Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

San Andreas-Like Fault Found in Eastern United States

Larry O'Hanlon
Discovery News
Fri, 28 May 2010 09:58 UTC
Image
© Mark G. Steltenpohl, Isidore Zietz, J. Wright Horton, Jr., and David L. DanielsThe fault is invisible from the surface, but magnetic surveys from the air see it clearly, represented in the white line.
The fault stretches from N.Y. to Alabama and could cause an earthquake with the right mix of ingredients.

For 30 years geologists have been puzzled by a remarkably straight magnetic line that runs between New York and Alabama along the Appalachians.

A more recent aerial magnetic survey of the Alabama end of the line suggests that it's probably a 500-million-year-old San Andreas-style fault that appears to have slipped 137 miles (220 kilometers) to the right in the distant past.

If so, it's no surprise that the most dangerous part of the eastern Tennessee seismic zone is right next to part of this magnetic line and has the second-highest earthquake frequency in the eastern United States.

"It's most likely a strike-slip fault," said Mark Steltenpohl of the University of Alabama at Auburn. "But it's all buried."
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Binoculars

Study: Sharks May Like Your Swimsuit


Click Orlando
Fri, 28 May 2010 07:44 UTC
Image
© Click Orlando
Majority Of Shark Attack Victims In Florida Wore Black And White Swimsuits, Study Shows

If you're headed to the beach, you may not want to wear a swimsuit with a certain color combination.

A newly released study shows that a majority of shark attack victims in Florida were wearing black and white swimsuits.

The study, which looked at shark attacks over the past 52 years in Florida, said that swimsuits featuring a color combination of black and yellow were also common among shark bite victims.

Local 6 looked into whether more swimmers have been wearing those colors, and if that played a role in the statistics.
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Fish

Photos: Weird Fish with Transparent Head

Richard A. Lovett
National Geographic News
Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:00 UTC
Image
© Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Transparent-Headed Fish

With a head like a fighter-plane cockpit, a Pacific barreleye fish shows off its highly sensitive, barrel-like eyes--topped by green, orblike lenses--in a picture released today but taken in 2004.

The fish, discovered alive in the deep water off California's central coast by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), is the first specimen of its kind to be found with its soft transparent dome intact.

The 6-inch (15-centimeter) barreleye (Macropinna microstoma) had been known since 1939--but only from mangled specimens dragged to the surface by nets.
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Attention

Volcano Blast Sparks Guatemala Emergency

Lulu Sinclair
Sky News Online
Fri, 28 May 2010 11:16 UTC
Pacaya volcano
The last big eruption of the Pacaya volcano was in 1998
A state of emergency has been declared in Guatemala after a volcanic eruption killed a television journalist and forced the international airport to close.

Anibal Archila's burnt body was found near the Pacaya volcano by a colleague, who said the reporter had been unable to escape a shower of boulders triggered by the eruption.

Some 1,600 people have been evacuated from the slopes of the volcano, which stands 2,552m (8,372ft) above sea level about 15 miles south of the capital, Guatemala City.

Three children aged seven, nine and 10 have been reported missing in the area.

Between two and three inches of ash have built up on streets in some southern parts of the capital city since the volcano started erupting on Wednesday.

Comment: According to Global Voices quoting Vivo en Guatemala blog:
Currently, explosions are taking place every second and can reach 500 meters above the crater surface. The ash columns are reaching 1500 meters of height and are dispersing towards the West and South West over the villages of El Rodeo and El Patrocinio. Ash precipitation is also reported in Amatitán, San Francisco of Sales, Calderas, Los Pocitos and San Vicente Pacaya.


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Fish

Renowned Marine Biologist Carl Safina on the BP Oil Spill's Ecological Impact on the Gulf Coast and Worldwide


Democracy now
Thu, 27 May 2010 22:33 UTC
bird oil

Carl Safina, founding president of Blue Ocean Institute. He is author of many books about marine ecology and the ocean, including Song for the Blue Ocean.

Juan Gonzalez: As we continue our discussion on the BP oil spill, we turn now to look at the long-term ecological impact of the spill. Our next guest testified before Congress last week and warned the fallout from the spill may be felt across much of the world. Joining us here in New York is Carl Safina, the founding president of Blue Ocean Institute. He's author of many books about marine ecology and the ocean, including Song for the Blue Ocean.

Welcome to Democracy Now!

Carl Safina: Thanks for having me.

Juan Gonzalez: What message did you bring to Congress?

Carl Safina: Well, that this is not just a regional disaster, although it certainly is, but that the Gulf of Mexico is a tremendous engine of life and also a tremendous concentration zone, where animals from the whole open Atlantic Ocean funnel into the Gulf for breeding and millions of animals cross the Gulf and concentrate there on their northward migration and then fan out to populate much of North America and the Canadian Arctic, the East Coast, the Canadian Maritimes. So it's a real hotspot, and it's a terrible place to foul.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Hurricane plus oil equals more problems

Lauren Russell
CNN
Thu, 27 May 2010 22:21 UTC
Image
Hurricane Katrina
A predicted busy hurricane season this summer is on a collision course with an unprecedented oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and the results are anyone's guess, weather experts say.

"The problem is that this is a man-made experiment we wish we hadn't made," said Jenni Evans, a professor of meteorology at Penn State University.

Scientists on Thursday said as much as 19,000 barrels of oil have been spewing every day from the BP well in the Gulf, making it the largest oil spill in U.S. history. Most of the oily water lies off the coast of Louisiana, where marshes and wildlife have been coated and the state's fishing and tourism industries have taken direct hits.

Not only is it hard to track how contaminants would be redistributed by a hurricane, but it's also hard to predict how the slick would affect the storm, NOAA Public Affairs Officer Dennis Feltgen and Evans agreed.
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Alarm Clock

2nd, stronger Iceland volcano 'to erupt'


Press TV
Thu, 27 May 2010 20:55 UTC
Image
A warning sign at the base of Myrdalsjokull glacier, which is part of the ice cap sealing the Katla volcano. Katla is 10 times more powerful than neighbor Eyjafjallajokull.
Scientists have warned a second much larger volcano in Iceland is showing signs of eruption, with the government expressing readiness to face a possible crisis.

After the successive eruptions of Eyjafjallajokull which caused air traffic mayhem in Europe and brought thousands of flights to a halt earlier in the year, Katla volcano is also threatening to blow.

Experts say there has been a 200 percent increase in its volcanic activity in recent days, MSNBC reported.

"An eruption in the short term is a strong possibility," the University College London (UCL) institute for risk and disaster reduction outlined in a report.

Seismic readings indicated a substantial increase in tremors in the areas surrounding the volcano, the report said.

On May 21 alone, four earthquakes near Katla were detected in 12 hours; a record since the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull volcano in March.
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Bizarro Earth

Vanuatu (2nd Earthquake) - Magnitude 6.4


USGS
Thu, 27 May 2010 20:13 UTC
2nd Vanuatu Earthquake_270510
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Thursday, May 27, 2010 at 20:48:00 UTC

Friday, May 28, 2010 at 07:48:00 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
13.641°S, 166.713°E

Depth:
32.2 km (20.0 miles)

Region:
VANUATU

Distances:
215 km (135 miles) NNW of Luganville, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu

335 km (210 miles) SSE of Lata, Santa Cruz Islands, Solomon Isl.

485 km (300 miles) NNW of PORT-VILA, Efate, Vanuatu

2085 km (1300 miles) NE of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia
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Sherlock

EPA Takes a Second Look at Popular Pesticide Atrazine

Jack Weingart
CBS News
Fri, 23 Apr 2010 16:08 UTC
Image

The Environmental Protection Agency is rethinking its regulatory position on atrazine, one of the most commonly-used weed killers in America, as new scientific studies find the pesticide more hazardous than previously believed.

The EPA's independent scientific advisory panel is set to review the EPA's most recent evaluation of the popular pesticide atrazine and its non-cancer effects in a four-day public meeting starting next Monday, April 26.

Atrazine has been on the market and deemed safe by the U.S. government since 1958. The EPA estimates 76.5 million pounds of active ingredient are applied across the country every year, primarily on corn crops in the Midwest.

Comment: According to the EPA website:
One of the most widely used agricultural pesticides in the U.S., atrazine may be applied before and after planting to control broadleaf and grassy weeds. It is used primarily on corn, sorghum, and sugarcane, and is applied most heavily in the Midwest. Atrazine is used to a lesser extent on residential lawns, particularly in Florida and the Southeast
About time the EPA decides to reexamine the chemical. There is significant evidence that Atrazine posses a serious threat to human and environmental health:

More Stark Evidence of the Hazards of Atrazine

EPA Fails To Inform Public About Weed-Killer In Drinking Water

Serious Birth Defects Linked to the Agricultural Chemical Atrazine

An End to Atrazine

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Magnify

Commonly Used Atrazine Herbicide Adversely Affects Fish Reproduction


Science Daily
Thu, 20 May 2010 15:00 UTC
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© USGSFathead minnow. Atrazine, one of the most commonly used herbicides in the world, has been shown to affect reproduction of fish.
Atrazine, one of the most commonly used herbicides in the world, has been shown to affect reproduction of fish, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) study.

"Concentrations of atrazine commonly found in agricultural streams and rivers caused reduced reproduction and spawning, as well as tissue abnormalities in laboratory studies with fish," said USGS scientist Donald Tillitt, the lead author of the study published in Aquatic Toxicology.

Fathead minnows were exposed to atrazine at the USGS Columbia Environmental Research Center in Columbia, Mo., and observed for effects on egg production, tissue abnormalities and hormone levels. Fish were exposed to concentrations ranging from zero to 50 micrograms per liter of atrazine for up to 30 days. All tested levels of exposure are less than the USEPA Office of Pesticides Aquatic Life Benchmark of 65 micrograms per liter for chronic exposure of fish. Thus, substantial reproductive effects were observed in this study at concentrations below the USEPA water-quality guideline.
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