Earth ChangesS


Attention

Strong Earthquake Strikes Northern Chile


BBC News
Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:20 UTC


Chile 6.1 quake
©BBC

A 6.1-magnitude quake has hit northern Chile close to the border with Bolivia, the US Geological Survey reports.

The tremor, whose epicentre was 145km (90 miles) east of the coastal city of Iquique, struck at a depth of more than 120km (74 miles), it adds.
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Butterfly

Best of the Web: Death of the Bees: GMO Crops and the Decline of Bee Colonies in North America

Brit Amos
Global Research
Tue, 25 Mar 2008 17:43 UTC
'Commercial beehives pollinate over a third of [North}America's crops and that web of nourishment encompasses everything from fruits like peaches, apples, cherries, strawberries and more, to nuts like California almonds, 90 percent of which are helped along by the honeybees. Without this pollination, you could kiss those crops goodbye, to say nothing of the honey bees produce or the flowers they also fertilize'.1
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Attention

Use of U.S. Croplands for Biofuels Increases Greenhouse Gases Through Emissions from Land-Use Change

Timothy Searchinger,<sup>1*</sup> Ralph Heimlich,<sup>2</sup> R. A. Houghton,<sup>3</sup> Fengxia Dong,<sup>4</sup> Amani Elobeid,<sup>4</sup> Jacinto Fabiosa,<sup>4</sup> Simla Tokgoz,<sup>4
Science Magazine
Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:09 UTC
Most prior studies have found that substituting biofuels for gasoline will reduce greenhouse gases because biofuels sequester carbon through the growth of the feedstock. These analyses have failed to count the carbon emissions that occur as farmers worldwide respond to higher prices and convert forest and grassland to new cropland to replace the grain (or cropland) diverted to biofuels. By using a worldwide agricultural model to estimate emissions from land-use change, we found that corn-based ethanol, instead of producing a 20% savings, nearly doubles greenhouse emissions over 30 years and increases greenhouse gases for 167 years. Biofuels from switchgrass, if grown on U.S. corn lands, increase emissions by 50%. This result raises concerns about large biofuel mandates and highlights the value of using waste products.
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Bizarro Earth

Biofuels will speed climate change, chief scientist says

Roger Harrabin
BBC
Sun, 23 Mar 2008 14:03 UTC
The UK's chief environment scientist has called for a delay to a policy demanding inclusion of biofuels into fuel at pumps across the UK.

Professor Robert Watson said ministers should await the results of their inquiry into biofuels' sustainability.

Some scientists think biofuels' carbon benefits may be currently outweighed by negative effects from their production.
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Attention

4.1 earthquake at Yellowstone National Park


Associated Press
Tue, 25 Mar 2008 10:41 UTC


US Dept. of the Interior - National Park Service
©National Park Service
At Yellowstone and some other volcanoes, some scientists theorize that the earth's crust fractures and cracks in a concentric or ring-fracture pattern. At some point these cracks reach the magma "reservoir," release the pressure, and the volcano explodes. The huge amount of material released causes the volcano to collapse into a huge crater - a caldera.

Comment: The University of Utah, as a member of the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS), maintains a series of seismograph stations at Yellowstone National Park. Recent readings capturing a short series of quakes can be seen at their site.

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Attention

Tanzania: 'Mountain of God' spews out its wrath after series of tremors

Zephania Ubwani
Daily Nation
Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:20 UTC


Oldonyo Lengai
©Unknown
Mt Oldonyo Lengai (file picture)

In the past the community living at the foot of Oldonyo Lengai defied government orders to evacuate after the mountain erupted.

They argued that they could not move out because they had lived there for generations and had grown used to the volcanic ash from "the mountain of God" in northern Tanzania. But nine months after it continued to emit smoke into the sky and spewing molten rocks on its slopes, many of the defiant people are now moving out without being asked to.
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Attention

Hawaii: Volcano blast spews grit over 19 miles

Rod Thompson
Star Bulletin
Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:13 UTC


Halemaumau
©Charlene Meyers. Images of Hawaii
Photographer and national park volunteer Charlene Meyers
took this 72-second time exposure Tuesday night
of the glowing spot in Halemaumau Crater.

Big Island photographer Charlene Meyers must have been one of the last people to see the glowing red vent inside Halemaumau Crater before the unusual feature blew itself apart early Wednesday morning.
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Question

Texas: Why Was It Raining Mud?

Jennifer Broome
WOAI
Wed, 19 Mar 2008 17:12 UTC
Many of you called and email about what looked like mud falling from the sky late Tuesday afternoon. By sundown, everything was coated in dirt.

People weren't sure if it was pollution, but it was getting all over cars and windows.

"I don't know, I've never seen this before," said Magne Turoy, who is from Norway. "I'm used to rain, lots of rain, but I've never seen this before."

Image
©WOAI
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Info

Gulf Stream Leaves Its Signature Seven Miles High


sciencedaily.com
Mon, 24 Mar 2008 01:06 UTC
The Gulf Stream's impact on climate is well known, keeping Iceland and Scotland comfortable in winter compared to the deep-freeze of Labrador at the same latitude. That cyclones tend to spawn over the Gulf Stream has also been known for some time. A new study reveals that the Gulf Stream anchors a precipitation band with upward motions and cloud formations that can reach 7 miles high and penetrate the upper troposphere. The discovery, announced by a Japan - US team of scientists, shows that the Gulf Stream has a pathway by which to directly affect weather and climate patterns over the whole Northern Hemisphere, and perhaps even world wide.

Cumulonimbus storm cloud
©iStockphoto/Erik Kolstad
Cumulonimbus storm cloud forming over the warm Gulf Stream along the Norwegian coast. The system is sometimes called a polar low.
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Better Earth

Iron Gets Into The North Pacific In Unexpected Ways, Will Impact Climate Change Predictions


sciencedaily.com
Mon, 24 Mar 2008 01:00 UTC
Most oceanographers have assumed that, in the areas of the world's oceans known as High Nutrient, Low Chlorophyll (HNLC) regions, the iron needed to fertilize infrequent plankton blooms comes almost entirely from wind-blown dust. Phoebe Lam and James Bishop of the Earth Sciences Division at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have now shown that in the North Pacific, at least, it just ain't so.

North Pacific
©DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
From a site 47 degrees north latitude and 160 degrees east longitude in the Western North Pacific, iron and manganese found at depths of 100-200 meters originated hundreds of miles away, from the continental shelves of the Kamchatka Peninsula and Kuril Islands. Particulate and dissolved iron and manganese hydroxides came from the upper shelf, and, after further processing, more iron (now poor in manganese) came from deeper on the slopes.
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