Conflict
Security forces open fire on demonstrators in Tehran: Anti-government protests enter third day: Lying means conscious and deliberate falsification of the truth (we did not lie)
A string of celebrities have also turned on the regime and two-state TV hosts have quit over Tehran's three days of false reporting over the crash. Film director Masoud Kimiai has pulled out of Tehran's annual Fajr Film Festival, saying he was 'on the side of the public'.
Volcanoes
There She Blows! (Again) Shishaldin Volcano, Alaska, kicked out a plume of ash as high as 28,000 feet (8,535 m) above sea level (For the second time this month!)
Shishaldin Volcano, one of the most active in Alaska, kicked out a plume of ash that satellite imagery detected as high as 28,000 feet (8,535 m) above sea level, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory, the joint federal-state-university office that tracks the state’s many volcanoes.
Major quakes
A powerful 6.9 quake rocks Turkey ( Reduced by USGS to mag 6.7) rocks Turkey this afternoon: Today's quake is the 10th of January and 2020 and the 3,094th of this century!
This quake could be significant, no fewer than four major tectonic plates (Arabia, Eurasia, India, and Africa) and one smaller tectonic block (Anatolia) are responsible for seismicity and tectonics in the Middle East and the surrounding region. Geologic development of the region is a consequence of a number of first-order plate tectonic processes that include subduction, large-scale transform faulting, compressional mountain building and crustal extension.
Extreme Weather
Hurricanes and cyclones
Here come the storms! Tropical Cyclone Blake the 1st cyclone of the Australian season: Expected to reach category 2 strength by Tuesday: System 92S also forming in the Arafura Sea
Spaceweather
Connecting the dots: Christmas 1957 our sun goes ballistic worries experts: Two prominent scientists suddenly die: NASA launched: The Space Race Begins: Climate Change arrives
The Space Shuttle made 135 space flights during its 30-year career, which is more than 41,000 tons of aluminian oxide 3, 510 tons of chlorine gas, 945 tons of nitrogen dioxide gas and 32,400 tons of HCI gas thrown into our atmosphere and that is just the Space Shuttle,
Manmade disasters
What A Jolly Good Idea! TEPCO, the owners of the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant to release 1 million tons of radioactive water gradually into the air instead of dumping it into the Pacific
Next summer's 2020 Olympic Games is allowing the Japanese government to focus on the games while their unsuccessful attempt to clean-up the ongoing spread of leaking radioactivity from Fukushima approaches its first 10 years since the disaster.
According to Arnie Gundersen of the Fairwinds website, the government of Japan claims that the Fukushima site will be entirely cleaned and decommissioned in less than forty years...
Climate Change
Alaska the largest mass die-off of seabirds in recorded history: Millions have died since 2015: 2019 fish crisis: Pacific Cod, Salmon, crab, herring, sardines, all gone! Will New Zealand be next?
2019 was a record-breaking year for Alaska in many ways but mostly bad. Monday, December the 9th was the warmest December day ever recorded in Alaska. Alaska's low on December the 9th was warmer than the average high for the time of the year, Anchorage recorded a high of 51 deg F, (10.5 deg C), on Monday the 9th which is more than double the December average.
In 2019, Alaska broke heat records in the Spring, the Summer, Autumn and Winter, Parts of Alaska recorded their warmest February and March on record with temperatures +40 deg F above normal.
Disease
Norovirus Update: Simulation it could kill 65 million people: Arrives in Europe: Virus escaped lab in Wuhan? More than 150,000 unaware they are sick as the incubation period is 5-to-10 days.
Animal Die-Offs
Hundreds of thousands of dead fish (as far as the eye can see) wash up on Spanish beaches after the breakage of facilities in a fish farm during this week's incredible Storm Gloria
The beach of Xeraco and part of the l'Auir in Gandia have woken up to the gruesome site of hundreds of thousands of dead fish. Everything seems to indicate that the fish have reached the coast of the Safor after the breakage of the facilities of a fish farm in Sagunto. The first effects of this break were noted a few days ago in Perellonet Beach, and now we have the same image in Xeraco.
The fish that have appeared dead in Xeraco belong to several commercial species such as sea bass, sea bass or sea bream, and even a dolphin calf.
Floods and hail have worsened the damage in the Region of Valencia with Storm Gloria translating into a series of extremely severe climatic accidents that are having a huge impact on the farming industry, seasonal vegetables and agricultural infrastructure, as reported by the Valencian Association of Agricultural Producers.
Environment
"Unprecedented!" Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are suffering biggest locust swarm in 70 years: India, Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen are also seeing substantial breeding activity
Wildfires
Aussie Bushfire Update No 24: "This will be all of our Christmas, birthday, engagement, anniversary, wedding and graduation presents rolled into one." Significant rain has arrived
In the state of New South Wales, where many of the worst fires have burnt, there were "good falls" on some blazes early Thursday, the local meteorology bureau reported. "Relief is here for a number of firefighters working across NSW," the state's Rural Fire Service said in a social media post accompanying video footage of rain falling in a burning forest.
Photo of the day
Photo of the day: Saudi Arabia and Oman to India and Singapore were treated to a rare "ring of fire" solar eclipse on December the 26th: Remarkable photos
Skywatchers from Saudi Arabia and Oman to India and Singapore were treated to a rare "ring of fire" solar eclipse on December the 26th. Annular eclipses occur when the Moon is not close enough to the Earth to completely obscure the Sun, leaving a thin ring of the solar disc visible.
Elias Chasiotis who took these remarkable photos has allowed The Big Wobble to post his work.
