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USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.3 - WSW of Lata, Solomon Island


US Geological Survey
Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:03 UTC
Solomon Quake_010213
© USGS
Event Time
2013-02-01 22:16:36 UTC
2013-02-02 09:16:36 UTC+11:00 at epicenter

Location
10.926°S 165.450°E depth=19.9km (12.4mi)

Nearby Cities
47km (29mi) WSW of Lata, Solomon Islands
542km (337mi) NNW of Luganville, Vanuatu
624km (388mi) ESE of Honiara, Solomon Islands
814km (506mi) NNW of Port-Vila, Vanuatu
1122km (697mi) N of We, New Caledonia

Technical Details
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Attention

U.S. wildlife officials propose endangered status for wolverines


Guardian
Fri, 01 Feb 2013 15:50 UTC
Image
© Photograph: Audrey Magoun/AP
The 'mountain devil', in its natural habitat
Only 250 to 300 wolverines roam the US, but the species' habitats are threatened by climate change

The tenacious wolverine, a snow-loving carnivore sometimes called the "mountain devil," is being added to the list of species threatened by climate change, a dubious distinction that puts it in the ranks of the polar bear and several other animals that could see their habitats shrink drastically due to warming temperatures.

US wildlife officials on Friday will propose Endangered Species Act protections for the wolverine in the contiguous 48 states, a step denied under the Bush administration.

The Associated Press obtained details of the government's long-awaited ruling on the rare, elusive animal in advance of the announcement.
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Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.0 - 52km SW of Lata, Solomon Islands


US Geological Survey
Fri, 01 Feb 2013 13:22 UTC
Image
© USGS
Event Time
2013-02-01 05:36:40 UTC
2013-02-01 16:36:40 UTC+11:00 at epicenter

Location
11.090°S 165.538°E depth=9.3km (5.8mi)

Nearby Cities
52km (32mi) SW of Lata, Solomon Islands
522km (324mi) NNW of Luganville, Vanuatu
638km (396mi) ESE of Honiara, Solomon Islands
793km (493mi) NNW of Port-Vila, Vanuatu
1103km (685mi) N of We, New Caledonia
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Bizarro Earth

Mystery deepens as increasing numbers of stricken birds wash up on Dorset coast

John Fahey, Ryan Hooper
The Independent, UK
Fri, 01 Feb 2013 12:48 UTC
Stricken Bird
© The Independent, UK
Increasing numbers of stricken birds are washing up on the south coast after being covered in a mysterious substance.

Wildlife experts are no closer to discovering the cause of the environmental damage, which has seen more than 100 seabirds taken into care at the RSPCA West Hatch wildlife centre in Taunton, Somerset, since yesterday.

Most of the birds, guillemots, were found at Chesil Beach, near Portland in Dorset. One bird was found alive as far as Worthing in west Sussex, and is now being cared for at a veterinary surgery. Another, found in the Isle of Wight, is now at a local animal rescue centre.

Around 200 miles of the English coastline is being investigated. The Environment Agency has taken samples of the water for testing.

RSPCA deputy chief inspector John Pollock, who has been leading the rescue mission in Dorset, said: "We just do not know what this substance is.

"It is white, odourless and globular, like a silicone sealer. The best way I can think to describe it is 'sticky Vaseline'.

"The numbers of the birds coming in have been growing and sadly there were quite a few dead birds this morning."
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Bizarro Earth

Aftershocks may portend major Philippine earthquake

Crystal Gammon
OurAmazingPlanet
Fri, 01 Feb 2013 10:23 UTC
Philippine Trench
© Ye, et al./GRL Vol. 39
A diagram of the Philippine Trench showing historic large earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or great, as well as the motions of tectonic plates.
Aftershocks shook the Philippines for more than two weeks after a magnitude-7.6 quake rocked the region on Aug. 31, 2012. A team of seismologists monitoring the aftershocks and plotting their whereabouts noticed an odd pattern.

"Typically, if you locate aftershocks they sort of outline the fault that ruptures. This time they didn't," said Thorne Lay, a geophysicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz who was part of the team. "Instead they were shallower and had very different fault geometries."

The 7.6 quake happened at a fault within the Philippine Sea Plate, which is subducting beneath the Philippine Microplate. Some of the unusual aftershocks were so called "intraplate" ruptures, like the original quake, but happened at a shallower depth.

And others of the unusual aftershocks were located west of the epicenter, within the Philippine Trench itself, where the plate is subducting. These are called interplate aftershocks because they happen at the boundary between two plates.

That segment of the trench hasn't seen a major earthquake in at least 400 years, but the shocks may be a sign that the plate boundary is linked to the intraplate rupture and that it is building up strain in preparation for a big one.

No one will know until GPS equipment is installed and scientists collect more data, Lay said.
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Magnify

Seabirds wash up on English coast covered in sticky substance

Steven Morris
Guardian
Fri, 01 Feb 2013 10:39 UTC
Image
© Photograph: RSPCA/PA
RSPCA staff have been working to clean up surviving seabirds at West Hatch animal centre in Devon
Conservationists mount rescue operation after birds found on beaches coated in waxy oil

Conservationists are becoming increasingly alarmed by the number of seabirds being washed on to the south coast of England covered in a sticky, waxy substance.

Around 200 birds have been found alive, but by Friday morning 20 dead birds had also been discovered and the RSPB was receiving many reports of distressed birds being spotted out at sea.

Scientists from the Environment Agency and Maritime Coastguard Agency have taken samples to establish what the substance is, which will help efforts to clean the surviving birds. One theory being examined is that it could be palm oil.

Most of the birds affected are guillemots, which spend most of their life out at sea and are more vulnerable to oil spills. But there are growing concerns that rarer birds may also have been affected.
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Bizarro Earth

Nine people killed as freak hailstorm rains massive boulders down on Indian villages

Jill Reilly
Daily Mail, UK
Thu, 31 Jan 2013 11:25 UTC
Hailstones the size of boulders have rained down on villages in southern India.At least nine people were killed when the violent weather hit several villages in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The hailstorm which lasted for almost 20 minutes, destroyed crops, houses and live stock, causing devastating financial implications for residents.
Freak Hailstorm_1
© Mohammed Aleemuddin/Barcroft l
Raining down: People cleaning the streets covered with large boulders of hailstorm Andhra Pradesh, India.
      Read More...
Nuke

What's the deal with Arkansas' radioactive snow?

Greg Newkirk
WhoForted?
Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:32 UTC
Daren
© WhoForted?
Daren Foraday believes the radioactive snow in White Country, Arkansas reaches levels dangerous to health.
On January 15, White County, Arkansas resident Daren Foraday walked outside to play in the fresh snow. No, not with his sled.. but with his geiger counter. What he found, levels of radiation comparable to the kind exposed to workers in a radioactive plant, disturbed him.

Foraday, a self proclaimed "science nerd", wonders why the citizens exposed to the snowfall weren't warned of it's levels. According to Daren, the area around White County generally clocks in at 35cpm in background radiation, but after the snowfall that number was much higher.

"The sleet and snow was showing an alert level above 100cpm," he wrote. "The high levels only lasted about 24 hours indicating a short half life of the hot particles. This kind of exposure can reduce the immune system and may be the cause for recent spikes in flu and illness in this area and others.

Read article here
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Question

Mysterious, purple spheres found in the desert

Liz Kotalik
KGUN9
Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:02 UTC

It was a normal Sunday in Vail for Geradine Vargas. Normal, until she and her husband stumbled upon something kind of weird."We were taking photos around the area and we just.... I mean, how could you miss this?" Geradine said. "It was just like glittering in the sun."Thousands of tiny, purple-hued spheres piled in the middle of nowhere.

"It's just one of those things that you've never seen before."They were watery, some where translucent, and the pile was completely isolated. Gerardine was amazed, and she wanted answers."We did email a friend of ours who's a zoologist, but she didn't know. I mean, she didn't seem to recognize what it was."
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Satellite

Satellite image shows Eastern U.S. severe weather system

Rob Gutro
NASA
Wed, 30 Jan 2013 18:19 UTC
A powerful cold front moving from the central United States to the East Coast is wiping out spring-like temperatures and replacing them with winter-time temperatures with powerful storms in between. An image released from NASA using data from NOAA's GOES-13 satellite provides a stunning look at the powerful system that brings a return to winter weather in its wake.

On Jan. 30 at 1825 UTC (1:25 p.m. EST), NOAA's GOES-13 satellite captured an image of clouds associated with the strong cold front. The visible GOES-13 image shows a line of clouds that stretch from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast and contain powerful thunderstorms with the potential to be severe. The front is moving east to the Atlantic Ocean.
Image
© NOAA/NASA/GOES Project
NOAA's GOES-13 satellite continually provides real-time visible and infrared imagery of weather over the eastern United States. The NASA GOES Project, located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., created the image from GOES data. The colorized image uses GOES-13 satellite visible data of clouds, and is overlaid on a U.S. map created by imagery from the Moderate Resolution Spectroradiometer instrument (MODIS), an instrument that flies aboard both the NASA Aqua and Terra satellites.
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