Earthquakes

Magnitude 5+ Earthquakes – Global

5.2 Earthquake hits western Australia.

5.1 Earthquake hits the Fox Islands in the Aleutian Islands.

5.0 Earthquake hits the Fox Islands in the Aleutian Islands.

Storms and Floods

Tropical Storms - Roundup of Tropical Storms:

Post Tropical Cyclone Joaquin is located about 595 mi...960 km WNW of the Azores with maximum sustained winds...65 mph...100 km/h. Present movement...E or 80 degrees at 35 mph...56 km/h.

Tropical Storm 23w (Choi-Wan), located approximately 460 nm east-southeast of Misawa, Japan, and is tracking northward at 38 knots.

Hurricane Oho is located about 1155 mi...1855 km NE of Hilo Hawaii and about 1195 mi...1920 km NE of Honolulu Hawaii with maximum sustained winds...75 mph...120 km/h. Present movement...NNE or 30 degrees at 39 mph...63 km/h.

Invest 95E is an area of disturbed weather in the East Pacific that has the potential for tropical development.

NewsBytes:

South Carolina, USA - Authorities urged another 1,000 homeowners to evacuate as a precaution Wednesday in the event a Columbia-area dam fails in flood-battered South Carolina. Authorities warned residents along South Carolina's coast Wednesday to prepare for more flooding as water from swollen rivers made its way towards the ocean.

England - Torrential downpours have brought flash floods to Britain along with train delays and washed out sports fixtures. There were astonishing scenes in Bradford after a dramatic thunderstorm left parts of the West Yorkshire city under ankle-deep water. The Met Office had a severe rain warning in place today for the top half of England, with more than an inch (30mm) of rain expected.

Environment

Scientists say a dramatic worldwide coral bleaching event is now underway

For just the third time on record, scientists say they are now watching the unfolding of a massive worldwide coral bleaching event, spanning the globe from Hawaii to the Indian Ocean. And they fear that thanks to warm sea temperatures, the ultimate result could be the loss of more than 12,000 square kilometres, or over 4,500 square miles, of coral this year — with particularly strong impacts in Hawaii and other U.S. tropical regions, and potentially continuing into 2016.

The event is being brought on by a combination of global warming, a very strong El Nino event, and the so-called warm “blob” in the Pacific Ocean, say the researchers, part of a consortium including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as well as XL Catlin Seaview Survey, The University of Queensland in Australia, and Reef Check.

The prior events were in 1998 and 2010, and those were one year events. We’re looking at a similar spatial scale of bleaching across the globe, but spanning across at least 2 years. So that means a lot of these corals are being put under really prolonged stress, or are being hit 2 years in a row.

The total loss could amount to 5 percent of the world’s corals in 2015. That’s not as bad as the loss in 1998, but there’s a fear that if the event continues into 2016, the losses would grow.

Wildfires

Wildfires - Indonesia

Indonesia on Thursday asked several countries including China, Singapore, Russia, and Japan for help to put out fires that have sent choking smoke drifting across the region for weeks.

Indonesia had repeatedly declined offers of outside help to tackle the smoke, which is mostly caused by companies using fire to clear land for palm oil and pulp wood plantations on Sumatra island and its part of Borneo island.

The smoke has pushed up pollution to dangerous levels across parts of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and southern Thailand, disrupted flights and closed schools on bad days.

Vessels line the anchorage area in the southern coast of Singapore October 5, 2015.

Volcanos

Roundup of Global Volcanic Activity

Alaid (Northern Kuriles): The northernmost of the volcanoes in the Kurile arc continues to show signs of weak activity in the form of a thermal anomaly at the summit crater.

Aso (Kyushu): The volcano continues to be at unrest. The main vent in the Nakadake crater continues to produce mild, sporadic ash emissions and intense degassing, creating a plume that rises few hundred meters.

Batu Tara (Sunda Islands, Indonesia): Strombolian to vulcanian-type explosive activity continues at the volcano, sometimes strong enough to produce plumes visible on satellite imagery.

VAAC Darwin reported an ash plume to 6000 ft (1.8 km) altitude that extended 90 km W from the volcano yesterday.

Ijen (East Java, Indonesia): Access to the volcano's famous crater lake (and its sulphur mining area) has been temporarily closed by authorities. It seems that weak phreatic explosions occurred under the lake on 1 October, without causing damage or fatalities.

No further details are currently available.

Fuego (Guatemala): Another phase of strongly increased activity is occurring at the volcano. Starting 6 Oct, strombolian activity increased to pulsating lava fountains from two summit vents and feeds two lava flows that started to descend the southern and western flanks of the volcano through the Trinidad and Santa Teresa canyon, reaching 1000 and 600 m, respectively.

The activity so far has not resulted in the generation of the much-feared pyroclastic flows, but remains intense and could trigger such flows, if parts of the lava flows on the steep flanks collapse.

Earthquakes

Magnitude 5+ Earthquakes – Global

5.4 Earthquake hits the central east Pacific rise.

5.2 Earthquake hits western Turkey.

5.1 Earthquake hits Tarapaca, Chile.

5.0 Earthquake hits the Kermedec Islands.

5.0 Earthquake hits Coquimbo, Chile.

5.0 Earthquake hits Kapulauan Batu, Indonesia.

Storms and Floods

Tropical Storms - Roundup of Tropical Storms:

Hurricane Joaquin is located about 465 mi...750 km SSE of Cape Race Newfoundland with maximum sustained winds...75 mph...120 km/h. Present movement...ENE or 75 degrees at 32 mph...52 km/h.

Typhoon 23w (Choi-Wan), located approximately 624 nm east-southeast of Yokosuka, Japan, and is tracking northward at 29 knots.

Tropical Storm Oho is located about 515 mi...830 km E of Hilo Hawaii and about 695 mi...1115 km E of Honolulu Hawaii with maximum sustained winds...105 mph...165 km/h. Present movement...NNE or 25 degrees at 29 mph...46 km/h.

Invest 90L is an area of disturbed weather in the North Atlantic that has the potential for tropical development.

Invest 91L is an area of disturbed weather in the North Atlantic that has the potential for tropical development.

Invest 94E is an area of disturbed weather in the East Pacific that has the potential for tropical development.

Invest 95E is an area of disturbed weather in the East Pacific that has the potential for tropical development.

Invest 99C is an area of disturbed weather in the Central Pacific that has the potential for tropical development.

Nature - Images

Interesting Images:

Drone captures footage of whales swimming near tiny human.

Wildlife

Animals abound at Chernobyl 30 years after nuclear disaster

Nearly 30 years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, elk, deer, boar and wolves abound in the exclusion zone deserted by humans, researchers say in an international study.

The study, published on Monday in the Current Biology journal, shows that there at least as many of these mammals inside the 4 200km2 perimeter around the nuclear plant that exploded in April 1986 than in uncontaminated nature reserves.

Researchers counted the animals by aerial observations of the large zone devastated by a fire and an explosion of one of the plant's nuclear reactors. They found that there are seven times more wolves in the exclusion zone than in nearby parks. This doesn't mean radiation is good for wildlife, just that the effects of human habitation, including hunting, farming and forestry, are a lot worse.

Early studies after the nuclear disaster revealed major radiation effects on the exclusion zone, including a sharp decrease in the animal population.

The latest observations show nature's resilience and could provide insight on the long-term impact of the more recent 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

The helicopter survey data found growing abundance of elk, roe deer and wild boar from 1 to 10 years after the accident. A short-term reduction in the wild boar population was linked to a disease outbreak not related to radiation exposure. These increases coincided with a drop in elk and wild boar populations in other parts of the former Soviet Union.

Wildfires

Wildfires - New Zealand

Fire crews are fighting several large wildfires in Otago and South Canterbury as gale force winds hit the south.

The Dunback fire, located between Palmerston and Ranfurly, spread across 90 hectares of vegetation. It has since been contained.

Police have confirmed that three houses have been damaged in blaze that is raging out of control just out of Mosgiel in Otago. High winds are fanning the blaze, but because they are so strong helicopters have not been able to be put into action to douse the flames with monsoon buckets.

Canterbury fire crews have also been kept busy this morning, with vegetation fires near Waimumu, Wallacetown and Akaroa.

Disease

Bluetongue claims about 1,000 Idaho whitetails

Officials in Eastern Washington, Idaho and northeastern Oregon said they were unprepared to make estimates on the toll the continuing bluetongue outbreak plaguing deer in the region was taking on big game. Washington officials still aren't attempting to take a stab at numbers other than saying it's the most widespread bluetongue outbreak they've documented.

Based on continuing reports of dead deer, Fish and Game officials estimate up to 1,000 whitetails have died from an outbreak of bluetongue, a virus transmitted by gnats that is similar to Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD) in Idaho alone. It is difficult to get the exact number of diseased or dead animals, but the outbreak is not expected to significantly reduce whitetail populations.

The Clearwater area had a large-scale outbreak of EHD in 2003, and Fish and Game officials estimated up to 10,000 whitetails died. There were smaller local EHD outbreaks in the last five years.

Earthquakes

Magnitude 5+ Earthquakes – Global

6.0 Earthquake hits Coquimbo, Chile.

5.9 Earthquake hits the Andreanof Islands in the Aleutian Islands.

5.4 Earthquake hits the Gulf of Thailand.

5.3 Earthquake hits Coquimbo, Chile.

5.2 Earthquake hits the South China Sea.

5.1 Earthquake hits off the coast of El Salvador.

Storms and Floods

Tropical Storms - Roundup of Tropical Storms:

Hurricane Joaquin is located about 420 mi...675 km NNE of Bermuda and about 750 mi...1210 km SW of Cape Race Newfoundland with maximum sustained winds...85 mph...140 km/h. Present movement...NE or 50 degrees at 17 mph...28 km/h.

Typhoon 23w (Choi-Wan), located approximately 514 nm east of Iwo To, and is tracking northwestward at 08 knots.

Tropical Storm Oho is located about 350 mi...565 km SSE of Hilo Hawaii and about 545 mi...880 km se of Honolulu Hawaii with maximum sustained winds...70 mph...110 km/h. Present movement...ENE or 60 degrees at 7 mph...11 km/h.

Invest 91L is an area of disturbed weather in the North Atlantic that has the potential for tropical development.

Invest 99C is an area of disturbed weather in the Central Pacific that has the potential for tropical development.

NewsBytes:

Guatemala - Update - Rescue workers using shovels and pickaxes recovered more bodies from the rubble of a collapsed hillside on the outskirts of Guatemala City as an official said the death toll had risen to 69 with another 350 people believed missing. The landslide occurred late Thursday following heavy rains in the town of El Cambray.

Disease

Antibiotic-resistant 'superbug' threatens US cities

A relatively new antibiotic-resistant bacterium called CRE is making inroads in some major American cities, U.S. health officials report.

Surveillance of seven U.S. metropolitan areas found higher-than-expected levels of CRE in Atlanta, Baltimore and New York City, according to the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention; while lower-than-expected levels were found in Albuquerque, Denver and Portland, Oregon, while the Minneapolis rate was what the agency anticipated.

But CDC researchers were dismayed that they found active cases of CRE infection in every city they examined, said senior author Dr Alexander Kallen, a CDC medical officer.

About 9 percent of people died due to their infection from CRE, the researchers found. But some estimates have held that as many as 50 percent of CRE infections contribute to death if they lead to a bloodstream infection.

Volcanos

Roundup of Global Volcanic Activity

Karymsky (Kamchatka): Several ash plumes have been reported from the volcano over the past days by Tokyo VAAC. Karymsky has intermittent strombolian to vulcanian-type explosions from its summit crater.

Dukono (Halmahera): A volcanic ash plume extending 120 km to the NE was spotted this morning by VAAC Darwin.

Earthquakes

Magnitude 5+ Earthquakes – Global

5.6 Earthquake hits near the coast of southern Peru.

5.2 Earthquake hits offshore Coquimbo, Chile.

5.0 Earthquake hits off the east coast of North Island, New Zealand.

5.0 Earthquake hits the Bali Sea.

5.0 Earthquake hits south of Fiji.

Storms and Floods

Tropical Storms - Roundup of Tropical Storms:

Hurricane Joaquin is located about 125 mi...205 km N of Bermuda with maximum sustained winds...85 mph...140 km/h. Present movement...NNE or 25 degrees at 13 mph...20 km/h.

Tropical storm 23w (Choi-Wan), located approximately 703 nm northeast of Andersen AFB, Guam, and is tracking westward at 09 knots.

Tropical Storm Oho is located about 410 mi...660 km S of Hilo Hawaii and about 560 mi...905 km SSE of Honolulu Hawaii with maximum sustained winds...50 mph...85 km/h. Present movement...NNE or 30 degrees at 1 mph...2 km/h.

Invest 94E is an area of disturbed weather in the East Pacific that has the potential for tropical development.

Invest 95 is an area of disturbed weather in the East Pacific that has the potential for tropical development.

Invest 90L is an area of disturbed weather in the North Atlantic that has the potential for tropical development.

Invest 91L is an area of disturbed weather in the North Atlantic that has the potential for tropical development.

Invest 99C is an area of disturbed weather in the Central Pacific that has the potential for tropical development.

NewsBytes:

India - Lightning has killed at least 26 people during severe thunderstorm activity across Maharashtra. Most of the victims were farmers and farm labourers.

New Mexico, USA - A massive hailstorm hit Las Cruces with golf ball-sized hail on Saturday afternoon. Cars and buildings were damaged but no injuries were reported.

South Carolina, USA - South Carolina is experiencing what is being described as "catastrophic flooding" as Hurricane Joaquin churns offshore. Five people have reportedly died as historic 'thousand-year rainfall' floods the Carolinas with over a foot of rain.

Volcanos

Roundup of Global Volcanic Activity

Copahue (Chile/Argentina): Activity, both internal and external, has picked up at the volcano. Small, intermittent ash emissions have been observed during the past days, accompanied by a significant increase in tremor related to fluid movements within the volcanic edifice. During an overflight on 13 Sep, SERNAGEOMIN scientists had found that the acid lake was still present in the El Agrio crater, despite the incandescence visible sometimes at night caused by hot gasses. Fresh sulphur deposits were seen covering snow around the crater, suggesting that at least some part of the erupted gasses originate from magma underneath and not only from the shallow hydrothermal system. Signs of small phreatic explosions were also detected, SERNAGEOMIN reported in a bulletin on 22 Sep. Between 13 and 22 September, the Lake level began to decrease. Volcanologists believe that the reason for these phenomena is that magma has migrated closer to the surface, although not reached it yet. Whether or not it will, remains to be seen.

Aso (Kyushu): After the strong explosion on 14 Sep, the volcano has been rather calm, but continues to emit dilute ash plumes. The volcano remains at level 3 (out of 5) and access to the Nakadake crater closed.

Cotopaxi (Ecuador): Visible activity of the volcano has been relatively low during the past week. Only a strong steam plume mixed with low ash contents has been emitted, but there has been a significant change: incandescence has now become visible from the crater. According to scientists from IGEPN, the glow originates from high-temperature gasses. However, this suggests that magma continues to approach the vent, and that the eruption might now be about to become magmatic. The latter means that the volcano starts to erupt fresh magma, not, only older fragmented material during phreatic (steam-driven) ash explosions as it has been doing so far. According to IGEPN, this could be premonitory of a new eruptive phase characterized by small to moderate explosions that could expel incandescent blocks outside the crater, accompanied by new ash emissions.

Michael (United Kingdom, South Sandwich Is): A hot spot has been detected on Saunders Island on MODIS satellite data on 30 Sep. According to the South Sandwich Islands Volcano Monitoring Blog, this is most likely an indicator of volcanic activity on Mount Michael volcano. The remote South Sandwich Islands in the south Atlantic Ocean lack human activity. A hot spot was previously detected on Saunders Island during the 28th, the 30th, and the 31st August 2015.

Earthquakes

Magnitude 5+ Earthquakes – Global

5.3 Earthquake hits offshore Coquimbo, Chile.

5.2 Earthquake hits offshore Coquimbo, Chile.

5.1 Earthquake hits offshore Bio-Bio, Chile.

Storms and Floods

Tropical Storms - Roundup of Tropical Storms:

Hurricane Joaquin is located about 250 mi...400 km SW of Bermuda with maximum sustained winds...120 mph...195 km/h. Present movement...NE or 40 degrees at 20 mph...31 km/h.

Tropical Storm Mujigae is located approximately 252 nm east of Hanoi, Vietnam, and is tracking northwestward at 13 knots.

Tropical storm 23w (Choi-Wan), located approximately 905 nm east-northeast of Andersen AFB, Guam, and is tracking west-northwestward at 18 knots.

Tropical Storm Oho is located about 405 mi...655 km SSE of South Point Hawaii and about 605 mi...970 km SSE of Honolulu Hawaii with maximum sustained winds...40 mph...65 km/h. Present movement...NE or 50 degrees at 5 mph...7 km/h.

Tropical Depression Eight-C is located about 440 mi...710 km SSW of Johnston Island and about 1160 mi...1865 km SW of Honolulu Hawaii with maximum sustained winds...30 mph...45 km/h. Present movement...ESE or 110 degrees at 2 mph...4 km/h.

Invest 94E is an area of disturbed weather in the East Pacific that has the potential for tropical development.

Invest 95E is an area of disturbed weather in the East Pacific that has the potential for tropical development.

Invest 90L is an area of disturbed weather in the North Atlantic that has the potential for tropical development.

Invest 98C is an area of disturbed weather in the Central Pacific that has the potential for tropical development.

NewsBytes:

France - At least 16 people died when storms caused severe flooding on the French Riviera. His office said in a statement that The victims were found dead in the towns of Cannes, Biot, Golfe-Juan and Mandelieu-la-Napoule in the southeast of the country, following severe weather Saturday night. Three people were still missing. Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said the dead included people trapped in a parking lot, a campsite and a retirement home. Helicopters were searching for victims Sunday and 27,000 homes had no electricity.

Thailand - Heavy floods have hit Bangkok on Saturday after heavy rains. 11 areas of the city were flooded according to local authorities.