Tag Archives: foreshocks

Friday Focal Mechanisms: before and after the M8 Santa Cruz Islands quake

On Tuesday night American time (Wednesday lunchtime local time), a magnitude 8 earthquake occurred near the Santa Cruz Islands, a set of small islands east of the Solomon Islands. In this region, the Australian plate is subducting to the north-east … Continue reading

Categories: earthquakes, focal mechanisms, tectonics

Magnitude 8.9 (or 9.0, or 9.1!) Earthquake off the coast of Japan

Around 3pm local time yesterday, there was a massive earthquake about 100 miles off the east coast of northern Honshu Island, Japan. Initially calculated to be a magnitude 8.9, it has since been upgraded: the current CMT solution at the … Continue reading

Categories: earthquakes, focal mechanisms, geohazards, tectonics