Posted on 02/26/2010 11:01:09 PM PST by dragnet2
On the radio KFI LA..
He’s probably worried about his vacation beach home in HI.
Hawaiian officials warned to plan for #tsunami waves as high as 12 feet - KHNL-TV
I like the phone - a - friend dude on CNN:)
The average elevation of that city is only 1 meter.
Pretty clear you haven’t read any of the more recent scientific literature on the NMSZ.
The actual estimated magnitudes magnitudes of the 1811-1812 quakes were greatly exaggerated some decades ago, but people still cling to them; the best recent estimates are by Susan Hough, USGS; The largest of the shocks is esitmated at Moment Magnitude 7.5, with others at 7.3, 7.0, and 7.0.
That’s still a substantial quake, but nowhere near the M 8-9 estimates you unfortunately see repeated again and again.
An 8.8 magnitude eartquake is indeed absolutely physically impossible in the NMSZ; such quakes ONLY occur and only CAN occur in subduction zones, because you need a sufficient planar area of the rupture zone to generate such massive magnitudes. NMSZ isn’t a subduction zone, and therefore, can’t. The same is true of the San Andreas - it can’t reach 8.8 either based on the simple physics of how long it is and the potential surface area of a rupture.
It’s true that the nature of the Midwest allows sesimic energy to propagage much further than in places like California.
But recent GPS work on the NMSZ indicates little motion and little stress building up:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090313145956.htm
“New Madrid Fault System, U.S., May Be Shutting Down
ScienceDaily (Mar. 20, 2009) — The New Madrid fault system does not behave as earthquake hazard models assume and may be in the process of shutting down, a new study shows.
“A team from Purdue and Northwestern universities analyzed the fault motion for eight years using global positioning system measurements and found that it is much less than expected given the 500- to 1,000-year repeat cycle for major earthquakes on that fault. The last large earthquakes in the New Madrid seismic zone were magnitude 7-7.5 events in 1811 and 1812.”
Doesn’t mean there’s no earthquake threat in the Midwest (including other areas like the Wabash River, etc.) or from the NMSZ, but people tend to get a bit breathless and overexcited telling each other how New Madrid will destroy the Midwest.
If you’re talking about threats that don’t get enough attention the earthquake threats to places like Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, etc. probably are the ones that need hype at this point.
He says that there are many deaths and a lot of buildings damaged. He says that where he is the earth quake was 8.5 so he is a bit from the center, but still entirely too close. He is in Region del Maule.
Which to believe?
A 3-meter tsunami wave hit on Saturday the Robinson Crusoe island, the largest in the Chilean Juan Fernandez archipelago, following a powerful earthquake which struck Chile earlier in the day, the country’s president, Michelle Bachelet, said.
“A village on the island is half-flooded, people have been evacuated to higher elevations,” the president said, adding there had been extreme damage from the tsunami.
The 8.8-magnitude earthquake hit the Latin American country in the early hours of Saturday. The tremor occurred some 89 kilometers (55.3 miles) to the north of Chile’s second largest city Concepcion, some 341 kilometers (212 miles) from the capital of Santiago.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center put out a warning along the coastlines of Chile and Peru, and issued a tsunami watch for Colombia, Ecuador, Antarctica, Panama and Costa Rica.
Some 50 nations have been placed under a tsunami advisory. Areas of concern are the Hawaiian Islands, French Polynesia, Australia, and Japan. Russia’s Far Eastern region was also advised, but local emergency authorities have stated that the region is in no danger.
BUENOS AIRES, February 27 (RIA Novosti)
Thanks for the ping and the info.
VERY scary.
Acapulco MX is the next large city in danger of tsunami.
Expected to hit that area in about 20 minutes from now (9:53 CT) at about 1615 GMT.
Thanks- sure is busy there isn’t it?
Being an east coast gal I do hurricanes and occasional small tornados- earthquakes and tsunamis are foreign to me.
The pressure from high tides in California could trigger a large EQ there. The ring of fire is very active.
3 meters would be wonderful.
thanks, assessing the event - long rupture zone with lots of big after shocks so far.
“Network Coordinator Michael Hansen said that the tremor occurred around 5.15 p.m. for about 10 seconds. There were no injuries or any damage to property as it was a very small quake.”
Is that a mistake....shouldn’t it have read 5:15 AM?
First, tsumani waves are long period, not short period like normal waves. The wave just keeps rising after the front part of the wave crashes in. Longer warning periods deal with reflections of the wave from across the basin.
Hard to know.
Guage Location Lat. Lon. Time Period Amplitude
IQUIQUE, Chile
20.2S
70.1W
0906Z
72min 0.27M / 0.9FT
CALDERA, Chile
27.1S
70.8W
0843Z
20min 0.45M / 1.5FT
ANTOFAGASTA, Chile
23.2S
70.4W
0832Z
58min 0.40M / 1.3FT
TALCAHUANO, Chile
36.7S
73.4W
0652Z
88min 2.34M / 7.7FT
COQUIMBO, Chile
30.0S
71.3W
0852Z
30min 1.32M / 4.3FT
CORRAL, Chile
39.9S
73.4W
0739Z
16min 0.90M / 2.9FT
SAN FELIX, Chile
26.3S
80.1W
0815Z
08min 0.53M / 1.7FT
VALPARAISO, Chile
33.0S
71.6W
0708Z
20min 1.29M / 4.2FT
This earthquake occurred at the boundary between the Nazca and South American tectonic plates. The two plates are converging at a rate of 80 mm per year. The earthquake occurred as thrust-faulting on the interface between the two plates, with the Nazca plate moving down and landward below the South American plate.
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