The 10,922 feet high snow-covered Mt. Etna volcano erupts anew, sending skyward spectacular multi-colored lights that brightens the night sky. It also produced billowing plume of ashes which cause the temporary cancellation of some flights at the nearby Catania airport. (Photo courtesy of Antonio Parrinello, Rueters)
Mount Etna burst into life once more at the weekend as it shot lava, ash and smoke hundreds of feet into the air. Residents had been warned about the imminent eruption as grey smoke has been seen rising from the volcano for days. On Saturday, red hot lava was spat into the air as the volcano violently erupted once more. It is the thirteenth time Etna has erupted this year. Such is the scale of the activity that concerned residents have called on the Government to introduce a state of emergency. Experts said the latest activity posed no risk to local residents or towns. Stefano Gresta, president of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, said it was ‘very spectacular, but not risky’, according to youreporternews.it.
The airport was only briefly closed and the eruption caused very little disruption. The huge burst on Saturday could be seen by miles around and witnessed by residents of Catania and Taormina. Ash was sent flying down Etna’s slopes and smoke rose more than 3,000ft into the air. Locals said the latest eruption is the most ‘intense’ of the year so far. The eruptions ended shortly before midnight on Saturday, although further bursts of activity were recorded yesterday. A series of minor earthquakes, measuring up to 2.55 on the Richter scale were also recorded. Earlier this month, mayors of towns surrounding the volcano called for ‘urgent’ government action. In a joint statement, the politicians said they wanted a state of emergency to be declared. Mount Etna is Europe’s tallest active volcano. After past explosions, authorities in Sicily have been forced to build dams or dig ditches to divert lava away from people’s homes.
PUBLISHED: 22:16 EST, 28 April 2013 | UPDATED: 03:00 EST, 29 April 2013
Mount Etna burst into life once more at the weekend as it shot lava, ash and smoke hundreds of feet into the air.
Residents had been warned about the imminent eruption as grey smoke has been seen rising from the volcano for days.
On Saturday, red hot lava was spat into the air as the volcano violently erupted once more.
Scroll down for video
Smoke and ash were sent up to 3,000ft in the air as Mount Etna erupted for the thirteenth time
Experts said the eruption was ‘very spectacular’ but said local towns and residents were not at risk
It is the thirteenth time Etna has erupted this year.
Such is the scale of the activity that concerned residents have called on the Government to introduce a state of emergency.
However, experts said the latest activity posed no risk to local residents or towns.
Stefano Gresta, president of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, said it was ‘very spectacular, but not risky’, according to youreporternews.it.
The airport was only briefly closed and the eruption caused very little disruption.
The huge burst on Saturday could be seen by miles around and witnessed by residents of Catania and Taormina.
Ash was sent flying down Etna’s slopes and smoke rose more than 3,000ft into the air.
Locals said the latest eruption is the most ‘intense’ of the year so far.
Ash was sent down the slopes of erupting Etna, which dwarfs towns that sit at the foot of the volcano
Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield snapped this photo of Italy’s Mount Etna from aboard the International Space Station.
CREDIT: Canadian Space Agency/Chris Hadfield (Cmdr_Hadfield)
Mount Etna sent plumes of ash and lava into the sky on March 5/6, 2013. Italy’s Civil Protection agency said that increased explosive activity of the volcano was registered. Today’s eruption did not cause any interruption to air traffic.
Lava fountains during March 5th paroxysm.
VolcanoDiscovery reports that another paroxysm occurred from the new SE crater during the night. Following a period of increasing strombolian activity, large lava fountains were rising from vent in the saddle between the old and new SE crater as well its summit vent.
Etna, erupted for the seventh – and without doubt the most spectacular – time this year today, spewing forth molten lava hundreds of metres into the air.
Residents living close by were covered in hot ash but Europe’s tallest and most active volcano didn’t seem to pose any threat to human safety.
Local inhabitants of the Sicilian town of Catania were grateful that Etna at least didn’t close the local airport as it did last month, preventing a visiting Serie A football team from leaving the island.
Spewed forth: The fiery fingers cascade down the side of Etna after it erupted again today
The Popocatepetl volcano releases ash and steam during an eruption as seen from Cholula, Mexico. (Marco Ugarte, AP)
Xalitzintla – Residents at the foot of Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano no longer sleep soundly since the towering mountain roared back into action over a week ago, spewing out a hail of rocks, steam and ash.
“We close our eyes, but we don’t sleep much. In the past, there was only smoke but this time it’s stronger,” said Francisco Jimenez, who lives in the nearby town of Xalitzintla in central Mexico, 55km from Mexico City.
The volcano, Mexico’s second highest peak at 5 452m, started rumbling and spurting high clouds of ash and steam on 13 April, provoking the authorities to raise the alert to level five on a seven-point scale.
The alert extended a security cordon around the volcano but stopped short of starting evacuations of about 685 000 residents from nearby communities.
Over the weekend, residents watched as Popocatepetl, which means “smoking mountain” in the indigenous Nahuatl language, lived up to its name, spouting glowing rocks and shaking the ground beneath their feet.
“When we went out to see, my son cried: ‘We have to leave!’ We were ready to leave for Mexico City but then it calmed down a bit,” said 67-year-old Leopolda Perez of Xalitzintla.
‘Relative calm’ state
Authorities from the National Centre of Disaster Prevention maintained their alert level and said on Monday that the volcano remains at a “relative calm” state.
After moderate activity during most of the 20th century, Popocatepetl registered more intense rumblings from 1994, with the strongest in December 2000, when nearby communities were evacuated.
Juan Carlos Salazar, head of civil protection for the central state of Puebla, said that while many people thought lava was now coming out of the volcano, the crater was only spewing glowing rocks, with no risk to the population.
Popocatepetl is an explosive volcano that can suddenly erupt at tremendous force, thrusting out rocks and ashes at large distances. That kind of volcano can be more dangerous than those releasing only flowing lava.
Residents nervous
Residents say they are used to the permanent threat of the volcano, which they affectionately nickname “Don Gregorio” or “Don Goyo”, but many say the new activity makes them nervous again.
“We’ve been watching out for many nights, waiting to see what happens,” said Gabino Santibanez, mayor of San Pedro Benito Juarez, a small town only 9km from the glowing crater.
Locals said that most frightening was the unusual rumbling coming from the volcano, which many compared to an aircraft turbine.
“We’ve never heard a noise like it,” said Maximiliano Grajales.
About 4.5 million people live on the outskirts of the volcano, which lies at the crossroads of the states of Puebla, Morelos and Mexico.
Preparations made
Officials in the area have prepared temporary shelters for possible evacuations and even taken stock of livestock, in case of possible theft.
“Some people won’t want to leave because of their animals. Thieves pillaged houses during the 2000 evacuation,” Grajales said.
Some now wear face masks to protect their lungs from falling ashes as Don Goyo rumbles and smokes nearby.
Heat wave shifts to central US — drought-hit West Texas in the cross-hairs
By Miguel Llanos, msnbc.com
The heat wave that baked the Southwest the previous two days is shifting to the central U.S.
Starting Tuesday, highs will reach into the 80s from Texas all the way up to the border with Canada, weather.com reported.
“Over 30 locations may tie or set new daily record highs Tuesday in the Rockies and Plains,” it added, and some areas as far north as Nebraska could reach into the 90s.
On Wednesday, West Texas will get blasted by triple-digit heat, forecasters said, worsening the prolonged drought that area has experienced. Midland will feel some of the worst of the heat.
“It looks like we’re going to break the record” for an April 25, National Weather Service forecaster Jack Ciccone of the Midland office told msnbc.com. The forecast is for 101 degrees Fahrenheit, 3 degrees above the existing record set in 1996.
Nuclear Famine Report: Limited Nuclear Exchange In One Of World’s Regions Would Trigger Mass Global Starvation After Slashing Chinese, U.S. Food Production
CHICAGO, April 24, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Amidst Growing Tensions in Asia, India-Pakistan Confrontation Used to Show Dire Consequences Around the Globe; More Than A Billion People Would be at Risk Under “Nuclear Famine” Scenario.
More than a billion people around the world would face starvation following a limited regional nuclear weapons exchange (such as a clash between India and Pakistan) that would cause major worldwide climate disruption driving down food production in China, the U.S. and other nations, according to a major new report released today by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) and its U.S. affiliate, Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR).
Dr. Ira Helfand, the author of “Nuclear Famine: A Billion People at Risk–Global Impacts of Limited Nuclear War on Agriculture, Food Supplies, and Human Nutrition,” said: “The grim prospect of nuclear famine requires a fundamental change in our thinking about nuclear weapons. The new evidence that even the relatively small nuclear arsenals of countries such as India and Pakistan could cause long lasting, global damage to the Earth’s ecosystems and threaten hundreds of millions of already malnourished people demands that action be taken. The needless and preventable deaths of one billion people over a decade would be a disaster unprecedented in human history. It would not cause the extinction of the human race, but it would bring an end to modern civilization as we know it.”
The findings and the methodology on which the study is based will be published in a forthcoming issue of the peer-reviewed journal Climatic Change. Released during the World Summit of Nobel Laureates in Chicago April 23-25, 2012, the Helfand report was made possible with the financial support of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.
Among the specific findings outlined in the report:
Corn production in the U.S. would decline by an average of 10 percent for an entire decade, with the most severe decline (20 percent) in Year 5. Soybean production would decline by about 7 percent, with the most severe loss, more than 20 percent, in Year 5.
There would be a significant decline in middle-season rice production in China. During the first four years, rice production would decline by an average of 21 percent; over the next six years the decline would average 10 percent.
Resulting increases in food prices would make food inaccessible to hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest. Even if agricultural markets continued to function normally, 215 million people would be added to the rolls of the malnourished over the course of a decade. The 925 million people in the world who are already chronically malnourished (with a baseline consumption of 1,750 calories or less per day), would be put at risk by a further 10 percent decline in their food consumption.
Significant agricultural shortfalls over an extended period would almost certainly lead to panic and hoarding on an international scale, further reducing accessible food.
The IPPNW/PSR report concludes: “There is an urgent need to reduce the reliance on nuclear weapons by all nuclear weapons states and to move with all possible speed to the negotiation of a nuclear weapons convention that will ban these weapons completely.”
Almost 130,000 children are at risk of developing acute malnutrition in the central African nation of Chad within this year, according to the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF.
The crisis is worsening by the day and aid agencies say funds are not coming in quick enough to help.
With thanks and gratitude for SolarWatcher’s dedicated time and effort uploading this video.
A Sun-Diving comet was caught on the Soho satellite feed on 23rd April 2012. Shortly after the comet’s death plunge, a large Halo coronal mass ejection (CME) was observed and is currently earth directed. Impact on the earth’s magnetic field is expected around 26th/27th April 2012.
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(CNN) — A pair of strong earthquakes rocked Mexico’s Gulf of California only minutes apart early Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
The quakes — magnitude 6.9 and 6.2 — were centered about 85 miles northeast of Guerrero Negro in the Mexican state of Baja California, or 325 miles south-southwest of Phoenix in the United States. Both epicenters were shallow, a little more than six miles underground.
No tsunami warnings were issued and there were no immediate reports of damage, but people as far north as Tucson, Arizona, reported feeling them.
The temblors were recorded at 12:16 a.m. and 12:06 a.m. local time (3:16 a.m. and 3;06 a.m. ET).
7.0 Mexico/ 5.9 Oregon Coast/8.6 Sumatra/6.1 Tokyo
203 km (126 miles) S of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
290 km (180 miles) SSW of Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, Canada
352 km (218 miles) SW of HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, Canada
421 km (261 miles) E of BOSTON, Massachusetts
(AGI) Catania – Mount Etna is erupting for the sixth time this year with lava and plumes of smoke and ash from a new crater on the volcano’s southeast side. The new activity was preceded by new phase that began last night and that, according to experts from the INGV in Catania, has the same characteristics as the one before this one. Ash, carried by wind towards the east, has not yet created problems at the Fontanarossa airport, which is fully operational. . .
An unusual spring storm in the Texas Panhandle Wednesday afternoon dumped two to four feet of hail near Dumas.
Trucks were reported sliding off the road on Highway 287 as a result of the unexpected weather phenomenon. Snow plows were being used to clear the roads.
Some vehicles were trapped in the drifts of hailstones.
Chief Meteorologist Pete Delkus said a tornado watch was in effect for the Panhandle region through 10 p.m. Wednesday, and the storms were moving very slowly between Pampa and Dumas north of Amarillo and to the east of Dalhart.
Melting hail and heavy rain triggered flash flooding in the Panhandle
An EF-1 tornado that set down near Stockton Wednesday afternoon destroyed a building near a home and left debris strewn across the surrounding area, according to local meteorologists.
In Stockton, a highway traffic camera captured a funnel cloud southwest of the city, near Lathrop and a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento said it later touched down in French Camp, south of Stockton.
Discovery Bay resident Carlos Espinoza noticed the unusual atmospheric conditions just before the funnel cloud formed.
“I hear what I thought was thunder, said Espinoza. “Curious, I went out to look”
Espinoza grabbed his compact camera and snapped a series of 11 pictures that showed the funnel cloud forming and extending towards the ground.
A retired police officer, Espinoza knew what he’d witnessed.
“We’ve been shown how to look for certain weather conditions, explained Espinoza. To see this come up right in front of you was surprising, and fun!”
By early Wednesday evening, the National Weather Service confirmed that an EF-1 tornado swept through French Camp.
People who live in French Camp said they knew it was a tornado before the weather service did, as they watched it tear apart a building and send pieces of corrugated metal flying into telephone poles.
“[I was] scared to death,” said tornado victim Valentin Guitierrez. “We really thought we were going to die. I thought I was going to die.”
Guitierrez owned the shed that was destroyed when the tornado touched down. He said the sight of the twister and resulting damage was stunning.
“I heard a loud loud noise. I ran out to look out the back window and I see this big ol’ cloud,” said Guitierrez. “I see it flip over the trailers, so I figured it was a tornado. So I ran to the front of the house, told my family to get on the ground.”
One man said he’d never seen anything like it in his 65 years in San Joaquin County.
It is not unheard of to have twisters spawn from the clouds in the San Joaquin Valley, but it’s not common.
Besides the funnel cloud, a mass of unstable air between Spring storms triggered thundershowers and hail in the Central Valley, according tometeorologists.
The thundershowers erupted in a break between two storm fronts that have gotten April off to a wet start.
The National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning Wednesday afternoon for Tulare County near Hanford where quarter-inch sized hail fell accompanied by strong winds, lightning and thunder.
National Weather Service forecaster Steve Anderson said some BB-size hail was reported in the San Jose area around noon.
Meanwhile, a strong line of thundershowers roared into the Sierra foothills, dumping half inch in diameter hail and heavy downpours.
Two more low pressure system were lined up off shore ready to bring showers for the morning commutes both on Thursday and Friday.
Forecasters predicted the North Bay and the Santa Cruz Mountains could get 2 inches or more of rain by Saturday while the central Bay Area could expect 0.5 to 2 inches.
After one of the driest winters in a century, Mother Nature has done her best to eliminate potential drought conditions with one of the wettest Marchs in the past 80 years and now the April showers.
The same has held true for the Sierra where for much of the winter the ski resorts were forced to rely on snowmaking machines.
“Back in January, when we didn’t have any snow, we were looking for a tough season,” said Jennie Bartlett, a spokeswoman for Sugar Bowl. “But March was an awesome month for us. We got over 200 inches of snow.”
Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear, joins Thom Hartmann. California beware! A radioactive wave is headed toward the West Coast of the United States courtesy of the Fukushima nuclear disaster? So with nuclear power still wreaking havoc on the environment – why are the Japanese about to flip on more of their nuclear reactors?
From n3kl.org
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In fact this eruption (paroxysm) started yesterday evening. See our early report below. People who have responded to that alert must have seen the action in the etna-guide webcam. The HD quality video from Etnawalk shows the explosions in the crater and the lava streams running down the hill. the actual eruption images are starting at 1:30. The video is accompanied by great music!
Satellites Find Dormant Volcanoes Now Waking Up
The importance of global and frequent data coverage of volcanoes was highlighted in a recent article published in Science. Satellites are finding that volcanoes previously thought to be dormant are showing signs of unrest.
As the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland demonstrated, volcanic eruptions can have consequences over large regions, so the global perspective offered by satellite systems is vital for monitoring volcanoes in remote and inaccessible terrain.
Most volcanoes around the world are not monitored effectively – or at all. The ‘Monitoring Volcanoes’ article made reference to a study of over 440 active volcanoes in 16 developing countries. The study revealed that 384 have rudimentary or no monitoring, including 65 volcanoes identified as posing a high risk to large populations.
Earth-observing satellites, such as ESA’s Envisat, can detect unrest on currently unmonitored volcanoes.
Etna volcano – tremor signal started to rise sharply
The tremor signal has started to rise sharply on Saturday, March 31, which could mean that the 23rd paroxysm is about to occur. The next hours will show.
Strombolian activity continued since Friday, March 30, at the new Southeast Crater crater.
Explosions throw incandescent material tens of meters beyond the crater edge and, in some cases, bombs fall on the flanks of the cinder cone. During the late Friday afternoon and evening explosions followed one another with an average rate of 20-30 events per hour. The real-time seismic tremor signal shows no substantial changes in amplitude.
Mount Etna spews fiery lava for the fifth time this year
Europe’s tallest and most active volcano, Mount Etna, has erupted for the fifth time in 2012, spewing hot lava and ash in the early hours of Sunday. The lava, which could be seen moving down the mountain’s side just after 4am local time, continued to spew until around 5.30 am, according to local news reports. Ash from the eruption landed on the villages at the foot of the volcano; however no damage was reported and nearby airports remained open
Tropical Storm Pakhar (02W) by Vietnam – April 1st, 2012
On March 17, an area of disturbed weather associated with a cold front formed about 300 km (190 mi), to the northwest of Palau Island. At that time, the low pressure area was located in an area of moderate vertical wind shear, with unfavorable water temperature.
Over the next couple of days, it slowly moved towards the Samar area, and crossed the Visayas region. On March 20, the low pressure area remained almost stationary, about 140 km (85 mi) to the northwest of Puerto Princesa, Palawan. The cause of the low’s stalling was due to a high pressure system, that was building up to the northeast of the system, extending into Vietnam. At the same time, the JMA upgraded the storm to a disturbance.
The system remained stationary for more four days, before the JMA upgraded it to a tropical depression. However, on March 25, the JMA downgraded the tropical depression to a disturbance, as the storm’s outer rainbands began to collapse, and its low level circulation center began to be fully exposed.
Early on March 26, the JMA re-upgraded the disturbance to a tropical depression, as the storm began to reorganize. By this time, the depression became well organized, due to low vertical wind shear associated with favorable water temperatures.
Tarek is the author of More Than 60 Minutes: When Earth Stands Still and like many other science based researchers around the world, has reached the conclusion that in fact we are seeing the approach of an extra-solar body towards the Earth.
Did You Hear That Boom? Residents Report Saturday Night Sounds that Shook Homes
Ferndale Police are investigating what might have caused three loud booms and light flashes that shook homes and concerned many local residents Saturday night. The booms were heard around 9:30-10 p.m. and may have originated near the area of Hilton and Marshall. More than 40 people posted on Ferndale Patch’s Facebook page about the incidents — describing flashes of light seen in the sky, their homes vibrating with the noise, and helicopters heard overheard following the sounds. A Ferndale Police dispatcher said last night at 12:30 a.m. that they investigated the noise but could not find its cause. He said fireworks were a possibility. Ferndale Police Lt. Casey O’Loughlin said Sunday morning that he was not aware of any reports made but said loud booms can be caused by fireworks. “That’s usually what loud booms turn out to be are fireworks,” he said. In Ferndale, any type of fireworks that explode or leave the ground are illegal, he said. O’Loughlin said he was not aware of any helicopters being sent out. Here’s what some Patch readers had to say about the noise:
FEMA chief says agency bracing for ‘maximum’ disaster
By Eric Berger
Recent hurricanes Ike and Katrina may rank among the three costliest storms in U.S. history, but in preparing for disasters the federal government must think bigger still, says America’s top emergency planner.
“As devastating as those two hurricanes were, they’re not as bad as it gets,” said Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Fugate told reporters Tuesday at the National Hurricane Conference in Orlando, Fla., that his agency has been preparing for realistic worst-case scenarios – not just natural disasters, such as hurricanes and earthquakes, but terrorist attacks, as well.
Japan’s quake defenses not enough, official reports warn
By Antoni Slodkowski
(Reuters) – Japan’s defenses against a major tsunami and the safety of its nuclear plants were thrown into further doubt after two official studies predicted much higher waves could hit and that Tokyo quake damage could be bigger than it was prepared for.
The reports, carried in the media over the weekend, are likely to intensify the debate about whether to restart Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors, all but one of which are shut amid public fears about nuclear safety sparked by the Fukushima disaster in March 2011.
One report said a quake as big as the one that rocked Japan in 2011 could trigger waves topping 34 meters (112 feet), almost double its previous estimate made in 2003 when its worst scenario forecast tsunami of no more than 20 meters (66 feet).
The Cabinet Office panel which authored the report, revised its predictions after one of the biggest tremors on record struck Japan last year, setting off a tsunami that topped 20 meters in the worst-affected areas and triggering the world’s worst nuclear crisis in 25 years.
“We won’t be able to contain a massive tsunami with the (current) embankments,” said Masaharu Nakagawa, disaster prevention minister on a news conference on Saturday evening.
“We will have to work the (changes regarding) the city planning, disaster prevention education and evacuation into the policies,” he said.
Waves at the now off-line Hamaoka nuclear plant in Shizuoka prefecture, operated by Chubu Electric Power, could reach 21 meters, breaching the 18-metre breakwater that the operators are currently building, the report said.
The government is keen to get some of the reactors running after surging fuels imports resulted in a rare trade deficit, raising worries about its declining ability to fund a huge public debt with domestic savings. But it must first persuade wary locals that the plants are safe.
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Spewed forth: The fiery fingers cascade down the side of Etna after it erupted again today
The Popocatepetl volcano releases ash and steam during an eruption as seen from Cholula, Mexico. (Marco Ugarte, AP)
