Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Scientists ask Britons to help map Grimsvotn ash

Kate Kelland & Paul Casciato
Reuters
Wed, 25 May 2011 10:50 UTC
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© Reuters/Olafur SigurjonssonSmoke plume rises from the eruption of the Grimsvotn volcano, under the Vatnajokull glacier in southern Iceland May 21, 2011
Geoscientists at the British Geological Survey (BGS.L) group asked members of the public for help on Wednesday with observations of volcanic ash from the eruption of the Grimsvotn volcano in Iceland.

BGS scientist Aoife O'Mongain said the group has developed a simple online questionnaire with questions like: 'Have you seen ash/dust on your car windscreen?' and 'Have you smelt sulphur (rotten eggs)?' which should help map the ash's reach.

"There is a short time window for ash observations for this eruption so any observations are welcomed, especially within the next 24 hours," O'Mongain said in a statement.

A map showing real-time survey results can be viewed by following the link at www.bgs.ac.uk.
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Bizarro Earth

Iceland: Volcano grounds 500 flights but plume shrinking


The Sydney Morning Herald
Wed, 25 May 2011 10:26 UTC
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© ReutersA plane flies past smoke plume from the eruption of the Grimsvotn volcano, under the Vatnajokull glacier in southeast Iceland.
Reykjavik - Activity at Iceland's erupting volcano has slowed significantly and its ash plume, which has dropped to a fraction of its 20 kilometre peak, could disappear by the weekend, experts said on Tuesday.

The plume of ash from Grimsvotn, located in the southeast of Iceland at the heart of its largest glacier, Vatnajoekull, had fallen to two kilometers on Tuesday evening, according to an Icelandic crisis management official.

The column "is decreasing now and the height of the plume is around two kilometers so it's dramatically decreased," Thorir Hrafnsson, a spokesman for Iceland's crisis management agency, told AFP.

"If it behaves like earlier eruptions, hopefully it will be over by the weekend," he said, while stressing "it's very hard to guess."

At an altitude of just two kilometres, the plume "will not be dangerous for air traffic," Hrafnsson said, acknowledging that ash still in the air from the initial blast could continue to cause problems.
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Radar

Best of the Web: Iceland volcano: BA test flight found nothing - CAA Proves Incompetent

D. Millward, N. Collins, A. Cramb & J. Kirkup
The Telegraph
Wed, 25 May 2011 10:20 UTC
Willie Walsh, chief executive of International Airlines Group, said BA had conducted a 45-minute test flight at different altitudes over the north of England, Newcastle, Glasgow and Edinburgh, where the ash cloud was meant to be at its densest, on Tuesday.

Disclosing the results of tests carried out on the aircraft after the test run, he told the BBC's Today program: "The simple answer is we found nothing."

Pledging to make a case to the Civil Aviation Authority that the test proves it is safe to fly through the cloud, he added: "I think we need to understand the levels of concentration that we are talking about...the levels are absolutely tiny."

His remarks came after Michael O'Leary, the outspoken head of Ryanair, described the ash cloud as "mythical" after the airline operated a similar test flight across air space with the highest ash densities.

Rounding on the Civil Aviation Authority, he said its officials should "take their finger out of their incompetent bureaucratic backsides and allow the aircraft back into the skies over Scotland".

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Attention

US: Joplin Storm Contained a Rare Multivortex Tornado

Laura Bauer, Eric Adler and James Hart
Kansas City Star
Tue, 24 May 2011 10:45 UTC
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© David EulittShawn and Joella Zaccarello of Joplin pitched in Tuesday to help sort through the damage of their uncle’s home, which was destroyed by Sunday evening’s tornado that swept through the city’s central section.

The death toll from Sunday's tornado has risen to 122, making it the eighth-deadliest tornado in U.S. history, the National Weather Service said.

The Joplin twister was upgraded to EF-5, the strongest category on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, with winds exceeding 200 mph. The storm was apparently a "multivortex" tornado, with two or more small and intense centers of rotation orbiting the larger funnel, a rare occurrence.

It's the country's deadliest storm since 1950.

The number of those still missing isn't known because many have left Joplin to stay with relatives and friends. Rescue workers on Tuesday were able to save two more people from the wreckage, bringing the total to nine, even as they braced for more storms Tuesday night.

Those storms brought their own misery: Several tornadoes struck Oklahoma City and its suburbs during rush hour, killing at least five people and injuring at least 60 others, including three children who were in critical condition, authorities said.
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Cloud Lightning

US: The Tornado Epidemic Of April 2011

Morgan Clendaniel
Fast Company
Tue, 24 May 2011 00:00 UTC
There were more tornado deaths in April than any other time in history. The cause is unknown, but the damage is enormous.

The weekend's tornado in Joplin, Mo., was just the latest--and most devastating--of what has been a rash of tornadoes. In April, more than 360 people were killed by tornadoes. The previous record was 267, in 1974. As of yesterday, there had been 1,151 tornadoes this year. Last year at this time, there had only been 506. NOAA has documented the tornadoes reported in the month in this chilling video:

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Bizarro Earth

420 Whale Sharks Swarm Mexican Coastline

Jennifer Viegas
Discovery News
Wed, 25 May 2011 18:43 UTC
Whale Sharks
© Oscar ReyesWhale shark aggregation off the coast of Mexico.

Up to 420 whale sharks gathered off the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, forming the world's largest known assembly of this species, according to a press release issued by the Smithsonian National Zoological Park.

The discovery counters the widely held belief that whale sharks, which can weigh more than 79,000 pounds, are solitary filter feeders that prefer to be alone in the open ocean. The impressive shark assembly proves they will gather for the right reasons. Food now appears to be the draw.

"Whale sharks are the largest species of fish in the world, yet they mostly feed on the smallest organisms in the ocean, such as zooplankton," Mike Maslanka, biologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and head of the Department of Nutrition Sciences, says in the press release. "Our research revealed that in this case, the hundreds of whale sharks had gathered to feed on dense patches of fish eggs."

Maslanka and his team identified the whale shark assembly using both surface and aerial surveys. Considering these sharks can grow to more than 40 feet long, the surface-level surveying must have been extraordinary.
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Cloud Lightning

Oklahoma Tornadoes: Home shelter shields 14 from twister in Cole

David Zizzo
NewsOK
Wed, 25 May 2011 19:57 UTC
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© David Zizzo, The OklahomanVeterinarian Patrick Young attends to Baxter, a Labrador that was in the garage of a home destroyed Tuesday by a tornado in Cole.
Cheryl Mayo and 14 other people huddled in a shelter as a monstrous tornado churned overhead late Tuesday afternoon.

The tornado blew open the door of the storm shelter, Mayo said about 30 minutes after the storm passed by. "As soon as it blew the lid open you could see that the house was gone."

The home was destroyed, along with a double-wide trailer on the same property on State Highway 74B east of Cole, a small town about 15 miles southwest of Norman.
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Cloud Lightning

U.S. tornado death toll mounts, many still missing


International Business Times
Wed, 25 May 2011 19:51 UTC
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© REUTERS / Ed ZurgaA man looks through a friend's trailer as he tries to find anything salvageable after a devastating tornado hit Joplin, Missouri May 23, 2011.
The death toll from a monster tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri on Sunday rose to 123 with 750 people injured and many more missing, authorities said on Tuesday.

Rescue and recovery teams scoured the wreckage of the small Midwestern city, which was devastated by a high-velocity whirl of wind that destroyed about 2,000 buildings.
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Cloud Lightning

US: Several nursing home residents dead after Missouri tornado


McKnight's
Wed, 25 May 2011 19:47 UTC
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© Unknown
At least 10 nursing home residents and one employee were killed in a Sunday tornado that hit Joplin, MO. The storm killed at least 117 people, and may have caused up to $3 billion in insured losses to 10,000 buildings, according to a preliminary estimate released Tuesday by Eqecat Inc.

Greenbriar Nursing Home, one of six skilled nursing facilities citywide, was directly in the tornado's path. A Los Angeles Times report describes a horrific scene at Greenbriar, where 10 nursing home staffers tried to protect 85 residents in the building's central hallway. One employee said several people were pulled through the roof by high winds that also tore off the building's roof. He told the paper that he could see cars being tossed around in the air above the building.
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Cloud Lightning

US: Joplin rescuers race to find tornado survivors before time runs out, more storms arrive


The Washington Post
Wed, 25 May 2011 19:37 UTC
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© Unknown
Emergency crews drilled through concrete at a ruined Home Depot, making peepholes in the rubble in hopes of finding lost shoppers and employees. A dog clambered through the shattered remains of a house, sniffing for any sign of the woman and infant who lived there.

Across this devastated city, searchers moved from one enormous debris pile to another Tuesday, racing to respond to any report of a possible survivor.
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