Small earthquakes hit Oregon, Hawaii; no damage reported

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Small earthquakes hit Oregon, Hawaii; no damage reported

The Associated Press

Updated 9:51 pm, Saturday, July 16, 2016

The U.S. Geological Survey says that minor earthquakes have shaken part of the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area and Hawaii.

The agency says a magnitude-3.2 earthquake hit near Beaverton and several other Portland suburbs at 6:16 p.m. local time. No damages have been reported.

The agency also reports that on Hawaii's Big Island, a magnitude-3.0 earthquake hit near the town of Leilani Estates at 4:13 p.m. local time. There are no reports of damage.

Experts in Hawaii are more focused on the possible tsunami effect of major earthquakes that take place in the Pacific Ocean region around the islands. A study by University of Hawaii researchers released in May says there's a 9 percent chance that an earthquake measuring magnitude 9 or greater will strike Alaska's Aleutian Islands within the next 50 years and send large tsunami waves to Hawaii.



Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Small-earthquakes-hit-Oregon-Hawaii-no-damage-8382649.php

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(Short article, no more at link.)

[Doctor Jack]

1. Thanks Obama

Clearly a failure of Clinton's leadership as Secretary of State also.

[CentralMass]

6. It's all because he refers to them as seismic events rather then dangerous earthquakes. ;-)

[Berlin Expat]

11. I think you meant

"radical dangerous earthquakes."

Them's the magic words.

[CentralMass]

14. Yes that capture it better. :-)

[gopiscrap]

2. No the one in Hawaii was planned in 1961 by

Obama's mother so we wouldn't focus on the fact that she fudged his birth certificate! (sarcasm intended)

[byronius]

3. I find this oddly unsettling because of the latest predictions concerning the

Cascadia Subduction Zone.

Very, very dangerous thing. A great deal of unreleased pressure. One hopes these small quakes are wholly unconnected to it. Such a slip would be devastating.

[CentralMass]

5. ...

[Berlin Expat]

12. I totally agree

A Cascadia Subduction Zone quake would be nothing short of apocalyptic for large sections of the Pacific Northwest and Northern California. I used to live in the Portland, OR metro area and it was something we always kept in the back of our minds.

It would easily be the worst natural disaster to ever hit the United States, not only in terms of property and infrastructure damage, but lives lost and not just in the coastal areas that would be hit by the inevitable tsunami such an event would unleash. Even inland, in cities like Portland and Seattle, there's a hell of a lot of buildings that would simply collapse like a Jenga toy with that kind of movement; apartment buildings, office buildings, schools. We'd be looking at moment magnitude 9 shaking lasting for a few minutes, as we've seen in other subduction zone earthquakes in South America and Asia.

I've been in earthquakes before, and they typically last a few seconds. I can't even begin to imagine one that lasts for three to five minutes.

There's an excellent article from The New Yorker that I'll post so others can read it. It's well-written. And pretty grim.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one

[CentralMass]

4. I live in Beaverton. I was around 40 minutes away last evening.

I'll have to ask my neighbors here if they felt it at all.

[rjsquirrel]

7. 3.2

feels like a truck went by in the street outside.

This isn't news.

[CentralMass]

8. Yes. I was in San Jose when one about that size hit and I didnt even notice

[snort]

13. Nada.

I didn't feel or hear anything.

[allan01]

9. a 3.0 hit florida in the atlantic ocean

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/

[Stevepol]

10. Give me something to scare me. I live in the earthquake corridor,

Wichita KS. Last night at about 11:15pm, I felt a 4.1 quake originating in the earthquake capital of the world at the present time, OK, Perry OK to be exact. My bed just rocked a little in the night. If fracking continues in OK and in the rest of the country, I'm sure the magnitude will increase for US residents and especially for us here in the corridor.