Quake Watch 2012

happy birthday, puterman!!

Dolphins stranding in Peru, anything big coming there?

reply to post by Anneke


Can you supply a linky poo??

2nd.

First I'll start with a somewhat rational statement concerning earthquakes and tectonic forces. Then I'll speculate somewhat.

The Mexican volcano that's erupting must be related to all the activity in the region this year. Mexcio has had many earthquakes and so has Central America. Let's forget the rest of the west coast and say that indeed it seems almost more active lately than South America. All that slippin' and sliddin' of them plates is causing pressure and heat and magma being pushed to the surface. Here's video where the reporter says that the volcano, the name of which I can't pronounce, may have magma explosions. Mexico is hot and spicy.

Now I'd like to be hysterical. Not to scaremonger. I don't do that exactly. Anyway. I get nervous when things change. When they're not normal. Autism will do that to ya. So, I get real jumpy when things are too quiet. The thing that gets me is the shock that comes when the silence is broken. That big popping wave gets me everytime. Even when I know it's coming. I've had the oppurtunity to fire a machine gun. I've shot big shotguns with lots of punch. But everytime I hear a shot or even a baloon pop, my nerves spasm intensly. I hate it.

It's too freaking quiet all around Yellowstone. Way too quiet. And it's not that I'm not used to the fact that it's calmed down after a big swarm or two. I understand it's relaxed and that hasn't surprised or unnerved me over the past many months. I kinda like the little bursts it has on occasion, and I know it will most likely amount to very little or nothing. I think it's fun trying to hunt down the little pops. Mostly I watch to amuse myself.

But there's nothing. Nothing. And it's not just in the park. It's around the park and all the way toward Washington State. And I looked toward Utah and Utah has decided to take a break. There's two old earthquakes near Salt Lake City. But you don't find more until you get south and there's two small swarms. Utah is almost in a constant state of activity. Although there's still quakes there, it's not nearly as active as it's been over the past two months- at least. I won't even get into a rant over the possiblity that some of it is manmade due to drilling or mining. The point is that there is a major lull in Utah and Yellowstone.

Okay. Maybe I'm not exactly hysterical. But I could walk through the looking glass. I think you all know I like to watch little quakes and swarms and rant about big oil, but what really gets me going is watching what unfolds after a lull. Maybe nothing will happen. Meaning, nothing will happen other than a return to a more regular schedule. But more likely is something noteable will happen. Least that's what I feel in my bones. Like a swarm, or a larger quake maybe 5.5m.


It's a new moon me thinks. Make sure you go watch that meteor show. Dark skies.

www.youtube.com...

www.youtube.com...

www.cbsnews.com...

reply to post by radpetey


www.independent.co.uk...

reply to post by ericblair4891


So far as I know, quiescence is always less hazardous than seismic activity for a given region. Earthquakes beget more earthquakes, weakening and loading faults. Calm times still accumulate tectonic stress, but without anything shaking loose or extra loads being redistributed.

Mogi donuts, and precursory quiescence have advocates, and stress shadows have critics, but quiet generally doesn't tend to come before the storm.

Whatever caused those 2x8's and the string of 6's may have passed.
None of that caused any increase in earthquakes in New Zealand, in fact they have reduced, dramatically.
I just did a down load of Geonet data for the last 3 days
19th- 2
20th- 6
21st- 5

That it, like a (slow) days worth over 3 days.
I too get apprehensive when things are quiet like this. I mentioned a week ago we were overdue for a Mag 5, its now 31 days, its been a few years since a big gap like that. (something to look into, and see what happened when it kicked back in)

A thought just occured to me that there must be a connection between the weather, or more specifically water (rain) and earthquakes, because it hasn't rained with any serious intent here for about the same period of time.
(something else to look into, compare periods of drought with earthquake numbers)

reply to post by muzzy


Regarding water and earthquakes, there's a fairly major study done here: Earthquakes and Water

Only downside is that it's 25 Euro, but you can review lots of sample pages.

Magnitude 5.2 - WEST OF MACQUARIE ISLAND
earthquake.usgs.gov...

This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.

Magnitude 5.2
Date-Time

Sunday, April 22, 2012 at 12:20:46 UTC
Sunday, April 22, 2012 at 09:20:46 PM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 52.785°S, 140.421°E
Depth 10.2 km (6.3 miles)
Region WEST OF MACQUARIE ISLAND
Distances 1212 km (753 miles) SSW of HOBART, Tasmania, Australia
1240 km (770 miles) W of Macquarie Island, Australia
1358 km (843 miles) SSW of Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
1699 km (1055 miles) S of MELBOURNE, Victoria, Australia
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 18.5 km (11.5 miles); depth +/- 3.6 km (2.2 miles)
Parameters NST=229, Nph=229, Dmin=>999 km, Rmss=0.83 sec, Gp= 32°,
M-type=body wave magnitude (Mb), Version=9
Source

Magnitude: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Location: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)

Event ID usc000997l

Magnitude 5.2000 - West Of Macquarie Island

Location in Google Maps

• Date-Time: Sunday, April 22, 2012 @ 13:20:46 UTC
  
• Earthquake location: 52.78520°S, 140.42050°E,
  
• Earthquake depth: 10.2000
  
• Distances:
  1212 km (753 miles) SSW of HOBART. Tasmania. Australia (pop 191000)
  1233 km (766 miles) W of Macquarie Island. Australia (pop < 30)
  1359 km (844 miles) SSW of Launceston. Tasmania. Australia (pop 60000)
  1701 km (1057 miles) S of MELBOURNE. Victoria. Australia (pop 3160000)
  
• Event ID: usc000997l
  

Derived from Event Data Source: USGS
Powered by QVSData

Another for Eric near Antarctica!

PS That is not the same as the one above.

reply to post by PuterMan


Yep two in the one day in about the same spot, would you expect there to be a larger one in that area anytime soon puterman?

But that one is the same one the other is a 5.0 at a depth of 9.8 km (6.1 miles)

USGS have got it ass backwards again

5.0, 2012/04/22 13:11:19, -52.902, 140.374, 9.8, WEST OF MACQUARIE ISLAND
5.2, 2012/04/22 12:20:46, -52.785, 140.421, 10.2, WEST OF MACQUARIE ISLAND

5.2, 2012-04-22 13:11:22, 52.75°S, 140.49°E, 10, West of Macquarie Island
5.1, 2012-04-22 12:20:47, 52.76°S,140.38°E, 10, West of Macquarie Island

all they needed to do is look at their own LISS SNZO graph

the 2nd one is 15km further away as well

reply to post by PuterMan

source of event link not found, I think you had the wrong number anyway it is now usc0009998

did they switch the 2 events around ?( see post above)


confusion reigns

never mind

deep canterbury

A nice deep one (134.44 km) off Banks Peninsula. Just a baby though.

quake circles

I like the way this data is presented. Still trying to convince a friend to do 3D projections (location, depth) for the recent (since 2010) Canterbury series.

My seismologist friend is certain that the 16000 year recurrence interval isn't correct and that it's more 'regular' than that.

My quakey senses were tingling. The tiny earthquakes are disappearing off the week long map. With only one left near Salt Lake City, I am in a state where I'm rocking back and forth to calm myself. I thought I should write to calm myself and make sense of it all. But it's hard to write about nothing. Even though nothingness fascinates me more than most somethingness. I'm watching Monk. I didn't watch it during it's first run because I didn't owe a TV. I'm downloading fuzzy episodes. The thing I love most is his honest. When someone asked him if he was ashamed of himself, he replied, " yes, 24/7. I have finally found someone with which I can identify.

Anyway, I was doing my best Monk impersonation shaking and fixated on nothingness. And then it happened. Something! It took a moment to track it down, but there's three small quakes south of the park. Ahh. Breath. Something. know i can chill

i didn't see them listed. No problem. Although, I wonder about south of the park. They're fracking there. Jackson me thinks.

Muzzy, there's a study of Chinese droughts and earthquakes. If I look for it i'll post it. Try searching that.

reply to post by TheKingsVillian


Mm, something went wrong there, I looked at the times and yours was 12+ and mine was 13+ and did not spot that the full time was exactly an hour out and therefore something to do with my daylight savings settings i think.

Thanks for pointing that out and apologies for double posting the quake.

reply to post by muzzy


No looks like PuterMan failed. That was the first output having spent nearly a week trying to decipher the new USGS web site and where to gather all the information and obviously it needs a bit more debugging! Look at the link when you hover - it is malformed. Programmer error - Sorry! More haste less speed required.

Type: Earthquake
34 minutes ago
Magnitude: 4.4
DateTime: Monday April 23 2012, 07:45:05 UTC
Region: Jujuy, Argentina
Depth: 179 km
Source: CSEM-EMSC Feed

reply to post by TheKingsVillian


Apropos your observation ( ), the code is now fixed - numbers property formatted, dates sorted and links fixed. This is a sample:

Magnitude 4.3 - Jujuy. Argentina

Location in Google Maps

• Date-Time: Monday, April 23, 2012 @ 07:45:05 UTC
  
• Earthquake location: 23.950°S, 66.519°W,
  
• Earthquake depth: 176.9 km
  
• Distances:
  36 km (22 miles) NW of San Antonio de los Cobres. Salta. Arg. (pop 420)
  126 km (78 miles) WNW of San Salvador de Jujuy. Jujuy. Argentina (pop 231)
  145 km (90 miles) NW of Salta. Salta. Argentina (pop 462000)
  1403 km (871 miles) NW of BUENOS AIRES. D.F.. Argentina (pop 2768000)
  
• Event ID: usc00099sh
  

Derived from Event Data Source: USGS
Powered by QVSData

Is it my imagination or am I seeing South America popping up quite a bit? It is that Eric Blair - he said he wanted this. Mmm. * off to get out the tar and feathers *

ETA: Last 7 days South/Central America

Prov,Date/Time UTC,Latitude,Longitude,Magnitude,Depth(Km),Location
usgs,2012-04-17 03:50:16, -32.700, -71.483, 6.7, 37.0, Offshore Valparaiso. Chile
usgs,2012-04-17 04:03:17, -32.629, -71.620, 5.1, 36.6, Offshore Valparaiso. Chile
usgs,2012-04-17 12:26:33, -15.214, -74.484, 4.5, 65.3, Nr. Coast Of Southern Peru
usgs,2012-04-18 01:43:21, 7.572, -80.651, 4.6, 10.7, Panama
usgs,2012-04-18 10:51:00, 15.216, -92.021, 4.5, 137.1, Guatemala
usgs,2012-04-19 00:48:02, 13.664, -89.762, 4.4, 94.0, El Salvador
usgs,2012-04-19 01:14:05, -30.957, -71.145, 4.7, 52.3, Coquimbo. Chile
usgs,2012-04-19 23:02:46, -14.921, -71.670, 4.8, 122.7, Central Peru
usgs,2012-04-21 05:14:37, -36.353, -72.708, 4.1, 63.0, Bio-Bio. Chile
usgs,2012-04-21 11:36:03, -14.804, -71.464, 5.4, 90.9, Central Peru
usgs,2012-04-21 22:18:14, -38.177, -73.842, 4.6, 12.1, Offshore Bio-Bio. Chile
usgs,2012-04-22 04:08:34, -21.142, -68.263, 4.4, 122.8, Potosi. Bolivia
usgs,2012-04-22 08:07:49, 14.219, -91.474, 4.1, 67.0, Guatemala
usgs,2012-04-22 18:04:54, -17.444, -69.172, 4.4, 155.6, La Paz. Bolivia
usgs,2012-04-22 23:45:57, -10.236, -76.007, 4.6, 112.8, Central Peru
usgs,2012-04-23 00:20:40, 15.866, -89.182, 5.1, 57.2, Guatemala
usgs,2012-04-23 07:45:05, -23.950, -66.518, 4.3, 176.9, Jujuy. Argentina

Sorry, forgot to answer this: ( )

would you expect there to be a larger one in that area anytime soon puterman?

I am thinking so yes.

If I had to choose a place that would be hit by a big earthquake, I would pick South America. They understand earthquakes and have prepared. They may have even learned and incorporated the lessons that have been learned from Japan and Banda Aceh. When they had an 8.8M, there were very few casualties. Of course, not every place in South America is as prepared as the next. And killer is not the earth shaking, it's poor building codes, but more destructive is the tsunami a big thrust quake creates. During the double whammy 8 magnitude that hit off Indonesia did not create a significant wake. I heard reports there was a very small wave. None-the-less there was an emergency alarm which had the population running for the hills. That's the cause of the deaths. Heart attacks from panic and physical stress during evacuation. But didn't the world pledge to create a tsunami warning system that would save lives and accurately predict the size of the wave. Yup. The Germans set up an early warning system and deployed bouys which would measure wave height and send signals to operators who could interprete data and give a warn. Actually the German's program worked. It accurately predicted the size of the wave. The problem was that they couldn't rely on the data because there wasn't enought bouys to give an absolute answer. Why? Because fisherman have been using the bouys as moorings, and their nets have been tangled in them, and the bouys have been torn lose. So, authorities knew there was not real threat of tsunami but did not have enough confidence there wasn't a rouge wave somewhere going undetected. A landslide could have been triggered in an isolated area which didn't have coverage. Humans- we're our own worst enemy.

Where was I going? Oh ya, the dentist. Gotta get my wisdom teeth pulled. Last time that I went to the dentist on a Monday, I ended up at the lawyers' as well. Please got email me to mr lawyer man please. No. I was going to talk about Mexico.

Yes. Central America and Mexico have been engeretic. And yes, South America is begining to talk.

I think what we are seeing along the west coast of North America goes all the way back to 2004. Sumatra and Japan have put the squeeze on Asia. What has me thinking it's the America's turn is-
"equal and opposite reaction".

Man, I crack me up. There was an earthquake in Tabasco awhile back. I made a terrible joke that that's the reason it's so spicy - anyway... I added that we should all have a party if there was an earthquake in tequila. Well, this quake is close enough...

earthquake.usgs.gov...

en.wikipedia.org...

FIESTA!!!!