Teo Blašković founded The Watchers in 2011 and edited it until 2026, covering seismic and volcanic activity, extreme weather, space weather and near-Earth objects. Articles on this page are his archive.
Earthquake activity at Great Sitkin volcano has increased over the past month and is now above background levels, forcing the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) to raise the Aviation Color Code to Yellow and the Alert Level to Advisory at 20:58 UTC on February 26,…
A strong earthquake registered by the USGS as M5.9 hit near the coast of Yamdena island, Tanimbar Islands, Maluku, Indonesia at 07:33 UTC on February 26, 2020. The agency is reporting a depth of 61.2 km (38 miles). EMSC is reporting M5.9 at a depth of 44 km (27…
A large explosion took place at Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano at around 06:20 UTC on February 25, 2020. According to the Washington VAAC, volcanic ash is rising up to 7.9 km (26 000 feet) above sea level. At 11:13 UTC, the volcanic ash cloud was 130 km (80…
A short-lived episode of volcanic earthquakes occurred beneath Mt. Ruapehu on February 22 and 23, 2020. The sequence now appears to be over. The Volcanic Alert Level, therefore, remains at Level 1. The last known eruption of this volcano took place in 2007 (VEI…
A series of shallow earthquakes, including M5.7 at a depth of 6.4 km (4 miles) and M6.0 at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles) hit Iran – Turkey border region on Sunday, February 23, 2020, claiming the lives of at least 9 people and injuring 37 others, 9 seriously. The…
New activity/unrest was reported for 4 volcanoes from February 12 to 18, 2020. During the same period, ongoing activity was reported for 14 volcanoes. New activity/unrest: Kuchinoerabujima, Ryukyu Islands (Japan) | Piton de la Fournaise, Reunion Island (France) |…
The Icelandic Met Office (IMO) is warning residents and tourists to temporarily stop exploring caves in the Eldvörp area on the Reykjanes Peninsula due to deadly gasses measured in a cave close to a parking lot. In their warning issued at 10:59 UTC on February…
Three newly-discovered asteroids – designated 2020 DU, 2020 DA1, and 2020 DW – flew past Earth within 1 lunar distance over the past few days. This pushed the total number of known <1 LD asteroid flybys this year to 17. This time last year, we had just 6 such…
A cold dome of Arctic high pressure pushing down across the Rockies and Plains will spread east-southeastward over the Lower Mississippi Valley to the Ohio Valley and the Southeast, NWS forecaster Ziegenfelder noted at 07:51 UTC on Thursday, February 20, 2020. Cold…
Solar activity is at very low levels and the visible disk remains spotless for the 17th day in a row, making a total of 33 days in 2020 or 66 percent — we are still in a Solar Minimum, which is expected to end sometime this year. As a result of weakened Sun's…
