Earthquake Insights

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:

Seismic swarm rattles Ethiopia Magma movement within the East African Rift?

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:

Deadly Mw7.3 earthquake shakes Vanuatu 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 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.

Mw5.8 earthquake shakes western Nevada 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.

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

Read more on our blog:

Numerous M5-6 earthquakes offshore the Aleutian Islands 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 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?

Magnitude 7.0 earthquake strikes offshore Cape Mendocino, California 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 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!

M5.6 earthquake strikes the Zagros mountains of Iran 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 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.

More machine learning earthquake predictions make it into print 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 out the country's electrical grid.

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

Read more:

Cuba, already reeling from hurricane and power outage, struck by powerful M6.8 earthquake 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 spreading center dividing the Nazca and Antarctic Plates subducts beneath South America. What's going on down there?

Read more on our blog:

Mw6.2 offshore of southern Chile 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 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

Earthquake Insights | Judith Hubbard & Kyle Bradley | Substack 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 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.

M6.0 offshore Oregon lightly felt onshore Not in any way related to the Cascadia subduction zone

Have you ever wanted to see our Earthquake Insights posts on a map?

Now's your chance - our new interactive map includes both our posts and 3D models. Posts that are free to read are colored differently to make them easier to find. Check it out!

https://kyleedwardbradley.github.io/earthquake_insights_map/map.html

You can also find the map through the header of our Substack: https://earthquakeinsights.substack.com/p/by-location

Interactive map Want to learn more?