Last Tuesday saw an earthquake to the east of Santo measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale. This is a massive quake, similar in strength to those that devastated Indonesia over the past couple of years. At 150km down, that recent quake was of medium depth – Vanuatu has been lucky to escape without serious shaking damage, let alone a tsunami. If you want to keep abreast of earthquakes, the US Geological Service provides information and historical data, and even an alert system.
Although the US Geological Service (USGS) email alerts are not instantaneous, they are normally received within a couple of hours of a quake. You get to see any earthquake around the world of magnitude 5.5 or over, and any US quake of 4.5 and over. To register for this free service, go to http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/ens/ and follow the process of subscribing.
The USGS website in fact provides a wealth of information about earthquakes, for specific recent quakes or collectively for a region over history. The 6.7 quake above can be seen in detail at http://tinyurl.com/p9hmk – the default page shows the size and exact location and time of the quake, together with depth and distances from major population centres. The Summary tab shows graphically where in the world the quake was (for those who may not know where Vanuatu is!), and also provides a link to a tsunami warning service. A Maps tab provides a number of different graphics of the quake eg. location, total seismic activity in the area, and a quake hazard map (which shows that Santo got a good shake, Efate a mild one).
There is also a link requesting feedback from local inhabitants. Anyone in the area is asked to complete a questionnaire describing where they were at the time, what they felt, and the amount of damage seen. One Santo inhabitant reported “Strong” shaking and “Light” damage.
Now all of the above is of course after-the-fact information. If a big earthquake strikes Vanuatu, and/or a tsunami washes across the country, neither the alert nor the details are going to be of any use as everyone will already know about it all too well. Earthquake science is still unable to predict quakes. Nonetheless, for the less destructive quakes it is interesting to see, and if you subscribe to the alert you certainly get to know about quakes such as hit Japan, Indonesia and Pakistan long before the news comes out on TV and radio.
You also get to notice when seismic activity in the region picks up, with alerts arising from Fiji, Samoa and other Pacific island states sitting on fault lines. If you are an end-of-the-world-is-nigh sort of person, at least you can get a few supplies in as preparation for The Big One! For the rest of us, we can be amongst the first in the country to know about quakes, and have all the facts ready to go. Handy for that nakamal visit after work.
Questions & comments to
- Merlin Pacific IT provide effective & efficient business IT, see www.merlinpacific.net for details. This article is online at merlinpacific.net, discuss it or any other IT topic via email with VIGNET (Vanuatu Internet User Group) - register free at http://tinyurl.com/zcusl
