Strong Earthquakes jolts Tokyo, Thailand, Myanmar, Fiji and MORE

Strong earthquake shakes northern Thailand, Myanmar

BANGKOK –  A strong earthquake shook northern Thailand and Myanmar on Monday evening, and some light damage was reported.
People were evacuated from the main airport in Chiang Rai, a northern Thai city near the epicenter, and cracks were reported in building exteriors and on roads. No casualties were immediately reported.
Severe shaking was felt in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, and in Chiang Mai, Thailand's second-largest. Window curtains briefly swayed in the Thai capital, Bangkok.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake measured a preliminary magnitude of 6.0 and was centered 6 miles south of Mae Lao, Thailand, and 17 miles southwest of Chiang Rai.
It was centered at a relatively shallow depth of 4.6 miles. Shallow quakes are generally felt more widely.

Published May 05, 2014

TOKYO –  A strong earthquake jolted Tokyo early Monday, rattling windows and nerves though there were no initial reports of major damage. The national broadcaster NHK, citing local authorities, said 17 people were reported injured, some of them from falls as the quake struck.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said the quake at 5:18 a.m. local time (4:18 p.m. ET Sunday) had a magnitude of 6.0 and was centered 99 miles under the seabed near Izu Oshima island south of Tokyo.

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The quake was felt across a wide area of Japan, with the strongest shaking registered in central Tokyo, the agency reported. Tokyo Fire Department reported that four people were injured, but details were not immediately available.
The national broadcaster NHK said it was the strongest quake felt in the Japanese capital since the aftershocks of a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 off the northeastern coast that left more than 18,500 people dead or missing.
There were no reports of damage or other abnormalities from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, which was crippled in the 2011 disasters, leading to the closures of all Japan's nuclear reactors for safety checks.
NHK reported some delays in train services Monday and said speed restrictions were imposed briefly on expressways in the affected area as a precaution.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/05/05/magnitude-60-quake-near-tokyo-report-says-trains-temporarily-stopped/?cmpid=app_pulse&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews

Twin 6 magnitude earthquakes shake seafloor south of Fiji

 May 4, 2014 – FIJI - A 6.6-magnitude and another 6.1- magnitude undersea earthquakes jolted south of Fiji late Sunday, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said. The epicenter of the first quake, a 6.6-magnitude one which struck from a depth of 527.6 kilometers at 9:15 p.m. local time ( 0915 GMT), was traced 722 kilometers south of the Fijian capital of Suva, USGS data showed. The agency had initially reported the quake at 6.8 magnitude. The epicenter of the second quake, a 6.1-magnitude one which struck from a depth of 610.6 kilometers at 9:25 p.m. local time ( 0925 GMT), was traced 848 kilometers south of Suva. The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not immediately issue a tsunami warning based on the two quakes, and there were no immediate reports of casualty or damage. Fiji lies on the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones where continental plates collide producing frequent seismic activity.  –Shanghai Daily

34: Submarine volcano reportedly erupts near Mariana Islands

Posted on May 3, 2014 by The Extinction Protocol

May 2014 – MARIANA ISLANDS – During the past week, we have been keeping a close watch on the Northern Mariana Islands (NMI), as seismometers on the islands record high levels of seismicity from an undersea volcano near the island of Farallon de Pajaros. The seismic signals almost certainly herald an eruption. In fact, submarine explosions were heard by scuba divers who are conducting coral reef research in the area. The divers even felt the shock waves from the explosions, and one of the most powerful ones reverberated through the hull of the NOAA base ship, Hi‘ialakai, leading the crew to think something had happened to the ship. Shipboard personnel also reported a large sulfur slick on the southeast coastline of Farallon de Pajaros. Unfortunately, the ship had to leave the area under threat of an advancing typhoon. If they can get back to the vicinity soon, they may be able to investigate the source of the explosions with great caution, keeping in close contact with U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and CNMI emergency management personnel, who are monitoring the seismicity. The CNMI emergency management office and the volcano observatories of the USGS have been working together for over 30 years to establish volcano monitoring networks and assess volcanic hazards in the Mariana Islands. The most likely source of the current activity is Ahyi seamount, about 20 km southeast of Farallon de Pajaros. Ahyi rises to within 64 m (210 ft) of the ocean surface and is associated with several reports of possible eruptions in historical times, the most recent in 2001.

Interspersed among the volcanoes that rise above sea level to form the NMI are many submarine volcanoes. Together, the islands and submarine volcanoes form the Mariana arc, a classic example of an island arc. These arcs, such as the Aleutians and the Japanese archipelago, are formed at subduction zones—boundaries where one tectonic plate plunges beneath another. Reports of discolored water throughout the Mariana arc are common, indicating that the NMI may experience frequent submarine eruptions. A dramatic, recent example is the 2010 eruption of South Sarigan seamount, which sent an eruption plume up to 12 km (40,000 ft) above sea level. The plume intersected many commercial air traffic routes, raising concern that the abrasive ash fragments could damage aircraft or even stall their engines. In addition, the eruption posed a potential hazard to ocean-going vessels, as it produced a large area of discolored water, possibly including a raft of pumice—a type of rock that can be produced in explosive volcanic eruptions. A recent submarine eruption of Havre seamount north of New Zealand in 2012 created a 20,000 square-kilometer (7,700 sq-mi) raft of pumice—about twice the area of the island of Hawai‘i!—that eventually spread to about 4 million square-kilometers (1.5 million sq-mi) as it broke up. Pumice can float because it’s basically a type of foam—filled with gas bubbles encased in quickly cooled lava—which makes it less dense than the ocean water.

 It’s possible, but not certain, that the current unrest near Ahyi seamount will escalate into a vigorous eruption, with the creation of pumice rafts, and even an explosive eruption column rising above sea level. If this happens, there are further possible threats of local disturbances of the water column that could result in local tsunami and ash fallout from the eruption plume. Long-time readers of this column may be wondering about the possible outcomes of the seismic unrest that we sometimes report on from our own submarine volcano, Lō‘ihi, off the south coast of Hawai‘i Island. The most recent confirmed eruption there, in 1996, created a large collapse pit at the summit. Deposits formed during that eruption and numerous previous eruptions, sampled by submersible vehicles, attest to frequent episodes of explosive volcanism at Lō‘ihi. While there is no doubt that Lō‘ihi is a very active volcano, the pressure of the approximately 1,000 m (3,300 ft) of water between the top of the volcano and the surface makes it highly unlikely that even the most vigorous of eruptions of Lō‘ihi will have significant impact at the ocean surface during our lifetimes. –Hawaii 24-7

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