Monday, June 4, 2012

**Let us have the candor to acknowledge
that what we call "the economy" or "the free market"
is less and less distinguishable from warfare.**
Wendell Berry


LARGEST QUAKES -
Live Seismograms - Worldwide (update every 30 minutes)

This morning -
5.8 SOUTH OF PANAMA [USGS 6.6 magnitude]
5.9 SOUTH OF PANAMA [USGS 6.2 magnitude]
5.0 SOUTHEAST OF LOYALTY ISLANDS

Yesterday -
6/3/12 -
5.0 POTOSI, BOLIVIA

5.1 magnitude quake hits Italy - No casualties were reported but some buildings collapsed in central-northern Italy as a magnitude-5.1 quake [USGS 4.8] on Sunday evening shook the same area that was hit by two powerful fatal quakes on May 20 and 29. The latest shake occurred at 9:20 pm.

VOLCANOES -
Volcano Webcams

Alaska eruption turned June into winter in 1912 - June 6 will mark the 100th anniversary of the eruption of Novorupta, the volcanic event that created the Valley of 10000 Smokes, site of present-day Katmai National Monument. Kodiak was covered with ash following the great Novarupta-Katmai eruption of June 1912. There was no way to know the boom came from hundreds of miles away, or that it was the starting gun for the largest volcanic eruption of the 1900s. Even a century after one of the world's largest volcanic eruptions, a strong wind still whips up the ash that rained down on what became known as Alaska's Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. Pumice chunks still dot the beaches of Kodiak.

TROPICAL STORMS -
In the Pacific -
Typhoon 04w (Mawar) was located approximately 285 nm south-southwest of Kadena AB, Okinawa.

EXTREME HEAT & DROUGHT / CLIMATE CHANGE -

Air Tanker Crash Kills 2 at Utah Wildfire - Two pilots were killed when their air tanker crashed while fighting a wildfire in western Utah.

SPACE WEATHER -

LUNAR ECLIPSE - This morning, June 4th, the full Moon will pass through the shadow of Earth, producing a partial lunar eclipse visible across the Pacific side of Earth from Asia to North America. In the United States, the event is visible during the hours before sunrise on Monday morning. The eclipse begins at 3:00 a.m. PDT and reaches maximum at 4:03 a.m. PDT with 38% of the Moon's diameter in shadow.
SOLAR TSUNAMI: New sunspot 1496 unleashed an M3-class solar flare on June 3rd at 1755 UT. A powerful solar tsunami issued from the blast site. "This was a great solar event! The blast wave sparked powerful radio emissions as it plowed through the sun's atmosphere, and I recorded the sounds using my shortwave radio telescope." The explosion also hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space. The cloud does not appear to be heading for Earth, although this conclusion could be revised by further analysis. (photo/video)