Deep underground in Poland lies something remarkable but little known outside Eastern Europe. For centuries, miners have extracted salt there, but left behind things quite startling and unique. Take a look at the most unusual salt mine in the world.
From the outside, Wieliczka Salt Mine doesn’t look extraordinary. It looks extremely well kept for a place that hasn’t minded any salt for over ten years but apart from that it looks ordinary. However, over two hundred meters below ground it holds an astonishing secret. This is the salt mine that became an art gallery, cathedral and underground lake.
Situated in the Krakow area, Wieliczka is a small town of close to twenty thousand inhabitants. It was founded in the twelfth century by a local Duke to mine the rich deposits of salt that lie beneath. Until 1996 it did just that but the generations of miners did more than just extract. They left behind them a breathtaking record of their time underground in the shape of statues of mythic, historical and religious figures. They even created their own chapels in which to pray. Perhaps their most astonishing legacy is the huge underground cathedral they left behind for posterity.
It may feel like you are in the middle of a Jules Verne adventure as you descend in to the depths of the world. After a one hundred and fifty meter climb down wooden stairs the visitor to the salt mine will see some amazing sites. About the most astounding in terms of its sheer size and audacity is the Chapel of Saint Kinga. The Polish people have for many centuries been devout Catholics and this was more than just a long term hobby to relieve the boredom of being underground. This was an act of worship.
Amazingly, even the chandeliers in the cathedral are made of salt. It was not simply hewn from the ground and then thrown together; however, the process is rather more painstaking for the lighting. After extraction the rock salt was first of all dissolved. It was then reconstituted with the impurities taken out so that it achieved a glass-like finish. The chandeliers are what many visitors think the rest of the cavernous mine will be like as they have a picture in their minds of salt as they would sprinkle on their meals! However, the rock salt occurs naturally in different shades of grey (something like you would expect granite to look like).
Still, that doesn’t stop well over one million visitors (mainly from Poland and its eastern European neighbors) from visiting the mine to see, amongst other things, how salt was mined in the past.
The religious carvings are, in reality, what draw many to this mine – as much for their amazing verisimilitude as for their Christian aesthetics. The above shows Jesus appearing to the apostles after the crucifixion. He shows the doubter, Saint Thomas, the wounds on his wrists.
Another remarkable carving, this time a take on The Last Supper. The work and patience that must have gone in to the creation of these sculptures is extraordinary. One wonders what the miners would have thought of their work going on general display? They came to be quite used to it, in fact, even during the mine’s busiest period in the nineteenth century. The cream of Europe’s thinkers visited the site – you can still see many of their names in the old visitor’s books on display.
These reliefs are perhaps among some of the most iconographic works of Christian folk art in the world and really do deserve to be shown. It comes as little surprise to learn that the mine was placed on the original list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites back in 1978.
Not all of the work is relief-based. There are many life sized statues that must have taken a considerable amount of time – months, perhaps even years – to create. Within the confines of the mine there is also much to be learned about the miners from the machinery and tools that they used – many of which are on display and are centuries old. A catastrophic flood in 1992 dealt the last blow to commercial salt mining in the area and now the mine functions purely as a tourist attraction. Brine is, however, still extracted from the mine – and then evaporated to produce some salt, but hardly on the ancient scale. If this was not done, then the mines would soon become flooded once again.
Not all of the statues have a religious or symbolic imagery attached to them. The miners had a sense of humor, after all! Here can be seen their own take on the legend of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. The intricately carved dwarves must have seemed to some of the miners a kind of ironic depiction of their own work.
To cap it all there is even an underground lake, lit by subdued electricity and candles. This is perhaps where the old legends of lakes to the underworld and Catholic imagery of the saints work together to best leave a lasting impression of the mine. How different a few minutes reflection here must have been to the noise and sweat of everyday working life in the mine.
(Reuters) – Poland will drop charges against a former intelligence chief prompted by allegations that the CIA was allowed to run a secret prison in Poland for al Qaeda suspects, a major Warsaw newspaper said on Tuesday.
Human rights activists and lawyers for men who allege they were detained by the CIA in Poland say the Polish authorities are trying to stifle the investigation because it would become politically embarrassing if it led to trials.
The daily Gazeta Wyborcza first reported early last year that prosecutors looking into allegations of a secret CIA jail, and how much Polish officials knew about it, had raised criminal charges against ex-intelligence chief Zbigniew Siemiatkowski.
Government and legal officials have declined comment on whether Siemiatkowski has ever been formally charged. But several sources close to the inquiry contacted by Reuters last year confirmed prosecutors had drawn up charges against him.
On Tuesday, the same newspaper cited an unnamed source as saying the charges against Siemiatkowski would soon be withdrawn. “The decision … has been taken by Krakow-based prosecutors,” the newspaper said.
A spokesman for prosecutors in Krakow, the southern Polish city where the case is being handled, declined to comment.
Reuters last year sent Siemiatkowski written questions about whether he knew about or was involved in a CIA jail in Poland, but he did not reply.
Earlier this week we reported a victory for anti-GMO activists when it was announced that Poland banned GM crops under new legislation.
“The North-Eastern European country, Poland, has become the latest EU nation to ban the production of genetically modified (GM) crops, although, the European Food Safety Authority has approved GM crops as being safe for cultivation. Poland’s Ministry of Agriculture has opted to take advantage of a special ‘safeguard clause’ which allowed them to reject these GM crops, allowing Poland to protect their agricultural base from contamination.” (Waking Times)
Unfortunately, however, in what appears to be a classic political deception, this recent news is, sadly, just not true. The recent news seemed like cause for celebration, but, it actually legalizes the trading of GM plants and seeds. (Sir) Julian Rose, President of the International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside (ICPPC), a grassroots organization to liberate the Polish agriculture from GMO farming has alerted us that:
“The New Year dawned with Prime Minister Tusk announcing to the World that Poland is to ban the planting of GM seeds as of 28 January 2013. But he is not banning ‘trading’ of GM plants and seeds.
If trading is allowed what sort of control will be in place to stop planting? Answer: none.
Farmers will soon become aware that they will become responsible for any infringements should their land become contaminated by GM plantings. So all responsibilities and costs will land-up with farmers should their crops become cross contaminated.”
49 deaths in Poland from cold in December: police Warsaw (AFP) Dec 21, 2012 – Polish police said Friday 49 people have died from the cold since the beginning of December as temperatures in Poland plunged to minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit).Most of the deaths from the freezing temperatures have been among the homeless, said police who have begun informing them of where they can find hot meals and shelter.Poland’s first cold wave this season in October left 15 people dead and five more died in November. Last winter around 200 people died of hypothermia.
A vicious cold snap across Russia and eastern Europe has claimed nearly 200 lives, officials figures showed Friday, as forecasters warned it would last until Christmas Eve.
In Russia, the cold has killed two people in the past 24 hours, the Ria-Novosti agency reported, citing medical sources, bringing the total number of deaths over the past week to 56.
The freeze had also left 371 people in hospital.
Thermometers have been stuck below minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit) in Moscow — and below minus 50 degrees (minus 58 F) in some parts of Siberia — for a week.
Russian weather forecasters said temperature in the Khabarovsk region in eastern Russia had dropped to minus 43 Celsius, while Krasnoyarsk in Siberia reported minus 47.
This “abnormal” frost would last till Monday because of a persistent anticyclone, they added.
In Russia’s European region, meanwhile, the mercury is expected to fall to minus 31 degrees Celsius on Christmas Eve before rising rapidly afterwards.
The foreign and defence ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain issued the call in a joint communique after a meeting in Paris on Thursday (15 November).
The paper says: “We are convinced that the EU must set up, within a framework yet to-be-defined, true civilian-military structures to plan and conduct missions and operations.”
It adds: “We should show preparedness to hold available, train, deploy and sustain in theatre the necessary civilian and military means.”
It lists a number of EU military priorities for the coming years: helping Somalia to fight Islamists and pirates; “a possible training mission to support the Malian armed forces” in reconquering north Mali; “assistance to support the new Libyan authorities” against Islamist militias; “normalisation” of the Western Balkans; “conflict resolution” in Georgia; and police training in Afghanistan.
The communique also calls for more “pooling and sharing” of EU defence hardware in the context of crisis-related budget cuts.
It identifies “space, ballistic-missile defence, drones, air-to-air refuelling, airlift capacities, medical support to operations [and] software defined radio” as pooling areas.
The reference to new “civilian-military structures” comes after the UK last year blocked the creation of a new operational headquarters (OHQ) in Brussels for EU military missions.
Britain’s Telegraph newspaper earlier this week cited a “senior French source” as saying that EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton supports the idea of an OHQ, which will become a “ripe fruit” in the “long-term” as EU military operations multiply.
Ashton officials denied the report.
Meanwhile, the UK’s role in future EU defence co-operation was a big topic at the Paris meeting.
French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said the UK can join the group-of-five at any time: “The text which we have developed is open to all of our colleagues, especially Great Britain.”
French defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the communique is designed to “create a movement” ahead of an EU summit on defence in 2013.
For his part, Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski said: “If the EU wants to become a superpower, and Poland supports this, then we must have the capability to exert influence in our neighbourhood … Sometimes we must use force to back our diplomacy.”
He called for an “ambitious” EU budget for 2014 to 2020 to help with defence co-ordination.
Speaking in a separate interview in UK newspaper The Times also on Thursday, Sikorski blamed British “nostalgia” for past greatness as a reason why it is pulling back from EU integration and why it wants to cut the EU budget.
He touched on historic sensitivities by describing EU spending as a kind of “Marshall plan.”
He said Poland and other former-Soviet-controlled EU countries missed out on the plan – a massive injection of US money to rebuild Europe after World War II – because UK and US leaders at a summit in Yalta in 1945 gave the Soviet Union control of eastern Europe.
“We fought Hitler alone, giving you [the UK] valuable time to prepare for fighting. But we did not enjoy freedom after World War II … Because of Yalta, we could not benefit [from the Marshall plan]. European cohesion funds are our Marshall plan for catching up with Europe,” he noted.
The August 31, 2012 M 7.6 earthquake off the east coast of the Philippines occurred as a result of reverse faulting within the oceanic lithosphere of the Philippines Sea plate. The preliminary location of the earthquake indicates this is an intraplate event, 50 or more kilometers to the east of the subduction zone plate boundary between the Philippine Sea and Sunda plates. At the latitude of the earthquake, the Philippine Sea plate moves west-northwest at a velocity of approximately 100 mm/yr.
While this region of the Philippines experiences moderate-to-large earthquakes fairly frequently – there have been approximately 40 events of M6 and above over the past 40 years, within 250 km of the August 31 2012 earthquake – large events outboard of the subduction zone are unusual. While several moderate-sized events have occurred in this intraplate region, most have been the result of normal faulting within the shallower oceanic lithosphere, rather than deeper reverse faulting like August 31 2012 event. The largest nearby event regardless of mechanism was the October 1975 M 7.6 earthquake, approximately 200 km to the north of the August 31 2012 event.
For information on aftershocks within the region of this earthquake, see this map.
Seismotectonics of the Philippine Sea and Vicinity
The Philippine Sea plate is bordered by the larger Pacific and Eurasia plates and the smaller Sunda plate. The Philippine Sea plate is unusual in that its borders are nearly all zones of plate convergence. The Pacific plate is subducted into the mantle, south of Japan, beneath the Izu-Bonin and Mariana island arcs, which extend more than 3,000 km along the eastern margin of the Philippine Sea plate. This subduction zone is characterized by rapid plate convergence and high-level seismicity extending to depths of over 600 km. In spite of this extensive zone of plate convergence, the plate interface has been associated with few great (M>8.0) ‘megathrust’ earthquakes. This low seismic energy release is thought to result from weak coupling along the plate interface (Scholz and Campos, 1995). These convergent plate margins are also associated with unusual zones of back-arc extension (along with resulting seismic activity) that decouple the volcanic island arcs from the remainder of the Philippine Sea Plate (Karig et al., 1978; Klaus et al., 1992).
South of the Mariana arc, the Pacific plate is subducted beneath the Yap Islands along the Yap trench. The long zone of Pacific plate subduction at the eastern margin of the Philippine Sea Plate is responsible for the generation of the deep Izu-Bonin, Mariana, and Yap trenches as well as parallel chains of islands and volcanoes, typical of circum-pacific island arcs. Similarly, the northwestern margin of the Philippine Sea plate is subducting beneath the Eurasia plate along a convergent zone, extending from southern Honshu to the northeastern coast of Taiwan, manifested by the Ryukyu Islands and the Nansei-Shoto (Ryukyu) trench. The Ryukyu Subduction Zone is associated with a similar zone of back-arc extension, the Okinawa Trough. At Taiwan, the plate boundary is characterized by a zone of arc-continent collision, whereby the northern end of the Luzon island arc is colliding with the buoyant crust of the Eurasia continental margin offshore China.
Along its western margin, the Philippine Sea plate is associated with a zone of oblique convergence with the Sunda Plate. This highly active convergent plate boundary extends along both sides the Philippine Islands, from Luzon in the north to the Celebes Islands in the south. The tectonic setting of the Philippines is unusual in several respects: it is characterized by opposite-facing subduction systems on its east and west sides; the archipelago is cut by a major transform fault, the Philippine Fault; and the arc complex itself is marked by active volcanism, faulting, and high seismic activity. Subduction of the Philippine Sea Plate occurs at the eastern margin of the archipelago along the Philippine Trench and its northern extension, the East Luzon Trough. The East Luzon Trough is thought to be an unusual example of a subduction zone in the process of formation, as the Philippine Trench system gradually extends northward (Hamburger et al., 1983). On the west side of Luzon, the Sunda Plate subducts eastward along a series of trenches, including the Manila Trench in the north, the smaller less well-developed Negros Trench in the central Philippines, and the Sulu and Cotabato trenches in the south (Cardwell et al., 1980). At its northern and southern terminations, subduction at the Manila Trench is interrupted by arc-continent collision, between the northern Philippine arc and the Eurasian continental margin at Taiwan and between the Sulu-Borneo Block and Luzon at the island of Mindoro. The Philippine fault, which extends over 1,200 km within the Philippine arc, is seismically active. The fault has been associated with major historical earthquakes, including the destructive M7.6 Luzon earthquake of 1990 (Yoshida and Abe, 1992). A number of other active intra-arc fault systems are associated with high seismic activity, including the Cotabato Fault and the Verde Passage–Sibuyan Sea Fault (Galgana et al., 2007).
Relative plate motion vectors near the Philippines (about 80 mm/yr) is oblique to the plate boundary along the two plate margins of central Luzon, where it is partitioned into orthogonal plate convergence along the trenches and nearly pure translational motion along the Philippine Fault (Barrier et al., 1991). Profiles B and C reveal evidence of opposing inclined seismic zones at intermediate depths (roughly 70-300 km) and complex tectonics at the surface along the Philippine Fault.
Several relevant tectonic elements, plate boundaries and active volcanoes, provide a context for the seismicity presented on the main map. The plate boundaries are most accurate along the axis of the trenches and more diffuse or speculative in the South China Sea and Lesser Sunda Islands. The active volcanic arcs (Siebert and Simkin, 2002) follow the Izu, Volcano, Mariana, and Ryukyu island chains and the main Philippine islands parallel to the Manila, Negros, Cotabato, and Philippine trenches.
Seismic activity along the boundaries of the Philippine Sea Plate (Allen et al., 2009) has produced 7 great (M>8.0) earthquakes and 250 large (M>7) events. Among the most destructive events were the 1923 Kanto, the 1948 Fukui and the 1995 Kobe (Japan) earthquakes (99,000, 5,100, and 6,400 casualties, respectively), the 1935 and the 1999 Chi-Chi (Taiwan) earthquakes (3,300 and 2,500 casualties, respectively), and the 1976 M7.6 Moro Gulf and 1990 M7.6 Luzon (Philippines) earthquakes (7,100 and 2,400 casualties, respectively). There have also been a number of tsunami-generating events in the region, including the Moro Gulf earthquake, whose tsunami resulted in more than 5000 deaths.
The August 31, 2012 M 7.6 earthquake off the east coast of the Philippines occurred as a result of reverse faulting within the oceanic lithosphere of the Philippines Sea plate. The preliminary location of the earthquake indicates this is an intraplate event, 50 or more kilometers to the east of the subduction zone plate boundary between the Philippine Sea and Sunda plates. At the latitude of the earthquake, the Philippine Sea plate moves west-northwest at a velocity of approximately 100 mm/yr with respect to the Sunda plate.
While this region of the Philippines experiences moderate-to-large earthquakes fairly frequently – there have been approximately 40 events of M6 and above over the past 40 years, within 250 km of the August 31 2012 earthquake – large events outboard of the subduction zone are unusual. While several moderate-sized events have occurred in this intraplate region, most have been the result of normal faulting within the shallower oceanic lithosphere, rather than deeper reverse faulting like August 31 2012 event. The largest nearby event regardless of mechanism was the October 1975 M 7.6 earthquake, approximately 200 km to the north of the August 31 2012 event.
For information on aftershocks within the region of this earthquake, see this map.
Seismotectonics of the Philippine Sea and Vicinity
The Philippine Sea plate is bordered by the larger Pacific and Eurasia plates and the smaller Sunda plate. The Philippine Sea plate is unusual in that its borders are nearly all zones of plate convergence. The Pacific plate is subducted into the mantle, south of Japan, beneath the Izu-Bonin and Mariana island arcs, which extend more than 3,000 km along the eastern margin of the Philippine Sea plate. This subduction zone is characterized by rapid plate convergence and high-level seismicity extending to depths of over 600 km. In spite of this extensive zone of plate convergence, the plate interface has been associated with few great (M>8.0) ‘megathrust’ earthquakes. This low seismic energy release is thought to result from weak coupling along the plate interface (Scholz and Campos, 1995). These convergent plate margins are also associated with unusual zones of back-arc extension (along with resulting seismic activity) that decouple the volcanic island arcs from the remainder of the Philippine Sea Plate (Karig et al., 1978; Klaus et al., 1992).
South of the Mariana arc, the Pacific plate is subducted beneath the Yap Islands along the Yap trench. The long zone of Pacific plate subduction at the eastern margin of the Philippine Sea Plate is responsible for the generation of the deep Izu-Bonin, Mariana, and Yap trenches as well as parallel chains of islands and volcanoes, typical of circum-pacific island arcs. Similarly, the northwestern margin of the Philippine Sea plate is subducting beneath the Eurasia plate along a convergent zone, extending from southern Honshu to the northeastern coast of Taiwan, manifested by the Ryukyu Islands and the Nansei-Shoto (Ryukyu) trench. The Ryukyu Subduction Zone is associated with a similar zone of back-arc extension, the Okinawa Trough. At Taiwan, the plate boundary is characterized by a zone of arc-continent collision, whereby the northern end of the Luzon island arc is colliding with the buoyant crust of the Eurasia continental margin offshore China.
Along its western margin, the Philippine Sea plate is associated with a zone of oblique convergence with the Sunda Plate. This highly active convergent plate boundary extends along both sides the Philippine Islands, from Luzon in the north to the Celebes Islands in the south. The tectonic setting of the Philippines is unusual in several respects: it is characterized by opposite-facing subduction systems on its east and west sides; the archipelago is cut by a major transform fault, the Philippine Fault; and the arc complex itself is marked by active volcanism, faulting, and high seismic activity. Subduction of the Philippine Sea Plate occurs at the eastern margin of the archipelago along the Philippine Trench and its northern extension, the East Luzon Trough. The East Luzon Trough is thought to be an unusual example of a subduction zone in the process of formation, as the Philippine Trench system gradually extends northward (Hamburger et al., 1983). On the west side of Luzon, the Sunda Plate subducts eastward along a series of trenches, including the Manila Trench in the north, the smaller less well-developed Negros Trench in the central Philippines, and the Sulu and Cotabato trenches in the south (Cardwell et al., 1980). At its northern and southern terminations, subduction at the Manila Trench is interrupted by arc-continent collision, between the northern Philippine arc and the Eurasian continental margin at Taiwan and between the Sulu-Borneo Block and Luzon at the island of Mindoro. The Philippine fault, which extends over 1,200 km within the Philippine arc, is seismically active. The fault has been associated with major historical earthquakes, including the destructive M7.6 Luzon earthquake of 1990 (Yoshida and Abe, 1992). A number of other active intra-arc fault systems are associated with high seismic activity, including the Cotabato Fault and the Verde Passage–Sibuyan Sea Fault (Galgana et al., 2007).
Relative plate motion vectors near the Philippines (about 80 mm/yr) is oblique to the plate boundary along the two plate margins of central Luzon, where it is partitioned into orthogonal plate convergence along the trenches and nearly pure translational motion along the Philippine Fault (Barrier et al., 1991). Profiles B and C reveal evidence of opposing inclined seismic zones at intermediate depths (roughly 70-300 km) and complex tectonics at the surface along the Philippine Fault.
Several relevant tectonic elements, plate boundaries and active volcanoes, provide a context for the seismicity presented on the main map. The plate boundaries are most accurate along the axis of the trenches and more diffuse or speculative in the South China Sea and Lesser Sunda Islands. The active volcanic arcs (Siebert and Simkin, 2002) follow the Izu, Volcano, Mariana, and Ryukyu island chains and the main Philippine islands parallel to the Manila, Negros, Cotabato, and Philippine trenches.
Seismic activity along the boundaries of the Philippine Sea Plate (Allen et al., 2009) has produced 7 great (M>8.0) earthquakes and 250 large (M>7) events. Among the most destructive events were the 1923 Kanto, the 1948 Fukui and the 1995 Kobe (Japan) earthquakes (99,000, 5,100, and 6,400 casualties, respectively), the 1935 and the 1999 Chi-Chi (Taiwan) earthquakes (3,300 and 2,500 casualties, respectively), and the 1976 M7.6 Moro Gulf and 1990 M7.6 Luzon (Philippines) earthquakes (7,100 and 2,400 casualties, respectively). There have also been a number of tsunami-generating events in the region, including the Moro Gulf earthquake, whose tsunami resulted in more than 5000 deaths.
A 7.6 earthquake struck off the Philippine coast on Friday, triggering landslides that killed at least one person and a small tsunami that hit the eastern part of the archipelago, authorities said. The quake struck at a depth of 34 kilometres (21 miles) in the Pacific Ocean about 140 kilometres from the Philippines, leading to tsunami warnings across its east coast and as far away as Indonesia, Japan and Papua New Guinea. A series of small waves ranging from 16-centimetres (six-inch) to 50 centimetres hit the eastern Philippines about two hours after the quake, according to local authorities, but there were no reports of major damage. The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center shortly afterwards lifted its tsunami warnings for the Philippines and Indonesia. It had earlier cancelled similar warnings for Japan, Taiwan and several Pacific islands. The warnings led to a burst of terror for residents along the east coast of the Philippines, many of whom were without electricity because power lines had been cut during the earthquake that hit at 8:47 pm (1247 GMT). Leticia Amos, 35, a government employee, said hundreds of families on Samar island rushed to a hillside area, carrying their belongings as soon as the alert was raised.”It is very dark, there is no electricity and everyove is panicking,” she said. “Our place is on a hilly portion along the highway, and hundreds of people from low lying bayside areas rushed here.” The quake shook large areas of the east, and one person was confirmed killed when a landslide engulfed her home in Cagayan de Oro City. “There’s a 60-year-old woman who died and a five-year-old girl who was injured. There was a small landslide,” civil defence chief Benito Ramos said on DZMM radio. “The quake occurred amid strong rain, so the earth shook loose and there was a landslide.” Paula Daza, the governor of northern Samar province, one of the areas closest to where the quake struck, said there were reports of damage to infrastructure. “Some cracks appeared on concrete roads, and at the base of at least one bridge,” he said. Sol Matugas, the governor of another eastern region, Surigao del Norte, said on DZMM radio that the quake had severely shaken homes. “We were rather frightened. For the first time, we saw objects falling out of our cabinets,” he said. The USGS had initially reported the quake as having a magnitude of 7.9, but revised it to 7.6.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) reported in its website that the quake’s epicenter was located at 112 kilometers east of Guiuan, Eastern Samar.
The quake’s origin is tectonic and it has a depth of 10 kilometers.
It was also located at 175 kilometers northeast of Surigao, 187 kilometers east southeast of Tacloban, Leyte and 749 kilometers southeast of Manila, the US Geological Survey said in its latest bulletin.
The USGS issued a tsunami warning in the Philippines, as well as in Indonesia, Taiwan, Japan and Guam.
Phivolcs Director Renato Solidum advised residents in Surigao del Norte, Eastern Samar, Southern Leyte and Bicol to be on alert for possible aftershocks.
He also advised those living in coastal villages in these areas to evacuate due to the tsunami warning.
Southern Leyte Governor Damian Mercado said in a radio interview that he told all town mayors in the province to evacuate all families living in coastal areas. Evacuation is also ongoing in Eastern Samar and Surigao.
No damage has been reported as of this posting Friday. (Sunnex)
000
WEPA40 PHEB 311454
TSUPAC
TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 004
PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS
ISSUED AT 1454Z 31 AUG 2012
THIS BULLETIN APPLIES TO AREAS WITHIN AND BORDERING THE PACIFIC
OCEAN AND ADJACENT SEAS...EXCEPT ALASKA...BRITISH COLUMBIA...
WASHINGTON...OREGON AND CALIFORNIA.
ADDITIONAL SEA LEVEL READINGS INCLUDED. WARNING IS CANCELLED.
... TSUNAMI WARNING CANCELLATION ...
THE TSUNAMI WARNING AND/OR WATCH ISSUED BY THE PACIFIC TSUNAMI
WARNING CENTER IS NOW CANCELLED FOR
INDONESIA / PHILIPPINES / BELAU
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 - 1248Z 31 AUG 2012
COORDINATES - 10.9 NORTH 127.1 EAST
DEPTH - 33 KM
LOCATION - PHILIPPINE ISLANDS REGION
MAGNITUDE - 7.6
MEASUREMENTS OR REPORTS OF TSUNAMI WAVE ACTIVITY
GAUGE LOCATION LAT LON TIME AMPL PER
------------------- ----- ------ ----- --------------- -----
MALAKAL KOROR PW 7.3N 134.5E 1447Z 0.01M / 0.0FT 10MIN
DART 52404 20.9N 132.3E 1418Z 0.01M / 0.0FT 10MIN
DAVAO PH 7.1N 125.6E 1350Z 0.03M / 0.1FT 32MIN
DART 52405 12.9N 132.3E 1333Z 0.03M / 0.1FT 10MIN
LEGASPI PH 13.1N 123.8E 1343Z 0.03M / 0.1FT 14MIN
LAT - LATITUDE (N-NORTH, S-SOUTH)
LON - LONGITUDE (E-EAST, W-WEST)
TIME - TIME OF THE MEASUREMENT (Z IS UTC IS GREENWICH TIME)
AMPL - TSUNAMI AMPLITUDE MEASURED RELATIVE TO NORMAL SEA LEVEL.
IT IS ...NOT... CREST-TO-TROUGH WAVE HEIGHT.
VALUES ARE GIVEN IN BOTH METERS(M) AND FEET(FT).
PER - PERIOD OF TIME IN MINUTES(MIN) FROM ONE WAVE TO THE NEXT.
NOTE - DART MEASUREMENTS ARE FROM THE DEEP OCEAN AND THEY
ARE GENERALLY MUCH SMALLER THAN WOULD BE COASTAL
MEASUREMENTS AT SIMILAR LOCATIONS.
EVALUATION
SEA LEVEL READINGS INDICATE A TSUNAMI WAS GENERATED. IT MAY HAVE
BEEN DESTRUCTIVE ALONG COASTS NEAR THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER. FOR
THOSE AREAS - WHEN NO MAJOR WAVES ARE OBSERVED FOR TWO HOURS
AFTER THE ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL OR DAMAGING WAVES HAVE NOT
OCCURRED FOR AT LEAST TWO HOURS THEN LOCAL AUTHORITIES CAN ASSUME
THE THREAT IS PASSED. DANGER TO BOATS AND COASTAL STRUCTURES CAN
CONTINUE FOR SEVERAL HOURS DUE TO RAPID CURRENTS. AS LOCAL
CONDITIONS CAN CAUSE A WIDE VARIATION IN TSUNAMI WAVE ACTION THE
ALL CLEAR DETERMINATION MUST BE MADE BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES.
NO TSUNAMI THREAT EXISTS FOR OTHER COASTAL AREAS IN THE PACIFIC
ALTHOUGH SOME OTHER AREAS MAY EXPERIENCE SMALL SEA LEVEL CHANGES.
THE TSUNAMI WARNING IS NOW CANCELLED FOR ALL AREAS COVERED BY
THIS CENTER.
THIS WILL BE THE FINAL BULLETIN ISSUED FOR THIS EVENT UNLESS
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE.
THE JAPAN METEOROLOGICAL AGENCY MAY ALSO ISSUE TSUNAMI MESSAGES
FOR THIS EVENT TO COUNTRIES IN THE NORTHWEST PACIFIC AND SOUTH
CHINA SEA REGION. IN CASE OF CONFLICTING INFORMATION... THE
MORE CONSERVATIVE INFORMATION SHOULD BE USED FOR SAFETY.
THE WEST COAST/ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER WILL ISSUE PRODUCTS
FOR ALASKA...BRITISH COLUMBIA...WASHINGTON...OREGON...CALIFORNIA.
Some unrest is going on at Reclus volcano in southern Chile, located between Aguilera and Monte Burney in Patagonia, the Eruptions Blog writes:
“Over the summer, earthquakes began to be felt in towns in the region of the volcano and a potential for new activity from the Reclus has prompted geologists to visit the volcano later this spring (southern hemisphere). Interestingly, one article mentions that an overflight of the volcano in 2008 spotted cracks on the glaciers that cover the volcano along with traces of ash. However, the direct connection between the seismicity in Patagonia and Reclus is still tenuous, so further observations of the remote volcano will need to be done.”
Reclus has had at least 4 historical eruptions around, 1908, 1879, and in 1869. Although these were small, the volcano has produced larger explosive eruptions in the past and should be closely monitored.
Elevated Volcanic Activity and Information Releases
Friday, Aug 31, 2012 at 20:30:59 PDT.
The following U.S. volcanoes are known to be above normal background (elevated unrest or eruptions) or have shown activity that warranted an Information Release (for example, an earthquake swarm).
Times are local to the volcano and in military format.
Volcano Alert Levels & Aviation Color Codes defined at http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/activity/alertsystem.
Little Sitkin Alert Level=ADVISORY. Aviation Color Code=YELLOW. As of Aug 31, 2012, 15:35 AKDT Anomalous seismicity that began on August 29 gradually decreases since 06:00 AKDT (14:00 UTC) August 31, 2012.
(Change to current status occurred on Aug 30, 2012 04:23 AKDT from Alert Level UNASSIGNED and Aviation Color Code UNASSIGNED ) For more information see http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/activity/archiveupdate.php?noticeid=7691
Iliamna Alert Level=ADVISORY. Aviation Color Code=YELLOW. As of Aug 31, 2012, 15:35 AKDT Clouds obscured satellite and webcam view of Iliamna during the past 24 hours. Seismicity remains slightly above background.
(Change to current status occurred on Mar 9, 2012 13:07 AKDT from Alert Level NORMAL and Aviation Color Code GREEN ) For more information see http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/activity/archiveupdate.php?noticeid=7690
Cleveland Alert Level=WATCH. Aviation Color Code=ORANGE. As of Aug 31, 2012, 15:35 AKDT Satellite imagery indicates that as of August 27, 2012, the summit crater of Cleveland is a tephra-covered funnel surrounding a central vent containing no dome.
(Change to current status occurred on Jun 19, 2012 15:06 AKDT from Alert Level ADVISORY and Aviation Color Code YELLOW ) For more information see http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/activity/archiveupdate.php?noticeid=7689
Pagan Alert Level=ADVISORY. Aviation Color Code=YELLOW. As of Aug 31, 2012, 10:09 ChST Low-level unrest. YELLOW/ADVISORY. Persistent steam/gas plume.
(Change to current status occurred on Oct 6, 2011 14:21 ChST from Alert Level UNASSIGNED and Aviation Color Code UNASSIGNED ) For more information see http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/activity/archiveupdate.php?noticeid=7686
Kilauea Alert Level=WATCH. Aviation Color Code=ORANGE. As of Aug 31, 2012, 08:16 HST DI deflation and lava lake dropping slowed; new pit craters in Pu`u `O`o Crater and barely active lava flows to the SE; no ocean entry; gas emissions elevated.
(Change to current status occurred on Mar 9, 2011 19:45 HST from Alert Level WARNING and Aviation Color Code RED ) For more information see http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/activity/archiveupdate.php?noticeid=7688
People stand on large hexagonal columns of volcanic rock, southeast of Hong Kong in this handout photo released August 30, 2012.
Some 140 million years after it erupted and then toppled into the sea, an ancient supervolcano in Hong Kong is making headlines.
The government announced Thursday that it had located the supervolcano—the first discovery of its kind in southeastern China—while surveying in the area in southeastern Hong Kong. The volcano is now extinct and poses no threat to Hong Kong.
What makes the volcano super? When it last exploded 140 million years ago, it would have darkened the sky with 312 cubic miles of ash, enough to blanket all of Hong Kong, said Denise Tang of the government’s civil engineering & development department, which discovered the volcano. About 50 other such supervolcanos are known to exist around the world, she said.
The original base of Hong Kong’s supervolcano would have measured about 11 miles in diameter, and the vista of vaulting, hexagonal rock columns and small islands it left behind remain gorgeous reminders of its dramatic geologic past. They can be toured by boat, but Ms. Tang was quick to warn any would-be tourists to use caution before making any expeditions.
“Although it’s very beautiful,” she said, “there’s no facilities, no pier facilities, so we actually do not recommend people try to land on the island.”
Remnants of an ancient super volcano have been discovered near Hong Kong.
According to experts, the last eruption of the volcano occurred in the Mesozoic Era at the turn of the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods about 140 million years ago.
The diameter of the gigantic crater spans 18 kilometers.
Scientists have confirmed the earlier hypothesis that the volcano settled down many years ago and assured Hong Kong residents that it won’t erupt again.
Seismologists say a cluster of earthquakes has been detected at a remote volcano in Alaska’s western Aleutian Islands. The Alaska Volcano Observatory says the quakes began Wednesday evening at Little Sitkin Volcano and are continuing as of Thursday morning. No eruption has been detected. Scientist in charge John Power says there is no direct link to the swarm of earthquakes at Little Sitkin and a cluster of quakes that shook California’s Imperial County earlier this week. Powers says Little Sitkin is located on an uninhabited island and is far from any populated areas. He says the seismic activity is unusual for Little Sitkin, whose last eruption possibly in the early 1900s is questionable. Powers says the concern about an eruption would be the possible threat posed to aircraft.
A huge wildfire is approaching the wealthy resort of Marbella on Spain’s Costa del Sol, where the authorities have evacuated thousands of people. Flames reached the Elviria area on the edge of Marbella early on Friday. About 1,000 people have been evacuated from the edge of Marbella, about 3,300 from Ojen and others from a camp site at Alpujata, Spanish media report. They include at least 300 British expats sent to evacuation centres, the UK embassy said. Marbella is famous for its up-market hotels and villas – it is a favourite haunt of wealthy foreigners. Overnight the fire spread rapidly through a 12km (eight-mile) coastal strip, not far from holiday resorts. Two people have suffered serious burns and some homes have been engulfed by the fire. The Costa del Sol is one of Spain’s most popular holiday destinations and home to a large British expatriate community. The British embassy says it is working closely with the Spanish authorities and consular staff have been deployed to assist those affected.
Lake Tangipahoa, a 450 to 500-acre lake at Percy Quinn State Park just north of the Mississippi state line, was swollen from Isaac’s rain, undermining a dam that, if it failed, would release the body of water into the Tangipahoa River that meanders down the parish’s length to Lake Pontchartrain. “That’s going to inundate an already flooded river,” said National Guard Col. Rodney Painting, the incoming commander of the Guard’s 225th Engineer Brigade who started his day helping oversee the evacuation of flooded areas in LaPlace and would end it in his native Tangipahoa helping oversee what appears to be the largest such effort in the state since Isaac made landfall Tuesday. Authorities in Mississippi tried to ease the pressure by releasing some of the water, an effort said to be working. Louisiana officials are taking no chances.State and parish officials called a mandatory evacuation for communities from Kentwood to Robert. If the dam breaks, the National Guard will go into the affected communities with high-water vehicles and small boats, “that we can get through the flooded woods or streets if we have to,” said Painter, who during the Isaac state of emergency has helped coordinate evacuation sites at Zephyr Field in Metairie and in Slidell before moving to Laplace and Amite. In the “controlled release” using spillways, the water from the lake flooded out into a sparsely inhabited area of Mississippi on Thursday afternoon, relieving pressure on a dam scoured by Hurricane Isaac that threatened to push water levels in the Tangipahoa River up to 17 feet in Louisiana. Officials believe the controlled release of waters through emergency spillways will allow the water level to stabilize and lessen pressure on the dam until crews can breach the edge of Tangipahoa Lake near McComb and drain another 8 feet of water.While the release is expected to protect communities on the north shore, officials in Mississippi said about 20 homes on their side of the state line will be flooded out and emergency crews conducted a door-to-door effort to warn residents to leave their homes. Meanwhile, a more massive effort was occurring miles downriver, as National Guard units and other state assets attempted to get 40,000 to 60,000 people out of their homes. Though the water level in the lake was dropping and Mississippi officials downplayed the seriousness of the dam’s condition, Gov. Bobby Jindal continued to urge residents to leave potential flood zones in Tangipahoa Parish Thursday night. “The worse thing that could happen is that people get a false sense of confidence and then if there be a breach overnight it would be a lot harder for people to evacuate,” Jindal said. From the Florida Parishes Arena, troops drove school buses to collection points, where they’re driving evacuees to evacuation shelters set up at schools. School buses have been brought in from as far as Avoylles Parish and Terrebonne Parish, each driven by soldiers. “I’ve already got buses on the road full of people,” said Lt. Col. Vincent Tallo.
About 200 coaches and school buses are being rushed to Tangipahoa, said First Sgt. Rufus Jones of 3rd Battalion, 156th Infantry Regiment, a Guard combat unit whose soldiers, all armed with M4 rifles, waited in the arena for missions that would likely would include security details. By Thursday night, Tallo said he expected 300 National Guard troops in the parish, assisting the evacuation. The National Guard received the mission at 10 a.m., Thursday, said Maj. Scott Slaven, who commands the 205th Engineer Battalion in Bogalusa. Troops and equipment are staged on both sides of the Tangipahoa River, Slaven said. At Pontchatoula High School, Darryl Holliday of Kajun Kettle Foods Inc., which has a state contract to feed evacuees, was told to brace for 2,000 people. At 6:30 p.m., none of the evacuees had reached the school on Louisiana 22. Holliday said he was told that 40 people were en route. Painter said the plan calls for keeping evacuees in Tangipahoa Parish. At the Florida Parishes Arena, employees of the state Department of Children and Family Services prepared to account for the evacuees with forms, in part designed to identify families.
The damage to dam prompted Parish President Gordon Burgess to order mandatory evacuations along the Tangipahoa River, which were carried out with the assistance of the state and National Guard units. The first reports of problems with the dam came into emergency operations officials at 8 a.m., when crews noticed two “sloughs” where dirt was sliding down the sides of the earthen structure, said Greg Flynn, spokesman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. Those sloughs are the first sign of a problem with the integrity of a dam, Flynn said. The damage was caused by rain from Hurricane Isaac, which raised the water level of the recreational fishing lake by several feet, said Richard Coghlan, Emergency Coordinator for Pike County. “The dam appears very stable at this time,” Coghlan said. Mississippi officials stressed that reports Thursday that the waters had breached or overtopped the dam were incorrect. Opening the spillways will bring the water level back to normal but could cause flooding in a wide, sparsely populated stretch of Mississippi. Coghlan said residents had been warned and were planning on leaving for at least a night.
Those homes would also have been flooded in the event that the dam failed, he said. Once the water level drops back to normal, a process that could take days, crews will dig a trench out of the lake with the intention of causing a more serious drop in the water levels, Coghlan said. That will allow maintenance crews to go in and repair the dam, he said. Louisiana state officials estimated that between 40,000 and 60,000 homes would take on some water should the river flood. Many of those were outside the mandatory evacuation zone, which extended one mile on either side of the Tangipahoa River from Kentwood to Robert. It was unclear on Thursday exactly how many people lived in that area or how many were evacuated by the end of the day.
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US Flooded: Video of Isaac aftermath, houses in water up to roofs
The area south of New Orleans has been plagued by flooding since Isaac sloshed ashore as a hurricane on Tuesday evening and pushed water over the 18-mile levee.
Aerial video footage shows dozens of homes surrounded by water up their rafters. The flood also unearthed caskets and uprooted trees at a local cemetery. The storm Isaac has been downgraded to a tropical depression, and the extent of the damage is becoming clearer. Crews set out in air boats in LaPlace and saw heavy mud and dirty water caking homes, street signs and trailers. They worked to save cows and other livestock from the debris. Evacuees from that town continue to be ferried by buses to various shelters. Many of them lost everything they owned except what they were able to carrying with them in the minutes before evacuating.
At least seven people are believed to have been killed after a landslide struck a gold-rush mountain community in the southern Philippines, the mayor of a nearby city said yesterday. Three days of heavy rains spawned the landslide on Thursday, which covered makeshift mining tunnels in a mountain area in Mindanao island, said Mati City Mayor Michelle Rabat. She said that a village chief in the isolated area told her by telephone that seven bodies had been recovered from the tunnels and the miners were digging to find more people believed buried. Other miners who descended from the mountains gave similar accounts, Rabat said. “Before the landslide, (a survivor) shouted to the people inside the tunnels to vacate the area. He saw three people running for their lives but it was too late. They were buried by the mudflow,” the mayor said. The gold-rich area has attracted thousands of small miners who tunnel into the side of the mountain despite the constant danger posed by landslides, quakes and collapsing tunnels, said Rabat. The area is so remote that it can only be reached through a lengthy motorcycle ride followed by an hour of hiking, making it difficult to determine the extent of the damage, she added. Military officials said soldiers had been dispatched to the affected area but they could not yet confirm any fatalities.
Ten people are dead and 14 others missing after a landslide hit a hydropower station in southwest China. Rescue work was under way at the site in Sichuan province’s Liangshan prefecture. Mud and stones began crashing down onto the station late Wednesday night and continued to fall into Thursday morning. The report did not say if anyone had survived the landslide and provincial officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Liangshan prefecture lies about 1,750 kilometers (1,100 miles) southwest of China’s capital Beijing.
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant said Thursday that the amount of water injected into the crippled Nos. 1 to 3 reactors temporarily dropped below the level regarded as necessary to keep the fuel inside cool.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the drop in the volume of the water did not affect the temperature of the reactor pressure vessels, while adding that the company is investigating the cause of the incident.
The utility known as TEPCO noticed that the three reactors were not getting enough water injection at 3 p.m. Thursday. Workers took measures to increase the water volume and they confirmed at about 4:30 p.m. that it recovered to the necessary level.
At a gathering of politicians from prefectural and municipal governments in Japan, the veterinarian head of a non-profit organization called “Ecosystem Conservation Society of Japan” told the audience, quite off-handedly,
People in Fukushima, Tochigi, Saitama, Tokyo, Kanagawa where the radioactive plume went by, should not marry because the deformity rate of their offspring will skyrocket.
To the outraged delegation from Fukushima City, he says,
Tough. They misquoted me on purpose, I was just talking generalities.
Generalities. So these days in Japan, citing specific locales and predicting specific events like deformity of babies is talking generalities.
So far, only the delegation from Fukushima City is outraged. The reactions from the rest of Japan are two types:
Oh someone finally spoke the truth, and he is the head of some non-profit organization (that must mean his intentions are good), so we should take it seriously; or
Fukushima City Assemblymen including Mr. Kazuyoshi Sato held a press conference on August 29, and announced that they would demand the correction of the remark by Mr. Hobun Ikeya, head of a public interest incorporated foundation called “Ecosystem Conservation Society of Japan” during the lecture in July on the effect of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident as “inappropriate and discriminatory, and cannot be tolerated”.
According to Assemblyman Sato and others, Mr. Ikeha said in the lecture, “You’d better not marry anyone from Fukushima”, and “Cancer rate may rise in Fukushima, and deformed babies may be born”.
According to the explanation by the Society and the recording that our reporter listened to, Mr. Ikeya also mentioned several prefectures in Kanto region that have had certain levels of radiation contamination because of the nuclear accident. He pointed out to the map of the region, and said, “People who live in the areas where the radioactive plume went by should avoid marrying at all costs.” He further said “If they marry and have children, the rate of deformity in babies will skyrocket.”
Mr. Ikeya responded to Asahi Shinbun and explained, “I wanted to emphasize the heightened risk of DNA damage and deformed babies due to radiation exposure. I discussed generalities, and had no intention of discrimination.”
The lecture was sponsored by the Ecosystem Conservation Society of Japan and held in Tokyo on July 9. Assemblypersons from municipalities throughout Japan participated, and four assemblymen including Mr. Sato from the Fukushima City Assembly participated.
Regarding the remarks that have been condemned as inappropriate by Mr. Hobun Ikeya (age 70) of the Ecosystem Conservation Society of Japan in a lecture in Tokyo, Mr. Ikeya released part of the transcript of the lecture to the press on August 29.
According to the transcript, he said, “It’s not just Fukushima, you know, people in Tochigi, Saitama, Tokyo, Kanagawa, people who were there should not marry at all costs”, and “If they get married and have children, the rate of deformity in babies will skyrocket.”
協会によると、録音を書き起こした内容で、県内の各報道機関に送った。
According to the Society, the document is a transcript from the recording, and it has been sent to news organizations in Fukushima Prefecture.
To Fukushima Minpo, Mr. Ikeya admitted that he had made these remarks, and argued, “I don’t think it’s discriminatory against people in Fukushima.” As to his insistence in the past that he hadn’t said anything like that, he answered, “I meant I hadn’t said anything discriminatory.”
Mr. Ikeya is a practicing veterinarian. The “Policy” lecture has been given once a year or so since 2003, and it was the 12th this year. 80 to 100 politicians from municipalities and citizens who aspire to become politicians participate. Last year’s lecture was canceled due to the March 11 disaster, and this year’s lecture was the first since the disaster.
Accusation that Mr. Ikeya is discriminating against Fukushima is not really true, as Mr. Ikeya is saying the same for four other prefectures in Kanto.
Well at least Mr. Ikeya is a veterinarian, remotely qualified (I suppose) to comment on something medical. The only (human) medical experts who expressed outrage are so-called “government experts” (including Professor Noboru Takamura of Nagasaki University and Fukushima Prefecture Radiation Health Risk Management Advisor who spoke soothing words to Iitate-mura villagers right after the accident, and Professor Masahiro Fukushi of Tokyo Metropolitan University who measured radiation levels in meals with faulty germanium semiconductor detector for NHK program), which is taken by many net citizens on Twitter to mean Mr. Ikeya must be telling the truth.
Never mind that Mr. Ikeya’s expertise is with sick animals.
The Japanese government and government institutions and its experts have only themselves to blame for the deep distrust of anything that has to do with the government for an off-hand remark by a veterinarian to be taken seriously as the truth.
Two men in Missouri who became severely ill after sustaining tick bites were found to be infected with a new type of virus, according to a study from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Both men were admitted to hospitals after experiencing high fevers, fatigue, diarrhea and loss of appetite. They were originally thought to be suffering from a bacterial infection, but doubts arose when they didn’t improve after being treated with antibiotics.
Further tests revealed their blood contained a new virus, which the researchers dubbed the Heartland virus. It belongs to a group called phleboviruses, which are carried by flies, mosquitoes or ticks, and can cause disease in humans.
(Reuters) – Some 10,000 people who stayed in tent cabins at Yosemite National Park this summer may be at risk for the deadly rodent-borne hantavirus, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday.
The CDC urged lab testing of patients who exhibit symptoms consistent with the lung disease, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, after a stay at the California park between June and August and recommended that doctors notify state health departments when it is found.
Two men have died from hantavirus linked to the Yosemite outbreak and four others were sickened but survived, while the CDC said additional suspected cases were being investigated from “multiple health jurisdictions.”
Most of the victims were believed to have been infected while staying in one of 91 “Signature” tent-style cabins in Yosemite’s popular Curry Village camping area.
“An estimated 10,000 persons stayed in the ‘Signature Tent Cabins’ from June 10 through August 24, 2012,” the CDC said. “People who stayed in the tents between June 10 and August 24 may be at risk of developing HPS in the next six weeks.”
Yosemite officials earlier this week shut down all 91 of the insulated tent cabins after finding deer mice, which carry the disease and can burrow through holes the size of pencil erasers, nesting between the double walls.
Park authorities said on Friday that they had contacted approximately 3,000 parties of visitors who stayed in the tent cabins since mid-June, advising them to seek immediate medical attention if they have symptoms of hantavirus.
Nearly 4 million people visit Yosemite, one of the nation’s most popular national parks, each year, attracted to the its dramatic scenery and hiking trails. Roughly 70 percent of those visitors congregate in Yosemite Valley, where Curry Village is located.
YOSEMITE LOGS 1,500 CALLS
The virus starts out causing flu-like symptoms, including headache, fever, muscle ache, shortness of breath and cough, and can lead to severe breathing difficulties and death.
The incubation period for the virus is typically two to four weeks after exposure, the CDC said, with a range between a few days and six weeks. Just over a third of cases are fatal.
“Providers are reminded to consider the diagnosis of HPS in all persons presenting with clinically compatible illness and to ask about potential rodent exposure or if they had recently visited Yosemite National Park,” the CDC said.
Although there is no cure for hantavirus, which has never been known to be transmitted between humans, treatment after early detection through blood tests can save lives.
“Early medical attention and diagnosis of hantavirus are critical,” Yosemite superintendent Don Neubacher said in a statement. “We urge anyone who may have been exposed to the infection to see their doctor at the first sign of symptoms and to advise them of the potential of hantavirus.”
Yosemite spokeswoman Kari Cobb said rangers have answered some 1,500 phone calls from park visitors and others concerned about the disease. But she said the outbreak had not triggered a wave of cancellations
“Right now it’s normal numbers for Friday,” she said. “There have been cancellations, but it would be grossly overstated to say they’re cancelling en masse. There’s quite a bit of people out there still. It’s still summer and a holiday weekend. It’s still the summer crowds.”
A national park service officials has said that public health officials warned the park twice before about hantavirus after it struck visitors. But it was not until this week that the hiding place for the deer mice carrying the virus was found.
Hantavirus is carried in rodent feces, urine and saliva, which dries out and mixes with dust that can be inhaled by humans, especially in small, confined spaces with poor ventilation.
People can also be infected by eating contaminated food, touching contaminated surfaces or being bitten by infected rodents.
(Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Todd Eastham and Lisa Shumaker)
In the first confirmed case of bubonic plague in Colorado since 2006, an Archuleta County resident has tested positive for the disease. The last human case in Archuleta County, which borders on New Mexico, was in 1998. It is believed that the person contracted the plague during a family outing in the Cimarrona Campground northwest of Pagosa Springs, but the investigation is ongoing, according to a news release from the San Juan Basin Health Department. The gender and age of the victim were not released, the paper reported. In 2006, Colorado had four cases of plague, all in La Plata County, Joe Fowler, a disease-control nurse with the San Juan Basin Health Department said. Most human cases of plague tend to occur in rural areas in two regions — northern Arizona and New Mexico and southern Colorado or in California, southern Oregon and western Nevada. One human case has been reported in New Mexico so far this year – in a 78-year-old Torrance County man who contracted the disease in May, in what state health officials called the nation’s first human plague case of the yea
Biohazard name:
Plague
Biohazard level:
4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:
Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
A case of adult chicken pox has emerged at SF State. A school-wide email was sent out by Alastair K. Smith, MD to SF State students Aug. 31, saying that there is a student with a case of the chickenpox. Though the student infected does not live on campus, they were on campus August 27 and 29, visiting the Creative Arts building, Humanities building, Science building, Business building, Burk Hall and Bookstore during their infected stage. Varicella, commonly known as chickenpox, is a virus which symptoms include fever, tiredness, headaches and a rash that turns into itchy, fluid-filled blisters that scab after several days. Chickenpox is a condition that is spread by airborne particles, sweat and skin-to-skin contact. Scott Hongsweet, junior at SF State, had chickenpox when he was 4 years old, but is not concerned about the recent developments. “I’ve had chickenpox and it was like having bug bites all over your body,” said Hongsweet. “Though it was super itchy, I wouldn’t be weary of going to school if there was a person with chickenpox there, because the chances of me getting it are very slim.”The incubation period for chickenpox is 14 to 16 days and is infectious until five or six days after the onset of the rash, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Protection. Varicella carries the most complications for people over 15 years of age and under one year of age. Overall, it is estimated that adults account for 5 percent for reported cases of varicella but may carry the most risk, according to the CDC. SF State isn’t the only university in the bay area that has experienced a health scare among the student body. The University of California at Berkeley had a mumps scare during October where seven students were infected. Pregnant and immune-compromised people are at a high risk for infection, and persons who are not immune are suggested to get a dose of the varicella vaccine within three to five days of exposure. Smith addressed in the email to the school: “We are monitoring the situation carefully, and given that most persons have immunity through childhood exposure or vaccination, we do not expect a major outbreak on campus.” Beth Cross, junior at SF State, isn’t the least bit worried about chickenpox at her school. “I am not worried about the disease on campus…I am sure there are way worse diseases on campus,” said Cross.
Biohazard name:
Chickenpox
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 (Aug. 29, 2012) — A cost analysis of the technologies needed to transport materials into the stratosphere to reduce the amount of sunlight hitting Earth and therefore reduce the effects of global climate change has shown that they are both feasible and affordable.
Published August 31, 2012, in IOP Publishing’s journal Environmental Research Letters, the study has shown that the basic technology currently exists and could be assembled and implemented in a number of different forms for less than USD $5 billion a year.
Put into context, the cost of reducing carbon dioxide emissions is currently estimated to be between 0.2 and 2.5 per cent of GDP in the year 2030, which is equivalent to roughly USD $200 to $2000 billion.
Solar radiation management (SRM) looks to induce the effects similar to those observed after volcanic eruptions; however, the authors state that it is not a preferred strategy and that such a claim could only be made after the thorough investigation of the implications, risks and costs associated with these issues.
The authors caution that reducing incident sunlight does nothing at all to reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, nor the resulting increase in the acid content of the oceans. They note that other research has shown that the effects of solar radiation management are not uniform, and would cause different temperature and precipitation changes in different countries.
Co-author of the study, Professor Jay Apt, said: “As economists are beginning to explore the role of several types of geoengineering, it is important that a cost analysis of SRM is carried out. The basic feasibility of SRM with current technology is still being disputed and some political scientists and policy makers are concerned about unilateral action.”
In the study, the researchers, from Aurora Flight Sciences, Harvard University and Carnegie Mellon University, performed an engineering cost analysis on six systems capable of delivering 1-5 million metric tonnes of material to altitudes of 18-30 km: existing aircraft, a new airplane designed to perform at altitudes up to 30 km, a new hybrid airship, rockets, guns and suspended pipes carrying gas or slurry to inject the particles into the atmosphere.
Based on existing research into solar radiation management, the researchers performed their cost analyses for systems that could deliver around one million tonnes of aerosols each year at an altitude between 18 and 25 km and between a latitude range of 30°N and 30°S.
The study concluded that using aircraft is easily within the current capabilities of aerospace engineering, manufacturing and operations. The development of new, specialized aircraft appeared to be the cheapest option, with costs of around $1 to $2 billion a year; existing aircraft would be more expensive as they are not optimized for high altitudes and would need considerable and expensive modifications to do so.
Guns and rockets appeared to be capable of delivering materials at high altitudes but the costs associated with these are much higher than those of airplanes and airships due to their lack of reusability.
Although completely theoretical at this point in time, a large gas pipe, rising to 20 km in the sky and suspended by helium-filled floating platforms, would offer the lowest recurring cost-per-kilogram of particles delivered but the costs of research into the materials required, the development of the pipe and the testing to ensure safety, would be high; the whole system carries a large uncertainty.
Professor Apt continued: “We hope our study will help other scientists looking at more novel methods for dispersing particles and help them to explore methods with increased efficiency and reduced environmental risk.”
The researchers make it clear that they have not sought to address the science of aerosols in the stratosphere, nor issues of risk, effectiveness or governance that will add to the costs of solar radiation management geoengineering.
Inspired by the nearly-full moon, space station astronauts used an 800 mm lens to study the craters and mare in this picture taken on Oct. 5, 2001.
CREDIT: NASA
The night skies this week have been very bright thanks to the moon, and they’ll get brighter still on Friday as a blue moon rises above the horizon.
The moon won’t literally be blue-colored, of course; the name refers to the second full moon to occur in a single month.
Blue moons happen because our calendar months don’t line up exactly with the moon’s orbit. It takes the moon 29.5 days to wax and wane from full to new to full again. With the exception of February, months are longer than that, meaning that every so often the timing works out so there are two full moons in one month.
The first full moon of August 2012 graced night skies on Aug. 1; for most of the world, the second just squeezes in at the end of the month, with the moon becoming full at exactly 9:58 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (6:58 a.m. Pacific Standard Time).
Though a blue moon looks the same as any other full moon, the moon can actually appear to be colored under particular atmospheric conditions: Forest fires and volcanic eruptions can pump smoke and ash into the atmosphere, which can make the moon appear a bluish hue to those standing on the Earth’s surface.
Two white dwarfs similar to those in the system SDSS J065133.338+284423.37 spiral together in this illustration from NASA. Credit: D. Berry/NASA GSFC
Locked in a spiraling orbital embrace, the super-dense remains of two dead stars are giving astronomers the evidence needed to confirm one of Einstein’s predictions about the Universe.
A binary system located about 3,000 light-years away, SDSS J065133.338+284423.37 (J0651 for short) contains two white dwarfs orbiting each other rapidly — once every 12.75 minutes. The system was discovered in April 2011, and since then astronomers have had their eyes — and four separate telescopes in locations around the world — on it to see if gravitational effects first predicted by Einstein could be seen.
According to Einstein, space-time is a structure in itself, in which all cosmic objects — planets, stars, galaxies — reside. Every object with mass puts a “dent” in this structure in all dimensions; the more massive an object, the “deeper” the dent. Light energy travels in a straight line, but when it encounters these dents it can dip in and veer off-course, an effect we see from Earth as gravitational lensing.
Einstein also predicted that exceptionally massive, rapidly rotating objects — such as a white dwarf binary pair — would create outwardly-expanding ripples in space-time that would ultimately “steal” kinetic energy from the objects themselves. These gravitational waves would be very subtle, yet in theory, observable.
What researchers led by a team at The University of Texas at Austin have found is optical evidence of gravitational waves slowing down the stars in J0651. Originally observed in 2011 eclipsing each other (as seen from Earth) once every six minutes, the stars now eclipse six seconds sooner. This equates to a predicted orbital period reduction of about 0.25 milliseconds each year.*
“These compact stars are orbiting each other so closely that we have been able to observe the usually negligible influence of gravitational waves using a relatively simple camera on a 75-year-old telescope in just 13 months,” said study lead author J.J. Hermes, a graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin.
Based on these measurements, by April 2013 the stars will be eclipsing each other 20 seconds sooner than first observed. Eventually they will merge together entirely.
Although this isn’t “direct” observation of gravitational waves, it is evidence inferred by their predicted effects… akin to watching a floating lantern in a dark pond at night moving up and down and deducing that there are waves present.
“It’s exciting to confirm predictions Einstein made nearly a century ago by watching two stars bobbing in the wake caused by their sheer mass,” said Hermes.
As of early last year NASA and ESA had a proposed mission called LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) that would have put a series of 3 detectors into space 5 million km apart, connected by lasers. This arrangement of precision-positioned spacecraft could have detected any passing gravitational waves in the local space-time neighborhood, making direct observation possible. Sadly this mission was canceled due to FY2012 budget cuts for NASA, but ESA is moving ahead with developments for its own gravitational wave mission, called eLISA/NGO — the first “pathfinder” portion of which is slated to launch in 2014.
The study was submitted to Astrophysical Journal Letters on August 24. Read more on the McDonald Observatory news release here.
Inset image: simulation of binary black holes causing gravitational waves – C. Reisswig, L. Rezzolla (AEI); Scientific visualization – M. Koppitz (AEI & Zuse Institute Berlin)
*The difference in the eclipse time is noted as six seconds even though the orbital period decay of the two stars is only .25 milliseconds/year because of a pile-up effect of all the eclipses observed since April 2011. The measurements made by the research team takes into consideration the phase change in the J0651 system, which experiences a piling effect — similar to an out-of-sync watch — that increases relative to time^2 and is therefore a larger and easier number to detect and work with. Once that was measured, the actual orbital period decay could be figured out.
GREENCASTLE, Ind. (AP) — Residents of a central Indiana county have reported nearly 100 dead deer in what wildlife officials believe might be a disease outbreak.
An Indiana Department of Natural Resources biologist says most of those dead deer have been found in southern Putnam County.
Biologist Dean Zimmerman tells the Banner Graphic ( ) that 17 counties around the state have had suspected cases of epizootic hemorrhagic disease among deer, although Putnam County seems to have a large outbreak.
The illness is a viral disease transmitted by small flies that typically occurs during late summer and early fall. It doesn’t affect humans.
Zimmerman says the flies that carry the disease reproduce more successfully in dry weather and that it will take a killing frost to end the outbreak.
The Kyrgyz Health Ministry said Friday five people had tested positive for anthrax. The five were among nine people who had been hospitalized in the central Asian country for anthrax-like symptoms in the past month, a health ministry spokesman said. Quarantine authorities had adopted counter-epidemic measures in the infectious disease-hit areas, where people as well as livestock had been given a vaccination against the bacteria, the spokesman said.
Biohazard name:
Anthrax
Biohazard level:
4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:
Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
Symptoms:
Status:
confirmed
31.08.2012
Biological Hazard
Portugal
Municipality of Almada, [Costa da Caparica beaces]
Three beaches in Costa da Caparica just south of Lisbon were closed to bathers over the weekend due to an abundance of Portuguese Man-of-War jellyfish like looking creatures in the sea after a child was stung, the Maritime Police (MP) said. Red flags were raised to warn beach-goers not to enter the water and any people who do not obey the prohibition may be fined by the authorities. According to Wikipedia, despite its outward appearance the Man of War is not a jellyfish, but a siphonophore, which differs from jellyfish in that it is not actually a single creature, but a colonial organism made up of many minute individuals called zooids. Its long tentacles are poisonous enough nevertheless and well kept away from. This follows the release of a video on sites such as Youtube and Sapo showing a large shark off the coast near Lisbon. According to the Coast Guard, there is no reason to be alarmed, as it was just a Basking Shark that eats plankton and krill. Basking sharks, as their name suggests, like to bask in the sun on the surface of the water and are quite inoffensive to humans. Élio Vicente from Zoomarine in the Algarve said Basking Sharks and Whale Sharks are common round the coast of Portugal, but offer no risk to swimmers. “The hot weather heats the deep water creating more algae drawing in more ‘vegetarian sharks’” he said. These creatures have been here for thousands of years without harming anyone, he added, they just get a bad reputation from the term ‘shark’.
Biohazard name:
Portuguese Man-of-War jellyfish invasion
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Out of the 36 patients, who underwent prophylactic treatment after identification of the anthrax hot bed in Zaporizhia region, currently two of them are remaining under supervision of physicians. “Today we can say that everything is fine with the people: out of 36 people, who received preventive treatment, only two are under the supervision of doctors now. They are a man and a woman from Voznesenka village, who had contacted the infected animal and were hospitalized immediately after the accident. Currently, they have no manifestations of disease, but to make sure that the health condition of these people is good, we should get the results of laboratory tests and withstand a certain period,” chief medical officer of Zaporizhia region Anatoly Sevalnev said. According to the deputy head of the Main Department for Veterinary Medicine in Zaporizhia region Serhit Dehtiarenko, the quarantine measures will continue until September 5.
Biohazard name:
Anthrax
Biohazard level:
4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:
Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
Streaks of red tide – a toxic algal bloom that threatens both marine life – were clearly visible in Noyac Bay during a flyover on Thursday. Aerial photographer Jeff Cully captured images of red tide lining the shore at Long Beach. Red tide has appeared in Long Island waters every summer since 2004, Chris Gobler, Ph.D., told Patch earlier this month, when the algal bloom made its first showing of the year. Gobler, a Stony Brook Southampton School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences professor, said red tide typically appears in late August, but this summer it was detected in late July. The early arrival could be attributed to high temperatures this summer, he said. “This red tide is caused by the dinoflagellate, cochlodinium,” Gobler explained. “Cochlodinium is not a human health threat but is highly toxic to marine life. Fish exposed to dense cochlodinium blooms cannot survive more than one to six hours, depending on their size. We have had fish die at the Southampton marine lab when our intake system brought in red tide water.” After patches of red tide have passed through, pound net fisherman have found that catches have died off, he added. The School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, thanks to $3 million in grants, announced Monday a plan to restore the health of another local bay, Shinnecock, by seeding eelgrass and shellfish beds in strategic areas where they are most likely to thrive. Shellfish filter algae from water, but their populations in Long Island waters have declined in recent decades, a trend marine sciences hope to turn around. If the effort proves successful, it could be implemented in other distressed bodies of water, both locally and around the world. Research demonstrates that algal blooms are made worse by an increased flow of nitrogen into the bays, from sources such as cesspools and fertilizers, Gobler said.
Biohazard name:
Red Tide
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.]
Earthquakes are among the most destructive and common of geologic phenomena. Several million earthquakes are estimated to occur worldwide each year (the vast majority are too small to feel, but their motions can be measured by arrays of seismometers).
Historically, most of Arizona has experienced low levels of recorded seismicity, with infrequent moderate and large earthquakes in the state. Comprehensive analyses of seismicity within Arizona have not been previously possible due to a lack of seismic stations in most regions, contributing to the perception that widespread earthquakes in Arizona are rare. Debunking that myth, a new study published by Arizona State University researchers found nearly 1,000 earthquakes rattling the state over a three-year period.
Jeffrey Lockridge, a graduate student in ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration and the project’s lead researcher, used new seismic data collected as part of the EarthScope project to develop methods to detect and locate small-magnitude earthquakes across the entire state of Arizona.
EarthScope’s USArray Transportable Array was deployed within Arizona from April 2006 to March 2009 and provided the first opportunity to examine seismicity on a statewide scale. Its increased sensitivity allowed Lockridge to find almost 1,000 earthquakes during the three-year period, including many in regions of Arizona that were previously thought to be seismically inactive.
“It is significant that we found events in areas where none had been detected before, but not necessarily surprising given the fact that many parts of the state had never been sampled by seismometers prior to the deployment of the EarthScope USArray,” says Lockridge. “I expected to find some earthquakes outside of north-central Arizona, where the most and largest events had previously been recorded, just not quite so many in other areas of the state.”
One-thousand earthquakes over three years may sound alarmingly high, but the large number of earthquakes detected in the study is a direct result of the improved volume and quality of seismic data provided by EarthScope.
Ninety-one percent of the earthquakes Lockridge detected in Arizona were “microquakes” with a magnitude of 2.0 or smaller, which are not usually felt by humans. Detecting small-magnitude earthquakes is not only important because some regions experiencing small earthquakes may produce larger earthquakes, but also because geologists use small magnitude earthquakes to map otherwise hidden faults beneath the surface.
Historically, the largest earthquakes and the majority of seismicity recorded within Arizona have been located in an area of north-central Arizona. More recently, a pair of magnitude 4.9 and 5.3 earthquakes occurred in the Cataract Creek area outside of Flagstaff. Earthquakes of magnitude 4.0 or larger also have occurred in other areas of the state, including a magnitude 4.2 earthquake in December 2003 in eastern Arizona and a magnitude 4.9 earthquake near Chino Valley in 1976.
“The wealth of data provided by the EarthScope project is an unprecedented opportunity to detect and locate small-magnitude earthquakes in regions where seismic monitoring (i.e. seismic stations) has historically been sparse,” explains Lockridge. “Our study is the first to use EarthScope data to build a regional catalog that detects all earthquakes magnitude 1.2 or larger.”
His results appear in a paper titled, “Seismicity within Arizona during the Deployment of the EarthScope USArray Transportable Array,” published in the August 2012 issue of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. Ramon Arrowsmith and Matt Fouch, professors in ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration, are Lockridge’s dissertation advisors and coauthors on the paper. Fouch is also a geophysicist at the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism in Washington, DC.
“The most surprising result was the degree to which the EarthScope data were able to improve upon existing catalogs generated by regional and national networks. From April 2007 through November 2008, other networks detected only 80 earthquakes within the state, yet over that same time we found 884 earthquakes, or 11 times as many, which is really quite staggering,” says Lockridge.
“It’s one of countless examples of how powerful the EarthScope project is and how much it is improving our ability to study Earth.”
Lockridge is also lead author on a study that focuses on a cluster of earthquakes located east of Phoenix, near Theodore Roosevelt Lake. The results from this study will be published in Seismological Research Letters later this year. In his current studies as doctoral student, Lockridge is using the same methods used for Arizona to develop a comprehensive earthquake catalog for the Great Basin region in Nevada and western Utah.
Sakurajima Volcano has been steadily erupting for some time now. So much so that residents were asked to cover up and wear masks as a health and safety measure. According to researchers, this active volcano in Kagoshima Prefecture could release its largest amount of ash in two decades this year alone.
Going by the current stats available, the mountain has already spewed enough ash from January to July, amounting to twice the amount emitted in all of last year. Masato Iguchi, a professor at the Sakurajima Volcano Research Center said that last year saw a record number of eruptions as well. The ground around Sakurajima indicates the buildup of magma and appears swollen.
And if Sakurajima keeps being as active it is right now, we can expect the amount of ash expelled to be a new record. In the past two decades this year’s activity of explosions and ash fall have both risen dramatically. As a part of the Kyoto University’s disaster reduction research institute, keeping a tab on such stats is imperative to avoid another Pompeii. You may recollect the 1914 eruption as one of the deadliest one that killed 58 people. Presently, Minamidake crater erupted last month for the first time in about a year and a half and the Showa crater has been active since 2008.
On Aug. 15, NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite caught a crystal-clear image of a small ash plume emanating from a tiny volcanic Indonesian island. The volcano, called Batu Tara, is located on the island of Pulau Komba, and has been experiencing frequent, mild eruptions since mid-2006, according to a NASA release. While much of the island appears green thanks to tropical vegetation, one side of the island is noticeably free of plants and appears grayish. This barren area is a scarp that drops from the summit of the volcano to the ocean, a distance of 2,454 feet (748 meters). The scarp is created by the frequent eruptions, which send rocks and ash barreling down the slope.
Temperatures in some parts of France will reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) this weekend, forecasters predicted Thursday, triggering an alert system set up after 15,000 people died in a heatwave in 2003.
Health Minister Marisol Touraine said a level 2 alert on the 1-3 heatwave warning system would be issued to ensure the public was aware of the need to ensure the well-being of the elderly, babies and other people particularly vulnerable to unusually high temperatures.
“We have to be careful not to cause panic but at the same time make sure everyone is taking sensible precautions,” the minister said.
State forecasting body Meteo France expects temperatures to reach 40 degrees in south-western and central France with figures in the high 30s in much of the rest of the country.
France introduced its heatwave warning system in 2004, a year after 15,000 mostly elderly people died in an unexpected and sustained spell of unusually hot weather.
French authorities are fighting wildfires, keeping an eye on isolated elderly populations and advising people to drink fluids as temperatures soar in the country. Heatwave warnings were issued for a swath of central and southern France, from Burgundy to the Pyrenees. Temperatures are expected to reach up to 40C in some areas. The government is determined to avoid a repeat of the summer of 2003, when about 15,000 people died during a heatwave. Wildfires raged around Lacanau in the south-west on Thursday. Patrick Stefanini, prefect for the Aquitaine region, said on French television that they were brought under control on Friday. French television is airing public service announcements with recommendations to drink water and wear hats.
Tropical Storm Kai-tak blew out of the Philippines on Thursday, offering some relief for millions of people struggling to recover from a brutal few weeks of monsoon rains that claimed 109 lives.
However civil defence chief Benito Ramos said floods could still hit the Cagayan river basin, a farming region of more than two million people as runoff from storm-induced rains descend from surrounding mountain ranges.
“The storm is gone but we’re still on red alert. In 10 hours we’d know how much water would descend onto the Cagayan river,” Ramos told AFP.
Kai-tak swept across the Philippines’ main island of Luzon on Wednesday, dumping heavy rain on the Cagayan basin and other areas in the north, leading to the deaths of four people.
But the storm also caused more bad weather in other parts of Luzon, including the capital Manila and surrounding farming regions where an intense deluge triggered by another storm caused devastating floods last week.
Those floods, which came after nearly a fortnight of relentless rain that soaked the ground and filled rivers, killed at least 105 people, according to the government’s latest tally.
The government’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said it was still providing relief aid to nearly a million people impacted by last week’s floods, including more than 216,000 at evacuation centres.
Floods that persisted in the farming provinces surrounding Manila had started to recede, and the number of people in evacuation centres was about half the peak over the weekend.
Ramos said he expected most people would be able to return to their flood-damaged homes within a week.
However he said more than 12,000 families, or about 60,000 people, had lost their homes completely and would need temporary shelters for a longer period.
Anna Lindenfors, country head for aid group Save the Children, warned that the millions of people affected by the floods faced months of miserable and dangerous conditions either inside or outside evacuation centres.
“The need is massive and urgent — millions of people are suffering the miserable consequences of these floods and we must try to reach them before the rains hit again,” she said in a statement.
Kai-tak strengthened into a typhoon Thursday and was heading towards the coast of southern China west of Hong Kong.
The results of two studies in the August 15 issue of JAMA report on the psychological status of workers at the Fukushima nuclear power plants in Japan several months after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, and the amount of internal radiation exposure among residents of a city north of the power plant that experienced a meltdown.
As reported in a Research Letter, Jun Shigemura, M.D., Ph.D., of the National Defense Medical College, Saitama, Japan, and colleagues examined the psychological status of Fukushima workers 2 to 3 months after the disaster for symptoms of general psychological distress, including posttraumatic stress response (PTSR). The study included all full-time workers from the Daiichi plant (n = 1,053; plant experienced meltdown) and Daini plant (n = 707; plant experienced damage but remained intact) in May and June 2011.
Using a self-report questionnaire, the researchers assessed sociodemographic characteristics and disaster-related experiences, including discrimination/slurs because the electric company that managed these plants was criticized for their disaster response and the workers have been targets of discrimination. Measures of general psychological distress included feeling nervous, hopeless, restless/fidgety, depressed, and worthless in the last 30 days.
Of 1,760 eligible workers, 1,495 (85 percent) participated (Daiichi: n = 885 [84 percent]; Daini: n = 610 [86 percent]). The authors found that compared with Daini workers, Daiichi workers were more often exposed to disaster-related stressors. Experiencing discrimination or slurs was not statistically significantly different between groups (14 percent vs. 11 percent). The researchers found that general psychological distress and PTSR were common in nuclear plant workers 2 to 3 months after the disaster.
“Daiichi workers had significantly higher rates of psychological distress (47 percent vs. 37 percent) and PTSR (30 percent vs. 19 percent). For both groups, discrimination or slurs were associated with high psychological distress and high PTSR. Other significant associations in both groups included tsunami evacuation and major property loss with psychological distress and pre-existing illness and major prop�erty loss with PTSR.”
Study Finds Low Levels of Radiation Exposure to Residents of City North of Meltdown In another Research Letter, Masaharu Tsubokura, M.D., of the University of Tokyo, and colleagues conducted a study to gauge the level of radiation exposure to residents of the city of Minamisoma, located 14 miles north of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. “Release of radioactive material into the air, water, and soil raised concern about internal radiation exposure and the long-term risk of cancer in nearby residents,” they write.
Many residents were evacuated after the meltdown, but by August 2011, approximately half had returned. A voluntary screening program for levels of cesium, known to be representative of total internal radiation exposure, was conducted between September 2011 and March 2012 for all residents ages 6 years or older.
Total cesium exposure was converted into committed effective dose (sievert, Sv). Common dose-limit recommendations for the public are 1 mSv or less. A total of 9,498 residents enrolled in the study, 24 percent of the registered population on August 15, 2011.
The sample consisted of 1,432 children and 8,066 adults. A total of 3,286 individuals (34.6 percent) had detectable levels of cesium, including 235 children (16.4 percent) and 3,051 adults (37.8 percent). Committed effective doses were less than 1 mSv in all but 1 resident (1.07 mSv).
“To our knowledge, this is the first report on internal exposure to cesium radiation after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant incident. In this sample, exposure levels were low in most adults and children tested and much lower than those reported in studies years after the Chernobyl incident. Even the highest levels of contamination observed are below the thresholds for the administration of Prussian blue [an antidote used in the treatment of cesium poisoning],” the authors write.
The researchers note that because this screening program started 6 months after the nuclear power plant disaster, higher exposure levels might have been detected earlier, and that it is not possible to ascertain whether the low levels of exposure were due to low ongoing exposure or decay from high exposure values.
“Because data were collected from volunteers, the results may not be representative of the entire population in contaminated areas. No case of acute health problems has been reported so far; however, assessments of the long-term effect of radiation requires ongoing monitoring of exposure and the health conditions of the affected communities.”
Fire crews were called to Torness nuclear power station in East Lothian early yesterday after a blaze broke out. The plant’s on-site fire team dealt with the incident, which involved lagging on a pipe catching alight at 12:25am. Managers insisted there was no risk to the public during the incident at the plant, operated by French firm EDF Energy.
Aircraft have begun spraying pesticide over parts of Dallas, Texas to combat an outbreak of mosquito-borne West Nile Virus blamed for 17 deaths this year, authorities said Friday. The Texas Department of State Health Services said the aircraft covered 52,000 acres of Dallas County on Thursday night, opening a new front to stop the spread of West Nile Virus. “Aerial spraying is a safe and very effective tool, but it doesn’t take the place of the basic precautions,” said David Lakey, the head of the health department. “We are urging people to continue using insect repellent every time they go outside.” Four more aircraft were to resume spraying later Friday, and residents were cautioned to avoid going outdoors, keep pets inside, cover ornamental fishponds and rinse off homegrown fruits and vegetables. Throughout the state 465 people have been sickened since the start of the year, putting it on track to have the most cases since the disease first emerged a decade ago, the department said. The county incorporating Dallas, the ninth-largest city in the United States, has been the hardest hit, prompting the mayor to declare a local state of disaster on Wednesday. “The city of Dallas is experiencing a widespread outbreak of mosquito-borne West Nile virus that has caused, and appears likely to continue to cause, widespread and severe illness and loss of life,” Mayor Michael Rawlings said. The virus has claimed ten lives in the county so far, local and state health authorities said. First discovered in Uganda in 1937, the virus is carried by birds and spread to humans by mosquitoes. Severe symptoms of the virus include high fever, vision loss and paralysis, while milder symptoms range from headaches to skin rashes. At least 693 cases — both confirmed and probable — of the virus have been reported in the United States this year, including 26 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Texas tops the list in both total cases and fatalities.
An outbreak of Ebola has killed one person and is believed to have infected three others over the last week in northeastern Congo, medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said on Friday. The outbreak is in Isiro, a busy town in Democratic Republic of Congo’s Oriental province, which shares a border with Uganda, but the strain of the deadly disease is different to the one that killed 16 there last month, MSF said. Ebola is transmitted to humans from monkeys and birds and causes massive bleeding in victims, with mortality rates as high as 90 percent. Anja de Weggheleire, the medical coordinator for MSF in the area, said blood samples from one victim had confirmed Ebola in Isiro and there were at least three other suspected cases being treated in an MSF-supported local hospital. “We cannot speak of a direct link between the two epidemics, I think unfortunately it’s just pure coincidence,” de Weggheleire told Reuters. MSF was helping track and isolate people who may have come in contact with the disease, she added. Authorities in Uganda said this week that the outbreak there was under control after they imposed strict measures to prevent Ebola from spreading in the west of the country. However, Congo’s health system is permanently stretched and MSF warned that preventing the spread of the disease from the town, a provincial transit point, could be a challenge. “(The situation) is quite serious already … Isiro is quite a busy place, quite well connected, that could make it quite complex to contain (the fever),” de Weggheleire added.
The ocean, the ground, rocks and trees act as carbon drains but are far from places where greenhouses gases are concentrated, especially CO2. A Spanish researcher has proposed human, agricultural and livestock waste, such as urine, as a way to absorb this gas. Ads by Google Wastewater Solutions Now – Download the Innovative Papers And Get a $50 Discount to WEFTEC 2012. – http://www.DiscoverWEF.org Absorbing the large quantities of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases present in cities would require millions of tonnes of some naturally occurring substance. A study published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials suggests urine as a reactive. As a resource available across all human societies, it is produced in large quantities and is close to the pollution hubs of large cities. “For every molecule of urea in urine, one mole (a chemical unit used to measure the quantity of a substance) of ammonium bicarbonate is produced along with one mole of ammonia, which could be used to absorb one mole of atmospheric CO2,” as explained to SINC by the author of the study, Manuel Jiménez Aguilar of the Institute of Agricultural and Fisheries Research and Training of the Regional Government of Andalusia. After absorbing the CO2 another unit of ammonium bicarbonate is produced, which is used in China as a nitrogen fertilizer for 30 years. Jiménez Aguilar points out that “if applied to basic-calcium rich soils this would produce calcium carbonate thus encouraging gas-fixation in the ground. To avoid the urine from decomposing, the researcher suggests the possibility of including a small proportion of olive waste water (a black, foul-smelling liquid obtained from spinning the ground olive paste). This acts as a preservative. The researcher confirms that “the urine-CO2-olive waste water could be considered an NPK fertilizer (ammonia-nitrate-phosphorous-potassium).” A Spanish researcher has proposed human, agricultural and livestock waste, such as urine, as a way to absorb CO2. Credit: SINC The result is that the urine mixed with a small percentage of olive waste water can absorb various grams of CO2 per litre in a stable manner and over more than six months. According to Jiménez Aguilar, “CO2 emissions could be reduced by 1%.” The fluid created can be inserted into domestic and industrial chimneys (reconverted into containers to accumulate the urine-olive waste water mixture) so that the greenhouse gas passes through the liquid, increasing the pressure exerted on the CO2 and thus increasing its absorption capacity. As the scientist makes clear “these containers or chimneys should have a urine filling and emptying system and a control system to detect when the mixture has become saturated with gas.” When taken out of the chimney, the urine is stored in another container or can be channelled for its distribution and use as an agricultural fertilizer. Making the most of urine By applying this methodology as a greenhouse gas absorbent, the way in which industrialised countries use waste water and solid waste would never be the same again. The author hints that the whole water and waste treatment system would be reviewed to adapt newly built areas to a waste recycling and waste management system. “In developing countries this nutrient recovery system could be implemented thanks to its environmental advantages,” says the expert. Furthermore, urine recycling in every home would allow for nutrients to be recovered, leading to a lesser need for artificial fertilizers. Jiménez emphasises that “if urine and faeces are recycled there and then, as much as 20 litres of water per person per day could be saved and this would reduce waste water treatment costs.” The study suggests that urine should be recycled for it to be used as fertilizer liquid and that faeces should be treated with solid organic waste to produce compost or solid fertilizers. The researcher also states in another study that is pending publication that the urine-olive waste water mixture can also be used to reduce the CO2 and NOx emissions of vehicles. More information: Journal of Hazardous Materials 213: 502-504 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2012.01.087, 30 April 2012. Journal reference: Journal of Hazardous Materials search and more info website Provided by Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) search and more info website
Specialists were surprised Thursday after a Sandtiger Shark ran aground on the French coastline of the English Channel, even though it is normally found in deeper and warmer waters.
The dead shark that authorities said weighed 200 to 300 kilogrammes (440 to 360 pounds) and measured 2.5 metres (8.2 feet) was found Monday evening by tourists at Agon-Coutainville before it was pushed back out to sea hours later.
“Encounters between man and the Sandtiger Shark are rare and do not occur in the English Channel,” according to Eric Stephan, an official with the Association for the Study and Preservation of Selachians.
“One can observe it off the coast of Colombia. One also finds it off the coast of Australia, New Zealand and the Mediterranean,” Stephan told AFP.
“This species feeds on fish and squid and has never been mentioned in accidents between humans and sharks,” said the specialist who identified the shark from police and tourist photographs.
Stephan said the Sandtiger Shark resembles more the Greynurse Shark, often seen in aquariums, than it does the Tiger or Bull Shark that is blamed for attacking surfers in the Reunion, an Indian Ocean island belonging to France.
The case is “all the more surprising as it lives in deep waters,” according to Samuel Iglesias, a specialist in sharks and rays at the Natural History Museum at Concarneau who spoke to the newspaper West France.
The beaching of sharks is much rarer than that of whales that have air in their lungs and tend to rise to the surface, experts said. Dead sharks tend to sink.
But the presence of sharks off the coast of France, including in the English Channel, is not a surprise as more than 30 species have been spotted there, Stephan said.
In the absence of an autopsy, experts said, the causes of the beaching are difficult to establish. It cannot be ruled out that the animal was ill and its orientation system failed.
But from “time to time one finds cases of species turning up where one doesn’t expect them,” without it happening again or without necessarily providing signs that the ecosystem is out of kilter, Stephan said.
[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.]
Some called it an “earthquake cluster,” others a “swarm.” Seismologists used the term “earthquake sequence.”
Whatever the name, a series of more than 30 small to moderate temblors jolted Southern California on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, rattling nerves but causing no significant damage.
The cluster of earthquakes that struck near Yorba Linda was centered near the Whittier fault, but preliminary data suggested that fault was not responsible for the temblor, said Doug Given, a geophysicist with theU.S. Geological Survey.
“There are lots and lots of little faults all over that area,” Given said of the northern Orange County region where the quakes were centered. “It’s a known active area.”
The shaking began with a magnitude 4.5 earthquake near Yorba Linda about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, bookended by another 4.5 quake about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, but with many smaller ones in between.
At a news conference Wednesday morning, Kate Hutton of theU.S. Geological Surveysaid that of all the quakes, only three were probably felt by residents. The two 4.5 temblors were felt across a wide swath of Southern California, with people reporting shaking as far away as Thousand Oaks, the Santa Clarita Valley, the Westside and northern San Diego County, according to the USGS’s “Did You Feel It?” website.
“This is all part of the same earthquake sequence; they’re all in the same area,” Hutton told reporters.
“It shook us pretty good. We’ve felt earthquakes before, so it came as no surprise,” said Chris Nordyke, director of marketing at the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda. “It shook open the door, but nothing fell off the shelves.”
Given said the excitement offers a lesson for the region. “We live in earthquake country. Earthquakes are normal here, and people should be prepared,” he said.
YORBA LINDA, CALIF. — The earthquakes keep coming for Southern California was shaken Wednesday by the second moderate but widely felt earthquake in less than 11 hours, but no harm was reported. Officials said the recent outbreak of California earthquakes in 2012 is not out of the ordinary.
Or at least, the recent flurry of California earthquakes is nothing for residents to get unusually rattled about.
“There is nothing in this sequence, at this point, that tells us we need to be particularly worried,” said Elizabeth Cochran, a geophycist at the U.S. Geological Survey, according to the Lake Forest Patch in California.
Cochran said more aftershocks should be expected.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude-4.5 quake occurred at 9:33 a.m. and was centered two miles northeast of the Orange County city of Yorba Linda, about 35 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
A magnitude-4.5 quake centered in the same area struck late Tuesday night. Both temblors were followed by numerous aftershocks that were mostly too small to be felt.
Quakes of such magnitude are unlikely to cause damage in cities built to modern standards but can rattle nerves.
The Orange County Fire Authority did not receive any 911 calls about the latest quake, said Capt. Marc Stone.
“It was a decent sized shake and it’s a reminder for everyone to have a plan for the Big One,” said Stone. “How would you and your family survive for 72 hours with no water, no food and no amenities? Think about it. It’s a reminder to go home and say, ‘What if?’ and make that plan.”
Seismologist Kate Hutton of the California Institute of Technology characterized the quakes as a swarm.
The location is near the Whittier Fault, but the quakes could be occurring on an unmapped fault, she said.
“This is likely normal California earthquake activity,” Hutton said.
The staff of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Museum in Yorba Linda was still talking about Tuesday night’s quake when Wednesday’s struck, said Jonathan Movroydis, director of communications.
“It did shake us pretty well,” Movroydis said, but the jolt was so short no one ducked under their desks.
Meanwhile, newly acquired Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Shane Victorino tweeted: “Why is the hotel shaking????? … Welcome to LA!”
(Reuters) – Overcrowded hospitals in northwest Iran struggled to cope with thousands of earthquake victims on Sunday as rescuers raced to reach remote villages after two powerful quakes killed nearly 300 people.
Thousands huddled in makeshift camps or slept in the street after Saturday’s quakes for fear of more aftershocks, 60 of which had already struck. A lack of tents and other supplies left them exposed to the night chill, one witness told Reuters.
“I saw some people whose entire home was destroyed, and all their livestock killed,” Tahir Sadati, a local photographer, said by telephone. “People need help, they need warm clothes, more tents, blankets and bread.”
The worst damage and most casualties appeared to have been in rural villages around the towns of Ahar, Varzaghan and Harees, near the major city of Tabriz, Iranian media reported.
Tabriz resident Ahmad, 41, told Reuters his cousin living in a village near Ahar was killed and his body found.
“Nobody knows what happened to his wife and two daughters,” aged 4 and 7, Ahmad said. “We fear that if rescuers don’t get to them soon, they will lose their lives too if they’re still alive.”
But Iranian officials said rescue operations had ended by Sunday afternoon and that all those trapped beneath the rubble had been freed, Iran’s English-language Press TV reported.
Many villages are hard to reach by road, hindering rescue efforts. Hospitals in Tabriz, Ardabil and other cities nearby took in many of the injured, residents and Iranian media said, and there were long queues of survivors waiting to be treated.
“I wanted to go there last night to help but heard there was bad traffic and that it wasn’t safe enough,” Ahmad said. “People in those villages need help.”
Abbas Falahi, member of parliament for Ahar and Harees, said people in some villages were still “in dire need of food and drinking water”, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
“Despite the promises of officials, little first aide has been distributed in the region and most people are left without tents. If the situation continues, the toll will rise,” he said.
Aidin, a Tabriz resident, said he went to give blood at a local hospital on Saturday and saw staff struggling to cope with the influx of patients. Most patients had been taken there by their families, he said, indicating a shortage of ambulances.
Ahar’s 120-bed hospital was full, said Arash, a college student in the town. There were traffic jams on the narrow road to Tabriz as victims tried to reach hospitals, he said by telephone.
VILLAGES DESTROYED
“People are scared and won’t go back into their houses because they fear the buildings aren’t safe.”
The U.S. Geological Survey measured Saturday’s first quake at 6.4 magnitude and said it struck 60 km (37 miles) northeast of the city of Tabriz, a trading hub far from Iran’s oil-producing areas and known nuclear facilities.
The second, measuring 6.3, struck 11 minutes later near Varzaghan, 49 km (30 miles) northeast of Tabriz.
More than 1,000 villages in the area were affected by the earthquakes, Ahmad Reza Shaji’i, a Red Crescent official, told the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA). Some 130 villages suffered more than 70 percent damage, and 20 villages were completely destroyed, he said.
“We saw some villages that were truly destroyed,” said Sadati, the photographer who was documenting the quake aftermath. “One good thing was that the earthquake happened during the day, so many people were not in their homes. If it had happened at night the casualties would have been far worse.”
Close to 300 people were believed to be dead, said Reza Sadighi, Ahar’s local governor, Fars news agency said. National emergency head Gholam Reza Masoumi said 5,000 people are believed to be injured, according to ISNA.
Nearly 100 ambulances and 1,100 Red Crescent workers were deployed, Shaji’i said, along with 44,000 food packages and 5,600 tents for shelter. The relief agency had enough supplies and most residents in the area had access to clean water but Shaji’i asked residents to donate cash to the relief effort.
Tehran officials sent condolences to the victims and declared two days of mourning in the province, ISNA reported.
About 36,000 people in the quake-hit area have been given emergency shelter, Masoumi was quoted as saying by ISNA.
Iranian lawmaker Mohammad Hassan-Nejad warned that if relief efforts did not speed up, the death toll would swiftly rise.
“Relief groups have still not reached many villages, because in normal conditions some of these villages are several hours away,” he told ISNA. “Currently the roads are closed and the only way to reach these villages is by air.”
COLLAPSED BUILDINGS
Photographs posted on Iranian news websites showed numerous bodies, including children, lying on the floor of a white-tiled morgue in Ahar and medical staff treating the injured in the open air as dusk fell on Saturday. Other images showed rescue workers digging people out of rubble – some alive, many dead.
Twenty-eight year old Narges in Tehran said she saw dozens of people in a hospital waiting to donate blood for the victims.
Iran is crisscrossed by major fault lines and has suffered several devastating earthquakes in recent years, including a 6.6 magnitude quake in 2003 that reduced the historic southeastern city of Bam to dust and killed about 31,000 people.
Saturday’s quakes struck in East Azerbaijan province, a mountainous region that neighbors Azerbaijan and Armenia to the north. Buildings in Tabriz, the provincial capital, are substantially built and ISNA reported nobody in the city had been killed or hurt.
Homes and business premises in Iranian villages, however, are often made of concrete blocks or mud brick that can crumble and collapse in a strong quake.
Water, electricity, and phone lines in the area of Varzaghan are all down, further hindering rescue efforts, Iran’s English-language Press TV reported.
Tabriz residents left their homes and crowded the streets following the two quakes, those in the city said. “Everyone was scared last night,” a resident said by telephone. “They set up tents and were sleeping in the streets and in parks.”
(Additional reporting by Marcus George and Zahra Hosseinian; Writing by Andrew Torchia and Marcus George; Editing by Jon Hemming)
14.08.2012
Earthquake
Iran
Province of East Azarbaijan, [About 21 miles west of Ahar]
With thousands injured as the death toll from Iran’s dual earthquakes nears 300, hospitals are reeling from the increased traffic. There are long lines outside as doctors work feverishly to cope with the injuries. “From last night until this afternoon when I left Shohada-ye Tabriz hospital, doctors were constantly performing operations,” said one physician. “Ordinary people were working alongside rescuers. They were bringing food and water to the hospital.” Meanwhile, thousands of refugees are staying in camps and parks as they weather the some 60 aftershocks that have hit thus far, Reuters reports.
Some 20 villages were completely destroyed, and 130 saw more than 70% damage, according to the Red Crescent. Officials say search and rescue operations are over; now they’re “working to provide shelter and food to the survivors.” But stories conflict as to how effective efforts have been. The Red Crescent says it has enough supplies, and an emergency official says 36,000 people have received emergency shelter. But “despite the promises of officials, little first aid has been distributed in the region and most people are left without tents,” said an MP.
Overcrowded hospitals in northwestern Iran struggled to cope with thousands of earthquake victims on Sunday and rescuers raced to reach remote villages after two powerful quakes killed nearly 300 people and injured 5,000. Thousands huddled in makeshift camps or slept in the street after Saturday’s quakes in fear of more aftershocks, 60 of which had already struck. A lack of tents and other supplies left them exposed to the night chill, one witness told Reuters. “I saw some people whose entire home was destroyed, and all their livestock killed,” Tahir Sadati, a local photographer, said by telephone. “People need help, they need warm clothes, more tents, blankets and bread.” The worst damage and most casualties appeared to have been in rural villages around the towns of Ahar, Varzaghan and Harees, near the major city of Tabriz, Iranian media reported. The U.S. Geological Survey measured Saturday’s first quake at 6.4 magnitude and said it struck 37 miles northeast of the city of Tabriz, a trading hub far from Iran’s oil-producing areas and known nuclear facilities.Tabriz resident Ahmad, 41, told Reuters his cousin living in a village near Ahar was killed and that his body had already been found.
“Nobody knows what happened to his wife and two daughters,” aged 4 and 7, Ahmad said. “We fear that if rescuers don’t get to them soon, they will lose their lives too if they’re still alive.” Iranian officials said rescue operations had ended by Sunday afternoon and that all those trapped beneath the rubble had been freed, Iran’s English-language Press TV reported. But the head of Iran’s Relief and Emergency Organization said that rescue operations were continuing, according to the New York Times.Many villages are hard to reach by road, hindering rescue efforts. Hospitals in Tabriz, Ardabil and other cities nearby took in many of the injured, residents and Iranian media said, and there were long queues of survivors waiting to be treated. “I wanted to go there last night to help but heard there was bad traffic and that it wasn’t safe enough,” Ahmad said. “People in those villages need help.” Aidin, a Tabriz resident, said he went to give blood at a local hospital on Saturday and saw staff struggling to cope with the influx of patients. Most patients had been taken there by their families, he said, indicating a shortage of ambulances. Ahar’s 120-bed hospital was full, said Arash, a college student and resident of the town. There were traffic jams on the narrow road between Ahar and Tabriz as victims tried to reach hospitals, he said by telephone.
“People are scared and won’t go back into their houses because they fear the buildings aren’t safe.” The second, measuring 6.3, struck 11 minutes later near Varzaghan, 30 miles northeast of Tabriz. More than 1,000 villages in the area were affected by the earthquakes, Ahmad Reza Shaji’i, a Red Crescent official, told the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA). About 130 villages suffered more than 70 percent damage, and 20 villages were completely destroyed, he said. “We saw some villages that were truly destroyed,” said Sadati, the photographer who was documenting the quake aftermath. “One good thing was that the earthquake happened during the day, so many people were not in their homes. If it had happened at night the casualties would have been far worse.” Close to 300 people were believed to be dead, said Reza Sadighi, Ahar’s local governor, Fars news agency said. National emergency head Gholam Reza Masoumi said 5,000 people are believed to be injured, according to ISNA.“Most of the dead are women and children, as the earthquake happened during the day, when many men were out working,” said Marjan Lagaei, an Iranian reporter who traveled to the area, told the New York Times.Nearly 100 ambulances and 1,100 Red Crescent workers were deployed, Shaji’i said, along with 44,000 food packages and 5,600 tents for shelter. The relief agency had enough supplies and most residents in the area had access to clean water but Shaji’i asked residents to donate cash to the relief effort. Officials in Tehran extended condolences to the victims and declared two days of mourning to be held in the province, ISNA reported. About 16,000 people in the quake-hit area have been given emergency shelter, Red Crescent official Mahmoud Mozafar told Mehr news agency. Iranian lawmaker Mohammad Hassan-Nejad warned that if relief efforts did not speed up, the death toll would swiftly rise. “Relief groups have still not reached many villages, because in normal conditions some of these villages are several hours away,” he told ISNA. “Currently the roads are closed and the only way to reach these villages is by air.”
Photographs posted on Iranian news websites showed numerous bodies, including children, lying on the floor of a white-tiled morgue in Ahar and medical staff treating the injured in the open air as dusk fell on Saturday. Other images showed rescue workers digging people out of rubble – some alive, many dead. Iran is crisscrossed by major fault lines and has suffered several devastating earthquakes in recent years, including a 6.6 magnitude quake in 2003 that reduced the historic southeastern city of Bam to dust and killed about 31,000 people. Saturday’s quakes struck in East Azerbaijan province, a mountainous region that neighbors Azerbaijan and Armenia to the north. Buildings in Tabriz, the provincial capital, are substantially built and ISNA reported nobody in the city had been killed or hurt. Homes and business premises in Iranian villages, however, are often made of concrete blocks or mud brick that can crumble and collapse in a strong quake. Water, electricity, and phone lines in the area of Varzaghan are all down, further hindering rescue efforts, Iran’s English-language Press TV reported. Tabriz residents left their homes and crowded the streets following the two quakes, those in the city said. “Everyone was scared last night,” a resident said by telephone. “They set up tents and were sleeping in the streets and in parks.” Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a telegram to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday expressing his sympathy and offering assistance, the Kremlin’s press service said. Pope Benedict XVI asked Christians to pray for the victims of the quakes.
An earthquake of the magnitude 2.7 hit just north of Goðabunga in Mýrdalsjökull glacier, which covers the volcano Katla in South Iceland, around 8:30 am yesterday morning. It was part of a swarm of minor earthquakes. The second-largest had a magnitude of 1.8. The Katla area has been rather quiet in the past weeks. There was more activity in the area in the spring when two small glacier outbursts flooded the river Leirá in Kötlukriki and Emstrur, to the west of Mýrdalsjökull, ruv.is reports. The seismic activity then subsided and GPS monitors showed decreasing tension in the lithosphere. Yesterday’s quakes were not connected with any volcanic activity and there has not been any increased flow in glacial rivers originating in Mýrdalsjökull. However, glacial water in the vicinity has smelled of sulfur, according to geophysicist Benedikt Ófeigsson at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, such as in the river Jökulsá at Sólheimasandur and Leirá in Kötlukriki. Katla has been monitored closely by scientists since a major glacial outburst, possibly caused by a minor volcanic eruption underneath Mýrdalsjökull, tore a hole in the Ring Road in South Iceland in July 2011.
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Pacific quake swarm woke up underwater volcano
A screenshot of the Pumice island that the volcano is believed to have birthed. Image by: RoyalW1979 / YouTube
A swarm of more than 150 earthquakes over two days last month caused a previously dormant volcano to erupt 1 100 metres beneath the Pacific Ocean, a scientist says.
The eruption of the Havre Volcano, about halfway between New Zealand and Tonga, is believed to have caused a 7 500 square kilometre floating island of pumice that was encountered by a New Zealand navy ship last week.
Cornel de Ronde, principal scientist of the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, told Radio New Zealand the source of the pumice had been identified in cooperation with French researchers in Tahiti who monitor earthquakes in the south-west Pacific.
“When they looked at their physical records they saw that on July 17th and 18th, there were some 157 earthquakes of magnitudes between 3.0 and 4.8,” he said.
De Ronde said they occurred near the time of the first sighting of the pumice “raft” and when the institute looked at its database it found the Havre volcano which it had previously surveyed.
It was a caldera volcano, like White Island, 50 kilometres off the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island, which erupted last week, but the Havre was not thought to have erupted before, he said.
De Ronde said the pumice island was so light that it had floated several hundred kilometres from the volcano when it was encountered by the HMNZS Canterbury, which took samples last week.
Scientists were also analysing samples of rock ejected from Mount Tongariro, on New Zealand’s North Island, to try to find out why it erupted a week ago for the first time in 115 years.
A mass of small volcanic rocks nearly the size of Belgium has been discovered floating off the coast.
The stretch of golf-ball-size pumice rocks was first spotted this week by a New Zealand air force plane about 1,000 kilometres northwest of Auckland.
The rocks stretch for about 26,000 square kilometres.
A navy ship took scientists to the rocks Thursday night. Naval Lt. Tim Oscar says the rocks appeared a brilliant white under a spotlight, like a giant ice shelf.
He says it’s the “weirdest thing” he’s seen in 18 years at sea.
“The rock looked to be sitting two feet above the surface of the waves, and lit up a brilliant white colour in the spotlight. It looked exactly like the edge of an ice shelf,” he said.
Lt. Oscar said he had been briefed by GNS Volcanologist Helen Bostock the previous day when the ship first encountered an area of pumice from an undersea volcano.
“I knew the pumice was lightweight and posed no danger to the ship. None the less it was quite daunting to be moving toward it at 14 knots. It took about 3 – 4 minutes to travel through the raft of pumice and as predicted there was no damage. As we moved through the raft of pumice we used the spotlights to try and find the edge – but it extended as far as we could see.”
Scientists say the rocks likely spewed up in an eruption by an underwater volcano. They don’t believe the eruption is connected to the onshore ash eruption this week of another volcano, Mount Tongariro.
Officials say the small rocks pose no danger to shipping.
The Defence Force says the mass of rocks stretches 250 nautical miles by 30 nautical miles.
SOURCE: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10826068
TUPI, SOUTH COTABATO — The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) has allayed fears of volcanic activity in Mt. Matutum as claimed by residents.
Phivolcs chief Renato U. Solidum, Jr. said in a letter sent to Mayor Reynaldo S. Tamayo on Friday that the observations of smoke and fire coming out of the crater were non-volcanic in nature.
“Ocular inspections at the crater area and seismic records showed that there were no volcanic activities, specifically an imminent eruption, in Mt. Matutum,” Mr. Solidum said.
Rolly T. Visaya, Tupi information officer, told BusinessWorld that weeks prior to the Phivolcs letter, residents of Barangays Acmonan and Kablon in Tupi, and Maligo in Polomolok observed certain developments such as the descent of wild animals from the mountains as well as burnt vegetation.
The locals also claimed to have felt the ground shaking and heard unusual rumblings from the volcano, he added.
To confirm the observations, both Tupi and Polomolok towns sent their rescue teams to Mt. Matutum to get firsthand information through photographs and videos.
From the information acquired, Mr. Tamayo, who also chairs the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council of Tupi, then requested for Phivolcs’s investigation.
The absence of micro-earthquake activity in the seismic record of the agency’s volcano-seismic observatory at Mindanao State University in General Santos City meant that the phenomenon is not volcanic in origin, Mr. Solidum said.
On the reported sighting of wild animals descending to the lowlands, he said it could be due to scarcity of food or disturbances of their habitat, be it man-made, lighting and other phenomena.
Before Phivolcs’s response, there have been reports of several families from the adjoining town of Malungon in Sarangani province who have evacuated from their houses for safety, Mr. Visaya said.
Mt. Matutum stands 2,286 meters, the 14th highest peak in the Philippines, and has a base that covers the towns of Tupi and Polomolok in South Cotabato and Malungon in Sarangani. The popular trekking destination’s last recorded eruption was in 1911, Mr. Visaya said citing Phivolcs records.
Mr. Solidum explained that a new volcanic vent as dormant volcano reactivates will not dissipate overnight, but will become more vigorous over time.
He explained “that should the volcano end its dormancy and enter a period of magmatic activity, unmistakable signs of unrest will be manifested, such as small ash and gas explosions that can intensify through time, ground deformation, vegetation kill, unabated crater glow at the summit and increasingly perceptible earthquakes.”
Mr. Visaya said Phivolcs national office personnel are in town to further study the volcanic conditions. — Louie O. Pacardo
A fast-moving brush fire in Northern California is threatening 500 homes and has prompted officials to evacuate an entire town. Fueled by broiling, dry conditions, the Wye fire off Highway 20 has burned 3,000 acres near the Lake County town of Spring Valley, which was evacuated. “It is burning on both sides of Highway 20 and it’s burning in an easterly direction toward the community of Spring Valley,” Cal Fire Battalion Chief Julie Hutchinson told the Lake County News. According to Cal Fire, a second fire is also burning in Lake County. The Walker fire has burned 2,000 acres. Firefighters were traveling from across the state to help battle both fires.
A new wildfire burning east of Cle Elum in central Washington is growing quickly and reportedly threatening some homes. A Washington Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman says the Taylor Bridge fire had burned across more than a square mile – or about 800 acres- by mid-afternoon Monday. Fire crews from nearby communities are being called to the scene. The Daily Record of Ellensburg reports that the state Transportation Department is closing a two-mile section of U.S. Highway 97 because of the fire. The newspaper says a stable has moved all of its horses.
Hot, dry winds Monday afternoon prompted major growth in a week-old lightning-sparked forest fire on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, estimated to have burned 70 to 100 acres of valuable timber. The newly named Waterfall fire, burning about three miles northeast of the Mt. Jefferson summit, is “one we’ve been watching” since a lightning strike from Aug. 5 thunderstorms ignited it, said fire spokesman Clay Penhollow. “We had a crew on, fighting the west side of it today, but it took off on the east” side as winds picked up, Penhollow said, adding that no structures or roads were threatened. Instead, he said, it was burning some “valuable timber,” putting up a plume visible for many miles. An air tanker dropped retardant on the fire Monday morning until it was diverted to another fire in Washington state, Penhollow said. There were two helicopters dropping water on the flames later in the day, with one 20-person firefighting crew on the lines, another on its way and three more ordered up, he added. The fire was moving east down the headwaters of Shitike Creek, but was still more than 20 miles west of Warm Springs, Penhollow.
More than 5,000 people have been evacuated from La Gomera, one of the smallest Canary Islands, as forest fires that began nine days ago continue to burn out of control. Nearly 2,000 acres of the Garajonay national park have been destroyed. The evacuees represent a quarter of the population and some 11% of the island’s landmass is in flames. A dry winter and high August temperatures have led to this being one of the worst in many years for forest fires in Spain. On the Spanish mainland, tens of thousands of acres of woodland have been lost in Valencia, Galicia and Catalunya. Two people died fighting fires in Alicante. Humberto Gutiérrez, head of emergency services in the Canaries, says there is no hope of dousing the flames in the short term. “Meteorological conditions are not on our side,” he said. Paulino Rivero, the Canary Islands’ president, said he hoped falling temperatures and rising humidity might slow the spread of the fires.
A mudslide near Pahaska Tepee closed down the East Entrance to Yellowstone Park on Sunday morning. Early morning thunderstorms led to heavy rain and the slide covered both lanes of the North Fork Highway. Chris Jones, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Riverton, said about a half inch of rain fell in under 30 minutes. The same amount of rain in an urban area would cause street flooding, where water would rise above the sidewalks, Jones said. “A half inch in an urban area can cause problems,” he said. The slide caused the east gate to close 6:30-10 a.m. Sunday, Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash said. A truck ended up stuck in the slide. It was traveling in the rain and was on top of the slide, said Jim Berry, maintenance foreman for the Wyoming Department of Transportation in Cody. Berry said traffic began moving again at 9:30 a.m. and the two lanes were open by 12:30 p.m. Jones said the area around the east gate, which has steep sides and sometimes low vegetation, has been known to have slides in the past.
A reactor at the Millstone nuclear plant in Waterford, Conn., has shut down because of something that its 1960s designers never anticipated: the water in Long Island Sound was too warm to cool it. Under the reactor’s safety rules, the cooling water can be no higher than 75 degrees. On Sunday afternoon, the water’s temperature soared to 76.7 degrees, prompting the operator, Dominion Power, to order the shutdown of the 880-megawatt reactor. “Temperatures this summer are the warmest we’ve had since operations began here at Millstone,’’ said a spokesman for Dominion, Ken Holt. The plant’s first reactor, now retired, began operation in 1970. The plant’s third reactor was still running on Monday, but engineers were watching temperature trends carefully out of concern that it, too, might have to shut down. A spokeswoman for the regional grid control center, ISO-New England, said the shutdown had not impaired the functioning of the grid because generation has been more than sufficient. But in periods when industrial demand for electricity has been stronger, a reactor shutdown has sometimes forced grid operators to scramble.
The water from the sound is piped into the plant to absorb heat from pumps and other pieces of equipment. As the sound’s temperature inched upward this summer, Dominion Power received permission from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to measure it at three locations instead of one and to calculate the average in the hope that it would be lower. That did not help on Sunday. And higher water temperatures could lie ahead. The sound’s temperature usually does not peak until late August. Eventually, engineers could change the Millford reactor’s intake pipe so it draws water from further below the surface, where temperatures are lower, Mr. Holt said. They could also sharpen their pencils and try to determine whether the plant can operate safely with cooling water above 75 degrees, but neither is a short-term project. Cloud cover and the mixing of some cooler rainfall might also bring down temperatures, Mr. Holt suggested. While some reactors in inland locations have had to reduce their power output or shut down because of warm cooling water in the past, it is unusual for coastal plants, nuclear industry officials say. “We are evaluating our options for the future,’’ Mr. Holt said. “We don’t know, is this year an anomaly or is it the continuation of a longer trend?’ Power plants in the Midwest have also experienced problems as temperatures soared in recent weeks. In some cases, reactors shut down because the cooling water was too warm; in others, the ongoing drought had shrunken the body of water from which the cooling water is drawn, and the plant’s intake pipes were above the surface. Last month the twin-unit Braidwood nuclear plant in Illinois needed special permission to keep operating because its cooling water pond reached 102 degrees as a result of low rainfall and high air temperatures. When Braidwood opened 26 years ago, it was designed to run at temperatures up to 98 degrees.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The Pennsylvania Department of Health is once again providing free potassium iodide tablets to help residents of the commonwealth prepare for public health emergencies involving nuclear facilities.
People who live, work or attend school within a 10-mile radius of the state’s five nuclear power plants can get the tablets, which can help protect the thyroid gland against harmful radioactive iodine.
The tablets will be distributed Aug. 9 at 14 locations statewide, or can be obtained at state, county or municipal health agencies
Four 65-milligram tablets will be provided to each adult. Smaller doses will be given to children based on their age.
The department says people should only take potassium iodide tablets when directed to do so by health officials or the governor.
Two months after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident in March 2011, a team of Japanese researchers collected 144 adult pale grass blue (Zizeeria maha) butterflies from 10 locations in Japan, including the Fukushima area.
When the accident occurred, the adult butterflies would have been overwintering as larvae.
Unexpected results
By comparing mutations found on the butterflies collected from the different sites, the team found that areas with greater amounts of radiation in the environment were home to butterflies with much smaller wings and irregularly developed eyes.
“It has been believed that insects are very resistant to radiation,” said lead researcher Joji Otaki from the University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa.
“In that sense, our results were unexpected,” he told BBC News.
The Japanese researchers have been studying the species for more than a decade
Prof Otaki’s team then bred these butterflies within labs 1,750km (1,090 miles) away from the accident, where artificial radiation could hardly be detected.
It was by breeding these butterflies that they began noticing a suite of abnormalities that hadn’t been seen in the previous generation – that collected from Fukushima – such as malformed antennae, which the insects use to explore their environment and seek out mates.
Six months later, they again collected adults from the 10 sites and found that butterflies from the Fukushima area showed a mutation rate more than double that of those found sooner after the accident.
The team concluded that this higher rate of mutation came from eating contaminated food, but also from mutations of the parents’ genetic material that was passed on to the next generation, even though these mutations were not evident in the previous generations’ adult butterflies.
The team of researchers have been studying that particular species butterfly for more than 10 years.
They were considering using the species as an “environmental indicator” before the Fukushima accident, as previous work had shown it is very sensitive to environmental changes.
“We had reported the real-time field evolution of colour patterns of this butterfly in response to global warming before, and [because] this butterfly is found in artificial environments – such as gardens and public parks – this butterfly can monitor human environments,” Prof Otaki said.
But the findings from their new research show that the radionuclides released from the accident were still affecting the development of the animals, even after the residual radiation in the environment had decayed.
“This study is important and overwhelming in its implications for both the human and biological communities living in Fukushima,” explained University of South Carolina biologist Tim Mousseau, who studies the impacts of radiation on animals and plants in Chernobyl and Fukushima, but was not involved in this research.
“These observations of mutations and morphological abnormalities can only be explained as having resulted from exposure to radioactive contaminants,” Dr Mousseau told BBC News.
The findings from the Japanese team are consistent with previous studies that have indicated birds and butterflies are important tools to investigate the long-term impacts of radioactive contaminants in the environment.
A suspected food poisoning case on a southern Chinese island led to the hospitalization of 120 tourists on Sunday, including six foreigners, local authorities reported on Monday. The vacationers were sent for medical treatment after their breakfast in the Howard Johnson Hotel in Sanya City in Hainan Province, said Zhou Baocang, deputy director of the Sanya Health Bureau. Twenty-eight people left hospital after treatment, while the other 92 remain in the People’s Hospital of Sanya and No.425 Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army. “No deaths have been reported. The patients are recovering well,” said Chen Weijie, deputy director of the Sanya City Food and Drug Administration. Four of the six foreigners are from Russia and two from Japan, and all of them are in stable condition, Zhou said. Initial investigation showed that the illnesses were caused by food harboring bacteria, and more evidence needs to be collected, Zhou said. Service at the hotel’s restaurant has been suspended. “The fried rice at breakfast might be to blame. The biggest discomfort was suffered by my friend, who had stomach ache and wanted to vomit. Another friend has been suffering from fever,” said a tourist named Li Ximing from south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Hainan provincial government officials have urged local authorities to guarantee the safety of the tourists. Experts have been sent by the provincial government to the scene. An emergency response team has been set up by the hotel and 80 employees have been dispatched to hospital to help take care of the patients, said Wang Li, a spokeswoman for the hotel. The hotel will compensate the patients based on investigation, Wang added.
Biohazard name:
Mass. Food Poisoning
Biohazard level:
2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
NBC-10 reports, tens of millions of Jellyfish have invaded Barnegat Bay. The jellyfish have been spotted in Barnegat Bay, Manahawkin in Stafford, Waretown, and the bay side of Harvey Cedars on Long Beach Island. According to Professor Paul Bologna, Montclair State’s Director of Aquatic and Coastal Sciences, the reason for the proliferation of jellyfish could be the use of plastic on the surfaces of docks. He explains sea nettle larvae settle on those surfaces and change into polyps, which bud off to create more of themselves. Another theory from a Rutgers University report: the bay’s ecological decline has spread southward since the 1990s. The declining ecological conditions have become a perfect place for jellyfish to prosper. Whatever the reason, unless they’re looking for a shock to their system, swimmers and surfers should be on the lookout for the jellyfish.
Biohazard name:
Jellyfish invasion
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
It’s hot and getting hotter, and one more Lane County lake has sprouted a toxic algae bloom. State officials today said that based on scum they have observed, Dexter Lake has toxic blue-green algae, and they issued an advisory that people stay out of the water and avoid touching it or inhaling water droplets. Testing is taking place to determine whether the blue-green algae is of the type that produces cyanotoxins harmful to people and animals, the state said. Dexter Lake, about 20 miles southeast of Eugene on Highway 58, is the third Lane County body of water to merit a blue-green algae alert this summer, and only the fourth in the state. State officials on July 27 issued an alert for Walterville Pond off Highway 126 east of Springfield that is still in effect, followed by a July 31 alert on Dorena Lake southeast of Cottage Grove that is still in effect. Earlier in the summer, the state also issued an alert for a lake in Jackson County that lasted only five days. By comparison, at this time last year, the state had issued algae alerts at seven lakes. Last summer, alerts were issued for Cougar, Dorena, Dexter and Fall Creek lakes in Lane County. Health officials say exposure to the toxins can produce numbness, dizziness and breathing or heart problems, plus skin irritation, nausea and cramps. Dexter Lake is managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Oregon State Parks Department.
Biohazard name:
Blue-Green (cyanobacteria) Algae bloom
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
The city of Long Beach issued an alert to residents regarding an outbreak of flea-borne typhus, a disease transmitted to humans via fleas. Murine typhus, also known as flea-borne typhus, is spread from fleas living on rodents, possums, raccoons and cats. The disease is transmitted by bites from infected fleas. The disease is not spread from person to person. Symptoms include high fever, body aches, severe headaches and a rash. People may become sick enough to be hospitalized, but the disease is rarely fatal. Public health officials will continue to monitor and test for evidence of flea-borne typhus in areas throughout Long Beach. Area veterinarians will receive a letter requesting they educate pet owners on the importance of flea control in preventing flea-borne typhus. Long Beach has also issued letters to area health care providers providing guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of this disease.
Biohazard name:
Typhus (flea-borne)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Last week dead fish were found mysteriously washing up along the shores of Pago bay. Today PNC went to Pago Bay to investigate the possible cause of this unusual phenomenon. On Thursday of last week a student at the University of Guam’s marine lab noticed a lot of dead fish along the short in Pago bay. He took pictures of the fish and forwarded them to UOG marine lab professor Dr. Jason Biggs. “Well one of the things that set up a red flag for me is that this is the first time that it’s ever been noticed for Pago bay to have a fish kill like this,” said Dr. Biggs. Department of agriculture fisheries biologist Brent Tibbats also examined the photos. He says they appear to be shallow water fish that live in the reef flats and sea grass. Based on the photos, which show that many of the fish died with open mouths, Tibbats believes that natural causes are the most likely culprit. “We do get reports of fish kills almost every year at around this time of year, July and August, when there are very low tides during the hottest part of the day during the middle of the day what happens is fish get trapped in shallow water pools and they overheat and with a lack of oxygen they suffocate actually in the water and then when the next high tide comes in the fish get deposited on shore and people see this,” explained Tibbats.
However, as Dr. Biggs has pointed out this is the first time that they’ve seen this at Pago bay. “Over the past we’ve noticed areas where it happens commonly actually are Tumon bay is one and down along the southeast coast kind of from Ipan beach park down to first beach those areas something about them seems to be where fish kills repeatedly during these low tides during the middle of the day,” said Tibbats. Nevertheless Dr. Biggs is concerned that something else maybe the cause of this strange event. “Another thing that we’d like to point out is because it hasn’t happened at Pago bay before that maybe the sedimentation could have the same effect because if you have a big load of water bringing down a lot of dirt with it that dirt could mix with the salt water as well and particulate matter is known to clog the gills of the fish and make it so that water can’t pass and they can’t breathe,” explained Dr. Biggs. The marine lab professor says that choking from sedimentation would also result in dead fish with mouths open as seen in the photos. Pago bay has been known to have a lot of sedimentation after heavy rains. “You can see it every time it rains really hard there’s a plume that goes all the way out and then extends for miles out into the ocean,” said Dr. Biggs.
Tibbats says there is no way to tell for sure what killed these fish because he received the email over the weekend and by then the fish were gone. Tibbats says there are other potential causes for example fresh water can flood the reef flats killing saltwater fish. There is also the possibility that toxins from the land are washed into the water. Tibbats says that if anyone notices dead fish washing up on the shores anywhere on guam to try and collect some of the fish and then contact the Department of Agriculture’s Division of Aquatics and Wildlife Resources so they can study the dead fish and get a better determination of their actual cause of death. Senator Sam Mabini is concerned with the dead fish found at Pago bay and she has sent a letter to the Guam Environmental Protection Agency requesting their immediate attention to Pago bay’s current condition.
Biohazard name:
Mass Die-off (Fishes)
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.
Symptoms:
Status:
confirmed
13.08.2012
Biological Hazard
USA
State of Pennsylvania, [Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area]
A local Boy Scout leader is recovering this week after wrestling with a rabid beaver in the Delaware River. Health officials describe the attack as rare, but say human encounters with wild animals are more common in the summer months. On Aug. 2, Normand Brousseau, 51, of Pine Plains, an assistant scoutmaster with Boy Scout Troop 32 out of Elizaville, Columbia County, was swimming in the Delaware River. Brousseau, another leader and four Scouts were on a field trip at the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in Pennsylvania. Brousseau, who was in the water hanging onto a noodle float, noticed a dark shape nearby. “It came through my legs and attached itself to my chest,” he said. “I thought it was a giant carp fish.” It wasn’t. He was being attacked by a rabid beaver. Once he was bitten, he grabbed the animal and threw it away from his body. “Then it came at me again,” he said. The beaver bit him in the leg and then again in his buttocks, arm, hand and waist. At that point, Brousseau said, “the adrenaline kicked in.” “I grabbed it in its mouth,” he said. “I had it around its bottom jaw as tightly as I could because I knew it was going to either bite me or bite the boys. I called the Scouts to come give me a hand.” One of the Scouts was 16-year-old Nick Hedges of Elizaville. “I grabbed him by the arm and started pulling him to the shore,” Hedges said.
The Scout was careful to keep an eye on the beaver, which, he said, was in Brousseau’s grasp about five feet away. Brousseau tossed the animal up onto the shore. The beaver was stunned for a second or two, Hedges said, but “then it started attacking the noodle.” With their counselor hurt and bleeding on shore, the teens took matters into their own hands. “We started throwing rocks at it,” he said. “We could see it was still dangerous.” The Scouts threw stones at the beaver until it was dead. A couple passing by in a canoe took Brousseau to the other side of the river and another passerby called 911. Dutchess County health officials said an attack from a rabid beaver is unusual, explaining that more often people in Dutchess report suspected cases of rabid cats, dogs and bats. “This is the time of year people will encounter more bats because they’re active now — they’re coming into contact with them more often,” said Stephen Capowski, director of environmental health services for the Dutchess County Health Department. Capowski cautioned people to steer clear of animals exhibiting unusual behavior: nocturnal animals such as bats, skunks and raccoons out during the daytime; dogs and cats indiscriminately attacking other dogs and cats, or people, and any animal behaving aggressively. Capowski said human cases of rabies are rare in Dutchess.
Park rangers brought Brousseau to the Pocono Medical Center in East Stroudsburg, Pa., where he was treated for his injuries. He’s now on the mend and the parents of Scouts in his troop are feeling grateful. “It was very brave of him,” said Susan Treacy of Stanfordville, whose 15-year-old son, Zach Pruner, was also in the river during the attack. “Who’d be crazy enough to hang onto a rabid beaver?” The day after the attack, Brousseau received a call from a doctor confirming the beaver had been rabid. Since then, he’s received more than 20 rabies shots. “I’m pretty sore,” he said, still appearing bruised with small cuts along his hands and arms Friday. Brousseau brushed off the notion of acting heroically that day. “It’s my job to protect the boys,” he said. “Part of what I do is to make sure they’re always protected.” Brousseau said he has gained a new-found respect for nature. “When you go out into nature, you always need to veer on the side of caution,” he said. “Don’t assume a wild animal is not sick. You have to be on your toes at all times.”
Biohazard name:
Rabies (beaver)
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.
Thousands of dead fish are washing ashore along the Texas coast from the Colorado River to Galveston Island and Parks and Wildlife biologists suspect low oxygen levels off shore may be to blame. What tides are bringing in on Jamaica Beach is making people pause. “I hope it’s nothing major,” said Mark Gannon, who took his family to the beach Sunday. “I hope the water is safe.” Thousands of dead shad litter the sand. “Any idea what it is?” asked Gannon’s wife Alexia. Her children tried to explain the problem. “At night time, the waves pull up really far so the fish can’t handle that, so they get up on the shore,” said Abby Gannon. Authorities said the answer is not so simple. Biologists with the Parks and Wildlife Department began testing ph, saline and oxygen levels in water samples taken along the coast. “When something’s affecting one [fish] then usually a lot of them are being affected at the same time because it’s such a big group [swimming in schools] together,” said Steven Mitchell of Texas Parks and Wildlife. He suspects low oxygen in the water is a problem. However, he won’t know for sure until biologists are able to test water up to 10 miles off shore. That could take several days. Meanwhile, there is no threat to people on the beach, authorities said. Still, people like the Gannons said their plan to spend the children’s final week of summer vacation on the beach could change a bit. “I imagine as it gets warmer the smell [of the dead shad] will get stronger and we will likely want to go home,” Alexia Gannon said.
Biohazard name:
Mass. Die-off (fishes)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
GALVESTON (August 13, 2012)–Hundreds of thousands of dead fish have washed up on the beach in Galveston, where crews went to work Monday to remove the dead fish.
Peter Davis of the Galveston Island Beach Patrol said Sunday the small shad fish likely were killed by low oxygen levels in the Gulf of Mexico.
Davis estimated hundreds of thousands of fish have died.
Galveston County health officials said the water is fine for beachgoers.
Biologist Steven Mitchell with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said calm conditions and summer heat may have contributed to the fish kill.
He said there’s a possibility of a dead zone in the water off Galveston.
Testing is expected this week.
Today
HAZMAT
USA
State of Colorado, Colorado Springs [Centennial Boulevard, Thin Metal Parts]
Around 100 employees have been evacuated from a handful of businesses on Centennial Boulevard because of a reported chlorine gas leak. The Colorado Springs Fire Department reports the leak occurred inside the Thin Metal Parts building off of Centennial and List north of Garden of the Gods. One person was being evaluated by medical personnel at the scene. There are no other reports of injuries.
[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.]
Danish geologists say a 4.4-magnitude quake has rattled the seabed between Denmark and Sweden, causing no damage or casualties.
Trine Dahl-Jensen of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) said Monday’s quake was “pretty strong” by Danish standards.
Dahl-Jensen says such quakes happen once or twice a decade.
The epicenter was 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) southeast of the Danish island of Anholt in the Kattegat Sea.
Media in Denmark and Sweden reported that residents in the two Scandinavian countries woke up when they felt the earth shake at 0257 GMT (10:57 p.m. EDT Sunday).
COALINGA, Calif. — A magnitude-4.5 earthquake has shaken a rural area of Central California.
A U.S. Geological Survey computer-generated report says Monday’s 12:36 a.m. quake was centered 16 miles south-southwest of Coalinga in the San Joaquin Valley and 123 miles southeast of San Jose.
A Coalinga police officer says several people have reported feeling the quake but there are no reports of damage.
STEAMING: GNS confirms that ‘volcanic eruption is underway’, although there is little or no ash being emitted.
White Island volcano has erupted, prompting GNS Science to advise visitors to take extra care.
The island, located about 50 kilometres off the coast of Whakatane, is an active volcano and a popular tourist spot.
Its web camera captured the small eruption from Crater Lake, GNS Science volcanologist Michael Ronsenberg said.
“These phenomena are not unknown for While Island, but this is the first substantial confirmation that small scale eruptions are now occurring on the island and confirms the risk to visitors has increased,” he said.
“Eruptions can occur at any time with little or no warning. We advise extra caution should be taken, if visiting the island.”
GNS has changed the volcano’s code from “experiencing signs of elevated unrest above known background levels” to “volcanic eruption is underway with no or minor ash emissions”.
The alert level has also changed from one to two due to “minor eruptive activity”.
It follows a code change last week when scientists discovered water levels in Crater Lake rose by about 3m to 5m overnight and the number of tremors had increased.
There was a particularly stronger seismic episode recorded Sunday morning, ending in a volcanic earthquake at 4.54am that day.
Rosenberg said: “[The earthquake] had a sound signal, which meant something happened on the surface. So we went back and looked at the camera images.”
“Obviously being at night time, there was no visual observations and initially we weren’t able to determine what that small event was.
“But we’ve narrowed it down and recognise that there has been full hydrothermal eruption.”
Rosenberg said there had not been any further eruptions, and the number of tremors had decreased.
“It’s now at similar levels to before the weekend.”
GNS Science was “paying close attention” to the volcano as the last “gentle eruption” had been in early 2001.
White Island also experienced a “moderate-sized explosion” in July 2000, when fresh lava was pushed out.
“In the past this kind of activity has increased to small eruptions that produce ash, and that ash could drift as far as the mainland,” Rosenberg said.
“We can’t predict what the volcano is going to do and we are not making any forecasts, but yes, it’s certainly possible that the activity could ramp up again.”
A mountain which the Icelandic Marine Research Institute (Hafró) discovered on the ocean floor west off the Snæfellsnes peninsula in West Iceland during an expedition earlier this summer may turn out to be a previously unknown volcano.
A fishing ship with Snæfellsjökull, the glacier-covered volcano on the tip of Snæfellsnes in the background. Copyright: Icelandic Photo Agency.
“Multi-laser measurements […] revealed a large underwater mountain deep off the foot of the continental shelf approximately 120 nautical miles west of Snæfellsnes,” a statement from Hafró reads, according to Fréttablaðið.
The mountain, which is at a depth of 950 to 1,400 meters is around 450 meters high, similar to Ingólfsfjall in south Iceland. However, it extends over 300 square kilometers, which is ten times the square measure of Ingólfsfjall.
The shape of the mountain is very similar to that of table mountains and it appears to be geologically young.
“The analysis of a rock sample from the mountain will determine whether this is the case or whether it is a volcano connected with an old drift belt, which might mean that it is 20 million years old,” the statement continues.
During the expedition multi-laser measurements were made between West Iceland and Greenland to map the shape of the ocean floor in these commonly-used fishing grounds and explore the environment of powerful ocean currents.
A total of 9,000 square kilometers were covered during the 11-day expedition.
Can you help? If you have tips, photos or video of the eruption, please email us.
Expand
An aerial from a Mountain Air flight over the Tongariro National Park. Photo / Greg Bowker
A thick ash cloud is covering much of the central North Island after Mt Tongariro erupted for the first time in more than a century late last night.
The volcanic alert level for Mt Tongariro has risen from 1 to 2, while the aviation colour code has been raised to red.
Roads are closed, flights are likely to be disrupted and nearby residents are advised to stay indoors as ash and rock spews from the mountain.
Turoa Ski Area manager Chris Thrupp told Firstline the ski field remains open and has not been advised to close. He said the ash has not drifted to Ruapehu, south of Tongariro.
“The ash is the concern – if the wind changes, which we don’t believe it will.”
GNS science is reporting that about 11.50pm on Monday night ash fall began to be reported in the volcano’s vicinity – it has since been reported as far east as SH5 near Te Haroto and in Napier.
It is the first time the mountain has erupted since 1897.
GNS duty volcanologist Michael Rosenberg told Radio New Zealand that some people are reported to have left their houses on the southern shores of Lake Rotoaira, though no formal notices of evacuation have been issued so far by Civil Defence.
He said residents in the area have told GNS of hearing several loud explosions, lightning and plumes of smoke and police have been told by an onlooker that “a new hole in the side of the mountain” had formed.
They have also reported bright red rocks flying out of the mountain.
The eruption reportedly happened at the Te Mari Craters, which are close to the Ketetahi Hot Springs on the northern side of the mountain.
There have been no further eruptions since midnight, according to GNS seismic records.
Mr Rosenberg said while volcanologists have been monitoring small earthquakes under the mountain in the past few weeks, the eruption was “quite unexpected”.
Activity at the mountain is expected continue for some time, bit it was “anyone’s guess” whether there would be larger eruptions.
AREAS AFFECTED
Civil defence spokesman Vince Cholewa told Newstalk ZB ash could reach those living in Waikato, Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne, Manawatu-Wanganui, Bay of Plenty and Taranaki.
“The advice to people is to stay indoors, because volcanic ash can obviously be a health hazard, if they’re indoors please close windows and doors to try and limit the entry of ash.”
Mr Cholewa says at this stage not all areas alerted are affected by ash, but that situation could change.
“We’re working actively with GNS Science who operate the monitoring equipment on the mountains, and with police so all the information from the ground is being gathered, and decisions will be based on that information.
“Evacuations have not been ordered, please listen to the radio for advice from local authorities and police, any evacuations would be issued at that level, and based on the evidence from GNS Science.”
Police are sending search and rescue teams up Mt Tongariro at first light to check no one is stranded in huts. However, they say there have been no reports of injuries or damage.
ROADS
The police have closed State Highway 1 between Rangipo and Waiouru (Desert Road) and SH46 west of Rangipo. SH47 and 4 remain open at this stage as does SH5.
Motorists are being advised to avoid travel in the area and these closures will be re-assessed once daylight reveals the extent of the ash cloud.
Truck driver Bryn Rodda told Radio New Zealand thick dust meant there was poor visibility on the Desert Road when he passed through last night.
“I could see this big cloud – it looked like a fist, basically, at an angle across the sky – and about the wrist section of the fist there was an orange ball of flash that I saw.”
Clayton Bolt, a passing motorist told RadioLive that he saw a massive white cloud coming from the side of Mt Tongariro.
“I put my foot down. I said, I’m going.”
AVIATION
Civil Aviation Authority manager of meteorology Peter Lechner said the plume is leading off to the east and south east. affecting a zone of airspace stretching as far as from Tongariro to north of Gisborne then south to Hawkes Bay and possibly northern Wairarapa.
The CAA alerted all aircraft using a volcanic ash advisory system, working with MetService.
Mr Lechner said that ash can build up in the turbines of aeroplanes and helicopters, causing engines to stall.
“It can result in significant flight risk.”
WEATHER
WeatherWatch chief analyst Philip Duncan said westerlies will continue to blow the ash east to south east of the mountain.
“The winds don’t look especially strong over the next few days as the centre of a low crosses the North Island – the lighter the winds are the more ash will fall locally around the mountain and less likely to cause widespread disruptions further afield.”
The Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management (MCDEM) is currently assessing information with the assistance of GNS scientific advisors.
It has not yet activated the National Crisis Management Centre which is called upon in times of emergency like the Christchurch earthquake.
The volcanic alert level for Mt Tongariro has risen from 1 to 2 after the central North Island volcano erupted for the first time in more than a century late last night. GNS science is reporting that at approximately 11:50pm on Monday night ash fall began to be reported in the volcano’s vicinity – it has since been reported as far east as SH5 near Te Haroto and in Napier. GNS duty volcanologist Michael Rosenberg told Radio New Zealand that some people are reported to have left their houses on the southern shores of Lake Rotoaira, though no formal notices of evacuation have been issued so far by Civil Defense. He said residents in the area have told GNS of hearing several loud explosions, lightning and plumes of smoke and police have been told by an onlooker that “a new hole in the side of the mountain” had formed. They have also reported bright red rocks flying out of the mountain. The eruption reportedly happened at the Te Mari Craters, which are close to the Ketetahi Hot Springs on the northern side of the mountain. Civil defence spokesman Vince Cholewa told NewstalkZb ash could reach those living in Waikato, Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne, Manawatu-Wanganui, Bay of Plenty and Taranaki. “The advice to people is to stay indoors, because volcanic ash can obviously be a health hazard, if they’re indoors please close windows and doors to try and limit the entry of ash.” Mr Cholewa says at this stage not all areas alerted are affected by ash, but that situation could change. “We’re working actively with GNS Science who operate the monitoring equipment on the mountains, and with police so all the information from the ground is being gathered, and decisions will be based on that information. “Evacuations have not been ordered, please listen to the radio for advice from local authorities and police, any evacuations would be issued at that level, and based on the evidence from GNS Science.”
Due to possible danger to the public the police have closed SH1 between Rangipo and Waiouru (Desert Road) and SH46 west of Rangipo. SH47 and 4 remain open at this stage as does SH5. Motorists are being advised to avoid travel in the area and these closures will be re-assessed once daylight reveals the extent of the ash cloud. A truck driver has told Radio New Zealand that the ash cloud has caused thick dust and reduced visibility on the Desert Road. Bryn Rodda said he saw a large cloud rising from the mountain with orange flashes. Civil Aviation Authority manager of meteorology Peter Lechner told NewstalkZb the plume is leading off to the east and south east. “Flight operations to the west of the plume should remain unaffected, however operations to the eastern half of the North Island will have some difficulty at this stage.” Mr Lechner says a frontal system is on its way which should disperse the cloud, but that depends on whether there are further eruptions. Police are sending search and rescue teams up Mt Tongariro at first light to check no one is stranded in huts. However, they say there have been no reports of injuries or damage. The Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management (MCDEM) is currently assessing information with the assistance of GNS scientific advisors. It has not yet activated the National Crisis Management Centre which is called upon in times of emergency like the Christchurch earthquake. New Zealand’s other high profile active volcano, White Island, also had its alert level raised from 1 to 2 on Monday after a small eruption was recorded in its crater lake.
Historically high temperatures were recorded in 28 locations throughout Bulgaria on Monday, the country’s National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (NIMH) said. At 3 p.m. local time (0200 GMT), the temperature in Ruse by the Danube River was 41 degrees Celsius. Pleven in northern Bulgaria recorded 40 degrees Celsius, followed by Sandanski in the southwest of the country at 39.6 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, temperatures in the capital Sofia also hit 34.6 degrees Celsius. Temperatures were unusually high even in the mountains, NIMH said. At Botev peak, temperatures reached 17.5 degrees Celsius, 25.2 degrees Celsius at Murgash peak, and 26.5 degrees Celsius at Rozhen peak. Record-high temperatures were reported also on the Black Sea coast in the towns of Ahtopol and Varna at 35 degree Celsius, and cape of Kaliakra at 32.8 degree Celsius. Temperatures will remain high on Tuesday, after which they should return to what is considered normal for the season, NIMH said.
06.08.2012
Extreme Weather
USA
State of Pennsylvania, Tunkhannock Township [Pocono Raceway]
NASCAR fans at Pocono Raceway were advised over public address systems and through social media to take cover when lightning and heavy rain hit the track near the end of the race. The warnings weren’t enough to avoid tragedy at the track on Sunday. Lightning strikes at Pocono after a rain-shortened NASCAR race killed one fan and injured nine others, one critically, racetrack officials said. Multiple lightning strikes occurred behind the racetrack’s grandstands and outside one of the gates as fans were leaving, Pocono spokesman Bob Pleban said. It wasn’t immediately clear how many of the fans were actually struck by the lightning itself or were injured by related jolts. “Unfortunately, a member of our raceway family here, a fan, has passed away,” Pocono President Brandon Igdalsky said in announcing the death. He provided no details about the victim but expressed condolences to his family. Igdalsky later posted on Twitter, “My family and I are praying for all those that were involved in the lightning strikes. … Difficult evening for all.” The victim was in or near his car in a parking lot after the race had ended when lightning struck the car, Monroe County Coroner Bob Allen said. Bystanders performed CPR on the man, who had gone into cardiac arrest, until paramedics arrived, Allen said. They took him to the track’s medical facility, where efforts to revive him failed. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
The Pennsylvania 400 was called because of storms, with 98 of the 160 scheduled laps completed. As the storm approached, the track posted messages on its Twitter page to more than 22,000 followers near the end of the race encouraging fans to “seek shelter as severe lightning and heavy winds are in our area.” The attendance was estimated by the track at 85,000. Public address announcements were made before the storm and the end of the race for fans to take shelter and evacuate the grandstands, Pleban said. Racetrack officials were reviewing the logs of when the announcements were made, he said. There was no order to evacuate the track premises. Jeff Gordon, who won the race, said at a post-race news conference that he could hear a huge crack as he walked down the pit road during the storm. “You could tell it was very close,” he said. “I mean, that’s the thing that’s going to take away from the victory, is the fact that somebody was affected by that.” Kyle Manger, a spectator from New Jersey, told The Sporting News that he saw people hit by lightning near the Turn 3 grandstands. He said when the severe weather began, he and some friends ran to their truck. “The visibility was very poor and all of a sudden (I) saw a bolt of lightning right in front of our windshield,” he said. “When it became a little more visible, we saw two bodies next to a destroyed tent with people scrambling.” One person remained hospitalized in critical condition at Lehigh Valley Hospital Center, Pleban said. Three people were taken to hospitals with minor to moderate injuries, and five others were treated on the scene, he said. “We are deeply saddened that a fan has died and others were injured by lightning strikes following today’s race at Pocono,” NASCAR spokesman David Higdon said. “Our thoughts are with them as well as those affected by this unfortunate accident.” Gordon’s team, Hendrick Motorsports, also offered sympathies on Twitter, writing, “Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by the lightning” at Pocono Raceway.
Around 900 holidaymakers from Italy and abroad were moved from hotels and camping areas as the fire hit the Zingaro National Park on the island’s northwest tip overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea. “The Zingaro reserve went up in flames,” said Matteo Rizzo, Mayor of San Vito Lo Capo, just north of the park. Firefighters, forest patrols and volunteers worked for 12 hours to bring the fire under control and a school was opened in San Vito Lo Capo to house evacuees while others slept outdoors in the stifling heat. Mr Rizzo said the damage from the Zingaro blaze could have been reduced if firefighters had received air support. “I realise that there were a number of fires in Sicily and the situation was rather serious, but it is inconceivable that one of the most beautiful and oldest reserves in Sicily went up in smoke because no one lifted a finger.” Park officials said on Monday the reserve would remain closed to the public while they assessed the full extent of the park’s vegetation and wildlife which includes 40 different birds, rabbits, snakes and weasels. The reserve covers 4,000 acres and beneath its dramatic cliffs there are coves and grottoes stretching for four miles of the coast. One hotel owner said electricity and water supplies had been cut off and telephone lines were down while emergency workers continued to secure the area as temperatures soared close to 95F (35C).
A wildfire that has burned about 1,000 acres of grass and brush near Chelan also threatens 14 homes or outbuildings. Chelan County sheriff’s Cpl. Jason Reinfeld told The Wenatchee World the owners were advised of the danger. The fire broke out about noon Sunday off Highway 97. State, federal and Chelan County crews are attacking the fire from the ground and air using two air tankers and three helicopters, which are dipping from the Columbia River.
Manila, Aug 6 (Prensa Latina) More than 45 people died and six others missing due to Typhoon Saola in the northern region of Philippines, reported on Monday the National Center for Disaster Prevention.
The rains and flooding caused further serious damage to 74 roads, 7, 000 homes and the evacuation of about 200, 000 people still housed in improvised centers, according to the press.
Landslides and overflowing dam flooded much of Manila, the capital, especially in the areas near the sea, other media reported as Rappler website.
Between May and November, during rainy season in the Philippines, the archipelago is hit by an average of 15 to 20 typhoons that affect the entire region of Southeast Asia.
Hundreds of people residing near Beas river have been evacuated to safe places after flash flood caused by torrential rain over Dhundi peaks at south portal of Rohtang tunnel flooded the Seri rivulet, a tributary to Beas river, on Friday at 8pm. People living close to river between Palchan and Kullu are being evacuated and traffic on national highway has been stopped. Till last report received from Palchan (near Dhundi) at 10.30pm, level of the river was rising continuously and police were evacuating the people from Bahang village, 6km from Manali. According to police, there is no report of any casualty. Sandeep Kumar, a resident of Bahang village, said people are trying to save the household accessories amid chaotic atmosphere and conditions have become even worse after power failure. “Everything was normal till late evening but the situation changed suddenly after 8pm when river water, mixed with sludge, started engulfing its banks. People are risking their lives to remove the household stuffs,” he said. An engineer working with a hydel project near Palchan said over phone that roaring sound of river is shaking the foundation of the houses. “Nobody is going to sleep tonight. Villagers have gathered at many places and are guarding the river banks with floodlights,” he said. According to villagers it is a cloudburst which might have caused devastation at its source on mountains. Kullu deputy commissioner Amitabh Awasthi said , police are patrolling the river banks and have directed people to move to safe places. “We have closed the traffic on national highway. We shall keep an eye on the situation throughout the night,” he said.
Torrential rains pounding the Philippine capital on Tuesday paralyzed traffic as waist-deep floods triggered evacuations of tens of thousands of residents and the government suspended work in offices and schools. Incessant downpours set off by the seasonal monsoon overflowed major dams and rivers in Manila and nine surrounding provinces and put authorities on alert. The death toll from last week’s Typhoon Saola, which battered Manila and the northern Philippines for several days, has climbed steadily to 51. The head of the government’s rescue agency, Benito Ramos, said there were no immediate reports of new casualties early Tuesday after the rains pounded already saturated Manila for more than 24 hours. Vehicles and even heavy trucks struggled to navigate water-clogged roads, where hundreds of thousands of commuters were stranded overnight. Many cars were stuck in the muddy waters. The La Mesa dam, which supplies water to the capital of 12 million people, spilled excess water for a second time early Tuesday into the rivers flowing into Quezon city, a middle-class Manila suburb, as well as the neighborhoods of Malabon, Valenzuela and Caloocan, where several villages were submerged. Along the swollen Marikina River, police were deployed to move more than 5,000 residents away from the riverbanks in what Vice Mayor Jose Cadiz said was an enforced evacuation. The operation started after the City Hall sounded the alarm bell. The Philippine Stock Exchange in the financial district of Makati, which was also flooded, was closed Tuesday. Also closed was the U.S. Embassy along Manila Bay in the historic old city, which was drenched out last week when a storm surge pushed the water over the seawall. “The embassy is closed today due to excessive flooding in the streets and concern for the safety of our employees and consular applicants,” Ambassador Harry Thomas Jr. said in an announcement.
Heavy rains pounded northeast Tennessee Sunday, including downtown Johnson City, where emergency crews in inflatable boats rescued people trapped in their homes and in their cars on flooded streets. Johnson City Schools announced their start on Monday is postponed because of the storm damage. The city’s garage complex flooded and several were buses under water, leading the city to cancel transit service for Monday. WTFM radio reported shelters were still open at schools in Unicoi and Jonesborough early Monday. Streams throughout the region overflowed across roads and into homes. Houses and apartments in several areas are surrounded by water at the Mall at Johnson City’s parking lot was covered by high water, stranding numerous vehicles. Sections of Washington, Carter and Unicoi counties also were flooded. The National Weather Service said three to four inches of rain fell within an hour’s time across upper northeast Tennessee during the height of the storm. And more rain was expected through the night. At least 10 people were rescued from their homes in Washington County, and in Unicoi County, officers and volunteer firefighters were evacuating other areas as well. In down downtown Johnson City, a portion of one street washed away into a creek, officials said. “Occasionally, we’ve been up to our gun belt in water, but it’s starting to subside,” said city police Lt. Gerald Harrell. “We are actively answering every call for service that we have. It may be taking us just a tad bit longer, but we’re getting to each and every one and we will get to each and every one,” Harrell said.Police urged people to stay home and avoid any local travel if possible and emergency shelters were open. Elizabethton also was hit hard, officials there said. “We’ve got flooding all over,” Carter County Sheriff Chris Mathes said. Unicoi County Sheriff Mike Hensley said when he first was called at 7 p.m. or so, it was just drizzling. “When I came in, it was just unreal. The water was coming up and I saw we were going to have serious, serious problems,” he said. About 4,000 customers, most in Johnson City, had no power but officials expected it to be restored quickly.
A team of medical experts from Dar es Salaam was yesterday dispatched to Kagera region to further examine the two patients believed to be suffering from the Ebola hemorrhagic fever. But as the team of medical experts was sent to Kagera region, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare subsequently confirmed the outbreak of the deadly fever in the western part of the country. Confirming the reports, the Deputy Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Seif Seleman Rashid, also said that a team of medical experts was still diagnosing a patient in efforts to establish the symptoms. In the meantime, reports from Nyakahanga designated hospital in Karagwe district, Kagera region indicate that there were two patients including a child, suspected to be suffering from the deadly fever that has rocked neighbouring Uganda. According to one of the doctors who diagnosed the patient at Karagwe’s Nyakahanga hospital, preliminary findings show that the victim might have contacted the Ebola virus. However, the doctor who requested anonymity told the Guardian on Sunday that ‘further medical examination’ would be conducted to gather more evidence about the possible outbreak of Ebola, adding that the patient had since been quarantined pending final results. According to the doctor, the ‘Ebola patient’ was brought to the hospital on Friday morning and, upon diagnosis, it was established that the patient had suffered from Ebola. The patient who is a six-year-old child was brought to the Mulongo hospital by his mother from a village close to the Uganda-Tanzania boarder after the child developed severe symptoms.
“We are doing further medical examination on a patient … we will tell the general public once it is confirmed that we are dealing with Ebola virus infections,” the doctor said, adding that currently the patient alleged to have been infected was admitted in a separate room and now lives in isolation from other patients at the hospital. He said preliminary check-ups found out that the diagnosis had all signs showed clear symptoms of Ebola – after which he ordered the patient to be admitted for closer monitoring locally, and further medical examination by medical experts from the ministry headquarters. He added that the patient had since been placed in a special intensive care room which is out of bounds for all other people — apart from his mother who is taking care of the patient. However, he said, this was a medical rule aimed at avoiding quick spread of the deadly disease Another patient also believed to have crossed the boarder from Uganda was admitted at the hospital as well, but medical investigations of his deteriorating health conditions were still not completed by Saturday evening. As a precaution, the doctor said his hospital team and the district health workers had since started warning people in surrounding villages to take immediate measures whenever they come across such patients. He has also warned the people living closer to the border with Uganda to be careful not to come into contact with any person whom they see vomiting or bleeding – clear signs of someone suffering from Ebola.
On Wednesday this week, Dr. Mwinyi told visibly alarmed legislators in Dodoma that a team of medical experts had been dispatched to the border with Uganda, fully equipped with protective gear and medical supplies. The minister advised the general public especially those living in the northern regions of Kagera, Mara, Mwanza and Kigoma — some of which share the border crossings with Uganda — to take precautions because the disease was highly contagious. Earlier, the World Health Organization (WHO) had alerted Tanzania on the Ebola threat, prompting the ministry to issue a press statement elaborating that Ebola (Ebola HF) was a severe, often-fatal disease in humans and nonhuman primates (monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees) that has appeared sporadically since its initial recognition in 1976. The disease is caused by infection with Ebola virus, named after a river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), where it was first recognized. The virus is one of two members of a family of RNA viruses called the Filoviridae; there are five identified subtypes of the Ebola virus — four of which have been known to cause disease in humans: Ebola-Zaire, Ebola-Sudan, Ebola-Ivory Coast and Ebola-Bundibugyo. The fifth, Ebola-Reston, has caused disease in nonhuman primates, but not in humans.
Biohazard name:
Ebola (susp.)
Biohazard level:
4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:
Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
At least 10 people admitted to the Sukraraj Tropical and Disease Control Hospital in Nepali capital Kathmandu have tested positive for cholera. The hospital laboratory said Vibrio Cholera belonging to 01 Ogawa stereotype was detected in all the patients. Doctors at hospital attributed the spread of cholera and diarrhea infection in Kathmandu to contaminated water, according to Saturday’s Republica daily. “Most of the patients who came to the hospital said that they had drunk water supplied by Kathmandu Upatyaka Kahanepani Limited without boiling or treatment,” Tulsha Adhikari, a nursing staff said. She said whole families had been infected and some were brought to the hospital by their neighbors as all family members were sick.
Biohazard name:
Cholera
Biohazard level:
2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
Low levels of a deadly nerve agent have been detected in a chemical weapons igloo containing M55 GB, or sarin, rockets at Blue Grass Army Depot in central Kentucky. The Army Chemical Materials Agency says there’s no danger to people in Madison or surrounding counties and that state and local emergency officials have been notified of the leak. Toxic chemical workers have connected a 1,000 cubic feet-per-minute filter to the igloo’s rear vent. The agency says the leak was discovered during weekly monitoring.
South Korea’s state power company issued a shortage warning on Monday, meaning that reserves are dangerously low, as electricity consumption rose sharply due to an unusual heatwave. The warning from the Korea Electric Power Company (KEPCO) was aimed at averting power cuts, the knowledge economy ministry said, urging households, factories and other users to cut consumption voluntarily. Temperatures have stayed above 35 degrees Celsius (95 F) for 10 consecutive days across the country, driving up air-conditioning use. It was the first such warning since last September, when more than 2.1 million households and other premises were hit with rolling power cuts lasting up to one hour. The ministry also resumed operations of the country’s oldest nuclear power plant at Gori. It had been closed for months due to scrutiny over its safety and protests by civic groups. “We are relieved to resume operations of the Gori reactor at a time when power consumption is expected to reach its peak,” Knowledge Economy Minister Hong Suk-Woo said in a statement. In February the Gori plant, built in 1978 near the southern city of Busan, briefly lost mains power and the emergency generator failed to kick in. The incident did not result in any radioactive leaks but it sparked an extensive probe amid concerns over nuclear safety following last year’s atomic crisis in Japan. South Korea operates 23 nuclear power plants which meet more than 35 percent of its electricity needs. Analysts say successive governments have failed to authorise major increases in the relatively low cost of electricity, encouraging wasteful consumption. KEPCO last Friday decided to raise rates by 4.9 percent, yielding to government pressure to limit the increase to less than five percent.
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The number of people taken to hospitals by ambulance due to heatstroke in the week through Sunday more than doubled from the preceding week to 5,467, preliminary data showed Tuesday. The figure, up from 2,622 in the week to July 15, hit the highest for a single week this summer, according to the data released by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency. Deaths caused by heatstroke increased to 13 from five in the preceding week. Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture had the most victims, with ambulances called for 388 people each. They were followed by 382 in Aichi Prefecture and 372 in Osaka Prefecture. People aged 65 or older accounted for 45.9 percent of the total. Since the agency started this year’s survey on May 28, 11,116 people were taken to hospitals as of Sunday. Twenty-three people have died. The rise in heatstroke cases reflects the smothering heat wave, with temperatures of 35 degrees or higher observed in many places for the four days from July 16, agency officials said. In Tatebayashi, Gunma Prefecture, the mercury shot up to 37.6 on July 16 and to 39.2 the following day, according to the Meteorological Agency.
Ten people were killed and 38 others went missing as incessant rains battered Uttarakhand today triggering landslides, cloud bursts and flash floods which flattened homes and stranded hundreds of pilgrims with the Chardham Yatra coming to a grinding halt. The Garhwal region bore the brunt of the natural calamity. The state government has sounded a high alert after the MET department’s warned of very heavy rains and sought the help of the army to mitigate the sufferings of the people. Nineteen labourers of the state-run UJVN Ltd’s Assi Ganga hydel project went missing following a cloud burst in the upper hills of Uttarkashi district. Similarly, 19 other people also went missing from Gangori, Dunda, Uttarkashi town and Barkot areas in the district. “We have launched a manhunt to trace the missing people,” said R Rajesh Kumar District Magistrate Uttarkashi. Elsewhere in the state, 10 people were killed in different incidents following heavy rains during the past 24 hours, said sources in the Disaster Management and Mitigation Centre (DMMC) here.
In the disaster-prone Uttarkashi district, flash floods hit several low-lying areas creating havoc there. At least three jawans of the fire brigade department and two others were killed at Gangori area even as Chardham yatra to Gangotri and Yamunotri remained suspended for the second day today. In Gangori area of Uttarkashi, Bhagirathi is flowing above the danger level with people being evacuated to safer areas. Nearly 30 homes were washed away in the floods with the Gangori bridge also collapsing. “We have now reports that three jawans of the fire brigade and two others were killed in Gangori,” said state disaster management minister Yashpal Arya. Two more people were killed in Dunda area of Uttarkashi district. While two children were killed in a house collapse at Kararnprayag area of Chamoli district early today, another child was washed away in flash floods at Pokhri area of the district where landslides continue to hit blocking highways leading to Badrinath.
Hundreds of Badrinath pilgrims were stranded at various places at Patalganga, Lambagar and Birahi due to fresh landslips. The yatra for Kedarnath shrine was also suspended, the sources said. The government has launched relief and rescue operations but heavy rains were hampering them, top officials said. Food packets are being sent to the affected people. Nearly 250 families have already been taken to safer areas in different areas of Uttarkashi and Chamoli districts. Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna was monitoring the situation and has asked the concerned authorities to launch rescue and relief operation in the disaster-hit areas. He also asked concerned officers to reopen roads leading to pilgrim shrines so that the stranded pilgrims can go home. Bahuguna also asked the special Chardham cell set up at the secretariat to send him a daily report regarding the situation in the Garhwal region. The CM said his government would provide food and other essential items to the stranded pilgrims. Landslides are common in fragile hills of Garhwal region.
Serious sandstorm hit the entire country Friday with the wind speed measuring about 90km/hr and visibility falling below 500m. According to Director of Weather Forecast Mohammed Karam, the weather is the outcome of winds blowing from the East and high altitude concentration on the North Arabian Peninsula that closes the atmospheric pressure lines. Karam anticipates the weather will be stable by Saturday. He also said the northwesterly wind will continue in moderate speed measuring 40 km/hr and later transform to moderate light northeasterly winds measuring 25-40km/hr until the end of the week, and then the weather will become stable. He urged elderly people and those suffering from allergies and breathing difficulty to be extra cautious and wear masks while reducing their outings to avoid complications. Meanwhile, the Director of Operations at Kuwait International Airport Essam Al-Zamen disclosed that aviation events are continuing as expected, indicating the bad weather has no effect on activities there. He reiterated that landing and departure of planes take place as scheduled, even though the visibility is about 400m.
Firefighters in Russia’s Siberia had extinguished 45 forest fires covering 522 hectares of forest in the past 24 hours, but 131 wildfires were still burning on the area of almost 15,000 hectares, the regional forestry department said Friday. A total of 29 wildfires covering an area of more than 5,000 hectares were localized, and 14,948 hectares of forest continued to burn in the Krasnoyarsk Krai, Tomsk Region, Tuva, Khakassia and Irkutsk Region. Some 3,000 people, 412 units of fire-fighting equipment and 24 aircrafts have been mobilized to fight the blazes, which are believed to be caused by hot and dry weather in the region where the temperature reaches 35 degrees. Reports said the wildfires posed no threat to populated areas or industry.
A wildfire whipped by gusty, southerly winds swept through rural woodlands north and south of Oklahoma City on Friday, burning several homes as firefighters struggled to contain it in 113-degree heat. Oklahoma’s emergency management officials said 25 structures had burned east of Noble, including a handful of homes, and several homes near Luther, north of Oklahoma City, were threatened. Hundreds of residents were told to leave their homes as flames spread through treetops. The state Highway Patrol closed part of the main highway between Oklahoma City and Tulsa because of the Luther-area fire, which may have been deliberately set. Local deputies were looking into reports about passengers in a pickup truck who were seen throwing out newspapers that had been set on fire. “I loaded the kids up, grabbed my dogs, and it didn’t even look like I had time to load the livestock, so I just got out of there,” said Bo Ireland, who lives a few miles from where the Noble-area fire started. “It looked to me that, if the wind shifted even a little bit, I would be in the path of that fire. It was just too close.” There were no immediate reports of injuries or livestock losses. Dayle Bishop stood in a convenience store parking lot about 2 miles away from his house, saying he was pessimistic about his home’s chances. “I know it’s gone,” said Bishop, who works nights as a nurse. “Didn’t even have time to get anything out.” But he noted “it’s just stuff,” and said he may not have made it out of his home had a woman not knocked on his door and woken him up.
Charles Wright was with his daughter, Christina, along with their cat, at a makeshift evacuation center doubling as a staging area for fire engines, ambulances and other emergency equipment. He said law enforcement ordered them to leave their home in Norman. “Praying for miracles. Praying for the best, that’s all we can do,” said Wright, who managed to pack some clothes, jewelry and legal papers before fleeing. Ruth Hood splashed water onto two Chihuahua puppies that she grabbed along with several other animals and her children, and left as flames burned in her neighbor’s yard. She said she couldn’t be sure her home would survive. “No guarantee,” Hood said. With the ongoing drought, high temperatures and gusty winds, it took little for fires to begin and spread — and there was little crews could do to fight them. “It’s difficult for the firefighters to get into the area because it’s heavily wooded on either side of the smaller roads. When the winds are blowing 25 mph it just blows the embers and fireballs across the roads as if they weren’t even there,” said Jerry Lojka with the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management. At mid-afternoon Friday, the temperature at nearby Norman was 113. Winds were from the south and southwest at 14 mph, gusting to 24 mph. “I can tell you the temperatures and the wind are not helping the situation at all. Some homes have been lost in the fire unfortunately, but we don’t know how many,” said Meghan McCormick, a spokeswoman for the Cleveland County Sheriff’s office.
Russell Moore, 53, who lives in the Noble area, said he was outside in his yard when a sheriff’s deputy drove down the road and told people to leave. He and his son went to a shelter set up at Noble City Hall, but planned to go to his daughter’s home in Norman. “About all we saw was smoke and a little bit of ash raining down from the sky,” Moore said. “Everybody was piling into their vehicles and leaving as we were.” Lojka said an Oklahoma National Guard helicopter has been dispatched to a fast-moving blaze in Luther, northeast of Oklahoma City. He also said helicopters were helping ground crews with a fire near Mannford and Drumright in Creek County. Helicopters from the National Guard and the Bureau of Indian Affairs were fighting a fire in Creek County. The Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office said it was investigating reports that someone in a black pickup truck near Luther was tossing out newspapers that had been set on fire. The blaze and smoke led the Oklahoma Highway Patrol to shut down part of the Turner Turnpike, which carries Interstate 44 between Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Traffic was rerouted onto old U.S. Route 66, the famed two-lane highway that crisscrosses Oklahoma. The state was monitoring 11 fires in all Friday afternoon. Gov. Mary Fallin announced a statewide burn ban as the fire danger heightened. She previously had announced a state of emergency for all 77 counties due to the extreme drought.
As a wildfire’s flames raced to the edge of Lame Deer’s town limits, police drove the streets with loudspeakers blaring orders for residents of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation community to grab their most important belongings and get out. Buses were waiting to carry people from danger area, which on Thursday night suddenly meant the entire town of 2,000. Desi Small-Rodriguez, a volunteer with the tribe’s disaster and emergency services department, recalled the chaotic scene as the Chalky Fire threatened to burn down the seat of the southeastern Montana reservation. “A lot of people were walking with their belongings, getting on buses, trying to find rides, getting out as told,” Small-Rodriguez said Friday. About 250 people stayed at a Red Cross shelter 25 miles away at the St. Labre Mission. Others took shelter with friends and relatives on other parts of the reservation. Those with no place to go camped out on lawns in nearby communities, or they just refused to leave. The fire had already burned two homes earlier in the day, then wind from a cold front whipped up the flames and drove the fire straight toward town. Things looked grim to Carol Raymond, Rosebud County’s head of disaster and emergency services, who had driven from Forsyth to see firsthand what was happening. “I figured the whole town of Lame Deer would go up in flames,” Raymond said. Firefighters worked overnight trying to keep the flames back. At one point early Friday, the fire jumped Highway 212, but firefighters contained it with a back burn of the surrounding area, and the wildfire skirted around town without destroying any buildings or causing any injuries, Small-Rodriguez said. On Friday, the smoke was choking the town, but rain was assisting firefighters. A red-flag warning was to be in effect until evening, and firefighters prepared for gusty winds and possible thunderstorms. The mandatory evacuation remained in effect.
The state is sending firefighters and managers to help battle a 1,000-acre wildfire in the southeast corner of Washington. Other firefighters also are trying to contain a 10,000-acre wildfire in central Washington. The new fire broke out Thursday afternoon five miles south of Asotin and is burning grass, brush and wheat. The state Emergency Operations Center at Camp Murray has been activated to coordinate state assistance. Overnight winds forced firefighters to retreat at the central Washington fire as it grew to 10,000 acres – more than 15 square miles. Spokesman Dan Garner at the incident management center at Brewster High School says no structures are threatened. The fire broke out Wednesday near Pateros and Brewster. It’s burning grass, brush, scattered timber and some wheat land.
OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) – Wildfires burned out of control on Friday in Oklahoma, destroying homes and shutting down highways in a state that has suffered 18 straight days of 100-plus degree temperatures and persistent drought.Emergency officials counted 11 different wildfires around the state, with at least 65 homes destroyed in parched areas north and south of Oklahoma City and south of Tulsa.
Oklahoma joins several states that have been plagued by wildfires this summer, including Colorado, Arkansas and Nebraska. Fires are being fed by a widespread drought.
Nearly two-thirds of the contiguous United States was under some level of drought as of July 31, according to the Drought Monitor, a weekly report compiled by U.S. climate experts.
Interstate 44, historic Route 66 and state highways were closed, but no deaths were reported in the Oklahoma fires.
Low humidity, strong southerly winds and drought conditions enabled the wildfires to spread quickly across treetops, said Michelann Ooten, deputy director of the state’s Office of Emergency Management.
“It’s just a very difficult situation we’re facing that’s all weather related,” Ooten said.
Governor Mary Fallin, who earlier in the day invoked a statewide ban on outdoor burning after declaring a state of emergency for the state’s 77 counties, told Reuters fire conditions may be worse on Saturday.
“The fire danger might be even higher,” she said.
Oklahoma has contacted neighboring states for help, but they are contending with their own wildfire threats and no out-of-state help is on its way, she said.
“There’s fires in Arkansas. There’s fires in Kansas and Texas. Everybody else is on high heat alert,” she said.
The heat in Oklahoma City, the state capital, has reached historic levels.
On Friday, Oklahoma City tied its all-time record for the highest temperature ever recorded when the thermometer reached 113 Fahrenheit (45 Celsius), a mark last recorded in the Dust Bowl days in 1936, according to the National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma.
Volunteer fire departments have made a public plea for Gatorade donations to keep their crews hydrated in the scalding conditions.
(Reporting by Steve Olafson; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Lisa Shumaker)
After a lull in the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, Tropical Storm Florence formed on Saturday, joining Ernesto as both moved west on paths that could eventually take them to the U.S. coast.
It was still in the deep Atlantic, but on a path towards the Caribbean.
Ernesto was packing sustained winds of 50 mph and should pass south of Jamaica on Sunday, the center stated. “Ernesto is forecast to become a hurricane … in a day or two,” it added.
After Jamaica, which issued a tropical storm warning, Ernesto will likely head toward Grand Cayman, arriving Monday, and then Cancun/Cozumel in Mexico on Wednesday, weather.com reported.
Weather.com added it was “unclear whether Ernesto poses a threat to the U.S. late next week.”
On Friday, the storm swept over the tiny island of St. Lucia.
Businesses and government offices were ordered closed until noon on St. Lucia as Ernesto passed over the island, churning up 12-foot waves a few miles off its north shore.
It moved so quickly that St. Lucia got less than an inch of rain and there were no reports of damage or injuries.
August and September are usually the most active months of the Atlantic-Caribbean hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30.
Prior to Ernesto forming on Thursday, the last Atlantic tropical storm was Debby more than a month ago. It drenched Florida and eight deaths were tied to the storm.
U.S. government forecasters in May predicted a “normal” 2012 season, saying 9-15 named storms could be expected. Between 4-8 of those were predicted to become hurricanes.
Continuous heavy rainfall, cloud burst, and landslides have killed 10 in various parts of Sub-Himalayan region of Uttarakhand. At least 53 persons have been reported missing so far in flash floods and swallon rivers.
The pilgrims of the Chardham were stranded in the midway at various places and government has implemented temporary closure on the annual Char Dham pilgrimage until the situation becomes under control, official said on Saturday.
Due to heavy rains, the rivers have swollen and land sliding have increasing causing havoc among the localities and pilgrims. The pilgrims were stranded on way to Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath – the four points of pilgrimage.
According to official report, three fire fighters were killed in Gangotri due to heavy rains. A bridge was also washed away here and over 40 houses submerged in the overflowing Bhagirathi river.
Garhwal was the worst hit area, report said.
Two deaths were reported from Chamoli after two children died in a roof collpase. A child was swept away in Pokhri.
Uttarkashi has also been hit by flash floods.
Officials said following warnings of “more and severe rains” in the next two days, the Disaster Management and Mitigation Centre is on high alert and Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna was monitoring the situation.
Water level of Bhagirathi and Ganga rivers is also on the rise. The Uttarakhand government has issued red alert in areas along the river Ganga.
As many as 22 people were on Friday trapped in flash floods in Jammu region, prompting the authorities to sound an alert in the region. “A flash flood alert has been sounded in Jammu. Due to heavy overnight rains, various rivers in Jammu region are flooded…22 people and large number of cattle are trapped in the flash floods in Ujh and Tawi rivers,” an official said. Of the 22 people, 15 are trapped in Ujh river at Khadwal area in Kathua district and two each in Mayachak, Nagri, Sujanal (Satwari) and Muthi areas, he said. A rescue operation has been launched for those trapped in the flash floods, triggered by intermittent overnight rains in Jammu, Kathua and Udhampur districts, the official said. The water level in Chenab, Tawi, Ujh and Basantar rivers are nearing the danger mark, officials said, adding that people living in low-lying areas have been alerted and warned of flash floods. They have also been asked to keep away from banks of the flooded rivers.
Public Service Company of New Mexico said nearly 3,000 customers on Santa Fe’s south side were without electric power for more than two hours Friday evening after lightning struck the local power grid. Spokesman Frederick Bermudez said he couldn’t pinpoint where the lightning hit but said it knocked out power from 5:35 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. to 2,916 homes, businesses and institutions in an area bounded by St. Michael’s Drive on the north, Old Galisteo Road on the south, Old Pecos Trail on the east and Entrada de Santiago on the west. Much of Santa Fe was pounded by heavy rain with lightning and sudden high winds late Friday afternoon, suddenly swelling the Santa Fe River and other areas with swift flows of storm water. A driver on St. Michael’s Drive reported seeing thin funnel cloud on the horizon at about 5:45 p.m. “It was probably a dust devil, but we’ve been seeing that a lot this year,” said Brian Guyer, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque. “We’ve had some strong winds in Santa Fe today.” Guyer said the peak wind speed recorded at Santa Fe on Friday was 41 mph. Between two-tenths and four-tenths of an inch of rain fell — not a lot by most standards but what Guyer said was the heaviest rain the city has seen so far this summer. “You had a ton of lightning, some around the Plaza and a lot of lighting strikes up in the foothills,” he said. “It’s still dry, so it wouldn’t surprise me if we might see some fires by tomorrow.”
Hundreds of people residing near Beas river have been evacuated to safe places after flash flood caused by torrential rain over Dhundi peaks at south portal of Rohtang tunnel flooded the Seri rivulet, a tributary to Beas river, on Friday at 8pm. People living close to river between Palchan and Kullu are being evacuated and traffic on national highway has been stopped. Till last report received from Palchan (near Dhundi) at 10.30pm, level of the river was rising continuously and police were evacuating the people from Bahang village, 6km from Manali. According to police, there is no report of any casualty. Sandeep Kumar, a resident of Bahang village, said people are trying to save the household accessories amid chaotic atmosphere and conditions have become even worse after power failure. “Everything was normal till late evening but the situation changed suddenly after 8pm when river water, mixed with sludge, started engulfing its banks. People are risking their lives to remove the household stuffs,” he said. An engineer working with a hydel project near Palchan said over phone that roaring sound of river is shaking the foundation of the houses. “Nobody is going to sleep tonight. Villagers have gathered at many places and are guarding the river banks with floodlights,” he said. According to villagers it is a cloudburst which might have caused devastation at its source on mountains. Kullu deputy commissioner Amitabh Awasthi said , police are patrolling the river banks and have directed people to move to safe places. “We have closed the traffic on national highway. We shall keep an eye on the situation throughout the night,” he said.
FLOODS which hit parts of North Korea in the past few weeks have killed 169 people and left 400 missing, the state news agency announced on Saturday, sharply updating earlier casualty figures.
The floods and torrential rain between late June and the end of July also made 212,200 people homeless and washed away or inundated 65,280 hectares of cropland, the agency said.
United Nations agencies have visited the worst-hit areas to assess aid needs and the World Food Program (WFP) is sending an initial shipment of emergency food aid.
North Korea suffered a famine in the 1990s that killed hundreds of thousands and still struggles to feed its people even in normal times.
It had been estimated by UN agencies, even before the current deluge, that three million people would need food aid this year.
More than 8600 houses were destroyed and another 43,770 swamped, and more than 1400 schools, hospitals and factories collapsed, the news agency said.
Official media had previously reported 119 deaths, with 84,000 people made homeless and 45,370ha of farmland damaged.
The WFP said its initial assistance would provide victims with an initial ration of 400 grams of maize a day for 14 days, after the UN assessment mission found considerable damage to maize, soybean and rice fields.
The mission has said immediate food aid is needed for residents of the worst-hit counties such as Anju and Songchon in South Pyongan province and Chonnae in Kangwon province.
It also stressed that tens of thousands of families urgently need clean drinking water to prevent disease.
Wells had been contaminated by overflowing latrines, creating a high risk of a diarrhoea outbreak, while floods had damaged water sources and pumping stations.
Citing North Korean government figures, the UN mission said about 50,000 families would need purification tablets or other help to secure clean water.
The UN children’s fund UNICEF has ordered 10 million tablets along with other materials. Drugs and IV fluids were also badly needed.
The assessment mission said on Thursday a hospital in Chonnae county had already seen a fourfold rise in diarrhoea cases.
“In general, unless … needs are addressed, rapid increase in diarrhoea, skin infection and respiratory infections could occur,” it said in a report.
Outdated and inefficient agricultural practices, along with a shortage of fertiliser and diversion of food to the military, have contributed to the annual food shortages.
Mountainous North Korea is also short of arable land. Widespread deforestation, partly to clear land for crops, has made the impoverished nation increasingly prone to serious flooding which ends up washing away the harvest.
In February, the US reached a deal to offer North Korea 240,000 tonnes of food in return for a freeze on nuclear and missile tests.
But the plan was scrapped after Pyongyang’s failed rocket launch in April, seen by the US and its allies as an attempted ballistic missile test.
At least 10 people admitted to the Sukraraj Tropical and Disease Control Hospital in Nepali capital Kathmandu have tested positive for cholera. The hospital laboratory said Vibrio Cholera belonging to 01 Ogawa stereotype was detected in all the patients. Doctors at hospital attributed the spread of cholera and diarrhea infection in Kathmandu to contaminated water, according to Saturday’s Republica daily. “Most of the patients who came to the hospital said that they had drunk water supplied by Kathmandu Upatyaka Kahanepani Limited without boiling or treatment,” Tulsha Adhikari, a nursing staff said. She said whole families had been infected and some were brought to the hospital by their neighbors as all family members were sick.
Biohazard name:
Cholera
Biohazard level:
2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
Five children in South Waziristan have died from measles during the past week, an official said. “Non-availability of measles vaccines has become a big problem and if the desired vaccines were not made available, the situation could slip out of hand,” Dr. Azmat Hayat Khan, agency surgeon, told Central Asia Online August 3. Measles has affected about 400 children, of whom about 100 were hospitalised, he said. He warned of an outbreak throughout the agency if medics failed to immunise children immediately. Letters regarding the unavailability of measles vaccine have gone to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) directorate of health, he said, expressing hope the vaccine would become available in a few days. The Taliban have refused to allow polio vaccination in areas of South Waziristan they control, endangering more than 157,000 children below age 5, he said. The directorate has received the agency surgeon’s letter and is sending vaccines to South Waziristan, FATA Health Director Dr. Fawad Khan said. “We have also started vaccination in Mohmand, Bajaur and Khyber agencies, where measles had killed several children besides sending hundreds to hospitals,” he said.
Biohazard name:
Measles (fatal)
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.
MessageToEagle.com – Two of three key signs of changes expected to occur at the boundary of interstellar space have changed faster than at any other time in the last seven years, according to new data from NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft.
For the last seven years, Voyager 1 has been exploring the outer layer of the bubble of charged particles the sun blows around itself.
In one day, on July 28, data from Voyager 1′s cosmic ray instrument showed the level of high-energy cosmic rays originating from outside our solar system jumped by five percent.
During the last half of that same day, the level of lower-energy particles originating from inside our solar system dropped by half.
However, in three days, the levels had recovered to near their previous levels.
A third key sign is the direction of the magnetic field, and scientists are eagerly analyzing the data to see whether that has, indeed, changed direction.
Scientists expect that all three of these signs will have changed when Voyager 1 has crossed into interstellar space.
A preliminary analysis of the latest magnetic field data is expected to be available in the next month.
“These are thrilling times for the Voyager team as we try to understand the quickening pace of changes as Voyager 1 approaches the edge of interstellar space,” said Edward Stone, the Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.
“We are certainly in a new region at the edge of the solar system where things are changing rapidly. But we are not yet able to say that Voyager 1 has entered interstellar space.”
Click on image to enlargeVoyagers in the HeliosheathThis artist’s concept shows NASA’s two Voyager spacecraft exploring a turbulent region of space known as the heliosheath, the outer shell of the bubble of charged particles around our sun. After more than 33 years of travel, the two Voyager spacecraft will soon reach interstellar space, which is the space between stars.
Our sun gives off a stream of charged particles that form a bubble around our solar system known as the heliosphere. The solar wind travels at supersonic speeds until it crosses a shockwave called the termination shock. That part of our solar system is shown in dark blue. Voyager 1 crossed the termination shock in December 2004 and Voyager 2 did so in August 2007.
Beyond the termination shock is the heliosheath, shown in gray, where the solar wind dramatically slows down and heats up. Outside those two areas is territory dominated by the interstellar wind, which is blowing from the left in this image. As the interstellar wind approaches the heliosphere, a bow shock forms, indicated by the bright arc.
The Voyagers were built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., which continues to operate both spacecraft. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. The Voyager missions are a part of the NASA Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Click on image to enlargeBubbles and Cosmic Rays at the Edge of the Solar SystemThe latest data from the Voyager spacecraft indicate the edge of our solar system is much different from what was previously imagined. This resulted in a new computer model that shows the edge of our solar system is not smooth, but filled with a turbulent sea of magnetic bubbles.
The heliospheric boundaries are very important in shielding the inner solar system from the galactic cosmic ray flux. The heliopause, the last region that separates us from the rest of the galaxy, acts more like a membrane that is permeable to galactic cosmic rays than a shield that deflects those energetic particles.
The galactic cosmic rays slowly wander into the heliosphere and can get trapped in the sea of magnetic bubbles. Eventually they access the solar magnetic field lines that connect back to the sun, and can move quickly towards the sun and Earth. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab
The levels of high-energy cosmic ray particles have been increasing for years, but more slowly than they are now.
The last jump — of five percent — took one week in May. The levels of lower-energy particles from inside our solar system have been slowly decreasing for the last two years. Scientists expect that the lower-energy particles will drop close to zero when Voyager 1 finally crosses into interstellar space.
“The increase and the decrease are sharper than we’ve seen before, but that’s also what we said about the May data,” Stone said.
“The data are changing in ways that we didn’t expect, but Voyager has always surprised us with new discoveries.”
Voyager 1, which launched on Sept. 5, 1977, is 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) from the sun.
Voyager 2, which launched on Aug. 20, 1977, is close behind, at 9.3 billion miles (15 billion kilometers) from the sun.
“Our two veteran Voyager spacecraft are hale and healthy as they near the 35th anniversary of their launch,” said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena.
“We know they will cross into interstellar space. It’s just a question of when.” MessageToEagle.com
TEN secondary school teachers at the weekend died of food poisoning, and several others hospitalised in Katsina. Investigations by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) showed that the incident occurred at a workshop organised by the state Ministry of Education for some 650 teachers at Government Day Secondary School (GDSS), Kofar Yan’daka, Katsina. It was gathered that soon after taking their lunch, supplied by a popular corporate caterer on the fateful day, some of the teachers were vomiting and afflicted by diarrhoea, as a result of which they were rushed to the Federal Medical Centre, Katsina and the Police Clinic for medication. Ten of the affected teachers were said to have died as a result of the infection. When contacted, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Alhaji Khalil Musa, said: “I cannot comment on the issue now, because it is yet to be reported to the state government. I don’t want to pre-empt the government on the issue.” The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Abubakar Ibrahim, who confirmed the incident, said that only one teacher died, while 19 others were hospitalised. He said that 12 of the affected teachers had already been discharged from the hospitals, while seven others were still on admission at the Federal Medical Centre and Katsina Police Clinic. He said the police had already collected sample of the food supplied by the caterer for clinical analysis. All the victims are receiving treatment at various medical centres, while officials declined to comment on the number of casualties that were brought to the centres.
Biohazard name:
Mass. Food Poisoning
Biohazard level:
2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
Agro-pastoralists farmers in Loima District in Turkana County have suffered huge losses on their farms from massive locust invasion in the region. The farmers at Kang’ilita Irrigation Schemes in Loima district have decried the invasion as a major setback to their economic sustainability despite their recent devoted engagements into farming. They said raised fear of low crop yields in the coming harvesting season as a result of the unprecedented invasion. Ms Pauline Nakali, a farmer, said that her farm has been extensively damaged by the locust pest and could hardly think of ways to regain the loss. “We are experiencing big loss of crops to locust invasion and that we expect low yield this season since our farms have been destroyed by the pest,” Ms Nakali said. She appealed to the government and donor partners to intervene and salvage the situation before it goes out of hand. But the Rift Valley Director of Agriculture Leonard Nyambuya told farmers that the Ministry of Agriculture and the development partner Food Agriculture Organizations (FAO) would send experts to tackle the pest. Mr Nyambuya said the ministry and the donor partner will provide insecticide to fight the pest. He said experts from the directorate of crop and pest in the ministry will supply appropriate chemicals and insecticides to get rid of the pests. “We are immediately sending the experts to assess the damage caused by the pest before we swing to action to eradicate it,” Nyambuya said. The director who addressed farmers’ field schools in Kangilita irrigation scheme directed the Field extension officers to assess the damage caused by the pest. The FAO officials Dr Paul Omanga said his organisation would assist the farmers to fight the prevailing pest problems in the area so that farmers achieve good yields.
Biohazard name:
Locust Invasion
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Large numbers of jellyfish have been swarming near nine thermal power plants on Ise Bay. Chubu Electric Power Co. estimates that there are close to 24,000 tons of the sea creatures swimming around the area, twice the usual level and the second-most recorded in the past decade. Measures are being taken to ensure the jellyfish don’t clog the power plants’ water intakes and disrupt their operations. Chubu Electric launched a research project in 1999 to predict the number of jellyfish in Ise Bay. They discovered that most jellyfish larvae transform into polyps in three major areas: near the port of Nagoya; along the coast of the Chita Peninsula from Tokoname to Morozaki, Minamichita, in Aichi Prefecture; and along the coast of the Shima Peninsula from Matsusaka to Toba in Mie Prefecture. Every winter, the research group collects samples of polyps and compares them with past results to predict how many larvae will develop into adult jellyfish in the following year. Last winter’s findings indicated the number this year would be 1.5 to 1.8 times higher than usual. “We don’t know the reason why the number is so high this year, but we need to monitor the situation closely,” said Minoru Hamada, 46, an assistant project manager in Chubu Electric’s technology development department.
If jellyfish block the water intake, a power plant can’t draw enough water from the sea to cool the steam used to turn the turbine, and the plant has to reduce its electricity output. Each plant has adopted various measures, including putting up nets, to stop the jellyfish from swimming too close, but this is only effective when dealing with small numbers. It is not enough to prevent large amounts of jellyfish from swimming in all at once. The number of jellyfish near the thermal power plants usually peaks in July, August and September. However, this year they started gathering around the plants in May, resulting in reduced electricity output at three of the plants for a total of nine days. They were the Hekinan plant in Hekinan, Aichi Prefecture, the Shin-Nagoya plant in Nagoya and the Kawagoe plant in Kawagoe, Mie Prefecture. It’s a pressing problem for Chubu Electric because it has become increasingly dependent on thermal energy since its Hamaoka nuclear plant has been shut down over quake and tsunami fears. “The effect of the jellyfish isn’t fully known yet, but it can have a serious impact on electricity output if they keep increasing, especially during this season when there is high electricity demand,” a Chubu Electric official said. “We need to monitor the jellyfish further and take actions swiftly if necessary.”
Biohazard name:
Jellyfish invasion
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
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The study found that mutation rates were much higher among butterfly collected near Fukushima
The Japanese researchers have been studying the species for more than a decade
MessageToEagle.com – Two of three key signs of changes expected to occur at the boundary of interstellar space have changed faster than at any other time in the last seven years, according to new data from NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft.
