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LAKE ELSINORE,Calif.-No damage or injuries are being reported after a small earthquake shook Riverside County.The U.S. Geological Survey says the magnitude 3.7 quake hit an area about eight miles northwest of the city of Lake Elsinore, not far from Interstate 15, at around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday.A Riverside County sheriff's dispatcher says the department hasn't received any calls about the quake.
The Kenyan government issued a tsunami warning and told people to leave beaches,just minutes ago after a strong 6.6 aftershock....They expect a maasive tsunami to hit their coast at around 11:30Am EST.,FOX News is reporting live
JAKARTA, Indonesia - A massive earthquake shook Indonesia on Wednesday, killing seven people, injuring 100 and triggering a small tsunami that hit one city on the island of Sumatra, authorities said. Tsunami warnings were issued for much of the Indian Ocean region. The 8.2-magnitude quake off Sumatra badly damaged buildings along the coast and could be felt in at least four countries, with tall buildings swaying as far as 1,200 miles away.It was followed by a series of powerful aftershocks, the strongest of which registered at a magnitude of 6.6 and triggered a second tsunami alert for Indonesia, the meteorological agency reported.
JAKARTA, Indonesia-A massive earthquake struck Indonesia on Wednesday, triggering a tsunami in the town of Padang and warnings for much of the Indian Ocean region, authorities said. The quake caused tall buildings to sway in at least four countries.A wave of up to 9 feet was reported to have hit Padang about 20 minutes after the quake, said Suhardjono, an official with Indonesia's meteorological agency, who goes by only one name.A local official told Indonesian radio that at least one person was killed and dozens were injured in the earthquake.The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center also reported that a small tsunami hit Padang.
JAKARTA,Indonesia-A massive earthquake struck Indonesia on Wednesday, triggering a tsunami in the town of Padang and warnings for much of the Indian Ocean region, authorities said. The quake caused tall buildings to sway in at least four countries. A wave of up to 9 feet was reported to have hit Padang about 20 minutes after the quake, said Suhardjono, an official with Indonesia's meteorological agency, who goes by only one name.A local official told Indonesian radio that at least one person was killed and dozens were injured in the earthquake.The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center also reported that a small tsunami hit Padang.Several buildings in Padang were damaged and at least one car showroom totally collapsed, according to the news Web site detik.com, which said people were searching to see if anyone was inside. It did not say whether the quake or wave caused the damage. Suhardjono said communication with the area was difficult.Residents in Bengkulu-the Sumatran town closest to the epicenter, where at least one building was demolished-said the quake triggered panic and that people ran inland. "Everyone is running out of their houses in every direction," according to Wati Said, who spoke by cell phone standing outside her house."We think our neighborhood is high enough. God willing, if the water comes, it will not touch us here.""Communication is cut, we can't call out," she added."I don't know how you contacted us.Everyone is afraid."The temblor could also be felt in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, 375 miles away, where office workers streamed down the stairwells of tall, swaying buildings.Some people in high-rises in neighboring Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand also felt the quake.The U.S. Geological Survey said the underwater quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.9 and hit at about 6:10 p.m. (7:10 a.m. EDT). It was centered 80 miles southwest of Sumatra island at a depth of 18.6 miles. "Earthquakes of this size have the potential to generate a widespread destructive tsunami that can affect coastlines across the entire Indian Ocean Basin," the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said, warning that waves could hit Indonesia and Australia within an hour, and Sri Lanka and India within three hours.It lifted the alert for Indonesia about two hours later.In India, officials said nothing was felt in the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands, some of which are just 150 miles north of Sumatra.The Indian government issued a tsunami alert for the islands, and officials were telling local authorities to take precautions on the far-flung islands, said Dharam Pal, the regional relief commissioner.Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.In December 2004, a massive earthquake struck off Sumatra island and triggered a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, including 160,000 people in Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh.
Geologists have constructed a model that calculates the probability of an earthquake for a given day and location in California, much like a meteorologist announces today's chance of rain.A color-coded probability map is available on the Internet.When an earthquake strikes, follow-up temblors, or aftershocks, are quite possible. Matthew Gerstenberger of the U.S. Geologic Survey and colleagues have used theories for how earthquakes cluster to determine the likelihood of seismic activity in a certain location over a 24-hour period.The seismic forecasts incorporate a background model - based on the history of known fault lines - with data on recent seismic activity. Currently only available for California, geologists hope to expand the forecasts to other earthquake-prone areas.Updated every hour, the map gives the probability of an event shaking an area with Modified Mercalli Intensity VI (six) or greater, which is enough to cause plaster to crack and windows to break. For the most part, the daily forecasts go from one-in-a-million to one-in-a-thousand."You would only see a red spot [corresponding to more than one in 10] after a large earthquake has occurred," Gerstenberger told LiveScience in a telephone interview.Following a main shock, the probability of aftershocks decreases with time. But surprisingly, some past events still cast a menacing shadow over the maps."We still see a slight increase in probability from Loma Prieta," Gerstenberger said. The Loma Prieta earthquake struck in 1989 with a magnitude of 6.9.Magnitudes are an overall measure of the energy released in a quake, whereas intensity quantifies the amount of shaking in a particular area.Other prominent temblors that still affect the forecasts are the 1992 Landers and 1999 Hector Mine earthquakes, with magnitudes 7.3 and 7.1, respectively.To demonstrate their model's accuracy, the researchers computed forecasts for the years between 1988 and 2002. As detailed in the May 19 issue of Nature, the number of aftershocks in the model matched what was actually observed over this time period.Gerstenberger did not expect people to check the earthquake forecast everyday, but he hoped they would educate themselves about the elevated hazard after a significant event. The forecasts could also help relief efforts in planning the response to a major quake."The public is accustomed to seeing probability numbers given for weather forecasts, and seismologists are fortunate in now being able to provide them for earthquakes," wrote Duncan Agnew of the University of California, San Diego, in an accompanying commentary in the journal.A live version of the color-coded map can be viewed here
CATANIA,Sicily-Mount Etna, Europe's tallest and most active volcano spewed out lava late on Tuesday in its latest spectacular eruption. Sparks lit the night sky and a small stream of lava was flowing down the volcano into an uninhabited valley but there was no danger to villages lower down on the slopes, officials said.The wind blew volcanic ash onto several villages and officials said the airport of Catania, a city at the base of the volcano, would be closed during the night as a precaution.Etna erupts regularly but usually causes little damage to inhabited areas.
An Indonesian man throws an offering of a chicken into the crater of Mt. Bromo, one of Indonesia's many active volcanoes in an annual ritual intended to pacify the volcano Saturday Aug. 25, 2007, in East Java, Indonesia. Indonesian is subject to frequent earthquakes and volcanoes due to its prime position in the pacific ring of fire.
Taipei - Two earthquakes measuring 6.6 and 5.7 on the Richter scale respectively rocked Taiwan early Friday, but there was no immediate report of casualties. The first quake, 6.6, struck at 1:51 am Friday (1751 GMT Thursday) with its epicentre 74.6 kilometres from Ilan on Taiwan's northeastern coast, 27 kilometres under the sea, the Seismological Observation Centre said.It was followed four minutes later by an aftershock, 5.7, in the same region.Both quakes were felt all over the island, causing bottles and cups to tumble off shelves and windowframes to rattle. Many residents living in high rises in Taipei ran onto the street, fearing their buildings might collapse.Taiwan lies on the circum-Pacific seismic belt with 68 per cent of the world's quakes hitting this region. Most of the earthquakes which hit Taiwan occur off the east coast, caused by the friction between the Eurasian Plate and the Philippine Plate, but cause little or no damage.But on September 21, 1999, a quake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale hit central Taiwan, killing 2,400 people and leaving some 10,000 injured.
MEXICO CITY-A moderate earthquake rattled a long stretch of Mexico's Pacific coast late Wednesday, sending panicked residents into the streets. There were no immediate reports of damages or injuries. The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 4.9, happened at 10:42 p.m. local time and was centered offshore 50 miles west of Manzanillo, a city on the coast of the state of Colima, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It struck about 6 miles beneath the ocean floor.Mexican officials measured the preliminary magnitude at 5.2. It was felt as far north as the Pacific resort city of Puerto Vallarta, about 170 miles north of Manzanillo."It was felt strongly, but fortunately there is no damage, just a bit of alarm in the community," said Nicolas Mendoza, an official with the civil protection department for the state of Jalisco, where Puerto Vallarta is located.
TAIPEI,Taiwan-A strong earthquake jolted the Taiwanese capital, Taipei, early Friday, shaking buildings and waking residents.The Central Weather Bureau said the 6.6 magnitude temblor struck at sea, 44 miles southeast of the eastern city of Ilan at 1:51 a.m. local time.Ilan is about 50 miles east of Taipei.There were no immediate reports of injuries or casualties, but the quake was felt for at least 30 seconds.Earthquakes frequently rattle Taiwan, but most are minor and cause little or no damage.However, a 7.6-magnitude earthquake in central Taiwan in September 1999 killed more than 2,300 people, and in December 2006 a 6.7-magnitude offshore tremor south of the city of Kaohsiung severed two undersea cables and disrupted telephone and Internet service to millions of users throughout Asia.
TOKYO-It's still beyond the reach of science to predict exactly when an earthquake will strike, but Japan will soon get the next-best thing-televised warnings that come before anyone feels the ground shake.Japan's Meteorological Agency and national broadcaster are teaming up to alert the public of earthquakes as much as 30 seconds before they hit, or at least before they can bring their full force down on populated areas.The system-the first of its kind in the world- does not predict quakes, but officials say it can give people enough time to get away from windows that could shatter, or to turn off ovens and prevent fires from razing homes.And in one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, every second counts."If we can give people enough time to take even a few steps to protect themselves before the shaking starts, it could help reduce injuries and damage," said agency spokesman Makoto Saito.The warnings, to begin in October, will be based on data provided by the Meteorological Agency, which maintains a network of sensors deep underground that estimate the intensity of a quake as soon as the ground ruptures.Alarms can go out before the shaking starts because there is a lag between the time it takes for different seismic waves to travel to the surface.Japan, which sits atop four tectonic plates, has been hit by 83 earthquakes strong enough to cause injury since March 1996, including one last month that killed 11 people and caused a fire and small radiation leak at a nuclear power plant.The warning system works by detecting primary waves, which spread from the epicenter of a quake and travel faster than the destructive shear waves.When waves of a certain intensity are detected, the alarms are set off.The national broadcaster, NHK, will relay them almost instantaneously to its television and radio audiences.
An undersea fault line near the crowded river deltas of the northern Bay of Bengal is capable of unleashing a potent tsunami, although there is no indication that such a threat is imminent, a scientist reported in the journal Nature. The fault had not previously been deemed an earthquake threat. The study was done by Phil R. Cummins, an Australian government geologist who identified the risk of a great Indian Ocean tsunami many months before the Dec. 26, 2004, earthquake near Sumatra set off deadly waves. From geological records and new satellite measurements of changes in elevations, Dr. Cummins said he found evidence that the northern fault was similarly unstable.
The belief that animals can predict earthquakes has been around for centuries.In 373 B.C., historians recorded that animals, including rats, snakes and weasels, deserted the Greek city of Helice in droves just days before a quake devastated the place. Accounts of similar animal anticipation of earthquakes have surfaced across the centuries since.Catfish moving violently, chickens that stop laying eggs and bees leaving their hive in a panic have been reported.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency and US Geological Survey have classified Wyoming as having a very high seismic hazard.
NEVELSK,Russia-Since an earthquake shook this Russian town on Sakhalin Island in the Pacific Ocean, Ivan Popov has been living in a garage.The crude shack feels much safer than the town's Soviet-built apartment blocks, many of which crumpled in the quake."I don't ever want to live in an apartment again," the former sailor said.Nevelsk suffered the worst from an earthquake which hit the Russian Pacific island just over a month ago.Closer to Japan's northern island of Hokkaido than it is to mainland Russia, Nevelsk, near Sakhalin's southern tip, is more than 6,000 km (3,700 miles) east of Moscow.The Aug. 2 quake had a magnitude of 6.4 on the Richter scale, powerful enough to cause destruction wherever it struck. The death toll was relatively low. A total of four people were killed-two on the day and another two who died later in hospital.But the true scale of the damage only emerged in the days afterwards, as people in this fishing and mining town discovered that, even if their apartment blocks were still standing, they were no longer safe to live in.Initially, officials said 2,000 people were made homeless. Now, that figure has gone up to at least 8,000, or about 30 percent of Nevelsk's population.Residents are living with relatives and friends, in their weekend cottages outside town, in childrens' homes, garages and even railway compartments.Russia is growing rich from its energy resources and few places have more than Sakhalin. The island has received billions of dollars in investment as Russian firms and foreign majors including Exxon and BP develop its oil reserves.But the earthquake has shown that for all the wealth, Sakhalin still suffers from two legacies of the Soviet past: shoddily-built housing and a creaking bureacracy that was slow to handle the aftermath.Russian President Vladimir Putin sacked Sakhalin governor Ivan Malakhov soon after the quake, accusing local officials of failing to provide shelter for the homeless in Nevelsk.
The scientific study of earthquakes is comparatively new.Until the 18th century, few factual descriptions of earthquakes were recorded, and the natural cause of earthquakes was little understood. Those who did look for natural causes often reached conclusions that seem fanciful today; one popular theory was that earthquakes were caused by air rushing out of caverns deep in the Earth's interior. The earliest earthquake for which we have descriptive information occurred in China in 1177 B.C. The Chinese earthquake catalog describes several dozen large earthquakes in China during the next few thousand years. Earthquakes in Europe are mentioned as early as 580 B.C., but the earliest for which we have some descriptive information occurred in the mid-16th century. The earliest known earthquakes in the Americas were in Mexico in the late 14th century and in Peru in 1471, but descriptions of the effects were not well documented. By the 17th century, descriptions of the effects of earthquakes were being published around the world - although these accounts were often exaggerated or distorted.The most widely felt earthquakes in the recorded history of North America were a series that occurred in 1811-1812 near New Madrid, Missouri. A great earthquake, whose magnitude is estimated to be about 8, occurred on the morning of December 16, 1811. Another great earthquake occurred on January 23, 1812, and a third, the strongest yet, on February 7, 1812. Aftershocks were nearly continuous between these great earthquakes and continued for months afterwards. These earthquakes were felt by people as far away as Boston and Denver. Because the most intense effects were in a sparsely populated region, the destruction of human life and property was slight. If just one of these enormous earthquakes occurred in the same area today, millions of people and buildings and other structures worth billions of dollars would be affected.The San Francisco earthquakes of 1906 was one of the most destructive in the recorded history of North America - the earthquake and the fire that followed killed nearly 700 people and left the city in ruins.The Alaska earthquake of March 27, 1964, was of greater magnitude than the San Francisco earthquake; it released perhaps twice as much energy and was felt over an area of almost 500,000 square miles. The ground motion near the epicenter was so violent that the tops of some trees were snapped off. One hundred and fourteen people (some as far away as California) died as a result of this earthquake, but loss of life and property would have been far greated had Alaska been more densely populated.
A light earthquake shook inland areas in southern California early Tuesday.The U.S. Geological Survey said that the quake measured 4.0 on the Richter scale, The Riverside Press-Enterprise reported. Earthquakes of that size are unlikely to cause any real damage, although those who experience them will feel buildings shaking and indoor items rattling.The quake occurred at about 7:45 a.m. and appeared to be centered a La Jolla, 7 miles south of San Diego. Rumbles were felt as far as Riverside, more than 100 miles north.Two minor quakes struck California Monday and a 4.7-magnitude quake hit Lake Elsinore on Sunday.
CARPENEDA DI VOBARNO, Italy-When the earth trembled in Assisi 10 years ago, toppling frescoed sections of the vault of the Basilica of St. Francis, the world took notice.Yet earthquakes are common in Italy. In the last year alone 491 events registered 2.5 or higher on the Richter scale, meaning they could be felt, even if they did not necessarily cause damage.Now Italy’s Culture Ministry has implemented guidelines that it hopes will mitigate the threat that earthquakes pose to the country’s artistic heritage.“Italy’s patrimony has been lost because we used to intervene after the fact and not before,” said Roberto Cecchi, general director of the Architectural Heritage and Landscape Department, which is responsible for the safekeeping of Italy’s monuments.Under the new guidelines unveiled this summer, officials at the local and national levels are to evaluate the seismic risk to individual structures in their jurisdictions and take steps to reduce the vulnerability. These steps could include using steel chains to join the walls together, or employing carbon fiber strips in the walls and the vaulting as a sort of flexible bandage“The idea is to see a structure as a sort of box that is more resistant if the vertical and the horizontal elements work together,” said Laura Moro, an architect at the Culture Ministry. “In a seismic area sooner or later something will happen. The problem is that for years this issue was totally ignored.”The residents of this town on the shore of Lake Garda-in northern Italy, between Venice and Milan-realized that a minute before midnight on Nov. 24, 2004, when an earthquake registering 5.2 damaged hundreds of buildings. Since then Mauro Biasin, an architect, has been overseeing the restoration of nearly 300 damaged churches and monasteries. Many are still closed and carry signs saying, “Closed because of earthquake damage.” There were no deaths, but Mr. Biasin points out that had it struck exactly one month later, the churches would have been filled for Christmas Eve.The church of Santa Margherita di Scozia in Carpeneda di Vobarno above Lake Garda was built in 1949, just a few years before anti-earthquake construction regulations went into effect. The 2004 earthquake detached the facade and opened gaping cracks on the triumphal arch as well as minor cracks above the windows. It also loosened and rotated beams, Mr. Biasin said....
Tsunamis and fires have contributed to some of the largest death tolls in earthquakes. Here are the most notable known earthquake events, based on the number of deaths. Both deaths and magnitudes, when show, are estimates.
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