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 bright fireball was recorded streaking through the night sky over Popocatepetl volcano, Mexico at 02:18 UTC on February 19, 2020 (20:18 LT on February 18). The event was recorded by several webcams. At this time, there are no eyewitness reports submitted to the…
Ecuadorian Tungurahua volcano, one of South America's most prominent volcanoes, is showing early warning signs of potential flank collapse, a new research paper published in Science Direct suggests. A previous eruption of Tungurahua, around 3 000 years ago,…
Solar wind parameters in 24 hours ending 12:30 UTC today were indicative of a slightly enhanced and disturbed interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) due to weak coronal hole high speed stream (CH HSS) influences. Total IMF strength was variable, but steadily increased…
A newly-discovered asteroid designated 2020 CQ2 flew past Earth at a distance of 0.39 LD / 0.00099 AU (148 101 km / 92 026 miles) at 02:19 UTC on February 14, 2020. This is the 14th known asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 lunar distance since the start of the year…
A series of small explosions and tremor bursts have been detected in seismic data at Semisopochnoi over the past 7 hours and are continuing, representing a significant uptick in activity, the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) reported at 09:19 UTC on February 15,…
Tropical Cyclone "Francisco" re-formed in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, on February 13, 2020, after weakening below tropical cyclone status on February 6. Francisco made landfall at 18:00 UTC on February 14 over the southeast coast of the…
A powerful North Atlantic cyclone forced the Icelandic Met Office (IMO) to issue a red weather alert for southern Iceland, in effect through the first half on February 14, 2020. Violent and dangerous wind gusts may exceed 200 km/h (124 mph) in some areas. Residents…
A strong earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.9 hit Kuril Islands at 10:33 UTC on February 13, 2020, at a depth of 142.6 km (88.6 miles). The EMSC is reporting M6.9 at a depth of 150 km (93 miles). The epicenter was located 93 km (58 miles) ENE of Kuril'sk,…
New activity/unrest was reported for 5 volcanoes from February 5 to 11, 2020. During the same period, ongoing activity was reported for 10 volcanoes. New activity/unrest: Kuchinoerabujima, Ryukyu Islands (Japan) | Piton de la Fournaise, Reunion Island (France) |…
A newly-discovered asteroid designated 2020 CQ1 flew past Earth at a distance of 0.17 LD / 0.00043 AU (64 327 km / 39 970 miles) at 11:17 UTC on February 4, 2020. This is the 13th known asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 lunar distance since the start of the year,…
