There's a new island in the azure waters off Pakistan, but you might want to hold off on vacation planning: The tiny dot is a mud volcano that will likely disappear before it sees 1,001 Arabian nights.

Pakistani fishers reported the new mud volcano in the Arabian Sea in late November, and NASA's Earth Observing-1 satellite snapped a picture of it (above) on January 11. The volcano was not in a satellite picture of the same region taken last February.

According to NASA, mud volcano "islands" have appeared in the Arabian Sea before, and most have washed away within a few months. In fact, the January picture shows tan sediments steaming from the new mud volcano, suggesting it is eroding and will soon vanish.

Mud volcanoes, which can appear on land or underwater, form when underground layers of silt or clay become pressurized either by tectonic activity or by a buildup of hydrocarbon gases.

A shallow earthquake with a magnitude of 3.9 has rattled parts of southern Idaho near the Wyoming and Utah borders.

The United States Geological Survey says the temblor struck Tuesday night about 9 miles southwest of Georgetown.

USGS says the epicenter was less than a mile underground.

Bear Lake County Sheriff's dispatcher Gene Perkins says no reports of damage or injuries were reported. He says he felt his chair "move just a hair" as he was sitting at home at the time of the quake.

The Kirishima Volcano, located in Japan, erupted violently this morning hurling rock bombs and plumes of ash up into the atmosphere. Frequent small-to-moderate explosive eruptions have been recorded since the 8th century.

The volcano is located in southern Japan, along the pacific ring of fire, and is uniquely situated directly above a tectonic plate boundary.

Kirishima has erupted 9 times during the past 100 years, 2 of which were classified as VEI-2 eruptions (Volcanic Explosivity Index). The last VEI-2 eruption was during 1959 when it pumped 3.2 million cubic meters of 'tephra' up onto the planet surface and into sky. Time will tell how this new eruption will be classified.

Volcanic Ash in the atmosphere will severely damage jet engines, and can cause global temperatures to decrease depending on quantity.

Date-Time
Wednesday, January 26, 2011 at 15:42:29 UTC

Wednesday, January 26, 2011 at 10:42:29 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location
2.120°N, 96.741°E

Depth
26.8 km (16.7 miles)

Region
SIMEULUE, INDONESIA

Distances
234 km (145 miles) WNW (282°) from Sibolga, Sumatra, Indonesia

267 km (166 miles) SW (233°) from Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia

407 km (253 miles) SSE (157°) from Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia

562 km (349 miles) W (259°) from KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia

"Last night (Jan. 25th) was amazing. It was the first time in my life I have seen auroras so bright and clear," reports Bjarki Mikkelsen from a little Arctic village in northern Sweden. The display was so intense, even the snow turned green.

"I also thought I could hear a strange sound coming from the Northern Lights," he adds. "I've decided to stay here to get another chance to experience this again."

Another chance is in the offing. A coronal hole in the sun's eastern hemisphere is spewing a stream of solar wind, due to hit Earth about a week from now. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras on Feb 1st or 2nd.

More Images.

The City of Winnipeg plans to raise 15 kilometres of dikes, fill three million sandbags and protect about 700 properties this spring to protect against river levels that could rise slightly higher than those experienced during the 1997 Red River flood, called Manitoba's 'Flood of the Century.'

And properties located alongside the Assiniboine River make up a larger proportion of the list this year, as the Assiniboine is expected to play a larger role in the coming flood, city flood-protection engineer Grant Mohr told reporters Tuesday.

Based on initial provincial flood predictions, the City of Winnipeg is preparing for a worst-case scenario that will see the Red River rise as high as 7.5 metres above normal winter ice levels. That's just over 15 centimetres above the peak river level during the 1997 flood and also 72 centimetres above the peak level during the 2009 spring flood.

On Monday night, the city plugged river-flow estimates into the city's flood manual, an interactive software package developed in the wake of the 1997 flood. It determined 700 properties will need to be protected this year, down from about 800 in 1997.

NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of the very cold clouds that house powerful thunderstorms within the Southern Indian Ocean's newest tropical depression, number 10S. The depression quickly strengthened into a tropical storm and continues to affect the northern coast of Western Australia.

When Aqua passed over the Tropical Storm 10S on January 25 at 05:53 UTC (12:53 a.m. EST), the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument captured an infrared image of the storm's clouds. The image showed that most of the coldest cloud tops (-63 Fahrenheit/-52 Celsius) and strongest thunderstorms over appeared over the Southern Indian Ocean, and some along the extreme northern coast of Western Australia. The infrared image also showed the contrasting heat of the land.

Puzzled by the mass deaths of birds and fish in Alabama? It's also happening elsewhere, across the Eastern and Southern U.S. and around the world -- Gizmodo has a handy map of all the U.S. events.

The Activist Post offers some theories. Before you read them, however, bear in mind what Yahoo News has to say about the subject:

"... [M]ass die-offs happen all the time and usually are unrelated ... Federal records show they happen on average every other day somewhere in North America. Usually, we don't notice them and don't try to link them to each other ...

And there have been much larger die-offs than the 3,000 blackbirds in Arkansas. Twice in the summer of 1996, more than 100,000 ducks died of botulism in Canada."

Here are the theories listed by the Activist Post:

Mainstream Explanations: These have included lightning, hail, mid-air collision, power lines, and New Year fireworks for the birds, and a disease for the fish. But this seems like a heck of a coincidence, and where are the roasted birds from a lightning strike?

Meteor showers: During this period of intense seasonal meteor shower, some people reported hearing sonic booms in the area that might have been an indication of a local shock wave.

New Madrid Fault Line: Could it be related to the recent earthquake activity along a fault line that runs along the mid-eastern section of the U.S.? Could it have dispersed pollutants into the water and atmosphere?

Government testing: Only certain species have been affected, but within the entire region. And some reports have indicated that the organs of the birds were liquefied -- could this implicate species-specific bio-weapons?

GMOs: There are other die-offs are happening across other species, such as bees and bats. Some think they could be poisoned by genetically modified plants.

Say what, two suns may be visible from Earth in 2012? Everyday we seem to be getting bombarded with warning signs that our planet is changing rapidly. In fact, many of the changes are occurring for the first time in modern recorded history and all seem to indicate a need for civilization to adapt.

Record-breaking heat and cold are striking all corners of the globe; earthquake activity has spiked, even in places thought not to have active fault lines; birds, bees, fish, and other animals are dropping dead with no coherent cause, and there is a flurry of talk about galactic anomalies beginning to happen.

Since the man-made global warming theory has simmered down from a boil, many other concerns have surfaced that appear to minimize possible effects of CO2 concentrations as our greatest concern. Sure, many of these changes may be connected in some way, but the idea that there is a silver bullet to stop this train of collective events is unlikely.

One thing we can say is that we live in very interesting times. These unprecedented events are accelerating at a blistering pace, as we hurl through space on this ball we call Earth. It seems this turbulent cycle is going to continue to manifest despite our best human efforts to stop it. The only thing we can hope to do is digest the available information and plan for the worst, while hoping for the best. Assuredly, humans possess a far greater ability to adapt through technology than the animal kingdom, yet we certainly can't thrive without protecting the entire biosphere.

The number of birds flying south to important wintering grounds in the Philippines has fallen sharply this year, with experts saying the dramatic demise of wetlands and hunting are to blame.

Despite some harsh, cold weather across the Eurasian landmass, some waterbirds that usually migrate in huge flocks to the tropical islands have been completely absent, said Philippine-based Danish ornithologist Arne Jensen.

"The flyway populations of several waterbird species are in constant and dramatic decline," Jensen, who advises the Philippine government on species conservation, told AFP.

"Hence the urgent need to establish real and well-managed, hunting-free waterbird sanctuaries along the migratory flyways."

Candaba, a swamp two hours' drive north of Manila that has long been used as a pit stop by hundreds of species as they fly staggering distances between the Arctic Circle and Australia, appears emblematic of the downfall.