Solar Energy News  
EARTH OBSERVATION
NASA Goddard Was In The Earthquake Zone

This is a USGS created map that shows earthquake intensity from the July 16 earthquake centered near (depicted by the star) Germantown, Md. Light blue areas indicate weak vibrations felt in various areas surrounding the quake. Credit: USGS
by Rob Gutro
Washington DC (SPX) Jul 19, 2010
A small earthquake, centered in Germantown, Md. occurred at 5:04 a.m. EDT, July 16 and its vibrations were felt from West Virginia to Bridgeport, Conn. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center located in Greenbelt, Md., lies about 25 miles east-southeast of the small earthquake and reported no damages. In fact, there were no reports of damage throughout Maryland.

The earthquake registered 3.6 on the Richter scale, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the agency that monitors quakes around the U.S. USGS reported that the quake occurred Friday, July 16, 2010 at 5:04:47 a.m. EDT.

The quake originated 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) deep and it was centered at 39.167 degrees North, 77.252 degrees West, in Germantown, Md. That latitude and longitude positions the quake's epicenter just west of Interstate 270 and south of Maryland state route 119.

The USGS noted that the epicenter was 15 km (10 miles) northwest of Rockville, Md., 30 km (15 miles) east-northeast of Leesburg, Va., 35 km (20 miles) northwest of Washington, D.C., and 70 km (45 miles) west-northwest of Annapolis, Md.

Although earthquakes are monitored by the U.S. Geological Survey, NASA conducts research in various earthquake projects. That research is done in earthquake country, however, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., just outside of Los Angeles. NASA measures, computes, and models crustal deformation using GPS and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) from its airborne unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) SAR platform and international satellites.

"Crustal deformation occurs both as a result of earthquakes and quietly," said Andrea Donnellan, a geophysicist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. and a research professor at the University of Southern California and NASA's Applied Sciences Program Area Co-Lead for Natural Disasters.

"The quiet or aseismic motions provide insight into the processes that produce earthquakes. GPS data provide daily precise positions of points or stations on the ground, which in turn provide a detailed time history of crustal deformation and changes. InSAR provides regional images of crustal deformation."

NASA funds several projects that integrate the GPS and InSAR data into models that provide insight into fault activity and earthquake potential, and Donnellan is the Principal Investigator of NASA's QuakeSim project, as well as supercomputing, earthquake modeling, and UAVSAR projects.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, the quake was too small for NASA to detect. The last earthquake in the region occurred in May of 2008 and was even smaller, registering a magnitude of 2.0 on the Richter Scale.



Share This Article With Planet Earth
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit
YahooMyWebYahooMyWeb GoogleGoogle FacebookFacebook



Related Links
Report what you felt during earthquake events and view a map displaying accumulated data from your report and others
Earth Observation News - Suppiliers, Technology and Application



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


EARTH OBSERVATION
A Puzzling Collapse Of Earth's Upper Atmosphere
Huntsville AL (SPX) Jul 16, 2010
NASA-funded researchers are monitoring a big event in our planet's atmosphere. High above Earth's surface where the atmosphere meets space, a rarefied layer of gas called "the thermosphere" recently collapsed and now is rebounding again. "This is the biggest contraction of the thermosphere in at least 43 years," says John Emmert of the Naval Research Lab, lead author of a paper announcing ... read more







EARTH OBSERVATION
Ukraine Milk Company Powered By 4,000 Cows And GE Biogas Engine

All Systems Go At World's Largest Cellulosic Ethanol Plant

ExxonMobil And Synthetic Genomics Advance Algae Biofuels Program

Breaking Biomass Better

EARTH OBSERVATION
New Zealand inventors produce bionic legs for paraplegics

Turning Robots Into Personal Assistants

Iran unveils human-like robot: report

Thermal-Powered, Insectlike Robot Crawls Into Microrobot Contenders' Ring

EARTH OBSERVATION
Study Shows Stability And Utility Of Floating Wind Turbines

Leading French Wind Farm Developer Says Yes To Triton

Floating ocean wind turbines proposed

China to dominate wind power

EARTH OBSERVATION
Daimler and Foton of China unveil heavy truck partnership

China's Geely chairman to head up Volvo Cars

BMW says sales to roar ahead in 2010

PetroChina says open to closer ties with BP: report

EARTH OBSERVATION
BP mulling break-up after Gulf of Mexico oil spill: report

Hopes rise as BP well to remain sealed

Angolan rebels in oil enclave seek talks

BP stops Gulf oil flow for first time since April

EARTH OBSERVATION
Carbon trading used as money-laundering front: experts

Europe must up CO2 cuts to 30 percent: EU's big three

Australia's Outback an emissions 'bank'

China cuts coal, emissions still growing

EARTH OBSERVATION
Rio Tinto Expand Pilbara Operation

Guests pedal to a cheaper stay at Copenhagen eco-hotel

National Clean Fuels Angling To Be Major Player In G-20 Carbon Market

New System To Reduce Heating Costs In Cold Climates

EARTH OBSERVATION
Illegal logging of tropical forests in decline: study

SLeone lifts ban on timber exports: government

Ferns And Fog On The Forest Floor

Storm may have killed half a billion trees


The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2010 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement