Disaster

Scientists have warned that a recent spike in Earthquakes around the San Andreas Fault is a harbinger of a much bigger mega earthquake about to strike California.  Following Thursday afternoon’s 6.8-magnitude earthquake off the coast of California, another 7.8 earthquake hit the Solomon Islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean. Experts have warned that these inexplicably large earthquakes occuring along the Ring of Fire could have ruptured the San Andreas Fault, which would increase the chances of a deadly mega earthquake hitting California.

The devastating fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster continues to creep around the world, with radioactive samples discovered in the United States food chain for the first time. Despite assurances the radioactive fallout would be contained, the entire Pacific Ocean is now contaminated. Cesium-134, the so-called fingerprint of Fukushima, was measured in seawater samples taken from Tillamook Bay and Gold Beach in Oregon, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are reporting.

The US Geological Survey has reported a magnitude 6.5  earthquake off the coast of Northern California The quake occurred in the Pacific Ocean about 100 miles off the coast of Eureka at around 6:50 a.m. on Thursday. The epicentre was 165km west of Ferndale, California, at a shallow depth of 10km ((6.2 miles) below sea level. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage and no tsunami warning was issued. Earlier reports from the USGS said the earthquake was a magnitude 6.8 Two quakes of more than 4.0-magnitude have shaken California in the last week.

A strong 6.8 magnitude quake has struck of the coast of California, some 165km west of Ferndale, CA. The quake was not near the San Andreas fault however according to USGS data, it took place on top of the Gorda Estrapment divide.

JUST IN: 6.8-magnitude earthquake strikes off the coast of Ferndale, California, USGS says. pic.twitter.com/zt7mIfD9Ve

— ABC News (@ABC) December 8, 2016

A Pakistani Airways plane carrying 48 people has crashed in the country’s northern mountainous region . According to the civil aviation authority, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Flight PK661 came down during a flight from the city of Chitral to Islamabad. Earlier it had been reported that the flight lost contact with ground control and was missing shortly after taking off from the northern city of Chitral today.