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 strong eruptive event at Ecuador's Sangay volcano on Tuesday, June 9, 2020, produced a thick column of ash that rose up to 7 km (23 000 feet) above sea level. Several provinces were covered in ash, flights delayed and some roads closed. Ashfall was reported in…
A strong and shallow earthquake registered by the USGS as M5.7 hit southern Iran at 17:18 UTC (21:48 LT) on June 9, 2020. The agency is reporting a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). IRSC is reporting the same magnitude and depth, EMSC M5.7 at a depth of just 2 km (1.2…
About 10 000 people living in the towns of Edenville, Sanford, and Midland in central Michigan were forced to evacuate on May 19, 2020, after days of heavy rainfall caused catastrophic failure of Edenville and Sanford dams. The National Weather Service (NWS) has…
A newly-discovered asteroid designated 2020 LD flew past Earth at a distance of 0.80 LD / 0.00205 AU (306 675 km / 190 559 miles) at 08:25 UTC on June 5, 2020. This is the 45th known and the largest asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 lunar distance since the start of…
New maritime campaigns carried out last month off the coast of Mayotte acquired new readings of the seabed over an area of approximately 1 500 km2 (580 mi2) east of the island. The goal was to better understand the seismo-volcanic crisis affecting Mayotte since May…
At least 800 000 people have been affected by heavy rains and flooding in central and southern China over the past couple of days. At least 2 people have been killed and 4 are still missing. The worst affected provinces are Hunan, Jiangxi, and Guangxi. 1 person has…
Widespread, long-lived wind storm known to meteorologists as 'derecho' affected the central Rockies and northern Plains on Saturday, June 6, 2020. Derechos are very rare for parts of Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado, NWS Storm Prediction Center said. In fact,…
The center of Tropical Storm "Cristobal" made landfall in southeast Louisiana at 22:00 UTC (17:00 CDT) on June 7, 2020, between the mouth of the Mississippi River and Grand Isle with maximum sustained winds near 85 km/h (50 mph) and minimum central…
ESA's Solar Orbiter spacecraft passed through the ion tail of Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) on May 31 and June 1, 2020, and through its dust tail on June 6. This is the 7th space mission to fly through the tail of a comet, and the first one whose upcoming crossing was…
A strong earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.4 hit off the coast of Halmahera, Indonesia at 08:49 UTC (17:49 LT) on June 4, 2020. The agency is reporting a depth of 106.9 km (66 miles). EMSC is reporting M6.4 at a depth of 105 km (65 miles). The epicenter was…
