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☆ Hualien earthquake: Dozens rescued after major Taiwan quake but more than 100 still cut off
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-03 | by ( Helen Regan | Nectar Gan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

“But people are safe, so that’s fortunate.”Workers demolish a damaged building following the earthquake, in Hualien, Taiwan April 4, 2024. A rescue worker stands near the cordoned off site in the aftermath of an earthquake in Hualien, eastern Taiwan on Wednesday, April 3, 2024. Wednesday’s quake is the strongest to hit Taiwan since 1999, according to the Central Weather Administration. That year, a 7.7 magnitude quake hit south of Taipei, killing 2,400 people and injuring 10,000 others. A magnitude 6.2 quake hit near the area in 2018, killing at least 17 people and injuring more than 300 others.

Persons: Hong Changyi, ”, Tyrone Siu, rockfall, Johnson Lai, “ They’ve, Taiwan —, Sam Yeh, Yu, Lin Chih, cheng Organizations: CNN — Rescue, Hong, CNN, Workers, National Fire Agency, SET, Central News Agency, Video, CNA, Reuters, Getty, Hualien Fire Bureau, Central Weather Administration, Taiwan’s Professional Civil Engineers Association Locations: Taiwan, Hualien County, Hualien, Taroko, AFP, ”, Zhonghe, Taipei, Hualien City, Lin, China

☆ The Garisenda 'leaning tower' in Bologna, Italy, is on 'high alert' for collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( Julia Buckley | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —It’s the ‘leaning tower’ that has stood tipsily – but steadily – for nearly 1,000 years. But now, the days of the Garisenda tower in Bologna, Italy, could be numbered. Following investigations last month, the city is instigating a civil protection plan for the “sudden and unexpected collapse of the tower,” which has dominated the Bologna skyline since the 12th century. The Garisenda leans at an angle of four degrees – only a little more upright than the Leaning Tower of Pisa’s five degrees. “The overall situation has unfortunately worsened considerably, with worrying implications for the overall stability of the tower,” reads the report.

Persons: we’ll, Stanley Tucci, CNN —, “, ”, Dante, Michele Lapini, Garisenda, Matteo Lepore, ‘ Organizations: CNN, intel, Bologna’s, Bologna, UNESCO Locations: Bologna, Italy, Manhattan

REUTERS/Denis Balibouse Acquire Licensing RightsZURICH, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Switzerland's glaciers suffered their second worst melt rate this year after record 2022 losses, shrinking their overall volume by 10% in the last two years, monitoring body GLAMOS said on Thursday. "This year was very problematic for glaciers because there was really little snow in winter, and the summer was very warm," Matthias Huss, who leads Glacier Monitoring Switzerland (GLAMOS), told Reuters. This year, low winter snowfall combined with an early start and a late end to the summer melt season dealt the heavy losses, GLAMOS said. "We are really losing the small glaciers," Huss said. Swiss records go back to at least 1960 and as far back as 1914 for some glaciers.

Persons: Denis Balibouse, GLAMOS, Matthias Huss, Huss, " Huss, Emma Farge, Timothy Gardner Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Obergoms, Switzerland, Swiss, Blanc's

TALAT N'YAAQOUB, Morocco, Sept 11 (Reuters) - About to return to school, seven-year-old Suleiman Aytnasr had been carried to his bedroom to ensure a good night's rest after he had fallen asleep in the living room. But Brahim was unable to reach Suleiman. "We thank God that our other sons are still alive." "There is a lot of suffering but we thank God for everything," he said. On Monday, the Moroccan army briefly visited Brahim's hamlet, surveying the damage as helicopters flew over.

Persons: TALAT N'YAAQOUB, Suleiman Aytnasr, Brahim, Talat N’Yaaqoub, Suleiman, He’s, Aytnasr, Mouath, Talat N'Yaaqoub, Hannah, haven’t, Alexander Cornwell Jihed Abidellaoui, Tom Perry, Alex Richardson Organizations: REUTERS, Thomson Locations: Morocco, Talat, Marrakech, Moroccan, Brahim's

This has in turn meant authorities have urged climbers to delay scaling the mountain, which straddles the French-Italian border, because high temperatures have created dangerous conditions. "The heat wave has also an impact on high mountains, it doesn't stop on the plains," said Nicolas Zickler, commanding officer of a high mountain police rescue team. "The routes have changed, the timing of the season has changed, the weather conditions have changed," she said. "The decrease of the glaciers is worrying," said the president of Mont Blanc guide company Compagnie des Guides de Chamonix, Olivier Greber. Reporting by Cecile Mantovani, Denis Balibouse, Writing by Charlotte Van Campenhout; Editing by Chris ReeseOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Mat Cooper, Daniel Trevena, Les Cosmiques, Denis Balibouse, Nicolas Zickler, Cooper, Mont, Olivier Greber, It's, Cecile Mantovani, Charlotte Van Campenhout, Chris Reese Organizations: REUTERS, Compagnie des Guides de Chamonix, Thomson Locations: Chamonix, France, Blanc, CHAMONIX, Mont Blanc, Australian, Swiss, Blanc's

☆ As France widens weather red alert, grape pickers told to work early
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] A general view shows the city of Lyon after sunrise from the Fourviere esplanade as France issued a "red alert" for four southern regions amid a spell of excessively hot weather, especially in the Rhone valley, France, August 22, 2023. The Haute-Savoie region, which includes the French side of the Mont Blanc, is among the 49 departments under an orange alert for high temperatures. France's weather service on Tuesday widened its "red alert", the most serious warning, to include 15 more departments from Wednesday, which will cover large swathes of the southeastern Provence region and some areas to the southwest. HIGHEST ALERT LEVELMeteo France on Monday issued a red alert for four departments around the Rhone valley - Rhone, Drome, Ardeche and Haute-Loire. It has now added the departments of l’Ain, la Loire, l’Isère, la Lozère, le Gard, le Vaucluse, l’Hérault, l’Aveyron, le Tarn, le Tarn et Garonne, l’Aude, le Lot, le Lot et Garonne, la Haute Garonne and le Gers.

Persons: Cecile Mantovani, Mont, Aurelien Rousseau, Jerome Despey, FNSEA, Marc Fesneau, Dominique Vidalon, Sybille de la, Angus MacSwan, Bernadette Baum, Conor Humphries Organizations: REUTERS, Authorities, Agriculture, Thomson Locations: Lyon, France, Rhone, Blanc, Europe's, Haute, Savoie, Mont Blanc, Provence, Drome, Ardeche, Loire, l’Ain, la, l’Isère, le Gard, le Vaucluse, l’Hérault, le, Garonne, l’Aude, la Haute Garonne, le Gers, Languedoc, Burgundy, Meteo France, Toulouse

☆ Mountains are collapsing: A Swiss mountain peak fell apart, sending 3.5 million cubic feet of rock into the valley below. Scientists warn climate change could make more mountains crumble.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-05 | by ( Emily Swaim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Across the world, mountains with permafrost melt have shown larger and more frequent landslides, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported. Sean Gallup / Staff / Getty ImagesBut warming temperatures due to climate change affect more than permafrost. "As mountains get smaller, they reduce pressure on the surrounding slopes, and this is often the trigger for mass movements," Knight said. Climate change puts their lives in danger from mudslides, landslides, rockfalls, and more. The futureAs climate change accelerates, mountain environments change more quickly, as well.

Persons: Fluchthorn, Jasper Knight, that's, Knight, Sean Gallup, SIERRA, Alejandro Argumedo, Tammy Stenner, Stenner, Argumedo, Frédéric Soltan, they're Organizations: Swiss, Service, University of Witwatersrand, Research, rockfalls, Staff, Mount Cook National, South America Locations: Austrian, Southern, New Zealand, Mt, Fluchthorn, Austria, Switzerland, South Africa, South Island , New Zealand, South, ANDES, Peru, Yunnan, China, Peru's, Peruvian

CNN —Part of the summit of a mountain in the Austrian state of Tyrol has collapsed, sending more than 100,000 cubic meters of rock crashing into the valley below and triggering mudslides. The geologists have pinned the collapse on the thawing of permafrost, a long-term frozen layer of soil and rocks. When permafrost thaws it can have a destabilizing effect, said Marcia Phillips, permafrost research group leader at the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research in Switzerland. “Water can penetrate deep into rock masses through newly opened clefts, which were previously plugged with permafrost ice,” she told CNN, explaining that this can lead rocks to fracture. But, as human-caused climate change pushes up global temperatures, leading to thawing permafrost and melting snow and glaciers, rockfalls in this region look set to become more common.

Persons: ”, Thomas Figl, ” Figl, Marcia Phillips, Phillips, ” Phillips, Christian Gartmann, “ Organizations: CNN, WSL, for Snow, Avalanche Research Locations: Austrian, Tyrol, Fluchthorn, Switzerland, Austria, Alpine, Tyrolean, “, Swiss, Brienz, Graubünden, Davos

☆ Residents in for months-long displacement as Philippine volcano spews lava, gases
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] Lava flows from Mount Mayon volcano, in Daraga, Philippines June 11, 2023, in this picture obtained from social media. Incandescent lava was seen flowing slowly from the mouth of the 2,462-metre (8,077-foot) Mayon volcano, which was placed on a high alert level last week following seismic tremors and hundreds of rockfall events. Authorities said people living further away from the volcano should also be ready for possible evacuation, with the police placing checkpoints to prevent residents from returning. Dorothy Colle, a provincial tourism official, said while the no-go zone was being enforced, people were still flocking to observation stations to witness lava flows, which appear particularly bright at night. Its most destructive eruption came in February 1841when lava flows buried a town and killed 1,200 people.

Persons: Nehemiah Manzanilla Sitiar, Bacolcol, Larry Llenaresas, Westrimundo Obinque, Mayon, Dorothy Colle, Neil Jerome Morales, Kanupriya Kapoor Organizations: REUTERS, Authorities, Thomson Locations: Mount Mayon, Daraga, Philippines, REUTERS MANILA, Albay

☆ Philippines raises alert level at rumbling volcano after rockfall, quakes
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MANILA, June 8 (Reuters) - The Philippines raised the alert level at the popular Mayon volcano by a notch on Thursday, after detecting volcanic earthquakes and hundreds of rockfall events. At "alert level 3" on a scale of 5, Mayon has increased chances of lava flows and a potential for explosive activity within weeks or even days, it added. The agency had elevated Mayon to "alert level 2" on June 5. There are no major industries around the volcano, with most farming activities in the area consisting of subsistence crops. The most destructive eruption came in February, 1841 when lava flows buried a town and killed 1,200 people.

Persons: Mayon, Neil Jerome Morales, Kanupriya Kapoor Organizations: Thomson Locations: MANILA, Philippines, Albay

Two people died in a rock slide earlier this week at the Yosemite National Park, according to the local county sheriff’s office. On Friday evening, the park announced another closure at Big Oak Flat Road, east of Foresta, due to another rockfall incident. As of Saturday morning, Big Oak Flat Road remains closed. According to the Yosemite National Park, although uncommon, the Yosemite Valley can experience numerous rockfalls each year. According to the U.S. National Park Service, the Yosemite National Park welcomed 3.3 million visitors in 2021, making it one out of the 25 most visited national parks in the nation.

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