EARTHWEEK
‘Ghost’ lobster
A Maine fisherman famous for catching lobsters with unusual colorations hauled in one with a genetic condition called leucism, which causes a loss of pigmentation. Mike Billings caught the ghostlike crustacean off the coast of Stonington and said he threw it back into the ocean after photographing it because it was too small. It’s estimated that the odds of pulling in a ghost lobster are about 100 million-to-1. But Billings also caught an equally rare calico lobster in 2014, as well as one with a blue claw.
Earthquakes
Japan’s Hokkaido Island was struck by a magnitude 6.6 quake that killed at least nine people and left residents trapped inside homes buried by landslides. Power was knocked out to nearly 3 million homes. • Earth movements were also felt in far western China, the western Philippines, central Greece, Portugal, western Scotland and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Alaska rumblings
Unrest at one of Alaska’s largest and most active volcanoes prompted officials to elevate the alert level for Mount Veniaminof. The Alaska Volcano Observatory said the 8,225-foot volcano suddenly began to rumble and spew small ash plumes that rose 10,000 feet above the Alaska Peninsula.
Tropical cyclones
At least 11 people were killed across western Japan by Typhoon Jebi’s high winds and record flooding unleashed by the storm’s powerful rain bands. • The central U.S. Gulf Coast and Midwest were raked by rapidly moving Tropical Storm Gordon. • Hurricane Norman passed well to the east of the Hawaiian Islands, while Hurricane Olivia churned the eastern Pacific. • Hurricane Florence formed over the open waters of the mid-Atlantic.
Outlaw whaling
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) announced that Japan killed more than 50 minke whales in an Antarctic marine protection area this year as it continued to ignore a ruling to halt its “research whaling.” Fishing is restricted in that part of the Southern Ocean to protect marine life, including blue, humpback, minke and killer whales, along with emperor penguins and Weddell seals. WWF said that Japan killed a total of 333 minke whales off Antarctica this year, including 122 pregnant females. In 2014, the International Court of Justice ruled that Japan should cancel all existing “scientific whaling” permits in the Southern Ocean. But the country continues to issue itself new permits, and plans to do so until 2027.
Rat fever
The worst monsoon flooding in a century across the southern Indian state of Kerala is triggering an outbreak of waterborne bacterial diseases, including one known locally as rat fever. Dozens of people have been killed by leptospirosis after being exposed through the urine of infected rodents and other animals flowing in the floodwaters.
Warming urgency
A United Nations official warned that governments are not on track to meet a goal of the 2015 Paris agreement to cap global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) before the end of this century. Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, said governments as well as the private sector now need to act swiftly to avert the “catastrophic effects” of climate change. Espinosa said of the recent deadly heat and resulting firestorms around the Northern Hemisphere, “It really does make the evidence clear that climate change is having an impact on the daily lives of people.”