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| ©Unknown |
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Earth ChangesS
Each summer an oxygen-starved, lifeless "dead zone" swells in the Gulf of Mexico from the toxic nitrogen fertilizer that runs off farms in Midwestern corn country.
Bobbi Bennett awoke early yesterday to the sounds of pounding. Bennett, 54, a Pacific Beach resident, didn't need to get out of bed. She knew precisely the source: hail. And it was plenty loud.
"It sounded like little hammers," Bennett said. "Just a whole bunch of little hammers."
The unusual weather was part of a winter storm that blew through the county from the Gulf of Alaska. With it came wind, rain, snow and hail.
"It sounded like little hammers," Bennett said. "Just a whole bunch of little hammers."
The unusual weather was part of a winter storm that blew through the county from the Gulf of Alaska. With it came wind, rain, snow and hail.
As ice sheets melt, they can release pent-up energy and trigger massive earthquakes, according to new study.
Global warming may already be triggering such earthquakes and may cause more in the future as ice continues to melt worldwide, the researchers say.
A series of large earthquakes shook Scandinavia around 10,000 years ago, along faults that are now quiet, the scientists point out.
The timing of each earthquake roughly coincided with the melting of thick ice sheets from the last ice age in those same places.
Global warming may already be triggering such earthquakes and may cause more in the future as ice continues to melt worldwide, the researchers say.
A series of large earthquakes shook Scandinavia around 10,000 years ago, along faults that are now quiet, the scientists point out.
The timing of each earthquake roughly coincided with the melting of thick ice sheets from the last ice age in those same places.
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| ©Joe Scherschel/NGS |
| Alaska's Columbia Glacier has been retreating in recent years. A new study has found that melting ice sheets can release pent-up energy and trigger massive earthquakes. A separate, earlier study found that small earthquakes were more common in Alaska in the summers, when ice there was melting. |
Fancy feathers are usually thought to be just ornaments, but a pair of biologists has shown that a little seabird uses the plumes on its head like a cat's whiskers to feel its way through dark crevices.
Aptly named whiskered auklets (Aethia pygmaea ) breed on the volcanic Aleutian and Kuril Islands that rim the north Pacific. They lay their eggs in small chambers reached by narrow passageways through jagged lava rocks, which they enter and leave only at night.
Aptly named whiskered auklets (Aethia pygmaea ) breed on the volcanic Aleutian and Kuril Islands that rim the north Pacific. They lay their eggs in small chambers reached by narrow passageways through jagged lava rocks, which they enter and leave only at night.
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| ©Ian Jones |
| Seeing in the dark: 'whiskers' help these birds to sense their surroundings. |
The Chinook salmon that swim upstream to spawn in the fall, the most robust run in the Sacramento River, have disappeared. The almost complete collapse of the richest and most dependable source of Chinook salmon south of Alaska left gloomy fisheries experts struggling for reliable explanations and coming up dry.
GRAND BAYOU, La. - When Ruby Ancar talks about her fishing village on the bayou, she says a divine hand has protected her Atakapa-Ishak kinfolk for generations.
But Grand Bayou is forsaken these days, 30 months after Hurricane Katrina washed over it and dragged one of Louisiana's last authentic outposts of bayou culture into a world defined by insurers, money lenders, building code enforcers and government auditors.
But Grand Bayou is forsaken these days, 30 months after Hurricane Katrina washed over it and dragged one of Louisiana's last authentic outposts of bayou culture into a world defined by insurers, money lenders, building code enforcers and government auditors.
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| ©AFP/NASA |
YAKIMA, Wash. - Hundreds of trees blown down by wind exceeding 100 mph. Roads and campgrounds washed away by swollen rivers. Damages still unknown to be repaired on backcountry trails.
Winter storms have devastated the Pacific Northwest's popular national parks each of the past two years, causing damage that has run into the millions of dollars.
Winter storms have devastated the Pacific Northwest's popular national parks each of the past two years, causing damage that has run into the millions of dollars.
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| ©AP Photo/Ted S. Warren |
| Andrew Pratt, of Quigg Bros. Construction, based in Aberdeen, Wash., uses backhoe Friday, March 7, 2008, to build a rock wall on a bank of the Quinault River where it washed out a portion of North Shore Road in Olympic National Park in Washington state. Even though volunteer crews are making the park the focus of their efforts this year -- joining workers at Mount Rainier and North Cascades national parks in their storm clean-up efforts -- summer visitors will still have to sidestep some storm damage. |
PHOENIX - Dozens of vehicles collided in heavy, blinding snow on a northern Arizona interstate Sunday, killing at least two people, critically injuring 11 others and forcing police to close the highway for 20 miles in both directions.
The low visibility on Interstate 40 near Flagstaff caused about 20 collisions, which occurred over a stretch of highway at least 4 miles long around noon, Flagstaff Fire Department Chief Mark Wilson said.
He described the wrecks as clumps of vehicles piled on top of each other, involving cars, trucks and semis.
"The magnitude of it was pretty severe," Wilson said. "We had a whiteout scene with the snow, and obviously a single-vehicle accident caused multiple-vehicle accidents, which continued to pile up due to the low visibility."
The low visibility on Interstate 40 near Flagstaff caused about 20 collisions, which occurred over a stretch of highway at least 4 miles long around noon, Flagstaff Fire Department Chief Mark Wilson said.
He described the wrecks as clumps of vehicles piled on top of each other, involving cars, trucks and semis.
"The magnitude of it was pretty severe," Wilson said. "We had a whiteout scene with the snow, and obviously a single-vehicle accident caused multiple-vehicle accidents, which continued to pile up due to the low visibility."
A University of Leicester ecologist is setting out to discover why flamingos are so in the pink of health - in the poo!
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| ©University of Leicester |
| A University of Leicester ecologist is setting out to discover why flamingos are so in the pink of health - in the poo! |
Tens of thousands of basketball fans at two arenas were perfectly safe, officials insisted Saturday, even though the crowds apparently weren't warned about an approaching tornado - one that would ravage skyscrapers and injure dozens.
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| ©REUTERS/Tami Chappell |
| Debris are cleared away from a building in downtown Atlanta, Georgia March 15, 2008. |
Comment: For a more in-depth look at the "eroding of the bayou culture", have a peek at Naomi Kline's book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism HERE.