January - May 2004
Featured Disasters

Monday, May 31, 2004
*Aid workers say that up to 1,500 people are still missing in
the Haitian village of Mapou, one of the areas worst affected
by Caribbean flooding. Continuing rain is hampering rescue efforts.
At least 2,000 people are known to have died or disappeared in
severe flooding in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
In Mapou, the several thousand that
survived are now almost entirely depending on
international aid to stay alive. The survivors are not out of danger,
as Haiti's rainy season, which lasts several months, is due to begin.
Floodwaters which had been beginning to drain from the
worst-affected areas look set to rise again.
* Tornadoes have ripped through northwest Missouri and parts
of Nebraska, killing three people and injuring at least eight others.
*A magnitude 5.1 earthquake in southern Alaska has occurred
125 km (80 miles) W of Anchorage (population 260,000).

Sunday, May 30, 2004
*A 4.4 earthquake has shaken the flood-hit border of Dominican
Republic and Haiti, where torrents of water and mudslides killed
more than 1100 people this week.
Aid agencies say bad weather is slowing efforts to get help to
survivors of the flooding .
*A magnitude 6.6 earthquake off the east coast of Honshu, Japan
has occurred 210 km (130 miles) SE of Tokyo.
*South Korea registered a 5.6 earthquake, its strongest
quake in 26 years.
*Earthquakes not only shake up the local area but they also
increase the rate of earthquake events locally and at a distance.
Earthquake triggering happens a lot more than was thought,
but the mechanism is not well understood. Researchers believe
they know why a delay exists between the vibration waves of
the initial earthquake and the motion on other faults.
*A powerful 7.9 earthquake that rocked Alaska in 2002 not
only triggered small earthquakes almost 2,000 miles away at
Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park – as was reported at the
time – but also changed the timing and behavior of some of
Yellowstone's geysers and hot springs, a new study says.
The Denali quake was one of the strongest of its type in
North America in the past 150 years.

Saturday, May 29, 2004
*Rescue efforts have been going on through the night in
Iran following a violent 6.3 earthquake which shook much
of the north of the country on Friday. About 30 people are
reported to have been killed in towns and villages over a large area.
Dozens of after-shocks were recorded but of diminishing intensity.
The total number of injured is reported to be in the region of 150.
Roads have been ripped apart in the worst-hit areas.
*Four bodies were retrieved, while 14 persons remained missing
as of 10 pm Friday, one day after a disastrous flood in central China.
*A cyclone that swept through western Myanmar last week
left more than 140 people dead or missing, and about
18,000 people homeless. It was the worst storm to hit the
impoverished and remote area in more than 30 years.
* Drought-hit northern Somalia faces a looming disaster, the U.N.
warns. Without substantial rains in the next two weeks, northern
Somalia could suffer worsening drought conditions that would
overtake the current capacity of aid agencies.
*Forecasters predict three major storms this hurricane season.
Hurricane forecaster William Gray and his team say there will
be 14 named storms for the season. The forecast calls for six
named storms in the Atlantic that do not reach hurricane status.
*Hurricane haters overlook the good side - "If it doesn't kill you,
flood your home, or send a tree crashing through your roof,
a hurricane can be a good thing."

Friday, May 28, 2004
*As many as 1,000 people are feared missing in the remote
Haitian town of Mapou after last weekend's disastrous floods.
At least 300 bodies have been found so far and the town remains
submerged. Thousands of people have been made homeless by
the floods, in which about 1,000 people in Haiti and the Dominican
Republic are so far known to have died. More rain is forecast.
*Scientists warn that the world is heading for a catastrophic
earthquake within the next century that will kill at least
1 million people in one of the huge cities of the developing world,
where strict building codes either don't exist or are rarely enforced.
As those cities grow, millions of people are moving into flimsy
buildings within easy reach of major faults. It wouldn't take a big
quake to bring those buildings down. A magnitude 6.7 quake in
Tehran, Iran, would kill 200,000 to 400,000 people and knock
down more than 80 percent of the city's buildings, according to
a recent scenario. There are now 35 metropolitan areas in the
world with populations of 2 million or more within
125 miles of an earthquake zone.
*Scientists believe they are a step closer to understanding the
way tectonic stresses translate into earthquakes in New Zealand.
In what scientists consider a significant advance, they have linked
unusual land movements north of Wellington to a recent swarm
of earthquakes under Upper Hutt. The latest findings suggest
slipping or "slow earthquakes" are occurring.

Thursday, May 27, 2004
*Six people died and dozens more fell ill as temperatures soared
to 47 degrees Celsius (116 Fahrenheit) in a heatwave in
central Pakistan on May 21 and 22.
*In the previous 24 hours the Popocatepetl volcano showed a
small increase of activity. There were 9 small exhalations
accompanied by steam, gas and small amounts of ash. The
most important exhalation produced an ash plume that reached
1.5 km above the crater. There were reports of ash fall in
Tetela del Volcán, Mor. Also there was a volcano-tectonic
microeartquake of magnitude 2.4.
*An extended volcanic eruption in Iceland in 1783 may have killed
more than 10,000 people in England. In Iceland alone, some 9,000
people - about a quarter of the population - were killed. But
the massive discharge from beneath the Earth also fumigated
many parts of Europe with volcanic gases and airborne particles.
*In Italy, Stromboli volcano's frequent but mild explosions usually allowed
it to let off steam without a heavy outpouring of lava. These small
outbursts had been so long characteristic of it, that the term
"Strombolian" is used to describe similar activity by volcanoes
worldwide. But early last summer, shedding its predictable image,
Stromboli poured out a constant river of lava which slid into the sea.
The lava flow stopped in July 2003. The classical Strombolian
activity has returned, with some moments of particular intensity.
A ban remains until at least the end of 2004 on tourist treks
to the crater. Webam - click on Stromboli Q.400.

Tuesday, May 25, 2004
*Floods unleashed by torrential rains killed more than 80 people
in a small farming town and left about 200 missing when a
swollen river rushed through a neighbourhood, sweeping away
dozens of houses in the Dominican Republic. 58 people were
reported killed in flooding in Haiti. Meteorologists predict the
heavy rains will continue throughout today and Wednesday.
Torrential rain has been falling for more than two weeks in the
Dominican Republic, swelling rivers and saturating the land.
In the neighbouring U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, at least one
man was missing and more than 100 people were staying in
shelters due to flooding. Puerto Rico has seen unusually large
amounts of rain this month.
*The Des Plaines River in Illinois is expected to crest this
morning and it would be six inches above the record-setting
level of the 1986 flood.
*The National Weather Service has identified Southwest Florida
as one of the most hurricane-vulnerable areas of the United States.
Southwest Florida experienced 49 storms of hurricane intensity
from 1873 to 1993. Southwest Florida has a hurricane-shelter
deficit of 169,043 spaces and the Tampa Bay region has a
208,554 shelter-space deficiency. A significant shortage of
evacuation routes and shelters, coupled with the tremendous
increase in number of people living in hurricane-prone areas,
has contributed to a critical public-safety problem.
Hurricane season begins June 1.
*It is the 44th anniversary since a deadly tsunami struck Hilo,
Hawaii on May 23, 1960, leaving few surviving landmarks.
The 35-foot wall of water destroyed much of Hilo and
killed 61 people. The tsunami was generated by an
8.6 magnitude earthquake in Chile that traveled about
6200 miles before reaching Hawaii. It caused little
damage outside Hilo.

Monday, May 24, 2004
-So far this month there have been more than 100 tornadoes
reported around the United States. In the month of May in 2003
there were 539 tornadoes.
*Houses lay crumpled to their foundations, and hundreds of
thousands of people were without power after storms tore
through the Midwest, including a tornado that leveled the
tiny Iowa town of Bradgate.
*At least one person was killed as a storm system that spawned more
than a dozen tornadoes swept through Nebraska.
*A rare tornado touched down in Spokane during a storm that
also brought lightning, hail and heavy rain to northeast Washington.
It was a wild week around Washington state with numerous
thunderstorms, flash floods, hail and tornadoes. The state
averages about one tornado annually; but in just the past
three weeks, they have recorded four.
*The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado touched
down near Pendleton, Oregon on Sunday afternoon.
*A cleanup has begun after an unusually strong tornado
swept through southwestern Ontario, leaving a path of
destruction in the town of Mitchell.
*With warm temperatures in March and April, the grounding loss
of 33 heavy air tankers for safety reasons, and a years-long drought
continuing, Western states and the federal government are grimly
facing the possibility of an exceptionally devastating fire season.

Sunday, May 23, 2004
*At least four people were killed and thousands were affected
by severe flash flooding in northern Thailand. Some 6019
villagers from 2113 households were affected and 79 houses
completely destroyed in the worst flash flood to hit in a decade.
Large areas of Thailand have experienced heavy rains since
Wednesday, with the rainy season beginning well ahead of schedule.
*Canadian scientists are eagerly awaiting the return of a "slow
earthquake" that could give them clues to when and where the
next major quake will strike. Researchers thought they had spotted
the start of the phenomenon in late April near Centralia, Washington.
south of Seattle, but the activity quieted down before it reached
north to Vancouver Island. The recently discovered phenomenon
is believed to occur about every 14 months, which would put the
next event anytime now. The coastal region of northwest Washington
state and southeast British Columbia is prone to earthquakes, and
scientists warn that the area gets hit with a devastating shake of
magnitude 9 about every 500 years, the last was in 1700.
*Geologists are preparing to dig a trench into what they suspect
is Colorado's longest earthquake fault, a 95-mile scar across
the Great Plains east of Denver. The most pressing questions
they hope to answer are: Is the arrow-straight Anton Scarp
really a fault? If so, is it still active and capable of producing
large earthquakes? Colorado's largest-known earthquake was
a magnitude 6.6 that occurred Nov. 7, 1882.

Saturday, May 22, 2004
*A major landslide in the mountain resort Sa Pa district of Vietnam
has buried the home of a family with seven members inside, killing
three of them and injuring four.
*New Zealand's Geological and Nuclear Sciences have installed a
digital camera in the crater of a remote New Zealand volcano which
makes up most of White Island in the Bay of Plenty, east of Auckland.
A photo taken every hour is posted on their website.
But suddenly a pink dinosaur has appeared in
the shot, placed there by some prankster. They are not planning on
removing it, counting on the sulphur and high acid environment
to deal with the creature.
*The current volcanic hazard-zone map for Hawaii divides the island
into nine zones based on rates of coverage by past lava flows.
Zones 1-3 are limited to the most active volcanoes, Kilauea and
Mauna Loa. Zone 1 is the most hazardous, and it includes the summits
and rift zones of these volcanoes, where vents have been repeatedly
active in the last 200 years and lava flows will originate in the future.
Areas adjacent to and down slope of the rift zones make up zone 2.
All 186 houses destroyed in the ongoing eruption of Kilauea were
in zone 2, most about 13 km (8 miles) from the vent. Preparations are
underway to produce the next generation of lava-flow hazard maps,
based on the probability of an area being covered by lava in a given time,
say 50 years. 12,000 people live in the two highest lava-flow hazard zones.

Friday, May 21, 2004
*Scientists in the Northern Mariana Islands are warning that the
Anatahan volcano, which erupted two months ago, is becoming
dangerous and could become more explosive at any time with
little or no warning. The volcano's seismic energy release
has nearly doubled since May 17.
* Mount Awu, an active volcano on an island in the northernmost
Indonesian province of North Sulawesi, has shown increased
activity, spewing flames and smoke. Some villagers have
already left their homes on the slope.
*A previously unknown underwater volcano has been discovered
off the coast of Antarctica. The finding helps explain mariners'
historical reports of discoloured water in the area. There is no
previous scientific record of active volcanoes in the region
where the new peak was discovered.
*Medium to large earthquakes occurring along the central San
Andreas Fault appear to cluster at regular three-year intervals -
a previously unnoticed cycle that provides some hope for
forecasting larger quakes along this and other California faults.
Assuming the three-year cycle has continued, the next upswing
in preceding microquakes should occur in late 2004. The southern
portion of the central San Andreas, just north of Parkfield, showed
a different periodicity in microquakes, about 1.5 years. Large
quakes are not known to occur on this part of the fault.
*Right on schedule, a slow earthquake apparently has started deep
beneath western Washington. At least nine previous so-called slow
earthquakes have been documented going back to 1992. They
seem to occur every 14 months or so, and last about a month.
The last one happened in February and March of last year. A big
question is whether deep tremors and the slow slip are the same event,
or if they are separate events that are somehow interrelated. Making
that determination will help in understanding whether they are adding
to or relieving stress in the Cascadia subduction zone
off the Washington and B.C. coast. The current event is expected
to continue for another week or two. It started farther south than
previous episodes, so it might last longer if it migrates its full path,
all the way up to Vancouver Island.
*Seismologists have identified a wider region for potential
large earthquakes in the Midwest. That could mean St. Louis
is at greater risk for damage from future quakes. Odds of a
quake actually occurring are no greater. The probability that
a quake of large size could strike the New Madrid region in
the next 50 years is 1 in 10, while a smaller earthquake in that
period is 40 percent likely. Research suggests that a large New
Madrid quake could trigger a quake on a fault nowhere
near New Madrid. "It opens up the Pandora's Box for
other parts of the country."

Thursday, May 20, 2004
*The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology has so
far recorded 15 aftershocks, as of Wednesday, in the Nabunturan
faultline since the May 16 earthquake that shook most parts of
Mindanao with a magnitude of 6.1 on the Richter scale.
*One year later, Algiers and the surrounding region that was
ravaged by a killer 6.8 earthquake last May still bear the painful
scars of a catastrophe that claimed 2,277 lives and sharpened
the trauma of a country trying to recover from a decade of bloody
disarray. It is unlikely the situation will return to normal
for at least two years.
*An expert predicts that tree-killing beetles will have a more
deadly effect on forests in the Rocky Mountains this year than
wildfires. The sixth year of drought in the West has left scores
of water-starved trees without the ability to produce sap or
chemicals to keep the beetles at bay.

Wednesday, May 19, 2004
*Eight people drowned when a ferry capsized and a man was
killed by lightning as Typhoon Nida lashed the Philippines,
causing floods and landslides that also buried entire villages.
More than 11,000 people have been displaced from their homes.
*Three women were killed after heavy rains triggered flash
floods in Vietnam's central coastal province of Binh Thuan.
*A 5.8 earthquake shook buildings in Taiwan's capital, Taipei,
today but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
*After two earthquakes struck the Philippines, at 7 pm. Sunday and
4:12 pm Monday, text messages were sent to people in Nabunturan
and Maco and neighboring areas which sent them into panic with
reports that Mt. Angelo would erupt. The Philippine Institute of
Volcanology and Seismology says that there is no such
volcano named Mt. Angelo and no sign of eruptive activity.
*Seismic detectors placed in deep gold mines to monitor safety
are shedding light on the small earthquakes not usually picked up
by surface based seismic arrays. We will not understand how
earthquakes work until we understand the little ones better.

Tuesday, May 18, 2004
*Three fishermen are missing and more than 7,000 ferry passengers
stranded in the eastern and central Philippines today as
hurricane-force winds from Typhoon Nida forced ports to close.
*A coral reef off Western Australia has suffered huge damage
in March from tropical cyclone Fay which scientists have described
as nature at its wildest. The degree of destruction observed at
Scott Reef is extremely rare, at most a one-in-100-years event.
Green algae now dominates the areas once abundant with coral.
The few coral survivors are only remnant stumps.

Monday, May 17, 2004
*An offshore earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale
rattled eastern Taiwan yesterday, but there were no immediate
reports of damage or injuries. A quake with a magnitude of 5.8
shook Taiwan on May 1, killing two Taiwanese and injuring
a Canadian tourist.
* Sakurajima Volcano on Kyushu Island has erupted in southern
Japan, shaking the nearby area with an explosion and
spewing smoke high into the air on Saturday.
*Hundreds of residents within one or two kilometres (about
one mile) of Mount Sirung on Pantar Island have been forced
from their homes after the volcano in E. Nusa Tenggara province
in Indonesia began spewing smoke and dust about two days ago.
*The first direct observation of an active underwater volcano
spewing rocks and molten sulphur has been made by New Zealand
marine geologist Dr Cornel de Ronde.
*The 1883 Krakatau Volcano blast rocked the world. In an ancient
cycle of death and rebirth, the offspring of the legendary
volcano is growing at the spot where its parent was destroyed
in the most cataclysmic natural event in recorded history. The ash
and rock blasted into the air circled the globe for a year, and the
Earth's weather patterns were disrupted for several years. A
130-foot-tall tsunami inundated some 100 villages, killing
an estimated 37,000 people. Anak Krakatau, The Child of
Krakatau, is now growing at an astounding five yards a year.
Geologists predict Anak will continue growing for several centuries
and eventually be vaporized in another colossal eruption.
*One person was killed in a landslide following incessant
rains the last few days in Arunachal Pradesh, India.

Saturday, May 15, 2004
*An earthquake has been rumbling under Western Washington
for weeks, and no one has felt a thing. This quake very, very, slowly
slips. So, it really doesn't generate any shaking but it relieves the
same amount of stress over a large area that a larger earthquake,
like the 6.8 Nisqually quake of 2001, would. The slow earthquake
started at the end of April and might not end for several more days,
maybe even weeks.
*In the next 34 years there is a 90 percent probability of a large
earthquake in Bali, Indonesia, similar in scale to the last major
one of January 2000. Nobody died in the 2000 quake, which
measured 6.2 on the Richter scale, but more than 500 people
were hurt, most by falling buildings.
*The Shiveluch volcano on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula is
once again erupting, dusting the surrounding snow-white landscape
with a wide expanse of dark ash that is visible from space. A
lava dome is growing in the crater and another explosive eruption
could be due at any time. Strong volcanic tremors and surface
earthquakes have been detected, while heavy mudslides from
Shiveluch have also blocked roads in the area.

Friday, May 14, 2004
*Eleven people were missing after a landslide took place in
southwest China's Chongqing Municipality yesterday at noon.
*A serial arsonist is suspected in a dozen wildfires near Flagstaff,
Arizona. A single person is believed to be responsible for wildland
fires that were set in three areas around the city on Wednesday.
*Over 2,000 people were forced from their homes when heavy
rains triggered floods across the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.
*A moderate 5.5 earthquake shook a town in southwestern
Pakistan yesterday, damaging three homes, but there were
no immediate reports of injuries. On Sunday, an earthquake
shook the nearby town of Quetta, injuring 19 people.
*Scientists find signs of an ancient crater created by an asteroid
impact off the Australian coast possibly linked to the greatest
mass extinction in Earth history.

Thursday, May 13, 2004
*Generally, fire season really begins statewide in Montana
toward the end of June or in early July, but wildfires are
beginning to spring up already.
* In Singapore a highway collapse and Tuesday's tremors
from an earthquake off Sumatra have prompted tenants of Golden
Mile Tower and Golden Mile Complex to have second thoughts
about the buildings. Some tenants are now looking for a new place.
The authorities will continue to monitor existing cracks but say
both buildings are structurally safe.
*The eastern states of the U.S. are bracing themselves for what
scientists say will be the largest insect emergence on Earth.
Trillions of cicadas are waking from a 17-year slumber.
They are expected to swarm over 14 eastern states including
Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, New York and Ohio.
*The disaster movie 'The Day After Tomorrow' contains flawed
science but will help warn people about climate change,
UK scientists say. The film portrays the switching off of the
Gulf Stream and the Northern Hemisphere's subsequent
plunge into a new Ice Age.
* Tropical Cyclone 01A is swirling in the Arabia Sea.

Wednesday, May 12, 2004
*Numerous explosions were registered at Shiveluch volcano,
the most northern of the active volcanoes on the Kamchatka
peninsula of Russia. It has produced substantial mudslides which
damaged the bridge over the Bekesh River. One mudslide has
covered about 20 kilometers of highway and is five meters
thick at certain points.
*Using global positioning system devices, Japanese researchers
have measured the amount of magma in Mt. Mihara, a volcano
on Izu-Oshima island, creating a new method that could be used
to predict future volcanic eruptions at other locations. Using GPS
they discovered that magma in Mt. Mihara's approximately
seven-kilometer-deep magma chamber had reached about
70 percent of the volume that gushed from the volcano
when it last erupted in 1986.
*Tremors from a 6.3 earthquake in Sumatra caused panic
yesterday. Tremors from the quake were also detected in Singapore.
*A 3.3 magnitude earthquake was reported Tuesday with an
epicenter 23 miles southwest of Malibu in the Pacific Ocean.
*A father and son were missing and feared dead after they were
apparently buried under a landslide in southern Kyrgyzstan.
*It's been five years since eight people died in a Mother's Day
landslide at Oahu's Sacred Falls State Park.

Tuesday, May 11, 2004
* Earthquake myths:
1) Mega quakes can really happen.
Theoretically, yes.
Realistically, no.
The magnitude of an earthquake is related to the length of the
fault on which it occurs - the longer the fault, the larger the earthquake.
The San Andreas Fault is only 800 miles long. No fault long enough
to generate a magnitude 10.5 earthquake is known to exist.
2) The ground can open up during an earthquake.
Fiction. Gaping faults exist only in movies and novels. The ground
moves across a fault during an earthquake, not away from it. If the
fault could open, there would be no friction. Without friction,
there would be no earthquake.
3) California will eventually fall off into the ocean.
Fiction. The ocean is not a great hole into which California can
fall, but is itself land at a somewhat lower elevation with water
above it. It is absolutely impossible for California to be swept
out to sea. Instead, southwestern California is moving horizontally
northward toward Alaska as it slides past central and eastern California.
4) People can stop earthquakes.
Fiction. We cannot prevent earthquakes from happening
(or stop them once they've started).
5) Nuclear explosions can start or stop earthquakes.
Fiction. Scientists agree that even large nuclear explosions
have little effect on seismicity outside the area of the blast itself.
6) The Golden Gate Bridge, Seattle Space Needle and other
buildings will all eventually fall during an earthquake.
Not likely. Architects and engineers are using knowledge learned
from past earthquakes to make structures safer.

Monday, May 10, 2004
*Peru has begun rationing water to its capital, Lima,
following one of the worst droughts in a decade. Millions
of people in the coastal city are being left without water supplies
for twelve hours every night.
*At least one person was killed and 37 others were injured
in a 4.7 earthquake on Sunday in southwestern Pakistan.
* Three quakes rattled the Wellington area of New Zealand -
a quake at 7.31am measured 4.1 on the Richter scale, the
second at 8.10am was also 4.1, and the third at 8.24am
measured 3.4.
*A magnitude 4.6 earthquake in Santa Barbara Channel has
occurred 30 km (20 miles) West of Santa Barbara,
California (population 92,000)

Sunday, May 9, 2004
*An earthquake measuring 4.8 on the Richter scale jolted southern
Iran overnight, destroying four schools and damaging several others.
*A mild earthquake shook the city of Quetta, in southwestern
Pakistan, early today, injuring 15 people in the panic.
* Two earthquakes shook Taiwan - the first quake was of
magnitude 5.2 and the second was 5.7. No damages reported.
*The bodies of three people have been discovered from under
the remains of houses torn down by a landslide on Friday evening
in central China.

Saturday, May 9, 2004
*A series of local earthquakes was recorded at Shiveluch Volcano
on Kamchatka Penninsula on Friday.
*What would San Francisco have done before the 1906 earthquake
if they had a warning there was a 50-50 chance the Big One
would hit within nine months? In Palm Springs and throughout
the Southern California desert today, there is such a warning.
So what are people there doing about it? Not much.
*A massive landslide from mountains overlooking the hilly route
to the twin Hindu holy pilgrimages of Badrinath and Kedarnath in
Uttaranchal, India has disrupted the pilgrimages of hundreds.

Friday, May 7, 2004
* A massive quake may hit Delhi, India in the near future, warn
experts. It is built on soft alluvial soil, and contributing to this risk
factor is Delhi's saline underground water that makes
buildings more susceptible to quake action.
*Firefighters tightened containment Thursday on destructive
wildfires that have burned across nearly 29,000 acres
of Southern California.
*International experts warn that the emergence of new diseases
that are passed from animals to humans, such as avian flu, is
accelerating and they are ill-equipped to counter the trend.
The number of these diseases is very large and those that emerge
as public health problems in both the developed and developing
world is increasing continuously.

Thursday, May 6, 2004
*Fire officials in southern California are warning that the early start
could make this wildfire season one of the worst ever.
The season's first wildfires have burned with an intensity
usually not seen until late summer.
*Tents and other supplies were being rushed to an area of western
China after a strong earthquake left thousands of people homeless
but no one injured.
*New Zealand's Mount Ngauruhoe starred as fiery Mount Doom
in the film trilogy Lord of the Rings, but neighboring Mount Ruapehu
is the volcano scientists fear most. Ruapehu is showing some signs
of volcano unrest, with "elevated hydrothermal activity" in the
crater lake. The simmering acidic crater lake, belching steam and
gas that smells like rotten eggs, has been the site of more eruptions
than any other crater lake in the world. Ruapehu's crater lake erupts
every one to three years, emptying out completely during major
eruptions. Scientists studying the lake say higher levels signal a
greater chance of a mudflow, and warn that a disastrous mudslide
could flow down the mountain some time between November
this year and next March. When the level of the lake, now about
95 percent full, rises another 16 feet it may break free, releasing
a fast-moving wave with the consistency of wet cement.
*A fiery stream of lava is inching toward the ocean at Kilauea
Volcano in Hawaii this week, affording some of the best views
of flow in nearly a year.

Wednesday, May 5, 2004
*Thousands of people have had to flee their homes as
firefighters struggle to control wildfires in southern
California. As many as 4,000 homes were evacuated.
Up to four buildings, including a university research centre,
are thought to have been destroyed. The wildfires broke out
on Sunday after a drought and an unusual heat wave, with
temperatures as high as 100F (37C). The so-called wildfire
season usually starts at the end of May, but officials said
it had started by Monday.
* Mount Veniaminof Volcano has been restless over the
past week, spitting up ash and steam, and lightly shaking the ground,
said the Alaska Volcano Observatory. A major eruption is not expected,
but scientists say there could be additional low-level action at the volcano
about 480 miles southwest of Anchorage. Veniaminof is one of the
largest and most active volcanoes in Alaska, with a 6-mile-wide
caldera and 12 eruptions over the past 200 years. The most recent
occurred in 1993-95.
*Scientists say that southern Nevada is due for a huge quake. The
only questions now are when, and what will be left standing. Las
Vegas officals say the buildings on the strip will stay standing if the
big one hits. Some facades, signs, windows and other features that
aren't tied to structural design will come down. Houses will probably
come out okay, as wood structures absorb plenty of the shock
and do well in earthquakes.
*Michigan is also an earthquake hot spot. In fact, some of the
strongest quakes in United States' history took place along the
region's New Madrid Fault in Michigan, in 1811 and 1812.
However it is not a seismically-active zone, although they
sometimes feel earthquakes that happen elsewhere.

Tuesday, May 4, 2004
*A 6.6 magnitude earthquake shook southern Chile early Monday
causing panic, power outages and minor property damage, but no injuries.
*A moderate 5.7 earthquake shook El Salvador and Guatemala
on Monday, but caused no damage or injuries.
*Maybe there's a secret desire among television viewers to see
California crumble in an earthquake. The first part of the NBC
miniseries, 10.5, was seen by 20.4 million viewers Sunday night,
the most popular movie on NBC in five years. It was the
most-watched movie on any network in more than two years,
since the CBS documentary about a real disaster, 9-11. However,
the lack of scientific basis and blatant inconsistencies in the movie
has earthquake experts shaking their heads.
*A study commissioned and then shelved by San Francisco officials
says the city would lose nearly 30,000 buildings and suffer hundreds
of fatalities in a 7.2 magnitude earthquake.
*Because of a phenomenon called "liquefaction," several areas
in San Diego are at high risk, warn experts. Liquefaction occurs
in earthquakes from magnitude 6 on up. When an earthquake hits
and the waves start rolling, they can cause loose sediment
to literally liquefy.
*Two University of California Irvine researchers say seismic
hazard maps issued by the state may underestimate the
earthquake risk in Orange County. They say that the maps
should be reevaluated in light of evidence that significant faults
are hidden underground.
*Millions of people in California are living next to the coastline, yet
their awareness of the tsunami risk is close to nil. Experts at
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predict that
sooner or later, a tsunami will strike every coastline in the Pacific.
Since 1945 more people have been killed around the world as a
result of tsunamis than have died as a direct result of an earthquake's
ground-shaking. In the early 1990s, the National Tsunami Hazard
Mitigation Program set about completing inundation maps for every
U. S. coastal community at risk - that is about 3 million people in 512
cities and towns in five Pacific states (Washington, Oregon,
California, Hawaii and Alaska).

Monday, May 3, 2004
*2 people have been killed in a 5.8 quake in Taiwan.
*The Golden Gate Bridge is undergoing a $392 million seismic
upgrade, which will allow it to withstand an 8.3-magnitude quake.
*In response to the devastation caused in Nova Scotia and Prince
Edward Island, no more hurricanes will bear the name Juan.
*A woman has died and another patient is listed in serious condition
following a new outbreak of "flesh-eating disease" in Canada.

Saturday, May 1, 2004
*A mighty earthquake could be coming to Salt Lake City, Utah
and engineers are warning that most of the buildings in the
community might not be able to withstand the quake. In a quake
of magnitude 5.0 or greater, the University of Utah's main library
is expected to "pancake'' on itself. Officials say two out of every
three buildings here are considered unsafe - even from moderate
shaking. Geologists for years have warned that the basin is due for
a powerful jolt, one that returns with fair regularity about every
1,300 years. The Wasatch fault last slipped about 1,284 years ago.
* Anatahan Volcano seismic activity increased abruptly early
on April 24 and on April 28 the seismicity level increased
further to a new high. Currently regular puffs of yellow-brown
steam and ash are still being emitted explosively at 1/2 - 2 minute
intervals and probably still rising to ~2,000 ft. The eruption
on Anatahan Island (part of the Pacific Mariana Island chain)
could become more explosive at any time with little or no
warning. The island has been placed off-limits until further notice.
*A team of scientists was heading to Papua New Guinea's
Bougainville island on Thursday to assess whether central
Mt. Bagana volcano, which is spewing a lava flow threatening
nearby villages, could erupt.
*A plume of volcanic ash was rising from the Ambrym Volcano
on Vanuatu Island in the South Pacific Ocean on April 27.
* Shiveluch Volcano is erupting again - ash has been ejected
2,000-5,000 meters into the air from the crater of the volcano
in Kamchatka, a peninsula in Russia's Far East.

Friday, April 30, 2004
*Concern is mounting over an erupting volcano that is spewing
lava towards nearby villages on the Papua New Guinea
island of Bougainville. Attempts at establishing communication
with smaller villages close to Mount Bagana have so far failed.
*A broad lava flow heading downhill in Hawaii Volcanoes
National Park is Kilauea's best display since fall. There are
moments of excitement as the lava burns through isolated trees,
and one after another goes up in flames. The flow could get
more exciting, since it has reached a steep area where
its speed could increase.
*Heavy rains over much of Arkansas have triggered floods.

Wednesday, April 28, 2004
*Monday's deadly landslide in southern Kyrgyzstan - where at
least 33 people lost their lives - caught Kyrgyz emergency officials
by surprise, despite a recent landslide risk assessment in the region.
A high level of moisture [in the soil] and a series of recurring tremors
over the past week resulted in the land mass, of more than three
million cubic metres, rushing down. Near-by on Saturday, an
18-year-old shepherd was killed by a landslide while herding his
flock. On Sunday, another landslide occurred in the area
killing some 50 head of livestock. The tendency of growth in
the number of landslides will probably continue until the end
of July. Everything will depend on weather conditions. Over
the past four months 91 landslides have been registered
in the former Soviet republic.
*Scientists have discovered evidence for the earliest known
wildfire in Earth's history.
*Jet trails may change climate - condensation trails
from the engine exhausts of jet aircraft may have provoked the
warming trend in the climate seen from 1975 to 1994,
a NASA researcher has said.

Tuesday, April 27, 2004
*A landslide in southern Kyrgyzstan killed 33 people and injured
19 others in the mountainous Central Asian country on Monday.
*Over half a million people have been evacuated from northern
Bangladesh after a series of destructive hot-season storms
triggered wide-spread flooding.
* Anatahan Volcano located about 100 kilometres north of
Saipan, the capital of the Northern Marianas in the Pacific, has
erupted again after almost a year of inactivity. Ash plumes are
heading towards the northern Philippines but a change in wind
direction may bring it to the islands. The volcano continues to
emit regular puffs of yellow-brown steam and ash every two minutes.
*Scientists have discovered that a fault line beneath Cook
Strait is much longer than previously thought and it increases
the earthquake and tsunami risk to central New Zealand.
While scientists knew it existed they were unaware that
the faultline was so long.
*A shallow earthquake measuring 3.8km on the Richter scale
rattled the Wellington region of New Zealand early yesterday.
*On the North Island of New Zealand is Mount Ruapehu volcano,
one of New Zealand's most active volcanoes, and it threatens to
cover nearby communities with volcanic mudflows.
* Two minor earthquakes rattled southern Bulgaria within 24 hours.
*California firefighters on Monday began to get the upper hand
on a 2,334-acre wildfire that had threatened as many as
400 homes in Riverside County.
*Scientists say a giant meteorite struck western Wisconsin
long ago. It struck with catastrophic force about 70 miles east of
what's now Minneapolis, Minnesota. The impact dislodged rocks
and created a massive hole in a four-mile area.

Monday, April 26, 2004
*Four farmers have died due to a landslide in northwest China's
Shaanxi province.
* Anatahan Volcano's seismic activity increased abruptly on 4/24
to a high level unseen since summer 2003. Since then, the
seismicity increased slowly but fairly constantly to a level similar
to that of the eruption of mid-June 2003. Today an overflight
observed regular puffs of yellow-brown steam and ash every 1-2
minutes, a rate virtually identical to that of seismic events recorded
during that time. Maximum height of the steam and ash plume
has been about 2,000 ft (600 m) during the past 48 hours.
Located in the Mariana Islands, central Pacific Ocean.

Sunday, April 25, 2004
*The western Pacific and Asian region has experienced the highest
number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in the world. A
new observation system is proposed to provide tsunami forecasts
and eruption alerts, and is expected to reduce damage resulting
from natural disasters. It would be built within the next ten years.
*In Japan, Volcano Island evacuees may return home. The island
was evacuated three years ago after the volcano on the island
erupted, spewing out poison gas and making the area uninhabitable.
There is still an ongoing risk from poison gas.
*A four-hour TV drama to air May 2-3 on NBC, depicts the
destruction of some well-known California landmarks by a series
of devastating earthquakes and the government's frantic efforts
to stop the "Big One" - a 10.5 magnitude temblor that threatens
to send part of California off into the ocean. Scientists say that in
reality it would take a rupture 6,000 miles long - the distance
between the North Pole and the Equator - to cause a 10.5 quake
and they believe a plate boundary of that type and size does not exist.

Saturday, April 24, 2004
*A rain-triggered landslide smashed into a bus on
Indonesia's Sumatra island, killing at least 37 passengers and
leaving six others buried under tons of mud.
*A powerful 5.5 quake in Indonesia damaged dozens of buildings.
*A whirlwind hit Kampung Dapur neighborhood in Batam, on
Friday afternoon, damaging dozens of houses and
leaving 50 families homeless.
*A University of North Carolina study suggests gigantic volcano
eruptions capable of threatening human extinction may not be as
common as once believed.
*April is earthquake preparedness month. Statistics show that
about one million earthquakes, including those too small to be felt,
occur each year across the globe. California has the most damaging
earthquakes on average in the U.S. In any given year, some 37,300
quakes are recorded in California.
*Experts say the U.K. faces a huge 20-fold rise in the cost
of damage from floods unless global warming is curbed.

Friday, April 23, 2004
*About half the average April rainfall was expected to fall on
Melbourne, Australia in one day, as heavy rain swept across
the city and regional Victoria.
*A moderate 4.9 earthquake shook northern Japan yesterday.
*A magnitude 6.4 earthquake in the Savu Sea has occurred
115 km (70 miles) NW of Kupang, Timor, Indonesia
(population 403,000).
*Mississipppi's wildfires are dying down but more rain is needed.
*With less rainfall than usual this year, the hillsides and canyons
of Southern California are once again at risk for wildfires.
*Many birds and marine species benefit from the effects of
hurricanes, leading to increases in population, U.S. researchers say.

Thursday, April 22, 2004
*At least 13 people were killed when a landslide triggered by
heavy rains buried homes in Indonesia's West Java province.
*A tornado-laden storm has ploughed through the north-central
part of the U.S. state of Illinois, flattening or damaging dozens
of buildings and killing at least four people.
*The eighth quake in just over a month to hit Delhi, India
was of 'slight' 1.5 intensity and no damage was reported. The
seismology section of the India Meterological Department yesterday
announced that it was intensifying seismic monitoring of the Indian
capital and surrounding areas.
*A new book is a 'what if' look at a big quake on the New
Madrid Fault in the southern U.S.
*A growing global population and unprecedented international travel
have put humankind at risk of uncontrollable epidemics of
potentially hundreds of new diseases, a virus expert has warned.

Wednesday, April 21, 2004
*Yesterday an earthquake measuring 4.0 on the Richter scale
shook Bam in southeastern Iran, where a powerful quake killed
thousands of people on December 26. The tremor knocked
down some walls already damaged in previous quakes. There
were no reports of casualties.
* Anatahan Volcano is rumbling to life again - a swarm
of seismic activity is heralding renewed eruptive activity. On Sunday,
new lava was spotted forming a short flow or dome inside Anatahan's
crater. Aviation warnings for ash emissions have been issued. Each
year approximately 25,000 large commercial passenger jets fly
through a small area of airspace immediately surrounding
the Mariana Islands in the Pacific.
*A Reno geologist predicts a large earthquake near or under
Lake Tahoe could trigger a tsunami.

Tuesday, April 20, 2004
*At least five people have died in flooding which has swept
away roads and houses in southern Saudi Arabia. Many families
are living in tents after their homes were destroyed.
*At least seven people were killed and 150 injured in violent
storms that struck three Bangladeshi districts overnight. The
seasonal storms followed last week's tornado that left at least
65 dead and more than 1,000 others injured.
*Shiveluch, Kamchatka's northernmost active volcano, has
erupted with a 8,000-meter-high pillar of ash. The eruption
was accompanied by an earthquake that lasted 4.5 minutes.
Seismological stations are registering spasmodic volcanic quakes.
*The 5.0 earthquake that hit Bali on Saturday caused cracks in
the walls of houses and buildings.

Monday, April 19, 2004
*An area in India, already hit by famine, was hit again, this
time by an unprecedented storm with hail and rain for a continuous
five days now. A road which is the only link for the district with
the rest of the world has been cut off by more than 30 landslides.
Power supply to the district has been snapped since last week.
Telephone lines were also destroyed by lightening two days ago.
Two persons were seriously injured in a landslide that occurred
yesterday night. Several houses were also destroyed by storm
and landslide. Many villages have been destroyed by the recent
thunder squalls and heavy downpour. All major rivers in the
district have also reached a flashpoint. There has been a report
that hailstones as heavy as half to one kilograms that fell in
the area have uprooted over 60 houses.

Sunday, April 18, 2004
*A landslide in southern Kyrgyzstan buried five children today,
and rescue crews were prevented from reaching the area
due to the threat of further landslides.
*Fears that Southern California is in store for a major earthquake
in the near future were heightened Thursday by the findings of an
Oregon scientist who says that the strains on the southern San
Andreas Fault are at their highest levels in some 1,500 years and
could soon could begin producing tremors to relieve the pent-up stress.
There is a 30% to 50% chance of a big one in the next 30 years -
"This is going to happen in your lifetime"..."It's like pulling a rubber
band and it's about to break."
The last earthquake 7.0 magnitude or larger to strike the San
Andreas Fault in the San Bernardino area was 192 years ago.
For information on making earthquake preparations, see 'Family
and Home Planning' from the Los Angeles City Fire Department's
Earthquake Handbook.
*The Transbay Tube is the busiest and probably the most critical
stretch of the BART system, carrying roughly 145,000 riders a day
between West Oakland and downtown San Francisco at depths of
as much as 135 feet below the bay's surface. A 2002 seismic safety
study of the system concluded that a major earthquake could shake
the concrete tube so severely that it could leak or even flood
and take two to three years to repair.
*Remote villages in Fiji remained cut off by severe flooding yesterday
after more than a week of torrential rain, as the country called for
assistance in flying urgent supplies to affected areas.

Saturday, April 17, 2004
*The U.S. Geological Survey warns that ash from a freshly
active volcano in the Northern Mariana Islands in the South
Pacific could pose a serious threat to aircraft. The current round
of seismic activity peaked on April 6 with approximately one small
earthquake each minute and was similar in nature to that observed
at other volcanoes before they erupted. Earthquakes are still
occurring frequently, and steam and ash emissions and small
explosions are likely to occur. Anatahan Volcano is on an
uninhabited island.
*Rapid snowmelt and expected warmer-than-normal temperatures
have set up the Four Corners as one of the U.S.'s three riskiest
areas for wildfires this summer.
*Maine has had 50 wildfires in the state so far this season.
*South Dakota is among the danger zones for wildfires. In
2002 smoke and wildfires discouraged tourists from visiting.

Friday, April 16, 2004
*Fijian army troops evacuated thousands of people to high ground
today as the South Pacific island nation, its rivers already
swollen by floods, braced for more torrential rains.
*The Kamchatka regional seismic service says the probability of an
earthquake with a magnitude above seven has increased in the
Kamchatka Bay. Possible quakes in the area would not pose
a serious threat to residential areas.
*In the past month Delhi, India has been rocked no less than
seven times by tremors ranging from 1.6 to 3 on a Richter scale.
And that has been the lucky part, for Delhi lies in Seismic Zone IV
- meaning it is susceptible to quakes with magnitudes
ranging between 5.5 to 6.8.
*Scientists have launched an online calculator that works out the
environmental effects of an asteroid colliding with Earth. Users
can choose the size and type of space object and the distance
they are standing from the impact site. The program then calculates
the scale of the fireball, the size of the crater left behind and even
whether the impact will ignite your clothes.

Thursday, April 15, 2004
* Tornadoes have torn through northern Bangladesh, killing
dozens of people and injuring hundreds.
*In Australia high winds are hampering Victorian firefighters
battling to save houses under threat from bushfires in the state's east.
*The relentless drought is worsening across the Western U.S.
and the threat of wildfires is growing with water supplies dwindling.
Arizona is facing its worst drought on record. Already this year,
10,000 acres have burned in Arizona, along with 8,500
acres in Colorado.
*A summer of major wildfires is predicted for California - last
fall's wildfires in Southern California consumed 738,000 acres,
destroyed more than 3,600 homes and structures, and killed
26 people. Last year's record wildfires began in late October,
and already last month a controlled blaze near Big Bear Lake
burned out of control in one of the nation's most heavily urbanized forests.
*Using fossilized coral reefs, a scientist constructed a 7,000-year
climate history of cool/warm cycles in the Indian Ocean. In the
course of her research she discovered that wildfires in Indonesia
during the 1997-98 El Nino indirectly killed the Mentawai Reef.

Wednesday, April 14, 2004
*A state of emergency was declared yesterday after a devastating
typhoon swept through the remote Micronesian islands of Yap.
Winds of 212km/h and waves of more than 10 metres battered
the chain of atolls and its 8000 residents for more than five hours.
*Up to 50 people are reported dead and thousands made homeless
after heavy rains in Kenya and Djibouti in eastern Africa.
*The great 1906 earthquake struck early on April 18, 1906.
It leveled much of San Francisco, and most of what didn't
collapse burned to the ground in the following days. More
than 3,000 people perished in one of the greatest disasters
in U.S. history. Most people believe that the epicenter was
somewhere around Point Reyes or San Francisco, but the
true epicenter of the quake is just off the coast of Daly City.
*NBC's upcoming miniseries, "10.5," is a disaster epic about massive
earthquakes that topple the Golden Gate Bridge and cause the ocean
to sweep over Los Angeles. Seismic experts say the NBC program is
scientific fantasy and that such a quake is unlikely. The show
airs May 2 and 3.

Tuesday, April 13, 2004
*The Karymsky volcano in the Russian Far East, may erupt at
any time. It has become much more active of late. More than
400 smoke and ash emissions have been registered daily in the
past few days. 100-200 emissions are ordinary for the volcano.
There have been 470 surface quakes in the past few hours. The
last eruption was registered in January 1996, when molten lava
shot up even from the bed of the nearby lake, killing all living
organisms in it. An eruption will not threaten the population
of the peninsula.
*A slight tremor measuring 1.6 on the Richter scale was
experienced in Delhi, India Friday night, the sixth low-intensity
earthquake in the region in under a month.
*A moderate earthquake shook parts of western India on
Monday night, sending panicked residents into the streets,
but causing no damage or injuries.
*An offshore earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.7
shook northern Japan early on Monday, but there were no
reports of damage or injuries.

Monday, April 12, 2004
*Fiji, still reeling from a severe storm that killed seven people
last week and left 10 missing, was braced today for strong
winds that the meteorology center warned were on the way.
*An earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale shook the
northern Japanese island of Hokkaido yesterday.
* Forest fire researchers are predicting that British Columbia is
in for another early and dangerous summer and people should
prepare for the worst.
*A landslide that occurred Friday night killed eight people in Gongliu
County of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
*A Japanese tourist was killed and three others were injured on
Saturday when a huge landslide hit their vehicle on a Pakistani highway.
*In Nairobi there are fears of a looming disaster following heavy
rains in the Aberdares region. The Environment Minister
has warned that the rains would trigger landslides.

Sunday, April 11, 2004
*A landslide hit the tourist town below Peru's famed Inca
citadel of Machu Picchu today, leaving 11 people missing and
feared dead and blocking the only route into the town. Eleven
people disappeared, six were injured and 1500 tourists were
trapped in the Incan ruins. Also destroyed were homes
and a train track.
*Police hunted for a bus that was carrying five people when it
was swept into a river during wild storms that lashed Fiji
and killed three people.
*The death toll from flash flooding in Mexico has risen to 36 people
at the devastated border city of Piedras Negras. At least 18 people
are still missing after torrential rains caused the Escondido River to
overflow, triggering flash flooding that damaged 600 homes,
destroyed 150 others and left 2000 people in makeshift shelters.

Friday, April 9, 2004
*One person was killed and another is missing, feared dead, after
a severe rainstorm struck Fiji yesterday. Much of the main island
of Viti Levu was hit by the heavy rain, with extensive flooding in
towns and villages in the west of the island. The storm was
continuing last night and Fiji's major rivers were rising.
*The rivers of Central Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine are
brimming past capacity as spring returns to the region.
*Heavy rains on April 4 and 5 triggered deadly flash floods
across Texas and Northern Mexico.
*There is extensive flooding along the Red River in North Dakota
and Minnesota near the Canadian border.
* Satellite image of Typhoon Sudal located about 95 miles
east-southeast of Yap.
*A magnitude 5.5 earthquake in the state of Yap, Micronesia
has occurred 470 km (290 miles) SW of Guam.

Thursday, April 8, 2004
*In Canada, Manitoba's Fisher River continued to rise above its
banks Wednesday, forcing 232 members of the Peguis First
Nation to leave their homes for safer ground.
*No damages were recorded as a result of an earthquake
measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale that was recorded at 4:30am
Wednesday at the Greek-Albanian border.
*Thousands of lives could potentially be saved by a new method
of identifying earthquake aftershock danger zones. The
research is based on complex analysis of stress interactions
in the Earth. While the technique has been proven, more
work needs to be done before it can be put into practice.
*Greenland's ice sheet could start to vanish in the next few centuries
leading to a catastrophic rise in global sea level, scientists warn.

Wednesday, April 7, 2004
*The Mexican army was searching for survivors Tuesday morning
after a flash flood killed 34 people in Piedras Negras on the
Mexican-U.S. border. Twelve people are still missing.
*A landslide in China's northwest forced at least 680 villagers
to flee from their homes, but no deaths or injuries were reported.
*A powerful 6.8 earthquake jolted the remote Hindu Kush
mountains along Afghanistan's northeast border with Pakistan
early Tuesday. The quake jolted the Pakistani cities
of Rawalpindi and Islamabad located 275 miles (450 kilometers)
south of the epicenter.
*The California Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council has
recognized that the method developed by a team of researchers
from UCLA, Russia, France and Japan "appears to be a legitimate
approach in earthquake prediction research." The team has
predicted that an earthquake of a magnitude 6.4 or greater will
occur in Southern California on or before Sept. 5. The area that
could be affected includes parts of the Mojave Desert, Coachella
Valley, Imperial Valley and eastern San Diego County. But the
council has decided not to act in response because the area in
question is so large and because the council could not validate
the prediction based solely on two previous successes. The area
in question is a hotbed of seismic activity, and the report stated
that the probability of a large earthquake in a random nine-month
period is about 10 percent.

Monday, April 5, 2004
*A fairly strong earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale
jolted Ibaraki and Tochigi prefectures in eastern Japan. There were
a few minor injuries, but no immediate reports of serious damages
and no tsunami warnings have been issued.
*The activity of the Shiveluch volcano is on the rise in the Kamchatka
Peninsula. A series of local tremors has taken place in the volcano's area.
*Australian emergency services have faced about 100 calls for help
with damage to houses after 24 hours of heavy downpours
in New South Wales.
*With the almost unique combination of steep hillsides, dense urban
development and heavy summer rainfall, HongKong has long been
facing the problem of frequent and damaging landslides. Just in the
50 years after World War II, more than 450 people died in landslide
tragedies and many more were injured. To maintain public awareness
about landslide risk, Hong Kong's Civil Engineering Department has
jointly organized a major exhibition on the landslide history of Hong Kong.
*Mt Fuji in Japan has been thought to contain two old volcanoes
inside its splendid cone shape, but the results of three-year drilling
research that ended in February suggest the existence of
another volcano deep within it.

Sunday, April 4, 2004
*The body of an SES volunteer has been found in a remote
West Australian gorge after he was swept to his death in a
flash flood while trying to save an injured tourist.
*Some people living in small communities along the Red River
north of Winnipeg, Canada, say measures aimed at protecting
that city from spring flooding are threatening their homes.
*Federal geologists are launching a study of soils in parts of Missouri,
Illinois and Indiana to chart how strongly earthquakes would shake
different areas. Three giant earthquakes in 1811 and 1812 devastated
what were sparsely populated areas near New Madrid. Geological
Survey scientists estimate there is a one in 10 chance that a similar
quake could happen in the next 50 years. In other words, there is
a 90 percent chance that there won't be an earthquake of that size.
Movement along the fault has caused about 800 earthquakes
of 3.0 or larger since 1699.

Saturday, April 3, 2004
*Manitobans living on the Red River in Canada are starting to
evacuate their homes because of flooding. Ice jams in communities
just north of Winnipeg are submerging large portions
of land and highways.
*New Zealand's capital, Wellington, was rattled awake early
today by five small earthquakes which struck in quick succession.
The quakes started just after midnight with a jolt that measured 3.9
on the Richter Scale. It was followed by two stronger tremors,
both measuring 4.6, that were only seconds apart. The fourth
measured 3.4 and came at 12:45am and the fifth, half an hour
later, measured 3.8. There were no reports of damage or injury.
*When it comes to predicting "the big one," scientists still can't tell
when a major earthquake will hit. But thanks to research by Simon
Fraser University, they may have a better idea of where it might occur.
Using Canadian and American data from 1985, '89 and '98, has
determined a certain kind of earthquake is likely to occur on either
side of southern Vancouver Island near populated areas
in Canada and the United States.
* Rising salt levels threaten water supplies in one of Australia's biggest
cities and threaten damage to farmland and rivers.

Friday, April 2, 2004
*An Australian State Emergency Service volunteer, who was part
of a search party for two tourists, remains missing after being
washed down a gorge by a flash flood in a remote
West Australian national park.
*The Gowa regental administration will soon relocate at least
63 families from Tinggimoncong subdistrict who were affected
by a recent landslide in Indonesia.
*The outer wall of a hotly contested Jerusalem holy site is in
danger of collapse because of damage caused by a recent earthquake.
*Residents of Russia's Altai region say that a 2500-year-old mummy,
that was dug up 11 years ago, is causing earthquakes in this
corner of Siberia, and have demanded that it be reburied.

Thursday, April 1, 2004
*A large landslide triggered by a 4.9 earthquake near Karabuin
village in Tajikistan is threatening 36 homes. The earthquake
partially or fully destroyed 28 houses. Rescuers are now
shoring up the banks of a local mountain stream to avert the worst.
*Scientists say the dust and sand storms that have regularly
blanketed north-east Asia for centuries are becoming more
dangerous to health. Similar dust storms from the Sahara have
been blamed for spreading illness and destroying Caribbean coral
reefs. What scientists believe is happening now is that the intensity
of the damage caused by the storms is increasing, and that they
are combining with pollutants like soot and microscopic particles
given off in vehicle exhausts and by power plants.
*Poor co-operation among all levels of governments and chronic
underfunding of emergency response workers have left Canada
unprepared for potential disasters, man-made or natural. A report
found that larger cities are generally better prepared than smaller
cities. But even there, only half of big municipalities said they are
prepared for a major disaster. Health Canada has emergency
medical supplies and equipment cached across the country,
but two-thirds of the 86 municipalities that responded to a
committee survey said they didn't know they exist.

Wednesday, March 31, 2004
*Much of southern Manitoba, Canada was deluged with a
record-setting rain storm on the weekend. Now people south
and west of Winnipeg are being warned that they may be
flooded out as a result.
*One of the worst dust storms to hit northern China in years
swirled into Beijing on Monday. Visibility in parts of north China
was cut to 10 m (33 feet) over the weekend, complicating relief
efforts after an earthquake last week in Inner Mongolia. 80 percent
of the 1,500 tents put up after the earthquake have been destroyed,
leaving 10,000 earthquake victims in the open air waiting
once again for help.
*Sonar analysis has identified a bulge beneath Yellowstone Lake
the size of seven football fields. Such a dome caused the park's
greatest exposion 13,800 years ago. While scientists do not believe
that the dome is about to explode at this time, they also admit that
not enough is known about Yellowstone's volcanic potential. Should
the dome release hot gasses into the lake, a vast amount of water
could be turned into superheated steam. The dome is not likely to
outgas or explode without warning. As magma moves up from below,
the rate of microquakes in the region will increase, giving scientists
early warning of a potential problem. At present, microquake activity
is somewhat above normal, but there appears to be
no reason for immediate concern.

Tuesday, March 30, 2004
*Iran has substantially lowered the death toll in the 6.6
earthquake that devastated the south-eastern city of Bam
last year, cutting the fatalities by more than a third, to 26,271.
525 people are still listed as missing from the quake, and more
than 9,000 people were injured.
*Two fishermen were rescued after spending more than 36
hours at sea and another was found dead after their boats sank
following the powerful storm that swept southern Brazil. Rescuers
carried on with their search for nine other fishermen as the latest
victim brought to three the death toll from the storm.

Monday, March 29, 2004
*Two people died and dozens were injured Sunday after an
unusual storm slammed into southern Brazil, destroying
hundreds of homes with winds roaring at up to 150 kilometers
per hour. Brazilian meteorologists called it an extra-tropical storm,
but its winds were so strong that normally it would be classified
as a hurricane. Such conditions "had never occurred" in that part
of the southern Atlantic and scientists can not explain
what caused the storm.
*A strong 5.3 earthquake shook eastern Turkey on
Sunday, collapsing buildings and injuring at least 12 people.
It came 3 days after another quake killed 10 people in the region.
10 villages suffered severe damage in the quake.
*The 9.2 Good Friday earthquake of 1964 killed 131 people from
Alaska to California, generated immense tsunami waves, caused
about $2 billion in damage in today's money and was felt as far
away as Mississippi. Earthquake experts say it's not a question
of whether another big quake will hit Anchorage, Alaska, but when.
But another tremor of the kind that shook Southcentral Alaska 40
years ago is not likely to hit the area in the lifetime of anyone now living.

Sunday, March 28, 2004
*A strong 5.8 earthquake struck the Chinese region of Tibet
early today. There was no immediate information
about possible injuries or damage.
*The death of a young girl on Saturday raised to 10 the number
of people killed in the 5.1 earthquake earlier this week in eastern
Turkey. The quake destroyed mud-brick homes in 15 villages.
More than 100 aftershocks followed Thursday's quake. 3 children
were injured Friday when the wall of a house collapsed in an aftershock.
*A large spiraling storm lashed southern Brazil Saturday night,
downing trees and ripping tiles off homes as Brazilian and U.S.
meteorologists disagreed over whether the storm is a hurricane,
the first on record in the South Atlantic.
*Just how big a flood does it take to truly reshape the landscape?
Try one that started in Montana 15,000 years ago after a massive
ice dam broke, sending a wall of water more than 1,000 feet high
raging through the Columbia River Gorge toward what is
today the Portland, Oregon metro area.

Saturday, March 27, 2004
*At least 32 people are missing after landslides swept through
two remote villages in Indonesia's South Sulawesi yesterday.
Incessant rains caused the landslides.
* Cyclone Fay has been downgraded to a category three storm
as it crosses the West Australian coastline but wind gusts over
200km/h are still expected.
* Scientists in Hawaii monitoring the ongoing inflation of the
13,680-foot summit of Mauna Loa Volcano paused yesterday
to recall the volcano's most recent eruption 20 years ago that
threatened homes and businesses in Hilo. The eruption was
preceded by three years of increasing seismic activity, with a
marked rise in the number of earthquakes six months before lava
began surging out of fissures on the mountainside, generating
mile-long curtains of lava fountains that shot 160 feet in the air.
The earthquakes came after a period of inflation at the summit
region, as magma accumulated inside the volcano. That's exactly
what has been happening at Mauna Loa since April or May 2002.
Although scientists say Mauna Loa is sure to erupt again, low
seismic activity suggests an eruption is NOT imminent.

Friday, March 26, 2004
*A 5.5 earthquake has hit eastern Turkey, killing at least
nine people, including seven children. Dozens were injured
as houses collapsed in three villages.
*More than 100 people were injured, 3 seriously, when the
earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale hit north China's
Inner Mongolia region on Wednesday.
* Hundreds of tiny earthquakes only minutes apart occurred in
an area west of the South Sister volcano in central Oregon,
beginning Tuesday morning and continuing into Wednesday.
None of the quakes reached a magnitude of 2.0 on the Richter
Scale. The earthquakes are a symptom of a ground deformation,
from magma moving underneath, that has been happening over the
past seven years. It is slightly unusual that seismic activity from
the bulge hasn't been detected before now. The quakes do NOT
signal imminent volcanic activity. Most likely, it will probably just
die down. Similar earthquake clusters happen around Mount Hood
at intervals of about one year.
*Australian firefighters are battling three bushfires in Victoria's
east, and have much work to do ahead of expected
hot weather on Sunday.

Thursday, March 25, 2004
*An earthquake measuring 5.9 degrees on the Richter scale hit
the central-eastern part of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
early Wednesday. Forty percent of residential houses in and
around the epicenter suffered damages but no casualties have
been reported so far. Hundreds of school buildings at the epicenter
and surrounding areas were seriously damaged. Experts say
that within 24 hours another quake over 5.5 degrees is NOT likely in
the area, but quakes of 5.0 degrees or below are possible. 13
aftershocks were reported with the biggest one 3.5 on the Richter scale.
*A Kentucky state agency says a magnitude eight-point earthquake
there would buckle roads, destroy thousands of homes and kill
forty-three hundred people in western Kentucky. Natural gas
lines running through the area would erupt and cause fires.
*The 6.5 magnitude San Simeon Earthquake increased the
likelihood of another shock on the Central California Coast.
*Victorian, Australia firefighters were battling three blazes today
as temperatures across the state topped 30C.
*Schools and businesses have been closed, flights cancelled and
an evacuation centre set up as a strengthening Cyclone Fay
bears down on the West Australian coast.

Wednesday, March 24, 2004
* Tropical Cyclone Fay weakened overnight but communities along
Western Australia's Kimberley and Pilbara coasts have been
warned to brace for gale-force winds.
*Emergency teams were converging on a remote cavern system
in central Mexico where flood waters had trapped six British
cave divers for nearly six days.
*The U.S. space agency Nasa is clarifying the procedure
for telling the President if the Earth is in danger of being
hit by a newly discovered asteroid. If necessary,
the President would start a Federal Emergency Response Plan.
*British geologist Marie Edmonds has come to the Hawaiian
Volcano Observatory with a new way to study volcanic gases,
reducing the danger while gathering much more information.
Combined with other data, such as earth tremors and ground
deformation, the result could be prediction of eruptions.

Tuesday, March 23, 2004
* Cyclone Grace is moving away from the Queensland, Australia
coast but is still generating huge seas that are pounding beaches.
*198 people were killed when Cyclone Gafilo lashed northern
Madagascar two weeks ago, substantially raising the toll from
an earlier tally which put the number of dead at 130. 166 are still
missing and 216,000 were made homeless by the powerful storm.
*A moderate 2.0 earthquake occurred near Lindenwold, New
Jersey around 10:30 am Monday morning.
*Emergency officials had to reassure dozens of callers in Canada that a
colorful fireball seen speeding across the sky over Manitoba and
Saskatchewan Sunday night was not an exploding plane
but a large meteor.
*Commercial airliners in parts of the world have been put in
near-disaster situations by flying near erupting volcanoes.
A vulcanologist fears a similar event could occur in Washington
state or British Columbia, if Mount Baker, which last erupted in
the 1880s, was to erupt again and the ash was sucked into
a jet's turbines. It's a remote but possible scenario.

Monday, March 22, 2004
*At various times throughout the year, emergency responders
in Flathead County, Montana, train for the worst disaster
imaginable. It isn't a terrorist attack. It isn't a raging wildfire
or a freezing blizzard. It isn't even the collapse of Hungry
Horse Dam. It's the Big One - a destructive earthquake
with a magnitude around 5.5 to 6.5. The worst-case scenario calls
for a 7.5 quake - the kind of monster shake-up that hasn't happened
there in almost 10,000 years. Historically, Montana has had some
of the highest seismic activity in the United States
and a large quake is overdue.
*A minor earthquake measuring 2.7 on the Richter scale struck
Helena, Montana on Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey
has confirmed. No injuries were reported.
*A large tropical low which brought heavy rain and flooding to far
north Queensland, Australia over the weekend has strengthened
into category-two Cyclone Grace. The southern
coast of Queensland is expecting gale force winds and heavy rain.
*A 29-year-old man was killed in an avalanche in British Columbia.
*A magnitude 5.8 earthquake in the Bolivia - Argentina border
region has occurred.

Sunday, March 21, 2004
* Tropical Cyclone Fay was upgraded to a category four cyclone
today but has turned away from the northern
coastline of Western Australia.
*Scientists are closely watching Montserrat's volcano
after a week of increased activity that brought strong tremors
and sent ash clouds into the sky.
*Another small earthquake (3.0) rumbled near the town of
Nephi, Utah on Friday, where two others (3.0 & 3.3) were
reported Thursday. They are part of a series of small
earthquakes that began March 10. Scientists say this occurrence
is NOT unusual and that a similar sequence of earthquakes
occurred in the same area last December.
*One of the largest emergency-preparedness exercises ever held
in the New Madrid fault region took place on Friday in Tennessee.
The New Madrid fault stretches from the boot heel of Missouri
south into Arkansas. It's considered the most likely site of a future
major earthquake east of the Rocky Mountains. Scientists believe
such a quake could be felt in 20 states and might cause billions
of dollars in damage to property.

Friday, March 19, 2004
*A cyclone warning has been issued for coastal and island
communities in north-east Queensland, Australia, with gales,
flooding and more heavy rain predicted for the region.
*A new glacier is forming in the crater of Mount St. Helens.
Geologists say that the growing glacier is increasing the flood
and mudflow hazards in front of the crater, the same place
where some people think it would be a good idea to
build a tourist highway. Over the past 525 years, Mount
St. Helens has been mostly active and has experienced five
explosive eruptions. Renewed eruptive or thermal activity at
the lava dome at any time could suddenly melt the glacier,
sending floods and mudflows down toward Spirit Lake
and the North Fork Toutle River in Washington state.

Thursday, March 18, 2004
*Tonight a small space rock makes the closest approach to Earth
yet recorded by an asteroid, but there is no danger
of an impact say astronomers.
*Communities in the north of Western Australia are bracing for
destructive winds and heavy rain as severe tropical Cyclone Fay
intensifies off the state's coast.
* Earthquakes in California:
16th 3.5, 3.6, 3.4. 4.3
17th 3.5, 4.5 (in Washington state 3.8)
18th 3.0, 3.7, 3.2 (in Utah 3.3) (in Hawaii 3.3, 3.5)
*The world is badly prepared for an inevitable human flu pandemic
and urgently needs to boost health care, surveillance and the supply
of key medicines, scientists warned today after
a meeting at the UN's health agency.
*Last November's record solar flare was twice the size originally
calculated, New Zealand scientists say.

Wednesday, March 17, 2004
*A light earthquake jolted San Benito County in central California
yesterday. There were no reports of injuries or damage. The quake
had a preliminary magnitude of 4.3.
*Earthquakes early today:
Magnitude 5.7 earthquake in Crete, Greece
Magnitude 6.1 earthquake in southern Bolivia
*Three people were killed when a boulder hit their jeep near the
mountainous hill town of Sapa in northern Vietnam.
* Millions of locusts are moving from the Australian outback
into southern towns, say officials.
* Will runaway water warm the world? As the Earth heats
up, more water will make its way into the atmosphere, trapping
even more heat near the surface. To predict how much temperatures
could rise in the future, scientists are working to understand how
much water could enter the atmosphere and how that might
contribute to climate change.

Tuesday, March 16, 2004
*Two brothers were among four people struck dead by lightning
while they tried to repair a shrine in a central Malaysian town.
* Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis poses a serious threat to the
European Union, says a World Health Organization report.
*The death toll from a massive landslide in southeastern
Kazakhstan mounted on Monday to 28 people including
six children.

Monday, March 15, 2004
*Rescue workers have recovered the bodies of a woman and
a child killed by landslide in southern Kazakhstan, bringing the
death toll to 26 people.

Sunday, March 14, 2004
*Ecuador was trying to gauge the environmental damage caused
by the spilling of thousands of barrels of oil after 2 landslides broke
a pipeline running from the Amazon jungle to a Pacific port.
*The worst volcanic disaster of the 20th century occurred in
1902 on Martinique, an island in the French West Indies.
Explosions, lightning storms, and downpours of volcanic ash
marked the "roller coaster" revival of Mount Pelée, which killed
over 26,000 people.

Saturday, March 13, 2004
*NASA is setting up a system that will search for disease outbreaks
via satellite. What NASA will be doing is looking for weather
conditions that create ideal conditions for outbreaks of dangerous
diseases, and then warning the countries where the conditions are
taking place to be on the watch for outbreaks. India is planning on
creating its own early warning system in order to cope with disease
outbreaks among its highly concentrated population.
*The U.K. government is not serious in its study of potentially
threatening rocks from space, claim scientists. They say
recommendations made by an acclaimed task force looking into
Near Earth Objects (Neos) in 2000 have not been implemented.
*Visibility across much of northeastern China, including downtown
Beijing, was reduced to 500 meters as a severe sandstorm swept
southeastward out of the Gobi desert on Wednesday.

Friday, March 12, 2004
*Two survivors confirm that the Samson Ferry carrying 113
people bound for Madagascar did sink during a cyclone.
*Climate change means there is little unusual about the early spring
in the U.K., scientists say.
*A big online attempt to predict how the global climate will
change this century wants to hear ordinary people's views.
climateprediction.net, a British initiative, is asking people to log on
and say which of four possible worlds they think will be most
likely by 2100.Voting will close on March 21st.

Thursday, March 11, 2004
*A magnitude 4.6 earthquake in northern Alaska has occurred
360 km (225 miles) N of Fairbanks.
*A moderate 5.2 earthquake shook central Japan, including
the capital, today.
*The parents of the 20-year-old woman crushed to death in
debris when a building collapsed during the December earthquake
in Paso Robles, California, want state officials to enforce an
existing law. It requires posted warnings at unreinforced buildings.
*An intense dust storm across Central Africa nearly hides the
land from the view in this satellite image from March 8th.
*The U.S. will have to help combat climate change if extreme
weather events are to be avoided, the government's chief
scientist has warned.

Wednesday, March 10, 2004
* Cyclone Gafilo crossed the Indian Ocean island on Sunday, killing
at least eighteen and making 50,000 homeless. Officials
in Madagascar said they have had no word from a ferry carrying
113 passengers which has been missing since soon after the
cyclone passed by. The storm, which had moved offshore
and was stationary in the Mozambique Channel late Monday,
was on its way back to Madagascar on Tuesday.
*Two natural gas platforms off Nova Scotia's Sable Island have
been evacuated of all personnel as a huge field of pack ice heads
toward the rigs.
*In New York, some Schenectady residents don't know if or
when they'll be able to return to their homes. Six houses along
the top of a steep ridge were evacuated Sunday after a crevice
opened up and the hill gave way.
*In New Zealand, it is predicted that early next year, the water
and ash in Mt Ruapehu Volcano's crater will spill hundreds of
millions of litres of sludge down the mountain. It is estimated
that next year's lahar will be 50 percent greater than the 1953
Tangiwai disaster that killed 151 people. Local bodies
preparing for the life-threatening mudslide down
Mt Ruapehu are demanding they be protected from
legal liability because of the Government's
refusal to drain the crater lake.

Tuesday, March 9, 2004
*Although no one was hurt from the 4.1 quake in the Antique
town of Anini-y in the Philippines on Tuesday last week, residents
must continue keeping their guard as the town might continue to
experience more tremors. In January two scientists went to Anini-y
to check on the reports of a continuous quake taking place in
the town since early this year. The earthquake swarm may remain
just a cluster of small magnitude earthquakes similar to previous
periods of earthquake swarm that did not culminate in a
large-magnitude, damaging earthquake. Or the swarm may be
foreshocks of a larger-magnitude earthquake.
*On March 4th a large eruption of the Soufriere Hills Volcano,
on the island of Montserrat, shot a large cloud of volcanic
ash 20,000 feet into the air.
*A milky green cloud in the water off Namibia marks an eruption
of hydrogen sulfide gas from bacteria on the ocean floor.

Monday, March 8, 2004
*Scientists on Friday studied the most recent activity from Kilauea
Volcano on the Island of Hawaii. The current flow is the furthest
from the vent that lava has traveled since last October. Scientists
consider this part of the same eruption that began over 20 years ago.
* In Paso Robles, California, the legacy of December's 6.5 earthquake
is a new hot spring that bubbled up in the City Hall parking lot. It
is a stinking, steaming, simmering cauldron that wafts a rotten-egg
fog through part of downtown. 110 degree water spouts from the
parking lot at about 350 gallons a minute - enough to fill six
Olympic-sized swimming pools a day.

Sunday, March 7, 2004
* Tropical cyclone Galifo hit Madagascar yesterday, blasting
powerful winds across the storm-ravaged north of the Indian
Ocean island, as rescue officials said as many as 50,000
people could be left homeless.
*Six people were killed and five others reported missing in floods
fed by torrential rains and melting snow in
eastern and south-east Turkey.
*Two people died, including a 10-year-old boy, as communities
adjoining several rivers in northern New South Wales, Australia
were deluged by torrential rain today.
*Food was flown in to thousands of motorists stranded on South
Korean highways yesterday as snowfalls wreaked havoc with
traffic and forced schools to close. Some 5000 cars with 10,000
people remained stuck. The central provinces received the heaviest
single-day snowfall since 1904 when the country began
collecting weather data. Property damage was estimated at $100 million.
*Russian scientists rescued from an Arctic research station flew
home to a hero's welcome yesterday, days after narrowly escaping
death atop drifting ice floes.

Friday, March 5, 2004
* Near-cyclonic conditions began lashing south-east Queensland,
Australia causing blackouts and initial minor damage.
*A total of 628 people were ultimately killed and 926 others
injured in last week's earthquake in northern Morocco.
*Last year's deadly summer in Europe probably was the
hottest on the continent in at least five hundred years, according
to researchers who analysed ancient temperature records.
*Most of the buildings of Russia's North Pole-32 research station
sank overnight on Wednesday when the ice below it first cracked
and then disintegrated. All of a sudden around 5:15 pm a huge
wall of ice appeared that kept growing and growing. None of the
12 researchers posted to the station were hurt and all took shelter
in the few structures that did not sink in the icy water. The station,
set up in April 2003 to study climate change, had travelled about
3000km atop the ice floes since then and was now
about 700km from the North Pole.

Thursday, March 4, 2004
*A major eruption at Montserrat's Soufriere Hills volcano sent
a massive cloud of ash about 6000m into the sky today and
pyroclastic flows went down the eastern flank of the volcano,
but no injuries or damage were reported.
* Disasters killed 60,000 people in 2003. The earthquake in the
Iranian city of Bam accounted for two-thirds of the deaths, 41,000
were killed there. The death toll from 2003 was the seventh highest
since Swiss Re started its survey in 1970.
* Two tropical cyclones made landfall in Australia just hours apart.
Cyclone Monty came ashore along the northwest coast of
Western Australia on the evening of March 1, while Cyclone Evan
made landfall a few hours later in the early morning hours of March
2nd along the east coast of the Northern Territory.

Wednesday, March 3, 2004
*A small 3.8 earthquake has shaken the southeastern Turkish
province of Adiyaman, killing six people when one house collapsed.
*A couple on a remote West Australian pastoral station has
been rescued by helicopter after climbing on to the roof to escape
rapidly rising flood waters dumped by tropical cyclone Monty.
*One of the United Kingdom's largest insurers has unveiled
technology that will enable it to pinpoint whether individual
homes are at risk from flood. As well as showing whether an
individual property is at risk, the map shows how often a flood
is likely to occur and to what depth.
*The frequency of large, explosive volcanic eruptions over the
last 200 years has been remarkably constant. The number of
volcanoes actively erupting has remained quite steady at 50 to
70 per year. There are usually about 20 volcanoes erupting
at any given time on Earth. About 1500 volcanoes have erupted
in the last 10,000 years, and that's just counting the ones on land.
If you include young seafloor volcanoes, the estimate could go
up by a factor of at least 100. Many other volcanoes are currently
exhibiting signs of unrest, which can include increased levels of
seismicity, deformation of the ground surface,
and volcanic gas emissions.

Tuesday, March 2, 2004
* Australia's weather is changing, with more hot days and
fewer cold nights, the director of the Bureau of Meteorology says.
Plus the number of extreme weather events in the country is
increasing. Another sign of Australia's changing weather is the
drop-off in the number of tropical cyclones.
*A tiny West Australian town was being pounded today by
the category-three force of tropical cyclone Monty, as residents
further south braced for severe storms and flooding.
*A moderate earthquake measuring 4.8 on the Richter scale
rattled the Indonesian resort island of Bali today but there were
no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

Monday, March 1, 2004
*Communities along the Western Australian coast are being
warned to take precautions as severe category four
tropical Cyclone Monty approaches.
*Australia was sending emergency supplies to cyclone-ravaged
Vanuatu, as the government met with New Zealand and French
officials to coordinate aid for the Pacific nation.
* Heavy snowfalls and high winds hit parts of Europe over the
weekend, leaving about 5000 trucks stranded in southwest France
after the main crossing-point to Spain was closed.
*A magnitude 5.5 earthquake in southern Greece has occurred
155 km (95 miles) WSW of Athens (population 772,000).

Sunday, February 29, 2004
*73 people have been evacuated near Como, Italy for fear of
landslide. About 40 square meters of rock have fallen , placing 20
apartments in two buildings in danger. The phenomenon began
Friday when a loud noise was heard throughout the town. A
rocky mass landed on a floor above living space and three
other masses of rocks were stopped by trees.
*A moderate earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.1 on
the Richter scale jolted northern Japan on Saturday.
*Shiveluch, the northernmost of active volcanoes in Kamchatka
(Russian Far East) is ejecting ash clouds to the height of 2.5
kilometers. Two powerful eruptions occurred on Saturday with
an interval of 17 hours. Adverse weather conditions hinder
observation of the volcano, yet the seismologists believe that the
eruptions have caused massive avalanches of debris. The
seismological stations located in the area keep registering
continuous volcanic tremors as well as weak but
extensive surface earthquakes. Catastrophic eruptions take place
at Shiveluch every 100-300 years, with the latest in 1964.
Weak and medium eruptions occur there much more frequently.

Saturday, February 28, 2004
*Communities along the mid-north coast of Western Australia
were being warned to expect strong gale winds today, due to
a tropical cyclone likely to continue moving towards the coast.
*A magnitude 6.0 earthquake in the Macquarie Island region
has occurred 330 miles SW of Auckland Is., New Zealand.
*A magnitude 5.7 earthquake in the Southern East Pacific Rise
has occurred 510 miles SSW of Hanga Roa, Easter Island.
*A magnitude 5.5 earthquake in Mindanao, Philippines has
occurred.
*The No. 2 insurance provider in South Carolina wants to
raise the price of its earthquake coverage by an average of
20 percent statewide. The actual risk of a large earthquake
is no greater today than at any other point in history, but the
potential for economic damage may have increased, due to
population and infrastructure growth and higher property values.
There were about 190 small earthquakes recorded in South
Carolina from 1974 to 1993. But the fear of an earthquake
disaster runs deep in the region, fueled in part by the notorious
7.3 quake of 1886, which killed 60 people in Charleston and
damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings. It was felt as far
away as Cuba and Boston. There were 22 small earthquakes
in the seismic zone centered around the Summerville-Middleton
Plantation area in 2003. They ranged from less than 1 to slightly
more than 3 on the Richter scale. There have been two tremors
this year, both registering about 2 on the Richter scale.

Friday, February 27, 2004
*An earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale shook
northeastern Taiwan Thursday, but no casualties or
damages were reported.
*A magnitude 5.9 earthquake in the Mauritius - Reunion region
has occurred 3105 km (1930 miles) SSW of Sri Lanka.
*Deaths in Britain from an increasingly drug-resistant superbug
are 15 times higher than they were a decade ago, according to
new figures released Thursday. Health authorities have become
increasingly worried over the past 50 years about the spread of
the bacteria, called methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus.
Countries around the world have reported similar increases in
such infections for many years. Although new antibiotics are
constantly being developed, some experts fear it is only a matter
of time until virtually every drug is useless.

Thursday, February 26, 2004
*The Pentagon's secret climate report warns that in next 20 years,
there could be a global catastrophe costing millions of
lives in wars and natural disasters. Major European cities will be
sunk beneath rising seas and Britain will have a "Siberian" climate
by 2020. There could be widespread flooding, due to a rise in
sea levels, by next year. The Pentagon says that the report is a
'worst-case' scenario, not a prediction of the future.
*Packing winds of up to 190kph, tropical Cyclone Ivy smashed
through the centre of the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu today,
tearing down homes, ripping out trees and cutting
most national communications.
* Two 5.5 earthquakes have occurred near the coast of Guatemala.
One was at 5:53am Central Standard Time and the other
followed at 12:22pm.
*A magnitude 5.6 earthquake in the southwestern Ryukyu Islands
of Japan has occurred.
*A magnitude 5.7 earthquake in Tonga has occurred.
*Rescuers using pick axes and bare hands chipped through the
rubble of flattened mud-and-stone houses and concrete apartment
blocks, after the powerful earthquake that killed more than
560 people in northern Morocco.
*The worldwide federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
societies has launched an appeal for 2.8 million Swiss francs
($2.96 million) to care for survivors of a killer earthquake in Morocco.
*Aid and development groups on Wednesday pointed an
accusing finger at construction firms over the high death toll
in the earthquake that rocked northeast Morocco, saying
they ignored the building code for the quake-prone region.

Wednesday, February 25, 2004
*The quake toll in Morocco has risen dramatically - a 6.4
earthquake rocked a picturesque but impoverished region of
northern Morocco, killing 564 people as they slept, and
injuring about 300. Reports say that Ait Kamara - a village of
6000 - was completely destroyed. An aftershock with a magnitude
of 4.1 was felt nine hours later.
*A 4.8 earthquake shook the small African nation of
Burundi on Tuesday, killing three people and destroying
at least two dozen homes.
*Astronomers have revealed how they came within
minutes of alerting the world to a potential asteroid strike last month.
Some scientists believed on January 13th, that a 30m object, later
designated 2004 AS1, had a one-in-four chance of
hitting the planet within 36 hours.
* Torrential rain, which had pounded several parts of North
Sumatra for the past week, has caused floods and landslides.
Thousands of residents' homes and public facilities, such as
schools and government offices, have been inundated.
* Cloud seeding is to be trialled in the Snowy Mountains region
of Australia this winter to try to increase river flow in the Murray
River system. Ski slopes are also set to benefit from increased
snowfalls thanks to the privately funded trial. The government
believes there is merit in this research to see if they can off-set
the impact of global warming on the national park so future
generations can continue to enjoy the alpine region.

Tuesday, February 24, 2004
*An unusually strong 6.5 earthquake struck the Strait of Gibraltar
in between Spain and Morocco early this morning, but no damage
was immediately reported.
*A moderate earthquake struck eastern France near the city
of Lyon on Monday. Nobody seemed to have been hurt by the
quake and no damage was caused.
*A magnitude 6.2 earthquake in the Samoa Islands region
has occurred.
*A magnitude 4.7 earthquake in central Alaska has occurred
410 km (255 miles) ENE of Anchorage.
*French scientists say that the east coast of Ambrym Island in
Vanuatu rose by more than a metre in the major 7.5 earthquake
that shook up much of Vanuatu five years ago.
* Fear of earthquakes is the reason some companies give for
considering New Zealand an unsuitable place to outsource
information technology jobs.
*Using Terra satellite data, scientists detected an ongoing
eruption of Mount Belinda on Montagu Island in the South Atlantic.
Previously, there had been no historical record of any volcanic
activity on that island.

Monday, February 23, 2004
* Rising sea temperatures will cause most of the coral on
Australia's Great Barrier Reef to perish in the next 50 years.
By the middle of this century, less than 5% of the reef coral
will remain alive. Most of the colourful fish for which the reef
is also famous will disappear.
* Ocean-surface changes may mark tsunamis - A new
theoretical model that describes a tsunami's interaction with
winds may explain enigmatic observations associated with the
waves and could lead to a technique for spotting them
long before they hit shore.
*A strong 5.9 earthquake shook the Indonesian island of
Sumatra Sunday for the second time this month, leaving
houses damaged.
*An earthquake measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale jolted
northern Pakistan Sunday but there were no immediate reports
of casualties or property loss.
*Last year there were 10,591 earthquakes on the island of Hawai'i.
Of these, 2,079 were magnitude 1.5 or greater. The largest
was a 5.0 earthquake which occurred on August 26. Most of
these quakes are related to the active volcanoes on the island.

Saturday, February 21, 2004
*Three people were reported missing and thousands of residents
of low-lying districts of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, were
evacuated as flooding spread through the sprawling city.
*Several days of heavy rains led to widespread flooding on the
island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines.
*Victoria, Australia firefighters have contained more than 50
grass and scrub fires which broke out as the state
experienced searing heat and strong winds.
*A "classic nor'easter" dumped record amounts of snow on
Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island Thursday, causing
both provinces to declare states of emergency.
*Five people on a farm in British Columbia, on Canada's west
coast where bird flu was discovered this week, have fallen ill
with flu-like symptoms.
*The Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle was damaged in the
February 2001 Nisqually earthquake. It continues to move
and is now only 2 inches away from potentially expensive repairs.
* The scope of the damage of the two earthquakes that hit
Pakistan on February 14 is still incomplete. At least 24 were killed,
dozens were injured as mudslides and landslides showered
down on roads and goat-tracks that wind up and down the hills.
People have been forced to spend each night out in the freezing
cold because they're afraid to go into their houses which they fear
will fall down with the next slightest tremor.

Friday, February 20, 2004
*About 80 towns and cities around Australia have reached
record maximum temperatures for February. They have had
the most extraordinary run of hot weather, breaking record
temperatures all over the country.
*Swaziland's prime minister has declared a national disaster due
to the combined effect of AIDS, hail and a fourth successive
year of drought. Much of southern Africa is suffering from lower
than average rainfall for the current summer season.
*The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has been detected in
two tigers and a domestic cat in Thailand in the first confirmed
cases of the disease in the cat family, increasing the risk to humans.
*A special SimCity-like game has been devised to help plan
for Britain's future flood defenses.

Thursday, February 19, 2004
* Strong winds and searing heat forecast for today could ignite
the first big Victorian bushfires of the summer, the Australian
Country Fire Authority warns.
*In Jerusalem,Israel, a report on the consequences of an
earthquake that would damage the nuclear reactor in Dimona
has been ordered to be "immediately" transmitted to the prime minister.
Prime Minister Effi Eitam says he is having sleepless nights
worrying about the ability of the nuclear reactor to
withstand a serious earthquake.
*A magnitude 5.6 (possibly 5.8) earthquake in the Gulf of
California has occurred 150 km (90 miles) NE of Cabo San
Lucas, Baja Calif. Sur, Mexico (pop. 37,000).

Wednesday, February 18, 2004
*A report prepared by the UN Development Program said that
Turkey ranked third in the world in earthquake casualties,
after Iran and Yemen.
*Five people, including a mother and child, have been confirmed
to have died when a powerful 5.6 earthquake hit the Indonesian
island of Sumatra on Monday.
*A magnitude 4.6 earthquake in central California has
occurred 40 km (25 miles) SSW of Bakersfield (pop. 247,000).
*NASA predicts more tropical rain in a world warmed
by climate change.

Tuesday, February 17, 2004
*A 5.6 earthquake has struck Indonesia's Sumatra island,
killing two people and damaging a number of homes. Earlier
this month, an earthquake in West Papua province with an
estimated magnitude of 6.8 killed three dozen people
and injured more than 100.
*The Aleutian Chain's first confirmed undersea volcano - a
dramatic coral-covered cone that rises 1,900 feet from the
abyss of Amchitka Pass - has been given the name Amchixtam
Chaxsxii, or Amchitka Reef, in Unangan, the Aleut language.

Monday, February 16, 2004
*An arsonist was believed to have started two fires in South
Australia today as the state remained on high bushfire alert
amid an ongoing heatwave.
*Water levels in dams across south-east Queensland, Australia
are still critically low despite heavy rain and storms in recent weeks.
*Storms have lashed central New Zealand, leaving two men
missing, presumed drowned, and forcing the evacuation of
hundreds of people as flood waters rose.
*Rescue workers were struggling today to reach remote
northern areas of Pakistan where the death toll from this
weekend's twin earthquakes rose to 24 people.
*The pastor at one of the most prominent churches in Bethlehem
says the building is in danger of collapsing, following last
week's earthquake.

Sunday, February 15, 2004
*Twenty people died and several were injured after an earthquake
measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale hit northern Pakistan.
An aftershock was felt 90 minutes later which measured
5.5 on the Richter scale. It is feared that people have been
buried by debris in some areas, but snow and cold weather
could hamper rescue efforts.
*The crew of a Russian aircraft has observed a powerful
belching of ash by Kamchatka's Karymski volcano. Since
Friday morning, about 190 local trust tremors have occurred
near the volcano, and thermal anomalies were also registered.

Saturday, February 14, 2004
*More than 160 people have died and 230,000 displaced
by floods and mudslides in 17 Brazilian states this year.
*An avalanche in Canada's Banff National Park killed three ice
climbers. Parks Canada had warned of a considerable risk of
avalanches in the area in the past two days because of prolonged
sun exposure on the south side of the mountain.
*After killing millions of chickens and ducks across Asia, bird
flu is feared to have jumped to more exotic species, possibly
killing a leopard and cranes in Thailand and pheasants in Taiwan.
*The death toll from Indonesia's quake on Feb. 6, which
measured 6.9, has risen to 37. Another 592 residents were
injured, some seriously.

Friday, February 13, 2004
*South Australia faces a day of severe fire danger, with fears
conditions will mirror those that sparked the Ash Wednesday
bushfires in 1983.
*The Bodele Depression has generated wave after wave of
intense African dust storms in recent days. These Terra images
show the genesis of massive dust storms just as they are forming.
*Strong winds swept large plumes of dust off the southern coasts
of Iran and Pakistan south and eastward across the Arabian Sea
on Feb. 9th.

Thursday, February 12, 2004
*A controversial claim by an Australian scientist says that just
because Australian volcanoes aren't smoking like their Pacific
counterparts doesn't mean they don't pose a threat. Volcanoes in
Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland could erupt at any time
he says. However, no volcano in Australia has erupted for at least
two hundred years, with the most severe eruption at Mt Gambier,
in Victoria, 4500 years ago.
* Two earthquakes struck the Australian outback - the
first quake, magnitude 5, occurred yesterday evening in the
desert and was followed 12 minutes later by a 5.4 earthquake that
is the largest on record in the sparsely populated area.
*South Australia residents are bracing for a sustained period of
extreme fire danger with temperatures across the state tipped
to edge into the 40s this weekend and continue hot for
much of next week.
*The cyclone warning for Australia has been cancelled, as
the tropical low off the West Australian coast has fizzled out
after days of warnings it would develop into a cyclone.
*A 4.5 earthquake has shaken parts of Israel, the
West Bank and Gaza Strip, according to witnesses. Cable
TV and wireless networks were knocked out. There were no
reports of substantial damage or casualties.

Wednesday, February 11, 2004
*The Bureau of Meteorology is warning that a monsoon low off
the West Australian coast could develop into a cyclone.
*Five children of a family on Monday night were buried alive
when a landslide hit their house in a village of the Swat district
in northern Pakistan.
*Geologists say there's a one-in-four chance that an earthquake
will rock St. Louis in the next 50 years. Business professionals
met last week for a conference on earthquake preparedness.
*A magnitude 5.8 earthquake on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
has occurred 235 km (145 miles) SSW of Anchorage.
*Snowmelt from a rare snowstorm flooded the rivers of
Western Turkey in this satellite image.
*Mud-rich waters gush off the northwestern shore of Madagascar
in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Elita.

Tuesday, February 10, 2004
* Quakes in Mexico yesterday:
5.2, 5.3, 5.1, 4.3, 5.1, 4.4
*A strong 5.3 earthquake shook western Greece early Monday
and authorities said there were no reports of injuries or damage.
*A team of scientists credited with getting earlier earthquake
predictions right, now expects a 6.4 magnitude or larger temblor
in the Southern California desert by Sept. 5, according to a
report in the Los Angeles Times.
*More Australian firefighters were being brought in from around
Victoria to help contain two bushfires which have burnt more
than 400ha of state forest north-east of Melbourne.

Monday, February 9, 2004
*Another large aftershock hit Papua yesterday. This one
was magnitude 6.5.
*Australian firefighters were battling to contain four small bushfires
in Victoria's north-east caused by lightning strikes.
*This image shows a clear view of the Cape Verde Islands in the
eastern Atlantic as a massive wall of Saharan Desert dust
approaches from the east.
A widespread plume of Saharan Desert dust blew off the northwest
coast of Africa and directly over the Canary Islands on Feb. 3.

Sunday, February 8, 2004
*A cyclone alert has been issued that a cyclone could form off
far north Queensland, Australia this week, the weather bureau said.
*Indonesian police say the number of people killed in Papua
province has risen to 27 following the second, stronger, earth
tremor in the region. Over 33 aftershocks have occurred since
the first quake. The latest large one was 5.8.

Saturday, February 7, 2004
*Another, larger earthquake has struck Papua - this one magnitude 7.1.
* Earthquake rescue efforts in the Indonesian province of Papua
are being hampered by a damaged airstrip in the area. At least 34
people were killed in the series of quakes on Thursday and 500
of homes leveled.
*A cyclone brought heavy snow and gale winds to Kamchatka
peninsula, and the Shiveluch volcano erupted and added to
the natural calamities Friday. The cyclone dropped up to 70
percent of the monthly precipitation norm in two days and
increased the risk of avalanches.
*The drought in New South Wales, Australia is showing its best
signs of easing in nearly two years. But mosquitoes and locusts
swarming after recent rain in northern NSW poses risks to animals
and the environment, the NSW government warned farmers.
* Bird flu has been discovered in the U.S. - officials in Delaware
ordered the destruction of some 12,000 farm chickens today
after confirming that the flock was infected by avian influenza.

Friday, February 6, 2004
*At least 22 people have been killed and 600 are believed
injured by a powerful 6.9 earthquake in Indonesia.
Villagers in the area of Cendrawasih
Bayhad reported a tsunami, or tidal wave, but this could not be
confirmed. Nine aftershocks immediately followed the major quake.
*British rescue services were racing to locate 20 people,
thought to be Chinese, who were in danger of drowning
after being trapped by rising tides on mudflats off the
northwest coast of England. Six bodies have been found.
*The 1918 influenza pandemic that killed some 20 million people
worldwide was likely made possible by a virus that evolved from
an avian virus, like the current 'bird flu'. The current strain of avian
flu that has killed people in Asia exposed to infected birds is closer
to that of the Hong Kong flu. But slight alterations in the influenza
virus's infectivity could spawn a major epidemic.

Thursday, February 5, 2004
*More rain is forecast in Brazil, where a month of heavy rain
has already claimed at least 91 lives and up to 117,000 people
have been forced out of their homes.
*An earthquake measuring 5 on the Richter scale shook several
regions in Panama, leaving four injured and causing panic.
* Landslide warnings from satellites may save lives.

Wednesday, February 4, 2004
*A strong earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale
struck northern Japan on Wednesday.
* An earthquake registering 6.0 on the Richter scale rattled
eastern Taiwan Wednesday, but there were no immediate reports
of casualties or damage, officials said.
* Mudslides and floods have forced more than 40,000 Brazilians
to leave their homes and have killed 84 people since heavy rains
began in late December. Rains are expected to continue. The
government is scrambling to rescue people trapped in towns
that have become islands.

Tuesday, February 3, 2004
* Rising sea levels threaten China - Global warming will cause
sea levels around China's coasts to continue rising in the next three
to 10 years, creating problems for the country's coastal residents.
*Earth recovered on its own from a sudden episode of severe
global warming that took place at the time of the dinosaurs,
new evidence suggests. There are still vast reserves of carbon
locked up as methane ice in ocean sediments. If global temperatures
reach a critical point, it is possible they might suddenly be released
into the atmosphere causing a similar warming event to the one
that occurred during the Jurassic - recovery took 150,000 years.
*Indonesia confirms cases of the most dangerous type of bird flu,
as experts prepare for an emergency summit.

Sunday, February 1, 2004
*A small earthquake shook western Ohio Friday, causing
some residents to think there was an explosion.
*A minor earthquake measuring a preliminary magnitude
3.6 rattled the town of San Martin in California on Friday night.
*Alaskan quakes:
Friday - 4.3, 3.1, 4.1, 4.1, 3.0, 4.1
Saturday - 4.1, 3.3, 5.1, 4.7, 4.7, 3.4

Saturday, January 31, 2004
*At least one person was reported dead, apparently from smoke
and ash inhalation, and some 5,000 others evacuated from
their homes, after Mount Egon volcano on Flores island in East
Nusa Tenggara province in Indonesia erupted. Eyewitnesses
said the lower part of the crater was seen bursting. Material
losses were yet to be calculated as eruptions are still ongoing.
Indonesia's vulcanology agency says more than 20,000 residents
could be in danger if Mount Egon has a major eruption.
*At least 15 people have been confirmed dead after a landslide
hit a village in the Central Java district of Purworejo in Indonesia.
Several houses have been flattened following torrential rainfall and
a mud slide which swept down a mountain and surged through
two villages.
*A skier is missing after an avalanche in Southeastern British
Columbia, Canada.

Friday, January 30, 2004
*Hundreds of people have been evacuated from the slopes of
Indonesian Mount Egon volcano after it began spewing
dark smoke. Egon's only confirmed eruption was in 1907.
*A strong 6.8 earthquake hit several islands in Maluku province
on Wednesday but there were no reports of damage or casualties.
Antara reported the earthquake caused a tsunami (tidal wave) to
hit Namlea, the capital of Buru district, at 7:15am Thursday, but
locals said the wave caused no damage to nearby houses.
*Fresh lava continues to flow out of the Karymsky volcano's
crater; located on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far
East. There is substantial volcanic activity in that area; the
volcano's crater keeps spewing volcanic ashes at 4-5-minute intervals.
* Tropical Cyclone Elita was making landfall off the coast
of Mahajanga, Madagascar.
*A category one cyclone warning for the Cocos Islands has been
issued, saying the area could be battered by winds gusting up to
110kph later today. The Islands lie to the north-east of
Western Australia.
*South-east Queensland, Australia is cleaning up after the
fourth night of storms in a week.

Thursday, January 29, 2004
*An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale jolted
Indonesia's eastern Moluccas island chain today and may have
caused a tsunami, officials said. Aftershocks were also reported.
*The damage bill from a series of storms which have hit
Queensland, Australia since the weekend is expected to
run into millions of dollars.
*Earthquake relief workers in Iran are engaged in a race against
time to protect the 65,000 homeless survivors of the Bam quake
from diseases brought on by warmer spring weather.
* What will warn of a Yellowstone super volcano eruption? A
dramatic increase in seismic activity in the area of the park will
be the early warning sign, followed by larger and larger quakes
and significant increases in ground temperatures and outgassing
over wider areas. Right now, we appear to be in the early stages
of this, and nobody knows whether current activity will subside
or get worse.

Wednesday, January 28, 2004
*The bird flu epidemic has spread to the Thai capital,
where delegates were gathering for an international conference
to find ways of halting its gallop across the Asian continent.
International agencies say the world only has a brief window to
stop avian flu becoming a global threat to humans.
*At least 56 people have died and one is missing in heavy rains
that have lashed Brazil over the past month. People in 190 cities
throughout Brazil were affected with about 6,803 people left homeless.
*One man is presumed dead following an avalanche near the
community of Pangnirtung on Baffin Island in Canada.
* Two earthquakes measuring 5.0 and 4.7 on the Richter scale
struck different regions of Japan Tuesday. There was no
immediate report of injuries or damage.
*Twelve tent camps have now been set up in and around the
city of Bam to house survivors of the devastating Iranian earthquake.

Tuesday, January 27, 2004
* Snow and freezing rain iced highways across the U.S. from
the mid-west to the mid-Atlantic, a day after a separate storm
made travel risky from the central Plains to the Carolinas.
The heaviest snowfall was 23 inches at Duluth, Minnesota, as
moist air swept inland from Lake Superior.
*Police closed highways, trains were held up and flights cancelled
as winter storms battered parts of Europe and left at least 10
people dead since the weekend. Romania has been worst hit
by blizzard conditions, the worst snow storms there in 40 years.
*According to the U.S. Geological Survey, 2003 closed as the
deadliest year for earthquakes since 1990, 25 times more fatal
than 2002. 43,819 deaths have been reported for the past year;
in 2002, 1711 people died in quakes around the world; in
1990, 51,916 people were killed in various seismic events.
*Terra, a giant satellite launched in late 1999 as part of NASA's
Earth Observing System, has among its array of instruments
for studying Earth an infrared camera that is giving scientists
some unprecedented views inside some very dangerous volcanoes.
Better forecasts would be particularly important for the volcanoes
in the Aleutian Arc and Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. These are
some of the most volatile and remote volcanoes in the world,
but they also lie underneath one of the world's busiest air trade routes.

Monday, January 26, 2004
*Two people were killed and at least 72 others are missing
after scores of small fishing boats encountered strong winds
in waters off the northern Philippines.
*In Kathmandu, a landslide, triggered by rains, blocked a major
highway, severing the Nepalese capital from the rest of the
country, officials said on Sunday.
* A magnitude 6.6 earthquake shook parts of the Pacific
nation of Tonga today, but there were no reports of injury
or damage.
*A magnitude 5.3 earthquake in the Vancouver Island region
in Canada has occurred. It was later followed by a 4.2 quake.
*Authorities issued evacuation alerts Sunday as ice and slush
jams sent water spilling over the banks of a river that runs
between Montreal and neighbouring Laval. The flooding
threatens hundreds of homes.

Sunday, January 25, 2004
*The massive storm lashed some regions around the Black Sea
and eastern Mediterranean on Saturday, with parts of
southeastern Europe blanketed by the biggest snow fall in two
decades. As the storm swept east, it drove cargo ships onto
rocky shorelines, stranded motorists and downed power lines.
At least 10 people died in weather-related incidents.
*A seventeen-year-old was killed on the spot after heavy rain
caused a landside which broke down a sidewall of his house
at Kampung Podam, Malaysia.
*A series of 1-1.5 kilometre ash discharges from Volcano
Sheveluch on Kamchatka over the past 24 hours was reported.
A lot of local earthquakes and thermal anomalies were recorded
in the area of the volcano.
Two other Kamchatka volcanoes also remain active. Seismic activity
was recorded in the area volcano Klyuchevskaya Sopka.
One hundred and fifty local earthquakes and ash discharges have
been reported from seismological stations at Karymsky Volcano.

Saturday, January 24, 2004
*Freezing temperatures, heavy snow and high winds threw parts
of southeastern Europe into chaos yesterday, claiming dozens of
lives and overwhelming emergency services in the
usually temperate region. In Turkey the equivalent of a month's
precipitation fell on the region in just 24 hours. Two young
students both froze to death travelling between home and school.
Forecasters warned that snow would continue falling
throughout the weekend.
Egypt has closed the Suez Canal as severe storms continue
to wreak havoc in the eastern Mediterranean.
*In Hawaii, there had been accelerating expansion at Kilauea's
volcanic summit for the last 8-9 months, leading scientists to
speculate that a new vent would open sometime this January
or early February. The volcano becomes pressurized and
existing vents at Pu`u `O`o are insufficient to reduce the pressure.
The pressure builds slowly, expanding the volcano, and
accelerates up to the time that Pu`u `O`o breaks open with a
new vent. On January 18, 4 new vents opened and lava
flow began.
Also in Hawaii, a small swarm of earthquakes took place
at Lo`ihi, the submarine volcano off the south coast of the
island, on January 21-22. This is the first significant swarm
at Lo`ihi since January 12-16, 2003.
*A chicken butcher thought to have contracted bird flu has died
amid fears that a virulent new flu strain could emerge.
Bird flu has affected poultry in Thailand, Japan, Taiwan,
South Korea - and also Vietnam, where it has killed five people.
In humans, symptoms include fever, sore throat, and cough.

Friday, January 23, 2004
*A thick and massive Texas-sized cloud of Saharan Desert
dust filled the skies over most of Egypt and eastern Libya yesterday.
* Volcanic eruptions on the Kamchatkan Peninsula -
Klyuchevskaya Sopka, Shiveluch and Bezymianny are active again.
*If the 24 January landing on Mars of the Opportunity
rover is successful then the next target should be an
extinct volcano, say scientists.
*Extreme tides - If Earth had been somewhat larger, it's
possible that it would not have survived tides induced by its
moon or even by an encounter with a passing asteroid. That's
one scenario suggested by a recent investigation of a venerable
equation that serves as a model for planetary tidal effects.

Thursday, January 22, 2004
*In Canada, 2003 was not the deadliest or costliest year,
but what was different last year was the relentless, unstoppable
weather extremes and coast-to-coast disasters. From the
SARS health emergency in Toronto, to Juan's fury over Nova
Scotia, from terrifying firestorms in British Columbia, and the
"rainstorm of the century" in the Pacific Northwest, the hits just
kept on coming.
*The only known submarine eruption in Hawaii in the last 200 years
occurred on Feb. 28, 1877. In 1953 all 31 people aboard the
Japanese research vessel Kaiyo-maru were lost when the ship
passed directly over the erupting Myojin-sho volcano in Japan.
Rapidly rising gasses ejected from the undersea volcano decreased
the water's density and hence its ability to support the heavy ship,
causing it to slip beneath the waves.
*A northern monsoon brought heavy rains and floods to
Eastern Australia.

Wednesday, January 21, 2004
*It is just a little more than 192 years since the start of the massive
New Madrid earthquake that was felt for hundreds of miles
and caused the mighty Mississippi River to flow backwards for a
short time. In southern Illinois the shakings and wave-like movements
of the ground continued from November 1811 until the following
March. Hundreds of square miles sank in Missouri and Arkansas
and many square miles of heavily timbered high land
sank in western Tennessee.
*Montserrat, a 38-square-mile Caribbean island, had been sliced
in two when its volcano rumbled to life in July 1995. On July 12,
2003, 140-million cubic meters of ash blanketed the island. Since
then, the volcano has been silent, its longest period of quiet during
eight years of restiveness. Scientists plan to re-evaluate
the volcano in March.

Tuesday, January 20, 2004
*New studies describe California's earthquake zones as more
complex - and possibly more lethal - than previously thought.
A large earthquake along the northern region of the San Jacinto
fault could trigger a cascading rupture of the Sierra Madre-
Cucamonga system, potentially causing a major earthquake
of magnitude 7.5 to 7.8 near the Los Angeles metropolitan region.
*In Japan major Nankai and Tonankai earthquakes are anticipated.
They ``run the risk of triggering enormous disasters simultaneously
over a wide area'' including Tokyo, since in the past, temblors in
those regions have occurred simultaneously or within several days.
At worst, two successive earthquakes could claim 21,000 lives. A
major earthquake could also hit the Tokai region at any time, forcing
an estimated 1.9 million people to evacuate to shelters for at least a
week without adequate supply of food and water. Coastal areas
must prepare for tsunami of 10 meters or higher.

Monday, January 19, 2004
*Is the Yellowstone 'Super Volcano' about to blow? Official
sources say no, but others are concerned about recent eruptions,
200 degree ground temperatures, magma movement just
three-tenths of a mile below the bulging surface of the ground and
84 degree water temperatures. Some geologists predict that when
the volcano blows, which may not occur for 100,000 years or more,
every living thing within six hundred miles is likely to die.
*Volcano Shiveluch on Kamchatka has spewed ashes to
the altitude of 3 kilometers above its crater. A big number of
small tremors have been registered at the volcano, and thermal
anomalies have also been registered there. Shiveluch awakened
January 11 after a brief period of dormancy.
Klyuchevskaya Sopka is also showing heightened activity,
with ash spews reaching 100 meters above the crater and a
big number of local crust tremors registered.
About 300 tremors were registered in the vicinity of the
Karymski volcano.
Gases are rising to the altitude of 500 meters above the
volcano Bezymianny, which spewed ashes to the altitude
of 8 kilometers on January 14.
*Five Romanian skiers, including a soldier, died when they
were hit by a massive avalanche in the central Bucegi mountains.
*A new look at which areas in Southern California are most at
risk if a large earthquake hits - 3-D flyover maps show areas
prone to landslides and places that could liquify in a big quake,
meaning the land could become like quicksand because of it's
high water content.
*Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, is at high risk from earthquakes
based on its location, infrastructure, facilities and population,
density, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency
Mangement has said. Jamaica lies in Earthquake Zone 3 and
has a high probability of major damage from
magnitude 6-7 earthquakes.

Sunday, January 18, 2004
*The death toll rose to 11 Saturday as heavy rains and mudslides
pounded the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro for the second
day in a row.
*One person was injured and up to three were still missing
after an avalanche hit a skiing area near the Swiss resort of Verbie.
*Tamworth, Parry and Moree Plains shires in Australia were
declared natural disaster zones following flash flooding in the region.

Saturday, January 17, 2004
*A commuter bus packed with farmers and merchants on their
way to a Colombian market was struck by a mudslide and
careened off the road, killing seven passengers and injuring 12 others.
*Eastern Canada and the north-eastern United States were
shivering under "life-threatening" Arctic conditions yesterday,
as record-breaking low temperatures led the U.S. National
Weather Service to issue wind chill warnings for several states.
Temperatures fell to their lowest in more than a century
in New York City. In Michigan, the storm has claimed
at least five lives.
*Thousands came together to pray, mourn and light candles as
the city of Kobe, Japan remembered a devastating earthquake
that killed more than 6000 people nine years ago.
* Tropical Cyclone Heta caused an estimated $150 million
in damage American Samoa, officials said.

Friday, January 16, 2004
*A huge column of ash shot out of the Ecuadorean Sangay
Volcano, making it the SIXTH showing signs of eruption
in the South American country.
* Another volcano on Kamchatka awakened on Wednesday -
this one appears to be an unnamed volcano. Scorching avalanches
were spotted in the region. The top of the volcano is shaking.
Also, a number of local earthquakes have been reported.
*Bone-chilling temperatures and lots of snow are causing major
fender benders and snarling travel plans across the U.S. as
some of the coldest weather in 50 years blows into the Northeast.
*An http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2004/1/15/latest/15512Strongear&sec=latest "> earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.0 rattled
northern Japan on Thursday.
*Southern Iran was hit by moderate 5.0 earthquake on Thursday
in the province of Fars but there were no reports of serious injury.
*The death toll in Iran's recent devastating earthquake has
reached 41,000.
* Ten years after the Northridge earthquake - the costliest temblor
in the state's history - California has made extensive safety
improvements but remains unprepared for a great earthquake.

Thursday, January 15, 2004
*At least 15 million people face shortages as a severe drought
in Southern Africa ruins grain crops. Farmers' leaders say the
current drought is possibly the worst to hit the country
in nearly a century.
* Lake Balkhash, the second largest lake in Central Asia, could
dry up, sparking an environmental crisis, the U.N. warns.
*Heavy rains have caused deadly flash floods in Iran.
* Extreme cold gripped New England Wednesday. The
coldest spot was New Hampshire's Mount Washington, where
the temperature dipped to a record 44 below with
a wind chill of minus 100. Weather forecasters said the cold snap
won't loose its grip on New England until Saturday.
*Eastern Canada has been plunged into yet another deep freeze,
with frigid temperatures all the way from Ontario to Newfoundland.
*Researchers are investigating the destructive force of thunderstorm
downbursts, freak winds which can bring down aircraft and
uproot electricity pylons.
*The bird flu virus, which has caused an Asian-wide health
scare, has the potential to be far more serious than SARS,
the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned Wednesday.

Wednesday, January 14, 2004
* Mount Aso Volcano in southern Japan erupted today, spewing
a column of ash and smoke into the air and prompting officials
to close off the area around its crater. Today's eruption was
significantly stronger than Aso's recent rumblings.
*A series of massive ash emissions from the Shiveluch volcano
has been registered on the Kamchatka Peninsula over the past
24 hours. Scientists have registered a lot of local tremors and
thermal anomalies in the area. Klyuchevskaya Sopka volcano,
which is near Shiveluch, is also showing a high activity. Both
volcanoes activated on Sunday.
*A series of powerful discharges of ashes from the crater of
the Karymsky volcano has been registered on the Kamchatka
peninsula. About 280 local quakes have rocked its area since
Tuesday morning and thermal anomalies have been registered.
*A fifth volcano on Russia's far eastern Kamchatka peninsula
has now erupted, spewing out a huge cloud of ash and steam.
The plume rose some 8,000 metres above the Bezimyanny
volcano, with dirt and snow avalanches streaming down its
slopes and numerous tremors registered in its depths.
* Satellite image of the eruptions of Shiveluch and
Klyuchevskaya Sopka Volcanoes on Kamchatka peninsula.
*A 5.1 earthquake caused tall building to sway in downtown
Mexico City, less than two hours after a moderate quake
shook the southern Mexican coast.
*The devastating earthquake in Iran has led to a serious examination
of proposals to shift the Islamic republic's political capital out
of the quake-prone city of Tehran.
*Swiss glaciers have been melting faster than in previous years
due to the warm weather of 2003 in Europe. For the first time
since annual measurements began in 1880, all 96 of the glaciers
evaluated this year have become shorter. In previous years, a few
were unchanged or had even grown longer due to snow that
had accumulated during the prior winter.

Tuesday, January 13, 2004
*Scientists believe they have detected a pattern in earthquakes
occurring along the San Andreas Fault. Small, recurring quakes
along a section of the fault tend to follow a three-year cycle.
Meanwhile, larger quakes in the area studied tended to occur
at the beginning of the cycle, when the small quake activity
was on the upswing. If the pattern continues, the next upswing
in small quakes should occur later this year. That doesn't
necessarily mean a big one's coming - because scientists didn't
find large earthquakes in every three-year cycle.
*An earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale was registered
near the Commandor Islands in the Pacific off Russia's Far
Eastern Kamchatka peninsula early Monday. This follows the
eruptions of 4 volcanoes on the peninsula during the weekend.
*The heatwave which scorched much of Europe in 2003
could become a frequent event, Swiss scientists believe.
*Army soldiers uncovered the bodies of two children on
Sunday who were buried by a mudslide in southwestern Mexico.
* Solar activity - Sunspot 537 isn't very big, but it has
a complex magnetic field that harbors energy for strong
solar flares. Eruptions from the spot during the next few
days would likely be Earth directed.

Monday, January 12, 2004
*The Shiveluch volcano on Kamchatka grew active on Sunday.
A series of explosions happened in the volcano crater within
a one hour period. This follows the increase in activity of the
Klyuchevskaya Sopka volcano, the largest Eurasian volcano
located on Kamchatka. Scientists think the increased activity
is unrelated, and there is no danger to townships at present.
The Avachinsky volcano located 25 kilometers away from
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky has grown active, too. None
of the five seismological stations in the volcano zone has
registered an increase in seismic activity. Seismologists
previously have reported thermal anomalies indicating higher
activity of Karymsky Volcano on Kamchatka.
* One of the world's most active volcanoes, Piton de la Fournaise,
located on the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean,
erupted early Friday. The intensity of the activity was
not immediately known.
*Southwestern Pennsylvania is among the most landslide prone
region in the country, evidenced by several recent hillslides
that closed roads and damaged houses when heavy rains fell.
Landslide maps document more than 15,000 ancient and
geologically recent major landslides in Allegheny and
Washington counties alone.
*The Queensland, Australia heatwave got so bad last week,
goldfish literally sizzled to death in their fish tanks.

Sunday, January 11, 2004
*Three hundred people were injured when an earthquake
measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale hit the region around
the Algerian capital.
* Floodwaters swept a bus carrying 30 orange pickers off a
road in southeastern Brazil, and at least eight people drowned.
*Kamchatka's Karymsky Volcano has discharged ash to the
height of 7,000 metres above sea level. Seismologists also
report thermal anomalies indicating higher activity of Karymsky.
*Temperatures dropped well below minus 18 Celsius yesterday
across the Northeast, making it the coldest day in a decade
for some U.S. cities.
*Heavy rains have spurred floods and landslides along the Andes
Mountains in Eastern Peru.

Saturday, January 10, 2004
* Major earthquakes can be predicted months in advance,
argues a UCLA seismologist and mathematical geophysicist.
Borok's team now predicts an earthquake of at least magnitude
6.4 by Sept. 5, 2004, in a region that includes the southeastern
portion of the Mojave Desert, and an area south of it. UCLA
says the team's current predictions have not missed any
earthquake, and its two most recent ones have come to pass.
*The U.N. tells donors the long-term rebuilding of the Iranian
quake-hit city of Bam could cost up to $1 billion.
* Bushfires burning north of Sydney were being contained
thanks to the efforts of hundreds of firefighters overnight.
*New warning over monkeypox threat - The U.S. could face
further outbreaks of dangerous monkeypox if the virus has
gained a foothold among native animals.

Friday, January 9, 2004
*The Volcano of Fire near Guatemala is spewing ash and lava.
Emergency teams are on alert but authorities said the situation
wasn't serious enough to warrant evacuations. The volcano was
expected to remain active through the night, but the lava flow
was not likely to increase, according to the national volcano
and earthquake center.
*Rakes, brooms and hoses are in full swing around bushland
communities in Sydney's outer north-west where a bushfire
continues to burn unchecked. Bushfires erupted
simultaneously yesterday, forming a ring around Sydney as
firefighters' worst fears of a flare-up materialised.
*New South Wales, Australia is slipping into its third
consecutive year of drought.
*The cold wave sweeping north India has killed 168 more people
in the past four days in the country's most populous state, Uttar
Pradesh, taking the winter toll there to 324 dead.
*A 56-year-old man has been pulled alive from the rubble of the
Bam earthquake in south-west Iran, 13 days after the tragedy,
although he is in a coma and may not survive.
* Wyoming's early morning earthquake on Wednesday was one
of 10 earthquakes to shake both Utah and Wyoming since
Christmas day. Four of the ten earthquakes were in central
Utah near Nephi. This earthquake was felt over an area at
least 200 miles long.
*A sulfur smell coming from a mud spring opened by the
6.5 magnitude earthquake that shook Paso Robles, Calif.,
last month is getting better. Workers have begun piping
the mud from the spring into the Los Angeles city sewer,
causing the stink to subside.

Thursday, January 8, 2004
*Quakes in Wyoming yesterday:
2.9, 3.2, 4.0, 4.1, 3.4, 3.7, 3.0, 5.0 (earliest)
*A quarter of all land animals and plants could be wiped out
by warming global temperatures, scientists say.
*A freak summer storm tore through north-eastern New
South Wales yesterday and cut power supplies, damaged roofs
and ripped branches from trees, but was over as quickly as it started.
* Heavy rain inundated the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, pushing
Lake Tempe and the Tondano River over their banks.

Wednesday, January 7, 2004
*The worst cyclone in living memory has devastated the tiny
South Pacific island of Niue. At least one person died and Niue's
capital of Alofi was flattened.
*In Australia it is so hot in the Queensland outback that kangaroos
have been abandoning their joeys.
More than 300 firefighters were trying to stop the spread
of an 1800ha bushfire in central New South Wales.
*About 80 campers were evacuated from a Tasmanian national
park as a bushfire raged nearby.
*Two minor earthquakes hit Indonesia's holiday island of Bali
on Tuesday, four days after a powerful tremor damaged
more than six thousand buildings and causing financial losses
of 12 million dollars. The deep-sea quakes registered at 3.7
and 4.1 on the Richter scale. There were no reports of casualties
or damage.

Tuesday, January 6, 2004
*A relatively strong 5.2 earthquake struck southwestern
Japan today.
*High temperatures and strong winds forecasted for central
western New South Wales, Australia threaten to fan a
large bushfire near Dubbo.
*Spanish police were combing parts of the country today after
thousands of people reported seeing a "ball of fire" in the sky,
prompting astronomers to speculate fragments had
broken off a large meteorite. Behind a disco in Castellon
province the fireballs started a small fire.

Monday, January 5, 2004
* Tropical Cyclone Ken formed off the northern West Australian
coast overnight, with communities warned to brace for possible
heavy winds.
*What happened in Bam could occur on a far larger scale in
Tehran, the capital of Iran. In February 2003,
the head of the International Seismological Research
Center made a stark warning that the fault lines around Tehran
were sliding and accumulating energy. He made an ominous
prediction: "There is a strong likelihood of an earthquake
striking the Iranian capital … the probability of a quake above
seven degrees on the Richter scale in the next 10 years currently
stands at 65 percent, and this is expected to increase
with the passing of time."
*About 30 Russian anglers are missing, adrift on an iceberg
somewhere in the Gulf of Finland, after ignoring advice
against wandering onto the ice.
*At least 14 people are believed to have died when a
landslide in northern China's Shanxi province came tumbling
down on a group of 5 houses.

Sunday, January 4, 2004
* Heta, a tropical cyclone with hurricane-force winds, churned
southward as forecasters issued a hurricane watch Saturday
for American Samoa and the neighboring nation of Samoa. Heta
is the first tropical cyclone to threaten the Pacific archipelago
in more than a decade.
* A meteorite has hit northern Iran causing minor damage to
property but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
*The man believed to be the lone American to die in Iran's
devastating 6.6-magnitude earthquake last week was a
newly engaged executive.
Rescuers have pulled a 97-year-old woman alive from the
rubble of the Iranian earthquake.
*A powerful 7.1 earthquake struck off the east coast of the
French island of New Caledonia on Saturday, the latest in a string
of strong temblors to hit the area.
*A three-week cold front in parts of South Asia has killed
at least 300 people in India, Bangladesh and Nepal, with winter
fog fracturing air, road and rail traffic.
*Confusion over whether a suspected SARS patient in China
has the disease deepened today when tests suggested he may
have been infected by a new strain of the virus.

Saturday, January 3, 2004
*Communities along the far north coast of Western Australia
are being warned to expect gale-force winds today as a
tropical cyclone escalates.
*An avalanche has crashed down onto a mountainside cabin
in Idaho in the United States, killing a couple inside.
*Near-freezing temperatures have killed at least nine more
people in the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal over the past two
days. The death toll from the week-long cold snap has now
reached 19 in Nepal, where temperatures dropped following
rain and snow last weekend.
*Australia will become hotter and more prone to drought over
the next 70 years, leading climatologists say.

Friday, January 2, 2004
*The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a cyclone warning for
the northern West Australian coast.
*The death toll from a cold wave sweeping northern
India climbed to 98.
*A strong 5.7 earthquake rocked Mexico City yesterday, but
no major damage or injuries were immediately reported. The
quake rocked downtown highrises, sent many running from
their homes and caused scattered power outages.
*An 5.4 earthquake shook parts of eastern Indonesia yesterday.
At least twenty-nine people were injured
*A young girl and a pregnant woman were among three people
pulled out alive from the rubble of the Bam earthquake yesterday.
*Winnipeg hospitals saw a record number of cases of
a "superbug" this past year.

Thursday, January 1, 2004
* Four aftershocks shook the ancient Silk Road city of Bam
on Wednesday in the wake of last Friday's quake. About 40,000
people were now left in Bam - most spending the bitterly cold
nights in tents - out of an original population of 103,000. The
remainder were either dead, missing, in hospital or had left town.
*A strong 5.9 earthquake shook buildings in the capital of Taiwan
but no damage was immediately reported.
*Gadget-hungry people and shrinking households are
creating huge, unnoticed climate problems, a report says.
As manufacturers produce increasingly energy-efficient goods
to protect the climate, people are simply buying more of them
- wiping out green benefits.
*Scientists have known for some time that the Earth's
magnetic field is fading. Its strength has steadily and
mysteriously waned, leaving parts of the planet vulnerable to
increased radiation from space. It is uncertain whether the
weakened field is on the way to a complete collapse and a
reversal that would flip the North and South Poles.