Earthquake

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Solomons Quake Triggers Tsunami, Destroys Villages

Tue, 2013-02-05 22:57 — Kathy Gilbeaux

ABC News - Live Coverage Blog - February 5, 2013

A magnitude 8.0 earthquake off Solomon Islands has generated a tsunami and destroyed three villages.

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Pacific Tsunami Warning Center
http://ptwc.weather.gov/

From GDACS . . . Estimated wave height and arrival times of Tsunami
http://tinyurl.com/a72nss9 . . .

USGS - 8.0 Earthquake
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000f1s0#summary

West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center
http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/

National Data Buoy Center - Facebook Announcement
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=401774316576562&id=128538033843673

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Explaining Risks

Fri, 2012-11-30 18:15 — Maeryn Obley

Image: Aftereffects of the L'Aquila earthquake

compression.org - October 25th, 2012 - Robert W. "Doc" Hall

The difficulties of explaining risk are the nub of the recent conviction on manslaughter changes of six Italian seismologists and a public official for inadequately forewarning the public of the L’Aquila earthquake in 2009: 309 fatalities, over 1500 injuries, and about 20,000 buildings destroyed. Seismologists classified the L’Aquila as a “moderate earthquake,” 6.3 Richter, but losses were very high in a densely populated area.

The case has drawn media attention, but Nature has a more detailed account.

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Italian Scientists Convicted of Not Warning of Earthquake

Wed, 2012-10-24 00:13 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Collapsed church building from 2009 earthquake in central Italy

voanews.com - October 22, 2012

An Italian court on Monday convicted seven scientists and experts of manslaughter for underestimating the risks of a killer earthquake and failing to adequately warn citizens before it struck the central Italian town of L'Aquila in 2009.

More than 300 people were killed, tens of thousands were left homeless, and the town's historic center and medieval churches were destroyed in the 6.3-magnitude quake.

Prosecutors argued that the defendants - members of a national panel that assesses major risks - offered "incomplete, imprecise and contradictory information" to residents.

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Executive Summary - Slideshare

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Fukushima Disaster “a Profoundly Man-Made Disaster”: Investigative Commission

Tue, 2012-07-10 01:11 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Luis Kun

Homeland Security News Wire - July 5, 2012

Executive Summary - (88 page .PDF file)

NAIIC Report

The commission investigating the Fukushima disaster of March 2011 concluded that although the combination of the tsunami and earthquake was unprecedented in its ferocity, the disaster was largely man-made because it was amplified by what came before it and what followed it. The disaster itself, the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission, said was sandwiched by practices and conduct which were the result of government-industry collusion and the worst conformist conventions of Japanese culture.

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Mega-quake hotspots around the world

Wed, 2012-06-27 18:53 — Corey Watts

www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com - June 27, 2012

Image source: usgs.gov

The 2010 earthquake in Haiti killed hundreds of thousands and destroyed large sections of the capital, Port au Prince; the clock is ticking on many earthquake faults throughout the world, and a comprehensive new book points to places around the world that could face the fate of Port au Prince.

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Improve Tsunami Warnings by Placing GPS on Commercial Ships

Tue, 2012-05-08 16:15 — Kathy Gilbeaux

While in transit from Hawaii to Guam, the research vessel Kilo Moana detected the February 2010 Chilean tsunami. Credit: University of Hawaii, SOEST

submitted by Samuel Bendett

Homeland Security News Wire - May 8, 2012

Researchers find that commercial ships travel across most of the globe and could provide better warnings for potentially deadly tsunamis; this finding came as a surprise because tsunamis have such small amplitudes in the deep water, in contrast to their size when they reach the coastline, that it seemed unlikely that the tsunami would be detected using GPS unless the ship was very close to the source and the tsunami was very big

Commercial ships travel across most of the globe and could provide better warnings for potentially deadly tsunamis, according to a study published by scientists at the University of Hawaii – Manoa (UHM) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

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Researchers Use GPS Data to Speed Up Tsunami Warnings

Sun, 2012-05-06 23:25 — Kathy Gilbeaux

In this Jan. 2, 2005 file photo, a wide area of destruction is shown from an aerial view taken over Meulaboh, 250 kilometers (156 Miles) west of Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Researchers in the United States are hoping to use GPS data to speed up current warnings. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, File)

U.S. seismologists currently testing new warning system

by Andrew Pinsent - CBC News - May 5, 2012

Scientists in the United States have been testing an advanced tsunami warning system using GPS data, combined with traditional seismology networks, to attempt to detect the magnitude of an earthquake faster so warnings of potential tsunamis can get out to potentially affected areas sooner.

The prototype is called California Integrated Seismic Network (CISN), and is a collaboration between the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, whose focus is on environmental conservation.

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Transforming Earthquake Detection?

Sat, 2012-02-25 11:14 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Linton Wells

sciencemag.org - January 20, 2012

Earthquakes are a collective experience. Citizens have long participated in earthquake science through the reporting, collection, and analysis of individual experiences. The value of citizen-generated status reports was clear after the 1995 Kobe, Japan, earthquake (1). Today's communications infrastructure has taken citizen engagement to a new level: Earthquake-related Twitter messages can outrun the shaking (2), Internet traffic detects earthquakes (3–7) and maps the distribution of shaking in minutes (8–10), and accelerometers in consumer electronic devices record seismic waveforms (11–16). What are we learning from this flood of data, and what are the limitations? How do we harness these new capabilities for scientific discovery, and what is the role of education?

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Invisibility Cloak to Protect Buildings from Earthquakes

Sat, 2012-02-18 01:01 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Samuel Bendett and Linton Wells

Homeland Security News Wire - February 15, 2012

Scientists show that by cloaking components of structures with pressurized rubber, powerful waves such as those produced by an earthquake would not “see” the building — they would simply pass around the structure and thus prevent serious damage or destruction

University of Manchester mathematicians have developed the theory for a Harry Potter-style cloaking device which could protect buildings from earthquakes.

Dr. William Parnell’s team in the University’s School of Mathematics has been working on the theory of invisibility cloaks which, until recently, have been merely the subject of science fiction.

In recent times, however, scientists have been getting close to achieving cloaking in a variety of contexts. A University of Manchester release reports that the work from the team at Manchester focuses on the theory of cloaking devices which could eventually help to protect buildings and structures from vibrations and natural disasters such as earthquakes.

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