but not in one ahead.**
Bill McGlashen
LARGEST QUAKES -
Live Seismograms - Worldwide (update every 30 minutes)
This morning -
5.4 MARIANA ISLANDS REGION
DODECANESE ISLANDS, GREECE - 2 quakes; largest 3.3
CANARY ISLANDS REGION shaking again - two quakes this morning; largest 4.0
Yesterday -
4/6/13 -
5.2 PAPUA, INDONESIA
7.0 PAPUA, INDONESIA
5.1 NEW GUINEA, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
5.2 NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G.
5.1 TONGA
5.2 CRETE, GREECE
5.0 SOUTHERN EAST PACIFIC RISE
5.7 CHINA-RUSSIA-NORTH KOREA BORDER
DODECANESE ISLANDS, GREECE had a 2.9 and a 1.9
4/5/13 -
5.5 NIAS REGION, INDONESIA
5.3 HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
5.5 SOUTHERN EAST PACIFIC RISE
5.0 SOUTHEAST OF LOYALTY ISLANDS
5.0 OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.4 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.2 HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
5.0 SAMOA ISLANDS REGION
5.1 NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G.
6.2 E. RUSSIA-N.E. CHINA BORDER REG.
5.2 KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION
5.4 GUERRERO, MEXICO
5.0 SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION
DODECANESE ISLANDS, GREECE had 13 moderate quakes; largest was 2.7
At around 8pm on Thursday evening, a 5.4-magnitude earthquake hit Mexico City and parts of central and southern Mexico. The epicenter was in the southern state of Guerrero. Authorities reported no injuries resulting from the quake, and damage appeared to be largely minimal.
Last year, Mexico City suffered a 7.8-grade quake, from which the city largely escaped intact. The worst quake in Mexico was in 1985 in Mexico City. At 8.1 magnitude, it devastated Mexico City in only a few minutes and left 10,000 dead and 4,000 in need of rescue from beneath the rubble. 250,000 people lost their homes; the number of houses destroyed completely reached 30,000, and 68,000 were reported to have sustained some damages. In the neighboring state of Michoacán, where the epicenter of the quake occurred, 80 percent of the buildings were damaged.
VOLCANOES -
Volcano Webcams
Nicaragua - On Thursday, earthquake activity (including spasmodic tremor) continued at a high level at Telica volcano. Compatriot volcano Concepcion also experienced pulses of relatively strong harmonic (and possibly an explosion?) tremor.
On Friday, earthquake (and some volcanic tremor) activity remained high at Telica volcano. Activity at the volcano seems to alternate between periods of many smaller events, often merging into volcanic tremor, and fewer, though larger events.
Scientist says volcanic eruption behind 'perfect storm' that kicked off the Dark Ages - The new History series “Perfect Storms” has found solid circumstantial evidence that an eruption at El Salvador's Lake Ilopango volcano was the cause of the so-called Dust Veil of AD 536, when a thick dust and ash cloud over the Northern Hemisphere.
Indonesia - Bloggers aid Rokatenda eruption victims. The Bali Blogger Community says it wants to raise money for those left homeless by the ongoing eruption of Mount Rokatenda in Sikka, East Nusa Tenggara, about 700 kilometers east of Bali.
TROPICAL STORMS -
In the South Indian Ocean -
Tropical Cyclone Twenty-one was located approximately 200 nm south-southwest of Diego Garcia.
SEVERE STORMS -
Saudi Arabia - Thursday, the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment warned that there would be EXTREME CLIMATIC FLUCTUATIONS across the Kingdom over the next three days.
Temperatures will rise significantly in most regions of the Kingdom from Thursday morning while cold air masses will start sweeping northern regions, including Tabuk, Al-Jouf, Northern Border Region, and Hail later the same day. This would be accompanied by dust and sandstorm, and will be followed by a considerable drop in temperatures ranging from 5 to 10 degrees Celsius. The climatic fluctuations will start from south and then move to southwest and the visibility will be low.
According to PME, cold air masses will sweep the central, eastern and western parts of the Kingdom from Friday morning onward. Accompanied by dust, the cold air masses will affect regions of Al-Qassim, Riyadh, Eastern Province, Makkah and Madinah. This is likely to convert into huge sandstorms, hitting mainly open areas and expressways in the central and eastern regions, with a fall in temperatures. It will affect southern regions, including Najran, mountainous regions of Jazan, Asir and Baha. PME urged citizens and those going to sea, including fishermen and the highway users, to take extra caution and vigil in such an extreme weather.
Major sandstorm headed to the Unuted Arab Emirates - A major sandstorm is expected to hit the UAE this weekend. The National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology (NCMS) forecast a sandstorm to come to the UAE on Friday. The storm is expected to create a visibility of less than 500 meters.
The sandstorm was expected to erupt in Iraq and travel through Kuwait to hit the UAE on Friday, gripping the country for two days. Wind speeds of 25-35 knots are expected. In Saudi Arabia, too, a government met centre warned that the kingdom would be hit by extreme climatic conditions over the coming three days.
"On an average, the UAE faces between 8 and 10 severe sandstorms each year. In many cases these sandstorms can last for several hours or sometimes even the whole day, bring traffic to a standstill, forcing places of work and school to close and significantly increasing the number of hospitalizations." With the vast desert surrounding most areas in the UAE, the country is prone to experience sandstorms. "When the visibility reaches below 1 kph, we can speak of a sandstorm."
With wind speeds of 35-50 knots, dust particles are carried in the air from desert areas, and travel overland until the wind speed decreases. In the UAE, sandstorms mostly come from the south of Iraq, traveling via Kuwait into the UAE. Officials have suggested that hospital admissions due to respiratory diseases such as asthma have increased by as much as 25 per cent over the last few years, as a result of severe weather; particularly sandstorms.
"Sandstorms are a major cause of bacterial and viral infection particular amongst those with weaker immune systems such as the elderly and pediatrics, in addition to those with compromised immune systems. Additionally, because of the large amount of pollen these storms carry, allergies commonly known as allergic rhinitis, are also a problem. In severe cases and when left untreated, allergic rhinitis can lead to asthma, even in patients with no previous history of this illness." Unawareness is a major concern, as people might not be aware of the effects a sandstorm can have on their health.
Although it is difficult to say how often a sand storm may erupt in a year, in transition time between seasons, sandstorms are most common. Western areas are most likely to be affected, although Abu Dhabi saw one of the highest sandstorm rates in 2008 - 128 events of sandstorms.
HEAVY SNOW / EXTREME COLD -
Britain 'running out of wheat' owing to bad weather - The prolonged cold weather is expected to impact this autumn's harvest. Britain will become a net importer of wheat for the first time in a decade this year because of the bad weather.
More than two million tonnes of wheat had been lost because of last year's poor summer. The prolonged cold weather would also hit this autumn's harvest. But the shortage was unlikely to affect the price of bread because of the global nature of the market.
The average yield fell from 7.8 tonnes a hectare to 6.7 tonnes last summer. Looking ahead to the 2013 harvest, farmers had only managed to get three quarters of the planned wheat planted this year, so the UK was already 25% down on potential production. "We would normally say you should hide a hare in a crop of wheat in March. You'd struggle to cover a mouse in some of mine."
"It seems many farmers have written 2013 off and are trying to do what they can with the crops in the ground. Everyone is focussing on 2014 and making sure the land is in a good condition to get good crops then. This is what producing food is all about - the weather. We have got to put it in context, this is only the first time since the late 1970s that we have been net importers, Over the past five or six years we have been in surplus."
The crop damage is dealing a further blow to Britain's farming industry, which is already reeling from a spate of recent livestock deaths due to the cold weather. But only about 10% of the cost of a loaf of is attributable to wheat. The rest was due to processing, transport, and packaging. "We could see wheat double and the impact on a loaf of bread would not be enormous. But we need to make sure, in the UK, we are producing raw materials for what has been - despite the weather - a fantastically successful sector."
EXTREME HEAT & DROUGHT -
Costa Rica - The National Seismological Network warned that the lake in the Poas Volcano could disappear entirely in the next few months, if weather conditions do not bring rainfall which is the main reason the lake exists. The lake has been left only 12 meters deep.
HEALTH THREATS -
China steps up response to bird flu cases - China has confirmed 16 cases of the H7N9 strain since announcing a week ago that the virus had been found in humans for the first time. Six people have died.
Water leak feared at Japan nuke plant - Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant says it is moving tons of highly radioactive water from a temporary storage tank to another because of a possible leak.
TEPCO said on Saturday about 108 tonnes the water are believed to have breached the tank's inner linings, although little is thought to have leaked into the soil. TEPCO is moving the water to a nearby tank. It is part of the water that was used to cool melted fuel at the Fukushima Dai-ichi reactors damaged in the March 2011 disaster. So much water was used that TEPCO is struggling to find storage space.
The plant is being decommissioned but continues to experience glitches. A fuel storage pool temporarily its lost cooling system on Friday, a month after a similar 30-hour outage.
