Earthquake Activity Thread

[john pike]

M6.4 - South Indian Ocean

2014-06-14 11:11:00 UTC

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.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000rfh2#summary

More in link above

[john pike]

M7.2 - 73km SSE of Raoul Island, New Zealand

 

the eastern margin of the Australia plate is one of the most sesimically active areas of the world due to high rates of convergence between the Australia and Pacific plates. In the region of New Zealand, the 3000 km long Australia-Pacific plate boundary extends from south of Macquarie Island to the southern Kermadec Island chain. It includes an oceanic transform (the Macquarie Ridge), two oppositely verging subduction zones (Puysegur and Hikurangi), and a transpressive continental transform, the Alpine Fault through South Island, New Zealand. Since 1900 there have been 15 M7.5+ earthquakes recorded near New Zealand. Nine of these, and the four largest, occurred along or near the Macquarie Ridge, including the 1989 mate.2 event on the ridge itself, and the 2004 mate.1 event 200 km to the west of the plate boundary, reflecting intraplate deformation. The largest recorded earthquake in New Zealand itself was the 1931 M7.8 Hawke's Bay earthquake, which killed 256 people. The last M7.5+ earthquake along the Alpine Fault was 170 years ago; studies of the faults' strain accumulation suggest that similar events are likely to occur again

 

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000rkg5#summary

[john pike]

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

 

and a 6.5 straight affer

 

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/site/index.php?pageid=seism_volcano&rid=415117

 

 

and another 6.6

 

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=386914

Edited June 23, 2014 by john pike

[john pike]

M 7.9 - RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS - 2014-06-23 20:53:09 UTC

 

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=386945#summary

 

near

 

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/site/index.php?pageid=seism_volcano&rid=415129

 

amended to 7.1 but expect adjustments back up on this

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

 

now back up to 8

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000rki5#summary

Edited June 23, 2014 by john pike

[john pike]

WEPA41 PAAQ 232057TSUWCABULLETINTSUNAMI MESSAGE NUMBER 1NWS NATIONAL TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER PALMER AK1257 PM AKDT MON JUN 23 2014AKZ187-195-191-232157-/O.NEW.PAAQ.TS.W.0012.140623T2057Z-000000T0000Z/COASTAL AREAS BETWEEN AND INCLUDING NIKOLSKI ALASKA TO ATTUALASKA1257 PM AKDT MON JUN 23 2014...A TSUNAMI WARNING IS NOW IN EFFECT WHICH INCLUDES THE   COASTAL AREAS OF ALASKA FROM NIKOLSKI ALASKA TO ATTU   ALASKA...IF YOU ARE LOCATED IN THIS COASTAL AREA... MOVE INLANDTO HIGHER GROUND.TSUNAMI WARNINGS MEAN THAT A TSUNAMI WITH SIGNIFICANTINUNDATION IS POSSIBLE OR IS ALREADY OCCURRING.  TSUNAMIS AREA SERIES OF WAVES DANGEROUS MANY HOURS AFTER INITIAL ARRIVALTIME.  THE FIRST WAVE MAY NOT BE THE LARGEST.AT 1253 PM ALASKA DAYLIGHT TIME ON JUNE 23 AN EARTHQUAKE WITHPRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE 7.1 OCCURRED 30 MILES NORTHWEST OF AMCHITKA ALASKA.ESTIMATED TSUNAMI START TIMES FOR SELECTED SITES ARE...SHEMYA             ALASKA              136 PM AKDT JUNE 23ADAK               ALASKA              149 PM AKDT JUNE 23SAINT PAUL         ALASKA              317 PM AKDT JUNE 23THE TSUNAMI WARNING WILL REMAIN IN EFFECT UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.REFER TO THE INTERNET SITE NTWC.ARH.NOAA.GOV FOR MORE INFORMATION.$$http://www.tsunami.gov/product.php?id=TSUWCA.20140623.2057.001

Edited June 23, 2014 by john pike

[john pike]

M 6.0 - RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS - 2014-06-23 21:11:40 UTC

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=386950

[john pike]

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

 

keep watching this

 

more keeps being added

 

http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/

use the link above to follow the tsunami advisory

[john pike]

If you think there have been more earthquakes than usual this year, you're right. A new study finds there were more than twice as many big earthquakes in the first quarter of 2014 as compared with the average since 1979.

"We have recently experienced a period that has had one of the highest rates of great earthquakes ever recorded," said lead study author Tom Parsons, a research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Menlo Park, California.

 

http://www.livescience.com/46576-more-earthquakes-still-random-process.html

 

more in link above

Edited June 27, 2014 by john pike

[john pike]

http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/earthquake-monitor.html

A couple of larger quakes today

7.2 south sandwich island including quite a few after

6.2 japan volcano islands

See link above

Will update the volcano site later as these could be volcanic related

[john pike]

M6.2 - Bonin Islands, Japan region 2014-06-30 19:55:32 UTC

very deep 512 km

 

 

Seismotectonics of the Philippine Sea and Vicinity

The Philippine Sea plate is bordered by the larger Pacific and Eurasia plates and the smaller Sunda plate. The Philippine Sea plate is unusual in that its borders are nearly all zones of plate convergence. The Pacific plate is subducted into the mantle, south of Japan, beneath the Izu-Bonin and Mariana island arcs, which extend more than 3,000 km along the eastern margin of the Philippine Sea plate. This subduction zone is characterized by rapid plate convergence and high-level seismicity extending to depths of over 600 km. In spite of this extensive zone of plate convergence, the plate interface has been associated with few great (M>8.0) ‘megathrust’ earthquakes. This low seismic energy release is thought to result from weak coupling along the plate interface (Scholz and Campos, 1995). These convergent plate margins are also associated with unusual zones of back-arc extension (along with resulting seismic activity) that decouple the volcanic island arcs from the remainder of the Philippine Sea Plate (Karig et al., 1978; Klaus et al., 1992).

South of the Mariana arc, the Pacific plate is subducted beneath the Yap Islands along the Yap trench. The long zone of Pacific plate subduction at the eastern margin of the Philippine Sea Plate is responsible for the generation of the deep Izu-Bonin, Mariana, and Yap trenches as well as parallel chains of islands and volcanoes, typical of circum-pacific island arcs. Similarly, the northwestern margin of the Philippine Sea plate is subducting beneath the Eurasia plate along a convergent zone, extending from southern Honshu to the northeastern coast of Taiwan, manifested by the Ryukyu Islands and the Nansei-Shoto (Ryukyu) trench. The Ryukyu Subduction Zone is associated with a similar zone of back-arc extension, the Okinawa Trough. At Taiwan, the plate boundary is characterized by a zone of arc-continent collision, whereby the northern end of the Luzon island arc is colliding with the buoyant crust of the Eurasia continental margin offshore China.

 

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000rnx0#summary

 

more in link

 

 

should not be any damage or tsunami

[john pike]

Several aftershocks were being felt Sunday after a 5.2 magnitude earthquake struck Arizona on Saturday evening. The last aftershock about 8 a.m. Sunday was not as strong as the initial aftershock and was centered about 10 miles southwest of Duncan. The quake's epicenter was reported in southern Greenlee County near the border with New Mexico, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. USGS placed the quake's origin 31 miles northwest of Lordsburg, NM. The Arizona towns of Duncan and Safford were very close to the epicenter. Shortly afterwards, a 3.5 magnitude aftershock was registered in the same vicinity. In Duncan, cracks were showing in ceilings and on floors and foundations were slipping. "First, I thought it might've been a train going by, but then it got progressively more violent," Duncan resident Ben Apple said. The U.S. Geological Survey said it had tremor reports from Tucson to El Paso, TX, and Albuquerque, NM, to the Mexican border. "This was definitely an earthquake that got a lot of people's attention," said Susan Hoover of the USGS. And while the aftershocks kept coming, another quake couldn't be ruled out. "There's always a chance the earthquakes could stop abruptly. There's a chance there could be no more aftershocks. But there's also a chance there could be earthquakes that are larger," Hoover said. In Duncan, ceiling tiles fell at the First Baptist Church, an old chimney began to collapse at one home and glasses and bottles crashed to the floor at the Bonnie Heather Bar. "It just kept shaking and shaking, and I grabbed the arm of the girl next to me," said Jennifer Taylor, a dispatcher for the Graham County Sheriff's Office in Thatcher. "We went out to the patio and looked up and our radio tower was shaking." Taylor said there were hundreds of phone calls to the dispatch center but no reports of any damage or injuries. Elena Rios says she spoke to her mother who lives in Duncan who reported that the shaking lasted for a good 30 seconds. Another report coming from Mindy Curtis in Safford indicated the earthquake knocked picture frames off walls and caused the light fixtures to swing wildly. The earthquake was reported at a depth of 5 kilometers.

 

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/site/?pageid=event_desc&edis_id=EQ-20140701-44367-USA

[john pike]

Earthquake in USA on Tuesday, 01 July, 2014 at 03:23 (03:23 AM) UTC.

 

update

 

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/site/?pageid=event_update_read&edis_id=EQ-20140701-44367-USA&uid=15019

[john pike]

M6.6 - 233km ESE of Raoul Island, New Zealand Seismotectonics of the Eastern Margin of the Australia Plate

The eastern margin of the Australia plate is one of the most sesimically active areas of the world due to high rates of convergence between the Australia and Pacific plates. In the region of New Zealand, the 3000 km long Australia-Pacific plate boundary extends from south of Macquarie Island to the southern Kermadec Island chain. It includes an oceanic transform (the Macquarie Ridge), two oppositely verging subduction zones (Puysegur and Hikurangi), and a transpressive continental transform, the Alpine Fault through South Island, New Zealand.

Since 1900 there have been 15 M7.5+ earthquakes recorded near New Zealand. Nine of these, and the four largest, occurred along or near the Macquarie Ridge, including the 1989 mate.2 event on the ridge itself, and the 2004 mate.1 event 200 km to the west of the plate boundary, reflecting intraplate deformation. The largest recorded earthquake in New Zealand itself was the 1931 M7.8 Hawke's Bay earthquake, which killed 256 people. The last M7.5+ earthquake along the Alpine Fault was 170 years ago; studies of the faults' strain accumulation suggest that similar events are likely to occur again.

 

 

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/at00n85j3g#summary

 

no damage or tsunami likely

[john pike]

http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/earthquakes/recent_uk_events.html

[john pike]

SYDNEY: A strong 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck off Papua New Guinea (PNG) in the Solomon Sea early Saturday, US geologists said.

The offshore quake hit at 1:00 am (1500 GMT Friday) and occurred 193 kilometres (119 miles) south of Taron on PNG, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/strong-6-6-magnitude/1236228.html

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A magnitude 3 earthquake has been recorded near Fort William in the Scottish Highlands.

The quake happened at about 19:36 BST on Thursday evening just west of the town, the British Geological Survey (BGS) said.

It was felt in a number of other areas including Glencoe, Oban and Lochaber, the BGS added on its website.

BGS seismologist Richard Luckett said magnitude 3 quakes occurred in the UK about once a year.

In the part of Scotland where Thursday's earthquake happened, Mr Luckett said it was usually a once in 10 years event.

The seismologist said the quake was felt as far as 18 to 24 miles (30 to 40km) from the epicentre.

The quake has been recorded on the BGS website as measuring 2.9, but Mr Luckett told BBC Radio Scotland that it was being regarded as a more significant magnitude 3.0.

He said quakes of that size would not cause structural damage, but people had reported feeling vibrations and hearing thunder-like rumblings.

One person said their house shook and their dog started whining.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28155679

Edited July 4, 2014 by john pike

[john pike]

M6.9 - 2km NNE of Puerto Madero, Mexico

2014-07-07 11:23:55 UTC

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000rr6a#summary

[john pike]

http://rt.com/news/170932-mexico-quake-tsunami-jolt/

[john pike]

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=389846

M 6.3 - VANUATU - 2014-07-08 12:56:30 UTC

[john pike]

One of the world's deepest earthquakes was also a rare supersonic quake, upending ideas about where these unusual earthquakes strike.

Only six supersonic (or supershear) earthquakes have ever been identified, all in the last 15 years. Until now, they all showed similar features, occurring relatively near the Earth's surface and on the same kind of fault. But last year, a remarkably super-fast and super-deep earthquake hit below Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, breaking the pattern.

"This was very surprising," said Zhongwen Zhan, lead author of the study, published today (July 10) in the journal Science. "It's not only deep, it's supershear, and it's also quite small."

 

http://www.livescience.com/46747-super-deep-super-fast-earthquakes.html

 

full story in link above

[john pike]

Gas-Charged Earthquakes Linked to Mysterious Louisiana Sinkhole

Surges of gas-charged fluid may have explosively generated the earthquakes preceding a giant sinkhole in Louisiana, researchers say.

These findings could lead to a better understanding of how pressurized fluids can trigger earthquakes and tremors, scientists added.

On Aug. 3, 2012, a giant sinkhole formed overnight near Bayou Corne in southeast Louisiana, prompting a declaration of emergency from state officials and evacuation of nearby residents. The sinkhole — filled with a slurry of water, debris and crude oil — swallowed cypress trees, and recent estimates suggest it is now more than 215,000 square feet (20,000 square meters) and about 330 feet (100 m) deep. [Video: Bayou Corne Sinkhole Swallows Trees]

 

http://www.livescience.com/46692-louisiana-sinkhole-explained.html

[john pike]

Construction and public safety experts say Lebanon is exposed to 600 minor tremors annually, and that a large number of buildings are old, lacking maintenance and at risk of collapse in the event of a strong earthquake. “ Lebanon witnesses 600 mild tremors measuring 3 degrees or less on the Richter scale annually and we have statistics showing that 80 percent of the buildings are between 60 and 70 years old and have not undergone any maintenance work since construction and thus would not sustain a strong tremor,†the head of Building Safety Network Yousef Azzam told a news conference Wednesday. Azzam pointed out that on a scale of three in terms of earthquake risks Lebanon is located in “Zone Two†in the world. “It means that there is a possibility of having earthquakes with a magnitude of 6 or 7 degrees in Lebanon which would cause the collapse of buildings and inflict lots of casualties and damage,†he said, noting that the majority of Lebanon’s population reside in old poorly-maintained buildings. Azzam called for stronger quality control on new constructions by municipalities and the syndicate of engineers to ensure proper adherence to safety specifications. The head of the Youth Association for Safety Awareness (YAZA) Ziad Akel told the same conference that some 16,260 buildings are at high risk of total collapse in the case of a strong tremor. “Unfortunately, the notion of maintenance does not exist in Lebanon,†Akel said. “In developed countries an annual verification of building safety is conducted, while in Lebanon there is no proper control on road, and buildings during construction or afterwards,†he added. Lebanon witnessed a spate of mild tremors last week which raised concern about the country’s unpreparedness to deal with a such natural events.

 

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/site/?pageid=event_desc&edis_id=EQ-20140710-44492-LBN

[john pike]

Earthquake hits Channel Islands

An earthquake of about 4.2 magnitude has been felt in the Channel Islands and south-west England.

Tony Pallot, from the Jersey Met Office, said the epicentre was nine miles (15 km) to the west of Jersey, but was felt across the islands.

A spokesman for the British Geological Survey said it was the largest earthquake in the area since 1933.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-28266736

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/Testimonies/comments.php?id=390387

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/site/index.php?pageid=seism_critical&rid=419137

http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/earthquakes/recent_events/20140711115401.html#page=summary

Edited July 11, 2014 by john pike

[john pike]

M6.8 - 129km ESE of Namie, Japan 2014-07-11 19:22:00 UTC

apan 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.

 

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usb000rs50#summary

 

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/Testimonies/comments.php?id=390445

 

 

was felt but damage looks unlikely

 

also tsunami advisory looks to be dropped

[john pike]

M6.8 - 113km NNE of Ndoi Island, Fiji

very very deep

 

613km

 

The eastern margin of the Australia plate is one of the most sesimically active areas of the world due to high rates of convergence between the Australia and Pacific plates. In the region of New Zealand, the 3000 km long Australia-Pacific plate boundary extends from south of Macquarie Island to the southern Kermadec Island chain. It includes an oceanic transform (the Macquarie Ridge), two oppositely verging subduction zones (Puysegur and Hikurangi), and a transpressive continental transform, the Alpine Fault through South Island, New Zealand.

 

 

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/at00n92hf0#summary

 

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

 

been away but updates will continue again now

[john pike]

list of quakes in link from jersey

 

http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/earthquakes/recent_uk_events.html