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UPDATED: M7.8 Z=19km 23:58 4/16 UTC, 27 km SSE of Muisne, Ecuador (Original Post) itsrobert Apr 2016 OP
The ring of fire is a shaking. bkkyosemite Apr 2016 #1
We're next in CA. nt RepubliCON-Watch Apr 2016 #2
I had read this week that the north pole was moving to the east due to ice melting. LiberalArkie Apr 2016 #3
GOP: That's a hoax. blm Apr 2016 #5
How does the North Pole move any direction but south? LastLiberal in PalmSprings Apr 2016 #7
From what I remember is that Earth wobbles on its axis. When weight is shifted the wobble changes. LiberalArkie Apr 2016 #8
While my initial post was facetious, I used to fly as an Air Force navigator LastLiberal in PalmSprings Apr 2016 #9
The diagram at the top is the 'before' situation, up to about 2000 muriel_volestrangler Apr 2016 #18
I wondered the same CC Apr 2016 #10
Lest anyone be confused, Blue_In_AK Apr 2016 #13
You mean that wasn't the real Santa Claus House I visited in Alaska? LastLiberal in PalmSprings Apr 2016 #14
I don't know if you read about this, Blue_In_AK Apr 2016 #22
is that a new quake or a upgrade in the richtor reading? allan01 Apr 2016 #4
Richter scale is not used anymore. longship Apr 2016 #6
Except for the Global Earthquake Explorer, are there any LIVE, real time seismographs out there? bigworld Apr 2016 #11
This one? Earthquake reporting - Global Incident Map Baclava Apr 2016 #15
That's a good site! Thanks!! 2naSalit Apr 2016 #16
Isn't this an example of "click-bait", I mean really.. some info text would be nice.. vkkv Apr 2016 #12
No, it's not 'click-bait', it was the first report of a powerful earthquake muriel_volestrangler Apr 2016 #19
I always thought "click-bait" referred to links to sites to garner money for them csziggy Apr 2016 #20
Powerful earthquake kills 77 in Ecuador. (Video) Lodestar Apr 2016 #17
Ecuador earthquake: death toll triples to 233 following 7.8-magnitude quake - latest developments muriel_volestrangler Apr 2016 #21

LiberalArkie

(15,728 posts)
3. I had read this week that the north pole was moving to the east due to ice melting.
Sat Apr 16, 2016, 08:24 PM
Apr 2016

I wonder if that could be affecting the earthquakes.

7. How does the North Pole move any direction but south?
Sat Apr 16, 2016, 09:06 PM
Apr 2016

Except in Fairbanks, Alaska, where you have to drive south to get to North Pole.

LiberalArkie

(15,728 posts)
8. From what I remember is that Earth wobbles on its axis. When weight is shifted the wobble changes.
Sat Apr 16, 2016, 09:12 PM
Apr 2016

It said like spinning a top is centered but if you put a tiny bit of weight it will change the angle of the spin.


Here ya go, I found it


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/earth-poles-climate-change_us_5706c52ee4b0537661892db4

http://astronomynow.com/2016/04/11/climate-change-creates-wobbles-in-earths-spin-axis/

9. While my initial post was facetious, I used to fly as an Air Force navigator
Sat Apr 16, 2016, 09:38 PM
Apr 2016

and we had to take both the precession and nutation changes (interacting short term and long term wobbles) into account when we were doing celestial navigation.

My point wasn't that the Earth doesn't wobble like a top, but that as long as the spin axis doesn't change the North Pole doesn't change its geographic position, like the Magnetic North Pole does. I think what they're saying is that the change in mass distribution due to global warming is making the Earth wobble faster than usual, and the direction is generally eastward (counterclockwise). It's interesting the diagram shows the movement going toward Canada, rather than the U.K. as the article says.

We'll be able to see the effect by looking at the position of the North Star, which wasn't in the same place in the sky when the pyramids were built, due to precession.

I was trying to post this image in my prior post:

http://www.alaskaroads.com/A4+AK3-northend-wide-large.jpg

If you stand precisely on the North Pole and take one step, the only direction you can go is south...

muriel_volestrangler

(101,355 posts)
18. The diagram at the top is the 'before' situation, up to about 2000
Sun Apr 17, 2016, 07:34 AM
Apr 2016

But it is about the precise location of the spin axis (as measured relative to land on the Earth's surface). You're right that every move is 'south', of course. Up to about 2000, it was moving south along, perhaps, the line of longitude at 80 degrees west; since then it's moving south roughly along the Greenwich meridian. Lower down in the article:



But this won't have anything to do with the recent quakes, of course; the whole of the earth's surface is gradually shifting together, due to the movement of water on top of it (and in it - the article says depletion of aquifers is an important part of it), so it's not about tectonic stresses. And that started about 16 years ago, not just this year.

CC

(8,039 posts)
10. I wondered the same
Sun Apr 17, 2016, 12:35 AM
Apr 2016

thing. Wondered if the stress would change internally because of the changes externally. Good to know I am not the only one with these questions.


14. You mean that wasn't the real Santa Claus House I visited in Alaska?
Sun Apr 17, 2016, 04:02 AM
Apr 2016

Drat! Now you're going to tell me that wasn't the real Santa Claus I met!

Actually, when we lived in Fairbanks we went to the SCH occasionally. The first time, Santa walked over and handed my wife a lollipop. She immediately turned into a six-year-old child -- "Thank you, Santa..."

Another time we saw Santa in the play room sitting at a child-sized table with a four-year-old playing with some toy trains. As far as the kid was concerned it was no big thing, this is what Santa does. Sweet.

Blue_In_AK

(46,436 posts)
22. I don't know if you read about this,
Sun Apr 17, 2016, 12:58 PM
Apr 2016

but Santa Claus was elected to the North Pole city council this year. True story.

longship

(40,416 posts)
6. Richter scale is not used anymore.
Sat Apr 16, 2016, 09:03 PM
Apr 2016

The earthquake scale is just called "magnitude" these days. It is more accurate than the older Richter scale.

bigworld

(1,807 posts)
11. Except for the Global Earthquake Explorer, are there any LIVE, real time seismographs out there?
Sun Apr 17, 2016, 01:02 AM
Apr 2016

You'd think they'd be out there but heck if I can find any.

 

vkkv

(3,384 posts)
12. Isn't this an example of "click-bait", I mean really.. some info text would be nice..
Sun Apr 17, 2016, 01:16 AM
Apr 2016


No, actually I'm quite sure.. it is click-bait.

muriel_volestrangler

(101,355 posts)
19. No, it's not 'click-bait', it was the first report of a powerful earthquake
Sun Apr 17, 2016, 07:41 AM
Apr 2016

and it came from a reliable source, ie the USGS.

csziggy

(34,137 posts)
20. I always thought "click-bait" referred to links to sites to garner money for them
Sun Apr 17, 2016, 07:44 AM
Apr 2016
Click·bait(on the Internet) content, especially that of a sensational or provocative nature, whose main purpose is to attract attention and draw visitors to a particular web page.
https://www.google.com/search?q=click+bait&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8


The link in the OP is to the US Geological Service page for the quake report for that specific quake. There are no ads, no sensationalism, just data. Therefore that link is not by any stretch of the imagination "clik-bait."

If I remember correctly those reports are automatically generated to pass along the information from earthquake sensors. There is little or no new text about a newly detected earthquake, just the generated maps and information with historical context. So there really isn't anything to quote from that site.

Here is what the page says in part - hardly "of a sensational or provocative nature" :
Tectonic Summary


The April 16, 2016 M 7.8 earthquake, offshore of the west coast of northern Ecuador, occurred as the result of shallow thrust faulting on or near the plate boundary between the Nazca and Pacific plates. At the location of the earthquake, the Nazca plate subducts eastward beneath the South America plate at a velocity of 61 mm/yr. The location and mechanism of the earthquake are consistent with slip on the primary plate boundary interface, or megathrust, between these two major plates. Subduction along the Ecuador Trench to the west of Ecuador, and the Peru-Chile Trench further south, has led to uplift of the Andes mountain range and has produced some of the largest earthquakes in the world, including the largest earthquake on record, the 1960 M 9.5 earthquake in southern Chile.

While commonly plotted as points on maps, earthquakes of this size are more appropriately described as slip over a larger fault area. Events of the size of the April 16, 2016 earthquake are typically about 160x60 km in size (length x width).

Ecuador has a history of large subduction zone related earthquakes. Seven magnitude 7 or greater earthquakes have occurred within 250 km of this event since 1900. On May 14th, 1942, a M 7.8 earthquake occurred 43 km south of this April 16th, 2016 event. On January 31st, 1906 a M 8.3 earthquake (reportedly as large as M 8.8 in some sources) nucleated on the subduction zone interface 90 km to the northeast of the April 2016 event, and ruptured over a length of approximately 400-500 km, resulting in a damaging tsunami that caused in the region of 500-1,500 fatalities. The April 2016 earthquake is at the southern end of the approximate rupture area of the 1906 event. A shallow, upper crustal M 7.2 earthquake 240 km east of the April 2016 event on March 6th, 1987 resulted in approximately 1,000 fatalities.

Lodestar

(2,388 posts)
17. Powerful earthquake kills 77 in Ecuador. (Video)
Sun Apr 17, 2016, 04:28 AM
Apr 2016

Powerful earthquake kills 77 in Ecuador'



A powerful earthquake killed at least 77 people, injured hundreds more, ravaged coastal towns and sent residents fleeing for higher ground in Ecuador on Saturday night.

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck off Ecuador's Pacific coast and was felt hundreds of miles (km) away in the capital of Quito as well as in the large commercial city of Guayaquil, where rubble lay strewn in the streets and some buildings were cracked or partially collapsed.

A bridge in the city collapsed on top of car, crushing it.

The earthquake was Ecuador's worst in decades and officials said the death toll was likely to rise even higher as rescue teams headed into the hardest-hit areas.

//

A state of emergency was declared in six provinces.

The areas worst affected include Pedernales, which draws tourists with beaches lined with palm-trees and tropical thatch-hut restaurants, as well as nearby Cojimies.

"There are villages that are totally devastated," Pedernales' mayor, Gabriel Alcivar, said in a radio interview. "What happened here in Pedernales is catastrophic."

more
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ecuador-quake-idUSKCN0XE009


Video
http://www.reuters.com/video/2016/04/17/damage-in-ecuador-after-deadly-earthquak?videoId=368149890&videoChannel=1

muriel_volestrangler

(101,355 posts)
21. Ecuador earthquake: death toll triples to 233 following 7.8-magnitude quake - latest developments
Sun Apr 17, 2016, 11:48 AM
Apr 2016
President Correa calls national emergency after more than 230 killed and over 500 injured in 7.8-magnitude quake

Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa, returning from a summit in Italy, says the death toll from Saturday night’s quake has more than tripled since the last official announcement - now 233 people.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2016/apr/17/ecuador-earthquake-death-toll-rises-latest-developments
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