Tag Archives: USGS

Earthquake of 5.3 magnitude shakes southwest Turkey’s Bodrum: USGS

ISTANBUL/ANKARA (Reuters) – An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 shook southwestern Turkey near the Aegean coastal town of Bodrum on Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

It was not immediately clear whether anyone was injured. The quake struck some 15 kilometers (about 9 miles) southeast of Bodrum, the USGS said.

Bodrum is a popular resort for both Turks and foreigners on holidays during the summer months.

“We shook throughout the night, again very heavily this morning,” one witness told Reuters via telephone. “I put on my shoes and went into another room and it was shaking the entire time, it lasted a long time.”

The earthquake is the latest to rock the Aegean region this summer. Last month, a powerful quake killed two people on the Greek holiday island of Kos, sending tourists fleeing into the streets and causing disruption in Bodrum as well.

In June, a powerful 6.3 magnitude quake struck Turkey’s western coast and the Greek island of Lesbos, killing one person and rattling buildings from the Turkish province of Izmir to the Greek capital of Athens.

(Reporting by David Dolan and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Dominic Evans and Catherine Evans)

Magnitude 7.8 quake hits off Russia’s Kamchatka: USGS

(Reuters) – A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.8 off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula triggered a tsunami warning but the threat has now passed, the U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Pacific Tsunami Center said.

The quake struck at 11:34 a.m. on Tuesday (2334 GMT on Monday) some 125 miles (200 km) from the city of Nikolskoye on Bering island off the Kamchatka Peninsula. The epicenter was west of Attu, the westernmost and largest island in the Near Islands group of Alaska’s remote Aleutian Islands.

The earthquake was very shallow, only 6 miles (10 km) below the seabed, which would have amplified its effect, but it was far from any mainland and there were no immediate reports of any casualties or damage.

The Kamchatka branch of Russia’s emergency situations ministry had warned that waves up to 50 cm (1-2/2 feet) high could reach Nikolskoye.

The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had warned earlier that “hazardous tsunami waves were possible for coasts within 300 km (186 miles) of the earthquake epicenter.” But it later said that based on all available data the tsunami threat from this earthquake had passed.

The quake was initially reported as a magnitude 7.7 before being revised down to 7.4 and finally upgraded to 7.8, a major quake normally capable of causing widespread and heavy damage when striking on or near land.

The quake was followed by numerous aftershocks, including several above magnitude 5.0.

(Reporting by Sandra Maler; Additional reporting by Alex Winning in Moscow; Editing by Peter Cooney and Diane Craft)

One dead as strong earthquake hits Philippines

MANILA (Reuters) – A strong earthquake struck the central Philippines on Thursday killing at least one person and damaging several houses and some infrastructure, officials said.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) said aftershocks were expected but ruled out any tsunami following the earthquake of magnitude 6.5 that rocked the towns of Jaro and Kananga in Leyte province.

Congresswoman Lucy Torres-Gomez from the province said one person had been confirmed killed and Kananga had been “badly hit”.

“There were cracks on the roads and in some areas landslides have been reported,” she told ANC News Channel, adding that a building also collapsed.

“The aftershocks are still quite strong.”

The U.S. Geological Survey said earlier the quake had a magnitude of 6.9 and struck southwest of Tacloban City, one of the areas hardest hit by a typhoon in 2013.

Tacloban’s mayor, Cristina Romualdez, said she received no reports of casualty or damage in her area.

(Reporting by Enrico dela Cruz; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Magnitude-5.8 earthquake strikes in western Montana: USGS

By Brendan O’Brien

(Reuters) – A magnitude-5.8 earthquake hit western Montana early on Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported, and people felt the tremor hundreds of miles away.

The earthquake struck five miles (9 km) southeast of Lincoln, Montana, at about 12:30 a.m. local time, the USGS said on its website.

“New experience: woken up by an earthquake. No damage just spooky as heck!” Cole Fawcett tweeted in Crowsnest Pass, Alberta, about 285 miles (460 km) north of Lincoln.

Residents in the U.S. west flooded Twitter early on Thursday with similar experiences.

“My mom woke up and yelled at me and my dad that there was a bear shaking our trailer,” Brad Wynder said on Twitter.

No significant damage or injuries had been reported about an hour after the quake.

More than 10,000 reports from those who felt shaking were collected on the USGS website.

Several aftershocks with magnitudes of more than 4 were reported by the USGS. The Pacific Tsunami Warning center earlier reported the quake with a magnitude of 6.0.

(Editing by Andrew Roche)

5.3-magnitude quake shakes big island of Hawaii: USGS

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A 5.3-magnitude earthquake shook the Big Island of Hawaii on Thursday, near the Kilauea Volcano, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or substantial damage from the quake and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said no tsunami was expected to result.

According to the USGS, the temblor rattled the Big Island at 7:01 a.m. local time (1601 GMT) at a depth of 8 kilometers (4.9 miles).

“As in all earthquakes, be aware of the possibility of aftershocks,” Hawaii County Civil Defense said in an alert.

“If the earthquake was strongly felt in your area, precautionary checks should be made for any damages, especially to utility connections of gas, water and power,” the agency said.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Oklahoma faces continued risk of quakes linked to drilling: USGS

An oil pumpjack is seen in Velma, Oklahoma U.S. April 7, 2016. REUTERS/Luc Cohen

By Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Parts of Oklahoma and Kansas are likely to experience damaging earthquakes as a result of oil and gas industry activity in 2017, the U.S. Geological Survey said on Wednesday in its second annual forecast of natural and human-caused seismic risk.

The forecast comes amid a years-long string of temblors in Oklahoma that has coincided with a drilling boom in the state, and which scientists have attributed to wastewater disposal wells used by the oil and gas industry.

“The good news is that the overall seismic hazard for this year is lower than in the 2016 forecast, but despite this decrease, there is still a significant likelihood for damaging ground shaking in the (Central and Eastern United States) in the year ahead,” said Mark Petersen, chief of the USGS National Seismic Hazard Mapping Project.

The seismic risk maps are used by emergency management officials as well as the country’s major engineering and design associations to guide how strong to construct new buildings.

The USGS last year identified risks from human-caused earthquakes for the first time and has said that overall earthquake activity is hundreds of times higher than rates seen in around 2008, when the oil and gas drilling boom began.

The USGS said the 2017 forecast decreased compared to last year in part because wastewater injection used for oil and gas production likely decreased due to lower energy prices.

Oklahoma last year experienced a 5.8-magnitude earthquake, the largest ever recorded in the state, as well as the highest number of large earthquakes compared to any prior year.

Approximately 3.5 million people live and work in areas surveyed in the seismic risk map. The majority of this population is in Oklahoma and southern Kansas.

“Millions still face a significant chance of experiencing damaging earthquakes, and this could increase or decrease with industry practices, which are difficult to anticipate,” Petersen said.

The disposal of saltwater – a natural byproduct of oil and gas drilling – into wells has been tied to earthquakes. Oklahoma regulators have already ordered many disposal wells to curb operations.

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; editing by Richard Valdmanis, G Crosse)

6.8 earthquake reported off Northern California

Location of 6.8 earthquake off the coast of Northern California, USGS Government

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 was reported off the coast of Northern California on Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake was centered about 102 miles (165 kilometers) in the Pacific Ocean west of Ferndale, California, at a depth of 6.2 miles (10 km), according to the USGS.

There was no tsunami warning, advisory or threat in effect following the earthquake, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center of the National Weather Service said on its website.

The quake was first reported with a 6.9 magnitude but downgraded to 6.5.

Some social media users said they felt the tremor in San Francisco, about 260 miles (418.43 km) south.

“That was a big one,” wrote Twitter user Antonis Papatsaras from the Bay Area city.

“Felt 20 seconds of very light shaking,” tweeted another San Francisco resident, Lila LaHodd.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles and Gina Cherelus in New York; Editing by Bill Trott)

Earthquake hits already battered central Italy, no casualties

Firefighters inspecting Norcia, Italy after earthquakes

ROME (Reuters) – A strong earthquake hit the same area of central Italy on Thursday that has already been battered by a spate of recent tremors, but there were no reports of casualties or further serious damage.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) initially measured the quake at 5.0 but later revised it to 4.8. Its epicenter was in the Marche region, one of three areas hit repeatedly since August.

Nearly 10 hours after the latest quake, there were no reports of casualties, injuries or serious damage to buildings already weakened by previous tremors.

Earthquakes measuring 5.5 and 6.1 hit the area on Oct. 26, followed by a 6.6 magnitude quake on Sunday, the biggest tremor to strike Italy for 36 years.

The recent quakes have reshaped more than 600 square km (230 square miles) of land, lowering areas around the epicenter by up to 70 cm (28 inches), according to data released by Italy’s National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV)..

Central Italy was hit by an initial earthquake on Aug. 24 that killed 300 people, most of them in the town of Amatrice. Since then, some 21,600 aftershocks have battered the region, the INGV said, driving most residents from their homes.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella in Rome and Sandra Maler in Washington; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

Magnitude 6.4 quake strikes Ecuador’s northwest coast, no deaths reported

QUITO (Reuters) – A shallow earthquake with a magnitude of 6.4 struck Ecuador’s northwest coast on Sunday, in the region of April’s deadly quake, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said.

The quake was centered near the town of Esmeraldas, northwest of the capital Quito, at a depth of about 35 km (22 miles), the USGS said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not issue a tsunami warning immediately after the quake.

President Rafael Correa said authorities had not received any reports of casualties or material damage.

“We must remain calm,” Correa said during a telephone call to a state-run television station.

“These are normal replicas, though the fear that people feel is understandable – especially the victims of the April 16 quake.”

The tremor was felt in Quito and the coastal business hub of Guayaquil, with residents streaming out of buildings into the streets, according to witnesses.

Calm quickly returned to both cities after residents saw that no damage had been done.

The coastal region has been hit by a series of quakes since the April 7.8 tremor that killed more than 650 people, the nation’s strongest quake in decades.

In May, two successive quakes measuring 6.7 and 6.8 in magnitude killed one person and caused minor damage.

(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia, Michael Perry and Mary Milliken Writing by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Ryan Woo)

Shallow earthquake shakes southern California

(Reuters) – A shallow earthquake measuring 5.2 magnitude struck early on Friday in Southern California, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The epicenter of the tremor, recorded at about 1 a.m., was 12 miles (20 km) northwest of Borrego Springs, a desert area some 85 miles from San Diego.

The quake was felt by people from San Diego to parts of Los Angeles, more than 100 miles away, according to postings on social media.

“My entire home shook and everything rattled!!” Itica Milanes, a news anchor for an ABC affiliate in San Diego, said on Twitter.

Actress Lili Reinhart tweeted, “Experienced my first LA earthquake last night — woke up when my bed literally starting moving back and forth… So weird.”

The temblor was followed by aftershocks in the area ranging in magnitude from 2.6 to 3.8, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department and San Diego Police Department said there were no reports of serious damage or injuries.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee and Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Alison Williams, Toni Reinhold)