Ethiopian pastor killed by Crocodile during baptism ceremony.

An Ethiopian pastor has died after being attacked by a Crocodile during a baptism ceremony in the south of the country. Docho Eshete, 45, led about 80 followers to Lake Abaya in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region for the ceremony on Sunday 3 June 2018, however shortly after the ceremony began he was attacked by the animal, receiving wounds to the legs, arms and back. His followers were eventually able to drive off the Crocodile and drag him from the lake using fishing nets, but by this time he was dead.

A Crocodile on Lake Abaya. Sunny Land Ethiopia Tours.

Lake Abaya is home to a large population of Nile Crocodiles, Crocodylus niloticus, which are considered to have become more aggressive in recent years as the lake's Fish population has dwindled due to eutrophication (excess nutrients which can lead to eutrophication and the rapid growth of blooms of Algae, Bacteria or other micro-organisms, which absorb oxygen from the water leading Fish and other aquatic organisms to asphyxiate) caused by agricultural runoff.

Nile Crocodiles are considered to be of Least Concern under the terms of the  International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of  Threatened Species, but are still protected in many countries, due to historic hunting which decimated populations in many areas. However, the rising number of attacks on Humans by the animals has led to calls for regulated hunting to be introduced to control the population.

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Shaft collapse kills two in Morocco mine.

Two men have died in a shaft collapse in an abandoned lead mine at Boubker in Jerada Province, Morocco. The incident happened on Sunday 3 June 2018, while a party including the two men was trying to excavate lead from the mine. One of the victims is understood to have died at the scene of the accident, the second was rushed to the Oujda University Hospital, but died later of his injuries. 

The approximate location of the Boubker mine. Google Maps

Jerada Province has a large number of disused mines, most of which were abandoned during the 1990s in a clamp down on unsafe mineworkings. However many of these, while officially closed, are still worked (illegally) by local miners, who have no alternative source of income or employment. This is extremely dangerous work and accidents are common, which has lead to a series of protests in the region, where people are calling for either the formal re-opening of the mines, with appropriate investment in safety precautions, or their full closure and investment in the creation of alternative industries.

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Meteorites found in Yunnan Province following fireball meteor.

Witnesses in Yunnan Province reported seeing a bright fireball meteor close to the city of Xishuangbanna in the southwest of the province, at about 9.40 pm local time on Friday 1 June 2018. A fireball is defined as a meteor (shooting star) brighter than the planet Venus. These are typically caused by pieces of rock burning up in the atmosphere, but can be the result of man-made space-junk burning up on re-entry. Following the event villagers in Menghai County began reporting meteorite falls, with about 200 such rocks found so far, the largest being about 150 g. At least two of the meteorites caused damage to buildings, and several have been sold online, while local authorities attempt to collect them for scientific research.

Fireball over Yunnan Province on 1 June 2018. APTN.

Objects of this size probably enter the Earth's atmosphere several times a year, though unless they do so over populated areas they are unlikely to be noticed. They are officially described as fireballs if they produce a light brighter than the planet Venus. The brightness of a meteor is caused by friction with the Earth's atmosphere, which is typically far greater than that caused by simple falling, due to the initial trajectory of the object. Such objects typically eventually explode in an airburst called by the friction, causing them to vanish as an luminous object. However this is not the end of the story as such explosions result in the production of a number of smaller objects, which fall to the ground under the influence of gravity (which does not cause the luminescence associated with friction-induced heating).

 

Fragment of meteorite recovered in Yunnan Province following the 1 June 2018 fireball. Yunnan.cn.

 

These 'dark objects' do not continue along the path of the original bolide, but neither do they fall directly to the ground, but rather follow a course determined by the atmospheric currents (winds) through which the objects pass. Scientists are able to calculate potential trajectories for hypothetical dark objects derived from meteors using data from weather monitoring services.

 

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Magnitude 4.7 Earthquake in Monte Plata Province, Dominican Republic.

The United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 4.7 Earthquake at a depth of 83.3 km roughly 15 km to the east of the town of Gonzalo in Monte Plata Province in the Dominican Republic, slightly before 5.15 am local time (slightly before 9.15 am GMT) on Sunday 3 June 2018. There are no reports of any damage or injuries associated with this event, but people have reported feeling it across much of the Dominican Republic.

 

The approximate location of the 3 June 2018 Monte Plata Earthquake. USGS.

 

The Dominican Republic forms the eastern part of the island of La Hispaniola, in the Greater Antilles. The island has a complex geological structure, with parts of it lying on three different tectonic plates, and two plate margins running east-to-west across the island. The northernmost part of the island lies on the North American Plate. This is divided from the Gonâve Microplate by the Septentrional Fault Zone, which runs through Rio San Juan, along the north coast of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, then across the Windward Passage and along the south coast of Cuba. The Gonâve Microplate is moving east relative to the North American Plate, pushed by the Mid-Cayman Spreading centre to the west of Jamaica. To the south the Gonâve Microplate is separated from the Caribbean Plate by the Enriquilo-Plantain Garden Fault Zone, which runs across Southern Haiti and the Dominican Republic. To the west the fault runs through central Jamaica. The Caribbean Plate is rotating clockwise, effectively moving east relative to the Gonâve Microplate.

 

Plate movements and fault zones around the Gonâve Microplate. Mike Norton/Wikimedia Commons.

 

Witness accounts of Earthquakes can help geologists to understand these events, and the structures that cause them. The international non-profit organisation Earthquake Report is interested in hearing from people who may have felt this event; if you felt this quake then you can report it to Earthquake Report here 

 

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Eruption on Mount Fuego, Guatemala, kills at least 62.

Sixty two people have now been confirmed dead and many more are missing following a sudden eruption on the volcano on Sunday 3 June 2018 that produced an ash column 10 km high and sent a series of pyroclastic flows (avalanches of hot rock, ash and gas) down the flanks of the mountain scouring local communities. Ashfalls have been reported up to 20 km from the volcano, and over 3000 people have been evacuated from the area. Rescue workers have yet to reach communities that were closest to the caldera of the volcano, where drone footage shows no buildings standing and what appears to be large numbers of bodies. The eruption is now considered to have ended, but vulcanonogists are very concerned about the large amounts of loose ash that have been deposited by it, that could be dislodged by any future eruption, or mix with rain to form lahars - ash-laden flash floods associated with volcanoes, that can be caused directly by volcanic eruptions, for example when hot lava encounters a glacial lake rapidly destroying an ice dam, but are also common in areas of high seasonal rainfall, where ash deposits from a volcano can build up during the dry season, creating dams on seasonal waterways, which temporarily halt the flow of water, then give way rapidly leading to dramatic flash floods. 

The community of San Miguel Las Lotes on Monday 4 June 2018, the day after it was hit by a pyroclastic flow from Mount Fuego. Luis Echeverria/Reuters.

Mount Fuego is a 3763 m stratovolcano (cone shaped volcano made up of layers of ash and lava) that forms part of La Horqueta volcanic complex in the southern part of Guatemala, which has been more-or-less constantly active at some level since records in the area began (circa 1524). It forms part of La Horqueta volcanic complex, which also includes the Acatenango volcano to the north, a complex volcano with at least five separate vents, the complex siting on the site of the ancient Meseta volcano, which is thought to have collapsed following a major volcanic episode about 8500 years ago, causing a debris flow that reached the sea, 50 km away.

 The approximate location of Mount Fuego. Google Maps.

The volcanoes of Guatemala, and Central America in general, are fed by the subduction of the Cocos Plate beneath the Caribbean Plate along the Middle American Trench, which runs roughly parallel to the southwest coast of the isthmus. As the Cocos Plate sinks into the Earth, it passes under Central America, which lies on the western margin of the Caribbean Plate. As this happens it is heated by the friction and the heat of the planet's interior, causing the sinking plate to partially melt. Some of the melted material then rises through the overlying Caribbean Plate as magma, fuelling the volcanoes of Central America.

 Diagrammatic representation of the subduction of the Cocos Plate beneath the Caribbean Plate along the Middle American Trench. VCS Mining.

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Explosion kills four miners in Balochistan Province, Pakistan.

Four workers died in a gas explosion at a mine in Balochistan Province, Pakistan, on the morning of Sunday 3 June 2018. The men were among nine who were below ground at the time of the explosion, which occurred in the Sinjawi area. Three of the men were killed in the initial blast, with the fourth dying later of his injuries, three other miners are still being treated for of their injuries. The deceased have been identified as Mohammad Rahman, Yar Khan, Badsha Wazir and Ghulam Mohammad.

The approximate location of the Sinjawi Coal Mine. Google Maps.

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.

Coal is also comprised more or less of pure carbon, and therefore reacts freely with oxygen (particularly when in dust form), to create carbon dioxide and (more-deadly) carbon dioxide, while at the same time depleting the supply of oxygen. This means that subterranean coal mines need good ventilation systems, and that fatalities can occur if these break down.

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Asteroid 2018 LA impacts the Earth.

Asteroid 2018 LA is thought to have impacted the Earth somewhere in the Botswana/South Africa border region slightly before 4.45 pm local time (slightly before 6.45 pm GMT) on Saturday 2 June 2018, roughly eight hours after it was discovered by the University of Arizona's Mt. Lemmon Survey at the Steward Observatory on Mount Lemmon in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson. The Asteroid had an estimated equivalent diameter of 2-6 m (i.e. it is estimated that a spherical object with the same volume would be 2-6 m in diameter), and an object of this size would be expected to explode in an airburst (an explosion caused by superheating from friction with the Earth's atmosphere, which is greater than that caused by simply falling, due to the orbital momentum of the asteroid) in the atmosphere more than 40 km above the ground, with only fragmentary material reaching the Earth's surface. The asteroid was initially calculated to have an 82% chance of hitting the Earth over the southern Indian Ocean. Some hours later witnesses in southern Botswana and North West Province, South Africa, reported seeing an exceptionally bright fireball meteor (defined as a meteor brighter than the planet Venus). A revised estimate of the trajectory of the asteroid using additional data from the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) search program on Mauna Loa suggested that the asteroid could have impacted as far east as Namibia, making it highly likely that the Botswana fireball was 2018 LA.

Bright fireball meteor seen from a farmstead between Ottosdal and Haartbesfontain in North West Province, South Africa, on Saturday 2 June 2018. Barend Swanepoel/Youtube.

2018 LA was discovered at about 11.00 am on 2 June 2018, the designation 2018 LA implying the asteroid was the first such body (asteroid A) discovered in the first half of June 2018 (2018 L). It is estimated to have had an eccentric orbit tilted at an angle of 4.28° to the plane of the Solar System, which takes it from 0.78 AU from the Sun (i.e. 78% of he average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun) to 1.96 AU from the Sun (i.e. 196% of the average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun, and further from the Sun than the planet Mars). It is therefore thought to gave been an Apollo Group Asteroid (an asteroid that is on average further from the Sun than the Earth, but which does get closer). It is last thought to have come close to the Earth in May 1987.

Discovery image of 2018 LA. Alex Gibbs/Catalina Sky Survey/Facebook.

Objects of this size probably enter the Earth's atmosphere several times a year, though unless they do so over populated areas they are unlikely to be noticed. They are officially described as fireballs if they produce a light brighter than the planet Venus. It is possible that this object will have produced meteorites that reached the surface (an object visible in the sky is a meteor, a rock that falls from the sky and can be physically held and examined is a meteorite).

 The calculated orbit of 2018 LA. Minor Planet Center.

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