Such a trend has also been observed during other massive earthquakes in the world. On December 26, 2004, the 9.3 magnitude Sumatra earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean excited “giant” disturbances in the ionosphere, according to the journal’s report in 2006. Two giant ionospheric disturbances were observed in Taiwan. The first disturbance resulted in vertical ionospheric fluctuations with a maximum velocity of about 70 meters per second. The second disturbance, propagating at a horizontal speed of over 300 meters per second, was caused due to coupling of the atmospheric gravity waves with the tsunami waves.
Sholom Aleichem
LARGEST QUAKES -
This morning -
5.4 SOUTH OF FIJI ISLANDS
5.7 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS REGION
5.1 ST. LUCIA REGION, WINDWARD ISLANDS
Yesterday -
8/6/11 -
5.5 SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
5.2 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.1 NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G.
5.1 OFFSHORE MAULE, CHILE
8/5/11 -
5.0 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.7 KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION
5.4 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS
VOLCANOES -
RUSSIA - Volcano Shows Signs Of Impending Eruption. The Kamchatka Peninsula, along Russia's Pacific coast, is currently the most volcanically active area in the world: four volcanoes are erupting simultaneously, and a fifth is showing signs of an impending eruption.
Spectacular Collapse at Hawaiian Volcano - A live webcam positioned above the Puu Oo crater at Kilauea volcano caught the latest action, and one viewer created a time-lapse video using the footage.
Rivers Of Lava Flow From Kilauea Volcano In Hawaii - Eruptive activity at Hawaii's Kilauea volcano is continuing.
Mount Etna eruption prompts temporary closure of Sicilian airport An overnight eruption by Mount Etna prompted Italian authorities on Saturday to close Catania's Fontanarossa airport for several hours.
Increased activity at Marapi in Indonesia prompts elevated alert - NOT Merapi, Marapi is a volcano with a very similar name on Sumatra. Marapi is another stratovolcano that sees frequent small (VEI 1-2) eruptions, the last of these being in 2004, while an eruption in 1975 produce some fatalities. This week's Global Volcanism Program Weekly Volcanic Activity Report did have a brief mention of the small explosions and increased seismicity at Marapi and Indonesia officials have raised the alert status of the volcano to Level 2 (of 4). The latest news has the volcano producing plumes that reach a few hundred meters and suggest that the explosions and seismicity are continuing, albeit at a lower level than earlier this week. Officials have also set up an exclusion zone of 3 km around the volcano's summit.
There are an awful lot of images in articles about this activity that show eruptions of Merapi rather than Marapi, so I'd be skeptical of most.
TROPICAL STORMS -
-Tropical depression Emily was located about 155 mi /.245 km NNE of Freeport Grand Bahama Island.
- Tropical storm Muifa located approximately 120 nm west of Cheju Island, South Korea.
-Typhoon Merbok was located approximately 760 nm east-southeast of Yokosuka, Japan.
Forecasters Predict 70 Percent Likelihood of Major Hurricane Striking U.S. - The forecasters said there's a 34 percent chance that the Florida Keys will be struck by a tropical storm before November 30, and a 13 percent chance that that storm will be a major hurricane with winds exceeding 110 mph.
Former Tropical Storm Emily has regenerated as a weak tropical depression, but it is expected to move away from the Bahamas and the US Coast today.
Earlier, Emily brushed the southern coast of Hispaniola and killed one person in Haiti and three in the Dominican Republic.
Tropical storm could bring 'very dangerous' surf to LA beaches - In California, officials were warning of high surf and dangerous rip current Saturday along south facing beach in Los Angeles and Ventura counties caused by Tropical Storm Eugene in Mexico. The National Weather Service said surf topping 8 feet was possible at some beaches on Saturday and "very dangerous rip currents will develop without warning. Some beach erosion will occur during high tides and waves can suddenly wash over dry breakwalls and jetties." Hurricane Eugene was off the coast of Baja California. While once strong, it was downgraded Friday to a tropical storm.
MOST POWERFUL TYPHOON IN YEARS has been downgraded to tropical storm as it bears down on China's east coast. More than 200,000 coastal residents in eastern China have evacuated and thousands of ships have been called back to shore ahead of the arrival of Muifa, a powerful tropical storm that has already battered the Philippines. Muifa is forecast to strike China at about 21:00 GMT today.
EXTREME HEAT & DROUGHT / WILDFIRES / CLIMATE CHANGE -
US woman died after thieves stole her air conditioner. - Police have reported an increase in the number of air conditioning units being stolen throughout Texas, as Texas continues to smoulder under the blistering heatwave. A woman who reported that her air-conditioning unit had been stolen later died of heat exhaustion. Parts of Texas are experiencing their 39th CONSECUTIVE DAY OF TEMPERATURES ABOVE 100F (38C), with 13 deaths in Dallas County alone. The National Weather Service has issued heat advisories for parts of 14 states and has received 68 reports of U.S. heat-related deaths as of August 1.
July was THE HOTTEST MONTH EVER RECORDED IN TEXAS and the third driest in the state. On Thursday the city of Dallas marked its 34th consecutive day of temperatures topping 100F, while Waco saw its 42nd straight day. Electricity usage in the state has set records for three days this week, and forecasters said temperatures were expected to stay above 100F during the weekend. Deaths related to the hot weather have also been reported in Missouri, Florida, and Georgia. Other states, like Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Louisiana, have also felt the full force of the hot weather, with temperatures reaching as high as 110F during the past week.
Little Rock in Arkansas hit an ALL-TIME RECORD HIGH of 114F on Wednesday and experienced temperatures well above 100F on Thursday. "I can't remember any year with the magnitude and length of this heatwave. One thing that really causes this to stand out is the night time lows are much higher in this outbreak," and that it puts an "additional overnight strain on everything". Cooling shelters have opened up across the south with tens of thousands experiencing power outages because of the heat. Wildfires in April and May burned over 3 million acres in Texas and the agriculture and livestock industries have seen a preliminary impact of $6 to $8 billion.
Texas's punishing drought may persist for another year, forecasters say. “The suffering and desperate need for relief grows with the rising temperatures and record-breaking heat that continue to scorch Texas with each passing day."
ODD-
Orange goo baffles remote Alaska village - In the remote Alaska village of Kivalina a strange orange goo was sitting on top of the town's harbour. The news attracted all the townspeople, anxious to get a gander of the phenomenon that covered much of the harbour and then began washing ashore on Wednesday. The next day it rained, and residents found the orange matter floating on top of the rain buckets they use to collect drinking water. It was also found on one roof, leading them to believe whatever it was, it was airborne, too. By today, the orange substance in the lagoon had dissipated or washed out to sea, and what was left on ground had dried to a powdery substance. Samples of the orange matter were collected in canning jars and sent to a lab in Anchorage for analysis. Until results are known, Kivalina's 374 residents will likely continue to wonder just what exactly happened in their village.
"Certainly at this point it's a mystery," said a chemist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation lab in Anchorage. Kivalina, an Inupiat Eskimo village, is located at the tip of a 13-kilometre barrier reef on Alaska's north-west coast, and is located between the Chukchi Sea and Kivalina River to the north and the Wulik River to the south. Villagers have never seen anything like this before, and elders have never heard any stories passed down from earlier generations about an orange-coloured substance coming into town.
Portions of the samples will also be sent to the University of Alaska Fairbanks and to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lab in South Carolina for testing. "There's a number of experts in the areas who can identify if it's an organic material, for example, and what species this is, or perhaps it's not an organic material, and we're going to determine that, as well." The Coast Guard already has ruled out that the orange material, which some people described as having a semi-solid feel to it, was man-made or a petroleum product. That leaves algae as the best guess. The concern is if it's somehow harmful. What will it do to fish, which villagers will soon start catching to stock up for winter, or the caribou currently being hunted, or the berries? "We rely 100% on subsistence." When the material bunched up in the lagoon, it created three-metre-by-30-metre swaths of glimmering orange."The colour was a bright neon orange. Everybody was baffled."
SPACE WEATHER -
SUBSIDING STORM - Earth's magnetic field is still reverberating from a CME strike on August 5th that sparked one of the strongest geomagnetic storms in years. Registering 8 on the 0 - 9 "K-index" scale of magnetic disturbances, the storm at maximum sparked auroras across Europe and in many northern-tier US states. "For an hour and a half the sky was filled with dancing lights, some of the best I've ever seen in Northern Minnesota!" The storm is subsiding now, but it could flare up again as gusty solar wind continues to buffet Earth's magnetic field. High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras.
Sunspot 1263 poses a continued threat for X-class solar flares. The behemoth sunspot has almost doubled in size this weekend. A 28-hour movie from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the spot developing a tail that has added some 50,000 km of length to the active region. This development may increase the likelihood of a strong flare.
