Posted on 09/18/2004 10:13:13 PM PDT by ETERNAL WARMING
Recent Earthquakes in California and Nevada == PRELIMINARY EARTHQUAKE REPORT ==
California Integrated Seismic Net USGS/ Caltech/ CGS/ UCB/ UCSD/ UNR
Version #3: This report supersedes any earlier reports of this event.
The same place as last night's M 4.0 and 4.1
A moderate earthquake occurred at 4:02:17 PM (PDT) on Saturday, September 18, 2004. T he magnitude 5.5 event occurred 36 km (22 miles) SSW of Qualeys Camp, NV.
The hypocentral depth is 8 km ( 5 miles).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Magnitude 5.5 - regional moment magnitude (Mw) Time Saturday, September 18, 2004 at 4:02:17 PM (PDT)
Saturday, September 18, 2004 at 23:02:17 (UTC)
Distance from Qualeys Camp, NV - 36 km (22 miles) SSW (202 degrees)
Bodie, CA - 37 km (23 miles) SE (128 degrees)
Lee Vining, CA - 39 km (24 miles) E (82 degrees)
Mammoth Lakes, CA - 49 km (30 miles) NNE (32 degrees)
Sacramento, CA - 251 km (156 miles) ESE (103 degrees)
Coordinates 38 deg. 0.5 min. N (38.009N), 118 deg. 40.8 min. W (118.679W)
Depth 7.6 km (4.7 miles)
Location Quality Good
Location Quality Parameters Nst=250, Nph=250, Dmin=10 km, Rmss=0.08 sec, Erho=0.2 km, Erzz=1.7 km, Gp=72 degrees
Event ID# nc51146343
Well over 125 earthquakes in last 24 hours in this small area. Last few within the previous 20 minutes.
What's the significance of Yucca Mtn? I'm thinking hard here and coming up blank. ...just curious. Thanks :-)
Planned site of the U.S. nuclear waste repository.
Earthquake swarm shakes remote area along eastern Sierra
http://www.bakersfield.com/24hour/nation/story/1665488p-9413344c.html
The Associated Press
MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. (AP) - A swarm of earthquakes - one a magnitude-5.5 - jolted a remote, sparsely populated area along the eastern Sierra Nevada on Saturday, authorities said.
A Mono County sheriff's dispatcher said there were no immediate reports of any injuries or damage from the temblors centered along the California-Nevada line about 30 miles northeast of Mammoth Lakes.
David Oppenheimer, a seismologist for the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, said most of the 70 quakes in the sequence that began 12:02 a.m. Saturday were magnitude-2 or less.
The magnitude-5.5 temblor that struck at 4:02 p.m. was followed by a magnitude-5.4 quake at 4:43 p.m., he said. The moderate quakes were the biggest in the swarm and the biggest on the fault in more than a decade.
"It's been quite a robust sequence," Oppenheimer said. "It's not clear how it'll play out. There could be more magnitude-5s or it could die off in an hour or two."
Some of the quakes were felt 35 miles away in Hawthorne, Nev.
"They (quakes) just felt like a hit and a rolling sensation," said Mineral County sheriff's dispatcher Lorraine Haight. "Of course, it's scary when you don't expect it."
Dennis Bauer of Lake Forest, Calif., was inside a small Mono Lake information center near Lee Vining when one of the temblors shook.
"It was like someone was leaning on the building and pushing it back and forth," he said.
The eastern Sierra has been a seismically active area. A similar sequence was centered in the same area over a one-week period in 1980, Oppenheimer said. The activity died down in 1984 before picking up again in 1992.
"For whatever reasons this fault seems to make a lot of noise," Oppenheimer said. "It pops off every once in a while."
The Great Basin that covers most of Nevada and Utah is pulling part, causing the quakes, he said.
Nobody worry. It was probably my ex passing out in a drunken stupor and hitting the pavement...AGAIN!
I seem to remember wondering in the 80's if Mammoth would ever blow up.
See also more-or-less live thread from an affected user:
5.5 quake at Mammoth Lakes
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1220114/posts
This swarm isn't anwhere near the Mammoth Lakes caldera really; several years ago the Caldera itself had dozens of swarms more intense than this swarm.
Also quake swarms can happen due to purely tectonic (non-volcanic) causes.
Calderas can easily go thousands of years with quake swarms, inflating/deflating, and no eruption.
Is over 200 miles away close?
This is not in the Caldera but near the Mono Craters an area of very recent activity.
Thank goodness this isn't the Mammoth Lakes area, although when the 5.5 hit earlier today that was my first thought.
I hope me and mine are long gone when Yellowstone erupts.
Great to know, thanks. At least I can go back and ski Mammoth again someday :)
see my #14, thanks!
It is when the fault lines transverse.
The description of those quakes sounds like Magma movement.
Time to go check out the USGS website.
If this is "getting closer" when can I expect one to hit Yucca? I'd like to plan a vacation to feel it.
and there is this too..
Long Valley Caldera at a Glance
http://lvo.wr.usgs.gov/index.html#glance
Geologic History of Long Valley Caldera and
the Mono-Inyo Craters volcanic chain, California
http://lvo.wr.usgs.gov/History.html
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