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Deadly oak disease 'spreading' in UK

Helen Briggs
bbc.co.uk
Mon, 15 Jul 2013 14:19 UTC
The government is stepping up monitoring of a disease thought to pose a serious threat to UK oak trees.

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The problem is on the rise in England
Acute Oak Decline, which causes weeping patches on the stems of mature trees, is on the rise in England, particularly in the Midlands and the South East.

A national survey has been commissioned as part of a new £1.1m research drive.

Thousands of trees are thought to be affected, the Forestry Commission's lead scientist on the condition told Radio 4's Farming Today.

"This is a serious problem in the UK," said Dr Sandra Denman.

"So far we've only seen it in England, but because we haven't done any formal surveys we're unsure as to the full extent of the problem.

"But we do estimate that there are many thousands of trees that are affected."

Scientists believe a beetle may be responsible for the disease.

They are also trying to isolate and identify a bacteria found on the dying trees that might be linked to the infection.

Little is known about the rate of spread of the disease and whether all oak trees are at risk.
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Bizarro Earth

'Very anomalous weather pattern' - Heat wave building into the Ohio Valley and eastern United States


NASA
Tue, 16 Jul 2013 10:21 UTC
A very anomalous weather pattern is in place over the U.S. for mid-July. Trapped between an upper level ridge centered over the Ohio Valley and the closed upper level low over the Texas/Oklahoma border, atypical hot, muggy air is stifling a broad swath of the eastern U.S. The closed low is expected to drift west toward New Mexico bringing heavy, localized rain to some areas and temperatures running 10-20 degrees below mid-July averages. Across the east, temperatures will warm well into the 90's and stay there through the week. This image was taken by the GOES East satellite at 12:45 p.m. EDT on July 15, 2013.
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© NOAA/NASA
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Red Flag

Shark kills 15-year-old girl off Reunion island, Indian Ocean


newsdaily.com
Mon, 15 Jul 2013 07:38 UTC
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Shark
A teenage girl tourist was killed in a shark attack on Monday while swimming off the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, the second such attack this year in the French overseas territory.

Local officials said the 15-year-old was attacked in the mid-afternoon while swimming just a few metres (yards) from shore in Saint-Paul bay on the western side of the island.

The girl, on holiday from mainland France, was swimming with another girl who had just climbed on shore when the attack took place.

"Part of her body was carried away by the shark. Firefighters, lifeguards and a police helicopter are carrying out a search," said Gina Hoarau, the head of public safety in Saint-Paul.

"The conditions of this attack are very surprising. We didn't think a shark could come so close to the shore," Hoarau said.

A 36-year-old French honeymooner was killed by a shark in May while surfing not far from the island's popular beach of Brisants de Saint-Gilles.

Last year, 78 shark attacks were reported around the world, of which eight were fatal.

Source: Agence France-Presse
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Bizarro Earth

Mysterious disaster in India seen from space

Larry O'Hanlon
Discovery News
Mon, 15 Jul 2013 14:48 UTC
Mystery Landslide
© Indian National Remote Sensing CenterThe village of Rambara is one of scores that were wiped off the map by the monsoon-triggered floods and debris flows in northern India last month.
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It has taken some time for the news to come out of India, but there has been a major landslide disaster that has claimed an estimated 6,000 lives. In the remote, mountainous north of the country, steep slopes have given way and launched flows of rock and water that have destroyed or seriously damaged some 240 villages and small towns.

A very good place to get the details of the events, as well as analysis of the causes over the last few weeks, is via The Landslide Blog, by landslide expert Dave Petley of Durham University in the United Kingdom (full disclosure: I am the AGU blogosphere manager, where Petley's blog appears).

Among the dead are pilgrims, tourists and residents of a number of villages, including the temple town of Kedarnath. The cause of the disaster is the exceptionally heavy monsoon rains that have hit the region. Videos of the actual flooding can be seen here.

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Cloud Lightning

'Extremely unusual' storm system moving backwards across United States through end of week


TheWeatherSpace.com
Mon, 15 Jul 2013 14:59 UTC
A low pressure system that started in the Eastern United States has retrograded under a ridge of high pressure to the north over the last couple of days. This system is moving from east to west, which is extremely unusual for this hemisphere. We've seen these move east to west for a short period of time, but this one will make it to Southern California by the time it weakens.

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The upper level system is known as an easterly wave, however I'd like to call it a super easterly wave based on the distance it is going to travel. This particular system will have traveled from one side of the country to the other once it has stopped moving west, diving from there into Mexico, gathering up monsoonal moisture to be put into Nevada and Southern California later in the week into next week.

Rainfall estimations across parts of Central Texas could be over 2-4″ of rain, with more rain (above 6+" possible in parts of South-Central Texas. Severe storms, including tornadoes, hail, and damaging winds will be possible from Texas, New Mexico, and parts of Arizona through the next few days.
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Info

Air pollution responsible for more than 2 million deaths worldwide each year, experts estimate


sciencedaily.com
Fri, 12 Jul 2013 13:08 UTC
More than two million deaths occur worldwide each year as a direct result of human-caused outdoor air pollution, a new study has found.
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© Korobanova Marina / FotoliaSmog hangs over Shanghai. Researchers estimate that worldwide, more than two million deaths occur each year as a direct result of human-caused outdoor air pollution.

In addition, while it has been suggested that a changing climate can exacerbate the effects of air pollution and increase death rates, the study shows that this has a minimal effect and only accounts for a small proportion of current deaths related to air pollution.

The study, which has been published today, 12 July, in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters, estimates that around 470,000 people die each year because of human-caused increases in ozone.

It also estimates that around 2.1 million deaths are caused each year by human-caused increases in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) ? tiny particles suspended in the air that can penetrate deep into the lungs, causing cancer and other respiratory disease.
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Bizarro Earth

India says nearly 6,000 missing a month after devastating floods


Rueters via Yahoo News
Mon, 15 Jul 2013 12:26 UTC
India officially declared on Monday that nearly 6,000 people were missing a month after flash floods ravaged large parts of its northern state of Uttarakhand, but stopped short of saying they were presumed dead.

The figure of 5,748, based on tallies of missing persons from around the country, was the first official estimate following weeks in which the numbers of dead and missing fluctuated wildly from a few hundred to several thousand.

Their families will now be eligible for financial relief, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna told a news conference, adding that his government would pay 150,000 rupees ($2,500) to families in the state, besides compensation from the federal government.
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© REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui Posters of missing people, caused by the flash floods and landslides, are placed on a gate as an Indian Air Force helicopter lands at a base in Dehradun, in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand June 26, 2013.
"We are not getting into the controversy whether the missing persons are dead or not," said Bahuguna. "We are abiding by what the families of the victims say, and if they think that they haven't come back and have no hope as well, (then) we are providing them monetary relief."

The official death toll still stands at 580, an official of the National Disaster Management Authority told Reuters. More than 4,600 of the missing in Uttarakhand had come from elsewhere in India, said the official, who declined to be identified as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
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Bizarro Earth

7.3 magnitude earthquake shakes seafloor near South Sandwich Islands


US Geological Survey
Mon, 15 Jul 2013 11:52 UTC
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© USGS
A 7.3 magnitude earthquake has struck south of Bristol Island in the South Sandwich Islands. No tsunami alert exists, however. The massive 7.3 magnitude earthquake began today July 15, 2013 far out to sea, far from Argentina and Chile's coast, officials tell news. It was initially reported as a 6.8 magnitude quake before being upgraded. The large earthquake today began moments ago. It erupted at 12:03 pm local time, officials tell news. It also posted a moderate depth. USGS indicates to news that the quake starting twenty miles below sea level. But the quake was far from land when it began. Officials tell news that the quake was closest only to one island.

The quake began one hundred thirty miles southeast of Bristol Island in the South Sandwich Islands. The quake was thereafter a great distance from other nations. The quake was one thousand six hundred miles at least from Ushuaia, Argentina. It was roughly one thousand seven hundred miles from Rio Gallegos in Argentina as well. Reps tell news that the quake was about one thousand seven hundred miles from Punta Arenas, Chile and about one thousand three hundred mils from Stanley in the Falkland Islands. The National Weather Service says that no tsunami danger exists currently for the U.S, Gulf of Mexico, Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands. But officials. Both the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center confirm that no tsunami threat is in place. - LA Late News

USGS data
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Bizarro Earth

Ecuador's Tungurahua Volcano records major explosion- spews stones, gases and ash more than three miles into the sky


ShanghaiDaily.com
Mon, 15 Jul 2013 08:27 UTC
The Tungurahua Volcano, located in Ecuador's central Andean region, registered a major explosion on Sunday with a stronger eruption that spewed ash and rocks into the atmosphere, according to the Geophysics Institute of the National Polytechnic School (IGEPN).
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© Associated PressA man walks on rocks and ashes spewed by the Tungurahua volcano in the outskirts of Cusua, Tungurahua province, Ecuador
The explosion caused a boom that could be heard in several cities, including Riobamba and Ambato in central Ecuador and Guayaquil in the southwest, and communities close to the volcano also felt ground tremors, said the IGEPN which is in charge of monitoring volcanic activity in a report.

The eruption scattered ash, rocks and other volcanic fragments into the sky, but due to cloud cover over the region it was impossible to determine how high the column of ash rose, the IGEPN said.

However, eyewitnesses said the ash could be seen as far away as the capital Quito.

The 5,016-meter-high volcano has been active since 1999, with alternating periods of increased activity and relative calm.
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Bizarro Earth

Some volcanoes scream at ever-higher pitches until they blow their tops


phys.org
Sun, 14 Jul 2013 00:00 UTC
Redoubt Volcano
© Game McGimseyRedoubt Volcano on March 31, 2009. View to the east of the summit crater of the volcano, heavily covered with deposits from recent eruptions, many of which were preceded by harmonic tremor.
It is not unusual for swarms of small earthquakes to precede a volcanic eruption. They can reach a point of such rapid succession that they create a signal called harmonic tremor that resembles sound made by various types of musical instruments, though at frequencies much lower than humans can hear.

A new analysis of an eruption sequence at Alaska's Redoubt Volcano in March 2009 shows that the harmonic tremor glided to substantially higher frequencies and then stopped abruptly just before six of the eruptions, five of them coming in succession.

"The frequency of this tremor is unusually high for a volcano, and it's not easily explained by many of the accepted theories," said Alicia Hotovec-Ellis, a University of Washington doctoral student in Earth and space sciences.

Documenting the activity gives clues to a volcano's pressurization right before an explosion. That could help refine models and allow scientists to better understand what happens during eruptive cycles in volcanoes like Redoubt, she said.

The source of the earthquakes and harmonic tremor isn't known precisely. Some volcanoes emit sound when magma - a mixture of molten rock, suspended solids and gas bubbles - resonates as it pushes up through thin cracks in the Earth's crust.

But Hotovec-Ellis believes in this case the earthquakes and harmonic tremor happen as magma is forced through a narrow conduit under great pressure into the heart of the mountain. The thick magma sticks to the rock surface inside the conduit until the pressure is enough to move it higher, where it sticks until the pressure moves it again.
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