AP – 15 hrs ago
TOKYO (AFP) – A major 7.4-magnitude quake struck southern Japan Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said, with people in nearby coastal regions told to evacuate as a foot-high tsunami rolled in.
The quake hit at 2:19 am local time (1719 GMT Tuesday), 153 kilometres (95 miles) east of Chichi-shima in Japan's remote Bonin island region and at a shallow depth of just 14 kilometres.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injury but a tsunami of 30 centimetres (one foot) hit the island chain, according to Japanese television broadcasts.
The meteorological agency had warned that two-metre waves were expected to hit the archipelago, known locally as the Ogasawara islands, and told people living near the coast to evacuate to higher ground.
But Japan later downgraded the alert to a warning of small waves.
The Bonin island chain, made up of more than 30 subtropical and tropical islets some 1,000 kilometres south of Tokyo and 240 kilometres north of Iwo Jima, have a population of just 2,700, according to the 2005 national census. The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no threat of a destructive widespread tsunami and no nearby islands are thought to be in the tsunami danger zone.
But it warned in a bulletin: "Earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within 100 kilometres of the earthquake epicentre.
"Authorities in the region of the epicentre should be aware of this possibility and take appropriate action."
The quake was followed just over 20 minutes later by two aftershocks, a minute apart, of 5.6-magnitude just 10 kilometres deep, followed by two of 5.4-magnitude soon after, the USGS said.
Around 20 percent of the world's most powerful earthquakes strike Japan, which sits on the "Ring of Fire" surrounding the Pacific Ocean.
In 1995 a magnitude-7.2 quake in the port city of Kobe killed 6,400 people.
But high building standards, regular drills and a sophisticated tsunami warning system mean that casualties are often minimal.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101221/ts_afp/quakejapan_20101221192242
WELLINGTON, New Zealand – A powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck much of New Zealand's South Island early Saturday and caused widespread damage, but there were just two reports of serious injuries. Looters broke into some damaged shops in Christchurch, police said.
The quake, which hit 19 miles (30 kilometers) west of the southern city of Christchurch according to the state geological agency GNS Science, shook a wide area, with some residents saying buildings had collapsed and power was severed. No tsunami alert was issued.
GNS Science initially reported the quake as magnitude 7.4, but later downgraded it after re-examining quake records. The U.S. Geological Survey, in America, measured the quake at 7.0.
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker declared a state of emergency four hours after the quake rocked the region, warning people that continuing aftershocks could cause masonry to fall from damaged buildings.
The emergency meant parts of the city would be closed off and some buildings closed as unsafe, he said.
Minister of Civil Defense John Carter said a state of civil emergency was declared as the quake was "a significant disaster," and army troops were on standby to assist.
Parker said the "sharp, vicious earthquake has caused significant damage in parts of the city ... with walls collapsed that have fallen into the streets."
Chimneys and walls had fallen from older buildings, with roads blocked, traffic lights out and power, gas and water supplies disrupted, he said.
Click image to see photos from the scene
AP/NZPA, David Alexander
"The fronts of at least five buildings in the central city have collapsed and rubble is strewn across many roads," Christchurch resident Angela Morgan told The Associated Press.
"Roads have subsided where water mains have broken and a lot of people evacuated in panic from seaside areas for fear of a tsunami," she said, adding that "there is quite significant damage, really, with reports that some people were trapped in damaged houses."
Christchurch fire service spokesman Mike Bowden said a number of people had been trapped in buildings by fallen chimneys and blocked entrances, but there were no reports of people pinned under rubble. Rescueteams were out checking premises.
Christchurch Hospital said it had treated two men with serious injuries and a number of people with minor injuries.
One man was hit by a falling chimney and was in serious condition in intensive care, while a second was badly cut by glass, hospital spokeswoman Michele Hider said.
Christchurch police reported road damage in parts of the city of 400,000 people, with a series of sharp aftershocks rocking the area. Police officers cordoned off some streets where rubble was strewn about. Video showed parked cars crushed by heaps of fallen bricks, and buckled roads.
"There is considerable damage in the central city and we've also had reports of looting, just shop windows broken and easy picking of displays," Police Inspector Mike Coleman told New Zealand's National Radio.
Police Inspector Alf Stewart told the radio that some people had been arrested for looting.
"We have some reports of people smashing (storefront) windows and trying to grab some property that is not theirs ... we've got police on the streets and we're dealing with that," he said.
Suburban dweller Mark O'Connell said his house was full of smashed glass, food tossed from shelves, with sets of drawers, TVs and computers tipped over.
"She was a beauty, we were thrown from wall to wall as we tried to escape down the stairs to get to safety," he told the AP. "It was pitch black (with the power cut) and we walked through smashed glass everywhere on the floor."
The quake hit at 4:35 a.m. (1635 GMT) shaking thousands of residents awake, New Zealand's National Radio reported. Some 12 aftershocks have rocked the region since, ranging from 5.3 to 3.9 in magnitude, GNSScience reported on its web site.
Prime Minister John Key, Carter and Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee were to fly to Christchurch to inspect damage and review the situation, officials said.
Civil defense agency spokesman David Millar said at least six bridges in the region had been badly damaged, while the historic Empire hotel in the port town of Lyttelton was "very unstable" and in danger of collapse. Roads, shops and other buildings in rural towns around Christchurch had also suffered damage, with some shop fronts knocked down in the jolt.
Inspector Coleman said residents of the city's low-lying eastern suburbs had been advised to be ready to evacuate their properties, after power, gas, sewerage and water systems were cut by the quake.
Resident Colleen Simpson said panicked residents ran into the street in their pajamas. Some buildings had collapsed, there was no power, and the mobile telephone network had failed.
"Oh my God. There is a row of shops completely demolished right in front of me," Simpson told the Stuff news Web site.
Kiwirail rail transport group spokesman Kevin Ramshaw said 13 mostly freight trains had been halted on South Island lines, with some damage already confirmed to rail lines north of Christchurch.
Christchurch International Airport was closed after the quake as a precaution, as experts checked runways and terminal buildings, a spokesman said.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said "no destructive widespread tsunami threat existed, based on historical earthquake and tsunami data."
New Zealand sits above an area of the Earth's crust where two tectonic plates collide. The country records more than 14,000 earthquakes a year — but only about 150 are felt by residents. Fewer than 10 a year do any damage.
New Zealand's last major earthquake was a magnitude 7.8 in South Island's Fiordland region on July 16, 2009 — a tremblor which moved the southern tip of the country 12 inches (30 centimeters) closer to Australia, seismologist Ken Gledhill said at the time.
Gledhill, director of GNS Science's "GeoNet" national earthquake monitoring project, said the island's geographic shift showed the immensity of the forces involved.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100903/ap_on_re_as/as_new_zealand_earthquake
SAN JOSE MINE, Chile – Just six months ago, one of the largest earthquakes in a century tore Chile apart, physically ripping the ground, triggering a deadly tsunami and leaving in the wreckage a divided society and government trying to decide whom to blame.
Now, with Chile confronting a new disaster — 33 men trapped in a mine below the Atacama Desert since Aug. 5 — the nation is unified by the drama playing out in slow motion.
Sitting alone on a hill above the mine where his brother, Juan, is buried alive, Oscar Illanes, 51, quietly fidgets with pebbles in his right hand and contemplates how his personal tragedy has also become that of his countrymen.
"This accident has crossed all borders. Everyone in Chile, rich or poor, a mining family or not, is sending a positive force that sustains us," he said. "The will to survive started with the 33 miners alone under the ground. It soon became 150 as the families arrived here. Now it is an entire nation, all working with the same spirit to free the men."
This time, Chileans are less interested in the blame game and more concentrated on getting the men out of the ground alive, even adopting the one can-do symbol from the quake that killed 500.
A tattered Chilean flag flies above Illanes' head on the hill overlooking the mine and the makeshift camp where the families of those trapped await their return.
Once just a piece of cloth, it was transformed into a sacred symbol of Chilean resilience when a young man was photographed by The Associated Press pulling it from the wreckage of the Feb. 27 earthquake.
In the aftermath of the earthquake, Chile's navy and emergency management office were criticized for failing to issue an alert that might have saved hundreds from the tsunami that caused the quake's largest death toll.
Chileans were also angered by a massive wave of looting, as thousands of people from grandmothers to small children took everything from mattresses to refrigerators and flat-screen TVs. Then-President Michelle Bachelet said it reflected "the moral damage of the people" in a nation that considers itself by far the most advanced in Latin America.
Many see the united effort and support for the miners as a way to move past the darker episodes surrounding the quake and to demonstrate the better side of Chileans in the face of adversity.
There has been some finger pointing in the days since the miners were trapped — and it will certainly increase if they are not rescued.
The San Esteban mining company has taken the brunt of the criticism for lacking safety standards that could have prevented the event or allowed the miners to escape.
President Sebastian Pinera fired top regulators and created a commission to investigate the accident. Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said the government's mine regulatory agency — which has only 18 inspectors for several hundred mines — would be overhauled and receive more resources.
But a positive energy floods the town of Copiapo near the mine.
"Those 33 men are the focus of every Chilean's attention. We cannot fail to bring them out, that would be unthinkable," said Luis Arancilia, 68, who sat in the main plaza reading the latest news of the accident. "All efforts, all energy must be focused on bringing them up."
On lightpoles around the plaza where Arancilia spoke, posters advertised a music festival to be held Saturday, with all proceeds going to the miners.
At the San Jose mine, the city government constructed large white tents where the miners' families eat, sleep and seek respite from the questions and cameras of scores of journalists from around the world who have arrived at the remote spot — though others have their own tents and prefer to camp outside the protected area.
The federal and local governments are working together to even bring entertainment to the family members, who say they will wait at the camp during the rescue effort, which authorities warn could take four months.
Each morning, a government worker organizes and supervises games for the children in the camp, giving weary parents a few hours of rest from caring for them. There are concerts some nights, and television shows projected on the side of one of the tents. Clowns meander through the crowds, and policeman put on puppet shows.
Back on the hill overlooking the mine, Illanes said he hopes one day his only feeling about the horrible accident will be "what can be accomplished when we work together in a positive way."
"When those of us in the camp have been cold at night, there has always been someone from the local government to hand out tents. When we were hungry, they have given us food," he said. "This has become a little model community, this camp, with all working together. I hope everyone can take a lesson from that."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100829/ap_on_bi_ge/lt_chile_mine_collapse
