When the hydraulic fracturing measure passed the Los Angeles City Council today, several tweeters posted photos of this meeting (source of the above: Walker Foley on twitter). The City Council of Los Angeles, second-most populous metro in the United States, voted 10-0 today to prohibit hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and other “unconventional” deep-underground drilling methods to produce
Residents of the Himalayas could be at great risk of a massive earthquake according to new research which shows that two massive earthquake over the past millennia have left visible ground scars. Such a finding is of critical importance to the region, a region which has a similar population density to that of New York
Scientists of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences have compiled for the first time a harmonised catalogue of earthquakes for Europe and the Mediterranean region, going back a thousand years, and consisting of approximately 45,000 earthquakes. Such a database provides governments and aid organisations reliable information for risk assessment of earthquakes and quake generated tsunamis,
There is growing evidence that some of the Earth’s most catastrophic geological events were triggered by changes in the climate. The melting of ice sheets and changes in sea level served as triggers to some of the world’s largest earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, according to British geologist Bill McGuire. The best evidence of climatic
I’ve drawn the link between natural gas hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) and earthquakes numerous times, long before the Oklahoma earthquakes or Blackpool (Lancashire) earthquakes in England. I started doing so early in 2011 when the Arkansas earthquakes were all the news and I got the hint that it might be related to fracking. The case
Death Toll Rising According to a recent report released by the Disaster and Emergency Administration, death tolls from the devastating earthquake in Turkey have now risen to 366, with 1,301 people injured. Information provided from this source reports the quake that struck Turkey’s Van province Sunday afternoon has caused 2,262 buildings to collapse. In the
Natural gas may be better than coal, but the boom in natural gas has come as a result of hydraulic fracturing (or ‘fracking’), which, beyond emitting greenhouse gases, has been linked to earthquakes (something we’ve written about many times here on Planetsave) and water quality problems (including flammable water).
I already shared a couple of these maps, but everyone loves maps and especially when it comes to earthquakes, so I thought I’d share all I can find and have some legal right to re-publish.
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.
A 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of Japan today, the USGS reports (the location is circled on the USGS map above).
Hello Planetsavers! I thought I’d start doing a monthly wrap-up of our top 20 posts for people to have a glance at. Many of the top stories this month, as you’ll notice, were clearly tied into major world news events. Google is the main traffic driver for the large majority of sites on the Internet and ours isn’t an exception. Covering environmental news consistently, this often results in the biggest news stories rising to the top.
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…
Despite the huge loss of life following the Tonoku earthquake and consequent tsunami, the losses would have been even greater were it not for an earthquake early warning system set in place by the government of Japan following the devastating Kobe quake in the mid 1990’s.
A similar early warning system has been underway for nearly ten years in California, but remains incomplete.
One of Indonesia’s most active volcano’s has erupted, sending lava and searing gas clouds tumbling down its slopes.
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
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
Jeremy Bloom of our sister site Red, Green, and Blue has a great follow-up to the mass bird death story that gets into the very likely possibility that the deaths are related to hydraulic fracking (the top possibility in my mind) as well as other interesting topics. Here’s the intro: Alfred Hitchcock must be smiling.
USGS is reporting a very unusual swarm of significant earthquakes starting early this morning in the sea between Africa and the Arabian peninusla, right off the coast of Yemen, and in one of the world’s most important and busiest shipping lanes. But, earthquake swarms happen, even in places that are not normally known for seismic
IBM has now developed an earthquake- and tsunami-tracking system using the sensors in your computer that could really save lives. This breakthrough could especially help in the case of tsunamis, since the information can travel fast enough to give people time to get out of a dangerous situation, but it can also be of great
Before I write anything else, I want to unequivocally explain that I think natural disasters are terrible. They cause countless deaths and incredible human suffering. With that being understood, I often find myself believing that things happen in nature for a reason, and so I started to ponder what some of the good aspects to
