is having sight but no vision.**
Helen Keller
LARGEST QUAKES -
Live Seismograms - Worldwide (update every 30 minutes)
This morning -
5.7 GULF OF CALIFORNIA
5.6 ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE
Yesterday -
10/7/12 -
5.4 NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G.
5.6 LUZON, PHILIPPINES
Haiti work 'not on track' - A newly released audit says the largest U.S. contractor working to stabilize Haiti after the 2010 earthquake is "not on track" to complete its assignments on schedule, has a weak monitoring system and is not adequately involving community members.
Texas - Dallas Earthquakes May Be Tied To Wastewater Disposal From Fracking. Three UNUSUAL earthquakes that shook a suburb west of Dallas over the weekend appear to be connected to the past disposal of wastewater from local hydraulic fracturing operations.
VOLCANOES -
Volcano Webcams
Mount Lokon has erupted, spewing smoke in north Indonesia - Mount Lokon in North Sulawesi province erupted on Sunday afternoon as heavy rain fell around its cloud-covered crater. The sound was heard 5 kilometers (3 miles) away but the height of the eruption was not visible. the volcano spewed smoke and ash and caused muddy rain to fall in nearby villages.
Italy - Slight shaking at Etna volcano. A slight increase in shaking was reported at Etna volcano on the island of Sicily but it does not appear in danger of eruption, volcano experts said Friday.
Maar-diatreme volcanos, like the Lunar Crater maar in Nevada, erupt only once before dying. New research shows that when they erupt, multiple explosions occur simultaneously over a range of depths below the earth's surface.
TSUNAMIS / HIGH WAVES -
Australian coastline at risk of destructive tsunamis, reveal simulations - Following the catastrophic 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and last year's devastating Christchurch earthquake, the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre and Geoscience Australia have simulated two wave-triggering earthquakes.
TROPICAL STORMS -
In the Eastern Pacific -
- Tropical storm Olivia was located approximately 850 mi [1370 km] WSW of the southern tip of Baja California. No threat to land.
In the Western Pacific -
Tropical storm Prapiroon was located approximately 670nm southeast of Kadena AB, Okinawa, Japan.
Tropical Storm Prapiroon, which spawned overnight Sunday, is lurking nearly 800 miles south-southeast of Okinawa, drifting slowly west.
Tropical Storm Nadine broke up after tying record for longest-lived storm - The storm grew into a hurricane three times, lost its tropical status once, made two loops and brushed the Azores twice on a twisting path around the central Atlantic as the basin's 14th storm of the 2012 season.
SEVERE RAIN STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -
Recent warming in the Atlantic Ocean is the main cause of wet summers in northern Europe, according to a new study. A cyclical pattern of rising and falling ocean temperatures is seen as a major influence on UK weather. Scientists say the current pattern will last as long as the Atlantic warming persists.
The phenomenon is known as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation - a cycle of change in which the waters either warm or cool over a period of several decades. The researchers compared three periods in this cycle: a warm state from 1931-60, a cool period from 1961-90 and the most recent warm period starting in 1990 and continuing now. Conditions in the last warm period in the Atlantic are broadly similar to those observed now.
One conclusion is that a warmer-than-usual Atlantic "favours a mild spring (specially April), summer and autumn, in England and across Europe." Another finding - of greatest relevance to the search for a cause of rainy summers - is that the warmth of the ocean also tends to make northern and central Europe wetter than usual. By contrast southern Europe, from Portugal to Turkey, gets far less rain than normal. That was the pattern observed last summer.
The precise mechanism by which the temperature of the surface of the ocean drives weather systems is not well understood. But it is thought the changes in pressure influence the path of the jet stream, and how much it "meanders". Regions to the north of the stream, as Britain was for much of the summer, tend to be on the receiving end of a succession of rain storms. "We also don't know the length of these periods of warmer or cooler conditions in the Atlantic Ocean - in the past they have varied a lot, from 20-50 years."
The oscillation is itself tied to another natural cycle known as the Altantic Meridional Overturning Circulation - a pattern of oceanic currents believed to be governed by an interplay of salt and freshwater, winds and tides, and possibly now also influenced by manmade greenhouse gases. "Clearly there is a link between Atlantic warming and Arctic sea ice though the details are not well understood. This does not mean that Arctic sea ice is not contributing to the effect on Europe's weather but it's an open question as to how much. The warming of the Atlantic Ocean may be amplified by the reductions in Arctic sea ice - these things are not independent."
"Earlier research at the European Weather Centre had indicated that both the sea surface temperatures and the decreasing summer Arctic sea-ice may in combination have played a role in poor UK summer weather in 2007 and 2008, and one can speculate also in 2012. " So what about the next few summers? There is no sign of the Atlantic Ocean cooling for the moment so the current pattern is likely to continue. The transition between warm and cool phases in the ocean can happen quickly and cold winters may be a precursor to that change. So, ironically, if the coming months bring freezing conditions, that may have an impact on the temperature of the Atlantic, and that in turn might mean the ocean switches to a cooler phase and so lead to drier summers for Britain. But no one is betting on it - the research is still in its earliest days. (map)
Vietnam - Water levels in many rivers passing through the central region of Viet Nam have risen to an alarming level due to heavy rains brought in by Tropical Storm Gaemi that hit the area over the weekend.
SPACE WEATHER -
Newly discovered Asteroid 2012 TC4 , 22 meters in size, will pass by earth on October 12th just 0.2 lunar distances away (1/5 of the way between the Earth and the Moon).
Meanwhile, newly-discovered asteroid 2012 TV was flying through the Earth-Moon system 0.7 lunar distances away (about 2/3rd of the way between the Earth and the Moon) on Sunday. The 40 meter-wide space rock is glowing like a 13th-magnitude star.
