Tag: earthquake

  • 7.2 magnitude earthquake strikes off Peru, tsunami threat over: USGS

    7.2 magnitude earthquake strikes off Peru, tsunami threat over: USGS

    A magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck off the coast of central Peru on Friday, the United States Geological Survey said, but a tsunami threat from the tremor has passed.

    The USGS said the tremor hit 8.8 kilometers (5.5 miles) from Atiquipa district.

    The quake was felt in Lima and a large part of the southern and central coast of Peru.

    The mayor of Yauca, Juan Aranguren, told local media that walls came down in his town.

    A major highway running through the area also suffered cracks, he said.

    “The children were crying, the earthquake was felt strongly,” said a villager from the area.

    Speaking to RPP radio, Prime Minister Gustavo Adrianzen: “I want to convey tranquility. The earthquake has passed, we are making the first evaluations, and so far there are no fatalities to lament.”

    The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre had earlier said “hazardous tsunami waves are forecast for some coasts” but later said the threat had passed.

    Peru, with some 33 million inhabitants, lies on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, a vast area of intense seismic activity that runs along the west coast of the Americas.

    Peru is hit by hundreds of detectable quakes every year.

  • Earthquake hits Islamabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

    Earthquake hits Islamabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

    Earthquake tremors hit in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, and various cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including Peshawar, Swat, and Malakand on Wednesday, June 19.

    According to the seismological center, the earthquake had a magnitude of 4.7. The epicentre was in the South-East region of Afghanistan, with a depth of 98 kilometres.

    No loss of life and property has been recorded so far.

    Tremors were also felt in North Waziristan, Parachinar, Lower Dir, Hangu, and the surrounding areas, including Charsadda and Swabi.

  • Earthquake in Taiwan ‘strongest in 25 years’: Taipei seismology official

    Earthquake in Taiwan ‘strongest in 25 years’: Taipei seismology official

    Taipei, Taiwan – The earthquake that hit Taiwan’s east on Wednesday morning was “the strongest in 25 years”, said the director of Taipei’s Seismology Centre.

    “The earthquake is close to land and it’s shallow. It’s felt all over Taiwan and offshore islands… it’s the strongest in 25 years since the (1999) earthquake,” Wu Chien-fu told reporters, referring to a September 1999 quake with 7.6-magnitude that killed 2,400 people.

  • 1,000 homes destroyed after earthquake in Papua New Guinea: Governor

    1,000 homes destroyed after earthquake in Papua New Guinea: Governor

    At least five people were killed and an estimated 1,000 homes destroyed when a magnitude 6.9 earthquake rocked flood-stricken northern Papua New Guinea, officials said Monday as disaster crews poured into the region.

    “So far, around 1,000 homes have been lost,” said East Sepik Governor Allan Bird, adding that emergency crews were “still assessing the impact” from a tremor that “damaged most parts of the province”.

    Dozens of villages nestled on the banks of the country’s Sepik River were already dealing with major flooding when the quake struck early Sunday morning.

    Provincial police commander Christopher Tamari told AFP that authorities had recorded five deaths but the number of fatalities “could be more”.

    Photos taken in the aftermath of the quake showed damaged wooden houses collapsing into the surrounding knee-high floodwaters.

    Earthquakes are common in Papua New Guinea, which sits on top of the seismic “Ring of Fire” — an arc of intense tectonic activity that stretches through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

    Although they seldom cause widespread damage in the sparsely populated jungle highlands, they can trigger destructive landslides.

    Many of the island nation’s nine million citizens live outside major towns and cities, where the difficult terrain and lack of sealed roads can seriously hamstring search-and-rescue efforts.

  • Magnitude 6.9 quake hits Papua New Guinea: USGS

    Magnitude 6.9 quake hits Papua New Guinea: USGS

    A magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit northern Papua New Guinea on Sunday morning, the United States Geological Survey said.

    The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said there was “no tsunami threat” from the inland quake, which struck at 6:22 am local time (2022 GMT Saturday) at a depth of approximately 35 kilometres (21 miles).

    The “notable quake” hit some 88 kilometres (54 miles) southwest of Wewak, the USGS said, a town of 25,000 people that serves as the capital of Papua New Guinea’s East Sepik province.

    There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The tremor was downgraded from an preliminary magnitude of 7.0.

    Earthquakes are common in Papua New Guinea, which sits on top of the seismic “Ring of Fire” — an arc of intense tectonic activity that stretches through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

    Although they seldom cause widespread damage in the sparsely populated jungle highlands, they can trigger destructive landslides.

    At least seven people were killed in April last year when a 7.0-magnitude quake hit a jungle-clad area in the country’s interior.

    Many of the island nation’s nine million citizens live outside major towns and cities, where the difficult terrain and lack of sealed roads can seriously hamstring search-and-rescue efforts.

  • Another earthquake jolts Balochistan

    Another earthquake jolts Balochistan

    Earthquake tremors once again jolted different regions in Balochistan, including Quetta, early this morning.

    The earthquake was also detected at the Pak-Iran border areas including Chaman, Qila Abdullah, Nushki, Pashin and Dalbandin.

    According to the Seismological Center, the magnitude of the earthquake was recorded at 5.6, and the epicentre was 166 kilometres southwest of Quetta.

    The depth of the earthquake was recorded at 30 kilometres.

    No loss of life or property was reported.

  • 5.4 magnitude earthquake hits Quetta

    5.4 magnitude earthquake hits Quetta

    Earthquake measuring 5.4 has hit Quetta and its neighbouring regions in Balochistan.

    The Pakistan Met Department reported that an earthquake measuring 5.4 jolted the area at 5:35 am.

    The epicenter was located 150 kilometres southwest of Quetta with a depth of 35 kilometres.

    This was followed by another earthquake at 06:24 am – a magnitude of 4.5 with epicenter located 120 kilometer southwest of Quetta and depth of 136 kilometers.

    There have been no reports of casualties or damage.

  • Strong earthquake in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and AJK

    Strong earthquake in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and AJK

    Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, Azad Jammu, and Kashmir (AJK), and their adjoining areas were jolted by a strong earthquake around 2:30 pm on Thursday. However, strong tremors were felt for only a few seconds. In Islamabad, people were seen coming out of high-rise buildings.

    According to the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), the epicentre of the earthquake was the Hindu Kush region in Afghanistan and the depth of the quake was 213 kilometres.

    The earthquake was also felt in Peshawar, Gujrat, Gujranwala, and other regions of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Malakand, Upper and Lower Dir, Kohat, Swat experienced both light and strong jolts.

  • Death Toll From Japan Quake Rises Above 200

    Death Toll From Japan Quake Rises Above 200

    The death toll from the powerful earthquake that flattened parts of central Japan on January 1 passed 200 on Tuesday, with just over 100 still unaccounted for, authorities said.

    The 7.5 magnitude quake destroyed and toppled buildings, caused fires and knocked out infrastructure on the Noto Peninsula on Japan’s main island Honshu just as families were celebrating New Year’s Day.

    Eight days later thousands of rescuers were battling blocked roads and poor weather to clear the wreckage as well as reach almost 3,500 people still stuck in isolated communities.

    Ishikawa regional authorities released figures on Tuesday showing that 202 people were confirmed dead, up from 180 earlier in the day, with 102 unaccounted for, down from 120.

    On Monday, authorities had more than tripled the number of missing to 323 after central databases were updated, with most of the rise related to badly hit Wajima.

    But since then “many families let us know that they were able to confirm safety of the persons (on the list)”, Ishikawa official Hayato Yachi told AFP.

    With heavy snow in places complicating relief efforts, as of Monday almost 30,000 people were living in around 400 government shelters, some of which were packed and struggling to provide adequate food, water and heating.

    Almost 60,000 households were without running water and 15,600 had no electricity supply.

    Road conditions have been worsened by days of rain that have contributed to an estimated 1,000 landslides.

    At a daily disaster-relief government meeting on Tuesday, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida instructed ministers to “make efforts of resolving the state of isolation (of communities) and continue tenacious rescue activities”.

    Kishida also urged secondary evacuations to other regions outside the quake-hit area, top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters.

    In Ishikawa prefecture’s city of Suzu, a woman in her 90s managed to survive five days under the wreckage of a collapsed house before being saved on Saturday.

    “Hang in there!” rescuers were heard calling to the woman, in police footage from the rainy scene published by local media.

    Not all were so lucky, with Naoyuki Teramoto, 52, inconsolable on Monday after three of his four children’s bodies were discovered in the town of Anamizu.

    “We were talking of plans to go to Izu,” a famous hot spring resort, after his daughter passed her high school entrance exam, he told broadcaster NTV.

    Japan experiences hundreds of earthquakes every year, though most cause no damage because of strict building codes in place for more than four decades.

    But many structures are older, especially in rapidly ageing communities in rural areas like Noto.

    The country is haunted by the monster quake of 2011 that triggered a tsunami, left around 18,500 people dead or missing, and caused a nuclear catastrophe at the Fukushima plant.

  • Japan quake death toll rises to 92, missing 242

    Japan quake death toll rises to 92, missing 242

    Anamizu (Japan) (AFP) – The death toll from a devastating earthquake in central Japan rose to 92 on Friday, regional authorities said, with the number of missing jumping to 242.

    Two elderly women were pulled from the rubble, but hopes of finding other survivors faded as thousands of rescuers raced against the clock four days after the 7.5-magnitude quake on New Year’s Day.

    Thousands of rescuers from all over Japan have been battling aftershocks and roads littered with gaping holes and blocked by frequent landslides in the Ishikawa region to reach hundreds of people in stranded communities.

    On Thursday afternoon, 72 hours after the quake, the two older women were miraculously pulled alive from the remains of their homes in Wajima, one of them thanks to a sniffer dog called Jennifer.

    The port city of Wajima on the Noto Peninsula was one of the worst hit, with a pungent smell of soot still in the air and faint columns of smoke visible from a huge fire that destroyed hundreds of structures on the first day.

    “I was relaxing on New Year’s Day when the quake happened. My relatives were all there and we were having fun,” Hiroyuki Hamatani, 53, told AFP amid the burnt-out cars, wrecked buildings and fallen telegraph poles.

    “The house itself is standing but it’s far from livable now… I don’t have the space in my mind to think about the future,” he told AFP.

    Grief

    The powerful main tremor, followed by hundreds of aftershocks, injured at least 330 people, local authorities said.

    Around 30,000 households were without electricity in the Ishikawa region, and 89,800 homes there and in two neighbouring regions had no water.

    Hundreds of people were in government shelters.

    The Suzu area was also devastated, with fishing boats sunk or lifted like toys onto the shore by tsunami waves that also reportedly swept one person away.

    Noriaki Yachi, 79, fought back tears after his wife was pulled from the rubble there and confirmed dead, the Asahi Shimbun daily reported.

    “My life with her was a happy one,” Yachi said.

    Earthquakes have hit the Noto region with intensifying strength and frequency over the past five years.

    The country is haunted by a massive 9.0-magnitude undersea quake in 2011, which triggered a tsunami that left around 18,500 people dead or missing.

    It also swamped the Fukushima atomic plant, causing one of the worst nuclear disasters in history