A 5.2 magnitude earthquake has struck off the Northeast coast of Japan. The shallow quake occurred at a depth of about 10 km (6.2) miles under the sea, near the Japanese Trench. Japan and the surrounding islands straddle four major tectonic plates: Pacific plate; North America plate; Eurasia plate; and Philippine Sea plate. The Pacific plate is subducted into the mantle, beneath Hokkaido and northern Honshu, along the eastern margin of the Okhotsk microplate, a proposed subdivision of the North America plate. Farther south, the Pacific plate is subducted beneath volcanic islands along the eastern margin of the Philippine Sea plate. This 2,200 km-long zone of subduction of the Pacific plate is responsible for the creation of the deep offshore Ogasawara and Japan trenches as well as parallel chains of islands and volcanoes, typical of Circumpacific island arcs. Similarly, the Philippine Sea plate is itself subducting under the Eurasia plate along a zone, extending from Taiwan to southern Honshu that comprises the Ryukyu Islands and the Nansei-Shoto trench.

Subduction zones at the Japanese island arcs are geologically complex and produce numerous earthquakes from multiple sources. Deformation of the overriding plates generates shallow crustal earthquakes, whereas slip at the interface of the plates generates interplate earthquakes that extend from near the base of the trench to depths of 40 to 60 km. At greater depths, Japanese arc earthquakes occur within the subducting Pacific and Philippine Sea plates and can reach depths of nearly 700 km. Since 1900, three great earthquakes occurred off Japan and three north of Hokkaido. They are the M8.4 1933 Sanriku-oki earthquake, the M8.3 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake, the M9.0 2011 Tohoku earthquake, the M8.4 1958 Etorofu earthquake, the M8.5 1963 Kuril earthquake, and the M8.3 1994 Shikotan earthquake.

Small earthquake swarms occurred at shallow depths during the past days near the volcano. The quakes were located approx. 6-10 km south of Hekla volcano and at shallow depths around 5 km.
The largest quakes were two magnitude 2.6 events at 4 km depth on Thursday (9 April). It is impossible to say whether the earthquakes are linked to volcanic activity and thus might be precursors of a new eruption, but Hekla is probably the most likely candidate volcano for the next eruption to occur on Iceland.
One of the country's most active, and the most frequently erupting volcano, Hekla has been believed to be "due" and have its magma chamber filled for several years now. Known for not giving much precursory signals (and only few earthquakes), an eruption would not be a surprise at all.

Kliuchevskoi (Kamchatka): After less than two weeks pause, the volcano started to erupt again - mild strombolian explosions at the summit crater and small ash emissions.

Fears of fresh eruption of Mount Zao, a volcano that sits on the border of the Yamagata and Miyagi prefectures, rattled Japan after the country's meteorological agency recorded 12 volcanic earthquakes on Tuesday.

The seismic activity prompted warnings of a volcanic eruption, with the agency asking the public to stay safe from falling rocks in a 1.2 km radius of the volcano, The Japan Times reported.

The agency said that ash from the eruption can even reach beyond the radius, causing panic after last year's deadly volcanic eruption of Mount Ontake, which erupted without warning on 27 September and killed 60 people.

The meteorological agency has advised neighbouring towns to raise alert levels in the areas close to the volcano.

The warning will affect business at a popular ski resort, as well as mountain trails and restaurants.

Cyprus has been hit by a 5.6-magnitude earthquake, according to the US Geological Survey.

The earthquake struck just off the Mediterranean island's west coast, about four miles from the village of Peyia.

It was mainly felt in the western Paphos region, but also in the capital Nicosia at 11.25am local time.

Paphos district officer Yiannakis Mallourides reported no major damage to structures or injuries, but said authorities are monitoring the situation.

@michelleuk87 wrote on Twitter: "So weird feeling the #earthquake in #Cyprus this morning whilst on my sunbed. #nicosia"

One lane of Highway 118 in Saticoy is expected to remain closed until Thursday as crews work to repair a sinkhole in the area, officials said Tuesday.

The sinkhole, about 5 feet deep and 10 feet wide, was caused by a leak from a reinforced concrete drainage pipe joint, according to Caltrans.

Caltrans officials said water inside the pipe will be removed, the break will be patched and the void will be filled with concrete slurry.

The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado, also known as a water spout, was sighted on Bull Shoals Lake during a severe thunderstorm Tuesday night in Marion County. Observation Program Leader Dave Scheibe from the National Weather Service Office in North Little Rock told KTLO Radio a weather observer reported seeing the tornado on Bull Shoals Lake four miles east of Diamond City at 7:11 p.m.

Marion County Director of Emergency Management Keith Edmonds says local citizens captured a photo of the funnel cloud.

A lightning strike killed six children and their teacher at a school in northwestern Tanzania on Tuesday, nearly two months after lightning storms caused deaths at another school in the area, a senior police official said.

Fatalities during lightning storms are common in northwestern regions of Tanzania during its two rainy seasons, which typically occur in October/November and March/April.

"The school children killed by the lightning strike were aged between seven and nine years old," Ferdinand Mtui, Kigoma regional police chief, told Reuters by telephone.

Mtui said 15 other people, including schoolchildren and teachers, were injured. Another person was killed by lightning at another location in the region on Tuesday, bringing the death toll to eight.

Biologists are heading to the San Mateo coast Wednesday morning to try and determine what killed an endangered sperm whale.

The 50-feet sperm whale was found bleeding from its head and into the water along at Mori Point on the south end of Sharp Park State Beach in Pacifica Tuesday.

On Wednesday, scientists from the Marine Mammal Center and the Academy of Sciences will perform a necropsy. They'll have their work cut out for them since adult sperm whales can get up to 50 tons in size.

It's unknown at this point if they will then leave the decomposing whale ashore or tow it out to sea.

Whale strandings are fairly rare. The Center said they do not see many stranded animals of this species, dead or alive, on shore.

The whale was seen floating in the water on Monday and found on the beach on Tuesday.

A dead whale that was seen floating in the water on Monday, has washed up on a Southampton beach on Tuesday, according to the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation.

The foundation is working with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to assess the situation and will provide more details as they become available.

They also remind residents to report all sightings to their 24-hour hotline at 631-369-9829.

Australia wants its cats dead. But not because it's a nation of fanatical dog people — rather, the country's enormous feral cat population now constitutes a major threat to its biodiversity. To save the country's native wildlife, the cats need to go.

Due to hotter days, longer dry periods, and increasingly intense bush fires caused by climate change, Australia's biodiversity is diminishing. Despite being one of the world's 17 "megadiverse" countries, Australia has not done a bang-up job of protecting its wildlife. As mammalian extinction rates go, Australia's is pretty dang high: Twenty-one percent of Australian native land mammals are threatened.


But, shockingly, climate change is actually not the No. 1 enemy of koalas and kangaroos: Feral cats are the "single biggest threat" to protecting Australia's wildlife, according to a new piece from VICE News. There are about 20 million of these little cutthroat barbarians pawing, nuzzling, and murdering (in equal measure) their way across the continent, eating three to 20 animals each day — which adds up to a loss of 80 million native animals per week.