Earth ChangesS


Nuke

TEPCO admits nuclear meltdown occurred at Fukushima reactor 16 hours after quake


The Mainichi Daily News
Tue, 17 May 2011 20:30 UTC
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) admitted for the first time on May 15 that most of the fuel in one of its nuclear reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant had melted only about 16 hours after the March 11 earthquake struck a wide swath of northeastern Japan and triggered a devastating tsunami.

According to TEPCO, the operator of the crippled nuclear power plant, the emergency condenser designed to cool the steam inside the pressure vessel of the No. 1 reactor was working properly shortly after the magnitude-9.0 earthquake, but it lost its functions around 3:30 p.m. on March 11 when tsunami waves hit the reactor.

Based on provisional analysis of data on the reactor, the utility concluded that the water level in the pressure vessel began to drop rapidly immediately after the tsunami, and the top of the fuel began to be exposed above the water around 6 p.m. Around 7:30 p.m., the fuel was fully exposed above the water surface and overheated for more than 10 hours. At about 9 p.m., the temperature in the reactor core rose to 2,800 degrees Celsius, the melting point for fuel. At approximately 7:50 p.m., the upper part of the fuel started melting, and at around 6:50 a.m. on March 12, a meltdown occurred.
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Bizarro Earth

Wildfires in Alberta, Canada


Earth Observatory, NASA
Tue, 17 May 2011 18:49 UTC
Wildfires in Alberta_1
© MODIS Rapid Response Team / NASA GSFC.Acquired May 16, 2011
Wildfires in Alberta_2
© MODIS Rapid Response Team / NASA GSFC.Acquired May 16, 2011
Tan and gray smoke spanned hundreds of kilometers across Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Northwest Territories, Canada, on May 16, 2011. At 10:00 a.m., the Alberta government reported 116 fires burning in the province, 34 of which were out of control. The following day, the total number of fires had dropped to 100, and the number of uncontrolled fires had dropped to 22, but four new fires had started to burn out of control.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite took this image at 12:35 p.m. local time on May 16. Similar images of central Canada are available twice daily.

The top view shows a wide area to illustrate how far the smoke traveled. The lower image provides a closer view of a massive fire burning south of Lake Athabasca. Fire detections are outlined in red. Strong winds fanned the fires on May 15 and 16, pulling thick plumes of smoke north.
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Cow Skull

Feral Camels Plague Australian Outback

Jessica Marshall
Discovery News
Tue, 17 May 2011 11:39 UTC
camel
© unknown

More than 1 million feral camels are thrashing the remote Australian desert, destroying water supplies and disturbing Aboriginal communities to the tune of 10 million Australian dollars a year.

As part of plans to contain the camel's havoc and reduce the animals' numbers, managers have launched a website, CamelScan, where the public can report feral camel sightings and damages using a Google maps-based tool.

"They can do enormous damage," said Jan Ferguson, managing director of Ninti One Limited, the organization that manages the Feral Camel Management Project, which launched CamelScan. "They can eat up to very high heights in our trees. When water is short, they go for running water. They will take pipes and air conditioning units off of walls, and smash up toilet systems."

The program adds another species to the list of programs tracking other feral animals in Australia, including rabbits, foxes and myna birds. Since CamelScan launched earlier this month, the public has logged nearly 150 sightings.

"You need to count these animals. You need to know where they are and what they're doing," said Ferguson.
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Attention

Quakes could rupture glacial lakes


BBC News
Sun, 15 May 2011 23:27 UTC
Image
© AFPMany lakes are said to be growing because of melting glaciers
Glacial lakes in the Himalayas could pose a major hazard to population centers if they are ruptured by earthquakes, scientists say.

The true risk to settlements and infrastructure downstream in the Hindu-Kush-Himalayas region is difficult to assess.

But the Himalayan region is dotted with glacial lakes and is in a seismically active zone.

Experts say that, on the basis of past records, a large quake in the region is overdue.

Many glacial lakes are said to be growing - some of them alarmingly - because of melting glaciers.

Some are at risk of rupturing, which would flood areas downstream.

There have been at least 35 glacial lake outburst events in Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan and China during the last century, according to the United Nations Environment Program (Unep).
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Sun

North India endures another hot day


IBN Live
Tue, 17 May 2011 08:21 UTC
New Delhi, Torrid weather continued to bake North Indian plains as mercury soared over 46 deg C in parts of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, while it remained above 40 deg C in the national capital. There was no respite to Delhittes as sultry condition persisted with the city recording a maximum of 41.4 deg, two notches above normal.

The humidity oscillated between 25 per cent and 56 per cent, the MeT department said. The maximum soared to the season's highest on May 12 when it touched 43.1 deg C. In the deserts of Rajasthan the condition was worse as the liquid silver climbed as high as 46.7 deg C in Churu, 46 deg C in Jhalawar and 45.4 deg C in Sriganganagar.
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Info

Philippines: 144 quakes at Bulusan in last 24 hours


GMA News
Tue, 17 May 2011 08:17 UTC
Alert level 1 remains at Bulusan Volcano in Sorsogon after state volcanologists noted a significant rise in seismic activity in the area, recording 144 volcanic quakes there in the last 24 hours.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said 80 of these quakes were recorded in a seven-hour period on Monday, from 5:00 a.m. to noon.
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People

Japan: Aso volcano alert level raised to 2


Japan Times
Tue, 17 May 2011 07:55 UTC
Image
© FileMount Obamidake and Mount Yari from Mount Naka
Kumamoto - The Meteorological Agency on Monday raised the volcanic alert level for Mount Aso from 1 to 2, prompting local authorities in Kumamoto Prefecture to ban entry to areas within 1 km of the crater of Mount Naka, one of five peaks in the active volcano's central cone group.

The alert includes a warning for rocks ejected from Mount Naka in the off-limits areas.

The move came after the mountain belched a small amount of volcanic ash Friday and experienced a small eruption Sunday.
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Info

Eastern Turkey sees snow as other regions enjoy sun


Today's Zaman
Tue, 17 May 2011 08:12 UTC
A blanket of snow has covered the eastern province of Ardahan in mid-May as temperatures continue to rise in the rest of the country.

Heavy rainfall turned into snow late Sunday through Monday morning. Residents of the province were surprised to wake up to a snowy day in the middle of May, a time when many expect spring to arrive. The provincial capital saw five centimeters of snowfall and registered a low of zero degrees Celsius.
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Fish

Kazakh Ecologists Investigate Caspian Seal Deaths


Radio Free Europe
Mon, 09 May 2011 07:33 UTC
Image
© CourtesyA dead seal and pup on the Caspian shore in the Mangystau region on May 3.
Mangystaum, Kazakhstan -- Some 12-15 dead seals have washed up over the past week on the western Kazakh shore of the Caspian Sea, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.

Erik Utebaliev, a local resident, told RFE/RL he found 10-12 dead Caspian seals of all ages, from full-grown adults to pups, on May 3 and three more on May 8.

Kirill Osin, director of the nongovernmental organization EKO Mangistau, told RFE/RL he and his colleagues planned to inspect the seals on May 10 and take tissue samples for analysis to try to determine whether they were poisoned.

He said he had only seen photos of the dead animals and it was too early to speculate about the cause of death.

Osin recalled that the local authorities attributed a mass death of seals in the region two years ago to a virus and inclement weather.

He rejected that conclusion, noting that dead seals are found only in the vicinity of intensive exploitation of offshore oil deposits.
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Phoenix

Canada: Alberta Town Burns, Wildfires Shut Oil Facilities

Scott Haggett & Jeffrey Jones
Reuters
Mon, 16 May 2011 16:55 UTC
Image
© Agence France-PresseA forest fire is seen in California 2009. A wildfire engulfed the town of Slave Lake in western Canada, forcing the evacuation of its 7,000 residents at the start of the forest fire season, authorities said Monday
Wildfires whipped by high winds destroyed more than a third of a sizable town in northern Alberta and forced oil companies in Canada's largest energy-producing province to shut off tens of thousands of barrels of output on Monday.

Dozens of forest fires flared up across the province during a dry, gusty weekend, forcing the evacuation of several communities, including Slave Lake, a town of 10,000 people in northern Alberta known as a center for oil, gas and forestry.

Numerous homes and some public buildings had been razed in Slave Lake, Mayor Karina Pillay-Kinnee said.

She spoke to reporters from a command center in the town, about 200 km (125 miles) northwest of the provincial capital, Edmonton. It was deserted save for emergency personnel.

"You feel the intense heat, the sharp smell of smoke ... you see some areas still smoking and our fire-fighting crews are trying to contain any spot fires," Pillay-Kinnee said.

Two blazes, driven by winds gusting to 100 km per hour (60 miles per hour), converged on Slave Lake on Sunday. Complicating the situation on Monday were winds up to 50 km per hour (30 mph) in some regions as well as dry conditions.
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