• New paroxysm at Mount Etna

    Throughout 2011, activity at Sicily’s Mount Etna has been characterized by paroxysms: short, violent bursts of activity. Each event has included volcanic tremors, ash emissions, and lava flows centered around the New Southeast Crater, just below the summit.On

  • Dust and clouds blew over the Taklimakan Desert in western China

    Dust and clouds blew over the Taklimakan Desert in western China on August 11, 2011. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite took this picture the same day.Sitting inside the Tarim Basin, the Taklimakan Desert is the

  • Crop failure compounds drought crisis in Afghanistan

    Ongoing drought in northern, northeastern and western Afghanistan is likely to push 1.5-2 million more people into food insecurity this autumn, according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP).   This is in addition to the seven million country-wide already facing food

  • Saharan dust blew over the Atlantic Ocean

    Saharan dust blew over the Atlantic Ocean in early August 2011. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image on August 11, 2011:A dust plume runs northeast-southwest over the ocean, blowing past the

  • Activity at Kizimen and Shiveluch volcanoes, Kamchatka Peninsula

    The Kamchatka Peninsula, along Russia’s Pacific coast, is currently the most volcanically active area in the world: four volcanoes are erupting simultaneously, and a fifth is showing signs of an impending eruption. Ash plumes from two of these volcanoes and a thermal

  • 5.8-magnitude earthquake hit northwest China

    A 5.8-magnitude earthquake hit northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region around 6:06 p.m. Thursday, said the China Earthquake Networks Center. The epicenter was monitored at the border area between the region’s Atux City in the Kizilsu Kirgiz Autonomous

  • Hundreds of dead birds found in Broken Arrow in Oklahoma

    A News On 6 viewer became concerned Wednesday after shopping at a Broken Arrow Walmart Neighborhood Market when she said she saw hundreds of dead birds strewn across the parking lot.”There were about 60-70 around each tree base, plus the ones starting up at the

  • Cleveland volcano erupts

    Cleveland Volcano, located on uninhabited Chuginadak Island in the Aleutians, has begun building a lava dome. An Alaska volcano has begun erupting, but it is not yet posing a serious hazard to populations or aviation in the region.The eruption was described as a

  • Exceptional drought across the United States

    More of the United States was in exceptional drought in July 2011 than in any other month in the past 12 years, according to the National Climatic Data Center. The worst of the drought is spread across Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and parts of Arizona, Colorado,

  • Cold snap triggered massive coral die-off

    While warming seas are a leading cause in the decline of the world’s coral reefs, U.S. researchers have discovered cold temperatures can be just as devastating.Scientists are the University of Georgia conducted a study of coral reefs in the Florida Keys following an