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March 13, 2013
When an unremarkable quake becomes remarkable
On Monday morning this week, a wide swath of southern California–from L.A. to Needles to Calexico–was gently jolted by a modest M4.7 earthquake from the San Jacinto fault. On most of the planet this quake would have been unremarkable, but having shaken a population exceeding 7 million people, it earned some remarks. In fact, in the 24 hour period surrounding this earthquake there were 27 of similar or larger magnitude …
November 28, 2012
Animations and Sonifications of the Tohoku earthquake and aftershocks
The M9.0 Tohoku earthquake that roared through Japan on March 11, 2011 made its presence felt in various ways throughout the planet. The ground rippled, the ocean churned, and even the atmosphere undulated with heavy pressure waves as the force of this sudden lurch of the Earth’s crust radiated outward from its source off the coast of Japan. [Put your headphones on now.] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PJxUPvz9Oo] Scientists all over the world have …
November 21, 2012
Amazing liquefaction in Tokyo
A new video from Japan [embedded below] shows liquefaction occurring at a scale and scope that I haven’t seen before in video footage. The video is from Urayasu town, Chiba Prefecture–an industrial suburb of Tokyo that appears to be sited on made land adjacent to Tokyo Bay. No wonder it sloshes so heavily: made land (fill) is particularly susceptible to liquefaction. We just can’t pack things down the way nature can …
February 8, 2012
Legendary phenomena in the 1811-1812 New Madrid earthquakes
200 years ago this February 7, on the western frontier of European settlement in North America, the pioneering westward expanders and the natives whose land they were colonizing were thrown from their sleep in the deep wee hours of a winter night by the culminating temblor of a harrowing, months-long sequence of major earthquakes, aftershocks of which continue to this day. The so-called New Madrid earthquakes–named for a small Missouri …
December 24, 2011
Relentless quakes in Christchurch
Christchurch, New Zealand, has suffered its fourth day (and 5th, 6th, and 7th big quakes) in barely over a year of what continues to be a brutal onslaught of seismicity. It began in September, 2010, with a magnitude 7.0 earthquake outside of town that caused billions of dollars in economic losses. The vigorous aftershock sequence of that quake was punctuated in February by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake east of the …
June 17, 2011
First-hand documentaries from the Tohoku quake and tsunami
Several eye-witnesses of the March 11 M9.0 in Japan have posted chilling first-hand footage of their experiences. The following two videos document the entire disaster, from the shaking until deep into the tsunami. First, here’s the harrowing video taken by a professional storm chaser who happened to be in Otsuchi, Japan doing volunteer work for Save Japan Dolphins when the earthquake roared along the coast. He struggles to keep his …
June 15, 2011
More quake footage from NZ
Yesterday I posted a few videos of the large pair of quakes that struck Christchurch once again on Monday. Since then a few more have surfaced showing the 6.0 as it happened. Clearly even the earthquake-worn residents of Christchurch were startled by such a large temblor. This man’s home suffered some damage in the 5.5 earlier, so he set up a camera while he went about his business. Sure enough …
June 14, 2011
A fresh temblor in the Canterbury sequence
Christchurch, New Zealand has been plagued by earthquakes for the past year, ever since a M7.1 ripped along a previously unrecognized fault in the Canterbury Plains last September. This quake produced a vigorous aftershock sequence, including most notably a large triggered quake (with its own vigorous aftershocks) directly beneath Christchurch. The city has been reeling from that M6.1 quake for four months, beleaguered by aftershocks and duly warned (as of a week …
March 11, 2011
Liquefaction in an aftershock
I stumbled upon a fascinating video a couple of weeks ago showing what happens to sand volcanoes as seismic waves pass. This would have fit in either my aftershocks or my liquefaction posts from last week, but it’s both stunning and unique so I decided it deserves a post of its own. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv–8ybjnwk This New Zealand man is filming sand blows forming from liquefaction of a school yard in …
March 2, 2011
Aftershocks in Christchurch
No doubt most people’s most recent earthquake-related thoughts pertain to last week’s temblor in New Zealand. Of course as we’ve all heard this was a particularly unfortunate event because of the location and modest depth of its source: merely ~5km below the streets and only a few measly kilometers from the city’s dense and populous center. We’ve all also heard it described as an aftershock of a bigger quake last …
