Earth ChangesS


Radar

Magnitude 5.8 Bulgarian Earthquake Followed By 80 Aftershocks, Worst in Region Since 1917

Elizabeth Konstantinova
Bloomberg Businessweek
Wed, 23 May 2012 15:48 UTC
Image
© BGNES A 5.7-5.9 magnitude earthquake struck southwest of Bulgaria's capital Sofia shortly after 3:00 am on Tuesday.
An earthquake of a magnitude of 5.7 to 5.9 struck the Bulgarian city of Pernik, 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) northwest of the capital Sofia.

The quake, the worst in the Sofia area since 1917, shook the country at 2:58 a.m. local time, causing walls and roofs to collapse in Pernik and chimneys and plaster to fall in Sofia, Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said on the ministry's website today. There were no casualties, Prime Minister Boiko Borissov said in an interview with Nova Television station.

The capital city's airport, railways and subway are working and no damage to infrastructure in the country has been reported, Construction Minister Liliana Pavlova told reporters in Sofia. In Pernik, which was worst affected by the quake, the heating utility was shut down and schools were closed for today and tomorrow.
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Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.1 (Magnitude Changed to 6.0) - Hokkaido, Japan


US Geological Survey
Wed, 23 May 2012 10:58 UTC
Image
© USGS
Date-Time
Wednesday, May 23, 2012 at 15:02:25 UTC
Thursday, May 24, 2012 at 12:02:25 AM at epicenterTime of Earthquake in other Time ZonesLocation
41.378°N, 142.073°E

Depth
40.7 km (25.3 miles)

Region
HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION

Distances
107 km (66 miles) NNE of Hachinohe, Honshu, Japan
119 km (73 miles) ESE of Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan
127 km (78 miles) ENE of Aomori, Honshu, Japan
663 km (411 miles) NNE of TOKYO, Japan
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Bizarro Earth

Researchers find New Zealand more seismically unstable than previously thought


Agence France-Presse
Wed, 23 May 2012 09:48 UTC
Researchers have discovered New Zealand's earthquake-prone landscape is even more unstable than previously thought, recording deep tremors lasting up to 30 minutes on its biggest fault line. Scientists measured the so-called "creeping earthquakes" when they investigated a puzzling lack of major seismic jolts along a section of the Alpine Fault, which runs the length of the South Island.

The quakes, which caused no surface damage, occurred 20-45 kilometres (12-28 miles) beneath the Earth's crust and continued for as long as half an hour, much longer than ordinary earthquakes. In contrast, the 6.3-magnitude quake that killed 185 people in the South island city of Christchurch in February last year lasted just 37 seconds and struck at a depth of about five kilometres.
Image
© Unknown
The quakes could not be measured by regular seismic monitoring devices and researchers from Wellington's Victoria University had to place sensors in boreholes 100 metres deep to pick them up. Seismologist Aaron Wech said the research showed the Alpine Fault, regarded as New Zealand's most hazardous, did not remain still between major earthquakes but was constantly shifting.
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Bizarro Earth

'Unprecedented' tsunami debris clean-up operation begins on Alaskan beaches... and there's still 1.5 million tons still to arrive

Julian Gavaghan
DailyMail.co.uk
Wed, 23 May 2012 08:53 UTC
An 'unprecedented' clean-up operation has been launched in Alaska after it became swamped by debris from last year's devastating Japanese tsunami.

Workers plan to spend 12 days clearing the beach on Montague Island, which is covered in items including balls, buoys, beer crates, Styrofoam and lunch boxes.

And they can expect to repeat this process in the future because an estimated 1.5million tons of flotsam and jetsam is yet complete the 3,500-mile journey to Alaska and elsewhere in North America.
Image
© Unknown
Montague, which is the largest uninhabited U.S. island and lies 120 miles southeast of state capital Anchorage, is likely to receive another equally large quantity by the time the year has ended.

'The debris found on initial surveys of the island showed an absolutely unprecedented amount of buoys, Styrofoam and other high floating debris, Patrick Chandler of the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies told Fox News.
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Bizarro Earth

Dead Fish Pile up on Mula-Mutha Banks

Devidas Deshpande
Pune Mirror
Mon, 21 May 2012 09:06 UTC
The problem of fish dying in large numbers has come to the fore of the banks of the Mula-Mutha (Bheema) rivers again. Fish have been found dead along the banks of the Mula-Mutha because of rising pollution and the latest in the series was recorded at Hatvalan near the Pune-Daund border last week.
Dead Fishes
© Pune MirrorDead fish at Hatvalan near Pune-Daund border.

Since last week, thousands of Mozambique Tilapia fishes were found dead on the river banks at Hatvalan in Daund division, about 76 km from Pune.

The fish apparently died because of thick blackish water flowing in the river bed. Ironically, Mozambique Tilapia is considered as one of the most resilient species of fish, known to withstand unfriendly environmental conditions.

To make matters worse, the same dead fish were taken to market to be sold by local fishermen. Pune and Mumbai are the primary markets for these fish. According to experts, in May freshwater springs that open into the river dry up, and hence the dissolving factor of oxygen in the water changes accordingly.

This increases the pollution level, causing the fish to die. A study conducted by Jal Biradari and Maharashtra Vikas Kendra last year had shown that the nitrate level in the Bheema river was 10-50 mg per litre, whereas the permissible limit specified by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is 45 mg/litre. The natural nitrate level should be less than 1 mg/litre, but due to pollutants, the level has shot up.
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Bizarro Earth

Japan Quake Aftershock Tally Exceeds 5,000

Andrea Mustain
OurAmazingPlanet
Tue, 22 May 2012 17:05 UTC
Japan Aftershocks
© USGSA map of shaking intensity of the recent aftershock.

An earthquake that ruptured this week off the coast of Japan was one of the largest recent aftershocks to affect an area that, more than a year after one of the most powerful earthquakes on record, is still experiencing a steady stream of seismic jolts.

So far, 5,229 aftershocks have rattled the tectonic boundary that ruptured off the coast of Japan's Tohoku region in March 2011. The magnitude-9.0 earthquake was the fifth largest earthquake ever recorded.

The Sunday (May 20) quake is listed as both magnitude 6.0 and 6.4. If it proves to be the latter, it would be the largest aftershock since March 14, when a magnitude-6.9 earthquake hit the region.

Magnitude-6.0 quakes can cause serious damage if they hit near populated areas, yet the bulk of Japan's significant aftershocks have hit out at sea, many miles from land, and have caused relatively few problems.

This recent quake caused only light shaking for residents of northern Japan, according to U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) data. It occurred beneath the Pacific Ocean, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) east of Miyako, a coastal town devastated by the deadly tsunami that followed the March 2011 earthquake.

"With an earthquake this big, you can have aftershocks for months and years," said Paul Earle, a seismologist with the USGS. You can't say when or where they'll happen, he told OurAmazingPlanet, but they tend to decrease in number exponentially.
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Bizarro Earth

Purple Skies


Space Weather
Wed, 23 May 2012 02:24 UTC
Earth is entering a high-speed solar wind stream, and this is causing geomagnetic activity at high latitudes. First contact with the stream on May 22nd turned the sky over Cumbria, United Kingdom, deep purple:

Purple Skies
© Jon CooperImage Taken: May 23, 2012
Location: Shap, Cumbria, United Kingdom
"The sky was bright because of twilight, but we could still see these faint auroras," says photographer Jon Cooper.

So far the solar wind has not caused a full-fledged geomagnetic storm, but this could change during the next 24 hours. NOAA forecasters estimate a 15% to 20% chance of storms around the poles as the solar wind continues to blow.
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Cloud Lightning

Freak storm brings never seen before hail to Philippines, homes destroyed


Sun Star
Sat, 19 May 2012 17:13 UTC
hail
Balls of ice the size of marbles or a child’s fist hit two barangays.
Local officials of Pinamungajan declared a state of calamity on Friday in one of two barangays that got hit by a strong wind and hail. The town is expected to follow suit.

Lamac barangay captain Mariflor Cantero, whose house the wind also leveled, said the officials made the declaration to hasten the release of aid.

Power and water supply in the affected barangays were disrupted, and the residents were still shocked by the sudden weather disturbance.

"They've never seen anything like this," said Representative Pablo John Garcia (Cebu Province, 3rd district) who visited the area on Friday. There was no way the residents could have prepared for what happened.
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Cloud Lightning

Freak storm lashes Cannes film festival, soaking stars

Agence France-Presse
Mother Nature Network
Mon, 21 May 2012 16:51 UTC
Cannes rain
© Valery Hache/AFP
Lashing wind and rain damaged the roof of a Cannes screening room, organizers said on May 21, after soaked stars were left shivering on the red-carpet by a freak storm at the Riviera film festival.

Unseasonably heavy rains beat down on the French city on the night of May 20, forcing the cancellation of a 65th-anniversary fireworks display and leaving festival goers huddling under their umbrellas in puddles of water.
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Bizarro Earth

Hurricane Season Comes Early This Year

Tim Wall
Discovery News
Tue, 22 May 2012 12:39 UTC
Alberto
© Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASAImage of Tropical Storm Alberto from NASA's Terra satellite.
Spring came early this year, and so did hurricane season.

Alberto, the first tropical storm of the year, formed on May 19, nearly two weeks before the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season on June 1, reported NASA's Earth Observatory. The storm troubled the waters off the coast of North Carolina with winds that reached up 60 miles (95 kilometers) per hour. An eye never formed and the storm didn't develop into a full blown hurricane.

By the next day, Alberto had petered out. No damage was reported on the mainland.

The annual hurricane heads-up from Colorado State University forecasted a slow hurricane season in 2012 with 10 named storms, four hurricanes and two major hurricanes. Alberto started the party early, so meteorologists have already notched one named storm off the list this year.
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