Colombia Quake Death Toll Reaches 312 as 29,000 Homes Lie in Ruins in Choco

Q: What invisible atmospheric secrets did scientists uncover during the recent total solar eclipse's brief moments of darkness?

Scientists used the eclipse’s brief darkness to uncover short-lived changes in Earth’s lower atmosphere and chemistry that are normally hard to isolate in daylight. NASA-backed balloon teams focused on the boundary layer, the air closest to the ground, and found in earlier eclipse campaigns that it can rapidly collapse or thin as sunlight suddenly disappears, changing how heat, moisture and pollutants move. The 2026 eclipse gave them a new chance to test whether the same response occurs under different weather and seasonal conditions in Iceland and Spain. They also tracked ozone, an invisible atmospheric ingredient whose formation depends on sunlight. Similar balloon experiments during the 2024 total eclipse detected a temporary drop in ozone during totality. Researchers used the 2026 event to see whether that brief ozone dip repeats when the eclipse happens later in the day and in a different season. Scientists stressed this is not an “ozone hole,” but a short-term chemical response to the sudden loss and return of sunlight. Beyond the lower atmosphere, researchers also looked for broader eclipse effects, including ripples and shifts in atmospheric structure caused by the Moon’s shadow passing overhead. Together, these measurements turned a few minutes of darkness into a natural experiment, revealing how quickly Earth’s atmosphere reacts when solar energy is abruptly switched off and then restored.

3 articles · Updated · The Associated Press · Aug 19

312 people are now confirmed dead and 29,000 homes destroyed after the Aug. 10 magnitude 7.4 earthquake in Colombia’s Choco region, with 69,000 people affected or displaced.
Choco’s recovery is being slowed by deep poverty, weak infrastructure and conflict: only two precarious roads link the region to the rest of Colombia, and many towns can be reached only by air or river.
Quibdo’s only public hospital is operating at twice capacity after the quake, having flown 36 badly injured patients to Medellin and scrambled to replace a blood-storage refrigerator damaged by a power surge.
More than 200 schools were damaged, poor internet access limits remote learning, and aid groups have had to fly in over 2 tons of medical supplies because land access is so difficult.
President Abelardo de la Espriella has promised billions of dollars in infrastructure investment, a recovery overseer and rent subsidies, but residents say Choco’s long history of neglect leaves them doubtful.