Earth Changes

Landslide Derails Train in Northern Italy, 11 Dead

The Associated Press
Mon, 12 Apr 2010 09:12 UTC

A landslide hit and derailed a train in northern Italy on Monday, killing 11 people and leaving some 30 injured, officials said.

The accident happened near Merano, a small town close to the Austrian border about 300 kilometers (185 miles) north of Venice.

With the wreckage still on the tracks, rescuers were working to pull out bodies and find possible survivors. The area was cordoned off, said Giuseppe Marazzi of the local firefighters.

He said that 11 people were killed and about 30 were injured, including seven who were hospitalized in serious condition.

Severe drought persists in southwest China

CCTV
Sat, 10 Apr 2010 21:08 UTC

The severe drought in southwestern China is persisting, worsening the situation for tens of millions of people short of drinking water. Experts say recent rainfalls in the region is far from adequate.

According to the latest statistics released by the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief, the situation remains "grave".

Magnitude 6.2 - Spain

US Geological Survey
Sun, 11 Apr 2010 19:39 UTC

Date-Time:
Sunday, April 11, 2010 at 22:08:10 UTC

Monday, April 12, 2010 at 12:08:10 AM at epicenter

Location:
37.078°N, 3.470°W

Depth:
616.7 km (383.2 miles)

Distances:
25 km (15 miles) SE of Granada, Spain

95 km (60 miles) ENE of Malaga, Spain

95 km (60 miles) WNW of Almeria, Spain

370 km (230 miles) S of MADRID, Spain

'Solar Radiation Management' or Manhattan Project 2.0?

Jutta Schmitt
VHeadline.com
Sun, 11 Apr 2010 15:02 UTC

Shielding Electronics from Electromagnetic Pulses

Every technology on the market today is based on alternating current technologies in relation with semiconductor technologies and if these were seriously threatened this would mean, in the final analysis, that everything that we nowadays need to live, work and recreate ourselves, could be destroyed.
-- Uwe Behnken --

University of Los Andes (ULA) senior lecturer in political sciences, Jutta Schmitt writes: It's intriguing. Just barely a week after the Asilomar Conference on Climate Intervention Technologies had taken place in Pacific Grove, California, we heard honorable knights for the defense of global climate integrity, such as the American Enterprise Institute's Resident Fellow and Co director of the AEI geo-engineering Project Lee Lane, advocate a global imposition of geo-engineering technologies on behalf of the advanced, industrialized states of the world in the firm conviction, that "geo-engineering experiments shouldn't require global agreement," because these would in any case be guided by the shining light of the government of the United States and its noble constitutional obligation to promote the welfare of the American people. This is how Lane evokes 'American national interest,' this magic, self-sufficient concept that justifies the use of any means in order to obtain, that is, impose the desired objective.^[1]

Magnitude 6.8 - Solomon Islands

US Geological Survey
Sun, 11 Apr 2010 14:44 UTC

Date-Time:
Sunday, April 11, 2010 at 09:40:30 UTC

Sunday, April 11, 2010 at 08:40:30 PM at epicenter

Location:
10.913°S, 161.130°E

Depth:
60.2 km (37.4 miles)

Distances:
100 km (65 miles) WSW of Kira Kira, San Cristobal, Solomon Isl.

205 km (130 miles) SE of HONIARA, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands

245 km (150 miles) S of Auki, Malaita, Solomon Islands

2025 km (1260 miles) NNE of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia

Cold, Even by Siberian Standards

Earthweek
Fri, 09 Apr 2010 18:03 UTC

© Bolot Bochkarev
The dim winter's sun illuminating a cabin in Oimyakon, Siberia. The photo was taken on January 20, 2010, just after the morning low temperature reached minus 74 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 59 degrees Celsius).

Russia's chief meteorological official says this past winter may go down in the record books as the coldest ever for Siberia.

"The winter of 2009-10 was one of the most severe in the European part of Russia for more than 30 years, and in Siberia it was perhaps the record-breaking coldest ever," said Alexander Frolov, head of state meteorological service Rosgidromet.

He told reporters that while statistics for the coldest eastern part of Siberia have not yet been thoroughly analyzed, western areas received the second-harshest winter in 110 years.

In Far East Russia's frigid outpost of Oimyakon, the temperature on Jan. 20 plunged to minus 74.0 degrees Fahrenheit, the coldest anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere this past winter.

US: Invasive fish and mussels team up to transfer toxic substances into Great Lakes walleyes

PhysOrg
Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:55 UTC

Two notorious Great Lakes invaders -- the zebra mussel and the round goby -- now play a central role in transferring toxic chemicals called PCBs up the food chain and into Saginaw Bay walleyes, one of that region's most popular sport fish.

The links between zebra mussels, round gobies and contaminated Saginaw Bay walleyes is a disturbing example of unanticipated problems that can occur when non-native species get loose in the Great Lakes, said University of Michigan fishery biologist David Jude, lead author of a paper on the topic published online today in the Journal of Great Lakes Research.

"This zebra mussel-to-goby link in Great Lakes contaminated areas is one of the main conduits of PCB transfer to top aquatic predators such as the walleye, and it plays a substantial role in PCB transfer to birds, mammals and reptiles in the region as well," said Jude, a research scientist at the U-M School of Natural Resources and Environment.

Between 2005 and 2007, Jude's team collected walleyes, round gobies and various other fish species, as well as zebra mussels and zooplankton, in the Tittabawassee River, the Saginaw River and Lake Huron's Saginaw Bay. Then they measured levels of PCBs in all those organisms - the first such study in the Saginaw Bay region.

"Though the levels of PCBs in Saginaw Bay walleyes have declined sharply in recent years, these toxic substances continue to show up at levels high enough to warrant concern," Jude said.

US: Brucellosis in Wyoming elk on the increase

The Casper Star-Tribune
Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:11 UTC

Green River -- Brucellosis appears to be increasing in several elk herds in northwestern Wyoming, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey study.

The study's data suggests that enhanced elk-to-elk transmission in free-ranging populations may be occurring because of denser elk clusters during winter.

The study also said that elk populations inside and outside of the Greater Yellowstone area that traditionally did not maintain brucellosis may now be at risk because of population increases.

The new study on brucellosis -- a bacterial infection of cattle, elk and bison -- appeared in the March publication of Ecological Applications, said USGS spokeswoman Suzanna Carrithers.

The magazine is a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

Brucellosis causes miscarriages in cattle. The disease is present in many elk and bison in the greater Yellowstone region, known as the last reservoir for brucellosis in the United States. The disease can be transmitted from wildlife to cattle.

The presence of the disease within livestock herds has resulted in additional testing requirements and trade restrictions in past years in both Wyoming and Montana.

Both states have had to institute strict testing and quarantine procedures to regain federal brucellosis-free status.

Paul Cross, USGS disease ecologist and lead author of the study, said elk-to-elk transmission of brucellosis may be increasing in new regions around Yellowstone.

He noted several cattle herds have been infected in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana since 2004.

The Science Fiction Of Global Warming

Tony R. Elliott
UFO Digest
Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:10 UTC

The latest news is the European Union has launched a high tech satellite to measure the effects of Global Warming on Earth's polar caps and collect data on rising sea levels. The satellite will be using radar from 447 miles (720 kilometers) above Earth's surface to measure ice thickness of both land and sea ice and is said to be capable of pinpointing changes to within 1 centimeter (0.39-inch).

The article goes on to say Pessimists expect a sea rise by 2 to 3 meters (6.6 feet to 9.8 feet) by the year 2100, while the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007 projected only some 20 to 60 centimeters (7.9 inches to 23.6 inches) and that CryoSat will yield invaluable data that will make predictions on rising sea levels much more certain, German glacial scientist Heinrich Miller said.

On the surface it sounds like the EU has really got its act together and wants to prove once and for all that Global Warming is real by showing the changes that were previously just computer simulated images. However the data this satellite will provide is compromised even before it begins to send back any information. This is because the radar imaging of the Earth's ice will be transmitted back to computers here on Earth and integrated into the computer simulations already being used to prove this politically motivated sham. Since the radar mapping data will be used along with already manipulated simulations this guarantees a desired outcome rather than any new revelations. The so called Climate Change experts will use this new satellite information in hopes to convince the skeptics that Global Warming is real. In reality CryoSat is merely adding new simulation to be manipulated into computer graphs which have been created for an overall desired picture showing melting ice and rising sea levels.

Etna showing signs of new eruptions?

Erik Klemetti
Eruptions Blog
Thu, 08 Apr 2010 15:19 UTC

Eruptions reader and member at Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Catania, Dr. Boris Behncke, has been keeping many of us appraised on the goings-on at Mt. Etna. A series of earthquakes occurred on April 2-3 along a fault near the north flank of the volcano - 175 earthquakes in all producing some impressive results - and Boris has noted increased "rumblings" at Etna since. This has culminated in explosions and ash April 7-8. Most of the ash appears to be made from merely crushed rock of previous eruption - accidental material rather than new juvenile magma, but all of this suggests that Etna could be headed for a new eruptive period. There has also been an increase in the gas emissions from the volcano - all signs that new magma may be rising in the conduit and a new eruption is approaching. Etna erupts quite frequently, but has been relatively quiet over the last few months, with little in the way of obviously eruptive activity.