Earth ChangesS

Bell

Major earthquake rocks E. Indonesia

A major undersea earthquake rocked eastern Indonesia on Friday, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

According to the USGS, the magnitude 6.2 earthquake hit Banda Sea at 12:04 a.m. It was centered 2,520 kilometers northeast of Jakarta and 10 kilometers under the seabed.

©USGS

Red Flag

Coral reef loss at unprecedented levels

Pacific coral reefs are dying at an unprecedented rate, scientists have found. Almost 600 square miles of reef have disappeared every year since the late 1960s - twice the rate of rainforest loss.

Coral loss had become a global phenomenon caused mainly by climate change, rising sea temperatures and man-made nutrient pollution.

©University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Ambulance

Update: At Least 450 Killed in Big Peru Quake

ICA, Peru - The death toll rose to 450 on Thursday in the magnitude-8 earthquake that devastated cities of adobe and brick in Peru's southern desert. Survivors wearing blankets walked like ghosts through the ruins.

Bizarro Earth

Geologists fear undersea mud mountain in Indian Ocean may trigger tsunami

A giant mountain of mud found under the Indian Ocean's Nicobar Islands is being closely monitored by geologists who fear a tsunami could be triggered by a massive landslide. Smith Dharmasarojana, chairman of the National Disaster Warning Centre Committee, said the geologists from India recently discovered the giant mud mountain, and some parts of it measured more than seven kilometres high.

He conceded there was little information on the mud formation but it is widely believed it was formed by sediment transported by rivers for over a thousand years accumulating under the sea.

Cloud Lightning

Villagers fight off animals in flood-hit South Asia

Flood victims fought off hungry animals and battled waterborne diseases in South Asia on Thursday as unrelenting monsoon rains caused fresh flooding in the region, already battered by weeks of bad weather.

The death toll in eastern India alone rose by over 100 in the past week with thousands more marooned or made homeless as bloated rivers burst mud embankments.

Bizarro Earth

Volcano erupts in northern Ethiopia, two missing

A volcano in north-east Ethiopia's Afar region erupted over the weekend, leaving two people missing and forcing hundreds to flee, state-run media reports.

The Ethiopia News Agency (ENA) said the volcano spewed lava on Sunday, forcing mainly salt-mining Afar nomads living around the mountain's range to escape.

©USGS

Bizarro Earth

Mag 3.2 earthquake rocks San Francisco

That rumbling you felt a little after midnight today was an earthquake - but a small one.

The magnitude 3.2 quake in the Oakland Hills was felt up to Richmond and out to Walnut Creek, with some of the strongest shaking experienced just east of Oakland, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Life Preserver

Australia: Ocean 'supergyre' link to climate regulator

Australian scientists have identified the missing deep ocean pathway - or 'supergyre' - linking the three Southern Hemisphere ocean basins in research that will help them explain more accurately how the ocean governs global climate.

The new research confirms the current sweeping out of the Tasman Sea past Tasmania and towards the South Atlantic is a previously undetected component of the world climate system's engine-room - the thermohaline circulation or 'global conveyor belt'.

Wealth from Oceans Flagship scientist Ken Ridgway says the current, called the Tasman Outflow, occurs at an average depth of 800-1,000 metres and may play an important role in the response of the conveyor belt to climate change.

Stop

Whale found dead on French beach

A 19-metre (62-foot) whale was found dead on abeach in northwest France on Wednesday, police said.

"It was a fin whale that died recently," said Jean-Yves Le Clech, a marineexpert from the nearby town of Brest. "When there are storms, the currents caneasily push the bodies onto the coast."

Attention

North Korea floods kill more than 220

More than 220 people have been killed and 80 are still missing after severe flooding in North Korea, according to Red Cross officials in the country.

The province of Kangwon suffered the highest toll, with 181 confirmed deaths, the International Federation of the Red Cross's Terje Lysholm said.