Thirteen confirmed deaths and many more missing following collapse at gold mine in Zamfara State, Nigeria.

Thirteen people have been confirmed dead and as many as a hundred more may be trapped underground following a collapse at an artisanal gold mine (gold mine dug with traditional hand tools) at the village of Kadauri in Zamfara State, Nigeria, on Thursday 25 September 2025. Fifteen miners have been pulled from the mine alive since the incident, five of whom are reported to be suffering from a variety of injuries. The incident is thought to have been caused by heavy rains associated with the end of the West African Rainy Season, which can cause sediments to liquefy, destabilising mine pits.

The approximate location of the Kadauri Gold Mine. Google Maps.

West Africa has a distinct two season climatic cycle, with a cool dry season during the northern winter when prevalent winds blow from the Sahara to the northeast, and a warm rainy season during the northern summer when prevalent winds blow from the Atlantic Ocean to the southwest. These warm winds from the Atlantic are laden with moisture, which can be lost rapidly when the air encounters cooler conditions, such as when it is pushed up to higher altitudes by the Jos Plateau of central Nigeria and Shebshi Mountains on the border with Cameroon.

Rainfall and prevalent winds during the West African dry and rainy seasons. Encyclopaedia Britanica.

Informal artisanal mining is common in many parts of Africa, including Nigeria, which like may other countries has granted concessions to mining companies in areas where small-scale artisanal mining has traditionally helped to supplement the incomes of subsistence farmers. However, little of the money from such projects tends to reach local communities, which often leads to ill feeling and attempts to continue mining clandestinely, often at night or under other unfavourable conditions, which can put the miners at greater risk.

This is particularly problematic in areas such as Zamfara State, which has been badly impacted by the current political instability in the Sahel Region, with militias and bandit groups from both Nigeria and neighbouring states thought to be active in the region. These groups tend to see locally produced gold as a resource with which to fund their campaigns, leading to clashes between local and outside miners, some miners being forced to work in slave-like conditions to satisfy the demands of militia groups, and a general decline in safety in and around mines. Gold mines in Zamfara are also known to contain unusually high levels of lead, which has led to incidents of lead poisoning among miners and mining communities.

See also...

World Rabies Day 2025.

Sunday 28 September 2025 will be the 19th World Rabies Day, an event which has been celebrated on 28 September each year since 2008 (the first World Rabies Day was held on 1 September 2007, but it was switched to 28 September in 2008 to coincide with the birthday of Louis Pasteur, who developed the first vaccine against the disease). This day is promoted by the World Health Organization, Global Alliance for Rabies Control, and United Against Rabies, which share the goal of eliminating Dog-mediated Rabies globally by 2030; Rabies is a globally distributed zoonotic disease (disease which is transmitted by Animals) a wild reservoir in a range of Bat species, but 99% of cases in Humans are caused by either being bitten or licked by Dogs.

Flyer art for World Rabies Day 2025. Global Alliance for Rabies Control.

Without treatment, Rabies is invariably fatal in both Humans and Dogs. However, reliable vaccines are now available for both Dogs and Humans, and with prompt treatment, Rabies is completely curable. The difficulty is that treatment must be started before symptoms of the disease emerge, by which time it is incurable and fatal, which can be a serious problem if people do not know they have been infected. To this end World Rabies Day aims to raise awareness of the disease, encouraging people to hold community events, get their Dogs vaccinated, and undertake training in how to prevent the spread of Rabies.

To this end the World Health Organisation has produced a series of videos about Dog-bite prevention and treatment, aimed at children, parents, and community healthcare workers. A range of courses provided by the Global Alliance for Rabies Control can be found here, while the World Health Organization provides a course, 'Rabies & One Health: From basics to cross-sectoral action to stop human rabies deaths', which can be found in English here, or in French here, and the Pasteur Network runs a course on Rabies on the France Université Numérique platform, available in English or French, which can be found here.

See also...

The September Equinox

The September Equinox falls on Monday 22 September this year (2025), when the day and night will be of equal length in both of the Earth's hemispheres. The Earth spins on its axis at an angle to the plain of the Solar System. This means that the poles of the Earth do not remain at 90° to the Sun, but rather the northern pole is tilted towards the Sun for six months of the year (the northern summer), and the southern pole for the other six months (the southern summer). This means that twice a year neither pole is inclined towards the Sun, on days known as the equinoxes.

Simplified diagram showing the tilt of the Earth throughout the year. Not to scale. The Human Adventures in Space Exploration.

The equinoxes fall each year in March and September, with the March Equinox being the Spring (or Vernal) Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere and the Autumn Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere, while the September Equinox is the Autumn Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere and the Spring Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere. On these two days the day and night are both exactly twelve hours long at every point on the planet, the only days on which this happens.

How the combination of the Earth's equatorial plane (horizontal circle labelled as Celestial equator) and the plane of the Earth's orbit (diagonal circle labelled as Path of the Sun) creates the Solstices and Equinoxes that we observe. Christopher Crockett.

See also...

Suspected poacher shot in Kruger National Park, South Africa.

A suspected poacher has been shot in a confrontation with field rangers near the Crocodile Bridge entrance to the Kruger National Park in South Africa. The incident happened on Thursday 18 September 2025, after the rangers discovered and followed a set of Human tracks leading towards the southern boundary of the park. At about 8.00 pm local time they reported encountering two armed men, who fled, successfully climbing over the boundary fence. One of the men then allegedly turned and raised his riffle towards the rangers, causing them to fire. The other fled into a cornfield and escaped.

When the rangers reached the man they had shot they found he was alive, and called for a doctor and police support. A search revealed that a bag the man was carrying contained two Rhino horns, and that he did not posses a permit to enter the park or carry a firearm. He was arrested at the scene, but then transferred to a local hospital where he will be held until he is deemed fit to appear before magistrates. 

A pair of White Rhinoceros, Ceratotherium simum, in the Kruger National Park, South Africa. Roger de la Harpe/Kruger National Park.

South Africa is home to more than half of the world's surviving Rhinoceros population, but has (like many other countries) faced significant problems from poaching of the Animals for their horns. This reached a peak between 2013 and 2017, with more than a thousand Rhinos being killed each year in South Africa, according to Save the Rhino, although the number fell each year from 2015 until 2020. During the COVID 19 pandemic there was an increase in poaching, with the number killed rising slowly each year until 2023. There was a drop of about 15% in 2024, although this still resulted in 420 known Rhinoceros poaching incidents. The majority of Rhino poaching is thought to be carried out by organised crime syndicates, rather than opportunistic local hunters. 

See also...

Magnitude 6.5 Earthquake beneath Central Papua Province, Indonesia.

The Indonesian Meteorological, Climatological, and Geophysical Agency recorded a Magnitude 6.5 Earthquake at a depth of about 24 km, to the south of the town of Nabire in Central Papua Province, Indonesia slightly before 3.20 am on Friday 19 September 2025, Eastern Indonesian Time (slightly before 6.20 pm on Thursday 18 September, GMT). The event was felt across much of western Central Papua Province and parts of eastern West Papua Province, and is reported to have caused the collapse of the main bridge in Nabire, as well as two houses. Other buildings, including the airport, have recorded minor damage, although no casualties have been reported.

The approximate location of the 18 September 2025 Central Papua Earthquake. USGS.

The tectonic situation underlying the island of Papua is complex, with the island being made up of a number of small tectonic plates being squeezed between the larger Pacific/Caroline and Australian plates. Beneath Central Papua Province the Pacific Plate is being subducted beneath the Australian Plate along the New Guinea Trench, however, this is not a simple tectonic boundary with one plate disappearing beneath another, as a sliver of an older, now almost completely subducted plate caught between the two and being displaced to the west along the Sorong-Yapen Fault. This creates a complex situation in which the various plates stick together until pressure builds up sufficiently to overcome the friction and causes sudden movements we experience as Earthquakes.

(a) Block diagram illustrating kinematic partitioning of oblique convergence (without scale) in northwestern New Guinea. The diagram shows partitioning  as is occurring in the last 4 million years and also notes the timing of major shortening events in the region. Note that shortening in the Lengguru Fold Belt region (including the adjacent Wandamen Peninsula) was replaced by extension after 3 million years ago. Black arrows show GPS vectors. (b) Block diagram showing oblique convergence. Saputra et al. (2023).

See also...

Partial Solar Eclipse to be visible from New Zealand and parts of Antarctica, Oceania, and Australia.

A partial Solar Eclipse will occur on Sunday 21 September 2025, which will be visible from all of New Zealand and parts of Antarctica, Oceania, and Australia. The event will occur between 5.31 pm and 9.53 pm GMT.

The Moon's shadow projected onto the Earth as the eclipse proceeds. The hemisphere of the Earth facing the Sun is shown. Contours show where various fractions of the Sun's disk is covered. In-The-Sky.

Eclipses are a product of the way the Earth, Moon and Sun move about one-another. The Moon orbits the Earth every 28 days, while the Earth orbits the Sun every 365 days, and because the two Sun and Moon appear roughly the same size when seen from Earth, it is quite possible for the Moon to block out the light of the Sun. At first sight this would seem likely to happen every month at the New Moon, when the Moon is on the same side of the Earth as the Sun, and therefore invisible (the Moon produced no light of its own, when we see the Moon we are seeing reflected sunlight, but this can only happen when we can see parts of the Moon illuminated by the Sun).

The relative positions of the Sun, Moon and Earth during a Solar eclipse. Starry Night.

However the Moon does not orbit in quite the same plane as the Earth orbits the Sun, so the Eclipses only occur when the two orbital planes cross one-another; this typically happens two or three times a year, and always at the New Moon. During Total Eclipses the Moon entirely blocks the light of the Sun, however most Eclipses are Partial, the Moon only partially blocks the light of the Sun.

How the differing inclinations of the Earth and Moon's orbits prevent us having an eclipse every 28 days. Starry Skies.

Although the light of the Sun is reduced during an Eclipse, it is still extremely dangerous to look directly at the Sun, and an eclipse should always be viewed using appropriate equipment. 

See also...