And, Then, Too Shaky!

No surprise that after a few quiet days the shaky planet would get back to the slipping and sliding. An 8.6 quake and an 8.2 aftershock off northern Sumatra on the 11th (and now dozens of aftershocks)  caused major tsunami concerns around the Indian Ocean. The lateral movement of the strike-slip quake didn't move much water and waves were small. Subduction, one ocean plate being forced beneath another chunk of Earth's outer rocky skin is what causes the big water displacement that makes for killer tsunamis. No subduction this time but seismologist are a little shocked at the strength of this strike-slip quake. The warning system around the Indian Ocean put in place after the 2004 Boxing Day quake/tsunami seemed to get out the word around the basin. Good news for Indian Ocean dwellers.
A 6.5 quake in southwestern Mexico and then 6.2 and 6.9 quakes in the Gulf of California along Mexico's Baja Peninsula (Lower San Andreas fault) continue to keep our neighbors to the south on notice of their location on the shaky Pacific Rim. A 6.2 quake in the Drake Passage between South America and Antarctica is just one more reminder of the trembling nature of our planet.
Only a minor, tiny shake here in central Va. that I've been aware of this past week.
Hang on Earthlings!!!

Not Too Shaky!

The last few days have been fairly quiet on the big shaky planet.  A little action on the mid-Atlantic ridge and some of the other new crust creating, diverging boundaries. But, while the names on the list are familiar, the magnitudes and the numbers of quakes are low.
A tiny rumble here in the CentralVaQuakeZone yesterday morning (that didn't make the list) was just another ever present reminder of our new found shaky home.
Hang on, there is nothing but change coming our way!!!!

On Shakes The Earth!!!

The converging boundaries of the Pacific rim draw closer and closer, shrinking that ocean at speeds hard for us to imagine.  Indonesia, Japan, Alaska, Chile, California, Mexico, Virginia...well, Va. is not on the Ring of Fire but the quakes continue here, too.
The new normal for the earthquake list: Virginia. We are still wrapping our heads around our new, oft shaky world. None of us moved here for the earthquakes.
Hope it is still where you are. But, it's a big wild planet and unlikely to do anything but keep spinning and shaking and changing!!
Hang On!!!