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USGS Watching Mount St. Helen's Volcano Following Earthquake Swarm

Tamara L. Morris
Yahoo News
Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:55 UTC
Image
© Unknown
The United States Geological Survey is watching the Mount St. Helen's volcano closely after a series of earthquakes struck on Monday. The area around Mount St. Helen's in Washington state has been experiencing minor earthquakes since an initial quake measuring 4.3 in magnitude struck around 10:35 a.m. local time, according to the USGS. Since that first quake, several smaller aftershocks were registered ranging between 1.0 and 2.8 in magnitude.

All of these earthquakes were centered in an area approximately five to six miles north of the Mount St. Helen's crater near the Johnston Ridge Observatory. The quakes were registered at depths between 1.7 and 3.7 miles. In total, at least 12 small earthquakes were registered in the area since the first quake on Monday.

This series of small earthquakes occurring in approximately the same location over a short period of time is known as an earthquake swarm. According to the Global Volcanic Earthquake Swarm Database earthquake swarms are especially common around volcanoes and are often reliable methods of predicting an eruption but the Alaska Volcano Observatory website offered that there may be no need for alarm. The AVO website explained that while earthquake swarms may offer information that a volcano is becoming restless, they are not necessarily indicators of a pending eruption. According to the AVO, "Most seismic swarms are not precursors to eruptions."
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Cloud Lightning

US: Four Snowmen Of The Apocalypse Are Next? When Snow Is Not Enough, There Is Thundersnow


The Huffington Post
Wed, 26 Jan 2011 08:12 UTC
Image
© NASA
New Yorkers were reveling in their millionth snowstorm Wednesday night when they experienced something unexpected -- lighting and thunder during a snow storm.

Being both savvy and neurotic, New Yorkers naturally fled to Google and Twitter and found their answer -- Thundersnow. ABC News says that "so-called thundersnows are rare events that feature thunder, lightning and heavy snowfall. Despite their drama -- but perhaps because of their infrequency -- very little is known about them."

Mysterious, rare, beautiful, yes -- it all has something to do with convection and tropospheres and whatnot -- but it has happened before (as Gothamist pointed out, one person filmed it during the blizzard of 2010).

In 1996 a weatherman was reporting a snowstorm in Worchester, Massachussets when thunder and lighting struck. He was so amazed he could hardly contain himself:

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Umbrella

UK: Cliff landslide leads to Coast to Coast closure

Liz Roberts
Grough
Tue, 15 Feb 2011 12:55 UTC
Image
© Unknown
A section of the Coast to Coast Walk in Cumbria has been closed after a landslip near its starting point.

A 40m stretch of the cliff-top path at South Head at St Bees has collapsed and authorities say it is unsafe for the public to use.

Police were alerted yesterday evening and immediately cordoned off the area. Copeland Borough Council also alerted the Liverpool Coastguard office.

The local Coastguard sector manager went to the scene, along with Whitehaven Coastguard Rescue Team and officers from the council to assess the extent of the fall, which is right at the start of the 309km (192-mile) route, which runs from St Bees to Robin Hood's Bay on the North Yorkshire coast.

Liverpool Coastguard watch manager Paul Parkes said: "We would like to advise members of the public to take care when walking the stretch of cliffs between North Head and South Head at St Bees as part of this path has been closed off for safety reasons.
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Sun

Global Warming Propaganda: Glaciers atop Mexico volcano likely to vanish soon

Isabel de Bertodano
Reuters
Tue, 15 Feb 2011 13:21 UTC
Image
© NASA
Glacial coverage is seen atop the Iztaccihuatl volcano in this satellite image from 2003.
Amecameca, Mexico - Glaciers that crown a Mexican volcano could disappear by 2015 with scientists pointing to global warming as a chief cause of their demise.

Until recently, the glacial field on Iztaccihuatl, a dormant volcano and one of two white-capped peaks that can be seen from Mexico City, was expected to be gone within a few decades.

But studies show rising world temperatures are melting the glaciers faster than previously thought, said Hugo Delgado, a glaciologist at Mexico City's UNAM university who thinks the massive blocks of ice will be gone within four years.

"What we've seen at Iztaccihuatl is an intense period of glacial retreat in the last few years, which has changed the picture," Delgado said.

Iztaccihuatl has one of two glacial fields left in Mexico, which are among the world's few tropical glaciers.

Glaciers are massive, slow-moving rivers of ice, and in the tropics they can only exist on the cold peaks of tall mountains. Most tropical glaciers, like those in Mexico, are much smaller than their cousins closer to the poles.

Glacial melt in the tropics could hit farmers and cities across Latin America by reducing water availability and hydro-power generation.
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Bizarro Earth

Cyclone Carlos Batters Darwin and Top End


ABC News, Australia
Tue, 15 Feb 2011 23:14 UTC
Cyclone Carlos
© Bureau of Meteorology, Australia
A radar image of Darwin as Cyclone Carlos batters the city on Wednesday afternoon.
Tropical Cyclone Carlos is battering Darwin after a night of wild weather that left houses damaged and streets flooded.

School has been cancelled for today and tomorrow and Darwin Airport remains closed after the Bureau of Meteorology declared a cyclone warning for coastal areas from Daly River Mouth to Goulburn Island, including Darwin, Croker Island and the Tiwi Islands.

At least one house was destroyed overnight by a fallen tree, while an ambulance transporting a patient to Royal Darwin Hospital was crushed by a tree, but there were no serious injuries.

Emergency services crews received more than 2,000 calls for help, including reports of 91 trees and 31 powerlines down and several cars abandoned in rising water.

A 52-year-old man had to be rescued last night after his car became stranded in the fast-flowing Berry Springs.

A pedestrian clinging to traffic lights also had to be rescued from the swollen Rapid Creek overnight.
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Bizarro Earth

California Puts Earthquake Fault Maps Online

Brett Israel
Our Amazing Planet
Tue, 15 Feb 2011 21:45 UTC
California Quake Zones
© California Geological Survey.

In an effort to protect lives and homes, California has published an online map of all the state's major faults that could rupture the Earth's surface during an earthquake.

California has been required by state law to map the known active surface faults since the 1970s. Those maps number in the hundreds and were cumbersome to search before they were digitized. Now that they are online, anyone can search an address - with a little help from Google Maps - to see if it's within an earthquake surface fault zone.

"Up until now, the issue for people wanting to use the maps has been determining which one of the 547 maps we've produced suits their needs. We've employed Google Maps address-matching technology to solve that problem," said John Parrish, of the California Geological Survey in Sacramento, in a statement.

Also under state law, home sellers are required to disclose whether their home is in a fault zone. These earthquake laws were enacted after a magnitude-6.6 earthquake struck the San Fernando Valley in 1971. Surface ruptures during that quake devastated California.

Only faults that have ruptured the ground in the past 11,000 years are considered active and are included in the maps, said Bill Bryant, senior engineering geologist at the California Geological Survey. The faults also must be well-defined enough to be detected at or near the surface by a state geologist.

The maps include the San Andreas, San Jacinto, Calaveras and Hayward faults.
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Attention

US: 4.3 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Near Mt. St. Helens

Michael Rollins and Pat Dooris
KGW
Mon, 14 Feb 2011 09:58 UTC
A 4.3 earthquake hit the Mt. St. Helens area about 10:35 a.m. Monday, followed by 30 aftershocks, according to a USGS seismologist.


USGS Seismologist Seth Moran told KGW the quake was centered near the Johnston Ridge Observatory, and registered on seismic devices as far away as Mt. Rainier and at Timberline Lodge.

Moran said the seismic event lasted about three to five seconds, and shaking from the quake lasted up to three minutes. He said there were at least 30 aftershocks.

USGS data on the 4.3quake

The 4.3 quake (pictured on the seismograph), originally rated as only a 3.3 magnitude event, happened at 10:35 a.m., about six miles north and northwest of the volcano and about three miles deep.
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Bizarro Earth

Heavy Snow on the Korean Peninsula


Earth Observatory, NASA
Tue, 15 Feb 2011 20:14 UTC
Korean Peninsular
© NASA
NASA images courtesy MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Acquired February 14, 2011.
In mid-February 2011, residents along South Korea's east coast were struggling to dig out from the heaviest snowfall in more than a century. The BBC reported that hundreds of stranded motorists awaited rescue, and hundreds of homes had collapsed under the weight of heavy snow. The South Korean government had deployed 12,000 soldiers to assist and rescue residents.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite acquired this natural-color image on February 15, 2011. Mostly clear skies allowed MODIS a nearly uninterrupted view of the Korean Peninsula. East of Seoul, clusters of small white clouds cast shadows onto the surface below. But most of the white on the peninsula is snow.

Agence France-Presse reported that the port city of Samcheok recorded 100 centimeters (39 inches) of snowfall on February 11 and 12 - the heaviest snowfall amount since record keeping began in 1911. In the west, Seoul escaped heavy snow, although the Han River froze over for the first time in years, according to the BBC.
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Info

US: Winter Storm Watch Issued For Sierra Nevada

Mark Truppner
My MotherLode
Sun, 13 Feb 2011 03:44 UTC
The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Watch for the Sierra Nevada from Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday evening.

Light snow and strong gusty winds will linger over the mountains tonight.

A stronger storm is expected Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday.

Six to sixteen inches of snow is expected from 4000 through 5000 feet. One to three feet of snow is possible above 6000 through 8000 feet.
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Cloud Lightning

Virginia, US: 'Thundersnow' behind mysterious blue flashes of light?

Kari Pugh
Insidenova
Fri, 28 Jan 2011 19:17 UTC
lightning
© Associated Press
Were the eerie flashes of blue light similar to that in the picture above thundersnow — or something else?
Eerie flashes of blue lit up the snowy sky during this week's powerful coastal storm, but no one seems to know for sure what caused it.

Howard Bernstein, morning meteorologist at WUSA 9 in Washington, said he believes the lights were lightning strikes associated with "thundersnow."

The National Weather Service reported frequent lightning with Wednesday's storm, but said those who saw the flashes of light would have also heard thunder, and that wasn't the case around Prince William.

Bernstein says that's not necessarily true.

"I've given this a little bit of thought (and I also did a little research). I believe we were seeing lightning that was refracted by all of the ice crystals/snow flakes to give it more of a blue appearance," he said this morning in an e-mail. "Also, the thunder was probably quite muffled by all of the snowflakes, so if you weren't very close to the lightning, you probably couldn't hear the thunder."

Comment: Read the following article to get an insight into the true nature of lightning and other electric phenomena.

      Read More...
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