Friday 3 March 2023

Once again a major quake coincides with another geological occurrence! Yesterday at around 19:00 hrs, (UTC) a powerful magnitude 6.5 major quake, rocked the West coast of the South Pacific island Vanuatu at the same time it was being pounded by Tropical Cyclone KEVIN-23 just 16 days after a similar occurrence in N Zealand!


Credit Earthwindmap and USGS. Once again a major quake coincides with another geological occurrence!

For the second time this month, a major quake struck an area during a cyclone.  Yesterday at around 19:00 hrs, (UTC) a powerful magnitude 6.5 major quake, (mag 6 or higher) rocked the West coast of the South Pacific island Vanuatu at the same time the island was being pounded by Tropical Cyclone KEVIN-23, see map above.

Just sixteen days ago, a powerful magnitude of 6.1 was recorded in the Kermadec Islands, above North Island, New Zealand during the arrival of Cyclone Gabrielle, see map below. 

Credit Earthwindmap and USGS. 

The Pacific nation of Vanuatu has declared a state of emergency as it reels from the powerful earthquake and two tropical cyclones, Kevin-23 and tropical cyclone Judy-13 in as many days.

The 6.5 magnitude quake struck on Friday, a day after category four Cyclone Judy swept through the islands. Within. hours category three storm, Cyclone Kevin, arrived with destructive winds of up to 130km/h (81mph). 

Once again a major quake has coincided with another geological occurrence!

More signs and wonders: On January 9th this year, a very powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake rocked Indonesia at precisely 18:47 UTC—Just 3 minutes later at 18:50 our Sun launched a powerful X-Class flare from sunspot AR3182! I have never seen these two powerful events so closely linked together before. Full story.

When space weather meets major seismic activity! 

I have been blogging about quakes and spaceweather since 2008 but I have never witnessed this before. . .

This afternoon (Jan 9th 2023), a very powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake rocked Indonesia at precisely 18:47 UTC—Just 3 minutes later at 18:50 our Sun launched a powerful X-Class flare from sunspot AR3182! I have never seen two powerful events so closely linked together before! I was flabbergasted. . .

The powerful major quake, (mag 6 or higher) rocked the Pacific Ring Of Fire, the second in as many days. This one was a magnitude 7.6 struck Pulau Pulau Tanimbar, in Indonesia. 

Seismic and Solar activity was expected. . . 

Today's major quake (mag 6 or higher) in Vanuatu is the 2nd of March and the 27th of 2023, which is slightly above the average.

Major Quakes 2023

Hurricanes and Cyclones 2023

Spaceweather 2023

Home Page 2023








3 comments:

Laughing-Bear said...

Dear Gary,
Here in Alaska our Tanaga Volcano has had 157 earthquakes in less that 24 hours, get ready, I expect things to shake big time!!!

Blessings, just me

Gary Walton said...

My dear Bill, you take care, my friend, thanks for the head-up!

Gary Walton said...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A second volcano in remote Alaska is experiencing elevated earthquake activity this week, signaling an increased potential for eruption, officials said.

Earthquake activity near Takawangha Volcano increased over the past 48 hours and are continuing, Alaska Volcano Observatory officials said in a news release Thursday.

That volcano is west of Anchorage in the western Aleutian islands and about 5 miles (8 kilometers) from Tanaga Volcano, which scientists said earlier this week had seen intensified earthquake activity.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory raised the alert level to advisory status for Tanaga Volcano late Tuesday after the quakes became vigorous.

The observatory on Thursday raised the alert level to watch status for Takawangha Volcano.

Analysts at the observatory continue to monitor the situation closely. Up to several earthquakes per minute are occurring under Tanaga Island, where both volcanoes are located, the observatory said. The largest quake over the previous 24 hours was a magnitude 3.9 located under Tanaga Volcano.

No eruptive activity or signs of unrest was detected in satellite or other monitoring data.

The island is about 1,250 miles (2,012 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage. There are no communities there, but Adak, a city of about 170 people on another island, is about 65 miles (105 kilometers) away and could see ashfall.

If one of the volcanoes were to erupt, it could be a problem for aircraft. The Aleutians are below the routes that jets fly between North America and Asia. Volcanic ash is angular and sharp and can cause airplane engines to shut down. Past eruptions had both ash clouds and viscous lava that moves slowly, much like what happened at Mount St. Helens in Washington state in 1980.

No historical eruptions are known from Takawangha but field work shows recent eruptions have occurred and it's possible historic eruptions attributed to Tanaga may instead have come from Takawangha, according to scientists.

The last eruption from Tanaga Volcano was in 1914.