Philippine & Sunda Plates Battle On!!

55km below S end of Philippine plate

Sunda slipped up, Mag. 7.8; semi-great

Buildings fell, people died, standard scene

When way too many people are seen

Overbreed is what the filipinos do

Too bad, papal support slow to come thru

We know US aid will be slow to come

Dementia donnie, comments rude & dumb?

Yea, donnie..we know dumb ends in B

Thanks for 'xplaning for maga/GOP

💩😲💩

Aftershocks continue to roil along

Just rock getting back where it belong

Tsunami warnings have expired

Sure locals, of shakes, growing tired

Oh yea, ice is melting sea levels rise

Live on islands, should not be surprise

Ain't nothing but change...

Every Day On Earth

Direct evidence of ongoing

CHANGE

Marcasite cockscomb (FeS2)

Sulfur reacts w/ air

Sulfuric acid for the win

Italy's Boot Gets A Kick..

Deep down below Italy's boot

Earth, decided to go for lil scoot

Showed as a 6.2 quake, 250km deep

Just Earth with a little plate creep

But, also heads-up that 🌋's nearby..

Never know, when tephra will fly

Etna & Stromboli, good reminders

Escape route, may be no GPS finders

😱

San Andreas with little slip, too

AND

Earth gonna outlast..me & you

Today On Earth

Very local rock fracture

Time & gravity..for the win!

Greece Shakes On!!

On plate boundary, Sea Of Crete bed

Daily proof, Earth sure ain't dead

Mag. 5+ quakes now roiling every day

Tourists & residents are going away

Is magma close or still down deep?

Is it gonna pile into a volcanic heap?

🌋

Form a new island? Crete II?

W/ climate reality, gotta be feelin' blue

Droughts & heat, fires last summer

Sad reality, every year..a new bummer

BUT

Not just for them, everywhere on Earth

Gonna find out what money's worth..

Sure can't eat it & if no food to buy

Only truth remains; Earth Rules

Adapt, Migrate or Die..

Today On Earth

Dead branches augured in

Good reason not to walk on 

Wild Wind Days

Quiet Times Are Over

After an extended period without any quakes above magnitudes in the 5 range the big shakes are back. New Caledonia had a 7.1 quake today, Marianna Islands low 6's and Southern California was awakened with a 4.4 quake early in their Tuesday. Tennessee even had a shake today.
This is quite a few days in a row with a quake above 6 and several 7's and an 8 have rocked the rim of the Pacific, of late. Lots of action where the northeast edge of the Australian plate is being jammed into the Pacific plate. Pressures build, and then they are released, seems to be how the big planet works.
And, yes, there are quakes in Oklahoma and Kansas today. But, none in Hawaii, so far. Hang on Earthlings, it could get shaky down your way, Today On Earth.

Shaky Hawai'i

The daily earthquake list is long today, and has been every day of late. The reason, Hawai'i and the constant eruption of Kilauea. Over 200 quakes on the big island so far today. None are above 4 so there has been no recent blast from the main crater but with 200+ quakes, the lava must be flowin'.
The rest of today's list covers much of the Earth's plate boundaries but 5.0 is tops, so far. Anomalies in the US include, the Big Bend region of Texas (actually in Mexico), Raton Pass on the CO/NM border and western North Carolina. Of course, there are quakes in Oklahoma, thanks frackers!! And, just a reminder for Yellowstone watchers, there was another quake up that way, too. That will make Fuego and Kilauea look like tiny baby blasts...when it happens...let's hope in the distant, distant future.
And, while there is no predicting of earthquakes by we humans, there has been a long respite since there has been a large quake on the shifting, shaky planet.  Seems like we are overdue a big energy release, pressures can only build for so long before...well, we all know what's going to happen. The unsettling fun is when. Hope your part of the planet remains unshaken, Today On Earth.
But, with a combo of Verizon service being crap and google being, well, google, this may never get published, both are likely more concerned with mining my info than publishing this blog. Both suck, and don't care...because they are too big to have to care.

Montana and The Philippines - Shaking!!

A 5.8 quake rocked the mountains of the state named for mountains, Montana, about 12:30 local time today. A slow build up for the 30 second quake apparently limited damage and no injuries have been reported.  That was not the case in the Philippines where at least one death resulted from the 6.5 quake in the central part of the archipelago.  No tsunami warning remains from that quake.
Both north and south of that quake along the Ring of Fire several quakes in the upper 4 and 5 range have shaken things up today - but live on a subduction zone and you will have quakes.  Across the Pacific in Guatemala, a 5.1 quake shook up the eastern side of the plate.
And, of course, the human caused quakes in Oklahoma continue; but, hey, gas is under $2.00 so who cares! Likely only the folks in central OK. And, their voice is not being heard.
Don't worry, when your quake happens you'll be the first to know, today on Earth.

Ring O Fire Quakes

Ring O Fire Earthquakes

Volcanoes are not the only frequent natural disaster in the Ring Of Fire, Earthquakes are also common in the Ring of Fire. Out of today’s earthquakes (3/27/17), all most all of them have been on the Ring O Fire, and all of them are around Asia, North and South America. Most of Earth's quakes are here do to the movement of the tectonic plates. These quakes are also a result of the frequent volcanic explosions in the area. Out of all of the volcanoes on Earth, the ones around the Ring O Fire are undoubtedly the most powerful on the planet.

Shimen, China

    The earthquake in Shimen, China had a magnitude of 5.0. The location of the earthquake is 25.901°N 99.710°E. This earthquake had a depth of 28.79 km. It happened on 2017-03-26 at 23:55:06.860 UTC. This earthquake caused serious damage to over 500 houses. Thankfully, only one person was injured by falling tiles.

Earthquakes Today

There has been a total of 90 earthquakes in the past 24 hours (as of 3/28/12 @11:09 am) according to http://earthquaketrack.com/recent. The latest earthquakes happened around 4 hours ago in Northern Peru.  It had a magnitude of 4.7 and a depth of 129 km. The biggest earthquake this year was in Panguna, Bougainville, Papua Guinea and it had a magnitude of 7.9. As of yesterday, there has been a cluster of earthquake activities in Puerto Rico near the Puerto Rico Trench. Out of the 11 earthquakes that have recently shook up the area, the biggest quake was in Road Town, British Virgin Islands with a magnitude of 3.5 and depth of 93.0 km.  

History of Earthquakes

    For as long as the Earth has been in existence, there has always been earthquakes. Earthquakes are caused by the movement of tectonic plates, and the earth’s plates have always been in motion. Most of today's quakes are located in the Ring O Fire, the line around the Pacific Ocean going through Asia, North and South America. Others also occur outside of the ring, like the one in Louisa, Virginia in 2011, when a magnitude 5.8 earthquake shook the entire state and could be felt over 500km away from the epicenter in Mineral, Virginia. Over ⅓ of the US population at the time felt the quake, so it was the biggest quake in that respect in US history. In the past, Earthquakes in Japan have been devastating, killing thousands and producing volatile tsunamis, causing even more damage. Due to Fracking in Oklahoma, seawater that has been released has caused daily quakes, which will continue until fracking ends there. In human history, there has always been powerful earthquakes, and there always will be as long as the Earth is in existence.

Philippine Quake

On October 12 , 2016 in the Philippines, they experienced a medium magnitude earthquake. The earthquake was in an area most commonly referred to as Tingloy. This earthquake had a 5.2 magnitude. The town of Tingloy  experienced no major damage , but the definitely felt the shake. Tingloy is a town in Batangas, Philippines that consist of 17,919 people.  Tingloy off the southwest coast of Batangas mainland. This town has a land area of 14 miles and has rugged hills and some sloping mountains.

The Earthquake in the Philippines that happened recently was a 5.2 quake at 13N and 121E. This quake is centered in Batangas, near Tingloy, and it happened on October 12, 2016. The earthquake occurred at a depth 137km.  There have been no major injuries or damage from this earthquake currently. For the area, this earthquake is considered to be light or moderate.

This earthquake happened along the Philippine Sea Plate, an active plate made up of convergent boundaries. A plate being converging on various sides is unusual, but not impossible. This plate has the Pacific plate subducting under it, and it is subducting beneath the Eurasian plate. This results in quite a bit of earthquake activity, and sometimes can cause things like tsunamis.

Today on earth, we will be looking at a recent earthquake from around the world.  The Philippines were rocked with a nice sized 5.2 earthquake, which compares to our earthquake that hit a little too close to home around five years ago. Our 5.8 quake was 5 times bigger and 8 times stronger than the 5.2 quake that happened today, as reported by the USGS (US geologic survey), however theirs was still a mediocre shake. The town of Tingloy was hit the hardest, and the earthquake hit a little off the coast, which makes sense considering the Philippines are on an convergent ocean boundary.

Kami.com reported that other than the mild thunderstorms they have been getting lately, a quake here was not uncommon, however the epicenter was 7km off of the coast and very close to an iconic tourist and vacation destination, Puerto Galera, which could make some peoples vacation a little different, definitely something they won’t soon forget.

The damage sustained by the quake registered as a VI-VII. A VI quake on the Mercalli scale means that it was felt by all, and frightened many, some heavy furniture was moved, slight damage. A VII on the Mercalli scale means that there was some visible damage in poorly built structures, slight damage in the average house, and some chimneys fell. PHIVOLCS, which is the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology pinpointed the exact epicenter, which was closest to Mindoro in Abra de long, a 2nd class town with a population of roughly 30,000 people.

On August 8, 1976 an 8.0 magnitude earthquakes hit the philippines a little past midnight. (The highest magnitude earthquake ever recorded in the philippines.) The epicenter was in the Moro Gulf. The earthquake produce a tsunami 4 to 5 meters high. The tsunami covered about 700 km of coastline. It wasn’t the earthquake that killed most people. It was the tsunami no one saw because it was dark. The earthquake and tsunami killed 8,000 people and injured 10,000 people. It all left over 90,000 people homeless.

Ring of Quakes

Long time, no blog!! A quick quake update: no real shockers, if fact today is a little strange on the quake map for the world, almost every quake is on the ring of fire. All around the Pacific and that's pretty much it. Nothing approaching magnitude 6 so nothing newsworthy (unless you are at an epicenter) either.
Off the ring of shakes, the central mid-Atlantic ridge shifted today, Puerto Rico shimmied a little, a little shake happened west of Yellowstone and, of course, Oklahoma, land of freakin' fracking, has already put 2 quakes on the map. ("Not our fault, can't prove it, how 'bout those gas prices", said an exxonBPchevron spoke person.)
Central Va. zone has been very quiet of late, let's hope that continues (but, there's no fracking here…).

5.8 Quake Off Oregon

It appears that while California, and lately Oklahoma, gets the earthquake attention up the coast there's slipping and sliding, too. A 5.8 quake off the Oregon coast in unlikely to have stirred the seafloor enough to cause tsunami concerns but it is a reminder that the San Andreas is not the only action on the west coast. The tiny Juan de Fuca plate is getting squished by both the Pacific and North American plates and pressures will be relieved. Today was a reminder. A 5.5 aftershock continued the adjustment.
The other quakes on today's list are on the boundaries, where earthquakes belong.

Ring of Quakes and Oklahoma

I know, it's the Ring of Fire and while that is appropriate today, also, today's quakes circle the Pacific nicely...and then there's Oklahoma. The big action is at the junction of the Australian plate and the Pacific plate in the vicinity of Fiji and the Solomon Isles. Some pre-quakes set the stage for the biggest quake at 6.4. Aftershocks will likely be the order of the day in that collision/subduction zone. How long before all that slippin' and slidin' of rock will lead to the melting and spewing of liquid rock that brought  those islands to life; nothing on the volcano list today. It will likely be soon... but only in Earth time, and that and human time are far from synched.
Where human and Earth time are more closely synched: Oklahoma (and now Kansas). Still more measured quakes in Oklahoma than California on a daily basis but the oil industry doesn't mention the quakes in their commercial singing the praises of fracking. No water pollution, lots of jobs, cheap gas; you'd think that fracking was a wonderful thing and that blowing up the earth to free the hydrocarbons trapped in shale formations was the best thing ever. Back to Earth time and not quarterly, corporate time there is likely another outcome: water pollution is an issues in many (most?) fracking regions, the fire still burning Backen shale oil in WVa, pipeline leaks (of course, they leak, just not news worthy), truck crashes and fires (local news...unless it hits a bus) and earthquakes, hundreds of quakes.
Sitting somewhere that's not shaking daily, quakes in the 2 and 3 and 4 magnitude range seem cute and harmless. Take it from a resident on the recently very shaky Central Va. Quake zone, they are neither cute nor harmless; they take a psychological toll and EVERY earthquake is the earth readjusting itself and means change. Tiny changes that over time stirs volcanoes and moves continents, builds mountains, unleashes tsunamis and results in the planet we see today, but, only today. Earth time can be very slow, but abrupt changes to the system (the Earth cares not about cause) can make those changes speed up to a time very noticeable by humans.
Will fracking in Oklahoma trigger the New Madrid quake zone along the Mississippi to fire back up? If St. Louis shifts half a mile toward (or away from) Memphis will the oil companies be there to help? No one driving a Hummer in the US takes any blame for the giant typhoons that hammered the Philippines the last two years.  How has coal burning in the world to produce the electricity we "need" changed jet stream patterns that has Boston buried in deep snow and below zero temps headed for the south tonight, here deep into February. We don't know, but while knowledge is difficult to obtain, denial is easy, ask any lawyer or oil company executive: you can't prove it was me!!
7+ billion humans and we all want it all. We'll see how that works out long (and short) term here on the shaky planet, shifting on today and everyday: Earth.

Indo-Australian Plate Action

The mid-ocean ridges of the Indian ocean continue to drive the Indian and Australian plates north and north east and that continues to cause issues - aka: earthquakes - all along the convergent boundaries those plates "share" with the Asian and Pacific plates.  A 6.1 quake yesterday at the northeast corner of the Indian plate in southern China caused well over 100 deaths, thousands of injuries and destroyed tens of thousands of buildings.  Over the last week, quakes of magnitudes just below that follow all along that Indo-Asian boundary and the shaking continued with lots of 4 and 5 magnitude quakes following the island arcs created by the subduction of the northern edge of the Aussie plate with the basalt of the Pacific sea floor.  Just a guess...but that is likely to continue...for the next 10 to 50 or 100 million years.
Across the Pacific, central and northern South America were shifting and shaking pretty good over the last 7 days.  A 6.3 quake in southern Mexico in late August leads the list but the quakes continued down the isthmus that is central America and all the way down to Peru along the western edge of South America.
The US was mostly quiet this week; small quakes in California, Alaska and fracking quakes in Oklahoma were about it.  Central Va. has been still since the 2.1 shake the last Friday in August and as we approach the 3rd anniversary of the quake that changed thinking along the east coast those of us in the shaky zone would like to see it stay that way.  If wishes were horses...  We know that quiet is not something the earth is likely to be, for at least another billion years or so, get out and enjoy what ever the planet throws your way, today on Earth.

Big Quakes Straddle the IDL

Two major quakes occurred today within a couple of degrees of the International Dateline: first a 6.9 magnitude quake, quickly followed by a 6.6 quake, rocked the southern reaches of the line just north of New Zealand and the northern quake, with 10 times more ground movement at 7.9, shook up the western Aleutians of Alaska just to the east of the dateline and sent tsunami warnings flying around and across the Pacific .  Tsunami warnings for both big quakes have now been cancelled with sea level changes of less than a foot even near the epicenters.  Aftershocks continue with great frequency in both regions making today's USGS list rather lengthy and almost constantly updating as new shakes occur.  If you're not near the line where the old day ends and the new begins you are likely in a quiet zone today, but if you are reading this from earth, just remember that could change...at most any time, Today On Earth.

A Quiet, But Still Shaky, Quake Week

While those at the epicenters of the last few days of quakes may not think it was quiet, they should get over it because they all live on plate boundaries and that's where the quakes are! Nothing above 5.7 for the entire 7 day period and most all are at subduction zones around the Pacific and the ongoing India/Asia collision (ongoing for 40 or so million years). No surprises! Earth is still exhaling heat and that heat is slowly pushing the thin, broken pieces of the lithosphere about on the weak, plastic/gooey/oozy layer of the mantle, the asthenosphere.
We see what's happening, have a handle on why it's happening, know where the quakes and volcanoes are going to be and are working on the details but it's only been 50 years, so saying we understand it all would be a bit pompous.  It appears this planet has been trying to chill down ever since it all came together 4.5ish billion years ago and plate tectonics is the result of that cooling.  But it was hot when it formed and it's a big chunk of rock (tiny in the universe picture but... we aren't in the whole universe, only here) and lots of mass holds heat nicely.  Radioactive elements, we now know, break down and add to the heat so, I'm guessing the heat loss, plate movement, earthquake and volcano scene will continue for some time to come.  Longer than we can really be concerned about...
Hang On!! Somewhere, at any time things WILL get shaky, Today On Earth.

3.2 in CentralVaQuakeZone

The plate boundaries keep shifting, sending waves of energy through our planet but there are little reminders in off boundary sites, as well. The Central Va. Earthquake Zone got that reminder Wednesday night with a good little shake centered along the Powhatan/Amelia county border. For those of us in Louisa that felt it, there was no sound; something we've come to expect with our hundreds of after shocks.  It felt like a quake, shaking for several seconds, but the lack of sound left me wondering, what the...  Just farther away than the many in my neighborhood.
Oklahoma, formerly quite quiet, continues to experience quakes in the 2 - 4 Richter range every day. That started soon after fracking began in earnest in the area, a connection, no doubt, denied by the oil giants blowing up the earth to release the hydrocarbons we Americans crave but don't want to pay the the true cost of.  The earth just does what it does, we blow it up, it shifts to adjust, action/reaction; a clever guy named Newton pointed that out several hundred years ago.  We know it but don't want to "believe" it if we don't like the reaction(Carbon dioxide and global warming??).  Want jobs and cheap oil, better be willing to hang on Oklahoma!!

4.1 in South Carolina

Southwest South Carolina got rocked yesterday with a 4.1 quake, an uncommon but hardly unknown event for the area still digging out and rewiring from the recent snow/ice storm that hammered the entire east coast. Charleston, SC has been the epicenter of large quakes in the past - and, guess what, likely in the future- so this recent quake is hardly a big surprise.  The problem with earthquakes is that they ARE always a surprise, no real warning, just a jolting realization that the world you take for granted as stable really isn't. Central Va. got that reminder 2 1/2 years ago, Japan a big reminder about 3 years ago and if you live on the ring of fire or near any of  the plate boundary "zones of shake" you too, always have that thought of potential shakiness not far below you level of consciousness.
Current geologic thought, in explanation of the shake zone near SC/GA's Savannah River, postulates that the state boundary/river is an old suture zone formed during the smashing and crashing that formed Pangaea. When the rift zone that has lead us to the Atlantic Ocean began to form and separate North America and Africa a chunk got left behind, the edge of that chunk (and therefore weak spot - and rivers find the weak spots) being the Savannah River that now separates the two states (going back to a decree creating Georgia out of the Carolinas). Old fault zones are hard to see in the deeply soil covered east but are there nonetheless, ready to slip and slide when unseen pressures build and need release: an earthquake.
Oklahoma continues to be on the daily list, almost as common as California and Alaska. I'm not sure what's going on out there, I never felt any when working in the area (although I was mostly in western OK). I'm still guessing and blaming fracking and am still guessing the oil & gas industries, blowing up the earth in the area to slurp out the fossil hydrocarbons craved by ALL Americans, are still in denial of any connection at all to the quakes; no couldn't be us...
Hope your world is not shaky, today on Earth.

Greek Aftershocks and Other Good Shakes

Aftershocks in the Richter 4's continue off the coast of Greece following the 6.1 quake 3 days ago. Burma stays on the list with another 5.1 quake and Iran has a couple in the mid-4's; shaky along the southern Eurasian boundary. Japan and the Solomon Isles register quakes in the low to mid-5's and while not large, Indonesia has quakes on the list. The eastern edge of the Philippine plate has calmed a little after a few shaky days.
In the western hemisphere, Chile, a frequent visitor to any earthquake list is back today with a 5.5 quake and the North Atlantic Ridge (Reykjanes Ridge, actually) has been rocking of late; today a 5.1 with lots of slightly smaller quakes over the last several days.  Things have calmed in Bolivia - earthquake wise, anyway, if not politically, after a pretty good shake a few days back.
In the US, Utah, Oklahoma and Arkansas are back/still on the list (yes, Cali and Ak, too), a little more than probably any of those states would like. Respectively, 4.0, 3.2 and 2.6 - wonder how many are related -denied, of course- to fracking or other human/oil/water related activities??
But, what are we going to do on this cracked and broken and shifting planet? Hang on and get out and enjoy (a snowy), Today on Earth.

Greece & Burma Shakes

A 6.0 quake rocked an island of the coast of Greece today a little before 9:00 EST followed by a 5.0 aftershock; more aftershocks are likely to follow. Burma also got a shake up today (evening there)with a 5.8 quake. And, while both are near or on plate boundaries they are not frequent visitors to the list. Tonga with a quake, no shock there; California, Alaska, Indonesia, Japan not a surprise but there is likely a bit of scrambling in Greece and Burma. Both quakes are so recent, I've heard no damage reports; 6.0, in Greece, there will be damage.
The Central Va. zone is quiet these days, the USGS placing (or attempting to place - the ground's been frozen for some time) seismometers more heavily in the region to keep a better eye on the local shifting and shaking. Too bad the "new and improved" USGS earthquake website doesn't allow you to zoom in on exactly where the local aftershocks occured - or I haven't figured out how to, and I have tried and tried with no luck - or reply to my emails to the USGS. Let's hope the the aftershocks continue to diminish so the lack of info won't matter.

Still Shakin', Central VA

As word was passed on through local news of the placement of seismometers across the Central Va. Equake zone by the US Geological Survey the old fault zone responded; a little rumble and a tiny shake this cold, wet morning.  It hasn't shown up on the daily earthquake list, may have been below 1 on the Richter scale, but did remind those of us in the heart of the zone of our residence on a less than stable portion of the big planet. Not sure seismometers are being place on this raw day but be nice to have more quake detection in our "newly" rediscovered quake zone.
No big news elsewhere, so far, for 2014. Plate boundaries are where the action is. Oklahoma has become a steady, low level, standard on the US list. I'm not sure of its ancient plate edge boundary history, maybe the edge of a billion year old Central North American rift zone, maybe there is serious fracking going on out there on the edge of the plains that's adding to the old breaks... It's a bold geologist that claims to know all the causal agents inside this large, spinning chunk of rock we have the pleasure to ride upon. A 2.2 shake in the Charleston, SC. area yesterday delivered the same reminder we just received from the planet, "heh, don't forget, you live in an earthquake zone".
Louisa Co. HS will be conducting a quake drill on a nice day sometime soon but as a teacher of Earth Science, my new students have already been reminded. It's a shaky, random-ish world, be ready to hang on, today on Earth!

No Surprises: Quakes at Plate Boundaries

A quick glance at the new Earthquake site (I hesitate to say improved...) shows the usual suspects still slipping and sliding away. The rim of the Pacific dominates the scene, as is to be expected with the encroaching continents gradually stuffing away the basaltic crust of Earth's largest ocean. The mid-ocean ridges, while mostly thought of as producing the new crust that is moving the plates around, still has lots of transform/strike-slip faults that offset the ridges with plenty of quakes themselves.
We are also reminded that while Italy is part of Europe it wasn't always. The forces gradually shrinking the Mediterranean Sea are also still pushing Italy, Spain, Greece and southeastern Asia northward and the result of that movement: earthquakes. And, while the winter olympics could be disrupted by human conflicts the internal issues of the earth itself formed those mountains and could shake them up again at any time. Hang on!
The Central Va. quake zone has been quiet for a month or so - and let's hope it stays that way. The walls of our new high school are rising and we don't need any new shakes to cause new problems. But...let's face it, the earth doesn't care and it's going to keep doing what it does...for several billion more years. Get out and enjoy your short ride on the big planet, shaky though it may be.