MAGNITUDE 5.1 EAST OF SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=396087

Subject To Change

Depth: 10 km

Distances: 3916 km SE of Montevideo, Uruguay / pop: 1,270,737 / local time: 20:18:20.3 2014-08-20
4051 km SE of Buenos Aires, Argentina / pop: 13,076,300 / local time: 20:18:20.3 2014-08-20
4715 km SW of Maseru, Lesotho / pop: 118,355 / local time: 01:18:20.3 2014-08-21

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Alert raised due to Fuego volcano increased eruptive activity which has covered several villages with ash in Guatemala

The Fuego volcano increased its eruptive activity Tuesday and threw ashes on several villages in Guatemala, so that the authorities remain alert, although no evacuation has been ordered.

As reported by the State Coordinator for Disaster Reduction (Conrad) in a statement, the Fuego volcano is again at a higher range of activity observed moderate to strong explosions and columns of gray ash up to 4,700 meters on the level of sea.

The report indicates that the ash from the activity falls on the villages and hamlets, including the town of San Pedro Yepocapa. The seismic station recorded activity caused by explosions and avalanches block the labors of the volcano.

For its part, the State Institute of Volcanology reiterated to the Directorate General of Civil Aeronautics precaution to keep air traffic by the presence of dispersed ash near the volcano.

The Fuego volcano, 3 thousand 763 meters of altitude, starred in the emergency last eruption when the September 13, 2012 reported a powerful explosion, which caused the evacuation of about 10,000 people.

The Fuego volcano, located between the departments of Chimaltenango, Escuintla and Sacatepec, southwestern Guatemala, increased its activity since Tuesday last week.

http://tinyurl.com/putnag5

Evacuations ordered due to the increased seismic activity in the North of Iceland

Authorities have evacuated tourists from an area north of Iceland’s largest glacier amid increased seismic activity around a volcano in the past few days.

Iceland’s Civil Protection Department says 300-500 people, mostly visitors, have been evacuated from the highlands north of the Vatnajokull glacier. The area is uninhabited, but popular with hikers in the summer.

Officials said Wednesday the measure was taken as a safety precaution following thousands of small earthquakes in recent days near Bardarbunga, a subglacial stratovolcano under the glacier. Roads in the area have been closed amid fears that an eruption could lead to serious flooding.

The prospect of a volcano eruption is worrisome because of the international aviation chaos that followed the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokul volcano, when more than 100,000 flights were cancelled.

http://tinyurl.com/pn5jyzf

MAGNITUDE 5.0 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usb000s4ph#summary

Subject To Change

Depth: 10 km

Distances: 38km (24mi) W of Buldir Island, Alaska
1128km (701mi) E of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Russia
1145km (711mi) E of Yelizovo, Russia
1145km (711mi) E of Vilyuchinsk, Russia
3100km (1926mi) W of Whitehorse, Canada  

Severe flooding and landslide wreaks havoc in the Republic of Panama

Nine people have died in the Panama Republic following flooding and landslides in the western part of the country. Amongst the damage, over twenty homes were destroyed, leaving almost 100 people homeless.

The floods and landslides occurred in Chiriqui Province after heavy rain fell over the area on 17 August 2014. The President of the Panama Republic has declared a state of emergency in the province, and efforts have been undertaken since then to repair the damage and rescue people affected by the disaster.

The rain caused the Chiriqui Viejo River to burst its banks in Chiriqui Province, which led to flooding in the city of Cerro Punta. The powerful flood waters from the river destroyed three bridges in the province, and rescue workers have constructed a temporary ford for relief and evacuation purposes. Further enhancing the damage from the floods is debris swept along by the river.

Four of the people killed were on a bus which crashed into the river when part of the road they were travelling on collapsed. The floods also left twelve people stranded in Las Nubes, when the overflowing river left them on an island, but they were rescued on 17 August.

http://tinyurl.com/ndm3e2t

Subterranean landslide under the Metro construction forces dozens to evacuate in Nørrebro in Copenhagen

Up to 51 people have been evacuated from their apartment buildings because of a subterranean landslide under the Metro construction in Nørrebro in Copenhagen.

 

The evacuated residents will not be able to return to their homes until an inspection has cleared the situation.

 

“In connection with the construction some subsidence occurred due to a landslide, and it was decided that an evacuation was necessary,” Mads Firlings, a duty chief at Copenhagen Police, said according to Metroxpress newspaper.

 

“The police assisted because we have some systems in place to contact citizens and because you have to enter the apartments where there may not be anyone present.”

 

Some of the citizens have managed to find shelter with friends and family, while the company in charge of the Metro construction, Metroselskabet, has ensured that the remaining people have been housed.

http://tinyurl.com/pr982dm

Major landslide has killed 36 with 7 missing so far in Hiroshima, Japan

Rain-sodden slopes collapsed in torrents of mud, rock and debris Wednesday on the outskirts of Hiroshima city, killing at least 36 people and leaving seven missing, Japanese police said.

Public broadcaster NHK showed rescue workers suspended by ropes from police helicopters pulling victims from the rubble. Others gingerly climbed into windows as they searched for survivors in crushed homes.

Hillsides were swept down into residential areas in at least five valleys in the suburbs of the western Japanese city after heavy rains left slopes unstable.

Hiroshima prefectural police said 36 people were confirmed dead and at least seven others were missing as of Wednesday night. The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said 15 people were injured, two seriously.

Local government official Nakatoshi Okamoto said a few people were washed away it was hard to know exactly how many were unaccounted for, because harsh conditions in the disaster area were hindering rescuers.

Authorities issued warnings that additional rain could trigger more landslides and flooding.

The land collapsed so quickly at multiple locations that evacuation advisories came an hour after the first mudslide, said Kenzo Kanayama, the city’s disaster management chief. “We misjudged the situation. It was too late,” he said.

“It’s so regrettable,” Kyodo News service quoted Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui as saying. “We’ll find out what went wrong and take the necessary measures.”

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was on vacation, had to cancel his plans to play golf outside Tokyo and rush back to his office to set up a taskforce.

Landslides are a constant risk in mountainous, crowded Japan, where many homes are built on or near steep slopes. Torrential rains early Wednesday apparently caused slopes to collapse in an area where many of the buildings were newly constructed.

Hiroshima’s geology, consisting of highly water-retentive soil, makes the city particularly prone to such disasters, said Hiroshi Ikeya, a landslide expert at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.

The damage was extensive “because of intense rain, extremely fragile slopes and the disaster hitting in the dead of night,” he said in an interview on NHK. Mudslides, floodwater, broken trees and debris flowed down the hill, smashing into houses, he said.

More than 30 people died in 1999 when Hiroshima was hit by hundreds of landslides.

Damage from land and mudslides has increased nationwide over the past few decades due to more frequent heavy rains, despite extensive work to stabilize slopes. In the past decade there have been nearly 1,200 landslides a year, according to the land ministry, up from an average of about 770 a year in the previous decade.

In October last year, multiple mudslides on Izu-Oshima, an island south of Tokyo, killed 35 people, four of whose bodies were never recovered. Those slides followed a typhoon that dumped a record 824 millimeters (more than 32 inches) of rain in a single day.

http://tinyurl.com/q6zx9mp

MASSIVE DIP SPIKES ON THE MAGNETOSPHERE @ APPROX 20:30, 20:45, 21:30, 22:00 hrs UTC

**URGENT**

  MASSIVE DIP SPIKES ON THE MAGNETOSPHERE @ APPROX 20:30, 20:45, 21:30, 22:00 hrs UTC. FURTHER EARTHQUAKES, VOLCANO ACTIVITY & ADVERSE WEATHER PATTERNS WILL BE GREATLY INFLUENCED BY THE COSMIC RAYS STRIKING THE EARTH’S CORE

***BE ALERT***

MAGNITUDE 5.4 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usb000s4pb#summary

Subject To Change

Depth: 4 km

Distances: 42km (26mi) WNW of Buldir Island, Alaska
1127km (700mi) E of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Russia
1144km (711mi) E of Yelizovo, Russia
1144km (711mi) E of Vilyuchinsk, Russia
3092km (1921mi) W of Whitehorse, Canada  

MAGNITUDE 5.3 IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usb000s4nk#summary

Subject To Change

Depth: 311 km

Distances: 155km (96mi) S of Oyama, Japan
164km (102mi) S of Sagara, Japan
167km (104mi) S of Iwata, Japan
169km (105mi) SSE of Hamamatsu, Japan
312km (194mi) SSW of Tokyo, Japan