Earthquake « WJAC-TV Weather Blog

Japan Now Closer To United States

By Tim Tender on March 22nd, 2011 at 12:22 PM

Earthquake moves Japan closer to U.S.

There’s really no need for me to rewrite this. I found this while surfing our sister station’s blog. Jeff from WTOV explains how the United States is now closer to Japan after the earthquake…

Last week’s devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan has actually moved the island closer to the United States and shifted the planet’s axis.

The quake caused a rift 15 miles below the sea floor that stretched 186 miles long and 93 miles wide, according to the AP. The areas closest to the epicenter of the quake jumped a full 13 feet closer to the United States, geophysicist Ross Stein at the United States Geological Survey told The New York Times.

The world’s fifth-largest, 8.9 magnitude quake was caused when the Pacific tectonic plate dove under the North American plate, which shifted Eastern Japan towards North America by about 13 feet (see NASA’s before and after photos at right). The quake also shifted the earth’s axis by 6.5 inches, shortened the day by 1.6 microseconds, and sank Japan downward by about two feet. As Japan’s eastern coastline sunk, the tsunami’s waves rolled in. (Read More)

Whirlpool After Tsunami and Earthquake

By Tim Tender on March 12th, 2011 at 9:40 PM

The earthquake that hit Japan was devastating and they’ll be cleaning up from that for a long time.� I didn’t see this when it happened, but saw it tonight and wanted to share it with you.� This is really impressive:

The quake moved Japan’s coast 8 feet and shifted the Earth on its [...]

Super Moon Expected March 19, 2011

By Tim Tender on March 11th, 2011 at 9:56 AM

I normally don’t pay much attention to things pertaining to astronomy. It’s not that it isn’t interesting, but I just don’t pay attention to it. This morning, however, was a different story.

I got in and one of the first things I do is check out Facebook page. This morning, there were posts about flooding and posts about being tired of snow but the most recent post stated:

Heard the radio station here talking about the Super Moon due March 19th. They knew this was coming. Lot’s of info online about it, and now with what has happened in Japan, makes you wonder. — Renee Kudrna

I didn’t know what Renee was talking about. I had no idea what was happening in Japan and I hadn’t heard anything about a super moon. The first thing I thought when I heard ‘super moon’ was that this was some sort of hoax like the Mars hoax. I knew I had to do a little research on this ‘super moon.’

Cue Google! (Read More)

7.2 Earthquake Near Baja, California

By Tim Tender on April 4th, 2010 at 10:31 PM

Damage From Mexicali Quake

Around 6:30 PM today (ET), the earth shook near Baja, California.� That’s near the Mexico/California border.� Here’s a link to a website with some really good pictures of the damage.

The pictures are on the Mashable website and have were posted via Twitter.

By the way, there was an [...]

6.5 Earthquake in California

By Tim Tender on January 9th, 2010 at 11:10 PM

Who knows if those pesky sea lions knew that this was coming or not… we’ll probably never know. But, either way, there was an earthquake in California today. It measured 6.5 on the Richter Scale and hit near the town of Eureka at 4:27 PM Pacific Time.

(Read More)

Sea Lions Say Sayonara San Francisco

By Tim Tender on December 30th, 2009 at 11:07 AM

I had the opportunity to visit San Francisco over the summer and had a blast. We went to Pier 39 and saw all of the sea lions just chilling in the docks. Now, it’s been discovered that the sea lions are missing.

Where did they go?
Is this a sign of something coming?
Does El Nino or La Nina play a role?

(Read More)

Earthquake in South Carolina

By Tim Tender on August 29th, 2009 at 8:17 PM

This isn’t unheard of, but it doesn’t happen everyday either.� There was an earthquake today in South Carolina.� It was a 3.2 magnitude on the Richter Scale and happened at 6:37 Saturday morning.� (Talk about a rude awakening!)

For more details on the quake, click here and I’ll redirect your to the USGS [...]

Clouds Before Earthquake

By WJAC Weather on May 19th, 2008 at 9:21 AM

I don’t know what to make of this one…� I should note that these clouds are pretty far away from the epicenter.� They are pretty cool, though!

Check out these clouds before the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake.

For more views of clouds from before the quake, check out the� mdolla� [...]

5.2 Earthquake Hits Illinois

By WJAC Weather on April 19th, 2008 at 10:26 PM

It’s not exactly where you’d expect to hear of an earthquake, but there was one early Friday in Southeastern Illinois.� The epicenter is being placed less than 5 miles from Bellmont, Illinois.� According to the USGS Earthquake website, the quake was felt as far� west as Kansas, as far north as the UP of [...]