An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 jolted 72 km SSW of Kavieng, Papua New Guinea at 13:51:49 GMT on Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The epicenter, with a depth of 10.0 km, was initially determined to be at 3.2132 degrees south latitude and 150.6471 degrees east longitude.

At least 15 people have been killed, with dozens missing after torrential rains and landslides hit Indonesia's Natuna region on the edge of the South China Sea.

Pictures and video from the national disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) showed landslides cascading through forested areas and dumping mud and debris on houses on the remote Serasan island.

Bits of metal from torn-off roofs and fallen trees were also visible following the disaster on Monday.

The location of the landslide and continued rain were complicating search and rescue efforts, the BNPB said on Twitter. Communications had also been cut off, it said.

The Natuna Search and Rescue Agency's head, Abdul Rahman, told the AFP news agency that 15 people had been confirmed dead and 50 were missing.

After back-to-back winter storms overwhelmed many of California's mountain communities with snow, another round of snowfall is headed to the Sierra Nevada region, while the state's hard-hit southern San Bernardino County will get a reprieve as some residents who remain trapped by walls of snow are concerned about their dwindling supplies.

The Sierra Nevada mountain range could see 1 to 3 inches of snow through Tuesday, following a weekend that brought as much as 38 inches of snow over a 24-hour period to Soda Springs in Nevada County and 31 inches to Donner Peak in Placer County.

An Idaho family was lucky to escape an attack by an angry moose while they were out on their snowmobiles in the Palisades, east of Idaho Falls.

Jeremiah Bigelow posted the incident on his Instagram account, describing how the moose came between him and his brother, who was ahead of him, on the trail they were riding. The moose initially charged Jeremiah, who had his son and other friends behind him. Jeremiah quickly put his snowmobile in reverse but got stuck as his son's snowmobile did not have a reverse gear.

Jeremiah's brother realized that Jeremiah was stuck and tried to draw the moose's attention away from the group, thinking he could quickly speed away. But right as he jumps back on the snowmobile, it dies, and he is forced to dive to his safety, narrowly avoiding the charging moose.

A septuagenarian woman in Telangana died after she was attacked by a troop of more than 20 monkeys. The victim, has been identified as 70-year old Chataraboina Narsavva of Ramareddy village in Kamareddy district.

The incident took place while the victim was cleaning utensils at her home on Friday. Local sources said that the victim was all alone at home as her youngest daughter Suguna had gone to attend a wedding function at the time. Despite Narsavva's cries for help, the fear-stricken neighbours made no attempt to go to her rescue. They shut themselves inside their houses until the monkeys fled. The old woman suffered serious injuries on her chest, back and limbs.

It was only after Suguna returned home a little while later that the old woman was taken to hospital.

Narsavva, however, succumbed to her injuries on Saturday while undergoing treatment at the hospital.

A 6.0-magnitude earthquake jolted the southern Philippines on Tuesday (Mar 7), the US Geological Survey said, but there were no reports of casualties or major damage.

The shallow quake struck at about 2pm local time (0600 GMT), a few kilometres from Maragusan municipality in the mountainous gold-mining province of Davao de Oro on Mindanao island.

Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more harm than deeper ones, but local authorities said there were no reports of major damage.

Cherrylyn Dapiton of the Maragusan disaster office confirmed there had been a landslide near a road, but it had not affected anyone or blocked traffic.

A devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey and northern Syria on the morning of February 6. A second major earthquake of 7.5 magnitude struck the region 9 hours later, causing further severe damage and destruction of buildings. On February 20, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck Hatay, and on February 27, a 5.6 magnitude earthquake centered in Malatya also caused many damaged buildings to collapse and increased the death toll. More than 150 aftershocks were also recorded.

46,000 people in Turkey and 6,0000 in Syria lost their lives, and at least 1.5 million people are now homeless. More than 160,000 buildings have collapsed or been severely damaged. It's hard to know the true number so far, it could be much higher.

The immediate damage is estimated at $34 billion - or about 4% of the country's annual economic output. But the indirect costs of the quake could be much higher, and recovery will be neither easy nor quick.

Just for the record, a prediction model based on the geometry between celestial bodies related to seismic activity (SSGEOS) highlighted a potential major earthquake in central Turkey days before the event above:



This model is still developing, but it seems promising for predicting major earthquake events with reasonable accuracy.

A series of earthquakes also struck Tajikistan, with the largest measured at magnitude 6.8, according to the USGS. The quake was felt strongly across the border in some areas of Kashgar Prefecture and Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang, but no casualties or damage were reported.

A massive late-winter storm moved across the US, dumping record snow, freezing temperatures, and heavy flooding, canceling hundreds of flights, and coating major roads with ice. However, the same system brought record warmth to the South.

Other related significant events in the U.S. this month:

• Tooele, Utah - 2 feet of snow overnight.
• Michigan - Snow and ice storm leaves 461,000 without power.
• Cheyenne, Wyoming - 4 feet of snow and record cold of -19C.
• Southern California - 6 feet of snow.

And around the world:

• Iranian Kuhrang, Iran - Record 8.2 feet of snow in 48 hours.
• Morocco - Record 7.2 feet of snow left 87 villages isolated.
• Austria - 1.2 feet of snow in 24 hours.
• Balkans - Heavy snowfall cuts power to thousands.
• Mayorce, Spain - 20 inches of snow and a sudden drop in temperature.

All this and more in our SOTT Earth Changes Summary for February 2023:

After an incredible series of winter storms, California officials reported Friday the state's snowpack is the largest in decades.

Snowpack in the California Sierra is 177% of normal for this time of year, officials at the Department of Water Resources said. Statewide, snowpack is averaging 190% compared to normal for the date — a significant boost after back-to-back storms.

Snowpack in the Sierra Nevada is critical because it acts as a natural reservoir and accounts for 30% of California's freshwater supply in an average year. The recent record-breaking, three-week deluge helped replenish some of the state's reservoirs, but Shasta Lake — the largest in the state — remains below its historical average.

A series of avalanches has occurred in Hokkaido, northern Japan, as sunny weather pushed up temperatures. A backcountry skier has died and another skier has gone missing.

Police received a call at around 11:30 a.m. on Sunday from a family saying one of its members had gone missing while backcountry skiing at Mount Yotei.

Police found a man buried in snow. He was taken to a hospital but died.

Police say an avalanche appears to have occurred at a site where the 35-year-old was found.

The wet season deluge continues in Far North Queensland where landslides have closed major roads, with drivers stuck in floodwaters and a flood watch alert in place for hundreds of kilometres of river systems.

Cairns has received more than 200 millimetres of rain since 9am yesterday, while Kuranda, to the west of the city, has received more than 300mm.

Several major far-north roads have been closed due to landslides and fallen trees.

A 60-year-old driver became stuck in floodwaters in the Cairns suburb of Clifton Beach just before 7am, but was able to escape the car before help arrived, according to the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service.

Emergency Management Queensland regional director Wayne Coutts said there had been several jobs this morning, mainly leaking roofs.