An earthquake that struck rural Indonesia left at least four people dead, authorities said Sunday. At least seven others were injured, according to the National Disaster Management Agency. The 6.6-magnitude hit Saturday near the city of Palu on the island of Sulawesi, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Three of the hardest-hit districts are still unreachable because landslides triggered by the quake are blocking the roads. Heavy equipment and bulldozers are helping clear the roads. Disaster, health and social welfare officials, including the Red Cross, are headed to the area to provide emergency assistance, trucks and ambulances.
Areas in Ecuador’s Quito region have been evacuated as the Tungurahua volcano continues to erupt. Authotiries have been forced onto making plans to evacuate residents of Ecuador’s Banos region as the Tungurahua volcano continues to erupt. Local cities and farms have been covered in volanic ash as the massive eruptions shoe no signs of abating.
Thousands of people were told to leave their homes Sunday as a growing wildfire burning out of control in thick forest threatened rural communities in far Northern California. The fire that started Saturday has destroyed seven homes and consumed nearly 19 square miles near the towns of Manton, Shingletown and Viola, fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said. About 3,000 homes spread out across a rural area along the border of Tehama and Shasta counties were threatened as the fire continued to expand, he said. “A good majority are immediately threatened, and a good number are in the path of the fire,” Berlant said Sunday. “We will be battling it hard today to protect as many of those homes as possible.”The fire’s cause had not been determined, but officials said it started after a series of lightning strikes in the area. Nearly 1,000 firefighters were battling the flames. No part of the blaze was contained Sunday evening, and fire activity had picked up, Berlant said. John Cluff, 42, told the Redding Record Searchlight that he was forced to flee his home before the evacuations were issued. He went back for his dog about 3:30 p.m. “The fire basically chased me out of the property,” he said. “All I could see was black smoke and flames.” The Shasta County Sheriff’s Department has declared a State of Emergency for the county, with evacuations expected to continue through Sunday. The agency also was closing some local roads. The Red Cross set up an evacuation center in Redding, about 35 miles to the west of the blaze. The fire, burning in a rugged area of thick forests about 170 miles north of Sacramento, is one of handful of new fires in Northern California.
Today
Forest / Wild Fire
Australia
State of New South Wales, [Clarence Valley region]
A Bushfire Emergency has been declared in the Clarence Valley, on the New South Wales north coast. The Rural Fire Service (RFS) says crews in the Clarence have battled about 20 fires per day over the weekend. It says the key problem was hazard reduction burns on private land running out of control. The Bushfire Emergency or Section 44 declaration means the area can now access fire fighting equipment and personnel from across the state, with the state government covering the cost. RFS spokesman Brian Daly says dangerous conditions are forecast to ease off this week. “The last two days have been horrendous, with winds up around 50 to 60 kilometres an hour, from the northwest or north nor west,” he said. “They were just terrible conditions for fires.” Mr Daly says there are bushfires along the north coast near Casino, Coffs, Kempsey and Taree but the worst problems are in the Clarence. “We’re getting upwards of 20 ignitions a day, some of them are growing significantly and are still burning in remote areas,” he said. “Others our crews are getting onto and extinguishing quite quickly. “At the moment we’ve got about 18 fires listed as either going or contained and that’s just Clarence Valley.”
Authorities say Hurricane Gordon has passed Portugal’s mid-Atlantic Azores Islands without causing major damage and is losing strength. The head of the Azores Civil Protection Service, Pedro Carvalho, says there were no reports of significant damage as Gordon passed by Santa Maria and Sao Miguel, two of the archipelago’s nine islands, Sunday night. He told public broadcaster Radiotelevisao Portuguesa on Monday that emergency services responded to some calls about localized flooding amid torrential rain. Nobody was reported hurt. Authorities had warned locals to take precautions ahead of the arrival of the hurricane, which formed Saturday.
Satellite imagery hints that Tropical Depression 7 may be reborn Enlarge On Aug. 17, 2012, NOAA’s GOES-13 satellite captured visible images of Tropical Depression 7′s remnants at 9:45 am EDT. Showers and thunderstorm activity has increased over the Bay of Campeche. Credit: Credit: NASA GOES Project Satellite imagery on August 17 is showing signs of re-organization in the remnants of Tropical Depression 7 (TD7). TD7 has moved into the warm waters of the Bay of Campeche where it is regaining strength and appears much more organized. Ads by Google Emergency Water Filter – Energy-Free Ceramic Water Purifier Use Raw Lake, River, and Rain Water – http://www.aquarain.com NASA’s GOES Project created a visible image of the remnants of Tropical Depression 7 from August 17 at 9:45 a.m. EDT (1345 UTC) from NOAA’s GOES-13 satellite. The image showed several areas of stronger thunderstorms. The stronger thunderstorms appear brighter white in the imagery and are located around the center and to the northeast of the center of circulation. NASA’s GOES Project is located at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The Bay of Campeche is located on the western side of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, and is part of the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. The Bay is surrounded on three sides by the Mexican states of Campeche, Veracruz and Tabasco. Shower and thunderstorm activity picked up during the morning hours (Eastern Daylight Time) on August 17 in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico and Bay of Campeche. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) noted “surface observations and radar data indicate that the circulation has also become a little better defined and environmental conditions appear conducive for development.” The remnants of TD7 are moving to the west-northwestward to northwestward at around 10 mph. The NHC stated that a tropical depression could re-form before the low pressure area makes another landfall in Mexico over the weekend. So the remnants have a 70 percent chance of becoming a tropical depression again. A tropical storm watch or warning could be needed for part of the Gulf coast of Mexico. Provided by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center search and more info website
Courtesy Photo | Derek DennisWaterspouts formed over Lake Michigan near Holland on July 27. Similar phenomena were spotted on Saturday morning off South Haven.
UPDATE: The National Weather Service is now reporting nine waterspouts from two separate storms were witnessed on Lake Michigan.
SOUTH HAVEN, MI — Waterspouts have been spotted over Lake Michigan today and forecasters say it’s possible more could spawn tonight and Sunday night.
The National Weather Service said three of the tornado-like vortices were reported to them shortly before noon on Saturday, by people who were out on a fishing boat in Lake Michigan this morning.
The spouts were spotted about 24 miles west of the South Haven lighthouse.
The storms that caused them were small, 15-minute “pop-ups,” said William Moreno, a meteorologist in the NWS office in Grand Rapids.
Conditions were right this morning for the waterspouts, Moreno said, with a land breeze converging over lake water warmed by the summer heat.
The water in that part of the lake, the widest part of Lake Michigan, is about 72 degrees, he said. Winds in spout areas often reach 40 to 60 mph. Boaters or swimmers are advised to seek shelter when they are spotted.
Scattered storms have been moving over the central Lower Peninsula on Saturday. Clusters have moved east from Muskegon through Montcalm and Isabella counties, said Moreno.
The outflow boundary from the storm cluster has been darkening skies over southern Kent County and the Grand Rapids area, and that could produce a storm in the next few hours, he said.
Tonight and Sunday night, the air over Wisconsin and Michigan will cool again, said Moreno, and the situation that produced the spouts could be repeated,
National Weather Service offices in Milwaukee, Gaylord and Chicago are forecasting waterspouts on Sunday, he said.
“Tomorrow is better because we have a cold front coming south. The convection will be deeper and that will encourage more in the way of waterspouts.”
Strong thunderstorms dumping as much as 4 inches of rain have flooded streets, trapped drivers and collapsed buildings in Dallas. The storms rolled over the city on Saturday night. National Weather Service meteorologist Jesse Moore says some areas got as much as 4 inches of rain. Authorities have not confirmed any deaths related to the storms, but people told WFAA-TV they saw a man fall into a creek and get swept away about 7 p.m. The Dallas Morning News says two building collapses have been reported, including a partial cave-in at the Urban Inter-Tribal Center of Texas. Dallas Fire-Rescue rescued one driver trapped in high water near the city’s downtown, and several were stranded in flooded streets near Baylor University Medical Center.
Today
Landslide
India
State of Himachal Pradesh, [Kullu-Manali-Rohtang highway]
Several parts of Himachal Pradesh experienced heavy rainfall during the past 24 hours, triggering landslides at various places and disrupting vehicular traffic in the state. The Kullu-Manali-Rohtang highway was blocked for several hours due to landslides while hundreds of tourists remained stranded in the tribal Kaza area as landslides blocked the roads linking the valley from other parts of the state. However, all the roads in the tribal areas and also the national highways were opened later. “The traffic which was suspended since last night due to landslides was cleared this afternoon,” Rakesh Kumar, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Kaza said. Meanwhile, traffic on the Chandigarh-Manali highway, which remained suspended for several hours due to a massive landslide near Mandi town, was resumed this evening after clearing the debris from the road. “The highway was closed due to massive landslides triggered by incessant rain in the region for the past two days,” a police official said. The local MeT office has warned of heavy to very heavy rains in many parts of Himachal during the next 48 hours resulting in a sharp rise in levels of major rivers and their tributaries. The tourist towns of Shimla, Narkanda, Kufri, Kalpa, Kasauli, Chamba, Dharamsala, Palampur and Manali may receive rains in the next few days, the MeT office added. Mandi was the wettest in the region with 86 mm of rains while Sujanpur Tira had 80 mm of rains, followed by Malraun and Nehri 73 mm, Kahu 69 mm, Sihunta 59 mm, Sundernagar 52 mm, Shahpur 49 mm, Ramshar 34 mm, Gaggal Airport 33 mm, Thana Plaun Ghumarwin 28 mm and Dharamsala, Hamirpur and Berthin 22 mm each.
A magnetic filament snaking over the sun’s northeastern limb erupted on August 18th (01:02 UT), producing a significant M5.5-class solar flare. Click to view a movie of the eruption recorded by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory:
A coronal mass ejection (CME) flew away from the blast site, but the cloud is not heading for Earth. This eruption was not geoeffective.
The magnetic filament reformed, post-eruption, and appears to be connected to an active sunspot group on the farside of the sun. Although the sunspot is hidden behind the limb, the Solar Dynamics Observatory can see the sunspot’s towering magnetic canopy flashing and hurling plasma over the edge of the sun. Click on the image to set the scene in motion:
A great way to see the hidden sunspot is using NASA’s 3D Sun app, which shows our star as a 3-dimensional globe that you can spin and inspect from any angle. Data for the app come from a fleet of three spacecraft (SDO + STEREO) that surround the sun. Download the app and look around the globe for a hot spot labeled ‘farside AR.’ (AR=”active region”)
Soon, the sun’s rotation will turn the sunspot from the farside to the Earthside of the sun. A significant uptick in geoeffective solar activity is possible in the days ahead.
It has been a while since sky watchers around the Arctic Circle have enjoyed the Northern Lights. Auroras are hard to see through the glare of the midnight sun. As summer comes to an end, however, aurora season is beginning again. On August 16th, B.Art Braafhart spotted a splash of green over Salla in the Finnish Lapland:
“Finally, after three nights hunting for ‘the green lights,’ I made the first catch of the new season,” says Braafhart. “The nice temperature (+12C) was accompanied by zooming mosquitos around midnight. The apparition was brief, the colors thin and light, but after an absence of 4 months exciting again!”
The Northern Lights above Lake Superior. Photographer unknown.
Recent X-class solar flares have ignited the polar lights.
An electrically active magnetotail (or plasma tail) extends for millions of kilometers from Earth. Charged particles from the Sun, otherwise known as the solar wind, together with ions generated by the Earth, gather in a plasma sheet inside the magnetotail. Earth’s magnetic field causes these particles to spiral around the poles as well as to bounce between them. Some ions circle the Earth in two bands at low latitudes. Electrons move in one direction and protons in the opposite direction.
Solar ions flowing down into the polar cusps excite atmospheric molecules. Red light is emitted from oxygen molecules at high altitudes, while green light shines from oxygen in the lower atmosphere. Auroral blue comes from nitrogen.
Electromagnetic disturbances accompany bright aurorae because electric charge flows parallel to the auroral formation. Since electricity must move in a circuit, the electric currents travel into the aurorae from space and then back out to space, magnetically guided along the auroral arcs.
As mentioned in a previous Picture of the day, a magnetometer launched in 1973 by the U.S. Navy onboard the Triad satellite found two electric current sheets above Earth’s ionosphere charged with more than a million amperes. One plasma sheet descended from the aurora’s morning side and the other ascended from the evening side.
Kristian Birkeland’s research at the beginning of the twentieth century predicted the connection between Earth and space, so the plasma sheets are known as “Birkeland currents.” Birkeland’s polar electric currents are linked with electric currents moving within the geomagnetic field into and away from the Arctic and Antarctic regions.
On March 7, 2012 the Sun unleashed the second largest solar flare recorded in this active cycle. The X5.4 flare released a gigantic coronal mass ejection that headed for Earth at hundreds of kilometers per second. A geomagnetic storm occurred on March 8, increasing the auroral brightness and extending its visibility as far south as the Great Lakes.
As mentioned in past articles, auroral brightness and frequency tend to increase when CMEs meet Earth’s magnetic field, so logic would assume that the solar discharges are a flow of ionic particles. Heliophysicists tend to refer to those ions as a “wind” that “rain downs” on Earth. However, the fact that they follow the polar magnetic field establishes their electrical nature.
Solar flares are sometimes observed to leave the Sun with rapid acceleration. One CME burst was clocked at a velocity greater than 70,000 kilometers per second. A confirmation of the Electric Universe theory in that measurement was that material continued to accelerate as it left the Sun. Shock waves and “acoustic wave guides” could not have been responsible, otherwise the blast would have decelerated as it rushed toward Earth. Since the opposite effect was seen, an electric field phenomenon must have been at work and not kinetic effects.
Stephen Smith
Editor’s note: Title taken from The Iliad of Homer by Alexander Pope (1688-1744).
The Government Model Residential School, Peerumade, was closed on Monday after over 60 students were admitted to various hospitals since Sunday, due to alleged food poisoning. The condition of none of the students was serious, reports reaching here said. The authorities at the Peerumade taluk hospital said that students started to arrive at the hospital with complaints of vomiting, head ache and fever symptoms by evening on Sunday. When the number of casualties increased by Monday, the hospital authorities referred those having severe symptoms to the Kottayam Medical College Hospital. 14 students were admitted there, 29 at the Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children, Kottayam, 22 at the observation unit of the Taluk hospital, Kanjirappally and two at the Taluk hospital, Peerumade. Of them, 32 are male. The Tamil medium residential school accommodates students from standard V to Plus-I after it was upgraded this academic year. Students of Scheduled Caste and general category from Vandiperiyar, Kumily and Munnar are admitted at the school.
A team of physicians led by District Medical Officer P.J.Aloxious checked all the students at the school after opening a temporary medical unit at the school office. The preliminary inquiry shows that students showed symptoms of vomiting and giddiness after having evening food on Sunday at the hostel. An official of the medical team which visited the school said that stale food served could have been the cause and added that food samples had been collected and sent for analytical tests at the Regional Analytical Laboratory, Kakkanad. He said that water samples were also collected in addition to the samples of milk served to the students. District Collector T.Bhaskaran who visited the hostel and the hospitals told The Hindu that an inquiry has been ordered and if anyone was found guilty, action will be taken. He said that health officials have been directed to visit government residential schools in the district on a routine basis and ensure that quality food is served to the students in other hostels also. He said that a meeting of the peoples representatives, parents and teachers will be convened at the school on August 22 to address the problems being faced by it. The school has been closed till September 3. By noon, parents of the students started reaching the school to accompany their wards home. About 250 students are accommodated at various classes in the school which cater exclusively for Tamil medium students.
Biohazard name:
Mass. Food Poisoning
Biohazard level:
1/4 Low
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses including Bacillus subtilis, canine hepatitis, Escherichia coli, varicella (chicken pox), as well as some cell cultures and non-infectious bacteria. At this level precautions against the biohazardous materials in question are minimal, most likely involving gloves and some sort of facial protection. Usually, contaminated materials are left in open (but separately indicated) waste receptacles. Decontamination procedures for this level are similar in most respects to modern precautions against everyday viruses (i.e.: washing one’s hands with anti-bacterial soap, washing all exposed surfaces of the lab with disinfectants, etc). In a lab environment, all materials used for cell and/or bacteria cultures are decontaminated via autoclave.
More than 800 people were evacuated when a main water supply pipe burst on Monday in Mamelodi, east of Pretoria, Tshwane emergency services said. Spokesman Johan Pieterse said the Phomolong informal settlement was flooded when the pipe burst at around 1am on Monday. “We are still busy on the scene with a search and rescue mission as some of the people were missing family members.” He said one person was taken to hospital in a critical condition while five others sustained minor injuries. “The Hans Strijdom drive have been closed from the Hinterland Avenue to the Pretoria Avenue. Traffic will be affected as the road will only be opened much later on Monday.” Motorists were advised to take alternative routes. Pieterse said they would soon know which suburbs have been affected with water supply.
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JAKARTA, Indonesia — An earthquake registering magnitude 6.3 rocked a northern Indonesian island on Saturday as residents were ending their fast on the final day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, officials said. There were reports of at least two injuries but no tsunami warning was issued.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the late-afternoon quake struck 56 kilometers (35 miles) southeast of Palu city on Sulawesi Island at a depth of 19.9 kilometers (12.4 miles).
Sudirman, an officer at the Disaster Management Agency who uses one name, said there were reports from the province that at least two people were injured by falling debris and of damage to houses in Parigi Mountong, the district closest to the epicenter.
He said the full extent of the injuries and damage was not yet known.
The earthquake struck as people in the province were ending their fast on the last day of Ramadan, causing many to rush out into the streets in panic, local news reports said.
The USGS initially measured the quake at magnitude 6.6 but later adjusted it to 6.3.
Indonesia is prone to earthquakes because it is in the Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
A giant quake off the country on Dec. 26, 2004, triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed 230,000 people, half of them in Indonesia’s westernmost province of Aceh.
(Reuters) – A magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck off the coast of the West Coast state of Washington on Sunday, the United States Geological Survey said.
The depth was reported at 6.3 miles and the quake was located 190 miles west of Neah Bay, the USGS said. There was no immediate statement from the U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center based in Hawaii on the quake.
Thermal images taken of the lava flow and mobilized incandescent blocks tumbling down from a notch in the crater wall on the northwestern flank of the volcano Tungurahua. (S. Vallejo / IGEPN)
Current seismic signal (RETU station) with saturated tremor visible on the spectrogram (IG)
At 19h36 (local time) on 18 August, a possible lava flow from the summit crater and incandescent lava blocks continuously tumbling down were observed using thermal imagery.
The lava flow which some observers also reported seeing by naked eye is emerges from a breach in the sidewall of the crater on the upper NW flank and directed towards the Cusu gorge.
Apparently the lava flow stopped after nearly 4 hours of motion, but bad weather conditions make detailed observations difficult.
Preceding the effusion of the new flow, there had been a strong increase of activity since 16 August including seismic tremor, steam and ash emissions and loud explosions audible in nearby towns such as Ambato.
A sharp increase in activity has been observed at Popocatépetl since yesterday. During 17-18 August, 176 mostly small explosions were observed (compared to values of 10-20 for the previous week), and 74 alone during the following 9 hours, i.e. about 1 every 8 minutes. The largest eruption occurred at 20:41 h local time yesterday and threw incandescent bombs to 800 m distance, which landed on the rim of the lower crater. Glow from the summit was visible during clear weather at night. After 19:00 h local time yesterday, a constant steam plume with small amounts of ash was being erupted and formed a plume rising about 2 km above the crater. No reports of ash fall have been given in the latest CENAPRED summary.
On Aug. 15, NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite caught a crystal-clear image of a small ash plume emanating from a tiny volcanic Indonesian island. The volcano, called Batu Tara, is located on the island of Pulau Komba, and has been experiencing frequent, mild eruptions since mid-2006, according to a NASA release. While much of the island appears green thanks to tropical vegetation, one side of the island is noticeably free of plants and appears grayish. This barren area is a scarp that drops from the summit of the volcano to the ocean, a distance of 2,454 feet (748 meters). The scarp is created by the frequent eruptions, which send rocks and ash barreling down the slope.
The late summer heat wave that has gripped western Europe has started to arrive in Bulgaria, with highs set to rise over the week. Until the end of next weeks, temperatures in parts of Bulgaria, especially the south-west and north-east, are expected to reach around and above 40 degrees Centigrade. Highs Monday are expected to be in the range of 29-34 C, announced the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Light clouds are expected all over the week, but no precipitation is to be awaited. Weather in Bulgaria’s mountains and along the Black Sea coast is also expected to be clear and sunny. Air temperatures at the Black Sea will be around 25-27 C Monday, with almost the same expected for the water, 24-26 C.
French authorities are fighting wildfires, keeping an eye on isolated elderly populations and advising people to drink fluids as temperatures soar in the country. Heatwave warnings were issued for a swath of central and southern France, from Burgundy to the Pyrenees. Temperatures are expected to reach up to 40C in some areas. The government is determined to avoid a repeat of the summer of 2003, when about 15,000 people died during a heatwave. Wildfires raged around Lacanau in the south-west on Thursday. Patrick Stefanini, prefect for the Aquitaine region, said on French television that they were brought under control on Friday. French television is airing public service announcements with recommendations to drink water and wear hats.
One person was killed and several others were injured by lightning in what is the third mass U.S. lightning-related incident to occur in recent weeks. The Duluth News Tribune reports a 9-year-old boy died from his injuries and seven other were injured when lightning struck a private sailboat on Lake Superior off Minnesota Point late Saturday afternoon. The call came in around 5:30 p.m. CDT, Active Asst. Chief Jarry Keppers said. He says four people were critically injured including a 9-year-old boy, who was found face down in the water without a pulse shortly after the lightning strike. Only after repeated CPR attempts were crews able to regain it. The St. Louis County, Minn. Sheriff’s Office later reported that the boy died after being airlifted to Essentia Health-St. Mary’s Medical Center. The group was believed to be on shore but near the sailboat when the lightning hit. The boat had been brought to shore, seeking refuge from the storm moving through the area. The area was said to be so remote that initial emergency responders had to get there by boat.
This is the third mass lightning-related incident in recent weeks. On August 5, one person was killed and nine others injured when a cloud-to-ground lightning strike hit after a NASCAR race in Pennsylvania. On Aug. 14, 10 soldiers were injured at Fort Drum in New York after lightning struck their tent. August along with June are historically the second most dangerous months for lightning strikes. July is number one. Twenty-four people have now been killed by lightning strikes so far this year including the unborn child of a woman who was nine months pregnant when she was struck and killed.
Today
Forest / Wild Fire
Italy
Province of Grosseto, [Il Sole, Marina di Grosseto, and Maremma camping areas, Tuscany]
More than 1,000 tourists were evacuated from three campgrounds in Italy’s Tuscany region as forest fires threatened the area, officials said. Campers were evacuated late Saturday from the Il Sole, Marina di Grosseto, and Maremma camping areas as fires blazed in the coastal region. Emergency accommodations were set up in a local shopping center and other places where the displaced campers spent the night. Firefighters are still working to put out the fire, which had consumed 296 acres. Italy was hit by a total of 31 fires Friday and Saturday as temperatures reached triple digits.
A forest fire is raging on the island of Chios in the Greek archipelago and villagers and tourists are fleeing to the beach to escape the flames. Over 200 fire-fighters, soldiers and volunteers are involved in the operation and have been joined by eight aircrafts and two helicopters. At least three villages and tourist resorts have been evacuated and residents can only watch from the beach as fire consume the island. Rescue forces report that strong winds are making it difficult to control the fire which is thought to have broken out in the early hours of Friday morning. It is threatening ten villages on Chios and has moved very close to the Greek army base “PAP” near the Vessas village. Local media reports that the smoke can be seen from the island of Crete, over 60 miles south of Chios. The island is the fifth largest in the Greek archipelago and is a popular tourist destination with many tourists drawn to its scenery and medieval villages, which are now at risk. It is not clear if the 11th century monastery of ‘Nea Moni’, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, will be saved from the flames but local media reports that the fire is likely to have caused substantial damage to the islands tourism industry.
Tropical Storm Gordon, seen over the Atlantic Ocean in this NASA handout satellite image Thursday, became a hurricane Saturday.
By NBC News staff and wire services
Updated at 1:30 p.m. ET: Tropical Storm Helene made landfall off the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday and weakened into a tropical depression as it plowed up Mexico’s east coast, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
The depression was about 15 miles south-southwest of Tampico and had maximum sustained winds of 35 miles per hour, the NHC said.
As Helene weakened, tropical storm warnings were discontinued on the Mexican coast, although it was expected to produce three to six inches of rain in the states of Veracruz and Tamaulipas.
Helene was predicted to continue weakening and dissipate within 48 hours, the NHC said.
There were no reports that Helene had affected the Gulf of Mexico’s oil installations, which are built to resist much more powerful hurricanes.
Earlier, Portugal posted warnings for the central and eastern Azores islands as Tropical Storm Gordon moved eastward across the Atlantic and later turned into a hurricane.
In the northern part of Veracruz, a lush coastal state with hundreds of towns and villages sitting along streams and rivers that can swell dangerously in heavy rain many were evacuated as Ernesto approached last week, and flood damage made some 10,000 people homeless.
State of emergency
Mexico’s government declared a state of emergency in more than 100 population centers in Veracruz and was providing them with emergency aid. The country’s national weather service warned of intense rains and winds along the Veracruz and Tamaulipas coasts, with heavy rain, hail and lightning possible.
A storm surge could raise water levels by as much as 1 to 2 feet above normal along the immediate coast and to the north of where landfall is made.
Heavy rain was expected in the city of Tampico, an oil-refining center and important port in the southernmost part of Tamaulipas state. The Tampico metropolitan area has roughly 790,000 inhabitants, sits just above sea level and is surrounded by lakes and lagoons that are already full and could easily flood in the event of heavy rains.
Civil protection authorities in Veracruz issued a yellow alert, one level below the highest warning, for population centers in the north and center of the state, warning residents to familiarize themselves with the locations of emergency shelters, avoid crossing swollen streams and rivers, and keep listening to radio and TV for storm updates.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Typhoon kills four, causes flooding in Vietnam Hanoi (AFP) Aug 18, 2012 – At least four people died as Typhoon Kai-Tak barrelled across northern Vietnam bringing high winds and floods to several areas including the capital Hanoi, authorities and a report said Saturday.The typhoon, which made landfall late Friday, was downgraded to a tropical depression Saturday but continued to dump water on already flooded parts of the country.A taxi driver was killed when high winds caused a tree to fall on his car in Hanoi, while two others died from electric shock after a cable was felled in northern Son La city, according to an update from the national flood and storm central committee.
In Bac Giang province a 46-year-old woman died after soil from a partially collapsed hill buried her house in the middle of the night, VNExpress news site reported.
Earlier more than 11,000 boats, including several hundred used by tourists at the UNESCO world heritage site Halong Bay, were ordered to stay close to the shore.
The Vietnamese army put 20,000 soldiers backed by helicopters, rescue boats and canoes on standby to handle any incidents.
Kai-Tak swept across the Philippines’ main island of Luzon, dumping heavy rain on the Cagayan basin and other areas in the north, killing four people.
At least nine people were killed, thousands of homes damaged and swathes of farmland flooded as Typhoon Kai-Tak swept across northern Vietnam, authorities said Sunday.
The storm, which made landfall late Friday, brought strong winds and heavy rains that inundated several densely populated communities including part of the capital Hanoi.
Five people were swept away by floodwaters while one woman died when a landslide buried her house while she was sleeping in Bac Giang province, according to the government’s central committee on flood and storm control.
A taxi driver was killed by a toppled tree while two people were electrocuted by a falling electricity cable, it said.
Nearly 12,000 houses were damaged and 23,000 hectares (56,800 acres) of cropland were flooded, according to the committee.
In Hanoi, about 200 large trees were uprooted and part of the city remained under water early Sunday.
The Vietnamese army had put 20,000 soldiers backed by helicopters, rescue boats and canoes on standby for rescue operations, but only a small number of them were deployed.
More than 11,000 boats, including several hundred used by tourists at the UNESCO world heritage site Halong Bay, were ordered to stay close to the shore.
The storm, which earlier killed four people in the Philippines, was packing winds of about 100 kilometres (62 miles) per hour when it slammed into Vietnam, but it was downgraded to a tropical depression on Saturday.
A nuclear reactor automatically shut down Sunday due to problems of power supply, only 19 days after beginning its commercial operation, triggering concerns over power shortage in the season of high electricity demand. The accident took place at the New Wolsong 1 reactor in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province at around 11:00 a.m. as its power supply system did not work properly, the state-run Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) said. Officials said an investigation was underway to learn the exact cause of the malfunction but claimed that there is no danger of a radiation leak. “The shutdown is the level zero, according to the nuclear and radiological event scale by the International Atomic Energy Agency,” a KHNP official said. “It has nothing to do with the safety of the nuclear plant or radiation risks.” But he said that the operation of the reactor will resume only after two phases ― the KHNP completes its investigation, which may take two or three days, and the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission approves its resumption.
The 1 million kilowatt nuclear reactor went into full operation on July 31, but as it was sidelined, worries sprout up that power shortage might hit the nation at a time when electricity reserves have fallen to an alert level several times of late. The Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) has already issued an alert several times as the demand for electricity may be increasing due to hot summer weather after the peak vacation season ends at the end of August. Midway through last September, the nation suffered unprecedented rolling blackouts due to unseasonable heat waves, which ended up inconveniencing households and causing industrial damage across the country. In order to prevent recurrence of the disaster, the Seoul administration has pulled out all the stops to jack up its capacity of providing electricity while trying to deter rising energy demand. Currently, Korea operates 20 nuclear reactors out of total 23, which supply about 30 percent of its overall electricity consumption. But due to fears of a power shortage, the government considered resuming operation of reactors earlier than originally scheduled.
Democratic Republic of the Congo, KAMPUNGU : This picture released by the World Health organization 01 October 2007 taken 29 September 2007 at the Doctors without borders (MSF) isolation ward of Kampungu shows MSF nurse Isabel Grovas (L) and Dr Hilde Declerck (R) taking care of a 43 year old patient who has been laboratory confirmed to have Ebola haemorrhagic fever (EHF). (AFP Photo/WHO/Christofer Black)
Nine people have died from an outbreak of the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo, only weeks after the virulent disease was declared “under control” in neighboring Uganda, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported.
The new cases of the Ebola virus were detected near the country’s northwestern town of Isiro, the Congolese health minister said.
A group of specialists from various international organizations – the WHO, Doctors Without Borders and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – are working in the country alongside local doctors. They are conducting a detailed epidemiological investigation, and are attempting to quarantine people who may have been in contact with those infected.
The new outbreak comes just weeks after another Ebola epidemic in neighboring Uganda – roughly 30 miles from its border with DR Congo – was declared to be over. The Ugandan outbreak killed 16 people in July. The two epidemics are not believed to be linked, since the strain found in DR Congo is different from the one identified in Uganda, Doctors Without Borders reported.
Ebola is a rare hemorrhagic virus, first discovered in 1976 in Zaire (now known as DR Congo). The disease was named after a small river in the country. Symptoms of Ebola infection include a sudden onset of fever, weakness, headaches, vomiting and kidney failure.
The virus is reportedly fatal in 50-90 percent of cases. In the most severe infections, victims bleed from bodily orifices before dying. There is no treatment and no vaccine for Ebola, which is transmitted by close personal contact. It can also be transmitted to humans through the handling of infected animal carcasses, including monkeys and birds.
Congo’s last major Ebola epidemic in 1995 killed 245 people. Recent Ebola outbreaks were recorded in Uganda, when 37 people were killed in the western part of the country in 2007, and when at least 170 died in the nation’s northern region in 2000.
An outbreak of Ebola has killed one person and is believed to have infected three others over the last week in northeastern Congo, medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said today. The outbreak is in Isiro, a busy town in Democratic Republic of Congo’s Oriental province, which shares a border with Uganda, but the strain of the deadly disease is different to the one that killed 16 there last month, MSF said. Ebola is transmitted to humans from monkeys and birds and causes massive bleeding in victims, with mortality rates as high as 90 per cent. Anja de Weggheleire, the medical coordinator for MSF in the area, said blood samples from one victim had confirmed Ebola in Isiro and there were at least three other suspected cases being treated in an MSF-supported local hospital. “We cannot speak of a direct link between the two epidemics, I think unfortunately it’s just pure coincidence,” Ms de Weggheleire told Reuters. MSF was helping track and isolate people who may have come in contact with the disease, she added. Authorities in Uganda said this week that the outbreak there was under control after they imposed strict measures to prevent Ebola from spreading in the west of the country. However, Congo’s health system is permanently stretched and MSF warned that preventing the spread of the disease from the town, a provincial transit point, could be a challenge. “(The situation) is quite serious already … Isiro is quite a busy place, quite well connected, that could make it quite complex to contain (the fever),” Ms de Weggheleire added.
Just days ago, MSF reported the Uganda outbreak was under control with the last confirmed fatality 17 days ago. The GAR reports that a National Task Force convened by the Congolese Ministry of Health, is working with several partners including WHO, MSF and CDC. A joint MoH, WHO and MSF emergency response team are in the field to conduct a detailed epidemiological investigation and case management. Ebola hemorrhagic fever (HF) was first recognized in 1976 and was named after a river in the Congo. It received a lot of popular attention thanks to the best-seller, “The Hot Zone”. Infections with Ebola virus are acute. There is no carrier state. Because the natural reservoir of the virus is unknown, the manner in which the virus first appears in a human at the start of an outbreak has not been determined. People can be exposed to Ebola virus from direct contact with the blood and/or secretions of an infected person. Thus, the virus is often spread through families and friends because they come in close contact with such secretions when caring for infected persons. People can also be exposed to Ebola virus through contact with objects, such as needles, that have been contaminated with infected secretions. The incubation period for Ebola HF ranges from 2 to 21 days. The onset of illness is abrupt and is characterized by fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, sore throat, and weakness, followed by diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach pain. A rash, red eyes, hiccups and internal and external bleeding may be seen in some patients. The death rate for Ebola HF can be up to 90%. There is no standard treatment for Ebola HF. The World Health Organization (WHO) does not recommend that any travel or trade restrictions be applied to DRC.
Recent outbreaks of Ebola have also recently been appearing in the Kabaale District of Western Uganda. On July 30 up to 16 persons were confirmed dead from the disease with 7 more cases diagnosed as medical teams from the International Federation of the Red Cross, the Uganda Red Cross and the National Emergency Taskforce from the Uganda Minsitry of Health went into the region to assist and survey the extent in the spread of the disease. On August 3 officials from the WHO stated that the outbreak in Uganada was under control. Spread of the disease was tempered as medical advocates noted that contagion for the disease was happening to those who were attending funerals. Proper disposal of the bodies of those who have died from the disease has helped to keep the spread of the disease down. The Ebola virus has been a disease that scientists and medical experts alike are still studying and researching. The disease is known to hibernate for years and then suddenly appear, then go into hibernation again. Animal hosts, especially bats, are suspected to be carriers. Contagion with the disease is made through blood and bodily fluids. Recent outbreaks in the African regions have been in areas where poverty levels are high and lack of proper sanitation is common.
WHO is supporting the Ministry of Health in the DRC areas for coordination; surveillance; epidemiology; laboratory; case management; logistics for outbreak; public information and social mobilization. An additional team of experts from Congo, DRC and IST/Gabon comprised of an epidemiologist, logistician, anthropologist and social mobilization officers are being mobilized for possible deployment in the field. Control activities that are being carried include active case finding and contact tracing, enhanced surveillance, case management, public information and social mobilization and reinforcing infection control practices. The last outbreak of Ebola, charted by the Washington, D.C. based CDC â Center for Disease Control and Prevention, outlined for the Congo region happened near the border of Zaire in the towns of Mweka and Luebo in the Province of Kasai Occidental between December 2008 â February 2009. During the outbreak 32 people contracted Ebola as 47 percent (15 people) died from conditions that were caused by the disease. Currently the WHO â World Health Organization does not recommend that any travel or trade restrictions be applied to Democratic Republic of Congo at this time.
The health authorities of the Dominican province of Santiago remained today the alert to the increasing number of people with symptoms of cholera in that territory, where more than 300 are reported affected. The outbreak of diarrhea in the last three days is caused by poor quality of drinking water consumed by residents of the territory, said the provincial director of Public Health, Ramon Martinez. An addition to diarrhea, patients treated at public and private hospitals, had vomiting and severe pain in the abdomen. Most of the patients were tested for diagnosis, and many of them confirmed the presence of bacterial infections without discarding cholera, said an epidemiologist quoted by local media. Cholera coming from Haiti, appeared in th Dominican Republic in November 2010, this disease caused so far more than 170 deaths, official figures indicate. Dominican former Minister of Health, Bautista Rojas, said last month that cholera has affected 0.22 percent of the Dominican population of about nine and a half million inhabitants, although concentrated in the areas of greatest social vulnerability. “We will maintain continuous monitoring the issue, including the strengthening of the various components of the strategy to combat the disease to reduce risk and achieve its elimination”, said Rojas.
Biohazard name:
Cholera
Biohazard level:
2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
The Los Angeles County Public Health Department is investigating a possible cluster of syphilis among adult film industry performers, officials said Friday afternoon. The department has received reports of at least five possible cases in the past week, said Peter Kerndt, director of the county’s Sexually Transmitted Disease programs. The county plans to follow up with the affected individuals to ensure that they have been properly treated and to determine who else may have been infected. Public health workers are also attempting to find out the original source of the recent cluster. “Whenever there is a cluster like that it may be the tip of the iceberg,” Kerndt said. “It is a concern. It is a serious health risk to workers in this industry.” Kerndt added that it was “not a surprise that from time to time this would occur” in the industry. Between 2010 and 2011, there was an increase in syphilis cases throughout Los Angeles County, Kerndt said.
Biohazard name:
Syphilis
Biohazard level:
2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
MessageToEagle.com – The scientists and engineers of NASA’s Curiosity rover mission have selected the first driving destination for their one-ton, six-wheeled mobile Mars laboratory.
The target area, named Glenelg, is a natural intersection of three kinds of terrain. The choice was described by Curiosity Principal Investigator John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology during a media teleconference on Aug. 17.
“With such a great landing spot in Gale Crater, we literally had every degree of the compass to choose from for our first drive,” Grotzinger said. “We had a bunch of strong contenders.
It is the kind of dilemma planetary scientists dream of, but you can only go one place for the first drilling for a rock sample on Mars.
That first drilling will be a huge moment in the history of Mars exploration.”
The trek to Glenelg will send the rover 1,300 feet (400 meters) east-southeast of its landing site. One of the three types of terrain intersecting at Glenelg is layered bedrock, which is attractive as the first drilling target.
“We’re about ready to load our new destination into our GPS and head out onto the open road,” Grotzinger said.
“Our challenge is there is no GPS on Mars, so we have a roomful of rover-driver engineers providing our turn-by-turn navigation for us.”
Prior to the rover’s trip to Glenelg, the team in charge of Curiosity’s Chemistry and Camera instrument, or ChemCam, is planning to give their mast-mounted, rock-zapping laser and telescope combination a thorough checkout.
Curiosity Rover Report – Aug. 17, 2012. Credits: JPL/NASA
On Saturday night, Aug. 18, ChemCam is expected to “zap” its first rock in the name of planetary science. It will be the first time such a powerful laser has been used on the surface of another world.
“Rock N165 looks like your typical Mars rock, about three inches wide. It’s about 10 feet away,” said Roger Wiens, principal investigator of the ChemCam instrument from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. “We are going to hit it with 14 millijoules of energy 30 times in 10 seconds. It is not only going to be an excellent test of our system, it should be pretty cool too.”
Click on image to enlargeGlenelg Intrigue
This image shows a closer view of the landing site of NASA’s Curiosity rover and a destination nearby known as Glenelg. Curiosity landed inside Gale Crater on Mars on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT) at the blue dot. It is planning on driving to an area marked with a red dot that is nicknamed Glenelg. That area marks the intersection of three kinds of terrain.
Starting clockwise from the top of this image, scientists are interested in this brighter terrain because it may represent a kind of bedrock suitable for eventual drilling by Curiosity. The next terrain shows the marks of many small craters and intrigues scientists because it might represent an older or harder surface. The third, which is the kind of terrain Curiosity landed in, is interesting because scientists can try to determine if the same kind of rock texture at Goulburn, an area where blasts from the descent stage rocket engines scoured away some of the surface, also occurs at Glenelg.
The science team thought the name Glenelg was appropriate because, if Curiosity traveled there, it would visit the area twice — both coming and going — and the word Glenelg is a palindrome. After Glenelg, the rover will aim to drive to the base of Mount Sharp.
These annotations have been made on top of an image acquired by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Mission engineers are devoting more time to planning the first roll of Curiosity. In the coming days, the rover will exercise each of its four steerable (front and back) wheels, turning each of them side-to-side before ending up with each wheel pointing straight ahead. On a later day, the rover will drive forward about one rover-length (10 feet, or 3 meters), turn 90 degrees, and then kick into reverse for about 7 feet (2 meters).
“There will be a lot of important firsts that will be taking place for Curiosity over the next few weeks, but the first motion of its wheels, the first time our roving laboratory on Mars does some actual roving, that will be something special,” said Michael Watkins, mission manager for Curiosity from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
The Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft delivered Curiosity to its target area on Mars at 10:31:45 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5 (1:31:45 a.m. EDT on Aug. 6), which included the 13.8 minutes needed for confirmation of the touchdown to be radioed to Earth at the speed of light.
The audio and visuals of the teleconference are archived and available for viewing at: – here
MessageToEagle.com – The Milky Way galaxy is part of a larger cosmic neighborhood, consisting of more than 35 galaxies known as the Local Group.
One of the most prominent members of the Local group and at the same time – our neighbor is M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. It has two small satellite galaxies, M32 and M110.
Also prominent in the local group is the Triangulum Galaxy (M33), Leo I, and NGC 6822. There are over 30 galaxies that are considered to be in the local group, and they are spread over a diameter of nearly 10 million light years, with the center of them being somewhere between the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy.
Both M31 and the Milky Way have dwarf galaxies associated with them.
Numerous, less glamorous dwarf galaxies, keep the Milky Way company.
Many other galaxies, however, are comparatively isolated, and have no close neighbors. One of them is a lonely galactic island – a dwarf irregular galaxy called DDO 190.
Recently, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope with its advanced Camera for Surveys, captured a new image of this lonely galactic island.
DDO 190 is relatively small and lacks clear structure.
Older, reddish stars mostly populate DDO 190’s outskirts, while some younger, bluish stars gleam in DDO 190’s more crowded interior.
Some pockets of ionised gas heated up by stars appear here and there, with the most noticeable one shining towards the bottom of DDO 190 in this picture.
Click on image to enlarge
DDO 190 lies around 9 million light years away from our solar system.
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Meanwhile, a great number of distant galaxies with evident spiral, elliptical and less-defined shapes glow in the background.
DDO 190 lies around nine million light-years away from our Solar System. It is considered part of the loosely associated Messier 94 group of galaxies, not far from the Local Group of galaxies that includes the Milky Way.
Canadian astronomer Sidney van der Bergh was the first to record DDO 190 in 1959 as part of the DDO catalogue of dwarf galaxies. (“DDO” stands for the David Dunlap Observatory, now managed by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, where the catalogue was created).
Although within the Messier 94 group, DDO 190 is on its own. The galaxy’s nearest dwarf galaxy neighbour, DDO 187, is thought to be no closer than three million light-years away. In contrast, many of the Milky Way’s companion galaxies, such as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, reside within a fifth or so of that distance, and even the giant spiral of the Andromeda Galaxy is closer to the Milky Way than DDO 190 is to its nearest neighbour.
Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys captured this image in visible and infrared light. The field of view is around 3.3 by 3.3 arcminutes
Residents in a Cumberland County, N.J., community were left wondering what caused dozens of birds to drop dead from the sky earlier this week.
Residents along Peach Drive in Millville found at least 80 dead birds — mostly red-winged blackbirds — on the ground, having fallen from trees and the sky.
“Crazy — something out of a movie,” said resident Michelle Cavalieri, who saw the birds fall.
The birds caused a bloody mess on roadways in the residential neighborhood.
“They’d get up and try and fly and they were out of control so they’d crash and fall again,” said resident Jim Sinclair. ”It was just strange.”
Animal control, public health officials and other emergency crews were on the scene Tuesday morning collecting dead birds to try and figure out exactly what caused so many of them to die.
Cumberland County Public Information Officer Troy Ferus said the birds’ death likely was caused by something they ate — a granular pesticide put down legally by nearby Ingraldi Farms.
One of dozens of birds that was found dead on the ground in Millville, N.J.
“Preliminary investigation gives us the impression that.. he had problems with birds,” said Ferus. ”He applied for and got a permit for a product that kills birds and that’s what it seems to have been effective at doing.”
Here is the county’s press release on the incident:
The Department of Health reports that Monday evening Ingraldi Farms applied a granular pesticide intended and approved to cull birds, causing an unusually high volume of dead birds in the area of Ingraldi Farms and Whitemarsh Estates in Millville.
The material used; Avitrol Double Strength Corn Chops (EPA reg. # 11649-5) is approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and intended to be used for bird control for Blackbirds, Brewer’s Blackbirds, Cowbirds, Grackles, Red-Winged Blackbirds, Rusty Blackbird, Starlings and Yellow-Headed Blackbirds.
In the past, Ingraldi Farms has also used Avian Control (EPA reg. # 33162-1) a ready to use liquid repellent intended to be used for bird control for Geese, Gull, Pigeon, Crows, Starlings, House Sparrows, Blackbirds, Grackles and House Finches.
Ingraldi Farms is licensed through the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to apply pesticides on their farms and has been working with the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife to alleviate the crop damage done by large flocks of birds. Remedies include auditory shock, hunting and pesticides. Ingraldi Farms has estimated a crop loss of $15,000 so far, due to the birds eating their crops.
Bird specimens have been collected and are being sent to the NJ-Department of Environmental Protection Laboratory for testing.
No one at Ingraldi Farms would talk to NBC10′s Ted Greenberg when he went there for comment.
Officials say the dead birds are not toxic, but that any member of the public that encounters a dead bird should use gloves when picking it up and wash their hands thoroughly after handling and disposing of it in the trash.
But they put out a call to residents Tuesday afternoon that urged residents to remain inside “due to an odor and the death of several birds in the area.”
One possible case of [a] hantavirus [infection] was reported in Herrera province after a 32 year old patient, resident of the Monagrillo neighborhood, presented with symptoms of the disease [probably hantavirus pulmonary syndrome]. Francisco Rios, regional health director of the province, stated that tests on the patient to determine if he had this disease were negative. Despite these results, the man was moved to the capital city where the tests are being done again by the Gorgas Memorial Center. It is worth noting that 2 family members of this man are currently in hospital, having presented with the same symptoms. Because of this, authorities of the Ministry of Health have carried out an inspection of the house of the patient, where they determined that there were various risk factors for the disease within the home.
Biohazard name:
Hantavirus
Biohazard level:
4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:
Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
Seven people, most of them elderly women, died after eating pickles contaminated with E. coli in northern Japan, officials said Sunday, in the country’s deadliest mass food poisoning in 10 years. A total of 103 others have been made ill after eating the same lightly pickled Chinese cabbage produced in late July by a company in the city of Sapporo, according to health bulletins issued by the local government. Of the dead, six were elderly women who ate the pickles at nursing homes in Sapporo and in another city on Hokkaido island. A four-year-old girl died on August 11 in Sapporo. In the city of Ebetsu, a woman centenarian died early Sunday from multiple-organ failure, nine days after she was hospitalised, a Hokkaido regional health official said. “She ate the pickles served at breakfast at her nursing home on August 1,” the official, Narihiko Kawamura, told AFP by telephone. The Sapporo girl died five days after developing symptoms of E. coli poisoning, according to an official at the city’s public health centre. “She and her family used to eat the company’s cabbage pickles, which they often bought at a local supermarket. But it is not certain when she ate the contaminated product,” the official, Seiichi Miyahara, said by telephone. Two other women in their 90s died on Thursday in Ebetsu after eating the pickles at nursing homes.
Biohazard name:
E Coli Outbreak (contaminated pickles)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Symptoms:
Status:
19.08.2012
Biological Hazard
Vietnam
Province of Thanh Hoa, Quang Ngu Village [Sam Son District]
Bird flu has broken out in three districts of Thanh Hoa province and thousand of birds have been culled. The disease was discovered in Quang Ngu village, Sam Son town, said Pham Van Can, head of the communal Veterinary Centre, on August 18. Can said that after it was detected on July 24, the authorities sent blood samples for testing, which came back positive for the H5N1virus. Quang Ngu has since destroyed more than 300 birds. Bird flu outbreaks have also been reported in three villages in Hau Loc district over the period of a week and more than 13,000 birds have been culled. These localities have strengthened supervision and sent working groups to be on duty around the clock to prevent sick birds from being transported outside the area.
Biohazard name:
Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (H5N1)
Biohazard level:
4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:
Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
A man died and a woman became seriously ill after contracting a rare rodent-borne disease that might have been linked to their stay at a popular lodging area in Yosemite National Park, officials said Thursday. The man was the first person to die from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome contracted in the park, though two others were stricken in a more remote area in 2000 and 2010, officials said. Testing by the Centers for Disease Control and the California Department of Public Health showed the virus was present in fecal matter from deer mice trapped near Curry Village, an historic, family friendly area of cabins. “There’s no way to tell for sure, but state health officials feel they may have contracted it here in Curry Village,” park spokesman Scott Gediman said. The woman was expected to survive. Their names weren’t released. Hantavirus develops from breathing in particles transmitted by rodent droppings, urine or saliva. Early symptoms of hantavirus can include fever and muscle aches, chills, headaches, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain and coughing. Symptoms can show up within one to six weeks after exposure. There is no specific treatment for the virus, and about one-third of people who contract it will die. Curry Village is the most popular and economical lodging area in the park, a picturesque assemblage of rustic cabins at the base of the 3,000-foot promontory Glacier Point. Earlier this summer park officials placed some of the area off limits when a geologist’s report revealed it is a rock fall hazard zone. Both victims stayed at the park on overlapping days in June in canvas tent cabins located about 100 feet apart from each other, park officials said. Tent cabins are built on wooden platforms and are impossible to completely seal.
“It’s a wilderness setting and the inspections have shown that the park concessionaire has done an excellent job at keeping them clean,” Gediman said. “But there are rodents in the wilderness and some of them are infected and that’s what happens.” There have been 60 cases in California and 587 nationally since hantavirus pulmonary syndrome was first identified in 1993. These two new cases bring to four the number of people stricken in California this year. Most cases are in the eastern Sierra at higher elevations. The park’s two previous cases were contracted in Tuolumne Meadows at 8,600 feet. Yosemite Valley is 4,000 feet. Health officials say people should avoid contact with mice and other rodents. People should wear gloves and spray areas contaminated with rodent droppings and urine with a 10 percent bleach solution then wait 15 minutes before cleaning the area. State health officials said their investigation showed that park concessionaire Delaware North Co. used good cleaning practices. Company officials are telling visitors when they call to make reservations that the outbreak has occurred, said spokeswoman Lisa Cesaro. She said the company is working with the park service to come up with a plan to educate visitors about the potential danger.
Biohazard name:
Hantavirus
Biohazard level:
4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:
Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
Symptoms:
Status:
confirmed
Today
HAZMAT
USA
State of California, San Francisco [Treasure Island]
HAZMAT in USA on Sunday, 19 August, 2012 at 03:42 (03:42 AM) UTC.
Description
The city of San Francisco plans to convert former Naval base ‘Treasure Island’ into a residential neighborhood, but new reports by the US Navy and public health officials suggest the island may be more radioactive than previously believed. Construction is set to begin on a planned 20,000-person high-rise community in 2013, right in the middle of scenic San Francisco Bay. Treasure Island, whose former facilities included a training center for radioactive decontamination, is already the site of multiple recreation centers and home to 2,500. But recent reports have put the city’s lofty plans for the manmade island on hold. While the past use of the island as a naval site is public knowledge, new reports compiled by civilian investigators hired by the Navy have revealed that radioactive exercises at the base were more extensive than previously revealed. The new Navy report and several emails cite numerous concerns from public health officials over the actual levels of leftover radioactivity, San Francisco-based nonprofit news publication The Bay Citizen reported. New investigations have revealed that gun sights on Navy ships containing radioactive material were routinely repaired there. Several ships from the Pacific fleet that may have been contaminated by radiation from US nuclear bomb tests also underwent refits at the island.
The report showed that the Navy was so concerned about radioactive contamination on the island at one point that it built a ‘counting room,’ which would measure whether personnel had been overexposed to radiation. The Navy previously revealed that the island was home to training programs on how to decontaminate radioactive ships. A mock-up ship, the USS Pandemonium, was repeatedly doused with radioactive material and cleaned by Navy trainees. The Navy claimed that the material used on the ship was not highly radioactive, and dissipated within weeks. But a classroom spill in 1950 prompted a cleanup, and 200 barrels of contaminated material were dumped into the ocean. When the Navy cleaned up the island in 1997, they disposed of the remains of the USS Pandemonium at an undisclosed location, and declared the former training sites clear without testing them for radiation. The Navy has yet to reveal the location of the scrapped USS Pandemonium. The Navy is selling the island to the city of San Francisco for $105 million, prompting health inspectors to press the Navy for more details after discovering contaminated soil areas that had previously been declared clean. In December 2010, Navy contractors excavated and removed 16,000 yards of contaminated dirt, some with levels of radioactivity up to 400 times the Environmental Protection Agency’s limit for human exposure. In another incident in August 2011, the Health Department raised concerns that a contracted Navy cleanup crew may have accidentally exposed children on the island to radioactive dust at a Boys & Girls Club and a child development center.
The Department of Toxic Substances Control, a separate agency also monitoring the cleanup, maintains that the children were never exposed to radiation. It echoed the Navy’s claim that much of the island is safe for final transfer to the city of San Francisco, citing the Navy’s 2006 report, ‘Final Treasure Island Naval Station Historical Radiological Assessment.’ Overall radiation levels on the island are only slightly higher than the exposure one would receive in a typical backyard, and do not pose a threat to the planned community, nor to the residents already living there, the Navy and the Department of Toxic Substances Control said. But health officials and activists argue that those assessments are premature, as the contractors hired to remove waste based their efforts on the 2006 report, which health officials consider erroneous in light of recent developments. Stephen Woods, an environmental cleanup manager for the public health department, wrote in a 2011 memo that “the large volume of radiological contaminated material, high number of radioactive commodities, (individual items or sources,) and high levels of radioactive contamination … have raised concerns with the CDPH (California Department of Public Health) regarding the nature and extent of the radiological contamination present at Treasure Island.” By May of that year, over 1,000 truckloads of radioactive waste had been removed from the island, with more to go, Woods wrote, concluding that such a massive cleanup operation would certainly undermine the Navy’s 2006 report. The island is therefore much more radioactive than the Navy had previously acknowledged, he said. “That amount of radium found to date cannot be explained by gauges, deck markers and decontamination activities,” he wrote.
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Earthquakes are among the most destructive and common of geologic phenomena. Several million earthquakes are estimated to occur worldwide each year (the vast majority are too small to feel, but their motions can be measured by arrays of seismometers).
Historically, most of Arizona has experienced low levels of recorded seismicity, with infrequent moderate and large earthquakes in the state. Comprehensive analyses of seismicity within Arizona have not been previously possible due to a lack of seismic stations in most regions, contributing to the perception that widespread earthquakes in Arizona are rare. Debunking that myth, a new study published by Arizona State University researchers found nearly 1,000 earthquakes rattling the state over a three-year period.
Jeffrey Lockridge, a graduate student in ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration and the project’s lead researcher, used new seismic data collected as part of the EarthScope project to develop methods to detect and locate small-magnitude earthquakes across the entire state of Arizona.
EarthScope’s USArray Transportable Array was deployed within Arizona from April 2006 to March 2009 and provided the first opportunity to examine seismicity on a statewide scale. Its increased sensitivity allowed Lockridge to find almost 1,000 earthquakes during the three-year period, including many in regions of Arizona that were previously thought to be seismically inactive.
“It is significant that we found events in areas where none had been detected before, but not necessarily surprising given the fact that many parts of the state had never been sampled by seismometers prior to the deployment of the EarthScope USArray,” says Lockridge. “I expected to find some earthquakes outside of north-central Arizona, where the most and largest events had previously been recorded, just not quite so many in other areas of the state.”
One-thousand earthquakes over three years may sound alarmingly high, but the large number of earthquakes detected in the study is a direct result of the improved volume and quality of seismic data provided by EarthScope.
Ninety-one percent of the earthquakes Lockridge detected in Arizona were “microquakes” with a magnitude of 2.0 or smaller, which are not usually felt by humans. Detecting small-magnitude earthquakes is not only important because some regions experiencing small earthquakes may produce larger earthquakes, but also because geologists use small magnitude earthquakes to map otherwise hidden faults beneath the surface.
Historically, the largest earthquakes and the majority of seismicity recorded within Arizona have been located in an area of north-central Arizona. More recently, a pair of magnitude 4.9 and 5.3 earthquakes occurred in the Cataract Creek area outside of Flagstaff. Earthquakes of magnitude 4.0 or larger also have occurred in other areas of the state, including a magnitude 4.2 earthquake in December 2003 in eastern Arizona and a magnitude 4.9 earthquake near Chino Valley in 1976.
“The wealth of data provided by the EarthScope project is an unprecedented opportunity to detect and locate small-magnitude earthquakes in regions where seismic monitoring (i.e. seismic stations) has historically been sparse,” explains Lockridge. “Our study is the first to use EarthScope data to build a regional catalog that detects all earthquakes magnitude 1.2 or larger.”
His results appear in a paper titled, “Seismicity within Arizona during the Deployment of the EarthScope USArray Transportable Array,” published in the August 2012 issue of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. Ramon Arrowsmith and Matt Fouch, professors in ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration, are Lockridge’s dissertation advisors and coauthors on the paper. Fouch is also a geophysicist at the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism in Washington, DC.
“The most surprising result was the degree to which the EarthScope data were able to improve upon existing catalogs generated by regional and national networks. From April 2007 through November 2008, other networks detected only 80 earthquakes within the state, yet over that same time we found 884 earthquakes, or 11 times as many, which is really quite staggering,” says Lockridge.
“It’s one of countless examples of how powerful the EarthScope project is and how much it is improving our ability to study Earth.”
Lockridge is also lead author on a study that focuses on a cluster of earthquakes located east of Phoenix, near Theodore Roosevelt Lake. The results from this study will be published in Seismological Research Letters later this year. In his current studies as doctoral student, Lockridge is using the same methods used for Arizona to develop a comprehensive earthquake catalog for the Great Basin region in Nevada and western Utah.
Sakurajima Volcano has been steadily erupting for some time now. So much so that residents were asked to cover up and wear masks as a health and safety measure. According to researchers, this active volcano in Kagoshima Prefecture could release its largest amount of ash in two decades this year alone.
Going by the current stats available, the mountain has already spewed enough ash from January to July, amounting to twice the amount emitted in all of last year. Masato Iguchi, a professor at the Sakurajima Volcano Research Center said that last year saw a record number of eruptions as well. The ground around Sakurajima indicates the buildup of magma and appears swollen.
And if Sakurajima keeps being as active it is right now, we can expect the amount of ash expelled to be a new record. In the past two decades this year’s activity of explosions and ash fall have both risen dramatically. As a part of the Kyoto University’s disaster reduction research institute, keeping a tab on such stats is imperative to avoid another Pompeii. You may recollect the 1914 eruption as one of the deadliest one that killed 58 people. Presently, Minamidake crater erupted last month for the first time in about a year and a half and the Showa crater has been active since 2008.
On Aug. 15, NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite caught a crystal-clear image of a small ash plume emanating from a tiny volcanic Indonesian island. The volcano, called Batu Tara, is located on the island of Pulau Komba, and has been experiencing frequent, mild eruptions since mid-2006, according to a NASA release. While much of the island appears green thanks to tropical vegetation, one side of the island is noticeably free of plants and appears grayish. This barren area is a scarp that drops from the summit of the volcano to the ocean, a distance of 2,454 feet (748 meters). The scarp is created by the frequent eruptions, which send rocks and ash barreling down the slope.
Temperatures in some parts of France will reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) this weekend, forecasters predicted Thursday, triggering an alert system set up after 15,000 people died in a heatwave in 2003.
Health Minister Marisol Touraine said a level 2 alert on the 1-3 heatwave warning system would be issued to ensure the public was aware of the need to ensure the well-being of the elderly, babies and other people particularly vulnerable to unusually high temperatures.
“We have to be careful not to cause panic but at the same time make sure everyone is taking sensible precautions,” the minister said.
State forecasting body Meteo France expects temperatures to reach 40 degrees in south-western and central France with figures in the high 30s in much of the rest of the country.
France introduced its heatwave warning system in 2004, a year after 15,000 mostly elderly people died in an unexpected and sustained spell of unusually hot weather.
French authorities are fighting wildfires, keeping an eye on isolated elderly populations and advising people to drink fluids as temperatures soar in the country. Heatwave warnings were issued for a swath of central and southern France, from Burgundy to the Pyrenees. Temperatures are expected to reach up to 40C in some areas. The government is determined to avoid a repeat of the summer of 2003, when about 15,000 people died during a heatwave. Wildfires raged around Lacanau in the south-west on Thursday. Patrick Stefanini, prefect for the Aquitaine region, said on French television that they were brought under control on Friday. French television is airing public service announcements with recommendations to drink water and wear hats.
Tropical Storm Kai-tak blew out of the Philippines on Thursday, offering some relief for millions of people struggling to recover from a brutal few weeks of monsoon rains that claimed 109 lives.
However civil defence chief Benito Ramos said floods could still hit the Cagayan river basin, a farming region of more than two million people as runoff from storm-induced rains descend from surrounding mountain ranges.
“The storm is gone but we’re still on red alert. In 10 hours we’d know how much water would descend onto the Cagayan river,” Ramos told AFP.
Kai-tak swept across the Philippines’ main island of Luzon on Wednesday, dumping heavy rain on the Cagayan basin and other areas in the north, leading to the deaths of four people.
But the storm also caused more bad weather in other parts of Luzon, including the capital Manila and surrounding farming regions where an intense deluge triggered by another storm caused devastating floods last week.
Those floods, which came after nearly a fortnight of relentless rain that soaked the ground and filled rivers, killed at least 105 people, according to the government’s latest tally.
The government’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said it was still providing relief aid to nearly a million people impacted by last week’s floods, including more than 216,000 at evacuation centres.
Floods that persisted in the farming provinces surrounding Manila had started to recede, and the number of people in evacuation centres was about half the peak over the weekend.
Ramos said he expected most people would be able to return to their flood-damaged homes within a week.
However he said more than 12,000 families, or about 60,000 people, had lost their homes completely and would need temporary shelters for a longer period.
Anna Lindenfors, country head for aid group Save the Children, warned that the millions of people affected by the floods faced months of miserable and dangerous conditions either inside or outside evacuation centres.
“The need is massive and urgent — millions of people are suffering the miserable consequences of these floods and we must try to reach them before the rains hit again,” she said in a statement.
Kai-tak strengthened into a typhoon Thursday and was heading towards the coast of southern China west of Hong Kong.
The results of two studies in the August 15 issue of JAMA report on the psychological status of workers at the Fukushima nuclear power plants in Japan several months after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, and the amount of internal radiation exposure among residents of a city north of the power plant that experienced a meltdown.
As reported in a Research Letter, Jun Shigemura, M.D., Ph.D., of the National Defense Medical College, Saitama, Japan, and colleagues examined the psychological status of Fukushima workers 2 to 3 months after the disaster for symptoms of general psychological distress, including posttraumatic stress response (PTSR). The study included all full-time workers from the Daiichi plant (n = 1,053; plant experienced meltdown) and Daini plant (n = 707; plant experienced damage but remained intact) in May and June 2011.
Using a self-report questionnaire, the researchers assessed sociodemographic characteristics and disaster-related experiences, including discrimination/slurs because the electric company that managed these plants was criticized for their disaster response and the workers have been targets of discrimination. Measures of general psychological distress included feeling nervous, hopeless, restless/fidgety, depressed, and worthless in the last 30 days.
Of 1,760 eligible workers, 1,495 (85 percent) participated (Daiichi: n = 885 [84 percent]; Daini: n = 610 [86 percent]). The authors found that compared with Daini workers, Daiichi workers were more often exposed to disaster-related stressors. Experiencing discrimination or slurs was not statistically significantly different between groups (14 percent vs. 11 percent). The researchers found that general psychological distress and PTSR were common in nuclear plant workers 2 to 3 months after the disaster.
“Daiichi workers had significantly higher rates of psychological distress (47 percent vs. 37 percent) and PTSR (30 percent vs. 19 percent). For both groups, discrimination or slurs were associated with high psychological distress and high PTSR. Other significant associations in both groups included tsunami evacuation and major property loss with psychological distress and pre-existing illness and major prop�erty loss with PTSR.”
Study Finds Low Levels of Radiation Exposure to Residents of City North of Meltdown In another Research Letter, Masaharu Tsubokura, M.D., of the University of Tokyo, and colleagues conducted a study to gauge the level of radiation exposure to residents of the city of Minamisoma, located 14 miles north of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. “Release of radioactive material into the air, water, and soil raised concern about internal radiation exposure and the long-term risk of cancer in nearby residents,” they write.
Many residents were evacuated after the meltdown, but by August 2011, approximately half had returned. A voluntary screening program for levels of cesium, known to be representative of total internal radiation exposure, was conducted between September 2011 and March 2012 for all residents ages 6 years or older.
Total cesium exposure was converted into committed effective dose (sievert, Sv). Common dose-limit recommendations for the public are 1 mSv or less. A total of 9,498 residents enrolled in the study, 24 percent of the registered population on August 15, 2011.
The sample consisted of 1,432 children and 8,066 adults. A total of 3,286 individuals (34.6 percent) had detectable levels of cesium, including 235 children (16.4 percent) and 3,051 adults (37.8 percent). Committed effective doses were less than 1 mSv in all but 1 resident (1.07 mSv).
“To our knowledge, this is the first report on internal exposure to cesium radiation after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant incident. In this sample, exposure levels were low in most adults and children tested and much lower than those reported in studies years after the Chernobyl incident. Even the highest levels of contamination observed are below the thresholds for the administration of Prussian blue [an antidote used in the treatment of cesium poisoning],” the authors write.
The researchers note that because this screening program started 6 months after the nuclear power plant disaster, higher exposure levels might have been detected earlier, and that it is not possible to ascertain whether the low levels of exposure were due to low ongoing exposure or decay from high exposure values.
“Because data were collected from volunteers, the results may not be representative of the entire population in contaminated areas. No case of acute health problems has been reported so far; however, assessments of the long-term effect of radiation requires ongoing monitoring of exposure and the health conditions of the affected communities.”
Fire crews were called to Torness nuclear power station in East Lothian early yesterday after a blaze broke out. The plant’s on-site fire team dealt with the incident, which involved lagging on a pipe catching alight at 12:25am. Managers insisted there was no risk to the public during the incident at the plant, operated by French firm EDF Energy.
Aircraft have begun spraying pesticide over parts of Dallas, Texas to combat an outbreak of mosquito-borne West Nile Virus blamed for 17 deaths this year, authorities said Friday. The Texas Department of State Health Services said the aircraft covered 52,000 acres of Dallas County on Thursday night, opening a new front to stop the spread of West Nile Virus. “Aerial spraying is a safe and very effective tool, but it doesn’t take the place of the basic precautions,” said David Lakey, the head of the health department. “We are urging people to continue using insect repellent every time they go outside.” Four more aircraft were to resume spraying later Friday, and residents were cautioned to avoid going outdoors, keep pets inside, cover ornamental fishponds and rinse off homegrown fruits and vegetables. Throughout the state 465 people have been sickened since the start of the year, putting it on track to have the most cases since the disease first emerged a decade ago, the department said. The county incorporating Dallas, the ninth-largest city in the United States, has been the hardest hit, prompting the mayor to declare a local state of disaster on Wednesday. “The city of Dallas is experiencing a widespread outbreak of mosquito-borne West Nile virus that has caused, and appears likely to continue to cause, widespread and severe illness and loss of life,” Mayor Michael Rawlings said. The virus has claimed ten lives in the county so far, local and state health authorities said. First discovered in Uganda in 1937, the virus is carried by birds and spread to humans by mosquitoes. Severe symptoms of the virus include high fever, vision loss and paralysis, while milder symptoms range from headaches to skin rashes. At least 693 cases — both confirmed and probable — of the virus have been reported in the United States this year, including 26 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Texas tops the list in both total cases and fatalities.
An outbreak of Ebola has killed one person and is believed to have infected three others over the last week in northeastern Congo, medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said on Friday. The outbreak is in Isiro, a busy town in Democratic Republic of Congo’s Oriental province, which shares a border with Uganda, but the strain of the deadly disease is different to the one that killed 16 there last month, MSF said. Ebola is transmitted to humans from monkeys and birds and causes massive bleeding in victims, with mortality rates as high as 90 percent. Anja de Weggheleire, the medical coordinator for MSF in the area, said blood samples from one victim had confirmed Ebola in Isiro and there were at least three other suspected cases being treated in an MSF-supported local hospital. “We cannot speak of a direct link between the two epidemics, I think unfortunately it’s just pure coincidence,” de Weggheleire told Reuters. MSF was helping track and isolate people who may have come in contact with the disease, she added. Authorities in Uganda said this week that the outbreak there was under control after they imposed strict measures to prevent Ebola from spreading in the west of the country. However, Congo’s health system is permanently stretched and MSF warned that preventing the spread of the disease from the town, a provincial transit point, could be a challenge. “(The situation) is quite serious already … Isiro is quite a busy place, quite well connected, that could make it quite complex to contain (the fever),” de Weggheleire added.
The ocean, the ground, rocks and trees act as carbon drains but are far from places where greenhouses gases are concentrated, especially CO2. A Spanish researcher has proposed human, agricultural and livestock waste, such as urine, as a way to absorb this gas. Ads by Google Wastewater Solutions Now – Download the Innovative Papers And Get a $50 Discount to WEFTEC 2012. – http://www.DiscoverWEF.org Absorbing the large quantities of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases present in cities would require millions of tonnes of some naturally occurring substance. A study published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials suggests urine as a reactive. As a resource available across all human societies, it is produced in large quantities and is close to the pollution hubs of large cities. “For every molecule of urea in urine, one mole (a chemical unit used to measure the quantity of a substance) of ammonium bicarbonate is produced along with one mole of ammonia, which could be used to absorb one mole of atmospheric CO2,” as explained to SINC by the author of the study, Manuel Jiménez Aguilar of the Institute of Agricultural and Fisheries Research and Training of the Regional Government of Andalusia. After absorbing the CO2 another unit of ammonium bicarbonate is produced, which is used in China as a nitrogen fertilizer for 30 years. Jiménez Aguilar points out that “if applied to basic-calcium rich soils this would produce calcium carbonate thus encouraging gas-fixation in the ground. To avoid the urine from decomposing, the researcher suggests the possibility of including a small proportion of olive waste water (a black, foul-smelling liquid obtained from spinning the ground olive paste). This acts as a preservative. The researcher confirms that “the urine-CO2-olive waste water could be considered an NPK fertilizer (ammonia-nitrate-phosphorous-potassium).” A Spanish researcher has proposed human, agricultural and livestock waste, such as urine, as a way to absorb CO2. Credit: SINC The result is that the urine mixed with a small percentage of olive waste water can absorb various grams of CO2 per litre in a stable manner and over more than six months. According to Jiménez Aguilar, “CO2 emissions could be reduced by 1%.” The fluid created can be inserted into domestic and industrial chimneys (reconverted into containers to accumulate the urine-olive waste water mixture) so that the greenhouse gas passes through the liquid, increasing the pressure exerted on the CO2 and thus increasing its absorption capacity. As the scientist makes clear “these containers or chimneys should have a urine filling and emptying system and a control system to detect when the mixture has become saturated with gas.” When taken out of the chimney, the urine is stored in another container or can be channelled for its distribution and use as an agricultural fertilizer. Making the most of urine By applying this methodology as a greenhouse gas absorbent, the way in which industrialised countries use waste water and solid waste would never be the same again. The author hints that the whole water and waste treatment system would be reviewed to adapt newly built areas to a waste recycling and waste management system. “In developing countries this nutrient recovery system could be implemented thanks to its environmental advantages,” says the expert. Furthermore, urine recycling in every home would allow for nutrients to be recovered, leading to a lesser need for artificial fertilizers. Jiménez emphasises that “if urine and faeces are recycled there and then, as much as 20 litres of water per person per day could be saved and this would reduce waste water treatment costs.” The study suggests that urine should be recycled for it to be used as fertilizer liquid and that faeces should be treated with solid organic waste to produce compost or solid fertilizers. The researcher also states in another study that is pending publication that the urine-olive waste water mixture can also be used to reduce the CO2 and NOx emissions of vehicles. More information: Journal of Hazardous Materials 213: 502-504 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2012.01.087, 30 April 2012. Journal reference: Journal of Hazardous Materials search and more info website Provided by Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) search and more info website
Specialists were surprised Thursday after a Sandtiger Shark ran aground on the French coastline of the English Channel, even though it is normally found in deeper and warmer waters.
The dead shark that authorities said weighed 200 to 300 kilogrammes (440 to 360 pounds) and measured 2.5 metres (8.2 feet) was found Monday evening by tourists at Agon-Coutainville before it was pushed back out to sea hours later.
“Encounters between man and the Sandtiger Shark are rare and do not occur in the English Channel,” according to Eric Stephan, an official with the Association for the Study and Preservation of Selachians.
“One can observe it off the coast of Colombia. One also finds it off the coast of Australia, New Zealand and the Mediterranean,” Stephan told AFP.
“This species feeds on fish and squid and has never been mentioned in accidents between humans and sharks,” said the specialist who identified the shark from police and tourist photographs.
Stephan said the Sandtiger Shark resembles more the Greynurse Shark, often seen in aquariums, than it does the Tiger or Bull Shark that is blamed for attacking surfers in the Reunion, an Indian Ocean island belonging to France.
The case is “all the more surprising as it lives in deep waters,” according to Samuel Iglesias, a specialist in sharks and rays at the Natural History Museum at Concarneau who spoke to the newspaper West France.
The beaching of sharks is much rarer than that of whales that have air in their lungs and tend to rise to the surface, experts said. Dead sharks tend to sink.
But the presence of sharks off the coast of France, including in the English Channel, is not a surprise as more than 30 species have been spotted there, Stephan said.
In the absence of an autopsy, experts said, the causes of the beaching are difficult to establish. It cannot be ruled out that the animal was ill and its orientation system failed.
But from “time to time one finds cases of species turning up where one doesn’t expect them,” without it happening again or without necessarily providing signs that the ecosystem is out of kilter, Stephan said.
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The smell of sulphur from Mt Tongariro has crept back to the lower North Island, with some residents complaining about irritation to their skin and eyes.
The smell has become common since the volcano erupted at 11.50pm on August 6 with residents as far as Blenheim noticing it.
The Horizon Regional Council today received “multiple complaints” about the smell being back and some residents said the sulphur had become an irritant.
Council emergency manager Shane Bayley said the smell was the result of wind drift from the mountain and was not a cause for concern.
“Our air quality monitoring sites in Taumarunui and Taihape are not showing any elevated presence of fine air particles.
“However, our team will be keeping an eye on the situation and will alert the public if this situation changes.”
If the sulphur was affecting people’s respiratory system, eyes or skin, MidCentral Health recommended people stay indoors with all the doors and windows closed, a council spokeswoman said.
Mt Tongariro has kept quiet in the past week, and seismic activity was low overnight.
But GNS vulcanologist Brad Scott said the volcano was degassing, producing a lot of gas and steam.
“It’s putting out about 2000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide and 4000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per day. That’s what people are detecting and smelling.”
Scott said there were three possible scenarios for the volcano, with the most likely being no further eruptions in the next week.
The second most-likely scenario was that there may be a similar eruption to what occurred on August 6.
Scott said the least-likely scenario was that a larger eruption would occur.
Emergency services, DOC, Civil Defence, New Zealand Transport Agency and district health boards met on Friday to discuss an evacuation plan should the volcano erupt again.
Families living closest to Mt Tongariro have an action plan to refer to.
Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson and Taupo MP Louise Upton met with iwi, the community and tourism industry leaders at Tongariro National Park today.
The Ivan Groznyy (“Ivan the Terrible”) volcano erupted early on Thursday morning on the island of Iturup, part of the Kuril group in Russia’s Far East.
The volcano spewed a column of ash onto the surrounding area. Local people in the nearest towns, Goryachiye Klyuchi (9 kilometers away) and the city of Kurilsk (25 kilometers), noticed a faint smell of hydrogen sulfide gas, which disappeared later.
The eruption poses no threat to nearby human settlements.
Scientists recorded signs of the impending eruption on Wednesday, when gas emissions on the volcano’s northeast slope increased, a Sakhalin region Emergency Ministry representative told RIA Novosti. Observation of the volcano continues.
Scientists say the eruption was started by recent torrential rain, causing a huge increase in the volume of water in underground channels around the volcano. Ivan Groznyy also erupted in 1968, 1973, and 1989, but none of the eruptions threatened life nearby.
An approved team for ocean research: the German research vessel MARIA S. MERIAN and the submersible JAGO. Photo: JAGO-Team, GEOMAR.
West of Spitsbergen methane gas is effervescing out of the seabed. Is this an indication that methane hydrates in the seabed are dissolving due to rising temperatures? And what would the effects be? An expedition with the German research vessel MARIA S. MERIAN and the submersible JAGO lead by GEOMAR | Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel hopes to help answer these questions. The expedition began this week in Reykjavik.
The average temperatures of the atmosphere are rising; the average temperatures of the oceans, too. Not only living organisms react sensititvely to these changes. The transitional zones between shallow shelf seas and the deep sea at continental slopes store a huge amount of methane hydrates in the sea bed.
These specific, ice-like compounds only forms at low temperatures and under high pressure. When the water temperature directly above the sea bed rises, some of the methane hydrates could dissolve and release the previously bound methane.
“This scenario incorporates two fears: Firstly that enormous amounts of this very powerful greenhouse gas will be released into the atmosphere, and secondly that the continental slopes may become unstable” explains the geophysicist Professor Christian Berndt from GEOMAR, Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel.
He is leading an expedition starting today on the German research vessel MARIA S. MERIAN which will analyse the sea off the western shore of Spitsbergen in order to find out whether the first methane hydrates in the sea bed are dissolving and what the consequences might be.
The expedition builds on research conducted by marine scientists from Kiel who worked in this area of the sea in 2008. Back then they found over 250 places where gas was escaping the sea bed. “These spots lie directly on the border of the area of stable hydrates” explains Professor Berndt. “Therefore we presume that the hydrates are dissolving from the rim inwards.”
During the upcoming expedition, the scientists from Kiel will be working together with colleagues from Bremen, Switzerland, Great Britain and Norway to discover whether the gas emanation shows signs of dissolved hydrates and whether this is due to warmer sea beds.
With the help of echo sounders, researchers will seek out new gas sources in order to determine the total amount of escaping gas. With Germany’s only submersible JAGO, they will closely investigate the gas outlets in up to 400 metres depth.
“It is interesting for us, for example, to find out whether special microorganisms that can break down the methane before it is released in the atmosphere have settled around the outlets” explains Professor Tina Treude from GEOMAR, who will be running the microbiological work during the expedition.
Parallel to this, geophysicists, lead by Professor Sebastian Krastel from GEOMAR, will investigate the slopes under the gas outlet spots for signs of instability using acoustic and seismic methods.
“The methane hydrates act like binding cement on these slopes. If they dissolve, chances are that parts of the slopes will slide”, explains Professor Krastel, who focuses on marine hazards at GEOMAR.
“Overall the program on this trip is very extensive. Now let us hope that the weather will play along so that we can conduct all planned tests”, says the head of the expedition Christian Berndt shortly before the departure to Iceland.
A forest fire that has devastated 550 hectares of coastal pine forest close to one of France’s best surfing beaches continued to rage today. The start of a heatwave that was set to send temperatures in the area soaring to 40 degrees Celsius this weekend was complicating the task of 200 firefighters battling to bring the blaze under control. The fire started on Thursday afternoon in the area between the inland town of Lacanau and the spectacular Atlantic beaches that are this week hosting the Lacanau Surf Pro event featuring some of the world’s top surfers. Four Canadair waterbombers were deployed from dawn in an attempt to stop the fire spreading further. To date only five residences have had to be evacuated but local authorities have taken the preventative step of temporarily banning the public from all wooded areas in the Gironde department. A cigarette butt dropped from a car on Thursday is thought to have started the blaze. The Landes forest, which spreads across the Gironde and the neighboring departments of Landes and Lot and Garonne, is the largest maritime pine forest in Europe. French authorities have issued a health alert for several regions this weekend after forecasters predicted unusually high temperatures in the southwest and centre of the country. An unexpected and sustained heatwave in the first two weeks of August 2003 left an estimated 15,000 mostly elderly people dead.
U.S. Forest Service officials are reporting a 250-acre wildfire in the Enclosure Gulch area west of Ketchum, just seven-tenths of a mile from where the Castle Rock Fire started five years ago. Ketchum District Ranger Kurt Nelson said that in less than two hours the fire had grown rapidly from the one acre first reported at 3 p.m. this afternoon. The cause of the fire is yet unknown. Nelson said that winds from the southwest are pushing the fire into the area burned by the Castle Rock Fire in 2007. If it follows that path, the fire will burn slower and less hot, giving crews a chance to fight it. However, he said, if winds shift to the northwest, the fire could be pushed into the Deer Creek and Greenhorn Gulch drainage. “It is a concern,” Nelson said.
“The growth potential, the rate of speed … it’s doubled in size every half hour.” The fire is still five miles from any houses. Nelson said that air resources and smokejumpers have been called, but were unable to land because of smoke both from the fire, called the Enclosure Fire, and the Halstead Fire, an 80,000-acre blaze north of Stanley. Currently, Nelson said there are Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service helitack teams fighting the fire, as well as volunteers from local fire departments in the area for structure protection. Hand crews, engines and tankers are on scene along with approximately 25 personnel. “We’re getting attention,” Nelson said. “We are a priority.” Travis Wyatt, meteorologist from the National Weather Service in Pocatello, said that winds were set to die down overnight as a high-pressure ridge moves into the area. There is no red-flag fire warning in place, and Wyatt said there likely won’t be one until Saturday as winds pick up and thunderstorms are ready to sweep in. Initial concerns that winds might push the fire towards homes in the Frenchman’s Bend subdivision about 2.5 miles to the east prompted a call to Ketchum and Sun Valley fire departments, already stretched thin due to sending aid to the Halstead fire near Stanley.
A “Structure Protection Task Force,” or, firefighters and equipment, was rallied around 5:30 p.m. in the parking lot of River Run and were advised that though there were no evacuations at this time, residents should be told to be prepared to leave if they have to. By 7 p.m., crews were also being sent to speak to residents of the Greenhorn subdivision to alert them to the situation. “The smoke’s going to get worse before it gets better,” Ketchum Fire Chief Mike Elle told the Idaho Mountain Express. Elle requests that Wood River Valley residents and concerned citizens not call the Fire Department for information, but to instead refer to the Idaho Mountain Express and Blaine County websites for updates on the situation. Phone calls to the department have clogged the phone lines and disrupted communication with his staff, he said.
Washington’s lieutenant governor has declared a state of emergency in central Washington because of a still-growing wildfire. The emergency declaration allows the National Guard to lend helicopters to the firefighting effort. The blaze has chased hundreds of people from their homes between Cle Elum and Ellensburg. Tuesday State Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark called the wildfire “one of the most dangerous” Washington state has experienced “in the last number of years.” “One testament to the degree to which the fire is so dangerous is the fact that it is able to jump the nearby river,” he said. “It jumps highways … a burning ember under the force of the wind and the hot embers that are released through burning fuels. So it’s an explosive, dangerous situation.” Goldmark toured the fire lines Tuesday afternoon before visiting the command center in Cle Elum. There, the incident commander says the blaze has destroyed more than 70 homes at this point. Neither official would estimate when the growing blaze could be contained. They say they need the gusty winds to die down first.
After initially reporting that last week’s waterspout was also Duluth’s first tornado, the National Weather Service says it has found record of another Duluth tornado more than 50 years ago.
The waterspout on Thursday, Aug. 9, churned across Sky Harbor Airport in Duluth and Barker’s Island in Superior. For the few seconds it was on land, the waterspout was classified as a weak tornado.
First checks with the Weather Service office in Duluth turned up no previous Twin Ports tornadoes. But meteorologists there kept digging through the records.
“After doing more research, it was discovered that there was a tornado in Duluth on May 26, 1958,” meteorologist Carol Christenson wrote in a memo on Monday to Duluth weather reporters.
The Duluth News-Tribune at the time called the 1958 storm a “miniature tornado” that collapsed a garage and damaged two Duluth-area lake cabins.
“A witness said the violent winds picked up the garage ‘like a child’s toy’ and smashed it back to earth,” the paper reported in the May 27, 1958, edition. “The small twister pulled off the doors of a garage owned by Irving West, 6611 Greene St. They bounced off the nearby Ing Stockland garage and landed about 30 to 40 yards away.”
Greene Street is in West Duluth. The “wind storm” started about 4:35 p.m. and lasted about five minutes, the Stocklands told the News Tribune.
“Stockland, who lives at 6617 Greene, said the wind was pulling up rocks and mud. He and his wife were at the rear of theirhouse when the funnel, following the ravine along Highway 61, struck West’s garage,” the newspaper reported.
A city-regional track meet was going on at Public Schools Stadium about a mile to the east. Witnesses there reported seeing that the distant funnel “tossed out pieces of paper,” but the track meet was not long disrupted.
“Team members and spectators dashed for cover while the hail fell,” according to the News-Tribune report. “Ditches were dug to drain the track and allow the meet to resume.”
Christenson pointed out that the News-Tribune also reported on a possible twister on July 11, 1935, but that one was never confirmed.
“Swirling into the city on the wings of a torrential rain, a miniature tornado struck in the heart of the Gary-New Duluth district shortly before 8 a.m. yesterday, flattening a row of coal sheds (and) a frame garage and causing general damage to trees in the vicinity,” the News-Tribune reported on July 12, 1935. “The United States weather bureau had no means of officially recording the twister, the high wind having limited itself to the Gary-New Duluth district.”
Belgium’s nuclear regulator has questioned the safety of the Electrabel-operated Doel 3 reactor due to cracks in the pressure vessels that have already forced the shutdown of a similar unit at the Tihange nuclear plant. Belgium has halted the 1,006-megawatt Doel 3 reactor until at least the end of August after the discovery of suspected cracks in the pressure vessel. But it is possible that the reactor could be shut down for good. Willy De Roovere, who heads the FANC regulator agency, said it was always hard for a company to meet a requirement to prove a nuclear plant is safe. He told a news conference that Electrabel, the Belgian unit of France’s GDF Suez, would have to show that “in a period of the remaining lifetime there is no single risk, there is no risk at all that cracks can go [on to produce leaks].” A spokeswoman for Electrabel said, as quoted by Reuters: “Is it safe or not to continue the production of Doel 3? That’s what we will have to prove to the FANC.”
The vessel in question was built by now-defunct Dutch company Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij, which also constructed the pressure vessel for another Belgian unit, Tihange 2, as well as parts for nuclear plants throughout Europe and in the Americas. The Belgian agency BELGA reported that Tihange 2 was halted yesterday, as it has the same pressure vessel as Doel. “I would like to remind that Doel 3 and Tihange 2 have been halted and do not represent any danger for the population, the workers and the environment,” De Roovere was quoted as saying. Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij was also responsible for two units in Germany that are no longer operating, two in the Netherlands, two in Spain, one in Sweden, two in Switzerland, 10 in the United States and one in Argentina, said the Paris-based Nuclear Energy Agency, an agency within the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Nuclear specialists from the countries where the Dutch vessels are in use are due to meet in Brussels today (17 August). De Roovere said it was doubtful the Doel operations would resume before the end of September and that regulators would meet again in October to discuss the issue.
The Doel 3 reactor had been scheduled to close in 10 years’ time, according to a nuclear exit plan the Belgian government adopted in July. GDF Suez is expected to trim significantly its 47-year-old nuclear business now that Belgium, the only nation where it operates nuclear plants, is phasing out its reliance on atomic power. Belgium has long considered a complete exit from nuclear energy (see background), but that will depend on its having enough alternative sources of energy in place. EU member states are each responsible for determining policy on nuclear power and on the energy mix in general. However, the European Commission has initiated a series of voluntary stress tests as part of efforts to ensure safety following Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster. They were meant to be completed before the Commission’s August summer break, but governments have been given extra time for further assessments. Speaking in Essen, Germany, EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger said he expected the stress tests to be completed in October and that they would include the assessment from regulators about risks associated with the possible cracks in the Belgian unit. “In the coming weeks, we expect clear results from the Belgium regulators about possible risks,” he said.
Ebola virus disease has killed 4 people among 7 cases in the Haut Uele District of Orientale Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to a statement on 14 Aug 2012 by Jean-Marc Madindi, provincial medical inspector of Orientale Province. According to Dr Madindi, 3 deaths among 6 cases occurred in the district of Haut Uele, and a angle death in Dungu district. Samples from these cases have been sent to a diagnostic Laboratory in Uganda for confirmation by laboratory techniques, and the results are awaited. The provincial health authorities are being supported by the Belgian branch of Medecins Sans Frontieres. The chief medical officer of health of the Butembo District Health District, Dr Mundama Witende, has advised the urban populations of Beni and Butembo, which are located along the border with Uganda, to adopt strict procedures to prevent cross-border movements without good reason. The population have also been instructed to avoid consumption of meat derived from primates. Likewise, the population has been advised to avoid contact with the blood or secretions of patients suspected to have contracted [Ebola virus disease]. The bodies of those thought to have died as a result of ebolavirus infection should not be touched or washed. An outbreak of [Ebola virus disease] was reported at the beginning of July in Uganda at a place located 200 kilometres [124 mi] from the capital Kampala and about 50 kilometres from the border with the Orientale and Nord-Kivu provinces of the DRC.
Biohazard name:
Ebola Fever
Biohazard level:
4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:
Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
About 20 people, including gewog [village block] livestock agents and villagers in Jamkhar, Trashiyangtse, are taking anti-rabies vaccine, after they handled the carcass of a jersey cow that was suspected to have died from rabies on Sun 12 Aug 2012. Some of them had also consumed milk from the same cow. Regional livestock development centre in Khangma, Trashigang, through a rapid test of the brain sample, confirmed “mild positive rabies” as the cause of the cow’s death. “The samples will also be sent to the National Centre for Animal Health in Serbithang for polymerised chain reaction tests to further confirm the positivity of the tests,” the centre’s programme director, Dr Tshering Dorji, said. Trashiyangtse’s dzongkhag [district] livestock officer, Toula Dukpa, said the disease has been contained with the carcass buried safely, after treating it with phenol, lime, and bleaching powder. “Surrounding areas and bedding used for the carcass were also burnt to contain the spread of the disease to both animals and humans,” he said. Dogs in the neighbourhood were also given post exposure treatment as control measure. He said that there was no outbreak of rabies in Jamkhar. “It’s suspected that the cow was bought from Dewathang and carried the disease to Jamkhar,” he said. People have been alerted to report to the nearest renewable natural resources centre on the death of cattle from similar symptoms. No transmission to human or new cases of rabies have been reported in the gewog after the incident.
Biohazard name:
Rabies
Biohazard level:
3/4 Hight
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that can cause severe to fatal disease in humans, but for which vaccines or other treatments exist, such as anthrax, West Nile virus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, SARS virus, variola virus (smallpox), tuberculosis, typhus, Rift Valley fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, yellow fever, and malaria. Among parasites Plasmodium falciparum, which causes Malaria, and Trypanosoma cruzi, which causes trypanosomiasis, also come under this level.
South Pacific countries will experience more extreme floods and droughts, in response to increasing greenhouse gas emissions, according to a paper out today in the journal Nature. Ads by Google Texas Smelly Well Water – Smelly and Rotten Egg Smell Removal Smelly Water Cleaned W/O Chemicals – http://www.NationsPure.com The changes will result from the South Pacific rain band responding to greenhouse warming. The South Pacific rain band is largest and most persistent of the Southern Hemisphere spanning the Pacific from south of the Equator, south-eastward to French Polynesia. Occasionally, the rain band moves northwards towards the Equator by 1000 kilometres, inducing extreme climate events. The international study, led by CSIRO oceanographer Dr Wenju Cai, focuses on how the frequency of such movement may change in the future. The study finds the frequency will almost double in the next 100 years, with a corresponding intensification of the rain band. Dr Wenju and colleagues turned to the extensive archives of general circulation models submitted for the fourth and fifth IPCC Assessments and found that increases in greenhouse gases are projected to enhance equatorial Pacific warming. In turn, and in spite of disagreement about the future of El Niño events, this warming leads to the increased frequency of extreme excursions of the rain band. During moderate El Niño events with warming in the equatorial eastern Pacific, the rain band moves north-eastward by 300 kilometres. Countries located within the bands’ normal position such as Vanuatu, Samoa, and the southern Cook Islands experience forest fires and droughts as well as increased frequency of tropical cyclones, whereas countries to which the rain band moves experience extreme floods. “During extreme El Niño events, such as 1982/83 and 1997/98, the band moved northward by up to 1000 kilometres. The shift brings more severe extremes, including cyclones to regions such as French Polynesia that are not accustomed to such events,” said Dr Cai, a scientist at the Wealth from Oceans Flagship. A central issue for community adaptation in Australia and across the Pacific is understanding how the warming atmosphere and oceans will influence the intensity and frequency of extreme events. The impact associated with the observed extreme excursions includes massive droughts, severe food shortage, and coral reef mortality through thermally-induced coral bleaching across the South Pacific. “Understanding changes in the frequency of these events as the climate changes proceed is therefore of broad scientific and socio-economic interest.” More information: More extreme swings of the South Pacific Convergence Zone due to greenhouse warming, Nature, 2012. Journal reference: Nature search and more info website Provided by CSIRO search and more info website
1.5 million years of climate historyrevealed after scientists solve mystery of the deep
The study successfully reconstructed temperature from the deep sea to reveal how global ice volume has varied over the glacial-interglacial cycles of the past 1.5 million years of Tabular icebergs. The production of tabular icebergs is a major mechanism of mass loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Icebergs are calved during both rapid ice-shelf collapse and as part of the normal transfer of mass through the ice sheet to the surrounding ocean.
Scientists have announced a major breakthrough in understanding the Earth’s climate machine by reconstructing highly accurate records of changes in ice volume and deep-ocean temperatures over the last 1.5 million years. The study, which is reported in the journal Science, offers new insights into a decades-long debate about how the shifts in the Earth’s orbit relative to the sun have taken the Earth into and out of an ice-age climate.
Being able to reconstruct ancient climate change is a critical part of understanding why the climate behaves the way it does. It also helps us to predict how the planet might respond to man-made changes, such as the injection of large quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, in the future.
Unfortunately, scientists trying to construct an accurate picture of how such changes caused past climatic shifts have been thwarted by the fact that the most readily available marine geological record of ice-ages – changes in the ratio of oxygen isotopes (Oxygen 18 to Oxygen 16) preserved in tiny calcareous deep sea fossils called foraminifera – is compromised.
This is because the isotope record shows the combined effects of both deep sea temperature changes, and changes in the amount of ice volume. Separating these has in the past proven difficult or impossible, so researchers have been unable to tell whether changes in the Earth’s orbit were affecting the temperature of the ocean more than the amount of ice at the Poles, or vice-versa.
The new study, which was carried out by researchers in the University of Cambridge Department of Earth Sciences, appears to have resolved this problem by introducing a new set of temperature-sensitive data. This allowed them to identify changes in ocean temperatures alone, subtract that from the original isotopic data set, and then build what they describe as an unprecedented picture of climatic change over the last 1.5 million years – a record of changes in both oceanic temperature and global ice volume.
Included in this is a much fuller representation of what happened during the “Mid-Pleistocene Transition” (MPT) – a major change in the Earth’s climate system which took place sometime between 1.25 million and 600 thousand years ago. Before the MPT, the alternation between glacial periods of extreme cold, and warmer interglacials, happened at intervals of approximately 41,000 years. After the MPT, the major cycles became much longer, regularly taking 100,000 years. The second pattern of climate cycles is the one we are in now. Interestingly, this change occurred with little or no orbital forcing.
“Previously, we didn’t really know what happened during this transition, or on either side of it,” Professor Harry Elderfield, who led the research team, said. “Before you separate the ice volume and temperature signals, you don’t know whether you’re seeing a climate record in which ice volume changed dramatically, the oceans warmed or cooled substantially, or both.”
“Now, for the first time, we have been able to separate these two components, which means that we stand a much better chance of understanding the mechanisms involved. One of the reasons why that is important, is because we are making changes to the factors that influence the climate now. The only way we can work out what the likely effects of that will be in detail is by finding analogues in the geological past, but that depends on having an accurate picture of the past behaviour of the climate system.”
Researchers have developed more than 30 different models for how these features of the climate might have changed in the past, in the course of a debate which has endured for more than 60 years since pioneering work by Nobel Laureate Harold Urey in 1946. The new study helps resolve these problems by introducing a new dataset to the picture – the ratio of magnesium (Mg) to calcium (Ca) in foraminifera. Because it is easier for magnesium to be incorporated at higher temperatures, larger quantities of magnesium in the tiny marine fossils imply that the deep sea temperature was higher at that point in geological time.
The Mg/Ca dataset was taken from the fossil record contained in cores drilled on the Chatham Rise, an area of ocean east of New Zealand. It allowed the Cambridge team to map ocean temperature change over time. Once this had been done, they were able to subtract that information from the oxygen isotopic record. “The calculation tells us the difference between what water temperature was doing and what the ice sheets were doing across a 1.5 million year period,” Professor Elderfield explained.
The resulting picture shows that ice volume has changed much more dramatically than ocean temperatures in response to changes in orbital geometry. Glacial periods during the 100,000-year cycles have been characterised by a very slow build-up of ice which took thousands of years, the result of ice volume responding to orbital change far more slowly than the ocean temperatures reacted. Ocean temperature change, however, reached a lower limit, probably because the freezing point of sea water put a restriction on how cold the deep ocean could get.
In addition, the record shows that the transition from 41,000-year cycles to 100,000-year cycles, the characteristic changeover of the MPT, was not as gradual as previously thought. In fact, the build-up of larger ice sheets, associated with longer glacials, appears to have begun quite suddenly, around 900,000 years ago. The pattern of the Earth’s response to orbital forcing changed dramatically during this “900,000 year event”, as the paper puts it.
The research team now plan to apply their method to the study of deep-sea temperatures elsewhere to investigate how orbital changes affected the climate in different parts of the world.
“Any uncertainty about the Earth’s climate system fuels the sense that we don’t really know how the climate is behaving, either in response to natural effects or those which are man-made,” Professor Elderfield added. “If we can understand how earlier changes were initiated and what the impacts were, we stand a much better chance of being able to predict and prepare for changes in the future.”
Hubble watches star clusters on a collision course Enlarge This is a Hubble Space Telescope image of a pair of star clusters that are believed to be in the early stages of merging. The clusters lie in the gigantic 30 Doradus nebula, which is 170,000 light-years from Earth. The Hubble observations, made with the Wide Field Camera 3, were taken Oct. 20-27, 2009. The blue color is light from the hottest, most massive stars; the green from the glow of oxygen; and the red from fluorescing hydrogen. Credit: NASA, ESA, R. O’Connell (University of Virginia), and the Wide Field Camera 3 Science Oversight Committee (Phys.org) — Astronomers using data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have caught two clusters full of massive stars that may be in the early stages of merging. The clusters are 170,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy to our Milky Way. Ads by Google 2012 Photographer Classes – Find 2012 Photography Schools. Local & Online Classes – Get Info! – AllColleges.org/Photographer What at first was thought to be only one cluster in the core of the massive star-forming region 30 Doradus (also known as the Tarantula Nebula) has been found to be a composite of two clusters that differ in age by about one million years. The entire 30 Doradus complex has been an active star-forming region for 25 million years, and it is currently unknown how much longer this region can continue creating new stars. Smaller systems that merge into larger ones could help to explain the origin of some of the largest known star clusters. Lead scientist Elena Sabbi of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., and her team began looking at the area while searching for runaway stars, fast-moving stars that have been kicked out of their stellar nurseries where they first formed. “Stars are supposed to form in clusters, but there are many young stars outside 30 Doradus that could not have formed where they are; they may have been ejected at very high velocity from 30 Doradus itself,” Sabbi said. She then noticed something unusual about the cluster when looking at the distribution of the low-mass stars detected by Hubble. It is not spherical, as was expected, but has features somewhat similar to the shape of two merging galaxies where their shapes are elongated by the tidal pull of gravity. Hubble’s circumstantial evidence for the impending merger comes from seeing an elongated structure in one of the clusters, and from measuring a different age between the two clusters. According to some models, the giant gas clouds out of which star clusters form may fragment into smaller pieces. Once these small pieces precipitate stars, they might then interact and merge to become a bigger system. This interaction is what Sabbi and her team think they are observing in 30 Doradus. Also, there are an unusually large number of high-velocity stars around 30 Doradus. Astronomers believe that these stars, often called “runaway stars” were expelled from the core of 30 Doradus as the result of dynamical interactions. These interactions are very common during a process called core collapse, in which more-massive stars sink to the center of a cluster by dynamical interactions with lower-mass stars. When many massive stars have reached the core, the core becomes unstable and these massive stars start ejecting each other from the cluster. The big cluster R136 in the center of the 30 Doradus region is too young to have already experienced a core collapse. However, since in smaller systems the core collapse is much faster, the large number of runaway stars that has been found in the 30 Doradus region can be better explained if a small cluster has merged into R136. Follow-up studies will look at the area in more detail and on a larger scale to see if any more clusters might be interacting with the ones observed. In particular, the infrared sensitivity of NASA’s planned James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will allow astronomers to look deep into the regions of the Tarantula Nebula that are obscured in visible-light photographs. In these areas cooler and dimmer stars are hidden from view inside cocoons of dust. Webb will better reveal the underlying population of stars in the nebula. The 30 Doradus Nebula is particularly interesting to astronomers because it is a good example of how star-forming regions in the young universe may have looked. This discovery could help scientists understand the details of cluster formation and how stars formed in the early universe. Provided by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center search and more info website
A drug user has died after being infected with anthrax, health experts said. The Health Protection Agency said that a person who injected drugs died in hospital in Blackpool. The name of the person or the hospital has not been disclosed. The HPA said the source of the infection is presumed to be contaminated heroin. The news comes after a spate of cases in Europe since early June. The HPA said it is ‘unclear’ whether the case in Blackpool and another case in Scotland – which was confirmed at the end of July – are linked to the European outbreak. Anthrax is a rare bacterial infection and is primarily a disease of herbivorous mammals, though other animals and some birds can also contract it. Bacillus anthracis spores can survive in the environment for years or decades. Dependent on the dose and route of exposure, the symptoms may develop within a week of taking heroin. An HPA spokesperson said: ‘The patient comes from the north west of England and was taken to hospital earlier this week and died shortly afterwards. ‘The infection was cultured in the laboratory and the results came back last night that it was anthrax. ‘It is very difficult to identify the source of the anthrax because the spores are miniscule. We do not know where it may have originated. ‘We are telling people on the ground who work with drugs users to be aware of the danger and look out for gashes that develop around injection sites.
‘You can treat anthrax with antibiotics if caught early, otherwise it can be fatal. That is the vital message we are trying to get out.’ Since June there have been seven confirmed cases of the infection – one in Scotland, three in Germany, two in Denmark, and one in France. These are the first cases of anthrax among drug users in Europe since the outbreak during 2009 and 2010. That outbreak saw 119 cases in Scotland, five cases in England and two cases in Germany. Among them was heroin user Shane Brown, 24, from Blackpool, who died after testing positive for anthrax at the town’s Victoria Hospital in 2010. Signs of infection include redness or excessive swelling at the injection site, or a high temperature, chills or a severe headache or breathing difficulties. Dr Dilys Morgan, an expert in zoonotic infections at the HPA, said: ‘It’s likely that further cases among PWID (people who inject drugs) will be identified as part of the ongoing outbreak in EU countries. ‘The Department of Health has alerted the NHS of the possibility of PWID presenting to emergency departments and walk-in clinics, with symptoms suggestive of anthrax. ‘Anthrax can be cured with antibiotics, if treatment is started early. It is therefore important for medical professionals to know the signs and symptoms to look for, so that there are no delays in providing the necessary treatment.’ European health experts say that the recent cases could have come from the same batch of contaminated heroin in the 2009 to 2010 outbreak. Dr Morgan added: ‘As part of the response to the 2009/10 outbreak, the HPA developed an algorithm for the clinical evaluation and management of PWID with possible anthrax. ‘This algorithm specifies the kinds of presentations where anthrax should be considered, and outlines the actions to take.’
Anthrax in drug users was considered to be very rare. Prior to the 2009-2010 outbreak in Scotland, just one previous case had been reported in Norway in 2000. The risk to the general population is negligible. It is extremely rare for anthrax to be spread from person to person.
Biohazard name:
Anthrax contained heroin (fatal)
Biohazard level:
4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:
Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
There was a good correlation between the arenaviruses and the presence of disease
The cause of a fatal illness that affects captive snakes has been identified, a study has shown. The condition – called Inclusion Body Disease (IBD) – affects constrictor snakes including boas and pythons. There is no treatment and symptoms include “stargazing” – a fixed upward stare – as well as breathing problems and general muscular paralysis.
It was long suspected that the disease was caused by a virus, but until recently its identity remained elusive. The research is published in the open-access journal mBio.
In this breakthrough study, researchers from the University of California San Francisco analysed samples obtained from snakes diagnosed with IBD, using sensitive DNA sequencing techniques.
In amongst some of the snake DNA was foreign genetic material – nucleic acid – that closely resembled that present in viruses belonging to a family called arenaviruses. This family includes Lassa Fever virus, which is associated with haemorrhagic fever in humans. However, there is no evidence that the newly discovered virus can pass from snakes to humans.
The scientists were also able to grow the virus from samples taken from one of the snakes.
Dr Mark Stenglein, who co-led the current study, said “we don’t yet have formal evidence that these viruses cause the disease… although there is a good correlation [between disease and the presence of virus] … there’s definitely a possibility that other things cause this”.
Arenaviruses can be divided into two main groups based on the location of the species they naturally infect – New World viruses originate from the Americas, whilst Old World viruses are found in Africa and Asia. Genetically, the newly discovered virus is distinct from these two groups.
Commenting on the finding, the editor of the paper Michael Buchmeier, professor of infectious diseases at University of California Irvine, suggests that these snake viruses “may be representative of a predecessor of the Old World and New World branches of the [arenavirus] family”.
The genetic analyses also revealed that one of the genes in the newly isolated virus group was more like that present in viruses belonging to a totally different family of haemorrhagic viruses called filoviruses. Ebolavirus belongs to this family.
The new discovery follows similar research published online in April 2012 in the journal Infection, Genetics and Evolution, which describes isolation of a novel virus from snakes – this time in Australia – that showed symptoms very similar to IBD. However, the virus isolated in this study belonged to a very different virus family known as paramyxoviruses.
Professor Jim Wellehan from the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, who authored the paramyxovirus study, said: “The epidemiology of the paramyxoviruses is different [to IBD]. These are hot agents that snakes die quickly from, and it works fast. You have a room full of dead snakes in a week.”
It is uncertain how the highly contagious IBD virus is spread. One possibility is that transmission occurs through inhalation – either directly from another infected snake or indirectly from contaminated bedding or following handling. Alternatively, mites – often found in colonies suffering from an IBD outbreak – might be implicated.
So far the disease seems to be restricted to captive snakes but some scientists are worried that the release of captive bred or rehabilitated snakes might unwittingly unleash this devastating virus into the wild.
One hundred litres of a highly toxic and potentially explosive chemical that spilled at an industrial site near Newcastle have been mopped up without incident, authorities say. Police established a 300-metre exclusion zone and evacuated 100 people after a 1000-litre drum of methyl ethyl ketone cracked at a warehouse in Tomago about 1.45pm (AEST) on Thursday. Power was switched off in the neighbouring area, streets were closed and all ignition sources were removed as hazmat officers in fully encapsulated suits inspected the site and began the cleanup job. Six Fire and Rescue NSW crews worked to contain the spill and the area was deemed safe by Thursday evening, Superintendent Paul Bailey said. “Everything is either back open or in the process of being reopened,” he said. “We’ve had no run-off into waterways.” A spokesman earlier described the chemical as “highly flammable, very explosive, very toxic”. It’s believed the tank containing the liquid had rolled from a forklift.
The facility that caught fire violates pollution rules and is a daily threat to workers and neighbors.
Stay inside, close your windows and doors, and turn off air conditioning and heating units. Pets and all children in sporting activities should be brought inside, and have duct tape ready should you need to further seal windows and doors.
These are among the “shelter in place” warnings made to Bay Area residents last week in response to a massive fire at theChevron Corp.refinery in Richmond. The fire burned out of control for more than five hours, sending a giant black cloud of toxic chemicals, including sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, thousands of feet into the air and out across the bay. While automated calls went to more than 18,000 people, some 160,000 residents live in the areas directly affected by the warning. More than 5,700 people have sought medical treatment.
Chevron is the world’s eighth-largest corporation and hands-down the largest in California. The Richmond refinery is also the state’s single largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, having released 4.5 million metric tons of greenhouse gases in 2010 alone.
Built in 1902, the refinery shows its age. Rather than use its $27 billion in 2011 profits to run the cleanest, safest and most transparent refinery possible, Chevron operates a refinery that is in constant violation of federal and state law and a daily threat to the health and safety of its workers and neighbors.
More than 25,000 people, including those in two public housing projects, live within just three miles of the refinery. Nearly 85% of the residents live below the federal poverty line; the same percentage is listed as “minorities” according to the U.S. Census. Within one mile of or abutting the refinery are businesses, houses, an elementary school and playgrounds.
Since at least April 2009, the refinery has been in noncompliance of the Clean Water Act and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System in every quarter but one. Until July 2010, the refinery had been in “high-priority violation” of Clean Air Act compliance standards, the most serious level of violation noted by the EPA, since at least 2006. Under constant pressure from community organizations, Chevron has been assessed hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties for repeated Clean Air Act violations – nearly 100 citations in just the last five years, including 23 in 2011 alone.A 2008 study by UC Berkeley and Brown University researchers concluded that the air inside some Richmond homes was more toxic than that outside because of harmful pollutants from the refinery being trapped indoors.
The Contra Costa County Health Services Department lists the residents of Richmond as one of the “most at-risk groups” in the county: They are hospitalized for chronic diseases at significantly higher rates than the county average, including for female reproductive cancers, which are more than double the county rate. Chevron is one of four refineries in Contra Costa County where nearby incidence of breast, ovarian and prostate cancers are the second highest in California, and where nearby residents suffer higher rates of asthma, childhood asthma and asthma-related deaths.
The Aug. 6 fire is the third major disaster at the refinery in 12 years, each caused by an old leaking pipe. In January 2007, an explosion rocked the refinery, leading to a five-alarm fire. A leaking corroded pipe “that should have been detached two decades ago,” according to investigators, was to blame. In 1999, an 18,000-pound plume of sulfur dioxide smoke was released after an explosion caused by a leak in a pipe that was more than 30 years old.
But neither Richmond nor Chevron is alone. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board, an independent federal agency that investigates major incidents at oil refineries, concluded last month that nationwide safety at U.S. refineries has not improved, despite scores of fatalities, over the last decade, and won’t until companies develop better safety systems.
In a 2007 report about BP‘s 2005 Texas City oil refinery disaster, which killed 15 workers, the board warned of a pervasive “complacency toward serious safety risks” across the leading oil companies’ refinery operations. It called on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to “require these corporations to evaluate the safety impact of mergers, reorganizations, downsizing and budget cuts.”
This year so far, serious oil refinery fires have broken out at a ConocoPhillips refinery in Los Angeles, twice at one BP refinery in Indiana, and in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Washington and at other locations. Using industry-reported data, the United Steelworkers estimates that at least one fire occurs every week at a U.S. oil refinery. Operating in noncompliance with federal and state regulations, moreover, appears to be all-but-standard operating procedure across the industry.
Oil industry operations are not clean, safe or healthful. But they can certainly be far cleaner, safer, more healthful and more transparent than current industry practice.
Big Oil is the wealthiest industry the world has known. The companies can and must be forced through stricter federal and state regulation, aggressive enforcement and direct community and worker oversight to be held to the highest possible standard, including current law.
Richmond has always been a company town. But in 2006 its residents rebelled, rejecting Chevron’s handpicked political candidates and electing as mayor the Green Party’s Gayle McLaughlin. State and federal officials who serve as the industry’s handmaidens should anticipate an even broader rebellion as the outcome of this latest tragic, yet painfully predictable, oil company disaster.
Antonia Juhasz is the author of several books on the oil industry, including “The Tyranny of Oil.” She is also the editor and lead author of three Alternative Annual Reports on Chevron and the former director of the Chevron Program at San Francisco-based Global Exchange.
Crystals from chaos: Physicists observe new form of carbon Enlarge Simulated structures showing the starting material (left) of carbon-60 “buckyballs” (magenta) and m-xylene solvent (blue) and its superhard form (right) after being compressed by more than 400,000 atmospheres of pressure inside a diamond anvil cell. Although the crushed buckyballs are amorphous, the solvent preserved the material’s long-range crystalline order. Image by Lin Wang, Carnegie Institution of Washington (Phys.org) — A team of scientists led by Carnegie’s Lin Wang has observed a new form of very hard carbon clusters, which are unusual in their mix of crystalline and disordered structure. The material is capable of indenting diamond. This finding has potential applications for a range of mechanical, electronic, and electrochemical uses. The work is published in Science on Aug. 17. Ads by Google Texas Smelly Well Water – Smelly and Rotten Egg Smell Removal Smelly Water Cleaned W/O Chemicals – http://www.NationsPure.com Carbon is the fourth-most-abundant element in the universe and takes on a wide variety of forms—the honeycomb-like graphene, the pencil “lead” graphite, diamond, cylindrically structured nanotubes, and hollow spheres called fullerenes. Some forms of carbon are crystalline, meaning that the structure is organized in repeating atomic units. Other forms are amorphous, meaning that the structure lacks the long-range order of crystals. Hybrid products that combine both crystalline and amorphous elements had not previously been observed, although scientists believed they could be created. Wang’s team—including Carnegie’s Wenge Yang, Zhenxian Liu, Stanislav Sinogeikin, and Yue Meng—started with a substance called carbon-60 cages, made of highly organized balls of carbon constructed of pentagon and hexagon rings bonded together to form a round, hollow shape. An organic xylene solvent was put into the spaces between the balls and formed a new structure. They then applied pressure to this combination of carbon cages and solvent, to see how it changed under different stresses. Crystals from chaos: Physicists observe new form of carbon Enlarge An optical photomicrograph of a diamond anvil surface shows two “ring crack” dents (magenta arrows) after it was used to compress a buckeyball/xylene material with nearly 330,000 atmospheres of pressure. The cracks indicate that the crushed material is “superhard”., that is, nearly as hard as diamond, the world’s hardest bulk material. Image by Lin Wang, Carnegie Institution of Washington At relatively low pressure, the carbon-60′s cage structure remained. But as the pressure increased, the cage structures started to collapse into more amorphous carbon clusters. However, the amorphous clusters still occupy their original sites, forming a lattice structure. The team discovered that there is a narrow window of pressure, about 320,000 times the normal atmosphere, under which this new structured carbon is created and does not bounce back to the cage structure when pressure is removed. This is crucial for finding practical applications for the new material going forward. This material was capable of indenting the diamond anvil used in creating the high-pressure conditions. This means that the material is superhard. If the solvent used to prepare the new form of carbon is removed by heat treatment, the material loses its lattice periodicity, indicating that that the solvent is crucial for maintaining the chemical transition that underlies the new structure. Because there are many similar solvents, it is theoretically possible that an array of similar, but slightly different, carbon lattices could be created using this pressure method. “We created a new type of carbon material, one that is comparable to diamond in its inability to be compressed,” Wang said. “Once created under extreme pressures, this material can exist at normal conditions, meaning it could be used for a wide array of practical applications.” More information: “Long-Range Ordered Carbon Clusters: A Crystalline Material with Amorphous Building Blocks,” by L. Wang et al, Science, 2012. Scientists create new form of matter that can dent diamonds Journal reference: Science search and more info website Provided by Carnegie Institution for Science search and more info website
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Courtesy Photo | Derek DennisWaterspouts formed over Lake Michigan near Holland on July 27. Similar phenomena were spotted on Saturday morning off South Haven.
Nasa / Reuters
MessageToEagle.com – The scientists and engineers of NASA’s Curiosity rover mission have selected the first driving destination for their one-ton, six-wheeled mobile Mars laboratory.
MessageToEagle.com – The Milky Way galaxy is part of a larger cosmic neighborhood, consisting of more than 35 galaxies known as the Local Group.
Two Moderate Quakes Hit Off Kuril Chain
