Articles tagged as Natural Disasters

Sweden's 1,200-year-old Rök stone is inscribed with more than 700 runes, some of which may discuss climate change.

Viking Runestone May Trace Its Roots to Fear of Extreme Weather

Sweden’s Rök stone, raised by a father commemorating his recently deceased son, may contain allusions to an impending period of catastrophic cold

January 10, 2020

The Blue Mountains of Niger. Arable land in the fast-growing country shrank nearly 50 percent per capita from 1996 to 2016.

Photographs From One of the World’s Most Troubled, and Least Understood, Regions

A photojournalist journeys to the Sahara-Sahel desert of remote northern Africa to catalogue the state of emergency on the ground

January 2020

After DART smashes into an asteroid, the Hera spacecraft will analyze the impact.

The European Space Agency’s Hera mission will collect data after NASA’s DART mission impacts the asteroid Didymos B

December 3, 2019

A New Yorker captured this image of a flooded subway entrance on November 20.

How the New York City Subway Is Preparing for Climate Change

“We’re doing this because climate change is real,” the MTA account wrote on Twitter after a local shared a snapshot of a flooded subway entrance

November 26, 2019

"It was hot, sweaty, exhausting work. But it was also life-changing and inspiring, channeling our love to do something as simple as this: to feed the people," chef José Andrés writes in We Fed an Island, recounting his nonprofit's effort to feed Puerto Ricans after Hurricane Maria.

American Ingenuity Awards

José Andrés’ Generous Helping of Humanity

Braving storms, floods and earthquakes, the renowned chef is forging a new way to feed the needy

December 2019

Helpers fill sandbags on the tip above the shattered Pantglas Junior School to divert a spring and avert the risk of further landslides at Aberfan, South Wales.

Based on a True Story

The True Story of the Aberfan Disaster

The 1966 Welsh mining tragedy claimed the lives of 116 children and 28 adults and features heavily in the third season of Netflix’s “The Crown”

November 15, 2019

Two cows photographed in 2017 on Cedar Island. Three cows, not pictured, were found later following Hurricane Dorian.

Three Cows Swept Away by Hurricane Dorian Have Been Found Alive

Officials think the brave bovines swam between four and five miles to the Cape Lookout National Seashore

November 15, 2019

A general view shows the flooded St. Mark's Square, the Doge's Palace (L), the Lion of St. Mark winged bronze statue and the Venetian lagoon after an exceptional overnight "Alta Acqua" high tide water level, on November 13, 2019 in Venice.

Venice Declares State of Emergency as City Battles Worst Floods in 50 Years

The Italian city’s high-water mark reached 74 inches on Tuesday

November 13, 2019

Shift supervisor James Quinn walks through a darkened CVS Pharmacy as downtown Sonoma, California, remains without power on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2019.

Northern California Cuts Power to 700,000 Homes and Businesses in an Effort to Prevent Fires

In an unprecedented move intended to reduce fire risk, power will be purposefully cut in 34 California counties, an outage that may last up to a week

October 10, 2019

Did a 1964 Earthquake Bring a Dangerous Fungus to the Pacific Northwest?

A new study posits that tsunamis triggered by the Great Alaska Earthquake washed Cryptococcus gattii onto the shore

October 2, 2019

An artist's depiction of an asteroid impacting the Earth.

What Happened the Day a Giant, Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Hit the Earth

Using rock cores from Chicxulub crater, geologists piece together a new timeline of the destruction that followed impact

September 9, 2019

The spider species featured in the study is unusually social, living in colonies of several hundred females and exhibiting either aggressive or docile tendencies

Hurricanes Are Making This Spider Species More Aggressive

The new findings have broader implications for understanding extreme weather events’ effects on animal behavior

August 20, 2019

Climate change-induced heatwaves trigger Arctic wildfires, which then release carbon dioxide and pollutants into the atmosphere

The Arctic Is Experiencing Its Worst Wildfire Season on Record

Arctic infernos released 50 megatons of carbon dioxide—the equivalent of Sweden’s total annual emissions—into the atmosphere in June alone

July 29, 2019

Polychrome mosaic emblema (panel) showing fish and sea creatures, Pompeii, House of the Geometric Mosaics

From Baked Dormouse to Carbonized Bread, 300 Artifacts Show What Romans Ate

The show features frescoes, preserved fruit, cooking utensils and vessels recovered from Pompeii

July 26, 2019

Cool Finds

Drought Reveals Ancient Palace in Iraqi Reservoir

A team of Iraqi and German archaeologists excavated the rare Mittani structure before it was swallowed by water once more

July 1, 2019

This photo, taken June 30, shows how badly crops were burnt and dried out by heat and sun in France's southern wine country.

Gallargues-le-Montueux reached the milestone during an intense heatwave that gripped Europe last week

July 1, 2019

Models show damage to the roof vaults have cut the structure’s wind resistance by over half

May 23, 2019

New Research

Ocean Wind and Waves Have Grown Stronger Over the Last Three Decades

Decades of satellite data show changes in the ocean that could lead to more destructive storm surges and coastal erosion

April 26, 2019

A map of earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or higher between 1900 and 2013. Bigger dots represent stronger quakes, and red dots represent shallow earthquakes, green dots mid-depth, and blue dots represent earthquakes with a depth of 300 kilometers or more. See the full map and legend here.

Could Machine Learning Be the Key to Earthquake Prediction?

Predicting earthquakes might be impossible, but some experts wonder if tools that can analyze enormous amounts of data could crack the seismic code

April 23, 2019

Nepal's first solo mission to measure its iconic peak will determine whether Mount Everest lost some of its height after an earthquake in 2015.

Scientists and climbers have trained for three years to prepare to take various types of survey’s from the summit of the world’s highest peak

April 15, 2019