Posted on 06/12/2011 3:02:37 PM PDT by winoneforthegipper
Great Memory this past winter further south.
bttt
LOL! I think to break the code on what's okay for breaking news, the thread title needs to have the word weiner in it. A quick sidebar scan shows about 7 or so weiner threads in BN. Maybe the original poster could ask the mod to change the title of this thread to "weiner eruption". Then we could ask to have it moved to BN.
Earthquake / Eruption summary : During the late afternoon and evening of June 12 2011, a series of moderate earthquakes struck the Afambo, Eritrea area. The moderate earthquakes were followed by 2 strong 5.7 earthquakes. Based on the earthquake pattern and the locations of the epicenter, volcano activity seemed imminent.
UPDATE 13/06 00:47 UTC : From now on we will have to wait for local reports, pictures, videos etc.
We are very eager to get a confirmation that nobody was hurt and that no damage was inflicted during the earthquake and/or eruption.
Many scientists will board airplanes to take a close look at the volcano, take samples, etc.
UPDATE 13/06 00:15 UTC : This is a very recent Google earth picture (combined with satellite cloud image). The size of the cloud is 150 km on 50 km! (91 on 35 miles).
UPDATE 23:46 UTC : We are now convinced that the erupting volcano is the Nabro volcano (an official confirmation is still missing)
UPDATE 23:16 UTC : As long as we have no confirmation of local authorities we have to guess on the name of the erupting volcano. Dubbi volcano is one scenario as his activity could be traced to 1861. Based on the coordinates of the beginning of the eruption as well as the location of a number of the more powerful earthquakes, Pieter De Leeuw (Netherlands) has traced the eruption as probably coming from the Nabro volcano, a crater with a diameter of 8 km. We agree with him. Nabro volcano has no records of recent eruptions.
UPDATE 23:10 UTC : According to Global Volcanism Program, both Nabro and Dubbi belong to the Bidu volcanic complex
UPDATE 22:59 UTC : Earthquake-report.com wants to know as fast as possible the situation in Afambo. The continuous earthquakes may have been damaging and depending the activity of the nearby Dubbi volcano, people in very nearby Afambo are at risk. We hope to receive OK signals soon, but as said earlier on, communications with this part of Eritrea will be very basic and it can take a while before the news reaches the outside world (if not cut off by the ongoing events).
UPDATE 22:45 UTC : This will be a very special volcano eruption because we expect that the eruption comes from the Dubbi volcano who had its latest recorded activity in 1861.
UPDATE 22:35 UTC : The following satellite picture clearly indicates that an eruption is going on in the area. Look at the upper right quarter. A point will gradually grow to a major cloud, which means that based on the scale the eruption is very huge.
Click here for the animated cloud cover in Ethiopia / Eritrea
We do appreciate the person from the Netherlands and a few other people immediately afterwards who traced this satellite picture. Satellite pictures courtesy http://www.sat24.com.
UPDATE 22:02 UTC : @ earthquake-report.com we expect that it will take at least 12 hours before we can get a more precise picture of what happened. We will keep you updated just as we do with all other earthquake and volcanic events that we are following up.
UPDATE 21:45 UTC : The earthquake intensity of the 5.7 magnitude earthquake (latest one) caused 451 people to feel a strong shaking and 17,000 people a moderate shaking (theoretical values)
UPDATE 21:44 UTC : As reported below the last known eruption of one the volcanoes dates back to 1861 (Dubbi volcano) and killed 106 people
The red point is the location of the first tremor – Dubbi volcano area
UPDATE 21:36 UTC : Some more information on the volcanic complex :
Mallahle is the central of three NE-SW-trending stratovolcanoes in the Danakil horst SW of Dubbi volcano, and lies SSW of Nabro volcano.
These two volcanoes, along with Bara Ale and SorkAle, form the Bidu volcanic complex. The complex Mallahle stratovolcano is truncated by a steep-walled 6-km-wide caldera. Mallahle is formed of rhyolitic lava flows and pyroclastics. Basaltic lava flows blanket the slopes of the
volcano. Recent obsidian flows are found on the NW flank of Mallahle and older obsidian flows were erupted on the northern caldera floor.
Flank spatter and scoria cones are most numerous on the western side of the volcano. Extensive ignimbrite deposits associated with the collapse of Mallahle and Nabro volcanoes blanket the countryside.
UPDATE 21:28 UTC : These magnitudes can lead to serious damage if the epicenter is below or very near to Afambo (which is very nearby based on the seismological data) . We do not think that there will be injured people as the series started with moderate earthquakes and as people will stay on the streets after so many earthquakes. The current situation tends to become very dangerous.
UPDATE 21:23 UTC : A Mw5.7 has been also recorded at depth 9km in around the same area. No record of damage has yet been recorded.
UPDATE 21:03 UTC : Lucas Tavares reports in our Facebook page : I was studying about this volcanoes past hours. Maybe the shakes surrounds the Mallahle or Nabro Caldera, there isnt any known eruptions of these volcanoes! Shakes are becoming stronger!
UPDATE 20:58 UTC : We have still no trace (as expected) of what is really going on. This last 5.4 earthquake can be damaging at this shallow depth when the epicenter is located below a village or town. As we are unsure of the exact epicenter (the error margin may be 10 to 30 km different than reported by the USGS).
UPDATE 20:56 UTC : The earthquakes are continuing with the last one as the strongest so far with a magnitude of 5.4 at a depth of 10 km.
UPDATE 20:33 UTC : We are more and more convinced that one of the nearby volcanoes went into an active status as the distance to the ridge fault is to big to create this kind of earthquakes. Additionally almost all the earthquakes are occurring near the volcano complex on the picture (courtesy Google Earth)
UPDATE 19:37 UTC : This unusual series of moderate earthquakes have also occurred a couple of months ago in the Gulf of Aden. The earthquakes are typical for separating irregular tectonic plates. The series in the Gulf of Aden had their epicenter in the immediate area of the ridge fault.
Due to the close-by volcanoes, an eruption pattern of the Dubbi volcano is still possible. The pre-eruption pattern of both the Icelandic and Chilean volcanoes from the last few weeks is also present here. Compared to Iceland and Chile, Eritrea has other concerns than looking to beautiful eruptions. We will follow up these events and will come back to you as soon as we can get more data ?
UPDATE 16:11 UTC : Other agencies are reporting totally different and less dangerous numbers : GFZ: 4.9 @ 43 km and EMSC 4.7 @ 200 km
Moderate shallow earthquake with an epicenter almost below Afambo.
Approx. 15 km from the Dubbi volcano. The peak of the Dubbi volcano is 1625 m. There have been four known eruptions. In 1400 lava was determined to have reached the Red Sea while in 1861 ash was thrown over 250 km from the volcano. Two further events were suspected between 1861 and the 20th century.
During the late afternoon and evening of June 12 2011 a series of moderate earthquake struck at first near Afambo in Eritrea and later 100 km more to the south in Ethiopia. At the moment of writing, we do not know whether these earthquake have a tectonic or a volcanic origin.
Other moderate earthquakes which occurred after the first earthquake which is described in detail
M 4.5 2011/06/12 21:37 Depth 15.0 km ERITREA ETHIOPIA REGION
M 5.7 2011/06/12 21:03 Depth 9.9 km ERITREA ETHIOPIA REGION
M 5.7 2011/06/12 20:32 Depth 10.1 km ERITREA ETHIOPIA REGION
M 4.8 2011/06/12 19:44 Depth 9.9 km ERITREA ETHIOPIA REGION
M 4.7 2011/06/12 19:37 Depth 10.1 km ERITREA ETHIOPIA REGION
M 4.5 2011/06/12 18:01 Depth 10.1 km ETHIOPIA
M 5.0 2011/06/12 19:21 Depth 10.0 km ETHIOPIA
M 4.7 2011/06/12 17:47:21 13.538 41.588 Depth 10.0 km ERITREA – ETHIOPIA REGION
M 4.8 2011/06/12 17:18:10 13.381 41.764 Depth 9.9 km ERITREA – ETHIOPIA REGION
M 4.3 2011/06/12 16:33:12 13.507 41.722 Depth 10.0 km ERITREA – ETHIOPIA REGION
M 4.8 2011/06/12 16:24:44 13.436 41.682 Depth 10.0 km ERITREA – ETHIOPIA REGION
M 4.7 2011/06/12 16:12:03 13.397 41.734 Depth 10.0 km ERITREA – ETHIOPIA REGION
M 4.5 2011/06/12 16:09:30 13.443 41.696 Depth 2.9 km ERITREA – ETHIOPIA REGION
QuakeSOS+ and QuakeSOS free are iPhone applications developed by Armand Vervaeck, the founder of Earthquake Report. The Application simplifies immediate group communication to friends and family members (with your exact GPS location) and is feeding the users with Earthquake Report news. The 0.99 US$ QuakeSOS+ version will support the activities of SOS Earthquakes.
@QuakeSOS : earthquake-report.com news + automatic earthquake notifications of USGS earthquakes of M 4.0 or higher with emphasis to earthquakes in the Americas and the Pacific Ocean sphere (4 and up) and a lot of the rest of the world (5 and up). This account was created for our QuakeSOS and QuakeSOS+ iPhone applications
@ShakingEarth : earthquake-report.com news + automatic earthquake notifications of EMSC earthquakes of M 4.0 or higher with emphasis to earthquakes in European and Asian / Middle East sphere (4 and up) and a lot of the rest of the world (5 and up). This account was originally created to stimulate our Facebook account
@QuakeMaps : earthquake-report.com news with mapping notifications of ALL earthquakes M 3.0 and higher from all over the world via EMSC and USGS. This account was created for our http://www.quake-maps.com website
I did feel it Ik heb het gevoeld Yo lo siento – Ich habe es gefhlt Bunu hissediyorum yapt
Country and location
There has also been a damaging 5.5 earthquake in Christchurch, NZ tonight:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10731969
Just saw a magnitude 6!
Thanks for posting this...
The Christchurch quakes aren’t volcanic.
IceAge now is one of the most worthless, imbecilic sites on the net.
Look at it for 10 seconds and it will suck about half the actual scientific knowledge out of you.
Six people are in hospital after Christchurch was hit by two strong aftershocks - one which shook buildings as far away as Dunedin - this afternoon.
Buildings were evacuated and at least two people rescued from a collapsed church after a 5.5 tremor about 1pm.
•Are you in Christchurch? Email us
St John transported six people to Christchurch hospital with “moderately serious injuries” as a result of falling building material.
A stronger magnitude 6 quake hit at 2.25pm as Christchurch mayor Bob Parker was being interviewed live on air. Several minutes later the tremor hit Dunedin, causing buildings to shake.
Police said St John’s Church in central Christchurch had collapsed trapping two people, who had been rescued.
The first tremor hit about 1pm and was centred 10km southeast of Christchurch at a depth of 11km.
Buildings evacuated included Canterbury University, Westfield Riccarton Mall and Pak’n Save supermarket in Wainoni. More liquefaction has been reported in Christchurch’s eastern suburbs.
Phone lines are overloaded and up to 10,000 residents were reported to be without power.
Lyttelton Tunnel closed briefly, but has reopened.
Attendees at the second inquest hearings for Christchurch earthquake victims bolted from the Riccarton Park Function Centre when the quake struck.
With locals to the fore people bolted outside and gathered in the racecourse parade ring, a spokesman for Coroner Gordon Matenga told NZPA.
“It all cleared very quickly,’’ Steve Corbett said. “Locals showed the way, they didn’t muck around.’’
The inquest went to its lunch recess slightly early, and had resumed its afternoon hearings.
The first inquest into the quake last month was also hit by an aftershock but today’s was “certainly longer``, he said.
The inquest is looking into the deaths of 106 people when Christchurch’s CTV building collapsed and caught fire after February 22’s devastating quake.
LOL, that about finishes me then!
Nabro Volcano and Christchurch NZ certainly make for “diverse places.” Full eclsipse of the moon coming up. Doomsday preacher has stroke. Mavericks win NBA. Hmmm . . .
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