Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

1 of deep ocean's most turbulent areas has big impact on climate

More than a mile beneath the Atlantic's surface, roughly halfway between New York and Portugal, seawater rushing through the narrow gullies of an underwater mountain range much as winds gust between a city's tall buildings is generating one of the most turbulent areas ever observed in the deep ocean.

In fact, the turbulence packs an energy wallop equal to about five million watts -- comparable to output from a small nuclear reactor, according to a landmark study led by Florida State University researcher Louis St. Laurent and described in the August 9 edition of the journal Nature.

The study -- an international collaboration of scientists from the United States and France -- documents for the first time the turbulent conditions in an undersea mountain range known as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It provides never-before-seen evidence that deep water turbulence swirling in the small passageways of such mountains is generating much of the mixing of warm and cold waters in the Atlantic Ocean.

Snowman

Heavy snowfall causes $250 million damage in Chile

Heavy snow in Chile, the worst in eight years, has caused an estimated $250 million worth of damage, Spain's news agency EFE said Friday citing local authorities.

"The losses, so far, total some $250 million and at least 38,000 jobs have been lost temporarily," the news agency said citing Luis Schmidt, the head of the National Agriculture Society.

Bizarro Earth

Floating Arctic ice shrinking at record rate

The area of floating ice in the Arctic has shrunk more than in any summer since satellite tracking began in 1979, and it has reached that record point a month before the annual ice pullback typically peaks, experts said.

Bizarro Earth

Greenhouse gas warming might thin heat-trapping clouds, reducing the predicted impact by as much as 75%: UAH Scientists

The widely accepted (albeit unproven) theory that manmade global warming will accelerate itself by creating more heat-trapping clouds is challenged this month in new research from The University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Instead of creating more clouds, individual tropical warming cycles that served as proxies for global warming saw a decrease in the coverage of heat-trapping cirrus clouds, says Dr. Roy Spencer, a principal research scientist in UAHuntsville's Earth System Science Center.

That was not what he expected to find.

Cloud Lightning

South Asia floods toll passes 2,000 mark

The death toll from the worst monsoon floods to hit South Asia in decades passed 2,000 Thursday even as torrents of muddy water receded from millions of acres of farmland and rains shifted west.

Thousands of villages remained under water and threatened by disease, while millions were still displaced, mainly in India and Bangladesh, where the severe floods also destroyed valuable crops.

Cloud Lightning

Sudan: More Flooding Predicted As Death Toll Exceeds 70

Sudanese authorities have said forecasts show the level of the Blue Nile River will continue to rise and the situation remains critical in many of the country's states after weeks of torrential rains and flooding that have left more than 70 people dead.

The level of the river, which runs through eastern and southeastern Sudan, has been rising steadily over the past weeks, forcing hundreds of families living along its path to abandon their homes.

Smiley

Record heat hammers Washington region

Today's triple-digit temperatures broke records at all three major local airports this afternoon.

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport recorded a high of 102 degrees, which topped the 101 degree record set in 1930.

Cloud Lightning

Killer Tropical Storm Moves Toward China



©AP

Tropical Storm Pabuk moved toward China's southern coast Thursday after triggering landslides that killed 11 people in the Philippines and disrupting power supplies in southern Taiwan.

Pabuk was downgraded from a tropical storm to a tropical depression that lashed China's coastal provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian with heavy rain late Wednesday, the official Xinhua News Agency said. No injuries or damage were immediately reported.

Pabuk then gained force and was again categorized as a tropical storm as it headed southwest at 12 mph early Thursday, Xinhua quoted Lu Shan, chief forecaster of the Guangzhou observatory, as saying. It was expected to hit southern China's Guangdong province late Thursday.

Bizarro Earth

Earthquake sways buildings in Chilean capital

A moderate earthquake shook the Chilean capital Santiago in the midmorning on Wednesday, causing tall buildings in the city centre to sway.

The magnitude 5.0 quake occurred at 10.14am (14H14 GMT) just off the Pacific coast of Chile, 75 kilometres from the port city of Valparaiso, according to the US Geological Survey.

Bizarro Earth

Los Angeles Area Hit by 4.5-Magnitude Earthquake

A magnitude-4.5 earthquake struck the Greater Los Angeles area, the U.S. Geological Survey said in an e-mailed statement.

The epicenter of the temblor, which hit today just before 1 a.m. local time, was 45 kilometers (28 miles) northwest of Los Angeles Civic Center and seven kilometers north-northwest of Chatsworth, said the USGS, which measures seismological events.