Quake Lifts Island Ten Feet Out of Ocean:
Residents of Ranongga island in the South Pacific Ocean sit on a massive coral reef that was exposed by the magnitude 8.1 earthquake that struck in the Solomon Islands last week, sparking a deadly tsunami. The quake lifted Ranongga ten feet (three meters) out of the sea, widening beaches by up to 230 feet (70 meters), according to news reports. The uplift has left some of the island’s pristine coral reefs fatally exposed.
“These are not unusual occurrences for an earthquake of this magnitude,” said Rick MacPherson of the Coral Reef Alliance in San Francisco, California. “During the Asian tsunami two years ago, Banda Aceh [in Indonesia], stretching down almost the extent of the peninsula, experienced similar uplift.”
April 14th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
“They estimate that the diversity of species represents about 65% of what was present before the atomic tests. The ecologists think the nearby Rongelap Atoll is seeding the Bikini Atoll, and the lack of human disturbance is helping its recovery…”
April 19th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
“Earthquakes in the central and eastern U.S., although less frequent than in the western U.S., are typically felt over a much broader region…”
May 28th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
This month’s 7.9 magnitude tremor [in China] spawned 34 so-called quake lakes… The vast pools of water were created when the earthquake triggered landslides down plunging valleys, clogging rivers and turning them into fast-rising lakes…”