Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Tonga: Earthquake Magnitude 6.0 - 3th Nov 10

Tonga Quake_031110
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Wednesday, November 03, 2010 at 23:34:44 UTC

Thursday, November 04, 2010 at 12:34:44 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
20.440°S, 174.290°W

Depth:
33.2 km (20.6 miles)

Region:
TONGA

Distances:
120 km (75 miles) NE of NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga

200 km (125 miles) S of Neiafu, Tonga

460 km (285 miles) E of Ndoi Island, Fiji

2100 km (1310 miles) NNE of Auckland, New Zealand

Radar

Indonesia volcano shoots new blast; 21 more rumble

Image
© ReutersMount Merapi volcano spews smoke as seen from Deles village in Klaten, near the ancient city of Yogyakarta.
Mount Merapi, Indonesia - Deafening explosions of hot gas rattled evacuees miles (kilometers) from an Indonesian volcano Monday, the latest eruption in a deadly week. The country reported increased rumblings at 21 other active volcanoes, raising questions about what's causing the uptick along some of the world's most volatile fault lines.

No casualties were reported in Mount Merapi's new blast, which came as Indonesia struggles to respond to an earthquake-generated tsunami that devastated a remote chain of islands. The two disasters unfolding on opposite ends of the country have killed nearly 500 people and strained the government's emergency response network. In both events, the military has been called in to help.

Snowman

Australia: Adelaide's Coldest October in Seven Years

Despite below average rain Adelaide had it's wettest October in five years, it was also the coldest in seven years, according to weatherzone.com.au.

The city only managed 28mm, 17mm short of the monthly average, but still wetter than any of the previous four Octobers.

A large area covering South Australia's Central and South East districts had a similar month, wetter than any of the last four Octobers but still drier than average. Coonawarra failed to reach half their monthly average of 47mm, only gaining 20mm.

Bizarro Earth

Indonesia: Earthquake Magnitude 6.0 - Near the South Coast of Papua

Papua Quake_031110
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Wednesday, November 03, 2010 at 11:18:16 UTC

Wednesday, November 03, 2010 at 08:18:16 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
4.614°S, 134.040°E

Depth:
14.8 km (9.2 miles) set by location program

Region:
NEAR THE SOUTH COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA

Distances:
130 km (80 miles) N of Dobo, Kepulauan Aru, Indonesia

270 km (170 miles) WSW of Enarotali, Papua, Indonesia

930 km (580 miles) NNE of DARWIN, Northern Territory, Australia

3015 km (1870 miles) E of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia

Bizarro Earth

Deadly earthquake shakes Serbia

Image
© AFPEmergency workers have been deployed to clear the rubble left by the earthquake
A 5.4-magnitude earthquake has struck central Serbia, killing two people and leaving at least 50 others injured, officials said.

The European Mediterranean Seismological Centre said the tremor struck near the city of Kraljevo, which lies around 150km south of the capital Belgrade, in the early hours of Wednesday.

A couple reported to be in their 50s were killed when their roof collapsed during the quake.

Ivica Dacic, the country's interior minister said "material damage to the area is big" and that emergency teams and police had been deployed for rescue operations.

"The most important thing is that people calm down, that there is no panic and that the city authorities function," he said.

Electricity and other services have been cut in the city, which has a population of 70,000 people, while witnesses reported damage to buildings, including the local hospital.

Bizarro Earth

Huge Volcanic Blast Spurs More Indonesians to Flee

Mount Merapi Eruption
© Trisnadi/AP Mount Merapi spews volcanic material as it erupts.
Indonesia's deadly volcano erupted Wednesday with its biggest blast yet, shooting searing ash miles into the sky and forcing hasty new evacuations of panicked people from villages and emergency shelters.

Soldiers loaded men, women and crying children into trucks as rocks and debris hurled in the air and down the mountain's slopes. No new casualties were reported immediately after the booming explosion that lasted more than an hour.

"This is an extraordinary eruption, triple from the first" on Oct. 26, said Surono, a state volcanologist.

Cloud Lightning

India: Andhra faces cyclone threat, 20 killed in rains

Andhra Pradesh is facing the threat of a cyclonic storm while heavy rains in the coastal region have claimed 20 lives and damaged crops in over 100,000 hectares, officials said Tuesday.

Nearly 400,000 people were affected, dozens of villages and residential areas in several towns remained inundated as rains under the influence of a trough of low pressure over Bay of Bengal and vigorous northeast monsoon caused havoc in north and south coastal districts.

Over 26,000 people were evacuated from low-lying areas in four districts while the authorities alerted the armed forces for possible deployment. At least 20 people were killed in rain-related incidents in the last three days, according to the disaster management department.

Phoenix

Indonesian Volcano Grounds Planes; Evacuated Residents Restless to Go Home

Image
© VOA Photo - S. SchonhardtEvacuees gather to watch television to stave off boredom
Thousands of Indonesians forced from their homes because of Mount Merapi's continued eruptions are restless to leave the evacuation shelters. And the volcano's ash clouds now are forcing airlines to cancel some flights.

A week after Indonesia's most active volcano began shooting searing gas clouds from its crater, restless evacuees say they are tired of living in hot, cramped shelters. But repeated explosions signal that the volcano, known here as "Fire Mountain," is not ready to let them go home.

Continued blasts have not deterred many families from heading back up the mountain. They go to check on their homes and cattle. At night, they return, packing into overcrowded camps to sleep on thin mats among thousands.

Sun

Swaziland: Panic Over Sun's Strange Appearance

Halo Around Sun
© Times of SwazilandHalo around sun.
Mbabane - It was an unusual day for many, and some thought the world was coming to an end yesterday.

This was due to a circle of light (a halo) that was seen in the morning hours surrounding the sun. A halo, in simple terms, refers to a circle of light or radiance. This caused a lot of panic for many people as most were of the view that the world was coming to an end.

The Times of Swaziland office was inundated with calls from the public who wanted to find out about the halo around the sun.

This is similar to a rainbow line, though this time it was just around the sun. According to a statement from the Swaziland Meteorological Department, this phenomenon is known as a 22 Degree Halo.

The rainbow-like circle around the sun is caused by the bending of the sun's light due to tiny hexagonal ice crystals in the upper atmosphere.

Red Flag

Monsanto's Superweeds Come Home to Roost: 11 Million U.S. Acres are Infested

Image
© New York Times
There's been much recent news about Monsanto paying farmers to use its competitors' herbicides, in what many see as a last ditch effort to address the spread of superweeds created by the company's "Roundup Ready" (RR) GMO crops. Environmental scientists warned even before Monsanto's "herbicide tolerant" GMO crops were approved that they would hasten the evolution of resistant weeds.

For these scientists, the issue was obvious: introduction of high doses of a single chemical year after year would result in the exact conditions needed to breed resistance: weeds with resistance genes would be the only weeds that could survive and breed, leading to superweeds that are unaffected even by massive herbicide spraying.

Of course, Monsanto denied these early warnings. In a 1997 paper, Monsanto scientists claimed that weed resistance was such a complex genetic phenomena that Round up Ready crops would be unlikely to lead to resistant weeds.