Did the USGS withold info on seismic activity

[BootinUp]

until they made sure the WH said it was ok to tell us?

The event was at 9:36PM ET. And yet it wasn't confirmed until hours later.

[izzie]

1. We know that the govt. is now the GOP govt.

Used ti be our govt. but with pushing all these far right nuts in place those days seem to be gone. The GOP have done it well in so short a time. I am sure they are still working on the college teachers. That was a big thing also.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

3. Head of the USGS is generally regarded as a straight shooter.

He's definitely not a Bushco political hack by any stretch of the imagination.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

2. That data isn't instantaneously generated.

You will find the same sort of delay in any similar situation.

[BootinUp]

7. this is probably true

It just seemed a little strange when they had a guy on the phone MSNBC last night at around 11:30 and he couldn't confirm a seismic event in the region though. The other thing that bothers me is I seem to recall the Bush administration has been messin around with the NOAA National Weather Service. I just don't like the idea of getting my news filtered through the government. Not that I think they could have denied it, but even the question being asked would bother me.

[Buzz Clik]

4. Our Geotech dept has seismic data available in real time 24/7

Likewise, where I got my BS had seimographs running in the geology dept all the time. The only thing that they could have done was avoided a formal announcement. I'm guessing that hundreds of institutions across the globe had the information at about the same the South Koreans.

Here's the online IRIS map with the epicenter of the earthquake circled in red:



Go here: http://www.iris.edu/seismon/

click on North Korea, then click on the circle for the exact information:

DATE................ LAT.. LON ...MAG DEPTH REGION
09-OCT-2006 01:35:27 41.31 129.11 4.2 0.0 NORTH KOREA

[Warpy]

5. By the time I finally conked out last night, 0100 EDT,

a seismic event had occurred but that's all anyone was saying. It hadn't been confirmed that the wave form signaled a man made event.

Explosive events have a particular signature. This was quite small for a nuclear explosion, though, as they're generally around 4.9 and up.

It could be tons of TNT or other explosive. This could be a great fake out.

[whistle]

6. I don't think so, just takes time to update the maps, it is there now

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Maps/10/125_40.php

[Solo_in_MD]

8. No, what you saw was the caution of scientists who are aware of the

ramifications of getting it wrong. There is cross checking to be done, multiple sources to be verified etc. Also, there is no driving need to verify and report it real time. In such cases, I will gladly take accuracy over real time.

[marions ghost]

9. I dont know much about this

but is it a bomb rather than a natural earthquake when the "Depth" is 0 km?

[BootinUp]

10. I guess it would make sense that

seismic activity occurrs deeper than underground weapons tests. But I don't know what a typical depth is for earthquakes.

[marions ghost]

11. Well for example,

on Iris website --when you click on a spot in Indonesia these are the kind of figures you get for 'depth.' (see below) --I clicked on a few other spots in the Pacific on the map and got a similar range of depth figures.

But when you click on Korea's 'earthquake' you get "0 KM" -- so I'm wondering if this means it's a bomb test. It seems we would get a reading otherwise.

----------------------------------------
Last 2 Weeks of Earthquakes
(within 10 degrees of LON=126.47, LAT=4.16)

DATE links are into the IRIS WILBER system where you can see seismograms and request datasets.
DATE LAT LON MAG DEPTH REGION
05-OCT-2006 17:41:41 9.97 125.95 5.0 109.7 MINDANAO, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
05-OCT-2006 02:49:11 5.60 127.12 4.4 111.8 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS REGION
04-OCT-2006 03:53:36 4.15 126.51 5.6 10.0 TALAUD ISLANDS, INDONESIA
01-OCT-2006 19:50:30 -3.00 129.68 4.9 22.0 SERAM, INDONESIA
01-OCT-2006 13:43:43 -3.20 129.47 4.6 57.0 SERAM, INDONESIA
01-OCT-2006 08:20:10 -2.97 129.84 4.8 30.0 SERAM, INDONESIA
30-SEP-2006 15:27:17 2.84 128.65 4.9 215.0 HALMAHERA, INDONESIA
29-SEP-2006 00:06:00 9.61 125.97 4.9 87.0 MINDANAO, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
28-SEP-2006 10:23:53 2.86 126.43 4.7 90.0 NORTHERN MOLUCCA SEA
27-SEP-2006 08:15:39 -4.25 135.57 4.6 35.0 IRIAN JAYA REGION, INDONESIA
27-SEP-2006 03:31:57 -3.62 134.03 4.3 35.0 IRIAN JAYA REGION, INDONESIA
26-SEP-2006 20:15:45 -2.99 129.76 4.5 10.0 SERAM, INDONESIA

12 database rows displayed.

*************Uh Oh --that table didn't translate well in this format. THE DEPTH FIGURES are the last ones appearing before "region" and just after "magnitude," which you can make out as the column beginning with 5.0 etc.

[BootinUp]

12. Probably a good indication of a it.