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Labrador, Canada: Dead seals mystery not solved by scientists' tests


CBC News
Wed, 09 Mar 2011 14:27 UTC
Image
© Derrick Letto
A young seal on a beach near the southern Labrador community of L'Anse au Clair in early January.
Scientists say they've been unable to solve the mystery of dead seals that washed ashore in Labrador between December and January.

More than 200 harp seals turned up dead across remote beaches along the coast of the province.

"It's really one that's got us baffled," said Dr. Garry Stenson, a biologist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

When Stenson received reports of seals turning up dead, he flew into towns in northern Newfoundland and Labrador to collect their frozen carcasses.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Japan: Earthquake Magnitude 6.0 - Off The East Coast of Honshu


USGS
Wed, 09 Mar 2011 14:21 UTC
Honshu Quake3_090311
© USGS
Earthquake Location
Date-Time:
Wednesday, March 09, 2011 at 18:44:35 UTC

Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 04:44:35 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
38.492°N, 143.191°E

Depth:
1.2 km (~0.7 mile)

Region:
OFF THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN

Distances:
203 km (126 miles) E of Sendai, Honshu, Japan

221 km (137 miles) SE of Morioka, Honshu, Japan

250 km (155 miles) E of Yamagata, Honshu, Japan

436 km (270 miles) NE of TOKYO, Japan
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Shaking Intensity, Christchurch Earthquake


Earth Observatory, NASA
Wed, 09 Mar 2011 13:21 UTC
Christchurch Earthquake
© Earth Observatory / NASA
NASA Earth Observatory image by Robert Simmon, using ALI data from the EO-1 Team and USGS Earthquake Hazard Program. Acquired March 4, 2011.

It is a modern human tendency to focus on the number of an earthquake - specifically, the magnitude, or what people used to call the "Richter scale." But the destruction from a quake usually has more to do with location and timing. Such was the case with the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, on February 22, 2011.

A September 2010 earthquake centered 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Christchurch, in the plains near Darfield, struck at 4:35 a.m., had a magnitude of 7.1, and caused some structural damage and one death (by heart attack). The earthquake in February 2011 occurred at 12:51 p.m. and just 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the center of Christchurch. It had a magnitude of 6.3, though was officially classified - scientifically speaking - as an aftershock of the 2010 quake. At least 166 people died, and the city of Christchurch was devastated structurally and emotionally. Many people are still missing.

The natural-color image above was captured on March 4, 2011, by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite. Overlain on the map are seismological measurements of the ground shaking in the Christchurch area on February 22, as noted by the U.S. Geological Survey's Earthquake Hazard Program.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Israel: Torrential rains hit and snow falls on the Hermon


Jerusalem Post
Tue, 08 Mar 2011 10:52 UTC
Image
© Marc Israel Sellem
Rain in Jerusalem.
Heavy precipitation, thunderstorms, cause traffic jams in Tel Aviv area, northern Israel; snow expected to spread to upper Galilee, Safed.

A recent blast of cold air from Scandanavia coupled with warm Mediterranean Sea influence created torrential rain and thunderstroms Tuesday. Snow fell in the Hermon and other areas in the north.

The morning hours saw between 10-30 mm of rainfall in the country's center, and between 5-15 mm in the North, with the Israeli Meteorological Service reporting up to 32 mm in the Tel Aviv area. Showers are expected to dissipate in the afternoon hours. Authorities closed the Hermon to visitors as snow began to fall.

The northern heights of Meron and Safed may see snow Wednesday or Thursday, but snow is not expected to hit the ground in Jerusalem.

The stormy weather wreaked havoc on motorways as well, causing heavy traffic in the Center and even worse traffic jams in the North. In the Kirya junction in Tel Aviv, a traffic disturbance developed when traffic lights malfunctioned and jammed the roads until a police officer arrived to help direct traffic.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Hawaii: Level of volcanic gas elevated with new eruption

Andrew Pereira
KHON2
Tue, 08 Mar 2011 20:04 UTC
Image
© USGS
Kilauea Volcano - A new eruption near Pu'u 'o'o Crater on the Big Island that began March 5 has led to a dramatic increase in sulfur dioxide gas, one of two main ingredients in vog.

In recent months the east rift zone of Kilauea Volcano had been releasing 300 to 400 tons of sulfur dioxide gas every day.

After the new eruption of the mile-and-a-half long fissure this past Saturday, the amount of SO2 gas has increased to 10,000 tons per day.

"It's hard to say how long that might go on," said United States Geological Survey spokesperson Janet Babb, whose part of a team that helps monitor Kilauea. "The elevated SO2 emission that we're seeing corresponds to that high lava effusion rate."

Currently the new eruption is spewing 2.5 million cubic meters of lava per day in an unpopulated area, five times the recent average of a half million cubic meters per day.

For now the increase in lava and volcanic gas is not having a major impact on residents.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Tornadoes reported in Alabama, Louisiana


UPI.com
Wed, 09 Mar 2011 12:10 UTC
Image
© (Jon Hauge, Press-Register Correspondent
A pickup truck is flipped over in a neighborhood in Silverhill after a possible tornado hit south of Alabama 104 around Baldwin County 55.
New Orleans -- An apparent tornado hit near Mobile, Ala., Wednesday morning, a fire official said.

Lena Phillips of the Theodore, Ala., fire department told CNN the windstorm caused extensive damage to several businesses.

John Kilcullen of the Mobile County Emergency Management Agency told the Mobile Press-Register, "We're fairly fortunate that the damage at this point is relatively light."

The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for the area at 9:40 a.m. (10:40 a.m. EST).

Earlier Wednesday, three suspected tornadoes hit the New Orleans area the morning after Mardi Gras, the National Weather Service said.

The Slidell Police Department said a tornado crossed Interstate 12 in Lacombe at 4:50 a.m., The New Orleans Times Picayune reported. A roof was torn off a house in Lacombe at 4:57 a.m.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Japan: Earthquake Magnitude 7.2 - Near The East Coast of Honshu


USGS
Wed, 09 Mar 2011 12:15 UTC
Honshu Quake_090311
© USGS
Earthquake Location
Date-Time:
Wednesday, March 09, 2011 at 02:45:18 UTC

Wednesday, March 09, 2011 at 11:45:18 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
38.510°N, 142.792°E

Depth:
14.1 km (8.8 miles)

Region:
NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN

Distances:
168 km (104 miles) E of Sendai, Honshu, Japan

193 km (119 miles) SE of Morioka, Honshu, Japan

216 km (134 miles) E of Yamagata, Honshu, Japan

413 km (256 miles) NE of TOKYO, Japan

Location Uncertainty:
horizontal +/- 12.8 km (8.0 miles); depth +/- 1.8 km (1.1 miles)

Parameters:
NST=464, Nph=469, Dmin=390.7 km, Rmss=1.06 sec, Gp= 29°,
M-type="moment" magnitude from initial P wave (tsuboi method) (Mi/Mwp), Version=B

Source:
USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)

Event ID:
usb0001r57
      Read More...
Blackbox

Western Australia: Fish kills reported on coast


Fishing World
Wed, 09 Mar 2011 09:45 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Washington's extended spell of hot, still weather and warm ocean temperatures is believed to be the cause of fish kills along the Mid West coast and out at the Abrolhos Islands.

Department of Fisheries Senior Fish Pathologist Dr Brian Jones said he expected the natural phenomena would continue while coastal water temperatures remained high. "Fish are cold-blooded, so when the water gets either too hot, or too cold, they suffer," Dr Jones said.

"We have had reports of fish dying recently in the Moore River, along various sections of the coast up to the Mid West and the still, hot conditions have played a significant role in the mortalities.

Jones said there had also been reports of abalone losses on reefs near Greenough and fish and lobster deaths at the Abrolhos Islands. He said the advent of some coral spawning at the Abrolhos Islands had also sapped oxygen from the water.
      Read More...
Magnify

Flamingos Drop From Siberian Sky: Locals Mystified

Robert Krulwich and Ezra Block
NPR.org
Mon, 07 Mar 2011 23:11 UTC
We're in Siberia, shivering. It's November, November 11, 2003, and two boys, Kolya and Maksim Muravyev, are ice fishing along the Lena River, where it's 13 below zero. All of a sudden, up in the sky, they see what looks like a flamingo. "We thought it was a swan or a stork," Kolya says, a flamingo being so preposterously improbable.
russian flamingos
© Illustration by Maggie Starbard/NPR

It was large, and made ever lower circles in the sky. It seemed to be losing energy until finally it fell and lay quietly on the snow. The two boys ran over, called their father, Vasily, who picked up the bird and took it home. It was still alive. "[This is the] first time I see a bird like this," he told a TV reporter.

They fed the flamingo fish and buckwheat saturated in water (not normally flamingo food) and pretty soon it was up, active and knocking around the Muravyev's apartment. Here it is, head in a feeding bucket.
      Read More...
Hourglass

Catastrophic Weather Events Are Becoming the New Normal -- Are You Ready for Life on Our Planet Circa 2011?

Bill McKibben
AlterNet
Wed, 02 Feb 2011 22:35 UTC
Bad weather america
© Unknown
If you were in the space shuttle looking down yesterday, you would have seen a pair of truly awesome, even fearful, sights.

Much of North America was obscured by a 2,000-mile storm dumping vast quantities of snow from Texas to Maine--between the wind and snow, forecasters described it as "probably the worst snowstorm ever to affect" Chicago, and said waves as high as 25 feet were rocking buoys on Lake Michigan.

Meanwhile, along the shore of Queensland in Australia, the vast cyclone Yasi was sweeping ashore; though the storm hit at low tide, the country's weather service warned that "the impact is likely to be more life threatening than any experienced during recent generations," especially since its torrential rains are now falling on ground already flooded from earlier storms. Here's how Queensland premier Anna Bligh addressed her people before the storm hit: "We know that the long hours ahead of you are going to be the hardest that you face. We will be thinking of you every minute of every hour between now and daylight and we hope that you can feel our thoughts, that you will take strength from the fact that we are keeping you close and in our hearts."

Comment: Indeed, catastrophic weather is now becoming the norm rather than the exception. What the author fails to mention however is the growing scientific evidence that the planet is beginning to cool down, leading to a very possible ice age... please consider the following (which is really a small cross-section from our archives):

Global Warming? It's the coldest winter in decades

Global Warming Fanatics Becoming Desperate

Greenhouse gases could have caused an ice age, claim scientists

Enjoy the warmth while it lasts

The Coming Ice Age

Global Warming Is a Fraud

Reflections on the Coming Ice Age

'Forget global warming, prepare for Ice Age'

Scientist predicts 'mini Ice Age'

What's Happening to the Sun? Could its unusual behavior herald a new ice age?

Croat scientist warns ice age is overdue, could start in five years

New Ice Age 'to begin in 2014'

Global warning: We are actually heading towards a new Ice Age, claim scientists

Russian scientist says Earth could soon face new Ice Age

Public not being told the whole truth about global warming

What the Science Really Says About Global Warming

Over 500 scientists published studies countering global warming fears

Global Warming? Global Cooling Forecast Backed By Real Science

      Read More...
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