Acehtsunami

El Hierro, is also known as Isla del Meridiano (the “Meridian Island”), is the smallest and outermost south and west of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa.

The smallest Canary Island, El Hierro, is preparing for mass evacuation following a series of earthquakes that has led to fears of a volcano eruption. Around 10,000 people live on the 108-square mile island and 53 people were already evacuated from their homes yesterday following landslide fears.

An expert has warned that an eruption on El Hierro could take place in days, weeks or month. The highest volcano on El Hierro, which was formed from volcano eruptions 100 million years ago, is over 6,000 feet. Of the thousands of tremors, known as a swarm, only 15 have been noticeable to residents, however yesterday a magnitude 3.8 earthquake was felt across the island. El Hierro itself has not seen an eruption, from its approximate number of 250 volcanic craters, since 1793. . Even though residents and tourists are understandably concerned, there are some who feel an eruption would bring more tourists.

Earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.7 strike the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico early Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake hit at 1:16 a.m. (0516 GMT) four miles (six kilometers) from the small community of Espino on the western part of the island and 63 miles (101 kilometers) from the capital, San Juan. It was recorded at a depth of 68 miles (110 kilometers).

There were no immediate reports of damage and injuries.

The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center said it did not guess a tsunami, but local tsunamis triggered by underwater landslides were possible in coastal areas close to the epicenter.

Tsunamis can be generated when the sea floor hurriedly deforms and vertically displaces the overlying water. Tectonic earthquakes are a certain kind of earthquake that are associated with the earth’s crustal deformation; when these earthquakes occur beneath the sea, the water above the deformed area is relocated from its equilibrium position.

Waves are formed as the displaced water mass, which acts under the pressure of gravity, attempts to regain its equilibrium. When large areas of the ocean floor elevate or subside, a tsunami can be created. Huge vertical movements of the earth’s crust can occur at plate boundaries.

Plates act together along these boundaries called faults. Around the margins of the Pacific Ocean, for instance, denser oceanic plates slip under continental plates in a process known as subduction. Subduction earthquakes are mainly effective in generating tsunamis.

A 6.0-magnitude earthquake occurred Friday afternoon under the Bering Sea, but officials say it posed no tsunami risk and was too far away to be felt on land.

David Hale at the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska, says the quake at 3:12 p.m. Alaska Daylight Time was followed 4 minutes later by a 6.0 magnitude aftershock. The quakes were centered about 480 miles southwest of Nome and about 9.8 miles deep.

Hale says people at a National Weather Service station on St. Paul Island, about 400 miles southeast of the epicenter, report they didn’t feel anything.

An earthquake struck off the southeast coast of Taiwan on Monday, causing buildings to sway briefly but no casualties or damage. The temblor was felt at the site of a massive landslide in northern Taiwan but did not hamper rescue efforts.

The 6.5-magnitude quake hit at 10:59 a.m. (0259 GMT), 195 miles (295 kilometers) off the southern Taiwan city of Taitung at a depth of 6.2 miles (10 kilometers), the U.S. Geological Survey said. The agency’s initial report had put the quake’s magnitude at 6.9.

In Taipei, buildings swayed for up to 20 seconds when the quake hit, but police said there were no reports of casualties or damage anywhere on the island. No tsunami alert was issued.

In northern Keelung country, 18 miles (30 kilometers) northeast of Taipei, the tremor caused little new damage at the site of a massive landslide, police said. On Sunday, a hillside collapsed onto a three-lane highway following several days of rain, burying three cars.

Many of the hundreds of workers digging through the rubble felt the temblor but went on searching for the four passengers believed to have been buried in the cars, police said.

Earthquakes frequently rattle Taiwan but most are minor and cause little or no damage.

However, a 7.6-magnitude earthquake in central Taiwan in 1999 killed more than 2,300 people.

An earthquake struck off the southeast coast of Taiwan on Monday, causing buildings to sway briefly but no casualties or damage. The temblor was felt at the site of a massive landslide in northern Taiwan but did not hamper rescue efforts.

The 6.5-magnitude quake hit at 10:59 a.m. (0259 GMT), 195 miles (295 kilometers) off the southern Taiwan city of Taitung at a depth of 6.2 miles (10 kilometers), the U.S. Geological Survey said. The agency’s initial report had put the quake’s magnitude at 6.9.

In Taipei, buildings swayed for up to 20 seconds when the quake hit, but police said there were no reports of casualties or damage anywhere on the island. No tsunami alert was issued.

In northern Keelung county, 18 miles (30 kilometers) northeast of Taipei, the tremor caused little new damage at the site of a massive landslide, police said. On Sunday, a hillside collapsed onto a three-lane highway following several days of rain, burying three cars.

A MODERATE earthquake shook Western Australia today, seismologists said.

The earthquake hit the Goldfields this morning, closing the Kalgoorlie Super Pit and damaging buildings, PerthNow reported.

Geoscience Australia spokesman Chris Thompson said the quake struck at 8.17am and had a magnitude of 5.0.

There have been reports of house damage and the Golden Eagle hotel in Boulder has also been badly damaged.

Workers have also evacuated the Super Pit and other mines in the area.

An Education Department spokesman said Boulder Primary School had been evacuated and closed down for the day after suffering damage during the earthquake.

Building damage at Kalgoorlie School of the Air was also reported. The school has also been closed for the day.

Administration staffs at O’Connor Primary School were also forced to evacuate during the tremor due to building damage.

The Education Department spokesman said Kalgoorlie Primary School suffered little damage.

Mr. Thompson said the earthquake was on the larger end of the scale for Australia.

A powerful earthquake struck off the Solomon Islands on Sunday, but the pacific tsunami warning center said a tsunami was not expected.

The U.S.G.S said the 7.1-magnitude quake strikes southwest of the island chain’s Kira Kira Island in the South Pacific. The epicenter was about 130 miles (210 kilometers) close to the southeast of the capital, Honiara. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that the destructive wave is not supposed. There were no immediate reports of damage or wounds.

The Solomon Islands is a country of nearly 1,000 islands that lie on the “Ring of Fire” an arc of earthquake & volcanic zones that extends around the Pacific Rim & where about 90 percent of the world’s quakes occur.

The magnitude 5.3 earthquake occurred at 9:44 a.m. local time 51 kilometers southeast of Mexicali, depending to the U.S. Geological Survey. Mexico’s strongest earthquake in 7 years hit the same area April 7, causing at least 3 deaths in the region.

Mexican officials reported slight damage in the cities of Mexicali & Tijuana following a 5.3- magnitude earthquake today. A woman in Tijuana was wounded when a wall from a neighbor’s house fall down on her leg, & in Mexicali, 1 factory roof fall down & another braked, report said.

A magnitude 4.6 earthquake has shock southcentral Alaska, shaking buildings in Anchorage. The Alaska Earthquake Info Center says it received no reports of the quake causing damage.

The temblor was recorded at 8:19 a.m. Wednesday. The epicenter was placed at 35 miles northeast of Anchorage & 20 miles northwest of Palmera. The quake was having 19 miles deep. The West Coast & Alaska Tsunami Warning Center says the quake with no tsunami warning.

Another earthquake shocks at central Oklahoma. It is having the magnitude 3.2 & was recorded at 7:42 a.m. Thursday about 2 miles southwest of Jones about 10 miles northeast of Oklahoma City. There have now been 47 earthquakes & aftershocks recorded in Oklahoma this year with 40 of those calculate at least a 2.0 magnitude.