#ashes-aftermath

#ashes-aftermath

Researchers have known since at least 2008 that wildfires can create chromium-6, but a new study, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology in November, is the first to report details such as how long it might persist in groundwater.

Amber lava exploded over 200 meters into the air as Kilauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes, erupted on Thursday. Lava fountains began to erupt from the volcano after 11 am local time.

The March 19 fire was a wake-up call for the community, highlighting the importance of egress planning and emergency access during such incidents.

Records show the plant discharged an average of two to three million gallons of processed wastewater each year between 1962 and 2021, including treated radioactive effluents.

'Due to its extent and location it is clear that this is in fact the same magma reservoir as in the previous eruption,' geophysicist Professor Seama Nobukazu said.

Cyclone Vaianu is forecast to bring heavy rain and winds of up to 130 km/h, with authorities warning of potential coastal flooding and landslides.

Flash flooding has been a major problem in recent days in places such as Maui, Molokai and the Big Island, where rain had been falling between 1 and 2in (2.5 and 5cm) an hour overnight, according to the Hawaii emergency management agency.

Remembering the life and work of the geologist George Poulett Scrope, and salmon stories in this week's pick from the Nature archive.

The 1993 erotic thriller Sliver should have ended differently: Zeke, played by William Baldwin, was scripted to fly a helicopter towards an active volcano, after Sharon Stone's character, Carly, reveals she's the killer. The pilot, Craig Hosking, had been tasked with flying low over Hawaii's Kilauea volcano, accompanied by the director of photography, Mike Benson, and his assistant Christopher Duddy, to film the bubbling lava and white plumes of smoke escaping from the Puu Oo vent.

We're not expecting much in terms of winds, mainly just going to be flood potential. And thinking that the focus is going to be Oahu, Maui County and Big Island, with Kauai kind of being on the fringes of it versus, you know, all the Islands were impacted last time.

A lack of insurance coverage in Southeast Asia threatens an increasingly important hub for supply chains, as the region is battered by tropical storms, major flooding, and other natural disasters. Total losses from natural disasters across Asia-Pacific last year totaled $73 billion, yet just $9 billion was insured, according to Germany reinsurance company Munich Re. That makes Asia one of the world's least insured regions against natural disasters.

Researchers have detected rising temperatures, bubbling gases and unusual sulfur formations inside Mexico's El Chichón volcano, also known as Chichonal. The changes were recorded by scientists from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) during monitoring between June and December 2025. The volcano last erupted in 1982, killing at least 2,000 people in one of Mexico's deadliest volcanic disasters. Scientists observed elevated heat, shifting crater-lake chemistry, and gas emissions including hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide, which can be hazardous in high concentrations.

The patchwork efforts to identify and safely remove contamination left by the 2025 Eaton and Palisades fires has been akin to the Wild West. Experts have given conflicting guidance on best practices. Shortly after the fires, the federal government suddenly refused to adhere to California's decades-old post-fire soil-testing policy; California later considered following suit. Meanwhile, insurance companies have resisted remediation practices widely recommended by scientists for still-standing homes.

A deep area of low pressure to the south-east of New Zealand's North Island swept into the region on Sunday, bringing heavy rain, gale-force winds and dangerous coastal swells that lashed exposed shorelines. The storm triggered power outages, forced evacuations and damaged infrastructure, with further impacts likely on Monday as the system lingers for a time, before tracking southwards later.

Although Kansas has no active volcanoes, the region marks the southern reach of the Midcontinent Rift System, a massive tectonic event that nearly split North America apart in Earth's distant past. When magma forced its way through the crust during that period, it left behind hardened igneous rock and deep fractures that remain buried thousands of feet underground.

With every eruption, towns such as Giarre experience an average of 12,000 tonnes of ashfall daily, which the wind can transport as far as 800km (497 miles). In July 2024, Catania Sicily's second-largest city, located at the foot of Mount Etna registered 17,000 tonnes of ash daily, which took nearly 10 weeks to collect.

The death toll from landslides and flooding in the Gamo Zone of southern Ethiopia has risen to at least 64, with dozens more people missing, police have said. The number of people missing due to the recent flood in Gamo zone has reached 128, and according to the latest information, 64 bodies have been found.

Land is one of those things that can disappear even as you see it. It falls away beneath you, becoming merely the ground under your feet, because you're thinking about where you're going, or a place slowly blurring out of focus from the airplane window. Land is a primal word, primordial even, like lava. And it is a loaded word if, say, you're Indigenous or descend from a people whose land was taken from them.

Inside, there are still textbooks lying on the desks, pencil cases are strewn across the floor; empty bento boxes that were never taken home. Along the corridor, shoes line the route the children took when they fled, some still in their indoor plimsolls, as their town was rocked by a magnitude-9 earthquake on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 which went on to cause the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chornobyl.

The death toll from Saturday's landslide in a residential area of West Java province has risen to 10. Indonesian rescuers have resumed searching for some 80 people still missing in a deadly landslide, after the mission coordinator said operations had to be suspended overnight due to harsh weather. The death toll from Saturday's landslide in a residential area of West Java province rose to 10 on Sunday, according to state-run media, announcing three more deaths.

A powerful storm system arrives Sunday with heavy rain, thunderstorms and dangerous waves, posing threats of flooding and debris flows through early next week. The strongest impacts hit late Sunday through Monday, with 1-2 inches of rain expected in valleys and coasts, twice as much in mountains. High-surf advisory expected Monday through Thursday, with waves exceeding 10 feet across all Southern California beaches and a 20-30% chance of damaging sets midweek.