SHAKE AND BLOW - AFRICA DAILY

Tuvalu among other Pacific nations also battered by cyclone

Mar 15, 2015 (AFP)

Nearly half the population of Tuvalu have been severely affected by the devastation wrought by Cyclone Pam, Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga said Sunday, with other...

Airport shut as Costa Rica volcano spews more ash

Mar 13, 2015 (AFP)

San Jose's international airport was forced to close Thursday and several villages were evacuated after clouds of ash from the newly active Turrialba volcano re...

Eruption of Hunga Tonga volcano forms new island

Mar 13, 2015 (UPI)

An underwater volcano off the coast of Tonga, a small Polynesian island nation in the South Pacific, has been erupting since December. Recently, the accumulatin...

Colombia quake damaged buildings, but only one injury: official

Mar 11, 2015 (AFP)

A strong earthquake that rocked northeastern Colombia damaged some 300 buildings but injured only one person, an official assessment said Wednesday. Most of the...

Second volcano rumbles to life in Guatemala

Mar 11, 2015 (AFP)

Two of Guatemala's three active volcanoes have now rumbled to life, officials said Wednesday, one day after the Santiaguito volcano began belching smoke and sho...

Experts hike risk of big California quake in next 30 years

Mar 10, 2015 (AFP)

The risk of a major earthquake hitting California in the next 30 years has risen dramatically, US scientists said Tuesday, using improved forecasting techniques...

Lightning plus volcanic ash makes glass

Mar 06, 2015 (SPX)

In their open-access paper for Geology, Kimberly Genareau and colleagues propose, for the first time, a mechanism for the generation of glass spherules in geolo...

Evidence indicates Yucatan Peninsula hit by tsunami 1,500 years ago

Mar 06, 2015 (SPX)

The eastern coastline of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, a mecca for tourists, may have been walloped by a tsunami between 1,500 and 900 years ago, says a new study...

A new level of earthquake understanding

Mar 05, 2015 (SPX)

As everyone who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area knows, the Earth moves under our feet. But what about the stresses that cause earthquakes? How much is known...

Thousands evacuated in Argentina flooding

Mar 05, 2015 (AFP)

More heavy rain triggered thousands of evacuations and flooding across five Argentine provinces on Wednesday, with at least one person dead and another missing....

Pre-1950 builds suffered most damage from 2014 Napa quake

Mar 05, 2015 (SPX)

An analysis of buildings tagged red and yellow by structural engineers after the August 2014 earthquake in Napa links pre-1950 buildings and the underlying sedi...

Thousands evacuated as Chile volcano erupts

Mar 03, 2015 (AFP)

A volcano in southern Chile erupted early Tuesday, spewing fiery plumes of lava into the night sky and forcing the evacuation of some 3,600 people from nearby t...

New volcano island getting big in Japan

Mar 02, 2015 (AFP)

Famously crowded Japan is getting a bit more space as a newly-formed volcanic island just keeps on growing. New footage of the remote Nishinoshima, some 1,000 k...

Flooding in Madagascar capital kills at least 14: rescuers

Feb 27, 2015 (AFP)

At least 14 people died in flooding Friday in the Madagascan capital Antananarivo after a night of torrential rain caused dams to burst, rescue services said. A...

Gaza floods: dispelling the myth about Israeli 'dams'

Feb 27, 2015 (AFP)

Once again this winter, following days of very heavy rainfall across the region, the banks of a riverbed running through central Gaza were breached, flooding do...

Geysers have loops in their plumbing

Feb 25, 2015 (SPX)

Geysers like Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park erupt periodically because of loops or side-chambers in their underground plumbing, according to recent s...

Volcanic ash forces Mexican airport closure

Feb 25, 2015 (AFP)

Volcanic ash rained down on the runway of the Puebla airport in central Mexico, forcing the facility to close on Wednesday and disrupting some US and domestic f...

Study outlines impact of tsunami on the Columbia River

Feb 23, 2015 (SPX)

Engineers at Oregon State University have completed one of the most precise evaluations yet done about the impact of a major tsunami event on the Columbia River...

1,500 homes damaged by Cyclone Marcia in Australia

Feb 22, 2015 (AFP)

Australian officials said Sunday all efforts were being made to help those hit by Tropical Cyclone Marcia, which smashed through Queensland state leaving 1,500 ...

Dutch 'put production before safety' in quake-hit area

Feb 18, 2015 (AFP)

A Dutch public commission said Wednesday government and energy companies had put production ahead of safety in Europe's biggest gas field, triggering a series o...