Quake Watch 2011

On a tohoku mission at present. Just found this.

Data from the Geospatial Information Authority (GSI) of Japan was processed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Caltech (sideshow.jpl.nasa.gov...) to yield the three-dimensional coseismic displacement field over the Japanese Islands (Figures 1 and 2). The coast of northeast Japan moved eastward up to 4 meters, and the coastline generally subsided by about 0.5 meters (up to a maximum of 1.1 meters in eastern Miyagi Prefecture), due to the position of the coast approximately above the lower edge of the rupture area along the interplate boundary.

Source: USGS

Now if you go steaming off into the ftp site you get access to sideshow.jpl.nasa.gov... which has a text file that when you open it starts:

We show 2 videos on Japan's movement over the 35 minutes following the initiation of the Tohoku-Oki (M 9.0). These images are made possible because of the density of GPS stations in Japan (about 1200 GPS stations, or a GPS station every ~30 km). The preliminary GPS displacement data that these animations are based on are provided by the ARIA team at JPL and Caltech. All Original GEONET RINEX data provided to Caltech by the Geospatial Information Authority (GSI) of Japan.

So basically these two files, which come in two versions, are the actual movement of Japan during the earthquake!


EDIT: The site just went down (15:07 UTC) as I was looking at it. Maybe try later.




@muzzy: You might find this page of interest as it looks at the peak acceleration at various buildings.

Originally posted by muzzy
reply to post by Robin Marks

 

Thats a Swarm
I see no pattern time wise, depth looks pretty consistant.
Maybe there is one location wise, but you would have to map those out at a closer scale than what USGS have on the associated map to that page link.

What pattern do you see ?

I respect your studies too much to give you a flippant answer. I'd write much more if my brain weren't broke at the moment.

So. I'll put my big mouth to a test. And save the rest.

I'll predict in the next 72 hours, there will be an earthquake in Oklahoma.

reply to post by Robin Marks

I respect your studies into earthquakes also, and what you have done to raise awareness about Fracking, so I'm not trying to wind you up or cause any grief here, just wondering what it is you see pattern wise.

I had a look at the last few pages of your Arkansas topic, and I won't get involved in that, because I don't know the geology of the area, and it seems you have some people "on the ground" there who will know a lot more about it than I can learn from whats on the internet.

However, sometimes a view from outside the box helps.

I have had a look at the "Greenbriers Swarm of 6-8 April 2011" based on that USGS list link you posted a few pages back. I don't know what else has been going on there so taking this series in isolation maybe doesn't tell us anything. The bottom line is I can't see any pattern based on location, time or depth.
What I did see was that Soda Mountain is probably a Fault Line and on the USGS topo maps they had "Shale Pits" marked to the north of Soda Mt. and to the north of Greenbrier.

Firstly here is an animated Gif of the epicenter sequence of the Swarm. Red dots are >Mag 2, the Light Grey dots are < Mag 3 events.


Then Time versus Magnitude graph.



Then the events shown by depth in a cross section running north to south



And one shown by depth in a cross section running west to east



The above ground profile shown in the last 2 graphs is taken from the height of the surface above each epicenter using Google Earth, and is not to the same scale as the below ground depth so it is only a general indication of the shape of the land surface profile ie its exaggerated.

Lastly the USGS Topographical map showing the Shale Pits. I don't know how old these maps are, they look like from the 1960's.



Well thats my research, I see no patterns except maybe the > Mag 3 quakes were under the north side of Soda Mountain ( except one) and were deeper than the > Mag 2 quakes, and that can likely be expalined by ................. theres a faultline there
I couldn't find much at all about Soda Mountain on Google or Wiki search, but the name alone suggests springs or bubbling water. A Fault Map of the area would be helpful

Since I did this I found a complete list going back to October 9, 2010 folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu...

You want me to plot that

I'd love to debate and discuss my ideas. But my brains are scrambled eggs. I am a real geek and love to stare at maps and graphs. I appreciate all your hard work and your studies. You don't have to plot all the epicenters, Puterman did that a while back here...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I will say that there is a pattern and the swarm is similiar to Colorado injection well earthquakes way back in the 1960s. The swarm also follows the patter of being between two points of reference. The injection well to the north in Guy and an injection well to the south near Greenbrier. The fault follows a straight line between the two wells.

I've been wondering why I predicted an Oklahoma earthquake. I'm really hoping none happen so I can stick my foot in it so I'll stop trying to understand and quell my complusion to know everything. I really expect a quake soon because, according to the pattern, it's overdue.

You just carry on and keep on posting. I read this thread all the time. I commend your efforts and applaud your talent for producing great visualizations.

reply to post by Robin Marks

You are welcome, I came up with some new graphic ideas for my NZ blog while doing that.

Like I said I only read a few pages of the Arkansas thread, thanks for the quick reference to Putermans graphs and maps..
All I can say is they have been injecting waste water at Kawerau since 1954 and yes they do get quake swarms occasionally, one as recently as Feb this year Onepu Fault Swarm, there is an interesting pdf on what they have been doing there, its to get out steam, not gas or oil. But were talking definte faults, sunterrainian water reseviors and volcanos here.

www.osti.gov...

reply to post by PuterMan


check out how the arrows all point to the epicenter, like the whole of Honshu was pulled and stretched towards the "collapsing" edge of the Plate

I wonder if they have similar simulations for other quakes .................. Christchurch maybe

I don't know where I was going with the PGV/PGA, pretty much the closer stations show more Acceleration/ Velocity. I've stopped doing the readings for NZ, as well as the actual lists of Felt Reports, I noticed it generally varied with the time of day and the day of the week, weekends get more reports (particularily in Christchurch) when people have more time on their hands. Like the Chile page I just put on Felt: Yes/No now

reply to post by muzzy


I hope you don't mind if i barge in here but I have viewed some satellite images of this area and discovered that its riddled with openings in the ground filled with water. A lot for such a small area. So i was wondering if there presence might have anything to do with the localized swarms. Its also very arid so heavy and continuous rainfall causing ponds can be ruled out.

You can find the sat image here. Zoom in and have a look around.

www.mountainzone.com...


Ausbrooks says the earthquakes are occurring along a 3.7-mile-long line so tiny that it has no name and was unknown until the previous spate of earthquakes hit the area in October.

Some experts said natural gas exploration, which is extensive in the region, may be triggering the seismic surge, but they noted that no direct correlation between the drilling and the earthquakes has been proven. "The whole region has been drilled, which fractures the rock formation," Al-Shukri said. "But we don't have a definitive correlation between that and the recent earthquakes."

Ausbrooks said that toxic water created by the process of extracting the gas is later injected deep into the earth through disposal wells, which may also cause seismic activity. "If you take a map and you plot the earthquakes on there and then you superimpose it with the gas wells, you don't see any direct correlation. But we do see that with the disposal wells," he said.

But a similar cluster of earthquakes struck the area in 1982, before there was any natural gas exploration in the region, so experts say more research is needed before any conclusions can be drawn. "We cannot just immediately say this is related to the drilling or to the natural activity that's happened in the past," Al-Shukri said.

Well, the Arkansas quakes broke their pattern. The last one was well off the faultine near Guy and well to the north. And it was extermely shallow. Maybe be an error and later revised. Well, I guess that means there are surprises and it's random.

There is one common factor though. The new quake epicenter is surrounded by fracking wells.

earthquake.usgs.gov...

reply to post by shikori


Yes I seen all those "pot holes" when I was doing that Animation, went to that Trails site too
If you look on Terrain view you can see them better.
Maybe they are old Shale Pits

I looked on Topo view for the Shale Pit markers ( crossed spades at 1km zoom), then clicked over to Satellite view and zoomed in closer to each one.
There are some big holes there. And they run all the way up to Greers Ferry Lake.

reply to post by muzzy


Well there r one or two shale pits on the contour map, and i see that there is a quarry of some sort. But even then why so many holes. At one point there is a hole every hundred yards or so. If you drag the map just over to the east of Greenbrier you will see a whole bunch of them. Might a few of them be injection wells? Are there any known limestone formations in the area,like a cave system?

reply to post by shikori


Most of those "holes" are ponds (natural and man-made) in cow/horse pastures. There are many cattle farms & ranches in the area.

Look at the horse ranch located here: 35.186213,-92.2934
I drove by this place yesterday and at the large pond by the highway, they were working on it with heavy equipment, probably expanding it or deepening the pond.

This is a computer-generated message -- this event has not yet been reviewed by a seismologist.
Magnitude 3.6
Date-Time Sunday, April 10, 2011 at 16:21:57 UTC
Sunday, April 10, 2011 at 09:21:57 AM at epicenter

Location 40.379°N, 125.421°W
Depth 5.1 km (3.2 miles) (poorly constrained)
Region OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Distances 96 km (60 miles) W (274°) from Petrolia, CA
100 km (62 miles) WSW (258°) from Ferndale, CA
110 km (68 miles) WSW (249°) from Humboldt Hill, CA
116 km (72 miles) WSW (247°) from Eureka, CA
389 km (241 miles) NW (319°) from San Francisco City Hall, CA

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 7.6 km (4.7 miles); depth +/- 34.9 km (21.7 miles)
Parameters Nph= 41, Dmin=96 km, Rmss=0.42 sec, Gp=259°,
M-type=local magnitude (ML), Version=2
Source California Integrated Seismic Net:
USGS Caltech CGS UCB UCSD UNR

Event ID nc71555656

Reason i posted this quake is because i was wondering what (poorly constrained) mean's?



LINK

"The depth where the earthquake begins to rupture. This depth may be relative to mean sea-level or the average elevation of the seismic stations which provided arrival-time data for the earthquake location. The choice of reference depth is dependent on the method used to locate the earthquake. Sometimes when depth is poorly constrained by available seismic data, the location program will set the depth at a fixed value. For example, 33 km is often used as a default depth for earthquakes determined to be shallow, but whose depth is not satisfactorily determined by the data, whereas default depths of 5 or 10 km are often used in mid-continental areas and on mid-ocean ridges since earthquakes in these areas are usually shallower than 33 km."

earthquake.usgs.gov...

The holes in Arkansas are ponds.
The squares cut in the forests and in the farmers fields are fracking pads.
They looked like Lego (TM) tadpoles, if you think of the roads leading to them as the tail of the tadpole.

Here's the fields in Wyoming.



wolves.wordpress.com...

reply to post by Robin Marks


Yes I have been made aware of this and I have also discovered some cattle close to these ponds (google earth is awesome). However I have noticed the fracking pads. They are very regular shaped when compared to the natural ponds and have some large complexes close to them. A few have lines leading away from them. They seem to be in abundance in the area.

5.1, shallow, North Island of New Zealand

Universal Time April 11 2011 at 0:33 NZ Standard Time
Monday, April 11 2011 at 12:33 pm
Latitude, Longitude 40.28°S, 176.38°E
Focal Depth 30 km
Richter magnitude 5.1
Region Hawke's Bay
Location
* 20 km west of Porangahau * 30 km east of Dannevirke * 70 km east of Palmerston North * 180 km north-east of Wellington

www.geonet.org.nz...

What's going on in Nevada?

MAP 3.0 2011/04/11 01:05:00 38.362 -118.761 0.0 NEVADA
MAP 2.6 2011/04/11 00:31:09 38.305 -118.873 0.0 NEVADA
MAP 4.2 2011/04/11 00:22:21 38.379 -118.735 13.8 NEVADA
MAP 4.0 2011/04/11 00:21:17 38.374 -118.739 15.3 NEVADA
MAP 3.5 2011/04/11 00:20:17 38.363 -118.741 9.4 NEVADA
MAP 3.3 2011/04/11 00:13:12 38.337 -118.746 10.2 NEVADA
MAP 3.5 2011/04/10 23:06:00 38.374 -118.741 9.7 NEVADA
MAP 3.0 2011/04/10 23:02:16 38.373 -118.738 10.1 NEVADA

earthquake.usgs.gov...

reply to post by MoorfNZ
well given the nearly exact same spot,.
I'd say Fracking?

0 Depth for the last 2 Nevada quakes.
Also they had activity yesterday.


Thanks for posting, will make a mental note to keep an eye on Nevada.