Earth ChangesS


Meteor

"Deep Large and Heavy" Boom Over Ohio Blamed On Jet

Columbus, Ohio - A loud noise heard near Delaware and Marion counties concerned many residents Thursday evening.

10TV News received reports that residents in Hilliard, Galloway, Westerville and Canal Winchester also heard the sound.

According to the Delaware County Sheriff's Office, a low-flying jet broke the sound barrier and created a sonic boom.

Comment: This boom, occurred just six hours after a similar massive boom that shook houses over large swathes of England was heard. That boom was also blamed, by British authorities, on military jets. What are the odds? Given the large number of meteorite sightings in recent years, it is far more likely that these booms were caused by overhead meteorite detonations and the US and British governments are scrambling to cover it up.

Note some of the comment of eyewitnesses left on at the original link of this article:
Right. The Delaware County Sheriff's office would have their finger on the pulse of sonic booms caused by supersonic aircraft.
2012-04-13 00:36:34.0

Judy Graves (bella-gypsy)

That did not sound like a jet. It sounded deep,large, and heavy. And with no boom sound, it lasted a long time. Everyone I've talked to heard it, but no one saw anything in the sky.

2012-04-13 12:12:33.0

Bob Miller (blaza6925)

I don't believe this at all... First of all, they don't keep F-16 at Rickenbacker. Second, if a F-16 was going to take off for Mississippi, it would have taken off on runway 23 (heading southwest). Third, at 10,000, you can see an F-16 easily-even with he light cloud cover. Four, people heard the sound all the way up in Marion; if the jet was turning over Westerville to go south, it shouldn't be heard all the way in Marion



Bizarro Earth

Climate Change Throws Nature's Timing Out of Whack

Moose
© Steve Bower | shutterstockIn Alaska, changes in moose migrations no longer line up with the hunting season, creating problems for native tribes who depend on the meat.
Timing matters: Flowers bloom, insects emerge, birds migrate, and planting and hunting seasons are carefully coordinated times in order to take advantage of what other organisms, or the weather, is up to.

But increasing research is showing some of these relationships are falling out of sync as climate change alters important cues, such as the arrival of spring warmth.

"There are going to be winners and losers," said David Inouye, a biology professor at the University of Maryland, who has followed seasonal events at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Colorado since 1973. "The ultimate outcome will be that some species go extinct and some manage to adapt."

This isn't just a problem for the natural world. Shifts in seasonal events can have direct implications for humans, "because we, as human societies, are adapted to certain seasonal conditions," said Shannon McNeeley, a postdoctoral researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) who has studied how a mismatch is playing out in Alaska. There, changes in the moose migrations have made it difficult for native people to obtain the meat they need during the legal hunting season.

"This more subtle seasonal change has not been a main focus of climate research," McNeeley said. "I think it is going to be one that emerges more and more as we see these changes happening, and we start to have more conflicts around this."

Attention

Alligator wanders up to Louisiana Motel 6 and bites guest

Port Allen Alligator
A Motel 6 in Port Allen, Louisiana had an unusual guest on Thursday, a 5-foot-plus alligator that wandered up to the building from a nearby canal. It was first spotted by a hotel employee, but it was a guest who attempted to subdue the animal before police and animal control personnel arrived on the scene. The man was bitten and later admitted to a nearby hospital.

Animal control personnel managed to trap the alligator and release it back into the wild. Spring is when alligators mate and seek out places for safe nesting. Reuters quotes parish animal control director Richard Summers as saying that sometimes alligators wander away from their normal habitats and "just get lost."

Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 4.2 - Utah

Utah Quake_120412
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time
Thursday, April 12, 2012 at 03:29:22 UTC

Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 09:29:22 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location
37.811°N, 112.089°W

Depth
10.6 km (6.6 miles)

Region
UTAH

Distances
21 km (13 miles) N (360°) from Tropic, UT

27 km (17 miles) N (353°) from Cannonville, UT

29 km (18 miles) NNW (343°) from Henrieville, UT

209 km (130 miles) ENE (57°) from Mesquite, NV

328 km (204 miles) S (183°) from Salt Lake City, UT

Igloo

Amount of ice in Bering Sea reaches all-time record

The amount of floating ice in the Arctic's Bering Sea - which had long been expected to retreat disastrously by climate-Cassandra organisations such as Greenpeace - reached all-time record high levels last month, according to US researchers monitoring the area using satellites.

The US National Snow and Ice Data Center announced last week that ice extent in the Bering for the month of March has now been collated and compared, and is the highest seen since records began. The NSIDC boffins said in a statement:
As winds from the north pushed Arctic ice southward through the Bering Strait, the ice locked together and formed a structurally continuous band known as an ice arch, which acts a bit like a keystone arch in a building. The ice arch temporarily held back the ice behind it, but as the winds continued, the arch failed along its southern edge, and ice cascaded south through the strait into the Bering Sea. Sea ice also piled up on the northern coast of St Lawrence Island, streaming southward on either side of it.

Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 5.9 - Off Coast of Oregon

Image
© USGS
Date-Time
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 22:41:47 UTC
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 01:41:47 PM at epicenterTime of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location
43.593°N, 127.557°W

Depth
10.2 km (6.3 miles)

Region
OFF THE COAST OF OREGON

Distances

271 km (168 miles) W of Coos Bay, Oregon
303 km (188 miles) WSW of Newport, Oregon
317 km (196 miles) WNW of Brookings, Oregon
391 km (242 miles) WSW of SALEM, Oregon

Attention

Best of the Web: Space Weather Report: CMEs, Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Disasters, Extreme Weather, and More. Things are Heating Up!


Igloo

Former Astronauts & Employees to NASA: Stay Away from Global Warming

BBM
© NASA/JPLOur planet as seen from space.


A group of former NASA employees, including astronauts, has called on the agency to stop making "unproven and unsubstantiated remarks" regarding global climate change - specifically that human activities are driving global warming.

"We believe the claims by NASA and (Goddard Institute for Space Studies), that man-made carbon dioxide is having a catastrophic impact on global climate change are not substantiated," write the 49 signatories in a letter to NASA administrator Charles Bolden. [Read the Full Letter]

This is the most recent objection by skeptics who challenge the reality of human-caused global warming. For decades, climate scientists have warned that humans are changing the composition of our atmosphere, warming the planet and, as a result, face rising sea levels, more extreme weather and other consequences. The concept is now well established in scientific literature and attempts to address it are the subject of ongoing international talks.

The letter originates from members of the Johnson Space Center Chapter of the NASA Alumni League, according to Walter Cunningham, a former astronaut who flew the Apollo 7 in 1968 and one of the letter's signatories.

In its four paragraphs, the letter deliberately avoids delving into its signatories' reasons for doubting climate-change science, Cunningham told LiveScience. "It's really trying to get NASA to back off from taking political positions on science."

Human-caused global warming is "a very open issue right now," he said.

Bizarro Earth

Big Earthquakes Strike 4 Locations Around the Globe

Big Quakes
© OurAmazingPlanetThe earthquake that struck Sumatra was a big one, but , here's how it compares to some record holders.
Several earthquakes of significant strength have struck around the infamous Pacific Ring of Fire over the last few days, a not uncommon occurrence in a region prone to temblors.

First was the magnitude-8.6 earthquake that struck off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra yesterday (April 11), spurring tsunami warnings and watches across the Indian Ocean basin that were later cancelled. Only a modest uptick in ocean surface heights were detected by buoys, unlike in the 2004 Indian Ocean disaster that generated a massive tsunami that killed thousands. The more recent earthquake was a different type of earthquake than the 2004 event and did not result in a large upward displacement of the ocean floor, which is typically what triggers tsunami.

Later in the day came a magnitude 6.5 earthquake on the Pacific coast of Michoacan, Mexico. It did not result in any tsunami warnings. It came a couple weeks after a magnitude 7.4 struck Oaxaca, Mexico, causing residents to evacuate buildings and causing some structural damage and minor injuries.

Bizarro Earth

Italy's Mt. Etna volcano rocked by 6th eruption in 2012

Image
© Unknown
Mount Etna is erupting for the sixth time this year with lava and plumes of smoke and ash from a new crater on the volcano's southeast side. The new activity was preceded by new phase that began last night and that, according to experts from the INGV in Catania, has the same characteristics as the one before this one. Ash, carried by wind towards the east, has not yet created problems at the Fontanarossa airport, which is fully operational.