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Last summer, a startling article appeared in The New Yorker magazine outlining what could happen to the Pacific Northwest in the event of a large earthquake resulting from a full rupture of the Cascadia Subduction Zone. As recently as 1700, this convergent zone produced an earthquake estimated at magnitude 9. The article attracted a great deal of attention, especially among people who had never heard of the possibility that the heavily populated Pacific Northwest could, in a geologic moment, become “toast” — as someone quoted in the article put it. The San Francisco Bay Area also suffers from the unfortunate...

Spain laid claim to the Island of Jamaica from the time Columbus landed there in 1494. In 1503, Columbus was shipwrecked there for a year. In 1655, Jamaica was captured by British Admiral William Penn, the father of Pennsylvania's founder. Jamaica was too far from England to defend, so the inhabitants turned to privateers, freebooters, buccaneers and pirates for protection. The likes of Blackbeard, Calico Jack and Captain Henry Morgan, namesake of the rum, attacked Spanish ships and settlements, then returned to Jamaica with their booty. The skull pirate flag, called the "Jolly Roger," was adapted from the flag of...

Imagine a devastating earthquake and tsunami have cut off Pacific Northwest coastal communities. Phone and internet service have collapsed. Ham radio operators living on the stricken coast fire up their radios, contact emergency managers and report on the magnitude of the disaster so that no time is wasted in saving lives. This is the kind of scenario that will be rehearsed during the second week of June in a massive earthquake and tsunami readiness drill that has been developed by the U.S. government, the military, and state and local emergency managers over the past few years to test their readiness...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s emails reveal how prominently the Clinton Foundation factored into her thinking as America’s top diplomat, raising questions about where she drew the line between official business and aiding the family charity run by her husband and daughter. In one instance, Mrs. Clinton appeared to try to steer a Haiti earthquake recovery project to the foundation, according to new emails released this week as the State Department belatedly complies with open records requests for her communications during her four years in office. Another email shows Mrs. Clinton directing a State Department employee to handle...

Starting on June 7th, FEMA will be conducting a large scale drill that has been named “Cascadia Rising” that will simulate the effects of a magnitude 9.0 earthquake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone and an accompanying west coast tsunami dozens of feet tall. According to the official flyer for the event, more than “50 counties, plus major cities, tribal nations, state and federal agencies, private sector businesses, and non-governmental organizations across three states – Washington, Oregon, and Idaho – will be participating”. In addition to “Cascadia Rising”, U.S. Northern Command will be holding five other exercises simultaneously. According to the...

San Francisco -- Rebuilding San Francisco after a major earthquake would change its human face, hastening gentrification and driving out poor and elderly residents, experts and city officials warn. Experts say there's a 62 percent chance a quake with a magnitude of 6.7 or higher will hit the San Francisco Bay area within several decades — or tomorrow. Thousands of homes would be rendered uninhabitable, displacing up to 300,000 residents, almost half the city's population, according to some projections. A major issue would be creating replacement housing for the poor in one of the nation's most expensive markets. About 16,000...

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1, unusually powerful for Australia, has struck outside of Alice Springs. The quake hit at 4:14am, 125 kilometres west of Uluru, at a depth of about 10 kilometres, according to Geoscience Australia. Two aftershocks measuring 3.8 and 3.4 were recorded in the hour afterwards, and senior seismologist Johnathan Bathgate said more were expected. He said there had been activity near the site before, with a 5.6 recorded slightly further west in 1999. Geoscience Australia said the main tremor could have been felt as far as 507 kilometres from its epicentre, although any damage would...

ECUADOR has been hit by ANOTHER powerful earthquake – just hours after a 6.7 magnitude quake struck this morning.

The southeastern United States should, by all means, be relatively quiet in terms of seismic activity. It’s located in the interior of the North American Plate, far away from plate boundaries where earthquakes usually occur. But the area has seen some notable seismic events – most recently, the 2011 magnitude-5.8 earthquake near Mineral, Virginia that shook the nation’s capital. Now, scientists report in a new study a likely explanation for this unusual activity: pieces of the mantle under this region have been periodically breaking off and sinking down into the Earth. This thins and weakens the remaining plate, making it...

"Earthquake Amnesty in Works for Illegal Aliens from Ecuador, DHS Quietly Grants “Migratory Relief” in Spanish" Word of a special earthquake amnesty for Ecuadorean nationals living in the United States illegally is spreading like wildfire in Spanish media reports published throughout Latin America recently. A catastrophic, magnitude 7.8 temblor struck the ailing South American nation’s pacific coast on April 16, killing hundreds and injuring thousands. Undoubtedly, it’s been devastating and worthy of the tremendous humanitarian aid being provided by the U.S. government as well as a multitude of charities. However, the Ecuadorean nationals who stand to benefit from yet another...

Southern California’s section of the San Andreas fault is “locked, loaded and ready to roll,” a leading earthquake scientist said Wednesday at the National Earthquake Conference in Long Beach. The San Andreas fault is one of California’s most dangerous, and is the state’s longest fault. Yet for Southern California, the last big earthquake to strike the southern San Andreas was in 1857, when a magnitude 7.9 earthquake ruptured an astonishing 185 miles between Monterey County and the San Gabriel Mountains near Los Angeles. It has been quiet since then — too quiet, said Thomas Jordan, director of the Southern California...

LA CENTER, KY (KFVS) - An earthquake near La Center, Kentucky was felt in parts of Illinois and Missouri early on Sunday morning. According to the National Weather Service in Paducah and the USGS, a magnitude 3.5 was recorded about 8.7 miles north of La Center and 24.2 miles west of Paducah. It happened around 1:12 a.m. and had a depth of about 8.3 miles. The quake was felt in Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri and Tennessee. The furthest the quake was reportedly felt was in Miller, Mo. which is 267 miles away from the epicenter.

On 14 April, a magnitude-6.2 earthquake struck the Japanese island of Kyushu. Two days later, Japanese officials reported towering plumes of smoke at Mount Aso, a volcano 42 kilometers away from the quake’s epicenter. A small eruption was occurring. Could the distant earthquake have triggered it? Mount Aso has had far bigger eruptions over the past few years, well before the earthquake occurred, so it was probably just a coincidence. But a new study concludes that the idea of so-called far-field triggering is not so far-fetched. Big earthquakes can slosh around the bubbly magma underneath volcanoes hundreds of kilometers away,...

Jim Berkland, a former US Geological Survey scientist, who once famously predicted the Loma Prieta quake, said mega quakes usually strike at a new moon or full moon because of the gravitation effect on the Earth…and the next full moon is on FRIDAY. The maverick, now retired, scientist spoke out after eight powerful earthquakes struck across south Asia and the pacific in the past 80 hours, claiming hundreds of lives in Japan and Ecuador. Mr Berkland predicted on October 13, 1989, an earthquake of magnitude 3.5 to 6.0 would strike San Francisco within the next week. Four days later on...

More than 25 million people live in the vicinity of Mt. Popocatepetl, including Mexico City’s 18 million residents. At 2:32 local time on Tuesday morning, the most dangerous volcano in Mexico roared to life in spectacular fashion, and this has many experts extremely concerned about what is coming next. Popocatepetl is an Aztec word that means “smoking mountain”, and historians tell us that once upon a time entire Aztec cities were buried in super-heated mud from this volcano. In fact, the super-heated mud flows were so deep that they buried entire Aztec pyramids. A full-blown eruption of Mt. Popocatepetl would...

As they have for 110 years in a row, residents and emergency crew members met early Monday morning at Lotta’s Fountain in San Francisco to mark those who died and suffered during the great quake and fire on 1906. Except this year was different. It was the first time that no original survivors were left. The death of Bill Del Monte earlier this year at age 109, marked the end of the last 1906 survivor — an inevitable page turning in the long tale of the Bay Area’s most famous catastrophe. Still, a sizable crowd gathered at the gold fire...

We'd been living in our brand new home for 2 weeks when the first of 2 killer quakes hit our city . I'd experienced myriad quakes in various parts of Japan during my 30 years of living here , but nothing like these . I really thought it was the end of the world when that first quake struck : the house rocked and shook that strongly . I'm still in a bit of a shock so forgive brevity at this time . My wife and I survived unscathed , but eveything inside the house was destroyed . It'll be...

<p>Plumes of smoke rose some 100 meters into the sky, according to local media and videos captured by witnesses. The eruption of Mt. Aso, located in southern Japan, was recorded at around 11:30pm GMT Friday.</p> <p>Since small eruptions had been recorded at Mt. Aso even before the series of deadly quakes hit the area on Thursday and Friday, the Japanese Meteorological Agency has reportedly decided to keep the alert level at 2 on a scale of 1-5.</p>

A river near Yellowstone National Park suddenly changed colors and began to boil and emit yellowish noxious gases. Some witnesses wondered if "we're all about to die." Is this just another volcanic vent or a sign of bad things to come? The Shoshone River runs through Cody, Wyoming, just east of Yellowstone National Park. It's close enough to be a 'canary in a coal mine' for unusual geothermic events and that's precisely what happened on March 25th when photographer Dewey Vanderhoff spotted the Shoshone River mysteriously boiling ... and more... Yes, it's most likely a volcanic vent, but it's in...

Rescuers and a search dog check the damage around a landslide area caused by earthquakes in Minamiaso, Kumamoto prefecture on April 17. ============================================================================================================ TOKYO -- Seismic activity in southern Japan is mystifying geologists and keeping the nation on edge. The island of Kyushu has been struck by a series of significant earthquakes, with the epicenters moving progressively further inland. The cluster started with the deadly quakes that hit Kumamoto Prefecture last Thursday and Saturday. Temblors subsequently rocked the Mount Aso region and neighboring Oita Prefecture. There is a known concentration of faults in the area. Still, experts say it is...