Earth Changes

Kyrgyzstan Expecting Earthquakes, Landslides, Avalanches, Mud and Floods in 2012

Tolgonai Osmongazieva
24 News Agency
Wed, 29 Feb 2012 09:35 UTC

In Kyrgyzstan, activation of seismic, landslide, avalanching, mud flows and flood processes is expected in 2012. Kyrgyz Minister of Emergency Situations Kubatbek Boronov said at today's conference on summarizing the results of the civil protection system performance.

According to him, last year they conducted 1, 401 thousand examinations of dangerous natural processes. "This is 19 percent more than in 2010. The Department of Emergency Monitoring and Forecasting annually publishes information on forecasts to prevent emergency situations and take top-priority measures," Kubatbek Boronov said.

Fish Contaminated with Fukushima Radiation Detected in Sri Lanka

Disna Mudalige
Sri Lanka News
Thu, 01 Mar 2012 17:02 UTC

The Atomic Energy Authority (AEA) has detected fish consignments imported to Sri Lanka that were contaminated from radio active substances in the seas following the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, AEA chairman Dr Ranjith Jayawardene said.

He told the Daily News that the AEA had been checking all imported fish consignments to Sri Lanka since the Fukushima incident to ensure these were safe for human consumption.

He noted that the AEA discovered salmon and other fish consignments which were slightly contaminated by radioactive substances last November and also last week during checks. The container load imported in November was released after a laboratory test to ensure that the level of radioactive substances is harmless for human consumption. This load included fish from the seas off China.

The fish consignment imported to the country last week has been retained by the Customs until a special laboratory test. The chairman said that the results of this test would be released within two days.

Mysterious plume blankets Kewalo Basin, Honolulu

Ron Mizutani
khon2
Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:41 UTC

A mysterious cloudy substance is emptying into Kewalo Basin from a storm drain at an alarming rate.

The mystery plume started pouring into Kewalo Basin before sunrise.

"It was like 5:30 in the morning and I was standing here and then all of a sudden it came all at one time," said Robert St. Romain of Sashimi Fishing Tours. At first light he and other boat owners were stunned by the free flowing plume that turned the water white. "Just was coming out here like crazy just like you see it right now and it muddied the whole harbor in a matter of five minutes."

Island off west coast of Scotland shaken by five tremors

BBC.co.uk
Wed, 29 Feb 2012 14:26 UTC

More small earthquakes have hit the island of Islay off the west coast of Scotland.

Five tremors shook the island between 07:04 and 09:32. One resident described a very deep, loud rumble.

The British Geological Survey recorded the strongest at a magnitude of 2.8. A spokeswoman said there were no reports of any damage.

A further four small earthquakes have already affected the area this month, reaching up to a magnitude of 2.6.

Maha Rangafamy, 28, who lives in Port Charlotte, felt one of the tremors on Wednesday morning.

Severe weather, near-death experiences and more tornadoes on the way

NBC News
Thu, 01 Mar 2012 09:45 UTC

As towns cleaned up and survivors recalled near-death tornado experiences, forecasters on Thursday warned of a new round of severe weather Thursday night and Friday that could produce even more twisters.

"We've got a really bad system starting to develop, just as bad if not worse for tomorrow," NBC weather anchor Al Roker reported on the TODAY show, citing "a strong risk of storms from Huntsville, Alabama, to Indianapolis and on into central Ohio."

Parts of Illinois and Mississippi are also at risk, he noted, and any twisters could be several miles long due to the system's strength.

Twelve people were killed Wednesday in Illinois, Missouri and Tennessee by a system that spawned more than a dozen twisters across the Midwest. Hardest hitwas Harrisburg, Ill., where six people died, some 300 homes were destroyed or damaged, and residents had stories of survival and tragedy.

Snow storm blasts from Seattle to New York creating tough travel conditions... but good ski weather for Californians

Associated Press
Thu, 01 Mar 2012 05:50 UTC

© Associated Press
True winter weather: A man in Pollock Pines, California, takes a stroll in the snow. The Sierra Nevada region received between 6-12 inches of snow in a storm that started Wednesday and should go through the night

Late winter storms forced school and road closures from Seattle to upstate New York on Wednesday, but the snow was welcomed in California as it suffers through one of the driest winters in history.

The blast from the Gulf of Alaska was expected to bring up to 5 feet of snow at the highest elevations of the northern Sierra Nevada, delighting skiers and the 28million Californians who depend on snowmelt to meet their water needs.

'It's a pretty typical storm, it's just not typical this year,' said Johnnie Powell, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Sacramento.

Officials issued avalanche warnings in the high Sierra mountains as the storm that began in earnest just after midnight was supposed to keep hammering the Lake Tahoe area, the northeast part of the state and the counties surrounding Yosemite National Park well into Thursday.

Pre-Dawn Tornado Cuts a Deadly Swath Through Downtown Harrisburg, Illinois

Douglas Belkin
The Wall Street Journal
Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:35 UTC

© Darrin Phegley/The Gleaner/Associated Press
Judy Hudnall sifted through the debris left from Wednesday morning's storm in Henderson, Ky.

A band of violent weather stretching across the middle of the U.S. spawned thunderstorms and tornadoes in several states.

Hardest hit late Tuesday and early Wednesday was Harrisburg, Ill., a city of 9,000 where at least six people were killed after a tornado with winds measuring up to 170 miles an hour barreled through the downtown just before dawn, leveling buildings, such as the shopping mall above, and ripping off roofs.

"We had a 40-foot section of wall, which covered patients' rooms, just ... blown away, it's gone," said Vince Ashley, chief executive of Harrisburg Medical Center. A warning call 20 minutes before the storm gave the hospital time to evacuate patient rooms and avoid casualties.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn declared Harrisburg a disaster area. Authorities said as many as 300 homes in Harrisburg were damaged or destroyed, and Mr. Ashley said his emergency room treated at least 50 people. "Head injuries, chest injuries, a lot of broken bones, everything down to cuts and bruises," he said.

Emergency officials said one person was dead from the storm in Cumberland County, Tenn., according to the Associated Press. At least 12 people were killed by the storms overall, the AP reported.

Doomsday Seed Vault's Birthday Brings 25,000 Gifts

Wynne Parry
Live Science
Wed, 29 Feb 2012 14:02 UTC

© Mari Tefre/Global Crop Diversity Trust
The Global Seed Vault opened in 2008 on Svalbard, Norway, above the Arctic Circle.

This week, the Doomsday Seed Vault in Norway is scheduled to receive nearly 25,000 samples of seeds from around the world, including those of grains that grow on one of the world's highest mountain ranges and a plant whose stems redden an Ecuadorean drink on the "Day of the Dead."

With these additions the now four-year-old vault, formerly known as the Svaldbard Global Seed Vault, would house more than 740,000 samples in an Arctic mountain on the Svaldbard archipelago.

"Our crop diversity is constantly under threat, from dramatic dangers such as fires, political unrest, war and tornadoes, as well as the mundane, such as failing refrigeration systems and budget cuts. But these seeds are the future of our food supply, as they carry genetic treasure such as heat resistance, drought tolerance or disease and pest resistance," Cary Fowler, executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, one of the entities responsible for the vault, said in a news release.

The vault is intended to act as a backup for living crop collections around the world; a fire in January destroyed unique varieties of bananas, yams, sweet potatoes and taro being duplicated at the National Plant Genetic Resources Laboratory in the Philippines, according to the trust.

Comment: The reader might be interested in this article: "Doomsday Seed Vault" - Bill Gates, Rockefeller and the GMO giants know something we don't?

Nebraska Hit By First-Ever February Tornado

Brett Israel
OurAmazingPlanet
Wed, 29 Feb 2012 09:55 UTC

US: Destructive storms that tore across the U.S. overnight brought a never-before-seen February tornado to Nebraska.

Eyewitness reports, images and video suggest that a weak tornado touched down yesterday (Feb. 29) in a remote part of the state. The storm didn't cause any damage, said National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist Kenny Roberg, so that may be all the evidence that storm survey teams have to rate the storm. Storm survey teams are similar to forensic scientists; they assess the damage caused by severe storms and determine if tornadoes - or merely strong winds - are to blame.

The potential twister hit at 10:13 local time (11:13 EST) in Logan County, Neb., according to the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. An off-duty NWS employee reported the tornado.

Roberg said his NWS office in North Platte, Neb., checked their tornado records, and this is the first tornado known to hit Nebraska during the month of February. Tornado records began in 1950, so one could have struck before then. It's also possible that a February tornado has struck since 1950, but if it hit a remote part of the state, it could have easily gone unrecorded.

On the Footsteps of Climate Change: The Ice Age Cometh to Podgorica, Montenegro

Zeljko Mihajlovic
YouTube
Wed, 29 Feb 2012 11:47 UTC

Podgorica is the capital and largest city of Montenegro. Montenegro is situated on the southern Balkan Peninsula connected with the Adriatic Sea. In Podgorica, we have modified Mediterranean climate with warm dry summers and mild winters. Podgorica is particularly known for its exceptionally hot summers: temperatures above 40 ° C. The highest recorded temperature of 45.8 ° C measured on 16 August 2007. The snow is almost an unknown event in Podgorica. This winter the situation is completely different in Podgorica and especially the Northern part of Montenegro is blocked by snow, unprecedented in the last half century.