The National Weather Service predicted a "major winter storm" for Friday into Saturday and said New York City was in the mix for blizzard conditions, which combine sustained strong winds and snowfall. "Two weather systems from the polar and subtropical jet streams will combine to produce a major and potentially historic winter storm." The storm was expected to pound Boston particularly hard, but forecasters said the system should blow through later Saturday, with milder temperatures to follow.
"The storm should reach its peak intensity early on Saturday morning just east of Cape Cod," the weather service said, forecasting between 30 to 60cm of snow across the region. Strong winds 40 to 56km/h, with hurricane-strength gusts of up to 120km/h were expected, creating deep drifts. Forecasters said New York would see more than a 10cm of snow, while Boston, where schools were ordered closed, was due to be buried under as much as two feet, with far more in the drifts. The storm heading is already disrupting air travel, with over 2,100 flights cancelled for Friday.
"Due to potential power outages and transportation difficulties, New Yorkers are advised to stock up on potential supplies, including medicine." The Friday commute and air travel in the region were expected to see snarl-ups, while wet, freezing snow on power lines was likely to knock out electricity in some areas. "Many people could be caught offguard Friday evening," commercial weather service AccuWeather said, warning of "potentially dangerous" conditions. "Strong winds will not only cause whiteout conditions and massive drifts, but also coastal flooding and power outages. Gusts can approach hurricane force in coastal areas."
it certainly does not belong to the man or party that
claims to possess it.**
Albert Camus
LARGEST QUAKES -
Live Seismograms - Worldwide (update every 30 minutes)
This morning -
5.3 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS
5.1 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS
Yesterday -
2/7/13 -
5.0 NIAS REGION, INDONESIA
5.1 NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
5.1 NEW GUINEA, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
5.9 TONGA
5.1 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS
5.0 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS
5.2 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS
5.5 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS
5.0 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS
6.7 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS
5.1 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS
5.1 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS REGION
5.1 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS
5.1 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS
5.8 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS REGION
5.2 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS
5.2 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS
5.1 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS REGION
5.1 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS
5.1 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS REGION
5.0 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS REGION
6.1 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS REGION
Eight now reported dead in Solomon Islands after quake - More than 70 aftershocks, including a magnitude 7.0 quake, followed the main temblor which struck Wednesday at 12:12 p.m. local time, 81 kilometers (50 miles) west of Lata, at a depth of 5.8 kilometers.
Shanghai - The city's earthquake tracking administration tried to dispel rumors of an earthquake Thursday after microbloggers reported they felt the ground shake around noon near the Bund. The Earthquake Administration of Shanghai Municipality announced on its microblog at 1:09 pm that it had not detected an earthquake in the city Thursday.
The microbloggers reported feeling a disturbance primarily around the Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone in Pudong New Area and on the other side of the river near the Bund. Concerned for their safety, some office workers fled their buildings. One building reportedly even organized an evacuation. The bureau said it had checked its information twice but found no evidence that an earthquake occurred within the city limits, according to the microblog post. In addition, it didn't collect any data indicating that a quake occurred in other parts of the country. The cause of the shaking remained unknown Thursday. The bureau said it would continue to monitor the situation.
VOLCANOES -
Volcano Webcams
Volcano activity on February 7 - The only change in volcanic behavior at the six erupting Kamchatkan volcanoes (Tolbachik, Bezymianny, Kliuchevskoi, Kizimen, Karymsky, and Sheveluch) during the past 24 hours was a decline in seismicity at Sheveluch volcano.
Chile - Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcano. It hasn't erupted for a year, but volcano's glass lava keeps flowing. The lava is made of obsidian, or volcanic glass. Researchers visiting Chile's Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcano in January 2013 found the obsidian flow was moving, even though the volcano stopped erupting in April 2012.
Dome grows in Alaska's Cleveland Volcano - Cleveland Volcano is heating up near its summit. Scientists at the Alaska Volcano Observatory say satellite data obtained a week ago indicates a lava dome is growing in the summit crater.
Indonesia - Residents Ignore Calls to Leave Island After Rokatenda Eruption. Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara. Most residents in Palue Island, East Nusa Tenggara, have refused to be evacuated to a safer area following the minor eruption of Mount Rokatenda over the weekend.
“There is one subdistrict in Palue Island ... [with] a population of 10,858. Only 2,675 people have evacuated while the majority ... are still hanging on." Officers from the Maumere Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) unit, military, navy and paramedics from Sikka Health Agency had arrived on the island to persuade residents to be evacuated but failed. “The police and military officers helped us gather the residents to the post that made it easier [for us] to distribute aid and evacuation if the condition gets worse."
Sikka Health Agency sent 4,000 masks to the island. “We have sent 4,000 masks to Palue Island to protect residents from the ashes that could cause upper respiratory tract infections." Aside from masks, the agency has also deployed a team of paramedics to the Palue community health center. “There are enough paramedics, masks and medicines for now. We will coordinate with the Ende Health Agency if more paramedics are needed.”
Officers have evacuated residents who live on the slope of the mountain. “Residents who were trapped on the slope of Mount Rokatenda have been evacuated by the joint officers from the police, military and navy." The agency still has logistical supplies for the next 10 days, but residents will soon face a food crisis because all their crops have been destroyed by the ash.
Rokatenda has experienced increased volcanic activity since last November, prompting the evacuation of residents living on its slopes to Flores. Its most destructive eruption was in August 1928, when an avalanche of debris displaced by the eruption caused a tsunami that killed several people.
Just like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions are extremely difficult to accurately predict. Yet, the eruption of the Santa Ana Volcano in El Salvador was predicted a few days before it happened on 1st October 2005. "On the last day of September [the authorities] evacuated 200 people from the slopes of the volcano, and the next day, at ten o 'clock the volcano exploded." An atmospheric scientist at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden and his team were involved in raising the alarm of the risk of eruption.
At the time, he was the chosen coordinator of EU funded NOVAC project designed "to find out if [volcanic gasses] remote sensing was useful for [eruption] risk assessment." This approach relies on a technology called spectroscopic remote-sensing, traditionally used to detect gasses produced by agriculture, pollution, or natural sources, such as peat mosses. The efficiency of the system was dramatically demonstrated on the first day of the project. Indeed, monitoring had started more than a month before the official EU research project contract was signed. The team took the hint from local researchers detecting a sudden and dramatic ten-fold increase of gas emission during the end of September that year.
The technique is similar to the so-called spectroscopic observation of molecules in the atmosphere of planets. "Ten years ago we realised that there was a strong development in optical remote sensing of gasses that was not really exploited with volcanoes." . Typically the remote-sensing spectrometer is set up about 5 km from the volcano, looking for traces of gasses such as sulphur dioxide and bromine oxide. "These gasses are dissolved deep down in the magma, and if you have changes of temperature or pressure, it affects the solubility and the amount of gas that comes out."
Experts welcome such approach, but only as a complement to existing detection methods. "Remote sensing is not sufficient, but it is a very useful addition to monitor a volcano. You also need seismic and ground deformation monitoring." However effective the combination of detection technologies may be, risk perception may be the biggest hurdle in adequately preventing volcanic eruptions to have dire consequences. An example is the Campi Flegrei, a large volcano on the West of Naples. Although its seismicity is currently low, gas emission studies shows a variability in the chemical composition of gasses it emits. This could be an early signal of renewed volcanic activity.
Despite the activity warnings provided by advance in remote gas sensing, the danger the Campi Flegrei poses to the population is much less understood. "It is capable of very large magnitude eruptions and quite a lot of people live inside the caldera itself." Scientists have done a great deal of work in communicating the risk, evaluated by combing detection technologies. However, the local population does not have an accurate perception of the risk. "There is a feeling among Italian scientists that people do not listen, or are simply unaware, particularly of the risk from Campi Flegrei." However, it is clear that the authorities are quite uncomfortable about the situation.
For now, the NOVAC network is still in place. 24 volcanoes — 80% of those monitored by the project — are still fully monitored by remote sensing that is funded by local risk observatories mainly in South America. Indeed further funding by the EU did not materialise when the project ended in 2010. "This is a serious problem. If I write a proposal which contains the words 'network' and 'long-term,' nobody wants to touch it."
TSUNAMIS / HIGH WAVES -
Tsunami reaches Japan after S. Pacific quake - Tsunami up to 40 centimeters high were observed in Japan following the magnitude-8 earthquake in the South Pacific on Wednesday. A 40-centimeter tsunami reached Hachijojima, part of the Izu island chain.
TROPICAL STORMS -
No tropical storms.
HEALTH THREATS -
Bacteria in meat show growing drug resistance - An annual report released by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week shows that antibiotic resistance in bacteria found in retail meat and poultry samples is continuing to increase, though not uniformly.
RECALLS & ALERTS
- GoldCoast Salads, a Naples, Florida firm, is voluntarily recalling it's Blue Crab Spread that may be contaminated with Listeria.
- Sprouters Northwest Expands Voluntary Recall to all varieties of sprouts products, wheatgrass and pea shoots due to the potential contamination with Listeria monocytogenes.
