Earthquake Activity Thread

[Cookie]

very sad indeed.

I didnt personally replay tbh as I didnt know what to put.

[Roger J Smith]

News reports speak of massive destruction in Port-au-Prince and the possibility of over 100,000 deaths; the entire remaining city population is either homeless or fully engaged in the struggle to rescue thousands of potentially living victims buried in rubble. Entire neighbourhoods have been destroyed by massive landslides as well as the shaking of buildings. UN peacekeepers in the region have had significant casualties including apparently their chief of operations. US and Canadian naval vessels steaming towards the region with first response, and some limited flights have landed despite massive debris problems at local airports. Civil order, never very high in Haiti, has totally broken down. This may in fact be the worst earthquake for human impact since the 1970s Chinese mega-quake.

I have to note out of interest that the previous twelve days were much below normal in temperature in Florida and Cuba, so pressure on the earth's crust from the normally thick atmosphere must have been significantly reduced for that period with thicknesses 40-50 dm below average at times. Also there was the very deep storm off the west coast of Ireland at earthquake time, possible tidal irregularities, many people in Ireland reported odd noises the night before the storm like possible harmonic waves in the upper atmosphere were being amplified in an atmospheric boundary layer. Very unusual upper wind torque with the Tuesday storm suggesting possible amplified wave potential. Earth-Sun-Venus in straight line with Mercury having very recently moved through that line, Mars very close to extended line (we pass it on the 29th) ... some of my research suggests that gravitational waves are setting up interference patterns in the magnetic field of the solar system and these can be reflected into our magnetosphere. I've been studying a correlative system of these close alignments with earthquake latitude to see if there is any logic to a cause and effect related to field sectors.

Jan 29-31 is a high peak of gravitational energy within the inner solar system and earth-moon environment. Preliminary data suggest any earthquake would be closer to 35 deg latitude in either hemisphere. Suggests Iran, Pakistan among other watch zones. Tendency historically for a second major earthquake to follow a mega-quake.

[Serendipity]

PLus don't forget that Haiti is in a really vulnerable position come the hurricane season so all the rescue efforts and rebuilding needs a great sense of urgency. You can read more on this blog which exaplins it in much better detail than I ever could:

http://daveslandslideblog.blogspot.com/

Terrible situation out there, I'm amazed there hasn't been more postings on this.

[The PIT]

I bet most people haven't considered it being on a Hurricane path. Temporary tents will be pretty useless in a hurricane. The aid is arriving and but sitting on the tarmac which highlights the lack or organisation. It's also going to be very tricky for foreign troops helping deliver aid when they get around to delivering it. If they have to use force to protect themselves and the food they will quickly become the suppressor as well.

The world being in recession doesn't bode well for the people of Haiti either as Governments will be reluctant to release monies.

[Cookie]

yeah they got hit by 4 hurricanes in 2008

[Methuselah]

It's a terrible situation in Haiti at the moment. Utterly horrible!

That said (re hurricanes) what kind of temporary shelter, apart from tents, can the aid people airlift-in and then transport to where they're needed, at such short notice??

And, despite a plethora of claims for successful moon-based earthquake-prediction (see Ring's retrofitted claims in another thread?) I remain entirely unconvinced??

What we have in Haiti right now, is a human disaster of epic proportions - not an opportunity for making political/pseudoscientific/superstitious statements. Let the aid people do the best they can? http://nwstatic.co.uk/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif

[Cookie]

A 6.3 earth quake off the coast south America earlier today

Magnitude 6.3

Date-Time

* Sunday, January 17, 2010 at 12:00:02 UTC

* Sunday, January 17, 2010 at 08:00:02 AM at epicenter

* Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 57.671°S, 65.910°W

Depth 10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program

Region DRAKE PASSAGE

Distances 355 km (220 miles) SSE of Ushuaia, Argentina

595 km (370 miles) SSE of Punta Arenas, Chile

705 km (440 miles) SSE of Rio Gallegos, Argentina

2625 km (1630 miles) S of BUENOS AIRES, Argentina

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 12.7 km (7.9 miles); depth fixed by location program

Parameters NST= 85, Nph= 85, Dmin=799.3 km, Rmss=0.75 sec, Gp= 65°,

M-type=teleseismic moment magnitude (Mw), Version=6

Source

* USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2010rpav.php#details

Edited January 17, 2010 by cookie

[Buzzit]

Hello,

Has anyone else noticed that as at 5pm yeaterday there were 580 earthquakes registered in the california region in the last 7 days.

Right now that number has dropped to apx 550 with a few of the 5 & 6 earthquakes dropped off

Extremely unusual volume of earthquakes which I also put down in part to the recent eclipse.

Recent earthquakes California

[picog]

Is there any connection between the Haiti quake and the multitude of smaller ones occurring in California?

[Methuselah]

Is there any connection between the Haiti quake and the multitude of smaller ones occurring in California?

Aren't Haiti and California on entirely separate plate boundaries?

[NorthNorfolkWeather]

Aren't Haiti and California on entirely separate plate boundaries?

Yep, Haiti is on the Caribbean Plate, most of California on the North American plate sliding past the Pacific plate for the San Andreas fault at least. further North you have the Juan de Fuca plate which is being subducted,

Lots of earthquakes together is usually known as a swarm and seems to either be related to volcanic activity or low level release of tension within fault structures. There was a swarm in Yellowstone last year that had everyone talking, nothing became of it, just another record in the books.

Finally, I prefer to use this as it shows earthquakes over 4.5, the US map shows everything over 1.0 ( which most people don't even feel )

Edited January 17, 2010 by NorthNorfolkWeather

[Mondy]

I tend to use this one which sadly shows aftershocks in the Haiti region of near or over 5.0 Mag.

[BrickFielder]

Funny that Yellowstone should be mentioned because we have another earthquake swarm there.

Mostly the swarm looks like rock cracking, but there might have been some volcanic movement leading up to the swarm.

No suggestion at the moment that there is anything to worry about from news releases and yellowstone does have a history of these swarms. Worth keeping an eye on though.

[BrickFielder]

Denver post reporting the swarm is intensifying at yellowstone.

Swarm Intensifies

Suggestions are that the quakes are a little too deep for magma activity and may be tectonic, although to me the quakes do not seem to be near any significant fault line.

At the same time there is a notable earthquake swarm near Iceland which looks a little more ominous.

Iceland earthquake swarm

[MAF]

Magnitude 6 aftershock hits Haiti as aid efforts continue

BBC

very new news so no details yet

[MAF]

story here >> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8469800.stm

[weatherobsuk]

Not wanting to alarm anyone, but a possible 8.6/9.1 quake has hit China. Readings from multiple sources show Seismographs recording the event, yet the MSM and USGS have failed to recognise the quake as occuring yet some 2 hours from it occuring.

http://aslwww.cr.usgs.gov/Seismic_Data/telemetry_data/QIZ_24hr.html

With Multiple stations recording this I think its worth keeping a eye on to see whats happened. The last thing the world needs is something of this Magnitude.

[weatherobsuk]

Its now safe to say that some 12 hours after this "event" it was nothing more than a simultaneous error on both Seismographs in the region, and worldwide Seismographs didnt pick up anything from this event.

Nothing more than a technical glitch luckily.

[Jane Louise]

6.0 Mw - OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA at 20:20:21 UTC

Hope people are ok.

[BrickFielder]

USGS now have some details up on the Yellowstone swarm.

Yellow stone swarm

Looks like we had quite a jolt over at the long valley as well today.

Long Valley drum recorders

[Crepuscular Ray]

This is close enough to the coast, strong enough and shallow enough to be a worry:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8540063.stm

Fingers crossed that it's a false alarm.

[Mondy]

http://www.jma.go.jp/en/tsunami/

EDIT: Seems ok http://twitter.com/BreakingNews

Edited February 26, 2010 by Mondy

[Crepuscular Ray]

Good.

[A.J]

Breaking news of a major earthquake in Chile, magnitude 8.3.... news link

[Iceberg]

Looks to have occured just 300-400 miles from the site of the largest earthquake ever recorded.

TBH things don't look good, reports that buildings moved in Santiago, which it quite a way from epicentre, the much larger city close to the centre has been quiet as communications, electricity etc have been cut off, none of which is good news.

Hopefully we will get some good news over the coming hours, but unfortunately it has all the signs of another major loss of life. Thankfully I can't see their being a Tsunami.