Earthquake Activity Thread

[Mesosphere]

due to the success of the volcanic activity thread i thought we could this thread to discuss and report on seismic activity around the world

Earthquakes reported here must be 5th magnitude or over and can occur anywhere in the world

So i may aswell start off :

on friday 9th may 2008 there was a magnitude 6.7 earthquake reported in the Guam Region at around 21:51 UTC (22:51 BST)

(see map below)

Info on activity (from USGS) :-

Magnitude : 6.7

Date - Time : Friday, May 09, 2008 at 21:51:31 UTC

Loacation : 12.509°N, 143.157°E

Depth : 87.6 km (54.4 miles)

Region : GUAM REGION

Distances :

205 km (125 miles) WSW of HAGATNA, Guam

285 km (180 miles) SW of Rota, Northern Mariana Islands

405 km (250 miles) SW of SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands

505 km (315 miles) SSW of Anatahan, Northern Mariana Islands

Location Uncertanity : horizontal +/- 5.3 km (3.3 miles); depth +/- 12.9 km (8.0 miles)

Parameters : NST=246, Nph=246, Dmin=220.6 km, Rmss=0.98 sec, Gp= 25°,

M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=8

Source : USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)

Event ID : us2008rvcj

*The Event has been reviewed by a seismologist

Edited May 11, 2008 by Calum

[SnowBear]

A few newer ones after that one.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recent.../quakes_big.php

Tonga is the latest with a 5.1.

[Mesosphere]

A few newer ones after that one.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recent.../quakes_big.php

Tonga is the latest with a 5.1.

thanks for that snowbear

[Rustynailer]

I quite like this site as it shows some in the UK that even the BGS site does not show, let alone the USGS site which hardly shows the UK at all, because of its high cut off rate outside the USA. (Sorry about all the abbreviations!)

http://www.emsc-csem.org/index.php?page=home

[Mesosphere]

Well there's been two earthquakes of 5th magnitude or over yesterday evening , on e in afghanistan mesuring 5.2 and the other was in the Northern Mid Atlantic Ridge mesuring 5.0 on the Richter Scale

Maps :-

Afghanistan :

Northern Mid Atlantic Ridge :

THERE'S BEEN A MAJOR SEISMIC EVENT IN THE LAST HOUR!!!

Reports seem to be coming in on the USGS site that a magnitude 7.8 earthquake has occured somewhere in china , the USGS are also reporting on there website that the magnitude is only preliminary and is subject to revison , so 7.8 is probaly only an estimate

INFO :-

Magnitude : 7.8 (Preliminary magnitude — subject to revision)

Date - Time : Monday, May 12, 2008 at 06:28:04 UTC (7:28am BST)

Location : 31.110°N, 103.330°E

Depth : 29 km(18.0 miles) set by location program

Region : EASTERN SICHUAN, CHINA

Distances :

92 km (57 miles) NW (307°) from Chengdu, Sichuan, China

139 km (87 miles) WSW (256°) from Mianyang, Sichuan, China

175 km (109 miles) NNW (348°) from Leshan, Sichuan, China

1150 km (715 miles) NNW (348°) from HANOI, Vietnam

Location Uncertainty : Error estimate not available

Parameters : NST=016, Nph=016, Dmin=>999 km, Rmss=1.12 sec, Gp= 76°,

M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=1

Source : West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center/NOAA/NWS

Event ID : at00057368

Maps :-

Edited May 12, 2008 by Calum

[MAF]

info coming in slowly

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7395496.stm

[Mesosphere]

The Preliminary magnitude of 7.8 has been put down to 7.5 , just to update everyone

[MAF]

i understand a little about the scale given, but is a 0.3 difference much of a change?? is it true an earthquake at, say, 5 on the scale can be more devestating then a 7 depending on the geography of the quake??

[Cat 5]

Secondary earthquake in the Sichuan area. This is 7.8 also. Maybe getting mixed information but I have had two alerts one about an hour ago reading 7.5 and just a minute ago one reading 7.8.

Can anyone confirm if these are indeed the same quake?

[Coast]

Secondary earthquake in the Sichuan area. This is 7.8 also. Maybe getting mixed information but I have had two alerts one about an hour ago reading 7.5 and just a minute ago one reading 7.8.

Can anyone confirm if these are indeed the same quake?

I think its the same one:

Beijing (dpa) - An earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale hit Wenchuan county in south-western China's Sichuan province Monday, local officials said. The earthquake struck at 2:28 pm (0628 GMT) and could be felt in cities hundreds of kilometres away, including Beijing, Shanghai and Bangkok. "Major tremors" were felt by residents of cities closer to the epicentre, including Sichuan's capital, Chengdu, and nearby Chongqing, the official news agency Xinhua said. Those in tall office buildings of Bangkok also reported that their building swayed. The US Geological Survey measured the quake at 7.5 and said it struck 95 kilometres west-north-west of Chengdu at a depth of 10 kilometres. (dpa)

Source: www.bangkokpost.com

Also: www.chinadaily.com.cn

[Anti-Mild]

I use this website:

http://www.iris.edu/seismon/

which indicates that an earthguake measuring 7.5 on the Richter Scale hit Sichuan at 0628GMT followed by an aftershock at 0643GMT measuring 6.0.

[James M]

i understand a little about the scale given, but is a 0.3 difference much of a change?? is it true an earthquake at, say, 5 on the scale can be more devestating then a 7 depending on the geography of the quake??

This is from wikipedia:

The Richter magnitude scale, or more correctly local magnitude ML scale, assigns a single number to quantify the amount of seismic energy released by an earthquake. It is a base-10 logarithmic scale obtained by calculating the logarithm of the combined horizontal amplitude of the largest displacement from zero on a Wood-Anderson torsion seismometer output. The effective limit of measurement for local magnitude is about ML=6.8. The energy release of an earthquake scales with the 3/2 power of the shaking amplitude, and thus a difference in magnitude of 1.0 is equivalent to a factor of 31.6 in the energy released; a difference of magnitude of 2.0 is equivalent to a factor of 1000 in the energy released. So, for example, an earthquake that measures 5.0 on the Richter scale is 10 times larger than one that measures 4.0.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_magnitude_scale

Edited May 12, 2008 by James M

[MAF]

thanks James.

[Mesosphere]

7000 people dead in the china earthquake this morning , so so upsetting to here of the large loss of life in this natural disatser

It's made front page news on the BBC news website this afternoon

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7396400.stm

There's been loads of aftershocks and other tremors around the same region throughout today all around 4 or 5 on the richter scale

-------------------------------------

Just to report that a 5th magnitude earthuquake struck the Kuril Islands this morning at about 02:21 UTC (03:31 BST) (map below)

USGS are also reporting an earthquake of 5.1 hitting the KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA

Edited May 12, 2008 by Calum

[MAF]

to avoid clogging up your technical thread on earthquakes i have opened a thread for general discussion on the particular disaster. hope you dont mind

http://www.netweather.tv/forum/index.php?showtopic=47485&hl=

Edited May 12, 2008 by Mick

[Mesosphere]

to avoid clogging up your technical thread on earthquakes i have opened a thread for general discussion on the particular disaster. hope you dont mind

http://www.netweather.tv/forum/index.php?showtopic=47485&hl=

not at all mick

another aftershock of 5.1 has been detected in the Eastern Sichuan Region of china at 1528 UTC

(1628 BST)

Source : EMSC (European - Medittereanian Seismological Centre)

[Mesosphere]

Here's some seismograph data from this mornings main earthquake in china at 6:28 BST

http://www.iris.washington.edu/cgi-bin/wilberII_showplot.pl?

There's been a total of 18 aftershocks !!!!

UPDATE : 19 aftershocks , a magnitude 4.7 has just happend at 1703 UTC (1803 BST) , about half an hour ago

Edited May 12, 2008 by Calum

[James M]

Here's some seismograph data from this mornings main earthquake in china at 6:28 BST

http://www.iris.washington.edu/cgi-bin/wilberII_showplot.pl?

There's been a total of 18 aftershocks !!!!

UPDATE : 19 aftershocks , a magnitude 4.7 has just happend at 1703 UTC (1803 BST) , about half an hour ago

All I'm getting from that link is "Sorry, plotting page not called properly."

[Mesosphere]

All I'm getting from that link is "Sorry, plotting page not called properly."

sorry about that James , the link must be broken or something

http://www.iris.washington.edu/cgi-bin/wil...062800.8.spyder

(click on the link above and select a station)

UPDATE (1925 BST) :-

Another Aftershock has been detected at 5th magnitude at 1754 UTC (1854 BST) in the Sichuan Region of China , that's the aftershock total up to 20 now

Edited May 12, 2008 by Calum

[Mesosphere]

there's been another tonne of aftershocks in china overnight , i think there was a total of 13 , most around 4th or 5th Magnitude

Heard on the BBC that the death toll is now 10,000 and a further 10,000 could still be trapped in collapsed buildings , again it's quite upsetting to hear this tradgedy has killed so many people..

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Moving on there's 6 earthquakes i'd like to report , 2 are below magnitude 5 (sorry ) but i've inculded them because they happened in europe

There's been 2 quakes in Poland over the last 24 hours but they've been pretty small compared to the china one , one has not been assesd yet and happned yesterday evening at 1858 BST , and the other one was this morning at 0625 BST and was mesured at 2.9 on the richter scale , another 3 occured in greece , two of the latter one's were pretty small with the first being at magnitude 4.2.

Away from Europe there's been a magnitude 5.2 in the South Sandwhich Island Region at 0437 BST this morning (map below)

[noggin]

There seems to be (at least to my inexperienced eye!) an awful lot of earthquake activity going on. Is this the "normal" level of such ocurrences?

As has been said.....such terrible loss of life. Talk of tens of thousands dead and they're just ordinary people, just like us, with families, just getting on with their everyday life and suddenly.....

Very sad.

Is there any connection whatsoever between earthquakes and volcanic eruptions?

Sorry if I have wandered off topic!

[jethro]

Very sad indeed, such a stark difference in the response of the Chinese government compared to the Burmese one too.

I don't know if there's a link between volcano's and earthquakes but here's an abstract which suggests there's a link between earthquakes and Solar activity; many more at minimum and maximum.

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007AGUFM.S33C1473S

[Mesosphere]

Latest List can be found here :-

http://www.emsc-csem.org/index.php?page=home

so far today there's been 3 aftershocks from the china earthuquake , 2 being over 5th magnitude , the other being 4.6 on the richter scale

away from china there were 5 others over 5th magnitude , there locations are shown below :-

magnitude is shown in brackets

off W coast of Northern Sumatra (5.7)

Luzon , Phillipines (5.2)

Kuril Islands (5.0)

Luzon , Phillipines (5.3)

Molucca Sea (5.1)

[Mesosphere]

here's the latest round of earthquakes

http://www.emsc-csem.org/index.php?page=home

[MAF]

5.6 recorded in Colombian capital. Bogota

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recent.../us2008skbn.php

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recent...ps/10/285_5.php