Quake Watch 2010

reply to post by PuterMan


Creating good tables in html is a chore but doable. There ought to be a way to --oh I know, I do it usually in firefox--you can select

view source and then copy source from that little window that pops up then paste in

I wonder if you pasted it from usgs into Xcel and then somehow turned that into html or bbcode . . . Some geeks far better than I should be able to help with this.

Thanks for your kind reply.

reply to post by BO XIAN

Some geeks far better than I should be able to help with this

Well most would probably consider me to be a geek!

BBCode. Actually quite a useful reference if you are not familiar with bulletin boards special version of HTML which let's face it has very little similarity to real HTML

There is no facility to paste a table. As you will see from the article additional codes can be created by site administrators, but there is little or no information for people on this site as to what is ans is not available code wise, and some things - for example the code tag, do not work as they should.

Let's face it people do NOT have time to sit and write code when they are desperate to get the details of the latest massive 1.3 ( ) quake out on the thread.

A direct paste of an image would solve the problem as that would mean you could copy and paste as screen shot, but that is VERY unlikely to happen.

What I will be doing in my program is setting up a formatted set of quake data that you can paste into a post. This is along the lines of the short lists of quakes that I post. There is a menu in the new version of the program (release soon I promise) where you just filter the data set on screen click on Export Short CSV to Clipboard and voilà, there it is ready to just paste into a reply. Believe me it saves a huge amount of time. One of the new features I have not quite finished yet is similar to the right-click and launch Google Earth. It is a link to the providers details. What I can (will) do is make this provide an automatic clipboard copy of the data formatted in full bbcode ready to just paste into a reply.

At present I have still to create a link back to the EMSC data to get details but the USGS version is about done.

If anyone has an inclination to create a sample of what we think an earthquake post would ideally look like then please do mock one up and upload it to this site (4shared)

I cannot promise that I will make an exact replica since it will depend on what data is available on each site and may require a change to the database, particularly since muzzy will want all the technical data!

Edit - even the quote ="xxxxxxxxx" feature is not implemented it would appear.

[edit on 6/8/2010 by PuterMan]

reply to post by PuterMan


THANKS MUCH for info and links.

I think I understand.

I *THOUGHT* you were a geek but didn't want to presume too much! LOL.

Sounds like you have it more in hand than my humble ignorance could offer anything useful on.

Anything that makes the magnitude stand out would be welcome.

What is your perspective on the Wyoming quakes? Anything significantly new looming there, in your opinion?

That string of quakes from CA up to Wyoming is interesting, for some reason. Just my layman's ignorance looking at it but it still seems interesting.

Magnitude 3.3
Date-Time Friday, August 06, 2010 at 15:34:18 UTC
Friday, August 06, 2010 at 09:34:18 AM at epicenter

Location 43.624°N, 110.510°W
Depth 5 km (3.1 miles) set by location program
Region WYOMING
Distances 26 km (16 miles) E (81°) from Teton Village, WY
27 km (16 miles) NE (52°) from Jackson, WY
29 km (18 miles) ENE (68°) from Moose Wilson Road, WY
339 km (210 miles) NNE (19°) from Salt Lake City, UT

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 6.1 km (3.8 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters NST= 43, Nph= 43, Dmin=7.6 km, Rmss=1.18 sec, Gp= 50°,
M-type=local magnitude (ML), Version=7
Source U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center:
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver

Event ID us2010zqb2

Quake Detail Format

I agree with Bo Xian about the string of text with commas (and no header line) being hard to read

It would be nice to have a standard format for posting quakes here. I try to make mine the same style no matter where the source is coming from, but it takes a bit of work ( like 1 minute )
Simply copying and pasting off the different sites is always going to be messy.

A lot depends on what page the data is coming from.

Heres an example of one USGS quake and the various formats, and what it looks like copied and pasted here on ATS

EXAMPLE 1
1. Short line from the USGS 7 day list
MAP 5.6 2010/08/06 08:58:40 -7.372 128.473 58.6 KEPULAUAN BARAT DAYA, INDONESIA

2. Short line from the NEIC search result, csv (comma delimited)
Year,Month,Day,Time(hhmmss.mm)UTC,Latitude,Longitude,Magnitude,Depth
2010,08,05,085840.00, -7.372, 128.473,5.6, 58.6

3. Medium Detail from link off RSS Feed (editied down to take out spaces)
M 5.6, Kepulauan Barat Daya, Indonesia
Friday, 6 August 2010 8:58 p.m.
7.372°S 128.473°E
Friday, August 6, 2010 08:58:39 UTC
Friday, August 6, 2010 05:58:39 PM at epicenter
Depth: 58.60 km (36.41 mi)

4. Long Detail from link off 7 day list (editied down to take out spaces)
Magnitude 5.6
Date-Time
* Friday, August 06, 2010 at 08:58:39 UTC
* Friday, August 06, 2010 at 05:58:39 PM at epicenter
* Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 7.372°S, 128.473°E
Depth 58.6 km (36.4 miles)
Region KEPULAUAN BARAT DAYA, INDONESIA
Distances 320 km (200 miles) WNW of Saumlaki, Kepulauan Tanimbar, Indonesia
345 km (215 miles) ENE of DILI, Timor-Leste
620 km (385 miles) NNW of DARWIN, Northern Territory, Australia
2400 km (1490 miles) E of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 5.5 km (3.4 miles); depth +/- 7.7 km (4.8 miles)
Parameters NST=172, Nph=172, Dmin=319 km, Rmss=0.99 sec, Gp= 40°,
M-type=body wave magnitude (Mb), Version=7
Source
* USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID us2010zqbe

EXAMPLE 2
For New Zealand it looks a bit different,

1. Short line off the Geonetsearch results, converted from Excel csv Table to Word text by Formatting (convert table to text/seperate text with commas)

REF, LAT, LONG, UTC TIME, DEPTH, MAG
3350372, -45.07656, 167.32954, 2010/8/4 10:54:50, 83, 4.359


2. Short Detail off recent_quakes,

# Reference Number: 3350372
# NZST: Wed, Aug 4 2010 10:54 pm
# Magnitude: 4.4
# Depth: 80 km
# Details: 50 km north-west of Te Anau

3. Long Detail off RSS Feed

Magnitude 4.4, Wednesday, August 4 2010 at 10:54 pm (NZST), 50 km north-west of Te Anau
Reference Number: 3350372/G, Universal Time: August 4 2010 at 10:54, NZ Standard Time, Wednesday, August 4 2010 at 10:54 pm, Latitude, 45.08S, Longitude: 167.33E, Focal Depth: 80 km, Richter magnitude: 4.4, Region: Fiordland. 50 km north-west of Te Anau, 60 km south-west of Milford Sound, 170 km north-west of Gore, 260 km west of Dunedin. Felt Queenstown, possibly also in Fiordland

4. Long Detail from link off recent_quakes

Reference Number 3350372/G
Universal Time August 4 2010 at 10:54
NZ Standard Time Wednesday, August 4 2010 at 10:54 pm
Latitude, Longitude 45.08°S, 167.33°E
Focal Depth 80 km
Richter magnitude 4.4
Region Fiordland
Location
* 50 km north-west of Te Anau
* 60 km south-west of Milford Sound
* 170 km north-west of Gore
* 260 km west of Dunedin
Felt Queenstown, possibly also in Fiordland

5. Another way (for me) is to lift the details off the tags on the kml file on GE like this (could also probably be done if you use the Google Earth KMZ downloads of USGS for 7 days)

REF:3350372
LOCATION: -45.07656, 167.32954
UTC: 2010/8/4 10:54:50
NZST: Wed, Aug 4 2010 10:54 pm
DEPTH: 83km
MAG: 4.359ML

Maybe we should have a Poll on this

To be honest I find the formatting of ATS posts really hard work compared to other Forums I go on

Edit: I think its important to put your source on, otherwise some may think that you are making it up

For Puterman ..........
Could also be helpful if the reference number ID was there too, that helps if there are multiple events on a list.
And a link to the phase data so that one can make their own decision as to the the magnitude.
Oh and if available other types of magnitude

Then again we probably have too much forced structuring in our lives already, maybe we should just leave it like it is and use our own brains to figure out what is what


[edit on 6-8-2010 by muzzy]

[edit on 6-8-2010 by muzzy]

reply to post by muzzy


This is an example of my standard 'list of quakes' which is an automatic data export from my program.

Date/Time UTC,Latitude,Longitude,Magnitude,Depth(Km),Location
06/08/2010 21:05:26,-38.1988,-73.6161,5.10,10.00,offshore Bio-Bio. Chile

It actually is a CSV file. This probably needs changing, but one of the problems is that much HTML code does not work here. I may have a few experimental goes to see what does an does not work.

If I take that list and simply replace all the commas with tab characters it looks like this

Date/Time UTC Latitude Longitude Magnitude Depth(Km) Location
05/08/2010 06:38:50 -37.4901 -73.5378 4.70 25.70 Bio-Bio. Chile
Chile

and with spaces looks like this.

Date/Time UTC Latitude Longitude Magnitude Depth(Km) Location
06/08/2010 21:05:26 -38.1988 -73.6161 5.10 10.00 offshore Bio-Bio. Chile
05/08/2010 06:38:50 -37.4901 -73.5378 4.70 25.70 Bio-Bio. Chile

Let me know which of the three you think is best for a listing style. I will look at your points and try and come up with a format for more detailed posts.

Edit: Now it is there I can see that tabs and spaces look the same.

[edit] This is double spaced, but I think it will just lose the double space.

Date/Time UTC Latitude Longitude Magnitude Depth(Km) Location
06/08/2010 21:05:26 -38.1988 -73.6161 5.10 10.00 offshore Bio-Bio. Chile
05/08/2010 06:38:50 -37.4901 -73.5378 4.70 25.70 Bio-Bio. Chile

OK this one works - replacing the spaces with a non breaking space code

Date/Time  UTC  Latitude  Longitude  Magnitude  Depth(Km)  Location
06/08/2010  21:05:26  -38.1988  -73.6161  5.10  10.00  offshore  Bio Bio  Chile
05/08/2010  06:38:50  -37.4901  -73.5378  4.70  25.70  Bio Bio  Chile

[edit] The full stop has to be removed or it throws it out. So does the - where the word offshore is in the line!

OK further edit:

Earthquake data listing. Source: USGS 7day lists
---Date/Time  UTC--------  ---Lat----  ---Lon---  Mag-- Dpth- Location-----
06/08/2010  21:05:26  -38.1988  -73. 6161  5.10  10.00  offshore  Bio Bio  Chile
05/08/2010  06:38:50  -37.4901  -73. 5378  4.70  25.70  Bio Bio  Chile
All depths are in kilometres


And just so you know how 'nasty' that is to write it looks like this(almost - I had to make a couple of changes after this shot):
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/d0aa350d353b.png[/atsimg]

[edit] Just testing now to see if old quakes still have access to the data.

Earthquake data listing. Source: USGS 7day lists
---Date/Time  UTC--------  ---Lat----  ---Lon---  Mag-- Dpth- Location-----
01/04/2010  19:43:01  -34.1185  -71. 9514  5.00  19.70  offshore  LG Bernardo O Higgins   Chile
01/04/2010  15:46:51  -61.2133  153. 9132  5.60  10.00  Balleny Islands region
All depths are in kilometres


[edit] As you will see these links do not work, but I have managed to find a linking system that does so here are the quakes again with the new links.

Earthquake data listing. Source: USGS 7day lists
---Date/Time  UTC--------  ---Lat----  ---Lon---  Mag-- Dpth- Location-----
01/04/2010  19:43:01  -34.1185   -71.9514  5.00  19.70  offshore  LG Bernardo O Higgins   Chile
01/04/2010  15:46:51  -61.2133  153.9132  5.60  10.00  Balleny Islands region
All depths are in kilometres


There is no information for the second one (that is any use)

[edit on 6/8/2010 by PuterMan]

reply to post by PuterMan

The double break looks the best IMO,
or ........
the commas would look OK too, if there was a space after the comma before the next number.
I find the commas make it easier to read when you are looking at lots of numbers, but it needs that space or it gets all blurry.
Thats my take, see what others think

of the ones I posted I like the last one the best for simple posting here, but I have to make the data into kml first, so its a long process. I usually do all the work for my blog anyway then copy and paste direct off Google earth to here is there is anything worth posting up.

reply to post by muzzy


Sort of like this

Date/Time UTC, Latitude, Longitude, Magnitude, Depth(Km), Location
01/04/2010 19:43:01, -34.1185, -71.9514, 5.00, 19.70, Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins. Chile
01/04/2010 15:46:51, -61.2133, 153.9132, 5.60, 10.00, Balleny Islands region
01/04/2010 14:07:31, 30.1526, 69.5839, 5.00, 35.00, Pakistan
01/04/2010 12:53:08, -34.5209, -71.7253, 5.20, 11.20, Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins. Chile

By the way finding old data is very difficult and could not be done automatically which really makes it a non starter.

reply to post by PuterMan


i LIKED THE SECTION which looked like a larger than usual space between the items. 2 or 3 regular spaces would be great.

I wonder how __ 5.7__ 3.7 miles__ etc__ like__ this__would look

--was two underscore line segments.

I greatly appreciate all the effort and experimenting. It helps aging eyes a LOT.

Wots happening in Ozzie

DateTime (UTC), hh:mm:ss, Latitude, Longitude, Depth (km), Magnitude, Location
6/08/2010, 6:50:38, -38.632, 146.0101, 10, 2.7, Buffalo, VIC
5/08/2010, 12:26:32, -28.695, 116.0864, 0, 2.1, North of Morawa, WA
2/08/2010, 9:22:13, -30.202, 117.636, 0, 2.0, NW of Beacon, WA
1/08/2010, 14:07:09, -32.057, 138.2298, 10, 2.2, NE of Quorn SA
www.ga.gov.au...

Not much

[edit on 7-8-2010 by muzzy]

earthquake.usgs.gov...

MAP 4.2 2010/08/07 12:30:51 -21.622 -67.597 128.3 POTOSI, BOLIVIA
MAP 3.3 2010/08/07 11:19:05 43.609 -110.448 5.0 WYOMING
MAP 5.2 2010/08/07 11:17:58 12.848 144.875 50.1 GUAM REGION
MAP 2.5 2010/08/07 08:30:56 33.773 -115.901 5.5 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.0 2010/08/07 07:02:39 -15.223 167.453 169.8 VANUATU
MAP 2.5 2010/08/07 06:34:23 19.976 -155.095 41.8 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 4.7 2010/08/07 05:31:21 42.967 144.941 15.6 HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
MAP 4.5 2010/08/07 01:28:28 -4.735 144.284 83.4 NEAR NORTH COAST OF NEW GUINEA, P.N.G.
MAP 4.4 2010/08/07 01:28:14 52.685 -169.406 10.0 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA

The offshore one in Japan is fairly deep.

earthquake.usgs.gov...

MAP 5.3 2010/08/07 16:04:08 29.534 128.354 237.5 NORTHWEST OF THE RYUKYU ISLANDS
MAP 5.3 2010/08/07 12:52:04 -13.484 167.609 81.8 VANUATU
MAP 5.2 2010/08/07 11:17:58 12.848 144.875 50.1 GUAM REGION
MAP 5.0 2010/08/07 07:02:39 -15.223 167.453 169.8 VANUATU

71 km NE of me, but I didn't feel it. On the other side of the Tararua Ranges
Been very quiet last 4 days here, only one quake yesterday in the entire country ....thats not a good sign.
Maybe this 4.3 is not he end of it yet

Reference Number 3352238/G
Universal Time August 8 2010 at 1:48
NZ Standard Time Sunday, August 8 2010 at 1:48 pm
Latitude, Longitude 40.58°S, 175.70°E
Focal Depth 40 km
Richter magnitude 4.3
Region Wairarapa
Location
* 10 km north of Eketahuna
* 20 km south-west of Pahiatua
* 20 km south of Palmerston North
* 110 km north-east of Wellington
Felt Palmerston North, elsewhere in Manawatu, also Northern Wairarapa and southern Hawke's Bay. 247 felt reports
www.geonet.org.nz...



[edit on 8-8-2010 by muzzy]

Strange we had the 2 larger quakes in Alaska and nothing else has shaken

Here's a nice artical I found at BSG (British version of USGS)

www.bgs.ac.uk...

Recent devastating earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and China, as well as magnitude 7+ earthquakes in Indonesia and California, might give the impression that earthquake activity is increasing.

In fact, a quick look at earthquake statistics over the last 20 years shows that this is not the case.

On average there are about 15 earthquakes every year with a magnitude of 7 or greater.

At the end of the article it tells us why it might seem that there are more earthquakes.

A nice short & sweet read just to keep us going

There's also a podcast from last year on Earthquake monitoring here planetearth.nerc.ac.uk...

Originally posted by Discotech
Here's a nice artical I found at BSG (British version of USGS)

www.bgs.ac.uk...

Recent devastating earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and China, as well as magnitude 7+ earthquakes in Indonesia and California, might give the impression that earthquake activity is increasing.

In fact, a quick look at earthquake statistics over the last 20 years shows that this is not the case.

On average there are about 15 earthquakes every year with a magnitude of 7 or greater.

At the end of the article it tells us why it might seem that there are more earthquakes.

A nice short & sweet read just to keep us going

There's also a podcast from last year on Earthquake monitoring here planetearth.nerc.ac.uk...

I don't believe a word of it.
In fact I started my own research.
This is from data from EVERYONE, not just usgs or bsg, or emsc

45to47south.wordpress.com...

I'm back to 1914 at the moment, and it still looks like from the 1990's it has got worse. There are peak years and down years as you will see from the 1920-2010 graph.

This talk about "more data" doesn't wash either, you would think back in 1914 that there would be no info available from distant far away places, yet the iisee and noaa data from back then is saturated with quakes in the Kermadec Islands, Macquarie Is. etc

With 5 months to go looks like 2010 is going to break the record ( 2007 with 30)

Then again maybe we won't get any more 7+'s either



[edit on 8-8-2010 by muzzy]

reply to post by muzzy


1st If you don't believe it then fine, but why would they have a reason to lie ? Also not to disrespect you or anything but they've been educated on this stuff and it's their job so I'd expect them to know more than some casual hobbyist unless of course this is also your field of work ?

2nd How far back do records go on recording Earthquakes ? even if they went back 200 years it's not alot on the grand scheme of things considering how old the Earth so one would not be able to see if anything is normal or working on a pattern or out of the ordinary

3rd IF (it is certainly questionable) there is a definate increase in larger quakes, what does it mean and what can be done about it ?

reply to post by Discotech

Why would they tell the truth? They are Govt Dept.
Just like the BS the govts put out in WW2 to avoid panic.
You don't believe what your Govt tells you, do you?

What do you expect them to say "yes there is a 410% increase in earthquake activity in the last 20 years and were all gonna die"

One thing I don't approve of is usgs or bgs saying all this without saying "in our opinion". Already I have found 20% more quakes than usgs have published above 7 Mag.

Records go back to 3000BC

What does it mean?
1. It means your Insurance Premiums are going to rise.
2. The cost of new contruction is going to have to rise to build quake proof buildings.
3. Financial Chaos (one example of a single quake affecting the economy was the Tuesday, September 21, 1999 "921" quake in Taiwan. A significant proportion of the world supply of RAM was at the time made in Taiwan, and the six-day shutdown of Hsinchu Science Park and other factories resulting from the quake caused computer memory prices to triple on world markets

reply to post by muzzy


So you choose to believe what the USGS put up ? How do you know they're not lying about magnitudes of earthquakes or the amount of them ? Typical conspiracy attitude though cherry picking what to believe to suit an agenda.

What I believe doesn't matter as I'm not the one compiling data from an agency/s I don't trust

So they had seismic sensors 30,000 years ago ? That's great, still how old is the Earth ? 4billion+ years old ? that 30k years still pales in comparison to the age of old terra

Surely if they're reporting that quakes aren't on the uprise then insurance isn't going to go (not that we're affect by quakes enough to warrant insurance concerns in the UK) and cost of new construction won't really be affected either. As for financial chaos, it's short lived and negligent and only specific to only the industries affected by any quake.

Nothing to worry about really as there's not a damn thing that can be done to prevent a quake anyway

reply to post by Discotech

No I don't choose to believe what usgs put up, that' s the whole issue

If you actually have a look at some of the maps on my Project on Wordpress and open the tags by clicking them you will see the sources prior to 2000 generally are not USGS but IISEE ( International Institute of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering) which is concerned about the engineering of quake resistant building construction to reduce damage and death.

Don't forget its not quakes that kill people, but usually falling buildings, landslides or tsunamis.

The other main source I have used is NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) which is more concerned about the water side of things (Tsunami's). Much of the pre 1800's data is gleened from Tsunami records which our ancestors kept.

Then those are cross-referenced with local Geophysical agencies such as Servicio Sismológico de la Universidad de Chile, National Observatory of Athens, European-Mediteranean Seismological Center, and many others listed here before uploading to my maps.

Re the Insurance side.
You think that you are not already paying for damage caused by Hurricane Katrina?, 2010 Chilean quake?, 9/11, floods in Europe?, the 2009 Aussie bush fires? come on mate wake up , everyone who pays Insurance EVERYWHERE is paying for the cleanup and repair from these disasters, insurance is a Global wide business. Insurance is all about spreading the burden.

Hopefully for your sake in the UK the Faultlines through the English Channel and up the north of Scotland don't start acting up again, because there are a lot of bricks in the walls of your houses and a lot of roof slates that will fall and kill a lot of people.



[edit on 9-8-2010 by muzzy]