Magnitude 5+ Earthquakes – Global
5.4 earthquake hits the Pacific-Antarctic ridge.
5.2 earthquake hits New Guinea, Papua New Guinea.
5.2 earthquake hits the Andaman Islands off India.
5.2 earthquake hits the Xinjiang-Qinghai border, China.
5.0 earthquake hits the Mariana Islands.
5.0 earthquake hits Hokkaido, Japan.
Tropical Storms – Roundup of Tropical Storms:
In the Southern Hemisphere: Tropical cyclone 22s (Joaninha), located approximately 570 nm east of Port Louis, Mauritius, is tracking south-southeastward at 04 knots.
Wildfires – Portugal
Hundreds of Portuguese firefighters struggled on Wednesday to contain wildfires which erupted far earlier in the season than usual because of unexpectedly hot and windy weather. Ten fires were burning across the country, most in the north, several months before the late spring season when fire crews are normally in place.
African Swine Fever – Vietnam
The Vietnam Ministry of Agriculture reported this week (computer translated) on three additional provinces having reported African swine fever (ASF). This brings the total 21 provinces reporting cases in the past five weeks with 64,879 pigs affected. To date, ASF has mainly appeared on small farms where sanitation and biosecurity is not good.
Syphilis – Australia
A total of 1,372 cases of infectious syphilis were notified in Victoria, compared to 1,351 cases in 2017 and 1,134 cases in 2016. The majority of notified cases continue to occur in males with 73 per cent of males reporting male sexual partners as the source of infection. Thirty per cent of the cases among MSM were HIV positive and of these, 57 per cent were reinfections.
Measles – Brooklyn, USA
New York City health officials reported an additional 33 confirmed measles in the past week, bringing the outbreak total to 214 since October 2018.
Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever – South Africa
A Kimberley man is being treated for Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF), commonly known as Congo fever, in the isolation unit at the Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Hospital. Elliott is the second patient to be diagnosed with Congo fever in South Africa this year. The other case is in the Free State. It is thought he contracted the disease through a tick bite.
Global Volcanic Activity – New Activity for the week of 20 March – 26 March 2019
Bezymianny | Central Kamchatka (Russia) : KVERT reported that after a powerful explosive eruption at Bezymianny recorded on 15 March activity was characterized by growth of the W part of the lava dome, strong fumarolic activity, and dome incandescence. The Aviation Color Code was lowered to Yellow (the second lowest level on a four-colour scale) on 21 March.
Tengger Caldera | Eastern Java (Indonesia) : PVMBG reported that during 19-26 March ash plumes of variable densities and colors ranging from white to black rose as high as 1.2 km above the crater rim of Tengger Caldera’s Bromo cone. The ash plumes drifted in multiple directions. The Alert Level remained at 2 (on a scale of 1-4), and visitors were warned to stay outside of a 1-km radius of the crater.
Villarrica | Chile : On 20 March POVI reported that lava fountains at Villarrica were visible rising almost 50 m above the crater rim. They noted that, despite low seismicity, Strombolian explosions on 24 March ejected material more than 25 m above the crater rim.
Magnitude 5+ Earthquakes – Global
5.7 earthquake hits Tonga.
5.6 earthquake hits offshore El Salvador.
5.4 earthquake hits Kyushu, Japan.
5.3 earthquake hits Kyushu, Japan.
5.2 earthquake hits northern Alaska.
Tropical Storms – Roundup of Tropical Storms:
In the Southern Hemisphere: Tropical cyclone 22s (Joaninha), located approximately 171 nm east of Port Mathurin, Mauritius, is tracking eastward at 05 knots.
NewsBytes:
New Zealand – A woman has been found dead in New Zealand following a severe downpour that washed away a bridge and prompted a state of emergency in the South Island. A storm battering the region saw the Waiho Bridge, near the town of Franz Josef, destroyed by a torrential river on Tuesday night. Meteorologists have described the event as significant, even by the area’s rainy standards, with some parts struck by more than 800mm of rain in a once-in-a-century downpour.
Indonesia – Update – The Indonesian Red Cross is continuing search and rescue efforts in the wake of devastating floods that killed at least 113 people in the eastern province of Papua, with almost 100 still missing more than a week after the disaster struck. More than 11,500 people were displaced in flash floods and a subsequent landslide in the Sentani area of the provincial capital, Jayapura, earlier this month. As many as 94 people remain missing.
Global carbon emissions hit record high in 2018
Global energy-related carbon emissions rose to a record high last year as energy demand and coal use increased, mainly in Asia, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday (March 26).
Energy-related CO2 emissions rose by 1.7 per cent to 33.1 billion tonnes from the previous year, the highest rate of growth since 2013, with the power sector accounting for almost two-thirds of this growth.
The United States’ CO2 emissions grew by 3.1 per cent in 2018, reversing a decline a year earlier, while China’s emissions rose by 2.5 per cent and India’s by 4.5 per cent. Europe’s emissions fell by 1.3 per cent and Japan’s fell for the fifth year running.
Carbon dioxide emissions are the primary cause of global average temperature rise which countries are seeking to curb to avoid the most devastating effects of climate change.
Magnitude 5+ Earthquakes – Global
5.0 earthquake hits Tarapaca, Chile.
Tropical Storms – Roundup of Tropical Storms:
In the Southern Hemisphere: Tropical cyclone (tc) 21s (Veronica), located approximately 123 nm northeast of Learmonth, Australia, is tracking southwestward at 08 knots.
Tropical cyclone 22s (Joaninha), located approximately 45 nm east-northeast of Port Mathurin, Mauritius, is tracking east-southeastward at 06 knots.
NewsBytes:
Iran – At least 18 people were killed and around 100 others were wounded in flash floods in Iran’s southern province of Fars, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Monday, following devastating floods in the north. State TV said several provinces were also on high alert for more imminent flooding because of heavy rain.
Wildfires – Indonesia
The total area lost to wildfires in Riau, a province of Indonesia, this year has increased to 2,719 hectares. The worst wildfires were recorded on Rupat Island, where peatland was on fire throughout February, causing thick smoke that spread to the city of Dumai on the Sumatran mainland.
Measles – Philippines – Update
In a follow-up on the measles outbreak in the Philippines, government officials have reported an additional 596 cases since the last update – 2 days ago.
Lassa Fever – Nigeria
Nigerian health officials reported 23 new confirmed Lassa fever cases in the past week, bringing the outbreak total to 495 confirmed positive since the beginning of the year.
Lassa Fever – Liberia
Cumulatively, 16 cases including four deaths have been confirmed since the beginning of 2019.
Plague – DR Congo
The DRC Ministry of Health reported four deceased suspected cases of pneumonic plague identified retrospectively in the same family from Atungkulei Village, Mahagi District, Ituri Province. The cases are epidemiologically linked to those in Uganda.
Magnitude 5+ Earthquakes – Global
5.1 earthquake hits the Kuril Islands.
5.1 earthquake hits offshore Oaxaca, Mexico.
Tropical Storms – Roundup of Tropical Storms:
In the Southern Hemisphere: Tropical cyclone (tc) 21s (Veronica), located approximately 203 nm northeast of Learmonth, Australia, is tracking west-northwestward at 04 knots.
Tropical cyclone 22s (Joaninha), located approximately 331 nm east-northeast of Port Louis, Mauritius, is tracking east-southeastward at 06 knots.
NewsBytes:
Iran – Massive floods in northern Iran over the weekend were so severe that the armed forces and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were deployed to deal with the crisis. Up to 400 villages in Golestan and 200 in Mazandaran were reported to be without power. Some of the villages received assistance in recent days, and 7,000 people were said to have received emergency accommodations.
Australia – Veronica was a category four on Saturday before making landfall on Sunday, bringing destructive winds that downed trees and damaged roofs, heavy rain that caused flooding and a storm surge that eroded beaches.
Wayward Gorillas
Australian scientists believe they know why the endangered mountain gorillas in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park are leaving the reserve to raid nearby eucalyptus plantations, causing conflict with the human population.
It had been thought that the gorillas made the regular forays into the nearby farms only because the plants there were richer in protein and more digestible than what is available in the park.
But researchers from the University of Western Australia found that the eucalyptus bark is rich in salt, which the gorillas crave and will go out of their way to get.
