Air pollution is a global problem, but it is not evenly distributed. Some areas are worse than others, of course. And air pollution can cause premature death from the diseases it can cause. Earth scientists studying air pollution have just released a map that shows air pollution deaths over time on a global scale. The stark map shown above was created at NASA Earth Observatory by data visualizer and designer Robert Simmon. This atmospheric computer model shows the average number of deaths per 386 square miles per year due to air pollution between 1850 and 2000. It’s based on data from Jason West, an assistant professor of environmental sciences and engineering at University of North Carolina. He and his colleagues published their findings earlier this year in Environmental Research Letters.

Three German tourists and their Filipino tour guide were crushed to death when one of the Philippines’ most active volcanoes spewed a giant ash cloud and a hail of rocks on Tuesday, authorities said. Up to 20 foreigners and their guides were on the slopes of picturesque Mount Mayon when it erupted without warning, and rescue workers had been dispatched on helicopters to search for survivors, officials and a tour operator said. “It rained like hell with stones,” local tour operator Marti Calleja quoted an Austrian woman who survived the ordeal as saying. “The rocks that came crashing down on them were as big as dining (table) sets,” he told AFP by phone.