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Earthquake Shakes Up Suez Canal as Iran Warships Approach
Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
An earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale shook up residents at the entrance to the Suez Canal early Monday morning, 48 hours before two Iranian ships, a frigate and a supply vessel, are expected to enter the canal.
The National Institute for Astronomical and Geophysical Research reported that tremors from the 3 a.m. quake lasted for 27 minutes, but caused no damage.
The ships had originally been expected to enter the Suez today (Monday), but Egyptian officials announced the delay this morning, without explanation.
Iran inexplicably announced Sunday morning that two of its warships had crossed the Suez, a report that was thoroughly denied by Egyptian authorities. Iranian media did not mention the ships on Monday, and the false report may have been Read more…
Nearly 400 dead, missing in New Zealand quake
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand – New Zealand declared a national state of emergency Wednesday after one of its worst earthquake disasters left nearly 400 people dead or missing.
Rescuers worked frantically to reach survivors under collapsed buildings in the stricken city centre of Christchurch, after recovering 75 bodies. About 300 people are still missing after Tuesday’s 6.3-magnitude quake.
“New Zealanders have woken to a tragedy unfolding in the great city of Christchurch,” said Prime Minister John Key, declaring the national emergency.
“The earthquake that struck the Canterbury region at ten to one yesterday has wreaked death and destruction on a dreadful scale.”
New Zealand’s second city was a scene of “incredible carnage”, police said.
Rescuers had to amputate limbs from Read more…
New Zealand earthquake magnitude 6.3 hits Christchurch
New Zealand earthquake: a major quake hit New Zeland’s second largest city Tuesday, local time. Initial reports indicate collapsed buildings and possible casualties from the New Zealand earthquake.
By David C. Scott, Staff / February 21, 2011
For the second time in five months, New Zealand’s south island city of Christchurch was rocked by a major earthquake on Tuesday afternoon local time.
Initial reports from Reuters news agency indicated that there were no reports of casualties, from the magnitude 6.3 temblor. Read more…
Arkansas cities feel unexplained surge in earthquakes
SARAH EDDINGTON
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Jim Sutterfield was briefly puzzled by a thumping sound that seemed to slam the back of his office chair. But when the small-town Arkansas fire chief turned and saw no one was around, he quickly realized it was just an earthquake — again.
“That was only my second time to feel one, but others here have felt them for three or four months now,” Greenbrier chief Jim Sutterfield said after feeling the latest tremor on Wednesday. “Now when it happens, people say, ‘Well, there’s another one.'”
Several small earthquakes ranging in magnitude from 1.8 to 3.8 have rattled the north-central Arkansas cities of Greenbrier and Guy this week, and the cause is unknown.
The U.S. Geological Survey has reported more than 30 earthquakes in the area since Sunday, including a magnitude 3.8 quake Thursday morning and at least 16 others occurring Wednesday, two of which were magnitude 3.2 and 3.5. More than 700 quakes have occurred in the region over the past six months.
Scott Ausbrooks, geohazards supervisor for the Arkansas Geological Survey, said the quakes are Read more…
New York Overdue For an Earthquake
New York City could start shaking any minute now.
Won-Young Kim, who runs the seismographic network for the Northeast at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, said the city is well overdue for a big earthquake.
From Metro New York:
The last big quake to hit New York City was a 5.3-magnitude tremor in 1884 that happened at sea in between Brooklyn and Sandy Hook. While no one was killed, buildings were damaged.
Kim said the city is likely to experience a big earthquake every 100 years or so.
“It can happen anytime soon,” Kim said. “We can expect it any minute, we just don’t know when and where.”
New York has never experienced a magnitude 6 or 7 earthquake, which are the most dangerous. But magnitude 5 quakes could topple brick buildings and chimneys.
Seismologist John Armbruster said a magnitude 5 quake that happened now would be more devastating than the one that happened in 1884.
Chile: fifth earthquake in three days
Shaky ground: A local resident hurries to abandon the waterfront after an earthquake in Constitucion, south from Santiago, on February 11, 2011. Picture: Diego Garcia Source: AFP
A MAGNITUDE 5.6 earthquake struck Chile – the third to hit within hours and the fifth tremor in three days.
The latest tremor hit 41 kilometres northwest of the central city of Concepcion at a depth of 17.7 kilometres. The quakes earlier in the day measured 6.0 and 5.8.
On Friday two quakes – measuring 6.3 and a 6.8 – rattled the region.
All the tremors have occurred in the same area heavily damaged by an 8.8 magnitude quake nearly a year ago.
That disaster resulted in more than 500 deaths and $30 billion in damage, and led to an inquiry over the lack of a timely tsunami warning.
Stress of Sliding Plates Builds Near Chile
NEAR EPICENTER Concepción, Chile’s second-largest metropolitan area, was badly damaged in last February’s quake.
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
When a magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck off the coast of Chile last February, geophysicists and seismologists were not surprised. The quake’s epicenter was on a roughly 200-mile stretch of a fault where stresses had been building for nearly two centuries, and experts had expected that one day the strain would be relieved in a cataclysmic event.
But as scientists have pored over volumes of data from what may turn out to be the best-studied major earthquake yet, they have concluded that Read more…
“FEMA Requests Millions of Rations For ‘Catastrophic Disaster In New Madrid Fault System’”
Magnitude 5.9 earthquake shakes Alaska Peninsula, but no reports of damage
SAND POINT, Alaska — A magnitude 5.9 earthquake shook several communities on the Alaska Peninsula, but there have been no immediate reports of damage. Krista Galvin is an administrative assistant with the city of Sand Point. She says it felt “like it just kept shaking, just longer than usual,” maybe lasting as long as a couple of minutes. She hadn’t heard of any damage, but said a school on top of a hill also felt an aftershock, which wasn’t felt in town. Sand Point is about 570 miles (917 kilometres) southwest of Anchorage. The U.S. Geological Survey reports the Tuesday afternoon earthquake was centred 25 miles (40 kilometres) south of Sand Point, at a depth of almost 22 miles (35 kilometres). It was also felt in Cold Bay and Chignik.
Small China quake forces evacuation of 65,000 people
KUNMING, China, Feb. 2 (UPI) — An earthquake that damaged nearly 700 homes forced some 65,000 people into shelters Wednesday in China’s southwestern Yunnan province.
The quake hit Yingjiang County Tuesday afternoon and had a magnitude of 4.8 on the open-ended Richter scale, county officials told the Xinhua news agency.
There was no immediate report on injuries, but officials said 229 homes had been seriously damaged and 448 others had sustained lesser damage, the report said.
The quake’s center was about 6 miles deep, geologists said.
The quake came just before Chinese New Year Thursday and county officials said they were trying to ensure a “merry and safe” celebration for evacuees by providing them with tents, blankets, coats and 10 tons of rice, Xinhua said.
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