Significant Earthquakes

[Nev]

Tsunami alerts after quakes
Last updated 08:33 11/08/2009

BREAKING NEWS: Tsunami watches have been issued after a 7.6 magnitude earthquake in the Indian Ocean near India's Andaman Islands and a 6.6 quake in central Japan.

The Indian Ocean quake triggered a tsunami watch for India, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh, the US Geological Survey reported.

The USGS said the quake, initially reported as a magnitude 7.7, was 20.6 miles deep and was centered 160 miles north of Port Blair in the Andaman Islands.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued a tsunami watch for the region.

A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 also jolted eastern and central Japan on Tuesday, a government agency said, rattling houses in Tokyo.

The quake prompted a tsunami warning for waves of up to 50 cm for parts of the Pacific coast, the Japan Meteorological Agency said on its website.

A highway was closed and a Chubu Electric Power nuclear power station at Hamaoka shut two units for safety checks.

The focus of the tremor was 20 km deep under Shizuoka prefecture, around 150 km southwest of Tokyo, the agency said.

- Reuters
© 2009 Fairfax New Zealand Limited

[Storm Struck]

Yeah there was also a 7.1 magnatude the other day near Japan, but quite deep.
Something sure is stirring up in those plates latly, perhaps the poles are starting to shift.
I would say this earthquake would have been more of a rocking quake than a rolling like our 7.8 a month ago.

[jamie]

This whole poles shifting thing. Ive seen a doco on it so i know it has happened and all that but it happens over hundreds of years to thousands of them... Its not going to happen over night or at the flick of a switch. The poles are always moving for that matter too.

[Manukau heads obs]

Jason, there is and always will be earthquakes occuring around the Pacific ring of fire
I would think its all pretty normal at the moment, Nev posted the other day that things had been quieter than normal so maybe just a bit of a catch up over the last month or so

yes, from what I understand, the pole reversal thing happens over a long period of time?

[Storm Struck]

Yeah i know i am just saying maybe its a part of it all.
Warnings have now been cancelled, which is great to hear .

[Storm Struck]

Another big one this evening magnatude 7.0 according to USGS site, thats the fourth magnatude 7 and over earthquake in the past month certainly interesting and slightly unusual.
The plates are getting a good kick for sure.

Another advisory issued.

TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 001
PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS
ISSUED AT 0749Z 16 AUG 2009

THIS BULLETIN IS FOR ALL AREAS OF THE INDIAN OCEAN.

... TSUNAMI INFORMATION BULLETIN ...

THIS MESSAGE IS FOR INFORMATION ONLY.

THIS BULLETIN IS ISSUED AS ADVICE TO GOVERNMENT AGENCIES. ONLY
NATIONAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO MAKE
DECISIONS REGARDING THE OFFICIAL STATE OF ALERT IN THEIR AREA AND
ANY ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN IN RESPONSE.

AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS

ORIGIN TIME - 0738Z 16 AUG 2009
COORDINATES - 1.6 SOUTH 99.4 EAST
LOCATION - SOUTHERN SUMATRA INDONESIA
MAGNITUDE - 6.9

EVALUATION

A DESTRUCTIVE WIDESPREAD TSUNAMI THREAT DOES NOT EXIST BASED ON
HISTORICAL EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI DATA.

HOWEVER - THERE IS A VERY SMALL POSSIBILITY OF A LOCAL TSUNAMI
THAT COULD AFFECT COASTS LOCATED USUALLY NO MORE THAN A HUNDRED
KILOMETERS FROM THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER. AUTHORITIES IN THE
REGION NEAR THE EPICENTER SHOULD BE MADE AWARE OF THIS
POSSIBILITY.

THIS WILL BE THE ONLY BULLETIN ISSUED BY THE PACIFIC TSUNAMI
WARNING CENTER FOR THIS EVENT UNLESS ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
BECOMES AVAILABLE.

THE JAPAN METEOROLOGICAL AGENCY MAY ISSUE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
FOR THIS EVENT. IN THE CASE OF CONFLICTING INFORMATION...THE
MORE CONSERVATIVE INFORMATION SHOULD BE USED FOR SAFETY.

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/messages/i ... 074938.txt

[Nev]

The USGS's preliminary magnitude of last night's Indonesian Quake was lowered to Mag 6.7 shortly after their initial estimate of Mag 7.0. Quite a few moderate aftershocks though - the highest so far being a Mag 5.9.

Worldwide, there have been 9 quakes above Mag 7.0 so far this year (one of which was an aftershock), so the average is still running a little below normal. There have also been 69 quakes above Mag 6.0 in 2009, whereas we'd normally have expected about 83 by now, so a relatively quiet year so far. Having said that, there have been more very strong quakes (above Mag 6.5) this month than any other so far (January being the second most active month).

[Nev]

Wow! Sounds like Wgtn got a good, sharp jolt early this morn with a 30km deep, Mag 5.2, just 20km S of the city at 2:10am, followed by a Mag 4.3 aftershock at 3:52am. No reports of any damage though.

[Storm Struck]

Thats a wee shake rattle n roll , a metreorite was spotted in the skies early this morning from Gisbourne to Christchurch apparently.
According to someone at the Mt John Observatory, its possibly a small fragment of rock broken off from a larger metreorite.
Surprised there wasnt a sonic boom then, especially after what happened here a few years ago.

[kiwisk8er]

The quake at 2.10 am woke me up here in Tawa. The whole house was shuddering badly and it felt different to the ones I experienced when I lived down in Dunedin. Mind you we lived in an area with liquefaction. It took me ages to get back to sleep and then the aftershock woke me up. I hate earthquakes.

[Nev]

Cheers kiwisk8er - seems you weren't the alone. Reports of some very minor damage around the capital...
'Earthquake starts birthday off with a bang'

Also report about that meteor yesterday morn...
''Fiery' meteor sighted'

[Nev]

Seems we had a wee mag 2.5, 7.8km deep tremor, just 2.5 km NNE of here at Palm Beach at 9:10am this morn. GeoNet details and maps (also google-map). There were felt reports, but I must've missed it.

Just thought I'd mention it because quakes around the Hauraki Gulf/Auckland area are fairly unusual. However, we do have a history of clusters of small shallow quakes occurring on rare occasions. The Hauraki Gulf Cluster on Feb 22, 2007, including a mag 4.5, 3.8 and 3.7, was the last time quakes shook Aucklanders. And the last time temblors were felt under Waiheke Island was during the Waiheke Cluster on Nov 29/30, 2005 (felt 3 of those).

[Nev]

UPDATE: Wednesday's mag 2.5 felt tremor here appears to be the largest of a small cluster of quakes around Palm Beach (right on our doorstep). The first 2 occurred mid and late Oct, with 3 more recorded in the last few days.

Note that there's no known fault where the quakes occurred, so it's most likely a knot of tension in the earth's crust that's gradually being relieved. It's also unlikely that this latest cluster signals a re-awakening of Auckland's volcanic field, otherwise we'd expect much deeper quakes if magma was rising from deep within the earth...

Code: Select all

WAIHEKE ISLAND CLUSTER 2009 (incl. single event in 2007)
Date       NZDT    Latitude  Longitude  Depth km  Magnitude

2009/12/30 22:58   -36.7790  175.0393     10.7      1.7
2009/12/30 09:10   -36.7676  175.0565      7.8      2.5
2009/12/26 19:34   -36.7724  175.0468      9.0      1.8
2009/10/30 03:07   -36.7609  175.0615      5.0f     1.8
2009/10/17 01:26   -36.7696  175.0366     12.0f     1.6 

2007/10/23 14:06   -36.7537  175.0334     11.4      2.4

[Michael]

Just had a small rattle in Wgni.usual here but after none in Auckland felt easily.

[mattyj46]

LATEST: A magnitude 7.2 earthquake has followed an earlier 6.5 quake near the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific.

The second, larger, quake hit at 11.36am New Zealand time, just over an hour after the first, at a depth of 30.5km, 105km SSE of Gizo in the New Georgia Islands, the US Geological Survey says

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-paci ... earthquake

[DT-NZ]

LATEST: A magnitude 7.2 earthquake has followed an earlier 6.5 quake near the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific.

[MoorfNZ]

LATEST: A magnitude 7.2 earthquake has followed an earlier 6.5 quake near the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific.

Eek indeedy - quite a hefty one.

Also been following some interesting research at Lake Tahoe (U.S.) where they're taking submarine down to check on underwater quake activity which is, by their accounts, way overdue for a biggie.

[Manukau heads obs]

2009/10/30 03:07 -36.7609 175.0615 5.0f 1.8

Nev , those earthquakes you got, is that depth just 5 feet, or?

[Nev]

lol , no sorry, that's km. I've amended the column-heading to include that.

The 'f' stands for off-shore default (or preliminary) depth, often assigned to undersea quakes, as they are generally harder to calculate.

[Manukau heads obs]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-paci ... s-Solomons

[MoorfNZ]

California has been shaking a lot in the last day or so... biggest 6.5 http://www.accuweather.com/news-weather ... &year=2010

[Nev]

Thanks MoorfNZ. Looks very similar to our Gisborne Quake in Dec, 2007.

Fairly comprehensive story from Stuff last night - 'Earthquake rattles California'.

Plus the USGS Report and some additional info re aftershocks etc.

[Dale]

Some rather scary news coming out of Haiti at present, all major papers have it breaking so no point in linking to everything, simply pick for paper you read.

Sounds like a monster of a shake.
{ed:} USGS have put it at 5.5 so far but newswires are reporting much bigger. However, a mag 5 and above in a place like that is more than enough to cause sufficient infrastructure damage.

{ed#2} Seems the initial quake was a mag 7+ .. CNN tv are live & from all accounts, This isnt going to be pretty.

[tgsnoopy]

A bit of activity overnight!



Recent Quakes

[DT-NZ]

A bit of activity overnight!

Yes!! plugged in