Recent Environmental EventsRecent Environmental Events

AOS/Geogr/IES 121

9/30/2009

Australian dust storms September 23, 2009

Luna Park. Photo: Miro Bzduch, smh.com.au reader

http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/national/dust-turns-sydney-sky-red/20090923-g0tw.html?selectedImage=52

The scene in Wattle Grove, NSW. Photo: Jacob Pogson, smh.com.au reader

People exercising at Coogee Beach. Photo: Peter Rae

South Pacific tsunami kills nearly 100 people

• APIA, Samoa - A massive tsunami hurled by a powerful earthquake flattened Samoan villages and swept cars and people out to sea, killing at least 99 and leaving dozens missing Wednesday. The toll was expected to rise.

• Survivors fled the fast-churning water for higher ground on the South Pacific islands and remained huddled there hours after the quake, with a magnitude between 8.0 and 8.3, struck around dawn Tuesday.

• The quake was centered about 125 miles from Samoa, an island nation of 180,000 people located about halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii. It was about 120 miles from neighboring American Samoa, a U.S. territory that is home to 65,000 people.

Raj Borsellino / ReutersA destroyed structure is seen among debris near a church following

a tsunami in the village of Leone, American Samoa.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33075304/ns/world_news-asiapacific/?GT1=43001

Tsunami in December 2004 killed ~ 240,000 in 11 countries

Sri Lanka (USGS)

Tsunami in December 2004 killed ~ 240,000 in 11 countries

Sri Lanka (USGS)

Photo courtesy DigitalGlobeBeach damage in Kalutara

http://bailey320.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/tsunami2.jpg