A pair of magnitude 6.0-plus earthquakes occurred within 30 minutes of each other on Tuesday.
Both earthquakes were located in the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of miles apart. Neither earthquake produced reports of significant damage and no tsunami warnings were issued.
According to the United States Geological Survey, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake occurred in the water between Indonesia and the Philippines at 12:38 a.m. local time. A half-hour later, the USGS reported a magnitude 6.2 earthquake deep below the Earth’s surface in the Sea of Japan.
The first quake was centered a few miles southeast of the Talaud Islands of Indonesia, and the USGS reported the tremors caused strong shaking there. While the quake was more than 100 miles away from larger cities, user-submitted data published on the USGS website indicated some people reported weak shaking approximately 200 miles away in Manado, Philippines.
The earthquake was triggered about 13 miles below the Earth’s surface, the USGS reported, while the earthquake that followed in Japan occurred at a much larger depth of 150 miles.
The Japan earthquake was centered about 46 miles northwest of Rumoi and 610 miles north of Tokyo. But because it occurred so far underground, those on the surface didn’t feel its full effect.
The Japan Meteorological Association reported most parts of the country experienced a 2 on its own seismic scale of 0-7, which usually carries only weak shaking and can be undetected by humans.
The National Weather Service’s Climate prediction Center has announced that El Niño is already is strong and mature and is forecasted to gain strength. This El Niño is expected to be among the three strongest on record since 1950.
For drought ravaged California, that is very good news. This strong El Niño in the Pacific Ocean is becoming even more powerful, setting the stage for an unusually wet winter in California that could bring heavy rains by January,
El Niño is an anomalous, yet periodic, warming of the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. For reasons still not well understood, every two to seven years, this patch of ocean warms for six to 18 months according to Weather.com.
Generally, El Niño doesn’t peak in California until January, February and March, Bill Patzert, climatologist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge said. That’s when Californians should expect “mudslides, heavy rainfall, one storm after another like a conveyor belt.”
Forecasters predict warmer temperatures in the North over the winter due to El Niño with more precipitation of snow and ice as well as possible tornadoes in the South and Midwest.
The South Pacific island of Vanuatu has been hammered by Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Pam.
The Island has faced 165 m.p.h. winds from one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded east of Australia. The eye of the storm passed over Vanuatu on March 13th around 4:05 a.m., the first category 5 to make landfall since the devastating Super Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines in November 2013.
Reports say that Efate Island, the most populated in Vanuatu, has suffered extreme damage from the storm. There has been no confirmed reports of deaths, injuries, or missing.
Port Vila, located on the southwest part of the island, did not get hit by the storm’s eye and was able to stay online throughout most of the storm’s move over the Island. The last recording sent by a weather station at the port showed almost 4.7 inches of rain from the storm.
Four tropical cyclones are currently spinning in the Pacific including one just off the western coast of Australia.
California residents may have dodged a big bullet.
A 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck Sunday night off the coast of northern California, making it the strongest quake to hit west coast since the 2010 Baja California quake that measured 7.2 on the Richter Scale.
The quake struck 50 miles west of Eureka, California in the Pacific Ocean at a depth of four miles. Several aftershocks struck closer to land, including a 3.4 magnitude shock that struck about 16 miles off the coast, but none were centered inland.
Police throughout the region reported no significant injuries.
“My car was rocking back and forth,” Sgt. Brian Stephens of the Eureka Police Department told the LA Times. “I thought someone was shoving my car back and forth, looked around and no one was there. Then I realized what was happening.”
Another resident described the quake as almost like ocean waves, slowly rolling and rocking their home but not causing any real shock.
Another tropical storm has formed in the Pacific Ocean and is bearing down on Mexico.
Tropical Storm Sonia had formed about 285 miles south of the Baja California peninsula. The storm has maximum sustained winds of 40 m.p.h. and is moving north at 7 m.p.h.
The National Hurricane Center said that a tropical storm warning has been issued from Mazatlan north along Mexico’s mainland. The forecasters expect Sonia to pass south of Baja California before making landfall somewhere on the Mexican mainland.
Heavy rain could hit a wide area and local officials are warning residents about possible mudslides and flash flooding.
