February 11, 2016 - CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - A meteoroid burned up in the atmosphere early Thursday, producing a fireball that was seen by people across San Diego County, according to the American Meteor Society.
"More than 110 witnesses have reported a large blue-green fireball over
Southern California on Februray 11th around 6:35am PT (14:35 UT)," the
AMS says online. "The fireball was seen primarily from California but
witnesses from Arizona also reported seeing the fireball."
The eyewitnesses include Francis French, education director at the San
Diego Air & Space Museum. He saw the meteor while he was driving to
work on state Road 94.
"The front of the light looked like the arc of a welder's torch; it was
blue and incredibly bright," said Francis French, education director at
the San Diego Air & Space Museum in Balboa Park. "And it had a
yellowish tail that was very textured."
The American Meteor Society shows areas in
Southern California where people reported seeing the meteor. The highest
number of sightings are depicted in red.
American Meteor Society
Another eyewitness, Harold McManus, said, "I was accessing Sunset Cliffs
via Pt. Loma Nazarine University campus. I was on the bluffs about to
climb down to the beach when I saw it. It came in from the north almost
horizontal. It had a slight downward accent as it headed to the south. I
was looking west over the ocean.
"It was spectacular. Bright green like a welders arc with a long tail
and relatively slow moving. It fragmented into several pieces as it
died. They looked like little sparks. I looked at my watch as I was
going to report it to the AMS. It was 6:37. The sky was starting to get
light. - The San Diego Tribune.
May 16, 2014 - CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - More than 10,000 acres have been charred by 10 wildfires in Southern
California flaring Thursday afternoon.
The extremely dry conditions, of
drought-ridden California with it's recent record breaking heat wave in
SoCal, have set the stage for an extreme fire hazardous environment.
Investigations are looking into what could have set the sparks: Teenage
arson and truck fires spread by extreme wind conditions, have been aired as possible causes.
One death has been reported in the "400-acre Poinsettia Fire in Carlsbad on Thursday, officials said".
A state of emergency has been declared by Gov. Jerry Brown and 20,000
evacuation notices have been sent out, including shutting down a
university campus of 10,000 students in the middle of final exams
WATCH: Several Fire tornadoes were captured on video:
A fire tornado consists of a core - the part that is actually on fire -
and an invisible pocket of rotating air that feeds fresh oxygen to the
core. The core of a typical fire tornado is 1 to 3 feet (0.30 to 0.91 m)
wide and 50 to 100 feet (15 to 30 m) tall. Under the right conditions,
large fire tornadoes - several tens of feet wide and more than 1,000
feet (300 m) tall - can form. The temperature inside the core of a fire
tornado can reach up to 2,000 °F (1,090 °C) - hot enough to potentially
reignite ashes sucked up from the ground. Often, fire tornadoes are
created when a wildfire or firestorm creates its own wind, which can
turn into a spinning vortex of flame.
Combustible, carbon-rich gases released by burning vegetation on the
ground are fuel for most fire tornadoes. When sucked up by a whirl of
air, this unburned gas travels up the core until it reaches a region
where there is enough fresh, heated oxygen to set it ablaze. This causes
the tall and skinny appearance of a fire tornado's core.
Real-world fire whirls usually move fairly slowly. Fire tornadoes can
set objects in their paths ablaze and can hurl burning debris out into
their surroundings. The winds generated by a fire tornado can also be dangerous. Large fire tornadoes can create wind speeds of more than 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) - strong enough to knock down trees.
Fire tornadoes can last for an hour or more, and they cannot be extinguished directly.
Here we note that the fire tornado, as may well be the case for regular
tornadoes, generates winds. That is to say that the wind conditions may
actually be produced by electrical conditions between ground and air and effects from rotating electrical charge sheets. As Walter Thornhill notes on tornadoes:
Meteorologists are not sure how tornadoes form but they do know that they are often associated with severe electrical storms.
The key to understanding tornadoes is that they are the result of
rapidly rotating electric charge. Just as electrons are the current
carriers in the copper wires we use for power transmission, so they are
in the tornado. The BIG difference is that the electrons are moving at
many metres per second in the tornado while they take several hours to
move one metre in copper wire! The result is that enormously powerful electromagnetic forces are in control of the tornado.
A dramatic example of a Fire Tornado occurred in the Peshtigo Fire (Wisconsin, October 8, 1871), where:
On the day of the Peshtigo Fire, a cold front moved in from the west,
bringing strong winds that fanned the fires out of control and escalated
them to massive proportions. A firestorm ensued. In the words of one
author, "A firestorm is called nature's nuclear explosion. Here's a wall
of flame, a mile high, five miles (8 km) wide, traveling 90 to 100
miles per hour (160 km/h), hotter than a crematorium, turning sand into
glass." By the time it was over, 1,875 square miles (4,860 km² or 1.2
million acres) of forest had been consumed, an area approximately twice
the size of Rhode Island
[...]
The fire jumped across the Peshtigo River and burned on both sides of the inlet town. Survivors reported that the firestorm generated a fire whirl (described as a tornado) that threw rail cars and houses into the air.
The single greatest loss of life was caused by a fire tornado that
engulfed open space at the Rikugun Honjo Hifukusho (formerly the Army
Clothing Depot) in downtown Tokyo, where about 38,000 people were
incinerated after taking shelter there following the earthquake.
May 15, 2014 - CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - Dry conditions and blistering heat have led to multiple fires in the
San Diego County, California area on Wednesday, leading Gov. Jerry Brown
to declare a state of emergency. The fires have burnt several homes and
prompted thousands of evacuations.
Firefighters battle a fire in Carlsbad, California May 14, 2014. (Reuters / Sam Hodgson)
Two fires broke out at Camp Pendleton, a top US Marine Corps base in northern San Diego County. The blazes charred about 100 acres in areas near Interstate 5, causing the freeway to shut down, the Times of San Diego reported. Some Camp Pendleton residents were forced to flee their housing.
A separate blaze, dubbed the Poinsettia Fire, resulted in the evacuation of thousands of residents in Carlsbad – less than ten miles from Camp Pendleton – from over 11,000 homes, schools, and businesses. San Diego Gas and Electric reported that an estimated 2,000 residents in and around Carlsbad were without power, and a number of homes were engulfed in flames, according to Reuters.
In Fallbrook, located about 30 miles northeast of Carlsbad, a brush fire led to a midday evacuation order in areas near Interstate 15.
Gov. Brown declared a state of emergency in the area hours after conditions prompted San Diego County officials to proclaim a local emergency.
The state Office of Emergency Services announced that federal aid is open to local authorities combating the Poinsettia Fire. A fire management assistance grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will reimburse the much of firefighting costs for responding local, state, and tribal agencies working against the fires, according to the state OES.
Firefighters battle a fire in Carlsbad, California May 14, 2014. (Reuters / Sam Hodgson)
A Helicopter assists in fighting fire at the Ranch Fire near San Diego, California May 13, 2014. (Reuters / Sandy Huffaker)
Fire-fighters work to put out spot fires caused by strong winds as they
keep close watch over the Bernardo fire
north of San Diego, California
May 14, 2014. (Reuters / Sandy Huffaker)
A fire-fighter works to put out spot fires caused by strong winds as
they keep close watch over the
Bernardo fire north of San Diego,
California May 14, 2014. (Reuters / Mike Blake)
Greg Saska watches his mother's house burn as firefighters battle a fire
in Carlsbad, California May 14, 2014.
(Reuters / Sam Hodgson)
"We welcome FEMA's approval of Governor (Jerry) Brown's request for assistance," said state OES Director Mark Ghilarducci. "Fires like the Poinsettia Fire can put a strain on resources, particularly at a time when dry conditions due to the drought, above normal temperatures and winds have increased the wildfire threat significantly."
The Wednesday fires follow the outbreak of Tuesday’s Bernardo Fire, also in the San Diego area. Bernardo caused thousands to evacuate their homes in and around the city of San Diego, into the evening hours, until fire crews got a handle on the blaze. The fire torched 1,500 acres of brush.
WATCH: Wildfires engulf southern California.
"We're very worried about today," said Lee Swanson, a spokeswoman for San Diego Fire and Rescue. "We're looking at gusting winds to 50 miles per hour, humidity at 5 percent and temperatures reaching 100 degrees (Fahrenheit). Those are dangerous conditions."
The outbreak of fires in Southern California mark the beginning of the area’s wildfire season, exacerbated this year by record drought levels and unseasonably hot temperatures in the region. -
RT.
May 14, 2014 - CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - A rapidly-moving brush fire, agitated by dry conditions and high
winds, led San Diego County in Southern California to order the
evacuation of 5,000 homes on Tuesday.
A bush is fully engulfed at the Ranch Fire near San Diego, California May 13, 2014.(Reuters / Sandy Huffaker)
The fire, located southwest of Rancho Bernardo, was sparked
around 11:00 a.m. local time, according to NBC 7 news.
As of 4 p.m., the fire had burned 800 acres and caused thousands
of families to leave or prepare their homes for later evacuation
orders, though no homes have been burned yet, according to
reports.
Firefighters battle the Ranch Fire near San Diego, California May 13, 2014.(Reuters / Sam Hodgson )
San Diego public safety officials said about 5,000 homes were evacuated at the
height of the emergency.
#BernardoFire
5200 homes in the county and 300 in the City of San Diego. No
structures lost.
— SDFD (@SDFD) May 14,
2014
County officials say there is about five percent containment of
the blaze thus far, the Los Angeles Times reported.
San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer tweeted that he was "closely monitoring the fire situation from the city's Emergency Operations Center.” - RT.
August 19, 2013 - UNITED STATES - It’s late June, and San Miguel Island’s white sand beaches are filled
with barking sea lions. More than 100,000 of them. The marine mammals
have come to this windy, remote island to breed and give birth – a
rowdy, stinky summer extravaganza that last year, enigmatically, ended
in disaster.
Sea lions come to Point Bennett each year to breed and birth pups.
They’re joined on the island by
northern fur seals, the darker mammals
in clumps. (Nadia Drake/WIRED)
When the sea lions converged on this most westerly of southern
California’s Channel Islands in May 2012, as they do every spring, there
was no hint of anything amiss. A year later, thousands of pups –
perhaps as many as 70 percent of the newborns – were dead. The struggle
to survive led desperate pups from their sandy nursery into the
churning, dangerous sea, long before they were ready.
Between January and June, five rescue centers along the southern
California coast, from Santa Barbara to San Diego, took in more than 1,500 stranded pups – five times more than normal.
San Miguel island is the farthest west of the northern Channel
Islands, off the coast of California. (NASA/Mikeetc/Wikimedia)
And those are just the ones that survived the journey of more than 50
miles. Many thousands more died on the islands, or along the way.
What happened is still a mystery, but investigating scientists have
come to suspect that an unexpected shift in the sea lions’ food source
is to blame. Now, as a new generation of pups are being born here, a
different question arises: Has the danger passed, or are this year’s
pups in peril too?
I went to San Miguel Island to try to find out. The conduit between the sea lions and me is Sharon Melin, a biologist with NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service. Melin has been studying the San Miguel Island sea lions (Zalophus californianus)
for more than two decades, tracking their population trends and health.
In the summer, she comes to the island for about three months, working
at a sun- and wind-powered research station perched on the bluff above
Point Bennett.
It’s here, at the westernmost tip of the island, that the bulk of the
island’s sea lions converge, nearly 50,000 of them. The breeding colony
is among the largest in the world, and the island’s population accounts
for just over half of all sea lions in California. They come here
because the waters normally brim with fish, and because San Miguel is
remote and undisturbed: Located about 60 miles from Ventura harbor, the island’s nine campsites host fewer than 200 visitors per year.
A sign above the Point Bennett rookery alerts visitors
to the sea lions’ activities. (Nadia Drake/WIRED)
A 7-mile trek separates Point Bennett from the campground at the
island’s eastern end, a hike that must be made with a park ranger or
naturalist guide (in part because the U.S. Navy can’t guarantee the
island is free from unexploded ordinance — leftovers from when the
military used San Miguel as a postwar bombing range). On the seaward
side, the pristine, white beach is surrounded by deep, blue-green waters
that hide dangerous rocks and have sunk many a ship.
In other words, it’s not trivial to get here.
On this briefly sunny day in late June, the sea lions – joined by northern elephant and fur seals
– have reached peak pupping season. They’re generating quite a racket
on the beach, several hundred feet from where we stand. I’m glad the
wind is blowing the smells offshore, as I’ve heard the colony can reek
like a dumpster full of funky fish on a warm day.
Despite their aroma, California sea lions are charismatic and intelligent, capable of logical reasoning and dancing to disco tunes. Males can grow to weigh 800 pounds. Pups, who weigh around 16 pounds at birth,
stay with their mom for almost a full year, during which they learn to
swim and fish on their own, and she begins incubating another pregnancy.
By the time a pup is weaned, it should weigh about 60 pounds.
Some of the pups washing ashore last year weighed less than half that.
A sea lion curls up in front of a pile of (molting)
elephant seals. (Nadia Drake/WIRED)
Once, about a century ago, this beach on San Miguel would have been
nearly empty: Seal and sea lion populations were driven to
near-extinction by an endless appetite for their fur and oil; for the “trimmings” from large bulls (the bits that make a bull a bull, if you follow), which were sold as aphrodisiacs in Asian markets; and for their meat, which often ended up in pet food. Sea lions were, and still are, disliked by fishermen because they interfere with salmon and other fisheries. Just before the Marine Mammal Protection Act was passed in 1972, there were fewer than 12,000 sea lions on the entire island.
Melin tells us to keep a low profile and speak softly, because the
sea lions are skittish and will abandon the beach for the surf if they
sense us.
There are a few tiny pups amidst the big, furry bodies on the beach.
It’s warm enough that heat rising from the sand creates a haze that
partially blurs the mammals, but it’s still pretty easy to distinguish
the sea lion pups from the smaller and darker fur seal pups, and super
easy to discern which lumps are the massive, 1-ton gray elephant seals.
As we watch, some of the males wrestle and defend their territories,
awkwardly charging at and chasing rivals away, while others lazily reach
up to scratch an ear with a flipper, or snuggle into the sand (see
video, below).
Every now and then, mothers scramble to retrieve little pups that
have waddled off. Barks and bellows ring out from the sea lions, while
the elephant seals emit deep, rumbling croaks that sound like a drunken
uncle belching at the dinner table.
WATCH: San Miguel Island Sea Lions.
The raucous, grunty scene before me looks like an unfiltered glimpse of animals thriving in their natural environment.
June 06, 2013 - UNITED STATES -Wildlife rehabilitation centers have rescued more than 1,550 sea lion
pups along Calfornia's coast during this record year of strandings, but
the number of new cases seems to be tapering off.
Three rehabilitated California sea lion pups, malnourished and dehydrated when they were rescued from San Diego County beaches between March 1 and March 28, are returned to the ocean at the Border Field State Park Beach, May 7, by SeaWorld San Diego, where they received treatment. The three followed six pups that headed into the ocean a few minutes earlier. — Howard Lipin
SeaWorld, a prime intake facility for these pups, has between 70 and 80
sea lions in its care these days. That's down from nearly 200 at the
height of the crisis in March, spokesman Dave Koontz said. The
marine-themed park's rehabilitation center is taking in about three to
five pups per week, he said, down from more than 10 per day at the peak.
Since January, SeaWorld has rescued about 340 stranded pups, Koontz
said. Most of these emaciated and dehydrated animals are found right at
the coast, but a few have reached places such as a hotel, a resident's
garage and the middle of a busy road.
In March, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared a
"marine mammal unusual mortality event" for California, in response to
stranding rates that were nearly three times higher than the historical
average.
"The number of admits to rehab in recent weeks has definitely been much
less than it was at the height of the event in March," said Sarah
Wilken, marine mammal stranding coordinator for the agency. "But there
are still a lot of animals in the centers that are in need of care."
At SeaWorld, stranded sea lions receive hydration and nutritional
treatment, along with medical care, before being released back to the
wild after a few weeks or months. About 10 percent to 15 percent of the
pups treated at the park's rehab center this year have become stranded
again and required a second rescue, Koontz said.
"Some of them just need a little bit more help," he said.
Scientists believe that population changes among squid and small fish -
primary sources of food for sea lions - may have triggered the
strandings as newly weaned pups struggled to find scarce prey. They're
analyzing data about food supplies and certain diseases in their quest
to pinpoint the leading cause of this year's unusual toll.
"There are some early indications, but the answers are going to be
better in July, after this year's pups are born," Wilken said. "For the
moment, everyone's grateful for the breather. But we're not yet saying
that it's over."
- U-T San Diego.
April 30, 2013 -UNITED STATES - Marine biologists on the West Coast are struggling to understand the reason why an alarming number of sea lion pups are turning up near death along Southern California's coastline. Some 1,400 young California sea lions were admitted to rehabilitation centers throughout the state since the beginning of the year, Sarah Wilkin of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told Fox News. That number is five times the normal rate of beached pups that typically appear between January and April, Wilkin said.
Sea lion mystery: Marine biologists on the West Coast are struggling to understand the reason why an alarming number of sea lion pups are turning up near death along Southern California's coastline
‘Nobody was quite prepared for the scope of this,’ she told Fox News. ‘The major common factor for all these stranded pups is that they're coming in emaciated, dehydrated, basically starving. They have been unable to find enough food to sustain themselves.’ Wilkin and other marine biologists have yet to figure out why the pups are not getting enough of the fish they need for both nutrition and hydration is still unclear.
Rising number: Some 1,400 young California sea lions were admitted to rehabilitation centers throughout the state since the beginning of the year.
'Unusual mortality event': NOAA has labeled the bizarre and upsetting phenomena an 'unusual mortality event' with hopes that the organization will receive additional funding for rehabilitation and research.
What is known is that the epidemic only affects the young as most of the sick sea lions arriving on the shore were born last summer. ‘The pups can't dive as deep,’ said Wilkin. ‘They can't travel as far so they might be more impacted in even just a slight change in the distribution of prey.’
Unprecedented: David Bard with the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro said his facility usually receives between 50 and 80 animals in the first quarter of the year, while in 2013 it has treated more than 400 already.
Possible causes: The NOAA is working with fishery scientists and oceanographers to pinpoint the exact cause, including possible food shortages, exposure to biotoxins, disease and human pollutants.
NOAA has labeled the bizarre and upsetting phenomena an ‘unusual mortality event’ with hopes that the organization will receive additional funding for rehabilitation and research. ‘The numbers speak for themselves,’ David Bard with the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro told Fox News. ‘As far as the underlying causes, anything that I can tell you would be a guess.’ Bard said his facility usually receives between 50 and 80 animals in the first quarter of the year, while in 2013 it has treated more than 400 already.
WATCH: Mystery as record number of seal pups continue to wash up on California coast.
‘What we started seeing since January is animals coming in at roughly half the weight that they should be,’ said Bard. ‘You can see their shoulder blades, you can see their spines.’ Wilkin says the NOAA is working with fishery scientists and oceanographers to pinpoint the exact cause, including possible food shortages, exposure to biotoxins, disease and human pollutants. They are also considering the possibility of radiation contamination from Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant meltdown following the 2011 tsunami. However, Wilkin said that despite the cause, the rising number of beached sea lion pups could be an indication of something more troubling in the waters off the coast of California. - Daily Mail.
April 17, 2013 - UNITED STATES - Scientists still don't know why nearly 1,300 sickly sea lions have
beached themselves on the shores of southern California since the
beginning of the year. However, they think some weird oceanic phenomenon
may be blocking off the sea lion pups' source of food, scientists
reported today (April 17).
The stranded sea lions
- mostly pups born last summer - are typically turning up alive,
but severely emaciated, some weighing less than 20 pounds (9 kg) when
they should be well over 50 pounds (22 kg), marine officials say.
This
year, an unusually high number of sea lion pups have stranded on
southern California's shores, overwhelming marine mammal rehab centers. CREDIT: Pacific Marine Mammal Center
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) declared an
"unusual mortality event" last month in light of the spike in
strandings. Since the beginning of the year, 1,293 sea lions have washed
ashore from San Diego County to Santa Barbara County.
That's more than five times higher than the region's historical average
of 236, averaged from the same period of time (January through April)
from 2008 to 2012, said Sarah Wilkin, NOAA's marine mammal stranding
coordinator for California.
The problem is most pronounced in Los Angeles County, where 459
strandings have been reported this year as of April 14. During the same
period last year, 60 strandings were reported.
California hasn't seen a spike in starving sea lions on this scale since El Niño
warmed up Pacific waters in 1998. El Niño conditions can diminish the
upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich water needed to support large
populations of fish that are eaten by other animals like sea lions.
"In the words of some of the other biologists, if this was an El Niño
year, it would still be overwhelming but it wouldn't be all that
surprising," Wilkin said. But this isn't an El Niño year, so the mystery
remains.
Wilkin told reporters today (April 17) that biologists think an unseen oceanographic or environmental phenomenon is likely cutting the sea lion pups' supply of food,
much like El Niño would. While adult sea lions and other marine mammals
may be able to adapt their feeding habits in the face of a shortage,
pups are more limited in how far they can travel for food and what they
can eat.
A localized anomaly like that happened in 2009, causing an above-average number of strandings.
"The prevailing onshore winds did not blow as strongly as they usually
do and it resulted in a lack of upwelling, which created a foraging
difficulty for California sea lions," Wilkin explained.
Toxic algae blooms and infectious disease outbreaks also can trigger
mass pup strandings. Researchers don't have evidence that either of
those factors are contributing to the problem this year, but scientists
are still waiting to see if tests on blood and tissue samples turn up
bacterial, viral and other infectious agents or radioactive traces.
In a good sign, there has been a slowdown in the number of stranded,
starving sea lion pups being admitted to rehab facilities, Wilkin said.
At the same time, other animals are washing up. Northern elephant seals
have just entered their stranding season and biologists have found a few
adult female sea lions suffering from seizures, suggesting they may
have been poisoned by the neurotoxin domoic acid, which is produced by
multiple species of the genus Pseudo-nitzschia, a type of algae. - Live Science.
April 06, 2013 - UNITED STATES - There have been seven times the number of sea lions that have beached themselves in San Diego County compared to the same time period last year.
Malnourished
sea lions pups line the floors of the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in
Laguna Beach in March. An epidemic of sick sea lions has prompted
lifeguards to help rescuers tend to the ill marine mammals.
AP Photo/The Orange County Register, Eugene Garcia
There have been significant increases throughout beaches from Santa Barbara County to San Diego, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries. They said 214 sea lions from beached themselves in San Diego County from Jan. 1 – March 31 this year. Over the same time period last year, there were 32 of the mammals found on San Diego’s shoreline.
The greatest increase is in Los Angeles County, where the number went from 36 last year, to an astounding 395 beaches sea lions so far this year.
There has been a been 1,100 beached sea lions in the five coastal counties stretching from Santa Barbara to San Diego, according to Sarah Wilkin, NOAA Fisheries Southwest Regional Stranding Coordinator. There has been an additional 83 sea lions in the rest of the state. They are predominately pups, according to Wilkin.
Sick sea lions rest at San Pedro marine mammal facility.
So the big question is, “Why?” It’s a question that still has not been answered. But because of the high number of beached sea lions, NOAA has been granted an official declaration of what’s called an Unusual Mortality Event (UME). The status allows for the establishment of a panel of experts to convene to look for answers and will also provide for extra funding.
Right now, the leading hypothesis the panel of experts is looking at focuses on a lack of food source. Most of the seal pups have shown signs of starvation and dehydration. Other potential causes that will be studied will include possible infectious diseases, or pollutants in the ocean.
In a conference call with reporters Thursday morning, Wilkin said there has been a shortage of food sources such as sardines and anchovies. She also said pups are being affected in greater numbers than adults because they are limited in how far they can travel and are unfamiliar with the environment.
Wilkin also says many rescue centers are at capacity (though SeaWorld San Diego says it is still accepting sea lions) and many of the sick sea lions are being kept on the beach for observation. - NBC San Diego.
WATCH: NOAA Declares That Sea Lions Dying At Unusual Rate.
A new scientific study reveals that fault networks near the Salton Sea
are even more complex than previously known — but what that may mean for
earthquake potential in the region remains uncertain.
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, California Geological Survey.
The U.S. Geological Survey and California Geological Survey released a
study last month that found the Easter Day quake in northern Baja
California on April 4, 2010 — the biggest quake to shake the Coachella
Valley in recent years — triggered surface movement on many faults in
the Imperial and Coachella valleys. The magnitude-7.2 quake revealed
faults southwest of the Salton Sea that were not previously known to
scientists, and confirmed that other known faults were active, the new
research shows. It's not a finding that will quickly lead to the
development of a reliable earthquake warning system, a primary goal of
scientists. But it advances knowledge and will direct future research on
one of the most intricate and studied fault zones on Earth, scientists
said. The Baja earthquake “has provided a geological treasure trove to
our understanding of what is happening tectonically in this expansive
region of northern Mexico and Southern California,” said state geologist
John Parrish in a statement about the study.
The 2010 Easter Day quake, dubbed the El Mayor-Cucapah quake by scientists, killed four people and injured more than 100 in Mexico and caused an estimated $440 million in damage in the Mexicali Valley of Baja California and $90 million in damage in the Imperial Valley. The movements the quake caused on Southern California faults occurred at the surface and were very small, only centimeters. Similar fault movements were also observed after a magnitude-5.7 aftershock on June 14, 2010. The discoveries show earth scientists that “the transfer of strain among the various faults in this region is not as simple as we thought before,” said Jerry Treiman, a geologist with the California Geological Survey and co-author of the study. Earthquakes like the El Mayor-Cucapah quake involve the sudden release of built-up energy from two of the Earth's tectonic plates moving against each other as one of the plates slips past the other. The quake was the largest in the northern Baja region in the past 120 years. - My Desert.
Eleven minor or moderate quakes have rattled Ocotillo, a small
scattering of homes just east of the San Diego-Imperial county line, in
the overnight hours.
A pair of magnitude-3.2 earthquakes was recorded six seconds apart at about 11 p.m. Saturday. A 3.2 magnitude quake was also recorded at 1:15 a.m. by the U.S. Geological Survey. The epicenters were on the U.S.-Mexico border in the Jacumba Wilderness, a jumble of rocks southeast of Ocotillo. There were no reports of damage or injury. Coincidentally, the quakes are rattling the same area that was rocked by a magnitude 7.2 earthquake, centered just to the south in Mexico, on Easter Sunday in 2010. - 10 News.
A series of small earthquakes over the weekend in the area between Mt. Rose and Incline Village is nothing out of the norm, a seismologist for the University of Nevada, Reno said Monday.
More than a dozen small tremors registering between 1.0 and 1.9 on the Richter scale were recorded on Sunday, most taking place about 6 miles north of Incline Village. The quakes were so small, and at a depth that they likely weren’t felt. “I wouldn’t consider this unusual,” said Diane Depolo, a seismologist with the UNR Seismological Lab. “These are pretty small, and depth-wise, they’re what we’d consider normal depth for that area.” The quakes were about 8 to 12 kilometers deep. Depolo said it would normally take a quake of 2.5 to 3 to be felt at that depth. Depolo said this cluster of quakes is different from those that affected the Verdi-Mogul area in past years because the Verdi-Mogul quakes were much shallower. A 1.1 quake was registered in the Mt. Rose area on Monday morning. - RGJ.
WATCH: Joe Brandt's 1937 dream of a coming California Mega-quake.
