Guatemala's Fuego volcano belched burning lava and black ash into the sky early Saturday, leading the government to issue an airplane advisory and close sections of highway.

The volcano, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of the capital, erupted about 2:45 a.m. (0745 GMT), spewing a column of ash up to 16,400 feet (5,000 meters) above the crater and launching burning red lava nearly 1,300 feet (400 meters) high.

The national emergency commission issued an advisory, warning planes not to fly within a 25-mile (40 kilometer) radius of the volcano. The La Aurora international airport in Guatemala City remained open.

The commission also closed two stretches of highway threatened by lava flows that reached the base of the mountain.

Guatemala's four active volcanoes have a history of causing shut downs. In 2010, an explosion at the Pacaya volcano about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Guatemala City coated the city in a thick layer of black ash and rock, forcing hundreds of families to evacuate and closing the international airport.

The 1811-1812 New Madrid earthquakes were intense beginning initially with dual earthquakes on December 16, 1811. These earthquakes remain the most powerful to hit the eastern United States in recorded history according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The events were named for the Mississippi River town of New Madrid now within Missouri. Some sections of the Mississippi River appeared to run backward for a short time during the 1811-1812 earthquakes. A request, dated January 13, 1812, by William Clark , then the governor of the Louisiana Territory, asked for expeditious federal relief for the "inhabitants of New Madrid County".

There are estimates that the earthquakes were felt considerably over a 50,000 sq. mi. area. By comparison, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake was felt moderately over a much smaller area and a repeat event is expected soon. The New Madrid Seismic Zone consists of reactivated faults that formed when North America began to split during the breakup of a supercontinent during the Neoproterozoic Era. Faults were created along the rift and igneous rocks formed from magma which pushed multi-directionally toward the surface.

In a report filed in November 2008, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency warned that a serious earthquake in the New Madrid Seismic Zone could result in "the highest economic losses due to a natural disaster in the United States," further predicting "widespread and catastrophic" damage across Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, and particularly Tennessee, where a 7.7 magnitude quake or greater would cause damage to tens of thousands of structures affecting water facilities, transportation and other vital infrastructure.

Fresh blasts from Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano spewed fiery rock and caustic ash over residents around the Mexico City suburb of Puebla, already on edge after weeks of ongoing eruption.

Ash soared 2.5 miles into the sky during early Saturday's explosion, forcing a local airport to close.

Residents of the nearby village of Santiago Xalitzintla rushed into the town square during the middle of the night as terrifying rumblings and blasts caused buildings to shudder.

Last week residents in eastern parts of Mexico City were provided with face masks to protect them against ash raining over the region from Popocatepetl's blasts.

Prevailing winds have so far spared the capital district from significant ash falls.

Popocatepetl has become increasingly active during 2012.

McCall, Idaho -- You could call it a mystery earthquake, a sonic boom, or maybe nothing at all.

Several witnesses report waking up to what they say was a small earthquake south of McCall early Thursday around 4:30 a.m. However, those shaky claims have employees at Idaho's U.S. Geological Survey scratching their heads in disbelief.

Mickey Hart lives five miles south of McCall just off Highway 55. The 50-year-old resident said she's experienced one previous earthquake here in the summer of 2001.

The second earthquake came early Thursday around 4:30 a.m. Hart says that's when her beloved border collie, Mr. Mac, detected the tremor before it hit.

"It was four in the morning, and the house shook," Hart said. "It woke up my husband and scared the crap out of my dog."

However, for some folks here in Idaho, those reports just don't seem to make sense.

U.S. Geological Survey Technical Information Specialist Tim Merrick said his agency's seismographs haven't shown any recent earthquake activity in Idaho.

"If there was anything, it would almost certainly show up," Merrick said. "Our seismology network across the United States is very sensitive."

Scott VanHoff, USGS Geospatial Mapping Coordinator, agrees.

"Idaho looks amazingly quiet, and I don't see anything," VanHoff said, adding that the only earthquake he'd seen recorded was yesterday. USGS records show that event was a magnitude 2.2 earthquake recorded around 9:30 p.m., at a location northwest of Weiser, Idaho.

However, other folks in the Valley County area maintain they positively did feel an earthquake early Thursday morning.

Captain Brandon Swain with the McCall Fire Department says he heard reports of the mystery earthquake from his brother, Clint Swain, who lives near Lake Fork.

"My brother was awake at about 4:30 or 5 a.m., and the earthquake woke up his wife," Swain said.

The oft-disaster-battered island of Sumatra may have yet another threat to add to the roster of natural phenomena that afflict the Indonesian island: colossal volcanic eruptions.

Although Sumatra residents are likely well-acquainted with the string of volcanoes that line the Indian Ocean island's western coastline, new research has revealed that some of these volcanoes are capable of far more violence than once thought.

"Our study found some of the first evidence that the region has a much more explosive history than perhaps has been appreciated," said Oregon State University's (OSU) Morgan Salisbury, lead author of research recently published in the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research.

"Sumatra has a number of active and potentially explosive volcanoes, and many show evidence of recent activity," Salisbury said in a statement. However, he added, most of the eruptions are small, so little attention has been paid to the potential for a catastrophic eruption.

In 2007, OSU professor Chris Goldfinger led an expedition to Sumatra to dig up evidence of earthquakes that had rocked the region in the past.

During the field work, the OSU team, along with Indonesian colleagues, stumbled upon unmistakable evidence of volcanic ash and began conducting a parallel investigation into the region's volcanic history.

Date-Time:
Friday, May 18, 2012 at 02:00:41 UTC

Thursday, May 17, 2012 at 09:00:41 PM at epicenterTime of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
44.594°S, 80.073°W

Depth:
10 km (6.2 miles)

Region:
OFF THE COAST OF AISEN, CHILE

Distances:
542 km (336 miles) WSW of Castro, Los Lagos, Chile

639 km (397 miles) W of Coihaique, Aisen, Chile

676 km (420 miles) WSW of Puerto Montt, Los Lagos, Chile

1478 km (918 miles) SSW of SANTIAGO, Region Metropolitana, Chile

In the last few weeks beekeepers have reported staggering losses in Minnesota, Nebraska and Ohio after their hives foraged on pesticide-treated corn fields. Indiana too, two years ago. What's going on in the Corn Belt?

No farmer in their right mind wants to poison pollinators. When I spoke with one Iowa corn farmer in January and told him about the upcoming release of a Purdue study confirming corn as a major pesticide exposure route for bees, his face dropped with worn exasperation. He looked down for a moment, sighed and said, "You know, I held out for years on buying them GE seeds, but now I can't get conventional seeds anymore. They just don't carry 'em."

This leaves us with two questions: 1) What do GE seeds have to do with neonicotinoids and bees? and 2) How can an Iowa corn farmer find himself feeling unable to farm without poisoning pollinators? In other words, where did U.S. corn cultivation go wrong?

The short answer to both questions starts with a slow motion train wreck that began in the mid-1990s: Corn integrated pest management (IPM) fell apart at the seams. Rather, it was intentionally unraveled by Bayer and Monsanto.

Scientists say a fault-line running across Alaska could cause tsunamis of the same magnitude as the Japanese disaster of March last year. Attention has turned to the Alaskan-Aleutian subduction zone, a region where one of the earth's tectonic plate, carrying the Pacific Ocean, drops beneath the North American plate.

A particular section of the fault near the Semidi Islands has not ruptured since at least 1788, and measurements on this area - which lies four to five kilometres under water - reveal the pressure is accumulating rapidly. If the Pacific Ocean plate slips, as happened in the geographically-similar Tohoku subduction zone off the coast of Japan, a tsunami could occur - and the deaths could happen as far away as Hawaii and California.

• Snow fall as far south as the Midlands and overnight frosts were described as "unusual" weather for mid May by the Met Office as the forecasters admitted the Jubilee could be a washout.
• Just 17 days before summer starts, hail and sleet hit the morning rush-hour in Wolverhampton, West Mids, as well as Staffordshire, Shropshire, Cheshire and Durham.

The Met Office said Scotland - where temperatures fell to a near record low for this time of year at -4C (25F) at Cairngorm, could see snow settling on the mountains and in the Pennines, Cumbria and southern Scotland,

Temperatures could even get below freezing overnight in the south in sheltered spots as the "unusual but not unprecedented" mid-May weather continues.

Usually temperatures are up to 16C (61F) at this time of year but even in the sunshine the mercury is only reaching 14C and in the wind most parts of the country are much colder.