May 18, 2012 – Moderate earthquakes in Afghanistan and Algeria
Algeria earthquake
The earthquake is very shallow (if preliminary data will be confirmed). Epicenter is approx. 20 km from Brida and approx. 30 km from Aflou. Brida has a population of 5,742 (1998 cencus) and Aflou has a population of 48,000 inhabitants. Earthquake-Report.com has no certainty at all about the faith of this 2 villages. The epicenter location given by seismological agencies has almost always an error margin of +10 km. We do not see major problems if the epicenter will be confirmed where it is located now, but when closer to one of both villages or towns, damage cannot be excluded.
– The earthquake happened in the Sahara Atlas at a approx. altitude of 1,400 meter.
Update 13:39 UTC : EMSC has changed its parameters from M5.1 to M4.7 and from a depth of 2 km to a depth of 5 km. These latest values are far better (less dangerous) than the initial ones.
Moderate earthquake relatively close to Kabul, Afghanistan
The epicenter of this earthquake was only at 38 km from Afghanistan. EMSC and USGS data versions are completely different in focal depth at the time of writing (13:25 UTC). EMSC reports a depth of 80 km and USGS a depth of 10 km. This kind of difference in focal depth is almost like early morning and sunset !
Moderate earthquake shakes the interior of Honshu, Japan
We have a sudden surge in people from Japan, which indicates mostly an earthquake
We have NO earthquake data yet, but max. JMA intensity is 4 so far.
– The epicenter of this earthquake was in between Sano and Tsukuba, inland. The depth of the hypocenter makes it a far away felt earthquake. The way people felt this earthquake is another proof that similar magnitudes and similar depths are being felt completely different from one area to another.
– The earthquake has been well felt in Tokyo too (see experience reports).
– JMA 4 intensity (scale from 0 to 7) at Ibaraki-ken Nambu, Tochigi-ken Nambu, Saitama-ken Hokubu and Saitama-ken Nambu. Earthquake-report.com uses 5+ as a potentially damaging intensity. The greater Tokyo area was reported as a JMA 3 intensity
Strong (harmless) earthquake off the coast of Chile
The epicenter was located at more than 500 km out of the coast. The Magnitude is totally harmless to generate a tsunami. The hypocenter depth is 10 km and indicates that the earthquake was generated by tensions in a separating oceanic plate (separating Nazca and Antarctic plates area). The satellite map below shows the dividing area very well.
http://earthquake-report.com/2012/05/17/major-earthquakes-list-may-18-2012/