merely to be normal.**
Albert Camus
LARGEST QUAKES -
Live Seismograms - Worldwide (update every 30 minutes)
This morning -
5.2 SCOTIA SEA [south of Argentina]
Yesterday -
12/29/12 -
5.2 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU,
5.4 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.1 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.8 HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
5.5 BISMARCK SEA
5.0 BISMARCK SEA
12/28/12 -
5.5 SULAWESI, INDONESIA
5.5 KOMANDORSKIYE OSTROVA REGION
5.1 KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION
Superfast tweets on Earthquakes – Tsunamis – Volcanoes - from Earthquake-report.com. They follow the reports of 4 agencies: USGS (USA), EMSC (Europe), GFZ (Germany) and GEONET (New Zealand).
The earliest reports often report a very good magnitude value but often are seriously wrong with their depth estimate. Important to know about earthquake depths: If you see 10 km, there is a chance of only 10% that the real depth is 10 km. In the remaining 90% cases 10 km means, “we still have to re-calculate”. These values are generated automatically by computer and only when revised by a seismologist will they get a recalculated value. GFZ is often reporting very quickly and can be trusted for magnitude and epicenter location but is often wrong with the hypocenter depth. USGS is in many cases slower, but has a more-to-be-trusted overall value.
Seismology is a very difficult science and it takes some time to recalculate the many factors involved, therefore the real magnitude and depth often varies after a couple of hours. Even after recalculation, the different agencies are very often reporting different values. The average of all of them is probably the most accurate. Especially during massive earthquakes, comparing the values is advised. [Note - I just discovered this article and have never personally used this service.]
TROPICAL STORMS -
In the South Indian Ocean -
Tropical Cyclone 06s (Mitchell) was located approximately 225 nm west-northwest of Learmonth, Australia. Expected to weaken.
Tropical Cyclone 05p (Freda) was located approximately 660 nm north-northwest of Noumea, New Caledonia.
Tropical Cyclone Freda brought heavy rainfall to the Solomon Islands and is currently churning over the open Coral Sea. The storm ripped through the Solomon Islands, bringing heavy rain and damaging winds as it passed from north to south. Freshly formed Cyclone Freda whipped roofs off houses and flattened trees as it gathered strength en route to New Caledonia, forecasters said Saturday. There was also flooding from rising rivers with winds of up to 130 mph ( 90 kilometres per hour). The cyclone, a category one out of five storm, at about eight nautical miles off the south of Solomon Islands was intensifying and has now been upgraded to a category two out of five storm.
Freda may copy Evan's form, just two weeks after Cyclone Evan tore through the Pacific. "It's a very, very long way out still for us, but there are increasing signs this second cyclone is certainly going to put the north of New Zealand again at some sort of threat risk at the start of January. "It's formed in a perfect place for cyclones."
"This cyclone is expected to stay way off the eastern Australian coast for the next several days and the only impact we can see in the near future is the possibility of waves increasing into the early part of next week, but that's a long way off."
HEAVY SNOW / EXTREME COLD -
U.S. - Week's 2nd snowstorm hits Northeast, parts of Ohio. A widespread winter storm dumped snow on Saturday, just days after the regions were hit by another storm moving from the nation's midsection.
The National Weather Service expected up to a foot of snow in parts of southern New England, with the heaviest snowfall possibly in Providence, R.I., and Boston, which declared parking bans to allow snow removal vehicles to clean the streets. Winter storm warnings were in effect in parts of those states and in Connecticut.
New York City and Philadelphia saw a mix of rain and snow as the storm moved in from the west. In Ohio, Dayton, Columbus and Cincinnati saw about 2 to 5 inches of snow by Saturday afternoon. "Expect those accumulations to kind of work their way northeastward through much of New York state and much of New England." Drivers throughout the regions were warned to be cautious. Officials lowered the speed limit on much of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, about 300 miles from the Ohio state line to east-central Pennsylvania, from 65 mph to 45 mph.
About 20 vehicles piled up in a storm-related chain-reaction crash on Interstate 93 in New Hampton, N.H. and five people were injured. In Albany, N.Y., a regional jet skidded into a snow bank at the airport and became stuck, temporarily stranding passengers. Parts of southern Indiana saw 6 to 8 inches of snow from the storm, some in areas that had received more than a foot from a blizzard earlier in the week.
That blizzard was part of a storm system that dumped more than a foot of snow in some places and has been blamed for at least 16 deaths. It also spawned more than a dozen tornadoes in Alabama. But Saturday's snow wasn't as heavy as that of the previous storm.
