Felt at my location in Northern CA, details follow
5.7 11km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 20:47:07-07:00
About 40 miles away from me.
Map: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/nc71996911#summary
Whole cluster of quakes near Lake Almanor, odd.
12 quakes in that area last hour ranging from 2.5 to 5.7. 44 total if including lower than 2.5 magnitude Wonder if this is related to Mt. Lassen magma pool? Mt. Lassen is just 30mi to NW.
49 quakes now, note distance from cluster to Mt. Lassen. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/
- 3.0 8km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 22:46:56-07:00 0.0 km deep
- 2.0 7km NW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 22:43:37-07:00 3.1 km deep
- 2.9 8km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 22:39:43-07:00 0.0 km deep
- 1.9 10km NW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 22:37:21-07:00 9.7 km deep
- 2.0 8km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 22:28:26-07:00 8.8 km deep
- 1.9 11km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 22:27:16-07:00 2.5 km deep
- 3.1 13km SSW of Westwood, California 2013-05-23 22:24:42-07:00 0.0 km deep
- 2.3 10km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 22:23:26-07:00 1.3 km deep
- 2.4 8km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 22:19:34-07:00 0.9 km deep
- 2.9 9km NW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 22:18:23-07:00 0.0 km deep
- 2.7 7km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 22:13:46-07:00 2.5 km deep
- 1.9 8km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 22:12:31-07:00 2.5 km deep
- 2.9 9km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 22:09:13-07:00 0.1 km deep
- 1.8 9km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 22:08:26-07:00 0.0 km deep
- 2.7 11km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 22:06:15-07:00 0.2 km deep
- 3.6 8km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 22:01:55-07:00 0.0 km deep
- 3.5 9km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:58:57-07:00 0.1 km deep
- 3.4 10km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:58:08-07:00 0.0 km deep
- 2.1 9km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:56:30-07:00 10.5 km deep
- 0.0 12km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:53:13-07:00 12.0 km deep
- 2.0 10km NW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:52:24-07:00 7.2 km deep
- 2.2 10km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:49:49-07:00 0.2 km deep
- 0.0 13km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:45:52-07:00 4.1 km deep
- 2.8 10km NW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:44:42-07:00 0.1 km deep
- 2.7 10km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:40:30-07:00 0.0 km deep
- 1.8 10km NW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:35:03-07:00 7.0 km deep
- 2.1 9km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:34:22-07:00 2.5 km deep
- 2.2 11km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:34:00-07:00 6.2 km deep
- 2.4 11km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:32:56-07:00 1.3 km deep
- 1.7 9km SW of Westwood, California 2013-05-23 21:32:24-07:00 5.0 km deep
- 2.0 9km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:31:04-07:00 0.8 km deep
- 2.7 10km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:29:42-07:00 0.0 km deep
- 2.5 9km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:28:31-07:00 1.3 km deep
- 1.8 9km NW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:27:38-07:00 0.0 km deep
- 2.6 10km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:25:19-07:00 0.0 km deep
- 2.0 12km SSW of Westwood, California 2013-05-23 21:24:43-07:00 1.7 km deep
- 2.3 10km NW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:24:01-07:00 1.3 km deep
- 2.6 10km NW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:23:40-07:00 5.1 km deep
- 0.0 11km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:23:06-07:00 6.9 km deep
- 2.0 10km NW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:21:52-07:00 0.1 km deep
- 2.0 12km SSW of Westwood, California 2013-05-23 21:21:11-07:00 0.5 km deep
- 2.2 9km NW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:18:31-07:00 1.3 km deep
- 2.2 10km NW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:18:10-07:00 4.0 km deep
- 1.8 10km NW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:16:32-07:00 17.6 km deep
- 2.3 10km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:15:15-07:00 0.2 km deep
- 2.4 13km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:10:24-07:00 0.7 km deep
- 2.8 10km NW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:09:15-07:00 1.3 km deep
- 3.4 15km SE of Chester, California 2013-05-23 21:08:21-07:00 0.0 km deep
- 2.6 12km SSW of Westwood, California 2013-05-23 21:07:44-07:00 1.6 km deep
- 2.0 11km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:07:22-07:00 2.5 km deep
- 2.6 10km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:04:09-07:00 1.6 km deep
- 2.1 9km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 21:01:41-07:00 0.7 km deep
- 3.5 10km NW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 20:55:30-07:00 0.0 km deep
- 2.2 9km NW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 20:55:11-07:00 3.4 km deep
- 5.7 11km WNW of Greenville, California 2013-05-23 20:47:08-07:00 11.0 km deep
- 1.9 12km ENE of East Quincy, California 2013-05-23 04:17:24-07:00 1.5 km deep
Felt it in downtown Sacramento, CA. at 20:48
I’m trying to find anything too. Felt it roll in Chico, CA
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/nc71996906
USGS now has an M5.7 near Greenville, CA: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/nc71996906#summary
Greenville, CA 5.7?
I felt something too after I realized the things shaking in my house was not a result of my dogs playing chase I know nothing if it was really an quake or where it was centered.
Was felt here in Reno as well.
Yep, we felt it in Elk Grove, too. Maybe Lassen Eak is waking up. 🙂
Errrr…Peak. Dang iPad. 🙂
Felt it here in Sacramento, too; just a gentle “bump”.
All caused by global warming of course.
http://www.idahopress.com/news/national/cars-in-water-after-bridge-collapse-on-i–north/article_14eebe84-c41b-11e2-ae5e-001a4bcf887a.html
Coincidence? Janice Moore reported at 7:31 WordPress-time (Pacific standard, not daylight?) she just heard it on the police scanner.
Now an earthquake at in California just a little bit later. Instantaneously later on geological times.
Could the earth in Seattle have moved enough to take down the bridge, which by the pic was just a section of it? How far does it have to separate at an expansion joint until the sections un-lap and a piece drops out?
Based on the fact that my Facebook page just exploded with posts about the quake… I feel safe to say I am the only person in Sacramento that did not feel the quake
Felt our chairs move in South Natomas.
Here in Palo Alto, I didn’t feel a thing. Too used to them, I guess!
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=318675
didn’t feel it in Petaluma
“You felt this earthquake. Tell us!”
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/Contribute/?lang=en&id=318675
Didn’t feel it in Oakland, and it’s a travesty I that couldn’t measure the tremors.
They’re clearly hiding down in the Hayward Fault.
Geeze, how many of us live in Northern California?!
that I couldn’t even … even
Didn’t feel a thing way down here in San Diego county… only 500+ miles away.
Even…even…odd.
Solar question:
The primary memory unit remembers previous conversations here, where it was argued about a possible connection between strong solar periods and seismic events. But the actual numbers showed a negative correlation, seismic events were more likely during weak sun periods.
That was before the reconsidering of the sunspot counts and the eliminating of the modern-era Grand Solar Maximum.
Does the weak sun with strong seismic correlation still hold?
Lots on proposed fracking in that area. Did it ever start?
seems to have rough correlation with coronal openings unshielded by magnetic fields on the sun, plus planetary alignments. electric universe stuff, of course.
I was sitting on a deck at a restaurant in Mill Valley this evening having dinner by the bay. I felt the deck move twice, thought earthquake, but was sure it was from footfalls. But I didn’t feel the footfalls any other time during the evening with lots of coming and going. I didn’t look at my watch, but I think it would have been around 7pm.
Here’s a link to Bloomberg’s story on the bridge collapse, with an enlargeable photo. Both lanes are in the drink. Bridge is listed as obsolete–built in 1955. Earthquake not likely a factor.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-24/bridge-collapse-in-washington-state-sends-cars-into-river.html
Felt it good here in Paradise,ca bout 80mi from greenville,ca
My H and I felt it here in Olivehurst. It was a mild rolling sensation, not a jolt. Lasted long enough for him to come into the room where I was, comment on it, stand with me a couple of seconds, then go into the living room… so maybe 20 seconds. Surprised we felt it as strong as we did so far from the epicenter.
Of course there is something important here we must not lose sight of.
Was the resident member of the Union of Concerned Scientists, the honorable Professor Kenji Watts, able to detect it before it officially happened?
Skagit River bridge was clipped by an overheight vehicle going south. Hopefully only 3 injured.
Good grief Roger, Bloomberg? 😉
http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2013/05/bridge-collapses-on-interstate-5-over-skagit-river/
Three vehicles, no fatalities. Amazing.
Hey, Kadaka, I’m back on line. Have had my eyes glued to local TV for the past 2.5 hours. No earthquake felt where I live, about 2 miles from the collapsed bridge (or reported — Univ. of Wash. seismology dept. is first class, don’t want to figure out now how to check their latest readings — uw.edu.???).
Glad you are okay, A-th-y and ALL of you Californians. If you guys down there are like us (who grew up here, anyway) up here, earthquakes are not a big deal unless fairly big, and, even then, not that big a deal unless it were something like the 1989 one in San Fran area. I had to chuckle when I read a post by a woman who lives near or in Oklahoma City (posted yesterday or so) who said she would MUCH prefer to risk riding out a tornado to an earthquake! I guess its that old feeling secure in your old neighborhood even after it has really become quite dangerous, not that I believe there is a significant risk of a BIG earthquake where I live. Like my grandma who stayed in her home of over 60 years into her 90’s. Cops would chase bad guys through her back yard, she would hear of lots of crime a few blocks from her, but she felt perfectly safe.
And, she was, of course. If it’s not your time to go, it is not your time to go. And when it is, it is. No use worrying about it. This evening, a girlfriend who lives elsewhere now, called to see if we were all okay up here. Her brother and sister-in-law drove across I-5 bridge just one hour before it collapsed. I drove across it yesterday afternoon. God is in control.
What a blessing that the collapse happened around 7PM on a day when it was light until around 9:30PM. Another blessing: no fatalities. All three (that is ALL there were!) people whose cars crashed into the Skagit River were rescued and are in stable condition in the hospital.
Sorry so long. I could give you all a bunch of technical details about the bridge, the river, and the possibility a tractor-trailer’s striking a steel truss was a major contributing cause, but I’ll end here. If you want more details, here’s a link to one of the Seattle TV stations, KING TV:
http://www.king5.com/news/local/Report-I-5-bridge-collapses-over-Skagit-River-cars-in-water-208758631.html
I would also be happy to answer any questions — just thought I’d better end this post.
Oh, note, it IS nearly full moon…. . Hmm. Gravitational pull on tractor-trailer driver’s mind (or another vehicle who forced him too far to the right (that vehicle would be long gone — the trucker made it off just before collapse). I’ve noticed a higher incidence of risk-taking on the road at full moon times… . Perhaps, just projecting an expectation.
(and if you want to know how to pronounce “Skagit” — it rhymes with “badge it”)
Opps, a fouth person missing.
It was felt in the Delta south of West Sac. 90 year old Mom got all excited said her rocking chair went in the wrong direction. (we didnt ask). She was the only one though.
USGS had totally ruined their earthquake pages. When you went to the information on an event, there used to be a “historical seismisicty” map but now once you figure out how to navigate to the event summary, that map is no longer available.
USGS new earthquake map sucks.
We live in Weed California. All my hanging plants started swinging and my parrot went nuts in her cage. Both my dogs also were freaking out.
An area caller on the Coast-to-Coast AM said that an over-sized load side impacted the Skagit bridge structure. To allow for thermal expansion, bridges are designed with one end “pin” connection and the other “roller”, both resting on bent frame or columns and beams. There is minimum free play under any failure mode. Astrophysicist, Dr Piers Corbyn has a hypothesis on solar/tectonic interaction, but non grata in some circles.
REPLY: OH PLEASE. Piers has no useful opinion on this issue. Heavy Oversize Load. Hit bridge. Bridge Collopses. End of Story – Anthony
Ignore the depth reports on those quakes. There are no nearby sensors so the depth is only estimated with a +/- that is larger than the reported depth (something like +/- 36km)
I am waiting for Barbara Boxer to blame it on “Climate Change”
Not directly on point (more for Washington State area), but FWIW, here’s the link for U. of Wash. seismology lab (I think — I guess the pnsn is located at UW):
http://www.pnsn.org/earthquakes/recent
Following the precautionary principle, POTUS will order the immediate cessation of all fracking operations in the US and appeal to the UN for support from the rest of the world. Fracking will not re-commence until tests proving the safety of the operation have been carried out.
/sarc
@Pissed Off Voter (me too!), LOL, don’t hold your breath. It’s pretty hard to tell when an earthquake is happening when you have a bunch of rocks rolling around inside your head. Pretty hard to tell much of anything, as a matter of fact.
Wow. Like, WOW, California, Boxer AND Pelosi??!!!
(ahem, well, not that it was my fault, but guess I have no cause for criticizing with our lovely Patti Murray (thought it was really neat that Osama B.L. opened day care centers) and her partner in crime, (I just forgot her name, oh, yeah) Cantwell (toooo funny, huh? heh, heh). There sure seems to be a connection between salt water and wackos — the bulk of them tend to migrate to the coasts of our great land. Something to do with lemmings?
Sorry for getting out some of my tension of the past 3 hours by typing like crazy! Blah, blah, blah…
Whole cluster of quakes near Lake Almanor, odd.
12 quakes in that area last hour ranging from 2.5 to 5.7. 44 total if including lower than 2.5 magnitude Wonder if this is related to Mt. Lassen magma pool?
Lake Almanor is a large artificial lake, aka reservoir, surrounded by other artificial reservoirs.
Extra water saturating the ground underneath, the extra weight of the water especially at the lake…
The recent national talking of sinkholes and their prevalence, has me wondering how much of that seismic activity could have been subsidence related. Besides, doesn’t California have forgotten old mines that can collapse and show up on seismographs, like as in Pennsylvania?
I just heard the latest news on this from KIRO radio in Seattle, which has a reporter on the scene. The collapse was caused, according to an eye-witness, by an oversized truck traveling in the right lane that struck an overhead beam on the bridge that it would have missed if it had been in the left lane.
Skagit county authorities report no fatalities; three people hospitalized, none seriously hurt. Bridge may be repairable within 90 days.
Request permission to edit the title of this once the epicenter of the quake and (rough) magnitude are either more clear, or known.
“Just an earthquake in California” doesn’t tell the rest of much in the rest of the country. 8<)
Judging by first hand reports and area, looks like a Mag 4 to 4.5 near Sacramento?
Janice Moore says:
May 23, 2013 at 10:17 pm
The nearest seismic activity is about 25km away, a small 2.5 quake with minimal acceleration at that distance. (less than MMI 1.83 using the West Coast model)
There are no known faults that I can find near that quake area. That area is in a generally geologically active volcanic area but no recent eruptions have happened in the general area of this quake series that I am aware of. The person to ask would be Erik Klemetti over at the Eruptions blog on Wired Science. He is rather expert on the Lassen area and will be doing research there most of this summer.
Geo, I just KNEW you were hanging around here, heh, heh. Thanks for the info..
adaka (KD Knoebel) says:
May 23, 2013 at 9:37 pm
Does the weak sun with strong seismic correlation still hold?
No, never did: http://phys.org/news/2013-04-link-solar-earthquakes.html
Fracking, if anything at all, should relieve stresses before they get too pent up. If Fracking were going to cause an earthquake, the quake that it set off would have been be smaller because it would have unloaded before more tension was built up. Just a guess, but I’ve heard an explanation like this before on WUWT and it makes sense.
Joseph Olsen — you listen to Art Bell’s “Coast to Coast”??? You seem like such a sensible, intelligent fellow! (I know, I know, I have read an issue or two of The National Enquirer in my lifetime — kind of fun… once in awhile — hey, I really shouldn’t slam them after they got ol’ adultery-hairdo-man Jonathan Edwards. Go, National Enquirer! (and get the rest of those rats!)
Mr. Joseph Olson, please forgive my misspelling your last name. I recklessly risked it. You’re of Swedish heritage, not Norwegian or Danish, hm? I should have double-checked.
From lsvalgaard on May 23, 2013 at 11:08 pm:
Good. Also good they did new research instead of just dismissing it out of hand.
I LUV the last lines of the piece, from lead author Dr Jeffrey Love:
This needs to be carved in stone tablets and mounted on the wall of any place where “Climate Science” is practiced. And for sociology too, of course, if there are extras.
“This [above quote] needs to be carved in stone tablets and mounted on the wall of any place where “Climate Science” is practiced.” [K.D. Knoebel]
LOL, that would take………. and act of God. #[:)]
“12 quakes in that area last hour ranging from 2.5 to 5.7. 44 total if including lower than 2.5 magnitude Wonder if this is related to Mt. Lassen magma pool?”
I’m very skeptical about that. But if there’s a magma pool beneath those lakes, watch out.
It seems worthwhile to keep an eye on the low mag earthquakes. Where they occur and the number of them vary. Seems like there is much more activity in SoCal now versus 3 years ago perhaps due to the Baja earthquakes in the northern Gulf of California. Now all of CA is more active along with parts of NV. Just low mag, but lots of them. The USGS default on their viewer is mag 2.5+, so you can’t get any sense of changes. Obviously, low magnitude events in isolation are not significant, and even a cluster doesn’t mean much. However, over a period of years, a shifting distribution emerges, and that means nothing? No, more likely it means California is moving now, at least more than it was 3 years ago, and maybe that means some bigger events to come.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/
select map and options, pick all mags 7 days
We haven’t had a major volcanic eruption since Pinatubo in 1991, so it’s highly probable we’ll have one soon, somewhere in the world.
Mt. Fuji in Japan (I have a gorgeous view of Mr. Fuji from my home….) has been getting more active recently. Professor Masaki Kimura of Ryukyu University predicted in January of this year that it could erupt by 2015…
There goes the neighborhood…
CAGW grant whores are desperately hoping for two phenomenon: 1) A major El Nino event, (whose warming effect would be blamed on CAGW), or 2) a major eruption (whose cooling effect would be blamed for the lack of warming).
And so it goes…..until it doesn’t.
crosspatch @ May 23, 2013 at 10:20 pm, I am glad I am not the only one to find the new USGS Earthquake map page unhelpful compared to the old one. I had a link to the old page on my sidebar and it is giving a 404 error. I wrote them and asked for a link to a useful page. I am in Texas so I did not feel the shakes. I used to use the map to keep up with those in Oklahoma last year, and the occasional one in Texas.
And this is outstanding if you haven’t seen it yet.
Two obvious candidates for causing quake swarm in that area:
1. Related to Mount Lassen magma (not very likely, rather too far away)
2. Reservoir effect. Building reservoirs and changing pressures and ground water levels is a well known way to release seismic energy (much better than fracking). Magnitude 5.7 is rather large for reservoir effect, but far from not unique, the record being 7.2, I think.
The moon is approaching its closest encounter with earth.
When the Japan tsunami hit, Earth was at its minimum distance to sun.
Having lived in Westwood and other places in Plumas County I am more than familiar with Lake Almanor, and note from your map all the quakes seem to be occuring on the concrete dam end of the lake. Also, I am quite aware (unlike the stupid news reporters in calfornia) that Mount Lassen is indeed an active/dormant “super-volcano.” What a coincidence that it last erupted May 22, 1915. Today’s earthquake of 5.7 on May 23, 2013 was at 8:24 pm. Writing this at 12:25 in the morning May 24 I note there have about a dozen quakes between 2.0 and 2.8 in the last half hour. The quakes have been centered in Truckee. Portola, Quincy, Westwood and Viola–which if you draw a line from Truckee to Viola are all in a nearly direct straight line with lassen Peak (volcano dome) right in that line up by Viola. Lassen is a super volcano and if I lived there now I would get the hell out of there for a while..
California is about to ban fracking? Monterey shale is said to have over 15 billion barrels of oil, four times the size of the Bakken. But… Chevron drilled into it and was not impressed. Again, but… the first explorations in any new area usually are kept quiet until land and mineral rights are secured.
Guess California doesn’t want jobs…
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/california-seems-likely-ban-fracking-190014652.html?_view=desktop&desktop_view_default=true
Plus quite a biggie at the unfashionable end of Russia – according to my “xearth”, a mag. 8.3 at lat 54.87°, long 153.28° at 05:44 UTC this morning.
There are times I’m very happy that the UK floats just off the coast of Europe, where the phrase “Ring of Fire” refers only to the aftermath of passing a highly spiced meal.
I just felt that too just woke me up penn valley ca
Sent from my iPhone
Northern California is rich in natural gas. There are many dozens of capped gas wells in Rio Vista for instance. Capped by PG&E in the 50’s after they petered out. Now they are pressurized again. But they will not be re-opened unless legislation to allow LNG/CNG to be shipped to China for more than they would be allowed to sell for in California or the U.S. is passed. That will up the price of gasoline if allowed, and certain politicos are trying to con us into believing it will be good for us to pay more for gasoline so big oil can sell natural gas to china.
Nice set of aftershocks. You get that with shallow earthquakes.
The 5.7 quake was detected by my seismometer more than 8000km away. But the readings went off the charts when the Sea of Okhotsk quake began rolling in. Looks like an 8.5 quake or thereabouts.
I wonder if we’ll get a serious idiot troll screaming “HAARP!!”..?
I searched and searched for a Plumas County fault line map tonight and finally found one in a pdf document, and it shows the minor faults in the county. There are two rather short fault lines at the south end of Lake Almanor that converge at their south ends into somewhat of a V. The area of these two fault lines is the epicenter area of the 5.7 quake tonight at 8:47 p.m. Pacific. USGS listed it as being 6.8 miles deep. There have been 13 aftershocks so far over 3.0, the strongest was 4.9 at 1:23 a.m. The epicenter on that one was very close to the 5.7.
I don’t have the url of the pdf (sorry), but I did save the image. The map is on page 9 and the doc is titled:
2035 Plumas County General Plan Update 4.7-25 ESA / 208739
Draft Environmental Impact Report November 2012
I live in Redding and clearly felt the 5.7. I was sitting at my desk and I felt the house, the room, the floor, and the table sway and roll. I live rather close to the river on the old alluvial plains (amazing soil here for gardening!) and I’m guessing that contributed to my being able to feel it so clearly. It made me dizzy for a few moments. I immediately looked for the quake on the usgs site, found it (first listed as 5.9), and reported it there on their reporting page. There certainly has been a lot of talk about it on Facebook tonight; obviously it was felt throughout the extended region.
I just checked the activity page on usgs and another aftershock above 3.0 just occurred at 2:42 a.m. This one was 3.9.
ville says:
May 24, 2013 at 12:18 am
The moon is approaching its closest encounter with earth.
When the Japan tsunami hit, Earth was at its minimum distance to sun.
Neither has anything to do with earthquakes, e.g. here is earthquake activity with respect to the Moon: http://www.leif.org/research/Earthquakes-Perigee.png
We had one in the Ottawa area last Monday, rated 4.4-5.1, felt as far south as New Yawk state. Subsequently determined to be the result of the ground lifting from the all of the liberal reporters in the parliamentary press gallery covering the senate expense “scandal”, rushing to Toronto to cover the the Rob Ford, Mayor of Toronto, caught-maybe-smoking-crack-on-a-poor-quality-video-nobody-can-see-till they-pay-$250,000 “scandal”. Both Ottawa and Toronto are still standing…more’s the pity…..
Haven’t felt a thing here in Myrtle Beach. Another good thing about here is that it is about as far away from there (California) as one can get, both physically and politically, and still be in the lower 48. We’re building 4 new nuclear plants, which will result in over 90% carbon-free electricity. And it won’t require a million acres of solar panels.
I’ve been watching this swarm near Russia for the last few days. The latest was an 8.2 with a depth of 602 miles (wow) and depths of the others others are relatively deep and vary.
http://www.iris.edu/seismon/eventlist/index.phtml?region=N_Pacific&lon=153.33&lat=54.87
I see the swarm near Greenville is quite shallow. Hopefully they will subside.
Any wind farms nearby???
Wind turbines are large and vibrating cylindrical towers strongly coupled to the ground through a massive concrete foundation, with rotating turbine blades generating low-frequency acoustic signals noise.
The Vibrations depict show a complex spectrum, which includes both time-varying frequency peaks directly related to the blade-passing frequency, and stationary peaks associated with the pendulum modes of the heavy rotor head and tower, and to flexural as in flexing modes of the tower.
These disturbances noise/vibrations propagate via complex paths including directly through the ground or though principally through the air and then coupling diving locally into the ground.
Though weak, such vibrations may be relevant once compared to the local levels of seismic noise. Schofield (2001) found that the intense low frequency seismic disturbances from the Stateline Wind Project (Washington-Oregon, USA) were well above the local seismic background till up to distances of 18 km from the turbines. Similar distance ranges were found by Styles et al. (2005), who analysed the possible influence of a project wind park at Eskdalemuir (Scotland) in the vicinity of the UK Seismic Array. Fiori et al. (2009) studied the seismic noise generated by a wind park in proximity of to the GEO-600 interferometric antenna (Germany), and observed the signal from the turbines till at distances of about 2000m (2km = 1.24 mi).
http://www.windturbinesyndrome.com/2011/seismologists-say-wind-turbines-produce-airborne-infrasound-plus-ground-borne-vibration-up-to-6-8-miles-from-the-wind-farm-italy/
@ Leif Svaalgard
http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2013/EGU2013-1405.pdf
Possible relationship between changes in IMF, M7+ earthquakes and VEI
index, during the transition between the solar minimum cycle 23 and the
rise of solar cycle 24
“…..We conclude that this research further confirms that while coming out from periods of low activity, in the long period – deep solar minima, and the simultaneous fast oscillation, in the short period and impulsive electro-magnetic activity, the recovery of the EM activity of the Sun can trigger significant geophysical events in terms of energy release as regards the magnitude or the VEI index….”
Correction with apologies. My 3:54am post should have been 602 km instead of miles. Need another cup of coffee.
More on deep earthquakes here: http://geology.about.com/od/earthquakes/a/aa_deeEQs.htm
What a great place for “denier central” to be located. Somewhere just above Humbug Valley and Greenville. Love the irony.
What’s the local geology. It looks from that first map like the lake may be the caldera of a very ancient volcano.
I think I’d be a bit twitchy if I lived in Greenville right now. Time to visits friends up north maybe.
Take care all, Hope nothing too “interesting” happens.
Magnitude 8.3
Sea of Okhotsk
2013-05-24 06:44:49+01:00
608.9 km deep
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/
lsvalgaard says:
ville says:
May 24, 2013 at 12:18 am
The moon is approaching its closest encounter with earth.
When the Japan tsunami hit, Earth was at its minimum distance to sun.
Neither has anything to do with earthquakes, e.g. here is earthquake activity with respect to the Moon: http://www.leif.org/research/Earthquakes-Perigee.png
===
There is a distinct periodic ripple in the upper two lines in that graph. Estimating 88.5/6=14.75 days
Looks decidedly lunar. Is that recognised / attributed ?
kadaka (KD Knoebel) says:
May 23, 2013 at 9:37 pm
“Solar question:
The primary memory unit remembers previous conversations here, where it was argued about a possible connection between strong solar periods and seismic events. But the actual numbers showed a negative correlation, seismic events were more likely during weak sun periods.
That was before the reconsidering of the sunspot counts and the eliminating of the modern-era Grand Solar Maximum.
Does the weak sun with strong seismic correlation still hold?”
It will depend on who you ask, I’m currently studying the orbital structure of the solar system in relation to solar activity, when looking at earths seismic activity in relation to solar activity there does appear to be a correlation with weak cycles, tho, this correlation may be linked to planetary perturbations and the configuration of the solar-system rather than a direct link to solar activity.
For example here is a plot of Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus against Sunspot area 1875-2040
http://thetempestspark.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/solar-activity-mod-1.gif
And here is a plot of Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus against Sunspot average monthly Sunspot number 1749-2040
http://thetempestspark.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/ssn-monthly-average-1749-2040-n-n1-n2.jpg
The configuration of the planetary orbits have a correlation with the timing of solar cycles, and I’ve seen a good correlation with changes in geological activity on earth and in the global temperature anomaly which may appear to be caused by solar activity but could actually be caused by the nature of the planetary orbits of our solar system.
Geomagnetic activity for May 2013
here horizontal GMF swing ~600nt
Japan Eq March 11, 2011
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/Japan.gif
horizontal GMF swing ~700nt
btw
VUKCEVIC on WUWT 10th March 2011 ( 8 hours before Japan’s earthquake )
Currently geomagnetic field is getting seriously shaken
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/03/10/sol-is-finally-waking-up/#comment-617659
Scale on plot marks the visible cycle of lunar phase (new moon etc.) the synodic period.
88.5/6=14.75 days = synodic lunar period / 2 ; ie each time there’s E-M-Sol alignment. Presumably the minimum stress being when sun and moon are in quadrature.
And I think that has just explained a circa 14/15 day periodicity I had noted in Arctic ice area.
One which makes all the obsessions with annual ice maxima/minima detection and melting period rather variable.
It can be seem clearly in 2012 data linked form WUWT ice page.
http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/daily_images/N_timeseries.png
I had not clicked why it was a half cycle until I saw Leif’s plot.
So luni-solar tidal influence on arctic ice area and earth crust.
For example here is a plot of Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus against Sunspot area 1875-2040
http://thetempestspark.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/solar-activity-mod-1.gif
Sparks, looks interesting but you can’t “plot a planet”. How is this curve calculated? Is it linked to an article ?
crosspatch says:
May 23, 2013 at 10:20 pm
USGS had totally ruined their earthquake pages. When you went to the information on an event, there used to be a “historical seismisicty” map but now once you figure out how to navigate to the event summary, that map is no longer available.
USGS new earthquake map sucks.
========
I wrote and told em exactly that! the first day of their new page
they replied and asked me to be specific..
sheesh.
Greg Goodman says: May 24, 2013 at 5:20 am
…………..
Hi Greg
There is often very pronounced 13-14 day period in the F10.7 solar index too.
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/CET-Dmax.htm
Cause for this oscillation is the sun’s lumpy magnetic field
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/LFC7.htm
It is not known to me if the sun’s centre of gravity may be eccentric, but if it is, one could speculate about link to the lunar 28 day orbit.
(note to Dr.S. note I am not saying that there is a link)
ozspeaksup map is here
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/
Also, disturbingly observed, the quakes are centered on the dam. It it is compromised, the small downstream dam does not look likely to hold. Combine both volumes and it is doubtful the larger dam further would hold. All three volumes would be an inland tsunami all the way to the Bay.
Yet another reason why I don’t wish to live in CA! LOL I will take my Hurricanes and Fire Ants in SC any day! LOL
California is in Labor as a new mountain is being born. Chester and Lake Almanor may survive, but I would not make book on the longevity of Canyon Dam. I also would not advise fly-fishing on the North Fork of the Feather River.
I see Roger Knights (and others) have info relative to this too; why wasn’t this bridge (on an Interstate Highway no less!) replaced as part of the “Shovel Ready” stimulus projects earlier in the present administration? Built ca. 1955 … this coincides with Broderick Crawford and “Highway Patrol”, an old syndicated action crime drama series shot in B&W produced from 1955–1959. Was this was another failure in our ‘leadership’ in keeping critical infrastructure operational, and I’m pointing at Washington state on this too …
The Skagit River bridge was classified as “Functionally Obsolete”. Here’s what that definition includes from: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Bridge/Reporting/BridgeRatings.htm
Hmmm … ‘repeat hits and damage’ …
Note that the Skagit River I-5 bridge does not fall into the category of “Structurally Deficient” and so does _not_ appear in this listing of SD bridges:
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/6A570363-EC34-4010-986E-591A89CEA6FB/0/StructurallyDeficientBridges_Sept2011.pdf
For completeness, the “Alternate Route” map from Washington state DOT website (this route is over a bridge paralleling the I-5 bridge just east of the I-5 bridge):
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/AA6E5609-38C6-453A-A670-105A4AE2C6CA/0/AlternateRouteMap_I5_Skagit_052413_0100.pdf
.
Hoser, that video is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Thank you so much for posting it.
Hoser, that video is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. Thank you for posting it.
Vuk’ says:
There is often very pronounced 13-14 day period in the F10.7 solar index too.
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/CET-Dmax.htm
Cause for this oscillation is the sun’s lumpy magnetic field
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/LFC7.htm
very interesting but the first looks like a circa <30 day not 13-14 day, I don't follow you. What's the source of the polar plot, very nice.
@lsvalgaard & Kadaka:
Um, that “reference” is weak evidence at best:
They looked only at strong quakes (from what I can tell) and had no look for a pattern of more smaller quakes in volcanic locations (where there does seem to be a cyclical pattern of more quakes / volcanic activity during more transitional parts of the cycle – thus the folks claiming the volcanoes cause the cold, despite the cold getting underway first).
As large quakes are even more rare than small ones and medium sized ones, and can have hundreds to thousands of years between events on a fault, I’d expect them to be a particularly poor way to detect a ‘connection’. Looking at overall total energy would be better.
(Please note that I am not advocating for the theory of a solar / quake connection. While I find it an interesting muse, it is poorly founded, to put it charitably… Simply pointing out that the “evidence” of non-connection in that link is just about as poor… IFF you had a 50% increase of Magnitude 6 and under quakes near known volcanoes and a similar increase in volcanoes being active during the transition to cool times / low solar cycles; their method would find nothing. [as those quakes are not “large earthquakes” and the transition is not a ‘peak’ either high or low.] So on the face of it there are 2 significant holes in their method. What’s needed is a study that specifically looks at seismic trends of the size quakes that correlate with volcanoes, likely focused in volcanic places to cut down noise, and the total volcanic activity during various parts of the solar cycle, not just peaks – since geologic things can have large lag times and IF there were any causality we don’t know what part of the cycle would be causal.)
My wife just said she felt the earth move a little bit ago but with us being in North Carolina, i doubt it was related to the quakes in California 🙂
Ah good I’m not the only one that remembered that earthquake swarms and volcano’s are often connected. Oh and it definitely rattled my house.
lsvalgaard says:
May 24, 2013 at 3:23 am
“ville says:
May 24, 2013 at 12:18 am
The moon is approaching its closest encounter with earth.
When the Japan tsunami hit, Earth was at its minimum distance to sun.
Neither has anything to do with earthquakes, e.g. here is earthquake activity with respect to the Moon: http://www.leif.org/research/Earthquakes-Perigee.png”
Do you have a similar chart for Earth orbit around the Sun? Interesting.
Michele says:
May 24, 2013 at 4:05 am
Possible relationship between changes in IMF, M7+ earthquakes and VEI
index, during the transition between the solar minimum cycle 23 and the
rise of solar cycle 24
An example of the poor science that so often is provoked by this assumption. Careful analysis of thousands of geomagnetic storms and interplanetary sector boundaries [HCS crossings] show no relationship to Earthquakes: http://www.leif.org/research/Earthquake-Activity.png
Greg Goodman says:
May 24, 2013 at 4:47 am
There is a distinct periodic ripple in the upper two lines in that graph. Estimating 88.5/6=14.75 days
Looks decidedly lunar. Is that recognised / attributed ?
There are two datasets shown [PAGER and ‘Centennial’]. If you only see a wiggle in one but not the other, it is spurious. It has also been suggested that the lunar influence only shows when it is a full or new moon [something to do with tides as the Sun and Moon are lined up]. Again, analysis shows no effect http://www.leif.org/Earthquakes-New-Full.png
vukcevic says:
May 24, 2013 at 5:01 am
Currently geomagnetic field is getting seriously shaken
Not at all, what we are seeing are the effects of currents in the magnetosphere and ionosphere, which have nothing to do with and no influence on the geomagnetic field.
one can count on such events [earthquakes, perhaps even F5 tornadoes…] to draw out all sorts of pseudo-scientists.
Again, analysis shows no effect http://www.leif.org/research/Earthquakes-New-Full.png
Quakes are “good” IMO, scary sheesh yeah, lived in New Zealand, been tossed out of bed due to the “shakes”. It makes us realise that “we” are insignificant in the grand scheme of “things”.
I used to own a cabin on Lake Almanor on the peninsula. The quake looks to be centered at the eastern end of the lake at the inlet. For folks in NorCal who have never visited it or hiked up Lassen ( Hell’s kitchen is fanatastic) I’d suggest waiting a bit before visiting, but its a lovely place.
Jim G says:
May 24, 2013 at 7:19 am
“e.g. here is earthquake activity with respect to the Moon”
Do you have a similar chart for Earth orbit around the Sun? Interesting.
Actually, not very interesting as there is no observed effect. Or it is, at least, completely drowned out by the clear annual effect due to variation of snow cover and groundwater recharging.
Joseph A Olson says:
May 23, 2013 at 10:28 pm
“An area caller on the Coast-to-Coast AM said that an over-sized load side impacted the Skagit bridge structure. ………… Astrophysicist, Dr Piers Corbyn has a hypothesis on solar/tectonic interaction, but non grata in some circles.
REPLY: OH PLEASE. Piers has no useful opinion on this issue. Heavy Oversize Load. Hit bridge. Bridge Collopses. End of Story – Anthony”
The title of this post is: “Just had an earthquake in California – 56 earthquakes (so far) in cluster near Mt. Lassen Volcanic National park”
Is a bridge failure in Seattle relevant?
Seen the trailer for Pacific Rim yet? I think it’s one of the monsters trying to break out from the deep!!!
lsvalgaard says: There are two datasets shown [PAGER and ‘Centennial’]. If you only see a wiggle in one but not the other, it is spurious.
If you only see a clear periodic repetition in one, you need to ask why.
Either one is contaminated or the other is failing to resolve it.
I don’t see what you are plotting differently in the two versions that they look so different. The axis labels seem to indicate you plotted the same thing.
http://www.leif.org/research/Earthquakes-New-Full.png
http://www.leif.org/research/Earthquakes-Perigee.png
perhaps you could explain the difference.
Greg Goodman says:
May 24, 2013 at 8:31 am
If you only see a clear periodic repetition in one, you need to ask why.
Human beings often see things that are not there. The variation is still within the error bars, so no explanation is needed.
I don’t see what you are plotting differently in the two versions that they look so different. The axis labels seem to indicate you plotted the same thing.
http://www.leif.org/research/Earthquakes-New-Full.png
http://www.leif.org/research/Earthquakes-Perigee.png
The New-Full plot only considers events that are within +/-2 days of a New or Full moon [when the effects due to combined tidal effects from the Sun and the Moon should be largest [spring tides].
I was at a High School Choir concert in Nevada City, CA and it felt like someone shaking the row of seats. Then I looked around and saw other people looking around but the high lights were not moving and everyone stayed seated my daughter on the raisers did not feel anything. Is I normal to have so many after little quakes. I was home asleep and about 1:00 Am woke up because I felt something and hear the window rattling. I want down stairs and my son who was up said he did not feel anything.
lsvalgaard says: “Human beings often see things that are not there.””
Human beings often see things that are there too.
Having seen an apparent pattern, it is necessary to use further analysis to determine whether it is real or just a trick of our pattern recognition firmware. So what did you do?
“The New-Full plot only considers events that are within +/-2 days of a New or Full moon”
So having noted an apparent 14.5 d repetition , sub-sampling at 14.5 +/-2 d would be a fairly effective way to remove that signal. We are left with the noise.
Anyway, thanks for posting the original graph, it merits a closer look and will be interesting to compare to similar signals in other physical measurements.
From David Jones on May 24, 2013 at 8:09 am:
Back before the updates when it was only a quickly-written “Just had an earthquake in California”, I’m the one who brought it up. With the near-simultaneous timing, it might have been related.
And beyond that, with the timing, I knew I wouldn’t be the only one wondering. So I brought it up, with a possible connecting mechanism. Discussion occurred, the lifeblood of a blog. Information was shared. Job done.
lsvalgaard says: “Human beings often see things that are not there.””
Like volcanic cooling for example:
http://climategrog.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=271
http://climategrog.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=270
Goode ’nuff says: “…Guess California doesn’t want jobs…”
“We don’ need no steenkin’ jobs. We has green jobs!”
/s
Lassen area is nice, like Mosher says. If this Ozark mountain man was forced to move to California that remote area would be my pick.
Here’s something I found.
http://www.decodedscience.com/california-earthquake-m5-7-quake-in-sierra-nevada/30567
” Although no detailed information is yet available from the United States Geological Survey on the mechanics causing the quake, fault maps of the area produced by California’s Department of Conservation clearly show the existence of faulting. The May 23 earthquake most probably occurred on or close to the northern end of the Indian Valley fault and is unusual because these faults appear not to have experienced significant recent fault movement (within the last 200 years).”…
Sorry Jorge, I plum forgot about all the bountiful green jobs.
Soooo, to non-Cali folks. Q: How do you get Californians off your damn porch? A: pay for the pizza , give ’em a little tip
lsvalgaard says: “Human beings often see things that are not there.”
Greg Goodman says: “Like volcanic cooling for example:
http://climategrog.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=271
http://climategrog.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=270 ”
Holy cow, Greg. The models are worse than we thought. But are there some T data or good proxies for the Krakatoa eruption era? Maybe some nice treemometers? Or speleothems? Bat poop stratigraphy in caves, maybe?
@ lsvalgaard, say :
“An example of the poor science”
http://www.leif.org/research/Earthquake-Activity.png
http://www.leif.org/research/Earthquake-Activity.png
An example of obsession of science
Leif, what happens when IMF < 3 nanoTesla, exit deep solar minimum ?
http://imageshack.us/a/img819/4540/graficon2m85.jpg
Greg Goodman says:
May 24, 2013 at 9:38 am
Human beings often see things that are there too.
Most of time the things are not there. We are evolutionary conditioned to accept false positives: “is that a tiger in the grass? dunno, but it is better to run than to take the chance that it is not” clearly has survival value.
Having seen an apparent pattern, it is necessary to use further analysis to determine whether it is real or just a trick of our pattern recognition firmware. So what did you do?
No need to do anything further. The question was if the moon being closer to the Earth [perigee] could trigger earthquakes. My plot also shows the events when the Moon is farthest from the Earth [the blue curve] and you may see another spurious wave [with a ~25 day ‘period’ – here the pseudo-scientist exclaims: ‘aha, clearly a solar siderial signal’] in that curve, so being at perigee has no special effect compared to apogee. A further analysis was, in fact, done with another dataset [the ‘Centennial’] also with a negative result. The ‘variations’ are in the noisy background.
So having noted an apparent 14.5 d repetition
Looking at noise is not very productive since the prediction [that there should be more earthquakes at perigee rather than at apogee has already failed]
will be interesting to compare to similar signals in other physical measurements.
there is no ‘signal’ to compare with.
Michele says:
May 24, 2013 at 10:38 am
Leif, what happens when IMF < 3 nanoTesla, exit deep solar minimum ?
I don’t think it ever is. Here is a plot of IMF since 1800: http://www.leif.org/research/HMF-B-since-1800.png
– here the pseudo-scientist exclaims: ‘aha, clearly a solar siderial signal’]
The objective and inquiring mind says “it is necessary to use further analysis to determine whether it is real or just a trick of our pattern recognition firmware.”
A real scientist carefully resamples the data so as to remove any periodic variation and sweeps it under the rug.
Of course there was “no need to do anything further ” any way. Just to be sure.
RE: crosspatch says:
May 23, 2013 at 11:03 pm
There are no known faults that I can find near that quake area. That area is in a generally geologically active volcanic area but no recent eruptions have happened in the general area of this quake series that I am aware of. The person to ask would be Erik Klemetti over at the Eruptions blog on Wired Science. He is rather expert on the Lassen area and will be doing research there most of this summer.
==================================
The Alamanor Basin is actually a graben, so by definition there is normal faulting along the perimeter. I think the issue is poor mapping. There are many faults in CA either only partially mapped or not mapped at all. Blind normal and thrust faults are a well know problem due to massive alluvial fans and other more recent masking features. So the main question in this case is, graben subsidence or magma movement?
It’s clear the bridge collapse on the Skagit River was unreleated to the earthquake in Northern CA.
However, it’s worth considering that this bridge, which is the main motor vehicle artery for traffic running though the US West coast all the way from Canada to Mexico, is expected to be unusable for several weeks at a minimum.
Now imagine a series of earthquakes that knocks out a dozen bridges or more, and the effect this would have on our “just in time” system of distributing medicine, food, fuel, and other consumables.
I wonder whether the US government is prepared for such situations. I know that the government of Canada isn’t.
Greg Goodman says:
May 24, 2013 at 12:39 pm
A real scientist carefully resamples the data so as to remove any periodic variation and sweeps it under the rug.
No, she uses the error analysis to conclude that there is nothing significant to investigate, especially since, the hypothesis under test [more earthquakes near perigee] is already falsified by the data.
if it was manmade it was likely caused by an injection well…and there are lots of geothermal porjects in that area….and geothermal well injection has been proven to induce earthquakes
geothermal extraction causes geological constriction which in turn effects the stress/ forces that act on existing faults…
Direct use geothermal well in greenville, ca,
https://www.geothermal-library.org/index.php?mode=pubs&action=view&record=1001167
Gigi says:
May 23, 2013 at 9:40 pm
Even if fracking triggered earthquakes, that would be a good thing.
Why? Because that would relieve built-up tension and let it go gently rather than waiting for the “big one”.
For example, the Wasatch Front in Utah has a seismic gap that has been building for some time. Once that thing lets loose, watch out. Much better to have frequent, low-level quakes so the big ones don’t gather as much strength.
Greg Goodman says:
May 24, 2013 at 5:49 am
For example here is a plot of Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus against Sunspot area 1875-2040
http://thetempestspark.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/solar-activity-mod-1.gif
Sparks, looks interesting but you can’t “plot a planet”. How is this curve calculated? Is it linked to an article ?
The orbital plot [N] is a function of distance and time (orange) in astronomical units, it is calculated first by measuring the distance between Jupiter and Uranus [N1] over the period from 1875 -2040 then measuring the distance between Neptune and Uranus [N2] over the period from 1875 -2040. The formula is N=N1-N2.
The plot shows the precise frequency and distance between the planets over a period orbiting the sun.
Didn’t feel a thing in Houston.
The stitches are starting to pop. Anthony may soon have some beachfront property.
This is several comments I made yesterday and today at Newsvine. I have kept track of quakes for several years now.
goldminor Author commented yesterday
#66
comment author avatar
Fiji had a 7.4 quake about 90 minutes ago. No tsunami alert has been issued. This is one of those large quakes that is not followed by aftershocks as of yet. Greece had a 4,8 earlier today and the Med is running above average. I would say that there will be another event or several above 7.0 in the next 2 days
goldminor Author commented 4 hours ago
#67
comment author avatar
What do I think? There was an 8.3 quake in the Sea of Ohkotsk last night and there was a rather unusual 5.7 in Greenville California. This is a small town in gold country that sits around 3,000ft in the north of the Sierra Nevadas. This is the first quake in this area in the 2+ years that I have been watching. There have been numerous aftershocks on this quake as well as some aftershocks of the big 8.3 event. Greenville is slightly south and east from Mt Lassen, a potentially active volcano.
____________________________________________________________________________
The Sea of Ohkotsk had a 6.8 aftershock after the very deep 8.3. There have been numerous 4s and some 5s. This has been a strong active period for quakes.
I live straight across the Sacramento Valley from the Greenville quakes. I have dredged in that area a few times.
@usgs Greenville, California area earthquakes are tectonic, not magmatic. Historic seismicity outlines fault zone: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/external/reports/08HQGR0027.pdf …
Enough with the “kooky” speculation (fracking, moon tides, etc.)!
From: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/eruptions
Earthquake Swarm Near Greenville in California
By Erik Klemetti
05.24.13
1:32 PM
I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the current Greenville, California earthquake swarm. This is likely due to the fact that the swarm is in the vicinity of the Lassen Volcanic Center, which is ~50 km to the northwest of these earthquakes. Now, I don’t like to delve too much into earthquakes that aren’t volcanically-related here, but I thought I’d share some information on the earthquakes just to help with some of these questions.
First, these earthquakes have nothing to do with the Lassen Volcanic Center (LVC). They are centered much too far away to have any connection. They might be felt up there in the Park, but there is no reason to think that there is any relationship between earthquakes and the LVC. You can check out the LVC’s seismicity on the webicorders for the area — right now they’re picking up a lot of the shaking going on down at Greenville.
Second, looking at the technical information on the largest of the earthquakes in the swarm, they look to be mainly strike-slip earthquakes. This means that two pieces of crust are sliding next to each other (like the San Andreas fault system). The depths of the earthquakes are fairly shallow, all within the top 11 km of the crust, many much shallower than 11 km.
Third, thanks to a suggestion by Becky Oskin, they look like they might be related to the Mohawk Valley fault system. I found a research report by the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology on the Mohawk Valley system and marked where this swarm is occurring and you can see that one of the faults (in purple; above) does run up to the southern shores of Lake Almanor, the location of the current swarm. You can see from the figure above that shows seismicity in the area between 1986-2006 that it is actually a fairly active fault system, so the earthquakes here should be no surprise — this swarm was just started by an earthquake of a magnitude larger than many along the Mohawk Valley system. The fault system is dominantly strike-slip, so this swarm also fits in with their style of motion as well.
Maybe new volcano will form. It happened in a field in Mexico (1943-52 Paricutin eruption):
http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/paricutin.html
Why are you all looking at a volcanic centre 30 miles away? These quakes are all shallow and a very small distance from the deepest part of the dam and the dam wall. Run away?
otropogo says:
May 24, 2013 at 1:17 pm
————————————-
No worries, that part of the infrastructure is irrelevant. The NAFTA superhighway goes up the centre of the US from Mexico to Canada, along the North America craton. Sections of the east and west will be serviced by “inland” ports or nodes from the superhighway or from coastal ports, as long as they persist to exist..
As this is supposed to be about the quake in Northern Cal, up by Lassen Volcano, I will respond to a few questions about the geology of the area around Lake Almanor, Plumas County. After the 1849 gold rush petered out– this area was where the second gold rush occured and continued for quite some time. La Porte, a town in Plumas county not far from where we are talking about, has a population of about 15 people now, but at the height of the second gold rush in this area La Porte was called home by 10,000 people. Lots of green serpentine (Calif State Rock) laying around. Plumas county found $60 million in gold in (the year) 1900 US Dollars which today would be over $1.5 billion. Gold was still being found in significant quantity in Plumas County when the San Francisco earthquake hit in 1906, and a lot of Plumas Co. gold/money went into the rebuilding of S.F. And remember, Lassen the Volcano did erupt in 1915 in a fairly major way, and is a part of the Cascade range of Volcano’s that include Mt St. Helens.
Greg Goodman says:
May 24, 2013 at 7:02 am
…….
Hi Greg
Yes I got carried away, it is about 27-28 (2×13-14) days, related to the solar rotation.
Polar diagram
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/LFC7.htm
is based on Debrecen library photographic data, I got file somewhere on my old hard drive. This is well known solar property; Dr. Svalgaard has a paper going back to 1970s.
Could the earthquake swarms indicate magma flow into dormant volcanoes?
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Imgs/Gif/MSH/SlideSet/1.gif
There really needs to be a string of somewhat deeper quakes for a while to be magma. I seem to remember something like this ten years ago. They kept sending me through there…. hmmmm…. trying to get rid of me! I don’t know why anyone would try to get rid of an adorable insulting hillbilly. 🙂
good enough.
But, the swarm persists; “Quakeville” continues to shack rattle and roll…
When I was younger I went on a date with a brilliant computer geek. We snuck into a Portland patk after the gates had closed and watched the moon rise…later he said he felt the Earth move. I told him I hadn’t felt it. After a few days it dawned on me he was probably not talking about an earthquake.
Anthony, for the sake of the Internet’s scant supply of sanity, please abandon CAcooland before it flips in slabs and douses the slabs.
Brian H,
More insanity from the Peoples’ Democratic Socialist Soviet of California.
dbstealey says:
May 26, 2013 at 12:01 pm
————————————-
WTF dude, is there too much lead, arsenic, and aluminum in the water system in Califoolish or what?
http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/pacalc.html
Perigee Apogee
——————————— ———————————
Jan 10 10:27 360047 km N-1d 9h Jan 22 10:53 405311 km F-4d17h
Feb 7 12:10 365313 km N-2d19h Feb 19 6:31 404473 km F-6d13h
Mar 5 23:21 369953 km N-5d20h Mar 19 3:14 404261 km N+7d 7h
Mar 31 3:56 367493 km F+3d18h Apr 15 22:23 404864 km N+5d12h
Apr 27 19:49 362267 km F+1d23h May 13 13:32 405826 km N+3d13h
May 26 1:46 358374 km F+ 21h Jun 9 21:41 406486 km – N+1d 5h
Jun 23 11:11 356989 km ++ F- 0h Jul 7 0:37 406491 km — N-1d 6h
Jul 21 20:28 358401 km F- 21h Aug 3 8:54 405833 km N-3d12h
Aug 19 1:27 362264 km F-2d 0h Aug 30 23:47 404882 km N-5d11h
Sep 15 16:35 367387 km F-3d18h Sep 27 18:18 404308 km N-7d 6h
Oct 10 23:07 369811 km N+5d22h Oct 25 14:26 404560 km F+6d14h
Nov 6 9:29 365361 km N+2d20h Nov 22 9:51 405445 km F+4d18h
Dec 4 10:16 360063 km N+1d 9h Dec 19 23:50 406267 km + F+2d14h
Well the next full moon coincides with the closest perigee of the year, although this is close to the solstice, meaning the solar gravity field is at its weakest point.
The lunar tidal stress on the mantle is greatest at perigee. There is about 5% variation between perigee and apogee in distance. Since tidal forces are reckoned to vary with the inverse cube that makes it about 15% .
Full or new moon marks the alignment of the lunar and solar tidal forces
Hence the circa 14 days ripple visible in Leif’s plot:
http://www.leif.org/research/Earthquakes-Perigee.png
Should be interesting to see whether there is more activity around .Jun 23.