April 14, 2016 - TEXAS, UNITED STATES - For the second day in a row, a major hail storm slammed parts of Texas Tuesday, causing widespread damage across the state.
"High CAPE values and steep lapse rates allowed for the formation of
very large hail in Texas over the last two days," explains Weather
Network meteorologist Dayna Vettese. "CAPE is 'Convective Available
Potential Energy', which is the energy available in the atmosphere for
storms to use. Lapse rate is a term used to describe the temperature
change as you going up from the surface into the atmosphere. The bigger
(or steeper) that temperature change, the stronger the rising motion in
the atmosphere. In order for large hail to form, you need strong rising
motion; strong enough to keep hail stones suspended in the air long
enough to grow large."
The city of Wylie, located about 28 miles northeast of Dallas, was among the hardest-hit areas on Monday.
The National Weather Service said there were reports of nearly
softball-sized hail. Windows in cars and homes were destroyed -- and
several solar panels were damaged.
The damage was so widespread, Wylie's school district canceled classes Tuesday because damage was so widespread, CNN reported.
In Flowood, Mississippi, heavy rains caused part of the roof at Jackson Prep school to collapse on Monday, CNN reported.
Surveillance video showed water rushing through the ceiling, flooding the hallway.
No one was injured, but the school was dealing with major damage to the lobby and gymnasium, according the news network.
On Wednesday, storms will be centered mainly around the southern
Louisiana to the Florida panhandle.
A few inches of rainfall will be
possible for some areas, and flooding remains a localized concern. - The Weather Network.
April 14, 2016 - JAPAN - A 6.4 magnitude earthquake has struck east of Kumamoto, Japan, according
to the Japan Meteorological Agency. It had a depth of 10 kilometers
(6.2 miles).
The quake hit at 9:26 p.m. local time (12:26 GMT), eight kilometers (4.97 miles) from the city of Tamana.
USGS shakemap intensity.
The earthquake left behind damage to buildings, as well as a fire.
Keisukei Urata, an official in Uki, told AP that he saw walls around houses collapsing.
"Papers, files, flower vases and everything fell on the floor," Kasumi
Nakamura, an official in the village of Nishihara, located near the
epicenter, told NHK.
He said the rattling started small but then grew violent, lasting about 30 seconds, adding that there were aftershocks.
A second huge earthquake has hit Japan measuring 6.0 in magnitude.
This comes as the nation was coming to terms with the destruction caused by the 6.4 tremor which struck earlier today.
It is unclear how much damage the latest quake has caused but there is reportedly, currently no tsunami warning in place.
Fires were seen breaking out after nineteen homes reportedly collapsed near to the site of the tremor.
Rescue workers are currently battling to free those trapped in the rubble.
After the first tremor, the Nuclear Regulation Authority said there were
no irregularities at three nuclear plants on the southernmost island of
Kyushu and nearby Shikoku.
Some high-speed trains were halted as a precaution. Japanese media
showed watermelons falling from shelves at asupermarket in Kumamoto.
A quake of magnitude 9 struck offshore north of Tokyo in March 2011,
causing tsunami waves along the coast which killed nearly 20,000 people
and triggered a meltdown at a nuclear powerplant.
The earlier quake struck 11 km (7 miles) east of the city of Kumamoto,
the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It initially said the magnitude was
6.2 but revised it down. Japanese public broadcaster NHK said the quake
registered 6.4.
There was no tsunami warning, but Japan's chief government spokesman,
Yoshihide Suga, said several buildings had collapsed. He gave no more
details.
Footage captured some dramatic scenes during the earlier quake with one
camera catching officer workers diving for cover as the quake hit.
Watermelons fell from store shelves and lay crushed on the floor of a
supermarket in Kumamoto city, near the epicentre, NHK footage showed.
Objects fell from shelves and staff ducked under desks as the quake shook the NHK office in Kumamoto, video showed.
Tectonic Summary
The April 14, 2016 M 6.4 earthquake north of Kumamoto, on the island of
Kyushu in southwest Japan, occurred as the result of strike-slip
faulting at shallow depth. Focal mechanisms for the earthquake indicate
slip occurred on either a left-lateral fault striking to the northwest,
or on a right-lateral fault striking northeast. While the earthquake
occurred several hundred kilometers northwest of the Ryukyu Trench,
where the Philippine Sea plate begins its northwestward subduction
beneath Japan and the Eurasia plate, the shallow depth and faulting
mechanism of this earthquake indicate it occurred on a crustal fault
within the upper Eurasia plate. At the location of this event, the
Philippine Sea plate converges with Eurasia towards the northwest at a
velocity of 58 mm/yr.
Moderate-to-large, shallow earthquakes in Kyushu are infrequent – most
seismicity in the region is related to the subduction of the Philippine
Sea plate at depth. Thirteen M 5+ earthquakes have occurred at shallow
depths (> 50 km) within 100 km of the April 2016 event over the past
century. In January and April of 1975, two shallow events with
magnitudes of M 5.8 and M 6.1 - 40 km and 65 km to the northwest of the
April 2016 earthquake, respectively – caused injuries, but no known
fatalities. A shallow M 6.6 earthquake in March 2005, just off the north
coast of Kyushu and 110 km north of the April 2016 event, caused over
1000 injuries and at least one fatality.
Mapped faults in the region generally trend east-west or
northeast-southwest, in agreement with the right-lateral plane of
preliminary focal mechanisms, and the trend of early aftershocks. In the
first three hours after the M 6.4 event (12:26:36 UTC), 7 aftershocks
have been located, the largest of which is a M 6.0 event at 15:03:47
UTC.
Seismotectonics of the Philippine Sea and Vicinity
The
Philippine Sea plate is bordered by the larger Pacific and Eurasia
plates and the smaller Sunda plate. The Philippine Sea plate is unusual
in that its borders are nearly all zones of plate convergence. The
Pacific plate is subducted into the mantle, south of Japan, beneath the
Izu-Bonin and Mariana island arcs, which extend more than 3,000 km along
the eastern margin of the Philippine Sea plate. This subduction zone is
characterized by rapid plate convergence and high-level seismicity
extending to depths of over 600 km. In spite of this extensive zone of
plate convergence, the plate interface has been associated with few
great (Magnitude greater than 8.0) ‘megathrust’ earthquakes. This low
seismic energy release is thought to result from weak coupling along the
plate interface (Scholz and Campos, 1995). These convergent plate
margins are also associated with unusual zones of back-arc extension
(along with resulting seismic activity) that decouple the volcanic
island arcs from the remainder of the Philippine Sea Plate (Karig et
al., 1978; Klaus et al., 1992).
South of the Mariana
arc, the Pacific plate is subducted beneath the Yap Islands along the
Yap trench. The long zone of Pacific plate subduction at the eastern
margin of the Philippine Sea Plate is responsible for the generation of
the deep Izu-Bonin, Mariana, and Yap trenches as well as parallel chains
of islands and volcanoes, typical of circum-pacific island arcs.
Similarly, the northwestern margin of the Philippine Sea plate is
subducting beneath the Eurasia plate along a convergent zone, extending
from southern Honshu to the northeastern coast of Taiwan, manifested by
the Ryukyu Islands and the Nansei-Shoto (Ryukyu) trench. The Ryukyu
Subduction Zone is associated with a similar zone of back-arc extension,
the Okinawa Trough. At Taiwan, the plate boundary is characterized by a
zone of arc-continent collision, whereby the northern end of the Luzon
island arc is colliding with the buoyant crust of the Eurasia
continental margin offshore China.
USGS plate tectonics.
Along its western margin, the Philippine
Sea plate is associated with a zone of oblique convergence with the
Sunda Plate. This highly active convergent plate boundary extends along
both sides the Philippine Islands, from Luzon in the north to the
Celebes Islands in the south. The tectonic setting of the Philippines is
unusual in several respects: it is characterized by opposite-facing
subduction systems on its east and west sides; the archipelago is cut by
a major transform fault, the Philippine Fault; and the arc complex
itself is marked by active volcanism, faulting, and high seismic
activity. Subduction of the Philippine Sea Plate occurs at the eastern
margin of the archipelago along the Philippine Trench and its northern
extension, the East Luzon Trough. The East Luzon Trough is thought to be
an unusual example of a subduction zone in the process of formation, as
the Philippine Trench system gradually extends northward (Hamburger et
al., 1983). On the west side of Luzon, the Sunda Plate subducts eastward
along a series of trenches, including the Manila Trench in the north,
the smaller less well-developed Negros Trench in the central
Philippines, and the Sulu and Cotabato trenches in the south (Cardwell
et al., 1980). At its northern and southern terminations, subduction at
the Manila Trench is interrupted by arc-continent collision, between the
northern Philippine arc and the Eurasian continental margin at Taiwan
and between the Sulu-Borneo Block and Luzon at the island of Mindoro.
The Philippine fault, which extends over 1,200 km within the Philippine
arc, is seismically active. The fault has been associated with major
historical earthquakes, including the destructive M7.6 Luzon earthquake
of 1990 (Yoshida and Abe, 1992). A number of other active intra-arc
fault systems are associated with high seismic activity, including the
Cotabato Fault and the Verde Passage-Sibuyan Sea Fault (Galgana et al.,
2007).
Relative plate motion vectors near the
Philippines (about 80 mm/yr) is oblique to the plate boundary along the
two plate margins of central Luzon, where it is partitioned into
orthogonal plate convergence along the trenches and nearly pure
translational motion along the Philippine Fault (Barrier et al., 1991).
Profiles B and C reveal evidence of opposing inclined seismic zones at
intermediate depths (roughly 70-300 km) and complex tectonics at the
surface along the Philippine Fault.
Several relevant
tectonic elements, plate boundaries and active volcanoes, provide a
context for the seismicity presented on the main map. The plate
boundaries are most accurate along the axis of the trenches and more
diffuse or speculative in the South China Sea and Lesser Sunda Islands.
The active volcanic arcs (Siebert and Simkin, 2002) follow the Izu,
Volcano, Mariana, and Ryukyu island chains and the main Philippine
islands parallel to the Manila, Negros, Cotabato, and Philippine
trenches.
Seismic activity along the boundaries of the
Philippine Sea Plate (Allen et al., 2009) has produced 7 great
(Magnitude greater than 8.0) earthquakes and 250 large (Magnitude
greater than 7) events. Among the most destructive events were the 1923
Kanto, the 1948 Fukui and the 1995 Kobe (Japan) earthquakes (99,000,
5,100, and 6,400 casualties, respectively), the 1935 and the 1999
Chi-Chi (Taiwan) earthquakes (3,300 and 2,500 casualties, respectively),
and the 1976 M7.6 Moro Gulf and 1990 M7.6 Luzon (Philippines)
earthquakes (7,100 and 2,400 casualties, respectively). There have also
been a number of tsunami-generating events in the region, including the
Moro Gulf earthquake, whose tsunami resulted in more than 5000 deaths.
April 14, 2016 - EARTH - The following list constitutes the latest reports of high tides,
heavy rainfall, flash floods, widespread flooding, sea level rise and
catastrophic storms.
Devastating mudflow sweeps cars away and destroys shops in Jizan, Saudi Arabia
This biblical mudflow devastated the Aldair Bani Malik governorate in Jizan region, Saudi Arabia on April 13, 2016.
Cars, trucks, trees, rocks, houses... Everything was swept away.
The furious water swept everything on its path!
And sirens or alarms were ringing loud!
A real apocalypse!
Saudi Arabia is experiencing extremely bad weather since a week.
The Jizan Region is situated in the southwest corner of Saudi Arabia and
boarders Yemen. Its capital, Jazan City sits on the coast of the Red
Sea and serves a large agricultural heartland that has a population of
1.5 million.
Jazan has a hot desert climate and average annual temperatures above 30
°C (86 °F). Heavy rain thus rapidly produce flash floods and mudslide
resulting such rare and insane weather pictures.
WATCH: Monumental Earth Changes.
According to Saudi media, one person was killed and 32 others injured during the extreme rains on Wednesday.
This is not much considering that the mudflow and flashfloods
unexpectedly swept through an open market, broke into shops, houses and
mosques while sweeping away a number of vehicles.
Flash floods in 2 regions leave 9 dead in Somalia
Torrential rainfall in Somalia has triggered deadly flash floods in 2 regions of the country in the last week. Despite the recent rainfall, many parts of the country, in particular northern areas, are suffering from the worst drought in years. UNICEF recently announced it is providing 50,000 households with access to safe water.
Flash Floods in Awdal Region
Heavy downpours brought flash floods to northwestern town of Dilla on 07 April, leaving six people dead and injuring nine others, Awdal Governor Mohamud Ali Saleban has confirmed.
The rain and flooding continued for hours, wreaking havoc in the town and inundating vast tracts of land. The torrential rain is a dramatic swing from the drought conditions that have affected the area where deaths from malnutrition have been reported since March this year.
“Really, a disaster has happened. So far we’ve recovered six bodies. The national army, police and local people joined forces to carry out rescue operations. Nine people were injured and 13 people climbed trees to escape the floods… We share mourning with the affected households, a father had survived his entire family.” said Mr. Saleban during an interview with Somali channel, Horn Cable TV.
“A torrential downpour flooded Dilla. The victims include three women and a child. Shops and hotels have been damaged, and 17 people were rescued,” Dilla District Commissioner Ibrahim Abdi Haji told Somali media.
The heavy rain in northwestern Somalia forced streams to quickly overflow, catching destitute residents unprepared for the intense intensity of floods.
The Somaliland government has initiated rescue and relief efforts in the aftermath of flooding, and a delegation has visited Dilla.
Ruling Kulmiye Party Chairman and candidate for Somaliland Presidency in 2017 election, Musse Biihi Abdi along with Public Works and Housing Minister Ali Hassan Mohamed and Somaliland Road Development Agency Director-General Hassan Ali Osman has been briefed on the magnitude of havoc wreaked by the torrential rains in Dilla.
Abdi tasked Public Works Ministry and Road Authority to take immediate steps including construction of flood mitigation structures and renovation of existing water infrastructure dilapidated by years of conflict.
Rainfall – Figures and Forecast
Heavy storms were reported in parts of Awdal and Wooqoyi Galbeed regions in Somaliland between 06 and 07 April 2016.
According to Somali Water and Land Information Management Network (SWALIM), which is managed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), say that Dilla recorded 86mm of rain between 06 and 07 April, Jufa 100mm and Kalabaydh 148mm.
On Friday 08 April, SWALIM said in its latest forecast that “Wet conditions with moderate to heavy rains are expected to persist in the next three days in most parts of Somaliland and Puntland as well as Ethiopian highlands.”
South-central regions, where the Shabelle River ran dry a few weeks ago, will record light to moderate rains within the same period.
Floods in Gedo Region
Local media are reporting further flooding has struck in the country, this time in the south west region of Gedo.
Heavy rain fell between 10 and 11 April, triggering flash floods that left 3 young children dead in Garbaharey town, the regional capital of Gedo region.
More recently however, the country has experienced severe drought conditions. Somalia has faced drought from October last year into this month, increasing the risk of famine and acute malnutrition, in particular for children. Many parts in the country, people have been struggling with a shortage of water for consumption.
In northern Somalia, UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP) are stepping up efforts to help communities cope with a severe drought exacerbated by El Niño conditions in Somaliland and Puntland.
“The communities have lived through four successive poor rainy seasons. Their ability to cope with the drought has been stretched to the limit,” said UNICEF Representative for Somalia, Steven Lauwerier. “Our concerted efforts are needed now to save the lives of tens of thousands of children and their families. Any delay from the international community will put their lives further at risk of hunger and disease.”
UNICEF says it is strengthening services at community level, deploying joint mobile health and nutrition teams to reach pastoral and other hard-to-reach groups. Malnourished children will receive an essential package of primary health care interventions, including emergency immunization. UNICEF is also providing 50,000 households with access to safe water via vouchers in the affected areas, and have repaired seven boreholes.
“The people of Somalia know all too well the dangers of drought, but a drought does not have to mean a disaster – the world must recognize that we can save lives if we act in time,” said WFP Country Director Laurent Bukera. “It is absolutely critical that we are able to sustain assistance to the people affected by this crisis, so we can stem the damage of undernutrition for mothers and children before it has lifelong consequences.”
April 14, 2016 - PHILIPPINES - Three people were injured while four houses were partially destroyed
early Thursday when a magnitude 6.0 earthquake shook the Zamboanga
Peninsula region.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said the tremor
occurred at 2:21 a.m. Thursday and traced its epicenter at 17 kilometers
northwest of Baligiuan, Zamboanga del Norte, which also felt the quake
at intensity 4.
Dr. Elmeir Apolinario, city disaster risk reduction and management
officer, said the victims are all residents of Kalinaw Urban Poor
Association in Barangay Sinunuc, 9.30 kilometers west of City Hall.
Apolinario identified the victims as Arcina Natividad, 56, injured in
the head; Raymond Natividad, 23, abrasions in the right hand, foot,
right shoulder and bruises at the back; and, Juliana Makahibag, 13, hand
and head injuries.
USGS shakemap intensity.
The victims were injured when the concrete divider of their house, which
is still under construction, collapsed while they were asleep at the
living room.
No one was hurt in the three other houses, owned by Natividad's neighbors, damaged by the earthquake.
Intensity 4 was recorded in Baliguian and Labason in Zamboanga del
Norte, Dipolog City posted intensity 2, while intensity 1 was recorded
in Liloy.
Phivolcs, in its earthquake bulletin posted at 3:47 a.m., warned the public against possible aftershocks. - InterAksyon.
Seismotectonics of the Philippine Sea and Vicinity
The
Philippine Sea plate is bordered by the larger Pacific and Eurasia
plates and the smaller Sunda plate. The Philippine Sea plate is unusual
in that its borders are nearly all zones of plate convergence. The
Pacific plate is subducted into the mantle, south of Japan, beneath the
Izu-Bonin and Mariana island arcs, which extend more than 3,000 km along
the eastern margin of the Philippine Sea plate. This subduction zone is
characterized by rapid plate convergence and high-level seismicity
extending to depths of over 600 km. In spite of this extensive zone of
plate convergence, the plate interface has been associated with few
great (Magnitude greater than 8.0) ‘megathrust’ earthquakes. This low
seismic energy release is thought to result from weak coupling along the
plate interface (Scholz and Campos, 1995). These convergent plate
margins are also associated with unusual zones of back-arc extension
(along with resulting seismic activity) that decouple the volcanic
island arcs from the remainder of the Philippine Sea Plate (Karig et
al., 1978; Klaus et al., 1992).
South of the Mariana
arc, the Pacific plate is subducted beneath the Yap Islands along the
Yap trench. The long zone of Pacific plate subduction at the eastern
margin of the Philippine Sea Plate is responsible for the generation of
the deep Izu-Bonin, Mariana, and Yap trenches as well as parallel chains
of islands and volcanoes, typical of circum-pacific island arcs.
Similarly, the northwestern margin of the Philippine Sea plate is
subducting beneath the Eurasia plate along a convergent zone, extending
from southern Honshu to the northeastern coast of Taiwan, manifested by
the Ryukyu Islands and the Nansei-Shoto (Ryukyu) trench. The Ryukyu
Subduction Zone is associated with a similar zone of back-arc extension,
the Okinawa Trough. At Taiwan, the plate boundary is characterized by a
zone of arc-continent collision, whereby the northern end of the Luzon
island arc is colliding with the buoyant crust of the Eurasia
continental margin offshore China.
USGS plate tectonics.
Along its western margin, the Philippine
Sea plate is associated with a zone of oblique convergence with the
Sunda Plate. This highly active convergent plate boundary extends along
both sides the Philippine Islands, from Luzon in the north to the
Celebes Islands in the south. The tectonic setting of the Philippines is
unusual in several respects: it is characterized by opposite-facing
subduction systems on its east and west sides; the archipelago is cut by
a major transform fault, the Philippine Fault; and the arc complex
itself is marked by active volcanism, faulting, and high seismic
activity. Subduction of the Philippine Sea Plate occurs at the eastern
margin of the archipelago along the Philippine Trench and its northern
extension, the East Luzon Trough. The East Luzon Trough is thought to be
an unusual example of a subduction zone in the process of formation, as
the Philippine Trench system gradually extends northward (Hamburger et
al., 1983). On the west side of Luzon, the Sunda Plate subducts eastward
along a series of trenches, including the Manila Trench in the north,
the smaller less well-developed Negros Trench in the central
Philippines, and the Sulu and Cotabato trenches in the south (Cardwell
et al., 1980). At its northern and southern terminations, subduction at
the Manila Trench is interrupted by arc-continent collision, between the
northern Philippine arc and the Eurasian continental margin at Taiwan
and between the Sulu-Borneo Block and Luzon at the island of Mindoro.
The Philippine fault, which extends over 1,200 km within the Philippine
arc, is seismically active. The fault has been associated with major
historical earthquakes, including the destructive M7.6 Luzon earthquake
of 1990 (Yoshida and Abe, 1992). A number of other active intra-arc
fault systems are associated with high seismic activity, including the
Cotabato Fault and the Verde Passage-Sibuyan Sea Fault (Galgana et al.,
2007).
Relative plate motion vectors near the
Philippines (about 80 mm/yr) is oblique to the plate boundary along the
two plate margins of central Luzon, where it is partitioned into
orthogonal plate convergence along the trenches and nearly pure
translational motion along the Philippine Fault (Barrier et al., 1991).
Profiles B and C reveal evidence of opposing inclined seismic zones at
intermediate depths (roughly 70-300 km) and complex tectonics at the
surface along the Philippine Fault.
Several relevant
tectonic elements, plate boundaries and active volcanoes, provide a
context for the seismicity presented on the main map. The plate
boundaries are most accurate along the axis of the trenches and more
diffuse or speculative in the South China Sea and Lesser Sunda Islands.
The active volcanic arcs (Siebert and Simkin, 2002) follow the Izu,
Volcano, Mariana, and Ryukyu island chains and the main Philippine
islands parallel to the Manila, Negros, Cotabato, and Philippine
trenches.
Seismic activity along the boundaries of the
Philippine Sea Plate (Allen et al., 2009) has produced 7 great
(Magnitude greater than 8.0) earthquakes and 250 large (Magnitude
greater than 7) events. Among the most destructive events were the 1923
Kanto, the 1948 Fukui and the 1995 Kobe (Japan) earthquakes (99,000,
5,100, and 6,400 casualties, respectively), the 1935 and the 1999
Chi-Chi (Taiwan) earthquakes (3,300 and 2,500 casualties, respectively),
and the 1976 M7.6 Moro Gulf and 1990 M7.6 Luzon (Philippines)
earthquakes (7,100 and 2,400 casualties, respectively). There have also
been a number of tsunami-generating events in the region, including the
Moro Gulf earthquake, whose tsunami resulted in more than 5000 deaths.
