**Art teaches nothing, except the significance of life.**
Michael Korda
LARGEST QUAKES so far today -
5.1 SOUTHEAST INDIAN RIDGE
6.8 ALASKA PENINSULA
5.2 ATACAMA, CHILE
Yesterday, 5/28/15 -
None 5.0 or larger.
5/27/15 -
None 5.0 or larger.
5/26/15 -
5.6 SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION
5.6 SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION
5.4 SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION
5.7 BIAK REGION, INDONESIA
5.6 ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE
5/25/15 -
5.4 WESTERN INDIAN-ANTARCTIC RIDGE
5.3 SOUTHEAST OF EASTER ISLAND
5.1 SOUTH OF TONGA
5.2 SEA OF JAPAN
5.1 NEAR S. COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.3 BOUGAINVILLE REGION, P.N.G.
5.0 SOUTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
5/24/15 -
5.2 CENTRAL MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
5.7 SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION
5.4 TONGA
6.3 TONGA
6.4 SOUTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
5.0 SOUTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
5/23/15 -
5.0 BANDA SEA
5.8 NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G.
5.0 SOLOMON ISLANDS
5.0 TARAPACA, CHILE
5.0 SOLOMON ISLANDS
5.4 SOLOMON ISLANDS
5.2 SOLOMON ISLANDS
5/22/15 -
6.8 SOLOMON ISLANDS
5.2 SOLOMON ISLANDS
6.9 SOLOMON ISLANDS
5.3 OFFSHORE TARAPACA, CHILE
5.1 NEAR S COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA
5.0 VANUATU
5.0 RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN
5.0 NEW GUINEA, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
5/21/15 -
5.7 SOLOMON ISLANDS
5.0 SOLOMON ISLANDS 5.0 TONGA
5/20/15 -
6.8 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS REGION
5.1 PERU-ECUADOR BORDER REGION
5.4 MOLUCCA SEA
5.5 TAJIKISTAN
6.0 TONGA
5/19/15 -
6.7 PACIFIC-ANTARCTIC RIDGE
5.0 BOUGAINVILLE REGION, P.N.G.
5.9 VANUATU
5.1 SOUTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
5/18/15 -
5.0 NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G.
5.1 GUATEMALA
5.6 BOUGAINVILLE REGION, P.N.G.
5.1 CARLSBERG RIDGE
5.8 MID-INDIAN RIDGE
5/17/15 -
5.5 EAST OF SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS
5.0 IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
5.2 MARIANA ISLANDS REGION
5.2 OFF COAST OF PAKISTAN
5.5 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS
5.0 LA RIOJA, ARGENTINA
5.0 NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G.
5.0 NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G.
5/16/15 -
5.6 NEPAL
5.1 NORTHERN PERU
5/15/15 -
5.0 OFFSHORE GUATEMALA
5.0 NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G.
5.0 NEAR COAST OF CENTRAL PERU
5.9 SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
5.1 EAST OF NORTH ISLAND, N.Z.
5.3 SOUTH OF AFRICA
5.4 EASTERN NEW GUINEA REG., P.N.G.
5.3 SOUTH OF FIJI ISLANDS
5.2 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
7.0 magnitude quake strikes offshore Alaska - An earthquake, downgraded to 6.8, struck off the southwest coast of Alaska late on Thursday. The quake's epicenter was 104 km (64 miles) south-southeast of Ugashik and 61.7 km deep. The agency upgraded the temblor to a 7.0 after initially stating it was slightly weaker.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that based on its available data, no tsunami was expected. The USGS said the quake was unlikely to cause casualties and notable damage, and there were no immediate reports of such. The area near the quake, centered some 400 miles (643 km) southwest of Anchorage, is lightly populated.
Movie Review: 'San Andreas' is full of faults - In the film, the San Andreas Fault awakens, unleashing back-to-back jolts that leave a trail of misery from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Skyscrapers crumble. Fires erupt. The letters of the Hollywood Sign topple. Dwayne Johnson stars as a helicopter-rescue pilot trying to save his family after a massive earthquake that is more ridiculous than impressive, though the scale is enormous.
What Will Really Happen When San Andreas Unleashes the Big One? - A major earthquake will cause plenty of destruction along the West Coast, but it won’t look like it does in the movies where a giant earthquake will strike California this summer, the Hoover Dam will crumble and a massive tsunami will wash across the Golden Gate Bridge. That’s the scenario that will play out on the big screen in San Andreas.
The moviemakers consulted the director of the Southern California Earthquake Center before they started filming, but “they probably didn’t take much of my advice,” he says. While the actual threats from the Big One are pretty terrifying, they are nowhere near the devastation witnessed by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and his onscreen companions.
Even the largest of San Andreas' quakes can’t produce a massive tsunami like the one that swells over San Francisco in the movie. “The really big tsunamis, like the one that hit Japan, are caused by earthquakes that generate a major displacement of the ocean floor.” The San Andreas fault sits far inland, and the land slips past on either side. For that reason, a quake also can’t cause the fault to split apart into a giant chasm as it does in the film.
And despite the warnings of distraught movie scientists, even the largest of California's quakes won’t be felt by anything but seismometers on the East Coast. That doesn’t mean California is off the hook, though. While the movie may be more fantasy than reality, the Big One is coming, and it will produce plenty of destruction. “We think Southern California is locked and loaded, that the stresses have really built up, and when things start unleashing, they could unleash for years,” says a U.S. Geological Survey seismologist.
California sits at the border between two major tectonic plates — the Pacific plate, which is moving northwest, and the North Americanplate, which is sliding past it to the southeast. The two plates don’t just meet at a single line, and the state is crisscrossed with dozens of earthquake faults. The San Andreas is the most worrisome, because it generates the quakes that are really dangerous to California residents.
The northern San Andreas leveled San Francisco in 1906, but it’s been a lot longer since the southern part of the fault ruptured. On average, Southern California has seen big quakes every 110 to 140 years, based on records of past earthquakes and studies of earthquake faults. The last big quake near Los Angeles, a magnitude 7.9, struck Fort Tejon in 1857. Farther south, near Palm Springs, the fault hasn’t ruptured in over 300 years. “Eventually the fault will have to break."
While seismologists can’t predict exactly when that will happen, every few years they release a forecast for the likelihood of such an event. The latest forecast, published earlier this year by the USGS, estimates a 7 percent chance that a magnitude 8 quake will occur in California within the next 30 years. That’s about as big as earthquakes can get in California — a magnitude 8.3 quake might be possible if the entire San Andreas fault were to rupture from the Mexico border up to northern California. “We don’t think that’s likely.” Overall, such a quake would cause some $200 billion in damage, 50,000 injuries and 2,000 deaths, the researchers estimated. But “it’s not so much about dying in the earthquake. It’s about being miserable after the earthquake and people giving up on Southern California.” Everything a city relies on to function — water, electricity, sewage systems, telecommunications, roads — would be damaged and possibly not repaired for more than a year. Without functioning infrastructure, the local economy could easily collapse, and people would abandon Los Angeles.
VOLCANOES -
A volcano erupted on a small island in southern Japan on Friday, spewing black clouds of ash and rock towering into the sky and prompting authorities to tell residents to evacuate the island. No injuries were reported after Mount Shindake erupted about 10 a.m. (0100 GMT) in spectacular fashion, sending dense pyroclastic flows of rock and hot gases seaward.
The agency raised the volcano alert level for Kuchinoerabu island, where Shindake is located, to five, the highest on its scale. Shindake also erupted in August last year for the first time since 1980. A military helicopter was sent to survey the island and assess damage. The Coast Guard had dispatched a ship to help evacuate the residents.
"There was a really loud, 'dong' sound of an explosion, and then black smoke rose, darkening the sky. It smelled of sulfur." A few people on the island were still unaccounted for. One person, who lives in an area that is generally off-limits, was to be evacuated by boat as he could not travel safely to the shelter by land. "The skies here are blue, but smoke is still rising to the west."
Kuchinoerabu is 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of the main southern island of Kyushu. A heavily forested, mountainous island bordered mostly by rocky cliffsides, it is a national park supported mainly by tourism and fishing. Footage showed the mountain shrouded in light gray ash as the clouds from the eruption cleared. Kuchinoerabu usually can be reached only by a once-a-day ferry from Yakushima island, 12 kilometers (about 7 miles) to the east, which has an airport and a population of more than 13,000 people.
Japan, which sits atop the Pacific "Ring of Fire," has dozens of volcanoes and is frequently jolted by earthquakes. In March 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake rocked northeastern Japan, triggering a tsunami that killed more than 18,500 people and ravaged much of the northern Pacific coast. Authorities recently closed part of a popular hot springs about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Tokyo because of fears Mount Hakone, which sits to the southeast of Mount Fuji, might erupt.
The eruption last September of another volcano, Mount Ontake in central Japan, killed 57 people. The eruption on Kuchinoerabu was stronger than Mount Ontake's. Since the 2011 disasters, "this sort of activity has continued. Probably the eruptions will continue."
TROPICAL STORMS -
* In the Eastern Pacific -
Tropical storm Andres was located about 800 mi (1285 km) SSW of the southern tip of Baja California. Strengthening Andres expected to become a hurricane today.
Tropical Storm Andres Forms in the Northeast Pacific, is not a threat to Mexico. The Northeast Pacific's first named storm of 2015 is here. Tropical Storm Andres formed at 11 am EDT on Thursday, in the waters about 690 miles southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico.
The first named storm of the Northeast Pacific hurricane season usually forms by June 10, so we are nearly two weeks ahead. According to the database of Eastern Pacific storms maintained by NOAA's Office for Coastal Management, the formation of a tropical storm in May in the Eastern Pacific is not uncommon, 33 named storms have formed in May in the 45 years since accurate satellite records began in 1970.
Sea surface temperatures are UNUSUALLY WARM in the region, at least 2°F (1.1°C) above average, thanks in large part to the intensifying El Niño event underway in the Eastern Pacific. Andres will likely be able to take advantage of these warm waters and become a hurricane this weekend, but the storm will stay well out to sea and not affect any land areas for at least the next five days.
NOAA predicts an above-average Eastern Pacific hurricane season: 18.5 named storms. Andres is the first salvo in what is likely to be a very busy Northeast Pacific hurricane season. NOAA's pre-season prediction for the Eastern Pacific hurricane season, issued on May 27, calls for 15 - 22 named storms, 7 - 12 hurricanes, 5 - 8 major hurricanes, and an ACE index 110% - 190% of the median.
The mid-point of these ranges gives us a forecast for 18.5 named storms, 9.5 hurricanes, and 6.5 major hurricanes, with an ACE index 150% of average. The 1981 - 2010 averages for the Eastern Pacific hurricane season are 15 named storms, 8 hurricanes, and 4 major hurricanes.
SEVERE RAIN STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -
Hundreds seek safety from Texas floods, severe weather kills 16. Hundreds of people fled areas near Texas rivers that overflowed their banks on Thursday as the state reeled from severe storms this week that killed at least 17 people, flooded cities and set a RECORD FOR THE WETTEST MONTH.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch stretching from south of San Antonio to Dallas, through Oklahoma, where severe weather this week killed an additional six people, and into Kansas. Thunderstorms pelted large parts of the affected region. The city of Wharton, about 60 miles (100 km) southwest of Houston, issued a voluntary evacuation notice for about 300 homes along the Colorado River, where water was expected to rise through Friday.
The Brazos River flooded about 30 miles (50 km) west of Fort Worth and was expected to crest on Thursday evening. Hundreds left their homes on Wednesday as the waterway began breaching its banks. the average rainfall across the state was 7.54 inches (19 cm) in May, breaking the record of 6.66 inches (17 cm) set in June 2004, according to records that date to 1895. "It has been ridiculous."
The body of a man was found on the banks of the Blanco River in San Marcos, authorities said late on Thursday, bringing the number of fatalities to at least 17. The man, who was discovered among flood debris, was not yet identified. The body of a boy was recovered on Wednesday near San Marcos, Hays County officials said. The boy was thought to have been swept away in Blanco River floods that ripped houses off their foundations.
The new storms could hinder rescue workers searching for those washed away along the river. "We are not expecting another surge of the river, but it is going to shift debris piles." There was no damage estimate available for Texas, which has a $1.4 trillion-a-year economy and is the country's leading domestic source of energy.
Lots of photos and videos of Texas and Oklahoma flooding and damage.
----------
Global Disaster Watch is on Facebook
