Magnitude 5+ Earthquakes – Global
5.9 earthquake hits the Solomon Islands.
5.1 earthquake hits south of Fiji.
5.1 earthquake hits the southern east Pacific rise.
5.1 earthquake hits the Kermedec Islands.
5.0 earthquake hits the Owen Fracture zone.
Storms and Floods
Tropical Storms – Roundup of Tropical Storms:
In the Indian Ocean: Tropical cyclone (tc) 01b (Fani), located approximately 205 nm southwest of Calcutta, India, is tracking north-northeastward at 12 knots.
NewsBytes:
India – What is expected to be India’s strongest tropical cyclone to make landfall in 20 years is barreling toward 100 million people on the country’s east coast, prompting officials to begin emergency evacuations. On Thursday, Tropical Cyclone Fani had strengthened significantly in the Bay of Bengal, with maximum sustained winds of 250 kilometers per hour (155 mph) and gusts of up to 305 kilometers per hour (190 mph), according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. Fani, which is about 60 kilometers (38 miles) off the coast of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha states, is equivalent in intensity to a Category 4 hurricane in the Atlantic, or a supertyphoon in the Pacific. It is not expected to make landfall until Friday morning in Odisha, near the city of Puri, but tropical cyclone-force winds are already coming ashore in portions of Andhra Pradesh and along the Odisha coast as well.
USA – A slow-moving storm system is bringing the threat of flash floods to tens of millions of Americans Thursday from Texas all the way to Illinois after severe storms earlier this week left 2 dead in Oklahoma. Lightning led to a series of fires and heavy rainfall from overnight thunderstorms left flooding issues in several East Texas cities.
Environment
Vanishing Forests
Forests around the world shrank by 30 million acres last year as human activity and wildfires brought about the fourth-largest amount of deforestation on record.
Most of the losses were the result of expanding agriculture and humankind’s other expanding footprints on the landscape, according to data compiled by the World Resources Institute.
A number of the deforestation hot spots were near the homes of indigenous people around the Amazon, many of whom had previously been unaffected by deforestation.
The institute says that forest loss was 30% greater in 2018 than the average from 2011 to 2017. It points out that the loss of pristine forest cover is only making climate change worse since the larger and older trees store carbon more efficiently.
Environment
Global Temperature Extremes
The week’s hottest temperature was 117 degrees Fahrenheit (47.2 degrees Celsius) in Matam, Senegal.
The week’s coldest temperature was minus 93.0 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 69.4 degrees Celsius) at Russia’s Vostok base, Antarctica.
Temperatures were tabulated from the more than 10,000 worldwide synoptic weather stations. The United Nations World Meteorological Organization sets the standards for weather observations, and provides a global telecommunications circuit for data distribution.
Disease
Viral Oceans
A four-year study has found that nearly 200,000 marine virus species live in the world’s oceans — far more than the 12,000 species that had earlier been cataloged.
A team that took samples of ocean water from around the world and at varying depths found that communities of the viruses live in five distinct zones.
They also found a great diversity of the viruses in the Arctic, which is in contrast to larger organisms, whose diversity is concentrated near the equator.
Bird Flu – Nepal
The Epidemiology and Disease Control Division of the Nepal Ministry of Health and Population confirmed Thursday the first human fatality due to H5N1 avian influenza infection.
Volcanos
Global Volcanic Activity – New Activity for the week of 24 April – 30 April 2019
Asosan | Kyushu (Japan) : JMA reported that during 24-29 April white plumes from Asosan’s Nakadake Crater rose 200-800 m above the crater rim. Many low-amplitude tremors and volcanic earthquakes were recorded. Sulfur dioxide emissions were generally high but on 25 April the gas emissions were very high at 4,000 tons/day, a value not exceeded since 12 March. Emissions were 3,300 tons/day on 25 April. Weak incandescence from Nakadake Crater was visible at night during 27-28 April. The Alert Level remained at 2 (on a scale of 1-5).
Klyuchevskoy | Central Kamchatka (Russia) : KVERT reported that during 21-22 April a weak thermal anomaly over Klyuchevskoy was identified in satellite images along with gas-and-steam plumes containing ash drifting 160 km E. The Aviation colour Code was raised to Orange (the second highest level on a four-colour scale).
Tengger Caldera | Eastern Java (Indonesia) : The Darwin VAAC reported that during 24-26 April white plumes of variable density rose 300-500 m above Tengger Caldera’s Bromo cone. White-to-black emissions rose 500 m above the cone on 27 April, and white-to-gray emissions rose 600 m above the cone on 29 April. 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.