Don't let them scare you unduly, for they keep boredom at bay and spark creativity.**
R. I. Fitzhenry
LARGEST QUAKES -
This morning -
7.0 BONIN ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION (no reports of damage and no tsunami warnings)
5.0 TONGA
Yesterday -
11/29/10 -
5.1 SOUTH OF JAVA, INDONESIA
5.1 TONGA
5.0 JUJUY, ARGENTINA
5.1 OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.0 OFF EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA
5.1 SOUTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
VOLCANOES -
Around the world -
INDONESIA: Bromo in the Tengger Caldera continues to look like its ramping to a new eruptive cycle. There have been a number of low-level ash explosions from the scoria cone, some large enough to prompt the closure of a nearby airport (~25 km away) until December 4. The government of Indonesia is preparing for potential evacuations near the volcano, but so far, only warnings to prepare for an eruption have been issues to the local residents. Meanwhile, damage to forests near Merapi has been estimated at over $611 million and potentially hundreds of years to recover. However, as Mount St. Helens shows, recovering after an eruption can be surprisingly rapid. Finally, reports continue to come in about increasing activity at the ever-busy Anak Krakatau, although weather and ash have made monitoring difficult.
Mount Bromo could be on the brink of bigger eruptions, an official from the Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Center said. Before, eruptions had longer intervals and were smaller in scale, whereas now, the period between eruptions was much shorter and the eruptions themselves more intense.
“Bromo continues to spew ash, which it has done for the last seven days. It looks likely that there is still a lot of energy built up." The energy could still be discharged through smaller eruptions.
PHILIPPINES: Bulusan continues to be a concern for the Philippine government. However, some of the hazards are more related to weather than eruptions, as intense rains have increased the threat of remobilization of ash to produce lahars. So far the lahars have only caused damage in valley towns around the volcano, but residents are being warned as some lahars have been approaching homes near the volcano. The threat of persistent lahars near Bulusan has prompted the discussion of permanent resettlement of people who live near the volcano. The volcano continues to experience earthquakes and explosions and sulfur dioxide emissions are still relatively low, and the alert status remains at level 1.
HAWAII: The lava flows at Kilauea continue to finish off houses in the ill-fated Kalapana Gardens subdivision. Lava flows ignited fires that burned down two more structures.
There was a rumor that Taranaki in NEW ZEALAND had erupted, but it turns out that the plume observed was from a debris fall on the volcano. Heavy erosion causes Taranaki, located to the west of the main Taupo Volcanic Zone, to be unstable. The last eruption at Taranaki was in 1854.
In ICELAND, there are observations that streams issuing from Hekla Volcano are drying up, which has sometimes been a sign that the volcano may be headed towards an eruption. However, there has also been very little precipitation in Iceland, so this could also be merely a sign of this drought. There hasn’t been any earthquake activity near Hekla recently. At Heckla, "indicators have never showed any significant development until about two hours before an eruption." That had been the situation before the last eruption in 2000.
TROPICAL STORMS -
Cyclone 03S was 772 nmi ESE of Diego Garcia.
The tropical depression affecting Fiji has now dissipated and while rain continues to fall, clearing skies and fairer weather are forecast in coming days.
SEVERE RAIN STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -
AUSTRALIA - it’s been Mackay’s WETTEST NOVEMBER IN 10 YEARS and there’s more on the way. Not to mention the six cyclones forecast for the coming summer months. A La Nina climate phase has led to Mackay being inundated with 519mm of rain this month, surpassing the 503mm that fell in November 2000. La Nina is “hanging around”, and a lot more rain was expected to fall during December, January and February. “We still haven’t changed our forecast on the six cyclones that are expected to develop in the Coral Sea. And there is a possibility that one will hit the coast before the end of the year.”
