April 21, 2017

What happened this week?

Antigua and Barbuda. On April 17 at 1:23 a.m. local time, a M=5.6 earthquake shook the eastern rim of the Caribbean near Antigua and Barbuda. Several aftershocks were also recorded, including a M=4.8 approximately one hour after the mainshock. Fortunately, this region is sparsely populated, and according to the USGS, no greater than light shaking was felt. Having said that, over 100,000 people were exposed to shaking and 42 people reported feeling the quake on the USGS website...Read more

Canada. State of local emergency issued in B.C. community of Kaslo after landslide. The Regional District of Central Kootenay ordered the evacuation late Monday of 47 homes in Kaslo, a community of about 1,000 people about 450 kilometres east of Vancouver...Read more

Colombia. A deadly landslide has rocked Colombia for the second time this month, claiming at least 11 lives just weeks after more than 300 were killed in a similar disaster. Twenty remain missing after the landslide hit several neighbourhoods in Manizales, near the Nevado del Ruiz volcano...Read more

Peru. A 6.0 magnitude earthquake has struck an Amazonian region of northern Peru. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, though the quake could be felt strongly as far away as Colombia and Ecuador...Read more

United States.

1.      Significant Mile-Wide Tornado, Rated EF3, Damages Several Homes Near Dimmitt, Texas. A long-lived supercell thunderstorm in the Texas panhandle Friday evening spawned multiple tornadoes, including one that was a mile wide and caused EF3 damage just outside the town of Dimmitt...Read more

2.      A brush fire that has been burning just north of Interstate 75 in Big Cypress National Preserve for two weeks has grown to almost 17,000 acres and was 38 percent contained Thursday evening, officials said...Read more

3.      Wildfires continued to break out in Florida on Thursday as the U.S. Drought Monitor showed the drought has intensified and spread across much of the central and southern parts of the state. More than 100 wildfires burning up to 20,000 acres continue to blaze across Florida...Read more

Interesting Facts

New Discoveries About San Andreas Fault Afterslip Shed Light on Earthquake Risk. Scientists have discovered that the San Andreas Fault in California continued to slip for up to 12 years after the magnitude 6 Parkfield earthquake that hit the state in 2004. Experts say the discovery indicates other parts of the fault that are predicted to rupture in the near future could be at greater risk of afterslip than previously thought...Read more

Retreating Yukon glacier caused a river to disappear. Last spring, its retreat triggered a geologic event at relatively breakneck speed. The toe of ice that was sending meltwater toward the Slims River and then north to the Bering Sea retreated so far that the water changed course, joining the Kaskawulsh River and flowing south toward the Gulf of Alaska...Read more

USGS Assessment of Brackish Water Could Help Nation Stretch Limited Freshwater Supplies. This study, the first of its kind in more than 50 years, found that the amount of brackish groundwater underlying the country is more than 800 times the amount currently used each year. With issues like drought, groundwater depletion, dwindling freshwater supplies, and demand for groundwater expected to continue to rise...Read more

When a natural disaster isn’t a disaster. Humans often do more harm than good when we try to rebuild damaged landscapes. We tried to return the forests and beaches to what they looked like before disaster struck. But in doing so, we disrupt the natural recovery of those ecosystems...Read more

What's new in Disaster Risk Reduction?

How can Peru prepare to withstand more devastating floods and landslides? After record rains caused $3bn worth of damage, Peru must build infrastructure to prepare for any more extreme climate events in the future...Read more

 

New Jersey American Water Breaks Ground on $65 Million Flood Protection Project. New Jersey American Water is breaking ground today on a significant, long-term flood protection project at its Raritan-Millstone Water Treatment Plant. This $65 million investment will help ensure protection from the increased risk of flooding during extreme weather events, and maintain a sustainable water supply for more than 1 million people in Central New Jersey...Read more

 

Texas introduces new earthquake-monitoring system. As part of the TexNet Seismic Monitoring Program, scientists and engineers at UT’s Bureau of Economic Geology are installing seismometers, devices that measure the ground’s motion, throughout Texas in order to better understand the rise in earthquakes in recent years. The sensors will help researchers locate where earthquakes occur, measure their intensity and determine potential causes...Read more

Tuscaloosa finishes drought plan. While officials expect Lake Tuscaloosa to never run dry, the city of Tuscaloosa -- at the insistence of the state -- has completed a plan of action in case that day ever comes...Read more