Lee Dunn's List: EARTH-Signs

• PHILIPPINES: SULFUR GAS AND QUAKES JOLTS MAYON
• LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines Dec. 11 (NNN-PNA) — At least 29 volcanic earthquakes jolted Mayon Volcano on Friday, the highest recorded seismic event this week indicating that the volcano’s abnormality is still up, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said to PNA.
• Scientists are continuously observing Mayon volcano’s fluctuating seismic precursors such as quakes, gas emission and ground deformation these are indication that the volcano’s seismic activity may possibly lead to an explosive eruption.
• Phivolcs advisory said high and low frequency harmonic quakes were detected by seismic instruments signifying that magma intrusion is developing in the volcano?s crater vent.
• Ed Laguerta, Phivolcs resident volcanologist, said the agency seismic networks has recorded a total of 44 earthquakes that rocked the volcano since Dec. 1 this year.

3 more annotations...

• Three killed in Malawi earthquake
• by Staff Writers
   Blantyre (AFP) Dec 20, 2009
• Three people were killed and about 300 injured Sunday when an earthquake measuring at least 6.0 on the Richter Scale struck northern Malawi, the second in under two weeks, authorities said.
• "This morning's tremor was a 6.2 size magnitude," said Malawi's chief geologist Leonard Kalindekase, adding it was the "largest so far" since the tremors began two weeks ago.
• The US Geological Survey said the quake measured 6.0 on the Richter scale and struck at 1:19 am Sunday (2319 GMT Saturday).
• Gasten Macheka, the district commissioner for the Karonga district which borders Tanzania, said the three dead included a child who died after bricks fell on him, and two adults. Eighty-one people have been admitted to district hospital.
• Macheka said the quake destroyed several buildings in the uranium-rich mining district.
• Scores of others were injured, including those in a dormitory of a state school when walls collapsed.
• Over 200,000 people have been urged to evacuate their homes in the district which lies in the earthquake-prone Great Rift Valley.
• A one-year-old boy was killed and 12 people were injured last Tuesday when a series of moderate earthquakes struck Malawi and Tanzania, the biggest of which registered 5.9 on the Richter scale.
• In total 4,656 people have been affected by the series of quakes, and 1,100 houses destroyed.

9 more annotations...

• Earthquake Swarm Hits Central Oklahoma
• Earthquake Swarm Hits Central Oklahoma
• ‘Swarms’ usually occur during a period of a few days, not over eight months, geologist says
• December 20, 2009
  By Johnny Johnson and Matt Dinger
    The Oklahoman
• JONES — During a typical year, Jones residents will feel one or two earthquakes.
• This year there have been 25 since March, and all of them have been felt, according to the Oklahoma Geological Survey.
• "I can tell you what’s going on, but we don’t know why,” engineering geologist Ken Luza said.
• Luza said he’s not aware of any faults near Jones, but there are thousands of unnamed faults buried deep throughout the state’s subsurface.
• "Now, we usually average about 50 earthquakes per year in Oklahoma,” Luza said. "So it’s not unusual to have earthquakes.
• But what seems unusual is that they seem to be concentrated in eastern Oklahoma County.”
• Paul Wallis of Jones describes the earthquakes as "the boom and the shake.”
• Wallis said Thursday night’s earthquake and the one early Dec. 13 were the ones his family has felt most strongly.
   
    "That one last night ... we were actually putting the Christmas tree up, and the top went to shaking,” he said.
• And on the morning of Dec. 13, Wallis said, he was in bed when the boom startled him awake about 2:30 a.m.
• "I think the boom woke me up, and I was sitting up when the shaking was taking place. We’ve got the train track that runs about 50 yards from the house, and it was about two or three times louder than that,” he said.
• His wife was downstairs working on the computer and ran upstairs.
   
    "Her and the girls went to squealing,” Wallis said.
• The family is not able to get earthquake insurance through their provider, but Wallis said he’d already looked into it.
   
    He said the low premiums would be worth the added protection.
   
    "We’re kind of right in the middle of it, it seems like,” Wallis said.
• Wallis said some of his friends who live outside of town have felt some of the other tremblors but were unaffected by the two that have shaken his own house the hardest.
• When a rash of earthquakes happen in one location over an extended time, Luza said, it’s called an earthquake swarm.
   
    But swarms usually occur during a period of a few days to a week.
• "It’s unusual to see it last eight months,” he said.
• Luza said there are only 15 seismograph stations in the state.
• That’s enough to narrow down the location of the epicenter to about a six-mile radius.
• But it’s not enough to get an exact location of the quake or depth, or to be able to tell whether the ground there was moving up and down, side to side or both, he said.
   
    "To measure that, we’d need more seismograph stations, and they are coming,” Luza said.
• Beginning next year, Project Earth Scope, which is funded by the National Science Foundation, will bring in an additional 25 seismograph stations to Oklahoma. That will give the state a total of 40 stations, Luza said.
• The equipment will be housed in Oklahoma for a two- to three-year study period then moved to another state.
• Events
   
    DATE TIME (UTC) COUNTY MAGNITUDES LAT. LONG. DEPTH
    2009 MAR 08 13:06:39 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 3.6 35.452N 97.479W 5.00
    2009 MAR 17 17:24:52 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 2.7 35.446N 97.456W 5.00
    2009 MAR 17 17:41:37 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 2.5 35.446N 97.456W 5.00
    2009 MAR 17 19:57:15 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 2.4 35.446N 97.456W 5.00
    2009 MAY 29 01:26:28 UTC LINCOLN MAG. 2.2 35.80N 97.00W 5.00
    2009 JUN 14 21:31:08 UTC LINCOLN MAG. 3.4 35.62N 96.85W 5.00
    2009 JUN 16 16:32:46 UTC LINCOLN MAG. 2.8 35.89N 96.87W 5.00
    2009 JUN 26 21:23:14 UTC GARFIELD MAG. 3.6 36.33N 97.46W 5.00
    2009 JUL 01 17:14:48 UTC POTTAWATOMIE MAG. 3.4 35.40N 97.08W 5.00
    2009 JUL 17 17:40:50 UTC MCCLAIN MAG. 2.2 34.99N 97.35W 5.00
    2009 JUL 22 02:25:59 UTC LINCOLN MAG. 3.3 35.76N 96.97W 5.00
    2009 AUG 14 20:08:59 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 2.3 35.46N 97.41W 5.00
    2009 AUG 27 08:22:15 UTC SEMINOLE MAG. 3.4 34.99N 96.59W 5.00
    2009 AUG 27 12:58:56 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 2.5 35.56N 97.29W 5.00
    2009 AUG 27 15:17:52 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 2.7 35.56N 97.29W 5.00
    2009 AUG 27 15:31:54 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 2.5 35.56N 97.29W 5.00
    2009 AUG 27 17:14:22 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 2.6 35.56N 97.29W 5.00
    2009 AUG 27 18:32:35 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 2.7 35.56N 97.29W 5.00
    2009 AUG 28 02:09:12 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 3.7 35.56N 97.29W 5.00
    2009 AUG 28 03:30:55 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 2.4 35.56N 97.29W 5.00
    2009 AUG 28 04:15:50 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 2.3 35.56N 97.29W 5.00
    2009 SEP 08 14:03:12 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 2.3 35.63N 97.20W 5.00
    2009 OCT 23 03:56:29 UTC LINCOLN MAG. 3.0 35.79N 97.01W 5.00
    2009 OCT 23 03:58:11 UTC LINCOLN MAG. 2.5 35.79N 97.01W 5.00
    2009 NOV 02 18:27:05 UTC OKFUSKEE MAG. 2.7 35.43N 96.55W 5.00
    2009 NOV 14 11:13:01 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 3.0 35.52N 97.21W 5.00
    2009 NOV 16 11:12:59 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 2.5 35.49N 97.23W 5.00
    2009 NOV 17 04:00:17 UTC STEPHENS MAG. 3.0 34.52N 97.62W 5.00
    2009 NOV 23 05:47:12 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 2.6 35.49N 97.23W 5.00
    2009 NOV 25 16:51:39 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 2.1 35.52N 97.27W 5.00
    2009 NOV 29 01:36:58 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 3.1 35.60N 97.27W 5.00
    2009 DEC 07 17:44:25 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 3.5 35.55N 97.25W 5.00
    2009 DEC 11 14:00:42 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 2.8 35.58N 97.32W 5.00
    2009 DEC 12 11:34:05 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 3.1 35.53N 97.33W 5.00
    2009 DEC 13 08:38:25 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 3.4 35.59N 97.29W 5.00
    2009 DEC 15 15:39:15 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 2.4 35.57N 97.28W 5.00
    2009 DEC 17 23:52:01 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 2.2 35.56N 97.28W 5.00
    2009 DEC 18 02:25:39 UTC OKLAHOMA MAG. 2.8 35.54N 97.27W 5.00
• http://newsok.com/quakes-still-shaking-jones/article/3426115

24 more annotations...

• Published: December 21. 2009
• City takes a battering from freak tornado
• By Mikaela Ian Pearman
• A freak tornado ripped through Hamilton leaving the Magistrates' Court with a partially caved in roof and telephone poles lying on the ground on Saturday afternoon.
• A severe thunderstorm caused the tornado to tear through Reid Street and parts of Pembroke and Devonshire with winds gusts of 45 knots leaving large branches and foliage in the streets.
•                          

  Big mess: Branches block Reid Street as firefighters work on covering up a hole that was ripped out of the roof of Magistrates' Court following a suspected tornado that touched down in the City of Hamilton on Saturday afternoon.      Photo: Mark Tatem
• According to Nicole Hannon, Meteorological Forecaster for Bermuda Weather Service, a severe thunderstorm warning was issued at 2.30 p.m. on Saturday, over an hour before the first tornado was reported at 3.45 p.m.
• Ms Hannon said tornadoes rip through Bermuda a few times a year and tend to happen in strong thunderstorms, as with yesterday's cold front, as well as in hurricanes.
• "A damage survey has been done by the director and deputy director of the Bermuda Weather Service and will be compiled into a full report today by the deputy director, Kimberley Zuill.
• Preliminary inspection of roof damage along Pitts Bay Road show some indication of rotation.
• As for the rainfall, 0.99 inches of precipitation was recorded at the airport and the lowest temperature was 59.9F.
• Forster Darling's 200-year-old Pitt's Bay Road home now has a gaping hole in the roof because of the tornado.
• "It was definitely a tornado that come through here. The weather people came to look at the debris to see which way the tornado went. They're pretty confident that it was a tornado."
• Royal Gazette photographer Mark Tatem was in Hamilton during the storm. He said: "I was at Brown and Co. picking up some Christmas gifts and we were just about to walk out the door and then the wind just picked up something serious and the doors were rattling.

12 more annotations...

• North Magnetic Pole Moving East Due to Core Flux
• Richard A. Lovett in San Francisco
  for National Geographic News
  

   

  December 24, 2009
• Earth's north magnetic pole is racing toward Russia at almost 40 miles (64 kilometers) a year due to magnetic changes in the planet's core, new research says
• The core is too deep for scientists to directly detect its magnetic field. But researchers can infer the field's movements by tracking how Earth's magnetic field has been changing at the surface and in space.
• Now, newly analyzed data suggest that there's a region of rapidly changing magnetism on the core's surface,
• possibly being created by a mysterious "plume" of magnetism arising from deeper in the core.
• And it's this region that could be pulling the magnetic pole away from its long-time location in northern Canada, said Arnaud Chulliat, a geophysicist at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris in France.

•    

   

  Enlarge Photo
• Finding North
• Magnetic north, which is the place where compass needles actually point, is near but not exactly in the same place as the geographic North Pole.
• Right now, magnetic north is close to Canada's Ellesmere Island.
• Navigators have used magnetic north for centuries to orient themselves when they're far from recognizable landmarks.
• Although global positioning systems have largely replaced such traditional techniques, many people still find compasses useful for getting around underwater and underground where GPS satellites can't communicate.
• The magnetic north pole had moved little from the time scientists first located it in 1831.
• Then in 1904, the pole began shifting northeastward at a steady pace of about 9 miles (15 kilometers) a year.
• In 1989 it sped up again, and in 2007 scientists confirmed that the pole is now galloping toward Siberia at 34 to 37 miles (55 to 60 kilometers) a year.
• A rapidly shifting magnetic pole means that magnetic-field maps need to be updated more often to allow compass users to make the crucial adjustment from magnetic north to true North.
• Wandering Pole
• Geologists think Earth has a magnetic field because the core is made up of a solid iron center surrounded by rapidly spinning liquid rock.
• This creates a "dynamo" that drives our magnetic field.
• Scientists had long suspected that, since the molten core is constantly moving, changes in its magnetism might be affecting the surface location of magnetic north.

• Although the new research seems to back up this idea, Chulliat is not ready to say whether magnetic north will eventually cross into Russia.  

    "It's too difficult to forecast," Chulliat said.   
• Also, nobody knows when another change in the core might pop up elsewhere, sending magnetic north wandering in a new direction.
• Chulliat presented his work this week at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

22 more annotations...

• Earthquake Activity Rocks Worlds In Mexico, California,... 
• Monday, Jan 4, 2010 @02:25pm CST
• The U.S. Geological Survey has reported some notable earthquake activity the past couple of days.

• Baja California, Mexico was rattled with a magnitude three-point-eight quake early Sunday morning.

  The epicenter was 22 miles north of Ensenada.
• Later in the day the earth quaked in the South Pacific, hitting the Solomon Islands with two shocks, a magnitude six-point-five followed by a large seven-point-two shaker.
• Just before 6:30 a.m. Pacific time this morning, a magnitude four-point-one quake woke the residents of Redway, California just nine miles from the epicenter.
• Utah was the next to shake at 9:24 a.m. local time.
• USGS says the magnitude four-point-one-quake was centered eight miles south of Cedar City, 154 miles north of Las Vegas.
• No damage and no injuries have been reported from any of the activity.
• (Copyright 2010 by VERTEXNews/Newsroom Solutions)

8 more annotations...

• 6.5 quake shakes buildings on California coast
• ANDREW DALTON

   

  From Associated Press

    January 10, 2010 1:37 AM EST
• FRESNO, Calif (AP) — A 6.5 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Northern California Saturday afternoon, shaking buildings south of the Oregon border and knocking out power in several coastal communities.
• The powerful quake hit at about 4:27 p.m. PST about 22 miles from Ferndale, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
• Authorities in the nearby city of Eureka and other area communities said no major injuries have been reported. But several people received minor cuts and scrapes from broken glass at the Bayshore Mall in Eureka, fire spokesman Gary Bird said.
• Pacific Gas & Electric Co. spokesman J.D. Guidi said power outages were widespread across most of Humboldt County, affecting about 25,000 customers.
• Several traffic lights fell and numerous residents reported water, gas and sewer leaks, Humboldt County Office of Emergency Services spokeswoman Jo Wattle said.
• "People have chimneys down, and we're hearing about minor property damage and lots of glassware broken," Wattle said. "People are really shaken up. It was shaking pretty good, then it had a big jolt to it at the end."
• According to the USGS, the quake hit at a depth of nearly 10 miles. Eight aftershocks followed in the three hours after the quake, the biggest registering at 6:21 p.m. PST at a magnitude of 4.5.

• Police in Ferndale said the earthquake caused stucco to fall off City Hall and broke shop windows, strewing the historic downtown streets with glass shards.

   

  "I thought a tire had blown off my truck because it was so hard to keep control of the vehicle," Officer Lindsey Frank said. "Power lines were swaying, and I could see people in the fields trying to keep their balance."

• Televisions tumbled and objects were knocked off walls in Arcata, a small town that's home to Humboldt State University, one resident said.

   

  "The whole town is kind of freaked out right now," said Judd Starks, the kitchen manager at a bar and restaurant known as The Alibi. "All the power is out, people are out walking around."
• The quake was felt as far south as Capitola in central California, and as far north as central Oregon, USGS geophysicist Richard Buckmaster said.
• The area is about 270 miles north of San Francisco in a coastal area known for periodic earthquakes.
• In 1964 a tsunami washed away 11 people in Crescent City, 80 miles to the north of Arcata. It is the only tsunami to take lives in the continental United States.
• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said there was no threat of the quake generating a tsunami.
• There is a small chance — 5 to 10 percent — of another magnitude-6.5 temblor or larger hitting the area over the next week, but the odds dramatically decrease as time passes, the USGS said.
• There's also a 78 percent chance of a strong and potentially damaging aftershock magnitude-5 or larger over the same period.

• Dan Bowermaster of San Francisco was with relatives in Eureka when the quake hit, moving the refrigerator in his cousins' home about 3 feet. He said he had been in several moderate and large quakes throughout California but had never felt anything as strong as this one.

   

  "It was extremely unsettling, it was shaking in kind of a circular way," he said.

16 more annotations...