Monday, April 30, 2012

Surprisingly quiet today.
No update on Tuesday.

**Half of the modern drugs could well be
thrown out of the window,
except that the birds might eat them.**
Martin Henry Fischer

LARGEST QUAKES -
Live Seismograms - Worldwide (update every 30 minutes)

This morning -
5.5 NORTH INDIAN OCEAN
5.7 OFFSHORE COQUIMBO, CHILE

Yesterday -
4/29/12 -
5.7 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
5.0 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
5.0 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
5.3 PAPUA, INDONESIA
5.4 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.8 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN

TROPICAL STORMS -
No current tropical storms.

EXTREME HEAT & DROUGHT / CLIMATE CHANGE -

Why all these strange storms, warmer temps? - Meteorologists are not giving much credence to what some say is the Mayan calendar’s prediction that the world will come to an end on Dec. 21. They say the strange weather patterns South Texas and the rest of the United States have been experiencing have no connection to the Mayan calendar and what some are calling its doomsday message. “That has nothing to do with the weather. I think on Dec. 22 we will all wake up that day and get ready for Christmas,” said the warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Brownsville. A series of freak hailstorms in the Rio Grande Valley over the past few weeks and unusually warm temperatures are attributed to changing weather patterns and not much more, officials said. “The reality is that sometimes it is just serendipity, the way the puzzle pieces come together in the atmosphere just right to give us an opportunity. I think the reason people get freaked out is that we don’t see it very often here." UNUSUAL weather patterns have occurred across the nation during the first four months of the year, from dozens and dozens of tornado outbreaks in months that do not usually experience such a high amount, to unusually warm weather on the East Coast that brought temperatures near 90 degrees to the Boston area. The only way to put a finger on the weather is to look at the past decades to see if there appear to be any trends. It probably will not be until 2020 or 2030 that meteorologists can determine whether any trends are actually occurring. “We have had some interesting years lately, but it hasn’t been enough to make a determination." If you look at history, you will see that it shows there have been big tornadoes, big hailstorms and big snow storms, but it is probably because there are more people now seeing and videotaping the incidents that it seems like more of these weather events are occurring. Officials are looking into the possibility that the changing weather patterns have something to do with the Arctic Oscillation changes, which have been increasing since the 1980s. The Arctic Oscillation is a large scale mode of climate variability, which is characterized by winds circulating counterclockwise around the Arctic at around 55°N latitude. “They are looking into that as a possible trend” with the weather shifting back and forth. “If that trend continues, basically we think that meteorologically the extremes will continue because these high oscillation patterns have been shown to correlate to extreme weather. The Mayan civilization, which reached its height from 300 A.D. to 900 A.D., had a talent for astronomy. Its Long Count calendar begins in 3,114 B.C., marking time in roughly 394-year periods known as Baktuns. Thirteen was a significant, sacred number for the Mayas, and they wrote that the 13th Baktun ends on Dec. 21, 2012. While some say the calendar predicts a cataclysmic event, others say that is a misinterpretation of the calendar.The doomsday theories stem from a pair of tablets discovered in the 1960s at the archaeological site of Tortuguero in the Gulf of Mexico state of Tabasco that describe the return of a Mayan god at the end of a 13th period. "The Maya are viewed by many westerners as exotic folks that were supposed to have had some special, secret knowledge. What happens is that our expectations and fears get projected on the Maya calendar." “We watch the weather all over the world, especially in the United States and Texas, the thing is we see a lot of weird weather every day. Some of it makes the news and some of it doesn’t." The weather pattern the area is currently experiencing is something that is normally experienced during the spring. What makes this year’s weather somewhat “unique” is that there has been more of a southeasterly wind flow from Mexico to South Texas. Usually, the winds are either light or coming from the west of the area. “When you have a large contrast between very warm weather and still the potential for cold weather to interact with that, you are going to see some very unusual situations setting up. What I find in meteorology is that people have short memories. They forget that we’ve had these events before."

Wind farms can affect weather in their immediate locality, raising night-time temperatures on the ground, researchers working in Texas have shown. They used satellite data to show that land around newly constructed wind farms warmed more than next-door areas. The scientists believe the effect is caused by turbines bringing relatively warm air down to ground level. They suggest that turbines in other places might not produce the same value of ground temperature change. The study area, in west-central Texas, saw a major turbine building programme in the middle of the last decade, with the number soaring from 111 in 2003 to 2325 just six years later. The entire region saw a rise, but it was more pronounced around wind farms. The researchers looked for other factors that could have affected the results, such as changes in vegetation, but found these were too small to produce the observed change. The change was not identical across all of the wind farms. Having averaged the data, the researchers say the scale of the effect they saw is equivalent to a warming of about 0.72C per decade. Recognising that this could wrongly be interpreted as suggesting the local temperature will continue to rise, thelead researcher cautiioned, "The estimated warming trend only applies to the study region and to the study period, and thus should not be extrapolated linearly into other regions or over longer periods. For a given wind farm, the warming effect would likely reach a limit rather than continue to increase if no new wind turbines are added." At night, air above ground level tends to be warmer than the ground. Researchers believe the turbine blades are simply stirring up the air, mixing warm and cold, and bringing some of the warmth down to ground level. "Daytime temperatures do not appear to be affected. This makes sense, (and) this same strategy is commonly used by fruit growers who fly helicopters over their orchards to combat early morning frosts." A 2010 study, also from the US, used data from a single location and computer modelling to show that wind turbines could produce local warming. "This article is a first step in exploring the potential of using satellite data to quantify the possible impacts of big wind farms on weather and climate. We are now expanding this approach to other wind farms, and building models to understand the physical processes and mechanisms driving the interactions of wind turbines and the atmospheric boundary layer near the surface."

Australians call it the Big Dry and, after nine parched years, it's over. It's the drought that has afflicted large areas of this vast country and now the federal government is about to declare it officially at an end. The final two areas to be given the all-clear are Bundarra and Eurobodalla in the south-eastern state of New South Wales. It's the end of "Exceptional Circumstances", or EC, to use the bureaucratic jargon. "The seasonal outlook is brighter than it has been for many years and the improved conditions are a welcome reprieve for farmers across Australia." The end of the drought will be a "a major milestone for agriculture in Australia". Since 2001, the government has provided 4.5bn Australian dollars ($4.7bn, £2.9bn) in EC assistance. That's the money handed out to struggling farmers, totalling between 400 and 600 dollars each, every fortnight. Some farmers say the move to take away the EC assistance is premature. The National Farmers Federation said the government's "snap decision" to cut subsidies was "baffling". Some farmers are opposed to declaring the end of drought "with no areas likely to be drought-declared in the near future and with a programme to develop alternatives already under way, we ask the question of government: why the rush?" Australia's current drought really took hold from 2003 and, depending on the area, has lasted on and off ever since. But this, the driest inhabited continent, has lived with the scourge of drought throughout its entire history. One of the first recorded was in 1803 when there were severe crop failures in New South Wales. Another, devastating nationwide drought followed in 1902. During that one, the total sheep population halved, from just over 100 million to about 50 million. It wasn't until 1927 sheep numbers recovered. One of the longest dry periods lasted through the Second World War, from 1937 to 1947, with eastern Australia again the worst affected. Other bad droughts followed at an interval of about one every decade. And the pattern has been repeated into the 21st Century. Australia is drought-prone because of its geography and changeable rainfall patterns. It's located in a subtropical area of the world that produces dry, sinking air which creates clear skies and little rain. That means for most of the country, the rainfall is very low and irregular. Another cause of drought is the El Nino weather pattern. When there are El Nino weather conditions, Australia becomes drier than normal and the chance of rain decreases. The succession of droughts has lead some to question the future of population growth in Australia. The environmental organisation, Sustainable Population Australia, says Australia cannot continue to maintain its current rate of population growth without becoming overpopulated, in terms of access to water. At the moment there are just under 23 million people in a country roughly the size of the United States, which has more than 300 million inhabitants. The population of Australia is about the same as Texas. But, even with only 23 million people, the pressures on water supplies are intense. This vast system, with the Murray and Darling rivers at its heart, covers most of the states of New South Wales, Victoria and parts of Queensland and South Australia. Just when it seems that Australians are doomed to live in a land lacking in water, comes news from the Bureau of Meteorology that 2011 was the third-wettest year on record and the wettest since 1970. It's this sustained onslaught of rain over the past two years, that has, in part, enabled the government to declare the end to droughts, even if, at the same time, it has also had to deal with the catastrophic flooding that has accompanied the deluge. The voluminous precipitation of recent times has been largely due to the influence of La Nina, the contrary cousin of El Nino. La Nina produced slightly warmer conditions in the western Pacific, creating more moist air, especially over the populated eastern states. But, as with everything Australian, that is not the complete picture, as while the East has been swamped with rain and cool conditions, out West temperatures soared beyond 49 degrees. That's just the way it is here, a people of moderation existing in a land of climatic extremes.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

**Bad times have a scientific value.
These are occasions a good learner would not miss.**
Ralph Waldo Emerson

LARGEST QUAKES -
Live Seismograms - Worldwide (update every 30 minutes)

This morning -
5.0 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
5.0 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
5.3 PAPUA, INDONESIA

Yesterday -
4/28/12 -
5.4 KEP. MENTAWAI REGION, INDONESIA
5.3 NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G.
5.1 PRINCE EDWARD ISLANDS REGION
6.6 TONGA

4/27/12 -
5.1 SULAWESI, INDONESIA
5.0 PRINCE EDWARD ISLANDS REGION
5.0 OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN

TROPICAL STORMS -
No current tropical storms.

Tropics will be quiet this year - Predictions continue to come in about this year's hurricane season, and more forecasters are saying that 2012 will be an average year in terms of the number of hurricanes and tropical storms in the Atlantic Ocean.

SEVERE RAIN STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -

Britain - Flood warnings issued as downpours continue. The Environment Agency is warning of floods, with downpours forecast for much of England and Wales over the weekend and next week. The Environment Agency has warned of possible localised flooding in the South West, South East and Midlands, East of England and Wales today. Between 40mm and 60mm of rain is forecast for east Wales. The Met Office issued a "be prepared" warning for Wales and much of south, central and eastern England.Many of the areas at risk of floods are currently in a state of drought following two unusually dry winters in a row. "It's also going to be very windy, with gusts of 50mph to 60mph in the Pennines, Wales and South West England, which could mean some trees and branches come down. Some exposed and coastal parts of those areas could even get up to 70mph." The weekend downpours come at the end of a wet week for England and Wales, in which 42mm (1.7in) of rain fell in the South East and 55mm (2.2in) in the South West, which has now had 166% of the average rainfall for April. Among those areas experiencing flooding were parts of York, where the River Ouse flooded footpaths following torrential rain on Thursday. "The Environment Agency is closely monitoring the forecast and rainfall particularly in Worcestershire, as the river levels are already higher than normal in the rivers Severn, Teme and Avon. The Environment Agency said all regions had now received above average rainfall for April, boosting river levels and providing relief for farmers, gardeners and wildlife in drought areas. But it also said that groundwater levels remained low and the rain was not yet making a difference to the drought conditions. Soil affected by prolonged dry weather increases the risk of flash floods because heavy rain quickly runs off hard, compacted ground.

Pilots battled extreme weather to land planes in Spain - Extreme conditions swayed planes and frightened passengers. Video footage captured planes landing at Bilbao's Loiu Airport in sweeping winds, which forced some pilots to abort the landing process.

EXTREME HEAT & DROUGHT / CLIMATE CHANGE -
Extremes in weather more likely, scientists say - Wet areas have become wetter and dry areas drier during the past 50 years due to global warming, a study of the saltiness of the world's oceans has shown. The intensification of rainfall and evaporation patterns, which is occurring at twice the rate predicted by climate change models, could increase the incidence and severity of extreme weather events in future. Reductions in the availability of fresh water posed more of a risk to human societies and natural ecosystems than a rise in temperature alone. "Changes to the global water cycle and the corresponding redistribution of rainfall will affect food availability, stability, access and utilisation." The fact that hotter air can hold more water underpinned predictions that recent warming of the globe's surface and lower atmosphere could have already strengthened the natural evaporation and precipitation cycle – increasing rainfall where it was higher than average and decreasing it where it was lower. Initial attempts to study this "rich get richer" effect, however, were hindered by a shortage of good rainfall records on land and a lack of long-term satellite measurements. So they studied the oceans. "The ocean matters to climate. It stores 97 per cent of the world's water and receives 80 per cent of all the surface rainfall." The team analysed about 1.7 million records of surface sea salinity collected worldwide between 1950 and 2000. They found regions near the equator and the poles, where greater rainfall keeps surface waters less salty than average, had become even fresher during the past half century. Saltier areas, such as in the centre of oceans where evaporation dominated, had become even saltier. The study has important implications for extreme weather. Warmer water moving faster from the surface into the atmosphere could fuel violent storms, and floods and droughts could become more intense.

Extreme weather hit U.S. midsection - Weather extremes continued across the midwest. Wednesday, RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES were set from northern Missouri to northwest Iowa. St. Joseph, MO set a record high at 96 F, Des Moines, IA warmed to 90 F, and Sioux City, IA set a new record of 89 F. In eastern and central Nebraska, Lincoln set a new record high of 92 F, and Grand Island, NE set a new record at 96 F. Severe storms traveled southeastward out of southeast IA, across northeast MO, and west central to southeast IL. The severe storms produced large hail, gusty winds, and heavy rain. Hail 1" up to 2" were reported in isolated cases from southeast of Keokuk,IA to east of Quincy,IL.

Florida - Drought creating severely dry conditions statewide. The drought now plaguing Florida has been growing since July 2010. The entire state of Florida was classified as suffering from drought conditions, as of last week. The rain that fell over the weekend did little to help. What's needed is more — a lot more. "A tropical storm without the wind that gives us a nice 10 inches of rain around the state would do wonders." Some parts of the state have fallen so far below their normal average rainfall that the deficit has hit 30 inches. Normally Florida's dry season runs from October to May. But without any heavy rainfall from tropical storms last year, the dry season started earlier, and even the winter rainfall was below average, thanks to the phenomenon known as La Niña, which is driven by colder than usual Pacific Ocean temperatures. In the 16 counties covered by the Southwest Florida Water Management District, commonly known as Swiftmud, this has been the 11th driest winter since records started being kept in 1915. As a result of all that dry weather, "you can hardly find a swamp around the state that's wet, and a lot of the lakes have gone dry." Some counties have already banned all burning. No relief is likely in the next month. But La Niña has weakened, and once June begins — bringing with it the traditional start of Florida's hurricane season — the rains are likely to return.

Philippines - RECORD-BREAKING: Metro Manila at 36.4 degrees Celsius Thursday around 3 pm. The highest nationwide temperature was actually Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija at 37.2.

HEALTH THREATS -

Cowpox infection in US lab worker called a first - A US laboratory worker contracted a painful, slow-healing cowpox virus infection on the job in 2010, marking the first such case reported in the United States, though the virus, a relative of smallpox, is known in Europe and Russia. The infected researcher had not worked with cowpox virus, but samples of the virus were stored in a freezer in the lab, and evidence of cowpox virus was found in three samples from lab surfaces. The lesion, on the worker's hand, took close to 3 months to heal, and the diagnosis took even longer. Cowpox infections are usually self-limiting, but they can be severe or fatal in people who have dermatitis, eczema, or immunocompromising conditions. In Europe and Russia, cowpox infections are often associated with contact with sick domestic cats, rats, or zoo animals. Cases have been reported in veterinarians and animal handlers, but neither human no animal infections have been reported previously in the United States. A painful, ulcerated lesion appeared on the worker's finger around Jul 10, and by Jul 13 he or she had swollen lymph nodes, fever, chills, body aches, and headaches. Most of those symptoms subsided after 5 days, but the local pain persisted and spread to other fingers. The patient saw several physicians, including a dermatologist and a hand surgeon, over a period of several weeks. He or she reported that the lesion healed by about Oct 1, but residual pain and stiffness persisted weeks longer. The worker didn't think cowpox virus was being used in the lab and hence didn't tell the physicians it was stored there. An official at the patient's lab said the cowpox virus stocks there had been stored in a freezer for 5 years, with no known use or movement. Some of the vials of cowpox viruses were stored in boxes with other poxvirus species. The patient had had no contact with animals other than pets before the infection, and none of the worker's contacts or pets had similar symptoms. About the time the patient's infection began, some mice that the patient handled exhibited lesions, and it was eventually learned that they had been injected with a viral line contaminated with coxpox virus. Also, workers in the lab reported they didn't always wear gloves when handling live virus and cell cultures. Because other poxvirus samples were contaminated with cowpox virus in the lab, the authors became concerned that the patient's infection might involve a novel recombinant virus. They ran additional tests to rule that out. Sequencing of the virus's hemagglutinin gene revealed the Brighton strain of cowpox, which is commonly used in labs. The investigation points up "the drawbacks of clinical reliance on patient recall about potential exposures, occupational or otherwise." Unexplained, potentially lab-acquired infections in lab workers should be promptly reported to institutional and occupational health officials and to public health agencies.

Second Salmonella strain cited in growing tuna-linked outbreak - A second strain of Salmonella has been identified in a 21-state outbreak with a contaminated tuna product as the likely cause, and the total number of cases has jumped to 200. The CDC has merged what were previously separate investigations. The states with Salmonella Nchanga cases are Georgia (2), New Jersey (1), New York (5), Virginia (1), and Wisconsin (1). All those states also have had Salmonella Bareilly cases in the outbreak. Overall, of 153 patients with available information, 28 have been hospitalized, but none have died. The latest illness onset date is Apr 12. The tuna product was distributed by Moon Marine Corp. of Cupertino, Calif., which has recalled it. Nakaochi Scrape is used in sushi, sashimi, and similar products sold in restaurants and stores. The CDC said Salmonella Nchanga is EXTREMELY RARE in the United States.

Pacific reef sharks have declined by more than 90 percent, new study says. Pacific reef shark populations have plummeted by 90 percent or more over the past several decades near populated islands, and much of this decline stems from human fishing pressure.

RECALLS & ALERTS:

-Diamond Pet Foods is expanding a voluntary recall to include one production run and four production codes of Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul Adult Light formula dry dog food. One bag of the product has tested positive for Salmonella.
-Alfa Sprouts Inc. of Honeoye Falls, NY is recalling approx. 100 lbs of Springwater Sprouts brand Organic Alfalfa Sprouts and bulk 3# Clover Sprouts because they may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Green clouds over Moscow are from pollen, not aliens -
Russia's weather and emergency officials reassured Moscow residents overnight that the green-tinged clouds over the capital were from tree pollen and not an alien invasion. "Today Muscovites felt like characters in a disaster film about an alien invasion: people living in the southwest of the city saw that the sky had been colored green." The clouds crept up on the Russian capital from the south in the morning, and reached the centre by the afternoon, causing office workers to gawk at the suspiciously coloured sky. "Green clouds are coming toward Moscow. Could it be that the apocalypse is upon us?" Green dust also covered streets and cars. Some people in Moscow and the region apparently called emergency numbers in a panic, leading officials to say the air was thick with tree pollen, not disaster fallout. "Many residents forgot all about natural phenomena and decided that it's the result of an accident at an industrial facility. But this dust is pollen from alder and birch trees, which began flowering recently after a slow spring." The emergency situation ministry said the sudden onset of spring and rapidly rising temperatures "caused blooming of several species of trees, and resulted in a yellow-green pollen coating over pavement, windows, and cars. The pollen poses danger to people suffering from allergies and asthma."


**The early bird gets the worm.**
LARGEST QUAKES -
Live Seismograms - Worldwide (update every 30 minutes)

This morning -
None 5.0 or higher.

Yesterday -
4/26/12 -
5.4 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
5.2 HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
5.1 FIJI REGION
Lots of aftershocks in Western Turkey after a 4.9 quake

Signs of 3 major Japan quakes before 2011 major quake - Three major earthquakes seem to have occurred in northern Japan before it was hit in March 2011 by the massive quake and tsunami. The findings could have a significant impact on future risk assessments. "We were able to get a record of at least three major sedimentary remobilisation events that potentially suggest the occurrence of previous large potentially 2011 Tohoku-type earthquakes. In theory, it might not be an earthquake because you can trigger large scale resedimentation also by other processes, but at this stage, it's the most likely explanation." "Once we get the age of these events, that will be an important contribution to hazard assessments because if you want to calculate the probability of the occurence of earthquakes, you should know your occurence pattern." Historic sources already mention a major tremor in the same region some 1,300 years ago. The research mission also mapped out the seabed around the epicenter of the 9.0-magnitude quake that hit Japan on March 11, 2011, triggering a massive tsunami and a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant, killing some 19,000 people. Comparisons with measures taken before the quake confirmed with more precision data obtained by other means in March 2011, which showed that parts of the seabed moved up to 50 meters sideways near the fault zone following the tremor, while an area of 15,790 square miles rose by 5 meters.

VOLCANOES -

Emergency status to continue for Mt Lokon in Indonesia - Authorities will not lift the emergency status of a volcano that erupted this week in Tomohon, North Sulawesi, in the next month.

Shiveluch volcano on Russia's Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula erupted Thursday, sending an ash cloud to an altitude of almost 7 miles (nearly 11km). The eruption of the volcano presents no immediate threat.

Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano continued to spread ash high above the area just southeast of Mexico City, creating health problems for people who inhaled the ash particles. Mexican authorities raised the alert level as gas was released into the atmosphere. The new warning indicated possible magma expulsion and explosions of increasing intensity. Popocatepetl has been erupting since January 2005, with near constant venting from fumaroles punctuated by minor steam, gas, and ash emissions.

TROPICAL STORMS
No current tropical storms.

Experts say hurricane season will be near average - AccuWeather's forecast predicts that 12 named tropical storms will form, of which 5 will be hurricanes. There will be 11 tropical storms, of which 6 are hurricanes.

SEVERE RAIN STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -

India - Cyclone ravages 40 Tinsukia villages, 3 killed. A severe cyclone accompanied by heavy hailstorm that reaped through the Tinsukia district in the late afternoon Wednesday claimed three lives, besides causing heavy damage to property. More than 40 villages under Kakopathar, Pengeree and Dhola police stations have faced the fury of the cyclone. At Majbari village of Kakopathar, a big tree fell over a nine-year-old girl killing her instantly. There are reports of injuries to several other people in the areas affected by the cyclone. The cyclone played havoc in the entire areas destroying hundreds of residential houses, animal sheds, granaries, schools and other government buildings. There are reports of heavy losses of livestock and wild animals in the cyclone. The National Highways 37 and 52 have been blocked by uprooted trees for several hours. The power supply and telecommunication system have also been disrupted in the cyclone-affected areas of the district, which are yet to be fully repaired. The exact amount of losses in the cyclone is yet to be assessed. The storm destroyed hundreds of houses, demolished a hospital and a church, besides uprooting trees and disrupting power supply in the two districts. The storm accompanied by rains lasted for about 30 minutes, leaving a trail of destruction in most parts of the two districts with Doomdooma circle in Tinsukia being among the worst hit. A few names of affected villages and tea estates are Talap, Dangri, Tezipathar, Katorbasti, Borali, Maithong, Laina, Khobang, Dhola, Haikhati, Ghutung Gaon, Kherbari, Samguri, Kakopathar, Dirak in Tinsukia district. In Laina tea estate alone, some 91 houses were demolished, its hospital roof blown away and a church pulled down. Road communication was severely disrupted in several areas with uprooted trees and electric poles blocking highways and other roads. Government officials failed to give estimate of the total number of displaced people, affected villages and tea estates since the assessment was being carried out. Around 3,000 people are believed to have been rendered homeless. Most parts of the district plunged into darkness since midnight and the powert supply has not yet been restored.

Most of Colombia's 32 regions are suffering from flooding. The country has seen widespread flooding in recent years, with some 3.6 million people, about 8% of the population, affected. 2012 seems set to continue this pattern. Army engineers have been busy evacuating people and livestock from disaster zones, working on roads, combating landslides, building emergency bridges and delivering aid. They were recently summoned to try to block off a burst river bank in one municipality of the capital Bogota. In the flood plains around the Chicu River, it was easy to spot the engineering problems. There are huge potholes in the streets, infrastructure was placed on delicate and unstable wetland. This is Bogota's main problem. The capital lies at an altitude of 2,600m (8,530ft), and is criss-crossed by countless rivers that are constantly at risk of overflowing. Indeed Colombia as a whole, with its varied topography ranging from huge flood plains and savannahs to volcanic regions and the Andes, is more at risk than most from natural disasters. Repair work is often a race against time before more rains come. People dependent on farming this land are among those who are suffering most. On 24 April, the President enacted a law aimed at improving natural disaster response and prevention at both national and local level. More than 60,000 people were affected so far this year and the rains are forecast to continue until June.

SPACE WEATHER -
Aurora watch - Earth's magnetic field is reverberating from three days of buffeting by a high-speed solar wind stream. Since April 23rd, auroras have been photographed in more than a dozen US states including Michigan, Nebraska, Kansas, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Colorado, Washington, and of course Alaska. More auroras may be in the offing. A minor CME is en route to Earth, and was due to arrive on Thursday. The impact of the cloud will add to the ongoing effect of the solar wind, boosting the chances of another display. NOAA forecasters estimate a 20% to 30% chance of geomagnetic storms during the next 24 hours.

HEALTH THREATS -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
LA Star Seafood Co. Inc., Los Angeles, CA is recalling Vobla Dry and Vobla Smoked because they have the potential to be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

**I've never told anyone before - I'm thinking
about buying land in the Twin Cities, near a lake.
I believe because of climate changes,
the future of America is in Minnesota.**
William Shatner
 LARGEST QUAKES -
Live Seismograms - Worldwide (update every 30 minutes)

This morning -
5.2 FIJI REGION

Yesterday -
4/25/12 -
5.1 NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
5.2 SOUTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
5.2 NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
5.7 NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
5.3 NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G.
5.0 SAMAR, PHILIPPINES
5.0 TONGA REGION
5.0 TONGA

VOLCANOES -

Mexico - Satellites continue to provide a look at the ash and gas clouds being emitted from Mexico's Popocatepetl Volcano. NASA has animated imagery from NOAA's GOES-13 satellite to provide a week long look at the volcano's activity. Over the period from April 14 through April 22, the one minute, 14 second black and white video covers shows the volcano's ash mostly blowing to the southeast. "Most of the time, the prevailing westerly winds carry the debris (ash and smoke) far to the east in the mornings, while the daily rains bring down the ash before it can go far in the afternoon." Over the course of a week, the light brown cloud of ash and smoke can be seen streaming from Popocateptl, and then the white, puffy cumulus clouds develop in the afternoon and sometimes bring rain. Popocatepetl is located about 34 miles (55 kilometers east of Mexico City. More than 30 million people live within sight of the volcano. On April 17, the volcano's gas and ash plume reached a height of about 980 feet (~300 meters), spreading ash in the nearby town of Puebla. The Alert level at the volcano remains at "Yellow Phase Three". That alert means explosive activity could escalate, there may be growth of domes or expulsion of magma, and ash could rain on populated areas.

Volcano behind Atlantis legend re-awakens - The volcano that may have given birth to the Atlantis legend has reawakened after more than 60 years. About 3,600 years ago, eruptions at the Greek isle of Santorini devastated the Minoan civilization and reduced much of Santorini to a largely underwater caldera, perhaps inspiring the legend of the lost city. From the air, the resulting caldera, or volcanic crater, appears as a small cluster within the larger collection of Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. Over the next four millennia, the largely underwater caldera at Santorini has experienced a series of smaller eruptions, with five such outbursts in the past 600 years, ending most recently in 1950. After a 60-year lull, Santorini awakened in January 2011 with a swarm of tremors, each magnitude 3.2 or less, new GPS research has revealed.

Indonesia's Mount Lokon erupts - Indonesia's Mount Lokon in North Sulawesi Province erupted at 10:20 Jakarta time (0320 GMT) on Tuesday. The eruption height is not known as it is covered by clouds. "Tremor is felt 5 kilometers away from Tompuloan crater." People have not been urged to take refuge. The government has urged people not to make any activity at the distance of 2.5 kilometers below the crater. "Luckily, there is no residence across the distance." There is potential of another eruption. "People are urged to stay calm and increase alertness." The eruption, occurring several times in a few months, is expected to further release the volcano's energy. Authorities have maintained danger status of level III. Previously, the head of the Center of Vulcanology and Geological Disaster Hazard Mitigation said that the volcano was in a critical condition following increased activities. "There are once tectonic distant earthquake, twice local tectonic earthquakes, 13 times deep volcanic earthquakes and about 50 times shallow volcanic earthquakes." He had said that if such activities continued, the volcano would erupt.

Major Volcano Eruptions Could Stymie Hurricanes - Eruptions of very large volcanoes can reduce the number and intensity of hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean for as long as the next three years, a study suggests.

TROPICAL STORMS -
No current tropical storms.

SEVERE RAIN STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -

Dominican Republic - Heavy rains are causing floods, with more than 11,000 people evacuated from homes. There are no immediate reports of deaths or injuries. Nearly 3000 homes have been flooded after rivers and streams spilled their banks. The floods have affected low-lying areas in the northern province of Puerto Plata and some central and southeastern towns. With rain forecast to continue for the rest of the week, 23 of the country's 32 provinces are at risk of flooding.

CLIMATE CHANGE -

U.S. East Coast Strange Storm - The springtime nor’easter broke records and deposited inches of rain by the time Tuesday ushered in drier weather in its place. The intensity of the storm was NEARLY UNPRECEDENTED SO LATE IN THE SEASON. Drought-stricken Long Island got wet, New York Harbor saw tropical storm force winds and more than a foot of snow landed in western parts of the state. New York City BROKE A 43-YEAR-OLD DAILY RAINFALL RECORD after Central Park tallied 2.45 inches of liquid precipitation (beating 1.8 inches on the same date in 1969). By the time the drops stopped completely on Monday, more than three inches had fallen across a vast swath of coastal New Jersey, much of Long Island and southern Connecticut. West Haven, Conn. picked up the biggest total, at just over four inches. The highly amplified weather pattern drew moisture northwards from as far afield as Nicaragua and gathered much of its energy from the ANOMALOUSLY WARM Gulf of Mexico. As for the cause, a recent report by an international panel of scientists concluded that these extreme weather events are occurring more often due to climate change. Though not quite as powerful and affecting a more limited area, the nor’easter drew comparisons to a late October’s East Coast blizzard. That snowstorm caused more than a billion dollars of damage and blacked out large chunks of Connecticut for more than a week. For many in the region, this recent storm bookended a HIGHLY UNUSUAL WINTER in which the two biggest storms fell outside of the typical November-to-March window, with hardly any snow in between. At least 18 inches of snow has fallen as of Monday afternoon in the higher elevations east of Pittsburgh, a city that since the 1880s has only recorded significant snows a handful of times after April 15. In Ithaca, N.Y., and across western parts of the state, nearly a foot of snow brought snowplows out in force and snapped countless branches with trees in full leaf after a record warm month of March. (interactive weather service map.)

SPACE WEATHER -
NASA calls meteor eruption a "huge event" - On Sunday morning, April 22nd, just as the Lyrid meteor shower was dying down, a spectacular fireball exploded over California's Sierra Nevada mountain range. The loud explosion rattled homes from central California to Reno, Nevada, and beyond. "The energy is estimated at a whopping 3.8 kilotons of TNT, so this was a big event. I am not saying there was a 3.8 kiloton explosion on the ground in California. I am saying that the meteor possessed this amount of energy before it broke apart in the atmosphere." That's about one fourth of the "little boy" bomb, which was dropped on Hiroshima during WWII. "This meteor was about the size of a minivan and had a mass somewhere around 70 metric tons. So if you can imagine a boulder about the size of a minivan with mass of 70 tons, you get a pretty good idea what the meteor was like." The meteor was probably moving at about 33,000 miles per hour. It probably came from the asteroid belt and exploded in the upper atmosphere and spread meteorites in eastern California, near the Nevada border. "When they get low in the atmosphere, the pressure in front of them builds up to the point where the meteor simply breaks apart and it does so violently it creates an explosion. The sound you heard was probably build up from that over pressure and the shock wave generated from that explosion." The fact that sonic booms were heard indicates that this meteor penetrated very low in atmosphere. "This meteor was probably not a Lyrid; without a trajectory, I cannot rule out a Lyrid origin, but I think it likely that it was a background or sporadic meteor." You might think they are dangerous, but in all of recorded history, only one person has ever been hit a meteorite.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Just the quakes.

LARGEST QUAKES -

This morning -
5.1 NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
5.2 SOUTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
5.2 NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
5.7 NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
5.3 NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G.
5.0 SAMAR, PHILIPPINES
5.0 TONGA

Yesterday -
4/24/12 -
5.0 NORTH INDIAN OCEAN
5.5 NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
5.5 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.0 SOLOMON ISLANDS
5.3 SOUTH OF TONGA
5.6 CARLSBERG RIDGE
5.0 SOUTH OF KERMADEC ISLANDS

4/23/12 -
5.2 KEPULAUAN BABAR, INDONESIA
5.6 KURIL ISLANDS
5.7 MOLUCCA SEA
6.0 KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION
5.1 TONGA REGION
5.0 TONGA
5.1 SOUTH OF TONGA
5.0 GUATEMALA

TROPICAL STORMS -

No current tropical storms.

Monday, April 23, 2012

                                 No update on Tuesday this week.
                          (I hope to purchase a laptop by next week
                  so that I can finally post the updates while I'm away.)
 
**It's not what you find, it's what you find out.** Barry Clifford  LARGEST QUAKES -
This morning -
5.0 TONGA
 5.1 SOUTH OF TONGA
5.1 GUATEMALA

Yesterday -
4/22/12 -
5.0 KEP. TANIMBAR REGION, INDONESIA
5.0 HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
5.0 WEST OF MACQUARIE ISLAND
5.2 WEST OF MACQUARIE ISLAND
5.3 SOLOMON ISLANDS

Live Seismograms - Worldwide (update every 30 minutes)

MYSTERY BOOMS -

Boom, light in California, Nevada probably meteor - 4/22/12 - A loud explosion heard across much of Nevada and California on Sunday morning rattled homes and prompted a flood of calls to law enforcement agencies on both sides of the Sierra Nevada, some reporting fireball sightings. The sound and the light show were probably caused by a meteor that entered Earth's atmosphere, astronomers said. "It knocked me off my feet and was shaking the house. It sounded like it was next door." No damage or injuries were reported. Some people reported seeing a brilliant light streak across the sky at the same time. Sightings occurred over roughly a 600-mile line across the two states, including Reno, Elko and North Las Vegas in Nevada, and the San Francisco, Sacramento and Bakersfield areas in California. Astronomers said they believe the mysterious light was a fireball, which is a very bright meteor. It will take time to determine the path of the fireball and where it broke up. "From the reports, I have no doubt it was a fireball. It happens all the time, but most are in daytime and are missed. This one was extraordinarily bright in the daylight." It's "pretty rare" for fireballs to produce a loud explosion. For that to happen the meteor must have survived intact until breaking up about 5 miles above Earth. Most fireballs are visible at 50 miles above Earth. "I have been looking at the sky for 30 years, and I have never witnessed something so amazing and puzzling. It is an event that makes you glad to be alive," said a man in San Francisco. "The main body was bright green, and the head was bright red and white." "People are putting two and two together and saying it has something to do with the meteor shower. But the fireball was probably coincidental and unrelated to the peak of the meteor shower."
 Meteor Explosion Shocks Locals - The meteor explosion went off around 8 am. "We were all just getting up, getting ready to get the day going and all of a sudden we heard a loud bang," says a Truckee resident. "I thought somebody hit the house." He wasn't the only one baffled by the boom. Others heard the blast from Winnemuca, to Reno, to Bakersfield. That's when the speculation started. It's likely a very bright meteor called a fireball that fragmented and hit the earth's surface somewhere in a 600 mile radius in the Sierra-Nevada mountains. "It's RARE to see and hear a fireball,. this was very clearly heard and the breakup of it was very clearly heard and I'm fairly certain that's what that was." It happened just after the peak of the annual Lyrid meteor shower. "I think this is unrelated to the meteor shower, because meteor showers don't produce this kind of thing, but stray rocks in space will be spectacular, and loud, and bright, and look like fire balls across the sky."

TROPICAL STORMS
No current tropical storms.

HEAVY SNOW / EXTREME COLD -

Dynamic storm will affect U.S. and Canadian east - The National Weather Service at State Park, Pennsylvania has used strong wording for this system: A LATE SEASON…HEAVY AND DESTRUCTIVE SNOWSTORM IS POSSIBLE SUNDAY NIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY MORNING. On Saturday evening (April 21), an area of low pressure was strengthening across the Gulf of Mexico and pushing into Florida, which resulted in a tornado watch for parts of central and southern Florida. As this system pushes northeast, it will rapidly intensify, with a barometric pressure equivalent to a strong tropical storm or Category 1 hurricane (~990 millibars). It's ironic that New England could see their biggest snows outside of the winter months. Autumn snow occurred around October 30, 2011 when a strong area of low pressure pushed into New England. Now, a spring storm will produce heavy snow in parts of eastern West Virginia, western Pennsylvania, and parts of the northern Appalachian Mountains that stretch into parts of Virginia and North Carolina. Parts of eastern Ontario and Quebec could see snowy weather and even freezing rain from this storm as well. If this storm developed in the middle of January, the issues would likely not be as significant because many of the leaves on the trees would be nonexistent. However, everything is in full bloom. Heavy snow and strong winds will be easily captured by the trees, and this could result in numerous power outages. In higher elevations, snowfall totals could accumulate over a foot, but areas likely will not get that much snow. Generally, three to five inches are possible, with a maximum of ten inches in higher elevations. Rainfall will be welcomed into the region as parts of the U.S. East Coast have been particularly dry. Rainfall totals should add up to one to three inches along the coast. A majority of New England are in flood watches. (maps)

SPACE WEATHER -

Approximately every 11 years the magnetic field on the sun reverses completely - the north magnetic pole switches to south, and vice versa. It's as if a bar magnet slowly lost its magnetic field and regained it in the opposite direction, so the positive side becomes the negative side. But, of course, the sun is not a simple bar magnet and the causes of the switch, not to mention the complex tracery of moving magnetic fields throughout the eleven-year cycle, are not easy to map out. This flip coincides with the greatest solar activity seen on the sun in any given cycle, known as "solar maximum." Currently the polarity at the north of the sun appears to have decreased close to zero - that is, it seems to be well into its polar flip from magnetic north to south - but the polarity at the south is only just beginning to decrease. "Right now, there's an imbalance between the north and the south poles. The north is already in transition, well ahead of the south pole, and we don't understand why." The asymmetry described in recent research papers belies models of the sun that assume that the sun's north and south polarities switch at the same time. In addition, both papers agree that the switch is imminent at the north pole, well in advance of general predictions that solar maximum for this cycle will occur in 2013. Lastly, the direct Hinode results also suggest a need to re-examine certain other solar models as well. Measuring the magnetic activity near the poles isn't easy because all of our solar telescopes view the sun approximately at its equator, offering only an oblique view of the poles, when they require a top-down view for accurate magnetic measurements. It was discovered in 2003 that as the sun moves toward solar maximum, giant eruptions on the sun, called prominence eruptions - which during solar minimum, are concentrated at lower solar latitudes - begin to travel toward higher latitudes near the poles. In addition, the polar brightness in the microwave wavelengths declines to very low values. "These prominence eruptions are associated with increased solar activity such as coronal mass ejections or CMEs, so CMEs originating from higher latitudes also point to an oncoming solar maximum. When we start to see prominence eruptions above 60 degrees latitude on the sun, then we know that we are reaching solar maximum." By mapping the brightness of microwave radiation throughout the chromosphere, the scientists showed that the intensity at the north pole has already dropped to the threshold that was reached in the last solar maximum cycle, suggesting the onset of solar max there. This is backed by the fact that prominence eruptions are also occurring at high latitudes in the north. Eruption activity in the south half of the sun, however, is only just beginning to increase - the first CME occurred there in early March 2012. The Hinode data also shows this discrepancy between the north and the south. The magnetic map of the poles of every month since September of 2008 showed large, strong concentrations of magnetic fields that are almost all magnetically negative in polarity. Recent maps, however, show a different picture. Not only are the patches of magnetism smaller and weaker, but now there is a great deal of positive polarity visible as well. What once pointed to a strongly negative north pole, is now a weakly magnetized, mixed pole that will become neutral - which occurs at solar maximum - within the month according to the team's predictions. "This is the first direct observation of this field reversal. And it is extremely important to understanding how the sun's magnetism generates the solar cycle." Typical models of the magnetic flip, suggest that as active regions rotate around the equator, their higher, trailing edge - which is almost always the opposite polarity from the pole in their hemisphere - drift upward, eventually dominating the status quo and turning positive to negative or negative to positive. The Hinode data show that this transition at the north began BEFORE such drifting had a chance to occur. "This is one of the most interesting things in this Hinode paper to me. How did the polar reversal start so early, even though the onset of the solar cycle, that is, increased activity at lower latitudes, hadn't begun yet?" The idea that asymmetries exist in the sun is not completely new. Other work has recently emphasized symptoms of this asymmetry, measuring, for example, more sunspots in the northern hemisphere than in the south at the moment. "But most of the well-developed models don't incorporate the asymmetry in them. More complicated models that incorporate asymmetries do exist, but they have other ways in which they fail to match observations." Scientists will keep their eye on the current cycle - numbered Solar Cycle 24 - because a polar switch at the north that is sooner than was expected also implies this may be a fairly small cycle in terms of the number of sunspots and amount of solar activity.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Mexico prepares shelters as Popocatepetl volcano roars, spews ash - The white-capped volcano that looms over Mexico City emitted a terrifying low-pitched roar Friday and spewed roiling towers of ash and steam as it vented the pressure built up by a massive chamber of magma beneath its slopes. The volcano has rumbled continuously and spewed gases and glowing rocks to almost one mile (one kilometer) beyond its crater. Popocatepetl is located about 34 miles (55 kilometers) east of the capital, Mexico City. More than 30 million people live within sight of the volcano. In an increase of activity the volcano registered "62 expulsions of medium intensity, with the emission of water vapor, gas, ashes and glowing rocks," between Thursday night and Friday. Authorities raised the alert level Monday to five on a seven-point scale, extending a security radius around the volcano but stopping short of starting evacuations from nearby communities. Concerns are growing that should a larger eruption occur huge quantities of ash could be dumped on one of the world's largest metropolitan areas, potentially causing chaos for Mexico City's busy air traffic. Residents in the nearby town of Santiago Xalitzintla said the volcano was now constantly rumbling. "There was a strong humming sound all night... it's roaring." Another resident said her family was scared of what might happen next. Officials in Puebla have prepared temporary shelters for possible evacuations and locals were wearing face masks to protect their lungs from ashes in a populous area around the volcano.
 
**Deep down under the chatter we have come to a place where we know that we don't know anything. But nobody's willing to say that.** John Patrick Shanley  LARGEST QUAKES -
Live Seismograms - Worldwide (update every 30 minutes)

This morning -
5.0 NORTH INDIAN OCEAN

Yesterday -
4/21/12 -
5.2 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
5.6 NEAR N COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA
6.6 NEAR N COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA
5.0 FIJI REGION
5.1 SOUTHEAST OF LOYALTY ISLANDS
5.3 CENTRAL PERU
5.0 KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION
5.0 SOUTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE

4/20/12 -
5.8 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
5.5 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
5.6 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
5.2 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA

Indonesia - An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 struck eastern Indonesia on Saturday off Irian Jaya. The quake struck at 10:16 am at a depth of 30 kilometres, 83 kilometres southeast of Manokwari, New Guinea island. The quake had no tsunami potential. The powerful earthquake sent residents and school children running into the streets in panic. There were no reports of injuries or serious damage.
Indonesia - The two last giant quakes here occurred around 1393 and 1450. The 2004 quake may be just the first part of a similar couplet of two closely spaced quakes. Stresses loading up on the fault for centuries were relieved only partly by the quake eight years ago.

Swarm of small quakes in Othello, Western Washington - Two small earthquakes were reported near Othello this week as part of a swarm of quakes in mostly Western Washington. But nearly all of them have been too small for most people to notice.

TSUNAMI / FREAK WAVES / ABNORMAL TIDES -

Geologists believe a tsunami recorded by the ancient historian Herodotus did indeed protect a Greek village from Persian invaders. The scientists warn the area may experience another massive marine event. They say they have found evidence in northern Greece that the event in 479 BC saved the village of Potidaea. Herodotus recorded that huge waves had killed hundreds of Persian soldiers during the siege of the village. The scientists say that northern coastal regions should be included among the Greek regions prone to tsunamis. It is usually the southern coast of Greece which is identified as a risk area. Greek geophysicists say earthquakes pose a much greater threat to the country than tsunamis. "We have found several historic tsunamis on the coast. That means there is a certain risk for the coastal areas."Sediment on the northern Greek peninsula where Potidaea and the modern town of Nea Poteidaia are located shows signs of massive marine events, such as large waves. Excavations in the suburbs of the nearby ancient city of Mende uncovered sea shells likely to have been lifted from the ocean bed and tossed about during a tsunami. Herodotus records: "Then there came upon them [the Persians] a great flood-tide of the sea, higher than ever before, as the natives of the place say, though high tides come often. So those of them who could not swim perished, and those who could were slain by the men of Potidaia who put out to them in boats." (map)

TROPICAL STORMS
No current tropical storms.

HEALTH THREATS -
Vietnam seeks foreign help to beat mystery skin disease - The skin infection has already killed 19 people. The mystery illness was first reported between April and December 2011 and then subsided, but broke out again last month. More than 170 people in the country's central province of Quang Ngai have reported symptoms. The disease begins with a rash on the hands and feet: it can progress to liver problems and multiple organ failure. Vietnamese health ministry tests have failed to pinpoint the cause. "This disease is challenging as we have not identified the root causes. If it is just an external skin disease why is it causing deaths and failures inside internal organs?" Medics say early intervention is key to treat the mystery infection successfully. Officials in Quang Ngai said that the condition might be caused by chemicals.

RECALLS:
M.E. Thompson, Inc. is expanding the recall of its Anytime Deli Turkey & Ham Footlong, to include Italian Footlong, and Classic Cuban, because the products have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria Monocytogenes.

Friday, April 20, 2012

**My own view is that this planet is used as a penal colony, lunatic asylum and dumping ground by a superior civilization, to get rid of the undesirable and unfit. I can't prove it, but you can't disprove it either.** Christopher Hitchens  LARGEST QUAKES -
This morning -
5.0 IRAN-IRAQ BORDER REGION
Seven 4.0+ aftershocks - largest 4.9

Yesterday -
4/19/12 -
5.0 NEAR N COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA
 5.2 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.3 MOLUCCA SEA
 5.1 TAIWAN

 Live Seismograms - Worldwide (They update every 30 minutes)

Chile - The magnitude-6.7 earthquake which shook eight regions of Chile early Tuesday, caused two people to die of heart attacks.

VOLCANOES -

Mexico - Popocatepetl volcano is spewing ash, water vapor, and rock fragments into the air - it hurled hot rock a half-mile into the sky. The volcano, which has been active since 1994, experienced its largest known eruption in 2000, when it spewed a 2.5 mile-high column of ash and smoke, forcing thousands to evacuate. It's most violent eruption in 1200 years occurred on Dec. 18, 2000. The volcano had spouted ash or vapor about 15 times over the last 24 hours. Authorities this week raised the alert level due to increasing activity The new warning indicates possible magma expulsion and explosions of increasing intensity. Residents of nearby communities reported roaring noises from the volcano on Tuesday.

TROPICAL STORMS
In the Atlantic - Invest 91 - an area of disturbed weather has the potential for tropical development. Path forecasts - map

EXTREME HEAT / DROUGHT / WILDFIRES / CLIMATE CHANGE -

Russia - Wildfires have swept across southern Siberia, destroying houses in several villages, but no deaths have been reported. 59 fires were raging in the region east of Lake Baikal, thousands of kilometres east of Moscow. More than 9200 hectares were affected. Four people were taken to hospital with burns after one of the fires swept through the village of Vasilyevsky Khutor. The fire had been triggered by local residents burning rubbish. On Wednesday, fires destroyed houses in other villages and cut power supplies to more than 4000 residents. Large areas in Russia are regularly affected by wildfires, often triggered by disregard for safety rules.

'Huge' water resource exists under Africa - African water supplies may be more resilient to climate change than was thought. Scientists say the notoriously dry continent of Africa is sitting on a vast reservoir of groundwater. They argue that the total volume of water in aquifers underground is 100 times the amount found on the surface. The team have produced the most detailed map yet of the scale and potential of this hidden resource. Across Africa more than 300 million people are said not to have access to safe drinking water. Demand for water is set to grow markedly in coming decades due to population growth and the need for irrigation to grow crops. Freshwater rivers and lakes are subject to seasonal floods and droughts that can limit their availability for people and for agriculture. At present only 5% of arable land is irrigated. "Where there's greatest ground water storage is in northern Africa, in the large sedimentary basins, in Libya, Algeria and Chad. The amount of storage in those basins is equivalent to 75m thickness of water across that area - it's a huge amount." Due to changes in climate that have turned the Sahara into a desert over centuries many of the aquifers underneath were last filled with water over 5,000 years ago. Many countries currently designated as "water scarce" have substantial groundwater reserves. However, the scientists are cautious about the best way of accessing these hidden resources. They suggest that widespread drilling of large boreholes might not work. "Appropriately sited and developed boreholes for low yielding rural water supply and hand pumps are likely to be successful." With many aquifers not being filled due to a lack of rain, the scientists are worried that large-scale borehole developments could rapidly deplete the resource. "Much lower storage aquifers are present across much of sub-Saharan Africa. However, our work shows that with careful exploring and construction, there is sufficient groundwater under Africa to support low yielding water supplies for drinking and community irrigation." The scientists say that there are sufficient reserves to be able to cope with the vagaries of climate change. "Even in the lowest storage aquifers in semi arid areas with currently very little rainfall, ground water is indicated to have a residence time in the ground of 20 to 70 years. So at present extraction rates for drinking and small scale irrigation for agriculture groundwater will provide and will continue to provide a buffer to climate variability."

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Just the quakes.


LARGEST QUAKES -
This morning -
5.0 NEAR N COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA
5.2 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.3 MOLUCCA SEA
5.1 TAIWAN

Yesterday -
4/18/12 -
5.3 NEAR N COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA
5.1 NEAR N COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA
5.0 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
5.1 IRAN-IRAQ BORDER REGION
5.2 SOUTHEASTERN IRAN
5.2 BONIN ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
5.2 VANUATU

4/17/12 -
5.0 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
6.2 EAST OF SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS
5.6 KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION
6.8 EASTERN NEW GUINEA REG., P.N.G.
5.0 OFFSHORE VALPARAISO, CHILE
6.7 OFFSHORE VALPARAISO, CHILE

Live Seismograms - Worldwide (They update every 30 minutes)

TROPICAL STORMS -
In the Atlantic -
Invest 91 - an area of disturbed weather has the potential for tropical development. Path forecast - map

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

There will be no update on Wednesday this week.


LARGEST QUAKES -
This morning -
7.0 EASTERN NEW GUINEA REG., P.N.G.
5.0 OFFSHORE VALPARAISO, CHILE
6.7 OFFSHORE VALPARAISO, CHILE

Yesterday -
4/16/12 -
5.2 SULAWESI, INDONESIA
5.7 SULAWESI, INDONESIA
5.1 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
5.3 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
5.5 SOUTHERN GREECE
5.0 GULF OF CALIFORNIA

Live Seismograms - Worldwide (They update every 30 minutes)

Papua New Guinea - A 7.0-magnitude quake struck off the northeast of Papua New Guinea today, but there was no tsunami warning issued. The quake hit at 5.13pm AEST, 141km north of the country's second largest city of Lae and 443km from the capital Port Moresby at a depth of 201km. "A destructive tsunami was not generated based on earthquake and historical tsunami data."
Quakes of such magnitude are common in impoverished Papua New Guinea, which sits on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, a hot spot for seismic activity due to friction between tectonic plates. Last month, the country was hit by a 6.7-magnitude earthquake but while the tremor was widely felt it was too deep to cause much damage. Earlier in March, a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck the New Britain region of the country, with no damage or injuries reported. A giant tsunami in 1998, caused by an undersea earthquake, killed more than 2,000 people near Aitape, on the country's northwest coast.

Chile - A strong magnitude-6.7 earthquake has shaken central Chile, prompting authorities to order a preventative evacuation of a stretch of coastline. There were no immediate reports of damage or deaths, but the quake was felt for almost a minute in the port city of Valparaiso and in the capital, Santiago. The Chilean navy's hydrographic and oceanographic service discounted the possibility of a tsunami, but authorities maintained an order for people to move to higher ground along a roughly 804km stretch of coastline running from Constitucion to Tongoy, north of Santiago.
The US Geological Survey says the quake's epicentre was 42km northeast of Valparaiso, and it had a depth of 37km. It struck just minutes before midnight local time Monday (1.50pm AEST). The quake knocked out power and telephone service in various parts of Santiago, but the National Emergency Office of the Interior Ministry said that it had received no reports of major damage or injuries so far. There were reports of rockslides on a highway outside of Santiago, and residents of Valparaiso said the facades of some old buildings had fallen. Chile's airports and roadways appeared undamaged.
Chile is highly earthquake-prone. A magnitude-7.1 earthquake struck central Chile on March 25, the strongest and longest that many people said they had felt since a huge quake devastated that region two years ago. In 2010, the 8.8-magnitude quake caused a tsunami that obliterated much of the coastal downtown of Constitucion.

VOLCANOES -

Mexico - Popocatepetl volcano: largest eruption in 2012 on April 16. Popocatepetl volcano near Mexico City had one of its largest eruptions this year yesterday. An explosion produced an ash plume rising 2 km and caused ash fall, up to 7 cm thick, in over 30 communities near the volcano.

Eruption Update for April 16, 2012 - Costa Rica, Mexico, Italy, Alaska and Iceland. (photos)

TROPICAL STORMS -
No current tropical storms.

HEALTH THREATS -


Sushi Salmonella outbreak probe prompts raw tuna recall.

RECALLS & ALERTS:
Dole Fresh Vegetables is voluntarily recalling 756 cases of DOLE Seven Lettuces salad due to a possible health risk from Salmonella.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Just the basics today.


LARGEST QUAKES -
This morning -
5.2 SULAWESI, INDONESIA
5.7 SULAWESI, INDONESIA
5.1 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
5.3 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
5.5 SOUTHERN GREECE
5.0 GULF OF CALIFORNIA

Yesterday -
4/15/12 -
5.0 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
6.2 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
5.0 RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN

Live Seismograms - Worldwide (They update every 30 minutes)

TROPICAL STORMS -
No current tropical storms.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Dangerous storms moving through Midwest - The Storm Prediction Center gave the sobering warning that the outbreak could be a “high-end, life-threatening event.” It was JUST THE SECOND TIME IN U.S. HISTORY THAT THE CENTER ISSUED A HIGH-RISK WARNING MORE THAN 24 HOURS IN ADVANCE. The first was in April 2006, when nearly 100 tornadoes tore across the southeastern U.S., killing a dozen people and damaging more than 1,000 homes in Tennessee.
Baseball-sized hail was breaking windows and tearing siding off homes in northeast Nebraska, while tornadoes were spotted in Kansas and Oklahoma on Saturday as forecasters warned residents across the nation’s midsection to brace for “life threatening” weather. Tornado sirens sounded across Oklahoma City before dawn, and at least three possible tornadoes were reported west and north of the city. Some homes were damaged, though no injuries were immediately reported in any of the states.
But the most dangerous weather was expected later in the day, and National Weather Service officials issued a stern warning for residents to prepare for overnight storms that could spawn fast-moving tornadoes. Officials said a large area could be at risk for dangerous storms. “The threat isn’t over with tonight, unfortunately. Severe weather is possible again Sunday from east Texas and Arkansas and up to into the Great Lakes. This could go into certainly to overnight situations, which is always of immense concerns to us."
In Nebraska, the large hail damaged vehicles and shattered windows in and around Petersburg, about 140 miles northwest of Omaha. Two possible tornadoes were reported father south in Nebraska near the Kansas borde. One of the suspected tornadoes in Oklahoma hit near the small town of Piedmont, taking a similar path as a tornado last May that killed several people. “Because of last year, we’ve had a lot of new people put storm centers into place." No major damage had been reported.
It’s possible to issue earlier warnings because improvements in storm modeling and technology are letting forecasters predict storms earlier and with greater confidence. In the past, people often have had only minutes of warning when a siren went off. Areas most likely to be hit were central and eastern Kansas, central and eastern Nebraska and central and north central Oklahoma, the warning said. Parts of Texas, Minnesota and Illinois have also been put on storm alert. "The ingredients are coming together." Those ingredients include strong jets of wind moving in from the west mixing with moisture-rich air moving across from the Gulf of Mexico. The difference in wind direction is expected to increase the possibility of tornadoes.
US tornadoes have already killed at least 39 people this year. An outbreak of deadly twisters hit the states of Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Georgia and Alabama in early March. At the start of April the Dallas-Fort Worth area was badly hit, with hundreds of flights being disrupted but no-one injured or killed. (map)

**Success is going from failure to failure with confidence.**
Winston Churchhill


LARGEST QUAKES -
This morning -
5.0 SOUTHEAST OF RYUKYU ISLANDS [Japan]

Yesterday -
4/14/12 -
5.8 SUNDA STRAIT, INDONESIA
5.5 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
5.1 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
6.3 VANUATU
5.5 SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION
5.5 KURIL ISLANDS
6.2 DRAKE PASSAGE

4/13/12 -
5.0 NORTH INDIAN OCEAN
5.1 OAXACA, MEXICO
5.7 OAXACA, MEXICO
5.0 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.8 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN

Live Seismograms - Worldwide (They update every 30 minutes)

MYSTERY BOOMS -

Booms quieting down in Clintonville, Wisconsin - Once fraught with nights full of booming and rumbling - and worrying - Clintonville is experiencing quieter times. The booms and shakes that once rocked this city of 5,000 are now seldom heard or felt in Clintonville. "They're definitely quieter," says the Clintonville City Administrator. "They're not completely non-existent -- some days, in the last eight days we've had as few as zero calls at the high end, up until today [4/12/12], we've had five calls."
Thursday morning there were seven reports of another seismic event. But residents don't seem to mind. "No, I don't get freaked out at all. I mean, I'm used to it now, so it's not scary anymore." "I don't fear anything going on. If it happens, things happen." The city put in four seismometers to collect earthquake data, after a magnitude 1.5 quake was confirmed on March 20th. But because the booms have become so rare, next Monday the devices will be taken out of the ground. "I think that over this amount of time we were able to confirm that they are earthquakes and that it isn't getting more severe." The mystery that put Clintonville in the national spotlight is now a memory they won't forget. "I would not expect anything in Clintonville to happen, especially earthquakes. I mean, that doesn't happen in Clintonville, it's a small town." "I'll remember. It'll be something to talk about, we'll all have a chuckle about it somewhere down the line."

TSUNAMI / FREAK WAVES / ABNORMAL TIDES -

Indonesia - The tsunami early warning system has been compromised by thieves and vandals, officials said Saturday. The $US130 million system of tidal gauges, buoys and seismic monitors sent warnings to Indonesian authorities on Wednesday after an 8.6-magnitude quake struck off Sumatra island. Ten people died in the earthquake, mostly elderly people suffering heart attacks from shock. The quake caused little damage.
Experts said that the system had functioned well in Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra, where 170,000 people were killed and entire towns were flattened by the massive Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. Government agencies sent SMS messages and sounded sirens to warn people to search for higher ground.
But in Aceh province, some sirens did not work and that the government did not sound the sirens until 45 minutes after the quake. Most people began running uphill as soon as they could, remembering the 2004 tsunami that hit Aceh within 15 minutes of the earthquake.
"We have had problems with theft and vandalism of our system for a while. We got the tsunami warning from a seismograph but because so many of the buoys are destroyed we can't tell how big a potential tsunami would be." Just three of 25 buoys in Indonesian waters were in operation, mostly because of vandalism. Indonesian authorities are now working with the United States to try to develop deeper-water equipment to prevent theft and vandalism.

TROPICAL STORMS -
No current tropical storms.

SEVERE RAIN STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -

India - A thunderstorm followed by heavy rains destroyed the set of the film 'Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola' and injured five people. The force of the storm Wednesday night was so strong that it caused a 20-foot-high light tower to snap and fall to the ground, injuring five unit members. The set, which was put up in the fields outside the city in Punjab. “Due to storm, the several trees fell and blocked the road. The situation was so bad that the other unit members carried the injured on their shoulders to a safe place and from there they were taken in an ambulance to a hospital. Three light boys, who were injured, were operated upon on Wednesday night and two surgeries were done Thursday morning. Their condition is being monitored closely. The shoot has been halted for the moment." "Damage to the equipment, though heavy, is replaceable, but our deep concern is for our injured unit members." Ninety percent of the shooting is complete and only 14 days work is left.

HEAVY SNOW / EXTREME COLD -

Pakistan yet to find 139 under avalanche - There is no sign of life from the more than 100 people buried when a massive avalanche hit a military complex close to the Indian border more than a week ago. More than 400 soldiers, with help from heavy machinery and foreign experts, are working to find 128 soldiers and 11 civilians that were swept up in the April 4 avalanche. But so far they have not found anyone alive or any bodies of the dead. The troops and civilians were buried under some 25 meters of snow in the Siachen Glacier. It is located on the northern tip of Kashmir, a Himalayan region which is divided between Pakistan and India. More soldiers have died there from the weather than from combat on the glacier.

HEALTH THREATS -

Biosecurity board reverses course and votes FOR publishing studies on virulent H5N1 virus - Officials stacked the deck for board's reversal on H5N1 publishing decision. In a leaked letter, a member of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) has charged that federal officials planned the board's meeting in late March in a way designed to lead tuchier disclosed at the meeting that he has already identified another H5N1 mutation, not described in his current manuscript, that results in ferret-to-ferret transmission of the virus "without the need for repeated passaging of the virus in ferrets."
Osterholm further asserted that the meeting included no unbiased review of the current state of reverse genetics technology that might allow those without great expertise or resources to duplicate the experiments. The experts who addressed the issue had a CONFLICT OF INTEREST because they are involved in the same type of research as Fouchier and Kawaoka are and will be affected by the board's recommendations. He also wrote that the board didn't hear from anyone involved in frontline surveillance and control efforts for H5N1. On another point, Osterholm said the security briefing that the board heard was "ONE OF THE MOST INCOMPLETE AND, DARE I SAY, USELESS CLASSIFIED SECURITY BRIEFINGS" HE HAD EVER HEARD. The briefing did not address the risk of efforts by "rogue scientists or irresponsible researchers" to replicate the experiments in labs without proper biosafety precautions, or the risk of an attempt by eco-terrorists to disrupt animal production by releasing a more-transmissible H5N1 virus in swine. He also complained that the meeting included no "data-related presentations" on possible use of the mutation data to develop vaccines and antivirals, a prospect that leading experts have been skeptical about.
A primary lesson of the meeting, Osterholm wrote, is that the NSABB must "involve disinterested subject matter experts to provide technical advice." He added that the life science community should look critically on the "relative lack" of expert input from those without a direct interest in the board's decisions. He concluded that the board's recent experiences represent just the beginning of conflicts over the publication of research findings that could be misused to do harm. "It is unfortunate that the current NSABB action just kicked the can down the road to the next manuscript."

Friday, April 13, 2012

Indonesia quake a RECORD, risks for Aceh grow. The powerful undersea earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra this week was A ONCE IN 2,000 YEARS EVENT, and although it resulted in only a few deaths, it increases the risks of a killer quake in the region, a leading seismologist said. Wednesday's 8.6 magnitude quake and a powerful aftershock were "strike-slip" quakes and THE LARGEST OF THAT TYPE EVER RECORDED. "It's a really AN EXCEPTIONALLY LARGE AND RARE EVENT. Besides it being the biggest strike-slip earthquake ever recorded, THE AFTERSHOCK IS THE SECOND BIGGEST as far as we can tell."
Strike-slip quakes involve the horizontal movement of colliding earth plates, and are typically less powerful than those where there is vertical movement. They are also less likely to trigger big tsunamis, or tidal waves. Sumatra, the westernmost island in the sprawling Indonesian archipelago, has a history of powerful quakes and tsunamis, most triggered by an offshore zone along its entire length, where the Indian-Australian tectonic plate is forced under the Eurasian plate. This creates a deep ocean trench as one plate slides under the other at a rate of several centimeters a year. In this zone, called the Sunda megathrust, stress builds up when the subducting Indian-Australian plate bends the Eurasian plate like a spring board as it moves down into the Earth's crust. Eventually enough stress builds up that the edge of Eurasian plate suddenly jolts upward, triggering an earthquake. The sudden uplift of the seafloor and huge pulse of seawater triggers a tsunami.
Over the centuries, repeated magnitude 8 and 9 quakes have struck along portions of the megathrust zone off the coast of Sumatra, flattening towns and killing thousands of people. Wednesday's event was different, because it occurred further west from the megathrust zone in a fault that runs north-south. This strike-slip fault involved a sudden horizontal movement of the Indian and Australian plates along hundreds of kilometers, preliminary data suggest. The Indian plate and Australian plate are moving relative to each other horizontally at about 1 cm a year. "If all of that ... is taken up on this one fault and if you make some crude calculations about how much slip occurred during this earthquake, say 20 meters. It means that this earthquake shouldn't happen more than once every 2,000 years."
Wednesday's quake caused few casualties and triggered very small waves, despite its magnitude. But the sting in the tale is that it likely to have INCREASED stress on the plate boundaries near Aceh, increasing the risks of another major earthquake in the same area as the 2004 disaster. In addition, research published in 2010 showed that the 2004 Aceh quake only relieved about half the stress that has built up over the centuries along a 400 km portion of the megathrust faultline. That makes another major quake in the area a matter of time.
Adding to concerns, further south along another 700 km portion of the megathrust fault under the Mentawai islands, separate 2008 research said so much stress was building up on this section that one or more major quakes were likely within years. The Mentawai islands, a popular surfing destination, are a chain of about 70 islands off the western coast of Sumatra. They face the city of Padang on Sumatra, home to about one million people and likely to be in the path of any tsunami that is triggered. "I am very confident that we are very likely to have within the next few decades to have this great Mentawai earthquake that will have a magnitude at least as big as yesterday's." And when it does, history shows there will be more than one quake within a few years. A magnitude 8.4 quake in 2007 that struck this part of the megathrust relieved only a small portion of the pent-up pressure. The last time it ruptured was a magnitude 9 quake in 1833 and an 8.4 quake in 1797. "We've had so many big earthquakes around in Sumatra in the past few years that it seems like an awful lot of the faults around there seem ready to go."
'Odd Duck' Indonesia 8.6 Quake Surprises - Scientists say it's RARE for strike-slip quakes to be this large. "It's clearly a bit of an odd duck." Wednesday's quake was followed by a magnitude-8.2 aftershock. Both were strike-slip quakes. The biggest earthquakes tend to occur in subduction zones where one plate of the Earth's crust dives under another. This grind produced the 2004 magnitude-9.1 Indian Ocean disaster and the magnitude-9 Japan quake last year. Wednesday's magnitude-8.6 occurred along a strike-slip fault line similar to California's San Andreas Fault. "A week ago, we wouldn't have thought we could have a strike-slip earthquake of this size. This is very, very large." Wednesday's shaker was the 11th largest since 1900. It's probably the largest strike-slip event though there's debate about whether a similar-sized Tibet quake in 1950 was the same kind. A preliminary analysis indicates one side of the fault lurched 70 feet past the other -- a major reason for the quake's size. By contrast, during the 1906 magnitude-7.8 San Francisco earthquake along the San Andreas - perhaps the best known strike-slip event - the ground shifted 15 feet. The Sumatra coast has been rattled by three strong strike-slip quakes since 2004, but Wednesday's was the largest.

**Saints engage in introspection,
while burly sinners run the world.**
John Dewey


LARGEST QUAKES -
Live Seismograms - Worldwide (They update every 30 minutes)

This morning -
5.0 VANUATU

Yesterday -
4/12/12 -
5.0 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
5.3 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
5.1 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
5.0 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
5.1 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
5.0 NORTH INDIAN OCEAN
5.1 NORTH INDIAN OCEAN
5.7 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.2 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.0 GULF OF CALIFORNIA
7.0 GULF OF CALIFORNIA
6.0 GULF OF CALIFORNIA

Mexico hit by strong quakes hours, miles apart - Authorities said neither quake left major damage nor victims. The US Geological Survey reported a 6.9 magnitude quake hit the waters between the Baja peninsula and the northern state of Sonora at 12:15 am local time early on Thursday morning in a sparsely populated region, shaking buildings as far away as the capital and sending people rushing out of offices onto the streets.

Are the four big North America West Coast quakes in two days connected? - It's possible, geophysicists say, that quakes off the coast of Oregon, Michoacan, Mexico, and in the Gulf of California ranging from magnitudes 5.9 to 6.9 on the Richter Scale had something to do with the large earthquake that struck near Indonesia.
The 8.6-magnitude earthquake that hit off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia Wednesday was followed by several decent-size shakes along the west coast of North America, but researchers can't say for certain whether all the temblors were related. But the West Coast quakes were fairly standard for their location. "The Earth is in constant motion. I wouldn't necessarily say it's unusual, but we will definitely be looking at these earthquakes to see if there's any link between them."
It's undeniable that earthquakes can trigger other quakes at close range over a short period of time, phenomena known as aftershocks. At a distance, though, the picture is murkier. Quakes can trigger other quakes in two ways. First, they can put stress on nearby faults, deforming the crust and making another rupture more likely. That mechanism is limited to regions close to the original quake. But earthquakes also send surface waves over long distances. The shaking from Wednesday's Sumatra quake, for example, was picked up by seismic monitoring stations in the United States. The shaking may not deform the crust, but researchers leave open the possibility that it could still jump-start small quakes. "My guess is that the shaking was strong enough to actually trigger a little bit of activity." . But if the West Coast activity of the last few days was related to the Sumatra quake, it wasn't out of the ordinary. "The activity it triggered isn't that much more than was already there. It doesn't add much to the overall danger." Proving that two earthquakes are linked over long distances or more than a couple of hours of time is "one of the toughest challenges we face." With the earthquake records that are available, it hasn't yet been possible to find any firm patterns. "We don't have enough data to say yes, and we don't have enough data to say no."
What researchers do know is that the Sumatra quake was interesting on its own. The quake was a strike-slip quake, meaning the fault moved horizontally, not vertically like the enormous 2004 earthquake that triggered the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami. "This particular earthquake is THE BIGGEST STRIKE-SLIP EARTHQUAKE THAT WE'VE SEEN ANYWHERE, and people are trying to figure out how much motion was on the fault. Either the fault went deeper or was under more strain than seismologists had realized. It's too soon to say exactly what we'll learn. "So far, we're just surprised."

Easter 2010 Baja earthquake shook up view of Southern California faults - A new scientific study reveals that fault networks near the Salton Sea are even more complex than previously known — but what that may mean for earthquake potential in the region remains uncertain.
The U.S. Geological Survey and California Geological Survey released a study last month that found the Easter Day quake in northern Baja California on April 4, 2010 — the biggest quake to shake the Coachella Valley in recent years — triggered surface movement on many faults in the Imperial and Coachella valleys. The magnitude-7.2 quake revealed faults southwest of the Salton Sea that were not previously known to scientists, and confirmed that other known faults were active. It's not a finding that will quickly lead to the development of a reliable earthquake warning system, a primary goal of scientists. But it advances knowledge and will direct future research on one of the most intricate and studied fault zones on Earth.
The Baja earthquake “has provided a geological treasure trove to our understanding of what is happening tectonically in this expansive region of northern Mexico and Southern California." The 2010 Easter Day quake, dubbed the El Mayor-Cucapah quake by scientists, killed four people and injured more than 100 in Mexico and caused an estimated $440 million in damage in the Mexicali Valley of Baja California and $90 million in damage in the Imperial Valley. The movements the quake caused on Southern California faults occurred at the surface and were very small, only centimeters. Similar fault movements were also observed after a magnitude-5.7 aftershock on June 14, 2010. The discoveries show earth scientists that “the transfer of strain among the various faults in this region is not as simple as we thought before."
Earthquakes like the El Mayor-Cucapah quake involve the sudden release of built-up energy from two of the Earth's tectonic plates moving against each other as one of the plates slips past the other. The quake was the largest in the northern Baja region in the past 120 years. Research shows that historically, the southern San Andreas fault that runs along the Coachella Valley's northern edge has had a major earthquake every 150 years. But it's been at least 300 years since the last major temblor on that section of the fault.
The 2010 event, a so-called triggered slip, occurred near the surface, from a few hundred meters to about 3 kilometers in depth — not far enough down to set off a major earthquake on the San Andreas. “Those big earthquakes happen about 10 to 15 kilometers below the surface. These triggered slips do not affect that area, so they are not loading or unloading the faults.” Many of the new faults are in remote areas of federal land managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and are unlikely for development. “Now that we know about all of these new faults, it may be just the first step in understanding what the seismic hazard is down there."

Southern Utah quake is a reminder of what's to come - Utah has had several small earthquakes within a year with the most recent being a 4.8 Wednesday night. However, the state is expecting "the big one" at any time. Utahns are gearing up. “I just think about the glass breaking. That would be pretty scary." Buildings like Utah’s Capital have been remodeled, but some run the risk of collapsing. “So what you have underneath the capital are 264 base isolators. Each one weighs 5 thousand pounds and they are designed to move independently of the capital." An earthquake won't show mercy. “It can cause landslides, rock falls, it can set a home loose from its foundation and send it down a cliff."

VOLCANOES -

Iceland - Signs point to imminent major volcanic eruption. This month marks the second anniversary of the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjal-lajokull volcano, which sent up ash that closed European airspace, stranded mil-lions and cost airlines $200 million a day for six days. Alarmingly, there are signs of high activity beneath the much larger, neighbouring Katla caldera in Iceland. For centuries, Katla has erupted on average every 60 years, so it is 30 years over-due. Instruments have detected ground movement and rising heat levels inside Katla, indications that magma has risen to shallower depths. Katla's eruption in 1918 produced five times as much ash as the 2010 Eyjafjallajokull one. A major eruption could result in large parts of Iceland being flooded as snow and ice melt, significant poisoning of Icelandic agriculture, destruction of property, and grounding of aircraft across Europe. [Media hype?]

UK in Talks with Iceland to Tap Geo Thermal Energy from Volcanoes - The UK government is planning to power up British homes with the help of geo thermal energy, generated from the Icelandic volcanoes. Plans are on the pipeline to lay thousands of miles of high-voltage cables across the ocean floor to pump low-carbon electricity into the UK. "We are in active discussions with the Icelandic government and they are very keen."
The energy minister is planning to visit Iceland in May to discuss connecting the country to its abundant geothermal energy resources. He claims that by using the geo thermal energy produced by the volcano, energy bills in Europe can be reduced. The geo thermal energy would be transported with a huge Interconnector cable which would have to be 1,000 to 1,500 km long. "The cables are an absolutely critical part of energy security and for low carbon energy." The UK government officials said that the interconnectors will require large investment. The Britain and Netherland interconnector cost around £500 million.
"Interconnectors are the cheapest way of backing up wind, because you avoid the greater capital cost of building power stations. We will of course be buying power in when the wind is not blowing, but the interconnectors mean we can sell our wind power when it does, and we have the best wind resource in Europe." But the head of the environment and energy at the think-tank Policy Exchange is of the opinion that major new interconnection in north Western Europe might not offset much of the backup plant due to high pressure winter and weather patterns that can extend low wind conditions right across Europe.

TROPICAL STORMS -
No current tropical storms.

EXTREME HEAT & DROUGHT / WILDFIRES / CLIMATE CHANGE -

Drought and floods fears in England: Experts warn of extreme weather shift - Two unusually dry years have left large parts of England suffering from drought or dry conditions. The drought conditions gripping swathes of England could increase the risk of flash flooding in the face of heavy rain, the Environment Agency warns. Two unusually dry years have left the whole of the South East, East Anglia and parts of Yorkshire in a state of drought, with parts of the South West and the Midlands also suffering from dry conditions.
Seven water companies introduced hosepipe bans in a bid to conserve supplies in the face of low river, reservoir and groundwater levels - a move that was followed by widespread rain, which proved a welcome relief for gardeners. But the Environment Agency is warning that future heavy rain could lead to flash flooding as a result of the drought conditions. Dry, compacted soils mean that rainfall is less easily absorbed into the ground, increasing the likelihood of flooding if the country is hit by storms. The Environment Agency said a dry winter and spring in 2007 contributed in some areas to the devastating floods in the summer of that year, which hit the West Country, Midlands and Yorkshire. Parts of the country had similar conditions as those currently seen in drought-afflicted areas, before the heavy rain hit in June and July 2007.
The Environment Agency made its warning about the increased risk of flash flooding as it launched the first social media flood warning application on Facebook. "Floodalerts", which can be found by putting the term into Facebook's search facility, uses live flood warning data from the Environment Agency. The Environment Agency hopes the new measure will complement its existing Floodline Hotline and website updates to help warn people of the risk of flooding. "As the drought in England continues, the thought of flooding may be far from people's minds, but we cannot ignore the risk. Dry and compacted ground means that there is a greater risk of flash flooding if there is heavy rainfall, and stormy seas and high tides can produce floods at any time. Being prepared is vital to help reduce the risk of flooding."