Parma Strikes Luzon, More Rain for Manila

Update: More Flooding Possible – Last week, Typhoon Ketsana deluged Manila and the central Philippines, leaving at least 240 dead and 400,000 homeless, and challenging both governmental and private relief services beyond the breaking point. And now it could get worse asTyphoon Parma slams ashore north of Manila, sparing the cityits 90MPH winds, but threatening another deluge.

While Typhoon Parma contains less rain than Ketsana, it packs stronger winds, and, according to Art Bell, if it should strike Luzon, then back down into the Philippine Straits, which is a common storm track in the area, it will pick up rain as it stalls, and could deluge Manila once again.

Meanwhile, in Samoa, at least a hundred and fifty people have died from the effects of a massive underwater earthquake and a tsunami event that left large portions of Samoa devastated. A magnitude 8.0 quake struck off the island at 6:48 a.m. local time Tuesday. Four tsunamis followed, with waves up to 20 feet high that reached as far as a mile inland.

Some scientists felt that the Samoan quake could have triggered the first Indonesian tremor, theorizing that if itwas on the edge of release, energy from the Samoan quake could have caused it to let go. Whether or not the three quakes on the Ring of Fire will be followed by more area quakes is not known.

It has recently been reported at the London conference on Climate Forcing of Geological and Geomorphological Hazards that earth is extremely sensitive to weather changes. For example, the Easter microplate under Easter Island, records more earthquakes during wet el Nino years than during dry periods.

A rise in sea levels is believed to be responsible for the increase in earthquakes, and even tiny changes, such as those occurring now throughout the Pacific Basin, can cause dramatic increases in volcanism and earthquake activity.

At the same time that the earthquakes were taking place in the South Pacific and Indonesia, the sea lion population at San Francisco’s Pier 39 suddenly jumped from 30-50 individuals to 1,535 sea lions. Why this has happened is unknown, but animals are known to act strangely before earthquakes. The last time the Pier 39 population jumped similarly was immediately after the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. For more information about the Pier 39 situation, click here. To observe the sea lions via the Pier 39 webcam, click here.On October 1, a microquake swarm took place incentralCalifornia. The quakes took place in the San Gabriel faultzone, which is not believed to be related to the San Andreasfault.

To track Typhoon Parma, click here. For more about the Indonesian earthquakes, click here. For more on the Samoan catastrophe, click here. To learn how you can help go to MercyCorps.org.

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