Tagged: earthquake

The Northwest hasn’t had a killer earthquake since 1965 – and it’s been three centuries since anything massive shook this region. That’s how New Zealanders felt, until two years ago, when a quake knocked their third largest city to its knees. 

Lessons from Christchurch, NZ, and other Pacific Rim cities, are resonating at a meeting of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, in Seattle this week.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – A magnitude 6.3 earthquake has struck off the west coast of Canada but no damages have been reported and no tsunami warning has been issued.

HONOLULU – A geologist tracking a tsunami in Hawaii says the first waves hitting shore are smaller than expected.

Gerard Fryer of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said Saturday night the largest wave was measured at 5 feet in Maui in the first 45 minutes.

Warning changes

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had issued a tsunami warning for all Hawaiian islands Saturday night, hours after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake rocked an island off Canada's west coast. Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie proclaimed an emergency, mobilizing extra safety measures.

YORBA LINDA, Calif. — Another moderate earthquake has shaken a wide area of Southern California.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the 9:33 a.m. Wednesday quake was centered two miles northeast of the Orange County city of Yorba Linda.

The quake was initially measured at magnitude-4.5 but seismologists have since lowered the magnitude to 4.1.

A magnitude 4.4 quake centered in the same area struck late Tuesday night. No damage was reported.

Yorba Linda is about 35 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.

"This is not a drill! Get out of here!"

UNALASKA, Alaska – Residents of southern Alaska awoke this morning to a major earthquake. It triggered a tsunami warning near the Aleutian Islands. But no damage has been reported and there was no tsunami.

Earthquake scientists are hoping to build an early-warning system for Washington, Oregon and California.  It would give typically about five to 30 seconds of notice that a big quake was starting. The scientists have been meeting this week to craft a proposal. 

There’s no way to predict earthquakes. But once a big one starts, it sends out different kinds of shock waves that move at different speeds. One type is fast-moving, but barely perceptible. These are called P-waves. They arrive before the slow traveling but damaging shock waves (called S-waves).  

So, if you have precise sensors, they can detect the fast-moving waves and send out alarms. 

A magnitude 4.3 quake at 10:35 a.m. Monday at Mount St. Helens was felt in southwest Washington and the Portland area.