May 202011
 

Two different European earthquake monitoring sites (here and here) reported an 8.4 earthquake deep inside the Libyan desert about 30 miles southeast of Sinawin on May 19. The epicenter was approximately 120 miles south of the Mediterranean coast and roughly 200 miles southwest of Tripoli. Here are the earthquake details:

Date: Thu, 19 May 2011 14:57:19 +0000 UTC

Antelope  Auto - Event     7699  NEAR COAST OF LIBYA

Date          Time        Err   RMS Latitude Longitude  Smaj  Smin  Az Depth   Err Ndef Nsta Gap  mdist  Mdist Qual   Author      OrigID

2011/05/19 14:49:02.48  -1.00  0.72  30.7220   10.7871  -1.0  -1.0  -1  30.0  -1.0    7    7 345  11.02  21.96 a i ke orMb          7984
Magnitude   Err Nsta Author      OrigID

mb   8.4  0.00     1 orbevproc     7984
Sta     Dist  EvAz Phase        Time      TRes  Azim AzRes   Slow   SRes Def   SNR       Amp   Per Qual Magnitude    ArrID

MATE   11.02  24.1 P        14:51:38.495   0.4                           T__  49.0                 m__         0.0   106669

TIR    12.90  32.0 P        14:52:03.485  -0.2                           T__  15.9                 m__         0.0   106670

MTUR   18.31  33.6 P        14:53:14.738   0.7                           T__  12.4                 m__         0.0   106655

VOIR   18.45  33.1 P        14:53:16.368   0.8                           T__  25.1                 m__         0.0   106657

CFR    19.82  38.3 P        14:53:30.958   0.4                           T__  41.6                 m__         0.0   106671

MILM   21.33  35.5 P        14:53:45.818  -1.2                           T__  12.8                 m__         0.0   106672

SORM   21.96  32.6 P        14:53:52.818  -0.9                           T__  25.3    1001.5  0.40 m__ mb      8.4   106673

Oddly, this earthquake does not appear on the USGS website or any other earthquake reporting site.

Interestingly, the largest nuclear device ever detonated, the 50 megaton Soviet-made Tsar Bomba, would have been capable of producing almost exactly an 8.4 earthquake on the Richter Scale if it had been detonated deep underground.

Is this earthquake being censored?  If so, was it a subterranean detonation in a remote desert location to safely demonstrate Libya’s nuclear capabilities to its Western attackers?  The West would certainly want to contain that information to prevent widespread panic since a 50 megaton nuke could utterly wipe out an entire metropolis.  Was the earthquake the result of a NATO attack?  Or was the earthquake a real, natural event or simply a strange glitch on a pair of seismic instruments?