Earthquakes
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Cloud Lightning

Hurricane Bud could bring life-threatening conditions to Mexico

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© UnknownHurricane Bud is expected to approach the Mexico coast late Friday evening.
Hurricane Bud quickly strengthened early Thursday after forming off the southwestern coast of Mexico just hours before, the National Hurricane Center in Miami reported.

The Category 1 storm with 90 mph winds was about 350 miles (560 kilometers) southwest of Manzanillo, and was tracking to the north at 7 mph.

Some additional strengthening is expected Thursday, the hurricane center said. "Gradual weakening is expected to begin by Friday."

The forecast map shows the storm approaching the coast late Friday before slipping off to the southwest and away from land.

Bud is the second named tropical storm of the East Pacific hurricane season.

Radar

Earthquake hits cheese production in northern Italy

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© AP Photo/Luca BrunoOriano Caretti looks at the overturned shelves with Parmesan wheels in his Parmesan cheese factory in San Giovanni in Persiceto, Italy, Monday, May 21, 2012. A magnitude-6.0 earthquake shook northern Italy early Sunday, killing at least three people and toppling some buildings, emergency services and news reports said. The quake struck at 4:04 a.m. Sunday between Modena and Mantova, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) north-northwest of Bologna at a relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said.
The earthquake that struck northern Italy will affect production and export of some of the area's most internationally famous culinary delicacies - Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano cheeses.

National farmers' group Coldiretti has estimated damage to agriculture in the area, one of Italy's most fertile and productive zones, at more than 200 million euros.

Some of the worst damage was to the production of Parmigiano Reggiano, also called Parmesan cheese, and its eternal rival, Grana Padano.

Both of the very hard seasoned cheeses are grated over pasta dishes, thinly sliced on salads or served in small, irregular pieces at fashionable parties worldwide.

Their respective passionate devotees can be compared to fans supporting different sports teams in the same town.

Radar

Magnitude 5.8 Bulgarian Earthquake Followed By 80 Aftershocks, Worst in Region Since 1917

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© BGNES A 5.7-5.9 magnitude earthquake struck southwest of Bulgaria's capital Sofia shortly after 3:00 am on Tuesday.
An earthquake of a magnitude of 5.7 to 5.9 struck the Bulgarian city of Pernik, 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) northwest of the capital Sofia.

The quake, the worst in the Sofia area since 1917, shook the country at 2:58 a.m. local time, causing walls and roofs to collapse in Pernik and chimneys and plaster to fall in Sofia, Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said on the ministry's website today. There were no casualties, Prime Minister Boiko Borissov said in an interview with Nova Television station.

The capital city's airport, railways and subway are working and no damage to infrastructure in the country has been reported, Construction Minister Liliana Pavlova told reporters in Sofia. In Pernik, which was worst affected by the quake, the heating utility was shut down and schools were closed for today and tomorrow.

Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.1 (Magnitude Changed to 6.0) - Hokkaido, Japan

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© USGS
Date-Time
Wednesday, May 23, 2012 at 15:02:25 UTC
Thursday, May 24, 2012 at 12:02:25 AM at epicenterTime of Earthquake in other Time ZonesLocation
41.378°N, 142.073°E

Depth
40.7 km (25.3 miles)

Region
HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION

Distances
107 km (66 miles) NNE of Hachinohe, Honshu, Japan
119 km (73 miles) ESE of Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan
127 km (78 miles) ENE of Aomori, Honshu, Japan
663 km (411 miles) NNE of TOKYO, Japan

Bizarro Earth

Researchers find New Zealand more seismically unstable than previously thought

Researchers have discovered New Zealand's earthquake-prone landscape is even more unstable than previously thought, recording deep tremors lasting up to 30 minutes on its biggest fault line. Scientists measured the so-called "creeping earthquakes" when they investigated a puzzling lack of major seismic jolts along a section of the Alpine Fault, which runs the length of the South Island.

The quakes, which caused no surface damage, occurred 20-45 kilometres (12-28 miles) beneath the Earth's crust and continued for as long as half an hour, much longer than ordinary earthquakes. In contrast, the 6.3-magnitude quake that killed 185 people in the South island city of Christchurch in February last year lasted just 37 seconds and struck at a depth of about five kilometres.
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© Unknown
The quakes could not be measured by regular seismic monitoring devices and researchers from Wellington's Victoria University had to place sensors in boreholes 100 metres deep to pick them up. Seismologist Aaron Wech said the research showed the Alpine Fault, regarded as New Zealand's most hazardous, did not remain still between major earthquakes but was constantly shifting.

Bizarro Earth

Japan Quake Aftershock Tally Exceeds 5,000

Japan Aftershocks
© USGSA map of shaking intensity of the recent aftershock.

An earthquake that ruptured this week off the coast of Japan was one of the largest recent aftershocks to affect an area that, more than a year after one of the most powerful earthquakes on record, is still experiencing a steady stream of seismic jolts.

So far, 5,229 aftershocks have rattled the tectonic boundary that ruptured off the coast of Japan's Tohoku region in March 2011. The magnitude-9.0 earthquake was the fifth largest earthquake ever recorded.

The Sunday (May 20) quake is listed as both magnitude 6.0 and 6.4. If it proves to be the latter, it would be the largest aftershock since March 14, when a magnitude-6.9 earthquake hit the region.

Magnitude-6.0 quakes can cause serious damage if they hit near populated areas, yet the bulk of Japan's significant aftershocks have hit out at sea, many miles from land, and have caused relatively few problems.

This recent quake caused only light shaking for residents of northern Japan, according to U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) data. It occurred beneath the Pacific Ocean, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) east of Miyako, a coastal town devastated by the deadly tsunami that followed the March 2011 earthquake.

"With an earthquake this big, you can have aftershocks for months and years," said Paul Earle, a seismologist with the USGS. You can't say when or where they'll happen, he told OurAmazingPlanet, but they tend to decrease in number exponentially.

Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 5.6 - Bulgaria

Bulgaria Quake_220512
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Tuesday, May 22, 2012 at 00:00:33 UTC

Tuesday, May 22, 2012 at 03:00:33 AM at epicenterTime of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:

42.686°N, 23.009°E

Depth:
9.4 km (5.8 miles)

Region:

BULGARIA

Distances:
24 km (14 miles) W of SOFIA, Bulgaria

73 km (45 miles) N of Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria
115 km (71 miles) SE of Nis, Serbia

141 km (87 miles) NNE of Strumica, Macedonia

Bizarro Earth

Why Italy's Earthquake Was Weird

Italy Quake
© USGSThe intensity of shaking from the 6.0 magnitude earthquake that struck northern Italy on May 20, 2012.
A strong and unusually shallow earthquake struck northern Italy over the weekend, fracturing pavement, sending torrents of brick and rubble raining down from buildings, and killing seven people. The powerful shaking was a first for the region in centuries - and fairly surprising to seismologists.

Data indicate the magnitude-6.0 quake, which struck just after 4 a.m. local time on Sunday (May 20), just north of Bologna, was a thrust quake - the type of earthquake caused when two tectonic plates smash together - yet it occurred at a depth of just 3 miles (5 kilometers).

"It is kind of surprising that it's that shallow, because it's pretty far from the plate boundary," said Paul Caruso, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey. "Normally we expect things to get deeper as they move northward," he told OurAmazingPlanet.

Shallow shaking

The quake hit about 470 miles (750 km) north of the plate boundary - the place where the two colliding plates meet - which runs along the sole of Italy's "boot."

It is here that the African plate is plowing slowly northward, crashing into the Eurasian plate.

Caruso explained that the shallower a quake, the more damage it can cause. "If a quake is 500 kilometers deep, and you're right on top of it, you're going to feel it a lot less strongly than if it's 5 kilometers deep," he said. "As the seismic energy moves through the ground some of it is dissipated."

The strong quake rocked an area with a long history of earthquakes, yet one that has kept relatively quiet for hundreds of years.

"There has not been a whole lot of action in that area," Caruso said. "The fact that they do have records of earthquakes going back a couple thousand years shows this area hasn't been seismically active for a long time," he said.

Thousands of people were displaced by the quake, and many people spent the night in tents hurriedly erected on soccer fields.

Bizarro Earth

M6.2 quake and several above M5.0 hit off Northeast Japan in last day

Earthquake Information
Japan Meteorological Agency

17:50 JST 20 May 2012 17:42 JST 20 May 2012 Sanriku Oki M5.1 2
17:27 JST 20 May 2012 17:21 JST 20 May 2012 Sanriku Oki M5.4 2
16:54 JST 20 May 2012 16:49 JST 20 May 2012 Ibaraki-ken Hokubu M3.3 1
16:38 JST 20 May 2012 16:28 JST 20 May 2012 Sanriku Oki M5.7 2
16:32 JST 20 May 2012 16:20 JST 20 May 2012 Sanriku Oki M6.2 3
14:57 JST 20 May 2012 14:52 JST 20 May 2012 Fukushima-ken Oki M3.6 1
12:56 JST 20 May 2012 12:49 JST 20 May 2012 Niigata-ken Chuetsu-chiho M1.8 1
04:24 JST 20 May 2012 04:17 JST 20 May 2012 Sanriku Oki M4.8 1
04:20 JST 20 May 2012 04:14 JST 20 May 2012 Sanriku Oki M5.4 1
04:11 JST 20 May 2012 04:05 JST 20 May 2012 Sanriku Oki M5.8 3
03:36 JST 20 May 2012 03:31 JST 20 May 2012 Akita-ken Nairiku-hokubu M2.8 1
01:23 JST 20 May 2012 01:18 JST 20 May 2012 Aki-nada M3.3 1
23:27 JST 19 May 2012 23:22 JST 19 May 2012 Ibaraki-ken Hokubu M3.3 1
23:25 JST 19 May 2012 23:20 JST 19 May 2012 Miyagi-ken Oki M3.9 1
09:14 JST 19 May 2012 09:09 JST 19 May 2012 Sanriku Oki M4.8 1
07:41 JST 19 May 2012 07:36 JST 19 May 2012 Miyagi-ken Oki M3.4 1
07:02 JST 19 May 2012 06:57 JST 19 May 2012 Ibaraki-ken Nambu M3.1 1
06:37 JST 19 May 2012 06:32 JST 19 May 2012 Sanriku Oki M4.7 1
06:28 JST 19 May 2012 06:23 JST 19 May 2012 Sanriku Oki M5.1 2

Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.0 - Off The East Coast of Honshu, Japan

Honshu Quake_200512
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Sunday, May 20, 2012 at 07:19:55 UTC

Sunday, May 20, 2012 at 05:19:55 PM at epicenterTime of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:

39.597°N, 143.242°E

Depth:
10 km (6.2 miles)

Region:

OFF THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN

Distances:
179 km (111 miles) E of Morioka, Honshu, Japan

181 km (112 miles) SE of Hachinohe, Honshu, Japan

251 km (155 miles) ESE of Aomori, Honshu, Japan

532 km (330 miles) NE of TOKYO, Japan