Water chiefs are facing calls to tap into a massive hidden network of underground rivers off the west coast in a bid to solve worsening droughts on the Aran Islands.

Two Irish scientists have been dispatched to Iceland to analyse the Bardarbunga volcano after an eruption sparked a red alert aviation warning.

Sinkholes have been appearing in Ireland and the UK with increasing regularity in recent months. What’s causing them, asks John Hearne

India has ended a search for treasure underneath a 19th century fort after finding only a few bones and terracotta bricks but none of the gold predicted by a Hindu holy man’s dream.

RAVINES and canyons that plunge two kilometres in depth, colourful flora and corals – just some of the features of Ireland’s seabed, as shown in a new atlas showing the Ireland beneath the ocean.

Banking giant Goldman Sachs was fined £17.5m (€21m) by the UK’s Financial Services Authority today – the second biggest penalty ever issued by the City watchdog.

THE third wet summer in succession – rainfall for July alone was more than three times above normal in parts of Munster and Leinster – again sparks fears of landslides.

IN 2007, then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern greeted the loss of 330 Motorola jobs in Cork with the response: “Thankfully, unlike in years past when we set up taskforces that were able, in reality, to do very little, in the last six or seven years we have been able to send in taskforces that can train, retrain, skill and upskill.”

AS residents of the Ballyhoura district in north Cork, my wife and I may be adversely affected by the proposed €1 billion super-highway — the M20 — between Cork and Limerick.

Weather change from global warming is unleashing fresh threats to our environment and landscape, writes Donal Hickey.

Donal Hickey on a threat we need to take seriously.

Ireland’s role in the United Nations International Year of the Planet will be launched today.

EXPANDING small and medium-sized companies have been saluted for their contribution to a record commercial rates’ total in Cork county last year.

EXPERTS yesterday called for more funding to identify areas most at risk from landslides.

Donal Hickey says research flights could help find minerals and protect our health.

The Geological Survey of Ireland is reportedly examining the possibility of putting a tsunami warning system in place around the Irish coast.

Up to two-thirds of Ireland’s underground water is at risk of pollution, it was claimed today.

THE Government was accused yesterday of ignoring a north Cork town facing “economic meltdown”.

GENERAL Semiconductors Ireland, which closed in Macroom with the loss of 670 jobs made losses of almost $56 million in its final year of operation, accounts lodged with the Companies Registration Office (CRO) reveal.

An ambitious survey of the Irish sea bed - an area 10 times the country’s land area - is already yielding acres of information for students of the world’s oceans.