Earth ChangesS


Life Preserver

Flashback Sea levels in the Arctic Ocean are falling!

Jonathan Amos
BBC News
Thu, 15 Jun 2006 09:06 UTC
Arctic sea level has been falling by a little over 2mm a year - a movement that sets the region against the global trend of rising waters.

A Dutch-UK team made the discovery after analysing radar altimetry data gathered by Europe's ERS-2 satellite.

It is well known that the world's oceans do not share a uniform height; but even so, the scientists are somewhat puzzled by their results.

Global sea level is expected to keep on climbing as the Earth's climate warms.
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Cloud Lightning

Flashback Sea levels in the Maldives are falling!


Science Direct
Tue, 01 Jun 2004 08:40 UTC
In 2003, Nils-Axel Mörner and his colleagues (see below) pub-lished a well-documented paper showing that sea levels in the Maldives have fallen substantially - fallen! - in the last 30 years. I find it curious that we haven't heard about this.

"The Maldives in the central Indian Ocean consist of some 1,200 individual islands grouped in about 20 larger atolls," says Mörner. In-as-much as the islands rise only three to seven feet above sea level, they have been condemned by the IPCC to flooding in the near future.

Mörner disagrees with this scenario. "In our study of the coastal dynamics and the geomorphology of the shores," writes Mörner, "we were unable to detect any traces of a recent sea level rise.

On the contrary, we found quite clear morphological indications of a recent fall in sea level."
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Cloud Lightning

Flashback New Ice Age: Interviewing Geologist Jack Sauers

Elijah C. Boyd
The New Federalist newspaper
Mon, 26 Jan 1998 07:56 UTC
What edible grains will cold weather support?

How do you ensure the survival of cattle on the range, amidst deep snow drifts? If these problems are not met, how many people, will starve to death as the climate becomes colder?

These common sense questions are not usually taken up in the discussions of alleged global warming-climate change, by the little guru-groupies who are presented to the public as "Knowledgeable Climate Experts," but Washington State geologist Jack Sauers has not only investigated these questions, he is actively working with grain researchers and government officials to supply new, cold-resistant rye grain, as one means to help produce food as the world moves into a new ice age.

The beauty of Sauers's approach revolves around looking for the why of observed physical phenomena, thus allowing him to unify in the mind, the increase in ice mass of glaciers at both poles, the southward descent of boreal vegetation and animals, and the apparently unconnected phenomena of increased volcanic eruptions and El Nino events, as parts of a single astronomical-geologic process.
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Phoenix

US: California fire deals big blow to Big Sur tourism


Associated Press
Sat, 28 Jun 2008 14:04 UTC
BIG SUR - Many of the rustic inns, restaurants and art galleries that dot the rugged Central Coast are nearly deserted this weekend at the height of the tourist season as a huge wildfire threatens Big Sur.
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Arrow Down

US: Another sandbag barrier fails at Winfield, Missouri


Associated Press
Sat, 28 Jun 2008 13:58 UTC
WINFIELD - A makeshift sandbag levee holding back the Mississippi River failed early Saturday and authorities said part of the town was evacuated.
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Cloud Lightning

Lebanon: Earthquake reported in south


Naharnet
Sat, 28 Jun 2008 01:08 UTC
An earthquake registering 3.4 on the Richter scale struck south Lebanon early Saturday. No casualties were reported.
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Cloud Lightning

Colorado, US: Most wildfires blamed on lightning

Howard Pankratz and Kieran Nicholson
The Denver Post
Sat, 28 Jun 2008 11:50 UTC
More than a dozen wildfires have been sparked in Colorado in the past week, most by "dry lightning," and the biggest has burned more than 1,100 acres in Park County.

The Nash Ranch fire, which started Thursday afternoon east of Guffey, forced the evacuation of about 150 homes, said Linda Balough, a Park County spokeswoman.

Two structures - a shed and camper trailer - have been lost to the blaze, Balough said.

About 125 fire fighters, including a Rocky Mountain Area Type II Incident Management Team, swarmed into the Guffey area to battle the blaze, she said.

Dry conditions, swirling winds and high temperatures have combined to make this year an active fire season.



Image
©The Colorado Springs Gazette | KEVIN KRECK
A single engine air tanker drops retardent on the fire burning near Guffy, Colo., Friday, June 27, 2008.

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Bug

Hungry spiders spin deadlier webs


New Scientist
Sat, 28 Jun 2008 11:43 UTC
Black widow spiders vary their webs to suit their purpose. A hungry spider spins a deadlier web, while a full one builds a fortress.

Spiders that were fed daily with crickets spun tangled masses of non-sticky silk, Jacquelyn Zevenbergen and Todd Blackledge at the University of Akron, Ohio, found. But similar-size spiders that had been starved for a week tended to spin sheets of silk connected to the ground by taut, sticky strands. When an insect blunders into these strands, they detach from the ground and spring upwards, suspending the prey in mid-air.

Image
©Unknown
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Cloud Lightning

US: Plains storms kill 2, disrupt Olympic hopefuls


Associated Press
Fri, 27 Jun 2008 23:34 UTC
OMAHA, Nebraska - Severe storms with strong winds swept through the Plains on Friday, forcing swimmers practicing for U.S. Olympic trials in Omaha to flee pools and run for cover, killing two people in Iowa, and knocking out power to thousands.
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Bizarro Earth

No ice at the North Pole

Steve Connor
The Independent
Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:01 UTC
It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year.

Polar Ice
©The Independent

Comment: Why is it that, with the temperature falling across the globe for the third year in a row, is Arctic ice melting? Scientists are even predicting that global temperatures will fall over the next decade. Perhaps it has nothing to do with global warming at all, or at least not the kind most climate scientists believe. Perhaps it has something to do with gigantic volcanic eruptions under the ice:
An international team of researchers was able to provide evidence of explosive volcanism in the deeps of the ice-covered Arctic Ocean for the first time.
...
So far, researchers have assumed that explosive volcanism cannot happen in water depths exceeding 3 kilometres because of high ambient pressure. "These are the first pyroclastic deposits we've ever found in such deep water, at oppressive pressures that inhibit the formation of steam, and many people thought this was not possible," says Robert Reves-Sohn, staff member of the WHOI and lead scientist of the expedition carried out on the Swedish icebreaker Oden in 2007.
Volcanic activity may help explain why Pluto is heating up even as it moves further from the sun. And it's not just Pluto, it's Mars and Jupiter as well. The next question is, if it's volcanism, what is causing the increase in volcanism around the solar system?

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