Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Japan Earthquake Triggered Volcano Eruption In Russia?

Eruption
© PlanetSave
The major earthquake that hit Japan today may have just triggered some volcanoes in Russia as well. While reports are still vague on the incident, there is a strong correlation between the two occurrences. In Russia, there are reports that earthquakes where felt during the eruption.





Bizarro Earth

Earthquake and Tsunami near Sendai, Japan

Honshu Quake
© Earth Observatory, NASANASA Earth Observatory image created by Robert Simmon and Jesse Allen, using earthquake and plate tectonics data from the USGS Earthquake Hazard Program, land elevation data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) provided by the University of Maryland’s Global Land Cover Facility, and ocean bathymetry data from the British Oceanographic Data Center’s Global Bathmetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO).
On March 11, 2011, at 2:46 p.m. local time (05:46 Universal Time, or UTC), a magnitude 8.9 earthquake struck off the east coast of Japan, at 38.3 degrees North latitude and 142.4 degrees East longitude. The epicenter was 130 kilometers (80 miles) east of Sendai, and 373 kilometers (231 miles) northeast of Tokyo. If initial measurements are confirmed, it will be the world's fifth largest earthquake since 1900 and the worst in Japan's history.

This map shows the location of the March 11 earthquake, as well as the foreshocks (dotted lines) and aftershocks (solid lines). The size of each circle represents the magnitude of the associated quake or shock. The map also includes land elevation data from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission and ocean bathymetry data from the British Oceanographic Data Center.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the earthquake occurred at a depth of 24.4 kilometers (15.2 miles) beneath the seafloor. The March 11 earthquake was preceded by a series of large foreshocks on March 9, including an M7.2 event. USGS reported that the earthquakes "occurred as a result of thrust faulting on or near the subduction zone interface plate boundary."

Bizarro Earth

Tonga: Earthquake Magnitude 6.1 - 12th March

Tonga Quake_120311
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 01:19:07 UTC

Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 02:19:07 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
16.727°S, 173.174°W

Depth:
10.9 km (6.8 miles)

Region:
TONGA

Distances:
106 km (65 miles) SE of Hihifo, Tonga

229 km (142 miles) NNE of Neiafu, Tonga

355 km (220 miles) SSW of APIA, Samoa

2528 km (1570 miles) W of Auckland, New Zealand

Ladybug

The End of Honey-Bees?

bee
© n/a
The mysterious collapse of honey-bee colonies is becoming a global phenomenon. Declines in managed bee colonies, seen increasingly in Europe and the US in the past decade, are also now being observed in China and Japan and there are the first signs of African collapses from Egypt, according to the report from the United Nations.

Beekeepers in Western countries have been reporting slow declines of stocks for many years, apparently due to impaired protein production, changes in agricultural practice, or unpredictable weather. In early 2007, abnormally high die-offs (30-70% of hives) of European honey bee colonies occurred in the U.S. and Québec; such a decline seems unprecedented in recent history. This has been dubbed Colony collapse disorder (CCD); it is unclear whether this is simply an accelerated phase of the general decline due to more adverse conditions in 2006, or a novel phenomenon. More than a dozen factors, ranging from declines in flowering plants and the use of memory-damaging insecticides to the world-wide spread of pests and air pollution, may be behind the emerging decline of bee colonies across many parts of the globe.

Blackbox

Japan's quake shifts earth's axis by 25 centimetres

Image
© Wikipedia
Initial results out of Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology show that the 8.9-magnitude earthquake that rattled Japan Friday shifted the earth's rotation axis by about 25 centimetres.

INGV's report, which came hours after the devastating incident, is equivalent to "very, very tiny" changes that won't be seen for centuries, though, Canadian geologists say.

Only after centuries would a second be lost as each day is shortened by a millionth of a second, according to University of Toronto geology professor Andrew Miall.

"Ten inches sounds like quite a lot when you hold a ruler in front of you. But if you think of it in terms of the earth as a whole, it's absolutely tiny; it's minute," he said.

"It's going to make minute changes to the length of a day. It could make very, very tiny changes to the tilt of the earth, which affects the seasons, but these effects are so small, it'd take very precise satellite navigation to pick it up."

Nuke

Japan's Quake Could Have Irradiated the Entire U.S.

Had the massive 8.9 Richter-scale earthquake that has just savaged Japan hit off the California coast, it could have ripped apart at least four coastal reactors and sent a lethal cloud of radiation across the entire United States.



Chernobyl winds, as determined by the French government, but with a map of the United States overlaid on top of it. No sound. There is a slight video glitch at about 0:57

The two huge reactors each at San Onofre and Diablo Canyon are not designed to withstand such powerful shocks. All four are extremely close to major faults.

All four reactors are located relatively low to the coast. They are vulnerable to tsunamis like those now expected to hit as many as fifty countries.

San Onofre sits between San Diego and Los Angeles. A radioactive cloud spewing from one or both reactors there would do incalculable damage to either or both urban areas before carrying over the rest of southern and central California.

Bell

Japan quake causes emergencies at 5 nuke reactors

Japanese nuclear power plant
© Associated Press/Kyodo NewsThis October 2008 photo shows the Fukushima No. 1 power plant of Tokyo Electric Power Co. at Okuma, Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan. Japan's top government spokesman says the country has issued a state of emergency at the nuclear power plant after its cooling system failed.
Japan declared states of emergency for five nuclear reactors at two power plants after the units lost cooling ability in the aftermath of Friday's powerful earthquake. Thousands of residents were evacuated as workers struggled to get the reactors under control to prevent meltdowns.

Operators at the Fukushima Daiichi plant's Unit 1 scrambled ferociously to tamp down heat and pressure inside the reactor after the 8.9 magnitude quake and the tsunami that followed cut off electricity to the site and disabled emergency generators, knocking out the main cooling system.

Some 3,000 people within two miles (three kilometers) of the plant were urged to leave their homes, but the evacuation zone was more than tripled to 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) after authorities detected eight times the normal radiation levels outside the facility and 1,000 times normal inside Unit 1's control room.

Attention

Japan nuclear plant conditions worsening, local media reports

Japanese nuclear power plant
© European Pressphoto Agency / March 11, 2011The emergency cooling system of the nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture has been running on backup batteries since the earthquake. The Japanese government has evacuated thousands of residents as a precaution
The Kyodo news agency says the cooling system has failed at three reactors at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture in northeastern Japan and that the coolant water's temperature has reached boiling level.

Conditions appear to be worsening at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture in northeastern Japan, according to local media.

The Kyodo news agency reported that the cooling system has failed at three reactors of Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant. The coolant water's temperature had reached boiling temperature, the agency reported, citing the power plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power.

The cooling system failure at the No. 2 power plant came after officials were already troubled by the failure of the emergency cooling system at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, which officials feared could cause a meltdown.

Bizarro Earth

Three volcanoes erupt almost at the same time after Japan Earthquake

Image
© unknown
Two volcanoes in Eastern Russia , Kamchatka and one other in Indonesia, have erupted around the same time as the Japan 8.9-magnitude Earthquake on Friday.

Meteorologist Kevin Martin is the lead scientist here at TheWeatherSpace.com and explains in his own way what may actually be happening.

"Waves from the Earthquake have been ringing the planet like bell, causing stress in all sections of the planet", Martin said. "Imagine a calm magma chamber that just needs one push, even if a few feet. This would be enough to cause instability in the chambers, causing volcanic eruptions in various locations. These three eruptions will not be the only mountains to go and other quakes worldwide will follow as the worldwide faults get disturbed.

Clock

Colorado wildfire prompts evacuation of 200 homes

Image
© Associated Press/Will PowersA fire truck blocks traffic on Left Hand Canuon Road north of Boulder, Colo. Friday, March 11, 2011. High winds on the front range akes the fire difficult to manage. A wildfire that has prompted the evacuation of more than 200 homes north of Boulder, Colo., has spread to about 200 acres.
Boulder, Colo. - A wildfire driven by dry, windy weather scorched at least 200 acres Friday in the foothills west of Boulder, prompting the evacuation of roughly 200 homes.

An air tanker from New Mexico started dropping fire retardant on the flames by afternoon as wind gusts that had reached 60 mph eased to between 20 and 30 mph.

About 100 firefighters also battled the blaze, which was burning near an area where a wildfire charred nearly 10 square miles and destroyed 169 homes in September.

Maribeth Pecotte of the U.S. Forest Service said the fire had grown to between 200 and 300 acres and was threatening 12 structures, none of which were homes. No buildings have been damaged.