Earthquakes
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Bizarro Earth

Nearly 3 dozen small quakes in 24 hours - Volcanic unrest at Mammoth Lakes?

Veronica Rocha
LA Times
Sat, 27 Sep 2014 02:52 UTC
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© Wally Skalij / Los Angeles TimesIn this 2012 photo, runners take to a trail in the Mammoth Lakes region in California's Eastern Sierra.
Nearly three dozen earthquakes have rattled the Mammoth Lakes region in less than 24 hours as the area continues to experience ripple effects of "volcanic unrest," according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The temblors -- all between magnitude 2.5 and 3.8 -- have struck since 9 a.m. Thursday, with the latest recorded at 1:49 a.m. Friday, according to the USGS. The 3.8-quake occurred at 9:21 p.m. with an epicenter six miles from Mammoth Lakes.

Heightened earthquake and ground uplift activity have been measured at Mammoth Mountain and the Long Valley Caldera over the last few decades. At 11,053 feet, Mammoth Mountain in California's Eastern Sierra is a lava dome complex on the southwest rim of Long Valley Caldera, although eruptions haven't occurred for some 57,000 years. The recent swarm of quakes in and around the mountain is being tied to recent "volcanic unrest" marked by gas emissions, tree die-offs and intrusions of upward-moving sheets of rock, according to the USGS.

USGS data for recent quakes
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Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.2 - 95km WNW of Willow, Alaska


US Geological Survey
Thu, 25 Sep 2014 20:42 UTC
Alaska Quake_250914
© USGS
Event Time
2014-09-25 17:51:17 UTC
2014-09-25 09:51:17 UTC-08:00 at epicenter
Location
61.965°N 151.794°W depth=101.7km (63.2mi)

Nearby Cities
95km (59mi) WNW of Willow, Alaska
126km (78mi) WNW of Knik-Fairview, Alaska
130km (81mi) NW of Anchorage, Alaska
378km (235mi) SSW of College, Alaska
904km (562mi) WNW of Whitehorse, Canada

Scientific Data
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Attention

Fukushima, Japan rocked by two earthquakes in one hour; epicenter near nuclear plants


The Extinction Protocol
Thu, 25 Sep 2014 12:14 UTC
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A pair of moderate earthquakes struck just off the coast of Japan's Fukushima Prefecture Wednesday, close to the nuclear power plants crippled by the March 2011 tsunami. There were no early reports of damage, injuries, or new problems at the nuclear plants. The Japan Meteorological Agency says the first earthquake struck at 9:45 p.m. JST (8:45 a.m. EDT in the U.S.) and registered a magnitude of 5.0. The second quake, a slightly stronger magnitude-5.2 tremor, struck 46 minutes later. Both were centered just off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture, where the Fukushima Daiichi and Fukushimi Daini reactors were severely damaged in the March 11, 2011 tsunami that followed a magnitude-9.0 quake farther offshore.

The damage spawned the worst crisis at a nuclear power plant since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, and prompted Japan to shut down most of its nuclear power plants. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has been working to contain radioactive materials in the years since. TEPCO said there were no new abnormalities caused by Wednesday's quakes, nor any changes to radioactivity levels at the monitoring post there, according to public broadcaster NHK. The company said there were no reported abnormalities at its Tokai Daini nuclear power plant, farther south along the coast of Ibaraki Prefecture. The plant has been shut down since 2011.

Comment: There has been a lot of seismic activity lately. See the following Sott Worldview map of recorded earthquakes in the past month alone:



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Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.0 - 160km SSW of Gizo, Solomon Islands


US Geological Survey
Thu, 25 Sep 2014 11:59 UTC
Solomon Island Quake_250914
© USGS
Event Time
2014-09-25 09:13:50 UTC
2014-09-25 19:13:50 UTC+10:00 at epicenter

Location
9.480°S 156.391°E depth=10.0km (6.2mi)

Nearby Cities
160km (99mi) SSW of Gizo, Solomon Islands
373km (232mi) SSE of Arawa, Papua New Guinea
390km (242mi) W of Honiara, Solomon Islands
661km (411mi) E of Alotau, Papua New Guinea
727km (452mi) SE of Kokopo, Papua New Guinea

Scientific Data
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Alarm Clock

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.2 - 46km NNW of San Antonio de los Cobres, Argentina


U.S Geological Survey
Wed, 24 Sep 2014 14:43 UTC
Earthquake 6.2 Argentina
© USGS
Event Time
014-09-24 11:16:12 UTC
2014-09-24 08:16:12 UTC-03:00 at epicenter

Location
23.854°S 66.553°W depth=189.3km (117.6mi)

Nearby Cities
46km (29mi) NNW of San Antonio de los Cobres, Argentina
133km (83mi) WNW of San Salvador de Jujuy, Argentina
142km (88mi) WSW of Humahuaca, Argentina
143km (89mi) WNW of Palpala, Argentina
831km (516mi) SSE of La Paz, Bolivia

Scientific data
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Attention

Sweden earthquake 'was strongest in 100 years'


TheLocal.se
Tue, 16 Sep 2014 22:35 UTC
Sweden earthquake
© TTThis graph shows the moment of impact in Hassela, which is 13 kilometres from the earthquake's epicentre.
An earthquake measuring 4.1 on the Richter scale shook parts of central Sweden on Monday and experts have revealed it was the strongest in a century.

The quake hit in the afternoon between the towns of Mora and Sveg.

"There was a bloody great bang, it was like a bomb," Åke Hedman near Ljusdal told the Aftonbladet newspaper. "It was as if there was a lightning bolt directly above me - only ten times worse," the 57-year-old added.

Björn Lund, a seismologist at Uppsala University, said the earthquake is the strongest Sweden has seen since 1904 when an area by the Koster islands was hit by an earthquake measuring 5.5 on the scale.
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Map

No damage, no tsunami after 7.1 Guam earthquake

Zachary Stieber
Epoch Times
Wed, 17 Sep 2014 10:59 UTC
guam earthquake
An earthquake struck today just off the island of Guam.

The earthquake, which hit at about 4:30 p.m. ChST, was measured at 7.1 magnitude by the U.S. Geological Survey.

It hit about 21 miles northwest of Piti village, 22 miles northwest of Hagatna, 24 miles northwest of Tamuning-Turnon-Harmon Village, 25 miles west-northwest of Dededo Village, and 26 miles northwest of Mangilao Village.

It hit at a depth of 106.9 miles.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, which is run by the National Weather Center, issued an alert right after the quake hit. "A destructive tsunami was not generated because this earthquake is located too deep inside the earth," it said.

On the other hand, the U.S. Geological Survey said that people should expect aftershocks. "These secondary shockwaves are usually less violent than the main quake but can be strong enough to do additional damage to weakened structures and can occur in the first hours, days, weeks, or even months after the quake," it said.
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Bell

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 7.1 - 44km NW of Piti Village, Guam


U.S. Geological Survey
Wed, 17 Sep 2014 08:56 UTC
Earthquake 7.1 Guam
© USGS
Event Time
2014-09-17 06:14:46 UTC
2014-09-17 16:14:46 UTC+10:00 at epicenter

Location
13.740°N 144.394°E depth=133.9km (83.2mi)

Nearby Cities
44km (27mi) NW of Piti Village, Guam
50km (31mi) NW of Tamuning-Tumon-Harmon Village, Guam
54km (34mi) WNW of Dededo Village, Guam
54km (34mi) NW of Mangilao Village, Guam
48km (30mi) NW of Hagatna, Guam

Scientific data
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Bizarro Earth

More big 'Ring of Fire' quakes likely, say scientists

Stuart Gary
ABC Science, Australia
Tue, 16 Sep 2014 02:10 UTC
Earthquakes
© xiefei/istockphotoThe findings are based on a new earthquake risk assessment method.
The Pacific Ocean's volcanic 'Ring of Fire' could produce more earthquakes of magnitude 9 or greater, say researchers.

Their findings, reported in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, are based on a new way of calculating the probability of an earthquake.

The new research comes in the wake of the 2004 magnitude 9.3 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake which killed over 230,000 people across the Indian Ocean, and the 2011 magnitude 9 Tohoku earthquake which devastated Japan, claiming almost 19,000 lives.

"The strength of both these earthquakes caught many scientists by surprise," says the study's lead author Dr Yufang Rong, a seismologist with insurer FM Global.

"Almost all past methodologies failed to predict the strength of these earthquakes, so we looked at the problem again."

Existing methods of assessing earthquake risk are based on calculating how often earthquakes of a given magnitude happen along a particular fault line.

All these models are however tied to the limited histories available through earthquake records.
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Bizarro Earth

It's not just the magma that could be a problem if Iceland's rumbling Bardarbunga erupts

Peter Spinks
TheAge.com.au
Sun, 14 Sep 2014 17:30 UTC
The red-hot fountains of molten lava, glowing like wildfire, are nothing short of spectacular. Yet they could be ominous portents of things to come. For the second time in four nail-biting years, seismologists in the land of fire and ice, Iceland, are bracing for a monumental volcanic eruption that, once again, threatens to disrupt European air traffic.


Back in 2010, the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which melted through 200 metres of glacier, sent more than 200 million cubic metres of fine ash billowing almost 10 kilometres into the sky. As a result, several European countries were forced to ground or re-route thousands of flights for several days.
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