Earth ChangesS


Magnet

Odd Twist In Slow 'Earthquakes': Mysterious Tremor Running Backwards Scientists Find

Earthquake scientists trying to unravel the mysteries of an unfelt, weeks-long seismic phenomenon called episodic tremor and slip have discovered a strange twist. The tremor can suddenly reverse direction and travel back through areas of the fault that it had ruptured in preceding days, and do so 20 to 40 times faster than the original fault rupture.

"Regular tremor and slip goes through an area fairly slowly, breaking it. Then once it's broken and weakened an area of the fault, it can propagate back across that area much faster," said Heidi Houston, a University of Washington professor of Earth and space sciences and lead author of a paper documenting the findings, published in Nature Geoscience.

Episodic tremor and slip, also referred to as slow slip, was documented in the Pacific Northwest a decade ago and individual events have been observed in Washington and British Columbia on a regular basis, every 12 to 15 months on average.

Slow-slip events tend to start in the southern Puget Sound region, from the Tacoma area to as far north as Bremerton, and move gradually to the northwest on the Olympic Peninsula, following the interface between the North American and Juan de Fuca tectonic plates toward Vancouver Island in Canada. The events typically last three to four weeks and release as much energy as a magnitude 6.8 earthquake, though they are not felt and cause no damage.

Igloo

Snow and gales . . it must be Scottish summertime

With snow falling in the Highlands, heavy rain lashing the west coast and severe weather warnings for gale force winds across the entire country from Monday - it could only be summer in Scotland.

While the south of England continues to bask in a prolonged dry spell that has led to water shortages in some areas and sunbathing temperatures of over 70ºF (21ºC), people north of the border will be looking out raincoats and umbrellas for the next week at least, with the wet weather set to last into June.

Bizarro Earth

Largest Volcanic Eruption in Grímsvötn in 100 Years

Iceland Volcano
© Bjarni Brynjólfsson.The current eruption in Grímsvötn is larger in scale than the eruption in Eyjafjallajökull in 2010, according to geophysicist Magnús Tumi Gudmundsson.
The current volcanic eruption in Grímsvötn on Vatnajökull glacier is the largest in that volcano 100 years and larger than the one in Eyjafjallajökull last year. It is similar to the eruption of 1873, according to geophysicist Magnús Tumi Gudmundsson. A large flood is not expected.

This morning the ash cloud was 15 to 18 kilometers high which means that the volcanic eruption is ten times more powerful than the last eruption in Grímsvötn in 2004, Gudmundsson told ruv.is.

However, it is not unique. Grímsvötn goes through phases where it erupts often in a period of 60-80 years, then there are quieter periods of equal length.

Cloud Lightning

US: Tornado Kills Man, Destroys 20 Homes in Kansas Town

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© Orlin Wagner/AP PhotoStorms clouds pass behind Buck Creek School near Lawrence, Kan., Saturday.
A tornado swept through a small eastern Kansas town, killing one person and destroying at least 20 homes, as severe thunderstorms pelted the region with hail that some residents said was the size of baseballs, authorities said early Sunday.

A man was pronounced dead shortly after being taken to Newman Regional Hospital in Emporia, about 20 miles from where the tornado hit Saturday night in Reading, hospital supervisor Deb Gould said. She said two other people were brought in with injuries but she had no further details.

"I'm hoping it's over for us," she told The Associated Press, noting that local authorities were still at the scene in Reading, about 50 miles south of Topeka.

About 200 homes were damaged in and around the town of about 250 people Saturday night, said Kansas Division of Emergency Management spokeswoman Sharon Watson. The local post office and volunteer fire department were damaged, and all roads in and out of the town have been closed off.

Rev. Lyle Williams, who lives in Emporia and is a pastor for about 10 worshipers at the Reading First Baptist Church, said the church suffered extensive damage.

"Yeah, it's pretty bad," he told the AP. "My daughter was out there and told me about it."

"I'm not going to be able to have church today that's for sure," he added, saying he's been a pastor at the church for 21 years.

Power had been restored in the town by early Sunday and a shelter was being set up at a local school. The tornado was reported around 9:15 p.m., Watson said.

Attention

US: Yellowstone super volcano is even bigger than first thought

Planning a summer vacation? How about visiting one of the biggest, meanest active volcanoes on earth? It's right in our own backyard, just a five-hour drive north, at Yellowstone.


People come to the nation's first park every year to see bear, elk and herds of bison, but most visitors never realize they're inside the mouth of a volcanic beast.

The mouth of the Yellowstone super volcano is big. The caldera -- the crater left by an eruption -- is roughly 14-hundred square miles. The southern half of the national park is swallowed by the caldera.

Newspaper

Iceland's Grimsvotn volcano erupting

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© UnknownGrimsvotn volcano
Reykjavik, Iceland - Iceland's most active volcano has started erupting, scientists said Saturday - just over a year after another eruption on the North Atlantic island shut down European air traffic for days.

Iceland's Meteorological Office confirmed that an eruption had begun at the Grimsvotn volcano, accompanied by a series of small earthquakes. Smoke could be seen rising from the volcano, which lies under the uninhabited Vatnajokull glacier in southeast Iceland.

One eyewitness, Bolli Valgardsson, said the plume rose quickly several thousand feet into the air.

Grimsvotn last erupted in 2004. Scientists have been expecting a new eruption and have said previously that this volcano's eruption will likely be small and should not lead to the air travel chaos caused in April 2010 by ash from the Eyjafjallajokul volcano.

Bizarro Earth

Kermadec Islands - Earthquake Magnitude 6.1

Kermadec Quake_210511
© USGSEarthquake Location.
Date-Time
Saturday, May 21, 2011 at 21:17:00 UTC

Sunday, May 22, 2011 at 09:17:00 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location
30.775°S, 178.133°W

Depth
19.8 km (12.3 miles)

Region
KERMADEC ISLANDS, NEW ZEALAND

Distances
103 km (64 miles) NE of L'Esperance Rock, Kermadec Islands

169 km (105 miles) S of Raoul Island, Kermadec Islands

942 km (585 miles) NE of Auckland, New Zealand

1108 km (688 miles) SSW of NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga

Attention

Deaths in Malaysia orphanage landslide

At least twelve people have been killed in Malaysia after a landslide hit an orphanage, near Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, police said.


Bad Guys

Volcano erupts in Iceland, spurs 50 quakes

White plume shoots 18,000 feet above the glacier that sits over the volcano
Image
© Photographers DirectGrimsvotn volcano
Reykjavik, Iceland - Iceland's most active volcano erupted Saturday, with a white plume shooting 18,000 feet into the air, scientists said.

The eruption was followed by around 50 small earthquakes, the largest of which measured 3.7 on the Richter Scale, according to Iceland's meteorological office.

There was a similar eruption at the same volcano in 2004.

Scientists don't believe this eruption will lead to air travel chaos like that caused by ash from the Eyjafjallajokul volcano in April 2010.

The Grimsvotn volcano is located underneath the Vatnajokull glacier in southeast Iceland.

Sparsely populated Iceland is one of the world's most volcanically active countries and eruptions are frequent.

They often cause local flooding from melting glacier ice, but rarely cause deaths.

Last year's Eyjafjallajokul eruption left millions of air travelers stranded after winds pushed the ash cloud toward some of the world's busiest airspace and led most northern European countries to ground all planes for five days.

In November, melted glacial ice began pouring from, signaling a possible eruption. That was a false alarm but scientists have been monitoring the volcano closely ever since.
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© UnknownGrimsvotn Volcano Area - Iceland.

Cloud Lightning

US: The rain just keeps falling

Record rainfall hit Central Nebraska, causing the National Weather Service in Hastings to post flood warnings early Friday evening.
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© Independent/Barrett StinsonHeavy rain Friday afternoon caused both the Eddy Street and Sycamore Street underpasses to be closed. At least two cars stalled out in the Sycamore Street underpass, where this driver waits to be pulled out.
Heavy rain fell that afternoon and evening in Grand Island, flooding streets and closing the Eddy Street and Sycamore Street underpasses temporarily because of high water, which stranded several motorists. High water on streets throughout Grand Island made driving difficult and hazardous.

Flooding was also reported in Alda, Cushing, Dannegrog, Elba, Greely, Spalding, St. Libory, St. Paul and Wolbach.

At 5 p.m., the National Weather Service in Hastings reported that Grand Island had a record rainfall for Friday of 1.81 inches, with more rainfall expected through the evening. That broke the previous record of 1.32 inches set in 1957.

The heavy rain pushed Grand Island's precipitation to 4.81 inches for the month as of 5 p.m., but the heavy rain continued into the evening adding to that amount.