Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Arkansas, U.S.: Series of quakes shake Searcy area

Gavin Lesnick
ArkansasOnline
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:40 UTC
Image
© United State Geological SurveyA United State Geological Survey map shows a series of small earthquakes felt in the Searcy area in recent days.
Little Rock - Geologists are installing a temporary sensor just west of Searcy to record seismic activity after a series of earthquakes that have rattled the area in recent days.

The U.S. Geological Survey lists nine quakes in White County since Saturday, with the strongest occurring that night about 7 miles northwest of Garner. That quake measured 3.3 on the Richter scale.

The quakes have continued each day since, including a 2.2-magnitude earthquake reported just before 10:30 a.m. Tuesday about 6 miles west of Searcy. More than 100 people have reported feeling the stronger tremors.

Scott Ausbrooks, the geohazards supervisor with the Arkansas Geological Survey, said the temporary earthquake sensor should be online by the end of this week and will record better data should more quakes occur in the same White County region.

"You can equate it to tornado-chasing," Ausbrooks said by phone from the White County site. "You hate to say it but you need more earthquakes to get more data."
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Better Earth

Antarctic Garbage Patch Coming?

Michael Reilly
Discovery News
Fri, 25 Jun 2010 09:18 UTC
Image
© Mosaic Antarctica (LIMA) Project
You've heard about the Pacific garbage patch and the Atlantic garbage patch, each a sobering sign of how when we throw things away, they don't go "away" -- they often go into the sea, where they remain for a long, long time.

Much of the global ocean remains uncharted in terms of pollution, but unfortunately the more we look, the more we find. And now even the most remote, pristine waters on the planet -- the coastal seas of Antarctica -- are being invaded by plastic debris.

In a series of surveys conducted during the austral summer of 2007-2008, researchers at the British Antarctic Survey and Greenpeace trawled the region, skimming surface waters and digging into the seabed. Even in the exceedingly remote Davis and Durmont D'Urville seas they found errant fishing buoys and a plastic cup. Plastic packaging was found floating in the Amundsen Sea (see map).
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Fish

BP Slick Covers Dolphins and Whales

hccreekkeeper
YouTube
Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:24 UTC
This was the most emotionally disturbing video I have ever done!

A flight over the BP Slick Source where I saw at least 100 Dolphins in the oil, some dying. I also photographed a Sperm Whale covered in oil all around it's blow hole.
Please spread this around the world. Send me any links to places it gets posted so I can follow.

I want to piss off the world. Who will answer for these gentle creatures?

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Bizarro Earth

Mexico: Earthquake Magnitude 6.2 - Oaxaca


US Geological Survey
Wed, 30 Jun 2010 09:58 UTC
Image
© USGS
Date-Time:
Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 07:22:28 UTC

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 02:22:28 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
16.527°N, 97.760°W

Depth:
20 km (12.4 miles) set by location program

Region:
OAXACA, MEXICO

Distances:
125 km (80 miles) WSW of Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico

145 km (90 miles) S of Huajuapan de Leon, Oaxaca, Mexico

160 km (100 miles) NW of Puerto Angel, Oaxaca, Mexico

355 km (220 miles) SSE of MEXICO CITY, D.F., Mexico
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Bizarro Earth

Alex Becomes a Hurricane, Churns Toward Mexico, Texas


CNN
Wed, 30 Jun 2010 05:33 UTC
Image
© Wikipedia Commons
Hurricane Alex gained strength early Wednesday as the storm began to take aim on the western Gulf of Mexico, the National Hurricane Center reported.

The Category 1 storm, which became the first June hurricane on the Atlantic side of the United States since 1995, is expected to make landfall in northeastern Mexico or southern Texas by late Wednesday or early Thursday.

The hurricane center's advisory issued at 2 a.m. ET said Alex was moving erratically, but generally westward, at 5 mph. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 80 mph and was about 255 miles southeast of Brownsville, Texas.

President Barack Obama issued a federal emergency declaration for Texas ahead of the expected arrival of Alex, the White House said Tuesday night.

A hurricane warning was issued for the Gulf Coast from Baffin Bay, Texas, to La Cruz, Mexico. A hurricane warning means that hurricane conditions and tropical storm-force winds are expected in the forecast area within 36 hours.
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Arrow Down

World's Smallest Whale Population Faces Extinction


PhysOrg
Wed, 30 Jun 2010 05:00 UTC
Image
© NASAThis NASA Terra satellite image shows Alaska's southern coast in 2003.
The world's smallest known whale population has dwindled to about 30 individuals, only eight of them females, according to a study released Tuesday.

The Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska once teemed with tens of thousands of North Pacific right whales.

But hunting in the 19th century wiped out most of them, with up to 30,000 slaughtered in the 1840s alone, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Poaching by the Soviet Union during the 1960s claimed several hundred more, making Eubalaena japonica probably the most endangered species of whale on Earth.

"Its precarious status today ... is a direct consequence of uncontrolled and illegal whaling, and highlights the past failure of international management to prevent such abuse," said the study, published in the British Royal Society's Biology Letters.
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Bizarro Earth

Magnitude 6.3 - South Of The Fiji Islands


USGS
Wed, 30 Jun 2010 02:26 UTC
Fiji quake_300610
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 04:30:59 UTC

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 04:30:59 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
23.200°S, 179.165°E

Depth:
536.3 km (333.3 miles)

Region
SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS

Distances:
360 km (220 miles) SW of Ndoi Island, Fiji

500 km (310 miles) ESE of Ceva-i-Ra, Fiji

565 km (350 miles) S of SUVA, Viti Levu, Fiji

1575 km (980 miles) NNE of Auckland, New Zealand
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Alarm Clock

Oil, Toxins, Acid...Something is in the Rain


Clean the Gulf Now
Mon, 28 Jun 2010 23:00 UTC
This article is republished from the original by Jen Roth at Clean the Gulf Now

Many of you know I spent last week working with Project Gulf Impact, a film crew from L.A., on the gulf coast to document the crisis, and the story NOT being told. I left them last Friday and they continued on to NOLA for several days. Yesterday they went out in a boat in Pass Christian, MS with some locals to get a closer look at the damage.

At my urging they had picked up respirators (with Organic Vapor barrier) and wore them on the boat, though the locals were not wearing any protection. A storm came up while they were on the water and took them by surprise. My guys tell me their skin began to burn, they hurt all over, and everything (including their equipment) became very oily-feeling, leaving a slick surface all over them and the camera.
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Bizarro Earth

Tropical Storm Alex is near hurricane strength


NOLA.com
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 22:40 UTC
Image
© Eric Gay, The Associated PressA truck pulling an RV toward South Padre Island, Texas, passes under a sign warning of the approach of Tropical Storm Alex on Tuesday.
Tropical Storm Alex, at 7 p.m., is centered at latitude 23.2 north, longitude 94.5 west, about 215 miles east of La Pesca, Mexico, and about 265 miles southeast of Brownsville, Texas.

Its maximum sustained winds are 70 mph; hurricanes have sustained winds of 74 mph or more. Satellite imagery suggests that Alex is strengthening. Rain bands associated with Alex are spreading onshore in northeastern Mexico and southern Texas.

It is moving toward the west-northwest at 12 mph, with that general motion expected to continue through Wednesday. It is expected to make landfall late Wednesday. Its minimum central pressure is 980 millibars or 28.94 inches.

A hurricane warning is in effect for the Gulf Coast from south of Baffin Bay in Texas to La Cruz, Mexico. A tropical storm warning is in effect for the coast of Texas from Baffin Bay to Port O'Connor and for the coast of Mexico south of La Cruz to Cabo Rojo.
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Hourglass

"Recovery time can be centuries, or not at all" for Gulf of Mexico dead zones

Paul Montagna and Larry McKinney
Statesman.com
Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:54 UTC
dead dolphin oil spill
© Carolyn Cole Los Angeles Times

While much attention has focused on the pictures of oiled birds, marshes and beaches, the media is showing only the tip of the iceberg of the ecological disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico. What is the condition of the ocean itself? The likely answer is: not good.

Scientists at sea and sampling the ocean on the scene of the oil well blowout are reporting plumes of oil throughout the water column for tens of miles from the blowout site. Dead organisms are covering the surface near the blowout. A dead sperm whale has been found far from shore.

To make matters worse, the area of the blowout and oil slick is the most productive part of the Gulf. This is because nutrients from the Mississippi River promote algal growth, which is at the base of the food chain. This plankton falls to the bottom, creating the richest shrimping and fishing grounds in the Gulf.
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