Posted: 10 March 2011 0653 hrs
SYDNEY: A remote region of Papua New Guinea was rattled by a strong 6.6-magnitude earthquake on Thursday, seismologists said, but there were no reports of damage or of a tsunami.
The US Geological Survey said the tremor was centred under rugged terrain 27 kilometres northeast of the small town of Kandrian on New Britain island.
"People in the area would have felt strong shaking, but this quake occurred in an area where population density is low, it's just scattered communities," Chris McKee, of Papua New Guinea's Geophysical Observatory told AFP.
"There have been no reports of damage that we have received," said McKee, assistant director for geohazard management at the observatory.
The quake, which struck at a depth of 43 kilometres, may have been part of a sequence of powerful quakes that have been rattling the New Britain region since last year, he added.
The impoverished Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea sits on the so-called "Pacific Ring of Fire", a hotspot for seismic activity due to friction between tectonic plates and quakes are frequent.
But large quakes seldom cause serious damage in the mountainous nation, which has remote and sparsely populated areas and where buildings are light and flexible and are able to bend rather than snap when a quake hits.
No tsunami was thought to have been generated by the quake, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii said.
"No destructive widespread tsunami threat exists based on historical earthquake and tsunami data," it said in a bulletin.
- AFP/de
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Japan issues tsunami warning after 7.2 quake
AFP News – Wed, Mar 9, 2011 11:06 AM SGT
Japan issued a tsunami warning Wednesday after a major 7.2-magnitude quake struck 160 kilometres (100 miles) east off the main Honshu island at 0245 GMT, swaying buildings in the capital Tokyo.
The tremor struck 10 kilometres below the sea floor, said the Japan Meteorological Agency, which issued a tsunami warning for Honshu's Pacific coast, warning of waves 50 centimetres (20 inches) high.
Japan issued a tsunami warning Wednesday after a major 7.2-magnitude quake struck 160 kilometres (100 miles) east off the main Honshu island at 0245 GMT, swaying buildings in the capital Tokyo.
The tremor struck 10 kilometres below the sea floor, said the Japan Meteorological Agency, which issued a tsunami warning for Honshu's Pacific coast, warning of waves 50 centimetres (20 inches) high.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Deadly quake rocks New Zealand, topples buildings
Deadly quake rocks New Zealand, topples buildings
By Gyles Beckford | Reuters – 57 minutes agoWELLINGTON (Reuters) - A strong quake killed and trapped people beneath rubble and sparked fires and toppled buildings in New Zealand's second-biggest city of Christchurch on Tuesday.
It was the second quake to hit the city in five months.
Local TV showed bodies being pulled out of rubble strewn around the city centre, though it was unclear whether any of them were alive. But police reported multiple fatalities after the 6.3 magnitude quake struck during the busy lunchtime.
"I was in the square right outside the cathedral -- the whole front has fallen down and there were people running from there. There were people inside as well," said John Gurr, a camera technician who was in the city centre when the quake hit.
Authorities ordered major hospitals up and down the country to make room for quake victims but there was no word on how many might have been killed or were trapped beneath collapsed buildings. There were reports of a shortage of ambulances.
Christchurch's mayor described the city of almost 400,000 people as a war zone. Emergency crews picked through the rubble, including a multi-storey office building whose floors appeared to have pancaked on top of each other.
"A lady grabbed hold of me to stop falling over...We just got blown apart. Colombo Street, the main street, is just a mess...There's lots of water everywhere, pouring out of the ground," Gurr said.
SILT, SAND AND GRAVEL
Christchurch is built on silt, sand and gravel, with a water table beneath. In an earthquake, the water rises, mixing with the sand and turning the ground into a swamp and swallowing up sections of road and entire cars.
TV footage showed sections of road that had collapsed into a milky, sand-coloured river running right beneath the surface. One witness described the footpaths as like "walking on sand".
Unlike last year's even stronger tremor, which struck early in the morning when streets were virtually empty, the streets, shops and offices were thronged with people when the shallow tremor hit.
It hit at 12:51 pm (2351 GMT Monday) at a depth of only 4 km (2.5 miles), according to the U.S. Geological Survey's Web site.
"It's huge, it's just huge," a priest told a TV reporter outside the remains of the city's stone cathedral, part of which had been reduced to a pile of large sandstone blocks.
"I just don't know whether there are people under this rubble," he said, before he appeared to add in a quiet voice: "I think so."
Prime Minister John Key, who called an emergency cabinet meeting for later in the day, told parliament he could not rule out casualties: "We are aware of significant damage to buildings that had people in them at the time."
The quake helped knock the New Zealand dollar down to $0.7541 , 1.2 percent off late U.S. levels, on fears the damage could dent confidence
By Gyles Beckford | Reuters – 57 minutes agoWELLINGTON (Reuters) - A strong quake killed and trapped people beneath rubble and sparked fires and toppled buildings in New Zealand's second-biggest city of Christchurch on Tuesday.
It was the second quake to hit the city in five months.
Local TV showed bodies being pulled out of rubble strewn around the city centre, though it was unclear whether any of them were alive. But police reported multiple fatalities after the 6.3 magnitude quake struck during the busy lunchtime.
"I was in the square right outside the cathedral -- the whole front has fallen down and there were people running from there. There were people inside as well," said John Gurr, a camera technician who was in the city centre when the quake hit.
Authorities ordered major hospitals up and down the country to make room for quake victims but there was no word on how many might have been killed or were trapped beneath collapsed buildings. There were reports of a shortage of ambulances.
Christchurch's mayor described the city of almost 400,000 people as a war zone. Emergency crews picked through the rubble, including a multi-storey office building whose floors appeared to have pancaked on top of each other.
"A lady grabbed hold of me to stop falling over...We just got blown apart. Colombo Street, the main street, is just a mess...There's lots of water everywhere, pouring out of the ground," Gurr said.
SILT, SAND AND GRAVEL
Christchurch is built on silt, sand and gravel, with a water table beneath. In an earthquake, the water rises, mixing with the sand and turning the ground into a swamp and swallowing up sections of road and entire cars.
TV footage showed sections of road that had collapsed into a milky, sand-coloured river running right beneath the surface. One witness described the footpaths as like "walking on sand".
Unlike last year's even stronger tremor, which struck early in the morning when streets were virtually empty, the streets, shops and offices were thronged with people when the shallow tremor hit.
It hit at 12:51 pm (2351 GMT Monday) at a depth of only 4 km (2.5 miles), according to the U.S. Geological Survey's Web site.
"It's huge, it's just huge," a priest told a TV reporter outside the remains of the city's stone cathedral, part of which had been reduced to a pile of large sandstone blocks.
"I just don't know whether there are people under this rubble," he said, before he appeared to add in a quiet voice: "I think so."
Prime Minister John Key, who called an emergency cabinet meeting for later in the day, told parliament he could not rule out casualties: "We are aware of significant damage to buildings that had people in them at the time."
The quake helped knock the New Zealand dollar down to $0.7541 , 1.2 percent off late U.S. levels, on fears the damage could dent confidence
Friday, February 11, 2011
Powerful quake rocks Chile year after disaster
Posted: 12 February 2011 0512 hrs
SANTIAGO - A powerful earthquake struck Friday off the coast of Chile, throwing a scare into residents nearly a year after a massive temblor and tsunami wreaked death and destruction in the same region.
There was no initial reports of casualties or damage, but media reports said the quake was felt in a wide area of central Chile, where some residents evacuated coastal areas as a precaution.
The US Geological Survey and Chile's National Emergency Office (ONEMI) said the quake occurred in the Pacific some 70 kilometres (45 kilometres) from the city of Concepcion.
The USGS initially reported a major 7.0 magnitude, and later revised that to 6.8, which can still cause devastation.
The quake struck at 2005 GMT near a region in central Chile that was heavily damaged by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake and tsunami on February 27, 2010.
Rodrigo Ubilla, an Interior ministry official, said there were no casualties or damage to buildings reported and praised the "exemplary" reaction of the population, saying the people showed "maturity" after last year's
catastrophe.
Last year's disaster led to more than 500 deaths and $30 billion dollars in damage, and led to an inquiry over the lack of a timely tsunami warning.
ONEMI director Vicente Nunez said "people reacted with concern," because the incident occurred near the anniversary date of the tsunami, and urged people to return to their homes.
President Sebastian Pinera visited the ONEMI headquarters late in the day to review the situation. Earlier this week, he said reconstruction from the devastation last year would extend until 2014, with many schools, roads and hospitals still needing repairs.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that "a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami is not expected," from this quake but that earthquakes of this size "sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts" within a 100 kilometers of the epicentre.
"Authorities in the region of the epicenter should be aware of this possibility and take appropriate action," it said.
A spokesman for Chile's emergency office said of the latest quake, at a depth of 14.8 kilometres, "does not have the characteristics to create a tsunami."
Chilean seismologists said it was not usual to see aftershocks from a quake as large as the one last year, even a year later.
The USGS said the location of the earthquake was 395 kilometres (245 miles) southwest of Santiago.
- AFP /ls
SANTIAGO - A powerful earthquake struck Friday off the coast of Chile, throwing a scare into residents nearly a year after a massive temblor and tsunami wreaked death and destruction in the same region.
There was no initial reports of casualties or damage, but media reports said the quake was felt in a wide area of central Chile, where some residents evacuated coastal areas as a precaution.
The US Geological Survey and Chile's National Emergency Office (ONEMI) said the quake occurred in the Pacific some 70 kilometres (45 kilometres) from the city of Concepcion.
The USGS initially reported a major 7.0 magnitude, and later revised that to 6.8, which can still cause devastation.
The quake struck at 2005 GMT near a region in central Chile that was heavily damaged by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake and tsunami on February 27, 2010.
Rodrigo Ubilla, an Interior ministry official, said there were no casualties or damage to buildings reported and praised the "exemplary" reaction of the population, saying the people showed "maturity" after last year's
catastrophe.
Last year's disaster led to more than 500 deaths and $30 billion dollars in damage, and led to an inquiry over the lack of a timely tsunami warning.
ONEMI director Vicente Nunez said "people reacted with concern," because the incident occurred near the anniversary date of the tsunami, and urged people to return to their homes.
President Sebastian Pinera visited the ONEMI headquarters late in the day to review the situation. Earlier this week, he said reconstruction from the devastation last year would extend until 2014, with many schools, roads and hospitals still needing repairs.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that "a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami is not expected," from this quake but that earthquakes of this size "sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts" within a 100 kilometers of the epicentre.
"Authorities in the region of the epicenter should be aware of this possibility and take appropriate action," it said.
A spokesman for Chile's emergency office said of the latest quake, at a depth of 14.8 kilometres, "does not have the characteristics to create a tsunami."
Chilean seismologists said it was not usual to see aftershocks from a quake as large as the one last year, even a year later.
The USGS said the location of the earthquake was 395 kilometres (245 miles) southwest of Santiago.
- AFP /ls
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Strong 6.9 quake strikes off Vanuatu
Posted: 09 January 2011 2015 hrs
SYDNEY : A strong 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck beneath the sea near the south Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, but no tsunami warning was issued, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said Sunday.
There were no immediate reports of damage from the quake, which hit at 9:03pm (1003 GMT) at a depth of 31.1 kilometres (19.3 miles), 110 kilometres from the town of Isangel on Tanna island, the USGS said.
The quake was the latest in a series of undersea tremors near the island, which is home to an active volcano.
A powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck the area on December 26, triggering a small tsunami exactly six years after giant waves killed 220,000 people around the Indian Ocean, but there were no reports of damage or casualties.
The USGS said that small tsunamis were possible after Sunday's quake in coastal locations that had experienced strong ground shaking, because of underwater landslides.
But the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that "a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami is not expected".
Vanuatu, which lies between Fiji and Australia and north of New Zealand, is in the "Pacific Ring of Fire" known for its seismic and volcanic activity caused by friction between moving plates in the Earth's crust.
- AFP /ls
SYDNEY : A strong 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck beneath the sea near the south Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, but no tsunami warning was issued, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said Sunday.
There were no immediate reports of damage from the quake, which hit at 9:03pm (1003 GMT) at a depth of 31.1 kilometres (19.3 miles), 110 kilometres from the town of Isangel on Tanna island, the USGS said.
The quake was the latest in a series of undersea tremors near the island, which is home to an active volcano.
A powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck the area on December 26, triggering a small tsunami exactly six years after giant waves killed 220,000 people around the Indian Ocean, but there were no reports of damage or casualties.
The USGS said that small tsunamis were possible after Sunday's quake in coastal locations that had experienced strong ground shaking, because of underwater landslides.
But the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that "a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami is not expected".
Vanuatu, which lies between Fiji and Australia and north of New Zealand, is in the "Pacific Ring of Fire" known for its seismic and volcanic activity caused by friction between moving plates in the Earth's crust.
- AFP /ls
Sunday, January 2, 2011
7.1 magnitude quake rocks Chile
Posted: 03 January 2011 0610 hrs
SANTIAGO: A strong earthquake shook coastal Chile Sunday, disrupting power and communications services without injuring anyone, authorities said, as tsunami fears led residents to seek higher ground.
The US Geological Survey said the 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck at 2020 GMT 69 kilometers (45 miles) northwest of Temuco, Chile, at a depth of 16 kilometers (10 miles).
Chile's National Emergency Office said the quake was "medium intensity" and struck Biobio, Maule and O'Higgins, a region in south-central Chile that was devastated by a 8.8 magnitude quake and tsunami in February 2010.
The agency's director Vicente Nunez told reporters that, on the basis of initial reports, the quake "did not cause damage or victims," although there were power outages and interruptions in telephone service.
"It's common in these types of situations for telephone services to collapse and for there to be power outages," he said.
The earthquake set off panicky reactions, with people fleeing to higher ground in Puerto Saavedra and Tirua out of fear of tsunamis, according to Chilean television.
But the Chilean Navy's Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service discounted the threat of a tsunami, saying the epicenter was on land and not at sea.
An initial report by the USGS said the quake occurred offshore, but it later revised its findings. US authorities also ruled out the threat of a Pacific-wide tsunami.
"Based on all available data, a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami is not expected," the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a bulletin.
"However, earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within a hundred kilometers (62 miles) of the earthquake epicenter," it said.
The National Emergency Office said Sunday's temblor was followed nearly two hours later by a moderate aftershock.
The earthquake was also felt in Argentina's Patagonia region, near the border with Chile, especially in San Martin de los Andes, where dozens of people ran out of the customs building fearing it might collapse, the Bariloche News Agency said.
No injuries or damage from the quake were reported in Argentina.
Chile lies on the Pacific rim of fire and is prone to violent earthquakes. Last February's massive earthquake unleashed a tsunami that swept away entire villages.
The disaster left around 520 people dead, and caused an estimated 30 billion dollars in damage.
- AFP/fa/ac
SANTIAGO: A strong earthquake shook coastal Chile Sunday, disrupting power and communications services without injuring anyone, authorities said, as tsunami fears led residents to seek higher ground.
The US Geological Survey said the 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck at 2020 GMT 69 kilometers (45 miles) northwest of Temuco, Chile, at a depth of 16 kilometers (10 miles).
Chile's National Emergency Office said the quake was "medium intensity" and struck Biobio, Maule and O'Higgins, a region in south-central Chile that was devastated by a 8.8 magnitude quake and tsunami in February 2010.
The agency's director Vicente Nunez told reporters that, on the basis of initial reports, the quake "did not cause damage or victims," although there were power outages and interruptions in telephone service.
"It's common in these types of situations for telephone services to collapse and for there to be power outages," he said.
The earthquake set off panicky reactions, with people fleeing to higher ground in Puerto Saavedra and Tirua out of fear of tsunamis, according to Chilean television.
But the Chilean Navy's Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service discounted the threat of a tsunami, saying the epicenter was on land and not at sea.
An initial report by the USGS said the quake occurred offshore, but it later revised its findings. US authorities also ruled out the threat of a Pacific-wide tsunami.
"Based on all available data, a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami is not expected," the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a bulletin.
"However, earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within a hundred kilometers (62 miles) of the earthquake epicenter," it said.
The National Emergency Office said Sunday's temblor was followed nearly two hours later by a moderate aftershock.
The earthquake was also felt in Argentina's Patagonia region, near the border with Chile, especially in San Martin de los Andes, where dozens of people ran out of the customs building fearing it might collapse, the Bariloche News Agency said.
No injuries or damage from the quake were reported in Argentina.
Chile lies on the Pacific rim of fire and is prone to violent earthquakes. Last February's massive earthquake unleashed a tsunami that swept away entire villages.
The disaster left around 520 people dead, and caused an estimated 30 billion dollars in damage.
- AFP/fa/ac
Quake hits Indonesia's Sumatra island
Posted: 03 January 2011 0024 hrs
JAKARTA: A 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck off Indonesia's Sumatra island on Sunday, the US Geological Survey said, but there was no tsunami warning.
The moderate quake struck at a shallow depth of 16 kilometres (10 miles) at 10:19 pm (1519 GMT), 122 kilometres southwest of Bengkulu, on southern Sumatra.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where the meeting of continental plates causes high seismic activity, and Sumatra is particularly prone to earthquakes.
- AFP/fa
JAKARTA: A 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck off Indonesia's Sumatra island on Sunday, the US Geological Survey said, but there was no tsunami warning.
The moderate quake struck at a shallow depth of 16 kilometres (10 miles) at 10:19 pm (1519 GMT), 122 kilometres southwest of Bengkulu, on southern Sumatra.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where the meeting of continental plates causes high seismic activity, and Sumatra is particularly prone to earthquakes.
- AFP/fa
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