Earth Changes

One of the strongest storms in two decades hits Mexico City

Mexico City News
Tue, 30 May 2017 06:44 UTC

The rain that fell late Monday night was one of the six strongest in the last two decades in Mexico City, the capital's government said.

"Rainfall reached 98.5 mm and has only been exceeded 5 times in recent years," the authorities said in a statement.

Previous recordings: 119 mm in the Cuauhtemoc delegation in 2005; 118 mm in Huayatla, Magdalena Contreras, on August 10, 2006; 117.5 mm in Cuajimalpa in 2000; 117 mm in Cuajimalpa in July 2015 and 100 mm in Miguel Hidalgo in September 2015.

"There were 41 colonies with the greatest impact, mainly in the Tlalpan, Xochimilco, Coyoacán and Álvaro Obregón delegations," they added.

Emergency services received 800 reports from the people asking for flood help and other types of damage through 9-1-1 services.

Today, a broad storm system is forecast to be very strong and intense, accompanied by lightening, hailstorms and wind gusts during storms in southern, central, northern and eastern entities of the national territory, according to the Meteorological Service National (SMN).

The agency detailed that intense storms are anticipated in localities of Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo, Veracruz, Puebla and Oaxaca; Heavy storms in areas of Coahuila, Nuevo León, Querétaro, Estado de México, Mexico City, Morelos and Guerrero, and strong storms in regions of Chihuahua, Durango, Guanajuato, Tlaxcala, Michoacán and Chiapas.

Dreaded white-nose syndrome confirmed in Alabama bat species for first time

Dennis Pillian
AL.com
Wed, 31 May 2017 17:50 UTC

© Dottie Brown, Ecological Solutions, Inc. via USGS
This southeastern bat from Shelby County, Alabama shows signs of infection from the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome. The USGS National Wildlife Health Center later confirmed white-nose syndrome in this animal.

The dreaded white-nose syndrome, which has devastated populations of several species of bats in the United States and Canada, has been confirmed for the first time in a species called the southeastern bat, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The infected southeastern bat was found in a cave in Shelby County, and is the first member of its species (Myotis austroriparius) confirmed to have white-nose syndrome and the first infected bat of any species found in Shelby County. A USGS lab confirmed the test results this week.

White-nose is caused by a fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans or Pd, and spreads easily among hibernating bats in winter. The disease causes a distinctive white fungus to appear on infected bats, often around the muzzle. Infected bats often display unusual behavior, sometimes flying outside during daylight hours or clustering near the entrances of their caves in winter.

Imminent birth of vast iceberg threatens to 'fundamentally change' Antarctic Peninsula

RT
Thu, 01 Jun 2017 20:03 UTC

The massive crack in the Antarctic's Larsen C Ice Shelf - one of the continent's biggest floating ice platforms - is growing at such a dramatic rate that it will soon break free and create one of the largest icebergs ever recorded.

Project MIDAS researchers, a group of scientists from Welsh universities in Swansea and Aberystwyth charged with studying the shelf using EU satellites, released an update on Wednesday. It showed that the crack had grown an additional 17km (10.5 miles) between May 25 and May 31.

Woman in her 90s dies following attack by pit bull terrier in Virginia Beach

Mike Connors
The Virginian-Pilot
Thu, 01 Jun 2017 19:26 UTC

An elderly woman died Thursday after being attacked by a dog.

Shortly after 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, officers joined animal enforcement after receiving a report of an attack in the Pembroke Manor neighborhood, police said in a news release. They found a woman suffering from severe bites and lacerations.

The woman, who police said was in her 90s, was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. She died this morning. Police said that out of respect for the family's wishes, the victim's identity will not be revealed.

Police said a 50-pound, 1-year-old American pit bull terrier attacked the woman while she was lying on the floor after a fall. The dog is currently in quarantine at the Virginia Beach Animal Care and Adoption Center.

Three earthquakes in 5 minutes reported at Bárðarbunga volcano in Iceland

Iceland Monitor
Thu, 01 Jun 2017 19:17 UTC

Bárðarbunga is a stratovolcano located under Vatnajökull, Iceland's largest glacier.

This morning, three earthquakes over the magnitude of 3 occurred in Bárðarbunga at a five minute interval.

All occurred in the northern part of the caldera, the first at 9:49, the second at 9:53 and the third at 9:54. This is reported by the Iceland Met Office.

Last week, nearly 600 earthquakes were measured in Iceland which is similar to the preceeding week. Only six of them exceeded the magnitude of 3, the largest occurring on May 27th in Bárðarbunga.

Iceland Met Office link for current earthquake graphs

At least 10 killed and 27 injured by lightning strikes across Bangladesh

Dhaka Tribune
Thu, 01 Jun 2017 19:04 UTC

At least 10 people were killed and over 27 others injured in separate incidents of lightning strikes in Brahmanbaria, Barisal, Feni and Habiganj districts during the rain Thursday.

Brahmanbaria's Nasirnagar police station Officer-in-Charge Abu Zafar said that lightning struck some fishermen as they were catching fish in Balikhola Haor of Bholakut union around 11pm.

Among the injured, Monju Mian, 54, Shahid Mian, 32, and Janu Mian, 30, all hailing from Balikhola village, died on the spot.

Scientists: Humans bringing about sixth mass extinction of life on Earth

Ian Johnston
The Independent
Thu, 01 Jun 2017 17:07 UTC

© Ulises Rodriguez/Reuters
A two-month-old Bengali tiger cub in an animal refuge in El Salvador; the species is considered to be endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature

Humans are bringing about the sixth mass extinction of life on Earth, according to scientists writing in a special edition of the leading journal Nature.

Mammals, birds and amphibians are currently becoming extinct at rates comparable to the previous five mass extinctions when "cataclysmic forces" - such as massive meteorite strikes and supervolcano explosions - wiped out vast swathes of life, including the dinosaurs.

The growing human population - which has increased by 130 per cent in the last 50 years and is set to rise to more than 10 billion by 2060 - and our increasing demand for resources as we become wealthier is ramping up the pressure on the natural world.

Tens of thousands of species - including 25 per cent of all mammals and 13 per cent of birds - are now threatened with extinction because of over-hunting, poaching, pollution, loss of habitat, the arrival of invasive species, and other human-caused problems.

A Holocene Temperature Reconstruction Part 1: the Antarctic

Andy May
Watts Up With That?
Thu, 01 Jun 2017 16:36 UTC

global temperature anomaly from the 1961-1990

The only recent attempt at a global Holocene temperature reconstruction available today is the one by Marcott, et al. (2013), the paper abstract can be viewed here. His reconstruction is shown in figure 1.

The Y axis is a reconstructed global temperature anomaly from the 1961-1990 mean. "Years BP" are years before 1950. This reconstruction shows a fairly flat Holocene Climatic Optimum (or HCO, also called the Holocene Thermal Optimum, see description here) temperature anomaly of +0.4Â°C from 9500 BP to 5000 BP, declining to a low of -0.4Â°C about 300 BP (1650 AD) in the Little Ice Age (LIA). This 0.8Â°C difference between the HCO and the LIA is smaller than the generally accepted difference of 1Â°C to 1.5Â°C.

This is documented in some detail by Javier here. The higher accepted difference is clear in glacial records as shown by Koch, et al., 2014 (link). It can also be seen in the biosphere as shown by Kullman 2001 (link); Pisaric et al. 2003 (link); MacDonald et al. 2000 (link); Tinner, et al. 1996 (link) and Thouret et al. 1996 (link)). Further, the marine biosphere also shows a larger temperature difference as seen in Werne et al., 2000 (link) and Rosenthal et al., 2013 (link).

Massive landslide engulfing California Highway 1 added 13 acres to the coastline

Los Angeles Times
Thu, 01 Jun 2017 05:45 UTC

A massive landslide that engulfed Central California's Highway 1 has added 13 acres to the coastline.

Based on new aerial photographs, the May 20 slide in Big Sur created a bulge of land the size of 10 football fields, the East Bay Times reported Wednesday.

After a series of winter storms, more than 1 million tons of rock and earth slipped down a saturated slope in the Mud Creek area.

A quarter-mile of Highway 1 was covered by as much as 80 feet of stone and soil at its deepest point, Jonathan Warrick said. He is a U.S. Geological Survey research geologist who is leading a project to photograph the coast.

An earthquake in the Arctic Circle?

David Jacobson
Temblor
Wed, 31 May 2017 16:26 UTC

This Temblor map shows the Global Earthquake Activity Rate (GEAR) model for Svalbard in the Arctic Circle. This map shows that today’s M=5.0 earthquake (magnitude from the USGS) should not be considered surprising and that the region could experience larger quakes.

At 3:59 p.m. local time, a M=5.0 earthquake shook the island of Spitsbergen, the largest island in the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Circle. According to the USGS, the quake occurred at a depth of 7.7 km, and was centered 133 km from Longyearbyen, the archipelago's largest settlement, which is home to a little over 2,000 people. This M=5.0 quake was preceded several hours earlier by a M=3.0. While very few people likely felt this earthquake, it highlights a lesser-known area, and the idea that seemingly inactive faults can rupture in earthquakes.

The Svalbard archipelago represents an uplifted portion of the Barents Sea, which separates Svalbard from Northern Europe. To the west of the archipelago is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, and the Spitsbergen Fracture Zone, a divergent plate boundary between the North American and Eurasian plates. Much of the seismicity in this part of the Arctic Ocean occurs on or near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which has a spreading rate of approximately 2.5 cm/yr (1 inch). However, by examining the historical seismicity of the island of Spitsbergen and the rest of Svalbard, it is clear that this remote archipelago is no stranger to earthquakes.

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Earth Changes

One of the strongest storms in two decades hits Mexico City

Dreaded white-nose syndrome confirmed in Alabama bat species for first time

Imminent birth of vast iceberg threatens to 'fundamentally change' Antarctic Peninsula

Woman in her 90s dies following attack by pit bull terrier in Virginia Beach

Three earthquakes in 5 minutes reported at Bárðarbunga volcano in Iceland

At least 10 killed and 27 injured by lightning strikes across Bangladesh

Scientists: Humans bringing about sixth mass extinction of life on Earth

A Holocene Temperature Reconstruction Part 1: the Antarctic

Massive landslide engulfing California Highway 1 added 13 acres to the coastline

An earthquake in the Arctic Circle?

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