Earthquakes

Magnitude 5+ Earthquakes – Global

5.6 Earthquake hits the Rat Islands in the Aleutian Islands.

5.5 Earthquake hits the Santa Cruz islands.

5.0 Earthquake hits Barbados in the Windward islands.

Storms and Floods

Tropical Storms – Roundup of Tropical Storms:

Tropical Cyclone (tc) 04a (four), located approximately 489 nm southeast of Masirah Island, is tracking northwestward at 05 knots.

NewsBytes:

Somalia – Flash floods in Somalia have destroyed thousands of makeshift homes, as well as latrines and shallow wells, the United Nations said, predicting that up to 900,000 people could be hit by the strongest El Niño weather phenomenon in decades. The floods, which have made roads impassable and cut thousands off from aid, could reverse many of the humanitarian gains made in southern Somalia since 2011 when the Horn of Africa nation was devastated by famine. Some 3.2 million Somalis – one-third of the population – already needed life-saving aid and over one million were internally displaced before the rains began on Oct. 7.

Israel – Residents of Herzliya, Ra’anana and Kfar Saba in central Israel faced heavy floods Wednesday as a brief but intense winter storm swept the area, closing major roads and flooding whole neighbourhoods. Three days after a storm knocked out power for tens of thousands of Israeli homes, Wednesday’s downpour left some 15,000 households in the dark for the second time in less than a week.

Wildlife

African vultures headed for extinction

Africa’s vultures are vanishing, according to a report released on Thursday, a situation that could affect human health and livestock since populations of other scavengers such as rats and jackals could rise as a result.

The assessment, carried out by conservation group BirdLife International, found that six of Africa’s 11 vulture species were at risk of extinction.

Deliberate targeting by poachers is one of the reasons as the birds, which circle the sights where they feed, can alert authorities to the carcasses of illegally slain animals.

“Vultures are important. They come in, they clean up and they leave,” said Ross Wanless of BirdLife South Africa.

Vultures also help to stem the spread of disease on the world’s poorest continent by eating carcasses that would otherwise rot.

Other reasons behind the decline of the big birds include indiscriminate poisonings and the popularity of vulture parts for traditional medicine.

Volcanos

Roundup of Global Volcanic Activity

Etna (Sicily, Italy): After several weeks of calm, new activity has started during the past days inside the central Voragine crater. Mild strombolian explosions have been observed from a vent at the bottom of the crater.

Ibu (Halmahera, Indonesia): Our recent group who visited the volcano reports small to moderate explosion from the central vent at intervals of 5-20 minutes.

Aso (Kyushu): While the volcano continues to degas strongly and has intermittent, mostly small ash emissions, a stronger explosion occurred again early on 23 Oct around 6 am local time. An ash plume rose approx. 1.5 km above the Nakadake crater and dissipated quickly. Alert level remains at 3 out of 5, and an exclusion zone of 2 km around the crater is in place.

Bagana (Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea): Ash emissions occurred from the volcano yesterday, suggesting ongoing mild explosive activity. VAAC Darwin reported a low-level plume extending 50 km northwest from Bagana.

Batu Tara (Sunda Islands, Indonesia): A volcanic ash plume at 5,000 ft (1.5 km) altitude extending 80 km west of the volcano was reported by VAAC Darwin this morning.

Dukono (Halmahera): The volcano continues to erupt continuous, loud, roaring jets of gas and small amounts of spatter from vents at the bottom of the deep crater. Ash plumes are regularly being reported by VAAC Darwin.

Turrialba (Costa Rica): After several months of relative calm, the volcano began to erupt ash plumes again since 23 Oct. Some of the explosions have been relatively strong and caused very small pyroclastic flows limited to the crater area. The origin of these emissions are likely phreatic explosions, i.e. caused by overheated ground water flashing to steam. Whether this is the case or at least some fresh magma is involved is unclear. Seismic activity, which could suggest the rise of new magma, has been reported to have picked up recently.

Cotopaxi (Ecuador): No significant changes have occurred during the past days. The activity remains characterized by intense degassing and occasional mild ash emissions mixed into the plume.

Tungurahua (Ecuador): Mild to moderate ash emissions, with ash plumes rising 1-2 km above the crater, have become more frequent over the past days, suggesting the volcano’s activity has started to picking up. An explosion at 04:33 yesterday morning was seen ejecting incandescent material that rolled down the western flank to up to 1 km distance. Light ash fall occurred later in Chacauco, Cotaló and Manzano. The ash was reported to be black and red in colour and sugary in grain size. The first (colour) suggest that it is from new magma (as opposed to typically gray-brown coloured ash from pulverized older rock). The volcano observatory also reported an increase in seismic activity associated with fluid movements. One possibility is that the volcano (after all, one of the world’s most active ones) enters a more vigorous phase of activity in the near future, as often occurred in the past.