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Springtime Disappears in the UK: What the Hail Happened? April Showers and the Possibility of Tornadoes

Ian Garland and John Stevens
Mail Online
Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:51 UTC
  • Thunderstorms, lightning and hail predicted for parts of Britain
  • Snow forecast across Midlands, North and Scotland this week
  • Another two weeks of wet weather for the rest of the country
Image

Unsettled: Forecasters say there is a chance of funnel clouds forming over the next few days which can turn into tornadoes when they touch the ground, like this one in Coventry in 2005
Britain was last night warned to prepare for April showers and high winds that could even turn into tornadoes.

Much-needed rain is set to fall across the whole country today, but could develop into thunderstorms, lightning and hail in some parts.

Cold winds passing over hot air rising from the ground is causing the unsettled weather that is going to last until after the weekend.

Image

Snow has returned to County Durham and forecasts predict many northern areas of the UK will have more from today
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Radar

Tsunami - Caught On Camera


Channel 4
Wed, 11 Apr 2012 20:35 UTC
The following Channel 4 (UK) documentary captures the dreadful moments when a devastating tsunami washed away a quarter of a million people in the Indian Ocean in December 2004.

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Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.5 - Michoacan Mexico


US Geological Survey
Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:46 UTC
Image
© USGS
Date-Time:

Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 22:55:16 UTC

Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 05:55:16 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:

18.390°N, 102.652°W

Depth:

65.6 km (40.8 miles)

Region:

MICHOACAN, MEXICO

Distances:

69 km (42 miles) NW of Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan, Mexico

129 km (80 miles) SSW of Uruapan, Michoacan, Mexico

143 km (88 miles) NW of Zihuatanejo, Guerrero, Mexico

384 km (238 miles) WSW of MEXICO CITY, D.F., Mexico
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Astronauts condemn NASA's global warming endorsement

Author
The Examiner
Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:14 UTC
Buzz Aldrin
© Matt Stroshane/Getty Images
Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, left , and Walt Cunningham, Apollo 7 astronaut, in front of the Apollo 14 capsule at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Cunningham has signed a letter demanding that NASA stop endorsing global warming.
In an unprecedented slap at NASA's endorsement of global warming science, nearly 50 former astronauts and scientists--including the ex-boss of the Johnson Space Center--claim the agency is on the wrong side of science and must change course or ruin the reputation of the world's top space agency.

Challenging statements from NASA that man is causing climate change, the former NASA executives demanded in a letter to Administrator Charles Bolden that he and the agency "refrain from including unproven remarks" supporting global warming in the media.

"We feel that NASA's advocacy of an extreme position, prior to a
thorough study of the possible overwhelming impact of natural climate
drivers is inappropriate," they wrote. "At risk is damage to the
exemplary reputation of NASA, NASA's current or former scientists and
employees, and even the reputation of science itself."
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Why Today's Indonesia Quake Didn't Make a Monster Tsunami

Andrea Mustain
OurAmazingPlanet
Wed, 11 Apr 2012 09:48 UTC
Indonesian Quake_110412
© USGS
The red star marks where the quake hit.

The magnitude 8.6 earthquake that struck in the Indian Ocean off the western coast of Sumatra today resurrected fears of a repeat of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that proved one of the most devastating natural disasters in modern memory.

However, this earthquake, which struck at 2:38 p.m. local time (4:38 a.m. ET), about 270 miles (435 kilometers) off the coast of the Indonesian island was a different animal altogether than the 2004 earthquake and tsunami, which killed more than 230,000 people and left millions homeless.

"It was quite a bit smaller," said Julie Dutton, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey. The 2004 quake was a magnitude 9.1 - the third most powerful earthquake ever recorded.

Perhaps more significantly, today's earthquake was a different kind of quake all together. Instead of occurring at a plate boundary along an area called a subduction zone, where one tectonic plate is diving beneath another, this earthquake occurred in the middle of an oceanic plate, where the faults in the crust essentially moved from side to side instead of up and down. These sorts of events are called strike-slip earthquakes.

"With a strike-slip event you don't have the same potential hazard for a tsunami as you do with a subduction event because the plates are moving adjacent to each other," Dutton told OurAmazingPlanet.
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Bizarro Earth

Number of earthquakes more than double in Arizona in 2011

Jonathan DuHamel
Tucson Citizen
Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:51 UTC
Image
© AGS
According to the Arizona Geological Survey, 131 earthquakes were detected in 2011 compared with 53 in 2010. That was twice as many as in 2009 and about a third more than in 2008. Most of the earthquakes were in the northwestern part of the state. The Yuma area was also shaken by earthquakes associated with the Gulf of California Rift Zone.

Many of these earthquakes (magnitude ca. 1.6) occurred near Lake Mead. These are attributed to mining and quarrying, and also to crustal adjustments to water going into and out of the lake. The strongest earthquakes (magnitude ca. 3.6) occurred near Clarkdale in the central part of the state. The Survey says that these events are consistent with past behavior: "a propensity for deeper seismicity to occur in two pockets, the northwestern Utah-Arizona border and well within the Colorado Plateau in the northeast corner of the state" and "the highest concentration of energy release correlates well with the pattern of established Quaternary faulting, indicating that this portion of the crust continues to be an active area of strain release and of particular interest for hazard studies in Arizona." The strain is due to on-going crustal extension.
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Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 8.6 - Off West Coast of Sumatra


US Geological Survey
Wed, 11 Apr 2012 10:54 UTC
Image
© USGS
Date-Time:
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 08:38:37 UTC
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 02:38:37 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
2.311°N, 93.063°E

Depth:
22.9 km (14.2 miles)

Region:
OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA

Distances:
434 km (269 miles) SW of Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia

550 km (341 miles) SW of Lhokseumawe, Sumatra, Indonesia

963 km (598 miles) W of KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia

1797 km (1116 miles) WNW of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

8.9 Aceh quake triggers Indian Ocean tsunami warning


BBC News
Wed, 11 Apr 2012 04:58 UTC
An earthquake with an initial magnitude of 8.9 has struck under the sea off Indonesia's northern Aceh province.

The quake triggered a tsunami warning across the Indian Ocean region.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said it was not yet known whether a tsunami had been generated, but advised authorities to "take appropriate action".

The region is regularly hit by earthquakes. The Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 killed 170,000 people in Aceh.

The US Geological Survey, which documents quakes worldwide, said the Aceh quake was centred 33km (20 miles) under the sea about 495km from Banda Aceh, the provincial capital.

It was initially reported as 8.9 magnitude but was later revised down to 8.7 by the USGS.

The tsunami warning said quakes of such a magnitude "have the potential to generate a widespread destructive tsunami that can affect coastlines across the entire Indian Ocean basin".
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Fukushima Radiation Plume Has Now Hit Hawaii- In a year it'll Probably Reach U.S. West Coast


Energy News
Sun, 08 Apr 2012 09:38 UTC
Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear, joins Thom Hartmann. California beware! A radioactive wave is headed toward the West Coast of the United States courtesy of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
KAMPS: And that plume, as you said, it's taken a year but it has now hit Hawaii. Another year from now it'll probably reach the West Coast of the US.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

What's Happening Under Gibraltar?

Crystal Gammon
OurAmazingPlanet
Tue, 10 Apr 2012 12:31 UTC
The Strait of Gibraltar
© ESA
The Strait of Gibraltar, which lies between the southern coast of Spain and the northern coast of Morocco, is the only place where water from the Atlantic Ocean mixes with water from the Mediterranean Sea.
The ground beneath Portugal, Spain and northern Morocco shook violently on Nov. 1, 1755, during what came to be known as the Great Lisbon Earthquake. With an estimated magnitude of 8.5 to 9.0, the temblor nearly destroyed the city of Lisbon and its lavish palaces, libraries and cathedrals. What wasn't leveled by the quake was mostly demolished in the ensuing tsunami and fires that raged for days. Altogether, at least 40,000 people were killed.

More than 250 years later, geologists are still piecing together the tectonic story behind that powerful earthquake. A unique subduction zone beneath Gibraltar, the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula, now seems to be culprit. Subduction zones are the spots where one of Earth's tectonic plates dives beneath another, often producing some of the world's strongest earthquakes.

"At a global scale, subduction is the only process that produces magnitude-8 or -9 earthquakes," said Marc-Andre Gutscher, a geologist at the University of Brest in France. "If subduction occurred, and is still occurring here, then it's highly relevant to understanding the region's seismic hazards."
      Read More...
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