2 Earthquakes Strike Off Southern California Coast
Two moderate earthquakes have struck under the ocean near the Channel Islands off the Southern California coast.
The U.S. Geological Survey reports a magnitude 4.5 earthquake struck the sea floor about 14 miles east of San Nicolas Island at 2:45 p.m Sunday.
A magnitude 3.6 quake hit three minutes later in the same spot, 56 miles west of Santa Catalina Island, in an area where the sea floor is about 2,000 feet below the surface.
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Tsunami Threat Looms Over Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest needs to brace itself for a massive tsunami that will likely destroy homes, hurl cars against buildings, and threaten the lives of tens of thousands of people, experts say.
The northwest is due for a big earthquake-generated tsunami, just like the waves that slammed Samoa last month and the Indian Ocean in 2004.However, the region hasn’t adequately prepared for the deluge, said geotechnical engineer Yumei Wang, of the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries in Portland.
Her proposal: Build a series of tsunami evacuation buildings up and down the coast.Wang has helped design a prototype for Cannon Beach, Ore., which is seriously considering building the first tsunami refuge in the United States.
via Tsunami Threat Looms Over Pacific Northwest : Discovery News.
Earthquakes Continue To Rock Planet With 3 In South Pacific
Three major earthquakes struck within an hour and 10 minutes Thursday morning near Vanuatu in the South Pacific, prompting a tsunami warning that was quickly lifted. They were part of series of nine moderate-to-major quakes that rattled the region in just over four hours.
The first quake, with a magnitude of 7.8, struck at 9:03 a.m. (6:03 p.m. ET) at a depth of 35 km (22 miles) and an epicenter 295 km (180 miles) north-northwest of Luganville, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
A second quake, with a magnitude of 7.7, struck 15 minutes later at the same depth and an epicenter of 340 km (210 miles) north-northwest of Luganville.
The third quake, with a magnitude of 7.1, struck at 10:13 a.m. (7:13 p.m. ET) at about the same depth and an epicenter of 280 km (175 miles) north-northwest of Luganville.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued and then quickly lifted a regional tsunami warning and watch for parts of the Pacific near the first earthquake’s epicenter.
Earthquake Expert Says Quake Activity Building Up
More than 1,100 people have died because of a massive 7.6 magnitude earthquake that shook Indonesia 24 hours ago. On Tuesday, a giant earthquake near the American Samoan Islands caused death and destruction and the western United States has seen two sizable earthquakes since 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.
On Thursday earthquakes have shaken parts of California and Nevada. The biggest quake was just 140 miles west of Las Vegas in Keeler, California it certainly has experts on earthquakes in Las Vegas taking notice.
There are several major faults running through Southern Nevada including one less than a mile from the Las Vegas Strip.
Those have earthquake expert Burt Slemmons watching closely. “It could be building up here and in California,” he said. Slemmons has been chasing fault lines for 55 years. He is a retired professor from UNR.
Slemmons helped route and design the Alaskan pipeline so it could survive a magnitude seven earthquake. He says Las Vegas could have one anytime and he predicts it will be a 6.0 or larger.
“I have earthquake tape and putty under potentially toppling articles. I have anchored my bookcases which is one of the major kinds of damage.”
via Earthquake Expert Says Quake Activity Building Up – Las Vegas Now.
Tsunami Strikes American Samoa After 8.3-Magnitude Quake
A tsunami swept into Pago Pago, American Samoa, shortly after an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 8.3 erupted in the area. There were no immediate reports of injuries or structural damage Tuesday.
Fili Sagapolutele, who works at the Samoa News, says the water flowed inland about 100 yards before receding, leaving some cars stuck in the mud.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu issued a tsunami warning for American Samoa and other areas of the Pacific, including New Zealand. A tsunami watch was posted for other areas, including Hawaii and the Marshall Islands.
There are reports that some beaches in Hawaii are being closed as a precaution. Police are at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center to offer protection and assistance in the event that a large wave forms.
American Samoa, a group of islands, is a U.S. territory located in the South Pacific, about 2,300 miles south of Hawaii. American Samoa is slightly larger than Washington, D.C., with a population of 65,628. The population of Pago Pago is approximately 11,000.
9 Earthquakes Reported In Central Oklahoma
More rumblings underground, all in the same location, have been reported as earthquakes by the Oklahoma Geological Survey in Norman, bringing the total to 9 separate earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the state, the U.S. Geological Survey reports today.
All but one of the earthquakes was reported in eastern Oklahoma County, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The other quake one was reported northeast of Ada early Thursday.
The largest earthquake was registered as 3.7 magnitude on the Richter scale Thursday night in Jones.
No damages have been reported.
The last quake in the eastern Oklahoma County area was recorded at 10:30 p.m. Thursday on the north and northeast side of Jones, reading 2.4 magnitude on the Richter scale.
In the same location at 10:15 p.m. on the north and northeast side of Jones, an earthquake reading 2.3 magnitude on the Richter scale, according to the survey.
The survey reports the largest was at 9:09 p.m. Thursday, a 3.7 magnitude earthquake was felt in the same area.
Mega-quake Could Strike Near Seattle
Using sophisticated seismometers and GPS devices, scientists have been able to track minute movements along two massive tectonic plates colliding 25 miles or so underneath Washington state’s Puget Sound basin. Their early findings suggest that a mega-earthquake could strike closer to the Seattle-Tacoma area, home to some 3.6 million people, than was thought earlier.
The deep tremors, which humans can’t feel, occur routinely every 15 months or so and can continue for more than two weeks before they die back to undetectable levels.
The instruments are detecting an inch or two of movement — known as “episodic tremor and slip” — as the Juan de Fuca plate grinds and sinks beneath the North American plate.
Closer to the surface, the two plates are locked together.
When they snap, scientists say, it could produce a massive 9.0 or greater earthquake and a tsunami.
By comparison, the largest earthquake ever recorded was 9.5, in Chile in 1960.
The largest in North America was the 9.2 Great Alaska earthquake in 1964, which spawned a tsunami that struck the Northwest coast.
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which killed 750 to 2,500 people, was estimated to be an 8.3.
Whereas the scientists once predicted that a mega-earthquake would be centered just off the Northwest coast, now — using data from the tremors research — they say that it could be 30 miles or more inland,under the Olympic Peninsula, which lies to the west of Seattle and Tacoma across Puget Sound.
“The closer you are to the source, the stronger the shaking,” said Steve Malone, a research professor emeritus at the University of Washington.
Two Earthquakes Strike Indian Ocean Region, Japan
Two potentially destructive earthquakes struck minutes apart in the Indian Ocean and Japan today, generating tsunami alerts for India, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh and Japan.
The larger of the two quakes was a magnitude-7.6 temblor that hit the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. It was followed less than 15 minutes later by a 6.6-magnitude quake in Japan southwest of Tokyo.
The tsunami watch was later canceled, the U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said, adding that no significant tsunami was generated. The alert was in effect for as long as three hours after the quake struck parts of India, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
The Andaman quake struck at a depth of 33 kilometers 21 miles at about 1:55 a.m. local time and was centered 260 kilometers north of Port Blair in the Andaman Islands, or about 825 kilometers west of Bangkok, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
A magnitude-9.1 earthquake that hit off the coast of Aceh in northern Sumatra in December 2004 triggered a tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean, leaving more than 229,000 dead or missing from Southeast Asia to eastern Africa.
More Earthquake Faults Under Salton Sea, Tremors San Andreas
Sound waves bounced off the lake bed reveal the shifting blocks of crust, leading to a new theory of how the ground is sinking and stretching near the infamous San Andreas fault.
By bouncing sound waves off the floor of the Salton Sea, researchers have discovered more than a dozen previously unknown earthquake faults, leading to a new theory of how the ground is sinking and stretching near the infamous San Andreas fault.
Danny Brothers, lead author of a study published Sunday, said the new understanding of the area’s seismic mechanics does not appear to suggest that a massive quake on the San Andreas is more imminent than previously believed. Earthquake scientists have been interested in the region, about 140 miles east of Los Angeles, because the southernmost end of the San Andreas disappears at the banks of the Salton Sea.
Salton Sea is swarming with earthquake data
“By all reports, the San Andreas is considered overdue,” Brothers, a geophysics graduate student at UC San Diego, said Monday. “What this does is gives us more information to assess it. Now we can start to run some scenarios on how earthquakes beneath the Salton Sea might affect the state of stress on the San Andreas and vice versa.”
Scientists have not had very detailed maps of the crust under the Salton Sea, in part because underwater conditions have made it difficult to employ traditional techniques for studying faults. For years, scientists inferred fault locations there by studying earthquake data. The recordings led scientists to suggest that blocks of crust were swiveling side to side, but generally moving horizontally.
Tremors near San Andreas earthquake fault signal increased stress
Scientists have detected an increase in mysterious underground tremors along a stretch of the San Andreas fault, signaling stress that could boost the likelihood of a major earthquake.
Seismic tools buried in deep holes near the town of Parkfield, 175 miles south of San Jose, have found that the number of tremors along the fault has increased up to 80 percent over four years, according to University of California-Berkeley seismologist Robert Nadeau and graduate student Aurélie Guilhem.
The study, published in Friday’s issue of the journal Science, offers no precise forecast of a rupture along this restless region. But it may bring scientists one step closer toward the long-sought goal of predicting potentially devastating quakes. The same pressure that stimulates tremors may also stimulate quakes.
William Branham saw this over 40 years AgoFrom his sermon Choosing of A Bride in 1965:
That’s solemn warning. We don’t know what time. And you don’t know what time that this city one day is going to be laying out here in the bottom of this ocean.
“O, Capernaum,” said Jesus, “thou who exalted into heaven will be brought down into hell, for if the mighty works had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah, it’d have been standing till this day.” And Sodom and Gomorrah lays at the bottom of the Dead Sea, and Capernaum’s in the bottom of the sea. Thou city, who claims to be the city of the Angels, who’s exalted yourself into heaven and sent all the dirty filthy things of fashions and things, till even the foreign countries come here to pick up our filth and send it away, with your fine churches and steeples, and so forth the way you do; remember, one day you’ll be laying in the bottom of this sea. You’re great honeycomb under you right now.
The wrath of God is belching right beneath you. How much longer He’ll hold this sandbar hanging over that, when that ocean out yonder a mile deep will slide in there plumb back to the Salton Sea. It’ll be worse than the last day of Pompeii. Repent, Los Angeles. Repent the rest of you and turn to God. The hour of His wrath is upon the earth. Flee while there’s time to flee and come into Christ.” Let us pray.
Quake, Tsunami Potential High On West Coast
Scientists have underestimated the potential for a giant quake and tsunami that could swamp much the U.S. northwest and Canadian west coasts, British and U.S. researchers said on Monday.
Geological evidence suggests there have been earthquakes in the past that were even stronger than a magnitude 9.2 quake — the second-biggest ever recorded — which caused a 42-foot-high (12-meter-high) tsunami in the Gulf of Alaska in 1964, they said.
“Our data indicate that two major earthquakes have struck Alaska in the last 1,500 years and our findings show that a bigger earthquake and a more destructive tsunami than the 1964 event are possible in the future,” Ian Shennan, a professor of geography at Britain’s Durham University, who led the study, said in a statement.
“The region has been hit by large, single-event earthquakes and tsunamis before, and our evidence indicates that multiple and more extensive ruptures can happen.”
For their study, the teams at Durham, the University of Utah and Plafker Geohazard Consultants studied subsoil samples and sediments from the Alaskan coast and found evidence of major disasters 900 years ago and 1,500 years ago.
Jumbo Squid Wash Ashore After Earthquake
Dozens of large creatures called jumbo Humboldt squid washed up on La Jolla Shores beach in Southern California Saturday after a 4.0 earthquake, centered offshore, shook homes in the area.
Residents tried to toss them back into the water before seagulls pecked away, according to a local news report.
There has been no connection made between the quake and the beaching of squid, which were up to 4 feet long, so for now the whole thing’s a mystery.
During the day, the somewhat mysterious jumbo squid are known to descend to lower depths in the ocean to rest, slowing down their metabolism to deal with the lower oxygen levels there. At night, they return to well-oxygenated waters nearer the surface to feed. The beasts can grow to 7 feet long.
Mysterious Tremors Detected On San Andreas Fault
Scientists have detected a spike in underground rumblings on a section of California’s San Andreas Fault that produced a magnitude-7.8 earthquake in 1857.
What these mysterious vibrations say about future earthquakes is far from certain. But some think the deep tremors suggest underground stress may be building up faster than expected and may indicate an increased risk of a major temblor.
5.4 Magnitude Earthquake Rocks Alaska
A 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck near Anchorage today, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It did not cause any injuries or major damage, according to officials in the city, Alaska’s largest.
The quake hit at 11:28 a.m. local time, the survey said. Its epicenter was about 60 miles northwest of Anchorage.
“It was a good one,” said Jennifer Collins, a spokeswoman for the Anchorage Fire Department. “Oh, yeah, we definitely felt it. It shook and then it subsided a bit and then it shook again.”
Collins said the fire department has not received calls related to the earthquake. Hendrik Van Hemert, a spokesman for the mayor’s office, said the city had no reports of major damage.
The earthquake was felt as far away as Fairbanks, a spokeswoman for the Alaska Earthquake Information Center said.
Magnitude-4.1 Quake Shakes Already-shaken L.A.
Los Angeles has been shaken by another moderate earthquake, a few miles from the epicenter of Sunday’s shaker. No immediate reports of injuries or damage.
The U.S. Geological Survey says it’s not certain whether it’s an aftershock from Sunday’s magnitude-4.7 temblor or a separate quake.
The magnitude-4.1 quake was centered about 2 miles from Hawthorne and 10 miles from downtown L.A., at a depth of 7.5 miles.
