The earthquake, the second powerful tremor in East Siberia in the past two months, had its epicenter located 107 km (66 miles) east of the city of Kyzyl near the border with Mongolia, at a depth of 15 km. The earthquake struck at 10:20 a.m. Moscow time (06:20 GMT) with a magnitude of 6 to 7 points in the epicenter. The earthquake caused no casualties or damage, according to preliminary data reported by the Russian Emergencies Ministry. The previous earthquake with a 6.7 magnitude occurred in December 2011 in the Kaa-Khemsky district of Tyva, some 100 km east of the city of Kyzyl, at a depth of 10 km. The tremor caused no destruction or casualties. The next earthquake was expected to strike closer to Lake Baikal. Normally, a fault that becomes active in one area causes a series of decreasing tremors by their magnitude. “In this case, it is most likely that some neighboring fault became active near the previous one. This means that Tyva will now be rattled by two series of earthquakes simultaneously."
Chamfort
LARGEST QUAKES -
This morning -
5.3 SOUTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
5.4 KURIL ISLANDS
5.2 SOUTH OF FIJI ISLANDS
5.2 SOUTHWESTERN RYUKYU ISL., JAPAN
5.0 BOUGAINVILLE REGION, P.N.G.
Yesterday -
2/26/12 -
5.1 SOUTH OF FIJI ISLANDS
5.0 FIJI REGION
5.2 SOUTH OF FIJI ISLANDS
5.0 SOUTH OF FIJI ISLANDS
5.4 SOUTH OF FIJI ISLANDS
5.1 SOUTH OF FIJI ISLANDS
5.3 SOUTHWESTERN SIBERIA, RUSSIA
5.2 SOUTHWESTERN SIBERIA, RUSSIA
5.0 SOUTHWESTERN SIBERIA, RUSSIA
6.8 SOUTHWESTERN SIBERIA, RUSSIA
5.1 TARAPACA, CHILE
5.6 SOUTH OF KERMADEC ISLANDS
5.9 TAIWAN
Strong earthquake hits Taiwan, causing minor property damage in south - A strong earthquake struck Taiwan on Sunday, causing minor damage in the southern part of the island. There were no immediate reports of casualties and no tsunami warning was issued.
Magnitude 6.8 quake shakes Siberia - Residents of multistory apartment buildings said objects tumbled off of shelves, windows rattled and chandeliers swayed during the quake. The earthquake hit about 60 miles east of Kyzyl.
TROPICAL STORMS -
No current tropical storms.
EXTREME HEAT & DROUGHT / WILDFIRES / CLIMATE CHANGE -
United Arab Emirates - Dust storms cause chaos - but cyclone rumour is just hot air. Dust storms battered large parts of the country yesterday, forcing schools to close and halting operations at ports - and sparking rumours of an imminent cyclone. Dozens of minor traffic accidents were reported in low visibility and light rain that swept the northern emirates and parts of Dubai.
The poor weather was responsible for a flurry of online rumours about an impending cyclone, which forecasters rejected as scaremongering. A top trending subject on Twitter was #sandstorm, with many residents sharing a BBM alert that a cyclone would strike at around 1pm. A forecaster at the National Centre for Meteorology and Seismology in Abu Dhabi said the rumour had "no basis in reality. Many people are interested about the weather and they like to make exciting rumours. We are really suffering from these people."
When 1pm came and went without incident, many Twitter users lampooned the prediction. Most of the dust had cleared by yesterday afternoon, but temperatures are expected to remain low for a few days. The dust was part of a large sandstorm that swept over parts of Saudi Arabia at the weekend.
The last time sandstorms hit the country, at the beginning of January, dozens of cruise ships were delayed.
Waves off the north coast were expected to reach four metres and a warning was issued to boat owners to stay onshore. In the Kalba area of Sharjah, sea levels were dangerously high, with water flowing over roads close to the coast. "The Kalba corniche itself is fully flooded with water. One could think it rained heavily, but not a single drop came from heaven. All the water is coming from the sea."
After the 'cyclone', UAE wakes up to earthquake rumors. The National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology (NCMS) has cautioned public against believing rumors of an earthquake in the northern parts of the UAE. In a statement issued on Sunday, the NCMS warned against unofficial predictions spreading through text messages and social networking websites, and urged citizens and residents in the UAE to get weather information only from authorised and reliable sources. On Sunday the dusty, hazy and near-zero-visibility weather has sent social networks into a storm of rumours and scaremongering, even as by Sunday evening the massive sandstrom had lost a lot of its velocity. As the evening approached, the winds died down appreciably letting residents breathe a sigh of relief. Traffic continued to remain terribly slow on most roads in and around Dubai and Sharjah. The weather conditions also forced some schools in Dubai to remain closed on Sunday.
SPACE WEATHER -
Five Solar Eruptions in 2 Days – CME On the Way - The sun produced five eruptions over a two day period. From February 23 through February 24 our sun produced an astonishing five solar eruptions, launched from the top, bottom, left and right sides of the solar disk. Four of those eruptions came in just a 24 hour period. One of the eruptions, a large snaking magnetic filament, erupted during the early hours of February 24 and launched the first of two coronal mass ejections (CME) in Earth’s direction. Though the February 24 solar eruption provided quite a show, the associated coronal mass ejection (CME) that impacted Earth's magnetic field on Feb. 26 around 4:00pm EST (2100 UT) was weak and does not appear set to cause a strong geomagnetic storm. (satellite images)
