Earthwatch: A Diary of the Planet

Fierce Floods

Heavy rains returned to South Korea, worsening the already record flooding that has left 234 people dead and 92 others missing across the country. Public cemeteries around Seoul were thrown into chaos after flash floods washed away thousands of tombs. Roads leading to two graveyards on the northern fringes of the capital were jammed as family members rushed to try to recover the remains of the dead. In India and Bangladesh, ongoing severe flooding has killed at least 600 people this summer and another round of high water threatens to inundate more lowland areas.

Eruption’s End

Scientists announced that they believe the Soufriere Hills volcanoes on the Caribbean island of Montserrat is settling down, and residents soon will be allowed to return to their devastated communities to rebuild. A massive cleanup of ash around Old Towne and Salem is due to start in the near future, and the town’s approximately 1,200 residents still on the island will move back when all of the ash has been removed.

Killing Heat

Ongoing heat baking a wide area of the Mediterranean and Middle East killed 35 people in Cyprus alone and caused others to collapse from heat stroke across Lebanon, Israel and Bahrain. Most of the victims on Cyprus, where temperatures soared to over 110 degrees Fahrenheit, were children and the elderly.

Mink Menace

Officials in England said that the animal-rights activists who freed 6,00 mink from a fur farm in the south of the country are provoking a potential wildlife disaster in the area. The Animal Liberation Front said they smashed cages and cut wires at a factory farm near Ringwood, allowing the ferocious predators to escape into New Forest--named by the Rio Earth Summit as a vital environmental haven.

Earthquakes

A sharp temblor along the San Andreas fault shook a wide area of Northern California, swaying buildings in downtown San Francisco and knocking items off shelves in southern parts of the Bay Area. Quakes were also felt in western Japan, Taiwan, southwest India and around Anchorage, Alaska.

Australian Fireball

A meteor believed to be the size of a baseball briefly brightened the night sky across parts of Australia. The flash was seen from Alice Springs to Mornington Island, 620 miles to the northeast. An officer in charge of the remote Avon Downs police station, Sgt. Bob Jeffries, said the flash of light lit up his backyard like daylight-- “That’s not bad considering my backyard out there is about a million acres.” The fireball is believed to have been part of the Perseid meteor shower.

Sources: U.S. Climate Analysis Center, U.S. Earthquake Information Center and the World Meteorological Organization.