The Earth has been on quite a roll recently . . . quite literally.
A pair of powerful earthquakes rocked Alaska early Friday morning, ripping apart roads, shaking buildings, and scaring residents getting ready for a peaceful, winter weekend.
Alaska Governor Bill Walker has issued a declaration of disaster after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake and over a dozen aftershocks struck Anchorage, Alaska Friday morning, according to a post on Facebook.”Major General Laurie Hummel and I are now working with emergency responders to make sure Alaskans are safe,” Walker posted on Facebook. “My family is praying for yours.”A tsunami warning was issued in the Cook Inlet following the quake, but was cancelled just after noon local time.The magnitude 7.0 quake was recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey at 8:30 a.m. local time. As of 8:55 a.m., nearly 200 people had reported to USGS that they felt the quake, ranging from very light to moderate intensity.Shortly after that quake, at around 8:35 a.m., a magnitude 5.8 aftershock was also recorded near Anchorage.Both quakes had epicenters about 23 miles deep.
Because the quakes caused widespread liquefaction of the Alaskan soil, the state’s infrastructure was hit hard.
“Make no mistake, this was a big one,” [GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan] said, citing a serious concern regarding transportation impact. “Right now the highways in and out of Anchorage, with the exception of one going up north, are cut off and that’s a big problem for us.”…In one update on Friday afternoon, AP said Anchorage Police Chief Justin Doll was recounting reports that parts of a scenic highway that heads from Anchorage toward mountains and glaciers have sunken and “completely disappeared.”.He said officials were evaluating the damage to the Glenn Highway, but some was viewed as so significant that it will probably “take a long time to repair.”Doll also said damage to bridges has been reported.An AP reporter working in downtown Anchorage saw cracks in a two-story building after the quake.
Former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin indicated that her home was among the many structures damaged.
However, Alaska isn’t the only site of recent, intense geologic activity.
Earlier this month, the planet “rang like a bell” and scientists are still trying to determine what caused the unusual activity.
On the morning of November 11, just before 9:30 UT, a mysterious rumble rolled around the world.The seismic waves began roughly 15 miles off the shores of Mayotte, a French island sandwiched between Africa and the northern tip of Madagascar. The waves buzzed across Africa, ringing sensors in Zambia, Kenya, and Ethiopia. They traversed vast oceans, humming across Chile, New Zealand, Canada, and even Hawaii nearly 11,000 miles away.These waves didn’t just zip by; they rang for more than 20 minutes. And yet, it seems, no human felt them.Only one person noticed the odd signal on the U.S. Geological Survey’s real-time seismogram displays. An earthquake enthusiast who uses the handle @matarikipax saw the curious zigzags and posted images of them to Twitter. That small action kicked off another ripple of sorts, as researchers around the world attempted to suss out the source of the waves. Was it a meteor strike? A submarine volcano eruption? An ancient sea monster rising from the deep?“I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it,” says Göran Ekström, a seismologist at Columbia University who specializes in unusual earthquakes.
Finally, an earthquake struck near Buenos Aires as world leaders gathered for the G20 Summit.
The 3.8-magnitude quake struck 33km south of the city, according to the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre, where a number of those present at the gathering reported hearing a rumbling sound before seeing “the chandeliers sway slightly”.
Reports do not indicate that President Donald Trump has been blamed . . . yet. However, as “experts” have previously connected climate change to earthquakes, you can be sure it will only be a matter of time.
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