A New Zealand court on Friday ordered the tour booking agents and managers of an island where a volcanic eruption killed 22 people to pay survivors more than NZ$10 million ($6.1 million) and fined them around NZ$2.6 million. Tour operators White Island Tours, Volcanic Air Safaris, Kahu New Zealand and Aerius, along with the corporate owner of the island, Whakaari Management Ltd, were found to have not sufficiently ensured the safety of visitors to the island, court filings showed. There were 47 people on White Island, also known by the Maori name of Whakaari, when the volcano erupted on Dec. 9, 2019.
You wake up to a dark, dreary, glum-feeling, Monday-type of morning. For the 547th consecutive day. Just 18 months prior, you were a hard-working farmer gearing up for another bountiful crop season. But then the skies went dark. And they stayed dark day after day, month after month from early 536 to 537. Across much of eastern Europe and throughout Asia, spring turned into summer and fall gave way to winter without a day of sunshine. Like a blackout curtain over the sun, millions of people
A recent report showed lava flow was detected in the Iceland volcano in the westward portions. In the span of two months, the volcano erupted for the third time. Read here.
Locals in Grindavik, a town southwest of Iceland's capital Reykjavík, really can't catch a break. This afternoon, massive flows of burning lava engulfed a road, following a third volcanic eruption in the area over the last couple of months. Footage shows the natural spectacle unfolding, with construction workers desperately trying to save existing infrastructure until […]
Iceland's latest volcanic eruption waned on Friday but left a trail of damage to roads and pipelines, cutting hot water to parts of the Reykjanes peninsula during freezing temperatures. Schools, kindergartens, museums and other public institutions in the region were closed on Friday as the lava had hit hot water pipes used to supply geothermally-heated water. "It is a very bad situation to have this area without hot water, but there is electricity, there is potable water and we are hoping to have hot water by noon (on Friday)," Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir told public broadcaster RUV.