EARTH MOVER [Alaska's Denali 7.9 Quake]

Anchorage Daily News ^ | November 17, 2002 | Doug O'Harra

[2sheep]

The 7.9 earthquake that slammed the state two weeks ago and continues to tremble even now unzipped an extraordinary geologic scar through the Alaska Range. A horizon-spanning fracture tore open glaciers, sliced mountains and rumpled the landscape with startling new folds and cracks.

[2sheep]

Image from:  Earth Observatory Newsroom: New Images - Magnitude 7.9 Earthquake Strikes South-Central Alaska

[2sheep]

Bump.

[ChadGore]

Amazing

[wharfrat]

This might have created a new Gold Panning Bonanza in the region; who knows? Time to get new batteries for the detector and find my pan!

[ErnBatavia]

slammed the state two weeks ago and continues to tremble even now

Reminded me of California's Northridge quake. Being in a very hard hit area, I certainly remember the ground literally quivering constantly for a full day afterwards, and then intermittently (along with the aftershocks, of course) for weeks on end. Spooky.

[2sheep]

Earthquakes jolt Japan [17nov02]
17nov02

AN earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale has jolted northern Japan, minutes after one measuring 4.6 shook the centre of the country, the Meteorological Agency said.

There were no reports of damage or injury after the quakes and no warning for tsunami tidal waves was issued.  The larger quake struck around 1.55pm (3.55pm AEDT) with its epicentre located in the south of the Sea of Okhotsk, off Japan's northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, the agency said.

Its focus was 410km below sea level, the agency said.  The smaller quake hit the central Japan prefecture of Ishikawa, 300km north-west of Tokyo, at 1.48pm (3.48pm AEDT).

The Earth Sciences Observatory in Strasbourg measured the larger quake at 7.3 on the Richter scale while experts monitoring from Hong Kong put it at 7.5, the observatories announced in separate statements.

[2sheep]

I met a man who said he went from being a millionaire to a pauper in one day due to damage from the S.F. quake that dropped the freeway.

[Clara Lou]

Thanks for posting this. It's so interesting. I lived in Anchorage/Eagle River, Alaska, for 8 years. We had earthquakes frequently, but the largest in my memory was only 5.4 which did little damage, just rattled everything. We did decide to move from our neighborhood by Cook's Inlet (where the neighborhoods are built on Bootlegger's mud, which turns to jello when shaken by earthquakes. Lowell Thomas's house disappeared into that mud during the Big One.) We moved to the side of a mountain, and were shaken less noticeably. How fortunate that this quake took place in a sparcely populated area. I miss Alaska.

[ErnBatavia]

Large portions of the economy took big hits. We were in Santa Clarita, which has the infamous "Newhall Pass" as virtually it's only way in or out (that's the bridge that collapsed...the one that the motorcycle cop flew off of in the dark). Thousands of us would leave home at 3am to 'beat the traffic' to get to work by 8am. The next door neighbor gal lost her job after a couple of weeks due to an unsympathetic boss.

[Carry_Okie]

Bink!

[2sheep]

Someone wrote to me from Alaska last week and saiid she was feeling pretty nervous up there, even though she was used to quakes. There isn't anything like being in a big quake to humble one.

[KC Burke]

Probably due to excessive restraints during the Daschle-led Senate.

Thanks for the ping.

[spycatcher]

[2sheep]

Here's another earth mover:   Earthquake caused islands near PNG to move
14 Nov 2002

Researchers believe an island off Papua New Guinea's northern coast may have moved by as much as one metre in a recent earthquake.  The island also appears to have been lifted higher above sea level.

A 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck PNG's northern coast in September, resulting in the deaths of three people and causing a small tsunami registered in a number of islands, and in the town of Wewak.

Paul Tregoning from the Australian National University says analysis indicates Kairuru Island, off the coast from Wewak, moved up to one metre towards the town, and lifted up to 30 centimetres from the sea floor.

"If the quake was much closer to the site you could have expected a horizontal displacement of metres perhaps four or five metres," he said.  Researchers hope to improve their understanding of the region's seismology, with a view to understanding the likely impact of future quakes.

[spycatcher]

Massive rockslides: Click for larger photo

[2sheep]

Very impressive. Thanks.

[redhead]

wow. Wow. WOW!!! As an old Alaska Hand, I am very deeply impressed with these photos. Thank you very much.

[Dog Gone]

Cool! Thanks for the ping!

[WaterDragon]

very, very impressive!

[2sheep]

The photo in post #1 shows the fault and a red circle at the location of the original quake. The curved line is the fault, not all new damage. Click on this link for another shot of the fault and the roads in that area (206 kb): http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqinthenews/uslbbl/maps/alaska4.jpg