The Van earthquake was a destructive magnitude 7.1 Mw earthquake that struck eastern Turkey near the city of Van on Sunday, 23 October 2011 at 13.41 local time. It occurred at a shallow depth of 20 kilometres (12 miles), causing heavy shaking across much of eastern Turkey and lighter tremors across neighboring parts of the South Caucasus and Levant. According to Disasters and Emergency Situations Directorate of Turkey AFAD on October 30, the earthquake killed 604 and injured are 4,152. At least 11,232 buildings sustained damage in the region, 6,017 … Continue reading →

Hurricane Irene was one of the costliest hurricanes on record in the Northeastern United States.  Irene originated from a well-defined Atlantic tropical wave that began showing signs of organization east of the Lesser Antilles. Due to development of atmospheric convection and a closed center of circulation, the system was designated as Tropical Storm Irene on August 20, 2011. After intensifying, Irene made landfall in St. Croix as a strong tropical storm later that day. Early on August 21, the storm made a second landfall in Puerto Rico. While crossing the … Continue reading →

The 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tohoku, also known as the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, or the Great East Japan Earthquake, was a magnitude 9.0 (Mw) undersea megathrust earthquake off the coast of Japan that occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on Friday, 11 March 2011,with the epicenter approximately 70 kilometres (43 miles) east of the Oshika Peninsula of Tōhoku and the hypocenter at an underwater depth of approximately 32 km (20 miles). It was the most powerful known earthquake ever to have hit Japan, and one of the … Continue reading →

The 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull were volcanic events at Eyjafjöll in Iceland which, although relatively small for volcanic eruptions, caused enormous disruption to air travel across western and northern Europe over an initial period of six days in April 2010. Additional localised disruption continued into May 2010. The eruption was declared officially over in October 2010, when snow on the glacier did not melt. From 14–20 April, ash covered large areas of northern Europe when the volcano erupted. About 20 countries closed their airspace (a condition known as ATC Zero) … Continue reading →

On the 17th January 1994 a huge earthquake has rocked Los Angeles, killing 60 people. The earthquake, which measured 6.6 on the Richter scale and lasted for 40 seconds, struck at 0431 local time (1231 GMT). The number of injured was 7,707 and more than 5,000 buildings were deemed to be unsafe. Repairing the damage to the city cost around $30 billion. The earthquake was felt as far south as San Diego 200km away and as far north as Las Vegas, 440km to the north east. The airport has been … Continue reading →