What to know about ‘doublet’ earthquakes like the destructive pair that hit Venezuela The U.S. Geological Survey has described the pair of earthquakes — a 7.1-magnitude and a 7.5-magnitude — as a doublet sequence, a phenomenon in which two temblors of similar magnitude strike roughly the same area at around the same time. The first earthquake “will probably have weakened some buildings or structures,” Tobin said. “Then collapses would happen during the second earthquake, even if they made it through the first one.” A 7.5-magnitude temblor is about three times bigger than a 7.1, since the Richter scale is logarithmic. https://www.nbcnews.com/science/earthquakes/venezuela-doublet-earthquakes-rcna351799
When massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake shook Japan on March 11, 2011, the ground also made a more lasting move. About 15 minutes after the event began at 2:46 p.m. local time, nearly the entire country shifted eastward, according to GPS station measurements. The lurch was small — 5 to 6 millimeters, or 0.20 to 0.24 inches — but permanent and at the time went largely unnoticed or was passed off as a data glitch. However, University of Chicago geophysicist Sunyoung Park felt the recorded signals that indicated a shift pointed to something tangible. In fact, the ground movement reflected an “extraordinary” and previously undocumented seismic phenomenon, according to a new study. “What was unusual about this movement is basically the whole of Japan was moving nearly uniformly at the same time,” said Park, who led the research. She added that the movement, which affected mainland Japan — Hokkaido to Kyushu — an area approximately 1,800 miles (3,000 kilometers) in length, did not match the timing of the initial earthquake, and it happened before any significant aftershocks. After years of analyzing GPS and seismic data, Park and her colleagues found that waves from the earthquake had traveled down to Earth’s core and then rebounded to the crust, displacing four major tectonic plates. https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/24/science/japan-earthquake-core-seismic-waves
What say you, @rimrocker, and why did it take so long? For the first time, federal wildland firefighters are authorized to use N95 respirators on the fireline after receiving formal training on their safe use in the wildland fire environment. Expanded N95 use provides a meaningful, immediate tool to reduce the inhalation of particulates that can result in future health impacts. At the same time, both departments are pursuing a full respiratory protection program that is complaint with Occupational Safety and Health Administration requirements. https://www.fs.usda.gov/about-agenc...ds-long-sought-protections-limit-health-risks
Nearly 7 million may be impacted — UN Some 6.8 million people have been affected, the UN says More than 1,600 foreign rescuers are helping search for quake survivors At least 1,430 people have been killed and thousands more injured, according to top lawmaker Jorge Rodriguez More than 51,000 people are reported missing https://www.dw.com/en/venezuela-earthquakes-nearly-7-million-may-be-impacted-un/live-77699720
A few thoughts: Smoke exposure has always been a huge problem. I didn't do very much line work at all and there were years I'd be coughing stuff up into December just from living and sleeping in smoke at the incident command post all summer and fall. Respirators have never been prohibited. It's just that it is one thing to wear a mask when you're going to the grocery store and another when you are digging line up a steep slope in 101 degree weather after hiking three miles to get there. Not many are going to choose to wear a respirator under those conditions. If crews are obligated to wear them, I can't see how crew performance would not suffer by the metric of line dug or hose laid or whatever. One complaint about them is that if you wear them in extreme conditions, your mind is aware of the respirator in a way that is more immediate than any other piece of gear. If you're thinking about the respirator and keeping a tight seal while you are doing extremely physical things, you stand the chance of dropping some critical pieces of your situational awareness. The smoke problem has no easy answers and I fear this is just papering over the problem. In the USFS press release, one sentence kind of gives it away: "While no respirator currently meets Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards for wildland firefighting..." If we were serious about protecting our firefighters from the intense effects of smoke exposure, we would change our strategies and tactics. Among other things, we wouldn't put people at the head of the fire where the smoke is thickest. That means changing political and public expectations about what firefighters can do, as it would necessarily mean delayed contain and control along with larger fires. And while you're doing that, the fire is on the landscape longer and obviously putting up smoke the whole time, so nearby communities would have extended exposure and there are lots of vulnerable people in communities even considering the reduced particulate matter that you would get miles from the flame front. It's a Catch-22. Who takes on the most risk, firefighters or the public? Another option is to have enough crews so nobody spends a lot of time in the thickest smoke. But that means more money and significantly more hires, which, to say the least, has not been a consistent thing over the last quarter century. And then, of course, there are all the policies that make our world warmer and thus more susceptible to larger and more intense fires. I don't see us doing much about that anytime soon except accelerating those conditions. So yeah. This won't make much difference. Any serious approach to reducing smoke exposures is full of a bunch of "least bad" decisions and I don't think anyone today wants to really confront those. So, we will continue to see smoke-related illnesses among wildland firefighters for the foreseeable future while getting press releases like this one. (I do like the notion of more frequent decon and showers. When I started, one of the hazes for rookies on some Hot Shot crews was "no showers for 1,000 hours." That's almost a month and a half. And yes, some of them were barely recognizable as human and it definitely affected performance. It was also a point of pride to wear your dirty shirt all year. Just having folks put on new shirts and pants every few shifts will be a big deal.) However, my great fear is that the wildland fire community is being set up to fail so that it's easier to privatize. I happen to believe firefighting is an inherently governmental function. If you're working for someone who is driven by the profit motive, what incentive do they have to look out for your safety? At least with the pre-2025 org, you had folks concerned about your immediate safety, even if long-term health was not much of a known.
Hey, I thought I did a reasonably good job of keeping it simple enough for a sports board. Complex stuff is complex.
