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.
The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission is scheduled for launch today, November 18, 2013. The two-hour launch window opens at 18:28 UTC. This will be the first mission devoted to understanding the Martian upper atmosphere and what
According to the National Weather Service, more than 60 tornadoes struck US Midwest on Sunday, November 17, 2013, leaving trail of destruction and unleashing 130 km (80 mph) winds and hail stones up to 5 cm (2 inches) in diameter. Entire neighbourhoods were
In the early morning hours of Sunday, November 17, 2013, a new paroxysmal eruptive episode occurred at Etna's New Southeast Crater.
This episode, which came less than six days after the previous paroxysm, was characterized by violent strombolian activity and
Tropical Cyclone Podul approached the coast of Vietnam on Thursday night and weakened to a tropical depression shortly before making landfall on Friday, November 15, 2013. Podul dumped heavy rains across central regions of Vietnam on Friday and by
After series of foreshocks that struck near South Orkney Islands in last 4 days, a massive and shallow M 7.8 earthquake struck the same area on November 17, 2013 at 09:04 UTC. USGS measured depth at 10 km (6.8 miles), EMSC is reporting M 7.6 at 30
Billions of years ago when the Red Planet was young, it appears to have had a thick atmosphere that was warm enough to support oceans of liquid water – a critical ingredient for life. The animation shows how the surface of Mars might have appeared during this
In last 24 hours solar activity was at moderate levels due to two M1 flares at 04:53 UTC and 07:49 UTC from Region 1900. No Earth-directed coronal mass ejections were observed.
There are currently 10 numbered sunspot regions on the
Shallow earthquake swarm is currently ongoing near South Orkney Islands, South Pacific Ocean, approximately 640 km (400 miles) north east of the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Current earthquake sequence started with M
Observers around the world are reporting that Comet ISON brightened sharply last night and is now at the threshold of naked-eye visibility. By some reports, ISON surged in brightness by approximately 2 magnitudes over last 24 hours and is now brighter than
A giant steam ring was produced by an explosion this morning at Kliuchevskoi volcano, Kamchatka. The volcano emits a variable but often intense steam plume with some ash. Sporadic small explosions can be seen as well, suggesting that weak strombolian activity…
