Earth ChangesS


Igloo

Arctic conditions paralyse Scotland

snow plow
© STVNew danger: police have warned drivers to take care on the roads.
As the snow continues and black ice warnings are issued, the country faces another day of travel chaos and school closures.

Scotland woke up to yet more snow on Tuesday morning, as severe weather warnings were issued for widespread black ice and temperatures as low as minus eight.

By midday on Tuesday most towns and cities were experiencing sub-zero temperatures with Inverness reaching a record low for November overnight - at minus 14.

Plunging temperatures meant untreated roads froze up, leaving many commuters struggling to get to work and schools facing closure for a second day running.

Snowman

Schools And Transport Hit As Snow Blankets UK

Image
© naTraffic comes to standstill in heavy snow on M8 near Harthill services in Scotland
Heavy snowfall has caused major disruption to Britain's transport networks and forced hundreds of schools to close, as forecasters warn of more wintry weather to come.

Almost every corner of the UK woke up to between 2cm and 10cm of snow this morning, with the East Coast worst hit by flurries and sub-zero temperatures.

The freezing conditions that have paralysed much of Scotland and the North East spread overnight to the Midlands before moving on towards the South East and London.

Severe weather warnings of heavy snowfall and widespread road ice have been issued by the Met Office across almost every part of the UK.

All airports are currently open but some flights are being delayed or cancelled. Gatwick, Luton and London City Airports have reported cancellations.

Igloo

Snow Spreads in Europe, Disrupting Germany, U.K. Air Services

snow-covered bicycles
© AFP Photo DDP / Joerg Koch Germany Out
Air services across Europe were disrupted today, as snow and bad weather led to flight cancelations and delays at airports including in Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Edinburgh.

In Frankfurt, 266 flights were canceled as of 2:45 p.m., airport owner Fraport AG said in an e-mailed statement. Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Europe's second-largest carrier, said Fraport had made "insufficient de-icing and handling capacities" available. Fraport spokesman Thomas Uber said "clumpy, coagulated" snow meant de-icing took longer than usual.

Cold temperatures and snow are forecast for Germany over the next five days, according to AccuWeather.Com, with temperatures in Munich expected to dip as low as minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) today. The earliest widespread snowfall of a British winter since 1993 has led to "icy roads and heavy snow" across most parts of the country, the Met Office said on its website.

"The winter weather we will experience this week will be such as many people, especially in eastern Germany, have never experienced in their lives," German weather service Wetter24.de said on its website.

Cloud Lightning

US: 15 hurt as storms, possible tornadoes hit Mississippi, Louisiana

Severe storms ripped through central Mississippi, bringing further misery to an area already decimated by a line of tornadoes that killed 12 people in April. Tornado watches were posted across southern Louisiana, much of Mississippi and Alabama and into Tennessee as the storms moved east Tuesday.

Authorities in Mississippi reported 15 people hurt and homes and businesses badly damaged, but no deaths. On Battle Street in Yazoo City, a twister late Monday ripped the tarp off 63-year-old Clarence Taylor's roof, which had been damaged by the April tornado.

"It looks like a war zone now," he said Tuesday morning, pulling a slow drag off a cigarette, then looking around at the power lines dangling from broken poles and pieces of tin scattered about from nearby buildings.


Bizarro Earth

Scientists Fear Mass Extinction as Oceans Choke

Barrier Reef
© Reuters: Ho NewLow oxygen levels, which have been found along south-eastern Australia, are known to increase stress on fish.

Australian scientists fear the planet is on the brink of another mass extinction as ocean dead zones continue to grow in size and number.

More than 400 ocean dead zones - areas so low in oxygen that sea life cannot survive - have been reported by oceanographers around the world between 2000 and 2008.

That is compared with 300 in the 1990s and 120 in the 1980s.

Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS) and from the University of Queensland, says there is growing evidence that declining oxygen levels in the ocean have played a major role in at least four of the planet's five mass extinctions.

"Until recently the best hypothesis for them was a meteor strike," he said.

"So 65 million years ago they've got very good evidence ... all the dinosaurs died because of smoke and stuff in the atmosphere from a meteor strike.

"But with the four other mass extinction events, one of the best explanations now is that these periods were preceded by an increase of volcanic activity, and that volcanic activity caused a change in ocean circulation.

Bizarro Earth

Eruption Alert: More Indonesian Volcanoes Getting Restless

Indonesian Volcanoes
© NASA Earth Observatory
As if things weren't already bad enough in Indonesia, another volcano may be about to blow.

Indonesia straddles the Pacific Ring of Fire - and lately, this nation of islands has been living up to the region's fiery reputation. A number of so-called minor ash explosions from Mount Bromo on Sunday (Nov. 28) caused a nearby airport to close as scientists upgraded the volcano to its highest alert level, according to the Indian newspaper The Hindu. On the same island, Java, Mount Merapi's recent eruptions killed hundreds and prompted mass evacuations.

The eruption watch also continues in the straight just west of Java where Anak Krakatau has also been increasingly active lately.

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The heightened eruption alerts come just a couple weeks after Mount Merapi's relentless erupting killed more than 300 people.

Mount Merapi's devastation has been estimated at $611 million and pyroclastic flows have destroyed huge swaths of forest (and one unfortunately placed golf course), according to the People's Daily Online.

Bizarro Earth

Japan - Earthquake Magnitude 6.6 - Bonin Islands

Image
© USGS
Date-Time:
Tuesday, November 30, 2010 at 03:24:41 UTC

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 at 01:24:41 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
28.415°N, 139.139°E

Depth:
478.3 km (297.2 miles)

Region:
BONIN ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION

Distances:
335 km (210 miles) WNW of Chichi-shima, Bonin Islands, Japan

455 km (285 miles) NNW of Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, Japan

525 km (325 miles) S of Hachijo-jima, Izu Islands, Japan

810 km (500 miles) S of TOKYO, Japan

Bizarro Earth

US: 21 earthquakes strike Reno over 3 days

An area southwest of downtown Reno has been shaking with earthquakes.

Image
© Unknown
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, 21 temblors were reported in the area since midday Friday.

The latest measured 2.1 in magnitude and was reported at 10:22 a.m. Monday.

The largest measuring 3.0 came at 1:47 a.m. Sunday and was felt throughout the Reno area.

Ken Smith is a seismologist with the University of Nevada, Reno.

He tells the Reno Gazette-Journal that the area of quake activity is about 5 miles west of the intersection of U.S. 395 and the Mount Rose Highway.

In 2008, a cluster of more than 1,000 small earthquakes shook the region for three months before subsiding.

Bizarro Earth

Philippines: 'Explosion-type' earthquake reported at Bulusan Volcano

Bulusan Volcano
© angiedagnesBulusan Volcano
Legazpi City -- An "explosion-type" earthquake was recorded by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology in in Sorsogon Friday night.

In its latest bulletin, Phivolcs said that the quake occurred at around 7:27 p.m. and lasted for about 11 minutes. Clouds, however, prevented state volcanologists to visually observe it.

The statement did not say what distinguished an "explosion-type" earthquake from any other volcanic tremor.

Sulfur dioxide emission rate was measured at 13 tons per day.

About 11 volcanic quakes were also recorded by the seismic network around the volcano during the past 24-hour observation period.

Phivolcs said Bulusan's status remained at alert level 1 and the public was reminded not to venture into the four-kilometer permanent danger zone as sudden steam and ash explosions may occur.

Info

Eyewitnesses Watched as China Earthquake Ripped Ground

The devastating earthquake that hit the heart of China in 2008 caught the region unguarded, and left tens of thousands of people dead.

Because the destruction was so widespread, many people witnessed the ground rip apart, which along with other observations and studies, is helping geologists piece together exactly what happened - and how to prevent future catastrophes.

The area of Wenchuan, China, was crippled by the 7.9-magnitude earthquake that struck on May 12, 2008. The temblor killed more than 70,000 people, injured about 374,000, and left approximately 18,000 missing and presumed dead, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). More than 45.5 million people across 10 provinces were affected by the quake. Four million people lost their homes. Several cities were almost completely destroyed.

Before the 2008 quake, the region was downgraded to a low seismic risk, so the massive temblor caught many scientists by surprise, which isn't uncommon even in areas known to have frequent earthquakes.