when you die the size of your funeral will still pretty much depend on the weather."
Michael Pritchard
LARGEST QUAKES -
This morning -
5.1 VOLCANO ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
5.4 FIJI REGION
5.0 BOUGAINVILLE REGION, P.N.G.
5.0 NEAR COAST OF CENTRAL PERU
Yesterday -
10/4/10 -
5.1 WEST OF MACQUARIE ISLAND
5.0 KURIL ISLANDS
6.4 SOUTHWESTERN RYUKYU ISL., JAPAN
5.1 CUBA REGION
5.1 SOUTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND
5.5 BABUYAN ISL REGION, PHILIPPINES
Experts say there has been an spike in the number of earthquakes in New Hampshire and Massachusetts in recent years, and the potential is there for a far more serious one. Last weekend's 3.1-magnitude quake was the strongest in Massachusetts or New Hampshire in more than three years. "When you get to magnitude 3, we're talking about a once-or-twice-a-year earthquake for New England itself. We had a 3.2 off the shore of Maine earlier this summer. And then a magnitude 5.0 centered north of Ottawa in Quebec province (in June) that was felt over pretty much all of New England."
This area isn't exactly seen as a hotbed of tectonic activity, but it has seen its share of earthquakes over the years. Since 2007, there have been 48 earthquakes centered in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. In the past year alone, there have been nine, ranging in magnitude from 1.1 to 3.1. And that doesn't even include earthquakes in Canada or elsewhere that were also felt there. "During the mid 2000s, there was kind of a lull in earthquake activity - not so many, and not so many 2.5 or above as we had seen in earlier years. We've seen a slight increase in that in the last three years or so."
There have also been some more serious earthquakes in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, causing some very real damage, though most of them happened many years ago. In 1982, there was a 4.7-magnitude earthquake just north of where Saturday's quake occurred, triggering a fire that caused a building to burn down, and some minor cracks in some buildings. That quake was felt quite strongly throughout the greater Boston area. The largest quake to strike New Hampshire — actually two quakes within four days of each other — was a magnitude 5.5 near Ossipee Lake in 1940. Chimneys were thrown down, some walls cracked, plaster fell, and a few pipes were broken. The largest earthquake in New England's history was a magnitude 6.2 quake that struck off the coast of Massachusetts' Cape Ann in 1755. It was felt from Nova Scotia to South Carolina, and caused much chimney damage but no building collapses. In 1727, an earthquake described as "tremendous" in one report and "violent" in another caused some damage at Newbury. The shock was felt from the Kennebec River to the Delaware River and from ships at sea. Strong aftershocks were reported from the area through February 1728.
New England isn't located on a major fault line, like the San Andreas in California. So what is causing all of these earthquakes? Massachusetts and New Hampshire are located in the middle of the North American tectonic plate. One boundary is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The other is on the West Coast. "The plate is slowly spreading toward the Pacific Ocean. That catches the middle of the plate in a very slow squeezing, much the way a vice would squeeze a brick. Rock can't squeeze forever without having little cracks and breaks. Those little breaks are what we sometimes feel as earthquakes in our region." There are actually more quakes here than if you go toward the Midwest or Canada, because at one time the edge of North America was a plate boundary. Many of the old faults are still preserved in the rock, and that causes them to crack more than in other parts of the country.
"The other possibility is that the Ice Age only ended 15,000 years ago. That sounds like a long time to us, but geologically it's not. That ice, being a mile or more thick, weighed a lot, and pushed the brittle crust into the putty, plastic like mantle. Since the ice is gone, it's been coming back up. It could have been that, and that also would be the most pronounced along weak zones."
Just because New England isn't located on a fault line doesn't mean there couldn't be a more serious, destructive earthquake here. "Unquestionably there is the potential for a damaging earthquake in our region."
In fact, the current pattern is how it usually goes, right up until a serious earthquake hits. "Every place in the world where we study earthquakes where we see regional small activity, occasionally there are larger and even damaging earthquakes. The difficulty is we can't predict it. If we had a damaging earthquake tomorrow, it wouldn't surprise me. If we had none for 100 years, it wouldn't surprise me either." Still, most experts agree that the chances of a major earthquake striking this area anytime in the near future are not great.
TROPICAL STORMS -
-Tropical depression 14W was 142 nmi NNE of Da Nang, Vietnam
The National Water Commission in Jamaica says less than 10 per cent of its water supply systems are still out of operation in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Nicole. The commission says its engineers, technicians and other field personnel are continuing to return more and more of its 460 water supply and 68 wastewater systems to full operation. However, repair teams are also finding more incidents of significant damage to the Commission’s infrastructure across the country. In addition, the NWC is faced with problems of flooding in some parishes such as St Elizabeth.
While the NWC is working to correct the remaining problems on its network, in some cases it could take weeks and even months to complete the repairs. In the meantime, the commission says it’s using alternative means such as trucking to supply customers with water.
HEAVY RAINS, SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -
INDONESIA - Days of torrential rain triggered landslides and flash floods in eastern Indonesia, killing at least 26 people and destroying hundreds of homes.
