Magnitude 5+ Earthquakes – Global
No Magnitude 5+ Earthquakes so far today.
Storms and Floods
Tropical Storms
In the Atlantic:
Atlantic hurricane season quietest in 45 years, experts say. Apart from Tropical Storm Andrea, which soaked Florida after moving ashore in the Panhandle in June, none of this year’s cyclones has made a U.S. landfall.
In the Eastern Pacific:
Tropical storm Raymond is located about 730 mi (1175 km) SSW of the southern tip of Baja California. Raymond is strengthening and is expected to become a hurricane today.
NewsBytes
Massive landslide has blocked Denali National Park road in Alaska at Mile 37 where the road leads up to Sable Pass. According to USA Today, about 30,000 yards of rock and soil fell from a point 500 feet above the road piling the debris in depths of up to 35 feet.
Torrential rains have claimed as many as 48 lives in eastern India. The downpour has seen rivers spill their banks in India’s eastern coastal states of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, forcing thousands to flee their homes and seek refuge in shelters, two weeks after India’s most severe cyclone in 14 years lashed the coastline. The Press Trust of India national news agency said that the rains had killed up to 45 people in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, with hundreds of villages submerged in nearly 30 districts and road and rail links disrupted. Another three people were killed in heavy rains in the eastern state of West Bengal, the news agency said.
Volcanos
Roundup of Global Volcanic Activity:
Etna (Sicily, Italy): Tremor has remained elevated and the New SE crater continued to produce weak strombolian activity and aliment the lava flow during much of the night. At the moment (Sunday morning), it is not clear if this activity is continuing.
The paroxysm yesterday ended around noon, after about 12 hours total of activity from the New SE crater which consisted in gradually increasing strombolian activity that merged into lava fountains after midnight. The lava fountaining reached its peak in the early morning hours (6-8 am local time) with heights of 4-600 m above the crater.
Strong ash and steam emissions continued to produce an impressive plume rising about 10 km above the volcano, i.e. to an altitude of 13 km (30,000 ft) and drifting SW. A relatively small lava flow was erupted from the saddle vent between the old and new SE crater, traveled south and then east into the upper Valle del Bove, reaching a length of approx. 0.5 km.
Sinabung (Sumatra, Indonesia): A new explosion occurred yesterday evening (17:40 local time), producing an ash plume rising 2-3 km above the crater and causing ash fall in nearby villages.