What might really be happening in Washington State?

reply to post by Isaac (RIP DUSTIN)


Yes, that is exactly what I was getting at. Thank you for that image.

I think anyone with basic math skills and common sense can look at these images, read about the deept tremors and what they are thought to represent and come to the same conclusion as myself.

It is simple yen and yang. Pressure/energy exchange. There is a whole lot of it down there. The earth is literally shuddering with it. It has been becoming more and more 'pent-up' for the past several hundred years now. Ugh....

Guys....something is up.


Massive quake showing as P waves on GEE right now. My house just quivered....all these quakes off the West shore...BAD, BAD feeling right now.

I got some EQ clouds pictures earlier too.

reply to post by westcoast


My dogs are going crazy

These are the ones from earlier...nothing on USGS yet

MAP 4.9 2011/03/06 22:23:15 44.334 -129.473 10.2 OFF THE COAST OF OREGON
MAP 4.8 2011/03/06 21:35:47 44.372 -129.346 10.9 OFF THE COAST OF OREGON
MAP 4.5 2011/03/06 13:46:35 40.455 -125.427 2.6 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Okay...have to follow-up on this. Could you tell I was excited??

These huge what look like P waves coincided with several things: I had just seen the two moderate quakes off the coast of Oregon, my house settled, my dogs started barking and I was reading something scary about earthquakes.


[EDIT TO ADD: I am a moron and failed to ADD 8 hrs to get the UTC time, rather than subtract it. My bad.]

Still nothing showing on GEE. So I have to assume that what I am looking at on GEE, which are the seismos for Arkansas (I have been followig their swarm) is local to Arkansas. Which is very bizzarre to say the least.

This is when Puterman or someone else steps in and calls me silly and gives an easy explanation. Right? Puterman? TrueAmerican? Guys? Someone..........

Here is a screen shot of what I was looking at:




It is STILL going on.


Back on topic...I AM a bit concnerned about the recent quakes up and down the Juan De Fuca...me thinks something may be brewing.

So I'm not too excited about these quakes:

MAP 4.1 2011/03/07 15:59:27 44.446 -129.049 10.0 OFF THE COAST OF OREGON
MAP 3.9 2011/03/07 02:22:02 44.299 -129.136 10.8 OFF THE COAST OF OREGON
MAP 4.9 2011/03/06 22:23:15 44.334 -129.473 10.2 OFF THE COAST OF OREGON
MAP 4.8 2011/03/06 21:35:47 44.372 -129.346 10.9 OFF THE COAST OF OREGON
MAP 4.5 2011/03/06 13:46:37 40.404 -125.363 24.7 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

And then let's not forget the one up at the other end of the plate this past week:

MAP 4.0 2011/03/03 03:55:05 50.417 -129.914 10.0 337 km (209 mi) W of Campbell River, Canada

And then the one in Puget sound a couple of days ago...also right on the edge of the plate:

MAP 2.1 2011/03/05 08:33:50 48.425 -122.944 17.2 14 km ( 9 mi) SSE of Friday Harbor, WA


Take a look at the map showing these quakes, along with the fault lines: MAP/source of above info

You can see what I mean. I have been talking about the correlation between the deep tremors and quakes on the faults. Just like before the quake near Vancouver, there haven't been any deep tremors again for a couple of days. I am hoping these last few are aftershocks to the 4.8. I am also hoping that these are just doing their job of relieving pressure rather than pre-cursers. We have had clusters in this area twice before now in the past couple years...but I don't recall also having them at the same time as ones both on the very Northern AND southern edge of the plate, along with the very clustered tremors at either extreme end.

Then take a look at all the smaller quakes inland we are having these past two weeks: interactive map

(I can't stress enough to click on the depth plot function to check out how these quakes line up)

Note that there aren't any quakes listed for the past two days. This will change in the next few hours,most likely, as they add the smaller quakes from the weekend.

So let's see what happens. Either we will see all of these calm down due to the pressure being relieved,or it is building to something bigger.

I have no evidence on hand just my observation. I have believed when there are fewer quakes up in the Aleutian Islands Alaska, we see more activity down here along the JDF plate.. Usually there is a bead of quakes along these island chain, but right now it's looks almost bare.

Another,larger quake (5.0) just a bit ago. So these are NOT after shocks...


MAP 5.0 2011/03/08 01:26:59 44.246 -129.391 17.8 419 km (261 mi) WNW of Bandon, OR
MAP 4.1 2011/03/07 15:59:27 44.446 -129.049 10.0 393 km (244 mi) W of Yachats, OR
MAP 3.9 2011/03/07 02:22:02 44.299 -129.136 10.8 400 km (249 mi) W of Yachats, OR
MAP 4.9 2011/03/06 22:23:15 44.334 -129.473 10.2 427 km (265 mi) W of Yachats, OR
MAP 4.8 2011/03/06 21:35:47 44.372 -129.346 10.9 417 km (259 mi) W of Yachats, OR
MAP 2.1 2011/03/05 08:33:50 48.425 -122.944 17.2 14 km ( 9 mi) SSE of Friday Harbor, WA
MAP 1.3 2011/03/05 08:00:00 47.789 -122.834 21.7 6 km ( 4 mi) SE of Quilcene, WA
MAP 1.9 2011/03/05 00:32:16 42.021 -121.083 18.5 11 km ( 7 mi) N of Clear Lake Reservoir, CA
MAP 4.0 2011/03/03 03:55:05 50.417 -129.914 10.0 337 km (209 mi) W of Campbell River, Canada

Just finished watching an interesting program online about earthquake hazards in the Pacific Northwest, it is called- On Shaky Ground: Earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest

Link

My ears were ringing all day, then I noticed the 5.0 this evening. Hopefully this is pressure being relieved on the plate, but that is a lot of quakes in just a few days.

PacificBlue-NW Oregon

Originally posted by westcoast
Another,larger quake (5.0) just a bit ago. So these are NOT after shocks...

That's an important point. With an increase in intensity up to 5.0 (honestly I feel this was higher than that because of the huge decay and character of the signature and attenuation of the water)- it is anything but a good sign. And it was in nearly the same spot that has been active lately on the Juan De Fuca. Better keep an eye on that spot. You can find some good TA stations on the west coast to monitor in GEE- I was monitoring US.NLWA and another TA station there when I saw it come in and posted it on the other thread- I guessed a 4.9 to 5.5- anticipating USGS conservatism on the magnitude. But I swear, it looked more like a 6 to 6.3 in character.

reply to post by TrueAmerican


Funny, I have been so caught up in Arkansas, I haven't been paying near as much attention to my own back yard.

Going to pull up the GEE station now.....

reply to post by westcoast


There's also some PB network stations all up and down the west coast, but you'll need to switch to Extremely Short Period to pull those up.

well...another one. Ugh. Might not sleep too good tonight.


Magnitude 4.4
Date-Time Tuesday, March 08, 2011 at 07:19:33 UTC
Monday, March 07, 2011 at 10:19:33 PM at epicenter

Location 44.335°N, 129.250°W
Depth 10.3 km (6.4 miles)
Region OFF THE COAST OF OREGON
Distances 409 km (254 miles) W (272°) from Yachats, OR
411 km (256 miles) WNW (287°) from Barview, OR
412 km (256 miles) W (270°) from Waldport, OR
490 km (305 miles) W (276°) from Eugene, OR
537 km (334 miles) WSW (258°) from Portland, OR

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 21.5 km (13.4 miles); depth +/- 0.4 km (0.2 miles)
Parameters NST=169, Nph=171, Dmin=476.4 km, Rmss=1.25 sec, Gp=169°,
M-type=body wave magnitude (Mb), Version=4
Source U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center:
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver

Event ID usb0001qp1




If this is going to develop to something else...expect to see some more quakes to the north and south

Holy crap....I can't keep up with the list. NOW I can say that is not typical of what I have seen for the past several years at least.


MAP 4.6 2011/03/08 07:29:53 44.150 -129.470 10.3 OFF THE COAST OF OREGON
MAP 4.4 2011/03/08 07:19:33 44.335 -129.250 10.3 OFF THE COAST OF OREGON
MAP 5.0 2011/03/08 01:26:59 44.246 -129.391 17.8 OFF THE COAST OF OREGON
MAP 4.1 2011/03/07 15:59:27 44.446 -129.049 10.0 OFF THE COAST OF OREGON
MAP 3.9 2011/03/07 02:22:02 44.299 -129.136 10.8 OFF THE COAST OF OREGON
MAP 4.9 2011/03/06 22:23:15 44.334 -129.473 10.2 OFF THE COAST OF OREGON
MAP 4.8 2011/03/06 21:35:47 44.372 -129.346 10.9 OFF THE COAST OF OREGON
MAP 4.5 2011/03/06 13:46:37 40.404 -125.363 24.7 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA



What's next? Again.....look to the north and south....or perhaps Puget Sound.

reply to post by westcoast


Did not think this was typical, and the shallow quakes near our volcanoes also. Have you seen this before?

I will stay tuned and look to the north and the south, thanks for the updates.

reply to post by westcoast

I agree. This is far from typical for that region in and around the Bianco Fracture Zone. In fact, the last time I can recall a larger number of quakes occurring there in a shortish time period was about 2 1/2 years ago -- around the end of June 2008 I think it was.

Actually I posted a gif of the activity back then on the "Experments in Alternative Methods of Earthquake Prediction" thread, so I'll dig it up and repost the gif here.

Okay, found it. It was in the period June 14 to June 23, 2008. But the quakes weren't so big. Anyhow here's the gif:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/96d898b10e23.gif[/atsimg]

Note: ignore the orange "beach ball" things, folks. They're just motion tensor solution graphics of prior events and don't relate to the quakes of the time. The quakes are designated by stars.

I have to comment that when I saw the first couple of quakes off the coast there this time round, I wasn't too concerned because several times before, I've seen instances of two or three quakes within a period of a few days. I started to get a bit more interested when the fourth one popped up, and then when I saw the mag 5.0 this morning (my time) I thought just like some of you did: "Uh-ohh... That's not an aftershock... They're getting bigger..."

This area now has me pretty concerned. Not because it necessarily portends anything major, but because it's an anomaly and I don't like anomalies if I can't figure out why they're anomalous.

Also -- as usual -- there is no waveform data being released by USGS for any of the quakes in that particular region. They did release such data for the March 6th mag 4.5 which occurred close in to offshore northern Cal, and here's one of the images:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/c86d3f968d99.gif[/atsimg]

Linky (while it lasts. It'll drop off around March 13, 2011.)

But with these others that are occurring further offshore, they aren't releasing the waveform data. They didn't in 2008 either. But they must have that data, so why are they not making it public?

Mike

reply to post by JustMike


Thanks Mike. As always, an excellent, informative post!

I was trying to say what you took the time and effort to explain so well. There have been a couple of cluster in the past year or so and the bigger grouping a couple of years ago, but this by far is the greatest release of energy (I think) in this region since the 6.8.

I am relieved that there hasn't been anything further so far....but this either means that the pent-up stress has been released for now, or something bigger is brewing. So long as we don't see anything else anywhere on the plate in the next oh...what, 24-48 hours? I'll relax a bit.

The FACT though that there STILL weren't any deep tremors anywhere yesterday (again) and only one minor micro quake in the state of Washington, has me fearing that there may still be something bigger brewing.

Only time will tell. (and my darn ringing ears, built-up pressure in my head and quiziness... )

reply to post by westcoast


This is making me very nervous. With the larger quakes we should be seeing smaller aftershocks and we are not. What's your elevation Westcoast? Isn't it time for you to take a vacation - East - Now

reply to post by Anmarie96


Ha....you can bet I know the best evacuation route. We have them mapped out with road signs here. I have a clear shot from my house. I am about 15 miles inland, so i would have to be a big tsunami. Just in the past month or so I finally got my family bug-out bag put together and by the front door. I also stocked my 5th wheel with a couple of weeks of supplies. SO...we can hook up and take off, or bunker down if need be with enough supplies in the fifth wheel for heat, etc. if needed.

Thanks for your concern, hopefully it isn't needed!

I have to say though that I just saw the story about billions of dead fish washing up in California with the suspicion being lack of oxygen causing it. Gases released from the fault could do this....with these recent quakes that is NOT a good sign at ALL. If we start seeing the same thing in Oregon and Washington...oh man.

Oh dear me.

This has definitely been getting my attention. Being the 4th generation living here in the Seattle area, I grew up hearing about "if the subduction zone goes", and to just be aware of it. So it's always been in the back of my mind, but it's also been kind of like "Oh ok, whatever, not in my lifetime" and I just continue on with my day. But my ears perk up whenever I see activity on the faults off the coast. And now, well, it's got my full attention especially in light of the "bigger picture" and everything else that has been going on since the beginning of the year.

My family from this area, have gone through phases having intense, realistic, natural disaster dreams (volcanoes, earthquakes, & HUGE tidal waves...ones that seem to block out the sky). We could never figure out why since these things were obviously not happening & just found it to be an interesting topic. I found it even more interesting when some matched the Native American stories (which we are not, we are from European descent) regarding the disasters in this area. But still...they're just dreams & stories...right?

If nothing else, I'm now alert. (Be a lert...the world needs more lerts....hahaha couldn't resist).