Eclipse Quakes in Melbourne, Auckland & Taupo
While lunar eclipses tend to trigger major quakes, we have been seeing solar eclipses (July 1) setting off quakes in places that don’t usually get them. On Friday Auckland had a 2.9 quake – unusual for that part of New Zealand and the largest they have received in four years. Scientists said was not associated with any known faults, and although it was beneath Auckland’s volcanoes, normally a cluster of quakes would be signs of unrest. Fingers crossed on that!
Today there were quakes on both sides of the Tasman Sea. Melbourne felt a 4.4 quake with an epicenter 120 kms away. This is the biggest we have received in 44 years. Yep, I live in Melbourne and hopefully Australia is still one of the safest places in the world…
Lake Taupo in New Zealand (which by the way is a supervolcano!) had their biggest in a decade, and it was felt as far away as Christchurch.
Not sure why this is news. The US Geology’s EQuake3D app shows dozens of sub-4.0 quakes every day plus a handful of sub-5.5 ones.
For example, Alaska has been shaking pretty badly for the past month or so – about ten minor quakes daily – yet is hardly news because of their low intensity and regularity. On the other hand, there was a quite strange series of over twenty quakes in a two day period at the mouth of the Red Sea at the first of June… and this went completely unreported.
A powerful magnitude-7.8 earthquake rattled New Zealand’s remote Kermadec Islands in the Pacific. The Kermadec Islands are a remote outpost and are uninhabited aside from a weather station and a hostel for visiting New Zealand scientists. The 7:03 a.m. Thursday (1903 GMT Wednesday) quake was 29.8 miles (48 kilometers) deep (USGS).
@artreddin
It is news because the biggest quake in 44 years (Melbourne) and a decade (Taupo) happened within the timeframe of an eclipse. It isn’t statistically meaningful if you discount eclipses as a factor, which is the opinion of most/all scientists. It is meaningful if a megaquake will be the 2012 cataclysm. In retrospect these quakes could be seen as indicators. As I always state, 2012 will probably be nothing, but it’s worth keeping our ear to the ground, just in case.