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The quake struck at 5:16 pm local time. emsc-csem.or

Magnitude 5.4 earthquake rocks central Spain

There are no reports of any injuries.

A 5.4-MAGNITUDE earthquake jolted Madrid and central Spain today.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The quake struck at 5:16 pm (16.16pm GMT) with its epicentre at Ossa de Montiel near Albacete, about 135 miles southeast of Madrid, Spain’s National Geographic Institute said.

Its depth was given as 8 miles.

Fire fighters in Albacete received several calls for information but not to intervene, a local fire fighter service spokesman said.

The last deadly earthquake in Spain occurred on May 11, 2011 when a 5.1-magnitude quake killed nine people and wounded at least 100 in the southeastern city of Lorca.

That quake, which struck at a depth of 10 kilometres, damaged some 20,000 buildings including many from the 16th and 17th centuries.

It was the deadliest earthquake in Spain since 19 April, 1956, when a tremor wrecked buildings and left 11 people dead in Albolote, a town in the southern Spanish province of Granada.

© – AFP 2015

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    Mute Kian David Griffin
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 7:38 PM

    This was actually the work of a secret government experiment underground. There are 8 letter in bulls**te, minus 1 is 7. 6 letters in “Madrid” plus 1 is 7, 7+7 is 14, same number alonso used to wear at Liverpool. Therefore the UK is the next target for fart bombs…

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    Glen
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    Mute Glen
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 8:14 PM

    The cult of Frank!!

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    Mute Charles Rex
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 8:14 PM

    Went to the alhambra in granada years ago. The architects hundreds of years ago factored these quakes into their building designs and placed lead inside the stone columns. This enabled them to sway slightly. Clever lads in fairness. Well worth a visit.

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    Mute David Jordan
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 7:57 PM

    The earthquake that struck Lorca was not 10km deep, it was only 1 km deep. This was extremely unusual. It explains why this modest earthquake caused so much damage. Today’s earthquake is more typical, at a depth of 8 miles. It should not be as bad.

    Some scientists claimed the Lorca earthquake was provoked by water wells that removed ground water, that the removal of water reduced pressure that otherwise clamped the fault shut, allowing it to move.

    http://www.independent.ie/breaking-news/world-news/spanish-quake-was-manmade-study-3266682.html

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    Mute Genius
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 7:30 PM

    We had a large 7.1 quake in the Northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge Off the west coast Of Ireland on 13th

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    Mute David Jordan
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 8:07 PM

    That’s big for the Northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge, very interesting. It was on Charlie-Gibbs fracture zone. Here’s a nice article about the earthquake.

    http://www.iris.edu/hq/files/programs/education_and_outreach/retm/tm_150213_nmidatlantic/150213_nmidatlantic.pdf

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    Mute twonky kong
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 6:51 PM

    Ay caramba!

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    Mute Protect Democracy!
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 7:23 PM

    Paul Murphy is on his way, he blamed the quake on the local police!

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    Mute Sean J. Troy
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 6:59 PM

    I knew it wasn’t the journal reporting this when I spotted they didn’t mix moment magnitude and the Richter scale.

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    Mute Gerard Casserly
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 7:17 PM

    And the mixture of metric and imperial.

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    Mute Sean J. Troy
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 8:13 PM

    It’s maddening. Nobody has used the Richter scale in decades.

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    Mute Guy Flaneur
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    Feb 24th 2015, 8:22 AM

    The moment magnitude scale (abbreviated as MMS; denoted as MW or M) is used by seismologists to measure the size of earthquakes in terms of the energy released. The magnitude is based on the seismic moment of the earthquake, which is equal to the rigidity of the Earth multiplied by the average amount of slip on the fault and the size of the area that slipped.The scale was developed in the 1970s to succeed the 1930s-era Richter magnitude scale (ML). Even though the formulae are different, the new scale retains the familiar continuum of magnitude values defined by the older one. The MMS is now the scale used to estimate magnitudes for all modern large earthquakes by the United States Geological Survey.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moment_magnitude_scale

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    Mute John J Rambo
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 7:25 PM

    There’s absolutely no threat from Fionna Foil so long as Mehole is in charge

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    Mute Feri Ximax
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    Feb 24th 2015, 2:48 AM

    Do you know any kind of earthquake early warning app? I found one here http://remotegun.com/earthquake-early-warning-system but it is under development right now. do you know another one?

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    Mute Kian David Griffin
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 10:33 PM

    All hail the glorious frank…

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