Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Chances of Big Quake Below Tokyo Rising


The Yomiuri Shimbun
Tue, 30 Aug 2011 02:21 UTC
Big Quake?
© The Yomiuri Shimbun
The possibility of a huge plate-boundary earthquake amplified by simultaneous moves in two or more focal areas beneath Tokyo has been increasing since the Great East Japan Earthquake, according to the University of Tokyo's Earthquake Research Institute.

The institute said that since the March 11 disaster, pressure on the tectonic plates beneath the city has changed and two or more focal areas may move simultaneously, resulting in a massive quake.

The institute intends to continue monitoring and assess the possibility of a huge earthquake.

The tectonic makeup of Tokyo and surrounding areas is complicated, with two ocean plates subducting below a land plate on which the Japanese archipelago is located.

There have been many earthquakes in this area, as both plate-boundary quakes, which are caused by friction between the plates, and inland quakes, which are caused by faults in the plates, can occur.

The average number of quakes measured at magnitude 3 or more in the five years preceding the March 11 disaster was about eight a month.

The institute discovered that the number of small-scale plate-boundary quakes that are not felt by people has drastically increased following the March 11 earthquake.
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Bug

Attack of the Monsanto Superinsects

Tom Philpott
Mother Jones
Tue, 30 Aug 2011 22:36 UTC
rootworm
© Coastlander/Flickr
Over the past decade and a half, as Monsanto built up its globe-spanning, multi-billion-dollar genetically modified seed empire, it made two major pitches to farmers.

The first involved weeds. Leave the weed management to us, Monsanto insisted. We've engineered plants that can survive our very own herbicide. Just pay up for our patented, premium-priced seeds, spray your fields with our Roundup herbicide whenever the fancy strikes, and - voilà! - no more weeds.

The second involved crop-eating insects. We've isolated the toxic gene of a commonly used bacterial pesticide called Bt, Monsanto announced, and spliced it directly into crops. Along with corn and soy, you will literally be growing the pesticide that protects them. Plant our seeds, and watch your crops thrive while their pests shrivel and die.

Monsanto focused its technology on three widely planted, highly subsidized crops: corn, soy, and cotton. Large-scale farmers of these commodities, always operating on razor-thin profit margins, lunged at the chance to streamline their operations by essentially outsourcing their pest management to Monsanto. And so Monsanto's high-tech crops essentially took over the corn/soy- and cotton-growing regions of the country.
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Attention

US: Wildfires Destroy Dozens of Homes in Texas and Oklahoma


The Associated Press
Wed, 31 Aug 2011 07:17 UTC
Image
© AP PhotoFleeing: Cattle move to avoid the flames of a large grass fire Oklahoma City
Wildfires sweeping through parts of Texas and Oklahoma have destroyed dozens of homes and forced hundreds of people to evacuate, and although officials don't yet know what ignited the blazes, a summer heat wave and drought have left both states with the perfect fuel: parched ground and dry vegetation.

"We're in severe drought conditions, so just the tiniest little spark can start a wildfire," Texas Forest Service spokeswoman April Saginor said.

The Texas Forest Service warned that the weather could also hamper efforts to contain the fast-moving blaze in North Texas that destroyed at least 20 homes in a lakeside community Tuesday. The fire also was threatening about 125 other homes in the Possum Kingdom Lake area, about 75 miles west of Fort Worth.

"It sounds like we're still going to have winds today," said John Nichols, a spokesman for the service, said before dawn Wednesday. "The one positive thing you can say is that we've got the firefighting forces in places."
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Bad Guys

US: Brown Pelicans Dying From Mystery Puncture Wounds


Associated Press
Tue, 30 Aug 2011 19:59 UTC
Injured Pelican
© Jayson Mellom | The Tribune NewsJennifer Campbell, supervisor for Pacific Wildlife Care, holds an injured juvenile brown pelican Friday at their recovery facility in Morro Bay.
State Fish and Game wardens are trying to figure out why so many brown pelicans are showing up along California's Central Coast with huge puncture wounds in their chests.

The San Luis Obispo Tribune reports that 15 birds have died in recent days from wounds that could have been caused by a knife or other sharp object.

Last Thursday three were brought into the Pacific Wildlife Care center in Morro Bay and two had to be euthanized because the injuries were so bad. The third is being treated.
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Bizarro Earth

Mexico's Popocatepetl Volcano Blasts Out Ash


Associated Press
Tue, 30 Aug 2011 23:16 UTC
Popocatepetl
© Wikimedia CommonsView of the Popocatepetl volcano from Amecameca, Mexico State.
The Popocatepetl (po-po-ka-TEH-peh-tel) volcano south of Mexico City is shooting blasts of ash from its crater.

Mexico's national disaster prevention agency says the volcano has spewed ash more than a half mile (a kilometer) into the sky four times Tuesday. It says there is a possibility ash could fall onto Mexico City overnight.

The agency is urging people to stay at least 7 miles (12 kilometers) from the crater.

The 17,886-foot (5,450-meter) volcano is about 40 miles (65 kilometers) southeast of the capital.
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Bizarro Earth

Extreme 2010 Russian Fires and Pakistan Floods Linked Meteorologically


Space Daily
Tue, 30 Aug 2011 23:09 UTC
Temp Anomalies
© NASA/Earth ObservatoryThis map shows temperature anomalies from July 20-27, 2010, compared to temperatures for the same dates from 2000 to 2008. The anomalies are based on land surface temperatures observed by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite. Areas with above-average temperatures appear in red and orange, and areas with below-average temperatures appear in shades of blue. Oceans and lakes appear in gray. For more about this image, please visit this NASA Earth Observatory page.
Two of the most destructive natural disasters of 2010 were closely linked by a single meteorological event, even though they occurred 1,500 miles (2,414 km) apart and were of completely different natures, a new NASA study suggests.

The research finds that the same large-scale meteorological event - an abnormal Rossby wave - sparked extreme heat and persistent wildfires in Russia as well as unusual downstream wind patterns that shifted rainfall in the Indian monsoon region and fueled heavy flooding in Pakistan.

Although the heat wave started before the floods, both events attained maximum strength at approximately the same time, the researchers found by analyzing satellite data generated by NASA instruments capable of measuring the land surface temperature, precipitation intensity and wildfire activity.

William Lau and Kyu-Myong Kim, atmospheric scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., authored the study, which the Journal of Hydrometeorology published in August.
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Bizarro Earth

Mount Etna In Sicily Puts On A Natural Fireworks Show

Mark Dunphy
Irish Weather Online
Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:25 UTC
The Mount Etna volcano in Sicily, Italy, erupted for the twelfth time this year on Monday.

Throughout 2011, activity at Sicily's Mount Etna has been characterised by paroxysms: short, violent bursts of activity. Each event has included volcanic tremors, ash emissions, and lava flows centered around the New Southeast Crater, just below the summit.

According to the Osservatorio Vulcanologico dell'Etna: "On the early morning of 29 August 2011, the 12th paroxysmal eruptive episode of this year occurred at the New Southeast Crater, almost 8 days after its predecessor. This event generated tall lava fountains and an eruption column that caused ash falls in the southeast sector of the volcano, as well as various lava flows down the western slope of the Valle del Bove.

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Bizarro Earth

Britain: Summer Coolest in Nearly 20 Years


Press Association
Tue, 30 Aug 2011 16:00 UTC
Image
© Press AssociationThis summer is set to be Britain's coolest in nearly 20 years.
This summer is set to be Britain's coolest in nearly 20 years, the Met Office said.

The mean temperature for summer 2011 has been 13.63C (56.53F), close to 1993's 13.39C (56.1F), provisional figures for June 1 to August 29 show.

Last summer's mean temperature was more than 1C higher than this summer so far at 14.65C (58.37F).

But while the summer has been wetter than last year's it has been considerably drier than 2007, 2008 and 2009, the forecaster said.

Figures show this summer has seen 267.7mm of rainfall so far, compared with 2009's 323mm. But last summer was drier with 243.8mm of rainfall.
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Cloud Lightning

Typhoon Nanmadol Leaves 16 Dead in Philippines

Barbara Mae Dacanay
Gulf News
Tue, 30 Aug 2011 16:31 UTC
Typhoon Nanmadol flooding
© AFPA man pushes his motorbike through floodwaters caused by Typhoon Nanmadol in Linbian, Taiwan.
Strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year is slowly moving away

Manila: Tropical storm Nanmadol (locally known as Mina) left 16 dead, 21 injured, and eight people missing, many of whom were presumed dead, as it slowly moved away from Philippine territory, civil defence and weather bureau officials said.

As of 4pm local time, weather forecasters estimated Nanmadol at 340km northwest of Basco, Batanes, the northernmost part of the country, with maximum sustained winds of 95kph near the center and gustiness of up to 120kph. The storm, was moving west-northwest at 7kph and is expected to be 500km northwest of Basco by afternoon.
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Attention

US: Tropical Storm Katia Grows, Expected to Become Hurricane


Los Angeles Time
Tue, 30 Aug 2011 16:20 UTC
Tropical Storm Katia
Only days after Hurricane Irene pummeled the Eastern Seaboard, forecasters have begun tracking a new tropical storm making its way toward the United States.

Tropical Storm Katia is expected to become a hurricane by Thursday as it continues its northwest trek through the mid-Atlantic Ocean. Its current track and intensity suggest that it could become a Category 3 hurricane in about five days, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
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