Irish National Seismic Network

2017-09-19, M7.1 Mexico

Martin — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 13:06:19 +0000

An earthquake with magnitude 7.1 occurred near Puebla, about 120km from Mexico City on the 19th September 2017 at 18:14:38 UTC. A number of buildings in Mexico City collapsed and at least 200 fatalities have been reported to date. The event happened on the 32nd anniversary of the devastating magnitude 8.1 Mexico City earthquake.

The earthquake was recorded at seismic stations worldwide, including stations of the Irish National Seismic Network (INSN), see seismic waveforms below (select figure to enlarge).

Further information is available from the following webpages:

EMSC: https://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=619258
GFZ: http://geofon.gfz-potsdam.de/eqinfo/special/gfz2017skgl/
USGS: https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us2000ar20#executive
More information about the INSN is available via this link.

2017-09-08, M8.1 Mexico

Martin — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 13:14:49 +0000

A major earthquake with magnitude 8.1 occurred offshore Mexico on the 8th September 2017 at 04:49:21 UTC. The epicentre is located about 60km from the coast of the mexican state Chiapas, see map below. The event was felt widely and several casualties and damage to buildings have been reported. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a threat warning for tsunami waves up to three metres high along the coast of Mexico. Maximum wave heights of 1.75 metres were observed at the coast of Chiapas five hours after the earthquake origin time.

The M8.1 earthquake was recorded at seismic stations worldwide, including stations of the Irish National Seismic Network (INSN), see seismic waveforms below (select figure to enlarge).

Further information is available from the following webpages:

Pacific Tsunami Warning Center: http://ptwc.weather.gov/
EMSC: https://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=616600
GFZ: http://geofon.gfz-potsdam.de/eqinfo/event.php?id=gfz2017rpdi
USGS: https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us2000ahv0#executive

More information about the INSN is available via this link.

2017-09-03, M6.3 North Korea

Martin — Sun, 03 Sep 2017 13:32:27 +0000

On the 3rd September 2017 the Irish National Seismic Network (INSN) recorded a seismic event with epicenter in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), see below plot for the location. The recordings are consistent with the announcement by the DPRK that it has conducted a nuclear test, their sixth since 2006. The event occured at 03:30:01 UTC.

Vibrations caused by the nuclear test were detected by seismic stations of the Irish National Seismic Network (INSN), see waveforms below. Please click the figure to enlarge. Further information about this event can be obtained from these websites:

2017-08-02, M1.5 Donegal

Martin — Wed, 02 Aug 2017 13:17:23 +0000

On the 2nd August at 05:46 UTC (06:46 local time) an earthquake of magnitude 1.5 occurred in Donegal (NE of Milford on the Fanad Peninsula). Location 55.11N, 7.59W, see figure below.

There are reports of this event having been felt in the area around Milford. Events of this nature are not uncommon in this region. The largest event recorded in this area was a magnitude 2.2 which occurred near Clonmany on 21st November 1994.

The event was recorded at stations of the Irish National Seismic Network (INSN) and the BGS, see seismic traces below.

2017-05-18, M1.3 Irish Sea

Martin — Thu, 18 May 2017 13:26:17 +0000

An earthquake with magnitude ML 1.3 occurred on the 18th May 2017 at 23:04:12 UTC in the Irish Sea. The epicentral location of this event is 53.05N, 5.49 W, about 40km off the Wicklow coast, see map below.

The earthquake was detected by seismic stations of the Irish National Seismic Network (INSN) and the British Geological Survey (BGS), see seismograms below.

The epicentre is close to the location where a similar earthquake with magnitude ML 0.9 occurred on the 10th March 2017, see here for more information. Real-time information of automatic INSN event detections can be accessed on the INSN homepage at https://www.insn.ie/events.

2017-03-10, M0.9 Irish Sea

Martin — Fri, 10 Mar 2017 13:27:35 +0000

On the 10th March 2017 at 05:06:25 UTC an earthquake of magnitude ML 0.9 occurred in the Irish Sea, approximately 50km off the coast of Wicklow, with the epicentral location 53.04N, 5.51W, see map below.

The event was recorded at Irish National Seismic Network (INSN) stations and at several British Geological Survey (BGS) stations in Wales and the Isle of Man, see seismograms below.

This earthquake was too weak to be felt by humans and occurred in a region of the Irish Sea for which several events have been detected in the past, see map on this INSN page.

2016-12-08, M7.8 Solomon Islands

Martin — Fri, 09 Dec 2016 11:53:45 +0000

A powerful earthquake with magnitude 7.8 occurred on the 8th December 2016 at 17:38:46 UTC near Kirakira in the Solomon Islands. Though the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center first issued a local tsunami warning this was subsequently canceled. There are no reports of fatalities or structural damage. The Solomon Island Arc is known to be very seismically active. Strong earthquakes are observed relatively frequently in this region, however fatalities and structural damage due to ground shaking are fairly rare due to the remoteness of the events, far from population centers.

The M7.8 earthquake was recorded at seismic stations worldwide, including stations of the Irish National Seismic Network (INSN), see seismic traces below showing strong reverberations lasting longer than 2 hours (select figure to enlarge).

For additional information please see these event pages:

USGS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20007z80

EMSC: http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=551218

GFZ: http://geofon.gfz-potsdam.de/eqinfo/special/gfz2016ycez/

More information about the INSN is available via this link.

2016-11-21, M6.9 Japan

jfbucas — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 12:17:02 +0000

An earthquake of magnitude 6.9 occurred on the 21st November 2016 at 20:59:50 UTC in Japan. The epicentre was about 90 km southeast of Fukushima, see map below. No immediate damage or injury due to the earthquake tremor was reported. Tsunami alerts were issued by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center for up to 3 metre high waves along the northern Pacific coast of Japan. According to JMA the highest measured wave was 1.4m in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, north of Fukushima. The Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster on the 11th March 2011 was initiated primarily by the tsunami that followed the magnitude 9.0 Tōhoku earthquake.

The M6.9 earthquake was recorded at seismic stations worldwide, including stations of the Irish National Seismic Network (INSN), see seismic traces below.

For additional information please see these event pages:

JMA: http://www.jma.go.jp/en/tsunami/index.html

USGS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us10007b88

EMSC: http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=547259

GFZ: http://geofon.gfz-potsdam.de/eqinfo/special/gfz2016wxkb

More information about the INSN is available via this link.

2016-11-13, M7.8 New Zealand

jfbucas — Sun, 13 Nov 2016 12:18:22 +0000

2016-11-13, Earthquake in New Zealand, M7.8

An earthquake of magnitude 7.8 occurred on the 13th November 2016 at 11:02:57 UTC in New Zealand. The epicentre was about 100 km northeast of Christchurch, see figure below. The earthquake caused two fatalities and significant structural damage to buildings and highways has been observed. A state of emergency was put in place for the town Kaikoura, a town of about 2,000 people in the South Island, after it had been almost completely isolated with roads closed and phone lines down. Shortly after the earthquake struck a tsunami warning was issued and waves up to 2.5m high were observed on the northeastern coast of the South Island. According to Geonet the reason that a tsunami was generated by an earthquake with onshore epicentre is that there was deformation further down the fault plane offshore.

The event was recorded at seismic stations worldwide, including stations of the Irish National Seismic Network (INSN), see seismic traces below.

For further information please see USGS, Geonet NZ or GFZ. For further information about the INSN please follow this link.

2016-11-13, M7.8 New Zealand

Martin — Sun, 13 Nov 2016 11:07:37 +0000

The event was recorded at seismic stations worldwide, including stations of the Irish National Seismic Network (INSN), see seismic traces below.

For further information please see USGS, Geonet NZ or GFZ. For further information about the INSN please follow this link.