Recent Earthquakes

Abstract

DURING the third quarter of 1942, the epicentres of ten strong earthquakes have been found chiefly from instrumental data from American observatories. The first four epicentres in July and August were determined at St. Louis by the Jesuit Seismological Association, and the others in August and September by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, in co-operation with the Jesuit Seismological Association and Science Service. On July 8 the epicentre was in Chile (24-5° S., 69-5° W.) with a depth of focus near 175 km. A later earthquake on July 8 and one on July 12 had their epicentres near the coast of Ecuador (0-3° S., 80-2° W.) and a depth of focus near 500 km. The latter was reported felt at Guayaquil. On August 6 the earthquake had its epicentre in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Central America (12-9° N., 92-1° W.). On August 23 a shock had its epicentre in the Pacific Ocean between the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands (51 -5° N., 163° E.). Further shocks in the same region were on September 2 (62-6° N., - 170° W.), September 4 (52-8° N,, 169-2° W.), and September 9 (53-1° N., 165° W. Sequences of shocks in this manner are not uncommon and the present group is somewhat to the west of a similar group some months ago. The shock of August 24 had its epicentre near the coast of Peru (14-5° S., 75-5° W.) with a depth of focus between 50 km. and 100 km. A further earthquake with its epicentre in the Pacific Ocean off Central America (12'5° N., 91° W.) occurred on September 4. On Thursday, October 29, an earthquake was felt in Western Turkey, including Istanbul and Smyrna. No damage has been reported.