**We must learn that if
heroism and strength mean anything,
it is the willingness to face reality,
to face truth, to respect facts,
to accept that which is, is.**
Nathaniel Branden
LARGEST QUAKES -
Live Seismograms - Worldwide (update every 30 minutes)
This morning -
5.1 SOUTHEAST OF LOYALTY ISLANDS
5.0 RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN
5.2 RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN
Yesterday -
8/5/12 -
5.0 KEPULAUAN KAI, INDONESIA
5.1 EASTERN XIZANG
5.9 FIJI REGION
Clock is ticking on next massive U.S. Pacific Coast earthquake - Two separate geological studies released last week suggest the earthquake hazard along North America's Pacific Coast - including southern British Columbia - is significantly greater than previously believed. In one study - a 13-year comprehensive analysis of the Cascadia earth-quake-prone zone between Vancouver Island and Northern California - a team of researchers concluded the "clock is ticking" ahead of a potentially devastating earthquake in the region.
A 'megathrust' West coast earthquake could resemble Japan's. The monster earthquake could occur sometime in the next 50 years, with Oregon's southern coast pinpointed as the most vulnerable area. Over the past 10,000 years, 22 major earthquakes have struck the southern part of the Cascadia fault, which runs off the Oregon coast from Coos Bay to Newport. The last major earthquake to hit the Pacific Northwest was on Jan. 26, 1700 and the tsunami that was generated reached the coast of Japan.
Seismologist warns Kuwait region could be hit by magnitude 8 quake - An earthquake of 4.2 magnitude on the Richter scale that struck Kuwait 40 km NW of Salmiya at around 7.30 am Thursday was felt by residents in Salmiya. Though no casualties were reported, some residents complained the quake mildly upset some of their household arrangements. There were a few broken items. Some residents living near the Salmiya garden said they felt the tremor in two short spells in a span of a few seconds. Most of the residents were asleep and came to know about it from neighbors who experienced the tremor.
An online journal had earlier quoted an earthquake expert and Assistant Manager of Kuwait University for Scientific Affairs as saying that Kuwait may be vulnerable to a powerful earthquake that can reach up to 8 degrees on the Richter scale. The expert said that such an earthquake can strike the southern part of Iran and thus impact bordering GCC countries. She further added that an 8.1 tremor on Richter scale hit the same area of southern Iran back in 1945 and caused huge tsunami waves that reached Karachi and Bombay which are approx. 1,100 kms away from Iran. She warned that the Bushehr nuclear reactor in Iran may be vulnerable if an earthquake strikes, such seen recently in Japan. She advised GCC countries to give up their ambitions concerning the construction of nuclear power stations, arguing that “they are time bombs that will destroy the region when the anticipated earthquake strikes.”
Are large earthquakes linked around the globe? - The past decade has been plagued with what seems to be a cluster of large earthquakes, with massive quakes striking Sumatra, Chile, Haiti and Japan since 2004. Some researchers have suggested that this cluster has occurred because the earthquakes may be "communicating" across large distances, possibly triggering each other. But a new analysis by the US Geological Survey concludes that the cluster could just as well be the result of random chance.
The intense interest in the earthquakes has led some to wonder if we are living in the middle of an "age of great quakes," similar to a global cluster of quakes in the 1960s. It's important to know whether these clusters occur because big earthquakes trigger others across the world. To determine if the quake clusters in the 1960s and 2000s could be attributed to random chance, the researchers looked at the timing between the world's largest earthquakes - -magnitude 8.3 and above -- at one-year intervals during the past 100 years. They compared simulated lists of large quakes and the list of real quakes during this time with the between-quake intervals expected from a random process. The intervals between the real-life large quakes are similar to what would be expected from a random process, they found. In other words, the global hazard of large earthquakes is constant in time. Except in the case of local aftershocks, the probability of a new large quake occurring isn't related to past global quakes.
This could be disappointing news for researchers who thought global communication between quakes might offer a way to predict the most severe seismic activity. But there also may be some good news after a decade of destruction. If global great earthquakes are occurring at random, the authors say, then a specific number of quakes that cluster together within a short time is unlikely to be repeated in a similar way over a 100-year span.
VOLCANOES -
Volcano Webcams
Medieval eruption caused global catastrophe - When archaeologists discovered thousands of medieval skeletons in a mass burial pit in east London in the 1990s, they assumed they were 14th-century victims of the Black Death or the Great Famine of 1315-17. Now they have been astonished by a more explosive explanation - a cataclysmic volcano which had erupted a century earlier, thousands of kilometres away in the tropics, and wrought havoc on medieval Britons. Scientific evidence, including radiocarbon dating of the bones and geological data from across the globe, shows mass fatalities in the 13th century were caused by one of the largest volcanic eruptions of the last 10,000 years.Such was the size of the eruption that its sulphurous gases would have released a stratospheric aerosol veil or dry fog that blocked out sunlight, altered atmospheric circulation patterns and cooled the Earth's surface. It caused crops to wither, bringing famine, pestilence and death.
In 1258, a monk reported: "The north wind prevailed for several months ... scarcely a small rare flower or shooting germ appeared, whence the hope of harvest was uncertain ... Innumerable multitudes of poor people died, and their bodies were found lying all about swollen from want .. " London's population was around 50,000, so the loss of 15,000 would have radically changed the city. The volcano's exact location has yet to be established. Mexico, Ecuador and Indonesia are the most likely areas, according to vulcanologists, who found evidence in ice cores from the Northern Hemisphere and Antarctic and within a thick layer of ash from Lake Malawi sediments. The ice core sulphate concentration shows it was up to eight times higher than Indonesia's Krakatoa eruption of 1883, one of the most catastrophic in history. Some 10,500 medieval skeletons were found at Spitalfields Market; the remains suggest there may have been up to 18,000.
TROPICAL STORMS -
In the Atlantic -
- Tropical storm Ernesto was located about 470 mi [755 km] E of Isla Roatan, Honduras. The center of Ernesto was expected to pass to the south of the Cayman Islands Sunday night and early Monday and move north of the northeastern coast of Honduras late Monday and Monday night.
- Tropical storm Florence was located about 925 mi [1485 km] W of the Cape Verde Islands. Florence is forecast to become a tropical depression on Monday.
In the Western Pacific -
- Tropical storm 12w (Haikui) was located approximately 105 nm west- northwest of Kadena AB, Okinawa, Japan.
- Tropical storm 13w was located approximately 460 nm north- northwest of Wake Island.
Tropical Storm Ernesto brushed past the southern coast of Jamaica Sunday, causing heavy rains but few problems as it took a course expected to carry it by Honduras and across the Yucatan Peninsula by the middle of the week, then pass into the Gulf of Mexico. Florence weakened far out to sea.
