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US: Mystery surrounds what some say could be another gulf oil spill

Virginia Chamlee
The Florida Independent
Tue, 13 Sep 2011 10:07 UTC
Image
© Deepwater Horizon Response, via Flickr
A concentrated oil burn in the Gulf of Mexico, conducted in May 2010
Though the mainstream media has left the story alone, reports of a new slick of oil spotted about 40 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico, near British Petroleum's Maconda well, have many concerned.

Though the theories are un-confirmed by BP, many worry that the oil might be the result of yet another BP spill. Several samples collected by the Mobile Press-Register in late August bore the same chemical footprint of the Deepwater Horizon oil, according to chemists with Louisiana State University. But BP executives have reported finding no leaks in the seal on the Deepwater Horizon well or the relief well, after a survey by a submersible robot.

On April 20, 2010, BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded - killing 11 oil workers and injuring 17 others. The resulting spill, which took almost three months to be capped, caused severe damage to the environment and economies of coastal communities in the five Gulf Coast states.

Progress Florida's SpillBabySpill.com - a site initially set up after last year's disaster - has been reporting extensively on the new oil.
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Phoenix

US, Minnesota: Residents being asked to evacuate as wind gusts fuel wildfire in northeastern Minnesota

Dan Kraker
Minnesota Public Radio
Mon, 12 Sep 2011 09:39 UTC
Pagami Creek Fire
© Greg Seitz
Canoeists paddle through the narrows between Lake Four and Lake Three, looking south at the fire and the smoke on Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011. "It really grew during the course of the day," said Greg Seitz, communications director for the Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness.
Residents and campers near the Boundary Waters fire are being asked to evacuate as a wildfire burning in northeastern Minnesota continues to grow.

Fueled by dry trees and winds gusting to near 40 miles per hour, the Pagami Creek Fire has at least doubled in size, and some estimates say it may have tripled since the weekend.

It is now spreading south outside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

"We're expecting higher winds again tomorrow coming out of the northwest," said Becca Manlove, public information officer with the Pagami Creek Fire Information. "We would rather people have a little time to think and gather things and move rather than asking them on very short notice.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Earthquake Rattles Big Country: What's Possibly Behind Them?

Julie Phillips
KTXS.com
Mon, 12 Sep 2011 21:35 UTC

Snyder, Texas -- People from Abilene to Midland reported feeling an earthquake that was centered northeast of Snyder Sunday morning.

Earthquakes often occur near Snyder, but this was the second strongest on record behind the memorable 5.3 quake in 1978. Records go back to 1977.

"It was a really heavy loud rumble that came up out of nowhere," said Snyder resident Lance Soria.

"Just sitting there and the house started shaking so I looked up at the roof to see if anything was going to fall," said Snyder Resident Steve Mackey.

The 4.4 magnitude quake hit around 7:30 AM Sunday morning in northeast Scurry County. Residents of Snyder have experienced at least seven earthquakes since Sunday morning.

"To have them this close together is definitely a bit alarming," said Lisa Crump who was raised in Snyder.
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Bizarro Earth

Near The North Coast of New Guinea, P.N.G. - Earthquake Magnitude 6.2


USGS
Mon, 12 Sep 2011 19:27 UTC
PNG Quake_120911
© USGS
Earthquake Location
Date-Time:
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 22:44:32 UTC

Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 08:44:32 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
3.678°S, 144.050°E

Depth:
34.9 km (21.7 miles)

Region:
NEAR NORTH COAST OF NEW GUINEA, P.N.G.

Distances:
48 km (29 miles) ESE of Wewak, New Guinea, PNG

242 km (150 miles) N of Mount Hagen, New Guinea, PNG

728 km (452 miles) NNW of PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea

2803 km (1741 miles) NNW of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia
      Read More...
Cloud Lightning

Severe Flooding in Santa Catarina, Brazil

Sarah de Sainte Croix
The Rio Times
Fri, 09 Sep 2011 16:54 UTC
Brazil Flood
© Recreation
The city of Blumenau, in the state of Santa Catarina, southern Brazil.
Ten towns in the state of Santa Catarina in the South of Brazil are in an official state of emergency and a further 25 are on high alert, following several days of heavy rain and flooding. The situation looks likely to get worse, with more rain forecast for the coming days.

According to CIRAM (the Information Centre for Environmental Resources and Hydrometeorology in Santa Catarina), an average of more than 100mm of rain has fallen across the region in the last three days, causing rivers to rise dangerously and provoking landslides in several locations.
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Cloud Lightning

'Huge Losses' as Pakistan Floods Kill 200


Agence France Presse
Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:45 UTC
Pakistan flooding
© AFP/File, A. Majeed
Some 5.3 million people have been affected by this year's flooding in Pakistan
More than 200 people have been killed by devastating rains in Pakistan, which is still struggling to rebuild after last year's worst floods in living memory, officials said Monday.

Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state suffering appalling levels of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked violence, saw 21 million people affected in the 2010 flooding that killed 1,750 people and cost the economy $10 billion.

Aid agencies have accused the government of failing to invest in adequate prevention measures and vast swathes of farmland have been inundated for a second year in the southern province of Sindh, the nation's breadbasket.

The situation this year was even worse than last year, one official said.
      Read More...
Cloud Lightning

Stormy Weather Across the UK as Remnants of Hurricane Katia Hit


Met Office
Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:25 UTC
As forecast, a deep area of low pressure which contains post-tropical storm Katia is bringing gales and heavy rain to parts of the UK.


All parts of the UK will see gusty conditions through the start of the week, with the highest wind speeds of 75 to 80 miles per hour expected over northern and western regions of the country.
      Read More...
Calculator

Earthquakes May Make 2011 Second-Costliest Year for Insurers

Carolyn Bandel
Bloomberg
Fri, 09 Sep 2011 16:04 UTC
New Zealand Earthquake
© The Associated Press
Record earthquake losses following the temblors in Japan and New Zealand may make 2011 the second- costliest year in history for insured catastrophe losses, according to Swiss Re Ltd.

Total insured losses from natural catastrophes and man-made disasters reached about $70 billion in the first half of this year, more than double the losses in the same period in 2010, according to estimates by the Zurich-based reinsurer.

The figure was only surpassed in 2005 after hurricanes Katrina, Wilma and Rita caused claims of more than $90 billion, the world's second-biggest reinsurer said. Catastrophe claims usually increase in the second half of the year with the hurricane season in the North Atlantic and typhoons in the northwest Pacific.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Honduran earthquake of 2009 destroyed half of coral reefs of Belizean Barrier Reef lagoon

Nadine Lymn
EurekAlert / Ecological Society of America
Mon, 12 Sep 2011 11:31 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Earthquake underscores need for conservation planning to take into account infrequent natural disasters

Earth's coral reefs have not been faring well in recent decades, facing multiple threats from pollution, disease, elevated water temperatures, and overfishing. Often referred to as the "rainforests of the Sea," coral reefs support a wide variety of marine life, help protect shorelines, and contribute significantly to tourism and the fishing industry. A new study looks at a rare but catastrophic impact on reefs: the damage caused by natural disasters such as an earthquakes.

In May of 2009, a powerful, magnitude-7.3 earthquake shook the western Caribbean, causing lagoonal reefs in Belize, 213 kilometers (132 miles) from the epicenter, to avalanche and slide into deeper water. As reported in a preprint article of Ecology, a journal of the Ecological Society of America, Richard Aronson of the Florida Institute of Technology and colleagues analyzed data that suggest how the history of the reef will influence its recovery.

During the quarter-century before the earthquake struck, the reefs had gone through mass mortalities of two sequentially dominant coral species. Novel events in their own right, these mass mortalities were instantly "rendered moot" on half the reefs, which were destroyed when the earthquake hit.

Aronson and colleagues' work focused on a 375-square-kilometer (144-square-mile) area of the Belizean Barrier Reef, which they monitored from 1986 to 2009. The group revisited 21 sites in 2010 to determine the impacts of the earthquake. They found that approximately half the reef slopes had slabbed off and slid into deeper water. Only sediment and the skeletal debris of corals remained.
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Cloud Lightning

Ireland braced for extreme weather

Christopher Weir
Inside Ireland
Mon, 12 Sep 2011 09:40 UTC
The UK and Ireland will face extreme weather conditions in the coming days as the tailend of Hurricane Katia sweeps across the Atlantic.

The Met Office has issued a severe weather warning for most of the UK, advising those in the North as well as Scotland, to expect winds of up to 75mph.

Image
© Unknown
Northern Irish motorists have been warned about exposed roads
In Ireland, MET Éireann has also forecast strong southwest winds reaching speeds of 50 to 80 km/hr, gusting 90 to 130 km/hr, with the most severe winds affecting exposed regions of Connacht and Ulster on Monday morning.
      Read More...
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