earthquake (Page 12)

Another large quake on Vanuatu – A string of four earthquakes struck across the centralPacific today, all within an hour and a half of one another.The first one, with a magnitude of 7.8, hit at 9:03 AM localtime, (3:03PM PDT) beneath the open ocean 180 milesnorth-northwest of Vanuatu. 15 minutes later, a second quakewith a magnitude of 7.7 hit approximately a hundred milessouth-southeast of the first. Then, an hour and ten minutesafter the first quake, a third one hit approximately thirtymiles from the location of the second. On October 8, a 6.8quake struck near Vanuatu.

These were all first-tier earthquakes. A more moderateaftershock with a magnitude of 5.1, struck 25 minutes afterthe third quake.
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Even if one of them happened in the past! – Can an earthquake that occurred in the past make one more likely to happen today in a place on the other side of the earth? The surprising answer is yes.

The 2004 earthquake in Sumatra may have weakened the San Andreas fault across the earth in California. Researchers who compared measurements of the 2 faults found that small “repeating earthquakes” became more frequent as the San Andreas Fault weakened, and this began happening after the major 9.3 magnitude quake in Sumatra in 2004, which triggered a tsunami that killed over 200,000 people.
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Update: More Flooding Possible – Last week, Typhoon Ketsana deluged Manila and the central Philippines, leaving at least 240 dead and 400,000 homeless, and challenging both governmental and private relief services beyond the breaking point. And now it could get worse asTyphoon Parma slams ashore north of Manila, sparing the cityits 90MPH winds, but threatening another deluge.

While Typhoon Parma contains less rain than Ketsana, it packs stronger winds, and, according to Art Bell, if it should strike Luzon, then back down into the Philippine Straits, which is a common storm track in the area, it will pick up rain as it stalls, and could deluge Manila once again.
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UPDATE – A swarm of 4 significant to strong earthquakes struck thewestern Pacific off Mexico and the Gulf of California today.The strongest was an earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter Scale, which struck 76miles off the coast of Baja California this morning and wasfelt strongly in San Diego, where buildings were evacuated,including San Diego City Hall. This follows 5.9, 5.8 and 5.0quakes inthe Gulf of California earlier today.

The Pacific quake was expected to produce a smalltsunamialong the northern coast of Baja California. There were noreports of damage in the relatively empty northern part ofBaja, which would have received the strongest effect of thequake 6.9 quake.
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