A magnitude-4.5 earthquake struck the Big Island at 6:24 a.m. today, the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported.

The earthquake was located beneath the Island of Hawaiʻi and no damaging tsunami was generated.

Wes Thelen, HVO's Seismic Network Manager, said the earthquake was centered about four miles east-northeast of Kawaihae and nine miles west-northwest of Waimea, at a depth of 10.4 miles.

The USGS "Did you feel it?" Web site received more than 145 felt reports within an hour of the earthquake, HVO said. Only light shaking was reported. Most reports were posted from the Islands of Hawai'i and Maui. There were also a few reports from the Kahuku and Hickam areas on Oʻahu, over 155 miles from the epicenter, HVO reported.

Over the past 50 years, the area around Kawaihae has experienced 11 earthquakes greater than magnitude-4.0, including today's event, at depths of 6 - 12 miles. Deep earthquakes in this region are most likely caused by structural adjustments within the Earth's crust to accommodate the heavy load of Mauna Kea and surrounding volcanoes. Today's earthquake is in the general region of the 2006 Māhukona earthquake, but is not close enough to the 2006 event to be an aftershock of it.

Strange rumblings coming from the tuya Herðubreið are confounding observers as to their possible source.

Vísir reports that visitors to the mesa-shaped volcano in northeast Iceland have been unable to determine if the persistent rumblings coming from Herðubreið are being caused by an avalanche, landslide, or something else entirely. Rangers around Herðubreið were the first to announce the rumblings, which lasted about 30 seconds.

Yesterday, Icelandic rescuers who had been searching for a group of French tourists found them at the foot of Herðubreið safe and sound, although they said there had been an avalanche. News of the avalanche was reported, but upon further inspection, no evidence of an avalanche could be found - except for the rumbling.

Avalanches have been reported from mountains all over Iceland recently, which is highly unusual for the summer months. Tómas Jóhannesson, a meteorologist at the Met Office, told reporters that they intend to get to the bottom of the mystery.

A sailboat in Stockholm sank on Thursday morning after it was hit by lightning, the latest chapter of Sweden's wild summer weather.

Powerful thunderstorms in the counties of Stockholm and Uppsala left thousands of households without power on Thursday morning. Multiple incidents of flooding and other alarms related to the weather have also been reported.

But the most dramatic scene was found in Saltsjöbaden, just outside of Stockholm.

"It was an unmanned boat moored in the lake," Björn Wrandel at the Sea Rescue Centre told news agency TT. "Apparently the lightning struck a huge hole in the boat and it sank incredibly quickly."

No one was injured in the incident.

Sweden's weather agency has issued a warning for extreme thunderstorms in Stockholm and Uppsala during the morning.

An isolated but intense hailstorm caused serious damage to grapes and other crops in the Hector area Tuesday.

The storm swept in about 3:30 p.m. and brought high winds, hail and heavy rain.

Some vineyards were minimally affected by the storm, but others weren't as lucky.

"I was at my other job at Hazlitt (1852 Vineyards) when the storm hit. My kids were home at the time. They said they saw some hail that was golf ball size," said Fred Wickham, owner of Tango Oaks Farm in Hector.

"I went out late (Tuesday) and did a crop assessment. In addition to wine grapes, I grow peaches that I sell fresh. They were already compromised by the excessively long and cold winter. It's 100 percent loss on the peaches. They were pulverized by the hail.

At least one person has reportedly been killed as floods hit Serbia and Bosnia, three months after heavy flooding killed almost 80 people in the region.

The latest floods, caused by heavy rains, have damaged roads, bridges and hundreds of homes in western Serbia and in central and northern Bosnia.

Floods in the same area in May affected nearly two million people and caused billions of euros of damage.

Many of the victims criticised the official response at the time.

Local media in Serbia say a man, aged 65, drowned after floodwaters swept through his home in Banja Koviljaca, in the west of the country.

Iselle was supposed to weaken as it slowly trudged west across the Pacific. It didn't - and now Hawaii is poised to take its first direct hurricane hit in 22 years.

State officials are assuring the islands are ready and people should prepare but not panic. Tourists wonder whether their flights and activities would be disrupted and tried to get in some last-minute beach time before the surf's up, but ugly. And residents are making bottled water tougher to find than a cheap fruity cocktail.

"Everybody says this is the last day of good weather, so we came down to the beach," said Shonna Snodgrass, a tourist in Waikiki visiting from Stafford, Virginia.

Hurricane Iselle was expected to arrive on the Big Island on Thursday evening, bringing heavy rains, winds gusting up to 85 mph and flooding in some areas. Weather officials changed their outlook on the system Wednesday after seeing it get a little stronger, giving it enough oomph to stay a hurricane as it reaches landfall.

The mass death of stingrays on the New South Wales south coast has prompted an investigation by fisheries officers.

About 30 dead stingrays washed up on the shore at Lake Conjola, north of Ulladulla.

The NSW Department of Primary Industries, which has taken samples, said the likely cause of death was extremely cold water, between 8 and 9 degrees Celsius.

In a statement, the department said the "most probable" cause of death was the water cooling rapidly over a short period of time.

It said there were no visible signs of any pollutant, and no other species were affected.

The president of the Conjola District Lake Care Association, Robin Kerves, said she was not convinced the water's temperature was to blame.

The seventh installment in our monthly series, the following video compiles footage of 'signs of the times' from around the world during July 2014 - 'earth changes', extreme weather and planetary upheaval.

As geo-political events took a crazy turn in July - with Israel launching its most destructive 'war' on Gaza on the Palestinians since the Nakba, agents of the Western Empire blowing Malaysian Airlines MH17 out of the sky to demonize Putin, and Kiev scaling up its massacre of Eastern Ukrainians - the planet reflected this chaos with even more extreme weather.

Numerous meteor fireballs were seen across swathes of the U.S. and Russia; intense electrical storms pounded the U.S. and Europe; enormous quantities of hail were dumped in places used to scorching heat this time of year; 'tornado season' continued its year-round cycle all over the world; devastating landslides killed hundreds in India and China; people and cattle everywhere were killed by lightning; hurricane-force winds left destruction in Southern Russia and Australia; and just about everywhere was inundated with deluges of rain.

Meanwhile, the planet's EM field has dropped significantly in recent months, while the Sun was practically spotless this month, despite the fact we're currently at Solar Max in Sunspot Cycle 24. July was the coldest in U.S. history, despite record-breaking wildfires and drought in the western half of the country. Between the hail, the downpours, the cold and the storms, farmers everywhere are facing severe losses from crop damage.

Inexplicable mass animal die-offs continue, with dead sea creatures washing up on lakeshores and coastlines around the world. More enormous sinkholes appeared, notably three 'crater-holes' in northern Russia and a 100-feet-wide sinkhole in Florida that witnesses say 'exploded up in the air'. Rounding out the month was an unbelievable series of explosions in Taiwan that gouged whole streets and injured hundreds of people.

Tornadoes in Boston, rivers and seas turning blood red, fire falling from the skies, snow in July, lakes appearing in the Sahara overnight... we are definitely NOT not in Kansas anymore!


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Event Time
2014-08-06 11:45:22 UTC
2014-08-06 20:45:22 UTC+09:00 at epicenter

Location
7.272°S 128.046°E depth=10.0km (6.2mi)

Nearby Cities
307km (191mi) ENE of Dili, East Timor
395km (245mi) S of Ambon, Indonesia
402km (250mi) ENE of Atambua, Indonesia
446km (277mi) SSW of Amahai, Indonesia
307km (191mi) ENE of Dili, East TimorScientific Data

Nevada may not often be thought of as a state plagued by heavy rains, but some residents who are being inundated with severe storms that are causing flash flooding and mudslides might beg to differ. One recent deluge was strong enough to overflow the US 95 highway and shut down the road. The powerful current turned the median into raging rapids capable of carrying away people and cars. Of course, with everyone carrying a camera at all times these days, the horrifying incident was captured on video.

Unfortunately, two vehicles somehow got sucked into the surging water and were pushed into the stream below. According to bystanders, the whole thing seemed to happen out of nowhere, but people put themselves in danger to try to save those stuck in the out of control cars. Thankfully, no one was injured in this terrible incident. At about 1:29 into the video, you can also catch a glimpse of the mudslide first flowing onto the road.