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?