Earth ChangesS


Cloud Precipitation

Floods Cut Off North Korean City

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© ReutersA helicopter flies over flooded houses in the North Korean city of Sinuiju
North Korea has been forced to deploy military units to rescue 5,000 people who were left stranded by a fresh wave of flooding along the impoverished state's border with China.

Pyongyang's official news agency said North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had dispatched the units to the city of Sinuiju, which had been inundated after the Yalu river overflowed.

The floods, caused by 11.8 inches of rain falling in nine hours on Saturday, have also forced the evacuation of 127,000 people on the Chinese side of the border in the port city of Dandong, the main gateway for North Korea's limited trade with the world.

Chinese weather forecasters were warning of a further 10 inches of rain to fall by this morning. On Sunday it was confirmed that four people had died in the flooding in China.

Pictures from the country showed people being airlifted by helicopter from the rooftops of damaged buildings as water swirled around them.

Better Earth

Great Barrier Reef's great-grandmother is unearthed

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© Naoi/ Flickr/GettyAge before beauty, when it comes to coral?
Just 600 metres away from the Great Barrier Reef, the jewel in Australia's crown, a less spectacular but more ancient reef has been discovered.

The first hint of its existence came in 2007, when seismic and sonar measurements revealed odd ridges and lagoons on the seabed. Confirmation arrived in February this year, when an international team extracted 34 sediment cores from three sites on the seabed, revealing a fossilised coral reef that reaches 110 metres into the sea floor. Preliminary dating of the core indicates that the coral is up to 169,000 years old.

"This is the great-grandmother of the Great Barrier Reef," says John Pandolfi of the University of Queensland, who was not on the mission. It is "a very important discovery", he says, and should provide new insights into the genesis of the reef.

Bizarro Earth

Mystery of the Atlantic's missing plastic flotsam

The amount of floating plastic trapped in a north Atlantic current system hasn't got any bigger in 22 years, despite more and more plastic being thrown away.

Since 1986 students taking samples of plankton in the Atlantic and Caribbean Oceans have also noted when their nets caught plastic debris. Kara Lavender and colleagues at the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, analysed the data, and found that of 6136 samples recorded, more than 60 per cent included pieces of plastic, typically just millimetres across. The areas of highest plastic concentration are within the north Atlantic subtropical gyre, where currents gather the debris.


Ambulance

More than 120,000 people evacuated in flood-hit China

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© Unknown
Fresh floods in China's northeastern Liaoning province have forced more than 120,000 people to evacuate their homes and thousands to relocate in North Korea.

China's Civil Affairs Ministry said late Saturday that 127,000 people had been evacuated in Liaoning province in just three days due to the rains, AFP said.

Heavy summer downpours have dangerously swollen the Yalu River, which forms the boundary between China and neighboring North Korea. Chinese forecasters have warned of more heavy rains in parts of Liaoning.

In Dandong city alone, which borders North Korea, more than 94,000 residents were evacuated and some power and transport links were cut off, China's official Xinhua news agency reported.

Ambulance

Iran declares health alert on Pakistan border

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© Unknown
Iranian officials have announced the country is to set a medical state of emergency on its borders with Pakistan, launching a vaccination and health check on immigrants.

Head of the Iranian Health Ministry's Center for Disease Control, Mohammad-Mehdi Gouya, told ISNA that it has been three weeks since the Iranian Health Ministry issued a health alert on its borders with Pakistan.

Last week, the United Nations confirmed the first death from cholera following the destructive floods in Pakistan that have devastated millions in the South Asian country.

"All travelers crossing the Iran-Pakistan border will receive a medical exam, especially a colon exam," Gouya said. "All children entering Iran from the Pakistani border will also receive a polio vaccine."

Gouya further stressed that cholera is certainly a concern and that is why Iran is stepping up efforts to prevent the spread of any contagious disease.

Meteor

Hampton University gets $6.3M from NASA to continue noctilucent cloud study

Noctilucent Clouds Finland 7-28-2001
© Tom Eklund/Daily PressNoctilucent (NLC) or "night-shining" clouds that HU and NASA are studying.
Hampton University has received a $6.3 million contract extension from NASA to continue researching mysterious noctilucent, or "night-shining" clouds in Earth's polar regions and their relationship to climate change.

NASA originally gave HU $140 million in 2002 to spearhead its proposed Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere satellite mission The university launched the satellite in April 2007. It's now in polar orbit to collect images and data about the noctilucent clouds, which are formed by ice and only seen from the ground about an hour after sunset or an hour before sunrise.

This is the university's second multi-million dollar contract extension since the launch. In December, it received $10.2 million to extend the project through September 2012. So far the project has totaled $156.5 million.

The latest $6.3 million extension will allow HU to further track the clouds through the 11-year solar cycle, said James Russell, co-director of the school's Center for Atmospheric Sciences and principal investigator of the mission.

Igloo

Worst Coral Die-Off Ever Recorded, Caused by 93-Degree Oceans

Bleached coral in the waters off Aceh province in Indonesia. Credit: WCS Indonesia.
© WCS IndonesiaBleached coral in the waters off Aceh province in Indonesia.
One of the most destructive and swift coral bleaching events ever recorded is underway in the waters off Indonesia, where water temperatures have climbed into the low 90s, according to data released by a conservation group this week.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) says a dramatic rise in sea temperature, potentially linked to global warming, is responsible for the devastation.


Comment: One alternative explanation comes to mind: the numerous undersea volcanos being discovered, and erupting more frequently: Quakes due to Undersea Volcanos, Scientists Discover Explosive Deep Ocean Volcano, and yet another Huge Undersea Volcano Discovered


In May, the WCS sent marine biologists to investigate coral bleaching reported in Aceh - a province of Indonesia - located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. The initial survey carried out by the team revealed that more than 60 percent of corals in the area were bleached.

Subsequent monitoring of the Indonesian corals completed in early August revealed one of the most rapid and severe coral mortality events ever recorded. The scientists found that 80 percent of some species have died since the initial assessment, and more colonies are expected to die within the next few months.

Bizarro Earth

Kenya: Mysterious 'bearded' antelope photographed

Bearded antelope
© Paolo TorchioThis strange, bearded antelope was seen just a few weeks ago in Kenya. It's not clear why this young creature looks so different from its kin.
When Paolo Torchio set out across Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve a few weeks ago, it was just a typical Thursday morning for the veteran wildlife photographer, who has lived and worked in Kenya for two decades.

Torchio is intimately acquainted with the beasts that wander the nearly 600-square-mile game reserve, so he was astonished to see a terrier's face poking out of the tall grass.

"I was wondering, what is this dog doing?" Torchio said. "And when it came out from the grass, that was a surprise."

The hirsute creature that emerged was clearly not a dog. The animal had all the markings of a Thomson's gazelle (a type of antelope) - but, like that old song from "Sesame Street," one of these kids was not like the others. This animal was covered with a strange, thick coat of hair, in stark contrast to the sleek Thomson's gazelles in its company.

"The funny aspect was that it wasn't affecting the relations with the other gazelles," Torchio said in a phone interview. "There was no problem between her and the other one."

Torchio crept alongside the shaggy creature for 15 minutes, snapping pictures, but eventually the spooked animal sped away. The Italian photographer spent the next five days trying to find the gazelle, but to no avail.

Experts are not quite sure what to make of the fluffy little gazelle, especially since Torchio's photographs are the only known example of such a beast.

Bizarro Earth

Over 50,000 Evacuated in China Flooding

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© Agence France-PresseOver 50,000 evacuated in China flooding
More than 50,000 people have been evacuated after a swollen river flooded a city in northeastern China on Saturday, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Earlier reports said 10,000 people had been evacuated.

Torrential rains caused flooding along the Yalu River that marks the border between China and North Korea.

Floodwaters cut off transport and communication links in Dandong City, destroyed over 200 houses and left at least three people missing, local officials said.

Bizarro Earth

Thousands Flee As Fresh Floods Hit Pakistan

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© NASAThis NASA image shows the severity of flooding in Sukkur city in Sindh province
Thousands more people in Pakistan have been forced to flee their homes as fresh flooding has submerged dozens more towns and villages in the south.

Around 150,000 Pakistanis in Sindh province have been evacuated to higher ground because of the swollen Indus River, a government spokesman said.

Officials expect the floodwaters to recede nationwide in the next few days as the last river torrents empty into the Arabian Sea.

But survivors may find little left when they return home - the waters have washed away houses, roads, bridges and crops, and leaving millions homeless and penniless.

In Sindh, there are already 600,000 people in relief camps set up during the flooding.