Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Magnitude 6.1 - Costa Rica

CostaRica_310510
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Tuesday, June 01, 2010 at 03:26:18 UTC

Monday, May 31, 2010 at 09:26:18 PM at epicenter

Location:
9.350°N, 84.281°W

Depth:
29.3 km (18.2 miles)

Region:
COSTA RICA

Distances:
74 km (46 miles) SSW (198°) from SAN JOSE, Costa Rica

156 km (97 miles) WSW (243°) from Limon, Costa Rica

194 km (121 miles) SE (138°) from Liberia, Costa Rica

Bad Guys

Best of the Web: Is BP trying to cap the Gulf oil well, or keep it flowing?

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© b3ta corporate logos that tell the truth
Today, I spent my time interviewing people on the Gulf Coast from Mississippi to Louisiana. Several of those interviews were conducted on camera, and you'll be seeing those videos as early as tomorrow here on NaturalNews.

Interestingly, it turns out that a lot of the people living on the Gulf Coast have a history of working with oil companies -- and even on oil rigs. I spoke to several people who have a work history with BP, and two of them told me they are certain that British Petroleum is NOT trying to stop the oil coming out of the well. What they are trying to do, I was told, is SAVE the oil well so that they can capture the oil and sell it.

This claim stands in direct contradiction to what BP says. The company insists it's trying to stop the flow of oil from the well. But if you look at BP's actions, what they're really trying to do is siphon off the gushing oil where it can be pumped to a tanker ship and sold as crude. It is a simple matter, by the way, for oil companies to separate water from oil. They do it all the time in oil fields all across America. So if they can siphon off the oil from the Deepwater Horizon well -- even if it's mixed with water -- they can sell it for potentially billions of dollars.

It raises the question: Is the economic promise of captured oil causing BP to avoid using its best effort to cap the well?

Tapping, not capping

Notice that the new device they're lowering onto the well is designed not to close it off but to pump the oil to an awaiting ship. This is a plan to "capture" the oil, not to seal off the well.

Bizarro Earth

Update: Tropical storm leaves more than 115 dead and a huge sinkhole in Central America

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The office of Guatemala's president handed out this aerial view of a crater that opened up after Agatha hit
At least 115 people have died after a tropical storm battered Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador over the weekend, officials in those countries reported.

Guatemala was hit hardest, with at least 92 deaths, 54 people missing and 59 injured, emergency officials said. Nearly 112,000 people have been evacuated and more than 29,000 areliving in temporary shelters, Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom said in an address to the nation late Sunday.

The devastation has been widespread throughout Guatemala with mudslides destroying homes and buildings and burying some victims. At least nine rivers have dramatically higher levels and 13 bridges have collapsed, the nation's emergency services said.

Extinguisher

Latest climate climbdown: the Royal Society reviews its statements on global warming

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© RockRiverTimesStoryCartoons.com
The latest institutional retreat from uncritical support of the AGW hypothesis is one that will chill warmists to the core: the Royal Society has announced it is to review its public statements on climate change. The Society now believes that its previous communications did not properly distinguish between what was widely agreed on climate science and what is not fully understood. It has appointed a panel to review its statements, assisted by two critical sub-groups, including a number of Fellows who have doubts about the received view on the risks of increasing CO2 levels.

In fact this review has been forced on the Society by 43 of its Fellows who demanded last January that the pamphlet Climate Change Controversies, produced in 2007 and published on its website, should be rewritten to take a less aggressive stance in support of AGW and respect climate change "agnostics". In such partisan activities the Royal Society has form: in 2005 it published "A guide to facts and fictions about climate change", which denounced 12 "misleading arguments" which today, post Climategate and the subsequent emboldening of sceptical scientists to speak out, look far from misleading.

Phoenix

Hundreds die in Indian heatwave

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© Diptendu Dutta/AFP/Getty ImagesA train passenger quenches his thirst in Allahabad as temperatures in the Indian city soared above 113 degrees Fahrenheit.
Death toll expected to rise as India faces record temperatures of up to 122F in hottest summer on record

Record temperatures in northern India have claimed hundreds of lives in what is believed to be the hottest summer in the country since records began in the late 1800s.

The death toll is expected to rise with experts forecasting temperatures approaching 50C (122F) in coming weeks. More than 100 people are reported to have died in the state of Gujarat where the mercury topped at 48.5C last week. At least 90 died in Maharashtra, 35 in Rajasthan and 34 in Bihar.

Hospitals in Gujarat have been receiving around 300 people a day suffering from food poisoning and heat stroke, ministers said. Officials admit the figures are only a fraction of the total as most of the casualties are found in remote rural villages.

Wildlife and livestock has also suffered with voluntary organisations in Gujarat reporting the deaths of bats and crows and dozens of peacocks reported dead at a forest reserve in Uttar Pradesh.

Bizarro Earth

Magnitude 6.4 - Andaman Islands, India Region

Andaman_310510
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Monday, May 31, 2010 at 19:51:48 UTC

Tuesday, June 01, 2010 at 01:21:48 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in Other Time Zones

Location:
11.119°N, 93.698°E

Depth:
127.7 km (79.4 miles)

Region:
ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION

Distances:
120 km (75 miles) ESE of Port Blair, Andaman Islands, India

350 km (220 miles) N of Mohean, Nicobar Islands, India

795 km (495 miles) WSW of BANGKOK, Thailand

2580 km (1610 miles) SE of NEW DELHI, Delhi, India

Bizarro Earth

Magnitude 6.0 - Moro Gulf, Mindanao, Philippines

Philippines_310510
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Monday, May 31, 2010 at 10:16:02 UTC

Monday, May 31, 2010 at 06:16:02 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in Other Time Zones

Location:
6.925°N, 123.995°E

Depth:
33 km (20.5 miles)

Region:
MORO GULF, MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES

Distances:
45 km (25 miles) SW of Cotabato, Mindanao, Philippines

115 km (70 miles) SSE of Pagadian, Mindanao, Philippines

160 km (100 miles) NW of General Santos, Mindanao, Philippines

915 km (570 miles) SSE of MANILA, Philippines

Attention

New undersea eruption underway in the northern Mariana Island

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Saipan, Northern Marianas - A volcanic eruption near the Pacific's Northern Mariana Islands shot clouds of ash and vapor nearly eight miles into the sky, federal scientists said.

The eruption occurred early Saturday and appeared to come from an underwater volcano off Sarigan, a sparsely inhabited island about 100 miles north of the U.S. commonwealth's main island of Saipan.

The Northern Marianas are about 3,800 miles southwest of Hawaii.

USGS volcanologist Game McGimsey said Sunday that scientists are still trying to pinpoint the source but evidence is pointing to an underwater mountain.

Attention

South Pacific: Vanuatu's Mount Yasur volcano spews ash plume

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© AFP
Sydney - A giant plume of volcanic ash over the South Pacific prompted warnings to tourists and airlines Monday but caused only minor disruption to flights compared with recent chaos in Europe.

The cloud billowing from Vanuatu's Mount Yasur volcano rose about 6,000 feet (1,800 metres) high and was spread over about 340 square kilometres (130 square miles), affecting flights in neighbouring New Caledonia.

Tourists have been banned from scenic Mount Yasur, which has been exploding and spitting lava and burning rocks, while officials are assessing whether to evacuate some 6,000 nearby villagers.

Meanwhile, New Zealand officials warned airlines to avoid the ash -- which can seize up jet engines by being churned into glass -- echoing the Iceland eruption which caused mass disruption in Europe including a week-long shutdown.

"The Mount Yasur volcano on Tanna island has been very active the last three days and the eruption is ongoing," said Tristan Oakley, an aviation forecaster with New Zealand's Meteorological Service.

Arrow Down

Natural Arch in Nevada Collapses

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© Don Davis/Las Vegas Review-JournalBefore and after: The Natural Arch used to resemble a dragon feeding its young. Now it appears more like a crescent.
The prominent sandstone arch succumbs to gravity and erosion. Park rangers say there is no evidence of vandalism.

A prominent sandstone arch at Valley of Fire State Park in southern Nevada has collapsed.

Park rangers said it appeared Natural Arch was claimed by forces that would eventually destroy about 300 other arches in the park: gravity and erosion.

They said horseback riders notified them about the damage Wednesday, and no one has reported seeing it fall. It's unclear exactly why and when the arch collapsed, but there's no evidence of vandalism, rangers added.