you should walk a mile in their shoes.
That way when you criticize them,
you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.**
Jack Handey
LARGEST QUAKES -
Live Seismograms - Worldwide (update every 30 minutes)
This morning -
5.1 MOLUCCA SEA
6.5 BOUGAINVILLE REGION, P.N.G.
5.1 BOUGAINVILLE REGION, P.N.G
Yesterday -
4/13/13 -
6.0 VANUATU
5.0 BANDA SEA
5.1 BANDA SEA
5.0 OFF COAST OF AISEN, CHILE
5.1 EASTERN NEW GUINEA REG., P.N.G.
4/12/13 -
5.1 KEPULAUAN TALAUD, INDONESIA
5.8 NEAR S. COAST OF WESTERN HONSHU
5.0 FIJI REGION
5.3 FIJI REGION
5.4 GUERRERO, MEXICO
Japan quake leaves 24 injured - The magnitude 5.8 quake left some homes with rooftop tiles broken and cracked walls, while goods fell off store shelves. Seven of the seriously injured were mostly elderly tripping while trying to flee. The strong earthquake hit western Japan early on Saturday, injuring at least 24 people and destroying some houses and bringing traumatic flashbacks to the 1995 Kobe quake - a magnitude-7.2 quake which killed more than 6400 people.
Missile alert misfires after quake - Japanese officials mistakenly announced the launch of a North Korean missile instead of sending an alert about the strong earthquake that hit western Japan.
An official at the Transport Ministry's western Osaka aviation bureau mistakenly emailed 87 airport offices yesterday morning that a North Korean missile had been launched. The official was trying to send a message to check on possible airport damage immediately after the 6.3-magnitude earthquake hit the western Hyogo prefecture. But instead of sending an email about the earthquake, the official mistakenly dispatched a prepared alert that was ready to go in the event of a North Korean missile launch. The incorrect message was retracted six minutes later but at least one domestic flight was delayed through the mistake.
Japan is on full alert ahead of an expected mid-range missile launch by North Korea, with Patriot missiles stationed in its capital to protect the 30 million people who live there. On Wednesday, officials in the city of Yokohama were left red-faced after mistakenly announcing the launch of a North Korean missile to 40,000 followers on Twitter.
VOLCANOES -
Volcano Webcams
Solar panels stolen from Vanuatu volcano monitors - Officials say monitoring of an active Vanuatu volcano has been hampered by the theft of solar panels powering their measuring equipment. Mount Yasur, on the island of Tanna, shows signs of rumbling back to life, with the alert raised to level two.
Mount Etna Volcano in Italy Erupts - Photos: Italy's volcanic Mount Etna spews lava during an eruption on the southern Italian island of Sicily on Thursday April 11.
TROPICAL STORMS -
In the South Indian Ocean -
Tropical Cyclone Imelda was located approximately 6315 nm northeast of La Reunion.
Cyclone Victoria blown apart - The TRMM satellite captured fading rainfall rates in dissipating Cyclone Victoria on April 12. Tropical Cyclone Victoria is now a remnant low pressure area in the Southern Indian Ocean after running into strong wind shear that has been tearing the storm apart. Cyclone season in Australia is usually over by the end of this month.
Tropical storm, hurricane forecast for 2013: Look for an active season. - The folks at the Tropical Meteorology Research Project at CSU are forecasting an above-average 2013 Atlantic hurricane season, with 18 named storms. They predict that nine of those storms will become hurricanes and that four of those nine will be major hurricanes - Category 3, 4, or 5 storms. This comes on the heels of a less-than-stellar forecast in 2012, when nearly twice as many storms formed as had been forecast.
SEVERE RAIN STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -
India - Relief camps being set up for cyclone victims. Two relief camps are being set up for nearly 700 families rendered homeless in a storm in Meghalaya's South West Khasi Hills and West Khasi Hills districts on Thursday. Three people were killed in the cyclone.
"Storm and hailstones damaged hundreds of houses and injured over 35 people in the Mawkyrwat community and rural development block of South West Khasi Hills district. Eighteen villages were affected and around 45 houses were destroyed." Further, hailstorms struck another 15 villages in which about 122 houses were damaged. Two relief camps were being set up for the people of the 24 affected cyclone-ravaged villages.
EXTREME WEATHER -
Four seasons in one day: Extreme weather sweeps across U.S. - The nation experienced ONE OF THE MORE UNUSUAL 24-HOURS OF WEATHER IN RECENT MEMORY on Thursday as different regions of the country were gripped by snow storms, tornadoes and a heat wave all at the same time. Unusual weather reported across the country - tornadoes in the south, a heat wave in the north, a deluge in the Midwest and snow in the north. Tornadoes reported in Arkansas and Missouri, where dozens of homes were damaged and a church leveled. Thousands without power in Minnesota after snow and ice storm strikes the Midwest. (many photos)
Extreme weather, not human-induced climate change, caused U.S. drought - "Neither ocean states nor human-induced climate change, factors that can provide long-lead predictability, appeared to play significant roles in causing severe rainfall deficits over the major corn producing regions of central Great Plains."
SPACE WEATHER -
Sun unleashed biggest solar flare of 2013 and sparked a temporary radio blackout on Earth. The largest solar flare of 2013 erupted from the sun Thursday. The short-lived radio communications blackout on Earth registered as an R2 event (on a scale of R1 to R5).
A coronal mass ejection swept past Earth on April 13th around 22:55 UT. The impact rattled Earth's magnetic field and induced electrical currents in the ground around the Arctic Circle.
HEALTH THREATS -
Close-contact infection reported as China's H7N9 tally reaches 49 - On Saturday China reported the first H7N9 influenza infection in a contact of an earlier confirmed case, along with four other new cases, bumping the country's illness total from the new virus to 49.
Beijing reports first H7N9 infection - Beijing health authorities confirmed an H7N9 infection in a 7-year-old girl who lives in the city, the first case to be detected outside of eastern China.
RECALLS & ALERTS
