Earth Changes · Daily Report · November 9, 2026, 6:30 AM CST
The National Weather Service has 95 severe or extreme alerts in effect, led by 2 blizzard warnings across AK.[1]
Meanwhile, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck 30 km WSW of Lata, Solomon Islands at 3:34 a.m. UTC on Nov. 9, about 17 km (≈11 miles) below the surface, the U.S. Geological Survey reports[2]. The USGS PAGER system rates the expected impact GREEN. It was one of 15 quakes of magnitude 4.5 or greater in the past day.
Elsewhere, 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.[3]
Today at a Glance
- 15 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or greater, the largest M6.4
- 1 active tropical system: Tropical Storm Pena
- 95 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.[3]
Across the United States, the National Weather Service has 95 alerts rated severe or extreme in effect.[1]
| Alert | Number | States |
|---|---|---|
| Blizzard Warning | 2 | AK |
| Storm Warning | 53 | PK |
| Heavy Freezing Spray Warning | 25 | PK |
| Flood Warning | 12 | AZ, FL, IA, TX |
| Flood Watch | 1 | TX |
| High Wind Warning | 1 | AK |
| Winter Storm Warning | 1 | AK |
Blizzard Warning issued November 9 at 3:29AM AKST until November 10 at 12:00PM AKST by NWS Anchorage AK (Thompson Pass): “* WHAT…Blizzard conditions likely. Total snow accumulations between 8 and 16 inches.”
The Storm Prediction Center says no severe thunderstorm areas are forecast today.[4]
2. Earthquakes
The USGS recorded 15 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or greater in the past 24 hours.[5] The strongest:
| Mag. | Where | When | Depth | PAGER |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.4 | 30 km WSW of Lata, Solomon Islands | Nov. 9, 3:34 a.m. UTC | 17 km | GREEN |
| 5.7 | 106 km ENE of Hasaki, Japan | Nov. 9, 4:52 a.m. UTC | 24 km | GREEN |
| 5.4 | 160 km E of Masohi, Indonesia | Nov. 9, 9:48 a.m. UTC | 10 km | GREEN |
| 5.3 | 80 km ENE of Lagunas, Peru | Nov. 9, 10:23 a.m. UTC | 11 km | — |
| 5.1 | south of the Fiji Islands | Nov. 9, 12:46 a.m. UTC | 535 km | — |
| 4.9 | south of the Fiji Islands | Nov. 9, 2:21 a.m. UTC | 136 km | — |
| 4.8 | 183 km E of Masohi, Indonesia | Nov. 9, 9:53 a.m. UTC | 10 km | — |
| 4.8 | 26 km SW of Lata, Solomon Islands | Nov. 9, 5:16 a.m. UTC | 10 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 within the summit crater continues.[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 several weeks 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:
- Cape Town Ward 96, South Africa: GroundUp reports, ““I fear my home will fall into a sinkhole” says Cape Town resident Municipality says repair work to continue into February and March 2027 – Sinkholes have become a hazard in parts of Wetlands and SST informal settlements in Khayelitsha, Cape Town.”[9]
Also in the News
Other natural-hazard video from the past day, from news organizations:
Video: Al Jazeera English, November 9, 2026 — “Partial collapse of Pakistan’s Tarbela dam causes flood water surge”. 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.
“Satellite imagery indicates that the convective structure associated with Pena has changed little over the past several hours. Deep convection has mostly remained confined to intermittent bursts near and north of the circulation, likely due to light to moderate southerly vertical wind shear affecting it. The latest subjective and objective intensities remain in the 35 to 45 kt range. Given these intensities and the steady satellite presentation, the initial intensity is held at 40 kt.”
— Forecaster Gibbs, National Hurricane Center, on Tropical Storm Pena[10]
“Severe thunderstorms appear unlikely across the U.S. Monday through Monday night.”
— Forecaster Mead, NOAA Storm Prediction Center[4]
“The eastern margin of the Australia plate is one of the most sesimically active areas of the world due to high rates of convergence between the Australia and Pacific plates. In the region of New Zealand, the 3000 km long Australia-Pacific plate boundary extends from south of Macquarie Island to the southern Kermadec Island chain. It includes an oceanic transform (the Macquarie Ridge), two oppositely verging subduction zones (Puysegur and Hikurangi), and a transpressive continental transform, the Alpine Fault through South Island, New Zealand.”
— U.S. Geological Survey, “Seismotectonics of the Eastern Margin of the Australia Plate,” on the region around the M6.4 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. Warm surface temperatures over the active lava dome were seen in overnight satellite images.”
— 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
- National Weather Service, active alerts API api.weather.gov. ↩
- USGS, M6.4 30 km WSW of Lata, Solomon Islands event page earthquake.usgs.gov. ↩
- National Hurricane Center, active storms data nhc.noaa.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. ↩
- GroundUp, “I fear my home will fall into a sinkhole” says Cape Town resident groundup.org.za. ↩
- 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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