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Chile: Rare Snow in Atacama Desert


Earth Observatory, NASA
Wed, 13 Jul 2011 13:21 UTC
Atacama Desert_1
© MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC
Acquired - July 7, 2011
Atacama Desert_2
© MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC
Acquired - July 7, 2011
Ordinarily, the flashes of white in South America's Atacama Desert rise from salt pans. But on July 7, 2011, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite acquired these images, the white came from a far rarer commodity: snow.

Starting on July 3 and lasting several days, a cold front dumped up to 80 centimeters of snow (32 inches) on the driest desert in the world, reported BBC News.

The images above show the largest snowfall the region has witnessed in a half-century. The top image provides a photo-like, natural color view of the snow. A few clouds hang over the white desert, marring the view slightly. The lower image, which includes both visible and infrared light, helps distinguish between snow and clouds. Snow is dark red, while clouds are lighter shades of orange and white.
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Snowman

Thousands Stranded by Worst Snows in Bolivia for 20 Years

Robin Yapp
The Telegraph, UK
Tue, 12 Jul 2011 11:56 UTC
snow to the capital La Paz
© EPA
A cold snap that brought fog and snow to the capital La Paz at the start of this month killed at least 35 people
Thousands of people have been left stranded by the worst snow storms in Bolivia for 20 years.

President Evo Morales was reported to be considering declaring a state of emergency in the region of Potosi to mobilise the army and national guard.

Some 7,000 people belonging to farming families are in need of help in the region, according to officials.

More than 40,000 llamas and alpacas are also without food and farmers have lost their crops under a thick blanket of snow.

The snow has hit the remote highlands of Potosi, which lies in the south-west of the country and generally remains dry.
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Bizarro Earth

Costa Rica: 5.3 Earthquake in Upala Alajuela


Costa Rica News
Wed, 13 Jul 2011 11:48 UTC
earthquake damage
© n/a
Today at approximately 2:11pm in the afternoon, Upala was rattled by a 5.3 magnitude earthquake that shook products off store shelves and rattled off home furnishings. No immediate damages were reported however later in the afternoon something strange was discovered as a result.

While reporting on the earthquake in Upala today, a local news station discovered that a district near the epicenter was missing a river. That's right...A RIVER.

Apparently in the moments following the earthquake, a community stood watch as their river disappeared in to the Earth. As of this writing it is still unknown exactly which community this occurred in however once we have the name we will update this article. The affected citizens were interviewed and expressed concern for the loss of this substantial water supply to the area. Not only will this affect humans but also the livestock raised in the area.

Additionally there was also a 4.8 earthquake registered in Guanacaste near Santa Rosa de Bagaces today.
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Cloud Lightning

Heavy rains strike north of Sweden


The Local
Tue, 12 Jul 2011 10:38 UTC
Image
© Per Eriksson/Scanpix
On Tuesday torrential rain flooded many roads in Sundsvall on the eastern coast of Sweden, a major power outage in the area was caused by the ensuing thunderstorms and a man in his sixties was taken to hospital after being struck by lightning.

Emergency services in Sundsvall are now putting all their efforts into draining the infrastructure. Head of local emergency services, Mats Granat, is counting on being busy all night - if the weather clears.

"If the rains continue we'll be working much longer," he told news agency TT.

So far the water level hasn't risen enough to pose a threat to the general public, according to Granat.
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Bizarro Earth

China: New oil spill in Bohai Bay, the third since June

Zhou Yan and Wang Qian
China Daily
Wed, 13 Jul 2011 10:11 UTC
china,oil spill
© CFP
A screen grab from China’s Central Television (CCTV) on July 6, 2011, shows the devastation caused by the oil spill at the Penglai 19-3 oil field in Bohai Bay off China's eastern coast.

Beijing - A new oil leak was reported in northern China's Bohai Bay, the third since June.

The leak occurred at the Suizhong 36-1 oilfield at 1:30 am on Tuesday due to a malfunction at the central control system, China National Offshore Oil Corp Ltd (CNOOC), the field's operator, said in a statement.

Technicians managed to seal the leak, which covered one square kilometer. Mats and chemicals were used to disperse the sheen which was likely to be cleaned up by Tuesday evening, the company said.
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Cloud Lightning

Canada: Heavy rain causes flooding in Eckville, Alberta


CBC News
Tue, 12 Jul 2011 10:02 UTC
Image
© CBC
Flooding was caused by heavy rain that fell over the area Monday.
Heavy rains in central Alberta caused flooding in the town of Eckville Monday.

"People are just kind of dumbstruck," resident Sharon Walker said. "We have had washouts of roads. Some people have got 10 to 14 inches of water in their basements ... we've never seen anything like it."

Signs of flooding were everywhere Tuesday. Belongings from water-filled basements were out on lawns and there was a sinkhole on the side of a busy road.
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Cloud Lightning

U.S.: Heavy Rain Hits Metro Area, Northeast Colorado

Wayne Harrison
TheDenverChannel.com
Tue, 12 Jul 2011 09:54 UTC
Image
Denver-- Torrential rain hit the Denver metro area Tuesday night, flooding streets and some buildings and prompting calls for water rescues.

There were numerous reports of cars stalled in high water, with people on the roofs of their cars, requiring rescue.

The monsoon moisture moved from the southwest to northeast across the metro area, pounding the downtown area starting just after 9 p.m.
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Fish

U.S. More Dead Fish in Oklahoma

Jalah Gray
KXll.com
Tue, 12 Jul 2011 09:49 UTC
Marshall County - Large numbers of dead fish continue to show up in waters all over Oklahoma. Today we talked with local fishermen in Marshall County about what they've been experiencing.

"I don't know whether they run out of oxygen or what it is they ought to be able to test the water and find out." said Jack Campbell.

Jack Campbell has been fishing Wilson Creek all his life. He says 3 weeks ago, small fish started dying and now large fish, many more than 40 and 50 pounds are dying as well.
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Attention

Huge underwater volcanoes mapped near Antarctica

Andrea Mustain
MSNBC
Tue, 12 Jul 2011 02:19 UTC
Image
© British Antarctic Survey
Newly discovered volcanoes. The peak in the foreground is thought to be the most active, with eruptions in the past few years.
In a first for the region, a dozen massive peaks, some active, are discovered

A string of a dozen volcanoes, at least several of them active, has been found beneath the frigid seas near Antarctica, the first such discovery in that region.

Some of the peaks tower nearly 10,000 feet above the ocean floor - nearly tall enough to break the water's surface.

"That's a big volcano. That's a very big volcano. If that was on land it would be quite remarkable," said Philip Leat, a volcanologist with the British Antarctic Survey who led a seafloor mapping expedition to the region in 2007 and 2010.

The group of 12 underwater mountains lies south of the South Sandwich Islands - desolate, ice-covered volcanoes that rise above the southern Atlantic Ocean about halfway between South America and South Africa and erupted as recently as 2008. It's the first time such a large number of undersea volcanoes has been found together in the Antarctic region.

Leat said the survey team was somewhat surprised by the find.

"We knew there were other volcanoes in the area, but we didn't go trying to find volcanoes," Leat told OurAmazingPlanet. "We just went because there was a big blank area on the map and we had no idea what was there; we just wanted to fill in the seafloor."
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Better Earth

NASA Eyes Dominican Republic Lake's Mysterious Growth


Dominican Today
Tue, 12 Jul 2011 01:35 UTC
Image
© NASA
Enriquillo, Cabrito island within. Photo nasa.gov.
Santo Domingo.- Enriquillo Lake has grown around 9,000 hectares from February 26, 2009, to April 15, 2011, a NASA sensor measurement reveals from space, while the Santo Domingo State University's (UASD) Marine Research Center suggests that two underground currents at the Haiti-Dominican border as the possible cause.

The UASD hypothesis that the subsurface currents from Tierra Nueva and Las Lajas, towns adjacent to Haitian territory, spill their waters into Enriquillo and Azuey lakes, could turn out to be the cause behind the as yet unexplained flooding in both bodies of water.

"That amount of water is still draining towards Enriquillo lake from high territories" in the Dominican Republic, NASA said on its Website, and affirms that the lake's surroundings "have been flooded even more than the floods brought about by the rain sequel caused by Hurricane Noel and Tropical Storm Olga in 2007."

NASA's measurements of Enriquillo's underflow level were done with Landsat and Modis type sensors, which also provided satellite imagery in the study.

Enriquillo received 400 millimeters of water during those rains, and surpass 700 millimeters in the last two years, without any rain in the zone, which reveals the magnitude of the flooding that affects the Caribbean region's biggest lake since 2009.
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