Earth ChangesS


Bomb

Seismic Trends in South Iceland Still Monitored

Volcanic Glacier
© Páll StefánssonEyjafjallajökull.
There was more seismic activity underneath the volcano in Eyjafjallajökull glacier in south Iceland last night than the night before, although it is significantly lower than during last weekend. The Civic Protection Department keeps monitoring the area.

A sharp earthquake measuring three points on the Richter scale occurred underneath the glacier yesterday afternoon. It is among the largest earthquakes measured in the area this year, Fréttabladid reports.

According to Visir.is, the earthquakes that followed were all weaker. The smaller scale seismic activity remains steady and occurs at a depth of seven to 11 kilometers, the Icelandic Meteorological Office reports.

Alarm Clock

US: Bat disease spreads

White-nose syndrome, a disease that has decimated bat populations across the East Coast, appears to have spread to bats in Maryland, state wildlife officials said Wednesday.

Officials said they found several dead bats in a cave in western Maryland's Allegany County on Friday, as well as more than 200 other bats that appeared "visibly affected" by the disease.

If the diagnosis is confirmed, the state said, this would be the first time white-nose syndrome has been found in Maryland.

Bad Guys

Chinese zoo blamed for death of 11 Siberian tigers

Siberian Tigers
© Associated PressIn this Jan. 8, 2010 file photo, an endangered Siberian tiger runs away with a chicken tossed by tourists at the Harbin Tiger Park in Harbin.
Beijing - Eleven rare Siberian tigers kept in small cages and fed only chicken bones have died of malnutrition at a cash-strapped zoo in China's frigid northeast, state media said Friday.

A manager at the Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo in Liaoning province, however, said the animals had died of disease.

Siberian tigers are one of the world's rarest species, with just 300 believed remaining in the wild.

Liu Xiaoqiang, vice chief of the Shenyang Wild Animal Protection Station, a local animal protection agency, was quoted by the China Daily as saying 11 of the zoo's tigers died of malnutrition in the last three months after subsisting on a meager diet of chicken bones.

Two others were shot dead by police in November after the hungry animals attacked a zookeeper, the report said.

The Liaoshen Evening Post, a local Shenyang newspaper, reported on its Web site that the company that owns the zoo was trying unsuccessfully to auction the zoo property, and many staffers complained they hadn't been paid in 18 months.

Fish

Appearance of "Earthquake fish" spook Japanese

Rare, deep-sea oarfish have been washing ashore, and they've got ecologists and superstitious fishermen worried:


Oar fish live in the depths of the ocean, surfacing infrequently when they are sick or damaged. In Japan it is believed the appearance of oar fish means an earthquake is imminent. Since November, over 19 of the rare fish have washed up on the shores of Japan. The animal is thought to be the origin of ancient mariner myths of sea serpents.


Info

Seeds Of Life: Hybrids and the Emergence of Seed Monopolies

Throughout much of agriculture, a remarkable span of 10,000 years, farmers were largely the stewards of the land and the crops that they grew. Seeds collected from one year's harvest were selected, stored, and used again for successive growing seasons. As Frank Morton, an organic seed breeder explains in this segment of the Seeds Of Life series, the role of the farmer at the center of agriculture began to change with the advent of hybrid seed development beginning with hybrid varieties of corn in the 1930's.


Cow

Australia: "Dead" Baby Elephant Calf Born Alive in Sydney Zoo

Image
© Bobby-Jo Vial/ReutersTaronga Zoo veterinarians give treatment to a newborn elephant calf as its mother Porntip (R) stands next to it in Sydney March 10, 2010.
An elephant gave birth to a calf at Sydney's main zoo on Wednesday, surprising vets and keepers who two days earlier declared the baby had died in the womb.

The Asian elephant mother delivered the male baby in the early hours of Wednesday in what Taronga Park Zoo officials said was "unbelievable good fortune".

"Dedicated keepers reported the amazing news early this morning that the calf had been born and was showing signs of life," said zoo director Cameron Kerr.

On Monday, Kerr said despite an expert team of vets who had prepared for every eventuality, the calf had not survived after six days of labor, and ultrasounds found there was no chance of a successful birth.

Officials said they now believe the calf was in a coma throughout the labor. They said the calf had since taken its first steps, but it was too early to know if it would survive.

Bizarro Earth

Best of the Web: Chile: 2nd Aftershock Earthquake Magnitude 6.9 - Within Minutes of Magnitude 7.2

Image
© USGS
Date-Time:
Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 14:55:30 UTC

Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 11:55:30 AM at epicenter

Location:
34.287°S, 71.657°W

Depth:
44.4 km (27.6 miles)

Distances:
85 km (55 miles) W of Rancagua, Chile

125 km (80 miles) N of Talca, Chile

130 km (80 miles) SW of SANTIAGO, Chile

140 km (85 miles) S of Valparaiso, Chile

Bizarro Earth

Chile: Earthquake Magnitude 7.2 - Libertador O'Higgins

Image
© USGS
Date-Time:
Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 14:39:48 UTC

Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 11:39:48 AM at epicenter

Location:
34.290°S, 71.950°W

Depth:
35 km (21.7 miles) set by location program

Region:
LIBERTADOR O'HIGGINS, CHILE

Distances:
110 km (70 miles) W of Rancagua, Chile

130 km (80 miles) NNW of Talca, Chile

140 km (90 miles) SSW of Valparaiso, Chile

150 km (95 miles) SW of SANTIAGO, Chile

Snowman

Best of the Web: Southern Russia overwhelmed with purple snow



The very morning following the widely celebrated Woman's Day - people in Southern Russia could not believe their eyes when they found purple snow piled on city streets.

Scientists confirmed a multi-coloured snowfall - ranging from light purple to brown - had landed in Russia's Stavropol Region.

Having analysed the samples, climatologists ruled that the snow is perfectly safe. However, eating purple snow is still not recommended as scientists say it is full of dust from Africa.

Comment: Very interesting. According to the media, we are living in a fairy tale, with purple snow and rosy future. While, in fact, the reality is quite different, and far grimmer (no pun intended).

It is not the first time that we hear about the cases of colorful precipitation. Take this and this articles for example. And we are wondering, what's going on?

In one of the previous Connecting the Dots articles, we pondered on a similar topic:
"That reminds us of another interesting event that happened in Siberia at the beginning of 2007.

There is nothing unusual about snow in the towns and endless forests of Siberia. But when locals in the small village of Pudinskoye woke up on Wednesday they immediately noticed something rather strange: the snow falling from the sky was orange...

Russia's environmental watchdog said the snow contained four times higher than normal quantities of iron as well as acids and nitrates.

Curiously enough, there was a sighting of a volleyball size meteorite in a neighboring region two week prior to the orange snow event. And if the meteorite exploded high up in the atmosphere, its very fine particles could easily float around for a couple of weeks or longer. On the other hand, thanks to Victor Clube's work we now know that meteorites are often accompanied by the phenomenon of dust suspended in the atmosphere, so it didn't have to be just an overhead explosion to cause such peculiar precipitation. "
Also, consider the following from Laura Knight Jadczyk's article Meteorites, Asteroids, and Comets: Damages, Disasters, Injuries, Deaths, and Very Close Calls:
"2001 - 25 July to 23 Sept. - Kerala, India - red rain sporadically fell; staining clothes with an appearance similar to that of blood. Yellow, green, and black rain was also reported. The rains were the result of the atmospheric disintegration of a comet, according to a study conducted at the School of Pure and Applied Physics of the MG University by Dr Godfrey Louis and his student Santosh Kumar. The red rain cells were devoid of DNA which suggests their extra-terrestrial origin. The findings published in the international journal Astrophysics and Space Science state that the cometary fragment contained dense collection of red cells."



Info

Warmest, driest winter on record in Canada

Image
© Andrew Wallace/Toronto StarPeople revel in springlike weather at Toronto City Hall on March 8 as temperatures hit 14C
Winter is officially over, according to Environment Canada. And it was one of the warmest and driest across the country since 1948. The national average temperature for this past winter was 4 degrees Celsius above normal.

The previous record was set in the winter of 2005/2006 when it was 3.9 degrees Celsius above normal. The winter of 1971/1972 remains the coldest in Environment Canada's records - at 3.9 degrees below normal.

This winter is also the driest out of the 63 years of record keeping with precipitation across the country down 22 per cent below normal. The previous driest winter was 1977/1978 when precipitation was 20.1 per cent below normal.