Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Scientists Find Thick Layer of Oil On Seafloor

gulf oil spill core sample
© Samantha JoyeA core sample from the seafloor of the Gulf of Mexico shows a 2-inch layer of oily material. Researchers are finding oil on the seafloor miles away from the blown-out BP well. Though researchers have yet to chemically link the oil deposits to the BP well, "the sheer coverage here is leading us all to come to the conclusion that it has to be sedimented oil from the oil spill because it's all over the place," says one scientist.
Scientists on a research vessel in the Gulf of Mexico are finding a substantial layer of oily sediment stretching for dozens of miles in all directions. Their discovery suggests that a lot of oil from the Deepwater Horizon didn't simply evaporate or dissipate into the water - it has settled to the seafloor.

The Research Vessel Oceanus sailed on Aug. 21 on a mission to figure out what happened to the more than 4 million barrels of oil that gushed into the water. Onboard, Samantha Joye, a professor in the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Georgia, says she suddenly has a pretty good idea about where a lot of it ended up. It's showing up in samples of the seafloor, between the well site and the coast.

"I've collected literally hundreds of sediment cores from the Gulf of Mexico, including around this area. And I've never seen anything like this," she said in an interview via satellite phone from the boat.

Joye describes seeing layers of oily material - in some places more than 2 inches thick - covering the bottom of the seafloor.

"It's very fluffy and porous. And there are little tar balls in there you can see that look like microscopic cauliflower heads," she says.

It's very clearly a fresh layer. Right below it she finds much more typical seafloor mud. And in that layer, she finds recently dead shrimp, worms and other invertebrates.

Info

Dolphins Shell Out for a Fish Supper

Smart Dolphin_1
© Simon AllenGone fishing ... a dolphin with a sponge on its head for foraging.
Bottlenose dolphins in Western Australia have invented a clever new trick for catching dinner.

They use their long snouts to lift heavy conch shells to the surface and then shake them about in the hunt for fish that have sought refuge inside.

Simon Allen, a marine biologist at Murdoch University, said dolphins in Shark Bay are renowned for their "remarkable array" of sophisticated behaviours, including using sponges as tools and beaching themselves intentionally in pursuit of fish in shallow waters.

But he and his colleagues were shocked when they first saw a dolphin suddenly appear with a massive conch on its head (image below).

"We nearly fell off the boat. It looked like a unicorn," he said. "It was a fantastic wildlife encounter."

They thought the dolphin might have been using the shell as a toy or been showing off to its fellow cetaceans.

Cloud Lightning

North Africa: Lightning Strike Kills 4 At Wedding in Mauritania

Nouakchott - A witness says a lightning strike has killed four people at a wedding in a village in Mauritania.

Wedding guest El Hadi Ould Mohamed says the lightning bolt struck the Friday morning festivities and killed two women and two men.

He says two other people were burned by lightning and taken to a hospital near the village of Idini, which is some 40 miles (65 kilometers) east of Nouakchott, the capital.

He says the bride and groom were not killed or injured.

Question

Mystery Blooms on Walden Pond


Concord - Gwen Acton thought the dime-sized translucent pods she saw on her Sunday swim in Walden Pond were strange, beautiful seeds that had drifted down to the water surface from some flowering plant.

But as she cut through the water in a crawl stroke Monday she noticed their numbers had ballooned. She saw them everywhere. And they were pulsating.

"I said to myself: 'Oh, no. I am surrounded by thousands and thousands of jellyfish,' '' Acton said.

She was.

A deeply mysterious species - freshwater jellies - has bloomed in one of the nation's most visited ponds. The organisms rarely cause health problems in humans, but the discovery has set off a flurry of interest at the New England Aquarium, where scientists have unsuccessfully attempted to breed the elusive creatures.

It is not that the tiny jellyfish are rare; after probably hitching a ride to the United States in the late 1800s on Asian water hyacinth or other ornamental plants, the jelly fish are believed to have spread to lakes and ponds throughout the country because of activities of fishermen and waterfowl.

But because the tiny jellies can lie in a dormant state for years - perhaps decades - and bloom en masse suddenly before disappearing just as quickly, people rarely come across them or do not know what they are looking at when they do. In Massachusetts, where officials began keeping track of the species about five years ago, they have been recorded in about five or six lakes and ponds across the state.

Bizarro Earth

Mudslide hits village on Italy's Amalfi Coast

Image
© Unknown
A river of mud unleashed by heavy rains has flooded a tiny village on Italy's Amalfi Coast, and at least one person was reported missing.

Video obtained by APTN on Friday showed a river of mud running through a small alley in the village, called Atrani, tipping cars over and almost entirely covering some of them.

Officials said a small river close to the village had broken its banks, fed by heavy rains, on Thursday evening.

Brunella Cimadomo of the local Civil Protection Department said a 25-year-old woman was missing after the coffee bar where she worked was hit by the mudslide. She said the rain had let up on Friday but more was expected in coming days.

Arrow Down

US: 169 Homes Destroyed in Colorado Wildfire

Image
© AP Photo/Mark LeffingwellA home destroyed by a wildfire is shown in an aerial photo over Boulder, Colo., Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2010.
Hundreds of residents evacuated by a wildfire that has destroyed at least 169 houses in the Colorado foothills were being temporarily allowed back to their homes Thursday.

Firefighters were also working to make progress containing the fire ahead of strong winds expected later in the day. Gusts of up to 60 mph could blow away the little moisture the area has seen and spread the fire beyond the 20-mile-long perimeter.

Containment lines have been built around 30 percent of the fire, but firefighters warned that progress could be undone.

"The wind event tonight, we could be off to the races," said Rob Bozeman, field observer with the Boulder Mountain Fire Protection District.

Newspaper

Flood-Hit Pakistan Finds Little to Celebrate This Eid

Image
© Aaron Favila/AP PhotoA Pakistani girl displaced by floods cries as she fails to get gifts given by women volunteers as they prepare to celebrate Eid.
Political and religious leaders urge Pakistanis to donate to flood victims instead of holding lavish parties to mark end of Ramadan

In a normal year Pakistanis would be scurrying home tomorrow night for a weekend of gluttony-tinged indulgence marking Eid al-Fitr, the end of the fasting month of Ramadan and Islam's near equivalent of Christmas. But this is no normal year.

With 21 million people - almost one-eighth of the population - affected by the worst floods in living memory, and broad swaths of the country still under water, many have no homes to go to, and no mosques to attend.

The traditional Eid present is a new set of clothes. But in Charsadda, a flood-ravaged area near Peshawar, Hakim Khan stood among the crushed masonry of his collapsed home and plucked a bundle of damp, mud-streaked shirts from the rubble. "These are our Eid clothes," he said bitterly.

Away from the flood-ravaged areas, in the main cities, sparkling Eid lights still drape the streets. But inside homes a new austerity has curtailed the festive spirit. Traders report disastrous pre-holiday sales while engaged couples have scaled back plans for extravagant nuptials during the autumn wedding season.

Bizarro Earth

Chile - Earthquake Magnitude 6.1 - Offshore Bio-Bio

Chile Quake_090910
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Thursday, September 09, 2010 at 07:28:02 UTC

Thursday, September 09, 2010 at 03:28:02 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
37.005°S, 73.368°W

Depth:
17.6 km (10.9 miles)

Region:
OFFSHORE BIO-BIO, CHILE

Distances:
35 km (20 miles) SW of Concepcion, Bio-Bio, Chile

70 km (45 miles) NNE of Lebu, Bio-Bio, Chile

105 km (65 miles) WNW of Los Angeles, Bio-Bio, Chile

465 km (290 miles) SSW of SANTIAGO, Region Metropolitana, Chile

Alarm Clock

US: Lake Michigan's ecosystem facing collapse

piles of washed up zebra and quagga mussel shells
© Newscom/FileVisitors to Harrington Beach State Park in Belgium, WI, must walk past piles of washed up zebra and quagga mussel shells and dead smelt on the shore. The quagga has recently begun eating its way through Lake Michigan's phytoplankton population, threatening to destroy the lake's food web.

An invasive mussel is devouring Lake Michigan's phytoplankton, the basis for the lake's food chain.

An invasive species of mussel called quagga has recently begun eating its way through the phytoplankton population of Lake Michigan, which could have dire effects on the lake's ecosystem, scientists now warn.

A giant ring of phytoplankton (microscopic plants such as algae) was discovered in Lake Michigan in 1998 by Michigan Technological University biologist W. Charles Kerfoot and his research team. The "phytoplankton doughnut" is formed when winter storms kick up nutrient-rich sediment along the southeastern shore of the lake. The disturbed sediments begin circulating in a slow-moving circle with the lake's currents, which provides a massive supply of food for phytoplankton.

Bizarro Earth

Vanuata - Earthquake Magnitude 6.2

Vanuatu Quake_080910
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Wednesday, September 08, 2010 at 11:37:38 UTC

Wednesday, September 08, 2010 at 10:37:38 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
20.699°S, 169.810°E

Depth:
54.1 km (33.6 miles)

Region:
VANUATU

Distances:
140 km (85 miles) SSE of Isangel, Tanna, Vanuatu

220 km (135 miles) ENE of Tadine, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia

365 km (225 miles) SSE of PORT-VILA, Efate, Vanuatu

1860 km (1160 miles) ENE of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia