Temperature
Extremes
High
temperature extreme:
Oodnadatta, South Australia, +115 degrees.
Low temperature extreme:
Oimyakon, Siberia -72 degrees.
(top)
Summer
Infernos
More
than 120 wildfires that raged through parts of South Africa’s
Western Cape province have caused widespread damage to the Silvermine
Nature Reserve as well as several inhabited areas.
Despite
summer heat and high winds, authorities believed they had brought
the fires under control early in the week, but huge sparks from
a burning mountainside near Simon’s Town later ignited one of
the country’s oldest inhabited districts. Luxury homes on the
picturesque Cape Peninsula were also engulfed, and police had
to force reluctant residents to evacuate the exclusive suburb
of Constantia on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain. Witnesses
reported that searing heat from the flames had melted sewage pipelines,
and that raw sewage was gushing into the sea.
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Crocodile
Menace
The
African countries of Botswana and Malawi are both
plagued with exploding populations of crocodiles that have been
killing local residents at an alarming rate in recent months.
Crocodiles in the Lower Shire Valley of southern Malawi have been
killing at least two people per day, but the number could be even
higher since the incidents have become so common that they are
going unreported. The reptiles have been flourishing since the
signing of the International Convention on Endangered Species,
which limits the culling of crocodiles and some other animals.
The booming croc population has put a strain on the reptiles’
available food supplies and sent them into populated areas.
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Guatemalan
Eruptions
Guatemala’s
Pacaya Volcano produced spectacular eruptions just to the south
of the capital that injured more than 50 people with falling lava.
The
eruptions of the 8,371-foot cylindrical mountain prompted authorities
to evacuate 2,000 residents in the area. Nearby coffee plantations
were also evacuated.
(top)
Rio Refinery
Spill
At
least 130,000 gallons of crude oil gushing from a broken pipeline
in Rio de Janeiro created what authorities termed the worst
ecological disaster to hit the region in a decade.
The spill was endangering animal and plant life in mangrove wetlands
that are rich in biological diversity. Part of a 12-mile refinery
pipeline developed a leak near the coast and spewed oil over beaches
and into Guanabara Bay. State environmental officials told reporters
that the refinery’s pipelines were not well maintained and have
deteriorated.
(top)
Earthquakes
At
least four people were killed and hundreds of others injured when
a magnitude 5.9 foreshock, followed by a powerful magnitude 6.5
earthquake, struck southwest China’s Yunnan province. Initial
reports said the temblor destroyed more than 10,000 homes in the
province’s Yao’an county.
Earth
movements were also felt in Taiwan, the Pakistan-Afghanistan
border region, northern Greece, southwestern Peru,
northeastern Colombia, western Venezuela, two points
in Northern California, Alaska’s Kodiak Island,
western Maine and central Georgia.
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Venezuelan
Floods Return
Fresh
mudslides were unleashed and rivers burst their banks in northern
Venezuela as 50 hours of pounding rains struck the region.
The
slides began a day after a powerful earthquake hit the same area,
but officials tried to reassure the population that there was
no connection between the two events. Panicked residents feared
that the flooding could reach the magnitude of last December’s
disastrous inundations. The renewed flooding and slides struck
the state of Vargas, located on the coastal strip north of the
capital city of Caracas. Overflowing rivers and streams destroyed
much of the recent reconstruction work that had been carried out
by military and private contractors.
(top)
Famed
Tigress Feared Dead
A
pelt found by Indian wildlife experts in the home of an
alleged game poacher may be that of a well-known female tiger
seen on the cover of National Geographic and featured in frequent
television documentaries.
The tigress, Sita, lived in the Bandhavgarh National Park in the
state of Madhya Pradesh where she had not been seen since October
1998. The blood-stained tiger skin was discovered in the possession
of a man who lives near the park and has a record of poaching.
Forest officials said the markings closely resembled Sita’s, and
there was evidence that the tiger had been killed recently. A
wildlife photographer who had worked closely with the cat surmised
that she was so familiar with humans that she may have lost some
of her instinctual fear of them and become easy prey herself.
