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Hundreds of volcanoes in the deep sea around Norway found


tnp.no
Fri, 02 Aug 2013 14:50 UTC
Researchers at the University of Bergen (UiB) has discovered hundreds of volcanoes in the deep sea around Norway. The area may be Norway's new National Park or billion-profit generating region.

Image
© Center for Geobiology, UiB
The unique findings were discovered in Norwegian waters along a 1500 km long volcanic mountain range, which stretches from Jan Mayen to the Fram Strait between Svalbard and Greenland.

- Prior to this white spots on the map, we knew nothing about what was there. But using technological tools we have been able to map the ocean floor. The last volcano was found a few weeks ago and is just 20 meters below sea level, - says Rolf Birger Pedersen, professor at the Centre for Geobiology (UiB).

By discovering Loki's Castle, as the area is called, now researchers from UiB can observe unknown volcanic underwater world toogether with hundreds of undersea volcanoes and various heat sources.

There is not only a totally unique wildlife, but also rich metal deposits. Each field has an estimated value of 1-3 billion NOK. How much economic value they may have in the future is too early to say. The environmental and legal aspects are important issues.

Iron, zinc and copper are just some of the metal deposits that exist, but the unique microorganisms will also be an important step in bioprospecting. That searching for valuable biological and active components from marine organism, which can be used for research and development of new medicines.
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Arrow Up

U.S.: Paying ten percent more for food by fall?


newsfixnow.com
Fri, 02 Aug 2013 14:14 UTC
Floods and drought may mean higher food prices

Image
Dallas, TX - Expect to shell out more lettuce on fruits and veggies.

Yeah, thanks to Mother Nature, we may be paying ten percent more by fall.

In North Carolina, rain is the problem, lots of rain, which means flooded fields washing away all sorts of crops from corn to tobacco.

In Iowa, the problem is lack of rain. Dry weather there means the corn crop won't get the water it needs as we go into the pollination season, and the delay in planting puts the crop at an even bigger disadvantage.

Drought and record high temperatures hit farmers in the west, particularly rice farmers here in southeast Texas.

And the record heat could mean another spike in dairy prices pretty soon. Cows don't like really hot temperatures, so dairy farmers have to spend extra money keeping their cattle cool.

Last year, Michigan had to import apples because warm weather triggered early apple blossoms that died off in a prolonged cold spell. But growers expect a good harvest this year, which is good news for apple lovers.

Heavy rains and floods are washing away entire corn fields in northeast China.

But heat is the problem in other parts of the country. Longjing tea plants are withering in their fields because of prolonged scorching temperatures.
      Read More...
Arrow Down

Rising food prices: Frost damages nearly a fifth of Brazil's sugar cane crop

Reese Ewing
newsdaily.com
Fri, 02 Aug 2013 03:26 UTC
Image
Sao Paulo - Last week's frosts in southern Brazil damaged nearly a fifth of the unharvested cane crop in the principal growing region, an event likely to cut sugar exports from the world's largest producer, agriculture research company Datagro said Wednesday.

Severe early morning frosts on July 24 and 25 in three of Brazil's top sugar-cane states devastated large areas, Datagro President Plinio Nastari told Reuters. The cold blight comes at the peak the crushing season when more than half of Brazil's expected record 590-million-tonne crop remains unharvested.

Although Nastari was unable to say how much mill-output will drop or reduce a global sugar glut that has pushed prices to three-year lows, he said 65 million metric tons, or 18 percent of the cane standing uncut in fields was damaged by the frost.

Frost in tropical Brazil has long been a weather risk for global coffee markets. This frost, though, is the first in recent history that threatens to significantly cut sugar output and it's impact will likely extend into the next harvest too.
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Bizarro Earth

The mystery of the highway in the sky: Sunbeams, clouds and strange shadows caused atmospheric phenomenon in China

Sarah Griffiths
ColoradoNewsday
Thu, 01 Aug 2013 10:33 UTC
When a strange 'highway' was spotted in the skies in China, few people knew what had caused the unusual astronomical phenomenon.

After investigating, meteorological experts think the bizarre pathway was created by a combination of sunbeams 'cast from over the horizon,' clouds high in the sky and shadows.

The striking photos of the unusual astronomical phenomena were spotted in the sky above Boao Town of Qionghai City in Hainan Province, South China.
Phenomenon_1
© Caters New Agency
An unusual astronomical phenomena above the sky in Boao Town of Qionghai City, Hainan Province in South China. Few people knew what had caused the unusual astronomical phenomenon.
Mark Selzer, forecaster at the Met Office, told MailOnline: 'It's hard to be completely sure from a picture, but it's likely this [sight] is due to a phenomenon known as crepuscular rays - or sunbeams - being cast from over the horizon.

Comment: Just to clarify, these are atmospheric phenomena, not astronomical.

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Bizarro Earth

Yellowstone's Steamboat geyser sees rare eruption

Matthew Brown
Beaumont Enterprise
Thu, 01 Aug 2013 15:20 UTC
Steamboat Geyser
© Robb Long
Steamboat Geyser, in Yellowstone National Park's Norris Geyser Basin in Wyoming, erupts on Wednesday, July 31, 2013. Steamboat Geyser — the world's tallest — has erupted for the first time in more than eight years. Park geologist Hank Heasler says Wednesday night's nine-minute blast sent steaming hot water an estimated 200 to 300 feet in the air.
Billings, Montana - Old Faithful it's not. Yellowstone National Park's Steamboat Geyser - the world's tallest - has erupted for the first time in more than eight years.

The nine-minute blast sent steaming hot water an estimated 200 to 300 feet in the air, park geologist Hank Heasler said Thursday.

Unlike the park's popular and famous Old Faithful geyser, which spews water like clockwork every hour-and-a-half, no one knows when Steamboat will erupt next.

In the past, it's gone as long as 50 years without a major event. In 1964, it erupted a record 29 times. The last blast came in 2005.

Steamboat is one of more than 500 geysers at Yellowstone, which boasts the largest collection of hydrothermal features in the world.
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Bizarro Earth

Dead dolphins washing up on Virginia beaches at an alarming rate

Todd Corillo
WTKR.com
Thu, 01 Aug 2013 20:39 UTC

Virginia Beach. - Dead dolphins washed up on beaches in Virginia at an alarming rate in July.

Mark Swingle, Director of Research and Conservation at the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center says the Virginia Aquarium Stranding Response Team has responded to 82 bottle-nosed dolphin strandings in 2013, with 44 of those happening in the month of July.

"An average year for us is about 65 dolphin stranding for the whole year, so we are quite far ahead of that pace," Swingle explained. "If you go back 10 years, the average number of dolphins in a July would be about 6 or 7."
      Read More...
Igloo

Minnesota - July cold breaks 102-year-old record

Debra Fitzgerald
PipestoneStar
Wed, 31 Jul 2013 19:18 UTC
Cold Snap
© Mavis Fodness
Shown is tractor driver Sharla Drew instructing Trisha Jessen (left) and Ryley Gorter on how to maneuver the baler down the raked alfalfa rows south of Pipestone. On the hay rack, Matt Jessen shows 9-year-old Brandon Gorter how to stack the small squares.
Sweatshirts aren't the usual attire for baling hay, but a cold snap made the job more pleasant last week as this group made a second cutting for Gary Gorter.

Weekend temperatures in Pipestone plummeted to lows not seen for 102 years as a cold air mass from northern Canada slipped down into the region.

Temperatures of 39 degree and 38 degrees were recorded in Pipestone on Saturday morning, July 27 and Sunday morning, July 28 respectively, according to Mike Gillispie, National Weather Service meteorologist out of Sioux Falls, S.D.

The lows broke the record of 42 degrees set in 1911.
      Read More...
Evil Rays

Windsor's mysterious hum is real, says researcher


CBC News
Thu, 01 Aug 2013 16:33 UTC
Image
© CBC News
Ottawa is funding research of the mysterious Windsor Hum.
Colin Novak has hunch about where hum is originating, but won't reveal location until fall.

A University of Windsor professor studying the Windsor Hum is convinced it's real.

Colin Novak set up a state-of-the-art, $250,000 recording station in a woodlot in the western part of the Ontario city in February. It's a virtual ear, tuned to record the hum 24/7.

Novak and a group of fellow scientists and researchers from the University of Windsor and London's University of Western Ontario received federal funding to study the mysterious noise.

When the sound he's looking for rises above a certain level it's registered on the equipment and Novak gets an email.

He said for the last month or so, his inbox has been full.

"Some of the evenings, we may get 30 or 40 emails in a given night, mostly between midnight and about 3:30 a.m.," Novak said.

That's enough to convince him the hum is real.

"We're in a pretty remote area in the night time. There's some construction activity happening right now, but at night, there's not too much out here.... when we're getting levels as high as we are, there's definitely some activity," he said.
      Read More...
Question

Mysterious crow deaths perplex experts

Danielle Pope
Victoria News
Thu, 01 Aug 2013 15:36 UTC
Image
© Don Denton
Two crows rest on a rock near the Oak Bay Marina. A mysterious paralysis killing corvids (ravens and crows) in northern B.C. has some concerned about West Nile Virus closer to home.
A strange paralysis could be affecting crows closer to home.

A mysterious paralysis has been killing crows and ravens in northern B.C., and now some Islanders are concerned the unusual deaths could be much closer to home.

"I have noticed several dead crows on the sidewalk over the past few days," said Vancouver Island Oak Bay resident Bill Smith in a letter to the News, noting that some crows were seen struggling to walk. "I decided to Google 'dead crows' and was quite surprised what I found ... Let's hope this is not the start of a serious problem."

Scientists at the University of B.C. and residents have murmured concerns that the northern birds could be showing indications of West Nile Virus, especially as the corvids are most susceptible and often act as an early warning system. However, B.C. has not had any reports of West Nile in humans since 2010, and the province does regular testing of the mosquitoes in different regions of B.C.

Oak Bay manager of parks Chris Hyde-Lay said the district has had no official reports of dead crows this year. However, birds are typically disposed of and are not sent for testing.

Leona Green, who runs the Hillspring Wildlife Rehabilitation facility in Dawson Creek and received calls about the unusual dying corvids, says she has had dozens of reports of the paralyzed or dead birds since the end of May. While, at first, she had been instructing people to safely dispose of the birds, the increased calls in the past two weeks surprised her.
      Read More...
Map

25-meter diameter sinkhole opens up in New Zealand

Fritha Tagg
The New Zealand Herald
Thu, 01 Aug 2013 16:18 UTC
New Zealand sinkhole
© APN
A sinkhole has appeared on the eastern wall of the backfilled Golden Cross open pit
A 'sinkhole' has opened up near 'old underground workings' at the moth-balled Golden Cross mine.

It is about 25m across, with slumped material falling into the quite large hole and is situated on the eastern wall of the previously backfilled Golden Cross open pit.

Hauraki District Council strategic planning project manager Mark Buttimore said the hole was first noticed in early June when a helicopter crew flew over the area doing unrelated work. They contacted Coeur Gold about the sinkhole.

Mr Buttimore said council had a meeting at the site of the slump with Environment Waikato and New Zealand engineering firm Tonkin & Taylor (working for Coeur Gold).

"Tonkin & Taylor are monitoring the area, they have monitoring points near the slump which appears to be above old underground stopes which might not have been completely filled when Coeur finished its mining at Golden Cross," Mr Buttimore said.
      Read More...
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