A small earthquake shook the Sea of Galilee area on Tuesday morning, the fifth such tremor in less than a week. The quake, measuring 3.3 on the Richter scale, caused no reported damage or injuries. On Sunday, two minor earthquakes, both measuring 3.6 in intensity, were reported in the north, which followed similar quakes on Saturday and Thursday. No injuries have been reported, although some buildings in Tiberias were lightly damaged by the tremors. Last Sunday, a 6.4-magnitude quake, centered in the Mediterranean Sea near Crete, was felt in Athens, Egypt and Israel. And in September, an early-morning 3.5-magnitude quake was felt in the northern Dead Sea area, including in Jerusalem. In response to the string of temblors, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a special cabinet meeting Monday to discuss the state's earthquake preparedness, and, on Sunday, the Home Front Command and emergency services representatives held a meeting to discuss emergency procedures in the case of a more major earthquake.

However, seismologist Dov Lakovsky of the Geophysical Institute of Israel told The Times of Israel Sunday that there was no cause for alarm and that the quakes were just "a bit stronger than usual." Such tremors, he said, "happen all the time." According to the GII's statistics, seven earthquakes strong enough to be felt have rattled Israel in 2013. Israel is situated along the Syrian-African rift, a tear in the earth's crust running the length of the border separating Israel and Jordan, and is part of the Great Rift Valley, which extends from northern Syria to Mozambique. Israel's last major earthquake rattled the region in 1927 - a 6.2-magnitude tremor that killed 500 and injured another 700. An earthquake in 1837 left as many as 5,000 people dead. According to a 2010 Haaretz report, major earthquakes strike Israel once every 80 years or so. The country is currently in the midst of a program to upgrade buildings to withstand earthquakes.

Event Time
2013-10-19 17:54:56 UTC
2013-10-19 10:54:56 UTC-07:00

Location
26.268°N 110.178°W depth=8.0km (5.0mi)


Nearby Cities
75km (47mi) SW of Etchoropo, Mexico
82km (51mi) SW of Huatabampo, Mexico
100km (62mi) SSW of Villa Juarez, Mexico
106km (66mi) WNW of Ahome, Mexico
816km (507mi) SSE of Phoenix, Arizona

Technical Data

Event Time
2013-10-16 10:31:00 UTC
2013-10-16 20:31:00 UTC+10:00 at epicenter

Location
6.487°S 154.928°E depth=54.1km (33.6mi)

Nearby Cities
64km (40mi) WSW of Panguna, Papua New Guinea
73km (45mi) WSW of Arawa, Papua New Guinea
378km (235mi) SE of Kokopo, Papua New Guinea
539km (335mi) ESE of Kimbe, Papua New Guinea
642km (399mi) WNW of Honiara, Solomon Islands

Technical Details

Any drop in USGS activity would impact lesser developed nations such as the Philippines, which run smaller-scale monitoring and rely on the USGS for global earthquake data, Robert Geller, a professor of seismology at Tokyo University, said by phone. It would also affect ordinary citizens in the U.S, he said.

"If a big quake occurred now, hypothetically, inside the U.S., disaster relief work might be slowed down if USGS data wasn't available to the government," Geller said. The effect of the shutdown depends on whether the agency has curtailed the monitoring itself or stopped putting the data online, he said.

Earthquake Risk

Despite the warning, the National Earthquake Information Center of the USGS at Golden, Colorado, does not expect delays in earthquake monitoring and said data is being gathered at the same rate as before the shutdown. "At this point we are getting earthquakes posted on our website on time, within 20 minutes for magnitude 5 and larger worldwide, and earlier for a national event," Jana Pursley, a geophysicist at the center, said today in a phone interview.

More than 1,000 old concrete buildings in Los Angeles and hundreds more throughout the county may be at risk of collapsing in a major earthquake, according to a Times analysis.

By the most conservative estimate, as many as 50 of these buildings in the city alone would be destroyed, exposing thousands to injury or death.

A cross-section of the city lives and works in them: seamstresses in downtown factories, white-collar workers in Ventura Boulevard high-rises and condo dwellers on Millionaires' Mile in Westwood.

Despite their sturdy appearance, many older concrete buildings are vulnerable to the sideways movement of a major earthquake because they don't have enough steel reinforcing bars to hold columns in place.

Los Angeles officials have known about the dangers for more than 40 years but have failed to force owners to make their properties safer. The city has even rejected calls to make a list of concrete buildings.

In the absence of city action, university scientists compiled the first comprehensive inventory of potentially dangerous concrete buildings in Los Angeles.

The scientists, however, have declined to make the information public. They said they are willing to share it with L.A. officials, but only if the city requests a copy. The city has not done so, the scientists said.

At least 32 people have been killed and hundreds others injured following a powerful earthquake in central Philippines.

A temblor measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale struck early on Tuesday, crumbling a number of buildings and cracking roads on Bohol Island and the Cebu Island, near Balilihan region, the US Geological Survey (USGS) announced.

According to the Philippines Office of Civil Defense, at least 15 people have been killed in the city of Cebu, 16 in the province of Bohol, and one in the province of Siquijor, following the powerful quake.

Hundreds more have been wounded and at least 33 others are reported missing.

The quake has also destroyed centuries-old monuments and modern buildings in and around Balilihan, one of the Philippines' major tourist hubs.

The officials warned that the death toll could rise, though they expressed relief that the quake occurred on a public holiday.

Event Time
2013-10-12 13:11:52 UTC
2013-10-12 15:11:52 UTC+02:00 at epicenter
2013-10-12 15:11:52 UTC+02:00 system time

Location
35.487°N 23.261°E depth=36.2km (22.5mi)

Nearby Cities
30km (19mi) W of Platanos, Greece
68km (42mi) W of Chania, Greece
110km (68mi) W of Rethymnon, Greece
171km (106mi) W of Irakleion, Greece
279km (173mi) S of Athens, Greece

Technical Details

Event Time
2013-10-12 02:10:29 UTC
2013-10-11 21:40:29 UTC-04:30 at epicenter

Location
10.877°N 62.278°W depth=79.4km (49.3mi)

Nearby Cities
33km (21mi) N of Gueiria, Venezuela
86km (53mi) WNW of Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
100km (62mi) NW of Point Fortin, Trinidad and Tobago
101km (63mi) WNW of Tunapuna, Trinidad and Tobago
102km (63mi) WNW of Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago

Technical Details

Event Time
2013-10-11 21:24:58 UTC
2013-10-11 09:24:58 UTC-12:00 at epicenter

Location
30.752°S 178.439°W depth=146.5km (91.0mi)

Nearby Cities
87km (54mi) NNE of L'Esperance Rock, New Zealand
871km (541mi) NE of Whangarei, New Zealand
903km (561mi) NNE of Whakatane, New Zealand
915km (569mi) NE of Tauranga, New Zealand
1113km (692mi) SSW of Nuku'alofa, Tonga

Technical Details

In late September, we saw an earthquake giving birth to a new island, deluges all around the world, volcanic eruptions, apparent outgassing in the sea off Rome, daily fireball sightings, weird red skies (from increased cometary dust?) and other unusual apparitions in the sky... 2013 sure is strange!


Here is my new channel exclusively devoted to my series "2013 IS STRANGE".

This video is for educational/research purposes only.

This application is not commercial and is free to use.

My series include strange phenomena of all kinds and awesome natural events or beautiful phenomena of year 2013 only . Enjoy my editing!

Music:

1) Agoria - Scala EP - Scala
2) nuages - gone