Rumbling’s from Mount Spurr with 2,700 earthquakes

Mount-Spurr

Important Takeaways:

  • Mount Spurr, which sits about 75 miles west of Anchorage, has seen “volcanic unrest” for the last 10 months, including an increasing number of earthquakes, according to a Feb. 6 statement from the Alaska Volcano Observatory.
  • The unrest suggests “that an eruption is possible,” officials said.
  • Since April, the number of earthquakes under the volcano has increased from 30 a week on average to 125 a week, officials said. The observatory “has located over 2,700 earthquakes during the unrest episode thus far,” according to officials, who said the largest of them was a magnitude 2.9 quake on Jan. 2.
  • “Based on all available monitoring data,” the observatory views the chance of no eruption versus one similar to those in 1953 and 1992 as equal, officials said.
  • Officials said they’d “expect to see additional seismic activity, gas emissions, and surface heating, as well as changes to surface deformation prior to an eruption, if one were to occur. Such stronger unrest may provide days to a few weeks of additional warning, but that is not certain.”

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USGS: Three earthquakes within just a few hours

Seismic chart - Alamy Stock Photo

Important Takeaways:

  • The United States Geological Survey says the state experienced a 2.7 magnitude quake at 8:03 am ET Thursday in the city of Hayward.
  • Two more earthquakes struck less than six hours earlier roughly 250 miles north, off the coast of Petrolia, California.
  • USGS says the first tremor struck at 2:06 am ET and measured 3.3 on the Richter scale.
  • It was quickly followed by a second 3.4 magnitude quake less than three hours later at 4:51 am ET.
  • The two earlier earthquakes were centered roughly 20 miles apart from each other off the California coast.
  • While the two quakes near Petrolia struck a relatively quiet part of northern California, the third quake in Hayward hit an area of the state right in between major cities like San Francisco, Oakland, and Fremont.

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Two unusual earthquakes rattle southern Texas in 24 hours

Texas oil drill-Getty Images

Important Takeaways:

  • A magnitude 4.5 earthquake rocked southern Texas Wednesday night, striking nearly 45 miles southwest of the city of San Antonio.
  • The US Geological Survey (USGS) detected the seismic event at 9:26pm CT near Falls City, measuring it at a depth of about 2.3 miles.
  • The quake ranks as the third-strongest earthquake ever to hit South Texas, following a magnitude 4.8 quake in 2011 and a 4.7 quake in February 2024 that also hit near Falls City.
  • Wednesday’s earthquake was followed by a magnitude 2.6 aftershock that struck 10.5 miles south-southeast of Stockdale, Texas around 1:17am Thursday.
  • No damages or injuries have been reported from either of the quakes.
  • But could be more tremors to come. The USGS predicted a 36 percent chance of magnitude 3 aftershocks following the main quake.
  • The vast majority of earthquakes result from the constant movement of tectonic plates, which are massive, solid slabs of rock that make up the planetary surface and shift around on top of Earth’s mantle — the inner layer between the crust and core.
  • When that stress overcomes the friction, the plates slip, causing a release of energy that ravels in waves through the Earth’s crust and generates the shaking we feel at the surface.
  • But quakes of this size are quite unusual for the Lone Star State.
  • Experts have not confirmed whether the magnitude 4.5 Falls City earthquake was linked to fracking, but this city is located in the Eagle Ford Shale area which is known for oil and gas production.

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S.C. storm survivors rattled by cluster of earthquakes

SC Earthquake cluster

Important Takeaways:

  • Nine total earthquakes — eight of which hit Sunday — were mainly near Coronaca with the largest being 2.5 magnitude on Sunday morning.
  • Dozens of people felt the quakes and many took to social media to say they felt the rumbling Sunday in Greenwood County. But no damage was reported.
  • After the group of six quakes Sunday morning, a 2.1 magnitude quake rattled 2.8 miles from Coronaca around 2:40 p.m. Sunday — making it the seventh quake on Sunday.
  • Then, the eighth Sunday incident happened at 3:15 p.m. when a 1.5 magnitude quake struck 2.5 miles south-southeast of Coronaca.
  • In Greenwood County, about 315 homes were damaged by Helene and about 12,000 residents have already applied for assistance from FEMA

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Five earthquakes jolt California in 48 hours

Shake Alert

Important Takeaways:

  • Residents in California experienced a swarm of five earthquakes within the last 48 hours.
  • A 4.4-magnitude was felt in the north around Lake County on Saturday and two more struck the area the following evening, ranked as a 2.7 and 2.8-magnitude.
  • Locals in southern California also reported two more quakes on Saturday, with the largest ranking a 3.9-magnitude.
  • Northern California typically sees a spate of about 50 earthquakes per month, experienced two quakes this weekend, in addition to the two felt in the southern area of the state.
  • ‘2024 has had more earthquakes than any year we’ve seen since 1988,’ Caltech geophysicist Dr Lucy Jones told reporters. ‘We should expect this to continue.’
  • Experts believe a major quake in Southern California – usually defined as 7.0 and up – could kill at least 1,800, leave 50,000 injured and cause more than $200 billion in damage.

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Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano rumbles with over 200 earthquakes in 8 hours

Hawaii-Volcanoes-National-Park

Important Takeaways:

  • Scientists are keeping a close eye on Kilauea and a new pulse of seismic activity.
  • Although the volcano is not erupting, in the past 8 hours, 200 earthquakes have been detected in the Upper East Rift Zone.
  • USGS officials say this may indicate magma being supplied to the zone.
  • At this time, an eruption is not imminent.

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More earthquakes rattle the eastern part of Russia

Russia-Earthquake-graph-map

Important Takeaways:

  • In the wake of a powerful earthquake shaking Russia and subsequent volcanic eruption, the country has been hit by two more seismic events.
  • This magnitude 4.6 earthquake was reported in Buryatia, Russia, around 12 miles from the town of Severomuysk, while the 5.2 magnitude quake was detected 40 miles northeast of the tiny Russian island of Shikotan, just off the coast of Japan’s Hokkaido.
  • These quakes occurred only days after a powerful 7.0 magnitude earthquake shook the Russian city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky early on Sunday, occurring about 60 miles off the country’s far eastern coast. Russian news outlets reported that Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky residents experienced some of the strongest shaking they had “in a long time,” according to the Associated Press. No major damage has been reported as a result of the quake, Russian media TASS reports, but “buildings are now being examined for potential damage, with special attention paid to social facilities.”
  • In the day after the M7.0 quake, over 30 aftershocks were felt around the nearby region.

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LA earthquake is connected to Japan’s earthquake through the same tectonic plate

Map-of-earthquake-striking-Pasadena-on-August-12-2024

Important Takeaways:

  • A significant earthquake just hit the Los Angeles area, striking two miles southwest of Pasadena, California.
  • According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the earthquake was magnitude 4.4 and felt through the nearby counties.
  • The tectonic plate responsible for the LA quake is the same one responsible for the Japan quake last Thursday, sparking fears of a ‘megaquake.’
  • Emergency response groups have warned residents to “be prepared for aftershocks.” The quake caused no injuries or major damage, and the National Weather Service said a tsunami was not expected.
  • The quake comes less than a week after a 5.2 magnitude temblor hit southern California and was also widely felt in Los Angeles.

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Over 60 earthquakes shake western Texas

Seismic-reading

Important Takeaways:

  • US state is rocked by more than SIXTY earthquakes with up to 5.1 magnitude in a week
  • A single county has reported more than 60 earthquakes in the last week, sparking a State of Emergency to be declared.
  • Scurry County in West Texas was hit by a 5.1-magnitude quake on Friday, which was felt as far north as Oklahoma, followed by a 4.5-magnitude the next day.
  • The epicenter in Hermleigh has now experienced 62 seismic events since last Monday (July 23)
  • No damages or injuries have been reported.
  • The largest quake was felt about 80 miles away in Lubbock and across parts of the South Plains.
  • West Texas is not located on a major fault line, but features 250 minor ones that extents outward 1,800 miles from the Dallas-Fort Worth area

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After string of small quakes: Expert attention is directed at some of LA’s oldest neighborhoods where casualties would be higher than a San Andres Megaquake

Puente-Hills-Thrust-fault

Important Takeaways:

  • Southern California was recently rattled by several small earthquakes. They produced minor shaking but nonetheless left psychological aftershocks in a region whose seismic vulnerabilities are matched by our willingness to put the dangers out of our minds.
  • For many, it all added to one question: Is this the beginning of something bigger?
  • First, a magnitude 3.6 earthquake in the Ojai Valley sent weak shaking from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles on May 31. Then came two small quakes under the eastern L.A. neighborhood of El Sereno, the most powerful a 3.4. Finally, a trio of tremors hit the Costa Mesa-Newport Beach border, topping out at a magnitude 3.6 Thursday.
  • Having half a dozen earthquakes with a magnitude over 2.5 in a week, hitting three distinct parts of Southern California, all in highly populated areas, is not a common occurrence.
  • But experts say these smaller quakes have no predictive power over the next major, destructive earthquake in urban Southern California, the last of which came 30 years ago.
  • Generally speaking, there is a 1 in 20 chance any earthquake in California will be followed by one that’s larger, said Susan Hough, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. Those odds aren’t high, and typically, the subsequent, larger quake would occur in the same area within a week. Plus, if something bigger did happen, the odds are a new temblor would be only a little bigger, Hough said.
  • In contrast, last week’s earthquakes highlighted nearby fault systems directly under our most populated cities and could produce even worse death tolls than a San Andreas megaquake, targeting our oldest neighborhoods with many unretrofitted buildings when they rupture.
  • “All three sets of these earthquakes occurred near large, potentially dangerous faults,” said James Dolan, an earth sciences professor at USC. “The L.A. urban fault network has been in a seismic lull for the entire historic period, and this lull likely extends back on the order of the last 1,000 years. We know at some point this lull we’re in will end.”

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