Coal mine explosion in China kills 90 people

A gas explosion at a coal mine in China’s northern Shanxi province killed at least 90 people, state media said on Saturday, in the country’s deadliest mining accident in recent years. Official news agency Xinhua said the accident at Changzhi city’s Liushenyu coal mine happened on Friday evening. Around 247 workers were on duty at the time. Nine miners were still unaccounted for as of Saturday afternoon, Xinhua said, and more than 120 people were hospitalized. The cause of the explosion was under investigation, Xinhua reported, and rescue work is pressing on with hundreds of rescuers and medical personnel sent to the site. Among the injured, many were hurt by toxic gas, according to state media CCTV. Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for an all-out effort to rescue the missing, reported Xinhua. Xi also called for the “proper handling of the aftermath of the accident and urged a thorough investigation into its cause, with accountability pursued in accordance wi...

Iceland volcano emits smoke and glowing lava in 12th eruption since 2021

A volcano erupted on Wednesday in southwest Iceland, authorities said, with live media images showing it belched smoke and dramatic flows of glowing hot yellow and orange lava, the latest in a series of outbreaks near the capital in recent years.

Often referred to as a land of ice and fire, the North Atlantic island nation with its many glaciers and volcanoes has now experienced a dozen eruptions since geological systems on its Reykjanes peninsula reactivated in 2021.

Magma forced through the earth’s crust opened a massive fissure of length between 700 m and 1,000 m (0.4 miles and 0.6 miles), Iceland’s meteorological office said, with the first signs of the eruption giving scant warning.

“(It does) not threaten any infrastructure at this time,” the office said in a statement. “Based on GPS measurements and deformation signals, it is likely that this was a relatively small eruption.”

Flights at Keflavik airport in the capital of Reykjavik were not affected, its web page showed.

Public broadcaster RUV said people had been evacuated from the Blue Lagoon, a luxury geothermal spa resort, and the nearby town of Grindavik, citing police.

Grindavik, home to nearly 4,000 before an evacuation order in 2023, has stayed mostly deserted since, for fear of the periodic threat from lava flows and related earthquakes.

The Reykjanes eruptions have not yet posed a threat to Reykjavik, nor ejected large volumes of ash into the stratosphere, so air traffic has not been disrupted.

Experts have said the eruptions in the area could recur for decades, or even centuries.

The fissure eruptions, as the outbreaks are known, are characterised by lava flows emerging from long cracks, rather than from a central crater.

SOURCE: REUTERS AND AGENCIES



from The Times Of Earth https://ift.tt/E7uqg4A

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