Mystery Surrounds Intensifying 'Earthquake Swarm' Shaking South Carolina

A swarm of earthquakes rattled South Carolina and appeared to be getting more powerful. About 30 quakes have hit the state this year, and geologists are stumped about what's causing "earthquake swarms" similar to those felt in Southern California.

Two earthquakes hit Elgin, South Carolina, on Wednesday. The first was a magnitude 3.5, and the second 3.6, according to data from the United States Geological Survey. A 3.4 magnitude earthquake hit the state days before, while a stronger 3.9 rattled parts of the Georgia-South Carolina border on June 18.

Wednesday's earthquakes were the strongest since a magnitude of 4.1 struck the state in 2014.

South Carolina's Emergency Management Division shared a video of Wendy Bohon, an earthquake geologist at the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology in Washington D.C., who said about 30 quakes struck in the year's first half. She said the swarm of quakes is different than others because "there is no mainshock, or a larger earthquake that happens first then there are lots of smaller earthquakes that happen afterward … in this case, the swam of quakes are happening a few every week without a large shock."

Thank you, Dr. Wendy Bohon.

Indeed, shift happens. https://t.co/pBHHALK9XP

— SCEMD (@SCEMD) June 29, 2022

The emergency agency also tweeted the state does have several fault systems and is "one of the most seismically active states on the East Coast." However, some geologists are puzzled at why so many swarms are happening.

"Most earthquakes occur where the earth's plates come together, and they're the result of the tension and the stress that builds up as those plates are grinding and moving, slamming into each other. That's not happening to us here on the East Coast.

"But there are ancient fault lines here from in the past when continents had slammed together … and they are still building up stress and strain but on a much, much slower time scale," Bohon told the Weather Channel.

"If you can figure that out, you should go get your tux and pick up your Nobel Prize," Thomas Pratt, regional coordinator of the Geological Survey's earthquake hazard program, told The State newspaper. "The Eastern United States, in general, is not on a plate boundary, so it's a mystery in the scientific community why in this exact location, in the middle of a plate, something would trigger this."

Could the rumblings under ground suggest the next big quake is nearing? The last powerful quake to shake the state was a magnitude 7.3 in 1886.

>>16585668

https://www.zerohedge.com/weather/mystery-surrounds-intensifying-earthquake-swarm-hitting-south-carolina

10-year-old girl denied abortion in Ohio

A 10-year-old girl was denied an abortion in Ohio after the Supreme Court ruled last week that it was overturning Roe v. Wade, demonstrating the tangible impacts that the high court’s decision is having on patients seeking access to the medical procedure.

A child abuse doctor in Ohio contacted Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Indiana, after receiving a 10-year-old patient who was six weeks and three days pregnant, the Indianapolis Star reported.

That patient is now heading west to Indiana given that an abortion ban in Ohio, which prohibits the medical procedure when fetal cardiac activity begins, around six weeks, had become effective quickly after the high court issued its decision.

While several groups filed a lawsuit seeking to block the state law from taking effect on Wednesday, an emergency stay of the abortion ban was rejected by the Ohio Supreme Court on Friday, meaning that the ban can be upheld as the case is reviewed, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

Ohio is among a number of states that have rolled back abortion access since the Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to an abortion. Some laws have been paused pending legal challenges.

But Indiana could soon find itself passing its own abortion law later this month given that a special session has been scheduled for later in July and the legislature is expected to touch on a ban on the medical procedure, WFYI reported.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/3544588-10-year-old-girl-denied-abortion-in-ohio/

True Facts About Guns (Babylon Bee truth bomb)

Jeff Bezos Slams Joe Biden for His Attacks on Gas Stations:

Ouch. Inflation is far too important a problem for the White House to keep making statements like this. It’s either straight ahead misdirection or a deep misunderstanding of basic market dynamics.

Quote Tweet

President Biden

@POTUS

United States government official

· 12h

My message to the companies running gas stations and setting prices at the pump is simple: this is a time of war and global peril.

Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you’re paying for the product. And do it now.

https://twitter.com/JeffBezos/status/1543409762867494912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Banana Ships And The Hidden Fees Of Ship Cargo

A cadre of ocean carriers are charging exorbitant, potentially illegal, fees on shipping containers stuck because of congestion at ports. Sellers of furniture, coconut water, even kids’ potties say the fees are inflating costs.

Here is the long story in full graphic detail.

by Michael Grabell (ProPublica) The story you’re about to read is bananas, and it’s also about bananas.

Last fall, a company called One Banana loaded 600,000 pounds of the fruit from its plantations in Guatemala and Ecuador onto ships bound for the Port of Long Beach in California. Once they arrived, the bananas, packed in refrigerated containers, were offloaded by cranes for trucking to a nearby warehouse, where the fruit would be sent to supermarkets nationwide.

But in the midst of a global supply chain crisis, none of the trucking companies the importer normally worked with were willing to come and get the containers.

As the bananas sat at the marine terminal, a logistics specialist for One Banana scrambled, contacting more than a dozen trucking firms.

With each passing hour, the bananas grew closer to spoiling.

“We need to pull out 15 containers from Long Beach Port,” the logistics specialist wrote in an email to one firm. “Please let me know if you could help me with this.”

A trucking company finally said it could — but only if One Banana first paid $12,000 per container on top of already higher transportation costs.

This is where the plot ripens.

Moar,

https://gcaptain.com/banana-ships-hidden-fees-of-shipping