Region Hit by Large Pakistan Quake as Shown by NASA Spacecraft
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On September 24 at 11:29 GMT, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck in south-central Pakistan at a relatively shallow depth of 20 kilometers. The earthquake occurred as the result of oblique strike-slip motion, consistent with rupture within the Eurasian tectonic plate. Tremors were felt as far away as New Delhi as well as Karachi in Pakistan. Even though the immediate area to the epicenter is sparsely populated, the majority of houses are of mud brick construction and damage is expected to be extensive. The perspective view, looking to the east, shows the location of the epicenter in Pakistan's Makran fold belt. The image is centered near 27 degrees north latitude, 65.5 degrees east longitude, and was acquired December 13, 2012.
With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet), ASTER images Earth to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet. ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched Dec. 18, 1999, on Terra. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and data products.
The broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution of ASTER provides scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface mapping and monitoring of dynamic conditions and temporal change. Example applications are: monitoring glacial advances and retreats; monitoring potentially active volcanoes; identifying crop stress; determining cloud morphology and physical properties; wetlands evaluation; thermal pollution monitoring; coral reef degradation; surface temperature mapping of soils and geology; and measuring surface heat balance.
The U.S. science team is located at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The Terra mission is part of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C.
More information about ASTER is available at asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/.
Image Credit:
NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team
Image Addition Date:
2013-09-24
NASA image use policy.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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KARACHI: On Tuesday, a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck Balochistan, killing more than 260 people and displacing hundreds of thousands. It also triggered formation of a new island off the coast, which has quickly become a global curiosity.
But scientists say the island won't last long.
"It's a transient feature," said Bill Barnhart, a research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey. "It will probably be gone within a couple of months. It's just a big pile of mud that was on the seafloor that got pushed up."
Indeed, such islands are formed by so-called mud volcanoes, which occur around the world, and Barnhart and other scientists suspect that's what we're seeing off the Pakistani coast.
News organizations have reported that the Pakistani island suddenly appeared near the port of Gwadar after the quake. The island is about 60 to 70 feet (18 to 21 meters) high, up to 300 feet (91 meters) wide, and up to 120 feet (37 meters) long.
Media reports have located the new island at just a few paces to up to two kilometers off the coast of Pakistan. It is about 250 miles (400 kilometers) from the epicenter of the earthquake.
The island appears to be primarily made out of mud from the seafloor, although photos show rocks as well, Barnhart told National Geographic. He has been studying images and media accounts of the new island from his lab in Golden, Colorado.
"It brought up a dead octopus, and people have been picking up fish on [the island]," he said.
A similar mud island appeared off Pakistan after a 2011 earthquake there, Barnhart said: "It lasted a month or two and then washed away."
How Mud Volcanoes Work
Though mud volcanoes have been seen elsewhere, they don't always produce islands.
Such volcanoes were seen in California after a 2010 earthquake, Barnhart noted, when the tremors caused carbon dioxide to bubble up through the ground, but the result was "vigorous boiling," not new islands.
Barnhart said Pakistani scientists will soon be measuring the new landmass to better understand how it formed.
"We don't know much about it so far," he added. "We haven't had a satellite pass over it yet to really identify it."
Seismic waves from the quake likely caused some fluid material under the seafloor to expand, Barnhart said. The crust holding that pressurized fluid ruptured, and mud spewed up.
The whole process is similar to liquefaction, Barnhart said, which is when seismic waves turn normally solid layers of soil into a flowing fluid, often with disastrous results for the buildings and people above.
He was skeptical of media reports that the underlying fluid was methane hydrates.
"We don't know exactly what this was, whether it was free methane, carbon dioxide, water, or some other kind of fluid," he said. But methane hydrates are offshore in much deeper water, he said. SAMAA/AGENCIES
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Tue, Sep 24 12:21 PM EDT
By Gul Yusufzai
QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - A major earthquake hit a remote part of western Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least 45 people and prompting a new island to rise from the sea just off the country's southern coast.
Tremors were felt as far away as the Indian capital of New Delhi, hundreds of miles (kilometers) to the east, where buildings shook, as well as the sprawling port city of Karachi in Pakistan.
The United States Geological Survey said the 7.8 magnitude quake struck 145 miles southeast of Dalbandin in Pakistan's quake-prone province of Baluchistan, which borders Iran.
The earthquake was so powerful that it caused the seabed to rise and create a small, mountain-like island about 600 meters (yards) off Pakistan's Gwadar coastline in the Arabian Sea.
Television channels showed images of a stretch of rocky terrain rising above the sea level, with a crowd of bewildered people gathering on the shore to witness the rare phenomenon.
Officials said scores of mud houses were destroyed by aftershocks in the thinly populated mountainous area near the quake epicenter in Baluchistan, a huge barren province of deserts and rugged mountains.
Abdul Qadoos, deputy speaker of the Baluchistan assembly, told Reuters that at least 30 percent of houses in the impoverished Awaran district had caved in.
The local deputy commissioner in Awaran, Abdul Rasheed Gogazai, and the spokesman of Pakistan's Frontier Corps involved in the rescue effort said at least 45 people had been killed.
In the regional capital of Quetta, officials said some areas appeared to be badly damaged but it was hard to assess the impact quickly because the locations were so remote.
Chief secretary Babar Yaqoob said earlier that 25 people had been injured and that the death toll was expected to increase as many people appeared to be trapped inside their collapsed homes.
Local television reported that helicopters carrying relief supplies had been dispatched to the affected area. The army said it had deployed 200 troops to help deal with the disaster.
(Writing by Maria Golovnina; Additional reporting by Mehreen Zahra-Malik in Islamabad and David Chance in New Delhi; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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45 killed as 7.8 earthquake strikes Pakistan, shaking felt in New Delhi
Published time: September 24, 2013 11:49
Edited time: September 24, 2013 17:05 Get short URL
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Earthquake, Pakistan At least 45 people have been killed in an earthquake measuring 7.8 which struck southwest Pakistan on Tuesday. Tremors were felt across the region and as far as New Delhi, with the disaster creating a 'new island' in its wake.
The local deputy commissioner in Awaran, Abdul Rasheed Gogazai, and the spokesman of Pakistan's Frontier Corps involved in the rescue effort stold Reuters that at least 45 people have been killed.
The US Geological Survey has measured the quake at 7.8 magnitude after it struck Balochistan, just 69 km north-northeast of Awaran, the nearest city. A “RED” alert was issued by the agency meaning estimated fatalities of over 1,000 and damages costing over $1 billion.
At least 30 percent of houses in the impoverished Awaran district have been destroyed, Abdul Qadoos, deputy speaker of the Baluchistan assembly, told Reuters.
Roofs of two schools have collapsed in Awaran, according to Pakistan’s English-language daily The Express Tribune. The paper said that houses have been damaged across the province while the injured are in the process of being escorted to nearby hospitals. This is yet to be officially confirmed.
The earthquake also created a new island off Pakistan's Gwadar coastline, according to local paper Express News. The new island stands approximately half a mile into the sea. A bemused crowd reportedly gathered to observe the phenomenon of the new island, which apparently has a mountainous terrain.
The quake's epicenter was in a remote area of the country at a depth of just 15km (9.3mi), but was felt as far away as neighboring India. Pakistan's Geo TV said that the earthquake, which struck at 4:29 pm local time, lasted for about two minutes.
Pakistani Met office officials say that major damage and loss of life has been averted because of the earthquake’s location in such a remote area. However, they have also forecast impending aftershocks of up to 5 in magnitude on the Richter scale.
In India's New Delhi, buildings shook sending people running into the streets, Reuters witnesses said.
However, there are 337,980 people within 100km of the epicenter who could potentially be affected, according to the Global Disaster Alert and coordination System (GDACS).
In April this year a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck the Iran-Pakistan border killing 46 people and injuring some 180 others. Houses collapsed in the disaster, causing people to flee to the streets out of fear.
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Summary
Location and Magnitude contributed by: USGS National Earthquake Information Center
20 km
10 mi
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Pakistan
27.000°N, 65.514°E
Depth: 20.0km (12.4mi)
Event Time
2013-09-24 11:29:48 UTC
2013-09-24 16:29:48 UTC+05:00 at epicenter
2013-09-24 20:59:48 UTC+09:30 system time
Location
27.000°N 65.514°E depth=20.0km (12.4mi)
Nearby Cities
66km (41mi) NNE of Awaran, Pakistan
116km (72mi) NW of Bela, Pakistan
172km (107mi) NW of Uthal, Pakistan
175km (109mi) S of Kharan, Pakistan
791km (492mi) ENE of Muscat, Oman
Related Links
•Additional earthquake information for Pakistan
•Earthquake Summary Poster
•View location in Google Maps
Tectonic Summary
The September 24, 2013 M7.7 earthquake in south-central Pakistan occurred as the result of oblique-strike-slip type motion at shallow crustal depths. The location and mechanism of the earthquake are consistent with rupture within the Eurasia plate above the Makran subduction zone. The event occurred within the transition zone between northward subduction of the Arabia plate beneath the Eurasia plate and northward collision of the India plate with the Eurasia plate. The epicenter of the event is 69km north of Awaran, Pakistan, and 270km north of Karachi, Pakistan (population 11.6 million).
On a broad scale, the tectonics of southern and central Pakistan reflect a complex plate boundary where the India plate slides northward relative to the Eurasia plate in the east, and the Arabia plate subducts northward beneath the Eurasia plate in the Makran (western Pakistan). These motions typically result in north-south to northeast-southwest strike-slip motion at the latitude of the September 24 earthquake that is primarily accommodated on the Chaman Fault, with the earthquake potentially occurring on one of the southern-most strands of this fault system. Further, more in-depth studies will be required to identify the precise fault associated with this event. Although seismically active, this portion of the Eurasia plate boundary region has not experience large damaging earthquakes in the recent history. In the past 40 years, only one significant event (M6.1), which killed 6, has occurred within 200km of the September 2013 event, in July of 1990.
Seismotectonics of the Middle East and Vicinity
No fewer than four major tectonic plates (Arabia, Eurasia, India, and Africa) and one smaller tectonic block (Anatolia) are responsible for seismicity and tectonics in the Middle East and surrounding region. Geologic development of the region is a consequence of a number of first-order plate tectonic processes that include subduction, large-scale transform faulting, compressional mountain building and crustal extension.
Mountain building in northern Pakistan and Afghanistan is the result of compressional tectonics associated with collision of the India plate moving northwards at a rate of 40 mm/yr with respect to the Eurasia plate. Continental thickening of the northern and western edge of the India subcontinent has produced the highest mountains in the world, including the Himalayan, Karakoram, Pamir and Hindu Kush ranges. Earthquake activity and faulting found in this region, as well as adjacent parts of Afghanistan and India, are due to collisional plate tectonics.
Beneath the Pamir-Hindu Kush Mountains of northern Afghanistan, earthquakes occur to depths as great as 200 km as a result of remnant lithospheric subduction. Shallower crustal earthquakes in the Pamir-Hindu Mountains occur primarily along the Main Pamir Thrust and other active Quaternary faults, which accommodate much of the region's crustal shortening. The western and eastern margins of the Main Pamir Thrust display a combination of thrust and strike-slip mechanisms.
Along the western margin of the Tibetan Plateau, in the vicinity of southeastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan, the India plate translates obliquely relative to the Eurasia plate, resulting in a complex fold-and-thrust belt known as the Sulaiman Range. Faulting in this region includes strike-slip, reverse-slip and oblique-slip motion and often results in shallow, destructive earthquakes. The relatively fast moving left-lateral, strike-slip Chaman Fault system in southeastern Afghanistan accommodates translational motion between the India and Eurasia plates. In 1505, a segment of the Chaman Fault system near Kabul, Afghanistan ruptured causing widespread destruction of Kabul and surrounding villages. In the same region, the more recent 30 May 1935, M7.6 Quetta, Pakistan earthquake, occurred within the Sulaiman Range, killing between 30,000 and 60,000 people.
Off the south coast of Pakistan and southeast coast of Iran, the Makran trench is the present-day surface expression of active subduction of the Arabia plate beneath the continental Eurasia plate, which converge at a rate of approximately 20 mm/yr. Although the Makran subduction zone has a relatively slow convergence rate, it has produced large devastating earthquakes and tsunamis. For example, the November 27, 1945 M8.0 mega-thrust earthquake produced a tsunami within the Gulf of Oman and Arabia Sea, killing over 4,000 people. Northwest of this active subduction zone, collision of the Arabia and Eurasia plates forms the approximately 1,500-km-long fold and thrust belt of the Zagros Mountains, which crosses the whole of western Iran and extends into northeastern Iraq. Collision of the Arabia and Eurasia plates also causes crustal shortening in the Alborz Mountains and Kopet Dag in northern Iran. Eastern Iran experiences destructive earthquakes that originate on both strike-slip and reverse faults. For example, the 16 September 1978 M7.8 earthquake, along the southwest edge of the Dasht-e-Lut Basin killed at least 15,000 people.
Along the eastern margin of the Mediterranean region there is complex interaction between the Africa, Arabia and Eurasia plates. The Red Sea Rift is a spreading center between the Africa and Arabia plates, with a spreading rate of approximately 10mm/yr near its northern end, and 16mm/yr near its southern end (Chu, D. and Gordon, R. G., 1998). Seismicity rate and size of earthquakes has been relatively small along the spreading center, but the rifting process has produced a series of volcanic systems across western Saudi Arabia.
Further north, the Red Sea Rift terminates at the southern boundary of the Dead Sea Transform Fault. The Dead Sea Transform is a strike-slip fault that accommodates differential motion between the Africa and Arabia plates. Though both the Africa plate, to the west, and the Arabia plate, to the east, are moving in a NNE direction, the Arabia plate is moving slightly faster, resulting in the left-lateral, strike-slip motion along this segment of the plate boundary. Historically, earthquake activity along the Dead Sea Transform has been a significant hazard in the densely populated Levant region (eastern Mediterranean). For example, the November 1759 Near East earthquake is thought to have killed somewhere between 2,000-20,000 people. The northern termination of the Dead Sea Transform occurs within a complex tectonic region of southeast Turkey, where interaction of the Africa and Arabia plates and the Anatolia block occurs. This involves translational motion of the Anatolia Block westwards, with a speed of approximately 25mm/yr with respect to Eurasia, in order to accommodate closure of the Mediterranean basin.
The right-lateral, strike-slip North Anatolia Fault, in northern Turkey, accommodates much of the westwards motion between the Anatolia Block and Eurasia Plate. Between 1939 and 1999, a series of devastating M7.0+ strike-slip earthquakes propagated westwards along the North Anatolia Fault system. The westernmost of these earthquakes was the 17th August 1999, M7.6 Izmit earthquake, near the Sea of Marmara, killed approximately 17,000 people.
At the southern edge of the Anatolia Block lies the east-west trending Cyprian Arc with associated levels of moderate seismicity. The Cyprian Arc represents the convergent boundary between the Anatolia Block to the north and the Africa Plate to the south. The boundary is thought to join the East Anatolia Fault zone in eastern Turkey; however no certain geometry or sense of relative motion along the entire boundary is widely accepted.
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Shale gas, oil reshape world energy landscape
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File photo shows US workers laying a shale gas pipeline outside Waynesburg, in Pennsylvania .
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AFP Frédéric Pouchot 12 hours ago
PARIS (AFP) - After unleashing an energy revolution in the United States, shale gas and oil are now becoming energy game-changers worldwide, a break with the past whose ramifications are still unclear.
Thanks to the advent of hydraulic fracturing technology -- used to extract oil and gas locked in sedimentary shale rock -- the United States is on track to become the world-number-one oil producer by 2017 and a net exporter by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Besides radically changing the US energy landscape, this "fracking" revolution is also reshaping markets overseas.
Thanks to the sudden abundance of cheap natural gas, American electricity suppliers are shunning domestic coal -- leading producers to export it at low prices to Europe and Asia.
That trend has revived the appeal of coal-fired power plants in Europe and taken a toll on plans to transition toward gas-burning plants, despite the air-pollution concerns around coal.
Energy experts say the United States will also likely begin exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe and Asia in the next several years.
US authorities have already greenlighted four LNG export terminals.
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"Graphic showing the policy of selected countries on …
Graphic showing the policy of selected countries on shale gas and oil extraction. (AFP Photo/dp mhc/ …"We anticipate that from around 2016, we are really going to see volumes of LNG coming out of the United States and they are going to change the way that markets connect over the coming decades," said IEA analyst Tim Gould at a recent conference.
"The United States won't export a huge amount of gas, because they'll be looking to keep domestic price levels as low as possible, but eventually there will undoubtedly be more than 10 export terminals geared toward Europe and Asia," said Jerome Ferrier, head of the International Gas Union.
With all its new non-conventional output, the United States is now producing more than seven million barrels of oil per day, returning to the level of 25 years ago, said Olivier Appert, head of the French institute for oil and new energies (IFPEN).
"The fact that the United States is set to become the top oil producer by 2020, ahead of Saudi Arabia, changes everything," said Appert.
While the size and longevity of the American boom are up for debate, it will redraw the world energy-trade map at least temporarily by making North America less dependant on Middle Eastern oil.
China is on track to take the United States' place as the world's top oil importer in 2017, its oil bill soaring to $500 billion in 2020, the Wood Mackenzie consultancy calculated last month.
The United States' bill for oil imports is meanwhile set to fall from a peak of $335 billion in 2008 to $160 billion in 2020.
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"Workers change pipes at a rig exploring the Marcellus …
Workers change pipes at a rig exploring the Marcellus Shale outside the town of Waynesburg in Pennsy …This unexpected turn of events is shaking up the global oil market.
At first the world's top crude producers, Saudi Arabia and Russia, considered the fracking boom "a speculative bubble that was about to burst", said Appert.
"But today it's becoming a major problem for them," to the point that the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries launched a study on the issue in June, he added.
Keen to emulate the American boom, more than a dozen other countries around the world are currently exploring for shale hydrocarbons or moving in that direction.
But environmental fears around fracking -- in which a high-pressure mixture of water, sand and chemicals is blasted deep underground to release hydrocarbons trapped between layers of rock -- may stop other countries from embracing the shale revolution with the same fervour as the United States.
"The United States is atypical because landowners hold the underground rights to their property, and despite all the local protests, they're encouraged to drill," said Ferrier of the International Gas Union.
"It's clear that in Poland, Romania, Great Britain, that won't happen as easily."
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"British police watch an anti-shale gas and fracking …
British police watch an anti-shale gas and fracking protest outside parliament in London. (AFP Photo …Energy-hungry China has the world's largest shale-gas reserves, according to preliminary estimates, but recently began exploration returned disappointing initial results.
However, "the energy challenges in China are such that the country needs every exploitable resource, and if there's shale gas there, it will probably be tapped," said Ferrier.
"The problem will be finding the water for fracking."
Europe also faces tricky questions on shale gas.
The continent depends heavily on Russian gas, with North Sea deposits quickly running out.
The European Union has so far failed to adopt a unified gas strategy, but policymakers consider the issue strategically vital.
EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said in May that shale gas could be a good bargaining chip in reaching new deals with Russian energy giant Gazprom.
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Earthquakes
Updated: Wed, 10 Apr 2013
In detailBack to top
Every day an earthquake happens somewhere in the world.
Many are so light that they cannot be detected. Only a small proportion of the more than a million quakes that occur every year actually cause damage. The vast majority are very small and have no impact on the suface, or they occur in sparsely populated areas of the world.
Scientists cannot predict when an earthquake will strike, but they have been able to map where earthquakes are most likely to happen.
Most of the largest earthquakes occur within the Pacific "Ring of Fire", a horseshoe-shaped band of volcanoes and fault lines circling the edges of the Pacific Ocean.
The Earth’s crust is divided into tectonic plates which are constantly moving. Earthquakes, like volcanoes, take place along the plate boundaries.
When two plates move past each other, the jagged parts of the plate boundaries get stuck while the rest of the plates keep moving. Eventually, when the plates have moved far enough, the edges suddenly become unstuck, causing an earthquake.
Underwater earthquakes, or landslides caused by an earthquake, can trigger tsunamis – large water waves that can cause widespread damage when they hit land.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that animals show unusual behaviour before an earthquake. There have been reports of creatures leaving their homes ahead of an earthquake, but more research needs to be done in this field.
Deadly impactsBack to top
Earthquakes usually have the greatest impact in poorer countries. The main reason is building quality and regulations - buildings can now be designed to withstand significant levels of shaking, at slightly higher cost. Poorer people's livelihoods are also likely to be more vulnerable.
If people aren’t trained in what to do in an earthquake, they are more likely to be killed or injured.
In January 2010, Haiti experienced the biggest urban disaster in modern history, when a 7.0 magnitude quake killed more than 200,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless. The main quake was followed by several strong aftershocks.
The tremors occurred near the earth’s surface, near a crowded capital city with poorly constructed buildings, and among people who had had little or no training in what to do in an earthquake.
In December 2003, an earthquake in the southern Iranian city of Bam wiped it out in just 12 seconds. More than a quarter of the 120,000 population died, and nearly all the survivors were left homeless. The quake measured magnitude 6.5, but it was very shallow, and the city’s traditional architecture meant walls and roofs crumbled as they collapsed, leaving no air pockets and suffocating people inside.
Although no structure is 100 percent quake-proof, buildings can be made much safer relatively cheaply, adding less than 10 percent on average to building costs. The cost can be as little as 3 to 4 percent higher when building a safe school, and a 5 to 10 percent increase when building a hospital, the U.N. Secretary-General’s special representative for disaster risk reduction, Margareta Wahlstrom, said soon after the Haiti earthquake.
Time is of the essence in saving lives. Usually locals digging with their bare hands save more lives than well-equipped international rescue teams who arrive days after the quake.
Terrain is an important factor in the impact of earthquakes. Building on steep slopes and on soft soil foundations increases the chance of buildings sinking or tipping over during an earthquake.
The India/Pakistan earthquake of 2005 was magnitude 7.6. It killed nearly 75,000 people – including 16,000 children who were crushed when their classrooms collapsed on top of them. Aftershocks in the mountainous region caused countless landslides, blocking roads and hampering relief efforts.
Measuring a tremorBack to top
Earthquake size is measured by magnitude, a measure of the amount of energy a tremor releases. The magnitude is usually based on the scale worked out in 1935 by Charles Richter. But the "Richter scale" is unreliable for measuring larger earthquakes and has been heavily modified.
The USGS favours describing quakes merely by "magnitude" and gives readings consistent with the Richter scale.
Magnitude is the same no matter where you are, or how strong or weak the shaking is on the surface. Every increase of one whole number of magnitude represents a 10-fold increase in intensity.
Below is a very rough guide to how magnitudes relate to the amount of shaking on the surface. If an earthquake of high magnitude occurs deep below the earth's surface the amount of shaking will be less than if it occurs nearer the surface.
◦Magnitude 2.5 or less - the earthquake is usually not felt
◦Magnitude 7.0-7.9 - major earthquake, serious damage
◦Magnitude 8.0 or greater - can totally destroy communities near the epicentre.
Source: UPSeis
Interesting facts:
◦The largest recorded earthquake in the world was magnitude 9.5 in Chile, May 22, 1960.
◦Most earthquakes occur at depths of less than 80 km (50 miles) from the Earth's surface.
◦The world's deadliest recorded earthquake occurred in 1556 in central China, where most people lived in caves carved from soft rock. An estimated 830,000 people died.
◦The earliest recorded evidence of an earthquake dates back to 1831 BC in China's Shandong province.
Source: The U.S. Geological Survey's Earthquake Facts page.
What to do during an earthquakeBack to top
Here's what the American Red Cross says people should do during an earthquake:
If you are inside when the shaking starts:◦Drop, cover and hold on. Move as little as possible.
◦If you are in bed, stay there, curl up and hold on. Protect your head with a pillow.
◦Stay away from windows to avoid being injured by shattered glass.
◦Stay indoors until the shaking stops and you are sure it is safe to exit. When it is, use stairs rather than the elevator in case there are aftershocks, power outages or other damage.
◦Be aware that fire alarms and sprinkler systems frequently go off in buildings during an earthquake, even if there is no fire.
If you are outside when the shaking starts:
◦Find a clear spot (away from buildings, power lines, trees, streetlights) and drop to the ground. Stay there until the shaking stops.
◦If you are in a vehicle, pull over to a clear location and stop. Avoid bridges, overpasses and power lines if possible. Stay inside with your seatbelt fastened until the shaking stops. Then, drive carefully, avoiding bridges and ramps that may have been damaged.
◦If a power line falls on your vehicle, do not get out. Wait for assistance.
◦If you are in a mountainous area or near unstable slopes or cliffs, be alert for falling rocks and other debris. Landslides are often triggered by earthquakes.
Jargon bustingBack to top
Fault, fault plane – The edges where two tectonic plates move past each other.
Hypocentre – The point at which the earthquake starts below the earth's surface.
Epicentre - The point on the earth’s surface directly above the hypocentre.
Foreshock – One of a series of smaller earthquakes that sometimes precede a big earthquake in the same place.
Aftershock – One of the smaller earthquakes that happen after the main quake. If the mainshock (see below) is large, aftershocks can continue for weeks, months or even years.
Mainshock - The main earthquake.
Earthquake magnitude - The measured value of the earthquake size. It is a measurement of the size of the largest seismic wave recorded during a quake. The magnitude is the same no matter where you are, or how strong or weak the shaking is in various locations.
Earthquake intensity - A measure of the shaking on the earth’s surface created by the earthquake.
LinksBack to top
For resources, including photos and topographical maps, see the U.S. Geological Survey's Learning Links.
The USGS has also produced High Quality Earthquake Animations.
For a full set of links to information about earthquakes, see the USGS's Earthquake Topics.
The USGS also has information on animals and earthquake prediction.
For what to do in an earthquake, see the American Red Cross's Earthquake Safety Checklist
To see the latest earthquake alerts, visit:
◦USGS Latest Earthquakes
◦USGS Natural hazards - Earthquakes (Scroll down for latest quakes, with links to further information and local monitoring centres.)
◦The Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System
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"I am sure (that) to have some shale gas option is a good instrument for our long-term negotiations (with) Gazprom and Russia," he said.
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Scale of damages: Nearly all of Mashkai town flattened, say survivors
Injured victims are undergoing treatment at Karachi hospitals.
By Sameer MandhroPublished: September 27, 2013 Share this article
Print this page Email . A girl survivor of Balochistan’s deadly earthquake undergoes treatment at PNS Shifa hospital. PHOTO: APP
KARACHI: Nearly all of Mashkai, a town of over 25,000 people, has been flattened in Tuesday’s earthquake that jolted the country’s largest, but sparsely populated, province of Balochistan.
“It was a doomsday for us,” recalled Karim Dad, an earthquake survivor from Mashkai tehsil of Awaran district, who has come to Karachi for treatment. “There was a huge cloud of dust across the city and I heard cries from every direction.” The62-year-old feels as if the earthquake has ruined everything.
Karim brought his wife and another relative to Civil Hospital, Karachi, on Thursday morning through an Edhi Ambulance. His 19-year-old daughter, Fatima, died when she couldn’t leave the room on time. “I had a six-room house but it was completely damaged,” he told The Express Tribune. “My daughter is buried under the debris.”
Karim was taking a nap at his house when the house was shaken by strong jolts at around 4:15pm. “My room collapsed within seconds as I left it,” he remembered. According to his rough estimates, over 90 per cent of the houses, shops and other buildings in his home town have been flattened. “We had mud houses and almost all of them collapsed in the first jolts. The remaining ones will also fall down,” he feared.
Scale of destruction
For people living in far flung areas, it is really hard to imagine the scale of destruction. “The first thing we have to do is recover the bodies,” Karim said. “Then we should provide first aid to the injured persons as countless injured people are waiting for doctors.”
By Wednesday afternoon – a day after the earthquake – only three Edhi ambulances managed to make their way to the remote town. “It took us 17 hours to reach Karachi,” said Karim, explaining that driving on the hilly terrain is difficult and most roads are damaged. He still finds it hard to shake away the memories of the countless injured people they met on their way to Karachi. “We couldn’t fit anymore people in the ambulance.”
Another old survivor from Mashkai, Haji Abdul Aziz, was looking after his seven-year-old grand daughter, Mahnoor, and daughter Halima. The 67-year-old man lost five family members in the deadly earthquake after they waited for more than 24 hours for help. Hardly able to understand Urdu, Aziz said every house in Mashkai has been destroyed. “More people will die if rescue teams do not reach on time. People need food and medicine urgently.”
The late arrival of the rescue teams did not go well with the residents. “We are considered insurgents,” explained an attendant, Yar Muhammad. “Do you think the entire population of our area is a rebel?”
Relief efforts
All the attendants stressed the need for medical camps in the affected areas, especially Awaran and Mashkai. “Thousands of people are living under the open sky. There is no shelter left for us.”
A total of 12 injured survivors have been brought to Civil hospital so far and all of them have minor injuries, according to a medical officer.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Relief Foundation chairperson Haleem Adil Sheikh said he was trying to take five truck loads of relief goods with him but he was stopped by the Frontier Constabulary. They told him that the law and order situation was not stable enough for a high-profile person to go there. Other vehicles that were part of large convoys were, however, allowed to go on.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 27th, 2013.
===============
Published time: September 30, 2013 01:44 Get short URL
Photo by NASA Photo by NASA
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Earthquake, History, Natural disasters Amidst the destruction caused by the devastating earthquake in Pakistan that killed more than 500 people, a new island emerged from the depth of the sea. NASA has released images of the newly formed islet.
NASA has released before and after photos of a new terrestrial body that was born on September 24 during a quake that struck Pakistan.
Called Zalzala Jazeera, or a an earthquake island, the terrestrial formation can now be found 380 kilometers from the earthquake’s epicenter in Paddi Zirr Bay near Swadar, Pakistan in the Arabian Sea.
The first image of the island was taken by NASA’s Earth Observing-1 satellite on September 26, while the second snapshot shows the same bay on April 17 with water and no landmass around the coordinates that the new island now inhabits.
Photo by NASAPhoto by NASA
Photo by NASAPhoto by NASA
According to scientists, the depth of the water level around Zalzala Jazeera stands at about 15 to 20 meters, stretching 75 to 90 meters across. It lies approximately one mile from the shore. Scientists say the island is nothing more than just a pile of mud, sand and solid rock that was caused by the forces of highly pressurized gas.
“The island is really just a big pile of mud from the seafloor that got pushed up. This area of the world seems to see so many of these features because the geology is correct for their formation. You need a shallow, buried layer of pressurized gas—methane, carbon dioxide, or something else—and fluids. When that layer becomes disturbed by seismic waves (like an earthquake), the gases and fluids become buoyant and rush to the surface, bringing the rock and mud with them,” Bill Barnhart, a geologist at the US Geological Survey told NASA’s Earth Observatory.
The Earth Observatory says this is not the first island to have surfaced along the 700-kilometer-long coast over the past century. Scientists predict that the new island will remain above surface for up to a year before sinking back into the Arabian sea.
The island rose out of the water during a 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck Balochistan, just 69 km north-northeast of Awaran - the nearest Pakistani city - on 24 September 2013. Over 300,000 people were affected by the quake, which caused over 500 deaths, and some 21,000 houses were destroyed.
People use boats as they visit an island that rose from the sea following an earthquake, off Pakistan's Gwadar coastline in the Arabian Sea September 25, 2013.(Reuters / Stringer)People use boats as they visit an island that rose from the sea following an earthquake, off Pakistan's Gwadar coastline in the Arabian Sea September 25, 2013.(Reuters / Stringer)
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[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/9939357963/]Region Hit by Large Pakistan Quake as Shown by NASA Spacecraft[/url] by [url=http://www.flickr.com/people/gsfc/]NASA Goddard Photo and Video[/url], on Flickr [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/9939357963/][img]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3723/9939357963_22b30fca64_s.jpg[/img][/url]
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/9939357963/]Region Hit by Large Pakistan Quake as Shown by NASA Spacecraft[/url] by [url=http://www.flickr.com/people/gsfc/]NASA Goddard Photo and Video[/url], on Flickr [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/9939357963/][img]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3723/9939357963_22b30fca64_q.jpg[/img][/url]
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/9939357963/]Region Hit by Large Pakistan Quake as Shown by NASA Spacecraft[/url] by [url=http://www.flickr.com/people/gsfc/]NASA Goddard Photo and Video[/url], on Flickr [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/9939357963/][img]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3723/9939357963_22b30fca64_m.jpg[/img][/url]
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/9939357963/]Region Hit by Large Pakistan Quake as Shown by NASA Spacecraft[/url] by [url=http://www.flickr.com/people/gsfc/]NASA Goddard Photo and Video[/url], on Flickr [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/9939357963/][img]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3723/9939357963_22b30fca64_n.jpg[/img][/url]
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/9939357963/]Region Hit by Large Pakistan Quake as Shown by NASA Spacecraft[/url] by [url=http://www.flickr.com/people/gsfc/]NASA Goddard Photo and Video[/url], on Flickr [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/9939357963/][img]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3723/9939357963_22b30fca64.jpg[/img][/url]
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/9939357963/]Region Hit by Large Pakistan Quake as Shown by NASA Spacecraft[/url] by [url=http://www.flickr.com/people/gsfc/]NASA Goddard Photo and Video[/url], on Flickr [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/9939357963/][img]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3723/9939357963_22b30fca64_z.jpg[/img][/url]
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/9939357963/]Region Hit by Large Pakistan Quake as Shown by NASA Spacecraft[/url] by [url=http://www.flickr.com/people/gsfc/]NASA Goddard Photo and Video[/url], on Flickr [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/9939357963/][img]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3723/9939357963_22b30fca64_c.jpg[/img][/url]
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/9939357963/]Region Hit by Large Pakistan Quake as Shown by NASA Spacecraft[/url] by [url=http://www.flickr.com/people/gsfc/]NASA Goddard Photo and Video[/url], on Flickr [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/9939357963/][img]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3723/9939357963_22b30fca64_b.jpg[/img][/url]
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/9939357963/]Region Hit by Large Pakistan Quake as Shown by NASA Spacecraft[/url] by [url=http://www.flickr.com/people/gsfc/]NASA Goddard Photo and Video[/url], on Flickr [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/9939357963/][img]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3723/9939357963_dc4c346460_o.jpg[/img][/url]
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/9939357963/]Region Hit by Large Pakistan Quake as Shown by NASA Spacecraft[/url] by [url=http://www.flickr.com/people/gsfc/]NASA Goddard Photo and Video[/url], on Flickr
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On September 24 at 11:29 GMT, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck in south-central Pakistan at a relatively shallow depth of 20 kilometers. The earthquake occurred as the result of oblique strike-slip motion, consistent with rupture within the Eurasian tectonic plate. Tremors were felt as far away as New Delhi as well as Karachi in Pakistan. Even though the immediate area to the epicenter is sparsely populated, the majority of houses are of mud brick construction and damage is expected to be extensive. The perspective view, looking to the east, shows the location of the epicenter in Pakistan's Makran fold belt. The image is centered near 27 degrees north latitude, 65.5 degrees east longitude, and was acquired December 13, 2012.
With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet), ASTER images Earth to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet. ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched Dec. 18, 1999, on Terra. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and data products.
The broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution of ASTER provides scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface mapping and monitoring of dynamic conditions and temporal change. Example applications are: monitoring glacial advances and retreats; monitoring potentially active volcanoes; identifying crop stress; determining cloud morphology and physical properties; wetlands evaluation; thermal pollution monitoring; coral reef degradation; surface temperature mapping of soils and geology; and measuring surface heat balance.
The U.S. science team is located at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The Terra mission is part of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C.
More information about ASTER is available at asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/.
Image Credit:
NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team
Image Addition Date:
2013-09-24
NASA image use policy.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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KARACHI: On Tuesday, a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck Balochistan, killing more than 260 people and displacing hundreds of thousands. It also triggered formation of a new island off the coast, which has quickly become a global curiosity.
But scientists say the island won't last long.
"It's a transient feature," said Bill Barnhart, a research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey. "It will probably be gone within a couple of months. It's just a big pile of mud that was on the seafloor that got pushed up."
Indeed, such islands are formed by so-called mud volcanoes, which occur around the world, and Barnhart and other scientists suspect that's what we're seeing off the Pakistani coast.
News organizations have reported that the Pakistani island suddenly appeared near the port of Gwadar after the quake. The island is about 60 to 70 feet (18 to 21 meters) high, up to 300 feet (91 meters) wide, and up to 120 feet (37 meters) long.
Media reports have located the new island at just a few paces to up to two kilometers off the coast of Pakistan. It is about 250 miles (400 kilometers) from the epicenter of the earthquake.
The island appears to be primarily made out of mud from the seafloor, although photos show rocks as well, Barnhart told National Geographic. He has been studying images and media accounts of the new island from his lab in Golden, Colorado.
"It brought up a dead octopus, and people have been picking up fish on [the island]," he said.
A similar mud island appeared off Pakistan after a 2011 earthquake there, Barnhart said: "It lasted a month or two and then washed away."
How Mud Volcanoes Work
Though mud volcanoes have been seen elsewhere, they don't always produce islands.
Such volcanoes were seen in California after a 2010 earthquake, Barnhart noted, when the tremors caused carbon dioxide to bubble up through the ground, but the result was "vigorous boiling," not new islands.
Barnhart said Pakistani scientists will soon be measuring the new landmass to better understand how it formed.
"We don't know much about it so far," he added. "We haven't had a satellite pass over it yet to really identify it."
Seismic waves from the quake likely caused some fluid material under the seafloor to expand, Barnhart said. The crust holding that pressurized fluid ruptured, and mud spewed up.
The whole process is similar to liquefaction, Barnhart said, which is when seismic waves turn normally solid layers of soil into a flowing fluid, often with disastrous results for the buildings and people above.
He was skeptical of media reports that the underlying fluid was methane hydrates.
"We don't know exactly what this was, whether it was free methane, carbon dioxide, water, or some other kind of fluid," he said. But methane hydrates are offshore in much deeper water, he said. SAMAA/AGENCIES
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Tue, Sep 24 12:21 PM EDT
By Gul Yusufzai
QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - A major earthquake hit a remote part of western Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least 45 people and prompting a new island to rise from the sea just off the country's southern coast.
Tremors were felt as far away as the Indian capital of New Delhi, hundreds of miles (kilometers) to the east, where buildings shook, as well as the sprawling port city of Karachi in Pakistan.
The United States Geological Survey said the 7.8 magnitude quake struck 145 miles southeast of Dalbandin in Pakistan's quake-prone province of Baluchistan, which borders Iran.
The earthquake was so powerful that it caused the seabed to rise and create a small, mountain-like island about 600 meters (yards) off Pakistan's Gwadar coastline in the Arabian Sea.
Television channels showed images of a stretch of rocky terrain rising above the sea level, with a crowd of bewildered people gathering on the shore to witness the rare phenomenon.
Officials said scores of mud houses were destroyed by aftershocks in the thinly populated mountainous area near the quake epicenter in Baluchistan, a huge barren province of deserts and rugged mountains.
Abdul Qadoos, deputy speaker of the Baluchistan assembly, told Reuters that at least 30 percent of houses in the impoverished Awaran district had caved in.
The local deputy commissioner in Awaran, Abdul Rasheed Gogazai, and the spokesman of Pakistan's Frontier Corps involved in the rescue effort said at least 45 people had been killed.
In the regional capital of Quetta, officials said some areas appeared to be badly damaged but it was hard to assess the impact quickly because the locations were so remote.
Chief secretary Babar Yaqoob said earlier that 25 people had been injured and that the death toll was expected to increase as many people appeared to be trapped inside their collapsed homes.
Local television reported that helicopters carrying relief supplies had been dispatched to the affected area. The army said it had deployed 200 troops to help deal with the disaster.
(Writing by Maria Golovnina; Additional reporting by Mehreen Zahra-Malik in Islamabad and David Chance in New Delhi; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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45 killed as 7.8 earthquake strikes Pakistan, shaking felt in New Delhi
Published time: September 24, 2013 11:49
Edited time: September 24, 2013 17:05 Get short URL
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Earthquake, Pakistan At least 45 people have been killed in an earthquake measuring 7.8 which struck southwest Pakistan on Tuesday. Tremors were felt across the region and as far as New Delhi, with the disaster creating a 'new island' in its wake.
The local deputy commissioner in Awaran, Abdul Rasheed Gogazai, and the spokesman of Pakistan's Frontier Corps involved in the rescue effort stold Reuters that at least 45 people have been killed.
The US Geological Survey has measured the quake at 7.8 magnitude after it struck Balochistan, just 69 km north-northeast of Awaran, the nearest city. A “RED” alert was issued by the agency meaning estimated fatalities of over 1,000 and damages costing over $1 billion.
At least 30 percent of houses in the impoverished Awaran district have been destroyed, Abdul Qadoos, deputy speaker of the Baluchistan assembly, told Reuters.
Roofs of two schools have collapsed in Awaran, according to Pakistan’s English-language daily The Express Tribune. The paper said that houses have been damaged across the province while the injured are in the process of being escorted to nearby hospitals. This is yet to be officially confirmed.
The earthquake also created a new island off Pakistan's Gwadar coastline, according to local paper Express News. The new island stands approximately half a mile into the sea. A bemused crowd reportedly gathered to observe the phenomenon of the new island, which apparently has a mountainous terrain.
The quake's epicenter was in a remote area of the country at a depth of just 15km (9.3mi), but was felt as far away as neighboring India. Pakistan's Geo TV said that the earthquake, which struck at 4:29 pm local time, lasted for about two minutes.
Pakistani Met office officials say that major damage and loss of life has been averted because of the earthquake’s location in such a remote area. However, they have also forecast impending aftershocks of up to 5 in magnitude on the Richter scale.
In India's New Delhi, buildings shook sending people running into the streets, Reuters witnesses said.
However, there are 337,980 people within 100km of the epicenter who could potentially be affected, according to the Global Disaster Alert and coordination System (GDACS).
In April this year a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck the Iran-Pakistan border killing 46 people and injuring some 180 others. Houses collapsed in the disaster, causing people to flee to the streets out of fear.
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Summary
Location and Magnitude contributed by: USGS National Earthquake Information Center
20 km
10 mi
Powered by Leaflet
Pakistan
27.000°N, 65.514°E
Depth: 20.0km (12.4mi)
Event Time
2013-09-24 11:29:48 UTC
2013-09-24 16:29:48 UTC+05:00 at epicenter
2013-09-24 20:59:48 UTC+09:30 system time
Location
27.000°N 65.514°E depth=20.0km (12.4mi)
Nearby Cities
66km (41mi) NNE of Awaran, Pakistan
116km (72mi) NW of Bela, Pakistan
172km (107mi) NW of Uthal, Pakistan
175km (109mi) S of Kharan, Pakistan
791km (492mi) ENE of Muscat, Oman
Related Links
•Additional earthquake information for Pakistan
•Earthquake Summary Poster
•View location in Google Maps
Tectonic Summary
The September 24, 2013 M7.7 earthquake in south-central Pakistan occurred as the result of oblique-strike-slip type motion at shallow crustal depths. The location and mechanism of the earthquake are consistent with rupture within the Eurasia plate above the Makran subduction zone. The event occurred within the transition zone between northward subduction of the Arabia plate beneath the Eurasia plate and northward collision of the India plate with the Eurasia plate. The epicenter of the event is 69km north of Awaran, Pakistan, and 270km north of Karachi, Pakistan (population 11.6 million).
On a broad scale, the tectonics of southern and central Pakistan reflect a complex plate boundary where the India plate slides northward relative to the Eurasia plate in the east, and the Arabia plate subducts northward beneath the Eurasia plate in the Makran (western Pakistan). These motions typically result in north-south to northeast-southwest strike-slip motion at the latitude of the September 24 earthquake that is primarily accommodated on the Chaman Fault, with the earthquake potentially occurring on one of the southern-most strands of this fault system. Further, more in-depth studies will be required to identify the precise fault associated with this event. Although seismically active, this portion of the Eurasia plate boundary region has not experience large damaging earthquakes in the recent history. In the past 40 years, only one significant event (M6.1), which killed 6, has occurred within 200km of the September 2013 event, in July of 1990.
Seismotectonics of the Middle East and Vicinity
No fewer than four major tectonic plates (Arabia, Eurasia, India, and Africa) and one smaller tectonic block (Anatolia) are responsible for seismicity and tectonics in the Middle East and surrounding region. Geologic development of the region is a consequence of a number of first-order plate tectonic processes that include subduction, large-scale transform faulting, compressional mountain building and crustal extension.
Mountain building in northern Pakistan and Afghanistan is the result of compressional tectonics associated with collision of the India plate moving northwards at a rate of 40 mm/yr with respect to the Eurasia plate. Continental thickening of the northern and western edge of the India subcontinent has produced the highest mountains in the world, including the Himalayan, Karakoram, Pamir and Hindu Kush ranges. Earthquake activity and faulting found in this region, as well as adjacent parts of Afghanistan and India, are due to collisional plate tectonics.
Beneath the Pamir-Hindu Kush Mountains of northern Afghanistan, earthquakes occur to depths as great as 200 km as a result of remnant lithospheric subduction. Shallower crustal earthquakes in the Pamir-Hindu Mountains occur primarily along the Main Pamir Thrust and other active Quaternary faults, which accommodate much of the region's crustal shortening. The western and eastern margins of the Main Pamir Thrust display a combination of thrust and strike-slip mechanisms.
Along the western margin of the Tibetan Plateau, in the vicinity of southeastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan, the India plate translates obliquely relative to the Eurasia plate, resulting in a complex fold-and-thrust belt known as the Sulaiman Range. Faulting in this region includes strike-slip, reverse-slip and oblique-slip motion and often results in shallow, destructive earthquakes. The relatively fast moving left-lateral, strike-slip Chaman Fault system in southeastern Afghanistan accommodates translational motion between the India and Eurasia plates. In 1505, a segment of the Chaman Fault system near Kabul, Afghanistan ruptured causing widespread destruction of Kabul and surrounding villages. In the same region, the more recent 30 May 1935, M7.6 Quetta, Pakistan earthquake, occurred within the Sulaiman Range, killing between 30,000 and 60,000 people.
Off the south coast of Pakistan and southeast coast of Iran, the Makran trench is the present-day surface expression of active subduction of the Arabia plate beneath the continental Eurasia plate, which converge at a rate of approximately 20 mm/yr. Although the Makran subduction zone has a relatively slow convergence rate, it has produced large devastating earthquakes and tsunamis. For example, the November 27, 1945 M8.0 mega-thrust earthquake produced a tsunami within the Gulf of Oman and Arabia Sea, killing over 4,000 people. Northwest of this active subduction zone, collision of the Arabia and Eurasia plates forms the approximately 1,500-km-long fold and thrust belt of the Zagros Mountains, which crosses the whole of western Iran and extends into northeastern Iraq. Collision of the Arabia and Eurasia plates also causes crustal shortening in the Alborz Mountains and Kopet Dag in northern Iran. Eastern Iran experiences destructive earthquakes that originate on both strike-slip and reverse faults. For example, the 16 September 1978 M7.8 earthquake, along the southwest edge of the Dasht-e-Lut Basin killed at least 15,000 people.
Along the eastern margin of the Mediterranean region there is complex interaction between the Africa, Arabia and Eurasia plates. The Red Sea Rift is a spreading center between the Africa and Arabia plates, with a spreading rate of approximately 10mm/yr near its northern end, and 16mm/yr near its southern end (Chu, D. and Gordon, R. G., 1998). Seismicity rate and size of earthquakes has been relatively small along the spreading center, but the rifting process has produced a series of volcanic systems across western Saudi Arabia.
Further north, the Red Sea Rift terminates at the southern boundary of the Dead Sea Transform Fault. The Dead Sea Transform is a strike-slip fault that accommodates differential motion between the Africa and Arabia plates. Though both the Africa plate, to the west, and the Arabia plate, to the east, are moving in a NNE direction, the Arabia plate is moving slightly faster, resulting in the left-lateral, strike-slip motion along this segment of the plate boundary. Historically, earthquake activity along the Dead Sea Transform has been a significant hazard in the densely populated Levant region (eastern Mediterranean). For example, the November 1759 Near East earthquake is thought to have killed somewhere between 2,000-20,000 people. The northern termination of the Dead Sea Transform occurs within a complex tectonic region of southeast Turkey, where interaction of the Africa and Arabia plates and the Anatolia block occurs. This involves translational motion of the Anatolia Block westwards, with a speed of approximately 25mm/yr with respect to Eurasia, in order to accommodate closure of the Mediterranean basin.
The right-lateral, strike-slip North Anatolia Fault, in northern Turkey, accommodates much of the westwards motion between the Anatolia Block and Eurasia Plate. Between 1939 and 1999, a series of devastating M7.0+ strike-slip earthquakes propagated westwards along the North Anatolia Fault system. The westernmost of these earthquakes was the 17th August 1999, M7.6 Izmit earthquake, near the Sea of Marmara, killed approximately 17,000 people.
At the southern edge of the Anatolia Block lies the east-west trending Cyprian Arc with associated levels of moderate seismicity. The Cyprian Arc represents the convergent boundary between the Anatolia Block to the north and the Africa Plate to the south. The boundary is thought to join the East Anatolia Fault zone in eastern Turkey; however no certain geometry or sense of relative motion along the entire boundary is widely accepted.
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AFP Frédéric Pouchot 12 hours ago
PARIS (AFP) - After unleashing an energy revolution in the United States, shale gas and oil are now becoming energy game-changers worldwide, a break with the past whose ramifications are still unclear.
Thanks to the advent of hydraulic fracturing technology -- used to extract oil and gas locked in sedimentary shale rock -- the United States is on track to become the world-number-one oil producer by 2017 and a net exporter by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Besides radically changing the US energy landscape, this "fracking" revolution is also reshaping markets overseas.
Thanks to the sudden abundance of cheap natural gas, American electricity suppliers are shunning domestic coal -- leading producers to export it at low prices to Europe and Asia.
That trend has revived the appeal of coal-fired power plants in Europe and taken a toll on plans to transition toward gas-burning plants, despite the air-pollution concerns around coal.
Energy experts say the United States will also likely begin exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe and Asia in the next several years.
US authorities have already greenlighted four LNG export terminals.
View gallery.
"Graphic showing the policy of selected countries on …
Graphic showing the policy of selected countries on shale gas and oil extraction. (AFP Photo/dp mhc/ …"We anticipate that from around 2016, we are really going to see volumes of LNG coming out of the United States and they are going to change the way that markets connect over the coming decades," said IEA analyst Tim Gould at a recent conference.
"The United States won't export a huge amount of gas, because they'll be looking to keep domestic price levels as low as possible, but eventually there will undoubtedly be more than 10 export terminals geared toward Europe and Asia," said Jerome Ferrier, head of the International Gas Union.
With all its new non-conventional output, the United States is now producing more than seven million barrels of oil per day, returning to the level of 25 years ago, said Olivier Appert, head of the French institute for oil and new energies (IFPEN).
"The fact that the United States is set to become the top oil producer by 2020, ahead of Saudi Arabia, changes everything," said Appert.
While the size and longevity of the American boom are up for debate, it will redraw the world energy-trade map at least temporarily by making North America less dependant on Middle Eastern oil.
China is on track to take the United States' place as the world's top oil importer in 2017, its oil bill soaring to $500 billion in 2020, the Wood Mackenzie consultancy calculated last month.
The United States' bill for oil imports is meanwhile set to fall from a peak of $335 billion in 2008 to $160 billion in 2020.
View gallery.
"Workers change pipes at a rig exploring the Marcellus …
Workers change pipes at a rig exploring the Marcellus Shale outside the town of Waynesburg in Pennsy …This unexpected turn of events is shaking up the global oil market.
At first the world's top crude producers, Saudi Arabia and Russia, considered the fracking boom "a speculative bubble that was about to burst", said Appert.
"But today it's becoming a major problem for them," to the point that the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries launched a study on the issue in June, he added.
Keen to emulate the American boom, more than a dozen other countries around the world are currently exploring for shale hydrocarbons or moving in that direction.
But environmental fears around fracking -- in which a high-pressure mixture of water, sand and chemicals is blasted deep underground to release hydrocarbons trapped between layers of rock -- may stop other countries from embracing the shale revolution with the same fervour as the United States.
"The United States is atypical because landowners hold the underground rights to their property, and despite all the local protests, they're encouraged to drill," said Ferrier of the International Gas Union.
"It's clear that in Poland, Romania, Great Britain, that won't happen as easily."
View gallery.
"British police watch an anti-shale gas and fracking …
British police watch an anti-shale gas and fracking protest outside parliament in London. (AFP Photo …Energy-hungry China has the world's largest shale-gas reserves, according to preliminary estimates, but recently began exploration returned disappointing initial results.
However, "the energy challenges in China are such that the country needs every exploitable resource, and if there's shale gas there, it will probably be tapped," said Ferrier.
"The problem will be finding the water for fracking."
Europe also faces tricky questions on shale gas.
The continent depends heavily on Russian gas, with North Sea deposits quickly running out.
The European Union has so far failed to adopt a unified gas strategy, but policymakers consider the issue strategically vital.
EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said in May that shale gas could be a good bargaining chip in reaching new deals with Russian energy giant Gazprom.
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Earthquakes
Updated: Wed, 10 Apr 2013
In detailBack to top
Every day an earthquake happens somewhere in the world.
Many are so light that they cannot be detected. Only a small proportion of the more than a million quakes that occur every year actually cause damage. The vast majority are very small and have no impact on the suface, or they occur in sparsely populated areas of the world.
Scientists cannot predict when an earthquake will strike, but they have been able to map where earthquakes are most likely to happen.
Most of the largest earthquakes occur within the Pacific "Ring of Fire", a horseshoe-shaped band of volcanoes and fault lines circling the edges of the Pacific Ocean.
The Earth’s crust is divided into tectonic plates which are constantly moving. Earthquakes, like volcanoes, take place along the plate boundaries.
When two plates move past each other, the jagged parts of the plate boundaries get stuck while the rest of the plates keep moving. Eventually, when the plates have moved far enough, the edges suddenly become unstuck, causing an earthquake.
Underwater earthquakes, or landslides caused by an earthquake, can trigger tsunamis – large water waves that can cause widespread damage when they hit land.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that animals show unusual behaviour before an earthquake. There have been reports of creatures leaving their homes ahead of an earthquake, but more research needs to be done in this field.
Deadly impactsBack to top
Earthquakes usually have the greatest impact in poorer countries. The main reason is building quality and regulations - buildings can now be designed to withstand significant levels of shaking, at slightly higher cost. Poorer people's livelihoods are also likely to be more vulnerable.
If people aren’t trained in what to do in an earthquake, they are more likely to be killed or injured.
In January 2010, Haiti experienced the biggest urban disaster in modern history, when a 7.0 magnitude quake killed more than 200,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless. The main quake was followed by several strong aftershocks.
The tremors occurred near the earth’s surface, near a crowded capital city with poorly constructed buildings, and among people who had had little or no training in what to do in an earthquake.
In December 2003, an earthquake in the southern Iranian city of Bam wiped it out in just 12 seconds. More than a quarter of the 120,000 population died, and nearly all the survivors were left homeless. The quake measured magnitude 6.5, but it was very shallow, and the city’s traditional architecture meant walls and roofs crumbled as they collapsed, leaving no air pockets and suffocating people inside.
Although no structure is 100 percent quake-proof, buildings can be made much safer relatively cheaply, adding less than 10 percent on average to building costs. The cost can be as little as 3 to 4 percent higher when building a safe school, and a 5 to 10 percent increase when building a hospital, the U.N. Secretary-General’s special representative for disaster risk reduction, Margareta Wahlstrom, said soon after the Haiti earthquake.
Time is of the essence in saving lives. Usually locals digging with their bare hands save more lives than well-equipped international rescue teams who arrive days after the quake.
Terrain is an important factor in the impact of earthquakes. Building on steep slopes and on soft soil foundations increases the chance of buildings sinking or tipping over during an earthquake.
The India/Pakistan earthquake of 2005 was magnitude 7.6. It killed nearly 75,000 people – including 16,000 children who were crushed when their classrooms collapsed on top of them. Aftershocks in the mountainous region caused countless landslides, blocking roads and hampering relief efforts.
Measuring a tremorBack to top
Earthquake size is measured by magnitude, a measure of the amount of energy a tremor releases. The magnitude is usually based on the scale worked out in 1935 by Charles Richter. But the "Richter scale" is unreliable for measuring larger earthquakes and has been heavily modified.
The USGS favours describing quakes merely by "magnitude" and gives readings consistent with the Richter scale.
Magnitude is the same no matter where you are, or how strong or weak the shaking is on the surface. Every increase of one whole number of magnitude represents a 10-fold increase in intensity.
Below is a very rough guide to how magnitudes relate to the amount of shaking on the surface. If an earthquake of high magnitude occurs deep below the earth's surface the amount of shaking will be less than if it occurs nearer the surface.
◦Magnitude 2.5 or less - the earthquake is usually not felt
◦Magnitude 7.0-7.9 - major earthquake, serious damage
◦Magnitude 8.0 or greater - can totally destroy communities near the epicentre.
Source: UPSeis
Interesting facts:
◦The largest recorded earthquake in the world was magnitude 9.5 in Chile, May 22, 1960.
◦Most earthquakes occur at depths of less than 80 km (50 miles) from the Earth's surface.
◦The world's deadliest recorded earthquake occurred in 1556 in central China, where most people lived in caves carved from soft rock. An estimated 830,000 people died.
◦The earliest recorded evidence of an earthquake dates back to 1831 BC in China's Shandong province.
Source: The U.S. Geological Survey's Earthquake Facts page.
What to do during an earthquakeBack to top
Here's what the American Red Cross says people should do during an earthquake:
If you are inside when the shaking starts:◦Drop, cover and hold on. Move as little as possible.
◦If you are in bed, stay there, curl up and hold on. Protect your head with a pillow.
◦Stay away from windows to avoid being injured by shattered glass.
◦Stay indoors until the shaking stops and you are sure it is safe to exit. When it is, use stairs rather than the elevator in case there are aftershocks, power outages or other damage.
◦Be aware that fire alarms and sprinkler systems frequently go off in buildings during an earthquake, even if there is no fire.
If you are outside when the shaking starts:
◦Find a clear spot (away from buildings, power lines, trees, streetlights) and drop to the ground. Stay there until the shaking stops.
◦If you are in a vehicle, pull over to a clear location and stop. Avoid bridges, overpasses and power lines if possible. Stay inside with your seatbelt fastened until the shaking stops. Then, drive carefully, avoiding bridges and ramps that may have been damaged.
◦If a power line falls on your vehicle, do not get out. Wait for assistance.
◦If you are in a mountainous area or near unstable slopes or cliffs, be alert for falling rocks and other debris. Landslides are often triggered by earthquakes.
Jargon bustingBack to top
Fault, fault plane – The edges where two tectonic plates move past each other.
Hypocentre – The point at which the earthquake starts below the earth's surface.
Epicentre - The point on the earth’s surface directly above the hypocentre.
Foreshock – One of a series of smaller earthquakes that sometimes precede a big earthquake in the same place.
Aftershock – One of the smaller earthquakes that happen after the main quake. If the mainshock (see below) is large, aftershocks can continue for weeks, months or even years.
Mainshock - The main earthquake.
Earthquake magnitude - The measured value of the earthquake size. It is a measurement of the size of the largest seismic wave recorded during a quake. The magnitude is the same no matter where you are, or how strong or weak the shaking is in various locations.
Earthquake intensity - A measure of the shaking on the earth’s surface created by the earthquake.
LinksBack to top
For resources, including photos and topographical maps, see the U.S. Geological Survey's Learning Links.
The USGS has also produced High Quality Earthquake Animations.
For a full set of links to information about earthquakes, see the USGS's Earthquake Topics.
The USGS also has information on animals and earthquake prediction.
For what to do in an earthquake, see the American Red Cross's Earthquake Safety Checklist
To see the latest earthquake alerts, visit:
◦USGS Latest Earthquakes
◦USGS Natural hazards - Earthquakes (Scroll down for latest quakes, with links to further information and local monitoring centres.)
◦The Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System
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"I am sure (that) to have some shale gas option is a good instrument for our long-term negotiations (with) Gazprom and Russia," he said.
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Scale of damages: Nearly all of Mashkai town flattened, say survivors
Injured victims are undergoing treatment at Karachi hospitals.
By Sameer MandhroPublished: September 27, 2013 Share this article
Print this page Email . A girl survivor of Balochistan’s deadly earthquake undergoes treatment at PNS Shifa hospital. PHOTO: APP
KARACHI: Nearly all of Mashkai, a town of over 25,000 people, has been flattened in Tuesday’s earthquake that jolted the country’s largest, but sparsely populated, province of Balochistan.
“It was a doomsday for us,” recalled Karim Dad, an earthquake survivor from Mashkai tehsil of Awaran district, who has come to Karachi for treatment. “There was a huge cloud of dust across the city and I heard cries from every direction.” The62-year-old feels as if the earthquake has ruined everything.
Karim brought his wife and another relative to Civil Hospital, Karachi, on Thursday morning through an Edhi Ambulance. His 19-year-old daughter, Fatima, died when she couldn’t leave the room on time. “I had a six-room house but it was completely damaged,” he told The Express Tribune. “My daughter is buried under the debris.”
Karim was taking a nap at his house when the house was shaken by strong jolts at around 4:15pm. “My room collapsed within seconds as I left it,” he remembered. According to his rough estimates, over 90 per cent of the houses, shops and other buildings in his home town have been flattened. “We had mud houses and almost all of them collapsed in the first jolts. The remaining ones will also fall down,” he feared.
Scale of destruction
For people living in far flung areas, it is really hard to imagine the scale of destruction. “The first thing we have to do is recover the bodies,” Karim said. “Then we should provide first aid to the injured persons as countless injured people are waiting for doctors.”
By Wednesday afternoon – a day after the earthquake – only three Edhi ambulances managed to make their way to the remote town. “It took us 17 hours to reach Karachi,” said Karim, explaining that driving on the hilly terrain is difficult and most roads are damaged. He still finds it hard to shake away the memories of the countless injured people they met on their way to Karachi. “We couldn’t fit anymore people in the ambulance.”
Another old survivor from Mashkai, Haji Abdul Aziz, was looking after his seven-year-old grand daughter, Mahnoor, and daughter Halima. The 67-year-old man lost five family members in the deadly earthquake after they waited for more than 24 hours for help. Hardly able to understand Urdu, Aziz said every house in Mashkai has been destroyed. “More people will die if rescue teams do not reach on time. People need food and medicine urgently.”
The late arrival of the rescue teams did not go well with the residents. “We are considered insurgents,” explained an attendant, Yar Muhammad. “Do you think the entire population of our area is a rebel?”
Relief efforts
All the attendants stressed the need for medical camps in the affected areas, especially Awaran and Mashkai. “Thousands of people are living under the open sky. There is no shelter left for us.”
A total of 12 injured survivors have been brought to Civil hospital so far and all of them have minor injuries, according to a medical officer.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Relief Foundation chairperson Haleem Adil Sheikh said he was trying to take five truck loads of relief goods with him but he was stopped by the Frontier Constabulary. They told him that the law and order situation was not stable enough for a high-profile person to go there. Other vehicles that were part of large convoys were, however, allowed to go on.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 27th, 2013.
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Published time: September 30, 2013 01:44 Get short URL
Photo by NASA Photo by NASA
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Earthquake, History, Natural disasters Amidst the destruction caused by the devastating earthquake in Pakistan that killed more than 500 people, a new island emerged from the depth of the sea. NASA has released images of the newly formed islet.
NASA has released before and after photos of a new terrestrial body that was born on September 24 during a quake that struck Pakistan.
Called Zalzala Jazeera, or a an earthquake island, the terrestrial formation can now be found 380 kilometers from the earthquake’s epicenter in Paddi Zirr Bay near Swadar, Pakistan in the Arabian Sea.
The first image of the island was taken by NASA’s Earth Observing-1 satellite on September 26, while the second snapshot shows the same bay on April 17 with water and no landmass around the coordinates that the new island now inhabits.
Photo by NASAPhoto by NASA
Photo by NASAPhoto by NASA
According to scientists, the depth of the water level around Zalzala Jazeera stands at about 15 to 20 meters, stretching 75 to 90 meters across. It lies approximately one mile from the shore. Scientists say the island is nothing more than just a pile of mud, sand and solid rock that was caused by the forces of highly pressurized gas.
“The island is really just a big pile of mud from the seafloor that got pushed up. This area of the world seems to see so many of these features because the geology is correct for their formation. You need a shallow, buried layer of pressurized gas—methane, carbon dioxide, or something else—and fluids. When that layer becomes disturbed by seismic waves (like an earthquake), the gases and fluids become buoyant and rush to the surface, bringing the rock and mud with them,” Bill Barnhart, a geologist at the US Geological Survey told NASA’s Earth Observatory.
The Earth Observatory says this is not the first island to have surfaced along the 700-kilometer-long coast over the past century. Scientists predict that the new island will remain above surface for up to a year before sinking back into the Arabian sea.
The island rose out of the water during a 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck Balochistan, just 69 km north-northeast of Awaran - the nearest Pakistani city - on 24 September 2013. Over 300,000 people were affected by the quake, which caused over 500 deaths, and some 21,000 houses were destroyed.
People use boats as they visit an island that rose from the sea following an earthquake, off Pakistan's Gwadar coastline in the Arabian Sea September 25, 2013.(Reuters / Stringer)People use boats as they visit an island that rose from the sea following an earthquake, off Pakistan's Gwadar coastline in the Arabian Sea September 25, 2013.(Reuters / Stringer)
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