Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Magnitude 7.4 Earthquake - East of the Kuril Islands


US Geological Survey
Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:06 UTC
Image
© USGS

Date-Time Thursday, January 15, 2009 at 17:49:39 UTC

Friday, January 16, 2009 at 03:49:39 AM at epicenter

Location 46.859°N, 155.173°E

Depth 36 km (22.4 miles) set by location program

Distances 430 km (270 miles) S of Severo-Kuril'sk, Kuril Islands, Russia

595 km (370 miles) ENE of Kuril'sk, Kuril Islands

1785 km (1110 miles) NE of TOKYO, Japan

7245 km (4500 miles) NE of MOSCOW, Russia
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Better Earth

Fish Guts Explain Marine Carbon Cycle Mystery


PhysOrg
Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:36 UTC
Research published today reveals the major influence of fish on maintaining the delicate pH balance of our oceans, vital for the health of coral reefs and other marine life.

The discovery, made by a team of scientists from the UK, US and Canada, could help solve a mystery that has puzzled marine chemists for decades. Published today (16 January 2009) in Science, the study provides new insights into the marine carbon cycle, which is undergoing rapid change as a result of global CO2 emissions.

Until now, scientists have believed that the oceans' calcium carbonate, which dissolves to make seawater alkaline, came from the external 'skeletons' of microscopic marine plankton. This study estimates that three to 15 per cent of marine calcium carbonate is in fact produced by fish in their intestines and then excreted. This is a conservative estimate and the team believes it has the potential to be three times higher.
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Bizarro Earth

Magnitude 6.8 Earthquake - Southeast of the Loyalty Islands


US Geological Survey
Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:32 UTC
Image
© USGS

Date-Time

* Thursday, January 15, 2009 at 07:27:21 UTC
* Thursday, January 15, 2009 at 06:27:21 PM at epicenter

Location 22.379°S, 170.624°E

Depth 40.4 km (25.1 miles)

Region SOUTHEAST OF THE LOYALTY ISLANDS

Distances 145 km (90 miles) W of Ile Hunter, Loyalty Isl., New Caledonia

300 km (185 miles) ESE of Tadine, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia

430 km (265 miles) E of NOUMEA, New Caledonia

1650 km (1030 miles) NNW of Auckland, New Zealand
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Info

Palin seeks to block U.S. protections for belugas

Yereth Rosen
Reuters
Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:26 UTC
Anchorage - Five months after suing to keep polar bears off the U.S. threatened species list, Alaska's government said Wednesday it plans to issue a similar challenge to block federal protections for a struggling population of beluga whales in Cook Inlet, a mature oil-producing basin.

Former vice presidential hopeful Gov. Sarah Palin said the energy-rich state believes the Endangered Species Act protections for belugas announced in October by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are unwarranted.

"The State of Alaska has worked cooperatively with the federal government to protect and conserve beluga whales in Cook Inlet," the Republican governor said in a news release announcing that a 60-day notice of intent to sue had been sent to NOAA. "This listing decision didn't take those efforts into account as required by law."

Beluga whales swimming in Cook Inlet, a glacier-fed saltwater channel running from Anchorage to the Gulf of Alaska, numbered as high as 1,300 three decades ago, but has dropped to about 375 since then, according to NOAA.
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Bug

In Antarctica, bugs are kings

Alister Doyle
Reuters
Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:06 UTC
Rothera Base - Lurking among rocks on the Antarctic Peninsula, the most aggressive land predator on the frozen continent is on the prowl -- for microscopic prey.

Animals such as lions, crocodiles or snakes thrive elsewhere on the planet, but Antarctica's most fearsome land predator is a reddish bug.

The continent is best known for penguins, seals and whales, but all rely on the sea for food, unlike its Lilliputian land-based creatures and plants -- so far almost unaffected by humans.

Scientists are stepping up their study of these tiny creatures in Antarctica for possible early warnings about how climate change may disrupt life around the planet in coming decades.

"Antarctica is strikingly different to other continents in terms of what you find on land," Pete Convey, a biologist at the British Antarctic Survey, said while peering at an apparently barren pile of rocks on the Antarctic Peninsula.
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Better Earth

Aurora Watch January 17


Space Weather
Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:33 UTC
Auroras Canada
© Claus VogelPangnirtung, Nunavut - Baffin Island, Canada, January 9, 2009.

A solar wind stream is heading toward Earth, due to arrive on Jan. 17th or 18th. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.
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Better Earth

Fantastic Ice Halos


Space Weather
Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:29 UTC
Ice Halos
© Jari Luomanen and Marko Riikonen Ice Halos

Night falls. You grab your halogen lamp and step outside into the moonlight. A bitter arctic wind tries to push you back; ice crystals sting your eyes. But what you see overhead carries you forward into the night.

"Jari Luomanen and Marko Riikonen braved the intense cold of the Finland night on January 9/10 to research halos and obtain this stunning shot showing halos from the Moon competing with those from a halogen lamp," explains atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley. "Lamps plus crystals from snow-making machines are the latest way to study ice halos. Here the lamp is acting as the equivalent of a low sun to create a whole set of rare arcs such as the Hastings and helic previously seen only in Antactica."
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Bizarro Earth

US: Earthquake near Giles County, Virginia


WSLS10
Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:26 UTC
A small earthquake rattled parts of the New River Valley and West Virginia Monday evening.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the earthquake's epicenter was in West Virginia (37.269 N, 80.776 W), about 5 miles South-Southeast from Narrows, and 5 miles South-Southwest from Pearisburg.
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Compass

The earth's magnetic field impacts climate: Danish study


Agence France-Presse
Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:08 UTC
earth
Illustration only
The earth's climate has been significantly affected by the planet's magnetic field, according to a Danish study published Monday that could challenge the notion that human emissions are responsible for global warming.

"Our results show a strong correlation between the strength of the earth's magnetic field and the amount of precipitation in the tropics," one of the two Danish geophysicists behind the study, Mads Faurschou Knudsen of the geology department at Aarhus University in western Denmark, told the Videnskab journal.
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Igloo

Blowing snow and frigid temperatures pound nation

Amy Forliti
Associated Press
Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:26 UTC
Minneapolis - Arctic air extended its grip Wednesday with below-zero temperatures stretching from Montana to northern New England and frost nipping the Gulf Coast.

A few ski areas in Vermont and northern Minnesota closed for the day because of the cold - 38 below zero at International Falls, with the wind chill during the night estimated at 50 below.

The temperature at Bolton, Vt., was 10 below zero and operators of the Bolton Valley ski resort feared that skiers could freeze if a lift malfunctioned, said spokesman Josh Arneson. "Getting people off a lift can take time," he said.

Schools from Iowa to Pennsylvania opened late so kids would not have to be out in the coldest part of the morning. Some schools closed.

The cold wave also bulged into the Northeast, abruptly dropping temperatures in New York state into the single digits and below zero - after Tuesday's readings in the 30s, the National Weather Service said. Thermometers read 8 below at Massena, on the St. Lawrence River, with a wind chill of minus 25 degrees.
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