Volcanoes
Volcanic uptick 4,000 people evacuated from Guatemala: Alaskan volcano spewing ash 15,000 feet: Kanlaon Volcano suffers phreatic eruptions
A volcanic activity uptick this week after 4,000 people were evacuated from the slopes of the Fuego volcano in Guatemala after another eruption which produced one of the most powerful eruptions in recorded history in June killing 500 people died including 238 who disappeared without a trace.
Yesterday, activity at Veniaminof, a volcano on the Alaskan Peninsula has intensified significantly, spewing ash 15,000 feet into the air, prompting the United States Geological Survey to increase the aviation colour code warning to red, while raising the overall warning level from watch to warning, with some communities warned to brace themselves for the possibility of ash fall.
Major quakes
Another monster quake rocks the Southern Hemisphere as magnitude 7.1 - strikes the South Sandwich Islands.
USGS
Another monster quake rocks the Southern Hemisphere after a magnitude 7.1 - hits the South Sandwich Islands.
The magnitude 7.1 quake struck on Monday in the southern Atlantic Ocean, close to the South Sandwich Islands north of Antarctica, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
The quake initially reported as a magnitude 7.5, was in a remote area and fairly deep underground. The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in an advisory that it did not cause a tsunami threat.
This mornings quake is the 5th of December and the 125th of 2018.
Extreme Weather
Monster waves 40ft, more than 12-meter destroy balconies on Spanish island Tenerife with more than 50 holiday homes evacuated (Video)
Holidaymakers have been evacuated from a seafront apartment block after huge 40ft, more than 12-meter waves wiped out balconies in Tenerife.
Dramatic footage shows huge waves crashing into the fourth-floor of an apartment block in Mesa del Mar, popular with Brits.
Fierce storms led to restaurant windows being smashed, cars swept into the sea and a football pitch is destroyed by severe floods on the tourist island.
Local mayor Alvaro Davila said 65 apartments, some believed to be holiday homes, were evacuated. He also confirmed nobody had been injured in the scare, which led to 39 people being ordered to leave two buildings in, north-west Tenerife.
Hurricanes and cyclones
Tropical storm on Sunday-Super Typhoon Yutu by Wednesday: Most intense storm to ever strike the Northern Mariana Islands (NASA)
Super Typhoon Yutu made landfall across Tinian and Saipan on Wednesday, dealing a catastrophic blow of damaging winds and torrential rainfall to both islands.
Yutu quickly strengthened from a tropical depression on Sunday into a super typhoon by Wednesday as it became the strongest tropical cyclone so far this year. Yutu will bring the continued risk for flooding, damaging winds and dangerous seas to Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands into Thursday as the cyclone moves to the west.
A direct strike with winds over 240 km/h (150 mph) on Saipan and Tinian likely caused extensive damage to structures, downed trees and caused power outages.
Spaceweather
As a Siberian city endures temperatures of -50 C, (-58 deg F) NASA claim whole global temperature about to plummet in a matter of months
As California burns and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere prepare for winter after a record-breaking warm summer spare a thought for residents of Krasnoyarsk Siberia who are already enduring temperatures of -50 C, (-58 deg F)
And according to NASA spokesman, temperatures for the whole globe could be about to plummet as our sun is entering one of the deepest Solar Minima of the Space Age.
Sunspots have been absent for most of 2018 and Earth’s upper atmosphere is responding, says Dr Phillips, editor of spaceweather.com.
Volcanic uptick 4,000 people evacuated from Guatemala: Alaskan volcano spewing ash 15,000 feet: Kanlaon Volcano suffers phreatic eruptions
Yesterday, activity at Veniaminof, a volcano on the Alaskan Peninsula has intensified significantly, spewing ash 15,000 feet into the air, prompting the United States Geological Survey to increase the aviation colour code warning to red, while raising the overall warning level from watch to warning, with some communities warned to brace themselves for the possibility of ash fall.
Major quakes
Another monster quake rocks the Southern Hemisphere as magnitude 7.1 - strikes the South Sandwich Islands.
Another monster quake rocks the Southern Hemisphere after a magnitude 7.1 - hits the South Sandwich Islands.
The magnitude 7.1 quake struck on Monday in the southern Atlantic Ocean, close to the South Sandwich Islands north of Antarctica, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
The quake initially reported as a magnitude 7.5, was in a remote area and fairly deep underground. The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in an advisory that it did not cause a tsunami threat.
This mornings quake is the 5th of December and the 125th of 2018.
Monster waves 40ft, more than 12-meter destroy balconies on Spanish island Tenerife with more than 50 holiday homes evacuated (Video)
Dramatic footage shows huge waves crashing into the fourth-floor of an apartment block in Mesa del Mar, popular with Brits.
Fierce storms led to restaurant windows being smashed, cars swept into the sea and a football pitch is destroyed by severe floods on the tourist island.
Local mayor Alvaro Davila said 65 apartments, some believed to be holiday homes, were evacuated. He also confirmed nobody had been injured in the scare, which led to 39 people being ordered to leave two buildings in, north-west Tenerife.
Hurricanes and cyclones
Tropical storm on Sunday-Super Typhoon Yutu by Wednesday: Most intense storm to ever strike the Northern Mariana Islands (NASA)
Yutu quickly strengthened from a tropical depression on Sunday into a super typhoon by Wednesday as it became the strongest tropical cyclone so far this year. Yutu will bring the continued risk for flooding, damaging winds and dangerous seas to Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands into Thursday as the cyclone moves to the west.
A direct strike with winds over 240 km/h (150 mph) on Saipan and Tinian likely caused extensive damage to structures, downed trees and caused power outages.
Spaceweather
As a Siberian city endures temperatures of -50 C, (-58 deg F) NASA claim whole global temperature about to plummet in a matter of months
And according to NASA spokesman, temperatures for the whole globe could be about to plummet as our sun is entering one of the deepest Solar Minima of the Space Age.
Sunspots have been absent for most of 2018 and Earth’s upper atmosphere is responding, says Dr Phillips, editor of spaceweather.com.
Man-made-disasters
Last week 214 whales died around New Zealand and Trump approved seismic tests that will harm thousands of Atlantic dolphins and whales.
Allegedly the US Navy, Australian Navy and New Zealand Navy were conducting a RIMPAC type underwater electronic weapons testing with Raytheon right where these whales died, I can not prove or confirm this but in a press release last week the President Trump administration approved seismic tests that could harm thousands of Atlantic dolphins and whales.
Climate Change
Monster dust storms; torrential rains; worst drought in living memory; deadly wildfires; bats falling dead from trees: Summer in Aus
"The intensity of yesterdays rainfall was phenomenal - 91mm fell in 90 minutes," forecaster Rob Taggart told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The storm centred on coastal parts of New South Wales (NSW) but was reported to have missed many inland regions affected by drought.
Disease
The second-largest Ebola outbreak in history is unfolding in the middle of a war zone urging CDC experts ask Trump to send in his experts to northeastern Congo
Health workers have compared the area to a war zone.
Dozens of rebel groups are active and attacks by them have forced workers to halt Ebola containment for days at a time.
New statements in two top medical journals this week are calling on the U.S. to change its mind and send its experts back where they are sorely needed.
It's not clear how many people from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are tackling the outbreak from Congo's capital, nearly 1,000 miles away.
Animal Die-offs
It's probably the most depressing Christmas story of 2018: reindeer and caribou herds have declined by 56 per cent! A loss of more than 2.6 million
It's probably the most depressing Christmas story of 2018.
They are one of the most important animals in the already fragile Arctic ecosystem, the magnificent reindeer, or caribou and according to a new report is the latest animal to decline.
According to a report by NOAA, Despite an increase of vegetation available for grazing, herd populations of caribou and wild reindeer across the Arctic tundra have declined by nearly 50% over the last two decades.
The populations of reindeer, a.k.a. caribou, near the North Pole, has been declining dramatically in recent years.
Since the mid-1990s, the size of reindeer and caribou herds has declined by 56 per cent.
That’s an incredible drop from an estimated 4.7 million animals to 2.1 million, a loss of 2.6 million.
Environment
What caused mysterious strange seismic waves that shook the world on November 11th leaving scientists and experts baffled
The seismic waves began roughly 15 miles off the shores of a Mayotte, a French island sandwiched between Africa and the northern tip of Madagascar.
According to National Geographic, the seismic waves buzzed across Africa, ringing sensors in Zambia, Kenya, and Ethiopia.
They traversed vast oceans, humming across Chile, New Zealand, Canada, and even Hawaii nearly 11,000 miles away.
These waves didn't just zip by; they rang for more than 20 minutes.
Wildfires
An early summer "MONSTER" inferno has razed thousands of hectares of bush in Queensland Australia due to heatwave
Exhausted crews have spent the night battling to get the upper hand as the fire continues to threaten communities between Bundaberg and Gladstone.
But authorities this morning warned the blaze had begun to re-intensify, with heavy smoke making it difficult for firefighters to bring it under control.
"It's so smoky out there we didn't get to see the whole fire, all we got to see was the section we were working on," water-bomber pilot John Gallaher told ABC radio.
Photo of the day
Picture of the day: Very tame Blackbird lays two beautiful blue eggs just 1 meter above our dining table
Earlier this month we noticed a female Blackbird hanging around under our conservatory in the back garden.
She was incredibly tame and totally unfazed by being around humans and we soon realised she was building a nest just 1 meter above our dining table, see picture below.
She soon delivered two beautiful blue eggs.
She stayed with us for a week or so sitting in her nest while we all went about our business and she was obviously very comfortable living among us.
Unfortunately one morning we came downstairs to see our lady friend in her nest with broken eggshells and behaving in a distressed manner, we think the nest was attacked by Magpies earlier that morning.
She is still to be found in our garden however and she is still very tame.
