Arizona record of Baja quake

Our closest broadband seismic monitoring station in Arizona to today's Baja quake is #113A in Mohawk Valley.    The arriving waves are shown on the chart at right at 22:40 UTC.

Quake knocks out power to 4,900 in Yuma

The Yuma Sun says that Arizona Public Service reported two power outages in the Yuma area following this afternoon's Baja California quake, but says power was restored about 35 minutes later.   [right, intensity map of today's magnitude 7.2 quake (star).  Credit, USGS]

Quakes across southernmost California

While the aftershocks continue on this afternoon's magnitude 7.2 quake in northern Baja, there have been a lot of quakes in the magnitude 3 range across the wider Imperial Valley region and adjacent faults.

Baja M7.2 quake followed by California event

A magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit northern Baja California this afternoon at 3:40 pm local time, knocking goods off shelves in stores in Yuma and caused weak to light to moderate shaking across large areas of western Arizona.  The epicenter is about 40 miles south of the border.

There's been at least one significant aftershock of magnitude but surprising to me is the magnitude 5.1 quake that hit Imperial, California about 35 minutes after the Baja event, on what appears to be a different fault.

This has to raise the question of whether the Baja quake triggered the Imperial quake.

Legislation would put Mining and Mineral Museum in Centennial Museum

The Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum will be moved into the proposed Centennial Museum and transferred to the Arizona Historical Society under a strike-everything bill amended in the Arizona Legislature today.  HB2251 moves the museum and building from the Arizona Dept. of Mines and Mineral Resources to become the Centennial Museum in AHS.  

The bill will have a hearing in the Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Infrastructure and Public Debt, at 1:30 pm, Monday, April 5 in Phoenix.

Supporters of the AMMM have been lobbying hard to preserve the role of the mining and mineral exhibits and education programs so they won't get diminished or lost among the other four "C"s (besides Copper) to be showcased in the new museum.

The bill creates a "Centennial and Mining and Mineral Museum Advisory Council" that allocates 2 seats for each of the five "C"s but adds the Executive Director and Board Chair of ADMMR along with others in natural resource education.

The bill also reiterates that ADMMR will maintain a repository of mining and mineral related documents.

Minor quake southwest of Colorado City

A magnitude 2.6 quake was recorded this morning about 5 miles southwest of Colorado City, Arizona near the Utah border.  The location is part of a historically active trend extending into southern Utah.

Massive deposit of unobtainium found in Arizona

Flangium Corp. today announced discovery of the largest reserves of unobtainium ever reported, at an undisclosed location in Arizona.    The company also reported that significant amounts of handwavium are present in the deposit.  The location is being kept secret until land ownership issues are resolved.

Unobtainium is the critical and extremely rare component of wishalloy, which is needed to complete the shell around the Large Hadron Collider before it can be fired up to full power in the next three years. The wishalloy shell is intended to protect the world from being sucked into a black hole generated by the force field in Cern.

The Center for Biological Aversity issued a statement later in the day, noting that where ever the deposit is, it is in a critical and fragile ecosystem and one of the most scenic areas on the planet that will be destroyed forever if mining were to take place.   Plus, they threatened to shoot a puppy if permits were issued.

The CEO of Flangium, in response to our inquiry, said, "This stuff is worth $20 million a kilo.  We can buy and sell the whole state of Arizona.  We already own the State Capitol, both figuratively and literally."

The State Legislature is hearing an emergency bill to provide Flangium Corp. a tax break equal to 200% of all revenues and to legalize dogs to carry concealed weapons for defensive purposes.

Happy April 1st