We just had a large earthquake in Nepal! The moment tensor shows that this is a thrust/reverse (originally it was solved as a strike slip) earthquake. I will need to do a little more investigating about this tomorrow. (I am…
Mendocino fault Earthquake
This sure looks like an earthquake on the Transform Plate Boundary fault system known as the Mendocino fault. I have plotted the moment tensor for this earthquake. The shaking intensity contours are plotted. Here is the USGS web page for…
Earthquake near Taiwan
Well, we just had a swarm of earthquakes with magnitudes near Taiwan. The USGS web pages for these earthquakes are here: M = 6.0, 6.1, and 6.4. This is a complicated tectonic region and there are many different and differing…
Earthquake in Crete
We just had a M = 6.0 earthquake in Crete. Here is the USGS web page for this earthquake. This is an interesting region tectonically. The convergence of the Africa-India-Australia plates northwards towards the Eurasian plate runs from west of…
Earthquake in the Baldwin Hills (Los Angeles)
Well, there was quite a buzz on social media following this small magnitude earthquake today. Here is the USGS web page for this Mw 3.3 earthquake. The earthquake appears to be related to the Newport-Inglewood fault system and the epicenter…
Blanco fracture zone strikes again
The Blanco fracture zone (BFZ) is a transform plate boundary that connects the Juan de Fuca ridge with the Gorda rise spreading centers. This active fault zone consists of numerous right-lateral (dextral) faults. There is some debate as to how…
Mendocino fault earthquake
We had a small magnitude earthquake “today” along the Mendocino fault system approximately 150 km west of Cape Mendocino. Here is the USGS web page for the Mw 4.8 earthquake. Based upon the tectonic setting, the hypocentral depth, and the…
New Britain and Bougainville: tectonic domains?
I was taking a looksie at the different moment tensors for the years of 2000, 2010, 2014, and March 2015. I noticed that the transform plate boundary on the eastern side of the South Bismarck plate may separate segments of…
New Britain trench swarm
There have been a few aftershocks. I have outlines the region of the subduction zone that appears to have slipped in this March 2015 swarm. Here was my first post about the main shock and the tsunami notifications. I have…
New Britain trench seismicity: 2000 through March 2015
I have here placed the moment tensors for the large magnitude earthquakes along the New Britain trench for the time period from 2000 through March 2015. Note that the Mw 8.0 has a strike-slip moment tensor. There is a transform…