SIO15: Natural Disasters

Source: Steve Newman at the San Diego Union Tribune

This page lists some of the news published every other week in the Earth Watch box, found in the "Quest" section of the Thursday edition of the San Diego Union Tribune.
These are good topics for starting a discussion on recent natural disasters in our problem sessions and may be topic of a homework problem.

Older earthwatch pages can be found here for

Earthwatch 2007
Earthwatch 2006

Earthwatch 2005
Earthwatch 2004

Earthwatches

December 22, 2008 (for week ending Dec. 19)

Earthquakes:

A relatively mild tremor shook parts of the South Carolina coast (3.6), causing minor damage.
Earth movements were also felt in eastern Tennessee (2.9), central new Zealand (4.9), southern Sumatra (5.4), central Greece (5.2), southern Sweden (4.2) and neighboring Denmark, Alaska's Kenai Peninsula (4.3) and along the California-Mexico border (4.10).

Tropical Cyclones:

Developing Typhoon Dolphin brought high surf and brief thunderstorms to the U.s> territory of Guam.
Weak Cyclone Billy came ashore along the border of Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
Tropical Storm Cinda formed in the western Indian Ocean.

A Record Melt:
Vast amounts of land ice in Greenland, Alaska and Antarctica have melted since 2003 in an accelerating trend caused by climate change, U.S. scientists say. Measurements from NASA's new GRACE satellite show that those high-latitude areas lost more than 2 trillion tons of ice, with most of the decline occurring in Greenland. The runoff from that melting alone was enough to raise sea level 0.5 millimeters each of the last five years. The combined melting in Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska raised global sea levels about one-fifth of an inch in the past five years. While this past summer's Arctic ice coverage was a little more expansive than during the record loss of the summer of 2007, scientists say the overall ice volume was less than any other year because it was thinner.

Desert Infestation:
A huge plague of desert locusts has begun swarming over more than 150 square miles of northern Mauritania, threatening agriculture. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said the infestation emerged as a new breeding season began at the end of August. A second wave of reproductions bolstered the number of insects at the end of October. "The infestation is huge," Abdallahi Ould Babah, head of the center for controlling the desert locust in Mauritania, told Agence France-Presse. He said locusts fighters have been able to treat only about 16 square miles with pesticides so far. The remote region is hard to reach because of its vast sand dunes. FAO specialists said the infestation consists mainly of wingless hoppers, which will mature and move into Western Sahara, where vegetation is green from unusually heavy rainfall during September.

Devil Disease Defense:
Wildlife experts in Tasmania have proposed constructing a fence across the western part of the island to protect the remaining population of Tasmanian devils still not infected with a deadly facial cancer. "Producing a fence to fence out a disease is a difficuclt technical issue," said Hamish McCallum, the scientist in charge of the Devil Facial Tumor Disease program. Wombats digging under the fence could be a problem.

Poaching Fatalities:
An upsurge in poaching at the last stronghold for the savanna elephants of Africa's Sahel region is probably responsible for the disappearance of 2,000 of the animals from the reserve over the past two years. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) says ivory poachers who use automatic weapons have decimated the elephant population in Chad's Zakouma National Park, leaving only about 1000 of the animals still living there. "It's incredibly heartbreaking to stand before a dead elephant missing only its tusks," said WCS rersearcher Mike Fay. The accelerated poaching reversed a trend that saw elephant numbers rebound from an estimated 1,100 in 1985 to about 33,500 in early 2006 due to conservation efforts, WSC says.

Arctic Balance:
A new study says that some polar bears are likely to survive a melting Arctic by switching their food source from seals to the eggs of the snow goose. WRiting in the journal Polar Biology, researchers Robert Rockwell of the American Museum of Natural History points out that polar bears survived a period of significant global warming 125,000 years ago when sea level was 12 to 18 feet higher and trees grew above the Arctic Circle. They did so by changing their diet as the climate and available food sources changed. Rockwell estimates that an earlier breakup of the ice pack around western Hudson Bay will coincide in less than four years with the time snow geese lay their eggs, bringing the bears and nesting birds together. Polar bears have already been seen eating some eggs, and it's estimated that a diet of the eggs from less than 40 nests will be able to replace the energy gained from an average day of hunting seals. There are now too many geese nesting in the Arctic for the region's resources to support. Threatened bears feeding on the surplus of eggs could be a way for nature to restore two separate balances.

Extreme temperatures: -72 deg F Oimyakon, Siberia; 113 deg F Dampier, W. Australia

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December 18, 2008 (for week ending Dec. 12)

Earthquakes:

Buildings along Iran's southern coast were damaged by another in a series of sharp quakes that have rocked the region since an initial 6.1-magnitude temblor killed seven people Sept. 10.

Earth movements were also felt in northwestern Pakistan (5.6), Taiwan (5.3) and two areas in Southern California (3.5), (5.1).

Bengal Cyclone: Tropical Cyclone 07B formed briefly over the southern Bay of Bengal, but weakened to a tropical low before reaching cyclone-weary Sri Lanka and southern India. Some had feared the storm would take the same path as Cyclone Nishia, which killed nearly 200 people and unleashed catastrophic flooding during the previous week.

Warming Respite:
Initial estimates of the 2008 average global temperature point to the year being the coolest in a decade that has seen most of the warmest weather on record. Based on observations through early December, the average global temperature should be close to 57.74 degrees Fahrenheit. That would make 2008 the coolest year since 1994, but a far warmer year than prior to the industrial revolution. The hottest year on record was 1998, which included a very strong El Nino ocean warming in the Pacific, followed by 2005, 2003 and 2002. Britain's Met Office predicted at the beginning of the year that 2008 would be cooler than recent years due to the La Nina ocean cooling that prevailed as the year began. But Peter Stott of the agency's Hadley Center cautioned that a cooler year in no way means that global warming is slowing. "If we are going to understand climate change we need to look at long-term trends," Stott said.

Mumbai Return:
Thousands of pigeons that fled their usual feeding spot outside Mumbai's Taj Mahal hotel following teh recent terror attacks have slowly begun to return due to the efforts of animal welfare organizations. By the end of the siege, thousands of the pigeons around the Taj had all but disappeared, adding to the anguish of many Indians who regard the birds as a symbol of peace. The Bombay Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BSPCA) said the birds kept circling the besieged hotel for days, unable to eat. But the animal welfare group Karuna eventually persuaded authorities to allow them to place birdseed around the hotel, which quickly lured the pigeons back. BSPCA says many animals were killed or wounded by the shooting and explosions during the Mumbai crisis. "A lot of pigeons (were found) with injuries to their heads, wings, feet and some fractures," BSPCA hospital manager Yuvraj Kaginkar told Mumbai's Thee Mirror.

Geothermal Potential:
A new U.N. study has found that East Africa's geologically active Great Rift Valley has enough geothermal energy potential to generate much of the region's electricity needs. Using new seismic and drilling techniques, the U.N. Environment Program and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) have identified sources capable of jointly producing at least 7,000 megawatts of power. Kenya current hydro, fuel-generated and limited geothermal sources are barely producing the 1,000 megawatts of peak electricity needs across the country. The U.N. agencies found numerous sources of underground steam and heat in Kenya that could produce four times the country's current electricity requirements. Nearly $18 million from the World Bank and GEF will help develop geothermal power plants in Kenya, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania starting in 2009.

Indonesian Rumblings:
Indonesia's Mount Karangetang volcano spewed hot lava and ash high into the sky above Siau Island for days. No evacuations were ordered even though many live on the slopes of the volatile volcano.

Winter Methane Leaks:
Swedish researchers say they have found that Arctic tundra emits the same amount of powerful greenhouse gas methane in winter as it does during summer. The finding appears to contradict current belief that a warming Arctic will lead to more atmospheric methane seeping from the tundra. Biochemist Torben Christensen and his team from Lund University made the finding by taking air samples in northern Greenland from summer well into the winter season. They found that the levels of the greenhouse gas increased significantly as the freeze began--to a level comparable to that during the summer months. Earlier this year, scientist from the Massachusetts INstitute of TEchnology revealed that global methane levels began to increase in 2007 after nearly a decade of being relatively stable. They theorized that very warm conditions in Siberia last year increased methane emissions from tundra and wetlands.

Extreme temperatures: -70 deg F Oimyakon, Siberia; 114 deg F Vredendal, South Africa

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November 21, 2008 (for week ending Nov. 14)

Earthquakes:

A sharp [magnitude 6.5] earthquake centered in a western Chinese mining region caused a few huts to collapse and some buildings to develop cracks, but no significant damage or any injuries were reported.
Earth movements were also felt in the northern New Zealand [magnitude 5.4], Cyprus [4.1], southwestern Colombia [3.9], El Salvador [5.4] and south-central Alaska [4.4].

Tropical Cyclones:

Only moderate damage was reported due to Hurricane Paloma's path across eastern Cuba, despite the storm's Category 4 force just prior to landfall.
Officials said the only significant damage occurred in the coastal city of Santa Cruz de Sur, where the storm roared ashore from the Caribbean with wind speeds said to have been up to 120 mph. Cuban authorities reported that 400 houses in the city were destroyed and 4000 were damaged.
Ecuadorian Eruption:
Ecuador's Reventador volcano spewed fresh bursts of ash near the capital city of Quito. Geophysics Institute spokesman Patricio Ramon said rising lava produced the explosion that rocked the 11,686-foot mountain before flowing down its flanks.
Two nearby oil pipelines and a major highway could be threatened should activity from Reventador intensify, Ramon said. About 450 nearby residents voluntarily evacuated their homes after being warned of the heightened volcanic activity.
Mini Nukes :
Compact nuclear reactors scarcely larger team a sport utility vehicle but able to power thousands of homes are slated to go on sale within five years, according to U.S. scientists.
Department of Energy scientists working out of Los Alamos, NM, say the Hyperion Power Module will be factory-sealed, contain no weapons-grade material and will be nearly impossible to break into because it will be encased in concrete and buried underground.
The reactor will use a chemical reaction in uranium hydride to create heat, which is transferred to the surface to power steam turbines. The units are not water-cooled and cannot melt down, according to the firm that has licensed the technology. New Mexico-based Hyperion Power Generation C. says each unit costs about $25 million, but monthly power fees would be only about $250 per home when divided among the 10,000 households it could serve. The unit's softball-sized fuel must be replaced every seven to ten years.
Warming Threshold:
A new study by a team of scientists from three countries reveals that the world's atmospheric carbon dioxide (Co₂) must be reduced below its current level to avoid climate disasters.
Writing in Open Atmospheric Science Journal, the authors say that earlier predictions pointing to a CO₂ danger level of 450 parts per million (ppm) is far higher than the level that will bring about catastrophic climate change.
The current CO₂ concentration is 385 ppm and the optimum level would be less than 350 ppm, according to the team. They say they base their conclusions on improved data about the Earth's climate history and ongoing observations of change, especially in the polar regions.
Solar Cycle 24:
An eerie calm between sunspot cycles ended abruptly in early November as four of the first sunspots of the next 11-year period of solar activity finally appeared.
The sun had been relatively free of any new spots since the previous cycle ended last year. Scientists were able to determine the new sunspots were part of the next cycle and not the one just ended by observing their polarity and distance from the solar equator. The first sunspot of a new cycle initially emerge at high latitude, then appear progressively closer to the equator as the cycle matures. This cycle is the 24th since detailed solar record-keeping began in 1755.
Collateral Victims:
More than quarter of the world's surviving mountain gorillas were left with no official protection after Tutsi rebels overran and occupied Africa's oldest national park.
Renewed conflict between the Democratic Republic of Congo's government and fighters led by Gen. Layurent Nkunda has also created a massive humanitarian crisis. Thousands of people have been left malnourished and ill after being displaced by the advancing rebel forces, including more than 50 wildlife rangers who had spent years protecting the gorillas and other wildlife in Virunga Park prior to being driven out by the rebels.
The park director, Emmanuel de Merode, called the seizure of the park's headquarters "unprecedented, even in all the years of conflict in the region." During repeated attacks in 2007, 10 of the endangered primates were killed. Park officials say that some of the rebels are now hunting and camping in the same forested hills that are home to about 200 of the remaining 700 mountain gorillas.
Extreme temperatures: -62 deg F in Vostok, Antarctica; 109 deg F in Saint-Louis, Senegal

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November 14, 2008 (for week ending Nov. 07)

Earthquakes:

Parts of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan are were gently shaken by an unprecedented series of 10 minor tremors (magnitude 3.0 and below) over a two-day period. There are no significant faults or seismic features that could produce a major quake in northern Texas, and the U.S. Geological Survey believes the swarm could have been due to temperature changes or the "settling" of the ground.
Earth movements were also felt in the Central VAlley of California (3.3), Guam (5.1), the eastern Philippines (5.2) and northeastern Bulgaria (3.8).

Tropical Cyclones:

Tropical Storm Polo formed briefly off Mexico's Pacific coast. Maximum sustained winds briefly reached only 40 mph.
Tropical Storm Paloma formed off the Caribbean coast of Honduras, and threatened to strike Cuba as a Category 2 storm the following week.

Ethiopian Eruption:
A volcano in Ethiopia's northeastern Afar region was awakened by a swarm of tremors, then soon produced a lava flow that covered a record 115 square miles. Addis Ababa University's Institute of Geophysics, Space Sciences and Astronomy said the eruption occurred at Erta Ale, which is the country's only known active volcano. It is located in the Danakil Depression, one of the lowest and hottest places on the planet.

Rogue Waves:
Late reports from the coast of Maine said that a series of three large waves ripped apart docks and snapped pilings in Boothbay Harbor, and swamped Southport and Bristol within a matter of minutes on Oct. 28. The waves were up to 12 feet in height and caused as much as $20,000 in damage. "It was bizarre," lifelong Boothbay resident and dockworker Marcy Ingall told The Boston Globe. She said many were joking, "Is this the end?" The rogue waves baffled experts. Some speculated they could have been caused by a strong storm squall or a kind of underwater landslide along a steep canyon in the ocean, which would have caused a sort of mini tsunami. One reader along the coast told the newspaper that he had felt a small tremor prior to the waves' arrival.

Drought Ghost Towns:
The United nations' environment chief warned that some parts of the world may have to be abandoned because climate change and overuse of water resources will leave them far too dry to be inhabited. Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Program, said "economic deserts," unfit for people or agriculture, could develop in the poorest nations in the world as well as some of the most prosperous. Steiner cautions that only urgent action to fight global warming and poverty could prevent the creation of untold numbers of climate refugees. "Unchecked climate change will mean that some parts of the world will simply not have enough water to sustain settlements both small and large, because agriculture becomes untenable and industries relying on water can no longer compete or function effectively," Steiner said.

Roadway Prisons:
A new study ays that forest elephants in Central Africa are under siege from road construction, which has frightened them from roaming the woods that have been their home for thousands of years. Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society say the elephants have learned to associate roads with poaching and other dangers, and now avoid crossing them at all costs. Only one of 28 pachyderms tagged with a GPS collar crossed a road outside a protected area, and it did so at 14 times its normal walking speed. "Forest elephants are basically living in fear of their lives in prisons created by roads. They are roaming around the woods like frightened mice rather than tranquil formidable giants of their forest realm," said Stephen Blake, the study's lead author.

The Raccoon Flu:
U.S. researchers report they have discovered that the raccoons raiding your back yard could be the carriers of diseases, such as both the human and bird strains of influenza. "It turns out raccoons are like the Typhoid Mary of wild animals," said lead author Jeffrey Hall, a virologist with the U.S. Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis. "More diseases have been found in raccoons than pretty much any other wild animals ... You name it, raccoons get it." Hall and his colleagues took blood samples from the mammals in a variety of locations across the country and tested them to find evidence of antibodies to flu. They found that the percentage of infected raccoons ranged from zero in Texas and California to nearly 13 % in Colorado and 25% in Wyoming. Hall writes in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases that raccoons could be among the hosts in which flu strains mutate to be able to infect humans and other mammals.

Extreme temperatures: -75 deg F in Vostok, Antarctica; 113 deg F in Saint-Louis, Senegal

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November 06, 2008 (for week ending Oct. 31)

Earthquakes:

A massive magnitude 6.4 earthquake centered in western Pakistan killed at least 230 people when it destroyed mud huts and other buildings before dawn on Oct. 29. Wrecked buildings left an estimated 15,000 people homeless at the onset of winter in Baluchistan, a remote province on the border with Afghanistan.
The strongest of four sharp earthquakes that struck southern Iran's Hormozgan province within a 24-hour period injured eight people and damaged several buildings.
Earth movements were also felt in Indonesia's Sulawesi Island (5.5), central Greece (4.2) and the English Midlands (3.6).

Tropical Cyclones:

Moderate Tropical Storm Rashmi roared into Bangladesh from the Bay of Bengal, killing at least 15 people and injuring 200 others. The storm inundated hundreds of villages.
A rare Gulf of Aden tropical cyclone brought devastating flooding to the desert nation of Yemen on Oct. 23, killing at least 100 people and displacing 20,000 others in the south of the country.

Trinidad Mud Eruption:
Shocked villagers in southwestern Trinidad were jolted from their homes by rumblings from a new mud volcano, which suddenly emerged in an nearby oil field. Trinidad's Newsday reports that mud spewed several feet into the air, sending about 100 residents fleeing their homes. Eyewitnesses in the Santa Flora neighborhood say they later discovered a flat piece of grassy land on which they had walked and played the day before had been transformed into two craters spewing mud and gas.

Higher Tide:
A new U.N. report warns that few of the world's coastal cities will be spared by the rising sea level caused by global warming over the next several decades. State of the World's Cities 2008/9: Harmonious Cities, published by the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-HABITAT), points out that many metropolitan areas are located along the coast or adjacent to rivers that will be affected by ther ising oceans. As cities become swamped by higher tides, UN-HABITAT warns that millions of jobs will be lost as large portions of the population abandon their homes in forced migrations on an unprecedented scale.

Polar Bear Threat:
Melting ice and increased poaching are causing polar bears to die out in the remote Siberian region of Chukotka, according to an expert with the International fund for Animal Welfare (IWAF). The shrinking Arctic ice sheet is forcing more bears to live on land over the summer, where they have more encounters with humans as they scavenge for new food sources. IWAF also warns that about 100 polar bears are being killed in Russia each year, despite their protected status, to meet the demand for increasingly popular polar bear furs.

Greenhouse Surge:
Methane, a potent greenhouse gas linked to global warming, has begun to increase again after nearly a decade in which its atmospheric concentration was relatively stable. The sudden jump was detected almost simultaneously at all measurement stations around the world. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) say that before methane began increasing, it appeared that man-made and natural sources of the gas were in balance with the atmosphere's ability to neutralize it with a compound known as hydroxyl free radical (OH). The team says the recent rise observed in the Northern Hemisphere may be due to very warm conditions in Siberia during 2007, which increased bacterial emissions from tundra and wetlands. The MIT researchers say they were unable to determine what caused the increase south of the equator. The amount of methane in the atmosphere has more than doubled since before the Industrial Revolution, accounting for about one-fifth of the human contribution to greenhouse gas-driven global warming.

A Bee in Math:
Australian and Swedish researchers say they have discovered that bees have the ability to count, but only up to the number 4. The Australian Broadcasting Corp. reports professor Mandyam Srinivasan of Queensland University and colleague Marie Dacke trained the honeybees to count by placing sugar water just past a number of regularly spaced yellow stripes inside a narrow tunnel. The bees quickly learned to which marker they needed to fly in order to find the food. "After training, the bees were individually tested by removing the food reward, and observing their searching behavior in the tunnel to determine which landmark they had associated most strongly with the reward during the training," Srinivasan said. The researchers say they are puzzled as to why the bees can't seem to grasp the concept beyond the fourth marker.

Extreme temperatures: -87 deg F in Vostok, Antarctica; 109 deg F in Koolan Island, W. Australia

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October 30, 2008 (for week ending Oct. 24)

Earthquakes:

A 6.5 magnitude quake in Indonesia's Central Sulawesi Province was so powerful that people who happened to be standing near the epicenter were tossed around.
Earth movements were also felt in northern New Zealand (5.6), Tonga (6.8), central Peru (4.0) and Pennsylvania (2.6).

Tropical Cyclones:

A rare Arabian Sea cyclone, designated 03B, brought locally heavy rain to the Horn of Africa and part of the Arabian Peninsula.
Tropical Storm Asma passed over western parts of the Indian Ocean while Tropical Storm Bavi churned the western Pacific.

Swamped Wetlands:
Deer in the Everglades are being forced out of their habitat or are becoming trapped in some of the worst flooding to ever strike the wetlands. A summer of heavy rainfall across South Florida ended a protracted drought and brought water levels in the famed "River of Grass" to the highest on record. The water has driven deer and other species from the scattering of tree islands, which normally provide a dry haven, onto the few stretches of canal levees that are now the only footing that remains above water. Similar conditions in 1982 and 1995 decimated the Glades' white-tailed deer, bringing its population down from the thousands to the hundreds. The natural flow of the Everglades southward to Florida Bay has been blocked since a highway known as the Tamiami Trail was constructed from Miami to the Gulf Coast in the 1920s. Plans to replace a section of the elevated roadway with a 3000-foot causeway are being considered, along with culverts that would also allow water to flow beneath parts of the highway.

Records Autumn Warmth:
Fall weather across the Arctic has been warmer than during any other autumn on record, according to U.S. experts. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published the statistic, adding that the warmth is due to more ocean water being exposed to sunlight after the near-record melt of Arctic ice over the summer. NOAA researchers found that the polar region was 9°F warmer than normal over the past two months. The temperate autumn comes on the heels of two years that have seen all-time records shattered. In a warming trend that began in the mid-1960s, 2007 was the warmest year in the Arctic on record, followed closely by 2008 in second place. NOAA points out that the climate change is also bringing more greenness at high latitudes as shrubs begin to grow farther north on landscapes that were once rooted in permafrost.

Warming Habitat Loss:
Wildlife experts are warning that rising sea level due to global warming is driving India's Sundarban tigers out of their mangrove habitat into surrounding villages, where attacks on humans are on the increase. The Sundarban wetlands along the India-Bangladesh border are slowly being eroded by the rising tide. This means that the tigers' most common prey, such as crabs, fish and crocodiles, is shrinking. A combination of poaching and loss of habitat has brought the number of tigers down from about 500 in the late 1960s to between 250 and 270 currently, according to wildlife officials.

London Blushes:
A mysterious pink glow appeared in the sky above London for just under an hour on the evening of Oct. 20, leaving tourists and U.K. capital residents craning their necks and scratching their heads. The Daily Mail reports that the glow appeared to hover over buildings before breaking up and slowly disappearing. A spokesman for the country's meteorological office said the pastel vision was most likely due to the lights of the city reflecting off a cloud. "If you have very high cloud, as we did last night, you tend to get odd 'splodges' of low cloud that will reflect the pink or sometimes orange-pink lights of the city from all agnles, and stand out from the darkness of the sky," the unnamed Met Office spokesman told the newspaper.

Elephant Rehab:
An elephant cured of a heroin addiction has been deemed unfit to live in the wild despite kicking the habit, according to Chinese zookeepers. four-year-old Xiguang, or "Big Brother," had been used by illegal traders along the China-Myanmar border. The smugglers apparently fed him bananas coated with heroin to keep him under control. After entering treatment on Hainan Island, the bull elephant cried and made trumpeting noises once his doses of heroin were no longer avaliable, the Beijing News reports. Veterinarians eased the withdrawal symptoms during a three-year treatment with methadone injections five times stronger than those used to treat humans. Despite being cured of his addiction, animal experts determined that Xiguang's habits and body odor had changed to the point where he will have to remain in wildlife parks for the rest of his life.

Extreme temperatures: -92 deg F in Vostok, Antarctica; 110 deg F in Podor, Senegal

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October 23, 2008 (for week ending Oct. 17)

Earthquakes:

A strong (magnitude 5.8) quake in southern Russia's former breakaway Chechen Republic killed at least 13 people and damaged more than 1000 buildings and facilities, according to the Russian Ministry of Emergencies.
Earth movements were also felt in the Texas Panhandle (3.8), Virgin Islands (6.1), northern Sumatra (5.3), southern Greece (5.1) and metropolitan Tokyo (4.3).

Tropical Cyclones:

Authorities say at least four people were killed by Hurricane Norbert when it swept across northwestern Mexico's Baja California peninsula and state of Sonora, triggering flash floods.
Category-3 Hurricane Omar downed hundreds of power lines and trees on St. Croix when it skirted the eastern tip of that U.S. Virgin Island. The storm later weakened in the central Atlantic.
Tropical Storm Nana formed briefly in the mid-Atlantic, and Tropical Storm Odile drenched parts of southern Mexico's Pacific coast.

Rising Tide:
A pair of senior German researchers says the U.N. prediction that sea level will rise only by about 7 to 23 inches this century is out of date, and the level of the ocean around the world is likely to rise more than 3 feet instead over that period. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, who heads the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and Jochen Marotzke, a leading meteorologist, say the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that gave the earlier prediction was based on data up to only 2005. Schellnhuber and Marotzke believe that the record loss of Arctic ice over the past two summers, and the accelerated melt of the Greenland ice sheet, mean that seal level rise over coming decades is likely to be much higher than earlier predicted.
NB: This statement is misleading. Most of the Arctic ice is actually sea ice. Sea ice is in isostatic equilibrium with the ocean water, i.e. it floats on the water. When it melts, the sea level does not rise. However, when the Greenland ice sheet melts, water gets ADDED to the oceans, which raises the sea level. Similarly, only the melting of the portion of arctic ice that is currently on land would raise the sea level.

Warming Health:
An event marking the U.N.'s World Food Day highlighted the growing health threat climate change poses to food, water safety and nutrition. In a statement issued at the seminar in Rome, organizers cautioned that higher temperatures will favor the growth of harmful bacteria in food. Hotter conditions may also promoted the emergence of flies or other pests, and make it easier for diseases to be transmitted to humans from other animals. The statement said that Europe and central Asia were at the greatest risks of such perils, advising officials there to bolster disease surveillance and ensure that water supplies remain safe as the climate warms.

Forest Alert:
Greenpeace warns that palm oil companies in Indonesia's remote easternmost Papua region are clearing vast swathes of virgin forests to expand their plantations. The group called on the government to stop issuing land conversion permits to the giant corporations that want to fell tropical forests in what once was among the world's most inaccessible areas. Greenpeace campaigner Bustar Maitar points to the devastation inflicted on the other Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra, where deforestation has obliterated once-great forests and the homes of the creatures that lived there.

Pot Pollution:
Some of America's national parks and forests are becoming among the most polluted places in the country due to the use of toxic chemicals by farmers who illegally grow marijuana on public land. The Associated Press reports that large quantities of some defoliants and insecticides, which have long been banned in the U.S., are being smuggled into the remote farms. Officials say they have found that rat poison has been used to keep animals away from the pot crops, and there is evidence that plant growth hormones have been dumped into streams and then pumped to the pot fields through networks of PVC pies. Several hundred illicit growing sites were found on U.S. Forest Service land in California alone during 2006 and 2007. Many other growing operations were uncovered in West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky.

Pachyderm Texting:
Kenya has launched an experimental program to use mobile phone technology and GPS to monitor elephants with a history of raiding crops outside their nature preserve. The move by the group Save the Elephants came after the Kenya Wildlife Service was forced two years ago to reluctantly shoot five of the animals that refused to stop raiding crops. In June, a mobile phone SIM card was placed in the collar of an elephant named Kimani that had been spared. Now, if the animal approaches a virtual "geofence", a text message with its exact location is sent to rangers, who then guide the wandering jumbo back into the reserve. Kimani once raided crops almost nightly, but he has been kept away from farmers' fields for the past four months with the new technology.

Extreme temperatures: -95 deg F in Vostok, Antarctica; 111 deg F in Mecca, Saudi Arabia

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October 16, 2008 (for week ending Oct. 10)

Earthquakes:

At least 75 people perished when a powerful (magnitude 6.6) temblor leveled an entire village in the central Asian republic of Kyrgystan. Officials said that 41 of the victims in the mountainous south of the country were children.
Chinese officials say that at least 9 people died when a powerful (magnitude 6.3) quake struck a remote area of Tibet, with many homes collapsing during the shaking.
Earth movements were also felt in metropolitan Tokyo (4.6) and south-central Alaska (5.2).

Tropical Cyclones:

Tropical Storm Higgs brought strong winds and pounding surf to China's island province of Hainan on Oct.2, but there were no reports of fatalities from the storm's passing.
Powerful Hurricane Norbert was approaching Mexico's Baja California peninsula late in the week.
Tiny Tropical Storm Marco quickly lost what force it had attained over Mexico's Bay of Campeche after it blew ashore along the country's gulf coast north of Veracruz.

Indonesian Eruption:
Several hours of fiery activity from Sulawesi Island's Soputan volcano convinced Indonesian vulcanologists to raise the eruption warning level to the third-highest on a four-level scale. Lava was not expected to threaten any of those living on the 5,995-foot mountain's slopes, or the nearest village about 5 mi from the summit crater. A new lava dome has been building at Soputan's peak since a major eruption rocked the island in 1991.
NB: The wording of this statement is not correct. The alert level was set from 2 to 3 on a 1-4 scale. The third-highest level would be level 2, which is wrong. Check out Smithsonian GVP website.. Scroll down on that page for October 1-7, 2008.
Greenland Melt:
Satellite observations made over the past summer reveal that the northern part of the Greenland ice sheet experienced a record number of melting days, producing weeks of extreme snow melt, according to a group of American reserachers. Professor Marco Tedesco of the City College of New York found that microwave sensors aboard a U.S. Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's F13 satellite observed that melting in northern Greenland lasted up to 18 days longer over summer than ever seen before. Tedesco and is team believe abnormally warm surface temperatures, and possibly more sunshine this summer, were probably responsible for the melt.
On the Brink:
The prestigious International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) issued a warning that more than a third of the world's mammals could very well disappear forever. The dire prediction accompanied an update of the "Red List", which ranks the most threatened members of the planet's biodiversity. Hundreds of animals have just been added to that list, while many others moved up the scale of endangerment to the ultimate classification of being extinct. Despite the grim outlook for some creatures, Swiss-based IUCN points to the success that various conservation projects have had in helping species crawl back from the brink of extinction.
Penguin Repatriation:
Brazil launched a coordinated relocation project to help some of the more than 1000 juvenile penguins return home after mysteriously washing ashore in record numbers on some of the country's tropical beaches. Wildlife and zoo personnel joined with the Brazilian air force to take the wayward Magellanic penguins to the south of the country, where it is hoped they will swim farther south to the cooler climes of Patagonia. It appears that warmer-than-normal ocean currents carried the birds thousands of miles farther north than usual in serach of food. Nearly 1000 died of exhaustion, illness or starvation. After resting and being given a clean bill of health, some of the surviving misguided voyagers were herded into the sea in Brazil's far southern city of Pelotas.
Asteroid Alert:
A project to detect and survey near-Earth objects was able to issue the world's first warning that an asteroid was about to strike the planet, or at least its atmosphere. The NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey discovered a chunk of space debris about the size of a kitchen table, and was quickly able to predict when and where it would enter the atmosphere and disintegrate a few hours later. No photographs of the event were available from the remote region around southern Sudan, but the captain of a KLM airliner about 750 nautical miles southwest of the predicted atmospheric entry point said he saw a bright flash just prior to the anticipated impact time. An infrasound monitoring station in Kenya said it recorded a blast when object 8TA9D69 exploded with a force of between 1 and 2 kilotons of TNT. Such events are thought to have been very common throughout Earth's history, but the ability to predict them is in its infancy.
NB: The use of the expression space debris in this context is not correct. Space debris is human constructed waste orbiting Earth. Asteroid 8TA9D69 (also named asteroid 2008 TC3) is a natural object, not space debris.
Extreme temperatures: -96 deg F in Vostok, Antarctica; 110 deg F in Nawabshan, Pakistan

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October 09, 2008 (for week ending Oct. 03)

Earthquakes:

Two strong (magnitude 6.1) quakes jolted Manila and other parts of the northern Philippines within five minutes.
Earth movements were also felt in southern Spain (4.8) and Ohio (2.9).

Tropical Cyclones:

Officials in northern Vietnam say that eight people died and several others were left missing when Tropical Storm Mekkhala roared ashore in Quang Binh province. High winds from the storm knocked out power and blew the tin roofs off houses.
Typhoon Jangmi, the most powerful to strike Taiwan so far this year, left two people dead and forced the closure of businesses and financial markets.
Tropical Storm Higos drenched the central Philippines.
Hurricane Kyle buffeted New England and Atlantic Canada.
Subtropical Storm Laura formed over the North Atlantic.
Tropical Storm Marie churned the open waters of the eastern Pacific.

Kamchatka Plume:
Far East Russia's Shiveluch volcano spewed a massive column of ash that soared nearly 15,000 feet above the Kamchatka Peninsula. The local office of the Geophysics Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences said that the volcanic debris did not pose a threat to any communities or communications networks. The volcano is one of the most active in the region, and is located far from any population centers.

Climate Deadline 2010:
Britain's meteorological agency warned that the world must take drastic action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution within the next two years or face the worst effects of climate change. The Meteorological Office's usually conservative Hadley Center said that only by cutting emissions by 3% a year beginning in 2010 can the world prevent global temperatures from rising by more than 3.6°F (2°C) this century. That increase is widely recognized as the point at which the worst impacts of sea level rise, climate change and subsequent wide-scale extinctions would begin. The Hadley Center warning came only two months before world leaders will meet in POland to discuss a new treaty on cutting global emissions. Many feel the nearly immediate 3% cut being recommended for 2010 would be almost impossible to achieve.

Rhino Killings:
The number of rhino deaths from poaching in South Africa has soared in recent months, with 12 white rhinos being killed in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal alone so far this year. The Witness daily reports that rangers have found the decomposing carcasses of the animals, apparently shot with high-caliber rifles and their horns cleanly removed with a sharp instrument. Only about two or three killings a year have occurred over the past decade. Rhinoceros horns are highly prized in Asia, especially China, where they are considered to have medicinal and aphrodisiacal properties. Last year, Zimbabwe announced a plan to surgically dehorn the country's rhino population to prevent poaching.

Pesticide Ban Proposed:
Britain's Soil Association has urged the government to join four other European countries in banning a pesticide linked to honeybee deaths around the world. The Guardian reports that the chemicals, known as neonicotinoids, are approved to kill insects on a range of crops in the U.K.. Germany suspended the sale of the pesticide in May following reports from 700 beekeepers in the Rhine Valley that two-thirds of their bees had died following their use. Britain's National Farmers' Union blasted the proposed ban, saying it would not be based on "good science". The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs attributes the honeybee decline to a variety of factors, and says there are no plans to ban the pesticides. Bee colonies have declined between 30 and 90% around the world over the last two years, threatening two-thirds of all major crops that depend upon bees for pollination.

Eat Roo to Cool Earth:
The Australian government's leading climate change adviser says the country should switch to eating kangaroo instead of beef to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Professor Ross Garnaut noted in an official report that while the belching and flatulence of grazing farm animals is a major source of methane, kangaroos emit almost none of the greenhouse gas. "For most Australian's human history of around 60,000 years, kangaroo was the main source of meat. It could again become important," Garnaut said. He noted that some barriers to this culinary shift include livestock and farm-management issues, consumer resistance and the gradual nature of change in food tastes. As might be expected, the head of the Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association, Luke Bowen, called the proposal "ridiculous".

Extreme temperatures: -94 deg F in Vostok, Antarctica; 113 deg F in Dongola, Sudan

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October 02, 2008 (for week ending Sep. 26)

Earthquakes:

A 6.3 magnitude temblor off Mexico's Pacific coast triggered a brief local tsunami alert, but no significant changes is sea level or damage from the shaking was reported.
Earth movements were also felt in Bangladesh (4.8), metropolitan Tokyo (4.8) and the Big Island of Hawaii (4.3).

Tropical Cyclones:

China's Guangdong province and nearby territories were lashed by high winds and storm-surge tides as Typhoon Hagupit made landfall near the city of Maoming. Winds in excess of 125 mph were recorded near the storm's center, and moderate wind damage was reported in Macao and Hong Kong as Hagupit passed nearby. At least one person was killed in China and another six died in the northern Philippines from flooding associated with the typhoon.
Typhoon Jangmi formed just north of Micronesia, and was predicted to take a path similar to that of Hagupit during the following week.

Indian Ocean Eruption:
A fresh eruption of a volcano on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion created a small lake of lava and triggered a release of sulfur dioxide gas in an uninhabited area. Lava began spewing from a new crack in Piton de la Fournaise about midway up the slope of the crater, according to authorities. The volcano is one of the world's most active and is a popular tourist attraction on the French overseas territory. The lava flow is the first since the mountain erupted violently in April 2007, which was dubbed the "eruption of the century". the volcano's summit collapsed at that time, and lava sometimes spewed up to 650 feet into the air. Piton de la Fournaise is located in a remote area of Reunion and usually does not threaten the island's population.

A Less-Blustery Sun:
The stream of charged particles that rushes outward from the sun has weakened to its lowest level in at least 50 years, threatening to allow dangerous cosmic rays from deep space to reach the inner solar system. Measurements of the solar wind's pressure has dropped 20% since the mid-1990s, and the temperature of the electrons within the flow has declined by 13%. The solar wind normally keeps the cosmic radiation at bay. Earth's magnetic field provides an inner shield to protect life on the planet from the super high-energy electrons and protons arriving from countless light-years away. But any astronauts traveling to the moon or beyond, outside Earth's shield, would be at an increased risk of exposure due to the weaker solar wind.

Pollution Equator:
An air pollution barrier, or "chemical equator", that keeps the polluted air of the northern hemisphere from contaminating the less-industrialized hemisphere to the south has been found by British scientists. Meteorologists have long known about a boundary of convective storms in equatorial regions that moves north and south with the seasons. It is the zone where trade winds from the northern and southern hemispheres converge. The Intertropical Convergence Zone was once thought to be what kept northern air pollution from infiltrating the cleaner environs south of the equator. But writing in the Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres, a team from the University of York says they found a separate barrier about 30 mi wide in the cloud-free western Pacific, where carbon monoxide levels were four times higher on the northern side.

Tree Talk:
Researchers have found that at least one type of tree can signal nearby plants of impending drought or other environmental stress that could affect plant well-being. Scientists at the U.S. national Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) say they observed walnut trees releasing large amounts of an aspirin compound to reduce damage from adverse conditions, and to possibly warn nearby plants. "These findings show tangible proof that plant-to-plant communication occurs on the ecosystem leve", said NCAR scientist and study co-author Alex Guenther. Writing in Biogeosciences, the team said the finding could lead to farmers being able to recognize early warning signs from crops that they are about to fail.

Winged Menace:
Sudan's troubled Darfur region has received another blow to its stability - this time from an invasion of starlings, know locally as zarzur. The Sudanese daily Alray Alaa'm reports that large flocks of the winged pests have descended upon South Darfur State, destroying crops and threatening to bring even more acute food shortages and higher prices. A spokesman for the Sudanese Revolutionary Front said government neglect had allowed the bird invasion, but stated that his forces would not interfere with any airplanes dispatched to combat the birds with aerial spraying.

Extreme temperatures: -111 deg F in Vostok, Antarctica; 113 deg F in Mecca, Saudi Arabia

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September 25, 2008 (for week ending Sep. 19)

Earthquakes:

A strong (magnitude 6.1) quake near the East Timor capital of Dili caused terrified residents to flee their homes and businesses. There were no reports of significant injuries.
Earth movements were also felt in Indonesia's Maluku province (6.1), northern India (4.8), central New Zealand (5.2), southern Iran (5.2) and western Colombia (5.7).

Tropical Cyclones:

Peak-season Hurricane Ike leveled homes in parts of the Texas coast and left hundreds of thousands of Houston-area residents with the prospect of living without electricity for weeks. The storm killed at least 17 in Texas, and its remnants were responsible for 30 other deaths in several Midwest states.
Hurricane Hanna took aim on the southeastern United States after leaving 61 dead in Haiti.
Rescue officials in Taiwan said that at least 11 people were killed when Typhoon Sinlaku suddenly veered westward, striking the island instead of maintaining a predicted northerly course.
Tropical Cyclone 02B made landfall along India's Orissa coast with minimal storm-force winds. It was predicted to bring locally heavy rain to northern India and Nepal for several days.

Colombian Rumblings:
More than 100 volcanic tremors within a 24-hour period prompted residents of Colombia's Cauca and Huila departments to abandon their homes in fear of an eruption from Nevado del Huila.

Near-Record Retreat:
The annual melting of sea ice around the North Pole didn't quite match last year's record retreat, but this summer still produced the second-greatest melt on record. Mark Serreze, an Arctic expert at the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., said the "climate feedbacks" that are kicking in cloud lead to a complete loss of summertime ice within about two decades. The ice reached its smallest coverage on Sept. 12, but began to refreeze a few days later when the sun's radiation became weaker as the Arctic winter began to set in. Satellite observations have revealed that the sea ice coverage has gotten smaller and smaller each summer since the 1980s. Last week, researchers announced that a navigable corridor of open water had opened up around the entire Arctic, possibly for the first time in 125,000 years.

Forest Collapse:
Villagers in western Nepal's Banke district say that nearly 3,000 trees in a single forest fell over within a 10-minute period, according to a report on the eKantipur Web site. Initial reports said there were no strong winds at the time of the collapses on Sept. 8, leading to speculations that the trees were knocked down by a supernatural force. Mystified residents said that the local District Forest Office (DFO) appeared to be taking no action to determine what caused the phenomenon. But a subsequent report said that a DFO official determined that a sudden whirlwind was responsible for the collapses. Gopal Chaudhary, who said he was grazing his cattle near the forest when the trees fell, was quoted by eKantipur as also saying that a "strong gale" uprooted the trees.

Mother of All Ants:
Scientists have unearthed an ancient ancestor of ants from the soil of the Amazon rain forest that is probably the species from which all other ants evolved. University of Texas at Austin evolutionary biologist Christian Rabelling, who discovered the blind, subterranean and predatory ant, dubbed it Martialis heureka, or "ant from Mars", because of its alien characteristics. Genetic analysis revealed that it is of a new species, genus and subfamily - the first such ant discovery since 1923. It also appears to be from the very base of the family tree for all the world's ants. Ants evolved about 120 million years ago from wasp-like ancestors, then rapidly evolved specific characteristics to live in different environments. Martialis heureka has survived relatively unchanged by remaining hidden underground in a stable tropical environment, free of competition from other ants.

Day-glow Fish:
Ichtyologists appear to have been blind for decades to a fluorescent crimson glow that naturally comes from many fish at depths where the sun's red light cannot penetrate. The fish experts had long believed that the underwater creatures probably could not even see the color red, because the sea entirely filters out that wavelength of light at depths greater than 30 feet. But researchers at the University of Tubingen in Germany accidentally saw fish glowing red when they used a filter to block out the brighter green and blue light waves, leaving only red ones. Nico Michiels and his team found at least 32 species of reef fish, glowing in various hues of ruby, rust, crimson and cherry. They say the fluorescence can only be seen at short distances, and believe it may be used for communication - possibly for mating or to signal danger.

Extreme temperatures: -104 deg F in Vostok, Antarctica; 113 deg F in Dongola, Sudan

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September 11, 2008 (for week ending Sep. 05)

Earthquakes:

At least 38 people were killed and 500 others injured by the latest temblor to rock China's quake-weary Sichuan-Yunnan border region. The 6.1 magnitude quake occurred along the same fault as a May 12 temblor that killed up to 87,000 people.
A magnitude 5.1 quake in southwest Turkey's Adiyaman province damaged some buildings, but there were no reports of injuries.
Earth movements also were felt in New Zealand's North Island (5.8) and Indonesia's Sulawesi Island (5.2).

Tropical Cyclones:

Hurricane Gustav's rampage across Louisiana left at least 10 people dead and an estimated $10 billion in damage. That is in addition to the 77 fatalities the storm caused in Haiti and 10 more deaths in Jamaica. Former President Fidel Castro described Gustav's damage to eastern Cuba as being like "and atomic blast".
Hurricane Hanna took aim on the southeastern United States after leaving 61 dead in Haiti.
Hurricane Ike approached the Bahamas. Tropical Storm Josephine formed near the Cape Verde Islands.
Tropical Storm Karina briefly swirled off Mexico's Pacific coast.

Mini Tsunami(s):
Sudden changes in sea level off the Atlantic coasts of South Africa and Namibia in late August were most likely caused by undersea earthquakes triggering slumps (mudslides) on the ocean floor, according to South African researchers. One of the three abrupt tide changes observed within a six-hour period on Aug. 20 and 21 caused minor damage along the South African coast. Witnesses said the surge dragged a car into the sea and caused damage to coastal facilities at St. Helena Bay.

Brazil Penguin Deaths:
More than 200 oil-covered penguins washed onto the beaches of Brazil's resort of Florianopolis in the latest in a series of penguin deaths that have occurred along the country's coast this year. An environmental official said the oil probably leaked from a large ship, which would be nearly impossible to identify due to the high volume of maritime traffic. Thousands of the birds have been found both dead and alive this year as far north as Brazil's Rio Grande do Norte state, near the equator.

August Gloom:
Unusual weather patterns in the eastern Atlantic caused Britain's least-sunny August since sunshine measurements began in 1929. The Met Office said that there were only 105.5 hours of sunshine during the month, far less than the normal 165.1 hours. The agency added it was also the fifth-wettest on record, with an average of 5.5 inches of rain, causing floods in some areas. There were a few exceptions to the dull end of summer. Lerwick in Shetland, as well as the Isle of Wight, were fortunate enough to receive about 130% of the average sunshine levels during the month. Meteorologists say that the usual area of high pressure that forms each summer near the Azores failed to develop this summer.

Sunspot Drought:
The surface of the sun nearly broke a 100-year record by coming very close to not producing any sunspots during the entire month of August. The solar Influences Data Analysis Center in Brussels detected a dark speck on Aug. 21 and 22 that was large enough to count as a sunspot. Only a small number of sunspots have been observed so far this year, suggesting that the sun is currently at a low point in an 11-year cycle of activity. Sunspots have been counted systematically since 1749, and as many as 100 or more can occur during a single month at the cycle's peak. A disturbing 50-year absence of sunspots in the 17th century, known as the Maunder Minimum, caused decades of cold weather known as the "Little Ice Age". Periods of inactivity are normal for the sun, but the current spot-free period has gone on much longer than usual. Scientists maintain that the next solar cycle is just "off to a slow start".

Swiss Animal Rights:
Strict new laws that went into effect across Switzerland on Sept. 1 have some wondering if legislators have overreacted in efforts to safeguard the animal kingdom. It is now illegal to flush live goldfish down the toilet. The law stipulates that they must first be knocked out and killed before being disposed of. Fishermen may no longer practice catch-and-release fishing, and the use of live bait is prohibited. Pets such as parrots and hamsters may no longer be kept by themselves, and livestock such as sheep and goats must have at least "a visual contact with their fellows", under the new law. Dog owners are now required to take classes to learn how to keep their pets from biting. Even with regulations saying that pigs have the legal right to shower and freshen up after rolling in mud, the country's leading animal rights group, STS, says the new law doesn't go far enough.

Extreme temperatures: -108 deg F in Vostok, Antarctica; 118 deg F in Dharhran, Saudi Arabia

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September 04, 2008 (for week ending Aug. 29)

Earthquakes:

Abaout 4000 residents in a remote area of Tibet were evacuated to safer housing after a 6.8 magnitude quake damaged homes near the China-Nepal border. The ground shifted nearly 20 feet at one location.
Residents on New Zealand's North Island picked up items knocked off shelves and tables by a sharp [magnitude 5.9] earthquake centered near the city of Hastings. No injuries were reported.
Earth movements were also felt in Java [magnitude 6.6], easter Peru [6.3] and Russia's Lake Baikal region [6.3].

Tropical cyclones:

At least 11 people perished in Florida from Tropical Storm Fay's six-day trek across the state, mainly due to flooding and traffic accidents.

One soldier was killed and roads were washed out across southern Baja California by flash flooding unleashed by Tropical Storm Julio.

Hurricane Gustav slammed the Dominican Republic and Haiti, killing at least 22 people before taking aim at far western Cuba and the Gulf of Mexico late in the week.
Record Whale Sightings:
Tourists and marine mammal researchers say they have been delighted at the record number of whales in the Great Australian bight off South Australia this southern winter.
Tourist officer Margie Stott told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that 166 different whales have been spotted - 23 more than in the previous record year of 2005. Researchers have documented the births of more than 40 southern right whale calves since the season began in May. They join 56 adult whales, which have been visible from viewing platforms.
Animal Magnetism:
A new study has found that grazing animals like deer and cattle tend to align their bodies to Earth's magnetic field lines.
Researcher Sabine Begall and her colleagues at Germany's University of Duisburg-Essen examined Google Earth images of 8510 cattle in 308 pastures around the world, and made direct observations of 2974 wild deer at 225 locations in the Czech Republic. They found that whether grazing or resting, the animals tended to face magnetic north or south.
Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Begall notes that because the direction of wind and sunlight varied widely at the observed pastures, the only common factor that could have influenced the animals' positioning was the magnetic field.
Melted Habitat:
An aerial survey off the northwest coast of Alaska in mid-August found at least nine polar bears swimming in open waters, with one foundering at least 60 miles from shore.
The discovery came just before U.S. scientists announced that Arctic sea ice has shrunk to its second-lowest coverage on record. "To find so many polar bears at sea at one time is extremely worrisome because it could be an indication that as the sea ice on which they live and hunt continues to melt, many more bears may be out there facing similar risk," said Geoff York, polar bear coordinator for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Arctic program.
The U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center says some of the most dramatic melting occurred this summer in the Chukchi Sea, where WWF discovered the nine bears.
Wind Farm Deaths:
The growing construction of wind turbines poses a greater danger to bats than birds, according to a new study by Canadian researchers.
Their findings may explain why bats have accounted for 60 percent of winged animals found dead around some wind farms, exhibiting no apparent injuries. Writing in the journal Current Biology Erin Baerwald of the University of Calgary said she found that a sudden drop in atmospheric pressure around the spinning turns causes the bats' lungs to burst.
The researchers discovered that about 90 percent of bats found dead at wind farms had suffered from internal hemorrhaging caused by the effect. Researcher Robert Barclay added that the slow reproductive rates of bats means that the mounting losses at wind farms could bring the insects eaters to the verge of extinction.
Wolves Rebound:
A westward migration of wolves from Eastern Europe has brought them into areas of Germany where the wild canines have not been seen in centuries.
Wildlife officials say the wolves are increasingly being found in residential areas, even on the outskirts of Berlin. The trend follows earlier increases in the number of red foxes, which the wolves feed on.
Wolves and foxes are only the start of a resurgence of wildlife not seen since the Middle Ages, according to biologist Josef Reichholf of the University of Munich. "Weasels and otters and raccoons are already well re-established themselves,: he told Deutsche Presse Agentur." And the European moose elk is poised to move westward," he added.
Extreme Temperatures: -119°F Vostok, Antarctica; 121°F Death Valley, California

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August 28, 2008 (for week ending Aug. 22)

Earthquakes:

A moderate quake along the China-Myanmar border wrecked many homes near the epicenter in China's Yunan province, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Earth movements were also felt in metropolitan Tokyo (4.5), the Hawaiian island of Oahu (3.0), southwestern Guatemala (5.2) and northwest Alabama (2.6).

Tropical cyclones:

Landslides triggered by Typhoon Nuri's torrential rains killed seven people in the northern Philippines, many of whom perished when their houses were buried in mud. The storm skirted northern Luzon Island before becoming even more powerful while taking aim at China's Guangdong coast late in the week.
Tropical Storm Fay killed at least 50 people as it formed over Haiti. The storm never attained hurricane force, but it was strong enough to rip roof off homes and cause considerable flooding across Florida.
Tropical Storm Iselle formed briefly off western Mexico, and Tropical Storm Vongfong passed just to the east of Japan.

A Mekong Record:
Southeast Asia's famed Mekong River has risen to a level higher than ever measured before in parts of northern Thailand, inundating homes and farmland for hundreds of miles. Similar inundations have also occurred in adjacent areas of Laos. Officials at the Mekong River Commission said the current flooding is due to abnormally high runoff from northern stretches of the river basin, combined with torrential rainfall caused by Tropical Storm Kammuri on Aug. 9 to 11. As floodwaters moved downstream, Cambodia and southern Vietnam warned residents in some areas to move to higher ground along with their livestock.

Ocean 'Dead Zones':
Maritime "dead zones" have expanded steadily over the past half-century, now creating environments where marine life cannot survive in 400 coastal areas of the world. Writing in the journal Science, researchers from Virginia's College of William and Mary and Gothenburg University in Sweden said that the number of oxygen-depleted areas of the sea has doubled every 10 years since the 1960s. "The formation of dead zones has been exacerbated by the increase in (pollution) ... fueled by riverine runoff of the fertilizers and the burning of fossil fuels", the study said. Lead author Robert J. Diaz noted that dead zones have often formed in what were once prime fishing grounds. Lack of oxygen seasonally wipes out fish in the Gulf of Mexico, Baltic Sea and Chesapeake Bay.

Wild Salmon Rebound:
Scientists and fishermen alike are startled and delighted by a resurgence of wild Atlantic salmon this summer from Labrador to the coast of Maine. "People are talking about runs they haven't seen for a decade or more", Gerald Chaput, a biologist with Canada's Fisheries Department, told The Canadian Press. While no one can say why more young salmon, grilse, are returning to spawn in the region's rivers, one fisheries expert says warmer ocean temperatures, successful hook-and-release programs and fishing restrictions could be factors. About 70 monitoring sites have reported some of the best returns of grilse in many years, but sightings of older salmon have not increased. However, experts say that the survival and return of young salmon this summer probably means that larger fish will arrive to spawn next year.

Hive Hazard:
An ongoing spell of damp weather in northwestern France appears to be the reason a female beekeeper was left in a coma after being stung by about 100 bees. Quest-France reports that the unidentified 58-year-old woman was attacked while attempting to collect honey from her hives in the Brittany village of Kernevel. Local beekeeper Valerie Tygreat told Agence France Presse that the bees were probably being defensive of their hives due to recent inclement conditions that prevented them from gathering pollen.

Let Them Eat Rat:
An official in one of India's most impoverished states has proposed easing hunger among the masses by encouraging them to eat rat as a source of protein. "Rats have almost no bones and are quite rich in nutrition. People at large don't know this cuisine fact, but gradually they are catching up", said Vijay Prakash, principal secretary of Bihar state's welfare department. He told reporters that nearly 50% of India's grain stocks is eaten by the rodents in fields or warehouses. Prakash said hunting and eating rats would battle soaring food prices by reducing such losses. Rats are already eaten by some members of Bihar's extremely poor Musahar community. The scheme to promote rat snacks among the more affluent includes providing restaurants and hotels with recipes to make rat eating a fine-dining experience.

Extreme Temperatures: -109°F Vostok, Antarctica; 122°F Death Valley, California

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July 04, 2008 (for week ending Jun. 28)

Earthquakes:

Swarms of tremors that have jolted southern Lebanon and northern Israel since January have geologists in both countries warning that the region could be about to experience a major seismic event. Hundreds of residents in the southern Lebanese village of Srifa, bear the epicenter of recent tremors, have been sleeping outside in fear of a a major quake.
A magnitude 5.3 temblor left 39 people injured and destroyed more than 100 homes in Peru. the initial quake and weaker aftershocks triggered landslides that blocked roads across parts of the Andes.
Another earth movement [a magnitude 6.6 quake] was felt from India's Andaman Islands to southern Bangladesh.

Tropical cyclones:

Boris briefly became the first named hurricane of the northeastern Pacific tropical cyclone season, but the storm remained far from any significant land areas.
Tropical Storm Cristina churned the Pacific farther out to sea.
Tropical Storm Douglas formed in the wake of both storms to the south of Baja California.

Chilean Eruption:
Southern Chile's Llaima volcano reawakened from a six moon slumber, spewing lava that could threaten several nearby villages. Chile's National Emergency Office says about 25 people have already been evacuated.
The agency is preparing for possible floods and mudslides that could occur as heat from the eruption melts the mountain's wintertime snowcap.

Humpbacks Spared:
The International Whaling Commission ended a contentious annual meeting in Chile with Japan offering to not hunt humpback whales for another year.
A motion by Norway that would have allowed native tribes in Greenland to kill 10 additional humpbacks was voted down by the 81-nation membership.
Greenland currently fails to catch all of the whales from its existing quota. The commission attempted to ease tensions between nations opposed to whaling and the whaling countries of Japan, Iceland and Norway by avoiding votes on other issues. Plan by Brazil, Argentina and South Africa to join Australia's lead in establishing whaling sanctuaries in their territorial waters were shelved as part of that peace-making strategy.

Ape Rights:
A resolution heading to the Spanish parliament would grant rights to "our non-human brothers." Following the agenda of the Great Ape Project (GAP), the proposed law would declare that apes may not be killed or arbitrarily deprived of their liberty. Reuters reports the proposal would require the government to end the involuntary use of apes in circuses, television and dangerous experiments. "There is no sound moral reason why possession of basic rights should be limited to members of a particular species." said philosopher and GAP co-founder Peter Singer. He believes that new law could eventually "pave the way for the extension of rights to all primates, or all mammals, or all animals." But some opponents say the legislation amounts to extremism. Wesley Smith of the faith based Discovery Institute wrote in his blog: "Once people accept that premise (ape rights), Judeo-Christian philosophy goes to the guillotine." He warned that apes could come to be viewed as more important than some humans.

Atlantic 'Alps' Refuge:
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) announced that a long stretch of an undersea mountain range between Iceland and the Azores will become one of the largest protected marine areas in the world. The 15-member OSPAR Commission will designate 115,000 square miles of the Atlantic floor a Marine Protected Area, prohibiting certain forms of fishing that can damage the rocky surface.
WWF describes the new sanctuary as "a haven for corals, sponges and other species living attached to rocky surfaces, as well as for fish, whales and sharks that feed or spawn by the shallower peaks or use the canyons and depressions as refuge." Iceland and all the major European nations are parties of the OSPAR Commission.

Ursine Drought Victims:
A protracted drought parching much of northern Mexico has driven more than 30 black bears into residential area of Monterrey in search of food and water.
The director of the city's zoo said that bears have been seen killing farm animals, drinking from swimming pools and entering homes around the city of 4 million people.
black bears are protected in Mexico, and local law enforcement personnel are being trained on how to safely capture and relocate the threatened species. Officials say they are trying to figure out how to provide water to the animals in the wild to keep them from venturing into populated areas.

Extreme Temperatures: -103°F Vostok, Antarctica; 119°F Al Ahsa, Saudi Arabia

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March 13, 2008 (for week ending Mar. 07)

Earthquakes

A 5.6 magnitude quake knocked out power around the northern Chilean city of Iquique, but caused no significant damage.
Earth movements were also felt in northern Italy (4.7). Lebanon (3.5), the central Philippines (6.0) and western Sumatra (6.1).

Tropical Cyclones

Tropical Cyclone Ophelia briefly attained hurricane force as it passed well off northwestern Australia. Concerns over the storm prompted one petroleum company to suspend offshore operations until the storm passed.
Cyclone Jokwe formed just off the northern tip of Madagascar, then took aim on the already flood-ravaged African nation of Mozambique late in the week.

Hawaiian Lava Damage

Kilauea volcano

Royal Gardens

Fire From Mud Volcano

"mud volcano" disaster

Wild Blizzard Victims

argali wild sheep

roaming the area. The rare species may face extinction due to lack of food in early spring, when mountain vegetation will be hard to find after the snowstorm.

Yellow Sand Hazard

A massive cloud of yellow sand blew from China into parts of South Korea and japan, forcing schools to close and creating a health hazard, according to officials.
Between March and May every year, large quantities of yellow sand are sent airborne from the Gobi and Takalamakan deserts, with much of it being transported by westerly winds to Japan and the Korean Peninsula.
Some of the sand becomes saturated with toxic pollution spewed into the air across China's industrialized regions. Residents downwind are advised to stay indoors or wear face masks while venturing outdoors when clouds of the yellow sand are thick.

Jelly Fish Explosion

Spanish authorities warned those heading to the country's Mediterranean coast that massive swarms of jellyfish are likely to cause a hazard to bathers this summer, even in the shallow waters near shore.
The Barcelona-based Institute of Marine Sciences says overfishing has eliminated many of the natural predators and competitors that used to keep the gooey invertebrate population under control. Institute research professor Josep-Maria Gili said the recent growth in jellyfish numbers "is a message from the sea that something is wrong".
Other marine experts say that global warming has also brought about the ideal conditions for jellyfish to breed in the western Mediterranean: mild temperatures, little rain and a lack of the usual winter rainstorms. Similar growth in jellyfish populations has recently occurred in japan, Namibia, Alaska, Venezuela and westerns Australia, Gili said.

Extreme Temperatures: -78°F Vostok, Antarctica; 111°F Saint-Louis, Senegal

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January 31, 2008 (for the week ending Jan 25)

Earthquakes

Shaking from a 6.2-magnitude temblor off Sumatra caused a ceiling to collapse, killing an 11-year-old boy on Nias Island.
Other structures sustained minor damage.
Earth movements also were felt in Indonesia's Maluku Islands [magnitude 5.9], New Zealand's South Island [5.3], central Iran [4.7], northern Chile [5.2] and northern parts of the Yukon Territory [5.8].

Tropical Cyclones

High winds from the remnants of Cyclone Funa downed power lines in northern New Zealand's Hawke's Bay region.
Large waves generated by the storm injured five passengers on a cruise ship sailing between new Zealand and Vanuatu.

Raining 'Fire'

Anak Krakatau

Antara

Wild Bird Tragedy

National Wildlife Health Center

Pasteurella multocida

Whales Lose Protection

/Rat-eating Vine

Cape York Peninsula

Jardine River

Middle East Chill

Early Awakening

Extreme Temperatures: -76°F Oimyakon, Siberia; 116°F Telfer, W. Australia

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