"Three" Mile Of Roads In Yellowstone Turned To Soup

Mary Greeley

April 1, 2014 Iquique, Chile tsunami propagation

NOAAPMEL

Small Island Emerges After Huge Pakistan Earthquake

Business Insider

Michael Kelley

A small island has emerged off the southern coast of Pakistan after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck the country.

Reuters reports that "a crowd of bewildered people [gathered] on the shore to witness the rare phenomenon."

The quake killed at least 45 people, and many of the buildings in the impoverished area of the Baluchistan province have caved in.

Pakistani TV Geo News, citing Pakistan's deputy inspector general, reported that the 100-feet-wide island arose out of the Arabian Sea about 350 feet off the coast of Gwadar.

The epicenter of the quake was about 320 miles to the northeast.

Twitter

Here's where Gwadar is located:

Google Maps

An island has emerged about 350 feet off the coast of Gwadar (A) in the Arabian Sea.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/small-island-emerges-after-huge-pakistan-earthquake-2013-9#ixzz2fqL1Hrfe

Wrecked Fukushima nuke plant leaking 330 tons of contaminated water a day

worldnews

By Arata Yamamoto, Producer, NBC News

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday ordered increased efforts to stop radiation-contaminated water from spilling into the Pacific Ocean from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant.

A government official told reporters Wednesday that an estimated 300 metric tons (330 tons) of contaminated water was leaking into the ocean every day from the Daiichi plant, which was devastated by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Reuters reported.

The official also said the government believed the leaks had been happening for two years.

Few people are granted access to the radioactive Fukushima exclusion zone in Japan, which remains abandoned and frozen in time on March 11, 2011 — the day a massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami caused a triple nuclear meltdown in the city. Channel 4's Alex Thomson reports.

The plant’s operators Tokyo Electric Power Company has been building an underground wall by injecting “liquid glass” into the ground in an attempt to contain the contaminated water.

TEPCO has insisted that so far the level of contamination in the ocean does not pose a risk to health.

But some of the contaminated water has made its way through parts of the underground barrier and started to rise above ground.

In response, TEPCO announced that it would begin pumping out the contaminated underground water at a rate of 100 metric tons (110 tons) a day starting this week.

The main government spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, told the press that the government was considering providing financial assistance to help with the project.

The cleanup operation is expected to take more than 40 years and cost $11 billion, Reuters reported.

What caused latest deadly earthquake in Iran

science

Keele University

The Iran earthquake shows up on a seismometer at Keele University in the United Kingdom.

By Becky Oskin
LiveScience

The strongest earthquake to hit Iran in more than 50 years was a subduction-zone quake — the same tectonic setting underlying deadly temblors in Japan, Chile and Indonesia.

The magnitude-7.8 Khash earthquake struck 51 miles (82 kilometers) beneath the Earth's surface, where the Arabian Plate dives under the massive Eurasian Plate, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported. The quake hit Tuesday at 3:14 p.m. local time (6:44 a.m. EDT). Shaking was felt from New Delhi to Dubai, and dozens of people have been reported killed by collapsed structures, according to news reports. The USGS said that there will be more than a 47 percent chance of more than 1,000 fatalities.

Known as the Makran subduction zone, the plate boundary has produced some of the Middle East's biggest and deadliest earthquakes. For example, in November 1945, a magnitude-8.0 earthquake in Pakistan triggered a tsunami within the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, killing more than 4,000 people. 

Considering subduction-zone earthquakes can strike nearly 435 miles (700 km) deep in the Earth, today's quake was likely within the Arabian Plate itself, not along the zone where the two massive slabs meet, said Bill Barnhart, a research geophysicist with the USGS in Denver.

"We don't fully know yet, but instead of being slip along the slab, it was probably an earthquake within the slab," Barnhart told OurAmazingPlanet. "This is related to the subducting slab flexing as it goes down deeper into the Earth."

Off the coast of Pakistan, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Plate is sliding northward at about 1.5 inches (37 millimeters) per year. The motion pushes oceanic crust beneath the Eurasian Plate, which covers most of Europe and Asia, according to the USGS.

To the west, in Iran and Iraq, are the Zagros Mountains, a smaller version of the Himalayas, where continental crust carried on the Arabian Plate collides with the Eurasian Plate's continental crust. To the east, in Pakistan and India, is another plate boundary, where the Indian and Eurasian plates meet.

A smaller earthquake hit Iran on April 9. The magnitude-6.3 Bushehr earthquake, which hit in the southern Zagros Mountains, was unrelated to today's temblor, the USGS said. That quake was a thrust-fault earthquake, meaning the ground on one side of the fault moved vertically up and over the other side, shortening the distance between the two sides. The epicenter was 55 miles (89 km) southeast of Bushehr, the city where Iran's only nuclear power station is located.

In 2003, some 26,000 people in Iran were killed by a 6.6-magnitude quake that flattened the historic city of Bam, located about 400 miles (650 km) east of Bushehr on the other side of the Zagros Mountains. The Bam earthquake was a strike-slip, meaning the ground on either side of the faults moved mostly horizontally, as the San Andreas Fault does.

Mystery ground shaking rattles South Jersey

USGS Intensity Map of New Jersey shaking

By NBC News/

South New Jersey residents felt the ground shaking Saturday morning, but no earthquakes or military training exercises were reported in the region.

The U.S. Geological Survey suggested a possible sonic boom was the cause.

"I'm in LEH [Little Egg Harbor] and my basement door shook violently for 15 sec or so long enough to creep me out. Sounded like someone was trying to get out," posted a person identified as Dana Re on the Jersey Shore Hurricane News Facebook page.   

Another comment, posted by a person identified as John Tefankjian, said he felt his Brigantine house shake, but differently from when fighter jets go by in training.

More >>

Ohio Earthquake Likely Caused by Fracking Wastewater

Residents of Youngstown, Ohio, received an extra surprise on Christmas Eve and again on New Year's Eve—earthquakes, measuring 2.7 and 4.0 on the Richter scale, respectively. No one was injured and only a few cases of minor damage were reported after the Dec. 31 event.

Scientists have quickly determined that the likely cause was fracking—although not from drilling into deep shale or cracking it with pressured water and chemicals to retrieve natural gas. Rather, they suspect the disposal of wastewater from those operations, done by pumping it back down into equally deep sandstone.

Fracking is part of a nationwide boom in the production of natural gas, which is a ready replacement for home heating oil and could lessen dependence on foreign fossil fuels if vast underground shales could be hydraulically fractured. Opposition to fracking has arisen mostly out of fear that the technique could potentially contaminate drinking water supplies.

Nine small earthquakes had already occurred between March and November 2011 within an eight-kilometer radius of a wastewater injection well run by Northstar Disposal Services. Because quakes are otherwise rare in the Youngstown area, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources in November asked Columbia University's Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) to place mobile seismographs in the vicinity to better determine what was going on. John Armbruster from LDEO installed four seismographs on November 30.

By triangulating the arrival time of shock waves at the four stations, Armbruster and his colleagues needed only a day or two to determine with 95 percent certainty that the epicenters of the two holiday quakes were within 100 meters of each other, and within 0.8 kilometer of the injection well. The team also determined that the quakes were caused by slippage along a fault at about the same depth as the injection site, almost three kilometers down.  More  Scientific American >>

Baby rescued alive, two days after Turkish quake

Catástrofe en Turquía: Terremoto de 7,2

Magnitude 6.0 earthquake hits off Cuba's coast

The U.S. Geological Survey has registered a magnitude 6.0 earthquake that hit off the coast of Cuba.

The quake happened early Thursday at 4:43 a.m. local time about 25 miles off Cuba's coast and 375 miles southeast of Cuba's capital Havana.

USGS geophysicist Randy Baldwin says earthquakes are common in that area of the sea and no tsunami warnings have been issued. He also said the quake wasn't expected to cause damage on land, citing its remoteness.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/09/15/3912073/magnitude-60-earthquake-hits-off.html#ixzz1Y1mn6QQ7

Two magnitude 7.0 quakes hit Myanmar - USGS

Source: reuters // Reuters

Credit: USGS ShakeMap of earthquake in Myanmar, 13:55 GMT, Mar. 24, 2011. US GEOLOGICAL SURVEY (USGS)

WASHINGTON, March 24 (Reuters) - Two strong quakes of magnitude 7.0 struck northeast Myanmar, close to the Thai and Laotian borders, the U.S. Geological Survey reported on Thursday.
It said the quakes struck seconds apart at 8:25 a.m. on Friday (1355 GMT on Thursday) and were centered 69 miles (111 km) north of Chiang Rai in neighboring Thailand. The first one was very shallow, at a depth of 6.2 miles (10 km), while the second one was deeper at 142.5 miles (230 km).
It is a sparsely populated, hilly area best known as the Golden Triangle, which is a traditional source of illicit opium.
(Reporting by Sandra Maler and David Storey; Editing by Bill Trott)

California "big one" expected to pale next to Japan quake

The skyline of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge appear above the evening fog as the suns sets on the Marin Headlands in Sausalito, California April 18, 2009.

Credit: Reuters/Robert Galbraith

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - When the seismic "big one" hits California, scientists doubt it will be quite as powerful as the earthquake that struck Japan last week although it could do plenty of damage.
The colossal California quake considered inevitable and long overdue is most likely to strike along the southern end of the famed San Andreas Fault and register a magnitude of 7.5 or greater, many times less powerful than the 9.0 temblor that rocked Japan on Friday, geologists say.
Still, an earthquake damage forecast prepared in 2008 for the U.S. Geological Survey by geophysicists and engineers envisions a calamity that would leave 2,000 people dead, 50,000 injured and 250,000 homeless.
That scenario is based on the premise of a magnitude 7.8 quake rupturing the San Andreas in the desert east of Los Angeles and radiating with catastrophic fury into the nation's second-largest metropolitan area.
Such a quake could be expected to topple 1,500 buildings, badly damage another 300,000 and sever highways, power lines, pipelines, railroads, communications networks and aqueducts. Property losses of more than $200 billion are projected.
The hypothetical quake also would ignite about 1,600 fires, some growing into conflagrations that would engulf hundreds of city blocks.

More Here

4.3 magnitude earthquake reported in Quebec [Canada]

The Canadian Press

A minor earthquake, with an estimated 4.3 magnitude, has been detected in western Quebec.

Natural Resources Canada says the quake was centered in Lachute, Que., between Ottawa and Montreal, and struck this afternoon about 1:36 p.m.

The ground started shaking and stopped after about 10 seconds.

The quake was felt as far away as the western suburbs of Montreal, in Cornwall, Ont., and by some people in Ottawa.

There were no immediate reports of damage.

It appeared the one casualty was the federal website intended to keep Canadians informed about earthquakes.

Last time there was a temblor in the region, last June, it froze the website for Earthquakes Canada.

The federal site was brought to its knees again Wednesday. Many visitors seeking information were greeted by blank screens and the site was occasionally working, but only intermittently, after 2 p.m.

The bugs brought back memories of last year's 5.0 temblor, where the federal site was paralyzed by demand.

Documents obtained by the Canadian Press, under Access to Information, revealed that staffers were scrambling for more than two hours to find a temporary solution and it took four hours before the whole site was back in full working order.

At the time, an official with Natural Resources Canada admitted the crash raised questions about how well prepared the agency is to communicate with Canadians online in the event of a sudden natural disaster such as an earthquake or tsunami.

As it did last year, the U.S. Geological Survey's website continued running Wednesday and provided information about the quake.

The U.S. agency pegged the magnitude at 3.7.

Nuclear Fallout: 'Chaos Theory,' Iran, and President Passive

by Roger L Simon

Watching the tragedy going on in Japan, one might normally wonder if the Iranians are having second thoughts about the Natanz reactor and the rest of their “peaceful” nuclear program, especially since the Japanese are light-years ahead of them scientifically and the Iranians have to rely on the Russians, who gave the world Chernobyl, for technical support. But it’s doubtful the Iranians would or could step backwards, considering the religious maniacs who control the country believe their beloved 12th Imam will appear in the midst of chaos. And they have chaos aplenty now.

Not surprisingly, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the man who informed us that there are no homosexuals in Iran, insists that their reactors are modern and earthquake proof (if not resistant to Israeli computer viruses), even though Wikipedia reminds us:

Iran is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, being crossed by several major fault lines that cover at least 90% of the country. As a result, earthquakes in Iran occur often and are destructive.

They list nine Iranian earthquakes of 5.9 or above since 2002, all of which had fatalities and one of which — the 2003 Bam quake — claimed at least 30,000 lives.

More Here

"If Radioactive Material Gets Into The Jet Stream Then... We Share That With The World"

Japan Earthquake Holds Lessons

by Sara Reardon  

For Japan, perched on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," a major earthquake is no great surprise. The country's building codes and earthquake alert systems are among the most sophisticated in the world and have no doubt saved thousands of lives. Now, scientists in the Pacific Northwest, whose Cascadia fault holds eerie similarities to the one that triggered today's quake in Japan, say the disaster may force them to reexamine their own earthquake preparedness.

"This earthquake is going to be the benchmark for the Pacific Northwest when the Cascadia fault breaks," says seismologist John Vidale of the University of Washington, Seattle. "We know that it can have an earthquake of this magnitude. It's a question of when, not if." More Here 

Hypothesis: Massive Japan Earthquake & Tsunami Were Triggered by Solar Action

Meteorologist, astrophysicist, consultant, and owner of the business Weather Action, Piers Corbyn, talks with Alex about the Japanese tsunami.

Piers says "The massive Japan Earthquake and Tsunami were triggered by massive events on the Sun and there are more to come in the next two years"

He Says:

• "The Earthquake was preceded by an X class solar flare and a significant hit of the Earth by a Coronal Mass Ejection - reported by nasa - http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/News031011-xclass.html

• "We warned after the New Zealand Earthquake on 21 Feb that the solar-lunar scene is set for more Earthquakes for the next two years:

http://www.weatheraction.com/displayarticle.asp?a=314&c=5

• "Many of these Earthquake events, as well as weather events, will be very extreme.

• "Actual Earthquakes are very difficult to predict but major aftershocks will come after this one.

• "Just to be clear in case the usual fools and charlatans make claims the weather and earthquake events that have come and are coming are absolutely nothing to do with CO2 or so called man-made climate change in any way whatsoever and such talk diverts attention from where it is needed and holds back the advancement of science".

Terremoto de Japón cambió el eje de la Tierra

Los resultados preliminares de estudios realizados por el Instituto Nacional de Geofísica y Vulcanología de Italia, indican que el terremoto en Japón esta mañana, cambió el eje de rotación de la tierra en casi 10 pulgadas. El impacto de este evento en el eje de rotación, y fue mucho mayor aún que la del gran terremoto de Sumatra de 2004 y, probablemente, sólo superada por terremoto de Chile de 1960.

The tsunami's model path

An animation of the modeled propagation of the March 11, 2011 Tsunami from NOAA.

The "SuperMoon" and the Japan earthquake

By Jason Samenow

On March 19, the moon's orbit will make its closest approach to Earth in 18 years while at the same time be in full phase. Such a coincidence has been named a "SuperMoon" by astrologer Richard Nolle. As entertainingly chronicled by John Metcalfe over at TBD, Nolle predicts all kinds of weather and natural hazard mayhem, including strong earthquakes, around the time of the Supermoon.
So the questions that emerge are: 1) Is there any legitimate science linking the Supermoon and extreme natural hazards? and, 2) Did the upcoming Supermoon play a role in this morning's horrific earthquake in Japan, the fifth most powerful on record?

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