• New map reveals world’s earthquakes since 1898

    A new map plots more than a century’s worth of nearly every recorded earthquake. The map shows earthquakes of magnitude 4.0 or greater since 1898; each is marked in a lightning-bug hue that glows brighter with increasing magnitude. In all, 203,186 earthquakes are

  • Colorado wildfires seen from ISS

    Astronauts on the International Space Station captured on camera the vast scale of wildfires raging across parts of Colorado.A video released by NASA on June 28 shows huge plumes of smoke billowing up into sky above the Rocky Mountains. Several fires have been

  • Heavy rains caused mudslides in Aizigou Valley in China

    From Wednesday night to early Thursday morning, downpours lashed Ningnan county in the Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture of Sichuan. The heavy rains caused mudslides around 6:15 am in the Aizigou Valley, where construction workers from Three Gorges Co were staying as

  • Almost vanished Poplar Island is slowly reappearing

    The crust under the Chesapeake Bay is sinking, while sea levels are rising. Made of clay and silt, the islands erode quickly, and many have disappeared altogether. Small islands were once a nesting  habitat for water birds and turtles, while the larger islands

  • Saving the Baltic Sea

    The Baltic Sea, the largest body of brackish water (brackish water is slightly salty water) on Earth, was considered healthy as late as the 1950s. Since then, the Baltic’s health has seriously deteriorated due to waste from expanding industry and large urban areas,

  • Extremely dangerous M6.6 earthquake hit Xinjiang, China

    Earthquake with recorded magnitude of 6.6 hit northern Xinjiang, China on June 29, 2012 at 21:07 UTC. Epicenter was located 99 km (61 miles) S of Dushanzi, China (43.444°N, 84.725°E).. The Chinese seismological authorities reported a depth of 7 km at a magnitude

  • Batu Tara volcano emits plume

    Active since 2006, Batu Tara continues to puff away. A thin volcanic plume streams northwest from the cloud-shrouded volcano. Based on analyses of satellite imagery, the Darwin VAAC reported that on 19 June ash plumes from Batu Tara rose to an altitude of 2.4 km

  • Saharan dust over Canary Islands and Madeira

    Saharan dust had spread across the Canary Islands and Madeira. The dust started blowing a couple of days earlier in Algeria and Mali, and traveled hundreds of kilometers toward the northwest. Over the Atlantic Ocean, the dust made a giant turn toward the east, in the