Quake rattles Salt Lake City, damages Mormon temple

A 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck near Salt Lake City in the US state of Utah on Wednesday, damaging an iconic Mormon temple and disrupting efforts to battle the coronavirus pandemic.

The shallow quake -- Utah's strongest since 1992 -- also closed Salt Lake City airport, damaged buildings downtown and left tens of thousands without power.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or deaths.

The Salt Lake Temple, one of the Mormon Church's largest and most famous buildings, sustained damage.

A 12.5-foot (3.81-meter), three-ton copper statue depicting an ancient American prophet from the Book of Mormon sitting atop the building was damaged.

"The trumpet on the Angel Moroni statue fell off, and there is minor displacement of some of the temple's smaller spire stones," said spokesman Daniel Woodruff.

The 16 million-strong Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as it is formally known, is based in Salt Lake City.

It had already suspended all public ceremonies and gatherings over the coronavirus pandemic.

The quake also brought down Utah's coronavirus hotline due to evacuations at the call center, as well as the state's public health lab.

The state's daily coronavirus news conference was canceled.

"Please stay away from the downtown area while crews assess damage," tweeted Governor Gary Herbert

Salt Lake City International Airport tweeted that it "is not currently operational," with the air control tower, terminals and concourses all evacuated.

Rocky Mountain Power said electricity to some 55,000 customers had been knocked out by the quake, which hit at a depth of six miles (10 kilometers), said the US Geological Survey.

The Salt Lake Tribune said there were reports of damage to homes and businesses.

"This is one of the scariest things I've ever gotten through in my entire life," Griffin Bonacci, who lives in Magna near the epicenter, told the newspaper.

"It kept ramping up and ramping up and ramping up. It was like a bomb went off. And then, all of a sudden, stuff all around my house was just falling everywhere."

The quake was followed by more than 25 aftershocks, the strongest registering magnitude 4.4, the USGS said.

6.3-magnitude quake strikes south of Indonesia's Bali
Bali, Indonesia (AFP) March 18, 2020 - A strong earthquake jolted Indonesia's holiday island of Bali early on Thursday, but no tsunami warning was issued.

The quake struck at 1:45 am (1745 GMT) with an epicenter 255 kilometeres south of the town of Nusa Dua, the US Geological Service reported. The epicentre was a relatively shallow 10 kilometres deep.

Indonesia's weather and geophysics bureau said there was no tsunami threat.

No casualties or infrastructure damage have been reported so far, but the quake was strongly felt across the holiday island.

A hotel staffer Indra Kurniawan just got home from work when the jolt shook his boarding house in Canggu, Bali.

"The shaking was not that powerful but ones could feel it. It lasted not more than a minute," he told AFP.

The Southeast Asian archipelago is one of the most disaster-prone nations on Earth.

In 2018, a 7.5-magnitude quake and a subsequent tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi island left more than 4,300 people dead or missing.

Indonesia suffers frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where tectonic plates collide.

More than 2,200 people died and another 1,000 were declared missing in 2018 after a 7.5 magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami on Sulawesi island.

A 9.1 magnitude earthquake on December 26 in 2004 struck Aceh province, causing a tsunami that claimed the lives of more than 170,000 people in Indonesia alone.

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Study of shear zones yields data on earthquakes deep below surface
Washington DC (UPI) Mar 13, 2020
A new study led by Britain's University of Plymouth offers insight on the mechanisms behind earthquakes 25 or more miles below the surface. Little is known about deep earthquakes, largely because their effects are generally hidden underground, but the study suggests that ruptures may be encouraged by the interaction of different shear zones moving slowly and aseismically, indicating movement without accompanying seismic shock. The interaction loads the adjacent blocks of stiff rocks in the deep ... read more