Quake Watch 2011

following on from post by muzzy

Another mystery solved.
That big trace on SNZO was probably this;
2011-12-31 00:19:17, 5.6Mw , 57.01°S, 142.67°W, 10, Pacific Antarctic Ridge, again missed by USGS
I've marked the 3 choices for the 00:00:00 line on this SNZO graph, seems obvious to me, but you just never know.
I think the Christchurch quake is mixed in with the Pac-Ant quake trace starting at the pink dot mark.
You would think it would be bigger, being closer, but it must be the way the LISS is set up.
The times marked with an asterisk are calculated using the Travel Times Calculator, beacuse USGS didn't have SNZO on the list, SNZO is at -41.3103, 174.7046 BTW. Often you can get a decent idea from URZ or RPZ which seem to show up more often in the phase arrivals than SNZO, but it can vary by up to 1-2 minutes depending on the direction of the earthquake.


What got me confused, and what shall continue to be a mystery to me into 2012, is how on earth USGS come up with the conversions from ML to mb
Heres 3 examples from yesterday (links are to the phase data page sources)
00:44:46.56 SOUTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND mb = 5.3 ( 20) ML = 4.5 ( 41) ~ upwards by 8 decimal points
22:30:20.05 SOUTH OF KERMADEC IS mb = 4.7 ( 26) ML = 4.8 (10) ~ downwards by 1 decimal point
21:43:19.14 SOUTH OF KERMADEC IS mb = 5.2 ( 12) ML = 4.9 ( 10) ~ upwards by 3 decimal points

Wishing you all a less confusing Happy New Year

Magnitude 4.0
Date-Time Saturday, December 31, 2011 at 20:04:58 UTC
Saturday, December 31, 2011 at 03:04:58 PM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 41.159°N, 80.729°W
Depth 2.2 km (1.4 miles) (poorly constrained)
Region YOUNGSTOWN-WARREN URBAN AREA, OHIO
Distances 9 km (5 miles) NW of Youngstown, Ohio
11 km (6 miles) SE of Warren, Ohio
89 km (55 miles) ESE of Cleveland, Ohio
234 km (145 miles) NE of COLUMBUS, Ohio

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 10.3 km (6.4 miles); depth +/- 10.2 km (6.3 miles)
Parameters NST=108, Nph=125, Dmin=65.7 km, Rmss=1.02 sec, Gp= 50°,
M-type="Nuttli" surface wave magnitude (mbLg), Version=5

link earthquake.usgs.gov...

An interesting side note, just yesterday the Ohio Department of Natural Resources forced the fracking company in the Youngstown area to shut down an injection site due to all the earthquakes!

link: www.wksu.org...

reply to post by megabogie


I don't know anything about all this, but hasn't there been quite a few today in the U.S.? I just saw this one in Ohio....is that normal for there?

reply to post by StealthyKat


Unfortunately it has been normal for the last 8-9 months in that area...thought to be the result of all the fracking in that area

reply to post by megabogie


I know it's not huge but it still had to be scary! Hope everything's ok there.

reply to post by StealthyKat


Thank you for your concern but I'm about an hour south west of Youngstown and we didn't feel it. I am looking for damage reports but haven't found one yet

JUst found a report that says it was felt two and half hours south west from us (in Columbus) but I find that hard to believe. No damage reported yet

link www.wkyc.com...

reply to post by megabogie


Glad to hear it. I have never experienced one, so to me that is big

I've a feeling that 2012 is going to be a bumpy ride, literally.

People can remain in denial all they want to, but earthquakes (along with other natural disasters) ARE increasing. Yes, I understand the argument that in modern times, we simply just have more technology to hear about the world quakes, so some may assume that this is the perceivable increase.

But....

Even in our past, quakes were being recorded. When you look at the sheer numbers alone, regardless of the fact of our advanced media notification, they actually are increasing.

So take a look at the Rainier stations you guys:

Map with stations

Look at RCS, RCM, STAR

Ice quakes? There seems to be a whole lot of them....recorded on all three seismos and they seem more pronounced to me than an ice quake. Definitely not weather.

ETA: I pulled up all three stations and looked at them side-by-side. I would say over half of them show up on all three...strongest at RCS then RCM and then STAR. These three are on different sides of the mountain. On RCS, in between the bigger ones you can see the sharper smaller spikes that I attribute to ice quakes or other local noise. These other ones though.....while small, I think are seismic.

What do you guys think?

reply to post by westcoast




quake swarm at Rainier, looks like... Sure look seismic to me, but of course PuterMan could tell us for sure with some spectrum or audio...

And does that look like some tremor to go with it I am seeing?

Got them up in GEE, and there is definitely something going on:

reply to post by TrueAmerican


I will have a listen. Back shortly.

Space reserved for answer. In the meantime here it is BUD style RCM.UW..EHZ.2011.365

reply to post by PuterMan


They are slightly stronger at UW.RCS. But one thing I am noticing is how consistent they are in amplitude. And that may spell ice or man made activity rather than seismic... But worth a spectro or listen I think.

Glad to see the Professionals are on the case! Have a feeling New Year is going to start with a 'bang' somewhere!
You wont believe this but I am seeing the New Year in watching Dantes Peak....hope it's not some sort of omen!

Oh by the way guys....Lang may yer lum reek!
Rainbows
Jane

reply to post by TrueAmerican


They are not man made. That is for certain. They are not harmonic or volcanic tremor either for certain. They don't seem to have a high enough frequency for ice quakes but i have to be honest and say I am not 100% certain how much higher ice quake signatures are. From Glacier peak i am guessing the main body between 10 and 30 Hz. The main body of these are under 5Hz which IMO makes them seismic. There are a lot of them. Many background one I can hear but don't show as much on the trace.





Odd looking blighters



They make a muffled double strike thud.

Happy New Year

Please continue in Quake Watch 2012

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by PuterMan


Happy New Year

To you,puterman.

Looking forward to a quiet boring year regarding earthquakes,that is my hope anyways.

Originally posted by angelchemuel
Oh by the way guys....Lang may yer lum reek!
Rainbows
Jane

I haven't heard that since my Granny passed away.

Most of the Canterbury "lum's" fell over in the quakes or have been removed by now for safety reasons, and the Council have were legislating to do away with open fires anyway to reduce air pollution.

Apparently an old Scottish tradition was 'first footing", you would bring good luck to the household if you were the first visitor and brought a lump of coal with you
Guess that was back in the days when there was a coal shortage, and when coal was used for heating and cooking.

In summary for 2011, I wish the best for all ATS members in 2012!

And when we're still here in 2013, watching quakes and freaking out, we're gonna have a lot of laughs at the Mayans!

reply to post by megabogie

Friends in the Youngstown area reported a house fire caused by the earthquake (not sure how yet). Locals have been Facebooking about the rattling