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© The Associated Press / Toby TalbotDave Jacobs tries to shovel out his car so he could head to Mad River ski area on Monday, March 7, 2011 in Montpelier, Vt. The National Weather Service says the winter storm that's whacking northern Vermont is going to be one for the record books. Meteorologist Bruce Taber says 20.6 inches of snow has fallen at the Burlington International Airport and it's supposed to keep snowing through the early afternoon. He says some parts of northern Vermont could get up to 30 inches of snow.
As of 1 p.m., 23.3 inches of snow had fallen at Burlington International Airport - the biggest March snowfall there on record_ and it wasn't finished yet.
At Aubuchon Hardware in downtown Montpelier, the most popular types of snow shovels were sold out, the grass seed was on display and store were readying shelves for more springtime wares.
"Smile, folks - it's coming," Tom Walbridge said of the spring season scheduled to start in just two weeks. Outside told a different story.
The storm helped push the winter of 2010-11 up the record list. Even before the snow stopped, it became the fourth-snowiest winter on record in Burlington, at 121.4 inches, and the storm appeared potent enough to challenge the famous Valentine's Day blitz in 2007 that dumped 25.7 inches on Burlington, Taber said.
© Ma5912 / WikipediaMt.Ruapehu from the Desert Road, 2005.
Mount Ruapehu is heating up -- but there's no need to panic, a volcanologist says.
Ruapehu's Crater Lake has reached 40degC, the third-highest temperature recorded at the lake since 2002.
Other signs, including gas output, minor seismic activity and changes in lake chemistry were also typical of a volcano in a heating cycle, GeoNet vulcanologist Tony Hurst said.
Ruapehu entered its current heating cycle last October, the eighth since the lake was re-established in 2002 after the 1995-1996 eruptions.
Ruapehu is on volcanic alert level one, which indicates signs of volcano unrest, but Mr Hurst told NZPA that was normal for an active volcano such as Ruapehu.
© Brett PhibbsRangitoto, sitting at our front door, a silent reminder of its violent arrival in two eruptions 600-700 years ago.
It hardly needs an official list from the council to remind Aucklanders that, like Christchurch, this city is peppered with old buildings that are likely to tumble down in a severe earthquake.
The main arterial roads through well-established suburbs such as Newmarket, Herne Bay, Mt Eden, Dominion Rd, Onehunga and Otahuhu all have clusters of 100-year-old, two-storey brick retail premises, shops downstairs, dwellings above.
In the CBD, old masonry buildings provide the "character" between the anonymous glass towers. Some have been strengthened, many not. The day after the Christchurch earthquake I emerged from a lunch bar in downtown Queens Arcade debating which side of the street would be safer to walk up if I succumbed to quake phobia.
Of course, venturing below the old harbour shoreline at Shortland St to the arcade was a bad move to start with. The old Auckland Regional Council's earthquake hazard guide warns that ground shaking would be greater in "reclaimed land such as parts of downtown Auckland".
This would also be prone to liquefaction, but only if the shake was "quite a large one", the guide says, helpfully adding that in Auckland there is "a 10 per cent chance of [that] occurring in the next 50 years".
As well as buildings falling on you and silt squirting up your trouser legs at that end of town, there's the added risk of death by tsunami.
© USGSEarthquake Location
Monday, March 07, 2011 at 00:09:38 UTC
Monday, March 07, 2011 at 11:09:38 AM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location:
10.334°S, 160.739°E
Depth:
37.9 km (23.6 miles)
Region:
SOLOMON ISLANDS
Distances:
127 km (78 miles) W of Kira Kira, San Cristobal, Solomon Isl.
135 km (83 miles) SE of HONIARA, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands
176 km (109 miles) S of Auki, Malaita, Solomon Islands
2064 km (1282 miles) NNE of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia
© Tim Wright - APLava flows on the Pu'u O'o crater on Kilauea Volcano on Sunday, March 6, 2011 in Hawaii. Scientists say the Pu'u O'o crater floor has collapsed and an eruption occurred along the middle of Kilauea Volcano's east rift zone. Scientists at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory say after a fissure broke out around 5 p.m. Saturday, lava was seen erupting up to 65 feet high.
The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said the fissure eruption was spotted shortly after the floor at the Pu'u O'o crater collapsed around 5 p.m. Saturday. It occurred along the middle of Kilauea's east rift zone, about 2 miles west of Pu'u O'o.
"As a volcanogist, this is what we do. These are the moments we wait for," volcanogist Janet Babb told KHON2. "It is exciting to see an eruption begin particularly if you can see it from the very start."
Is this a sun dog?
It appears that Krýsuvík volcano earthquake activity is increasing again. This time around it appears that the earthquake activity in Krýsuvík volcano has moved more to the west then last weeks earthquake activity.
The biggest earthquake so far is a ML2.1 earthquake with the depth of 6.9 according to automatic data on Icelandic Met Office web page.
The new earthquake area in Krýsuvík volcano. It is more to the west then the earthquake area that was making earthquakes last week. Activity appears to be picking up slowly. But it is hard to know how this develops over the next few hours or days.
The biggest earthquake so far is a ML2.1 earthquake with the depth of 6.9 according to automatic data on Icelandic Met Office web page.
© Icelandic Met Office.
© Robin W. BairdThree melon-headed whales.
Mito - About 50 melon-headed whales were found to have beached on the shore in Kashima, Ibaraki Prefecture, in eastern Japan Friday night and 22 were rescued and returned to the sea on Saturday by authorities and local volunteers.
About 200 people, including staff at Oarai Aquarium in the same prefecture, city government officials and local residents and surfers near the Oritsu coast tried to save the beached whales by keeping them hydrated while they tried to refloat them, but 30 of them died, according to the city government.
It took about eight hours to return the surviving whales to the sea, the officials said, adding they have buried the carcasses of the dead whales on the nearby shore.
Melon-headed whales are commonly seen offshore around the area in the early spring and they may have been drawn into the shallow waters while following their food, said Masayuki Shimada, chief of the marine animal exhibition section of the aquarium.
