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More big 'Ring of Fire' quakes likely, say scientists

Stuart Gary
ABC Science, Australia
Tue, 16 Sep 2014 02:10 UTC
Earthquakes
© xiefei/istockphoto
The findings are based on a new earthquake risk assessment method.
The Pacific Ocean's volcanic 'Ring of Fire' could produce more earthquakes of magnitude 9 or greater, say researchers.

Their findings, reported in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, are based on a new way of calculating the probability of an earthquake.

The new research comes in the wake of the 2004 magnitude 9.3 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake which killed over 230,000 people across the Indian Ocean, and the 2011 magnitude 9 Tohoku earthquake which devastated Japan, claiming almost 19,000 lives.

"The strength of both these earthquakes caught many scientists by surprise," says the study's lead author Dr Yufang Rong, a seismologist with insurer FM Global.

"Almost all past methodologies failed to predict the strength of these earthquakes, so we looked at the problem again."

Existing methods of assessing earthquake risk are based on calculating how often earthquakes of a given magnitude happen along a particular fault line.

All these models are however tied to the limited histories available through earthquake records.
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Cloud Precipitation

Rare tornado filmed near Tarragona, Spain


thelocal.es
Mon, 15 Sep 2014 21:33 UTC
Image
© Niccolò Ubalducci
A type of tornado known as a waterspout surprised bathers on a famous nudist beach near the Catalan city of Tarragona on Sunday when it swirled close to the shore in a spectacular vortex of wind and water.

Visitors to El Torn de l'Hospitalet de l'Infant nudist beach and the surrounding area were stunned to see the rotating column of air connecting the sea and low-hanging storm clouds just metres offshore.

Waterspouts are rare in Spain and form only when especially strong winds are blowing.

Sunday's waterspout came before storm that hit most of the Catalonia region in the afternoon and evening, resulting in 288 calls to emergency services by people affected by torrential downpours.

A number of people photographed the tornado on their mobile phones and posted images and videos to social media.

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Cloud Precipitation

Cars washed away as flash flooding tears through Collioure, France

Trevor Quinn
Daily Mail, UK
Mon, 15 Sep 2014 20:23 UTC
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Abandoned: Three vehicles are abandoned as they are submerged by water in the video
This is the moment cars are picked up as though they are weightless and carried along in flash flooding in France. The 41-second video shows up to six partially submerged vehicles being battered by a barrage of water in the city of Collioure, near the Spanish border.

In the footage, cars and jeeps almost disappear from view as they are submerged and dragged along by powerful tidal waves of water.

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Cloud Precipitation

Hurricane Odile - 'the strongest hurricane to hit the tip of the Baja California peninsula since the advent of satellite data'

Gerardo Esquerre
Reuters
Mon, 15 Sep 2014 19:31 UTC
Image
© NOAA
Hurricane Odile whipped through the popular beach resorts of Mexico's Baja California peninsula on Monday, uprooting trees, downing power lines and forcing thousands of tourists to take cover in emergency shelters.

Winds of up to 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) buffeted shelters as one of the worst storms on record hit the luxury retreats of Los Cabos, battering Mexico's northwest coast with heavy rains that left plush hotels badly waterlogged.

Odile has weakened from a category four to category two hurricane since Sunday, but the National Hurricane Center said it would likely cause life-threatening flooding and mudslides on Mexico's northwestern coast during the next day or two.

"The whole place is devastated, San José del Cabo, windows are trashed, trees and electricity poles are down," said Mauricio Balderrama, manager of the Cabo Surf Hotel and Spa. All of the hotel's guests were fine, he added.

The weather service said Odile was expected to slow as it pushed northwest along the desert peninsula and forecast the storm would weaken steadily over the next two days.

Comment: Déjà vu for the U.S. Southwest? Major hurricane Odile could again bring flash floods to Southwestern U.S

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Attention

Two dead humpback whales wash up on NSW beaches, Australia

Peter Hannam
The Sydney Morning Herald
Mon, 15 Sep 2014 18:38 UTC
Image
© Dave Armstrong
Dead humpback whale at Wallabi Point on the NSW Mid-North Coast.
Two dead humpback whales have washed up on NSW beaches in recent days, prompting a reminder for swimmers to avoid getting too close to the giant "shark magnets".

One of the giant mammals reportedly washed up at Wallabi Point on the mid north coast on Monday morning, just a couple of kilometres north of Saltwater Beach where a second humpback carcass was found a day earlier.

"The one at Saltwater Beach was probably a juvenile while the other at Wallabi Point was much larger," said Dave Armstrong, who filmed the dead whales.
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Attention

Animals getting more uppity? Seventh recent brown bear attack in Alaska, grizzly bites Kodiak biologist's leg


Newsminer.com
Fri, 12 Sep 2014 16:31 UTC
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Kodiak fisheries biologist James Jackson had to miss a day of work and he's got a new scar on his leg, but he considers himself lucky after a close call with a Kodiak brown bear along a salmon stream.

"It was an experience to have, that's for sure," Jackson said. "It could have been a lot, lot worse."

A bear last week chomped down on his leg as he and partner Kurt Peterson conducted a salmon survey on Shuyak Island, the Kodiak Daily Mirror reported.

About 6:30 p.m. Sept. 4, Jackson and Peterson were on Hidden Cove Creek near the Big Bay ranger station. As they waded upstream, they tried to warn off bears by making plenty of noise.

In the heavily forested area, it didn't work.
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Black Cat

Eight separate leopard attacks on humans across India within 2 months: Leopard attacks 5 people, beaten to death in Assam, India


Business Standard
Mon, 11 Aug 2014 15:09 UTC
Image
A female leopard who was in search of a missing cub attacked five persons, following which it was beaten to death in upper Assam's Jorhat district.

The leopard attacked five men from behind when they were returning after rehearsing a play at Kachogoral under Jorhat police station, Jorhat Divisional Forest Officer Sarat Saikia said.

Angered by the attack, local people beat the female leopard to death, he said.

The five persons were injured on their back, stomach, shoulder, and thigh, said doctors of Jorhat Medical College and Hospital where they were admitted.

The leopard was suspected to have come out from nearby Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary in search of her lost cub missing for the last few days, Saikia said.

Source: Press Trust of India

Comment: A total of eight leopard attacks on humans have now been recently reported from India, all within a relatively short time span (29th July - 14th September).

See also: Leopard attacks teacher in Doon locality, India (Two reports.)

Leopard attacks 8-year-old girl in Amreli, India

Indian woman kills leopard with sickle after half-hour battle

Leopard attacks and mauls six villagers in West Bengal, India

2 farm workers attacked by leopard in India

Man-eating leopard preys on drunk villagers in the Didihat region, Himalayas

      Read More...
Black Cat

Leopard attacks teacher in Doon locality, India

Seema Sharma
The Times of India
Tue, 29 Jul 2014 15:00 UTC
Image
A leopard, on Monday evening, entered a wedding hall in Premnagar, injured a school teacher and triggered panic in the area. The animal escaped before forest department officials could capture it. The incident brought to light the department's incompetence and unpreparedness in dealing with such situations.

Sources said, Kiran Joshi, a teacher at Mahrishi Vidya Mandir had gone to Uttaranchal Wedding Point to discuss arrangements for a school function to be held at the hall, on Aug 5 and Aug 6, with the manager Nadim Kureshi.

As soon as Joshi pushed open the door and entered the hall to take a look at the facilities, the leopard, which was hiding inside pounced on her. Kureshi, who was accompanying the teacher, immediately dragged her out and locked the door, thus locking the big cat inside. Joshi was rushed to the hospital where her injured left hand was operated upon and the forest department was notified as well.
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Ice Cube

4 U.S. States hit with September snow - Parts of Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana and Colorado hit by snowstorm that dumped 20 inches of snow

Belinda Robinson
Daily Mail UK
Sun, 14 Sep 2014 02:43 UTC
As summertime draws to a close across the country, a snowstorm has hit parts of Wyoming dumping up to 20 inches of snow. The freak summer snowstorm hit parts of Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana and Colorado and left a blanket of snow on the ground as temperatures plummeted to 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
Image
© AP
Clean up: Terry Chandler clears snow off her car before heading to work on Thursday in Gillette, Wyoming

Children took full advantage of the unseasonably cold weather building snowmen in the local park and amusing themselves by pelting each other with snowballs. Forecasters said that the storm was heaviest on Wednesday and Thursday.

Meanwhile, much of northern Wyoming received early-season snow on Thursday, ranging from flurries at lower elevations to as much as 10 inches in mountain areas. Big Horn Mountains, the town of Buffalo saw as much as 10 inches and Custer, South Dakota was blanketed with up to eight inches. Up to 3 to 5 inches fell in Cody, the earliest recorded snowfall there since records were kept in 1915.

Some roads and highways were slippery on Friday morning, but travel was not hampered in Wyoming. However, the heavy wet snow did snap off tree branches and cause some power outages in Buffalo.

Additional images
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Cloud Precipitation

Déjà vu for the U.S. Southwest? Major hurricane Odile could again bring flash floods to Southwestern U.S.

Cody Matz
MyFoxTwinCities.com
Mon, 15 Sep 2014 01:36 UTC
Hurricane Odile is moving northwestward in the eastern Pacific with maximum sustained winds at this post of 130mph. It drastically strengthened late Saturday and early Sunday to become another major player along the Mexican west coast. Now it appears to be heading straight for Cabo San Lucas. This storm is a monster with high winds, very heavy rain, and an estimated storm surge to top 15 feet.
Image
The current forecast track has the hurricane running up the coast of the California Peninsula, coming within 50 miles of the coast as it treks quickly northward. This would be a pretty devastating scenario for much of the southern Peninsula because the right front quadrant of any hurricane is the most destructive. For those that have never been to that part of the world, Cabo is a resort town that sits on the far southern tip of the landmass. There is little hope of the storm missing the city; however the current forecast track is both good and puzzling.
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The track is good because the more landmass the storm crosses, the weaker it will become. But I'm troubled by the overall track. Because of the rules of friction (the more objects that interact with winds, the weaker they become) the storm isn't likely to hover along the coast for that long. As the storm moves northwest with one side of it over land and the other over water, the winds on the eastern side begin to fade while the winds on the western side continue to blow uninterrupted. This can often upset the balance in the hurricane, and force it to change direction toward and onto shore. This would obviously play a huge role in where this storm ends up
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