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Red sky at night: Sicily looks on as Mount Etna erupts in spectacular fashion

Lewis Bazley
DailyMail.Co.Uk
Fri, 13 May 2011 14:30 UTC
After reports of mysterious mass animal deaths around the planet, photos of a fierce volcanic eruption might confirm that the end of the world is nigh.

Thankfully, these magnificent pictures of Mount Etna's latest eruption are merely a chance to revel in the awesome power of nature rather than a reason to start stocking up on canned goods.

The 3,329-metre (10,922-feet) volcano erupted for around an hour yesterday evening, lighting up the Sicilian sky and providing amazing scenery for the village of Milo, just 12 kilometres away.
Image
© Reuters
Fire in the hole: Mount Etna spews lava on the southern Italian island of Sicily yesterday evening
Etna is Europe's tallest and most active volcano and has seen increased activity in recent months yet its seismic might poses no immediate threat to the nearby towns and cities.

According to the Italian Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, a slight increase in Etna's volcanic tremors had been recorded on Tuesday, reaching its peak at 7am local time yesterday.

The activity diminished but at 9:30pm local time on Wednesday night, Etna roared into life sending lava spewing down its sides.
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Bad Guys

Expert says eruption of Etna volcano linked to earthquake in Spain

Silvia Marchetti
Xinhuanet
Thu, 12 May 2011 21:02 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Rome - The eruption of the Etna volcano in southern Italy early Thursday is connected to the earthquakes that rocked the Spanish region of Murcia, killing 12 people and injuring more than 170 others, a seismology expert said Thursday.

"We are currently witnessing an intense seismic activity in the entire Mediterranean area from Spain all the way to Malta which has a certain impact on regional volcanoes," said Domenico Patane, director of the Sicily office of Italy s National Geophysics Institute.

Patane said volcanoes are like windows from where underground magma surfaces and it's normal that they respond to earthquakes occurring in a geographic proximity.

"The Spanish eastern coast hit by the quake, after all, lies close to Italy, in the Mediterranean. Both Spain and Sicily are on the same earth plate," he said.

The earthquakes in Spain on Wednesday, which could be felt in Madrid, reportedly had their epicenter near the towns of Lorca and Totana in the Murcia region. The initial tremor of 4.4 magnitude was followed by a quake of about 5.2 magnitude.
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Cloud Lightning

US: Town that faces being wiped off map: Flood waters engulf every home in Mississippi community


DailyMail.Co.Uk
Fri, 13 May 2011 05:56 UTC
It's a terrible waiting game for around 350 people evacuated from the camps at Tunica Cutoff.

With the Mississippi River 10ft out of its banks and heading towards a crest (peak) of 48ft on the Memphis gauge, county planners and emergency management officials fear that flood waters will enter nearly all the now-abandoned homes on the unprotected side of the levee.

On the bloated Mississippi River, the town of Tunica Cutoff, sits an hour's drive south of Memphis - recent flood waters have done significant damage to the town's housing and has left residents wondering if they'll have a community to return to when the water recedes.

CBS News reports that there are about 300 homes in the small town, and they have all been flooded.
Image
© EPA
High waters: Residents in Tunica Cutoff are worried it may never be rebuilt owing to the cost of building the town again from scratch
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People

US: Slow migration unfolds in flood's path


Associated Press
Fri, 13 May 2011 09:00 UTC
Yazoo City - A slow migration is unfolding here as people and wild animals - hogs, deer and snakes among them - seek higher ground from the floodwaters rising inexorably along the Mississippi River and its tributaries.
Image
© AP/Robert Ray
Floodwaters invade downtown Vicksburg on Wednesday. Historic Vicksburg, the site of a pivotal Civil War battle, has been one of the hardest hit cities. All along the river's path, residents are worried about the flood's impact on homes and farmland.
Brett Robinson drove slowly down River Road near his Yazoo City farm on Thursday, gazing out over corn fields now beginning to look more like lakes. He stopped his truck, pulled out a rifle and shot dead a wild hog swimming through his corn. He'll lose the crop anyway, but that hog could be a nuisance long after the water recedes.

"We lose a lot of crops to them," he said of wild pigs. "We can lose 40 acres in a night. They can give birth three times a year and have 15 in a litter."

Wild pigs multiply faster than farmers can deal with them. Yet the rising flood is driving them into the open, giving farmers an opportunity to kill them as wild animals seek higher ground.

Not far away, a raccoon clung atop a power pole, perched above several feet of water. Nearby, a snake swam through the inundated corn. Ants are seemingly everywhere and fish sought to swim against the current as water washed over a road.
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Cloud Lightning

US: Fort Worth lightning strikes create fireball explosions


Digital Journal
Fri, 13 May 2011 10:51 UTC
Dramatic explosions lighting up the Fort Worth night sky on Tuesday provided a multi-colored display that left residents in awe and thousands without power, thanks to an intense thunderstorm system that moved through the area.

The explosions resulted from lightning strikes hitting feeder lines used for electricity transmission throughout the neighborhoods. The explosions included intense blue, orange, purple and red colors, ranging over what appeared to be a multiple-block area.

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Nuke

Plan to Flood Fukushima Reactor Could Cause New Blast, Experts Warn

Justin McCurry
The Guardian, UK
Fri, 13 May 2011 10:20 UTC
Plant operator Tepco reveals meltdown and breach of pressure vessel, with Greenpeace warning against pumping water in

A worker inside the No 1 reactor building
© AP
A worker inside the No 1 reactor building at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Experts have warned of a potentially dangerous radiation leak if Japan proceeds with plans to flood a damaged reactor containment vessel at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The facility's operator has admitted uranium fuel rods in the No 1 reactor partially melted after being fully exposed because of the 11 March tsunami.

Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) said water levels had fallen to at least one metre below four-metre-long fuel rods inside the reactor core and melted fuel had slumped to the bottom of the reactor's containment vessel.

The damage is more severe than Tepco had previously reported and is almost certain to frustrate its quest to bring the plant under control within six to nine months. Officials said the leaked fuel was being kept cool and there was no risk of an explosion of the kind that blew the roof off the reactor in March.
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Nuke

Fukushima - One Step Forward and Four Steps Back as Each Unit Challenged by New Problems


Fairewinds Associates
Fri, 13 May 2011 09:53 UTC
Gundersen says Fukushima's gaseous and liquid releases continue unabated. With a meltdown at Unit 1, Unit 4 leaning and facing possible collapse, several units contaminating ground water, and area school children outside the exclusion zone receiving adult occupational radiation doses, the situation continues to worsen. TEPCO needs a cohesive plan and international support to protect against world-wide contamination.

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Bizarro Earth

Multiple vortex forming over Northern America


Crisis Boom
Fri, 13 May 2011 09:35 UTC
There is an upper level low pressure system vortex storm forming of East Coast of US. It's an occluded front with a low pressure of 29.29hg or 992mb. The winds are rotating the system counterclockwise. In previous post we gave some possible explanation of the situation and we gave some notes about polar cyclones, arctic storms, nor'eastern storms and explanation of Coriolis effect.

Image
© Unknown
The upper level low pressure systems are important to forecasting and can dramatically alter one's forecast. Upper level lows can occur in association with a mid-latitude cyclone or may begin without the aid of a mid-latitude cyclone. Upper level lows without the aid of a surface low can develop when air flows over a mountain range, in association with an upper level short wave, or in association with a jet streak.

Image
© Unknown
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Evil Rays

Japan Reactor-Core Damage Worse Than Thought

Joe Carroll and Michio Nakayama
Bloomberg
Thu, 12 May 2011 08:13 UTC
Image

The No. 1 reactor at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant. Source: Air Photo Service via Bloomberg

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said one of the reactor cores at its stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant is more seriously damaged than previously thought, setting back the utility's plan to resolve the crisis.

Fuel rods in the core of the No. 1 reactor are fully exposed, with the water level 1 meter (3.3 feet) below the base of the fuel assembly, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at the utility known as Tepco, told reporters at a briefing in Tokyo. Melted fuel has dropped to the bottom of the pressure vessel and is still being cooled, Matsumoto said.

Japan is trying to contain the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl after a quake and tsunami two months ago knocked out power and cooling systems at the Fukushima station. While authorities have previously suspected a partial meltdown at unit 1, high radiation levels had prevented workers from entering the building to check the damage until last week.
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Bizarro Earth

Made In Taiwan: Footage Of Taipei Tornado

Fergal Tierney
Irish Weather Online
Thu, 12 May 2011 23:39 UTC
This is a video shot by a Taipei resident as a tornado affected part of the Taiwanese capital on May 12th. The twister lasted around two minutes, flipping an SUV on top of some motorcycles, though there were no reports of casualties.


There was a stationary front lying over the area at the time, with an extremely humid airmass to its south. The 00Z Taipei sounding shows enhanced low-level moisture and some windshear, which both contributed to vigorous convection and updraft rotation.

The event, however, will not be recorded on Central Weather Bureau's list of natural disasters as it was not recorded by their weather station. This may have implications for the owners of the vehicles, as the local insurance industry normally relies on the CWB record for claims purposes.
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