Earth ChangesS

Bizarro Earth

4.0 Earthquake Hits Southeastern Iran


FARS News Agency
Sun, 29 Nov 2009 05:00 UTC
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© FNA
An earthquake measuring 4 on the Richter scale jolted the town of Fonooj in Sistan-Balouchestan province Southeastern Iran, on Sunday.

The Seismological center of Sistan-Balouchestan province affiliated to the Geophysics Institute of Tehran University registered the quake at 06:55 hours local time (0325 GMT).

The epicenter of the quake was located in an area 59.9 degrees in longitude and 26.7 degrees in latitude.

There are yet no reports on the number of possible casualties or damage to properties by the quake.

Iran sits astride several major faults in the earth's crust, and is prone to frequent earthquakes, many of which have been devastating.
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Bizarro Earth

5.3 Earthquake Hits Off Indonesia


The Straits Times
Sun, 29 Nov 2009 02:00 UTC
A moderate earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia on Sunday in the Molucca Sea, seismologists said.

The USGS said a 5.3-magnitude quake struck at 9.29pm (8.29pm Singapore time, 1229 GMT Sunday), at a depth of 63 kilometres and was centred 150 kilometres west southwest of Ternate, Moluccas.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific 'Ring of Fire,' where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity.
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Bizarro Earth

California: 16 Small Earthquakes Hit Sun Valley

Steve Timko
The Reno Gazette-Journal
Sun, 29 Nov 2009 03:00 UTC
Sixteen small earthquakes hit in the area of Sun Valley and Wild Creek Golf Course in Sparks on Thursday and Friday, but they caused no damage, and residents had a hard time even feeling them.

The Nevada Seismological Laboratory noted the unusual earthquake sequence in a statement on Friday. The two largest had magnitudes of 2.3 and 2.2.

Darrell Little felt one of them on Friday in Spanish Springs.

"It was quite a small one, and the dog sleeping next to me even didn't wake up," Little said. "It definitely was an earthquake. It felt like the house got shoved a little bit. I could hear the creaking of the walls as the house moved just ever so slightly."

He felt a couple of the large ones from the swarm that hit the Mogul area in 2008, but this was not like that.
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Heart - Black

Neighbor Against Neighbor: At Odds Over Land, Money, and Gas

Mireya Navarro
The New York Times
Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:31 UTC
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© Niko J. Kallianiotis for The New York TimesNOT INTERESTED Lisa Wujnovich and her husband, Mark Dunau, refuse to sign a lease to allow natural gas drilling on their 50 farmland acres in Hancock, N.Y.
Chenango, New York - Chris and Robert Lacey own 80 acres of idyllic upstate New York countryside, a place where they can fish for bass in their own pond, hike through white pines and chase deer away.

But the Laceys hope that, if all goes well, a natural gas wellhead will soon occupy this bucolic landscape.

Like many landowners in Broome County, which includes the town of Chenango, the Laceys could potentially earn millions of dollars from the natural gas under their feet. They live above the Marcellus Shale, a subterranean layer of rock stretching from New York to Tennessee that is believed to be one of the biggest natural gas fields in the world.
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Bizarro Earth

5.6 Earthquake Shakes Venezuela, No Deaths


Reuters
Sat, 28 Nov 2009 07:37 UTC
An earthquake of 5.6 magnitude shook western Venezuela early on Friday, panicking residents and damaging some buildings, officials said.

There was no loss of life or damage reported to any oil installations in the OPEC member South American country.

Local seismological center Funvisis said the earthquake struck at 3:45 a.m. (0815 GMT) and its epicenter was in the locality of Churuguara in Lara state.

"There were no injuries or loss of life reported, just some structural damage," Funvisis official Theyler Vasquez said.

Authorities said frightened residents ran into the streets, and some walls of buildings were cracked.
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Radar

Saudi Arabia floods leave 77 dead


British Broadcasting Corporation
Sat, 28 Nov 2009 15:34 UTC
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The Saudi authorities have warned pilgrims to take care in the rain
Floods in Saudi Arabia have killed 77 people and scores could be missing, after the heaviest rainfall in years.

None of the casualties had been among the millions attending the Hajj pilgrimage, said a spokesman for the Saudi interior ministry.

Heavy rainstorms on Wednesday had hampered the start of the annual Muslim event in the city of Mecca.
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Better Earth

Oceans Absorbing Carbon Dioxide More Slowly, Scientist Finds


ScienceDaily
Sat, 28 Nov 2009 03:00 UTC
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© Michele HoganPacific Ocean at sunset.
The world's oceans are absorbing less carbon dioxide (CO2), a Yale geophysicist has found after pooling data taken over the past 50 years. With the oceans currently absorbing over 40 percent of the CO2 emitted by human activity, this could quicken the pace of climate change, according to the study, which appears in the November 25 issue of Geophysical Research Letters.

Jeffrey Park, professor of geology and geophysics and director of the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies, used data collected from atmospheric observing stations in Hawaii, Alaska and Antarctica to study the relationship between fluctuations in global temperatures and the global abundance of atmospheric CO2 on interannual (one to 10 years) time scales. A similar study from 20 years ago found a five-month lag between interannual temperature changes and the resulting changes in CO2 levels. Park has now found that this lag has increased from five to at least 15 months.

"No one had updated the analysis from 20 years ago," Park said. "I expected to find some change in the lag time, but the shift was surprisingly large. This is a big change."
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Roses

How Plants and Bacteria 'Talk' to Thwart Disease


ScienceDaily
Fri, 27 Nov 2009 06:00 UTC
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© iStockphotoRice growing.
When it comes to plants' innate immunity, like many of the dances of life, it takes two to tango. A receptor molecule in the plant pairs up with a specific molecule on the invading bacteria and, presto, the immune system swings into action to defend against the invasion of the disease-causing microbe.

Unwrapping some of the mystery from how plants and bacteria communicate in this dance of immunity, scientists at the University of California, Davis, have identified the bacterial signaling molecule that matches up with a specific receptor in rice plants to ward off a devastating disease known as bacterial blight of rice.

The researchers, led by UC Davis plant pathologist Pamela Ronald, will publish their findings in the Nov. 6 issue of the journal Science.

"The new discovery of this bacterial signaling molecule helps us better understand how the innate immune system operates," Ronald said.
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Bug

Fruit Fly Sperm Makes Females Do Housework After Sex


ScienceDaily
Sat, 28 Nov 2009 15:29 UTC
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© iStockphotoA small fruit fly on a piece of fruit.
The sperm of male fruit flies are coated with a chemical 'sex peptide' which inhibits the female's usual afternoon siesta and compels her into an intense period of foraging activity.

The surprise discovery was made by Professor Elwyn Isaac from the University of Leeds' Faculty of Biological Sciences when investigating the marked differences in sleeping patterns between virgin and mated females.

Both male and female fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) - commonly seen hovering around rotting fruit and vegetables - are active at dawn and dusk, and have a deep sleep at night. They also exhibit a marked 'resting state' during the afternoon, which Professor Isaac likens to a siesta that conserves the fly's energy and reduces damaging exposure to the sun during hot afternoons.

"However, we noted that after mating, females still slept deeply at night, but ditched the usual siesta in favour of extra foraging and searching for places to lay her eggs," he says. "This behaviour lasts for around eight days - and our research findings suggest that this change is not by choice. Females who mated with males that produced sperm without the sex peptide continued to take their siesta. So we're certain that this change of behaviour is chemically induced by the male."
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Bizarro Earth

6.1 Earthquake Hits Off New Zealand's Kermadec Islands


Xinhua
Sat, 28 Nov 2009 08:00 UTC
An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale struck the remote Kermadec Islands, north of New Zealand North Island on Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake hit the New Zealand territory, 1140 km north east of Auckland at 10:21 p.m. local time (0921 GMT Saturday) at a depth of 10 km.

No tsunami warning has been issued by the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

The islands, which are often rocked by severe quakes, have no permanent population. Only a small New Zealand Department of Conservation team live on Raoul island.
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