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The Sun Points Radio-Active Sunspot at Earth

Ian O'Neill
SpaceWeather.com
Tue, 30 Mar 2010 03:11 UTC
Sunspot
© Discovery News
As the sun continues to ramp up in activity after a long period in the doldrums, solar astronomers have been treated to an up-tick in sunspot numbers, solar prominences and flares.

And now, radio astronomers have joined the fun, listening to the roar of a particularly "noisy" sunspot currently pointing in our direction.

Not all sunspots emit strong radio emissions, but sunspot 1057 certainly isn't shy. As reported by SpaceWeather.com, a radio astronomer in New Mexico received a mix of Type III and Type V radio emissions:
"It was sunspot 1057. All day long it had been producing small radio bursts around 21 MHz. Then, at 1813 UT, it let loose a big one. The burst only lasted a minute, but it saturated the radios." --Thomas Ashcraft, radio astronomer.
      Read More...
Bomb

Undersea volcano threatens southern Italy


Agence France-Presse
Mon, 29 Mar 2010 21:25 UTC
Marsili Volcano
© International Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology
These images of the Marsili volcano show magnetic and gravity anomalies, which researchers say increase chances of a collapse.
Rome - Europe's largest undersea volcano could disintegrate and unleash a tsunami that would engulf southern Italy "at any time", a prominent vulcanologist warned in an interview published Monday.

The Marsili volcano, which is bursting with magma, has "fragile walls" that could collapse, Enzo Boschi told the leading daily Corriere della Sera.

"It could even happen tomorrow," said Boschi, president of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV).

"Our latest research shows that the volcano is not structurally solid, its walls are fragile, the magma chamber is of sizeable dimensions," he said. "All that tells us that the volcano is active and could begin erupting at any time."
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Bizarro Earth

Australia: New South Wales facing huge locust plague

Brad Markham
ABC News
Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:01 UTC
Image
© Brad Markham
Locust eggs discovered on a property near Parkes in September 2009
There're fears NSW could be facing its worst locust plague since 2004.

Heavy rains have triggered a surge in locust activity. The pest has already ravaged early oat crops in the state's south. Some of the biggest clusters of baby locusts ever seen in NSW have been found in the far-west around Tibooburra.

The state's locust coordinator Simon Oliver is urging all landholders to check their paddocks for the pest.

"We've had good rain across NSW over the past three months," he says. "That's led to strong pasture growth and as a result the locusts have reinvigorated themselves. We're now finding large numbers in most parts of western NSW."
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Snowman

The white stuff is back! Snowfall heralds start of British Summer Time


UK Daily Mail
Mon, 29 Mar 2010 15:24 UTC
Image
© PA
White wilderness: Snow covers the ground as far as the eye can see at Fintry, Scotland
The arrival of British Summer Time has brought wet and windy weather, with snow already falling in some parts of the country.

Snow this morning in central and northern Scotland and there will be more to come as the cold weather pushes south.

Although shielded from the worst, southern England is likely to see sleet and frigid temperatures by the end of the week.

Brendan Jones, of MeteoGroup said: 'It's a small taste of what will come tonight. In northern Scotland overnight it reached -4c and -5c in some inland areas.

'It will be more significant over the coming evening and night. It will be significant over the hills and mountains but also lower levels will see some snow as well.

'There's rain moving up from the south hitting colder air in Scotland. The southern uplands and Perthshire hills could see 4in to 6in through tonight and into tomorrow.
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Attention

Plight of Bees Worsens This Winter and Scientists Spot Stew of Pesticides in Pollen, Hives

Seth Borenstein
The Los Angeles Times
Wed, 24 Mar 2010 05:06 UTC
Image
© AP Photo
Scavenger bees in a dead hive (Merced, California)
The mysterious 4-year-old crisis of disappearing honeybees is deepening. A quick federal survey indicates a heavy bee die-off this winter, while a new study shows honeybees' pollen and hives laden with pesticides.

Two federal agencies along with regulators in California and Canada are scrambling to figure out what is behind this relatively recent threat, ordering new research on pesticides used in fields and orchards. Federal courts are even weighing in this month, ruling that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency overlooked a requirement when allowing a pesticide on the market.

And on Thursday, chemists at a scientific conference in San Francisco will tackle the issue of chemicals and dwindling bees in response to the new study.
      Read More...
Info

Common Toads Can Predict Earthquakes, New Study Finds


Islington Gazette
Mon, 29 Mar 2010 14:35 UTC
Common toads (Bufo bufo) can detect impending seismic activity and alter their behaviour from breeding to evacuation mode, suggests a new study in the Zoological Society of London's (ZSL) Journal of Zoology.

Researchers from The Open University reported that 96 per cent of male toads in a population abandoned their breeding site five days before the earthquake that struck L'Aquila in Italy in 2009. The breeding site was located 74 km from the earthquake's epicentre.

The number of paired toads at the breeding site also dropped to zero three days before the earthquake. No fresh spawn was found at the site from the date that the earthquake struck to the date of the last significant aftershock (magnitude >4.5).

Breeding sites are male-dominated and the toads would normally remain in situ from the point that breeding activity begins, to the completion of spawning.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Grasshopper Invasion Feared This Summer

Matt Joyce
Associated Press
Sun, 28 Mar 2010 09:13 UTC
Grasshopper
© Scott Schell/University of Wyoming
Some Western, Plains states could see worst outbreak in 30 years

Newcastle, Wyoming - Grasshopper infestations have taken on mythic tones here on the arid prairie of northeastern Wyoming - they blanket highways, eat T-shirts off clotheslines and devour nearly every scrap of vegetation on ranches and farms.

The myth may come closer to reality this summer than at any time in decades in several states in the West and the Plains.

A federal survey of farm areas taken last fall found high numbers of adult grasshoppers in parts of Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska and Idaho. Each female lays hundreds of eggs so that high count could turn into costly grasshopper infestations this summer.

Well-timed cool and wet weather to stifle the young grasshoppers when they hatch around May and June.
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Magnify

Putting ClimateGate in perspective

Joanne Nova
Jonova
Sun, 28 Mar 2010 18:33 UTC
Image
I attribute much of the recent rapid rise of the skeptics to the ongoing effects of ClimateGate. Yet, in a sense, the e-mails that were sprung from East Anglia did nothing more than confirm what most skeptics already suspected. Lawrence Solomon, author of The Deniers, has written an unusually good summary in the form of a speech for the Colorado Mining Association.

With his permission, I've included my favourite points here, as well as a copy of the full speech. His blog is a part of the Energy Probe team.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Russia: Koryaksky volcano becomes active


The Voice of Russia
Sun, 28 Mar 2010 10:48 UTC
Koryaksky
© RIA Novosti
Koryaksky volcano.
The Koryaksky volcano raising 3,456 m above sea level on the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula, 30 km from the region's main city Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, is showing signs of higher seismic activity. Thirteen 3-magnitude tremors have been registered in the past 24 hours. After staying dormant for 52 years, Koryaksky woke up in December 2008, sending plumes of ash and steam into the air. So far, it poses no threat to local residents, but trails of ash and smoke endanger air flights. Caught amid turbines, particles of magma can cause engine failure. The peak of Koryaksky's volcanic activity occurred 7,000 and 3,500 years ago.
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Evil Rays

Light earthquake hits Israel

Ahiya Raved
Ynet
Sat, 20 Mar 2010 20:57 UTC
Quake measuring 3.6 on Richter Scale felt in northern Israel; no injuries reported

An earthquake measuring 3.6 on the Richter Scale was felt across northern Israel Saturday evening, the Geophysical Institute of Israel said.

No injuries or damages were reported in the quake, whose epicenter was just north of the Sea of Galilee.

The earthquake, which hit Israel at 8:45 pm, was not an unusual incident, the Institute said.

"We got a few phone calls about the quake being felt at communities around the Sea of Galilee," Dr. Rami Hofstater said. "The earthquake was registered and recorded."

A Ynet reader said she felt the quake in Haifa. "The bed moved and the water bottle shook," she wrote. Another reader said that "the earthquake was felt on the Golan Heights." A Golan resident wrote that he felt the quake in his feet. "Nothing moved, it was something very weak, but we felt the quake," he said.

The head of the Mevo'ot Hermon regional council said that the quake was certainly felt in his community, Moshav Sdeh Eliezer.
      Read More...
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