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LARGEST QUAKES -
This morning -
5.9 VANUATU
5.3 VANUATU
5.0 VANUATU
Yesterday -
8/10/10 -
5.8 VANUATU
5.0 VANUATU
5.2 VANUATU
5.0 VANUATU
5.2 VANUATU
5.2 VANUATU
5.4 VANUATU
7.5 VANUATU
5.0 CENTRAL PERU
5.0 RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN
5.9 OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.1 BONIN ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
8/9/10 -
5.3 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
5.2 JAVA, INDONESIA
5.2 TONGA
5.0 ARAUCANIA, CHILE
5.0 MORO GULF, MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES
5.0 EASTERN XIZANG
Three major earthquakes that occurred in the south Philippines on July 24 were due to the eruption of Kawio Barat, a big underwater volcano rising 10,000 feet from 18,000 feet of water between Indonesia and the south Philippines, said an expert, but his analysis was challenged by a local scientist.
Three major undersea earthquakes with magnitudes of 6.8 and 7.1 on the Richter scale, occurred in the Moro Gulf off Mindanao on July 24. The chief scientist for the US-Indonesia deep-sea expedition of Kawio Barat said in a press release that the major earthquakes off south Philippines last month were due to the eruption of Kawio Barat, which was recently found by scientists under the seabed of Sulawesi Islands in Indonesia. The quakes, tectonic in origin, had nothing to do with the eruption of a recently discovered undersea volcano, the associate professor at the University of the Philippines National Institute of Geological Sciences countered.
On June 30 this year, Okeanos Explorer, a vessel with remotely operated vehicle and sophisticated multi-beam sonar technology for mapping the seabed held a second dive for the Kawio Barat volcano. The vessel showed images of "sulphide chimney emitting hot water among a field of chimneys and barnacles as far as the eye could see". The Sulawesi Islands are 500 kilometres from Sarangani province in the south Philippines.
In 1976, a movement of the Cotabato Trench [in the south Philippines], resulted in an earthquake of 7.8 magnitude and a tsunami killing 8,000 people in Mindanao. The Cotabato trench is in the vicinity of Kawio Barat. In 1883, Krakatoa's eruption between Java and Sumatra resulted in a tsunami that killed 60,000 people in coastal areas.
VANUATU - A major 7.5-magnitude earthquake hit the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu on Tuesday, generating a small tsunami of about 22cm and bringing down power lines. Officials had not received any reports of injuries or serious damage, but a police spokesman described the tremor as "a very sharp quake - the worst I have felt. Many people left the centre of town and went to higher places, fearing a tsunami. We're still experiencing sharp aftershocks and all communications were lost for a time, but things are coming back to normal now."
"It was quite a big jolt, quite a long rolling quake. It would have lasted ... well, it certainly felt like it lasted ... for the best part of a minute and there were aftershocks. Fixtures on the walls came down, books and magazines and files came off the shelves, computers were tossed off their tables. It was very intense. Tiles were falling down and furniture falling over and bookshelves coming down." There have been no reports of any significant injury. There were one or two reports of minor bumps and scrapes and no reports of major damage.
TROPICAL STORMS -
Tropical depression 05 was 166 nmi NW of Key West, Florida.
Tropical depression ESTELLE was 374 nmi SSW of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Tropical storm DIANMU was 149 nmi SSE of Seoul, Korea.
05 - The National Hurricane Center issued a tropical storm warning for the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico as the fifth tropical depression of the Atlantic hurricane season formed in the southeastern Gulf. The storm - which would be named Danielle if, as expected, it reaches tropical storm status - grew from tropical wave status about 375 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and was headed in that direction at about 6 mph. Tropical Depression 5's top sustained winds reached 35 mph - just short of the 39 mph tropical storm threshold.
A warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected in the area within 36 hours. Forecasters, however, said they did not expect more than "modest strengthening" as the storm makes a more northerly turn before coming ashore. Preparing for the worst, Louisiana's St. Bernard Parish activated its severe weather plan for oil spill operators. Earlier Tuesday, attempts to complete the relief well expected to permanently stop BP's oil spill will be delayed because of the approaching weather system.
Bermuda was spared from tropical storm-force winds as Colin once again defied expectations and dissipated as it neared the island over the weekend. Dry air and high wind shear combined to weaken Colin as it approached Bermuda on Sunday, Aug. 8. The storm deteriorated to a tropical depression, “meaning that the impacts to Bermuda were minimal.” The storm fizzled out earlier last week as well, and the National Hurricane Center gave it just a 20 percent chance of reforming into a tropical storm within 48 hours. But Colin did become a tropical storm again late last week and as of Friday, it was on track to pass near Bermuda. The NHC issued a tropical storm warning for the island and noted that Colin had a chance to pass directly over Bermuda if its path deviated slightly to the east.
But the warning was later cancelled as Colin dissipated over the weekend.
Atlantic Hotter Than Before Katrina, Boosting Storm Forecasts - Meteorologists at the U.S. National Hurricane Center say there’s more reason for concern that the sky will fall than any time since 2005, when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. At least 15 more “named” storms with winds of 39 miles per hour or more will develop before the 2010 season ends, Colorado State researchers predict. With two months of the hurricane season gone, the statistics of the past 15 years show now is the time when it worsens. Forecasters blame rising temperatures in the Atlantic that feed storm development, and diminishing wind shear and dust from the Sahara, obstacles to storm formation.
Three storms have formed so far this season, a start that appears slow but is ahead of the statistical average. The second named storm, which doesn’t normally occur until Aug. 1, came in July, and the first hurricane, statistically due on or after Aug. 10, appeared in June. If all the storms forecast by Colorado State materialize, 2010 will be tied with 1969, the fifth-busiest season on record. Five years ago, in the most-active hurricane season on record, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita killed more than 1,800 people, caused $91 billion in damage, destroyed 115 energy platforms in the Gulf, and shut down 95 percent of Gulf oil production and almost 30 percent of U.S. refining capacity. Gasoline prices soared to as much as $5 a gallon and shortages were reported across the South. Since 1995, when a cyclical increase in Atlantic hurricanes began, 89 percent of all storms have formed after Aug. 1. The hurricanes that do about 85 percent of the damage when they hit land typically form between Aug. 20 and Oct. 20. Pre-season forecasts from Colorado State and the Hurricane Center were for 2010 to be one of the worst hurricane seasons on record in the Atlantic in part because of the ocean’s warmth.
Sea surface temperatures in the mid-Atlantic between the Lesser Antilles and the African coast averaged 1.2 degrees Celsius (about 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal from March to June, warmer than the 0.92 degrees in 2005. Colorado State forecast 18 storms for 2010, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts 14 to 20 from June 1 through Nov. 30. Most storms grow out of weather systems known as African waves, organized masses of thunderstorms that move into the Atlantic about every three days from June to October. There are about 60 to 70 per season and that number doesn’t change much from year to year. With less than 18 weeks left until the hurricane season ends Nov. 30, the Atlantic will need to produce about one storm a week to meet Colorado State’s forecast. “There have been years where six, seven, eight storms form in September alone. Certainly with the way the conditions are, it wouldn’t surprise us to have multiple storms. "
Tropical Storm Dianmu weakened as it passed over the southern coast of South Korea, leaving three dead.
CHINA - Tropical storm "Dianmu", bringing more torrential rain, is sweeping towards the region of north-west China which was hit earlier by massive landslides. Three days of torrential rain are due. At least three villages in remote Zhouqu county were levelled by an avalanche of mud and rocks triggered by rain on Saturday. Now rescue teams fear the fresh storms could not only hinder work to find survivors but also trigger fresh landslides.
HEAVY RAINS, SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -
CHINA - Hopes of finding survivors of China's WORST MUDSLIDE IN DECADES faded today as the death toll topped 700.
CHINA'S consumer inflation accelerates as its WORST FLOODS IN A DECADE clear crops and disrupt transport links, raising food prices.
SPACE WEATHER -
Sun’s Eruption towards earth might have caused downpour tragedy in Leh, India - Recent irregular flare of the Sun, which left for the Earth on August 1, affects the weak areas and possibly it has hit the area of Leh, where at least 115 people are confirmed to have been dead and officially 412 injured in flash floods near Leh on Thursday night. The cloudbursts hit Choglumsar area, 13 kilometres from Leh and 424 kilometres from Srinagar, it might be the part of the flare that has touched the Earth, it may further break the base of some clouds to burst in the Himalayan pocket.
The Leh tragedy might be one of the results of earth being hit by a solar tsunami, which carries an unusual magnetic eruption from the Sun towards the Earth. The damage depends on the power of the eruption as well as its irregular direction. This eruption actually flung a large cloud of electrically charged particles into space and towards the Earth, however, its power was not so strong enough to tear off the natural protecting shield of the Earth. The protecting shield of the Earth is there to save our planet; all these combined factors came to our rescue, otherwise the damage could be very high.
NASA’s SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory) recorded on Sunday (August 1) a small solar flare eruption above sunspot 1092, the size of the Earth. The satellites also recorded a large filament of cool gas, which stretched across the Sun's northern hemisphere, and exploded in space. The explosion, called a coronal mass ejection, did move towards Earth, which then sent a "solar tsunami" racing 93 million miles across space, but the impact is different this time, it looks to have hit at higher altitudes, the mountains and their glaciers and the tragedy of Leh is a possible outcome, and it is not the end, some other tragedies may develop during another 20 days or so. When a violent cloud hits, it sparks auroras in the skies around the poles and can pose a threat to satellites. Since the flare of the Sun this time is irregular, its exact direction on the earth couldn't be determined in advance, being very weak.
The Sun plays a big role in tragedies on the Earth, the flares of the Sun which occur regularly after 11 years and irregularly between 4 and 32 years, being the reaction of the hydrogen bombs that occur there regularly. It is natural. If the flares from the Sun did not occur for about 450 years, and were blocked for some reason, the entire Sun could explode. The Sun is just a hydrogen power house which supplies power to all its satellites including the Earth.
[Related to the above article about the solar tsunami hitting glacial areas??] CANADA - Nearly 1,500 residents of a British Columbia community were allowed to return home on Saturday (August 7) after fears eased that a landslide-created dam would break, flooding their homes. Authorities had ordered the evacuations near Pemberton, British Columbia, about 93 miles north of Vancouver, after a massive landslide on Friday blocked a stream and caused water to back up behind the debris. Geologists initially feared the debris dam would give way suddenly and flood the valley, but the water instead cut a new route through the mud and rock, allowing it to drain gradually. The cause of the landslide was unknown, but geologists speculate melting of a glacier on Mount Meager exposed unstable rock on a dormant volcano that broke free and crashed into the wilderness valley. Nobody was injured in the slide, but about a dozen campers were airlifted to safety on Friday.
HEALTH THREATS -
New Zealand is still experiencing a significant level of swine flu despite the WHO's claim that the global pandemic is over. The World Health Organization on Tuesday declared the H1N1 flu pandemic over, after a little more than a year.
The H1N1 pandemic may be abating in much of the world, but India reports 942 new cases in the past week (Aug 2-8), with 83 deaths. Two patients in the city of Pune died from pandemic H1N1 Aug 6, bringing the number of H1N1 deaths there to 99 since April. The state health department reported that 29 people are in critical condition and on ventilator support in city hospitals; 38 people tested positive for the infection Aug 6.
Plastic surgery patients have carried a new class of superbugs resistant to almost all antibiotics from South Asia to Britain and they could spread worldwide. Many hospital infections that were already difficult to treat have become even more impervious to drugs thanks to a recently discovered gene that can jump across different species of bacteria. This so-called NDM-1 gene was first identified last year in two types of bacteria - Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli - in a Swedish patient admitted to hospital in India. Worryingly, the new NDM-1 bacteria are resistant even to carbapenems, a group of antibiotics often reserved as a last resort for emergency treatment for multi-drug resistant bugs. Crucially, the NDM-1 gene was found on DNA structures, called plasmids, that can be easily copied and transferred between bacteria, giving the bug "an alarming potential to spread and diversify. Unprecedented air travel and migration allow bacterial plasmids and clones to be transported rapidly between countries and continents," mostly undetected.
