Earth ChangesS


Telescope

Volcano Photo From Space Shows Earliest Stages of Massive Eruption

volcano
© Nasa Earth ObservatorySaychev Peak on Matua Island erupting
A fortuitous orbit of the International Space Station allowed the astronauts this striking view of Sarychev Volcano (Kuril Islands, northeast of Japan) in an early stage of eruption on June 12, 2009. Sarychev Peak is one of the most active volcanoes in the Kuril Island chain, and it is located on the northwestern end of Matua Island. Prior to June 12, the last explosive eruption occurred in 1989, with eruptions in 1986, 1976, 1954, and 1946 also producing lava flows. Ash from the multi-day eruption has been detected 2,407 kilometers east-southeast and 926 kilometers west-northwest of the volcano, and commercial airline flights are being diverted away from the region to minimize the danger of engine failures from ash intake.

Bulb

Scientists Put Global Warming Into Deep Freeze - Warn Of The Coming Ice Age

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In June, 1974, Time Magazine unleashed a mountain of evidence to support what scientists - at the time - suspected was the onset of a coming ice age. Characterizing it's evidence as "telltale signs everywhere", the article went back three decades to summarize statistics and events which pointed towards global cooling.

Newsweek Magazine conducted it's own investigation about a year later, concluding that evidence supporting a coming ice age had "begun to accumulate so massively that meteorologists (were) hard-pressed to keep up with it all."

When average temperatures over a 100 year period were found to have risen about a half-degree Celsius, the global cooling drum beat faded in lieu of a new worry - Global Warming. Environmentalist, looking for a way to connect man-made pollution to a more substantial argument, blamed CO2 emissions as the culprit for changes in the earth's climate. The drum beat of Global Warming grew louder and louder until the turn of the century - when climate data began defying weather model predictions and climate trend forecasts.

Bizarro Earth

5.4 earthquake rattles Greek island of Rhodes

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.4 occurred south of the Greek holiday island of Rhodes. There were no reports of damage or injuries.

Athens Geodynamic Institute says the undersea quake occurred at 5:05 p.m. (1405 GMT) Friday at a depth of 25 miles (40 kilometers).

Earthquakes are common in Greece and neighboring Turkey.

Magnify

In a St. Paul lab, scientists race to defeat a killer wheat fungus

The spores arrived from Kenya on dried, infected leaves ensconced in multiple layers of envelopes.

Working inside a bio-secure greenhouse outfitted with motion detectors and surveillance cameras, government scientists at the Cereal Disease Laboratory in St. Paul suspended the fungal spores in a light mineral oil and sprayed them onto dozens of healthy wheat plants each day. After two weeks, the stalks were covered with deadly reddish blisters characteristic of the scourge known as Ug99.

Nearly all of the plants were goners.

Crop scientists fear the Ug99 fungus could wipe out more than 80 percent of worldwide wheat crops as it spreads from its home base in eastern Africa. It has jumped the Red Sea and traveled as far as Iran. Experts say it is poised to enter the breadbasket of northern India and Pakistan, and the wind inevitably will carry it to Russia, China and even North America - if it doesn't hitch a ride with people first.

Bizarro Earth

US: Earthquake Magnitude 4.6 Rattles Cambria, California

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© US Geological Survey
The U.S. Geological Survey is reporting an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.6 struck Saturday morning in Central California.

According to the USGS, the earthquake struck at about 5:30 a.m. and had a depth of 4.6 miles.

The quake was centered 10 miles northeast of Cambria and 15 miles west of Paso Robles in San Luis Obispo County, according to the USGS.

Bizarro Earth

3 small earthquakes in less than 4 hours rattle California's Orange County; No damage reported

Yorba Linda - Three small earthquakes rattled California's Orange County area over a period of less than four hours on Thursday. No damage was immediately reported.

The first quake, with a magnitude of 3.8, struck at 4:56 p.m. Thursday and was centered 2 miles northeast of the city of Yorba Linda, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

Bizarro Earth

Earthquake hits about 50 miles off Southern California coast

Avalon - A magnitude-4.2 earthquake has jolted the sea floor off the Southern California coast southeast of Santa Catalina Island.

Preliminary data from the U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit at 6 p.m Friday, about 53 miles west of San Diego and 38 miles southeast of the island. There were no immediate reports of tsunami warnings as a result of the temblor.

Bizarro Earth

6.0 Earthquake Strikes Off Indonesia's Sumatra

A 6.0-magnitude undersea earthquake struck off the western coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island on Saturday, but there were no immediate reports of injury or damage, seismologists said.

The quake struck at 4:21 pm (0921 GMT) at a depth of 28 kilometres, about 72 kilometres south-west of Bintuhan on Bengkulu province, Indonesia's National Meteorological and Geophysics Agency (BMG) said.

The agency said there were no immediate reports of injury and structural damage from the quake, the latest earthquake to jolt Indonesia in recent weeks.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," the edge of a tectonic plate prone to seismic upheaval.

Bizarro Earth

5.0 Earthquake Rattles Greek Island of Samos

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.0 has struck the island of Samos in the eastern Aegean Sea, close to the Turkish coast.

There were no reports of damage or injuries.

Athens Geodynamic Institute says the quake occurred at 11:28 a.m. (0828 GMT) Saturday, 280 kilometers (170 miles) east of Athens, in western Samos.

Earthquakes are common in Greece and neighboring Turkey.

Bizarro Earth

Taiwan Hit by 5.5-Magnitude Underwater Earthquake

A 5.5-magnitude earthquake struck east of Taiwan today, the central weather bureau said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The undersea tremor hit at 11.44 am (0344 GMT), 77km southeast of eastern Ilan county at a depth of 11 kilometres, the bureau said.

Taiwan, which lies near the junction of two tectonic plates, is regularly shaken by earthquakes.