Monday 4 December 2023

Seismic and volcanic activity alert! A Coronal Hole in our Sun nearly 1 million km long faces Earth—8 Major quakes in two days and a plethora of large aftershocks and a Mount Marapi volcano eruption rock the Philippines and Indonesia!

Credit SDO/AIA

NASA has always suggested solar activity influences seismic and volcanic activity here on Earth. So it should come as no surprise to you that major quakes—mag 6 or higher and volcanic activity are extremely high at this moment. Especially when taking this giant hole and its position on our Sun.

The enormous hole in our Sun is called a Coronal Hole and according to Spaceweather.com Earth's magnetic field is about to receive a double blow. First, on Dec. 4th, a high-speed stream of solar wind flowing from the coronal hole above will crash into our magnetosphere. Then, on Dec. 5th, an off-target Coronal Mass Ejection, (CME) could deliver a glancing blow too. Their combined effect is expected to cause (Moderate) geomagnetic storms with photographic auroras at mid-latitudes. But, the giant hole, which is almost 1 million km long is spewing a hot glowing gas which is impacting Earth's atmosphere and could very well continue to cause an uptick in seismic and volcanic activity.

For instance, in just two days the Philippines island of Mindanao has been rocked by 8 major quakes, the biggest being a massive mag 7.6 on Saturday afternoon, since then a further 7 major quakes—mag 6 or higher have occurred, two of those being mag 6.9s. More than a hundred aftershocks many of them high 5s have rocked the island as well.

Less than 3,000 km. south of Mindanao is another cluster of seismic activity. The Banda Sea area of Indonesia, in November, suffered 3 major quakes—mag 6 or higher with the biggest being a massive mag 7.1 and more than 100 aftershocks with many of them being in the high 5s.

Last night, less than 3,000 km East of the Banda Sea the colossus Mount Merapi Volcano erupted, spewing white-and-grey ash plumes more than 3,000 meters (about 9,800 feet) into the air, and hot ash clouds blew several miles to the north, according to Indonesia’s Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center.  Eleven hikers are known to have died and 12 other people are missing. Six other volcanoes are highly active in the area, see the map below. 

Credit USGS

xx

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you wrote about this. Its on my watch list. I'm looking at the atipode of the quakes. Could be south America next

Gary Walton said...

Hmmm, we'll see!

Gary Walton said...

Actually, the last 19 major quakes—mag 6 or higher have all been in this area beginning in early November which is quite unusual.