Earth ChangesS


Cow Skull

More Than 1 Million Feral Camels are taking Over the Australian Outback

Michael Graham Richard
Treehugger
Thu, 19 May 2011 10:29 UTC
Image
© Obliot, Flickr, CC
Not Your Typical Invasive Species

Single-humped dromedary camels were brought to Australia mainly from India in the 19th century. They transported people and equipment in the outback, but when rail and roads came, the camels were let loose, "creating the world's only population of wild camels". It is now estimated that more than 1 million camels are spread over 3.3 million square kilometers (±1.3 million square miles), and they are causing a lot of damage to the local ecosystems.
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Bizarro Earth

U.S.: Dead sharks found in Redwood Shores were suffering from internal bleeding, necropsy shows

Bonnie Eslinger
Inside Bay Area
Thu, 12 May 2011 09:47 UTC
dead, leopard,shark
© CBSA dead leopard shark found near the Redwood City Lagoon

Officials have completed a necropsy on one of the dozens of leopard sharks found dead in Redwood Shores last month but aren't any closer to pinpointing the cause of the sudden die-off.

The necropsy performed by a California Department of Fish and Game pathologist found "inflammation, bleeding, and lesions in the brain, and hemorrhaging from the skin near vents." Bleeding was also detected around the female shark's internal organs.

Additional tests, such as a bacterial study and microscopic tissue analysis, may provide an answer, according to a statement released by Redwood City. Results could be available by the end of the week.
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Bizarro Earth

Seismic Shift? As Bahamas Sink, One Island Mysteriously Rises

Charles Q. Choi
OurAmazingPlanet
Tue, 17 May 2011 06:31 UTC
The Bahamas.
© NASA Earth ObservatoryThe Bahamas.

All the islands in the Bahamas were thought to be slowly sinking, but now scientists find one quirky isle going against the crowd.

This anomaly suggests the area may be less seismically stable than previously thought.

Scientists focused on the small island of Mayaguana in the southeast Bahamas, which measures about 33 by 7 miles (53 by 12 kilometers). They noticed shallow banks of rocks called marine carbonates above ground that are usually present dozens of feet below the surface on the other Bahamian islands. These deposits are about 39 feet (12 meters) thick, span more than 17 million years of geologic history, and are only found on the isle's northern coast.

The unusual placement on these rocks gave researchers insights into the tectonic processes going on below the Caribbean.

"It took us about three years to process all the data and come up with a coherent story," said researcher Pascal Kindler, a geologist at the University of Geneva in Switzerland.
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Heart - Black

US: A Stroll on a Gulf Beach Yields a Dolphin Disposal

Rocky Kistner
Huffington Post
Wed, 18 May 2011 20:51 UTC
Image

Laurel Lockamy has seen her share of dead sea life washing up on the beaches of Mississippi. Like a few other residents, she's toted her camera along wherever she goes, documenting the dolphins, sea turtles, red fish and plethora of dead birds that seem to be washing in unusually high numbers.

That isn't stopping Gulf businesses from hoping for a better year than last, when beaches were soaked in oil and tourism vanished with the black tide. Now there are signs business is rebounding. Tourist industries in Florida panhandle report better than expected traffic this year. Some in Congress in fact are pushing for increased drilling in the Gulf, with fewer safety and environmental reviews of the process. It seems some lawmakers have short memories.

But not all is well in the Gulf. High numbers of endangered sea turtles and dolphins have washed into the beaches, although the number of fatalities is declining. Scientists still don't know what has caused this spike in deaths.


Comment: The scientists may claim they don't know what's caused the spike in deaths, but we think it's pretty obvious to everyone else. The BP oil spill is the greatest environmental disaster of its kind in our history. BP dumped two million gallons of toxic oil dispersants in the Gulf, and marine life continues to perish.


Comment: They will never say for sure because they are either paid by BP, or silenced by government agencies.

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Cloud Lightning

US: Colorado - Latest storm to bring even more rain, mountain snow

Joey Bunch
The Denver Post
Wed, 18 May 2011 15:56 UTC
A strong Pacific storm system will bring rain and snow to the mountains and showers to the Front Range Wednesday, the National Weather Service said tonight.

In the high country, winter-like weather and flood advisories could linger through Saturday, and a winter weather advisory is in effect for parts of southern Colorado above 10,000 feet until 6 a.m. Friday. Those areas could see an additional 10 inches of snow atop and already record snowpack.

Areas above 9,000 feet elevation could see 3 to 6 inches of new snow Wednesday, forecasters said.

The Denver metro area has a 60 percent chance of rain and thunderstorms Wednesday afternoon and an 80 percent chance of showers in the evening, forecasters said.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Records for rain, cold temperatures are broken in Southern California; new storm moving in


LA Now
Wed, 18 May 2011 15:53 UTC
Image
© Unknown
It's another wet morning Wednesday in Southern California, which has set new records for rain and cold in recent days.

The National Weather Service predicts a 40% chance of showers Wednesday morning, giving way to cloudy skies.

Daily records for temperature and rainfall totals were tied and broken Tuesday as a storm system hit Southern California.

The low temperature at UCLA was 49 degrees, tying a record set in 1962, according the National Weather Service.

A record-rainfall total for the day was set at Los Angeles International Airport. Tuesday's 0.23 inches of rain at LAX eclipsed a record of 0.12 inches that had stood since 1949, the Weather Service said.
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Info

Atmosphere Above Japan Heated Rapidly Before M9 Earthquake


technology review
Wed, 18 May 2011 15:20 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Infrared emissions above the epicenter increased dramatically in the days before the devastating earthquake in Japan, say scientists.

Geologists have long puzzled over anecdotal reports of strange atmospheric phenomena in the days before big earthquakes. But good data to back up these stories has been hard to come by.

In recent years, however, various teams have set up atmospheric monitoring stations in earthquake zones and a number of satellites are capable of sending back data about the state of the upper atmosphere and the ionosphere during an earthquake.
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Igloo

Antarctic: Iron-laden Icebergs Fertilize Ocean

Janet Raloff
Discovery News
Wed, 18 May 2011 15:10 UTC
Iceburg
© Debbie Nail Meyer © 2009 MBARIA remotely operated vehicle (ROV) takes the plunge to scout an iceberg.
Efforts to remove climate-warming carbon dioxide from Earth's atmosphere appear to be getting a helping hand from a surprising source: the iron in meltwater from Antarctic icebergs.

Icebergs calving off of Antarctica are shedding substantial iron - the equivalent of a growth-boosting vitamin - into waters starved of the mineral, a new set of studies demonstrates. This iron is fertilizing the growth of microscopic plants and algae, transforming the waters adjacent to ice floes into teeming communities of everything from tiny shrimplike krill to fish, birds and sometimes mammals.
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Bad Guys

Clipping wings when volcanoes erupt


CORDIS
Wed, 18 May 2011 12:21 UTC
Image
© Shutterstock
Air transport officials launched a no-fly zone when Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano reared its ugly head last year. But was the move justified? Flying through an ash cloud would have been a dangerous maneuver, if not deadly. This is where a team of researchers comes in.

Scientists from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and the University of Iceland have created a protocol to give traffic authorities the help they need to quickly determine if planes should be grounded when ash threatens airspace safety. The results of the study are presented in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).

Researchers say volcanic ash could put planes, and the lives of passengers, in grave danger, particularly if particles are small enough to travel high and far. These particles could sandblast the bodies and windows of airplanes, and they could even melt inside jet engines.

Red flags went up when ash from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption materialized. The researchers say officials were right to ground all airplanes in April 2010. For her part, Professor Susan Stipp from the Nano-Science Center of the University of Copenhagen says the team's latest method to quickly evaluate future ash is a key development.
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Cloud Lightning

US: Heavy rainfall may be linked to sharks' deaths

Kelly Zito
San Francisco Chronicle
Wed, 18 May 2011 14:36 UTC
shark
© Rosemary La PumaHundreds of leopard sharks have been found dead or dying around the bay, including this one at Swede's Beach in Sausalito.
This winter's heavy rains - beneficial to so many species - may, in fact, be diluting saltwater in San Francisco Bay so dramatically that leopard sharks are dying in the very spots where they prefer to give birth and search for food, scientists said Tuesday.

State biologists investigating a rash of leopard shark casualties around the region over the past month think the torrents of freshwater flowing into shoreline lagoons may be throwing the body chemistry of the fish fatally off balance.
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