Earthquakes

19th September 2017, M7.1 Mexico earthquake

An earthquake with magnitude 7.1 occurred near Puebla, about 120km from Mexico City on the 19th September 2017 at 18:14:38 UTC. A number of buildings in Mexico City collapsed and at least 200 fatalities have been reported to date. The event happened on the 32nd anniversary of the devastating magnitude 8.1 Mexico City earthquake.

The earthquake was recorded at seismic stations worldwide, including stations of the Irish National Seismic Network (INSN), see seismic waveforms below (select figure to enlarge).

Further information is available from the following webpages:

More information about the INSN is available via this link.

20th September 2017

8th September 2017, M8.1 Mexico earthquake

A major earthquake with magnitude 8.1 occurred offshore Mexico on the 8th September 2017 at 04:49:21 UTC. The epicentre is located about 60km from the coast of the mexican state Chiapas, see map below. The event was felt widely and several casualties and damage to buildings have been reported. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a threat warning for tsunami waves up to three metres high along the coast of Mexico. Maximum wave heights of 1.75 metres were observed at the coast of Chiapas five hours after the earthquake origin time.

The M8.1 earthquake was recorded at seismic stations worldwide, including stations of the Irish National Seismic Network (INSN), see seismic waveforms below (select figure to enlarge).

Further information is available from the following webpages:

Pacific Tsunami Warning Center: http://ptwc.weather.gov/
EMSC: https://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=616600
GFZ: http://geofon.gfz-potsdam.de/eqinfo/event.php?id=gfz2017rpdi
USGS: https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us2000ahv0#executive

More information about the INSN is available via this link.

8th September 2017

3rd September 2017 – Nuclear event in North Korea

On the 3rd September 2017 the Irish National Seismic Network (INSN) recorded a seismic event with epicenter in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), see below plot for the location. The recordings are consistent with the announcement by the DPRK that it has conducted a nuclear test, their sixth since 2006. The event occured at 03:30:01 UTC.

Vibrations caused by the nuclear test were detected by seismic stations of the Irish National Seismic Network (INSN), see waveforms below. Please click the figure to enlarge. Further information about this event can be obtained from these websites:

3rd September 2017

2016-11-21, Earthquake in Japan, M6.9

An earthquake of magnitude 6.9 occurred on the 21st November 2016 at 20:59:50 UTC in Japan. The epicentre was about 90 km southeast of Fukushima, see map below. No immediate damage or injury due to the earthquake tremor was reported. Tsunami alerts were issued by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center for up to 3 metre high waves along the northern Pacific coast of Japan. According to JMA the highest measured wave was 1.4m in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, north of Fukushima. The Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster on the 11th March 2011 was initiated primarily by the tsunami that followed the magnitude 9.0 Tōhoku earthquake.

20161121-m6-9-japan

The M6.9 earthquake was recorded at seismic stations worldwide, including stations of the Irish National Seismic Network (INSN), see seismic traces below.

20161121-m6-9-japan-waveforms