Earthweek: a diary of the planet

For the week ending Friday, Oct. 16.

Andean eruption

Ecuador’s Cotopaxi volcano spewed another towering column of ash high above the northern Andes as the restive mountain continued an eruptive phase that began in August. Cotopaxi last erupted in 1877. It is considered one of the world’s most dangerous volcanoes because rapid melting of its snowcap could send floodwaters and debris down its slopes, which are near densely populated areas. The latest giant ash column was clearly visible from the capital of Quito.

A record hot year?

The planet remains on course to experience its warmest year on record with little more than two months left in 2015. An intensifying El Niño across the tropical Pacific may drive an already warm world to record levels. While there is significant heat that remains to be transferred from unusually warm areas of the oceans into the atmosphere, the tropics have registered the warmest September in the global satellite temperature record, which goes back through 1979.

Food chain collapse

A study by two Australian researchers finds that the world’s fisheries and marine ecosystems are being so stressed by rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels that the global marine food chain could collapse. While microorganisms such as plankton and algae are expected to thrive in the new CO2-rich environment, larger carnivorous marine species that the fishing industry harvests are in peril, according to two University of Adelaide scientists who published their findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Baboon blackout

A troop of baboons allegedly forced a radio station off the air in Zimbabwe, where the government is blamed for using censorship to silence its critics. The staff of YA-FM was initially puzzled when the remote mountaintop transmitter went off the air, but when engineers found the station’s fiber optic cable had been chewed through, they saw baboons nearby.

MERS-afflicted

A South Korean man believed cured of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome has been rediagnosed with the virus. MERS emerged in the country in May, killing 36 of the 186 people infected in the largest outbreak outside the Middle East. The virus first appeared in Saudi Arabia and nearby countries in 2012, killing hundreds. South Korea declared its outbreak over in July, but the return of the disease in someone who had recovered has doctors wondering if it represents a fresh case or if the previous infection has returned. Officials quarantined 61 people.