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 newly-discovered asteroid designated 2020 XX3 will fly by Earth at a distance of 0.15 LD / 0.00038 AU (56 847 km / 35 323 miles) from the center of our planet on December 18, 2020. 2020 XX3 was first observed at Pan-STARRS 1, Haleakala on December 10, eight days…
Seismic activity increased on Mauna Loa's northwest flank on December 4, 2020, with M4.1 earthquake and clusters of small, shallow earthquakes occurring closely in time and location. The volcano is not erupting but the rates of deformation and seismicity have…
A storm over the Southwest will move northeastward to the Great Lakes through the coming weekend, bringing severe thunderstorms to the Southern Plains and Lower Mississippi Valley, showers to the Lower/Mid-Mississippi Valley, and snow from the central Plains to…
A strong earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.0 hit south of the Kermadec Islands, New Zealand at 20:42 UTC on December 6, 2020. The agency is reporting a depth of 82.7 km (51 miles). EMSC is reporting M6.0 at a depth of 80 km (49 miles). The epicenter was…
New activity/unrest was reported for 5 volcanoes from December 2 to 8, 2020. During the same period, ongoing activity was reported for 14 volcanoes. New activity/unrest: Lewotolo, Lomblen Island (Indonesia) | Manam, Papua, New Guinea | Merapi, Central Java…
A strong earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.1 hit near Yilan, Taiwan at 13:19 UTC on December 10, 2020. The agency is reporting a depth of 74.6 km (46 miles). EMSC is reporting M6.2 at a depth of 71 km (44 miles). The epicenter was located 26.5 km (16.5 miles)…
Explosive activity resumed at Karymsky volcano, Kamchatka, Russia on December 9, 2020. The Aviation Color Code was raised to Orange. Ash explosions up to 7 km (23 000 feet) above sea level began at about 20:45 UTC, drifting northwest of the volcano, KVERT reports. …
Explosive eruption continues at Sakurajima volcano, with moderate to strong explosions on December 9 and 10 becoming nearly continuous. An explosion at 19:30 UTC on December 9, produced a volcanic ash column up to 3.6 km (12 000 feet) above sea level, extending…
A geomagnetic sudden impulse — CME produced by a long-duration C7.4 solar flare on December 7, was observed at DSCOVR satellite at the L1 point at 01:32 UTC on December 10. The total field reached 16 nT while wind speeds topped out near 571 km/s, producing a period…
A newly-discovered asteroid designated 2020 XG2 flew past Earth at a distance of 0.13 LD / 0.00033 AU (49 367 km / 30 675 miles) from the center of our planet at 19:15 UTC on December 7, 2020. The event took place exactly 3 hours after 2020 XK1 flew past us at 0.05…
