Quake Watch 2011

Well at least we now know what caused the Japan earthquake

Climate Change Fanatics Blame Japan Earthquakes, Tsunamis on Global Warming

In a little-heeded warning issued at a 2009 conference on the subject, experts outlined a range of mechanisms by which climate change could already be causing more earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic activity. . . .

Scientists have known for some time that climate change affects not just the atmosphere and the oceans but the earth’s crust, but these effects are not widely understood by the public.

Source

Click the link (Grist) to see the original article from which this came.

reply to post by PuterMan


I think there is some local noise on WHAR. Just have a peek, it's probably nothing. I could even be more quakes from Japan.

Originally posted by Odyssian
guys, is this normal ? so many after-quakes ? I haven't followed any of the other major earthquakes like I am now so I have no idea how this would work... but... all day long now ? and they keep coming and coming, and we can still see some over magnitude 6.

Looks similar to Banda Aceh 2004 9.0 and Chile 2010 8.8 aftershock sequences, this will go on for weeks/months and there is every chance some might get as high as 7.9 - 8.0.

I have been away for 8 hrs, just back watching CNN now, the fires are unbelievable and the possible Nuclear Plant meltdown a bit of a worry.

reply to post by muzzy

the possible Nuclear Plant meltdown a bit of a worry

Gee You Think? No really - They are talking total meld down, what are the world wide implications of such an event? This is not my expert area of understanding... Odd though - Last night after I signed off and went to bed I had a dozen owls around my house hooting - I almost got back up to post on last night to post it - guess I should have because it was the same time as the quake happened. Anyway - Only ended up with 2 1/2 hours of sleep, been dealing with flooding - oh yeah - and work too... but been following this allllll dayyyy,nightttt

What all you say on the quakes that are showing up on the West Coast -- I am feeling they are separate events.

Be safe and aware my Friends! I feel very strongly that this is far from over and if I hear those Owls tonight - I will be right here to let you know (kicks self for not advising)

reply to post by PuterMan


Just wondering as I thought I heard this - Are They Fracking Near or in This Area of Japan???? Now that would just be over the top!

Just here to make this announcement.

Prediction: Japan is about to have a new island to the East

I feel this is relevant to the thread. As you were.

So I almost missed this quake, buried amid all the others.

Is this near a volcano, or just status quo for the area???

Magnitude 5.5
Date-Time Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 04:04:48 UTC
Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 01:04:48 PM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 2.994°S, 139.126°E
Depth 48.3 km (30.0 miles)
Region NEAR THE NORTH COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA
Distances 181 km (112 miles) WSW of Jayapura, Papua, Indonesia
240 km (149 miles) W of Vanimo, New Guinea, PNG
1391 km (864 miles) NE of DARWIN, Northern Territory, Australia
3601 km (2237 miles) E of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 16.4 km (10.2 miles); depth +/- 2 km (1.2 miles)
Parameters NST= 60, Nph= 65, Dmin=764.8 km, Rmss=1.18 sec, Gp= 58°,
M-type=body wave magnitude (Mb), Version=7
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)


Event ID usc000200n

reply to post by Anmarie96


Nuclear meltdown - glad I have my fallout pills!

I am just drained by the events of the last 24 hours, how about you?

reply to post by Robin Marks

Robin, please tell me I am just being silly. it almost looks like
japan is calling out, and california is answering.

it's all making me a bit nervous, and you lovely folk here always have a way of setting me straight!

reply to post by Anmarie96


Coincidentally, I only got about 2 hrs of sleep too...

watched the quake and tsunami all night, got up around 5....

But seems like if you are away from ATS for a few hrs, you miss so many events that have happened,......

Originally posted by berkeleygal
reply to post by Anmarie96

 

Nuclear meltdown - glad I have my fallout pills!

I am just drained by the events of the last 24 hours, how about you?

definitely. I cannot take much more of this. Especially with my son living on the island of Oahu....I was a wreck early this morning, not knowing what his situation was. Thank God he and his friends are safe!

6 hours 30 minutes ago, missed this in amongst the japan aftershocks, check out the difference in PGV only 0.4 Mag difference but the 6.1 was 5 X the velocity. The difference must be in the depths (shallower)

Magnitude 5.7
Date-Time
* Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 01:17:41 UTC
* Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 02:17:41 PM at epicenter
Location 16.661°S, 173.066°W
Depth 31.5 km (19.6 miles)
Region TONGA
Distances 107 km (66 miles) SE of Hihifo, Tonga
240 km (149 miles) NNE of Neiafu, Tonga
344 km (213 miles) SSW of APIA, Samoa
2539 km (1577 miles) W of Auckland, New Zealand
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 22.1 km (13.7 miles); depth +/- 1.5 km (0.9 miles)
Parameters NST= 82, Nph= 84, Dmin=335.1 km, Rmss=0.75 sec, Gp= 86°,
M-type=body wave magnitude (Mb), Version=A
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID usc0001ztw
Max. PGV 6.4cm/sec


Magnitude 6.1
Date-Time
* Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 01:19:07 UTC
* Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 02:19:07 PM at epicenter
Location 16.727°S, 173.174°W
Depth 10.9 km (6.8 miles)
Region TONGA
Distances 106 km (65 miles) SE of Hihifo, Tonga
229 km (142 miles) NNE of Neiafu, Tonga
355 km (220 miles) SSW of APIA, Samoa
2528 km (1570 miles) W of Auckland, New Zealand
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 17.4 km (10.8 miles); depth +/- 1.2 km (0.7 miles)
Parameters NST=287, Nph=291, Dmin=346.2 km, Rmss=0.75 sec, Gp= 40°,
M-type="moment" magnitude from initial P wave (tsuboi method) (Mi/Mwp), Version=7
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID usc0001ztr
Max. PGV 32 cm/sec

reply to post by westcoast

I recall seeing some quakes in that specific region off PNG over recent years, so just to check I did a search of the database. I won't post the list as it's a bit long but here's the summary:

NEIC: Earthquake Search Results
U. S. G E O L O G I C A L S U R V E Y
E A R T H Q U A K E D A T A B A S E
FILE CREATED: Sat Mar 12 08:44:35 2011
Circle Search Earthquakes= 356
Circle Center Point Latitude: 2.994S Longitude: 139.126E
Radius: 160.000 km
Catalog Used: PDE
Magnitude Range: 5.0 - 10.0
Data Selection: Historical & Preliminary Data
________________________________________________
356 quakes within 160 km (about 100 miles) of that quake's epicentre since 1973. Has never missed a year in all that time. The biggest one was a mag 7.0 in 1987:

PDE 1987 10 25 165405.69 -2.32 138.36 33 7.0 MsGS .F. ....... 112

In the past year there have been 6, with the last one about 6 weeks ago:

PDE-W 2010 07 13 235630.50 -2.43 138.79 31 5.7 MwGCMT 4FM ....... 71
PDE-W 2010 08 14 010833.96 -3.09 139.77 2 5.1 mbGS 3F. ....... 72
PDE-W 2010 09 04 031434.52 -2.47 138.47 43 5.6 MwGCMT 4FM ....... 92
PDE-W 2010 09 04 033919.64 -2.49 138.54 44 5.0 mbGS ... ....... 85
PDE-Q 2010 11 16 013942.81 -1.99 139.02 13 5.9 MwGS 5FM ....... 111
PDE-Q 2011 01 27 090902.05 -3.16 139.50 55 5.0 mbGS ... ....... 45

So, this latest one is nothing out of the ordinary for that region. Thankfully.

Mike

5.0 2011/03/12 08:45:30 -7.239 129.151 186.4 KEPULAUAN BABAR, INDONESIA
5.0 2011/03/12 08:38:40 -20.311 -176.185 229.3 FIJI REGION

DEEP

The top of the Indo Australian plate is getting some movement now:
6.5
Date-Time

* Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 17:08:36 UTC
* Friday, March 11, 2011 at 01:08:36 AM at epicenter
* Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 6.862°S, 116.765°E
Depth 508.1 km (315.7 miles)
Region BALI SEA

5.0
Date-Time

* Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 08:45:29 UTC
* Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 05:45:29 PM at epicenter
* Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 7.239°S, 129.151°E
Depth 186.4 km (115.8 miles)
Region KEPULAUAN BABAR, INDONESIA

5.5
Date-Time

* Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 04:04:48 UTC
* Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 01:04:48 PM at epicenter
* Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 2.994°S, 139.126°E
Depth 48.3 km (30.0 miles)
Region NEAR THE NORTH COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA

5.2
Date-Time

* Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 09:51:35 UTC
* Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 07:51:35 PM at epicenter
* Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 3.790°S, 151.443°E
Depth 10 km (6.2 miles)
Region NEW IRELAND REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

I'm not so sure they are related to the Japan quake though. With those and the continual outbursts from Fiji down to New Zealand, I am more wondering whether the Indo Australian plate is causing the problems in the Sthn Hemisphere.
Yeh, I know you all will probably say it's the Pacific Plate, but if it is, think about it, that's a huge plate, huge area, Massive movement. I'd prefer not to think about that scenario.

I see the BBC is off scaremongering in usual form. Quite surprised they have not blamed the quake on global warming as well.

It was nearly 8,000 times stronger than last month's quake in New Zealand that devastated the city of Christchurch, scientists said.

Source

If we take the USGS figures for both then the NZ quake was 7.0 and the Japan quake was 8.9

The difference between those two is 79 times bigger and 708 times stronger, not 8000 times stronger.

Try it for yourself.

PM, all the Geoscience stations are showing a quake about 2 hours ago. Would you have time to have a look and help me figure out which one it was? I really don't like the gs site and their seimos are crap. Even Victoria shows it.
Thanks

reply to post by zenius


Certainly yes. Can you give me the exact time (UTC)?

(I can't find anything in Australia)
The list I have of 5+ is thus:
Date/Time UTC,Latitude,Longitude,Magnitude,Depth(Km),Location
*2011-03-12T08:38:34.500Z,-11.23000,178.59000,5.8000,10.0000,NORTH OF FIJI ISLANDS*
2011-03-12T08:38:39.000Z,-20.31060,-176.18510,5.0000,229.3000,Fiji region
2011-03-12T08:45:29.000Z,-7.23950,129.15140,5.0000,186.4000,Kepulauan Babar. Indonesia
2011-03-12T08:52:50.000Z,37.22150,143.65920,5.0000,38.1000,off the east coast of Honshu. Japan
2011-03-12T09:00:02.000Z,37.32820,143.59140,5.2000,41.3000,off the east coast of Honshu. Japan
2011-03-12T09:18:56.000Z,37.14090,143.49600,5.4000,25.0000,off the east coast of Honshu. Japan
2011-03-12T09:27:12.000Z,37.43640,143.71580,5.0000,25.8000,off the east coast of Honshu. Japan
2011-03-12T09:40:43.000Z,38.86680,142.82900,5.1000,25.0000,near the east coast of Honshu. Japan
2011-03-12T09:51:35.000Z,-3.78960,151.44340,5.2000,10.0000,New Ireland region. Papua New Guinea
2011-03-12T10:00:26.000Z,35.98450,141.79420,5.0000,25.0000,near the east coast of Honshu. Japan
2011-03-12T10:20:21.000Z,37.19730,143.48290,5.5000,25.5000,off the east coast of Honshu. Japan
2011-03-12T10:34:49.000Z,37.84640,144.37740,5.3000,25.0000,off the east coast of Honshu. Japan
2011-03-12T10:39:12.000Z,36.74880,141.79930,5.0000,31.3000,near the east coast of Honshu. Japan
2011-03-12T10:53:30.000Z,39.07450,142.35240,6.1000,24.9000,near the east coast of Honshu. Japan

* This is the same as the next one I think. The first is EMSC and the second USGS. Mm. Maybe not. Look at the Lat/Lon difference. Only 4 seconds separation. EMSC Data Page

Just checked my database. There is an equivalent of the second one in from EMSC so the first one would appear to be a 5.8 that USGS has not registered???

Below are the two equivalents for the second quake.

c000209n us usgs 6 2011-03-12T08:38:39.000Z -20.3106 -176.1851 5.00 Mb 229.3000
212600 emsc emsc 1 2011-03-12T08:38:39.000Z -20.3800 -176.1500 5.10 mb 229.0000

I looked in to post this by the way which has nothing to do with current event but I thought was interesting.

Matsushiro Seismological Observatory



LISS is still black as the ace of spades

reply to post by PuterMan


Oh never mind. Did I mention I HATE the Geoscience website? Give me Geonet ANY day! Oh and thanks for that calculations page link. Mindblowing difference in energy. oh and can someone give me a refresher on converting mb & ms into mw?

reply to post by zenius


I also hate it, and the fact that they seem to have changed it. One used to be able to get lists and now it is the silly interactive rubbish that I hate. Give me lists any day!!

I am still intrigued however. Most of the data to the IRIS data centres fro the main AU network seems to stop around 07:00 UTC. For example Mt Arapiles ARPS.AU..SHZ.2011.071 or Norfolk Island NFK.AU..BHZ.2011.071