© USGS
Initial estimates from the USGS ShakeMap indicate that although strong shaking will have been felt by many people, damage is expected to be light.
Earth Changes
Initial estimates from the USGS ShakeMap indicate that although strong shaking will have been felt by many people, damage is expected to be light.
Manila - Mudslides tumbled down a rain-soaked mountain in the southern Philippines, burying dozens of shanties in a gold mining village and killing at least 26 people, a provincial governor said Tuesday.
A 50-member police and military rescue team headed to the remote village of Napnapan to help search for at least six people missing a day after the landslides hit, said Gov. Arthur Uy of Compostela Valley province.
A 50-member police and military rescue team headed to the remote village of Napnapan to help search for at least six people missing a day after the landslides hit, said Gov. Arthur Uy of Compostela Valley province.
A golfer in Denmark reportedly has been killed by lightning.
The national broadcaster DR says the man in his 60s interrupted his golf game when a thunderstorm began and was walking to a club house when the lightning struck and killed him.
The national broadcaster DR says the man in his 60s interrupted his golf game when a thunderstorm began and was walking to a club house when the lightning struck and killed him.
Weather service officials say two small tornadoes that touched down in parts of central New York destroyed a handful of barns and sheds and damaged numerous trees.
Steven Ippoliti, a National Weather Service meteorologist, says a tornado hit Cortland County just after 4 p.m. Saturday and moved into Madison County around 4:30 p.m. It was classified as a two on a scale that ranks the severity of tornadoes from zero to five.
Winds reached between 100 and 120 mph and a roof was torn off a house in the village of Georgetown, about 28 miles southeast of Syracuse.
Several barns and outlying buildings were destroyed and trees were uprooted.
Steven Ippoliti, a National Weather Service meteorologist, says a tornado hit Cortland County just after 4 p.m. Saturday and moved into Madison County around 4:30 p.m. It was classified as a two on a scale that ranks the severity of tornadoes from zero to five.
Winds reached between 100 and 120 mph and a roof was torn off a house in the village of Georgetown, about 28 miles southeast of Syracuse.
Several barns and outlying buildings were destroyed and trees were uprooted.
The SORCE (Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment) folks have just published a very interesting paper with some surprising results about the solar irradiance over the end of Cycle 23.
As is well known, the TSI (Total Solar Irradiance) varies directly with the Sun's activity level, with an amplitude of about 0.1%. The Sun is about 0.1% brighter at activity maximum than at minimum. SORCE carries an instrument called TIM (Total Irradiance Monitor) that measures just this, but it also includes another intrument called SIM, the Spectral Irradiance Monitor. This instrument measures solar variability in six different wavelength bands, and SIM has turned up something very interesting.
As is well known, the TSI (Total Solar Irradiance) varies directly with the Sun's activity level, with an amplitude of about 0.1%. The Sun is about 0.1% brighter at activity maximum than at minimum. SORCE carries an instrument called TIM (Total Irradiance Monitor) that measures just this, but it also includes another intrument called SIM, the Spectral Irradiance Monitor. This instrument measures solar variability in six different wavelength bands, and SIM has turned up something very interesting.
A 5.0-magnitude earthquake has just struck Los Angeles, reports CBS station KCBS-TV.
The moderate earthquake shook the Los Angeles area.
There were no immediate reports of any major injuries or damage.
The moderate earthquake shook the Los Angeles area.
There were no immediate reports of any major injuries or damage.
© Mike Johnson
Blue Whale
Blue Whale
Blue whales - thought to be the largest animals ever to have inhabited the Earth - have returned to the seas off Canada and Alaska for the first time since hunting them ceased more than four decades ago. New research suggests that they appear to have rediscovered an old migration route that they abandoned at the height of the slaughter.
The research, by US and government scientists and a private research institute focussing on marine mammals, comes as whales face their greatest ever danger in over 20 years, as key governments threaten to breach the international moratorium on commercial whaling.
It has so far spotted 15 of the blue whales, which can weigh up to 200 tons, in the Gulf of Alaska and off British Columbia, and identified four of them as having been previously seen off southern California. Long ago, before commercial whaling began, they used to migrate between the two areas, heading north in summer in search of food - they can each consume four tons of tiny crustacean krill a day. But they were hunted close to extinction, with their numbers reduced from some 200,000 world wide to between 5,000 and 12,000.
© Carlos Jaramillo, STRI
Sediments that gather at the base of mountains provide important clues about how and when the mountains were formed.
Sediments that gather at the base of mountains provide important clues about how and when the mountains were formed.
"No one had ever dated mountain-building events in the eastern range of the Colombian Andes," said Mauricio Parra, a former doctoral candidate at the University of Potsdam (now a postdoctoral fellow with the University of Texas) and lead author. "This eastern sector of America's backbone turned out to be far more ancient here than in the central Andes, where the eastern ranges probably began to form only about 10 million years ago."
© Art Lebedev Studio
The BBC has perfected the use of weasel words to create alarm. They have a lead story today :
The collapse of a major polar ice sheet will not raise global sea levels as much as previous projections suggest, a team of scientists has calculated.There is no evidence presented that such an event would, could or will occur - other than some 30 year old hearsay.
Writing in Science, the researchers said that the demise of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) would result in a sea level rise of 3.3m (10 ft).
"It has been hypothesised for more than 30 years now that the WAIS is inherently unstable," he explained.And how many other global catastrophes have been forecast over the last 30 years? Seems like a new one nearly every week. The article goes on -
© unknown
The collapse of a major polar ice sheet will not raise global sea levels as much as previous projections suggest, a team of scientists has calculated.
Writing in Science, the researchers said that the demise of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) would result in a sea level rise of 3.3m (10 ft).
Previous estimates had forecast a rise in the region of five to six metres.
However, they added, the rise would still pose a serious threat to major coastal cities, such as New York.
"Sea level rise is considered to be the one of the most serious consequence of climate change," lead author Jonathan Bamber told the Science podcast.
"A sea level rise of just 1.5m would displace 17 million people in Bangladesh alone," he added.
"So it is of the utmost importance to understand the potential threats to coastlines and people living in coastal areas."
Comment: This article and the study it discusses are both filled with nonsense.
After reading the above propaganda read this review of it by Steven Goddard.
Scientific Jargon - "Would" "Will" "Could" "Might" "Maybe"