and then proceed to tell you why it isn’t.**
LARGEST QUAKES -
Live Seismograms - Worldwide (update every 30 minutes)
This morning -
None 5.0 or higher.
Yesterday -
4/15/13 -
5.1 FIJI REGION
Unknown active fault may have caused 6.3 quake in Hyogo, Japan - Saturday's Quake Left Nearly 2000 Houses Damaged In Western Japan. The cities of Sumoto, Awaji and Minami-awaji in the Awaji island of Hyogo Prefecture were the worst hit areas in the 6.3-magnitude quake believed to have been caused by an unknown active fault extending about ten kilometers from north to south. When Awajishima island in Hyogo Prefecture was jolted on April 13 by the strong quake, some people thought it had to be the dreaded Nankai Trough earthquake that seismologists have been warning about for years.
Gulf Cooperation Council meets over radiation fears - National emergency officials in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries met on Sunday in Saudi Arabia to discuss the risk of radiation spreading over the Gulf if Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant is damaged by another earthquake.
Los Angeles Tests Water Pipes That Stand Up to Quakes - Los Angeles has a come up with a strategy to prepare for the Big One: earthquake-proof water pipes made only in Japan. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power recently finished installing a test patch of about 2,000 feet of a special kind of iron. Unlike traditional water pipes, these so-called ductile iron pipes are able to withstand quakes because they can bend and flex instead of buckling under pressure. The system is engineered to work like a chain.
Red Woods Ants Sense Earthquake Before It Hits - Researchers discovered that red wood ants preferred building the colonies along the active faults and fractures where the Earth ruptured. The behaviour of red wood ants changed considerably before the earthquake above magnitude 2.0 struck Germany. The behaviour of these ants remained like that and did not come back to normal till a day after the earthquake.
A team of researchers counted 15,000 ant mounds lining the active faults. These ants were tracked continuously for three years between 2009 and 2012. It was discovered that the ants underwent the usual activities on the day just before the earthquake. Then they went back to their moulds. But before an earthquake strikes, the ants remain awake and outside the moulds during night.
It was found that the insects can predict earthquakes by knowing about the changing gas emissions or shifts in magnetic fields of the Earth. In case of red wood ants, there are chemo receptors for carbon dioxide gradients along with magneto receptors for electromagnetic fields.
VOLCANOES -
Volcano Webcams
Mexican earthquake awakened volcano - The Popocatepetl volcano on Saturday vented a dense cloud of ash over the central Mexico state of Puebla, with ash falling to the ground in several towns. In San Andres Cholula, residents were worried about ash contaminating the water.
TROPICAL STORMS -
In the South Indian Ocean -
Tropical Cyclone Imelda was located approximately 370 nm east of La Reunion.
EXTREME HEAT & DROUGHT / WILDFIRES / CLIMATE CHANGE -
US, China make critical deal on climate change - The world's two biggest polluters signed what could be a groundbreaking agreement and “call to action” on the fight against escalating climate change on Sunday. “The United States of America and the People's Republic of China recognize that the increasing dangers presented by climate change measured against the inadequacy of the global response requires a more focused and urgent initiative." The U.S. Government Accountability Office warned in February that climate change is a “significant financial risk to the federal government.” It threatens everything – not just federal lands and buildings, but food, flood and crop insurance, among other things.
Recent Antarctic climate, glacier changes at the 'upper bound' of normal - In the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the area where new research was focused, it is more difficult to detect the evidence of human-caused climate change than in the Arctic. Changes in recent decades have been unusual and at the “upper bound of normal."
Invest In Clean Energy To Reap Enormous Health Benefits says the UN and help slow climate change. Fossil fuel burning pollution kills nearly 7 million annually, more than HIV or malaria combined.
Climate change linked to hunger and undernutrition - “The links between hunger, undernutrition and climate change are clear to see once we listen to the experiences of the poorest and most vulnerable people, who battle through unpredictable weather patterns in their struggle to feed their families."
India - Maharashtra's drought woes: From scams to poor planning, contributors aplenty. Even as Maharashtra faces one of the worst droughts in its history, the lack of attention towards all crops grown in the state, as well as numerous project delays, shows poor long-term planning by the government contributed to the current state of affairs. India's western state of Maharashtra is reeling from the WORST DROUGHT IN OVER FOUR DECADES and millions of people face the risk of hunger.
China drought hits millions - More than 20 million people in China are affected by a drought in the country's south-west.
New Zealand drought set to slash farm incomes - For sheep and beef farms, the average profit will be more than halved and the impact of the drought will linger for another year or two as farmers cull breeding stock this year at cheap prices, but will pobably face higher costs to replace stock next year.
Why the Dust Bowl may be coming back - The 2013 drought season is off to a worse start than in 2012 or 2011. It's a good indicator, based on historical records, that the entire year will be drier than last year, even if spring and summer rainfall and temperatures remain the same.
The WORST-EVER RIO GRANDE DROUGHT is posing plenty of challenges this season for chile growers in New Mexico.
Climate change set to redraw wine map - The wine-producing potential of some regions will rise significantly as the climate changes, pushing vineyard production into cooler higher latitudes – in particular in New Zealand (168 percent) and western parts of North America (231 percent).
