Earth ChangesS

Question

Volcanic Eruption Of 1600 Caused Global Disruption

The 1600 eruption of Huaynaputina in Peru had a global impact on human society, according to a new study of contemporary records by geologists at UC Davis.

The eruption is known to have put a large amount of sulfur into the atmosphere, and tree ring studies show that 1601 was a cold year, but no one had looked at the agricultural and social impacts, said Ken Verosub, professor of geology at UC Davis.

Question

Midwest quakes poorly understood, different from West Coast temblors

Champaign, Ill. - Scientists say they know far too little about Midwestern seismic zones like the one that rumbled to life under southern Illinois Friday morning, but much of what they do know is striking.

The fault zones beneath the Mississippi River Valley have produced the largest modern U.S. quakes east of the Rockies, a region covered with old buildings not built to withstand seismic activity.

And, when quakes happen, they're felt far and wide, their vibrations propagated over hundreds of miles of bedrock.

Cloud Lightning

India: One killed in lightning strike

Kasaragod: One person was killed in a lightning strike in the district early on Sunday morning. The deceased was identified by the police as K. Kunhikkannan, 58, of Poinachi here.

Cloud Lightning

Think Tank: Climate change 'may put world at war'

Climate change could cause global conflicts as large as the two world wars but lasting for centuries unless the problem is controlled, a leading defence think tank has warned.

The Royal United Services Institute said a tenfold increase in research spending, comparable to the amount spent on the Apollo space programme, will be needed if the world is to avoid the worst effects of changing temperatures.

However the group said the world's response to the threats posed by climate change, such as rising sea levels and migration, had so far been "slow and inadequate," because nations had failed to prepare for the worst-case scenario.

Comment: Climate change may indeed prove to be catastrophic but not necessarily because of global warming.


Cloud Lightning

US, Maryland: Lightning strikes three houses in county

When lightning hit Don and Ellen Noland's house Sunday morning and caused a fire, Don's quick use of water and then a fire extinguisher may have saved his house from going up in flames.

"The firemen told me that whole house would be gone if I hadn't done that," he said Sunday as he and his wife prepared to move temporarily to a hotel.

Cloud Lightning

US: Planes struck by lightning

Washington - Two planes landed in Maryland and Virginia after being struck by lightning on Sunday morning. No one was injured.

Both incidents occurred around 10:30 a.m., according to Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Arlene Salac.

Cloud Lightning

US, Minneapolis: Bolt from above: three workers survive lightning strike at Twin Cities International

A construction worker got hit in the head by a lightning bolt Monday night at Twin Cities International, and survived.

In fact, he's not even in the hospital.



1lightning
ยฉUnknown


Cloud Lightning

US, Missouri: Lightning strike damages motel

Guests at the American Inn on Noland Road near Interstate 70 spent a portion of their stay outdoors Monday night.

Approximately 35 guests were evacuated from 22 rooms after lightning struck an attic area of the hotel, spokesperson Pam Hayward said Tuesday.

Better Earth

East Timor shaken by strong earthquake, meteorologists say

Jakarta, Indonesia - Meteorological agencies say a powerful earthquake has rocked part of East Timor. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.


Bizarro Earth

Sorry to ruin the fun, but an ice age cometh

THE scariest photo I have seen on the internet is www.spaceweather.com, where you will find a real-time image of the sun from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, located in deep space at the equilibrium point between solar and terrestrial gravity.

What is scary about the picture is that there is only one tiny sunspot.

Image
©SOHO

Comment: Chapman has it only partly right. He excludes the evidence for cometary dust loading that contributed to the last ice age (and most likely previous ones). The increased depositional flux evidenced from Gabrielli's paper shows that it was not the sun alone that caused the last ice age:

Depositional Fluxes
©Nature

And from Victor Clube's talk:
You first take the modern sky accessible to science, especially during the Space Age, and you look at its' darker debris with a view to relating its behavior to the more accessible human history which we can, in principle, really understand. And by this approach you discover from the dynamics of the material in space which I'm talking about that a huge comet must have settled in a Taurid orbit some 20,000 years ago, whose dense meteor stream for 10,000 years almost certainly produced the last Ice Age.
Now the question must be asked, Is there a relationship between the sun's missing spots and a 100,000 year ice age cycle coupled with cometary debris entering the solar system?