Tag Archives: volcanic eruptions

Indonesian volcanic eruption; 10 pronounced dead as rescuers search for more bodies

eruption-of-Mount-Lewotobi-Laki-Laki

Important Takeaways:

  • Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency said Monday that at least 10 people have died as a series of volcanic eruptions widens on the remote island of Flores.
  • The eruption at Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki just after midnight on Monday spewed thick, brownish ash as high as 2,000 meters into the air and hot ashes hit a nearby village, burning down several houses, including a convent of Catholic nuns, said Firman Yosef, an official at the Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki monitoring post.
  • Rescuers were still searching for more bodies buried under collapsed houses, said Abdul Muhari, the National Disaster Management Agency’s spokesperson. Muhari said all the bodies, including that of a child, were found within a four-kilometer radius of the crater.
  • Authorities also raised the danger level and widened the danger zone for Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki on Monday, following a series of eruptions that began last week.
  • More than 10,000 affected in nearby villages
  • “The eruptions that occurred since Friday were due to the accumulation of hidden energy,” Wafid said.

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Iceland volcanic experts predict eruption could happen at any moment as more quakes hit the region

Seismic-Swarm-Iceland

Important Takeaways:

  • ‘Time’s finally up’: Iceland’s impending volcanic blast ‘marks the start of centuries of eruptions’ as one region is hit by 800 new quakes that have split houses apart and created gaping chasms
  • Iceland’s looming volcano blast is just the beginning of a new era of volcanic eruptions that will last for centuries, with the build-up of magma beneath the coastal town of Grindavik signalling that more is to come, scientists have warned.
  • The region has been rattled by more than 800 new earthquakes since midnight, with experts warning that magma is rising ever closer to the earth’s surface fueling fears of an imminent volcanic eruption
  • Around 4,000 residents were evacuated from Grindavik on Saturday morning, hours after Iceland declared a state of emergency.
  • A huge nine-mile-long magma intrusion, just northwest of Grindavik, has formed and is growing, according to experts, with magma thought to be as close as 500 meters from the surface.
  • Just a few days ago, experts were saying that magma was accumulating three miles below ground, but it has now risen much closer, if estimates are correct.
  • In case the worst happens, authorities are preparing to build defense walls around a nearby geothermal power plant which they desperately hope will protect it from lava flows.

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Over 10 million displaced by climate disasters in six months: report

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – About 10.3 million people were displaced by climate change-induced events such as flooding and droughts in the last six months, the majority of them in Asia, a humanitarian organization said on Wednesday.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said about 2.3 million others were displaced by conflict in the same period, indicating the vast majority of internal displacements are now triggered by climate change.

Though the figures cover only a six-month period from September 2020 to February 2021, they highlight an accelerating global trend of climate-related displacement, said Helen Brunt, Asia Pacific Migration and Displacement Coordinator for the IFRC.

“Things are getting worse as climate change aggravates existing factors like poverty, conflict, and political instability,” Brunt said. “The compounded impact makes recovery longer and more difficult: people barely have time to recover and they’re slammed with another disaster.”

Some 60% of climate-IDPs (internally displaced persons) in the last six months were in Asia, according to IFRC’s report.

McKinsey & Co consulting firm has said that Asia “stands out as being more exposed to physical climate risks than other parts of the world in the absence of adaptation and mitigation.”

Statistics from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) show that on average 22.7 million people are displaced every year. The figure includes displacements caused by geophysical phenomenon such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, but the vast majority are displaced by weather-related events.

Globally, 17.2 million people were displaced in 2018 and 24.9 million in 2019. Full-year figures are not yet available for 2020, but IDMC’s mid-year report showed there were 9.8 million displacements because of natural disasters in the first half of last year.

More than 1 billion people are expected to face forced migration by 2050 due to conflict and ecological factors, a report by the Institute for Economics and Peace found last year.

(Reporting by Kanupriya Kapoor, Editing by Timothy Heritage)