Earthwatch: A Diary of the Planet

Eruptions

Nyamuragira Volcano near the eastern Congolese rebel stronghold of Goma exploded, panicking nearby residents who feared they were under artillery attack. The volcano sprang to life Jan. 26 when its rim turned red and it began spewing fireballs that resembled artillery fire. Lava from the volcano has flowed toward Virunga National Park on the unpopulated side of the mountain.

A column of ash soared high into the Mediterranean sky as Sicily’s Mt. Etna produced another in its current series of eruptions. Although two coastal communities on the volcano’s eastern slopes were blanketed by ash, there were no reports of damage and the mountain’s ski slopes remained open.

Floods Threaten Figures

Crews in Peru labored to protect the ancient Nasca lines, which stretch for miles across the country’s topography, from floods that followed heavy rainfall in the southern coastal desert. Workmen dug ditches and cleared blocked drains in an effort to prevent mudslides that could damage the vast and mysterious lines which, when viewed from the air, depict symbolic figures more than a mile long. The animal and geometric figures, about 250 miles south of Lima, were carved into the landscape by members of the Nasca culture between 700 BC and AD 900. Their meaning has been the object of decades of speculation.

Holding Back the Desert

Cities in Libya have carried out an extensive program to plant thousands of seedlings in an effort to stabilize the country’s migrating sand dunes. The unstable dunes in the Libyan desert can move three to four miles a day, burying homes, cropland, roads and oases.

Equatorial Frost

A devastating frost spread across western Kenya’s Nandi District, killing an elderly woman and destroying more than 12,400 acres of tea. Officials said that temperatures in the equatorial tea-growing region had plunged to 14 degrees Fahrenheit. Local tea companies believe that as much as 75% of their crop has been lost. The disaster has caused widespread concern among local farmers as to whether or not they should continue to plant maize this season.

Earthquakes

A magnitude 5.5 temblor in Iran’s northeastern province of Khorassan killed one person, injured 15 others and caused 400 homes to collapse.

Earth movements were also felt in the Kuril Islands, Taiwan, the northern Philippines, Indonesia’s Nusa Tenggara Timur province, Tibet, Turkey, southeastern Greece, western Guatemala, Oregon and Alaska.

Stuck with Storks

Storks in the small Spanish city of Alaraz in central Salamanca province are causing the roof of its 16th century church to cave in under the weight of their nests. The church is the breeding place of choice for the huge birds, which build nests weighing more than 400 pounds on the roof of the Gothic edifice. The mayor of Alaraz, Marceliano Iglesias, reported that there are now 23 of the nests. The storks’ population is increasing at a rapid pace. and Iglesias said that, “at this rate, we will have to build them a new church in two years.”