Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Only thing that size was in Cali.
Magnitude:4.7
Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 11:37:09 PM at epicenter
Location
39.605°N, 120.470°W
Depth
13.7 km (8.5 miles)
Region
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Distances
15 km (9 miles) SSE (153°) from Whitehawk, CA
17 km (11 miles) SSE (151°) from Valley Ranch, CA
18 km (11 miles) SSE (151°) from Clio, CA
37 km (23 miles) NW (322°) from Truckee, CA
56 km (35 miles) W (279°) from Reno, NV
145 km (90 miles) NE (36°) from Sacramento, CA
California-Nevada Fault Maps
Well about 35 miles away or so. Just a little shaker, didn't even wake the little one up!
Only thing that size was in Cali.
Magnitude:4.7
Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 11:37:09 PM at epicenter
Location
39.605°N, 120.470°W
Depth
13.7 km (8.5 miles)
Region
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Distances
15 km (9 miles) SSE (153°) from Whitehawk, CA
17 km (11 miles) SSE (151°) from Valley Ranch, CA
18 km (11 miles) SSE (151°) from Clio, CA
37 km (23 miles) NW (322°) from Truckee, CA
56 km (35 miles) W (279°) from Reno, NV
145 km (90 miles) NE (36°) from Sacramento, CA
California-Nevada Fault Maps
Animals may sense chemical changes in groundwater that occur when an earthquake is about to strike. This, scientists say, could be the cause of bizarre earthquake-associated animal behaviour. Researchers began to investigate these chemical effects after seeing a colony of toads abandon its pond in L'Aquila, Italy in 2009 - days before a quake. They suggest that animal behaviour could be incorporated into earthquake forecasting. The team's findings are published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. In this paper, they describe a mechanism whereby stressed rocks in the Earth's crust release charged particles that react with the groundwater.
Animals that live in or near groundwater are highly sensitive to any changes in its chemistry, so they might sense this days before the rocks finally "slip" and cause a quake. The team, led by Friedemann Freund from NASA and Rachel Grant from the UK's Open University hope their hypothesis will inspire biologists and geologists to work together, to find out exactly how animals might help us recognise some of the elusive signs of an imminent earthquake.
Strange behaviour
The L'Aquila toads are not the first example of strange animal behaviour before a major seismic event. There have been reports throughout history of reptiles, amphibians and fish behaving in unusual ways just before an earthquake struck. n 1975, in Haicheng, China, for example, many people spotted snakes emerging from their burrows a month before the city was hit by a large earthquake.
This was particularly odd, because it occurred during the winter. The snakes were in the middle of their annual hibernation, and with temperatures well below freezing, venturing outside was suicide for the cold-blooded reptiles. But each of these cases - of waking reptiles, fleeing amphibians or deep-sea fish rising to the surface - has been an individual anecdote. And major earthquakes are so rare that the events surrounding them are almost impossible to study in detail. This is where the case of the L'Aquila toads was different.
Toad exodus
Very wet rain events are the trigger, said University of Miami scientist Shimon Wdowinski, an associate research professor of marine geology and geophysics. The heavy rain induces thousands of landslides and severe erosion, which removes ground material from the Earths surface, releasing the stress load and encouraging movement along faults, he added. Wdowinski and a colleague from Florida International University analyzed data from major earthquakes magnitude 6.0 and higher in Taiwan and Haiti over the past 50 years and found that large quakes tended to follow within four years of a very wet tropical cyclone season.
In some recent cases, quakes happened sooner, such as in 2009 when Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan was followed the same year by a magnitude 6.2 quake and another 6.4 quake last year. Morakot killed 614 people and left 75 missing, burying entire villages and dumping a record 3m of rain in what is considered one of Taiwans worst natural disasters. Typhoon Herb hit in 1996, killing hundreds in China and Taiwan, and was followed two years later by a 6.2 earthquake, and then a 7.6 earthquake in 1999.
Typhoon Flossie in 1969 was followed three years later by a magnitude 6.2 quake in 1972, the researchers said. The team also looked at the magnitude 7 earthquake in Haiti last year and found it came a year-and-a-half after two hurricanes and two tropical storms drenched the island nation within 25 days. The quake hit in January last year and leveled the capital Port-au-Prince, killing more than 225,000 people and leaving one in seven homeless. An ensuing cholera epidemic left more than 5,000 people dead.
The researchers said their theory is that the heavy rains and landslides shift enough weight away from the surface load above the fault that a quake is triggered. The reduced load unclamp the faults, which can promote an earthquake, Wdowinski said. The hypothesis only fits areas where there are fault lines on an incline, such as mountainous regions where the waters would push the land significantly far away from cracks deep in the Earths bedrock.
Researchers say cyclones could cause earthquakes - Taipei Times
Contrary to the image of a distant and silent world under the sea, underwater sound intensity has on average soared 20 decibels over the past 50 years, with devastating consequences for wildlife. Sound is what cetaceans [large aquatic mammals like whales and dolphins] communicate with. This is how they perceive their environment. For them, hearing is as important as vision is for us, said Mark Simmonds, the international director of science at the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS). If there is too much noise, they probably cant communicate that well, he said late last month on the sidelines of an international conference on migratory species in Bergen, on Norways southwestern coast.
A harmful effect of this acoustic fog is that it impairs the ability of cetaceans, which in good conditions can communicate over a distance of dozens of kilometers, to orient themselves, find food and reproduce. Basic small boat traffic traveling at slow speeds through shallow waters can be enough to cut the reach of sounds from a bottlenose dolphin, for instance, by 26 percent, and in the case of pilot whales by 58 percent, according to a recent study. Nicolas Entrup, who works with the non-governmental organizations Ocean Care and the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the ocean is in the process of becoming for sea mammals what night clubs are for humans. You might cope with it for a while, but you cant live there, he said. Imagine a situation where you cant communicate with your family, where you have to scream constantly, he said.
Oceans are vast and animals that are bothered by rising noise levels can of course move on, but it can be challenging to find and adapt to a whole new habitat. The problem is especially dire in the Arctic, where, as the polar ice cap melts, humans are leaving an ever bigger sound footprint as they stake out new shipping routes and look for oil and gas. Narwals, for example, have a narrowly defined habitat, Simmonds said. They are very adapted to that cold environment. If it gets too noisy, where will they go? The same problem applies to the highly sound-sensitive beluga, or white whale, that migrates to Canadas northern shores.
These mammals, which are capable of detecting ships 30km away, will struggle to maintain their migration route through the narrow straits circling Baffin Island as shipping in the area risks increasing sharply to accommodate a new large-scale mining project. We simply dont know how certain species will adapt, or even if they will adapt at all, Simmonds said. In some cases, human-produced commotion is fatal. The use of anti-submarine sonars is, for instance, suspected of causing the mass-beaching of whales: In 2002, about 15 beaked whales perished in the Canary Islands after a NATO exercise.
Ocean noise torments sea mammals: study - Taipei Times
Mebbe the rain loosens up the soil...
Researchers say cyclones could cause earthquakes
Sat, Dec 10, 2011 - US researchers said on Thursday they have found evidence that tropical cyclones in Haiti and Taiwan were followed by earthquakes, suggesting that heavy rains and landslides may unleash temblors.
Very wet rain events are the trigger, said University of Miami scientist Shimon Wdowinski, an associate research professor of marine geology and geophysics. The heavy rain induces thousands of landslides and severe erosion, which removes ground material from the Earths surface, releasing the stress load and encouraging movement along faults, he added. Wdowinski and a colleague from Florida International University analyzed data from major earthquakes magnitude 6.0 and higher in Taiwan and Haiti over the past 50 years and found that large quakes tended to follow within four years of a very wet tropical cyclone season.
In some recent cases, quakes happened sooner, such as in 2009 when Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan was followed the same year by a magnitude 6.2 quake and another 6.4 quake last year. Morakot killed 614 people and left 75 missing, burying entire villages and dumping a record 3m of rain in what is considered one of Taiwans worst natural disasters. Typhoon Herb hit in 1996, killing hundreds in China and Taiwan, and was followed two years later by a 6.2 earthquake, and then a 7.6 earthquake in 1999.
Typhoon Flossie in 1969 was followed three years later by a magnitude 6.2 quake in 1972, the researchers said. The team also looked at the magnitude 7 earthquake in Haiti last year and found it came a year-and-a-half after two hurricanes and two tropical storms drenched the island nation within 25 days. The quake hit in January last year and leveled the capital Port-au-Prince, killing more than 225,000 people and leaving one in seven homeless. An ensuing cholera epidemic left more than 5,000 people dead.
The researchers said their theory is that the heavy rains and landslides shift enough weight away from the surface load above the fault that a quake is triggered. The reduced load unclamp the faults, which can promote an earthquake, Wdowinski said. The hypothesis only fits areas where there are fault lines on an incline, such as mountainous regions where the waters would push the land significantly far away from cracks deep in the Earths bedrock.
Researchers say cyclones could cause earthquakes - Taipei Times
See also:
Ocean noise torments sea mammals: study
Sat, Dec 10, 2011 - With the constant churn of freighter propellers, the percussive thump of oil and gas exploration and the underwater din of military testing, ocean noise levels have become unbearable for some sea mammals.
Contrary to the image of a distant and silent world under the sea, underwater sound intensity has on average soared 20 decibels over the past 50 years, with devastating consequences for wildlife. Sound is what cetaceans [large aquatic mammals like whales and dolphins] communicate with. This is how they perceive their environment. For them, hearing is as important as vision is for us, said Mark Simmonds, the international director of science at the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS). If there is too much noise, they probably cant communicate that well, he said late last month on the sidelines of an international conference on migratory species in Bergen, on Norways southwestern coast.
A harmful effect of this acoustic fog is that it impairs the ability of cetaceans, which in good conditions can communicate over a distance of dozens of kilometers, to orient themselves, find food and reproduce. Basic small boat traffic traveling at slow speeds through shallow waters can be enough to cut the reach of sounds from a bottlenose dolphin, for instance, by 26 percent, and in the case of pilot whales by 58 percent, according to a recent study. Nicolas Entrup, who works with the non-governmental organizations Ocean Care and the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the ocean is in the process of becoming for sea mammals what night clubs are for humans. You might cope with it for a while, but you cant live there, he said. Imagine a situation where you cant communicate with your family, where you have to scream constantly, he said.
Oceans are vast and animals that are bothered by rising noise levels can of course move on, but it can be challenging to find and adapt to a whole new habitat. The problem is especially dire in the Arctic, where, as the polar ice cap melts, humans are leaving an ever bigger sound footprint as they stake out new shipping routes and look for oil and gas. Narwals, for example, have a narrowly defined habitat, Simmonds said. They are very adapted to that cold environment. If it gets too noisy, where will they go? The same problem applies to the highly sound-sensitive beluga, or white whale, that migrates to Canadas northern shores.
These mammals, which are capable of detecting ships 30km away, will struggle to maintain their migration route through the narrow straits circling Baffin Island as shipping in the area risks increasing sharply to accommodate a new large-scale mining project. We simply dont know how certain species will adapt, or even if they will adapt at all, Simmonds said. In some cases, human-produced commotion is fatal. The use of anti-submarine sonars is, for instance, suspected of causing the mass-beaching of whales: In 2002, about 15 beaked whales perished in the Canary Islands after a NATO exercise.
Ocean noise torments sea mammals: study - Taipei Times