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.
Another slow-motion earthquake, or “slow slip event,” is now underway on the Hikurangi subduction plate boundary offshore the North Island’s east coast. The amount of slow slip movement during the last month has released energy equivalent to a magnitude 7 earthquake.
A stronger-than-usual eruption took place at Popocatepetl volcano, Mexico at around 13:38 UTC (07:38 LT) on January 21, 2023.
A very deep earthquake registered by the USGS and EMSC as M6.8 hit northern Argentina at 22:09 UTC on January 20, 2023. The depth of the earthquake was reported as 610.7 km (379 miles) by the USGS, and 586 km (364 miles) by the EMSC.
A recent research article published in MDPI Atmosphere studied the features of various sources of disturbances in the atmospheric electric field at the Tien-Shan high-mountain station and established a statistical relationship between solar and thunderstorm activity.
A strong earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.2 hit near the west coast of Guadeloupe at 11:23 UTC on January 20, 2023. The agency is reporting a depth of 165 km (102 miles). EMSC is reporting the same magnitude and depth.
After a run of particularly wet weather for New Zealand’s Gisborne region, one location has beaten its record for the highest January rainfall since 1937.
Tropical Cyclone “Cheneso” formed around 12:00 UTC on January 18, 2023, as the fourth named storm of the 2022/23 Southwest Indian Ocean cyclone season.
New activity/unrest was reported for 5 volcanoes from January 11 – 17, 2023. During the same period, ongoing activity was reported for 15 volcanoes.
Observational data shows an increase in seismicity at Indonesia’s Dieng volcano, prompting the Indonesian Centre for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG) to raise the Alert Level from 1 to 2 (on a scale of 4) on January 13, 2023. The Dieng Volcanic Complex, which is made up of multiple stratovolcanoes and more than 20 small Pleistocene-to-Holocene craters, last erupted in April 2021 (VEI 1).
Tropical Cyclone “Irene” formed on January 18, 2023 north of New Caledonia as the 4th named storm of the 2022/23 Australian region cyclone season.
