An unprecedented wildfire is burning on the island of Gran Canaria, Spain’s Canary Islands since August 17, 2019. Although it has now started to subside, it engulfed around 10 000 ha (24 710 acres) of land, leading to the evacuation of over 9 000 people from…
Extreme monsoon rains hit western India and Myanmar in early August 2019, causing dramatic flooding and landslides and leaving at least 258 people dead. The animation below depicts satellite-based measurements of rainfall from August 1 – 12, 2019. The darkest reds…
A wildfire that broke out on Hawaii's Maui Island at 10:30 LT on July 11, 2019 spread to 4 040 ha (10 000 acres) by Friday morning. Thousands of people were forced to evacuate but were allowed to return after conditions improved. The fire grew out of control by…
After days of extremely heavy rain falling over Queensland, Australia this month, Flinders River has grown to a 'mega river' and is now 60 km (37 miles) wide in some of its parts. This is its most significant flooding in more than 50 years and so vast it…
Strong winds affecting northern Africa have pushed thick Saharan dust toward the Canary Islands and Greece on February 5 and 6, 2019, significantly lowering air quality in both regions. Large amounts of dust were pushed from Morocco and Mauritania toward the Canary…
At least 22 people were forced to evacuate on Monday, February 4, 2019, after lava flow produced by Mount Karangetan on Siau Island, Indonesia's North Sulawesi reached Malebuhe River near Batubulan village. The flow has almost reached the coastline as of…
According to imagery captured by satellites and passengers aboard airplanes, the Tinakula volcano in the Solomon Islands is active again. Its last eruptive period lasted from October 21 to 26, 2018 (VEI3). Heavy ashfall produced during the eruption was followed by…
The number of people killed in shallow M7.5 earthquake and tsunami it caused on September 28 climbed to 1 407 today, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency said October 3, 2018. An estimated 66 000 homes have been destroyed or…
European Space Agency's used data provided by their trio of Swarm satellite and combined it with historical data from the German CHAMP satellite and observations from ships and aircraft to produce the most detailed map of the Earth's lithosphere. The map is…
Scientists have uncovered the ocean conditions that support a massive summertime bloom of algae that spans 16 % of the global ocean. Known as the Great Calcite Belt, this dense group of a microscopic phytoplankton, coccolithophores, can be seen in satellite images…
