Powerful Quake Strikes Seabed Off W Indonesia

A powerful earthquake measuring 6.7Mw strikes off the coast of western Indonesia

The powerful earthquake, originally reported as measuring 7.0Mw, struck in the Kepulauan Mentawai Region, Indonesia, about 110 km WSW of Padang, Sumatra, Indonesia, at a depth of 44.8km on Sunday August 16, 2009, USGS reported.

The earthquake, which was later downgraded by USGS EQ Hazard Program was followed by a cluster of  aftershocks at the time of writing, the largest of which measured 5.9Mw.

[ Note: FEWW Moderators have noted that at least a dozen or so earthquakes which were initially reported as measuring 6.0 or greater, have been subsequently downgraded by USGS without any explanation.  Moderators also noted an  earthquake reported in Alaska, which measured greater than 5.0, was withdrawn from the USGS report last week, again without any explanation.]

See also FEWW comments:

https://feww.wordpress.com/2009/08/03/magnitude-6-9-quake-strikes-gulf-of-california/#comment-3772

https://feww.wordpress.com/2009/08/03/magnitude-6-9-quake-strikes-gulf-of-california/#comment-3797

According to Indonesia’s Meteorological and Geophysics Agency there was NO tsunami warning.

Several people received minor injuries as they fled building in Padang, where a small number of buildings were damage, according to reports.

Earthquake Details

• Magnitude: 6.7
• Date-Time
  • Sunday, August 16, 2009 at 07:38:25 UTC
  • Sunday, August 16, 2009 at 02:38:25 PM at epicenter
• Location: 1.397°S, 99.473°E
• Depth: 44.8 km (27.8 miles)
• Region:  KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI REGION, INDONESIA
• Distances
  • 110 km (70 miles) WSW of Padang, Sumatra, Indonesia
  • 305 km (190 miles) SW of Pekanbaru, Sumatra, Indonesia
  • 560 km (345 miles) SSW of KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia
  • 960 km (600 miles) WNW of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia
• Location Uncertainty: horizontal +/- 5.8 km (3.6 miles); depth +/- 10.2 km (6.3 miles)
• Parameters: NST=240, Nph=240, Dmin=683.1 km, Rmss=1.04 sec, Gp= 22°, M-type=teleseismic moment magnitude (Mw), Version=8
• Source: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
• Event ID:  us2009kjak

10-degree Map Centered at 0°N,100°E

Earthquake Location Map. Source: USGS

Historic Seismicity [USGS]

Major Tectonic Boundaries: Subduction Zones -purple, Ridges -red and Transform Faults -green

Seismic Hazard Map [USGS]

Major Tectonic Boundaries: Subduction Zones -purple, Ridges -red and Transform Faults -green

Related Links:

• Earthquakes
• Volcanoes
• FEWW Volcano Links

Meet Bill and Ana, 2009 First Named Storms

2009 Tropical Storm Season Off to Busy Start

The red shaded area covering about a half of Florida panhandle is small area of low pressure in the Gulf of Mexico centered about 130km SW of Tampa, which according to the  NWS TPC/National Hurricane Center is becoming better organized with the possibility of developing a “closed surface circulation” with a more than 50 percent probability of developing into a Tropical Cyclone later today.

Area of low pressure, Gulf of Mexico, IR image.  Click on the image to enlarge and update.

“THIS SYSTEM IS EXPECTED TO MOVE NORTHWESTWARD OR NORTH-NORTHWESTWARD AT ABOUT 15 MPH TODAY.  INTERESTS ALONG THE GULF
COAST OF FLORIDA SHOULD CLOSELY MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF THIS SYSTEM.” NHC said.

Meanwhile, back in the ocean, Ana and Bill are moving west across the Atlantic Ocean

TS ANA: Click on the image to enlarge and update.

TS ANA: Coastal Watches/Warnings and 5-Day Track Forecast Cone

Coastal Watches/Warnings and 5-Day Track Forecast Cone. Click on the image to enlarge and update.

Tropical Storm Force Wind Speed Probabilities – 120 Hours. Click on the image to enlarge and update.

TS BILL: Click on the image to enlarge and update.

TS BILL: Coastal Watches/Warnings and 5-Day Track Forecast Cone

Coastal Watches/Warnings and 5-Day Track Forecast Cone. Click on the image to enlarge and update.

Tropical Storm Force Wind Speed Probabilities – 120 Hours. Click on the image to enlarge and update.

FEWW Forecast: Florida, the north and NE Gulf areas may be in for an extremely wet season in 2009.

California: Biggest Desert in N America

CALIF DESERTIFICATION: NOT IF, BUT WHEN

Desertification of California in the Near Future Is Almost a Certainty

Drought often have significant environmental, economic and social impacts:

• Shortages of water for agricultural, industrial, municipal and personal uses.
• Death of livestock.
• Crop failure, reduced crop yields.
• Wildfires are more common during periods of drought.
• Dust storms created by drought-enhanced land erosion and by desertification.
• Malnutrition, dehydration and related diseases.
• Famine due to lack of water for irrigation.
• Social unrest.
• Mass migration, resulting in internal displacement and international refugees.
• War over natural resources, including water and food.
• Reduced electricity production due to insufficient available coolant for power stations and reduced water flow through hydroelectric dams.
• Snakes have been known to emerge and snakebites become more common.
• Creates windblown dust bowls which erodes the landscape, damages terrestrial and aquatic wildlife habitat. (Source)

US Drought Monitor

Objective Long Term Drought Indicator Blend Percentiles

Objective Short Term Drought Indicator Blend Percentiles
To view regional drought conditions, go to US Drought Monitor and click on the map. State maps can be accessed from regional maps.

Drought in California’s Central Valley

[Image acquired July 12 – 27, 2009 by EO – Posted Aug 16, 2009]

By the end of July 2009, California was well into its third dry year in a row. The image was made from data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite between July 12 and July 27, 2009. The sensor records the amount of light that photosynthesizing plants absorb and reflect as they grow. The image shows how vegetation fared in 2009 compared to the average based on observations between 2000 and 2008. In places where plants were growing more than average, the image is green. Cream is used to denote average growth, and brown points to less plant growth than average. In this image, dark squares of brown are scattered across much of the Westlands and Tulare Lake water districts. These brown squares are fields that would ordinarily support irrigated crops, but in 2009 the crops were not growing well or the fields lay fallow.

References

• Drought Operations Center. (2009, July 31). California’s Drought Update. State of California Natural Resources Agency. Accessed August 14, 2009.
• Gorn, D. (2009, April 11). What’s killing California’s Salmon? National Public Radio. Accessed August 14, 2009.
• McChesney, J. (2009, May 11). Drought, politics trouble farmers in California. National Public Radio. Accessed August 14, 2009.
• Meehl, G.A., T.F. Stocker, W.D. Collins, P. Friedlingstein, A.T. Gaye, J.M. Gregory, A. Kitoh, R. Knutti, J.M. Murphy, A. Noda, S.C.B. Raper, I.G. Watterson, A.J.
• Weaver and Z.-C. Zhao. (2007). Global Climate Projections. In Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth
• Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Solomon, S.,D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K.B. Averyt, M. Tignor and H.L. Miller (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. Accessed August 14, 2009.
• Riebeek, H. (2007, May 11).Potential Effects of Global Warming. In Global Warming, NASA’s Earth Observatory. Accessed August 14, 2009.
• Sullivan, C. (2009, May 12). California water agency changes course on delta smelt. New York Times. Accessed August 14, 2009.
• Westlands Water District. Accessed August 14, 2009.
• Woolf, S. (2009, June 15). California water districts sue to force federal fish agencies to obey environmental laws. Westlands Water District. Accessed August 14, 2009.

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided by Inbal Reshef, Global Agricultural Monitoring Project. Caption by Holli Riebeek and Rebecca Lindsey. [Edited by FEWW]

Related Links:

• Warning: California Is Being Mojavefied!
• Can’t have your water and eat the fish, too!
• Alaska: One Fire Away From Exporting Charcoal
• Calif Drought: Schwarzenegger declares a state of emergency
• Images of the Day: California Drought & Folsom Lake

• Desertification
• California ‘Mojavefied’ by 2011?
• Land degradation threatens 1.5 billion people
• Topsoil
• First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities

• Schwarzenegger Proclaims Water Emergency in Nine Counties
• Drought
• A Few Extreme Events Away
• Image of the Day: Southern Spain
• Schwarzenegger Proclaims Water Emergency in Nine Counties