Natural disasters & Hurricane Florence: Sept. 10 Update B

Earthquakes felts whilst writing hurriance blog this morning: 1
Hurricanes discussed during hurricane blog this morning: 1
Tsunamis in the Gulf: 0

As I was writing the blog this morning, I heard a loud bang and then
my desk shook and computers rattled/slid slightly. I thought some
plane or ship had crashed at first, and my second thought (as the
shaking was going on) was that it was an earthquake. But I've never
felt one here, so I dismissed that thought and continued merrily with
the blog. An hour later, I heard that it was an earthquake.

According to early reports, there was a magnitude 6.0 earthquake in
the Gulf of Mexico, just over 250 miles WSW of Tampa Bay at 10.56am
this morning. It's the largest in the Gulf for about 30 years. No
reports of damage or casualties. Pretty cool that I felt it as I
usually end up sleeping through these things. It was about 6.2 miles
deep (10km) and in a supposedly non-active geological region (i.e.
not on a fault). I don't know much about this, so maybe one of the
experts on geology in the the Gulf of Mexico who are reading this can
fill me in on the details and I'll pass that email along to this
list? I know I'm interested, and I'm sure others will be too.

Hurricane Florence: not much change... still moving in the same
direction, the intensity has increased to 90 mph, so although it is
still a cat 1, it is approaching cat 2. More later on this.

J.
------------------------------------------------------
DISCLAIMER:
These remarks are just what I think/see regarding tropical storms
(my storm blog). If you are making an evacuation decision, please
heed your local emergency management and the National Hurricane
Center's official forecast. This is not an official forecast.
------------------------------------------------------