Earth changes - 30 January, 2013

UPDATE:

Magnitude-6.8 Earthquake Shakes Northern Chile

A magnitude-6.8 earthquake shook offices, toppled supermarket shelves and broke windows on Wednesday in north-central Chile, where people fled some buildings in panic.

ABC News,

30 January, 2013

A 50-year-old woman in the city of Copiapo died of a heart attack, said Atacama Regional Governor Rafael Prohens, who attributed her death to fear during the quake. Authorities said that damage was limited and discounted the possibility of a tsunami.

The U.S. Geological Survey originally reported the quake at 6.7, but later revised it upward. It struck at 4:15 p.m. (3:15 p.m.; 2015 GMT) and was centered 27 miles (44 kilometers) north of Vallenar, Chile.

The quake shook the capital of Santiago, causing office buildings to sway, but was felt most powerfully in the north where state television showed images of scattered groceries at supermarket floors and broken windows at several homes in Vallenar, Copiapo and other nearby cities.

Witnesses described people running from buildings into the streets in panic.

Vallenar Mayor Cristian Tapia said telephone lines were jammed and some electricity lines were temporarily down but services were slowly returning.

"The first half hour was really tough. We're still having problems with telecommunications," Tapia told state television. "Two walls collapsed. We're evaluating ruptures at homes to find out if they're still safe to live in."

But Chile's Emergency Office, ONEMI, said no injuries were immediately reported and damage to infrastructure appears minimal. The oceanographic service discounted the possibility of a tsunami.

"There's no doubt the population in some places fled, following a culture of evacuation," Miguel Ortiz, national chief of the early alert center at ONEMI. Two lower intensity aftershocks were also reported.

A devastating 8.8-magnitude quake and the tsunami it unleashed in 2010, killed 551 people, destroyed 220,000 homes and washed away docks, riverfronts and seaside resorts. The disaster cost Chile $30 billion, or 18 percent of its annual gross domestic product.

Chile is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world.

Just off Chile's long coast, the Nazca tectonic plate plunges beneath the continent, pushing the Andes to ever-higher altitudes. The 2010 quake was so strong it changed time, shortening the Earth's day slightly by changing the planet's rotation.

The strongest earthquake ever recorded also happened in Chile, a magnitude-9.5 in 1960 that killed more than 5,000 people.

NZ: White Island's lake dries up

The hot crater lake on White Island has now completely dried up as explosive rocks, mud and gas continue to be thrown into the air from the active volcano.

Stuff,

30 January, 2013

White Island has been spewing a steady stream of gas since activity heated up in December. It's the most active the volcano has been since 2000.

GNS Science vulcanologist Brad Scott said a "small tuff cone" was forming on the bottom of the crater lake, and the active vent was producing "vigorous bursts" of mud, rock, steam and gas up to 100 metres into the air.

"GNS Science's past monitoring of the island shows that new eruptive episodes often develop out of this type of activity," Scott said.

"Small muddy lakes sometimes form in craters. As the unrest develops geysering and explosions occur through these lakes, becoming more vigorous with time."

He said the activity did not necessarily mean an explosion or full-scale eruption would happen, although one could at any time.

Even though there was an elevated risk to tourists on the island, conditions weren't so dangerous that people could not travel there.

Tourism has, in fact, been booming at White Island as the volcano heats up, with visitors eager to see some explosive action.

Frontier Helicopters is one of three helicopter tour operators which fly around the island.

Owner Mark Law said there had definitely been a greater interest in the activity from visitors lately.

"It is our busy season, so it's a little hard to gauge whether or not more people are coming to visit the island because of it, but there is a greater awareness about the island from tourists, definitely," he said.

Law said company worked closely with GNS to assess the safety and in a worst-case scenario – a full scale eruption – it would simply mean they would not be able to fly as close.

"The only thing is, if it gets to any serious level of activity there's an exclusion zone which we operate by, because you can never tell just how far it will throw rocks," Law said.

At this stage, it was still possible to get reasonably close to the crater.

One of the pilots from Frontier was able to get about 180 metres away to film some spectacular footage of the explosions on Monday.

5.3 magntiude earthquake strikes off the coast of Oregon

 The Extinction Protocol,

31 January, 2013

January 31, 2013 – OREGON - A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck about 170 miles off the southern Oregon coast. The National Weather Service’s West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center said there was no danger of a tsunami from the Tuesday evening quake. There were no immediate reports of damage. The U.S. Geological Survey’s National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo., said the 7:14 p.m. PST quake occurred at a depth of 6.4 miles. By 10 p.m., the center’s website had logged four reports from people who said they felt a weak shaking from the quake. In the last 12 months, the number of quakes erupting off the coast of Oregon has been moderately increasing.

–--The Extinction Protocol

Quakes continue to plague East Texas

A 3.9-magnitude earthquake occurred on May 10, and on May 17, there was a 4.8-magnitude earthquake, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Those were followed by a 2.7-magnitude on May 20; a 2.5-magnitude on May 26; a 2.1-magnitude on June 16; a 2.8-magnitude on Dec. 7; a 2.6-magnitude on Dec. 22; and Friday’s earthquake. The most recent earthquake — a 2.8-magnitude — occurred about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday. Timpson court clerk Paula Mullins said Tuesday’s earthquake wasn’t as bad as Friday’s. It just kind of felt like a sonic boom,” she recalled. She said residents discuss earthquakes when they come, and everybody wonders why.  “Everybody’s got their own idea of fracking or God giving us a wake-up call,” she said. “It’s just happening, and we don’t know (why).” Cliff Frohlich, associate director at The University of Texas at Austin Institute for Geophysics, said Tuesday there is a fault system in East Texas called the Mount Enterprise fault system, which has been known for a long time. He said faults there can get reactivated by stresses of various kinds, and some people say the fault system may be related to a 1981 Center earthquake and an 1891 Rusk earthquake. Frohlich said there’s been a lot of interest in human causes of Texas earthquakes in relation to the injection of fluids into the ground. He said there are wells near where Timpson earthquakes were the strongest, and it’s possible that the injection of disposable fluids played a role. Sometimes when you inject fluids you get earthquakes, (and) in Texas there are (numerous) disposable wells,” he said. Frohlich noted that faults are also everywhere, and some might be as small as a football field or garage. He said there is friction to help prevent faults from slipping, but if fluids are pumped in, it can become “like an air hockey table. If mankind is causing them, it’s triggering faults that were stuck…,” he said. “If conditions are right for a fault to move, it moves.”

–Tyler Paper

Earthquakes in the world on January 30, 2013 (M4.5 or more) – Very strong earthquake in Northern Chile

SRC	Location	UTC Date/time	M	D	INFORMATION
ER	I Felt A (not Listed) Strong Earthquake	Jan 30 23:59 PM	4.6	0.1	MAP	I Felt It
USGS	Santa Cruz Islands	Jan 30 23:03 PM	6.0	10.0	MAP	I Felt It
GEOFON	Santa Cruz Islands	Jan 30 23:03 PM	6.0	10.0	MAP	I Felt It
EMSC	Santa Cruz Islands	Jan 30 23:03 PM	6.0	40.0	MAP	I Felt It
EMSC	Atacama, Chile	Jan 30 20:55 PM	4.6	69.0	MAP	I Felt It
EMSC	Atacama, Chile	Jan 30 20:40 PM	4.7	20.0	MAP	I Felt It
GEOFON	Near Coast Of Northern Chile	Jan 30 20:40 PM	4.8	10.0	MAP	I Felt It
USGS	Atacama, Chile	Jan 30 20:15 PM	6.8	45.7	MAP	I Felt It
SSUCH	Huasco, Vallenar, Chile	Jan 30 20:15 PM	6.7	52.2	MAP	I Felt It
USGS	Atacama, Chile	Jan 30 20:15 PM	6.7	25.4	MAP	I Felt It
GEOFON	Central Chile	Jan 30 20:15 PM	6.7	47.0	MAP	I Felt It
EMSC	Atacama, Chile	Jan 30 20:15 PM	6.8	46.0	MAP	I Felt It
PTWC	Central Chile	Jan 30 20:15 PM	6.7	25.0	MAP	I Felt It
Santiago - I felt it Santiago - On 11th floor of office building in the Las Condes area of Santiago...gentle rocking motion for about 10 seconds
WCATWC	Central Chile	Jan 30 20:15 PM	6.6	43.0	MAP	I Felt It
EMSC	Northern Qinghai, China	Jan 30 17:32 PM	4.6	2.0	MAP	I Felt It
GEOFON	Qinghai, China	Jan 30 17:32 PM	4.6	10.0	MAP	I Felt It
USGS	Philippine Islands Region	Jan 30 15:34 PM	4.7	37.3	MAP	I Felt It
EMSC	Philippine Islands Region	Jan 30 15:34 PM	4.7	30.0	MAP	I Felt It
GEOFON	Philippine Islands Region	Jan 30 15:34 PM	4.6	34.0	MAP	I Felt It
EMSC	Southern Mid-atlantic Ridge	Jan 30 13:25 PM	4.9	10.0	MAP	I Felt It
USGS	Southern Mid-atlantic Ridge	Jan 30 13:25 PM	4.9	10.0	MAP	I Felt It
GEOFON	Talaud Islands, Indonesia	Jan 30 13:18 PM	4.7	22.0	MAP	I Felt It
EMSC	Kepulauan Talaud, Indonesia	Jan 30 13:18 PM	4.7	22.0	MAP	I Felt It
USGS	Philippine Islands Region	Jan 30 12:57 PM	5.0	35.0	MAP	I Felt It
EMSC	Philippine Islands Region	Jan 30 12:57 PM	5.1	38.0	MAP	I Felt It
GEOFON	Philippine Islands Region	Jan 30 12:57 PM	5.0	31.0	MAP	I Felt It
EMSC	Atacama, Chile	Jan 30 09:33 AM	4.8	2.0	MAP	I Felt It
GEOFON	Northern Chile	Jan 30 09:33 AM	4.9	23.0	MAP	I Felt It
USGS	Atacama, Chile	Jan 30 09:33 AM	4.8	24.7	MAP	I Felt It
EMSC	Xizang-qinghai Border Region	Jan 30 09:27 AM	5.3	40.0	MAP	I Felt It
USGS	Xizang-qinghai Border Region	Jan 30 09:27 AM	5.2	37.1	MAP	I Felt It
GEOFON	Xizang	Jan 30 09:27 AM	5.3	36.0	MAP	I Felt It
WCATWC	Off Coast Of Oregon	Jan 30 03:15 AM	5.5	35.0	MAP	I Felt It
GEOFON	Off Coast Of Oregon	Jan 30 03:14 AM	5.3	10.0	MAP	I Felt It
EMSC	Off Coast Of Oregon	Jan 30 03:14 AM	5.3	10.0	MAP	I Felt It
USGS	Off The Coast Of Oregon	Jan 30 03:14 AM	5.3	10.2	MAP	I Felt It
USGS	Philippine Islands Region	Jan 30 02:32 AM	5.4	46.0	MAP	I Felt It
EMSC	Philippine Islands Region	Jan 30 02:32 AM	5.4	36.0	MAP	I Felt It
GEOFON	Philippine Islands Region	Jan 30 02:32 AM	5.1	32.0	MAP	I Felt It
EMSC	Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Is.	Jan 30 00:56 AM	4.6	80.0	MAP	I Felt It
USGS	Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska	Jan 30 00:56 AM	4.6	75.8	MAP	I Felt It