Volcanic eruption in Peru; earthquakes in NZ

Hundreds of quakes shake villages around smoking Peruvian volcano

Hundreds of small earthquakes have shaken the earth around the Sabancaya volcano in southern Peru over just a few days and the rumbling, along with plumes of smoke spewing up to 320 feet high, have put officials on alert to evacuate the area.

Reuters,

26 January, 2013

Peru's geological agency Ingemmet recorded some 536 quakes, about 20 an hour, on February 22 and 23 and periodic movement is ongoing.

Thousands of people live in the valleys surrounding the volcano. Some have already started to leave the region because the unusual seismic activity has damaged their homes. About 80 homes were damaged by one temblor on February 22, Peru's national defense office said.

The 20,000-foot (6,000-meter) volcano Sabancaya, which means "tongue of fire" in Quechua, has not had a significant eruption in nearly a decade. It sits atop the South America tectonic plate, which forces magma to the surface when it clashes with the neighboring Nazca plate.

Ingemmet said the volcano has been releasing huge smoke trails intermittently since January 15 and current seismic activity is similar to that which accompanied an eruption in 1986.

Sabancaya, active historically, was dormant for 200 years before erupting into activity several times in the 1980s and 1990s. No casualties were reported at that and the volcano has only experienced small eruptions since.

Southern Peru is the home to more than a dozen volcanoes.

Sabancaya is about 62 miles from the city of Arequipa, one of Peru's three largest cities, which was recently hit by heavy rains and flooding.

About 1.2 million people live in that city.

Unreported: Too many moderate relatively shallow earthquakes along the costs of New-Zealand

The last couple of weeks we saw numerous moderate earthquake (around Magnitude 5) at relatively shallow depths (5 to 50 km) below land or along the coasts of the North Island and South Island.

Today Geonet reported already 3 – 1 near Christchurch, 1 at Ruatoria and 1 in the Hokitika Greymouth area. Earlier similar earthquakes were reported near Mount Egmont and near Blenheim. 

Nothing really serious but all of them enough to scare people.

• See more at: http://earthquake-report.com/2013/02/26/earthquakes-in-the-world-on-february-27-2013-m4-5-or-more/#sthash.END24tml.dpuf

SRC	Location	UTC Date/time	M	D	INFORMATION
ER	I Felt A (not Listed) Strong Earthquake	Feb 27 23:59 PM	4.6	0	MAP I Felt It
EMSC	Ryukyu Islands, Japan	Feb 27 23:37 PM	4.7	10	MAP I Felt It INFO
USGS	Ryukyu Islands, Japan	Feb 27 23:37 PM	4.7	11	MAP I Felt It INFO
GEOFON	Off Coast Of Oregon	Feb 27 22:25 PM	4.8	10	MAP I Felt It INFO
dallas oregon - a huge rumble that lasted a few seconds
EMSC	Off Coast Of Oregon	Feb 27 22:25 PM	5.2	40	MAP I Felt It
USGS	Off The Coast Of Oregon	Feb 27 22:25 PM	5.1	9	MAP I Felt It
GEOFON	Eastern Siberia, Russia	Feb 27 18:23 PM	4.6	10	MAP I Felt It
EMSC	Northeastern Sakha, Russia	Feb 27 18:23 PM	4.6	40	MAP I Felt It INFO
USGS	Eastern New Guinea Region, Papua New Guinea	Feb 27 12:13 PM	4.6	127	MAP I Felt It
GEOFON	Eastern New Guinea Reg., P.n.g.	Feb 27 12:13 PM	4.8	120	MAP I Felt It
EMSC	Eastern New Guinea Reg., P.n.g.	Feb 27 12:13 PM	5.0	120	MAP I Felt It INFO
USGS	Bismarck Sea	Feb 27 12:01 PM	4.7	37	MAP I Felt It
GEOFON	Bismarck Sea	Feb 27 12:01 PM	4.6	10	MAP I Felt It INFO
EMSC	Bismarck Sea	Feb 27 12:01 PM	4.6	2	MAP I Felt It
GEOFON	Southeast Of Loyalty Islands	Feb 27 11:01 AM	4.8	116	MAP I Felt It INFO
USGS	Southeast Of The Loyalty Islands	Feb 27 11:01 AM	4.8	117	MAP I Felt It
EMSC	Southeast Of Loyalty Islands	Feb 27 11:01 AM	4.8	109	MAP I Felt It
GEOFON	Hokkaido, Japan Region	Feb 27 10:24 AM	4.7	67	MAP I Felt It INFO
USGS	Hokkaido, Japan Region	Feb 27 10:24 AM	4.6	73	MAP I Felt It
EMSC	Hokkaido, Japan Region	Feb 27 10:24 AM	4.7	76	MAP I Felt It
EMSC	Fiji Region	Feb 27 09:03 AM	4.8	671	MAP I Felt It
GEOFON	Fiji Islands Region	Feb 27 09:03 AM	4.7	566	MAP I Felt It INFO
EMSC	Bismarck Sea	Feb 27 08:21 AM	4.6	10	MAP I Felt It INFO
USGS	Kermadec Islands Region	Feb 27 06:49 AM	5.1	31	MAP I Felt It
EMSC	Kermadec Islands, New Zealand	Feb 27 06:49 AM	5.1	23	MAP I Felt It
GEOFON	Kermadec Islands, New Zealand	Feb 27 06:49 AM	5.2	10	MAP I Felt It INFO
GEONET	Ruatoria	Feb 27 04:28 AM	4.9	26	MAP I Felt It
GEOFON	Kermadec Islands Region	Feb 27 04:27 AM	5.1	46	MAP I Felt It INFO
USGS	Kermadec Islands, New Zealand	Feb 27 04:27 AM	4.8	12	MAP I Felt It INFO
EMSC	Kermadec Islands, New Zealand	Feb 27 04:27 AM	5.0	10	MAP I Felt It INFO

Data sources courtesy : USGS – EMSC – GFZ – GEONET (New Zealand only)

Earthquakes occurred yesterday (UTC time), but today local time

Near East Coast Of Kamchatka                                 M5.3 at 133 km depth