Islands, Natural Disaster | featured news

Rescuers battled rough seas Tuesday to reach remote Indonesian islands pounded by a 10-foot tsunami that swept away homes, killing at least 113 people... Also Tuesday, the country's most volatile volcano, Mount Merapi, 800 miles to the east, started to erupt at dusk as scientists warned that pressure building beneath its lava dome could trigger one of the most powerful blasts in years.

At least 32 people have been killed by floods and mudslides caused by an unusually violent rainstorm on the Portuguese resort island of Madeira, officials said on Saturday.

A powerful 8.0 magnitude earthquake in the Pacific off the Samoa islands region generated a tsunami and waves of more than five feet had already been observed, U.S. government agencies said on Tuesday.

Two strong earthquakes hit between Japan's southernmost islands and the coast of Taiwan on Monday, both briefly prompting tsunami warnings, the Japanese Meteorological Agency said.

A massive magnitude 7.6 quake struck in the Indian Ocean off India's Andaman Islands, triggering a tsunami watch for India, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh, the U.S. Geological Survey reported on Monday.