The massive earthquake that hit Mexico late in the night of September 7 is the biggest in the region in almost a century. Seismologists now say the magnitude 8.1 quake was so large it moved the fault up by 10 meters (32 feet), as the Cocos and North American tectonic plates collided.
As Hurricane Irma bears down on Florida, an Associated Press analysis shows a steep drop in flood insurance across the state, including the areas most endangered by what could be a devastating storm surge.
In just five years, the state’s total number of federal flood insurance policies has fallen by 15 percent, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency data.
Florida’s property owners still buy far more federal flood insurance than any other state — 1.7 million policies, covering about $42 billion in assets — but most residents in hazard zones are badly exposed.
With 1,350 miles of coastline, the most in the continental United States, Florida has roughly 2.5 million homes in hazard zones, more than three times that of any other state, FEMA estimates. And yet, across Florida’s 38 coastal counties, just 42 percent of these homes are covered.
The hurricane Irma that is expected to make a landfall in the United States, is going to “devastate” the country, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said on Friday.
A major earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 8.2 has struck off the Pacific coast of southern Mexico, with shaking felt across parts of Central America, seismologists and residents say. A tsunami alert has been issued for several countries.
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While Governor Rick Scott said Florida’s two nuclear power plants will be shutdown before Hurricane Irma hits, little has been said about over a dozen chemical plants around the state, many of which manufacture highly combustible fertilizer.
“I have been talking to Florida Power & Light, which owns these,” Scott told CNN on Thursday, when asked about the power plants, “and they will both be shut down.”
One of the plants, St. Lucie, is on Hutchinson Island, about 55 miles (88km) north of West Palm Beach. Its two reactors generate 2,000 megawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 1 million homes.
Turkey Point nuclear power station is located on the Biscayne Bay, about 24 miles from Miami. Its two reactors generate about 1,600 megawatts of electricity, or enough for about 900,000 homes.
Equifax Inc., which supplies credit information and other information services, said Thursday that a cybersecurity incident could have potentially affected 143 million consumers in the U.S.
The U.S. Census Bureau said the U.S. population was about 324 million people as of January 1, 2017, which means this affects a huge portion of the United States.
As I rma sets its crosshairs on southeast Florida, the US Navy is evacuating thousands of sailors and the state’s toll roads will become free for all. The Cat 5 storm is one of the strongest recorded in the state’s history.
The geomagnetic storm watch for the 6 and 7 September, 2017 UTC-days has been upgraded to G3 (Strong). The G3 Watch is in anticipation of likely overall geomagnetic planetary response to the expected arrival of a coronal mass ejection (CME) that took place in association with an M5 flare (R2-Moderate radio blackout) observed on 4 September at 2033 UTC (1633 ET). Current analysis and forecasts reflect CME arrival late on 6 September, 2017; with CME effects continuing into 7 September. Keep checking swpc.noaa.gov for updates to the forecast.
While few are willing to admit it yet, according to meteorologist Ryan Maye, Hurricane Irma is still intensifying, with winds up to 155-knots (180 mph) and that extrapolating Saffir-Simpson scale, 158-knots would be Category 6.
Hurricane Irma is hurtling toward the eastern US faster than meteorological models anticipated. According to the latest readings from NOAA, the storm will probably make landfall in Southeastern Florida next weekend, or perhaps earlier – that is, unless wind patterns intervene and spare residents of Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and West Palm Beach from flooding and winds witnessed in Texas and Louisiana, according to NOAA forecasts.
The swarming of earthquakes continue in Idaho. The area around Soda Springs has seen a series of quakes after a mid level Earthquake struck the region. The most recent swarm of quakes to the northwest of Yellowstone Has Stopped. We will have to watch the quakes closely to see if there is any shift toward the caldera. I will continue to update and you can find more info at the link below.
An earthquake measuring 6.3 magnitude has struck North Korea near a known nuclear test site, Punggye-ri, suggesting that Pyongyang may have conducted its sixth nuclear test, Yonhap reports.
An allegedly artificial quake was detected at 12:36pm in North Hamgyeong Province, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), Yonhap reports.
“Today, at around 12:36pm, we detected an artificial earthquake measuring 5.6 magnitude… we are analyzing whether a nuclear test was conducted,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said, according to Yonhap.
The USGS reported the tremor as a 6.3 magnitude, while China’s earthquake administration also said it detected a 6.3 magnitude earthquake in northeastern North Korea, calling it a “suspected explosion,” Reuters reported.
The Pentagon and the JCS have urgently called for a crisis countermeasure, assuming that North Korea is most likely to have conducted a sixth nuclear test, the report added. Seoul has placed its military on highest alert and is closely cooperating with the US.
Seoul’s presidential office has already accused its neighbor of conducting a nuclear test while president Moon Jae-in has convened a National Security Council meeting.
It is looking like direct impacts to the Lesser Antilles, if any, are more likely to be in the northern Leewards from Guadaloupe northward, but this may change in the coming days.
The possibilities range from a direct raking of many of the Leeward Islands to the hurricane passing far enough north to only deliver periphery impacts such as high surf, gusty winds and rainbands.
For now, residents of the Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands should follow the progress of Irma closely.
An ongoing earthquake swarm at Yellowstone volcano is now one of the biggest ever recorded, with over 2,300 tremors since it began in June.
As of August 30, 2,357 earthquakes had been recorded. The most powerful in recent weeks was magnitude 3.3; it took place on August 21.
The most powerful in the current swarm was a magnitude 4.4, which was recorded on June 15. Most of the earthquakes were in the magnitude 0 or 1 range, with a further 181 recorded at magnitude 2 and 11 at magnitude 3. Another 53 were less than 0, meaning they were very small events that could be detected only with sensitive earthquake-monitoring instruments.
Scientists with the Breakthrough Listen initiative said they detected 15 repeating, fast radio bursts coming from the same mysterious source they recorded in 2012. In 2015, the same source became the first object to record a repeating radio burst.
The Aug. 26 discovery also comes from the only source whose location has been positively confirmed in space, WJZ reported. The dwarf galaxy signal that was found in is much smaller than the Milky Galaxy, with about half the number of stars in it.
“The possible implications are two folds,” Dr. Vishal Gajjar of Breakthrough Listen said. “This detection at such a high frequency helps us scrutinize many of FRB 121102’s origin models.”
Researchers at Harvard said the signals’ power could be making it easier for astronomers to find than others in the cosmos.
“Previously we thought there wasn’t much emission at high or low frequencies, but now it looks like there is,” said Professor Avi Loeb at Harvard University. “It’s twice as high as the typical frequency that was previously claimed for this repeater.”
Astronomers pick up radio signals from space
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In less than a fortnight, more than 80,000 people have signed a petition accusing billionaire investor George Soros of sedition against the US and demanding that he and his affiliates be declared “domestic terrorists” and that his assets be seized.
The petition was initially launched on August 20 by “E.B.” on the White House petitions website. If it reaches the threshold of 100,000 signatures before September 19, the White House will have to provide a formal response.
A huge asteroid is set to zip past Earth today, but don’t worry, this isn’t “Armageddon.”
The asteroid, named Florence, is an almost 3-mile-wide rock that passed about 4.4 million miles from Earth (7 million kilometers) early Friday, NASA says.
And while a few million miles sounds like a lot of room, it’s actually a pretty close pass when you’re talking about the vastness of space. Other asteroids have passed closer to Earth than Florence, but few have been this big.
We will have to keep an eye on an uptick of fireballs in the coming 48 hours or so. You can find more info at the link below.
Dr. Terry Gentry, an associate professor at Texas A&M University, examined small samples of both drinking water and floodwater from Cypress, Texas.
“We saw elevated levels of E. coli,” Gentry told ABC News. “This indicates the very likely presence of pathogenic bacteria viruses and other organisms that could cause disease in some individuals.”
A day after President Donald Trump finally broke his silence on North Korea after the isolated nation twice provoked its geopolitical adversaries in the span of just four days, Yonhap is reporting that the US sent four F-35B stealth jets and two nuclear-capable B-1B strategic bombers to train with South Korea’s F-15K fighter jets over the Korean Peninsula on Thursday in what it described as an “unprecedented” escalation of the allies’ military response to N.Korea’s provocations.
Thursday’s air-to-ground precision-strike drills were conducted a mock bombing drill, which simulated a surgical strike of key enemy facilities, over the Pilsung Range in the eastern province of Gangwon.
The “unprecedented” combined maneuver involved the F-35Bs from Japan and the long-range bombers based in Guam as well as a squadron of four F-15Ks, Yonhap said.
They used MK-84, MK-82 and GBU-32 bombs, according to Yonhap. In a statement, US Pacific Command said the flyover was a “direct response to North Korea’s intermediate range ballistic missile launch.” “North Korea’s actions are a threat to our allies, partners and homeland, and their destabilizing actions will be met accordingly,” said Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy, commander of Pacific Air Forces.
Wall Street analysts have been urging investors all year to buy stocks in the big US banks, but, as The FT reports, Wall Street itself is not listening.
We noted at the start of the year that executives of the biggest TBTF banks were dumping their shares as a post-Trump rally took their stock prices higher…
