Earthquake Activity Thread

[john pike]

Beta

Earthquake information

You felt this earthquake. Tell us!

Magnitude 6.8

RegionEAST OF SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS

Date time2014-03-11 02:44:04.0 UTC

Location60.95 S ; 20.15 W

Depth2 km

Distances 

3868 km SE of Montevideo, Uruguay / pop: 1,270,737 / local time: 23:44:04.0 2014-03-10

3992 km SE of Buenos Aires, Argentina / pop: 13,076,300 / local time: 00:44:04.0 2014-03-11

4711 km SE of Santiago, Chile / pop: 4,837,295 / local time: 22:44:04.0 2014-03-10

Maps

[john pike]

M5.9 - 175km SE of Lorengau, Papua New Guinea 2014-03-11 22:03:11 UTC

10km deep

 

 

Seismotectonics of the New Guinea Region and Vicinity

The Australia-Pacific plate boundary is over 4000 km long on the northern margin, from the Sunda (Java) trench in the west to the Solomon Islands in the east. The eastern section is over 2300 km long, extending west from northeast of the Australian continent and the Coral Sea until it intersects the east coast of Papua New Guinea. The boundary is dominated by the general northward subduction of the Australia plate.

Along the South Solomon trench, the Australia plate converges with the Pacific plate at a rate of approximately 95 mm/yr towards the east-northeast. Seismicity along the trench is dominantly related to subduction tectonics and large earthquakes are common: there have been 13 M7.5+ earthquakes recorded since 1900. On April 1, 2007, a mate.1 interplate megathrust earthquake occurred at the western end of the trench, generating a tsunami and killing at least 40 people. This was the third mate.1 megathrust event associated with this subduction zone in the past century; the other two occurred in 1939 and 1977.

Further east at the New Britain trench, the relative motions of several microplates surrounding the Australia-Pacific boundary, including north-south oriented seafloor spreading in the Woodlark Basin south of the Solomon Islands, maintain the general northward subduction of Australia-affiliated lithosphere beneath Pacific-affiliated lithosphere. Most of the large and great earthquakes east of New Guinea are related to this subduction; such earthquakes are particularly concentrated at the cusp of the trench south of New Ireland. 33 M7.5+ earthquakes have been recorded since 1900, including three shallow thrust fault mate.1 events in 1906, 1919, and 2007.

The western end of the Australia-Pacific plate boundary is perhaps the most complex portion of this boundary, extending 2000 km from Indonesia and the Banda Sea to eastern New Guinea. The boundary is dominantly convergent along an arc-continent collision segment spanning the width of New Guinea, but the regions near the edges of the impinging Australia continental margin also include relatively short segments of extensional, strike-slip and convergent deformation. The dominant convergence is accommodated by shortening and uplift across a 250-350 km-wide band of northern New Guinea, as well as by slow southward-verging subduction of the Pacific plate north of New Guinea at the New Guinea trench. Here, the Australia-Pacific plate relative velocity is approximately 110 mm/yr towards the northeast, leading to the 2-8 mm/yr uplift of the New Guinea Highlands.

Whereas the northern band of deformation is relatively diffuse east of the Indonesia-Papua New Guinea border, in western New Guinea there are at least two small (<100,000 km²) blocks of relatively undeformed lithosphere. The westernmost of these is the Birds Head Peninsula microplate in Indonesia's West Papua province, bounded on the south by the Seram trench. The Seram trench was originally interpreted as an extreme bend in the Sunda subduction zone, but is now thought to represent a southward-verging subduction zone between Birds Head and the Banda Sea.

 

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000n8ez#summary

 

at sea

http://ptwc.weather.gov/

 

no tsunami advisory raised

 

near

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/site/index.php?pageid=seism_volcano&rid=390800

N�vtelen  Submarine volcano  near Admiralty Islands, State of Alaska, USA

 

more info to follow if needed but damage looks unlikely

 

 

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=364356

amended to 6.1 for now

Edited March 11, 2014 by john pike

[john pike]

Possible epicenter of frost quake found in northwest schoolyard

Read more: http://calgary.ctvnews.ca/possible-epicenter-of-frost-quake-found-in-northwest-schoolyard-1.1722711#ixzz2vmd2Ilru

 

interesting read

[john pike]

M6.3 - 13km N of Kunisaki-shi, Japan 2014-03-13 17:06:51 UTC

 

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=364704#summary

 

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000nabv#summary

 

seismotectonics of Japan and Vicinity

Japan and the surrounding islands straddle four major tectonic plates: Pacific plate; North America plate; Eurasia plate; and Philippine Sea plate. The Pacific plate is subducted into the mantle, beneath Hokkaido and northern Honshu, along the eastern margin of the Okhotsk microplate, a proposed subdivision of the North America plate. Farther south, the Pacific plate is subducted beneath volcanic islands along the eastern margin of the Philippine Sea plate. This 2,200 km-long zone of subduction of the Pacific plate is responsible for the creation of the deep offshore Ogasawara and Japan trenches as well as parallel chains of islands and volcanoes, typical of Circumpacific island arcs. Similarly, the Philippine Sea plate is itself subducting under the Eurasia plate along a zone, extending from Taiwan to southern Honshu that comprises the Ryukyu Islands and the Nansei-Shoto trench.

Subduction zones at the Japanese island arcs are geologically complex and produce numerous earthquakes from multiple sources. Deformation of the overriding plates generates shallow crustal earthquakes, whereas slip at the interface of the plates generates interplate earthquakes that extend from near the base of the trench to depths of 40 to 60 km. At greater depths, Japanese arc earthquakes occur within the subducting Pacific and Philippine Sea plates and can reach depths of nearly 700 km. Since 1900, three great earthquakes occurred off Japan and three north of Hokkaido. They are the mate.4 1933 Sanriku-oki earthquake, the mate.3 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake, the M9.0 2011 Tohoku earthquake, the mate.4 1958 Etorofu earthquake, the mate.5 1963 Kuril earthquake, and the mate.3 1994 Shikotan earthquake.

More information on regional seismicity and tectonics

 

near these volcanoes

 

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/site/index.php?pageid=seism_volcano&rid=391184

 

will update later if needed

[john pike]

M5.6 - 187km WSW of Gold Beach, Oregon 2014-03-13 19:11:37 UTC

 

 

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=364743#map

 

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/at00n2e2nd#summary

 

 

near

 

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/site/index.php?pageid=seism_volcano&rid=391205

 

North Gorda Ridge submarine volcano

Edited March 13, 2014 by john pike

[john pike]

Strong mag. 6.2 earthquake - 21km SSE of Paracas, Peru on Saturday, 15 March 2014

http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/earthquakes/2014/03/15/08/59/magnitude6-Peru-quake.html

[john pike]

M6.7 - 60km WNW of Iquique, Chile (BETA)

2014-03-16 21:16:30 UTC

http://comcat.cr.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000ndnj#summary

[john pike]

Beta

Earthquake information

Magnitude 4.7

RegionGREATER LOS ANGELES AREA, CALIF.

Date time2014-03-17 13:25:36.0 UTC

Location34.13 N ; 118.50 W

Depth10 km

Macroseismic

IntensityV Effects: Strong Shaking

Distances 

25 km W of Los Angeles, United States / pop: 3,792,621 / local time: 06:25:36.0 2014-03-17

10 km NW of Westwood, United States / pop: 2,019 / local time: 06:25:36.0 2014-03-17

http://m.emsc.eu/earthquake/earthquake.php?evid=365566

[john pike]

http://quakes.globalincidentmap.com/

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/significant_earthquakes.php

Quite a bit of activity at present

Cannot update properly until thursday

See links above for updates

Edited March 17, 2014 by john pike

[Snowyowl9]

Earthquake activity uptake just lately,noticed the 3 bigger ones japan west of California and the 7 at chile yesterday on the news subtlely now 6.7 apparently.

[john pike]

http://m.emsc.eu/earthquake/earthquake.php?evid=365901

Chile

Mag 6 10 km deep

A lot of quakes in this area at present

http://m.emsc.eu/earthquake/latest.php?page=1&min_mag=n/a&max_mag=n/a&date=n/a&euromed=World

[john pike]

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/

 

NOTHING over 6

 

however a few 5+ quakes

 

also papua new guinea looks lively with a recent 5.4 followed by a 5.7

 

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000nj7v#summary

Edited March 20, 2014 by john pike

[john pike]

http://documents.latimes.com/what-90-cascadia-mega-earthquake-could-do-pacific-northwest/

 

interesting but scarey at the same time

[john pike]

M6.5 - 113km E of Mohean, India 2014-03-21 13:41:07 UTC

10 km deep

 

 

seismotectonics of the Sumatra Region

The plate boundary southwest of Sumatra is part of a long tectonic collision zone that extends over 8000 km from Papua in the east to the Himalayan front in the west. The Sumatra-Andaman portion of the collision zone forms a subduction zone megathrust plate boundary, the Sunda-Java trench, which accommodates convergence between the Indo-Australia and Sunda plates. This convergence is responsible for the intense seismicity and volcanism in Sumatra. The Sumatra Fault, a major transform structure that bisects Sumatra, accommodates the northwest-increasing lateral component of relative plate motion.

Relative plate motion between the Indo-Australia and Sunda plates is rapid, decreasing from roughly 63 mm/year near the southern tip of Sumatra (Australia relative to Sunda) to 44 mm/year north of Andaman Islands (India relative to Sunda) and rotating counterclockwise to the northwest, so that relative motion near Jakarta is nearly trench-normal but becomes nearly trench-parallel near Myanmar. As a result of the rotation in relative motion along the strike of the arc and the interaction of multiple tectonic plates, several interrelated tectonic elements compose the Sumatra-Andaman plate boundary. Most strain accumulation and release occurs along the Sunda megathrust of the main subduction zone, where lithosphere of the subducting Indo-Australia plate is in contact with the overlying Sunda plate down to a depth of 60 km. Strain release associated with deformation within the subducting slab is evidenced by deeper earthquakes that extend to depths of less than 300 km on Sumatra and 150 km or less along the Andaman Islands. The increasingly oblique convergence between these two plates moving northwest along the arc is accommodated by crustal seismicity along a series of transform and normal faults. East of the Andaman Islands, back- arc spreading in the Andaman Sea produces a zone of distributed normal and strike-slip faulting. Similar to the Sumatran Fault, the Sagaing Fault near Myanmar also accommodates the strike-slip component of oblique plate motion. Plate-boundary related deformation is also not restricted to the subduction zone and overriding plate: the subducting Indo-Australian plate actually comprises two somewhat independent plates (India and Australia), with small amounts of motion relative to one another, that are joined along a broad, actively-deforming region producing seismicity up to several hundred kilometers west of the trench. This deformation is exemplified by the recent April 2012 earthquake sequence, which includes the April 11 M 8.6 and M 8.2 strike-slip events and their subsequent aftershocks.

 

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000njrq#summary

 

will update later if needed

[john pike]

M 6.3 - OFFSHORE TARAPACA, CHILE - 2014-03-22 12:59:57 UTC

very shallow 5km deep

 

 

Seismotectonics of South America (Nazca Plate Region)

The South American arc extends over 7,000 km, from the Chilean margin triple junction offshore of southern Chile to its intersection with the Panama fracture zone, offshore of the southern coast of Panama in Central America. It marks the plate boundary between the subducting Nazca plate and the South America plate, where the oceanic crust and lithosphere of the Nazca plate begin their descent into the mantle beneath South America. The convergence associated with this subduction process is responsible for the uplift of the Andes Mountains, and for the active volcanic chain present along much of this deformation front. Relative to a fixed South America plate, the Nazca plate moves slightly north of eastwards at a rate varying from approximately 80 mm/yr in the south to approximately 65 mm/yr in the north. Although the rate of subduction varies little along the entire arc, there are complex changes in the geologic processes along the subduction zone that dramatically influence volcanic activity, crustal deformation, earthquake generation and occurrence all along the western edge of South America.

Most of the large earthquakes in South America are constrained to shallow depths of 0 to 70 km resulting from both crustal and interplate deformation. Crustal earthquakes result from deformation and mountain building in the overriding South America plate and generate earthquakes as deep as approximately 50 km. Interplate earthquakes occur due to slip along the dipping interface between the Nazca and the South American plates. Interplate earthquakes in this region are frequent and often large, and occur between the depths of approximately 10 and 60 km. Since 1900, numerous magnitude 8 or larger earthquakes have occurred on this subduction zone interface that were followed by devastating tsunamis, including the 1960 M9.5 earthquake in southern Chile, the largest instrumentally recorded earthquake in the world. Other notable shallow tsunami-generating earthquakes include the 1906 mate.5 earthquake near Esmeraldas, Ecuador, the 1922 mate.5 earthquake near Coquimbo, Chile, the 2001 mate.4 Arequipa, Peru earthquake, the 2007 mate.0 earthquake near Pisco, Peru, and the 2010 mate.8 Maule, Chile earthquake located just north of the 1960 event

 

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000nl0m#summary

[john pike]

Magnitude Mw 5.9 Region FIJI REGION Date time 2014-03-23 04:31:03.0 UTC Location 20.73 S ; 178.80 W Depth 634 km

 

 

Distances 377 km W of Nuku‘alofa, Tonga / pop: 22,400 / local time: 17:31:03.0 2014-03-23

407 km SE of Suva, Fiji / pop: 77,366 / local time: 16:31:03.0 2014-03-23
1068 km SW of Apia, Samoa / pop: 40,407 / local time: 17:31:03.0 2014-03-22

Source parameters reviewed by a seismologist

 

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=366897

 

no damage or tsunami recorded

 

however posted as one of the deepest i have seen, if not the deepest

 

 

http://www.livescience.com/34671-russian-earthquake-deepest-ever.html

 

yep i thought so the quake above was very very deep

Edited March 23, 2014 by john pike

[john pike]

M6.1 - 97km WNW of Iquique, Chile 2014-03-23 18:19:59 UTC

very shallow

 

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000nm96#summary

 

 

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=367020#map

[john pike]

M6.5 - South of the Fiji Islands 2014-03-26 03:29:36 UTC

 

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000nqnq#summary

[john pike]

Earthquake May Have Caused Washington Mudslide, Official Says

ARLINGTON, Washington — A small earthquake struck just days before the deadly mudslide ravaged a rural community in Washington state last Saturday morning, officials say.

John Pennington, director of Snohomish County Emergency Management, said at a Tuesday morning press briefing that a 1.1 magnitude earthquake struck on March 10 just 100-yards behind the site of the mudslide. Officials were eyeing the quake as the cause.

While it wasn't discovered by authorities until Monday, Pennington says, he believes that there was nothing local authorities could have done to warn citizens that a disaster was imminent.

 

http://mashable.com/2014/03/25/earthquake-washington-mudslide/

 

(use this link for updates)  http://mashable.com/2014/03/25/despite-deadly-history-u-s-lacks-a-national-landslide-warning-program/

 

and see link below for a story from washington almost 1 year ago

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/27/us/washington-landslide/index.html

Edited March 26, 2014 by john pike

[john pike]

Magnitude Mw 6.0 Region SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS Date time 2014-03-27 03:49:47.0 UTC Location 12.04 S ; 166.57 E Depth 125 km Distances 658 km N of Port-Vila, Vanuatu / pop: 35,901 / local time: 14:49:47.0 2014-03-27
392 km N of Luganville / pop: 13,397 / local time: 14:49:00.0 2014-03-27
230 km NW of Sola, Vanuatu / pop: 1,171 / local time: 14:49:47.0 2014-03-27

Source parameters reviewed by a seismologist

 

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=367715

Edited March 27, 2014 by john pike

[john pike]

5.1 - 1km S of La Habra, California 2014-03-29 04:09:42 UTC

PAGER - YELLOW ShakeMap - VII DYFI? - VII

Return to the EQ List/Map/Search

Google Earth KML

Summary

Location and Magnitude contributed by: Southern California Seismic Network, Caltech, USGS Pasadena, and Partners

General

 

+-

50 km

30 mi

Powered by Leaflet

California
33.919°N, 117.943°W
Depth: 7.5km (4.7mi)

Event Time

• 2014-03-29 04:09:42 UTC
• 2014-03-28 21:09:42 UTC-07:00 at epicenter
• 2014-03-29 04:09:42 UTC+00:00 system time

Location

33.919°N 117.944°W depth=7.5km (4.6mi)

Nearby Cities

• 1km (1mi) S of La Habra, California
• 4km (2mi) W of Brea, California
• 5km (3mi) NNW of Fullerton, California
• 6km (4mi) E of La Mirada, California
• 546km (339mi) W of Phoenix, Arizona

Related Links

• CALTECH/USGS AFTERSHOCK PROBABILITY REPORT
• SCSN Special Event Page for Mw 5.1 La Habra Earthquake
• Additional earthquake information for California
• Additional earthquake information for United States
• View location in Google Maps

Tectonic Summary

A M5.1 earthquake occurred at 9:09pm on March 28, 2014, located 1 km (1 mile) east of La Habra, CA, 5 km (3 miles) north of Fullerton, CA and 33 km (21 miles) ESE of Los Angeles. The depth of the event is 7.5 km.

The event was felt widely throughout Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties.  It was preceded by two foreshocks, a M3.6 at 8:03pm and a M2.1 at 8:16 pm.

There have been 38 aftershocks as of 10:45pm, the largest of which was a M3.6 at 9:30pm, and was felt locally near the epicenter. The aftershock sequence may continue for several days to weeks, but will likely decay in frequency and magnitude as time goes by.

The maximum observed instrumental intensity was VII, recorded in the LA Habra and Brea areas, although the ShakeMap shows a wide area of maximum intensity of VI. The maximum reported intensity for the Community Internet Intensity Map (Did You Feel It?) was reported at VI in the epicentral area.

This sequence could be associated with the Puente Hills thrust (PHT).  The PHT is a blind thrust fault that extends from this region to the north and west towards the City of Los Angeles.  It caused the M5.9 1987 Oct. 1 Whittier Narrows earthquake.  

Previously, the M5.4 2008 Chino Hills earthquake occurred in this region.  It caused somewhat stronger shaking in Orange County and across the Los Angeles Basin.  

The moment tensor shows oblique faulting, with a north dipping plane that approximately aligns with the Puente Hills thrust. 

The demonstration earthquake early warning system provided 4 second warning in Pasadena.

 

 

 

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/site/index.php?pageid=seism_critical&rid=395100

 

critical infrastructure link above

Edited March 29, 2014 by john pike

[john pike]

Authorities were tallying damage from a magnitude 5.1 earthquake that struck Southern California on Friday night.

Fullerton police said early Saturday that up to 50 people had been displaced because of home damage.

The quake, centered near La Habra, caused furniture to tumble, pictures to fall off walls and glass to break. Merchandise fell off store shelves, and there were reports of plate glass windows shattered.

In Brea, several people suffered minor injuries during a rock slide that overturned their car. Fullerton reported seven water main breaks. Carbon Canyon Road was closed.

Residents across Orange and Los Angeles counties and the Inland Empire reported swinging chandeliers, fireplaces dislodging from walls and lots of rattled nerves. The shake caused a rock slide in Carbon Canyon, causing a car to overturn, according to the Brea Police Department. Fullerton police received reports of water main breaks and windows shattering, but primarily had residents calling about burglar alarms being set off by the quake.

Third-grade teacher Barbara Castillo and her 7-year-old son had just calmed their nerves after an earlier 3.6 temblor and sat down in their La Habra home when their dogs started barking and the second, larger quake struck, causing cabinet doors to swing open, objects to fall off shelves and lights to flicker.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-51-earthquake-causes-damage-some-flee-from-homes-20140329,0,522498.story#ixzz2xOfW3rI7

 

more in link above

 

http://quakes.globalincidentmap.com/

 

plenty of shocks still ongoing

 

including

 

M4.1 - 2km SE of Rowland Heights, California

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ci15483001#summary

[john pike]

maG 8.0 99km NW of Iquique, Chile

 

ONLY 10KM DEEP

 

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000nzvd#summary

 

http://ptwc.weather.gov/ptwc/text.php?id=hawaii.TIBHWX.2014.04.01.2356

 

TSUNAMI ADVISORY ON GOING

 

 

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=368890#map

Edited April 2, 2014 by john pike

[Crepuscular Ray]

Looks nasty - there are tsunami watches issued for the whole of the western coast of S. America and Hawai'i's been put on alert. Do hope not.

[john pike]

HI CR

 

lets hope this aint too bad

 

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/seismologist.php

 

just looking at the data link above

 

that was a big jolt

http://www.isthisthingon.org/Yellowstone/daythumbs.php?glayout=1

 

can also be seen here on the yellowstone graphs quite clearly