Earth Changes · Daily Report · November 7, 2026, 6:30 AM CST
A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck 74 km NE of Hasaki, Japan at 11:07 a.m. UTC on Nov. 7, about 32 km (≈20 miles) below the surface, the U.S. Geological Survey reports[1]. The USGS PAGER system rates the expected impact GREEN. It was one of 6 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 50 mph and a central pressure of 1000 millibars, moving west at 12 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.[2]
Elsewhere, the National Weather Service has 58 severe or extreme alerts in effect, led by 18 heavy freezing spray warnings across PK.[3]
Today at a Glance
- 6 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or greater, the largest M5.5
- 1 active tropical system: Tropical Storm Pena
- 58 severe or extreme U.S. weather alerts
- 3 U.S. volcanoes above normal, including Great Sitkin
- 3 sinkhole reports 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 50 mph, moving west at 12 mph. Latest advisory.[2]
Across the United States, the National Weather Service has 58 alerts rated severe or extreme in effect.[3]
| Alert | Number | States |
|---|---|---|
| Heavy Freezing Spray Warning | 18 | PK |
| Flood Warning | 12 | AZ, FL, IA |
| Freeze Warning | 11 | IL, IN, KY, MO, OH, VA and more |
| High Wind Warning | 6 | MT, OR, WA |
| Storm Warning | 6 | PK, PZ |
| Flood Watch | 2 | MA, RI, TX |
| High Wind Watch | 2 | MT |
| Red Flag Warning | 1 | CA |
The Storm Prediction Center says no severe thunderstorm areas are forecast today.[4]
2. Earthquakes
The USGS recorded 6 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or greater in the past 24 hours.[5] The strongest:
| Mag. | Where | When | Depth | PAGER |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.5 | 74 km NE of Hasaki, Japan | Nov. 7, 11:07 a.m. UTC | 32 km | GREEN |
| 4.9 | southern Mid-Atlantic Ridge | Nov. 7, 11:35 a.m. UTC | 10 km | — |
| 4.8 | 36 km WNW of Poso, Indonesia | Nov. 6, 7:07 p.m. UTC | 10 km | — |
| 4.6 | South Sandwich Islands region | Nov. 7, 7:14 a.m. UTC | 104 km | — |
| 4.6 | 11 km ENE of Yigo Village, Guam | Nov. 6, 10:37 p.m. UTC | 113 km | — |
| 4.5 | 101 km SSE of Palekastro, Greece | Nov. 6, 3:26 p.m. UTC | 41 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 continues within the summit crater associated with low-level seismicity.[6] |
| Ahyi Seamount | Advisory / Yellow | No signs of unrest in satellite data; no significant geophysical signals.[7] |
| Kilauea | Advisory / Yellow | Episode 56 of the ongoing Halemaʻumaʻu eruption ended at 6:01 p.m. HST on November 5, 2026. Alert level has been lowered from WATCH to ADVISORY. Aviation color code has been lowered from ORANGE to YELLOW.[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:
- KOAT reports, “Sinkhole causes Valencia County road closure Residents say they're left with detours 4-5 times longer than normal.”[9]
- Female First reports, “The Madden actor thinks he needs to "watch [his] words to the letter" after he sparked headlines last week when he said he was "a little bit homeless" after his Malibu home was damaged by a sinkhole in September.”[10]
- Lancashire Telegraph reports, “A sinkhole has opened up after a sewer collapse in Bacup.”[11]
Also in the News
Other natural-hazard video from the past day, from news organizations:
Video: Al Jazeera English, November 7, 2026 — “Protesters storm site of Microsoft's planned Amsterdam data centre | AJ #shorts”. Also in the news. Picked because its title names a natural hazard; it may not be covered in the data above.
Video: NBC News, November 7, 2026 — “Storms impact millions along the East Coast”. 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.
“The latest satellite imagery indicates that Pena has re-developed convective banding closer to the cyclone's center. In addition, a just-received GMI overpass suggests that the low-level structure has become better defined, with the possible formation of a small inner core. Satellite intensity estimates have generally nudged upward a little since the last advisory, and based on this trend the initial intensity is increased to 45 kt. The latest scatterometer overpass missed the inner core, but did show an area of 25-30 kt winds 60-150 n mi away from the center in the eastern semicircle.”
— Forecaster Beven, National Hurricane Center, on Tropical Storm Pena[12]
“Severe thunderstorms are not forecast across the U.S. today and tonight.”
— NOAA Storm Prediction Center[4]
“The North America plate, Pacific plate, Philippine Sea plate, and Eurasia plate all influence the tectonic setting of Japan, Taiwan, and the surrounding area. Some authors divide the edges of these plates into several microplates that together take up the overall relative motions between the larger tectonic blocks, including the Okhotsk microplate in northern Japan, the Okinawa microplate in southern Japan, the Yangzee microplate in the area of the East China Sea, and the Amur microplate in the area of the Sea of Japan. The seafloor expression of the boundary between the Pacific and North America plates lies 300 km off the east coasts of Hokkaido and Honshu at the Kuril-Kamchatka and Japan trenches.”
— U.S. Geological Survey, “Seismotectonics of Japan and Vicinity,” on the region around the M5.5 quake[13]
“Minor growth of the active lava dome within the summit crater was observed in satellite imagery over the past week. The south flank of the dome is moving slowly southward. Clouds obscured all visible images of the volcano over the last week.”
— 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[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/alerts; tropics: nhc.noaa.gov
- Worldwide disasters: gdacs.org
References
- USGS, M5.5 74 km NE of Hasaki, Japan 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. ↩
- KOAT, Sinkhole causes Valencia County road closure koat.com. ↩
- Female First, Nicolas Cage clarifies 'homeless' comment after Malibu home was damaged by sinkhole femalefirst.co.uk. ↩
- Lancashire Telegraph, Sinkhole opens up near park as United Utilities called to 'sewer collapse' lancashiretelegraph.co.uk. ↩
- 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.
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