Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology
Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology
What Are Teachable Moments?
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Questions for independent student exploration
At 10:15pm Alaska time on July 28, a magnitude 8.2 earthquake struck offshore of the Alaska Peninsula at a depth of 32 km. This was the largest U.S. earthquake in 50 years. No major damage was reported.
A magnitude 7.3 earthquake jolted China’s sparsely populated Qinghai province in the northwest. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the remote area.
A major magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Saturday off the coast of Ishinomaki, a city located just 65 miles (104 km) from Fukushima, Japan at a depth of 54 km (34 miles). The earthquake shook buildings as far as Tokyo and triggered a tsunami advisory for a part of the northern coast. No major damage was reported, but several people had minor injuries.
Ten years ago today a magnitude 9.1 earthquake occurred in Japan. The earthquake struck off the northeastern coast of Honshu, Japan’s main island, and initiated a series of large tsunami waves that devastated many coastal areas of the country, most notably in the Tōhoku region (northeastern Honshu). The tsunami also instigated a major nuclear accident at a power station along the coast.
Three large earthquakes occurred along the Kermadec Trench, north of New Zealand. The earliest and southern-most earthquake (M 7.3 at 13:27 UTC) occurred northeast of Gisborne, New Zealand at a depth of 20 km. The M 7.4 and M 8.1 earthquakes occurred at 17:41 and 19:28 UTC respectively near the Kermadec Islands, New Zealand. Given the ~950 km distance from the M 7.3 to the two larger earthquakes, it is unlikely the M 7.3 triggered the two larger events.
