Quake Watch 2011

reply to post by shaneR


Thanks for that document, really interesting and crazy.
thanks puterman for pointing that out

The Salton Sea geothermal power plant in southern California might be one of the new hot spots of triggering a major earthquake. The power plant is placed in an area that interconnects two major faults, the San Andreas Fault (SAF)

reply to post by PuterMan


The details of the Hebgen quake don't match up with the NOAA and USGS account

Region: Hebgen Lake, Montana, USA
Magnitude:
ML 7.7 [noaa] Mw 7.3 [p&s]
Ms 7.5 [abe] Ms 7.5 [p&s]
Depth: 15 km
Deaths: 28 Injuries: n/a
Tsunami: yes
Catalog Source: noaa
This earthquake caused 28 fatalities and about $11 million in damage. It is characterized by extensive fault scarps, subsidence and uplift, a massive landslide, and a seiche in Hebgen Lake.
New fault scarps as high as 6 meters formed near Hebgen Lake. The major fault scarps formed along pre-existing normal faults northeast of Hebgen Lake. Subsidence occurred over much of an area that was about 24 kilometers north-south and about twice as long east-west. As a result of the faulting near Hebgen Lake, the bedrock beneath the lake was permanently warped, causing the lake floor to drop and generate a seiche. Maximum subsidence was 6.7 meters in Hebgen Lake Basin. About 130 square kilometers subsided more than 3 meters, and about 500 square kilometers subsided more than 0.3 meters. The earth-fill dam sustained significant cracks in its concrete core and spillway.
Minor damage occurred throughout southern Montana, northeast Idaho, and northwest Wyoming. Felt as far as Seattle, Washington, Banff, Canada, Dickinson, North Dakota, and Provo, Utah. This area includes nine Western States and three Canadian Provinces. Aftershocks continued for several months

reply to post by muzzy

The details of the Hebgen quake don't match up with the NOAA and USGS account

Well how very surprising. NOT. You did not expect them to admit that they caused it by OKing the building of a reservoir did you?

As far as 2/10 points on the scale are concerned we know about that don't we! Let's face it they none of them sing from the same hymn sheet.

Text GreenOut of curiosity, is anyone keeping tabs on what is going on with seismic activity around the Ohio River? I was recently told there was a fault that runs up the Ohio almost as far as Pittsburgh? There has been some regular seismic activity from Alum Creek, Delaware, OH, and from Morgantown, WV, that has been concerning over the past few months. Does that mean that when/if the New Madrid fault goes, it will rip the ground all the way to Pittsburgh? One map I have seen shows it heading towards Ontario, Canada. Any thoughts?

Here are links to the USGS Site Helicorders for Alum Creek and Morgantown. You might have to look back a ways, maybe to March, but there was definitely some large activity going on.

Alum Creek, Morgantown, et. al.

Apparently, it does not let you back in time to review, but there are some links that are showing activity. And they have some links inoperable. Is that because there is more activity going on than they care to let us know about?

Originally posted by muzzy
Just after lunch yesterday NZST

Reference Number 3521672
Universal Time May 30 2011 at 0:42
NZ Standard Time Monday, May 30 2011 at 12:42 pm
Latitude, Longitude 38.04°S, 178.07°E
Focal Depth 70 km
Richter magnitude 5.5 (5.487ML)
Region Gisborne
Location
20 km north-west of Tokomaru Bay
30 km south-west of Ruatoria
70 km north of Gisborne
320 km south-east of Auckland

www.geonet.org.nz...

USGS and EMSC ( who use NEIC data) didn't pick it up

GEOFON and GEOAU did

GEOFON have it offshore

F-E Region: Off E. Coast of N. Island, N.Z.
Time: 2011-05-30 00:42:26.6 UTC
Magnitude: 5.0 (mb)
Epicenter: 178.39°E 38.18°S
Depth: 51 km
Status: M - manually revised

geofon.gfz-potsdam.de...

and GEOAU have it 28.28km SE of where Geonet put it.

E. Coast of N. Island, New Zealand.
Magnitude: 5.2 (Mb)
Depth: 30 km
Tsunamigenic: Not available
Date and Time
UTC: 30 May 2011 @ 00:42:26
AEST: 30 May 2011 @ 10:42:26
Location
Coordinates: -38.260, 178.233

www.ga.gov.au...

This quake was located 17.3km WNW of the 5.281ML quake of 2011/3/25.
There has only been one aftershock so far, a 2.974ML 2km to the SE of the Main Quake.

I was reading on ANSS that;

Since no two networks will locate an earthquake at the exact same location and time, we use the following critera to decide whether any 2 solutions represent the same earthquake:
* The two solutions must be submitted by different networks. We assume that each network has eliminated duplicate solutions to the same event within their own catalog.
* The two solutions must be within 100 km and within 16 seconds of each other.

www.ncedc.org...-events

Soooooooo differences in this case of 28km, and 32km are therefore considered "accurate"

USGS and EMSC have finally conceeded that there was a quake here

Slipped it into the lists sometime in the last 24hrs.

USGS have the location pretty close to Geonet's and refer to GNS as a source for more information, yet the phase data they used to get the magnitude all comes from outside NZ, ie Australia, Antarctica and Papua New Guinea for example, to get 4.7mb
neic.usgs.gov...

I should have got a screenshot of Urewera's graph, its not that far from the epi-center, it definitely looked like a Mag 5.

EMSC have it way offshore, further than anyone else but at least its a Mag 5.0mb
www.emsc-csem.org...

Stll just the one aftershock



I'm waaaaay behind in my NZ EQ Blog, incl. the 7 days, been busy working, hope to catch up on the weekend.
We are getting better weather now than we did in the Summer and Autumn, (official start of Winter a few days ago) cool at night, but warm during the day, no rain or wind Turning to custard on Sat.

Earthquake swarm under Lake Taupo

A swarm of earthquakes occurred last weekend under southern Lake Taupo, New Zealand.

From late evening on Saturday 28 May until early Monday 30 May, a small swarm of earthquakes occurred in the southern part of Lake Taupo between Kuratau and Motuoapa. Twenty-seven earthquakes were recorded and they were all located at shallow depths (< 10 km). The largest earthquake had a magnitude of 2.4, but they were mostly between magnitudes 1.7 and 2.2. Small swarms like this often occur within the central part of New Zealand and are likely to be associated with occasional movement on small faults in the southern part of the lake. We believe they are due to the normal extensional processes (stretching and thinning of crust) that occur in the Taupo Volcanic Zone. There is no evidence that the earthquakes are related to a change of volcanic activity.

www.geonet.org.nz...

Water. Arguably the most destructive element on the planet. For most of my life, I knew of tsunamis as tidal waves, and I only thought of them as events restricted to the oceans. It is amazing to think of an inland tidal wave. There are a few ways the can be triggered. Earthquakes, landslides, and volcanoes can cause displacement in all kinds of all bodies of water. Even streams and rivers.

Here's what a hydrothermal explosion in Yellowstone lake may look.

www.youtube.com...

Here's a great video about the 1959 earthquake.

www.youtube.com...

And an article about tsunamis.

www.helium.com...


As for the Ohio quakes, I think there is an ancient rift under the continent. I haven't had the time or movitation to investigate Jack Reed's hypothesis as much as I'd like, but from what I gather about the idea, I suspect it's credible. When I look at the maps, it seems pronounced and obvious. Here's an ATS thread with some info.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

When it comes to Lake Taupo, if I think about it too long, I want to wet my pants and cry like a little girl. (note to Muzzy, don't always take me too seriously.)
But why?

Water. The freakin' lake is a fuel source. Puterman has written about phreatic eruptions. And I've given the matter some thought. Here's my model.

www.youtube.com...

As for the human induced earthquakes- great stuff. No, I don't mean the earthquakes. I mean the information provided here. But don't let me get started. I'll go mental.

Magnitude 6.3 - OFF THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN

This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.

Magnitude 6.3
Date-Time

Friday, June 03, 2011 at 00:05:03 UTC
Friday, June 03, 2011 at 10:05:03 AM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 37.294°N, 143.912°E
Depth 31 km (19.3 miles)
Region OFF THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
Distances 270 km (167 miles) E of Iwaki, Honshu, Japan
287 km (178 miles) ESE of Sendai, Honshu, Japan
308 km (191 miles) E of Fukushima, Honshu, Japan
412 km (256 miles) ENE of TOKYO, Japan
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 13.6 km (8.5 miles); depth +/- 6.1 km (3.8 miles)
Parameters NST=546, Nph=548, Dmin=515.4 km, Rmss=0.78 sec, Gp= 29°,
M-type=regional moment magnitude (Mw), Version=B

reply to post by StarTraveller


The 6.3 Japan quake was on land, not sure of population.
Hope it didn't cause further casualties and damage.

Originally posted by crazydaisy
reply to post by StarTraveller

 

The 6.3 Japan quake was on land, not sure of population.
Hope it didn't cause further casualties and damage.

I think you got that mixed up with the 4.9 afterwards
The 6.3 (usgs) was a 5.9 according to JMA and offshore.
Highest Intensity was only 3

www.jma.go.jp...

Had me confused after the 9.0 as well

"Near East Coast of Honshu" means on land
"Off East Coast of Honshu" means offshore

Originally posted by MountainEnigma
Apparently, it does not let you back in time to review, but there are some links that are showing activity. And they have some links inoperable. Is that because there is more activity going on than they care to let us know about?

Actually you can go back a bit. Here is the image for April 3rd for BLA. It is a bit hit and miss since some are missing.



Edit: I am guessing that this iamge will not be available tomorrow. That would prove the theory. Thanks for the link by the way. Added to my helicorders page. qvsdata.wordpress.com...

It looks as if the archive has 2 months of data even though only 14 days are shown on the screen. I can't get back before the image above.

On another note, the PDF file of the Japan 6.3 details is now available.

usc0003ych.zip

reply to post by PuterMan


Any idea what these helicorder plots are referring to? There are numerous faults around Morgantown, WV. I was told there were Hot Springs in NC? And again, there is that map about how the US would look if the New Madrid goes. Are we looking at tension from the diagonal pull on the US? Is it just part of what everyone else is dealing with?

Any thoughts you might have would be helpful. Thanks

reply to post by muzzy


Thanks, yes I was looking at the 4.9 afterwards.

I haven't been paying much attention to the eq activity around New Madrid, so this may not be anything out of the ordinary, but it caught my attention when I decided to check the USGS site:

3 earthquakes in New Madrid vicinity:
earthquake.usgs.gov...
1: 1.6M
and 2: 2.2M

Anyone care to dispute the importance of this activity?

reply to post by Robin Marks


I caught this from Reed and his sketch that there is a fault that will end up in Ontario from the Gulf. That is why I mentioned the earthquakes on the helicorders from Alum Creek, which is just north of Columbus, OH, and Morgantown, WV. His is the only version of the New Madrid seismic activity that shows something that might explain the earthquakes in Ohio as well as in Ontario. I am hoping he is wrong though and it doesn't come to pass.

reply to post by PatriciusCaesar

Anyone care to dispute the importance of this activity?

What? Is that an offer or a challenge? How can anyone dispute what you are saying about the importance of this activity when you have not indicated what you believe the importance to be.

If you would care to give us your feelings as to why this is important then I sure we would be in a better position to agree, or disagree.

You may find this graph useful in laying out your feelings about the significance.

reply to post by MountainEnigma


Have you a particular plot in mind? Most of the ones I looked at were pretty normal, but I may not have been looking at the ones that you looked at.

reply to post by PuterMan


This one might be interesting for you (and which some of you already suspected i guess)

New faultline found beneath Canterbury

Originally posted by Shenon
reply to post by PuterMan

 

This one might be interesting for you (and which some of you already suspected i guess)

New faultline found beneath Canterbury

Well all the signs were there after the Lyttelton Quake (new Port Hills Fault), I suppose we had to spend a couple of hundred thousand dollars to confirm it
They been talking about this on the Radio for a few days, now the report won't be released until the end of 2011.

I seen on the TV News they had a map showing the "new" Pegusus Bay Fault, it was at west to east straight out from kaiapoi.
They also reckon that the Boxing Day 5.3 was on a seperate Fault to Port Hills, which is interesting, as this is the one that runs right through under Christchurch City.

The risks ( as best they can tell) is that Christchurch now is on the same risk factor % chance of a Mag 6-7 as Wellington.

We haven't had a Mag 6 since 2006 here in Wellington. And that was 100+km off shore to the West in the Tasman Sea (the area sometimes refered to as Zeehaens Bight)

Bit of movement in the Great White North (Nunavut) today

4.5 2011/06/03 19:27:58 74.267 -72.627 15.9 BAFFIN BAY
4.5 2011/06/03 22:59:56 52.568 -131.987 19.0 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS REGION

USGS