**EARTHQUAKE THREATS** and recent quake activity

List of all the largest quakes this year

2007 quake activity -

11/15/07 -
CHILE - A strong 5.7 earthquake struck northern Chile on Wednesday, just hours after a magnitude 7.7 tremor shook the region. Chilean officials reported two deaths and more than 150 injuries.

11/14/07 -
New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are riddled with ancient geological faults. One of the most visible crosses Manhattan island at 125th Street and has created a distinct valley near the Hudson River. "The quake hazard in this region is significant. It isn’t as high as it is in California, but because of the high population and the built-up infrastructure, the risk is significant.” “A magnitude 5 quake can be expected, and it could be damaging. Public awareness of this is important.” The last major quake in this area occurred more than a century ago, which scientists describe as a mere geological blink of an eye. On Aug. 10, 1884, at 7:07 p.m., an earthquake that measured 5.2 on the Richter scale had its epicenter in New York Harbor south of Rockaway Beach, toppling chimneys, ringing church bells and breaking crockery from Connecticut to Pennsylvania. Its effects were noted from Virginia to Maine. The effects of a severe earthquake in Manhattan could be more profound than those in the West because on the East Coast the earth’s rocky crust is older, cooler and more rigid — and capable of transmitting more powerful shock waves — in comparison to the younger Western bedrock. Quakes like the one in 1884 may occur every 50 to 100 years. A stronger magnitude 6 quake, however, has a “return time” between 400 to 500 years in the region. The last temblor of that size occurred at Cape Ann, off the coast of Massachusetts, in 1755. Currently, portable seismographic stations are conducting a “site response analysis” to create a “subsurface shear velocity profile” of areas that could be vulnerable to earthquakes in Manhattan.

CHILE - A major 7.7 earthquake crushed cars, damaged hundreds of houses and terrified people for hundreds of miles around today. Authorities reported at least two deaths and more than 100 injuries. The quake, which struck at 12:40 p.m., shook the Chilean capital 780 miles to the south of the epicenter, and was felt as far away as the other side of the continent - in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1,400 miles to the east. It was followed by several aftershocks, including three larger than magnitude 5. "It was horribly strong. It was very long and there was a lot of underground noise." The quake generated only a two-foot wave along the coast. Scientists in Chile and the United States were trying to determine why such an intense quake apparently did not cause more damage.

11/8/07 -
INDIA - A day after the tremors everything seemed displaced in the three worst affected villages of Hiranvel, Chitrawad and Haripur in Talala taluka of Junagadh district. About 6,300 villagers have been forced to move out in the open, and what they fear more than the quakes now, are the wild animals. All these villages are located on the periphery of Gir forest where lions and leopards venturing out into the open are a common feature. "All the houses have developed major cracks. One more jerk, and they'll collapse. We have no other option for us but to sleep in the open. We have learnt to cohabit with wild animals, but sleeping in the open is fraught with danger."
Are frequent tremors in Gujarat's Saurashtra region a precursor to an earthquake similar to the killer one that devastated the state in 2001? This is the question the Gandhinagar-based Institute of Seismological Research has been researching for the past two years. The tremors in Saurashtra have once again come into focus after the two consecutive ones that hit the region Tuesday. "We have been conducting a detailed study of the tremors and the SUBTERRANEAN BOOMING SOUNDS, which have been emanating from different parts of the Saurashtra peninsula. In 2006 alone, there were more than 200 such shocks of which 50 of them had a magnitude of 1.5 or more on the Richter Scale. These shocks were largely confined to the Kalavad taluka of Jamnagar district. However, this year, the area from where the shocks emanated has grown and spread in an area measuring about 20 km. This year alone, we have already felt 200 such mild shocks and tremors. Most of the seismic activity has been concentrated around Lalpur (in Jamnagar district), about 30 km southeast of Jamnagar city. In the event of such development, a large, damaging earthquake cannot be ruled out in Saurashtra region." Similar activity was also witnessed before the devastating earthquake which struck Latur in Maharashtra in 1993. "These shocks have occurred in a swarm, very near to each other at different intervals of time." The Saurashtra region is surrounded by three of the eight major geological faults that exist in Gujarat, making it more susceptible to a major earthquake.

11/7/07 -
INDIA - A woman was killed and five persons were injured as tremors rocked many parts of Gujarat on Tuesday. The first tremor occurred at 0558 hrs and had a magnitude of 4.8 on the Richter scale. The effect of the first tremor was limited to Junagadh and nearby Amreli district. The second tremor which occurred at around 1520 hrs was measured at 5.1 on the Richter scale. The effect of the second tremor was felt in Saurashtra, Ahmedabad and Surat as well. Around 50 mud houses collapsed in the village of Haripura due to the tremor. Three villages of Talala taluka of Junagadh district - Haripura, Chitravad and Arenver, were the worst hit as several houses developed wide cracks, while many mud houses in these villages collapsed. Reports of damage to houses have also come from seven other villages of the Talala taluka but they were not severe.

11/4/07 -
ANTARCTICA - A RARE, strong earthquake jolted Antarctica - An earthquake registering 6.3 on the Richter scale rocked Antarctica at 2031 GMT Friday. The epicenter of the quake was 3,641 kilometers from Punta Arenas, Chile's southern most city. Earthquakes rarely hit Antarctica, and their scales are normally small.

[A THOUGHT - Ground creep appears to speed up before an earthquake, and thus could serve as a good precursor to a coming quake. If so, could Folsom, California be warning of a pending quake? The city has had a mysterious rash of water line breaks during recent weeks. The FREAK wave of water-line breaks in Folsom has drowned utility staff members under an unanswerable number of repair calls. An UNPRECEDENTED buildup of break repair jobs has caused the city to hire an outside contractor to provide additional help. And still breaks are taking weeks to repair.
Before a moderate-sized (M 5.5) earthquake struck the hamlet of Parkfield along the San Andreas fault on June 27 in 1966 in a remote area of central California, there had been a water pipe line that broke where it crossed the San Andreas fault, and that break occurred about nine hours before the June 27 earthquake. The break in the pipe showed the characteristic movement on the San Andreas fault - east side to the southeast. Researchers found no explanation for the break other than pre-earthquake fault movement.]

11/2/07 -
CALIFORNIA - Nearly 40 small aftershocks struck on the Calaveras Fault on Wednesday, following Tuesday night's moderate earthquake near San Jose that startled residents throughout the Bay Area. The 5.6-magnitude quake caused only minor damage in South Bay communities, and the aftershocks - the largest at 3:54 p.m. with a magnitude of 3.7 - occurred south of the main quake's epicenter near the Calaveras Reservoir. Damage from the quake was minor but widespread near the quake's epicenter. There were small landslides, a downed tree and damage to a trestle bridge in Alum Rock Park, and one landslide partially blocked a road in the park, which is perched in the hills east of downtown San Jose. The succession of aftershocks indicated that the fault was rupturing southward - a good sign - because most of the main quake's energy was being dissipated well away from the more dangerous Hayward Fault to the north. But there is always the possibility that the quake's abrupt release of stress inside the Calaveras Fault might have changed stresses that have long built up within the Hayward Fault. The most recent official report by earthquake experts has placed the probability that a destructive quake will strike within the next 25 years on the Hayward Fault with a magnitude of 6.7 or greater at 27 percent. It also estimated the probability of a similar quake on the Calaveras at 11 percent in the same period.
In the first real-world disaster test of local cellular networks, thousands of mobile phone users were unable to connect calls in the hour following the 5.6 earthquake that struck the Bay Area shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday. Wireless carriers said traffic spiked up to 10 times higher than normal. The flood of calls also tied up AT&T's landline phone service. Wireless officials are urging users to use text messages if they have to contact someone because it's more reliable and far less intensive on the network.
A truck driver was so sure the quake was coming - "because of the tremendous abundance of roadkill lately" - that he started telling people three days before. There were other reports of unusual pet behavior before the quake struck.

11/1/07 -
CALIFORNIA - Representatives from the state Office Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council said that Tuesday's 5.6-magnitude earthquake may be a precursor to a bigger tremor in the coming days. The tremor Tuesday night "has signifcantly increased the probability of a damaging earthquake along the Calaveras and/or Hayward faults over the next few days." Although the overall likelihood of such an event is still low, the Office of Emergency Services recommended that local emergency officials and first-response agencies review and implement elements of their emergency plans related to earthquake advisories.
A man correctly predicted the Bay Area Quake using a system he's worked on for years. On Sunday, he posted his quake prediction on his website called quakeprediction.com and on YouTube. He pointed to a large purple section of his map of California saying the area was at very high risk of an earthquake; the greatest risk in the west around the Bay Area. "We're expecting at least a 4.5 to 5.0 within the next 48 hours." He uses changes in air temperature and other data to make his predictions. He claims to accurately predict 75% of earthquakes.

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10/31/07 -
This morning there has been a 5.6 quake in the SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CALIFORNIA - the STRONGEST TO HIT THE BAY AREA SINCE 1989. The temblor came from the lesser-known Calaveras Fault. The quake produced no reports of serious injuries or damage. The USGS reported about a dozen aftershocks, the biggest with a preliminary magnitude of 2.1.

10/28/07 -
PAKISTAN - A girl was killed and 12 villagers injured when a mild intensity earthquake hit Gangche district’s Qundus village in the Baltistan region late on Friday. Tremors were felt at around 12am on Friday, intermittent tremors continued till 4am on Saturday. At least 410 houses in five villages had been partially damaged and 12 villagers were injured. All roads leading to the villages were damaged in the quake. The villagers are living in the open in below zero temperatures and are reluctant to return to their homes. The intensity of quake was 5.2 on the richter scale and its centre was in Azad Kashmir.

10/19/07 -
INDONESIA - Continuing dramatic movement - Researchers say ongoing uplift following the 2004 Great Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake, which triggered massive tsunamis the day after Christmas, is caused by continuing slip on the quake fault. Scientists have observed dramatic post-earthquake movement following several large temblors, including the 2004 quake, and the latter boasts the largest movement recorded since GPS technology became available. GPS sites in the Andamans have recorded uplift ranging from six inches to more than a foot since the earthquake and even larger horizontal movements toward the southwest. A hot topic of debate is what causes the movement. “Our research indicates that the Andaman post-earthquake movements resulted mostly from continuing silent slip on the fault, below the depth that slipped during the 2004 earthquake.” The findings have implications for the earthquake cycle on faults, including how stress accumulates in the time between quakes.

10/18/07 -
CALIFORNIA - October 17th was the anniversary of the 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake that struck the Bay Area 18 years ago. The quake dislodged a segment of the Bay Bridge, collapsed the Cypress Freeway in Oakland, triggered a fire in San Francisco's Marina District and destroyed much of downtown Santa Cruz. There was an even bigger quake 139 years ago in 1868 on the Hayward fault which remains a ticking time bomb today. It was the 12th deadliest temblor in U.S. history. "We don't know where the earthquake started. We don't know what the epicenter of the earthquake is." "It's the most heavily urbanized fault in the U.S. and it's just waiting to go off." Downtown Hayward suffered most of the damage from the old earthquake. The evidence is still here. Cracks line some of the parking lots. "Whoever parks here during the day has no idea what they're parking over." The tip of a crack extends down six miles below the surface and there is a curb that has been offset. One side of the curb is moving one way, the other side is moving the other way. A building which sits atop the fault line has bolts which are meant to strengthen it, but if you look closely you'll see the constant movement of the earth has created a bubble in the middle of the structure. "The side of the building closest to Mission Boulevard is moving to the north. This side closest to us is moving to the south." Research indicates the last five big earthquakes on the Hayward fault occurred at an average of once every 140 years. October of next year will be the 140th anniversary of the last one in 1868. It has been estimated that only 10% of the Bay Area's population is ready for the "big one." If that "big one" hits on the Hayward fault, it may leave 100,000 people homeless, 58 buildings destroyed and more than 200 buildings heavily damaged. Total losses may number $28 billion dollars, with several thousand deaths.

10/17/07 -
NEW ZEALAND - The Earthquake Commission has received claims of $250,000 following the earthquakes in Fiordland this week and expects the total to rise. So far, 44 claims have been received, mostly for damaged walls and chimneys, broken windows and items that fell off shelves. Aftershocks continue to be felt in Fiordland today after a magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck at 1.29am yesterday. The quake was centred 60 kilometres west of Milford Sound at a depth of 24km. It was the biggest earthquake in New Zealand since a magnitude 7.2 tremor on August 22, 2003.

CALIFORNIA - An early Tuesday morning 4.2 quake was the latest in series of tremors to hit California. Residents of San Bernardino County were rocked early Tuesday morning by a magnitude 4.2 earthquake. Tremors were felt thought out the region. The quake occurred at 1:53 am about three miles north of Wrightwood, a remote community about 80 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Despite its only 4.2 measurement, people as far north as Glendale, a suburb of Los Angeles, felt the quake, while callers from Pasadena also reported shaking. On Monday afternoon a magnitude-3.1 earthquake, preceded by two smaller tremors, rattled the Hemet area.

10/15/07 -
ISRAEL - Scientists predict that a 3.0-magnitude earthquake, which recently hit Jordan rift valley area, may be a precursor to a much larger quake. The Jordan Rift Valley is a 375-kilometer long strike-slip fault zone some 5 kilometers wide in the north and 23 kilometers wide in the south that forms part of the broader Great Rift Valley. This geographic region includes the Jordan River, Hula Valley, Lake Tiberias and the Dead Sea. Followed by the small earthquakes felt in Jordan rift valley area on Saturday, scientists predict a larger earthquake could occur due to the nearby Syrian-African rift, known for being volatile. Past data proves that such a quake is just a matter of time. "We know that the area between the Kinneret and the Dead Sea was subject to several large quakes, in 31BC, 362BC, 749BC (over 7 on the Richter scale) and 1033AD. Another major one is coming soon."

TAIWAN - Hundreds of thousands of earthworms appeared in a Taiwan vineyard, prompting the owner to consult an expert out of fear that a strong earthquake might be coming soon. The worms crawled out of the earth and covered the surface of Wu Ching-chuan's vineyard in Changhwa County, west Taiwan, Sunday morning. Wu, who bought the vineyard 40 years ago, said he has never seen so many earthworms in his vineyard before and estimated there were 200 to 300 kilograms of them. Seeing the large numbers of earthworms Wu feared that a major quake might be coming because worms and snakes are known to come to the surface when disturbed by seismic activity. Wu consulted a farm expert who said the earthworms crawled out because his vineyards were flooded when Typhoon Krosa hit Taiwan on October 5. Although earthworms like humid environment, they cannot stand extreme moisture or when the underground water level rises too high, so they came out of the earth. Wu's worry about an upcoming strong earthquake eased when it was pointed out that another vineyard near Hu's house has not been invaded by earthworms because it was not flooded during the typhoon's passage.

10/14/07 -
CANADA - Seismologists are trying to figure out if a series of earthquakes in Northern B.C. this week are connected to a dormant volcano 150 km southwest of Prince George. The eight quakes have ranged between a magnitude 2.8 and 3.2 and began on Tuesday evening and the latest happened on Thursday evening. Seismologists aren't sure if the small quakes were caused by tectonic shifts or volcanic activity.

10/11/07 -
AUSTRALIA - The BIGGEST QUAKE IN 40 YEARS to hit the Great Southern has cracked the walls of one man’s home but left his neighbours’ homes unscathed. The quake, which registered 4.8 on the Richter scale, left his house trashed. “I do know that it happened just around 8 oclock because my clocks all jumped off the wall, along with all my pictures, and the clocks stopped.” While many people reported that the quake had shaken their house, for this man the experience was quite different. “I never had a shake I just had an almighty boom.” He has been expecting something like this for some time. “For the last few months I’ve also been getting these booms and it took a while to work out what it was. It sounded like something landing on the roof – we’re talking something pretty heavy, not like a swan or a bird, more like an elephant. I’d ring my neighbours up after and say ‘did you hear that? Did you feel it?’ and they’d say ‘no we never felt anything’. I almost felt like I was going mad, that I was just imagining it although I know one time my daughters were here staying with me and they said ‘what is that dad?’ and I said ‘I don’t really know’. So it’s been very localised but it hasn’t happened for at least a month which had me concerned - either it was going away, or this was coming and this is what came." (photos)

INDIA - A geologist has visited 8 Gir villages to study mysterious rumbling sounds that have been occurring for the past several days. He said that the sounds are certainly not emanating from earthquake tremors or its aftershock, but were caused due to "block system", which might be the after-effect of the 2001 massive earthquake in Kutch. However, he refused to elaborate. Asked about his observation of the recurring phenomena, he replied that he cannot say anything with certainty about its root cause. The villages of Haripar, Jasapar, Moruka, Suruva, Vadla, Akol Vadi, Rasoolpara and Hadamatiya experienced the rumbling sounds on the 8th, spreading panic among the people who rushed out of their houses as the vessels started making a huge rattling sound. Many houses developed cracks on the walls. All of the villages fall within a radius of 15 kilometers. The village of Jaspar experienced 15 such sounds. These events are not new, and three years ago such sounds were felt in Haripur. A seismograph installed between October and December of 2001 has so far recorded more than a thousand tremors, ranging up to 3 on the Richter scale. The Haripur village and nearby areas had again experienced the rumbling sounds during December of 2004.

10/5/07 -
An Israeli scientist said ancient documents suggest a major earthquake triggered by the Dead Sea Fault is long overdue in the Middle East. Although seismologists don't know when the next big earthquake will occur, earthquake patterns recorded in historical documents indicate the region's next significant quake might be imminent. Based on the translations of hundreds of ancient records from the Vatican and other religious sources, a series of devastating earthquakes occurred across the Holy Land during the last 2,000 years. The major ones were recorded along the Jordan Valley in the years 31 B.C. and in 363, 749 and 1033 A.D. "So roughly we are talking about an interval of every 400 years. If we follow the patterns of nature, a major quake should be expected any time because almost a whole millennium has passed since the last strong earthquake of 1033. When it strikes - and it will - this quake will affect Amman, Jordan, as well as Ramallah, Bethlehem and Jerusalem."

INDONESIA plans to build suspension bridge in earthquake hotspot - Indonesia plans to build the world's longest suspension bridge across the earthquake-prone Sunda Strait, passing within 50 kilometres of the active Krakatoa volcano. The bridge, traversing 30 kilometres, will link Indonesia's main islands of Java and Sumatra at an estimated cost of $12 billion. At 70 metres high, large ships would be able to pass underneath. Experts said the bridge was technologically feasible, but extensive and expensive safety measures would be essential to withstand earthquakes.

10/2/07 -
NEW ZEALAND - A string of earthquake jolted parts of New Zealand overnight. These follow the magnitude 7.3 quake that struck near New Zealand's sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands on Sunday night. GNS science recorded five earthquakes yesterday from Mount Cook to Turangi. A magnitude 4.1 quake struck Mount Cook at 5.25pm. It was centred 30km north of the mountain and was 2km deep. Earlier in the afternoon, a quake measuring 4.5 on the richter scale shook the central North Island. The quake at 3.12pm was centred 10km northeast of Turangi and was 5km deep. At 6.20pm a second smaller quake, 2.8 in magnitude, hit 20km north east of Turangi at a depth of 5km. A 3.7 magnitude quake hit 20km south of Porangahau, Waipukurau, at a depth of 25km at 11.05pm. At 11.46pm a magnitude 3.9 quake struck 30km southwest of Takaka at a depth of 5km. Seismologists said aside from the two quakes near Turangi, the earthquakes were not connected, as the epicentres were too far apart. It was likely the second smaller quake in Turangi yesterday was an aftershock to the first magnitude 4.5 quake. New Zealand generally has about four quakes a week on average, so it was more quakes than normal, but they were "purely coincidence" and there was no cause for any alarm.
A leading seismologist thinks more large earthquakes could be on the way for the Eastern Bay. The area has been rocked by the series of jolts recently mainly centred near Matata. While the earthquakes could continue at a low level there is always a chance of a bigger disaster. The swarm could fade away but the latest activity is just a new development in a very long process. The largest earthquake to hit the region lately measured 4.7 on the Richter Scale.

10/1/07 -
NEW ZEALAND - The west of the South Island of New Zealand was shaken by an earthquake measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale, after which a tsunami warning was put in place in New Zealand, Australia and Fiji. Fiji's Mineral Resources Department said that the tremors and earthquakes in the pacific region in the past several weeks are stress releases, which is good. It said having these stress releases are better than a lull over a long period, which sometimes can build stress up to a massive and very destructive quake.

JAPAN - An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.2 has jolted the Japanese town of Hakone, southwest of Tokyo, injuring at least three people. The focus of the quake was about 14 kilometres below sea level, prompting the East Japan Railway Company to suspend some of its operations.

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9/30/07 -
So far today there have been several large quakes -
6.8 AUCKLAND ISLANDS, N.Z. REGION
7.4 AUCKLAND ISLANDS, N.Z. REGION
5.8 SOUTH OF MARIANA ISLANDS
7.1 SOUTH OF MARIANA ISLANDS
Two high-magnitude earthquakes have hit different parts of the Pacific Ocean. A 7.3 magnitude quake struck at 0525 GMT south of New Zealand's South Island, with no reports of injuries. Earlier, the US territory of Guam was shaken by a 7.1 tremor. Its epicentre, some 30km (19 miles) deep, was in the southern part of the Mariana Islands. Islanders in high-rise buildings felt the quake but reported no damage. (map)

[On Thursday, there were three articles on this webpage about activity in New Zealand: A massive landslide in the Southern Alps - thought to be THE BIGGEST IN DECADES- occurred on Monday; Mount Ruapehu erupted with no warning on Tuesday; and there was increased earthquake activity near the Bay of Plenty town of Matata - seven shallow tremors this week measuring 3 or greater on the Richter scale, including six in a space of just nine hours on Wednesday (more quakes in the swarm occurred on Friday and Sunday, before the 7.4 quake.) As usual, scientists say none of this activity is related.]

9/28/07 -
NEW CALDONIA - Loyalty Islands - At least 15 moderate-to-strong earthquakes have struck near the French islands of New Caledonia in the South Pacific. The earthquakes, ranging from magnitude 5.0 to 6.6, struck around midday local time (1100 AEST) about 150 kilometres east of New Caledonia's Loyalty Islands. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. The largest of the quakes had the potential to generate a local tsunami along the sparsely populated atolls within 100 kilometres of the epicentre. New Caledonia is a collection of small islands with a population of about 221,000 people located some 1,800 kilometres north-east of Australia.

PHILIPPINES - An intensity 5 quake rocked Butuan City in Agusan del Norte shortly before midnight at 11:35 p.m. Thursday. State seismologists said the quake was powerful enough to cause damage. The epicenter traced 32 kms northwest of Butuan. While Phivolcs expected damage in some of the areas hit by the quake, it expects no aftershocks to take place. The incident took place 12 hours after a milder 3.9 quake hit Butuan City at 11:45 a.m. Thursday. At the time, Phivolcs expected no aftershock. In yet another incident, a magnitude-4 quake jolted Bohol province in Eastern Visayas at 1:36 p.m. Thursday. A milder quake measuring magnitude 2.9 in the Richter scale rocked Kidapawan City in Mindanao Thursday night, but state seismologists said they expect no casualty or damage to property. The quake was recorded at 6:34 p.m.

INDONESIA - The powerful quake that rocked Sumatra on September 12 caused millions of dollars in losses. Despite the intensity of the quake (8.4 degrees on the Richter scale), damage to the country's economy was relatively small. However, it left 25 dead, over one hundred injured and caused partial or total collapse of about 86,000 buildings. Worst-hit regions included Bengkulu and Western Sumatra.

9/27/07 -
INDONESIA - Since the September 12th quake in Padang, GPS reports indicate ground movements towards the Southwest and both losses and gains in altitude for the central coast of Pagai Selatan. "Coral reefs have risen in that area by about one metre." Macaroni's surf break is reported shallower than before the September quake, indicating an up-lift of the reef. Five surfers have been wounded there since September 15. Also, the lighthouse of Pulau Singingi is confirmed down. Three months is the estimated time needed to "resettle" the displaced populations, in their villages or up in the hills (whole villages on Pagai Selatan have decided to move their permanent habitat to safer locations - upwards). (map)

PAPUA NEW GUINEA - A large earthquake and small tsunami struck the New Ireland region of Papua New Guinea. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre says the shallow quake, with an magnitude of 6.9 on the Richter scale, posed no destructive widespread tsunami threat, but caused a sea level rise of up to half-a-metre on some PNG coastlines. The region is largely unpopulated.

NEW ZEALAND - While much of the media focus is on the latest eruption at Mount Ruapehu, there has also been increased earthquake activity near the Bay of Plenty town of Matata. There have been seven shallow tremors this week measuring 3 or greater on the Richter scale, including six in a space of just nine hours. The strongest measured 4.3 on the Richter scale, and happened shortly before 9am on Wednesday morning. It was also felt as far away as Tauranga. The Matata area has been subject to earthquake swarms for the past two years.

CALIFORNIA - number of quakes climbing again - 595 in 7 days. Over 100 of these were near The Geysers in northern California.

9/23/07 -
AZERBAIJAN - A total of 715 homes have been damaged as a result of an earthquake which occurred in more than ten districts of Azerbaijan on September 20. The earthquake measuring 4 on the richter scale rendered 10 houses uninhabitable in Azerbaijan’s district of Tartar. The earthquake destroyed the medical center and music school in Tartar’s village of Borsunlu.

9/19/07 -
INDONESIA - A team has established a network of position-markers, linked by satellite, that show a constant creep, northeast, among the islands on Indonesia's Indian Ocean frontier. The first one was placed in August 2002. The 30 measuring stations along Sumatra's western coast tell an ominous tale. Driven by the plate beneath the Indian Ocean, the entire coastline is flexing, as the earth literally bends. The pressures are already enormous, and at some point, probably soon, they will become intolerable. The implications are terrifying. "Eventually it has got to release in (the form) of a giant earthquake." It may be a rare magnitude-9 quake. Scientists are now examining the evidence that they believe indicates the arrival another giant earthquake, and possible tsunami - with the plates so tightly sprung, they believe it will happen sooner, rather than later. "Whenever I am in Padang I think about my escape routes, almost every moment." (quake video)

INDONESIA - It has been suspected that Indonesia's Mentawai Islands were the worst affected by last Wednesday's 8.4 magnitude quake, but the extent of the damage across the remote island chain is only just being revealed. Boatloads of aid have arrived at some the islands off Sumatra but it was too little, too late, to save the lives of two sick children and scores more remain threatened by disease. Almost 90% of some island villages were "obliterated" and 170 people in temporary shelters are already suffering from diarrhoea and other illnesses.

HONDURAS - Massive evacuation continues in central Honduras due to the aftershocks affecting the country since Saturday's devastating 5.5 earthquake. The quake activated faults whose 15-18 aftershocks have left over 1,600 victims and have destroyed 140 homes at 17 Tolupan indigenous communities.

9/18/07 -
INDONESIA - Some villagers in western Indonesia started returning home Saturday, three days after a mammoth quake jolted the region and generated a powerful string of aftershocks. But many remained jittery — a feeling experts say may be justified. The 8.4-magnitude quake that shook Southeast Asia on Wednesday has been followed by more than 60 strong aftershocks — including a magnitude 7.8 and a 7.1 — that have killed at least 17 people, damaged hundreds of homes and churned up a 3-meter (10-foot) high tsunami. Several experts are predicting a repeat of the massive earthquake that triggered the 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen Indian Ocean nations. "We are a huge step closer. I think it's just around the corner." Geologists say the biggest quakes in the area are all on the edge of the Mentawai island patch — which last experienced a mammoth temblor in 1833 — and have piled even more pressure onto the fault. Siberut island, part of the Mentawaian archipelago, sits directly over the one spot where pressure continues to build. "We are kind of in amazement that with so much activity going on around here ... it hasn't cut loose." Authorities have predicted the next big one that spawns a tsunami could kill up to 60,000 people near the low-lying seaside town of Padang.

9/16/07 -
INDONESIA - The toll from the severe earthquake on Indonesia's Sumatra island last week has risen to 23 dead and 88 injured, and the area is likely to experience further significant aftershocks. The 8.4 magnitude quake struck off the coast of western Sumatra on Wednesday evening, and has been followed by at least 40 big aftershocks and several tsunami warnings. More than 22,000 houses in the area were either collapsed or damaged.
Days of colossal earthquakes and tsunami warnings have forced traumatized Indonesian villagers to seek safety in the last place imaginable: graveyards. Hundreds are camping in the mud between headstones on the flat, high ground, far from the ocean's reach. Seismologists warn the worst may be yet to come. Several experts are predicting a repeat of the powerful earthquake that triggered the 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen Indian Ocean countries. "No one can say whether it will be in 30 seconds or 30 years. But what happened the other day, I think is quite possibly a sequence of smaller earthquakes leading up to the bigger one." Wednesday's quake shook four Southeast Asian countries. A wall of water slammed into several fishing villages along Sumatra island's coast on Wednesday and swept away nearly a dozen houses, but overall damage was "minimal". "There is a strong indication this foreshadows the big one. We all agree there is an 8.5 or stronger earthquake waiting to happen."

THAILAND is drafting regulations to declare Bangkok an earthquake-prone zone after the capital felt the effects of the recent 8.4-magnitude quake in Indonesia. The new law would require all new tall buildings in Bangkok and surrounding provinces to be quake-proof. "Bangkok's soil is soft and it generates more tremors." Three fault lines are within a 100-kilometre (62-mile) radius of Bangkok. Ten of Thailand's 76 provinces are currently listed as earthquake-risk zones, mostly in the northwest. The proposed law would add 12 central and southern provinces to the list. In May, a 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck western Laos near the border with Thailand, sending people fleeing into the streets after high-rise buildings rocked and swayed in Bangkok.

9/14/07 -
Photos of the 8.4 Indonesia quake, the strongest quake recorded anywhere this year.
The first and biggest of the quakes, with a magnitude of 8.4 on Wednesday evening, was the third in a cluster of earthquakes that measured greater than 8.0, in the area in the past three years. That cluster could be a signal that the 1,100-mile-long western coast of Sumatra could face still more danger. “I am more convinced than ever that we are going to be seeing a significantly larger earthquake in the area,” said Kerry Sieh, a seismologist from the California Institute of Technology who has spent several decades studying earthquake risk around Sumatra. “These three big earthquakes, they just encircle this big patch that has not failed, a big strong part of the fault that hasn’t broken yet. The million-dollar question is, is it over?” Wednesday’s major earthquake was followed by a series of aftershocks, one of which, Thursday morning, was a serious earthquake on its own. It struck about 200 miles northwest of the epicenter of the earlier earthquake and had a magnitude of 7.8. In turn, it was followed shortly before noon by another significant earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1. Bengkulu, a city of 1.2 million, was the closest large community to the latest earthquakes and it was the worst damaged. The epicenter of the first was 65 miles southwest of the city; the second was 125 miles to the northwest. 10 people died in Bengkulu. 2,406 buildings were destroyed or heavily damaged, and 13 bridges and roads were badly damaged. About 10,000 people were living in hastily erected refugee camps. The ground continues to shake, and they are afraid to return home for fear of another major shock. In the city of Padang, just two buildings were officially reported to have collapsed, with another 159 heavily damaged. Despite the relatively light damage, many residents of Padang appeared traumatized by the continuing strong shocks. “We are very stressed. Every time we think it’s safe, another tremor rolls underneath our feet and we don’t know what to expect.”

9/13/07 -
INDONESIA - A second strong earthquake hit the Indonesian island of Sumatra a day after an 8.4 magnitude tremor destroyed buildings in several towns and cities. At least six people are confirmed dead, but officials fear bad communications may be hiding the scale of the impact. "You could see the road as if it was waving, people could hardly walk so they just lay flat on the road. I could also feel the earth I was standing on was like the sea." Wednesday's quake was measured by US officials as magnitude 8.4, and a new tremor of 7.8 hit on Thursday. Many buildings, weakened in the first tremor, are now reported to have been destroyed in the city of Padang. Despite several warnings (four tsunami warnings were declared during a period of 24 hours) since the first earthquake, there have so far been no tsunamis. People are being told to leave their homes on the coast and move inland. The initial quake sparked warnings across the Indian Ocean, but only a small wave surge hit Sumatra, causing little damage. Quakes on this scale are RARE and this was one of the most powerful earthquakes in Indonesia since the 8.9 temblor that caused the Asian tsunami in 2004. (An 8.2 quake is about 10 times smaller than a 9.0 quake.)

9/12/07 -
This morning a 7.9 quake hit SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA, causing buildings to sway strongly in the capital, and authorities issued a tsunami warning for much of the Indian Ocean region. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.9 and hit at about 6:10 p.m. (7:10 a.m. EDT). It was centered 9.7 miles underground in the southern Sumatra area. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning for wide areas of the region.
Quake magnitude has been revised to 8.2
A TSUNAMI WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR: INDONESIA / AUSTRALIA / INDIA / SRI LANKA / THAILAND / UNITED KINGDOM / MALDIVES / MYANMAR / MALAYSIA / BANGLADESH / MAURITIUS / REUNION / SEYCHELLES / MADAGASCAR / SOMALIA / OMAN / PAKISTAN / IRAN / YEMEN / COMORES / CROZET ISLANDS / MOZAMBIQUE / KENYA / TANZANIA / KERGUELEN ISLANDS / SOUTH AFRICA / SINGAPORE
Tsunami warning lifted in Indonesia - around two hours after announcing the warning, emergency authorities in Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia rescinded their warnings and said no tsunami was now expected. Attention was instead focused on the impact on Sumatra, with Indonesian television stations reporting that several buildings in Padang, the main city in west Sumatra, had collapsed or caught fire. There were no initial reports on casualties.
A small tsunami hit the Indonesian town of Padang. An official with Indonesia's meteorological agency says a wave of up to nine feet was reported about 20 minutes after the 7.9 quake. The quake destroyed some homes in the town closest to the epicenter, and could be felt 375 miles away in Jakarta. It was also felt in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

9/11/07 -
CALIFORNIA - The number of small quakes continues to climb, with 521 this week.

COLUMBIA - The magnitude-6.8 earthquake that shook southwest Colombia has left at least five people injured. The tremor also destroyed at least 29 homes in the towns of Iscuande, El Charco, Mosquera and La Tola along Narino's Pacific coast.

9/10/07 -
INDONESIA - A 4.9 magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia's densely populated East Java today, sparking panic and causing damage to scores of houses, but no serious casualties. The quake struck at 1:36am local time and was centred about 100km underground, 43km southeast of the town of Situbondo. A 4.5 magnitude aftershock hit five hours later, 10km beneath the earth and just 28km southeast of the town. "Some 40 houses suffered light damage, such as cracks, damaged windows or roofs, while about 50 others suffered from more serious damage." At least two schools sent pupils home after cracks developed in their buildings amid concern of further aftershocks.

PERU - Earthquake experts who have returned from studying the after-effects of August 15th's big magnitude 8 quake in Peru found some puzzles. The quake resulted in more than 500 deaths and extensive damage to many thousands of buildings and structures. An UNUSUAL feature of the earthquake was the extended duration of shaking; buildings were rocked for two minutes. “A puzzling feature of the earthquake was the good performance of unreinforced masonry (brick) buildings. The variation of the effects on similar buildings in the same area was extreme. Some buildings showed no signs of having been through two minutes of strong shaking. This could be taken to mean that masonry buildings will perform better than we think, or that the soil characteristics affected the nature of the shaking. Unfortunately, there is little information available to solve the puzzle.”

9/6/07 -
BAJA - An earthquake hit Mexico's Gulf of California on Tuesday, not far from the site of a stronger quake recorded on Saturday, but there were no immediate reports of damage. The magnitude 5 quake hit about 100 miles north of the resort of Los Cabos on the tip of Baja California. Earthquakes in the Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortez, do not normally generate tsunamis. The gulf separates the sparsely populated Baja California peninsula from mainland Mexico.

CALIFORNIA - A 4.7 magnitude earthquake that hit Orange County at 10:29 a.m. Sunday caused windows to break at City Hall and tile in the entryway inside the building to buckle. There were no reports of injuries nor of any other damage in the city. The quake was also felt in San Diego, Riverside and Los Angeles counties. It erupted beneath the Santa Ana Mountains, according to seismologists. When asked if Sunday's earthquake might be a precursor to a far larger event, the answer is always the same. "Of course, but with some significant caveats. There's a much larger earthquake to come on any of these fault systems." Unless it comes in the next few days, then this will simply have been a minor event and soon forgotten.

9/5/07 -
JAPAN - The heavily populated Tokai region, which experts say is due for a major earthquake within 30 years, has experienced at least three "super" temblors of unimaginable destruction during the past 5,000 years, according to a study. Unlike so-called Tokai earthquakes that have occurred every 100 years or so for the past 8,000 years, a "super" earthquake is one that causes dramatic change to the landscape through shifts in the Earth's crust. The over-due quake, whose epicenter would be in the Bay of Suruga facing Shizuoka Prefecture, has an anticipated 87% likelihood of hitting by 2037 and it is expected to be around magnitude 8. But some seismologists say the coming quake could actually be one of the "super" jolts that occur every millennium or so. If seismologists are correct in their assessment of risk, a "super" Tokai quake could cause crustal movement three times as big as that of an ordinary Tokai earthquake. These powerful quakes shook the region about 4,800 years ago, between 3,800 and 4,000 years ago and 2,400 years ago.

9/4/07 -
CALIFORNIA - At least four aftershocks were measured following a magnitude 4.7 earthquake in southern California Sunday morning, but with no injuries or damages reported. The earthquake rattled the whole region at 10.29 a.m. and was centered under the Santa Ana mountain range about 90 kilometers southwest of downtown Los Angeles. Automated seismographs reported that the earthquake's tentative epicenter was estimated to be about 13 kilometers west-northwest of the Riverside County city of Lake Elsinore. The network of seismographs and computers in the region showed that a magnitude 2.5 aftershock hit at 10:31 a.m., followed by three minor aftershocks. Seismologists believe there is a chance a major earthquake will hit California due to movement in the San Andreas fault. Experts say the fault line causes a massive quake every 150 years with the last such disaster taking place in 1857.

UTAH - LARGEST QUAKE SINCE 1962 hits northern Utah - A 3.9-magnitude earthquake occurred in northern Utah on Saturday; no damage was reported. The epicenter of the shock occurred north of the Great Salt Lake at the southern end of the Blue Spring Hills, about nine miles southwest of Tremonton.

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8/31/07 -
BRITAIN - The sixth tremor in a month shook the city of Manchester. Seismologists declared that Manchester and its environs were officially at the centre of an “earthquake swarm”. The latest quake struck at 5:45am and measured 2.4 on the Richter scale – a minor tremor but one that caused houses to shake and residents to think that they were being burgled. The swarm - a succession of quakes that do not have a clear distinction between main shocks and after-shocks - is likely to be caused by the same movements of the Earth’s crust that led to 70 tremors in 2002. Manchester lies on top of four large faults – the Pendleton fault, the east and west Manchester faults and the Ardwick fault. The current quakes were likely to be a knock-on effect of friction between the Eurasian plate and either the African plate or the North American plate. “The crust is full of faults because of our turbulent geological past. At the moment we are quite fortunate in that we are far away from any major plate boundaries, but [430 million years ago] Scotland and England were on two separate continents. You’ve got these old faults within the crust that are points of weakness. We are still subject to tectonic stress, and these stresses build up on those points of weakness. The fault slips and we get an earthquake. The origin of the stresses is likely to be a long way away.” Manchester could be hit by further shocks before the swarm subsides. Seismologists are uncertain whether the tremors were caused by a single fault or a cluster. The faults beneath the city have caused swarms of tremors for centuries, including one in 1753 which caused church bells to ring. A previous sequence of quakes caused minor damage between October 2002 and January 2003, when shocks reached a magnitude of 3.9 on the Richter scale. Mancunians have little to fear from the current swarm, however. “It will rumble on for a period of months or weeks, but a volcano rising in the centre of Manchester is completely out of the question." British earthquakes have killed 11 people since 1580. Six were killed by falling stones, two fell from upper floors, two died of shock and one committed suicide. The largest earthquake recorded in Britain had a magnitude of 6.1 and struck offshore in the North Sea on June 7, 1931. The last big British earthquake was in 1990, when a 5.1 tremor hit Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire. The most damaging quake to date was the magnitude 4.6 Colchester earthquake of 1884. It shattered walls and brought down a church spire. A magnitude 5 earthquake occurs on average every ten years. A magnitude 4 earthquake occurs on average every two to three years

PERU - Relief groups say Peru still badly needs aid after quake. Survivors are living on the streets in cardboard shelters under desperate, unhygienic conditions, two weeks after the quake struck.

8/30/07 -
COLUMBIA - False rumors of an earthquake on Tuesday led to the collapse of emergency phone lines and forced thousands of office workers to evacuate high-rise buildings in Bogota. Colombian media reported that a man identifying himself as an engineer from Colombia's geological institute, Ingeominas, sparked the rumor by calling several businesses and government offices and warning an earthquake would strike the Colombian capital at 5 p.m. local time. For hours in the afternoon, office workers rushed to evacuate hospitals and high-rise office buildings downtown, and a city-run emergency telephone line temporarily collapsed under the weight of 50,000 calls from concerned citizens. The hoax comes less than two weeks after a magnitude-8 earthquake in neighboring Peru killed more than 500 people.

8/28/07 -
PERU - the Natural Resources Institute has reported that since the earthquake which struck Peru's southern coast and devastated most of the Ica Region, 60 percent of the sea lion population, which lived on Paracas Bay, has disappeared. "We can only see 50 sea lions where there used to be 150." Paracas Bay is part of an ecological reserve that was near the epicenter of the magnitude-8 earthquake that destroyed most of Peru's Ica Region. Only 2 sea lions were found dead after the earthquake. Therefore the Institute does not discard the fact that the creatures could have migrated. Peruvian authorities have begun evaluating the impact the earthquake has had on Peru's fauna, researching whether it has affected other species, such as birds which live on nearby cliffs.

8/26/07 -
CALIFORNIA - A California researcher says Los Angeles is in the midst of a 1,000-year seismic lull characterized by relatively small and infrequent earthquakes. The Northridge earthquake of 1994 was "a drop in the bucket" compared to the massive jolts that would strike the basin during a period of high seismic activity. "The past 1,000 years has been relatively quiet." This is based on the discovery of several clusters of intense seismic activity separated by periods of relative calm lasting about 1,500 to 2,000 years. Looking at the geological record going back 12,000 years, they found several clusters of seismic bursts, the most recent lasting 4,000 years and ending about 1,000 years ago. Earthquakes that struck Southern California over the last century killed more than 200 people and caused billions of dollars in damage. Scientists argue that when the lull ends, metropolitan Los Angeles will experience significantly bigger and more frequent temblors - up to 15 times larger than the destructive Northridge earthquake of 1994. That could be soon - or 500 years from now. Even more dramatic is the geologists' explanation - welcomed by some scientists and questioned by others - of why the lull is occurring. They theorize that two of the region's most active fault zones are essentially taking turns producing earthquakes, with faults in the Mojave Desert producing bigger and more frequent quakes, while faults under Los Angeles take a break, and vice versa. High-tech monitoring devices show that the region's earthquake faults are building up high amounts of energy, yet the historical record shows that, as an average over time, seismic activity has been much lower. Once the lull ends, the quakes experienced in the region could be significantly larger than the ones we have experienced during the last 1,000 to 1,500 years. These quakes will not only be bigger, but they will likely produce large, slow seismic waves, which can be very damaging to tall buildings and large structures like dams and bridges. Such a quake "is going to pump enormous amount of energy into the L.A. Basin, causing it to resonate. We're going to have a metropolitan area-wide disaster on our hands." Even a seismic lull period has its risks - "Even if we believe Southern California is in a lull, we still had Long Beach and Northridge and Sylmar. If it's quiet, it's not dead."

RUSSIA - more than 1,000 repeat earth tremors have occurred in Nevelsk since August 2 when the town was hit by a powerful earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richer scale. The seismic activity in the Nevelsk area is now higher than the intensity of tectonic cataclysms in the area of the Simushir Island of the Kuriles chain. A total of 798 aftershocks have been registered there since November 15, 2006 after a 7.8-point earthquake. The strong earthquake in Nevelsk was triggered by the earth crust movement in the Tatar Strait on the coast of which the town is located. The epicenter was located just four kilometers from Nevelsk. There was a tsunami wave up to two meters high here after the earthquake; it reached the Japanese Hokkaido Island. After the powerful earthquake in the Simushir Island area the tsunami wave was seven meters high and this wave, with reduced strength, reached Alaska, the Hawaii and even New Zealand. Earlier this week, regional legislators called for raising seismicity norms for a number of far eastern areas. The Kamchatka peninsula, if hit by a powerful earthquake, may lose up to 100,000 residents. More than 1,800 Kamchatka facilities need to boost their earthquake resistance. Kamchatka needs 33 billion roubles to boost the strength of all structures to withstand 7- to 9-magnitude earthquakes. Scientists predicted that such an earthquake is possible within the next five years.

8/24/07 -
PERU - Historic churches and colonial-era haciendas along Peru's southern coast suffered serious damage in last week's earthquake, which also halted boat trips to an offshore wildlife reserve. Launches that normally ferry sightseers to the rugged, guano-coated Ballestas Islands — home to sea lions and myriad bird species — sit idle at port after authorities closed the Paracas National Reserve. The Aug. 15 quake chipped rocks off coastal bluffs, and most of the arched rock formation known as "The Cathedral" came tumbling down. The luxury Paracas Hotel near the reserve was closed indefinitely, damaged by a 1.5-meter (5-foot feet) ocean surge that flooded the 114-room hotel. In the port city of Pisco — hit hardest by last week's quake that killed at least 540 people — the five-story Embassy Hotel accordioned onto its ground floor, killing 15. The Nazca lines, world-famous desert geoglyphs, suffered no damage. Nor did the Inca ruins of Tambo Colorado inland along the Pisco river, although a huge boulder partially blocked the highway leading to it.
The giant quake that wrecked the Pacific coastal town of Pisco last week has set off a wave of refugees, driving up to 40 percent of its people to quit their ruined homes and move away. Pisco formerly had a population of 130,000 people. The quake destroyed around 85 percent of Pisco, leaving residents camping amid the ruins as the threat of disease and the stench of bodies under the rubble grew. Most buildings were built with unreinforced adobe in Pisco.

8/21/07 -
TANZANIA - A strong earthquake hit Tanzania on Monday morning, sending tremors hundreds of kilometres away in Nairobi. Residential and high-rise buildings shook for several minutes in the capital, causing renewed panic. The earthquake was the second to hit the region in less than three days. Another quake hit the region on Saturday morning. The 5.2 magnitude earthquake struck northern Tanzania, 85 km northwest of Arusha at 5.56am on Monday. The Saturday quake also measured 5.2 on the Richter scale. Residents along the Kenya/Tanzania border said Mt Oldonyo Lengai, an active volcano near Lake Natron in northern Tanzania, has been spewing out lava since Thursday last week. The magma from the mountain has forced people living in surrounding areas to flee. The volcano erupted last month, causing a series of earthquakes in the region. The quakes saw workers evacuate high-rise buildings in Nairobi and geologists blamed the movements on stirring underneath the mountain. Kenya and Tanzania lie along the geologically active Great Rift Valley.
KENYA - The 5.2 quake that hit on Monday was just the latest in a swarm. Since early last month the region has been receiving earth tremors of a magnitude between 4 and 6 on the Richter scale. The first tremor to hit Nairobi last month was on July 15 and it is believed to have originated from Lake Natron to the North of Tanzania on the Eastern arm of the Rift Valley. The USGS attributed the string of earth tremors that have affected the East African region as a seismic swarm. Their report suggested that the series of tremors could not lead to a major earthquake.

CALIFORNIA - First they handed out EMPTY bottles of water that read: "Try living on this for three days." They parked mobile billboards in San Francisco that made it look as if a major earthquake had just rocked downtown. They even posted housing ads on craigslist for heavily damaged flats near the Presidio that exclaimed "Available immediately!" And now the American Red Cross - frustrated with its findings that a whopping 83% of Bay Area residents remain unprepared for the Big One - is unveiling its latest guerrilla marketing tactic: the Supercrack. It is a simulated 60-foot gash on Union Square's patterned pavement, revealing chunks of concrete, twisted wires and mangled cars in the parking garage below. "It looks like Union Square has been broken. It's pretty wild." Emergency preparedness officials hope shocked shoppers will wake up, stockpile some food and water, and while they're at it, take some courses in first aid and CPR. Since the Red Cross started its guerrilla advertising, 17% of Bay Area residents are now considered prepared for a major disaster, up from 6% just one year before. There is a 62% chance at least one quake of magnitude 6.7 or greater will strike the Bay Area by 2032.
Ideally, every family should: Make a plan. Establish where to evacuate to, or where to meet with family members if you're separated during a disaster. Determine an out-of-state contact you can call in case local phones are overwhelmed. Get a kit. Have enough food and water to last three days - about 12 gallons of water for a family of four. Stockpile flashlights, extra batteries and a battery-operated portable radio, as well as a first aid kit. Be informed. Learn CPR. Know first aid. Understand how and when to turn off the utilities at your home. If there is one thing that public health and safety officials say they have learned from Hurricane Katrina, it is that people need to be able to help themselves for at least three days after a disaster. Police and firefighters will be overwhelmed. So, anyone who thinks that stashing an old flashlight or two in the garage is sufficient could be in for a big wake-up call.

8/20/07 -
CHILE - Daily tremors shake a corner of Chile. The shaking has slowed for now, the sense of panic eased, the search for the missing ebbed. But six months of tremors, including one major earthquake, have left many in this remote corner of Patagonia unhinged. "The scariest prospect is a giant tsunami inundating the town while the mountains come tumbling down on top of us. Some people just can't get over that thought." The daily tremors began in late January and numbered more than 7,000 as of last week. The shakes culminated in a 6.2-magnitude earthquake April 21 beneath nearby Aisen Fjord that sent chunks of hillside plunging into the inland waterway, generating waves that swept away fishermen, salmon farm workers and others, killing at least three and perhaps as many as 10. The killer waves dissipated short of the town of Puerto Aisen, but the ground here trembled mightily, cracks opened in the earth, debris tumbled from mountains, and the town's signature suspension bridge swayed like a Slinky. As much as 15 percent of the population of 30,000 here and in the nearby port of Puerto Chacabuco had left by late last week. "This emergency is not over: We don't even know if the worst is over." The mystery about what exactly is going on has drawn experts from across the globe. Meanwhile, people here have gotten used to sleeping in their clothes, drawing the curtains and keeping their kids home from school. They report broken marriages, increased alcoholism and depression, and a sense of impending doom. "We noticed the children are more aggressive, fighting all the time." A government flier distributed before the April 21 quake assured residents of two comforting scenarios: The shuddering would "gradually" wane, or an underwater volcano would erupt "without consequence for people." From the mayor's standpoint, the fjord should have been declared off limits before April 21. Scientists had identified it as the epicenter of the earlier tremors. "The earthquake was inevitable, but the loss of life was not." People traveling in the fjord before the quake had reported strange phenomena: erratic tides, lightning emanating from the nearby Maca volcano, sulfurous gases belching from the waters. As the tremors mounted, apocryphal tales swirled of crabs and other shellfish emerging cooked from the cool Pacific. "No one should have been in the water that day."

8/19/07 -
PERU - Scientists said the 8/15 8.0 quake was a "megathrust", a type of earthquake similar to the catastrophic Indian Ocean temblor in 2004 that generated deadly tsunami waves. "Megathrusts produce the largest earthquakes on the planet." The temblor occurred in one of the most seismically active regions in the world at the boundary where the Nazca and South American tectonic plates meet. The plates are moving together at a rate of 3 inches a year. The last time a quake of magnitude 7.0 or larger struck Peru was in September 2005, when a 7.5-magnitude earthquake rocked the country's northern jungle, killing four people. In 2001, a 7.9-magnitude quake struck near the southern Andean city of Arequipa, killing 71. In 1970 an 8-magnitude quake left at least 60,000 dead, in one of the country’s worst tragedies.
Extreme winter temperatures are endangering the lives of thousands of children and their families whose homes have been destroyed by the Peru earthquake, warns children's charity Save the Children. 80-100% of housing in the worst affected areas around Pisco and Chincha Alta has been demolished by the quake. Up to one million people live in the area, and may have been affected. As temperatures drop to near zero at night, families are struggling to survive with no shelter and few blankets. Thousands are sleeping in the open air, forced to scavenge for firewood in an attempt to keep warm. Lack of food, clean water and medical supplies is posing a major threat. Severe damage to roads and to landline and mobile networks is still hampering rescue efforts, with little reliable information available from a large part of the affected region as to the extent of the devastation. In Pisco, continuing tremors are still traumatising children. In addition to having to sleep in the cold, many have also been separated from their families during the chaos, and are extremely vulnerable to abuse due to growing disorder in the city. In the rural areas around Ica, highly toxic chemicals such as cyanide, used by families working in small silver and limestone mines, may have contaminated water supplies. Save the Children is accepting donations for Peru via its website www.savethechildren.org.uk.

8/17/07 -
PERU - The powerful earthquake that shook Peru Wednesday night killed at least 437 people. Another 1,350 were injured. The earthquake, whose magnitude was variously estimated at 7.7 to 7.9, was centered off Peru’s Pacific shore near Ica. More than 16,500 people have been displaced or otherwise affected by the quake. The city of Ica was blacked out, as were smaller towns along the coast south of Lima, and many of the areas hit lost telephone service. Rescue workers reported difficulty getting to Ica and the coastal towns because of cracks in highways and downed power lines. Office workers in Lima fled tall buildings that shook in two waves that lasted around 20 seconds each and cut power lines. “We’re used to earthquakes,” said a woman who is from California. “But it just didn’t stop; it kept going and going, and it kept getting stronger and stronger.” Her belongings in the apartment went flying and the glass windows appeared to be bending in. “People really thought they were going to die.” She added that she counted about 70 aftershocks: “It’s just been nonstop.” The tremor brought heavy waves down on homes in the port of Callao, near the capital, Lima. (photos / slideshow)
The quake is now being called ONE OF THE COUNTRY'S WORST NATURAL DISASTERS IN THE LAST 100 YEARS.

UTAH - A seismic "bump" in a Utah mine blasted coal from the walls late Thursday, causing a new cave-in that killed two rescue workers trying to free a group of miners already trapped underground. At least seven other rescuers were hurt in the accident while trying to make their way toward six miners who became trapped 11 days ago by a previous mine collapse. It was not immediately clear how serious the injuries were, but at least three members of the rescue team were rushed to hospital. The bump, which commonly refers to pressure inside the mine that shoots coal from the walls with great force, reportedly occurred at about 8:30 p.m. ET at the Crandall Canyon mine. The same kind of bump caused the earlier cave-in. It was a shocking setback on the 11th day of the effort to find the six trapped miners. It's unknown whether the men are still alive, or whether they even survived the initial collapse. Rescuers have said they are disheartened by the pace of their efforts. Seismic activity in the mine, located on a mountain near Huntington, caused landslides and forced rescuers to stop their work Wednesday night because of fears for their safety. Seismic activity struck again Thursday morning, delaying plans to drill a fourth bore hole into the mine by at least several hours. If seismic activity lets up, rescuers might be able to dig the hole at a rate two or three times faster than what they've managed thus far.

CALIFORNIA - San Andreas Fault may be rare quake "superhighway" - Some faults can send earthquakes zooming along the ground faster than the speed of sound, scientists say — and California's San Andreas Fault may be one of them. Most earthquake faults "unzip" at around 2 miles (3 kilometers) a second. But evidence is growing that some faults can send quakes zooming much faster — up to 3.7 miles (6 kilometers) a second. "They are moving faster than the speed of sound, like a sonic boom." These hasty earthquakes cause much more damage on the ground and are more likely to topple buildings, crumple bridges, and buckle highways than regular upheavals. San Francisco is at risk, and further down the San Andreas Fault, another section of "freeway" exists underneath the Carrizo Plain. "As an earthquake moves along this section it is likely to send out shock waves in front, which may focus on cities like Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, some of the most highly populated parts of California."

8/16/07 -
PERU - A massive 7.9 earthquake hit Peru on Wednesday evening and officials said more than 330 people were dead in the rubble of collapsed homes and a church as rescuers searched for victims. 827 were injured. Emergency workers said the coastal province of Ica south of Lima was the hardest-hit region. Rescuers struggled to move south toward Ica as portions of the Pan-American Highway, a key coastal route, were impassable and thieves assaulted stranded travellers. Office workers ran onto the streets in fear as tall buildings in Lima shook in two waves that lasted about 20 seconds each and cut power lines. It was followed by nine aftershocks ranging in magnitude from six to the upper 4's.
The extremely powerful 7.9 earthquake lasted about two minutes when it shook Peru Wednesday night, destroying adobe houses, knocking out power and downing telephone lines. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii issued a tsunami warning for Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Colombia, but stressed there was no confirmation of a tsunami. The warning was later canceled. The quake was felt as far away as Colombia. It was Peru's LARGEST EARTHQUAKE IN MORE THAN THREE DECADES.

JAPAN - A series of moderate undersea earthquakes shook the Tokyo region early Thursday, including one with a preliminary magnitude of 5.3, causing delays to train services. The earthquake that struck at 4:15 a.m. registered 4 on the 7-point Japanese scale and 3 in Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama and Ibaraki prefectures. It was estimated to be 5.3 on the open-ended Richter scale. A few other smaller aftershocks struck in the Kanto region later on Thursday morning. The quake swayed buildings in Tokyo for about 20 seconds.

HAWAII - At least one minor landslide was caused Monday night by a 5.4-magnitude earthquake that shook Big Island residents. The 7:38 p.m. quake, beneath the southern flank of Kilauea Volcano, was felt islandwide and set off the rockslide in the Laupahoehoe Gulch area. Residents in Hilo and Volcano reported feeling the shock. "It went on way longer than is comfortable." Several aftershocks, including one of magnitude 3.2, followed.

In 2004, the 9.2 Indonesia earthquake shifted southern Indian cities - The Andaman and Nicobar belt moved horizontally by 3 metres to 6 metres, Chennai by 2 cm, Bangalore by 1.5 cm and Hyderabad by 11 mm following the undersea Sumatra-Andaman earthquake in 2004. In the normal course such a tectonic shift would have taken hundreds of years to occur but it happened in less than 10 minutes during the earthquake. While a 3-m movement was found in the middle of Andamans, it was 6-m between Car Nicobar and Great Nicobar. The entire island also subsided by 1 m to 2 m vertically. Interestingly, it began to rise again but at a slow speed, and 30 per cent of the land has ‘re-emerged’. The uplift of the subsided land mass is occurring in a non-linear manner, and it might take up to a couple of hundred years for it to return to the pre-2004 position. Before the earthquake, the Indian and Burmese plates were moving together as they were locked and there was no relative movement between the two. After the earthquake, they got disengaged and the Burmese plate is moving in a southwest direction with respect to the Indian plate at a rate which is faster than the normal plate motion but less than the speed which occurred during the massive temblor.

8/14/07 -
HAWAII - As the Category 3 Hurricane Flossie closes in on the Big Island of Hawaii, a moderate earthquake has struck the Puna District Monday night at 7:38 PM HST. Centered 25 miles south of Hilo and 5.8 miles below the surface of the Earth, the 5.3 magnitude quake knocked items off shelves in at least one Hilo home and caused a flurry of activity briefly overloading cell phone lines. From a vantage point above Hilo, electricity appears to remain on throughout the town. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center reports that no tsunami has been generated. The epicenter of the earthquake is located on the flanks of Kilauea, an active volcano erupting for over 20 years non-stop. No change in eruption activity is immediately visible from the Puu Oo vent, but it is obscured by dark rain clouds.

8/13/07 -
SPAIN - 5.1 earthquake felt by many across Spain - Spain was hit by the quake at 9:47am on Sunday morning. Centred on Ciudad Real, it saw as many as 15 after-shocks. Experts say that the centre of the tremor had been very near the surface, and for this reason the tremor was felt across nearly all of the country. For the same reason no reports of serious damage or personal injury have been noted.

8/12/07 -
CALIFORNIA - Massive quake 'overdue' in California's desert resort - California's next big earthquake could take place among the golf courses and weekend resort hotels of Palm Springs, a senior government seismologist has warned, raising the prospect of thousands of dead on Los Angeles's doorstep and long-term devastation akin to the crippling of the New Orleans region following Hurricane Katrina. The area is at least 150 years overdue for a major earthquake, based on historical patterns. It isn't unreasonable to expect a quake measuring close to eight on the Richter scale, strong enough to devastate homes, rip open and ignite oil pipelines, collapse freeways and expose even those who did survive to extreme desert temperatures without the benefit of heat in the winter or air conditioning in the summer. The force of a 7.8 earthquake in Palm Springs was also likely to topple buildings and create other forms of chaos in Los Angeles, whose outer suburbs begin 30 miles to the west of Palm Springs. Palm Springs and the surrounding Coachella Valley sit between two major faults - the San Andreas, which runs the length of California, and the San Jacinto. Stresses have been building up under both, raising the prospect of a quake in which the ground moves at ten feet per second. In the last major quake to hit the Los Angeles area, the Northridge earthquake of 1994, the ground moved at about six feet per second - enough to destroy and damage hundreds of homes but stopping short of a catastrophe. Major earthquakes had historically hit the Coachella Valley every 150 years, but for reasons nobody could explain it had been spared for the past 300. The Palm Springs area is far from the only part of California threatened by natural disaster. The whole Los Angeles urban area sits on a patchwork of seismic faults that threaten to shake at any moment. San Francisco is, arguably, even more at risk, not least because a powerful quake would quickly reduce parts of the city built on landfill to rubble and knock out the bridge system that is that city's transportation lifeline.

JAPAN - In the 40 years that Japan has been building nuclear plants, seismic activity was relatively quiet. Not a single nuclear facility was struck by a big quake. The government, along with the power industry and the academic community, all developed the habit of underestimating the potential risks posed by major quakes. However, since around the time of the Great Hanshin Earthquake that devastated Kobe in 1995, almost the entire Japanese archipelago has entered a period of brisk seismic activity. In the past two years, major quakes took place in close proximity of three nuclear power plants: the Onagawa plant in Miyagi Prefecture (August 2005), the Shika plant in Ishikawa Prefecture (March 2007) and the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant. In each case, the maximum ground motion caused by the quake was stronger than the seismic design criteria for the nuclear power plants. The latest temblor near Kashiwazaki generated a peak ground acceleration of 993 gal, compared with the design value of 450 gal. What happened there could have been much worse. If the focus of the quake had been a little farther southwest, toward the plant site, and the magnitude had been 7.5 - the size of a quake that hit Niigata Prefecture in 1964 - and if all seven reactors at the plant had been operating, a combination of an earthquake and a nuclear meltdown could have occurred. The period of high-level seismic activity will continue for another 40 years or more. Unless radical steps are taken now to reduce the vulnerability of nuclear power plants to earthquakes, Japan could experience a true nuclear catastrophe in the near future.

8/9/07 -
This morning a 4.5 quake hit near downtown Los Angeles, California, 45 km (28 miles) NW of the Los Angeles Civic Center, waking residents and knocking some items off shelves and walls.

INDONESIA, which has been hit by three destructive tsunamis since December 2004, escaped another one after a 7.5 earthquake Wednesday struck near the island of Java. The earthquake's epicenter was about l00 kilometers (60 miles) east of Jakarta and 33 kilometers north of the coastal town of Pamanukan, at a depth of 289 kilometers at 0:04 a.m. Jakarta time. The quake sparked panic in Jakarta and across Java, sending people into the streets. Residents said tall buildings and single story homes in Jakarta shook violently. IT WAS THE WORLD'S BIGGEST EARTHQUAKE SINCE AN 8.1 STRUCK OFF THE SOLOMON ISLANDS IN MAY, producing a tsunami that killed 54 people. "There are no reports of damage or casualties. Tremors were felt as far away as Bali island," nearly 900 kilometers to the east of the epicenter. This is the second magnitude 7.5 earthquake to hit Indonesia this year. The last was in January, also under the seabed, near the islands of Maluku in eastern Indonesia. Four people were killed.

CHILE - A moderate earthquake shook the Chilean capital Santiago in the midmorning on Wednesday, causing tall buildings in the city centre to sway. The magnitude 5.0 quake occurred at 10.14am (14H14 GMT) just off the Pacific coast of Chile, 75 kilometres from the port city of Valparaiso. There were no immediate reports of damages.

UTAH - Mine officials insisted Monday‘s accident was caused by a natural disaster. The company released a statement saying the depth of the earthquake occurred in a region that was 3,500 feet deeper than where the miners were. Scientists believe the seismic waves in the area of the Crandall Canyon mine were "the signature of the collapse and that the collapse was not caused by an earthquake." Although mining activities have been shown to produce quakes, the opposite is rare. Scientists say it‘s unusual for a temblor to damage a mine unless it is a big one. In 1976, a 7.8 magnitude quake in China wreaked havoc on coal mines beneath the city of Tangshan. The Crandall Canyon mine is built into a mountain in the rugged Manti-La Sal National Forest, 140 miles south of Salt Lake City, in a sparsely populated area. The region is crisscrossed with geologic faults, and in 1988, a 5.2 magnitude temblor struck 25 miles southeast of the mine.

8/8/07 -
UTAH - Seismic activity detected in Utah at the same time that a mine collapsed there, trapping six men deep underground, was probably caused by the cave-in itself and not an earthquake, U.S. geologists said on Tuesday. But a final conclusion is still several days away. The mine's owner has insisted that an earthquake was responsible for the collapse and lashed out at experts and members of the media who have said otherwise. The earthquake center detected a tremor with a 3.9 magnitude at 2:48 a.m. MDT (0848 GMT) Monday, centered about 1 mile below the surface, a shallow depth for an earthquake. The reasons to suspect that the Crandall Canyon Mine's cave-in was responsible for the seismic activity included the epicenter's proximity to the mine and shallow depth and the nature of the signal itself. "The character of the seismic signal is not really consistent with what we see in a naturally occurring event (like an earthquake)." The question of whether an earthquake triggered the collapse has become a key issue as rescuers race to reach the six men, who have not been heard from since the mine collapsed early on Monday morning.
News sites are reporting that the Crandall Canyon mine owner says "seismic activity" has "totally shut down" rescue efforts underground and erased the work done the past day to reach six trapped miners. "We are back to square one underground." He continues to insist that an earthquake caused the cave-in, and said during a news conference that he has the science to prove it. But University of Utah seismologists say the instruments indicate otherwise. They say the first motions indicated downward movement consistent with a collapse. Had it been a quake, they would have seen up and down movement on their seismograms.

MINNESOTA - The National Transportation Safety Board on Saturday formally ruled out seismic activity as a cause of the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge. NTSB officials hope to determine the most likely cause, or causes, of the collapse within a year, but the investigation could take longer. The 1,900-foot-long structure crashed into the Mississippi River in Minneapolis last Wednesday, killing at least five people and sending 98 to the hospital. Eight people are still missing. [Site note - I live 9 miles from this bridge. In college I lived 1 block away.]

8/7/07 -
UTAH - The collapse of a Utah coal mine that trapped six miners was so strong that seismologists initially thought it was an earthquake.

8/6/07 -
RUSSIA - A 4-magnitude quake has hit a city off Russia's coast, leaving a woman hospitalized with concussion and another woman with fractured vertebrae. The tremor which shook Nevelsk on Sakhalin Island located north of Japan off Russia's Pacific coast on Sunday was an aftershock from a pair of quakes which struck the city last week and left 1,000 people homeless. Over 150 aftershocks have jolted the region since the Thursday temblors that measured 6.7 and 6.1 on the Richter scale.

8/3/07 -
RUSSIA - over 600 families have remained without shelter as a result of a major 6.4 quake in Russia’s Sakhalin region. According to preliminary estimates, 15 houses, in which over 600 families used to live, are uninhabitable in the town of Nevelsk. People are staying at their relatives or acquaintances, as well as at points of temporary stationing set up at local schools. All residents of Nevelsk were evacuated from their homes for safety reasons. Two people were killed and 12 were injured in the quake There have been 11 aftershocks following the quake. “Jolts are subsiding, and according to seismologists, another major quake is unlikely.” There have been no destructions in Sakhalin region cities apart from Nevelsk.

MEXICO - A vast chunk of Earth sliding under Mexico has surprisingly reversed direction, puzzling geologists and leaving them wondering whether the ground might be poised to pummel Mexico City with a devastating earthquake. The offshore tectonic plate had been sliding toward Mexico City at a rate of 1 inch per year, as recorded by Global Positioning System measuring stations near Acapulco and Guerrero. That movement was normal, as predicted by theories of how Earth's crustal plates should move. At subduction zones, like this one, an oceanic plate typically slides beneath a continental plate, and now and then major temblors occur. Suddenly, in the latter half of 2006, the plate began moving the other way and quadrupled its speed.
A reversal of tectonic plate motion between Acapulco and Mexico City in the last half of 2006 probably didn’t ease seismic strain in the region or the specter of a major earthquake anticipated there in the coming decades. Instead of creeping toward Mexico City at about one inch per year – the expected speed from plate tectonic theory – the region near Acapulco moved in the opposite direction for six months and sped up by four times. The changes in motion were detected by analyzing data from GPS satellite receivers set up in Guerrero, Mexico. “The million-dollar question is whether the event makes a major earthquake in the region less likely or more likely. So far, it does not appear to be reducing the earthquake hazard.” The question of earthquake hazard is particularly important for Guerrero, since it is located 175 miles southwest of Mexico City. “A very large earthquake in Guerrero would produce seismic waves that would travel quickly to the Mexican capital, and since Mexico City is built on water-saturated lakebed deposits that amplify seismic energy, the results would be catastrophic.” In 1985, a magnitude 8.1 earthquake triggered by the Cocos Plate dipping under the North American Plate off the west coast of southern Mexico struck along the coast north of Guerrero and killed 10,000 people in Mexico City. Since the last major earthquake in northwest Guerrero was a 7.6 magnitude event in 1911, many scientists think the area is ripe for a much larger earthquake, likely in the range of 8.1 to 8.4. “Before GPS we thought the ground moved at a constant speed between earthquakes. The recognition of these transient events where the plate reverses direction is arguably the most important geophysical discovery that has stemmed from the introduction of GPS measurements.” The Guerrero slip events in 2006 are the LARGEST EVER REPORTED IN THE WORLD. Studies of the Guerrero Gap are helping scientists better understand other subduction zones around the world, including the Cascadia region off the coast of Washington and Oregon. Smaller but much faster backwards slip events have occurred there, as have very large earthquakes in previous centuries.

8/2/07 -
RUSSIA - Two earthquakes hit the island of Sakhalin in Russia’s far east this morning, killing at least two people and triggering small tsunami waves on Japan’s coast. Russian authorities declared a state of emergency in the western part of the island as aftershocks continued to shake the region, causing extensive damage to buildings. The worst-hit population centre in Sakhalin was Nevelsk, a town of 50,000 people in the western part of the island. Thousands of residents were evacuated and officials said 400 tents were to be sent to the town. “Residential homes and factories have been damaged, the power supply has been cut. The city’s cultural centre was partly destroyed. Dead and injured have been found in the ruins.” Shortly after the first earthquake struck, authorities in Japan issued a warning that a small tsunami could hit the coast of the northern island of Hokkaido, where the quake was felt. In Japan, officials on Hokkaido said they observed tsunami waves of about 20 centimetres (eight inches). Minutes after the meteorological agency lifted its warning, the second quake hit. It was not immediately clear whether the second quake caused seismic waves.

VANUATU - A powerful earthquake rattled Vanuatu in the South Pacific early Thursday, causing cracks in roads, buildings, a bridge and a wharf and prompting brief evacuations due to tsunami fears. The 7.2 quake struck at 4:08 a.m. and was centered 30 miles southeast of the town of Luganville. The quake did not trigger a tsunami but people living alongside a river were evacuated because officials feared one. The temblor caused cracks as long as 20 feet and six-inches wide in the main street of Luganville. Some buildings and a bridge over a river also sustained cracks. The quake also knocked out power in some parts of Luganville. "It was a severe shake, but short and sharp." Vanuatu has had a lot of rain recently and the earthquake could trigger many landslips. It was the first global earthquake with a magnitude of at least 7 in 122 days.

8/1/07 -
JAPAN - After the deadly earthquake struck northwestern Japan in mid-July, the nation was stunned by widespread damage to a nuclear power plant near the quake’s center, including minor radiation leaks, ruptured pipes, flooding and a fire that belched black smoke for more than an hour on live television. But perhaps the most startling discovery occurred in the days that followed, when scientists used data from the magnitude 6.8 earthquake on July 16 to conclude that the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, the world’s largest by electrical output, may have unknowingly been built directly on top of an active seismic fault. That could account for the force of the tremors, which Tokyo Electric Power, the operator of the plant, said were more than twice as strong as the plant’s design limits. Nuclear experts applaud the fact that all four of the Kashiwazaki plant’s seven reactors that were operating when the earthquake struck were safely shut down, despite the unexpected strength of the tremors. But Tokyo Electric’s failure to predict the size of the tremors that could strike the area, and to detect the fault line beneath the plant, left many here wondering whether regulators and plant operators could also have underestimated the potential for devastating earthquakes at Japan’s 48 other nuclear reactors. The earthquake also defied expectations by moving differently from previous quakes in the region, Tokyo Electric said. The Kashiwazaki plant was designed to withstand shorter, more intense tremors. But the recent quake struck with a broad, wrenching horizontal swaying that caused water to slosh out of storage pools. The company says the plant is still safe because the fault line appears to lie more than 12 miles beneath the plant, too deep to cause the sorts of big cracks and other surface movement that could damage the reactors’ thick concrete buildings. (photo)

7/29/07 -
JAPAN - The water distribution system was damaged in about 370 places across the city of Kashiwazaki by the recent earthquake. However, it is the damage to the three main pipes that has created the biggest stumbling block in efforts to fully restore water supplies to the city. The city's water is supplied by three reservoirs in the city, via three major pipes that are about 80 centimeters in diameter. Of the three, the one supplying the largest volume of water was the most badly damaged. The pipes were damaged because they had not been upgraded to prevent their joints from rupturing. No such problems were found in the quake-resistant pipes.

INDONESIA - A strong earthquake which hit North Maluku Province, on Thursday (July 26) has injured a number of people and damaged tens of houses. One of the injured residents was in a very critical condition. The earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale, rocking North Maluku, did not trigger a subsequent tsunami, although its epicenter was located at a depth of 62 kilometers below sea-level in Morotai Isle waters. A series of powerful tectonic earthquakes rocked several parts of Indonesia in the provinces of Banten, Aceh, and North Maluku on Thursday.

TANZANIA, KENYA - Yet another tremor was experienced in Kenya on Thursday night despite reports that last week’s eruption of Oldonyo Lengai mountain in Tanzania had put an end to the earth movements. The quake experienced at 21:54:36 measured 5.0 on the Richter scale and had its source 125 Kilometers North West of Arusha in Tanzania. Residents described the tremor, which as was felt in various parts of the country, as ‘very powerful’. Last week, Oldonyo Lengai Mountain in Tanzania erupted, supposedly bringing an end to the numerous earth tremors that hit East Africa for a whole week. It is believed that the seismic waves responsible for the earth movements emanated from this point. Experts had said the volcanic eruption would reduce the underground activity that was responsible for the tremors.

7/27/07 -
Major quake likely in the Middle East - In A.D. 551, a massive earthquake devastated the coast of Phoenicia, now Lebanon. The disaster is well-documented, but scientists had struggled over the years to locate the earthquake fault. Now a new underwater survey has uncovered the fault and shown that it moves approximately every 1,500 years — which means a disaster is due any day now. "It is just a matter of time before a destructive tsunami hits this region again." Earthquakes are common in Lebanon, but many of the faults remain unidentified, hidden beneath the deep waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

7/25/07 -
JAPAN - Kashiwazaki's stockpiles of medicine to be used in the event of a disaster had expired well before last week's earthquake, according to municipal government sources. The government failed to check the medicine inventory between 2002 - including in the aftermath of the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake in October 2004 - and summer 2006. Even though it discovered last year that the medicine had expired, it failed to replenish the stock. As a result, the city was unable to provide medicine when the temblor hit the area on July 16. 32 of the 33 kinds of stockpiled medical supplies were past their expiration dates - included were antiseptics, painkillers and cold medicine. The only type of medicine still usable was tranquilizers. Additionally, two of the eight kinds of medical apparatus reserved for disasters were outdated. Nevertheless, the city government did not purchase any new medicine to refill the stock, saying it could not afford them. When the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake hit the city last week, shelters requested medical supplies from the city disaster management team. But the city was unable to meet the request, instructing the shelters to secure necessary medical items on their own. One shelter had to treat sick and injured evacuees with nothing more than a first-aid kit. "We were preoccupied with our food stockpile, so we weren't even thinking about pharmaceutical stockpiling. Besides, we never once used the stocks since 2002, when we refilled a few supplies."

CHINA - About 18,000 people have been left homeless after the earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale, which struck a remote county in northwest China last week. The quake, which struck Tekes county at 6:06 pm on Friday, destroyed 4,600 houses and damaged 7,800 others, affecting 27,000 people. No casualties have been reported, but more than 470 livestock sheds collapsed in the quake, killing about 400 livestock.

TANZANIA, KENYA - tremors began on July 12, so faint that they were barely noticed. A week later, a couple of good jolts sent people fleeing their offices in downtown Nairobi. Then the tremors were gone. Scientists are still unsure about what exactly caused this "earthquake swarm" — a cluster of relatively mild shakes spaced out over several days in Kenya and Tanzania. The quakes — one of which reached magnitude 5.9—caused little damage but spread fear that a big quake was imminent. Was it fault activity along the Rift Valley, where the African tectonic plate is stretching? Or was it Ol Doinyo Lengai, a Tanzanian volcano that sits near the swarm's epicenter? So far, government officials have pushed the theory that rumbling in Ol Doinyo Lengai was to blame for the tremors. Fears that a massive eruption was near triggered several hundred people to evacuate its slopes, and the Tanzanian government warned tourists to stay away. The volcano erupted Friday and officials said that the eruption had eased the pressure that caused the swarm of at least a dozen mini-quakes. But the mountain has a history of playing tricks on people. Tremors can loosen rocks that create dust as they tumble down the side, resembling lava flows leaving a trail of ash and steam down the mountain. Another possible cause of the tremors, scientists say, is that the earthquake swarm had nothing to do with the volcano at all, but was the result of tectonic activity in Africa's Great Rift Valley, which stretches approximately 3,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) in length. The African plate, which covers the entire continent, is in the middle of tectonic change. Scientists are having such a hard time telling what exactly happened last week in part because there are no monitoring stations on Ol Doinyo Lengai.

7/24/07 -
JAPAN - A week after the quake, an estimated 40 percent of households and local facilities are still without running water. The elderly have been particularly hard with many evacuees suffering chronic diseases, elevated blood pressure, insomnia and other disorders. Officials are concerned the problem will be exacerbated by the hot weather, which they believe could leave many suffering dehydration or food poisoning. Many shelters do not have air-conditioning or electric fans, something that worries local doctors. About 3,000 evacuees are still living in shelters following the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake that struck on July 16, with many expected to be unable to return home for an extended period.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. may not be able to begin checkups of the reactor cores of its quake-hit nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture until September because it needs to clean up contamination inside one of the seven reactors and fix other safety problems.

TAJIKISTAN - An earthquake and an unrelated mudslide killed a total of 12 people in Tajikistan over the weekend. Nine people died in a mudslide in the north of the mountainous nation bordering Afghanistan late on Sunday. Separately, an earthquake measuring about five on the Richter scale killed three people and destroyed buildings and bridges in the far east of the Central Asian state.

7/22/07 -
CHINA - An earthquake in a remote region of northwest China brought down more than 2,100 houses and prompted the evacuation of 8,250 people. The 5.7-magnitude quake jolted a county in the north of the vast Xinjiang region, bordering Kazakhstan, on Friday.

7/20/07 -
KENYA, TANZANIA - A report by American geologists has explained the recent spate of tremors that have jolted Kenya and Tanzania. The report says the earthquakes represent a phenomenon known as a seismic "swarm". This "is an episode of high earthquake activity in which the largest earthquake does not occur at the beginning of the episode and in which the largest earthquake is not substantially larger than other earthquakes of the episode". This appears to suggest that the series of tremors that have hit the region may not necessarily culminate in a major earthquake disaster. The earthquake swarm was situated close to the Ol Donyo Lengai volcano in Tanzania. Volcanic eruptions are often preceded and accompanied by earthquake swarms, but most earthquake swarms are not associated with volcanic eruptions. The experts say the information recorded by the centre is not sufficient to determine if the current swarm might lead to a change in the eruptive behaviour of the Ol Donyo Lengai volcano.

JAPAN - Some experts believe the latest temblor is an indicator that southwestern Japan is entering a period of increased seismic activity. This area has had major quakes in the last decade or so, including the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake, the 2000 quake in western Tottori Prefecture, the 2005 quake off the coast of Fukuoka Prefecture and the 2007 quake in the Noto Peninsula. "While these quakes do not directly tie in to a Tokai or Tonankai earthquake, it would not be surprising to find that quakes in these regions become more frequent in the period before a gigantic quake hits." The area around southwestern Japan is known for an increase in large inland quakes in the period between several decades before a gigantic quake, like the envisaged Tonankai or Nankai quakes, and up to about a decade after such a quake. Based on that theory, some experts point to the Great Hanshin Earthquake as the start of the period for more frequent inland quakes. "The latest quake could be part of the activity influenced by such trends." On the other hand, other experts see the latest quake as part of activity along the Sea of Japan in northeastern Japan rather than as an extension of inland quakes in southwestern Japan. The lack of long-term data makes it difficult to clearly state that southwestern Japan has actually entered a more seismically active period.
The earthquake-ravaged nuclear plant was shuttered indefinitely Wednesday, and may be closed for up to a year, amid revelations that damage was worse than initially announced and mounting international concern about Japanese nuclear stewardship. Adding to the urgency were new data from aftershocks of Monday's deadly 6.8-magnitude quake suggesting a fault line may run beneath the mammoth power plant. The president of plant operator Tokyo Electric Power visited the site Wednesday morning, declaring it "a mess." On Tuesday evening, his company released a long list of problems triggered by the quake. A tour later given revealed widespread damage across its sprawling compound, including large cracks in roads, toppled concrete fences and buckled sidewalks. "This is unforgivable. You say there's no leak before you really know. ... The delay in information was especially inexcusable."
Seventy-six evacuation shelters in areas heavily hit by Monday's earthquake have suffered shortages of alcohol sprays for disinfection and other sanitary items, leading to fears of infectious diseases and food poisoning. Items such as mouthwash and masks also have run short. Some shelters do not have running water, making it difficult to provide enough water for hand washing. Public health workers have been visiting shelters since Tuesday, telling evacuees how to use alcohol sprays and wet tissues to clean their hands. However, only about 200 500-milliliter bottles of alcohol spray had been secured for the shelters as of Tuesday. As of 7 a.m. Wednesday, 9,883 people had been evacuated. Kashiwazaki residents accounted for 9,024 of that number. Meanwhile, the prefectural government reportedly has decided to ask the central government to construct 1,100 temporary housing units, of which 1,000 units would be erected in Kashiwazaki and 100 in Kariwamura. The prefectural government hopes to start constructing 250 of the units Monday and complete the work by the middle of next month. Also Tuesday, an additional 11 households in Kashiwazaki were told to evacuate due to a fear they could be hit by landslides caused by aftershocks or rain.
Seven quake damage photos.

7/19/07 -
TANZANIA & KENYA, RWANDA - High-rise buildings emptied and frightened office workers hurried home early after earth tremors struck Nairobi for a fifth day on Tuesday. One tremor occurred on Thursday and one on Saturday, two each on Sunday and Monday and three on Tuesday. The Government urged citizens not to panic as geologists blamed the successive quakes on stirrings underneath God's Mountain, an active volcano 240km southwest of Nairobi in Tanzania. The tremors, which have been striking since Saturday, have ranged in intensity from 4.4 and 6.0 on the Richter scale. At least three sustained tremors struck the city of three million Tuesday. Many workers in Kenya's high-rise office buildings were allowed to go home early. The tremors this week have been felt as far away as Rwanda. Tanzanian authorities reported no damage. The last time a major earthquake struck east Africa was in December 2005. It registered 6.8 on the Richter scale and sent workers scrambling out of buildings. God's Mountain, or Ol Donyo Lengai in the language of Kenya's Maasai tribe, might erupt. Its last major eruption was in 1966 and lava flowed from it in 1988. Days of jokes about the tremors, which gently shook buildings and left people feeling dizzy, soon gave way to fear as the ground kept shaking overnight in Nairobi. By early in the morning, some residents in an upmarket Nairobi area scurried out of their homes in pyjamas after hearing a rumour that American citizens had been told to evacuate and a quake was predicted to strike within hours. The US embassy denied any evacuation order had been given. Nairobi would be in bad shape should the epicentre move to the capital, which has suffered a rash of building collapses owing to shoddy construction. “Most of the buildings are not built to withstand any earthquakes. They are not build to sway. If it was under us it would be disastrous."
Reports that the epicentre of the tremors, earlier traced to Lake Natron, Tanzania, some 240km away from Nairobi, could be moving closer to the city caused fear and concern. The earthquakes have also reportedly risen in strength from 4.4 on the Richter Scale last Thursday to 6.1 by 5.10pm on Tuesday. Tuesday's tremors hit in succession within a difference of five seconds. The first - which measured 6.0 on the Richter scale - was felt at 5.10.43pm, followed by a more powerful one at 5.10.50pm. The epicentre of the first tremor was in Tanzania near the Kenyan border, just 145km from Nairobi while the second was some 246km away. The third hit at 9.27.51pm and measured 5.0 on the Richter scale, with the epicentre traced to Tanzania some 185km South South West of Nairobi. In Nairobi, people dashed out of buildings fearing they could collapse, while in Mombasa, the tremors caused ocean turbulence and was experienced by people travelling by ferry. "I felt like my heart missed a beat as the ferry I was in was being rocked by fierce sea waves. There was turbulence in the waters and at one point, I thought we were going to sink." According to a geologist, the tremor shook buildings, power and telephone lines. "This thing is terrible and the members of the public should be careful. We have never witnessed earth tremors persisting for more than a week consecutively in the country." Reports say temporary structures in some areas of the town either caved in or cracked. Areas of Maasai Mara game reserve, Loita and most trading centres on the Kenya/Tanzania border experienced long durations of the tremors, spreading panic.
At least 10 major tremors were felt in Tanzania and Kenya between July 12 and 18. Investigations into the tremors, which a geologist described as "ABNORMAL AND STRANGE", will continue. "It is extremely interesting that the quakes are centred near Ol Doinyo Lengai [volcano] but this does not mean it will erupt. The quakes may just be tectonic, indicating movement in the Rift Valley, and do not necessarily mean lava is moving."

7/18/07 -
JAPAN - Officials at a Japanese nuclear power plant have reported 50 malfunctions caused by Monday's strong earthquake near the town of Kashiwazaki. In addition to a fire, there were leaks of radioactive water and gas and drums containing nuclear waste burst open. The company running the plant has said none of the leaks are harmful to people or the environment. But the industry's safety is being questioned and the problems were not reported soon enough. Large parts of Kashiwazaki remain without power and water and about 10,000 people are spending a second night in evacuation centres. Riken Corp, which makes car parts for companies such as Honda and Toyota, says it is unsure when it will be able to resume production at its factory in Kashiwazaki after the quake injured some of its employees and damaged equipment. Fuji Xerox has also had to halt production at its Kashiwazaki plant, which mainly assembles printers, because it is without power and there has been some damage to the building. ( Photos )

Scientists are intrigued by a cluster of earthquakes that circled the Pacific during the past two days, but seismologists don't believe most of them are related. From late Saturday night, the edges of the Pacific Ocean felt tremors of magnitude 5.0 or greater in the area of Japan and the Philippines to the west, the Aleutians to the north, the Galapagos to the east, and Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea to the south. Only the quake Sunday afternoon off Japan caused local damage. Most of the earthquakes were comparatively weak, but it is UNUSUAL to see so many in the 5 and 6 range clustered together. It is unlikely that quakes in, say, Japan and in the Aleutian chain thousands of miles away are related. "We think these are random clusters" and that it was just happenstance that a dozen of them occurred within two days. For some in the quake-watching community, what's more interesting is what hasn't been happening. It's been an UNUSUALLY long time - nearly four months - since there has been a big earthquake of magnitude 7 or more anywhere in the world. The last one was a 7.1 quake March 25 in Vanuatu. That doesn't necessarily mean a bigger one is coming, or that one isn't. There was a four-month lag last year, which ended with a 7.1 quake that killed two people in Taiwan on Dec. 26, 2006.

7/17/07 -
JAPAN - A 6.6-magnitude earthquake rocked Japan's northwest coast on Monday, killing at least five people and injuring more than 500. The area was plagued by a series of aftershocks. Some 2,000 people in Kashiwazaki were evacuated from their homes. Nearly 300 buildings in the city were destroyed. The force of the quake buckled seaside roads and bridges, and one-yard-wide fissures could been seen in the ground along the coastline. The Meteorological Agency warned that the aftershocks could continue for a week. A second 6.8 Japan earthquake struck the Sea of Japan, just hours after the first earthquake. (photo)
More than 10,000 people huddled in evacuation centres in northwest Japan on Tuesday after the earthquake flattened homes, killing nine people, injuring more than 900 and triggering a leak of contaminated water from a nuclear plant. As aftershocks continued, forecasts for two days of wet weather raised fears of mudslides that could add to the devastation. A small fire and a leak of contaminated water at Tokyo Electric Power Co's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant - the world's largest - reignited fears about nuclear safety in a country that relies on atomic power for about one third of its electricity. The quake was stronger than those its reactors had been designed to withstand. About 100 drums containing low-level nuclear waste at the plant were knocked over by the quake and some lost their lids. The quake halted gas service to about 35,000 homes and disrupted the water supply to all of Kashiwazaki. It was unclear when production would re-start at some factories in the area. Houses, many wooden with traditional heavy tile roofs, collapsed and roads cracked in Monday's quake, centred in the same northwestern area as a tremor three years ago.
The extent of the damage caused to buildings in an earthquake depends on what materials they are constructed from and the type of tremor that strikes. For example, a high-rise building is susceptible to longer frequencies of seismic wave, while an ordinary house is more likely to shake as a result of shorter-frequency waves. The seismic waves in Monday's earthquake had a frequency cycle of one to two seconds, a range to which wooden houses are particularly vulnerable. Such a seismic wave, dubbed a killer pulse, caused catastrophic damage in the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995. This frequency also was observed in the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake in 2004 and the Noto Peninsula Earthquake in March. The seismic wave of the latest quake also had a frequency cycle of two to three seconds. When low-rise buildings are affected by a killer pulse, which alters the structure slightly, the buildings then become more vulnerable to seismic waves with a longer frequency. "The seismic wave with a two to three second frequency cycle dealt a further blow to buildings that had already suffered damage." The sandstone and mudstone that forms the area around Kashiwazaki means the ground is soft, which can amplify the tremors. The soft ground is said to have contributed to the subsidence of the Hokuriku Expressway, which runs through the city.

7/16/07 -
This morning there has been a 6.7 quake NEAR THE WEST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN. The quake has killed two people and injured more than 150. The quake struck off the coast of Niigata, some 260km (160 miles) north-west of Tokyo. One of the worst-hit areas appears to be the city of Kashiwazaki - close to the quake's epicentre. A number of houses were damaged, and a fire started at the Kashiwazaki nuclear plant. But officials said there was no risk of a radiation leak. A tsunami warning was issued, but it was later lifted