12 March 2010

How the Chile Earthquake Went Nuclear

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How the Chile Earthquake Went Nuclear

By Michael Reilly | Thu Mar 11, 2010 03:47 AM ET
If you want to grow a truly massive earthquake, you've got to give it space.
Scientists have known this basic fact for years -- more powerful earthquakes ramp up the shaking by breaking along huge stretches of faults. The magnitude 7.0 earthquake just outside Port-Au-Prince in January unzipped a 65-kilometer (40.4-mile) long section of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault. Despite the unfathomable devastation it caused, it was a second-tier quake at best.
As has been widely reported, the Chile quake was a megathrust earthquake, the largest class of tremor we know of. At magnitude 8.8, it was over 500 times more powerful than the Haiti quake.
In a preliminary analysis of data from the quake, researchers from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences are starting to unravel how it got to be such a monster. Turns out, it was a chain reaction of sorts. In the first minute, activity was confined to the area around the epicenter of the quake, about 200 miles south of Santiago. In the second minute, it tore north toward Santiago and stopped, before rearing its ugly head again south of the epicenter and racing toward the city of Concepcion.
Chile-Februar2010-animation

As the animation shows, the quake was a string of different activity all popping off at roughly the same time. How this happens is a mystery of science. Stress builds ever so slowly, gradually for centuries and then -- Blam! -- a tear in the crust forms and propagates as fast as a bullet shot from a gun. In the latest Chile quake, a ribbon of Earth 700 kilometers (435 miles) long was shredded in a matter of about two minutes.
It's like nuclear fission: if just one atom goes, no big deal. But string enough together and suddenly...mushroom cloud.
Studying huge, sprawling forces operating at such high speeds tens of miles underground is tough work, which is what makes a study like this so useful. If scientists can figure out how ruptures propagate through faults to form giant quakes, they may be able to predict the impending final chapter in this round of Chilean megathrust quakes, as well as others around the world.

11 March 2010

Unemployment: State by State

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Unemployment: State by State

Jobless Rate Rose in 30 States inJanuary, Five Hit Records

Unemployment rose in most states in January--even breaking records in several states, according to government data released Wednesday.Joblessness in five states--California (12.5 percent), South Carolina (12.6 percent), Florida (11.9 percent), Georgia (10.4 percent), and North Carolina (11.1 percent)--hit a record high. The District of Columbia, at 12.0 percent, also reached a record high.
In all, 30 states and the District of Columbia saw their rates increase in January over the previous month. Nine states reported a decrease and 11 states had no change in their unemployment, according to the Labor Department.
Fewer states showed an increase in their unemployment rate in January compared with December, when 43 states showed an increase in jobless rates.
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"It shows that the labor market is virtually frozen," said Nick Colas, chief market strategist at the ConvergEx Group. Although the data is from January, he said that "there has not been any dramatic change in these past six weeks."
The national unemployment rate was at 9.7 percent in January, down from 10 percent in December 2009. The unemployment rate remained at 9.7 percent in February.
Michigan, again, had the highest jobless rate in the nation, though it eased to 14.3 percent from 14.5 percent in December. Michigan's unemployment rate has hovered over 14 percent since July 2009.
"Michigan's unemployment rate fell slightly, as typical January auto industry job cuts did not occur in January 2010," said Rick Waclawek, director of Michigan's Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives in a statement. "Also, jobs in a number of Michigan industry sectors, including manufacturing, have stabilized since the summer of 2009."
Behind Michigan, Nevada had the second highest jobless rate in the country with 13 percent, followed by Rhode Island (12.7 percent), South Carolina (12.6 percent), and California (12.5 percent).
North Dakota again had the lowest jobless rate in country at 4.2 percent in January, followed by Nebraska (4.6 percent) and South Dakota (4.8 percent).
Separately on Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a sharp increase in job openings in January. There were 2.7 million job openings in that month, up 7.6 percent from December. That was the highest number of openings since February 2009.

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