Earth Changes

Sweden: Man Spent Two Months in Snow-Bound Car

Richard Orange
The Telegraph, UK
Sun, 19 Feb 2012 06:22 UTC

Doctors treating a man trapped for more than a month in a snow-bound car are putting his survival down to an 'igloo-effect'.

Peter Skyllberg, 44, was found on Friday by a passer-by in a snow-scooter near the northern town of Umea. He had been snowed into his car since December or even November.

"It's not possible for humans to hibernate like a bear does," Dr Ulf Segerberg, the Chief Medical Officer at Norrland University Hospital.

"If you cool the body, of course the metabolism slows down, but I don't think he would have survived if that had happened."

He said that the air trapped around the man's car had probably instead formed a natural igloo. "In the car he had very warm clothes, he had a warm sleeping bag, and as the car was snowed under, that would have made it more like an igloo, and down below the snow you would normally have a temperature of around zero," he said.

Japan: Mt Fuji Volcano - Signs of Volcanic Unrest Reported

Volcano Discovery
Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:42 UTC

Reports are appearing about unrest and signs of a possible awakening of Mt Fuji volcano in Japan.

According to a report which includes an unclear photo of the area, a row of new craters, the largest 50 m in diameter, has appeared on the eastern flank of the volcano at 2200 m elevation. Steam was observed erupting from these vents.

The observation joins other signs suggesting a gradual reawakening: A swarm of earthquakes including 4 of magnitude 5 have occurred northeast of Mt Fuji on and after 28 January. An earlier 6.4M quake occurred under the volcano on 15 March 2011. The report also mentions increased activity from a fumarole vent at 1500 m elevation and hot spring areas at the eastern flank observed since 2003.

These locations seem to be aligned geographically, and are probably connected. Dr. Masaaki Kimura of Ryukyu University is quoted to admit that there is an increased risk of and eruption on the eastern flank and that the status of the volcano should be closely monitored.

NASA Map Sees Earth's Trees in a New Light

ScienceDaily
Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:00 UTC

A NASA-led science team has created an accurate, high-resolution map of the height of Earth's forests. The map will help scientists better understand the role forests play in climate change and how their heights influence wildlife habitats within them, while also helping them quantify the carbon stored in Earth's vegetation.

Scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; the University of Maryland, College Park; and Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, Mass., created the map using 2.5 million carefully screened, globally distributed laser pulse measurements from space. The light detection and ranging (lidar) data were collected in 2005 by the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System instrument on NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat).

"Knowing the height of Earth's forests is critical to estimating their biomass, or the amount of carbon they contain," said lead researcher Marc Simard of JPL. "Our map can be used to improve global efforts to monitor carbon. In addition, forest height is an integral characteristic of Earth's habitats, yet is poorly measured globally, so our results will also benefit studies of the varieties of life that are found in particular parts of the forest or habitats."

Aurora Oddity: Northern Lights Display Dazzles Without Big Sun Flare

Tariq Malik
Live Science
Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:13 UTC

For reasons scientists can't yet explain, the northern lights blazed up in a dazzling display this week, despite the apparent lack of a major solar flare typically associated with these celestial light shows.

The weird northern lights display began on Valentine's Day (Feb. 14), when an uptick in activity in Earth's magnetic field sparked a geomagnetic storm, according to the skywatching website Spaceweather.com.

"Sometimes the sky surprises us," astronomer Tony Phillips wrote on Spaceweather.com. "On Feb. 14-15, with little warning, geomagnetic activity rippled around the Arctic Circle, producing an outbreak of auroras that veteran observers said was among the best in months."

Tornado Season On The Sun?

VideoFromSpace
YouTube
Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:00 UTC

For a 30 hour spell (Feb 7-8, 2012) the Solar Dynamics Observatory captured plasma caught in a magnetic dance across the Sun's surface. The results closely resemble extreme tornadic activity on Earth.

Comment: Other strange events are happening here at home and elsewhere.

Maryland, US: Hundreds of dead birds on I-95 in Laurel

Brad Bell, Jason Cherkis, Stephen Tschida
WJLA
Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:27 UTC

Hundreds of birds just dropped from the sky and landed onto I-95 Wednesday, bringing afternoon rush hour traffic to a crawl.

They were common Starlings, and while there were a few in the grass and on the shoulders of the highway, the vast majority landed right on the northbound travel lanes in Laurel.

"We were just kind of curious about running them over and getting them stuck in your tires and all that nastiness," says Tammy Johnson.

"I travel this all the time and have never seen anything like that before," says Ray Wheltle.

Traffic backed up as drivers slowed down out of concern for the birds and their cars.

Ukraine's death toll from cold spell reaches 151

Associated Press
Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:30 UTC

In most cases, people died because they were under the influence of alcohol, which increases the risk of hypothermia

Kiev - Health officials say 151 people have died in the Ukraine during Eastern Europe's record-breaking cold spell, with alcohol regularly a contributing factor. The health ministry said Thursday that nearly 4,000 others have been hospitalized with hypothermia and frostbite.

Emergency officials say in 90 percent of cases, people died because they were under the influence of alcohol, which increases the risk of hypothermia and generally decreases a person's ability to feel and respond to the cold. The cold spell has prompted authorities to close nurseries, schools and colleges across the country. Heavy snowfalls have also caused power outages and trapped hundreds of vehicles on motorways in southern Ukraine, as well as several ships in the Sea of Azov.

Netherlands - Deep Freeze Turns Amsterdam Canals into Skating Rinks

Brett Israel
OurAmazingPlanet
Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:01 UTC

For the second time in three years, Amsterdam's famous canals have frozen. You know what that means? It's time to lace up the ice skates.

After temperatures dropped to 14 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 10 degrees Celsius) this past weekend, Dutch young and old flocked to the city's famous waterways, gliding across the frozen surfaces on ice skates. The canals also froze in 2010, which was the first time it happened in more than a decade. When this year's freeze was imminent, Dutch authorities closed the canals to motorized traffic, quickening the freeze. A video of the action shows one of the few bright spots in an otherwise brutal European winter. Across the continent, hundreds have died from exposure to the cold.

Amsterdam's frozen canals are the latest European waterway to freeze this winter. Earlier this month, Venice's famous canals froze, a rare feat. Europe's second-longest river, the Danube, has also frozen. At least four Balkan nations suspended shipping on the Danube yesterday (Feb. 14) because of heavy ice on the river.

US: Hurricane-Force Storm Smacks Alaska

Our Amazing Planet
Wed, 15 Feb 2012 10:27 UTC

Alaska's wild winter has been relentless, with yet another hurricane-strength blizzard smacking the state yesterday (Feb. 14).

The lower 48 states have had an unusually mild winter, but Alaska has been buried under snow and shivering in frigid temperatures.

Temperatures in some towns have dipped to a whopping 30 degrees below average for this time of year. So much snow had fallen in the town of Cordova in January that Alaska's National Guard had to help dig residents out. The tiny village of Nome needed an emergency shipment of fuel after its final shipment for the winter was blown off course by another fierce storm.

A climate pattern known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation is influencing this wicked winter, as it tends to keep Alaska cooler than normal. La Niña, a cooling of the waters of the equatorial Pacific, has also been in play, and it also typically creates colder temperatures for Alaska.

US: Oregon's Offshore Earthquake of February 2012: One of the Largest Recorded in the State

Jennifer Young
Decoded Science
Wed, 15 Feb 2012 09:56 UTC

The Earth moved for many over this Valentine's Day, but not due to romance - a magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck around 250 km off the west coast of Oregon on February 14, 2012. The Valentine's Day quake is notable not only for its size (it is one of the largest ever to have occurred in the state or off its coast) but also in terms of the complex tectonic setting in which it occurred.

The Oregon Earthquake of February 2012

The Oregon earthquake occurred on an ocean ridge, at a divergent boundary - where new crust is created by upward movement of hot and buoyant rock from the earth's interior - between two of the large slabs of crust (tectonic plates) which make up the surface of the earth. Preliminary information from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) shows that the quake occurred at a depth of 10km on the fracture zone associated with the Juan de Fuca Ridge, which marks the western boundary of the Juan de Fuca microplate.

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Earth Changes

Sweden: Man Spent Two Months in Snow-Bound Car

Japan: Mt Fuji Volcano - Signs of Volcanic Unrest Reported

NASA Map Sees Earth's Trees in a New Light

Aurora Oddity: Northern Lights Display Dazzles Without Big Sun Flare

Tornado Season On The Sun?

Maryland, US: Hundreds of dead birds on I-95 in Laurel

Ukraine's death toll from cold spell reaches 151

Netherlands - Deep Freeze Turns Amsterdam Canals into Skating Rinks

US: Hurricane-Force Storm Smacks Alaska

US: Oregon's Offshore Earthquake of February 2012: One of the Largest Recorded in the State

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