Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Cover up: Global warming: Ancient Ocean Changes are Warning Signs

Bob Berwyn
Summit County Citizens Voice
Fri, 20 May 2011 00:00 UTC
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Oceans could quickly reach a hypoxic tipping point for marine life, according to recent climate change research.
After studying prehistoric ocean sediments, a team of researchers from Australia and the UK concluded that increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide in the oceans will likely lead to massive die-offs of marine life.

The fossil record pinpoints a mass mortality in the oceans at a time when the Earth was experiencing a greenhouse effect. High levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and rising temperatures depleted oxygen in the oceans and created large-scale changes in a very short time span - within just a few hundred years.

That mass extinction of marine life in the oceans during prehistoric times is a warning that the same could happen again due to high levels of greenhouse gases.

The study was conducted by professor Martin Kennedy from the University of Adelaide (School of Earth & Environmental Sciences) and professor Thomas Wagner from Newcastle University, UK, (Civil Engineering and Geosciences).

Comment: The debate about global warming is far from settled. For a more balanced perspective on Climate Change see:

Climate Change Swindlers and the Political Agenda

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Cow

US: Weather Questions Remain for Corn, Spring Wheat Planting


Agriculture.com
Fri, 20 May 2011 09:55 UTC
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Some of the best rains in months have fallen in parts of the hard-red winter wheat belt over the past 24 hours. All of Nebraska, the central third of Kansas, western Oklahoma (excluding the panhandle) and areas of Texas to the east of the panhandle have seen that rain, and some it has been heavy.

Radar estimates that south-central Nebraska, north-central Kansas, and southwestern Oklahoma have seen rains of more than three inches. For the major reporting stations, topping the list of rainfall totals would be exactly five inches at Lawton, with just under five inches at Hobart, 4.70 inches at Oklahoma City, 2.42" at Clinton, and Altus reporting 1.54" (all of those stations in Oklahoma). In Kansas, the best totals I can find are 1.80 for both Great Bend and Russell (some flash flooding was seen in the Russell area). In Nebraska, there was 1.34" at Imperial and 2.77" at Lincoln.

We will probably fire more storms in the Plains this afternoon, and it looks like more rain chances for Monday/Tuesday for Kansas and nearby areas so we are really looking at significant moisture improvement for northeastern Colorado, Nebraska, northern/eastern Kansas, eastern Oklahoma, and central through northern Texas.

This rain may be coming too late to help out a lot of the wheat crop (though we do still have a lot of heading wheat in Nebraska) but is certainly of benefit to summer row-crop prospects. Getting short-changed in all of this is far southwestern Kansas southward through the panhandles, which is bad news especially for dryland cotton planting prospects in West Texas.
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Cloud Lightning

Australia: Tornado Rips through Perth suburb of Canning Vale, Front Dumps 26mm on City

Katie Robertson
Herald Sun
Fri, 20 May 2011 12:49 UTC
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© Richard Polden PerthNowDESTRUCTIVE: A Mini-tornado has left a trail of damage through Canning Vale early today.
A MINI-tornado has ripped through the Perth suburb of Canning Vale early today, damaging houses and cars and removing tiles from roofs.

Several houses have lost roofs and at least one house has lost a pergola which was propelled through a neighbour's car.

McLean Rd, Canning Vale appears to have borne the brunt of the destructive, but small min-tornado.
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Cloud Lightning

US Predicts 3 to 6 Major Atlantic Hurricanes


The Dickinson Press
Fri, 20 May 2011 09:10 UTC
U.S. government forecasters announced Thursday they expect three to six major hurricanes from an above average Atlantic storm season.

No major hurricane has made a U.S. landfall in five years, but Lubchenco warned U.S. coastal residents that odds are diminished that they can't expect a sixth straight year without a major landfall on either the Atlantic or Gulf coasts.

As many as 18 named tropical storms may develop during the six-month Atlantic hurricane season that begins June 1, according to forecasters at the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration. Six to 10 of those storms could strengthen into hurricanes with top winds of at least 74 mph, the agency said. Three to six could become major hurricanes, with maximum winds of 111 mph and up.

Last year's hurricane season was one of the busiest on record with 19 named storms, including 12 hurricanes. The 2011 season was not expected to be as extreme, partly because ocean temperatures were only two degrees warmer than normal, instead of four degrees warmer as they were last year, said NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco.
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Heart - Black

Dead dolphins wrecked on the Romanian seashore

de A.C.
HotNews
Fri, 20 May 2011 18:36 UTC
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Another two dolphins were found dead on the beaches in Mamaia and Vama Veche, South East Romania in the last two days, news agency Agerpres reports. According to the executive director of the eco NGO Oceanic Club in Constanta, in the last two weeks the number of dead dolphins was over 15.

According to the director, just last week his organization was signalled regarding the presence of another 7 dead dolphins on the sea shore.
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Bizarro Earth

Australia: Earthquake Magnitude 4.6 - Western Australia


US Geological Survey
Fri, 20 May 2011 15:49 UTC
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© USGS
Date-Time:
Friday, May 20, 2011 at 20:03:27 UTC

Saturday, May 21, 2011 at 04:03:27 AM at epicenter

Location:
23.412°S, 119.324°E

Depth:
12 km (7.5 miles)

Region:
WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Distances:
1008 km (627 miles) NNE (21°) from Perth, Australia

1779 km (1105 miles) SSW (201°) from DILI, East Timor
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Bizarro Earth

Tropical Storm Eyes Philippines and Japan

Rob Miller
AccuWeather
Fri, 20 May 2011 13:13 UTC
Tropical Storm
© AccuWeather.com
Newly formed Tropical Storm 04W may pose threats for both the northern Philippines and eventually Japan.

As of Friday morning, EDT, the center of Tropical Storm 04W (which had yet to be given a name) was located approximately 200 miles east-southeast of the small island of Yap.

Due to light winds aloft, this storm will move very slowly over the next several days. The center of the storm will pass over or very close to Yap Sunday, EDT.

Early next week, the storm will be over the warm waters of the Philippine Sea, and should be able to strengthen into a typhoon.

The future track of the storm remains quite uncertain through the middle to end of next week. An upper-air trough of low pressure will dive southeastward over southeastern China. This upper-air trough will eventually steer the storm to the northeast.
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Bizarro Earth

Telica Volcano Erupts in Nicaragua


digtriad.com
Fri, 20 May 2011 12:57 UTC
The Telica volcano, in western Nicaragua, is spewing a huge cloud of gas and ash reaching almost one mile into the air this week.

The high peak, which is one the country's most active volcanos, also triggered a series of small earthquakes last week.

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Bizarro Earth

Scotland: Fear For Mass Stranding of Whales on South Uist


BBC
Fri, 20 May 2011 12:14 UTC
Pilot Whales
© BBCRescue team leader Alasdair Jack says some of the whales have serious head injuries.

Marine animal experts are preparing for a potential mass stranding by up to 100 pilot whales in South Uist in the Western Isles.

The whales were spotted in Loch Carnan on Thursday afternoon and about 20 were said to have had cuts to their heads.

It is thought the injuries may have been caused by the whales' attempts to strand themselves on the rocky foreshore of the sea loch.

Sick and injured whales are known to beach themselves to die.

However, at times, dying whales have been followed to shore by healthy animals.

Conservationists have also suggested the whales may have got lost, or entered the loch following prey.

Rescuers said inflatable pontoons for refloating whales were on the way.

The pod had been moving back and forth from the shore and rescuers said the animals were "very vocal", which may be a sign of distress.

The whales, a deep water species, have since moved from the loch back to a nearby bay, where they were seen earlier on Thursday.

Members of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) fear the whales could die in a massive beaching - which could be Scotland's largest stranding.

BDMLR Scottish organiser Alasdair Jack said preventing the mammals from stranding would cause unnecessary suffering and the animals would only move on to another shoreline.
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People

China warns of 'urgent problems' facing Three Gorges dam

Jonathan Watts
Guardian UK
Fri, 20 May 2011 05:35 UTC
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© Agence France-Presse/GettyWater being released from the Three Gorges Dam in central China's Hubei province. The state council has admitted the dam is creating a legacy of major environmental and social problems.
Risk of geological disaster, state cabinet admits, as project is linked to soil erosion, quakes, drought and social upheaval

The Three Gorges dam, the flagship of China's massive hydroengineering ambitions, faces "urgent problems", the government has warned.

In a statement approved by prime minister Wen Jiabao, the state council said the dam had pressing geological, human and ecological problems. The report also acknowledged for the first time the negative impact the dam has had on downstream river transport and water supplies.

Since the start of construction in 1992 about 16m tonnes of concrete have been poured into the giant barrier across the Yangtze river, creating a reservoir that stretches almost the length of Britain and drives 26 giant turbines.
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