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.
A shallow earthquake registered by the Earthquake Unit of the University of West Indies as M5.6 hit Hope Bay, Jamaica at 15:57 UTC (10:57 LT) on October 30, 2023. The agency is reporting a depth of 18 km (11.2 miles). The USGS is reporting it as M5.4, EMSC as M5.5, and INGV and Ayiti-Seismes (Haiti) as M5.8.
A recent geophysical study on California’s Long Valley Caldera has unveiled the mechanisms behind its seismic activity and uplift. The research, published in Science Advances, utilized distributed acoustic sensing and machine-learning algorithms to reach its conclusions.
A recent study published in Geophysical Research Letters has found that volcanic eruptions occurring in tropical regions can disrupt climate cycles in the Indian Ocean for up to 8 years. The research, conducted by scientists from MIT and WHOI, focused on the impact of volcanic eruptions on the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO).
Storm Ciarán is poised to exacerbate flood conditions in Ireland on November 1, 2023, and in the UK on November 2, 2023. The storm was named by the UK Met Office on October 29, 2023, and is expected to bring heavy rain and strong winds to both countries.
An episode of complex volcano-tectonic unrest is currently affecting the Reykjanes Peninsula, the Icelandic Met Office (IMO) said on October 29, 2023. It is interpreted to result from multiple deformation sources at depth, which are interacting and affecting a wide area across the peninsula.
An international team of scientists led by the University of Oxford has identified the largest-ever seismic event on Mars, known as S1222a, to be the result of tectonic forces rather than a meteorite impact. The event was recorded on May 4, 2022, by NASA’s InSight lander.
An explosive-effusive eruption continues at the Klyuchevskoi volcano in Kamchatka, Russia, on October 29, 2023, with ash clouds reaching a height of 10 km (33 000 feet) above sea level. The Aviation Color Code remains at Orange.
A strong earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.0 hit off the coast of Vanuatu at 04:32 UTC on October 29, 2023. The agency is reporting a depth of 80 km (50 miles). EMSC is reporting the same magnitude and depth.
On October 25, 2023, Colombia’s Puracé Volcano experienced a noticeable increase in seismic activity, with earthquakes reaching a maximum magnitude of 1.0. Located between 1 and 4 km (0.6 – 2.5 miles) in depth, these quakes coincided with higher degassing levels and persistent high CO2 values.
NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) has revised its forecast for Solar Cycle 25, predicting a quicker and more intense peak in solar activity between January and October 2024. The updated prediction challenges the previous expert panel’s forecast from 2019.
