© Vincent Phillips Hale Village near Liverpool, England
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Clouds of ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano are blowing across Europe again, closing airports and causing fantastic sunsets. Vincent Phillips sends this picture, taken May 7th from Hale Village near Liverpool, England:
"Volcanic ash from Iceland continues to influence our skies here in the UK, and as a massive ash cloud now gathers off the coast of Ireland, there could be many more fantastic volcanic sunsets and sunrises in the days ahead," says Phillips.
© The Associated PressThe containment vessel is lowered into the Gulf of Mexico at the site of the Deepwater Horizon rig collapse, Thursday, May 6, 2010
Oil rig operators generally are required to submit a detailed "blowout scenario." But the federal Minerals Management Service issued a notice in 2008 that exempted some drilling projects in the Gulf under certain conditions.
BP met those conditions, according to MMS, and as a result, the oil company had no plan written for the Deepwater Horizon project, an Associated Press review found.
In a series of interviews, BP spokesman William Salvin insisted the company was nevertheless prepared to handle a blowout because it had a 582-page regional plan for dealing with a catastrophic spill anywhere in the central Gulf.
"We have a plan that has sufficient detail in it to deal with a blowout," Salvin said.
MMS has long been criticized as too cozy with the industry it regulates.
The deadly blowout of an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico was triggered by a bubble of methane gas that escaped from the well and shot up the drill column, expanding quickly as it burst through several seals and barriers before exploding, according to interviews with rig workers conducted during BP's internal investigation.
While the cause of the explosion is still under investigation, the sequence of events described in the interviews provides the most detailed account of the April 20 blast that killed 11 workers and touched off the underwater gusher that has poured more than 3 million gallons of crude into the Gulf.
Portions of the interviews, two written and one taped, were described in detail to an Associated Press reporter by Robert Bea, a University of California Berkeley engineering professor who serves on a National Academy of Engineering panel on oil pipeline safety and worked for BP PLC as a risk assessment consultant during the 1990s. He received them from industry friends seeking his expert opinion.
A group of BP executives were on board the Deepwater Horizon rig celebrating the project's safety record, according to the transcripts. Meanwhile, far below, the rig was being converted from an exploration well to a production well.
South American countries Peru, Bolivia and Chile were all rattled by a 6.4 magnitude earthquake early Thursday, May 6.
Hundreds of Peruvians fled for safety in Tacna, Peru, around 26 km from the epicentre. The quake struck near the border of the three countries and was even felt in La Paz, Bolivia -- where the intensity was around 3 or 4.
Buildings shook and walls cracked but there have been no reports of heavy damage or deaths,
The movement in Chile was very strong --which didn't help ease people's earthquake fears. The country has been spooked since the February earthquake killed hundreds of people north of Santiago.
Hundreds of Peruvians fled for safety in Tacna, Peru, around 26 km from the epicentre. The quake struck near the border of the three countries and was even felt in La Paz, Bolivia -- where the intensity was around 3 or 4.
Buildings shook and walls cracked but there have been no reports of heavy damage or deaths,
The movement in Chile was very strong --which didn't help ease people's earthquake fears. The country has been spooked since the February earthquake killed hundreds of people north of Santiago.
Flash floods have killed at least 66 people and destroyed hundreds of houses in Afghanistan, the Government said.
Hundreds of livestock have also been destroyed by the flooding, caused by torrential rain in northern and western Afghanistan, said the head of the National Disaster Management Authority for the region.
"Twenty-three people have died in Badghis, 21 in Ghor and another 22 in Herat province,'' said Abdul Hameed Mubariz Hameedi, referring to the three worst-hit provinces.
The Afghan government and the United Nations have sent relief teams to the affected areas, which are among the poorest in the country.
Natural disasters are common in mountainous Afghanistan, where more than 200 people lost their lives in heavy avalanches earlier this year.
Hundreds of livestock have also been destroyed by the flooding, caused by torrential rain in northern and western Afghanistan, said the head of the National Disaster Management Authority for the region.
"Twenty-three people have died in Badghis, 21 in Ghor and another 22 in Herat province,'' said Abdul Hameed Mubariz Hameedi, referring to the three worst-hit provinces.
The Afghan government and the United Nations have sent relief teams to the affected areas, which are among the poorest in the country.
Natural disasters are common in mountainous Afghanistan, where more than 200 people lost their lives in heavy avalanches earlier this year.
Fierce thunderstorms have uprooted trees and destroyed hundreds of homes, crushing dozens of people to death and injuring scores of others in northern India.
At least 43 people were killed and 70 hurt in the deluge and squalls.
The powerful storms slashed a wide swath across Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states, uprooting trees and power pylons and damaging homes and crops.
In eastern Uttar Pradesh, 21 people were killed and about 50 others injured when heavy rains lashed the region, police spokesman Surendra Srivastava said.
"A majority of the victims were crushed under uprooted trees or when houses collapsed due to the squall,'' he said.
At least 43 people were killed and 70 hurt in the deluge and squalls.
The powerful storms slashed a wide swath across Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states, uprooting trees and power pylons and damaging homes and crops.
In eastern Uttar Pradesh, 21 people were killed and about 50 others injured when heavy rains lashed the region, police spokesman Surendra Srivastava said.
"A majority of the victims were crushed under uprooted trees or when houses collapsed due to the squall,'' he said.
Locals felt their houses shaking and heard loud bangs as the mini-quake, measuring 2.6 on the Richter scale, hit north Clare on Thursday night.
Liscannor resident Martin Doyle said: "I felt the whole roof shake. I thought the wall was collapsing. My neighbour called and he thought that the sound he heard was me falling down the stairs."
Rosemarie Buckley, who lives nearby, also said: "The house shook and we heard a loud bang."
Her husband Tom added: "We didn't know what it was. We thought it might have been a meteorite or something."
© USGSEarthquake Location
Saturday, May 08, 2010 at 03:22:11 UTC
Saturday, May 08, 2010 at 11:22:11 AM at epicenter
Location:
8.122°S, 118.238°E
Depth:
20.1 km (12.5 miles)
Distances:
65 km (40 miles) NW of Bima, Sumbawa, Indonesia
240 km (150 miles) ENE of Mataram, Lombok, Indonesia
280 km (175 miles) NW of Waingapu, Sumba, Indonesia
1275 km (790 miles) E of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia
A group of British scientists working off Ellef Ringnes Island, near the North Pole, reported being hit with a three-minute rain shower over the weekend. The group reported the rain on Tuesday.
Rain in the High Arctic in April is nothing short of bizarre, said David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada.
"My business is weird, wild and wacky weather, and this is up there among fish falling from the sky or Niagara Falls running dry," Phillips told CBC News in an interview that aired Thursday.
"I mean, it really is strange. You just don't expect it to rain in the High Arctic in April; maybe in July and August. And certainly for these scientists from Europe coming over, they must have been also mystified."
Phillips said 50 to 60 years of historical weather data show no signs of rainfall ever occurring in April in the High Arctic.
The earliest account of measurable rainfall at Canadian Forces Station Alert took place on May 21, 1988, he said.
Comment: There was another related report about freak snowing in Antarctica nearly two years ago:
Something Strange is Happening at the Coldest, Driest Place on Earth