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☆ Taiwan’s Taroko National Park closed indefinitely following earthquake
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-10 | by ( Wayne Chang | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

Taipei CNN —The Taroko National Park in eastern Taiwan, a popular destination for domestic and international tourists alike, will close until further notice, after the island was struck by the strongest earthquake in 25 years last week. “All levels of trails and facilities within the Taroko National Park jurisdiction have been damaged. The 920-square-kilometer (9,990 square foot) area was declared a National Park of Taiwan in 1986. In an interview with Taiwan’s official Central News Agency, deputy director of the Taroko National Park Headquarters Lin Chung-shan said the Hehuan Mountain area, which lies partially within the park, was relatively less impacted and will gradually reopen. The Taroko National Park attracted 3.45 million visitors in 2023, according to statistics provided by the Hualien Tourism Department.

Persons: Lin Chung Organizations: Taipei CNN, Pa National Parks, of, Central News Agency, Hualien Tourism Department Locations: Taipei, Taiwan, Yushan, Pa, of Taiwan, Taroko, Hualien

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The death toll from severe flooding in central Greece rose to 10 people Friday, while another four remained missing, the country's civil protection minister said. Rescue crews in helicopters and boats ferried hundreds of people from inundated villages to safety. Flooding triggered by rainstorms also hit neighboring Bulgaria and Turkey, killing a total of 22 people in all three countries since the rains began Tuesday. In Greece, the rainstorms turned streams into raging torrents that burst dams, washed away roads and bridges and hurled cars into the sea. Authorities have said some areas received twice the average annual rainfall for Athens in the space of just 12 hours.

Persons: rainstorms, floodwater, ”, Ioanna Gana, Greece’s, Vassilis Kikilias, Kikilias, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, ” Mitsotakis Organizations: Rescue, Authorities, Civil, Swiss, European Union, rockfalls . Locations: ATHENS, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, Athens, Larissa, ” Larissa, Karditsa .

☆ 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

☆ Swiss police evacuate villages due to wildfire
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

GENEVA, July 17 (Reuters) - Swiss police ordered the evacuation of several mountain villages late on Monday as a forest fire spread, while it was not immediately clear how many people were affected. It later added that three other villages were to be evacuated and warned of rockfalls. Air Zermatt, which operates four of the helicopters, said efforts to extinguish the fire would continue through the night. Valais police posted pictures showing a helicopter dangling a water cannon above a forest fire in the afternoon. loadingThe area is affected by the same Mediterranean heatwave affecting southern Europe, with temperatures set to exceed 30 Celsius in parts of the Valais canton this week, forecasts show.

Persons: Emma Farge, Gabrielle Tetrault, Farber, Josie Kao Organizations: Swiss, Twitter, rockfalls, Air Zermatt, Thomson Locations: GENEVA, Valais, Ried, Morel, Brig, Air, Europe

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

CNN —The Philippines’ most active volcano began spewing lava and sulfuric gas Sunday, prompting the evacuation of nearly 13,000 residents in the southeast of the country’s main island, authorities said. Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) recommended everyone within a 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) radius or “danger zone” of the Mount Mayon volcano be evacuated due to the danger of rockfalls, landslides and ballistic fragments. Within the past 24 hours, the Mayon Volcano Network recorded 21 weak volcanic earthquakes, and 260 rockfalls, as well as lava flow activity from the crater, according to Phivolcs. Albay province was placed under a state of calamity on Friday allowing the government to release response funds to support affected residents, CNN affiliate CNN Philippines reported. “Lava flows are slow moving and effusive eruptions are generally less violent and produce less ash and volcanic gases than explosive eruptions,” he told CNN Philippines.

Persons: Phivolcs, Teresito Bacolcol, Bacolcol, Mayon Organizations: CNN, Philippine Institute of, Philippine Provincial Information Office, CNN Philippines Locations: Philippines, Luzon, Manila, Mayon, Albay

☆ Weird and wonderful trains that break the rules
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Ben Jones | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +14 min

Here’s a selection of unusual railways that break the rules in order to reach the places other trains can’t roll. The single rails carrying the trains are supported by a series of 486 steel portals weighing almost 20,000 tonnes in total. It is the oldest continuously operating pier railway in the world. Six miles of the route are along a rural railway line, with the rest in bus mode. Katoomba Scenic Railway, AustraliaNot far from the wonderful city of Sydney is a railway experience unlike anything else in the world.

[1/5] Locals in the Chiradzulu district look at the damage on a road after mudslides and rockfalls in the area caused by the aftermath of Cyclone Freddy in Blantyre, Malawi, March 15, 2023. Most people heeded the warnings, knowing from bitter experience the damage such storms could inflict: 600 people had died in Cyclone Idai in 2019. The storm was far more deadly in neighbouring Malawi, where at least 447 were killed as Freddy tore through the country's southern tip and inundated the main commercial hub of Blantyre. Mozambique and Malawi are among the poorest 8% of countries in the world, according to United Nations data. In the case of Freddy, this extra energy allowed the storm to pick up strength again and circle back to strike again.

☆ California flood watch issued as next atmospheric river looms
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

LOS ANGELES, March 9 (Reuters) - Flood watch notices were posted across northern and central California for Thursday ahead of an atmospheric river storm expected to douse much of the state with heavy rain, including mountain areas still buried from a near-record snowfall. But smaller, waterfront communities along several major rivers and their tributaries also braced for the possibility of overflowing streams swollen by heavy showers and runoff of melting snow. Elsewhere, the NWS issued "prepare now" alerts for residents along the Big Sur, Carmel, Salinas and Pajaro rivers. "It's really a combination of all this heavy rainfall coming and also rapidly melting snow." The looming deluge follows a three-week barrage of nine atmospheric river storms that struck California in late December through mid-January, triggering widespread flooding as well as hundreds of mudslides, rockfalls and sinkholes across the state.

[1/3] People walk along a rocky beach caused by high surf following winter storms in San Diego, California, U.S., January 17, 2023. The White House said Biden, who on Saturday authorized federal disaster assistance for three hard-hit counties in northern and central California, would be joined by Governor Gavin Newsom and other elected officials. Twisted wreckage of wooden piers torn up along the waterfronts at both locations vividly illustrated the storms' destructive force. The high winds wreaked havoc on the state's power grid, knocking out electricity to tens of thousands of Californians. Reporting by Jeff Mason in Washington; Additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Katherine Jackson in Washington; Writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles.

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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