Japan and the surrounding islands straddle four major tectonic plates: Pacific plate; North America plate; Eurasia plate; and Philippine Sea plate. The Pacific plate is subducted into the mantle, beneath Hokkaido and northern Honshu, along the eastern margin of the Okhotsk microplate, a proposed subdivision of the North America plate. Farther south, the Pacific plate is subducted beneath volcanic islands along the eastern margin of the Philippine Sea plate. This 2,200 km-long zone of subduction of the Pacific plate is responsible for the creation of the deep offshore Ogasawara and Japan trenches as well as parallel chains of islands and volcanoes, typical of Circumpacific island arcs. Similarly, the Philippine Sea plate is itself subducting under the Eurasia plate along a zone, extending from Taiwan to southern Honshu that comprises the Ryukyu Islands and the Nansei-Shoto trench.
Subduction zones at the Japanese island arcs are geologically complex and produce numerous earthquakes from multiple sources. Deformation of the overriding plates generates shallow crustal earthquakes, whereas slip at the interface of the plates generates interplate earthquakes that extend from near the base of the trench to depths of 40 to 60 km. At greater depths, Japanese arc earthquakes occur within the subducting Pacific and Philippine Sea plates and can reach depths of nearly 700 km. Since 1900, three great earthquakes occurred off Japan and three north of Hokkaido. They are the M8.4 1933 Sanriku-oki earthquake, the M8.3 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake, the M9.0 2011 Tohoku earthquake, the M8.4 1958 Etorofu earthquake, the M8.5 1963 Kuril earthquake, and the M8.3 1994 Shikotan earthquake.
Seismotectonics of South America (Nazca Plate Region)
The South American arc extends over 7,000 km, from the Chilean margin triple junction offshore of southern Chile to its intersection with the Panama fracture zone, offshore of the southern coast of Panama in Central America. It marks the plate boundary between the subducting Nazca plate and the South America plate, where the oceanic crust and lithosphere of the Nazca plate begin their descent into the mantle beneath South America. The convergence associated with this subduction process is responsible for the uplift of the Andes Mountains, and for the active volcanic chain present along much of this deformation front. Relative to a fixed South America plate, the Nazca plate moves slightly north of eastwards at a rate varying from approximately 80 mm/yr in the south to approximately 65 mm/yr in the north. Although the rate of subduction varies little along the entire arc, there are complex changes in the geologic processes along the subduction zone that dramatically influence volcanic activity, crustal deformation, earthquake generation and occurrence all along the western edge of South America.
Most of the large earthquakes in South America are constrained to shallow depths of 0 to 70 km resulting from both crustal and interplate deformation. Crustal earthquakes result from deformation and mountain building in the overriding South America plate and generate earthquakes as deep as approximately 50 km. Interplate earthquakes occur due to slip along the dipping interface between the Nazca and the South American plates. Interplate earthquakes in this region are frequent and often large, and occur between the depths of approximately 10 and 60 km. Since 1900, numerous magnitude 8 or larger earthquakes have occurred on this subduction zone interface that were followed by devastating tsunamis, including the 1960 M9.5 earthquake in southern Chile, the largest instrumentally recorded earthquake in the world. Other notable shallow tsunami-generating earthquakes include the 1906 M8.5 earthquake near Esmeraldas, Ecuador, the 1922 M8.5 earthquake near Coquimbo, Chile, the 2001 M8.4 Arequipa, Peru earthquake, the 2007 M8.0 earthquake near Pisco, Peru, and the 2010 M8.8 Maule, Chile earthquake located just north of the 1960 event.
Large intermediate-depth earthquakes (those occurring between depths of approximately 70 and 300 km) are relatively limited in size and spatial extent in South America, and occur within the Nazca plate as a result of internal deformation within the subducting plate. These earthquakes generally cluster beneath northern Chile and southwestern Bolivia, and to a lesser extent beneath northern Peru and southern Ecuador, with depths between 110 and 130 km. Most of these earthquakes occur adjacent to the bend in the coastline between Peru and Chile. The most recent large intermediate-depth earthquake in this region was the 2005 M7.8 Tarapaca, Chile earthquake.
Earthquakes can also be generated to depths greater than 600 km as a result of continued internal deformation of the subducting Nazca plate. Deep-focus earthquakes in South America are not observed from a depth range of approximately 300 to 500 km. Instead, deep earthquakes in this region occur at depths of 500 to 650 km and are concentrated into two zones: one that runs beneath the Peru-Brazil border and another that extends from central Bolivia to central Argentina. These earthquakes generally do not exhibit large magnitudes. An exception to this was the 1994 Bolivian earthquake in northwestern Bolivia. This M8.2 earthquake occurred at a depth of 631 km, making it the largest deep-focus earthquake instrumentally recorded, and was felt widely throughout South and North America.
Subduction of the Nazca plate is geometrically complex and impacts the geology and seismicity of the western edge of South America. The intermediate-depth regions of the subducting Nazca plate can be segmented into five sections based on their angle of subduction beneath the South America plate. Three segments are characterized by steeply dipping subduction; the other two by near-horizontal subduction. The Nazca plate beneath northern Ecuador, southern Peru to northern Chile, and southern Chile descend into the mantle at angles of 25° to 30°. In contrast, the slab beneath southern Ecuador to central Peru, and under central Chile, is subducting at a shallow angle of approximately 10° or less. In these regions of “flat-slab” subduction, the Nazca plate moves horizontally for several hundred kilometers before continuing its descent into the mantle, and is shadowed by an extended zone of crustal seismicity in the overlying South America plate. Although the South America plate exhibits a chain of active volcanism resulting from the subduction and partial melting of the Nazca oceanic lithosphere along most of the arc, these regions of inferred shallow subduction correlate with an absence of volcanic activity.
Seismotectonics of the New Guinea Region and Vicinity
The Australia-Pacific plate boundary is over 4000 km long on the northern margin, from the Sunda (Java) trench in the west to the Solomon Islands in the east. The eastern section is over 2300 km long, extending west from northeast of the Australian continent and the Coral Sea until it intersects the east coast of Papua New Guinea. The boundary is dominated by the general northward subduction of the Australia plate.
Along the South Solomon trench, the Australia plate converges with the Pacific plate at a rate of approximately 95 mm/yr towards the east-northeast. Seismicity along the trench is dominantly related to subduction tectonics and large earthquakes are common: there have been 13 M7.5+ earthquakes recorded since 1900. On April 1, 2007, a M8.1 interplate megathrust earthquake occurred at the western end of the trench, generating a tsunami and killing at least 40 people. This was the third M8.1 megathrust event associated with this subduction zone in the past century; the other two occurred in 1939 and 1977.
Further east at the New Britain trench, the relative motions of several microplates surrounding the Australia-Pacific boundary, including north-south oriented seafloor spreading in the Woodlark Basin south of the Solomon Islands, maintain the general northward subduction of Australia-affiliated lithosphere beneath Pacific-affiliated lithosphere. Most of the large and great earthquakes east of New Guinea are related to this subduction; such earthquakes are particularly concentrated at the cusp of the trench south of New Ireland. 33 M7.5+ earthquakes have been recorded since 1900, including three shallow thrust fault M8.1 events in 1906, 1919, and 2007.
Two earthquakes of mild intensity shook parts of Maharashtra and Gujarat today, but there were no reports of any casualty.
A quake measuring 5 on the Richter scale was experienced in parts of western Maharashtra at 10.50 am. Its epicentre was Goshatwadi village, about 10km from Koyana dam in Satara district, the Met office here said.
An aftershock of 4.4 magnitude was registered an hour later, it said. The Koyna dam, situated in a quake-prone region, is safe, officials said.
The tremors were also felt in several parts of Mumbai, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur, Pune, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts.
There were no reports of any damage to life or property, they added.
A quake, measuring 4.1 on the Richter scale, was felt at 8.55 AM in parts of Gujarat. The earthquake had its epicentre at Vamka taluka in Kutch, which is an active fault line, scientists at Institute of Seismological Research said.
An aftershock measuring 2.9 was also felt, they said.
Besides Kutch district, tremors were experienced in parts of Saurashtra region.
No loss of life or damage to property has been reported so far in Gujarat, officials said.
Among those who felt the tremors in Mumbai were megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who resides in suburban Juhu.
“Earthquake in Mumbai ! Did you feel it… I did.. .Shutters and building shook twice for few seconds,” Bachchan tweeted.
This 6.2 Earthquake was reviewd and has been posted by the USGS. This is a Earthquake Alert by MrHurricaneTracker. This earthquake was on the Ring of Fire and we are watching it real close due to the passed few days and earthquake activity. Stay tuned right here on MHTAlerts. The Earthquake location 57.588°S, 65.414°W
(Reuters) – A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 5.9 struck offshore western Java in Indonesia’s Sunda Strait at a depth of 30.5 miles (49 km), the U.S. Geological Survey said on Saturday.
The USGS initially reported the quake as measuring 5.8 and a depth of 27.3 miles (44 km). It revised the location to 97 miles (157 km) south of T.Telukbetung in Sumatra, after first reporting it at 111 miles (178 km) west of Sukabumi in Java.
There were no immediate reports of damage or a tsunami warning from the quake, which was 109 miles (177 km) west-southwest of the capital Jakarta on Java.
SYDNEY: A strong 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of the South Pacific island of Vanuatu on Sunday, the US Geological Survey said, but there was no tsunami warning.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage either.
The quake struck at a relatively shallow depth of eight kilometres, around 150 kilometres south east of the capital Port Vila.
Vanuatu lies on the so-called “Pacific Ring of Fire”, a zone of frequent seismic activity caused by friction between shifting tectonic plates.
The earthquake hit shortly after 9:00am (around 2200 GMT Saturday), USGS said.
The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued an information bulletin but no alert, saying “a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami is not expected and there is no tsunami threat to Hawaii”.
The deluge began around 3:30 a.m. Over the next few hours, fast-moving hailstones pummeled the area north of Amarillo, Tex., which had lately been sitting in mud and dust due to a lack of precipitation, according to the news organization. The hail mixed with the mud and dust to create four-foot high mounds that shut down a major highway for the next 18 hours.
LOS ANGELES (LALATE) – A San Diego “earthquake” mystery today Friday April 13, 2012 has been denied as a sonic boom. San Diego residents reported an earthquake like event at 8:38 am to 9 am PST today. While a light San Diego neighboring earthquake did happen this morning, there was no sonic boom from MCAS Miramar, officials tell news.
Earlier today, local news erroneously reported that there wasn’t an earthquake at the time. But USGS does confirm to news that a neighboring earthquake did strike around that time. But the quake wasn’t substantial. And it wasn’t precisely in San Diego either.
disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes only
Radiation from nuclear accidents such as Chernobyl and Fukushima may not present as much of a threat to wildlife as previously thought, British researchers say.
Earlier studies on the impact on birds of the catastrophic nuclear accident at Chernobyl in Russia in April 1986 have been put in doubt by new research, the University of Portsmouth reported Wednesday.
The findings by Portsmouth researcher Jim Smith and colleagues from the University of the West of England are likely to also apply to wildlife at Fukushima in Japan following its nuclear disaster in 2011, the university said.
“I wasn’t really surprised by these findings — there have been many high profile findings on the radiation damage to wildlife at Chernobyl but it’s very difficult to see significant damage and we are not convinced by some of the claims,” Smith said.
“We can’t rule out some effect on wildlife of the radiation, but wildlife populations in the exclusion zone around Chernobyl have recovered and are actually doing well and even better than before because the human population has been removed.”
Previous studies had suggested radiation affected bird populations following the Chernobyl disaster because it damaged to birds’ antioxidant defense mechanisms, but the new research found the birds’ antioxidant mechanisms could easily cope with radiation at density levels similar to those seen at Chernobyl and Fukushima.
The researchers said their finding would likely apply to other forms of wildlife as well.
“We would expect other wildlife to be similarly resistant to oxidative stress from radiation at these levels,” Smith said.
Although heat waves can kill in the short term, the authors say, even minor temperature variations caused by climate change may also increase death rates over time among elderly people with diabetes, heart failure, chronic lung disease, or those who have survived a previous heart attack.
New research from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) suggests that seemingly small changes in summer temperature swings-as little as 1 degrees C more than usual-may shorten life expectancy for elderly people with chronic medical conditions, and could result in thousands of additional deaths each year. While previous studies have focused on the short-term effects of heat waves, this is the first study to examine the longer-term effects of climate change on life expectancy.
The study will be published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“The effect of temperature patterns on long-term mortality has not been clear to this point. We found that, independent of heat waves, high day to day variability in summer temperatures shortens life expectancy,” said Antonella Zanobetti, senior research scientist in the Department of Environmental Health at HSPH and lead author of the study. “This variability can be harmful for susceptible people.”
In recent years, scientists have predicted that climate change will not only increase overall world temperatures but will also increase summer temperature variability, particularly in mid-latitude regions such as the mid-Atlantic states of the U.S. and sections of countries such as France, Spain, and Italy. These more volatile temperature swings could pose a major public health problem, the authors note.
Previous studies have confirmed the association between heat waves and higher death rates. But this new research goes a step further. Although heat waves can kill in the short term, the authors say, even minor temperature variations caused by climate change may also increase death rates over time among elderly people with diabetes, heart failure, chronic lung disease, or those who have survived a previous heart attack.
The researchers used Medicare data from 1985 to 2006 to follow the long-term health of 3.7 million chronically ill people over age 65 living in 135 U.S. cities. They evaluated whether mortality among these people was related to variability in summer temperature, allowing for other things that might influence the comparison, such as individual risk factors, winter temperature variance, and ozone levels. They compiled results for individual cities, then pooled the results.
They found that, within each city, years when the summer temperature swings were larger had higher death rates than years with smaller swings. Each 1 degrees C increase in summer temperature variability increased the death rate for elderly with chronic conditions between 2.8% and 4.0%, depending on the condition.
Mortality risk increased 4.0% for those with diabetes; 3.8% for those who’d had a previous heart attack; 3.7% for those with chronic lung disease; and 2.8% for those with heart failure. Based on these increases in mortality risk, the researchers estimate that greater summer temperature variability in the U.S. could result in more than 10,000 additional deaths per year.
In addition, the researchers found the mortality risk was 1% to 2% greater for those living in poverty and for African Americans. The risk was 1% to 2% lower for people living in cities with more green space.
Mortality risk was higher in hotter regions, the researchers found. Noting that physiological studies suggest that the elderly and those with chronic conditions have a harder time than others adjusting to extreme heat, they say it’s likely these groups may also be less resilient than others to bigger-than-usual temperature swings.
“People adapt to the usual temperature in their city. That is why we don’t expect higher mortality rates in Miami than in Minneapolis, despite the higher temperatures,” said Joel Schwartz, professor of environmental epidemiology at HSPH and senior author of the paper.
“But people do not adapt as well to increased fluctuations around the usual temperature. That finding, combined with the increasing age of the population, the increasing prevalence of chronic conditions such as diabetes, and possible increases in temperature fluctuations due to climate change, means that this public health problem is likely to grow in importance in the future.”
** How to Prepare For an Earthquake **
By Eddie Sage on 14 April 2012
One of the most frightening and destructive phenomena of nature is a severe earthquake and its terrible aftereffects. An earthquake is the sudden, rapid shaking of the earth, caused by the breaking and shifting of subterranean rock as it releases strain that has accumulated over a long time.
For hundreds of millions of years, the forces of plate tectonics have shaped the earth, as the huge plates that form the earth’s surface slowly move over, under and past each other. Sometimes, the movement is gradual. At other times, the plates are locked together, unable to release accumulated energy. When the accumulated energy grows strong enough, the plates break free. If the earthquake occurs in a populated area, it may cause many deaths and injuries and extensive property damage.
While earthquakes are sometimes believed to be a West Coast occurrence, there are actually 45 states and territories throughout the United States that are at moderate to high risk for earthquakes including the New Madrid fault line in Central U.S.
The 2011 East Coast earthquake illustrated the fact that it is impossible to predict when or where an earthquake will occur, so it is important that you and your family are prepared ahead of time.
Ruins left over from the 2004 temblor that nearly destroyed Banda Aceh.
The Nation/Asia News Network
Friday, Apr 13, 2012
A fierce earthquake from the Nicobar Islands could strike over Songkran, sending a tsunami crashing into the Andaman Coast, an expert warned yesterday after finding that the 8.6magnitude Sumatran tremor three days ago was exceptionally deep.
“Whenever there is a quake rooted in the [Earth's] mantle, a following quake will be likely in the next few days,” said Professor Thanawat Jaruphongsakul, a senior seismologist at Chulalongkorn University.
Fear of another devastating tsunami panicked Thailand and Southeast Asia on Wednesday.
An underwater quake, with its epicentre at the Nicobar Islands, about 150 kilometres north of Aceh on Sumatra, would affect six coastal provinces of Thailand on the Andaman Sea, especially Ranong, which lies closest to a fault line connecting with the Nicobar Islands, he said.
The quakes on Wednesday originated from mantlelevel crust, 20 kilometres below the Earth’s surface, which is regarded as a layer that would cause very high magnitude tremblers.
The quake that hit Japan in March came from a shallower layer, so it would take up to 100150 years for the next quake. However Wednesday’s quakes, with their epicentre at Aceh, followed just eight years after the massive one that triggered a continentwide tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands of people in many countries, he said.
“Why did Wednesday’s quakes emerge just eight years afterwards? This is new to most seismologists and geologists, who are unfamiliar with quakes with depth rooting to the mantle layer,” he said.
Seismologists were closely watching and cautiously studying the 9.0 quake that devastated Sendai in Japan on March 11 last year. The first tremor on March 9 was recorded at 7.3 on the Richter scale. That one was understood by seismologists as the main shock, but there were two aftershocks on an even greater scale at 9.0 on March 11 that followed, he said.
The tsunamis created on Wednesday were not powerful or harmfully high because the quake was the horizontal dipslide type. But a mantlebased quake at an island with active underwater volcanoes located north of the Nicobar Islands would probably be a vertical strikeslip type, which would directly impact the six Thai coastal provinces, and possibly deluge them with tsunamis, he added.
Professor Michio Hashzume, a wellknown Japanese seismologist, said Wednesday’s quakes were a new type known to have started in the mantle. It was difficult to tell whether a new quake would follow within a few days, like the Sendai quakes, which were similar to Wednesday’s quakes. Then there was a 7.3, followed by a 9.0 two days later.
If there are quakes near the Nicobar Islands, they may cause huge collapses in the seabed and outer crust. The seabed may rise and form new islands, he said.
A 4.3 MAGNITUDE earthquake has struck in the sea off Italy’s Sicily, sending residents into the streets but with no immediate reports of victims or injuries, officials said.
Thursday morning the Turrialbla volcano unleashed a new series of eruptions, with experts converging on the colossus to take a close look at the smoke emanations coming from its centre.
For a live view of the volcano (photos update every 10 seconds) click here.
According to the Red Sismológica Nacional (RSN) and the Observatorio Vulcanologio y Sismologico de Costa Rica (OVISCORI) the activity does not present any danger, but will continue to monitor the volcano much closer.
The alert followed reports by area residents of hearing a large rumble and then the sighting of dark coloured smoke, produced by gas fumes from the volcano.
Last January the volcano became a concern for residents and experts following the emanation of white gas fumes.
Several RSN experts are on their way to the top of the volcano and the OVISCORI is keeping the national park closed and under a green alert.
Fiery lava and ash spew from Italy’s Mount Etna volcano
Published on Apr 13, 2012 by itnnews
Mount Etna has begun spewing blood-red lava and grey and white ash into the air, the volcano’s 24th eruption in a series that started this year. Report by Sophie Foster.
TORNADO WATCH OUTLINE UPDATE FOR WT 164
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
340 AM CDT SAT APR 14 2012
OKLAHOMA COUNTIES INCLUDED ARE
CRAIG CREEK DELAWARE
KAY LINCOLN LOGAN
MAYES NOBLE NOWATA
OSAGE OTTAWA PAWNEE
PAYNE ROGERS TULSA
WAGONER WASHINGTON
About 12 tonnes of radioactive water has leaked at Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, with the facility’s operator saying Thursday that some may have flowed into the Pacific Ocean.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the leak was found early Thursday from a pipe attached to a temporary decontamination system, and the water had already gone through some of the cleansing process.
The water, once it has been used to cool the reactors, contains massive amounts of radioactive substances and is put into the water-processing facility so it can be recycled for use as a coolant.
“Our officials confirmed that cooling water leaked at a joint in the pipes,” a TEPCO spokesman told AFP, adding that “it is possible that part of the water may have flowed outside the facility and poured into the ocean”.
The leak has since been plugged, the spokesman added, saying the utility was probing the cause of the accident and how much, if any, water flowed into the Pacific.
The accident was the latest of several leaks of radioactive water at the troubled plant, undermining the government’s claim made in December that the shuttered Fukushima reactors were now under control.
In one incident last month, about 120 tonnes of radioactive water leaked at the plant’s water decontamination system and about 80 litres (21 gallons) seeped into the ocean, according to TEPCO.
The plant about 220 kilometres (135 miles) northeast of Tokyo was crippled by meltdowns and explosions caused by Japan’s massive earthquake and tsunami in March last year.
Radiation was scattered over a large area and made its way into the sea, air and food chain in the weeks and months after the disaster.
Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes around the plant and swathes of this zone remain badly polluted. The clean-up is proceeding slowly, amid warnings that some towns could be uninhabitable for three decades.
A vast ice shelf in the Antarctic peninsula, a hotspot for global warming, has shrunk by 85 percent in 17 years, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Thursday.
Images taken by its Envisat satellite show that the so-called Larsen B ice shelf decreased from 11,512 square kilometres (4,373 square miles) in 1995, an area about the size of the Gulf state of Qatar, to only 1,670 sq km (634 miles) today.
Larsen B is one of three ice shelves that run from north to south along the eastern side of the peninsula, the tongue of land that projects towards South America.
From 1995 to 2002, Larsen B experienced several calving events in which parts of the shelf broke away. It had a major breakup in 2002 when half of the remainder disintegrated.
Larsen A broke up in January 1995.
“Larsen C so far has been stable in area, but satellite observations have shown thinning and an increasing duration of melt events in summer,” the agency said in a press release.
Ice shelves are thick floating mats of ice, attached to the shore, that are created by the runoff into the sea from glaciers.
Scientists say they are extremely sensitive to changes in atmospheric temperature and can be hollowed out from below by warmer ocean currents.
The northern Antarctic peninsula has been subject to atmospheric warming about 2.5 degrees Celsius (4.5 degrees Fahrenheit) over the last 50 years, a figure that is several times greater than the global average.
Ice shelves are not the same as ice sheets, the vast blanket of frozen water that covers Antarctica.
If these melted, even partially, they would drive up sea levels, threatening small island states and coastal cities. But the scientific evidence is that the icesheets so far are stable.
“These observations are very relevant for measuring the future behaviour of the much larger ice masses of West Antarctica if warming spreads further south,” ESA quoted Helmut Rott, a professor at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, as saying.
Massive Solar Flare rocked Earth with Earthquakes & Volcano eruptions this week! (April 13, 2012)
Published on Apr 13, 2012 by adrinilinjunky
A massive Earth directed Solar Flare that launched off the Sun on (April 9th 2012). The expected arrival date was 2 days later which was (April 11th 2012). This was also the day; the Earth just got rocked by all the magor Earthquakes such as a 8.6 off the coast of Sumatra, 7.0 Michoacan Mexico, 6.2 the off the coast of Oregon, 4.3 Utah, 5.0 North Indian Ocean, 6.9 in the Gulf of California & many other less magnitude quakes. So it clearly shows that Solar Flares/CME affect & have a magor impact on our Seismic activity dealing in reguards to Earthquakes & volcano eruptions.
Ecosystems are changing worldwide as a result of shrinking sea ice, snow, and glaciers, especially in high-latitude regions where water is frozen for at least a month each year-the cryosphere.
Scientists have already recorded how some larger animals, such as penguins and polar bears, are responding to loss of their habitat, but research is only now starting to uncover less-obvious effects of the shrinking cryosphere on organisms.
An article in the April issue of BioScience describes some impacts that are being identified through studies that track the ecology of affected sites over decades.
An article in the April issue of BioScience describes some impacts that are being identified through studies that track the ecology of affected sites over decades.
The article, by Andrew G. Fountain of Portland State University and five coauthors, is one of six in a special section in the issue on the Long Term Ecological Research Network. The article describes how decreasing snowfall in many areas threatens burrowing animals and makes plant roots more susceptible to injury, because snow acts as an insulator.
And because microbes such as diatoms that live under sea ice are a principal source of food for krill, disappearing sea ice has led to declines in their abundance-resulting in impacts on seabirds and mammals that feed on krill. Disappearing sea ice also seems, unexpectedly, to be decreasing the sea’s uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
On land, snowpack changes can alter an area’s suitability for particular plant species, and melting permafrost affects the amount of carbon dioxide that plants and microbes take out of the atmosphere-though in ways that change over time. Shrinking glaciers add pollutants and increased quantities of nutrients to freshwater bodies, and melting river ice pushes more detritus downstream.
Disappearing ice on land and the resulting sea-level rise will have far-reaching social, economic, and geopolitical impacts, Fountain and his coauthors note. Many of these changes are now becoming evident in the ski industry, in infrastructure and coastal planning, and in tourism. Significant effects on water supplies, and consequently on agriculture, can be predicted.
Fountain and his colleagues argue that place-based, long-term, interdisciplinary research efforts such as those supported by the Long Term Ecological Research Network will be essential if researchers are to gain an adequate understanding of the complex, cascading ecosystem responses to the changing cryosphere.
Other articles in the special section on the Long Term Ecological Research Network detail further notable scientific and societal contributions of this network, which had its origins in 1980 and now includes 26 sites.
The achievements include contributions to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, to ecological manipulation experiments, to bringing decision makers and researchers together, and to mechanistic understanding of long-term ecological changes.
Deadly March Tornadoes Were First Billion-Dollar Disaster of 2012
The swarms of March caused more than $1.5 billion in damage and killed 40. However, the drama is difficulty to qualify because tornadoes are ‘atypical events’ by nature
Tornado damage in Henryville, Ind., after a tornado swept through the small community on March 2, 2012. Image: Michael Raphael/FEMA
A swarm of tornadoes that tore through the Midwest and Southeast in early March has earned the grim title of the nation’s first billion-dollar weather disaster of 2012.
From March 2 through the early hours of March 3, 132 tornadoes were reported across nine states. Although those numbers are preliminary, and will undoubtedly decrease once overlapping reports are eliminated, their aftermath was devastating, causing more than $1.5 billion in damage and killing 40 people.
The storms killed four people in Ohio, but they took the greatest toll in Indiana, killing 13, and Kentucky, where 23 people died.
The costly disaster follows on the heels of a record-breaking year for devastation wrought by the vagaries of the weather and longer-term climate conditions. Last year, the United States experienced 14 separate events that caused $1 billion or more in damage. Five of those events were tornado outbreaks.
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes 'FAIR USE' of any such copyrighted material.]
(CNN) — A pair of strong earthquakes rocked Mexico’s Gulf of California only minutes apart early Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
The quakes — magnitude 6.9 and 6.2 — were centered about 85 miles northeast of Guerrero Negro in the Mexican state of Baja California, or 325 miles south-southwest of Phoenix in the United States. Both epicenters were shallow, a little more than six miles underground.
No tsunami warnings were issued and there were no immediate reports of damage, but people as far north as Tucson, Arizona, reported feeling them.
The temblors were recorded at 12:16 a.m. and 12:06 a.m. local time (3:16 a.m. and 3;06 a.m. ET).
7.0 Mexico/ 5.9 Oregon Coast/8.6 Sumatra/6.1 Tokyo
203 km (126 miles) S of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
290 km (180 miles) SSW of Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, Canada
352 km (218 miles) SW of HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, Canada
421 km (261 miles) E of BOSTON, Massachusetts
(AGI) Catania – Mount Etna is erupting for the sixth time this year with lava and plumes of smoke and ash from a new crater on the volcano’s southeast side. The new activity was preceded by new phase that began last night and that, according to experts from the INGV in Catania, has the same characteristics as the one before this one. Ash, carried by wind towards the east, has not yet created problems at the Fontanarossa airport, which is fully operational. . .
An unusual spring storm in the Texas Panhandle Wednesday afternoon dumped two to four feet of hail near Dumas.
Trucks were reported sliding off the road on Highway 287 as a result of the unexpected weather phenomenon. Snow plows were being used to clear the roads.
Some vehicles were trapped in the drifts of hailstones.
Chief Meteorologist Pete Delkus said a tornado watch was in effect for the Panhandle region through 10 p.m. Wednesday, and the storms were moving very slowly between Pampa and Dumas north of Amarillo and to the east of Dalhart.
Melting hail and heavy rain triggered flash flooding in the Panhandle
An EF-1 tornado that set down near Stockton Wednesday afternoon destroyed a building near a home and left debris strewn across the surrounding area, according to local meteorologists.
In Stockton, a highway traffic camera captured a funnel cloud southwest of the city, near Lathrop and a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento said it later touched down in French Camp, south of Stockton.
Discovery Bay resident Carlos Espinoza noticed the unusual atmospheric conditions just before the funnel cloud formed.
“I hear what I thought was thunder, said Espinoza. “Curious, I went out to look”
Espinoza grabbed his compact camera and snapped a series of 11 pictures that showed the funnel cloud forming and extending towards the ground.
A retired police officer, Espinoza knew what he’d witnessed.
“We’ve been shown how to look for certain weather conditions, explained Espinoza. To see this come up right in front of you was surprising, and fun!”
By early Wednesday evening, the National Weather Service confirmed that an EF-1 tornado swept through French Camp.
People who live in French Camp said they knew it was a tornado before the weather service did, as they watched it tear apart a building and send pieces of corrugated metal flying into telephone poles.
“[I was] scared to death,” said tornado victim Valentin Guitierrez. “We really thought we were going to die. I thought I was going to die.”
Guitierrez owned the shed that was destroyed when the tornado touched down. He said the sight of the twister and resulting damage was stunning.
“I heard a loud loud noise. I ran out to look out the back window and I see this big ol’ cloud,” said Guitierrez. “I see it flip over the trailers, so I figured it was a tornado. So I ran to the front of the house, told my family to get on the ground.”
One man said he’d never seen anything like it in his 65 years in San Joaquin County.
It is not unheard of to have twisters spawn from the clouds in the San Joaquin Valley, but it’s not common.
Besides the funnel cloud, a mass of unstable air between Spring storms triggered thundershowers and hail in the Central Valley, according tometeorologists.
The thundershowers erupted in a break between two storm fronts that have gotten April off to a wet start.
The National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning Wednesday afternoon for Tulare County near Hanford where quarter-inch sized hail fell accompanied by strong winds, lightning and thunder.
National Weather Service forecaster Steve Anderson said some BB-size hail was reported in the San Jose area around noon.
Meanwhile, a strong line of thundershowers roared into the Sierra foothills, dumping half inch in diameter hail and heavy downpours.
Two more low pressure system were lined up off shore ready to bring showers for the morning commutes both on Thursday and Friday.
Forecasters predicted the North Bay and the Santa Cruz Mountains could get 2 inches or more of rain by Saturday while the central Bay Area could expect 0.5 to 2 inches.
After one of the driest winters in a century, Mother Nature has done her best to eliminate potential drought conditions with one of the wettest Marchs in the past 80 years and now the April showers.
The same has held true for the Sierra where for much of the winter the ski resorts were forced to rely on snowmaking machines.
“Back in January, when we didn’t have any snow, we were looking for a tough season,” said Jennie Bartlett, a spokeswoman for Sugar Bowl. “But March was an awesome month for us. We got over 200 inches of snow.”
Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear, joins Thom Hartmann. California beware! A radioactive wave is headed toward the West Coast of the United States courtesy of the Fukushima nuclear disaster? So with nuclear power still wreaking havoc on the environment – why are the Japanese about to flip on more of their nuclear reactors?
From n3kl.org
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