Sunday, September 7, 2014

Global Disaster Watch - daily natural disaster reports.

**In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.**
Albert Schweitzer


LARGEST QUAKES so far today -
This morning -
5.2 KEPULAUAN TALAUD, INDONESIA
5.1 FED. STATES OF MICRONESIA REGION
5.5 ICELAND
5.0 NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G.

Yesterday, 9/6/14 -
5.2 EASTER ISLAND REGION
6.0 OFF COAST OF JALISCO, MEXICO
5.0 EASTER ISLAND REGION
5.3 EASTER ISLAND REGION
5.1 EASTER ISLAND REGION
6.1 EASTER ISLAND REGION
5.1 SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION

9/5/14 -
5.2 EASTER ISLAND REGION
5.8 EASTER ISLAND REGION
5.1 EASTER ISLAND REGION
5.0 SOUTHWESTERN RYUKYU ISL., JAPAN
5.1 ICELAND

9/4/14 -
5.3 WESTERN TURKEY
5.4 EASTER ISLAND REGION
5.0 OFFSHORE TARAPACA, CHILE
6.0 TONGA

9/3/14 -
5.3 CAYMAN ISLANDS REGION
5.1 CAYMAN ISLANDS REGION
5.9 EASTER ISLAND REGION
5.1 SOUTHERN EAST PACIFIC RISE
5.1 SOLOMON ISLANDS
5.1 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS REGION
5.7 TONGA
5.8 SAMOA ISLANDS REGION
5.0 EASTERN HONSHU, JAPAN
5.4 ICELAND

Hawaii - Lava from one of the world's most active volcanos is creeping slowly but steadily through cracks in the earth toward a rural subdivision on Hawaii's Big Island. Scientists warn that if the lava flow from Kilauea continues on its path, it could reach a small patch of homes in about a week. (video)

TROPICAL STORMS -
Current tropical storms - maps and details.

* In the Western Pacific Ocean -
- Tropical storm Fengshen is located approximately 491 nm southwest of Yokosuka, Japan.

- Tropical depression 14w is located approximately 205 nm southwest of Hong Kong.

*In the East Pacific -
Tropical storm Norbert continues to weaken west of the Baja California peninsula about 180 mi (285 km) WSW of Punta Eugenia, Mexico.

SPACE WEATHER -
Asteroid 2014 RC - On Sunday afternoon — at 2:15 pm Eastern time, to be exact — a small asteroid will whiz by the Earth. Don't worry: it'll miss us by about 25,000 miles. To be clear, there is zero chance it can hit us. This is certain.
But in the long-term, worrying a little about asteroids isn't an unreasonable idea. Now, the odds of a massively destructive asteroid impact at any given time are tiny — but the potential costs would be enormous. Yet we still haven't invested in all the infrastructure needed to spot small asteroids with much warning (we spotted this one less than a week ago). And we've done nothing to develop the ability to divert a larger one if it threatened us.
We'll be totally fine on Sunday — in fact, the asteroid will be small and far enough away that you won't be able to see it without a telescope. But it'd be great if we can use this sort of near-miss to rouse us from our species-wide slumber, and make asteroid detection more of a priority.
It's calculated that, at its closest approach, the asteroid will come within 25,000 miles of Earth. This is far enough away that it definitely won't hit us, but still pretty close — about as close to us as many of our weather and communications satellites, and about ten times closer to us than the moon.
When it passes by, the asteroid will be somewhere over New Zealand. But because it's so small, you'd need a telescope to see it. Its magnitude will be about 11 — which, as Phil Plait points out, means it'll be about 1 percent as bright as the faintest star you can normally see.
But asteroids are an overlooked risk. It's not that the risk of a catastrophic asteroid impact, in any given year, is particularly large. It's tiny: scientists estimate that the huge ones that would cause global damage come around once every million years.

While 2014 RC grabs headlines this weekend by flying under Earth's belt of geosynchronous satellites, astronomers are training their telescopes on another, weirder asteroid also in Earth's neighborhood. 2002 CE26 is a binary asteroid consisting of a primary space rock 3.5 km in diameter and a secondary approximately one-tenth as wide.
What's weird is, radar data suggest that the secondary space rock might have a moon of its own. At closest approach on Sept. 9th, 2002 CE26 will be 18.4 million km (0.123 AU) from Earth. That is relatively far away, but because of the asteroid's large size, it is still possible to obtain meaningful data from the flyby.

*****

Global Disaster Watch is on Facebook with breaking news during the day.