Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

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


CNN
Mon, 31 May 2010 22:09 UTC
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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.
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Extinguisher

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

Gerald Warner
UK Telegraph
Fri, 28 May 2010 21:52 UTC
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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.
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Phoenix

Hundreds die in Indian heatwave

Jason Burke
The Guardian
Mon, 31 May 2010 20:43 UTC
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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.
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Bizarro Earth

Magnitude 6.4 - Andaman Islands, India Region


USGS
Mon, 31 May 2010 20:08 UTC
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
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Bizarro Earth

Magnitude 6.0 - Moro Gulf, Mindanao, Philippines


USGS
Mon, 31 May 2010 20:02 UTC
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
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Attention

New undersea eruption underway in the northern Mariana Island


Associated Press
Mon, 31 May 2010 07:12 UTC
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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.
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Attention

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


Agence France Presse
Mon, 31 May 2010 10:07 UTC
Image
© 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.
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Arrow Down

Natural Arch in Nevada Collapses


The Los Angeles Times
Sun, 30 May 2010 18:17 UTC
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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.
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Cloud Lightning

Tropical storm kills 83 in Central America

Juan Carlos Llorca
Associated Press
Sun, 30 May 2010 11:54 UTC
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© AP Photo/Moises CastilloA man carries a child under heavy rains of tropical storm Agatha in Patulul, Guatemala, Saturday, May 29, 2010.
Guatemala City - The death toll in Central America from landslides and flooding triggered by the year's first tropical storm surged to 83 on Sunday, as authorities struggled to clear roads of debris and reach cut-off communities.

Torrential rains that have pounded an area stretching from southern Mexico nearly to Nicaragua eased somewhat, as rivers continued to rise and word filtered out from isolated areas of more deaths in landslides.

In Guatemala, 73 people were killed as rains unleashed lethal landslides across the country, according to government disaster relief spokesman David de Leon.

Tropical Storm Agatha made landfall near the nation's border with Mexico with winds up to 45 mph (75 kph) on Saturday and was dissipating rapidly Sunday over the mountains of western Guatemala.

In El Salvador, President Mauricio Funes warned that the danger had not yet passed and reported nine deaths.

"Although the storm appears to be diminishing in intensity, the situation across the country remains critical," Funes said.
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Heart - Black

BP's psychopathic CEO disputes claims of underwater oil plumes in Gulf


Associated Press
Sun, 30 May 2010 15:55 UTC
BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward
© Patrick Semansky / The Associated PressBP Chief Executive Tony Hayward on Fourchon Beach in Port Fourchon last week.BP

Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward is refuting claims by scientists that there are large undersea plumes from the Gulf oil spill.

Hayward said Sunday the oil is on the water's surface, and that BP's sampling shows "no evidence" of oil in the water column.

Scientists from several universities have reported plumes of what appears to be oil suspended in clouds that stretch for miles and reach hundreds of feet beneath the Gulf's surface.
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