Middle America Is Experiencing a Massive Increase in 3.0+ Earthquakes

Area over which increased seismic activity has been observed

A new United States Geological Survey study has found that middle America between Alabama and Montana is experiencing an "unprecedented" and "almost certainly manmade" increase in earthquakes of 3.0 magnitude or greater. In 2011, there were 134 events of that size. That's six times more than were normally seen during the 20th century.
While the changes in the area's seismicity began in 2001, the trend has really accelerated since 2009, the geologists note. That happens to coincide with increased oil and gas production using new extraction techniques in some parts of the area.

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Japan Quake Lifted Seabed 16 Stories—Largest Recorded

The tsunami-devastated town of Minamisanriku, Japan, is seen in November 2011.

Photograph by Greg Baker, AP

Japan's devastating March 11 earthquake shifted the seabed by as much as 165 feet (50 meters)—the largest slip yet recorded, a new study says.
That's considerably larger than in previous reports, which in May put the shift at 79 feet (24 meters).
(See 20 unforgettable pictures of the aftermath of the Japan earthquake and tsunami.)

This giant movement probably caused the massive tsunami that killed more than 15,000 people and crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (pictures).
For the study, Toshiya Fujiwara and colleagues at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology compared seabed maps made in 1999 and 2004 to those made only days after the March quake.
Their analysis also revealed the seabed may also have risen by as much as 33 feet (10 meters).

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Strongest Earthquake in Decades Strikes U.S. Eastern Seaboard

One of the strongest earthquakes to strike the US east coast in decades rattled offices Tuesday in downtown Washington and caused panicked evacuations from skyscrapers as far away as New York.

The Pentagon, the US Capitol and Union Station in the nation's capital were all evacuated after the 5.9-magnitude quake, which was shallow with its epicenter only 0.6 miles (one kilometer) underground.

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Massive 8.9 earthquake and tsunami hits Japan

Houses are destroyed by tsunami floods following the Tohoku Earthquake in near Iwaki town, Fukushima prefecture. Photo: EPA

TOKYO (AP) -- Japanese police say 200 to 300 bodies have been found in a northeastern coastal area where a massive earthquake spawned a tsunami.

The magnitude 8.9 offshore quake unleashed a 23-foot (7-meter) tsunami and was followed by more than 50 aftershocks for hours, many of them of more than magnitude 6.0. Earlier, police confirmed at least 60 people had been killed and 56 were missing. The death toll was likely to continue climbing given the scale of Friday's disaster.

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Christchurch earthquakes approaching 700 in 13 days

Since September 4 Christchurch in New Zealand is being pounded by earthquakes, one after the other they are coming and some are fairly medium sized earthquakes. Those tremors, aftershocks or earthquakes are now approaching almost 700 earthquakes in just 13 days.
That is either the biggest earthquake swarm we have heard off or something else is brewing beneath New Zealand.
The massive 7.1 magnitude earthquake a few days ago caused damage to many buildings as well as public buildings, historical buildings and even the old Library in Christchurch is said to be on a new fault line, or where there is no known fault line.
Some scientists agree to the fact that there might be a new fault line forming.
Christchurch had previous big earthquakes but nothing like 688 the number where it stands now for the last 13 days.

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New Zealand earthquake: ground moved by 11ft

The magnitude 7.1 quake on Friday night in New Zealand was larger than the one that killed 200,000 people in Haiti this year and appeared to have opened a new fault line.

Mark Quigley, a geology professor leading a team investigating the cause of the quake, said: "One side of the earth has lurched to the right."

 “Up to 11 feet in some places has been thrust up. The long linear fracture on the earth’s surface does things like break apart houses, break apart roads.

"We went and saw two houses that were completely snapped in half by the earthquake.”
Much of the centre of Christchurch remained sealed off and under curfew for a second night on Sunday.

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Quake, tsunamis kill more than 700 in Chile

CONCEPCION, Chile (Reuters) - A massive earthquake and tsunamis killed 350 people in one Chilean coastal town, doubling the total death toll on Sunday as the government tried to get aid to hungry survivors and halt looting.

President Michelle Bachelet said at least 708 people had been killed and called for calm as people desperate for food and water looted stores in some areas worst hit by Saturday's 8.8-magnitude quake, one of the world's biggest in a century.

Television images showed houses washed away by swirling waters, cars tossed into shattered buildings and boats lifted into the streets in coastal towns including Pelluhue and Constitucion, where 350 deaths alone were reported.

"It's an enormous catastrophe ... there's a growing number of missing people," Bachelet said, adding that food and medical aid was being sent to help the roughly 2 million people affected by the quake.

The quake wrecked hundreds of thousands of homes, mangled highways and bridges and dealt a heavy blow to infrastructure in the world's No. 1 copper producer and one of Latin America's most stable economies.

Giant waves set off by the quake crashed hundred of meters into some coastal towns and villages near the epicenter, demolishing houses and sending residents fleeing into the hills. The government had told Chileans immediately after the quake that there was no danger of a tsunami, an error it said was based on incorrect data from navy experts.

"I've got nothing left but what I'm wearing. We ran desperately up the hill and watched how the sea washed everything away," an unidentified woman from the fishing village of Duao told state television.

A lack of water, food and fuel sharpened the hardship for the hundreds of thousands of people left homeless, and widespread disruption to the power supply threatened to hamper Chilean industry's recovery.

Chile's biggest copper mines affected by the quake slowly resumed operations on Sunday despite limited power supplies, which analysts say could curtail exports.

In the hard-hit city of Concepcion, about 310 miles south of Santiago, about 60 people were feared to have been crushed to death in a collapsed apartment block where rescuers worked through the night to find survivors.

The government imposed a night-time curfew in Concepcion and the Maule region in a bid to stop looting and army troops began to arrive in the city late on Sunday.
Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse a crowd of looters carrying off food and electrical appliances from one supermarket in Concepcion. Television images showed people stuffing groceries and other goods into shopping trolleys.

"People have gone days without eating," said Orlando Salazar, one of the looters at the supermarket. "The only option is to come here and get stuff for ourselves."

Concepcion's mayor, Jacqueline van Rysselberghe, said the situation was getting "out of control" due to shortages of basic supplies and called for troops to be sent to the city.

AFTERSHOCKS

The quake poses a daunting reconstruction challenge for President-elect Sebastian Pinera, who takes office in two weeks.

Crushed cars, fallen power lines and rubble from wrecked buildings littered the streets of Concepcion, which has about 670,000 inhabitants and lies 70 miles southwest of the quake's epicenter.

A string of strong aftershocks have rocked the country and thousands of Concepcion residents camped out in tents or makeshift shelters, fearing fresh tremors could topple weakened buildings.

Some economists predicted a deep impact on Chile's economy after the quake damaged its industrial and agricultural sectors in the worst-hit regions, possibly putting pressure on its currency.

The economic damage from the quake could be up to $30 billion, equivalent to about 15 percent of Chile's gross domestic product, said Eqecat, a firm that helps insurers model catastrophe risks.

Chile's fourth-largest copper mine El Teniente, which accounts for more than 7 percent of national output, resumed operations on Sunday. The nearby Andina mine was also due to resume operations but analysts feared power outages could still curtail supplies.

Production also resumed on Sunday at the Anglo-American Los Bronces copper mine, one of the company's two mines where power outages halted output, a union leader told Reuters.

Santiago's airport started to receive international flights for the first time since the quake struck. Officials said the runways were unscathed but the terminal building was damaged.

The temblor triggered tsunamis as far afield as Japan and Russia, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or serious damage.

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Haiti earthquake: thousands feared dead

Frantic rescue efforts are underway to free people trapped in the rubble after a massive 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the Caribbean nation of Haiti.

The tremor sparked widespread panic as it brought down buildings including the presidential palace, hotels, a hospital and the UN headquarters in the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince (affected landmarks on Google maps). Large numbers of UN staff were reported to be missing, as well as two American and two Australian citizens.

The quake was the strongest to hit the country in 200 years and was felt as far away as Cuba.

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Svalbard hit by major earthquake

A major earthquake which measured 6.5 on the Richter scale hit off the coast of the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard on Friday. This is THE STRONGEST QUAKE EVER REGISTERED IN THIS PART OF THE WORLD. There are no reports of any damage. If a quake of this strength had hit the mainland, the damage would have been considerable, experts say. Friday's quake comes just one year after the last record tremor in the region. On February 21st last year a quake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale was registered, also off the coast of Svalbard.



Related News
AUSTRALIA - Seismologists are at a loss to explain the flurry of earthquakes that have hit a small Wheatbelt town. Beacon, 320km north-west of Perth, has had roughly 100 earthquakes in the last month. The largest, which registered nearly five on the Richter Scale came within 24 hours of earthquakes in Melbourne and off the coast near Broome on Friday. The earthquake clusters, known as swarms, were not unusual for the wheatbelt area but what was UNUSUAL was the migration of the swarms around the wheatbelt. Similar patterns were noted in Koorda in 2003 to 2005 and Burrakin between 2000 and 2002. "These ones like the Beacon case where you seem to get several moderate earthquakes and then lots and lots of smaller quakes, it is a bit unusual. It's called a swarm because it doesn't follow the typical foreshock, minishock, aftershock pattern or at least it doesn't seem to. That's this migrating swarm, I'm not sure I've ever heard of that before. For that area it would seem that this behaviour is not atypical." Seismologists were uncertain if the swarms were related to larger earthquake events such as the wheatbelt's Meckering earthquake in 1968, which registered 6.8 on the Richter scale. The seismic activity could be relieving stresses and avoiding larger earthquakes or it could result in a big rupture. "They seem to die out gradually, we don't really know that much of what to expect, I mean Burrakin went on for a couple of years, Koorda sort of gradually started up and faded out. It could continue for a while."

Korumburra earthquake BIGGEST FOR 36 YEARS - Scientists have moved to calm nerves after the biggest earthquake to rattle Melbourne in 36 years. Friday night's rumble measured 4.6 on the Richter scale.

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Scientists Warn Of Huge Quake In US

US scientists warn a newly discovered fault in Arkansas could trigger a magnitude seven earthquake.The Arkansas Earthquake Centre says the fault is at least seven miles long and its epicentre is near a major natural gas pipeline.

It believes the fault, which lies west of Marianna, is around 5,000 years old and will have caused at least one big tremor in its history.

Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas, would be at risk if there was a powerful quake despite being 100 miles southwest of the line.

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An Eerie Silence After The Quake

Costa Rica
An eerie silence after the quake - Driving to the Poás volcano from Heredia seems normal until you get within kilometres of Vara Blanca, when you start to see the real effects of Thursday's quake and are overcome by the eerie silence coming from communities like Los Cartagos which has been completed abandoned. Up the Alajuela route to the Poás is a different story. Most of the shelters housing refugees are set up there in communities like Fraijanes and Poasito. Parks and empty lots have been converted into campgrounds, people pitching tents and calling it home for now. Earth moving equipment are cleaning up the roads, trucks carrying dirt from one place to another and chainsaws buzzing as they cut down trees before they fall onto the road and houses below are everywhere. Hillsides fallen into the valley below, roads cracked, some houses completely demolished by the force of the earthquake, while others next door not a nail moved. In Poasito, only six kilometres from the Poás volcano and short distance from Vara Blanca, some 500 people are taking shelter and fearing to go back to their homes, for those who have homes to go back to, as the aftershocks continue. In total there are 21 shelters in the area housing 2,000 people.

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Powerful Earthquakes Rock Indonesia

A series of powerful earthquakes killed at least four people and injured dozens more in remote eastern Indonesia early on Sunday.One of the quakes - a 7.3-magnitude tremor - sent small tsunamis into Japan's southeastern coast.Japan's meteorological agency warned more tsunamis were possible later.A relief agency was flying in emergency kits into the area, including canned food, blankets, and medical supplies.The search for possible victims is still underway.An earthquake information officer said that 45 aftershocks had been recorded.

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Earthquake swarm shakes Maupin, Oregon

Oregon, USA
Earthquake swarm shakes Maupin. During the last two years more than 350 small earthquakes have been recorded just outside the small eastern Oregon town of Maupin, and scientists are unsure what is triggering the activity.The earthquakes began in December of 2006 and though only a dozen or so of the temblors exceeded magnitude 3.0, the largest of the events could be felt locally. The earthquakes all originated within a very small area just a few miles southeast of Maupin and about 30 miles southeast of Mt. Hood. Seismic activity in eastern Oregon is comparatively rare and when it does happen, it seems like it happens in these swarms. More common earthquake activity is to get a main shock and then a number of aftershocks. But these swarms lack a main event and instead are characterized by an ongoing series of small quakes. These small earthquakes strike Maupin about every other day on average and one looks a lot like another. Occasionally, two or three quakes would occur on the same day, but never more than four. And rarely would more than a few days go by without an earthquake. That's RATHER UNUSUAL. A geologic map shows a small fault line near the region where most of the quakes have occurred, though it runs in a direction that doesn’t necessarily mirror the pattern of recorded earthquakes. “You think at some point that the earthquakes are done, but they keep cranking along. It isn’t likely that a major quake will follow, but you can never exclude that possibility. That uncertainty is why we need to do more research.”
A similar swarm of earthquakes, though some of them larger, has been taking place in Reno, which also is along the Eastern California Shear Zone. Those quakes are much shallower; about two miles below the surface compared to the 10 mile-deep Maupin events.

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Wave of earthquakes shakes up California. Is Arkansas next?

USA
Some California residents are all shook up after a moderate 5.8-magnitude earthquake struck about 150 miles west of Eureka on Friday, and a handful of minor quakes rattled interior Southern California over the weekend. There were no reports of injuries or damage.

The first tremblor hit off the Pacific coast at 5:42 a.m. local time (8:42 a.m. Eastern), according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Two magnitude-4.1 quakes struck north of Trona, Calif., yesterday and Saturday, the USGS said. Seven smaller quakes ranging from magnitude 3.0 to 3.3 hit before and after those shakeups.

The earthquakes serve as a reminder to Californians that their state sits on fault lines. Much more rare: a spate of minor earthquakes in central Arkansas last month that now has seismologists wondering if bigger ones are to come, the Associated Press reports.

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Scores dead after Pakistan quake

At least 160 people have been killed after an earthquake of 6.4 magnitude hit Balochistan province in south-western Pakistan, officials say.

Officials in Balochistan say they expect the toll to rise.

The tremor struck 70km (45 miles) north of Quetta at 0409 (2309GMT Tuesday) at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles), the US Geological Survey said.

Many houses collapsed during the quake and some were destroyed in landslides that followed it, officials said

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Lebanon hit by seven tremors since Thursday

Lebanon
Seven earthquakes struck southern Lebanon and northern Israel during the past 24 hours, Lebanese seismologists said Friday. Two of the tremors struck on Friday morning, measuring 3.8 and 3.9 on the Richter Scale, respectively. The other five hit within the space of three hours on Thursday.

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7.2 Earth Quake Rocks Japan

Breaking Earth News
Japan

At least six people are dead and more than 140 injured after a powerful earthquake struck northern Japan, triggering landslides.

The 7.2-magnitude quake was centred on Iwate - a rural mountainous region on Japan's main island, Honshu.

Military helicopters are taking in supplies and flying the injured to hospitals. A landslide at a hot spring reportedly buried seven people.

And a small amount of radioactive water was leaked at a nuclear power station.

But officials said there was no danger to the public from the minor spillage at the facility in Fukushima.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said: "Our most important task is to save as many lives as possible, and we are doing the best we can."

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Nevada quake swarm strengthens

Reno, Nevada, USA
Residents of Reno were on guard Monday for earthquake activity after a "swarm" of minor temblors shook the northern part of the state. The swarm, actually made up of thousands of minor quakes, has been going on for three months but picked up considerably Sunday, shaking shelves and causing tall buildings in downtown Reno to sway. There were no reports of significant property damage. Four quakes measuring at least magnitude 3.0 struck the area Sunday morning, capping off a 12-hour period that saw about 20 minor earthquakes. One seismologist said it was the strongest sequence of Nevada quakes in the last month and signaled a pickup in activity. The current swarm's strongest quake was a magnitude 4.7 temblor that struck Reno April 15.

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Aftershocks rock China quake lake zone

Breaking Earth News
China

A strong aftershock has rattled the area near the dangerously swollen "quake lake" in south-west China, triggering landslides on nearby mountains, state media reported.

The state-run Xinhua news agency said in a brief dispatch that the aftershock had caused "massive landslides", adding that the impact on the "quake lake" was being monitored.

Xinhua said the magnitude of the aftershock was not known. The US Geological Survey reported a 5.0-magnitude earthquake at the exact same time, with its epicentre located 70 kilometres north-west of quake-hit Mianyang.

The Tangjiashan "quake lake" formed as a result of the devastating May 12 earthquake in Sichuan province, which triggered a huge landslide that blocked the Jianjiang river, creating a massive body of water.

The lake has become one of the most pressing issues in the aftermath of the May 12 quake that struck mountainous Sichuan, killing 69,136 and leaving 17,686 others missing, according to the latest toll.

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Iceland shaken by magnitude 6.1 earthquake

Breaking Earth News
Iceland
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) - A strong earthquake shook southern Iceland on Thursday, damaging roads and buildings and causing some injuries, officials and local media said.

Channel 2 television cited civil protection authorities as saying the quake caused injuries, but it was not immediately clear how many.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 6.1 quake hit at 3:46 p.m., with its epicenter near the town of Selfoss, 30 miles east- southeast of the capital, Reykjavik. The Icelandic Geological Survey said it measured 6.3 on the Richter scale.

Residents in the capital felt buildings shake.

Iceland's national broadcaster RUV radio reported no injuries but said buildings had been damaged near the epicenter. Authorities advised residents in the area to leave their homes because of the possibility of aftershocks.

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