Latest Seismology Stories

VANCOUVER, May 19 /PRNewswire/ - Kimber Resources Inc. (NYSE Amex:KBX) (TSX:KBR) is pleased to announce the results of a further 9 drill holes from its ongoing drill program at the Carmen Deposit at its Monterde Project in Mexico.  Five of the drill holes (MTR-480, 481, 482, 490 and 491) were drilled to upgrade the confidence level of shallow mineral resources potentially amenable to open pit extraction ("Carmen Pit" targets), while the remaining holes were drilled with the...

Bolivia may need to prepare for a possible 8.9 magnitude quake that would be 125 times more powerful than previously calculated to be possible in this area, AFP reports. Two million people in the region of the east of the central Andes mountains could be affected in what had been thought, until now, to be a relatively calm area for seismic activity, according to a study published in Nature Geoscience."No one suspected that the previous estimates were too low," Benjamin Brooks, a geophysicist...

TACOMA, Wash., April 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- When the next major earthquake hits this region, a substantial amount of buildings and schools are likely to sustain major damage and, in many cases, even collapse. But thanks to a new line of desks that serve as protective armor, a lot of the folks inside these buildings are now more likely to survive. - Robert von Bereghy, founder of LifeGuard Structures, WHO: maker of new earthquake-proof desks and...

JAKARTA, Indonesia, April 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Continental Energy Corporation (OTCBB: CPPXF) (the "Company") an emerging international oil and gas company, today updated 2011 plans on the Bengara-II Block, Indonesia, owned by its 18% subsidiary Continental-GeoPetro (Bengara-II) Ltd. ("CGB2"). Surface damage claims disputes with prawn farm operators in the area of the company's new seismic acquisition program have largely been overcome. Minor, local issues still arise from time to time....

The massive subduction zone earthquake in Japan caused a significant level of soil "liquefaction" that has surprised researchers with its widespread severity, a new analysis shows.The findings also raise questions about whether existing building codes and engineering technologies are adequately accounting for this phenomenon in other vulnerable locations, which in the U.S. include Portland, Ore., parts of the Willamette Valley and other areas of Oregon, Washington and California.A preliminary...

The U.S. Geological Survey said that a 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck in the South Pacific on Monday. The survey said that the epicenter was south of the Kermadeic Islands, about 340 miles east-northeast of Auckland, New Zealand. The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.4, but the U.S. Geological Survey later increased to a 6.6-magnitude quake. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that it does not expect the earthquake to generate "a destructive, Pacific-wide tsunami."A...

A pair of moderate earthquakes rattled Australia and New Zealand on Saturday.  An initial quake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale struck about 80 miles southeast of the Australian coastal city of Townsville at 3.31pm local time (0531 GMT), at a depth of about 6 miles below the ocean floor, the U.S. Geological Survey said.The temblor was followed by a magnitude 5.3 aftershock that hit minutes later in Christchurch, New Zealand, which suffered a devastating magnitude 6.3 earthquake earlier...

A leading scientist on Wednesday said that Japan's northeastern coast has suffered many powerful earthquakes and large tsunamis in the past and nuclear power plants should have been built to withstand these natural disasters, reports AFP. The scientist also noted that the crippled plant in Fukushima may have survived the disaster had the government not put faith in a flawed earthquake prediction system. Geophysics professor Robert Geller said the Japanese authorities rely on annual "hazard...

Conductivity image hints volcano plume is bigger than thoughtUniversity of Utah geophysicists made the first large-scale picture of the electrical conductivity of the gigantic underground plume of hot and partly molten rock that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano. The image suggests the plume is even bigger than it appears in earlier images made with earthquake waves."It's like comparing ultrasound and MRI in the human body; they are different imaging technologies," says geophysics...

Countless aftershocks that have shaken the already ravaged country of Japan from the initial 9.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami of March 11 have been blamed on the increasing number of people experiencing motion sickness, reports the AFP news agency. "We are seeing a sharp increase in the number of patients complaining of dizziness," the Mejiro University Clinic said on its website. Hideaki Sakata, chief physician at the clinic, which specializes in ear, nose and throat...