6.5 earthquake hits Hawaii today

[vinolover Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close vinolover]

Hit off the Kona coast on the Big Island but felt on all islands. Honolulu airport closed. A number of aftershocks.

Current news in the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper.

[4ARedOctober Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close 4ARedOctober]

Magnitude 6.3 Earthquake Strikes Hawaii

Yikes.....hotels evacuated....lots of aftershocks.

Magnitude 6.3 Earthquake Strikes Hawaii


Email this Story

Oct 15, 2:14 PM (ET)


HONOLULU (AP) - An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.3 struck Hawaii early Sunday morning, waking up residents and knocking out power.

The U.S. Geological Survey also reported several aftershocks, including one measuring a magnitude of 5.8. No damage reports were immediately available.

The quake occurred at 7:07 a.m. local time, 10 miles north-northwest of Kailua Kona, a town on the west coast of the Big Island, said Don Blakeman, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center, part of the U.S. Geological Survey.

Blakeman said researchers were still trying to ascertain how many aftershocks struck and how large.

Blakeman said there was no risk of a Pacific-wide tsunami, but a possibility of significant wave activity in Hawaii.

The quake occurred about 155 miles to the southeast of Honolulu, the state capital, in Oahu.

Link to story

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

Repaeting a post I made at TUG on this topic:

All of the Hawai`ian Islands are geologically unstable. As the volcanoes build the islands the volcano itself begins fracturing, with rifts that start at the summit and extend down the entire flank of the volcano. The instability that causes these rifts remains even after the volcano dies, and the rifts remain as structural weaknesses. In islands where the volcanoes are extinct, such O`ahu, earthquakes are almost always associated with movement on these rifts.

Every Hawai`ian island has had massive landslides along these rifts. During these landslides as much as one-half of the island suddently slides into the ocean. These landslides create the spectacular cliffs on the Islands, such as the Na Pali on Kaua`i, the palis on O`ahu, and the cliffs on the north shore of Moloka`i.

The tsunamis resulting from these slides can be several thousand feet high. One such landslide (probably the slide the created the sea cliffs on the northeast side of the Big Island) produced a tsunami that totally inundated Koho`olawe and almost totally inundated Lana`i. In areas that were inundated, the tsunami stripped most of the top soil, causing barren conditions below the tsnuami level.

The picture of Lana`i below (taken in the Maui channel from the Moloka`i ferry) shows where the tsunami stripped the soil off of Lana`i.. Note that even though this is the windward side of Lana`i, dense vegetation occurs only at the very top of the island, marking the portion of the island that stood above the tsunmai.



If you were turn around 180 degrees from this view and look at West Maui, you would see the same pattern of barren ground located below a clearly marked treeline. Koho`olawe, being totally inundated, is almost completely barren.

******

Below is a picture of the southwest rift zone on Kilauea. There is a similar fracture on the SE side of Kilauea - that SE fracture is where all of the recent eruptions from Kilauea are occurring. The observation that the rifts also erupt lava shows that the fractures extend all the way into the core of the volcano.

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

And a second TUG post

A quake in the Kona area could be either subsidence related (that is, as I described above) or could be associated with lava movement

Ten miles north of Kona is almost directly on top of the west rift of Hualalai.

[Faust Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Faust]

Is there anyone we know on the Hawaiian Islands right now?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...NG04LQ06O4.DTL

Strong quake rattles Hawaii, no tsunami warning
http://today.reuters.com/news/articl...1_%5BFeed%5D-2

[gophish Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close gophish]

Anyone know of anyone from the group who is in the islands now??
If so hope that we hear from them and that they are alright.

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

Hasn't Boca moved his family there recently?

Hopefully everything is O.K.

Jya-Ning

[Holly Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Holly]

I spoke with Boca Yesterday

He was on Oahu...Haven't been able to reach him today, but I'm sure it's because phones are down. It doesn't sound like massive destruction on Oahu...mostly power outages, so I'm hoping for the best and thinkiing of everyone over there.

Jim, please shout when you are up and running again. Our prayers are with you and your family.

--H

[Glitter Brunello Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Glitter Brunello]

I hope the Boca family is ok.

Here is a quote from a recent update re Big Island. "There were landslides in Hamakua and Kealakekua, and major damage at Kona Hospital, the Honokaa Long-term Care Facility and the Royal Kona Resort on Hawaii."

[Steamboat Bill Banned Find all posts View Profile Close Steamboat Bill]

I have tried to call Bocabum99 on his cell, but just get voice mail.

[funtime2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close funtime2]

My husband's best friend is over there on the Marine Base. We know he is ok from talking with his wife. He has cut off his cell phone to save power because they are not expecting it to be on for a few days.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

Just got power back

Thanks for thinking of me and my family. I was actually on the phone with another timeshare person when the earthquake hit. I grew up in California, so I am used to earthquakes. When it hit, I said, "what?" that felt like an earthquake and then the first aftershock and it rumbled away. I couldn't believe it.

Then, about 10 minutes later, all power went out. I thought it might just be in our local area. We got into our car and found that not only did it hit Oahu, but then entire state was without power. Evidently, the entire power grid has an automatic shutdown breaker for earthquakes to protect the generators. Actually, I think that was just a cover story. That NEVER happened to us in California unless there was damage to the grid. Can you imagine, the whole state was without power.

Our power just came back at about 11:30 pm. It took the whole day for the generators to be restored since the power company wanted to check out everthing before powering up.

Almost ALL of the radio stations were hit. Many hotel back up generators didn't work. The airport had back up power, but was closed all day.

This state was NOT prepared for this natural event. The reports I've heard on the radio have the earthquake between 6.2 and 6.6 on the richter scale. That's sizable. Many reports of huge holes in the highway on the big island.

I left Florida to get away from blackouts from hurricanes. Now, I get one in Hawaii. It must be me. LOL.

Everyone is fine here. Mostly just a nuisance. Since I was without phone or internet, all I could do is read a book. So, I picked up a copy of "The Culture Warrior" by Bill O'Reilly and read it. Actually, I was a bit disappointed in it. Nothing new really. Just a compilation of his fight against the secular-progressive movement in the US. If you watch the O'Reilly factor, you really know about most of the details described in his book.

[Beaglemom3 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Beaglemom3]

Glad that Boca & family are okay.
I called my in-laws last night (they live right near the Ko 'Olina) and they were without power. My MIL & SIL were having breakfast and knew what it was, however, they can't remember any in their lifetimes of living on Oahu (90 and 55 years) of one so strong.
I was in one in 1973 & 1975 on Oahu, however, it was due to Kilauea's eruption.
B

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

Glad that Boca & family are okay.
I called my in-laws last night (they live right near the Ko 'Olina) and they were without power. My MIL & SIL were having breakfast and knew what it was, however, they can't remember any in their lifetimes of living on Oahu (90 and 55 years) of one so strong.
I was in one in 1973 & 1975 on Oahu, however, it was due to Kilauea's eruption.
B

Thanks Beags. Isn't it great that the Yankees are out again?

[hope54 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close hope54]

Paniolo Club Damaged

http://westhawaiitoday.com/articles/...al/local12.txt

Looks like there has been structural damage to this complex.

Hope