Earth Changes · Daily Report · November 11, 2026, 6:30 AM CST
A magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck 43 km S of Puerto San José, Guatemala at 2:54 p.m. UTC on Nov. 10, about 35 km (≈22 miles) below the surface, the U.S. Geological Survey reports[1]. The USGS PAGER system rates the expected impact GREEN. It was one of 17 quakes of magnitude 4.5 or greater in the past day.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Pena is churning in the central Pacific with top winds near 45 mph and a central pressure of 1002 millibars, moving west at 9 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.[2]
Elsewhere, the National Weather Service has 36 severe or extreme alerts in effect, led by 17 heavy freezing spray warnings across PK.[3]
Today at a Glance
- 17 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or greater, the largest M5.6
- 1 active tropical system: Tropical Storm Pena
- 36 severe or extreme U.S. weather alerts
- 3 U.S. volcanoes above normal, including Great Sitkin
- 1 sinkhole report in the news
Where It’s Happening
Numbered pins match the list under the map. Storm and quake pins are the agencies' reported centers; sinkhole pins mark the town named in the report. Map data: OpenStreetMap contributors.
1. Extreme Weather
Tropical storms and hurricanes
- Tropical Storm Pena (central Pacific): top winds near 45 mph, moving west at 9 mph. Latest advisory.[2]
Across the United States, the National Weather Service has 36 alerts rated severe or extreme in effect.[3]
| Alert | Number | States |
|---|---|---|
| Heavy Freezing Spray Warning | 17 | PK |
| Flood Warning | 12 | AZ, FL, TX, WA |
| Winter Storm Watch | 5 | CA, NV |
| High Wind Watch | 1 | CA, NV |
| Storm Warning | 1 | PK |
The Storm Prediction Center says its highest risk level for severe thunderstorms today is marginal, on a scale that runs marginal, slight, enhanced, moderate, high.[4]
2. Earthquakes
The USGS recorded 17 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or greater in the past 24 hours.[5] The strongest:
| Mag. | Where | When | Depth | PAGER |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.6 | 43 km S of Puerto San José, Guatemala | Nov. 10, 2:54 p.m. UTC | 35 km | GREEN |
| 5.2 | 21 km WNW of Popondetta, Papua New Guinea | Nov. 10, 5:36 p.m. UTC | 124 km | — |
| 5.2 | Mid-Indian Ridge | Nov. 10, 5:36 p.m. UTC | 10 km | — |
| 5.2 | 140 km ESE of Labuha, Indonesia | Nov. 10, 3:51 p.m. UTC | 10 km | — |
| 5.1 | 27 km WSW of Calama, Chile | Nov. 11, 11:36 a.m. UTC | 91 km | — |
| 5.1 | Pulau Tanimbar, Indonesia | Nov. 11, 11:32 a.m. UTC | 15 km | — |
| 5.1 | Balleny Islands region | Nov. 11, 6:21 a.m. UTC | 10 km | — |
| 5.0 | 152 km SE of Kuril’sk, Russia | Nov. 11, 5:26 a.m. UTC | 30 km | — |
PAGER is the USGS estimate of likely deaths and damage: GREEN means little or none expected, RED means extensive. A dash means none was issued.
3. Volcanoes
In the United States, 3 volcanoes are above normal background activity, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s observatories:
| Volcano | Alert / aviation code | Latest word from scientists |
|---|---|---|
| Great Sitkin | Watch / Orange | Slow eruption of lava likely continues; moving to Weekly Updates only[6] |
| Ahyi Seamount | Advisory / Yellow | No signs of unrest in satellite data; no significant geophysical signals.[7] |
| Kilauea | Advisory / Yellow | The Halema'uma'u eruption of Kīlauea is currently paused after episode 56 fountaining ended on November 5. The summit is reinflating and the next episode of lava fountaining is likely more than a week away.[8] |
Alert levels run Normal, Advisory, Watch, Warning. Aviation codes run Green, Yellow, Orange, Red.
4. Sinkholes
No government agency publishes a live national sinkhole feed, so these come from today’s local news:
- WFMZ.com reports, “Crews began paving a street where a water main break and sinkhole forced two families out of a twin home in Coplay.”[9]
Also in the News
Other natural-hazard video from the past day, from news organizations:
Video: FRANCE 24 English, November 11, 2026 — “Second day of Web Summit cancelled as Storm Charles puts Portugal on high alert • FRANCE 24”. Also in the news. Picked because its title names a natural hazard; it may not be covered in the data above.
Video: Al Jazeera English, November 11, 2026 — “Nepal: Rebuilding lives after devastating floods | 101 East #shorts”. Also in the news.
5. What the Experts Say
These are the words of the scientists and forecasters who watch these hazards for a living, quoted exactly.
“Convection continues to wax and wane near Pena, with most of the current activity well north of the center. A WSFM microwave pass and a SAR pass from a few hours ago showed the system was moving south of west, and all of the tropical-storm-force winds were north of the center. The current intensity is kept at 40 kt, consistent with the SAR data and just above a recently received ASCAT scatterometer pass.”
— Forecaster Blake, National Hurricane Center, on Tropical Storm Pena[10]
“Thunderstorms capable of isolated large hail, damaging wind gusts, and perhaps a tornado will be possible Wednesday afternoon and evening across parts of the Ohio and western Tennessee Valleys.”
— Forecaster Mead, NOAA Storm Prediction Center[4]
“Extensive diversity and complexity of tectonic regimes characterizes the perimeter of the Caribbean plate, involving no fewer than four major plates (North America, South America, Nazca, and Cocos). Inclined zones of deep earthquakes (Wadati-Benioff zones), ocean trenches, and arcs of volcanoes clearly indicate subduction of oceanic lithosphere along the Central American and Atlantic Ocean margins of the Caribbean plate, while crustal seismicity in Guatemala, northern Venezuela, and the Cayman Ridge and Cayman Trench indicate transform fault and pull-apart basin tectonics. Along the northern margin of the Caribbean plate, the North America plate moves westwards with respect to the Caribbean plate at a velocity of approximately 20 mm/yr.”
— U.S. Geological Survey, “Seismotectonics of the Caribbean Region and Vicinity,” on the region around the M5.6 quake[11]
“Lava likely continues to erupt slowly within the summit crater of Great Sitkin Volcano. A few small earthquakes were detected at the volcano over the last day. Satellite and webcam images were cloudy.”
— Alaska Volcano Observatory, on Great Sitkin[6]
“Clear satellite images over the last week did not show any sign of underwater plumes from Ahyi Seamount. No notable activity was detected in distal geophysical monitoring data.”
— Northern Mariana Islands, on Ahyi Seamount[7]
“Sinkholes are common where the rock below the land surface is limestone, carbonate rock, salt beds, or other rocks that can naturally be dissolved by groundwater circulating through them. As the rock dissolves, spaces and caverns develop underground. Sinkholes are dramatic because the land usually stays intact for a while until the underground spaces just get too big.”
— U.S. Geological Survey Water Science School, on why sinkholes form[12]
How to Prepare
- Keep a basic kit: water (one gallon per person per day for several days), food, a battery or hand-crank radio, a whistle, a dust mask and phone chargers.[13]
- Get alerts: Wireless Emergency Alerts need no sign-up; the FEMA app, NOAA Weather Radio, the USGS Earthquake Notification Service and the USGS Volcano Notification Service are free.
- Floods: Turn Around, Don’t Drown. Six inches of moving water can knock you down, and one foot can sweep a car away.[14]
- Earthquakes: Drop, Cover and Hold On.[15]
- Download the checklist: Be Ready: Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Extreme Weather and Sinkholes (PDF), with today’s active hazards first.
How to Verify This Yourself
- Earthquakes: USGS Latest Earthquakes map
- U.S. volcanoes: USGS Volcano Hazards Program; world: Smithsonian weekly report
- Weather alerts: weather.gov/alerts; tropics: nhc.noaa.gov
- Worldwide disasters: gdacs.org
References
- USGS, M5.6 43 km S of Puerto San José, Guatemala event page earthquake.usgs.gov. ↩
- National Hurricane Center, active storms data nhc.noaa.gov. ↩
- National Weather Service, active alerts API api.weather.gov. ↩
- NOAA Storm Prediction Center, Day 1 Convective Outlook spc.noaa.gov. ↩
- USGS, M4.5+ earthquakes, past day (real-time feed) earthquake.usgs.gov. ↩
- Alaska Volcano Observatory, Great Sitkin notice volcanoes.usgs.gov. ↩
- Northern Mariana Islands, Ahyi Seamount notice volcanoes.usgs.gov. ↩
- Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, Kilauea notice volcanoes.usgs.gov. ↩
- WFMZ.com, Street paving begins after Coplay sinkhole forces two families from home wfmz.com. ↩
- National Hurricane Center, Pena forecast discussion nhc.noaa.gov. ↩
- USGS Geoserve, tectonic summary earthquake.usgs.gov. ↩
- USGS Water Science School, Sinkholes usgs.gov. ↩
- Ready.gov (FEMA), Build a Kit ready.gov. ↩
- Ready.gov (FEMA), Floods ready.gov. ↩
- Ready.gov (FEMA), Earthquakes ready.gov. ↩
Methodology: this report is assembled automatically each morning from the live data feeds of the USGS, the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program, the National Weather Service, the National Hurricane Center, the Storm Prediction Center and GDACS, plus same-day news reports for sinkholes. No AI writes it: the sentences are fixed templates filled with that data, and every quote is copied exactly from the source it is credited to. Data can change after publication; follow the links for the latest.
Kemetic Minds Editorial Desk
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