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Green Earthquake Alert in Guam

Summary

On 2/24/2009 5:58:03 AM UTC an earthquake of magnitude 6.1 and depth 35km has struck an unpopulated area in the Guam Province (population: 0.1 million) in Guam. GDACS estimates the likelihood for need of international humanitarian intervention to be low (Green alert). This earthquake can have a low humanitarian impact since the affected region is unpopulated and has low vulnerability to natural disasters. The earthquake 173km from the city of Saipan. The nearest populated places are [None]. It is a flat region with a maximum altitude of -2246 m. Humanitarian Impact   Population vulnerability   Tsunami probability   Landslide probability   Nuclear radiation probability   Caution: this information is based on risk models. Whether international humanitarian aid is needed must be decided by an expert. This email report was automatically created or updated by a computer on: 2/24/2009 6:15:32 AM UTC (17 minutes after the event) Explanation of alert calculation: Show 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.

Google map   Population map Population Density near epicenter (people/km2). Image area: 6x4 decimal degrees (approx. 650x450km2). Earthquake epicentre: best estimate    previous estimates:

Earthquake Event

Geological map Characteristics for this report Information source Alaska Tsunami Warning Center, US (ATWC) Link to source event report (at00545508) Magnitude 6.1 M Depth 35 km Location Geographic coordinates (latitude/longitude): 13.819, 146.534 Guam , Guam Province (population: 143173). Seismic region: Guam. The earthquake happened in Guam , Guam Province (population: 143173). , 173km from the city of Saipan. The nearest populated places are [None]. It is a flat region with a maximum altitude of -2246 m. Time 2/24/2009 5:58:03 AM (UTC, Universal Standard Time) 2/24/2009 3:44:11 PM (Estimated local solar time) Tue, 2/24/2009 06:58 CET (Brussels, Paris, Rome) Tue, 2/24/2009 00:58 EST (New York, Washington) Mon, 2/23/2009 21:58 PST (San Francisco, Los Angeles) Tue, 2/24/2009 13:58 AWST (Australian Western Standard Time)

Previous reports for this earthquake. Earthquake report Tsunami report Event Date/Time Lat/Lon Magnitude Depth (km) Source Publication Date/Time Delay 53385 2/24/2009 5:58:08 AM UTC 13.89, 146.14 5.8 56 GEOFON 2/24/2009 6:11:00 AM UTC 12min 53386 2/24/2009 5:58:03 AM UTC 13.819, 146.534 6.1 35 NOAA (at00545508) 2/24/2009 6:15:32 AM UTC 17min

Earthquake Impact Details

Potentially affected People

The population in the area of this earthquake if 0 people/km². (Data source).

The earthquake occurred at 15h local time. At this time a day, more people are at work and therefore more vulnerable to collapsing office buildings. During traffic hours, people can be affected by collapsing bridges and other road infrastructure.

Damage

The affected region has low level of urban area (0%) and a low level of cultivated area (0%). In urban areas more damage can be expected than in cultivated or natural areas. (Data source)

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.

Guam has a GDP per capita of 0 PPP$ (Parity Purchasing Power Dollar, about 1 Euro) and is therefore part of the unknown level income countries. Therefore, the earthquake happened in an area of unknown resilience.

Based on the combination of 9 indicators, ECHO attributes Guam a low vulnerability.

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: 13.819 - long: 146.534) (Data source).

More detailed observations at closest weather station (West Tinian): WeatherByWeb - NOAA

Probability of Secondary effects

Landslides: The maximum slope in the area of the earthquake is 0% and the maximum altitude is -2246 m. Since this is a low slope, the risk of earthquake induced landslides is low. 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. More...

Critical infrastructure

The following critical infrastructure is nearby and could be affected by the earthquake:

• Nuclear power plants: There are no nuclear facilities nearby the epicenter.
• Hydrodams: There are no hydrodam facilities nearby the epicenter.

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.

Getting there and away

The nearest civilian airport (West Tinian) is at 164km from the epicenter. The Civil/Military airfield of Rota I International is located at 145km from the epicenter. Other airports are: A.b. Won Pat International (191km), Andersen Afb (176km), Rota I International (145km), Dynasty (159km), West Tinian (164km), Saipan International (169km), Commonwealth Health Center (178km), Nikko (178km)

Ports nearby are: Rota (154km), Tinian (162km), Saipan (178km)

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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