Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Virgin Islands Region: Earthquake Magnitude 4.5

Date-Time

* Sunday, April 05, 2009 at 17:37:57 UTC
* Sunday, April 05, 2009 at 01:37:57 PM at epicenter

Location 19.327°N, 65.104°W

Depth
Image
© USGS
30 km (18.6 miles)

Region VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION

Distances

* 106 km (66 miles) NW (309°) from Settlement, Anegada, British Virgin Islands

* 108 km (67 miles) NNW (337°) from Little Harbour, Jost van Dyke, British Virgin Islands

* 110 km (68 miles) N (351°) from CHARLOTTE AMALIE, US Virgin Islands

* 138 km (86 miles) NE (42°) from Carolina, PR

Bizarro Earth

Guatemala: Earthquake Magnitude 4.6

Image
© USGS
Date-Time

* Saturday, April 04, 2009 at 20:55:55 UTC

* Saturday, April 04, 2009 at 02:55:55 PM at epicenter

Location 14.382°N, 90.192°W

Depth 10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program

Distances 45 km (30 miles) SE of GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala

80 km (50 miles) WNW of Santa Ana, El Salvador

120 km (75 miles) S of Coban, Guatemala

1110 km (690 miles) ESE of MEXICO CITY, D.F., Mexico

Blackbox

US: Odd "Earthquakes" Near Milledgeville, Georgia

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, around 4:45 pm there was a 3.1 magnitude earthquake about 7 miles northeast of Milledgeville and 14 miles Southeast of Eatonton.

Ten minutes later, the USGS reports a smaller 2.2 magnitude earthquake about 14 miles from Milledgeville and 12 miles from Eatonton.

Viewers tell FOX 24 News that they heard an explosion and felt the ground shake.

Bizarro Earth

Italy: Earthquake Magnitude 4.6

Image
© USGS
Date-Time

* Sunday, April 05, 2009 at 20:20:52 UTC
* Sunday, April 05, 2009 at 10:20:52 PM at epicenter

Location 44.355°N, 11.979°E

Depth 6.4 km (4.0 miles) (poorly constrained)

Region: Northern Italy

Distances 55 km (35 miles) ESE of Bologna, Italy

60 km (35 miles) NW of Rimini, Italy

60 km (40 miles) NW of SAN MARINO

280 km (175 miles) N of ROME, Italy

Cloud Lightning

Queensland Flood Warnings Issued by Australia's Weather Agency

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology is warning residents of southeastern Queensland, including the state capital Brisbane, of severe weather, including heavy rainfall and possible flash flooding.

Flood warnings have been issued for the Noosa River and Sunshine Coast streams, the Mary River and Six Mile Creek, the bureau said on its Web site. Heavy rains have been recorded in the area for several days.

Igloo

Collapse of the Ice Bridge Supporting Wilkins Ice Shelf Appears Imminent

Wilkins ice bridge rift
© ESANew rifts detected on ice bridge
The Wilkins Ice Shelf is at risk of partly breaking away from the Antarctic Peninsula as the ice bridge that connects it to Charcot and Latady Islands looks set to collapse. The beginning of what appears to be the demise of the ice bridge began this week when new rifts forming along its centre axis resulted in a large block of ice breaking away.

The Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) images acquired on 2 April by ESA's Envisat satellite confirm that the rifts are quickly expanding along the ice bridge. Dr Angelika Humbert from the Institute of Geophysics, Münster University, and Dr Matthias Braun from the Center for Remote Sensing, University of Bonn, witnessed the recent development during their daily monitoring activities of the ice sheet using data from Envisat and the German Aerospace Center's TerraSAR-X satellite.

Comment:
graphic of antarctica & wilson ice shelf
© NASA image by Robert Simmon, based on data from Joey ComisoBetween 1981 and 2007, most of Antarctica warmed. Portions of West Antarctica experienced an especially rapid rise in temperature.
Interesting there's no mention of the very possible and natural explanation for West Antarctica's warming - a volcano., In 2008, scientists from the British Antarctic Survey reported a layer of volcanic ash and glass shards frozen within an ice sheet in western Antarctica. The volcano punched a hole right through due to its heat and force.

For a more indepth analysis of the anomalous warming/cooling of Antarctica, see here

.


Bizarro Earth

5.6 Earthquake Jolts Central Japan

Image
© USGS
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.6 jolted Kyushu in southern Japan on Sunday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The focus of the quake, which occurred at 6:36 p.m., was some 30 km underground in the Hyuganada region of Kyushu. There were no reports of injuries or damage.

No tsunami warning was issued.

The quake registered 4 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in the city of Miyazaki and 3 in neighboring areas, according to the agency.

Bizarro Earth

Evacuation ordered as Chile volcano erupts again

Llaima volcano
© UnknownLlaima volcano
Chile's Llaima volcano, one of the most active in South America, spewed out a river of lava more than 1,100 yards long on Saturday in a fresh eruption, prompting officials to order dozens of people to evacuate.

Llaima, which lies in Chile's picturesque lake region about 435 miles south of the capital Santiago, erupted on January 1, 2008, and has belched rock and ash sporadically since then.

The lava and hot gases from the latest eruption are melting snow on the sides of the volcano, and authorities say some towns are in danger of being hit by mudslides.

Bizarro Earth

US: 3 earthquakes shake East Tennessee in 8 days

The U.S. Geological Survey says East Tennessee was struck by three small earthquakes in eight days.

A magnitude 1.0 quake hit near Madisonville on March 25. A magnitude 1.3 quake hit six miles north of Cleveland in Bradley County on March 29.

WVLT-TV reports a 1.0 magnitude quake hit Thursday at 11:02 a.m., about 12 miles southeast of Tellico Plains in the Cherokee National Forest. The epicenter originated 7.6 miles underground from a ridge near Brookshire Creek.

Butterfly

Sexy or repulsive? Butterfly wings can be both to mates and predators

butterflies
© William PielOliver found that the eyespots of some butterflies, such as this pair of mating Bicyclus anynana, serve to both
Butterflies seem able to both attract mates and ward off predators using different sides of their wings, according to new research by Yale University biologists.

Trying to find the balance between these two crucial behaviors is one of nature's oldest dilemmas, according to Jeffrey Oliver, a postdoctoral associate in Yale's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and lead author on the study, which appears online today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

"You want to be noticeable and desirable for mates, but other onlookers, including predators, are paying attention to those signals as well."

Oliver was interested in whether the eyespots on the upperside of butterflies' wings - specifically, those of bush brown butterflies - serve a different purpose than the ones on the underside. Ever since Darwin's time, biologists (including Darwin himself) have postulated whether the upperside patterns could be used to attract mates, while at the same time, those on the underside could help avoid predators.