**If it's not one thing,
it's your mother!**
LARGEST QUAKES -
This morning -
5.2 NEAR EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA
7.3 SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION
5.8 TONGA
5.3 TAIWAN REGION
5.0 MID-INDIAN RIDGE
5.1 OFF THE COAST OF EL SALVADOR
Yesterday -
7/14/13 -
5.0 KEPULAUAN KAI, INDONESIA
5.0 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS REGION
VOLCANOES -
Ecuador volcano spews ash, 200 evacuated - Authorities in Ecuador say at least 200 people have been evacuated from near the Tungurahua volcano after it spewed an ash plume more than 3.1 miles into the air.
The explosion produced ash and pyroclastic flows, and could be felt for miles. On Sunday people were evacuated from the zones of Cusua, Chacauco and Juive near the volcano as Tungurahua exploded, spewing stones, gases and ash. Authorities declared an orange alert, which allows officials to acquire the goods and carry out works to provide humanitarian assistance if needed. Tungurahua has been active for more than 13 years. The volcano is located about 84 miles southeast of the capital, Quito.
Volcanic 'scream' precedes explosive eruptions - A change in the frequency of earthquakes may foretell explosive volcanic eruptions, according to a new study. The seismic activity changes from steady drum beats to increasingly rapid successions of tremors. These blend into continuous noise which silences just before explosion.
The study of tremors in the lead-up to the 2009 eruption of Redoubt, a volcano in Alaska, showed that those quakes continuously rose in pitch like a volcanic glissando - a musical glide from one pitch to another. Subterranean magma plumbing systems sit beneath volcanoes and feed pressurised molten rock toward the surface before eruptions. As the magma flows through deep conduits and cracks, it generates small seismic tremors and earthquakes.
Scientists have noted earthquakes preceding volcanic eruptions before, for example drumbeat earthquakes were the first sign of renewed magmatic activity in Mount St Helens in April 2005. But the new analysis of Alaska's Redoubt volcano shows that the tremor glided to higher frequencies and then stopped abruptly less than a minute before eruption.
"The frequency of this tremor is UNUSUALLY HIGH for a volcano. Because there's less time between each earthquake, there's not enough time to build up enough pressure for a bigger one. After the frequency glides up to a ridiculously high frequency, it pauses and then it explodes."
The earthquake noise sounds like a scream before eruption when the seismometer data are speeded up sixty times to make them audible. The authors suggest a simple model of brittle fracture may explain their results, although the precise details of what is going on underneath volcanoes before they erupt remain unclear.
"If you can get an idea of what is causing these types of patterns then you have a route to prediction of volcanic eruptions. The question that arises is whether you can ever get these sorts of patterns without an eruption following? We had repetitive sequences of volcanic explosions in the Caribbean island of Montserrat in 1997 and 2003 which were preceded by similar tremors, with hybrid earthquakes that were periodic and then recurrence intervals decreased with time before the explosion. People are converging on a view on how magmas behave."
TROPICAL STORMS -
In the Western Pacific -
Tropical depression Eight was located approximately 222 nm eastward of Manila, Philippines.
SEVERE RAIN STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -
India floods - More than 5,700 people presumed dead. The government in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand has said that more than 5,700 people missing after last month's devastating floods will now be presumed dead.
Earlier, authorities had confirmed that some 600 people had died. More than 100,000 people were rescued from the Himalayan mountains after floods and landslides affected more than 4,000 villages. This year's early monsoon rains in the Uttarakhand region are believed to be THE HEAVIEST IN 80 YEARS.
Swollen rivers have swept away entire villages in the state, where there were many travellers in what is peak tourist season. 5,748 people who remain untraced will now be presumed dead so that the government can begin to give financial compensation to their families. However, authorities say, the exact number of deaths may never be known. Many bodies may have been washed away or remain buried under debris. Some of the bodies were recovered in rivers downstream from the flood zone and cremated in the places where they were found.
A month after the floods, many of the affected areas are still cut off as connecting roads have been washed away. The government has announced that the temple town of Kedarnath, one of the worst affected areas, will be closed to the public for at least a year. Meanwhile, the administration is struggling to provide relief to communities in remote areas where thousands who have lost their homes are living in temporary camps.
EXTREME HEAT & DROUGHT / WILDFIRES / CLIMATE CHANGE -
Severe heat- wave grips Japan - 12 dead. A severe heat-wave that hit Japan a week ago has claimed at least a dozen live. The mercury has topped 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) in areas right across the country for several days, with no immediate end to the misery in sight, forecasters said Friday.
Thousands of people have been taken to hospital suffering from heatstroke or exhaustion, with at least 12 of them dying. Most of those affected are over 65, but there have also been groups of school children who were participating in school activities outside. One recent death was that of a 90- year-old man whose body was discovered by his son inside an apartment. The air conditioner was turned off.
HEALTH THREATS -
RECALLS & ALERTS
