Chris Angel Murphy

There have been earthquakes today in Hawaii, Alaska and Papua New Guinea.  The earthquake in Hawaii was the weakest of them all, coming in at 3.5 on the Richter scale.  This quake was really more of a tremor and basically made people nervous that there was more to come.

A 6.7 quake was felt today in the Fox Islands.  The earthquake did not pose a tsunami threat to the United States West Coast.  This is something that is of a concern from time to time when earthquakes strike in coastal regions.

The 7.3 earthquake in Papua New Guinea took place within what is dubbed “The Ring of Fire.”  This area of the world experiences high magnitude earthquakes quite regularly.

The Papua New Guinea earthquake initially sparked tsunami fears in Indonesia, but warnings were subsequently lifted when it was realized that a threat was not posed.

There has been a lot of seismic activity this year.  The reason you hear about it more and more is because people are sensitive after the megaquakes experienced in both Haiti and Chile.  So far, we’ve averted any other major earthquake related disaster.

References: Xinhua.net; CBS News; USGS.gov