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Downstrike's Punta Gorda - Humboldt Bay Recent Earthquake InformationLearn How To Report An EarthquakeBy reporting whether or not you felt an earthquake, and what it felt like, you can provide information which will help to predict how earthquakes may affect your area in the future. In order to be helpful, the least that you will need to enter is your Zip Code and the strength and duration of the shaking.
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Every time you see or hear a report of an earthquake you are told that it happened at a location so many miles in some such direction from some point that you can presumably find on a map. This information may be useful, but it can also be very misleading. For example, you know very well that any earthquake may very easily have been felt at a distance away from where it "happened", depending on how strong it was. When a recent quake "happened" in Fortuna, more people in Eureka reported feeling the quake than people in Fortuna did, simply because there are more people in Eureka. The fact is that the earthquake "happened" any place where the earth was felt quaking. But the really misleading part is the very idea that the movement within the earth which caused the quake was confined to one location. As you may know, most earthquakes happen along seismic faults, where one part of the earth moves against another part in one way or another. If the earth on one side of a fault moves at Fortuna, for example, do we imagine that the same side of the same fault just a mile northerly along the fault doesn't move? Most of us don't even think beyond what we are told, and that's the problem. It would be much more accurate if we were told that the earth moved along a given length and direction along a fault, along with the location of the strongest movement. If the earthquake gets a lot of publicity, and we read to the very end of every news article we can find about it, we may eventually find that information. But more often than not, we get something like, "the minor earthquake occurred less than one mile north-northeast of Fortuna, CA." This gives us no hint that the same movement may have continued along the fault as far away as Fields Landing or King Salmon. Have you seen the Earthquake Rose made by the Olympia-Seattle quake? (See link above.) A map of the faults and recent earthquakes in the Humboldt area may be found at the USGS web site. Since 6:41 PM on Thursday June 24, a swarm of quakes up to 4.7 magnitude continues between 2 miles east and 14 miles south-southeast of Lakeview, Oregon, possibly along the Goose Lake Fault. The ongoing nature of this swarm makes it likely that more quakes will occur.
I wonder if anyone bothered to tell the Pakistanis that aftershocks of the Indonesian quake could occur on the opposite side of the Indian subcontinent. Or did people really think that one side of the continent could move that drastically, and the rest of it just sit still? A series of "great" and "major" earthquakes began in the Pacific Rim, or "Rim of Fire", on December 23, 2004. One of these quakes is the largest to occur worldwide in 40 years. Before this series of quakes began, there had been one or two moderate quakes per day in the same area. Times given are UTC (GMT):
Quakes in this series are far too numerous to continue listing them here, particularly since USGS frequently deletes their online documentation of them. As of nine monts after the largest events, aftershocks of 4 to 6 magnitude continue to occur throughout that part of the Rim of Fire located between the December 23 and December 26 quake locations. Much of the population along the coastlines in that part of the world were caught unaware by the tsunami produced by the magnitude 9 event, because no one had put tsunami sensors or warning systems in place. The official excuse for this oversight is that the event occurred in the Indian Ocean, rather than along the Pacific Rim. Oh, really? I only learned about the magnitude 8.3 quake that occurred on December 23 while researching the quake that caused the disastrous tsunami on December 26. It was strong enough that people reported feeling it in both Australia and New Zealand, but try finding a news article about a magnitude 8.3 quake on December 23! Earthquakes don't happen in isolation. When a quake that large happens, it tends to trigger other quakes, including quakes of similar magnitude in other locations. If I had known of this quake on December 23, I would have spent 3 days wondering when and where the other shoe would drop. Just where do the officials think Krakatoa was located until its explosion caused a tsunami that killed 36,000 people in 1883? Just where do the officials think Mount Tambora is, which produced the most violent eruption in recorded history, April 12, 1815, causing the following year to be nicknamed the "Year Without A Summer" due to volcanic winter? Just where do the officials think Toba, the most recently erupted Supervolcano in the world, is located? Can you say In-do-nees-ya? Why Indonesia? It's part of the Rim of Fire! The Rim of Fire forks into three branches between Asia and Australia. Apparently, officials like to narrow their definition of the Rim of Fire by taking a shortcut from the coast of Asia through the Philippines. Considering the distances and potentials involved, discounting the potential for seismic and volcanic disaster in Indonesia simply because it's on the Indian Ocean makes even less sense than discounting the potential for disaster from the volcanoes of the Cascade Range and the Mammoth Lakes Supervolcano in California simply because they are not located along the San Andreas fault. I take issue with the fatalistic view that people wouldn't have comprehended that a disaster was coming if they'd been warned. Just tell them it's a monsoon-like flood coming out of the depth of the ocean. After all, the people of southern Asia certainly understand what a monsoon is, don't they? Or do they? It seems that every year I read about so many thousands of them dying and so many millions being left homeless, so I wonder. I think the real problem is that their governments don't take the necessary steps to warn the people, and the people in turn, don't seem to expect the governments to do so. India's refusal to allow anyone to deliver aid to its coastal islands seems to reinforce this. If they don't need a warning system in place for tsunami, certainly they need it for monsoons. So what if the average citizen there doesn't have his own computer or TV? Don't they have telephones in Police Departments and official vehicles equipped with P. A. systems? Those are so 1940s!
Recent Earthquakes In The Humboldt Area of California, and nearby regionsA magnitude 5 Quake just off the coast at Punta Gorda at 4:41 AM on Wednesday, July 19, 2006, woke most of Humboldt County. It was felt as far away as Willits and Redding, and may have caused light damage around Ferndale and Loleta. It was located near the east end of the Mendocino Fault Zone, where it is curving to the south as if to meet up with the north end of the San Andreas Fault. Smaller aftershocks are occuring. A 4.6 magnitude Quake at 5:56 PM on Saturday, March 25, 2006, struck Punta Gorda, wobbled most of Humboldt County. It was located on the east end of the Mendocino Fault Zone, where it is curving to the south as if to meet up with the north end of the San Andreas Fault. A 3.8 magnitude Quake at 1:47 AM on Thursday, December 8, 2005, 42 miles west of Petrolia, jiggled a few night owls. As of mid-September, 2005, there have been numerous micro-quakes in the area around the area of Humboldt Bay during the past week, most of them too light to register on the USGS web site. A 4.2 magnitude quake near Ferndale, Petrolia, and Rio Dell bounced around the Humboldt Bay region at about 7:28 PM on Wednesday, August 24, 2005. It occurred on shore, so we can sure some people were shook up, but this quake is too moderate to cause much damage. In other words, people are more likely to injure themselves or damage objects around themselves while reacting to the quake, than the quake itself is likely to do so. This quake is the strongest one in this area since the Trinidad quake, and the strongest of a pattern of increased quake activity around the northeast corner of the Ring of Fire during a period of about 24 hours. At magnitude 7, the quake off of Trinidad, California was strong enough to cause a small, local tsunami, if there had been a shore local to it. However, the nearest shore was 90 miles away. Before anyone panics, please understand that, contrary to anyone's blathering, no one needed to be evacuated. A tsunami alert was declared, and quickly canceled. Of all things, my symptoms mimicked hay fever. Once the quake happened, my nose stopped itching and my sinuses cleared. That was about 4 hours ago, and I feel fine now. Since then, there have been three light aftershocks near the original quake, one of which I barely felt, a couple near Frisco, and a couple more near The Geysers. Aftershocks occurred within hours in the Bay Area and near The Geysers. Aftershocks felt in this area include two on Thursday; a 6.4 at 10:21 PM near the primary quake, and a 3.9 at 11:39 PM, 8 miles southeast of Petrolia. The great earthquakes in remotes areas of the Rim of Fire in December, 2204 triggered a few moderate quakes along coastal areas of North America, during the first week following them. However, as of late January, despite more frequent than usual microquakes since then, there had been an unusual lack of moderate quakes throughout North America since then. However, light to moderate quakes have resumed in California during the second week of February, 2005. A magnitude 3.0 quake occurred at 10:24 PM, 10 miles west of Petrolia, on January 2, 2005. A few people may have felt it. USGS has already deleted their online documentation of it before even a month has passed. A magnitude 3.8 quake at 3:21 PM on Thursday March 17, 2005, 13 miles east of Fields Landing startled numerous people around Humboldt Bay. A 2.9 quake at 11:41 PM, 15 miles west of Petrolia and a 4.7 quake 11:24 PM, 37 miles west of Petrolia attracted less attention. A magnitude 4.3 quake occurred at 5:48 PM on Saturday December 4, 2004, 19 miles east of Eureka, near the south end of the Mad River Fault Zone. A magnitude 4.1 aftershock occurred at 1:13 AM on Sunday December 12, 2004, 17 miles east of Eureka. Both are located deeply inside the Cascadia subduction zone. The 6.0 magnitude Parkfield Quake at 10:15 AM on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 was felt at least as far north as Willits. A 5.0 aftershock occurred at 10:19 AM. Other aftershocks continue to occur. The 6.5 magnitude San Simeon Quake at 11:16 AM on Monday, December 22, 2003 may be found here. A 4.1 aftershock that occurred at 4:45 PM on Tuesday, July 13, 2004 may also be found here. A 4.4 magnitude quake 20 miles northwest of Punta Gorda at 7:30 PM on Monday, August 25 jolted the area. It was located along the Cascadia Subduction Zone. A 5.1 magnitude quake 75 miles west of Ferndale at 2:22 AM on Friday, August 15 woke a few people. The quake was preceded by two days of an unusual lack of microquakes. The 4.4 magnitude quake 3 miles north of Hydesville at 3:46 AM on Tuesday, April 22 woke many people around Humboldt Bay. The region has been unusually calm. A magnitude 2.5 aftershock almost 24 hours later, 6 miles north of Fortuna was too light for most people to feel. The 5.4 magnitude quake 3 miles north of Big Bear at 4:19 AM on Saturday, February 22, 2003 May also be viewed. It was felt throughout southern California. About 7 hours earlier a 4.3 magnitude quake occurred 3 miles south of Hollister shook central California at 2:29. Since November 2002, swarms of microquakes in Fields Landing and Humboldt Hill have shaken a few people around the southern Humboldt Bay during the past couple weeks. This web site's author lives at the location where they are occurring and has felt many more earthquakes than the USGS web site shows. The 3.5 magnitude quake 9 miles east of Blue Lake at 12:08 AM on Wednesday, November 6, jolted the area. The region had been unusually calm until then. The 7.9 magnitude quake in Alaska at 1:13 PM Alaska Time, Sunday, November 3, may be viewed here. The 5.3 magnitude quake 23 miles west of Eureka at 9:55 AM on Monday, June 17, 2002 jolted the region. Light quakes, between the magnitudes of 2 and 3 occasionally occur in the Humboldt region, but are too light for many people to notice them. A series of light to moderate quakes occurred a few miles west of Punta Gorda early in May, including 3.6 magnitude and 3.9 magnitude quakes. Numerous aftershocks followed. A 4.4 magnitude quake 11 miles west of Ferndale at 5:43 PM on Sunday, April 28, 2002 rattled most people around Humboldt Bay. A quake 9 miles west of Portola registered 5.3 magnitude on Friday, August 10, 2001 at 1:19 PM PDT, along with a 4.2 magnitude aftershock on Saturday, August 11, 2001 at 5:01 AM PDT. The February 28, 2001 quake near Olympia, Washington was reportedly felt as far away as San Diego and Salt Lake City. Downstrike doesn't know what to make of reports about it from New York. A damaging earthquake with a magnitude of 5.2 occurred 9 miles northwest of Napa at 1:36 PM on September 3, 2000. One registered 5.8 magnitude at 7:19 AM on March 16, 2000, about 49 miles west of Punta Gorda. It was felt widely throughout areas near the northern California coast. Aftershocks occurred. Links to recent local earthquakes may be found above. Links to pages where you can search for other earthquakes within California are below. Please carefully select from these sources the correct quake that you are reporting. The statistics of these earthquake reports give the appearance that many people reporting quakes are not paying attention to which quake they are reporting. If you just want to practice reporting a quake, please do not practice on a real earthquake. Please use the Practice Report Form, which allows you to report a monster of a quake which has been reported all the way from Fortuna to Palmdale, and any number of shaky places in between - even if those weirdoes in Pasadena and Tujunga didn't feel it! :^) Once you've selected which quake you're reporting, you will be given a form to fill out. It will collect information about your location, and what the earthquake did at your location. Much of the information the form requests is optional, but the more you provide, the more useful it will be in helping to predict how your area may respond to future earthquakes. In order to be useful, the least that you will need to enter about your location is your Zip Code. Your Zip Code is absolutely essential to the report. The form has a link to the USPS database where you can look up your Zip Code if you don't know what it is. There is a US Geological Survey map of recent seismic events in California. Updated within minutes after a quake, it is probably the easiest way to locate an earthquake which has occurred during the past week. There is a US Geological Survey index of other events. Use this link to report an earthquake as well, especially when the map becomes too cluttered. Choose one from the list, or click on "Unlisted quake". Once you choose one from the list, click on, "Did you feel it? Tell us!" They would like you to do this even if you didn't feel a quake that happened in your area. US Geological Survey is gathering information about historical earthquakes as well. Locally, they especially need reports of the Cape Mendocino Earthquake which occurred on April 25, 1992. Humboldt State University's web site has considerable information about earthquakes and tsunami in this area, but the most recent information seems to date from 1997. |
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