"The Quake-Catching Network is a collaborative initiative for developing the world's largest, low-cost strong-motion seismic network by utilizing sensors in and attached to internet-connected computers." The Economist's writeup notes that, since network communications are (sometimes) faster than the speed of sound in the earth's crust, a distributed network's observations of a temblor might reach a warning network before the quake itself reaches a traditional seismometer.
posted on Sep 30, 2008 - View this thread

Something exploded over and under Lake Huron near the US/Canadian border on July 31, 2008. Nobody knows what it was. Initial published reports identified the cause as a meteor shower (without attribution). A week later more details emerged and meteors were ruled out. So what was it?
posted on Aug 14, 2008 - View this thread

Ten simple, shattering comics about the earthquake in China. Via MoFi.
posted on Jun 1, 2008 - View this thread

Chinese Are Left to Ask Why Schools Crumbled. "A staggering number of students died as schools collapsed in the May 12 earthquake, and grieving parents are speaking out about shoddy construction."
posted on May 25, 2008 - View this thread

Fifty Thousand Shirts. Creative guy Steve Paterson has teamed up with a number of other partners (and is still looking for more) to sell 50,000 t-shirts in memory of the more than 50,000 people who died in China's recent 7.9 magnitude earthquake in order to raise $1,000,000.
posted on May 24, 2008 - View this thread

Wedding photographers captured the exact moments of the earthquake in Sichuan, China.
posted on May 21, 2008 - View this thread

Until recently, earthquake lights were folklore. It wasn't until the phenomenon was captured in photographs, taken during the Matsushiro earthquake swarm in Japan between 1965 and 1967, that the seismological community acknowledged their occurrence. The precise mechanism is unknown. A stunning example was captured on video thirty minutes prior to the Sichuan earthquake.
posted on May 20, 2008 - View this thread

Superstitious bloggers explain the recent earthquake in China by suggesting that the official Olympic Mascots of the Beijing Olympics foretold of disaster.
posted on May 19, 2008 - View this thread

Newsfilter: Magnitude 7.8 earthquake hits China.
posted on May 12, 2008 - View this thread

The town of Valdez, Alaska is located in south central Alaska on the northeast tip of Prince William Sound. Incorporated since 1901, the community’s first century has been marked by a number of significant events the most notable of which are the 1964 Alaska Earthquake, being chosen as the terminus of the trans-Alaska Pipeline and the tragic 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.
posted on Apr 16, 2008 - View this thread

Motto: "The Hitherto Impossible in Photography is Our Specialty." Meet George Lawrence. Saying that "he took pioneering aerial photographs using kites" doesn't quite do Lawrence Captive Airship justice. Dubbed the Lawrence Captive Airship it utilized a string of seven kites to lift the specially designed cameras to heights of 2,000 ft. Cameras weighing as much as 49 pounds and capable of producing negatives from 10 x 24 inches to a staggering 30 x 87 inches in size. The largest negatives yet taken from any airborne vehicle.
posted on Feb 16, 2008 - View this thread

19th Anniversary of Spitak Earthquake At 11:41am on December 7, 1988, a 7 point scale earthquake shook the Soviet Republic of Armenia. A massive Soviet-wide aid campaign began. Aid workers from outside of the Soviet Union were allowed in, for the first time in Soviet history. Many argue that the 50,000+ deaths were in part due to poor construction of the Soviet era buildings. Any hope for reconstruction fell apart with the collapse of the Soviet Union though. 19 years later, many people are still living in "temporary" housing, called "Domiks" , estimates are around 3000-5000 people still homeless after 19 years. A child of the earthquake remembers. ABC News coverage and Time Magazine coverage.
posted on Dec 6, 2007 - View this thread

A 7.9-magnitude earthquake hit Peru in the Ica region, south of the capital of Lima. Ica, Chincha and Pisco have been hardest hit, although the pavement rippled in downtown Lima as well. BBC (first link) and CNN have been reporting about 336-7 dead, but my uncle (in Lima) says that many towns south of San Bartolo have simply disappeared into rubble.
posted on Aug 16, 2007 - View this thread

Strong earthquake hits Japan, hundreds of homes have been destroyed, bridges have been leveled, tsunamis are forming, and most frightening, the nuclear power plant appears to be leaking radioactive water. The quake registered as a 6.8 on the Richter scale. I hope that our Japanese Mefites are safe and sound and will let us know if there is anything we can do to help.
posted on Jul 16, 2007 - View this thread

104 year-old Herb Hamerol was the lone survivor on hand at this year's 101st memorial for the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. To some people he's a celebrity. Truth is, to attend the memorial he took the day off from his long-held job as a stock clerk at Andronico's supermarket. Yes, read that paragraph again.
posted on Apr 25, 2007 - View this thread

The Global Trouble AlertMap
Are you curious about that chemical spill in Minnesota? Or how about the bio hazard situation in Honduras? The Havaria Information Systems AlertMap is updated in (near) real-time and the wealth of bad news is fairly astonishing. Plus they've got RSS feeds for whatever bad (or locationally relevant) news you want delivered. There are USA only maps, Europe only maps and Hungary too (slow day, just a fire). Previously (focused on bird flu tracking though several comments note how freakin' cool the map is)
posted on Mar 17, 2007 - View this thread

You may have heard of Twitter, a social networking utility to let your friends know online or by SMS what you're doing right now. Well, now even fault lines can do it, thanks to some enterprising developers. Friend one of these guys to get San Francisco quake info by text message from the USGS.
posted on Mar 12, 2007 - View this thread

"This is a major innovation...and in places that are affected by high winds and earthquakes, it looks like it's going to make a big difference." And it only adds about $15 to the cost of an average 2000 sq. ft. house - the Bostich HurriQuake nail.
posted on Nov 28, 2006 - View this thread

A 6.6. magnitude earthquake hit Hawaii on Sunday. The quake originated from 24 miles below the west coast of the Big Island. Mefi's own pzarquon posted photos of Honolulu without power, and there's also a photo pool. AP reports: "Across the state, residents reported little panic, and for some the loss of power meant it was time to sit outside, set up barbecues and talk with friends and neighbors."
posted on Oct 16, 2006 - View this thread

Strippers, monkeys, pirates, and fire, a humorously titled account of the 1692 destruction by tsunami of the pirate city Port Royal.
posted on Jun 24, 2006 - View this thread

Ten Stories the World Should Hear More About.
posted on Jun 2, 2006 - View this thread

Mysterious Boom felt throughout Southern California this morning with no explanation. USGS claims there were no quakes, meteorologists claim nothing in the weather could have caused it, military bases are claiming that nothing they were doing would cause such a rumble, and air traffic controllers state that no supersonic flights were taking place in the area (no sonic boom). I was awoken by the shaking and the car alarms that followed. If it's none of the above, just what caused it?
posted on Apr 4, 2006 - View this thread

"The Hayward Fault is locked and loaded. It is ready to fire at any time." The U.S. Geological Survey has a Google Earth-based "virtual helicopter tour" and other annotated views of The Hayward Fault. There's a 70% probability of a major earthquake hitting the San Francisco Bay Area before 2030, and Hayward is the most likely fault [PDF] for an earthquake (or is it?). Bad things will happen. Fortunately we're completely unprepared. [more inside]
posted on Mar 10, 2006 - View this thread

The Bancroft Library unveils a new 1906 San Francisco Earthquake site featuring a really cool clickable map that features photos from each section of town. Haight Street didn't look too bad, but just down the road, City Hall was leveled. The exhibit offers a guide to the event that look place nearly 100 years ago.
posted on Jan 14, 2006 - View this thread

Earthquake rocks Greece and felt as far away as Italy, Egypt and Israel. [NewsFilter, except not in the US]
posted on Jan 9, 2006 - View this thread

"I didn't know Jack London was such a good photographer." Jack London and his wife Charmian took photos several hours after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, and he wrote an eyewitness account for Collier's (it was the most he was ever paid per word--25 cents--for his writing). [more inside]
posted on Jan 6, 2006 - View this thread

A retired Chinese chemist whose daughter is a PhD student at Caltech, regularly posts his earthquake predictions on his website. He claims to have successfully predicted the Bam earthquake in 2003, the Indonesian earthquake in 2004, the Pakistan earthquake in 2005 and numerous others by identifying earthquake clouds in satellite images supposedly caused by stress and friction acting on underground water. Oh and Southern California? Brace yourself. You are heading for a 7.0 plus quake on or before February 3rd, 2006.
posted on Oct 30, 2005 - View this thread

Where were you 16 years ago at 5:04 pm PST? I was in this building in downtown San Francisco, one of the City's oldest skyscrapers. In our office, we had turned on the radio to listen to Game 3 of the World Series between the A's and the Giants, known as the "Bay Bridge Series". We didn't know the Bay Bridge was about to collapse. [More inside.]
posted on Oct 17, 2005 - View this thread

Over 19,000 dead in earthquake in South Asia
posted on Oct 9, 2005 - View this thread

The Sound of a Distant Rumble: Using monitoring devices originally intended to pick up the sound of nuke launches, researchers track the underwater noise generated by the December 26 (tsunami) earthquake. Eerie audio file of the slowly-building roar is included on the page. (More info here as well)
posted on Jul 22, 2005 - View this thread

Tsunami warning - 7.4 earthquake in the pacific
posted on Jun 14, 2005 - View this thread

Worth picking up if you have a library with a subscription. The May 20th issue of Science was devoted to the Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake of December 24 describing the full power of that event, the most powerful recorded since the deployment of modern electronic sensors. The multiple effects claimed include swarm earthquakes in Alaska, a shock wave that moved every place on Earth a centimeter, and resonant waves continuing weeks after the event. It is also the the longest rupture recorded and took over an hour to complete. Animated simulations of aspects of the event are linked through PhysOrg.com.
posted on Jun 3, 2005 - View this thread

Magnitude 8.2 earthquake off Indonesia Tsunami warning bulletins are posted here.
posted on Mar 28, 2005 - View this thread

Tsunami visualizations Visualizations of recent and historical tsunami episodes, collected by John McDaris at Carleton College. Includes large but visually effective animations, such as this NOAA visualization of the global propagation of the 26/12/04 tsunami (24MB Quicktime).
posted on Feb 1, 2005 - View this thread

"Infrasonic Symphony" Intrigued by reports of tsunami-avoidance behavior in Sri Lankan wildlife? Science News offers a timely antidote to simplistic mumbo-jumbo about the "mythical power" of animal earthquake detection with a detailed look at the latest research into low-frequency sound. The Elephant Listening Project is particularly interested in elephant rumblings that produce Rayleigh waves. "Mammals, birds, insects, and spiders can detect Rayleigh waves," notes The Explainer. "Most can feel the movement in their bodies, although some, like snakes and salamanders, put their ears to the ground in order to perceive it."
posted on Jan 3, 2005 - View this thread

Thanks for the new living room, neighbor! In case you needed any further news about the earth moving, residents in Berkeley, CA have found themselves embroiled in a property-line quagmire as the result of the shifting earth. Small quakes and unstable ground have caused real property to slide as much as 20 feet in the last century, though property lines remain firmly fixed, in some cases causing bitter disputes between neighbors who find themselves with new and sometimes unwanted "improvements" relocated across into their survey area. Even in California where the earth moves all the time, the law still hasn't quite caught up to these trickle events.
posted on Dec 27, 2004 - View this thread

"THE YEAR was 1906, and the citizens of San Francisco must have found it a wildly incongruous sight--grown men at child's play in the midst of tragedy. Less than three weeks before, the earth had shaken and the city had burned. The disaster began with an earthquake in the early morning of Wednesday, April 18, and when the fires were extinguished three days later, at least two hundred thousand San Francisco residents were homeless. Yet on the afternoon of May 5, a small group of men was flying kites near Folsom and Sixth streets."
posted on Dec 9, 2004 - View this thread

Can we predict volcanic eruptions? PBS aired a NOVA program called "Deadly Shadow of Vesuvius" in 1998 which suggests that we can by monitoring small scale earthquakes which "swarm" as an eruption approaches. Why is this important now? Look at this map, which indicates the occurence of over 40 earthquakes under Mount St. Helens just today, with 10 being over 3.0 on the Richter scale. The Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network has issued a series of alerts with more detail. National Geographic is reporting that an eruption is imminent.
posted on Sep 30, 2004 - View this thread

Quake to hit LA "by September 5," predicts a geophysicist at UCLA's Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics. Some skeptical, while others say it's not junk science.
posted on Apr 15, 2004 - View this thread

Minor Washington state quake. It's been a while since I've experienced and earthquake, so when tonight's little one hit my hometown (a mere 3.2) I was a little shocked (and a little excited). I was also really impressed with the seemingly instantaneous response by the USGS and the University of Washington's GeoPhysics Dept. on their websites classifying it.

In the olden-days (eg- pre-Internet) I'd have to wait for the early morning news to find out any information about it, but through the miracle of HTTP I have all the info I want mere seconds after the event. In fact, less than 15 minutes after the quake the USGS site had over 260 responses on their website about the quake from people who felt it and left comments on their site.

I wonder if there are other sites that help classify and/or disseminate information about other naturally occurring phenomenon (hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.)... anyone, anyone?
posted on Jan 16, 2004 - View this thread

Iran quake death toll hits 50,000. 150,000 survivors are homeless, hungry, and freezing. They really need your immediate help.

$110 can provide a tent for a family of five

$60 can provide drinking water to 30 people

$45 can provide space heaters to three families

$25 can provide blankets to a family of five

Mercy Corps has raised $188,397 so far, but this is far from enough.
posted on Dec 30, 2003 - View this thread

20,000 feared dead in Iran quake. Google News Cluster.
posted on Dec 26, 2003 - View this thread

6.5 Quake Hits Central California. Felt for over a minute in San Jose, about 50 miles south of San Francisco. Interesting time to discover the oft-defunded USGS's instant earthquake news page. Talk about dynamically generating your pages your pages from the ground up...
posted on Dec 22, 2003 - View this thread

8.0 Earthquake in Hokkaido, Japan. Holy crap. The Kobe quake in 1994 was a 6.9 - am I right to think that an 8.0 is about ten times worse than that one? Any mefites in Japan who can give us more information?
posted on Sep 25, 2003 - View this thread

Make-a-Quake is discovery.com's simple, fascinating and creepy Flash interactive in which you choose the ground quality and construction prevention method for your multi-story building, then select a quake magnitude before you "Begin Quake" to find out how your property fared. Make-a-Quake is a feature of the "San Francisco Earthquake of 1906" (also featuring a video gallery and audio slide show), a part of Discovery's "Unsolved History" series. Past Unsolved History features here.
posted on Sep 5, 2003 - View this thread

Did the earth move for you as well? The biggest earthquake to hit the "Shaky Isles" since 1968 rocked the southern South Island of New Zealand earlier today, with the tremor being felt as far away as Sydney. Did you realise that recorded earthquakes are an almost daily occurrence around the world? In fact, earthquakes with a magnitude of 1 or over happen at an alarming rate. While California is often thought of as earthquake central and New Zealand carries the "Shaky Isles" crown with justification (and not a little pride), Australia is not generally considered to be a country prone to earthquakes. Surprisingly, there have been 15 earthquakes in Australia in the past month alone, ranging from 2 to 6 in intensity.
posted on Aug 22, 2003 - View this thread

Earthquake hits the UK. 'Big one' too, 4.8 on the Richter scale, so not quite California standard. Anyone want to share their experience?
posted on Sep 23, 2002 - View this thread

Remember that MeFi post on earthquake prediction? They did it again. There was a 4.6 quake yesterday near Santa Barbara that hit the bullseye. Compare the map of where the quake hit to the prediction map. That's at least five accurate predictions since the scientific paper (pdf) was released earlier this year.
posted on Sep 3, 2002 - View this thread

CA Earthquake forecast... Apparently, the earthquake that Matt felt recently had been forecast by a group of scientists with a new predictive modelling method. That particular earthquake was just on the edge of their confidence interval, but four other recent earthquakes fell well within the predicted boundaries.
posted on May 23, 2002 - View this thread

Californians, did you feel the quake? This 5.2 quake was near the surface which, according to the San Francisco local news, allowed it to travel farther than usual. Did you feel it? If so, where? Did it create any problems? Was anyone at the Sharks game?
posted on May 13, 2002 - View this thread