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Earthquakes

Quake research mission to 'ring of fire'
By David Shukman, Environment & science correspondent, BBC News

An expedition is getting under way in the South Pacific to investigate one of the most seismically-active fault lines in the world.
Researchers are planning to study the Tonga Trench - a deep feature where the Pacific tectonic plate is being forced under the Indo-Australian plate.
The island nation of Tonga is regularly hit by tremors - most recently a 6.4 magnitude quake offshore last month.

The research expedition will last about one month.
The focus of the study will be an unusual zone on the seabed where undersea volcanoes are being dragged into the fault.
Scientists want a better understanding of how the submarine mountains affect the likelihood of earthquakes.

The volcanoes lie on the 4,000km-long Louisville Ridge and either act as a brake on the Pacific plate - or intensify the quakes which follow.
The area where they are pulled into the seabed suffers relatively fewer tremors than other stretches of the fault line.

The study - funded by Britain's Natural Environment Research Council (Nerc) - will carry out surveys and develop 3D models during seven transits of the region.

One of the lead scientists on the expedition, Professor Tony Watts of Oxford University, told BBC News:
"We want to know whether subducted seamounts are holding up earthquakes or whether they cause earthquakes.
"This is important to find out so that we can learn what controls earthquakes and make better assessments about where they may occur in the future."

One recent study of an earthquake in Peru in 2001 showed that underwater mountains may have held up the quake for 40 seconds before rupturing.
A study of the Nankaido earthquake in Japan in 1946 successfully imaged a seamount that had been dragged 10km deep - and apparently limited the scale of the rupture and the tsunami risk.

According to Professor Watts, more data is needed on the deep structure of the Tonga Trench to understand the forces at work.
"We need to know whether the seamounts are more or less intact as they are carried into the trench or have been damaged or decapitated.
"If we find that there is a link between seamounts and earthquakes then imaging of the seafloor will put us in a much better position to understand future quakes and tsunamis."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13161058
 
From the Ring of Fire to, er, Blackpool

Small earthquake hits Fylde coast at Poulton

The Fylde coast in Lancashire has experienced its second earthquake in two months.
The British Geological Survey (BGS) said the tremor was felt at Poulton-le-Fylde in the early hours of Friday.
It was a 1.5 magnitude earthquake of intensity level three, recorded at a depth of 2.7km (1.7 miles). No damage or injuries have been reported.

On 1 April, the Blackpool area was hit by 2.2 magnitude tremor which again centred on Poulton-le-Fylde.

According to seismologists, the UK experiences about 20 earthquakes a year of a similar magnitude, the majority of which occur along the west coast.
The largest recorded earthquake experienced in the UK occurred in 1931 and measured 6.1. The epicentre was Dogger Bank in the North Sea.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-la ... e-13586024
 
Here's another example of the Japanese proving to be a remarkable people:

Japan nuclear crisis: Pensioners seek work at Fukushima
31 May 2011 Last updated at 05:52 GMT

A group of more than 200 Japanese pensioners are volunteering to tackle the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima power station.

The "Skilled Veterans Corps", as they call themselves, is made up of retired engineers and other professionals, all over the age of sixty.

One of the group, Yasuteru Yamada, told the BBC's Roland Buerk that they should be facing the dangers of radiation, not the young.

Video at source:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13597670
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Brave fellows, and they have quite rightly rationalised it all out.

It was a little insensitive of the reporter to start talking about kamikazes, I felt.
 
Several old folk with the right experience made a similar offer at Chernobyl, but I think it was not taken up.
 
rynner2 said:
From the Ring of Fire to, er, Blackpool

Small earthquake hits Fylde coast at Poulton
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-la ... e-13586024
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Blackpool earthquake tremors may have been caused by gas drilling
Environment group calls for fracking procedure to be banned after safety concerns over minor earthquakes in Lancashire
Jonathan Paige The Guardian, Wednesday 1 June 2011

A company using "fracking" to drill for gas in Lancashire has had to suspend operations following a 1.5 magnitude earthquake near Blackpool on Friday.
It is the second earthquake to strike Lancashire since April, and experts say it may be a result of the controversial practice, a process of drilling for natural shale gas which involves injecting water and rock-dissolving fluids underground at extremely high pressure to break apart hard shale rocks and release gas.

Cuadrilla Resources, the company carrying out the fracking at Preese Hall, Weeton, close to the Fylde coast, said it had suspended operations to examine data collected by the British Geological Survey before deciding whether it was safe to resume. Neither quake was large enough to cause any structural damage.

Mark Miller, the company's chief executive, said: "We take our responsibilities very seriously and that is why we have stopped fracking operations to share information and consult with the relevant authorities and other experts.
"We expect that this analysis and subsequent consultation will take a number of weeks to conclude and we will decide on appropriate actions after that."

Drilling is likely to be suspended for a long time as Cuadrilla investigates the cause of the quakes with the help of outside experts. The BGS said it could not say conclusively if the first earthquake, on 1 April, was linked to the fracking but the organisation's website stated: "Any process that injects pressurised water into rocks at depth will cause the rock to fracture and possibly produce earthquakes.
"It is well known that injection of water or other fluids during the oil extraction and geothermal engineering, such as shale gas, processes can result in earthquake activity."

The BGS said that last week's 1.5 magnitude earthquake was very similar to a larger 2.3 quake that centred on nearby Poulton-le-Fylde at the beginning of April. "It seems quite likely that they are related," said Brian Baptie, the survey's head of seismology. "The recorded waveforms are very similar to those from the magnitude 2.3 event last month, which suggests that the two events share a similar location and mechanism."

WWF Scotland has repeated its call for fracking to be banned, following news that a company was seeking permission for Scotland's first shale gas exploration at Aith, near Falkirk.

Its director, Dr Richard Dixon, said: "Whether the shale gas drilling and the earthquake are linked certainly needs investigated. However, we already know enough about the environmental problems associated with fracking to know that it should be banned in Scotland."
"Shale gas would be a disaster for the climate and its production could contaminate groundwater. Scotland should follow France's example and ban it before it even gets going. Scotland should become the home of clean energy not another dirty fossil-fuel. Shale gas projects in Scotland would quickly tarnish our global claim to green credentials."

Fracking has been heavily criticised by environmentalists in the US, who say the process can end up polluting drinking water in the surrounding area. In a case last year in Pennsylvania, a natural gas company was banned from drilling for at least a year because methane from a faulty well polluted drinking water.

This April, the New York Times reported that Congressional Democrats had found that "oil and gas companies injected hundreds of millions of gallons of hazardous or carcinogenic chemicals into wells in more than 13 states from 2005 to 2009". Despite this, a report last month by the Commons energy and climate change committee found there was no evidence that fracking was unsafe, saying a ban on shale gas drilling was not necessary in the UK as there was no evidence that it posed a risk to water supplies from underground aquifers. "There appears to be nothing inherently dangerous about the process of fracking itself and as long as the integrity of the well is maintained shale gas extraction should be safe," said Tim Yeo, the committee chairman.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jun/0 ... s-drilling
 
Back to the Ring of Fire...

NZ quake: Christchurch hit by magnitude-5.0 tremors

A series of powerful tremors have hit the New Zealand city of Christchurch, almost four months after an earthquake that killed 181 people.
A magnitude-5.2 quake struck at Taylors Mistake beach, 9.6km (six miles) from the city centre.

A second magnitude-6.0 quake struck an hour and 20 minutes later, destroying at least one building and causing injuries to several people.
Boulders have been reported to be tumbling down hillsides.

The tremors forced the evacuation of shopping centres, office blocks and Christchurch airport.
A week ago, Christchurch was also hit by two shocks which increased nervousness in the city.

A total of 181 people died in the 6.3-magnitude earthquake in February, which also destroyed hundreds of buildings.

Mayor Bob Parker told Radio New Zealand there were new fears for Christchurch Cathedral.
"Thank God we had evacuated the red zone," he said, in a reference to the centre of the city which remains closed off.
"We are being enveloped with dust. It is very, very scary.
"There has been a report of a further collapse of the remnants of the Christchurch Cathedral.
"We need to get a picture of what is really happening and to make a call on where we need to send our essential services."

A building was reported to have collapsed in Christchurch, with some people believed to be trapped inside.

An inquiry into the collapse of one of the buildings destroyed by the devastating 22 February earthquake opened on Monday and was briefly evacuated following the latest shakes.

About 10,000 houses and nearly 1,000 commercial buildings will have to be demolished as a result of the February quake.
Recovery and reconstruction costs are expected to total at least NZ$15bn ($11bn; £7bn).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13745359
 
Earthquake hits English Channel

An earthquake with a magnitude of 3.9 has struck in the English Channel, the British Geological Survey (BGS) said.
The quake had a depth of 10km and its epicentre was south of Portsmouth, according to the BGS.
Residents in parts of West Sussex reported buildings shaking for a few seconds at about 0800 BST.

Sussex Police, Solent Coastguard and West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service said they had not been called out to any incidents related to it.

David Kerridge, from the BGS, said it was the biggest incident of its kind in the area for nearly 300 years.
He said: "This is the largest earthquake in this area since a magnitude 4.5 event in 1734.
"Historically, there have been two other significant events nearby - a magnitude 5.0 earthquake in 1878 and a magnitude 4.3 earthquake in 1750.
"In the UK, we experience an earthquake of this magnitude approximately every two years."

Small earthquakes are not uncommon in the British Isles.
In January a 3.6-magnitude quake struck 9km (5.5 miles) north-west of Ripon, North Yorkshire.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-14153116
 
Japan tsunami battered ice shelf in Antarctic
By Paul Rincon, Science editor, BBC News Website

The tsunami caused by the 11 March Tohoku earthquake in Japan crossed the Pacific and broke off large chunks of ice from Antarctica, a study has shown.
Satellite photos show huge icebergs were created when the tsunami hit West Antarctica's Sulzberger Ice Shelf.
This caused 125 sq km of ice to break off - or calve - from a shelf front that has remained stable for the past 46 years.

The work, by a US team, is published in the Journal of Glaciology.
The waves generated by the 9.0 Magnitude earthquake in Japan travelled about 13,000km across the Pacific Ocean before reaching the Sulzenberger Ice Shelf, causing ice to break off and float into the sea.
The largest of the icebergs measured 6.5km by 9.5km, (almost the size of Manhattan) and 80m in thickness.

The swell was estimated to have been just 30cm high when it reached the Sulzberger shelf. But the researchers say that over a period of hours to days, the dispersed waves caused repeated flexing of the ice, "fatiguing" the shelf and causing it to fracture.

Kelly Brunt from Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, US, and colleagues studied a series of synthetic aperture radar images from the European Space Agency's Envisat satellite taken between 11 and the 13 March. This allowed the team to constrain the calving event to a period consistent with the arrival of the tsunami.

"The impact of the tsunami and its train of following dispersed waves... in combination with the ice-shelf and sea-ice conditions provided the fracture mechanism needed to trigger the first calving event from the ice shelf in 46 years," they write in the Journal of Glaciology.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14464610
 
Just a little local one:

Cornwall earthquake shakes homes

An earthquake has hit the Bodmin area of Cornwall overnight.
According to reports from the British Geological Society, the 2.2-magnitude tremor hit at 02:40 GMT and lasted for a few seconds.
The quake could have been felt as far as St Austell, Liskeard and Padstow, but there were no reports of damage.

Sue Dibble, from St Tudy, said: "It was very loud, like a whooshing and the house and bed were shaking. I thought I'd imagined it."

Between 20 to 30 earthquakes are felt by people each year in the UK, but most of these are very small and cause no damage, the society said.

The largest known British earthquake occurred 60 miles offshore near the Dogger Bank in 1931, with a magnitude of 6.1.
It was still powerful enough to cause minor damage to buildings on the east coast of England.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-16022488
 
ramonmercado said:
Did it stir your tea?
Click to expand...
I never drink tea. And at 0240 GMT I'm not normally drinking anything! ;)
 
Donegal earthquake registers 2.2 on Richter scale
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16742711

The epicentre of the quake is believed to be somewhere around the Knockalla Heights coast road
Residents living in Donegal in the Irish Republic were woken by a minor earthquake in the early hours of Thursday morning.

The British Geological Survey (BGS) confirmed an earthquake registering 2.2 on the Richter scale was registered in Buncrana at 01:04 GMT.

The earthquake's measured depth was 3km.

It happened almost exactly two years to the day since a similar sized tremor was felt.

The BGS said it was a very small reading in terms of world earthquakes but for Ireland, which does not see much of this activity, it is not surprising it has caused an amount of alarm.

It received about nine calls with people claiming to have felt vibrations, whilst others compared it to thunder.

Julian Bukits, assistant seismologist with the BGS, said window frames shook and some people were woken up.

"It happens naturally in the north of Ireland but not as often, say, as northern Scotland or the south of Wales," he said.

"No one can really explain it for Ireland, it's just a geological phenomenon. Usually, with reports of this kind, people think it's a heavy lorry going past their home."

The BGS has narrowed the epicentre of the quake down to a few hundred yards around the Knockalla Heights coast road, about five miles across Lough Swilly from Buncrana.

People as far away as Letterkenny, Kilmacrennan and Ballybofey reported the rumblings, as well as more locally in Buncrana, Kerrykeel and Urris.

No damage has been reported.

The last similar-sized earthquake in Ireland was a 2.6 in north Clare in May 2010.

Mr Bukits said: "They are not very often and as far as earthquakes go, 2.2 is relatively insignificant."

There have been eight minor earthquakes recorded in this region of Donegal.

Director of the Irish National Seismic Network Tom Blake said Donegal has some significant fault lines "coming all the way from Scotland".

He assured that the faults were far removed from any major boundaries and were a normal reaction to the seismicity there.

"From time to time there is a little stress and strain that gets released and that is what we see as these minor tremors," he said.

More on This Story
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Be interesting to see whats on board. Hopefully no bodies.

Japan tsunami 'ghost ship' drifting to Canada
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17500008

Officials are monitoring the empty vessel in case it becomes an obstruction to other shipping

Related Stories

Japan quake: Loss and recovery in numbers
Path of tsunami debris mapped out
Dealing with mountains of debris in quake-hit Japan

A Japanese fishing vessel swept away by the March 2011 tsunami has been spotted adrift off the west coast of Canada.

An aircraft patrolling the seas off British Columbia saw the 15m (50ft) vessel seen floating 275km (170 miles) from the Haida Gwaii islands on Friday.

It is believed to be the first large item from the millions of tonnes of tsunami debris to cross the Pacific.

No-one is believed to be on board the ship, registered in Hokkaido, Japan.


Canada's transport ministry is monitoring the vessel for marine pollution and to see if it becomes an obstruction.

The tsunami last March generated more than 25 million tonnes of debris, say researchers at the University of Hawaii. Between four and eight million tonnes were washed into the ocean, with one to two million tonnes still floating on the surface.

The main mass of the debris is not expected to make landfall in North America until March 2014.

Maria Cantwell, US senator for Washington state, said the boat was expected to drift slowly south.

"On its current trajectory and speed, the vessel wouldn't make landfall for approximately 50 days," Sen Cantwell said in a statement.
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Hmmm, doesn't look as if they checked to see what was on board. Vid at link.

US Coast Guard sinks tsunami 'ghost ship'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17630153

Petty Officer David Mosley said that a high-powered cannon was used to puncture holes in the vessel to take on water.

Related Stories

Japan 'ghost ship' drifts to Canada
Japan quake: Loss and recovery in numbers
Japan quake: Images of then and now

The US Coast Guard has used cannon to sink a crewless Japanese ship that drifted to Alaska after the 2011 tsunami.

The coast guard earlier said they would hold off scuttling the Ryou-Un Maru after a Canadian fishing boat claimed salvage rights.

But a Canadian official later said that the Bernice C had been unable to tow the 200ft (61m) Japanese "ghost ship".

The boat had no lights or power and was viewed as a danger to other ships.

It was thought to be at the vanguard of a stream of tsunami debris that has been drifting east since last year's disaster hit Japan.

Owner contacted
The Ryou-Un Maru was first spotted off the coast of Canadian British Columbia on 23 March.

The vessel was moving at about 1km/h in a maritime transport corridor that separates US and Canadian waters.

It was adrift about 195 miles from Sitka, Alaska, when it was sunk, officials said.

Chief Petty Officer Kip Wadlow told AP news agency that a cutter was used to fire cannon at the abandoned ship, which burst into flames and took on water.

After a few hours, larger ammunition was used to complete the job, he said.

A Hercules C-130 air crew was ready to participate in the operation, broadcasting to mariners and air traffic to alert them and help clear the surrounding area before the demolition of the ship began.

CPO Wadlow said it would be too expensive to try to salvage the ship, and too dangerous to put anyone on board.

The ship may have carried more than 7,500 litres of diesel fuel, officials said.

The Ryou-Un Maru, a shrimping boat, has been traced to the Japanese island of Hokkaido.

Alaskan Senator Mark Begich suggested that the boat's owner had been identified, but the owner did not want the vessel back.

On 11 March 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake hit Japan, triggering a tsunami that swamped a power station, prompting the worst nuclear crisis since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
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Earthquake recorded in Lochaber's 'Loch of Hell'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-h ... s-18581048

Loch Hourn was the location of an earthquake on Saturday

Related Stories

Quakes felt in Highland villages

A small earthquake has been detected in one of the deepest sea lochs on the west coast of Scotland.

British Geological Survey recorded a quake of 1.1 magnitude on Saturday in Loch Hourn, which takes its name from the Gaelic for Loch of Hell.

Local community group, Glenelg and Arnisdale Development Trust, describe the loch as one of the world's most scenic places.

Ballachulish, also in the west Highlands, has had five earthquakes.

They occurred over several days between 6 and 19 June.
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Bin in Hawaii confirmed to be Japan tsunami debris
September 22nd, 2012 in Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

In this photo provided by the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, a worker removes barnacles and other marine life from the bottom of a large blue plastic bin in Honolulu on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2012. State and federal officials are trying to determine whether the bin bearing the name of a Japanese seafood company is the first confirmed piece of marine debris from last year's tsunamis to arrive in Hawaii. (AP Photo/Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Aquatic Resources)

(AP)—A large plastic bin is the first confirmed piece of marine debris from last year's Japan tsunamis to arrive in Hawaii, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday.

Japanese consular officials confirmed that the blue bin found earlier this week floating in the ocean is from Fukushima, said Ben Sherman, a NOAA spokesman in Washington, D.C.

It is the 12th confirmed piece to hit U.S. or Canada waters, he said.

The bin was spotted off Waimanalo, on the southeast coast of Oahu, by Makai Ocean Engineering staff and was retrieved by the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory. Used for transporting seafood, the 4-by-4-foot (1.2-by-1.2-meter) cube bears the name Y.K. Suisan Co. Ltd., the state Department of Land and Natural Resources said.

Nikolai Maximenko, a University of Hawaii researcher and ocean currents expert who is studying the trajectory of the tsunami debris, said the bin's arrival is consistent with his predictions for when the first pieces would get to Hawaii.

"It came at the right time, according to our model," he said. "But in some sense, it could just be a coincidence."

One million to 2 million tons of debris remain in the ocean, but only 1 to 5 percent of that could reach American and Canadian shorelines, Maximenko has said.

Crabs and barnacles were found on the bin, the state said, along with five local seabirds. Two flew away and three were found dead inside the bin. There were no foreign plant or animal species in or on the bin, which state officials put in quarantine.

Meanwhile, Hawaii fishermen spotted a large dock drifting toward Oahu that may also be tsunami debris. A Maui fisherman climbed on the dock and saw Japanese writing. The 30-feet (9-meters) by 50-feet (15 1/4-meters) dock was spotted Wednesday off Molokai, heading toward Oahu.

The Coast Guard was notifying mariners of the debris.

A 165-ton concrete dock torn loose from a Japanese fishing port washed ashore in Newport, Oregon, in June.

"Bin in Hawaii confirmed to be Japan tsunami debris." September 22nd, 2012.
http://phys.org/news/2012-09-bin-hawaii ... ebris.html
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Earthquake shakes East Midlands

An earthquake has been felt by people in several parts of the East Midlands.
The British Geological Survey (BGS) confirmed a 2.9 magnitude earthquake in the Loughborough area of Leicestershire at 05:20 GMT.

Reports of the tremor came from several locations in Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.
It was felt in Long Eaton, Derbyshire and Anstey in Leicestershire and a resident in Leicester said it sounded like an underground train

A caller from Groby, Leicestershire, told BBC Radio Leicester: "It lasted at least 20 seconds and some DVDs fell off a shelf in my room."
The caller from Leicester said: "It sounded like an underground train coming and everything wobbled. But nothing fell off shelves."

Seismologist Brian Baptay from the BGS said: "The East Midlands does have history of small to moderate earthquakes.
"The shaking would last for a few seconds - it can be a pretty scary experience."

Julian Bukits of BGS said: "Earthquakes generally have to be of 4.5 to 5 magnitude to cause damage."

Both the BGS and the US Geological Survey reported the tremor, which was about 18km (11.1 miles) below ground

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-21073263
 
Earthquake swarm in California right now:
http://quakes.globalincidentmap.com/

Something big coming?

Monday March 11 2013, 18:33:35 UTC 3 minutes ago Southern California 1.7 12.4 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:32:19 UTC 4 minutes ago Central California 1.8 3.6 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:30:27 UTC 6 minutes ago Northern California 1.1 1.6 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:30:24 UTC 6 minutes ago Southern California 1.1 6.0 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:28:46 UTC 8 minutes ago Southern California 1.2 4.8 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:27:03 UTC 10 minutes ago Southern California 1.4 13.0 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:26:21 UTC 10 minutes ago Southern California 1.8 5.0 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:25:46 UTC 11 minutes ago Southern California 2.8 9.3 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:25:11 UTC 12 minutes ago Southern California 2.2 12.5 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:25:00 UTC 12 minutes ago Southern California 2.2 11.7 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:24:26 UTC 12 minutes ago Southern California 1.9 13.1 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:24:06 UTC 13 minutes ago Southern California 2.3 9.9 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:24:06 UTC 13 minutes ago Southern California 2.3 9.9 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:23:42 UTC 13 minutes ago Southern California 2.3 20.6 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:23:39 UTC 13 minutes ago Southern California 1.9 17.8 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:22:41 UTC 14 minutes ago Northern California 1.2 2.8 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:21:31 UTC 15 minutes ago Southern California 1.3 26.1 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:20:07 UTC 17 minutes ago Southern California 1.5 13.8 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:17:09 UTC 20 minutes ago Southern California 1.0 6.0 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:14:31 UTC 22 minutes ago Southern California 2.2 5.0 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:14:26 UTC 22 minutes ago Southern California 2.1 14.1 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:13:41 UTC 23 minutes ago Southern California 1.7 14.7 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:12:51 UTC 24 minutes ago Southern California 1.6 29.9 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:12:46 UTC 24 minutes ago Southern California 1.0 14.4 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:12:01 UTC 25 minutes ago Southern California 1.0 22.3 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:10:19 UTC 26 minutes ago Southern California 2.0 10.3 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:06:49 UTC 30 minutes ago Southern California 1.5 37.5 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:06:02 UTC 31 minutes ago Southern California 1.6 4.1 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:02:53 UTC 34 minutes ago Southern California 1.0 13.2 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:01:47 UTC 35 minutes ago Southern California 1.4 13.5 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:01:11 UTC 36 minutes ago Southern California 2.0 32.2 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:00:36 UTC 36 minutes ago Southern California 1.2 11.2 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:00:36 UTC 36 minutes ago Southern California 1.2 11.2 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 18:00:23 UTC 36 minutes ago Southern California 1.2 12.1 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:58:07 UTC 39 minutes ago Southern California 1.4 7.2 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:54:51 UTC 42 minutes ago Southern California 1.8 10.4 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:54:04 UTC 43 minutes ago Southern California 2.0 5.7 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:53:46 UTC 43 minutes ago Southern California 2.2 11.1 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:53:33 UTC 43 minutes ago Southern California 2.2 11.0 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:53:15 UTC 43 minutes ago Southern California 1.4 11.0 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:50:26 UTC 46 minutes ago Southern California 2.1 44.1 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:50:25 UTC 46 minutes ago Southern California 1.9 11.1 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:50:16 UTC 46 minutes ago Southern California 1.8 12.7 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:50:05 UTC 47 minutes ago Southern California 1.8 28.6 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:49:09 UTC 48 minutes ago Southern California 1.7 0.2 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:48:41 UTC 48 minutes ago Southern California 2.0 9.1 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:48:02 UTC 49 minutes ago Southern California 1.6 9.4 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:47:40 UTC 49 minutes ago Southern California 1.6 11.7 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:47:37 UTC 49 minutes ago Iraq 3.0 12.0 CSEM-EMSC Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:46:32 UTC 50 minutes ago Southern California 2.0 3.5 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:46:06 UTC 51 minutes ago Southern California 1.5 11.9 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:44:47 UTC 52 minutes ago Southern California 1.3 24.7 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:42:58 UTC 54 minutes ago Southern California 1.0 12.4 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:40:49 UTC 56 minutes ago Southern California 2.4 12.0 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:39:59 UTC 57 minutes ago Southern California 1.4 6.1 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:39:39 UTC 57 minutes ago Southern California 1.5 13.9 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:39:11 UTC 58 minutes ago Central Alaska 1.7 0.1 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:39:11 UTC 58 minutes ago Southern California 1.3 14.2 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:37:57 UTC 59 minutes ago Southern California 1.1 11.7 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:36:29 UTC 60 minutes ago Southern California 1.6 7.4 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:36:13 UTC 60 minutes ago Southern California 1.6 12.2 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:36:05 UTC 61 minutes ago Southern California 1.6 13.8 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:35:28 UTC 61 minutes ago Southern California 2.1 11.9 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:35:10 UTC 62 minutes ago Southern California 2.1 13.6 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:34:48 UTC 62 minutes ago Southern California 1.5 21.4 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:32:50 UTC 64 minutes ago Southern California 2.0 3.8 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:32:50 UTC 64 minutes ago Southern California 2.0 3.8 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:32:34 UTC 64 minutes ago Southern California 2.1 0.3 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:31:45 UTC 65 minutes ago Southern California 1.4 7.0 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:31:23 UTC 65 minutes ago Southern California 1.2 7.1 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:31:06 UTC 66 minutes ago Southern California 1.0 15.7 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:30:49 UTC 66 minutes ago Southern Alaska 2.5 101.4 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:29:52 UTC 67 minutes ago Southern California 1.7 11.8 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:29:30 UTC 67 minutes ago Southern California 1.7 14.4 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:28:57 UTC 68 minutes ago Southern California 1.2 13.1 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:28:43 UTC 68 minutes ago Southern California 1.2 15.4 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:28:23 UTC 68 minutes ago Southern California 1.2 12.9 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:28:23 UTC 68 minutes ago Southern California 1.2 12.9 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:27:39 UTC 69 minutes ago Southern California 1.4 14.5 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:27:33 UTC 69 minutes ago Southern California 1.4 6.3 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:27:09 UTC 70 minutes ago Southern California 1.2 15.7 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:26:52 UTC 70 minutes ago Southern California 1.1 12.5 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:26:21 UTC 70 minutes ago Southern California 1.2 7.9 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:26:05 UTC 71 minutes ago Southern California 1.6 13.4 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:25:39 UTC 71 minutes ago Southern California 1.4 12.3 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:24:41 UTC 72 minutes ago Southern California 1.7 0.2 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:23:51 UTC 73 minutes ago Southern California 2.0 11.2 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:23:34 UTC 73 minutes ago Southern California 2.0 2.4 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:22:59 UTC 74 minutes ago Southern California 1.6 14.2 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:22:06 UTC 75 minutes ago Southern California 2.0 9.4 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:21:54 UTC 75 minutes ago Southern California 2.0 14.9 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:21:30 UTC 75 minutes ago Southern California 1.4 11.4 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:19:38 UTC 77 minutes ago Baja California, Mexico 1.8 2.3 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:19:30 UTC 77 minutes ago Southern California 2.0 12.4 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:19:03 UTC 78 minutes ago Southern California 2.0 8.7 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:18:37 UTC 78 minutes ago Southern California 2.0 10.0 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:17:01 UTC 80 minutes ago Southern California 1.4 12.0 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:16:15 UTC 80 minutes ago Greater Los Angeles area, California 1.5 6.2 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:15:07 UTC 82 minutes ago Southern California 1.4 11.0 USGS Feed Detail
Monday March 11 2013, 17:14:57 UTC 82 minutes ago Southern California 1.5 7.0 USGS Feed Detail
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Interesting historical research.

Research helps paint finer picture of massive 1700 earthquake
May 14th, 2013 in Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Benjamin Horton and Andrea Hawkes in the field.

(Phys.org) —In 1700, a massive earthquake struck the west coast of North America. Though it was powerful enough to cause a tsunami as far as Japan, a lack of local documentation has made studying this historic event challenging.

Now, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have helped unlock this geological mystery using a fossil-based technique. Their work provides a finer-grained portrait of this earthquake and the changes in coastal land level it produced, enabling modelers to better prepare for future events.
Penn's team includes Benjamin Horton, associate professor and director of the Sea Level Research Laboratory in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science in the School of Arts and Sciences, along with then lab members Simon Engelhart and Andrea Hawkes. They collaborated with researchers from Canada's University of Victoria, the National Taiwan University, the Geological Survey of Canada and the United States Geological Survey.

The research was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth.

The Cascadia Subduction Zone runs along the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States to Vancouver Island in Canada. This major fault line is capable of producing megathrust earthquakes 9.0 or higher, though, due to a dearth of observations or historical records, this trait was only discovered within the last several decades from geology records. The Lewis and Clark expedition did not make the first extensive surveys of the region until more than 100 years later, and contemporaneous aboriginal accounts were scarce and incomplete.

The 1700 Cascadia event was better documented in Japan than in the Americas. Records of the "orphan tsunami"—so named because its "parent" earthquake was too far away to be felt—gave earth scientists hints that this subduction zone was capable of such massive seismic activity. Geological studies provided information about the earthquake, but many critical details remained lost to history.

"Previous research had determined the timing and the magnitude, but what we didn't know was how the rupture happened," Horton said. "Did it rupture in one big long segment, more than a thousand kilometers, or did it rupture in parcels?"

To provide a clearer picture of how the earthquake occurred, Horton and his colleagues applied a technique they have used in assessing historic sea-level rise. They traveled to various sites along the Cascadia subduction zone, taking core samples from up and down the coast and working with local researchers who donated pre-existing data sets. The researchers' targets were microscopic fossils known as foraminifera. Through radiocarbon dating and an analysis of different species' positions with the cores over time, the researchers were able to piece together a historical picture of the changes in land and sea level along the coastline. The research revealed how much the coast suddenly subsided during the earthquake. This subsidence was used to infer how much the tectonic plates moved during the earthquake.

"What we were able to show for the first time is that the rupture of Cascadia was heterogeneous, making it similar to what happened with the recent major earthquakes in Japan, Chile and Sumatra," Horton said.

This level of regional detail for land level changes is critical for modeling and disaster planning.

"It's only when you have that data that you can start to build accurate models of earthquake ruptures and tsunami inundation," Horton said. "There were areas of the west coast of the United States that were more susceptible to larger coastal subsidence than others."

The Cascadia subduction zone is of particular interest to geologists and coastal managers because geological evidence points to recurring seismic activity along the fault line, with intervals between 300 and 500 years. With the last major event occurring in 1700, another earthquake could be on the horizon. A better understanding of how such an event might unfold has the potential to save lives.

"The next Cascadia earthquake has the potential to be the biggest natural disaster that the Unites States will have to come to terms with—far bigger than Sandy or even Katrina," Horton said. "It would happen with very little warning; some areas of Oregon will have less than 20 minutes to evacuate before a large tsunami will inundate the coastline like in Sumatra in 2004 and Japan in 2011."

More information: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jgrb.50101/abstract
Provided by University of Pennsylvania

"Research helps paint finer picture of massive 1700 earthquake." May 14th, 2013. http://phys.org/news/2013-05-finer-pict ... quake.html
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Llyn peninsula earthquake: Residents woken by tremor of 3.8 magnitude

A tremor measuring 3.8 in magnitude has hit north Wales in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
The tremor centred on the Llyn peninsula in Gwynedd.
The British Geological Survey (BGS) said the centre point was is between the seaside towns of Aberdaron and Nefyn.

People living in Southport, Merseyside and Dublin in Ireland reported "intense shaking" at 04:16 BST but there are no reports of damage or injury.

More than 100 reports from people who felt the earthquake have been made to the BGS, who said the majority were within a 100km radius.
"This was a larger than average earthquake, we get around one a year of this size," it said.
"People have reported hearing an initial loud banging, followed by rumbling, and intense shaking."

Graham Williams from Pentir, near Bangor, told BBC Radio Wales: "I woke up to a cracking sound and realised the house was shaking.
"I could hear a low rumble for about 15 seconds and then it stopped."

The tremor is just a few miles from the point on the Llyn Peninsula where an earthquake struck in July 1984 with a magnitude of 5.4.
That is still the most powerful recorded in mainland Britain in the last 200 years.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-22699004
 
This must be the feeblest earthquake story I've come across:

Earthquake rocks Falmouth and Penryn
4:09pm Wednesday 3rd July 2013 in Falmouth/Penryn .

A small earthquake shook Falmouth and Penryn last night with the equivalent force of a single stick of dynamite. :roll:
The tremor, which measured 1.3 on the Richter scale, was felt across the two towns and emanated from a point just south of Argal reservoir according to the British Geological Survey.

Julian Bukits, from the geoscientific body, confirmed that the earthquake had "a magnitude of 1.3ML" and took place "in the Falmouth area last night at 10.44pm".

Hannah Rickard heard a "rumble noise" and even contacted the police to find out the cause.
Keri Valentine described the tremor as a "strange sonic boom noise".

"I think aliens have just landed in Falmouth," Chloe Skinner said, while Debbie Wetherell said: "What was that loud bang over Falmouth? The house shook. Sounded like Concorde used to colliding with its own noise emissions."

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/fp ... nd_Penryn/

Nothing noticed here...
 
Just in its infancy, but an interesting peek at the way 'citizen seismology' may be able to act as an early-warning system for earthquakes. Though as the article notes, "While tweets may be faster at detecting earthquakes, it's [sic] obviously can't detect an earthquake's magnitude or impact range—unless you're good at translating "holy shits" to the Richter Scale."

When people feel the ground shake, they talk about it.

That's never been more clear than when an earthquake struck Washington, D.C. in 2011. Even considering DC's nerdy, tweet-happy population (I'm guilty here), the 4,000 tweets per minute in the direct aftermath of the quake was pretty impressive.

And it wasn't the United States Geological Survey, CNN, or another major news organization that first reported (in English) the magnitude 7.9 earthquake that shook Wenchuan, China in 2008. It was none other than Roger Scoble who happened to see people who felt the quake tweeting about it.

“I reported the major quake to my followers on Twitter before the USGS website had a report up and about an hour before CNN or major press started talking about it,” Scoble wrote in a blog post about the experience.

Researchers took notice: After that quake, USGS, which has more than 7,000 ground sensors all throughout the United States and the world designed to pick up seismic activity, decided to see if they could build an algorithm that can alert them to earthquakes before their sensors can.

Turns out, they can do it pretty well. By measuring the uptick in people tweeting the word "earthquake" in several different languages, USGS can usually—in more than 75 percent of cases—tell whether an earthquake has occurred within two minutes of it striking. In some cases, the first tweet after an earthquake happens less than 20 seconds after an earthquake strikes (kids these days are so fast with their phones, aren't they?). By comparison, it can take up to 20 minutes for a sensor in a rural area to relay that information back to USGS.
USGS' TED tracks tweets per minute that mention the word "earthquake"

"Every minute really counts for some of the emergency responders," Jason Young, who works on USGS' Tweet Earthquake Dispatch system. "In more remote locations in the US and in international areas, it can take up to 20 minutes for the sensors to activate, which can be quite important in a life-or-death situation."

[MORE AT LINK]

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/the-us ... z2Z7y5PqNa
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Its hard to comprehend, I think, just how much energy is released in an event like the 2011 Tohoku earthquake.

Norway's Weird Waves Traced to Japan Earthquake
LiveScience.com
By Becky Oskin, Staff Writer 1 hour ago Japan

On a calm winter's day in Norway two years ago, the sea suddenly started to boil and rise, sending freak waves rolling onto nearby shores and mystifying residents. Turns out, the massive magnitude-9.0 earthquake that shook Japan in 2011 also triggered these surprise seiche waves, a new study shows.

Seiche (pronounced saysh) waves are standing waves that form in closed or semi-enclosed water basins, such as Norway's narrow, steep-walled fjords. Smaller examples of standing waves include water sloshing in a bathtub from a wriggly child, or in a swimming pool after an earthquake.

The roiling seas surprised and shocked Norwegians when the waves rolled in after 7 a.m. local time on March 11, said lead study author Stein Bondevik, a geologist at Sogn og Fjordane University College in Sogndal, Norway. The waves measured nearly 5 feet (1.5 meters) from trough to crest (their lowest to highest point). No damage was reported, however. "Luckily, they happened at low tide," Bondevik said.

A tsunami expert, Bondevik was called on by local media to explain the source of the surge. Bondevik said he first thought an underwater landslide generated the waves. "They looked like tsunamis," he said. But as the day wore on, more reports of coastal flooding came in from faraway fjords, blowing a hole in his landslide theory.

"Later in the evening I realized there must be a connection with the big earthquake in Japan," Bondevik told LiveScience. "I was so excited I couldn't sleep that night thinking about it." [7 Craziest Ways Japan's Earthquake Affected Earth]

A rare event

Seiches from earthquakes are a common phenomenon — California's swimming pools go berserk after the state's big quakes — but they are rare in Norway. The last earthquake to set off seiches in Norway's fjords was the magnitude-8.6 Assam earthquake in Tibet. The great 1755 Lisbon earthquake in Portugal also unleashed seiches in the fjords.

And not every fjord in Norway started oscillating after the Japan earthquake. Only fjords pointing northeast, toward Japan, were properly aligned, and even then only some of the fjords had the right conditions to launch a seiche, the study found.

Five towns reported seiches the morning of the Japan earthquake. The water in the fjords oscillated for almost three?hours, starting about 30 minutes after the Japan earthquake, the study found. People noticed the waves only where the shores had shallow beaches, such as at river deltas, the researchers said.

The researchers built a computer model of the seiches based on surveillance and camera phone videos, which timed the ebb and flow of the oscillations.

Shimmying the Sognefjorden

The model revealed that S-waves, a type of seismic wave, caused the rare event. S-waves shake back and forth perpendicular to their direction of travel (like waving a rope on the ground) and can pass inside the Earth. In fjords pointed northeast, the S-waves from the Japan earthquake moved the ground back and forth by 0.4 inches (1 centimeter), Bondevik said.

"You can move a lot of water just by pushing one centimeter of ground," Bondevik said.

Earlier studies have suggested seiche waves are triggered by seismic surface waves, which travel more slowly than S-waves and can only pass through Earth's crust. These earthquake waves also contributed to Norway's seiches, but the initial sloshing was sparked by the S-waves, the researchers concluded.

"We have now, because of the film clips, been able to pick out what part of the earthquake shaking triggered the waves in the fjords," Bondevik said. "And to our surprise, it was not the largest or strongest shaking, but the S-waves. They have the correct period that matches up with the fjord's [natural frequency]," he said.

The findings were published July 3 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Click to expand...

http://news.yahoo.com/norways-weird-wav ... 59107.html
 
Earthquake confirmed in Bristol Channel
[Video: The BBC's Hwyel Griffith says one person who felt the tremors likened them to an "airplane coming in to land"]

An earthquake has been recorded under the Bristol Channel, the British Geological Survey (BGS) has confirmed.

The 4.1 magnitude quake happened at about 13:21 GMT and was felt in Devon, south Wales and Somerset.
The epicentre was north of Ilfracombe, Devon, and south of the Gower, in Wales, and was at a depth of 3.1 miles (5km).

Devon and Cornwall Police said one caller in North Devon described it as "quite a violent tremor".

The BGS said it had received reports of people feeling the quake in Dartmoor, Bristol, Taunton, Swansea, Llanelli, Exmouth, Barnstaple, Gloucester and South Molton.
Susanne Sargeant, from the BGS, said it was "not unusual" to get quakes in the channel.
"It is an area in the Bristol Channel we know to have seismological action," she said.

"One guy called and said he was in his house when he felt the earthquake - he said it was a bit of a surprise. Things were shaking on the shelves and he ran outside.
"We do see earthquakes here from time to time and the last one was at Hartland Point in 2001 - that's 50km south west of today's earthquake."

Colin Taylor, who is a professor of earthquake engineering at the University of Bristol, said an event with a magnitude of 4.1 should not cause any significant damage.
"Humans are very sensitive to movement and although it might feel quite noticeable the worse you're likely to get is perhaps cracks in plaster or old masonry," he said.
"These so-called shallow events happen every now and again in the UK and is typically caused by a local fault - under stress - which moves from time to time.
"It is an intra-plate event rather than the inter-plate movement you'd see on something like the San Andreas fault in California."

Rachel Howells, 36, from West Cross in Swansea, said she was sat at her desk working when the building "shook like jelly" and it felt like something had "slammed into the side of the house".
"We are having an extension built on the side of the house and I just thought something had gone wrong with the building work.
"It didn't shake for long, it was more like a hiccup, just this big wobble.

"It didn't make any noise, it was like a shock, just the whole house reverberating, like a van going into the side of the house or something.
"It lasted about two seconds, so it was hardly anything really."

Reports on Twitter talked of one building in Bridgwater "swaying" during the quake while others said it was felt as far away as Taunton.

Ruth O'Malley, in Swansea, tweeted that there was a "definite rumble" from the quake and Ilfracombe Museum tweeted "the ground definitely shook just now".

Mid Wales Fire Service said it had received several calls while Avon and Somerset Police said it had not had any calls about the earthquake.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-26277432
 
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