john's blog

In the post from 4/16/2013, we discussed the M7.8 earthquake on the Pakistan-Iran-India border.  In today's earthquake, it is reported that 45 persons were killed and more injured. 

Not too much happening in earthquakes right at the moment, but the tropical cyclone - typhoon - hurricane season is about to ramp up, according to the forecasters.  So take a look at our sister social networking site or the master link at http://social.openhazards.com for some content and descriptions about the current state of the global storm system.

A magnitude M6.5 earthquake has just occurred (2:31 UTC) near Blenheim, NZ, a town on the northern end of South Island, just across the Cook Strait from Wellington.

The Philippines islands site on a complex tectonic plate boundary where major earthquakes frequently occur.  Here the Philippine Sea plate meets the Pacific plate, the largest tectonic plate, as well as lesser plates such as the Amurian plate, the Okhotsk plate, the Mariana plate, and the Eurasian plate.  [1]

Open Hazards is pleased to announce the new Collaboration and Social Network.  You can find it by clicking on http://social.openhazards.com or under the OH Community tab on this site (click on the Social link). 

Effective planning and response to natural hazards and other disasters depends on establishing strong collaboration and social networks. On this new collaboration network site you can:

We are now moving into the thick of hurricane/typhoon/tropical cyclone season.  The image here is a NASA MODIS satellite photo of super typhoon Utor that struck the Philippines today, monday August 12, 2013. 

The recent two blogs discussed the M6.5 Cook Strait earthquake, and the prospects for other events.  In the first post, I discussed a region of 100 km radius around the epicenter of the earthquake.  This circular area gave a somewhat low probability of an M> 6 earthquake within the next year.

Just in the last few minutes, signficant numbers of aftershocks have continued to accumulate.  I show a screenshot of the forecast contours in the region for M>6.5 earthquakes over the next 1 year (not yet updated to reflect the current event).  It can be seen there are significant areas of enhanced probability to the north of North Island, and off the soutwest coast of South Island.

A M6.5 earthquake has just struck the Cook Strait, NZ, between North and South Island, about 50 km from Wellington, about 1 hour ago.  No word on damage or injuries.  Depth was shallow about 14.7 km, according to USGS data.  A screenshot from the Open Hazards hazard viewer (www.openhazards.com/viewer) is reproduced here.