Mount Etna erupting
European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery
Mount Etna in Sicily is the world’s most energetic stratovolcano, which is a excessive, conical volcano created by repeated eruptions of viscous lava. In February, it erupted with ash clouds and a lava move that travelled 3 kilometres, forcing a neighborhood airport to partially shut. One of many European Area Company’s Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites captured this picture of the lava move on 12 February.
An iceberg in Innaarsuit, Greenland
Dennis Lehtonen / SWNS
A large iceberg drifted into the harbour in Innaarsuit in western Greenland in July, looming over the village of 180 for greater than per week. Authorities warned individuals to remain away in case it collapsed and crushed one thing or generated a harmful wave. That is the second time in lower than a decade {that a} large iceberg has threatened the city. As Greenland melts, extra icebergs are calving off its glaciers.
Hurricane Melissa destroyed buildings in Jamaica
RICARDO MAKYN/AFP by way of Getty Photos
Hurricane Melissa tied with the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane because the strongest storm to ever make landfall across the Atlantic Ocean. On 28 October, it pummelled Jamaica with winds of almost 300 kilometres per hour and 76 centimetres of rain, destroying buildings together with these buildings in Black River. Early evaluation steered local weather change intensified Melissa’s winds by about 16 kilometres per hour. This 12 months noticed three class 5 hurricanes for under the second time on document.
The Qiantang river tidal bore
VCG/VCG by way of Getty Photos
The Qiantang river in China is dwelling to the world’s largest tidal bore, a phenomenon the place the rising tide enters a shallow river, producing a wave as much as 9 metres excessive that may transfer upriver at speeds approaching 40 kilometres per hour. Locals have nicknamed the tidal bore the “silver dragon”, and surfers come to journey it for dozens of kilometres. Right here, individuals watch the tidal bore in Jiaxing in October.
Blatten after the landslide
ALEXANDRE AGRUSTI/AFP by way of Getty Photos
On 29 Could, the Birch glacier within the Swiss Alps collapsed underneath the load of 9 million tonnes of fallen rock that had step by step amassed from the mountain above. The landslide buried many of the 800-year-old village of Blatten with an affect equal to a magnitude 3.1 earthquake, damming the Lonza river. The village had been evacuated, and just one particular person died. Scientists blamed the falling rocks on the thaw of permafrost, completely frozen floor that holds the mountains collectively. At present charges of carbon dioxide emissions, 90 per cent of glaciers within the Alps might disappear by 2100.
Properties destroyed by the Palisades fireplace in California
Mario Tama/Getty Photos
In January, wildfires roared down from the forested hills into northern Los Angeles and annihilated complete neighbourhoods like this one within the Pacific Palisades. Doubtlessly the most expensive pure catastrophe in US historical past, the fires killed 31 individuals, razed 16,000 buildings and brought about a whole lot of billions of {dollars} in damages. Some have blamed California’s dwelling insurance coverage rules for encouraging dangerous development close to woodlands. However world warming has additionally prolonged the fireplace season and made sizzling, dry and windy circumstances extra probably.
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