Earthwatch: A Diary of the Planet

Eruptions

Flowing lava and falling debris from the most violent eruption so far at Montserrat’s Soufriere Hills volcano destroyed the capital of Plymouth. “One can say the city is completely wiped off the map,” said Jean-Christophe Komorovski, director of the Caribbean island’s volcano observatory. Nearly all buildings were set on fire. The British government may poll the colony’s residents to find out whether they want to be permanently moved off the unstable island.

Storms

At least 65 people were killed and hundreds injured when Typhoon Victor battered China’s port of Hong Kong and surrounding Guangdong province. Winds from the region’s most severe storm in a decade flattened houses, while cloudbursts dumped record levels of rainfall in some areas.

Parts of the northern Philippines were battered by high winds and pounding surf from Typhoon Tina. Southern Japan was also in the typhoon’s path.

Hurricane Guillermo skirted Mexico’s southwest coast, then headed out to the open waters of the Pacific.

Earthquakes

At least 20 people were injured when a magnitude 4.2 temblor struck Chandpur in central Bangladesh. The late-night shaking also caused panic-stricken people to rush into the streets.

Earth movements were also felt in northern Israel, southern Iran, Taiwan and southern parts of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Vampire Bat Attacks

Ecuadorian authorities rushed vaccines to the southern province of Loja after the deaths of eight children who contracted rabies from vampire bat attacks.

Floods

Flooding subsided along the German-Polish border, but days of torrential rains to the northwest unleashed inundations across Britain and Ireland.

Severe monsoon flooding in India and Bangladesh killed scores of people and stranded hundreds of thousands.

Wildfires

Blazes in the tropical forests and plantations of Indonesia’s Sumatra and Borneo islands produced smoke so thick that air and sea traffic was disrupted. Slash-and-burn farming techniques are blamed for most of the fires. Several wildfires blackened parts of Southern California, including one ignited by an arsonist that destroyed homes and vehicles near San Diego.

Early Eggs

British birds are now laying their eggs more than a week earlier than normal, possibly because of continued global warming. Humphrey Crick and his colleagues at Britain’s National Center for Ornithology in Thetford came to this conclusion after studying the records of 1,000 volunteer bird-watchers that go back to 1975.

Sources: U.S. Climate Analysis Center, U.S. Earthquake Information Center and the World Meteorological Organization.