At least 56 dead after Hurricane Melissa sweeps across Jamaica, Cuba, and Haiti.

At least 56 people have died in Jamaica and Haiti after Hurricane Melissa swept across the Greater Antilles between 25 and 29 October 2025. The storm first appeared as a tropical depression off the coast of West Africa around 16 October, moving across the Atlantic Ocean, then passing through the Windward Islands on 19 October, before continuing to move westwards across the Caribbean Sea. The weather system began to intensify on 21 October, provoking meteorologists to give it the name Tropical Storm Melissa. On 25 October it began to intensify further, becoming a Category 5 storm early on 27 October. At the same time it changed its direction of movement sweeping northward towards Jamaica, where it made landfall near New Hope about midday on 28 October.

The path and strength of Hurricane Melissa. Thick line indicates the past path of the storm (till 3.00 pm GMT on Friday 31 October 2025), while the thin line indicates the predicted future path of the storm, and the dotted circles the margin of error at 9, 21, 33, 45, 69, and 93 hours ahead. Colour indicated the severity of the storm. Tropical Storm Risk.

Hurricane Melissa reached Jamaica as the joint most intense Hurricane ever to make land, tying with the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 in having a pressure of only 892 millibars, and a maximum recorded windspeed of 406 km per hour - the highest ever recorded for a storm on Earth. Flooding was reported in the town of Old Harbour ahead of the storm, with much of the parish of Saint Elizabeth under water when it hit. Several villages in the parish are described as being obliterated by the combination of flood waters and high winds, as was the town of Mandeville in neighbouring Manchester Parish. Flooding was also reported in Montego Bay and Kingston, buildings collapsed in Falmouth, and a landslide was reported in Gordon Town. At least 19 people died on the island, including eight in Saint Elizabeth Parish, two (including an infant) in Saint James Parish, nine in Westemoreland Parish, and a pregnant woman in Petersfield.

Storm damage around  St. John's Anglican Church in Black River, Saint Elizabeth Parish, Jamaica, following the passage of Hurricane Melissa. Ricardo Makyn/AFP/Getty Images.

From Jamaica, the storm moved northward to Cuba, where it caused widespread flooding and damage to buildings in Santiago de Cuba Province, although there are no reports of any fatalities there. However, high rainfall associated with the the storm caused several rivers to bust their banks in neighbouring Haiti, where at least 30 people have died and about 20 more are still missing. Four people are also reported to have died in the Dominican Republic, again due to flooding.

Vehicles buried in mud after a river burst its banks in  Petit-Goâve, Haiti, following rains associated with Hurricane Melissa. Clarens Siffroy/AFP/Getty Images.

Tropical storms are caused by the warming effect of the Sun over tropical seas. As the air warms it expands, causing a drop in air pressure, and rises, causing air from outside the area to rush in to replace it. If this happens over a sufficiently wide area then the inrushing winds will be affected by centrifugal forces caused by the Earth's rotation (the Coriolis effect). This means that winds will be deflected clockwise in the northern hemisphere and anti-clockwise in the southern hemisphere, eventually creating a large, rotating Tropical Storm. They have different names in different parts of the world, with those in the northwest Atlantic and eastern Pacific being referred to as hurricanes.

The formation of a tropical cyclone. Natural Disaster Management.

Despite the obvious danger of winds of this speed, which can physically blow people, and other large objects, away as well as damaging buildings and uprooting trees, the real danger from these storms comes from the flooding they bring. Each drop millibar drop in air-pressure leads to an approximate 1 cm rise in sea level, with big tropical storms capable of causing a storm surge of several meters. This is always accompanied by heavy rainfall, since warm air over the ocean leads to evaporation of sea water, which is then carried with the storm. These combined often lead to catastrophic flooding in areas hit by tropical storms.

The formation and impact of a storm surge. eSchoolToday.

Hurricane Melissa was the thirteenth named storm in the tropical Atlantic in 2025, the fifth storm to be elevated to hurricane status, and the third Category 5 hurricane of the season. It was also the strongest tropical storm measured anywhere on Earth in 2025, the joint most powerful storm ever to have made land, and produced the highest windspeed ever recorded from a storm on Earth. The size and frequency of such storms is directly linked to the temperature of the sea and the air above it, with rising global temperatures subsequently fuelling more and larger storms, and other extreme weather events in the Caribbean and other tropical regions.

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A Elasmosaurid Plesiosaur from the middle Cretaceous Cambridge Greensand of England.

The Plesiosaurians were possibly the most successful clade of Mesozoic Marine Reptiles, first appearing in the Late Triassic, and surviving till the End Cretaceous Extinction. Their basic bauplan was simple, with a rigid body and four paddle-like limbs used for propulsion, although within this framework they produced considerable diversity, with distinctive groups such as the Thalassophonean Pliosaurs and Cryptoclidian Plesiosaurs appearing in the Middle Jurassic and the Leptocleidids and Elasmosaurids appearing around the End of the Jurassic.

The middle Cretaceous was a period of about 14 million years during which there was significant turnover in many groups of organisms. It was during this period that the Ichthyosaurs disappeared and the Mosasaurs first appeared and diversified. Within the Plesiosaurians, the Pliosaurs vanished during this interval, while the Euelasmosaurida underwent a significant evolutionary radiation.

The  Cambridge Greensand forms the lowest member of the West Melbury Marly Chalk Formation. This Albian–early Cenomanian bed comprises micaceous, glauconitic, silt marl with a basal lag of reworked phosphatic nodules usually associated with Vertebrate fossils and exotic clasts, often encrusted in small Oysters and other epibionts. The Cambridge Greensand contains one of England's richest Vertebrate fossil assemblages, and dates to the crucial middle Cretaceous period of high biotic turnover. However, many of the skeletons recovered from this deposit are fragmentary in nature, and some may have been reworked from the underlying Gault Formation. Furthermore, most of the sites from which they were recovered are not exposed on the surface; these sites were uncovered by phosphate miners in the nineteenth century, and have largely been covered over again.

In a paper published in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica on 30 October 2025, Jose O'Gorman of the División Paleontología Vertebrados at the Museo de La Plata, and Roger Benson of the American Museum of Natural History and the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford, redescribe CAMSM X50356, a partial Elasmosaurid Plesiosaur skeleton in the collection of the Sedgwick Museum in Cambridge.

CAMSM X50356 was excavated near the village of Fen Ditton in Cambridgeshire. It is a disarticulated, partial skeleton, comprising 37 cervical centra, 3 pectoral centra, 20 dorsal centra, 5 sacral centra, 3 caudal centra, isolated neural arches, fragmentary ribs, part of a scapula, one almost complete propodial, and several propodial fragments. A basioccipital bone included with the original collection is rejected by O'Gorman and Benson as clearly belonging to an Platypterygiine Ichthyosaur.

(A) Location of the study area in the UK. (B) Geological map of eastern England showing the distribution of the Cambridge Greensand (red star). (C) Cambridge Greensand phosphate quarrying areas near Cambridge.  (D) Lithologic and stratigraphic scheme of the Albian/Cenomanian boundary interval in Cambridgeshire. (E) Original inked label of CAMSM X50356. O'Gorman & Benson (2025).

The skeleton if thought to have come from an immature Animal, as the neural arches of the vertebrae have detached from the centra, a sign of incomplete ossification. Many of the elements show signs of abrasion, and some of encrustation by Oysters, suggesting that the remains were exposed on the seabed for some time before being buried. 

(A)–(D) Taphonomic features of four cervical centra of CAMSM X50356 (Elasmosauridae indet.) from Fen Ditton, near Cambridge, UK, upper Albian–lower Cenomanian, Oyster encrustations. (A₁) Cervical cetrum in posterior view; (A₂) and (A₃), details of incrusted oysters; (B₁) cervical centrum in ventral view; (B₂) detail of incrusted oyster; (C₁) cervical centrum in left lateral view; (C₂) detail of incrusted oyster. (D) Cervical centrum in dorsal view. (E) Platypterygiinae indet. CAMSM X50356 (Elasmosauridae indet.) from Fen Ditton, near Cambridge, UK, upper Albian–lower Cenomanian, basioccipital in dorsal (E₁) and posterior (E₂) views. Scale bars are 20 mm. O'Gorman & Benson (2025).

CAMSM X50356 has 37 preserved cervical vertebrae, which can be identified as such by the presence of a  ventrolateral parapophysys (bony ridge on the underside). This sequence is incomplete, with the atlas and axis (first two vertebrae, which form a joint with the skull and are slightly modified for this purpose), and potentially other vertebrae missing, giving a minimum count of 39. Furthermore, there are twenty preserved dorsal vertebrae, defined by the absence of parapophysis, which again is the minimum number, suggesting that CAMSM X50356 was long, even for an Elasmosaur.

CAMSM X50356 (Elasmosauridae indet.) from Fen Ditton, near Cambridge, UK, upper Albian–lower Cenomanian. (A) Sacral centra in posterior (A₁), right lateral (A₂), ventral (A₃), and dorsal (A4) views. (B) Caudal centra in posterior (B₁), left lateral (B₂), ventral (B₃), and dorsal (B₄) views. Scale bars are 20 mm. O'Gorman & Benson (2025).

A phylogenetic analysis recovered CAMSM X50356 as the basalmost known Elasmosaurid, not corresponding to any other described member of the group. It is also the only Elasmosaurid with cervical central longer than high but without lateral ridges, suggesting that this was the basal condition in the group, even if absent from all other members. 

CAMSM X50356 (Elasmosauridae indet.) from Fen Ditton, near Cambridge, UK, upper Albian–lower Cenomanian. (A) Sacral centra in posterior (A₁), right lateral (A₂), ventral (A₃), and dorsal (A₄) views. (B) Caudal centra in posterior (B₁), left lateral (B₂), ventral (B₃), and dorsal (B₄) views. Scale bars are 20 mm. O'Gorman & Benson (2025).

The Sedgwick Museum collection also contains several Elasmosaur specimens from the Cambridge Greensand listed under the names Plesiosaurus euryspondilus and Plesiosaurus euryspondilus, species for which no known formal description exists. These specimens were collected by the palaeontologist Hary Seely in the 1860s, who noted that 'These names are only intended for the convenience of students using the Museum, and not necessarily to take rank as names of described species'. O'Gorman and Benson examined several of these specimens, and could not find any features which could be used to distinguish them from CAMSM X50356, however, they do not consider that either that specimen, nor any of Seely's material, show sufficient diagnostic features to be formally described as a species.

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Looking for a relationship between Australasian tektites and BeLaU spherules.

On 8 January 2014, an object later known as CNEOS 2014-01-08 impacted the Earth off the north coast of Papua New Guinea. Based upon the speed and trajectory of this object, it was suggested by some planetary scientists that its original trajectory had been incompatible with a Solar System object, and that therefore it may have originated outside our Solar System. While this was never universally accepted, the potential for scientists to gain direct access to fragments of an extra-Solar object was sufficient that in 2023 an expedition was sent to the area to collect samples.

The calculated impact site of object CNEOS 2014-01-08. Loeb (2022).

This expedition recovered over 800 particles of potential extraterrestrial origin, about 80% of which were subsequently identified as pieces of S-type, I-type, and G-type chondritic meteorite (such particles are not unusual in deep-marine sediments, where the absence of much input from land means that the tiny amounts of meteoric material which fall all over the Earth can build up over time to form a detectable portion of local sediments). The remaining particles appeared to belong to an entirely new type of meteoric material, which were named D-type particles, which had an unusually low ration of magnesium to iron compared to other meteoric material. Within these D-type particles, a small subset was identified which were also enriched in the elements barium, lanthanum, and uranium, a highly unusual combination of elements, furthering speculation that these objects were of genuinely unique origin.

Back-scattered Electron Microscope images of differentiated spherules from each of the differentiated (D-type) spherule classifications: (a) D-type low strontium, high silicone (IS11M2–2; porphyritic) (b) D-type high strontium, high silicone (IS19M-14) (c) D-type, high silicone (17NMAG-5; vitric) (d) D-type, low strontium, low lilicone (IS21–4; cryptocrystalline) (e) D-type high strontium, low silicone (IS14M-2; cryptocrystalline) and (f) D-type, low silicone (S21 or IS14-SPH1; vitric) groups. The images (c) and (f) are also classified as 'BeLaU'-type spherules. The scale bar is 100 μm. Loeb et al. (2024).

However,  the area where CNEOS 2014-01-08 impacted the Earth also lies within the Australasian Tektite Strewn Field, an area which covers about 15% of the planet's surface, from Southeast Asia through the western Pacific to Australia and Antarctica. This field is thought to have formed by the impact of an extraterrestrial object about 790 000 years ago, probably somewhere in Southest Asia (although the impact site has never been found). Across this area tektites and microtektites (spherical particles formed when rock vaporised during an impact recondenses in the atmosphere) with a distinctive high copper, nickel, and chromium profile are found. These tektites are thought to be comprised largely of terrestrial surface mater vaporised during the impact, with the additional cobalt, nickel, and chromium potentially coming from the impacting object). However, a full-spectrum analysis, comparing the elemental make-up of the Australasian Tektites to the BeLaU spherules has not previously been made.

In a paper published on the arXiv pre-print archive at Cornell University on 15 October 2025, Eugenia Hyung, Emma Levy, Loralei Cook, and Stein Jacobsen of the Department of Earth and Planetary Science at Harvard University, Abraham Loeb of the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University, and Jayden Squire and Juraj Farkas of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Adelaide, present the results of a study in which the chemistry of BeLaU spherules was compared to that of Australasian Tektites.

Hyung et al. used four Australasian Tektites from the collection of the Tate Museum in Adelaide, two from Florieton in South Australia, one from Charlotte Waters in the Northern Territory, and one from Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. Between 50 and 100 mg of material was taken from each sample, crushed in a pestle and mortar, then dissolved in a mixture of hydrofluoric acid and nitric acid, dried down, then redissolved in hydrochloric acid. A sample of the resultant solution was then analysed for 55 elements using a ThermoFisher Scientific iCAP TQ triple quadrupole ICP mass spectrometer. The results from this analysis were then compared to previous analyses of BeLaU spherules, as well as the average upper continental crust, and previous results for Australasian Strewn Field deep-sea microtektites.

Panel (a) Primitive-mantle normalized elemental compositions of Australasian tektites compared to the average upper continental crust  arranged in order of most incompatible to most compatible elements. Panel (b): The average upper continental crust normalized elemental patterns of the individual tektites (red, green, blue, and orange) and the average of the four specimens (white symbols, black line). The number '1' represents the average upper continental crust (dark symbols), plotted alongside the average BeLaU abundance pattern (white symbols, grey line) normalized with respect to the average upper continental crust. Panel (c): Australasian-tektite normalized elemental compositions of BeLaU (white circles) and microtektites (grey squares). Here, the number '1' (black circles) represents the average of the Australasian tektites measured in this study. Hyung et al. (2025).

The four tektite samples were all similar to one another (there was some variant in calcium content. as well as being similar to the microtektite samples. Compared to the average upper continental crust, they were slightly enriched in rare earth elements, but depleted in copper, zinc, arsenic, molybdenum, antimony, thallium, lead, and bismuth. Australasian tektites have previously been observed to be depleted in thallium, lead, and bismuth, something which has been attributed to loss of volatile fractions during the impact event. 

While the Australasian tektites were depleted in molybdenum, BeLaU spherules are enriched in this element. BeLaU spherules are also notably more enriched in the heavier rare earth elements. Where the BeLaU spherules are enriched in beryllium and uranium, no such enrichment could be seen in the Australasian tektites. Based upon this, Hyung et al. conclude that these are in fact to different classes of objects, with different origins.

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Explosion at New South Wales mine kills two.

Two people have died and a third has been injured following an explosion at a mine in New South Wales on Tuesday 28 October 2025. The incident happened at the Endeavor Mine near Cobar, about 700 km to the northwest of Sydney, at about 3.45 am local time. A man in his sixties died in the incident, with two women in their twenties brought to the surface with injuries, one of whom subsequently died, with the other described as being in a stable condition in hospital.

The Endeavor Mine near Cobar in New South Wales. Polymetals.

Explosions in mines are not uncommon, but these are most commonly associated with coal mines.  Coal is formed when buried organic material, principally wood, in heated and pressurised, forcing off hydrogen and oxygen (i.e. water) and leaving more-or-less pure carbon. Methane is formed by the decay of organic material within the coal. There is typically little pore-space within coal, but the methane can be trapped in a liquid form under pressure. Some countries have started to extract this gas as a fuel in its own right. When this pressure is released suddenly, as by mining activity, then the methane turns back to a gas, expanding rapidly causing, an explosion. This is a bit like the pressure being released on a carbonated drink; the term 'explosion' does not necessarily imply fire in this context, although as methane is flammable this is quite likely.

However, the Endeavor Mine produces silver, zinc, and lead, none of which are associated with explosive deposits, making the cause of the explosion a mystery. Mining expert David Cliff of the University of Queensland has suggested that it may have been caused by explosives used at the mine rather than any feature of the geology. Mine explosions are relatively rare in Australia, with the most recent occurring in Queensland in 2015. However, mining is still a dangerous injury, with 20 fatalities recorded at mines in Australia between October 2022 and October 2025.

The Endeavor Mine was previously in occupation between 1982 and 2000, during which time it produced 2.6 million tonnes of zinc, 1.6 million tonnes of lead, and 2.6 million kg of silver. The mine was acquired by its current owners, Polymetals, in 2023, with the company currently in the process of restarting mining activities. All work at the mine has now ceased, pending the outcome of an inquest into the cause of the explosion.

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Comet Comet 3I/ATLAS approaches perihelion.

Comet 3I/ATLAS (also known as C/2025 N1 (Atlas)) will reach perihelion (its closest approach to the Sun) on Wednesday 29 October 2025, when it will reach 1.36 AU from the Sun (1.36 times the average distance between the Earth of the Sun). Since the comet will be on the other side of the Sun it will not be visible from Earth, and it would be highly unwise to look for it with a terrestrial telescope.

The trajectory of 3I/ATLAS and the orbits of the planets of the Inner Solar System, and their positions on 29 October 2024. JPL Small Body Database.

3I/Atlas was discovered on Tuesday 1 July 2025 by scientists at the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope in Río Hurtado, Chile, who observed a body 4.53 AU from the Sun (i.e. 4.53 times as far from the Sun as the planet Earth) between the constellations of Serpens Cauda and Sagittarius, which was given the provisional designation A11pl3Z. This object was travelling towards the Inner Solar System at a speed of 65 km per second, on what appeared to be a more-or-less straight trajectory, highly unusual in a body orbiting the Sun.

Discovery images for object A11pl3Z. ATLAS/University of Hawaii/NASA/Wikipedia.

A series of follow-up observations  by both professional and amateur astronomers confirmed that the body was a comet on a hyperbolic trajectory (a trajectory which will take it straight through the Solar System and out into interstellar space. Most such parabolic comets derive from the Oort Cloud, a vast disc of thinly spread cometry bodies between 2000 and 200 000 from the Sun. These comets are knocked from their orbits be close encounters with other bodies, plunge through the Inner Solar System once, then vanish into the depths of space. 

Follow up image of 3I/ATLAS made by the system Las Cumbres Observatory on 2 July 2025. European Space Agency.

However, two previous comets have been found to be on trajectories which cannot be explained in this way, these being 1I/‘Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov, and on Tuesday 2 July it was confirmed that A11pl3Z was a third such body, leading to it being given the designation 3I/Atlas, in which the 'I' stands for 'Interstellar body', the '3' indicates that it was the third such body discovered, and 'ATLAS' refers to the ATLAS asteroid impact early warning system, which discovered the object.

3I/ATLAS will make its closest approach to the Earth on 19 December, when it will be 1.80 AU from us. Unfortunately, this will also happen while the comet is on the far side of the Sun, preventing observations during this period. The comet passed the planet Mars at a distance of 0.19 AU on 3 October, and will pass Jupiter at 0.38 AU on 16 March 2026. 3I/ATLAS is apparently a weekly active comet with an absolute magnitude of about 14.9 (a measure of its brightness), in the constellation of Virgo.

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