What's all that shakin' goin' on?

In this case it's a very large earthquake near the Kuril Islands (northwestern Pacific) that was picked up on our own seismometer located in the lobby of the Science Building on the EWU Cheney campus (click to enlarge.) Check it out the next time you're in the building. Heck, jump up and down and make your own earthquake.

The USGS also provides detailed maps and information on this recent magnitude 7.4 earthquake. Looks like it was offshore east of the islands, in the oceanic trench, clearly in the subduction zone between the Pacific and Okhotsk plates. It was moderately deep at an estimated 36 km.

Man, just look at those S-waves.