The Rainy Season

We got more rain in this past week than for the whole summer!  Our drought is officially over, but the plants sucked it all up, and not a speck went into the swamps.  This is more like the weather of my youth, with dry hot summers, and the rain coming in September, from all the hurricanes.  We did lots of burning at the cottage, all the leftovers from tree thinning.  Couldn't really burn all summer.

Middle son just won a BBQ from some Italian TV cooking show.

China Earthquake

A very tiny earthquake M5.6, but shallow, in a mountainous area.  This was most likely a thrust fault, resulting in a high PGV.  This is a very active area, and there are landslides all the time.  Combine this with a high population density, and you get a mess.

With boulders falling, and unstable ground, I doubt you could even build a resistant house, but probably most housing is poorly made.

Costa Rica Subduction Earthquake M7.6

This is a classic dipping slab earthquake, depth at 40 km.

You can see the strong subduction zone.  That dips under Costa Rica, and makes for nice volcanoes.

This is a solution for fault motion.  The earthquake rupture zone is quite small for this type of earthquake, and is in a good location to be a foreshock of an M8 or 9.  10% chance in the next 2 days.  The earthquake is reporting some damage zones of Intensity 8 (VIII), so there are certainly some deaths and injuries.

Update:  Looks like a very low PGV, not much damage.