Thursday, July 6, 2017

Moon & Saturn, Montana Quakes and Belching Volcanoes

It's a cloudy, muggy, summer day here in the east but out west, Montana to be more specific, things are shaking! A 5.8 magnitude quake hit in the mountains of big sky country just after midnight local time and aftershocks continue as I write. The shallow focus quake seems to have done little damage, it was up in the mountains, but was felt for upwards of 100 miles and is just a little reminder, mountain building requires earthquakes. Hope that is not somehow related to that large napping volcano in the corner of the state just to their south.
And, speaking of volcanoes, the Ring of Fire is really belching and spewing this week.  Of the almost two dozen fiery mountains on the USGS-SI list many are not just shaking and showing heat anomalies but erupting gas, ash and lava with warnings increased for locals and air traffic. A surprise eruption in Indonesia injured many in a group of tourists checking out the volcano and a rescue helicopter headed in to help crashed killing all aboard. It's dangerous out there in the eruption zone.
A clear sky tonight will show the waxing gibbous moon just above bright Saturn; will be a lovely pairing if... and that's a big if for this part of the world, the sky is clear. Jupiter will be bright on the other side of the southern sky and the star off to the west (right) of the moon/Saturn show is Antares, the red giant heart of Scorpio. Hope your sky is clear enough to check it out.
It is hard to let a summer day slide by without a mention of weather, and it's typical here in Va., hot and muggy with a good chance of storms. Some of those storms moved slowly and dropped lots and lots of rain yesterday with local streams out of banks and roads covered. While 40 miles away received over 5 inches of rain, here at the tirehouse we got a meager 0.15". It's hit or miss with T-storms and I have mostly been in the miss zone so far in 2017.  Not sure I need 5 inches in a couple of hours but 1 or 2 would help out dry conditions; with clearing to check out the moon and ringed world!
Alas, wishes do little to faze the big planet we ride on. What happens on Earth is because the temperatures and pressures of the rock, air and water of the planet influence and affect each other and are trying to get to some kind of unobtainable point of equilibrium. Go out and influence the world with your presence, today on Earth.

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