then stop.
Lewis Carrol, Alice in Wonderland
LARGEST QUAKES -
This morning -
None 5.0 or higher.
Yesterday -
3/8/10 -
5.7 SALTA, ARGENTINA
5.0 VALPARAISO, CHILE
5.3 VALPARAISO, CHILE
5.2 VALPARAISO, CHILE
5.1 OFFSHORE VALPARAISO, CHILE
5.0 OFFSHORE VALPARAISO, CHILE
5.0 OFFSHORE VALPARAISO, CHILE
5.2 OFFSHORE VALPARAISO, CHILE
5.0 OFFSHORE VALPARAISO, CHILE
5.0 OFFSHORE BIO-BIO, CHILE
5.2 LIBERTADOR O'HIGGINS, CHILE
5.0 OFF COAST OF O'HIGGINS, CHILE
5.2 PAGAN REG., N. MARIANA ISLANDS
6.0 MAUG ISLANDS REG, N. MARIANA IS.
5.5 EASTERN TURKEY
6.0 EASTERN TURKEY
TURKEY - More than 100 aftershocks measuring up to 5.5 magnitude shook the region on Monday alone. Hundreds of earthquake survivors huddled in aid tents and around bonfires Monday in eastern Turkey, seeking relief from the winter cold after a strong temblor knocked down stone and mud-brick houses in five villages, killing 51 people and injuring 34. The temblor also knocked down barns, killing many farm animals. The damage appeared worst in the Kurdish village of Okcular, which was almost razed. At least 15 of the village's 900 residents were killed. The pre-dawn earthquake caught many residents as they slept, shaking the area's poorly made buildings into piles of rubble. The 6.0-magnitude quake hit at 4:32 a.m. (0232 GMT, 9 p.m. EST Sunday) near the village of Basyurt in a remote, sparsely populated area of Elazig province. The region is 340 miles (550 kilometers) east of Ankara, the capital.
Monday's quake in eastern Turkey followed deadly recent temblors in Haiti and Chile, but the seismologist for the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute said there was no direct connection between the three. "These events are too far apart to be of direct influence to each other." A seismologist from the British Geological Survey said there has NOT been a spike in global seismic activity. "If there was a big increase in the number of magnitude 6.0s in the past decade we would know it, because we would see it in the statistics. We haven't seen an increase in 7.0s either." Scientists often see strong earthquakes but they don't get reported in the media because the damage or death toll is minimal. According to USGS data, the world is hit by about 134 earthquakes a year in the 6.0- to 6.9-magnitude range - or about two a week. (video)
CHILE QUAKE MOVED ENTIRE CITY 3 METERS to the west - Preliminary measurements drawn from global positioning stations show that the entire city of Concepcion is now 3.04 meters further west than it was prior to the massive 8.8-magnitude quake which struck February 27. The Chilean capital of Santiago also shifted 27.7 centimetres to the west. On South America's east coast, Argentina's capital Buenos Aires moved nearly four centimetres to the west and significant displacements were recorded as far away as the Falkland Islands. It was the fifth most powerful quake recorded since instruments have been available to measure seismic shifts. There have been hundreds of aftershocks, several exceeding magnitude 6.0. (photo)
TSUNAMI / FREAK WAVES / ABNORMAL TIDES / RISING SEA LEVELS -
Video of the 27 foot rogue wave that swamped a cruise ship in the Mediterranean Sea last week.
TROPICAL STORMS -
No current tropical cyclones.
SPACE WEATHER -
WISCONSIN - 3/3/10 - Possible meteor sighting causes a stir in the town of Hudson. Residents east of Hudson witnessed a possible meteor burn up and explode just before 8 p.m. Wednesday. One resident saw what looked like “a huge flash of lightning coming in through the windows.” Neighbors said they witnessed the burning object in the sky and the explosion. There were two meteor showers occurring that week. The Pi Virginids occur between February 13 and April 8, peaking between March 3 and March 9, with two to five meteors per hour. The Rho Leonids, originating from the constellation Leo, occur between Feb. 13 - March 13, peaking March 1-4. Both are considered minor showers.
AUSTRALIA - 3/4/10 - Scientists are investigating claims a meteor fragment the size of a cricket ball collided into a Western Australia house. The object hit the roof of the home about 4pm on Thursday in the north-eastern Perth suburb of Beechboro. The WA Museum said the object may have fallen from a plane lowering its landing gear. Perth Observatory said it had received a “couple of reports” on Thursday night from people phoning to say they had seen a light in the sky. “At this stage no one seems to be able to put it all together, but if it was a meteor it belongs to the WA Government. The reports at this stage are very sketchy.”
MYSTERY OF PHOBOS - Something is wrong with Phobos. The martian moon looks like a solid, but it's not as dense as a rocky solid should be. Some researchers think Phobos might be riddled with vast caverns; others say it is just a "rubble pile" masquerading as a solid body. To solve the mystery, Europe's Mars Express spacecraft is making a series of close Phobos-flybys this month.
3/10/10 - Update - According to gravity-field data just beamed back from Mars Express, mass is not evenly distributed throughout the moon’s interior. A detailed analysis is underway by ESA researchers.
HEALTH THREATS -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
Recalls due to Salmonella risk in flavoring - hydrolyzed vegetable protein -- approaching 100.
