THE DAY THE EARTH SHOOK

MARCH 5, 2021 CAP ALLON

https://electroverse.net/the-day-the-earth-shook/

Three major earthquakes have struck just north of New Zealand, including one of the strongest ever to hit the region, triggering tsunami warnings.

As visualized on the USGS map below,

a 7.3M hit at 13:27 UTC,;

a 7.4M struck at 17:41 UTC,

and then a 8.1M concluded the onslaught at 19:28 UTC —

many aftershocks of the 3M to 5M+ range have continued ringing.

The first two quakes were rare enough, to have a pair of 7+M separated by only 500km and just 4 hours is quite remarkable, and then for those to be chased by an 8+M barely two hours later lifts this event into almost uncharted territory.

Thousands of kiwis were evacuated from coastal areas of the North Island after that third quake–a monster 8.1M which hit at 19:28 UTC, March 4 (08:30 local time, March 5) near the uninhabited Kermadec Islands, 1,000 km (621 miles) north-east of New Zealand.

That shaking was the biggest to strike planet Earth in a number of years, and it arrived almost exactly 10 years after Japan’s 9.1M from March 11, 2011. Worth noting is the solar connection here: the year 2011 was at the start of the ramp-up into solar cycle 24 after the long and deep solar minimum of cycle 23–an incredibly similar setup to where we’re at today. Furthermore, just last week New Zealand marked the 10th anniversary of the 6.3M that destroyed parts of Christchurch in the south Island, killing 185 people.

There were reports of traffic gridlock across NZ’s North Island as people tried to reach higher ground. But, thankfully, the national tsunami warning was lifted –finally– some 13 hours after the first quake. Wave surges had hit parts of the coast by Friday afternoon, but 3.3ft (1m) were as high as they climbed.

To the west, the South Pacific archipelagos of New Caledonia and Vanuatu have been warned to prepare for dangerous waves — their coasts could see surges as high as 10ft (3m) in the coming hours, while parts of South America –including Peru, Ecuador and Chile– could see 3.3ft (1m) waves.

The Day the Earth Shook:

The past 24-hours have been an incredibly active period.

Greece was another country to experience unusually strong activity, with a 6+M hitting central parts, causing substantial damage. Rescue teams rushed to extract people from the rubble of buildings that had collapsed in and around Elassona–a town in central Greece close to the epicenter. Strong aftershocks are still shaking the region.

And finally, concerning earthquake-swarms are continuing to intensify under many of the world’s volcanoes, including those of Iceland as well as some of the 18 that run along the Cascade Volcanic Arc in western North America; here, Mount Rainier and Mount Hood are among the ones to watch.

The Cascade Arc has history of “lighting up” during the onset of Grand Solar Minimums, and this time isn’t expected to be any different…Eruptions in the Cascade Range During the Past 4,000 Years

(the dotted-red line denotes the Dalton Minimum).

…history repeats.

I’m off to build a pallet-shed for my Nigerian Dwarf goats–how are you preparing…?

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