Not again. Last year, as PlanetSave’s James Ayre reported, dead giant oarfish—-bizarre and terrifying serpents of the sea (Regalecus glesne) five and six yards long—-washed ashore at separate locations off the California coast during one week in October. Also last year, National Geographic documented video by a remotely operated undersea vehicle of a giant oarfish
Bad news from the annual American Geophysical Union’s Ocean Sciences Meeting in Honolulu. Researchers there announced today that radioactive isotopes from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, when three reactors melted down after the March 11, 2011, Tohoku earthquake and subsequent mega-tsunami, have finally reached the West Coast. John Smith, a research scientist at Canada’s Bedford Institute
With a photo of fuel rod assemblies in the background, nuclear engineer, former executive, and educator Arnie Gundersen explains his doubts yesterday about the nuclear fuel relocation at Fukushima Unit 4 (screenshot). Brace yourselves. Japanese media and the UPI reported early today that TEPCO has scheduled the ticklish job of relocating highly radioactive nuclear fuel
When will the next megathrust earthquake strike the Pacific coast of North America? It’s an important question for those living in the region, and also more generally for the governments and economies of the United States and Canada, but it is a difficult one to answer. But now, new research may finally be helping to
Plate tectonics utterly fascinate me, and this new news out of Caltech University just proves that this particular field of science is one of the most interesting out there. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology, aka Caltech, along with the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) have found that previous assumptions about
A powerful 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck northern Italy just after 4am today. The epicenter was about 22 miles north of Bologna. It was felt throughout northern Italy, and aftershocks have been continuing. At least 6 people are reported dead, with at least another 60 reported injured. The same area had previously been struck by a
A new study which received a health dose of serendipity has revealed that earthquakes and tsunamis may actually have a huge environmental benefit on beaches. Science is awesome There are many reasons why I love science, and this is just another one to add to the pile. Scientists from Universidad Austral de Chile and
An 8.7 magnitude earthquake has struck off the coast of Sumatra in Indonesia, reports the U.S. Geological Survey.
The quake struck at 08:38:38 UTC, or 02:38:38 PM at the epicenter, some 33 kilometres beneath seafloor of the Indian Ocean and was felt as far away as Bangkok in Thailand and southern India.
The devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck Japan in March of 2011 has just been revealed to be a long-hypothesized but never proved ‘merging tsunami’ that doubled in intensity after passing over rugged sub-sea topography, which amplified its destructive power prior to reaching the shore. Searching for a Ghost “It was a one-in-ten-million chance
There’s no denying it — reports of massive earthquakes have been rocking the news lately. All this recent seismic activity has caused many to wonder: has the earth always been this shaky? Or is human activity causing some of these earthquakes? While some earthquakes are due to the shifting of tectonic plates above the earth’s
This amazing video shows the Virginia earthquake ripple west across the United States, thanks to an array of detectors that are part of the USArray/EarthScope facility.
A 6.0 earthquake shook far beyond its epi-center in Mineral, Virginia; shaking was felt from as far north as Rhode Island, New York and as far south as Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Starting at approximately 1:51 PM at the epi-center 3.7 miles beneath the surface, reports are varying as to how long the quake lasted; best estimates are only a few seconds.
The East Coast is not a hot earthquake zone these days. And Virginia doesn’t sit on an active earthquake fault. It was a hot earthquake zone about 200-300 million years ago. So, what caused the earthquake in Virginia today?
A huge earthquake hit my former state of Virginia today. I actually first got the news from a writer of ours on CleanTechnica. he lives in Queens, New York and felt it there. Sent me a follow-up email telling me it was in Virginia. I though, “Oh My! That’s a big one.” Followed very quickly by, “Oh My! I hope everyone I know in Virginia is OK.”
The USGS is currently reporting that this earthquake was a magnitude 5.8. You can see in the map here that it was not far from Virginia.
The March 2011 earthquake and tsunami left devastation along the Japanese coast line that is still being felt to this day. But the resultant tsunami also caused havoc in Antarctica, breaking off several large icebergs from the Sulzberger Ice Shelf.
A little after midnight in the mountainous area some 22 miles away from the city of Ferghana in Uzbekistan, some 200,000 residents were shaken by a 6.2 earthquake. The powerful tremor took the lives of thirteen people and injured more than 86 people. Of the injured, 35 have been hospitalized, some having serious injures.
Southern California’s Salton Sea may be one of many factors involved in setting off earthquakes in the region, specifically along the southern San Andreas Fault, and may in fact have already triggered large earthquakes over the past thousand years.
A 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of Japan today, the USGS reports (the location is circled on the USGS map above).
The recent magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck Japan has increased the risk of earthquakes across the rest of the country, say scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Kyoto University and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
A new study shows that the region east of the Andean Mountains in Bolivia is capable of much larger earthquakes than had previously been known.
Much has been made in the news of the shift in the Earth’s axis by half a foot as a result of the Japanese earthquake. The Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University’s Earth Institute has answered that question in a press release. The simply answer, is no.
We’ve written about earthquakes a ton in the past month or two, as well as before that. So, when a friend shared this new infographic with me on “the energy of earthquakes,” I immediately thought it might be an interesting one to put on Planetsave. Quite a fun and interesting infographic — check it out…
The level of soil liquefaction that took place as a result of the Japanese earthquake has surprised researchers who have been studying the damage.
The intensification of Indian monsoons has, according to new research, the ability to spin the Earth’s tectonic plates.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company has released new images from Fukushima, depicting the current problem and photos of the day of the tsunami.
After a month of partial and failed fixes to three of the Dai-ichi Fukushima nuclear plants, the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan (NISA) has just now raised the level of severity to ‘7’ — the same rating ascribed to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Its previous rating of the disaster’s severity had been ‘5’.
NASA has been providing a lot of photos and satellite imagery of Japan over the past week, focusing on the devastation that has affected the region surrounding the Sendai region after the magnitude-9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit. Below are three more images that each show a different picture of the impact the earthquake and tsunami had on the country.
The earthquake which has devastated Japan has been the focus of many this past week, not the least of which are the scientists who are studying the quake and its subsequent tsunami. Geophysicist Joachim Saul from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences (Helmholtz Association) created an animation which shows the sequence of quakes since March 9.
The Laboratory of Applied Bioacoustics (LAB), a unit of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), directed by Professor Michel André, recorded the sound of the earthquake that hit Japan on Friday, March 11, and that recording is now available online to listen to: it is, without a doubt, a unique opportunity.
Japan was struck by what is now known as a magnitude-9 level earthquake, which took place on March 11, 2011, at 2:46 p.m. local time (05:46 UTC) off the east coast of Japan. The epicenter was 130 kilometers (80 miles) east of Sendai, and 373 kilometers (231 miles) northeast of Tokyo, and has been labeled
Following in the steps of Japan’s Meteorological Agency, the U.S. Geological Survey have agreed in upgrading the shattering earthquake that hit Japan on March 11 to a magnitude 9. This means that the earthquake was approximately 1.5 times stronger than originally thought.
astrologer has also predicted that such a close perigee would/must somehow perturb the earth’s (tectonic) integrity so much that it will trigger major earthquakes and even volcanoes (not simply severe storms). Although he is not clear on the exact lunar-geo-mechanisms that would produce these quakes, never-the-less this lunar-induced disaster scenario quickly set the Web abuzz with yet another wave of doom-and-gloom “apocalypticism.”
Timing is everything.
The catastrophic earthquake that rocked Japan on March 11, 2011, has taken a devastating toll on human life in the country. The strength of the quake though has also had massive geological consequences for the region, and planet Earth as a whole.
Coastal flooding from the March 11, 2011 tsunami triggered by a magnitude 8.9 earthquake off Japan’s northeast coast can be seen in this before/after image pair from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on NASA’s Terra spacecraft.
The Japanese earthquake which measured 8.9 is being called one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded, but Robert Yeats, a professor emeritus of geology at Oregon State University, said that “this is our wake up call.”
One of Indonesia’s most active volcano’s has erupted, sending lava and searing gas clouds tumbling down its slopes.
The major earthquake that just hit Japan, may have just triggered the some volcanoes in Russia. While reports are still vague on the incident there is a strong correlation between the two incidents. In Russia there are reports that earthquakes where felt during the eruption.
UPDATE: It appears that the 7.2 quake on March 9 was a foreshock for an 8.8/8.9 megaquake in roughly the same area. More coverage on the top news and top resources regarding the Japan earthquake and tsunami here. Read on for a description of the 7.2 foreshock, originally published on March 9th. A magnitude 7.2
Coming up later this month (March 19 to be exact) the moon will make its closest approach to Earth (called lunar perigee) in 18 years. A new or full moon at 90% or greater of its closest perigee to Earth has been named a “SuperMoon” by astrologer Richard Nolle. This term has recently been picked
Arkansas has been rocked with earthquakes and now scientists are investigating their relationship to earthquakes, as two natural gas companies have agreed to temporarily suspend use of injection wells in central Arkansas where earthquakes keep occurring. The high-pressure wells are used to dispose of waste water from natural gas drilling. The two drilling operations are Chesapeake Energy and
Earthquakes are one of those phenomenon that occur and immediately elicit sympathy and empathy from those watching on TV. But they seem like they’re a semi-irregular occurrence, taking place maybe twice a year. At least, that would appear to be the situation if we were directed solely by TV news. In New Zealand, earthquakes are
Russia Today, on their YouTube channel, has posted footage taken of the Christchurch in the aftermath of the 6.3-magnitude earthquake that hit on Tuesday.
With the scale of just how hard and damaging the recent 6.3-magnitude quake quickly increasing with each hour that passes, with each revision of the dead and missing, Australia has increased the number of rescue experts they are sending in to help. Attorney-General Robert McClelland announced on Tuesday that Australia would be sending a total
I’ve already covered the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand from a human perspective, including sharing a number of photos from the disaster, and covered the tremendous 30 million tons of ice the earthquake knocked off Tasman Glacier, the country’s largest glacier. Now, here’s a little more detail on the earthquake from the U.S. Geological Survey
In addition to the horrible human catastrophe that is currently unfolding from the 6.3 magnitude earthquake that just struck Christchurch, New Zealand earlier today, the quake has apparently caused 30 million tons of ice to fall off the Tasman Glacier, New Zealand’s largest glacier. Passengers of two explorer boats were reportedly hit with waves of
The Chinese have been recording and describing the earthquakes that rumble underneath their country for the past two-thousand years. Using this data, University of Missouri researcher Mian Liu, professor of geological sciences in the College of Arts and Science, has theorized that mid-continent earthquakes tend to move among fault systems, rather than along the same
A multi-disciplinary team of researchers have presented the most up to date and advanced simulation of earthquake shaking yet, at the Supercomputing 2010 conference held this week in New Orleans. The “M8” simulation depicts a magnitude 8.0 earthquake on the southern San Andreas Fault in much greater detail than has ever been seen before in
