Too close for comfort ...

  SAN FRANCISCO - A moderate earthquake struck near the coastal city of Eureka in Northern California on Tuesday but there were no immediate reports of damage.

  The magnitude 5.2 quake occurred at 8:03 p.m. (0303 GMT on Wednesday) 35 miles east of Eureka and was felt across the region from the Pacific Ocean to near the Oregon border, the U.S. Geological Survey reported on its website.

   Nearly an hour later, the dispatch officer for the Eureka Police Department said she had not received any reports of damage.

  The area north of San Francisco is lightly populated, and about 10,000 people were exposed to light or moderate shaking, the USGS said. ack!

  Not too far from here and might be connected. My theory is that the extremely thick magma in the these parts is moving laterally - to someplace where it is finding pressure relief. Mt Shasta is between here and there and an active volcano. Scientists have been predicting a major event there for years. The Juan de Fuca plate offshore from Oregon has also been very active lately, meaning the tectonic subduction is readjusting pressures on the Earth's crust in this locale. That magma is seeking the place of least resistance. Could be Mt. Shasta.

Hope the folks in *Happy Camp are paying attention. Spread the word! 

Comments

[Steel]

This place is turning into 'Earthquake Central'.

Don't worry, it's just that there's a bunch of people in this area who are very concerned and wondering what's going on and they're checking this site.

Might as well tell 'em what I think while I'm pissin' 'em off.

[Oldcatman]

I lived in Eureka for 5 years---don't remember earthquakes--but we then moved to Santa Rosa and had a whopper of an earthquake!

Toooo much of this stuff going on!

[l;kj]

I hope these aren't manmade - some weird experiment at Area 51 or something.

[Steel]

l;kj ...

They moved all the goodies from Area 51 to Utah some time ago.

It's basically empty now.

If we had something that could do that, I think we'd use it somewhere other than in the third most seismically active State in the country.

New Jersey, for instance, nobody would miss New Jersey.

If you're into such things ...

Google HAARP and Tesla's 'Manhattan' incident.

[Bomb-a-rama]

If anything, Lassen will blow its top before Shasta will, as the most recent eruption in CA was at Lassen in 1915, whereas Shasta's last one was said to be in the late 1700s.

[Mouse]

I thought about Lassen too. There are also possibilities that and entirely new volcano will form somewhere in the Great Basin.

I was awakened by a shaker here in Nattyville a couple of weeks ago. At first I thought it was the cat grooming on the bed, until I noticed that the building was creaking. An old familiar sound from days gone by in the Inland Empire. There had been a 5.2 in SE Illinois.

[Bomb-a-rama]

There are also possibilities that and entirely new volcano will form somewhere in the Great Basin.

The Mammoth Lakes area qualifies as a candidate.

[l;kj]

"I thought about Lassen too. There are also possibilities that and entirely new volcano will form somewhere in the Great Basin."

I've wondered about that as well. I believe I read on rgj.com that Mogul, the center of the quakes is no known fault.

[Steel]

Bomb ...

You have it backwards. The l o n g e r between eruptions - the MORE likely.

Mammoth scares the hell out me, but if you factor the Juan de Fuca activity and the NoCal quake - sounds to me like Mt. Shast - that is closet to the epicenter of all that.

l;kj ...

If you look at a map of all the quakes and aftershocks that've occured in the last week - Reno sits dead square in the middle.

Almost a perfect circle around Reno - like a crater rim or a caldera.

But you have to factor in Juan de Fuca and Eureka.

Think of magma coming through the crust like huge branches of inverted tree. We sit on a branch, Eureka sits on a branch and Shasta is the trunk - where all the branches meet. Lava isn't one big mass - it penetrates the crust in pipes. The pipes wend their way through various densities of crustal material - seeking the path of least resistance - trying to find a weak spot to relieve. That is where volcanoes form.

Now, the funny thing is, the geologists say the activity in the Juan de Fuca area is EXACTLY like that found before a volcanic eruption - but there is no volcano there - anywhere close and that has them scratching their heads.

The series of quakes in Reno are also acting thus, hence the cause of the scientist's consternation. They say these quakes are not like regular quakes. That is because they are thinking in terms of 'quakes'.

Think volcanoes.

Now that could be Shasta, Lassen or Mammoth.

Mt. Shasta is closest to all activity - so it is my choice.

In other words, the activity we are experiencing in the entire region is NOT normal 'earthquake' activity - it is volcanic activity.

It's anybody's guess where that volcano will be.

Sorry. I wasn't going to post that, because it has even me concerned.

But if I'm gonna lose sleep - might as well share the nightmare.

[l;kj]

http://www.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080430/NEWS04/804300448&theme=

Seems like volcano to me also. But the local paper says no volcano. Go figure.

Look up Earthquake storms in Wiki. I hope it's simply something like that.

[Steel]

...But the local paper says no volcano...

This surprises you?

Think what would happen if even the hint of such a thing were made public.

What good would it serve to make it public?

The scientists studying the cluster offshore of Oregon said EXACTLY that - that it is the sort of activity they see before a volcano goes off.

That activity is EXACTLY the same as what we've been having here for two months.

Do the math.

It is also the same as the activity that preceded Mt. St. Helens for several months - I know - I lived there when it was happening.

Besides, what could YOU possibly DO with the aforeknowledge?

Move?