What might really be happening in Washington State?

reply to post by westcoast



When you posted that there would probably be more quakes on the plate, I thought you would be right, as you mentioned before that quakes on the plate sometimes happen in groups, to release pressure. This is something I learned by reading this thread, would not have realized that before. Thanks!

And it is good to see smaller releases, rather than a big one.

Noticed the magnitude change, up not down, interesting.

Here's one for you

Magnitude 3.9
Date-Time Tuesday, November 16, 2010 at 15:51:08 UTC
Tuesday, November 16, 2010 at 07:51:08 AM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 46.561°N, 122.435°W
Depth 14.7 km (9.1 miles) set by location program
Region WASHINGTON
Distances 5 km (3 miles) NE (47°) from Mossyrock, WA
12 km (7 miles) W (272°) from Morton, WA
29 km (18 miles) SW (219°) from Elbe, WA
61 km (38 miles) NE (40°) from Longview, WA
76 km (47 miles) S (179°) from Tacoma, WA
104 km (65 miles) N (7°) from Vancouver, WA

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 0.7 km (0.4 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters NST= 94, Nph= 95, Dmin=10 km, Rmss=0.39 sec, Gp= 29°,
M-type=duration magnitude (Md), Version=1
Source Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network

Event ID uw11161551

A 3.9 this morning, East of Mt Rainier.

earthquake.usgs.gov...

Revised up from an original magnitude of 3.5. We had a HUGE windstorm last night. Gusts of up to 54 miles per hour even here in the low lands, (major power outages) so don't go hunting up the Mt Rainier seismographs and getting all alarmed.

Here's hoping the air and ground stay settled down for a while.

Now revised up to 4.2.

earthquake.usgs.gov...

You guys beat me to it! That's what I get for sleeping in...(bad neck)

I was expecting to see another one in this range today, but out in the water somewhere, not there! Just goes to show ya that when you start getting cocky she's going to throw ya a curve ball!

It was extremely windy up my way too. Power flickered but stayed on. Now they are saying snow in the future...if everyone's hunches are right, it will just be the beginining.

Did you guys happen to check out the tremor map for today? Hmmmm.....179 in 10 hrs. Concentrated in North Cali and then out on Vancouver Island. Here's the LINK

It's been wayyyyyy too quiet around here lately. Something is gonna give somewhere soon.....

Agreed. I was actually thinking that yesterday as I did my daily look at the USGS website.
I'm waiting for the usual 4.5 quake off the Oregon coast, then things should pick back up around here..

reply to post by Isaac (RIP DUSTIN)


I hope so. Looking at the USGS map of the US HERE, our own 'ring of fire' that we have comented on that you normally see around Wash, Ore, Cali,New, Wy,Mt and Idaho is very faint right now. All yellows and fading away.

The longer we go without one, the more I start looking for something bigger somewhere. We haven't had one recorded by USGS here in Wash since 11/29

MAP 2.2 2010/12/23 08:04:14 47.642 -122.208 27.0 1 km ( 0 mi) ESE of Yarrow Point, WA
MAP 1.0 2010/12/22 00:50:17 47.728 -122.336 25.8 3 km ( 2 mi) S of Shoreline, WA
MAP 1.4 2010/12/20 05:59:14 47.729 -122.233 19.9 1 km ( 1 mi) NW of Inglewood-Finn Hill, WA
MAP 1.4 2010/12/19 08:36:33 48.876 -122.211 14.3 5 km ( 3 mi) NNE of Deming, WA
MAP 2.4 2010/12/17 07:41:24 47.718 -122.206 23.0 1 km ( 1 mi) ESE of Inglewood-Finn Hill, WA
MAP 1.3 2010/12/16 13:37:19 48.508 -121.741 4.9 4 km ( 2 mi) S of Concrete, WA

2.2 within the last hour. Sad we get excited about an earthquake so "small" when the rest of the world has 7.4's 6+'s...
Looking at the world map on USGS all the earthquakes seem to be moving in a counter clockwise rotation. Which seem to stop at the Eureka/Redding area northward until Alaska, where it picks up again. (Juan De Fuca Plate?) I'm starting to wonder if that plate is somewhat of a "buffer" plate..
It makes me nervous seeing 4.5+ quakes all up and down the "Ring of Fire" except here.

reply to post by Isaac (RIP DUSTIN)


I hear ya. I have been having a very 'pent-up' feeling for several months now.

So I am sitting here waiting for santa Merry Christmas by the way!! I thought I would jump on here on share my feelings.

My dogs have been acting wierd all night and now my chicken (yes, I have a young chick in the house right now) is getting into it. Probably nothing, or maybe the wind roaring outside, but darn it, my hackles are up.

I've had the 'pressure' feeling in my ears tonight too...could be my cold ...we'll see.

So merry christmas to all and to all a good night!!!

So I haven't been here for awhile. I have been concentrating more on my rumbling thread, and debates and short stories....

Also, there just hasn't been too much to talk about quake wise. While I believe the rumbling I am hearing to be connected somehow...there is just no way to be certain. Rumbling thread

Well, it seems that we are getting a bit more active today. Could this have something to do with the increased solar activity? (Inquiring minds would LOVE to know that answer!!!!)

The last two quakes on this list are both under 30 miles from my house. Small ones, but apparently big enough to get my dog going. She is becoming a GREAT gauge for incoming quakes!!!

MAP 2.1 2011/01/16 07:18:41 48.675 -122.477 0.6 8 km ( 5 mi) S of Bellingham, WA
MAP 1.9 2011/01/16 06:40:44 48.671 -122.475 3.2 9 km ( 5 mi) S of Bellingham, WA
MAP 1.2 2011/01/15 19:24:45 46.191 -122.179 0.0 1 km ( 1 mi) S of Mount St. Helens Volcano, WA


LINK

Tremors have still been a hit and miss, but they are definately still there. With all the odd things going on in our little world right now, it is most definately an interesting time to be an avid observer.

I just found this great article with animated illustrations that explain the cascadia subduction zone really well. Check it out HERE

When continental and oceanic plates collide the thinner and more dense oceanic plate is overridden by the thicker and less dense continental plate. The oceanic plate is forced down into the mantle in a process known as "subduction". As the oceanic plate descends it is forced into higher temperature environments. At a depth of about 100 miles (160 km) materials in the subducting plate begin to approach their melting temperatures and a process of partial melting begins.

This is one theory on how the suspected magma chamber could be formed.


The other being that the same magma plume that is the Yellowstone caldera, migrated millions of years ago and left behind a magam chamber under Washington State:

Some 17 million years ago, the Yellowstone hotspot was located beneath the Oregon-Idaho-Nevada border region, feeding a plume of hot and molten rock that produced "caldera" eruptions - the biggest kind of volcanic eruption on Earth.

SOURCE (great article on Yellowstone!!)


This thread has gotten so long, I wanted to re-cap it a bit.

The deep tremors still continue. Check it out HERE

Keep an eye on the interactive quake map HERE (be sure to sort them by depth and you can cleary see what fault/zone they are in)

Last, I want to invite you to read my personal account of the Mount Saint Helens erruption. The link is in my sig line, 'The Day My World Shook'. Since several PNW residents watch this thread, I thought it might be of interest to you!

Slow moving tremors picking up again. Not to mention small earthquakes across our state. But what really catches my attention is what is going on in Utah.

reply to post by Isaac (RIP DUSTIN)


Good point!! I just made a comment on the tremor thread about our recent quakes, but I failed to notice all those posts in Utah.

If you go HERE and select to plot it by depth, you can almost clearly see the different faults/subduction zone base on the quake depths. A bit disturbing actually.

reply to post by traveler928


Don't know if anyone responded to you yet. If someone did, sorry for the redundancy!

HT=Harmonic Tremor

Harmonic tremor is a specific seismic quake signature that indicates the movement deep underground of magma and/or volcanic gases. Here is a link to Wikipedia's entry about the subject: Link
And here is a link to a USGS (United States Geological Survey) definition for it: Link

The discussion of harmonic tremor most often comes up when there is a discussion about the known supervolcanoes around the world like Yellowstone, Toba, and Long Valley.

Thanks for the info Dalloway. I know another poster described it earlier but it is burried way back on page 2 or 3 I think. That is the only problem with long threads, it is hard to follow. I know that I sure as heck don't read more than a dozen pages of ino unless I was following it from the begining, so thank you!!!

I want to emphasize too that the Harmonic Tremors and Deep Tremors are not the same thing. I have a thread going on the Deep Tremors (I am going to link it in my sig, so look below if interested.) This is a phenomenon that was just discovered a few years ago. They are VERY slow moving quakes that seem to ripple back and forth up and down the coast. I have a TON of links to info on the othe thread, so dive in if you want!!


There has been quite a bit of earth quake activity the past 24 hrs. up here. No, nothing to freak out over, but I think it is worthy of mentioning. Some are a bit odd. They are in areas not normally seen and the depths are especially telling.

MAP 1.3 2011/01/20 10:48:43 48.206 -122.208 14.8 4 km ( 2 mi) E of Silvana, WA
MAP 2.7 2011/01/20 03:04:53 46.796 -124.288 38.4 15 km ( 9 mi) W of Grayland, WA
MAP 1.0 2011/01/19 20:44:46 47.200 -123.278 7.5 13 km ( 8 mi) W of Shelton, WA
MAP 1.3 2011/01/19 20:27:03 47.662 -120.110 7.1 3 km ( 2 mi) WNW of Waterville, WA
MAP 2.9 2011/01/19 07:10:45 48.960 -120.688 6.6 66 km ( 41 mi) NW of Winthrop, WA
MAP 1.2 2011/01/18 06:32:21 46.766 -123.965 32.2 7 km ( 4 mi) NNE of Tokeland, WA
MAP 2.2 2011/01/17 19:26:45 46.270 -119.388 0.3 4 km ( 2 mi) SW of West Richland, WA
MAP 1.5 2011/01/17 16:04:49 48.194 -122.198 11.2 4 km ( 3 mi) ESE of Silvana, WA
MAP 2.2 2011/01/16 07:18:41 48.671 -122.459 17.1 9 km ( 6 mi) S of Bellingham, WA
MAP 1.6 2011/01/16 06:40:44 48.676 -122.464 13.4 8 km ( 5 mi) S of Bellingham, WA
MAP 1.2 2011/01/15 19:24:45 46.191 -122.179 0.0 1 km ( 1 mi) S of Mount St. Helens Volcano, WA
MAP 1.8 2011/01/15 09:04:33 47.473 -115.821 2.0 2 km ( 1 mi) WNW of Mullan, ID

SOURCE

Go to THIS interactive quake map. (It is one of my favorites) Now, select the plot by depth and take a look at what happens. You can literally SEE the quakes that are lining the Juan de fuca plate (yellow) and then the disturbing ones to me, the Cascadia Subduction Zone (green)...then those odd blue ones. I feel that these are in response to the pressure from the subduction zone, pushing back against the north american plate. Interesting stuff.

Here is a map showing where our last significant quake was (now THAT was a ride), and a map of the zones:





I'll be keeping a close eye on all of this (perhaps in response to the 7.2 in pakistan?) and update with any new quakes. On just a personal note, my dogs are sleeping soundly right now but my ears have been ringing on and off for the past day. I will make a note if my little one starts doing her earthquake dance!!

Westcoast - You may want to jump into This thread and see if this is also what you are hearing.

From the BBC:

Bad vibrations

The hum is a phenomenon that has been reported in towns and cities across the world from Vancouver in Canada to Auckland in New Zealand.

Full Article


Meant to put this in your other Thread - you may have the honors - Whoopsie

Okay, my little dog just came to me and is shaking like crazy. We'll see what happens. I'm actually kinda worried about her...she's never shook this hard before.

Okay, my dog is really starting to freak me out a bit. She is looking around like there is something terrifying in the room that she is trying to see and shaking like a leaf. She is showing the whites of her eyes like a scared horse. She seems absolutely terrified....

Once again there was a small quake less than 30 miles from my home just hours after her 'episode'.

Magnitude 1.1 - duration magnitude (Md)
Time Friday, January 21, 2011 at 5:51:15 AM (PST)
Friday, January 21, 2011 at 13:51:15 (UTC)
Distance from Darrington, WA - 10 km (6 miles) S (191 degrees)
Verlot, WA - 14 km (8 miles) NE (47 degrees)
Oso, WA - 24 km (15 miles) ESE (118 degrees)
Bellevue, WA - 75 km (46 miles) NNE (32 degrees)

Coordinates 48 deg. 10.1 min. N (48.168N), 121 deg. 37.7 min. W (121.629W)
Depth 11.9 km (7.4 miles)
Location Quality Poor
Location Quality Parameters Nst= 5, Nph= 8, Dmin=22 km, Rmss=0.15 sec, Erho=3.1 km, Erzz=0 km, Gp=93.6 degrees
Event ID# uw01211351
Additional Information map
Topo map centered at earthquake (This link takes you offsite).



SOURCE


Yes, it is very small...but closer than we usually have any. In fact, this past week or so has seen more, smaller quakes close to my house than I can ever remember there being. Very odd.