) ESE of Greystones, Ireland
80km (50mi) ESE of Dublin, Ireland

Technical Data

Comment: See:Strong tremor hits Wales: Initially reported at 4.3 magnitude, but was it really an earthquake? The 'Technical Data' link from USGS shows that the depth of this earthquake was at 10km +/- 3km.


Bizarro Earth

USGS: Shallow Earthquake Magnitude 4.6 - 5km W of Isla Vista, California

Image
© USGS
Event Time:
2013-05-29 14:38:03 UTC
2013-05-29 07:38:03 UTC-07:00 at epicenter

Location:
34.414°N 119.921°W depth=7.4km (4.6mi)

Nearby Cities:
5km (3mi) W of Isla Vista, California
8km (5mi) WSW of Goleta, California
20km (12mi) W of Santa Barbara, California
37km (23mi) W of Carpinteria, California
483km (300mi) SSE of Sacramento, California

Technical Data

Alarm Clock

Strong tremor hits Wales: Initially reported at 4.3 magnitude, but was it really an earthquake?

A small earthquake measuring 3.8 in magnitude has hit north Wales in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Image
The tremor centred on the Llyn peninsula in Gwynedd.

The British Geological Survey (BGS) said the centre point was between the seaside towns of Aberdaron and Nefyn.

People living as far away as Southport in Merseyside, Dublin in Ireland and on the Isle of Man reported "intense shaking" at 04:16 BST but there were no reports of damage or injury.

More than 100 reports from people who felt the earthquake have been made to the BGS, who said the majority were within a 100km radius.

Dr Brian Baptie, Head of Seismology at the BGS, said the size of the tremor was not unusual for the UK.

"We get an earthquake of this size in the UK maybe once or twice every couple of years," he told BBC Radio Wales.

Comment: This 'quake' was reported by the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre to have been magnitude 4.3.

The following eyewitness report has some interesting additional information:
"People have reported hearing an initial loud banging, followed by rumbling and intense shaking."
And here:
Peter Wilkinson, owner of the Penrallt Coastal Campsite, about a mile from the epicentre, said he was woken by what felt like a thud and thought that the corner of his house had fallen off. [...]
"I got up to see if something had fallen over in the room and went to check all of the rooms, but there wasn't any sign.

I would describe it as like hearing a large thud - like a wardrobe falling over."
Loud bangs followed by rumbling suggests that it might have been another overhead cometary explosion. In addition, the sound can often seem very close because of the electrophonic nature of meteors. Objects that are close by will transduce the meteor shockwave into an audible sound.

There was another fireball significant event over the UK and Ireland just five days previously, and it does appear to be raining fireballs the world over...


Red Flag

The Big One: Preparing for mid-America earthquake

Image
This map shows earthquakes in the New Madrid and Wabash Valley seismic zones as circles. Red circles indicate earthquakes that occurred from 1974 to 2002, with magnitudes larger than 2.5. Green circles show earthquakes that occurred prior to 1974. Larger circles represent larger earthquakes.
It's a bleak scenario. A massive earthquake along the New Madrid fault kills or injures 60,000 people in Tennessee. A quarter of a million people are homeless. The Memphis airport - the country's biggest air terminal for packages - goes off-line. Major oil and gas pipelines across Tennessee rupture, causing shortages in the Northeast. In Missouri, another 15,000 people are hurt or dead. Cities and towns throughout the central U.S. lose power and water for months. Losses stack up to hundreds of billions of dollars.

Fortunately, this magnitude 7.7 temblor is not real but rather a scenario imagined by the Mid-America Earthquake Center and the Institute for Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management at George Washington University. The goal of their 2008 analysis was to plan for a modern recurrence of quakes that happened along the New Madrid fault more than 200 years ago, in 1811 and 1812.

No one alive has experienced a major earthquake in the Midwest, yet geologists say it's only a matter of time. That puts a lot of uncertainty on disaster officials. Their earthquake precautions - quake-resistant building codes, for example - have never been reality tested. Some question if enough has been done to strengthen existing buildings, schools and other infrastructure. It is difficult to prepare for a geological catastrophe the public cannot see and has never experienced.

"We mostly react to disasters, and it's been extremely rare that we get ahead of things," said Claire Rubin, a disaster response specialist in Arlington, Va. "A lot of hard problems don't get solved. They get moved around and passed along."

Bizarro Earth

Another major earthquake on New Madrid is inevitable - geologists say it's only a matter of time

A massive earthquake along the New Madrid fault kills or injures 60,000 people in Tennessee. A quarter of a million people are homeless. The Memphis airport - the country's biggest air terminal for packages - goes off-line. Major oil and gas pipelines across Tennessee rupture, causing shortages in the Northeast. In Missouri, another 15,000 people are hurt or dead. Cities and towns throughout the central U.S. lose power and water for months. Losses stack up to hundreds of billions of dollars. Fortunately, this magnitude 7.7 temblor is not real but rather a scenario imagined by the Mid-America Earthquake Center and the Institute for Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management at George Washington University.
Image
The goal of their 2008 analysis was to plan for a modern recurrence of quakes that happened along the New Madrid fault more than 200 years ago, in 1811 and 1812. No one alive has experienced a major earthquake in the Midwest, yet geologists say it's only a matter of time. That puts a lot of uncertainty on disaster officials. Their earthquake precautions - quake-resistant building codes, for example - have never been reality tested. Some question if enough has been done to strengthen existing buildings, schools and other infrastructure. It is difficult to prepare for a geological catastrophe the public cannot see and has never experienced. "We mostly react to disasters, and it's been extremely rare that we get ahead of things," said Claire Rubin, a disaster response specialist in Arlington, Va. "A lot of hard problems don't get solved. They get moved around and passed along."

Bizarro Earth

'Slow-slip' quake happening off Wellington, New Zealand

Seismograph
© iStockphotoA stock photo of a reading from a seismograph.
What would be Wellington's biggest earthquake in 150 years is happening right now - not that you'll feel the jolt.

The magnitude-7 equivalent quake, 40km deep, is a "slow-slip" event, when the movement of tectonic plates occurs over hours to months rather than seconds.

GeoNet scientists said even their precision instruments were picking very little up from the 100km area of Levin to the Marlborough Sounds, along the plate boundary.

Almost imperceptibly, the Pacific and Australian plates had been slipping past each other since January and would continue for up to a year, GeoNet scientist Caroline Little said.

"We don't see anything at the surface."

Apart from moving a few centimetres further away from Australia, there would be no noticeable impact from this seismic movement.

But slow-slip quakes had an undetermined relationship with large earthquakes, which were accompanied or even triggered by slow-slip events "and vice versa", she said.

Bizarro Earth

Scientists mystified why Northern California earthquake was felt across such a large area

Image
A magnitude 5.7 temblor Thursday night was the largest earthquake to shake California since 2008 and has generated curiosity from seismologists. The temblor occurred in a rugged section of Northern California that has not been studied as thoroughly as Southern California and the Bay Area and has less monitoring equipment. Experts said they were surprised the quake was felt over such a large area, and they plan to go to the region to investigate. The magnitude 5.7 quake struck around 8:47 p.m., about 150 miles northeast of Sacramento; its epicenter was about 27 miles southwest of the town of Susanville. The last quake of similar magnitude, recorded at 5.5, struck Chino Hills in San Bernardino County in July 2008, said David Schwartz, an earthquake geologist for the Northern California USGS division in Menlo Park.

It caused little damage, but it was the most sizable quake to hit a metropolitan part of California since the much larger and destructive 1994 Northridge quake. Thursday's quake did occur in a zone with known active faults, said David Schwartz, an earthquake geologist for the Northern California USGS division, including a series of faults that extend through the northern end of Lake Tahoe all the way to Oregon. But 5.7 is the strongest magnitude recorded in the area. This mountainous eastern Sierra Nevada region, known for its lakes, rivers and national forests, has had about seven magnitude 4 earthquakes since the 1930s, Schwartz said. Scientists are still studying the intensity of Thursday's shaking and have moved seismographs there from more populated areas to monitor aftershocks.

Within minutes of the first quake, more than 7,000 people reported feeling it, from across state borders into Oregon and Nevada and as far south as the San Francisco area, according to the U.S. Geological Survey website. Officials in Susanville and Sacramento said the quake set off a number of home and car alarms and rattled windows. A Chico resident told The Times he felt a slow roll that lasted about 30 seconds.The quake itself was not a huge surprise for Schwartz's USGS division, but "what was interesting was it was felt along an unusual distance," he said. "Earthquakes in different parts of the state are felt over different distances. We just haven't had that many examples of earthquakes in this part of the state, really, for comparison. There are more interesting questions now than we have answers for, at present," he said. - LA Times