Earthweek: a diary of the planet

For the week ending Friday, June 2.

Ash hazard

Alaska’s Bogoslof volcano erupted with a column of ash that soared 35,000 feet high in an area used by many jetliners from North America to Asia. The 45-minute eruption was the latest for a volcano that has been active for nearly six months. The Aviation Color Code for airliners was raised to red, the highest level, after the eruption was detected.

Towering attraction

The proliferation of cell phone masts and tall broadcast antenna towers in the past 30 years has resulted in a sharp increase in lightning strikes in areas near the structures. A research group from the University of Oklahoma found that almost all the U.S. locations studied that had more than 100 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes in a recent 20-year period were within three-fifths of a mile of an antenna tower registered with the Federal Communications Commission. The taller the tower, the greater the likelihood of strikes.

Hotter cities

New research finds that a combination of global warming and localized heating because of the “urban heat island effect” could cause some cities to be as much as 14 degrees Fahrenheit warmer by the end of this century. The effect occurs as buildings, roadways and other man-made structures store much more heat than natural settings, especially after sundown. This amplifies the local warming effects of climate change, according to a report in Nature Climate Change.

Flamingo pose

Georgia Tech researchers say they may have unraveled the secret of how flamingos can stand, and even sleep, on one leg for hours at a time with seemingly little effort. “It might even be easier for them to stand on one leg than to stand on two,” said biomedical engineer Lena Ting. She and a colleague found that the colorful birds might not need to use their muscles at all to maintain the pose.

Bengal cyclone

Cyclone Mora roared ashore on Bangladesh’s southern coast with winds of about 80 mph, killing six people and wrecking hundreds of homes. The storm flattened what little shelter was provided in camps for Rohingya refugees, who had fled persecution in Myanmar.

Faceless fish

An Australian museum expedition has come across a species of fish not seen near the country since 1873. It has no visible eyes, gills or any other facial features except for two nostrils and a mouth at the bottom of its body. Dubbed the “faceless cusk,” the fish measures about 22 inches in length and was captured by trawling a deep ocean trench off Australia’s eastern coast at a depth of around 2 miles. Living at depths of up to 2.6 miles, the cusk eel is rarely seen.