Latest Hanford earthquake a 3.7
There's been a swarm of small earthquakes up at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, along the Columbia River in south central Washington. That's been going on since early May at least. Last night, though, one of them registered 3.7 on the Richter scale, which is starting to get into sit-up-and-take-notice territory. The epicenter, as with just about all of the earthquakes we've been watching at Hanford this summer, was right under the river. This one was at a depth of 2.5 kilometers -- a mile and a half down. Aftershocks overnight have been as high as 2.3.
Hanford is one of the most contaminated tracts of real estate in the world. It contains waste from decades of nuclear bomb production, much of it poorly contained in leaking underground tanks. Major ground movement on the site is most troublesome.
UPDATE, 10:18 p.m.: A 2.8 an hour and a half ago.
| Posted at 4:33 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (2)
There is some speculation that we are moving through a part of the solar system that is generating more "energy/tension" and that is what is causing the increase in earthquakes in unlikely places.
Posted by Ralph Woods | September 4, 2011 9:29 AM
It is worth noting the sun is moving into a very active phase, last seen in 1859 (check out the "Carrington Event")
This along with the other solar alignments could be increasing activity along all plates, in this case the edge of the North American crayton. Increased volcanic and EQ activity is being seen all over the world. Check out http://quakes.globalincidentmap.com/
under the new quakes map.
Look at the activity along the ring of fire- many more EQ', and larger ones.
It is especially disturbing to note how many nuclear sites are along these fault lines (Japan anyone?)
Posted by Anne | September 4, 2011 10:30 AM