Posted by feww on January 14, 2010
New activity/Unrest
6 January -12 January 2010
SI /USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report
Volcano News (Source: GVP)
During 11-12 January, activity from Tungurahua increased; ash plumes rose to higher altitudes and more explosions were detected. Incandescent blocks were ejected almost 1 km above the crater and 1.5 km away from the crater, onto the flanks. Gas-and-ash plumes rose to an altitude of 8 km (26,200 ft) a.s.l.
MVO reported that during 31 December-8 January pyroclastic flows from the Soufrière Hills lava dome continued to travel predominantly down areas to the N. On 8 January, a large pyroclastic flow event occurred after a collapsing fountain of tephra was observed on the NE side of the volcano. Source: GVP
Ongoing Activity
- Barren Island, Andaman Is
- Chaitén, Southern Chile
- Fuego, Guatemala
- Karymsky, Eastern Kamchatka
- Kilauea, Hawaii (USA)
- Kliuchevskoi, Central Kamchatka (Russia)
- Pacaya, Guatemala
- Popocatépetl, México
- Rabaul, New Britain
- Redoubt, Southwestern Alaska
- Sakura-jima, Kyushu
- Santa María, Guatemala
- Shiveluch, Central Kamchatka (Russia)
- Soufrière Hills, Montserrat
- Suwanose-jima, Ryukyu Islands (Japan)
The Weekly Volcanic Activity Report is a cooperative project between the Smithsonian’s Global Volcanism Program and the US Geological Survey’s Volcano Hazards Program.
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Posted in volcanic activity, Volcanic Activity Report, volcanism, volcano | Tagged: Mayon, Nyamuragira, Piton de la Fournaise, Tungurahua, Turrialba, volcani | 1 Comment »
Posted by feww on January 14, 2010
The Haiti earthquake is the worst disaster, so far, to strike the poverty-stricken nation
The casualty figures, both the dead and injured are very high.
Blood flows along the street in the aftermath of an earthquake in Port-au-Prince January 13, 2010. Credit: REUTERS/Joel Trimble. Images may be subject to copyright.
Highlights of News Reports:
- Large sections of the capital Port-au-Prince have been destroyed. Also many schools, hospitals and other buildings have collapsed.
- Haiti’s Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive says more than 100,000 people may have been killed as a result of Tuesday’s earthquake, though he did not explain how he had arrived at that figure. [FEWW Moderators believe this figure is highly exaggerated. More on this later.]
- Brazilian child rights activist Zilda Arns and Port-au-Prince’s Archbishop Serge Miot have been killed in the earthquake.
- UN Secretary-General BanKi-moon said 11 Brazilian peacekeepers and five international police officers (three Jordanian and one each from Argentina and Chad – were killed in the quake.
- Brazil’s military said 14 of its soldiers had been killed in the quake.
- Up to 150 UN staff, including the mission chief and his deputy are still unaccounted for.
- Eye witness news reports say many sidewalks are lined with corpses covered with white sheets.
- UNDP said 38 of its staff are unaccounted for.
- Many Haitians are spending a second night out in the open where they feel safer from the danger of aftershocks.
A few technical details:
Click image to enlarge.
- Haiti earthquake occurred as a result of friction between the Caribbean plate and the North America plate. The plates boundary in the region “is dominated by left-lateral strike slip motion and compression, and accommodates about 20 mm/y slip, with the Caribbean plate moving eastward with respect to the North America plate.” USGS/EHP reported.
- “At the longitude of the January 12 earthquake, motion between the Caribbean and North American plates is partitioned between two major east-west trending, strike-slip fault systems — the Septentrional fault system in northern Haiti and the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system in southern Haiti.”
- “The location and focal mechanism of the earthquake are consistent with the event having occurred as left-lateral strike slip faulting on the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system. This fault system accommodates about 7 mm/y, nearly half the overall motion between the Caribbean plate and North America plate.”
- “The Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system has not produced a major earthquake in recent decades. The EPGFZ is the likely source of historical large earthquakes in 1860, 1770, 1761, 1751, 1684, 1673, and 1618, though none of these has been confirmed in the field as associated with this fault. ” USGS/EHP said.
Energy Released by Haiti Earthquake was about a half of the estimated impact energy released in forming the 1.2-km diameter Meteor Crater [Barringer Crater] in Arizona
- FEWW moderators estimate that the energy released by the Haiti earthquake was about 5.3 exp 15 joules [5.3 petajoules, 5.3 x 10^15J] or the equivalent of about 1.35 megatons of TNT. [Estimated energy released by the Hiroshima atom bomb was 15 kilotons, making the Haiti quake about 90 times stronger. See earthquake energy table.]
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Posted in Caribbean plate, Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system, Haiti quake aftermath, North America plate, PORT-AU-PRINCE | Tagged: Earthquake Hazard, Haiti earthquake, haiti quake update, Haiti quake update 14 Jan, TNT energy equivalent, Zilda Arns | 7 Comments »
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