QuakeShake

A M6.9 earthquake has occurred northern in Northern Chile on 25 May 2026 at 21:52 UTC. The earthquake occurred approximately 29 km east-northeast of Calama in the Antofagasta Region, at a depth of 109 km. The earthquake occurred within one of the most seismically active regions in the world, along the boundary where the Nazca Plate is subducting beneath the South American Plate. This tectonic setting is responsible for many of Chile’s largest and most destructive earthquakes. Intermediate-depth earthquakes such as this one commonly occur within the descending Nazca Plate beneath the Andes Mountains.

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), residents in Calama and surrounding communities reported strong shaking, and some temporary power and water interruptions occurred following the event. Chilean authorities also reported minor landslides within the Antofagasta Region. However, there were no immediate reports of fatalities or major structural damage.

Chile experiences frequent earthquakes due to its location along the Pacific Ring of Fire. The country has a long history of major seismic events, including the 1960 Valdivia earthquake — the largest instrumentally recorded earthquake in history at magnitude 9.5.

Oh goly gosh last week was busy😃 Here is a throwback to some of the highlights:

Friday we attended the National Marine Environment Conference organised by and 👏 🌊 Our highlight was incredible presentation of the fin whale calls they recorded with their QuakeShake seismometer 🐋 We had our own display stand with an Orca and Raspberry Shake seismometer recording the event🎤 〰️ .collins.3766

Also on Friday, UCD professor Aline Melo displayed one of our Raspberry Shakes at her daughter's primary school show and tell in Co. Wicklow. One of the students enjoyed irish dancing beside the shake 👯‍♀️

Thursday we presented for
Marine Week live webinar about the QuakeShake programme and fin whales 🙂

Wednesday to Monday we attended the British Seismology Meeting in Leeds Univeristy England and presented a presentation and poster. A highlight was learning alot about other seismology outreach programmes 👍

Overall a fantastic week and thanks to all the incredible organisers!

On the 20th April 2026, at 07:53:00 UTC (17:53:00 local time), a powerful earthquake measuring M7.4 struck at a depth of 35km offshore Honshu, about 100 km ENE from Miyako, see the red circle marking the epicentre in the map in picture 2.The earthquake resulted from thrust faulting in the subduction zone between the Pacific and North America plates. A tsunami was triggered and according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) about 40 minutes after the earthquake origin time an 80-centimetre wave hit a port in Kuji in Iwate. A tsunami warning was issued for Japan’s coastline, with waves expected to reach up to 3 meters, but the threat did not materialize, and authorities lifted the warning shortly afterward. No damage has been reported so far, but the earthquake was felt in buildings as far away as Tokyo, approximately 400 kilometers from the epicenter.

We have written a blog for detailing all of our exciting findings using citizen Raspberry Shake seismometers to track fin whales 🐋 😀

You can listen to the actual recordings of a fin whale singing off the coast in Waterford which was recorded by former QuakeShake station RBB07 🔊
And read to find out about the Christmas Day surprise 😮 🎄🎁

We have more fin whale recordings since our public meeting in the Copper Coast Geopark back in June 2025 so thanks to all of our citizen seismologist hosts for attending and hosting our shakes 👏

Thanks to the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group for their excellent sightings data 🐳

👉Read more about the findings at our website: www.quakeshake.ie/2025/12/17/citizen-scientists-track-fin-whales-on-irelands-copper-coast/

🔗Or Raspberry Shakes website: www.raspberryshake.org/citizen-scientists-track-fin-whales-on-irelands-copper-coast/
www.quakeshake.ie/2025/12/17/citizen-scientists-track-fin-whales-on-irelands-copper-coast/

Congratulations to students Chloe, Victoria, Veronika and Marylyn who presented projects at the Stripe Young Scientist and Scifest 👏We are so proud to see them incorporating QuakeShake data 〰️🙌

Chloe utilised RSAM data compiled by INSN technical officer James Grannell to compare storm data on Inis Meáin Island.

Victoria, Veronika and Marylyn used our locate the epicentre of an Irish Earthquake to analyse how earthquakes are located.

We know a huge amount of work goes into putting these projects together so we'll done to students, teachers, family and friends!😃

If you would like our assistance with a project for a science fair please feel free to contact us.

Did you know Raspberry Shake seismometers from the QuakeShake programme have picked up low-frequency fin whale calls off the Copper Coast in County Waterford? 🐋These land based seismometers designed to record earthquakes are doubling as coastal “ears,” capturing the deep vocalisations of fin whales passing close by offshore. 🌊

Martin first detected these calls by analysing seismic data from a Raspberry Shake located in the Copper Coast Geopark. During our annual meeting this June, we expanded the network by distributing more Raspberry Shakes along the south-east coast, increasing our chances of capturing additional fin whale song, see slide 4.

What the map in slide 4 shows:
• Yellow triangles — QuakeShake Raspberry Shake stations located in schools (), homes, and the Copper Coast Geopark.
• Red dots — Confirmed whale sightings provided by the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG).🐳
• On the right, spectrograms (yellow) and seismograms (blue) from these stations (band-pass filtered at ~18–23 Hz) reveal the characteristic low-frequency pulses of fin whale song.

These detections reveal that fin whales singing just offshore are powerfull enough for their deep vocalisations to travel through the water, couple into the seafloor, and register as ground vibrations several kilometres inland. Its cool that this singing is all picked up by citizen science seismometers 🎶

To learn more, check out Martin’s “Samhain agus Science” presentation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkP5oB94Fho&list=PLt_XradIp-myGuKol5CY2e2QTCWGIm_sb&index=6

And read the full research paper here:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-97638-4