**Skill and confidence are an unconquered army.**
George Herbert
LARGEST QUAKES so far today -
None 5.0 or larger.
Yesterday, 6/22/14 -
5.0 CENTRAL PERU
5.1 NORTH OF HALMAHERA, INDONESIA
5.0 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS REGION
5.1 JAVA, INDONESIA
VOLCANOES -
Reunion Island volcano wakes up after 4 years with major eruption - Sunday morning at 1:35 am, tourists on the French Indian Ocean Islands La Reunion tourists witnessed a spectacular many had been waiting to see for some time. The Piton de la Fournaise volcano erupted.
Most recently, an eruption occurred on December 9, 2010 and lasted for two days. Piton de la Fournaise, a typical basaltic shield volcano, located on the French island La Réunion, is one of the world’s most active and productive volcanoes. It is in a phase of frequent but short-lived eruptions that start with lava fountains and produce large lava flows.
Since the active areas of the volcano are not inhabited, its eruptions pose little danger and cause little damage. Piton de la Fournaise is a typical example of a hot-spot volcano. The volcano is about 530,000 years old and during much of this time, its activity overlapped with eruptions of its older neighbor, the deeply dissected Piton des Neiges shield volcano to the NW.
Three calderas formed at about 250,000, 65,000, and less than 5000 years ago by progressive eastward slumping of the volcano. Numerous pyroclastic cones dot the floor of the calderas and their outer flanks.
Most historical eruptions have originated from the summit and flanks of Dolomieu, a 400-m-high lava shield that has grown within the youngest caldera called the Enclos, which is 8 km wide and breached to below sea level on the eastern side.More than 150 eruptions, most of which have produced fluid basaltic lava flows, have occurred since the 17th century.
Only six eruptions, in 1708, 1774, 1776, 1800, 1977, and 1986, have originated from fissures on the outer flanks of the caldera. La Reunion is a French province in the Southern Indian Ocean and a member of the newly formed Vanilla Island group.
TROPICAL STORMS -
Current tropical storms - maps and details.
No current tropical storms.
EXTREME HEAT & DROUGHT / WILDFIRES -
National drought fears loom as India gets deficient rainfall up to June 18 - India is staring at the spectre of a possible drought as the progress of the monsoon has been abysmally slow.
If the city of Pune doesn’t receive a good rainfall by June 25, “tough measures” will be taken to tackle the looming water scarcity. Pune is the seventh largest metropolis in India and the second largest in the state of Maharashtra. The dams that supply water to the city hold a storage which can only last till July 25.
“We have water storage that will last a month. Every year the city receives at least some rains in the first fortnight of June. This year, however, there hasn’t been any rainfall in the city nor in the catchment areas of the dams which provide water to the city. We shall see how monsoon behaves for a couple of days. If it doesn’t rain we will call a review meeting on June 25 and will take some tough measures."
Severe Drought Blights North Korea - North Korea is suffering such a serious drought that soldiers have been mobilized to irrigate fields and paddies.
'GLOBAL WEIRDNESS' / CLIMATE CHANGE -
Rerouting the flight paths of commercial aircraft to minimize the condensation trails, or contrails, they leave behind would help slow global warming, even if the new flight path is longer, according to new research. Contrails, thin clouds composed of ice crystals condensed from an aircraft's exhaust, can persist for 17 hours or more and are likely the single largest contributor to climate change associated with aviation.
They form when a plane passes through parts of the atmosphere that are very cold and moist, usually near high pressure systems. The new research shows that avoiding contrail formation has greater climate benefits than avoiding additional carbon dioxide emissions associated with slightly longer flight routes.
For example, for a small aircraft that is predicted to form a contrail 20 miles long, an alternative path that adds less than 200 miles will have a smaller climate impact than the contrail. For a larger aircraft, which emits more CO2 per mile than a smaller plane, the alternative route is preferable if it adds less than 60 miles.
Many governments have adopted plans to reduce aviation's climate impacts, but those plans only account for CO2 emissions, the researchers note. Understanding the climate impacts of contrails and how to avoid them is important for guiding such policies, they say.
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