TIMELINE: Earthquakes worldwide in recent years

[FaithWalker]

LINK>>>Earthquake Timeline<<<LINK

Mathew 24:4-8 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

(Reuters) - A powerful quake measuring 7.9 struck near Indonesia's Sumatra island on Wednesday triggering tsunami warnings in Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Sri Lanka, officials said.

Here is a chronology of some earthquakes in recent years:

Dec 12, 1992 - INDONESIA - A magnitude 6.8 quake killed at least 2,200 people on a string of islands in the province of East Nusa Tenggara.

Sept 30, 1993 - INDIA - A series of quakes killed almost 10,000 people in western and southern India. The first tremor was of magnitude 6.4.

June 6, 1994 - COLOMBIA - A quake brought down buildings and triggered mudslides, killing about 1,000 people in the Paez River valley in southwestern Colombia.

Jan 17, 1995 - JAPAN - A magnitude 7.2 quake, the country's worst in half a century, rocks Kobe, killing 6,430 people.

May 28, 1995 - RUSSIA - Russia's worst earthquake, magnitude 7.5, kills 1,989 people in the oil-producing Far East.

Feb 28, 1997 - IRAN - A magnitude 5.5 quake kills about 1,000 people in northwestern Iran.

May 10, 1997 - IRAN - A magnitude 7.1 quake kills 1,560 people in rural areas of eastern Iran near the Afghan border.

Feb 4, 1998 - AFGHANISTAN - At least 4,500 people are killed in Takhar province in a quake of magnitude 6.1.

May 30, 1998 - AFGHANISTAN - A magnitude 6.9 quake kills up to 4,000 people in northern Takhar province.

July 17, 1998 - PAPUA NEW GUINEA - An undersea quake of magnitude 7.1 creates three tsunami waves, killing at least 2,100 people.

Aug 17, 1999 - TURKEY - More than 17,800 people are killed by a magnitude 7.4 quake.

Sept 21, 1999 - TAIWAN - At least 2,000 people are killed and hundreds of thousands made homeless by a magnitude 7.6 quake in central Taiwan.

Jan 26, 2001 - INDIA - An earthquake of magnitude 7.7 strikes the western state of Gujarat killing at least 19,700 people and causing damage in neighboring Pakistan. The quake affected 15.9 million people in 7,904 villages.

March 26, 2002 - AFGHANISTAN - At least 1,500 people are killed when a series of quakes of between magnitude five and six strike northern Afghanistan

May 21, 2003 - ALGERIA - A magnitude 6.7 earthquake strikes Algiers and nearby towns to the east, killing 2,251 and injuring 10,243.

Dec 26, 2003 - IRAN - A magnitude 6.8 earthquake strikes the historic city of Bam, 1,000 km (600 miles) southeast of Tehran. 30,948 were killed in the quake.

Dec 26, 2004 - ASIA - The number of dead and missing in an Asian earthquake and tsunami is almost 230,000. The wave crashed into Sri Lanka and India, drowning thousands and swamping tourist isles in Thailand and the Maldives. The quake measured 9.15 in magnitude.

March 28, 2005 - INDONESIA - Nearly 1,000 people are killed after a quake of magnitude 8.7 struck the coast of Sumatra.

Oct 8, 2005 - PAKISTAN - At least 73,000 people are killed by a 7.6 magnitude quake that struck about 95 km (60 miles) northeast of Islamabad. The quake also rocked Indian Kashmir, killing 1,244 there.

March 31, 2006 - IRAN - An earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale hits the area of Doroud and Boroujerd in the western Lorestan province, killing at least 70 people.

March 6, 2007 - INDONESIA - A 6.4 magnitude quake and another measuring 6.3 in Sumatra kill more than 70 people.

July 16, 2007 - JAPAN - A 6.8 magnitude quake killed 10 people in northwestern Japan and shut the world's largest nuclear power plant.

Aug 15, 2007 - PERU - An 8.0 magnitude quake killed more than 500 people and destroyed about 34,000 homes on central coast.

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[FaithWalker]

Two More Tropical Warning Signs From God

Last Tuesday, Hurricane Felix roared into eastern Nicaragua as a fearsome Category 5 storm. It had top sustained winds of 160 mph. Felix marked the first time in recorded history that two top-scale storms made landfall in the same season. It was just a couple of weeks ago that we saw Dean slam into the Yucatan Peninsula.

Another record set by Felix was for twin Atlantic and Pacific hurricanes making landfall on the same day. A few hours after Felix came ashore, Hurricane Henrietta hit the Baja of Mexico. The closest comparison happened at 5 a.m. on August 24, 1992, when Hurricane Andrew devastated southern Florida 23 hours after Hurricane Lester hit Baja California, Mexico.

For the past couple of years, I have been keeping track of an amazing number of records set by tropical systems. These aren't just regional or decade-spanning landmarks. Most of the them are ones with "first time" or "strongest ever" attached to their name.

The year when everything changed seems to be 2004. Before that year, climatologists only noticed a sharp increase in tropical activity. But the past three seasons and the one we are in now have simply been off the scale.

I've gone through several of my previous Nearing Midnight Updates and compiled the following list of storm-related headlines. I just look at the data and ask myself, "Where is this trend taking us?"

2004 - Japan was hit by a record number of typhoons.
2004 - Florida was hit by a record number of hurricanes.
2004 - Cyclone Catarina is the only South Atlantic cyclone to ever reach hurricane strength.


2005 - Katrina was the most costly hurricane in history.
2005 - Rita was the most powerful Atlantic storm as measured by barometric pressure.
2005 - Atlantic hurricane watchers recorded 27 storms, the most ever in one season.


2006 - In March, Larry was the most powerful tropical system to hit Australia in 31 years.
2006 - In April, Monica became the most intense cyclone ever to impact Australia.
2006 - Typhoon Saomai was the most powerful storm to hit Communist China.
2006 - Ioke was the first recorded Category 5 hurricane to develop in the central Pacific.


2007 - Cyclone Gonu was the strongest tropical cyclone on record in the Arabian Sea.
2007 - The first time two Category 5 Atlantic storms made landfall in one season.
2007 - The first time an Atlantic and Pacific hurricane hit on the same day.


I believe we have moved past the point at which nature cycles or global warming can account for the massive surge in destructive storms. Meteorologists who argue for nature cycles point to the high levels of activity in the 1930s and 1940s and the slow period in the 1970s and 1980s. The increased frequency we are seeing, they claim, is the completion of the cycle. The cycle theory can't explain why we are seeing deadly storms all over the world.

Global warming has been more widely blamed for creating storms like Katrina. At most, the average sea temperature has risen by half of a degree Fahrenheit. If this small change is the cause, then we are all in big trouble. The two-degree rise that global warming alarmists envision occurring in our lifetime would create a monstrous storm wiping out everything in its path.

I think Bible prophecy is the only way to account for the dramatic increase in hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons all over the world. The Lord Jesus said there would be calamitous warning signs of the end times, and His predictions are now ringing true.

The pattern of birth pangs is not just found in weather. Earthquakes have also been very active. In December of 2004, a huge quake in the Indian Ocean triggered the most deadly tsunami in recorded history. The following year, a 7.7 tremor in Kashmir, Pakistan killed 55,000 people. Just a few weeks ago, a large quake rocked Peru.

There are plenty of moral indicators of the last days, but society seems to have lost sight of them. A few years ago, gay marriage was a hot-button issue. Today, the issue struggles to make it into the news. The recent lack of attention given to an Iowa judge's favorable ruling on gay marriage shows how callous people have become.

Tropical storms are a good warning because it's hard to become desensitized to the results they produce. Anyone still living in a trailer in New Orleans or Mississippi can testify to that fact. Until the end finally comes, I expect God to continue visiting mankind with these reminders.

"And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth" (Lk. 21:25-26).

-- Todd

Nearing Midnight

[FaithWalker]

A powerful 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck early Monday an area in the Sea of Okhotsk in Russia's far east, according to the US Geological Survey.
The USGS said the epicenter of the temblor -- which occurred at 8:02 pm (0902 GMT) -- was located 314 kilometers (195 miles) west of the Russian city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy.


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[FaithWalker]

A powerful earthquake has struck off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, reports say.

Indonesia's meteorology agency said the quake had a magnitude of 6.7, while the US Geological Survey put its strength at 6.8.

The undersea quake was at a depth of 23km (14.3 miles) and the epicentre was 142km south-west of the city of Bengkulu, the agency said.

There have been no reports of any damage or casualties.

The earthquake struck at 2101 local time (1601 GMT) and was followed 10 minutes later by an aftershock with a magnitude of 5.7.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said there was no threat of a widespread tsunami. However, it said there was a "very small possibility of a local tsunami."

No panic

Haris Said Hakim, a geological agency official based in Bengkulu, said there was no sense of panic in the city.

Last week Indonesia launched a tsunami warning system, although experts say it will not be fully operational until 2010.

Indonesia is prone to seismic activity due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines that encircle the Pacific Basin.

A massive earthquake off Sumatra in December 2004 triggered a tsunami which swept across the Indian Ocean, killing more than 230,000 people.

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[FaithWalker]

TOKYO — A 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of northern Japan on Thursday, the Meteorological Agency said. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The quake hit Thursday morning off the coast of Miyagi, about 180 miles north of Tokyo, the agency said. It struck at a depth of about six miles.

The agency said there was no danger of a tsunami from the earthquake.

Masakazu Murakami, an official in charge of disaster management in Miyagi, said the quake caused no damage to utilities such as water, electricity, gas and telephone lines.

"I was in the office when the quake hit this morning. But I did not feel any tremors," Murakami said.

A police official in Miyagi said authorities there had not received any reports of damage or casualties. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries.

The most recent major quake in Japan killed more than 6,400 people in the western port city of Kobe in January 1995.

Experts believe Tokyo has a 90 percent chance of being hit by a major quake over the next 50 years.

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[FaithWalker]

DILI, East Timor — The U.S. geological agency says a powerful earthquake has struck off East Timor's coast, but there have been no reports of injuries or damage.

The U.S. Geological Survey says Saturday's quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 and struck 100 miles northwest of the capital, Dili. It was centered 250 miles beneath the Banda Sea.

The power of the quake sent residents fleeing from their homes, some carrying crying children.

East Timor is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

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[FaithWalker]

A moderate earthquake struck a sparsely populated area of California's Mojave Desert on Friday night. The shaking was felt from Southern California to the fringes of Nevada and Arizona, but there were no immediate reports of damage.

The 5.1-magnitude temblor struck just outside Ludlow on Interstate 40 in San Bernardino County, about 120 miles east of Los Angeles, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The initial reports measured the quake at 5.5 magnitude.

"The ground was rolling underneath but it was very light. Nothing," said Jeremy Chestnut, 20, who works at a Dairy Queen in Ludlow. "I was standing in front of an ice cream machine and it makes the ground shake, too."

The quake is the second one above a magnitude-5.0 to hit Southern California this year. In July, a magnitude-5.4 quake centered in the hills east of Los Angeles was the strongest to rattle a populated area of Southern California since the 1994 Northridge disaster.

In the town of Yermo, about 20 miles from Ludlow, a dozen people in Lee's Tavern didn't seem too concerned when the bottles began to rattle.

"Everyone said, 'Oh, it's an earthquake."' said Leon Lee, the bar's owner. "We didn't hardly feel anything, just some kind of vibration."

The quake struck 16 miles northwest of Ludlow, which has a population of 10, according to the 2000 U.S. Census.

The quake "is relatively shallow and if it were located in a more populated area it could be very damaging," USGS seismologist Richard Buckmaster said. "But it's out in the middle of the desert, in the middle of nowhere."

Across the Colorado River at the western Arizona border, Fort Mojave Tribal police dispatcher Jessica Hopkins said she felt a gentle rumbling.

Shaking was also felt in Las Vegas, said Scott Allison, a spokesman for the Clark County Fire Department in Nevada. He said there were no reports of injuries or damage.

"People were just calling 911 saying, 'Did I feel the earth move?"' Allison said.

The quake was just a few miles from where a 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit in 1999. USGS seismologist Lucy Jones said it was probably an aftershock of that shake. She said it's not uncommon for big earthquakes to spawn aftershocks years later.

Southern California on average feels about three moderate earthquakes a year, but the region has been unusually quiet since the Northridge quake, Jones said.

Kelly Ghiloni, a spokeswoman with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department, said she felt shaking for about 15 seconds but saw no major damage.

"There was some shaking, a little bit of rattling," Ghiloni said. "It was enough to wake you up and know there was an earthquake."

USGS geophysicist Rafael Abreu said the closest fault is the Lavic Lake Fault.

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[FaithWalker]

HONG KONG, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- A strong earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale jolted the areas near Kermadec Islands in the Pacific Ocean at 0637 GMT Tuesday, the Hong Kong Observatory said in a news bulletin here Tuesday afternoon.

The epicenter was immediately determined by the Hong Kong Observatory to be at 31.1 degrees south latitude and 177 degrees west longitude, or 1,000 kilometers northeast of Auckland, New Zealand.

The depth of the earthquake was 35 km, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

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[FaithWalker]

KUNMING, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- Nineteen people were injured and thousands were affected in two earthquakes measuring 4.3 and 4.9 on the Richter scale in China's southwestern province of Yunnan early Friday, local authorities said.

A 4.9-magnitude earthquake hit Ruili, a city of 100,000 people on China-Myanmar border in Dai-Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture of Dehong at 4:20 a.m., the provincial seismic network reported.

Three people, including the parents of a child called Ai Han in Shunha Village, were seriously wounded. Another 16 suffered slight injuries, according to the quake-relief headquarter of Ruili City.

"It's still unclear who these people are and how they were injured," said Yang Yueguo, the city's Communist Party chief. "Nearly 50,000 people in the city were affected, about 10,000 of whom have been evacuated to safer places."

The quake destroyed the city government's old office building and damaged 32 schools. Ninety-nine houses collapsed and another 35,000 suffered different damages, he said.

Local officials had allocated 300,000 yuan (44,000 U.S. dollars) of quake-relief funds and were distributing supplies to the residents.

Another earthquake measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale jolted Yiliang County in Kunming City, the provincial capital, at 2:19 a.m. No casualties have been reported. More than 1,200 people in eight villages were affected and more than 100 houses suffered damage, local officials said.

Residents in Kunming City felt the tremble. A citizen surnamed Yang said she was awakened by the shock early in the morning.

From Aug. 20 to 21, three moderate earthquakes in Yingjiang County neighboring Ruili City killed five people and injured more than 100.

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[FaithWalker]

A powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake has hit east of the Kuril Islands in the Pacific Ocean, which are disputed between Russia and Japan, the United States Geological Survey said Thursday.
The quake hit at 3:49 a.m. Friday (1749 GMT Thursday) at a location 428 kilometres (266 miles) east of the Russian town of Severokurilsk and 1,787 kilometres (1,111 miles) northeast of Tokyo, the USGS said on its website.

Officials issued a tsunami warning for the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on Russia's far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, RIA Novosti news agency reported.

"The tsunami station... has issued a warning in connection with the earthquake felt in Petropavlovsk," the regional office of Russia's emergency situations ministry was quoted as saying.

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, with a population of around 200,000 people, is located 725 kilometres (451 miles) from the epicentre, according to USGS.

However the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a bulletin that there was "no destructive widespread tsunami threat."

No casualties were reported in the Kuril Islands town of Yuzhnokurilsk, where the quake was only "weakly felt," an emergency official on Russia's Sakhalin Island was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.

"I called Yuzhnokurilsk and got in touch with rescue services.... According to what they said, few people in the city felt the underground tremor. In their building, the quake was weakly felt," the official said.

The sparsely populated Kuril Islands are the subject of a long-running territorial dispute between Russia and Japan.

Tokyo claims four of the islands off Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, which were seized by Soviet troops in 1945 and have been held by Moscow ever since.

The dispute has kept Russia and Japan from signing a peace treaty to formally end World War II.

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[FaithWalker]

JAKARTA: A major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 struck off the northeast tip of Indonesia's Sulawesi island early on Thursday, geologists said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

Indonesia's meteorology and geophysics agency issued a tsunami warning immediately after the quake struck at 1:34 am (1734 GMT Wednesday), but cancelled it about one hour later.

The epicentre of the quake was located about 320 kilometres north-northeast of the town of Manado, the US Geological Survey said. It struck at a depth of 33 kilometres.

The USGS initially put the magnitude at 7.5, but later revised it down to 7.0. Indonesia said the quake had measured 7.4 on the Richter scale.

Two aftershocks with magnitudes of 5.6 and 5.9 struck within an hour of the original quake, the USGS reported.

The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre sent a bulletin saying there was "no destructive widespread tsunami threat" based on available data.

The Indonesian archipelago straddles several continental plates in an area known as the Pacific Ring of Fire where seismic and volcanic activity is recorded on an almost daily basis.

Indonesia was the nation worst hit by the earthquake-triggered tsunami in December 2004 that killed more than 200,000 people in 11 countries across Asia, including over 168,000 people in Indonesia's Aceh province and Nias island. - AFP/de

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[FaithWalker]

NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga — A strong 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck Friday near Tonga, generating a tsunami with the potential of striking coastlines in the South Pacific, officials said. There were no immediate reports of damage.

The quake struck about 130 miles south-southeast of the Tongan capital of Nuku'Alofa at a depth of 6.2 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Police in the Tongan capital, Nuku'alofa, said there were no immediate reports of injury or damage.

Local resident Pesi Fonua said the quake "lasted for something like 20 seconds," but "I haven't seen any damage from it."

The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning for Tonga and neighboring islands, and reported that sea level readings have confirmed that a potentially destructive tsunami wave was generated by the quake.

Local radio stations in Tonga broadcast warnings that a tsunami was possible and that people should move away from coastal villages, but police and locals said no big wave had been reported.

Police spokesman Niua Kama said residents did not appear to take the warning seriously.

"People are out on the roads, laughing at the warning," he told The Associated Press. "They are not moving from the coast" even though there had been "a strong warning of a tsunami. Police have not taken any action at this stage."

The tsunami center also advised that some coastal areas of Hawaii could see a rise in sea level and strong currents lasting up to several hours.

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[FaithWalker]

A powerful earthquake in mountainous central Italy knocked down whole blocks of buildings early Monday as residents slept, killing at least 50 people and trapping many more, officials said.

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, arriving in L'Aquila hours after the quake, said the death toll was likely to rise as rescue crews clawed through the debris of fallen homes.

About 100,000 people were homeless, L'Aquila Mayor Massimo Cialente said. It was not clear if that estimate included surrounding towns. Some 10,000 to 15,000 buildings were either damaged or destroyed, officials said.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi declared a state of emergency, freeing up federal funds to deal with the disaster, and canceled a visit to Russia so he could deal with the quake crisis.

The U.S. Geological Survey said Monday's quake was magnitude 6.3, but Italy's National Institute of Geophysics put it at 5.8.

In L'Aquila, slabs of walls, twisted steel supports, furniture and wire fences were strewn about the streets and gray dust carpeted sidewalks, cars and residents.

As ambulances screamed through the city, firefighters aided by dogs worked feverishly to reach people trapped in fallen buildings, including a student dormitory where half a dozen university students were believed still inside.

Outside the half-collapsed building, tearful young people huddled together, wrapped in blankets, some still in their slippers after being roused from sleep by the quake.

"We managed to come down with other students but we had to sneak through a hole in the stairs as the whole floor came down," said student Luigi Alfonsi, 22. "I was in bed — it was like it would never end as I heard pieces of the building collapse around me."

Residents and rescue workers hauled away debris from collapsed buildings by hand. Firefighters pulled a woman covered in dust from the debris of her four-story home. Rescue crews demanded quiet as they listened for signs of life from other people believed still trapped inside.

A body lay on the sidewalk, covered by a white sheet.

Parts of L'Aquila's main hospital were evacuated because they were at risk of collapse, and only two operating rooms were in use. Bloodied victims waited in hospital hallways or in the courtyard and many were being treated in the open. A field hospital was being set up. Health Minister Maurizio Sacconi urged Italians to donate blood.

Many of L'Aquila's modern buildings were damaged and the mayor said the historic center also suffered damage; access to the historic center was blocked. The Italian news agency ANSA said L'Aquila's cathedral was damaged and the dome of a church had collapsed.

The earthquake's epicenter was about 70 miles northeast of Rome near the medieval city of L'Aquila. It struck at 3:32 a.m. local time in a quake-prone region that has had at least nine smaller jolts since the beginning of April.

L'Aquila is the capital of the Abruzzo region and lies in a valley surrounded by the Apennine mountains. The 15 miles southeast of L'Aquila, appeared hard hit, and five were confirmed dead there.

In the dusty streets, as aftershocks rumbled through, residents hugged one another, prayed quietly or frantically tried to call relatives. Residents covered in dust pushed carts full of clothes and blankets that they had thrown together before fleeing their homes.

"We left as soon as we felt the first tremors," said Antonio D'Ostilio, 22, as he stood on a street in L'Aquila with a huge suitcase piled with clothes. "We woke up all of a sudden and we immediately ran downstairs in our pajamas."

Stadiums and sporting fields were being readied to house the homeless, Civil Protection official Agostino Miozzo said.

"This means that the we'll have several thousand people to assist over the next few weeks and months," Miozzo told Sky Italia. "Our goal is to give shelter to all by tonight."

At least one student from Greece was trapped in the debris and another was injured, the Greek Foreign Ministry said. Greece offered to send a rescue team to help, the ministry said.

The Israeli Embassy in Rome said officials were trying to make contact with a few Israeli citizens believed to be in the region who had not been in touch with their families. Embassy spokeswoman Rachel Feinmesser did not give an exact number.

The last major quake to hit central Italy was a 5.4-magnitude temblor that struck the south-central Molise region on Oct. 31, 2002, killing 28 people, including 27 children who died when their school collapsed.

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[FaithWalker]

A magnitude 6.9 earthquake has hit at sea near the Kuril island chain between northern Japan and Russia, but there have been no reports of damage or casualties.

Japan's Meteorological Agency says the quake struck at 1:24 p.m. (0424 GMT) Tuesday in the waters near the Kurils, about 500 miles off the northeastern coast of Hokkaido. The earthquake occurred about 6 miles below the sea surface. It posed no danger of a tsunami.

Russia seized the island chain in the closing days of World War II. The disagreement over the four islands, called the Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan, have kept the two countries from signing a formal peace treaty.

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[FaithWalker]

Jakarta - An undersea earthquake registering 6.4 on the Richter scale struck the western coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra early Thursday, but there were no immediate reports of injury or damage, the Indonesian seismologist agency said.

The quake struck at 3:01 am (2001 GMT Wednesday) and was centred in the Indian Ocean, 32 kilometres south-west of Mentawai Islands, off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia's National Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said in a statement.

It occurred 50 kilometres beneath the seabed, but the statement did not say if the quake caused a tsunami threat.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago nation, sits along the Pacific Ocean's Ring of Fire, where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity.

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[FaithWalker]

BHEZAD KHEIL, Afghanistan – Two earthquakes shook eastern Afghanistan early Friday, collapsing mud-brick homes on top of villagers while they slept and killing at least 21 people.

The quakes hit four villages in the high mountains of the eastern province of Nangarhar, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the Pakistan border.

Afghanistan's Hindu Kush mountain range is hit by dozens of minor earthquakes each year. Many Afghan homes are made of dried mud, so even moderate earthquakes can cause many deaths and major damage. The poverty-stricken nation is also battling a strengthened Taliban insurgency, and four people were killed in attacks Friday.

Shafiqullah, from the village of Bhezad Kheil, said 21 people were buried in a cemetery following the quake, including two of his young neighbors. Nijad, 10, and Sima, 7, both died after the roof above their second-story bedroom collapsed, raining down wood beams and chunks of mud, he said.

"There were two shakes," said Shafiqullah, 30. "The first shake was very strong, when everyone was asleep. The first shake destroyed everything. Then the crying and the shouting started."

The quakes destroyed or damaged an estimated 100 houses in the four villages in Sherzad district, about 50 miles (90 kilometers) east of Kabul, said governor's spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai.

The U.S. Geological Survey said Nangarhar province was hit by two earthquakes — a 5.5 magnitude quake at about 2 a.m., and a 5.1 magnitude aftershock two hours later.

A villager in Sherzad, Shah Mohammad Khan, told The Associated Press that 40 people were killed and 60 wounded, but government officials have not confirmed those figures.

Ambulances from the Afghan Red Crescent Society helped ferry the wounded from the remote earthquake site, reachable only after hours of travel on bumpy dirt roads.

U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood said a U.S. convoy of humanitarian supplies and medical responders was headed to the quake zone. He extended condolences to the victims.

U.S. forces stationed in the region also were standing by to assist if the Afghan government requested help, said spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias.

In the latest violence, two suicide bombers on foot tried to attack the office of the minister of refugees in southern Nimroz province on Friday. Guards shot and killed one bomber at the scene of the attempted attack, while the second bomber fled. While running away, the second bomber detonated his explosives, killing three civilians, said Nimroz Gov. Ghulam Dastagir Azad.

In the north, a Norwegian intelligence officer serving with the nation's peacekeeping force was killed Friday by a roadside bomb near the city of Maymana, said Kjetil Eide, the Norwegian Joint Headquarters spokesman.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, said it released 14 detainees held at the military prison at Bagram. The 14 were transferred to the Afghan government under a reconciliation program. The 14 — detained for alleged attacks on Afghan and allied forces — had to renounce violence and swear allegiance to the Afghan government, the military said.

The military said 529 detainees have been released from Bagram since 2005, and only two have been detained again for subsequent insurgent activities.

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[FaithWalker]

A powerful earthquake rocked tall buildings in Mexico's capital, sending office workers down stairways into the streets.

The 6.0-magnitude quake was centered near Chilpancingo, about 130 miles southwest of Mexico City or 50 miles from the resort of Acapulco, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Sources in Mexico City told FOX News the ground shook for just a few seconds and then stopped.

There were no signs of immediate damage.

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[FaithWalker]

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — A strong earthquake struck early Thursday off the coast of Honduras, collapsing shacks in Honduras and Belize and sending people running into the streets in their pajamas as far away as Guatemala City. No injuries or deaths were immediately reported.

The magnitude-7.1 quake struck at 3:24 a.m. (0824 GMT) at the relatively shallow depth of 6 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado. The epicenter was 80 miles northeast of La Ceiba, Honduras, and 200 miles from the capital, Tegucigalpa.

Ana Maria Rivera, spokeswoman for Honduras' Permanent Emergency Commission, said it was felt strongly across Honduras' Caribbean coast.

"People ran from their homes in alarm," she said. "The quake was felt in almost the entire country."

Juan Sevilla, a spokesman for Honduras' firefighters, said wooden homes collapsed in Puerto Cortes, 120 miles north of Tegucigalpa, as did a stadium wall in Comayagua, 60 miles north of the capital.

Osman Hernandez, a spokesman for the mayor of El Progreso, told Radio Satelite that a major bridge across the Ulua River suffered major damage.

In Belize, people rushed from their homes as glasses and framed pictures crashed off of shelves. At least five wooden houses on stilts collapsed in three towns and a water tower toppled in the town of Independence, local officials said. Electricity was out all the way to the Mexican border.

"I urge you not to panic, but to remain calm," National Emergency Minister Melvin Hulse said on the radio. "Your government is monitoring the situation and will be keeping you informed."

A tsunami watch was discontinued for Honduras, Belize and Guatemala.

Raul Gonzalez, a receptionist at the Gran Hotel Sula in the northern Honduran city of San Pedro Sula, said guests ran into the streets in their pajamas.

"I ran out of the building and kept going for about a block before I looked back and everything had calmed," he said. "It was really strong. I have never felt anything like that."

He said the hotel did not suffer damage.

People ran into the streets as far away as Guatemala City, but firefighter Byron Juarez said a survey of firefighting offices throughout Guatemala revealed no reports of major damage.

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[FaithWalker]

BREAKING NEWS — Australia's weather bureau issued a tsunami warning on Wednesday for the country's southeast coast as a small tsunami traveled from a large 7.8-magnitude earthquake off New Zealand toward Australia.

"We have issued a tsunami warning," Chris Ryan from Australia's Tsunami Warning Center told Reuters after it measured the earthquake as a magnitude 6.6.

The U.S.-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, meanwhile, said a tsunami generated after a the earthquake is small and poses no threat.

The warning center said no destructive waves are headed for New Zealand's western coastline after a tsunami warning was issued earlier.

It said the waves generated are less than 8 inches in height and the warning was canceled after about an hour.

The quake's epicenter was 100 miles west of Invercargill, off the west coast of New Zealand's South Island at a depth of 21 mile. It hit at 0922 GMT on Wednesday, the USGS said.

"An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines in the region near the epicenter within minutes to hours," the warning center said.

Police in the town of Tuatapere on South Island, where the earthquake was centered, say they have reports of minor cracks in buildings and stock falling from supermarket shelves. But they have received no reports of serious damage or injuries so far.

The quake was felt widely across the South Island.

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[FaithWalker]

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Southern New Zealand has moved slightly closer to the east coast of neighboring Australia as a result of a massive earthquake last week off the country's South Island, a scientist said Wednesday.

The magnitude 7.8 quake, centered in the ocean near Resolution Island in the country's Fiordland region, twisted South Island out of shape and moved its southern tip 12 inches (30 centimeters) closer to Australia, seismologist Ken Gledhill said.

Gledhill, director of government-owned GNS Science's "GeoNet" national earthquake monitoring project, said the island's geographic shift showed the immensity of the forces involved.

"Basically, it's taken us closer to Australia," he told National Radio. "The country is deforming all the time because of being on the plate boundary, but this has done it in a few seconds, rather than waiting hundreds of years."

Last Wednesday's quake was the largest in the world this year and New Zealand's biggest in 80 years. No major damage has been found in the sparsely populated Fiordland region of South Island's west coast.

"New Zealand has been very fortunate. This earthquake anywhere else would have caused huge damage," Gledhill said. He said the quake's impact will provide "invaluable information" on the underlying structure of the country.

Martin Reyners, principal scientist for GNS Science, said earlier that a shallow temblor of such magnitude would typically cause widespread damage and loss of life. Last week's quake, however, occurred in "soft rocks" between two tectonic plates, muffling its power, he said.

Reyners said the rocks had lurched rather than snapped, causing a low-frequency rolling rather than the high-frequency waves that are known to damage buildings.

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