PLANETARY TREMORS: Strong And Shallow Magnitude 6.0 Earthquake Hits Balleny Islands Region - USGS! [MAPS + TECTONIC SUMMARY]

USGS earthquake location.

January 31, 2016 - BALLENY ISLANDS  REGION - An earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale jolted Balleny Islands region at on Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The epicenter, with a depth of 10.0 km, was initially determined to be at 63.2868 degrees south latitude and 169.1522 degrees east longitude.

The Balleny Islands (66°55′S 163°45′E) are a series of uninhabited islands in the Southern Ocean extending from 66°15' to 67°35'S and 162°30' to 165°00'E.

The group extends for about 160 km (99 mi) in a northwest-southeast direction. The islands are heavily glaciated and are of volcanic origin.

The islands were formed by the so-called Balleny hotspot. It is also the first land on Earth to have sunrise each day.The group includes three main islands: Young, Buckle and Sturge, which lie in a line from northwest to southeast, and several smaller islets and rocks.

USGS shakemap intensity.

The Buckle, Sturge and Young Islands are examples of stratovolcanoes. Strong earthquakes very close to the islands are rare, but tremors of moderate strength do occur over the Pacific–Antarctic Ridge, Macquarie Triple Junction and Pacific Rim between the Balleny Islands and Macquarie Island.

Other earthquakes occur near the Southeast Indian Ridge and Balleny Fracture Zone, including a magnitude 8.1 earthquake in 1998 that struck just over 700 km (430 mi) west-northwest of the Islands.

Seismotectonics of the Eastern Margin of the Australia Plate

The eastern margin of the Australia plate is one of the most sesimically active areas of the world due to high rates of convergence between the Australia and Pacific plates. In the region of New Zealand, the 3000 km long Australia-Pacific plate boundary extends from south of Macquarie Island to the southern Kermadec Island chain. It includes an oceanic transform (the Macquarie Ridge), two oppositely verging subduction zones (Puysegur and Hikurangi), and a transpressive continental transform, the Alpine Fault through South Island, New Zealand.

Since 1900 there have been 15 M7.5+ earthquakes recorded near New Zealand. Nine of these, and the four largest, occurred along or near the Macquarie Ridge, including the 1989 M8.2 event on the ridge itself, and the 2004 M8.1 event 200 km to the west of the plate boundary, reflecting intraplate deformation. The largest recorded earthquake in New Zealand itself was the 1931 M7.8 Hawke's Bay earthquake, which killed 256 people. The last M7.5+ earthquake along the Alpine Fault was 170 years ago; studies of the faults' strain accumulation suggest that similar events are likely to occur again.

USGS plate tectonics for the region.

North of New Zealand, the Australia-Pacific boundary stretches east of Tonga and Fiji to 250 km south of Samoa. For 2,200 km the trench is approximately linear, and includes two segments where old (greater than 120 Myr) Pacific oceanic lithosphere rapidly subducts westward (Kermadec and Tonga). At the northern end of the Tonga trench, the boundary curves sharply westward and changes along a 700 km-long segment from trench-normal subduction, to oblique subduction, to a left lateral transform-like structure.

Australia-Pacific convergence rates increase northward from 60 mm/yr at the southern Kermadec trench to 90 mm/yr at the northern Tonga trench; however, significant back arc extension (or equivalently, slab rollback) causes the consumption rate of subducting Pacific lithosphere to be much faster. The spreading rate in the Havre trough, west of the Kermadec trench, increases northward from 8 to 20 mm/yr. The southern tip of this spreading center is propagating into the North Island of New Zealand, rifting it apart. In the southern Lau Basin, west of the Tonga trench, the spreading rate increases northward from 60 to 90 mm/yr, and in the northern Lau Basin, multiple spreading centers result in an extension rate as high as 160 mm/yr. The overall subduction velocity of the Pacific plate is the vector sum of Australia-Pacific velocity and back arc spreading velocity: thus it increases northward along the Kermadec trench from 70 to 100 mm/yr, and along the Tonga trench from 150 to 240 mm/yr.

The Kermadec-Tonga subduction zone generates many large earthquakes on the interface between the descending Pacific and overriding Australia plates, within the two plates themselves and, less frequently, near the outer rise of the Pacific plate east of the trench. Since 1900, 40 M7.5+ earthquakes have been recorded, mostly north of 30°S. However, it is unclear whether any of the few historic M8+ events that have occurred close to the plate boundary were underthrusting events on the plate interface, or were intraplate earthquakes. On September 29, 2009, one of the largest normal fault (outer rise) earthquakes ever recorded (M8.1) occurred south of Samoa, 40 km east of the Tonga trench, generating a tsunami that killed at least 180 people.

Across the North Fiji Basin and to the west of the Vanuatu Islands, the Australia plate again subducts eastwards beneath the Pacific, at the North New Hebrides trench. At the southern end of this trench, east of the Loyalty Islands, the plate boundary curves east into an oceanic transform-like structure analogous to the one north of Tonga.

Australia-Pacific convergence rates increase northward from 80 to 90 mm/yr along the North New Hebrides trench, but the Australia plate consumption rate is increased by extension in the back arc and in the North Fiji Basin. Back arc spreading occurs at a rate of 50 mm/yr along most of the subduction zone, except near ~15°S, where the D'Entrecasteaux ridge intersects the trench and causes localized compression of 50 mm/yr in the back arc. Therefore, the Australia plate subduction velocity ranges from 120 mm/yr at the southern end of the North New Hebrides trench, to 40 mm/yr at the D'Entrecasteaux ridge-trench intersection, to 170 mm/yr at the northern end of the trench.

Large earthquakes are common along the North New Hebrides trench and have mechanisms associated with subduction tectonics, though occasional strike slip earthquakes occur near the subduction of the D'Entrecasteaux ridge. Within the subduction zone 34 M7.5+ earthquakes have been recorded since 1900. On October 7, 2009, a large interplate thrust fault earthquake (M7.6) in the northern North New Hebrides subduction zone was followed 15 minutes later by an even larger interplate event (M7.8) 60 km to the north. It is likely that the first event triggered the second of the so-called earthquake "doublet".

More information on regional seismicity and tectonics

- USGS.

EXTREME WEATHER: Deluge Of Heavy Rains, Loud Thunder, Tree-Splitting Lightning And Strong Winds - More Than 500 Lightning Strikes In New Zealand, 100 In Wellington Alone; All Flights Suspended Out Of Wellington!

May 06, 2013 - NEW ZEALAND - Wellington awoke from a night of thunder and tree-splitting lightning, and then came a downpour which closed roads and flooded shops ''like a tidal wave''. 

John Shaumkell of Poneke rugby club tries to clear the drains outside his house near Kilbirnie Park. JAMES MANTTAN

COMMUTERS DELAYED BY WEATHER

Air New Zealand has suspended all flights out of Wellington Airport.

Flights from Palmerston North, Nelson and Timaru and planes leaving Wellington for New Plymouth, Rotorua, Timaru, Gisborne, Christchurch and Invercargill were cancelled.

Many other flights faced delays.

An airport spokeswoman said she did not know when services would return to normal.

Rush hour bus services have been hit by delays and cancellations to the 7, 22 and 10 routes.

CARPARK FLOODING CAUSES THOUSANDS IN DAMAGE

As many as 20 cars could have thousands of dollars of damage or more after a basement carpark flooded in Newtown this morning.

The Alfred St carpark is used by staff at the Wellington Accident and Urgent Medical Centre and residents who live above the clinic.

A large pine split by a lightning strike last night next to the third green at the Shandon Golf Club, Petone. SUPPLIED

Owen Svensson never takes his car to work but looked outside today and decided it was a good idea.

That decision saved his vehicle from the flooded basement but his belongings in the flat lock-ups down there weren't so lucky.

"I left about 7.40am and it was raining pretty hard so decided to drive, which I never normally do,'' he said.

"My fiancee called three hours later saying she thought there might be a bit of flooding so I came home to have a look.''

Alfred St was completely submerged in water and up to the windows on cars parked on the side of the street.

Cars parked in the basement were practically floating, Wellington central fire senior station officer Nick Pyatt said.

"There's a whole transformer under the carpark so we've got the power turned off and now that we've pumped out the alley we can get started on the carpark.''

Anthony Blanche works at Coventry Cars on Alfred St and said by about 9.30am the street was waist-deep in water.

Busy scooping the last of the water out of his car parked on the side of the street was Dave O'Donovan.

He's been living and working on the street for 18 months and never seen anything like the rainfall that filled his car.

"I'll be waiting for some favourable weather now so I can open it up and let it dry out,'' he said.

A storm drain in a flooded street forms something of a whirlpool in Wright St, Mt Cook. CHLOE DALLAWAY

Mr Pyatt said the fire service had been flat out in the central city and eastern suburbs responding to calls.

"The worst I've seen so far is Hania St off Kent Tce,'' he said.

"It was up over our gumboots and there was nothing we could do so we just had to leave it to subside on its own.''


THUNDER AND LIGHTNING HITS WELLINGTON

MetService recorded more than 500 lightning strikes in central New Zealand last night - about 100 of them in Wellington.

Then a massive downpour as Wellingtonians were arriving to work delivered 12.6mm of rain at Wellington Airport in the hour to 9am, causing flooding around Wellington.

''The next hour or two, oh boy, watch out,'' Dan Corbett from MetService said at 9am.

The flooded car park of Jigsaw Family Services in Alfred St, Mt Cook. STEPHANIE JONES

By 10am, 35.2mm of rain had fallen.

Shandon Golf Club groundskeeper Greg Galway was at home, about 150m away from the tree, when an enormous roll of thunder came hard after a lightning flash during the storm about 9.30pm yesterday.

''The lightning was still going when the thunder struck, so I knew it was close.

''It made me drop what I was doing, it was freaky.''

This morning he found one of the Petone club's larger pines shattered, with bark stripped off the trunk in a spiral running down the trunk.

''It's blown the bark off a good 50 metres, and there's a good seam where it's split the trunk down the middle.

The tree was at least 90 years old.

As the downpour came this morning, emergency services and Wellington City Council were flooded with calls.

Reports of flooding came from Moa Point, Kilbirnie, Newtown, Lyall Bay, Brooklyn, Melrose, Karori, Hataitai, Wilton, Mornington, Basin Reserve, Kent Tce, the central city, and Kaiwharawhara.

Tony's Tyre Service, Kilbirnie assistant manager George Georgiou said the water came in to his store ''like a tidal wave'' when the stormwater drains reached capacity.

''Front door, back door, water just came in all directions.''

At its peak about 30cm of water was on the shop floor, Mr Georgiou said.

A rain map showing 441 lightning strikes nationwide in the two hours leading up till 2.15am. METSERVICE

Further up Bay Rd, Lorraine Swetman, co-ordinator at the Kilbirnie Red Cross store was alerted to the scale of flooding by a neighbouring shop owner.

The stormwater had pushed a manhole cover off and water was gushing out, she said.

''It was all just coming in here like a waterfall.''

The Old Bank Arcade on Lambton Quay felt the full effects of the downpour and the nearby Hare Krishna Higher Taste Restaurant flooded as a result.

Shortly before 9am the basement level restaurant was ankle-deep in water and staff were rushing to move kitchen equipment and food to a drier place, Mukesh Chand from the restaurant said.

Wellington bus commuters experienced long delays after a bus broke down on the corner of Manners St and Victoria St.

All East by West ferry sailings were cancelled for the rest of the day, but there would be replacement shuttles departing from Queens Wharf at 4.30pm, 5.30pm and 6.30pm.

Some flights were delayed at Wellington Airport. - Stuff.

PLANETARY TREMORS: Magnitude 6.1 Earthquake Strikes The Pacific-Antarctic Ridge!

January 15, 2013 - PACIFIC OCEAN - According to the United States Geological Survey, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck 1029km or 639 miles northeast of Scott Island Bank, Antarctica at 16:09:37 UTC.

The tremor was located at 62.557°S 161.380°W and recorded with a depth of 10.1km (6.2 miles).

Historic seismicity of the region.

The epicentre was at a distance of 2570km (1597 miles) southeast of Dunedin, New Zealand; 2617km (1626 miles) southeast of Invercargill, New Zealand; 2617km (1626 miles) southeast of Gore, New Zealand; and 2843km (1767 miles) southeast of Wellington, New Zealand.

No tsunami warning was issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

MASS FISH DIE-OFF: Disaster Precursor - Thousands Of Bluebottle Jellyfish Wash Up On The Sands Of Oreti Beach Near Invercargill, Southland, New Zealand?!

December 14, 2012 - NEW ZEALAND - Visitors to Oreti Beach near Invercargill in recent days will have noticed the bodies of thousands of bluebottle jellyfish washed up on the sand. Department of Conservation biodiversity programme manager Jessyca Bernard - who said she was "99.9 per cent certain" they were bluebottle jellyfish - warned they were dangerous even when dead.

Jellyfish or" bluebottles" litter Oreti Beach, in Invercargill. © John Hawkins / Fairfax NZ.

People who saw them on the beach should not touch them and should keep their pets away from them, she said. "They may remain potent for hours or even days after the death of the creature or the detachment of the tentacles." If stung an allergic reaction could follow and those affected should seek medical assistance, she said.

When alive and in the ocean the gas-filled bladders of the jellyfish remained on the water's surface and the remainder of the body including tentacles were submerged, she said.

Because they had no means of propulsion they were moved along by a combination of winds, currents, and tides, often congregating in thousands and sometimes being blown onto beaches.

Ms Bernard said when the jellyfish were blown onto the beach their tentacles invariably detached from the bodies and washed into the sand, leaving only the bladders and jelly of the jellyfish, which varied between 9 centimetres to 30cm in size, visible to the public on the beach. - Stuff.

ANIMAL BEHAVIOR: Conscious Awakening or Disaster Precursor - Dog Exhibits Unusual Behavior in Southland, New Zealand?!

November 12. 2012 - SOUTHLAND, NEW ZEALAND - There's been a noticeable increase in animals behaving in extraordinary manners which exhibit a conscious awareness and reverence for life, as well as the avoidance of danger. The following story could be assigned as one such case, since dogs usually bury excrement with their hind legs. The usage of the nose shows respect by the dog and importantly, the dog's awareness of the difference.

June spent 10 minutes using her nose to bury a dead dog found on Oreti Beach, near Invercargill.
© Doug Field/Fairfax NZ

Southland Times photographer Doug Field captured these images at the weekend of his dog, burying another dog. Field, who was at Oreti Beach, near Invercargill, was walking his dog June when they came across dead hares and a dead dog.

What happened next was unusual, Field said.

June, ignored the hares, but spent the next 10 minutes using her nose, to flick sand up to bury the dead dog. ''There was quite a reverence in what she did. I've never seen another dog do that before. ''I'd love to hear from an animal behaviour expert to find out if this is common,'' Field said. - The Southland Times.


It is believed that animals have a keen sense, developed in their avoidance of predators and ability to locate preys, that helps them to detect imminent or pending disasters. Scientists and experts theorizes that this is due to the sensing of the vibrations of the planet or the changes in the air or gases released by the Earth. Whatever the reason is, animals have been known to show conscious awareness - swarm, collect or move to a different area from their usual gathering spot prior to a devastating disaster such as an earthquake, tsunami or floods. This fact was noted in the 2004 tsunami, where an earthquake in the Indian Ocean caused a massive tsunami to take the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in Asia and East Africa, but didn't cause any mass die-off of animals.

PLANETARY TREMORS: 6.1 Earthquake Strikes off the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island!

A strong 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the west coast of New Zealand's South Island Thursday, geologists said, but there were no immediate reports of damage and no tsunami warning was issued.

The quake struck at a relatively shallow depth of 18 kilometres (11 miles), 204 kilometres west of Invercargill, New Zealand's southernmost city, at 5:48 pm (0648 GMT), the US Geological Survey said. The epicentre was 293 km (182 miles) southwest of Queenstown, New Zealand; 380 km (236 miles) southwest of Dunedin, New Zealand; and 940 km (584 miles) southwest of Wellington, New Zealand.

Christchurch, New Zealand's second most populous city, which is also on the South Island, was battered by a powerful 6.3-magnitude earthquake in February last year that left 182 people dead and destroyed much of its centre.

New Zealand sits on the so-called "Ring of Fire", the boundary of the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates, and experiences up to 15,000 tremors a year.A strong earthquake has struck off the coast of New Zealand’s South Island, but there are no reports of damage or injuries and no tsunami warning has been issued.

ANIMAL BEHAVIOR: Bluebottle Jellyfish Swarm Closes New Zealand Beach - Massive Portuguese Man-o'-War Mysteriously Clustered the Shores of Oreti Beach!

"I've seen big jellyfish in South Africa but these are massive," he said.

Oreti Beach, near Invercargill in New Zealand, is closed after hundreds of bluebottles have been discovered in the water and on the beach.

Oreti Beach was closed yesterday and people told to get out of the ocean as a swarm of bluebottle jellyfish hit the shore. Surf lifeguard patrol captain Robert Cole said he had noticed a couple of jellyfish on the beach in the past two weeks but after taking the raft out at about 2.15pm yesterday, he spotted hundreds of them in the water. He went back to shore and immediately closed the beach for swimming. The biggest jellyfish he spotted in the water had tentacles about 2.5 metres long, he said. "I've seen big jellyfish in South Africa but these are massive," he said. The jellyfish clustered on the beach and Mr Cole said if someone was to get stung by a cluster it would be similar to getting stung by six jellyfish at once. "If someone got stung today, I'd say they'd be straight to hospital," he said.


Swimmer Adam Wilkinson said he was about to hit the water when the beach was closed. Hugh Diack said he had not seen so many jellyfish since he spotted hundreds scattered along Curio Bay seven or eight years ago, caused by three weeks of easterly wind. "They [bluebottles] won't scare us off," he said. Mr Diack's son, Cameron, had been in the water about 10 minutes before Mr Cole closed the beach. Marine scientist Clinton Duffy said bluebottles inflicted a painful sting and people could have a bad reaction, but they were not life-threatening. Bluebottles normally stayed well offshore but after long periods of wind they could blow on to the beach, he said.


If stung by a bluebottle, you should get straight out of the water, pour vinegar or meths on the affected area and wash off the tentacles, he said. If you have a bad reaction seek medical help. Meanwhile, only four-wheel drive vehicles were allowed to drive onto the beach yesterday, with a surf lifesaver stopping vehicles at the entrance. Wind and no rain had made the entrance extremely soft and several people had been getting stuck, Mr Cole said. In New Zealand it is known as the bluebottle, elsewhere it is known as the Portuguese Man-o'-War. If a tentacle attaches itself to a human, it releases a poison through the use of nematocysts. No fatalities have been reported within New Zealand from the sting of a bluebottle. The float or body of the bluebottle measures between 3 to 15 centimetres. The tentacles can range in length from 15cm up to 10 metres. - The Southland Times.

WEATHER ANOMALIES: November Snow Surprise for New Zealand!

The following story was published in TVNZ yesterday and provides more evidence of the consistent and pervasive nature of the "new normal" of weather anomalies sweeping across the planet.

Downes says it's a rare weather event to occur in November.

Snow could reach sea level in parts of the southern South Island tonight. About 20 centimetres has already fallen on the Milford Road. There have also been reports of snow at Lake Heron and the higher parts of Porters Pass and Arthur's Pass. Cold air is set to blast Fiordland, Southland and parts of Otago tonight. MetService severe weather forecaster Andy Downes says there's a deep low passing the south of Stewart Island and this will bring strong gales with gusts possibly reaching warning levels along coastal Southland and South Otago. Downes says it's a rare weather event to occur in November.

Residents in Invercargill woke up to 4 degrees this morning. "As more cold air comes in it will drop the snow level down, perhaps briefly to low levels, maybe even sea level, but where it will accumulate will probably be above two, three hundred metres," MetService's Dan Corbett told Radio New Zealand. Wind chill from the strong westerlies would make the temperature feel like it was below freezing in parts of Southland, he said. Thunder and hail could follow the cold mass of air over parts of the region, MetService said. The cold snap is predicted to be over by Saturday evening. - TVNZ.

PLANETARY TREMORS: 5.7 Quake Hits South Island, New Zealand.

Map of where the earthquake hit.

According to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre, a magnitude 5.7 earthquake has struck off the West Coast of the South Islands, in New Zealand at a depth of 34.9 km (21.7 miles). The quake hit at 10:54:34 UTC, Saturday 1st October 2011 and was located off 48.967°S, 164.348°E.

Seismicity of South Island, New Zealand.

The epicentre was 232 km (144 miles) northwest of Auckland Island, New Zealand; 414 km (257 miles) southwest of Invercargill, New Zealand; 546 km (339 miles) southwest of Queenstown, New Zealand; and 1181 km (733 miles) southwest of Wellington, New Zealand.

No tsunami warning was issued and there are no reports of any damage at this time.