Chile just had another big one, a 7.2. I believe that's the same size as the one that Haiti had.
Amazing how many that one area has had. And at the same time, we here in the Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands normally have so many, little quakes constantly, but there have been none in nearly two weeks.
Hawaiians !! Tsunami warning 11:00 AM!!!! watch/read news
I know! Very shaky there
I learned on the news a few days ago that in Chile, the town hardest hit (I forget the name) moved westward 10 feet. It had repercussions on the whole South American continent. Valparaiso moved 11 inches westward and clear across, on the Atlantic Ocean side, the earth moved 1 inch westward. All this was determined by extremely precise GPS measurements.
There have been 3 different earthquakes there in the last hour. I include a link to the USGS site, detailing the goings-on there:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2010tsa6.php
Take care, all
Sylvain.
Actually, it is 10 inches wider at Valparaiso but 9 feet 11 inches wider at the epicenter. As Mr. Spock would say: Fascinating.
I wonder if that earthquake had any bearing on the earth's rotation. I remember a couple years ago, an earthquate had slowed the planed down 1 millionth of a second, making the day that much longer. I know this is all very trivial information but nonetheless, it's just plain fascinating to me. I am easily amused, I guess.
Take care.
Sylvain.
Sylvain, I need to hook you up with my DIL. She is a scientist for the USGS. Has computers all over her house as well as the lab. She is right in the thick of this.
Poor girl probably has not had much sleep lately. :-)
I read recently where all this activity is due to "global weirding."
Can you be a bit more precise with that Molamola? When I reset my watch I want it to be accurate. ;O)
It affects me, too. With the day a tad longer after these events, it only gives me more time to lay awake awake with my bouts of insomnia. SSIIGGHHHH!
Take care, all.
Sylvain.
Gosh, when will these earthquakes stop??? i have been so busy with school for the last three or so days that i haven't even been on the computer, and now i find out that there has been another earthquake!
isaac
Earthquakes happen everyday in Hawai'i; a fairly large one happened on the Hamakua coast a few days ago; one just happened up at the Kilauea crater within the past couple hours.
http://tux.wr.usgs.gov/
The Pacific Rim has many earthquakes because of tectonic plate movement.
It is devastating when large earthquakes happen in urban areas.
Forests can handle the Earth shaking, buildings cannot.
Hmmm, maybe we should all build some tree houses?? Hehehe....
The earths crust is constantly adjusting and re-adjusting so you get earthquakes all the time. The majority are so small it's only the sensitive scientific instruments that pick them up. What can be felt by people is much less. The small ones are mostly felt at night, during the day people are active, there's more going on around the place and there's other noise and vibrations.
We had one last December just to our north. Originates under the Banda Sea and is deep. For some reason it sends the shock waves in our direction. This particular one woke me up after midnight. The whole house was shaking and I thought, "Just the Banda Sea fault again". But it kept going and became more violent. It lasted 5 minutes, 3 of those where the most violent. Unusually long time for an initial quake. The previous longest one I'd felt from there lasted 2 minutes. If it had have all come in the normal half minute or so there could have been damage. But a long drawn out one, or a series of small quakes over a period of time lessen the chances of one big major one.
The stresses are there and there are going to be quakes to release them. Just depends on how much of the stress is going to be released in one pulse.
I never felt one last more than10-20 seconds, if that. The hospital I work at had TV's hanging from the ceiling and they swayed. The whole building swayed a bit, which is a good thing, and as it was designed. Very disconcerting. A few minutes would be very scary indeed.
Mary
I have to admit, after the first couple of minutes, when it felt like some giant was under the house trying to kick it off its foundations, it began to cross my mind that maybe this wasn't the Banda Sea fault but something new. Your world around you suddenly seems less secure. But then you have to be rational, what can you do? I thought to myself that since I still had electricity it couldn't be all that bad. In the morning the authorities said it had gone on for 5 minutes. It makes you think just how much of a nightmare situation a really big quake would be.
Yes, earthquakes are very scary indeed.