Photos from the Kingdom of Tonga show streets and buildings covered in heavy ash after the massive eruption at Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai on January 15, 2022. While streets and roofs can be cleared, tsunami waves, up to 15 m (49 feet) in some places, and heavy…
Northern regions of Scandinavia were treated to a very rare high-altitude spectacle on January 17, 2022, photographer Adrien Mauduit reports. For about 2 hours, rare polar stratospheric clouds (PSC) type II appeared out of nowhere, displaying a staggering…
China is stockpiling food at historically high levels and now has more than half of the world's maize and other grains. By mid-2022, the country is estimated to hold 69% of the world’s corn reserves, 60% of rice, and 51% of wheat. At the end of 2021,…
Lava flow produced by the eruption of Ecuador's Wolf volcano that started on January 7, 2022, is now 15 km (9.3 miles) long and less than 5 km (3.1 miles) from the coast. The last eruption of this volcano took place in 2015 (VEI 4)1 — it was its first eruption…
Tectonic earthquakes are being registered beneath the summit area of Ruapehu volcano in New Zealand since December 30, 2021. While these earthquakes are uncommon, none of the monitoring data suggests that the volcano is exhibiting increased levels of activity….
At least 10 people have been killed and 32 others injured after a massive chunk of rocks toppled onto boaters in Canyon de Furnas, Brazil. The event took place on Saturday, January 8, 2022, after a period of heavy rain. 4 boats were affected, of which two directly….
Heavy snow blanketed capital Tokyo on January 6, 2022, forcing the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) to issue the city's first heavy snow warning since 2018. JMA meteorologists said a low-pressure system off Japan's Pacific coast has brought snow to a wide…
A loud boom over the skies of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania on January 1, 2022, was caused by a meteor exploding with the blast energy equivalent to 30 tons of TNT. The event took place around 16:20 UTC (11:30 EST) but was not observable from the ground due to clouds….
Eruption at Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano in Tonga started on December 19, 2021, and continued into 2022 although at a much lower intensity. The Aviation Color Code remains at Orange. Intermittent eruption with an ash plume rising up to 3 km (10 000 feet)…
Tropical Cyclone "Seth" formed in the Coral Sea NE of Mackay, Queensland on December 31, 2021, as the 4th named storm of the 2021/22 Australian region cyclone season. While Seth is not expected to directly affect the coastline over the weekend, it will…
