What's of interest specifically here is the apparent slippage and shifting occurring at the surface of various parts of the earth's crust. These are not showing as earthquakes because they are happening at surface level. See the article attached at the bottom about the mystery Vancouver Island quake. This is not unlike the strange rumbles that occurred around the world following the Japanese earthquake March 11 of last year.
January 26, 2012 – FIJI – A couple and their two young children are confirmed to have died in a landslide in flood-stricken Fiji. Their deaths bring to six the number killed in flooding and landslides in the west of the main island Viti Levu. Police have confirmed that the couple, in their 30s, and their their two daughters, aged three and one, were in a house in the Ba district of north western Vita Levu, the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation reports. Earlier in the week a man died in Labasa and another died in Ba. Parts of Nadi, Ba, and Rakiraki were on Thursday declared natural disaster zones. The permanent secretary of information, Sharon Smith-Johns, says the military, police and personnel from non-government organizations and the Red Cross are heading to the affected areas. Ms Smith-Johns says 3400 people are in evacuation centers and more than 100 homes may have been destroyed by the floods. A disaster response advisor for the United Nations, Peter Muller, says attempts to evaluate damage from the floods are being hampered by the remoteness of some communities and bridges which have been washed away by swollen rivers. Mr Muller says the rains have stopped for the time being and floodwaters are receding but the respite may be short lived with the rain set to return within 24 hours. Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully says New Zealand will give $350,000 to the Fiji Red Cross and other agencies to assist efforts in the aftermath of the flooding. –Radio New Zealand
Mansehra, PAKISTAN – Police say at least nine miners are feared dead after they were buried by a large landslide in northwest Pakistan. Local police officer Ali Zia says the phosphate miners were eating lunch Wednesday in the mountain village of Tharnawai in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when the accident occurred. Zia said rescue efforts have been hampered by bad weather and the inability to get heavy machinery to the site. It had been snowing and raining before the slide occurred. Eyewitness Mohammad Khurshid Awan said rescue workers were using shovels in an attempt to uncover the buried miners. Zia, the police officer, said no bodies have yet been recovered. –Dawn
January 26, 2012 – VICTORIA – In the last 48 hours a number of people in Sooke have reported feeling powerful tremors that some believe are an earthquake. “I heard what sounded like a freight train coming, that rumble, and it was very brief. My bed actually shifted,” one Sooke homeowner told CTV News. Seismologists say there are no indications of an earthquake in the Sooke area and all calling the recent reports a mystery. On Wednesday several employees downtown felt similar shaking but believed it was a result of blasting at a downtown construction site. Alison Bird with the Pacific Geo Science Centre says, “It would have to be an extremely large explosion for people in Sooke to feel the Victoria blast.” The District of Sooke, the Sooke Fire Department, and the RCMP were all contacted but were unable to shed any light on the rumblings. The Department of National Defense also denied have any part in the tremors. South of the border the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station says they didn’t have any aircrafts operating Tuesday because of high winds. –CTV Vancouver Island
