The epicentre of the magnitude 6.3 quake, which struck 11 minutes after midnight on Sunday (4.11pm AEDT yesterday), was 23 kilometres southeast of the city of Ica, the US Geological Survey said.

Mexico’s largest active volcano Popocatepetl continued to spew smoke and ashes on Monday near the capital, the National Disaster Prevention Center (Cenapred) said.

“Climate dice,” describing the chance of unusually warm or cool seasons relative to climatology, have become progressively “loaded” in the past 30 years, coincident with rapid global warming.

A powerful earthquake hit waters off western early on Wednesday, prompting officials to briefly issue a tsunami warning. Panicked residents poured into the streets, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or serious damage.

The rate of melting by the ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica may throw existing projections for sea level rise out the window. Unfortunately for Maldivians and other idyllic, but altitude-challenged islands, the ice sheets are melting faster than anyone expected.

A landslide tore through a tiny gold-mining village in the southern Philippines on Thursday, killing 25 people and burying dozens more, months after the government warned residents the mountain was certain to crumble.

Europe’s highest active volcano has rumbled back to life. Italy’s Mount Etna on the Mediterranean island of Sicily has released a column of ash up to 5,000 metres (over 16,000 feet) above sea level.

The average global surface temperature of Earth has risen by .8 degrees Celsius since 1880, and is now increasing at a rate of about .1 degree Celsius per decade.

The Philippines government says 1,079 people are still missing in the wake of the devastating Typhoon Washi. More than 1,000 others are known to have died in the storm, which struck Mindanao island.

NEW DELHI — Heavy rains and winds unleashed by a cyclone over India’s southeastern coast killed at least 42 people and damaged hundreds of homes, officials and news reports said Saturday.