Seismotectonics of the Eastern Margin of the Australia Plate
The eastern margin of the Australia plate is one of the most sesimically active areas of the world due to high rates of convergence between the Australia and Pacific plates. In the region of New Zealand, the 3000 km long Australia-Pacific plate boundary extends from south of Macquarie Island to the southern Kermadec Island chain. It includes an oceanic transform (the Macquarie Ridge), two oppositely verging subduction zones (Puysegur and Hikurangi), and a transpressive continental transform, the Alpine Fault through South Island, New Zealand.
Since 1900 there have been 15 M7.5+ earthquakes recorded near New Zealand. Nine of these, and the four largest, occurred along or near the Macquarie Ridge, including the 1989 M8.2 event on the ridge itself, and the 2004 M8.1 event 200 km to the west of the plate boundary, reflecting intraplate deformation. The largest recorded earthquake in New Zealand itself was the 1931 M7.8 Hawke’s Bay earthquake, which killed 256 people. The last M7.5+ earthquake along the Alpine Fault was 170 years ago; studies of the faults’ strain accumulation suggest that similar events are likely to occur again.
North of New Zealand, the Australia-Pacific boundary stretches east of Tonga and Fiji to 250 km south of Samoa. For 2,200 km the trench is approximately linear, and includes two segments where old (>120 Myr) Pacific oceanic lithosphere rapidly subducts westward (Kermadec and Tonga). At the northern end of the Tonga trench, the boundary curves sharply westward and changes along a 700 km-long segment from trench-normal subduction, to oblique subduction, to a left lateral transform-like structure.
Australia-Pacific convergence rates increase northward from 60 mm/yr at the southern Kermadec trench to 90 mm/yr at the northern Tonga trench; however, significant back arc extension (or equivalently, slab rollback) causes the consumption rate of subducting Pacific lithosphere to be much faster. The spreading rate in the Havre trough, west of the Kermadec trench, increases northward from 8 to 20 mm/yr. The southern tip of this spreading center is propagating into the North Island of New Zealand, rifting it apart. In the southern Lau Basin, west of the Tonga trench, the spreading rate increases northward from 60 to 90 mm/yr, and in the northern Lau Basin, multiple spreading centers result in an extension rate as high as 160 mm/yr. The overall subduction velocity of the Pacific plate is the vector sum of Australia-Pacific velocity and back arc spreading velocity: thus it increases northward along the Kermadec trench from 70 to 100 mm/yr, and along the Tonga trench from 150 to 240 mm/yr.
June 4, 2012 – PANAMA – A shallow 6.6 magnitude earthquake struck the sea-floor just SW of Panama. The earthquake was preceded by a 6.2 magnitude earthquake in the same region. The strong magnitude earthquakes erupted along the jagged corner of the Nazca plate which is subducting under the South American plate. The epicenter of the quakes was 230 miles (370 km) south of David, Panama, at a depth of 6.0 miles (10.5 km). There was no tsunami threat, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said. The quake was reported to have occurred at 6:45 local time (0045 GMT). Yesterday, the same region was rattled by a 4.7 earthquake at a depth of about 10.5 km. A low level tsunami alert was issued for the region but was later canceled. –The Extinction
(AGI) There has been a fall in the number of earthquake tremors recorded in areas across the provinces of Mantova, Modena and Ferrara, where two earthquakes on May 20 and 29 tore devastated churches and businesses, leaving a total of 19 people dead.
Between 07:00 and 13:00 today, Italy’s institute for the monitoring of seismic activity (INGV) recorded 6 tremors, compared to several dozen over the same period of time in recent days. The magnitude of the tremors is also falling and in recent hours has not risen above 2.6 on the Richter Scale. .
Heavy rainfall has been sweeping across parts of Northern and Northeast China. The storms caused traffic delays and many flights have been delayed or cancelled. Beijing received a huge sudden downpour at around 3pm Sunday, local time. The clouds were so heavy that the capital almost fell into darkness. Some vehicles became stranded on the roads, and the storm prompted officials to declare a “Blue alarm” – the lowest emergency level. Northeast China also suffered torrential rain, with thunder and hail storms. Some areas saw over 50 millimeters of rainfall within just 2 hours. Parts of the country’s south also suffered severe storms. Weather forecasters say the bad weather could last another 3 or 4 days. It’s prompting fears that flooding could occur along the country’s waterways.
A heavy sandstorm blinded much of the Eastern Province yesterday. There were, however, no reports of major road accidents or any delay in train or flight arrivals and departures. The storm started blanketing the region since Saturday night, as sand-laden winds exceeding 25 mph made life difficult for motorists, who drove with hazard lights on as they negotiated their way through the thick balls of yellow and orange dust. People awoke to a dark and hazy morning yesterday with their vehicles coated in layers of coarse dust. Visibility was reduced to zero during noontime in Dammam, Dhahran and Alkhobar. All vehicles had headlights on, and it looked more like evening than afternoon. Evening found roadways around Dammam nearly deserted. Many businesses, especially supermarkets, suffered from the storm. There was a steady stream of people at local hospitals, with the sandy weather bringing nothing but misery to children with asthma. “My seven-year-old son is suffering badly because of this weather,” said Umm Javed, a mother of three. “Since we live on the third floor, this gushing sand-laden wind is particularly fierce and it is making breathing difficult for my little one,” she told.
Severe weather that rolled through eastern Colorado has caused some damage. The storms started early Saturday along the Front Range with powerful wind gusts that broke branches and downed some trees in the Denver area. KUSA-TV reports that Buckley Air Force Base had 61 mph winds, while gusts hit 67 mph at Denver International Airport. The station reports that as the storms moved to the east the damaging wind continued with several locations in Morgan County reporting trees down and damage to fences and automobiles. By 9 p.m. all of the watches and warnings for severe weather had expired.
Afternoon winds are being blamed for helping a wildfire burning in a remote area of the Sequoia National Forest nearly double in size. U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Denise Alonzo says the winds Sunday afternoon pushed the fire over control lines, helping it expand to more than 1,000 acres. Earlier Sunday the fire had consumed about 522 acres. About 250 firefighters are battling the blaze, which was first reported around 4 p.m. Friday. No structures are threatened by the blaze. The wildfire has crossed Lloyd Meadow Road, a dead-end road that provides access to two trailheads into the Golden Trout Wilderness area, a remote area that spans both sides of the Sierra crest. The exact cause of the fire is under investigation, but officials have determined it was caused by a human, though it’s not known if the fire was sparked accidentally.
(Reuters) – High winds, heavy rains and six tornadoes have descended on the mid-Atlantic region, causing at least one serious injury but no deaths and damaging homes, businesses and boats, officials said on Saturday.
The violent storms that struck Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia on Friday collapsed a fabric dome near Pittsburgh, stranded motorists on flooded roads, and ruined homes and boats.
The National Weather Service said in a post on Twitter late on Saturday that six tornadoes had been confirmed as part of the weather outbreak. No other details were immediately available.
One man in Bel Air, Maryland, near Baltimore suffered broken bones when the concrete block wall of his automotive garage business collapsed on him during the storm. Another man inside the garage had minor injuries, Edward Hopkins of the Maryland Emergency Management Agency said.
An alert employee evacuated 11 others from the fabric golf dome at Robert Morris University in Pennsylvania a minute before winds caused it to collapse on Friday. They escaped unhurt, the university said in a statement.
Tens of thousands of people lost power in Washington and its Maryland suburbs on Friday, but outages were down to around 250 customers by Saturday, said Myra Oppel, a spokeswoman for Potomac Electric Power Company.
“It was really nasty weather,” Oppel said in a telephone interview. “I’ve never heard so many tornado warnings.”
Baltimore Gas and Electric Company also had tens of thousands of customers lose power, though all but roughly 2,500 customers had their power restored, the company said on its website.
Flash flooding along the Interstate 95 corridor inundated roads and stranded motorists, some of whom had to be rescued, said Howard Silverman of the National Weather Service in Maryland.
Experts were out determining whether tornadoes had caused the damage, Silverman said.
Witnesses said it was definitely a tornado that struck Hampton, Virginia, where 100 homes, three businesses and some yachts sustained damage.
The damage in Hampton, a city of 150,000, was estimated at $4.3 million, city spokeswoman Robin McCormick said.
“There are trees on roofs, and tarps, it’s really a mess,” McCormick said. Boats in a parking lot were tossed off their trailers, she said.
Residents were being kept out of two hard-hit neighborhoods where crews were replacing downed power poles and clearing debris that blocked roads.
Despite the storm, Hampton held its annual “Blackbeard Pirate Festival” for thousands of visitors on Saturday, McCormick said.
Tsunami Information Bulletin in South Of Panama, Pacific Ocean
000
WEPA42 PHEB 040322
TIBPAC
TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 001
PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS
ISSUED AT 0322Z 04 JUN 2012
THIS BULLETIN APPLIES TO AREAS WITHIN AND BORDERING THE PACIFIC
OCEAN AND ADJACENT SEAS...EXCEPT ALASKA...BRITISH COLUMBIA...
WASHINGTON...OREGON AND CALIFORNIA.
... TSUNAMI INFORMATION BULLETIN ...
THIS BULLETIN IS FOR INFORMATION ONLY.
THIS BULLETIN IS ISSUED AS ADVICE TO GOVERNMENT AGENCIES. ONLY
NATIONAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO MAKE
DECISIONS REGARDING THE OFFICIAL STATE OF ALERT IN THEIR AREA AND
ANY ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN IN RESPONSE.
AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS
ORIGIN TIME - 0315Z 04 JUN 2012
COORDINATES - 5.4 NORTH 82.7 WEST
DEPTH - 10 KM
LOCATION - SOUTH OF PANAMA
MAGNITUDE - 6.6
EVALUATION
NO DESTRUCTIVE WIDESPREAD TSUNAMI THREAT EXISTS BASED ON
HISTORICAL EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI DATA.
HOWEVER - EARTHQUAKES OF THIS SIZE SOMETIMES GENERATE LOCAL
TSUNAMIS THAT CAN BE DESTRUCTIVE ALONG COASTS LOCATED WITHIN
A HUNDRED KILOMETERS OF THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER. AUTHORITIES
IN THE REGION OF THE EPICENTER SHOULD BE AWARE OF THIS
POSSIBILITY AND TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION.
THIS WILL BE THE ONLY BULLETIN ISSUED FOR THIS EVENT UNLESS
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE.
THE WEST COAST/ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER WILL ISSUE PRODUCTS
FOR ALASKA...BRITISH COLUMBIA...WASHINGTON...OREGON...CALIFORNIA.
Outbreak precautions are in effect at The Norfolk Hospital Nursing Home due to a respiratory-like illness. There are currently five residents showing two or more of the following symptoms; headache, cough, runny nose, fever, chills and sore throat. The Resident Yard Sale, which was scheduled for Saturday, has been postponed and will be rescheduled at a later date. Other precautions include resident isolation, increased cleaning, signage, halt to activities and a freeze on new admissions and transfers. Visiting is still permitted at this time, however, if you are feeling ill the staff asks you to stay at home. Guests are remaindered to wash their hands at one of the many hand sanitizing stations available before entering the nursing home.
Biohazard name:
Respiratory-like illness
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.
A new strain of flu from the northern hemisphere is likely to spread through Australia this winter, NSW health authorities say. Centre for Health Protection director Dr Jeremy McAnulty says the new flu strain (H3N2) is likely to replace swine flu that emerged in 2009 as the dominant strain. Pregnant women, the elderly and the chronically ill should be vaccinated. ‘This may mean that people in older age groups … may be at greater risk this winter,’ Dr McAnulty said in a statement on Monday. ‘We are already seeing a rise in activity … so now is the time to get vaccinated.’ Free flu shots are available for people aged 65 and older, pregnant women, people with chronic illness as well as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Dr McAnulty said parents should arrange flu vaccinations for children older than six months, who were at relatively high risk of severe influenza.
Biohazard name:
Flu (New strain observed)
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.
ScienceDaily — The current theory of continental drift provides a good model for understanding terrestrial processes through history. However, while plate tectonics is able to successfully shed light on processes up to 3 billion years ago, the theory isn’t sufficient in explaining the dynamics of Earth and crust formation before that point and through to the earliest formation of planet, some 4.6 billion years ago. This is the conclusion of Tomas Naæraa of the Nordic Center for Earth Evolution at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, a part of the University of Copenhagen. His new doctoral dissertation has just been published by the journal Nature.
“Plate tectonics theory can be applied to about 3 billion years of the Earth’s history. However, the Earth is older, up to 4.567 billion years old. We can now demonstrate that there has been a significant shift in the Earth’s dynamics. Thus, the Earth, under the first third of its history, developed under conditions other than what can be explained using the plate tectonics model,” explains Tomas Næraa. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Copenhagen)
“Using radiometric dating, one can observe that Earth’s oldest continents were created in geodynamic environments which were markedly different than current environments characterised by plate tectonics. Therefore, plate tectonics as we know it today is not a good model for understanding the processes at play during the earliest episodes of Earths’s history, those beyond 3 billion years ago. There was another crust dynamic and crust formation that occurred under other processes,” explains Tomas Næraa, who has been a PhD student at the Natural History Museum of Denmark and the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland — GEUS.
Plate tectonics is a theory of continental drift and sea floor spreading. A wide range of phenomena from volcanism, earthquakes and undersea earthquakes (and pursuant tsunamis) to variations in climate and species development on Earth can be explained by the plate tectonics model, globally recognized during the 1960′s. Tomas Næraa can now demonstrate that the half-century old model no longer suffices.
“Plate tectonics theory can be applied to about 3 billion years of the Earth’s history. However, the Earth is older, up to 4.567 billion years old. We can now demonstrate that there has been a significant shift in the Earth’s dynamics. Thus, the Earth, under the first third of its history, developed under conditions other than what can be explained using the plate tectonics model,” explains Tomas Næraa. Tomas is currently employed as a project researcher at GEUS.
Central research topic for 30 years
Since 2006, the 40-year-old Tomas Næraa has conducted studies of rocks sourced in the 3.85 billion year-old bedrock of the Nuuk region in West Greenland. Using isotopes of the element hafnium (Hf), he has managed to shed light upon a research topic that has puzzled geologists around the world for 30 years. Næraa’s instructor, Professor Minik Rosing of the Natural History Museum of Denmark considers Næraa’s dissertation a seminal work:
“We have come to understand the context of the Earth’s and continent’s origins in an entirely new way. Climate and nutrient cycles which nourish all terrestrial organisms are driven by plate tectonics. So, if the Earth’s crust formation was controlled and initiated by other factors, we need to find out what controlled climate and the environments in which life began and evolved 4 billion years ago. This fundamental understanding can be of great significance for the understanding of future climate change,” says Minik Rosing, who adds that: “An enormous job waits ahead, and Næraas’ dissertation is an epochal step.”
A big dark hole in the sun’s atmosphere, a ‘coronal hole’, is turning toward Earth spewing solar wind. According to NASA’s official rubber chicken, it looks an awful lot like a bird:
Coronal holes are places where the sun’s magnetic field opens up and allows the solar wind to escape. A chicken-shaped stream of solar wind flowing from this coronal hole will reach Earth on June 5th – 7th, possibly stirring geomagnetic storms. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras
New sunspot 1496 unleashed an impulsive M3-class solar flare on June 3rd at 1755 UT. In New Mexico, amateur astronomer Thomas Ashcraft was monitoring the sun when the explosion occurred, and he video-recorded a powerful solar tsunami issuing from the blast site:
“This was a great solar event!” says Ashcraft. “The blast wave sparked powerful radio emissions as it plowed through the sun’s atmosphere, and I recorded the sounds using my shortwave radio telescope.”
The explosion also hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space: SOHO movie. The cloud does not appear to be heading for Earth, although this conclusion could be revised by further analysis
On June 4th, the full Moon will pass through the shadow of Earth, producing a partial lunar eclipse visible across the Pacific side of Earth from Asia to North America. In the United States, the event is visible during the hours before sunrise on Monday morning. The eclipse begins at 3:00 a.m. PDT and reaches maximum at 4:03 a.m. PDT with 38% of the Moon’s diameter in shadow. Get the full story and a video from Science@NASA.
Venus is approaching the sun in advance of the June 5th Transit of Venus. From here on Earth, the second planet has become difficult to see wrapped in bright sunlight. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, however, has no such trouble. SOHO’s onboard coronagrah blocks the glare to reveal planets otherwise invisible:
A 24-hour movie shows that Mercury is exiting stage left as Venus plunges deeper into sunlight. Updated images may be found here.
Amateur astronomers who manage to locate Venus in broad daylight will find that the planet has turned into a delightfullyslendercrescent. This is happening because Venus is turning its nightside to Earth, with only a sliver of reflected sunlight still shining over the planet’s limb.
The crescent could soon become a ring. When Venus is less than few degrees away from the sun, the horns of the crescent sometimes reach around and touch, producing a complete annulus. The effect is caused by particles in upper layers of Venus’s atmosphere which scatter sunlight around the circumference of the planet. The ring is very difficult to observe, and often only black-belt astrophotographers are able to record the phenomenon.
Collision Course Established:
Milky Way – Andromeda In Head-On CrashMessageToEagle.com – The universe is expanding and accelerating, and collisions between galaxies located in close proximity to each other still happen. They are hardly a surprise because galaxies are bound by the gravity of the dark matter surrounding them.
It’s almost time for the Milky Way to get involved, too.
Only 4 billion years before a gigantic collision will take place between the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxy. NASA Hubble Space Telescope’s painstaking Telescope measurements are ready.
“After nearly a century of speculation about the future destiny of Andromeda and our Milky Way, we at last have a clear picture of how events will unfold over the coming billions of years,” said Sangm Tony Sohn of The Space Telescope Science Institute.
“Our findings are statistically consistent with a head-on collision between the Andromeda galaxy and our Milky Way galaxy,” said Roelandvan der Marel of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore.
Andromeda, known also as M31 is now 2.5 million light-years away, but it’s is approaching us very fast. It’s inevitably falling toward the Milky Way under the mutual pull of gravity between the two galaxies and the invisible dark matter that surrounds them both.
It will be a great clash and the Milky Way is destined to get a major makeover during this encounter.
The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are the two largest in our cosmic neighborhood. Our Galaxy’s spiral disk of 200 billion stars, is approximately 100,000 light years in diameter; Andromeda is 4 times as massive and contains 500 billion stars.
Our solar system is approximately 28,000 light years from the centre of the Milky Way; Andromeda is around two million light years away.
Click on image to enlargeThis series of photo illustrations shows the predicted merger between our Milky Way galaxy and the neighboring Andromeda galaxy.
First Row, Left: Present day; First Row, Right: In 2 billion years the disk of the approaching Andromeda galaxy is noticeably larger; Second Row, Left: In 3.75 billion years Andromeda fills the field of view; Second Row, Right: In 3.85 billion years the sky is ablaze with new star formation; Third Row, Left: In 3.9 billion years, star formation continues; Third Row, Right: In 4 billion years Andromeda is tidally stretched and the Milky Way becomes warped;Fourth Row, Left: In 5.1 billion years the cores of the Milky Way and Andromeda appear as a pair of bright lobes;Fourth Row, Right: In 7 billion years the merged galaxies form a huge elliptical galaxy, its bright core dominating the nighttime sky. Credit: NASA; ESA; Z. Levay and R. van der Marel, STScI; T. Hallas, and A. Mellinger
Computer simulations derived from Hubble’s data show that it will take an additional two billion years after the encounter for the interacting galaxies to completely merge under the tug of gravity and reshape into a single elliptical galaxy similar to the kind commonly seen in the local universe.
It is likely the sun will be flung into a new region of our galaxy, but our Earth and solar system are in no danger of being destroyed.
Although the galaxies will plow into each other, stars inside each galaxy are so far apart that they will not collide with other stars during the encounter. However, the stars will be thrown into different orbits around the new galactic center. Simulations show that our solar system will probably be tossed much further from the galactic core than it is today.
And what will happen with Andromeda’s small companion, the Triangulum galaxy, M33?
M33: Triangulum GalaxyThe small, northern constellation Triangulum harbors this magnificent face-on spiral galaxy, M33. Its popular names include the Pinwheel Galaxy or just the Triangulum Galaxy. M33 is over 50,000 light-years in diameter, third largest in the Local Group of galaxies after the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), and our own Milky Way. About 3 million light-years from the Milky Way, M33 is itself thought to be a satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy and astronomers in these two galaxies would likely have spectacular views of each other’s grand spiral star systems. As for the view from planet Earth, this sharp, detailed image nicely shows off M33′s blue star clusters and pinkish star forming regions that trace the galaxy’s loosely wound spiral arms. In fact, the cavernous NGC 604 is the brightest star forming region, seen here at about the 1 o’clock position from the galaxy center. Like M31, M33′s population of well-measured variable stars have helped make this nearby spiral a cosmic yardstick for establishing the distance scale of the Universe. Photo Credits: Paul Mortfield, Stefano Cancelli
It will join in the collision and perhaps later merge with the M31/Milky Way pair but astronomers estimate that M33 will hit the Milky Way first.
The Hubble Space Telescope’s deep views of the universe show such encounters between galaxies were more common in the past when the universe was smaller.
A century ago astronomers did not realize that M31 was a separate galaxy far beyond the stars of the Milky Way. Edwin Hubble measured its vast distance by uncovering a variable star that served as a “milepost marker.
Hubble went on to discover the expanding universe where galaxies are rushing away from us, but it has long been known that M31 is moving toward the Milky Way at about 250,000 miles per hour.
That is fast enough to travel from here to the moon in one hour. The measurement was made using the Doppler effect, which is a change in frequency and wavelength of waves produced by a moving source relative to an observer, to measure how starlight in the galaxy has been compressed by Andromeda’s motion toward us.
Previously, it was unknown whether the far-future encounter will be a miss, glancing blow, or head-on smashup. This depends on M31′s tangential motion. Until now, astronomers had not been able to measure M31′s sideways motion in the sky, despite attempts dating back more than a century.
The Antennae Galaxies in CollisionTwo galaxies are squaring off in Corvus and here are the latest pictures. When two galaxies collide, however, the stars that compose them usually do not. This is because galaxies are mostly empty space and, however bright, stars only take up only a small amount of that space. During the slow, hundred million year collision, however, one galaxy can rip the other apart gravitationally, and dust and gas common to both galaxies does collide. In the above clash of the titans, dark dust pillars mark massive molecular clouds are being compressed during the galactic encounter, causing the rapid birth of millions of stars, some of which are gravitationally bound together in massive star clusters. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration Acknowledgment: B. Whitmore (Space Telescope Science Institute) et al.
The Hubble Space Telescope team, led by van der Marel, conducted extraordinarily precise observations of the sideways motion of M31 that remove any doubt that it is destined to collide and merge with the Milky Way.
“This was accomplished by repeatedly observing select regions of the galaxy over a five- to seven-year period,” said Jay Anderson.
“In the worst-case-scenario simulation, M31 slams into the Milky Way head-on and the stars are all scattered into different orbits,” said Gurtina Besla of Columbia University in New York.
“The stellar populations of both galaxies are jostled, and the Milky Way loses its flattened pancake shape with most of the stars on nearly circular orbits. The galaxies’ cores merge, and the stars settle into randomized orbits to create an elliptical-shaped galaxy,” Besla added.
The space shuttle servicing missions to Hubble upgraded it with ever more-powerful cameras, which have given astronomers a long-enough time baseline to make the critical measurements needed to nail down M31′s motion.
The Hubble observations and the consequences of the merger are reported in three papers that will appear in an upcoming issue of the Astrophysical Journal.
News Report from event Sunday May 27th 2012. Michigan is a new location for this phenomenon to have been recorded. And this particular account is perhaps the first involving physical damage clearly associated with the phenomenon. The damage in question I believe is located in Oshtemo Michigan near Kalamazoo.
Swarms of spiders descending from nowhere and biting those unfortunate enough to stray into their path sounds like the stuff of nightmares. But for people in one Indian town, the scenario is all too real. Two people are said to have died after being bitten by the poisonous creatures in Sadiya, in the north east of India. And scores more have been treated in hospital after the town was suddenly invaded by the poisonous eight-legged creatures last month, which have left residents living in a state of panic. Now worried local officials are considering spraying the town with insecticide to kill off the menace, after experts have so far failed to identify the species. A scientist, who is one of those now camping in the area in an attempt to tackle the dangerous spiders, described the creatures in question as ‘highly aggressive’. Dr Saika, told the Times of India that the arachnid could even belong to a whole new species. He said: ‘It leaps at anything that comes close. Some of the victims claimed the spider latched onto them after biting, and if that is so, it needs to be dealt with carefully.’ Rumours are rife that the spiders could be any of a number of poisonous arachnids, including possibly a tarantula, a black wishbone, or even the feared funnel-web spider.
Experts are also concerned that the spider epidemic is being made worse by the influence of witch doctors in the town. Dr Anil Phatowali, a superintendent at Sadiya’s local hospital, said that both of those who died had first sought the treatment of witch doctors, who had cut open the wounds with razors and drained out the blood before burning it. Residents have spoken of their shock at the sudden invasion of spiders who entered the town whilst Hindu festival celebrations were in full swing last month. Jintu Gogoi, who was one of those bitten by the spider, told how he suffered excruciating pain and nausea after being attacked, with his finger still blackened and swollen weeks later. Whatever the identity of the mystery spiders, experts agree that the creatures are unlikely to be native to the area. Researchers are also still running tests to discover how poisonous the spiders are after medical chiefs questioned the authenticity of the bite claims. Dr. Anil Phatowali, superintendent of the town’s hospital, said they had not administered an antidote as they could not be certain the spider was venomous at all, pointing to the treatment by witchdoctors as a possible factor in the two recorded deaths.
Biohazard name:
Spider Invasion (Fatal)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
A man swimming in the ocean was injured after officials said he was bitten by a shark Saturday evening at Myrtle Beach. The victim was coming out of the water around 7:45 p.m. near the 2nd Avenue Pier, with a shark attached to his foot. Beach Patrol Sgt. Philip Cane confirmed the bite. Witnesses said the victim appeared to be in his late teens or early 20s. The photo of his shark bite was taken by a friend. The extent of the injuries remains uncertain. No other information was released.
Biohazard name:
Shark attack (Non-Fatal)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes 'FAIR USE' of any such copyrighted material.]
A file photo shows destruction from the 1928 earthquake in Chirpan; the small Bulgarian town was hit by another quake in 1942. Photo from Lost Bulgaria
The earthquake that the Bulgarian capital Sofia experienced at 3 am on Tuesday has been the strongest in its history since 1858, i.e. in 154 years, historical records indicate.
On Tuesday, Bulgaria’s territory saw over 60 weak aftershocks after the 5.8-5.9-magnitude it experienced early Tuesday morning, according to the Geophysics Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
All of the 60 aftershocks had magnitudes of over 1 on the Richter scale, and their epicenters were around the western Bulgarian city of Pernik, where the initial earthquake hit at about 2:58 am on Tuesday. Some of the major aftershocks had a magnitude of 4.2-4.7, and were felt in Pernik and Sofia.
On September 30, 1858, when the future Bulgarian capital was still only a provincial town in the Ottoman Empire, it suffered an earthquake that had an estimated magnitude of 6.6-7.0 on the Richter Scale, damaging some 80% of its buildings.
As a result of the earthquake, 19 out of the 24 then mosques in Sofia saw their minarets collapse, while only two out of the seven churches remained operational. The 1858earthquake claimed 4 lives in Sofia, and created huge cracks in the ground outside of the town.
The May 22, 2012, earthquake in Sofia, Pernik, and other parts of Western and Southern Bulgaria luckily, also pales in comparison with the strongest earthquake in the country ever – the March 17, 1942, earthquake in the southeastern town of Chirpan
Another strong earthquake in Bulgaria was the 1977 quake with its epicenter in Vrancea, Romania, which killed between 100 and 250 people in the Bulgarian Danube town of Svishtov, according to various estimates.
The latest earthquake in Sofia is comparable to the December 7, 1986 earthquake in Northeastern Bulgaria, which killed two people, and destroyed 150 buildings in the town of Strazhitsa.
After 2000, Bulgaria has seen a total of seven earthquakes with a magnitude beyond 4 on the Richter scale. The strongest one was in 2009 in the Black Sea near the town of Shabla, with a magnitude of 4.8.
NERVOUS shoppers fled into the streets when a 4.7-magnitude earthquake rattled the New Zealand city of Christchurch, halting rebuilding work following last year’s tremor that killed 185.
These were no immediate reports of damage or injuries and police and ambulance services said they had received no calls for assistance.
The quake struck at 12.44pm (AEST) at a shallow depth of eight kilometres about 25 kilometres east of New Zealand’s second largest city, the US Geological Survey said.
The Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, which is overseeing reconstruction after the deadly 6.3 tremor in February last year, said it suspended demolition work in the city centre as a precaution.
Christchurch has experienced thousands of aftershocks in the past 18 months, delaying efforts to rebuild and further unsettling residents.
ScienceDaily : Results of a new U.S. Geological Survey study conclude that faults west of Lake Tahoe, Calif., referred to as the Tahoe-Sierra frontal fault zone, pose a substantial increase in the seismic hazard assessment for the Lake Tahoe region of California and Nevada, and could potentially generate earthquakes with magnitudes ranging from 6.3 to 6.9. A close association of landslide deposits and active faults also suggests that there is an earthquake-induced landslide hazard along the steep fault-formed range front west of Lake Tahoe.
Lake Tahoe Faults, Shaded Relief Map. Shaded relief map of western part of the Lake Tahoe basin, California. Faults lines are dashed where approximately located, dotted where concealed, bar and ball on downthrown side. Heavier line weight shows principal range-front fault strands of the Tahoe-Sierra frontal fault zone (TSFFZ). Opaque white boxes indicate approximate segment boundaries and right steps in range front separating principal fault strands. EB— Emerald Bay; ELP—Ellis Peak; EP—Echo Peak; MT—Mt. Tallac; RP—Rubicon Peak; TW—Twin Peaks (Credit: James Howle , U.S. Geological Survey)
Using a new high-resolution imaging technology, known as bare-earth airborne LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging), combined with field observations and modern geochronology, USGS scientists, and their colleagues from the University of Nevada, Reno; the University of California, Berkeley; and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, have confirmed the existence of previously suspected faults. LiDAR imagery allows scientists to “see” through dense forest cover and recognize earthquake faults that are not detectable with conventional aerial photography.
“This study is yet one more stunning example of how the availability of LiDAR information to precisely and accurately map the shape of the solid Earth surface beneath vegetation is revolutionizing the geosciences,” said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. “From investigations of geologic hazards to calculations of carbon stored in the forest canopy to simply making the most accurate maps possible, LiDAR returns its investment many times over.”
Motion on the faults has offset linear moraines (the boulders, cobbles, gravel, and sand deposited by an advancing glacier) providing a record of tectonic deformation since the moraines were deposited. The authors developed new three-dimensional techniques to measure the amount of tectonic displacement of moraine crests caused by repeated earthquakes. Dating of the moraines from the last two glaciations in the Tahoe basin, around 21 thousand and 70 thousand years ago, allowed the study authors to calculate the rates of tectonic displacement.
“Although the Tahoe-Sierra frontal fault zone has long been recognized as forming the tectonic boundary between the Sierra Nevada to the west, and the Basin and Range Province to the east, its level of activity and hence seismic hazard was not fully recognized because dense vegetation obscured the surface expressions of the faults,” said USGS scientist and lead author, James Howle. “Using the new LiDAR technology has improved and clarified previous field mapping, has provided visualization of the surface expressions of the faults, and has allowed for accurate measurement of the amount of motion that has occurred on the faults. The results of the study demonstrate that the Tahoe-Sierra frontal fault zone is an important seismic source for the region.”
A possible tornado damaged 15 homes in North Port on Thursday evening, leaving one family homeless,
According to a news release from the City of North Port:
At about 6:30 pm Firefighters received a call of structural damage to a home from a tornado. When firefighters arrived on scene they discovered roof damage to a mobile home in the Holiday Park community. A flurry of calls came in from the Highland Ridge community nearby, and that is where several more homes received damage.
Three fire engines, three ambulances and three command cars responded to assess the damage to the neighborhood. While firefighters conducted a ground survey, the Sarasota Sheriff’s helicopter surveyed from the air.
“The damage was relatively minor and there were no injuries to citizens or first responders,” said Battalion Chief James Woods, “that’s the outcome we want”.
Only one family was displaced for the night, with enough damage to the house that the power had to be disconnected.
James and Elsie Hudson’s home at the corner of Talbrook and Gable lost its roof in the storm.
“I didn’t know what it was,” Elsie Hudson told SNN. “When I ran to the back to the lanai, everything was gone.”
The winds had taken off part of the home’s roof, and rain water was flowing into the living room, she said. The power was disconnected and the couple decided to stay with relatives.
The Red Cross was on scene to help storm victims, SNN Local News 6 was reporting.
The storm struck suddenly, and although the National Weather Service had been monitoring throughout the evening, inclement weather was not evident on the radar.
Although Jimmy Jones’ home was damaged in Thursday evening’s tornado, he called a roofing company to secure his neighbor’s roof after parts of it flew off. The two families had only a few moments’ warning before the twister ripped through their Highland Ridge neighborhood near South Biscayne Drive and North Port Boulevard, damaging 17 homes.Around 6:30 p.m., Jones called 911 to say it looked like a funnel cloud was forming down the street from his home.“I got off the phone and the funnel came toward my home. I told my wife and daughter to get in the tub,” he said Thursday night. “It was so loud it sounded like a freight train was rushing through the neighborhood. It was very scary.”Seconds later, parts of his fence became projectiles, embedded in the exterior wall of his home.According to city Emergency Management Coordinator Richard Berman, a EF0 tornado with winds of 80 mph, about 150 yards wide, touched down in Holiday Park, hit a four-block radius around Gabo Road, then passed through the area by the Gene Matthews Boys & Girls Club.Within two minutes, the tornado had damaged roofs and ripped apart pool cages, fences, tree limbs and sheds, then burst through Highland Ridge Park, knocking over wooden benches, toppling a tree behind the Boys & Girls Club and twisting metal bleachers at the North Port Bike Park. The roof of a manufactured home at Holiday Park also reportedly was damaged.“The Sarasota (County) Sheriff’s Office sent (the) Air One (helicopter) up to do an aerial view of the damage,” said North Port Fire Marshal Mike Frantz. “Thankfully, no one was injured, including our first responders. The Red Cross came to help any of the (families) whose homes were damaged, and to help if firefighters needed them.”Overall damage was estimated at $50,000, according to the National Weather Service in Ruskin, near Tampa.On Friday, a man in a Lowe’s store vest drove near Elroy Hall’s Talbrook Road home. He said he was sorry about the damage to his roof and left a case of bottled water.“I’m very appreciative of the help,” said Hall, who, along with his parents Elsie, 86, and James, 96, now is staying with his brother, who also has a home in North Port. “My neighbor Jimmy called Suncoast Roofing and they came over and put tarps and wood on the roof.”Hall said he was at Winn-Dixie when the tornado struck the home with his parents inside. He said they were scared, but were all right.Richard Edwards, who lives on Gabo, retrieved Hall’s rain gutter across North Port Boulevard near the tennis courts at Highland Ridge Park.“I was in my backyard when I saw the funnel form above my head,” Edwards said. “I ran to get my camcorder, but realized it was serious. I ran inside and told my wife the tornado was in the backyard. As I said it, it moved to the front yard and jumped across the road. It was so loud and scary. My house only has minor damage. I think it may have started in (nearby) Holiday Park and reformed in my backyard.”Lou Sperduto, city Property Maintenance manager, said the two sets of bike park bleachers probably would have to be replaced. They cost about $2,500 each. Gianni Tsiogas, 13, and two of his friends were riding their bikes along Talbrook when the tornado came toward them.“We rode as fast as we could and then dropped our bikes and ran to someone’s front porch,” Gianni said. “It reminded me of when I lived in Port Charlotte during Hurricane Charley (in 2004). It was scary.”Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2012/05/25/4053481/tornado-damages-17-homes-in-north.html#storylink=cpy
Weather officials have confirmed a tornado touched down about two miles south of Marathon City in Marathon County, and was on the ground intermittently for about five minutes.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or major structural damage.
Jeff Last is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. He says that at about 7 p.m. Thursday, a Wisconsin State Patrol officer saw the tornado touch down. It was on the ground off and on for several miles as it moved northeast.
Last says the tornado lifted off the ground about two miles northwest of Rib Mountain State Park.
He says the storm was fast-moving.
Local authorities are surveying the area. So far, they have seen several downed trees.
Streamline winds also downed trees as storms moved across the state.
Hurricane Bud lost some strength as it moved closer to Mexico’s Pacific Coast and was forecast to hit land south of the popular tourist town of Puerto Vallarta Friday night, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Bud weakened overnight from a powerful Category 3 storm, but it’s dangerous as a Category 2 with 110 mph winds. And it’s expected to dump heavy rains in several states in western Mexico, threatening floods and landslides.The government of Jalisco state prepared hundreds of cots and dozens of heavy vehicles like bulldozers that could be needed to move debris.
Officials in Puerto Vallarta said they were in close contact with managers of the hundreds of hotels in the city in case tourists needed to move to eight emergency shelters. It said the sea along the city’s famous beachfront was calm, but swimming had been temporarily banned as a precaution.
At Mexico’s largest Pacific port of Manzanillo, skies were overcast and rainy before the forecast landfall.
The hurricane is the Pacific’s first of the 2012 season.
“Hurricane conditions are expected to reach the coast within the hurricane warning area this afternoon,” the center said in an advisory.
Located about 105 miles southwest of Manzanillo, the hurricane was moving north-northeast at around 8 mph and Mexico’s government issued a hurricane watch along the coast from Punta San Telmo to Cabo Corrientes.
Bud is expected to soak the states of Michoacan, Colima and Jalisco and southern Nayarit with around 6 to 8 inches of rain.
In some places, the storm could dump as much as 15 inches of rain.
“These rainfall amounts could produce life-threatening flash floods and mudslides,” the center said. “Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion.”
Most of Mexico’s oil platforms and exporting ports are in the Gulf of Mexico and affected by storms in the Atlantic, where forecasters are expecting a “near normal” hurricane season this year with up to 15 tropical storms and four to eight hurricanes.
The advice this Memorial Day weekend, particularly for folks heading into the Sierra, is “Be prepared.”
National Weather Service and state transportation officials say travelers can expect everything from snow showers and accumulations of up to 6 inches in the high country today and Saturday to temperatures in the 80s in the Sacramento Valley on Sunday and Monday.
“We have a cool-weather system dropping down from British Columbia and washing over Northern California,” said Karl Swanberg, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Sacramento.
A high of 69 degrees is forecast for the Sacramento area today, 15 degrees below the average high of 84 for this time of year. The drop in temperature will be accompanied by a 30 percent chance of rain and a slight chance of afternoon thunder-showers.
In the mountains, a winter weather advisory is in effect from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. today, and snow levels are expected to drop to about the 5,500-foot elevation, with some accumulation above 6,000 feet.
“The road surface is warm this time of year,” Swanberg said, which should help keep snow from accumulating on the roadway. “But there could be enough to cause slippery conditions.”
California Department of Transportation officials say motorists should be prepared for winter driving conditions and warn that chain controls could be in effect at times today.
High temperatures today in the Sierra are expected to range from the mid-30s to about 50 degrees. Southwesterly winds of 15 to 30 mph also are forecast, with gusts to 45 mph.
Although storms this late in the spring are somewhat unusual, it’s still May, the tail end of the potentially active period of the season, Swanberg said, and people should plan accordingly.
“Bring along the coat, the gloves and the long pants, and expect a brief period of winter driving conditions,” he said.
Although snow showers will continue at higher elevations through much of Saturday, the Valley will begin to dry out. Highs in the Sacramento area are expected to be in the low to mid-70s Saturday and in the low 80s Sunday and Monday.
A high around 48 degrees is forecast for South Lake Tahoe on Saturday, but temperatures are expected to reach the low 60s on Sunday and Monday.
200 households in the western Serbian town of Osečina are threatened by floods and traffic has been interrupted in the area of Valjevo.MUP Emergency Sector chief Predrag Marić says that one elderly person has been evacuated and that nobody is currently in immediate danger.He added that there was a danger of torrential floods on many rivers in eastern Serbia.More rainfall is expected this weekend.According to him, water levels of the Sava and Danube Rivers in Belgrade are dropping and there is no danger that they could overflow.Marić said that all regional rescue teams would be on standby over the weekend and be sent to potential flood sights.He noted that around 140 municipalities out of 170 had drafted a flood protection operation plan, adding that the new government would have to address the issue.The Tamnava River overflowed its banks in the Koceljeva municipality and flooded between 1,500 and 2,000 hectares of arable land.The Koceljeva-Donje Crniljevo road has been closed due to the flood.Koceljeva Mayor Milutin Cvejić stressed that residential areas are not threatened by the flood.Several roads near the western town of Valjevo have been closed due to heavy rainfall, floods and mudslides, Roads of Serbia public company has stated.The Loznica-Osečina road in the village of Komirić is completely closed due to floods caused by the Jadar River.The Zavlaka-Krupanj road in the village of Mojković is also closed.Roads of Serbia public company teams are working on clearing the roads.
An official says a landslide on Indonesia’s main island of Java has killed at least six gold miners.Six other workers at the illegal mine are still missing after the landslide in West Java’s district of Bogor.Disaster management agency official Budi Aksomo said Friday several days of rain caused the landslide at the mountainous site Thursday.He added that eight miners were found alive.Rescuers are still evacuating the bodies from the scene and searching for the missing miners.
Seasonal downpours often cause landslides and flash floods in Indonesia, an archipelego nation where millions of people live on mountains or near fertile flood plains.
TOKYO (Reuters) — The amount of radioactive materials released in the first days of the Fukushima nuclear disaster was almost two and a half times the initial estimate by Japanese safety regulators, the operator of the crippled plant said in a report released on Thursday.
The operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, said the meltdowns it believes took place at three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant released about 900,000 terabecquerels of radioactive substances into the air during March 2011. The accident, which followed an earthquake and a tsunami, occurred on March 11.
The latest estimate was based on measurements suggesting the amount of iodine-131 released by the nuclear accident was much larger than previous estimates, the utility said in the report. Iodine-131 is a fast-decaying radioactive substance produced by fission that takes place inside a nuclear reactor. It has a half-life of eight days and can cause thyroid cancer.
It is difficult to judge the health effects of the larger-than-reported release, since even the latest number is an estimate, and it does not clarify how much exposure people received or continue to receive from contaminated soil and food. Experts have been divided on the health impacts since the disaster because the studies of assessing radiation risks are based mainly on a different type of exposure — the large doses delivered quickly by the atomic bombs in Japan in 1945.
Although people who lived closest to the plant were evacuated, many people remain in areas with significantly higher radiation levels than normal.
Tokyo Electric said it had initially been unable to accurately judge the amount of radioactive materials released soon after the accident because radiation sensors closest to the plant were disabled in the disaster.
“If this information had been available at the time, we could have used it in planning evacuations,” a spokesman for Tokyo Electric, Junichi Matsumoto, said at a news conference.
More than 99 percent of the radiation released by the accident came in the first three weeks, the utility company added.
The newly released information is likely to add to concerns among many Japanese that they were never told the extent of the accident or the risks it posed.
A terabecquerel is a trillion becquerels, a commonly used measure of the radiation emitted by a radioactive material.
Inside a thunderstorm cloud, warm air rises in updrafts, pushing tiny aerosols from pollution or other particles upwards. Higher up, water vapor cools and condenses onto the aerosols to form droplets, building the cloud. At the same time, cold air falls, creating a convective cycle. Generally, the top of the cloud spreads out like an anvil.
Pollution is warming the atmosphere through summer thunderstorm clouds, according to a computational study published May 10 in Geophysical Research Letters. How much the warming effect of these clouds offsets the cooling that other clouds provide is not yet clear. To find out, researchers need to incorporate this new-found warming into global climate models.
Pollution strengthens thunderstorm clouds, causing their anvil-shaped tops to spread out high in the atmosphere and capture heat – especially at night, said lead author and climate researcher Jiwen Fan of the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
“Global climate models don’t see this effect because thunderstorm clouds simulated in those models do not include enough detail,” said Fan. “The large amount of heat trapped by the pollution-enhanced clouds could potentially impact regional circulation and modify weather systems.”
Clouds are one of the most poorly understood components of Earth’s climate system. Called deep convective clouds, thunderstorm clouds reflect a lot of the sun’s energy back into space, trap heat that rises from the surface, and return evaporated water back to the surface as rain, making them an important part of the climate cycle.
To more realistically model clouds on a small scale, such as in this study, researchers use the physics of temperature, water, gases and aerosols – tiny particles in the air such as pollution, salt or dust on which cloud droplets form.
In large-scale models that look at regions or the entire globe, researchers substitute a stand-in called a parameterization to account for deep convective clouds. The size of the grid in global models can be a hundred times bigger than an actual thunderhead, making a substitute necessary.
However, thunderheads are complicated, dynamic clouds. Coming up with an accurate parameterization is important but has been difficult due to their dynamic nature.
Inside a thunderstorm cloud, warm air rises in updrafts, pushing tiny aerosols from pollution or other particles upwards. Higher up, water vapor cools and condenses onto the aerosols to form droplets, building the cloud. At the same time, cold air falls, creating a convective cycle. Generally, the top of the cloud spreads out like an anvil.
Previous work showed that when it’s not too windy, pollution leads to bigger clouds . This occurs because more pollution particles divide up the available water for droplets, leading to a higher number of smaller droplets that are too small to rain. Instead of raining, the small droplets ride the updrafts higher, where they freeze and absorb more water vapor. Collectively, these events lead to bigger, more vigorous convective clouds that live longer.
Now, researchers from PNNL, Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the University of Maryland took to high-performance computing to study the invigoration effect on a regional scale.
To find out which factors contribute the most to the invigoration, Fan and colleagues set up computer simulations for two different types of storm systems: warm summer thunderstorms in southeastern China and cool, windy frontal systems on the Great Plains of Oklahoma. The data used for the study was collected by different DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement facilities.
The simulations had a resolution that was high enough to allow the team to see the clouds develop. The researchers then varied conditions such as wind speed and air pollution.
Fan and colleagues found that for the warm summer thunderstorms, pollution led to stronger storms with larger anvils. Compared to the cloud anvils that developed in clean air, the larger anvils both warmed more – by trapping more heat – and cooled more – by reflecting additional sunlight back to space. On average, however, the warming effect dominated.
The springtime frontal clouds did not have a similarly significant warming effect. Also, increasing the wind speed in the summer clouds dampened the invigoration by aerosols and led to less warming.
This is the first time researchers showed that pollution increased warming by enlarging thunderstorm clouds. The warming was surprisingly strong at the top of the atmosphere during the day when the storms occurred. The pollution-enhanced anvils also trapped more heat at night, leading to warmer nights.
“Those numbers for the warming are very big,” said Fan, “but they are calculated only for the exact day when the thunderstorms occur. Over a longer time-scale such as a month or a season, the average amount of warming would be less because those clouds would not appear everyday.”
Next, the researchers will look into these effects on longer time scales. They will also try to incorporate the invigoration effect in global climate models.
Constituting the highest mountain in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro is slowly building up its snow cover, allaying the fears of prominent scientists who had predicted witnessing the eminence lose its famous white hat. The drifts are slowly thickening on the top point of this summit, giving new hopes to Mount Kilimanjaro environmental watchdogs and tourists that the peak may not lose its beautiful snowy cap, as scientific experts have long been warning.
Covered in mist for most of the day, Mount Kilimanjaro is the most tourist-attractive site in Tanzania, pulling in tens of thousands of foreigners and locals each year. The snow, which once had disappeared on some parts of the mountain, is piling up again gradually, making a beautiful picture out of the Kibo peak.
Sources from Kilimanjaro environmental groups said this precipitation could rise to cover most areas of the mountain, but the effects of climate change and global warming could still affect the peak’s snow layers, which have been becoming thinner and thinner.
Environmentalists had warned that this highest peak in Africa could lose its ice cover and glaciers between 2018 and 2020 unless global campaigns to save the mountain’s ecology were taken and a stop put to rampant tree-felling and unchecked agricultural activity on its slopes.
The writer of this article observed during this week’s flight closer to the mountain, recovering snow piled up, covering the whole mountain peak.
Despite several warnings by scientists over disappearing snow, new hopes are rising to see this highest peak in Africa regain its face through stringent environmental protection campaigns.
Kilimanjaro Area Governor Mr. Leonidas Gama said environmental degradation has to be checked by all possible means lest Kilimanjaro residents live to regret it, adding that after inspecting the natural plants and plantation forests on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro aboard a hired helicopter, he found people harvesting timber, and livestock grazing in different areas, with total impunity.
“The situation has become alarming and has to be arrested now, to restore the former glories of the mountain, the highest peak in Africa, one of the World Heritage sites and an absolute destination choice of foreign visitors to our country,” Gama said.
He said residents should be sensitized to the need to lend their hands to reforestation practices, so as to ensure that the region becomes once again a choice place to live in, with all its natural resources intact. He expressed the need to deploy security organizations to curb the ever-worsening scourge of timber-harvesting from natural and reserved forest areas.
This reporter observed with enthusiasm during the recent flight around the mountain’s peak that there was a deepening of the snow, which had once practically disappeared.
Standing freely and majestically with its frozen cover gleaming in the sun, our beloved Kilimanjaro has been in great danger of losing its eye-catching glaciers. The mountain is located some 330 kilometers and 3 degrees south of the equator.
Mount Kilimanjaro is an awesome and magnificent peak, one of the prides of Africa, and one of the chief free-standing mountains in the world. It is composed of three independent peaks – Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira – covering a total area of 4,000 kilometers.
The snow-capped Kibo, with permanent glaciers covering its entire tip, is the highest at 5,895 meters altitude and is the most attractive sight, pulling in over 40,000 foreign and local tourists per year.
This peak is indeed considered one of the leading tourist attractions in Tanzania, due to its beautiful appearance and its strange geological characteristics.
Global warming effects are being felt in most parts of Africa with important impacts indeed on tourist sites, included in which are Tanzanian wildlife parks and Mount Kilimanjaro’s unique ecosystem.
Seventeen new case of measles have been reported during the last six days in an outbreak in southern Ireland.The total number of confirmed cases in West Cork, Ireland, stands at 42. Public health officials are urging parents to make certain their children are fully protected against the highly infectious illness, according to CorkIndependent.com.“At the moment, the best way to ensure safety is to ensure that babies are not exposed to older children who may not be vaccinated and who are incubating the disease,” Dr. Fiona Ryan, a consultant in public health medicine, said, CorkIndependent.com reports. “Some cases have unvaccinated brothers and sisters, so they are very likely to become infected. Unfortunately the symptoms are very non-specific before they get the rash.”Two doses of the MMR vaccine are recommended, with the first dose to be given at 12 months of age and the second between the ages of four and five.Children or teenagers who have not received both doses of the vaccine can have it administered by a general practitioner free of charge. Those affected in the outbreak have mainly been teenagers, but children under the age of 12 months are considered especially at risk.“We have a worry that it will spread to other children,” Ryan said, according to CorkIndependent.com. “We are expecting more cases.“In West Cork, we have quite a number of children that haven’t been vaccinated. There are so many unvaccinated that you are getting a lot of spread. It’s a very, very infectious disease.”The nationwide MMR vaccination rate in Ireland for children aged 24 months is 92 percent, but in West Cork 14 percent of children at that age remain unvaccinated.
Biohazard name:
measles
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.
At least eight children have died in the past three days and dozens are sick after a measles outbreak across Bajaur Agency, senior health official Dr. Khursheed Khan told Central Asia Online.About 30 other children are sick, but their condition is good now, Khursheed said May 25.Vaccinators have been deployed to vaccinate the children. “We have also sent a mobile hospital to the affected areas to ensure that children in inaccessible areas are administered vaccine,” he said.He attributed the outbreak to a lapse in vaccinations in some insurgency-prone areas over the past three months.In North Waziristan Agency, 20 children have died from measles in the past two weeks, he said.
Biohazard name:
measles
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.
A US Airways Express flight crew reported seeing what looked like a flare with a smoke trail in the vicinity of its aircraft while on approach to Philadelphia International Airport on Tuesday.
According to authorities, what the crew witnessed remains a mystery. The aircraft with 34 passengers and three crew members landed safely.
Flight 4321, originating from Elmira-Corning Regional Airport, was about 500 feet above the ground in Philadelphia when the incident took place.
After landing in Philadelphia, the aircraft taxied to the gate, according to US Airways spokesman Liz Landau. Runway 17 was closed for about 30 minutes after the incident for investigation, the FAA said. Law enforcement authorities are investigating the incident.
The aircraft involved was a Bombardier Dash 8 twin engine plane operated for US Airways by Piedmont Airlines.
(US) Strange lights in the night sky over Blue Springs have UFO investigators interested.
Neighbors say in the past two weeks they have seen multi-colored lights in the sky, and the Missouri UFO Network is now conducting its own investigation. The video of these orbs hovering is causing quite the debate in Blue Springs and is the topic of discussion in the quiet suburb.
Robert Kover first noticed it two weeks ago and went down to get a closer look. He was confronted by a neighbor who thought he was spying on women, until he handed her his binoculars.
“I showed her the star that in the sky, just to get somebody else’s perspective on it, and they said they had never seen anything like it before,” Kover said.
Becky Neely said it was vibrating red, green and blue lights.
“It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before, but with binoculars we could see it fairly well, and it was off in the distance,” Neely said.
Teresa Price saw it as well, at least twice. The same night Kover and Neely did and again when she was walking her dogs the following week. However, this time, things were even more bizarre.
“It was up in the sky and then it just dropped and stayed stationary in that lower position,” Teresa Price said.
Price had seen KCTV5′s recent news report on domestic drones that are now being used by local governments and law enforcement agencies and thought that was what it was.
“It kind of made me think that there is some sort of drone out there. Why is it out at night? I don’t know,” Price said.
Kover called the KCTV5 Investigative Hotline and posted a sighting on a UFO spotters website. The night of a interview, KCTV5′s Dave Jordan spotted similar sightings.
Kover was contacted by Margie Kay with the Missouri UFO Network, who decided to investigate for herself the following night.
Kay interviewed everyone who claimed to have seen the UFOs and then set up telescopes to watch the sightings herself. Neighbors came out hoping to see similar activity that captivated the community.
As the sky darkened, one of them appeared. Kay initially dismissed it.
“I am 90 percent sure we are looking at Vega in this instance, and they’re some other planets out right now,” said Margie Kay with the Missouri UFO Network.
But she came to a different conclusion after others starting appearing. And after she put in a call to a colleague to take a look at what she thought was Vega, that person described it as Pure White.
“That is not what we are seeing. We’re seeing colors in this. I see green in this one and in the other I see red, green and blue,” Kay said. “I don’t think it’s a planet at this point. I don’t know what it is. It’s unidentified.”
KCTV5 contacted Blue Springs police, and they have said they haven’t received any calls about this. KCTV5 also contacted NORAD, and a spokesman said that he did hear about similar sighting, but he wasn’t sure if it was in Missouri because that division of NORAD monitors the entire Midwest.
MessageToEagle.com – These strange lights seen dancing in the skies over Milford, Pennsylvania were filmed with an android phone.
As you can see the light, flicker, change not only color, but shape as well!
What could they be?
Youtube user lisah6083 who filmed these mysterious lights says they look like stars, but she also points out it was a crystal clear night.
“You could see every star in the sky but they are so small that my camera doesn’t even pick them up.These were large bright objects moving slowly to the left.
No noise. And they had a orange, flickering type appearance.
I believe some of them even disappeared in a flash. Hard to tell they are moving in the pic, but in person they were all moving in a clear path across the sky.
When the seem to “squiggle” in the sky that’s just me moving my camera. The noise in the background is a motorcycle that came across…. completely oblivious to the lights in the sky, ” lisah6083 says.
The lights appear at about 0:17According to lisah6083 there was also another eyewitness who saw the dancing lights in the sky.
It was an amazing light show in the night sky.
Have you taken any interesting images or filmed something unusual? Remember you can always send the images to us so we can publish them.
Astana: A massive wave of deaths has been reported among the endangered saiga antelopes in Kazakhstan. Around 540 carcasses of the animal has been found in the country, RIA Novosti reported Thursday.
According to the Kazakh agriculture ministry, the carcasses were found in the Kostanai region.
“Aviation monitoring today (Thursday) discovered a new concentration of saiga deaths with the approximate number of dead animals reaching beyond 400,” the ministry said.
Last year, at least 12,000 saiga antelopes died in Kazakhstan, presumably from pasteurellosis infection and from overeating. In November 2010, Kazakhstan introduced a ban on saiga hunting.
The latest statistics put the number of saiga antelopes in Kazakhstan at 85,500. The country spends $800,000 annually to prevent the deaths.
Saiga were virtually exterminated in the 1920s but then their numbers increased in the 1950s. The animals mostly became endangered because of hunting and the high demand for their horns in traditional Chinese medicine.
Saiga are also found in Russia’s Kalmykia region and in Mongolia.
Deploying a mooring carrying a suite of monitoring sensors into the sea ice. Credit: Steve Rintoul.
Comparing detailed measurements taken during the Australian Antarctic program’s 2012 Southern Ocean marine science voyage to historical data dating back to 1970, scientists estimate there has been as much as a 60 per cent reduction in the volume of Antarctic Bottom Water, the cold dense water that drives global ocean currents.
In an intensive and arduous 25-day observing program, temperature and salinity samples were collected at 77 sites between Antarctica and Fremantle. Such ship transects provide the only means to detect changes in the deep ocean.
The new measurements, which have not yet been published, suggest the densest waters in the world ocean are gradually disappearing and being replaced by less dense waters.
“The amount of dense Antarctic Bottom Water has contracted each time we’ve measured it since the 1970s,” said Dr Steve Rintoul, of CSIRO and the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC. “There is now only about 40 per cent as much dense water present as observed in 1970.”
The ocean profiles also show that the dense water formed around Antarctica has become less saline since 1970.
“It’s a clear signal to us that the oceans are responding rapidly to variations in climate in polar regions. The sinking of dense water around Antarctica is part of a global pattern of ocean currents that has a strong influence on climate, so evidence that these waters are changing is important,” Dr Rintoul said.
The research was carried out by more than 50 scientists on the Australian Antarctic Division’s research and resupply vessel Aurora Australis, which sailed to Commonwealth Bay, west along the Antarctic coast, and returned into Fremantle.
The Australian Antarctic Division’s Chief Scientist, Dr Nick Gales, said the findings of the oceanographic study are profoundly important.
“Not only will this research improve our understanding of ocean currents, but will also feed into our knowledge of how the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic continent drives the world’s climate processes,” Dr Gales said.
Dr Rintoul was Chief Scientist on the recent voyage and has made a dozen voyages to the Southern Ocean. “When we speak of global warming, we really mean ocean warming: more than 90 per cent of the extra heat energy stored by the earth over the last 50 years has gone into warming up the ocean.
The Southern Ocean is particularly important because it stores more heat and carbon dioxide released by human activities than any other region, and so helps to slow the rate of climate change” Dr Rintoul said. “A key goal of our work is to determine if the Southern Ocean will continue to play this role in the future.”
The causes of the observed changes in the Southern Ocean are not yet fully understood. Changes in winds, sea ice, precipitation, or melt of floating glacial ice around the edge of Antarctica may be responsible. Data collected on the latest voyage will help unravel this mystery.
A major challenge is the lack of observations at high latitude, where much of the ocean is covered by sea ice in winter. During the voyage scientists deployed nine drifting profilers, called Argo floats, which will transmit profiles of temperature and salinity every 10 days for the next five years. These ice-capable floats in the seasonal ice zone in the Australian sector of the Southern Ocean are funded through Australia’s Integrated Marine Observing System.
“The Argo floats have revolutionised our ability to measure the ocean, particularly in winter when ship observations are very rare,” said Dr Rintoul. “On this voyage, we deployed a new kind of float designed to survive encounters with the sea ice. These floats will allow us to see how dense water forms in winter for the first time.”
The Aurora Australis visited Commonwealth Bay as part of a celebration of the centenary of Sir Douglas Mawson’s Australian Antarctic Expedition. Dr Rintoul’s team had the opportunity to repeat oceanographic measurements made by Mawson’s team 100 years ago, obtaining one of the few century-long records obtained anywhere in the ocean.
“Our measurements collected in 2012 are quite different to those collected by Mawson in 1912,” Dr Rintoul said. “This is an indication of a change in the ocean currents that may be related to a reduction in the amount of dense water formed near Antarctica.”
“Mawson’s expedition really marked the transition from the “Heroic Age” of Antarctic exploration to a period where science was the primary motivation for Antarctic expeditions. I think he would have gotten a real kick out of the idea that measurements made by his team a century ago are still useful and that Australian scientists are continuing his legacy by studying Antarctica and its connection to the rest of the globe.”
This is a reconstruction of Carbonemys preying upon a small crocodylomorph. Credit: Artwork by Liz Bradford.
Picture a turtle the size of a Smart car, with a shell large enough to double as a kiddie pool. Paleontologists from North Carolina State University have found just such a specimen – the fossilized remains of a 60-million-year-old South American giant that lived in what is now Colombia.
The turtle in question is Carbonemys cofrinii, which means “coal turtle,” and is part of a group of side-necked turtles known as pelomedusoides. The fossil was named Carbonemys because it was discovered in 2005 in a coal mine that was part of northern Colombia’s Cerrejon formation.
The specimen’s skull measures 24 centimeters, roughly the size of a regulation NFL football. The shell which was recovered nearby – and is believed to belong to the same species – measures 172 centimeters, or about 5 feet 7 inches, long. That’s the same height as Edwin Cadena, the NC State doctoral student who discovered the fossil.
“We had recovered smaller turtle specimens from the site. But after spending about four days working on uncovering the shell, I realized that this particular turtle was the biggest anyone had found in this area for this time period – and it gave us the first evidence of giantism in freshwater turtles,” Cadena says.
Smaller relatives of Carbonemys existed alongside dinosaurs. But the giant version appeared five million years after the dinosaurs vanished, during a period when giant varieties of many different reptiles – including Titanoboa cerrejonensis, the largest snake ever discovered – lived in this part of South America.
Researchers believe that a combination of changes in the ecosystem, including fewer predators, a larger habitat area, plentiful food supply and climate changes, worked together to allow these giant species to survive. Carbonemys’ habitat would have resembled a much warmer modern-day Orinoco or Amazon River delta.
In addition to the turtle’s huge size, the fossil also shows that this particular turtle had massive, powerful jaws that would have enabled the omnivore to eat anything nearby – from mollusks to smaller turtles or even crocodiles.
Thus far, only one specimen of this size has been recovered. Dr. Dan Ksepka, NC State paleontologist and research associate at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, believes that this is because a turtle of this size would need a large territory in order to obtain enough food to survive.
“It’s like having one big snapping turtle living in the middle of a lake,” says Ksepka, co-author of the paper describing the find.
That turtle survives because it has eaten all of the major competitors for resources. We found many bite-marked shells at this site that show crocodilians preyed on side-necked turtles. None would have bothered an adult Carbonemys, though – in fact smaller crocs would have been easy prey for this behemoth.”
The paleontologists’ findings appear in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. Dr. Carlos Jaramillo from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and Dr. Jonathan Bloch from the Florida Museum of Natural History contributed to the work.
“New pelomedusoid turtles from the late Palaeocene Cerrejon Formation of Colombia and their implications for phylogeny and body size evolution” Authors: Edwin Cadena, Dan Ksepka, North Carolina State University; Carlos Jaramillo, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama; Jonathan Bloch, Florida Museum of Natural History Published: In the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology
Hazardous material response crews are cleaning up about 20 gallons of industrial-strength paint that spilled this morning at C & D Zodiac Inc. in Santa Maria, sending one woman to the hospital for treatment of nausea.The spill happened just before 8 a.m., and in the wake of the incident, employees’ cars were streaming out of the lot on Airpark Drive due to a mandatory evacuation of the building. Some 800 employees were evacuated.The paint reportedly spilled after some shelving collapsed, dropping and puncturing some cans of water-based paint used to coat aircraft interiors.C & D Zodiac designs and manufactures aircraft interiors, such as overhead baggage bins.
Scott Johnson, battalion chief with the Santa Maria Fire Department, said the paint had a low level of flammability and posed little hazard, but gave off some biting fumes that made several employees feel ill.“There was a nice amount of fumes in there and a big mess,” he added.Employees were expected to return to work around 11:30 a.m. after cleanup was complete, said C&D Zodiac General Manager Tony Guy.
About 30 workers at the Tyson Foods pork plant in Madison, Neb., were taken to the hospital Thursday night after an anhydrous ammonia leak.The employees were directly exposed to ammonia and needed medical care, a spokeswoman for Faith Regional Health Services in Norfolk told KTIV-TV in Sioux City, Iowa.Ten of the injured workers were taken by ambulance to the Norfolk hospital about 8:45 p.m.“Patients were quickly assessed for severity of inhalation and potential contamination,” Kelly Driscoll, vice president of patient care services, told KTIV.“All 10 patients were found to suffer from minor chemical inhalation, were treated and then released.”The leak was at the Tyson Fresh Meats Pork Plant.
The Tyson plant, with 1,200 full-time employees, is the largest employer in Madison, which has a population of 2,438.
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes 'FAIR USE' of any such copyrighted material.]
MessageToEagle.com – These strange lights seen dancing in the skies over Milford, Pennsylvania were filmed with an android phone.
Astana: A massive wave of deaths has been reported among the endangered saiga antelopes in Kazakhstan. Around 540 carcasses of the animal has been found in the country, RIA Novosti reported Thursday.
