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Earthquakes in Google Earth

A few days ago I was talking about tectonic plates that USGS has arranged to visualize in a simple kml of 107 k, and in this it is necessary to recognize that Google Earth has changed our life for what it is possible to see with the simple intuition of those who are not experts in the matter.

This layer of earthquakes allows you to view information about earthquakes now used by the media to give less confusing information.

This is the case of the earthquake that occurred in Honduras on May 28, 2009, north of the island of Roatán; the circle marked in white indicates the 100 kilometers around where an earthquake with less than 7 degrees on the Richter scale is expected to cause serious damage.

Earthquake in honduras

Although all that fault known as the Motagua fault, which crosses Guatemala and separates the Caribbean and North American plates, is a tear, on the map this entire section is divided into small segments where the effect of the shock is different. For example, the line marked in yellow is the continental shelf, followed by a section marked in red and then the line in green that corresponds to the oceanic shelf. These tear faults are caused by the expansion of the seabed and their result in millions of years are the submarine mountain ranges of volcanic origin; observe how the islands in the bay are a consequence of this phenomenon and are seen parallel to the fault.

Although Honduras suffered a 7.4 earthquake (according to USGS), 10 deaths are still not quantified after two days, because the epicenter was on the oceanic platform (10 kilometers deep), if it had been on the continental platform, it would have been serious because the damage of tear faults is that their epicenter is usually close to the surface. Earthquakes of a similar magnitude have left fatal results, as is the case in Nicaragua (6.2 degrees, 5 kilometers deep, 10,000 deaths) or El Salvador (7.7 degrees, 39 kilometers deep, 1,259 deaths); since they have been in a subduction zone and closer to large urban centers.

See that you can also see the replicas that happened yesterday:

  • In the same fault, 4.8 same day
  • Closer to the coast of 4.5
  • Near Olanchito, 4.6, this is on mainland.

When selecting the point of the epicenter, other characteristics can be seen, such as the intensity map, which shows in colors the places where there was greater movement on land. Too bad that in this, the USGS maintains a map with a lag, of about 7,000 meters, but if it were to hunt exactly, it would see the areas marked in orange that fall on the border of the departments of Yoro and Cortés, which by the way are separated by the Ulúa river. where the El Progreso bridge collapsed.

Earthquake in honduras

Definitely, Internet and Google Earth has changed the way of seeing the world, for that matter, you can already see in the Wikipedia section dedicated to 2009 earthquakes, Although for other purposes We crucified to both.

Golgi Alvarez

Writer, researcher, specialist in Land Management Models. He has participated in the conceptualization and implementation of models such as: National Property Administration System SINAP in Honduras, Management Model of Joint Municipalities in Honduras, Integrated Cadastre-Registry Management Model in Nicaragua, Territory Administration System SAT in Colombia . Editor of the Geofumadas knowledge blog since 2007 and creator of the AulaGEO Academy that includes more than 100 courses on GIS - CAD - BIM - Digital Twins topics.

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9 Comments

  1. I would like to know specifically about the fault of the motagua, if you. They have some record on this fault, apart from the earthquake of 76, I would like to know ...

  2. I have been looking for some earthquake seismological information in Chile, especially seismograms comparing to other recent earthquakes in the world and I have not yet been able to achieve the purpose. Everything is very outdated unfortunately, especially in this time when we are getting used to very fast results. I will continue searching on the Web.-

  3. I give panic the earthquakes, kisiera know if there is at hand something that can predict the earthquakes and q there is to do is case d one.

  4. Replicas will continue but not with the same intensity. There are those who say that there may be a stronger earthquake but that theory does not seem to be based.

  5. I would like to know if these telluric movements will continue ... and with respect to fabric, what could be your situation

  6. The idea is good, the girls teaching… I don't see any point in it if you want to do something long-term. Sooner or later you will want to use Google as a sustainability tool and they will ban you in 5 minutes.

  7. It's amazing how one gets used to these “automatic things” that show us data almost in real time.
    Actually, the USGS worldwide network of seismographs is incredible ... Not only the seismograph network, but the system that collects the data, analyzes the information, generates maps, distributes the new data over the network, stores and archives that data, etc, etc ... and everything available to anyone with internet availability ... well ... wonderful ... and we hardly even realize it.
    Regards….

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