Physical oceanography

 A major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.4 struck off Russia's sparsely populated far east on Thursday, but officials said the threat of a tsunami had passed and no damage was reported.

A powerful 6.8-magnitude undersea earthquake struck early Oct. 26 off the Ionian Sea island of Zante, causing structural damage but no injuries, officials said.

The death toll in Indonesia's twin quake-tsunami disaster rose to nearly 1,400 Oct. 3, with time running out to rescue survivors and the U.N. warning of "vast" unmet needs.

The confirmed death toll from an earthquake and tsunami on Indonesia's Sulawesi island has risen to 1,234, according to a statement of the national disaster mitigation agency on Oct. 2.

Turkey is ready to provide assistance to Indonesia, where earthquake and tsunami caused loss of many lives, an official statement said on Sept. 29.

A powerful quake and tsunami left scores dead on the central Indonesian island of Sulawesi, officials said Sept. 29, as hospitals struggled to cope with hundreds of injured and rescuers scrambled to reach the stricken region.

AFP Scientists have recorded what is believed to be the largest wave ever in the Southern Hemisphere, a 23.8 metre monster the height of an eight-storey building.

A buoy recorded the wave on Tuesday during a ferocious storm in the notoriously wild Southern Ocean near Campbell Island, some 700km south of New Zealand, research body MetOcean Solutions said.

An earthquake of 7 magnitude struck off Papua New Guinea (PNG) on Monday, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said, but there were no immediate reports of any casualties or damage, reported Reuters. 

The quake, the latest in a series in the region over recent days, struck 180 km west of the town of Rabaul, on New Britain island, at a shallow depth of 10 km, the USGS said.

The oldest letter in a bottle was found on a beach about 180 km from Perth, Western Australia.

It was thrown out of the ship 132 years ago.

The letter is a hand-written form dated June 12, 1886, and it included the name of the German ship Paula.

The bottle was part of an experiment at a German Naval Observatory to study ocean currents.

An earthquake of magnitude 5.5 stood hit the coast of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, the Geophysical Institute of the United States said.

The epicenter of the quake was located 187 km south of Bitung, at a depth of 51 km. There is no evidence of destruction and injuries, nor a threat of a tsunami.