Sinabung: Indonesia volcano in deadly eruption

Mount Sinabung volcano has erupted on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, engulfing villages in ash and killing at least 14 people.

Sinabung spewed hot gas, ash and rocks 2km (1.5 miles) into the air in a series of eruptions during the morning.

Emergency official Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said three schoolchildren and a teacher were among the dead.

Thousands were evacuated in September when Sinabung erupted after being dormant for three years. Many were allowed back to their homes on Friday.

Officials fear there may have been more casualties, but they cannot get closer because of the heat from the eruption.

Pictures taken at the scene showed rescue workers recovering bodies that were buried in ash.

Saturday's eruption was the worst since Sinabung came back to life in 2010, after 400 years dormancy

When the volcano erupted in 2010, at least two people were killed and 30,000 others were displaced.

Before 2010, Sinabung had not erupted in 400 years.

It is one of about 130 active volcanoes in Indonesia.

Experts say the mountain is more difficult to predict than other more closely studied mountains.

Experts say Sinabung has been studied less than more active volcanoes, making it more difficult to predict.

The volcano has covered villages nearby in ash and debris

TRMM satellite: System 91W's deadly Philippine flooding calculations

NASA/JAXA's TRMM satellite data was used to calculate the extremely high rainfall totals of over 1,168 mm (about 46 inches) that fell from Jan. 10-17, 2014, near northeastern Mindanao, Philippines. 

Credit: SSAI/NASA, Hal Pierce

People in the southern Philippines are used to heavy rainfall this time of the year but rainfall totals have recently been exceptionally high.

A tropical low known as System 91W, located northeast of Mindanao has been an almost permanent feature on weather maps for the past week.

NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's TRMM satellite has provided data on rainfall and flooding that was used to create a map of the event.

System 91W has caused nearly continuous rain in the area of northeastern Mindanao triggering floods and landslides that have caused the reported deaths of 34 people.

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite data was used in a TRMM Multi-Satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA), produced at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Md.

The TMPA combines the rainfall estimates generated by TRMM and other satellites. The analysis was done for the period from January 10-17, 2014.

Extremely high rainfall totals of over 1,168 mm (about 46 inches) for that week were found near northeastern Mindanao. This past Monday, January 13, a landslide on Dinagat Island caused the deaths of six people in this area.

Heavy rain amounts (calculated from satellite data), flood inundation calculations (from a hydrological computer models) and landslide potential maps are updated as often as every three hours globally.

Results are shown at the "Global Flood and Landslide Monitoring" TRMM web site pages: trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov.

System 91W, known locally as "Agaton," continues to drop heavy rainfall on parts of the Philippines, and warnings remained in effect on January 17-18.

Philippines warnings in effect include Public Storm Warning Signal #1 for southern Leyte, Surigao del Norte and Sur, Siargao Island, Dinagat Province, Agusan del Norte and Sur, Davao Oriental and Compostella Valley.

On January 17 at 1500 UTC/10 a.m. EST, System 91W was centered near 9.7 north latitude and 127.6 east longitude, about 370 nautical miles/425.8 miles/685.2 km east-northeast of Zamboanga, Philippines.

Satellite data indicated that convection continued to flare up along the northern quadrant of the storm. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center gives System 91W a high chance for becoming a tropical depression in the next 24 hours.

Residents of the Philippines should be on guard for more heavy rainfall, flash floods, and mudslides as System 91W lingers.

Deadly Bullet-shaped rhabdoviruses

Gallery - Picture of the day - Image 1 - New Scientist

Some viruses are our friends, some are our deadly enemies. The bullet-shaped rhabdoviruses are both. On one plus side, there's vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), the core of several promising new vaccines. Then there's rabies, among the deadliest viruses known.

It has never before been clear how these viruses' three structural proteins and RNA genome come together to form their bullet shape.

Now, using ultra-fine electron microscopy, Z. Hong Zhou at the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues have shown that the RNA and proteins wind together in a precise order, starting at the top of the bullet, to form two nested helices. Such structural insights may one day help us fight VSV's less benign cousins (Science, vol 327, p 689, DOI: 10.1126/science.1181766).

(Image: Z. Hong Zhou/Science)