Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Residents moved to safety after Xinjiang earthquake

AN earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale has forced the Xinjiang government to move 144 families in a village of Yutian County to safe places, Xinhua news agency reported today.

Question

Bee colony collapse dilemma still a mystery

For those studying the colony collapse dilemma that continues to affect bee populations around the country, it seems, at least for now, "enigma" remains the buzz-word.

Researchers in the Colony Collapse Disorder field have indicated that various factors - including foreign pathogens, genetics, stress levels, nutrition and pesticides - could be to blame for the problem. But there's still no smoking gun to explain what's become an ongoing scientific mystery.

Snowman

Great Splitting Icebergs

The radar image indicated the berg was unstable and likely to split. Just days afterwards on 4 March, Envisat's Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) sensor captured the break. Both bergs are estimated to measure around 30 km in length. As a reference, South Georgia Island is approximately 180-km long.

The radar image indicated the berg was unstable and likely to split. Just days afterwards on 4 March, Envisat's Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) sensor captured the break. Both bergs are estimated to measure around 30 km in length. As a reference, South Georgia Island is approximately 180-km long.

Image
©ESA
Envisat's Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) sensor captures the break up of the massive A53A iceberg located just east of the South Georgia Island (visible at image bottom) in the southern Atlantic Ocean. Both bergs are estimated to measure around 30 km in length. As a reference, South Georgia Island is approximately 180-km long.

Bizarro Earth

Magnitude 7.2 Earthquake - Xinjiang-Xizang Border Region

Earthquake Details
Magnitude 7.2
Date-Time

* Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 22:33:00 UTC
* Friday, March 21, 2008 at 06:33:00 AM at epicenter
* Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 35.445°N, 81.392°E
Depth 22.9 km (14.2 miles) (poorly constrained)
Region XINJIANG-XIZANG BORDER REGION

Attention

Hawaii volcano explodes for first time in 84 years



Kilauea impact
©Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
Rocks ejected by the explosion created impact craters when they landed.

An explosion atop the long-erupting Kilauea volcano rained gravel-size rocks onto a tourist lookout, road and trail before dawn Wednesday, injuring no one but forcing parts of a national park to close.

It was the first explosion in Kilauea's main Halemaumau Crater since 1924, scattering debris over about 75 acres, said Jim Kauahikaua, scientist-in-charge at Hawaiian Volcano Observatory on the Big Island.

Stop

More than 100 cars involved in massive pileup in Czech Republic

Czech television is reporting that more than 100 cars have been involved in a massive pileup on the country's major highway, which connects Prague with the eastern Czech Republic.

Target

Earthquake strikes near Greek island

The Athens Geodynamic Institute says an earthquake has struck near an island northeast of Athens overnight. It says the earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 5.5 and occurred at 1:02 a.m.

Cloud Lightning

Storms swamp Midwest, roads closed

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Residents warily watched as rivers continued to rise Thursday from heavy storms that dumped as much as a foot of rain in the Midwest and left behind more than a dozen deaths.


Arrow Down

The Mystery of Global Warming's Ocean Cooling

Some 3,000 scientific robots that are plying the ocean have sent home a puzzling message. These diving instruments suggest that the oceans have not warmed up at all over the past four or five years. That could mean global warming has taken a breather. Or it could mean scientists aren't quite understanding what their robots are telling them.

Cloud Lightning

13 Dead In Midwest Floods; Hundreds Flee

Flash Flood Warnings Posted From Texas To Pennsylvania

mid west floods
©AP/Southeast Missourian, Eisenhauer
Fedex driver Jay McMullin helps 78-year-old Odell Bunch into the delivery truck after Bunch's Ford Ranger was swept off Highway 34 by flood waters on Tuesday, March 18, 2008, near Jackson, Mo.

Residents of low-lying towns stacked sandbags or grabbed belongings and evacuated Wednesday after a foot of rain pushed rivers and creeks out of their banks in the nation's midsection. At least 13 deaths had been linked to the weather, and three people were missing.