January 22, 2013 – BRAZIL – A rather shallow 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck the ocean floor just off the coast of Brazil, south of the popular tourist destination of Natal. The eastern coast of Brazil is relatively free from faults and is not located on the border of any major tectonic plates. So this earthquake is quite unusual. If we look at the seismic hazard map of Brazil (below), it’s clear to see that most of Brazil’s seismic hazards lie in the western part of the country. See local quake map of Brazil.
In 2010, Brazilian seismologist João Carlos Dourado, from Universidade Estadual Paulista, explained in an interview to G1 that Brazil is located at the center of the South American tectonic plate and therefore away from the stresses on the plate edges, which cause earthquakes of the magnitude that plague Chile and countries on the western coast of South America. Today’s earthquake struck at a depth of 15.1 km (9.4 miles) under the Atlantic Ocean floor. The epicenter of the earthquake was 93 km (57 miles) E of Itamaraca, Brazil. 1
Unusual: Is this quake from a previously unknown fault this close to the shoreline or might other factors be at work here…like the area of growing weakness of the planet’s magnetic field in the South Atlantic Anomaly? Natal is virtually near the epicenter of the SAA. The South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) is an area where the Earth’s inner Van Allen radiation belt comes closest to the Earth’s surface dipping down to an altitude of 200km (124mi). This leads to an increased flux of energetic particles in this region and exposes orbiting satellites to higher than usual levels of radiation. The effect is caused by the non-concentricity of the Earth and its magnetic dipole, and the SAA is the near-Earth region where the Earth’s magnetic field is weakest. -The Extinction Protocol
Hi Alvin and all,
I was just looking at a HAARP map purporting to measure extremely high signals for the USA and South America and claiming that earthquakes could happen shortly. Can you say more about the anomaly and the unusual nature of this quake? Thank you Alvin, peace be with everyone
Paula
It’s a very unusual place for an earthquake of this magnitude to happen, considering there is little data supporting the idea of major faults or a trench in close proximity to the shoreline. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is the closest major divergent rift to the epicenter. There is no question, there is a geological cataylst for this event but it is still an oddity. Given we don’t have detailed bathymetry or submarine topography maps of the region, we can only speculate about what’s comprises the ocean terrain. Quakes in divers (different) places is an apt assessment.
Maybe one piece of the puzzle to watch…and monitor
I agree with your assessment, Alvin. It also comes to mind when they mentioned that this area is in the center of the South American plate as the New Madrid zone is in the center of the North American plate with no logical or known reason to be there. It seems that the seismologists have a lot more work to do…
No doubt, David. So true…
Has anyone though that the plate may not be solid through all of the layers and a fault hiding underneath these layers?? Or an underwater volcano pushing up through the plate?? I am feeling really off balance lately so my gut feeling is that the magnetic field is distabalizing quicker than we think??
As far as we can see (from this USGS map), there hasn’t been an earthquake in this region of Brazil (especially of this magnitude) in the last 112 years. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/world/brazil/seismicity.php
I have not seen this EQ in the USGS report. They also tend to reduce the magnitude several minutes later. Que pasa?
Just having a close look at the underwater trenches, ‘join-lines’ (for want of a better word) and ridges (on the satellite images), you can make out a couple of ‘lines’ which ‘meet’ the coast line at the point of the quake.
We just had an undersea quake off Australia yesterday (M3.3), south east of Victoria/east of Tasmania, and these same types of lines are apparent where this quake occurred too.
I feel that these just visible ‘lines’ are slight weak spots in the crust and whatever other forces are occurring deep down or in relation to crustal movement, may be aggravating these ‘points’…just a thought.
I also feel that unseen ‘weak’ spots, in various places, are being aggravated occasionally. There are also faults which have not been detected yet. Mother Nature (is and) has so much more to teach us about her design.
Cheers, Louise
I’m in agreement with you, Louise. There are always “new” faults being found in strange places, and our understanding of the forces working underneath the ground we stand on is quite incomplete at best. It’s just been in the past few months that the seismologists have realized and started talking about the quakes that are generated by the faults that run perpendicular to features such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. So yes, there is definitely a lot more to learn. Cheers to you, too!
Does this create a tsunami threat to Florida?
NO.
What we are currently witnessing in the world is prophecy unfolding. The Father in Heaven is preparing to send His glorious Son back to our realm. It is an amazing time to be alive and I must admit I am excited from my head to my toes to watch all His handiwork in shaking the world to its’ core, as well as all of its inhabitants’ cores! A time like no other indeed and the best is yet to come – which is Jesus. It’s all good and this has all got to come so this world can pass and we can get on to the good stuff!
Alvin, my very blessed brother, thank you again for your diligent watchfulness and the blessing of your spirit. May He bless and strengthen all who come here.
Okay, I’m confused. I found this quake on the emsc-csem site, but it’s not listed on the USGS site, which I usually use because of their map and it hasn’t failed me, especially with large quakes. What gives? Or is it my computer?
Are you checking this USGS site? See 5.8 South Atlantic Ocean. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php
Irene,
You can also keep an eye on the “Global Incidents Map” for info.
http://quakes.globalincidentmap.com/
Cheers, Louise
Thank you Louise for the site. I’ve looked at the Global Incidents Map site before. However, it also does not show this 5.8 quake. I know the governments and scientists can hide many things, but they can’t hide an earthquake. I’m beginning to agree with Helio Lima – that this quake never happened. Why? I have no idea. How does one make an earthquake disappear? Just saying…
I have checked a few different seismic sites as well still not listed twitters eq app didnt get it I didnt get it on shake map on my phone set to >5 so i dunno what the deal is did anyone pick it up on GEE or the other monitoring sites confused to say the least
MOTHER EARTH’S REACTION ON UNBALANCE OF ITS AUREOLE
EARTHQUAKES – VOLCANOES AWAKENING – TSUNAMI CONSEQUENCES
Information & Caution call to be prepared
As a Brazilian I need to alert you all that THIS QUAKE NEVER HAPPENED.
This is a FAKE report of a quake made by USGS.
If an earthquake of 5.8 had REALLY happened just 112 kilometers away from Recife, a big city with over 3 million people in the metropolitan area, many people would have felt it.
But NOBODY IN RECIFE FELT ANYTHING!
I want to make it very clear: there are ZERO reports of people in Recife who felt this earthquake.
Nothing. Zero. Nada.
There is no way a shallow quake (15 km depth) with mag. of 5.8 can happen just 112 kilometers away from a metro of 3 million people, and nobody feels any shaking.
It didn’t happen.
USGS? Lima, then please tell the Brazilian seismology department to pull it down from their website, because they’re saying it did happen: http://www.painelglobal.com.br/terremoto.php?mapa=21%2F0122%3A345.8%3BAtl%E2ntico_Sul%3B7.64S%3B33.97W%3B15%3B2013
I spoke to people in Brasil yesterday, and they forwarded me the link.
Painel Global is a private website, not related to any Brazilian seismology department. They got the data about this quake from the USGS feed.
Brazil currently does not have an official national network of seismographs (due to the lack of quakes in the country)
But, as I said, nobody in Recife felt this quake.
You may check this link from a local newspaper:
http://www.diariodepernambuco.com.br/app/noticia/vida-urbana/2013/01/22/interna_vidaurbana,419105/terremoto-e-registrado-a-93-km-da-costa-pernambucana.shtml
It says that, despite the information from USGS, there were no reports of the quake being perceived anywhere in the state of Pernambuco.
I think it’s highly unlikely that a quake of that magnitude (5.8) could happen just 98 kilometers away from the shoreline, and nobody felt anything.
Also, there are no known tectonic faults in that area…
Something must be wrong with this USGS detection…
I googled it. Yep, the quake took place.
When I lived in Fort St. John B.C. We had quakes there all the time, the largest 4.8, but they were pretty shallow. The weird thing is when I worked at the Tim hortons there, people would come from the A&W across the street from us asking us if we had felt it. They told us that there was an earthquake and everything shook, but at the Tim hortons we didn’t feel a thing. All u had to do is cross the street and depending on what side u are on u will feel it or u won’t feel it. My point is, it’s possible to not feel a quake no matter how big or how close u are to it.
I have a a quake app on my phone…and the 5.8 quake is showing up..so I don’t know what the others r talking about!
Hi Friends,
I am from Brazil, and have been following you for a couple of years, since I found you on the web..
I run a cristian Blog here, focused on observing natural signs that agree with bible profecy, and obviously earthquakes are very importante as signs..
Because I am always connected looking for latest content, when I read here about this earthquake, I posted it with your information, and USGS’s one…
Well, Luis, also brazilian, who wrote about it, earlier is right.
The largest Brazilian TV network even informed at it´s coast to coast News broadcast the information it was a kind of hoax here, and that nothing had happenned.!
But for them to do that, it was obvious that the information that it hapenned was huge…
Well, I do not care about what people say, if was an earthquake or not…
What I want to know is what USGS’ equipments observed there.
Obviously something happenned…
But it was not an earthqyake!
If it was, nobody felt it… what kind of quake?
Too closehuge from cities for nobody to feel anything
About 7 years ago, there was one similar, close too me, at São Paulo’s coast. It was about 5.6 .. and it was felt in many places eve very far from here, like Curitiba and others.
Well, my point here is… Don’t you have any clue about what did happen?
Well, you are doing here a fantastic work…
I realy like it.
Congratulations…
Regards,
Haroldo Maranhao
São Paulo – Brazil