Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

The volcanic glass cloud: How tiny shards created by heat of Iceland eruption have 'rained' on Scotland


DailyMail.co.uk
Fri, 27 May 2011 11:04 UTC
Scientists have released photographs of what they believe are volcanic glass particles from Iceland which fell on Scotland this week.

The samples were taken from a car windscreen in Aberdeen and analysed at the city's James Hutton Institute.

The images of the tiny particles were taken using a scanning electron microscope.
Image
© PASharp: One of the fragments of glass that rained on Aberdeen is shown under a microscope

Scientists said it was 'highly likely' the glass particles, which are part of the ash constituents, came from the Grimsvotn volcano which started erupting on Saturday.

Commercial glass is created by heating silica, or sand, to an extremely high temperature. Sand scorched by lava could do the same.

The largest of the particles found is 0.03mm across, with the smallest measuring just 0.002mm wide.

The institute also analysed samples given to them by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) taken in Lerwick, Shetland, which matched the particles taken from the car window.
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Radar

NASA: Songda Becomes a Super Typhoon


PhysOrg.com
Thu, 26 May 2011 22:47 UTC
As predicted, Typhoon Songda intensified and was a super typhoon with wind speeds estimated at over 130 knots ( ~145 mph) when NASA's TRMM satellite passed directly over head on May 26, 2011 at 0806 UTC (4:06 a.m. EDT).

Songda had a circular eye
© NASA/SSAI, Hal PierceSongda had a circular eye with extremely heavy rainfall, particularly in the southeast quadrant. The red areas represent heavy rainfall (falling at about 2 inches/50 mm per hour). The yellow and green areas are moderate rainfall, falling at a rate between .78 to 1.57 inches (20 to 40 mm) per hour.
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Butterfly

Strange He-She Birds Present Gender-Bending Mystery

Wynne Parry
Livescience
Thu, 26 May 2011 22:29 UTC
The unusual cardinal
© Larry P. Ammann, RemoteSensingArt.comThe unusual cardinal that appeared at Larry Ammann's backyard feeder.

A strange bird showed up in Larry Ammann's backyard on Jan. 14. Clearly a cardinal, it had the bright red plumage of a male on its left side and gray, female feathers on its right.

"I had no clue how on Earth something like that could happen," said Ammann, a professor of statistics and a wildlife photographer who lives in a suburb of Dallas. "It was a learning experience."

Ammann and the biologists he consulted concluded the bird was most likely part female, part male. Creatures with this condition are called gynandromorphs. They are genetic anomalies: Some cells in their bodies carry the genetic instructions for a male, some for a female. While this gender-bending also occurs among insects, spiders and crustaceans, birds like this cardinal have raised questions about how sex identity is determined among some animals.

As the breeding season began, other cardinals became more territorial, and the bird disappeared before it could be trapped and its feathers collected for genetic testing.
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Umbrella

US: Storms Will Drop Heavy Rains for 2 Days in West Michigan

Julie Hoogland
M Live
Wed, 25 May 2011 10:44 UTC
Image
© Grand Rapids Press
A flood watch has been issued for much of West Michigan, with several rounds of heavy rain likely today and Thursday.

Two to four inches are possible, along with the threat of severe storms, and a tornado watch is issued through 7 p.m. today for these counties: Berrien, Branch, Cass and St. Joseph.

"A warm front moving could bring some nastier stuff later this afternoon. Heavy rain is a probability, not a possibility," said Mike Kalembkiewicz of the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids.
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© National Weather ServiceRainfall could accumulate to two inches or more through Thursday.
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Bizarro Earth

Scientists ask Britons to help map Grimsvotn ash

Kate Kelland & Paul Casciato
Reuters
Wed, 25 May 2011 10:50 UTC
Image
© 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
Image
© 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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