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Surge of Killer Earthquakes Worldwide in Last Few Days; Hundreds Dead

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By Elisabetta Povoledo. A strong earthquake struck a mountainous stretch of central Italy early Wednesday, killing at least 247 people, trapping scores under debris and setting off tremors that awakened residents in Rome, nearly 100 miles to the southwest.

The earthquake, which had a preliminary magnitude of 6.2, struck at 3:36 a.m., about 6.5 miles southeast of the town of Norcia in the Umbria region, followed by about 200 aftershocks over the next several hours, including a 5.5-magnitude tremor at 4:33 a.m.

The authorities said the quake was comparable in intensity to one in 2009 in the Abruzzo region of central Italy that killed more than 300 people. (Read more from “Surge of Killer Earthquakes Worldwide in Last Few Days; Hundreds Dead” HERE)

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Powerful Earthquake Rocks Myanmar; 4 Dead, Temples Damaged

By The Associated Press. At least four people are dead after a powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 shook central Myanmar on Wednesday, knocking glasses off tables and sending people running out of buildings in the country’s largest city.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered about 25 kilometers (15 miles) west of Chauk, an area west of the ancient capital of Bagan. It was located fairly far below the Earth’s surface at a depth of about 84 kilometers (52 miles), it said. Deep earthquakes generally cause less surface damage.

At least 185 brick pagodas in Bagan were damaged, the Ministry of Religious and Cultural Affairs said in a statement. Bagan, also known as Pagan, has more than 2,200 structures including pagodas and temples constructed from the 10th to the 14th centuries. Many are in disrepair while others have been restored in recent years, aided by the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO. (Read more from “Powerful Earthquake Rocks Myanmar; 4 Dead, Temples Damaged” HERE)

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7.3 Magnitude Quake in South Atlantic Ocean, No Tsunami Alert

By Pranshu Rathee. A major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 on the Richter scale was reported in the Atlantic Ocean, to the south-east of Argentina on Friday. According to an observatory in Germany, it occurred about 1,500 miles east of the southern tip of Argentina.

The German Research Centre for Geosciences said that the earthquake struck early on Friday and the epicentre was near the British administered South Georgia Island region. No tsunami alert has been issued by authorities. (Read more from “7.3 Magnitude Quake in South Atlantic Ocean, No Tsunami Alert” HERE)

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High Warning Alert for Vanuatu Volcano

By Ruby Taylor. Authorities have upgraded warnings around Ambae Volcano in northern Vanuatu, Radio New Zealand has just reported.

According to radionz, the country’s Geohazards Observatory has raised the alert to Level two on a scale of one to five which signifies the volcano is in a stage of major unrest.

“The observatory says volcanic activity could increase at any time over the next few days.” (Read more from “High Warning Alert for Vanuatu Volcano” HERE)

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This US State Is Now the Top Earthquake Area in the World

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By Kimberly Russell and Jennifer Falseti. State officials say Oklahoma has a new claim to fame. According to them, The Sooner State is now the top earthquake area in the world. . .

Since Saturday, Medford has really been shaking. Now, a plan is put in place to help put an end to these [by cutting back on oil fracking in the area].

The earthquakes in Medford are getting stronger, and lasting longer.

“This is an area that traditionally has had no seismicity until very recently,” says Matt Skinner with the Corporation Commission. . .

“We’ve had somewhere in the area of 20 earthquakes since Saturday morning there maybe even a little bit more as I speak,” he says. (Read more from “This US State Is Now the Top Earthquake Area in the World” HERE)

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Oklahoma Now No. 1 in Earthquakes

By Eric Levitz. Oklahoma may be only No. 12 in college football this year, but the Sooner State is now No. 1 in earthquakes.

A spokesperson for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission — a regulatory body tasked with ensuring the safety of oil and gas exploration in the state — told the Enid Rotary Club that Oklahoma now experiences more earthquakes than anywhere else on planet Earth.

“We have had 15 [earthquakes] in Medford since 5 o’clock Saturday morning,” spokesman Matt Skinner said Monday, according to the Enid News. “We’ve got an earthquake issue.” (Read more from “Oklahoma Now No. 1 in Earthquakes” HERE)

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Violent Shaking Along the Ring of Fire Continues a Progression of Disasters That Began in September

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Have you noticed that seismic activity along the Ring of Fire appears to be dramatically increasing? According to Volcano Discovery, 39 volcanoes around the world have recently erupted, and 32 of them are associated with the Ring of Fire. This includes Mt. Popocatepetl which sits only about 50 miles away from Mexico City’s 18 million inhabitants. If you are not familiar with the Ring of Fire, it is an area roughly shaped like a horseshoe that runs along the outer perimeter of the Pacific Ocean. Approximately 90 percent of all earthquakes and approximately 75 percent of all volcanic eruptions occur along the Ring of Fire. Just within the last 24 hours, we have witnessed a 4.4, a 5.4 and a 5.7 earthquake in Alaska, a 6.8 earthquake in Chile and 20 earthquakes in Indonesia of at least magnitude 4.3. And as you will see below, this violent shaking along the Ring of Fire seems to continue a progression of major disasters that began back during the month of September.

For whatever reason, our planet suddenly seems to be waking up. Unfortunately, the west coast of the United States is one of the areas where this is being felt the most. The little city of San Ramon, California is about 45 miles east of San Francisco, and over the past several weeks it has experienced a record-breaking 583 earthquakes…

A total of 583 small earthquakes have shaken San Ramon, California, in the last three weeks or so – more than five times the record set 12 years ago, according to the latest US Geological Survey updates.

“It’s the swarm with the largest number of total earthquakes in San Ramon,” said USGS scientist David Schwartz, who is more concerned about the size of quakes than he is the total number of them. Still, the number tops the previous record set in 2003, when 120 earthquakes hit over 31 days, with the largest clocking in at a magnitude of 4.2.

Could this be a prelude to a major seismic event in California?

We shall see what happens.

Meanwhile, records are being shattered in the middle part of the country as well.

For instance, the state of Oklahoma has already set a brand new yearly record for earthquakes…

The state recorded its 587th earthquake of 3.0 magnitude or higher early this week, breaking the previous record of 585. That record was set for all of 2014, meaning that Oklahoma has now had more 3.0 magnitude or higher earthquakes so far in 2015 than it did in all of 2014. So far this year, E&E News reports, Oklahoma’s averaged 2.5 quakes each day, a rate that, if it continues, means the state could see more than 912 earthquakes by the end of this year.

Oklahoma has also experienced 21 4.0 magnitude or greater earthquakes so far this year — an increase over last year, which saw 14.

And just over this past weekend there was a very disturbing series of earthquakes in the state…

Starting with a magnitude-4.1 temblor at 5:11 a.m. close to the Oklahoma-Kansas border, the region experienced a series of six earthquakes within a 75-minute period Saturday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey reported on its website.

The largest earthquake Saturday morning was the 4.1, which had an epicenter nine miles northwest of Medford, Okla., 59 miles southwest of Wichita.

That was followed by five more quakes near Medford with magnitudes of 2.5, 2.8, 2.5, 3.1 and 2.9 – the last of which came at 6:24 a.m.

A seventh earthquake – this one a magnitude-4.2 temblor – was recorded at 12:29 p.m., 10 miles north-northwest of Medford.

So why aren’t more Americans alarmed that these records are being broken?

We are seeing things that we have never seen before, and I believe that it will soon get even worse.

And this dramatic increase in seismic activity that we are now seeing appears to fit into a larger pattern of major disasters that we have been witnessing over the past couple of months.

As we approached the end of the summer, all of a sudden massive wildfires erupted all across the western third of the country. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, the only time in U.S. history when wildfires had burned more acres by the end of October was during the record-setting year of 2006.

In 2015, a lot of these wildfires have really been threatening highly populated areas. I know, because at one point a major fire came within about 10 miles of my own house. Since the beginning of August, Barack Obama has made an astounding 25 disaster declarations related to fires, and by the end of September the horrible fires that were threatening key areas of the state of California were making headlines all over the world.

Then as we got to the very end of the month of September, a new kind of disaster began to take center stage. As I wrote about just recently, the storm that would later became known as Hurricane Joaquin developed into a tropical depression on September 28th.

Even though that hurricane never made landfall in the United States, moisture from that storm caused a tremendous amount of chaos along the east coast.

The governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, said that it was the most rain that some areas of her state had witnessed “in a thousand years”, and it is being projected that the economic damage that was done by all of the flooding “will probably be in the billions of dollars”.

Shortly after the flooding in South Carolina, a massive storm dumped an enormous amount of rain on southern California. Because that area had been experiencing severe drought for so long, all of that rain caused tremendous flooding and massive mudslides. Rivers of mud literally several feet thick completely stopped traffic along many major roads across the region. If you got caught in those rivers of mud, you were lucky to get out with your life. In fact, authorities pulled one dead man out of a vehicle that got completely buried by mud several days after the storms had passed. It took them that long to finally get to him.

The middle of the country was not spared either. Hurricane Patricia ended up being one of the strongest hurricanes ever measured, and the remnants of that storm dumped an incredible amount of rain on the state of Texas. There was so much flooding that a train was literally knocked off the tracks by the water. And about a week after that there was more flooding in the state that caused at least six deaths.

Overall, it has really been a bad couple of months for major disasters, and this sequence of events seems to have begun during the month of September. (For more from the author of “Violent Shaking Along the Ring of Fire Continues a Progression of Disasters That Began in September” please click HERE)

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Growing Geologic Unrest: More Earthquakes, Volcanoes Along the Pacific Rim; US Midwest Hit, Too

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Just two days ago, Restoring Liberty posted a story about volcanoes erupting worldwide within minutes of each other. Eruptions were reported in Indonesia, Columbia, Japan and Chile along with a 7.0 magnitude quake in Indonesia and a 6.3 quake near the Redoubt Volcano southwest of Anchorage, Alaska.

Confounding geologists, Oklahoma and southern Kansas have seen a mysterious spike in earthquakes with dozens registered with USGS over the past week, some exceeding 4 magnitude on the Richter scale. Here’s a snapshot of those earthquakes over the past seven days:

Also notable are several earthquakes in the southeast corner of Missouri and western edge of Tennessee, all along the the Mississippi River border.

Finally, here is a snapshot of the earthquakes exceeding 4.5 magnitude over the last seven days along the Pacific Rim:

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Volcano Bursts Into Life in Mexico With Large Spurt of Ash and Steam

By Associated Press. Mexico’s National Disaster Prevention Centre said in its daily report that the volcano registered a total of 80 low intensity exhalations and six explosions yesterday, releasing plumes of smoke between 1.5 and two kilometres high.

Authorities are urging people not to get close to the volcano and particularly to its crater. (Read more from this story HERE)

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6.3 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Alaska Near Active Volcano

By RT. A 6.3-magnitude earthquake has struck in Alaska, some 42 miles southwest of the active Redoubt Volcano, the US Geological Survey (USGS) has said.

Notably, the earthquake also struck near Mt. Katmai, the site of the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century.

The epicenter was 9 miles south of Mt. Iliamna, another volcano in the area, the Alaska Dispatch News reported.

According to the USGS, the quake hit about 141 miles southwest of Anchorage. (Read more from this story HERE)

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8 Quakes Jolt Mount Bulusan in the Philippines

By Sun Star Manila. At least eight volcanic earthquakes rocked Mount Bulusan in Sorosgon, signifying that the volcano continues to show signs of restiveness, the Philippine Institute of Volcanolgy and Seismology (Phivolcs) said Wednesday.

Phivolcs-Bicol resident volcanologist Ed Laguerta said the quakes and the swelling of the volcano’s edifice are signs that pressure is building up in the volcano’s vent.

Aside from eight volcanic quakes, Phivolcs instruments recorded for the past 24-hour observation period slight inflationary trend at the volcano’s edifice during the precise leveling surveys.

Alert Level 1 (abnormal) remains hoisted over the volcano. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Magma Is Rising in Ubinas Volcano in Peru

By Hillary Ojeda. Only last week, scientists recorded the largest explosion at Peru’s most active volcano, Ubinas, in the Moquegua region of Peru.

Now, scientists have recorded an ascent of magma within the volcano, reports El Comercio.

The explosion last week resulted in the emission of large rocks (some the size of small cars) which frightened the local communities. Ash and small rocks up to two centimeters in diameter made their way to the communities of Querapi, Ubinas, Sacohaya, Tonohaya, Anascapa, Escacha and San Miguel, according to the mayor of Ubinas, Luis Concha. (Read more from this story HERE)

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After a Mid-Air Crash in Alaska, the Pilots Miraculously Survive

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Photo Credit: Fox News By Associated Press. The Alaska Department of Public Safety says officials have found two separate wreckage sites in the Mat-Su Valley after responding to reports that a single-engine plane collided with another aircraft.

A statement issued Saturday afternoon says pilots of both planes were found alive. One had serious injuries while the other pilot was moderately injured.

One airplane has been determined to be an Alaska Wildlife Trooper fixed-wing aircraft. (Read read more about the crash in Alaska HERE)

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String of Earthquakes Hit Alaska Islands

By Lauren Rosenthal. The Pribilof Islands aren’t usually prone to shaking. But more than a dozen earthquakes have been recorded in between St. Paul and St. George since Friday afternoon.

Michael West, the director of the Alaska Earthquake Information Center, describes the activity as a “swarm.”

“That is, a cluster of earthquakes that are responding to some stress in the earth that appears to be releasing itself kind of incrementally,” West says.

Most of the earthquakes have been around magnitude 4.0, although five of them exceeded 5.0M.

Residents in St. Paul and St. George have been feeling the effects. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Texas Earthquakes Rattling Nerves

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Photo Credit: BreitbartWhen you think “earthquake,” you don’t exactly think of Texas but it continues to be seismic central in Dallas. On Sunday, January 11 at 7:46pm, the Richter scale hit magnitude 2.5. This newest shaker was centered in the City of Irving near the former site of the Texas Stadium, the site of much of the rumbling in North Texas. Although there has been no damage, it has rattled nerves, caused schools to run earthquake drills, and gotten some folks to ask about earthquake insurance policies.

The Dallas Morning News reported that the latest tiny temblor marked the 16th occurance. The most notable of the shakers came on Tuesday, January 6. It was a magnitude 3.5 and it was felt citywide across Dallas. The Sunday night quake was felt from East Dallas to Irving to Northwest Dallas, based on emails and tweets.

Previously, on Thursday, January 8, two mild shockwaves each measuring 1.9 magnitude rolled through the Dallas suburb of Irving at 4:08am and 7:24am, according to NBC-5. Both were centered near the same former site of Texas Stadium where 12 earthquakes already rocked the area to varying degrees. Later that day, a 2.7 magnitude shaker occurred at 2:12, approximately four miles west-northwest of Midlothian in Ellis County.

These are not big quakes by California standards but, relatively speaking, Texans are not used to feeling like they are living on top of the San Andreas Fault, which runs across so much of the state of California. The frequency of the shakers has not calmed any nerves in Dallas either.

In response to all the ground movement, on Friday, January 9, the Dallas Independent School District (ISD) Department of Emergency Management issued an earthquake preparedness information memo outlining procedures. It noted that before 2008, North Texas had no real discernible seismic activity. The memo stated that since that time, over 120 earthquakes have occurred in North Texas, mainly centered in Irving. (Read more about the Texas earthquakes HERE)

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Worldwide Surge in 'Great' Earthquakes Seen in Past 10 Years

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Photo Credit: HARISH TYAGI / EPThe annual number of “great” earthquakes nearly tripled over the last decade, providing a reminder to Americans that unruptured faults like those in the northwest United States might be due for a Big One.

Between 2004 and 2014, 18 earthquakes with magnitudes of 8.0 or more rattled subduction zones around the globe. That’s an increase of 265 percent over the average rate of the previous century, which saw 71 great quakes, according to a report to the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America this week in Vancouver, British Columbia.

It’s clear that recent “great” earthquakes “triggered” related major quakes, says study author Thorne Lay, distinguished professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

“If we look at all earthquake magnitudes, the past 10 years is not unusual in terms of the rate of events; the rate increases are just seen for events with magnitudes larger than 7.5 or so,” he said. “This suggests that great events were ‘catching up’ on the plate boundary motions in several regions with fortuitous similar timing.”

And by fortuitous, Lay means that he thinks it’s just coincidence that all those big earthquakes happened over the last 10 years.

Read more from this story HERE.

Earthquakes Occur in 4 Parts of Alaska

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Photo Credit: Arthur Chapman

Photo Credit: Arthur Chapman

Seismologists in Alaska say earthquakes have jolted four different parts of the state in the last 12 hours.

A magnitude-5.9 quake was among several that occurred around the same location early Friday in southeast Alaska. The U.S. Geological Survey says people in Juneau, about 100 miles east, felt light shaking.

Read more from this story HERE.

7.7 Magnitude Quake in Pakistan Just Created a New Island

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Photo Credit: io9

Photo Credit: io9

A massive, 7.7 magnitude quake struck south-central Pakistan on Tuesday afternoon local time. The USGS warns that there will high casualties and economic losses, requiring international response. Seismologists have also confirmed that the quake raised a new island, about 30-40 feet high, off the coast.

The island is about half a mile off the coast of Gwadar, in the Arabian Sea. Already, reports the International Herald Tribune, crowds have gathered to see the mountainous, rocky island. Some are claiming it is 100 feet long.

t’s not unusual for earthquakes of this magnitude to change the coastline, or even deform the shape of the planet. In 2010, an 8.8 magnitude quake in Chile created new coastlines in that country and changed the shape of the Earth enough to shorten our days by a fraction of a second.

Read more from this story HERE.

Oregon State Geologist Warns Residents that Massive Earthquake is Overdue

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Photo Credit: DBerry2006

Photo Credit: DBerry2006

Sitting on a major fault line, Oregon is “like an eight-and-a-half-month pregnancy, due any time now” for a major earthquake, a geologist with the Oregon Office of Emergency Management told an overflow crowd Friday in Medford…

[The geologist] said there’s a 37 percent chance the Big One will happen in the next 50 years…

A big quake will cause liquefaction, in which the ground, if saturated with water, will “turn to pudding,” causing hardware, such as sewer systems, septic lines and gas tanks, to rise up out of the earth…

Electrical power would be down from one to three months until transformers and the electrical grid get going again, she says…

Partial quakes happen on an average of every 240 years. The last one was in 1700, so it’s been 213 years. Quakes of the entire length of the zone come every 500 to 600 years and governments should expect those to be 9.0 or more on the Richter scale — tremendously devastating.

Read more from this story HERE.