Earth Report – Global Disaster Watch
Magnitude 5+ Earthquakes – Global
6.1 earthquake hits Vanuatu.
6.0 earthquake hits Taiwan.
5.1 earthquake hits the South Sandwich Islands.
5.0 earthquake hits Guam.
5.0 earthquake hits Tonga.
5.0 earthquake hits the South Sandwich Islands.
5.0 earthquake hits Halmahera, Indonesia.
Tropical Storms – Roundup of Tropical Storms:
There are no current tropical storms.
NewsBytes:
Malaysia – Seven states in Malaysia were hit by floods on Sunday and thousands of people were evacuated, taking the total affected by heavy rain in the last two weeks to over 125,000. Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Johor, Malacca, Negeri Sembilan and Sabah were still affected by floods, and 8,727 people were taking shelter at 128 relief centres.
Study Confirms Southern Ocean Is Absorbing Carbon
New observations from research aircraft indicate that the Southern Ocean absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases, confirming that it is a strong carbon sink and an important buffer for the effects of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. The researchers found that the waters in the region absorbed roughly 0.53 more petagrams (530 million metric tons) of carbon than they released each year.
When human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide enter the atmosphere, some of the gas is absorbed by the ocean, a process that can slightly slow carbon accumulation in the atmosphere and the global temperature increases that go with it. Part of this is due to upwelling of cold water from the deep ocean. Once at the surface, colder, nutrient-rich water absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere—usually with the help of photosynthesizing organisms called phytoplankton—before sinking again.
Computer models suggest that 40 percent of the human-produced CO2 in the ocean worldwide was originally absorbed from the atmosphere into the Southern Ocean, making it one of the most important carbon sinks on our planet.
Covid-19
The countries with the 10 greatest number of Covid-19 cases:
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) – Saudi Arabia
The Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health reported four additional Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) cases going back at least two months. All cases had close contact with camels.