Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Pacific Ocean Volcano Erupts

Volcano Erupts
© UnknownA plume of smoke rises from the undersea volcano Mount Fukutokuokanoba, near Minami-Iwojima island in the Pacific Ocean, on Wednesday.
An undersea volcano erupted Wednesday, spewing columns of smoke and ash into the Pacific Ocean sky.

A patrol vessel from the 3rd Regional Coast Guard Headquarters visited the area, some 5 kilometers from Minami-Iwojima island in the Ogasawara island chain, around 7:45 a.m.

The volcano is called Mount Fukutokuokanoba. It is located about 1,300 kilometers south of Tokyo.

A fly-over by a coast guard helicopter at 1 p.m. reported continued activity. Observers said the water in the immediate vicinity of the volcano had turned yellowish green.

Better Earth

Global Ocean Protection Measures Have Failed

Thousands of tons of trash are thrown into the sea each year, endangering humans and wildlife. A classified German government report obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE indicates that efforts by the United Nations and the European Union to clean up our oceans have failed entirely.

Since the world's oceans are so massive, few people seem to have a problem with dumping waste into them. But plastics degrade at very a slow rate, and huge amounts of them are sloshing around in our oceans. Wildlife consumes small pieces causing many of them to die, since the plastics are full of poisons. And, as experts warn, we've reached a point where it's even getting dangerous for humans to consume seafood.

Given these conditions, the international community has been pushing for four decades for massive bureaucratic efforts aimed at clearing the oceans of waste. In 1973, the United Nations sponsored a pact for protecting the oceans from dumping. Additional provisions have been added to the so-called Marpol Convention -- short for "marine pollution" -- on six different occasions. And nine years ago, the European Union put directives on the books that forbid any dumping of maritime waste into the ocean while in ports.

Bizarro Earth

US: 2nd large quake in a month hits off Northern California coast

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© AFP/File/Olivier MorinA seismograph reading. A strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake centered off the western Pacific coast shook northern California on Thursday, the US Geological Survey reported.
Residents of Northern California's Humboldt County were rocked by a magnitude-6.0 earthquake Thursday, but officials said there were no immediate reports of major injury or damage from the second large temblor to hit the area within a month.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported a magnitude-6.0 quake struck at 12:20 p.m. about 35 miles northwest of the community of Petrolia and nearly 50 miles west of Eureka. The shaking was felt within a 150-mile radius, as far north as southern Oregon and as far south as Sonoma County, according to the USGS Web site.

Local officials and residents reported feeling a rolling sensation that caused items to fall from walls and shelves. Many said the movement didn't feel nearly as severe as the magnitude-6.5 quake that struck the same region Jan. 9 and caused more than $40 million in damage and one serious injury - an elderly woman who fell and broke her hip.

Bizarro Earth

US: Magnitude 6.0 Earthquake - Offshore Northern California

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© USGS
Date-Time
Thursday, February 04, 2010 at 20:20:21 UTC

Thursday, February 04, 2010 at 12:20:21 PM at epicenter

Location:
40.431°N, 124.929°W

Depth:
11.2 km (7.0 miles)

Region:
OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Distances:
56 km (35 miles) WNW (282°) from Petrolia, CA

59 km (36 miles) WSW (254°) from Ferndale, CA

68 km (42 miles) WSW (256°) from Fortuna, CA

76 km (47 miles) WSW (239°) from Eureka, CA

363 km (225 miles) NW (306°) from Sacramento, CA

Sheeple

Kyrgyzstan to Issue "Passports for Sheep"

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© Agence France-PresseSheep blocking a road
Ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan is preparing to roll out a new system under which the millions of sheep residing in the mountainous state will receive their own high-tech passport, state television reported Monday.

First Deputy Prime Minister Akylbek Japarov said in an address to parliament the government has drafted a bill to deliver a cutting-edge passport to the nation's sheep.

"We are ready to make a passport for each sheep. That is, from their birth to their slaughter, it will be possible to recognize a sheep's pedigree by using laser scanning," he said.

Kyrgyzstan, an impoverished Central Asian country bordering China and Kazakhstan, is home to 4.25 million sheep, according to official government statistics.

Info

Leaves Whisper Their Properties Through Ultrasound

Leave
© Physorg.comLeaves whisper their properties through ultrasound. Credit: Pranav Yaddanapudi
The water content of leaves, their thickness, their density and other properties can now be determined without even having to touch them. A team of researchers from the CSIC Institute of Acoustics and the Agri-Food Research and Technology Centre (CITA) of Aragón has just presented an innovative technique that enables plant leaves to be studied using ultrasound in a quick, simple and non-invasive fashion.

Tomas E. Gómez, one of the authors of the study and researcher at the CSIC Institute of Acoustics, where a technique has been developed to analyse these parts of plants without touching them, explains to SINC that "The method involves establishing a silent dialogue with plant leaves, questioning them and listening to what they say".

The research, recently published in the journal, Applied Physics Letters, demonstrates that some properties of leaves such as thickness, density or compressibility can be determined with this method.

Snowman

IPCC Chairman Refuses to Apologise for Himalayan Glaciers Debacle

Himalayan Glaciers
© Getty ImagesThe Himalayan glaciers
The embattled chief of the UN climate change panel has admitted that a mistake in a landmark 2007 report had damaged the body's credibility, in an interview with a British newspaper.

But Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, refused to apologise in the interview with the Guardian for the erroneous claim that global warming could melt Himalayan glaciers by 2035.

The Nobel-winning panel has faced fierce criticism over the mistake - which has been discredited by glaciologists and is being withdrawn - and the controversy has given fresh ammunition to climate sceptics.

Comment: Indeed, Dr Pachauri will neither resign nor apologise for his involvement in the dissemination of misleading science. Who will take the responsibility then? And why is Mr Gore so very quiet? Perhaps he does not want to rattle the bushes too much...

Read the following articles for more background information on Dr Rajendra Pachauri. Do you still think that he has nothing to apologise for?

- UN Climate Chief Refuses to Resign Over Glacier Report Error
- Amazongate: new evidence of the IPCC's failures
- Pachauri: the real story behind the Glaciergate scandal
- Pachauri: there's money in them glaciers
- Conflict of Interest: IPCC Chairman Pachuri's services to Big Business
- Climategate Payoffs: Climate and Energy Institute Chief Received More than $800,000


Alarm Clock

Honeybees are Modern-Day Canaries in Coal Mines

Over the past three years, more than 50 billion honeybees have died. Scientists understand the causes and now we need everyone to lend a helping hand.

The humble honeybee has been inextricably linked to humankind since prehistoric times - at first we were drawn to this remarkable creature because of its sweet honey.

Honey is to a bee what electricity is for humans - energy. One teaspoon of honey weighing 21 grams contains 16 grams of sugar or 60 calories, and it took 12 bees their entire foraging lives, combined flying time of about 6,000 miles, to produce 21 grams of honey.

To understand the importance of honeybees, consider that every third bite on your plate is a result of their primary role on the planet as pollinators - the most important group on Earth.

Honeybees contribute at least $44 billion a year to the U.S. economy by pollinating crops such as almonds, apples, avocados, blueberries, broccoli, canola, carrot seeds, cherries, citrus, cranberries, cucumbers, grapes, lettuce, macadamizes, melons, peaches, plums, pumpkins, onion seeds, squash, sunflowers, kiwis, tomatoes and zucchinis, to name a few; alfalfa and clover for beef and dairy industries; cotton for our clothes; honey, candles and medicines.

Radar

More than 1,200 tiny quakes hit Yellowstone Park

Cheyenne, Wyoming. - Yellowstone National Park is shaking again, but jitters seem few so far.

Over eight days, more than 1,270 mostly tiny earthquakes have struck between Old Faithful and West Yellowstone. The strongest dozen or so have ranged between magnitudes 3.0 and 3.8.

That's strong enough to feel - barely. The vast majority have been too weak to be felt even nearby.

Likewise, online chatter about an imminent volcanic eruption in Yellowstone hasn't really picked up compared with the attention that a similar quake swarm drew just over a year ago.

"Perhaps we have done a better job in the past year or so helping the public understand that earthquake swarms are not unusual in Yellowstone," park spokesman Al Nash said Monday.

The largest quakes in the current swarm have included two of magnitude 3.1 and one of magnitude 3.0 late Sunday and early Monday, according to the University of Utah, which helps monitor seismic activity in Yellowstone.

Sun

Scientists warn solar activity could hit London 2012 Olympic Games

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Scientists today warned that a peak in the solar activity due in 2012 could disrupt television and internet networks during the London Olympic Games.

Speaking ahead of the launch of Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory next week, mission scientists said that the sun was due to hit a peak in its eleven-year cycle in 2012.

"The Olympics could be bang in the middle of a solar maximum," said Professor Richard Harrison, of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in Oxfordshire and a co-investigator on the mission.

It has long been known that surges in solar activity can cause disruption in satellite and terrestrial communications systems, but until now it has been almost impossible to predict solar storms in advance.