Moderate earthquake shakes central TurkeyA moderate earthquake shook central Turkey early on Wednesday, the Kandilli Observatory said. No injuries or damage were reported.
The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 4.2, struck near the town of Kastamonu at 04.11 am, the observatory said.
Quakes are frequent in Turkey, much of which lies atop the active North Anatolian fault. Two devastating earthquakes killed about 18,000 people in northwestern Turkey in 1999.
GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemala's Volcano of Fire erupted on Tuesday, sending rivers of lava down its slopes and a huge cloud of ash and smoke into the sky.
About 25,000 local residents were put on alert. Emergency teams said there was no immediate need for evacuations but they might be necessary if there were more eruptions.
MONTPELIER, Vt. - A series of rock slides dumped boulders the size of cars across a downtown street Monday, forcing about 50 people to evacuate as debris spilled up to their doorsteps.
Comment: Comment: Two HOURS of rocks tumbling??? Cold and rain?
Many parts of Eastern Canada are being told to expect little or no relief Tuesday as they continue to feel the punishing effects of a rampaging winter storm.
"It's a very slow-moving system that has caused all kinds of problems," says the CBC's Colleen Jones.
"It's going to be a really messy, dirty day."
All this comes after many areas in Eastern Canada were hit with heavy snow, winds, and rain on Monday.
PARIS
PARISTue, 27 Dec 2005 12:00 UTC
In the space of a year, a tsunami, an earthquake, brutal storms and floods have claimed more than 300,000 lives and cost at least 100 billion dollars in damage.
Humans prefer to view these catastrophes as the result of misfortune, of randomness, of the unfathomable forces of Nature, of the whim of gods or of God.
But the exceptional disasters of the past 12 months raise a far more difficult question.
Could mankind be to blame?
QUITO, Dec. 23 (Xinhuanet)-- An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale rocked the center of Ecuador and shook buildings in Quito, Ecuador's capital city in the north of the country, Ecuador's Geophysical Institute said on Friday.
The earthquake occurred at 16:47 local time (21:47 GMT). The epicenter was close to Puyo, capital of Pastaza province, 161 km southeast of Quito.
Only people at the top of tall buildings felt the quake, which caused scant damage.
The institute said that a collision between the Nazca ocean plate with the Ecuadorian continental plate caused the quake, forcing a noisy phenomenon called subduction.
AS DAWN heralded Saturday morning in Montreal, the latest international climate conference closed in a mood of euphoria. There were tears in the corridors. The UK's environment secretary Margaret Beckett proclaimed a "diplomatic triumph" in which she had achieved all that she had hoped for. Even normally hard-boiled environmental campaigners and journalists were misty-eyed. "Historic," said Greenpeace. "A big step forward...the US has been shamed," said The Guardian in London (see "Small green victory").
Get a grip. Last-minute deals are always exciting, especially after overnight negotiations. But in the cold light of day we have to ask what exactly was achieved. The answer looks like little more than an agreement to carry on talking - and even that is hedged in places by promises to talk about very little that is meaningful.
Meanwhile, every square metre of the planet's surface is absorbing about 1 watt more heat than it can release into space. That may be only slightly more than the power of a Christmas tree light bulb. But it matters.
Comment: Comment: Read this article carefully. Politics may be hastening the "End of The World"... as we know it. Notice the following particularly:
At this magazine we regularly meet climate and Earth-system scientists who harbour real fears for themselves and their families about what the 21st century will bring. Jim Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and George Bush's top climate modeller, is not alone in thinking that we have, as he said last week, "at most 10 years"...
This isn't science fiction, folks. It isn't some whacked out woman wearing a copper pyramid on her head claiming that the Planet Nibiru is gonna clean house in the Solar System. No indeedy...
Jakarta - An undersea earthquake of magnitude 6.3 rocked parts of eastern Indonesia on Wednesday, causing some panic, but there no immediate reports of casualties or damage, officials said.
An official at Japan's Meteorological Agency said chances of a tsunami were very low given the small magnitude of the quake.
The Meteorological and Geophysics Agency in Jakarta said the quake had its epicentre in the Moluccas sea between the regions of Sulawesi and the Moluccas islands.
"We don't have any reports of victims," said an agency official.
The U.S. Geological Survey on its website said the quake had a depth of 70 km (44 miles) and struck at 0709 GMT.
Some residents in the city of Manado in northern Sulawesi fled their homes, El Shinta radio said, but the local head of the Meteorological and Geophysics Agency in Manado said he had not received any reports of damage or casualties.
Indonesia is regularly hit by earthquakes.
The country is preparing to mark the first anniversary on Monday of a 9.15 magnitude quake off Sumatra island that triggered a massive tsunami that smashed into a dozen Indian Ocean nations, leaving 231,000 people dead or missing.
Hundreds of Farewell Spit residents and tourists have joined conservation workers in a frantic battle to help 123 stranded whales, and more rescue attempts are planned today.
The pod of pilot whales began beaching themselves at Puponga at midday yesterday and by last night were strewn the length of the beach, at the top of the South Island, the Conservation Department's Golden Bay area manager, John Mason, said.
Three had died by early last night. "They have basically thrashed themselves to death," Mr Mason said.
Tokyo - Honda Motor said Monday it will begin mass producing next-generation solar panels for household use from 2007, halving the carbon-dioxide emissions of the already eco-friendly technology.
Comment: Comment: Two HOURS of rocks tumbling??? Cold and rain?