In the last quake thread I’d said:
Well, Vanuatu Rocking isn’t all THAT odd, but they did get a 7ish scale event, and that matters. Then Colorado popped a modest one (that isn’t notable other than where it is, really), but now the East Coast has a large quake? At that point, the memories of the New Madrid quake have to start being dusted off.
But now we have ANOTHER 7.x in Vanuatu. “Watson, the game is afoot!”… Don’t know what it means, other than that Vanuatu is an exciting place to live these days, but 2 of about the same size and time leads me to wonder “Who is a foreshock of whom?” and what is to come.
The particulars:
Magnitude 7.0 – VANUATU
2011 September 03 22:55:36 UTC
This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.Magnitude 7.0
Date-Time Saturday, September 03, 2011 at 22:55:36 UTC
Sunday, September 04, 2011 at 09:55:36 AM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 20.585°S, 169.696°E
Depth 132.4 km (82.3 miles)
Region VANUATU
Distances 122 km (75 miles) SSE of Isangel, Tanna, Vanuatu
217 km (134 miles) ENE of Tadine, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia
347 km (215 miles) SSE of PORT-VILA, Efate, Vanuatu
1860 km (1155 miles) ENE of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 14.3 km (8.9 miles); depth +/- 10 km (6.2 miles)
Parameters NST=125, Nph=126, Dmin=934 km, Rmss=1.12 sec, Gp= 32°,
M-type=regional moment magnitude (Mw), Version=9
Source Magnitude: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Location: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID usc0005ntq
Vanuatu
Vanuatu LIve Quake Map
The Vanuatu Prior (old) Specs are:
Magnitude 7.0 – VANUATU
2011 August 20 18:19:24 UTCThis event has been reviewed by a seismologist.Magnitude 7.0
Date-Time Saturday, August 20, 2011 at 18:19:24 UTC
Sunday, August 21, 2011 at 05:19:24 AM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 18.287°S, 168.132°E
Depth 28.5 km (17.7 miles)
Region VANUATU
Distances 69 km (42 miles) SSW of PORT-VILA, Efate, Vanuatu
177 km (109 miles) NW of Isangel, Tanna, Vanuatu
328 km (203 miles) SSE of Luganville, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu
1853 km (1151 miles) ENE of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 13.4 km (8.3 miles); depth +/- 4.7 km (2.9 miles)
Parameters NST=473, Nph=475, Dmin=455.3 km, Rmss=1.21 sec, Gp= 18°,
M-type=regional moment magnitude (Mw), Version=9
Source Magnitude: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Location: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID usc0005hbt
Southern Hemisphere
A view of Earthquakes from the South Pole
Original Image with Clickable Details
Northern Hemisphere
North Polar Earthquake Map
Original Image with Clickable Details
Asia and Russia
Asia Quake Map
Original Image with clickable areas
Australia / New Zealand
This is a map of the Australia / Indonesia / New Zealand area:
Australia / Indonesia / New Zealand Quake Map
Original with clickable regions to zoom in
North America
North America and Mid Atlantic Ridge Quake Map
Original with clickable details
And remember, I have a dedicated CSZ page with closeups
California Map
Here is an alternative view of things with the fault lines highlighted:
California Quakes with fault lines
Map of Plates
You can see it is where plates collide here:
Plates Of The World
Original Image, and with other language options.
Some Volcano Stuff
This page:
http://pangea.stanford.edu/~dsinnett/Pages/Links.html has a nice collection of links to volcano monitor pages. Just click the pictures for the different volcano observatories.
The Smithsonian page:
Musings from the Chiefio 
EM,
We’ve discussed the relative lack of an association between the suncycle, volcanoes, and earthquakes. Plus maybe a few other possible variables. However, there appears to be some increase of volcanic activity in the ring of fire that’s coincident with a consistent earthquake activity. Maybe it is just better reporting and accessibility to data. But I wonder if that japanese big one is associated with continued shifting? Tambora appears to be rumbling a bit. that would not be good.
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/Testimonies/comments.php?id=234523
The USGS site only shows larger quakes. this site shows activity increasing near the german-Czeck border. Funny that.
Here’s a good link showing increased activity and alert raised or ongoing at 22 volcanoes in Indonesia, etc, .
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/09/03/increased-activity-22-volcanoes-alert-raised.html
@ Tim Clark
The quake swarm at Czech-German border (I posted about the first swarm last week) has happened before.
This article about the swarm links the activation of a fault to be possibly related with rising magma. The area is covered by old volcano’s that were regarded to be extinct.
http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2011/08/27/earthquake-swarm-reported-on-german-czech-border/
Interestingly enough similar quakes and small swarms occur in the volcanic are around Koblenz in Germany.
Very interesting stuff that tells us Western Europe is not the safe and quiet place people thought it was.
Insurance companies will be pleased to sell quake insurances where they sold none over the past decades.
As for Mount Tambora,
I’m absolutely not worried about Tambora as it had already three VEI 0-2 eruptions after the big bang of 1815. It will take many, many years before another big bang is pending which won’t happen in our lifetime.
http://bigthink.com/ideas/39980
As for the quake, volcano, sun connection, there is a statistical relationship between the frequency and strength of quakes, volcanic eruptions and (low) solar magnetic activity of our sun.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/buvw2tq081013210/fulltext.pdf?page=1
And what to think about the Fox Island swarm which included a 7.1
AN ISLANDS
04-SEP-2011 01:10:00 52.07 -171.60 4.5 35.3 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS
03-SEP-2011 01:25:38 52.06 -171.57 5.1 51.2 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS
02-SEP-2011 19:48:56 52.20 -171.55 4.8 36.0 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS
02-SEP-2011 18:28:39 52.12 -171.45 4.8 15.6 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS
02-SEP-2011 17:39:14 52.03 -171.46 4.9 46.7 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS
02-SEP-2011 12:16:54 51.65 -170.47 4.3 35.0 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS
02-SEP-2011 11:27:44 51.92 -171.55 4.8 35.2 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS
02-SEP-2011 11:24:26 53.83 -168.26 4.5 35.2 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS
02-SEP-2011 10:55:54 52.18 -171.68 7.1 35.5 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS
Coordinates all situated on the off coast ocean floor
Many active volcano’s at the Fox Islands
VSEVIDOF Stratovolcano Historical Fox Islands
RECHESCHNOI Stratovolcano Holocene Fox Islands
OKMOK Shield volcano Historical Fox Islands
BOGOSLOF Submarine volcano Historical Fox Islands
MAKUSHIN Stratovolcano Historical Fox Islands
AKUTAN Stratovolcano Historical Fox Islands
WESTDAHL Stratovolcano? Historical Fox Islands
FISHER Stratovolcano Historical Fox Islands
SHISHALDIN Stratovolcano Historical Fox Islands
ISANOTSKI Stratovolcano Uncertain Fox Islands
ROUNDTOP Stratovolcano Radiocarbon Fox Islands
AMAK Stratovolcano Historical Fox Islands
In the mean time Katla is shaking as well.
Quake swarm at Katla, all at the same locations inside the crater zone, different depth.
http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/myrdalsjokull/
And harmonic tremor
@Tim Clark:
Please make it clear, that’s QUAKE activity increasing at the German / Czech border!! ;-)
It is a strange place to be shaking, though…
@R. de Haan:
Why do I get this feeling that something big, hot, and bad is going to happen in Europe…
That, and the stock market is having a bit of a melt down on political changes to the market rules…
Somehow I think I’m rather happier to be in Florida right now than down wind of Iceland and on top of a German pressure cooker…
Of either / any kinds…
Not liking big sized quakes in Sumatra either…
Magnitude 6.6 – NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
2011 September 05 17:55:13 UTC
This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.Magnitude 6.6
Date-Time Monday, September 05, 2011 at 17:55:13 UTC
Tuesday, September 06, 2011 at 12:55:13 AM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 2.973°N, 97.997°E
Depth 110.1 km (68.4 miles)
Region NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
Distances 100 km (62 miles) SW of Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia
118 km (73 miles) W of Pematangsiantar, Sumatra, Indonesia
160 km (99 miles) NNW of Sibolga, Sumatra, Indonesia
1409 km (875 miles) NW of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 13.6 km (8.5 miles); depth +/- 8.3 km (5.2 miles)
Parameters NST=248, Nph=249, Dmin=108 km, Rmss=1.11 sec, Gp= 22°,
M-type=regional moment magnitude (Mw), Version=6
Source Magnitude: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Location: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID usc0005pdr
@ E.M Smith
Very strong (deep) earthquake below Sumatra, Indonesia – 2 people killed + 100′s of houses uninhabitable
http://earthquake-report.com/2011/09/05/very-strong-earthquake-at-intermediate-depth-below-sumatra-indonesia/
Most likely water is causing harmonic tremor in Katla volcano
http://www.jonfr.com/volcano/?p=1449
Quakes continue
Knowing nothing about quakes, what do the 20+ quakes around Tom’s place at Mammoth with “shallow depth (~1.2km), poorly constrained” signify, magma movement or tectonic?
Remarkable
Just been hit by a 4.3 quake with the epicenter approx. 30 km from my house near the town of Cuyk (Netherlands) on the other side of the border.
The event was very short but it really made the house produce some mighty cracking sounds.
This is the second time I have experienced a quake in this region.
The first was in 1992 near the town of Roermond.
Details:
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=234981
Katla Volcano
@Tim Clark:
That’s the $64 Billion question… Sometimes it’s either. But any time there is a quake storm around a major volcano, you start watching for ‘harmonic tremor’ to tell you if the magma is getting to the surface. At a place like Mammoth, that can be horrific…
@R. de Haan:
Let us know if you get a volcano ;-)
Are the folks in Netherlands spooked by the quakes?
@All:
Frankly, the Indonesia cluster has me more worried than most of the rest. It “has history”…
And I note in passing that the area around Japan continues to have a LOT of modest sized quakes. Looks like the whole northern edge of the Pacific Plate is in motion (and some of the south western edge too….)
It looks like that 6.8 quake up in the Aleutians might have caused the magma to start flowing again into Mt. Cleveland’s magma chamber:
http://www.alaska-native-news.com/article/Rural_News/Rural_News/Mount_Cleveland_Volcano_Continues_Building_Massive_Dome/23229
@E. M Smith
Many people called the emergency services.
But we have to keep in mind that quakes are very rare in this part of Europe and the area is one of the most populated area’s in the world.
Strange enough there is no consensus about the exact location of the epicenter of this quake, it’s strength and depth.
Some agencies report the epicenter in the Netherlands, others near Xanten or Kleve in Germany .
Strength reports vary from a 4.2 to a 4.6 and depth varies from 14 to 7 km.
http://earthquake-report.com/2011/09/08/moderate-shallow-earthquake-with-epicenter-in-germany/
It could be that this quake is related to shale gas drilling activity.
This is a developing story and I will report any outcome.
This site has a simplified picture showing what harmonic tremors look like relative to the other types.
Now, if I could only find an actual seismograph of one of those ML quakes.
Cascadia Calling at 6.4 –
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Maps/region/N_America.php
5.0 near martinique as well earlier today
Just for the record: Tamborra
From john Seach’s blog:
Friday 9th September 2011
Tambora Volcano, Indonesia
Tambora volcano in Indonesia has been raised to level 3 alert (out of maximum 4) on 8th September. On 6-7 September continuous tremor was recorded at the volcano. On 7th September there were 40 shallow volcanic earthquakes. A 3-km exclusion zone has been placed around the volcano.
Burst of heavy rain in Silicon Valley …
Earthquake swarm at Katla…
http://www.jonfr.com/volcano/
Well….
So we’ve got Katla rattling things (watch out Europe…) and we’ve got Tambora clearing it’s throat (watch out world) and we’ve got The Cascadia doing some pre-quake warm ups, and we’ve got a very nicely defined line of quakes along the inner zone of weakness of California (Hayward / Calaveras system) that usually lets loose a couple of years one way or the other from the San Andreas (that had a big one a couple of decades back) and sometimes let loose just after The Cascadia…
All we need now is for the swamlette around Mamouth Mountain / Lakes to turn into something like 5.x sized events …
E. M. Smith
So far I think it is correct to state that we have been a bunch of lucky bastards to be alive in a relative stable and warm period in time with great technology and high living standards.
Despite the recent natural disasters our planet is a great place to live.
Many people however lack any appreciation and some hard core zealots spend their entire life time telling us how bad it is.
Can’t wait for the technology to beam them into an ice age.
Here’s a Canadian site showing the smaller earthquakes in British Colombia.
http://earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/index-eng.php?tpl_region=swbc
Also some curious quakes in Texas and Oklahoma. 4.4 in Texas yesterday or the day before followed by 6 or more ~3.0 aftershocks, and at some point there was also a 3.3 in Oklahoma.
_Michael
Ok, add a 3.0 in alabama. Sheesh, how bizzare!
BTW my other earthquake info (other than our gracious host) is youtube.com/user/solarwatcher
Apparently he believes strongly in solar influences on earthquakes, specifically through interaction with the magnetosphere – and currently we’ve been in about a 2 day long geo-magnetic storm (off and on, but it seems like a fairly unsusual, sustained event).
Maybe a connection with these central U.S. 3+ scale quakes.
_Michael
Earthquake in Alabama a few minutes ago!
Pierce Corbyn makes his long range weather forecasts on a similar basis and just won a BBC price for the best long term summer forecast for the UK
http://climaterealists.com/?id=8334
Michael, where do you live? Texas perchance?
And now an earthquake on Illinois.
R. de Haan;
If I was in the Netherlands, integrity of the dikes would be my first concern! Any issues there?
BTW, an English grammar hint: lose the apostrophes. You’re way off in la-la land on them.
NEVER for plurals, e.g.
Noun possessives, and abbreviations of the words “is” or “has”.
NOTHING else.
7.3 in Fiji – more than 300 miles deep. Is that atypical? It seems so.
Thanks for the grammar tips Brian H.
As for the integrity of the dikes I don’t think they have a problem at this moment in time.
The quake took place at the eastern part of the Netherlands at the German border.
Besides that, all the dikes are checked constantly.
Mt.Rainier shakes
http://earthquake-report.com/2011/09/13/weak-earthquake-right-below-mount-rainier-volcano-washington-usa/
Czech/German border, I think there are a lot of hotsprings in that area?
@R de Haan:
Most Dikes I’ve met have had a lot of integrity, and nice leathers too ;-)
Wow! 413 quakes on the California map AND a large cluster in Central America and southern Mexico… AND increases all over the globe.
Hmmmm….. Wonder what’s up…