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US: Catastrophic Fires Burn Thousands of Acres, Force Evacuations Across Central Texas

Patrick George, Andrea Ball and Melissa Taboada
American-Statesman
Mon, 05 Sep 2011 13:14 UTC
Image
© Jay Janner/ Austin American-Statesman
Fires in Bastrop County, Spicewood, Steiner Ranch, Pflugerville, others driven by wind and dry conditions.

In a summer where brush fires have become a near-daily occurrence, firefighting officials said the multiple wildfires that raged across Central Texas on Sunday were the worst the region has seen all year.

Numerous wind-driven fires pushed fire departments to their limits and forced evacuations in Bastrop County, the Steiner Ranch subdivision, Pflugerville, Spicewood and other areas. Scores of residents were left wondering whether they had homes to return to as many of the fires continued to burn Sunday night.

The largest and most destructive fire was in Bastrop County, where a blaze burned 14,000 acres and grew to an estimated 16 miles long by the end of the day, said Mark Stanford, fire chief of the Texas Forest Service.

"It's catastrophic," Stanford said of the Bastrop County fire. "It's a major natural disaster."
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

India: Earthquake Magnitude 4.3 - Haryana-Delhi-Uttar Pradesh Region


Universe Today
Wed, 07 Sep 2011 17:02 UTC
Image
© USGS
Date-Time:
Wednesday, September 07, 2011 at 17:58:21 UTC

Wednesday, September 07, 2011 at 11:28:21 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
28.995°N, 77.223°E

Depth:
10 km (6.2 miles)

Region:
HARYANA-DELHI-UTTAR PRADESH REG., INDIA

Distances:
36 km (22 miles) N of Delhi, Delhi, India

44 km (27 miles) N of NEW DELHI, Delhi, India

46 km (28 miles) W of Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India

49 km (30 miles) SSE of Panipat, Haryana, India
      Read More...
Question

King Crab Invading Antarctica


redOrbit
Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:09 UTC
King Crab
© NOAA

Global warming is the most likely cause of a growing number of king crabs that have been marching along the sea floor toward West Antarctica, according to a report by biologists on Wednesday.

The intruder, 'Neolithodes yaldwyni Ahyong and Dawson', a bright-red deep-sea predator that had previously been spotted only in the Ross Sea, on the other side of West Antarctica, is now living and reproducing in abundance on the western edge of the icy continent.

Writing in the journal Proceedings B, scientists said the crabs are currently thriving in the Palmer Deep, a basin cut in the continental shelf. They believe the crabs were washed in during an upsurge of warmer water.

The crabs are ravenous predators on the sea floor and could likely change the ecosystem profoundly if they spread further, researchers warn. The crab is known as an "ecosystem engineer" because it digs into the sea floor to feast on worms and other tiny animals, an activity that can have repercussions across the marine food web if these crabs continue to multiply and spread out.

A team of scientists, led by Laura Grange of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, lowered a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), named the Genesis, into the Palmer Deep in March of last year as part of a long-term probe into biodiversity in the waters off Antarctica.
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Arrow Up

US: Rising Death Toll in Texas Wildfires


NBC News
Tue, 06 Sep 2011 21:07 UTC
Blaze near Austin is still raging out of control and has burned 600 homes

Image
© Larry W. Smith/EPA
A wildfire burns out of control in Bastrop State Park near Bastrop on Sept. 5.
One of the most devastating wildfire outbreaks in Texas history left more than 1,000 homes in ruins Tuesday and stretched the state's firefighting ranks to the limit, confronting Gov. Rick Perry with a major disaster at home just as the GOP presidential contest heats up.

More than 180 fires have erupted in the past week across the rain-starved Lone Star State, and nearly 600 of the homes destroyed since then were lost in one catastrophic blaze in and around Bastrop, near Austin. That blaze raged out of control Tuesday for a third day.

Whipped into an inferno by Tropical Storm Lee's winds over the weekend, the blaze burned at least 40 square miles, forced the evacuation of thousands and killed at least two people, bringing the overall death toll from the outbreak to at least four.

"We lost everything," said Willie Clements, whose two-story colonial home in a neighborhood near Bastrop was reduced to a heap of metal roofing and ash. A picket fence was melted. Some goats and turkeys survived, but about 20 chickens and ducks were burned to death in a coop that went up in flames.
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Phoenix

Halmahera, Indonesia: Ash cloud 800 meter high at Dukono volcano

Armand Vervaeck
Earthquake Report
Wed, 07 Sep 2011 10:28 UTC
Dukono volcano (North Halmahera regency, Indonesia) activity increased on September 6, 2011 in sending volcanic ash clouds as high as 800 meters in the sky. The capital town of the Halmahera regency lies at the port of Tobelo, approx. 15 km from the volcano (population approx. 15,000). Residents were asked to evacuate at least about two kilometers from the foot of the volcano.

The volcano observation post at Mount Dukono, told the press that dozens of volcanic earthquakes occurred every day.
The eruption can be seen from Ternate, and island and biggest city in the area (has also an airport).

The volcano is currently in PVMBG Alert status III (local sources) although the official PVMBG site is still showing a II alert status (alert status range from 1 to IV). North Halmehara is part of the province of North Maluku (Moluccas)

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Bell

US, Alaska: Remote Alaska Volcano Resumes Dome Growth


Associated Press
Wed, 07 Sep 2011 10:22 UTC
Cleveland Volcano Alaska
© Unknown
The lava dome at a remote Alaska volcano has resumed growing, prompting officials to raise its alert level.

The dome now fills the floor of the crater at Cleveland Volcano, 940 miles southwest of Anchorage.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory on Tuesday raised the volcano's alert level to watch status. The threat level was dropped on Aug. 30, but raised against after a persistent thermal anomaly started Saturday. Observatory officials say in a news release that's when the lave dome likely started growing again.

The dome was 262 feet in diameter on Aug. 30, but is now about 394 feet in diameter.

Officials say if that continues, lava flows could start on the flanks of the volcano. The growing dome also increases the possibility - but doesn't ensure - an explosive eruption.
      Read More...
Info

Mysterious Killer Whale Population Preys on Sharks


Anchorage Daily News
Tue, 06 Sep 2011 11:21 UTC
Offshore orcas
© McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Offshore orcas
Scientists have documented a coordinated, gruesome attack on a school of sleeper sharks by a little-studied group of orcas that ranges from California to Alaska's Aleutian Islands. An article published recently in the journal Aquatic Biology tells of a 2008 feeding frenzy in British Columbia waters just south of the Alaska border, reports the Canadian Press.
The [orcas] were hyperventilating, arching their backs and diving deep.

On the hydrophone, [Canadian scientist John] Ford could hear their excited songs.

Minutes passed and then a chunk of tissue -- about 250 grams in size and later proven to be part of a liver -- floated to the surface, coming to rest in a slick of oil.

More and more tissue and oil soon appeared, covering an area of ocean in a sheen hundreds of metres in size and flattening the water's ripples.
      Read More...
Radar

Iceland's Katla Volcano Monitored After Seismic Activity Increases

Paisley Dodds and Gudjon Helgason
Huffington Post
Tue, 06 Sep 2011 23:43 UTC
Katla / Iceland flag
© Getty
A surge of small earthquakes has been reported around Iceland's Katla volcano, but scientists said Tuesday there is no immediate concern that the increased seismic activity will trigger a dangerous eruption.

Although earthquakes around Katla are common, an increase in cluster earthquakes is not.

"It's one of the most feared volcanos, so we're closely monitoring it," said Pall Einarsson of the University of Iceland. "That said, it's normal for earthquakes to be detected around Katla. What's a bit unusual is that we're seeing swarms of small earthquakes, some occurring every 10 minutes or so."

After flying over the area to monitor the situation Tuesday evening, scientists said they could not yet determine what caused the increased seismic activity. Although they detected signs that Katla was preparing for an eruption, they also emphasized that the volcano had also seen similar activity without erupting before.
      Read More...
Ambulance

US: 2 Killed in Massive Texas Wildfire


MSNBC/The Associated Press
Tue, 06 Sep 2011 17:21 UTC
Bastrop - More than 1,000 homes have been destroyed in at least 57 wildfires across rain-starved Texas, most of them in one devastating blaze near Austin that is being blamed for two deaths, officials said Tuesday.

Bastrop County Sheriff Terry Pickering said Tuesday he had no details about the deaths. On Sunday, a 20-year-old woman and her 18-month-old daughter were killed Sunday in an East Texas blaze.

Image
© Jay Janner / Austin American-Stateman
Massive plumes of smoke block the sky on Highway 71 east of Bastrop, Texas, on Monday Sept. 5, 2011.
Gov. Rick Perry, who cut short a presidential campaign trip to South Carolina on Monday to return to help oversee firefighting efforts in Texas, told NBC's Today that the fires were "a long way" from being under control and described the effect on people who had lost their homes as "devastating."

Texas Forest Service spokeswoman Victoria Koenig said it is too early to say how much progress was made fighting the wildfire in Bastrop County overnight, but that there were no winds early Tuesday. The fire enveloped at least 25,000 acres Monday.

"It's encouraging we don't have winds right now, not like yesterday," Koenig said early Tuesday morning.
      Read More...
Cow Skull

Papua New Guinea Drought Leaves Thousands Food Insecure


Irish Weather Online
Tue, 06 Sep 2011 16:14 UTC
Mangrove fruit Papua New Guinea
© Mike Bourke
Mangrove fruit is a staple part of some islanders' diet
Aid workers say more than 6,000 people on a remote cluster of islands off the northeast coast of Papua New Guinea (PNG) have been left food insecure following an extended dry spell.

"The situation is now under control, but these people will need food in three months," Ruger Kahwa, head of the Humanitarian Support Unit of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told IRIN from Port Moresby.

The government has distributed 34,000kg of rice to the isolated islands, expected to last a few months, but post-distribution monitoring is needed, Kahwa said.
      Read More...
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