Earth ChangesS

Sun

At least 230 die of heat stress in Myanmar

At least 230 people have died of heat stress in Myanmar's second largest city of Mandalay up to the weekend, the local 7-Day News quoted Mandalay municipal authorities as reporting Wednesday.

Mandalay's weather temperature was recorded at as high as 45 degree Celsius.

Among the dead, most were liquor drinkers, the report said, adding that the Mandalay local authorities have banned selling of liquor in the city.

Fish

Fish Fear Their Own Reflections

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© Todd Anderson/Stanford UniversityTwo male cichlids spar with each other by showing what big mouths they have. When two fish fight, all their movements are at least slightly out of sync. But when the foe is a fish's mirror image, the "opponent's" actions are perfectly in time, which seems to trigger an element of fear.
Looking at themselves in a mirror is enough to scare some fish, a new study finds.

Fish looking at a mirror showed increased brain activity in regions linked to fear than fish faced with an actual fish separated by glass, the study showed. However, in both instances the fish responded the same physically, engaging in a routine of combative gestures to try to fight the other fish - be it a reflection or an actual opponent.

"It seems like something they don't understand," said Julie Desjardins, researcher and post-doctoral biologist at Stanford University. "I think this stimulus is just so far outside their realm of experience that it results in this somewhat emotional response."

Desjardins and Stanford biologist Russell Fernald arranged 20 minute-long sparring sessions for male African cichlids, a freshwater territorial fish. A clear wall across the middle of the tank kept the combatants apart when two fish were pitted against each other, so there was never any actual fish-to-fish contact. In some instances, the clear wall was replaced with a mirror.

Cow Skull

Nightmare scene as oil smothers Louisiana wetlands

oil spill
Crude oil spread through fragile US marshlands Thursday, a month after a drilling rig blast released a devastating spill that now threatens Florida, Cuba and even beyond.

Oil has been pouring into the Gulf of Mexico since the massive April 20 explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11 and ruptured an underwater well pipe.

While British Petroleum said Thursday that a tube was now siphoning away 3,000 barrels of oil a day from the leak, a nightmare scene was unfolding in Louisiana wetlands.

"The day that we have all been fearing is upon us today," Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said Wednesday after seeing thick oil washing into the state's coastal marshlands.

Crude is also being dragged towards Florida's popular tourist beaches and fragile coral reefs, by an oceanic current that could wash oil ashore on the state's coastline in as little as six days, before carrying it up the US East Coast and even into the Gulf Stream.

Fish

Florida fears deepen as oil enters the Loop Current

oil slick

Oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill is being picked up by a strong ocean current that will take it to Florida in days and possibly on up the Atlantic coast, experts warned Wednesday.

The Loop Current has started sweeping leaking crude from the giant slick off Louisiana towards Florida's popular tourist beaches and fragile coral reefs, threatening a whole new dimension to the unfolding environmental disaster.

Scientists laid out a worst-case scenario in which the oceanic conveyor belt would see the first oil wash up in Florida in as little as six days, before carrying it up the US east coast and even into the Gulf Stream.

Better Earth

Earth's mantle flows 20-30 times faster that previously thought

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© Unknown
The Earth's mantle flows far more rapidly around a sinking tectonic plate than previously thought, according to new computer modeling by UC Davis geologists. The findings could change the way that we think about plate tectonics and the amount of energy available for earthquakes. The results will be published May 20 in the journal Nature.

"Our model suggests that some parts of the mantle are moving at screaming speeds compared to what we can observe directly at the Earth's surface," said Magali Billen, associate professor of geology at UC Davis and co-author of the paper. "There is much more mixing and more rapid transport of heat in these regions of the Earth than we suspected."

Billen and graduate student Margarete Jadamec, now a postdoctoral researcher at Monash University in Australia, studied the Alaskan subduction zone, where the Pacific plate is diving beneath Alaska and pushing up Mt. McKinley.

To do so, they built the most detailed computer model to date of the plate and the surrounding mantle. The model revealed that rather than moving at roughly the same speed as the plate, the mantle was flowing much faster. "We expected it to flow faster, but the surprise was that it is flowing 20 to 30 times faster," Billen said.

Bizarro Earth

Aqua satellite sees sunglint on Gulf oil slick

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© NASA Goddard/ MODIS Rapid Response TeamAt 3 p.m. EDT on May 18, NASA's Aqua satellite swept over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill from its vantage point in space and the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer instrument captured sunglints in a visible image of the spill.
At 3 p.m. EDT on May 18, NASA's Aqua satellite swept over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill from its vantage point in space and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument captured sunglints in a visible image of the spill.

The visible image showed three bright areas of sunglint within the area of the gray-beige colored spill. Sunglint is a mirror-like reflection of the sun off the water's surface. In calm waters, the rounded image of the sun would be seen in a satellite image. However, the waves in the Gulf blurred the reflection and created an appearance of three bright areas in a line on the ocean's surface.

According to the May 18 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) web update of the Deepwater Horizon incident, "satellite imagery on May 17 indicated that the main bulk of the oil is dozens of miles away from the Loop Current, but that a tendril of light oil has been transported down close to the Loop Current."

Bizarro Earth

Aqua Sees Second Tropical Storm In 2 Days Form Near Horn Of Africa

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© NASA/JPL/Ed OlsenNASA's Aqua satellite captured an image of Tropical Storm 2A at 09:41 UTC (5:41 a.m. EDT) just as the storm was strengthening to tropical storm status. The visible image clearly shows higher thunderstorms around the center.
The Northern Indian Ocean cyclone season is off to a roaring start, as the second tropical storm formed within a day of the first one. NASA's Aqua satellite flew over Tropical Storm 02A today, May 19 and captured infrared, microwave and visible images of the storm.

At 1500 UTC (11 a.m. EDT) on May 19, Tropical Storm 02A had maximum sustained winds near 39 mph, with higher gusts. It was located in the Arabian Sea (part of the Northern Indian Ocean) about 135 miles east-southeast of Cape Guardafui, Somalia. That's near 11.3 North and 53.5 East. It was moving west-northwest near 6 mph (5 knots).

NASA's Aqua satellite captured an image of Tropical Storm 2A at 09:41 UTC (5:41 a.m. EDT) just as the storm was strengthening to tropical storm status. The visible image clearly shows higher thunderstorms around the center, and the western side of the storm over land.

Bizarro Earth

46 Killed in Volcano Landslide in Congo

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© ReutersNyiragongo Volcano
A landslide on the slopes of Nyiragongo Volcano in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has killed at least 46 people and washed away more than 200 houses.

The landslide started after heavy rains caused an overflow of volcanic rivers at Kibumba in North Kivu province, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

United Nations peacekeepers are caring for the victims until other humanitarian organizations take over, UN Mission in the Congo (MONUC) spokesman Madnodje Mounobai told the UN News Center on Wednesday.

North Kivu province has been the scene of interminable cycles of violence during over 10 years of war in which the Congolese army has battled various armed groups competing for control of mineral resources.

The war in the eastern Congo has dragged on since 1998 and left over 5.4 million people dead.

Cloud Lightning

Videos: Oklahoma City Monster Hail Storm

Beatlesfanxxl - This was the most insane hail storm or storm in general I have ever seen! It was may 16th 2010. Sorry about all of the 'oh my Gods'. I was just in shock.


Aesnow - Oklahoma City Hail Storm on May 16, 2010. Video shot by Aaron Snow. Our Land Rover LR3 and Jeep Grand Cherokee were destroyed. The roof and siding and landscaping were completely beat up by baseball size hail.


Fish

Ancient Mass Extinction of Fish May Have Paved Way for Modern Species

A report looks at a 360-million-year-old gap in the fossil record and finds that marine vertebrates were recovering from an extinction event on par with the one that killed the dinosaurs. What happened is unclear.

Modern-day lizards, snakes, frogs and mammals - including us - may owe their existence to a mass extinction of ancient fish 360 million years ago that left the oceans relatively barren, providing room for marginal species that were our ancestors to thrive and diversify, paleontologists said Monday.

The report, by University of Chicago researchers, focused on events at the end of what is commonly called the Age of Fishes, which lasted from 416 million years ago to 359 million years ago. That age was followed by a 15-million-year period of relative silence in the fossil record.