Thomas Pynchon
LARGEST QUAKES -
Live Seismograms - Worldwide (update every 30 minutes)
This morning -
5.1 SOUTH OF FIJI ISLANDS
Yesterday -
7/9/12 -
5.3 SULAWESI, INDONESIA
5.1 MYANMAR
5.3 RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN
5.7 EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA
5.0 ALAMAGAN REG, N. MARIANA ISLANDS
5.3 SEA OF OKHOTSK
New Zealand - North Island no closer to big quake. The North Island has been rocked by two large earthquakes in less than a week, but seismologists say the chance of "the big one" has not increased.
TROPICAL STORMS -
In the Pacific -
- Category 1 Hurricane Daniel was located about 1535 mi [2470 km] E of Hilo, Hawaii.
- Category 3 Hurricane Emilia was located about 680 mi [1095 km] SSW of the southern tip of Baja California.
SEVERE RAIN STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -
Turkey - Nine people, including at least four children, have died in flooding triggered by torrential rains on Turkey's Black Sea coast, it was reported on Wednesday. Another four people are believed to be missing, including a toddler, after the floods which have prompted the evacuation of a number of riverside villages in and around the Black Sea port city of Samsun.
Rescuers found the bodies of five people in the basement of a block of flats Samsun, which was badly affected by the freak rains. The body of another man was found in the rubble of a bridge which collapsed in rural Samsun. Three people, among them a six-year-old girl, were also found dead in a car that was swept away by floodwaters after a seven-hour torrent. A rescue team of 12 divers are looking for a toddler believed to be in the same car, as well as three others who might have been swept away in their vehicles.
The disaster has prompted the evacuation of riverside villages, where hundreds of farm animals drowned before they could be transported. The heavy rains were expected to continue throughout the week, local meteorological officials in Samsun have warned.
Northeast India floods kill 121, displace 6 million - The death toll from heavy monsoon rains which have caused massive flooding in India's northeast has risen to more than 120, with six million forced to flee their homes, officials said Saturday. The weather office forecast that more rains during the next 24 hours would lash the region, which is suffering from its worst flooding in recent years.
SPACE WEATHER -
One of the biggest sunspots in years, AR1520, is turning toward Earth. The vast dark cores of sunspot AR1520 are made of magnetism. Each one is a magnetic island nearly as wide as Earth floating in a sea of solar plasma. The magnetic field of this enormous sunspot is tangled, and harbors energy for strong solar flares. NOAA forecasters estimate an 80% chance of M-flares and a 25% chance of X-flares during the next 24 hours.
MANY CMEs: During the late hours of July 8th, a series of rapid-fire explosions on the sun propelled three coronal mass ejections (CMEs) into space. Despite the number of eruptions and the breadth of the billowing ejecta, Earth is little affected. All of the clouds appear set to miss our planet. Nevertheless, this flurry of CMEs highlights the currently-high level of solar activity. It is only a matter of time before a significant CME comes our way.
On July 9th there were surprise auroras over North America. The source of the display was not an explosion on the sun, but rather a fluctuation in the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). The IMF near Earth tipped south, opening a crack in our planet's magnetosphere. Solar wind poured in and ignited the lights. More auroras could be in the offing. A CME that left the sun on July 6th might deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field on July 9-10. NOAA forecasters estimate a 25% to 30% chance of polar geomagnetic storms if and when the cloud arrives.
A solar wind stream flowing from a coronal hole could reach Earth on July 10-11.
