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Green Earthquake Alert in United States |
Summary
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On 11/2/2008 1:48:44 PM UTC an earthquake of magnitude 6.1 has struck the unpopulated
region of United States in United States.
| Humanitarian Impact |
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| Population vulnerability |
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| Tsunami probability |
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| Landslide probability |
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| Nuclear radiation probability |
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Whether international humanitarian aid is needed must be decided by an
expert. However, the following automatically calculated elements can help. This
earthquake has potentially a low humanitarian impact
and the affected region has low
vulnerability to natural disasters.
| Event Date Univ. Time: | Sun, 11/2/2008 13:48 UTC |
| European Time of the event: | Sun, 11/2/2008 14:48 CET (Brussels, Paris, Rome) |
| East America Time of the event: | Sun, 11/2/2008 08:48 EST (New York, Washington) |
| West America Time of the event: | Sun, 11/2/2008 05:48 PST (San Francisco, Los Angeles) |
| East Asia Time of the event: | Sun, 11/2/2008 22:48 JTI (Tokyo) |
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| This email report was automatically created or updated by a computer on: 11/2/2008 8:37:44 PM UTC (6 hours 49 minutes after the event) |
| Word/Fax version |
Explanation of alert calculation:
The impact model combines magnitude (M), population within 100km (P) and vulnerability ECHO average score (V) using the formula:
alertscore = max(M-4.5,0) * log10(max(P / 80000,0))^ 0.5 * max(V,0.5) ^ 1.5 / 3
The weighted product of magnitude, population and vulnerability (0.5) results in an alertscore of 0
Then alert is Red if alertscore>2, Orange if alertscore>1 and Green if alertscore<=1.
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 Population
Density near epicenter (people/km2). Image area: 6x4 decimal
degrees (approx. 650x450km2).
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Earthquake Event
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About the data
Source: European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC)
Magnitude:
definition
Depth:
In general, shallow earthquakes are most destructive.
Earthquakes deeper than 300km rarely cause damage and casualties. Default
values of depth (33km) are given if it could not be accurately determined.
Region: as specified by the Source
Tectonic map
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Earthquake Impact Details
Potentially affected People
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Population Data |
| Radius (km) |
Population |
Density (people/kmē) |
| 1 |
0 |
0 |
| 2 |
0 |
0 |
| 5 |
0 |
0 |
| 10 |
0 |
0 |
| 20 |
0 |
0 |
| 50 |
0 |
0 |
| 100 |
24 |
0 |
| 200 |
40 |
0 |
The population in the area of this earthquake if 0
people/kmē.
The earthquake occurred at 2h local time.
At this time a day,
more people are at home and therefore more vulnerable to collapsing residential
buildings.
During traffic hours, people can be affected by collapsing bridges and other
road infrastructure.
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About the data
Population data: derived from the
LandScan 2002 dataset
provided by
Oak Ridge National Laboratory,
which disaggregated census data into pixels of ~1km2 (or 30 arc
seconds).
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Damage
In general, earthquakes of magnitude 6 to 7
can be destructive in areas up to about 100 kilometers across where people live.
For more information on the intensity of the earthquake around the epicentre, please refer to the USGS ShakeMap product (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/shakemap/global/shake/index.html)
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About the data
Land use data from
GLC2000.
This data is specific to this earthquake.
This damage assessment is based on the
average damage of earthquakes over a 100 year period as compiled by USGS. The
information is not specific to this earthquake.
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Resilience and Vulnerability
Resilience is the capacity of the population to cope with a hazard. Since
much of investments in earthquake preparedness and available funds for quick
response is related to household income, the GDP per capita can be used as a
rough indicator of resilience.
United States has a GDP per capita of 30845 PPP$ (Parity
Purchasing Power Dollar, about 1 Euro) and is therefore part of the high
level income countries. Therefore, the earthquake happened in an area of high
resilience.
Based on the combination of 9 indicators, ECHO attributes United States a low
vulnerability.
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About the data
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Exposure
Both conditions for survival and conditions for delivering aid strongly
depend on the current weather and temperature. The following graphs show the
current and forecast weather.
Current weather conditions and forecasts at earthquake location (lat: 51.6
- long: -174.32)
More detailed observations at closest weather station (Atka):
WeatherByWeb -
NOAA
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About the data
Source:
www.calle.com/world.
The data is not very reliable, but it gives an indication for remote regions
where more detailed information is not available. The data is interpolated for
the given latitude and longitude from the closest airport weather stations.
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Secondary
effects
Probability of secondary effects:
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Landslides: The maximum slope in the area of the earthquake is 45.029%
and the maximum altitude is 1430 m. Since this is a medium
slope, the risk of earthquake induced landslides is medium.
Note, however, that the slope data is not reliable on a local scale, while
landslides depend very much on local topography, soil and meteorological
conditions.
- Tsunami:
the JRC tsunami wave propagation models indicated a unknown likelihood for a destructive tsunami.
However, this probability must be confirmed by oceanographic measurements or
observations.
Critical infrastructure
The following critical infrastructure is nearby and could be affected by the earthquake:
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Nuclear power plants:
There are no nuclear facilities nearby the epicenter.
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Hydrodams:
There are no hydrodam facilities nearby the epicenter.
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About the data
Landslides:
slope and altitude are derived from the
gtopo30 dataset provided
by USGS. The thresholds used for landslide related slope classes are: 0-30% -
low risk (green), 30-60% medium risk (orange), 60-100% high risk (red).
Nuclear radiation:
the distance to nuclear installations is evaluated based
on a 1999 UN dataset containing the location of nuclear plants in the world. If
plants are near and the earthquake magnitude is above 6.5, the alert is set to orange. Note that the location of
plants is approximate with errors of up to 100km.
Tsunami: The JRC Tsunami model (http://tsunami.jrc.it/model)
includes a full wave propagation calculation and estimates the wave height in
all major cities affected by a tsunami. |
Location
Description
The earthquake happened in United States. The nearest populated
places are [None].
It is a mountainous
region with a maximum altitude of 1430 m.
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About the data
Maps and description of location are
based on Global Discovery data, provided by
Europa Technology. The dataset is based on
VMAP0 and is at scale 1:1.000.000. |
Getting there and away
The nearest civilian airport (Atka) is at 69km
from the epicenter.
Other airports are: Adak Naf (163km), Atka (69km)
Ports nearby are: Adak (162km), Palisades Point (71km)
The estimated geographical coordinates of the earthquake are: 51.6 North
and 174.32 West.
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Dynamic Maps
Mapping material available on the DMA for United States:
image area: approx. 130x90km2
image area: approx. 65x45km2
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Legend of symbols in this page:
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Accuracy of information (move mouse over symbol to see value) |
Disclaimer
While we try everything to ensure accuracy, this information is purely
indicative and should not be used for any decision making without alternate
sources of information. The JRC is not responsible for any damage or loss
resulting from the use of the information presented on this website.
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Contact us -- Disclaimer
UTC/GMT
(Greenwich time): 11/2/2008 1:48:44 PM
previous estimates: 