Earthquake Insights

Earthquake Insights An earthquake just happened - why, and what does it tell us?

With 55 M4+ earthquakes in Ethiopia over the last two weeks, something is definitely going on in the East African Rift. ...
01/02/2025

With 55 M4+ earthquakes in Ethiopia over the last two weeks, something is definitely going on in the East African Rift. But what?

Read more on our Substack:

Magma movement within the East African Rift?

A M7.3 earthquake recently struck the island nation of Vanuatu, causing significant damage: collapsed buildings, crushed...
12/17/2024

A M7.3 earthquake recently struck the island nation of Vanuatu, causing significant damage: collapsed buildings, crushed cars, landslides, and a small tsunami. The UN reports that at least six people have been killed.

Why did this earthquake occur, and what made it so damaging?

Read more:

An intra-plate event along a noisy subduction zone

A M5.8 earthquake shook western Nevada today, with >10,000 felt reports to the USGS. The quake occurred within the Walke...
12/10/2024

A M5.8 earthquake shook western Nevada today, with >10,000 felt reports to the USGS.

The quake occurred within the Walker Lane Shear Zone: a broad zone of faulting taking up ~15-25% of the total relative movement between the Pacific and North American Plates.

What fault slipped? We speculate.

A Walker Lane strike-slip event

Sixteen M5-6 earthquakes have rattled the subduction zone offshore the Aleutian Islands in the last day, 3 above M6. Wha...
12/09/2024

Sixteen M5-6 earthquakes have rattled the subduction zone offshore the Aleutian Islands in the last day, 3 above M6.

What's going on, and what should we expect?

Read more on our blog:

We look at an interesting, if a bit remote, earthquake sequence along the subduction zone

A M7.0 earthquake struck offshore northern California today. Very strong shaking was recorded along the coast, and weak ...
12/06/2024

A M7.0 earthquake struck offshore northern California today. Very strong shaking was recorded along the coast, and weak shaking reached >1,000 km away. All kinds of excitement: a ShakeAlert early warning, a tsunami warning, and a bunch of aftershocks.

So, what's up with the geology here?

Reports of shaking >1,000 km away.

A M5.6 earthquake struck southern Iran earlier today, causing dozens of injuries and damaging hundreds of homes.This was...
12/05/2024

A M5.6 earthquake struck southern Iran earlier today, causing dozens of injuries and damaging hundreds of homes.

This was an unusual earthquake: it occurred on a nearly horizontal fault. But while earthquakes like this are rare, this hazardous fault is well known to geologists!

An unusual low-angle thrust event

Last year, a study in BSSA used AI and big data to predict earthquakes in China, with 70% accuracy - one of several pape...
12/04/2024

Last year, a study in BSSA used AI and big data to predict earthquakes in China, with 70% accuracy - one of several papers resulting from the AETA competition.

Earthquake prediction on the horizon? Maybe not: the reported accuracies are exactly what you would expect from random guessing.

We predict that the methods won't hold up... Let's find out!

A M6.8 earthquake struck southern Cuba earlier today, days after Hurricane Rafael made landfall to the west, knocking ou...
11/10/2024

A M6.8 earthquake struck southern Cuba earlier today, days after Hurricane Rafael made landfall to the west, knocking out the country's electrical grid.

The earthquake occurred at a major plate boundary: here, the Caribbean Plate moves past North America.

Read more:

Shaking also reported in Jamaica and Florida

A M6.2 earthquake struck offshore southern Chile earlier today. The location: near a triple junction, where the spreadin...
11/08/2024

A M6.2 earthquake struck offshore southern Chile earlier today. The location: near a triple junction, where the spreading center dividing the Nazca and Antarctic Plates subducts beneath South America. What's going on down there?

Read more on our blog:

An apparent megathrust earthquake in an unusual location

Did you feel the M4.8 earthquake in Hawaii a few hours ago? It is part of a long-lived swarm at 30-40 km depth, thought ...
11/05/2024

Did you feel the M4.8 earthquake in Hawaii a few hours ago? It is part of a long-lived swarm at 30-40 km depth, thought to be associated with a surge of magma intruding below the island.

We wrote about the swarm last February, when a M5.7 earthquake occurred in the same area: https://doi.org/10.62481/d846ea76

An earthquake just happened - why, and what does it tell us? Keep up to date with expert insights into latest events and research. Click to read Earthquake Insights, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.

A M6 earthquake struck offshore Oregon yesterday, causing light shaking.Although the Pacific Northwest does face the thr...
10/31/2024

A M6 earthquake struck offshore Oregon yesterday, causing light shaking.

Although the Pacific Northwest does face the threat of great earthquakes from the Cascadia subduction zone, this earthquake was on a different fault, and was not dangerous.

Read more on our blog.

Not in any way related to the Cascadia subduction zone

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