Euro-Mediteranean earthquakes activity

[traveler]

Take a look this map:

http://www.emsc-csem.org/index.php?page=home

There is a lot activity below the ground these days.

 

[Laura]

Interesting. There was a report in our local paper the other day about a "freak wave" that hit the shore around Cannes causing a LOT of destruction. Funny that I have been unable to find it at all in the English language news. I'll see what I can find in French and get it translated.

 

[GRiM]

Earthquake shakes southern Sweden

* 'We woke up screaming in our sleep' (16 Dec 08)

"The bed shook for about 20 seconds," Helsingborg resident John O'Leary told The Local.

O'Leary said the quake woke him at about 6:20am and that the shaking knocked over several items in his apartment.

Uppsala University seismologist Reynir Bödvarsson estimated the quake measured between 4.5 and 5.0 on the Richter scale.

(...)

According to the US Geological Survey, the earthquake had a magnitude of 4.7, which would make it the strongest earthquake to hit Sweden in more than 100 years.

http://www.thelocal.se/16374/20081216/

 

[spyraal]

Take a look this map:

http://www.emsc-csem.org/index.php?page=home

There is a lot activity below the ground these days.

Indeed! Watching the seismic map on your link made me realise how often i had the feeling of some minor earthquake happening these past days. It is "funny" in a way that the turmoil that happens inside Earth on this part of the planet, somehow fits and reflects the turmoil on the "outside"... Thank you Traveler for the interesting link.

:)

 

[Z...]

Actually a week or so ago a freak tidal wave hit Croatian coast leaving many cities flooded to significant degree. It was reported only in Croatian media and the only explanation I could find on the net was that this is normal and usual occurrence due to the Southern Wind (Sirocco) and the sudden drop in air pressure. I grew up on Croatian coast and spent almost 20 years there, and I don't remember this "usual occurrence" ever happening before.
pictures can be found here _http://dnevnik.hr/vijesti/hrvatska/plimni-val-ribarski-brod-izbacio-na-kopno.html

 

[Pierre]

Interesting. There was a report in our local paper the other day about a "freak wave" that hit the shore around Cannes causing a LOT of destruction. Funny that I have been unable to find it at all in the English language news. I'll see what I can find in French and get it translated.

Actually there were two similar events that affected Cannes theme park over the last weeks :

* On December 15, during a well documented bad weather episode that hit the whole French riviera coast, waves grew up until reaching 5 to 6 meters, breaking above the Cannes dam and sweeping away the Lunapark.

Here is a discussion forum displaying pictures and comments about this events.

And a translation of the Nouvel Observateur article about this event :

On Monday 15th we learnt that waves several meters high had damaged rides and shops of Cannes Luna Park on Sunday night however this event didn't cause any casualties.
"It's as if there had been war here. The trucks got knocked over, the rides are blown away. Everything is destroyed. The rides are not even broken, they just exploded. It's as if it got bombed" said stallholder Jean-Philippe Boubier to AFP.
Cannes city communication department confirmed the extend of the damages : "it's a catastrophe, it's the first time we see that" claimed Iris Perben, mayor's spokesperson.

At the beginning of the storm, stallholders evacuated all the participants. The waves started going behind the dam in the middle of the afternoon, their size and power progressively increased.
At 4.30 p.m. we got the first small waves. "The Apple" (an eight shaped ride) started to sway. Then the sea grew up. The biggest waves reached the coast at 9.30 p.m. Gigantic waves, reaching 5 to 6 meters, started to break above the dam", said Jean-Philippe Boubier.

Stallholders should meet Bernard Brochand, the mayor chief of cabinet

* 16 days earlier, on November 30th, another unusual event occurred. This time not progressive build up of waves' size is reported (as it usually happens when waves are triggered by winds). Here is a translation of the LCI article :

A wall of water falls on Cannes.

"Fortunately nobody got injured because it happened while the fun fair was being set up [16 days later the fair was open, see pictures in the link above]. But some fun fair rides got destroyed, some equipments got knocked over, some stallholders lost everything." Sunday morning, where the Lunapark funfair sets every year, on the seaside, West of La Croisette, a gigantic water wall caused huge damages amongst stallholders, while they were installing their rides and shops.

Anthony, the nephew of one of the stallholders, says : "in the night, around 2 a.m., a storm started. Then, around 5 a.m., a ground swell, a real stonewall fell upon our equipments. In the morning, a couple other groundswells occurred. The first one blew everything away. The whole electricity system of a new ride - the laugh box - exploded, and a car carried by the wave got stuck into it. All the games in the gamestall got flushed, the stuffed toy crane is destroyed..." The city police department was contacted by LCI and confirmed the occurrence of "a ground swell phenomenon on Sunday in Cannes" but refused to give extra details.

"It had already happened 17 years ago. The city had asked to move the funfair 20 meters away. But, years after years, the rides and shops were moving back and getting closer to the sea..." Because of the magnitude of the damages, Anthony doubts that the funfair will open next week as planned.

Asa sidenote, it's funny to see how the mayor spokeperson claims that the December 15th event was the first one though 16 days earlier a very similar event happened at the same place.

Would the city try to escape some legal liabilities ? Are there some occult transactions between funfair organizers and cities that prevent cities to ban those events even if they locate on in dangerous/illegal spots ?

That's totally impossible, MOB activities like the Tchernobyl cloud stopped right at the French border. ;)

 

[aurora]

No way out..

Where I live Istanbul, Turkiye is waiting for an eartquake, at least 6.5 on the Richter scale. And Foça, on the Aegean seaside, where I go in the summer is also waiting for an earthquake that is past due time. This one will be around 7 say geologists. Wherever I go I cannot escape it. Lat summer there were some small quakes and my room on the third floor shook the most. In 1999 I was in Istanbul when a quake of 7.4 hit 250 km. to the east but we in Istanbul felt something like 6 and it lasted for 45 seconds. Some buildings collapsed. In Turkiye the buildings kill because mostly they are not built according to standards.