Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Magnitude 5.4 Quake Hits Central Japan; 7 Injured
Published: Wednesday, 29 Jun 2011 | 10:14 PM ET By: Reuters
A magnitude 5.4 earthquake hit central Japan and injured seven people on Thursday, but there were no immediate reports of major damage.
The epicentre of the earthquake, which struck around 8:16 a.m. was in Nagano prefecture, about 120 km (75 miles) from Tokyo, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
No tsunami warning was issued after the quake, the agency said. The magnitude was revised down from a preliminary reading of 5.5.
Seven people were taken to hospital including those hurt from falling objects, but the injuries did not appear serious, an official at the local fire department said.
Japan accounts for about 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
On March 11, the northeast coast was struck by a magnitude 9 earthquake, the strongest quake in Japan on record, and a massive tsunami, which triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years, at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. The disaster left up to 23,000 dead or missing.
A magnitude 5.4 earthquake hit central Japan and injured seven people on Thursday, but there were no immediate reports of major damage.
The epicentre of the earthquake, which struck around 8:16 a.m. was in Nagano prefecture, about 120 km (75 miles) from Tokyo, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
No tsunami warning was issued after the quake, the agency said. The magnitude was revised down from a preliminary reading of 5.5.
Seven people were taken to hospital including those hurt from falling objects, but the injuries did not appear serious, an official at the local fire department said.
Japan accounts for about 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
On March 11, the northeast coast was struck by a magnitude 9 earthquake, the strongest quake in Japan on record, and a massive tsunami, which triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years, at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. The disaster left up to 23,000 dead or missing.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Huge 7.4 earthquake rocks Alaskan islands
Posted: 24 June 2011 1138 hrs
WASHINGTON: A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake shook Alaska's remote Aleutian Islands late on Thursday, but US officials did not issue a tsunami warning for the Pacific Ocean.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
A tsunami advisory issued by the US West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center (WCATWC) warned nearby coastal residents to "move immediately inland to higher ground and away from all harbors and inlets including those sheltered directly from the sea."
The quake on the Fox Islands -- 101 miles (163 kilometers) east of the tiny fishing port of Atka -- struck at 6:09 pm local time (0309 GMT), the US Geological Survey said in a statement.
"Those feeling the earth shake, seeing unusual wave action or the water level rising or receding may have only a few minutes before the tsunami arrival and should move immediately," warned the WCATWC.
"Homes and small buildings are not designed to withstand tsunami impacts.
Do not stay in these structures," officials warned.
The quake struck more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) west of the major Alaskan city of Anchorage.
-AFP/ck
WASHINGTON: A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake shook Alaska's remote Aleutian Islands late on Thursday, but US officials did not issue a tsunami warning for the Pacific Ocean.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
A tsunami advisory issued by the US West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center (WCATWC) warned nearby coastal residents to "move immediately inland to higher ground and away from all harbors and inlets including those sheltered directly from the sea."
The quake on the Fox Islands -- 101 miles (163 kilometers) east of the tiny fishing port of Atka -- struck at 6:09 pm local time (0309 GMT), the US Geological Survey said in a statement.
"Those feeling the earth shake, seeing unusual wave action or the water level rising or receding may have only a few minutes before the tsunami arrival and should move immediately," warned the WCATWC.
"Homes and small buildings are not designed to withstand tsunami impacts.
Do not stay in these structures," officials warned.
The quake struck more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) west of the major Alaskan city of Anchorage.
-AFP/ck
Monday, June 13, 2011
Powerful Quakes Rattle New Zealand City, 10 Injured
A series of powerful tremors rattled the quake-prone New Zealand city of Christchurch on Monday, destroying buildings and sending boulders tumbling down hillsides nearly four months after a quake killed 181 people.
There were no reported fatalities. New Zealand's Civil Defence said 10 people suffered minor injuries in the quakes, with the strongest put at a magnitude of 6.0 at 2.20 p.m. (0220 GMT) local time.
Buildings were evacuated and infrastructure damaged across the city, still trying to recover from the Feb. 22 6.3 magnitude earthquake.
Monday's quake knocked the New Zealand dollar [NZD=D4 Unavailable () ] lower and was seen as another hurdle to rebuilding New Zealand's second largest city, likely encouraging the Reserve Bank of New Zealand to keep interest rates on hold for longer.
"You can draw a picture already of a significant earthquake," Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker told Radio New Zealand. A cloud of dust had enveloped the city after the quakes, he said.
Civil Defence said two people had been rescued from a damaged church. There were no further reports of trapped people.
As with the initial quake, Monday's aftershock sent boulders on the city's Port Hills tumbling towards houses. Parts of the eastern city which suffered the most damage in February's tremor suffered from flooding and liquefaction - where solid ground is turned into liquid by the force of the quake.
New Zealand's GNS Institute said the earthquakes were within the expected pattern after February's tremor and could well trigger fresh seismic activity.
"We would expect a number of aftershocks in the magnitude 4.0 to 5.0 range on the coming days and weeks," said Kelvin Berryman, GNS's Manager of Natural Hazards Research.
Prime Minister John Key said the new tremor would probably affect recovery efforts. "I acknowledge that this is a setback for Christchurch, but it does not lessen our resolve to rebuild," he told reporters in parliament.
Power Cuts, Infrastructure Damaged
Power was cut to about 50,000 houses and there were reports of damage to roads, buildings and water supplies.
A number of homes were likely to remain without power overnight, with the temperature likely to dip close to freezing.
Christchurch has experienced a number of strong earthquakes since a magnitude 7.1 quake struck the city on Sept 4 last year.
On Monday, five tremors of magnitude 4.3 or greater were recorded from 0029 GMT. A 5.5 tremor at 0100 GMT was believed to have caused most of the damage 10 km (6 miles) south-east of the city centre at a depth of 11 km.
Parts of the city centre have been closed since the Feb 22 quake. One of the city's tallest buildings, the Grand Chancellor Hotel, has been declared unstable and is being prepared for demolition.
The cost to rebuild Christchurch after the quakes has been estimated at around NZ$15 billion ($12.2 billion).
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand cut rates after the February tremor to a record-equalling low of 2.50 percent. But signs of recovery and an upbeat assessment from the bank at its review last week have led markets to price in rate rises from December.
However, markets would start to ease back on expectations of a rate hike, said Tim Kelleher, CBA's vice president of institutional banking and markets.
"It puts things like the rebuild of Christchurch further on delay," he said.
There were no reported fatalities. New Zealand's Civil Defence said 10 people suffered minor injuries in the quakes, with the strongest put at a magnitude of 6.0 at 2.20 p.m. (0220 GMT) local time.
Buildings were evacuated and infrastructure damaged across the city, still trying to recover from the Feb. 22 6.3 magnitude earthquake.
Monday's quake knocked the New Zealand dollar [NZD=D4 Unavailable () ] lower and was seen as another hurdle to rebuilding New Zealand's second largest city, likely encouraging the Reserve Bank of New Zealand to keep interest rates on hold for longer.
"You can draw a picture already of a significant earthquake," Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker told Radio New Zealand. A cloud of dust had enveloped the city after the quakes, he said.
Civil Defence said two people had been rescued from a damaged church. There were no further reports of trapped people.
As with the initial quake, Monday's aftershock sent boulders on the city's Port Hills tumbling towards houses. Parts of the eastern city which suffered the most damage in February's tremor suffered from flooding and liquefaction - where solid ground is turned into liquid by the force of the quake.
New Zealand's GNS Institute said the earthquakes were within the expected pattern after February's tremor and could well trigger fresh seismic activity.
"We would expect a number of aftershocks in the magnitude 4.0 to 5.0 range on the coming days and weeks," said Kelvin Berryman, GNS's Manager of Natural Hazards Research.
Prime Minister John Key said the new tremor would probably affect recovery efforts. "I acknowledge that this is a setback for Christchurch, but it does not lessen our resolve to rebuild," he told reporters in parliament.
Power Cuts, Infrastructure Damaged
Power was cut to about 50,000 houses and there were reports of damage to roads, buildings and water supplies.
A number of homes were likely to remain without power overnight, with the temperature likely to dip close to freezing.
Christchurch has experienced a number of strong earthquakes since a magnitude 7.1 quake struck the city on Sept 4 last year.
On Monday, five tremors of magnitude 4.3 or greater were recorded from 0029 GMT. A 5.5 tremor at 0100 GMT was believed to have caused most of the damage 10 km (6 miles) south-east of the city centre at a depth of 11 km.
Parts of the city centre have been closed since the Feb 22 quake. One of the city's tallest buildings, the Grand Chancellor Hotel, has been declared unstable and is being prepared for demolition.
The cost to rebuild Christchurch after the quakes has been estimated at around NZ$15 billion ($12.2 billion).
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand cut rates after the February tremor to a record-equalling low of 2.50 percent. But signs of recovery and an upbeat assessment from the bank at its review last week have led markets to price in rate rises from December.
However, markets would start to ease back on expectations of a rate hike, said Tim Kelleher, CBA's vice president of institutional banking and markets.
"It puts things like the rebuild of Christchurch further on delay," he said.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Predicting the next big quake
By Augustine Anthuvan | Posted: 21 May 2011 1033 hrs
SUMATRA: A Banyan tree - well over a hundred years old - located on Simeulue island, has survived two tsunamis - a big one in 1907 and the recent one caused by the 2004 earthquake.
And those who survived continue to tell the story of the 1907 "Semong", the local word for tsunami.
Kerry Sieh, Director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore, said: "The reason that villagers here were able to escape is because their grandparents, their great grandparents passed down to them the story of what happened in 1907.
"When the tsunami hit in 2004, the water tore all these buildings off their foundations, all you see are the slab foundations, so you can see it was pretty strong. It ripped them off their foundations leaving that little building, leaving the mosque...the wave was about four metres high.
"In 1907, the villagers said that (according to the story), the wave was about 10 metres or so...so they learnt from that event in 1907. That when you feel a big earthquake, you run to the hills as fast as you can. They did that and no one in this village died."
However, Mr Sieh said survival in earthquake prone areas would require looking beyond oral traditions.
"If you pass things down from generation to generation, say like the Pacific North West Indians in the United States did about the big eruption of Mount Mazama in Oregon, 6,000 years of oral tradition, that's wonderful but it's rare and in big cities people don't tend to have these oral traditions.
"What I'm submitting to you is...geology can tell you a lot if you're willing to pay attention to it. Now the Japanese were caught short in that regard recently, even though they were the most prepared people in the world for tsunamis and earthquakes. They didn't pay enough attention to the geological evidence."
Geological evidence of the 1907 earthquake at Simeulue Island is in the form of a coral head, that popped up 1.3 metres out of the water.
"In a sense that's a seismogram, it's a record of an old earthquake," said Mr Sieh.
An island off the west coast of Nias became 10 times its original size after the 2005 earthquake.
Data from coral reef upliftments on this "new" island are helping scientists to understand the patterns of great earthquakes on the Sunda megathrust.
Mr Sieh said: "The corals show and the Dutch records show there was a big earthquake in 1861. After 1861, the island rose but then it slowly subsided, as the megathrust carried the subducting slab down, so it went down...if it kept going down for a couple of decades, this whole island would have disappeared beneath the water.
"But just in time, the next one happened and the island grew again so now its subsiding again. It will subside a centimetre per year over the next century or so and then (it will) pop up come again."
Scientists are now able to forecast the location of where an impending large Sumatran earthquake might hit. But challenges remain. For one, authorities will have to translate that knowledge into planning and changing land use and finding meaningful ways to protect the majority of the people that are likely to be affected.
-CNA/ac
SUMATRA: A Banyan tree - well over a hundred years old - located on Simeulue island, has survived two tsunamis - a big one in 1907 and the recent one caused by the 2004 earthquake.
And those who survived continue to tell the story of the 1907 "Semong", the local word for tsunami.
Kerry Sieh, Director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore, said: "The reason that villagers here were able to escape is because their grandparents, their great grandparents passed down to them the story of what happened in 1907.
"When the tsunami hit in 2004, the water tore all these buildings off their foundations, all you see are the slab foundations, so you can see it was pretty strong. It ripped them off their foundations leaving that little building, leaving the mosque...the wave was about four metres high.
"In 1907, the villagers said that (according to the story), the wave was about 10 metres or so...so they learnt from that event in 1907. That when you feel a big earthquake, you run to the hills as fast as you can. They did that and no one in this village died."
However, Mr Sieh said survival in earthquake prone areas would require looking beyond oral traditions.
"If you pass things down from generation to generation, say like the Pacific North West Indians in the United States did about the big eruption of Mount Mazama in Oregon, 6,000 years of oral tradition, that's wonderful but it's rare and in big cities people don't tend to have these oral traditions.
"What I'm submitting to you is...geology can tell you a lot if you're willing to pay attention to it. Now the Japanese were caught short in that regard recently, even though they were the most prepared people in the world for tsunamis and earthquakes. They didn't pay enough attention to the geological evidence."
Geological evidence of the 1907 earthquake at Simeulue Island is in the form of a coral head, that popped up 1.3 metres out of the water.
"In a sense that's a seismogram, it's a record of an old earthquake," said Mr Sieh.
An island off the west coast of Nias became 10 times its original size after the 2005 earthquake.
Data from coral reef upliftments on this "new" island are helping scientists to understand the patterns of great earthquakes on the Sunda megathrust.
Mr Sieh said: "The corals show and the Dutch records show there was a big earthquake in 1861. After 1861, the island rose but then it slowly subsided, as the megathrust carried the subducting slab down, so it went down...if it kept going down for a couple of decades, this whole island would have disappeared beneath the water.
"But just in time, the next one happened and the island grew again so now its subsiding again. It will subside a centimetre per year over the next century or so and then (it will) pop up come again."
Scientists are now able to forecast the location of where an impending large Sumatran earthquake might hit. But challenges remain. For one, authorities will have to translate that knowledge into planning and changing land use and finding meaningful ways to protect the majority of the people that are likely to be affected.
-CNA/ac
Moderate quake hits Philippines
Posted: 22 May 2011 0000 hrs
MANILA: An earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale hit the northern Philippines late Saturday, causing localised power outages as buildings swayed, but no casualties were reported, officials said.
The epicentre of the quake, which struck at 9:08pm (1308 GMT), was a few kilometres northeast of Ilagan, the capital of Isabela province, a duty officer with the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology told AFP.
There were no reports of casualties around the city of about 131,000 more than an hour later, said Inspector Joel Dulin, the senior officer on duty at the signal department of the Isabela police.
"We have been contacting the other (Isabela) municipalities for any reports of damage or casualties, but so far it has been negative," he added.
"Power outages hit some parts of Ilagan," Dulin told AFP, and the provincial police headquarters there were among areas left without electricity.
Police officer Lito Piga, duty officer for the region's civil defence office located in Tuguegarao, 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of Ilagan, said the two-storey building swayed noticeably.
"I ran downstairs, but when we inspected the building for cracks later on we did not find any," he told AFP.
The US Geological Survey, which uses a different scale, said the quake had a magnitude of 5.3 and put its depth at 45 kilometres.
-AFP/wk
MANILA: An earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale hit the northern Philippines late Saturday, causing localised power outages as buildings swayed, but no casualties were reported, officials said.
The epicentre of the quake, which struck at 9:08pm (1308 GMT), was a few kilometres northeast of Ilagan, the capital of Isabela province, a duty officer with the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology told AFP.
There were no reports of casualties around the city of about 131,000 more than an hour later, said Inspector Joel Dulin, the senior officer on duty at the signal department of the Isabela police.
"We have been contacting the other (Isabela) municipalities for any reports of damage or casualties, but so far it has been negative," he added.
"Power outages hit some parts of Ilagan," Dulin told AFP, and the provincial police headquarters there were among areas left without electricity.
Police officer Lito Piga, duty officer for the region's civil defence office located in Tuguegarao, 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of Ilagan, said the two-storey building swayed noticeably.
"I ran downstairs, but when we inspected the building for cracks later on we did not find any," he told AFP.
The US Geological Survey, which uses a different scale, said the quake had a magnitude of 5.3 and put its depth at 45 kilometres.
-AFP/wk
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Moderate quake hits China's Sichuan province
Posted: 15 May 2011 1705 hrs
BEIJING - A 5.0-magnitude tremor hit the Chinese province of Sichuan on Sunday, the US Geological Survey said, three years after a giant quake left 87,000 dead or missing in the region.
The tremor struck at 3:05 pm (0705 GMT) at a depth of 15 kilometres (nine miles) with an epicentre 31 kilometres west of the city of Guangyuan, the USGS said. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
An 8.0-magnitude quake rocked Sichuan and parts of neighbouring Shaanxi and Gansu provinces on May 12, 2008, killing tens of thousands and flattening swathes of the province.
China's government issued a plan in September 2008 to rebuild 51 quake-struck counties covering 130,000 square kilometres (50,200 square miles), the official Xinhua news agency said.
Mu Hong, a vice director of the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planning agency, said last week that work on 95 percent of the reconstruction projects in the plan had been completed.
China has spent nearly 800 billion yuan ($123 billion) to rebuild in the region, senior officials said last week.
- AFP /ls
BEIJING - A 5.0-magnitude tremor hit the Chinese province of Sichuan on Sunday, the US Geological Survey said, three years after a giant quake left 87,000 dead or missing in the region.
The tremor struck at 3:05 pm (0705 GMT) at a depth of 15 kilometres (nine miles) with an epicentre 31 kilometres west of the city of Guangyuan, the USGS said. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
An 8.0-magnitude quake rocked Sichuan and parts of neighbouring Shaanxi and Gansu provinces on May 12, 2008, killing tens of thousands and flattening swathes of the province.
China's government issued a plan in September 2008 to rebuild 51 quake-struck counties covering 130,000 square kilometres (50,200 square miles), the official Xinhua news agency said.
Mu Hong, a vice director of the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planning agency, said last week that work on 95 percent of the reconstruction projects in the plan had been completed.
China has spent nearly 800 billion yuan ($123 billion) to rebuild in the region, senior officials said last week.
- AFP /ls
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)