Earthquakes
S


Bizarro Earth

Earthquake shakes Beverly Hills for second time in a week

The second Beverly Hills earthquake in a week caused no reported damage, but it did prompt worried calls to the front desk from guests at the deluxe Montage Beverly Hills hotel. "Do we need to evacuate?" they asked. "We do get guest calls as soon as they happen," said Andrew Tredici, overnight supervisor. Tredici said hotel staff could easily distinguish locals or others accustomed to tremors from East Coast and foreign guests for whom the earth movements were a more startling experience.

Two earthquakes centered near Beverly Hills have struck this week. A magnitude 3.5 earthquake was reported at 12:03 a.m. Friday. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the epicenter was one mile from Century City, two miles from West Hollywood, nine miles from Inglewood and nine miles from the Los Angeles Civic Center.

A magnitude 3.2 temblor hit Beverly Hills on Monday. That quake set off some security alarms but caused no damage.

Tredici said the smaller earthquakes are manageable. On Monday, he said, "A couple of things fell down in the gift shop." Even though Friday morning's quake was stronger, the hotel found no evidence of damage or spills. Still, said Tredici, who recently relocated to the Los Angeles area from Arizona: "We don't want a 5.5 or, God forbid, an 8."

USGS data

Better Earth

Back-to-back earthquakes shake central California

Two earthquakes struck in Huron, Calif., Friday, registering magnitudes of 4.2 and 4.0, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The first earthquake hit at 6:22 a.m. PT. One minute later, the 4.2 earthquake was reported.

According to the USGS, the epicenter was eight miles from Avenal, Calif., nine miles from Kettleman City, Calif., 17 miles from Coalinga, Calif., and 132 miles from San Jose. Huron, Calif., is about 50 miles south of Fresno.

About six hours earlier, a magnitude 3.5 earthquake struck Beverly Hills. Thousands of people reported feeling it, the Associated Press reported.

A spokesman from the USGS told NBC News the earthquakes caused no reported damage.

Seismologists say the quakes are not on the San Andreas Fault and weren't triggered by a magnitude-7.6 earthquake in Costa Rica, according to the Associated Press.

Bizarro Earth

China earthquakes damage 20,000 homes, leave 50 dead

Southwestern China was hit with a series of shallow, damaging earthquakes Friday. The quakes damaged an estimated 20,000 homes and buildings in rural China.


USGS data

Bizarro Earth

More than 500 aftershocks rattle Costa Rica

More than 500 aftershocks, including one as strong as 5.1 on the Richter scale, continued to rattle Costa Rica one day after a 7.6-magnitude quake jolted northwest Guanacaste province early Wednesday. According to the latest report from Costa Rica's Volcano and Earthquake Watch (Ovsicori), issued at 7:30 am local time (1330 GMT) Thursday, some 530 aftershocks stronger than 2 on the Richter scale have been registered, with the strongest occurring before dawn on Thursday, at 3:07 am (0907 GMT).

The epicenter of the 5.1 quake was also located in Guanacaste, 151 kilometers west of the capital San Jose, and 14 kilometers beneath the earth's surface, seismic experts said. Aftershocks as strong as 6 on the Richter scale are normal as shifting tectonic plates release energy following an earthquake of major magnitude, like the quake on Wednesday, said the experts.
Image
© Kent Gilbert/XinhuaWilmer Sequeir (R) and his wife Maritsa Villareal (L) watch the debris of their home affected by Wednesday's earthquake, in Nosara, 290 km northeast of San Jose, Costa Rica, on Sept. 6, 2012. Costa Rica's Earthquake and Volcano Observatory counted 530 aftershocks by 13:30 GMT Thursday, including one with a magnitude of 5.1 and three others above 4, after the 7.6-magnitude quake that affected the country on Wednesday.

Ambulance

Costa Rica Earthquake: 2 dead

Costa rica quake
© Juan Carlos/ReutersPeople gathered in front of the Supreme Court talk on their mobile phones after being evacuated from buildings following an earthquake in San Jose September 5, 2012. A 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck northwestern Costa Rica on Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said
A powerful earthquake rocked Costa Rica on Wednesday, causing the deaths of at least two people, damaging buildings, and briefly triggering a tsunami warning.

Residents of the capital San Jose said phones went down, electricity poles rattled on the streets and water flowed out of pools after the 7.6-magnitude quake. The were also unconfirmed media reports of people being treated for injuries.

A spokesman for the local Red Cross said two people died during the earthquake, one from a heart attack. He was not immediately able to confirm media reports the other person had been crushed under a collapsing wall.

Locals were shocked by the force of the quake, the biggest to hit Costa Rica since a 7.6 magnitude quake in 1991 left 47 dead.

Bizarro Earth

Watch Costa Rica Quake Vibrations Hit US

Shock Waves
© IRISA screen capture of an animation that shows waves from the Costa Rican earthquake rattling the earth beneath the US. Blue means downward ground motion while red represents upward ground motion with the darker colors indicating larger amplitude.
A new animation shows the shockwave from the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck Costa Rica this morning (Sept. 5) arriving and reverberating through the ground beneath the United States.

The visualization was made by scientists at Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) and shows the Earth slowly moving up and down. Red spots show seismometers moving upward; the darker the hue, the higher they are moving up. The opposite goes for blue.

The visualization shows how earthquakes create waves of motion through the Earth's crust, just as a pebble tossed into a pond creates a ripple. "But in this case, the pond is North America," said John Taber, head of outreach for IRIS.

Better Earth

Costa Rica earthquake, tsunami warning issued


A major earthquake hit northwestern Costa Rica on Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

The quake -- initially given a magnitude of 7.9 but then revised to 7.6 -- struck at 10:42 a.m. ET at a depth of about 25 miles and about seven miles southeast of Nicoya, a town of some 15,000 people on a coastal area on the Pacific about 90 miles from the capital San Jose.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued tsunami warnings for Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua, after initially issuing warnings for a much larger area.

"It is not known that a tsunami was generated. This warning is based only on the earthquake evaluation. An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines near the epicenter within minutes and more distant coastlines within hours," the PTWC said.

Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 7.6 - 8km NE of Samara, Costa Rica

Image
© USGS
Event Time:
2012-09-05 14:42:09 UTC
2012-09-05 08:42:09 UTC-06:00 at epicenter
2012-09-05 07:42:09 UTC-07:00 system time

Distances:
8km (5mi) NE of Samara, Costa Rica
24km (15mi) S of Nicoya, Costa Rica
38km (24mi) SSE of Santa Cruz, Costa Rica
68km (42mi) W of Puntarenas, Costa Rica
151km (94mi) W of San Jose, Costa Rica

Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 5.9 - NW of Sola, Vanuatu

Image
© USGS
Event Time
2012-09-05 13:09:09 UTC
2012-09-06 00:09:09 UTC+11:00 at epicenter
2012-09-05 06:09:09 UTC-07:00 system time

Nearby Cities
196km (122mi) NW of Sola, Vanuatu
344km (214mi) NNW of Luganville, Vanuatu
613km (381mi) NNW of Port-Vila, Vanuatu
783km (487mi) ESE of Honiara, Solomon Islands
935km (581mi) N of We, New Caledonia

Bizarro Earth

Virgin Islands and Caribbean region joins growing list of seismically-tense hotspots

Image
© USGS
The VIDN say on August 30, 2012: "The V.I. Territorial Emergency Management Agency said that V.I. Alert subscribers who have noticed a recent increase in earthquake notifications from the service should not be alarmed. Between 3 a.m. Monday and continuing throughout the day Wednesday, more than 50 very minor to moderate earthquakes were recorded near Latitude 19 degrees north, north of the Virgin Islands, according to a statement VITEMA issued Wednesday. Those tremors included a 5.2-, 4.6- and 4.7-magnitude earthquake between 3 and 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Victor Huerfano, director of the Puerto Rico Seismic Network, confirmed that the increase in earthquake activity is a swarm of tremors, a phenomenon that occurs four or five times a year in different parts of the Caribbean region, according to VITEMA. A swarm is defined as three or more earthquakes occurring within an hour, and the Puerto Rico Seismic Network has been recording these instances since Saturday. "It is normal but we cannot say what it means," Huerfano said. "It is more important that we make sure we are calm and prepared, and that emergency systems are in place in case a major earthquake happens." The Virgin Islands is located in a seismically active region, which has a potential for a major earthquakes to occur at any time, according to VITEMA's statement." - VIDN