Earth Changes
Friday, August 07, 2009 at 10:49:34 UTC
Friday, August 07, 2009 at 03:49:34 AM at epicenter
Location:
40.316°N, 124.626°W
Depth:
16.4 km (10.2 miles)
Region:
Offshore Northern California
Distances:
29 km (18 miles) W (268°) from Petrolia, CA
42 km (26 miles) SW (227°) from Ferndale, CA
48 km (30 miles) WSW (245°) from Rio Dell, CA
66 km (41 miles) SW (217°) from Eureka, CA
334 km (208 miles) NW (307°) from Sacramento, CA
The magnitude-3.3 quake struck around 1:53 a.m. Friday and was centered about 4 miles north-northwest of Fontana and 44 miles east of the Los Angeles Civic Center, according to a preliminary report by the U.S. Geological Survey.
The survey says the earthquake's epicenter was relatively shallow, just one-tenth of a mile below the surface.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injury.
The kings failed to show up, and not just in the Yukon.

This infrared satellite image shows Typhoon Morakot's cold clouds (depicted in purple and blue) stretching over 1,000 miles in diameter on Aug. 6 in the East China Sea.
To put it into perspective, 1,056 miles is longer than the distance from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Orlando, Florida. Olsen said that it's important to know that satellite image represents the lateral extent of the cold cloud tops and that the winds definitely do not extend over an area 1,000 miles in diameter.

This ant latched on to a leaf before dying from infection by the parasitic fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis.
A fungus that attacks living ants apparently manipulates their behavior for its own benefit, an international research team reports in the September American Naturalist.
When the Ophiocordyceps unilateralis fungus strikes, an infected ant climbs to a leaf not far off the ground (often on the north-northwest side of a tree), bites in and dies with jaws locked in place. Experiments now show that these low-hanging leaves give the fungus prime conditions for growing a spore-bearing spike out of the ant's neck, says study coauthor David Hughes of Harvard University.

Parts of Salzburg and Upper and Lower Austria were hit by heavy rain, hail and winds of up to 100 kilometres per hour (Mon/Tues).
In Lower Austria alone 1,500 firemen were called out.
Rescuers helped an 84-year-old woman in Eggenburg, Lower Austria who had become disoriented in the rain and couldn't find her way back home as well as an Italian family cycling along the Danube River near Wallsee, Lower Austria who had lost their way in the rain.
High wind in Sitzenberg in Tulln district in Lower Austria blew 150 square metres of metal off the framework of a building under construction while lightning in Zwettl district in Lower Austria set two roofs on fire and started a forest fire nearby. It also started a blaze at an apartment in Brand and a set barn on fire in Schöngraben.
A mudslide in Gosau, Upper Austria hit 300 metres of a local highway, carrying some parked cars away and a pregnant woman, 31, was injured when a carriage she was riding in was overturned by a gust of wind in Upper Austria.
Weathermen have said rain will ease off tonight and tomorrow morning and tomorrow afternoon, Thursday and Friday will be mostly sunny before rain returns over the weekend.
Salzburg's northern Flachgau had already been hit by more heavy thunderstorms on Sunday less than two weeks after massive hail storms had left a trail of destruction in the area.
Dr. William Gray, a noted expert in long-range hurricane forecasting, issued his revised forecast for the remainder of the 2009 hurricane season, and it is good news: A below-average season, about 85% of the long-term average in terms of activity, is expected. This is primarily due to a developing El Nino, which increases vertical wind shears which are hostile to hurricane growth.
Here is a portion of the text from his report, posted on the Colorado State website August 4, 2009:
U.S. policymakers who cite "consensus" on man-made global warming as justification for anti-emission regulations are relying upon outdated and misleading material from the United Nations that deliberately omits the influence of natural forces, according to climate skeptics. In fact, a growing body of evidence now points to the emergence of another cooling cycle that could persist for decades.
Dr. Don Easterbrook, a geologist and professor emeritus at Western Washington University, has presented data that shows a cooler and wetter climate is in order for the next 25 to 30 years. The Pacific Ocean has a warm temperature mode and a cool temperature mode known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation or PDO, he said in a recent study.