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The 2011 Sendai earthquake and tsunami was an 8.8 to 9.1-M_W megathrust earthquake that created tsunami waves of up to 10 meters (33 ft). It was measured at 7 on the Japan Meteorological Agency seismic intensity scale in the northern Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. The earthquake focus was reported to be 130 kilometres off the Oshika Peninsula, the east coast of Tōhoku on 11 March 2011, at 05:46 UTC (14:46 local time) at a depth of 24.4 kilometers (15.2 mi).

News reports by Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) indicate that nearly 580 people have died and more than 1400 are missing in six different prefectures.

Estimates of magnitude range from 8.8 to 9.1 M_W making it the largest earthquake to hit Japan and one of the five largest earthquakes in the world since modern record-keeping began.

Other Information

• Date : 14:46:23, 11 March 2011 (UTC+9) (2011-03-11T14:46:23UTC+9)
• Magnitude : 8.8–9.1 M_W
• Depth : 24.4 km (15.2 mi)
• Epicenter location : 38°19′19″N 142°22′08″E / 38.322°N 142.369°E / 38.322; 142.369Coordinates
• Type ” Megathrust earthquake
• Countries or regions affected : Japan (primary), Multiple nations (tsunami)
• Total damage : Flooding and reports of major damage
• Tsunami : Yes
• Landslides : Yes
• Aftershocks : At least 150 (22 above 6.0 M_W)
• Casualties (preliminary) : nearly 580 dead, more than 1400 missing (March 11, 2011 )

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The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 M earthquake, with an epicentre near the town of Léogâne, approximately 25 km (16 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. The earthquake occurred at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. By 24 January, at least 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater had been recorded. An estimated three million people were affected by the quake; the Haitian Government reported that an estimated 230,000 people had died, 300,000 had been injured and 1,000,000 made homeless. They also estimated that 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings had collapsed or were severely damaged.

The earthquake caused major damage in Port-au-Prince, Jacmel and other settlements in the region. Many notable landmark buildings were significantly damaged or destroyed, including the Presidential Palace, the National Assembly building, the Port-au-Prince Cathedral, and the main jail. Among those killed were Archbishop of Port-au-Prince Joseph Serge Miot, and opposition leader Micha Gaillard. The headquarters of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), located in the capital, collapsed, killing many, including the Mission’s Chief, Hédi Annabi.

Many countries responded to appeals for humanitarian aid, pledging funds and dispatching rescue and medical teams, engineers and support personnel. Communication systems, air, land, and sea transport facilities, hospitals, and electrical networks had been damaged by the earthquake, which hampered rescue and aid efforts; confusion over who was in charge, air traffic congestion, and problems with prioritisation of flights further complicated early relief work. Port-au-Prince’s morgues were quickly overwhelmed with many tens of thousands of bodies having to be buried in mass graves. As rescues tailed off, supplies, medical care and sanitation became priorities. Delays in aid distribution led to angry appeals from aid workers and survivors, and looting and sporadic violence were observed.

On 22 January the United Nations noted that the emergency phase of the relief operation was drawing to a close, and on the following day the Haitian government officially called off the search for survivors.

Other Information

• Date : 16:53:10, 12 January 2010 (−05:00), 21:53:10, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
• Magnitude : 7.0
• Depth : 13 km (8.1 miles)
• Epicenter location : 18°27′25″N 72°31′59″W / 18.457°N 72.533°W / 18.457; -72.533
• Countries or regions affected : Haiti
• Max. intensity : MM X
• Tsunami : Yes
• Casualties : 92,000 – 230,000 deaths (6th deadliest earthquake)

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Continue reading »]]> The death toll from the Abruzzo earthquake reached 228 last night as a series of strong aftershocks continued to rattle through the region.

A tremor of 5.6 magnitude spread more panic yesterday evening in L’Aquila, a city once home to about 70,000 people, where the impact was felt the strongest. At least one person was reported killed as a result of the shock. Monday’s earthquake was between 5.8 to 6.3 magnitude.

All day, aftershocks hampered the rescue effort as relatives of the missing waited for news of their loved ones.

At one point rescuers looking for more bodies in a collapsed student dormitory in L’Aquila had to run from the rubble as one of the bigger aftershocks hit shortly before midday.

Ollie Hodge, 29, a rugby player from Bristol, who signed up to play for L’Aquila last year, told of his horror as he woke up in the middle of the earthquake, which also killed a teammate.

“Myself and a few of the boys from the club went out to the hospital to help. We were carrying beds down the stairs and carrying people out. You just do what you can in a situation like that. It still hasn’t sunk in yet. The scenes in the centre of town were unreal — it’s like a war zone down there. Absolutely horrendous.”

By yesterday afternoon rescue workers had all but given up hope of pulling any more survivors from the wreckage, and the men in hard hats and harnesses were looking for corpses rather than miracles.

The quake had ripped the student dormitory in two, leaving an ugly crevasse of twisted metal and crumpled air vents. In the afternoon four people were finally located but tearful emergency workers declined to say whether they were alive or dead.

In some areas of the city, rescuers were digging by hand to find any survivors. Silvio Berlusconi, the Prime Minister, said that the efforts would continue for two more days “until it is certain that there is no one else alive”.

Tent camps provided by civil protection volunteers housed some of the 17,000 left homeless by the quake, but many spent the night in the chill mountain air without blankets.

David de Angeli stood outside one of the tents, cradling a bandaged hand. He described how he had escaped from his house as the wreckage rained down, scooping up a neighbour’s ten-year-old daughter and fleeing into the street. “I still haven’t heard from my son or my grandson,” he said, bursting into tears and walking away.

Aerial footage showed the scale of the destruction in this city of Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque and Renaissance architectural treasures. Roofs were missing from modern buildings, old churches had fallen and the walls and other parts of medieval buildings had tumbled to the ground. Officials said that 10,000 to 15,000 buildings were either damaged or destroyed.

Earthquake experts and the Italian media praised the rescue effort and said that the Government had responded well to the catastrophe. But, they said, the real disaster was the country’s continuing failure to take measures to limit earthquake damage and prevent deaths.

“This time the State was there for us,” said La Stampa. It added: “It is unpleasant to reflect on a catastrophe when there are still people to pull out of the rubble, but we have to do so if we are to avoid yet more pain and rage. It is not earthquakes which kill, but badly constructed buildings.”

Franco Barberi, a geologist, said in a television broadcast from a camp for evacuees at L’Aquila that “an earthquake like this in California would not have provoked a single death”.

Scale of the disaster

• 228 confirmed dead
• 17 bodies still unidentified
• 15 missing
• 50,000 estimated homeless
• 13,000 estimated number of buildings damaged or destroyed

Italian earthquake: deathtoll reaches 228 as aftershock slows rescue

Continue reading »]]> The number of people killed from an earthquake in Costa Rica rose to 34 on Saturday, a government official said.

Another 64 people were listed as missing two days after the 6.1-magnitude earthquake shook north-central Costa Rica, the official said.

Emergency personnel continued to search for victims affected by the quake, according to Ministry of Infrastructure spokeswoman Silvia Chaves.

Rescuers reached 200 tourists who had been stranded in a hotel in Varablanca, and they were taken to safety, she said.

Survivors described Thursday’s quake, which was centered about 20 miles north-northwest of the capital city of San Jose, as sudden and brutal. Landslides, tumbling rocks and collapsed buildings caused widespread devastation.

“I saw how the Earth moved and how it took my family — my aunt, my cousin and her babies,” Miguel Angel Marin told CNN affiliate Teletica TV. “It was very hard because I wanted to save them but I couldn’t.”

On Friday, the U.S. government dispatched a team of 34 U.S. military personnel and four helicopters from Honduras-based Joint Task Force-Bravo to Costa Rica to assist.

More than 1,200 people were stranded, without a way to get out of towns or homes, Red Cross official Milton Chaverri said. Another 1,000 people were living in shelters, he said. iReport.com: Are you there? Send photos, video

The remote area near Alajuela, where the quake hit strongest, is difficult to reach, and officials said they were having to rely on helicopters for medical evacuations and to airlift supplies.

Randall Picado, a government rescue official, said many residents were without water and other necessities.

About 400 volunteers and Red Cross personnel were giving aid in 15 communities, Chaverri said.

The temblor was felt throughout Costa Rica and in southern and central Nicaragua, the U.S. Geological Survey reported on its Web site.

About 2,000 aftershocks have been felt in San Jose, the capital, and other cities throughout the nation, Red Cross spokeswoman Vilca said.

The Geological Survey placed the earthquake’s epicenter at 20 miles (32 kilometers) north-northwest of San Jose at a depth of 2.8 miles (4.5 kilometers).

34 dead, dozens missing from Costa Rica quake – CNN.com

Continue reading »]]> A series of powerful earthquakes rocked Manokwari, the capital of West Papua, on Sunday, killing four people, injuring dozens and destroying hundreds of buildings.

One 7.3-magnitude tremor was felt as far away as Australia and sent small tsunamis into Japan’s southeastern coast, the Associated Press reported.

The first quake, magnitude 7.6, struck at 4:43 a.m. local time about 135 kilometers from Manokwari at a depth of 35 kilometers, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Dozens of aftershocks followed.

At least four people died in Papua, where the runway of the airport nearest the epicenter was split by the force, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reporters.

“I’ve instructed emergency steps be taken to help our brothers and to restore power and other vital utilities,” Yudhoyono said.

Among the dead was a 10-year-old girl, identified as Yolanda Mandofi, whose head was crushed, said local hospital director Hengky Tewu.

“Our ambulances are picking up two more,” he said.

Another 19 patients at the hospital were treated for broken bones, cuts, crush wounds and other injuries.

Papua police chief Maj. Gen. Bagus Ekodanto said he had received reports that a hotel and a rice warehouse had been “destroyed”, but he did not know if anyone had been killed in the incidences. A search for victims was under way.

Several stories of the Mutiara Hotel in the main city Manokwari collapsed, said Ina, a nurse at a navy hospital, adding that she had already treated 20 quake victims. The quakes also reportedly damaged the Kalidingin hotel.

Electricity was cut off to the coastal city of population 167,000, where people fled their homes in the dark fearing a tsunami, said Hasim Rumatiga, a local health official.

The quakes forced thousands of people to take refuge, including in military fields in the city, said Manokwari Military Commander Col. Inf. Irham Waroiham.

About 1,000 residents had taken shelter in a military field, 500 in a navy field, 500 in the yard of the Manokwari regent office and 7,000 others in Masni district, which lies just outside of Manokwari city.

The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency had issued a tsunami alert, but it was revoked within an hour after it was determined the epicenter of the main quake had been within the mainland.

Quakes centered well within the mainland do not pose the threat of a tsunami to Indonesia, but can still spread large waves to neighboring countries, such as Japan.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency said tsunamis 10 to 40 centimeters in height swept into towns along the coast.

The quakes were also felt in Sorong regency. The regency police spokesman Snr. Comr. Agus Rianto told The Jakarta Post the quakes had damaged 18 houses, injuring 11 residents.

The latest quakes in Manokwari occurred on Oct. 10, 2002, the largest recorded at magnitude 7.6, killing three people. Another strong quake hit in 1996, triggering enormous waves that hammered into the north coastal area of Papua, as well as Sorong, Biak and Manokwari.

Nethy Dharma Somba and Angel Flashy contributed to this article from Jayapura, Papua

The Jakarta Post

Continue reading »]]> A 7.6-magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia’s West Papua province at 7:33 a.m. on Sunday (2233 GMT on Saturday), according to the Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG).

The quake was a strong aftershock following a 7.2-magnitude earthquake which jolted eastern Indonesia’ West Papua at 4:43 a.m. local time on Sunday (1943 GMT Saturday), Indonesia’s leading website Detik News quoted BMG as saying.

The epicenter of the 7.6-magnitude aftershock was 0.88 degrees southern latitude and 133.38 degrees eastern longitude with a depth of 10 km below the sea level, the BMG said.

There was no immediate report of casualties or damage so far.

7.6-magnitude quake hits Indonesia’s West Papua_English_Xinhua

Continue reading »]]> A powerful earthquake has struck south-western Panama, close to the border with Costa Rica, says the US Geological Survey (USGS).

The quake was reported with a magnitude of 6.2 and happened at a depth of 48.2km (30 miles), monitors said.

The epicentre was close to the Pacific coast and 55km (35 miles) west of David, Panama’s third-largest city and home to 125,000 people.

There have been no reports of any injuries of casualties, says the USGS.

People close to the quake contacted local radio stations in Panama to say they had felt strong aftershocks, reported Reuters.

The news agency also reported that the tremors were felt in the Costa Rican capital San Jose, but that authorities there had received no reports of damage.

Panama is located on the Pacific Ring, which forms a belt of seismic activity along the edge of the Pacific Ocean.

A quake measuring 6.1 struck close to David in January this year.

BBC NEWS

Continue reading »]]> Officials say they fear that up to 300 people have been killed in an earthquake in Pakistan’s south-west Balochistan province.

Up to 50,000 people are thought to be homeless following the 6.4 magnitude tremor on Wednesday.

Since the quake, there have been many aftershocks, frightening people in villages and towns across a wide area.

Rescuers are still scrambling to reach thousands of survivors who have spent two cold nights in the open.

See a map of the affected area

The official death toll is 215, but officials fear that more people than that have died, says the BBC’s Charles Haviland in Islamabad.

Many people buried their close relatives soon after their deaths, making any accurate count difficult.

A health officer in Ziarat, the worst-affected area, has also stressed that some remote villages have not yet been has surveyed.

Aftershocks

Some survivors say that many villages away from main roads have only slowly and belatedly been receiving food, blankets and tents from the relief teams sent by the government.

Military helicopters are being used to reach mountainous and remote locations, where some villages have been cut off by landslides.

“The earthquake destroyed our houses, but now the government’s slow response is killing us,” Moosa Kaleem, a survivor in Ziarat, told the Associated Press news agency.

“We cannot spend another night in this chilling weather, especially the kids.”

Several hundred aftershocks have been felt since the main earthquake.

“I know these are aftershocks and not new earthquakes, and I also know these tremors may continue for a while but it is hard to convince children that they will be safe,” Amjad Aziz, a teacher in Ziarat who has been sleeping in his car since the quake, told AP.

The aftershocks have also been felt in the city of Quetta.

There, hospital patients – including people injured in the quake – are lying on the ground or on beds in the open air, as staff do not consider it safe to stay indoors.

The shocks are still causing widespread alarm, and some people have left the city for rural areas.

BBC NEWS

Continue reading »]]> ZIARAT, Pakistan – A strong earthquake struck before dawn Wednesday in impoverished southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 170 people and turning mud and timber homes into rubble.

An estimated 15,000 people were left homeless, and rescuers were digging for survivors in a remote valley in Baluchistan, the remote province bordering Afghanistan where the magnitude 6.4 quake struck.

Officials said they were distributing thousands of tents, blankets and food packages and sending in earth-moving equipment to dig mass graves. Many of those who survived were left with little more than the clothes they had slept in, and with winter approaching, temperatures were expected to drop to around freezing in coming nights.

Worst-hit was the former British hilltop resort of Ziarat and about eight surrounding villages, where hundreds of houses were destroyed, including some buried in landslides triggered by the quake.

“There is great destruction,” said Ziarat Mayor Dilawar Kakar. “Not a single house is intact.”

Aftershocks rattled the area throughout the day, including one estimated at magnitude 6.2 in the late afternoon. There were no reports of additional casualties or damage.

Kakar said the death toll from the quake was 170, with 375 injured. Around 15,000 people lost their homes, he said.

Kakar appealed to “the whole world” for help, but the head of Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority said an international relief effort would not likely be necessary.

In the village of Sohi, a reporter for AP Television News saw the bodies of 17 people killed in one collapsed house and 12 from another. Distraught residents were digging a mass grave in which to bury them.

“We can’t dig separate graves for each of them, as the number of deaths is high and still people are searching in the rubble” of many other homes, said Shamsullah Khan, a village elder.

Other survivors sat stunned in the open.

Hospitals in the nearby town of Kawas and the provincial capital Quetta, 50 miles away, were flooded with the dead and injured. One patient, Raz Mohammed, said he was awoken by the sound of his children crying before he felt a jolt.

“I rushed toward them but the roof of my own room collapsed and the main iron support hit me,” he told an AP reporter in Quetta Civil Hospital. “That thing broke my back and I am in severe pain but thank God my children and relatives are safe.”

Farooq Ahmad Khan, head of the disaster authority, said 2,000 houses were destroyed and that teams were scrambling to erect shelters for 2,500 to 3,000 people.

The main quake struck at 5:10 a.m. local time and had a preliminary magnitude of 6.4, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It was a shallow 10 miles below the surface and was centered about 400 miles southwest of the capital, Islamabad.

Pakistan is prone to violent seismic upheavals. Wednesday’s quake was the deadliest since a magnitude-7.6 quake devastated Kashmir and northern Pakistan in October 2005, killing about 80,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.

A temblor of magnitude 7.5 that hit Quetta in 1935 killed more than 30,000 people.

Baluchistan is home to a long-running separatist movement, but is not considered a major battleground in the fight against Taliban insurgents that plague other border regions.

Ziarat, a hilltop resort ringed with juniper forests, has long attracted summer visitors. British officials retreated there from Quetta when the area was part of British India. Pakistanis flock to the former residence of Pakistan’s founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, and the shrine of a revered saint.

Yahoo! News

Continue reading »]]> BEIJING (AFP) – A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 hit the Himalayan region of Tibet on Monday, the US Geological Survey said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

The quake struck at 4:30 pm (0830 GMT) in a sparsely populated area about 84 kilometres (50 miles) west of the Tibetan capital Lhasa, the USGS said.

The USGS said another quake measuring 5.1, likely an aftershock, hit in roughly the same area 15 minutes later.

The quake could be felt in Lhasa, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported, citing local sources.

The agency said the Tibetan seismological department had sent a team to the quake-hit area to investigate.

Early on Monday, a moderate earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7 hit China’s far northwest, just minutes after a 6.3-magnitude quake hit just over the border in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan.

China suffers frequent earthquakes. An 8.0-magnitude quake struck southwestern Sichuan province on May 12, flattening entire towns and leaving more than 87,000 people dead or missing.

Strong earthquake hits Tibet: USGS – Yahoo! News