Floods and Quakes: Could there be a connection? Some geophysicists think so

Salton Sea

Important Takeaways:

  • Floods linked to San Andreas quakes
  • Historical record underscores connections between reservoirs and seismic activity.
  • Geophysicists have linked historical earthquakes on the southern section of California’s famed San Andreas fault to ancient floods from the nearby Colorado River.
  • The work has broad implications for understanding how floods or reservoirs relate to quakes — a topic that gained new relevance in 2008, after a massive earthquake in China’s Sichuan province killed more than 80,000 people. Some geologists have proposed that impounding water behind a newly built dam there helped hasten the quake.
  • Now, new work in southern California suggests that at least three times in the past 2,000 years, the weight of river water spreading across floodplains seems to have helped trigger earthquakes in the region.
  • The team subsequently analyzed data from 20-metre-deep cores pulled from the lake bed in 2003 during earlier work for the US Bureau of Reclamation. The cores showed layers of coarse sandy material laid down during floods — at the same time that seismic activity was known to have occurred.
  • “We found quakes happened about every 100 to 200 years and were correlated with floods,” says Brothers. “The Colorado River spills, loads the crust and then there is a rupture.” He says the team is “very confident” in its evidence for the existence of three flood-derived quakes, of roughly magnitude 6, which happened about 600 years ago, 1,100 years ago and 1,200–1,900 years ago. “Sediments don’t lie,” he says.
  • A quake of about magnitude 7 struck the southern San Andreas fault about 300 years ago; the next is a century overdue. One possible reason is the Hoover Dam: since its completion in 1936, the lower Colorado no longer floods.

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Iceland volcano still rumbling as terrifying sounds hint it’s ready to blow

Iceland-Volcano-Ash-Cloud

Important Takeaways:

  • The terrifying sounds that hint Iceland’s volcano is ready to blow: Audio clip reveals the ‘exciting and scary’ seismic activity building around the Fagradalsfjall area
  • Iceland is bracing for a massive volcanic eruption that could wipe out an entire town, release toxic fumes and trigger widespread disruption.
  • The country has ordered evacuations and declared a state of emergency as seismic activity ramps up around the Fagradalsfjall volcano, which is expected to blow in the coming days.
  • Now, members of the public can listen to what this unnerving rumbling actually sounds like thanks to an app which transforms seismic frequencies into audible pitches.
  • The result is an ‘exciting and scary’ cacophony of noise as the island’s Reykjanes Peninsula is hit by hundreds of earthquakes
  • Around 4,000 people have been forced from their homes in the town of Grindavik due to its proximity to the Fagradalsfjall volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula, while the popular Blue Lagoon tourist attraction has also been closed.

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Global seismic activity high alert

Global-Seismic-Acitivity

Important Takeaways:

  • World Earthquake Report for Wednesday, 26 July 2023
  • Today’s global seismic activity level: HIGH
  • Magnitude 6+: 1 earthquake
  • Magnitude 5+: 6 earthquakes
  • Magnitude 4+: 27 earthquakes
  • Magnitude 3+: 119 earthquakes
  • Magnitude 2+: 235 earthquakes
  • No quakes of magnitude 7 or higher
  • Mag 6.4 Coral Sea, 96 km east of Port-Olry, Sanma Province, Vanuatu
  • Mag 5.3 South Atlantic Ocean, South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands
  • Mag 5.2 Coral Sea, 124 km northeast of Santo, Luganville, Sanma Province, Vanuatu
  • Mag 5.1 Molucca Sea, 175 km north of Ternate, North Maluku, Indonesia

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As of this morning Seismic activity remains at Extreme level worldwide

World Earthquake Report Jan 23

Revelations 6:12 “When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood”

Important Takeaways:

  • World Earthquake Report for Tuesday, 10 January 2023
  • Today’s global seismic activity level: EXTREME
  • This report is being updated every hour.
  • Magnitude 7+: 1 earthquake
  • Magnitude 5+: 4 earthquakes
  • Magnitude 4+: 40 earthquakes
  • Magnitude 3+: 116 earthquakes
  • Magnitude 2+: 292 earthquakes
    • Largest was Mag 7.9 Banda Sea, Indonesia
    • Mag 5.7 Coral Sea, 58 km north of Santo, Luganville, Sanma Province, Vanuatu

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Seismic activity High: World Report

Global Seismic Activity

Luke 21:11 There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

Important Takeaways:

  • World Earthquake Report
  • Today’s global seismic activity level: HIGH
    • Magnitude 6+: 1 earthquake
    • Magnitude 5+: 4 earthquakes
    • Magnitude 4+: 31 earthquakes
    • Magnitude 3+: 106 earthquakes
    • Magnitude 2+: 232 earthquakes
  • #1: Mag 6.4 North Pacific Ocean, 23 mi southwest of Eureka, Humboldt County, California, USA
  • #2: Mag 5.2 North Atlantic Ocean, 115 km northeast of Saint John, Antigua & Barbuda
  • #3: Mag 5.1 North Atlantic Ocean, 120 km northeast of Saint John, Antigua & Barbuda
  • #4: Mag 5.0 37 km northeast of Calama, Provincia de El Loa, Antofagasta, Chile
  • #5: Mag 5.0 South Pacific Ocean

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Today’s earthquake report

Luke 21:11” There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

Important Takeaways:

  • World Earthquake Report for Friday, 1 April 2022
  • Today’s global seismic activity level: HIGH
    • Magnitude 6+: 1 earthquake
    • Magnitude 5+: 12 earthquakes
    • Magnitude 4+: 32 earthquakes
    • Magnitude 3+: 108 earthquakes
    • Magnitude 2+: 237 earthquakes
  1.  6.3 quake South Pacific Ocean, New Caledonia, Apr 1, 2022 6:50 am (GMT +11) – 20 hours ago
  2.  5.5 quake South Pacific Ocean, New Caledonia, Apr 1, 2022 2:54 am (GMT +11) – 1 day 0 hours ago
  3.  5.5 quake South Pacific Ocean, New Caledonia, Apr 2, 2022 12:05 am (GMT +11) – 2 hours 60 minutes ago
  4.  5.3 quake Indian Ocean, 61 km southwest of Pelabuhanratu, West Java, Indonesia, Apr 1, 2022 2:14 pm (GMT +7) – 9 hours ago
  5.  5.2 quake 51 km east of Ciudad de San Juan, Departamento de Capital, San Juan, Argentina, Apr 1, 2022 8:28 am (GMT -3) – 5 hours ago
  6.  5.1 quake South Pacific Ocean, New Caledonia, Apr 1, 2022 2:30 am (GMT +11) – 1 day 1 hours ago
  7.  5.1 quake South Pacific Ocean, New Caledonia, Apr 1, 2022 8:59 am (GMT +11) – 18 hours ago
  8.  5.1 quake 64 km west of Papua Island, Indonesia, Apr 1, 2022 8:18 am (GMT +9) – 17 hours ago
  9.  5.1 quake North Pacific Ocean, Japan, Apr 1, 2022 10:32 am (GMT +9) – 15 hours ago
  10.  5.0 quake North Pacific Ocean, 264 km northeast of Kuril’sk, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia, Apr 1, 2022 4:19 am (GMT +10) – 22 hours ago

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Seismic activity around the Azores

Luke 21:11” There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

Important Takeaways:

  • Latest quakes in or near Portugal in the past 24 hours
    • Past 24 hours: 71 quakes | 62 quakes M2+ | 1 quake M3+
    • Past 7 days: 666 quakes | 595 quakes M2+ | 26 quakes M3+
    • Past 30 days: 798 quakes | 680 quakes M2+ | 52 quakes M3+ | 5 quakes M4+

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Earthquakes ease on Spain’s La Palma as volcano alert remains

By Borja Suarez

LA PALMA, Spain (Reuters) – A surge in seismic activity on the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma has slowed in the past day but could return at any moment, authorities said on Friday, as they kept almost half the island’s population on yellow alert for an eruption.

“The decrease in seismic activity may be transient and does not necessarily imply a halt to the reactivation,” the regional emergency services said in a statement after a meeting with politicians, volcano experts and civil defense authorities.

Scientists have recorded more than 4,000 tremors in the Cumbre Vieja national park in the south of the island, prompting authorities to declare a yellow alert for eruption on Tuesday, the second of a four-level alert system.

The yellow alert affects some 35,000 people in the regions of Fuencaliente, Los Llanos de Aridane, El Paso y Mazo.

Authorities on Friday advised people in those areas to prepare an emergency backpack with vital supplies and a mobile phone in case an evacuation is ordered.

So-called “earthquake swarms” are common on volcanic island chains such as the Canaries, said Eduardo Suarez, a volcanologist with Spain’s National Geographic Institute on neighboring Tenerife.

“What is noteworthy this time is that normally they occur between the crust and the mantle, at a depth of around 20 kilometers, now in some zones they are between 1km-3km from the surface,” he said.

More than 11 million cubic meters (388 million cubic feet) of magma have seeped into Cumbre Vieja, around a quarter of the amount expelled during the last major eruption in 1971.

(Reporting by Borja Suarez in La Palma and Nathan Allen in Madrid; Additional reporting by Emma Pinedo; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Earthquake swarm triggers volcano alert on Spain’s La Palma

MADRID (Reuters) – Authorities on the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma have warned that a sudden increase in seismic activity could herald a volcanic eruption in the coming days or weeks.

Spain’s National Geographic Institute has detected 4,222 tremors in a so-called “earthquake swarm” in the Cumbre Vieja national park, around the Teneguia volcano in the far south of the island.

As the quakes intensified and moved closer to the surface, the Canary Island’s regional government on Tuesday put the island on a yellow alert for an eruption, the second of a four-level alert system.

It said on Thursday there was no clear evidence for an immediate eruption, though warned the situation could evolve rapidly.

“More intense earthquakes are expected in the coming days,” it said in a statement.

More than 11 million cubic meters (388 million cubic feet)of magma have seeped into Cumbre Vieja in recent days, swelling the peak by around 6 centimeters, the Volcanic Institute of the Canaries said on Thursday.

Rising sharply out of the Atlantic around 100 kilometers to the west of southern Morocco, the Canary Islands are home to Spain’s most active and best known volcanoes, including Teide in Tenerife and Timanfaya in Lanzarote.

Teneguia last erupted in 1971 – the last surface eruption to occur in Spain – while a volcano off the tiny island of El Hierro erupted underwater in 2011.

(Reporting by Nathan Allen and Emma Pinedo, editing by Inti Landauro and Steve Orlofsky)

Antarctica rocked by 30,000 tremors in 3 months, Chilean scientists say

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – More than 30,000 tremors have rocked Antarctica since the end of August, according to the University of Chile, a spike in seismic activity that has intrigued researchers who study the remote, snowbound continent.

Scientists with the university’s National Seismological Center said the small quakes – including one stronger shake of magnitude 6 – were detected in the Bransfield Strait, a 60-mile wide (96-km) ocean channel between the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula.

Several tectonic plates and microplates meet near the strait, leading to frequent rumbling, but the past three months have been unusual, according to the center.

“Most of the seismicity is concentrated at the beginning of the sequence, mainly during the month of September, with more than a thousand earthquakes a day,” the center said.

The shakes have become so frequent that the strait itself, once increasing in width at a rate of about 7 or 8 mm (0.30 inch) a year is now expanding 15 cm (6 inches) a year, the center said.

“It’s a 20-fold increase … which suggests that right this minute … the Shetland Islands are separating more quickly from the Antarctic peninsula,” said Sergio Barrientos, the center’s director.

The peninsula is one of the fastest-warming places on Earth, and scientists closely monitor the changing climate’s impact on its icebergs and glaciers.

But climate scientist Raul Cordero of the University of Santiago said it was not yet clear how the tremors might be affecting the region’s ice.

“There’s no evidence that this kind of seismic activity … has significant effects on the stability of polar ice caps,” Cordero told Reuters.

(Reporting by Fabian Cambero and Reuters TV; Writing by Dave Sherwood; Editing by Peter Cooney)