Active Planet: Earthquakes rock the world; small tsunami; storms kill dozens

Europe doesn't often see high winds, and hurricane force winds (consistently above 118kph) are even more rare. But storms developed in the Atlantic last week have whipped across islands off the mainland, a follow up to a storm a week ago that killed more than 40 people on the island of Madeira alone. Gaining speed, the storms ran north through Portugal, Spain and France and are heading north / north east. But it has a very wide front: in north-west Spain - which is not densely populated - about 100,000 homes are without power.

In the Pacific, the tsunami alerts arising from the 8.8 scale earthquake in Chile yesterday proved accurate: tsunami waves have today hit north-east Japan, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand plus Haiwaii: small islands have not reported and information is awaited. Most waves were quite small but the nature of a tsunami is that it chances characteristic - and height - as it hits shallow waters and a 1.5 metre wave can rapidly turn into a wall of water, several metres high, moving at the speed of a jumbo jet in full flight. As waves have receded, warnings have been withdrawn with the only currently active warning being for Japan's north-west islands and fishing villages where homes remain evacuated and boats told to wait in deep water: another characteristic of a tsunami is that it runs under water, unlike a normal tidal wave, and the surface can be still while a current is moving at extreme speed below. In Japan, more than 300,000 people have been moved from their homes near the water.

But over nearer to Chile, the Tsunami was more brutal: coastal town Talcahuano was hit by a wave of almost 2.5 metres. A small group of islands, 700km off the Chilean coast, was hit by a large wave: The Robinson Islands has a population of less than 750: at least 11 are missing and four are confirmed dead according to the governor of the nearest mainland, Valparaiso.

Earlier today, an earthquake in the Hindu Kuch mountains shook parts of Northern Pakistan. The quake was about 175 km from Kabul and about 150 from the Chitral district of Pakistan, according to the US Geological Survey: this quake, at 6.2 was significantly less than the 7.6 that caused widespread devastation in north-west Pakistan in 2005, killing almost 75,000 people. About 3.5 million were homeless. Rescue was seriously hampered by bad weather and inhospitable terrain and communications.

Meanwhile, as Chinese New Year revellers congregated in central Kuala Lumpur this evening for the Jalan Alor Lion Dance, nearby buildings began to sway. This is a reasonably common occurrence in KL despite the fact that Malaysia does not, itself, suffer earthquakes. The usual cause is a shock in Indonesia, usually Sumatra, and usually more than 4 on the Richter scale. It usually takes about an hour for shocks to reach KL. The first swaying was at 20:14, KL time but there are still slight movements now at 20:44, suggesting that there is a more complex system of shocks taking place.

Update: the US Geographical survey has confirmed a magnitude 5.1 shock in Northern Sumatra, Indonesia, at 07:13:27 PM Indonesian time, 330 km west of Kuala Lumpur. However, due to time differences, this is at the time the tremors were felt in Kuala Lumpur.

The same organisation has reported, within the past hour, three more shocks off Chile, each 5.0 or greater.