In the Beginning

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck 12 km west-southwest of Pitaloza Arriba, Panama, at 17:56 UTC today, at a shallow depth of 12.6 kilometres, according to the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program. It was followed through the afternoon and evening by a crowded sequence of aftershocks in the same stretch of country: magnitude 6.6 near Río Grande at 20:25, 5.8 at El Cacao, 5.5 near Bajo Corral, 5.4 near Los Asientos, and several more at magnitude 5.0 to 5.2, nearly all at about 10 kilometres depth. In all, USGS logged 38 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or greater in the 24 hours to 23:47 UTC, including a 5.9 west of Macquarie Island and a 5.4 northeast of Norsup, Vanuatu.

Carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa, measured by NOAA's Global Monitoring Laboratory, stood at 426.43 parts per million on 8 October, the most recent daily figure. That is 1.74 ppm above the same date last year and 25.03 ppm above October 2016. The year's seasonal peak, 433.95 ppm on 1 May, remains the high point since the record began in 1974.

Arctic sea ice, from the NSIDC Sea Ice Index, measured 6.073 million square kilometres on 8 October, rebuilding after the summer minimum: 1.483 million more than a month earlier, and above both last year's 5.728 and 2016's 5.413 on the same date. Antarctic ice is melting into spring at 16.584 million square kilometres, 0.691 below a year ago and 1.284 below ten years ago.

NASA's GISTEMP record puts September 2026 at 1.38 °C above the 1951–1980 average, 0.14 warmer than September 2025 and 0.48 warmer than September 2016, and a touch below August's 1.42. The Sun is quieter: the monthly mean sunspot number for September, from NOAA SWPC and SILSO, was 60.3, down 69.4 from a year ago. Geomagnetic activity has settled too, with NOAA's planetary Kp index at 1.33 at 18:00 UTC today after reaching 4 in the past day. Among 20 asteroid passes tracked by NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies this week, the closest are small objects: 2026 TP6 at 0.6 lunar distances on 14 October and 2026 TL6 at 0.7 tomorrow.

Ten years of Mauna Loa readings separate today's air from air with 25.03 ppm less carbon dioxide in it.