Earth Changes
© USGS
It says the quake struck at 2-27 a.m. on Monday (0627 GMT), about 195 miles southeast of the Falklands' capital, Stanley, and 545 miles east of Ushuaia, Argentina. The depth was a shallow 6.2 miles.
The Falklands are a British territory that is claimed by Argentina.
The USGS says the quake followed four others that all measured more than 5.0, over a two-hour period leading up to the big quake. It says such quakes are uncommon in the region. Only 15 quakes of more than magnitude 5.0 had been measured in the region in the previous 40 years.
After a short phase of weaker activity, the volcano began to erupt more violently yesterday with a series of powerful explosions that sent ash plumes up to 15,000 ft (4,5 km). Near-constant ash emissions have been taking place from the Showa crater.
6 new eruptions Monday from Mount Sinabung sent lava, searing gas tumbling up to 1.5 kilometres away
Powerful bursts of hot ash and gravel erupted from a rumbling volcano in western Indonesia early Monday, sending panicked villagers streaming down the sides of the mountain.
Six new eruptions in the morning sent lava and searing gas tumbling up to 1.5 kilometres down the slopes of Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra province. Volcanic material spewed as high as 2,000 metres into the air a day after authorities had raised the volcano's alert status to the highest level.
About 15,000 people have been evacuated from 17 villages in the danger zone five kilometres around the crater, National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said. The evacuation zone was expanded from three kilometres.
© Reuters
About 15,000 people have been evacuated from 17 villages in the danger zone five kilometres around the crater, National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said. The evacuation zone was expanded from three kilometres.
There is much denial disbelief going around about our ever changing world. Are the winters getting colder? Are the summers getting hotter? Are the ice-caps melting? What's going on?
Fortunately there are systems keeping track. And there are simple ways of plotting the data. One plot, available from Goddard Institute of Space Science (GISS), is a temperature trend plot by month of the year. Here is a plot of temperature trend by month of the year (horizontal) by latitude (vertical) for the last 17 years.
Fortunately there are systems keeping track. And there are simple ways of plotting the data. One plot, available from Goddard Institute of Space Science (GISS), is a temperature trend plot by month of the year. Here is a plot of temperature trend by month of the year (horizontal) by latitude (vertical) for the last 17 years.
© Goddard Institute of Space Science (GISS)
Figure 1 is a zonal trend plot by month for the period 1995 to the present. Horizontal axis = months of the year Jan – Dec; vertical axis = latitude.
Figure 1 is a zonal trend plot by month for the period 1995 to the present. Horizontal axis = months of the year Jan – Dec; vertical axis = latitude.
© Reuters/YT Haryono
Beautiful but deadly: Villagers sit on a truck as they evacuate to a safe spot, while Mount Sinabung spews ash into air at Aman Teran village in Karo regency, North Sumatra on Sunday. The volcano continued to emit volcanic ash, creating an 8,000-meter plume of ash, as thousands of residents remained in temporary shelters out of fear of more eruptions.
Beautiful but deadly: Villagers sit on a truck as they evacuate to a safe spot, while Mount Sinabung spews ash into air at Aman Teran village in Karo regency, North Sumatra on Sunday. The volcano continued to emit volcanic ash, creating an 8,000-meter plume of ash, as thousands of residents remained in temporary shelters out of fear of more eruptions.
"There has been a 100 percent increase in the number of those displaced. The number is now at least 11,618 from 19 villages," he said Sunday.
Jhonson said to handle the evacuees, the Karo administration had prepared 26 shelters with supplies. Of the total, 22 are already full.
Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Center (PVMBG) head Hendrasto said Mt Sinabung's most recent eruption prompted the body to raise the volcano's status on Sunday to the highest level, "siaga" or "red alert".
"This is Sinabung's highest level of activity. The intensity of the eruptions continues to increase," said Hendrasto.He said that at 2 p.m. local time on Sunday, Sinabung was continuing to spew a column of ash up to 8 kilometers high.
An Italian photographer has filmed a town being blanketed in stone and ash as it fell from the sky like hail stones after Mt Etna erupted again on Saturday. Footage shows the town covered in inches of black ash spewed out by the volcano and pushed hundreds of kilometers across the Strait of Messina from Sicily to the mainland. It rained down from dark cloud above and spread over the town's streets and cars.
Some residents used umbrellas to shield them from the chunks of ash that were almost 2cm in size.
Mt Etna has erupted several times this year, one as recently as Saturday 16 November, but its last major eruption was in 1992. There were no evacuations from yesterday's eruption, but a highway was closed for half-an-hour and four air corridors that service Sicily's Catania Airport, south of the volcano, were closed for some time.
© USGS
2013-11-25 06:27:33 UTC
2013-11-25 02:27:33 UTC-04:00 at epicenter
Location
53.881°S 54.882°W depth=10.0km (6.2mi)
Nearby Cities
314km (195mi) SE of Stanley, Falkland Islands
877km (545mi) E of Ushuaia, Argentina
998km (620mi) ESE of Rio Gallegos, Argentina
1031km (641mi) SE of Puerto Deseado, Argentina
314km (195mi) SE of Stanley, Falkland Islands
Technical details
Additional commentary
The November 25, 2013 M7.0 earthquake (06:27:33 UTC) southwest of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean occurred as the result of strike slip faulting, on either a left-lateral fault striking ENE-WSW, or a right-lateral structure striking NNW-SSE. The location of the earthquake, near the ENE-WSW trending plate boundary between the South America and Scotia tectonic plates, suggests it is likely associated with left-lateral faulting along this margin. At the location of this earthquake, the Scotia plate moves ENE with respect to South America at a rate of approximately 9.5 mm/yr.
The November 25, 06:27:33 earthquake was the largest of 5 M5+ events that occurred in a similar area over an approximate 2-hour period, including a M5.6 earthquake 24 seconds prior to the M7.0 mainshock. Though this region experiences moderate-sized earthquakes relatively frequently - 15 M5+ events have occurred within 250 km of the November 25 earthquake over the past 40 years - large events are fairly uncommon. The largest nearby earthquake over the same time period was a M6.6 event in September 1993, 210 km to the east of the November 25 earthquake.
© USGS
2013-11-25 06:27:09 UTC
2013-11-25 02:27:09 UTC-04:00 at epicenter
Location
53.987°S 54.923°W depth=15.1km (9.4mi)
Nearby Cities
321km (199mi) SE of Stanley, Falkland Islands
872km (542mi) E of Ushuaia, Argentina
997km (620mi) ESE of Rio Gallegos, Argentina
1036km (644mi) SE of Puerto Deseado, Argentina
321km (199mi) SE of Stanley, Falkland Islands
Technical Details
© Wikimedia Commons
The Pacific Ring of Fire.
The Pacific Ring of Fire.
Sadly, most Americans cannot even tell you what the Ring of Fire is. The following is how Wikipedia defines the "Ring of Fire"...
An easy way to think about the Ring of Fire is to imagine a giant red band stretching along the perimeter of the Pacific Ocean.The Ring of Fire is an area where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean. In a 40,000 km (25,000 mi) horseshoe shape, it is associated with a nearly continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and volcanic belts and/or plate movements. It has 452 volcanoes and is home to over 75% of the world's active and dormant volcanoes.
And yes, that includes the entire west coast of the United States and the entire southern coast of Alaska.
Comment: Can you see the normalcy bias in action? People are just walking about as usual, using umbrellas to shield against the rocks/ash as though the danger is and will remain benign.