Tsunami, Natural Disaster | featured news

Relief planes dropped boxes of dried noodles onto tsunami-ravaged Indonesian islands Friday because storms and a shortage of vessels made helicopter and boat deliveries almost impossible days after the wave killed more than 400 people.

Indonesia's Mount Merapi erupted on Thursday for the second time in a week, blasting vast plumes of ash into the sky, as the death toll from the initial eruption and a tsunami that hit remote western islands reached 377.

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.

Earthquake monitoring agencies issued a tsunami warning on Monday after a powerful tremor measuring more than 7 on the Richter scale under the sea off the west coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island.

A 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Alaska on Sunday, but no widespread threat of a tsunami was seen, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

A massive quake struck Chile early Saturday, shaking the capital of Santiago, bringing down buildings and setting off a tsunami. At least 78 were killed with the toll rising.

The death toll from the Haiti quake could be 230,000, the government says - close to the number killed in the 2004 Asian tsunami.

The earthquake that shook American Samoa nearly knocked John Newton out of bed. Within minutes he knew a tsunami had hit.

National Weather Service forecasters in California said they believe rising ocean levels caused by the massive American Samoa earthquake will be mostly felt along the Central Coast, roughly from the Monterey Bay sound to Point Conception in Santa Barbara County.

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.