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      Andean alarm: climate crisis increases fears of glacial lake flood in Peru

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 2 days ago - 11:00

    In 1941, thousands of people died in Huaraz when the natural dam on a lake above the city gave way. Now, melting glaciers are raising the chances of it happening again

    • Photographs by Harriet Barber

    Lake Palcacocha is high in the Cordillera Blanca range of the Peruvian Andes, sitting above the city of Huaraz at an altitude of about 4,500 metres. When the lake broke through the extensive moraines, or natural dams, holding it in place on 13 December 1941, it sent nearly 10m cubic metres of water and debris into the narrow valley towards the city, 1,500 metres below.

    The result was one of the most devastating glacial lake outburst floods – or “GLOFs” – ever recorded. The force of the water altered the area’s geography for ever, and killed at least 1,800 people, and possibly as many as 5,000 .

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      Japan’s Noto earthquake: thousands of survivors struggle as accusations of neglect grow

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Wednesday, 14 February - 00:19

    The lives of 14,000 people affected by the New Year’s day disaster remain in limbo, living in evacuation shelters, and surviving hand to mouth

    Seven weeks after a magnitude-7.6 earthquake struck the isolated Noto peninsula in western Japan, Koji Aizawa and his family must still travel almost 100km to take a weekly bath.

    The house Aizawa, 61, now shares with his wife and sister was still standing after the quake, but the lack of running water means they are struggling with daily necessities, with hygiene top of the list. “We have to go to Kanazawa every weekend for a bath and to do our laundry,” he says. “We have electricity, but no running water. Fetching water so we can flush the toilet is the hardest part.”

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      Uncertainty surrounds Turkish post-quake rebuild – despite bold promises

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Tuesday, 6 February - 05:00

    A year on from the devastation, questions remain about the pace of reconstruction amid the rubble

    Days before the anniversary of twin earthquakes that devastated swaths of Turkey’s south-east on 6 February 2023, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan returned to Hatay province, the area worst hit by the destruction that killed at least 55,000 in Turkey and Syria. Standing on stage in a sports stadium on the outskirts of Antakya, a city once rich in history now all but levelled by the quakes, the Turkish president continued to offer bold promises for reconstruction at break-neck speed, just as he had a year ago.

    “No matter what difficulties we encounter or we experience due to reasons beyond our control, there is no stopping or resting for us until we make Antakya a more magnificent, safer and more vibrant city than before,” he declared.

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      One year on, orphaned siblings are haunted by Syrian earthquake

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Monday, 5 February - 07:00

    Recovery is slow and difficult for the youngsters freed by their uncle from the rubble in Idlib

    Fear of another earthquake grips millions in Syria’s last rebel-held province, even the lucky few who managed to find new homes after theirs were destroyed. Many began pitching tents as the anniversary approached, wary of having to flee their houses once again.

    When the earthquakes struck in the early hours of 6 February last year, people in Idlib said they thought the ground violently shaking meant airstrikes ordered by the government in Damascus. Now the rumble of airstrikes makes them fearful that another quake is happening.

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      ‘No one can bring back what we lost’: fears rise among poor in Turkish city ravaged by earthquakes

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Sunday, 4 February - 09:00

    Less well-off residents in the southern city of Antakya feel left out of the city’s rebuilding efforts

    • Read more: A year in the aftermath of Turkey’s earthquake – a photo essay

    Rows of bright white marble gravestones dot a hillside on the outskirts of Antakya, some bearing the words “martyr of the earthquake”. The final resting place for the city’s dead will soon be overshadowed by tower blocks for those who survived. Bright yellow cranes jut into the skyline on the next hillside, slowly birthing a cluster of concrete skeletons, new government housing for some of the hundreds of thousands who lost their homes when deadly earthquakes struck southern Turkey and northern Syria last February.

    “No one can bring back what was lost, as we lost everything,” said İsa Akbaba, who lost seven members of his extended family along with his home.

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      Philippines earthquake: authorities report deaths from falling debris

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Saturday, 18 November - 04:00


    Shopping mall ceiling collapse among reported damage after earthquake of 6.7 magnitude hits Mindanao region

    The death toll from a strong earthquake off the southern Philippines rose to five on Saturday as authorities reported more casualties across two provinces.

    The 6.7-magnitude quake that struck the Mindanao region mid-afternoon on Friday caused part of a shopping mall ceiling to collapse, triggered power cuts and sent people fleeing into the streets.

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      Listen to the seismic sounds as Iceland braces for likely volcanic eruption

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Thursday, 16 November - 20:23 · 1 minute

    Aerial view of the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland and its lava fields.

    Enlarge / The Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland is mostly a barren waste of lava fields. (credit: Vincent van Zeijst/CC BY 3.0 )

    Intensifying seismic activity these past few weeks along Iceland's southwestern Reykjanes Peninsula —marked by tens of thousands of earthquakes, as many as 1,400 within one 24-hour period—has experts warning of a likely volcanic eruption at any time. While such activity is typically monitored by seismometers, seismologists at Northwestern University are also listening to the data collected by the region's Global Seismographic Network station using an app they developed a few years ago called Earthtunes .

    With the app , those earthquakes can sound like slamming doors or hail pelting a window or roof. “The activity is formidable, exciting, and scary,” said Suzan van der Lee , a Northwestern seismologist who co-developed Earthtunes. “Iceland did the right thing by evacuating residents in nearby Grindavik and the nearby Svartsengi geothermal power plant.”

    Sonification of scientific data is an area of growing interest in many different fields. For instance, several years ago, a project called LHCSound built a library of the “sounds” of a top quark jet and the Higgs boson, among others. The project hoped to develop sonification as a technique for analyzing the data from particle collisions so that physicists could “detect” subatomic particles by ear. Other scientists have mapped the molecular structure of proteins in spider silk threads onto musical theory to produce the "sound" of silk in hopes of establishing a radical new way to create designer proteins. And there's a free app for Android called the Amino Acid Synthesizer that enables users to create their own protein "compositions" from the sounds of amino acids .

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      Iceland: experts predict feared volcanic eruption could destroy town near Reykjavik

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Sunday, 12 November - 03:48

    Town of Grindavik could be heavily damaged by volcano expected to erupt within hours or days, experts say

    An Icelandic town home to about 4,000 people near the capital Reykjavik could be heavily damaged by a volcano expected to erupt within hours or days, according to experts.

    The town of Grindavik on the south-western coast was evacuated in the early hours of Saturday after magma shifting under the Earth’s crust caused hundreds of earthquakes in what is believed to be a precursor to an eruption.

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      Entire Villages Razed as Death Toll Soars From Quakes in Afghanistan

      news.movim.eu / TheNewYorkTimes · Sunday, 8 October - 11:13


    Local officials reported 813 confirmed deaths, though the toll was expected to rise. Homes were reduced to rubble, and hospitals are overwhelmed.