it was the questions we had wrong.”
Bono
LARGEST QUAKES -
This morning -
None 5.0 or higher.
Yesterday -
4/26/10 -
5.0 NEAR S. COAST OF WESTERN HONSHU
5.3 SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION
5.1 SOLOMON ISLANDS
5.1 SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION
6.5 SOUTHEAST OF TAIWAN
CALIFORNIA - A pair of small aftershocks rattled parts of the Coachella and Imperial valleys Sunday. The quakes are among thousands of substantial aftershocks to the 7.2 magnitude El Mayor-Cucupa earthquake, which rattled Southern California and northern Baja California on Easter Sunday, April 4. That quake killed two people in Mexicali and caused about $100 million damage in Imperial County. The giant Easter quake spawned several aftershocks every day, but the frequency of those over 3.0 has been dropping. The largest in the past week were two quakes - magnitude 4.7 and 4.6 - recorded Thursday morning.
VOLCANOES -
GUATEMALA - The Santiaguito volcano showered sand and ash over a large area of western Guatemala in an "UNUSUAL" and "violent" display. The national seismological institute said
winds were carrying the ash in a northeasterly direction from the 2500 metre high volcano in the province of Quetzaltenango, 206 kilometres west of the capital. The ash plume spread across six provinces, raising fears of damage to crops, while classes were suspended at schools in three provinces. Santiaguito's worst eruption occurred in 1929 when 2500 people were killed.
ICELAND - The Eyjafjallajökull volcano continues to erupt, but a much lower levels than when it began its explosive eruption stage on April 14. However, it's still spewing out an estimated 22 to 44 tons of magma a second. The plume of volcanic ash is gradually declining. It's unclear how high the eruption plume was yesterday because of cloud cover, but it did not reach 3.2 miles (the height of the clouds.) The eruptive material tephra (small rocks and lava fragments) coming out of the volcano are much coarser than during the first four days of the explosive eruption phase. The explosions can be heard six to nine miles away. On Saturday, lava was spattering 330 feet into the air but that had subsided by Sunday. The seismic tremors are similar to what they have been for the past few days and don't appear to be increasing in severity. There was one earthquake with a magnitude of 1.4 at Eyjafjallajökull on Sunday.
TROPICAL STORMS -
No current tropical cyclones.
HEAVY RAINS, SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -
INDIA - The Assam State Electricity Board’s transmission and distribution network has taken a heavy pounding from the cyclonic storms over the past one month. Other states of the Northeast, too, have faced nature’s fury with Meghalaya, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh’s power infrastructure taking a severe beating. Assam, in particular, has witnessed an UNUSUALLY stormy April this year, with powerful Nor’westers whipping up storms frequently over the past few weeks, resulting in heavy loss of life and property. The most devastating cyclonic storm occurred on Saturday evening across several places in lower Assam, including the capital where the wind speed crossed the 100km/hour barrier. Six were killed in the state on Saturday, two in Guwahati. The storms have uprooted transmission towers, snapped cables with trees falling over them and damaged transformers. “Though we have restored power in almost all the affected areas, these are only on a temporary basis. We will need around two-three months to complete permanent restoration."
The situation took another grim turn last night when another cyclone ravaged the Badarpur block on the Indo-Bangladesh border. Many rural areas are still without power. In Arunachal Pradesh, two 750KV and 500KV power cables snapped when the towers were uprooted in Dibang Valley on Saturday during a severe cyclonic storm. Saturday’s storm also lashed parts of Lower Dibang Valley and Lohit, snapping power cables and posts. In Meghalaya, the areas bordering Bangladesh have been affected badly by the series of storms raging through the state.
HEALTH THREATS -
Australia's number of suspected vaccine reactions grows - The number of children in West Australia who had convulsions or fever and vomiting after receiving a seasonal flu vaccine that covers the pandemic strain has grown to 251. Officials say the immunizations likely came from multiple batches. Queensland is also investigating the possibility of adverse reactions in children, and police in Brisbane are probing the death of a recently vaccinated 2-year-old.
