7.7 Earthquake in Chile Triggers Tsunami Warning (VIDEO)
A strong earthquake has struck Japan, according to the US Geological Survey.
The tremor had a magnitude between 5.9 and 6.2 and hit the east of the country, near Honshu, Japan"s main and most populated island. Cities including Tokyo may be hit by the effects of the earthquake, according to the USGS.
No tsunami warning was immediately issued, according to public broadcaster HNK, and there have been no immediate reports of the scale or damage of the quake. There were also no anomalies detected at the region"s nuclear power plants, according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.
The tremor struck northern Ibaraki Prefecture at around 9.38pm local time, according to the Japan Times.
Ibaraki Preferecture is home to some 3 million people and is situated just north-east of Tokyo.
The depth of the quake was 10km, according to the USGS and the Japanese Meteorological Agency, which had earlier put the quake"s magnitude at 6.2.
Japan sits at the collision of four tectonic plates, which mean that the region is regularly hit by strong earthquakes. but building codes and other protections mean that damage is usually limited.
A huge earthquake did hit the country in March 2011, starting a tsunami that killed more than 18,000 people. It alsosent three of the Fukushima nuclear plant"s reactors into meltdown, a disaster from which the country is still recovering.
Japan was also hit by two strong earthquakes earlier this year, which together caused widespread damage.
Chiles national emergency office (Onemi) lifted both the evacuation order and a tsunami watch three hours after the Christmas Day quake struck and told nearly 5,000 people who had been evacuated they could return to their homes.
Onemi said one bridge in the area was impassible as crews worked to restore electricity to 21,000 homes without power.
chile earthquake locator
Officials had issued a tsunami warning earlier for areas within 620 miles (1,000km) of the epicentre of the quake 140 miles south-west of Puerto Montt, but the warning was downgraded to a tsunami watch. Eight mostly small ports in the area were closed, Chiles navy said.
The quake was felt on the other side of the Andes mountains in Argentina, but structural damage in areas close to the epicentre was limited, witnesses said.
There was a lot, a lot of movement here, but besides that nothing of note, there werent houses falling, said Alamiro Vera, owner of the Cabanas hotel in the southern Chile fishing town of Quellon. It was just scary, and some things inside fell.
A Reuters witness said some roads and at least one bridge were damaged in Quellon, on Chiloe Island, a tourist destination in Chiles Los Lagos region.
The quakes depth was about 20 miles, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. According to media reports, the quake was felt in the south-west Argentinian city of Bariloche.
The area hit by Sundays quake was south of Valdivia, Chile, where 1,655 people died in a 1960 quake ranked by the USGS as the most powerful recorded in Chile.
The region is home to several industrial salmon farms and is a tourism hub. An official with Chiles national fish and aquaculture service said several companies had evacuated employees and were evaluating their facilities for possible damage.
Chiles state-run oil company, Enap, said its Bio Bio refinery in southern Chile was operating normally. The Puerto Montt airport was also operating normally, a spokesman said.
Chile has a long history of deadly quakes, including an 8.8-magnitude quake in 2010 off the south-central coast, which triggered a tsunami that devastated coastal towns.
Rahul के Earthquake वाले बयान पर BJP का पलटवार, Congress को बताया घोटालों का केंद्र
A powerful magnitude 6.5earthquake rocked the Northern California coast Thursday morning.
The quakeoccurred under the Pacific Oceanabout 100 mileswest of Ferndale, near the Oregon border, about 6:50 a.m., the U.S. Geological Survey said.There were no reports of injuries or damage.
The quakes epicenter was about 6.2 miles deep, according to the USGS.which issued no tsunami warnings in connection with the temblor.
According to USGS mapping, the quake, while strong, did not produce violent shaking on land.
The 6.5 jolt was followed by another quake less than two hours later. A magnitude 5.0 temblor hit at 8:32 a.m. in the same area, about 108 miles offshore.
There were no reports of damage in the communities of Ferndale or nearby Fortuna, Fortuna police Lt. Matthew Eberhardt told The Times.
The radio is quiet, he said.
Eberhardt said he felt the quake while getting ready for his shift Thursday morning.
It kind of felt [more] like a rolling than a jerking, he said.
Other cities along the coastalso reported the shaking.
Nice shaker, Eureka Police Chief Andrew Mills saidon Twitter. No damage reports, no #tsunami.
The first quake was felt from southern Oregon south into the San Francisco Bay Area. It was also felt inland in the Sacramento Valley, the USGS said.
By 8 a.m., nearly 2,000 people reported feeling the quake with light shaking, according to the USGS Did You Feel It? map.
Soon after the quake, Bay Area residents took to social media to report the shaking. Some residents said they were rattled from their sleep.
Bay Area Rapid Transit trains ran 10 minutes slower and at reduced speeds in San Francisco because of seismic activity.
In January 2010, a6.5 quake hit the area, snapping power lines, toppling chimneys, knocking down traffic signals, shattering windows and prompting the evacuation of at least one apartment building.
A 6.9 earthquake that struck in the same area in 2014, but like Thursdays temblorcenteredmiles off the coast, did little damage.
The north coast sits along the Mendocino Triple Junction, where the Pacific, North American and Juan de Fuca tectonic plates collide.
Seismologist Lucy Jonessaidthe earthquake early Thursday was on the Pacific-Gorda plate on the end of the San Andreas Fault.
Generally, seismologists say, a major quake like this will be followed by numerous smaller aftershocks.
Perhapslocal dairyman Dennis Leonardisummed up the quake best in an interview with theFerndale Enterprise.
The cows were dancing to the rock n roll.
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UPDATES:
1:55 p.m.: This article was updated withreaction from Eureka Police Chief Andrew Mills.
12:55 p.m.: This article was updated with additional reaction.
9:10 a.m.: This article was updated with additional details about a smaller quake.
8:10 a.m.: This story was updated with details on shaking and a comment from Lucy Jones.
7:45 a.m.: This article was updated with a witness account and background.
A magnitude 5 earthquake struck Oklahoma on Sunday (November 6, 2016) near the largest U.S. oil storage hub, prompting some pipeline companies to shut down operations at the site as a precaution. Bloomberg
Beginning in 2009, the frequency of earthquakes in the U.S. State of Oklahoma rapidly increased from an average of fewer than two 3.0+ Mw earthquakes per year since 1978 to hundreds per year in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Thousands of earthquakes have occurred in Oklahoma and surrounding areas in southern Kansas and North Texas since 2009. Scientific studies attribute the rise in earthquakes to the disposal of wastewater produced during oil extraction that has been injected more deeply into the ground.
Two of the most significant earthquakes in these swarms were the November5, 2011 Prague earthquake east of the Oklahoma City area and the September 3, 2016 earthquake near Pawnee, north of Prague. The 2011 Prague earthquake, at reported magnitude 5.6, was at the time the strongest recorded earthquake in the history of Oklahoma. The 2016 earthquake was initially reported to be an identical 5.6 magnitude, but this was later upgraded to 5.8, making it the strongest earthquake on record. Simultaneously, the USGS upgraded the magnitude of the Prague earthquake to 5.7. Numerous seismologists had advised local residents of an even greater risk of earthquakes in 2014, by which time the number of earthquakes had increased to a dangerously high level. In response to the major increase in earthquakes in the Central United States, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) began developing a new seismic hazard model to account for risk associated with induced seismicity. By June 26, 2014, no fewer than six individual earthquake sequences in Oklahoma had been identified and named by the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS). Other swarms have been observed in south-central Kansas and North Texas.
In March2013, a peer-reviewed paper published by a research team led by seismologist Katie Keranen at the University of Oklahoma in the scientific journal Geology reported that "the volume of fluid injected into the subsurface related to the production of unconventional resources continues to rise" and that there was a link between the "zone of injection and the seismicity" potentially triggering the Prague earthquake. On March28, 2016 the USGS released the USGS National Seismic Hazard Map which concluded that the primary cause of the earthquake in Oklahoma in 2011 was pressure on fault lines from cumulative effects of injecting oil drilling wastewater under high pressure into the underground. Although the 2011 earthquake was the largest on record until that time, the USGS reported that the central and eastern U.S. (CEUS) had undergone the most dramatic increase in seismic activity in the United States since 2009 with an average of 318 earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 a year up from 24 a year from 1973 to 2008. In 2015 there were 1,010 earthquakes in the CEUS region. By mid-March, 2016 there were already 226 earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 and larger in the CEUS.
Earthquake in Fairbury, NE Updated Sept. 3, 2016 8:06 p.m. ET
A 5.6-magnitude earthquake rattled Oklahoma on Saturday, damaging buildings and tying for the strongest temblor ever recorded in the state, which has experienced a rash of earthquake activity in the past decade that U.S. seismologists have tied to the underground disposal of wastewater from oil and gas drilling.
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin said via Twitter TWTR 0.26 % on Saturday afternoon that state regulators were contacting operators of 37 disposal wells in a 500-square-mile area and asking them to shut down following the quake.
The earthquake took place around 7:02 a.m. central time near Pawnee, Okla., a town of about 2,200 people roughly 55 miles northwest of Tulsa, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was felt widely through the middle of the country, with reports coming from as far as Houston and Kansas City, according to the USGS.
There were no reports of serious injuries, but officials reported damage to some buildings in Pawnee. It wasnt clear whether the temblor was natural or triggered in part by human activity.
An assessment deemed six buildings in the Pawnee Nation reservation uninhabitable, Gov. Fallin wrote on Twitter. In rural Pawnee County, three homes were damaged and a homeowner was taken to the hospital after suffering minor injuries in the quake, she wrote.
Staff from the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management were in Pawnee assessing damage to buildings, said Keli Cain, spokeswoman for the department.
Residents in Oklahoma City and Stillwater, a city southwest of Pawnee that is home to Oklahoma State University, have also reported building damage via social media, Ms. Cain said.
Were monitoring social media, and weve seen some reports, she said. The department hadnt received reports of serious injuries.
Chunks of a 100-year-old building fell two stories to litter the sidewalk near the Pawnees main street, officials said.
Thats one of our historic buildings, said Lou Brock, a city councilman.
Mr. Brock said he was awake and was wishing a friend happy birthday when the rumbling started. This was not the gift I wanted to give them, he said. He felt the ground moving for over a minute.
One of those incredible feelings, he said.
The city asked residents to report any structural problems or smells of gas, he said.
Right now the situation is that as long as we get the most information from our wonderful city people I think were going to be just fine, Mr. Brock said.
Gov. Fallin, a Republican, said on Twitter that structural engineers found very minor issues and none concerning structural problems with state highway and Oklahoma Turnpike Authority bridges following the quake. Oklahoma Corporation Commission staffers were also reviewing oil and gas wastewater disposal wells in a 725 square-mile area of interest around the quake area, she added.
So far, the commission has ordered at least 37 wells to be shut down within a week to 10 days. This is a mandatory directive, she wrote, adding that state regulators are working with the Environmental Protection Agency in Osage County. The governor didnt say why the state ordered the wells to close.
Representatives for the governor didnt respond to requests for comment.
The shutdowns are a direct response to the earthquake and seek to minimize further seismic activity around the fault line, said Matt Skinner, spokesman for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.
The commission focused on wells that dispose wastewater into a rock formation deep underground called the Arbuckle. Seismologists are in broad agreement that the Arbuckle formation is linked to earthquakes in Oklahoma, Mr. Skinner said.
This is the quickest action weve taken after an event, said Mr. Skinner, adding that state regulators are working with Environmental Protection Agency in Osage County, which is under federal control.
The shutdown order is the latest action the commission has taken against the oil and gas industry since 2013, when it asked some wastewater-well owners to reduce disposal volumes, he said. Since then, the commission has taken action against around 700 Arbuckle wells. There are about 4,000 wastewater wells across the state, he said.
Oklahoma has a history of seismic activity, and earthquakes in the state aren"t unheard of. But it has stepped up regulation of the wastewater injection wells after seeing a dramatic increase in seismic activity over the past decade. In 2015 the USGS recorded 2,500 quakes with a magnitude of 2.5 or higher in the state, up from just three in 2005.
The USGS in March released maps that for the first time show the potential risk of man-made as well as naturally occurring earthquakes, and they listed some parts of Texas and Oklahoma now at the same danger of temblors as California, due largely to the injection-well trend.
The strongest quake previously recorded in Oklahoma was also a 5.6 magnitude event, and took place near Prague, Okla. in 2011, buckling roads and destroying 14 homes. It spurred several lawsuits from homeowners who claimed energy companies burying wastewater nearby had helped trigger the quake.
When energy producers extract oil and gas from wells, thousands of barrels of salty water laced with heavy metals come up along with the fuel. The water often is injected back underground under high pressure into special disposal wells.
But government and academic researchers have found that the practice may help trigger movement along geologic fault lines. The oil-and-gas industry has acknowledged the validity of the studies and cooperated with regulators, but has said that more research is needed to link specific wells to specific incidents.
After Oklahomas Corporation Commission began taking stronger actions to police the location and volume of injection wells, the number of quakes in the state fell by roughly 25% compared with a year earlier, state officials said in June.
The Cooper Nuclear Station near Brownville, Neb., experienced minor tremors from the earthquake and declared an unusual event at 7:10 a.m., according to a press release. There is no threat to the public or plant personnel, and the station continues to operate safely, the release said.
The quakes epicenter was roughly 25 miles north of Cushing, Okla., one of the worlds major oil hubs. The town holds some 64 million barrels of crude in about 400 massive, aboveground tanks.
A representative of Enbridge Inc., ENB 3.59 % one of the top pipeline and storage companies in Cushing, said no damage had been reported at its sites there.
Following the earthquake, Enbridge employees were directed to conduct visual inspections of tanks, manifolds and other facilities. The Cushing Terminal is currently operating normally, the company said.
Bruce Heine, a spokesman for Magellan Midstream Partners LP, which is another tank farm owner in Cushing, said in an email, We have no damage to report at this time.
The quake was the largest one in the continental U.S. this year, according to Lucy Jones, a quake expert and seismologist formerly with the U.S. Geological Survey. Only Alaska has had a larger quake this year, she said in a flurry of Twitter responses she typically unleashes after a significant quake.
Scientists have linked the increase in the rate of quakes in the region of Saturdays temblor to the rise of the oil and gas industry, especially the injection of wastewater into the ground. But it is more difficult to link specific quakes to those processes.
Some scientists have suggested man-made quakes cant produce shaking as intense as naturally occurring quakes, possibly because the faults havent reached maximum stress levels before the injections weaken them and cause a break.
Dr. Jones said Oklahomas longest fault is long enough to produce a magnitude 7 quake.
Dan Molinski and Tammy Audi contributed to this article.
Corrections & Amplifications: Oklahoma Corporation Commission staffers were reviewing oil and gas wastewater disposal wells in a 725 square-mile area of interest around the quake area. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the area was 725 square meters. (Sept. 3, 2016)
Write to Miguel Bustillo at miguel.bustillo@wsj.com
Japan earthquake & Tsunami 2011 - Shocking video - missing 18000 people
NOTE: The earthquake that struck Kern County on Tuesday afternoon has been changed from a 4.8 magnitude to a 4.9.
The original story, published Tuesday afternoon and updated throughout Tuesday evening, is below.
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BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) - The U.S. Geological Survey says a 4.8 magnitude earthquake felt across Bakersfield was a centered 4 miles southwest of Wasco.
The quake struck shortly after 4 p.m. Tuesday and was about 13 miles deep. It was centered 23 miles northwest of Bakersfield.
Several smaller aftershocks, including 2.6 and 2.5 magnitude quakes, were reported by the USGS.
MORE: Kern County weather forecast
Tessa Lovro with the Red Cross said no injuries have been reported to her.
The Bakersfield Police Department, Bakersfield Fire Department, Kern County Fire Department and Kern County Sheriff"s Office all say they don"t have reports of damage.
The BFD reminded the public to "drop, cover and hold on" in the event of a quake.
Gregg Wilkerson works as a geologist for the Bureau of Land Management. He said smaller earthquakes are normal adjustments that occur because of plate activity.
"It"s an early warning," Wilkerson said. "We could have another big earthquake anytime so small ones are good and they release the stress and we don"t have the damage we"d have from a big one."
Wilkerson also said the earthquake of this magnitude was unusual for the Central Valley because it isn"t on a highly active seismic area, like the San Andreas Fault or East California Shear Zone.
A couple Eyewitness News viewers said via Facebook that they had minor drywall damage.
Did you feel it? Tell us on Facebook.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said they had no reports of outages.
MORE: PG&E earthquake safety and preparedness tips
The Associated Press reports that people felt the quake in several surrounding counties, including Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles.
Earthquake in Nepal 2015, CCTV footage Shaking along coast Tuesday wasn"t an earthquake, seismologists say | News, Weather, Sports, Breaking News | KOMO
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By KOMO Staff1456349495000
160223_squiggles_quake.jpg
WESTPORT, Wash. -- Social media started percolating Tuesday afternoon with a number of reports along the central Washington coast of mild shaking, and wondering if they just had experienced an earthquake.
However, none of the sensors at the Pacific Northwest Seismology Network triggered an earthquake alert -- usually those alerts happen within moments of a quake.
So, was it a quake?
A letter from PNSN seismologists to the Grays Harbor Emergency Management said that two seismographs on either side of Ocean Shores about 10 miles apart did pick up some mild shaking, but it was not a classic quake signature.
Instead, there was a 20-second delay between when the two seismographs started squiggling. The speed of sound is about 10 times slower than the speed of quake energy spreading through the ground, and the 20-second delay suggests it was a sound event, said state seismologist John Vidale. An earthquake would have shown up nearly simultaneously on the graphs.
Bottom line: The seismologists" hypothesis was that it was caused by airplanes -- possibly sonic booms, maybe from offshore military exercises.
Japan earthquake & Tsunami 2011 - Shocking video - missing 18000 people
I"ve proposed a plan to put Alaska on a sustainable path through further spending cuts, modest tax increases, and use of a fixed portion of our permanent fund earnings to support public services like educating our children, plowing our roads and safeguarding our communities.
This plan will get us off the boom-and-bust cycle that tends to plague oil-dependent economies. It puts government on an allowance. It enables us to continue to grow our savings. It allows us to pay for essential services like education and public safety, and to invest in our economy.
None of the pieces of my proposal are politically popular. That"s OK. As I told my fellow Alaskans in my recent State of the State speech, I did not run for governor to keep the job, I ran for governor to do the job. As governor, I will always put Alaskans" interests above my own.
