Satellite view of Iceland from the Terra and Aqua satellites (September 9th, 2002).
Although summer is coming to a close, the perimeter of Iceland is still tinged with green. Its large permanent ice caps stand out brightly against the surrounding volcanic rock. An ice cap is a miniature ice sheet – a mass of ice that covers less than 50,000 square kilometres of land. It is technically a dome-shaped glacier mass that flows in all directions.
Vatnajökull, the largest ice cap, actually rests on top of three active volcanoes. The heat from the volcanoes causes the underside of the ice cap to melt, slowly filling the calderas. Eventually the caldera spills over, and releases a torrent of water known as a glacial melt flood.
This volcanic activity happens because a tectonic boundary runs approximately north-east to south-west through Iceland. The plates are pulling away from each other, which causes magma to well up from deep in the Earth.
By mid-October, the northern part of Iceland will be covered in snow, and by late October, the whole country. The brightly-coloured lakes and coastal water are due to the very fine, highly-reflective sediment that is ground to bits by the massive weight of the glaciers, and washed out with glacial runoff.
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Japan news: The country is currently hit by torrential rains, floods & deadly landslides. Kyushu has suffered the most damage. More than 60 people have died. Japan is now bracing for an even more devastating weekend.
Meanwhile, Tokyo registered a record number of coronavirus cases for two days in a row (243 on Friday). The pandemic is gaining ground in Tokyo and in Japan in general.
1Japan battered by more heavy rain, floods, nearly 60 dead
via @PerilOfAfrica 2020-07-08T04:52:40Z
TOKYO (AP) — Pounding rain that already caused deadly floods in southern Japan was moving northeast Wednesday, battering large areas of Japan’s main island, swelling more rivers, triggering mudslides and destroying houses and roads. At least 58 people have died in several days of flooding.
By Wednesday morning, parts of Nagano and Gifu in central Japan were flooded by massive downpours.
Footage on NHK television showed swollen water in the Hida River gouging into the embankment, destroying a national highway along the river. In another central Japanese city of Gero, river water rose to just below the bridge above it. ADVERTISEMENT
In a mountainous town of Takayama, several houses were hit by a mudslide, with uprooted trees and other debris scattered around. It was not immediately known what happened to their residents.
Across the country, about 3.6 million people were advised to evacuate, although evacuation is not mandatory and the number of people who actually took shelter was not provided.
As of Wednesday morning, the death toll from the heavy rains starting over the weekend had risen to 58, most of them from the hardest-hit Kumamoto prefecture. Four others were found in Fukuoka, another prefecture on Kyushu, Japan’s third-largest island.
Though the rains were causing fresh flooding threats in central Japan, flooding was still affecting the southern region. And search and rescue operations continued in Kumamoto, where 14 people are still missing.
Tens of thousands of army troops, police and other rescue workers mobilized from around the country to assist, and the rescue operations have been hampered by the rains, flooding, mudslides and disrupted communications.
Japan is at high risk of heavy rain in early summer when wet and warm air from the East China Sea flows into a seasonal rain front above the country. In July 2018, more than 200 people, about half of them in Hiroshima, died from heavy rain and flooding in southwestern Japan.
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Follow Mari Yamaguchi on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/mariyamaguchi https://dlvr.it/Rb9gPw0Death toll from flooding in Japan rises to 50, dozen missing
via @PerilOfAfrica 2020-07-07T02:09:22Z
TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s disaster management agency says the death toll from recent flooding has risen to 50 and at least a dozen others are still missing.
Pounding rain since late Friday in Japan’s southern region of Kyushu has triggered widespread flooding.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said 49 of the dead confirmed as of Tuesday morning were from riverside towns in the Kumamoto region. One person was found dead in Fukuoka as the heavy rain spread across the southern area. At least a dozen people are missing.
Rescue operations have been hampered by the floodwater and continuing harsh weather. https://dlvr.it/Rb5Xyp0#Video : Mumbai Slums turns into Venice after #Floods | Every year and the same old issue for Mumbai
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@eastindiatimes
eastindiatimes.com (at Mumbai, Maharashtra)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCSdp0MJBZo/?igshid=s0eadc8g01vd0Japan floods leave some 20 dead, many in nursing homes
via @PerilOfAfrica 2020-07-05T03:37:18Z
TOKYO (AP) — Deep floodwaters and the risk of more mudslides that left about 20 people confirmed or presumed dead hampered search and rescue operations on Sunday in southern Japan, including at elderly home facilities where more than a dozen perished and scores are still stranded.
Rescue helicopters plucked more people from their homes in the Kumamoto region. Up to 10,000 defense troops, the coast guard and fire brigades are taking part in the operation.
Large areas along the Kuma River were swallowed by floodwaters with many houses, buildings and vehicles submerged almost up to their roofs. Mudslides smashed into houses, sending people atop rooftops waiving at rescuers. ADVERTISEMENT
At a flooded elderly care home in Kuma Village, 14 residents were presumed dead after rescuers reached them on Saturday, officials said. Three others had hypothermia.
The rescue continued Sunday for dozens of other residents and caregivers who were still at the riverside care facility Senjuen, where about 60 people were trapped when floodwaters and mud gushed in, officials said.
In Hitoyoshi City, the deluge poured into houses near the main train station. “The water rose to the second floor so fast and I just couldn’t stop shivering,” a 55-year-old woman who was visiting her relatives told the Asahi newspaper.
She and her relatives ran upstairs, swam out of the window and eventually took refuge on the roof to wait for their rescue.
More than 75,000 residents in the prefectures of Kumamoto and Kagoshima were urged to evacuate following pounding rains on Friday evening and into Saturday. The evacuation was not mandatory and many people opted to stay home because of concerns over catching the coronavirus, even though officials say shelters are adequately equipped with partitions and other safety measures.
Flooding also cut off power and communication lines, further delaying the search and rescue. Nearly 6,000 homes in Kumamoto were still without electricity Sunday, according to the Kyushu Electric Power Co.
The rainfall that exceeded 100 millimeters (4 inches) per hour has since subsided but the Japan Meteorological Agency has kept mudslide warnings in place across Kumamoto.
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Follow Mari Yamaguchi on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/mariyamaguchi https://dlvr.it/RZzBxK0Heavy rain floods southern Japan; over a dozen presumed dead
via @PerilOfAfrica 2020-07-04T03:45:35Z
TOKYO (AP) — Heavy rain in southern Japan triggered flooding and mudslides on Saturday, leaving more than a dozen people presumed dead, about 10 missing and dozens stranded on rooftops waiting to be rescued, officials said.
More than 75,000 residents in the prefectures of Kumamoto and Kagoshima were urged to evacuate following pounding rains overnight. The evacuation was not mandatory and it was not known how many actually fled.
“I smelled mud, and the whole area was vibrating with river water. I’ve never experienced anything like this,” a man in a shelter in Yatsushiro city, in western Kumamoto, told NHK TV. He said he fled early fearing a disaster.
NHK footage showed large areas of Hitoyoshi town in Kumamoto inundated in muddy waters that gushed out from the Kuma River. Many cars were submerged up to their windows.
Mudslides smashed into houses and floodwaters carried trunks from uprooted trees. Several people were standing atop a convenience store as they waited for rescuers. ADVERTISEMENT
Kumamoto Gov. Ikuo Kabashima later told reporters that 14 residents at a flooded elderly care home in Kuma village were presumed dead after being found during rescue operations. He said three other elderly residents had hypothermia.
They were among some 60 residents at the riverside care home Senjuen, where floodwaters and mud gushed in, stranding the residents, NHK said. The Japanese Self-Defense Force said it had dispatched troops to join rescue efforts at the site.
In Tsunagimachi district, two of three people buried underneath mudslides were pulled out without vital signs, Kumamoto prefectural crisis management official Takafumi Kobori said. Rescuers were still searching for the third person.
In another badly flooded town, Ashikita, six people were unaccounted for and a seventh was seriously injured, Kumamoto officials said.
In the mountainous village of Kuma, residents stranded at their homes were being airlifted by a rescue helicopter. In Hitoyoshi city, rescuers transported some residents in a boat.
Flooding also cut off power and communication lines. About 8,000 homes in Kumamoto and neighboring Kagoshima were without electricity, according to the Kyushu Electric Power Co.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe set up a task force and said up to 10,000 defense troops were being mobilized for rescue operations.
The Japan Meteorological Agency earlier issued warnings of extraordinary rain in parts of Kumamoto, which is about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) southwest of Tokyo, but later downgraded them as the rainfall — estimated at 100 millimeters (4 inches) per hour — subsided.
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Follow Mari Yamaguchi on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/mariyamaguchi https://dlvr.it/RZxKzl0
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