Monthly Archives: May 2015

2015/05/21
12:55 PM
by: Jay Patton

Earthquake in the Solomon Islands!

Following yesterday’s seismic swarm along the plate boundary that connects the Solomon Trench with the New Hebrides Trench, we have a M = 6.0 compressional earthquake in the Solomons. Today’s earthquake is in the region of the possibly subduction zone … Continue reading →

Posted in asia, Chemeketa Community College, education, geology, HSU, plate tectonics, subduction

2015/05/20
4:13 PM
by: Jay Patton

Santa Cruz Islands Earthquake: Update #1

The USGS has presented their moment tensor solution for this M = 6.8 earthquake and it indeed appears to be a strike-slip type of an earthquake, supporting our interpretation that this is a transform plate boundary. Here was my first … Continue reading →

Posted in asia, Chemeketa Community College, education, geology, HSU, plate tectonics, subduction

2015/05/20
3:46 PM
by: Jay Patton

Santa Cruz Islands Earthquake!

We just had an earthquake in the Santa Cruz Islands region. Earliest reports has the magnitude at M = 6.9, with a depth of 19.9 km. This earthquake appears to align with a transform boundary that connects the New Hebrides … Continue reading →

Posted in asia, Chemeketa Community College, education, geology, plate tectonics, subduction, tsunami

2015/05/14
12:55 PM
by: Jay Patton

Nepal (Gorkha) Earthquake: USGS Slip Models

The USGS has processed an inversion of the seismic data for a slip model for the Mw 7.3 earthquake. I have rubbersheeted their fault plane solution, as well as the solution for the Mw 7.8 earthquake for comparison. Please find … Continue reading →

Posted in asia, Chemeketa Community College, collision, education, geology, HSU, plate tectonics

2015/05/13
12:17 PM
by: Jay Patton

Large Aftershock in Nepal: 3rd Update

After some debate online, I decided to put this quick map together. Clicking on the epicenters in google earth or on the USGS earthquakes page, one can easily determine that there were aftershocks from the 2015.04.25 Mw 7.8 earthquake in … Continue reading →

Posted in asia, Chemeketa Community College, collision, education, geology, HSU

2015/05/12
9:58 AM
by: Jay Patton

Large Aftershock in Nepal: 2nd Update

Well, there have been a few more aftershocks over night… Here is my first post about these aftershocks (I provide more links to the USGS web sites). Plus, the USGS has inverted the seismic data to estimate a fault plane … Continue reading →

Posted in asia, Chemeketa Community College, collision, education, geology, HSU, landslides, plate tectonics

2015/05/12
12:05 AM
by: Jay Patton

Large Aftershock in Nepal: 1st Update

The first moment tensor has been calculated and I have plotted this Mww MT on the map. There has also been a small M 5.6 aftershock to this M 7.3 aftershock. Here is the map, that also includes moment tensors … Continue reading →

Posted in asia, Chemeketa Community College, collision, education, geology, HSU, plate tectonics

2015/05/11
11:44 PM
by: Jay Patton

Large Aftershock in Nepal

We just had a large aftershock to the east of the mainshock. The PAGER estimates are currently suggesting that there will be additional casualties. Regions that were destabilized (hillsides, buildings, etc.) from the main shock, but were not in areas … Continue reading →

Posted in asia, Chemeketa Community College, collision, education, geology, HSU, landslides, plate tectonics

2015/05/07
10:54 AM
by: Jay Patton

Earthquake offshore of Bougainville!

Two days after the Mw 7.5 subduction zone earthquake along the New Britain trench, we get a swarm of seismicity further south offshore of Bougainville! (near the Solomon Islands) The largest earthquake has a magnitude M = 7.1. Here is … Continue reading →

Posted in asia, Chemeketa Community College, education, geology, HSU, plate tectonics, subduction

2015/05/04
6:43 PM
by: Jay Patton

New Britain Strikes Again!

In the past week, there has been a series of earthquakes in the New Britain trench. The largest quakes are M = 6.7 & 6.8. Now we might call those foreshocks to today’s M = 7.5 earthquake de Cinco de … Continue reading →

Posted in asia, Chemeketa Community College, earthquake, education, geology, HSU, Indonesia, plate tectonics, subduction, tsunami