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US: Flood Risk Prompts 12,000 Evacuations in Minot, North Dakota


CNN
Tue, 21 Jun 2011 08:03 UTC
Image
© Forum Communications Company
The swollen Souris River flows straight through Minot and is expected to overwhelm area levees.
Authorities have ordered the evacuation of some 12,000 people from the city of Minot, North Dakota, and surrounding areas because of expected record flooding, officials said Tuesday.

The swollen Souris River flows straight through the city and is expected to overwhelm area levees, said Cecily Fong, spokeswoman for the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services. Minot, located in the north central part of the state, is the fourth-largest city in North Dakota.

The evacuation order covers between a quarter and a third of the city's population, Fong said. Residents have until 6 p.m. CT Wednesday to leave their homes.
      Read More...
Cloud Lightning

Hurricane Beatriz Lashes Pacific Resorts in Mexico


BBC News Latin America & Caribbean
Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:36 UTC
Image

Surf's up: Waves whipped up by Beatriz sweep a car out to sea in Acapulco
Hurricane Beatriz has weakened to a tropical storm as it moves away from the east coast of Mexico.

Beatriz had been threatening some of Mexico's most popular resorts and left tourists sheltering in hotels, but all warnings have now been cancelled.

Pacific ports which were closed along the coast are gradually being reopened.

The US National Hurricane Center said winds had fallen to 110km/h (70mph) and were expected to continue weakening over the next two days.

The first Pacific hurricane - Adrian - formed earlier this month, causing no damage, but forecasters predict a busier hurricane season over the Atlantic.

Casualties have been light. One tourist is reported to have been injured by a falling tree in Acapulco.

The Mexican government issued a red alert for areas around the resort city of Manzanillo.

And hurricane warnings were issued along coast from Lazaro Cardenas north to Cabo Corrientes.
      Read More...
Stop

US: A generation of trees disappeared in the great Western Massachusetts tornado

Scott Coen
Mass Live
Tue, 21 Jun 2011 13:36 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Western Massachusetts lost tens of thousands of mature trees in the June 1 tornado.
For the past few weeks we've been bringing you the stories of loss and destruction from the tornado that tore through Western Massachusetts on June 1.

The effects of the tornado will be felt for years to come, but one of its lasting legacies will be the loss of all the mature trees that once dotted the area's landscape.

Those beautiful trees that dotted places like Springfield's Court Square, and Wilbraham Mountain into Monson, took generations to mature, and just minutes to disappear.

"I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree," wrote American poet Joyce Kilmer almost 100 years ago. Chances are he was inspired by trees like the ones that now stand sideways and uprooted over many parts of the Pioneer Valley.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Antarctic Region Hit By Series Of Moderate Earthquakes

Mark Dunphy
Irish Weather Online
Sun, 19 Jun 2011 14:26 UTC
Earthquake Swarm_1
© Irish Weather Online
Drift ice near South Thule, South Sandwich Islands, Antarctica.
A 5.5 magnitude earthquake struck the South Sandwich Islands region, situated around 750km south east of South Georgia, in the South Atlantic early Sunday. It was the latest in a series of quakes to hit the Antarctic Region during the past 24 hours.

The moderate quake struck at 9.37am GMT at a depth of 137km and was centred 69 km (42 miles) NNW of Visokoi Island and 330 km (205 miles) NNW of Bristol Island.

The last significant earthquake to be recorded in the South Sandwich Islands region occurred on 08 December 2010 when a magnitude 6.5 quake struck 85 km (55 miles) ENE of Visokoi Island.

The unpopulated islands consist of a chain of eleven volcanic islands, connected by a low submarine ridge, bending in an arc around 400km long. They are an overseas dependency of the UK, but also claimed by Argentina. The 337km islands lie 750 km (470 miles) south east of South Georgia in the South Atlantic Ocean.

This morning's earthquake was followed by a 4.9 magnitude quake along the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge at 12.05pm. The quake was measured at a depth of 10.3 km (6.4 miles).
      Read More...
Blackbox

What you don't know about the summer solstice

Joe Rao
MSNBC / SPACE.com
Tue, 21 Jun 2011 12:15 UTC
For one thing, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset do not coincide with it

The summer solstice shouldn't come as a surprise. It arrives at pretty much the same time every year. But some of the little-known facts behind and surrounding the solstice are fascinating. First, the basics:
Image
© Starry Night
The seasons are caused by Earth's tilt. In the Northern Hemisphere it is summer when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the sun.

Summer in the Northern Hemisphere will officially arrive on Tuesday at 1:16 p.m. EDT: the June solstice. At the same time, winter officially begins for the Southern Hemisphere.

At that moment, the sun will reach the point where it is farthest north of the celestial equator. To be more precise, when the summer solstice occurs, the sun will appear to be shining directly overhead at a point on the Tropic of Cancer (latitude 23.5 degrees north) in the Great Bahama Bank, roughly halfway between Andros Island and central Cuba.
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Bizarro Earth

Happy Feet? Emperor penguin found far from Antarctic home

Nick Perry
MSNBC / Associated Press
Tue, 21 Jun 2011 11:44 UTC
A young Emperor penguin took a rare wrong turn from the Antarctic and ended up stranded on a New Zealand beach - the first time in 44 years the aquatic bird has been sighted in the wild in the South Pacific country.
Image
© Richard Gill / AP
This Emperor penguin got lost while hunting for food and ended up stranded on Peka Peka Beach in New Zealand on Monday.

Local resident Christine Wilton was taking her miniature Schnauzer dog Millie for a walk on Peka Peka Beach on the North Island's western coast when she discovered the bird Monday evening.

"It was out-of-this-world to see it ... like someone just dropped it from the sky," Wilton said. "It looked like Happy Feet - it was totally in the wrong place," Wilton said, referring to the 2006 animated musical featuring a young penguin who finds himself far from home.

Conservation experts say the penguin is about 10 months old and stands about 32 inches high. Colin Miskelly, a curator at Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand, said the bird was likely born during the last Antarctic winter. It may have been searching for squid and krill when it took a wrong turn.
      Read More...
Sun

Sunspot Complex 1236 C7-Class Solar Flare Heading This Way


Space Weather
Tue, 21 Jun 2011 08:36 UTC
Magnetic fields above sunspot complex 1236 erupted during the early hours of June 21st, producing a C7-class solar flare and a full-halo CME. The expanding cloud appears to be heading almost directly toward Earth:

      Read More...
Alarm Clock

India - Cracks in Uttar Pradesh plains need monitoring, warns scientist


Indiatoday.intoday.in
Sat, 18 Jun 2011 07:41 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Long widespread cracks observed in several places in the Indo-Gangetic plains could be due to motion of a massive granitic body underneath, an Indian scientist in the United States has cautioned.

"It is my sincere appeal to the government of India to monitor seismic activities in the area before any major disaster takes place," Ramesh Singh, who had extensively studied the seismology in that region, said in a statement as concern mounted over cracks being formed in several districts of Uttar Pradesh.

"If the orientations of such long cracks are in the east-west direction, then the cracks could be due to stress on the surface of the earth due to motion of this massive craton (granitic body) which is exposed near Jhansi," Singh said.

Singh, who was a senior professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT-K), is now professor at George Mason University in Washington and vice chair of GeoRisk Commission of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics.

He said this massive body underlying the region is inclined towards northeast with depth reaching 300-500 m near Kanpur and 1,200 m in Lucknow. He said he and his colleagues at IIT-K had studied the configuration of this craton in 1990 using magnetotelluric method.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

US: Geologists - Volcanic Eruption Near San Diego County Possible


10News
Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:34 UTC
San Diego -- Comments from the U.S. Geological Survey are sparking questions about a potential volcanic eruption in Imperial Valley that could bring clouds of ash to San Diego County.

"Most definitely... Volcanic activity is possible," said geologist Pat Abbott.

Abbott was part of a research group that collected footage of muddy pits and volcanic gasses about 100 miles east on the southern end of the Salton Sea. The area is the home of four buttes that are several hundred feet tall.

The buttes are small volcanoes with an explosive past. Miles below them is a pool of magma that is 15 miles wide. About 8,000 years ago, the buttes erupted, causing magma to flow which cooled into obsidian rock.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Santa Cruz Islands - Earthquake Magnitude 6.1


USGS
Mon, 20 Jun 2011 22:26 UTC
Santa Cruz Quake_210611
© USGS
Earthquake location.
Date-Time:
Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 02:04:15 UTC

Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 01:04:15 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
11.510°S, 165.548°E

Depth:
13.5 km (8.4 miles)

Region:
SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS

Distances:
93 km (57 miles) SSW of Lata, Santa Cruz Islands, Solomon Isl.

414 km (257 miles) ESE of Kira Kira, San Cristobal, Solomon Isl.

654 km (406 miles) ESE of HONIARA, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands

2202 km (1368 miles) NE of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia
      Read More...
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