Earthquake Report Magnitude 7.6 - PAKISTAN

A major earthquake occurred at 03:50:38 (UTC) on Saturday, October 8, 2005. The magnitude 7.6 event has been located in PAKISTAN. (This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.) Magnitude 7.6 Date-Time Saturday, October 8, 2005 at 03:50:38 (UTC)= Coordinated Universal Time Saturday, October 8, 2005 at 8:50:38 AM = local time at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones , Location 34.402°N, 73.560°E, Depth 10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program, Region PAKISTAN, Distances 90 km (55 miles) NNE of ISLAMABAD, Pakistan115 km (75 miles) ESE of Mingaora, Pakistan120 km (75 miles) WNW of Srinagar, Kashmir165 km (100 miles) N of Jhelum, Pakistan, Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 5.9 km (3.7 miles); depth fixed by location program, Parameters Nst=199, Nph=199, Dmin=918 km, Rmss=0.98 sec, Gp= 22°,M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=Q, Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D), Event ID usdyae

Earthquakes and active faults in northern Pakistan and adjacent parts of India and Afghanistan are the direct result of the Indian subcontinent moving northward at a rate of about 40 mm/yr (1.6 inches/yr) and colliding with the Eurasian continent.

This collision is causing uplift that produces the highest mountain peaks in the world including the Himalayan, the Karakoram, the Pamir and the Hindu Kush ranges. As the Indian plate moves northward, it is being subducted or pushed beneath the Eurasian plate. Much of the compressional motion between these two colliding plates has been and continues to be accommodated by slip on a suite of major thrust faults that are at the Earth’s surface in the foothills of the mountains and dip northward beneath the ranges.

These include the Main Frontal thrust, the Main Central thrust, the Main boundary thrust, and the Main Mantle thrust. These thrust faults have a sinuous trace as they arc across the foothills in northern India and into northern Pakistan.

In detail, the modern active faults are actually a system of faults comprised of a number of individual fault traces. In the rugged mountainous terrain, it is difficult to identify and map all of the individual thrust faults, but the overall tectonic style of the modern deformation is clear in the area of the earthquake; north- and northeast-directed compression is producing thrust faulting.

Near the town of Muzaffarabad, about 10 km southwest of the earthquake epicenter, active thrust faults that strike northwest-southeast have deformed and warped Pleistocene alluvial-fan surfaces into anticlinal ridges. The strike and dip direction of these thrust faults is compatible with the style of faulting indicated by the focal mechanism from the nearby M 7.6 earthquake.

Source: USGS

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Researchers Reconstruct 1918 Pandemic Influenza Virus

Researchers Reconstruct 1918 Pandemic Influenza Virus; Effort Designed to Advance Preparedness

Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have successfully reconstructed the influenza virus strain responsible for the 1918 pandemic, a project that greatly advances preparedness efforts for the next pandemic.

“This groundbreaking research helps unlock the mystery of the 1918 flu pandemic and is critically important in our efforts to prepare for pandemic influenza,” said CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding. “We need to know much more about pandemic influenza viruses. Research such as this helps us understand what makes some influenza viruses more harmful than others. It also provides us information that may help us identify, early on, influenza viruses that could cause a pandemic.”

The work, done in collaboration with Mount Sinai School of Medicine, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory, determined the set of genes in the 1918 virus that made it so harmful. Prior to this study, which is published in the Oct. 7 issue of Science, flu experts had little knowledge of what made the 1918 pandemic so much more deadly than the 1957 and 1968 pandemics. This week’s issue of Nature also includes a related article entitled “Characterization of the 1918 influenza virus polymerase genes” which describes the final three gene sequences of the 1918 influenza virus. The work reported in the Nature article was done by scientists at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.

The 1918 pandemic killed an estimated 20-50 million people worldwide, including 675,000 in the United States. The pandemic’s most striking feature was its unusually high death rate among otherwise healthy people aged 15-34. During normal seasonal flu outbreaks, severe complications and death are most common among the elderly and young children.

Influenza pandemics occur when a new strain emerges to which people have little or no immunity. Most experts believe another pandemic will occur, but it is impossible to predict which strain will emerge as the next pandemic strain, when it will occur or how severe it will be.

“By identifying the characteristics that made the 1918 influenza virus so harmful, we have information that will help us develop new vaccines and treatments,” said Dr. Terrence Tumpey, the CDC senior microbiologist who recreated the virus. “Influenza viruses are constantly evolving, and that means our science needs to evolve if we want to protect as many people as possible from pandemic influenza.”

In reconstructing the 1918 influenza virus, researchers learned which genes were responsible for making the virus so harmful. This is an important advance for preparedness efforts because knowing which genes are responsible for causing severe illness helps scientists develop new drugs and vaccines (e.g., they can focus their research on those genes).

CDC employed stringent biosafety and biosecurity precautions during research on the 1918 influenza virus. The work was done in a high containment Biosafety Level 3 lab with enhancements that include special provisions to protect both laboratory workers and the public from exposure to the virus. Currently available antiviral drugs have been shown to be effective against influenza viruses similar to the 1918 influenza virus.

All laboratory work was conducted at CDC. The work was supported in part with funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health.

To evaluate the benefits of publishing the information contained in these manuscripts and any potential threat from its possible deliberate misuse, both manuscripts were reviewed by the National Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity (NSABB). The NSABB advises the federal government on strategies for the conduct and communication of research that might yield information or technologies that could be misused to threaten public health or national security. The Board was unanimous in its determination that it was critically important to make these findings available to the scientific community at large to not only validate their significance, but also permit further research on the development of diagnostic tests, treatments, and preventative measures.

Source: CDCFor Immediate Release, October 5, 2005 Contact: CDC Media Relations, 404-639-3286

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