Honduras earthquake

Four people were killed and tsunami warnings were issued this morning when a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Honduras.

More from the BBC, including some reader accounts, here.

Australian wildfires

With the crazy snow dominating the headlines this week, there hasn't been as much attention as there might have been focused on the wildfires that are causing huge destruction across the Australian state of Victoria.

At least 65 people have been killed, and entire towns have been destroyed in the fires which are said to be the worst in the area since 1983.

The BBC has a horrifying In Pictures series together with various articles and videos from the past couple of weeks:

Solomon Islands tsunami...

At least 13 people have been killed by a tsunami which hit the Solomon Islands last night, and the death toll is expected to increase. The earthquake that caused the tsunami measured 8.0 on the Richter Scale and struck about 215 miles northwest of Honiara - the capital of the Solomon Islands.The Australian government and RAMSI (Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands) are providing help and emergency supplies, but some of the islands are very remote and so it is difficult to assess the extent of the damage.

Clicking on the map will take you to the BBC coverage of the tsunami.

Hazard Watch

The people behind HEWS (Humanitarian Early Warning Service) describe it as "a global multi-hazard watch service to support humanitarian preparedness".

They collect hazard early warning information from across the globe to allow for efficient planning and decision-making. As a result, there are loads of interesting maps (and did you know there'd been a 5.5 earthquake in Chile this morning?), and links to a range of sites, for example the USGS.

Well worth checking out, especially for Yr9 who are "doing" Natural Hazards at the moment...


Thanks to Ollie Bray for highlighting the site on his blog, and to Rob Chambers for pointing it out to me as well.