Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Timing of Seasons is Changing

Andrea Thompson
LiveScience
Tue, 03 Feb 2009 07:20 UTC
The Earth's seasons have shifted back in the calendar year, with the hottest and coldest days of the years now occurring almost two days earlier, a new study finds.

This shift could be the work of global warming, the researchers say.

To figure this out, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley and Harvard studied temperature data from 1850 to 2007 compiled by the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit in the United Kingdom.
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Bizarro Earth

4.5 Quake Strikes Off Mindoro Island


The Inquirer
Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:44 UTC
Manila, Philippines - A 4.5 magnitude earthquake struck off Mindoro island at 8:31 p.m. Tuesday, the US Geological Survey said.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The tremor was located 110 kilometers east-southeast of Calapan City in Oriental Mindoro province at a depth of 10 kilometers.
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Bizarro Earth

Strong 6.0 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Peru


Times of India
Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:01 UTC
A strong earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale hit southern Peru late on Monday sparking panic, although the amount of damage was not clear, the country's Geophysics Institute said.

The quake hit at 2323 IST and was centred in the Pacific Ocean some 74 kilometres west of the city of Pisco at a depth of 35 kilometres.

The US Geological Survey, which uses the Moment Magnitude scale to measure earthquakes, put the tremor at 5.5.
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Bizarro Earth

Small Earthquake Rattles Northern New Jersey


Reuters
Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:59 UTC
A small earthquake rattled northern New Jersey on Monday night but no injuries or damages were reported, authorities said.

The magnitude-3 quake struck at 10:34 p.m. (0334 gmt) two miles southeast of Victory Gardens, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

There were no reports of injuries or damages in the Morris County area 35 miles (55 km) from New York City, according to Dover, New Jersey, police officer Walter Michalski.
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Red Flag

US: Southern Missouri targeted for uranium drilling

Maria Sudekum Fisher
Associated Press
Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:51 UTC
Charleston - In Mississippi County, where nearly a fourth of the residents live in poverty, farmers have a long history of making a living off what springs from the flat, fertile lowlands - soybeans, corn, timber.

But now a geologist has come to the area armed with decades-old charts, promises of millions of dollars in jobs and benefits and a theory about what may be tucked deep inside the crevices under the Mississippi River Valley and the New Madrid Seismic Zone.
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Cloud Lightning

Winter Weather Paralyzes Western Europe


Spiegel Online
Mon, 02 Feb 2009 04:02 UTC
Blizzards, ice and flooding have ravaged Western Europe over the past few days. At least 25 people were injured by a tornado in Malaga, Spain, while heavy snowfall has left thousands stranded in airports and traffic jams across much of the continent.

London snow Feb 2009
© ReutersA London restaurant with tablecloths and seating cushions made of snow.
Dramatic winter weather hit Spain, England, Belgium, France and Italy over the weekend leaving many commuters stranded due to the ensuing traffic chaos.

In southern Spain, a tornado with wind speeds of up to 180 kilometers (112 miles) per hour left at least 25 people injured in the coastal city of Malaga. The roofs of a bus station and parking garage in the city were blown off, billboards torn to the ground and windowpanes shattered. Two highways near Madrid had to be temporarily closed and the train between Malaga and Madrid was shut down due to rail damage from a fallen wall.
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Bizarro Earth

813 Quakes in 11 Days at Yellowstone

Kirk Johnson
New York Times
Mon, 02 Feb 2009 04:02 UTC
Yellowstone caldera
© Unknown

Yellowstone National Park is a restless place, even in the calmest of times. Tiny earthquakes - and sometimes not so tiny - are part of life in one of the world's most seismically active and mysterious regions.

But scientists said Monday that one of the biggest earthquake swarms ever recorded in the park took place in the last week of 2008 into early 2009, with 813 quakes in 11 days, most of them deep under Yellowstone Lake and felt by almost no one. Only one other swarm, in 1985, was more intense. Records go back to 1973.
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Bell

Volcano erupts near Tokyo raining ash down on city

Jay Alabaster
Associated Press
Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:25 UTC
Mt. Asama
© Associated Press/Kyodo News, Shigeyuki InakumaSmoke billows from a crater of Mt.Asama, central Japan early Monday, Feb. 2, 2009. The mountain spewed volcanic smoke earlier this morning. The country's Meteorological Agency warned Sunday that the volcano was in danger in erupting after detecting an increase in seismic activity.
A volcano near Tokyo erupted Monday, shooting up billowing smoke and showering parts of the capital with a fine ash that sent some city residents to the car wash and left others puzzled over the white powder they initially mistook for snow.

Mount Asama erupted in the early hours of Monday, belching out a plume that rose about a mile (1.6 kilometers) high, Japan's Meteorological Agency said.

There were no reports of injuries or damage from the eruption of the volcano, 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Tokyo. It last erupted in August, 2008, causing no major damage.
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Frog

Ten new amphibian species discovered in Colombia

Deborah Zabarenko
Reuters
Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:37 UTC
Image
© REUTERS/Marco Rada-Conservation International Colombia/Handout An undated handout image shows a glass frog of the Nymphargus genus, which is potentially new to science, that was discovered in the mountains of the Darien region in Colombia. Ten new species of amphibians -- including three kinds of poisonous frogs and three transparent-skinned glass frogs -- have been discovered in the mountains of Colombia, conservationists said on February 2, 2009.

Ten new species of amphibians -- including three kinds of poisonous frogs and three transparent-skinned glass frogs -- have been discovered in the mountains of Colombia, conservationists said Monday.

With amphibians under threat around the globe, the discovery was an encouraging sign and reason to protect the area where they were found, said Robin Moore, an amphibian expert at the environmental group Conservation International.

The nine frog species and one salamander species were found in the mountainous Tacarcuna area of the Darien region near Colombia's border with Panama.
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Camera

Ecuador's First Large-scale Jaguar Census


Science Daily
Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:25 UTC
jaguar
© Santiago EspinosaA jaguar recently captured in a camera trap in Ecuador.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has released photos from the first large-scale census of jaguars in the Amazon region of Ecuador - one of the most biologically rich regions on the planet.

The ongoing census, which began in 2007, is working to establish baseline population numbers as oil exploration and subsequent development puts growing pressure on wildlife in Ecuador's Yasuni National Park and adjacent Waorani Ethnic Reserve. Together, these two protected areas make up some 6,500 square miles (16,800 square kilometers) of wilderness.

The research is being carried out by a team led by WCS research fellow Santiago Espinosa. Espinosa's team, which includes several members of the Waorani indigenous group, set up a complex system of "camera traps," that photograph animals remotely when they trip a sensor that detects body heat. His work is being funded by WCS, WWF, and the University of Florida.

So far the team has taken 75 pictures of jaguars, which can be individually identified through their unique pattern of spots. Other images show jaguar prey species, such as white-lipped peccaries, and other rarely seen species, including two pictures of a short-eared dog, a relative of foxes and wolves.
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