Earth ChangesS


Attention

Vietnam: Dangerous fractures discovered on area for nuclear power plant

VietNamNet Bridge - Scientists think that there might exist, a dangerous fracture in the area reserved for the Ninh Thuan nuclear power plant, urging to conduct thorough survey on the issue to avoid possible risks.

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© Unknown
Dr Professor Nguyen Dinh Xuyen, former Head of the Geophysics Institute, a member of the Ninh Thuan nuclear power plant project appraisal council, said that in the project pre-feasibility study, he can read about the Suoi Mia fracture in Phuoc Dinh commune of Ninh Phuoc district of Ninh Thuan province. However, he believes that there is another fracture which is even more dangerous than the Suoi Mia fracture.

The other fracture runs in the direction of sub-longitude, crossing the Suoi Mia fracture (northwest-southeast direction)

At the cross-section of the two fractures, a waterfall with the height of four meters was generated. It is likely that the fracture runs to the place where Vietnam plans to set up the Ninh Thuan nuclear power plant.

Evil Rays

Tennessee, US: Neighborhood terrified by mysterious shaking

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© Unknown
Adrienne Hooker doesn't feel safe at home. Her Blount County neighborhood has a problem - it shakes.

For 2 days, the house rocks every few hours. It can sound like an explosion.

She describes it like this: "Tiny earthquakes, makes the whole house shake it makes everyone wake up if they're sleeping."

They've called the U.S. Geological Survey, but no earthquakes have been reported.

They thought it might be construction at a nearby house, but the Blount County Sheriff's Office checked. Another dead end.

The "what" isn't all that important, they just want it to stop.

Better Earth

Happy Equinox!

We're now in Autumn (in the Northern Hemisphere), the time when the length of day and night are roughly the same. And from here on out, the nights will be getting longer and the days shorter. It's often difficult to explain to people how the Earth's tilt defines how much sunlight we get every day, and how it causes the changing seasons. Here's the easy thing to do. Show this amazing video to anyone, and they'll totally get it. It's a full year's snapshots of Earth taken by NASA's Meteosat satellite.


The Bad Astronomer, Phil Plait, has a great explainer on the Equinox, and details what you're seeing in this video. Check it out.

Better Earth

Autumnal Equinox Pictures: Rituals of Fire and Light

Fiery First Day Of Fall

Featuring roughly four-story-tall representations of beasts from local legends and mythology, the roaring celebration, which began in 1991, commemorates Grand Duke Gediminas, who ruled Lithuania in the 14th century and is traditionally seen as a defender of the country's pagan heritage.

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© Petras Malukas, AFP/Getty ImagesA large wood-and-straw artwork burns on the Northern Hemisphere's autumnal equinox during the 2006 International Festival of Fire Sculptures in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius—one of countless cultural events marking the first day of fall each year.
Pagan Procession on Autumnal Equinox

Modern-day Druids - who, like their ancient forebears put great store in solar milestones - mark autumnal equinox 2009 on Primrose Hill in London. For the vernal equinox, the pagan parade reconvenes on Tower Hill, site of the Tower of London. At summer solstice Druids decamp to Stonehenge.

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© Peter Macdiarmid, Getty Images

Better Earth

Autumnal Equinox 2011: Sky Show Caps First Day of Fall

Jupiter, Big Dipper add to Northern Hemisphere's cosmic display

Stars and planets are lining up for the change of seasons during the Northern Hemisphere's autumnal equinox - the first day of fall - which will happen in 2011 at 5:05 a.m. ET Friday.

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© Luis RomeroIndigenous women participate in a Maya ceremony on Sunday marking the autumnal equinox.
As if to mark the first full night of fall, the bright star Arcturus will hang high above the point where the sun sets on September 23, said Alan MacRobert, senior editor of Sky & Telescope magazine in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Off to Arcturus' right will be the Big Dipper, positioned so that its ladle-like shape appears upright to ground-based observers, with its bowl to the right and handle to the left.

Evil Rays

Canada: Windsor officials say Zug Island may be source of mysterious buzzing noise

Zug Island
© Wikimedia commons/Notorious4life
Zug Island seems to be the source of a mysterious noise that's shaking windows and keeping Windsor residents up at night, Canadian officials said Thursday.

A two-month investigation by seismologists from the Ontario Environment Ministry traced the source of the noise to within roughly a half-mile of the island, officials said.

"We have seen the results now and the results are conclusive that the source of the noise and vibration is ... in or around Zug Island," said Teri Gilbert, a spokeswoman for the Canadian agency. "We did a considerable amount of work to determine whether there was a source in Ontario and we couldn't determine that."

Complaints about the noise started in March and have steadily been pouring in, officials said.

"It goes through some sporadic bursts. Sometimes you can hear it more prominently than other times," said Al Maghnieh, a city councilor in Windsor. "It's something that's been disturbing quality of life for residents in southwest Windsor."

Bizarro Earth

Rumblings within Indonesia's Mount Tambora volcano: could eruption bring year without summer?

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© Smithsonian, NASA Landsat7 imageMt. Tambora
The eruption of the Mt. Tambora volcano in April 1815 was the largest and most deadly volcanic eruption in recorded history. Its sunlight dimming particles caused a major cooling in the global climate that led to 1816's "Year Without a Summer".

Experts are now saying that Mount Tambora is ready to erupt again as a sequence of earthquakes has been shaking the island at increasing frequency since April. Columns of ash are already venting as high as 4,600 feet. (Note: Tambora was about four times more powerful than Indonesia's much better-known Krakatoa blast of 1883 - history's second-deadliest).

While it appears that Tambora is on the verge of erupting, no one knows with confidence how big it will be. Given the potential consequences, Indonesian authorities have raised the volcano alert to its second-highest level. Active disaster preparedness is underway with evacuation routes mapped and armed forces pre- deployed if the worst occurs (alert status reaching the highest level).

Bizarro Earth

Insurance Market Lloyd's Dives Into Red on Catastrophes

Disaster
© Terra Daily

The Lloyd's of London insurance market said Wednesday that it dived into first-half losses due to an unprecedented number of major natural catastrophes including the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

The company made a pre-tax loss of £697 million ($1.09 billion, 800 million euros) in the six months to the end of June, Lloyd's said in a results statement, as it was hit by soaring claims.

That compared with a profit of £628 million in the same period of the previous financial year.

"2011 has already been one of the most challenging years on record for the insurance industry with major natural catastrophes devastating communities in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the United States," said Chairman Lord Levene.

Mr. Potato

Insanity Alert! 'Can artificial volcano cool the planet?'

volcano polution
© Unknown
Scientists who are working on various concepts for "geo-engineering" the climate are almost comically eager to explain that they are not trying to come up with a substitute for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, the main cause of man-made global warming.

They are just researching backup systems that we might need if the reductions don't happen fast enough.

"It's hard to imagine a situation except a dire emergency where this will be used, but in order to have that conversation sensibly we need to provide some evidence-based research," Dr. Matt Watson of Bristol University told the British Science Festival in Bradford, England, last week.

He is planning to test the feasibility of an "artificial volcano" that injects sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere, so where better to try it than at Sculthorpe air force base in the pancake-flat county of Norfolk?

Why an "artificial volcano"?

Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen, who first suggested this method of cooling the planet five years ago, pointed out that big volcanic explosions inject millions of tonnes of sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere, where they reflect enough incoming sunlight to lower the temperature at the surface.

Comment: So just to inject a little sanity into this discussion:

Point 1.) CO2 emissions have a very small, if not negligible effect on the earth's climate. It appears that cosmic rays may be the driving factor behind global temperatures

Point 2.) Recently we've seen a weakening in the sun's magnetic field indicated by the lack of sunspot activity during this solar cycle. The weaker the sun's magnetic field, the more cosmic rays bombard earth. This leads to greater cloud cover and thus a cooling of the planet. In fact, that is exactly what we're seeing today.

Point 3.) Give the above two points, blasting toxic chemicals into the atmosphere isn't only a bad idea from a pollution standpoint, it may actually speed up the onset of this global cooling trend we're already seeing; a trend that could lead to a new ice age regardless of what corrupt science has in store for us.


Bizarro Earth

Tonga - Earthquake Magnitude 6.4

Tonga Quake_220911
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 23:07:03 UTC

Friday, September 23, 2011 at 12:07:03 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
15.449°S, 175.293°W

Depth:
8.6 km (5.3 miles)

Region:
TONGA

Distances:
174 km (108 miles) WNW of Hihifo, Tonga

256 km (159 miles) SSE of MATA'UTU, Ile Uvea, Wallis and Futuna

334 km (207 miles) ESE of Sigave, Ile Futuna, Wallis and Futuna

2569 km (1596 miles) NNE of Auckland, New Zealand