Another big 7.5 quake just hit Near Solomon Islands- That's THREE 7+ now- lookout!

incoming now... reports in a minute...clipped HNR station...again...


EMSC: 7.5 at 2 km deep?

whoa... that's shallow...


And very close to the 7.6.

Uh oh... We have a rule breaker here.... BIGTIME. 7.6 and 7.5 .... WAY too close together in magnitude. Serious possibility of foreshocks here.


USGS: 7.7 at 19 km deep!

Holy crap that's some big quakes, way too close together!


Nah, wait a minute... I expect that to be revised down after comparing it to the 7.6... I'd say more like a 7.2. But still, serious rule-breaker, nonetheless.


And that one is on the other side of the zone from the first 7.6... Not good.... Not good...


Yup, USGS has already come down to 7.5.


And depth changed to 35 km.

Small tsunami possible, but not likely. The bigger problem is what if these are foreshocks. If the foreshocks are that big, that must mean...umm... 8.6 or higher possible, if we add just one mag to the highest quake. If we add 1.5, which is entirely possible, we could be looking at a 9.1. And the fault length is surely there to support it.

I have been eying this situation, even though with everything else going on I haven't really commented yet. My problem with it is the other series of quakes on the same zone northwest of there. A 7.1 was included in that series, just like a week ago or so. So that's three quakes now, over 7. Something's most definitely fishy with another quake that big.

They have been having a lot of quakes. And they have been 7 or higher. I keep an eye on RSOE Disaster Site. There have been more than a few that are 7 +.

Keep us posted.

reply to post by TrueAmerican


Wowa! Another one? Must be an aftershock?
usgs

edit:

Magnitude Mw 7.6
Region SOLOMON ISLANDS
Date time 2014-04-13 12:36:16.0 UTC
Location 11.46 S ; 161.99 E
Depth 10 km
Distances 316 km SE of Honiara, Solomon Islands / pop: 56,298 / local time: 23:36:16.0 2014-04-13
111 km S of Kirakira, Solomon Islands / pop: 1,122 / local time: 23:36:16.0 2014-04-13

Source parameters reviewed by a seismologist

source

quakes.globalincidentmap.com... I see that there have been a lot of activity there lots of 4's and 5's

just looking on the emsc website, dont really know or understand what im looking at but i counted 28 different shocks/quakes from the last 24hrs in that place

reply to post by TrueAmerican


just shown up on the alert map now 7.7

Morning True.

I just checked. Both EMSC (mag 7.6) and GFZ (mag 7.4) have this most recent earthquake located on the Australian side of the fault; the same as USGS.
Strange... I was thinking it would probably be relocated to the Pacific side, but I guess not.

I'm really hoping the long stretch of fault between this quake group and the one's early yesterday farther to the west near the North Solomon Islands stays put--that would be a whopper!


Map of area, with best estimation of plate motions.

(click to enlarge)
source

kloejen
reply to post by TrueAmerican

 

Wowa! Another one? Must be an aftershock?

It's not an aftershock by any stretch of the normal definition, where the biggest aftershock is up to around one magnitude less than the main shock and in the same region. True, it can be bigger than one magnitude less, but not by much. A mag 7.5 quake following shortly after a mag 7.6 in the same region breaks all the rules for aftershocks -- just as that run of mag 6-plus quakes after the mag 6.7 off the coast of Chile broke the rules. And then the Chileans got a mag 8-plus in the same region.

That's what TA's pointing out here. This quake sequence is not normal for a mainshock/aftershocks. It suggests something bigger might be in the works but naturally, there's no way to know for sure unless/until a bigger one happens.

reply to post by JustMike


Thanks for the clarification

I'm seeing 4 millimeters/sec amplitude, in GEE, at 13:25 UTC, Honiara station.
Is this another large one incoming? I missed the 1st one in GEE to use as a comparison.


Nope not too large. *Makes notebook entry--4 mm/sec at HNR = mag 5.9 at Kirakira.*

reply to post by Olivine


Well after that drought of 7+ quakes for a while, you gotten your fill yet? And you were right by the way on the Chile situation breaking that drought when the 7+ hit there after the 8.2. So kudos to you!

And JustMike, I just read last week digging deep on the net that approximately 70% of quakes over 7 mag have associated foreshocks. That's a pretty high percentage, and I didn't even know it. I'd like more confirmation on that though before I go with it.

Update: sadly, that quake appeared to have effected the HNR station- cause real time data has stopped for me. Either that or there is so much demand for the data, IRIS is throttling the bandwidth on it- with scientists given first preference. Not sure.

HNR data starting to come back now, but it is lagging pretty far behind real time.


Ok cool, HNR data fully back now it appears. For the moment, that is...


And USGS dropped mag to 7.4. Still, this thing is breaking the rules.

reply to post by TrueAmerican


HNR is working in GEE, but it's on a 5 minute delay from real-time.

That mag 7+ foreshock info is interesting, I haven't heard that stat before, either.

I think we may see an above average number of mag 7+ quakes over the next year or so; just inching statistically back toward the multi-decade average of one mag 7+ every 21 days. It could get bumpy.


Yeah, this jumping east to west has me worried.

With such major activity at the bottom of the Pacific Plate, near Chile and now these ones, I wouldn't be surprised to see some major adjustments near the top of the Pacific plate, near Alaska and/or Japan.

reply to post by TrueAmerican

Thanks for the updates! I was wondering why I couldn't sleep. Seems like mother nature is about to open a giant can of carnage.

reply to post by TrueAmerican

Hi TA,

thanks for that info on the foreshocks for mag 7-plus statistic. I wasn't aware of that; I only know that for the really huge quakes there's no consistent warning via foreshocks. You doubtless know all the following but some readers won't so just to explain I'll give a few examples just off the top of my head. Japan's mag 9 in 2011 had one biggish one 2 days prior (a low mag 7, IIRC); Chile's mag 8.8 (2010) was without much prior warning but the 1960 9.5 Mw was preceded by some very big foreshocks; Sumatra's cca 9.1 - 9.3 (opinions vary, apparently) of 2004 had none at all within the region bigger than a mag 5-range, which in that part of the world barely makes the locals pause in their day-to-day activities. And those two quakes that Sumatra had in April 2012 -- the 8.6 and 8.2 on the same day -- again, not much to forewarn anyone of them.

I recall the mag ¬7.8 Mw 1906 SF quake had a foreshock, but though it was quite strong it was only 20 to 25 seconds before the mainshock. Not really time for folks to prepare well for the big one when it hit.

Even so, it would be helpful if we could get more long-term statistical data on the foreshock aspect.

TA- you are the man for always being on top of stories like this! I'm pinging this thread to see how this whole event develops... Thanks for being such a reliable source for EQs...

S&F

PlanetXisHERE
With such major activity at the bottom of the Pacific Plate, near Chile and now these ones, I wouldn't be surprised to see some major adjustments near the top of the Pacific plate, near Alaska and/or Japan.

Sweet! That's great news!

I'm bracing.

I'm just glad I'm not deep in Anchorage.......precariously close to a volcano though........

I'm not sure if this indicates anything but I'm only seeing 13-15 quakes in Alaska within the past 2 days, all under 4.0.
That seems a bit light IMO. It seems we usually get several more small quakes on a daily basis than this.

I think AK is gonna get hit hard soon and I'm a wee bit nervous

It's just starting, the action in Chili is not complete yet, over half of the problem is still there till the gap is closed. Scientists have been sent there to evaluate that fault. I wonder how much more we can expect in the Solomon Island location?

reply to post by rickymouse


Do you have source about the scientists? Are they geologists. I know 1 geologist. He was my professor and I still chat with him. We geek out from time to time about yellowstone, cascadia subduction. He has this huge laugh when he says he would never live on the east coast because of that el hierro, and he would never live in washington state because of cascadia sz.
I will see him on tuesday and ask if there is any chatter. I always do and there never is

7.6 100km SSE of Kirakira, Solomon Islands 2014-04-12 16:14:39 UTC-04:00 29.3 km
7.4 111km S of Kirakira, Solomon Islands 2014-04-13 08:36:18 UTC-04:00 35.0 km
7.1 57km SW of Panguna, Papua New Guinea 2014-04-11 03:07:21 UTC-04:00 50.0 km
6.6 11km ESE of Nandaime, Nicaragua 2014-04-11 16:29:15 UTC-04:00 138.6 km
6.5 78km SW of Panguna, Papua New Guinea 2014-04-11 04:16:48 UTC-04:00 39.4 km

Source

Interesting as it shows a steady climb in Magnitude over the last 3 days. Thanks for keeping us up on these quakes TA. I was reading another thread, can't find it now, but the jist was that the blood moon along with the solar activity would be causing some large quakes in the next few days.

SH

ETA: Well, maybe not in a series. I looked at magnitude on that Source site and thought it was increasing. Obviously it was sorted by magnitude. My mistake....