Earth ChangesS


Better Earth

Ozone Hole Shrunk by a Third

The ozone hole over Antarctica has shrunk 30 percent as compared to last year's record size. According to measurements made by ESA's Envisat satellite, this year's ozone loss peaked at 27.7 million tonnes, compared to the 2006 record ozone loss of 40 million tonnes.


Info

Philippine Volcano Eruption: 16 Villages Hit By Volcanic Ash

7:58 p.m. A pair of mild eruptions hit Mt. Bulusan, a volcano in Sorsagon Province, which is part of the Bicol Region on Luzon Island. Relief and disaster teams report that an estimated 10,000 people are affected by clouds of ash. Some residents were reported to have suffered breathing problems, from the effects of thick, sulfur-laden ash and were hospitalized.

Battery

Update! Yemen volcano erupts again

A volcano which erupted on the Yemeni island of Jebel Al Tair began spewing lava again on Wednesday evening. The news was confirmed by Hussein Abdul-Rahman, head of control center at the Naval Operation Room.

According to the Yemeni state news agency, Saba, the lava started to come out again from the western part of the island at 6pm UAE time.

Ark

Devastating Earthquake May Threaten Middle East's Near Future, Geologist Predicts

The best seismologists in the world don't know when the next big earthquake will hit. But a Tel Aviv University geologist suggests that earthquake patterns recorded in historical documents of Middle Eastern countries indicate that the region's next significant quake is long overdue.

©American Colony Hotel, American Colony Collection
Damage in Jerusalem's Old City following a July 11, 1927, earthquake. One of the first earthquakes on the Dead Sea Fault to be recorded by modern seismographic techniques, it reached 6.2 on the Richter scale. The epicenter was in the northern part of the Dead Sea.

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Forest fires rage in some areas of Indonesia

JAKARTA - At least 1,736 separate fire hotspots have been detected in Kalimantan island and South Sumatra province of Indonesia over the past week, officials said.

In Kalimantan, where 1,370 hotspots have been found, haze from the forest fires has begun to disrupt flights at Syamsuddin Noor Airport in Banjar Baru city in South Kalimantan, the Jakarta Post daily Friday quoted head of the South Kalimantan Environmental Impact Management Agency Rahmadi Kurdi as saying.

Attention

Indonesian villagers brace for potential volcanic eruption

Indonesian residents living near a rumbling volcano in East Java have begun evacuation drills, officials said Thursday as they warned activity was increasing at the site.

Volcanologists lifted an alert for Mount Kelut to the third of a four-level warning system last Sunday. Hiking the warning to the four level means scientists fear an eruption is imminent.

Bizarro Earth

Update: Typhoon Lekima pounds Vietnam, 3 dead

Typhoon Lekima smashed into central Vietnam overnight, flooding thousands of homes, disrupting air travel and leaving at least three people dead and 58 injured, officials said Thursday.

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Bizarro Earth

Warning issued as Typhoon Krosa heads towards Taiwan

Weathermen in Taiwan on Thursday urged ships and residents to take precautions against Typhoon Krosa which is gaining momentum and heading towards the island.

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Attention

South America chokes as Amazon burns

Vast areas of Brazil and Paraguay and much of Bolivia are choking under thick layers of smoke as fires rage out of control in the Amazon rainforest, forcing the cancellation of flights.

Satellite images yesterday showed huge clouds of smoke and much of the Amazon basin burning as fires, originally set by ranchers to clear land, have raged into the forest itself.

Attention

Flashback So how did An Inconvenient Truth become required classroom viewing? Even climate change experts say many of the claims in Al Gore's film are wrong.

First it was his world history class. Then he saw it in his economics class. And his world issues class. And his environment class. In total, 18-year-old McKenzie, a Northern Ontario high schooler, says he has had the film An Inconvenient Truth shown to him by four different teachers this year.