Earth's clouds got a little lower -- about one percent on average -- during the first decade of this century, finds a new NASA-funded university study based on NASA satellite data. The results have potential implications for future global climate.

Scientists at the University of Auckland in New Zealand analyzed the first 10 years of global cloud-top height measurements (from March 2000 to February 2010) from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft. The study, published recently in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, revealed an overall trend of decreasing cloud height. Global average cloud height declined by around one percent over the decade, or by around 100 to 130 feet (30 to 40 meters). Most of the reduction was due to fewer clouds occurring at very high altitudes.

Lead researcher Roger Davies said that while the record is too short to be definitive, it provides a hint that something quite important might be going on. Longer-term monitoring will be required to determine the significance of the observation for global temperatures.

A giant storm is brewing under the sea off the coast of South Africa.

Snapped on December 26 by NASA's Terra satellite, the recently released image shows the incredible huge swirl of water estimated to stretch nearly 150km across.

It looks like it could swallow a moderately sized island nation, but the "storm" is actually just a harmless eddy, also known as a "current ring".

This one has formed off the Agulhas Current which flows around the southeastern coast and tip of South Africa.

And rather than suck unwitting life down to the ocean's murky depths, the anticlockwise swirl is more likely to bring nutrients up to the surface, according to the Daily Mail.

Still, it's a great pic, even though it's not exactly the Terra satellite's main mission.

NASA launched Terra back in 2003 as part of a multinational effort to monitor the spread of pollution around the Earth through a 15-year lifecycle.

The National Weather Service in Honolulu has issued a winter storm warning for the summits of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa until 6 a.m. Wednesday (Feb 22) for elevations above 8,000 feet. A winter storm warning means significant amounts of snow, sleet and ice are expected or is occuring. Strong winds are also possible.

Sleet, snow and freezing rain will make for hazardous conditions for drivers and hikers. An additional three to four inches of snowfall is expected this afternoon and evening.

Time-lapse movie of Mauna Loa. This panorama is a composite of a five images from a temporary research camera positioned on the north rim of Mokuʻāweoweo, the summit caldera of Mauna Loa volcano. If you look carefully around early morning or late evening, you may see a few thermal areas emitting steam. Images courtesy of USGS

East Prairie - Residents got an early morning jolt Tuesday after an earthquake rumbled at least nine states, causing minor damage and a big stir in the town of East Prairie, near the quake's epicenter.

"I live on a main highway and five miles from the reported epicenter," Rhonda Brack, a manager at Tasters Restaurant in East Prairie, told msnbc.com. "It sounded like a semi-truck and it rattled my windows and it rattled my house."

She said the magnitude 4.0 earthquake has been the hot topic of conversation since the popular breakfast and coffee house opened up at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday.

"We're no strangers to quakes, but this one was different," Brack said. "We had one four years ago and that one rolled. This one was straight underneath us and lasted for 30 seconds or so. It reminded you of lightning."

U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist John Bellini said the rural farming community of East Prairie is known for its seismic activity.

At least 20 people suffered slight injuries on their toes and fingers when they were attacked by carnivorous fish as they were bathing in a river in southern Brazil, authorities reported Monday.

The attack occurred Sunday afternoon at two different spots on the Toropi river, which runs through the central part of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul.

The bathers were attacked by a school of "palometas", a species of carnivorous fish native to South America's Southern Cone.

Date-Time:
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 09:58:43 UTC
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 03:58:43 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
36.850°N, 89.409°W

Depth:
5 km (3.1 miles)

Region:
SOUTHEASTERN MISSOURI

Distances:
16 km (9 miles) ESE of Sikeston, Missouri

27 km (16 miles) SW of Cairo, Illinois

197 km (122 miles) NNE of Memphis, Tennessee

310 km (192 miles) SE of JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri

As far a flowering pot plants go, the Silene stenophylla plant sitting in a corner of a Russian laboratory will not win many awards. The one award it will win, however, is pretty impressive: The most ancient, viable, multi-cellular, living organism on Earth.

The Silene stenophylla was brought back to life using seeds buried by squirrels in Siberian permafrost more than 30,000 years ago. The seeds have been held in suspended animation by the cold, which has served as a 'frozen gene pool', scientists say.

Belgrade - Ice floes up to one metre (three feet) thick smashed into hundreds of boats on the River Danube near Belgrade as a thaw set in, sinking a floating restaurant, officials and witnesses said Monday.

Barges also broke adrift under the pressure of the ice as it melted and broke up following a rise in temperature at the end of a two-week cold snap that killed hundreds of people across Europe.
"Hundreds of small boats were damaged or sunk, while almost 90 percent of rafts were moved up to 20 metres (yards) downstream," Zoran Matic of the Belgrade water company told AFP.

Pacific coastal communities prepare for possible impacts of marine debris from Japan's triple disaster.

In the age of constant crisis coverage, it is easy to forget that disasters don't just end once the cameras move on. On the contrary, they morph into new situations, sometimes improved, but often more complex and severe. In the case of Japan's earthquake-tsunami-nuclear catastrophe, part of that tripartite disaster floated out to sea as debris where it has been drifting for months to destinations unknown.

According to Japan's Ministry of Environment's Waste Management Division, the 9.0 magnitude temblor and tsunami generated some 25 million tons of debris in total, literally sucking the lives of thousands of people and their belongings out to sea. Since last March, the remains of destroyed buildings, vehicles, broken furniture, fishing boats, nets and miscellaneous flotsam has been adrift in the north Pacific vastness. But how much was pulled into the ocean and where it will end up, no one can really say for sure.

Scientists and experts in Canada and the United States and, in particular, the Hawaiian islands, recognizing the potential for a fourth leg to Japan's triple disaster, are trying to forecast a possible debris path as they prepare for what could be headed their way.

Rare Dalmatian pelicans, a threatened species, are dying of cold and hunger amid freezing weather in Russia's usually warm Dagestan, where the birds are currently wintering.

Temperatures of minus 20-30 degrees Celsius have swept Russia's southern latitudes, coating the Caspian Sea in a thick layer of sea ice. Some 500 Dalmatian pelicans out of the total population in Russia of about 1,400 were forced to take refuge at a shipyard on the Caspian Sea near Dagestan's capital Makhachkala.

According to information from the Dagestansky Nature Preserve, about 16 pelicans have died from hunger and cold on the Caspian shores of Dagestan.

An adult Dalmatian pelican requires at least 2.5 kg of fish daily, but the giant birds are unable to feed themselves from the ice-covered sea.