Quake Watch 2011

hmm one to watch now.

Eritrea seems to be waking up a little, A cloud has been spotted over the volcanic area after the series of quakes,

www.sat24.com...

Is this a plume from an eruption in Ethiopia do you think????

www.sat24.com...

reply to post by MoorfNZ


See above your post buddy, certainly looks that way

reply to post by ressiv


That 'round' formation is a volcano.

Nabro Volcano

There is an ash cloud. See this on EUMETSAT

You can see the eruption commencing at the 21:00 hrs mark.

5.5 mag quake in Christchurch 10 minutes ago. Damage reported. I cant believe they are having so many severe aftershocks for this long!
Terrible.

We've just had a big 5.5.

I had just recovered from a nearly 4.3 and then this 5.5 went off - nearly lost tv - doors interior swaying for 2 mins - whole house rolling on S-waves....

Am still waiting for news from suburb of Sumner where epicentre was - have friends on the hills there.

Lyttelton Tunnel reported closed due to boulder falls.

Yep, it felt pretty freaky. There were a few within the hour.
I wonder how the Clarendon, Grand Chancellor, and Arts Centre are going?
A few sirens at the moment.

The house seemed to shake for quite a while, the incoming rumble was impressive too.

POST NOTE: After posting this I saw the latest postings from Putterman; Ash cloud.
Sorry, took me some time to update mental facts.
If that is a full blown Ash cloud already reaching 500 km on the border with Sudan; in only somehting like 6 hours; that is reason for concern!


Eritrea & Ethiopia: There is no eruption - yet.
BUT, this might be weather change (Temperature) over the volcano that causes condensation in the clouds; it could be coincidence of cloud passing by.

I spend a year there on geological survey back in 2003.
Very rugged isolated lonely location of earth.
Have plenty small rumblings and shakes all the time, seldom more than 1.5RS.
Because of remoteness, not really know as a thread for present, no big population - this series of volcanoes are not really monitored.

ERITREA:
The thought to be extinct Nabro Volcano is about 2,200 m high, classified as Stratovolcano.
Last eruption unknown. From 15h30 to 22h00 (present) there were two main quakes about 10 km apart and a further 11 aftershocks between 4.5 and 5.7; all however likely to be part of the same quake/movement.

This is not a subduction zone (Like Japan) where one plate moves over another. This is a rift, as in tearing of the Earth; thus a series of 4 or 5 scale quakes are very strong in relation. Add the issue of all quakes shallow between 3 and 15km depth; makes me really wonder.

If you look on Google Earth most of the earthquakes were about 10 km NWN from the old Nabro caldera in direction of the village Afambo. To the NE there is the Dubbi (Strato) volcano with last big eruption in 1862 - 300 km ash fallout and lave flowing into the Red sea about 40 km to the North. Today very nice diving spot and coral on that lava flow; isolated, quiet NO PEOPLE area and two dream like islands.

What is not a dream but reason for nightmares: Nabro and Dubbi volcanoes, 25 km apart are actually two 'pipes' of the same volcanic complex: Bidu Volcanic complex. Back in 2003 we suspected this is actually one very large volcano. Today when looking at Google Earth, center on Nabro and zoom to 62km you can see the whole complex. Kind of like Yellowstone in Africa. Zoom in closer and onserve the many volcanic pipes all over this area.

That time our main interest was gemstones and this area has some real stunning quality obsidian, opal and spesartine garnets.

Unfortunately there are no volcanic monitoring (Instruments like GPS) anywhere in this region. If we could know whether the caldera was lifting during past few months - I would run very fast from there.

ETHIOPIA:
During same time of the above, there were two earthquakes, 5.0 and 4.5 in Ethiopia, located about 100 km to the South, also 10 km depth. I am not sure how much it will be geophysical linked, but is it might be a wakeup call that this Horn of Africa is moving again.

I hope this will follow the usual path of just shuddering a bit and go back to sleep. In May there were a series of similar quakes in the Gulf of Aden, fortunately everything went back to peaceful sleep. If not, and it blows its top we will have potentially big problems. More ash and also risk for marine traffic through Red Sea.

LIQUEFACTION AGAIN

2ND

reply to post by Aromaz


love your replies....nice to have someone who knows what they are talking about!

Liquefaction reported in Burwood.

Power out in Shirley.

Sumner friends reported in - children in school there all ok ...

Large boulder falls have closed Lyttelton tunnel

Anything on the Iceland Katla volcano. Reports of harmonic tremors?


www.jonfr.com...

Oh no

A police spokesman said a building on the corner of Stanmore and Worcester Street had collapsed and people were feared trapped inside.

www.stuff.co.nz...

I just spoke to a friend of mine in Djibouti, about 200 km South of Nabro.
(They live in the night and sleep in the day!)
They felt the earthquakes in the evening and initially though it was bombs.

Until now, they did not hear anything about volcanic eruption; but he also state that their goats and camels are unsettled since late last night; to such extend they posted guards fearing someone was trying to steel them.

I still don't see any confirmation on any news; including Aljazeera and Ethiopia First news agency.

This is Africa and this area is very remote, not many people living there.
BUT Africa has its own; when it comes to news travels very fast and wide.
Somewhat strange nobody officially reporting yet.

Fresh liquefaction in our street too.
Only minor and only flooding the gutters locally, not as bad as in Parklands/Burwood,but they'd only just fixed the street.
Seems like the earth is still rocking, like a boat.
University closed for the rest of the day.

Certainly disconcerting. Never quite get used to that adrenalin rush.

Originally posted by aorAki
Fresh liquefaction in our street too.
Only minor and only flooding the gutters locally, not as bad as in Parklands/Burwood,but they'd only just fixed the street.
Seems like the earth is still rocking, like a boat.
University closed for the rest of the day.

Certainly disconcerting. Never quite get used to that adrenalin rush.

yes, you think you're over it and can cope until these big ones happen and then you're back to square one... I'm still shaking - too early for a brandy do you think???

Originally posted by MoorfNZ
- too early for a brandy do you think???

Purely medicinal, of course.
I think I'll join you, 'fraid it'll have to be a gin.

Chin chin.

reply to post by aorAki


*clink*

Hopefully that's it for another few days..

Does liquefaction only occur in areas close to the ocean or can it happen anywhere?

reply to post by bellagirl


I second that entirely.

Defintely an asset to us all Aromaz.