Earthquakes
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Better Earth

Magnitude-5.0 shakes Big Island in Hawaii

Hilo, Hawaii - A magnitude-5.0 earthquake and several small aftershocks shook Hawaii's Big Island on Sunday, but there were no reports of injury or damage.

The quake struck near Holei Pali beneath the south flank of Kilauea volcano in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park at 4:36 p.m. (6:36 p.m. PST) at a depth of five miles, according to a report from the U.S. Geological Survey. The epicenter was about 25 miles south of Hilo and 220 miles southeast of Honolulu.

There was no tsunami threat.

About 20 small aftershocks came in the hours that followed, the largest a magnitude-3.1 about 10 minutes after the original quake.

The temblor was widely felt in Hilo and throughout the island, with more than 500 people reporting that they felt light-to-moderate shaking, according to the USGS website.

Joe Lopez, 70, said he felt a "pretty good jolt" at his home in Hilo.

Lopez told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser the quake sent books and other items tumbling to the floor.

There have been no reports of injury or damage, said Michael Yoshimura of Hawaii State Civil Defense.

Yoshimura said the agency opened its Hilo Emergency Operating Center immediately after the quake, but closed it down when no calls came in after 45 minutes.

The quake struck near the so-called Holei Pali area of Kilauea's south flank has had 16 earthquakes of magnitude-4.5 or greater in the past 50 years - eight of them since 1983, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory spokeswoman Janet Babb said in a statement Sunday night.

The observatory has not detected any significant changes in activity at the summits or rift zones of the Kilauea or Mauna Loa volcanoes, Babb said.

Bizarro Earth

South Sandwich Islands Region - Earthquake Magnitude 6.0

Sandwich Isles Quake_220112
© USGS
Date-Time
Sunday, January 22, 2012 at 05:53:41 UTC

Sunday, January 22, 2012 at 03:53:41 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location
56.670°S, 25.018°W

Depth
9.8 km (6.1 miles)

Region
SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION

Distances
138 km (85 miles) E of Visokoi Island, South Sandwich Islands

281 km (174 miles) NNE of Bristol Island, South Sandwich Islands

2195 km (1363 miles) ESE of STANLEY, Falkland Islands

3532 km (2194 miles) SE of BUENOS AIRES, D.F., Argentina

Attention

Magnitude-6.2 Earthquake Hits off Coast of Southern Mexico, No Major Damage Reported

A magnitude-6.2 earthquake that hit off the coast of the southern Mexican state of Chiapas on Saturday shook as far away as El Salvador but brought no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The quake at 12:47 p.m. local time (1:47 p.m. EST; 18:47 GMT) broke windows in the Chiapas state capital of Tuxtla Gutierrez and sent frightened residents into the streets in numerous cities. It was felt from the Mexican state of Veracruz, through Pacific regions of Guatemala and into El Salvador.

"It was quite long and felt with a lot of force," said Carlos Lopez Mendoza, spokesman with the Red Cross in El Salvador.

Bizarro Earth

Offshore Chiapas, Mexico - Earthquake Magnitude 6.3

Mexico Quake_210112
© USGS
Date-Time
Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 18:47:15 UTC

Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 12:47:15 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location
14.959°N, 93.107°W

Depth
66.1 km (41.1 miles)

Region
OFFSHORE CHIAPAS, MEXICO

Distances
91 km (56 miles) W of Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico

143 km (88 miles) SSE of Tonala, Chiapas, Mexico

171 km (106 miles) W of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

811 km (503 miles) SE of MEXICO CITY, D.F., Mexico

Attention

Iran Quake Leaves at Least 230 Injured

Iran's state TV says the number of people injured by a Thursday earthquake of moderate strength affecting the northeastern city of Neyshabour has increased to around 230.

The Friday report says 30 of the injured people were hospitalized, with the others treated for minor injuries and released. No deaths have yet been reported.

State TV reports that many residents of the city camped out overnight in subzero weather in streets and parks, fearing further tremors.

Since Thursday afternoon's magnitude 5.5 earthquake, some 75 aftershocks have jolted the city of 220,000 about 550 miles northeast of the capital Tehran.

Iran is located on seismic fault lines and is prone to earthquakes, experiencing at least one slight quake a day on average.

Source: The Associated Press

Bizarro Earth

Strongest earthquake in 10 years hits northeast Iran

Image
© USGS
An earthquake hit north-eastern Iran on Thursday but there were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage.

The magnitude 5.5 quake hit at 4:05pm (local time) about 10 kilometres outside the city of Neyshabur, which is some 70km away from the holy city of Mashhad, the official IRNA news agency said.

"There have been no reports of casualties yet," Red Crescent official Ali Asghar Hassanzadeh told the semi-official Fars news agency, adding that windows of some houses in Neyshabur had been shattered.

The IRNA news agency said the quake lasted seven seconds and was the strongest felt in the region in 10 years.

Editor's note: USGS lists the earthquake as a magnitude 5.1 - data here.

Bizarro Earth

Off The West Coast of South Island, NZ - Earthquake Magnitude 5.9

NZ Quake_190112
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time
Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 06:48:48 UTC

Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 05:48:48 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location
46.676°S, 165.724°E

Depth
18.1 km (11.2 miles)

Region
OFF WEST COAST OF THE SOUTH ISLAND, N.Z.

Distances
204 km (126 miles) W of Invercargill, New Zealand

293 km (182 miles) SW of Queenstown, New Zealand

380 km (236 miles) WSW of Dunedin, New Zealand

940 km (584 miles) SW of WELLINGTON, New Zealand

Bizarro Earth

Rare Caterpillar-like Horizontal Earthquake Discovered

Himalayas
© NASA Earth Observatory.Mount Everest in the Himalayas.
Imagine that, as you sit at your desk or in your living room reading this story, your entire city suddenly snaps a foot to the south.

That's what happened to the city of Kohat, Pakistan, in 1992. A magnitude-6.0 earthquake moved a 30-square-mile (80-square-kilometer) swath of land one foot (30 centimeters) horizontally in a split second, leveling buildings and killing more than 200 people.

The area hadn't experienced many temblors before, making the earthquake an unusual occurrence. Now, 20 years later, geologists have used satellite and seismic data to track down the cause of that rare quake - an equally rare type of fault.

"The pattern we saw was absolutely a dead ringer for a horizontal fault," said Roger Bilham, a geophysicist at the University of Colorado at Boulder. "But here's the problem: How do you get a horizontal earthquake?"

Bizarro Earth

Large-scale seismic activity rising along planet's southern pole

A strong and shallow series of earthquakes have erupted near the remote South Shetland Islands region of Antarctica on Sunday, experts from the U.S. Geological Survey said. The earthquakes in the intense tectonically-activated series measured a 6.6 magnitude, followed by a 6.2 magnitude earthquake and a 5.1 aftershock. The epicenter of the earthquakes was at various depths of from one kilometer (0.62 miles) to 14 km (9.2 miles) below the earth's surface and some 464 kilometers west of Coronation Island in distance. No destructive tsunami was created, according to the U.S. NOAA warning center.
Image
© The Extinction Protocol
The earthquake series is worrisome because it's further evidence of what I have been warning about for over the past 6 months, that the Southern hemisphere, particularly around the periphery of Antarctic, is shows increasing signs of seismic destabilization. On January 12, there was a swarm of five moderate earthquakes which erupted south of Africa- the strongest of which was a 5.3 and a 5.5. On January 13, the South Sandwich Islands, north of Antarctica, was hit with a 5.1, and 5.2. On January 14 the region was struck again with a 5.0 earthquake and another 4.9 on January 15th. Not only are earthquakes increasing along the southern polar region but in November of 2011, the Tasmania's Antarctic Climate and Ecosystem centre found that the South Ocean was storing more heat than any other ocean on the planet.

Bizarro Earth

Antarctica - South Shetland Islands: Earthquake Magnitude 6.6 and 6.2 aftershock

Image
© USGS
Date-Time:
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 13:40:18 UTC

Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 09:40:18 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
60.765°S, 55.858°W

Depth:
10 km (6.2 miles)

Region:
SOUTH SHETLAND ISLANDS

Distances:
539 km (334 miles) W of Coronation Island, South Orkney Islands

625 km (388 miles) NE of Palmer Station, Antarctica

1019 km (633 miles) S of STANLEY, Falkland Islands

2919 km (1813 miles) S of BUENOS AIRES, D.F., Argentina