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Earthquake In Greece Hits Crete With 6.4 Magnitude Quake

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Photo Credit: The InquisitrA Strong earthquake in Greece shook the island of Crete, causing some damage.

The quake had a magnitude of 6.3 on the Richter scale, but early reports indicate that damage is minimal.

The Athens Geodynamic Institute said the quake occurred at 4:12 p.m. (13.12 GMT), 68 kilometers (42 miles) west of the city of Chania, in Crete, and 279 kilometers (172 miles) south of Athens. The epicenter was 23 kilometers (14 miles) under the sea.

Chania deputy mayor Manoussos Lionakis told The Associated Press: “The earthquake was very strong and lasted long… Fortunately, there was no serious damage. The worst I’ve heard was some rock falls in a ravine west of the city. A bus was trapped, but no one was hurt. We have removed the debris.

Read more from this story HERE.

Magnitude 4.1 Earthquake Jolts Alaska’s Largest City; No Damage Reported

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Photo Credits: Wonderlane

Photo Credits: Wonderlane

A light earthquake in Alaska has jolted the state’s largest city.

The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center reports that the quake has a preliminary magnitude of 4.1.

The Alaska Earthquake Information Center says the temblor was felt widely in the greater Anchorage area, but there are no immediate reports of damage.

Read more from this story HERE.

7.0 Earthquake Strikes Near Adak, Alaska

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250px-Adak_-_Adak_IslandA substantial earthquake registering 7.0 magnitude, according to USGS, struck just 56 miles from Adak, Alaska, this morning. The depth of the quake was about 21 miles.

Adak, a small Aleutian community of a little over 300 people, is the westernmost municipality in the United States.

According to the Alaska Tsunami Center, there is no tsunami watch, warning or advisory in effect.

Update: A 6.1 magnitude aftershock hit 62 miles south-southwest of Adak this evening. There are no reports of damage.

China Earthquake: Strong Temblor Claims Dozens Of Lives, Injures Nearly 300

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Photo Credit: ReutersA strong earthquake struck a rural part of western China on Monday morning, killing at least 47 people and seriously injuring 296, according to the local government.

The quake hit near the city of Dingxi in Gansu province, a region of mountains, desert and pastureland with a population of 26 million. That makes it one of China’s more lightly populated provinces, although the Dingxi area has a greater concentration of farms and towns, with a total population of about 2.7 million.

The deaths and injuries were reported in Min County and other rural southern parts of the municipality, Dingxi mayor Tang Xiaoming told the state broadcaster CCTV. Tang said damage was worst in the counties of Zhang and Min, where scores of homes were damaged and telephone and electricity services knocked out.

Residents described shaking windows and swinging lights but little major damage and little panic. Shaking was felt in the provincial capital of Lanzhou and as far away as Xi’an, 250 miles (400 kilometres) to the east.

Read more from this story HERE.

Magnitude 6.5 Earthquake Strikes Taiwan, Some Damage

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Photo Credit: /luca

A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck the island of Taiwan on Sunday and caused some damage, Taiwan media reported.

The quake struck 24 miles southeast of the city of T’ai-chung at a depth of nine miles, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The agency initially said it was 6.6 magnitude but later downgraded it slightly.

Taiwan television said the quake triggered a gas explosion in the centre of the island but it gave no details. There were no reports of any casualties.

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Ants Can Sense Earthquakes a Day in Advance

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Photo Credit: sanchom

Ants know when an earthquake is about to strike, researchers have discovered. Their behavior changes significantly prior to the quake and they resume normal functioning only a day after it.

Gabriele Berberich of the University Duisburg-Essen in Germany presented these findings on Thursday at the European Geosciences Union annual meeting in Vienna according to LiveScience.

Berberich and her colleagues discovered that red wood ants preferred to build their colonies right along active faults in Germany. They counted 15,000 ant mounds lining the faults. These faults are fractures where the Earth violently ruptures in earthquakes.

Using a special camera mounted software that tracked changes in activity, Berberich and her colleagues tracked the ants round the clock for three years, 2009 to 2012. They found that the ants’ behavior changed only when the quake was over magnitude 2. There were 10 earthquakes between magnitude 2.0 and 3.2 during this period, and many smaller ones. Humans can also sense quakes of over magnitude 2 only.

Read more from this story HERE.

Massive, Very Shallow Earthquake Hits Just 66 miles from Craig, Alaska; Tsunami Warning Issued

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At just two minutes before 12 a.m. this morning, Alaska time, a massive earthquake hit only 66 miles west of Craig, Alaska.

Initially, the United States Geological Service measured the quake at 7.7 magnitude, but this was later adjusted to 7.5 magnitude.

According to the United States Geological Service, the earthquake was at a very shallow depth of 6.1 miles. However, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported the earthquake’s depth at 3.11 miles.

Although the earthquake struck 212 miles south of Juneau, one resident – Alicé Leuchte – stated that it “scared the hell out of me.” Ms. Leuchte added that the people she knew in Craig “are OK.”

So far, there are no reports of serious damage.

The 7.5 magnitude earthquake is apparently related to the Queen Charlotte fault system that apparently spawned the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck near Metlakatla last October.

The Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska stated at 12:30 a.m. this morning that a “Tsunami warning remains in effect . . . for the coastal areas of British Columbia and Alaska from the north tip of Vancouver Island, British Columbia to Cape Suckling, Alaska.” Cape Suckling is just 75 miles southeast of Cordova, or almost 250 miles southeast of Anchorage.

UPDATE: The tsunami warning has been lifted.

Hot Springs Shutoff By British Columbia 7.7 Earthquake (+video)

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The recent West Coast earthquake appears to have shut off the water at the popular hot springs in Haida Gwaii’s national park, but there is hope they could reappear someday.

After Saturday’s 7.7 magnitude earthquake, Parks Canada workers went to check the springs and found they had run dry, according to Barb Rowsell, who owns Anvil Cove Charters.

“Three people went down to check it out, and sure enough there is no hot water and the rocks are dry and cold,” said Rowsell, who has been ferrying visitors to Hotspring Island for years.

The popular natural attraction in Gwaii Haanas National Park has been a major tourist draw for decades.

The park’s superintendent Ernie Gladstone said the springs were still steaming last week, but now, to his dismay, there is not even a puddle left.

USGS: Massive 7.7 Earthquake Just 164 Miles South of Metlakatla, AK, Tsunami Warnings Issued

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An hour ago, a massive 7.7 quake hit near the southern tip of Southeast Alaska, just 164 miles south of Metlakatla.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) announced that the depth of the quake was approximately 17 kilometers (almost 12 miles).

This is the largest earthquake in the region in 63 years. In 1949, a magnitude 8.1 earthquake struck the area.

The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center has issued a regional tsunami warning for areas near the quake, including southeast Alaska. Hawaii is expected to experience some “non-destructive” sea level changes later tonight as a result of the quake.

UPDATE: Tsunami warnings were downgraded to advisories. In Craig, Alaska, the earthquake apparently caused a four inch wave. Despite the significant size of the earthquake, relatively minor damage has been reported from Canada and southeast Alaska.

Wednesday’s Alaska landslide possibly the biggest in North American recorded history

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Even by Alaska standards, the rock slide in Glacier Bay National Park was a huge event.

It was a monumental geophysical event that was almost overlooked until a pilot happened to fly over where the cliff collapsed and snapped some photographs nearly a month later.

When the cliff collapsed in the national park in southeast Alaska on June 11, it sent rock and ice coursing down a valley and over a lovely white glacier in what perhaps was the largest landslide recorded in North America.

The rumbling was enough so that it showed up as a 3.4-magnitude earthquake in Alaska. The seismic event also was recorded in Canada. The massive landslide occurred in a remote valley beneath the 11,750-foot Lituya Mountain in the Fairweather Range about six miles from the border with British Columbia.

“I don’t know of any that are bigger,” Marten Geertsema, a research geomorphologist for the provincial Forest Service in British Columbia, said Thursday, when comparing the landslide to others in North America.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: NOAA Photo Library of area where 1958 landslide created the largest recorded wave in history.