Earth Changes · Daily Report · October 14, 2026, 6:30 AM CDT
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck 12 km WSW of Pitaloza Arriba, Panama at 5:56 p.m. UTC on Oct. 9, about 13 km (≈8 miles) below the surface, the U.S. Geological Survey reports[1]. The USGS PAGER system rates the expected impact ORANGE. It is the strongest earthquake tracked by the USGS this week, with active aftershocks continuing across the region.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Simon is churning in the eastern Pacific with top winds near 105 mph and a central pressure of 969 millibars, moving southwest at 3 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.[2]
Elsewhere, the National Weather Service has 52 severe or extreme alerts in effect, led by 12 flood watches across AK, KS, MO, OK and more.[3]
Today at a Glance
- 17 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or greater, the largest M6.8
- 2 active tropical systems: Hurricane Simon, Tropical Storm Trudy
- 52 severe or extreme U.S. weather alerts
- 4 U.S. volcanoes above normal, including Great Sitkin, Kilauea
- 1 sinkhole report in the news
Could not be reached for this edition: Smithsonian weekly volcano report.
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
- Hurricane Simon (eastern Pacific): top winds near 105 mph, moving southwest at 3 mph. Latest advisory.[2]
- Tropical Storm Trudy (eastern Pacific): top winds near 50 mph, moving west-northwest at 10 mph. Latest advisory.[2]
Across the United States, the National Weather Service has 52 alerts rated severe or extreme in effect.[3]
| Alert | Number | States |
|---|---|---|
| Flood Watch | 12 | AK, KS, MO, OK, TX |
| Freeze Warning | 11 | AZ, CA, CO, ID, ND, NM and more |
| High Wind Watch | 8 | CA, NM, TX |
| Flash Flood Warning | 6 | MO, OK, TX |
| Flood Warning | 6 | FL, GA, OK, SC |
| Fire Weather Watch | 2 | CA |
| Freeze Watch | 2 | CO, NM |
| Red Flag Warning | 2 | CA |
| Storm Warning | 2 | PK |
| Heavy Freezing Spray Warning | 1 | PK |
The Storm Prediction Center says its highest risk level for severe thunderstorms today is slight, on a scale that runs marginal, slight, enhanced, moderate, high.[4]
Around the world, GDACS logged 47 wildfire, 5 flood, 4 earthquake, 1 tropical cyclone notices in the past two days, all at its lowest (Green) level.[5]
Video: AccuWeather, October 13, 2026 — “Hurricane Simon Eye Path: Where It Hits Mexico Next”. Matched to this report by the storm, volcano or place name in its title.
2. Earthquakes
The USGS recorded 17 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or greater in the past 24 hours.[6] The strongest:
| Mag. | Where | When | Depth | PAGER |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.8 | central Mid-Atlantic Ridge | Oct. 13, 12:23 p.m. UTC | 10 km | GREEN |
| 6.0 | 126 km S of Kokopo, Papua New Guinea | Oct. 13, 6:45 p.m. UTC | 21 km | GREEN |
| 5.9 | Fiji region | Oct. 14, 10:49 a.m. UTC | 585 km | — |
| 5.3 | 122 km S of Kokopo, Papua New Guinea | Oct. 13, 2:36 p.m. UTC | 19 km | — |
| 5.1 | 93 km NNW of Coquimbo, Chile | Oct. 14, 12:30 a.m. UTC | 22 km | — |
| 5.1 | 119 km S of Kokopo, Papua New Guinea | Oct. 13, 4:28 p.m. UTC | 28 km | — |
| 5.0 | 98 km NW of Coquimbo, Chile | Oct. 14, 12:36 a.m. UTC | 10 km | — |
| 4.9 | 121 km S of Kokopo, Papua New Guinea | Oct. 14, 6:27 a.m. UTC | 35 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.
Earlier this week: The USGS is also continuing to monitor ongoing aftershocks and impacts from significant earthquakes recorded over the past seven days:[7]
| Mag. | Where | When | Depth | PAGER |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7.7 | 12 km WSW of Pitaloza Arriba, Panama | Oct. 9, 5:56 p.m. UTC | 13 km | ORANGE |
| 6.7 | central Mid-Atlantic Ridge | Oct. 13, 5:44 a.m. UTC | 10 km | GREEN |
| 6.6 | 14 km W of Río Grande, Panama | Oct. 9, 8:25 p.m. UTC | 10 km | YELLOW |
| 6.0 | 7 km N of La Tronosa, Panama | Oct. 10, 4:14 a.m. UTC | 10 km | YELLOW |
3. Volcanoes
In the United States, 4 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 within the summit crater continues.[8] |
| Kilauea | Watch / Orange | Multiple overflows and low fountaining occurred from the north vent over the past 24 hours. Kīlauea's summit remains at a high level of pressurization with changes in eruptive activity or location within the summit region possible.[9] |
| Ahyi Seamount | Advisory / Yellow | No plumes seen in satellite images; no significant geophysical signals.[10] |
| Shishaldin | Advisory / Yellow | Low-level unrest continues.[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:
- Chennai, India: The Cool Down reports, “A road collapse in Chennai, India thankfully ended without reported injuries after a car dropped into a sinkhole on Old Mahabalipuram Road near Tidel Park.”[11]
Also in the News
Other natural-hazard video from the past day, from news organizations:
Video: AccuWeather, October 13, 2026 — “UPDATE: The Tornadoes Hurricane Isaias Left Behind in Georgia and the Carolinas”. Also in the news. Picked because its title names a natural hazard; it may not be covered in the data above.
5. What the Experts Say
These are the words of the scientists and forecasters who watch these hazards for a living, quoted exactly.
“Proxy-visible and infrared satellite images of Simon show the tiny eye of the hurricane has filled during the past few hours. There has also been a warming of the inner core cloud tops, and the central dense overcast has become less symmetric. These changes could be the result of some northerly shear affecting Simon as diagnosed by UW-CIMSS. There is no recent passive microwave data available to assess the internal structure of Simon, but recent scatterometer data and distant radar data from Los Cabos indicate that the hurricane remains very small. The initial intensity is lowered slightly to 90 kt, in best agreement with the latest Dvorak CI number (5.0) from TAFB and an earlier 88-kt D-MINT estimate.”
— Forecaster Reinhart, National Hurricane Center, on Hurricane Simon[12]
“Trudy continues to be a complicated storm to locate and forecast. A recent ASCAT pass shows that the center is farther west-southwest than the previous best track position. In addition, the ASCAT pass was also used to adjust the wind radii for the cyclone. The satellite presentation shows that the bulk of the convection remains on the north side of the storm, but recently new deep convection has developed over the center with cloud tops colder than -70 C based on the infrared imagery. Based on the latest TAFB Dvorak and UW-CIMSS intensity estimates, the initial intensity for Trudy has been raised to 45 kt.”
— Forecaster Katz/Reinhart, National Hurricane Center, on Tropical Storm Trudy[13]
“Thunderstorms with severe wind gusts and potentially a tornado threat will be possible this afternoon and evening across parts of the southern Plains. A marginal wind-damage threat will also be possible from parts of the Ozarks into the central Appalachians.”
— NOAA Storm Prediction Center[4]
“Lava continues to erupt slowly within the summit crater of Great Sitkin Volcano. A few small earthquakes were detected in the past day. No activity was observed in mostly cloudy webcam and satellite images over the past day.”
— Alaska Volcano Observatory, on Great Sitkin[8]
“Just before 11:30 a.m. HST, the north vent began to vigorously dome fountain for nearly an hour feeding a flow that extended almost a kilometer from the vent. This was the longest and most vigorous dome fountain since September 30.”
— Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, on Kilauea[9]
“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[14]
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.[15]
- 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.[16]
- Earthquakes: Drop, Cover and Hold On.[17]
- 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; tropics: nhc.noaa.gov
- Worldwide disasters: gdacs.org
References
- USGS, M7.7 12 km WSW of Pitaloza Arriba, Panama 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. ↩
- GDACS, Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System gdacs.org. ↩
- USGS, M4.5+ earthquakes, past day (real-time feed) earthquake.usgs.gov. ↩
- USGS, Significant earthquakes past week (real-time feed) earthquake.usgs.gov. ↩
- Alaska Volcano Observatory, Great Sitkin notice volcanoes.usgs.gov. ↩
- Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, Kilauea notice volcanoes.usgs.gov. ↩
- Northern Mariana Islands, Ahyi Seamount notice volcanoes.usgs.gov. ↩
- The Cool Down, In India, a car plunges into a sinkhole after a busy road caves in, and 2 people escape thecooldown.com. ↩
- National Hurricane Center, Simon forecast discussion nhc.noaa.gov. ↩
- National Hurricane Center, Trudy forecast discussion nhc.noaa.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.
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