Geology, Earthquakes & Volcanism News and Discussions

[caltrek]

Scientists Find a 'Yellow Brick Road' in a Never-Before-Seen Spot of The Pacific Ocean
by Carly Cassella
December 21, 2022

Introduction:

(Science Alert) An expedition to a deep-sea ridge, just north of the Hawaiian Islands, has revealed an ancient dried-out lake bed paved with what looks like a yellow brick road.

The eerie scene was chanced upon by the exploration vessel Nautilus earlier this year, while surveying the Liliʻuokalani ridge within Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM).

PMNM is one of the largest marine conservation areas in the world, larger than all the national parks in the United States combined, and we've only explored about 3 percent of its seafloor.

Researchers at the Ocean Exploration Trust are pushing the frontiers of this wilderness, which lies more than 3,000 meters below the waves, and the best part is, anyone can watch the exploration.

A highlight reel of the expedition's footage published on YouTube in April 2022 captures the moment researchers operating the deep-sea vehicle stumbled upon the road to Oz.

Read more here: https://www.sciencealert.com/scientist ... fic-ocean

The actual moment of discovery is at about the 1:40 point:

[caltrek]

6.4-magnitude earthquake hits northern California
Source: NBC News

...

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/64 ... -rcna62522

One of my younger Facebook friends works in the field of public safety (911 operator). She has moved around a bit so I kind of lost track of where she was living. She travels a lot, so I also see photos from all over California showing up on her Facebook page. Turns out she was apparently relatively close to the epicenter at the time of its occurrence. She shared photos of the mess in her house from toppled furniture and things that fell off of her shelves when she reached her home. Also of interest was a feature through the Facebook system wherein she was "marked as safe" through her post. It included a map showing the epicenter of the quake. An interesting way of briefly notifying concerned friends of your safety as well as providing more information concerning the quake to people from far away who may have read a headline or two.

The quake was too far to the North for me to feel it. We sometimes hear of smaller magnitude quakes that have hit or area that we didn't even feel because of the low level of energy. We would have definitely felt a 6.4 had it been closer.

[weatheriscool]

Magnitude 5.4 Earthquake Strikes Near California's Rio Dell Region - USGS
Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - A 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck 15 km (9.3 miles) southeast of California's Rio Dell region, United States Geological Survey said on Sunday.

The earthquake was at a depth of 27.8 km, USGS said.

Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles ... egion-usgs

[Xyls]

BREAKING:

Major 7.8-7.9M earthquake reported in south central Turkey near the Syrian border.

Models suggesting anywhere between 100-10000 deaths likely based on location and projected shaking.



Lots of videos of collapsed buildings coming in.

[Xyls]

Turkey getting rocked by an earthquake swarm along the East Anatolian Fault.



Damage being reported now across the country as well as Syria and Lebanon.

Shaking felt in Israel, Iraq, and even in Greece.

From Lebanon:

[caltrek]

^^^Thanks for the heads up. For details:

Very strong 7.8 quake hits near Gaziantep, Turkey
February 6, 2023 (Updated 29 Minutes Ago).

Introduction:

(Volcano Discovery) An earthquake of magnitude 7.8 occurred only 18 minutes ago 37 km northwest of Gaziantep, Turkey, the United States Geological Survey reported.

The quake hit at a shallow depth of 24.1 km beneath the epicenter near Gaziantep, Turkey, early morning on Monday, February 6th, 2023, at 4:17 am local time. The exact magnitude, epicenter, and depth of the quake might be revised within the next few hours or minutes as seismologists review data and refine their calculations, or as other agencies issue their report.

A second report was later issued by the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), which listed it as a magnitude 7.4 earthquake. Other agencies reporting the same quake include France's Réseau National de Surveillance Sismique (RéNaSS) at magnitude 7.0, the citizen-seismograph network of RaspberryShake at magnitude 7.7, the citizen-seismograph network of RaspberryShake at magnitude 7.8, and the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) at magnitude 7.6.

Generally quakes of this magnitude are recorded by more than one agency and the results can vary, with subsequent reports that come in after the first one often showing more accuracy.

If the preliminary data about magnitude and depth are correct, the quake was extremely dangerous. It has the potential to cause catastrophic impacts on people and infrastructure, probably involving severe and wide-spread damage, especially in areas near the epicenter.

Read more here: https://www.allquakes.com/earthquakes/ ... prus.html

[Xyls]

Some video coming in from Syria.



Many of the Syrian cities have been damaged by years of war and their buildings were particularly vulnerable.

Both Hama and Aleppo were within the predicted strong shaking from this quake as well as Gazantiep in Turkey which was the closest city to the epicenter and has a population of more than a million people.

If the preliminary 7.8/7.9 is confirmed this would be the strongest confirmed earthquake in Turkish history.

The only earthquakes that rival it would be:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1668_Nort ... earthquake

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_Erzincan_earthquake

The second would be more comparable to today's and that earthquake killed over 30000 people! This one might be just as bad...

Update: Aleppo

[caltrek]

^^^Wow....just....wow.

[Xyls]

Unlike the earthquakes the Middle East has recently experienced the weather is looking like it will be below freezing starting on Tuesday each night.

If they don't get people out, those who are trapped could freeze...

This is almost certainly going to be the worst earthquake in the region since 1999's Izmir...

Update: Turkish city of Adana 1.7m people...

[weatheriscool]

I expect thousands of deaths. We will see but history tells me that is to be expected in these kinds of events.

[Xyls]

Deaths already approaching 100.

Doctor in one town in Syria is fearing hundreds there alone...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/ ... atest-news

Very much fearful we could be looking at another Haiti 2010 situation...

[Xyls]

Almost 200 now being reported dead... at the rate this death toll is growing we are going to be close to 10000 by the end of the day...





And that would not be surprising based on this shake map... at least 3 major cities of 1m+ people in the area of violent shaking.

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

As expected, a second earthquake has now hit.

7.5 magnitude at 13:30 local time (10:30 GMT).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/64533954

[Xyls]

Death toll is now over 2300 people and rising fast.

I think what is perhaps most irritating here is that for all the Erdogan government has been spending on huge infrastructure projects of questionable value (Istanbul canal anyone?) None, of this seems to have gone where it is really needed into seismic refitting and earthquake protection so that Turkey can withstand earthquakes like this.

Turkey has been warned over and over again about this and has not done much to address these issues. The only saving grace of this situation is that this earthquake was not under Istanbul because if it had been it likely could've killed hundreds of thousands of people. Turkey needs to learn from this one and aggressively pursue earthquake resilience in it's infrastructure and cities as Turkey is one of the most earthquake prone nations on earth along with Japan, Chile, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Syria is going to be a Haiti like disaster and this could keep the nation stuck in non-development status for years. Unlike Turkey, Syria has neither the capacity or funds to carry out earthquake mitigation. And historically even moderate size earthquakes have been extremely deadly in Syria due to the construction standards there. Don't be surprised if there is a major refugee crisis from this quake as the government fails to address the is destroyed infrastructure from this quake.

I expect in the end we will be looking at somewhere around 20k-50k dead between the two countries...

[Xyls]

The earthquake destroyed the 2200 year old Gaziantep Castle:



More world heritage sites have likely been damaged/destroyed as well...

This is quite the testament to the power of this earthquake in this area and may be the most powerful ever on the East Anatolian fault line...

[Xyls]

I think this is probably the Conservative estimate…

[weatheriscool]

Turkey and Syria death toll from the earthquake climbs to more than 2,500
From CNN's Mia Alberti, Hira Humayun, Isil Sariyuce and Hande Atay Alam

The death toll across Turkey and Syria has risen to at least 2,509 following a powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake with its epicenter in southern Turkey early Monday.

The total number of injured in Turkey and Syria climbed to 12,136 on Monday.

The total death toll in Syria rose to 968. Syria's state-run news agency SANA reported 538 across government-controlled areas and the "White Helmets" group, officially known as the Syria Civil Defense, reported 430 deaths in opposition-controlled areas.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-new ... index.html

[weatheriscool]

Quake death toll rises to nearly 4,900 in Turkey and Syria
https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-new ... index.html
From Isil Tariyuce in Istanbul and Celine Alkhaldi)

At least 4,890 deaths have now been confirmed in Turkey and Syria after a powerful magnitude 7.8 earthquake rocked the region early on Monday.

Turkey's death toll rose to at least 3,381 as of around 9:45 a.m. local time on Tuesday, Orhan Tatar, an official with the country's disaster management agency, said in a televised briefing.

At least 20,426 injuries have also been reported, according to Tatar.

So far, 11,000 buildings have been reported damaged in Turkey, he said. Nearly 25,000 emergency responders are working at scenes impacted, he added.