Earth Watch Report – Thursday November 1st, 2012

Earthquakes

USGS

	MAG	UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s	LAT deg	LON deg	DEPTH km	Region
MAP	2.6	2012/10/31 22:48:46	36.048	-117.515	1.9	CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP	4.6	2012/10/31 22:46:31	52.273	-171.545	62.3	FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP	4.8	2012/10/31 21:27:05	-4.620	153.369	43.0	NEW IRELAND REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
MAP	3.2	2012/10/31 19:10:06	19.592	-65.278	17.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	3.1	2012/10/31 16:40:13	18.288	-65.470	13.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	4.7	2012/10/31 16:26:38	-30.157	-177.791	61.0	KERMADEC ISLANDS, NEW ZEALAND
MAP	3.2	2012/10/31 15:29:53	40.974	-123.700	12.6	NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	2.7	2012/10/31 15:19:42	19.387	-155.249	3.5	ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP	4.6	2012/10/31 15:15:07	-5.333	34.833	10.0	TANZANIA
MAP	2.8	2012/10/31 14:21:04	53.569	-164.854	29.8	UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP	4.2	2012/10/31 13:00:15	41.792	-127.083	10.0	OFF THE COAST OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	4.5	2012/10/31 12:35:13	-18.645	-177.530	315.9	FIJI REGION
MAP	2.5	2012/10/31 12:05:59	36.087	-89.772	6.3	SOUTHEASTERN MISSOURI
MAP	3.2	2012/10/31 09:52:58	37.088	-121.503	8.1	NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	4.9	2012/10/31 06:53:56	-2.048	99.713	21.3	KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI REGION, INDONESIA
MAP	4.5	2012/10/31 06:50:02	36.014	139.837	46.9	EASTERN HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP	4.0	2012/10/31 02:57:43	62.045	-146.545	40.7	CENTRAL ALASKA

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	MAG	UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s	LAT deg	LON deg	DEPTH km	Region
MAP	3.2	2012/10/30 23:26:16	58.955	-154.355	122.7	ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP	2.5	2012/10/30 23:19:10	19.403	-155.296	3.3	ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP	2.9	2012/10/30 23:02:19	61.432	-150.725	63.3	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	4.5	2012/10/30 22:49:52	2.127	127.035	88.5	MOLUCCA SEA
MAP	2.8	2012/10/30 22:23:36	61.439	-150.695	66.5	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	4.2	2012/10/30 22:02:46	61.496	-150.723	67.4	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	2.7	2012/10/30 21:16:17	34.238	-116.811	8.2	SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	3.2	2012/10/30 18:04:35	61.618	-140.669	16.5	SOUTHERN YUKON TERRITORY, CANADA
MAP	2.5	2012/10/30 17:43:02	34.774	-118.282	0.0	SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	2.5	2012/10/30 17:35:54	33.377	-116.848	7.0	SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	4.0	2012/10/30 17:33:30	52.568	-132.312	1.1	QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.7	2012/10/30 17:25:59	37.499	-118.534	14.5	CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP	4.5	2012/10/30 16:56:49	14.458	146.827	40.7	ROTA REGION, NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS
MAP	4.6	2012/10/30 15:22:53	-17.979	-178.566	623.1	FIJI REGION
MAP	4.6	2012/10/30 14:10:59	52.285	-131.948	10.0	QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.6	2012/10/30 13:45:10	59.787	-152.482	65.7	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	5.2	2012/10/30 13:12:29	-37.949	177.681	67.8	OFF EAST COAST OF THE NORTH ISLAND, N.Z.
MAP	2.8	2012/10/30 13:12:29	59.863	-154.185	199.2	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	4.6	2012/10/30 12:53:40	12.554	-87.961	87.8	NEAR THE COAST OF NICARAGUA
MAP	4.7	2012/10/30 12:53:05	-24.742	-179.616	541.2	SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS
MAP	4.4	2012/10/30 12:18:20	6.836	-73.056	148.2	NORTHERN COLOMBIA
MAP	4.7	2012/10/30 11:43:55	-5.341	102.728	41.9	SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
MAP	5.1	2012/10/30 10:59:33	-18.219	-174.809	9.8	TONGA
MAP	4.5	2012/10/30 10:11:41	53.391	108.066	17.9	LAKE BAYKAL REGION, RUSSIA
MAP	2.9	2012/10/30 10:02:51	63.087	-151.604	15.0	CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP	2.6	2012/10/30 09:40:47	18.791	-64.495	41.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.6	2012/10/30 09:01:59	52.901	-163.745	23.3	SOUTH OF ALASKA
MAP	4.4	2012/10/30 08:44:21	2.739	128.664	224.5	HALMAHERA, INDONESIA
MAP	4.2	2012/10/30 08:09:27	36.662	26.508	157.0	DODECANESE ISLANDS, GREECE
MAP	2.9	2012/10/30 08:01:00	36.604	-121.212	8.7	CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP	3.1	2012/10/30 07:57:39	19.558	-65.271	7.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	3.3	2012/10/30 07:45:31	19.406	-65.276	57.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	3.2	2012/10/30 07:35:00	19.248	-64.115	93.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.6	2012/10/30 07:29:00	34.657	-121.306	11.3	OFFSHORE CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP	4.9	2012/10/30 07:12:35	-17.917	-178.592	560.7	FIJI REGION
MAP	5.2	2012/10/30 07:12:30	-4.615	151.864	156.7	NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
MAP	2.7	2012/10/30 06:30:19	60.637	-151.155	18.8	KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA
MAP	2.7	2012/10/30 06:09:19	36.459	-121.038	6.5	CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP	2.9	2012/10/30 05:50:13	62.832	-149.513	0.0	CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP	4.4	2012/10/30 05:22:17	-23.001	-69.708	75.7	ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE
MAP	4.7	2012/10/30 04:40:15	52.170	-131.604	10.2	QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.9	2012/10/30 03:07:44	19.084	-65.145	33.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.6	2012/10/30 02:58:31	19.401	-155.258	2.1	ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP	5.0	2012/10/30 02:55:15	52.484	-131.486	5.1	QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS REGION
MAP	6.2	2012/10/30 02:49:03	52.324	-131.908	9.7	QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.3	2012/10/30 02:17:33	36.362	70.802	185.3	HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
MAP	4.6	2012/10/30 00:41:34	-36.203	-100.250	10.0	SOUTHEAST OF EASTER ISLAND
MAP	4.1	2012/10/30 00:35:10	52.412	-131.645	10.0	QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.5	2012/10/30 00:34:17	33.880	-115.996	0.8	SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	4.0	2012/10/30 00:32:18	52.467	-132.126	10.4	QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS REGION

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	MAG	UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s	LAT deg	LON deg	DEPTH km	Region
MAP	4.7	2012/10/29 23:51:42	-8.176	123.412	19.6	FLORES REGION, INDONESIA
MAP	4.7	2012/10/29 23:40:17	-8.163	123.453	9.1	FLORES REGION, INDONESIA
MAP	4.7	2012/10/29 22:41:13	-15.263	-172.934	34.2	SAMOA ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.9	2012/10/29 22:23:42	62.159	-148.814	20.5	CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP	4.3	2012/10/29 22:00:33	52.616	-132.260	10.3	QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.0	2012/10/29 22:00:17	61.565	-140.683	15.6	SOUTHERN YUKON TERRITORY, CANADA
MAP	2.5	2012/10/29 21:52:17	61.317	-141.645	17.4	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	4.3	2012/10/29 21:46:58	3.253	121.881	604.5	CELEBES SEA
MAP	3.9	2012/10/29 21:41:33	61.455	-141.129	10.0	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	4.9	2012/10/29 21:20:36	-4.752	153.162	81.7	NEW IRELAND REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
MAP	2.5	2012/10/29 21:06:07	61.422	-141.146	10.0	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	4.6	2012/10/29 20:49:49	52.366	-131.459	26.6	QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.0	2012/10/29 20:10:40	32.182	-115.187	0.1	BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP	5.1	2012/10/29 19:49:06	-0.452	132.742	28.9	NEAR THE NORTH COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA
MAP	2.8	2012/10/29 19:28:58	19.400	-155.258	2.4	ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP	4.1	2012/10/29 16:33:09	52.231	-131.964	10.0	QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.8	2012/10/29 15:55:46	19.360	-154.965	38.6	HAWAII REGION, HAWAII
MAP	4.0	2012/10/29 15:38:30	52.074	-132.137	10.0	QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS REGION
MAP	5.7	2012/10/29 15:29:53	-0.155	125.245	62.3	MOLUCCA SEA
MAP	4.0	2012/10/29 15:15:02	51.989	-132.225	10.0	QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.0	2012/10/29 15:01:07	52.013	-131.757	10.0	QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.9	2012/10/29 14:54:53	80.651	-3.355	10.0	NORTH OF SVALBARD
MAP	4.8	2012/10/29 14:35:14	12.104	-88.260	35.0	NEAR THE COAST OF NICARAGUA
MAP	4.4	2012/10/29 14:22:50	-37.675	-73.894	13.7	OFFSHORE BIO-BIO, CHILE
MAP	2.5	2012/10/29 12:47:36	19.427	-155.276	1.7	ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP	3.9	2012/10/29 12:39:24	35.205	-90.636	23.1	ARKANSAS
MAP	4.4	2012/10/29 12:05:15	52.574	-132.552	10.2	QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.9	2012/10/29 11:49:05	35.611	-81.999	6.1	NORTH CAROLINA
MAP	4.8	2012/10/29 10:30:44	-24.600	179.264	526.6	SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS
MAP	3.4	2012/10/29 07:50:54	33.389	-109.237	4.8	ARIZONA
MAP	5.2	2012/10/29 06:28:33	-8.169	123.431	9.7	FLORES REGION, INDONESIA
MAP	4.1	2012/10/29 06:03:54	52.921	-132.341	14.3	QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.7	2012/10/29 05:48:42	38.816	-122.780	2.2	NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	4.5	2012/10/29 04:59:36	13.303	-89.516	68.2	OFFSHORE EL SALVADOR
MAP	3.9	2012/10/29 04:25:16	36.592	-121.201	9.0	CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP	4.1	2012/10/29 03:47:55	52.387	-132.351	10.0	QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.0	2012/10/29 02:40:53	52.411	-132.465	10.0	QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS REGION
MAP	5.3	2012/10/29 02:22:44	0.922	98.432	54.5	NIAS REGION, INDONESIA
MAP	4.6	2012/10/29 01:49:02	52.491	-131.953	10.3	QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.7	2012/10/29 01:40:37	67.623	-162.719	17.1	NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP	3.2	2012/10/29 00:30:23	58.864	-137.615	14.1	SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA
MAP	4.3	2012/10/29 00:26:50	52.306	-132.130	10.1	QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.1	2012/10/29 00:18:51	52.637	-130.987	10.0	HECATE STRAIT REGION, CANADA

…………………………………………….

6.4 magnitude aftershock hits south of Haida Gwaii after 7.7 earthquake; no tsunami alert issued

Second largest earthquake to hit Canada since 1949

Canadian Press

Map locates a violent earthquake measuring 7.7 which jolted British Columbia’s north-central coast Saturday night, frightening residents and forcing many to temporarily leave their homes for higher ground ahead of a possible tsunami.

Photograph by: Sean Vokey , Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — The Haida Gwaii region continues to feel the aftershocks of a violent earthquake measuring 7.7 that jolted British Columbia’s north-central coast Saturday night, frightening residents and forcing many to temporarily leave their homes for higher ground ahead of a possible tsunami.

The largest, a 6.4 magnitude tremor, struck Sunday afternoon, 136 kilometers south of Masset. There have been over 40 aftershocks in the area.

Tsunami warnings were issued for the North Coast Saturday, the Haida Gwaii islands, parts of the central B.C. coast, the coast of Alaska and as far away as Hawaii.

Early Sunday morning the warnings were downgraded to advisory status, meaning evacuations were no longer necessary, and they were cancelled altogether a few hours later.

Residents near the centre of the quake said the violent jolting lasted for up to a minute, but no injuries or major damage had been reported.

Carsten Ginsburg, who lives in the small community of Bella Coola southeast of Prince Rupert, said the quake lasted about 40 seconds.

“It shook everything. The electricity went out, the power lines were swinging all over the place and stuff was falling off the shelves.”

Brent Ward, an earth scientist at Simon Fraser University, said the earthquake was the second largest to hit the country since 1949, when another earthquake was recorded in the same area with a magnitude of 8.1.

“It’s an earthquake in an area that gets a lot of earthquakes,” he said. “It’s a tectonically active area.”

Ward said the area is known as the Queen Charlotte fault, where the earth’s plates slide horizontally across each other in a strike-slip action, similar to what happens along California’s San Andreas fault.

“Stresses build up because of that movement, and every so often we get the release of that stress in the form of an earthquake.”

Ward said he wasn’t surprised the tsunami warning was shortlived because the strike-slip movement along the fault doesn’t generally trigger tsunamis.

“To trigger a tsunami you need to have a vertical movement of the sea floor, and it’s that vertical movement that displaces water and triggers the tsunami,” he said. “Because it’s sliding across each other, you’re not generally moving the water.”

In fact, hours after the earthquake, Dennis Sinnott, who works at the Institute of Ocean Sciences, said the largest wave hit Langara Island, a northern Haida Gwaii island, and measured just 69 centimetres.

The quake also set off emergency sirens across the Pacific on the islands of Hawaii, but even as people were moving to higher ground, the warning was called off.

In Alaska, the wave surge was just 10 centimetres, much smaller than officials had been forecasting.

Kelli Kryzanowski, manager of strategic initiatives Emergency Management B.C., said the initial earthquake occurred at 8:04 p.m. inland on Haida Gwaii and was initially recorded at a magnitude of 7.1 but was quickly upgraded to a magnitude of 7.7.

Kryzanowski said small waves generated by the quake, measured at 28 centimetres and 44 centimetres, also hit the northern tip of Vancouver Island.

“What we’re seeing at this time are relatively small sea-level fluctuations,” she said.

B.C. Justice Minister Shirley Bond said there appeared to be little damage from the quake.

“We’re certainly grateful at this point,” said Bond, who spoke to reporters during a late night conference call. “We’re very grateful for that, but we’ll wait until we can actually see the impact.”

After the quake, Ginsburg said he ran home as quickly as he could to see if there was a tsunami warning.

“Which of course there was,” he added.

Ginsburg owns the Float House Inn on the public wharf in Bella Coola and had about six customers celebrating a birthday party.

They all evacuated to about 35 metres above sea level.

“I’m assuming that it’s OK,” he said laughing. “I’m keeping my fingers crossed.”

Bella Coola resident Barb Cornish, 60, said she considers herself a very calm person.

“But I found it quite unnerving,” she told The Canadian Press.

Cornish lives in a log house and had been told that it’s one of the safest places to be in the event of an earthquake.

But she said it sure didn’t feel safe Saturday night.

“The log house swayed and creaked and my light over my kitchen table was swaying, some chimes went off. I stood up and I could feel the undulations under my feet, to the point where I almost got nauseated.”

Geoff Ray said he has felt a lot of earthquakes, but this was the most powerful quake he’s ever experienced in the 37 years he’s lived on Haida Gwaii.

Ray operates the Breezeway Accommodations bed and breakfast in Queen Charlotte City and said the beams of his building were “visibly shaking quite a lot, there were things falling off shelves.”

“(It was) an exciting experience, there’s no doubt about that.”

Lenore Lawrence, a resident of Queen Charlotte City, said the quake was “definitely scary,” adding she wondered if “this could be the big one.”

She thought the shaking lasted more than a minute.

While several things fell off her mantle and broke, she said damage in her home was minimal.

Residents rushed out of their homes in Tofino when the tsunami sirens sounded, but they were allowed to return about two hours after the quake.

Yvette Drews, a resident of Tofino, said she ran out of her home with her two children and mother in-law and drove to a local school when she heard the community’s tsunami sirens go off.

They were told by police that they could return home.

But while on the way home, Drews said she heard the tsunami sirens go off again.

“Well that just freaked me out, hearing the siren and the voice,” she said.

The quake shook Vancouver Island, the Haida Gwaii area, Prince Rupert, Quesnel and Houston, and was even felt in Metro Vancouver and Alaska.

“It’s a good wake-up call for everyone to make sure they have an earthquake kit and a plan if an earthquake like this hits an area that they live,” said Ward.

 

Tsunami threat in Hawaii downgraded to advisory

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off the west coast of Canada, but there were no reports of major damage. Residents in parts of British Columbia were evacuated, but the province appeared to escape the biggest quake in Canada since 1949 largely unscathed.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the powerful temblor hit the Queen Charlotte Islands just after 8 p.m. local time Saturday at a depth of about 3 miles (5 kilometers) and was centered 96 miles (155 kilometers) south of Masset, British Columbia. It was felt across a wide area in British Columbia, both on its Pacific islands and on the mainland.

“It looks like the damage and the risk are at a very low level,” said Shirley Bond, British Columbia’s minister responsible for emergency management said. “We’re certainly grateful.”

The National Weather Service issued a tsunami warning for coastal areas of British Columbia, southern Alaska and Hawaii, but later canceled it for the first two and downgraded it to an advisory for Hawaii.

Gerard Fryer, a senior geologist with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, said the first waves hitting shore in Hawaii were smaller than expected.

Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie said early Sunday that the Aloha State was lucky to avoid more severe surges after the powerful earthquake struck off the coast of Canada. Abercrombie said beaches and harbors are still closed statewide.

“We’re very, very grateful that we can go home tonight counting our blessings,” Abercrombie said.

The weather service also canceled a tsunami advisory for Oregon, leaving northern California as the only spot in North America still under a tsunami advisory.

Dennis Sinnott of the Canadian Institute of Ocean Science said a 69-centimeter (27 inch) wave was recorded off Langara Island on the northeast tip of Haida Gwaii, formerly called the Queen Charlotte Islands. The islands are home to about 5,000 people, many of them members of the Haida aboriginal group. Another 55 centimeter (21 inch) wave hit Winter Harbour on the northeast coast of Vancouver Island.

“It appears to be settling down,” he said. “It does not mean we won’t get another small wave coming through.”

Canada’s largest earthquake since 1700 was an 8.1 magnitude quake on August 22, 1949 off the coast of British Columbia, according to the Canadian government’s Natural Resources website. It occurred on the Queen Charlotte Fault in what the department called Canada’s equivalent of the San Andreas Fault — the boundary between the Pacific and North American plates that runs underwater along the west coast of the Haida Gwaii.

In 1970 a 7.4 magnitude quake struck south of the Haida Gwaii.

The USGS said the temblor shook the waters around British Columbia and was followed by a 5.8 magnitude aftershock after several minutes. Several other aftershocks were reported.

The quake struck 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Sandspit, British Columbia, on the Haida Gwaii archipelago. People in coastal areas were advised to move to higher ground.

Urs Thomas, operator of the Golden Spruce hotel in Port Clements said there was no warning before everything began moving inside and outside the hotel. He said it lasted about three minutes.

“It was a pretty good shock,” Thomas, 59, said. “I looked at my boat outside. It was rocking. Everything was moving. My truck was moving.”

After the initial jolt, Thomas began to check the hotel.

“The fixtures and everything were still swinging,” he said. “I had some picture frames coming down.”

Lenore Lawrence, a resident of Queen Charlotte City on the Haida Gwaii, said the quake was “definitely scary,” adding she wondered if “this could be the big one.” She said the shaking lasted more than a minute. While several things fell off her mantle and broke, she said damage in her home was minimal.

Many on the B.C. mainland said the same.

“I was sitting at my desk on my computer and everything just started to move. It was maybe 20 seconds,” said Joan Girbav, manager of Pacific Inn in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. “It’s very scary. I’ve lived here all my life and I’ve never felt that.”

Residents rushed out of their homes in Tofino, British Columbia on Vancouver Island when the tsunami sirens sounded, but they were allowed to return about two hours after the quake.

In Hawaii, the tsunami warning spurred residents to stock up on essentials at gas stations and grocery stores and sent tourists in beachside hotels to higher floors in their buildings. Bus service into Waikiki was cut off an hour before the first waves, and police in downtown Honolulu shut down a Halloween block party. In Kauai, three schools used as evacuation centers quickly filled to capacity.

Fryer said the largest wave in the first 45 minutes of the tsunami was measured in Maui at more than 5 feet (1.5 meters), about 2 feet (60 centimeters) higher than normal sea levels. No major damage was reported.

In Alaska, the wave or surge was recorded at 4 inches (10 centimeters), much smaller than forecast, said Jeremy Zidek, a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. The quake was felt in Craig and other southeast Alaska communities, but Zidek said there were no immediate reports of damage.

Canada quake triggers Hawaii tsunami scare

By Alan Duke and Holly Yan, CNN

Cars are seen on Ala Wai Blvd. in Honolulu’s Waikiki in Hawaii on Saturday before the arrival of the first tsunami waves.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: the largest wave was about 2.5 feet above ambient sea level
• NEW: Tsunami advisory lifted
• Hawaii evacuations are lifted
• The tsunami was caused by a magnitude 7.7 earthquake in western Canada

(CNN) — A tsunami warning for Hawaii, triggered by a powerful earthquake in Canada, proved nothing more than a pre-Halloween scare for thousands of people this weekend.

“The tourists are doing their best Chicken Little impressions,” one CNN iReporter in West Maui, Hawaii, wrote early Sunday.

Sirens announced the tsunami warning across Hawaii on Saturday night, as thousands of revelers packed streets in Honolulu for the annual Hallowbaloo festival and many others in costumes headed to Halloween parties.

Restaurants, clubs and the festival immediately shut down and the parties turned into bumper-to-bumper traffic jams as residents headed to higher ground.

Visions of the devastating quake and tsunami that killed thousands in Japan in March 2011 fueled the fright, but the waves proved to be smaller and less powerful than feared.

While the warning said waves could surge between 3 and 6 feet, the largest wave, measured in Kahului on the island of Maui, was about 2.5 feet above ambient sea level, according to Gerard Fryer, senior geophysicist at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

The evacuation orders for coastal residents and the tsunami warning were canceled by 1 a.m. in Hawaii (7 a.m. ET) and a tsunami advisory was put in its place. That advisory was lifted three hours later.

Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle said early Sunday that people who had evacuated could return to their homes. CNN affiliate Hawaii News Now reported that was also the case for coastal residents in various parts of the state.

Earlier, local television showed images of bumper-to-bumper traffic on roads leading from the coast to higher ground. About 80,000 people live in evacuation zones on the island of Oahu, where Honolulu is located.

Read the latest developments in our live blog

Even Hawaiians accustomed to tsunami warnings spared no effort in bracing for the worst.

Honolulu resident Victoria Shioi filled her bathtub with water, set her refrigerator to the coldest setting and gathered candles in case of water or power outages.

“Also backed up my computer and put the external (hard drive) in the waterproof safe,” Shioi said.

The tsunami was spawned by a sizable earthquake in western British Columbia, prompting a local tsunami warning.

“A (magnitude) 7.7 is a big, hefty earthquake — not something you can ignore,” Fryer said. “It definitely would have done some damage if it had been under a city.”

Instead, the quake struck about 139 kilometers (86 miles) south of Masset on British Columbia’s Queen Charlotte Islands. No major damage was reported.

The Alaska Tsunami Warning Center issued a warning for western British Columbia from Vancouver to the southern panhandle of Alaska.

Canadians as far away as Prince Rupert, on mainland British Columbia, felt the quake.

Tanya Simonds said she felt as if her house was “sliding back and forth on mud,” but didn’t see any damage from the tremor.

Shawn Martin was at a movie theater when the quake struck.

“It just felt like the seats were moving. It felt like someone was kicking your seat,” he said.

Martin said more than hundred cars headed toward a popular intersection in the city known for its higher ground.

Thousands of miles across the Pacific, residents in Hawaii did the same.

CNN’s Joe Sutton, Jake Carpenter, Chandler Friedman and Maggie Schneider contributed to this report.

8 minor quakes jolt Surigao del Norte town in a day

INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines – Eight earthquakes, many of which occurred within an hour of each other, were recorded east of Burgos town in Surigao del Norte on Sunday, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said.

A 4.1-magnitude tremor which has a depth of 21 kilometers was felt in the eastern part of Burgos at 6:20 a.m.

At 9:43 a.m., a 4.8-magnitue quake was recorded 137 km east of Burgos at a 62-km depth.

The third earthquake, felt at 9:53 a.m., measured 5.3 and rattled the eastern part of Burgos.

At 10:35 a.m., a 4.5-magnitude quake hit Burgos for the fourth time. It was plotted 118 km east of Burgos with a depth of 71 km.

The fifth tremor, measured 5.5 and located 113 km east of Burgos with a depth of 85 km, occurred at 10:43 a.m.

At 11:04 a.m., a 4.9-magnitude shake was recorded 117 km east of Burgos with a depth of 125 km.

A small earthquake measuring 3.5 magnitude struck at 11:37 a.m. It was located 116 km east of the town with a depth of 62 km.

The eighth earthquake happened at 2:15 p.m. and it measured 4.2-magnitude. It was located 57 km of Burgos and has a depth of 7 km.

B.C. shaken by aftershock following powerful earthquake

Eugene Tanner/AP Visitors and Oahu residents watch the ocean water surge in and out of the Ala Wai Harbor carrying various debris during a tsunami Saturday in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Petti Fong and Graham Slaughter
Staff Reporters

VANCOUVER—The second largest earthquake in Canadian history was still rattling nerves Sunday, with aftershocks off the northern coast of British Columbia.

On Saturday night, a massive 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit about 30 kilometres north of Sandspit, B.C., in the Haida Gwaii islands shortly after 8 p.m. local time, sending tremors north through the island chain and south as far as Metro Vancouver.

It was the largest earthquake to be felt in Canada since an 8.1-magnitude quake in the same region back in 1949.

A surprisingly strong 6.4-magnitude aftershock in the same area shook residents again Sunday afternoon around 2 p.m.

Earthquake expert Brent Ward from Simon Fraser University said he expects aftershocks for days ahead, but generally in the 4- to 5-magnitude range.

“We don’t really understand how to predict earthquakes enough to know if something like this could be an indicator of a larger earthquake in the same vicinity occurring in the future,” Ward said Sunday. “If we get another earthquake that’s greater than 7.7, it wouldn’t be an aftershock, it would be a new earthquake.”

Saturday’s massive quake also caused a sleepless night for a whole section of western North America, watching and waiting for a tsunami warning to pass.

Based on historical records, earthquakes in the area of Saturday evening’s rumblings don’t generally trigger tsunamis, Ward said. But he added that evacuations are a worth the effort because tsunami waves can sweep through coastal communities with devastating consequences.

Neil Goodwin, a fishing lodge manager from Sandspit, was in his living room Saturday night when the rumbling started.

“It was the kind of shaking that if you weren’t holding onto something, you’d be on the floor,” he said. “It wasn’t very violent for probably the first 10 seconds, and then it really amped up.”

As the power cut out, Goodwin, 35, used the flashlight on his cellphone to find his two dogs and escape his house. He didn’t have time to assess the damage or find his cat.

Goodwin drove to one of two hills designated as safety point in tsunami drills, where he stood with his neighbours and watched the waves grow in size and strength.

“Within 10 minutes, pretty much 90 per cent of everyone in town was in one of the two points,” he said.

In Queen Charlotte, Canadian Coast Guard Malcolm Dunderdale spent a sleepless night in the dark after the power cut out within seconds of the shaking, which he said lasted about 30 to 45 seconds.

After gathering his cellphone, mobile radios and general tsunami kits, plus blankets and pillows, Dunderdale said, there was nothing to do but wait.

The first tsunami reached the West Coast at Langara Island, part of Haida Gwaii, at 9:16 p.m., about an hour and a half after the earthquake struck. But the waves caused no damage.

The earthquake also triggered tsunami warnings in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii. The last of the tsunami advisories were lifted Sunday morning.

The biggest waves — about 1.5 metres high — appeared to hit Maui, the Associated Press reported. There were no immediate reports of damage, though one person died in a fatal crash near a road that was closed because of the threat near Oahu’s north shore.

Earthquakes hit California

Robert Kirchgassner
The Celebrity Cafe

While the East Coast is bracing for the onslaught of Hurricane Sandy, southern California is contending with a pair of small earthquakes which struck Sunday.

NBC reported that the tremors measured 3.9 on the Richter scale.

Buildings shook in downtown Los Angeles, but no damages or injuries were reported.
UPI reported that the first quake hit at 12:47 a.m., beginning from a depth of 11 miles. Its epicenter was 66 miles north of San Diego.

The next one occurred at 8:24 a.m., with the epicenter five miles east of Santa Clarita, 24 miles north of Los Angeles.

California was struck by a 3.5 magnitude earthquake a week earlier. It occurred at 1:40 p.m. near the city of Blue Lake, which is over 200 miles east of Sacramento.

Sunday’s quake occurred three hours after a 7.7 magnitude tremor hit the west coast of Canada, which led to a brief tsunami warning in Hawaii.

The Los Angeles Times reported that no warnings were issued for California at that time.

Ark. earthquake felt in Memphis area

An earthquake that registered 3.9 on the Richter Scale hit eastern Arkansas Monday morning, and was felt by several Memphis-area residents as well.

According to the US Geological Survey website, the tremor hit around 7:39 a.m.

The epicenter was about 6 miles from Parkin, Ark., and about 30 miles from Memphis.

Several Memphis residents were chattering almost immediately on social media about the several seconds of tremors that shook Midtown.

“About 8 minutes ago, felt about 8-10 seconds of tremors in midtown,” tweeted @JeffGinMEM around 7:50 a.m. Monday.

Former Jackson resident Jada Love posted on her Facebook, “Did anyone else in Midtown Memphis feel earthquake tremors…?”

Tiffany Renee Daniel responded, “I’m in Southaven and I swear I just felt something too I was just sitting here trying to explain it away.”

Love lives in a fourth-story apartment and said she could hear a low rumbling and felt her couch shake. She said her parents, who are in the Bartlett/Arlington area, did not feel anything.

But Kevin Thompson did at his home in the Rivercrest neighborhood in north Bartlett.

“My wife and I had been awake and talking for a while. We felt an initial boom-rumble, and then the bed was shaking a little. We concluded that it was the kids pounding on the floor upstairs, but we thought it was weird because we had never felt the bed shake like that before,” he said. “A few minutes later, we saw that some of our friends on Facebook talking about the earthquake. That’s when the shaking started to make more sense.”

That experience was similar to what was reported by many residents of the Memphis area.

“A little after 7:30 this morning I felt my house shake and heard a rumbling noise! I thought it was my imagination! Felt better when I heard it really was an earthquake,” said Stacey Alpert of Cordova.

Kevin O’Brien lives just south of Olive Branch. When he felt the tremors Monday morning, at first he thought his cat was somehow shaking the couch.

“It seemed a bit too strong a shake for our smallish cat and my suspicion quickly shifted to earthquake when I saw the Halloween decoration hanging from the dinette light fixture swinging,” he said. “Still, I looked outdoors to confirm that the cat had not snuck into the house.”

Tremors shake up 5 districts

TNN

VIJAYAWADA: Panic spread across several villages in five districts in the state due to mild tremors on Monday. People ran out of their houses when the earth shook for a few seconds. Though no casualties were reported from any of the districts, there was panic in many places in Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, Nalgonda, and Khammam.

There were reports of tremors even at Hayathnagar in Rangareddy district around the same time. The earth quake monitoring centre at Vijayawada termed the incident as ‘very minor’ and said there was nothing to worry about. “It’s common to experience such tremors when the rocky layers of earth make adjustments within themselves,” said RDO S Venkata Rao.

LISS – Live Internet Seismic Server

GSN Stations

These data update automatically every 30 minutes. Last update: October 29, 2012 03:19:30 UTC

Seismograms may take several moments to load. Click on a plot to see larger image.

CU/ANWB, Willy Bob, Antigua and Barbuda

CU/BBGH, Gun Hill, Barbados

CU/BCIP, Isla Barro Colorado, Panama

CU/GRGR, Grenville, Grenada

CU/GRTK, Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands

CU/GTBY, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

CU/MTDJ, Mount Denham, Jamaica

CU/SDDR, Presa de Sabaneta, Dominican Republic

CU/TGUH, Tegucigalpa, Honduras

IC/BJT, Baijiatuan, Beijing, China

IC/ENH, Enshi, China

IC/HIA, Hailar, Neimenggu Province, China

IC/LSA, Lhasa, China

IC/MDJ, Mudanjiang, China

IC/QIZ, Qiongzhong, Guangduong Province, China

IU/ADK, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA

IU/AFI, Afiamalu, Samoa

IU/ANMO, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

IU/ANTO, Ankara, Turkey

IU/BBSR, Bermuda

IU/BILL, Bilibino, Russia

IU/CASY, Casey, Antarctica

IU/CCM, Cathedral Cave, Missouri, USA

IU/CHTO, Chiang Mai, Thailand

IU/COLA, College Outpost, Alaska, USA

IU/COR, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

IU/CTAO, Charters Towers, Australia

IU/DAV,Davao, Philippines

IU/DWPF,Disney Wilderness Preserve, Florida, USA

IU/FUNA,Funafuti, Tuvalu

IU/FURI, Mt. Furi, Ethiopia

IU/GNI, Garni, Armenia

IU/GRFO, Grafenberg, Germany

IU/GUMO, Guam, Mariana Islands

IU/HKT, Hockley, Texas, USA

IU/HNR, Honiara, Solomon Islands

IU/HRV, Adam Dziewonski Observatory (Oak Ridge), Massachusetts, USA

IU/INCN, Inchon, Republic of Korea

IU/JOHN, Johnston Island, Pacific Ocean

IU/KBS, Ny-Alesund, Spitzbergen, Norway

IU/KEV, Kevo, Finland

IU/KIEV, Kiev, Ukraine

IU/KIP, Kipapa, Hawaii, USA

IU/KMBO, Kilima Mbogo, Kenya

IU/KNTN, Kanton Island, Kiribati

IU/KONO, Kongsberg, Norway

IU/KOWA, Kowa, Mali

IU/LCO, Las Campanas Astronomical Observatory, Chile

IU/LSZ, Lusaka, Zambia

IU/LVC, Limon Verde, Chile

IU/MA2, Magadan, Russia

IU/MAJO, Matsushiro, Japan

IU/MAKZ,Makanchi, Kazakhstan

IU/MBWA, Marble Bar, Western Australia

IU/MIDW, Midway Island, Pacific Ocean, USA

IU/MSKU, Masuku, Gabon

IU/NWAO, Narrogin, Australia

IU/OTAV, Otavalo, Equador

IU/PAB, San Pablo, Spain

IU/PAYG Puerto Ayora, Galapagos Islands

IU/PET, Petropavlovsk, Russia

IU/PMG, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

IU/PMSA, Palmer Station, Antarctica

IU/POHA, Pohakaloa, Hawaii

IU/PTCN, Pitcairn Island, South Pacific

IU/PTGA, Pitinga, Brazil

IU/QSPA, South Pole, Antarctica

IU/RAO, Raoul, Kermandec Islands

IU/RAR, Rarotonga, Cook Islands

IU/RCBR, Riachuelo, Brazil

IU/RSSD, Black Hills, South Dakota, USA

IU/SAML, Samuel, Brazil

IU/SBA, Scott Base, Antarctica

IU/SDV, Santo Domingo, Venezuela

IU/SFJD, Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland

IU/SJG, San Juan, Puerto Rico

IU/SLBS, Sierra la Laguna Baja California Sur, Mexico

IU/SNZO, South Karori, New Zealand

IU/SSPA, Standing Stone, Pennsylvania USA

IU/TARA, Tarawa Island, Republic of Kiribati

IU/TATO, Taipei, Taiwan

IU/TEIG, Tepich, Yucatan, Mexico

IU/TIXI, Tiksi, Russia

IU/TRIS, Tristan da Cunha, Atlantic Ocean

IU/TRQA, Tornquist, Argentina

IU/TSUM, Tsumeb, Namibia

IU/TUC, Tucson, Arizona

IU/ULN, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

IU/WAKE, Wake Island, Pacific Ocean

IU/WCI, Wyandotte Cave, Indiana, USA

IU/WVT, Waverly, Tennessee, USA

IU/XMAS, Kiritimati Island, Republic of Kiribati

IU/YAK, Yakutsk, Russia

IU/YSS, Yuzhno Sakhalinsk, Russia

LISS – Live Internet Seismic Server

GSN Stations

These data update automatically every 30 minutes. Last update: November 1, 2012 07:48:55 UTC

Seismograms may take several moments to load. Click on a plot to see larger image.

CU/ANWB, Willy Bob, Antigua and Barbuda

CU/BBGH, Gun Hill, Barbados

CU/BCIP, Isla Barro Colorado, Panama

CU/GRGR, Grenville, Grenada

CU/GRTK, Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands

CU/GTBY, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

CU/MTDJ, Mount Denham, Jamaica

CU/SDDR, Presa de Sabaneta, Dominican Republic

CU/TGUH, Tegucigalpa, Honduras

IC/BJT, Baijiatuan, Beijing, China

IC/ENH, Enshi, China

IC/HIA, Hailar, Neimenggu Province, China

IC/LSA, Lhasa, China

IC/MDJ, Mudanjiang, China

IC/QIZ, Qiongzhong, Guangduong Province, China

IU/ADK, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA

IU/AFI, Afiamalu, Samoa

IU/ANMO, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

IU/ANTO, Ankara, Turkey

IU/BBSR, Bermuda

IU/BILL, Bilibino, Russia

IU/CASY, Casey, Antarctica

IU/CCM, Cathedral Cave, Missouri, USA

IU/CHTO, Chiang Mai, Thailand

IU/COLA, College Outpost, Alaska, USA

IU/COR, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

IU/CTAO, Charters Towers, Australia

IU/DAV,Davao, Philippines

IU/DWPF,Disney Wilderness Preserve, Florida, USA

IU/FUNA,Funafuti, Tuvalu

IU/FURI, Mt. Furi, Ethiopia

IU/GNI, Garni, Armenia

IU/GRFO, Grafenberg, Germany

IU/GUMO, Guam, Mariana Islands

IU/HKT, Hockley, Texas, USA

IU/HNR, Honiara, Solomon Islands

IU/HRV, Adam Dziewonski Observatory (Oak Ridge), Massachusetts, USA

IU/INCN, Inchon, Republic of Korea

IU/JOHN, Johnston Island, Pacific Ocean

IU/KBS, Ny-Alesund, Spitzbergen, Norway

IU/KEV, Kevo, Finland

IU/KIEV, Kiev, Ukraine

IU/KIP, Kipapa, Hawaii, USA

IU/KMBO, Kilima Mbogo, Kenya

IU/KNTN, Kanton Island, Kiribati

IU/KONO, Kongsberg, Norway

IU/KOWA, Kowa, Mali

IU/LCO, Las Campanas Astronomical Observatory, Chile

IU/LSZ, Lusaka, Zambia

IU/LVC, Limon Verde, Chile

IU/MA2, Magadan, Russia

IU/MAJO, Matsushiro, Japan

IU/MAKZ,Makanchi, Kazakhstan

IU/MBWA, Marble Bar, Western Australia

IU/MIDW, Midway Island, Pacific Ocean, USA

IU/MSKU, Masuku, Gabon

IU/NWAO, Narrogin, Australia

IU/OTAV, Otavalo, Equador

IU/PAB, San Pablo, Spain

IU/PAYG Puerto Ayora, Galapagos Islands

IU/PET, Petropavlovsk, Russia

IU/PMG, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

IU/PMSA, Palmer Station, Antarctica

IU/POHA, Pohakaloa, Hawaii

IU/PTCN, Pitcairn Island, South Pacific

IU/PTGA, Pitinga, Brazil

IU/QSPA, South Pole, Antarctica

IU/RAO, Raoul, Kermandec Islands

IU/RAR, Rarotonga, Cook Islands

IU/RCBR, Riachuelo, Brazil

IU/RSSD, Black Hills, South Dakota, USA

IU/SAML, Samuel, Brazil

IU/SBA, Scott Base, Antarctica

IU/SDV, Santo Domingo, Venezuela

IU/SFJD, Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland

IU/SJG, San Juan, Puerto Rico

IU/SLBS, Sierra la Laguna Baja California Sur, Mexico

IU/SNZO, South Karori, New Zealand

IU/SSPA, Standing Stone, Pennsylvania USA

IU/TARA, Tarawa Island, Republic of Kiribati

IU/TATO, Taipei, Taiwan

IU/TEIG, Tepich, Yucatan, Mexico

IU/TIXI, Tiksi, Russia

IU/TRIS, Tristan da Cunha, Atlantic Ocean

IU/TRQA, Tornquist, Argentina

IU/TSUM, Tsumeb, Namibia

IU/TUC, Tucson, Arizona

IU/ULN, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

IU/WAKE, Wake Island, Pacific Ocean

IU/WCI, Wyandotte Cave, Indiana, USA

IU/WVT, Waverly, Tennessee, USA

IU/XMAS, Kiritimati Island, Republic of Kiribati

IU/YAK, Yakutsk, Russia

IU/YSS, Yuzhno Sakhalinsk, Russia

**********************************************************************************************************

Volcanic Activity

Tjörnes Fracture Zone volcano (North of Iceland): seismic swarm continues with no end in sight

 Volcano Discovery

BY: T

Location of quakes (Icelandic Met Office)

Time and depth of quakes at the TFZ

The earthquake swarm in the Tjörnes Fracture Zone north off Iceland continues into its 10th day. After a decline in intensity during 25-28 Oct, the frequency of quakes has again picked up. There are often more than 100 quakes a day including some above magnitude 3. The Icelandic Met Office maintains a warning for a possible larger quake in the area.

• All news about: Tjörnes Fracture Zone volcano
• Information about: Tjörnes Fracture Zone volcano

Poás Volcano rumbles, spits ashes

 – By L. Arias

Access to one of Costa Rica’s most popular national parks remains open to tourists.

Experts from the National Seismological Network are keeping the volcano under surveillance. Courtesy of RSN

The Poas Volcano early Sunday awoke residents of the province of Alajuela with a strong rumble.

At about 1 a.m., the volcano’s crater ejected mud and ash more than 500 meters into the air. Ashes traveled hundreds of meters around the national park, rangers reported.

Although the volcano is frequently active, this kind of strong explosion has not been recorded since 2006. Experts said the activity was normal, but they will continue monitoring the volcano.

Poás Volcano National Park will remain open to tourists while experts determine if there is any risk to visitors.

***********************************************************************************************************

Extreme Temperatures/ Weather

Cold snap hits France with first signs of winter

Published on Oct 28, 2012 by Euronews

http://www.euronews.com/ “C’est l’hiver avant l’heure;” or ‘it is winter before it should be’, was one local person’s reaction to heavy snow falls which have hit eastern parts of France.

The cold snap brought power cuts with up to 50,000 households in the Isere region in the Alps deprived of electricity.

Authorities have issued an “Orange” warning, the second highest alert, and rescue services have been fully mobilised.

Up to 50 centimetres of snow fell in some parts making driving hazardous. An icy wind and fresh falls of snow on top of the ice only added to the dangerous conditions.

Many drivers were forced to abandon their cars while emergency services were called to clear trees from roads felled in the high winds, with gusts blowing up to 130 kilometres per hour recorded in one area.

Parts of the south of France were the worst hit by the high winds where on the riviera two people have been reported missing.

A search has been mounted for a 12-year-old boy on the island of Porquerolles. Emergency services say his bike has been found. A 26-year-old windsurfer is also missing.

In the port of Marseille the ferry Napoleon Bonaparte was damaged when strong winds broke the ship’s moorings.

The hull smashed against the dock flooding two of its watertight compartments.

Cold snap to sweep through China

English People Daily Online

© Xinhua/Lin Hong
Citizens wearing thick clothes walk on a street in Changchun, capital of northeast China’s Jilin Province, Oct. 28, 2012. A cold front swept the province on Sunday, lowering the temperature nine to 11 degrees centigrade in most parts of the province and bringing the lowest temperature down to less than zero.

Beijing — China’s central and eastern regions will experience temperature drops in coming days, while the southern parts will receive moderate to heavy rain, the national meteorological watchdog forecast Sunday.

Strong wind will make temperatures in northeastern regions fall by six to ten degrees Celsius on Sunday. A blast of cold air is forecast to sweep across the central and eastern parts from Monday, the National Meteorological Center said on its website.

The center also forecast that fog will shroud parts of Hubei, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces on Sunday morning, reducing visibility to less than 1,000 meters.

Over the next three days, parts of South China will see moderate to heavy rain, and some regions may experience torrential rain, the center said.

Son-Tinh, the 23rd tropical storm of the year, strengthened to a super-typhoon on Saturday night and was located 260 km southeast of Vietnam’s Thanh Hoa at 5 a.m. Sunday.

Son-Tinh is expected to move northwestward at a speed of 10 to 15 km per hour and make landfall in Vietnam’s northern coastal regions on Sunday night, the center said.

Sweden braces for week of heavy snow

Ice Age Now

Meteorologists predict heavy snowfall throughout the country and have issued a nationwide class 1 warning.

“There may be large quantities of snow,” explained Lisa Frost of the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, SMHI.

“As it’s the first snow and it’s quite early in the season, we’re issuing the warning – especially as some people haven’t changed to their winter tyres yet.”

Throughout Monday, the Dalarna and Värmland counties have been slammed by a lengthy snow storm, which has left 10 cm (4 inches) of snow. SMHI forecast a further 10 cm before Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) is already fighting the blizzards.

The season’s lowest temperature was recorded on Sunday night with Nattavaara in far northern Sweden hitting -22.1C (-6F).

Surprise October snow hits central Germany – Suspected record

TheLocal.de

Winter appeared overnight in many parts of Germany on Saturday with unseasonal heavy snow fall and subzero temperatures hitting central and southern areas.

Meteorologists say this is the first time for decades that snow has fallen on low lying areas in October. More flurries are expected over the weekend.

As much as 17cm of snow fell overnight in Thuringen forest in central Germany – a suspected record for this time of year.

Heavy snow also fell on Bavaria, Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and Saarland, with further flurries expected on Saturday in Leipzig, Dresden and Munich, according to the DWD.

“This happens maybe once every 30 or 40 years,” meteorologist Christoph Hartmann of the German weather service (DWD) told Die Welt newspaper on Saturday, referring to the unusual snowfall in October.

The severe drop in temperature – by 20 degrees within a week – also occurs “very, very seldom,” he added.

With winter’s first onslaught, fallen trees blocked train lines between Leipzig and Munich, causing delays and diversions to the ICE high speed rail network.

A further 10-15 cm of snow is expected overnight in the Alps and in the Ore Mountains in Saxony, where DWD said temperatures could fall as low as minus ten.

Austria – Rare October snow catches drivers by surprise

Ice Age Now

Only twice before since records began has there been snow in October in all the nine provinces of Austria, on the 31 October 1941 as well as in the night of 23 and 24 October 2003.

Austrian weather expert Alexander Orlik from the central weather institute ZAMG said: “It is true the snow is very early this year and that is an indication that it will be a long hard winter, but not proof.”

The early snow caught many drivers unaware who had not yet changed over to winter tyres – causing problems on the roads. The legal deadline to have winter tyres is 1 November in Austria.

In Carinthia parts of the region were left without electricity as the snow fell as a result of heavy snow meaning trees toppled onto the lines .

Early Snow Pummels West Virginia

By KRIS MAHER

Parts of West Virginia were digging out from up to three feet of snow dumped in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, a deluge that cut power to hundreds of thousands of residents and shut down main highways.

The thick blanket of snow at higher elevations across the ridges of the Appalachian Mountains, including in parts of Maryland and Pennsylvania, also brought concerns that rivers and creeks in low-lying areas could flood later in the week as the snow melts, with temperatures expected to reach 60 degrees. Falling trees and storm-related traffic accidents claimed the lives of three people in Maryland, three in Pennsylvania and one in West Virginia, state officials said Tuesday.

Close to 300,000 West Virginia residents were without power Tuesday afternoon, as high winds and heavy snow snapped branches and downed power lines, and officials expected the number to rise. Outages at several utilities had left some areas without access to water, and officials were sending out trucks to deliver bottled water.

“West Virginia continues to be hard hit,” said Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, a Democrat. “Right now, my main focus is on life safety, power restoration and critical infrastructure.…We are doing everything we can to help the folks in need.”

More than 30 of West Virginia’s 55 counties had snow, with the heaviest snowfall at higher elevations, said Liz Sommerville, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Charleston, W.Va. Bowden, above 3,000 feet, recorded 24 inches by early Tuesday, compared with 16 inches in Beckley, elevation 2,300 feet, and 9 inches in the capital of Charleston, elevation 980 feet.

“Trees are coming down. I got a feeling that a lot of weaker structures are going to come down,” said Gary Berti, of Davis, W.Va., where 30 inches of snow had fallen by Tuesday afternoon. Mr. Berti, 54 years old, said all the stores along the main street of Davis were closed Tuesday and only pickup trucks with four-wheel drive were braving secondary roads. Restaurants without power were making food for rescue workers using gas stoves, he said: “They’re cooking everything they’ve got because they know they’re going to lose it.”

Snow was expected to keep falling on mountainous areas through Wednesday, and blizzard warnings remained in effect in more than a dozen counties Tuesday. At lower elevations, snow was expected to turn to rain by Tuesday night.

The West Virginia Department of Transportation reported accidents on three major highways in the state and said fallen trees and power lines were complicating efforts to clear roads. The agency urged residents to stay home. Marshall University canceled classes at various campuses around the state, and West Virginia State University closed for the day.

Western Maryland recorded two feet of snow, and blizzard warnings remained in effect Tuesday. While eastern areas of the state endured some flooding, officials were bracing for worse, said Ed McDonough, a spokesman for the Maryland Emergency Management Agency. More than 300,000 people in the state were without power Tuesday, with many outages in the Baltimore area. About 50 people were evacuated late Monday from the town of Crisfield, which sits on the Chesapeake Bay, after floodwaters spilled into homes.

Sandy’s Swath

• East Coast Grapples With Sandy’s Fallout
• New Jersey Sorts Through Wreckage
• Power Outages May Last Over a Week
• Industry Adapts Quickly to Storm
• Travelers Face Nightmare
• Storm Prompts Shifts in Voting Procedures
• Heroes Shine Amid Storm’s Destruction
• What Happens to All Those Swamped Cars?
• Sandy Exacts Toll on the Economy
• Questions Cloud Market Reopening
• Filing a Claim? Here’s What to Do
• New York Transit System Crippled by Floods
• 911 System Swamped
• Jason Gay: Forget Parades—This Is the Real New York City
• After Blaze, Breezy Point Bands Together

In Pennsylvania, 1.25 million residents remained without power Tuesday. Gov. Tom Corbett warned that the central part of the state could see minor flooding, but far less than what storms last year brought to the region. The highest point in the state, Mount Davis, received 9 inches of snow, with several more inches expected. There is “nothing of major significance at this point in time that we have great concern about,” Gov. Corbett said at a midday news briefing.

Pennsylvania officials planned to have a shelter open in West Chester, Pa., to house 1,300 people from New Jersey, and another in East Stroudsburg, Pa., to aid 500 people displaced in New York. In addition, Pennsylvania officials were providing 35 ambulances and a large vehicle to transport people, as well as providing a rescue team requested by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to New Jersey.

—Jennifer Corbett Dooren contributed to this article.

31.10.2012

Extreme Weather

USA

State of Alaska, [Novarupta volcan]

Extreme Weather in USA on Wednesday, 31 October, 2012 at 19:24 (07:24 PM) UTC.

Description

Strong winds swept ash from the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century into the atmosphere Tuesday, creating a haze over Alaska’s Kodiak Island and prompting the National Weather Service to issue flight warnings for the area. Powerful northwest winds funneled through the mountains at the Katmai Bay, sending ash around 4,000 feet into the sky southeast toward Kodiak. Brian Hagenbuch, general meteorologist at the National Weather Service Anchorage office, was the first to spot the ash. “When the sun came up yesterday, I noticed it looked foggy on the Larson Bay camera,” one of many cameras set up by the FAA to monitor weather conditions. But as the sun continued to rise, he noted the fog looked smoggy and brown. Around 10 a.m., Hagenbuch checked the visible satellite and found a “milky, dome-shaped plume.” He then double-checked on infra-red equipment that is used specifically to spot ash even through cloud cover, which verified his findings. Having confirmed his suspicions, Hagenbuch put together a “Significant Meterological Event” warning, called a SIGMET, to alert pilots of the hazardous conditions in the area. Hagenbuch says that very strong winds “from time to time” will stir up the ash from Novarupta. The Novarupta volcanic eruption of June 6, 1912, occurred in what is now the Katmai National Park and Preserve. For three days, the volcano spewed 100 times more material than the Mount St. Helens eruption, shooting plumes 20 miles into the air and burying the valley downwind in over 500 feet of ash and volcanic rock. Four years later, when botanist Robert Griggs visited the valley, steam still poured from vents across the valley, prompting the crew to name it The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. Hagenbuch will update, and possibly cancel, the SIGMET on the National Weather Service’s website Wednesday. Hagenbuch notes that there is “much less” ash in the air than Tuesday.

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Storms /  Flooding / Landslides

Active tropical storm system(s)
Name of storm system	Location	Formed	Last update	Last category	Course	Wind Speed	Gust	Wave	Source	Details
Rosa (EP17)	Pacific Ocean – East	30.10.2012	31.10.2012	Hurricane V	275 °	743 km/h	93 km/h	2.44 m	NOAA NHC

Tropical Storm data

Share: Share on gmail Share on wordpress Share on facebook Share on twitter More Sharing Services 2 Storm name: Rosa (EP17) Area: Pacific Ocean – East Start up location: N 14° 24.000, W 116° 6.000 Start up: 30th October 2012 Status: Active Track long: 60.60 km Top category.: Report by: NOAA NHC Useful links: Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale FEMA – How To Prepare for a Hurricane Effects of a Hurricane USA – National Hurricane Center

Past track Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave Pressure Source 31st Oct 2012 05:22:06 N 14° 30.000, W 117° 0.000 7 74 93 Tropical Storm 275 8 1003 MB NOAA NHC 31st Oct 2012 10:48:56 N 14° 30.000, W 117° 18.000 7 743 93 Hurricane V. 275 8 1003 MB NOAA NHC Current position Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave feet Pressure Source 31st Oct 2012 10:48:56 N 14° 30.000, W 117° 18.000 7 743 93 Tropical Depression 275 ° 8 1003 MB NOAA NHC Forecast track Date Time Position Category Wind km/h Gust km/h Source 02nd Nov 2012 06:00:00 N 14° 42.000, W 118° 48.000 Tropical Depression 65 83 NOAA NHC 03rd Nov 2012 06:00:00 N 14° 30.000, W 119° 30.000 Tropical Depression 56 74 NOAA NHC 04th Nov 2012 06:00:00 N 14° 30.000, W 120° 0.000 Tropical Depression 46 65 NOAA NHC 05th Nov 2012 06:00:00 N 15° 0.000, W 120° 30.000 Tropical Depression 37 56 NOAA NHC

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Crew member dead, captain missing after Canadian-built replica of HMS Bounty sinks

Paul Koring and Jane Taber
The Globe and Mail

Washington – One crew member has died and the captain is missing in high seas and raging winds after the Canadian-built replica of HMS Bounty was abandoned and sank Monday morning.

U.S. Coast Guard Jayhawk helicopters rescued 14 others from life rafts in a dramatic dawn rescue about 150 kilometres off Cape Hatteras, N.C.

As the crew abandoned the sinking ship, struggling to get into life rafts before dawn, three were tossed into the sea by waves sweeping over the stricken vessel. “One of those managed to get to a raft, but not the other two,” U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Lieutenant-Commander Jamie Frederick told The Globe and Mail at 13:30 pm.

The dead crew member, 42-year-old Claudene Christian, was found unresponsive in the water on Monday evening. The Coast Guard said she was taken to a hospital in Elizabeth City, where she was later pronounced dead.

Rescuers continued to search for the missing captain of HMS Bounty, 63-year-old Robin Walbridge.

The Coast Guard says Captain Walbridge and Ms. Christian were able to put on survival suits designed to keep them afloat and protect them from chilly waters for 15 hours.

Helicopters were used in the search and two Coast Guard cutters have also gone out to sea to help search.

“We’re throwing all the assets we have out there so that we can keep searching for these folks,” Cdmr Frederick said.

Earlier he confirmed that “14 are safe on shore.”

Storm damages crops in Haiti, fueling food price woes

Susana Ferreira
Reuters

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  © The Associated Press/Dieu Nalio Chery
  Many homes remain underwater in southern Haiti.

  Huge crop losses in southern Haiti raise famine worries

• Flooding raises specter of cholera
• Crop losses in Cuba, Jamaica as well

Port-au-Prince – As Hurricane Sandy barreled toward the U.S. East Coast on Monday, the full extent of the storm’s havoc on Haiti was just beginning to emerge.

Extensive damage to crops throughout the southern third of the country, as well as the high potential for a spike in cases of cholera and other water-borne diseases, could mean Haiti will see the deadliest effects of Sandy in the coming days and weeks.

Haiti reported the highest death toll in the Caribbean, as swollen rivers and landslides claimed at least 52 lives, according to the country’s Civil Protection office. More than three days of constant rain left roads and bridges heavily damaged, cutting off access to several towns and a key border crossing with the Dominican Republic.

“The economy took a huge hit,” Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe told Reuters. He also said Sandy’s impact was devastating, “even by international standards,” adding that Haiti was planning an appeal for emergency aid.

“Most of the agricultural crops that were left from Hurricane Isaac were destroyed during Sandy,” he said, “so food security will be an issue.”

Sandy also destroyed banana crops in eastern Jamaica as well as decimating the coffee crop in eastern Cuba.

But the widespread loss of crops and supplies in the south, both for commercial growers and subsistence farmers, is what has Haitian authorities and aid organizations had worried about most.

The past several months have seen a series of nationwide protests and general strikes over the rising cost of living. Even before Hurricane Sandy hit, residents complained that food prices were too high.

© The Associated Press/Dieu Nalio Chery
Carmene Chales, left, walks with Anes Michaelange and one-year-old Alexandra Alexandre through an area where Hurricane Sandy triggered flooding in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012.

Peasant Crop Losses

A rise in food prices in Haiti triggered violent demonstrations and political instability in April 2008. Jean Debalio Jean-Jacques, the Ministry of Agriculture’s director for the southern department, said he worried that the massive crop loss “could aggravate the situation.”

“The storm took everything away,” said Jean-Jacques. “Everything the peasants had in reserve – corn, tubers – all of it was devastated. Some people had already prepared their fields for winter crops and those were devastated.”

In Abricots on Haiti’s southwestern tip, the community was still recovering from the effects of 2010’s Hurricane Tomas and a recent dry spell when Sandy hit.

“We’ll have famine in the coming days,” said Abricots Mayor Kechner Toussaint. “It’s an agricultural disaster.”

The main staples of the local diet, bananas and breadfruit, were ripped out by winds and ruined by heavy rains.

In the southwestern Grand Anse department, a boat that regularly comes from Port-au-Prince to deliver supplies and pick up produce to sell in the capital had not come in more than a week because of the storm. The cost of basic things, like fuel, had already jumped.

In Camp-Perrin, a mountainous region in the southwest peninsula where Sandy’s first fatality was recorded after a woman tried to cross a swollen river, coffee planters lamented the loss of a harvest they were weeks away from collecting.

“Coffee is the bank account of the peasants,” said Maurice Jean-Louis, a planter and head of a coffee growers’ cooperative in Camp-Perrin. Rain flooded many storage areas as well, soaking coffee beans that were set aside for export. He called the damage “incalculable.”

Cholera in the Capital

In the capital, Port-au-Prince, Sandy destroyed concrete homes and tent camps alike, where 370,000 victims of the 2010 earthquake are still living. Haitian authorities said 18,000 families were left homeless in the disaster.

Aid organizations began reporting a sharp rise in suspected cholera cases in several departments, with at least 86 new cases alone coming from Port-au-Prince’s earthquake survivor camps, according to Dr. Juan Carlos Gustavo Alonso of the Pan American Health Organization. Many communities are still cut off and only accessible by helicopter, he said, so the broader rise in cholera was “still too early to tell.”

Since October 2010, a cholera outbreak has sickened almost 600,000 people and killed more than 7,400 in Haiti.

Both the Haitian state and international aid organizations distributed food, water and other items to affected camps and communities throughout the weekend, including personal distributions by President Michel Martelly.

“These stocks are running dangerously low,” said George Ngwa, spokesman for OCHA, a humanitarian coordinating body in Haiti. “After Tropical Storm Isaac in August, these stocks have not been replenished. What we’re doing is scraping the bottom.”

Powerful storm kills at least 30 in Philippines, Vietnam

By Jethro Mullen, CNN

Boats sit in the Beilun River, which separates China and Vietnam, on Tuesday, October 30. Tropical Storm Son-Tinh was moving northeast along the northern Vietnamese coast on Monday after tearing the roofs off hundreds of houses and breaching flood defenses overnight, the state-run Vietnam News Agency reported.

A Chinese soldier hands over a Vietnamese baby he rescued from the flood to his mother at a waterlogged market near the China-Vietnam on Monday.

A man stands on a flooded road in Sanya, China, on Sunday, October 28.

An uprooted tree crushes a car in China on Sunday.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• More than a thousand rescue workers have been deployed in Vietnam
• Helicopters are on standby to search for an oil rig adrift from its towboats
• Tropical Storm Son-Tinh had already killed at least 27 people in the Philippines

Have you been affected by Tropical Storm Son-Tinh? If so, share your images and footage with CNN iReport, but please stay safe.

Hong Kong (CNN) — As Hurricane Sandy lashes the East Coast of the United States with wind and rain, Southeast Asia is dealing with the trail of death and damage from a powerful storm that has killed at least 30 people in the region over the past few days.

Superstorm Sandy threatens ‘catastrophe’ of a lifetime

Tropical Storm Son-Tinh was moving northeast along the northern Vietnamese coast on Monday after tearing the roofs off hundreds of houses and breaching flood defenses overnight, the state-run Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported.

Son-Tinh was at typhoon level when it thumped into northern Vietnam late Sunday with winds as strong as 133 kilometers per hour (83 mph). It left three people dead and two injured, according to an initial estimate from the Office of the National Search and Rescue Committee reported by (VNA).

More than a 1,300 rescue workers and soldiers have been deployed to work with local authorities on search and rescue efforts in the aftermath of the storm, VNA said.

Helicopters were on standby for a search and rescue mission for an oil rig with 35 people on board that became disconnected from its towboats miles out at sea amid strong waves generated by the storm, according to VNA.

And five people were missing Sunday after winds from Son-Tinh sank an engineering vessel near a cargo terminal in Sanya, a city on the southern Chinese island of Hainan, China’s state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

Son-Tinh is expected to gradually weaken over the course of Monday, regional weather agencies said. At least 260,000 people in Vietnam had been relocated to safer areas as it approached Sunday.

The storm had already killed 27 people when it swept across the central Philippines during the second half of last week, causing flash floods and landslides, according to the Philippine National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. Nine people remain missing, the council said Monday.

East Asia is buffeted for several months a year by heavy storms that roll in from the western Pacific Ocean. In August, a big typhoon, named Bolaven, killed more than 60 people on the Korean peninsula.

Storm Barrels Through Region, Leaving Destructive Path

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  Brendan Smialowski/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

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  Mark Lennihan/Associated Press

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  Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

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  Damon Winter/The New York Times

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  Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

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  Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

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  Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

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  Justin Lane/European Pressphoto Agency

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  Kirsten Luce for The New York Times.

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  Frank Franklin Ii/Associated Press

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  Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times

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  Michael Kirby Smith for The New York Times

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  Michael Kirby Smith for The New York Times

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  Michael Kirby Smith for The New York Times

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  Spencer Platt/Getty Images

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  Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

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  Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

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  Marcus Yam for The New York Times

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  Charles Sykes/Associated Press

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  Michael Nagle for The New York Times

The mammoth and merciless storm made landfall near Atlantic City around 8 p.m., with maximum sustained winds of about 80 miles per hour, the National Hurricane Center said. That was shortly after the center had reclassified the storm as a post-tropical cyclone, a scientific renaming that had no bearing on the powerful winds, driving rains and life-threatening storm surge expected to accompany its push onto land.

The storm had unexpectedly picked up speed as it roared over the Atlantic Ocean on a slate-gray day and went on to paralyze life for millions of people in more than a half-dozen states, with extensive evacuations that turned shorefront neighborhoods into ghost towns. Even the superintendent of the Statue of Liberty left to ride out the storm at his mother’s house in New Jersey; he said the statue itself was “high and dry,” but his house in the shadow of the torch was not.

The wind-driven rain lashed sea walls and protective barriers in places like Atlantic City, where the Boardwalk was damaged as water forced its way inland. Foam was spitting, and the sand gave in to the waves along the beach at Sandy Hook, N.J., at the entrance to New York Harbor. Water was thigh-high on the streets in Sea Bright, N.J., a three-mile sand-sliver of a town where the ocean joined the Shrewsbury River.

“It’s the worst I’ve seen,” said David Arnold, watching the storm from his longtime home in Long Branch, N.J. “The ocean is in the road, there are trees down everywhere. I’ve never seen it this bad.”

In New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s office said late Monday night that at least five deaths in the state were attributable to the storm. At least three of those involved falling trees. About 7 p.m., a tree fell on a house in Queens, killing a 30-year-old man, the city police said. About the same time, two boys, ages 11 and 13, were killed in North Salem in Westchester County, when a tree fell on the house they were in, according to the State Police.

In Morris County, N.J., a man and a woman were killed when a tree fell on their car Monday evening, The Associated Press reported.

In Manhattan, NYU Langone Medical Center’s backup power system failed Monday evening, forcing the evacuation of patients to other facilities.

In a Queens beach community, nearly 200 firefighters were battling a huge blaze early on Tuesday morning that tore through more than 50 tightly-packed homes in an area where heavy flooding slowed responders.

Earlier, a construction crane atop one of the tallest buildings in the city came loose and dangled 80 stories over West 57th Street, across the street from Carnegie Hall.

Soon power was going out and water was rushing in. Waves topped the sea wall in the financial district in Manhattan, sending cars floating downstream. West Street, along the western edge of Lower Manhattan, looked like a river. The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, known officially as the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel in memory of a former governor, flooded “from end to end,” the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said, hours after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York ordered it closed to traffic.Officials said water also seeped into seven subway tunnels under the East River.

Joseph J. Lhota, the transit authority chairman, called the storm the most devastating disaster in the 108-year history of the subway system.

“We could be fishing out our windows tomorrow,” said Garnett Wilcher, a barber who lives in the Hammells Houses, a block from the ocean in the Rockaways in Queens. Still, he said he felt safe at home. Pointing to neighboring apartment houses in the city-run housing project, he said, “We got these buildings for jetties.”

Hurricane-force winds extended up to 175 miles from the center of the storm; tropical-storm-force winds spread out 485 miles from the center. Forecasters said tropical-storm-force winds could stretch all the way north to Canada and all the way west to the Great Lakes. Snow was expected in some states.

Businesses and schools were closed; roads, bridges and tunnels were closed; and more than 13,000 airline flights were canceled. Even the Erie Canal was shut down.

Subways were shut down from Boston to Washington, as were Amtrak and the commuter rail lines. About 1,000 flights were canceled at each of the three major airports in the New York City area. Philadelphia International Airport had 1,200 canceled flights, according to FlightAware, a data provider in Houston. And late Monday night, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said cabs had been instructed to get off New York City roads.

A replica of the H.M.S. Bounty, a tall ship built for the 1962 movie “Mutiny on the Bounty” starring Marlon Brando and used in the recent “Pirates of the Caribbean” series, sank off the North Carolina coast. The Coast Guard said the 180-foot three-masted ship went down near the Outer Banks after being battered by 18-foot-high seas and thrashed by 40-m.p.h. winds. The body of one crew member, Claudene Christian, 42, was recovered. Another crew member remained missing.

Delaware banned cars and trucks from state roadways for other than “essential personnel.”

“The most important thing right now is for people to use common sense,” Gov. Jack Markell said. “We didn’t want people out on the road going to work and not being able to get home again.”

By early evening, the storm knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes, stores and office buildings. Consolidated Edison said that as of 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, 634,000 customers in New York City and Westchester County were without power. Con Edison, fearing damage to its electrical equipment, shut down power pre-emptively in sections of Lower Manhattan on Monday evening, and then, at 8:30 p.m., an unplanned failure, probably caused by flooding in substations, knocked out power to most of Manhattan below Midtown, about 250,000 customers. Later, an explosion at a Con Ed substation on East 14th Street knocked out power to another 250,000 customers.

In New Jersey, more than two million customers were without power as of 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, and in Connecticut nearly 500,000.

President Obama, who returned to the White House and met with top advisers, said Monday that the storm would disrupt the rhythms of daily life in the states it hit. “Transportation is going to be tied up for a long time,” he said, adding that besides flooding, there would probably be widespread power failures. He said utility companies had lined up crews to begin making repairs. But he cautioned that it could be slow going.

“The fact is, a lot of these emergency crews are not going to get into position to start restoring power until some of these winds die down,” the president said. He added, “That may take several days.”

Forecasters attributed the power of the storm to a convergence of weather systems. As the hurricane swirled north in the Atlantic and then pivoted toward land, a wintry storm was heading toward it from the west, and cold air was blowing south from the Arctic. The hurricane left more than 60 people dead in the Caribbean before it began crawling toward the Northeast.

“The days ahead are going to be very difficult, Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland said. “There will be people who die and are killed in this storm,” he said.

Alex Sosnowski, a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather, said potentially damaging winds would continue on Tuesday from Illinois to the Carolinas — and as far north as Maine — as the storm barreled toward the eastern Great Lakes.

Mr. Cuomo, who ordered many of the most heavily used bridges and tunnels in New York City closed, warned that the surge from Hurricane Sandy could go two feet higher than that associated with Tropical Storm Irene last year. The PATH system, buses and the Staten Island Ferry system were also suspended.

Mr. Lhota, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, has said he expected to restore at least some service about 12 hours after the storm ended. But possible flooding within the subway system could prevent a full-scale reopening.

The storm headed toward land with weather that was episodic: a strong gust of wind one minute, then mist. More wind. Thin sheets of rain dancing down the street. Then, for a moment, nothing. The sky lightened. Then another blast of rain. Then more wind.

The day brought a giddiness to schoolchildren who had the day off and to grown-ups who were fascinated by the rough, rising water. Some went surfing, discounting the danger. Felquin Piedra, 38, rode his Jet Ski from Queens to Lower Manhattan.

“I love the waves,” Mr. Piedra yelled from New York Harbor. “The water is warm. I’ve jumped in several times.”

But even when landfall was still hours away, there was no holding back the advance guard of the storm — fast-moving bands of rain and punishing winds.

It added up to devastation. Driving through places like Pompton Plains, N.J., late Monday afternoon was like an X-Games contest for drivers. They had to do tree-limb slaloms on side streets and gunned their engines anxiously as they passed wind funnels of leaves swirling on highways.

On City Island, off the Bronx mainland, Cheryl Brinker sprayed “Sandy Stay Away” on her boarded-up art studio, expanding a collage she started during Tropical Storm Irene last year. But by midafternoon, nearby Ditmars Street was under as much as five feet of water and Steve Van Wickler said the water had cracked the cement in his cellar. “It’s like a little river running in my basement,” he said. “There are cracks and leaks everywhere.”

In some places, caravans of power-company trucks traveled largely empty roads; Public Service Electric and Gas said that 600 line workers and 526 tree workers had arrived from across the country, but could not start the repairs and cleanup until the wind had subsided, perhaps not until Wednesday.

They will see a landscape that, in many places, was remade by the storm. In Montauk, at the end of Long Island, a 50-seat restaurant broke in half. Half of the building floated away and broke into pieces on the beach.

The 110-foot-tall lighthouse at Montauk Point — the oldest in the state, opened in 1796 — shuddered in the storm despite walls that are six feet thick at the base. The lighthouse keeper, Marge Winski, said she had never felt anything like that in 26 years on the job.

“I went up in tower and it was vibrating, it was shaking,” she said. “I got out of it real quick. I’ve been here through hurricanes, and nor’easters, but nothing this bad.”

Sandy kills dozens in U.S., millions left without power

CTVNews.ca Staff

With at least 50 people dead, transit crippled in New York City and millions of people along the U.S. East Coast struggling without electricity, communities face a daunting challenge of repairing the damage wrought by superstorm Sandy.

In New York, where 18 people were killed, Mayor Michael Bloomberg surveyed the destruction in the hardest-hit neighbourhoods Tuesday. He said he saw homes so utterly destroyed only “chimneys and foundations” were left.

But despite the daunting challenge of recovery efforts, Bloomberg said “New Yorkers are resilient.”

• 350 Pictures: Sandy hits the U.S.

About a third of New York’s fleet of taxis were operating Tuesday, bus service was partially restored, and the New York Stock Exchange was expected to reopen Wednesday.

U.S. President Barack Obama declared New York and Long Island a “major” disaster area.

The declaration means federal funding is now available to residents of the hardest-hit areas, who awoke to a tragic aftermath of the deadly storm that slammed ashore in New Jersey on Monday evening.

New York had seen a four-metre surge of seawater crash ashore overnight, inundating the city’s tunnels and electrical systems and causing massive damage to the city’s famed subway. The storm left New York with no running trains, a vacated business district and entire neighbourhoods under water.

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority said the subway system, which remains closed, had suffered the worst damage in its 108-year history.

As of midday Tuesday, Sandy’s sustained winds were already diminishing from the 130 km/h it was packing at landfall near Atlantic City, N.J. on Monday evening.

But forecasters warn the storm system will continue to affect a region stretching from the U.S. eastern seaboard north to Canada, and as far west as Wisconsin and Illinois, as it churns across Pennsylvania before veering into western New York state sometime Wednesday.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie gave a bleak update at a morning news conference Tuesday, saying seaside rail lines were washed away, and there was no safe place on the state’s barrier islands for him as large parts of the coast are still under water.

“We are in the midst of urban search and rescue. Our teams are moving as fast as they can,” Christie said. “The devastation on the Jersey Shore is some of the worst we’ve ever seen. The cost of the storm is incalculable at this point.”

The effects aren’t contained to America’s largest city. More than 7.4 million homes and businesses in an area that stretches from the Carolinas in the south to Ohio in the northeast are without power Tuesday. Tens of thousands were also without electricity in southern parts of Ontario and Quebec too, as Sandy carries its combination of rain and wind northwards.

In Canada, a Toronto woman was killed Monday evening after she was struck by a falling sign blown down in the powerful storm’s high winds.

Most of the Sandy-related wind warnings issued by Environment Canada have been called off however, except for the Sarnia region, areas along the St. Lawrence River in Quebec and Inverness County in Nova Scotia.

The storm was officially downgraded from hurricane status, but it came ashore packing a lot of energy due to its unusually low barometric pressure. Combined with a cold-weather system from the north, and the high tide of the full moon, the storm is forecast to continue wreaking havoc across a 1,300-kilometre region that’s home to 50 million people through Wednesday.

Forecasters are even warning as much as one metre of snow could fall in some states, some of which has already fallen in West Virginia and other higher ground inland.

Notable effects of post-tropical storm Sandy:

• U.S. death toll so far is 50, including 18 people in New York, and numerous others killed in a total of seven states.
• In Canada, one woman is dead after she was struck by debris from a wind-blown sign in the west-end of Toronto Monday evening.
• Sandy had already been blamed for 69 deaths when it tore through the Caribbean.
• Concerns during the peak of the storm prompted shutdowns at two nuclear plants in New York and New Jersey, as well as an alert at America’s oldest nuclear plant at Barneget Bay, N.J.
• 200 patients, including those on respirators and babies in intensive care, evacuated after New York University’s Tisch Hospital lost power.
• Winds toppled a construction crane atop a 74-storey luxury high-rise in midtown Manhattan, forcing the evacuation of nearby buildings.
• Fire destroyed at least 50 homes in the Breezy Point section of Queens.
• Four unoccupied row houses in Baltimore collapsed in the storm.
• Wind gusts of more than 100 km/h prompted the closure of the port in Portland, Maine.
• Flooding in areas from Virginia to Atlantic City, where the storm washed away a 15-metre section of the famous boardwalk. New York City’s now-flooded subway remains shut.
• The Holland Tunnel connecting New York to New Jersey is closed, as is a tunnel between Brooklyn and Manhattan. The Brooklyn Bridge, the George Washington Bridge, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is also barricaded due to high winds.
• More than 12,000 commercial flights are cancelled, with more expected. New York’s LaGuardia, Newark Liberty and Kennedy airports are all closed.
• One crew member of the Canadian-built HMS Bounty sunk in storm-battered seas off North Carolina was found and later pronounced dead. 14 others rescued alive, but the captain is still missing.

An estimated 360,000 residents of 30 Connecticut communities were under mandatory and voluntary evacuation orders.

While it could take days to determine the extent of the storm damage, early estimates peg the potential price tag anywhere between $10 billion and $20 billion, which could make it one of the costliest storms in U.S. history.

Ahead of Sandy making landfall Monday, U.S. President Barack Obama declared states of emergency in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

“Please listen to what your state and local officials are saying,” Obama said from the White House. “When they tell you to evacuate, you need to evacuate. Don’t delay, don’t pause, don’t question the instructions that are being given, because this is a powerful storm.”

On the U.S. presidential election front, both Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney suspended campaigning Monday, with just a week left before voting day.

Cyclone Nilam spares Chennai

T. Ramakrishnan

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  The Hindu Onlookers gather to get a glimpse of ‘Pratibha Cauvery’ that ran aground near Elliots Beach on Wednesday. Photo: V. Ganesan
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  The Hindu Cyclone ‘Nilam’ hits the Mamallapuram beach, in Chennai on Wednesday. Photo: B. Jothi Ramalingam
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  A bird’s eye view of Marina beach in Chennai on Wednesday. Nilam evoked fears of large-scale destruction among the people in coastal districts in north Tamil Nadu. Photo: PTI
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  The Hindu An aerial view of the cyclone Nilam ravaged Marina on Wednesday evening. Schools, colleges and other educational establishments have announced holiday for the third day on Thursday. Photo: S.R. Raghunathan
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  The Hindu A man takes cover from gusty winds at Anna Salai in Chennai on Wednesday. Photo: M. Vedhan
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  India Meteorological Department Image shows Cyclone Nilam as captured by Kalpana-1 satellite on Wednesday.

Storm makes landfall near Mamallapuram; rain claims four lives in Tamil Nadu

Cyclonic storm Nilam, which threatened to hit the Chennai coast, spared the city, but made landfall near Mamallapuram, about 60 km south of Chennai, on Wednesday evening.

Four persons were reported to have died during the day in different parts of the State, but a Revenue department official clarified that Kancheepuram district, where the storm crossed the coast between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m., did not report even a single death.

Nilam evoked fears of large-scale destruction among the people in coastal districts in north Tamil Nadu.

The exact details about the landfall would be known on Thursday after an assessment by the Meteorological Department, according to Y.E.A. Raj, Deputy Director General of Meteorology.

Though many areas in the northern belt received heavy rainfall on Tuesday night, the intensity was not much during the day when Nilam made the last leg of its journey. According to a bulletin issued on the basis of observations at 8-30 a.m., the storm lay centred about 260 km south southeast of Chennai, and by 6 p.m, it made landfall.

At the time of crossing the coast, Chennai recorded the maximum wind speed of 75 km per hour and Kalpakkam 65 km per hour. Hereafter, it was expected to weaken rapidly after making northwestward movement.

A holiday has been declared for schools and colleges in all coastal districts, including Chennai, on Thursday.

Today

Tropical Storm

India

MultiStates, [States of Tamin Nadu and Andhra Pradesh]

Tropical Storm in India on Thursday, 01 November, 2012 at 04:22 (04:22 AM) UTC.

Description

A tropical storm slammed into southern India, bringing heavy rain and a storm surge flooding low-lying areas and displacing more than 100,000 people. Just before the storm made landfall Wednesday, an oil tanker with 37 crew ran aground off Chennai. One of its lifeboats capsized in the choppy waters, and one crewmember drowned, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. Coast guard officers were searching for the lifeboat’s six other occupants. Andhra Pradesh state said two people died there when their homes collapsed due to heavy rain Wednesday night in Nellore and Chittoor districts, and PTI reported another death in Tamil Nadu state, a 46-year old man who slipped into the rough sea from a pier and drowned. Sri Lanka reported two deaths earlier from the cyclone. The storm from the Bay of Bengal had maximum winds of 75 kilometers (45 miles) per hour after landfall but was weakening. A storm surge of up to 1.5 meters (5 feet) was expected to flood low-lying coastal areas, the India Meteorological Department said. Heavy to very heavy rain was forecast for Thursday, and fishermen were asked to stay at shore. State authorities turned 282 schools into relief centers in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu. The city’s port halted cargo operations, officials said. Twenty-three ships were moved to safer areas. About 150,000 people were moved to shelters in Nellore, district official B. Sridhar said.

Today

Tropical Storm

Sri Lanka

[Statewide]

Tropical Storm in Sri Lanka on Thursday, 01 November, 2012 at 04:20 (04:20 AM) UTC.

Description

In Sri Lanka, thousands have been displaced due to heavy rain and strong winds. The nation’s Disaster Management Center said 4,627 people were displaced by flooding and 56 fled because of a landslide threat in the island’s central region. One woman died Tuesday after a tree branch fell on her, while another person was killed in flooding, the agency said. Floods also damaged about 1,000 houses, it said.

01.11.2012

Tropical Storm

USA

State of New York, New York City

Tropical Storm in USA on Tuesday, 30 October, 2012 at 03:43 (03:43 AM) UTC.

Description

Winds from hurricane Sandy have seriously damaged a building in Manhattan as the centre of the storm heads towards land. Part of the facade of a four story building in the West Village collapsed at about 6.30pm, leaving rooms open to the elements but no one injured. Elsewhere parts of midtown Manhattan were evacuated when a crane on top of a skyscraper partially collapsed. The Fire Department of New York initially reported a “multi-dwelling building collapse” on Twitter, although pictures quickly emerged showing that the front wall of the top two floors of the building was missing, rather than the entire structure collapsing. Images showed a fire truck at the scene, with a writer from the Huffington Post reporting that firefighters had to enter the building to help people out. The fire department later said that no one had been hurt. “There are no injuries or people trapped at 92 8th Ave building collapse, which involved the facade of the structure,” it said in a tweet. “Firefighters went in and rescued the residents. Some residents said same thing happened to same building 20 years ago,” said Meg Robertson, a reporter at HuffPost Live. She posted several pictures of the scene on her Twitter account. The building, 92 8th Avenue, is located between 14th and 15th streets in Manhattan. The main threat to buildings in New York City had been expected to come from flooding, with a mandatory evacuation order in place in many places along Manhattan’s coastline. Earlier a crane on top of the One 57 building, which is under construction on west 57th street further north in Manhattan, appeared to come loose from its bearings in high winds. Pictures showed the crane hanging upside down from the top of the building, which is set to be luxury flats. Police and the fire department evacuated all buildings north and south of 57th street, between Sixth and Seventh avenues, CNN reported. The Le Parker Meridien hotel on West 56th Street was also evacuated, according to reports, with guests being transferred to a different hotel. In New York bridges across the East River have been closed, including the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges, with people warned to stay inside.

Today

Landslide

Canada

Province of British Columbia, Langley [7700 block of 264th Street]

Landslide in Canada on Thursday, 01 November, 2012 at 04:36 (04:36 AM) UTC.

Description

City workers in Langley, B.C., are cleaning up after two mudslides stuck on Wednesday morning, forcing the evacuation of one home and the closure of 264th Street between 72nd and 84th avenues. Just after 5 a.m. PT, mud rushed down the side of a steep slope and crossed a rural stretch of the 7700 block of 264th Street, moving a cement barrier. The slide also covered the side of a home below the road. No one was injured and there was only minor damage to the house. About 100 metres of 264th Street has been closed for much of the morning. It’s not clear when the road might reopen. While officials were cleaning up the first slide, officials confirmed they were responding to reports of a second landslide in the municipality, this time at 252A Street and 72nd Avenue. The second slide was much smaller and did not affect any roads or homes, city officials said. City officials say small mudslides on the hills into Glen Valley are common this time of year. A rainfall warning is in effect in the area with between 10 and 20 millimetres expected to fall throughout the day.

………………………………………………

National Data Buoy  Center

10 Buoys in event mode

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Radiation / Nuclear

Albacore tuna show traces of radioactive cesium

Associated Press

LONGVIEW, Wash. (AP) — Oregon State University researchers have found traces of radioactive cesium from last year’s Japanese nuclear reactor disaster in West Coast albacore tuna.

The amount is far too small to harm people who eat the fish, the scientists said.

Scientists from the university and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration collected and tested fish caught off the West Coast before and after the March 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami that caused a nuclear reactor to release radioactive material, the Longview Daily News (http://bit.ly/QIcdV8) reported.

The team’s findings are in line with work by researchers in California, who announced in May that they had found traces of radioactive cesium in bluefin tuna caught off the southern coast.

“We’re still processing new fish, but so far the radiation we’re detecting is far below the level of concern for human safety,” said Delvan Neville, a graduate researcher with OSU’s Radiation Health Physics program and a co-investigator on the project.

Albacore tuna is a $41 million business in the Pacific Northwest, and fishermen from the region caught about 10,000 tons last year, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Washington fishermen accounted for about 53 percent of the haul, and the remainder came through Oregon docks.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug Administration and NOAA have jointly stated they have “high confidence” in the safety of U.S. seafood products because the radiation levels are so low.

The OSU team said its findings could reveal information about where Pacific albacore tuna travel and how the ocean’s ecosystem can be linked to events thousands of miles away.

___

Information from: The Daily News, http://www.tdn.com

FACTBOX-U.S. nuclear units in the path of Hurricane Sandy 

by Thomson Reuters

Oct 26 (Reuters) - U.S. electric companies from Maine to
Florida are preparing for heavy wind, rain and flooding that
could take down power lines and could close some East Coast
nuclear plants early next week when Hurricane Sandy comes
ashore.
    There are more than a dozen nuclear plants near Hurricane
Sandy's path in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut, providing power to
millions of customers in the region. 
    The following lists the nuclear reactors and utilities in
Sandy's potential path.

 Plant                 State              Size    Company
                                          (MW)    

 Brunswick             North Carolina     1,858   Duke 

 Surry                 Virginia           1,638   Dominion

 North Anna            Virginia           1,863   Dominion

 Calvert Cliffs        Maryland           1,705   Constellation

 Salem                 New Jersey         2,332   PSEG

 Hope Creek            New Jersey         1,161   PSEG

 Peach Bottom          Pennsylvania       2,244   Exelon

 Limerick              Pennsylvania       2,264   Exelon

 Three Mile Island     Pennsylvania        805    Exelon

 Susquehanna           Pennsylavnia       2,450   PPL

 Oyster Creek          New Jersey          615    Exelon

 Indian Point          New York           2,063   Entergy

 Millstone             Connecticut        2,102   Dominion

 Pilgrim               Massachusetts       685    Entergy

 Seabrook              New Hampshire      1,247   NextEra

 Vermont Yankee        Vermont             620    Entergy

 (Reporting By Scott DiSavino; Editing by Bob Burgdorfer)

NRC Monitors Nuclear Plants in Hurricane’s Projected Path

 By Christine Harvey

Nuclear reactors in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast are being monitored for potential impacts by Hurricane Sandy, a Category 1 storm that may strike anywhere from Delaware to southern New England.

“Because of the size of it, we could see an impact to coastal and inland plants,” Neil Sheehan, a spokesman based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said by phone. “We will station inspectors at the sites if we know they could be directly impacted.”

Enlarge image

Men walk amid the destruction caused by hurricane Sandy east of Havana in Mayari, Cuba. Source: AFP/Getty Images

The NRC met earlier today to discuss the necessary precautions to take for the storm, Sheehan said. Plants must begin to shut if wind speeds exceed certain limits, he said.

As of 2 p.m. New York time, Sandy had winds of 75 miles (121 kilometers) per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. It was about 430 miles south-southeast of Charleston, South Carolina, moving north at 7 mph.

The current Hurricane Center track calls for the system to come ashore just south of Delaware Bay on Oct. 30.

Contingency Plans

Nuclear plants in the projected path of the hurricane include North Anna and Surry in Virginia, Calvert Cliffs in Maryland, Hope Creek and Salem in New Jersey, Indian Point in New York and Millstone in Connecticut. The NRC is considering enhancing inspector coverage of these reactors, Sheehan said in an e-mail today.

Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (PEG) must shut all units at the Salem and Hope Creek plants two hours before the onset of hurricane-force winds greater than 74 mph, according to Sheehan. An “unusual event” would be declared if the winds are sustained for greater than 15 minutes or if the water level reaches 99.5 feet or higher, he said. Such an event is the lowest of four level of emergency used by the commission.

Salem Unit 2 is currently shut for refueling, while Unit 1 was operating at 83 percent of capacity today during maintenance on the circulating water system. Hope Creek ran at full power. The three units have a combined capacity of 3,365 megawatts.

“We are in phase one of our severe-weather plan,” Joe Delmar, a company spokesman, said in an e-mail responding to questions. “This includes inspecting, removing and securing outside areas for potential missiles, objects that could go airborne, and staging of emergency equipment and supplies.”

Millstone Reactor

Nuclear generation in the Northeastern region dropped 1.1 percent to 18,016 megawatts, with seven plants shut, an NRC report today showed.

Dominion Resources Inc.’s Millstone plant is monitoring Sandy’s progress and preparing to adjust staff as it comes closer, according to Ken Holt, a plant spokesman based in Richmond, Virginia. The plant must shut if winds reach 90 mph.

“We would shut down in advance of the storm if they were expected to be 90 miles per hour at the site,” Holt said by phone today. “Floods and high winds are a threat because they can knock off off-site power and we’d then need to activate emergency generators for power to put the plant to safe conditions.”

Today

Nuclear Event

USA

State of Minnesota, Red Wing [Prairie Island Nuclear Power Plant]

Nuclear Event in USA on Thursday, 01 November, 2012 at 04:05 (04:05 AM) UTC.

Description

Xcel Energy Inc. says its Prairie Island nuclear plant near Red Wing declared an “unusual event” after some security equipment failed. The Minneapolis-based utility says the event happened around 2:15 p.m. Wednesday and was declared over just before 6 p.m. Xcel says there was no release of radioactive material and that there is no danger to the public or plant employees. Plant officials made the declaration after some security equipment temporarily failed. The equipment has been restored, and plant officials are investigating the cause. The plant maintained security during the event. Xcel says it notified federal, state and local officials. The declaration is the lowest of four emergency classifications. Prairie Island’s Unit 2 continues to operate at full power. Unit 1 remains offline has part of a scheduled refueling outage.

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Epidemic Hazards / Diseases

01.11.2012

Epidemic Hazard

Uganda

Western Uganda, [Kabale District]

Epidemic Hazard in Uganda on Friday, 19 October, 2012 at 10:56 (10:56 AM) UTC.

Back

Updated:	Wednesday, 31 October, 2012 at 17:33 UTC
Description
The death toll of the deadly Marburg hemorrhagic fever in Uganda has risen to eight and nine other people have tested positive of the highly infectious diseases, a top ministry of health official said. Christine Ondoa, Minister of Health told reporters on Monday that the latest patient died on October 27 at an isolation ward at Rushoroza Health Centre, in the western Ugandan district of Kabale, the epicenter of the outbreak. The disease broke out on October 4 in Kabale. Five people have tested positive of the highly infectious viral hemorrhagic fever in Kabale, two others in the capital Kampala and another two in the western district of Ibanda. “To date, the death toll of both the probable and confirmed cases stands at eight. Since the onset of the outbreak, we have collected a total of 45 samples of which nine were confirmed positive,” said Ondoa. She said the ministry has established temporary isolation facilities in Kabale, Mbarara, Ibanda and Kampala to accommodate the suspected and confirmed cases. “We have assembled a team of experts to work in the newly established isolation facilities and they are expected in these districts today. We also plan to undertake infection control procedures in these facilities as safety measures for the workers and the admitted patients,” said Ondoa. A total of seven student nurses who attended to a Marburg patient at Ibanda Hospital and died on October 24 at Mbarara Regional Hospital have been quarantined. The ministry is also monitoring a total 436 people who had contact with the patients. “Those being monitored got into contact with either the dead or confirmed cases. The team continues to monitor them on a daily basis for possible signs and symptoms of this highly infectious disease until they have completed 21 days without showing any signs and symptoms,”Ondoa said.

Epidemic Hazard in Uganda on Friday, 19 October, 2012 at 10:56 (10:56 AM) UTC.

Back

Updated:	Thursday, 01 November, 2012 at 04:38 UTC
Description
As of the end of October, 18 cases and nine deaths have been reported as a result of Marburg hemorrhagic fever outbreak, according to WHO. The outbreak began in mid-October, and cases have been reported from five districts in southwestern Uganda, Kampala, Ibanda, Mbarara and Kabarole, with a case fatality rate of 50%. Blood samples from nine patients have been confirmed for Marburg virus at the Uganda Virus Research Institute. Currently, 13 patients have been admitted to the hospital, and their contacts are listed for daily follow-up. The latest confirmed case was admitted to an Ibanda district isolation ward on Oct. 26. The WHO and international partners, including the CDC, the Uganda Red Cross, African Field Epidemiology Network and Médecins-Sans-Frontières, are supporting the national authorities in outbreak investigation and response. The national task force has identified additional health care workers and epidemiologists to strengthen the teams in the field. Training of health workers on infection prevention and control, surveillance and clinical case management is ongoing, and the first shipment of personal protective equipment arrived recently. WHO and its partners have deployed additional staff to support the response teams. As the investigation into the outbreak continues, WHO and partners continue to support the national authorities as needed in the areas of coordination, infection prevention and control, surveillance, epidemiology, public information and social mobilization, anthropological analysis and logistics for outbreak response. Neighboring countries have been contacted to strengthen cross-border surveillance and preparedness to prevent cross border spread of the outbreak.

Today

Epidemic Hazard

USA

State of California, [San Quentin State Prison, Marin County]

Epidemic Hazard in USA on Thursday, 01 November, 2012 at 04:40 (04:40 AM) UTC.

Description
Officials at San Quentin State Prison say the prison is on a medical lockdown after at least two inmates became sick with chickenpox. Prison spokesman Lt. Sam Robinson says the prison has been locked down since last Friday, with only employees being allowed to enter and leave the facility. He could not say when the lockdown would be lifted. Robinson says the last time there was a medical lockdown at the prison was in March of last year when at least four inmates became sick with chickenpox. The Centers for Disease Control describes chickenpox as a “very contagious disease” that spreads easily from infected people to others who have never had chickenpox or have never received the chickenpox vaccine. San Quentin, located north of San Francisco, is the oldest prison in California. It houses about 3,800 inmates.
Biohazard name:	Chicken Pox
Biohazard level:	2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:	Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
Symptoms:
Status:	confirmed

31.10.2012

Epidemic

Sudan

State of South Darfur, [Region-wide]

Epidemic in Sudan on Wednesday, 31 October, 2012 at 04:13 (04:13 AM) UTC.

Description
A previously unknown disease which has claimed more than 30 lives in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region this month has been identified as yellow fever, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. Preparations for a mass vaccination campaign are now underway. The outbreak was first detected early this month when a number of people in the central and southern regions of Darfur became ill and eventually died. Sudanese media said the victims suffered from a number of symptoms, including diarrhea, vomiting, and bleeding from both the mouth and nose. Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesman for the World Health Organization (WHO), on Tuesday said it had been informed by Sudan’s Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) that the outbreak is being caused by yellow fever. Since the first week of October, a total of 84 suspected cases, including 32 deaths, have been reported in the districts of Azoom, Kass, Mershing, Nertiti, Nyala, Wadi Salih and Zalingei. “FMoH said that the immediate priority is to control the vector, reinforcing the disease surveillance system and raising public awareness on the prevention and control of this disease,” Jasarevic said. “Preparations for a mass vaccination campaign are underway to vaccinate the at risk population in Darfur.”According to Darfur radio station Dabanga, however, at least 37 people are believed to have died as a result of the disease while 125 others have been infected. The radio station quoted a resident as saying that local authorities were slow to react and did not immediately take necessary action to contain the outbreak. “FMoH, WHO, as well as health partners are working on ground to ensure timely containment of the outbreak,” Jasarevic added. There is no cure for yellow fever, which is an acute viral haemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes. Treatment is aimed at reducing the symptoms for the comfort of patients, and measures often taken include supportive care to treat dehydration and fever and blood transfusion if needed. “It is a preventable disease with symptoms and severity varying from case to case,” Jasarevic explained. “Protective measures like the use of bed nets, insect repellent and long clothing are considered the best methods to contain an outbreak. Vaccination is the single most important measure for preventing yellow fever.”
Biohazard name:	Yellow Fever
Biohazard level:	2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:	Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
Symptoms:
Status:	confirmed

 

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Space

01.11.2012

Event into space

USA

State of California, Novato

Event into space in USA on Monday, 22 October, 2012 at 09:50 (09:50 AM) UTC.

Back

Updated:	Thursday, 01 November, 2012 at 04:36 UTC
Description
A magnetic piece of rock stirred up controversy last week, but scientists confirmed, and reconfirmed, that the mysterious object in Novato residents Lisa and Kurt Webber’s backyard was a meteorite. And to prove it, a second was discovered just miles from the Webbers’ home. Webber gave the meteorite to her neighbor Glenn Rivera as a birthday gift. He helped her analyze the chunk before calling scientists. The meteorite broke off from the meteor shower that blazed over the night sky at approximately 7:44 p.m. on Oct. 17. It also happened to be Rivera’s birthday. “As a result, Glenn was asked by the scientific team to ride in the airship Eureka from Moffett Field on Friday,” said Leigh Blair, Rivera’s mother. “They flew over Novato and all the way up to Lake Berryessa, following the calculated trajectory of the meteor, looking for signs of larger meteorites on the ground.” Peter Jenniskens, the meteor scientist at the Seti Institute, a nonprofit scientific and education organization that has projects sponsored by NASA and other foundations and research groups, at first dismissed the first rock because the surface appeared strange and weathered, unlike most meteorites. But everything changed when a second rock showed small specks of what seemed to be metal, when observed under a microscope. Brien Cook, a meteorite hunter and Sacramento resident, found the second rock in the Novato area, but too dismissed it as a meteorite until the two chunks were compared. After cutting it open and looking inside, he knew he had found an extraterrestrial treasure. Cook is offering one chip of his meteorite on eBay. It weighs 6.6 grams, and objects like it regularly sell for approximately $100 a gram, he said. Lisa Webber, a University of California San Francisco nurse, found the meteorite in her backyard on Oct. 20. She returned the piece to Jenniskens, and he will send samples of both rocks to a noted meteorite expert Professor Alan E. Rubin of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at UCLA.

Earth approaching objects (objects that are known in the next 30 days)
Object Name	Apporach Date	Left	AU Distance	LD Distance	Estimated Diameter*	Relative Velocity
214869 (2007 PA8)	05th November 2012	4 day(s)	0.0433	16.8	1.5 km – 3.3 km	10.79 km/s	38844 km/h
(2011 UG21)	06th November 2012	5 day(s)	0.1784	69.4	340 m – 760 m	19.73 km/s	71028 km/h
(2010 WT)	07th November 2012	6 day(s)	0.1251	48.7	53 m – 120 m	6.53 km/s	23508 km/h
333358 (2001 WN1)	09th November 2012	8 day(s)	0.1285	50.0	370 m – 830 m	8.73 km/s	31428 km/h
330233 (2006 KV86)	11th November 2012	10 day(s)	0.1876	73.0	450 m – 1.0 km	23.35 km/s	84060 km/h
(2008 LH2)	12th November 2012	11 day(s)	0.1487	57.9	35 m – 78 m	5.10 km/s	18360 km/h
(2001 YM2)	12th November 2012	11 day(s)	0.0860	33.5	440 m – 980 m	9.26 km/s	33336 km/h
(2012 KF25)	15th November 2012	14 day(s)	0.1528	59.5	23 m – 51 m	9.75 km/s	35100 km/h
(1999 SF10)	19th November 2012	18 day(s)	0.0346	13.5	41 m – 92 m	4.08 km/s	14688 km/h
(2009 WB105)	24th November 2012	23 day(s)	0.0400	15.6	59 m – 130 m	18.86 km/s	67896 km/h
(2007 VB188)	25th November 2012	24 day(s)	0.1446	56.3	14 m – 32 m	10.32 km/s	37152 km/h
(1994 XD)	27th November 2012	26 day(s)	0.0518	20.2	400 m – 890 m	20.03 km/s	72108 km/h
(2009 LS)	28th November 2012	27 day(s)	0.1418	55.2	670 m – 1.5 km	25.88 km/s	93168 km/h
(2010 VW98)	29th November 2012	28 day(s)	0.1321	51.4	81 m – 180 m	7.03 km/s	25308 km/h
(2009 XH8)	30th November 2012	29 day(s)	0.1288	50.1	61 m – 140 m	6.70 km/s	24120 km/h
1 AU = ~150 million kilometers,1 LD = Lunar Distance = ~384,000 kilometers Source: NASA-NEO

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Biological Hazards / Wildlife / Environmental pollution / Hazmat

Today

Biological Hazard

USA

State of Arizona, Phoenix [40000 block of W. Magnolia Road]

Biological Hazard in USA on Thursday, 01 November, 2012 at 04:18 (04:18 AM) UTC.

Description
Two men were transported to the hospital Wednesday afternoon after a bees’ nest was disturbed when one of the men, an unidentified DirectTV employee, was working on a home in the 40000 block of W. Magnolia Road. “It was terrible,” Phoebe Lechuga, one of the home’s five residents, said. “They were flying everywhere.” Lechuga’s 33-year-old son, Resugio Furwilder, was also transported to the hospital. Furwilder went outside to help the DirectTV worker and was stung himself, Lechuga said. Her daughter, Vanessa Lechuga, 27, was also stung but was not taken to the hospital. Lechuga said at first the worker thought there were only a few bees and didn’t come inside after the first stings.
Biohazard name:	Bees Attack (Non-Fatal)
Biohazard level:	0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:	This does not included biological hazard category.
Symptoms:
Status:

Today

Environment Pollution

USA

State of New Jersey, Woodbridge

Environment Pollution in USA on Thursday, 01 November, 2012 at 04:03 (04:03 AM) UTC.

Description

New Jersey environmental officials say 336,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled after a storage tank was lifted and ruptured from the surge from superstorm Sandy. The Coast Guard says all the spilled oil is believed to be contained by booms put in the water. Officials said today the spill happened Monday night at the Motiva oil tank facility in Woodbridge. Coast Guard spokesman Les Tippets says a secondary tank caught most of the oil and that the liquid that escaped moved into the Arthur Kill, the waterway separating New Jersey from New York’s Staten Island. New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Larry Ragonese says the company reported the spill and hired contractors to clean it up.

Today

HAZMAT

USA

State of Maryland, Baltimore

HAZMAT in USA on Thursday, 01 November, 2012 at 03:53 (03:53 AM) UTC.

Description

Three people from North Laurel, Maryland have been taken to the hospital Tuesday morning with carbon monoxide poisoning, caused by a generator running inside their house. Authorities reported that Howard County Fire crews and paramedics found a man and two women inside the home in Brevard Street after responding to a 911 call which was made by one of the women. The victims suffered elevated levels of carbon monoxide. According to a spokesman from the Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue Services, the three were transported to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. The two females have been released on Tuesday morning but the male, who was in critical condition, remained in the hospital for further treatment. The spokesman confirmed that all three patients underwent therapy in the hyperbaric chamber at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. The male patient is scheduled to receive another hyperbaric therapy. Police said the firefighters discovered a generator operating at the bottom of the stairs on the ground level of the residence. It was placed in a doorway leading to the garage, but the garage door was closed, restricting ventilation. Firefighters later confirmed that the amount of carbon monoxide inside the house was 30 times more than the normal level.

01.11.2012

HAZMAT

USA

State of Kentucky, Louisville [Near the Dixie Highway]

HAZMAT in USA on Monday, 29 October, 2012 at 21:24 (09:24 PM) UTC.

Description

Emergency officials have evacuated a few dozen homes near a derailed train in southern Jefferson County over concerns of hazardous material leaks. The Paducah & Louisville Railway train derailed just after 6 a.m. EDT Monday near Dixie Highway. Emergency officials are asking residents within a 2 ½-mile radius of the scene to stay inside their homes until they are told they can leave. Beuchel Fire assistant chief Rick Harrison says the train has a “small leak” of butadiene, which is a chemical used in the manufacturing of rubber. No other leaks have been found. Tom Garrett, president of P&L Railway, says the train was on its way to Louisville from Paducah with a total of 57 cars. He says company officials have not yet been able to get to the scene because of safety concerns. Garrett says the two crew members on the train were not hurt. Officials say eight of the 40 cars on the train were off the track.

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Articles of Interest

Amazing Roll Cloud over Andrews, Texas

S.A
Sott.net

A Sott.net reader sent in these amazing images and video of a spectacular ‘roll cloud’ over the town of Andrews, Texas, USA

Watch Video Here

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[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]

Earth Watch Report – Sunday October 28th, 2012

Earthquakes

USGS

	MAG	UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s	LAT deg	LON deg	DEPTH km	Region
MAP	4.5	2012/10/26 23:16:47	38.959	22.937	16.7	GREECE
MAP	4.5	2012/10/26 22:31:18	38.260	46.780	10.0	NORTHWESTERN IRAN
MAP	5.0	2012/10/26 21:38:19	-11.569	165.470	34.1	SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS
MAP	4.9	2012/10/26 21:11:57	10.667	126.806	35.0	PHILIPPINE ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.7	2012/10/26 19:44:36	33.465	133.450	17.0	SHIKOKU, JAPAN
MAP	4.8	2012/10/26 19:33:11	37.690	141.561	61.0	NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP	2.8	2012/10/26 19:18:39	19.384	-155.243	3.8	ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP	2.6	2012/10/26 18:48:13	18.910	-64.522	48.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.5	2012/10/26 18:31:54	46.260	-119.384	0.0	WASHINGTON
MAP	2.5	2012/10/26 18:04:57	51.499	-178.225	21.5	ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP	2.5	2012/10/26 17:15:25	35.417	-117.957	2.9	SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	3.0	2012/10/26 16:28:48	60.736	-151.633	85.4	KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA
MAP	3.3	2012/10/26 14:18:20	42.016	-126.835	10.0	OFF THE COAST OF OREGON
MAP	2.7	2012/10/26 12:41:49	19.881	-155.686	16.3	ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP	2.9	2012/10/26 11:38:34	19.383	-155.245	3.1	ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP	2.9	2012/10/26 11:38:31	19.386	-155.244	4.1	ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP	4.6	2012/10/26 10:52:59	43.224	142.871	131.2	HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
MAP	4.7	2012/10/26 10:36:32	38.718	141.990	48.9	NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP	3.3	2012/10/26 10:32:52	59.367	-152.218	55.3	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	3.0	2012/10/26 08:40:46	19.383	-64.224	80.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.8	2012/10/26 06:28:47	-0.364	132.895	43.2	NEAR THE NORTH COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA
MAP	2.5	2012/10/26 04:34:59	43.355	-78.634	5.0	NEW YORK
MAP	4.5	2012/10/26 04:24:31	-18.032	-178.574	608.0	FIJI REGION
MAP	2.5	2012/10/26 02:56:53	59.477	-152.370	59.8	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	4.7	2012/10/26 00:33:14	41.046	142.272	59.8	HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
MAP	2.9	2012/10/26 00:10:22	52.389	-174.294	223.1	ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA

 

 

MAG	UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s	LAT deg	LON deg	DEPTH km	Region
MAP	4.8	2012/10/27 22:23:15	-6.126	154.350	62.1	BOUGAINVILLE REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
MAP	4.4	2012/10/27 21:17:01	-7.054	123.441	621.9	BANDA SEA
MAP	4.3	2012/10/27 21:10:42	-2.088	126.482	35.0	CERAM SEA, INDONESIA
MAP	4.7	2012/10/27 20:56:46	-16.255	-175.946	355.6	TONGA
MAP	4.9	2012/10/27 20:55:31	18.554	146.531	77.6	PAGAN REGION, NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS
MAP	2.6	2012/10/27 20:36:28	51.201	-179.933	30.5	ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP	5.1	2012/10/27 20:15:00	-21.474	169.833	35.7	SOUTHEAST OF THE LOYALTY ISLANDS
MAP	5.5	2012/10/27 20:13:02	-6.178	151.602	22.7	NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
MAP	2.6	2012/10/27 17:48:08	32.146	-115.206	23.6	BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP	3.1	2012/10/27 16:53:00	19.619	-63.980	24.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.2	2012/10/27 16:46:42	18.172	-68.373	93.0	MONA PASSAGE, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
MAP	4.9	2012/10/27 16:22:10	14.566	-92.195	115.0	CHIAPAS, MEXICO
MAP	3.0	2012/10/27 15:52:14	63.171	-144.328	1.9	CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP	5.2	2012/10/27 15:46:29	10.500	126.823	36.7	PHILIPPINE ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.5	2012/10/27 15:31:11	52.755	-162.915	35.9	SOUTH OF ALASKA
MAP	4.7	2012/10/27 15:00:47	-2.294	100.628	64.6	KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI REGION, INDONESIA
MAP	4.4	2012/10/27 12:33:05	-33.589	-72.028	23.8	OFFSHORE VALPARAISO, CHILE
MAP	2.7	2012/10/27 12:02:28	62.841	-151.149	111.3	CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP	4.4	2012/10/27 10:51:24	-9.175	111.272	69.2	SOUTH OF JAVA, INDONESIA
MAP	3.3	2012/10/27 10:43:50	17.475	-68.812	83.0	DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP	3.1	2012/10/27 10:32:09	17.414	-68.841	57.0	DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP	4.5	2012/10/27 10:20:59	10.637	126.874	35.1	PHILIPPINE ISLANDS REGION
MAP	5.2	2012/10/27 09:32:31	9.897	57.100	10.0	CARLSBERG RIDGE
MAP	4.2	2012/10/27 08:00:10	36.999	70.494	67.0	HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
MAP	4.8	2012/10/27 07:02:41	-22.284	179.922	554.8	SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS
MAP	4.6	2012/10/27 06:37:34	28.502	128.715	35.5	RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN
MAP	2.5	2012/10/27 06:18:51	18.511	-64.789	5.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.3	2012/10/27 06:07:59	68.491	-147.349	6.0	NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP	4.8	2012/10/27 05:52:18	-10.845	160.919	45.4	SOLOMON ISLANDS
MAP	5.0	2012/10/27 04:06:51	-4.074	140.267	41.6	PAPUA, INDONESIA
MAP	4.3	2012/10/27 03:56:44	38.259	46.633	10.0	NORTHWESTERN IRAN
MAP	2.7	2012/10/27 01:49:15	32.184	-115.220	15.8	BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP	4.5	2012/10/27 00:49:37	-27.746	-66.615	144.2	CATAMARCA, ARGENTINA
MAP	3.2	2012/10/27 00:34:51	56.972	-158.394	150.9	ALASKA PENINSULA

Panic as magnitude-5 earthquake rattles southern Italy

NBCNewsWorld

Mario Tosti / AFP – Getty Images

People who had been evacuated from a hospital wait in a rescue center in Mormanno, southern Italy, after an earthquake early on Friday.

By NBC News staff and wire reports

ROME — A hospital was evacuated after a magnitude-5 earthquake struck southern Italy early on Friday, authorities said.

The quake hit at 1:05 a.m. local time (7:05 p.m. ET Thursday) about 3.9 miles underground, north of Cosenza in the Pollino mountains area on the border of the southern regions of Calabria and Basilicata, according to data from the Italian Geophysics Institute (INGV).

At least 14 other tremors followed the initial earthquake, according to INGV’s website.

Italian media reported that an elderly man who lived near the tremor’s epicenter had died of a heart attack.

An Italian police official told Reuters a hospital in the small town of Mormanno had been evacuated as a precautionary measure because some cracks were found in its structure.

No injuries were reported, the official said.

Italian news agencies reported scenes of panic in the hospital and said many inhabitants of Mormanno and surrounding towns had come out in the streets.

Police and firefighters were surveying the area for further damage, officials said.

NBC News’ Claudio Lavanga and Reuters contributed to this report.

Scientists convicted of manslaughter for not predicting quake

Magnitude 5 earthquake hits s. Italy, hospital evacuated

By REUTERS

ROME – A magnitude 5 earthquake struck north of Cosenza in southern Italy early on Friday, and police said a hospital had been evacuated after cracks were found in its structure, but there were no reports of injuries.

The quake hit at 1:05 a.m. (2305 GMT on Thursday) about 6.3 km (3.9 miles) underground, north of Cosenza in the Pollino mountains area on the border of the southern regions of Calabria and Basilicata, according to data from the Italian Geophysics Institute (INGV). It said on its website that at least 14 other tremors followed the initial earthquake.

An Italian police official told Reuters a hospital in the small town of Mormanno had been evacuated as a precautionary measure because some cracks were found in its structure.

No injuries were reported, the official said.

AN elderly man died from a heart attack and panic-stricken residents rushed into the streets fearing building collapses when a 5.3-magnitude earthquake struck a southern Italian province.

The 84-year-old victim suffered heart failure when the quake struck the province of Cosenza early on Friday and was dead before emergency services could reach him.

No injuries have been reported but several buildings have been damaged. A local hospital was also evacuated and schools closed as a precautionary measure.

According to the US Geological Survey, the quake, with a 5.3 magnitude at a depth of 3.8km, had its epicentre 6km southeast of Mormanno town in the Calabria region.

“Some plaster fell, a crack appeared in the stairway. We came down in a panic to the streets using our mobile phones for light,” Mormanno bed-and-breakfast owner Giuseppina Capalbi told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Many homes in the town centre suffered damage and police said it would take some hours to evaluate the scale of the problem, as local officials decided to close schools.

“There was a lot of panic, but happily there are no injured,” Mormanno mayor Guglielmo Armentano told Ansa.

“In our historic centre, there are some damaged buildings. As a precaution we have evacuated the hospital.”

More than 2200 tremors had struck the same region along the Pollino massif in recent years, but all but a handful were of a magnitude under 3.

Italy frequently falls victim to earthquakes. Among the most devastating was the 6.3-magnitude quake in the central city of L’Aquila that in 2009 killed 309 people and left tens of thousands homeless.

On Monday, six Italian seismologists and a government official were sentenced to six years in jail for multiple manslaughter for underestimating the risk of that earthquake, in a move viewed by some as a dangerous blow to

Related Coverage

• 3.8 magnitude quake rocks southern NSW Perth Now, 23 Jun 2012
• Deadly quake hits Italy The Australian, 29 May 2012
• Six dead in Italy earthquake The Daily Telegraph, 21 May 2012
• Quake kills six, injures dozens Courier Mail, 21 May 2012
• Six dead, 50 injured as powerful quake strikes northern Italy Courier Mail, 21 May 2012

 

LISS – Live Internet Seismic Server

GSN Stations

These data update automatically every 30 minutes. Last update: October 27, 2012 09:19:03 UTC

Seismograms may take several moments to load. Click on a plot to see larger image.

CU/ANWB, Willy Bob, Antigua and Barbuda

CU/BBGH, Gun Hill, Barbados

CU/BCIP, Isla Barro Colorado, Panama

CU/GRGR, Grenville, Grenada

CU/GRTK, Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands

CU/GTBY, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

CU/MTDJ, Mount Denham, Jamaica

CU/SDDR, Presa de Sabaneta, Dominican Republic

CU/TGUH, Tegucigalpa, Honduras

IC/BJT, Baijiatuan, Beijing, China

IC/ENH, Enshi, China

IC/HIA, Hailar, Neimenggu Province, China

IC/LSA, Lhasa, China

IC/MDJ, Mudanjiang, China

IC/QIZ, Qiongzhong, Guangduong Province, China

IU/ADK, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA

IU/AFI, Afiamalu, Samoa

IU/ANMO, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

IU/ANTO, Ankara, Turkey

IU/BBSR, Bermuda

IU/BILL, Bilibino, Russia

IU/CASY, Casey, Antarctica

IU/CCM, Cathedral Cave, Missouri, USA

IU/CHTO, Chiang Mai, Thailand

IU/COLA, College Outpost, Alaska, USA

IU/COR, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

IU/CTAO, Charters Towers, Australia

IU/DAV,Davao, Philippines

IU/DWPF,Disney Wilderness Preserve, Florida, USA

IU/FUNA,Funafuti, Tuvalu

IU/FURI, Mt. Furi, Ethiopia

IU/GNI, Garni, Armenia

IU/GRFO, Grafenberg, Germany

IU/GUMO, Guam, Mariana Islands

IU/HKT, Hockley, Texas, USA

IU/HNR, Honiara, Solomon Islands

IU/HRV, Adam Dziewonski Observatory (Oak Ridge), Massachusetts, USA

IU/INCN, Inchon, Republic of Korea

IU/JOHN, Johnston Island, Pacific Ocean

IU/KBS, Ny-Alesund, Spitzbergen, Norway

IU/KEV, Kevo, Finland

IU/KIEV, Kiev, Ukraine

IU/KIP, Kipapa, Hawaii, USA

IU/KMBO, Kilima Mbogo, Kenya

IU/KNTN, Kanton Island, Kiribati

IU/KONO, Kongsberg, Norway

IU/KOWA, Kowa, Mali

IU/LCO, Las Campanas Astronomical Observatory, Chile

IU/LSZ, Lusaka, Zambia

IU/LVC, Limon Verde, Chile

IU/MA2, Magadan, Russia

IU/MAJO, Matsushiro, Japan

IU/MAKZ,Makanchi, Kazakhstan

IU/MBWA, Marble Bar, Western Australia

IU/MIDW, Midway Island, Pacific Ocean, USA

IU/MSKU, Masuku, Gabon

IU/NWAO, Narrogin, Australia

IU/OTAV, Otavalo, Equador

IU/PAB, San Pablo, Spain

IU/PAYG Puerto Ayora, Galapagos Islands

IU/PET, Petropavlovsk, Russia

IU/PMG, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

IU/PMSA, Palmer Station, Antarctica

IU/POHA, Pohakaloa, Hawaii

IU/PTCN, Pitcairn Island, South Pacific

IU/PTGA, Pitinga, Brazil

IU/QSPA, South Pole, Antarctica

IU/RAO, Raoul, Kermandec Islands

IU/RAR, Rarotonga, Cook Islands

IU/RCBR, Riachuelo, Brazil

IU/RSSD, Black Hills, South Dakota, USA

IU/SAML, Samuel, Brazil

IU/SBA, Scott Base, Antarctica

IU/SDV, Santo Domingo, Venezuela

IU/SFJD, Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland

IU/SJG, San Juan, Puerto Rico

IU/SLBS, Sierra la Laguna Baja California Sur, Mexico

IU/SNZO, South Karori, New Zealand

IU/SSPA, Standing Stone, Pennsylvania USA

IU/TARA, Tarawa Island, Republic of Kiribati

IU/TATO, Taipei, Taiwan

IU/TEIG, Tepich, Yucatan, Mexico

IU/TIXI, Tiksi, Russia

IU/TRIS, Tristan da Cunha, Atlantic Ocean

IU/TRQA, Tornquist, Argentina

IU/TSUM, Tsumeb, Namibia

IU/TUC, Tucson, Arizona

IU/ULN, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

IU/WAKE, Wake Island, Pacific Ocean

IU/WCI, Wyandotte Cave, Indiana, USA

IU/WVT, Waverly, Tennessee, USA

IU/XMAS, Kiritimati Island, Republic of Kiribati

IU/YAK, Yakutsk, Russia

IU/YSS, Yuzhno Sakhalinsk, Russia

**********************************************************************************************************

Volcanic Activity

Niwa observes underwater volcano changes

New Zealand scientists investigating an active undersea volcano that erupted three months ago have discovered significant changes to the seafloor.

Niwa research ship Tangaroa has mapped the Kermadec volcano that erupted 800km northeast of Tauranga on July 19, producing a pumice raft the size of Canterbury.

The eruption was strong enough to breach the ocean surface from a depth of 1100 metres. It was captured by a Nasa satellite, and a Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion patrol spotted the pumice on their way back home from Samoa.

Niwa’s volcanologist Dr Richard Wysoczanski, who is leading the 23-day expedition, said there had been volcanic activity every year for the past decade, but this was the largest by far.

“It is a substantial eruption. Had it occurred on land in New Zealand, it would have been a bit of a disaster.”

The volcanic caldera, which is like Lake Taupo, known to produce large and violent eruptions, spewed up to 10,000 more material than the Mt Tongariro eruption on August 6, he said.

It was mapped in 2002, showing a 1km-high undersea mountain with a 5km wide, 800-metre deep central crater.

This week, scientists found a new volcanic cone which has formed on the edge of the volcano, towering 240 metres above the crater rim.

They also found one side of the caldera wall is bulging in towards the volcano’s centre, indicating where an eruption may occur in the future or it may lead to an undersea avalanche.

Several cubic kilometres of new material has also been added to the volcano, with large volumes of freshly erupted pumice accumulating on the caldera floor, raising it by up to 10 metres.

“We couldn’t find any biology on the floor and the immediate vicinity has been completely wiped out,” Wysoczanski said.

Fresh volcanic rocks, up to beach ball size, will be brought back to Niwa for analysis.

Tangaroa embarked on the expedition to study the volcanic chain that stretches for 1000km north from Bay of Plenty. It is due back in Wellington on November 1.

• 

  Enlarge Photo

  LiveScience.com/Janet C. Harvey/Axel Schmitt – Projectile point made from Obsidian Butte obsidian, collected west of Palomar Mountain in northern San Diego County, and attributed to the Luiseño cultural te …more 

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Earthquake swarms and a region-wide rotten egg smell recently reminded Southern California residents they live next to an active volcano field, tiny though it may be.

At the time, scientists said the phenomena did not reflect changes in the magma chamber below the Salton Sea. But now, researchers may need to revise estimates of the potential hazard posed by the Salton Buttes — five volcanoes at the lake’s southern tip.

The buttes last erupted between 940 and 0 B.C., not 30,000 years ago, as previously thought, a new study detailed online Oct. 15 in the journal Geology reports. The new age — which makes these some of California’s youngest volcanoes — pushes the volcanic quintuplets into active status. The California Volcano Observatory, launched in February by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), already lists the area as a high threat for future blasts.

“The USGS is starting to monitor all potentially active volcanoes in California, which includes the Salton Buttes,” said study author Axel Schmitt, a geochronologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “With our results, I think this will further enhance the need to look into the system,” Schmitt told OurAmazingPlanet.

Schmitt and his colleagues dated zircon crystals in the hardened lava of the buttes with a relatively new technique, a “helium clock” that starts ticking once the minerals begin cooling at the surface.

Resolving the Obsidian Butte riddle

The revised age solves a long-standing archeological conundrum, said Steve Shackley, emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. Artifacts created from one of the five buttes, Obsidian Butte, first appear in Native American villages around 510 B.C. to 640 B.C. The Kumeyaay people, whose territory ranged from the coast to the Coso Mountains, crafted projectiles from Obsidian Butte glass, he said. “The men produced some of the best in the world,” Shackley told OurAmazingPlanet.

However, for decades, researchers thought Obsidian Butte erupted thousands of years earlier. To explain why no one collected the valuable obsidian, archeologists hypothesized that Obsidian Butte was submerged under ancient Lake Cahuilla, the precursor to today’s Salton Sea. But geologists had long proved that Lake Cahuilla was ephemeral, flooding and emptying over and over again, so the explanation was always problematic.

“If this dating method is correct, then the Obsidian Butte material wasn’t even available, and that makes more sense archaeologically,” Shackley said.

Rifting brings rising magma

In fact, that Obsidian Butte rises above the Salton Sea is what first attracted Schmitt’s attention. A 30,000-year-old butte should have been buried by a combination of sediment and subsidence by now, he said. “It had to be very young,” Schmitt said.

The buttes exist because California is tearing apart, forming new oceanic crust as magma wells up from below. The sinking Salton Trough is the landward extension of the Gulf of California, and marks the boundary between the Pacific and North America tectonic plates.

The lava source for the volcanoes is a magma chamberbeneath the Salton Sea, which also heats water for a nearby geothermal plant. Decay of uranium isotopes in zircon crystals show magma built up underneath the volcanoes for thousands of years before the latest eruption, the study shows. [50 Amazing Volcano Facts]

If another eruption occurs at the Salton Buttes, it will likely mimic past breakouts, Schmitt said. The volcanoes are made of sticky, slow-moving rhyolite lava. At Obsidian Butte, the lava cooled so quickly it turned into glass. However, pumice and ash found nearby means past breakouts started with a bang.

Schmitt said he hopes to study the area in more detail to better understand the most recent eruption. “The amounts of magma involved are relatively small and the impacts of an explosive eruption, meaning an ash cloud, would most likely be very local,” he said. “We don’t know very well how far any ash would have been dispersed, and that’s something I would like to follow up on in the research.”

Researching future hazards

The National Science Foundation’s EarthScope project funds an extensive seismic imaging project in the Salton Sea that may soon reveal more information about what’s happening deep underground.

“We’ll be looking with great interest to see what we can tell from the Salton Seismic Imaging Project,” said Joann Stock, a Caltech professor and an expert on the region’s volcanic hazards who was not involved in the new study.

“I think [Schmitt’s study] is a great contribution,” she said. “It’s an area where we should be concerned. We know that there’s a lot of hot stuff down there,” she told OurAmazingPlanet.

In August, an earthquake swarm shook the nearby town of Brawley. The USGS attributed the temblors to faults in the Brawley Seismic Zone. In September, a sulfurous stench emanated from the Salton Sea and wafted across the Inland Empire. The odor was tentatively linked to a fish die-off, but could also have been caused by volcanic gases, Stock said.

Reach Becky Oskin at boskin@techmedianetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @beckyoskin. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We’re also on Facebook and Google+.

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Submarine eruption from Havre volcano built a new volcanic cone

By

Adonai

The Watchers watching the world evolve and transform

New Zealand scientists investigating an active Kermadec undersea volcano Havre discovered significant changes to the seafloor during last eruption on July 19, 2012. The eruption was captured by a Nasa satellite, and a Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion patrol spotted the huge pumice area on their way back home from Samoa (read our earlier report)

Scientists, aboard Niwa research ship – Tangaroa (deepwater research vessel), used multibeam sonar to map the seamount and found evidence of a new volcanic cone, 240 m tall and reaching withing 1,100 m below sea level, built on the side of the large submarine caldera of Havre. Aside from new volcanic cone they also found one side of the caldera wall is bulging in towards the volcano’s centre, indicating where an eruption may occur in the future or it may lead to an undersea avalanche.

Niwa’s volcanologist Dr Richard Wysoczanski, who is leading the 23-day expedition, said there had been volcanic activity every year for the past decade, but this was the largest by far.

“It is a substantial eruption. Had it occurred on land in New Zealand, it would have been a bit of a disaster.”

The volcanic caldera, which is like Lake Taupo, known to produce large and violent eruptions, spewed up to 10,000 more material than the Mt Tongariro eruption on August 6, he said.

***********************************************************************************************************

Extreme Temperatures/ Weather

27.10.2012

Forest / Wild Fire

USA

State of Kentucky, [Clay County]

Forest / Wild Fire in USA on Saturday, 27 October, 2012 at 04:38 (04:38 AM) UTC.

Description

A forest fire burned nearly 100 acres near the Sattler Branch community in Clay County. Fire fighters responded to the blaze late Thursday. By Friday afternoon, the flames were contained. Still, the fire gave folks who live nearby quite a scare. “It’s about that time of year you have to start worrying, leaves and everything is dry. There’s a lot of trees around here. It wasn’t as bad this year as it was last year; it was real close last year,” said resident Rebecca Combs. Back then, Combs says a forest fire came so close to her home that fire fighters had to hose it down to keep it from igniting. “All we could really see was the smoke this time. It was on the other side so it didn’t get really close, but it was close enough to make you nervous,” Combs said. Combs’ sister says their ailing father lives in the home. She says getting him out of the house in an emergency would be difficult. “He’s wheelchair bound so that wouldn’t have been something fun to try to do. It would’ve been a hassle. We try to think about going over fire evacuations any way, just in case because of him,” said sister Monica Baker. People we talked to in Clay County say the threat of fire is a constant concern this time of year. They say people need to be more careful.

***********************************************************************************************************

Storms / Flooding

Active tropical storm system(s)
Name of storm system	Location	Formed	Last update	Last category	Course	Wind Speed	Gust	Wave	Source	Details
Sandy (AL18)	Carib Sea	22.10.2012	27.10.2012	Hurricane I	30 °	120 km/h	148 km/h	3.66 m	NOAA NHC

Tropical Storm data

Share: Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 12 Storm name: Sandy (AL18) Area: Carib Sea Start up location: N 13° 30.000, W 78° 0.000 Start up: 22nd October 2012 Status: Active Track long: 1,078.30 km Top category.: Report by: NOAA NHC Useful links: Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale FEMA – How To Prepare for a Hurricane Effects of a Hurricane USA – National Hurricane Center

Past track Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave Pressure Source Current position Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave feet Pressure Source 27th Oct 2012 17:31:37 N 29° 0.000, W 76° 0.000 15 120 148 Hurricane I 30 ° 12 958 MB NOAA NHC Forecast track Date Time Position Category Wind km/h Gust km/h Source 29th Oct 2012 12:00:00 N 36° 24.000, W 72° 0.000 Hurricane II 130 157 NOAA NHC 29th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 34° 12.000, W 72° 6.000 Hurricane I 120 148 NOAA NHC 30th Oct 2012 12:00:00 N 39° 48.000, W 77° 0.000 Hurricane I 102 120 NOAA NHC 31st Oct 2012 12:00:00 N 40° 48.000, W 77° 30.000 Tropical Depression 74 93 NOAA NHC 01st Nov 2012 12:00:00 N 43° 48.000, W 76° 48.000 Tropical Depression 65 83 NOAA NHC

Son-Thin (24W)

Pacific Ocean

24.10.2012

27.10.2012

Typhoon IV

300 °

204 km/h

250 km/h

3.35 m

JTWC

Tropical Storm data

Share: Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 0 Storm name: Son-Thin (24W) Area: Pacific Ocean Start up location: N 9° 30.000, E 126° 24.000 Start up: 24th October 2012 Status: Active Track long: 1,302.25 km Top category.: Report by: JTWC Useful links: Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale FEMA – How To Prepare for a Hurricane Effects of a Hurricane USA – National Hurricane Center

Past track Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave Pressure Source Current position Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave feet Pressure Source 27th Oct 2012 15:47:24 N 17° 30.000, E 108° 48.000 19 204 250 Typhoon IV 300 ° 11 JTWC Forecast track Date Time Position Category Wind km/h Gust km/h Source 29th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 20° 54.000, E 105° 24.000 Tropical Depression 83 102 JTWC 30th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 21° 42.000, E 106° 18.000 Tropical Depression 37 56 JTWC

…………………………………..

Navy moving ships out of Hurricane Sandy’s path

Associated Press

WASHINGTON –  The U.S. military will be moving ships from the Norfolk Naval Station region in Virginia out to sea to get out of the path of Hurricane Sandy.

The Navy says 24 of the larger ships in southeastern Virginia bases, including the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, are preparing to leave and will be moving out over the next day or so. The orders affect ships at Naval Station Norfolk and Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story in the Hamption Roads area.

Other ships will be secured at the base. Military installations along the Eastern Seaboard, including Andrews Air Force Base and Langley Air Force Base in Virginia and Naval Submarine Base New London in Connecticut were also prepared to move ships and aircraft if needed.

New York faces most intense storm in history

City would actually benefit from a direct hit, forecast say

By Eric Holthaus

Reuters

Jean Marie Brennan walks along the jetty at Lighthouse Point Park as Hurricane Sandy passes offshore in Ponce Inlet, Fla. on Friday.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — As we’ve all heard by now, there is a big storm brewing on the East Coast. Looking at the latest weather models, that may be a bit of an understatement.

The National Weather Service has labelled the hybrid gyre that may result from the merging of Hurricane Sandy and a Midwest snowstorm a “Frankenstorm.” When it hits, the storm could have truly scary implications befitting the Halloween holiday it will coincide with.

You can read my latest forecast post on this rare menace over on the Wall Street Journal’s Metropolis blog.

In fact, computer models are now showing a storm so intense that it would break 100-plus year weather records for the most intense pressure readings ever recorded throughout nearly all of the Mid-Atlantic region northward into New York City and Long Island.

Every hurricane that has ever hit that area — from last year’s Hurricane Irene, to the “Perfect Storm” of 1991, even the Long Island Express of 1938 — would all rank below this storm should current models of the atmosphere pan out. That’s a stunning conclusion, but one worth pondering, even though the storm’s peak impacts won’t be felt until Tuesday and there’s still time for models to shift.

There’s reason to believe the models may be overdoing it. First off, what’s happening right now doesn’t have a clear precedence in the weather records. Our best available number-crunching simulations of the atmosphere simply weren’t designed for this scenario.

Normally, when hurricanes approach the East Coast from Sandy’s angle, they are pulled safely out to sea by a semi-permanent low-pressure center near Iceland. This time around, that low pressure isn’t there. In fact, it’s been replaced by a high pressure so intense it only occurs approximately 0.2% of the time on average.

The coincidence of that strong of a high pressure “block” being in place just when a hurricane is passing by — in and of itself a very rare occurrence — is just mind bogglingly rare. It’s the kind of stuff that’s important enough to rewrite meteorological textbooks. The result: Instead of heading out to sea Sandy’s full force will be turned back against the grain and directed squarely at the East Coast.

To top it off, an intense early-season snowstorm moving eastward out of the Great Lakes will provide an additional boost of energy to Sandy as it approaches the shore, broadening its windfield, strengthening its rainfall and waves, and increasing its destructive potential. This is truly a Frankenstein scenario — a hybrid of weather badness that is now coming alive.

The Hydrometeorological Prediction Center — the same folks at the National Weather Service that gave Sandy its “Frankenstorm” name — have had to manually adjust their official forecasts to tone down the exceptional scenarios that the weather models are currently showing.

It’s not that they don’t think the worst-case scenario is possible. It’s just that it’s never happened before. As a meteorologist, you have to be very, very careful if you are going to predict a historic scenario.

The storm is still a few days away, so there will be plenty of time to see how new model runs change with the addition of data from future Hurricane Hunter flights before the National Weather Service goes in full bore with an unprecedented forecast. For the time being, those from D.C. to Boston should remain especially vigilant and begin to take preparations to make sure they and their families are safe.

Storm may hit New York the hardest

Because the storm is expected to be so huge, the only reason its exact landfall location matters relates to the direction of the winds. Everyone from D.C. to New England will feel some type of effects, but because hurricanes rotate counter-clockwise, those north of the center will have massive amounts of seawater directly deposited on their shores.

For those south of the center, the storm’s circulation will actually be pushing flooding seas away from shore, lessening potential impacts.

Right now, the most reliable model tracks have clustered in a relatively tight range from Delaware to New York City. Counterintuitively, should the center of the storm make a direct strike on New York City, the city may actually be spared some of the more serious coastal impacts from the storm.

Should the storm continue on its current path (the National Hurricane Center’s most likely landfall is now in southern New Jersey), all bets are off for the five boroughs.

The latter scenario — the one that now appears most likely — would have many feet of ocean water funneled into New York Harbor over a period of up to 36 hours. Unlike Irene, which quickly transited New York City last year as a weakening tropical storm, Sandy may actually be in the process of strengthening when it makes landfall.

The result could prove incredibly damaging for coastal residents and critical infrastructure. Keep in mind that Irene was only inches away from flooding subway tunnels in Lower Manhattan. Storm-surge forecasts for this scenario haven’t been officially released yet, but six to 10 feet in the city is not out of the question in a worst-case scenario.

That result would put about 700,000 people’s homes underwater, according to a Climate Central interactive analysis. Add to that waves of 10 to 20 feet on ocean-facing shores, and an additional foot or so of tidal influence from the full moon, and we could be dealing with quite a mess on our hands.

With National Geographic reporting that sea level rise is already accelerating at three to four times the global rate in the Northeast due to climate change, impacts are expected to be worse than if the same exact storm would have hit several years ago.

Should Sandy veer further north of its current track and make landfall right over the city, storm surge could be dramatically lessened, though the city could receive about double the amount of rainfall — up to a foot or more.

For these reasons, if I were a resident of New York right now, I’d be rooting for a direct hit. If given a choice, I’d take 12 inches of rain over six feet of coastal flooding any day.

Meteorologist Eric Holthaus digs deeper into how weather and climate can affect markets for MarketWatch. He can be reached at wxriskforecaster@gmail.com.

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New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declares State of Emergency as Hurricane Sandy barrels through Caribbean, killing 43

Sandy could be ‘worst case’ superstorm, more powerful than Hurricane Irene; officials will decide Saturday whether to evacuate wide swaths of New York City as ‘Frankenstorm’ approaches

By Kenneth Lovett AND Tina Moore / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Franklin Reyes/AP

Hurricane Sandy leveled homes in Cuba and Jamaica this week and it has been blamed for more than 20 deaths. The storm is marching north towards the U.S., and could slam New York with lashing rain, powerful winds and even snow.

In the face of a potentially devastating storm, Gov. Cuomo declared a state of emergency Friday and city officials considered evacuating as many as 375,000 New Yorkers.

The MTA was also considering a total shut down of buses and subways if the worst predictions about Hurricane Sandy come true.

The deadly tempest, which killed at least 41 people in the Caribbean, according to The Associated Press, is expected to make landfall late Monday night near Delaware.

NEW YORKERS: CLICK HERE TO SEE WHETHER YOU LIVE IN A HURRICANE EVACUATION ZONE

Mayor Bloomberg said he’d make a decision about evacuations in low-lying areas in all five boroughs as soon as Saturday.

“We are taking all the steps that we need to take,” Bloomberg said during a hastily called afternoon press conference on Friday.

Franklin Reyes/AP

Hurricane Sandy blasted across eastern Cuba on Thursday as a potent Category 2 storm and headed for the Bahamas en route to the East Coast, forecasters predict.

Gilbert Bellamy/Reuters

Residents watch firefighters fight a blaze in a private home in Kingston October 26, 2012. The fire, which destroyed the home, was started by a faulty generator used to provide electricity in the blackout caused by the passing of Hurricane Sandy, firefighters said.

“But the storm is moving at a rate that we’re still not going to have a good sense of when and where it’s going to hit land.”

MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota said officials would begin the second shutdown of all buses and subways in its history if winds reach 39 mph.

“Our first priority is always safety, and the MTA is taking no chances with the safety of our customers, our employees and our equipment,” Lhota said in a statement. “We are hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. Whatever happens, we’ll be ready.”

Parts of the subway that are below sea level are particularly susceptible to flooding.

The MTA halted the subways for the first time in its history during Hurricane Irene last year.

Desmond Boylan/Reuters

People walk on a street littered with debris after Hurricane Sandy hit Santiago de Cuba October 26, 2012.

Carl Juste/The Miami Herald via AP

Locals walk across the flooded streets of La Plaine, Haiti after Hurricane Sandy caused flooding and claimed more than 20 lives across the Caribbean.

Hurricane Irene was downgraded to a tropical storm before reaching the city but dire predictions in the days before it arrived triggered mandatory evacuations of lower Manhattan and other coastal neighborhoods.

With some forecasts predicting that Sandy could deliver an even more powerful punch, the city is again considering those extreme measures.

“The thing that we worry about the most is that people decide not to listen to the order to evacuate and then later on find themselves in harm’s way and then our police and fire departments have to put their lives on the line,” Bloomberg said.

City officials ordered construction crews to halt work as of Saturday evening and warned residents to prepare “go-bags” equipped with water and First Aid kits.

Officials were also deciding whether to cancel school on Monday.

Bryan Smith for New York Daily News

Mayor Michael Bloomberg discusses the city’s preparations ahead of Hurricane Sandy’s possible arrival early next week at City Hall on Friday.

Another major concern is “prolonged power outages,” Bloomberg said, and the city is working closely with ConEd.

“There are probably 20 different forecasts tracts for this storm and any one of them could be right,” Bloomberg said.

City Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said the city was asking six hospitals and 41 chronic care facilities, including nursing homes, in the low-lying areas to move patients who could be easily relocated.

nhc.noaa.gov

Hurricane Sandy path as shown by NOAA map.

The city could decide to evacuate the facilities using city buses as it did during Irene.

Cuomo declared a state of emergency for all 62 counties and said at a Long Island event that the state was taking “every precaution possible.”

A state of emergency gives the state more flexibility to help cities and counties. Cuomo also put the National Guard on alert, which makes Guard personnel and equipment available to help.

Julia Xanthos/New York Daily News

Workers from the MTA install plywood over subway grating to prevent flooding expected from Hurricane Sandy near the Staten Island Ferry in lower Manhattan on Friday.

He also said he will call up repair crews and reach out to other states that may have crews available.

The state is also asking for a pre-disaster declaration that would get New York federal aid and assistance, he said.

Carl Juste/The Miami Herald via AP

Residents of Leogane, Haiti find higher ground as the water level continues to rise Friday, Oct. 26, 2012.

Steve Nesius/Reuters

Jean Marie Brennan walks along the jetty at Lighthouse Point Park as Hurricane Sandy passes offshore in Ponce Inlet, Florida on Friday.

“There’s no need to panic,” he said. “We have a lot of time and we’re prepared for any eventuality, but we’d rather err on the side of caution.”

Cuomo canceled plans to campaign in Florida for President Obama so he could stay in New York. He also scrapped a homeland security conference scheduled for Monday in Albany so the 1,000 first responders who planned to attend could prepare for the storm in their home counties.

A host of other events were canceled as the storm loomed, including an exam for specialized high schools admissions scheduled for Sunday.With News Wire Services
With News Wire Services
tmoore@nydailynews.com

Pre-Halloween ‘Frankenstorm’ takes aim at East Coast

FoxNews.com

With a name like “Frankenstorm,” this could get ugly.

Hurricane Sandy, moving north from the Caribbean, was expected to make landfall Monday night near the Delaware coast, then hit two winter weather systems as it moves inland, creating a hybrid monster storm that could bring nearly a foot of rain, high winds and up to 2 feet of snow.

Experts said the storm would be wider and stronger than last year’s Irene, which caused more than $15 billion in damage, and could rival the worst East Coast storm on record.

Officials did not mince words, telling people to be prepared for several days without electricity. Jersey Shore beach towns began issuing voluntary evacuations and protecting boardwalks

Atlantic Beach casinos made contingency plans to close, and officials advised residents of flood-prone areas to stay with family or be ready to leave. Airlines said to expect cancellations and waived change fees for passengers who want to reschedule.

“Be forewarned,” said Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. “Assume that you will be in the midst of flooding conditions, the likes of which you may not have seen at any of the major storms that have occurred over the last 30 years.”

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell declared a state of emergency Friday morning to help mobilize emergency response. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that wherever the storm comes ashore, there will be 10 inches of rain and extreme storm surges. Up to 2 feet of snow should fall on West Virginia, with lighter snow in parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The storm threatened to hit two weeks before Election Day, while several states were heavily involved in campaigning, canvassing and get-out-the-vote efforts. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and Vice President Joe Biden both canceled weekend campaign events in coastal Virginia Beach, Va., though their events in other parts of the states were going on as planned.

In Rhode Island, politicians asked supporters to take down yard signs for fear they might turn into projectiles in the storm.

With a rare mix of three big merging weather systems over a densely populated region, experts predict at least $1 billion in damage.

STORM TIPS

Residents in the storm’s expected path should have a three days’ supply of water on hand, or one gallon per person per day, enough for drinking, cooking and some bathing, Virginia’s Department of Emergency Management recommends, and to combat extended power outages, residents should purchase battery-powered radios and extra batteries.

And if they meet Tuesday morning around New York or New Jersey, as forecasters predict, they could create a big, wet mess that settles over the nation’s most heavily populated corridor and reaches as far west as Ohio.

Airlines are giving travelers a way out if they want to scrap their plans due to Hurricane Sandy.

All the major airlines are offering waivers to customers who wish to reschedule their flights without incurring the typical fee of up to $150. The offers cover passengers flying in or out of just about any airport from Latin America to New Hampshire. Most waivers for travel in the Northeast are only valid Monday through Wednesday.

The airlines have only canceled a handful of flights so far, nearly all of them in and out of Florida and the Caribbean.

They say there will be hundreds of miles of steady, strong and damaging winds and rain for the entire Eastern region for several days. That could produce a bigger wallop than last year’s damaging Irene, which caused the cancellation of nearly 14,000 flights in a four-day period.

Those hoping to fly in or out of affected areas are asked to check their flight status before heading to the airport. Airlines also promise to update their Facebook pages and Twitter feeds with the latest information. To cancel, passengers should call the airline directly. Some airlines also allow changes to be made on their websites.

Passengers can expect cancellations to increase as the storm moves north over the weekend.

“Airlines and other operators generally stop flying to airports in the potential storm path long before winds reach dangerous levels,” the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

Utilities are lining up out-of-state work crews and canceling employees’ days off to deal with expected power outages. From county disaster chiefs to the federal government, emergency officials are warning the public to be prepared. And President Barack Obama was briefed aboard Air Force One.

“It’s looking like a very serious storm that could be historic,” said Jeff Masters, meteorology director of the forecasting service Weather Underground. “Mother Nature is not saying, `Trick or treat.’ It’s just going to give tricks.”

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecaster Jim Cisco, who coined the nickname Frankenstorm, said: “We don’t have many modern precedents for what the models are suggesting.”

Government forecasters said there is a 90 percent chance — up from 60 percent two days earlier — that the East will get pounded.

Coastal areas from Florida to Maine will feel some effects, but the storm is expected to vent the worst of its fury on New Jersey and the New York City area, which could see around 5 inches of rain and gale-force winds close to 40 mph. Eastern Ohio, southwestern Pennsylvania and western Virginia could get snow.

And the storm will take its time leaving. The weather may not start clearing in the mid-Atlantic until the day after Halloween and Nov. 2 in the upper Northeast, Cisco said.

“It’s almost a weeklong, five-day, six-day event,” he said from a NOAA forecast center in College Park, Md. “It’s going to be a widespread, serious storm.”

It is likely to hit during a full moon, when tides are near their highest, increasing the risk of coastal flooding. And because many trees still have their leaves, they are more likely to topple in the event of wind and snow, meaning there could be widespread power outages lasting to Election Day.

Eastern states that saw outages that lasted for days after last year’s freak Halloween snowstorm and Hurricane Irene in late August 2011 are already pressuring power companies to be more ready this time.

Asked if he expected utilities to be more prepared, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick responded: “They’d better be.”

Jersey Central Power & Light, which was criticized for its response to Irene, notified employees to be ready for extended shifts. In Pennsylvania, PPL Corp. spokesman Michael Wood said, “We’re in a much better place this year.”

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday said the city was striking a tone of calm preparedness.

“What we are doing is we are taking the kind of precautions you should expect us to do, and I don’t think anyone should panic,” Bloomberg said. The city has opened an emergency situation room and activated its coastal storm plan.

Some have compared the tempest to the so-called Perfect Storm that struck off the coast of New England in 1991, but that one hit a less populated area. Nor is this one like last year’s Halloween storm, which was merely an early snowfall.

“The Perfect Storm only did $200 million of damage and I’m thinking a billion” this time, Masters said. “Yeah, it will be worse.”

As it spun away from the Bahamas late Friday, Sandy was blamed for more than 43 deaths across the Caribbean. The 18th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season hit the Bahamas after cutting across Cuba, where it tore roofs off homes and damaged fragile coffee and tomato crops. It is expected to move north, just off the Eastern Seaboard.

Norje Pupo, a 66-year-old retiree in Holguin, was helping his son clean up early Thursday after an enormous tree toppled in his garden.

“The hurricane really hit us hard,” he said. “As you can see, we were very affected. The houses are not poorly made here, but some may have been damaged.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

27.10.2012

Tropical Storm

Cuba

MultiProvinces, [Provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Holguin]

Tropical Storm in Cuba on Friday, 26 October, 2012 at 02:49 (02:49 AM) UTC.

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Updated:	Saturday, 27 October, 2012 at 04:35 UTC
Description
The Cuban government said on Thursday night that 11 people died when the storm barreled across the island, most killed by falling trees or in building collapses in Santiago de Cuba province and neighboring Guantanamo province. The Cuban deaths were an unusually high number for the communist island which prides itself on protecting its people from storms by ordering mass evacuations.

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Radiation

Fish Off Japan’s Coast Said to Contain Elevated Levels of Cesium

By HIROKO TABUCHI

TOKYO — Elevated levels of cesium still detected in fish off the Fukushima coast of Japan suggest that radioactive particles from last year’s nuclear disaster have accumulated on the seafloor and could contaminate sea life for decades, according to new research.

Enlarge This Image

Asahi Shimbun, via Getty Images

A broker inspected octopus from Fukushima at a market in Tokyo in August.

The findings published in Friday’s issue of the journal Science highlight the challenges facing Japan as it seeks to protect its food supply and rebuild the local fisheries industry.

More than 18 months after the nuclear disaster, Japan bans the sale of 36 species of fish caught off Fukushima, rendering the bulk of its fishing boats idle and denying the region one of its mainstay industries.

Some local fishermen are trying to return to work. Since July, a handful of them have resumed small-scale commercial fishing for species, like octopus, that have cleared government radiation tests. Radiation readings in waters off Fukushima and beyond have returned to near-normal levels.

But about 40 percent of fish caught off Fukushima and tested by the government still have too much cesium to be safe to eat under regulatory limits set by the Japanese government last year, said the article’s author, Ken O. Buesseler, a leading marine chemistry expert at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who analyzed test results from the 12 months following the March 2011 disaster.

Because cesium tends not to stay very long in the tissues of saltwater fish — and because high radiation levels have been detected most often in bottom-feeding fish — it is likely that fish are being newly contaminated by cesium on the seabed, Mr. Buesseler wrote in the Science article.

“The fact that many fish are just as contaminated today with cesium 134 and cesium 137 as they were more than one year ago implies that cesium is still being released into the food chain,” Mr. Buesseler wrote. This kind of cesium has a half-life of 30 years, meaning that it falls off by half in radioactive intensity every 30 years. Given that, he said, “sediments would remain contaminated for decades to come.”

Officials at Japan’s Fisheries Agency, which conducted the tests, said Mr. Buesseler’s analysis made sense.

“In the early days of the disaster, as the fallout hit the ocean, we saw high levels of radiation from fish near the surface,” said Koichi Tahara, assistant director of the agency’s resources and research division. “But now it would be reasonable to assume that radioactive substances are settling on the seafloor.”

But that was less of a concern than Mr. Buesseler’s research might suggest, Mr. Tahara said, because the cesium was expected to eventually settle down into the seabed.

Mr. Tahara also stressed that the government would continue its vigorous testing and that fishing bans would remain in place until radiation readings returned to safe levels.

Naohiro Yoshida, an environmental chemistry expert at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, said that while he agreed with much of Mr. Buesseler’s analysis, it was too early to reach a conclusion on how extensive radioactive contamination of Japan’s oceans would be, and how long it would have an impact on marine life in the area.

Further research was needed on ocean currents, sediments and how different species of fish are affected by radioactive contamination, he said.

As much as four-fifths of the radioactive substances released from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant are thought to have entered the sea, either blown offshore or released directly into the ocean from water used to cool the site’s reactors in the wake of the accident.

Sea currents quickly dispersed that radioactivity, and seawater readings off the Fukushima shore returned to near-normal levels. But fish caught in the area continue to show elevated readings for radioactive cesium, which is associated with an increased risk of cancer in humans.

Just two months ago, two greenling caught close to the Fukushima shore were found to contain more than 25,000 becquerels a kilogram of cesium, the highest cesium levels found in fish since the disaster and 250 times the government’s safety limit.

The operator of the Fukushima plant, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, said that the site no longer released contaminated water into the ocean, and that radiation levels in waters around the plant had stabilized.

But Yoshikazu Nagai, a spokesman for the company, said he could not rule out undetected leaks into the ocean from its reactors, the basements of which remain flooded with cooling water.

To reduce the chance of water from seeping out of the plant, Tokyo Electric is building a 2,400-foot-long wall between the site’s reactors and the ocean. But Mr. Nagai said the steel-and-concrete wall, which will reach 100 feet underground, would take until mid-2014 to build.

 

 

Fukushima owner says plant may be leaking radiation into sea

 

Volunteers to remove radioactive substances from a fishing boat in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, in this photo taken by Kyodo October 24, 2011. (Reuters / Kyodo)

TEPCO, operator of the Fukushima nuclear facility, failed to confirm that radiation leaks at the plant had fully stopped. This came after a US report that irradiated fish are still being caught off the coast of Japan following the 2011 meltdown.

­The Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) told journalists Friday they could not confirm that radiation had stopped leaking from the nuclear power plant struck by a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. Still, they said that radiation levels in the seawater and seabed soil around the plant were declining.

A recent article in the academic journal Science revealed that 40 percent of bottom-dwelling marine species in the area show cesium-134 and 137 levels that are still higher than normal.

“The numbers aren’t going down. Oceans usually cause the concentrations to decrease if the spigot is turned off,” Ken Buesseler, study author and senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution told the Associated Press. “There has to be somewhere they’re picking up the cesium.”

“Option one is the seafloor is the source of the continued contamination. The other source could be the reactors themselves,” Buesseler added.

Radioactive cesium is a human-made radioactive isotope produced through nuclear fission of the element cesium. It has a half-life of 30 years, making it extremely toxic.

TEPCO confirmed that the radioactive water used to cool the plant’s reactors leaked into the ocean several times, most recently in April.

The plant is struggling to find space to store the tens of thousands of tons of highly contaminated water used to cool the broken reactors and prevent it from a meltdown.

The company managed to collect the water used to cool the spent fuel rods and circulate it back into reactor cores, so the reactors are now being cooled with recycled water. However, groundwater is still seeping through cracks in basement where the reactor and turbine are stored, posing further dangers.

With the groundwater seeping in, the volume of decontaminated water collected and stored at the Fukushima Daiichi plant could triple within three years, TEPCO told the AP.

The accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant was triggered by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake that struck northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011. An enormous tsunami crashed onto the land, resulting in the flash-flooding of four of the plant’s six reactors, shattering the cooling system. This led to a series of oxygen blasts, and a partial meltdown of the reactor core.

The incident was the biggest nuclear disaster in 25 years since the tragedy at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Multiple cases of contamination of air and seawater by radioactive material have been reported. Over 140,000 people were forced to leave an evacuation area 40 kilometers in diameter around the plant. Most of those people are still living in shelters. Full management of the disaster, including dismantling the reactors, is expected to take around 40 years.

 

 

Fukushima ‘running out of space’ to store dirty water

by Our Foreign Desk

Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant is struggling to find space to store tens of thousands of tons of highly contaminated water, it emerged today.

About 200,000 tons of radioactive water used to cool the broken reactors are being stored in hundreds of gigantic tanks built around the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant.

Operator Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) has already chopped down trees to make room for more tanks and predicts the volume will more than triple within three years.

“Our land is limited and we could eventually run out of storage space,” said water treatment manager Yuichi Okamura.

Tepco’s tanks are filling up mostly because leaks in reactor facilities are allowing ground water to pour in.

Outside experts say that if contaminated water is released, there will be a lasting impact on the environment.

And they fear that because of the reactor leaks and water flowing from one part of the plant to another, that may already be happening.

Nuclear engineer Masashi Goto said the contaminated water build-up poses a long-term threat.

He said that the radioactive water in the basements may already be getting into the underground water system, where it could reach far beyond the plant, possibly into the ocean or public water supplies.

“You never know where it’s leaking and once it’s out you can’t put it back,” he said.

He added that the Tepco roadmap for dealing with the problem was “wishful thinking.”

“The longer it takes, the more contaminated water they get.”

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Epidemic Hazards / Diseases

27.10.2012

Epidemic Hazard

Uganda

Western Uganda, [Kabale District]

Epidemic Hazard in Uganda on Friday, 19 October, 2012 at 10:56 (10:56 AM) UTC.

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Updated:	Saturday, 27 October, 2012 at 12:43 UTC
Description
Another person has died of the Marburg viral disease in the southwestern district of Kabale, bringing the total number of such deaths to seven. Lydia Rusanyuka died Saturday morning at Rushoroza health center three after spending less than a week under medical care inside the isolation center. The deadly virus claimed its seventh victim just a little over a week since its outbreak in the district was first reported by health experts. The medics had settled onto the conclusion after samples from two relatives taken to the Uganda Virus Institute had tested positive. Rusanyuka, the mother of a mortuary attendant who also succumbed to the disease had been tested positive with the virus prior to her death. Her son, Jason Tumukunde also died of the same disease. Doctor Patrick Tusiime, the Kabale District health officer has said the deceased will be buried in Bukora, Kitumba sub-county Kabale district today. Meanwhile, the wife of the late Tumukunde, his sister and their eight-year-old daughter remain in isolation at Rushoroza after testing positive.

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Climate Change

Opposite Behaviors? Arctic Sea Ice Shrinks, Antarctic Grows

by Maria-Jose Vinas for NASA’s Earth Science News
Greenbelt MD (SPX)

September 2012 witnessed two opposite records concerning sea ice. Two weeks after the Arctic Ocean’s ice cap experienced an all-time summertime low for the satellite era (left), Antarctic sea ice reached a record winter maximum extent (right). But sea ice in the Arctic has melted at a much faster rate than it has expanded in the Southern Ocean, as can be seen in this image by comparing the 2012 sea ice levels with the yellow outline, which in the Arctic image represents average sea ice minimum extent from 1979 through 2010 and in the Antarctic image shows the median sea ice extent in September from 1979 to 2000. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio and NASA Earth Observatory/ Jesse Allen. View Arctic larger. View Antarctic larger.

The steady and dramatic decline in the sea ice cover of the Arctic Ocean over the last three decades has become a focus of media and public attention. At the opposite end of the Earth, however, something more complex is happening.

A new NASA study shows that from 1978 to 2010 the total extent of sea ice surrounding Antarctica in the Southern Ocean grew by roughly 6,600 square miles every year, an area larger than the state of Connecticut. And previous research by the same authors indicates that this rate of increase has recently accelerated, up from an average rate of almost 4,300 square miles per year from 1978 to 2006.

“There’s been an overall increase in the sea ice cover in the Antarctic, which is the opposite of what is happening in the Arctic,” said lead author Claire Parkinson, a climate scientist with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. “However, this growth rate is not nearly as large as the decrease in the Arctic.”

The Earth’s poles have very different geographies. The Arctic Ocean is surrounded by North America, Greenland and Eurasia. These large landmasses trap most of the sea ice, which builds up and retreats with each yearly freeze-and-melt cycle. But a large fraction of the older, thicker Arctic sea ice has disappeared over the last three decades. The shrinking summer ice cover has exposed dark ocean water that absorbs sunlight and warms up, leading to more ice loss.

On the opposite side of the planet, Antarctica is a continent circled by open waters that let sea ice expand during the winter but also offer less shelter during the melt season. Most of the Southern Ocean’s frozen cover grows and retreats every year, leading to little perennial sea ice in Antarctica.

Using passive-microwave data from NASA’s Nimbus 7 satellite and several Department of Defense meteorological satellites, Parkinson and colleague Don Cavalieri showed that sea ice changes were not uniform around Antarctica.

Most of the growth from 1978 to 2010 occurred in the Ross Sea, which gained a little under 5,300 square miles of sea ice per year, with more modest increases in the Weddell Sea and Indian Ocean. At the same time, the region of the Bellingshausen and Amundsen Seas lost an average of about 3,200 square miles of ice every year.

Parkinson and Cavalieri said that the mixed pattern of ice growth and ice loss around the Southern Ocean could be due to changes in atmospheric circulation. Recent research points at the depleted ozone layer over Antarctica as a possible culprit.

Ozone absorbs solar energy, so a lower concentration of this molecule can lead to a cooling of the stratosphere (the layer between six and 30 miles above the Earth’s surface) over Antarctica. At the same time, the temperate latitudes have been warming, and the differential in temperatures has strengthened the circumpolar winds flowing over the Ross Ice Shelf.

“Winds off the Ross Ice Shelf are getting stronger and stronger, and that causes the sea ice to be pushed off the coast, which generates areas of open water, polynyas,” said Josefino Comiso, a senior scientist at NASA Goddard.

“The larger the coastal polynya, the more ice it produces, because in polynyas the water is in direct contact with the very cold winter atmosphere and rapidly freezes.” As the wind keeps blowing, the ice expands further to the north.

This year’s winter Antarctic sea ice maximum extent, reached two weeks after the Arctic Ocean’s ice cap experienced an all-time summertime low, was a record high for the satellite era of 7.49 million square miles, about 193,000 square miles more than its average maximum extent for the last three decades.

The Antarctic minimum extents, which are reached in the midst of the Antarctic summer, in February, have also slightly increased to 1.33 million square miles in 2012, or around 251,000 square miles more than the average minimum extent since 1979.

The numbers for the southernmost ocean, however, pale in comparison with the rates at which the Arctic has been losing sea ice – the extent of the ice cover of the Arctic Ocean in September 2012 was 1.32 million square miles below the average September extent from 1979 to 2000. The lost ice area is equivalent to roughly two Alaskas.

Parkinson said that the fact that some areas of the Southern Ocean are cooling and producing more sea ice does not disprove a warming climate.

“Climate does not change uniformly: The Earth is very large and the expectation definitely would be that there would be different changes in different regions of the world,” Parkinson said. “That’s true even if overall the system is warming.” Another recent NASA study showed that Antarctic sea ice slightly thinned from 2003 to 2008, but increases in the extent of the ice balanced the loss in thickness and led to an overall volume gain.

The new research, which used laser altimetry data from the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), was the first to estimate sea ice thickness for the entire Southern Ocean from space.

Records of Antarctic sea ice thickness are much patchier than those of the Arctic, due to the logistical challenges of taking regular measurements in the fierce and frigid waters around Antarctica. The field data collection is mostly limited to research icebreakers that generally only travel there during spring and summer – so the sole means to get large-scale thickness measurements is from space.

“We have a good handle of the extent of the Antarctic sea ice, but the thickness has been the missing piece to monitor the sea ice mass balance,” said Thorsten Markus, one of the authors of the study and Project Scientist for ICESat-2, a satellite mission designed to replace the now defunct ICESat. ICESat-2 is scheduled to launch in 2016. “The extent can be greater, but if the sea ice gets thinner, the volume could stay the same.”

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Solar Activity

2MIN News October 26. 2012

Published on Oct 26, 2012 by Suspicious0bservers

Collapsing Atmosphere/Magnetic Shield: http://youtu.be/woVitezc-zU
STARWATER: http://youtu.be/LiC-92YgZvQ

TODAY’S LINKS
Methane Followup: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/24/14670511-climate-changing-methane-…
Saturn Storm: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121025105209.htm
Saturn Storm Visualizations: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-after-effects-saturn-super-storm-video.html
Hawaii Volcano Update: http://news.discovery.com/earth/kilauea-lava-lake-threatens-to-spill-121024.html
Soyuz/ISS Update: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-soyuz-astronauts-docks-space-station.html
China’s Largest Fresh Lake: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/photo/2012-10/26/c_131931543.htm
China NavSat: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/photo/2012-10/26/c_131931037.htm
Italy Quake: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9634929/One-dead-as-5….

REPEAT LINKS
Spaceweather: http://spaceweather.com/ [Look on the left at the X-ray Flux and Solar Wind Speed/Density]

HAARP: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/data.html [Click online data, and have a little fun]

CERES JPL: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=ceres;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0#orb

SDO: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ [Place to find Solar Images and Videos – as seen from earth]

Helioviewer: http://www.helioviewer.org/

SOHO: http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater [SOHO; Lasco and EIT – as seen from earth]

Stereo: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/images [Stereo; Cor, EUVI, HI – as seen from the side]

SunAEON: http://www.sunaeon.com/#/solarsystem/ [Just click it… trust me]

SOLARIMG: http://solarimg.org/artis/ [All purpose data viewing site]

iSWA: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/iswa/iSWA.html [Free Application; for advanced sun watchers]

NASA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov:8080/IswaSystemWebApp/iSWACygnetStreamer?timestamp=…
NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/

US Wind Map: http://hint.fm/wind/

NOAA Bouys: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

RADIATION Network: http://radiationnetwork.com/

NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory: http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/Default.php

RSOE: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php [That cool alert map I use]

GOES Xray: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sxi/goes15/index.html

JAPAN Radiation Map: http://jciv.iidj.net/map/

LISS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/operations/heliplots_gsn.php

Gamma Ray Bursts: http://grb.sonoma.edu/ [Really? You can’t figure out what this one is for?]

BARTOL Cosmic Rays: http://neutronm.bartol.udel.edu//spaceweather/welcome.html [Top left box, look for BIG blue circles]

TORCON: http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-torcon-index [Tornado Forecast for the day]

GOES Weather: http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/ [Clouds over America]

RAIN RECORDS: http://www.cocorahs.org/ViewData/ListIntensePrecipReports.aspx

EL DORADO WORLD WEATHER MAP: http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/satellite/ssec/world/world-composite-ir-…

PRESSURE MAP: http://www.woweather.com/cgi-bin/expertcharts?LANG=us&MENU=0000000000&…

HURRICANE TRACKER: http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/tracker

INTELLICAST: http://www.intellicast.com/ [Weather site used by many youtubers]

NASA News: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/

PHYSORG: http://phys.org/ [GREAT News Site!]

QUAKES LIST FULL: http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/seismologist.php

2MIN News October 27. 2012

 

Published on Oct 27, 2012 by Suspicious0bservers

All Images seen and Information heard here can be found at the Links Below, with gratitude. [Click SHOW MORE]

Collapsing Atmosphere/Magnetic Shield: http://youtu.be/woVitezc-zU
STARWATER: http://youtu.be/LiC-92YgZvQ

TODAY’S LINKS
Fukushima Worry: http://www.weather.com/news/japan-nuclear-water-worries-20121025

REPEAT LINKS
Spaceweather: http://spaceweather.com/ [Look on the left at the X-ray Flux and Solar Wind Speed/Density]

HAARP: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/data.html [Click online data, and have a little fun]

CERES JPL: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=ceres;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0#orb

SDO: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ [Place to find Solar Images and Videos – as seen from earth]

Helioviewer: http://www.helioviewer.org/

SOHO: http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater [SOHO; Lasco and EIT – as seen from earth]

Stereo: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/images [Stereo; Cor, EUVI, HI – as seen from the side]

SunAEON: http://www.sunaeon.com/#/solarsystem/ [Just click it… trust me]

SOLARIMG: http://solarimg.org/artis/ [All purpose data viewing site]

iSWA: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/iswa/iSWA.html [Free Application; for advanced sun watchers]

NASA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov:8080/IswaSystemWebApp/iSWACygnetStreamer?timestamp=…
NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/

US Wind Map: http://hint.fm/wind/

NOAA Bouys: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

RADIATION Network: http://radiationnetwork.com/

NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory: http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/Default.php

RSOE: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php [That cool alert map I use]

GOES Xray: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sxi/goes15/index.html

JAPAN Radiation Map: http://jciv.iidj.net/map/

LISS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/operations/heliplots_gsn.php

Gamma Ray Bursts: http://grb.sonoma.edu/ [Really? You can’t figure out what this one is for?]

BARTOL Cosmic Rays: http://neutronm.bartol.udel.edu//spaceweather/welcome.html [Top left box, look for BIG blue circles]

TORCON: http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-torcon-index [Tornado Forecast for the day]

GOES Weather: http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/ [Clouds over America]

RAIN RECORDS: http://www.cocorahs.org/ViewData/ListIntensePrecipReports.aspx

EL DORADO WORLD WEATHER MAP: http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/satellite/ssec/world/world-composite-ir-…

PRESSURE MAP: http://www.woweather.com/cgi-bin/expertcharts?LANG=us&MENU=0000000000&…

HURRICANE TRACKER: http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/tracker

INTELLICAST: http://www.intellicast.com/ [Weather site used by many youtubers]

NASA News: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/

PHYSORG: http://phys.org/ [GREAT News Site!]

QUAKES LIST FULL: http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/seismologist.php

CANYON OF FIRE:

A filament of magnetism snaking around the sun’s southeastern limb erupted on Oct 26th. The blast created a “canyon of fire” in the sun’s lower atmosphere. Click on the circle to animate the event:

The glowing walls of the canyon are formed in a process closely related to that of arcade loops, which appear after many solar flares. Stretching more than 250,000 km from end to end, the “canyon” traces the original channel where the filament was suspended by magnetic forces above the stellar surface.

As erupting magnetic filaments often do, this one launched a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space. The Solar and Heliospheric Observary recorded the expanding cloud: movie. The CME does not appear to be heading for Earth or any other planet.

Solar activity at low levels with possible Earth-directed CME…

By

chillymanjaro

 

The Watchers watching the world evolve and transform

Solar activity was at low levels for the past 24 hours and X-Ray flux plot shown merely C-class threshold. However, a prominence eruption was observed north of Region 1600.

A bright CME was observed in STEREO Ahead COR 2 imagery at 18:24 UTC on October 27. Latest STEREO Ahead COR2 images indicate that this CME may be Earth directed. SIDC reports that a halo or partial-halo CME was detected.

STEREO Behind COR2 image from 21:40 UTC on OCtober 27 and earlier STEREO Ahead COR2 image from 18:54 UTC on October 27

SOHO’s LASCO C2 latest image is recorded at 11:12 UTC on October 26.

SpaceWeather.com reports that filament of magnetism snaking around the sun’s southeastern limb erupted on October 26. The blast created a “canyon of fire” in the sun’s lower atmosphere. This solar filament launched a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space but luckily, it was not Earth-directed. Stretching more than 250,000 km from end to end, the “canyon” traces the original channel where the filament was suspended by magnetic forces above the stellar surface.

GOES X-Ray flux show mostly quit conditions, only 3 C-class flares were observed during the past 24 hours.

All four visible Sunspot regions (1596, 1598, 1599, 1600) are currently stable. Three low-level C-class flares were observed from behind the west limb, likely from old Region 1594. Region 1598 remained the most magnetically complex region on the visible disk and produced a B9 flare at 12:35 UTC on October 27. Region 1596 has shown signs of penumbral decay, mainly in its trailer spots. There are no large coronal holes on the Earthside of the Sun.

There will be a slight chance for an isolated M-Class flare throughout the weekend. NOAA/SWPC forecasters estimated 15 % chances of M-class event. Sunspot 1598 is the one to watch.

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Space

NASA: Rare, enormous gas storm detected on Saturn

By Todd Sperry, CNN

These red, orange and green clouds on Saturn represent the tail end of a 2010/11 massive storm.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The storm, first detected in 2010, let out something of a cosmic burp
• If on Earth, it would cover North America top to bottom and wrap the globe many times
• The storm also led to a drastic change in the ringed planet

(CNN) — NASA says the Cassini spacecraft recorded the aftermath of a massive storm on Saturn that let out an “unprecedented belch of energy.”

Not only was the size of the storm unusual, but what the storm was made of left scientists puzzled.

The source of the cosmic burp, which rapidly changed the atmosphere’s temperature, was ethylene gas, an odorless, colorless gas that has rarely been observed on Saturn, NASA said.

“This temperature spike is so extreme it’s almost unbelievable,” said Brigette Hesman, the study’s lead author who works at Goddard. “To get a temperature change of the same scale on Earth, you’d be going from the depths of winter in Fairbanks, Alaska, to the height of summer in the Mojave Desert,” Hesman said in a statement released by NASA.

NASA’s NuStar gets first look at black hole at the center of the Milky Way

Scientists still haven’t figured out from where the ethylene gas came.

By comparison, a storm of similar size on Earth would cover North America from top to bottom and wrap the planet many times, researchers said.

The Cassini spacecraft first detected the disruption on December 5, 2010, and has been following it since, but researchers said the ethylene gas disruption that followed the storm was unexpected.

A storm this size happens once every 30 years, or once every Saturn year, NASA scientists said.

Launched in 1997, the Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.

A full report will be published in November’s issue of the Astrophysical Journal.

A COMET IN TROUBLE?

Amateur astronomers have been keeping a close eye on Comet 168P/Hergenrother since October 1st when it suddenly brightened 500-fold, from 15th to 8th magnitude. At the time, the comet was making its closest approach to the sun (1.4 AU). Some observers speculated that solar heating caused the fragile comet to break apart. On Oct. 26th, a group of astronomers found evidence to support this idea. “Using the Faulkes North (F65) telescope,” writes Ernesto Guido et al., “we detected a fragmentation in Comet 168P.”

“Our images, taken on Oct. 26th, reveal the presence of a secondary nucleus, or fragment, about two arcseconds away from the main central condensation of comet 168P.” This is probably a chunk of rocky ice emerging from the haze of gas and dust that surrounds the main nucleus, still hidden inside. Comets are notoriously fragile, so its no surprise that Comet 168P/Hergenrother is breaking apart in this way.

The only question is, what happens next? Will the comet spit in two, with two heads and two tails, one tracking the fragment and the other tracking the parent? Or is this the prelude to a more complete disintegration? Amateur astronomers are encouraged to monitor developments while the comet remains bright enough to see through backyard telescopes. Here are the comet’s coordinates. For best results, we recommend the Comet Hunter Telescope.

Earth approaching objects (objects that are known in the next 30 days)
Object Name	Apporach Date	Left	AU Distance	LD Distance	Estimated Diameter*	Relative Velocity
214869 (2007 PA8)	05th November 2012	8 day(s)	0.0433	16.8	1.5 km – 3.3 km	10.79 km/s	38844 km/h
(2011 UG21)	06th November 2012	9 day(s)	0.1784	69.4	340 m – 760 m	19.73 km/s	71028 km/h
(2010 WT)	07th November 2012	10 day(s)	0.1251	48.7	53 m – 120 m	6.53 km/s	23508 km/h
333358 (2001 WN1)	09th November 2012	12 day(s)	0.1285	50.0	370 m – 830 m	8.73 km/s	31428 km/h
330233 (2006 KV86)	11th November 2012	14 day(s)	0.1876	73.0	450 m – 1.0 km	23.35 km/s	84060 km/h
(2008 LH2)	12th November 2012	15 day(s)	0.1487	57.9	35 m – 78 m	5.10 km/s	18360 km/h
(2001 YM2)	12th November 2012	15 day(s)	0.0860	33.5	440 m – 980 m	9.26 km/s	33336 km/h
(2012 KF25)	15th November 2012	18 day(s)	0.1528	59.5	23 m – 51 m	9.75 km/s	35100 km/h
(1999 SF10)	19th November 2012	22 day(s)	0.0346	13.5	41 m – 92 m	4.08 km/s	14688 km/h
(2009 WB105)	24th November 2012	27 day(s)	0.0400	15.6	59 m – 130 m	18.86 km/s	67896 km/h
(2007 VB188)	25th November 2012	28 day(s)	0.1446	56.3	14 m – 32 m	10.32 km/s	37152 km/h
1 AU = ~150 million kilometers,1 LD = Lunar Distance = ~384,000 kilometers Source: NASA-NEO

 

 

 

Galactic Dinners –
The Milky Way Slowly Consuming Ancient Star Cluster

MessageToEagle.com – Based on current models, galaxies grow by consuming other star systems and the so-called galactic cannibalism process is widespread in the universe.

Around the Milky Way galaxy and in the vicinity of our immediate cosmic neighborhood, known as the “Local Group” of galaxies, traces of spiral galaxies swallowing dwarf galaxies have been known to astronomers since 1997.

Using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, researchers have recently discovered a band of stars, or stellar stream.
It is the first of its kind found in the southern Galactic sky, a region that has been hard to examine due to a relative lack of deep-sky imaging there. Deeper imaging enables astronomers to detect fainter stars.

 

Credits: NASA
This stellar stream, named the Triangulum stream, could be the remnant of an ancient star cluster slowly being ingested by the Milky Way, Earth’s home galaxy.

“The Milky Way is constantly gobbling up small galaxies and star clusters,” said Ana Bonaca, a Yale graduate student and lead author of a study forthcoming in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

 

Click on image to enlarge

M33, the Triangulum Galaxy, is a perennial favorite of amateur and professional astronomers alike, due to its orientation and relative proximity to us. It is the second nearest spiral galaxy to our Milky Way (after M31, the Andromeda Galaxy) and a prominent member of the “local group” of galaxies. From our Milky Way perspective, M33’s stellar disk appears at moderate inclination, allowing us to see its internal structure clearly, whereas M31 is oriented nearly edge-on. The Galaxy Evolution Explorer imaged M33 as it appears in ultraviolet wavelengths. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The discovery will help astronomers reconstruct how the Milky Way’s mass is distributed, further revealing its dynamic structure.

“The more powerful gravity of our Milky Way pulls these objects apart and their stars then become part of the Milky Way itself.”

 

Researchers have previously found evidence of the Milky Way eating up dwarf galaxies.Bonaca argues that the newly found stellar stream is the remnant of a star cluster rather than of a larger galaxy, because the stream is very narrow. “Our discovery is more of a light snack than a big meal for the Milky Way,” says Marla Geha, associate professor of astronomy at Yale and a co-author of the study. “Studying this digestion process in detail is important because it gives us new insight into how all galaxies form and evolve.”

Galaxies are believed to form hierarchically through the merger of smaller galaxies and still smaller star clusters.
Stellar streams form as they are ripped apart by the gravitational force of galaxies.
This process may be the primary way galaxies such as the Milky Way grow in mass, the researchers say.

 

 

A map of stars in the outer region of the Milky Way as traced by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Streams of stars are seen throughout both the Northern (top) and Southern Galactic hemispheres, corresponding to small galaxies and star clusters which are in the process of being ingested by the Milky Way. The newest discovery is designated as the Triangulum Stream. Credits: yale.edu
Triangulum was found by searching a region recently surveyed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III), an international collaboration that is mapping the sky through wide-field photometry.

Bonaca, Geha and co-author Nitya Kallivayalil, a Yale postdoctoral fellow, relied specifically on the survey’s Data Release 8, which included information about vast new areas of the southern galactic sky.

The study is available now on the arXiv preprint server.

MessageToEagle.com via cordis.europa.eu

See also:
ESA’s New Satellite Cheops Will Study Super-Earths

 

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Mysterious Booms / Rumblings

Minor earthquake source of ‘mystery explosion’

By: Meg Rossman

A loud, unexplained noise set off dozens of calls to the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office Friday morning after residents reported hearing an explosion so loud it shook their homes. YNN’s Meg Rossman reveals the source behind that explosion and why there’s no mystery behind that mystery boom.

NIAGARA COUNTY, N.Y. — It was the mystery boom heard ’round the world – or at least Niagara County that caused the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office to field dozens of calls similar to this exchange from concerned residents:

Dispatch: “Niagara County 911 what’s your emergency?”Caller: “…I heard an explosion and my windows all shook.

Dispatch: “You don’t see any fire or anything?

Caller: “No. No, I don’t.”

No fire and no damage but after several reports just after midnight Friday, Niagara County Undersheriff Michael J. Filicetti said deputies went to investigate.”We actually had several units respond down to the, mostly it was the Newfane area, Town of Somerset, Barker area,” he explained. “They checked around and couldn’t find anything.”

But they were offered plenty of suggestions, everything ranging from a sonic boom to a meteor.

“As of early this morning, we still hadn’t figured out what caused it,” Filicetti said.

According to officials at Columbia University, it’s not out of the question for tremors like Friday’s to be caused by landslides, sonic booms or even a meteor. In this case, however, the source turned out to be a 2.5 magnitude earthquake centered in the Town of Barker.

Dispatch: “Niagara County 9-1-1 what’s the address of your emergency?

Caller: “It’s not actually an emergency. I heard that explosion…”

So how do you explain that mystery boom?”They likely experienced a jolt and that jolt would likely set one’s house in motion and I suspect that’s the noise they heard,” Andrew Whittaker explained.

Whittaker, a structural engineering professor from the University at Buffalo, said it’s a common occurrence with minor earthquakes so close to the surface. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the area sits on a fault line and experiences several very minor quakes every few years, though none of any apocalyptic proportions.

“We have no evidence whatsoever that a large magnitude event is around the corner,” Whittaker said.

Mystery solved.

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Biological Hazards / Wildlife

DNR: More than 11,000 deer dead of EHD

Virus will not impact this hunting season

• By Steve Kelso

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) – The number of Michigan deer dead of a virus continues to rise.

More than 11,000 deer that have been reported dead of epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or EHD, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

The disease causes extensive internal hemorrhages, according to the DNR. White-tailed deer usually develop symptoms seven days after exposure. Between eight and 36 hours after the start of symptoms like rapid pulse and breathing, fever and weakness, the deer lie down and die.

EHD is spread by a gnat called the midge — a species that multiplied well in this summer’s drought. It has been know to exist in Michigan for years, but this year’s outbreak is the worst in history.

“It is way worse than any other outbreak. We have had a few that got over 1,000 or maybe over a thousand a few years back, but this is by far the worst we have seen it,” said DNR Wildlife Biologist John Niewoonder.

The hardest-hit areas are in southwest Michigan, a DNR map shows. Ionia County has also seen a big outbreak. There have been 2,244 reported cases there. Kent County has had 1,637 reported cases.

The DNR says that the number of deer dead of EHD is actually much higher than the 11,000 or so reported, but admits that there is no telling exactly how many deer have died.

The DNR had hoped that by October, the numbers would be on the decrease because a hard freeze should kill off the midges.

Hunters should still feel free to hunt, the DNR says, and the agency will not put any limitations on deer hunting this year. But after this season concludes, the DNR will consider numbers gathered from deer check stations as they decide how many permits to issue next year.

“Typically these re-evaluations don’t result in big changes because the population just doesn’t change that much from one year to the next. This year may be different because of the disease. Hunters may notice bigger changes for next year than they normally would,” said Niewoonder.

It is important to put the number of dead deer in perspective. While there are more than 11,000 deer dead from EHD, hunters harvested more than 440,000 last year and an average of more than 50,000 die every year in car crashes.

The DNR says it does not anticipate that Michigan’s deer herd is in danger.

Humans cannot contract EHD. It occasionally infects domesticated animals — usually hoof stock, the DNR says — but they rarely get sick.

—

Online:

DNR field offices contact information

Details on this year’s EHD outbreak and FAQ

Watch video here

27.10.2012

Biological Hazard

USA

State of California, South Lake Tahoe

Biological Hazard in USA on Saturday, 27 October, 2012 at 17:27 (05:27 PM) UTC.

Description
A total of 3 chipmunks tested positive for the plague in the South Lake Tahoe area. California Department of Public Health tested 38 chipmunks and 3 squirrels for the plague during the this month’s surveillance effort, El Dorado County Department of Environmental Health spokesperson Karen Bender said. The department said the results of the tests are not surprising, but do warrant precaution. The plague is an infectious bacterial disease that is spread by wild rodents and their fleas. People can be infected by close contact with the rodents or their fleas. “Risk of transmission is significantly reduced during the winter months because rodents and their fleas are less active when the weather is cold,” Interim El Dorado County Health Officer, Dr. Robert Hartmann said. Cases of the plague are common in mountain and foothill areas of California, but cases in people are rare. The plague can be treated by antibiotics if detected early. Symptoms of the plague appear within two weeks of exposure and include fever, nausea, weakness and swollen lymph nodes.
Biohazard name:	Yersinia pestis (chipmunks)
Biohazard level:	4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:	Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
Symptoms:
Status:	confirmed

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Articles of Interest

 

 

Rocket Explosion:
New Space Debris Cloud Threatens Future Space Missions

 

MessageToEagle.com – ‘Briz-M’, a Russian rocket recently exploded into some 500 fragments. Most of the debris is now, floating in low Earth orbit.

The good news is that the ISS can avoid a possible collision.

The bad news is that this new space junk cloud has become a threat to future space missions.

The rocket was previously floating inert in space after it failed on a mission to deliver two satellites to its intended orbits in a botched August launch. The rocket engine stalled seven seconds after ignition, leaving some 10 to 15 tons of rocket fuel unused in its tanks. On October 16, Briz-M detonated and shattering into hundreds of fragments.

A proton-M rocket carrying Briz-M.
The debris from the explosion was first noticed by Australian astronomer Robert McNaught. Russia is carefully monitoring the fragments, but there is a risk the number may increase further as the space junk pieces collide with each other and break apart, an industry source told Interfax on Thursday.

The space junk poses no immediate danger, but could threaten future space missions. “We just expanded the list of potential threats with new entries,” the source explained.

The debris is spread across altitudes ranging from 250 to 5,000 kilometers.Both American and Russian space experts believe most of the scrap will continue to orbit the earth. Air Force Lt. Col. Monica Matoush, a Pentagon spokesperson, said the U.S. military was tracking debris from the Breeze M breakup. The Defense Department’s joint functional component command for space, known by the acronym JFCC-Space, monitors objects in orbit and issues collision alerts to U.S. government, international and commercial satellite owners.

“The resulting debris field and impact to space objects on orbit are being assessed at this time, however JFCC-Space is currently tracking over 500 pieces of debris,” Matoush said in an email Tuesday. ”

We expect that number to fluctuate as work to characterize the debris field continues.”

The explosion of Briz-M has cteared a space debris cloud that can threaten future space missions. Image credit: ESA

 

“Although some of the pieces have begun to re-enter, most of the debris will remain in orbit for an extended period of time,” US State Department spokesperson Jamie Mannina said in a statement.

The International Space Station orbits Earth at an altitude of about 400 kilometers. The station is not currently on a collision course with any of the fragments, and can be repositioned in the future if any danger arises.

Experts are worried how the debris cloud will affect future space missions.

© MessageToEagle.com

See also:
New Supercomputer Can Prevent Asteroid Impact By Using An Atomic Bomb

*************************************************************************************************************

[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]

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• Forest / Wild Fire USA State of Kentucky, [Clay County] (familysurvivalprotocol.com)

Earth Watch Report – Tuesday October 23rd, 2012

Earthquakes

USGS

MAG	UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s	LAT deg	LON deg	DEPTH km	Region
MAP	3.3	2012/10/22 23:27:33	63.405	-151.294	7.8	CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP	4.7	2012/10/22 23:05:07	-4.860	133.972	10.0	NEAR THE SOUTH COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA
MAP	2.8	2012/10/22 21:50:02	19.130	-64.730	59.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.2	2012/10/22 21:39:45	51.472	-178.154	13.2	ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP	2.5	2012/10/22 21:39:33	56.422	-158.152	73.9	ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP	2.6	2012/10/22 21:38:07	19.387	-155.239	3.8	ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP	4.4	2012/10/22 19:23:04	51.982	-175.044	71.6	ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP	2.9	2012/10/22 15:11:31	18.684	-64.357	81.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	5.1	2012/10/22 14:46:43	2.865	147.691	15.1	FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA REGION
MAP	2.7	2012/10/22 12:37:58	44.910	-125.348	27.9	OFF THE COAST OF OREGON
MAP	4.8	2012/10/22 11:58:24	50.157	156.840	40.8	KURIL ISLANDS
MAP	2.8	2012/10/22 10:46:13	19.524	-64.168	77.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	5.2	2012/10/22 09:56:00	-56.339	-25.749	46.0	SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.6	2012/10/22 09:27:10	38.020	141.889	53.9	NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP	3.6	2012/10/22 08:19:10	58.245	-155.136	6.1	ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP	3.2	2012/10/22 05:26:30	19.664	-64.264	63.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.4	2012/10/22 03:43:35	51.720	176.289	36.6	RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP	2.5	2012/10/22 02:04:22	61.065	-155.867	15.3	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	4.8	2012/10/22 01:43:21	39.083	142.305	66.3	NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP	4.6	2012/10/22 01:02:25	4.220	124.547	319.6	CELEBES SEA
MAP	3.6	2012/10/22 00:49:45	52.669	-169.341	49.7	FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP	4.8	2012/10/22 00:32:11	-16.473	-174.764	37.7	TONGA

---

	MAG	UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s	LAT deg	LON deg	DEPTH km	Region
MAP	3.2	2012/10/21 23:47:35	31.301	-115.584	10.0	BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP	3.0	2012/10/21 23:28:42	19.065	-66.457	38.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	3.0	2012/10/21 23:26:25	52.399	-169.027	29.1	FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP	2.8	2012/10/21 23:03:14	40.310	-124.522	19.1	OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	5.0	2012/10/21 20:44:20	12.655	-88.147	92.1	OFFSHORE EL SALVADOR
MAP	3.6	2012/10/21 20:40:08	40.901	-123.934	21.9	NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	5.5	2012/10/21 20:28:20	12.683	-88.106	65.6	OFFSHORE EL SALVADOR
MAP	4.3	2012/10/21 19:14:21	-5.441	128.202	365.0	BANDA SEA
MAP	2.6	2012/10/21 19:05:23	18.719	-64.368	40.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.7	2012/10/21 16:38:20	27.753	59.395	10.0	SOUTHEASTERN IRAN
MAP	4.5	2012/10/21 16:13:23	24.956	56.139	33.0	NEAR THE COAST OF OMAN
MAP	4.6	2012/10/21 15:30:45	-7.346	128.594	158.5	KEPULAUAN BARAT DAYA, INDONESIA
MAP	2.8	2012/10/21 15:21:02	36.281	-120.840	9.8	CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP	4.3	2012/10/21 15:07:31	19.521	-69.823	17.9	DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP	2.8	2012/10/21 13:54:03	61.786	-152.024	60.3	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	4.4	2012/10/21 13:32:03	10.128	-85.525	41.1	COSTA RICA
MAP	5.1	2012/10/21 11:57:28	53.434	142.634	9.9	SAKHALIN, RUSSIA
MAP	4.7	2012/10/21 11:40:38	-37.617	-73.440	16.5	BIO-BIO, CHILE
MAP	4.4	2012/10/21 10:58:29	38.182	74.130	156.0	TAJIKISTAN
MAP	3.1	2012/10/21 10:51:50	19.045	-63.914	93.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.8	2012/10/21 10:44:16	35.631	-97.214	4.7	OKLAHOMA
MAP	2.7	2012/10/21 09:58:34	19.379	-155.241	3.4	ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP	4.6	2012/10/21 08:43:54	52.208	176.552	31.8	RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP	4.7	2012/10/21 07:54:47	13.783	96.225	30.0	ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
MAP	3.1	2012/10/21 07:51:34	36.307	-120.847	10.9	CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP	3.6	2012/10/21 07:37:47	36.309	-120.849	10.2	CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP	2.7	2012/10/21 07:18:06	19.058	-64.332	56.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.9	2012/10/21 07:18:03	36.306	-120.858	8.0	CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP	2.8	2012/10/21 07:15:12	17.934	-65.782	13.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	5.3	2012/10/21 06:55:10	36.310	-120.856	9.2	CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP	4.6	2012/10/21 06:27:45	21.072	122.075	156.1	TAIWAN REGION
MAP	4.4	2012/10/21 02:41:15	-8.021	108.224	71.0	JAVA, INDONESIA
MAP	3.4	2012/10/21 02:27:11	60.313	-144.676	11.3	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	5.7	2012/10/21 01:25:23	66.296	-18.685	9.9	ICELAND REGION
MAP	3.3	2012/10/21 00:52:32	19.728	-65.603	63.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	4.8	2012/10/21 00:10:36	66.372	-18.554	10.2	ICELAND REGION

---

	MAG	UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s	LAT deg	LON deg	DEPTH km	Region
MAP	4.8	2012/10/20 23:30:06	-5.409	68.581	10.0	CHAGOS ARCHIPELAGO REGION
MAP	2.9	2012/10/20 23:17:14	19.317	-63.807	90.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	6.2	2012/10/20 23:00:33	-13.565	166.601	35.6	VANUATU
MAP	4.8	2012/10/20 22:46:38	49.920	88.493	16.8	RUSSIA-MONGOLIA BORDER REGION
MAP	3.0	2012/10/20 22:38:56	32.520	-115.645	12.4	BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP	4.3	2012/10/20 22:14:56	-17.537	-178.958	515.7	FIJI REGION
MAP	4.5	2012/10/20 21:51:11	6.756	-73.051	165.2	NORTHERN COLOMBIA
MAP	4.6	2012/10/20 21:48:51	-21.486	-66.713	208.0	POTOSI, BOLIVIA
MAP	4.7	2012/10/20 17:31:58	37.471	69.174	10.4	TAJIKISTAN
MAP	4.9	2012/10/20 16:29:51	-3.546	100.573	35.8	KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI REGION, INDONESIA
MAP	2.9	2012/10/20 13:39:50	19.491	-64.202	72.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.8	2012/10/20 10:56:40	2.593	-79.848	10.0	SOUTH OF PANAMA
MAP	4.5	2012/10/20 10:38:20	7.378	91.870	30.3	NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
MAP	4.9	2012/10/20 08:49:39	24.447	122.525	78.8	TAIWAN REGION
MAP	2.8	2012/10/20 07:51:21	18.013	-66.621	14.0	PUERTO RICO
MAP	3.2	2012/10/20 07:28:58	18.809	-64.316	51.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.0	2012/10/20 06:03:41	18.969	-65.828	17.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	4.4	2012/10/20 03:42:06	10.936	-74.136	49.7	NEAR THE NORTH COAST OF COLOMBIA
MAP	2.5	2012/10/20 03:34:17	51.132	-176.232	13.9	ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP	3.1	2012/10/20 03:25:11	61.093	-150.397	37.7	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	4.7	2012/10/20 02:49:16	30.113	130.983	24.9	KYUSHU, JAPAN
MAP	4.3	2012/10/20 00:25:52	-32.208	-71.931	21.4	OFFSHORE VALPARAISO, CHILE

………………….

5.3 earthquake shakes Alexandria early Friday

Al-Masry Al-Youm

other

A 5.3 magnitude earthquake hit Alexandria early on Friday morning.

Hatem Oada, head of the National Institute for Astronomical and Geophysical Research, said in a statement to the state-run MENA news agency that regional seismic networks indicate the tremor hit at 5:35 am, Cairo time. No damages or injuries have been reported.

The epicenter of the quake was in the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Delta. This region is not typically seismically active, Oada said.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

Strong 6.2-magnitude earthquake rattles Vanuatu

AFP

SYDNEY, Oct 21, 2012 (AFP) – – A strong 6.2-magnitude earthquake rattled the South Pacific island of Vanuatu Sunday, seismologists said, but there were no immediate reports of damage and no tsunami warning was issued.

The quake struck at 10:00 am (2300 GMT Saturday) 500 kilometres (310 miles) northwest of the capital Port Vila at a depth of 35 kilometres, the United States Geological Survey said.

The USGS had earlier put the magnitude at 6.6.

Vanuatu lies on the so-called “Pacific Ring of Fire”, a zone of frequent seismic activity caused by friction between shifting tectonic plates.

It has been rocked by several large quakes in recent years, averaging about three magnitude 7.0 or above incidents every year without any major damage.

ajc/jw

Follow thewest.com.au on Twitter

Mýrdalsjökull – earthquakes during the last 48 hours (Preliminary results) Earthquake location   23 Oct 00:15 GMT Time and magnitude of earthquake   23 Oct 00:15 GMT

ICELAND EARTHQUAKE Swarm Oct 19-20. 2012

Published on Oct 22, 2012 by EQForecaster

Biggest earthquakes during the last 48 hours
Size Time Quality Location
5.2 21 Oct 01:25:15 Checked 19.3 km NNE of Siglufjörður
4.9 20 Oct 22:53:46 38.3 116.8 km NE of Kolbeinsey
4.8 21 Oct 00:10:20 Checked 20.4 km NNE of Siglufjörður
4.4 21 Oct 01:03:42 90.0 20.1 km NNE of Siglufjörður
4.3 21 Oct 02:20:01 90.0 27.5 km NNE of Siglufjörður
4.1 21 Oct 00:10:21 90.0 16.6 km NE of Siglufjörður

Icelandic Met Office
http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/

Verdict set for Monday in Italy quake scientists trial

by Staff Writers
Rome (AFP)

A verdict in the trial of seven top Italian scientists for manslaughter for underestimating the risks of an earthquake which killed 309 people in L’Aquila, central Italy, in 2009, is expected on Monday.

“The verdict is expected on October 22,” said Enzo Musco, a lawyer for Professor Gian Michele Calvi who is one of the defendants.

The prosecutor’s office has asked for sentences of four years in prison for each of the seven who were all members of the Major Risks Committee.

The committee met in the central Italian city on March 31, 2009 — six days before the powerful earthquake devastated the region — after a series of small tremors in the preceding weeks had sown panic among local inhabitants.

Prosecutor Fabio Picuti said the experts had provided “an incomplete, inept, unsuitable and criminally mistaken” analysis after that meeting, which reassured locals and prevented them from preparing for the quake.

The experts had said after their meeting that they could not predict an earthquake but urged local authorities to ensure safety rules were respected.

The seven include Enzo Boschi, who at the time was the head of Italy’s National Institute for Geophysics and Vulcanology.

The La Repubblica daily on Friday also reported on a separate case against an engineer who lost his daughter in the earthquake but was put on trial for failing to respect anti-quake regulations in one of his constructions.

Diego De Angelis, 67, was convicted on Thursday and sentenced to three years in prison.

Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
A world of storm and tempest
When the Earth Quakes

LISS – Live Internet Seismic Server

GSN Stations

These data update automatically every 30 minutes. Last update: October 23, 2012 03:49:10 UTC

Seismograms may take several moments to load. Click on a plot to see larger image.

CU/ANWB, Willy Bob, Antigua and Barbuda

CU/BBGH, Gun Hill, Barbados

CU/BCIP, Isla Barro Colorado, Panama

CU/GRGR, Grenville, Grenada

CU/GRTK, Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands

CU/GTBY, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

CU/MTDJ, Mount Denham, Jamaica

CU/SDDR, Presa de Sabaneta, Dominican Republic

CU/TGUH, Tegucigalpa, Honduras

IC/BJT, Baijiatuan, Beijing, China

IC/ENH, Enshi, China

IC/HIA, Hailar, Neimenggu Province, China

IC/LSA, Lhasa, China

IC/MDJ, Mudanjiang, China

IC/QIZ, Qiongzhong, Guangduong Province, China

IU/ADK, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA

IU/AFI, Afiamalu, Samoa

IU/ANMO, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

IU/ANTO, Ankara, Turkey

IU/BBSR, Bermuda

IU/BILL, Bilibino, Russia

IU/CASY, Casey, Antarctica

IU/CCM, Cathedral Cave, Missouri, USA

IU/CHTO, Chiang Mai, Thailand

IU/COLA, College Outpost, Alaska, USA

IU/COR, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

IU/CTAO, Charters Towers, Australia

IU/DAV,Davao, Philippines

IU/DWPF,Disney Wilderness Preserve, Florida, USA

IU/FUNA,Funafuti, Tuvalu

IU/FURI, Mt. Furi, Ethiopia

IU/GNI, Garni, Armenia

IU/GRFO, Grafenberg, Germany

IU/GUMO, Guam, Mariana Islands

IU/HKT, Hockley, Texas, USA

IU/HNR, Honiara, Solomon Islands

IU/HRV, Adam Dziewonski Observatory (Oak Ridge), Massachusetts, USA

IU/INCN, Inchon, Republic of Korea

IU/JOHN, Johnston Island, Pacific Ocean

IU/KBS, Ny-Alesund, Spitzbergen, Norway

IU/KEV, Kevo, Finland

IU/KIEV, Kiev, Ukraine

IU/KIP, Kipapa, Hawaii, USA

IU/KMBO, Kilima Mbogo, Kenya

IU/KNTN, Kanton Island, Kiribati

IU/KONO, Kongsberg, Norway

IU/KOWA, Kowa, Mali

IU/LCO, Las Campanas Astronomical Observatory, Chile

IU/LSZ, Lusaka, Zambia

IU/LVC, Limon Verde, Chile

IU/MA2, Magadan, Russia

IU/MAJO, Matsushiro, Japan

IU/MAKZ,Makanchi, Kazakhstan

IU/MBWA, Marble Bar, Western Australia

IU/MIDW, Midway Island, Pacific Ocean, USA

IU/MSKU, Masuku, Gabon

IU/NWAO, Narrogin, Australia

IU/OTAV, Otavalo, Equador

IU/PAB, San Pablo, Spain

IU/PAYG Puerto Ayora, Galapagos Islands

IU/PET, Petropavlovsk, Russia

IU/PMG, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

IU/PMSA, Palmer Station, Antarctica

IU/POHA, Pohakaloa, Hawaii

IU/PTCN, Pitcairn Island, South Pacific

IU/PTGA, Pitinga, Brazil

IU/QSPA, South Pole, Antarctica

IU/RAO, Raoul, Kermandec Islands

IU/RAR, Rarotonga, Cook Islands

IU/RCBR, Riachuelo, Brazil

IU/RSSD, Black Hills, South Dakota, USA

IU/SAML, Samuel, Brazil

IU/SBA, Scott Base, Antarctica

IU/SDV, Santo Domingo, Venezuela

IU/SFJD, Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland

IU/SJG, San Juan, Puerto Rico

IU/SLBS, Sierra la Laguna Baja California Sur, Mexico

IU/SNZO, South Karori, New Zealand

IU/SSPA, Standing Stone, Pennsylvania USA

IU/TARA, Tarawa Island, Republic of Kiribati

IU/TATO, Taipei, Taiwan

IU/TEIG, Tepich, Yucatan, Mexico

IU/TIXI, Tiksi, Russia

IU/TRIS, Tristan da Cunha, Atlantic Ocean

IU/TRQA, Tornquist, Argentina

IU/TSUM, Tsumeb, Namibia

IU/TUC, Tucson, Arizona

IU/ULN, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

IU/WAKE, Wake Island, Pacific Ocean

IU/WCI, Wyandotte Cave, Indiana, USA

IU/WVT, Waverly, Tennessee, USA

IU/XMAS, Kiritimati Island, Republic of Kiribati

IU/YAK, Yakutsk, Russia

IU/YSS, Yuzhno Sakhalinsk, Russia

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Volcanic Activity

Lava Dome on Top of Mount Merapi Collapses

SP/Imron Rosyid Taufikur

Mount Merapi erupting in 2010. (JG Photo/Boy T Harjanto).

Solo, Central Java. A lava dome that formed on top of Mount Merapi following its 2010 eruption has collapsed, prompting volcanology officials to issue a warning on Friday of a possible deadly cold lava stream on the mountain slope.

Tri Mujianto, from the Merapi mountain observatory in Jrakah, in the Selo subdistrict of Boyolali, said the lava dome had disappeared but he could not say precisely when.

“The dome is now no longer there but we were not able to monitor when it collapsed. Some [of the material] may have fallen inside [the crater] while some may have flowed into the channel of Apu River,” he said.

They have not been able to determine the cause of the collapse, as there has been no rain in the crater area for days. They also haven’t been able to estimate the volume of cold lava in the collapsed dome.

Tri said the alert status for Merapi remained at the normal level but warned that should rains fall over the crater, cold lava stream may flow down through natural river channels. A cold lava stream is congealed lava and other volcanic mud and debris flushed down the slopes of a volcano by heavy rains.

“Entering the rainy season, the frequency of cold lava stream is rising. We have checked the conditions at the craters several times and it appears to still be very much unstable. People on the slopes of Merapi, especially those living on the banks of rivers originating from the peak, should remain alert,” he said.

Meanwhile, Subandriyo, the head of the Volcanology office in Yogyakarta, said that parts of the lava dome facing Boyolali district had collapsed, and ventured that it was due to its fragile condition.

“The collapse was not directly recorded because there were so many small deflagrations. On the scale, they did not even reach one kilometer down the slope,” Subandriyo said.

He warned that rains with intensity of more than 20 millimeters and lasting more than two hours were enough to trigger flash floods of cold lava down the mountain’s slope.

Related articles

Merapi Victims Mend Their Villages and Lives 10:00am Jun 7, 2012

The Hidden Past of Indonesia’s Gunung Lawu 7:11pm Feb 29, 2012

Documentary Tells Stories Of Mt. Merapi’s Impact 6:02pm Dec 11, 2011

Battling Merapi’s Mudflows an Uphill Battle 10:36pm Nov 20, 2011

Hungry Monkeys Eye Merapi Villagers’ Crops 11:04pm Nov 15, 2011

Volcanism in the American Southwest

Contact Information: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey Office of Communications and Publishing 12201 Sunrise Valley Dr, MS 119 Reston, VA 20192

John Bwarie Phone: 626-318-5547Leslie Gordon Phone: 650-329-4006

4

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Experts in volcano hazards and public safety have started a conversation about volcanoes in the southwestern United States, and how best to prepare for future activity. Prior to this meeting, emergency response planning for volcanic unrest in the region had received little attention by federal or state agencies.Though volcanic eruptions are comparatively rare in the American Southwest, the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah host geologically-recent volcanic eruption deposits and are vulnerable to future volcanic activity. Compared with other parts of the western U.S., comparatively little research has been focused on this area, and eruption probabilities are poorly understood.“A volcanic eruption in the American southwest is an example of a low-probability, but high-impact event for which we should be prepared to respond,” said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. “No one wants to be exchanging business cards during an emergency, and thus a small investment in advance planning could pay off in personal relationships and coordination between scientists and first responders.””The goal of the conference is to increase awareness of volcanism and vulnerabilities in the American Southwest, and to begin coordination among volcano scientists, land managers, and emergency responders regarding future volcanic activity,” said Dr. Jacob Lowenstern, one of the organizers of the conference, and the U.S. Geological Survey Scientist-In-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. “This is the first time these federal, state, and local agencies have met to discuss their roles, responsibilities, and resources, should an eruption occur.”The “Volcanism in the American Southwest” conference on Oct. 18-19 in Flagstaff, Ariz. was organized by the USGS, Northern Arizona University, University at Buffalo, and New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, the meeting included interdisciplinary talks, posters, and panel discussions, providing an opportunity for volcanologists, land managers, and emergency responders to meet, converse, and begin to plan protocols for any future volcanic activity. More information about the meeting, including presentation abstracts, is online.

……………………….

20.10.2012 05:44 PM

Sunda Strait, Indonesia

Mt. Anak Krakatoa Volcano

Volcano Activity

0602-00=

Caldera

2009

No. 0

Volcano Activity in Indonesia on Saturday, 20 October, 2012 at 17:44 (05:44 PM) UTC.

Description

Indonesia issued today an official alert at the straight of Sunda for the increasing activity of Mt. Anak Krakatoa. Dense clouds surrounding the mountain blind it from human eyes while fishers and tourists must remain at a distance of two kilometres, said Andi Suardi, head of the watch deport in Hargopancuran. Just 30 days earlier, Anak Krakatoa spewed lava and other material 2,000 meters high above the peak; there have been since hundreds of quakes in the area and black clouds continue to veil the mouth of the mountain. Situated between Sumatra and Java Islands, Anak Krakatoa emerged from sea late in the 1930s and from 1950, growing an average of five meters per year. Science has confirmed another five active volcanos and the authorities have activated the alert in their vicinity, and Indonesia has more than 400 volcanos and some 130 remain active.

***********************************************************************************************************

Extreme Temperatures/ Weather

Wave snatches Polish woman to her death in Spain

by Staff Writers
Barcelona (AFP)

A huge wave dragged a Polish woman to her death as she walked on a Spanish beach with a friend on Friday in a storm that also left a young French man missing.

As the powerful storm smashed into northeastern Catalonia, a big wave snatched away the 37-year-old Polish woman in the holiday resort of Lloret del Mar in the early hours, emergency services officials said.

“She was walking along the beach with a friend when she was surprised by a wave that dragged her in,” said a police spokesman.

Her corpse was found five nautical miles down the coast near Blanes later in the morning, officials said, and she was identified by her clothes and jewellery.

The French man, described only as a young person, disappeared after going fishing in a rocky area of the coast of Roses, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) further north.

Only his fishing rod was recovered.

Emergency services were alerted by the French man’s friend after he went fishing in a rocky area known as Carretera de Canyelles and failed to return, an emergency services spokesman said.

“This morning we found his fishing rod in a rocky area and began a search of the land and sea with helicopters and specialized vehicles,” he said.

Catalonia’s emergency services declared a state of alert on Friday because of forecasts for the weekend of heavy rain, rough seas with waves higher than 2.5 metres (eight feet) and strong winds.

The authorities warned people to avoid breakwaters, coastal paths and beaches affected by the waves.

Storms also beat down on the neighbouring northern Spanish region of Aragon, causing floods in the province of Zaragoza.

Spain has been punished by extreme weather in the past year.

After the driest winter in 70 years, forest fires scorched more than 184,000 hectares (454,000 acres) of land in the first nine months of 2012, the largest amount in a decade, according to government figures.

Related Links
Water News – Science, Technology and Politics

Bitterly cold end to Labour weekend

Bitterly cold end to Labour weekend

New Zealand

While the roads remained clear of any snow, ewes and lambs picked their way through the icy crust

By Hamish Clark

It’s been a bitterly cold end to Labour Weekend, with bad weather sweeping across the South Island.

Snow fell in Canterbury from Lake Tekapo up to Methven, while over on the West Coast, a tornado flattened an old theatre in the northern township of Hector.

The storm arrived at the break of dawn and blanketed the countryside. Temperatures dived in the wintry blast to near freezing – a turnaround on yesterday’s 20degC highs.

Five-to-10cm of snow covered the Canterbury Foothills, falling as far south as Twizel and Tekapo, cutting short holiday-makers’ long weekend away.

One by one, caravans, campervans and boats joined the queue home, although one classic bike was left on the side of the road.

“We have just come back from Twizel on the old motorbike and been in the snow,” says motorcyclist Grant Jones. “I have just blown a head casket on her, so she is on the trailer now until home.”

While the roads remained clear of any snow, ewes and lambs picked their way through the icy crust.

“[We have] few lambing ewes and a few sorry looking lambs,” says farming student Hamish Forrester.

Over on the West Coast, there was not much left of an old Hector theatre and dancehall north of Westport – a tornado flattened it in the middle of the night.

But if Tourism New Zealand ever wanted the perfect promo, this was it – visitors say they loved seeing the snow in Tekapo.

3 News

Central Australia baking in rare October heat

Brett Dutschke, Monday October 22, 2012 – 17:09 EDT Much of central Australia is baking in heat not experienced at this time of year in decades.

Temperatures have been reaching the high thirties each day for about a week, the longest it has been this hot at this time of year in more than 20 years.

Today is Yulara’s eighth day of reaching 35 degrees or more. In more than 20 years of record there hasn’t been a longer run of such heat at this time of year.

Alice Springs has reached at least 38 degrees in each of the past six days, beating the previous September/October record of four days, most recently set in 2008.

Across the border in far southwest Queensland, Birdsville has almost equalled its longest run of 40-degree days for this time of year. Sunday was the fourth day of 40 or more. This is only one day short of the October record of five days, set in 1988. Monday had only reached 39.4 degrees by 3:30pm. Birdsville’s records go back to the 1950s.

This heat has a few more days to go, at least until Wednesday in Yulara and Alice Springs and until Thursday in Birdsville, when a cooler southerly change is due. This change will drop temperatures by about 10 degrees.

Before the cooler change arrives Alice Springs is on target for nine consecutive days of 35 degrees, also a record for this time of year.

– Weatherzone

Today

Snow Storm

China

Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, [Xinjiang-wide]

Snow Storm in China on Tuesday, 23 October, 2012 at 03:30 (03:30 AM) UTC.

Description

The persistent snow and rain hit the northwestern part of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, causing a dramatic temperature drop. This has resulted in the freezing of the road surface on several sections of Sayram Lake-Guozigou Highway, causing traffic congestion in the direction to Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, northwest China.

22.10.2012

Extreme Weather

Zambia

Copperbelt Province, Lufwanyama

Extreme Weather in Zambia on Monday, 22 October, 2012 at 14:32 (02:32 PM) UTC.

Description

A hailstorm has left a trail of destruction, damaging furniture and ripping off roofing sheets at Lumanto Basic School in Lufwanyama. The storm, which happened last Friday, damaged a 1×2 classroom block at the school, whose window panes and part of the wall collapsed. Lufwanyama district education board secretary Hilda Kulelwa confirmed the tragedy in an interview yesterday. Ms Kulelwa said the hailstorm struck when schoolchildren were on lunch break and no one was hurt. “We had a very strong wind yesterday (Friday) which ripped off iron sheets at Lumanto Basic School. The desks are also damaged. The storm struck as soon as the grade nines finished their practical examinations,” she said. Ms Kulelwa said the damage left by the hailstorm will affect the school timetable as some classes will have to be rescheduled until the affected block is rehabilitated. She said the matter has been reported to the district commissioner and the provincial education officer. And Lufwanyama district commissioner Alex Kalela said his office will write to the provincial permanent secretary, requesting for the rehabilitation of the school as soon as possible. “The children are writing their final examinations and we don’t want their timetable to be affected. We are appealing to the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit to quickly repair the roofs before the rains start,” Mr Kalela said.

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Storms / Flooding / Landslides / Tornado

Active tropical storm system(s)
Name of storm system	Location	Formed	Last update	Last category	Course	Wind Speed	Gust	Wave	Source	Details
Sandy (AL18)	Carib Sea	22.10.2012	23.10.2012	Tropical Depression	0 °	74 km/h	93 km/h	3.66 m	NOAA NHC

Tropical Storm data

Share: Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 0 Storm name: Sandy (AL18) Area: Carib Sea Start up location: N 13° 30.000, W 78° 0.000 Start up: 22nd October 2012 Status: Active Track long: 68.44 km Top category.: Report by: NOAA NHC Useful links: Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale FEMA – How To Prepare for a Hurricane Effects of a Hurricane USA – National Hurricane Center

Past track Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave Pressure Source Current position Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave feet Pressure Source 23rd Oct 2012 05:01:30 N 12° 42.000, W 78° 36.000 0 74 93 Tropical Depression 0 ° 12 998 MB NOAA NHC Forecast track Date Time Position Category Wind km/h Gust km/h Source 24th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 14° 48.000, W 77° 54.000 Hurricane I 111 139 NOAA NHC 24th Oct 2012 12:00:00 N 16° 36.000, W 77° 30.000 Hurricane II 130 157 NOAA NHC 25th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 18° 30.000, W 77° 6.000 Hurricane I 111 139 NOAA NHC 26th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 22° 42.000, W 75° 48.000 Hurricane I 102 120 NOAA NHC 27th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 25° 42.000, W 75° 24.000 Hurricane I 102 120 NOAA NHC 28th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 28° 12.000, W 73° 36.000 Hurricane I 102 120 NOAA NHC

AL19

Atlantic Ocean

23.10.2012

23.10.2012

Tropical Depression

355 °

56 km/h

74 km/h

3.66 m

NOAA NHC

Tropical Storm data

Share: Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 0 Storm name: AL19 Area: Atlantic Ocean Start up location: N 22° 18.000, W 51° 42.000 Start up: 23rd October 2012 Status: Active Track long: 0.00 km Top category.: Report by: NOAA NHC Useful links: Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale FEMA – How To Prepare for a Hurricane Effects of a Hurricane USA – National Hurricane Center

Past track Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave Pressure Source Current position Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave feet Pressure Source 23rd Oct 2012 05:00:42 N 23° 0.000, W 51° 48.000 15 56 74 Tropical Depression 355 ° 12 1006 MB NOAA NHC Forecast track Date Time Position Category Wind km/h Gust km/h Source 24th Oct 2012 18:00:00 N 27° 42.000, W 47° 6.000 Tropical Depression 93 111 NOAA NHC 24th Oct 2012 06:00:00 N 26° 42.000, W 49° 36.000 Tropical Depression 83 102 NOAA NHC 25th Oct 2012 18:00:00 N 30° 0.000, W 40° 30.000 Tropical Depression 83 102 NOAA NHC 26th Oct 2012 18:00:00 N 33° 30.000, W 34° 0.000 Tropical Depression 74 93 NOAA NHC

……………………………

22.10.2012

Hailstorm

South Africa

State of Gauteng, [Ekurhuleni area]

Hailstorm in South Africa on Monday, 22 October, 2012 at 14:30 (02:30 PM) UTC.

Description

Ekurhuleni metro police ran for cover as hail the size of golf balls shattered their car windscreens and side mirrors, spokesman Kobeli Mokheseng said. The hail “came down like a ton of bricks” for about five minutes on Saturday between 2pm and 3pm, he said. “Metro police officers who were patrolling… ran for cover following heavy rain and winds blowing uncontrollably,” said Mokheseng. He said metro police were still assessing the damage, and that no one was hurt. The hail appeared to have been heaviest in Edenvale, Midrand, Germiston, Boksburg and Benoni. People took to the social networking site, Twitter, to express their dismay at the damage it caused. “What a scary experience yesterday really bad weather hail were so big damaged my younger sister’s kids playroom,” a Twitter user wrote. “Tennis ball sized hail at our place on Saturday crazy.” Another Twitter user wrote: “Talk about hail damage… 12 windows KO!!!!”. “Every car in the East Rand that wasn’t under cover or was on the road is damaged. Mine has 3 dents on boot,” wrote another person. “My mom’s Clio took a beating… Hail damage all over! It went right through the body work.” The Sunday Times showed a photograph of a Benoni man, Jimmy Sales, inspecting his car’s shattered rear windscreen under the headline “This weather is insane”. The newspaper carried an inset picture of a hailstone almost the size of a cricket ball which was among those which fell at the Glendower Golf Club, reportedly damaging several cars in the parking lot and gouging chunks out of the green.

22.10.2012

Flash Flood

Bulgaria

Province of Burgas, [Varvara and Ahtopol, Municipality of Tsarevo]

Okla. Interstate Reopens After Dust Storm

Associated Press

Dust Storm Causes Big Pile-up

BLACKWELL, Okla. — Transportation officials say a stretch of Interstate 35 in northern Oklahoma is open again after a massive dust storm triggered a multi-vehicle accident.

(Weather Extra: Satellite Shows Blowing Dust in the Plains)

Oklahoma Department of Transportation spokesman Cole Hackett said the 8-mile stretch of Interstate 35 reopened Thursday evening.

Transportation workers had been called in earlier Thursday to close the highway between U.S. 60 and Oklahoma 11. The area just south of the Kansas state line remained closed for several hours as crews cleared debris from the crash and waited for winds to die down.

weather.com

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said visibility was less than 10 feet as gusts as high as 55 mph blew dust over the roadway Thursday afternoon.

No one was killed in the multi-vehicle accident, though Blackwell Police Chief Fred LeValley said nine people were injured.

In a scene reminiscent of the Dust Bowl days, choking dust suspended on strong wind gusts shrouded Interstate 35, which links Dallas and Oklahoma City to Kansas City, Mo. Video from television station helicopters showed the four-lane highway virtually disappearing into billowing dust on the harsh landscape near Blackwell, plus dozens of vehicles scattered in the median and on the shoulders.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Jodi Palmer, a dispatcher with the Kay County Sheriff’s Office. “In this area alone, the dirt is blowing because we’ve been in a drought. I think from the drought everything’s so dry and the wind is high.”

(MORE: The Dust Bowl 2012 vs 1930s)

The highway patrol said the dust storm caused a multi-car accident, and local police said nearly three dozen cars and tractor-trailers were involved. Blackwell Police Chief Fred LeValley said nine people were injured, but there were no fatalities.

State transportation workers were called into to close the highway between U.S. 60 and Oklahoma 11, an 8-mile stretch of the cross-country roadway.

The area is just south of the Kansas state line in far northern Oklahoma. Interstate 35 runs from the Mexican border in south Texas to Duluth, Minn.

A red flag fire warning was in place for parts of northern Oklahoma on Thursday, as is a blowing dust advisory.

The National Weather Service forecast for the area said winds would subside to 20 mph or lower overnight but that gusts as high as 28 mph could continue. Calm winds were expected by Friday night.

The area has suffered through an extended drought and many farmers had recently loosened the soil while preparing for the winter wheat season.

(PHOTOS: Drought Disaster 2012)

“You have the perfect combination of extended drought in that area … and we have the extremely strong winds,” said Gary McManus, the Oklahoma associate state climatologist.

“Also, the timing is bad because a lot of those farm fields are bare. The soil is so dry, it’s like powder. Basically what you have is a whole bunch of topsoil waiting for the wind to blow it away. It’s no different from the 1930s than it is now.”

Steve Austin, a Kay County commissioner, said visibility was terrible.

“It looked like a huge fog was over the city of Ponca City,” he said. “We’ve had dust storms before, but I don’t remember anything of this magnitude in years.”

Flash Flood in Bulgaria on Monday, 22 October, 2012 at 09:57 (09:57 AM) UTC.

Description

There are no flooded and isolated settlements after the heavy rain in the coastal municipality of Tsarevo on Sunday. A bridge has been hit by a tidal wave on the road between the southeastern village of Varvara and town of Ahtopol, municipality mayor Georgi Lapchev said. He added that the road was closed and experts were working to restore the damaged section. He said there was a roundabout route. He noted that Sunday’s heavy rain caused damages and other settlements might experience problems as well.

22.10.2012

Flash Flood

Indonesia

State of Papua, [Panja district]

Flash Flood in Indonesia on Monday, 22 October, 2012 at 09:55 (09:55 AM) UTC.

Description

Flash floods in Papua in eastern Indonesia on Sunday night has displaced over 1,000 people and damaged over 200 houses and other public facilities, an official of disaster relief agency said here on Monday. Spokesman of the National Disaster Management and Mitigation Agency Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said that heavy rains at mountainous area led to overflow of Eranouli river and caused flash floods in Eranouli village in Panja district at about 21:00 pm Jakarta time (1400 GMT). “Over 200 houses and scores of office building have been damaged and about 1,000 people have escaped to higher grounds,” he said. The waters inundated the village by up to 2 meters high, said Sutopo. The waters also damaged a health clinic and a clean water facility, he said.

21.10.2012

Flash Flood

India

State of Sikkim, Chungthan

Flash Flood in India on Sunday, 21 October, 2012 at 10:50 (10:50 AM) UTC.

Description

A flash flood triggered by torrential rain has killed at least nine construction workers and left 15 others missing and feared dead in India’s remote northeast. Karma Zyatso, chief secretary of Sikkim state, says the workers, who lived in camps, were swept away by the swirling waters of a flooded river Friday in Chungthan, a small town in the mountainous region. Zyatso said Sunday that authorities had recovered nine bodies and were searching for the 15 missing workers, who were building roads.

………………………….

Eleven killed, 10 missing in Peru landslide

by Staff Writers
Lima (AFP)

At least 11 Peruvians were killed and 10 more are missing after a mudslide Wednesday slammed into a small village in a mountainous jungle region, officials said.

Those killed in the landslide include five children, Ronald Garcia, the provincial mayor, told RPP national radio network.

The avalanche of mud and rocks swept away 24 homes when it crashed into the village of El Porvenir, in the northern department of San Martin, at dawn.

The head of Peru’s Civil Defense Institute, Alfredo Murgueytio, told the daily El Comercio in an interview posted online that rescuers pulled 11 bodies from the rubble, and that 10 people are still missing.

Mayor Garcia said that some of the missing people may have fled into the hills to save their lives.

“Whole families are missing,” said Garcia. More than 80 families live in the village, he said.

El Porvenir residents are mostly coffee farmers, officials said.

Heavy rain in Peru’s Andean region in recent weeks has triggered several landslides.

Related Links
Weather News at TerraDaily.com

Today

Tornado

USA

State of California, [Sutter, Yuba and Butte counties]

Tornado in USA on Tuesday, 23 October, 2012 at 03:29 (03:29 AM) UTC.

Description

Tornadoes reportedly touched down Monday afternoon in three Northern California counties, knocking down some trees and power lines as a powerful storm blew over the region. Officials said no injuries were reported by the tornadoes, which were caused by the first storm of the season in Northern California. The National Weather Service said preliminary reports indicated that the tornadoes touched down in Sutter, Yuba and Butte counties. The unstable weather prompted the agency to issue a tornado warning for Placer County. Officials said they received reports from residents of toppled trees and power lines and damage to rooftops after shingles were ripped off by powerful winds.

22.10.2012

Tornado

USA

State of Pennsylvania, Fern Glen [Lancaster County]

Tornado in USA on Monday, 22 October, 2012 at 09:47 (09:47 AM) UTC.

Description

Authorities have confirmed that a tornado caused a pavilion to collapse at a Lancaster County park, injuring 15 people and causing millions of dollars in damage. The EF-1 tornado touched down shortly after 8 p.m. Friday and over the next 10 minutes traveled about 16 miles from Fern Glen to Paradise in Lancaster County, packing maximum winds of 100 to 110 m.p.h., the National Weather Service said Sunday. Officials said several dozen people attending a baseball game near Paradise sought shelter at the 40-by-40-foot pavilion, but high winds collapsed it. Police said 10 to 12 people were injured, but the weather service put the injury total at 15. Authorities said most of the injuries were minor; one person had a broken bone. The tornado damage was sporadic and contained within a larger area of straight-line wind damage, weather observers said. Officials said 50 structures were damaged, including several barns that were destroyed. Two small high-tension towers and thousands of trees were toppled. The county emergency management office estimated damage at $3 million to $5 million.

************************************************************************************************************

Epidemic Hazards / Diseases

22.10.2012

Epidemic Hazard

India

State of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal

Epidemic Hazard in India on Monday, 22 October, 2012 at 09:49 (09:49 AM) UTC.

Description
More than 20 schoolchildren, who have fallen sick in some posh localities of the city, are attending their classes, posing a danger to others kids. Teachers suspect students are afflicted with chickenpox. With blisters over body, fever and tiredness, these students are going to school. The parents say they have to send their children to schools as their absence from the school would affect studies and they might miss the chance of writing their annual test because of falling short of minimum attendance necessary to appear in examination. “I know many children who are suffering from chickenpox, a woman teacher, residing in Arera Colony, told TOI. Instead of quarantining such kids, their parents were sending them to schools, which may trigger the spread of the contagious disease, she said. These kids, some from my locality, are from the posh localities, she said. The health officials should take some steps and visit schools.
Biohazard name:	Chicken Pox
Biohazard level:	2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:	Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
Symptoms:
Status:	suspected

21.10.2012

Epidemic Hazard

India

Capital City, New Delhi

Epidemic Hazard in India on Sunday, 21 October, 2012 at 03:43 (03:43 AM) UTC.

Description
Hospitals in the city have reported cases of rickettsial disease caused by tick bites – a rare infectious fever that is common in hilly regions having a tropical climate. Though doctors said the disease “is very rare” in Delhi, AIIMS has reported at least two cases in its paediatric unit over the past six weeks. Serological reports from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) confirmed that these patients were afflicted with scrub typhus, a variant of rickettsia. Doctors at three private hospitals said they had sent samples to the NCDC and received confirmed reports. Serological tests to confirm the infection is not available in government and most private hospitals. The Director of Health Services (DHS) Dr N V Kamat said the city’s infectious disease surveillance programme was yet to be notified about the cases. Dr V K Paul, the head of paediatrics in AIIMS, said: “The disease is very rare and we do not often get patients suffering from the it in Delhi. But we have received confirmation from the NCDC that two of our patients were diagnosed with Scrub Typhus over the past six weeks.” Dr Atul Gogia, associate consultant of internal medicine in Sir Ganga Ram Hospital said: “We have seen 8-10 cases of scrub typhus in the past month. We used to see a case once a year. This year, there has been a sudden jump. So we are sending every suspected, unexplained fever for tests.” Dr Gogia said patients have a characteristic black mark, known as eschar, left by the mite on the body accompanied by fever.
Biohazard name:	Typhus (Scrub)
Biohazard level:	3/4 Hight
Biohazard desc.:	Bacteria and viruses that can cause severe to fatal disease in humans, but for which vaccines or other treatments exist, such as anthrax, West Nile virus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, SARS virus, variola virus (smallpox), tuberculosis, typhus, Rift Valley fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, yellow fever, and malaria. Among parasites Plasmodium falciparum, which causes Malaria, and Trypanosoma cruzi, which causes trypanosomiasis, also come under this level.
Symptoms:
Status:	confirmed

************************************************************************************************************

Solar Activity

3MIN News October 20. 2012: Contact the Australian Bureau of Meteorology re:Buoy 53046

Published on Oct 20, 2012 by Suspicious0bservers

TODAY’S LINKS
OK Dust Storm: http://www.weather.com/news/dust-storm-shuts-down-interstate-20121018
Buoy Event: Google Sidapan Buoy Malaysian and look for recent news.

REPEAT LINKS
Spaceweather: http://spaceweather.com/ [Look on the left at the X-ray Flux and Solar Wind Speed/Density]

HAARP: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/data.html [Click online data, and have a little fun]

CERES JPL: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=ceres;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0#orb

SDO: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ [Place to find Solar Images and Videos – as seen from earth]

Helioviewer: http://www.helioviewer.org/

SOHO: http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater [SOHO; Lasco and EIT – as seen from earth]

Stereo: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/images [Stereo; Cor, EUVI, HI – as seen from the side]

SunAEON:http://www.sunaeon.com/#/solarsystem/ [Just click it… trust me]

SOLARIMG: http://solarimg.org/artis/ [All purpose data viewing site]

iSWA: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/iswa/iSWA.html [Free Application; for advanced sun watchers]

NASA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov:8080/IswaSystemWebApp/iSWACygnetStreamer?timestamp=…
NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/

US Wind Map: http://hint.fm/wind/

NOAA Bouys: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

RADIATION Network: http://radiationnetwork.com/

NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory: http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/Default.php

RSOE: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php [That cool alert map I use]

GOES Xray: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sxi/goes15/index.html

JAPAN Radiation Map: http://jciv.iidj.net/map/

LISS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/operations/heliplots_gsn.php

Gamma Ray Bursts: http://grb.sonoma.edu/ [Really? You can’t figure out what this one is for?]

BARTOL Cosmic Rays: http://neutronm.bartol.udel.edu//spaceweather/welcome.html [Top left box, look for BIG blue circles]

TORCON: http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-torcon-index [Tornado Forecast for the day]

GOES Weather: http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/ [Clouds over America]

RAIN RECORDS: http://www.cocorahs.org/ViewData/ListIntensePrecipReports.aspx

EL DORADO WORLD WEATHER MAP: http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/satellite/ssec/world/world-composite-ir-…

PRESSURE MAP: http://www.woweather.com/cgi-bin/expertcharts?LANG=us&MENU=0000000000&…

HURRICANE TRACKER: http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/tracker

INTELLICAST: http://www.intellicast.com/ [Weather site used by many youtubers]

NASA News: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/

PHYSORG: http://phys.org/ [GREAT News Site!]

QUAKES LIST FULL: http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/seismologist.php

3MIN News October 21. 2012: M9 Flare. 6.6 Quake. Magnetic Instability

Published on Oct 21, 2012 by Suspicious0bservers

REPEAT LINKS
Spaceweather: http://spaceweather.com/ [Look on the left at the X-ray Flux and Solar Wind Speed/Density]

HAARP: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/data.html [Click online data, and have a little fun]

CERES JPL: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=ceres;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0#orb

SDO: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ [Place to find Solar Images and Videos – as seen from earth]

Helioviewer: http://www.helioviewer.org/

SOHO: http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater [SOHO; Lasco and EIT – as seen from earth]

Stereo: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/images [Stereo; Cor, EUVI, HI – as seen from the side]

SunAEON:http://www.sunaeon.com/#/solarsystem/ [Just click it… trust me]

SOLARIMG: http://solarimg.org/artis/ [All purpose data viewing site]

iSWA: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/iswa/iSWA.html [Free Application; for advanced sun watchers]

NASA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov:8080/IswaSystemWebApp/iSWACygnetStreamer?timestamp=…
NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/

US Wind Map: http://hint.fm/wind/

NOAA Bouys: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

RADIATION Network: http://radiationnetwork.com/

NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory: http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/Default.php

RSOE: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php [That cool alert map I use]

GOES Xray: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sxi/goes15/index.html

JAPAN Radiation Map: http://jciv.iidj.net/map/

LISS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/operations/heliplots_gsn.php

Gamma Ray Bursts: http://grb.sonoma.edu/ [Really? You can’t figure out what this one is for?]

BARTOL Cosmic Rays: http://neutronm.bartol.udel.edu//spaceweather/welcome.html [Top left box, look for BIG blue circles]

TORCON: http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-torcon-index [Tornado Forecast for the day]

GOES Weather: http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/ [Clouds over America]

RAIN RECORDS: http://www.cocorahs.org/ViewData/ListIntensePrecipReports.aspx

EL DORADO WORLD WEATHER MAP: http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/satellite/ssec/world/world-composite-ir-…

PRESSURE MAP: http://www.woweather.com/cgi-bin/expertcharts?LANG=us&MENU=0000000000&…

HURRICANE TRACKER: http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/tracker

INTELLICAST: http://www.intellicast.com/ [Weather site used by many youtubers]

NASA News: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/

PHYSORG: http://phys.org/ [GREAT News Site!]

QUAKES LIST FULL: http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/seismologist.php

2MIN News October 22. 2012

Published on Oct 22, 2012 by Suspicious0bservers

TODAY’S LINKS
Central Australia Heat: http://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/central-australia-baking-in-rare-october-h…
Cold/Tornado in NZ: http://www.3news.co.nz/Bitterly-cold-end-to-Labour-weekend/tabid/423/articleI…
Record Lava Height: http://www.weather.com/weather/videos/news-41/top-stories-169/lava-reaches-re…
France Floods: http://www.weather.com/news/france-floods-evacuations-20121021

REPEAT LINKS
Spaceweather: http://spaceweather.com/ [Look on the left at the X-ray Flux and Solar Wind Speed/Density]

HAARP: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/data.html [Click online data, and have a little fun]

CERES JPL: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=ceres;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0#orb

SDO: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ [Place to find Solar Images and Videos – as seen from earth]

Helioviewer: http://www.helioviewer.org/

SOHO: http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater [SOHO; Lasco and EIT – as seen from earth]

Stereo: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/images [Stereo; Cor, EUVI, HI – as seen from the side]

SunAEON:http://www.sunaeon.com/#/solarsystem/ [Just click it… trust me]

SOLARIMG: http://solarimg.org/artis/ [All purpose data viewing site]

iSWA: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/iswa/iSWA.html [Free Application; for advanced sun watchers]

NASA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov:8080/IswaSystemWebApp/iSWACygnetStreamer?timestamp=…
NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/

US Wind Map: http://hint.fm/wind/

NOAA Bouys: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

RADIATION Network: http://radiationnetwork.com/

NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory: http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/Default.php

RSOE: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php [That cool alert map I use]

GOES Xray: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sxi/goes15/index.html

JAPAN Radiation Map: http://jciv.iidj.net/map/

LISS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/operations/heliplots_gsn.php

Gamma Ray Bursts: http://grb.sonoma.edu/ [Really? You can’t figure out what this one is for?]

BARTOL Cosmic Rays: http://neutronm.bartol.udel.edu//spaceweather/welcome.html [Top left box, look for BIG blue circles]

TORCON: http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-torcon-index [Tornado Forecast for the day]

GOES Weather: http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/ [Clouds over America]

RAIN RECORDS: http://www.cocorahs.org/ViewData/ListIntensePrecipReports.aspx

EL DORADO WORLD WEATHER MAP: http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/satellite/ssec/world/world-composite-ir-…

PRESSURE MAP: http://www.woweather.com/cgi-bin/expertcharts?LANG=us&MENU=0000000000&…

HURRICANE TRACKER: http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/tracker

INTELLICAST: http://www.intellicast.com/ [Weather site used by many youtubers]

NASA News: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/

PHYSORG: http://phys.org/ [GREAT News Site!]

QUAKES LIST FULL: http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/seismologist.php

JUST IN: Solar Activity Ramps Up – Warning Issued  

by Mitch Battros – Earth Changes Media

Solar activity has increased to active during the past 24 hours, featuring a long duration M9.1 flare and six C flares.

The M9.1 flare was released by sunspot region 1598 on the east limb of the Sun and peaked at 18:14 UT on October 20th. A high-speed shock wave registered 516 kilometers per second (320 miles per second) observed at 18:15 UT. An associated CME was observed by LASCO C2 at 19:00 UT, but is not directed towards Earth.

Earlier today sunspot region 1596 produced a M1.3 (2003UT), C7.8 (0316UT), and C5.6 (0534UT). Both regions 1596 and 1598 maintain potential for further isolated M-class to X-class activity.

Solar wind speed is expected to increase slightly days one and two under the influence of a coronal hole wind stream. NASA and NOAA has issued a WARNING for high flying aircraft, the ISS, NSSO and NSTAC due to an increased possibility of satellite deep dielectric discharge.

In a flux of high energy charged particles, they penetrate the spacecraft or satellite’s outer surface and bury themselves in dielectric materials such as circuit boards and the insulation in coaxial cables. The buildup of charge will continue until the dielectric strength of the material is exceeded, when a sudden electrical discharge will occur. This miniature lightning stroke can cause permanent damage in the associated or nearby circuitry.

Watch for increased extreme weather events which include earthquake, volcano, tornado, and cyclone activity over the next 48 to 72 hours.

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Space

Earth approaching objects (objects that are known in the next 30 days)
Object Name	Apporach Date	Left	AU Distance	LD Distance	Estimated Diameter*	Relative Velocity
214869 (2007 PA8)	05th November 2012	13 day(s)	0.0433	16.8	1.5 km – 3.3 km	10.79 km/s	38844 km/h
(2011 UG21)	06th November 2012	14 day(s)	0.1784	69.4	340 m – 760 m	19.73 km/s	71028 km/h
(2010 WT)	07th November 2012	15 day(s)	0.1251	48.7	53 m – 120 m	6.53 km/s	23508 km/h
333358 (2001 WN1)	09th November 2012	17 day(s)	0.1285	50.0	370 m – 830 m	8.73 km/s	31428 km/h
330233 (2006 KV86)	11th November 2012	19 day(s)	0.1876	73.0	450 m – 1.0 km	23.35 km/s	84060 km/h
(2008 LH2)	12th November 2012	20 day(s)	0.1487	57.9	35 m – 78 m	5.10 km/s	18360 km/h
(2001 YM2)	12th November 2012	20 day(s)	0.0860	33.5	440 m – 980 m	9.26 km/s	33336 km/h
(2012 KF25)	15th November 2012	23 day(s)	0.1528	59.5	23 m – 51 m	9.75 km/s	35100 km/h
(1999 SF10)	19th November 2012	27 day(s)	0.0346	13.5	41 m – 92 m	4.08 km/s	14688 km/h
1 AU = ~150 million kilometers,1 LD = Lunar Distance = ~384,000 kilometers Source: NASA-NEO

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22.10.2012

Event into space

USA

State of California, Novato

Event into space in USA on Monday, 22 October, 2012 at 09:50 (09:50 AM) UTC.

Description

A gray, 2-inch rock that hit a Novato home is the first confirmed chunk of the meteor that dramatically exploded over the Bay Area, a scientist said Sunday. Lisa Webber, 61, found the meteorite in her yard on Saturday, three days after the object fell onto the roof of her home on St. Francis Avenue. She had heard a strange sound at the time but didn’t think twice about it until she read a Chronicle story saying debris from the meteor would be found in a band stretching east of San Rafael toward Napa and Sonoma. Some have marveled at the potential cosmic significance of the fact that it hit a home belonging to a man of the cloth – Webber’s husband, Kent Webber, is pastor at Presbyterian Church of Novato. The space rock, in fact, had first hit the roof of his study, she said. “It’s just science – and it’s cool,” said Lisa Webber, an administrative nurse at UCSF Medical Center. “It’s wonderful. It’s like the heavens coming down, and history and this thing probably came from an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter – I mean, how cool is that?” Peter Jenniskens, a leading meteor hunter at the Seti Institute in Mountain View, confirmed that the space rock was indeed debris from the meteor that streaked over the sky Wednesday night.”The significance of this find is that we can now hope to use our fireball trajectory to trace this type of meteorite back to its origins in the asteroid belt,” Jenniskens wrote on his group’s website. At the time the object hit her roof, Webber thought the sound she heard had come from an animal that was rummaging on her property. She checked the roof, found nothing, and quickly forgot about it until she read The Chronicle on Friday night. That’s when she went searching through the yard and found a rock. She summoned her neighbor’s son, the two put a magnet to the object, and they stuck together. On Saturday, neighbor Luis Rivera climbed onto the roof and found an indentation left by the meteorite. “The surprising thing about it all is that it’s something from the orbit between Mars and Jupiter, and it ended up in Novato,” Rivera said. “And when Lisa was relating all of this to me, it took a while to sink in as to the odds of this happening.”

…………………..

Russia may build rocket to destroy Earth-threatening asteroids

by Staff Writers
Moscow (XNA)

illustration only

Russia could start building a space rocket capable of destroying asteroids threatening the Earth, chief of rocket and space corporation Energia said Friday.

“There are three large asteroids, including Apophis, whose orbits cross the Earth’s orbit and which could hit the Earth in the next several decades,” Vitaly Lopota told the state newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

To change the orbit of a small planet of Apophis’ size, a 70-ton rocket was needed to “tow” an asteroid away from Earth or to destroy it with a thermonuclear blast, Lopota said.

Apophis was discovered in 2004. It will approach the Earth dangerously close, at about 30,000 km, which is less than one-tenth of the Moon’s distance from Earth, in 2029.

Experts calculate impact of a collision between Apophis and the Earth will be equal to a 1,700-Megaton explosion.

Lopota said existing Russian rocket carriers with RD-171 engines could be redesigned to produce a rocket capable of destroying an asteroid. Energia was ready to build such a rocket within three to five years, he said.

Currently, RD-171 engines made by NPO Energomash have been used on Zenit-3SL missiles employed in the Russia-Ukraine-Norway-U.S. joint project Sea Launch.

“We call them Tsar Engines, which no other country possesses,” Lopota said, referring to Russian artifacts, the Tsar Cannon and Tsar Bell, which were the world’s largest in their time.

Source: Xinhua News Agency

Related Links
Roscosmos
Asteroid and Comet Impact Danger To Earth – News and Science

Astronomers Uncover A Surprising Trend in Galaxy Evolution

by Francis Reddy for Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt MD (SPX)

This plot shows the fractions of settled disk galaxies in four time spans, each about 3 billion years long. (full size chart) There is a steady shift toward higher percentages of settled galaxies closer to the present time. At any given time, the most massive galaxies are the most settled. More distant and less massive galaxies on average exhibit more disorganized internal motions, with gas moving in multiple directions, and slower rotation speeds. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

A comprehensive study of hundreds of galaxies observed by the Keck telescopes in Hawaii and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has revealed an unexpected pattern of change that extends back 8 billion years, or more than half the age of the universe.

“Astronomers thought disk galaxies in the nearby universe had settled into their present form by about 8 billion years ago, with little additional development since,” said Susan Kassin, an astronomer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and the study’s lead researcher. “The trend we’ve observed instead shows the opposite, that galaxies were steadily changing over this time period.”

Today, star-forming galaxies take the form of orderly disk-shaped systems, such as the Andromeda Galaxy or the Milky Way, where rotation dominates over other internal motions. The most distant blue galaxies in the study tend to be very different, exhibiting disorganized motions in multiple directions. There is a steady shift toward greater organization to the present time as the disorganized motions dissipate and rotation speeds increase. These galaxies are gradually settling into well-behaved disks.

Blue galaxies – their color indicates stars are forming within them – show less disorganized motions and ever-faster rotation speeds the closer they are observed to the present. This trend holds true for galaxies of all masses, but the most massive systems always show the highest level of organization.

Researchers say the distant blue galaxies they studied are gradually transforming into rotating disk galaxies like our own Milky Way.

“Previous studies removed galaxies that did not look like the well-ordered rotating disks now common in the universe today,” said co-author Benjamin Weiner, an astronomer at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “By neglecting them, these studies examined only those rare galaxies in the distant universe that are well-behaved and concluded that galaxies didn’t change.”

Rather than limit their sample to certain galaxy types, the researchers instead looked at all galaxies with emission lines bright enough to be used for determining internal motions. Emission lines are the discrete wavelengths of radiation characteristically emitted by the gas within a galaxy. They are revealed when a galaxy’s light is separated into its component colors. These emission lines also carry information about the galaxy’s internal motions and distance.

The team studied a sample of 544 blue galaxies from the Deep Extragalactic Evolutionary Probe 2 (DEEP2) Redshift Survey, a project that employs Hubble and the twin 10-meter telescopes at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Located between 2 billion and 8 billion light-years away, the galaxies have stellar masses ranging from about 0.3 percent to 100 percent of the mass of our home galaxy.

A paper describing these findings will be published Oct. 20 in The Astrophysical Journal.

The Milky Way galaxy must have gone through the same rough-and-tumble evolution as the galaxies in the DEEP2 sample, and gradually settled into its present state as the sun and solar system were being formed.

In the past 8 billion years, the number of mergers between galaxies large and small has decreased sharply. So has the overall rate of star formation and disruptions of supernova explosions associated with star formation. Scientists speculate these factors may play a role in creating the evolutionary trend they observe.

Now that astronomers see this pattern, they can adjust computer simulations of galaxy evolution until these models are able to replicate the observed trend. This will guide scientists to the physical processes most responsible for it.

The DEEP2 survey is led by Lick Observatory at the University of California at Santa Cruz in collaboration with the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., the University of Chicago and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md., conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. in Washington.

Related Links
NASA’s Hubble website
Stellar Chemistry, The Universe And All Within It

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Mysterious Booms / Rumblings

Many in Bay Area heard and saw bright meteor on October 17

October 17 meteor via Wes Jones. Used with permission.

Many in and around San Francisco’s Bay Area heard a loud boom and saw a fireball streaking across the sky on October 17, 2012.

Looking for info on this weekend’s Orionid meteor shower? Click here.

A bright fireball, reportedly with hues of red and orange, streaked across the night sky visible from San Francisco’s Bay Area on Wednesday, October 18, around 8 p.m. local time (3UTC on October 18). Many say they heard a boom, which was so loud it “shook their homes,” some residents said, making them think it may be an earthquake.

If you observed it, you might want to tell someone what you saw. Here’s a place to report your meteor sighting.

Wes Jones in Belmont, California caught the meteor disappearing behind the trees while using a wide-field camera. Image copyright Wes Jones. Used with permission.

Belmont, California astronomer Wes Jones captured the fireball as it sailed across the sky on October 17, just as it was entering the trees.

Here is the capture data for the Wes Jones’ image above:

Camera: Interactiveastronomy Skyeye Camera
Camera Location: 122°16’31.73″ W, 37°31’1.17″ N
Altitude: 17 Meters
Exposure Duration: 30 seconds
File Write Time: 07:44:44 PM PDT 10/17/2012

Click here for live Interactiveastronomy Skyeye Camera feeds.

The video above is raw footage from the security camera at Lick Observatory, located in the hills above San Jose, California. Camera is a little out of focus. Round structure to the left is the 40-inch Nickel refracting telescope dome. Lights in the background are the San Jose cityscape. Video posted to YouTube by Erik Kovacs.

Screen grab from Google maps (not clickable) of area where October 17, 2012 meteorite might have fallen. One expert said it might have come down in the hills north of Martinez, California. If so, he said, hikers might be able to find pieces of the meteorite.

Jonathan Braidman, astronomy instructor at Oakland’s Chabot Space and Science Center, told SuiSunCityPatch.com that the meteor may have been “roughly the size of a car when it broke up over the Bay Area.” He said hikers might be able to find small pieces of the meteorite in the hills north of Martinez, California.

Was the October 17, 2012 meteor seen over the Bay Area associated with the Orionid meteor shower? If it were associated, it would have to have radiated from the same point in the sky as the Orionids. That point is in the the same famous constellation Orion the Hunter, shown here. Can anyone who saw the October 17 meteor tell us if it radiated from this constellation? More about this weekend’s Orionid meteor shower here.

Is the October 17, 2012 meteor associated with the Orionid meteor shower? That shower is coming up this weekend. Although I didn’t see it, and don’t know if its path could be traced back to the constellation Orion – which is the radiant point for all meteors in the Orionid shower – the answer is likely that the two are not associated. Meteors in annual showers are tiny, icy bits left behind by comets orbiting the sun. The Orionids, in particular, come from one of the most famous comets, Comet Halley, which last visited Earth in 1986. The meteor seen over the Bay Area on October 17, 2012 was more likely a larger, rocky meteor, just a random chunk of space debris that entered Earth’s atmosphere and vaporized due to friction with the air.

EarthSky’s meteor shower guide 2012

The October 17, 2012 meteor sighting is reminiscent of another meteor sighting earlier this year, when – on the morning of April 22, 2012 – many in Nevada and California saw a bright flash across the sky, and heard an audible boom, or explosion. The object was later called “a small asteroid” whose estimated weight was some 70 metric tons.

Read more about the April 22 meteor sighting in California and Nevada here

Wikimedia Commons image of a bollide or fireball – a piece of space debris entering Earth’s atmosphere and causing a particularly bright streak across the sky.

Astronomers use the word bolide to describe an exceptionally bright fireball such as this one. The term bolide – which comes the Greek word bolis, meaning a missile or to flash – is particularly applicable when the object is so bright it can be seen in broad daylight, when the object explodes in the atmosphere and when it creates audible sounds. In other words, all of these phenomena are known to occur, and astronomers even have a word for it.

Bright meteors or bollides were also seen in the U.K. and New Zealand in 2012. They are not uncommon, if you are considering the entire globe.

However, from any one spot on Earth, they are uncommon, Among astronomers, it’s sometimes said you might witness one bolide, or very bright fireball, in your lifetime. So if you saw this one, this was yours!

Bottom line: Many in San Francisco’s Bay Area saw an exceptionally bright meteor, and heard a loud boom, on the night of October 17, 2012. Photo and video in this post, plus information on the Orionid meteor shower, which peaks on the morning of October 21.

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Biological Hazards / Wildlife / Environmental Pollution

23.10.2012

Biological Hazard

USA

State of Florida, [Collier County beaches]

Biological Hazard in USA on Thursday, 18 October, 2012 at 14:33 (02:33 PM) UTC.

Back

Updated:	Tuesday, 23 October, 2012 at 03:43 UTC
Description
Concentrations of red tide have been detected from Charlotte County to Collier County. Hundreds of dead fish are washing ashore and a foul odor now fills the air at many beaches throughout Southwest Florida. Many residents and visitors are hoping that red tide is on its way out of town, but at Wiggins Pass State Park in Collier County, things aren’t looking too great. Thousands of dead fish remain in sight. But beachgoers we spoke with said they aren’t letting the toxic algae ruin their fun. “This is the first time I’ve seen this,” said Karl Udo, who has been visiting Southwest Florida from Germany for over 20 years. “It’s no good.” The toxic algae started to wash through Collier County beaches just last week, carrying with it the unpleasant stench. “You got to breathe through your mouth. So don’t take deep breaths through your nose,” said Liz Koch, who is visiting from Chicago. The latest tests done by county officials show that red tide is at medium levels throughout some of Collier’s beaches. The toxin can cause respiratory irritation, a concern for county officials with tourist season in sight.

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21.10.2012

Environment Pollution

USA

State of New Mexico, [Kirtland Air Force Base]

Environment Pollution in USA on Sunday, 21 October, 2012 at 04:00 (04:00 AM) UTC.

Description

Crews working on an old Air Force fuel spill have found potentially cancer-causing chemicals beneath a southeast Albuquerque neighborhood, Kirtland Air Force Base announced. The New Mexico Environment Department said Friday that Air Force crews found the pollutant Perchloroethylene, or PCE, in water around 500 feet underground while installing test wells. However, officials say they don’t believe the recently discovered pollutant is connected to a decades-old Kirtland Air Force Base jet fuel spill threatening Albuquerque’s water supply that could be as large as 24 million gallons. Davis tsaid that the chemicals likely came from a dry cleaner. Jim Davis, head of New Mexico Environment Department Resource Protection, told reporters that the chemical is threatening groundwater and not residents in the neighborhood above the contamination. Still, the discovery could trigger action under the federal Superfund law, a program aimed at the nation’s most serious hazardous chemical contamination problems. New Mexico Environment Department Secretary David Martin praised crews for making the discovery.The department has launched a probe to see if any businesses that used PCE were located in the vicinity of the well clusters in the past. The Air Force is two years away from finalizing a cleanup plan in connection with a toxin-laden plume from a 40-year underground pipe leak was discovered at Kirtland Air Force Base. The spill was first discovered in 1999 when the Air Force noticed a pool of fuel coming up out of the ground at its old aircraft fuel storage center, which dates back to the 1950s. Air Force officials say the fuel was leaking from an underground pipe for at least 40 years as tests on elements in the plume — which contains the cancer-causing Benzyne and other harmful toxins — show it dates back to at least the 1970s. Less than half a million gallons have been pumped out of the ground.

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[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]

Earth Watch Report – Friday October 19th, 2012

Earthquakes

USGS

MAG	UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s	LAT deg	LON deg	DEPTH km	Region
MAP	2.5	2012/10/18 23:22:28	59.663	-151.391	54.3	KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA
MAP	4.8	2012/10/18 21:24:22	-62.721	155.813	10.0	BALLENY ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.5	2012/10/18 17:38:48	61.168	-147.125	7.8	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	2.5	2012/10/18 17:26:30	62.549	-149.949	65.5	CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP	4.9	2012/10/18 16:26:50	-0.121	125.563	20.0	MOLUCCA SEA
MAP	2.9	2012/10/18 15:50:07	60.587	-149.625	68.6	KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA
MAP	2.6	2012/10/18 12:31:40	18.609	-65.649	77.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	2.7	2012/10/18 12:14:52	19.377	-155.240	3.5	ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP	4.5	2012/10/18 11:26:42	-20.598	-178.360	545.7	FIJI REGION
MAP	4.5	2012/10/18 09:00:05	-6.505	98.031	14.9	SOUTHWEST OF SUMATRA, INDONESIA
MAP	4.6	2012/10/18 08:38:35	39.321	-29.875	10.0	AZORES ISLANDS, PORTUGAL
MAP	3.3	2012/10/18 07:10:26	19.631	-64.224	61.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.6	2012/10/18 05:23:14	-34.689	-71.906	43.0	LIBERTADOR O’HIGGINS, CHILE
MAP	3.6	2012/10/18 05:21:11	42.217	-101.978	5.0	NEBRASKA
MAP	2.9	2012/10/18 04:56:45	51.655	-175.225	37.4	ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP	4.6	2012/10/18 04:32:32	53.391	-35.141	9.7	REYKJANES RIDGE
MAP	5.1	2012/10/18 04:14:32	-8.098	123.597	32.7	FLORES REGION, INDONESIA
MAP	2.6	2012/10/18 03:37:04	63.280	-151.086	5.4	CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP	2.5	2012/10/18 03:10:20	19.383	-155.241	2.0	ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP	5.0	2012/10/18 02:33:29	23.855	81.294	14.8	MADHYA PRADESH, INDIA
MAP	5.7	2012/10/18 01:27:15	-54.273	143.919	10.2	WEST OF MACQUARIE ISLAND
MAP	4.6	2012/10/18 00:35:12	48.330	154.451	48.2	KURIL ISLANDS

---

	MAG	UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s	LAT deg	LON deg	DEPTH km	Region
MAP	3.1	2012/10/17 22:43:02	19.671	-64.358	34.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.1	2012/10/17 21:21:35	59.627	-150.866	32.2	KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA
MAP	2.8	2012/10/17 20:50:43	68.444	-144.526	9.8	NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP	5.0	2012/10/17 19:38:56	1.301	97.229	35.2	NIAS REGION, INDONESIA
MAP	2.8	2012/10/17 18:40:49	64.048	-148.951	15.2	CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP	2.6	2012/10/17 18:34:00	38.718	-112.566	0.1	UTAH
MAP	2.9	2012/10/17 18:23:03	18.804	-64.129	36.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.1	2012/10/17 17:42:45	51.540	-174.965	31.9	ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP	5.5	2012/10/17 17:23:42	-19.011	-174.162	29.8	TONGA
MAP	4.7	2012/10/17 15:58:56	-1.124	126.870	39.2	KEPULAUAN SULA, INDONESIA
MAP	2.6	2012/10/17 15:37:42	19.062	-66.355	62.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	5.0	2012/10/17 14:50:00	-14.946	-173.713	29.5	SAMOA ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.5	2012/10/17 11:32:18	36.465	-121.035	5.0	CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP	2.9	2012/10/17 11:08:54	35.748	-113.088	4.9	ARIZONA
MAP	2.9	2012/10/17 09:40:32	18.774	-64.872	30.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.9	2012/10/17 09:39:04	50.146	179.994	31.2	RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP	3.2	2012/10/17 09:33:01	65.430	-147.984	34.4	NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP	2.8	2012/10/17 09:27:05	65.396	-148.033	25.7	NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP	2.6	2012/10/17 08:24:24	65.608	-148.096	0.2	NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP	2.5	2012/10/17 08:19:43	65.475	-148.003	17.3	NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP	2.5	2012/10/17 08:09:53	52.054	-173.369	45.3	ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP	2.8	2012/10/17 07:23:38	45.273	-112.791	12.1	WESTERN MONTANA
MAP	2.5	2012/10/17 07:02:01	52.626	-167.031	6.5	FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP	2.9	2012/10/17 07:00:26	50.223	179.099	31.5	RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP	2.8	2012/10/17 06:36:12	19.354	-155.213	1.0	ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP	4.8	2012/10/17 05:49:23	-4.885	151.624	153.0	NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
MAP	2.9	2012/10/17 05:48:03	19.184	-64.839	24.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.2	2012/10/17 04:42:40	35.678	-97.115	5.0	OKLAHOMA
MAP	6.0	2012/10/17 04:42:31	4.191	124.573	337.4	CELEBES SEA
MAP	2.5	2012/10/17 03:50:16	40.898	-124.552	16.7	OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	4.7	2012/10/17 03:30:47	18.707	-70.873	12.7	DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
MAP	2.7	2012/10/17 02:57:32	32.483	-96.960	12.1	NORTHERN TEXAS
MAP	4.5	2012/10/17 02:55:22	12.428	-88.853	35.2	OFFSHORE EL SALVADOR
MAP	3.4	2012/10/17 02:50:27	18.081	-68.135	90.0	MONA PASSAGE, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
MAP	3.1	2012/10/17 02:12:44	19.096	-66.773	23.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	4.4	2012/10/17 01:26:41	14.155	-91.187	62.0	GUATEMALA
MAP	4.5	2012/10/17 00:44:05	36.705	140.291	54.2	NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP	3.2	2012/10/17 00:36:57	65.040	-152.191	17.1	NORTHERN ALASKA

---

	MAG	UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s	LAT deg	LON deg	DEPTH km	Region
MAP	5.7	2012/10/16 23:42:55	-38.538	176.117	103.9	NORTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND
MAP	4.0	2012/10/16 23:12:23	43.592	-70.676	6.6	MAINE
MAP	2.9	2012/10/16 21:31:01	19.064	-66.397	55.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	2.6	2012/10/16 21:23:20	18.149	-68.491	66.0	MONA PASSAGE, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
MAP	4.4	2012/10/16 19:19:34	36.760	71.299	172.7	HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
MAP	4.2	2012/10/16 19:03:23	16.158	-61.966	174.4	GUADELOUPE REGION, LEEWARD ISLANDS
MAP	4.8	2012/10/16 17:51:59	-5.500	147.137	225.6	EASTERN NEW GUINEA REG, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
MAP	2.6	2012/10/16 15:59:09	18.043	-65.489	17.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	2.8	2012/10/16 15:37:15	39.353	-118.100	12.6	NEVADA
MAP	4.9	2012/10/16 15:10:59	39.749	15.550	260.3	SOUTHERN ITALY
MAP	2.9	2012/10/16 15:03:24	19.180	-64.841	67.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.5	2012/10/16 14:36:33	61.735	-150.780	59.3	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	4.5	2012/10/16 13:50:00	16.216	-94.023	96.4	CHIAPAS, MEXICO
MAP	5.3	2012/10/16 13:39:26	31.221	130.192	168.3	KYUSHU, JAPAN
MAP	4.7	2012/10/16 13:07:14	48.228	154.538	58.6	KURIL ISLANDS
MAP	5.6	2012/10/16 12:41:24	49.569	156.526	64.7	KURIL ISLANDS
MAP	2.5	2012/10/16 12:39:36	19.383	-155.244	3.7	ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP	2.7	2012/10/16 12:36:19	18.011	-67.624	35.0	MONA PASSAGE, PUERTO RICO
MAP	4.9	2012/10/16 12:31:07	32.946	141.354	43.7	IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP	2.7	2012/10/16 11:38:19	51.868	-175.141	66.2	ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP	2.7	2012/10/16 11:17:56	19.381	-155.244	3.7	ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP	4.6	2012/10/16 10:25:20	37.459	35.689	26.6	CENTRAL TURKEY
MAP	2.6	2012/10/16 07:28:24	63.377	-152.266	8.0	CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP	2.9	2012/10/16 06:22:46	42.252	-124.793	24.6	OFFSHORE OREGON
MAP	2.7	2012/10/16 05:32:31	60.737	-150.114	93.7	KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA
MAP	2.5	2012/10/16 04:30:45	34.822	-121.050	2.8	OFFSHORE CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP	4.5	2012/10/16 04:15:34	38.268	46.960	32.4	NORTHWESTERN IRAN
MAP	5.4	2012/10/16 02:03:29	31.289	140.288	102.6	IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP	4.4	2012/10/16 01:16:04	37.273	37.083	5.1	CENTRAL TURKEY
MAP	5.0	2012/10/16 00:16:42	-36.828	78.729	9.8	MID-INDIAN RIDGE
MAP	3.4	2012/10/16 00:02:11	62.223	-145.689	16.0	CENTRAL ALASKA

………………………….

Dominican Republic Shaken by 4.7-Magnitude Earthquake Near Constanza

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The Dominican Republic was shaken by its second earthquake since Sunday on Tuesday night, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The quake had a magnitude of 4.7 on the Richter scale, according to the USGS.

The epicentre was about 26 kilometres south-southwest of Constanza in La Vega, and 31 kilometres north-northwest of Azua.

It occurred at approximately 10:30 PM local time.

Light shaking was felt across the Dominican Republic, including in Peralta in Azul and in the capital, Santo Domingo.

The quake came just a few days after a 4.4-magnitude quake on Sunday off the coast of Samana on the country’s northern peninsula.

This one was towards the southern portion of the Dominican Republic, west of the capital, and far east of the border of Haiti.

It was not yet clear if any damage or injuries had been reported.

Earthquake hits Boston and Maine

The 4.5 magnitude earthquake was centered near Lake Arrowhead in Maine.

Talia Ralph

An earthquake in Southern Maine reverberated all the way to the Boston metropolitan area at 7:12 p.m. Tuesday evening.

“Notice how it seemed to kind of ‘roll’ through, shaking momentarily but kind of coming in a wave,” New England Sports Network, based in Boston, reported of feeling the quake.

Registering at a 4.5 magnitude, the temblor was centered 3.7 miles Maine’s Lake Arrowhead, Reuters reported.

There were no reported injuries or damage.

Maine has experienced over 80 earthquakes since 1997, according to the state’s Bureau of Geology. The state’s most serious earthquake was in 1904. It registered as a 5.1 on the Richter scale, and was felt through most of New England and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

4.0-M earthquake centered in ME shakes New England

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — An earthquake that hit southern Maine Tuesday night rattled nearby New England states as far as Connecticut, including the Boston area, but caused no injuries or apparent damage.

The U.S. Geological Survey at first estimated the 7:12 p.m. quake as a 4.6 magnitude, but later downgraded that to 4.0. The epicenter, about 3 miles west of Hollis Center, Maine, is about 3 miles deep. That location is about 20 miles west of Portland.

About 10 miles away in Waterboro, about 20 customers and staff at Waterboro House of Pizza ran outside when they heard a loud bang and the building shook.

“It was loudest bang you ever heard in your life. We actually thought it was an explosion of some type,” said owner Jessica Hill. “The back door and door to the basement blew open.”

In the same town, employees at the Milk Room said towels and other items started falling off shelves.

“I heard a bang, and it felt like the building was just shaking it went on for three seconds and then it started shaking again,” said George Moutsos, an employee.

In nearby Saco, Sue Hadiaris said, “The whole house shook. It felt like a train was coming right through the house. It was very unnerving because you could feel the floor shaking. There was a queasy feeling.”

Afterward, Hadiaris called her 15-year-old niece in Falmouth to make sure she was safe. “She said, `We can cross that off our bucket list. We’ve lived through an earthquake,”‘ Hadiaris said.

Lynette Miller, a spokeswoman for the Maine Emergency Management Agency, said her dogs started barking several seconds before the quake. “It was several seconds of good shaking but nothing falling down,” Miller said from her home in Readfield, about 60 miles north of Portland.

The Seabrook Station nuclear plant, about 63 miles away in New Hampshire, declared an unusual event — the lowest of four emergency classifications, but said it was not affected. The plant has been offline for refueling.

“There has been no impact at all to the plant from the earthquake and our refueling maintenance activities have not been affected,” said Alan Griffith, spokesman for Next EnergyEra Seabrook Station.

Jim Van Dongen, public information officer for the New Hampshire Department of Safety said New Hampshire 911 got about 1,000 calls in the first hour after the quake, but they later dropped off. He said no major damage was reported.

Brief, but noticeable shaking was felt in downtown Boston and the surrounding area.

In Melrose, just north of Boston, Peter Ward said the shaking he felt seemed to last about four seconds. “It felt like a big gust of wind shaking the house. I don’t want to overstate it, but the glass did rattle a little,” he said.

Former Maine resident Victoria Brett, who also has lived in San Francisco, felt the quake in Northampton, Mass.

“At first, it felt like something slowly wiggling the outside walls of the house. Then the table and floor started vibrating. I looked around and the water in the glass flower vase looked like a wave pool. I knew right away it was an earthquake,” she said.

Earthquakes are rare in New England but they’re not unheard of. In 2006 there was a series of earthquakes around Maine’s Acadia National Park, including one with a magnitude of 4.2 that caused boulders to fall from ledges onto Acadia National Park’s loop road. One of the park’s trails was closed for three years because of damage from the quake.

The strongest earthquake recorded in Maine occurred in 1904 in the Eastport area, near the state’s eastern border with Canada, according the Weston Observatory at Boston College. With a magnitude estimated at 5.7 to 5.9, it damaged chimneys and brick walls and could be felt in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

East Coast quakes are rarely strong enough to be felt over a wide area. A quake of magnitude 5.8 on Aug. 23, 2011, was centered in Virginia and felt all along the coast, including in New York City and Boston. Experts say the region’s geology can make the effects felt in an area up to 10 times larger than quakes of similar size on the West Coast.

Related Articles

• No major NH damage as quake rattles New England
• Gov. Patrick releases statement on earthquake

More than 100 small earthquakes shake Spanish Springs

Reported by: Ashley Cullins

RENO, Nev. (KRNV & MyNews4.com) — Some rattling and rolling in the area has earthquake experts on alert. In the past week more than 100 small earthquakes have shaken the earth beneath Spanish Springs.

So far they’ve been too small to feel, but quake experts want you to know they’re happening. There’s no reason to panic – but it’s a good reminder to make sure you’re prepared.

“People can consider certain mitigation steps in case these earthquakes increase in intensity and there’s a larger one,” said Ken Smith, associate director of the Nevada Seismological Laboratory.

Smith says most injuries from earthquakes are caused by falling or flying objects – and you don’t want to wait for a big quake to get ready.

“Secure your water heaters. Secure your valuables. Secure your book cases,” Smith said.

It’s not strange for a dozen quakes this size to happen in a week, but there have been at least 115 since October 8, and about 60 of those have been since Thursday.

“These things are totally unpredictable,” Smith said. “It could stop today, or it could keep going at a level of very small events that no one would feel.”

Or they could get stronger. so far they’re small – with the biggest two quakes shaking at magnitude one – but there’s potential for one that really rocks Reno.

“We have faults around here that are capable of magnitude seven type events,” Smith said.

So this week the Great Nevada Shakeout will teach people to drop, cover and hold-on just in case there’s a big quake. It’s Nevada’s largest earthquake drill and it’s this Thursday, October 18 at 10:18 am.

Earthquake Rattles Western Nebraska

 

The US Geological Survey (USGS) says an  earthquake occurred Wednesday evening in Western Nebraska.  About 1330 miles southeast of Rapid City.

The 3.6 magnitude earthquake occurred at 11:21 pm at a  depth of about4 miles ,  18 miles northwest of Hyannis, Nebraska.

Although not as common as in some other   states earthquakes do occur in Nebraska.  The strongest occurred on November 15, 1877 with a magnitude of 5.1.  Two  shocks 45 minutes apart rocked most of Nebraska and portions of surrounding  states , including South Dakota.

California, Other States Preparing for Earthquakes

Associated Press

AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File

In this Oct. 15, 2009 file photo, children participate in the “Great California ShakeOut” earthquake drill at the Para Los Ninos Elementary School in Los Angeles. Millions in the United States and several countries are set to participate in an earthquake preparedness drill, dubbed the “Great ShakeOut,” Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012.

LOS ANGELES — Get ready to rumble. Millions in the United States and several countries are set to participate in an earthquake preparedness drill Thursday.

Dubbed the “Great ShakeOut,” homeowners, schoolchildren and office workers across the West and Southeast will practice dropping to the ground, covering their heads and holding on to something sturdy – a technique that experts say minimizes injuries during strong shaking. Residents in British Columbia, Italy, Puerto Rico and Guam also signed up for the exercise.

(MORE: Earthquake Safety and Preparedness)

Organizers estimated some 14 million people, including 9.3 million in California, will participate. Newcomers include Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia, where a magnitude-5.8 hit last year that was felt along the East Coast.

Play Video

Northeast Shaken by Quake

In Los Angeles, commuters at Union Station will be asked to duck and take cover. Subways and light-rail trains will slow down so that operators can visually inspect the tracks – a process that’s expected to take 15 minutes. In an actual quake, trains can be stopped. Transportation officials also planned to show the public tips to safely evacuate a train.

Southern California held the first safety drill in 2008 based on a fictional magnitude-7.8 event on the southern San Andreas Fault. The entire state participated the following year and the exercise has since spread around the world.

“It’s not looking at earthquakes as doom and gloom,” said organizer Mark Benthien. “It’s all about what we’re going to do as a community to be prepared so that when there’s an earthquake, we’ll get back on our feet and recover.”

Southern California has not experienced a seismic disaster since the 1994 Northridge quake, which killed 72 people and caused $25 billion in damage to the Los Angeles region.

Listado Terremotos últimos 10 días

List of Earthquakes For The Last  10 days

Terremotos de los últimos 10 días en las Islas Canarias de magnitud igual o superior a 1.5 o sentidos:

List  of  earthquakes for the last  10 days for the  Canary Islands of magnitude equal to or  greater than 1.5
La información de terremotos de magnitud inferior se puede obtener en Catálogo y boletines sísmicos.
 Information for  earthquakes  of lesser intensity can be obtained  at Catálogo y boletines sísmicos.Esta información está sujeta a modificaciones como consecuencia de la continua revisión del análisis sísmico.This information is subject to  modification as a  consequence of continuous revision and analysis  of seismic  data.Event       Date                  Time             Lat.            Long.        Depth          Mag.                 Location         Info.

Evento	Fecha	Hora(GMT)*	Latitud	Longitud	Prof. (km)	Int. Máx.	Mag.	Tipo Mag. (**)	Localización	Info
1170963	19/10/2012	17:21:12	27.7721	-18.0876	11		2.5	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1170881	18/10/2012	21:38:00	27.6812	-18.0863	20		1.8	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1170640	17/10/2012	05:31:59	27.7946	-18.1027	12		1.7	mbLg	NW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1170134	14/10/2012	14:37:28	27.6978	-18.0196	21	I-II	2.2	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1169884	12/10/2012	12:45:00	27.6916	-18.0169	20		2.6	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1169573	10/10/2012	08:49:04	27.7369	-18.0301	12		2.0	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1169505	10/10/2012	05:09:26	27.6900	-18.0335	22		1.9	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1169479	09/10/2012	20:23:56	27.6965	-18.0199	23		2.5	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]

*** Translation by  Desert Rose

LISS – Live Internet Seismic Server

GSN Stations

These data update automatically every 30 minutes. Last update: October 19, 2012 18:18:57 UTC

Seismograms may take several moments to load. Click on a plot to see larger image.

CU/ANWB, Willy Bob, Antigua and Barbuda

CU/BBGH, Gun Hill, Barbados

CU/BCIP, Isla Barro Colorado, Panama

CU/GRGR, Grenville, Grenada

CU/GRTK, Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands

CU/GTBY, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

CU/MTDJ, Mount Denham, Jamaica

CU/SDDR, Presa de Sabaneta, Dominican Republic

CU/TGUH, Tegucigalpa, Honduras

IC/BJT, Baijiatuan, Beijing, China

IC/ENH, Enshi, China

IC/HIA, Hailar, Neimenggu Province, China

IC/LSA, Lhasa, China

IC/MDJ, Mudanjiang, China

IC/QIZ, Qiongzhong, Guangduong Province, China

IU/ADK, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA

IU/AFI, Afiamalu, Samoa

IU/ANMO, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

IU/ANTO, Ankara, Turkey

IU/BBSR, Bermuda

IU/BILL, Bilibino, Russia

IU/CASY, Casey, Antarctica

IU/CCM, Cathedral Cave, Missouri, USA

IU/CHTO, Chiang Mai, Thailand

IU/COLA, College Outpost, Alaska, USA

IU/COR, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

IU/CTAO, Charters Towers, Australia

IU/DAV,Davao, Philippines

IU/DWPF,Disney Wilderness Preserve, Florida, USA

IU/FUNA,Funafuti, Tuvalu

IU/FURI, Mt. Furi, Ethiopia

IU/GNI, Garni, Armenia

IU/GRFO, Grafenberg, Germany

IU/GUMO, Guam, Mariana Islands

IU/HKT, Hockley, Texas, USA

IU/HNR, Honiara, Solomon Islands

IU/HRV, Adam Dziewonski Observatory (Oak Ridge), Massachusetts, USA

IU/INCN, Inchon, Republic of Korea

IU/JOHN, Johnston Island, Pacific Ocean

IU/KBS, Ny-Alesund, Spitzbergen, Norway

IU/KEV, Kevo, Finland

IU/KIEV, Kiev, Ukraine

IU/KIP, Kipapa, Hawaii, USA

IU/KMBO, Kilima Mbogo, Kenya

IU/KNTN, Kanton Island, Kiribati

IU/KONO, Kongsberg, Norway

IU/KOWA, Kowa, Mali

IU/LCO, Las Campanas Astronomical Observatory, Chile

IU/LSZ, Lusaka, Zambia

IU/LVC, Limon Verde, Chile

IU/MA2, Magadan, Russia

IU/MAJO, Matsushiro, Japan

IU/MAKZ,Makanchi, Kazakhstan

IU/MBWA, Marble Bar, Western Australia

IU/MIDW, Midway Island, Pacific Ocean, USA

IU/MSKU, Masuku, Gabon

IU/NWAO, Narrogin, Australia

IU/OTAV, Otavalo, Equador

IU/PAB, San Pablo, Spain

IU/PAYG Puerto Ayora, Galapagos Islands

IU/PET, Petropavlovsk, Russia

IU/PMG, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

IU/PMSA, Palmer Station, Antarctica

IU/POHA, Pohakaloa, Hawaii

IU/PTCN, Pitcairn Island, South Pacific

IU/PTGA, Pitinga, Brazil

IU/QSPA, South Pole, Antarctica

IU/RAO, Raoul, Kermandec Islands

IU/RAR, Rarotonga, Cook Islands

IU/RCBR, Riachuelo, Brazil

IU/RSSD, Black Hills, South Dakota, USA

IU/SAML, Samuel, Brazil

IU/SBA, Scott Base, Antarctica

IU/SDV, Santo Domingo, Venezuela

IU/SFJD, Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland

IU/SJG, San Juan, Puerto Rico

IU/SLBS, Sierra la Laguna Baja California Sur, Mexico

IU/SNZO, South Karori, New Zealand

IU/SSPA, Standing Stone, Pennsylvania USA

IU/TARA, Tarawa Island, Republic of Kiribati

IU/TATO, Taipei, Taiwan

IU/TEIG, Tepich, Yucatan, Mexico

IU/TIXI, Tiksi, Russia

IU/TRIS, Tristan da Cunha, Atlantic Ocean

IU/TRQA, Tornquist, Argentina

IU/TSUM, Tsumeb, Namibia

IU/TUC, Tucson, Arizona

IU/ULN, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

IU/WAKE, Wake Island, Pacific Ocean

IU/WCI, Wyandotte Cave, Indiana, USA

IU/WVT, Waverly, Tennessee, USA

IU/XMAS, Kiritimati Island, Republic of Kiribati

IU/YAK, Yakutsk, Russia

IU/YSS, Yuzhno Sakhalinsk, Russia

**********************************************************************************************************

Volcanic Activity

Katla Eruption Levees in South Iceland Checked

Chief of Police in Hvolsvöllur, a representative of the Icelandic Road Administration and geophysicist Magnús Tumi Guðmundsson will discuss at a meeting on Thursday whether the levees to the east of Vík, which lies across the Ring Road near the river Múlakvísl, must be raised to prove effective in case of a volcanic eruption in Katla.

Vík. Photo by Bernhild Vögel.

Geologist Ari Trausti Guðmundsson stated in an article in Morgunblaðið yesterday that it is important to raise the levees judging by the information available on the volume and depth of flooding from Katla, ruv.is reports.

The volcano lies underneath the Mýrdalsjökull icecap and a volcanic eruption is likely to cause a major glacier outburst.

The levees are the responsibility of the Icelandic Road Administration and according to a report conducted by Einar Hafliðason, a representative of the Road Administration, last spring there was no need to raise the levees given the conditions at hand.

The levees are now five meters high and 4,000-5,000 meters long.

Scientists are monitoring the volcano closely due to ongoing seismic activity.

Kilauea Volcano lava lake reaches highest level

Published on Oct 16, 2012 by bigislandvideonews

16.10.2012 06:37 PM

Pacific Ocean – Northwest, Japan

Unnamed Underwater Volcano, About 3 miles north-northeast of Minami-Iwoto island

Volcano Eruption

0804-093

Submarine volcano ?

No. 0

Volcano Eruption in Japan on Tuesday, 16 October, 2012 at 18:37 (06:37 PM) UTC.

Description

An underwater volcanic eruption was detected Wednesday morning close to Minami-Iwoto island in the Pacific Ocean and an expert speculated that the eruption could form a permanent island. A coast guard vessel spotted a white plume of smoke rising from the sea about three miles north-northeast of the island. It was the first time since July 2005 that volcanic smoke had been detected in the area, which is located about 745 miles south of central Tokyo. According to an announcement by the 3rd Regional Coast Guard Headquarters of the Japan Coast Guard, based in Yokohama, the volcano spewed ash and smoke about 100 meters into the air, and the surrounding sea area changed to a yellowish-green color while other parts became a cloudy gray. According to the Meteorological Agency, the volcano, known as Fukutokuokanoba, has erupted seven times since 1904, when its activities were first recorded. On three occasions, land masses were formed, but all later sank below the waterline. Tokyo Institute of Technology Prof. Kenji Nogami, an expert in geoscience, said: “In the 1986 eruption, a new island appeared after lava accumulated. The island was washed away by waves, but seabed upheaval reduced the water depth to 22 meters in 1999. It’s possible that this (recent) volcanic activity could form a permanent island.”

15.10.2012 12:23 PM

Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia [Asia]

Klyuchevskaya Sopka Volcano

Volcano Eruption

1000-26=

Stratovolcano

2009

No. 0

Volcano Eruption in Russia [Asia] on Monday, 15 October, 2012 at 12:23 (12:23 PM) UTC.

Description

The highest active volcano in Eurasia, Klyuchevskaya Sopka has started to erupt, officials with the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said. On the night of October 15, there was light seen over the summit of the volcano indicating a blowout of lava in its crater, Vesti.ru reports. Experts believe the release of ash to the height of 6 feet above sea level may start any moment. Lava flows on the slopes of the volcano are also expected. Yellow aviation color code has been assigned to the volcano to warn about the potential danger that the volcanic ash and gases may pose to aircraft engines. Nothing has been said about the possible threat to human settlements. The nearest settlement is 30 kilometers far from Klyuchevskaya Sopka. The last eruption of Klyuchevskaya Sopka took place from September 2009 to December 2010. In June this year, the giant began to wake up again.

***********************************************************************************************************

Extreme Temperatures/ Weather

Global drought a ‘new normal’: report

by Staff Writers
New York (UPI)

disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes only

Increasing drought conditions across the planet are part of a “new normal” which oddly presents new business opportunities, a new Bank of America Merrill Lynch report says.

The report comes just after insurer Munich Re’s findings that North America has borne the brunt of weather-related natural catastrophes, with 30,000 deaths and insured losses of $510 billion in the 1980-2011 period.

The ongoing drought is the worst in the United States since at least 1956, with 63 percent of the lower 48 states suffering drought conditions in August, says the BofA Merrill Lynch report, “Global Drought — Opportunities and Risks.”

While conditions are far from those in the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s, drought conditions are the new normal, the report said.

Previous reports in a series focused on obesity, energy efficiency and safety and security.

“Food, water and energy security are increasingly bigger issues, and as governments, businesses and other players struggle to adapt to and mitigate drought conditions, there will be an evolving set of opportunities and risks for investors,” the bankers said in their findings.

For investors interested in the fight against drought and in promoting food, water and energy security, the financial group has introduced a screen that identifies liquid stocks exposed to global drought-related themes under the Bloomberg ticker MLEIARID.

The stocks included in the screen are those that it considers to be long-term solution providers in such areas as water, fertilizers, crop science, energy efficiency, second-generation biofuels and renewables.

“The severity of the global drought underscores the long-term challenges for national and global economies,” said Sarbjit Nahal, a co-author of the report.

“Food, water and energy security are increasingly bigger issues, and as governments, businesses and other players struggle to adapt to and mitigate drought conditions, there will be an evolving set of opportunities and risks for investors.”

The Munich Re report also cited conditions in which North American stakeholders could benefit by learning about the weather risks.

The study was prepared in order to support underwriters and Munich Re clients in North America, the world’s largest insurance and reinsurance market.

“The North American continent is exposed to every type of hazardous weather peril — tropical cyclone, thunderstorm, winter storm, tornado, wildfire, drought and flood. One reason for this is that there is no mountain range running east to west that separates hot from cold air,” said the report.

Nowhere in the world is the rising number of natural catastrophes more evident than in North America, it said.

Munich Re’s Geo Risks Research unit head Peter Hoppe called on all concerned to “collaborate and close ranks” to meet the situation.

Peter Roder, Munich Re board member with responsibility for the U.S. market, said, “We should prepare for the weather risk changes that lie ahead, and nowhere more so than in North America.”

Related Links
Climate Science News – Modeling, Mitigation Adaptation

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Malaysia

State of Pulau Pinang, Kampung Sungai Burung

Extreme Weather in Malaysia on Friday, 19 October, 2012 at 15:01 (03:01 PM) UTC.

Description

Twenty-two houses at Kampung Sungai Burung and Jalan Baru Sungai Korok here were badly damaged during a severe thunderstorm today. In the noon incident, the winds blew away rooftops while falling trees compounded the destruction on the houses. Resident Zulkiflee Mat Yusof, 50, said many of the electrical items in his house were damaged by rain water, fanned by the winds into the house. A Bakso stall operator who only wanted to be identified as Anis, 31, said she was busy serving customers when the thunderstorm struck. “It was so sudden that I had no time to act,” she said, finding her stall and wares completely destroyed in the aftermath. Senior citizen Jamaludin Ahamad, 65, said he and his family were having their lunch in the living room when a tree at the back of the house fell and hit the kitchen roof.

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Storms / Flooding / Tornadoes

Active tropical storm system(s)
Name of storm system	Location	Formed	Last update	Last category	Course	Wind Speed	Gust	Wave	Source	Details
Maria (23W)	Pacific Ocean	14.10.2012	19.10.2012	Tropical Depression	100 °	56 km/h	74 km/h	4.57 m	JTWC

Tropical Storm data

Share: Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 1 Storm name: Maria (23W) Area: Pacific Ocean Start up location: N 17° 48.000, E 142° 24.000 Start up: 14th October 2012 Status: Active Track long: 1,379.19 km Top category.: Report by: JTWC Useful links: Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale FEMA – How To Prepare for a Hurricane Effects of a Hurricane USA – National Hurricane Center

Past track Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave Pressure Source 14th Oct 2012 17:15:13 N 17° 48.000, E 142° 24.000 19 65 83 Tropical Storm 290 10 JTWC 15th Oct 2012 05:06:53 N 19° 30.000, E 142° 6.000 17 93 120 Tropical Storm 345 13 JTWC 15th Oct 2012 10:54:07 N 20° 54.000, E 141° 24.000 28 93 120 Tropical Storm 335 10 JTWC 15th Oct 2012 15:21:40 N 22° 42.000, E 141° 6.000 33 93 120 Tropical Storm 350 15 JTWC 16th Oct 2012 04:50:36 N 25° 24.000, E 140° 42.000 17 93 120 Tropical Storm 350 16 JTWC 16th Oct 2012 10:53:28 N 26° 54.000, E 141° 6.000 28 102 130 Tropical Storm 15 15 JTWC 16th Oct 2012 16:20:31 N 27° 36.000, E 141° 36.000 15 102 130 Tropical Storm 30 16 JTWC 17th Oct 2012 05:09:34 N 28° 54.000, E 143° 30.000 20 102 130 Tropical Storm 70 11 JTWC 17th Oct 2012 12:10:15 N 29° 30.000, E 144° 48.000 24 93 120 Tropical Storm 60 19 JTWC 17th Oct 2012 16:13:13 N 30° 24.000, E 146° 18.000 30 83 102 Tropical Storm 55 16 JTWC 18th Oct 2012 10:43:32 N 32° 12.000, E 153° 18.000 48 74 93 Tropical Storm 80 18 JTWC Current position Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave feet Pressure Source 19th Oct 2012 12:08:22 N 31° 12.000, E 158° 48.000 19 56 74 Tropical Depression 100 ° 15 JTWC Forecast track Date Time Position Category Wind km/h Gust km/h Source 20th Oct 2012 06:00:00 N 30° 30.000, E 162° 12.000 Tropical Depression 37 56 JTWC

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Bill Read’s Blog: Rare Tropical Cyclone in Indian Ocean

Author: Bill Read, KPRC Local 2 Hurricane Expert

HOUSTON –

Tropical Cyclone Anais is estimated to have a maximum wind of 115 mph as of early this morning, which is equivalent to a category 3 hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean.
The southwestern Indian Ocean is prone to tropical cyclones but what makes Anais so rare is that it is occurring in October, which is early springtime in the southern Hemisphere.

The peak period for tropical events in this part of the world is normally during our winter months of January-March.

Anais is forecast to move southwest in the general direction of Madagascar for the next five days and weaken as it moves into cooler waters and unfavorable winds.

We rarely hear much about the southern Indian Ocean storms as the area has little land and the storms mostly stay at sea.

Occasionally Madagascar or the island nations of Mauritius and Reunion will take a hit, and more rarely a storm will reach mainland Africa.

Forecast responsibility for this region is through the French weather service, Meteo France, located in La Reunion to the east of Madagascar.

The countries in the Indian Ocean simply refer to these storms as Tropical Cyclones, regardless of intensity.

Tropical Cyclone Anais is the same thing as a hurricane in the Atlantic or typhoon in the western Pacific.

However, note that it rotates the opposite direction, clockwise, because it is in the southern Hemisphere.

To illustrate how unusual this event is, Anais is like having a Category 3 hurricane in the Caribbean in April.

Tropical cyclones are occurring more frequently than before

by Staff Writers
Copenhagen, Denmark (SPX)

Storm surges are considered to be the most dangerous and the most destructive aspect of tropical cyclones. The study shows that globally warm years has been associated with a significantly higher risk of extreme hurricane storm surges like the one that followed Katrina, which hit the New Orleans area in 2005 and caused devastating floods and thousands of deaths. Credit: Credit: LCDR Mark Moran, NOAA Corps, NMAO/AOC.

Are there more tropical cyclones now than in the past? – or is it just something we believe because we now hear more about them through media coverage and are better able detect them with satellites?

New research from the Niels Bohr Institute clearly shows that there is an increasing tendency for cyclones when the climate is warmer, as it has been in recent years. The results are published in the scientific journal PNAS.

How can you examine the frequency of tropical cyclones throughout history when they have not been systematically registered? Today cyclones are monitored from satellites and you can follow their progress and direction very accurately. But it is only the last approx. 40 years that we have been able to do this.

Previously, they used observations from ships and aircraft, but these were not systematic measurements. In order to get a long-term view of the frequency of cyclones, it is necessary to go further back in time and use a uniform reference.

Climate scientist Aslak Grinsted of the Centre for Ice and Climate at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen therefore wanted to find some instruments that have stood and registered measurements continuously over a long period of time.

Correlation between sea levels and cyclones
“Tropical cyclones typically form out in the Atlantic Ocean and move towards the U.S. East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico.

“I found that there were monitoring stations along the Eastern Seaboard of the United States where they had recorded the daily tide levels all the way back to 1923.

“I have looked at every time there was a rapid change in sea level and I could see that there was a close correlation between sudden changes in sea level and historical accounts of tropical storms,” explains Aslak Grinsted.

Aslak Grinsted now had a tool to create statistics on the frequency of cyclones that make landfall – all the way back to 1923. He could see that there has been an increasing trend in the number of major storm surges since 1923.

Correlation between cyclones and climate
Together with colleagues in China and England, he then looked at the global temperatures over the period to see whether there was a trend for a higher frequency of cyclones in a warmer climate.

The global temperature has increased 0.7 degrees C since 1923, but there are variations. For example, there was a warm period in the 1940s but the temperature has really risen since 1980.

“We simply counted how many extreme cyclones with storm surges there were in warm years compared to cold years and we could see that there was a tendency for more cyclones in warmer years,” says Aslak Grinsted.

But not all cyclones are equally harmful and those with the highest storm surges tend to cause the most damage. Cyclones with a strength like Katrina, which hit the New Orleans area in 2005 and caused devastating floods and thousands of deaths, make landfall every 10-30 years on average.

“We have calculated that extreme hurricane surges like Katrina are twice as likely in warm years than in cold years. So when the global climate becomes 3 degrees warmer in the future, as predictions show, what happens then?,” reflects Aslak Grinsted.

Related Links
University of Copenhagen
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
When the Earth Quakes
A world of storm and tempest

Multiple Tornadoes Strike Arkansas, Mississippi

By Bill Deger, Meteorologist

At least eight people were injured as a round of severe storms, including a few tornadoes, swept through the Mississippi Valley and South Wednesday and Wednesday night.

According to preliminary reports compiled by the Storm Prediction Center (SPC), at least four tornadoes touched down across Arkansas and Mississippi.

Photos: Late-Night Tornadoes Keep People Up All Night

A potent cold front moving across the Lower Mississippi Valley acted as the ignition for the thunderstorms. Enough humid air was in place to support the growth of severe thunderstorms capable of spawning tornadoes. Twisting winds in the atmosphere aided the rotation in thunderstorms, further aiding tornado development.

Strong winds, wind damage or hail was reported across a half dozen states in total, from Illinois to Mississippi.

One particularly damaging tornado tracked across Sharkey County, Miss., shortly before 11:00 p.m. local time, destroying numerous mobile homes and injuring five near the town of Louise, which sustained “heavy” damage according to local law enforcement.

The same tornadic thunderstorm narrowly missed nearby Yazoo City, which was devastated by a pair of tornadoes in 2010.

The towns of Clarendon and West Jericho, Ark., and Shelby, Miss., were also impacted by tornadoes Wednesday evening, according to various reports.

Severe storm reports from Wed., Oct. 17. Strong winds and wind damage incidents are indicated in blue, while tornadoes are plotted in red and hail in green. (SPC)

It is possible that more tornadoes will be confirmed to have touched down across the region as other incidents of wind damage are assessed by the National Weather Service over the next couple of days.

One such incident occurred in Scott County, Miss., where a person was injured when a tree fell onto their mobile home.

Strong thunderstorm winds heavily damaged about a dozen buildings in Bland, Mo., earlier in the day, including the town’s post office, where two people sustained minor injuries.

As of 4:30 a.m. EST Thursday, there were nearly 100 reports of severe weather and damage from the severe weather outbreak. Eighty of the reports alone were wind damage, ranging from downed trees and power lines to partially collapsed structures.

While not as prolific, a few storms produced one-inch diameter hail stones in Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee.

Today

Tornado

USA

State of Mississippi, [East of Jackson]

Tornado in USA on Friday, 19 October, 2012 at 03:21 (03:21 AM) UTC.

Description

The National Weather Service has confirmed that at least four tornadoes were part of the storm system that raked northern and central Mississippi on Wednesday night and Thursday morning. The biggest of the four storms was a twister that traveled 16 miles from Scott into Newton counties east of Jackson. With a half-mile-wide damage path, it was rated EF-3 on the Fujita scale, with peak winds estimated at 140 mph. That storm blew down trees as well as three electrical transmission towers. One person was injured when a tree fell through a roof. Authorities said Thursday that at least seven people were injured when a line of storms pushed across the state.

Today

Tornado

USA

State of Arkansas, Clarendon

Tornado in USA on Friday, 19 October, 2012 at 02:59 (02:59 AM) UTC.

Description

As severe storms pounded central and eastern Arkansas Wednesday evening, the Monroe County town of Clarendon experienced widespread power outages and heavy damage to some buildings. With most of the town without power for much of the night, several community members drove around town trying to offer help as best they could. Metal awnings from a building were ripped off and tossed across the street, and trees were downed, including one that hit a Clarendon video store just moments after the owner, Denise Davenport, left. Davenport said she left after friends called her and told her the storm was approaching. Shortly afterward, she says she heard the city’s weather sirens sound. Davenport also credits the support from the community for keeping her safe in a dangerous situation.

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Radiation / Nuclear

Quake prompts ‘unusual event’ at Seabrook nuke plant

By John Breneman
jbreneman@seacoastonline.com
SEABROOK — An “unusual event” indeed. The 4.0 magnitude earthquake that rumbled across the Seacoast and beyond Tuesday evening triggered normal safety protocols at the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission declared an “unusual event” — NRC-speak for the lowest of its four levels of emergency classifications — at 7:20 p.m. Tuesday. The declaration was prompted by on-site ground motion resulting from an earthquake centered near Hollis, Maine — about 50 miles from the plant.

“There was absolutely no impact to the plant from the earthquake,” said Al Griffith, spokesman for NextEra Energy, the plant’s owner. Griffith said a series of mandated safety checks were conducted at the plant, concluding at 1:49 a.m., some six and a half hours after the tremor.

Citing the “robustness” of the plant’s design, Griffith assured that it is capable of withstanding a far, far greater impact than Tuesday’s quake.

There are seismic monitors on site and Griffith said officials will be conducting “a very thorough examination and analysis of all of our data.”

An NRC resident inspector assigned to Seabrook responded to the site last night to confirm that there were no immediate safety issues at the plant, which is currently shut down for a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage.

“The reactor was fully shut down at the time the earthquake occurred,” said Neil Sheehan, regional public officer for the NRC.

“Following procedures used when there is seismic activity affecting the plant, NextEra personnel conducted initial walkdowns, i.e., visual inspections, and confirmed that all key safety systems were functioning properly and that there was no significant structural damage,” Sheehan said in a statement. “The company will subsequently gather more seismic data and perform more detailed inspections.”

Asked about the need to be vigilant in preparing for and reacting to any seismic activity, particularly in the wake of the March 2011 disaster following an earthquake and tsunami at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, Sheehan said, “What happened at Fukushima served as a vivid reminder” of why the highest safety protocols are put in place and enforced.

Last April, NextEra Energy conducted a tsunami drill Tuesday at the Seabrook Station plant in order to identify strengths and weaknesses of the plant in case of such a disaster.

Gavin Allwright Talks About Fukushima.

Published on Oct 16, 2012 by Goodisplanetearth gipetv

Gavin Allwright Talks About Fukushima @ Bridgewater Anti-Nuclear Rally Say No To Hinkley C.
http://www.greenheartproject.org/en/

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Epidemic Hazards / Diseases

Today

Epidemic Hazard

Uganda

Western Uganda, [Kabale District]

Epidemic Hazard in Uganda on Friday, 19 October, 2012 at 10:56 (10:56 AM) UTC.

Description
Health experts have confirmed an outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus in the western district of Kabale after samples from two relatives taken to the Uganda Virus Institute tested positive. Police Thursday stopped the burial of Boaz Turyahikayo a lecturer at Uganda Christian University and his sister Mildrid Asasira after it emerged that their family had lost four people from a mysterious disease in just a month. The other two are Lillian Banegura their mother and an elder brother Bernard Rutaro who passed away early this month. Dr. Patrick Tusiime the Kabale district health officer said a team from the Ministry of Health and World Health Organization is on its way to oversee the burial of the two victims. The Marburg virus was last reported in Uganda in 2008. It carries symptoms similar to those of Ebola that include fever, vomiting and internal bleeding.
Biohazard name:	Marburg virus disease (MVD)
Biohazard level:	4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:	Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
Symptoms:
Status:	confirmed

17.10.2012

Epidemic Hazard

Portugal

Atlantic Ocean – North, [Madeira Autonomous Region]

Epidemic Hazard in Portugal on Friday, 12 October, 2012 at 16:59 (04:59 PM) UTC.

Description
Eighteen people are confirmed to be suffering from dengue fever in the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira and another 191 probably have the mosquito-borne disease which is also called “breakbone fever” because of the severe pain it can cause. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC.L) which monitors disease in the European Union, said the outbreak was “significant but not entirely unexpected” given that the most efficient carriers of the disease, mosquitoes known as Aedes aegypti, have an established presence in Madeira. “Portuguese public health authorities are implementing control measures to reduce the risk of sustained transmission locally, the export of infected vectors from the island, and to minimise the impact on the affected population,” it said. The ECDC said the risk for tourists visiting Madeira and for residents of the island would “depend on the course of the outbreak in the coming weeks and the effectiveness of the control measures.” It did not recommend any restrictions on travel or tourism to Madeira, but advised people to protect themselves adequately against mosquito bites, particularly during the day which is when dengue-carrying mosquitoes are most active.
Biohazard name:	Dengue Fever
Biohazard level:	2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:	Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
Symptoms:	The disease is a viral infection that can cause a range of symptoms, from mild flu-like illness to more serious illnesses including rashes and bone pain. Severe and potentially deadly forms develop in around 5 percent of patients.
Status:	confirmed

Epidemic Hazard in Portugal on Friday, 12 October, 2012 at 16:59 (04:59 PM) UTC.

Back

Updated:	Wednesday, 17 October, 2012 at 03:06 UTC
Description
The United Kingdom’s Health Protection Agency reported 18 confirmed cases of dengue fever on the Madeira archipelago in Portugal and 191 probable cases since early October. The reported cases mark the first time that the mosquito-borne viral infection has been reported in Madeira. Health authorities in Madeira are looking into the cases and are implementing prevention and control measures along with a public awareness campaign. “Dengue fever cannot be passed from person to person and infection occurs after being bitten by the Aedes mosquito carrying the virus,” Jane Jones, a travel-associated infection expert at the HPA, said. “To minimize the risk of being bitten it is advisable to wear appropriate clothing to cover up – such as long sleeve tops and trousers, and to use insect repellents.” Dengue can cause multiple clinical symptoms, including a mild flu-like illness. It can also cause more serious symptoms such as rash, bone pain and severe complications. “There is no specific preventive medicine or vaccination against dengue fever and prevention relies on avoiding mosquito bites particularly around dusk and dawn when the day biting mosquitoes are most active,” Dipti Patel, the joint director of the National Travel Health Network and Center, said. “Anyone who develops a fever or flu-like symptoms within two weeks of returning from a trip to Madeira should seek medical advice from NHS Direct or their GP.” Approximately 2.5 billion people worldwide are at risk of acquiring dengue fever, according to the World Health Organization.

17.10.2012

Epidemic Hazard

Zambia

Central State, [Lukanga Swamps (Kapiri Mposhi district)]

Epidemic Hazard in Zambia on Friday, 12 October, 2012 at 15:30 (03:30 PM) UTC.

Description
The diarrhoeal disease which broke-out last week and has since claimed over 14 lives of fishermen in Lukanga Swamps in Kapiri Mposhi district has been confirmed to be cholera. Kapiri Mposhi District Medical Officer, Charles Mwinuna confirmed to ZANIS today that according to the second-round of tests conducted on the samples obtained from the patients admitted at Waya clinic in the area, the diarrheal disease was confirmed cholera. Over 20 patients are admitted to Waya clinic after experiencing severe diarrhoea and vomiting. Dr Mwinuna said officers from the District Health Management Team have since been dispatched to Lukanga Swamps and were treating people with cholera symptoms. He also said precautionary measures were being taken to ensure that the disease does not spread to other areas in the district. Dr Mwinuna said the health personnel dispatched to Lukanga Swamps are also conducting further tests and contact tracing of the origin of patients admitted to the clinic and were sensitizing the community on hygiene and providing chlorine to households to reduce the chances of spreading the diarrheal disease. Fourteen people have so far died of the disease which was earlier mistaken to be severe diarrhoea. The diarrhoea and vomiting disease broke out at Kaswende, Waya, Kabosha and Ngwenya fishing camps on Lukanga Swamps. The bodies of the deceased are being buried at a cholera designated graveyard in the area Meanwhile, a traditional leader has appealed to the Ministry of Health to open-up cholera Centres in all fishing camps to treat patients and reduce chances of further spreading the diarrheal disease. Headwoman Agnes Chimbuleni noted that the disease has claimed many lives in the area because of the distances patients had to cover to Waya clinic from the fishing camps for treatment.
Biohazard name:	Cholera
Biohazard level:	2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:	Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
Symptoms:
Status:	confirmed

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Climate Change

Global warming is ‘causing more hurricanes’

Scientists use tidal data to link frequency and intensity of storms to rises in temperature

VIEW GALLERY

Scientists have found support for the controversial idea that global warming is causing more frequent and destructive hurricanes, a subject that has been hotly debated during the past decade.

Data gathered from tide gauges, which monitor the rapid changes to sea levels caused by storm surges, show a significant link between both the frequency and intensity of tropical storms and increases in annual temperatures since the tidal records began in 1923.

The study found that during the 90-year period, when the average global temperature has increased by 0.7C, extreme hurricanes similar to Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005, were nearly twice as likely in warmer years as colder years.

Although scientists were not able to prove that climate change is causing more large hurricanes, they believe the study is consistent with the predictions that global warming and warmer seas could bring about more intense tropical storms.

Hurricanes form when the sea’s surface temperature increases above 26C. However, they result from a chaotic interaction between the difference in sea and air temperatures, humidity and wind, so there is disagreement about how frequent they will become in a warmer world.

Studying the link between global warming and tropical storms has been hampered by the lack of data on hurricanes before the satellite age. Many hurricanes out at sea were missed before the first weather satellites were launched about 40 years ago.

However, a network of tide gauges around the south-east coast of the US has produced a reliable record of the rapid changes to sea level caused by storm surges resulting from tropical cyclones, said Aslak Grinsted of the Niels Bohr Institute at Copenhagen University.

“I found that there were monitoring stations along the eastern seaboard of the United States where they had recorded the daily tide levels all the way back to 1923. I have looked at every time there was a rapid change in sea level and I could see there was a close correlation between sudden changes in sea level and historical accounts of tropical storms,” Dr Grinsted said.

Once the correlation between storm surges and tropical storms was established, the researchers analysed global temperature records to compare the number of storm surges in warm years with the number observed in cold years.

“We simply counted how many extreme cyclones with storm surges there were in warm years compared with cold years and we could see that there was a tendency for more cyclones in warmer years,” Dr Grinsted said.

Storms of destruction: devastating weather

Wilma (2005)

The most intense Atlantic hurricane on record started in the Caribbean Sea near Jamaica, moving across the Gulf of Mexico to Cancun where it hit land with devastating consequences.

Katrina (2005)

The most costly hurricane in history caused damages of $85bn. The category-3 storm formed over the Bahamas crossed Florida and the Gulf of Mexico before striking New Orleans.

Gilbert (1988)

The second most intense hurricane observed in the Atlantic. It began to the east of Barbados before hitting Jamaica and the Gulf of Mexico. It raged for nine days, killing 433 people.

Dinosaur-era acoustics: Global warming may give oceans the ‘sound’ of the Cretaceous 

by Staff Writers
Washington DC (SPX)

illustration only

Global temperatures directly affect the acidity of the ocean, which in turn changes the acoustical properties of sea water. New research suggests that global warming may give Earth’s oceans the same hi-fi sound qualities they had more than 100 million years ago, during the Age of the Dinosaurs.

The reason for this surprising communication upgrade is that whales vocalize in the low-frequency sound range, typically less than 200 hertz, and the new research predicts that by the year 2100, global warming will acidify saltwater sufficiently to make low-frequency sound near the ocean surface travel significantly farther than it currently does – perhaps twice as far.

Rhode Island acoustician David G. Browning, lead scientist on the research team, will present his findings at the 164th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), held Oct. 22 – 26 in Kansas City, Missouri.

He explains the sea change this way: “We call it the Cretaceous acoustic effect, because ocean acidification forced by global warming appears to be leading us back to the similar ocean acoustic conditions as those that existed 110 million years ago, during the Age of Dinosaurs.”

Their work builds on the recent investigation by other researchers who analyzed historic levels of boron in seafloor sediments to reconstruct ocean acidity for the past 300 million years.

Using boron’s sound absorption traits and impact on low-frequency transmission, Browning and his colleagues were able to predict the soundscape of ancient oceans to conclude that 300 million years ago, during the Paleozoic, the low frequency sound transmission in the ocean was similar to conditions today.

They also found that transmission improved as the ocean became more acidic, reaching its best transmission value around 110 million years ago – allowing low frequency sound to travel twice as far.

“This knowledge is important in many ways,” notes Browning.

“It impacts the design and performance prediction of sonar systems. It affects estimation of low frequency ambient noise levels in the ocean. And it’s something we have to consider to improve our understanding of the sound environment of marine mammals and the effects of human activity on that environment.”

If further work validates this model, future SCUBA divers might hear in the oceans with the same clarity as the dinosaurs.

Related Links
American Institute of Physics
Water News – Science, Technology and Politics

Tropical collapse caused by lethal heat

by Staff Writers
Leeds UK (SPX)

illustration only

Scientists have discovered why the ‘broken world’ following the worst extinction of all time lasted so long – it was simply too hot to survive.

The end-Permian mass extinction, which occurred around 250 million years ago in the pre-dinosaur era, wiped out nearly all the world’s species. Typically, a mass extinction is followed by a ‘dead zone’ during which new species are not seen for tens of thousands of years. In this case, the dead zone, during the Early Triassic period which followed, lasted for a perplexingly long period: five million years.

A study jointly led by the University of Leeds and China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), in collaboration with the University of Erlangen-Nurnburg (Germany), shows the cause of this lengthy devastation was a temperature rise to lethal levels in the tropics: around 50-60 degrees C on land, and 40 degrees C at the sea-surface.

Lead author Yadong Sun, who is based in Leeds while completing a joint PhD in geology, says: “Global warming has long been linked to the end-Permian mass extinction, but this study is the first to show extreme temperatures kept life from re-starting in Equatorial latitudes for millions of years.”

It is also the first study to show water temperatures close to the ocean’s surface can reach 40 degrees C – a near-lethal value at which marine life dies and photosynthesis stops. Until now, climate modellers have assumed sea-surface temperatures cannot surpass 30 degrees C. The findings may help us understand future climate change patterns.

The dead zone would have been a strange world – very wet in the tropics but with almost nothing growing. No forests grew, only shrubs and ferns. No fish or marine reptiles were to be found in the tropics, only shellfish, and virtually no land animals existed because their high metabolic rate made it impossible to deal with the extreme temperatures. Only the polar regions provided a refuge from the baking heat.

Before the end-Permian mass extinction the Earth had teemed with plants and animals including primitive reptiles and amphibians, and a wide variety of sea creatures including coral and sea lillies.

This broken world scenario was caused by a breakdown in global carbon cycling. In normal circumstances, plants help regulate temperature by absorbing Co2 and burying it as dead plant matter. Without plants, levels of Co2 can rise unchecked, which causes temperatures to increase.

The study, published [19 October 2012] in the journal Science, is the most detailed temperature record of this study period (252-247 million years ago) to date.

Sun and his colleagues collected data from 15,000 ancient conodonts (tiny teeth of extinct eel-like fishes) extracted from two tonnes of rocks from South China. Conodonts form a skeleton using oxygen.

The isotopes of oxygen in skeletons are temperature controlled, so by studying the ratio of oxygen isotopes in the conodonts he was able to detect temperature levels hundreds of millions of years ago.

Professor Paul Wignall from the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds, one of the study’s co-authors, said: “Nobody has ever dared say that past climates attained these levels of heat.

Hopefully future global warming won’t get anywhere near temperatures of 250 million years ago, but if it does we have shown that it may take millions of years to recover.”

The study is the latest collaboration in a 20-year research partnership between the University of Leeds and China University of Geosciences in Wuhan. It was funded by the Chinese Science Foundation.

‘Lethally hot temperatures during the early Triassic greenhouse’ by Yadong Sun (University of Leeds and China University of Geosciences), Michael Joachimski (University Erlangen-Nurnberg, Germany), Paul B. Wignall (University of Leeds), Chunbo Yan (China University of Geosciences), Yanlong Chen (University of Graz, Austria), Haishui Jiang (China University of Geosciences, Lina Wang (China University of Geosciences) and Xulong Lai (China University of Geosciences) is published in Science on 19 October 2012.

Related Links
University of Leeds
Explore The Early Earth at TerraDaily.com

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Solar Activity

Massive solar flare erupts from sun

Reported by David Farrell

A large solar flare has burst forth from the sun, showcasing the awesome scale in the universe.

A gigantic solar flare, 100,000 miles across, has erupted from the sun, showcasing how truly great the scale of things can be in the universe. In comparison, the Earth only has a diameter of roughly 7926 miles.

An image of the solar flare. Earth would fit more than ten times along the length of the flare.

Solar flares are a massive energy release of the sun, sometimes up to a sixth of the sun’s total energy output, or 160,000,000,000 megatons of TNT, which can be seen as a sudden brightening in the sun and is often followed by a coronal mass ejection (CME), essentially a burst of solar material being flung out into the solar system.

These CMEs usually reach earth about one or two days later, and it is the earth’s interaction with these ionized particles which, together with regular solar winds, are the cause of auroras. If a solar flare is powerful enough though, they may cause damage, disturbing power grids and radio systems. A particularly disastrous solar flare may even permanently disable many electronic components, such as transformers, leading to widespread power outages.

Solar flares affect the entire solar system though; one hazard that would be encountered during a manned missions to Mars for example, would be the radiation emitted from solar winds, which the astronauts would somehow have to shield against during the entire flight.

2MIN News October 17. 2012

Published on Oct 17, 2012 by Suspicious0bservers

TODAY’S LINKS
Record Temp: http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/MediaDetail2.php?MediaID=1209&MediaTypeID=1
Reversals can happen quickly: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-extremely-reversal-geomagnetic-field-climate.html
Titan Surface Features: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-saturn-moon-titan.html
Antarctic Rift: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/pine-island-rift.html
Shakeout: http://community.fema.gov/connect.ti/readynpm/viewevent?cid=191601&eid=11…
Tropical Storms more Common: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-tropical-cyclones-frequently.html

REPEAT LINKS
Spaceweather: http://spaceweather.com/ [Look on the left at the X-ray Flux and Solar Wind Speed/Density]

HAARP: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/data.html [Click online data, and have a little fun]

CERES JPL: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=ceres;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0#orb

SDO: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ [Place to find Solar Images and Videos – as seen from earth]

Helioviewer: http://www.helioviewer.org/

SOHO: http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater [SOHO; Lasco and EIT – as seen from earth]

Stereo: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/images [Stereo; Cor, EUVI, HI – as seen from the side]

SunAEON:http://www.sunaeon.com/#/solarsystem/ [Just click it… trust me]

SOLARIMG: http://solarimg.org/artis/ [All purpose data viewing site]

iSWA: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/iswa/iSWA.html [Free Application; for advanced sun watchers]

NASA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov:8080/IswaSystemWebApp/iSWACygnetStreamer?timestamp=…
NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/

US Wind Map: http://hint.fm/wind/

NOAA Bouys: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

RADIATION Network: http://radiationnetwork.com/

NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory: http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/Default.php

RSOE: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php [That cool alert map I use]

GOES Xray: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sxi/goes15/index.html

JAPAN Radiation Map: http://jciv.iidj.net/map/

LISS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/operations/heliplots_gsn.php

Gamma Ray Bursts: http://grb.sonoma.edu/ [Really? You can’t figure out what this one is for?]

BARTOL Cosmic Rays: http://neutronm.bartol.udel.edu//spaceweather/welcome.html [Top left box, look for BIG blue circles]

TORCON: http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-torcon-index [Tornado Forecast for the day]

GOES Weather: http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/ [Clouds over America]

RAIN RECORDS: http://www.cocorahs.org/ViewData/ListIntensePrecipReports.aspx

EL DORADO WORLD WEATHER MAP: http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/satellite/ssec/world/world-composite-ir-…

PRESSURE MAP: http://www.woweather.com/cgi-bin/expertcharts?LANG=us&MENU=0000000000&…

HURRICANE TRACKER: http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/tracker

INTELLICAST: http://www.intellicast.com/ [Weather site used by many youtubers]

NASA News: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/

PHYSORG: http://phys.org/ [GREAT News Site!]

QUAKES LIST FULL: http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/seismologist.php

2MIN News October 18. 2012

Published on Oct 18, 2012 by Suspicious0bservers

TODAY’S LINKS
Lake Michigan Low: http://www.weather.com/news/lake-michigan-levels-20121017
Sea Level Rise: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-sea-level-northeast-coast.html
Adaptation is the Answer?: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-late-global-emissions-scientists-policies.html
Uranus Weather: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-keck-weather-uranus-sharp-focus.html

REPEAT LINKS
Spaceweather: http://spaceweather.com/ [Look on the left at the X-ray Flux and Solar Wind Speed/Density]

HAARP: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/data.html [Click online data, and have a little fun]

CERES JPL: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=ceres;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0#orb

SDO: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ [Place to find Solar Images and Videos – as seen from earth]

Helioviewer: http://www.helioviewer.org/

SOHO: http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater [SOHO; Lasco and EIT – as seen from earth]

Stereo: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/images [Stereo; Cor, EUVI, HI – as seen from the side]

SunAEON:http://www.sunaeon.com/#/solarsystem/ [Just click it… trust me]

SOLARIMG: http://solarimg.org/artis/ [All purpose data viewing site]

iSWA: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/iswa/iSWA.html [Free Application; for advanced sun watchers]

NASA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov:8080/IswaSystemWebApp/iSWACygnetStreamer?timestamp=…
NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/

US Wind Map: http://hint.fm/wind/

NOAA Bouys: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

RADIATION Network: http://radiationnetwork.com/

NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory: http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/Default.php

RSOE: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php [That cool alert map I use]

GOES Xray: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sxi/goes15/index.html

JAPAN Radiation Map: http://jciv.iidj.net/map/

LISS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/operations/heliplots_gsn.php

Gamma Ray Bursts: http://grb.sonoma.edu/ [Really? You can’t figure out what this one is for?]

BARTOL Cosmic Rays: http://neutronm.bartol.udel.edu//spaceweather/welcome.html [Top left box, look for BIG blue circles]

TORCON: http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-torcon-index [Tornado Forecast for the day]

GOES Weather: http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/ [Clouds over America]

RAIN RECORDS: http://www.cocorahs.org/ViewData/ListIntensePrecipReports.aspx

EL DORADO WORLD WEATHER MAP: http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/satellite/ssec/world/world-composite-ir-…

PRESSURE MAP: http://www.woweather.com/cgi-bin/expertcharts?LANG=us&MENU=0000000000&…

HURRICANE TRACKER: http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/tracker

INTELLICAST: http://www.intellicast.com/ [Weather site used by many youtubers]

NASA News: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/

PHYSORG: http://phys.org/ [GREAT News Site!]

QUAKES LIST FULL: http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/seismologist.php

2MIN News October 19. 2012: F1 Layer at it Again

Published on Oct 19, 2012 by Suspicious0bservers

TODAY’S LINKS
UK Odd Weather: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19995084
NC Fish Deaths: http://www.newbernsj.com/news/local/massive-fish-kill-continues-in-the-neuse-…
Greek Protests: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/photo/2012-10/19/c_131916376.htm
Australian Cloud Seeding: http://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/permanent-cloud-seeding-gets-green-light/2…
Geoengineering Experiment: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/oct/15/pacific-iron-fertilisation-…

REPEAT LINKS
Spaceweather: http://spaceweather.com/ [Look on the left at the X-ray Flux and Solar Wind Speed/Density]

HAARP: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/data.html [Click online data, and have a little fun]

CERES JPL: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=ceres;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0#orb

SDO: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ [Place to find Solar Images and Videos – as seen from earth]

Helioviewer: http://www.helioviewer.org/

SOHO: http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater [SOHO; Lasco and EIT – as seen from earth]

Stereo: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/images [Stereo; Cor, EUVI, HI – as seen from the side]

SunAEON:http://www.sunaeon.com/#/solarsystem/ [Just click it… trust me]

SOLARIMG: http://solarimg.org/artis/ [All purpose data viewing site]

iSWA: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/iswa/iSWA.html [Free Application; for advanced sun watchers]

NASA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov:8080/IswaSystemWebApp/iSWACygnetStreamer?timestamp=…
NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/

US Wind Map: http://hint.fm/wind/

NOAA Bouys: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

RADIATION Network: http://radiationnetwork.com/

NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory: http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/Default.php

RSOE: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php [That cool alert map I use]

GOES Xray: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sxi/goes15/index.html

JAPAN Radiation Map: http://jciv.iidj.net/map/

LISS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/operations/heliplots_gsn.php

Gamma Ray Bursts: http://grb.sonoma.edu/ [Really? You can’t figure out what this one is for?]

BARTOL Cosmic Rays: http://neutronm.bartol.udel.edu//spaceweather/welcome.html [Top left box, look for BIG blue circles]

TORCON: http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-torcon-index [Tornado Forecast for the day]

GOES Weather: http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/ [Clouds over America]

RAIN RECORDS: http://www.cocorahs.org/ViewData/ListIntensePrecipReports.aspx

EL DORADO WORLD WEATHER MAP: http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/satellite/ssec/world/world-composite-ir-…

PRESSURE MAP: http://www.woweather.com/cgi-bin/expertcharts?LANG=us&MENU=0000000000&…

HURRICANE TRACKER: http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/tracker

INTELLICAST: http://www.intellicast.com/ [Weather site used by many youtubers]

NASA News: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/

PHYSORG: http://phys.org/ [GREAT News Site!]

QUAKES LIST FULL: http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/seismologist.php

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Space

Bright Light, Loud Boom May Have Been Meteor

Astronomy experts will be searching an area near Martinez Thursday as they hunt for remnants of Wednesday night’s meteor

By Lori Preuitt

|Watch NBC  Video  Here

The Bay Area was buzzing Wednesday night after a bright streak moved across the sky. It was accompanied by a loud boom.

This happened around 7:40 p.m.

Early bets said it was a meteor.  The Orionids meteor shower is happening right now, but experts told NBC Bay Area that Wednesday’s streak was not from Orion because the earth is shielding us from those meteors tonight.

Whatever it was, it caught the attention of hundreds, if not thousands of people.

NASA Ames astronomer Peter Jennikens helped us get the photo at the top of this article and below. Jennikens said he will be up all night researching where the meteor may have landed. He will be out early Thursday morning looking for remnants. He’s hoping to get more video from security cameras that might have been rolling when the meteor hit.

Beppy Tobeler told us on our Facebook page that she saw it from Dublin Security Storage. “It was so low and close I thought it was someone setting off fireworks,” Tobeler said. She said it sailed across the sky and broke up in several pieces.

Steve Siegel said he saw it from Sunnyvale. He described it as a super bright streak going north about 30 degrees into the sky. He said it lasted for 7 or 8 seconds.

 “I saw one giant, bright as close as a firework ball of light with long tail out visiting my parents in Forestville. One of the coolest things I’ve ever seen nothing at all like a shooting star,” Jessica Collins said on our Facebook page.

People at the Lick Observatory posted two raw clips of the what they said was a meteor breaking up over San Jose. It was taken by a security camera from the top of the observatory.

NASA posted on a science Website earlier this week that said this is the week to watch for the Orionid meteor shower caused by Halley’s Comet.

An article on NASA Science News said that every year in mid-to-late October, the Earth passes through a stream of dusty debris from Comet Halley. It promised sightings in the pre-dawn hours. Wednesday night’s streak was in the evening hours. Also, usually the meteor showers related to Hailey’s Comet are much smaller than what is being described.

NASA said that the highlight of the Orionid meteor shower is coming this weekend

“We expect to see about 25 meteors per hour when the shower peaks on Sunday morning, Oct 21st,” says Bill Cooke, the head of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office.

Read more about the Orionid meteor shower here.

Earth approaching objects (objects that are known in the next 30 days)
Object Name	Apporach Date	Left	AU Distance	LD Distance	Estimated Diameter*	Relative Velocity
214869 (2007 PA8)	05th November 2012	17 day(s)	0.0433	16.8	1.5 km – 3.3 km	10.79 km/s	38844 km/h
(2011 UG21)	06th November 2012	18 day(s)	0.1784	69.4	340 m – 760 m	19.73 km/s	71028 km/h
(2010 WT)	07th November 2012	19 day(s)	0.1251	48.7	53 m – 120 m	6.53 km/s	23508 km/h
333358 (2001 WN1)	09th November 2012	21 day(s)	0.1285	50.0	370 m – 830 m	8.73 km/s	31428 km/h
330233 (2006 KV86)	11th November 2012	23 day(s)	0.1876	73.0	450 m – 1.0 km	23.35 km/s	84060 km/h
(2008 LH2)	12th November 2012	24 day(s)	0.1487	57.9	35 m – 78 m	5.10 km/s	18360 km/h
(2001 YM2)	12th November 2012	24 day(s)	0.0860	33.5	440 m – 980 m	9.26 km/s	33336 km/h
(2012 KF25)	15th November 2012	27 day(s)	0.1528	59.5	23 m – 51 m	9.75 km/s	35100 km/h
1 AU = ~150 million kilometers,1 LD = Lunar Distance = ~384,000 kilometers Source: NASA-NEO

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Earth Changes

An extremely brief reversal of the geomagnetic field, climate variability and a super volcano

An extremely brief reversal of the geomagnetic field, climate variability and a super volcano

41,000 years ago, a complete and rapid reversal of the geomagnetic field occured. Magnetic studies of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences on sediment cores from the Black Sea show that during this period, during the last ice age, a compass at the Black Sea would have pointed to the south instead of north. Moreover, data obtained by the research team formed around GFZ researchers Dr. Norbert Nowaczyk and Prof. Helge Arz, together with additional data from other studies in the North Atlantic, the South Pacific and Hawaii, prove that this polarity reversal was a global event. Their results are published in the latest issue of the scientific journal “Earth and Planetary Science Letters“.

What is remarkable is the speed of the reversal: “The field geometry of reversed polarity, with field lines pointing into the opposite direction when compared to today’s configuration, lasted for only about 440 years, and it was associated with a field strength that was only one quarter of today’s field,” explains Norbert Nowaczyk. “The actual polarity changes lasted only 250 years. In terms of geological time scales, that is very fast.” During this period, the field was even weaker, with only 5% of today’s field strength. As a consequence, the Earth nearly completely lost its protection shield against hard cosmic rays, leading to a significantly increased radiation exposure.

This is documented by peaks of radioactive beryllium (10Be) in ice cores from this time, recovered from the Greenland ice sheet. 10Be as well as radioactive carbon (14C) is caused by the collision of high-energy protons from space with atoms of the atmosphere.

The Laschamp event

The polarity reversal now found with the magnetisation of Black Sea sediments has already been known for 45 years. It was first discovered after the analysis of the magnetisation of several lava flows near the village Laschamp near Clermont-Ferrand in the Massif Central, which differed significantly from today’s direction of the geomagnetic field. Since then, this geomagnetic feature is known as the ‘Laschamp event’. However, the data of the Massif Central represent only some point readings of the geomagnetic field during the last ice age, whereas the new data from the Black Sea give a complete image of geomagnetic field variability at a high temporal resolution.

Abrupt climate changes and a super volcano

Besides giving evidence for a geomagnetic field reversal 41,000 years ago, the geoscientists from Potsdam discovered numerous abrupt climate changes during the last ice age in the analysed cores from the Black Sea, as it was already known from the Greenland ice cores. This ultimately allowed a high precision synchronisation of the two data records from the Black Sea and Greenland. The largest volcanic eruption on the Northern hemisphere in the past 100 000 years, namely the eruption of the super volcano 39400 years ago in the area of today’s Phlegraean Fields near Naples, Italy, is also documented within the studied sediments from the Black Sea. The ashes of this eruption, during which about 350 cubic kilometers of rock and lava were ejected, were distributed over the entire eastern Mediterranean and up to central Russia. These three extreme scenarios, a short and fast reversal of the Earth’s magnetic field, short-term climate variability of the last ice age and the volcanic eruption in Italy, have been investigated for the first time in a single geological archive and placed in precise chronological order.

Source: Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres

Our World is Changing: Looking Beyond ‘the 2012’

Published on Oct 16, 2012 by Suspicious0bservers

DEDICATED
~October.15.2012~ You were a wonderful pet. I miss you already.

Information courtesy of NASA, NOAA, the US Library, the Goddard Space Flight Center, the Jet Propulsion Lab, the Environmental Visualization Laboratory, the NASA Earth Observatory, SDO, SOHO, Stereo, ISWA, SSEC, HAARP, and SolarIMG – Your information, images, and videos were essential to this video.

http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/images/ssn_recent2.gif
http://www.ips.gov.au/Solar/1/6
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2009/01apr_deepsolarmini…
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/30sep_blankyear/
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/solar-minima.html
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2003/29dec_magneticfield/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3359555.stm
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/09/0909_040909_earthmagfield.html
http://phys.org/news8917.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/magnetic-field-1.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080630-earth-core.html
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/16dec_giantbreach/
http://news.discovery.com/earth/earth-magnetic-field-north-110304.html
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/30oct_ftes/
http://www.agu.org/news/press/pr_archives/2012/2012-19.shtml
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia13763.html
http://phys.org/news/2011-08-giant-arrow-shaped-cloud-saturn-moon.html
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/19may_saturnstorm/
http://www.science20.com/news_articles/now_broadcasting_radio_jupiter-93369
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/20may_loststripe/
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2006/02mar_redjr/
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/media/cassini-062804.html
http://www.universetoday.com/93494/is-venus-rotation-slowing-down/
http://dvice.com/archives/2012/09/video-jupiter-t.php
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2012/09/explosion-spotted-on-jupiter-a…
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2009/15oct_ibex/
http://news.discovery.com/earth/earth-atmosphere-shrinking.html
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/special-reports/2011-spring-extremes/

STARWATER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiC-92YgZvQ
Electric Universe: google the Thunderbolts Project

NOAA Environmental Visualization Lab: http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/Default.php
Thunderstorms = Ozone Holes & UV Radiation: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/337/6096/835.abstract
US Floods: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USfloodmap8May2011.png
US Drought: You need no link.
2011 US Tornado Records: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/2011_tornado_information.html
US Record Wildfires 2011: http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/08/record-wildfire-year
2011 Weather: http://earthsky.org/earth/a-look-back-at-summer-2011s-weather-extremes-and-di…
2011 Texas Fire Record: http://blog.chron.com/sciguy/2011/09/this-historic-texas-wildfire-season-has-…
2011/12 Bad Winter: http://www.Real-Science.com/images-from-the-winter-that-wasnt
2011/12 Winter– Europe Deaths: http://www.worldweatherpost.com/2012/02/03/europe-cold-wave-deaths-hit-200-lo… Europe Cold: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NWS-NOAA_Europe_Extreme_minimum_temperature…
Warm US Winter: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/03/26/us-winter-2011-2012-fourth-warmest-…
Atmospheric Ions: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=electric%20currents%20atmosphe…

Noctilucent Clouds: http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=12&month=07&year=2012 ; http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/aim/news/noctilucent-season2012.html ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirrus_cloud ; http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/07aug_meteorsmoke/

Hot Flow Anomaly: http://www.space.com/14796-venus-space-weather-explosions.html
Magnetic Reconnection: http://ia700500.us.archive.org/15/items/CIL-10110/reconnectionAng_512kb.mp4
More Quakes: http://www.thehorizonproject.com/earthquakes.cfm
Summer Ozone Holes over the US: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/07/120726-storms-ozone-hole-glob…
Pilot Mistakes Venus for Airplane: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57415375-71/pilot-mistakes-venus-for-plane-…
Heavy Elements in CMEs: ftp://sohoftp.nascom.nasa.gov/pub/oldwww/explore/faq/cme.html#CME_COMPOS
CMEs cause Earth Ejections: http://pwg.gsfc.nasa.gov/istp/polar/coronal.html
Longwave Radiation Flow: http://iridl.ldeo.columbia.edu/maproom/.Global/.Precipitation/Pentad_OLR.html

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Biological Hazards / Wildlife / Hazmat

 

 

Massive fish kill continues in the Neuse River

A massive fish kill on the Neuse River Tuesday washed up on the beach by Neuse Harbor. Mitch Blake, Neuse Riverkeeper, viewed the fish kill Tuesday afternoon, saying there were several hundred thousand washed up on the beach and in the river. For 21 days, mostly Atlantic menhaden have been dying over a large portion of the river from New Bern to Hancock Creek, Blake said.

Chuck Beckley/Sun Journal

By Eddie Fitzgerald, Sun Journal Staff

Published: Wednesday, October 17, 2012 at 15:35 PM.

A massive fish kill on the Neuse River that has been ongoing for nearly a month has resulted in thousands of menhaden washed up on beaches near Neuse Harbor.

Mitch Blake, Neuse Riverkeeper, viewed the area Tuesday afternoon, saying there were several hundred thousand dead fish washed up on the beach and in the river.

For 21 days, mostly Atlantic menhaden have been dying over a large portion of the river from New Bern to Hancock Creek, Blake said in an email.

Some of the dead menhaden have ulcers that National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials have identified as Aphanomyces invadans from six samples analyzed in Beaufort. Fish samples were taken from the Neuse River in an impaired region by the Neuse Riverkeeper Foundation at the first sign of menhaden showing problems, Blake said.

“Over the 21-day period fish have been reported dead from New Bern to Hancock Creek and include areas in Slocum, Beard, Goose, Upper Broad, Northwest and Duck Creek,” he said.

Very few other species have been reported dead during the fish kill, except for isolated spots around Bay Point, which also had red drum, striped bass and spot.

“At this time we continue to see large schools of Atlantic menhaden, some floating, some are sinking to the bottom upon death,” Blake said. “An accurate count has not been totaled due to the massive area but just (Tuesday) I counted areas that were over 500 yards in length with approximately 90 dead fish per foot. With numbers like this it could easily go into the millions. In these areas there are dead, decaying, and in some cases just bones to reveal the timeline and magnitude of the kill.”

Joe Freemon, who lives in Neuse Harbor, said that on Tuesday there was a solid belt of dead fish on the beach of the river that bordered his property.

“You could stand there and see lots of others floating on top of the water,” Freemon said. “It’s the biggest (fish kill) I’ve seen and I’ve been on the water here over 50 years. You could smell it a couple of hundred feet away. … It’s a bad situation and unfortunate. ”

Blake said experts have told him the fish kill may continue due to the complexity of the area and lack of funding to run the proper analyzing equipment.

“There have been issues with oxygen, phytoplankton, stratification, nitrogen, pollutants among others, so the exact cause of death in the areas listed, has been complex to say the least,” he said.

Blake said he has been talking to a lot of people in the scientific community about what is causing the fish to die.

“I’m trying to put together a team to analyze it better,” Blake said.

As a nonprofit and staff of three to cover the Neuse Basin, The Neuse Riverkeeper Foundation depends on community support and volunteers.

“I’ve been working diligently to get information to the scientific community, the translation that comes from that is very important to the communities and people along the Neuse,” Blake said. “I think these menhaden stocks are extremely important to the dynamics of the estuary and millions of dead fish adding to the nutrient load creates its own set of concerns. As a community we have to address the impacts we have on the basin and we deserve to know where these impacts are coming from.”

Jill Paxson, environmental senior specialist with the N.C. Division of Water Quality, said for the past three weeks her office has been inundated with calls about menhaden fish kills, and not only in the Neuse River. There has been large kills in the Pamlico Sound also, she said.

Paxson said menhaden have a tough time living in a fresh and salt water estuary like the Neuse River. Some of the tributaries are shallow and the water can cool or warm up fast, causing a strain for the fish, she said.

“It is a very difficult place if you are a fish,” she said.

Paxson said as a precaution people should not go in the water around the fish or let their pets in the water and should wash if they do come in contact with the fish or water.

People usually don’t eat menhaden. They are on the bottom of the food chain and are eaten by larger fish like tuna and sharks, Paxson said.

Eddie Fitzgerald can be reached at 252-635-5675 or at eddie.fitzgerald@newbernsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @staffwriter3.

 

 

Today

Biological Hazard

Vietnam

Province of Dien Bien , Noong Luong Commune [Dien Bien District]

Biological Hazard in Vietnam on Friday, 19 October, 2012 at 06:39 (06:39 AM) UTC.

Description
Cases of bird flu have been reported in Noong Luong Commune, Dien Bien District in the northern mountainous province of Dien Bien. Director of the provincial Department of Animal Health Cao Thi Tuyet Lan said bird flu outbreaks were discovered last Friday in two households in the commune’s Village 12, with nearly 720 livestock suffering from the disease. Three days later, local authority discovered nearly 400 other livestock infected with the H5N1 virus in Village 15. Since the outbreak, authorities have detected and culled more than 1,000 sick livestock in the commune. The province banned sick livestock from being transported, processed and traded out of the affected area, and closely supervised slaughter and trade in other districts and communes of the province. The provincial People’s Committee also quarantined the affected areas, and counted the number of livestock, especially ducks in Noong Luong Commune and Muong Thanh District, to ensure that a bird flu epidemic does not spread. The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development also gave guidance on carrying out preventive measures such as sterilisation of farms where infected poultry have been reported.
Biohazard name:	H5N1 – Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus
Biohazard level:	4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:	Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
Symptoms:
Status:	confirmed

Today

Biological Hazard

USA

State of Hawaii, Kahului [Kite Beach (Kaa Point)]

Biological Hazard in USA on Friday, 19 October, 2012 at 03:07 (03:07 AM) UTC.

Description
Officials closed beaches around Kanaha Beach Park Thursday morning after a shark bit a stand-up paddle board around 7:30 a.m. off of an area known as “Kite Beach,” or Kaa Point. Stand-up paddle boarder David Peterson of Pukalani was not injured, officials said. The 55-year-old paddle board and surfboard shaper said he was standing on his board waiting for waves to come in and “all of a sudden (I get) knocked off my board. I didn’t see anything.” He said the shark had a hold of his board and would not let go of it, so Peterson hit the shark with his paddle as he was in the water. The shark let go but then came between him and the board and with his hands Peterson pushed the shark away and jumped back on his board. Peterson said he suffered some scrapes from getting back onto the damaged board. Otherwise, he wasn’t hurt. The shark is estimated to be 6 to 8 feet long. Staff officials said it is unknown what type of shark was involved. Shark warning signs were to be posted, according to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
Biohazard name:	Shark attack (non-fatal)
Biohazard level:	0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:	This does not included biological hazard category.
Symptoms:
Status:	confirmed

17.10.2012

Biological Hazard

Nepal

Bhaktapur District, Bode

Biological Hazard in Nepal on Monday, 15 October, 2012 at 07:41 (07:41 AM) UTC.

Description
Authorities in Bhaktapur’s Bode have culled more than 1500 chickens following a suspected outbreak of bird flu, health officials said. The outbreak of avian influenza initially killed 500 chickens out of 2000 at the poultry farm of a local Om Khadka. A meeting of health officials is underway at Bhaktapur to confirm whether the reported case is of bird flu.
Biohazard name:	H5N1 – Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus
Biohazard level:	4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:	Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
Symptoms:
Status:	confirmed

Biological Hazard in Nepal on Monday, 15 October, 2012 at 07:41 (07:41 AM) UTC.

Back

Updated:	Wednesday, 17 October, 2012 at 14:38 UTC
Description
Hundreds of birds have been culled in central Nepal following confirmation of a highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak on a poultry farm. Animal health officials decided to cull all birds and destroy eggs suspected to be infected with a strain of H5N1 virus in Bhaktapur district, 15 km east of the capital Kathmandu. The Directorate of Animal Health killed 780 chickens at the poultry farm following the confirmation and around 150 crates of eggs and six sacks of feeds stored at the farm were also destroyed as part of preventive measures. Samples were sent to an animal health laboratory for examination after a sudden spurt in deaths at the farm. According to officials out of 2,500 chickens at the farm, 1,200 had already died of infection from the virus. “Surveillance will be intensified and veterinary officials deployed to monitor other poultry farms in the area,” said Dr Narayan Prasad Ghimire, a senior veterinary officer at Department of Animal Health. High alert was issued in and around Kathmandu to prevent the spreading of the virus.

Today

Chemical Accident

United Kingdom

England, Bamber Bridge [Lancashire]

Chemical Accident in United Kingdom on Friday, 19 October, 2012 at 11:08 (11:08 AM) UTC.

Description

A grenade left over from the second World War left 13 people needing hospital treatment in England. The casualties were exposed to toxic fumes after workmen disturbed the stockpile of phosphorous grenades left in the sealed-up cellar of a property in Bamber Bridge near Preston, Lancashire. It is thought one of the grenades, issued to members of the Home Guard during the war, was dislodged and cracked, Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service said. The devices, glass bottles about eight inches long, were intended to release a highly flammable mixture of phosphorus and benzene after being thrown, self-igniting on exposure to air. They were to be used by reservists against Nazi occupiers if Britain had fallen to German invasion, but had lain forgotten for almost 70 years in the sealed-off cellar of a former fire station, now used as a printing firm premises. A further six such devices were found in cellar space which had been bricked up for some years. Firefighters were first called to reports of a fire at the premises of Sprint Print on Station Road in Bamber Bridge at 12.23pm yesterday. On arrival they established the smoke was in fact chemical fumes from what was thought to be a small container or bottle of acid in the cellar. Two drainage company employees investigating a report from the occupier of damp masonry are thought to have inadvertently dislodged one of the bottles in the stockpile, causing it to leak. They were exposed to the fumes and were injured along with three workers at Sprint Print. Of these five casualties, two suffered chemical burns and three experienced breathing problems. Two paramedics and six hospital staff at the Royal Preston Hospital – where the casualties had been taken – subsequently also complained of breathing difficulties. All 13 casualties responded well to treatment and have been allowed home. The cracked grenade was made safe and removed for disposal by an army disposal team and the rest of the stockpile will be disposed of in a controlled explosion, the fire service said.

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Articles of Interest

Today

Power Outage

USA

State of Iowa, Sioux City

Power Outage in USA on Friday, 19 October, 2012 at 02:58 (02:58 AM) UTC.

Description

Winds gusting up to 52 miles per hour and transformer fires were blamed for power outages Thursday that affected more than 2,000 homes and businesses in Sioux City. Service was restored to many of the homes within a few hours. The first outages were reported at 5:47 a.m. near 15th and Pierce streets. Outages caused by transformer fires were reported at 10:17 a.m. at 4105 Gordon Drive and about 12:30 p.m. at 2116 W. Third St. Officials at MidAmerican Energy Co. aren’t sure what caused the transformer fires but suspect the weather was a factor, company spokeswoman Tina Potthoff said. The company’s transmission system had been trouble-free before the powerful wind gusts arrived, she said. The top of a power pole exploded with a bang at Ultra No Touch Car Wash at 4105 Gordon Drive, said manager Brandon Swift. The flash was so intense, he thought something at the business had been struck by lighting.

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[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]

Earth Watch Report – Tuesday October 9th, 2012

Earthquakes

USGS

	MAG	UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s	LAT deg	LON deg	DEPTH km	Region
MAP	2.7	2012/10/08 23:49:05	19.341	-68.105	72.0	DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP	3.2	2012/10/08 23:25:08	36.237	-120.805	9.3	CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP	4.0	2012/10/08 23:05:47	-4.510	129.300	35.0	BANDA SEA
MAP	4.9	2012/10/08 22:26:10	-4.489	129.317	34.7	BANDA SEA
MAP	2.7	2012/10/08 19:33:52	37.454	-118.840	8.5	CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP	2.9	2012/10/08 19:29:18	40.520	-122.285	30.2	NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	3.3	2012/10/08 16:09:32	38.227	-122.177	9.6	NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	4.4	2012/10/08 14:19:36	-4.439	129.229	35.0	BANDA SEA
MAP	4.5	2012/10/08 13:10:26	-4.490	129.329	35.0	BANDA SEA
MAP	4.8	2012/10/08 12:20:52	-4.480	129.225	34.9	BANDA SEA
MAP	4.4	2012/10/08 12:18:48	44.136	17.181	11.6	BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
MAP	4.9	2012/10/08 12:00:54	-4.523	129.272	61.3	BANDA SEA
MAP	2.5	2012/10/08 11:56:31	37.645	-119.398	6.1	CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP	6.3	2012/10/08 11:43:35	-4.442	129.165	34.7	BANDA SEA
MAP	3.3	2012/10/08 10:34:23	60.117	-153.318	126.6	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	4.5	2012/10/08 08:25:56	38.215	46.671	11.0	NORTHWESTERN IRAN
MAP	2.8	2012/10/08 07:55:30	55.003	-158.750	39.6	ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP	2.9	2012/10/08 06:28:19	32.505	-115.966	10.4	BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP	6.0	2012/10/08 06:26:22	25.125	-109.698	9.9	GULF OF CALIFORNIA
MAP	3.3	2012/10/08 06:07:11	32.209	-115.213	44.2	BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP	4.2	2012/10/08 02:54:14	-21.767	-68.286	112.3	ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE
MAP	5.8	2012/10/08 01:50:26	-21.769	-68.262	115.3	ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE
MAP	4.1	2012/10/08 01:41:34	-32.311	-71.769	10.6	OFFSHORE VALPARAISO, CHILE
MAP	4.7	2012/10/08 01:25:57	-21.300	-178.636	587.4	FIJI REGION
MAP	3.4	2012/10/08 01:05:11	19.573	-64.417	12.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.2	2012/10/08 00:39:08	33.012	-116.311	11.4	SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

…………………………………

Earthquake: 4.1 quake strikes near Ocotillo Wells, Calif.

A shallow, magnitude 4.1 earthquake was reported Sunday afternoon 14 miles from Ocotillo Wells , according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The temblor occurred at 5:39 p.m. Pacific time at a depth of 4.3 miles.

According to the USGS, the epicenter was 16 miles from Julian, 17 miles from Borrego Springs, 45 miles from Escondido and 51 miles from San Diego.

In the last 10 days, there have been two earthquakes magnitude 3.0 and greater centered nearby.

Read more about California earthquakes on L.A. Now.

— Ken Schwencke

Image: Location of the epicenter. Credit: Google Maps

Magnitude-6 earthquake hits Gulf of California

The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — A magnitude-6 earthquake has shaken the Gulf of California coast in Mexico, but there are no reports of damage.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake hit at 11:26 p.m. Sunday local time (2:26 a.m. Monday EST; 0626 GMT) was centered 63 miles (102 kilometers) southwest of Los Mochis.

Local officials reported some panic, but no known damage.

6.3 quake strikes off Indonesia coast

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 struck off the southeastern Indonesia coast Monday evening, the US Geological Survey said.

A picture taken in Banda Aceh on April 12 shows the general view of west coast of Sumatera in Banda Aceh. An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 has struck off the southeastern Indonesia coast evening, the US Geological Survey said.

The epicentre of the quake, which occured at 6:43 pm Monday (1143 GMT), was located in the Banda Sea 139 km (86 miles) southeast of the town of Ambon, USGS reported. It took place at a depth of 34 km.

 

LISS – Live Internet Seismic Server

GSN Stations

These data update automatically every 30 minutes. Last update: October 9, 2012 06:49:07 UTC

Seismograms may take several moments to load. Click on a plot to see larger image.

CU/ANWB, Willy Bob, Antigua and Barbuda

CU/BBGH, Gun Hill, Barbados

CU/BCIP, Isla Barro Colorado, Panama

CU/GRGR, Grenville, Grenada

CU/GRTK, Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands

CU/GTBY, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

CU/MTDJ, Mount Denham, Jamaica

CU/SDDR, Presa de Sabaneta, Dominican Republic

CU/TGUH, Tegucigalpa, Honduras

IC/BJT, Baijiatuan, Beijing, China

IC/ENH, Enshi, China

IC/HIA, Hailar, Neimenggu Province, China

IC/LSA, Lhasa, China

IC/MDJ, Mudanjiang, China

IC/QIZ, Qiongzhong, Guangduong Province, China

IU/ADK, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA

IU/AFI, Afiamalu, Samoa

IU/ANMO, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

IU/ANTO, Ankara, Turkey

IU/BBSR, Bermuda

IU/BILL, Bilibino, Russia

IU/CASY, Casey, Antarctica

IU/CCM, Cathedral Cave, Missouri, USA

IU/CHTO, Chiang Mai, Thailand

IU/COLA, College Outpost, Alaska, USA

IU/COR, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

IU/CTAO, Charters Towers, Australia

IU/DAV,Davao, Philippines

IU/DWPF,Disney Wilderness Preserve, Florida, USA

IU/FUNA,Funafuti, Tuvalu

IU/FURI, Mt. Furi, Ethiopia

IU/GNI, Garni, Armenia

IU/GRFO, Grafenberg, Germany

IU/GUMO, Guam, Mariana Islands

IU/HKT, Hockley, Texas, USA

IU/HNR, Honiara, Solomon Islands

IU/HRV, Adam Dziewonski Observatory (Oak Ridge), Massachusetts, USA

IU/INCN, Inchon, Republic of Korea

IU/JOHN, Johnston Island, Pacific Ocean

IU/KBS, Ny-Alesund, Spitzbergen, Norway

IU/KEV, Kevo, Finland

IU/KIEV, Kiev, Ukraine

IU/KIP, Kipapa, Hawaii, USA

IU/KMBO, Kilima Mbogo, Kenya

IU/KNTN, Kanton Island, Kiribati

IU/KONO, Kongsberg, Norway

IU/KOWA, Kowa, Mali

IU/LCO, Las Campanas Astronomical Observatory, Chile

IU/LSZ, Lusaka, Zambia

IU/LVC, Limon Verde, Chile

IU/MA2, Magadan, Russia

IU/MAJO, Matsushiro, Japan

IU/MAKZ,Makanchi, Kazakhstan

IU/MBWA, Marble Bar, Western Australia

IU/MIDW, Midway Island, Pacific Ocean, USA

IU/MSKU, Masuku, Gabon

IU/NWAO, Narrogin, Australia

IU/OTAV, Otavalo, Equador

IU/PAB, San Pablo, Spain

IU/PAYG Puerto Ayora, Galapagos Islands

IU/PET, Petropavlovsk, Russia

IU/PMG, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

IU/PMSA, Palmer Station, Antarctica

IU/POHA, Pohakaloa, Hawaii

IU/PTCN, Pitcairn Island, South Pacific

IU/PTGA, Pitinga, Brazil

IU/QSPA, South Pole, Antarctica

IU/RAO, Raoul, Kermandec Islands

IU/RAR, Rarotonga, Cook Islands

IU/RCBR, Riachuelo, Brazil

IU/RSSD, Black Hills, South Dakota, USA

IU/SAML, Samuel, Brazil

IU/SBA, Scott Base, Antarctica

IU/SDV, Santo Domingo, Venezuela

IU/SFJD, Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland

IU/SJG, San Juan, Puerto Rico

IU/SLBS, Sierra la Laguna Baja California Sur, Mexico

IU/SNZO, South Karori, New Zealand

IU/SSPA, Standing Stone, Pennsylvania USA

IU/TARA, Tarawa Island, Republic of Kiribati

IU/TATO, Taipei, Taiwan

IU/TEIG, Tepich, Yucatan, Mexico

IU/TIXI, Tiksi, Russia

IU/TRIS, Tristan da Cunha, Atlantic Ocean

IU/TRQA, Tornquist, Argentina

IU/TSUM, Tsumeb, Namibia

IU/TUC, Tucson, Arizona

IU/ULN, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

IU/WAKE, Wake Island, Pacific Ocean

IU/WCI, Wyandotte Cave, Indiana, USA

IU/WVT, Waverly, Tennessee, USA

IU/XMAS, Kiritimati Island, Republic of Kiribati

IU/YAK, Yakutsk, Russia

IU/YSS, Yuzhno Sakhalinsk, Russia

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Volcanic Activity

Mount Lokon spews ash clouds in seventh eruption since Sept

• AFP

Watch

Indonesia’s Mount Lokon erupts

Mount Lokon on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island erupts, spewing volcanic ash as high as 3,000 metres into the air. Rough cut (no reporter narrat…

ONE of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes has erupted again, spewing clouds of ash, an official has said.

The 1580 metre (5,214 feet) Mount Lokon on northeast Sulawesi island erupted at 2pm local time on Sunday with thunderous sounds heard as far as five kilometres away.

“Lokon has been quite active the past few months. This was the seventh biggest eruption since mid-September,” government vulcanologist Farid Bina told AFP from the volcano’s monitoring post in North Sulawesi province.

“It produced a loud sound like thunder. But we cannot detect the height of the eruption as thick clouds covered its peak,” he said, adding that muddy rains fell in surrounding areas.

There was no plan to upgrade the volcano’s alert level despite the series of eruptions, he said, adding that the nearest village of 250 people was outside the 2.5 kilometre danger zone.
The volcano experienced its biggest recent eruption in July 2011, when more than 5200 people were evacuated as it sent huge clouds of ash as high as 3500 metres into the sky.

Since then Mount Lokon has erupted and spewed clouds of ash about 600 times.

The volcano’s last deadly eruption was in 1991, when it killed a Swiss tourist.

The Indonesian archipelago has dozens of active volcanoes and straddles major tectonic fault lines known as the “Ring of Fire” between the Pacific and Indian oceans.

The country’s most active volcano, Mount Merapi in central Java, killed more than 350 people in a series of violent eruptions last year.

Mount Lokon volcano spews a giant column of volcanic ash during an eruption seen from Tomohon town on Sulawesi Island, Indonesia.

This was the seventh biggest eruption since mid-September for Mount Lokon.

When Mount Lokon erupted in July 2011, spewing rocks, lava and ash hundreds of metres into the air, hundreds of people were forced to evacuate the area.

Indonesian volcano spews ash clouds in new eruption

by Staff Writers
Jakarta (AFP)

One of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes has erupted again, spewing clouds of ash, an official said Monday.

The 1,580-metre (5,214-feet) Mount Lokon on northeast Sulawesi island erupted at 2pm (0700 GMT) on Sunday with thunderous sounds heard as far as five kilometres (three miles) away.

“Lokon has been quite active the past few months. This was the seventh biggest eruption since mid-September,” government vulcanologist Farid Bina told AFP from the volcano’s monitoring post in North Sulawesi province.

“It produced a loud sound like thunder. But we cannot detect the height of the eruption as thick clouds covered its peak,” he said, adding that muddy rains fell in surrounding areas.

There was no plan to upgrade the volcano’s alert level despite the series of eruptions, he said, adding that the nearest village of 250 people was outside the 2.5 kilometre danger zone.

The volcano experienced its biggest recent eruption in July 2011, when more than 5,200 people were evacuated as it sent huge clouds of ash as high as 3,500 metres into the sky.

Since then Mount Lokon has erupted and spewed clouds of ash about 600 times.

The volcano’s last deadly eruption was in 1991, when it killed a Swiss tourist.

The Indonesian archipelago has dozens of active volcanoes and straddles major tectonic fault lines known as the “Ring of Fire” between the Pacific and Indian oceans.

The country’s most active volcano, Mount Merapi in central Java, killed more than 350 people in a series of violent eruptions last year.

Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
When the Earth Quakes
A world of storm and tempest

08.10.2012

Volcano Eruption

Indonesia

North Sulawesi, [Mount Lokon _Volcano]

Volcano Eruption in Indonesia on Sunday, 07 October, 2012 at 15:46 (03:46 PM) UTC.

Back

Updated:	Monday, 08 October, 2012 at 10:51 UTC
Description
One of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes has erupted again, spewing clouds of ash, an official said Monday. The 1,580-metre (5,214-feet) Mount Lokon on northeast Sulawesi island erupted at 2pm (0700 GMT) on Sunday with thunderous sounds heard as far as five kilometres (three miles) away. “Lokon has been quite active the past few months. This was the seventh biggest eruption since mid-September,” government vulcanologist Farid Bina told AFP from the volcano’s monitoring post in North Sulawesi province. “It produced a loud sound like thunder. But we cannot detect the height of the eruption as thick clouds covered its peak,” he said, adding that muddy rains fell in surrounding areas. There was no plan to upgrade the volcano’s alert level despite the series of eruptions, he said, adding that the nearest village of 250 people was outside the 2.5 kilometre danger zone. The volcano experienced its biggest recent eruption in July 2011, when more than 5,200 people were evacuated as it sent huge clouds of ash as high as 3,500 metres into the sky. Since then Mount Lokon has erupted and spewed clouds of ash about 600 times. The volcano’s last deadly eruption was in 1991, when it killed a Swiss tourist.

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Storms /  Flooding

Active tropical storm system(s)
Name of storm system	Location	Formed	Last update	Last category	Course	Wind Speed	Gust	Wave	Source	Details
Olivia (EP15)	Pacific Ocean – East	06.10.2012	09.10.2012	Tropical Depression	190 °	56 km/h	74 km/h	2.74 m	NOAA NHC

 Tropical Storm data

Share: Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 1 Storm name: Olivia (EP15) Area: Pacific Ocean – East Start up location: N 14° 0.000, W 118° 42.000 Start up: 06th October 2012 Status: Active Track long: 215.14 km Top category.: Report by: NOAA NHC Useful links: Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale FEMA – How To Prepare for a Hurricane Effects of a Hurricane USA – National Hurricane Center

Past track Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave Pressure Source 07th Oct 2012 08:08:10 N 14° 0.000, W 120° 30.000 17 83 102 Tropical Storm 280 19 1000 MB NOAA NHC 08th Oct 2012 05:01:14 N 16° 12.000, W 120° 54.000 11 93 111 Tropical Storm 355 16 998 MB NOAA NHC Current position Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave feet Pressure Source 09th Oct 2012 05:27:10 N 15° 42.000, W 121° 24.000 7 56 74 Tropical Depression 190 ° 9 1006 MB NOAA NHC Forecast track Date Time Position Category Wind km/h Gust km/h Source 10th Oct 2012 12:00:00 N 14° 30.000, W 124° 24.000 Tropical Depression 37 56 NOAA NHC 10th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 15° 6.000, W 123° 0.000 Tropical Depression 37 56 NOAA NHC 11th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 13° 48.000, W 125° 54.000 Tropical Depression 28 37 NOAA NHC

Prapiroon (22W)

Pacific Ocean

08.10.2012

09.10.2012

Typhoon I

260 °

120 km/h

148 km/h

4.57 m

JTWC

Tropical Storm data

Share: Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 0 Storm name: Prapiroon (22W) Area: Pacific Ocean Start up location: N 17° 54.000, E 135° 42.000 Start up: 08th October 2012 Status: Active Track long: 204.36 km Top category.: Report by: JTWC Useful links: Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale FEMA – How To Prepare for a Hurricane Effects of a Hurricane USA – National Hurricane Center

Past track Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave Pressure Source 08th Oct 2012 05:04:27 N 17° 54.000, E 135° 42.000 9 83 102 Tropical Storm 270 15 JTWC Current position Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave feet Pressure Source 09th Oct 2012 05:29:14 N 17° 42.000, E 132° 36.000 9 120 148 Typhoon I 260 ° 15 JTWC Forecast track Date Time Position Category Wind km/h Gust km/h Source 10th Oct 2012 12:00:00 N 18° 42.000, E 129° 54.000 Typhoon III 167 204 JTWC 10th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 18° 6.000, E 130° 36.000 Typhoon III 157 194 JTWC 11th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 19° 30.000, E 129° 42.000 Typhoon IV 176 213 JTWC 12th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 20° 48.000, E 130° 48.000 Typhoon IV 185 232 JTWC 13th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 21° 48.000, E 132° 0.000 Typhoon IV 176 213 JTWC 14th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 23° 12.000, E 134° 42.000 Typhoon III 148 185 JTWC

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NASA’s HS3 Mission Thoroughly Investigates Long-Lived Hurricane Nadine

by Robert Gutro for Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD (SPX)

NASA’s Global Hawk flew five science missions into Tropical Storm/Hurricane Nadine, plus the transit flight circling around the east side of Hurricane Leslie. This is a composite of the ground tracks of the transit flight to NASA Wallops plus the five science flights. TD means Tropical Depression; TS means Tropical Storm. Credit: NASA. For a larger version of this image please go here.

NASA’s Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel or HS3 scientists had a fascinating tropical cyclone to study in long-lived Hurricane Nadine. NASA’s Global Hawk aircraft has investigated Nadine five times during the storm’s lifetime.

NASA’s Global Hawk also circled around the eastern side of Hurricane Leslie when it initially flew from NASA’s Dryden Research Flight Center, Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. to the HS3 base at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va. on Sept. 6-7, 2012.

Nadine has been a great tropical cyclone to study because it has lived so long and has strengthened to hurricane status a couple of times, and then weakened back into a tropical storm. Hurricane Nadine is an anomaly because it has been tracking through the North Atlantic since Sept. 11, when it developed as the fourteenth tropical system of the hurricane season.

Longest-lived Tropical Cyclones
As of Oct. 2, Nadine has been alive in the north Atlantic for 21 days. According to NOAA, in the Atlantic Ocean, Hurricane Ginger lasted 28 days in 1971. The Pacific Ocean holds the record, though as Hurricane/Typhoon John lasted 31 days. John was “born” in the Eastern North Pacific, crossed the International Dateline and moved through the Western North Pacific over 31 days during August and September 1994. Nadine, however, is in the top 50 longest-lasting tropical cyclones in either ocean basin.

First Flight into Nadine
On Sept. 11, as part of NASA’s HS3 mission, the Global Hawk aircraft took off from NASA Wallops at 7:06 a.m. EDT and headed for Tropical Depression 14, which at the time of take-off, was still a developing low pressure area called System 91L.

At 11 a.m. EDT that day, Tropical Depression 14 was located near 16.3 North latitude and 43.1 West longitude, about 1,210 miles (1,950 km) east of the Lesser Antilles. The depression had maximum sustained winds near 35 mph. It was moving to the west near 10 mph (17 kmh) and had a minimum central pressure of 1006 millibars.

NASA’s Global Hawk landed back at Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va., on Sept. 12 after spending 11 hours gathering data in the storm, which had strengthened into Tropical Storm Nadine during the early morning hours of Sept. 12.

The Global Hawk, one of two associated with the HS3 mission, sought to determine whether hot, dry and dusty air associated with the Saharan air layer was being ingested into the storm. This Saharan air typically crosses westward over the Atlantic Ocean and potentially affects tropical cyclone formation and intensification.

During its 26-hour flight around Nadine, the Global Hawk covered more than one million square kilometers (386,100 square miles) going back and forth over the storm in what’s called a “lawnmower pattern.”

The Global Hawk captured data using instruments aboard the aircraft and also dropped sensors called sondes into the storm. These sondes are small sensors tied to parachutes that drift down through the storm measuring winds, temperature and humidity.

Second Flight into Tropical Storm Nadine
The Global Hawk investigated Tropical Storm Nadine again on Sept. 14 and 15. During its 22.5 hour flight around Nadine, the Global Hawk covered more than one million square kilometers (386,100 square miles) going again went back and forth over the storm in another lawnmower pattern.

“During the flight, Nadine strengthened from a tropical storm to a hurricane despite being hit by very strong westerly winds at upper levels and very dry air on its periphery,” said Scott Braun, HS3 Mission principal investigator from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Data from this flight will help scientists determine how a storm like Nadine can intensify even in the presence of seemingly adverse conditions.

Third Flight into Tropical Storm Nadine
NASA’s Global Hawk unmanned aircraft departed from NASA Wallops at 2:42 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Sept. 19 and crossed the Atlantic to take additional measurements in Tropical Storm Nadine.

Both the Global Hawk and NASA’s TRMM satellite noticed that Nadine had continued to display tropical characteristics, indicating that it had not transitioned to an extra-tropical storm. An extra-tropical storm is one that loses its tropical characteristics, such as when the core of the storm changes from a warm core to a cold core, like a typical mid-latitude low pressure system that is associated with fronts. At that time, Nadine was located in the Atlantic a few hundred miles southwest of the Azores Island.

The science portion of the third flight was completed on Sept. 20. Scientists reported that they obtained excellent data from the dropsonde system, which showed some winds on the western side of the storm still reaching 60 knots (69 mph/111 kmh) at middle levels and possibly one measurement of near 60 knots (69 mph/111 kmh) near the surface. The data suggested that Nadine was still a tropical system rather than an extra-tropical system.

The three science instruments aboard the Global Hawk performed extremely well, transmitting data back to NASA Wallops for the scientists to analyze and discuss. The plane observed Nadine for more than 12 hours. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center were using the data supplied by NASA’s Global Hawk and noted in the discussion of Nadine at 11 a.m. EDT on Sept. 20, “The current intensity is kept at 45 knots (51.7 mph/83.3 kmh)…is in good agreement with dropsonde data from the NASA Global Hawk aircraft and AMSU [instrument] estimates.”

Fourth Flight Over Nadine
The fourth science flight of NASA’s Global Hawk over Nadine concluded when the aircraft landed at NASA Wallops on Sunday, Sept. 23. The HS3 mission scientists changed the flight path during the Global Hawk flight to be able to overfly Nadine’s center that day.

“Measurements from dropsondes found wind speeds greater than 60 knots (69 mph/111 kph) at lower levels above the surface during that adjusted flight leg,” said Scott Braun. “Despite the large distance of Nadine from the U. S. East Coast, the Global Hawk was able to spend about 11 hours over the storm.”

Fifth Flight Over Nadine
The Global Hawk aircraft’s fifth investigation of Nadine occurred on Sept. 26 with the aircraft returning to NASA Wallops the next day. While over Tropical Storm Nadine, the storm had maximum sustained winds near 60 mph (95 kmh). Despite adverse conditions, the storm re-intensified to a hurricane the next day, so the HS3 data captured the precursor conditions for intensification.

The NASA HS3 Mission Goals
The HS3 mission targets the processes that underlie hurricane formation and intensity change. The data collected will help scientists decipher the relative roles of the large-scale environment and internal storm processes that shape these systems.

HS3 is supported by several NASA centers including Wallops; Goddard; Dryden; Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.; Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.; and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. HS3 also has collaborations with partners from government agencies and academia.

HS3 is an Earth Venture mission funded by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Earth Venture missions are managed by NASA’s Earth System Science Pathfinder Program at the agency’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. The HS3 mission is managed by the Earth Science Project Office at NASA Ames.

Related Links
HS3 at NASA
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
When the Earth Quakes
A world of storm and tempest

Today

Flood

Sweden

Vasterbotten, Gagsmark

Flood in Sweden on Tuesday, 09 October, 2012 at 04:21 (04:21 AM) UTC.

Description

A village in northern Sweden has been cut off since Sunday night after torrential rainfall made the area inaccessible. Gagsmark, near Skelleftea in far northern Sweden, houses some 40 families and is situated between several lakes that flow into the Aby river. It is this river which has caused the flood. Not even the spring floods generally causes this much trouble for the village. Several of the villagers with jobs further afield were forced to stay home on Monday. A total of nine roads were closed off to the public and a further five have limited access.

Today

Flash Flood

Vietnam

Multi Provinces, [Provinces of Quang Nam and Dak Lak]

Flash Flood in Vietnam on Tuesday, 09 October, 2012 at 03:35 (03:35 AM) UTC.

Description

Flash floods, triggered by heavy downpours during the past three days, swept away two people in central Quang Nam and Central Highland Dak Lak provinces. One has been confirmed dead. The local steering committee for Flood Prevention and Control said the victims, an 18-year-old female and a 30 year-old male were from Dak Lak and Quang Nam Province. The water levels were reportedly 60-80mm, causing serious flooding and damage to property. In Ea H’el District alone, flash floods swept away two bridges, submerged 490 houses and damaged 1,800ha of crops. The water levels in local rivers were forecast to increase due to the discharge of hydro-power reservoirs.

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Epidemic Hazards /Diseases

08.10.2012

Epidemic Hazard

China

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Wan Chai [Ruttonjee Hospital to Queen Mary Hospital]

Epidemic Hazard in China on Sunday, 07 October, 2012 at 19:13 (07:13 PM) UTC.

Back

Updated:	Monday, 08 October, 2012 at 02:59 UTC
Description
Hong Kong’s health authority received a report from a local hospital on Sunday, over a suspected case of severe respiratory disease associated with new coronavirus affecting a four-year-old boy who came from Jeddah of Saudi Arabia, the city government said in a statement. The boy presented with fever, cough and vomiting today and attended the Accident and Emergency Department of Ruttonjee Hospital on Hong Kong Island. The boy has been transferred to Queen Mary Hospital for isolation, and his current condition is stable. Respiratory specimen has been taken from the patient and test result is pending, according to the Center for Health Protection of the Department of Health. Investigation by the Center for Health Protection revealed that the boy traveled with his father from Saudi Arabia to Hong Kong on Oct. 3. His father also had fever two days ago but has recovered. A spokesman with the Center advised travelers who fall sick within 10 days after visiting from affected countries should put on a mask and seek medical advice immediately, as well as report their travel history to the doctor concerned. The WHO said earlier that two cases of acute respiratory syndrome with renal failure had been reported from two persons who had both traveled to Middle East, and a novel coronavirus has been later confirmed relating to the two cases. Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses which includes viruses that cause the common cold and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

Epidemic Hazard in China on Sunday, 07 October, 2012 at 19:13 (07:13 PM) UTC.

Back

Updated:	Monday, 08 October, 2012 at 07:03 UTC
Description
A four-year-old boy from Saudi Arabia has tested negative for the new coronavirus which is from the same family as SARS. The Health Secretary, Ko Wing-man, said initial test results showed the boy was suffering from swine flu and further tests were being carried out. The boy was admitted to Ruttonjee Hospital in Wan Chai yesterday with a fever, cough and vomiting. He was later tranferred to Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam where he remains in isolation in a stable condition. His father had a fever two days ago but has since recovered. Dr Ko said that although swine flu was less serious than the new coronavirus, the government would remain vigilant to see if it had mutated since the major outbreak of 2009. The new coronavirus, which emerged in the Middle East, has killed one man in Saudi Arabia and left another, from Qatar, critically ill.

Epidemic Hazard in China on Sunday, 07 October, 2012 at 19:13 (07:13 PM) UTC.

Back

Updated:	Monday, 08 October, 2012 at 10:51 UTC
Description
The suspected case of severe respiratory disease associated with Novel Coronavirus affecting a four-year-old Saudi Arabian boy was confirmed to be an influenza infection, the Center for Health Protection in Hong Kong said Monday. The center carried out an urgent investigation into the case on receipt of notification from Ruttonjee Hospital on Sunday. The boy was admitted to Queen Mary Hospital for isolation on the same day. He has upper respiratory tract symptoms and there is no clinical or radiological evidence of pneumonia. He is stable. The boy tested positive for influenza A (H1N1) 2009 virus but negative for Novel Coronavirus.

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Solar Activity

2MIN News October 8. 2012: Magnetic Storm in Progress

Published on Oct 8, 2012 by Suspicious0bservers

Pole Shift Video: http://youtu.be/uI10tKuLtFU
STARWATER: http://youtu.be/LiC-92YgZvQ

TODAY’S LINKS
Asia Econ: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/08/us-worldbank-asia-outlook-idUSBRE89…
SpaceX: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/08/us-worldbank-asia-outlook-idUSBRE89…

REPEAT LINKS
Spaceweather: http://spaceweather.com/ [Look on the left at the X-ray Flux and Solar Wind Speed/Density]

HAARP: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/data.html [Click online data, and have a little fun]

CERES JPL: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=ceres;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0#orb

SDO: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ [Place to find Solar Images and Videos – as seen from earth]

SOHO: http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater [SOHO; Lasco and EIT – as seen from earth]

Stereo: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/images [Stereo; Cor, EUVI, HI – as seen from the side]

SunAEON:http://www.sunaeon.com/#/solarsystem/ [Just click it… trust me]

SOLARIMG: http://solarimg.org/artis/ [All purpose data viewing site]

iSWA: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/iswa/iSWA.html [Free Application; for advanced sun watchers]

NASA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov:8080/IswaSystemWebApp/iSWACygnetStreamer?timestamp=…
NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/

US Wind Map: http://hint.fm/wind/

NOAA Bouys: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory: http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/Default.php

RSOE: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php [That cool alert map I use]

GOES Xray: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sxi/goes15/index.html

JAPAN Radiation Map: http://jciv.iidj.net/map/

LISS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/operations/heliplots_gsn.php

Gamma Ray Bursts: http://grb.sonoma.edu/ [Really? You can’t figure out what this one is for?]

BARTOL Cosmic Rays: http://neutronm.bartol.udel.edu//spaceweather/welcome.html [Top left box, look for BIG blue circles]

TORCON: http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-torcon-index [Tornado Forecast for the day]

GOES Weather: http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/ [Clouds over America]

RAIN RECORDS: http://www.cocorahs.org/ViewData/ListIntensePrecipReports.aspx

EL DORADO WORLD WEATHER MAP: http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/satellite/ssec/world/world-composite-ir-…

PRESSURE MAP: http://www.woweather.com/cgi-bin/expertcharts?LANG=us&MENU=0000000000&…

HURRICANE TRACKER: http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/tracker

INTELLICAST: http://www.intellicast.com/ [Weather site used by many youtubers]

NASA News: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/

PHYSORG: http://phys.org/ [GREAT News Site!]

QUAKES LIST FULL: http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/seismologist.php

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Link Between Coronal Mass Ejections And The Sun’s Interior Motion

Image Credit: A computer visualization of the sun (red sphere) and its magnetic field lines (orange and aquamarine). The close-up shows the final stage of the emergence of magnetic fields from under the solar surface and the associated X-ray emissions. This sophisticated computer model is used to investigate the drivers of harmful space weather phenomena, including coronal mass ejections. Image courtesy of Cooper Downs, Predictive Science, Inc.

April Flowers for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

After forty long years of debates and theories and counter-theories, the community of solar physics scientists has still failed to come to a consensus about what causes the sun’s powerful coronal mass ejections (CMEs). CMEs have profound “space weather” effects on land based power grids and satellites in near-Earth geospace.

An international team of scientists explains the mysterious physical mechanisms behind the origin of CMEs in a study published in Nature Physics. The results, based on computer simulations, expose the intricate connections between CMEs and motions in the sun’s interior. This new data could lead to better forecasting of hazardous space weather conditions.

Clouds of magnetic fields and plasma – a hot gas composed of charged particles – comprise CMEs. The most powerful and fastest of these events explode from the sun at more than a million miles per hour, with an energy release more powerful than the entire worldwide stockpile of nuclear weapons.

“By studying CMEs we learn not only about the drivers of space weather but also about the structure of the atmosphere of the sun and other sun-like stars,” says lead author Ilia Roussev of the Yunnan Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Disruptions in power grids, satellites that operate GPS or telecommunication systems, pose threats to astronauts in space, cause spectacular auroras, and lead to the rerouting of flights over the polar regions are all effects of geomagnetic storms caused by CMEs. These storms happen when a solar eruption hits Earth’s protective magnetic bubble, or magnetosphere.

The study provides an explanation of the origin of these super speed ejections of magnetized plasma and the associated X-ray emissions, demonstrating a fundamental connection between the magnetic processes of the sun’s interior and the formation of CMEs.

“Through this type of computer modeling we are able to understand how invisible bundles of magnetic field rise from under the surface of the sun into interplanetary space and propagate towards Earth with potentially damaging results”, says SSC researcher Noé Lugaz of the UNH Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space. He adds, “These fundamental phenomena cannot be observed even with the most advanced instruments on board NASA satellites but they can be revealed by numerical simulations.”

Accurate forecasting of solar eruptions and being able to predict their impact on Earth has long been a goal of solar physicists.

“The model described here enables us not only to capture the magnetic evolution of the CME, but also to calculate the increased X-ray flux directly, which is a significant advantage over the existing models,” asserts the authors.

Source: April Flowers for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

redOrbit (http://s.tt/1ohdk)

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Space

Earth approaching objects (objects that are known in the next 30 days)
Object Name	Apporach Date	Left	AU Distance	LD Distance	Estimated Diameter*	Relative Velocity
(2012 QE50)	09th October 2012	0 day(s)	0.0809	31.5	450 m – 1.0 km	11.47 km/s	41292 km/h
(1994 EK)	14th October 2012	5 day(s)	0.1356	52.8	230 m – 520 m	12.22 km/s	43992 km/h
(2012 PA20)	15th October 2012	6 day(s)	0.1502	58.5	100 m – 230 m	10.36 km/s	37296 km/h
(2012 RV16)	18th October 2012	9 day(s)	0.1270	49.4	310 m – 700 m	16.14 km/s	58104 km/h
214869 (2007 PA8)	05th November 2012	27 day(s)	0.0433	16.8	1.5 km – 3.3 km	10.79 km/s	38844 km/h
(2011 UG21)	06th November 2012	28 day(s)	0.1784	69.4	340 m – 760 m	19.73 km/s	71028 km/h
(2010 WT)	07th November 2012	29 day(s)	0.1251	48.7	53 m – 120 m	6.53 km/s	23508 km/h
1 AU = ~150 million kilometers,1 LD = Lunar Distance = ~384,000 kilometers Source: NASA-NEO

 

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Biological Hazards / Wildlife /Hazmat

Today

Biological Hazard

USA

State of Washington, [Clear Lake, Thurston County]

Biological Hazard in USA on Tuesday, 09 October, 2012 at 03:04 (03:04 AM) UTC.

Description
People and pets should avoid contact with water in Clear Lake in southeast Thurston County because of elevated levels of a toxic blue-green algae. The latest sample by Thurston County environmental health officials found 39.2 parts per million of the toxic algae Microsystin. The recreational advisory limit set by the state is 6 ppm. The lake will remain posted with a warning sign and be monitored weekly until the algae bloom dies off or until it stops producing toxins, health officials said. Toxic blue green algae is also present in Lake St. Clair and Black Lake, but at levels well below the health advisory threshold. However, health officials urge caution in lakes showing the presence of the toxic algae because it can be more concentrated in areas where the algae scum is thick. Lake St. Clair and Black Lake will continue to be monitored weekly.
Biohazard name:	Blue-green algae (Cyanobacteria)
Biohazard level:	0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:	This does not included biological hazard category.
Symptoms:
Status:

08.10.2012

HAZMAT

India

State of Maharashtra, Jalgaon

HAZMAT in India on Sunday, 07 October, 2012 at 14:18 (02:18 PM) UTC.

Back

Updated:	Monday, 08 October, 2012 at 12:50 UTC
Description
As many as 70 workers were hospitalised, after they inhaled chlorine vapours leaked from a factory in an industrial area of Jalgaon in north Maharashtra on Sunday. Of the hospitalised, the condition of three was reported to be critical. While two of them are undergoing treatment at a local super-specialty hospital, one person is being treated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a government hospital. According to local fire brigade officials, one of the chlorine cylinders stored at Kalpataru Agrochem company in sector-N of the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) area of Jalgaon, began to leak at around 3.30 am on Sunday. After inhaling the leaked chlorine, 70-odd workers of a company, Tulsi Pipes, located right in front of the agro-chemical unit felt uneasy. They complained of irritation in the eye and throat. Many of them began to vomit.

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Articles of Interest

‘Polar Wander:’ Earth’s Outer Layers May Be Drifting Over Molten Core

An illustration showing how a mantle plume can be emitted from the core-mantle boundary of the Earth to reach the Earth’s crust. Due to the movement of tectonic plates at the Earth’s surface, the mantle plumes can create a series of aligned hot spot volcanoes. A mid-ocean ridge and a subducted plate are also shown in this schematic from a study in the July 19, 2012 issue of the journal Nature.

By: Charles Q. Choi, OurAmazingPlanet Contributor
Published: 10/08/2012 12:35 PM EDT on OurAmazingPlanet

The entire outermost part of Earth may be wandering over the planet’s whirling molten core, new research suggests.

Knowing whether the Earth’s outer layers are roaming in this manner is key to understanding the big picture of how the planet’s surface is evolving overall, scientists added.

At various times in Earth’s history, the planet’s solid exterior — its crust and mantle layers — has apparently drifted over the planet’s spinning core. To picture this, imagine that a peach’s flesh somehow became detached from a peach’s pit and was free to move about over it.

This movement of the Earth’s outer layers is known as “true polar wander.” It differs from the motion of the individual tectonic plates making up Earth’s crust, known as tectonic drift, or the motions of Earth’s magnetic pole, called apparent polar wander.

‘Hot spot’ landmarks

Past research suggested the Earth experienced true polar wander during the early Cretaceous period that lasted from 100 million to 120 million years ago. Determining when, in which direction and at what rate true polar wander is taking place depends on having stable landmarks against which one can observe the motion of Earth’s outer shell, much like one can tell a cloud is moving by seeing if its position has changed relative to its surroundings.

Volcanic “hot spots,” or areas of recurrent volcanism, are one potential landmark. Geologists have suggested these are created by mantle plumes, giant jets of hot rock buoying straight upward from near the Earth’s core. Mantle plumes are thought to create long island chains such as the Hawaiian Islands as they sear tectonic plates drifting overhead.

Scientists have treated hot spots as stationary features for decades. The idea was that material surrounding the mantle plumes roil about to form structures known as convection cells that kept the plumes straight and fixed in place. [50 Amazing Volcano Facts]

Later on, however, researchers began suggesting that mantle plumes could move about slightly, caught as they are in the flowing mantle layer under the crust. “From this point of view, the plumes are expected to move, bend and get distorted by the ‘mantle wind,’ resulting in hot spot drift over geologic time,” said researcher Pavel Doubrovine, a geophysicist at the University of Oslo in Norway.

By allowing hot spot positions to meander slowly, Doubrovine and his colleagues have devised computer simulations that better match observations of the chains of islands created by each hot spot.

“Estimating hot spot drift in the geological past is not a trivial task,” Doubrovine told OurAmazingPlanet. “It requires substantial modeling efforts.”

The scientists then compared the way the Earth’s outermost layers drifted in relation to the planet’s axis of spin. The Earth’s magnetic field is aligned with the core’s axis of rotation, and researchers can tell how Earth’s magnetic field was oriented in the past by analyzing ancient rock. Magnetic minerals in molten rock can behave like compasses, aligning with Earth’s magnetic field lines, an orientation that gets frozen in place once the rock solidifies.

Current wandering

Using their simulations and the magnetic field rock record, the scientists identified three new potential instances of true polar wander over the past 90 million years. These include two cases in which the Earth’s solid outermost layers traveled back and forth by nearly 9 degrees off Earth’s axis of spin from 40 million to 90 million years ago. Moreover, the researchers suggest that Earth’s outer shell has been undergoing true polar wander for the past 40 million years, slowly rotating at a rate of 0.2 degrees every million years.

Researchers suspect true polar wander is caused by shifting of matter within the mantle, due, for instance, to variations in temperature and composition. However, “we don’t know yet what specific tectonic events may have triggered the specific episodes of true polar wander that we identified,” Doubrovine said.

These new details regarding true polar wander could help shed light on what triggers it. In the future, the researchers plan to look even further in the past at how the planet’s outermost layers have changed. Doubrovine and his colleagues Bernhard Steinberger and Trond Torsvik detailed their findings online Sept. 11 in the Journal of Geophysical Research — Solid Earth.

• 50 Amazing Facts About Earth
• Infographic: Tallest Mountain to Deepest Ocean Trench
• Earth Quiz: Mysteries of the Blue Marble

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[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]

Earth Watch Report – Tuesday October 2nd, 2012

Earthquakes

USGS

MAG	UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s	LAT deg	LON deg	DEPTH km	Region
MAP	3.2	2012/10/01 23:09:57	18.014	-68.532	83.0	DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP	5.1	2012/10/01 22:55:52	39.776	143.189	37.9	OFF THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP	6.2	2012/10/01 22:21:45	39.853	143.047	9.7	OFF THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP	2.8	2012/10/01 22:04:33	18.573	-64.947	33.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.4	2012/10/01 21:33:34	51.634	-177.375	10.2	ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP	2.6	2012/10/01 21:16:51	49.443	-120.513	0.0	BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA
MAP	2.6	2012/10/01 21:02:44	60.441	-150.822	12.1	KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA
MAP	5.2	2012/10/01 18:40:52	36.959	141.059	6.7	NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP	5.1	2012/10/01 17:32:32	18.713	-107.151	21.3	OFF THE COAST OF JALISCO, MEXICO
MAP	5.0	2012/10/01 17:24:42	-24.588	-179.380	461.8	SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS
MAP	2.6	2012/10/01 15:01:08	18.042	-67.154	11.0	PUERTO RICO
MAP	2.8	2012/10/01 14:14:47	51.484	-178.135	5.2	ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP	4.0	2012/10/01 13:45:35	40.223	63.890	35.0	WESTERN UZBEKISTAN
MAP	4.6	2012/10/01 13:25:59	-0.554	97.488	10.0	KEPULAUAN BATU, INDONESIA
MAP	3.0	2012/10/01 13:24:00	19.387	-155.896	7.4	ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP	2.9	2012/10/01 13:05:31	19.568	-64.376	5.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.7	2012/10/01 12:55:37	4.401	127.108	10.0	KEPULAUAN TALAUD, INDONESIA
MAP	3.3	2012/10/01 11:57:48	58.879	-154.917	118.4	ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP	2.7	2012/10/01 09:56:04	19.667	-64.350	11.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.2	2012/10/01 09:42:27	19.645	-64.394	11.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.6	2012/10/01 08:43:52	38.545	55.603	22.8	TURKMENISTAN
MAP	4.6	2012/10/01 08:06:31	-30.791	-71.210	54.0	COQUIMBO, CHILE
MAP	3.2	2012/10/01 06:29:01	19.617	-64.254	58.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.2	2012/10/01 06:08:39	19.760	-64.305	20.0	NORTH OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS
MAP	4.8	2012/10/01 05:17:57	35.956	141.359	42.4	NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP	3.7	2012/10/01 04:05:54	56.315	-152.141	9.1	KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP	3.6	2012/10/01 02:28:56	-43.500	172.820	5.0	SOUTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND
MAP	4.5	2012/10/01 01:36:26	-26.153	178.338	621.8	SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS
MAP	4.1	2012/10/01 01:32:33	2.155	-84.794	10.2	OFF THE COAST OF CENTRAL AMERICA
MAP	3.1	2012/10/01 01:19:08	62.015	-151.724	90.9	CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP	4.4	2012/10/01 01:00:49	40.264	142.724	53.2	NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN

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6.2 magnitude earthquake occurs off Japan’s eastern coast

By Adam Westlake

The U.S. Geological Survey reports that early Tuesday morning local time, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake hit off of Japan’s eastern coast. Originating from a depth of 9.7 kilometers (6 miles), it was centered about 96 kilometers (60 miles) off the coast of Miyako, Iwate Prefecture, in the northeast region of the country that was struck by the devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11th, 2011. There have been no reports of damages or signs of approaching tsunami.

In comparison from Tokyo, the 6.2 magnitude quake was about 550 kilometers (342 miles) from the capital city. Neither the Japan Meteorological Agency or the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued tsunami warnings or advisories on Tuesday as it wasn’t necessary. Geophysicist Gerard Fryer, with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, says the quake was too small to generate any kind of tsunami, but the residents of northeastern Japan would surely have felt it.

The quake probably gave some frightful flashbacks to those of Japan’s Tohoku region who survived last year’s disaster. The tsunami disaster that took tens of thousands of lives and washed away entire coastal cities was caused by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake just over a year and a half ago, and led to the world’s worst nuclear crisis in 25 years in Fukushima Prefecture.

LISS – Live Internet Seismic Server

GSN Stations

These data update automatically every 30 minutes. Last update: October 2, 2012 07:48:57 UTC

Seismograms may take several moments to load. Click on a plot to see larger image.

CU/ANWB, Willy Bob, Antigua and Barbuda

CU/BBGH, Gun Hill, Barbados

CU/BCIP, Isla Barro Colorado, Panama

CU/GRGR, Grenville, Grenada

CU/GRTK, Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands

CU/GTBY, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

CU/MTDJ, Mount Denham, Jamaica

CU/SDDR, Presa de Sabaneta, Dominican Republic

CU/TGUH, Tegucigalpa, Honduras

IC/BJT, Baijiatuan, Beijing, China

IC/ENH, Enshi, China

IC/HIA, Hailar, Neimenggu Province, China

IC/LSA, Lhasa, China

IC/MDJ, Mudanjiang, China

IC/QIZ, Qiongzhong, Guangduong Province, China

IU/ADK, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA

IU/AFI, Afiamalu, Samoa

IU/ANMO, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

IU/ANTO, Ankara, Turkey

IU/BBSR, Bermuda

IU/BILL, Bilibino, Russia

IU/CASY, Casey, Antarctica

IU/CCM, Cathedral Cave, Missouri, USA

IU/CHTO, Chiang Mai, Thailand

IU/COLA, College Outpost, Alaska, USA

IU/COR, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

IU/CTAO, Charters Towers, Australia

IU/DAV,Davao, Philippines

IU/DWPF,Disney Wilderness Preserve, Florida, USA

IU/FUNA,Funafuti, Tuvalu

IU/FURI, Mt. Furi, Ethiopia

IU/GNI, Garni, Armenia

IU/GRFO, Grafenberg, Germany

IU/GUMO, Guam, Mariana Islands

IU/HKT, Hockley, Texas, USA

IU/HNR, Honiara, Solomon Islands

IU/HRV, Adam Dziewonski Observatory (Oak Ridge), Massachusetts, USA

IU/INCN, Inchon, Republic of Korea

IU/JOHN, Johnston Island, Pacific Ocean

IU/KBS, Ny-Alesund, Spitzbergen, Norway

IU/KEV, Kevo, Finland

IU/KIEV, Kiev, Ukraine

IU/KIP, Kipapa, Hawaii, USA

IU/KMBO, Kilima Mbogo, Kenya

IU/KNTN, Kanton Island, Kiribati

IU/KONO, Kongsberg, Norway

IU/KOWA, Kowa, Mali

IU/LCO, Las Campanas Astronomical Observatory, Chile

IU/LSZ, Lusaka, Zambia

IU/LVC, Limon Verde, Chile

IU/MA2, Magadan, Russia

IU/MAJO, Matsushiro, Japan

IU/MAKZ,Makanchi, Kazakhstan

IU/MBWA, Marble Bar, Western Australia

IU/MIDW, Midway Island, Pacific Ocean, USA

IU/MSKU, Masuku, Gabon

IU/NWAO, Narrogin, Australia

IU/OTAV, Otavalo, Equador

IU/PAB, San Pablo, Spain

IU/PAYG Puerto Ayora, Galapagos Islands

IU/PET, Petropavlovsk, Russia

IU/PMG, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

IU/PMSA, Palmer Station, Antarctica

IU/POHA, Pohakaloa, Hawaii

IU/PTCN, Pitcairn Island, South Pacific

IU/PTGA, Pitinga, Brazil

IU/QSPA, South Pole, Antarctica

IU/RAO, Raoul, Kermandec Islands

IU/RAR, Rarotonga, Cook Islands

IU/RCBR, Riachuelo, Brazil

IU/RSSD, Black Hills, South Dakota, USA

IU/SAML, Samuel, Brazil

IU/SBA, Scott Base, Antarctica

IU/SDV, Santo Domingo, Venezuela

IU/SFJD, Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland

IU/SJG, San Juan, Puerto Rico

IU/SLBS, Sierra la Laguna Baja California Sur, Mexico

IU/SNZO, South Karori, New Zealand

IU/SSPA, Standing Stone, Pennsylvania USA

IU/TARA, Tarawa Island, Republic of Kiribati

IU/TATO, Taipei, Taiwan

IU/TEIG, Tepich, Yucatan, Mexico

IU/TIXI, Tiksi, Russia

IU/TRIS, Tristan da Cunha, Atlantic Ocean

IU/TRQA, Tornquist, Argentina

IU/TSUM, Tsumeb, Namibia

IU/TUC, Tucson, Arizona

IU/ULN, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

IU/WAKE, Wake Island, Pacific Ocean

IU/WCI, Wyandotte Cave, Indiana, USA

IU/WVT, Waverly, Tennessee, USA

IU/XMAS, Kiritimati Island, Republic of Kiribati

IU/YAK, Yakutsk, Russia

IU/YSS, Yuzhno Sakhalinsk, Russia

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Volcanic Activity

Heard volcano (Australia, Southern Indian Ocean) activity update: hotspots detected in late September 2012

BY: T

MODIS hotspots at Heard Island during 17-24 Sep 2012 (Univ. of Hawai’i)

MODIS satellite data showed hotspots at Heard Island volcano on 21 and 24 September 2012. This suggests that there was or perhaps still is some new activity at the volcano.
No further hotspots appeared on satellite data since 24 Sep.

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Extreme Temperatures/ Weather

Today

Heat Wave

USA

State of California, [Great Los Angeles regio]

Heat Wave in USA on Tuesday, 02 October, 2012 at 04:35 (04:35 AM) UTC.

Description

Blazing temperatures are set to hit the Los Angeles area Monday as numbers may climb to the triple digits in several areas of the city. Officials from the National Weather Service predict temperatures to peak around 100 degrees in downtown L.A., 104 degrees in the Hollywood Hills and a potentially record-breaking 110 degrees in inland and valley areas. The projected temperatures are expected to match heat records set in Southern California in 2008. The combination of intense heat, high winds, and low humidity levels has even prompted the National Weather Service to issue Red Flag warnings, indicating a high risk of wildfires in both the Santa Clarita Valley and the San Gabriel Mountains. “Fire danger is expected to peak on Monday,” NWS officials said, “when record-breaking triple digit heat and widespread single-digit humidities will combine with very dry fuels.” The Red Flag warnings are currently in effect until 6:00pm on Tuesday. People are advised to avoid strenuous activity in the heat, wear loose light clothing and drink plenty of non-alcoholic and non-caffeinated beverages.

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Storms / Flooding /  Landslide

Active tropical storm system(s)
Name of storm system	Location	Formed	Last update	Last category	Course	Wind Speed	Gust	Wave	Source	Details
Nadine (AL14)	Atlantic Ocean	11.09.2012	02.10.2012	Hurricane I	125 °	102 km/h	120 km/h	4.57 m	NOAA NHC

Tropical Storm data

Share: Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 3 Storm name: Nadine (AL14) Area: Atlantic Ocean Start up location: N 16° 18.000, W 43° 6.000 Start up: 11th September 2012 Status: 28th September 2012 Track long: 1,296.94 km Top category.: Report by: NOAA NHC Useful links: Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale FEMA – How To Prepare for a Hurricane Effects of a Hurricane USA – National Hurricane Center

Past track Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave Pressure Source 12th Sep 2012 05:01:17 N 17° 48.000, W 45° 12.000 24 65 83 Tropical Storm 300 13 1004 MB NOAA NHC 12th Sep 2012 10:46:22 N 18° 36.000, W 46° 36.000 28 74 93 Tropical Storm 300 15 1001 MB NOAA NHC 13th Sep 2012 05:34:52 N 20° 42.000, W 50° 6.000 26 111 139 Tropical Storm 305 17 990 MB NOAA NHC 14th Sep 2012 05:11:31 N 25° 0.000, W 53° 42.000 24 111 139 Tropical Storm 330 17 989 MB NOAA NHC 15th Sep 2012 06:55:17 N 30° 0.000, W 52° 48.000 22 120 148 Hurricane I. 25 17 985 MB NOAA NHC 16th Sep 2012 05:13:53 N 30° 36.000, W 46° 36.000 28 130 157 Hurricane I. 95 15 983 MB NOAA NHC 17th Sep 2012 05:22:55 N 31° 24.000, W 38° 6.000 30 111 139 Tropical Storm 75 16 987 MB NOAA NHC 17th Sep 2012 10:47:47 N 32° 0.000, W 36° 24.000 28 111 139 Tropical Storm 65 15 985 MB NOAA NHC 18th Sep 2012 05:15:16 N 33° 54.000, W 34° 12.000 15 93 111 Tropical Storm 45 18 989 MB NOAA NHC 18th Sep 2012 10:46:51 N 34° 18.000, W 33° 36.000 13 93 111 Tropical Storm 45 14 990 MB NOAA NHC 19th Sep 2012 05:31:59 N 35° 48.000, W 32° 12.000 11 83 102 Tropical Storm 25 15 993 MB NOAA NHC 20th Sep 2012 05:12:41 N 37° 6.000, W 31° 24.000 6 83 102 Tropical Storm 60 9 990 MB NOAA NHC 21st Sep 2012 10:40:35 N 35° 6.000, W 27° 12.000 13 102 120 Tropical Storm 140 14 981 MB NOAA NHC 22nd Sep 2012 06:38:52 N 31° 54.000, W 26° 36.000 20 93 111 Tropical Storm 165 15 984 MB NOAA NHC 27th Sep 2012 04:58:41 N 29° 30.000, W 31° 24.000 9 83 102 Tropical Storm 220 15 993 MB NOAA NHC 30th Sep 2012 06:48:45 N 35° 36.000, W 37° 30.000 17 139 167 Hurricane I. 340 19 984 MB NOAA NHC 01st Oct 2012 04:38:54 N 36° 42.000, W 39° 24.000 11 139 167 Hurricane I. 230 16 981 MB NOAA NHC Current position Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave feet Pressure Source 02nd Oct 2012 05:24:46 N 34° 42.000, W 38° 54.000 9 102 120 Hurricane I 125 ° 15 995 MB NOAA NHC Forecast track Date Time Position Category Wind km/h Gust km/h Source 03rd Oct 2012 12:00:00 N 34° 54.000, W 34° 6.000 Tropical Depression 83 102 NOAA NHC 03rd Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 34° 12.000, W 36° 24.000 Tropical Depression 83 102 NOAA NHC 04th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 36° 42.000, W 31° 12.000 Tropical Depression 74 93 NOAA NHC 05th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 44° 0.000, W 26° 24.000 Tropical Depression 74 93 NOAA NHC 06th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 48° 0.000, W 27° 0.000 Tropical Depression 74 93 NOAA NHC

Maliksi (20W)

Pacific Ocean

01.10.2012

02.10.2012

Tropical Depression

305 °

74 km/h

93 km/h

5.18 m

JTWC

Tropical Storm data

Share: Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 0 Storm name: Maliksi (20W) Area: Pacific Ocean Start up location: N 16° 54.000, E 146° 18.000 Start up: 01st October 2012 Status: Active Track long: 290.65 km Top category.: Report by: JTWC Useful links: Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale FEMA – How To Prepare for a Hurricane Effects of a Hurricane USA – National Hurricane Center

Past track Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave Pressure Source 01st Oct 2012 04:46:07 N 16° 54.000, E 146° 18.000 20 56 74 Tropical Depression 290 10 JTWC 01st Oct 2012 10:51:23 N 17° 48.000, E 145° 48.000 19 56 74 Tropical Depression 310 15 JTWC Current position Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave feet Pressure Source 02nd Oct 2012 10:37:02 N 20° 54.000, E 142° 30.000 22 74 93 Tropical Depression 320 ° 19 JTWC Forecast track Date Time Position Category Wind km/h Gust km/h Source 03rd Oct 2012 12:00:00 N 26° 48.000, E 140° 42.000 Typhoon I 111 139 JTWC 03rd Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 24° 6.000, E 140° 36.000 Typhoon I 93 120 JTWC 04th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 30° 12.000, E 141° 54.000 Typhoon I 120 148 JTWC 05th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 38° 6.000, E 149° 0.000 Typhoon I 102 130 JTWC 06th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 42° 12.000, E 161° 30.000 Tropical Depression 83 102 JTWC

Gaemi (21W)

Pacific Ocean

01.10.2012

02.10.2012

Tropical Depression

170 °

65 km/h

83 km/h

4.57 m

JTWC

 Tropical Storm data

Share: Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 0 Storm name: Gaemi (21W) Area: Pacific Ocean Start up location: N 17° 18.000, E 114° 48.000 Start up: 01st October 2012 Status: Active Track long: 70.41 km Top category.: Report by: JTWC Useful links: Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale FEMA – How To Prepare for a Hurricane Effects of a Hurricane USA – National Hurricane Center

Past track Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave Pressure Source Current position Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave feet Pressure Source 02nd Oct 2012 10:37:35 N 16° 6.000, E 115° 36.000 7 74 93 Tropical Depression 135 ° 9 JTWC Forecast track Date Time Position Category Wind km/h Gust km/h Source 03rd Oct 2012 12:00:00 N 15° 18.000, E 115° 54.000 Tropical Depression 83 102 JTWC 03rd Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 15° 42.000, E 115° 42.000 Tropical Depression 74 93 JTWC 04th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 15° 0.000, E 115° 30.000 Typhoon I 93 120 JTWC 05th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 15° 6.000, E 113° 48.000 Typhoon I 102 130 JTWC 06th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 15° 36.000, E 110° 30.000 Typhoon I 93 120 JTWC 07th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 16° 18.000, E 106° 24.000 Tropical Depression 74 93 JTWC

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Typhoon kills 1 in Japan, moves offshore

The Yomiuri Shimbun/Asia News Network

JAPAN – Typhoon No. 17 moved out into the Pacific Ocean from southeast Hokkaido via the Sanriku region early Monday after making its way across the country and causing at least 1 death and dozens of injuries.

A 56-year-old man was found dead at a rice paddy in Suzuka, Mie Prefecture. The man was believed to have been swept away by a swollen river.

According to figures compiled by The Yomiuri Shimbun, 23 people in eastern Japan, including 12 in Kanagawa Prefecture, suffered minor or serious injuries due to the typhoon. Injuries, including falls caused by strong winds, were also reported in the Tokai and Kanto-Koshinetsu regions, where the typhoon hit from late Sunday to early Monday.

Airline disruptions continued Monday, affecting 8,000 passengers. Japan Airlines cancelled 54 flights, including those between Haneda and Chitose airports, while All Nippon Airways cancelled 16 flights, including those between Sendai and Itami airports.

Temperatures exceeding 30 C were recorded in many areas following the typhoon. The mercury rose as high as 30.7 C shortly after 10 a.m. in Kasama, Ibaraki Prefecture, with temperatures reaching 30.5 C in Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture, and 30.3 C in Nerima Ward, Tokyo.

Today

Landslide

Nepal

Eastern Region, [Near to Kilbung ]

Landslide in Nepal on Tuesday, 02 October, 2012 at 03:15 (03:15 AM) UTC.

Description

An official in Nepal says a landslide has swept several vehicles off a mountain highway. Four people are confirmed dead and nine others have been reported missing. Government administrator Purushottam Ghimire says the landslide Sunday night swept away five vehicles traveling on the Mechi highway near Kilbung village in eastern Nepal. He says eight people have been rescued, four bodies have been pulled out and people remain missing. Details were still sketchy Monday morning but rescue teams have reached the area.

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Radiation / Nuclear

Today

Nuclear Event

South Korea

Province of Yeongnam, Busan Metropolitan City [Shingori Nuclear Power plant]

Nuclear Event in South Korea on Tuesday, 02 October, 2012 at 03:19 (03:19 AM) UTC.

Description

South Korea shut down one of its nuclear reactors Tuesday following a malfunction in its control system but there was no risk of a radiation leak, plant operators said. The 1,000-megawatt Shingori 1 reactor near the southern city of Busan was shut down after a warning signal at 8:10 am (2310 GMT Monday), the state-run Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power (KHNP) said. “There was a malfunction in the reactor’s control rod, but the reactor is now stable with no danger of a radiation leak,” a KHNP spokesman said. It is the first time the reactor has been shut down since it began operations in February last year. South Korea operates 23 nuclear power plants which meet more than 35 percent of the country’s electricity needs. In July, another 1,000-megawatt reactor at Yeonggwang — some 260 kilometres (156 miles) south of Seoul — went into automatic shutdown after a malfunction.

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Epidemic Hazards /  Diseases

Potentially Dangerous New Malaria Mosquito Identified

University of Notre Dame entomologists are part of a team of researchers that recently discovered a potentially dangerous new malaria-transmitting mosquito. The as yet unnamed, and previously unreported, mosquito breeds in the western areas of Kenya and has an unknown DNA match to any of the existing malaria-transmitting species.

The Anopheles species of mosquitoes which transmits malaria in Africa is already widely studied by researchers. It prefers to rest indoors during the day and feed on humans during the night. Current malaria control programs, including spraying of insecticides and using insecticide-treated bed nets, are designed with these behaviors in mind.

Although the new species has never been implicated in the transmission of malaria, new discoveries in its biting habits pose a threat because it was found to be active outdoors and prefers to bite people earlier in the evening, soon after sunset, when people are not protected by current malaria control techniques.

Neil Lobo, a Notre Dame research associate professor and Brandy St. Laurent, a former Notre Dame doctoral student, joined forces on the team of researchers that made the discovery. y Frank Collins, Notre Dame’s George and Winifred Clark Professor of Biology, Collins was principal investigator of the Malaria Transmission Consortium effort funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The discovery was announced in a paper whose lead author was Jennifer Stevenson of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

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Climate Change

Ocean warming could lead to smaller fish size, study finds

Changes in ocean and climate systems could lead to smaller fish, according to a new study led by fisheries scientists at the University of British Columbia.

The study, published today in the journal Nature Climate Change, provides the first-ever global projection of the potential reduction in the maximum size of fish in a warmer and less-oxygenated ocean. The researchers used computer modeling to study more than 600 species of fish from oceans around the world and found that the maximum body weight they can reach could decline by 14-20 per cent between years 2000 and 2050, with the tropics being one of the most impacted regions. “We were surprised to see such a large decrease in fish size,” says the study’s lead author William Cheung, an assistant professor at the UBC Fisheries Centre. “Marine fish are generally known to respond to climate change through changing distribution and seasonality. But the unexpectedly big effect that climate change could have on body size suggests that we may be missing a big piece of the puzzle of understanding climate change effects in the ocean.” This is the first global-scale application of the idea that fish growth is limited by oxygen supply, which was pioneered more than 30 years ago by Daniel Pauly, principal investigator with UBC’s Sea Around Us Project and the study’s co-author. “It’s a constant challenge for fish to get enough oxygen from water to grow, and the situation gets worse as fish get bigger,” explains Pauly. “A warmer and less-oxygenated ocean, as predicted under climate change, would make it more difficult for bigger fish to get enough oxygen, which means they will stop growing sooner.” This study highlights the need to curb greenhouse gas emissions and develop strategies to monitor and adapt to changes that we are already seeing, or we risk disruption of fisheries, food security and the way ocean ecosystems work.

 More information: DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1691

Journal reference: Nature Climate Change

Provided by University of British Columbia

Research reports climate change could cripple Southwestern forests

This shows bare branches and rust-colored foliage denote dead and dying trees in Colorado’s Front Range. Credit: Copyright Daniel Griffin.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-09-climate-cripple-southwestern-forests.html#jCp

Combine the tree-ring growth record with historical information, climate records, and computer-model projections of future climate trends, and you get a grim picture for the future of trees in the southwestern United States. That’s the word from a team of scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory, the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Arizona, and other partner organizations.

If the Southwest is warmer and drier in the near future, widespread tree death is likely and would cause substantial changes in the distribution of forests and of species, the researchers report this week in the journal Nature Climate Change. Southwestern forests grow best when total winter precipitation is high combined with a summer and fall that aren’t too hot and dry. The team developed a Forest Drought-Stress Severity Index that combines the amount of winter precipitation, late summer and fall temperatures, and late summer and fall precipitation into one number. “The new ‘Forest Drought-Stress Index’ that Williams devised from seasonal precipitation and temperature-related variables matches the records of changing forest conditions in the Southwest remarkably well,” said co-author Thomas W. Swetnam, director of the UA Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. “Among all climate variables affecting trees and forests that have ever been studied, this new drought index has the strongest correlation with combined tree growth, tree death from drought and insects, and area burned by forest fires that I have ever seen.” A. Park Williams of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is the lead author of the paper, “Temperature as a potent driver of regional forest drought stress and tree mortality.” Six of the paper’s 15 authors are at the UA. A complete list of authors is at the bottom of this release. To figure out which climate variables affect forests, the researchers aligned some 13,000 tree core samples with known temperature and moisture data. The team also blended in events known from tree-ring, archaeological and other paleorecords, such as the late 1200s megadrought that drove the ancient Pueblo Indians out of longtime settlements such as those at Mesa Verde, Colo. By comparing the tree-ring record to climate data collected in the Southwest since the late 1800s, the scientists identified two climate variables that estimate annual southwestern tree-growth variability with exceptional accuracy: total winter precipitation and average summer-fall atmospheric evaporative demand, a measure of the overall dryness of the environment.

Williams said, “Atmospheric evaporative demand is primarily driven by temperature. When air is warmer, it can hold more water vapor, thus increasing the pace at which soil and plants dry out. The air literally sucks the moisture out of the soil and plants.” Finding that summer-fall atmospheric evaporative demand is just as important as winter precipitation has critical implications for the future of southwestern forests, he said.

This Douglas-fir sample from the Southwest has annual tree rings dating back to the year 1527. The narrowing of the rings that formed from the 1560s through the 1590s indicates that the tree grew little during the 16th century megadrought. Credit: Copyright Daniel Griffin. These trends, the researchers noted, are already occurring in the Southwest, where temperatures generally have been increasing for the past century and are expected to continue to do so because of accumulating greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. There still will be wet winters, but increased frequency of warmer summers will put more stress on trees and limit their growth after wet winters, the study reports. “We can use the past to learn about the future,” Williams said. “For example, satellite fire data from the past 30 years show that there has been a strong and exponential relationship between the regional tree-ring drought-stress record and the area of southwestern forests killed by wildfire each year. This suggests that if drought intensifies, we can expect forests not only to grow more slowly, but also to die more quickly.” The study points out that very large and severe wildfires, bark-beetle outbreaks and a doubling of the proportion of dead trees in response to early 21st-century warmth and drought conditions are evidence that a transition of southwestern forest landscapes toward more open and drought-tolerant ecosystems may already be underway. And while 2000s drought conditions have been severe, the regional tree-ring record indicates there have been substantially stronger megadrought events during the past 1,000 years. The strongest megadrought occurred during the second half of the 1200s and is believed to have played an important role in the abandonment of ancient Puebloan cultural centers throughout the Southwest. The most recent megadrought occurred in the late 1500s and appears to have been strong enough to kill many trees in the Southwest. “When we look at our tree-ring record, we see this huge dip in the 1580s when all the tree rings are really tiny,” Williams said. “Following the 1500s megadrought, tree rings get wider, and there was a major boom in new trees. Nearly all trees we see in the Southwest today were established after the late-1500s drought, even though the species we evaluated can easily live longer than 400 years. So that event is a benchmark for us today. If forest drought stress exceeds late 1500 levels, we expect that a lot of trees are going to be dying.” Will future forest drought-stress levels reach or exceed those of the megadroughts of the 1200s and 1500s? Using climate-model projections, the team projected that such megadrought-type forest drought-stress conditions will be exceeded regularly by the 2050s. If climate-model projections are correct, forest drought-stress levels during even the wettest and coolest years of the late 21st century will be more severe than the driest, warmest years of the previous megadroughts. The study forecasts that during the second half of this century, about 80 percent of years will exceed megadrought levels. The current drought, which began in 2000, is a natural case study about what to expect from projected climate scenarios. While average winter precipitation totals in the Southwest have not been exceptionally low, average summer-fall evaporative demand is the highest on record. And trees, Williams says, are paying the price. The team concluded forest drought stress during more than 30 percent of the past 13 years, including 2011 and 2012, matched or exceeded the megadrought-type levels of the 1200s and 1500s. The only other 13-year periods when megadrought-type conditions were reached with such frequencies in the past 1,000 years were during the megadroughts themselves. UA co-author Daniel Griffin said, “This research is distinctly different from work done in a similar vein in two ways: One, it puts these projections for the future in a concrete historical context, and two, it shows that the impacts on the forests will not be restricted to one species or one site at low elevation, but in fact will take place at forests across the landscape.” Griffin is a doctoral candidate in the UA School of Geography and Development. Co-author Craig D. Allen, a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said, “Consistent with many other recent studies, these findings provide compelling additional evidence of emerging global risks of amplified drought-induced tree mortality and extensive forest die-off as the planet warms.” More information: The article, “Temperature as a potent driver of regional forest drought stress and tree mortality,” is written by A. Park Williams (Los Alamos National Laboratory), Craig D. Allen (U.S. Geological Survey), Alison K. Macalady (University of Arizona), Daniel Griffin (UA), Connie A. Woodhouse (UA), David M. Meko (UA), Thomas W. Swetnam (UA), Sara A. Rauscher (LANL), Richard Seager (Columbia Univ.), Henri D. Grissino-Mayer (Univ. of Tennessee), Jeffrey S. Dean (UA), Edward R. Cook (Columbia Univ.), Chandana Gangodagamage (LANL), Michael Cai (LANL) and Nate G. McDowell (LANL).

Journal reference: Nature Climate Change

Provided by University of Arizona

Extreme climate change linked to early animal evolution

by Staff Writers
Riverside, CA (SPX)

This photo shows researchers studying exposures of the Doushanto Formation. Located in China, the formation is most notable for its scientific contributions in the hunt for Precambrian life. Credit: M. Kennedy.

An international team of scientists, including geochemists from the University of California, Riverside, has uncovered new evidence linking extreme climate change, oxygen rise, and early animal evolution.

A dramatic rise in atmospheric oxygen levels has long been speculated as the trigger for early animal evolution. While the direct cause-and-effect relationships between animal and environmental evolution remain topics of intense debate, all this research has been hampered by the lack of direct evidence for an oxygen increase coincident with the appearance of the earliest animals – until now.

In the Sept. 27 issue of the journal Nature, the research team, led by scientists at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, offers the first evidence of a direct link between trends in early animal diversity and shifts in Earth system processes.

The fossil record shows a marked increase in animal and algae fossils roughly 635 million years ago. An analysis of organic-rich rocks from South China points to a sudden spike in oceanic oxygen levels at this time – in the wake of severe glaciation. The new evidence pre-dates previous estimates of a life-sustaining oxygenation event by more than 50 million years.

“This work provides the first real evidence for a long speculated change in oxygen levels in the aftermath of the most severe climatic event in Earth’s history – one of the so-called ‘Snowball Earth’ glaciations,” said Timothy Lyons, a professor of biogeochemistry at UC Riverside.

The research team analyzed concentrations of trace metals and sulfur isotopes, which are tracers of early oxygen levels, in mudstone collected from the Doushantuo Formation in South China. The team found spikes in concentrations of the trace metals, denoting higher oxygen levels in seawater on a global scale.

“We found levels of molybdenum and vanadium in the Doushantuo Formation mudstones that necessitate that the global ocean was well ventilated. This well-oxygenated ocean was the environmental backdrop for early animal diversification,” said Noah Planavsky, a former UCR graduate student in Lyons’s lab now at CalTech.

The high element concentrations found in the South China rocks are comparable to modern ocean sediments and point to a substantial oxygen increase in the ocean-atmosphere system around 635 million years ago.

According to the researchers, the oxygen rise is likely due to increased organic carbon burial, a result of more nutrient availability following the extreme cold climate of the ‘Snowball Earth’ glaciation when ice shrouded much of Earth’s surface.

Lyons and Planavsky argued in research published earlier in the journal Nature that a nutrient surplus associated with the extensive glaciations may have initiated intense carbon burial and oxygenation. Burial of organic carbon – from photosynthetic organisms – in ocean sediments would result in the release of vast amounts of oxygen into the ocean-atmosphere system.

“We are delighted that the new metal data from the South China shale seem to be confirming these hypothesized events,” Lyons said.

The joint research was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the NASA Exobiology Program, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. Besides Lyons and Planavsky, the research team includes Swapan K. Sahoo (first author of the research paper) and Ganqing Jiang (principal investigator of the study) of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Brian Kendall and Ariel D. Anbar of Arizona State University; Xinqiang Wang and Xiaoying Shi of the China University of Geosciences (Beijing); and UCR alumnus Clint Scott of United States Geological Survey.

Related Links
University of California – Riverside
Climate Science News – Modeling, Mitigation Adaptation

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Solar Activity

2MIN News October 1. 2012: 7.4 Quake & Strong(G3) Magnetic Storm

ublished on Oct 1, 2012 by Suspicious0bservers Pole Shift Video: http://youtu.be/uI10tKuLtFU

TODAY’S LINKS
Typhoon Flings Car: http://www.weather.com/weather/videos/news-41/top-stories-169/must-see-typhoo…

REPEAT LINKS
Spaceweather: http://spaceweather.com/ [Look on the left at the X-ray Flux and Solar Wind Speed/Density]

HAARP: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/data.html [Click online data, and have a little fun]

SDO: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ [Place to find Solar Images and Videos – as seen from earth]

SOHO: http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater [SOHO; Lasco and EIT – as seen from earth]

Stereo: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/images [Stereo; Cor, EUVI, HI – as seen from the side]

SunAEON:http://www.sunaeon.com/#/solarsystem/ [Just click it… trust me]

SOLARIMG: http://solarimg.org/artis/ [All purpose data viewing site]

iSWA: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/iswa/iSWA.html [Free Application; for advanced sun watchers]

NASA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov:8080/IswaSystemWebApp/iSWACygnetStreamer?timestamp=…
NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/

US Wind Map: http://hint.fm/wind/

NOAA Bouys: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory: http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/Default.php

RSOE: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php [That cool alert map I use]

GOES Xray: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sxi/goes15/index.html

JAPAN Radiation Map: http://jciv.iidj.net/map/

LISS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/operations/heliplots_gsn.php

Gamma Ray Bursts: http://grb.sonoma.edu/ [Really? You can’t figure out what this one is for?]

BARTOL Cosmic Rays: http://neutronm.bartol.udel.edu//spaceweather/welcome.html [Top left box, look for BIG blue circles]

TORCON: http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-torcon-index [Tornado Forecast for the day]

GOES Weather: http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/ [Clouds over America]

RAIN RECORDS: http://www.cocorahs.org/ViewData/ListIntensePrecipReports.aspx

EL DORADO WORLD WEATHER MAP: http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/satellite/ssec/world/world-composite-ir-…

PRESSURE MAP: http://www.woweather.com/cgi-bin/expertcharts?LANG=us&MENU=0000000000&…

HURRICANE TRACKER: http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/tracker

INTELLICAST: http://www.intellicast.com/ [Weather site used by many youtubers]

NASA News: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/

PHYSORG: http://phys.org/ [GREAT News Site!]

QUAKES LIST FULL: http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/seismologist.php

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Space

Earth approaching objects (objects that are known in the next 30 days)
Object Name	Apporach Date	Left	AU Distance	LD Distance	Estimated Diameter*	Relative Velocity
(2012 RH10)	03rd October 2012	1 day(s)	0.1260	49.0	98 m – 220 m	12.90 km/s	46440 km/h
(2012 QE50)	09th October 2012	7 day(s)	0.0809	31.5	450 m – 1.0 km	11.47 km/s	41292 km/h
(1994 EK)	14th October 2012	12 day(s)	0.1356	52.8	230 m – 520 m	12.22 km/s	43992 km/h
(2012 PA20)	15th October 2012	13 day(s)	0.1502	58.5	100 m – 230 m	10.36 km/s	37296 km/h
(2012 RV16)	18th October 2012	16 day(s)	0.1270	49.4	310 m – 700 m	16.14 km/s	58104 km/h
1 AU = ~150 million kilometers,1 LD = Lunar Distance = ~384,000 kilometers Source: NASA-NEO

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Biological Hazards / Wildlife / Hazmat

Today

Biological Hazard

USA

MultiStates, [States of North Carolina and Tennessee]

Biological Hazard in USA on Tuesday, 02 October, 2012 at 03:12 (03:12 AM) UTC.

Description
A dozen people have been sickened and two have died after an outbreak of fungal meningitis tied to injections given at outpatient surgical centers in Tennessee and North Carolina, health officials said. At least 737 people who received lumbar epidural steroid injections between July 30 and Sept. 20 have been notified of the cluster of rare aspergillus meningitis infections, which attack the central nervous system, said Curtis Allen, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Aspergillus is a mold present in the environment, and the meningitis is not related to the more common bacterial or viral types of meningitis. “The main thing is that it’s not transmissible person-to-person,” said Allen. Federal, state and local health officials are investigating the source of the outbreak. Eleven of the victims received injections at the Saint Thomas Outpatient Neurosurgery Center in Nashville. Another patient received an injection at an unidentified clinic in North Carolina. The Tennessee clinic was closed Sept. 20 and has been shuttered until further notice, officials said. The patients were older people, between the ages of 40 and 80, who were receiving the steroid injections as treatment for musculoskeletal disorders, said Woody McMillin, spokesman for the Tennessee Department of Health. Neither federal nor state health officials would identify the brand of epidural steroids given to the patients nor the manufacturer of the drugs. Asked whether the drugs themselves could have been contaminated, McMillin said that’s one possibility. “Right now, we’re not taking anything off the table,” he said. Erica Jefferson, a spokeswoman for the federal Food and Drug Administration, said that it’s too soon to speculate about that because the investigation is still “evolving.” Meningitis caused by aspergillus is very rare, according to the Journal of Microbiology. Symptoms often include a fever and headache that might be present for weeks before a diagnosis is made.
Biohazard name:	Meningitis (fungal)
Biohazard level:	2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:	Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
Symptoms:
Status:	confirmed

Today

HAZMAT

USA

State of Nebraska, Lincoln [Near to 56th and Highway 2]

HAZMAT in USA on Tuesday, 02 October, 2012 at 03:09 (03:09 AM) UTC.

Description

Nuclear waste travels through Nebraska almost daily. On Saturday, a bit of scare here in Lincoln. Officials say the incident at 56th and Highway 2 could have been worse. The truck was carrying low-level waste, but thankfully it didn’t end up causing any harm. Emergency vehicles swarm a flatbed semi Saturday after it stopped too quickly, causing its load to shift, it happened near 56th and Highway 2. That load contained low-level nuclear waste. “The public should stay away from anything labeled radioactive material,” Environmental Health Specialist Ralph Martin said. Ralph Martin is an Environmental Health Specialist who works closely on these types of events. He says in this instance, the low-level waste never left its container, which was a very good thing. “Well, anytime you have radioactive material in a place it’s not meant to be, you would have concern. The levels of this material would be unlikely that anybody could be injured,” Martin said. So we asked the question, what exactly is low-level Nuclear waste? Here’s how the U.S. Nuclear regulatory commission defines it. Items that have been contaminated with radioactive material or that have been exposed to radiation. These items usually include shoe covers and clothing, rags, equipment and syringes. The radioactivity of the items ranges from levels found in nature, to sometimes, highly radioactive. Martin says items like these travel through Nebraska almost daily. But don’t be alarmed, he says, there are strict rules when it comes to transporting it. Low-level waste is usually stored and stabilized in solid containers. Once the radioactivity wears off, officials say it can then be taken to your typical landfill or trash site.

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Articles of Interest

Earth is undergoing true polar wander, scientists say

Scientists developed a computer model to identify four possible instances of true polar wander in the past. And, they say, true polar wander is happening now.

Scientists based in Germany and Norway today published new results about a geophysical theory known as true polar wander. That is a drifting of Earth’s solid exterior – an actual change in latitude for some land masses – relative to our planet’s rotation axis. These scientists used hotspots in Earth’s mantle as part of a computer model, which they say is accurate for the past 120 million years, to identify four possible instances of true polar wander in the past. And, they say, true polar wander is happening now. These scientists published their results in the Journal for Geophysical Research today (October 1, 2012).

The scientists – including Pavel V. Doubrovine and Trond H. Torsvik of the University of Oslo, and Bernhard Steinberger of the Helmholtz Center in Potsdam, Germany – established what they believe is a stable reference frame for tracking true polar wander. Based on this reference frame, they say that twice – from 90 to 40 million years ago – the solid Earth traveled back and forth by nearly 9 degrees with respect to our planet’s axis of rotation. What’s more, for the past 40 million years, the Earth’s solid outer layers have been slowly rotating at a rate of 0.2 degrees every million years, according to these scientists.

Diagram showing solid-body rotation of the Earth with respect to a stationary spin axis due to true polar wander. This diagram is greatly exaggerated. According to Doubrovine and his team, Earth’s solid outer layers have been slowly rotating at a rate of 0.2 degrees every million years. Diagram via Wikimedia Commons.

True polar wander is not:

• A geomagnetic reversal, or reversal of Earth’s magnetic field, known to have happened before in Earth history.
• Plate tectonics, which describes the large-scale motions of great land plates on Earth and is thought to be driven by the circulation of Earth’s mantle.
• Precession of the Earth, whereby our world’s axis of rotation slowly moves, tracing out a circle among the stars, causing the identity of our North Star changes over time.

True polar wander is a geophysical theory, a way of thinking about Earth processes that might happen and that these scientists believe do happen. The theory suggests that if an object of sufficient weight on Earth – for example, a supersized volcano or other weighty land mass – formed far from Earth’s equator, the force of Earth’s rotation would gradually pull the object away from the axis around which Earth spins. A supersized volcano far from Earth’s equator would create an imbalance, in other words. As explained at Princeton.edu:

If the volcanoes, land and other masses that exist within the spinning Earth ever became sufficiently imbalanced, the planet would tilt and rotate itself until this extra weight was relocated to a point along the equator.

That’s the theory of true polar wander. It would cause a movement of Earth’s land masses, but for a different reason than the reason the continents drift in the theory of plate tectonics (formerly called “continental drift”). In the theory of plate tectonics, the continents drift because Earth’s the layer of Earth underlying our planet’s crust, called the mantle, is convective. That is, it circulates, slowly – like water about to boil. In true polar wander, on the other hand, a similar-seeming movement of land masses on Earth’s crust happens in order to correct an imbalance of weight with respect to Earth’s spin.

Scientists’ understanding of true polar wander overlaps with their understanding of plate tectonics in various ways. That’s understandable, since it’s all the same Earth.

Scientists delving into true polar wander want to know when, in which direction, and at what rate the Earth’s solid exterior might be rotating due to true polar wander. To sort it out, they say, you would need a stable frame of reference to which observations of relative motion might be compared. Doubrovine and his team say they found one: volcanic hotspots.

Hotspot forming an island chain. As land plates drift, a successive of volcanoes form over the hotspot. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

In geology, hotspots are volcanic regions fed by Earth’s underlying mantle. For example, the Hawaiian islands are believed to have formed over a hotspot in the mantle. The hotspot created a volcano, but then – as that land plate drifted over time, as described by the theory of plate tectonics – the volcano drifted, too, and was eventually cut off from the hotspot. Gradually, another volcano begins to form over the hotspot, right next to the first one. And then it moves on … and another one forms … and so on … and so on. Earth’s crust produces first one, then another volcano over the hotspot until a long chain of volcanoes forms, such as in Hawaii. Hotspots have long been used to understand the motion of tectonic plates.

Doubrovine and colleagues went a step further in order to understand true polar wander. Instead of treating the hot spots as static – frozen in place at one spot above Earth’s mantle – their computer model let the hotspots’ positions drift slowly. According to these scientists, this drifting is what produced a model of a stable reference frame, which in turn let them draw conclusions about true polar wander.

They say their model does a good job of matching observations of real hotspot tracks on Earth – the path drawn by each hotspot’s island chain – which gives them confidence their results about true polar wander are accurate.

The Hawaiian islands are believed to have formed over a hotspot – a particularly hot place in Earth’s underlying mantle. Scientists expanded on previous thinking about hotspots to suggest that Earth’s solid surface is drifting, minutely, with respect to our planet’s rotation axis.

Bottom line: German and Norwegian scientists have incorporated hotspots in Earth’s mantle into a computer model being used to study true polar wander. They say their work established a stable reference frame for this study that lets them conclude Earth is undergoing true polar wander today.

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[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]

Earth Watch Report – Wednesday September 26th, 2012

Earthquakes

USGS

MAG	UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s	LAT deg	LON deg	DEPTH km	Region
MAP	6.2	2012/09/25 23:45:26	24.835	-110.152	10.1	GULF OF CALIFORNIA
MAP	2.6	2012/09/25 22:55:09	32.112	-115.746	0.1	BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP	5.2	2012/09/25 19:42:33	-9.764	159.758	27.5	SOLOMON ISLANDS
MAP	2.7	2012/09/25 19:30:22	32.179	-115.231	26.7	BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP	2.8	2012/09/25 18:43:13	36.014	-118.394	2.0	CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP	5.4	2012/09/25 18:33:05	-21.134	-174.323	29.0	TONGA
MAP	4.7	2012/09/25 17:49:08	-8.877	-75.923	113.0	CENTRAL PERU
MAP	3.8	2012/09/25 16:03:33	36.500	-114.854	11.5	NEVADA
MAP	4.9	2012/09/25 15:48:46	54.145	-164.101	51.7	UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP	4.5	2012/09/25 15:15:10	39.168	-123.166	11.5	NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	3.2	2012/09/25 15:07:00	31.828	-115.003	10.0	BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP	5.0	2012/09/25 14:21:40	36.108	142.305	25.4	OFF THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP	2.9	2012/09/25 12:02:15	33.147	-115.695	4.1	SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	3.1	2012/09/25 12:02:05	33.159	-115.641	4.0	SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	2.6	2012/09/25 11:37:40	59.979	-141.588	1.3	SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA
MAP	3.0	2012/09/25 11:00:26	19.061	-65.394	52.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	4.9	2012/09/25 10:41:28	9.717	126.702	57.7	MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES
MAP	2.5	2012/09/25 10:06:39	33.158	-115.641	2.6	SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	3.4	2012/09/25 09:59:54	18.976	-65.381	71.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	4.7	2012/09/25 09:59:19	9.839	126.724	49.3	MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES
MAP	2.8	2012/09/25 09:26:46	33.791	-116.021	7.2	SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	5.1	2012/09/25 08:33:02	36.383	69.186	33.5	HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
MAP	4.7	2012/09/25 08:08:27	1.887	127.368	111.5	HALMAHERA, INDONESIA
MAP	2.8	2012/09/25 07:14:26	36.221	-118.317	7.1	CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP	5.2	2012/09/25 05:37:52	-25.144	178.860	565.0	SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS
MAP	4.8	2012/09/25 03:08:14	-9.420	124.717	21.4	TIMOR REGION
MAP	5.7	2012/09/25 03:06:52	-15.472	-173.923	104.5	TONGA
MAP	5.2	2012/09/25 01:43:14	-53.252	25.399	15.7	SOUTH OF AFRICA
MAP	2.7	2012/09/25 01:42:22	19.023	-155.421	43.2	ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP	3.4	2012/09/25 00:43:35	19.128	-64.782	68.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.9	2012/09/25 00:38:55	19.245	-64.728	48.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.8	2012/09/25 00:35:40	19.334	-64.722	33.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.9	2012/09/25 00:33:48	19.137	-64.632	68.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.6	2012/09/25 00:27:52	19.327	-64.763	9.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.8	2012/09/25 00:23:34	19.133	-64.692	64.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.8	2012/09/25 00:19:41	19.214	-64.797	7.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.8	2012/09/25 00:15:36	19.358	-64.777	48.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.8	2012/09/25 00:14:25	18.972	-64.549	79.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION

Magnitude 6.2 earthquake strikes near Mexico’s Baja Peninsula

MEXICO CITY

(Reuters) – A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck off the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula, on Tuesday and caused panic, but local officials said there were no reports of damage or injuries.

The quake’s epicenter was located 46 miles north of La Paz, Mexico, and was centered in the Gulf of California, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

“It felt pretty strong,” said Ivan Calderon, a Baja California Sur state civil protection official, adding there were no reports of damages or injuries.

“So far there have just been some reports of people panicking, but nothing serious,” Calderon said.

He said school was suspended across the state on Wednesday while officials examined sites for damages. Some other public buildings would also be closed Wednesday for checks, he said.

A magnitude 6 earthquake is capable of causing severe damage. Four more tremors, magnitude 4.8 or less, followed the bigger quake, all clustered north of La Paz, the USGS said.

The southern part of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula is sparsely populated outside of La Paz, the capital of Baja California Sur, and the tourist resort of Los Cabos, located about 98 miles to the south.

(Reporting By Michael O’Boyle; Editing by Bill Trott and Stacey Joyce)

Related News

• Magnitude 6.3 earthquake strikes near Mexico’s Baja Peninsula
  Tue, Sep 25 2012
• Rescuers told to keep at it after China quake kills 80
  Sat, Sep 8 2012
• Quakes in southwest China kill dozens, damage 20,000 homes
  Fri, Sep 7 2012
• Powerful quake hits Costa Rica, no deaths
  Thu, Sep 6 2012
• Major quake off Philippines causes panic but minor damage
  Fri, Aug 31 2012

6.2 Mwp – GULF OF CALIFORNIA

Preliminary Earthquake Report

Magnitude	6.2 Mwp
Date-Time	25 Sep 2012 23:45:26 UTC 25 Sep 2012 17:45:26 near epicenter 25 Sep 2012 17:45:26 standard time in your timezone
Location	24.835N 110.152W
Depth	10 km
Distances	75 km (47 miles) N (11 degrees) of La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico 154 km (96 miles) E (98 degrees) of Constitución, Baja California Sur, Mexico 155 km (96 miles) SW (220 degrees) of Ahome, Sinaloa, Mexico 1086 km (675 miles) SE (140 degrees) of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
Location Uncertainty	Horizontal: 13.7 km; Vertical 1.9 km
Parameters	Nph = 441; Dmin = 470.7 km; Rmss = 1.12 seconds; Gp = 69° M-type = Mwp; Version = A
Event ID	us c000cw0l

For updates, maps, and technical information, see:
Event Page
or
USGS Earthquake Hazards Program

National Earthquake Information Center
U.S. Geological Survey
http://neic.usgs.gov/

Tectonic Summary

Seismotectonics of Mexico

Located atop three of the large tectonic plates, Mexico is one of the world’s most seismologically active regions. The relative motion of these crustal plates causes frequent earthquakes and occasional volcanic eruptions. Most of the Mexican landmass is on the westward moving North American plate. The Pacific Ocean floor south of Mexico is being carried northeastward by the underlying Cocos plate. Because oceanic crust is relatively dense, when the Pacific Ocean floor encounters the lighter continental crust of the Mexican landmass, the ocean floor is subducted beneath the North American plate creating the deep Middle American trench along Mexico’s southern coast. Also as a result of this convergence, the westward moving Mexico landmass is slowed and crumpled creating the mountain ranges of southern Mexico and earthquakes near Mexico’s southern coast. As the oceanic crust is pulled downward, it melts; the molten material is then forced upward through weaknesses in the overlying continental crust. This process has created a region of volcanoes across south-central Mexico known as the Cordillera Neovolcánica.

The area west of the Gulf of California, including Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula, is moving northwestward with the Pacific plate at about 95 mm per year. Here, the Pacific and North American plates grind past each other creating strike-slip faulting, the southern extension of California’s San Andreas fault. In the past, this relative plate motion pulled Baja California away from the coast forming the Gulf of California and is the cause of earthquakes in the Gulf of California region today.

Mexico has a long history of destructive earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In September 1985, a magnitude 8.1 earthquake killed more than 9,500 people in Mexico City. In southern Mexico, Volcán de Colima and El Chichón erupted in 2005 and 1982, respectively. Paricutín volcano, west of Mexico City, began venting smoke in a cornfield in 1943; a decade later this new volcano had grown to a height of 424 meters. Popocatépetl and Ixtaccíhuatl volcanos (“smoking mountain” and “white lady”, respectively), southeast of Mexico City, occasionally vent gas that can be clearly seen from the City, a reminder that volcanic activity is ongoing. In 1994 and 2000 Popocatépetl renewed its activity forcing the evacuation of nearby towns, causing seismologists and government officials to be concerned about the effect a large-scale eruption might have on the heavily populated region. Popocatépetl volcano last erupted in 2010.

More information on regional seismicity and tectonics

LISS – Live Internet Seismic Server

GSN Stations

These data update automatically every 30 minutes. Last update: September 26, 2012 05:19:09 UTC

Seismograms may take several moments to load. Click on a plot to see larger image.

CU/ANWB, Willy Bob, Antigua and Barbuda

CU/BBGH, Gun Hill, Barbados

CU/BCIP, Isla Barro Colorado, Panama

CU/GRGR, Grenville, Grenada

CU/GRTK, Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands

CU/GTBY, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

CU/MTDJ, Mount Denham, Jamaica

CU/SDDR, Presa de Sabaneta, Dominican Republic

CU/TGUH, Tegucigalpa, Honduras

IC/BJT, Baijiatuan, Beijing, China

IC/ENH, Enshi, China

IC/HIA, Hailar, Neimenggu Province, China

IC/LSA, Lhasa, China

IC/MDJ, Mudanjiang, China

IC/QIZ, Qiongzhong, Guangduong Province, China

IU/ADK, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA

IU/AFI, Afiamalu, Samoa

IU/ANMO, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

IU/ANTO, Ankara, Turkey

IU/BBSR, Bermuda

IU/BILL, Bilibino, Russia

IU/CASY, Casey, Antarctica

IU/CCM, Cathedral Cave, Missouri, USA

IU/CHTO, Chiang Mai, Thailand

IU/COLA, College Outpost, Alaska, USA

IU/COR, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

IU/CTAO, Charters Towers, Australia

IU/DAV,Davao, Philippines

IU/DWPF,Disney Wilderness Preserve, Florida, USA

IU/FUNA,Funafuti, Tuvalu

IU/FURI, Mt. Furi, Ethiopia

IU/GNI, Garni, Armenia

IU/GRFO, Grafenberg, Germany

IU/GUMO, Guam, Mariana Islands

IU/HKT, Hockley, Texas, USA

IU/HNR, Honiara, Solomon Islands

IU/HRV, Adam Dziewonski Observatory (Oak Ridge), Massachusetts, USA

IU/INCN, Inchon, Republic of Korea

IU/JOHN, Johnston Island, Pacific Ocean

IU/KBS, Ny-Alesund, Spitzbergen, Norway

IU/KEV, Kevo, Finland

IU/KIEV, Kiev, Ukraine

IU/KIP, Kipapa, Hawaii, USA

IU/KMBO, Kilima Mbogo, Kenya

IU/KNTN, Kanton Island, Kiribati

IU/KONO, Kongsberg, Norway

IU/KOWA, Kowa, Mali

IU/LCO, Las Campanas Astronomical Observatory, Chile

IU/LSZ, Lusaka, Zambia

IU/LVC, Limon Verde, Chile

IU/MA2, Magadan, Russia

IU/MAJO, Matsushiro, Japan

IU/MAKZ,Makanchi, Kazakhstan

IU/MBWA, Marble Bar, Western Australia

IU/MIDW, Midway Island, Pacific Ocean, USA

IU/MSKU, Masuku, Gabon

IU/NWAO, Narrogin, Australia

IU/OTAV, Otavalo, Equador

IU/PAB, San Pablo, Spain

IU/PAYG Puerto Ayora, Galapagos Islands

IU/PET, Petropavlovsk, Russia

IU/PMG, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

IU/PMSA, Palmer Station, Antarctica

IU/POHA, Pohakaloa, Hawaii

IU/PTCN, Pitcairn Island, South Pacific

IU/PTGA, Pitinga, Brazil

IU/QSPA, South Pole, Antarctica

IU/RAO, Raoul, Kermandec Islands

IU/RAR, Rarotonga, Cook Islands

IU/RCBR, Riachuelo, Brazil

IU/RSSD, Black Hills, South Dakota, USA

IU/SAML, Samuel, Brazil

IU/SBA, Scott Base, Antarctica

IU/SDV, Santo Domingo, Venezuela

IU/SFJD, Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland

IU/SJG, San Juan, Puerto Rico

IU/SLBS, Sierra la Laguna Baja California Sur, Mexico

IU/SNZO, South Karori, New Zealand

IU/SSPA, Standing Stone, Pennsylvania USA

IU/TARA, Tarawa Island, Republic of Kiribati

IU/TATO, Taipei, Taiwan

IU/TEIG, Tepich, Yucatan, Mexico

IU/TIXI, Tiksi, Russia

IU/TRIS, Tristan da Cunha, Atlantic Ocean

IU/TRQA, Tornquist, Argentina

IU/TSUM, Tsumeb, Namibia

IU/TUC, Tucson, Arizona

IU/ULN, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

IU/WAKE, Wake Island, Pacific Ocean

IU/WCI, Wyandotte Cave, Indiana, USA

IU/WVT, Waverly, Tennessee, USA

IU/XMAS, Kiritimati Island, Republic of Kiribati

IU/YAK, Yakutsk, Russia

IU/YSS, Yuzhno Sakhalinsk, Russia

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Volcanic Activity

Mexican Volcano Popocatépetl Eruptions Increase

Mexico, Sep 25 (Prensa Latina) At least 26 eruptions accompanied by steam and gas, as well as a volcano tectonic quake were registered as a consequence of the Mexican volcano Popocatépetl activity during the last hours, it was reported Tuesday. The National Center of Disaster Prevention (Cenapred) said eruptions were of low and medium intensity with no ash expulsion in any of them.According to the institution, the volcano tectonic quake was registered at 11.54 local time (16:54 GMT).At this moment, the alert light of volcano activity remains yellow phase 2 and the surrounding population to keep informed as to alerts on the activity of the volcano also known as Don Goyo.Traffic between Santiago Xalitzintla and San Pedro Nexapa, via the Cortes passage, is under control.The Popo is located at the center of the country, in the territorial limits of the Morelos, Puebla and Mexico states. Located 55 kilometers Southeast of the Federal District, the Popocatépetl is the second highest volcano in Mexico, with a maximum height of five thousand 458 meters above sea level, only second to the Pico de Orizaba (Veracruz) with five thousand 610 meters. sgl/ef/lac/dfm

Modificado el ( martes, 25 de septiembre de 2012 )

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Extreme Temperatures/ Weather

25.09.2012

Extreme Weather

United Kingdom

Scotland, [Scotland-wide]

Extreme Weather in United Kingdom on Tuesday, 25 September, 2012 at 18:53 (06:53 PM) UTC.

Description

Ferries have also been cancelled and commuiters suffered severe delays to rail services. A number of trees came down overnight in Aberdeen, causing roads in the city centre to close, including Union Terrace and Willowbank Road. The city council said it received dozens of calls about fallen trees and crews are working to remove them. Drivers were also warned to take extra care on the Esplanade after sand and water was blown on to the road. In Dundee a driver suffered minor injuries after a tree came down and hit a car on Arbroath Road near Baxter Park at about 9am. Fife Constabulary also reported trees down in the area, with “Standing Stane road” between Kirkcaldy and Leven shut as well as the road from Cupar to Melville Lodges roundabout. High winds also led to restrictions on bridges, with the Forth Road bridge opened to cars only this morning. There was widespread disruption on the main East Coast rail line between Edinburgh and Newcastle, although ScotRail reported only “minor disruption” to its West Highland line. For those hoping to travel by ferry, many Caledonian MacBrayne services were facing disruption and some routes were cancelled.Flood warnings are in place for Haddington in East Lothian and many parts of the Borders. A further nine flood alerts were issued across Scotland, including in Aberdeenshire, Dumfries and Galloway and Fife. The Met Office put out yellow “be aware” warnings of severe weather for much of the country and forecasters predicted the most persistent rain would be in the south and east throughout the day. Transport minister Keith Brown is leading the Scottish Government’s resilience committee meeting this morning to receive updates on the transport network, utilities and flooding. The resilience committee meeting was told that about 2,000 households across a number of areas were without power, but electricity providers had staff trying to reconnect customers as quickly as possible. It also heard the heavy rain had seen some areas record about 40mm of water in the past 36 hours. Mr Brown said: “Yet again, we have seen a wide range of agencies and organisations react quickly to weather alerts and to put in place their response plans for the potential impact of heavy rain and high winds. “This activity, including a significant level of multi-agency co-operation, has played its part in keeping disruption to a minimum in difficult conditions. “The travelling public also deserve praise for the way they have reacted to the various travel updates this morning. “But no-one is being complacent and whilst the weather alerts remain in place, the focused response will continue.”

26.09.2012

Extreme Weather

United Kingdom

Multiple region, [South west, northern England and Scotland]

Extreme Weather in United Kingdom on Monday, 24 September, 2012 at 13:34 (01:34 PM) UTC.

Back

Updated:	Tuesday, 25 September, 2012 at 18:56 UTC
Description
Hundreds of homes have been evacuated and dozens of cars abandoned by drivers after widespread flooding across the UK. Flood warnings are in place across Britain as rivers burst their banks and forecasters say there is more bad weather to come. The North East has been worst affected, with towns such as Morpeth, Chester-le-Street, Stockton on Tees and parts of Newcastle badly hit. Other areas in England, Wales and Scotland have also been flooded, with over 200 official warnings and alerts still in place. More than 300 properties have flooded since Sunday. Over a month’s worth of rain fell in just one day in some parts of the country. There has been widespread disruption to travel after roads were closed and long delays to rail services. The A1 and the East Coast Main Line were among the routes hit by the conditions. The Met Office said many places have had between 50mm and 70mm (2in to 2.8in) rain in the past 48 hours. Heavy rain and strong winds are forecast to return to some southern areas with 20mm to 40mm (0.8in to 1.6in) likely in places into Wednesday. There is also no sign of the downpours easing in the Midlands. Among the properties evacuated was a council care home at Gilling West, in North Yorkshire.The Oswin Grove Unit’s 19 pensioners had to be carried to safety by firefighters after it became swamped by 3ft of water. Parts of the UK are also experiencing strong winds, with gusts over 60mph across parts of Scotland and Ireland at times. The Environment Agency is urging people to sign up to its flood alerts and has issued guidance to residents who may be affected by flooding. Kath Evans, from the Environment Agency, told Sky News that the situation had been made worse by the wet summer. “With the rainfall over the summer and more falling over the last 24 to 36 hours, it has caused this widespread flooding,” she said. She said they were watching areas around the River Ouse in Yorkshire and the River Severn as the water moved downstream and would “urge people to keep an eye out and listen out for flood warnings”. Communities in Yorkshire, the North West and North Wales were urged to remain on guard for further floods. In Morpeth, parts of the town were evacuated as a precaution before the river burst its banks and some 40 stranded residents were rescued using lifeboats, although water levels later appeared to have peaked. Heavy rain sent cars careering down the River Coquet and homes were flooded in Rothbury, Northumberland, with at least two more flooded in Thropton and Netherton.Hebden Bridge, which suffered severe flooding twice this summer, appeared to have escaped further damage as river levels seemed to level off just below bank tops. About 50 properties in and around Wearside were evacuated, Sunderland City Council said. A number of roads and two primary schools were closed and residents were warned refuse collections could be disrupted. Emergency services evacuated around 30 properties in Hartburn, Stockton, Teesside, as water levels rose, and a crew of refuse collectors had to be rescued by firefighters at Eryholme, North Yorkshire, when a river burst its banks and swamped their truck. The A1 was closed near Catterick in both directions and is not expected to reopen until Wednesday morning. The A66 was closed in both directions near Darlington as a result of flooding. In Durham, police threatened to prosecute impatient drivers who tried to use closed roads. There was no service on the East Coast Main Line between York and Newcastle for much of the day because of flooding at Eryholme, near Northallerton, preventing the running of services between London and Scotland. East Coast Trains advised people not to travel and said tickets for Tuesday would be valid on trains on Wednesday. The West Coast line remained open.

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Storms, Flooding

Active tropical storm system(s)
Name of storm system	Location	Formed	Last update	Last category	Course	Wind Speed	Gust	Wave	Source	Details
Jelewat (18W)	Pacific Ocean	20.09.2012	26.09.2012	SuperTyphoon	305 °	250 km/h	306 km/h	5.18 m	JTWC

 Tropical Storm data

Share: Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 0 Storm name: Jelewat (18W) Area: Pacific Ocean Start up location: N 13° 42.000, E 132° 18.000 Start up: 20th September 2012 Status: Active Track long: 507.67 km Top category.: Report by: JTWC Useful links: Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale FEMA – How To Prepare for a Hurricane Effects of a Hurricane USA – National Hurricane Center

Past track Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave Pressure Source 22nd Sep 2012 06:41:44 N 11° 42.000, E 129° 54.000 6 93 120 Tropical Storm 200 9 JTWC 23rd Sep 2012 06:04:26 N 11° 48.000, E 128° 54.000 7 139 167 Typhoon I. 270 11 JTWC 24th Sep 2012 08:06:11 N 13° 36.000, E 128° 30.000 9 241 296 Typhoon IV. 350 10 JTWC 24th Sep 2012 10:43:47 N 14° 12.000, E 128° 12.000 13 232 278 Typhoon IV. 335 14 JTWC 25th Sep 2012 05:16:53 N 15° 42.000, E 127° 48.000 7 259 315 Super Typhoon 360 9 JTWC 25th Sep 2012 10:29:06 N 16° 24.000, E 127° 30.000 15 259 278 Super Typhoon 340 18 JTWC Current position Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave feet Pressure Source 26th Sep 2012 10:56:11 N 18° 0.000, E 126° 6.000 15 250 306 SuperTyphoon 325 ° 18 JTWC Forecast track Date Time Position Category Wind km/h Gust km/h Source 27th Sep 2012 18:00:00 N 21° 48.000, E 123° 48.000 SuperTyphoon 213 259 JTWC 27th Sep 2012 06:00:00 N 20° 12.000, E 124° 12.000 SuperTyphoon 232 278 JTWC 28th Sep 2012 06:00:00 N 23° 6.000, E 124° 6.000 Typhoon IV 194 241 JTWC 29th Sep 2012 06:00:00 N 25° 24.000, E 126° 36.000 Typhoon III 167 204 JTWC 30th Sep 2012 06:00:00 N 29° 18.000, E 132° 6.000 Typhoon I 120 148 JTWC 01st Oct 2012 06:00:00 N 34° 48.000, E 137° 54.000 Tropical Depression 83 102 JTWC

Miriam (EP 13)

Pacific Ocean – East

22.09.2012

26.09.2012

Hurricane II

310 °

130 km/h

157 km/h

2.74 m

NOAA NHC

 Tropical Storm data

Share: Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 2 Storm name: Miriam (EP 13) Area: Pacific Ocean – East Start up location: N 13° 42.000, W 107° 30.000 Start up: 22nd September 2012 Status: Active Track long: 663.50 km Top category.: Report by: NOAA NHC Useful links: Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale FEMA – How To Prepare for a Hurricane Effects of a Hurricane USA – National Hurricane Center

Past track Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave Pressure Source 22nd Sep 2012 06:35:22 N 13° 42.000, W 107° 30.000 19 56 74 Tropical Depression 275 10 1005 MB NOAA NHC 23rd Sep 2012 06:07:18 N 14° 54.000, W 108° 30.000 13 74 93 Tropical Storm 300 15 1002 MB NOAA NHC 24th Sep 2012 08:09:13 N 16° 48.000, W 111° 18.000 19 148 185 Hurricane I. 305 15 979 MB NOAA NHC 25th Sep 2012 05:19:32 N 18° 30.000, W 113° 54.000 13 167 204 Hurricane II. 305 14 968 MB NOAA NHC 25th Sep 2012 10:37:14 N 18° 42.000, W 114° 18.000 9 167 204 Hurricane II. 310 10 968 MB NOAA NHC Current position Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave feet Pressure Source 26th Sep 2012 10:58:11 N 19° 30.000, W 115° 30.000 9 111 139 Hurricane I 320 ° 15 990 MB NOAA NHC Forecast track Date Time Position Category Wind km/h Gust km/h Source 27th Sep 2012 06:00:00 N 21° 30.000, W 116° 0.000 Tropical Depression 83 102 NOAA NHC 27th Sep 2012 18:00:00 N 22° 24.000, W 116° 24.000 Tropical Depression 65 83 NOAA NHC 28th Sep 2012 06:00:00 N 22° 54.000, W 116° 36.000 Tropical Depression 56 74 NOAA NHC 29th Sep 2012 06:00:00 N 23° 12.000, W 116° 48.000 Tropical Depression 46 65 NOAA NHC 30th Sep 2012 06:00:00 N 23° 30.000, W 117° 0.000 Tropical Depression 37 56 NOAA NHC

Ewiniar (19W)

Pacific Ocean

24.09.2012

26.09.2012

Typhoon I

60 °

93 km/h

120 km/h

4.88 m

JTWC

 Tropical Storm data

Share: Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 0 Storm name: Ewiniar (19W) Area: Pacific Ocean Start up location: N 18° 30.000, E 139° 0.000 Start up: 24th September 2012 Status: Active Track long: 498.82 km Top category.: Report by: JTWC Useful links: Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale FEMA – How To Prepare for a Hurricane Effects of a Hurricane USA – National Hurricane Center

Past track Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave Pressure Source 24th Sep 2012 08:04:10 N 18° 30.000, E 139° 0.000 26 46 65 Tropical Depression 335 17 JTWC 24th Sep 2012 10:42:45 N 19° 36.000, E 138° 54.000 20 56 74 Tropical Depression 350 17 JTWC 25th Sep 2012 05:14:15 N 21° 48.000, E 138° 18.000 15 74 93 Tropical Storm 355 15 JTWC 25th Sep 2012 10:28:32 N 22° 48.000, E 138° 30.000 19 74 93 Tropical Storm 10 10 JTWC Current position Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave feet Pressure Source 26th Sep 2012 10:53:51 N 26° 24.000, E 142° 12.000 24 93 120 Typhoon I 40 ° 19 JTWC Forecast track Date Time Position Category Wind km/h Gust km/h Source 27th Sep 2012 18:00:00 N 31° 18.000, E 142° 30.000 Typhoon I 111 139 JTWC 27th Sep 2012 06:00:00 N 29° 48.000, E 141° 42.000 Typhoon I 111 139 JTWC 28th Sep 2012 06:00:00 N 32° 42.000, E 143° 48.000 Typhoon I 102 130 JTWC 29th Sep 2012 06:00:00 N 37° 24.000, E 148° 54.000 Tropical Depression 83 102 JTWC

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Radiation / Nuclear

Today

Non-categorized event

Russia [Asia]

Novaya Zemlya archipelago, [K-27 Russian nuclear submarine wreck, Kara Sea]

Non-categorized event in Russia [Asia] on Wednesday, 26 September, 2012 at 05:57 (05:57 AM) UTC.

Description

A group of 16 Russian and Norwegian researchers who sailed to take measurements surrounding a Russian nuclear submarine that was scuttled for nuclear waste off the coast of the former Soviet nuclear test archipelago Novaya Zemlya in the Kara Sea have found no radioactive leaks, Norwegian radiation authorities said today. Per Strand, a director at the Norwegian Radiation Protection agency told Bellona, however, that the primary purpose of the expedition, which returned today, was to inspect the possibility of an uncontrolled chain reaction aboard the K-27 Russian nuclear submarine, which was sunk in 50 meters of water in Novaya Zemlya’s Stepovogo Bay in the Kara Sea as nuclear waste in 1981. “The Russian side indicated there might be a hypothetical possibility that spent nuclear fuel in the reactor in extreme situations could cause an uncontrolled chain reaction, which can lead to heat and radioactivity releases,” Strand said in a telephone interview from Kirkeness. The K-27, was dumped by the Soviet Navy in 1981, with spent nuclear fuel packed in its reactors, after a 1968 reactor leak aboard the killed nine sailors.The navy tried to repair it before deciding to seal the nuclear units and sinking the sub. The researchers also examined some 2000 containers of various kinds of radioactive waste that were dumped in Stepovogo Bay, but found no increase in radiation since the site was last inspected in 1994. Authorities in Russia and their counterparts in Norway, which lies about 965 kilometers to the west of the sunken sub, need to make a decision about a safe disposal of the K-27, which was the top priority of the expedition, Strand said. Strand said that the joint research team aboard the Ivan Petrov research vessel took sediment, plant and sea life samples. They also used a mini submarine to take photos of the K-27’s condition. Though emphasizing that all data collected is preliminary, Strand said it would “contribute to making decisions about whether the submarine needs to be lifted out of the water” for safer storage. “For now, the first priority will be the development of environmental impact studies based on the information we have collected to judge the feasibility of lifting the submarine,” he said. Norway’s number one focus for the moment, said Strand, will be developing an effective system of countermeasures should a chain reaction occur aboard the K-27.

Today

Nuclear Event

USA

State of Minnesota, Monticello [Monticello Nuclear Power Plant]

Nuclear Event in USA on Wednesday, 26 September, 2012 at 03:28 (03:28 AM) UTC.

Description

Xcel Energy says its Monticello nuclear power plant automatically shut down Tuesday, Sept. 25, for unknown reasons. The shutdown occurred at 11:07 a.m. and all plant safety systems were functioning, the Minneapolis-based utility said Tuesday. The shutdown posed no danger to the public or the plant’s workers, Xcel officials said. The cause of the shutdown is under investigation. Xcel said it has notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the state. Monticello is located about 40 miles northwest of Minneapolis. The 600-megawatt boiling water reactor plant was last shut down in August for seven days due to a leaking gasket on a pipe flange. Monticello also had a three-week shutdown last year that started on Nov. 19 when safety systems detected low oil pressure in the plant’s turbines, Xcel said at the time of the incident. In both previous shutdowns, Xcel said there was no danger to the public or workers. Monticello generates enough electricity to supply almost 500,000 homes. Xcel officials said the current shutdown is not expected to be lengthy.

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Epidemic Hazards / Diseases

Today

Epidemic Hazard

Denmark

South Denmark, Odense [Odense University Hospital]

Epidemic Hazard in Denmark on Wednesday, 26 September, 2012 at 03:07 (03:07 AM) UTC.

Description
Five persons showing symptoms of infection from a SARS-like virus have been admitted to Odense University Hospital (OUH), central Denmark, the hospital said in a press statement Tuesday. The five patients are currently being examined for symptoms of infection from a new corona virus, which can lead to severe respiratory disease. Corona viruses are a large family of viruses including those which cause the common cold, as well as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), an outbreak of which killed some 800 people in 2003. The new corona virus is thought to have an incubation period lasting seven to 10 days, and has previously been found among patients who had traveled from Qatar and Saudi Arabia. OUH Director Jens Peter Steensen said to Danish media late Tuesday that the five patients, who are all Danish residents, will be tested for the new corona virus and for a range of more common triggers of respiratory infection. The results of these tests will be released Wednesday afternoon, Steensen said, adding the patients will be kept in isolation until then. On Monday, the Danish Health and Medicines Authority advised persons who had traveled to Qatar or Saudi Arabia to seek medical advice if they experienced fever, cough or difficulty breathing within ten days of their return from these countries. It followed a warning from British health officials who alerted the World Health Organization on Saturday of the new virus found in a man transferred from Qatar to the UK on Sept. 11.
Biohazard name:	SARS (susp, human)
Biohazard level:	4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:	Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
Symptoms:
Status:	suspected

26.09.2012

Epidemic Hazard

Qatar

Ad Dawhah, Qatar

Epidemic Hazard in Qatar on Monday, 24 September, 2012 at 04:46 (04:46 AM) UTC.

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Updated:	Tuesday, 25 September, 2012 at 03:03 UTC
Description
The World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a global alert on Monday for a new SARS-like respiratory virus which left a man from Qatar critically ill in a London hospital and killed at least one more in Saudi Arabia. The 49-year-old Qatari was admitted to an intensive care unit in Doha on September 7 suffering from acute respiratory infection and kidney failure before being transferred to Britain by air ambulance on September 11, the WHO said. A Saudi Arabian national died earlier this year from a virtually identical virus, the WHO said, while Saudi medical authorities said they were investigating other possible cases of the disease. The WHO confirmed the illness was in the coronavirus family but was not SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which swept out of China in 2003, killing more than 800 people worldwide. “This is a new virus,” WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told AFP. “We haven’t heard of any more new cases. We don’t have an appreciation of how widespread the virus is,” Hartl said. “This is one reason why we’re trying to get more information. We don’t know how it’s transmitted.”The WHO said the Qatari first fell ill on September 3 after visiting Saudi Arabia. Britain’s Health Protection Agency confirmed the presence of the new coronavirus and then found that it was a 99.5 percent match with a virus obtained from the lung tissue of a 60-year-old Saudi man who died earlier this year. Coronaviruses are causes of the common cold but can also include more severe illnesses including SARS. In Riyadh, the health ministry revealed that a total of three people, including the Qatari man, had been diagnosed with the virus after spending time in Saudi Arabia, according to state media. The other two later died. The ministry said it would continue to “follow developments” linked to the disease “in coordination with international health organisations,” adding that “these are rare cases and the situation is reassuring”. The announcement comes ahead of next month’s annual Muslim hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca which will attract nearly three million believers, although the WHO said it did not recommend any travel restrictions. In Britain, the HPA, an organisation set up by the government to manage infectious diseases, meanwhile, stressed no-one else in Britain, including those who had come into contact with the man, were reporting symptoms. The HPA said the new virus was “different from any that have previously been identified in humans.” It said there were encouraging signs that it was not as infectious as SARS as there had been no evidence of illness in people who had been in contact with the Qatari or the Saudi, including in health workers.”Based on what we know about other coronaviruses, many of these contacts will already have passed the period when they could have caught the virus from the infected person,” it said. John Watson, head of the respiratory diseases at the HPA, said: “Immediate steps have been taken to ensure that people who have been in contact with the UK case have not been infected, and there is no evidence to suggest they have.” Peter Openshaw, director of the Centre for Respiratory Infection at Imperial College London, urged caution, saying any evidence of human-to-human transmission causing severe disease “would be very worrying”. But fellow expert John Oxford, professor at the University of London, said he was “somewhat relaxed” because he believed the illness was more likely to behave “like a nasty infection rather than join the ‘exception’ group like SARS.”

Epidemic Hazard in Qatar on Monday, 24 September, 2012 at 04:46 (04:46 AM) UTC.

Back

Updated:	Tuesday, 25 September, 2012 at 05:15 UTC
Description
A previously unknown virus has appeared in both Saudi Arabia and in a traveler who recently returned from the country. The virus killed one and has left the other in intensive care in London. Officially, the World Health Organization called the disease a “novel coronavirus.” Coronaviruses include multiple viruses including the common cold and SARS, according to the WHO. SARS killed hundreds of people in Asia during a 2003 epidemic. British officials informed the World Health Organization over the weekend of the new virus in a man that had recently been sent to London for treatment from Qatar. The patient has since suffered renal failure. Health officials don’t know much about the new virus and the WHO said it’s “in the process of obtaining further information to determine the public health implications of the two confirmed cases.” However, the WHO is not recommending any travel restrictions at this time.

25.09.2012

Epidemic Hazard

Canada

Province of Ontario, [Southwestern area]

Epidemic Hazard in Canada on Tuesday, 25 September, 2012 at 16:48 (04:48 PM) UTC.

Description
Ontario has found a case of an infection with a new swine flu virus, in a man who had close contact with pigs. The infection was caused by an H1N1-variant virus, which is not the swine flu virus that has been jumping from pigs to people in the United States this summer. That virus was an H3N2-variant, and has caused 305 infections this year in the U.S. but has not been spotted in Canada to date. Most infections with the H3N2-variant flu have been in people who visited pig barns at state and county fairs. The Ontario case was announced by the province’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Arlene King on Tuesday morning. Ms. King said the man is being treated in hospital in southwestern Ontario. She did not indicate whether that is as a precaution or because he is seriously ill. Health Minister Deb Matthews said the fact that the case was detected in Ontario demonstrates that the province has a strong surveillance system for infectious diseases.“It’s one case, the first we’ve seen in Ontario, but not really unexpected because there have been cases in the States,” Ms. Matthews told reporters on Tuesday. Ms. Matthews said health care providers in Ontario learned a lot about infectious diseases from the earlier outbreaks of SARS and H1N1. “Our hospitals know exactly what to do when they get a case,” she said. Ms. King said this new virus is one that rarely spreads from animals to people, and human-to-human spread is also rare. She stressed the discovery of the infection does not trigger food safety concerns. “Proper cooking of meats, including pork, kills all bacteria and viruses.” She also urged people to remember that hand washing and getting a flu shot are the best way to protect against contracting the flu. The term variant is added to flu virus names when viruses that normally circulate in animals cause infections in humans. In written form it is often shortened to a “v” at the end of the virus’s name. This H1N1v virus would be a distant cousin of the H1N1 viruses that have been circulating in people for most of the last century. That family includes the virus that cause the 2009 pandemic. But viruses within a large family group such as H1N1 can be sufficiently different from one another that antibodies to one won’t fully protect a person from becoming infected with another. U.S. authorities have also seen one case of infection with an H1N1v virus there this summer, in Missouri. Ms. King did not say whether the genetic blueprints of the Ontario and Missouri viruses were closely related.
Biohazard name:	H3N2
Biohazard level:	2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:	Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
Symptoms:
Status:	confirmed

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Solar Activity

3MIN News Sept 25. 2012

Published on Sep 25, 2012 by Suspicious0bservers

2012 Pole Shift Video: http://youtu.be/uI10tKuLtFU

TODAY’S LINKS
GOES14 Takes the Stage: http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/MediaDetail2.php?MediaID=1195&MediaTypeID=1
Jupiter Explosion: http://phys.org/news/2012-09-explosion-jupiter.html
Arab Cyclones: http://phys.org/news/2012-09-tropical-cyclones-arabian-sea-due.html
Arctic Methane Mission: http://phys.org/news/2012-09-methane-gas-arctic-seafloor.html
Great Barrier Reef Climate Change: http://phys.org/news/2012-09-climate-great-barrier-reef.html
Grim Prediction: http://phys.org/news/2012-09-arctic-ice-cap.html
Europa Water: http://www.astrobio.net/pressrelease/5043/water-near-europas-surface-doesnt-s…

REPEAT LINKS
Spaceweather: http://spaceweather.com/ [Look on the left at the X-ray Flux and Solar Wind Speed/Density]

HAARP: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/data.html [Click online data, and have a little fun]

SDO: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ [Place to find Solar Images and Videos – as seen from earth]

SOHO: http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater [SOHO; Lasco and EIT – as seen from earth]

Stereo: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/images [Stereo; Cor, EUVI, HI – as seen from the side]

SunAEON:http://www.sunaeon.com/#/solarsystem/ [Just click it… trust me]

SOLARIMG: http://solarimg.org/artis/ [All purpose data viewing site]

iSWA: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/iswa/iSWA.html [Free Application; for advanced sun watchers]

NASA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov:8080/IswaSystemWebApp/iSWACygnetStreamer?timestamp=…
NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/

US Wind Map: http://hint.fm/wind/

NOAA Bouys: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory: http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/Default.php

RSOE: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php [That cool alert map I use]

GOES Xray: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sxi/goes15/index.html

JAPAN Radiation Map: http://jciv.iidj.net/map/

LISS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/operations/heliplots_gsn.php

Gamma Ray Bursts: http://grb.sonoma.edu/ [Really? You can’t figure out what this one is for?]

BARTOL Cosmic Rays: http://neutronm.bartol.udel.edu//spaceweather/welcome.html [Top left box, look for BIG blue circles]

TORCON: http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-torcon-index [Tornado Forecast for the day]

GOES Weather: http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/ [Clouds over America]

RAIN RECORDS: http://www.cocorahs.org/ViewData/ListIntensePrecipReports.aspx

EL DORADO WORLD WEATHER MAP: http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/satellite/ssec/world/world-composite-ir-…

PRESSURE MAP: http://www.woweather.com/cgi-bin/expertcharts?LANG=us&MENU=0000000000&…

HURRICANE TRACKER: http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/tracker

INTELLICAST: http://www.intellicast.com/ [Weather site used by many youtubers]

NASA News: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/

PHYSORG: http://phys.org/ [GREAT News Site!]

QUAKES LIST FULL: http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/seismologist.php

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Space

BIG SUN-DIVING COMET DISCOVERED:

Astronomy forums are buzzing with speculation about newly-discovered Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON). Currently located beyond the orbit of Jupiter, Comet ISON is heading for a very close encounter with the sun next year. In Nov. 2013, it will pass less than 0.012 AU (1.8 million km) from the solar surface. The fierce heating it experiences then could turn the comet into a bright naked-eye object. (continued below)

Comet ISON photographed by E. Guido, G. Sostero & N. Howes on Sept. 24. [more]

Much about this comet–and its ultimate fate–remains unknown. “At this stage we’re just throwing darts at the board,” says Karl Battams of the NASA-supported Sungrazer Comet Project, who lays out two possibilities:

“In the best case, the comet is big, bright, and skirts the sun next November. It would be extremely bright — negative magnitudes maybe — and naked-eye visible for observers in the Northern Hemisphere for at least a couple of months.”

“Alternately, comets can and often do fizzle out! Comet Elenin springs to mind as a recent example, but there are more famous examples of comets that got the astronomy community seriously worked up, only to fizzle. This is quite possibly a ‘new’ comet coming in from the Oort cloud, meaning this could be its first-ever encounter with the Sun. If so, with all those icy volatiles intact and never having been truly stressed (thermally and gravitationally), the comet could well disrupt and dissipate weeks or months before reaching the sun.”

“Either of the above scenarios is possible, as is anything in between,” Battams says. “There’s no doubt that Comet ISON will be closely watched. Because the comet is so far away, however, our knowledge probably won’t develop much for at least a few more months.”

Meanwhile, noted comet researcher John Bortle has pointed out a curious similarity between the orbit of Comet ISON and that of the Great Comet of 1680. “Purely as speculation,” he says, “perhaps the two bodies could have been one a few revolutions ago.”

Stay tuned for updates.

AUTUMN LIGHTS:

The onset of northern autumn means it’s aurora season. For reasons researchers don’t fully understand, equinoxes are the best times to see Northern Lights. And, right on cue, the Arctic Circle is glowing. Marianne Bergli sends this picture of auroras shimmering directly above Storfjord, Norway:

“Last night it was difficult to select [which part of the sky to photograph]. The auroras were dancing everywhere,” says Bergli. “Eventually I was just lying on my back looking up. It was absolutely, unbelievable wonderful.”

As the week begins, the solar wind velocity is low (~350 km/s), but at this time of year it only takes a gentle gust to ignite bright auroras around the Arctic Circle. High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras

Earth approaching objects (objects that are known in the next 30 days)
Object Name	Apporach Date	Left	AU Distance	LD Distance	Estimated Diameter*	Relative Velocity
(2002 EZ2)	26th September 2012	0 day(s)	0.1922	74.8	270 m – 610 m	6.76 km/s	24336 km/h
(2012 SM8)	26th September 2012	0 day(s)	0.0376	14.6	15 m – 33 m	5.57 km/s	20052 km/h
334412 (2002 EZ2)	26th September 2012	0 day(s)	0.1922	74.8	270 m – 600 m	6.76 km/s	24336 km/h
(2012 SL50)	27th September 2012	1 day(s)	0.0073	2.8	14 m – 31 m	12.04 km/s	43344 km/h
(2012 QF42)	27th September 2012	1 day(s)	0.1095	42.6	130 m – 280 m	8.67 km/s	31212 km/h
(2012 SY49)	28th September 2012	2 day(s)	0.0067	2.6	19 m – 42 m	15.84 km/s	57024 km/h
(2012 SJ32)	28th September 2012	2 day(s)	0.0297	11.6	26 m – 59 m	8.11 km/s	29196 km/h
(2012 SM50)	30th September 2012	4 day(s)	0.1074	41.8	36 m – 81 m	8.68 km/s	31248 km/h
(2012 RH10)	03rd October 2012	7 day(s)	0.1260	49.0	98 m – 220 m	12.90 km/s	46440 km/h
(2012 QE50)	09th October 2012	13 day(s)	0.0809	31.5	450 m – 1.0 km	11.47 km/s	41292 km/h
(1994 EK)	14th October 2012	18 day(s)	0.1356	52.8	230 m – 520 m	12.22 km/s	43992 km/h
(2012 PA20)	15th October 2012	19 day(s)	0.1502	58.5	100 m – 230 m	10.36 km/s	37296 km/h
(2012 RV16)	18th October 2012	22 day(s)	0.1270	49.4	310 m – 700 m	16.14 km/s	58104 km/h
1 AU = ~150 million kilometers,1 LD = Lunar Distance = ~384,000 kilometers Source: NASA-NEO

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Biological Hazards / Wildlife / Hazmat

Today

Biological Hazard

USA

State of Washington, [Seattle region]

Biological Hazard in USA on Wednesday, 26 September, 2012 at 03:11 (03:11 AM) UTC.

Description
Experts and citizen scientists are tracking the “zombie bee” infection across the country. The insects have a parasite that causes them to fly at night and lurch around erratically until they die. The infection is another threat to bees that are needed to pollinate crops, in addition to the mysterious ailment “colony collapse disorder.” The infection is as grim as it sounds: “Zombie bees” have a parasite that causes them to fly at night and lurch around erratically until they die. And experts say the condition has crept into Washington state. “I joke with my kids that the zombie apocalypse is starting at my house,” said Mark Hohn, a novice beekeeper who spotted the infected insects at his suburban Seattle home. Hohn returned from vacation a few weeks ago to find many of his bees either dead or flying in jerky patterns and then flopping on the floor. He remembered hearing about zombie bees, so he collected several of the corpses and popped them into a plastic bag. About a week later, the Kent man had evidence his bees were infected: the pupae of parasitic flies. “Curiosity got the better of me,” Hohn said. The zombie bees were the first to be confirmed in Washington state, The Seattle Times reported. San Francisco State University biologist John Hafernik first discovered zombie bees in California in 2008.Hafernik now uses a website to recruit citizen scientists like Hohn to track the infection across the country. Observers also have found zombie bees in Oregon and South Dakota. The infection is another threat to bees that are needed to pollinate crops. Hives have been failing in recent years due to a mysterious ailment called colony collapse disorder, in which all the adult honey bees in a colony suddenly die. The life cycle of the fly that infects zombie bees is reminiscent of the movie “Alien,” the newspaper reported. A small adult female lands on the back of a honeybee and injects eggs into the bee’s abdomen. The eggs hatch into maggots. “They basically eat the insides out of the bee,” Hafernik said. After consuming their host Relevant Products/Services, the maggots pupate, forming a hard outer shell that looks like a fat, brown grain of rice. That’s what Hohn found in the plastic bag with the dead bees. Adult flies emerge in three to four weeks. There’s no evidence yet that the parasitic fly is a major player in the bees’ decline, but it does seem the pest is targeting new hosts, said Steve Sheppard, chairman of the entomology department at Washington State University. “It may occur a lot more widely than we think,” he said. That’s what Hafernik hopes to find out with his website, zombeewatch.org. The site offers simple instructions for collecting suspect bees, watching for signs of parasites and reporting the results. Once more people start looking, the number of sightings will probably climb, Hohn said.
Biohazard name:	Colony collapse disorder (bees)
Biohazard level:	3/4 Hight
Biohazard desc.:	Bacteria and viruses that can cause severe to fatal disease in humans, but for which vaccines or other treatments exist, such as anthrax, West Nile virus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, SARS virus, variola virus (smallpox), tuberculosis, typhus, Rift Valley fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, yellow fever, and malaria. Among parasites Plasmodium falciparum, which causes Malaria, and Trypanosoma cruzi, which causes trypanosomiasis, also come under this level.
Symptoms:
Status:	confirmed

……………….

Today

HAZMAT

USA

State of  , Charlotte [Emerald Performance Materials plant]

HAZMAT in USA on Wednesday, 26 September, 2012 at 06:00 (06:00 AM) UTC.

Description

Mecklenburg County and Charlotte fire fighters responded to the Emerald Performance Materials plant Tuesday to help contain an acid spill. The West Mecklenburg Fire Department was the first on scene at about 9 p.m. Soon after, they called for the hazmat team from the Charlotte Fire Department. Hazmat teams determined the spill was triflic acid. A pipe that was malfunctioning caused the leak. One employee was treated on the scene for chemical burns. He was not taken to the hospital, firefighters said. Triflic acid is extremely strong acid, often called a “super acid,” according to manufacturers. It is used to make a variety of products. Investigators told WBTV News an improper mixture of chemicals caused a chemical cloud, that plant operators feared was caustic, caused the incident. Hazmat crews were able to control the spill and contain it to the plant. The scene was cleared in about an hour, and hazmat crews said there was no environmental impact.

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[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]

Earth Watch Report – Saturday September 22nd. 2012

Earthquakes

USGS

MAG	UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s	LAT deg	LON deg	DEPTH km	Region
MAP	3.1	2012/09/21 23:07:02	19.037	-64.288	42.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.2	2012/09/21 22:59:26	36.262	70.287	113.1	HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
MAP	3.2	2012/09/21 20:44:55	18.706	-68.224	27.0	DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP	4.6	2012/09/21 19:36:51	36.785	142.333	24.7	OFF THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP	3.1	2012/09/21 17:24:05	19.457	-64.165	72.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.6	2012/09/21 17:19:04	36.526	71.273	90.2	HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
MAP	2.6	2012/09/21 15:56:48	56.983	-154.121	19.3	KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP	4.6	2012/09/21 15:39:16	35.520	22.734	46.1	CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN SEA
MAP	3.2	2012/09/21 12:22:29	19.739	-64.121	30.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	5.4	2012/09/21 12:17:26	-19.654	-69.149	98.8	TARAPACA, CHILE
MAP	4.9	2012/09/21 11:59:38	-8.979	157.978	35.1	SOLOMON ISLANDS
MAP	4.3	2012/09/21 11:12:05	12.167	-88.743	35.2	OFF THE COAST OF EL SALVADOR
MAP	2.8	2012/09/21 10:39:00	17.974	-67.086	6.0	PUERTO RICO
MAP	4.5	2012/09/21 10:09:26	40.459	77.421	29.6	SOUTHERN XINJIANG, CHINA
MAP	4.4	2012/09/21 09:22:26	-32.965	-69.678	100.9	MENDOZA, ARGENTINA
MAP	5.0	2012/09/21 08:47:40	35.300	22.679	15.1	CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN SEA
MAP	3.3	2012/09/21 08:28:29	19.648	-64.203	60.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.4	2012/09/21 08:11:28	19.499	-64.109	75.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.1	2012/09/21 06:37:01	10.225	-85.594	25.7	COSTA RICA
MAP	3.0	2012/09/21 05:08:30	57.197	-157.848	2.7	ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP	4.8	2012/09/21 05:01:57	9.939	126.099	35.3	MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES
MAP	3.1	2012/09/21 04:53:33	54.716	-154.315	12.4	SOUTH OF ALASKA
MAP	2.7	2012/09/21 04:36:16	63.037	-148.469	76.5	CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP	4.6	2012/09/21 03:28:36	32.099	58.499	25.9	EASTERN IRAN
MAP	4.7	2012/09/21 03:25:50	-25.646	178.468	572.0	SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS
MAP	2.8	2012/09/21 03:16:45	61.735	-149.718	37.0	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	3.2	2012/09/21 02:18:45	19.292	-66.159	73.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	4.5	2012/09/21 02:14:50	-10.836	113.985	8.8	SOUTH OF JAVA, INDONESIA
MAP	4.3	2012/09/21 00:30:44	-8.364	121.227	31.5	FLORES REGION, INDONESIA
MAP	4.3	2012/09/21 00:03:54	35.248	135.388	370.4	WESTERN HONSHU, JAPAN

---

	MAG	UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s	LAT deg	LON deg	DEPTH km	Region
MAP	2.6	2012/09/20 22:42:33	51.949	-177.631	9.8	ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP	2.8	2012/09/20 22:17:41	51.121	179.245	23.6	RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP	5.4	2012/09/20 21:21:06	5.978	126.383	111.2	MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES
MAP	5.7	2012/09/20 21:03:40	-20.753	-178.373	544.2	FIJI REGION
MAP	3.8	2012/09/20 20:47:36	62.692	-149.807	10.1	CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP	3.4	2012/09/20 20:01:18	52.472	-170.057	127.2	FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP	4.9	2012/09/20 17:44:51	-5.735	149.821	120.5	NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
MAP	2.9	2012/09/20 17:21:58	19.006	-64.557	65.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.4	2012/09/20 17:15:06	19.633	-64.434	17.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.3	2012/09/20 16:58:43	17.569	-94.854	114.1	VERACRUZ, MEXICO
MAP	4.9	2012/09/20 16:32:43	10.657	126.978	35.0	PHILIPPINE ISLANDS REGION
MAP	5.0	2012/09/20 15:52:34	2.178	126.830	83.3	MOLUCCA SEA
MAP	4.7	2012/09/20 12:42:40	10.332	126.205	46.6	PHILIPPINE ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.5	2012/09/20 12:13:12	33.452	-116.441	2.3	SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	2.5	2012/09/20 11:42:15	18.557	-64.535	1.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.7	2012/09/20 10:07:06	-34.271	-72.226	17.5	OFFSHORE LIBERTADOR O’HIGGINS, CHILE
MAP	4.1	2012/09/20 09:29:52	13.981	-91.017	71.3	GUATEMALA
MAP	3.3	2012/09/20 08:44:31	19.271	-64.047	94.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.6	2012/09/20 08:40:16	40.378	-125.146	0.0	OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	2.5	2012/09/20 07:57:51	56.912	-154.004	46.1	KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP	3.4	2012/09/20 07:31:29	56.909	-154.095	43.4	KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP	3.4	2012/09/20 07:15:03	19.427	-64.198	87.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.8	2012/09/20 06:23:43	52.586	-32.043	9.8	REYKJANES RIDGE
MAP	4.9	2012/09/20 06:08:05	-13.927	-72.699	66.5	CENTRAL PERU
MAP	5.2	2012/09/20 05:40:20	-20.537	-176.155	209.6	FIJI REGION
MAP	3.0	2012/09/20 05:39:35	19.701	-64.203	25.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.7	2012/09/20 05:37:39	17.854	-65.536	16.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	4.7	2012/09/20 03:32:41	-20.259	167.190	31.9	LOYALTY ISLANDS
MAP	2.5	2012/09/20 01:52:20	35.301	-117.094	20.1	SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	4.3	2012/09/20 01:51:15	13.296	-89.807	77.4	OFFSHORE EL SALVADOR
MAP	4.5	2012/09/20 00:20:33	0.069	92.070	10.2	OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA

LISS – Live Internet Seismic Server

GSN Stations

These data update automatically every 30 minutes. Last update: September 22, 2012 08:18:43 UTC

Seismograms may take several moments to load. Click on a plot to see larger image.

CU/ANWB, Willy Bob, Antigua and Barbuda

CU/BBGH, Gun Hill, Barbados

CU/BCIP, Isla Barro Colorado, Panama

CU/GRGR, Grenville, Grenada

CU/GRTK, Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands

CU/GTBY, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

CU/MTDJ, Mount Denham, Jamaica

CU/SDDR, Presa de Sabaneta, Dominican Republic

CU/TGUH, Tegucigalpa, Honduras

IC/BJT, Baijiatuan, Beijing, China

IC/ENH, Enshi, China

IC/HIA, Hailar, Neimenggu Province, China

IC/LSA, Lhasa, China

IC/MDJ, Mudanjiang, China

IC/QIZ, Qiongzhong, Guangduong Province, China

IU/ADK, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA

IU/AFI, Afiamalu, Samoa

IU/ANMO, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

IU/ANTO, Ankara, Turkey

IU/BBSR, Bermuda

IU/BILL, Bilibino, Russia

IU/CASY, Casey, Antarctica

IU/CCM, Cathedral Cave, Missouri, USA

IU/CHTO, Chiang Mai, Thailand

IU/COLA, College Outpost, Alaska, USA

IU/COR, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

IU/CTAO, Charters Towers, Australia

IU/DAV,Davao, Philippines

IU/DWPF,Disney Wilderness Preserve, Florida, USA

IU/FUNA,Funafuti, Tuvalu

IU/FURI, Mt. Furi, Ethiopia

IU/GNI, Garni, Armenia

IU/GRFO, Grafenberg, Germany

IU/GUMO, Guam, Mariana Islands

IU/HKT, Hockley, Texas, USA

IU/HNR, Honiara, Solomon Islands

IU/HRV, Adam Dziewonski Observatory (Oak Ridge), Massachusetts, USA

IU/INCN, Inchon, Republic of Korea

IU/JOHN, Johnston Island, Pacific Ocean

IU/KBS, Ny-Alesund, Spitzbergen, Norway

IU/KEV, Kevo, Finland

IU/KIEV, Kiev, Ukraine

IU/KIP, Kipapa, Hawaii, USA

IU/KMBO, Kilima Mbogo, Kenya

IU/KNTN, Kanton Island, Kiribati

IU/KONO, Kongsberg, Norway

IU/KOWA, Kowa, Mali

IU/LCO, Las Campanas Astronomical Observatory, Chile

IU/LSZ, Lusaka, Zambia

IU/LVC, Limon Verde, Chile

IU/MA2, Magadan, Russia

IU/MAJO, Matsushiro, Japan

IU/MAKZ,Makanchi, Kazakhstan

IU/MBWA, Marble Bar, Western Australia

IU/MIDW, Midway Island, Pacific Ocean, USA

IU/MSKU, Masuku, Gabon

IU/NWAO, Narrogin, Australia

IU/OTAV, Otavalo, Equador

IU/PAB, San Pablo, Spain

IU/PAYG Puerto Ayora, Galapagos Islands

IU/PET, Petropavlovsk, Russia

IU/PMG, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

IU/PMSA, Palmer Station, Antarctica

IU/POHA, Pohakaloa, Hawaii

IU/PTCN, Pitcairn Island, South Pacific

IU/PTGA, Pitinga, Brazil

IU/QSPA, South Pole, Antarctica

IU/RAO, Raoul, Kermandec Islands

IU/RAR, Rarotonga, Cook Islands

IU/RCBR, Riachuelo, Brazil

IU/RSSD, Black Hills, South Dakota, USA

IU/SAML, Samuel, Brazil

IU/SBA, Scott Base, Antarctica

IU/SDV, Santo Domingo, Venezuela

IU/SFJD, Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland

IU/SJG, San Juan, Puerto Rico

IU/SLBS, Sierra la Laguna Baja California Sur, Mexico

IU/SNZO, South Karori, New Zealand

IU/SSPA, Standing Stone, Pennsylvania USA

IU/TARA, Tarawa Island, Republic of Kiribati

IU/TATO, Taipei, Taiwan

IU/TEIG, Tepich, Yucatan, Mexico

IU/TIXI, Tiksi, Russia

IU/TRIS, Tristan da Cunha, Atlantic Ocean

IU/TRQA, Tornquist, Argentina

IU/TSUM, Tsumeb, Namibia

IU/TUC, Tucson, Arizona

IU/ULN, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

IU/WAKE, Wake Island, Pacific Ocean

IU/WCI, Wyandotte Cave, Indiana, USA

IU/WVT, Waverly, Tennessee, USA

IU/XMAS, Kiritimati Island, Republic of Kiribati

IU/YAK, Yakutsk, Russia

IU/YSS, Yuzhno Sakhalinsk, Russia

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Volcanic Activity

China’s Changbaishan volcano showing signs of increased activity

Roughly 1,100 years ago, the Changbaishan volcano that lies along the border between northeastern China and North Korea erupted, sending pyroclastic flows dozens of kilometers and blasting a 5-kilometer (3-mile) wide chunk off of the tip of the stratovolcano.

The eruption, known as the Millennium eruption because of its proximity to the turn of the first millennium, was one of the largest volcanic events in the Common Era. In the subsequent period, there have been three smaller eruptions, the most recent of which took place in 1903. Starting in 1999, spurred by signs of resumed activity, scientists established the Changbaishan Volcano Observatory, a network to track changing gas compositions, seismic activity, and ground deformation. Reporting on the data collected over the past 12 years, Xu et al. find that these volcanic indices each leapt during a period of heightened activity from 2002 to 2006. The authors find that during this brief active period, earthquake occurrences increased dramatically. From 1999 to 2002, and from 2006 to 2011, they registered 7 earthquakes per month using 11 seismometers. From 2002 to 2006, this rate increased to 72 earthquakes per month, peaking in November 2003 with 243 events. Further, tracking the source of the earthquakes, the authors tie the bulk of the events to a region located 5 kilometers (3 miles) beneath the volcanic caldera, a source that slowly crept upward throughout the study period, suggestive of an ongoing magmatic intrusion. Gas composition measurements collected from hot springs near the volcano showed spikes in carbon dioxide, hydrogen, helium, and nitrogen gases, which the authors suggest could be related to magmatic outgassing. Ground deformation studies, too, show a brief period of rapid expansion. The authors suggest that though Changbaishan is likely not gearing up for an imminent eruption, one could be expected in the next couple of decades. More information: Recent unrest of Changbaishan volcano, northeast China: A precursor of a future eruption? Geophysical Research Letters, doi:10.1029/2012GL052600 , 2012

21.09.2012

Volcano Eruption

Indonesia

Sulawesi, [Mount Lokon]

Volcano Eruption in Indonesia on Friday, 21 September, 2012 at 18:56 (06:56 PM) UTC.

Description

A volcano in northern Indonesia has spewed hot smoke and ash thousands of metres into the air in two new eruptions. Mount Lokon on Sulawesi island had been dormant before rumbling back to life last year. Government volcanologist Hendrasto says it unleashed two strong eruptions on Friday. Residents have been put on alert, but no evacuations are planned since the nearest villages are beyond the danger area about 2.5 kilometres from the crater. Mount Lokon’s last major eruption in 1991 killed a Swiss hiker and forced thousands to flee. The volcano is one of five on high alert in Indonesia. The archipelago straddles the “Pacific Ring of Fire” and has more active volcanoes than any other nation.

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Extreme Temperatures/ Weather

21.09.2012

Extreme Weather

USA

State of New York, [New York City region]

Extreme Weather in USA on Friday, 21 September, 2012 at 18:51 (06:51 PM) UTC.

Description

Heavy rains and wind gusts knocked down trees and flooded roads in Long Island and Westchester County, leaving thousands without power. The band of storms on Tuesday prompted the National Weather Service to issue a tornado warning for southwestern Suffolk County. The warning was in effect until 10 p.m. A tornado watch expired at 11 p.m. for Suffolk and Nassau counties.

 

Global Sea Surface Temperature – Wunderground.com

 

 

 

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Storms /  Flooding

Active tropical storm system(s)
Name of storm system	Location	Formed	Last update	Last category	Course	Wind Speed	Gust	Wave	Source	Details
Nadine (AL14)	Atlantic Ocean	11.09.2012	22.09.2012	Tropical Depression	165 °	93 km/h	111 km/h	4.57 m	NOAA NHC

Tropical Storm data

Share: Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 3 Storm name: Nadine (AL14) Area: Atlantic Ocean Start up location: N 16° 18.000, W 43° 6.000 Start up: 11th September 2012 Status: Active Track long: 1,489.96 km Top category.: Report by: NOAA NHC Useful links: Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale FEMA – How To Prepare for a Hurricane Effects of a Hurricane USA – National Hurricane Center

Past track Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave Pressure Source 12th Sep 2012 05:01:17 N 17° 48.000, W 45° 12.000 24 65 83 Tropical Storm 300 13 1004 MB NOAA NHC 12th Sep 2012 10:46:22 N 18° 36.000, W 46° 36.000 28 74 93 Tropical Storm 300 15 1001 MB NOAA NHC 13th Sep 2012 05:34:52 N 20° 42.000, W 50° 6.000 26 111 139 Tropical Storm 305 17 990 MB NOAA NHC 13th Sep 2012 11:12:43 N 21° 30.000, W 51° 18.000 26 111 139 Tropical Storm 305 17 990 MB NOAA NHC 14th Sep 2012 05:11:31 N 25° 0.000, W 53° 42.000 24 111 139 Tropical Storm 330 17 989 MB NOAA NHC 15th Sep 2012 06:55:17 N 30° 0.000, W 52° 48.000 22 120 148 Hurricane I. 25 17 985 MB NOAA NHC 15th Sep 2012 10:59:20 N 30° 42.000, W 51° 24.000 24 120 148 Hurricane I. 50 13 985 MB NOAA NHC 16th Sep 2012 05:13:53 N 30° 36.000, W 46° 36.000 28 130 157 Hurricane I. 95 15 983 MB NOAA NHC 17th Sep 2012 05:22:55 N 31° 24.000, W 38° 6.000 30 111 139 Tropical Storm 75 16 987 MB NOAA NHC 17th Sep 2012 10:47:47 N 32° 0.000, W 36° 24.000 28 111 139 Tropical Storm 65 15 985 MB NOAA NHC 18th Sep 2012 05:15:16 N 33° 54.000, W 34° 12.000 15 93 111 Tropical Storm 45 18 989 MB NOAA NHC 18th Sep 2012 10:46:51 N 34° 18.000, W 33° 36.000 13 93 111 Tropical Storm 45 14 990 MB NOAA NHC 19th Sep 2012 05:31:59 N 35° 48.000, W 32° 12.000 11 83 102 Tropical Storm 25 15 993 MB NOAA NHC 19th Sep 2012 11:00:20 N 36° 24.000, W 32° 6.000 7 83 102 Tropical Storm 360 9 993 MB NOAA NHC 20th Sep 2012 05:12:41 N 37° 6.000, W 31° 24.000 6 83 102 Tropical Storm 60 9 990 MB NOAA NHC 20th Sep 2012 11:02:24 N 36° 48.000, W 30° 36.000 15 83 102 Tropical Storm 120 18 983 MB NOAA NHC 21st Sep 2012 10:40:35 N 35° 6.000, W 27° 12.000 13 102 120 Tropical Storm 140 14 981 MB NOAA NHC Current position Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave feet Pressure Source 22nd Sep 2012 06:38:52 N 31° 54.000, W 26° 36.000 20 93 111 Tropical Depression 165 ° 15 984 MB NOAA NHC Forecast track Date Time Position Category Wind km/h Gust km/h Source 23rd Sep 2012 12:00:00 N 30° 42.000, W 24° 30.000 Tropical Depression 83 102 NOAA NHC 23rd Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 30° 30.000, W 25° 12.000 Tropical Depression 83 102 NOAA NHC 24th Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 31° 24.000, W 24° 30.000 Tropical Depression 83 102 NOAA NHC 25th Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 32° 30.000, W 24° 30.000 Tropical Depression 93 111 NOAA NHC 26th Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 32° 30.000, W 23° 0.000 Hurricane I 102 120 NOAA NHC 27th Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 33° 0.000, W 20° 0.000 Tropical Depression 93 111 NOAA NHC

Jelewat (18W)

Pacific Ocean

20.09.2012

22.09.2012

Typhoon I

200 °

93 km/h

120 km/h

2.74 m

JTWC

Tropical Storm data

Share: Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 0 Storm name: Jelewat (18W) Area: Pacific Ocean Start up location: N 13° 42.000, E 132° 18.000 Start up: 20th September 2012 Status: Active Track long: 212.69 km Top category.: Report by: JTWC Useful links: Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale FEMA – How To Prepare for a Hurricane Effects of a Hurricane USA – National Hurricane Center

Past track Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave Pressure Source Current position Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave feet Pressure Source 22nd Sep 2012 06:41:44 N 11° 42.000, E 129° 54.000 6 93 120 Typhoon I 200 ° 9 JTWC Forecast track Date Time Position Category Wind km/h Gust km/h Source 23rd Sep 2012 12:00:00 N 12° 6.000, E 128° 48.000 Typhoon II 130 157 JTWC 24th Sep 2012 12:00:00 N 12° 30.000, E 128° 18.000 Typhoon III 148 185 JTWC 25th Sep 2012 12:00:00 N 13° 18.000, E 127° 54.000 Typhoon IV 176 213 JTWC

EP 13

Pacific Ocean – East

22.09.2012

22.09.2012

Tropical Depression

275 °

56 km/h

74 km/h

3.05 m

NOAA NHC

Tropical Storm data

Share: Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 1 Storm name: EP 13 Area: Pacific Ocean – East Start up location: N 13° 42.000, W 107° 30.000 Start up: 22nd September 2012 Status: Active Track long: 0.00 km Top category.: Report by: NOAA NHC Useful links: Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale FEMA – How To Prepare for a Hurricane Effects of a Hurricane USA – National Hurricane Center

Past track Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave Pressure Source Current position Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave feet Pressure Source 22nd Sep 2012 06:35:22 N 13° 42.000, W 107° 30.000 19 56 74 Tropical Depression 275 ° 10 1005 MB NOAA NHC Forecast track Date Time Position Category Wind km/h Gust km/h Source 23rd Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 14° 18.000, W 110° 24.000 Tropical Depression 83 102 NOAA NHC 23rd Sep 2012 12:00:00 N 14° 54.000, W 111° 48.000 Hurricane I 102 120 NOAA NHC 24th Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 15° 42.000, W 113° 6.000 Hurricane I 111 139 NOAA NHC 25th Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 17° 30.000, W 116° 0.000 Hurricane II 139 167 NOAA NHC 26th Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 18° 30.000, W 118° 0.000 Hurricane II 130 157 NOAA NHC 27th Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 19° 30.000, W 120° 0.000 Hurricane I 120 148 NOAA NHC

………………………..

Today

Flash Flood

India

State of Assam, [13 districts]

Flash Flood in India on Saturday, 22 September, 2012 at 05:11 (05:11 AM) UTC.

Description

Army and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) rescue teams were deployed in upper Assam’s Tinsukia and Dhemaji districts on Friday to rescue thousands of people marooned by flood waters as the overall flood situation turned critical in the State following incessant rain for past more than a week. A swollen Brahmaputra has submerged vast areas of Majuli following a breach in an embankment at Sonowal Kachari village of the island on Thursday. The administration cautioned the residents of the river-island to stay alert. Principal Secretary, Revenue and Disaster Management, V.K. Pipersenia, told The Hindu that six columns of the Army have been deployed for rescuing marooned people at Sadiya in Tinsukia district and in Jonai sub-division. Four NDRF teams were deployed for rescue operations. Army and NDRF boats tried to negotiate the strong current of flood waters in Sadiya. As strong current prevented them from reaching out to the marooned people in Sadiya from Tinsukia side, the rescue teams approached the flood-hit areas from Arunachal Pradesh side and rescued some people. Mr. Pipersenia said the services of Indian Air Force (IAF) were requisitioned but the IAF choppers could not carry out any operation during the day because of bad weather. Over five lakh people in 13 districts have been affected in the current and fourth wave of floods in the State. In addition to the breach in the embankment in Majuli, the Brahmaputra has breached an embankment at Dolopa in Sivasagar district and a ring bund at Chawalkhowa near Bogibeel in Dibrugarh district, while river Nona breached an embankment in Kamrup district. Flood situation was also critical in lower Assam’s Kamrup, Baksa and Barpeta districts.

22.09.2012

Flood

USA

State of Alaska, [Southcentral Alaska]

Flood in USA on Friday, 21 September, 2012 at 03:14 (03:14 AM) UTC.

Description

Flooding continues to cause problems throughout Southcentral Alaska. Jeremy Zidek, spokesman for the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, says in a release that there have been reports of flooding, landslides and road closures throughout the area. But there has been no report of major injuries. Residents in East Talkeetna are being told to evacuate because of flooding. The Red Cross has established three shelters in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and helped with another in Seward. Weather problems are not confined to Southcentral Alaska. Zidek says a landslide has blocked access from the village of Chenega to its airport, and state transportation officials are working to restore access. And an assessment team is in Tanacross to evaluate damage from Sunday’s wind storm.

Flood in USA on Friday, 21 September, 2012 at 03:14 (03:14 AM) UTC.

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Updated:	Saturday, 22 September, 2012 at 04:46 UTC
Description
Residents of Talkeetna are being asked to evacuate the town after its dike system against heavy flooding failed Friday, according to local firefighters. The evacuation is now voluntary, although an initial order was mandatory. Talkeetna Fire Department Battalion Chief Johnny Murdoch, the incident commander for flooding in the area, says the Susitna River started backing up to the Talkeetna River, causing the dike to fail. According to local officials the decision to evacuate Talkeetna was made by Alaska State Troopers, with authorities expecting water to continue rising Friday afternoon. The Associated Press reports that overnight rains in Talkeetna ranged from half an inch to 1 1/2 inches over a 6- to 8-hour period. The Talkeetna River was within a foot of its record stage of 17.4 feet, with officials telling the AP about 35 percent of Talkeetna has some form of water coverage. Students from Talkeetna’s elementary school were being bused to the local high school Friday. Traffic was blocked from entering Talkeetna until the evacuation was no longer mandatory, a change made shortly before 2 p.m. In a flood warning effective through 10 p.m. Friday, the National Weather Service says a levee protecting the town was breached as of 1 p.m. The Talkeetna River is 4 feet above flood stage, and expected to crest Friday evening. “All persons in the vicinity of Talkeetna should take precautions now to protect life and property,” meteorologists wrote. The NWS advises people to avoid crossing flowing streams — even small ones – on foot, or driving across flooded roadways in cars, under the slogan “Turn around, don’t drown.”

 

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Epidemic Hazards / Diseases

Today

Epidemic Hazard

USA

State of California, San Francisco [San Francisco State University]

Epidemic Hazard in USA on Saturday, 22 September, 2012 at 05:15 (05:15 AM) UTC.

Description
Students at San Francisco State University are being warned to look for symptoms of the chicken pox after a third person came down with the disease this week. School officials say it involves a student who lives on campus and uses the dining facilities. To prevent an outbreak, SFSU held a mass vaccination Friday. Chicken pox is highly contagious. Symptoms can pop up two to three weeks after contact and include fever and a rash that develops into blisters.
Biohazard name:	Chickenpox
Biohazard level:	2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:	Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
Symptoms:
Status:	confirmed

Today

Epidemic Hazard

USA

State of New York, New Paltz [Mountain Laurel Waldorf School]

Epidemic Hazard in USA on Saturday, 22 September, 2012 at 05:13 (05:13 AM) UTC.

Description
A case of measles has been confirmed in a student who attends the Mountain Laurel Waldorf School in New Paltz, according to the Dutchess County Department of Health. The measles case was reported by Dutchess County Health Commissioner Dr. Michael Caldwell in a press release emailed to local media outlets late Friday. It was not immediately clear why the release came from a Dutchess County official rather than one in Ulster County, where the private school is located, and the name and hometown of the infected person were not provided. Caldwell said his office has “been in close communication” with the Ulster County Department of Health and the state Department of Health. Caldwell said anyone who has visited the school since Sept. 10 or has had contact with anyone from the school since that date should make sure their measles vaccinations are up to date. Those who lack proper vaccinations should consult with a doctor. Caldwell said his department has learned that a number of students at the New Paltz school have not been vaccinated for measles, meaning they could become ill and put others at risk. Caldwell said all medical practices and laboratories in the area should be on high alert that there may be a number of children and family members who have been exposed and could spread the disease further. Incidents of measles, which is highly contagious, have increased in the United States recently due to a growing number of unvaccinated individuals who travel to countries where measles is prevalent, Caldwell said.
Biohazard name:	Measles
Biohazard level:	2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:	Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
Symptoms:
Status:	confirmed

Today

Epidemic Hazard

USA

State of Montana, [Florence Carlton School Distric]

Epidemic Hazard in USA on Saturday, 22 September, 2012 at 04:48 (04:48 AM) UTC.

Description
Administrators at the Florence Carlton School District report that between 20 and 30 students are sick with an undiagnosed illness. Most of the reports come from younger students between kindergarten and 6th grades. They’re reporting symptoms like nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. It’s not unlike what the district dealt with in March. Back then, the schools closed for several days to deal with a strain of the stomach flu. Right now, Superintendent John McGee says the district is watching and waiting to see what develops. Ravalli County Health Officials are investigating the causes for the illness. Judy Griffin Ravalli County Health Director says if your child is showing any symptoms of any sickness please take them to your primary physician.
Biohazard name:	Unidentified illness
Biohazard level:	0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:	This does not included biological hazard category.
Symptoms:	nausea, vomiting and diarrhea
Status:

21.09.2012

Epidemic Hazard

United Kingdom

England, [Cumbria Region]

Epidemic Hazard in United Kingdom on Friday, 21 September, 2012 at 03:01 (03:01 AM) UTC.

Description
Around 6,000 children in Cumbria are at risk of getting measles because they have not had the MMR vaccination, health chiefs have said. NHS Cumbria said 95% of babies in the county had been immunised but that thousands aged between five and 16 had not had the jab. Teenagers moving to Cumbria are also being urged to get protected. In recent months 20 cases of measles – which can leave victims deaf – have been reported in the county. The MMR vaccine is given in two doses, the first after the age of one, the second before the child starts school. Dr Rebecca Wagstaff, the county’s deputy director of public health, said: “Measles is highly infectious and anyone who has not previously been vaccinated is at risk when it gets into a community, as it has done here.”
Biohazard name:	Measles
Biohazard level:	2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:	Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
Symptoms:
Status:	confirmed

20.09.2012

Epidemic Hazard

Somalia

State of Lower Juba, Hoosingo [District of Badade]

Epidemic Hazard in Somalia on Tuesday, 18 September, 2012 at 18:35 (06:35 PM) UTC.

Back

Updated:	Thursday, 20 September, 2012 at 04:50 UTC
Description
A suspected cholera outbreak has killed at least 19 people since the beginning of September, with 12 still sick in the southern Somali village of Hoosingo in Lower Juba, the United Nations IRIN news service reported Tuesday (September 18th). “One of the biggest problems we have is that we do not know what this disease is,” said Hoosingo village commissioner Aden Ibrahim Dhaqane. Schools, religious centres and restaurants have been closed to prevent the outbreak from spreading, he said. “We call [on] the aid agencies to help us in the following areas: provision of a steady supply of medicine, [the] identification of the disease and the setting up of health centres,” he said, adding that the village does not have a health facility. An emergency weekly update on Somalia from the World Health Organisation reported 107 cases of the disease across the country September 5th-13th. “With the ongoing conflict and subsequent population displacement and disruption of the existing health service access points in the region, the risk of sporadic cholera outbreaks in the southern zone cannot be excluded,” the WHO report said.

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Climate Change

Antarctic Ice Area Sets Record High

Press Release: New Zealand Climate Science Coalition

 

ANTARCTIC ICE AREA SETS RECORD HIGH

“Day 258 of 2012 is the highest for this date since satellite scanning of Antarctic ice areas commenced 33 years ago” the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition announced today. “It is also the fifth highest daily value on record.”

Coalition chairman, Hon Barry Brill, says the most remarkable aspect is the extent to which the 2012 area exceeds normal Antarctica averages. “The sea ice cover yesterday was 311,000 square kilometres above the 1979-2012 average. The surplus ice is more than twice the area of New Zealand”.

“The Antarctic dimensions come partly at the expense of Arctic sea ice” said Mr Brill. “Over the 33-year period aggregate global sea ice volumes have remained steady, but there are fluctuations between the two polar areas from year to year. The fluctuations are the result of ocean currents and wind patterns, rather than temperatures”.

“Antarctic ice is much more important than that of the Arctic. The area of its sea ice is a million square kilometres larger than the highest value ever recorded in the Arctic. Then, of course, the Antarctic is an entire continent, with more than 90% of the earth’s glacial ice” said Mr Brill.

“It is appropriate that this record should occur in a week that The Listener carries a cover story featuring the winter low point of Arctic ice, along with multiple pictures of calving glaciers and forlorn polar bears,” said Mr Brill. “The magazine has little to say about the Antarctic apart from complaining that it is “poorly understood”. The author also avoids mentioning the glaring facts that no significant global warming has been recorded in the past 16 years, and that sea level rise is apparently decelerating.

“It is unfortunate that under-informed writers, albeit unwittingly, mislead their readers who should be helped to understand the difference between sea ice extent and ice cap ice, both thickness and extent as regards the latter. The ice cap in the Arctic is small compared to the Antarctic. The cap of the Antarctic is increasing in thickness in most places, except around the Antarctic Peninsula.
Sea ice extent is largely a consequence of sea surface temperature, ocean currents and wind,” said Mr Brill, who advised those interested in graphic confirmation of Antarctic sea ice readings to refer to:
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/seaice.anomaly.antarctic.png
and:
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/seaice.anomaly.antarctic.png

The Arctic’s Record Breaking Ice Melt

Published on Sep 17, 2012 by NOAAVisualizations

The sea ice in the Arctic Ocean dropped below the previous all-time record set in 2007. This year also marks the first time that there has been less than 4 million square kilometers (1.54 million square miles) of sea ice since satellite observations began in 1979. This animation shows the 2012 time-series of ice extent using sea ice concentration data from the DMSP SSMI/S satellite sensor. The black area represents the daily average (median) sea ice extent over the 1979-2000 time period. Layered over top of that are the daily satellite measurements from January 1 — September 14, 2012. A rapid melt begins in July, whereby the 2012 ice extents fall far below the historical average. The National Snow and Ice Data Center (www.nsidc.org) will confirm the final minimum ice extent data and area once the melt stabilizes, usually in mid-September.

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Solar Activity

2MIN News Sept 21. 2012

Published on Sep 21, 2012 by Suspicious0bservers

2012 Pole Shift Video: http://youtu.be/uI10tKuLtFU

TODAY’S LINKS
Planetary Emergency: http://phys.org/news/2012-09-planetary-emergency-due-arctic-experts.html
China Volcano: http://phys.org/news/2012-09-china-changbaishan-volcano.html
Coronal Caities: http://phys.org/news/2012-09-solar-fleet-peers-coronal-cavities.html
France vs Monsanto: http://phys.org/news/2012-09-france-gm-cancer-threat.html
UK vs Oil: http://phys.org/news/2012-09-uk-lawmakers-moratorium-arctic-drilling.html
Paraguay Storm: http://www.weather.com/news/south-american-storm-causes-death-damage-20120920
IRI Forecasts: http://portal.iri.columbia.edu/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=944&Pa…
NOAA forecasts: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/90day/
China Weather-Modification: http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/49672 — Historical Ref: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2009/oct/01/china-cloud-seeding-pa…
Tropical TRacker: http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/
Drought Update: http://www.weather.com/news/drought-update-20120920

REPEAT LINKS
Spaceweather: http://spaceweather.com/ [Look on the left at the X-ray Flux and Solar Wind Speed/Density]

HAARP: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/data.html [Click online data, and have a little fun]

SDO: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ [Place to find Solar Images and Videos – as seen from earth]

SOHO: http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater [SOHO; Lasco and EIT – as seen from earth]

Stereo: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/images [Stereo; Cor, EUVI, HI – as seen from the side]

SunAEON:http://www.sunaeon.com/#/solarsystem/ [Just click it… trust me]

SOLARIMG: http://solarimg.org/artis/ [All purpose data viewing site]

iSWA: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/iswa/iSWA.html [Free Application; for advanced sun watchers]

NASA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov:8080/IswaSystemWebApp/iSWACygnetStreamer?timestamp=…
NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/

US Wind Map: http://hint.fm/wind/

NOAA Bouys: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory: http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/Default.php

RSOE: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php [That cool alert map I use]

GOES Xray: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sxi/goes15/index.html

JAPAN Radiation Map: http://jciv.iidj.net/map/

LISS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/operations/heliplots_gsn.php

Gamma Ray Bursts: http://grb.sonoma.edu/ [Really? You can’t figure out what this one is for?]

BARTOL Cosmic Rays: http://neutronm.bartol.udel.edu//spaceweather/welcome.html [Top left box, look for BIG blue circles]

TORCON: http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-torcon-index [Tornado Forecast for the day]

GOES Weather: http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/ [Clouds over America]

RAIN RECORDS: http://www.cocorahs.org/ViewData/ListIntensePrecipReports.aspx

EL DORADO WORLD WEATHER MAP: http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/satellite/ssec/world/world-composite-ir-…

PRESSURE MAP: http://www.woweather.com/cgi-bin/expertcharts?LANG=us&MENU=0000000000&…

HURRICANE TRACKER: http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/tracker

INTELLICAST: http://www.intellicast.com/ [Weather site used by many youtubers]

NASA News: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/

PHYSORG: http://phys.org/ [GREAT News Site!]

QUAKES LIST FULL: http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/seismologist.php

3MIN News Sept 20. 2012

Published on Sep 20, 2012 by Suspicious0bservers

2012 Pole Shift Video: http://youtu.be/uI10tKuLtFU

TODAY’S LINKS
Okeechobee Overflowing: http://www.weather.com/news/lake-okeechobee-drained-20120919
Quantum Physics Changes: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120919135312.htm
Climate Change Australia: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120919103616.htm
Dust Storm: http://www.weather.com/weather/videos/news-41/top-stories-169/watch-incredibl…
Warm Australia: http://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/early-season-heat-scorches-outback/22446

REPEAT LINKS
Spaceweather: http://spaceweather.com/ [Look on the left at the X-ray Flux and Solar Wind Speed/Density]

HAARP: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/data.html [Click online data, and have a little fun]

SDO: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ [Place to find Solar Images and Videos – as seen from earth]

SOHO: http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater [SOHO; Lasco and EIT – as seen from earth]

Stereo: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/images [Stereo; Cor, EUVI, HI – as seen from the side]

SunAEON:http://www.sunaeon.com/#/solarsystem/ [Just click it… trust me]

SOLARIMG: http://solarimg.org/artis/ [All purpose data viewing site]

iSWA: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/iswa/iSWA.html [Free Application; for advanced sun watchers]

NASA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov:8080/IswaSystemWebApp/iSWACygnetStreamer?timestamp=…
NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/

US Wind Map: http://hint.fm/wind/

NOAA Bouys: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory: http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/Default.php

RSOE: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php [That cool alert map I use]

GOES Xray: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sxi/goes15/index.html

JAPAN Radiation Map: http://jciv.iidj.net/map/

LISS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/operations/heliplots_gsn.php

Gamma Ray Bursts: http://grb.sonoma.edu/ [Really? You can’t figure out what this one is for?]

BARTOL Cosmic Rays: http://neutronm.bartol.udel.edu//spaceweather/welcome.html [Top left box, look for BIG blue circles]

TORCON: http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-torcon-index [Tornado Forecast for the day]

GOES Weather: http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/ [Clouds over America]

RAIN RECORDS: http://www.cocorahs.org/ViewData/ListIntensePrecipReports.aspx

EL DORADO WORLD WEATHER MAP: http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/satellite/ssec/world/world-composite-ir-…

PRESSURE MAP: http://www.woweather.com/cgi-bin/expertcharts?LANG=us&MENU=0000000000&…

HURRICANE TRACKER: http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/tracker

INTELLICAST: http://www.intellicast.com/ [Weather site used by many youtubers]

NASA News: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/

PHYSORG: http://phys.org/ [GREAT News Site!]

QUAKES LIST FULL: http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/seismologist.php

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Space

Today

Event into space

United Kingdom

Scotland, [Between Airdrie and Arbroath]

Event into space in United Kingdom on Saturday, 22 September, 2012 at 04:54 (04:54 AM) UTC.

Description

A suspected meteorite shower over Scotland has prompted a flurry of 999 calls from worried members of the public. Concerned callers from Airdrie to Arbroath likened the lights they saw in the sky to flares, fireworks and even a plane crash. Coastguard and police forces up and down the country were inundated with reports from around 11pm on Friday night. A spokesman for Forth Coastguard said: “From talking to other stations and to the RAF it’s almost certainly meteorite activity. “Calls came in from all over the place, thick and fast. We’ve had people report possible plane crashes, and others the weirdest fireworks they’ve ever seen. “Folk just haven’t known how to describe what they’ve seen. It’s quite extraordinary.” The spokesman said reports had come from Crail, Johnshaven and Arbroath. Clyde Coastguard said it had received a “flurry” of calls reporting flares seen in Drummore, Airdrie and Brodick on Arran. A spokeswoman said: “When we get it all over and at the same time then we attribute them to meteorites. There was meteorite activity forecast from September 15 to 21.” Shetland Coastguard said a report of a flare at 11.10pm at Duncansby Head near John O’Groats was thought to be part of the meteorite shower.

Earth approaching objects (objects that are known in the next 30 days)
Object Name	Apporach Date	Left	AU Distance	LD Distance	Estimated Diameter*	Relative Velocity
(2009 SH2)	24th September 2012	2 day(s)	0.1462	56.9	28 m – 62 m	7.52 km/s	27072 km/h
333578 (2006 KM103)	25th September 2012	3 day(s)	0.0626	24.4	250 m – 560 m	8.54 km/s	30744 km/h
(2002 EZ2)	26th September 2012	4 day(s)	0.1922	74.8	270 m – 610 m	6.76 km/s	24336 km/h
(2009 SB170)	29th September 2012	7 day(s)	0.1789	69.6	200 m – 440 m	32.39 km/s	116604 km/h
(2011 OJ45)	29th September 2012	7 day(s)	0.1339	52.1	18 m – 39 m	4.24 km/s	15264 km/h
(2012 JS11)	30th September 2012	8 day(s)	0.0712	27.7	270 m – 600 m	12.60 km/s	45360 km/h
137032 (1998 UO1)	04th October 2012	12 day(s)	0.1545	60.1	1.3 km – 2.9 km	32.90 km/s	118440 km/h
(2012 GV11)	05th October 2012	13 day(s)	0.1830	71.2	100 m – 230 m	6.96 km/s	25056 km/h
(2009 XZ1)	05th October 2012	13 day(s)	0.1382	53.8	120 m – 280 m	16.87 km/s	60732 km/h
(2006 TD)	06th October 2012	14 day(s)	0.1746	68.0	88 m – 200 m	13.03 km/s	46908 km/h
(2009 TK)	06th October 2012	14 day(s)	0.0450	17.5	100 m – 230 m	11.10 km/s	39960 km/h
(2004 UB)	08th October 2012	16 day(s)	0.1995	77.6	240 m – 530 m	14.65 km/s	52740 km/h
277830 (2006 HR29)	11th October 2012	19 day(s)	0.1917	74.6	190 m – 440 m	7.88 km/s	28368 km/h
(2008 BW2)	11th October 2012	19 day(s)	0.1678	65.3	3.1 m – 6.8 m	11.10 km/s	39960 km/h
(2005 GQ21)	12th October 2012	20 day(s)	0.1980	77.0	620 m – 1.4 km	23.86 km/s	85896 km/h
(2012 GV17)	12th October 2012	20 day(s)	0.1500	58.4	160 m – 370 m	16.11 km/s	57996 km/h
256004 (2006 UP)	14th October 2012	22 day(s)	0.1374	53.5	65 m – 140 m	3.06 km/s	11016 km/h
(2005 ST1)	14th October 2012	22 day(s)	0.1319	51.3	230 m – 510 m	12.88 km/s	46368 km/h
(2011 OB57)	14th October 2012	22 day(s)	0.1553	60.4	17 m – 37 m	4.95 km/s	17820 km/h
(2012 KB4)	14th October 2012	22 day(s)	0.1271	49.4	22 m – 49 m	4.98 km/s	17928 km/h
(2004 RX10)	15th October 2012	23 day(s)	0.0819	31.9	150 m – 340 m	11.86 km/s	42696 km/h
(2006 WV1)	15th October 2012	23 day(s)	0.0910	35.4	17 m – 39 m	6.15 km/s	22140 km/h
(2012 LA)	16th October 2012	24 day(s)	0.0449	17.5	8.3 m – 19 m	1.86 km/s	6696 km/h
329275 (1999 VP6)	17th October 2012	25 day(s)	0.1766	68.7	300 m – 670 m	7.15 km/s	25740 km/h
136993 (1998 ST49)	18th October 2012	26 day(s)	0.0737	28.7	790 m – 1.8 km	16.63 km/s	59868 km/h
(2002 TR190)	19th October 2012	27 day(s)	0.1712	66.6	430 m – 960 m	13.58 km/s	48888 km/h
(1998 XX2)	20th October 2012	28 day(s)	0.1356	52.8	290 m – 650 m	10.62 km/s	38232 km/h
(2003 UC5)	21st October 2012	29 day(s)	0.1750	68.1	260 m – 580 m	35.80 km/s	128880 km/h
1 AU = ~150 million kilometers,1 LD = Lunar Distance = ~384,000 kilometers Source: NASA-NEO

 

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Biological Hazards / Wildlife / Environmental Pollution

Biological Hazard in USA on Saturday, 22 September, 2012 at 05:21 (05:21 AM) UTC.

Description
A mysterious coral die-off on Kauai’s north shore is prompting a team of scientists to take a closer look at what may be killing large areas of coral reef. Marine biologist Terry Lilley has been monitoring and documenting Kauai’s marine environment for the last decade or more. This summer he was struck at how fast he was seeing something kill off what he estimates are millions of coral colonies. Lilley contacted scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey who’ve determined the diseased coral is different from what killed coral heads in Kaneohe Bay last year. The Kauai outbreak is believed to be due to a type of cyano bacteria and fungus which has compromised the health of the reef, according to researcher Thierry Work. Work said he took samples from the reef earlier this month and will be back to collect more coral and fish to conduct toxicology tests. Lilley has sounded the alarm which he hopes will trigger action to get the disease in check, and prevent its spread. “We have a billion dollar industry tourist industry in Hawaii with snorkels who want to see the reefs. If we let them die on the north shore of Kauai, that’s going to be a huge impact financially on the resources, and the money coming in,” said Lilley. The Kauai resident is also concerned about what he saw on a recent dive where he documented evidence of diseased turtles and fish.
Biohazard name:	Mass. Die-off (corals)
Biohazard level:	0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:	This does not included biological hazard category.
Symptoms:
Status:	confirmed

21.09.2012

Biological Hazard

Pakistan

State of Sindh, [Malir District]

Biological Hazard in Pakistan on Friday, 21 September, 2012 at 03:10 (03:10 AM) UTC.

Description
The Department of Livestock Sindh has said that evidence has been gathered that points to the dead Australian sheep’s being affected by the deadly Anthrax infection. The day-to-day developments in connection with the Australian sheep’s import to Pakistan continue to give a new twist to the story. Only yesterday, the discovery of thousands of these sheep from a private compound in Malir District had raised new questions. Out of these, six were found dead with bleeding mouths. This is not it. More dead sheep were also discovered buried under ground and these had mouths infested with parasites. Now a fresh disclosure hints at the dead sheep’s being infected by the deadly Anthrax virus. Originally, it was believed that the sheep suffered from scabby mouth disease. Due to the possible presence of Anthrax, the Department of Livestock has refused to get the post-mortem done on the dead sheep. The reason is clear. The deadly Anthrax virus can even kill the staff carrying out the post-mortem of the sheep. Director Department of Livestock, Nazir Kalhoro has said that after the evidence hinting at presence of Anthrax, arrangements are now geing made to burry these sheep with the help of machines. Only those dead sheep will be put through post-mortem which had not contracted Anthrax, he added. Meanwhile, as many as 1800 samples from the sheep have been sent for tests to the Livestock laboratories in Tando Jam, Karachi and Islamabad. According to sources, the company that had imported the sheep has been served a letter in which it has been directed to prove the Anthrax claims of the investigation team wrong or get ready for a legal action.
Biohazard name:	Anthrax (sheep)
Biohazard level:	4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:	Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
Symptoms:
Status:	confirmed

………………………..

Today

Environment Pollution

USA

State of Hawaii, [Coastal of Waimanalo]

Environment Pollution in USA on Saturday, 22 September, 2012 at 05:03 (05:03 AM) UTC.

Description

A large plastic bin is the first confirmed piece of marine debris from last year’s Japan tsunamis to arrive in Hawaii, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday. Japanese consular officials confirmed that the blue bin found earlier this week floating in the ocean is from Fukushima, said Ben Sherman, a NOAA spokesman in Washington, D.C. It’s the 12th confirmed piece to hit U.S. or Canada waters, he said. The bin was spotted off Waimanalo, on the southeast coast of Oahu, by Makai Ocean Engineering staff and was retrieved by the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory. Used for transporting seafood, the 4-by-4-foot cube bears the name Y.K. Suisan Co. Ltd., the state Department of Land and Natural Resources said. Nikolai Maximenko, a University of Hawaii researcher and ocean currents expert who is studying the trajectory of the tsunami debris, said the bin’s arrival is consistent with his predictions for when the first pieces would get to Hawaii. “It came at the right time, according to our model,” he said. “But in some sense, it could just be a coincidence.” One million to 2 million tons of debris remain in the ocean, but only 1 to 5 percent of that could reach American and Canadian shorelines, Maximenko has said. Crabs and barnacles were found on the bin, the state said, along with five local seabirds. Two flew away and three were found dead inside the bin. There were no foreign plant or animal species in or on the bin, which state officials put in quarantine. Meanwhile, Hawaii fishermen spotted a large dock drifting toward Oahu that may also be tsunami debris. A Maui fisherman climbed on the dock and saw Japanese writing. The 30-feet by 50-feet dock was spotted Wednesday off Molokai, heading toward Oahu. The Coast Guard was notifying mariners of the debris.

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Articles of Interest

Swollen Lake Okeechobee Drained

EDT Associated Press1

Getty Images

Water levels in the Lake Okeechobee top 15 feet and are still rising from rains dumped by Tropical Storm Isaac.

MIAMI — Federal engineers are draining storm-swollen Lake Okeechobee.

Water levels in the South Florida lake top 15 feet and are still rising from rains dumped by Tropical Storm Isaac. Draining the lake will ease pressure on its aging dike.

It also means sending polluted waters down the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers. Draining the lake in the past has triggered fish-killing algae blooms in both rivers.

Lt. Col. Thomas Greco of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tells the Miami Herald that, starting Wednesday, engineers will release small amounts of water to minimize environmental impacts.

According to the Corps plan, the lake’s water levels are supposed to stay between 12.5 feet and 15.5 feet.

Lake Okeechobee functions as a flood control basin, a regional water reservoir and a fishing destination.

Experiment Corrects Prediction in Quantum Theory

ScienceDaily

An international team of scientists is rewriting a page from the quantum physics rulebook using a University of Florida laboratory once dubbed the coldest spot in the universe.

Scientists are rewriting a page from the quantum physics rulebook using a laboratory once dubbed the coldest spot in the universe. (Credit: iStockphoto/Nick Schlax)

Much of what we know about quantum mechanics is theoretical and tested via computer modeling because quantum systems, like electrons whizzing around the nucleus of an atom, are difficult to pin down for observation. One can, however, slow particles down and catch them in the quantum act by subjecting them to extremely cold temperatures. New research, published in the Sept. 20 edition of the journal Nature, describes how this freeze-frame approach was recently used to overturn an accepted rule of thumb in quantum theory.

“We are in the age of quantum mechanics,” said Neil Sullivan, a UF physics professor and director of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory High B/T Facility on the UF campus — home of the Microkelvin lab where experiments can be conducted in near-absolute zero temperatures. “If you’ve had an MRI, you have made use of a quantum technology.”

The magnet that powers an MRI scanner is a superconducting coil transformed into a quantum state by very cold liquid helium. Inside the coil, electric current flows friction free.

Quantum magnets and other strange, almost otherworldly occurrences in quantum mechanics could inspire the next big breakthroughs in computing, alternative energy and transportation technologies such as magnetic levitating trains, Sullivan said. But innovation cannot proceed without a proper set of guidelines to help engineers navigate the quantum road.

That’s where the Microkelvin lab comes in. It is one of the few facilities in the world equipped to deliver the extremely cold temperatures needed to slow what Sullivan calls the “higgledy-piggledy” world of quantum systems at normal temperatures to a manageable pace where it can be observed and manipulated.

“Room temperature is approximately 300 kelvin,” Sullivan said. “Liquid hydrogen pumped into a rocket at the Kennedy Space Center is at 20 kelvin.”

Physicists need to cool things down to 1 millikelvin, one thousandth of a kelvin above absolute zero, or -459.67 degrees Fahrenheit, to bring matter into a different realm where quantum properties can be explored.

One fundamental state of quantum mechanics that scientists are keen to understand more fully is a fragile, ephemeral phase of matter called a Bose-Einstein Condensate. In this state, individual particles that make up a material begin to act as a single coherent unit. It’s a tricky condition to induce in a laboratory setting, but one that researchers need to explore if technology is ever to fully exploit the properties of the quantum world.

Two theorists, Tommaso Roscilde at the University of Lyon, France, and Rong Yu from Rice University in Houston, developed the underlying ideas for the study and asked a colleague, Armando Paduan-Filho from the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, to engineer the crystalline sample used in the experiment.

“Our measurements definitively tested an important prediction about a particular behavior in a Bose-Einstein Condensate,” said Vivien Zapf, a staff scientist at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Los Alamos and a driving force behind the international collaboration.

The experiment monitored the atomic spin of subatomic particles called bosons in the crystal to see when the transition to Bose-Einstein Condensate was achieved, and then further cooled the sample to document the exact point where the condensate properties decayed. They observed the anticipated phenomenon when they took the sample down to 1 millikelvin.

The crystal used in the experiment had been doped with impurities in an effort to create more of a real world scenario, Zapf said. “It’s nice to know what happens in pure samples, but the real world, is messy and we need to know what the quantum rules are in those situations.”

Having performed a series of simulations in advance, they knew that the experiment would require them to generate temperatures down to 1 millikelvin.

“You have to go to the Microkelvin Laboratory at UF for that,” she said. The lab is housed within the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory High B/T Facility at UF, funded by the National Science Foundation. Other laboratories can get to the extreme temperature required, but none of them can sustain it long enough to collect all of the data needed for the experiment.

“It took six months to get the readings,” said Liang Yin, an assistant scientist in the UF physics department who operated the equipment in the Microkelvin lab. “Because the magnetic field we used to control the wave intensity in the sample also heats it up. You have to adjust it very slowly.”

Their findings literally rewrote the rule for predicting the conditions under which the transition would occur between the two quantum states.

“All the world should be watching what happens as we uncover properties of systems at these extremely low temperatures,” Sullivan said. “A superconducting wire is superconducting because of this Bose-Einstein Condensation concept. If we are ever to capitalize on it for quantum computing or magnetic levitation for trains, we have to thoroughly understand it.”

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[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]

Earth Watch Report – Tuesday September 18th, 2012

Earthquakes

USGS

	MAG	UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s	LAT deg	LON deg	DEPTH km	Region
MAP	4.3	2012/09/17 23:28:38	23.334	100.045	15.0	YUNNAN, CHINA
MAP	5.0	2012/09/17 21:15:45	-14.902	167.409	146.9	VANUATU
MAP	2.8	2012/09/17 21:12:30	36.644	-120.949	9.6	CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP	5.4	2012/09/17 20:07:55	-5.717	150.119	92.7	NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
MAP	5.0	2012/09/17 19:09:31	39.808	142.084	36.7	NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP	3.1	2012/09/17 16:18:04	19.076	-67.493	25.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	4.6	2012/09/17 16:08:46	72.472	2.746	10.0	NORWEGIAN SEA
MAP	2.5	2012/09/17 15:44:43	19.319	-64.711	7.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.8	2012/09/17 14:19:24	-10.786	113.812	12.2	SOUTH OF JAVA, INDONESIA
MAP	2.5	2012/09/17 14:02:27	18.505	-64.574	49.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.7	2012/09/17 13:27:23	-10.967	113.736	10.0	SOUTH OF JAVA, INDONESIA
MAP	3.1	2012/09/17 12:55:32	60.050	-152.166	55.1	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	2.8	2012/09/17 12:10:22	19.350	-155.027	8.4	ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP	3.2	2012/09/17 09:51:44	19.660	-64.249	12.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.2	2012/09/17 09:31:35	50.255	-170.132	46.9	SOUTH OF THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS
MAP	3.1	2012/09/17 09:25:40	19.304	-64.517	15.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.1	2012/09/17 09:20:33	19.136	-64.917	50.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.3	2012/09/17 07:05:53	38.727	46.717	10.0	NORTHWESTERN IRAN
MAP	2.8	2012/09/17 05:30:27	37.000	-104.929	4.9	COLORADO
MAP	3.1	2012/09/17 04:19:58	19.633	-64.449	13.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.6	2012/09/17 03:08:44	42.338	144.882	45.7	HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
MAP	3.3	2012/09/17 02:50:44	42.464	-125.837	10.0	OFF THE COAST OF OREGON
MAP	2.6	2012/09/17 02:28:16	18.439	-66.447	81.0	PUERTO RICO
MAP	2.9	2012/09/17 01:59:18	42.421	-125.880	10.0	OFF THE COAST OF OREGON
MAP	4.4	2012/09/17 01:29:50	49.312	154.831	85.5	KURIL ISLANDS
MAP	3.3	2012/09/17 00:51:16	61.059	-140.138	4.2	SOUTHERN YUKON TERRITORY, CANADA

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	MAG	UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s	LAT deg	LON deg	DEPTH km	Region
MAP	4.4	2012/09/16 23:22:26	12.643	-89.151	35.3	OFFSHORE EL SALVADOR
MAP	2.8	2012/09/16 23:15:32	37.062	-104.834	5.0	COLORADO
MAP	4.8	2012/09/16 22:09:15	10.509	126.739	73.0	PHILIPPINE ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.5	2012/09/16 21:46:44	-7.019	129.673	134.6	KEPULAUAN BABAR, INDONESIA
MAP	5.3	2012/09/16 21:46:20	10.591	126.676	49.5	PHILIPPINE ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.8	2012/09/16 21:04:12	19.090	-65.780	12.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	3.3	2012/09/16 20:54:40	19.746	-64.189	18.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.0	2012/09/16 20:49:12	51.404	-176.543	24.6	ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP	3.2	2012/09/16 20:43:08	19.721	-64.259	17.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.3	2012/09/16 19:13:15	52.458	-174.573	224.9	ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP	3.2	2012/09/16 19:12:45	19.725	-64.190	19.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.5	2012/09/16 19:10:01	18.308	-67.115	15.0	PUERTO RICO
MAP	2.9	2012/09/16 18:54:01	38.808	-122.810	0.7	NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	3.4	2012/09/16 18:53:03	38.793	-122.766	3.3	NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	4.5	2012/09/16 18:33:27	12.674	-89.203	51.1	OFFSHORE EL SALVADOR
MAP	3.6	2012/09/16 17:58:07	19.622	-64.330	48.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.0	2012/09/16 16:46:55	19.679	-64.303	25.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.8	2012/09/16 16:17:25	0.496	96.928	25.4	NIAS REGION, INDONESIA
MAP	2.6	2012/09/16 16:07:08	19.633	-64.356	25.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.0	2012/09/16 15:42:49	19.663	-64.323	24.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.9	2012/09/16 15:32:55	-10.734	113.860	15.2	SOUTH OF JAVA, INDONESIA
MAP	2.9	2012/09/16 15:15:24	18.072	-68.522	112.0	DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP	4.3	2012/09/16 14:52:08	19.596	-64.201	70.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.7	2012/09/16 14:30:05	58.068	-32.179	10.0	REYKJANES RIDGE
MAP	3.0	2012/09/16 14:09:48	19.718	-64.299	18.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.2	2012/09/16 14:06:05	19.614	-64.299	58.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.3	2012/09/16 13:13:30	-10.945	113.669	10.0	SOUTH OF JAVA, INDONESIA
MAP	5.0	2012/09/16 13:02:54	-18.425	-174.693	124.7	TONGA
MAP	5.0	2012/09/16 12:50:47	-2.711	138.699	52.9	PAPUA, INDONESIA
MAP	2.9	2012/09/16 12:13:04	19.720	-64.246	39.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.0	2012/09/16 12:04:22	19.515	-64.194	81.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.8	2012/09/16 11:49:37	18.933	-65.784	5.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	2.6	2012/09/16 11:35:52	18.915	-65.164	63.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	2.7	2012/09/16 11:25:10	51.961	178.527	2.8	RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP	2.9	2012/09/16 10:52:31	66.361	-147.499	11.1	NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP	2.8	2012/09/16 10:32:58	19.113	-65.813	38.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	3.0	2012/09/16 10:28:44	19.022	-65.788	8.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	2.5	2012/09/16 10:27:25	18.669	-64.629	10.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.6	2012/09/16 10:24:49	19.044	-64.817	52.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.9	2012/09/16 10:22:22	19.813	-64.374	34.0	NORTH OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS
MAP	2.7	2012/09/16 10:17:51	19.019	-65.842	45.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	3.1	2012/09/16 10:13:45	19.628	-64.370	15.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.8	2012/09/16 10:12:12	19.005	-65.832	19.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	3.2	2012/09/16 10:09:44	18.967	-65.832	10.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	2.7	2012/09/16 10:08:30	19.007	-65.814	5.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	3.0	2012/09/16 10:06:41	19.082	-65.810	17.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	2.8	2012/09/16 10:05:07	19.007	-65.762	8.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	2.6	2012/09/16 10:04:06	19.092	-65.836	18.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	3.3	2012/09/16 10:00:43	19.000	-65.770	65.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	2.9	2012/09/16 09:59:25	19.087	-65.789	44.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	2.7	2012/09/16 09:55:44	19.108	-65.778	35.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	3.0	2012/09/16 09:54:22	19.061	-65.865	25.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	3.1	2012/09/16 09:47:56	19.071	-65.833	13.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	2.9	2012/09/16 09:47:02	19.044	-65.826	13.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	2.9	2012/09/16 09:34:49	19.667	-64.299	24.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.3	2012/09/16 09:06:13	19.326	-64.088	93.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.5	2012/09/16 08:25:43	14.337	-92.731	35.0	OFFSHORE CHIAPAS, MEXICO
MAP	2.8	2012/09/16 08:05:35	51.756	-176.474	72.5	ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP	4.4	2012/09/16 07:54:16	37.351	35.609	17.0	CENTRAL TURKEY
MAP	3.1	2012/09/16 07:41:17	19.592	-66.248	16.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	2.6	2012/09/16 07:28:43	19.035	-65.401	14.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	3.0	2012/09/16 07:13:58	19.623	-64.178	69.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.3	2012/09/16 06:57:54	18.717	-64.292	44.0	ANEGADA, BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS
MAP	2.8	2012/09/16 06:54:44	19.556	-64.080	63.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.7	2012/09/16 06:28:23	19.006	-65.021	31.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.9	2012/09/16 06:07:26	3.619	90.166	10.0	OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
MAP	5.2	2012/09/16 05:51:09	10.142	-85.526	24.3	COSTA RICA
MAP	3.4	2012/09/16 05:40:06	19.558	-64.260	70.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.8	2012/09/16 05:07:30	19.551	-64.199	68.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.6	2012/09/16 04:56:18	19.568	-64.254	68.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.0	2012/09/16 04:46:54	19.527	-64.191	72.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.7	2012/09/16 04:14:10	19.649	-64.369	19.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.6	2012/09/16 04:12:47	18.331	-66.214	57.0	PUERTO RICO
MAP	2.6	2012/09/16 04:04:30	35.978	-120.217	20.0	CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP	3.0	2012/09/16 03:38:27	61.524	-147.414	7.7	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	3.0	2012/09/16 02:33:12	19.691	-64.375	23.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.6	2012/09/16 01:38:08	-10.803	165.758	102.7	SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS
MAP	4.2	2012/09/16 00:39:25	15.542	-94.780	35.0	OFFSHORE OAXACA, MEXICO
MAP	3.2	2012/09/16 00:13:09	54.904	-157.093	34.2	SOUTH OF ALASKA
MAP	2.6	2012/09/16 00:09:01	34.715	-116.288	2.0	SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

……………………………………..

LISS – Live Internet Seismic Server

GSN Stations

These data update automatically every 30 minutes. Last update: September 18, 2012 08:18:50 UTC

Seismograms may take several moments to load. Click on a plot to see larger image.

CU/ANWB, Willy Bob, Antigua and Barbuda

CU/BBGH, Gun Hill, Barbados

CU/BCIP, Isla Barro Colorado, Panama

CU/GRGR, Grenville, Grenada

CU/GRTK, Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands

CU/GTBY, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

CU/MTDJ, Mount Denham, Jamaica

CU/SDDR, Presa de Sabaneta, Dominican Republic

CU/TGUH, Tegucigalpa, Honduras

IC/BJT, Baijiatuan, Beijing, China

IC/ENH, Enshi, China

IC/HIA, Hailar, Neimenggu Province, China

IC/LSA, Lhasa, China

IC/MDJ, Mudanjiang, China

IC/QIZ, Qiongzhong, Guangduong Province, China

IU/ADK, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA

IU/AFI, Afiamalu, Samoa

IU/ANMO, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

IU/ANTO, Ankara, Turkey

IU/BBSR, Bermuda

IU/BILL, Bilibino, Russia

IU/CASY, Casey, Antarctica

IU/CCM, Cathedral Cave, Missouri, USA

IU/CHTO, Chiang Mai, Thailand

IU/COLA, College Outpost, Alaska, USA

IU/COR, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

IU/CTAO, Charters Towers, Australia

IU/DAV,Davao, Philippines

IU/DWPF,Disney Wilderness Preserve, Florida, USA

IU/FUNA,Funafuti, Tuvalu

IU/FURI, Mt. Furi, Ethiopia

IU/GNI, Garni, Armenia

IU/GRFO, Grafenberg, Germany

IU/GUMO, Guam, Mariana Islands

IU/HKT, Hockley, Texas, USA

IU/HNR, Honiara, Solomon Islands

IU/HRV, Adam Dziewonski Observatory (Oak Ridge), Massachusetts, USA

IU/INCN, Inchon, Republic of Korea

IU/JOHN, Johnston Island, Pacific Ocean

IU/KBS, Ny-Alesund, Spitzbergen, Norway

IU/KEV, Kevo, Finland

IU/KIEV, Kiev, Ukraine

IU/KIP, Kipapa, Hawaii, USA

IU/KMBO, Kilima Mbogo, Kenya

IU/KNTN, Kanton Island, Kiribati

IU/KONO, Kongsberg, Norway

IU/KOWA, Kowa, Mali

IU/LCO, Las Campanas Astronomical Observatory, Chile

IU/LSZ, Lusaka, Zambia

IU/LVC, Limon Verde, Chile

IU/MA2, Magadan, Russia

IU/MAJO, Matsushiro, Japan

IU/MAKZ,Makanchi, Kazakhstan

IU/MBWA, Marble Bar, Western Australia

IU/MIDW, Midway Island, Pacific Ocean, USA

IU/MSKU, Masuku, Gabon

IU/NWAO, Narrogin, Australia

IU/OTAV, Otavalo, Equador

IU/PAB, San Pablo, Spain

IU/PAYG Puerto Ayora, Galapagos Islands

IU/PET, Petropavlovsk, Russia

IU/PMG, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

IU/PMSA, Palmer Station, Antarctica

IU/POHA, Pohakaloa, Hawaii

IU/PTCN, Pitcairn Island, South Pacific

IU/PTGA, Pitinga, Brazil

IU/QSPA, South Pole, Antarctica

IU/RAO, Raoul, Kermandec Islands

IU/RAR, Rarotonga, Cook Islands

IU/RCBR, Riachuelo, Brazil

IU/RSSD, Black Hills, South Dakota, USA

IU/SAML, Samuel, Brazil

IU/SBA, Scott Base, Antarctica

IU/SDV, Santo Domingo, Venezuela

IU/SFJD, Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland

IU/SJG, San Juan, Puerto Rico

IU/SLBS, Sierra la Laguna Baja California Sur, Mexico

IU/SNZO, South Karori, New Zealand

IU/SSPA, Standing Stone, Pennsylvania USA

IU/TARA, Tarawa Island, Republic of Kiribati

IU/TATO, Taipei, Taiwan

IU/TEIG, Tepich, Yucatan, Mexico

IU/TIXI, Tiksi, Russia

IU/TRIS, Tristan da Cunha, Atlantic Ocean

IU/TRQA, Tornquist, Argentina

IU/TSUM, Tsumeb, Namibia

IU/TUC, Tucson, Arizona

IU/ULN, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

IU/WAKE, Wake Island, Pacific Ocean

IU/WCI, Wyandotte Cave, Indiana, USA

IU/WVT, Waverly, Tennessee, USA

IU/XMAS, Kiritimati Island, Republic of Kiribati

IU/YAK, Yakutsk, Russia

IU/YSS, Yuzhno Sakhalinsk, Russia

……………….

Documented Earthquakes on the Canary Islands for the last 10 days equal or greater to 1.5

Terremotos de los últimos 10 días en las Islas Canarias de magnitud igual o superior a 1.5 o sentidos:

Information for earthquakes  of lesser intensity can be found on Catálogo y boletines sísmicos.

La información de terremotos de magnitud inferior se puede obtener en Catálogo y boletines sísmicos.

This information is subject to modifications as a  consequence  of the  continued revision of  seismic analysis

Esta información está sujeta a modificaciones como consecuencia de la continua revisión del análisis sísmico.

Translation : Desert Rose

Event        Date           Time             Lat.        Long.    Depth                 Mag.  Type                 Location

Evento	Fecha	Hora(GMT)*	Latitud	Longitud	Prof. (km)	Int. Máx.	Mag.	Tipo Mag. (**)	Localización	Info
1166335	18/09/2012	02:00:06	27.7172	-18.0061	22		1.9	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166334	18/09/2012	01:44:59	27.7116	-18.0057	23		1.8	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166333	18/09/2012	01:20:05	27.7154	-18.0037	21		1.8	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166313	17/09/2012	23:58:02	27.6961	-18.0187	22		1.7	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166312	17/09/2012	23:26:31	27.7065	-17.9957	22		2.0	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166311	17/09/2012	21:42:46	27.7030	-18.0078	24		1.6	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166308	17/09/2012	21:10:53	27.6954	-18.0087	22		1.8	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166306	17/09/2012	21:01:03	27.7032	-18.0052	20		2.6	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166301	17/09/2012	20:55:02	27.7141	-18.0022	20		2.3	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166283	17/09/2012	20:50:45	27.7009	-18.0074	22		2.1	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166282	17/09/2012	20:20:41	27.7107	-18.0105	22		2.5	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166280	17/09/2012	20:14:15	27.7036	-17.9998	21		2.0	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166279	17/09/2012	19:53:08	27.7042	-17.9886	20		1.9	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166278	17/09/2012	19:47:08	27.7155	-18.0153	23		1.7	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166273	17/09/2012	18:29:37	27.7204	-18.0029	19		1.6	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166266	17/09/2012	17:49:38	27.6889	-17.9883	22		2.2	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166265	17/09/2012	17:34:22	27.6855	-18.0191	22		1.7	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166260	17/09/2012	16:54:36	27.6945	-18.0669	27		2.1	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166247	17/09/2012	16:11:02	27.7200	-17.9911	22		2.5	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166243	17/09/2012	16:06:47	27.7324	-17.9921	21		2.1	mbLg	S FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1166240	17/09/2012	16:04:37	27.7184	-17.9992	20		2.8	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166245	17/09/2012	15:52:55	27.7772	-18.0895	10		1.6	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1166231	17/09/2012	15:39:07	27.7118	-18.0222	22		1.6	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166226	17/09/2012	15:34:51	27.7609	-18.0918	10		1.7	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1166221	17/09/2012	15:32:59	27.7876	-18.1054	11		1.7	mbLg	NW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1166224	17/09/2012	15:32:23	27.7054	-18.0069	25		1.7	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166225	17/09/2012	15:26:48	27.7398	-18.0069	19		1.5	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1166220	17/09/2012	15:15:08	27.7021	-18.0191	22		1.7	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166204	17/09/2012	14:04:42	27.6965	-18.0061	21		2.0	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166205	17/09/2012	14:02:27	27.6968	-18.0169	20		1.8	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166217	17/09/2012	13:49:28	27.6801	-18.0791	16		1.7	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166214	17/09/2012	13:40:08	27.7179	-17.9985	22		2.0	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166213	17/09/2012	13:20:35	27.7305	-18.0298	23		1.5	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1166202	17/09/2012	13:05:19	27.6834	-18.0092	20		2.2	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166198	17/09/2012	12:47:52	27.6832	-18.0099	15		1.6	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166199	17/09/2012	12:43:14	27.7365	-18.0161	23		1.7	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1166171	17/09/2012	11:52:38	27.6973	-18.0285	21		1.7	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166148	17/09/2012	11:16:04	27.6981	-18.0131	22		1.8	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166146	17/09/2012	11:06:18	27.6948	-18.0032	22		2.2	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166144	17/09/2012	11:04:19	27.7143	-17.9947	20		2.4	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166141	17/09/2012	10:54:41	27.7256	-18.0145	21		1.6	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1166142	17/09/2012	10:48:49	27.7211	-18.0185	22		1.6	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166143	17/09/2012	10:47:52	27.6974	-18.0090			1.5	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166103	17/09/2012	10:00:35	27.7061	-17.9905	24		1.5	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166085	17/09/2012	09:43:12	27.7059	-18.0168	23		1.6	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166072	17/09/2012	09:20:44	27.7104	-18.0355	23		1.7	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166075	17/09/2012	09:16:06	27.6979	-17.9985			1.9	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166069	17/09/2012	09:11:28	27.7167	-17.9934			2.0	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166068	17/09/2012	09:04:48	27.7181	-18.0060	22		1.9	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166060	17/09/2012	08:33:14	27.6835	-18.0236	22		1.7	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166064	17/09/2012	08:21:17	27.7925	-18.0067	21		1.5	mbLg	N FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1166057	17/09/2012	08:19:27	27.7142	-18.0143	21		1.8	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166054	17/09/2012	08:04:36	27.6896	-18.0120	22		1.7	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166055	17/09/2012	07:50:51	27.7225	-17.9935	24		2.0	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166056	17/09/2012	07:45:42	27.7203	-18.0018	23		1.5	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166038	17/09/2012	07:33:30	27.7105	-18.0003	23		2.5	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166033	17/09/2012	06:58:53	27.7155	-18.0042	20		2.6	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166030	17/09/2012	06:17:59	27.7075	-17.9808			1.8	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166027	17/09/2012	05:58:53	27.7211	-18.0139	21		2.0	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166028	17/09/2012	05:57:22	27.7019	-18.0153	22		1.9	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166025	17/09/2012	05:35:02	27.7107	-18.0187	22		1.9	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166026	17/09/2012	05:30:04	27.7022	-17.9972	21		2.2	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166023	17/09/2012	05:27:21	27.7165	-18.0316	22		1.7	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166024	17/09/2012	05:06:16	27.7155	-18.0297	23		2.8	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166016	17/09/2012	04:22:17	27.7244	-17.9950	21		1.9	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166017	17/09/2012	04:16:07	27.6996	-18.0234	23		1.6	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166019	17/09/2012	04:06:08	27.6913	-18.0453	22		1.8	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166014	17/09/2012	03:53:17	27.6975	-18.0212	23		1.9	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166012	17/09/2012	03:37:23	27.7079	-17.9951	22		1.7	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166011	17/09/2012	03:06:03	27.6989	-18.0075	22		2.0	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166010	17/09/2012	02:38:58	27.7092	-18.0085	21		1.6	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166009	17/09/2012	02:38:07	27.6933	-18.0160	22		2.1	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166008	17/09/2012	02:21:35	27.7018	-18.0065	23		1.9	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1166007	17/09/2012	01:54:23	27.7107	-18.0084	22		1.7	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165994	17/09/2012	01:28:49	27.7114	-18.0118	21		1.6	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165993	17/09/2012	01:24:55	27.7166	-18.0028	20	II	3.0	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165992	17/09/2012	00:59:44	27.7033	-18.0202	20		1.5	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165990	17/09/2012	00:30:25	27.7068	-17.9991	22		1.6	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165989	16/09/2012	23:38:41	27.7208	-17.9902	21		1.8	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165985	16/09/2012	23:24:29	27.7098	-18.0130	21		1.6	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165984	16/09/2012	23:15:50	27.7091	-18.0071	22		2.0	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165983	16/09/2012	23:01:46	27.7073	-18.0146	21		1.7	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165982	16/09/2012	22:54:29	27.7135	-18.0053	21		2.0	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165978	16/09/2012	22:16:03	27.7123	-18.0037	22		1.8	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165977	16/09/2012	21:58:28	27.7117	-18.0081	22		2.1	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165976	16/09/2012	21:55:49	27.7113	-18.0059	22		2.6	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165975	16/09/2012	21:43:54	27.7201	-17.9977	21		2.0	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165973	16/09/2012	21:40:16	27.7119	-18.0073	23		2.2	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165972	16/09/2012	21:09:32	27.7190	-18.0055	22		2.4	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165971	16/09/2012	20:49:45	27.7002	-18.0041	22	II	2.6	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165970	16/09/2012	20:44:15	27.7168	-17.9958	20		2.5	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165969	16/09/2012	20:21:40	27.7226	-18.0082	22		1.6	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165968	16/09/2012	20:11:42	27.7342	-18.0393	25		1.8	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165966	16/09/2012	19:59:49	27.7210	-18.0070	20		1.8	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165967	16/09/2012	19:58:19	27.7263	-18.0068	21		1.7	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165962	16/09/2012	18:58:54	27.7207	-17.9970	22		1.8	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165951	16/09/2012	18:50:50	29.2069	-17.4992			3.6	mbLg	ATLÁNTICO-CANARIAS	[+]
1165959	16/09/2012	18:41:15	27.7239	-18.0036	22		1.6	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165957	16/09/2012	18:32:13	27.7239	-18.0032	22		1.6	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165948	16/09/2012	18:02:57	27.7038	-17.9945	19		1.6	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165945	16/09/2012	17:55:26	27.7222	-17.9900	22		1.7	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165946	16/09/2012	17:37:23	27.7145	-17.9951	23		2.0	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165939	16/09/2012	17:12:35	27.7293	-17.9939	21		1.6	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165933	16/09/2012	16:52:19	27.7110	-17.9863	22		2.1	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165934	16/09/2012	16:43:23	27.7179	-17.9915	21		1.7	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165928	16/09/2012	16:38:35	27.7120	-18.0078	23		2.0	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165931	16/09/2012	16:26:47	27.7112	-17.9974	23		1.6	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165930	16/09/2012	16:25:45	27.7163	-18.0008	21		1.8	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165932	16/09/2012	16:03:53	27.7273	-17.9945	22		1.9	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165919	16/09/2012	15:45:20	27.7226	-18.0062	22		1.5	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165918	16/09/2012	15:33:52	27.7248	-17.9955	20		2.2	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165917	16/09/2012	15:20:03	27.7335	-18.0083	21		2.1	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165914	16/09/2012	15:11:41	27.7110	-17.9873	21	II	2.8	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165912	16/09/2012	14:53:03	27.7197	-18.0048	19		2.4	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165913	16/09/2012	14:50:05	27.7054	-17.9967	21		2.1	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165916	16/09/2012	14:42:41	27.7268	-17.9992	21		1.7	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165915	16/09/2012	14:41:05	27.7170	-18.0059	20		1.5	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165905	16/09/2012	14:36:51	27.7023	-17.9926	22		1.9	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165911	16/09/2012	14:24:54	27.6987	-17.9982	18		1.7	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165910	16/09/2012	14:24:40	27.7121	-18.0076	20		1.9	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165909	16/09/2012	14:24:11	27.7232	-18.0085	21		1.9	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165907	16/09/2012	14:22:28	27.7036	-18.0062	23		2.0	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165908	16/09/2012	14:11:15	27.7129	-18.0068	22		2.3	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165906	16/09/2012	14:08:19	27.7152	-17.9984	21		2.1	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165901	16/09/2012	14:01:53	27.7123	-18.0042	26		2.4	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165903	16/09/2012	14:01:26	27.7124	-18.0046	22		2.2	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165902	16/09/2012	14:00:51	27.7202	-18.0145	21		2.4	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165894	16/09/2012	13:57:52	27.7085	-17.9900	21		2.0	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165898	16/09/2012	13:35:33	27.7084	-18.0295	22		1.9	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165893	16/09/2012	13:34:55	27.7148	-18.0293	24		2.2	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165899	16/09/2012	13:33:33	27.6956	-18.0170	22		1.6	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165891	16/09/2012	13:28:45	27.7184	-18.0476	25		1.5	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165888	16/09/2012	13:22:00	27.7080	-17.9947	22		2.2	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165889	16/09/2012	13:19:09	27.6970	-18.0190	23		1.8	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165880	16/09/2012	13:14:28	27.6591	-18.0190	20		1.6	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165887	16/09/2012	12:58:54	27.6909	-18.0231	20		2.2	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165884	16/09/2012	12:58:54	27.6765	-18.0172	20		2.1	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165886	16/09/2012	12:57:39	27.7027	-18.0218	22		1.7	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165885	16/09/2012	12:57:39	27.6964	-18.0199	22		1.9	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165883	16/09/2012	12:54:55	27.7213	-18.0158	22		1.9	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165879	16/09/2012	12:47:02	27.7158	-17.9968	20	II	2.8	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165863	16/09/2012	12:33:07	27.6997	-17.9993	21		2.5	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165861	16/09/2012	12:09:56	27.7156	-18.0174	21		1.9	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165858	16/09/2012	12:01:15	27.7032	-18.0099	22		2.2	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165843	16/09/2012	11:19:01	27.6943	-18.0039	19		2.5	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165841	16/09/2012	11:18:00	27.7312	-18.0050	23		1.8	mbLg	S FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165840	16/09/2012	11:17:30	27.6987	-18.0386	23		1.7	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165837	16/09/2012	11:01:54	27.7185	-18.0059	22		1.6	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165836	16/09/2012	11:01:30	27.7220	-17.9788	21		1.7	mbLg	N EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165829	16/09/2012	10:49:39	27.6934	-17.9826	21		1.8	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165824	16/09/2012	10:05:26	27.6896	-18.0013	23		1.9	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165831	16/09/2012	09:53:11	27.7285	-17.9929	19		2.2	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165828	16/09/2012	09:41:48	27.7182	-17.9880	22		1.7	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165827	16/09/2012	09:31:00	27.6982	-18.0200	22		1.5	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165820	16/09/2012	09:03:51	27.6593	-18.0059	25		1.6	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165818	16/09/2012	09:00:06	27.7306	-17.9818	22		2.3	mbLg	N EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165803	16/09/2012	08:48:36	27.7188	-18.0048	19	II	3.0	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165800	16/09/2012	08:36:13	27.7432	-17.9996	20		2.1	mbLg	S FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165801	16/09/2012	08:31:57	27.7152	-17.9960	21		2.5	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165802	16/09/2012	08:29:38	27.7314	-17.9941	21		2.4	mbLg	S FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165797	16/09/2012	08:09:30	27.6958	-18.0207	21		1.7	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165796	16/09/2012	08:07:54	27.7107	-18.0071	21		1.6	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165795	16/09/2012	08:01:13	27.6691	-18.0017	23		2.3	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165794	16/09/2012	07:49:05	27.7137	-18.0068	22		2.6	mbLg	S FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165793	16/09/2012	07:48:24	27.7195	-17.9817	22		1.9	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165790	16/09/2012	07:38:48	27.7180	-17.9824	22		2.3	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165788	16/09/2012	07:35:54	27.7321	-17.9992	21		2.6	mbLg	S FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165787	16/09/2012	07:24:53	27.7217	-17.9891	22		1.8	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165786	16/09/2012	07:24:19	27.7267	-18.0083	24		2.2	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165791	16/09/2012	07:21:11	27.6994	-18.0047	21		1.6	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165785	16/09/2012	07:02:06	27.7248	-18.0047	18		2.2	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165783	16/09/2012	07:01:40	27.7151	-17.9770	22		1.8	mbLg	N EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165789	16/09/2012	06:59:08	27.7135	-17.9987	19		2.7	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165784	16/09/2012	06:32:23	27.7079	-17.9968	22		2.4	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165779	16/09/2012	06:16:45	27.6914	-18.0155			1.7	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165780	16/09/2012	06:11:15	27.7061	-17.9918	20		1.7	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165781	16/09/2012	06:07:15	27.7137	-17.9942	22		1.7	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165776	16/09/2012	05:54:22	27.6883	-18.0087	24		2.6	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165775	16/09/2012	05:46:04	27.7114	-18.0093	21		2.4	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165774	16/09/2012	05:33:19	27.7098	-18.0030	20		1.8	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165768	16/09/2012	05:25:33	27.6995	-17.9984	22		1.6	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165767	16/09/2012	05:22:40	27.7037	-17.9966	24		1.7	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165766	16/09/2012	05:18:49	27.7061	-17.9898	21		1.5	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165765	16/09/2012	05:17:08	27.7185	-17.9839	20		2.3	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165764	16/09/2012	05:02:46	27.7154	-17.9969	19		2.4	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165762	16/09/2012	04:42:57	27.6940	-18.0177	19		2.6	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165760	16/09/2012	04:33:54	27.7006	-17.9734	25		2.1	mbLg	SE EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165759	16/09/2012	04:04:22	27.7050	-17.9960	27		2.2	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165755	16/09/2012	03:51:03	27.7179	-17.9990	21		2.6	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165758	16/09/2012	03:46:13	27.6962	-18.0013	22		1.6	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165757	16/09/2012	03:43:24	27.6961	-18.0045	22		2.4	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165756	16/09/2012	03:42:44	27.7018	-18.0066	22		2.4	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165754	16/09/2012	03:36:45	27.6952	-18.0050	22		1.8	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165753	16/09/2012	03:34:39	27.7019	-18.0098	22		1.9	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165751	16/09/2012	03:34:14	27.7023	-18.0119	21		2.1	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165749	16/09/2012	03:31:52	27.7001	-18.0069	22		2.1	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165747	16/09/2012	03:30:52	27.7231	-18.0019	21		2.6	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165744	16/09/2012	03:29:02	27.7018	-17.9990	22		1.9	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165745	16/09/2012	03:29:02	27.7068	-17.9850	20		1.7	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165743	16/09/2012	03:16:11	27.7241	-17.9826	22		2.4	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165752	16/09/2012	03:09:28	27.6964	-17.9857	23		2.0	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165746	16/09/2012	03:08:31	27.7119	-17.9910	24		2.2	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165750	16/09/2012	03:03:25	27.7054	-17.9898	23		2.0	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165748	16/09/2012	02:56:55	27.7026	-18.0062	21		1.8	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165742	16/09/2012	02:37:27	27.6840	-18.0183	21		1.5	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165734	16/09/2012	02:08:22	27.7123	-17.9913	23		2.4	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165735	16/09/2012	02:01:08	27.7168	-18.0012	21		1.8	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165737	16/09/2012	01:52:56	27.7171	-17.9917	22		2.5	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165738	16/09/2012	01:45:56	27.6967	-17.9953	23		2.1	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165739	16/09/2012	01:43:46	27.7021	-17.9847	21		1.9	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165727	16/09/2012	01:36:10	27.6892	-18.0024	22		1.7	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165723	16/09/2012	01:30:09	27.6952	-18.0211	21		1.5	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165722	16/09/2012	01:29:06	27.6883	-18.0268	21		1.6	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165721	16/09/2012	01:21:50	27.7088	-17.9964	21		2.2	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165720	16/09/2012	01:21:03	27.7161	-18.0116	22		1.7	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165719	16/09/2012	01:09:12	27.7041	-17.9996	22		1.7	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165712	16/09/2012	01:08:38	27.6966	-18.0104	22		1.6	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165709	16/09/2012	01:06:23	27.6999	-18.0113	22		1.8	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165711	16/09/2012	01:05:03	27.7091	-17.9930	23		1.5	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165705	16/09/2012	00:54:21	27.6989	-18.0002	23		1.8	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165706	16/09/2012	00:49:54	27.7099	-17.9775	22		2.0	mbLg	NE EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165708	16/09/2012	00:43:53	27.6938	-17.9973	22		1.6	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165707	16/09/2012	00:40:45	27.7045	-17.9908	23		1.8	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165704	16/09/2012	00:39:31	27.7069	-18.0006	17		1.8	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165710	16/09/2012	00:36:34	27.6879	-17.9994	22		1.8	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165703	16/09/2012	00:29:50	27.6878	-18.0096	23		2.1	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165701	16/09/2012	00:17:34	27.6990	-18.0047	20		1.8	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165700	16/09/2012	00:14:38	27.6995	-18.0045	19		2.3	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165699	16/09/2012	00:10:21	27.7165	-17.9889	21		1.9	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165698	16/09/2012	00:10:14	27.7033	-17.9946	23		1.6	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165696	16/09/2012	00:00:09	27.7079	-17.9933	20		1.8	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165693	15/09/2012	23:53:08	27.6988	-18.0048	23		2.0	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165694	15/09/2012	23:42:20	27.7042	-17.9933	20		1.9	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165695	15/09/2012	23:33:28	27.7217	-17.9996	22		2.0	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165697	15/09/2012	23:30:49	27.7111	-17.9916	23		2.0	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165692	15/09/2012	23:26:17	27.7013	-18.0065	22		2.4	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165690	15/09/2012	23:18:36	27.6922	-17.9934	22		1.8	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165689	15/09/2012	23:07:00	27.7145	-17.9970	21		1.6	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165684	15/09/2012	22:53:42	27.7075	-17.9818	21		2.2	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165687	15/09/2012	22:46:47	27.7175	-17.9743	22		2.0	mbLg	NE EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165686	15/09/2012	22:45:22	27.7049	-17.9905	21		2.1	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165685	15/09/2012	22:43:10	27.7006	-17.9984	23		2.1	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165683	15/09/2012	22:29:53	27.6982	-18.0091	22		1.8	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165682	15/09/2012	22:29:27	27.7099	-17.9892	21		2.1	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165681	15/09/2012	22:21:57	27.7029	-17.9948	21		1.6	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165680	15/09/2012	22:18:56	27.6907	-18.0200	21		1.5	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165679	15/09/2012	22:11:51	27.6965	-17.9902	20		2.1	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165678	15/09/2012	22:07:03	27.6981	-17.9929	21		2.0	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165676	15/09/2012	21:56:18	27.7103	-17.9958	23		1.9	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165658	15/09/2012	21:55:15	27.7005	-17.9989	21		2.7	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165675	15/09/2012	21:44:30	27.7111	-17.9945	23		2.1	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165657	15/09/2012	21:38:31	27.6982	-18.0051	21		1.9	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165654	15/09/2012	21:28:12	27.6916	-17.9906	22		2.1	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165644	15/09/2012	20:58:40	27.7138	-17.9825	22		2.1	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165655	15/09/2012	20:47:56	27.7211	-17.9901	20		1.5	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165653	15/09/2012	20:45:26	27.6968	-17.9931	25		2.2	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165652	15/09/2012	20:33:48	27.7314	-17.9826	23		1.8	mbLg	N EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165650	15/09/2012	20:32:58	27.7027	-17.9944	23		1.7	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165651	15/09/2012	20:25:27	27.6983	-17.9926	21		2.4	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165649	15/09/2012	20:20:24	27.6952	-17.9950	20		1.9	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165648	15/09/2012	20:14:18	27.6956	-17.9867	22		2.0	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165646	15/09/2012	20:04:40	27.6902	-18.0068	23		1.8	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165645	15/09/2012	20:04:18	27.6899	-18.0041	23		1.8	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165643	15/09/2012	20:03:35	27.6920	-17.9919	22		1.9	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165642	15/09/2012	19:51:27	27.7277	-17.9917	21		2.1	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165641	15/09/2012	18:52:52	27.6851	-18.0141	22		2.5	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165640	15/09/2012	18:52:06	27.6859	-18.0110	22		2.4	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165639	15/09/2012	18:49:02	27.6929	-18.0068	23		2.5	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165638	15/09/2012	18:41:19	27.7108	-17.9947	22		2.3	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165637	15/09/2012	18:30:43	27.6991	-17.9861	22		1.6	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165636	15/09/2012	18:28:57	27.7032	-18.0026	22		1.9	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165635	15/09/2012	18:19:14	27.6977	-17.9976			2.0	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165634	15/09/2012	17:49:36	27.7285	-18.0039	22		2.6	mbLg	S FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165633	15/09/2012	17:47:44	27.7331	-17.9980	23		1.7	mbLg	S FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165632	15/09/2012	17:17:22	27.7164	-17.9982	22	III	2.9	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165615	15/09/2012	17:06:38	27.7159	-18.0049	20	II	2.8	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165612	15/09/2012	16:50:30	27.7112	-17.9929	22		1.7	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165611	15/09/2012	16:40:22	27.7182	-17.9840	22		2.2	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165610	15/09/2012	16:21:50	27.7174	-18.0105	22		2.0	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165607	15/09/2012	16:12:31	27.6987	-18.0125			1.7	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165609	15/09/2012	15:54:15	27.7145	-18.0103	22		2.0	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165608	15/09/2012	15:46:12	27.7106	-17.9963	23		1.9	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165606	15/09/2012	15:30:41	27.7493	-18.0030	23		2.1	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165605	15/09/2012	15:26:24	27.7026	-18.0414	22		2.0	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165600	15/09/2012	15:15:42	27.7336	-17.9956			2.3	mbLg	S FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165599	15/09/2012	14:54:17	27.7183	-17.9839	22		2.4	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165598	15/09/2012	14:44:11	27.7113	-17.9879	22		2.5	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165597	15/09/2012	14:26:19	27.7327	-18.0114	22		2.1	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165595	15/09/2012	14:22:12	27.7333	-18.0040	20		2.2	mbLg	S FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165587	15/09/2012	14:19:29	27.7227	-17.9957	20		2.4	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165581	15/09/2012	13:52:15	27.7227	-18.0020	22		2.1	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165580	15/09/2012	13:36:01	27.7339	-17.9987	20		2.6	mbLg	S FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165579	15/09/2012	13:31:25	27.7181	-17.9928	22		2.3	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165578	15/09/2012	13:29:02	27.7116	-17.9936	21		2.1	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165571	15/09/2012	13:17:11	27.7333	-17.9960	22		2.4	mbLg	S FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165570	15/09/2012	13:13:24	27.7197	-17.9803	24	III	3.2	mbLg	N EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165577	15/09/2012	12:57:32	27.7196	-18.0075	22		2.2	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165576	15/09/2012	12:50:08	27.7150	-18.0055	20		2.6	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165575	15/09/2012	12:32:14	27.6977	-18.0113	24		2.5	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165574	15/09/2012	12:26:57	27.7273	-18.0038	20		2.0	mbLg	S FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165573	15/09/2012	12:12:37	27.7003	-18.0126	22		2.8	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165572	15/09/2012	12:01:09	27.7102	-18.0211	22		2.1	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165568	15/09/2012	11:55:01	27.7321	-18.0138	22		2.0	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165566	15/09/2012	11:53:27	27.7282	-18.0076	22		2.1	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165564	15/09/2012	11:49:41	27.7354	-17.9986	20		2.1	mbLg	S FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165567	15/09/2012	11:39:51	27.7079	-18.0134	23	II	2.6	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165565	15/09/2012	11:39:30	27.7027	-17.9988	21		2.3	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165560	15/09/2012	10:52:45	27.7029	-18.0079	22	II	2.8	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165563	15/09/2012	10:44:02	27.7093	-18.0027	23		2.3	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165562	15/09/2012	10:43:28	27.7036	-17.9930			1.9	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165561	15/09/2012	10:42:54	27.7097	-17.9899	21		2.5	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165557	15/09/2012	10:36:03	27.7016	-18.0072	22		2.2	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165556	15/09/2012	10:29:50	27.6828	-18.0135			1.8	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165555	15/09/2012	10:26:33	27.7257	-18.0044	20		2.2	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165558	15/09/2012	10:23:11	27.7153	-17.9902	22		2.1	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165559	15/09/2012	09:48:19	27.7031	-18.0001	21	II	2.6	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165554	15/09/2012	09:32:00	27.6994	-17.9992	21	II	2.6	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165551	15/09/2012	09:08:28	27.7062	-18.0011	21	I-II	2.5	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165553	15/09/2012	08:48:42	27.7206	-18.0096	21		2.2	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165552	15/09/2012	08:48:20	27.7097	-18.0046	22		2.2	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165550	15/09/2012	08:42:18	27.7271	-18.0055	22		2.1	mbLg	S FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165549	15/09/2012	08:38:27	27.7224	-18.0019	19		1.9	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165539	15/09/2012	08:37:24	28.0807	-16.2922	30		2.5	mbLg	ATLÁNTICO-CANARIAS	[+]
1165548	15/09/2012	08:32:28	27.7196	-18.0177	21		2.3	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165547	15/09/2012	08:31:31	27.7233	-18.0099	21	II	2.6	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165546	15/09/2012	08:19:13	27.7132	-18.0097	21		2.7	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165545	15/09/2012	08:15:08	27.7212	-18.0099	23		2.0	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165544	15/09/2012	08:12:23	27.7255	-18.0159	22		1.7	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165543	15/09/2012	08:09:00	27.7213	-18.0087	19		2.0	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165538	15/09/2012	07:58:45	27.7357	-17.9949			2.0	mbLg	S FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165537	15/09/2012	07:54:03	27.7438	-17.9931			2.1	mbLg	SE FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165536	15/09/2012	07:43:20	27.7309	-18.0199	22		2.2	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165535	15/09/2012	07:27:16	27.7112	-18.0251	23		2.1	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165534	15/09/2012	07:21:59	27.7199	-18.0162	21		2.1	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165531	15/09/2012	07:15:31	27.7023	-18.0130			1.7	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165532	15/09/2012	07:09:22	27.7259	-18.0077	22		2.1	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165533	15/09/2012	07:04:17	27.7142	-18.0029	20		2.2	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165529	15/09/2012	06:55:24	27.7379	-18.0001	21		1.8	mbLg	S FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165528	15/09/2012	06:47:41	27.7321	-18.0188	21		2.2	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165526	15/09/2012	06:40:28	27.7360	-18.0115	22		2.1	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165527	15/09/2012	06:26:58	27.7231	-17.9987	21		2.8	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165530	15/09/2012	06:24:47	27.7233	-18.0037	20		2.5	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165525	15/09/2012	06:14:59	27.6951	-18.0285	21		2.6	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165522	15/09/2012	06:14:41	27.7204	-18.0133	20		2.4	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165523	15/09/2012	05:55:34	27.7145	-18.0433	23		2.1	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165524	15/09/2012	05:43:09	27.7276	-18.0045	20		1.9	mbLg	S FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165521	15/09/2012	05:36:13	27.7189	-18.0223	21		2.1	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165520	15/09/2012	05:25:51	27.7303	-18.0148	20		2.1	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165512	15/09/2012	05:16:46	27.7001	-18.0132			1.8	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165513	15/09/2012	05:10:11	27.7376	-18.0294	21		2.0	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165516	15/09/2012	05:09:39	27.7106	-18.0284	21		2.1	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165518	15/09/2012	05:04:04	27.6899	-18.0083			1.6	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165514	15/09/2012	04:57:42	27.7285	-18.0283	20		2.4	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165515	15/09/2012	04:56:58	27.7126	-18.0323	21		2.4	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165517	15/09/2012	04:55:55	27.7142	-18.0245	20		2.6	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165519	15/09/2012	04:43:20	27.7089	-18.0169	21		2.4	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165511	15/09/2012	04:37:00	27.7018	-18.0203	20		2.4	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165510	15/09/2012	04:25:25	27.7193	-18.0304	20		2.2	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165509	15/09/2012	04:24:38	27.7247	-18.0290	19		2.2	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165508	15/09/2012	04:20:34	27.7048	-18.0343	20		2.2	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165507	15/09/2012	04:14:56	27.6815	-18.0080			1.6	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165506	15/09/2012	04:09:18	27.6876	-18.0128			1.9	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165504	15/09/2012	04:05:17	27.7106	-18.0318	20		2.1	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165505	15/09/2012	04:02:55	27.7196	-18.0297	19		1.9	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165501	15/09/2012	03:50:39	27.6949	-18.0314	22		2.6	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165503	15/09/2012	03:48:41	27.7022	-18.0101	20		2.5	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165500	15/09/2012	03:38:21	27.7382	-18.0248	19		2.1	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165499	15/09/2012	03:37:17	27.7128	-18.0216	19		2.1	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165497	15/09/2012	03:28:03	27.7392	-17.9792	21		2.1	mbLg	SE FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165496	15/09/2012	03:03:32	27.7089	-18.0331	20		2.1	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165495	15/09/2012	02:52:58	27.7244	-18.0314	20		2.1	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165493	15/09/2012	02:39:28	27.7078	-18.0330	21		2.0	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165490	15/09/2012	02:34:46	27.7125	-18.0157	21		2.4	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165489	15/09/2012	02:25:50	27.7306	-18.0252	20		2.1	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165487	15/09/2012	02:16:36	27.7302	-18.0327	18		2.7	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165485	15/09/2012	02:10:13	27.7045	-18.0228	19		2.5	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165484	15/09/2012	02:05:06	27.7225	-18.0319	20		2.3	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165486	15/09/2012	01:59:36	27.7229	-18.0281	19		2.8	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165488	15/09/2012	01:59:14	27.7122	-18.0280	19		2.7	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165483	15/09/2012	01:42:49	27.7179	-18.0159	20		2.5	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165491	15/09/2012	01:33:07	27.6947	-18.0094	26		1.9	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165482	15/09/2012	01:29:37	27.7156	-18.0185	20		2.8	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165492	15/09/2012	01:28:40	27.7041	-17.9967	24		2.6	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165494	15/09/2012	01:25:45	27.7136	-18.0008	21		2.0	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165481	15/09/2012	01:11:11	27.7057	-18.0019	21		2.3	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165480	15/09/2012	01:03:47	27.7021	-18.0110	21		2.4	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165479	15/09/2012	00:51:20	27.7201	-18.0159	22		2.0	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165478	15/09/2012	00:43:38	27.7143	-18.0184	22		2.1	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165477	15/09/2012	00:42:02	27.7070	-18.0099	22		2.2	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165476	15/09/2012	00:39:38	27.6927	-18.0299	21		2.4	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165475	15/09/2012	00:35:53	27.6861	-18.0442	21		2.1	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165473	15/09/2012	00:31:16	27.7071	-18.0174	23		2.1	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165472	15/09/2012	00:29:38	27.7209	-18.0071	20		1.9	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165470	15/09/2012	00:22:09	27.7090	-18.0152	22		1.8	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165466	15/09/2012	00:17:47	27.7006	-17.9878	21		1.6	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165463	15/09/2012	00:02:54	27.7214	-18.0159	21		1.9	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165464	14/09/2012	23:39:20	27.7126	-18.0031	20	II	3.1	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165467	14/09/2012	23:33:33	27.7066	-17.9947	22		2.8	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165468	14/09/2012	23:33:03	27.7162	-18.0187	19		2.5	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165469	14/09/2012	23:31:49	27.7295	-18.0147	23		2.4	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165471	14/09/2012	23:26:16	27.7210	-18.0317	22		2.2	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165474	14/09/2012	23:22:47	27.7154	-18.0056	22		1.9	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165462	14/09/2012	22:38:49	27.6969	-17.9992	21		1.9	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165461	14/09/2012	22:27:57	27.7043	-17.9856	22		2.1	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165460	14/09/2012	22:20:23	27.6989	-18.0068	22		2.1	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165456	14/09/2012	22:04:47	27.6987	-17.9984	21		2.4	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165457	14/09/2012	21:58:59	27.7032	-18.0213	20		2.2	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165459	14/09/2012	21:48:03	27.7100	-18.0073	21		2.2	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165455	14/09/2012	21:43:23	27.7127	-18.0137	22		2.1	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165449	14/09/2012	21:42:48	27.7175	-18.0298	21		2.2	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165448	14/09/2012	21:36:03	27.7021	-18.0163	22		2.0	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165447	14/09/2012	21:29:45	27.7084	-18.0258	22		2.3	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165444	14/09/2012	21:14:25	27.7229	-18.0312	21		1.9	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165446	14/09/2012	21:14:01	27.6923	-18.0167	22		2.0	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165442	14/09/2012	21:11:51	27.7018	-18.0388	20		2.1	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165439	14/09/2012	21:07:46	27.7260	-18.0196	21		2.0	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165437	14/09/2012	21:01:50	27.6922	-18.0284	21		2.2	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165434	14/09/2012	20:57:44	27.6934	-18.0167	22		1.9	mbLg	SW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165445	14/09/2012	20:37:24	27.7508	-18.0142	24		2.2	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165443	14/09/2012	20:29:03	27.7553	-18.0036	23		2.0	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165441	14/09/2012	20:24:29	27.7308	-17.9943	21		1.7	mbLg	S FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165440	14/09/2012	20:22:26	27.7107	-18.0101	21		1.9	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165438	14/09/2012	20:16:37	27.7944	-17.9561	17		1.9	mbLg	SW VALVERDE.IHI	[+]
1165436	14/09/2012	20:13:52	27.7246	-18.0102	20		2.1	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165435	14/09/2012	20:10:47	27.7404	-18.0094	19		2.2	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165433	14/09/2012	20:09:02	27.7348	-18.0133	19		1.8	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165432	14/09/2012	20:01:01	27.7339	-18.0247	18		2.3	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165430	14/09/2012	20:00:26	27.7100	-18.0146	21		2.1	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165429	14/09/2012	19:49:44	27.7355	-18.0094	20		2.5	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165428	14/09/2012	19:46:54	27.7202	-18.0134	19		2.3	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165427	14/09/2012	19:34:42	27.7145	-18.0362	18		2.8	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165426	14/09/2012	19:32:39	27.7127	-18.0069	21		2.1	mbLg	W EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165425	14/09/2012	19:30:31	27.7348	-18.0194	19		2.0	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165424	14/09/2012	19:23:01	27.7242	-18.0050	20		2.0	mbLg	NW EL PINAR.IHI	[+]
1165423	14/09/2012	18:29:12	27.7410	-18.0209	22		2.4	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165422	14/09/2012	18:10:10	27.7447	-18.0523	19		1.6	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165421	14/09/2012	18:04:30	27.7565	-18.0395	18		1.6	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165419	14/09/2012	17:43:17	27.7540	-18.0376	19		1.6	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165418	14/09/2012	16:46:11	27.7391	-18.0541	19		1.9	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165417	14/09/2012	16:29:04	27.7451	-18.0261	18		1.8	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165416	14/09/2012	16:24:10	27.7495	-18.0358	18		1.7	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165415	14/09/2012	16:19:08	27.7745	-18.0849	10		2.4	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165414	14/09/2012	15:59:03	27.7642	-18.0287	18		1.6	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165413	14/09/2012	15:38:37	27.7423	-18.0396	18		1.8	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165411	14/09/2012	15:05:17	27.7575	-18.0292	18		1.8	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165410	14/09/2012	14:36:54	27.7585	-18.0390	17		1.9	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165409	14/09/2012	14:14:16	27.7372	-18.0452	19		2.0	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165406	14/09/2012	13:43:37	27.7520	-18.0350	19		2.2	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165403	14/09/2012	13:03:45	27.7397	-18.0385	18		1.9	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165402	14/09/2012	13:01:28	27.7417	-18.0469	18		2.0	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165401	14/09/2012	12:43:55	27.7466	-18.0383	17		2.2	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165400	14/09/2012	12:15:03	27.7557	-18.0347	17		2.1	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165364	14/09/2012	11:04:51	27.7509	-18.0232	19		2.3	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165349	14/09/2012	10:36:55	27.7235	-18.0362	18		1.6	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165346	14/09/2012	10:32:26	27.7627	-18.0832	10		1.7	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165347	14/09/2012	10:30:58	27.7429	-18.0346	19		1.6	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165344	14/09/2012	10:26:33	27.7654	-18.0815	10	II	2.6	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165345	14/09/2012	10:10:30	27.7449	-18.0299	20		2.4	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165348	14/09/2012	10:10:16	27.7510	-18.0335	20		2.2	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165335	14/09/2012	09:55:03	27.7879	-18.0844	8		1.5	mbLg	NW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165330	14/09/2012	09:05:29	27.7709	-18.0838	10		1.9	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165328	14/09/2012	08:59:52	27.7708	-18.0873	11		2.0	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165223	13/09/2012	03:05:16	27.7663	-18.0873	11		2.2	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165027	12/09/2012	03:26:01	27.7183	-18.0725	19		1.9	mbLg	SW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1165014	12/09/2012	02:53:40	27.7716	-18.0928	11		2.0	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1164986	11/09/2012	14:58:39	27.7914	-18.0918	11		1.9	mbLg	NW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1164985	11/09/2012	14:56:54	27.7630	-18.0891	11		1.7	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1164983	11/09/2012	14:50:53	27.7347	-18.0964	20		1.8	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1164978	11/09/2012	14:42:27	27.7694	-18.0891	11		1.8	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1164973	11/09/2012	14:34:18	27.7661	-18.0953	11		1.7	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1164906	11/09/2012	10:16:16	27.7629	-18.0885	11		2.0	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1164782	10/09/2012	23:31:00	27.7863	-18.0837	9		1.6	mbLg	NW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1164781	10/09/2012	23:29:35	27.7740	-18.0908	11		1.7	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1164779	10/09/2012	21:48:19	28.2752	-16.4932			1.6	mbLg	NW FASNIA.ITF	[+]
1164765	10/09/2012	20:36:31	27.7943	-18.1043	10		1.6	mbLg	NW FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1164731	10/09/2012	12:39:54	27.7613	-18.0849	10		2.1	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1164730	10/09/2012	12:13:46	27.7662	-18.0870	10		2.1	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]
1164517	08/09/2012	23:12:07	27.7603	-18.0817	11		1.7	mbLg	W FRONTERA.IHI	[+]

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Volcanic Activity

Spain’s El Hierro Island Volcano Starts Erupting

Photo: Underwater Volcano on El Hierro Island erupts

Click Here to Enlarge Photo

Volcanic activity on Spain’s El Hierro island has resumed far below the Earth’s surface in a similar manner to last July, albeit slightly stronger, the director of the National Geographic Institute, or IGN, in the Canary Islands, Maria Jose Blanco, told Efe on Sunday.

Blanco said that a peak of seismic activity is under way, a continuation of the volcanic process – a shifting of magma many kilometers (miles) under ground – that began in July 2011 which, although the main activity ended at the time with an undersea eruption, that did not mean that the overall activity had come to a definitive conclusion.

The IGN official said that at present it is not expected that the seismic movements that have been registered – which have occurred at depths of some 20 kilometers (about 12.5 miles) – exceed 3.2 on the Richter scale, a fairly low level.

Blanco could not specify how long this new round of activity would last, although she did say that seismic peaks like the current one would, in all likelihood, continue to occur.

Therefore, she said, the IGN is studying the idea of convening the scientific committee of the Civil Protection Plan for Volcanic Risk in the Canaries after this reactivation in the depths of the El Hierro volcano, where over the past three days more than 330 minor seismic movements have been registered.

Officials with the regional government of the Canaries told Efe that experts had verified “an acceleration of released seismic energy accompanied by deformations” in underground structures.

For the present, the largest movement registered so far was the one measured at 3.2 on the Richter scale, which was felt on Saturday for some 13 hours and 15 minutes by the residents of the municipality of El Pinar, according to IGN data.

Volcanic activity world-wide 16 September 2012: Popocatepetl, El Hierro, Fuego, Santiaguito, San Cristobal, Santiaguito, Little Sitkin, Manam, Batu Tara, Sakura-jima

BY: T

A slight increase of activity can be noted at Popocatépetl volcano in Mexico. The frequency of explosions has increased to more than 1 per hour, i.e. doubled when compared to last week.
The more energetic explosions produced small ash plumes rising up to 1 km. Episodes of volcanic tremor occurred as well, CENAPRED writes.

The new seismic swarm at El Hierro continues with hundreds of small quakes per day concentrated at about 20 km depth in the south-central part of the island near El Pinar. Pulses of tremor and a slight inflation are visible as well, but for now, it seems that magma is not moving much.

San Cristobal volcano had a small explosion yesterday at 8:17 am local time. Recent measurements showed an increase of SO2 emissions to 2,490 tons per day, i.e. almost double than before. Also, seismic tremor increased in the evening of 15 Sep.

Fuego volcano, Guatemala: Activity remains at normal levels with sporadic weak to moderate explosions with ash rising 400-800 meters and some rumbling sounds. The lava flow to the Taniluya canyon has apparently decreased a lot, as INSIVUMEH reported it to be only 50 m long yesterday.

Santiaguito volcano continues to have occasional explosions ejecting ash columns to 500 meters height, which spread west and northwest over the region of the villages of El Rosario and San Marcos, Palajunoj. There is constant activity in the 4 active lava flows, generating avalanches of blocks deposited within the river banks Nima Nima I and II.

Most other volcanoes in Central and Southern America have not shown any significantly unusual behavior.

Satellite observations:
Batu Tara had its daily explosion to send ash to about 7,000 ft altitude, VAAC Darwin reports.

A strong SO2 plume was visible from Manam volcano (PNG) today, suggesting that there is heightened activity or an eruption.

Sakurajima volcano seems to be having a break from its relatively strong phase over the past days. There was only one probably weak explosion reported during the past 24 hours.

Mount Gamalama spews volcanic ashes

The Jakarta Post | Archipelago

Mount Gamalama in Ternate, North Maluku, spewed out volcanic ash on Sunday, showering some parts of the provincial capital that is currently hosting an international sailing event: Sail Morotai 2012.

Guests of Corner Palace Hotel panicked when a rain of ash fell for about 15 minutes.

Matut, 48, a local resident, said ash also rained down on Saturday night at 11 p.m. until the small hours of Sunday morning, Antara news agency reported.

Volcanic ash mostly blanketed the eastern and southern parts of Ternate, the capital of North Maluku province.

On May 9, a flood of cold lava from Mount Gamalama also hit some areas in the city, claiming the lives of three residents.

Two Indonesian Volcanoes Awaken, Rattling Nerves

Ismira Lutfia |

Smoke and ash billow from North Maluku’s Gamalama on Sunday. (Antara Photo/Rosa Panggabean)

Two of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes erupted on Saturday, prompting the government to issue warnings to populations living near the affected mountains.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said on Sunday that new eruption started at Lokon in North Sulawesi and Gamalama at Ternate in North Maluku.

Lokon generated a 1,500-meter high ash plume and violent strombolian (low-level) activity with some lava flow, while Gamalama produced a shower of ashes that covered the nearby city.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for BNPB, said on Sunday that Lokon, located in North Sulawesi’s Tomohon area, erupted at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

The explosion from the eruption shattered windows of the command post built to monitor the activities of the volcano, he said.

The agency, Sutopo said, had issued warnings to local administrations to prepare precautionary measures, and called on people to remain alert.

“The residents don’t have to be evacuated but they must not do any activities within the range of five kilometers from the volcano,” Sutopo said.

He said that the BNPB had asked the Tomohon administration to raise the awareness of residents.

Meanwhile, the Gamalama spurt sent ashes into the air for about 15 minutes at 11 p.m., before the wind carried the ashes toward the North Maluku capital of Ternate. “The ashes came down on the city, decreasing visibility to only 50 meters,” Sutopo said.

He said BNPB’s local branch went to the affected area and set up four stations to help people in the event of a larger eruption. “Here also, we don’t see any need to evacuate people. But we will stay on high alert,” the official said.

Lokon has erupted several times previously, with an explosion in July 2011 forcing more than 5,200 people to be evacuated.

The eruption created huge clouds of ash as high as 3,500 meters.

Lokon’s last deadly eruption was in 1991, when a Swiss tourist was killed.

Last December, Gamalama erupted, resulting in four villagers being killed and dozens others being hospitalized. About 1,000 residents were forced to evacuate.

The Indonesian archipelago has dozens of active volcanoes and straddles major tectonic fault lines known as the “Ring of Fire” between the Pacific and Indian oceans.

Earlier this month, there was volcanic activity at Lampung’s Anak Krakatau.

Related articles

Indonesian Vulcanology Office Issues Warning for Tangkuban Perahu 9:15pm Sep 6, 2012

Taking the Water, With a Side of Eggs, at Bandung’s Tangkuban Perahu 8:03pm Jul 25, 2012

Gede and Pangrango Mountains Closed to Trekkers for August: Officials 1:15pm Jul 20, 2012

Breathing Problems Hit Sirung Evacuees 4:05pm May 23, 2012

Sumatra’s Mount Marapi Has Minor Eruption 9:16am May 18, 2012

16.09.2012

Volcano Eruption

Nicaragua

Chinandega Department, [ San Cristobal volcano]

Volcano Eruption in Nicaragua on Saturday, 08 September, 2012 at 18:12 (06:12 PM) UTC.

Back

Updated:	Sunday, 16 September, 2012 at 03:26 UTC
Description
Nicaragua boosted its responses to volcanic activity in the northwestern region Saturday, as the San Cristobal volcano acted up for the second time in a week. Authorities installed 43 radio communication stations along the Pacific coast to monitor San Cristobal and another volcano, Telica. The radio posts aim to “ensure improved monitoring of seismic and volcanic behavior in the area,” said civil defense chief Colonel Nestor Solis, enabling authorities to issue more accurate warnings sooner. A number of towns near San Cristobal, located some 135 kilometers (83 miles) northwest of the capital, were evacuated last week after the volcano began rumbling, sending a column of smoke and ash high into the sky, before subsiding. On Saturday, the 1,745-meter (5,725-foot) tall volcano again spewed “abundant gas emissions moving toward the northeast” and increased seismic tremor and sulfur concentrations, according to the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies, or INETER. Sulfur dioxide monitoring showed levels of the compound — considered a measure of volcanic activity — were nearly double the readings from previous days, said the director of national disaster prevention and relief agency SINAPRED, Guillermo Gonzalez.

17.09.2012

Volcano Activity

Philippines

Island of Luzon, [Taal Volcano]

Volcano Activity in Philippines on Monday, 17 September, 2012 at 12:02 (12:02 PM) UTC.

Description

Taal volcano’s seismic network detected one volcanic earthquake during the past 24-hour observation period. Steaming activity and crater glow could not be observed due to thick clouds covering the volcano’s summit the whole day yesterday up to this morning,

17.09.2012

Volcano Activity

Philippines

Province of Albay, [Mayon Volcano]

Volcano Activity in Philippines on Monday, 17 September, 2012 at 12:00 (12:00 PM) UTC.

Description

Mayon Volcano’s seismic network detected one volcanic earthquake during the past 24-hour observation period. Steaming activity and crater glow could not be observed due to thick clouds covering the volcano’s summit the whole day yesterday up to this morning,

17.09.2012

Volcano Eruption

Indonesia

Ternate Island, [Mount Gamalama Volcano]

Volcano Eruption in Indonesia on Monday, 17 September, 2012 at 05:59 (05:59 AM) UTC.

Description

A volcano has erupted in eastern Indonesia, spewing clouds of thick, gray ash. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. State volcanologist Kristianto says Mount Gamalama in the Molucca Islands sprang to life last week. It unleashed two strong eruptions over the weekend, sending volcanic ash as high as 1 kilometer (0.62 miles). Kristianto, who uses only one name, says slow-moving red lava was visible at the peak of the eruption Monday. Villages have been blanketed with thick ash but no evacuations have been ordered. Gamalama last erupted late last year, and its mudflows killed four villagers two weeks later. Indonesia is a vast archipelago with millions of people living on mountains or near fertile flood plains. Seasonal downpours here often cause landslides.

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Storms / Flooding

Active tropical storm system(s)
Name of storm system	Location	Formed	Last update	Last category	Course	Wind Speed	Gust	Wave	Source	Details
Nadine (AL14)	Atlantic Ocean	11.09.2012	18.09.2012	Tropical Depression	45 °	93 km/h	111 km/h	4.27 m	NOAA NHC

  Tropical Storm data

Share: Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 2 Storm name: Nadine (AL14) Area: Atlantic Ocean Start up location: N 16° 18.000, W 43° 6.000 Start up: 11th September 2012 Status: Active Track long: 1,373.91 km Top category.: Report by: NOAA NHC Useful links: Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale FEMA – How To Prepare for a Hurricane Effects of a Hurricane USA – National Hurricane Center

Past track Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave Pressure Source 12th Sep 2012 05:01:17 N 17° 48.000, W 45° 12.000 24 65 83 Tropical Storm 300 13 1004 MB NOAA NHC 12th Sep 2012 10:46:22 N 18° 36.000, W 46° 36.000 28 74 93 Tropical Storm 300 15 1001 MB NOAA NHC 13th Sep 2012 05:34:52 N 20° 42.000, W 50° 6.000 26 111 139 Tropical Storm 305 17 990 MB NOAA NHC 13th Sep 2012 11:12:43 N 21° 30.000, W 51° 18.000 26 111 139 Tropical Storm 305 17 990 MB NOAA NHC 14th Sep 2012 05:11:31 N 25° 0.000, W 53° 42.000 24 111 139 Tropical Storm 330 17 989 MB NOAA NHC 15th Sep 2012 06:55:17 N 30° 0.000, W 52° 48.000 22 120 148 Hurricane I. 25 17 985 MB NOAA NHC 15th Sep 2012 10:59:20 N 30° 42.000, W 51° 24.000 24 120 148 Hurricane I. 50 13 985 MB NOAA NHC 16th Sep 2012 05:13:53 N 30° 36.000, W 46° 36.000 28 130 157 Hurricane I. 95 15 983 MB NOAA NHC 17th Sep 2012 05:22:55 N 31° 24.000, W 38° 6.000 30 111 139 Tropical Storm 75 16 987 MB NOAA NHC 17th Sep 2012 10:47:47 N 32° 0.000, W 36° 24.000 28 111 139 Tropical Storm 65 15 985 MB NOAA NHC Current position Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave feet Pressure Source 18th Sep 2012 10:46:51 N 34° 18.000, W 33° 36.000 13 93 111 Tropical Depression 45 ° 14 990 MB NOAA NHC Forecast track Date Time Position Category Wind km/h Gust km/h Source 19th Sep 2012 12:00:00 N 36° 54.000, W 32° 54.000 Tropical Depression 93 111 NOAA NHC 19th Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 35° 54.000, W 32° 54.000 Tropical Depression 93 111 NOAA NHC 20th Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 37° 12.000, W 32° 36.000 Tropical Depression 93 111 NOAA NHC 21st Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 36° 42.000, W 30° 30.000 Tropical Depression 93 111 NOAA NHC 22nd Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 35° 0.000, W 30° 30.000 Tropical Depression 93 111 NOAA NHC 23rd Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 32° 0.000, W 32° 0.000 Tropical Depression 93 111 NOAA NHC

Lane (EP12)

Pacific Ocean – East

15.09.2012

18.09.2012

Hurricane I

330 °

120 km/h

148 km/h

5.49 m

NOAA NHC

  Tropical Storm data

Share: Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 0 Storm name: Lane (EP12) Area: Pacific Ocean – East Start up location: N 14° 0.000, W 123° 30.000 Start up: 15th September 2012 Status: Active Track long: 403.34 km Top category.: Report by: NOAA NHC Useful links: Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale FEMA – How To Prepare for a Hurricane Effects of a Hurricane USA – National Hurricane Center

Past track Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave Pressure Source 16th Sep 2012 05:13:14 N 13° 18.000, W 124° 6.000 11 65 83 Tropical Storm 280 16 1003 MB NOAA NHC 17th Sep 2012 05:21:23 N 15° 0.000, W 125° 48.000 15 111 139 Tropical Storm 320 18 995 MB NOAA NHC 17th Sep 2012 10:50:02 N 15° 54.000, W 126° 6.000 15 120 148 Hurricane I. 335 16 993 MB NOAA NHC Current position Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave feet Pressure Source 18th Sep 2012 10:47:17 N 19° 18.000, W 127° 48.000 15 120 148 Hurricane I 330 ° 18 989 MB NOAA NHC Forecast track Date Time Position Category Wind km/h Gust km/h Source 19th Sep 2012 12:00:00 N 21° 18.000, W 130° 24.000 Tropical Depression 65 83 NOAA NHC 19th Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 20° 36.000, W 129° 18.000 Tropical Depression 93 111 NOAA NHC 20th Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 21° 24.000, W 131° 42.000 Tropical Depression 56 74 NOAA NHC 21st Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 20° 30.000, W 135° 30.000 Tropical Depression 46 65 NOAA NHC 22nd Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 19° 30.000, W 140° 30.000 Tropical Depression 37 56 NOAA NHC

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Radiation /Nuclear

17.09.2012

Nuclear Event

USA

State of New Hampshire, [Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant]

Nuclear Event in USA on Monday, 17 September, 2012 at 19:11 (07:11 PM) UTC.

Description

[This event happened on friday, 14.09.2012] The nuclear reactor at Seabrook Station has been powered down since Friday evening, when a water intake valve was jammed closed by a computer glitch, according to an announcement by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Water sank to a “low low level” inside one of Seabrook Station’s four steam generators on Friday, Sept. 14, after the valve problem occurred, according to an NRC inspector who was called to the scene. The low water level tripped an automatic shutdown of the reactor at approximately 8:25 p.m. The NRC inspector’s report indicates a computer card controlling the feedwater regulator valve failed. All other systems performed as expected after the reactor process stopped, according to the NRC inspector’s report. “One of our resident inspectors assigned to Seabrook traveled to the site Friday night to independently verify that the shutdown was being safely and effectively carried out and did not identify any concerns,” NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan wrote in an email announcement Monday. A report created by the NRC inspector indicates “emergency feedwater” was “actuated” because of low water levels in the steam generator. Al Griffith, a spokesman for the operators of Seabrook Station, Next Era Energy, said the plant was scheduled to power down on Sunday for a “refueling outage.” The event on Friday led them to begin the refueling outage early, he said. “Because we were entering a refueling outage anyway, we’ll keep the plant down,” Griffith said.

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Epidemic Hazards / Disease

17.09.2012

Epidemic Hazard

Ghana

Volta Region, [Akatsi District]

Epidemic Hazard in Ghana on Monday, 17 September, 2012 at 12:24 (12:24 PM) UTC.

Description
Six people have died from the cholera outbreak in parts of the Volta Region. Five of the deaths were recorded in Akatsi South while the sixth death was recorded in Adidome in the Central Tongu District. Four Electoral Areas in the Akatsi District are all battling with the disease.The Assemblyman for the Wute Electoral Area, Sammy Wuadi, said the cholera outbreak did not come as a surprise and that the people are being conscientised to keep their surroundings clean. According to Mr Wuadi, the situation is gradually abating following the strategies put in place by the Environmental Health Directorate to forestall the spread. A Senior Environmental Health Assistant in the Akatsi South District, Ms Akua Dzaka also stated that residents are being advised to desist from drinking from the Tordji River which is believed to have been contaminated. “We suspect that that is the source of the cholera outbreak and we are also educating them to take good care of the food that they eat,” she said.
Biohazard name:	Cholera
Biohazard level:	2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:	Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
Symptoms:
Status:	confirmed

17.09.2012

Epidemic Hazard

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Province of Orientale, [Haut Uele District]

Epidemic Hazard in Democratic Republic of the Congo on Friday, 17 August, 2012 at 03:03 (03:03 AM) UTC.

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Updated:	Monday, 17 September, 2012 at 03:01 UTC
Description
The Ebola virus has taken the Congo by storm, killing 31 people in the northeast part of the country. Another 38 people have the disease, sending alarm bells off in the World Health Organization. The total number dead has doubled over the past week, and workers are worried that having traditional funerals might increase the spread of the disease among those in attendance. There is no cure for Ebola and the disease kills 40 to 90 percent of those infected. It is also painful, leading to severe internal bleeding.

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Solar Activity

2MIN News Sept 17. 2012

Published on Sep 17, 2012 by Suspicious0bservers

2012 Pole Shift Video: http://youtu.be/uI10tKuLtFU

TODAY’S LINKS
Pole shift video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2yl3R54r3w [MrMaverickstar]
Fading magnetic field Intensity: http://wdc.kugi.kyoto-u.ac.jp/igrf/anime/index.html
S Pole Shift: http://wdc.kugi.kyoto-u.ac.jp/poles/figs/pole_ss.gif
N Pole Shift: http://wdc.kugi.kyoto-u.ac.jp/poles/figs/pole_ns.gif
Japan/China Conflict: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/17/us-china-japan-idUSBRE88F00H20120917
Coral In trouble: http://phys.org/news/2012-09-coral-reefs-climate-drastically-limited.html

REPEAT LINKS
Spaceweather: http://spaceweather.com/ [Look on the left at the X-ray Flux and Solar Wind Speed/Density]

HAARP: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/data.html [Click online data, and have a little fun]

SDO: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ [Place to find Solar Images and Videos – as seen from earth]

SOHO: http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater [SOHO; Lasco and EIT – as seen from earth]

Stereo: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/images [Stereo; Cor, EUVI, HI – as seen from the side]

SunAEON:http://www.sunaeon.com/#/solarsystem/ [Just click it… trust me]

SOLARIMG: http://solarimg.org/artis/ [All purpose data viewing site]

iSWA: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/iswa/iSWA.html [Free Application; for advanced sun watchers]

NASA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov:8080/IswaSystemWebApp/iSWACygnetStreamer?timestamp=…
NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/

US Wind Map: http://hint.fm/wind/

NOAA Bouys: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory: http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/Default.php

RSOE: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php [That cool alert map I use]

GOES Xray: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sxi/goes15/index.html

JAPAN Radiation Map: http://jciv.iidj.net/map/

LISS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/operations/heliplots_gsn.php

Gamma Ray Bursts: http://grb.sonoma.edu/ [Really? You can’t figure out what this one is for?]

BARTOL Cosmic Rays: http://neutronm.bartol.udel.edu//spaceweather/welcome.html [Top left box, look for BIG blue circles]

TORCON: http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-torcon-index [Tornado Forecast for the day]

GOES Weather: http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/ [Clouds over America]

RAIN RECORDS: http://www.cocorahs.org/ViewData/ListIntensePrecipReports.aspx

EL DORADO WORLD WEATHER MAP: http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/satellite/ssec/world/world-composite-ir-…

PRESSURE MAP: http://www.woweather.com/cgi-bin/expertcharts?LANG=us&MENU=0000000000&…

HURRICANE TRACKER: http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/tracker

INTELLICAST: http://www.intellicast.com/ [Weather site used by many youtubers]

NASA News: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/

PHYSORG: http://phys.org/ [GREAT News Site!]

QUAKES LIST FULL: http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/seismologist.php

2MIN News Sept 16. 2012

Published on Sep 16, 2012 by Suspicious0bservers

2012 Explanation Video: http://youtu.be/uI10tKuLtFU

TODAY’S LINKS
Sanba Waves: http://www.weather.com/weather/videos/news-41/top-stories-169/raw-big-waves-f…
Aussie Beach Drones: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-16/aerial-drones-to-patrol-queensland-beac…
Australian Islam Protests: http://www.news.com.au/national/police-use-pepper-spray-on-anti-islamic-film-…
Ceres JL: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=CERES;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0#orb
Planck’s Law: http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2012/sep/14/plancks-law-violated-at-…
Visible on Stereo: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/beacon/planets/

REPEAT LINKS
Spaceweather: http://spaceweather.com/ [Look on the left at the X-ray Flux and Solar Wind Speed/Density]

HAARP: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/data.html [Click online data, and have a little fun]

SDO: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ [Place to find Solar Images and Videos – as seen from earth]

SOHO: http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater [SOHO; Lasco and EIT – as seen from earth]

Stereo: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/images [Stereo; Cor, EUVI, HI – as seen from the side]

SunAEON:http://www.sunaeon.com/#/solarsystem/ [Just click it… trust me]

SOLARIMG: http://solarimg.org/artis/ [All purpose data viewing site]

iSWA: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/iswa/iSWA.html [Free Application; for advanced sun watchers]

NASA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov:8080/IswaSystemWebApp/iSWACygnetStreamer?timestamp=…
NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/

US Wind Map: http://hint.fm/wind/

NOAA Bouys: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory: http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/Default.php

RSOE: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php [That cool alert map I use]

GOES Xray: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sxi/goes15/index.html

JAPAN Radiation Map: http://jciv.iidj.net/map/

LISS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/operations/heliplots_gsn.php

Gamma Ray Bursts: http://grb.sonoma.edu/ [Really? You can’t figure out what this one is for?]

BARTOL Cosmic Rays: http://neutronm.bartol.udel.edu//spaceweather/welcome.html [Top left box, look for BIG blue circles]

TORCON: http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-torcon-index [Tornado Forecast for the day]

GOES Weather: http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/ [Clouds over America]

RAIN RECORDS: http://www.cocorahs.org/ViewData/ListIntensePrecipReports.aspx

EL DORADO WORLD WEATHER MAP: http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/satellite/ssec/world/world-composite-ir-…

PRESSURE MAP: http://www.woweather.com/cgi-bin/expertcharts?LANG=us&MENU=0000000000&…

HURRICANE TRACKER: http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/tracker

INTELLICAST: http://www.intellicast.com/ [Weather site used by many youtubers]

NASA News: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/

PHYSORG: http://phys.org/ [GREAT News Site!]

QUAKES LIST FULL: http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/seismologist.php

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Space

Earth approaching objects (objects that are known in the next 30 days)
Object Name	Apporach Date	Left	AU Distance	LD Distance	Estimated Diameter*	Relative Velocity
(2012 FC71)	18th September 2012	0 day(s)	0.1074	41.8	24 m – 53 m	3.51 km/s	12636 km/h
(1998 FF14)	19th September 2012	1 day(s)	0.0928	36.1	210 m – 480 m	21.40 km/s	77040 km/h
331990 (2005 FD)	19th September 2012	1 day(s)	0.1914	74.5	320 m – 710 m	15.92 km/s	57312 km/h
(2009 SH2)	24th September 2012	6 day(s)	0.1462	56.9	28 m – 62 m	7.52 km/s	27072 km/h
333578 (2006 KM103)	25th September 2012	7 day(s)	0.0626	24.4	250 m – 560 m	8.54 km/s	30744 km/h
(2002 EZ2)	26th September 2012	8 day(s)	0.1922	74.8	270 m – 610 m	6.76 km/s	24336 km/h
(2009 SB170)	29th September 2012	11 day(s)	0.1789	69.6	200 m – 440 m	32.39 km/s	116604 km/h
(2011 OJ45)	29th September 2012	11 day(s)	0.1339	52.1	18 m – 39 m	4.24 km/s	15264 km/h
(2012 JS11)	30th September 2012	12 day(s)	0.0712	27.7	270 m – 600 m	12.60 km/s	45360 km/h
137032 (1998 UO1)	04th October 2012	16 day(s)	0.1545	60.1	1.3 km – 2.9 km	32.90 km/s	118440 km/h
(2012 GV11)	05th October 2012	17 day(s)	0.1830	71.2	100 m – 230 m	6.96 km/s	25056 km/h
(2009 XZ1)	05th October 2012	17 day(s)	0.1382	53.8	120 m – 280 m	16.87 km/s	60732 km/h
(2006 TD)	06th October 2012	18 day(s)	0.1746	68.0	88 m – 200 m	13.03 km/s	46908 km/h
(2009 TK)	06th October 2012	18 day(s)	0.0450	17.5	100 m – 230 m	11.10 km/s	39960 km/h
(2004 UB)	08th October 2012	20 day(s)	0.1995	77.6	240 m – 530 m	14.65 km/s	52740 km/h
277830 (2006 HR29)	11th October 2012	23 day(s)	0.1917	74.6	190 m – 440 m	7.88 km/s	28368 km/h
(2008 BW2)	11th October 2012	23 day(s)	0.1678	65.3	3.1 m – 6.8 m	11.10 km/s	39960 km/h
(2005 GQ21)	12th October 2012	24 day(s)	0.1980	77.0	620 m – 1.4 km	23.86 km/s	85896 km/h
(2012 GV17)	12th October 2012	24 day(s)	0.1500	58.4	160 m – 370 m	16.11 km/s	57996 km/h
256004 (2006 UP)	14th October 2012	26 day(s)	0.1374	53.5	65 m – 140 m	3.06 km/s	11016 km/h
(2005 ST1)	14th October 2012	26 day(s)	0.1319	51.3	230 m – 510 m	12.88 km/s	46368 km/h
(2011 OB57)	14th October 2012	26 day(s)	0.1553	60.4	17 m – 37 m	4.95 km/s	17820 km/h
(2012 KB4)	14th October 2012	26 day(s)	0.1271	49.4	22 m – 49 m	4.98 km/s	17928 km/h
(2004 RX10)	15th October 2012	27 day(s)	0.0819	31.9	150 m – 340 m	11.86 km/s	42696 km/h
(2006 WV1)	15th October 2012	27 day(s)	0.0910	35.4	17 m – 39 m	6.15 km/s	22140 km/h
(2012 LA)	16th October 2012	28 day(s)	0.0449	17.5	8.3 m – 19 m	1.86 km/s	6696 km/h
329275 (1999 VP6)	17th October 2012	29 day(s)	0.1766	68.7	300 m – 670 m	7.15 km/s	25740 km/h
1 AU = ~150 million kilometers,1 LD = Lunar Distance = ~384,000 kilometers Source: NASA-NEO

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Biological Hazards / Wildlife/ Hazmat

17.09.2012

Biological Hazard

USA

State of Colorado, Colorado Springs [East of Powers Boulevard, El Paso County]

Biological Hazard in USA on Saturday, 15 September, 2012 at 04:43 (04:43 AM) UTC.

Back

Updated:	Monday, 17 September, 2012 at 03:01 UTC
Description
El Paso County health officials announced Friday, September 14, that a wild rabbit found on the northeast side of Colorado Springs has been laboratory-confirmed positive for Yersinia pestis, the cause of plague. This comes on the heels of a Pagosa Springs girl who contracted the plague and recovered from the disease. El Paso County’s last reported human case occurred in 1991. An El Paso County Public Health news release Friday says the animal was found is East of Powers Boulevard near the St. Francis Medical Center/Hospital. Of utmost importance is the risk to the human population in the area. Infectious disease experts are conducting an investigation to determine potential human exposures and to assess the general area for additional plague concerns. The people exposed have been identified and have been given preventive antibiotics to prevent plague from developing.

17.09.2012

Biological Hazard

India

State of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad

Biological Hazard in India on Thursday, 13 September, 2012 at 03:25 (03:25 AM) UTC.

Back

Updated:	Monday, 17 September, 2012 at 03:18 UTC
Description
A rare disease suspected to be of ‘scrub typhus’ has claimed 30 lives, in Alwar district of Rajasthan this season. Another six have died due to a disease with similar symptoms in Dausa. Concerned over the high death count recorded since August 22 this year, the health department has sought the help of National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) based in New Delhi. A team has reached the spot to collect blood samples, according to official sources. Scrub typhus can be cured but only if it is timely diagnosed. It is caused by the bite of mites especially during the monsoon season and is reported in areas close to jungles or urban shrubs. Since fever is one of the early symptoms of this disease, wrong or delayed diagnosis is a major worry. Residents claim that the death toll is over 50 but chief medical health officer (CMHO) in Alwar, Dr K K Meena, puts the official figure at 30. In Dausa, six people died recently after showing similar symptoms as scrub typhus which includes high fever and low platelet count. “In the initial investigation, we have found that some of them had low platelet count accompanied by fever,” said Dr O P Bairwa, CMHO, Dausa.

………………………….

17.09.2012

HAZMAT

USA

State of Texas, Halliburton

HAZMAT in USA on Friday, 14 September, 2012 at 03:03 (03:03 AM) UTC.

Back

Updated:	Monday, 17 September, 2012 at 16:48 UTC
Description
Halliburton has lost a seven-inch radioactive rod somewhere in the Texas desert. The National Guard has been called in to help to find the device, which employees of the controversial US oilfield services company lost a week ago. The rod, which contains americium-241/beryllium and is stamped with a radiation warning symbol with the words “Danger Radioactive: Do not handle. Notify civil authorities if found”, was lost during a 130-mile journey between oil well sites in Pecos and Odessa last Tuesday. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) warned that the radioactive material “could cause permanent injury to a person who handled them”. The agency said americium-241/beryllium, known as Am-241, is a “category 3” source of radiation and would normally have to be held for some hours before causing health problems.But the NRC still warned that “it could possibly – although it is unlikely – be fatal to be close to this amount of unshielded radioactive material for a period of days to weeks”. A spokeswoman for the NRC said the agency could not remember the last time a radioactive rod went missing. “[There has] never been one lost in the public domain,” she said. The spokeswoman added that there was a concern the radioactive material could fall into the hands of terrorists. The route the Halliburton truck took between Pecos and Odessa has been painstakingly searched with radioactive detection gear three times with assistance from local police and the National Guard. “When the crew went to remove the Am-241 source they discovered the source transport container lock and plug were not in place and that the source was missing,” the NRC said in its report into the incident. “The crew returned to the well site near Pecos and searched for the source, but did not find it. The radiation safety officer stated that the lock was found in the storage compartment in the back of the truck. The transport container plug was not in the container.”The three-man Halliburton crew, who had been using the rod to identify oil and gas deposits suitable for fracking, have been questioned by the FBI. The NRC said Halliburton was carrying out a forensic search of the truck. “They are literally stripping it down, removing every piece of equipment looking for the source,” the agency said. Halliburton said it would offer a reward to anyone who finds the rod but cautioned the public to stay at least 25ft away from the device.

17.09.2012

HAZMAT

Czech Republic

Multiple region, [Prerov,Osek and Becvou]

HAZMAT in Czech Republic on Tuesday, 11 September, 2012 at 14:15 (02:15 PM) UTC.

Back

Updated:	Monday, 17 September, 2012 at 02:54 UTC
Description
A 63-year-old man died Sunday in the Czech Republic after drinking bootleg spirits tainted with methanol, bringing the death toll from an outbreak of alcohol poisoning to 20, hospital staff said. The man was found unconscious Friday at a railway station in the eastern town of Prerov and was hospitalised in a very serious condition. “Despite their efforts, doctors were unable to save him. The man died today a little before noon,” hospital spokeswoman Hana Szotkovska said. Eastern regions of the country have been hit hardest by what Czech experts describe as the worst wave of alcohol poisoning in three decades, but a first case has also been reported in the capital Prague. Around 40 people remained in hospital Sunday from the outbreak, which claimed its first two victims on September 6 and prompted the health minister on Friday to ban the sale of liquor with an alcohol content of over 20 percent. Poland, which borders eastern Czech Republic, on Sunday banned the sale of all alcohol manufactured by its neighbour, except for beer and wine. Czech police have to date charged 22 people in connection with the case. On Friday, they raided thousands of bars, restaurants and shops across the country for traces of bootleg alcohol. Czech police chief Martin Cervicek spoke Sunday of progress in the investigation, telling public radio station CRo1 that officers were on the trail of those who may have supplied the material used to manufacture the spirits.

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Articles of Interest

Animation of secular variation in geomagnetic total intensity for the last 400 years.

IGRF model field    On geomagnetic data

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Each Panel
1600    1700    1800    1900    2000

17.09.2012

Technological Disaster

China

Province of Jiangxi, Ganzhou [Daqing-Guangzhou Expressway]

Technological Disaster in China on Monday, 17 September, 2012 at 12:09 (12:09 PM) UTC.

Description

Sixteen people are trapped after a tunnel along the Daqing-Guangzhou Expressway collapsed Sunday night in east China’s Jiangxi Province, local authorities said Monday. The tunnel, which is still under construction, collapsed at around 10 p.m. in Longnan County in the city of Ganzhou, said rescuers. By Monday noon, the trapped people still had not been found. The tunnel is part of the 3,429 km-expressway that spans from northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province all the way to southern Guangdong Province.

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[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]

Earth Watch Report – Saturday September 14th, 2012

Earthquakes

USGS

MAG	UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s	LAT deg	LON deg	DEPTH km	Region
MAP	3.3	2012/09/14 23:51:33	19.001	-64.156	62.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.4	2012/09/14 23:13:13	10.127	-85.352	35.3	COSTA RICA
MAP	3.1	2012/09/14 21:28:55	19.786	-64.085	20.0	NORTH OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS
MAP	3.3	2012/09/14 19:58:39	19.591	-64.172	74.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.1	2012/09/14 18:32:37	19.475	-64.347	70.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.5	2012/09/14 18:25:39	40.434	-124.161	26.4	NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	3.1	2012/09/14 18:21:59	40.440	-124.165	25.5	NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	4.0	2012/09/14 18:19:51	40.437	-124.163	26.8	NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	3.6	2012/09/14 17:50:15	65.642	-143.268	7.8	NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP	3.2	2012/09/14 16:33:08	19.610	-64.293	7.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.6	2012/09/14 16:14:59	-23.512	-179.109	387.0	SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS
MAP	3.2	2012/09/14 15:34:18	19.405	-64.155	84.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.5	2012/09/14 13:32:23	54.428	-161.160	3.7	ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP	3.1	2012/09/14 11:57:21	40.438	-124.161	25.0	NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	4.4	2012/09/14 11:53:18	40.443	-124.186	27.2	NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	2.5	2012/09/14 11:50:16	35.496	-102.753	5.0	TEXAS PANHANDLE REGION
MAP	2.6	2012/09/14 11:23:23	19.519	-64.945	8.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.3	2012/09/14 11:18:53	19.545	-64.101	71.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.3	2012/09/14 07:28:53	19.695	-64.337	44.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	5.1	2012/09/14 07:18:39	-39.689	-16.038	10.0	SOUTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
MAP	5.1	2012/09/14 06:56:17	-39.633	-16.059	10.0	SOUTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
MAP	4.5	2012/09/14 06:45:09	36.369	69.760	165.6	HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
MAP	4.3	2012/09/14 06:34:27	14.826	-93.244	63.8	OFFSHORE CHIAPAS, MEXICO
MAP	3.0	2012/09/14 06:07:28	18.875	-65.331	28.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	2.9	2012/09/14 06:06:00	18.999	-63.791	92.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	6.2	2012/09/14 04:51:47	-3.363	100.588	19.8	KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI REGION, INDONESIA
MAP	3.2	2012/09/14 04:04:46	17.927	-68.492	92.0	DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP	5.0	2012/09/14 03:21:48	43.627	82.357	26.9	NORTHERN XINJIANG, CHINA
MAP	3.1	2012/09/14 01:54:10	19.614	-64.306	25.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.3	2012/09/14 00:46:52	19.529	-65.698	44.0	PUERTO RICO REGION

6.3-Quake Hits Off Indonesia’s Sumatra: USGS

A 6.3-magnitude quake struck off Indonesia’s Sumatra island on Friday, the US Geological Survey said, but no tsunami warning was issued and there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The epicenter of the quake, which struck at 11:51 am (0451 GMT) at a depth of 25 kilometers (15.5 miles), was 190 kilometers northwest of the town of Bengkulu.

Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency measured the magnitude at 6.1.

The Indonesian agency said the earthquake was felt in the cities of Padang and Bengkulu and along the southern coast of Sumatra.

“There are no reports of damage so far. The quake happened in the sea close to Mentawai island, but no tsunami warning has been issued,” the agency’s duty officer, Koko Widyatmoko, told AFP.

AFP, AP

Quake jolts rural Northern California, no damage

The Associated Press

FORTUNA, Calif. — There are no damage reports after an earthquake jolted rural areas of Northern California near the Oregon border.

A U.S. Geological Survey computer generated report says the magnitude-4.3 quake struck at 4:53 a.m. Friday and was centered 10 miles south of Fortuna. The area is about 270 miles northwest of Sacramento.

Fortuna police dispatcher Tanya Kadle says she felt a quick jolt.

She says there have been no reports of damage or injury.

 

 

LISS – Live Internet Seismic Server

GSN Stations

These data update automatically every 30 minutes. Last update: September 15, 2012 08:49:00 UTC

Seismograms may take several moments to load. Click on a plot to see larger image.

CU/ANWB, Willy Bob, Antigua and Barbuda

CU/BBGH, Gun Hill, Barbados

CU/BCIP, Isla Barro Colorado, Panama

CU/GRGR, Grenville, Grenada

CU/GRTK, Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands

CU/GTBY, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

CU/MTDJ, Mount Denham, Jamaica

CU/SDDR, Presa de Sabaneta, Dominican Republic

CU/TGUH, Tegucigalpa, Honduras

IC/BJT, Baijiatuan, Beijing, China

IC/ENH, Enshi, China

IC/HIA, Hailar, Neimenggu Province, China

IC/LSA, Lhasa, China

IC/MDJ, Mudanjiang, China

IC/QIZ, Qiongzhong, Guangduong Province, China

IU/ADK, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA

IU/AFI, Afiamalu, Samoa

IU/ANMO, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

IU/ANTO, Ankara, Turkey

IU/BBSR, Bermuda

IU/BILL, Bilibino, Russia

IU/CASY, Casey, Antarctica

IU/CCM, Cathedral Cave, Missouri, USA

IU/CHTO, Chiang Mai, Thailand

IU/COLA, College Outpost, Alaska, USA

IU/COR, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

IU/CTAO, Charters Towers, Australia

IU/DAV,Davao, Philippines

IU/DWPF,Disney Wilderness Preserve, Florida, USA

IU/FUNA,Funafuti, Tuvalu

IU/FURI, Mt. Furi, Ethiopia

IU/GNI, Garni, Armenia

IU/GRFO, Grafenberg, Germany

IU/GUMO, Guam, Mariana Islands

IU/HKT, Hockley, Texas, USA

IU/HNR, Honiara, Solomon Islands

IU/HRV, Adam Dziewonski Observatory (Oak Ridge), Massachusetts, USA

IU/INCN, Inchon, Republic of Korea

IU/JOHN, Johnston Island, Pacific Ocean

IU/KBS, Ny-Alesund, Spitzbergen, Norway

IU/KEV, Kevo, Finland

IU/KIEV, Kiev, Ukraine

IU/KIP, Kipapa, Hawaii, USA

IU/KMBO, Kilima Mbogo, Kenya

IU/KNTN, Kanton Island, Kiribati

IU/KONO, Kongsberg, Norway

IU/KOWA, Kowa, Mali

IU/LCO, Las Campanas Astronomical Observatory, Chile

IU/LSZ, Lusaka, Zambia

IU/LVC, Limon Verde, Chile

IU/MA2, Magadan, Russia

IU/MAJO, Matsushiro, Japan

IU/MAKZ,Makanchi, Kazakhstan

IU/MBWA, Marble Bar, Western Australia

IU/MIDW, Midway Island, Pacific Ocean, USA

IU/MSKU, Masuku, Gabon

IU/NWAO, Narrogin, Australia

IU/OTAV, Otavalo, Equador

IU/PAB, San Pablo, Spain

IU/PAYG Puerto Ayora, Galapagos Islands

IU/PET, Petropavlovsk, Russia

IU/PMG, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

IU/PMSA, Palmer Station, Antarctica

IU/POHA, Pohakaloa, Hawaii

IU/PTCN, Pitcairn Island, South Pacific

IU/PTGA, Pitinga, Brazil

IU/QSPA, South Pole, Antarctica

IU/RAO, Raoul, Kermandec Islands

IU/RAR, Rarotonga, Cook Islands

IU/RCBR, Riachuelo, Brazil

IU/RSSD, Black Hills, South Dakota, USA

IU/SAML, Samuel, Brazil

IU/SBA, Scott Base, Antarctica

IU/SDV, Santo Domingo, Venezuela

IU/SFJD, Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland

IU/SJG, San Juan, Puerto Rico

IU/SLBS, Sierra la Laguna Baja California Sur, Mexico

IU/SNZO, South Karori, New Zealand

IU/SSPA, Standing Stone, Pennsylvania USA

IU/TARA, Tarawa Island, Republic of Kiribati

IU/TATO, Taipei, Taiwan

IU/TEIG, Tepich, Yucatan, Mexico

IU/TIXI, Tiksi, Russia

IU/TRIS, Tristan da Cunha, Atlantic Ocean

IU/TRQA, Tornquist, Argentina

IU/TSUM, Tsumeb, Namibia

IU/TUC, Tucson, Arizona

IU/ULN, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

IU/WAKE, Wake Island, Pacific Ocean

IU/WCI, Wyandotte Cave, Indiana, USA

IU/WVT, Waverly, Tennessee, USA

IU/XMAS, Kiritimati Island, Republic of Kiribati

IU/YAK, Yakutsk, Russia

IU/YSS, Yuzhno Sakhalinsk, Russia

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Volcanic Activity

temala

Departmento de Sacatepequez, [Volcan of Fuego]

Volcano Eruption in Guatemala on Wednesday, 05 September, 2012 at 02:58 (02:58 AM) UTC.

Back

Updated:	Friday, 14 September, 2012 at 02:50 UTC
Description
At least 17 villages near the Volcan del Fuego, six miles from the colonial city of Antigua, are being evacuated. The eruption of the volcano could cause a disruption in airline flights in and out of Guatemala. A long-simmering volcano outside one of the Guatemala’s most famous tourist attractions exploded into a series of powerful eruptions Thursday, hurling thick clouds of ash nearly two miles (three kilometers) high, spewing rivers of lava down its flanks and forcing the evacuation of more than 33,000 people from surrounding communities. Guatemala’s head of emergency evacuations, Sergio Cabanas, said the evacuees were leaving some 17 villages around the Volcan del Fuego, which sits about six miles southwest (16 kilometers) from the colonial city of Antigua. The ash was blowing south and authorities said Antigua was not currently in danger, although they expected the eruption to last for at least 12 more hours.The agency said the volcano spewed lava nearly 2,000 feet (600 meters) down slopes billowing with ash around Acatenango, a 12,346-foot-high (3,763-meter-high) volcano whose name translates as “Volcano of Fire.” “A paroxysm of an eruption is taking place, a great volcanic eruption, with strong explosions and columns of ash,” said Gustavo Chicna, a volcanologist with the National Institute of Seismology, Vulcanology, Meteorology and Hydrology. He said the cinders spewing from the volcano were settling a half-inch thick in many places. He said extremely hot gases were also rolling down the sides of the volcano, which was entirely wreathed in ash and smoke. The emergency agency warned that flights through the area could be affected. There was a general orange alert, the second-highest level, but a red alert south and southeast of the mountain, where, Chicna said, “it’s almost in total darkness.” Teresa Marroquin, disaster coordinator for the Guatemalan Red Cross, said the organization had set up 10 emergency shelters and was sending hygiene kits and water. “There are lots of respiratory problems and eye problems,” she said.

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Extreme Temperatures/ Weather /  Drought

 

Warmer temperatures make new USDA plant zone map obsolete

 

 

Enlarge Credit: USDA

Gardeners and landscapers may want to rethink their fall tree plantings. Warming temperatures have already made the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s new cold-weather planting guidelines obsolete, according to Dr. Nir Krakauer, assistant professor of civil engineering in The City College of New York’s Grove School of Engineering.

Professor Krakauer developed a new method to map cold-weather zones in the United States that takes rapidly rising temperatures into account. Analyzing recent weather data, he overhauled the Department of Agriculture’s latest plant zone map released in January. The new USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, which predicts which trees and perennials can survive the winter in a given region, was a long time coming. Temperature boundaries shown in the latest version have shifted northward since the last one appeared in 1990. But the true zones have moved even further, according to Professor Krakauer’s calculations. “Over one-third of the country has already shifted half-zones compared to the current release, and over one-fifth has shifted full zones,” Professor Krakauer wrote this summer in the journal Advances in Meteorology. This means that fig trees, once challenged by frosty temperatures above North Carolina, are already weathering New York City winters thanks to changing temperatures and the insulating effect of the metropolis. Camellias, once happiest south of Ohio, may now be able to shrug off Detroit winters. The USDA divides the country into zones based on their annual minimum temperatures – frigid dips that determine which plants perish overnight or live to flower another day. (Each zone has a minimum temperature range of 10 degrees Fahrenheit; half zones have a 5-degree range.) Professor Krakauer found a weakness in how the agency came up with the zones, however. The USDA averaged annual minimum temperatures over a 30-year span, from 1976 to 2005, but winters have warmed significantly over that period. Zones now average about 2 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the USDA’s 30-year average. “What is happening is that the winter is warming faster than the summer. Since [my] hardiness temperatures are based on minimum temperatures each year, they are changing faster than the average temperatures,” Professor Krakauer said. He found that these lowest yearly temperatures warmed roughly two and a half times faster than the average temperatures. His analysis also showed that the country is changing unevenly; more warming is occurring over the eastern interior and less in the Southwest. Professor Krakauer’s technique will allow gardeners and farmers to reassess what will survive the next year’s winter more frequently than the USDA can produce a new map. “The idea is that you could use this method to keep updating the zone map year by year instead of waiting for the official map – just keep adding new data and recalculate.” He noted that similar analyses could distinguish long-lasting climate trends – in wind or rainfall, for example – from year-to-year weather variations to distinguish between what some are calling the recent “weird weather” and the natural variations in global weather. More information: Nir Y. Krakauer. Estimating Climate Trends: Application to United States Plant Hardiness Zones. Advances in Meteorology, Vol. 2012 (2012), Article ID 404876, doi:10.1155/2012/404876 USDA Plant Hardiness Interactive Map planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/phzmweb/interactivemap.aspx Calculator for Regional Warming (by Nir Krakauer) www-ce.ccny.cuny.edu/nir/sw/hardiness-change.html Hardiness Zone Change Calculator, USDA vs. Krakauer www-ce.ccny.cuny.edu/nir/sw/hardiness-stations.html Provided by City College of New York search and more info website

Coolangatta’s dry half-century

Rob Sharpe,

Queensland’s southeast coast has remained very dry over the last two months with Coolangatta recording its longest dry spell in over 27 years.

It has been 49 days since the Gold Coast town has recorded rain in the gauge, making it the longest dry spell since records began in 1985. Brisbane has also been very dry with only 0.2mm of rain in the last 56 days, its driest period in over a decade.

The prolonged dry period has been due to a number of factors. During the past two months, there have been few strong fronts, with nothing in the way of rain. Conditions have also been trending towards an El Niño weather pattern, which is associated with lower than usual rainfall.

The dry spell is set to continue on Saturday with only a low chance of rain on Sunday, giving Coolangatta a good chance to exceed 50 days without rain. It will be a beautiful, mostly sunny weekend with only the chance of a light shower or two near the coast on Sunday.

On Monday a low pressure trough will develop over Queensland, bringing showers to much of the state’s southeast. However there is still an even chance that Coolangatta will go another day without rain.

Tuesday is looking more certain to end Coolangatta’s dry spell as the trough deepens, bringing showers and the chance of storms. There will be widespread falls of 5-10mm across Queensland’s southeast on Tuesday with isolated areas likely to get more than 15mm.

The much needed rain will bring relief to parched gardens and lawns. The rain will also remind people that the wetter months of the year are just around the corner.

– Weatherzone

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Storms / Flooding

Active tropical storm system(s)
Name of storm system	Location	Formed	Last update	Last category	Course	Wind Speed	Gust	Wave	Source	Details
Sanba (17W)	Pacific Ocean	11.09.2012	15.09.2012	Typhoon IV	345 °	204 km/h	250 km/h	4.57 m	NOAA NHC

Tropical Storm data

Share: Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 10 Storm name: Sanba (17W) Area: Pacific Ocean Start up location: N 11° 6.000, E 133° 48.000 Start up: 11th September 2012 Status: Active Track long: 913.10 km Top category.: Report by: JTWC Useful links: Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale FEMA – How To Prepare for a Hurricane Effects of a Hurricane USA – National Hurricane Center

Past track Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave Pressure Source 11th Sep 2012 09:49:04 N 11° 6.000, E 133° 48.000 33 65 83 Tropical Storm 345 20 JTWC 12th Sep 2012 05:03:46 N 12° 42.000, E 131° 48.000 15 102 130 Tropical Storm 310 18 JTWC 12th Sep 2012 10:43:24 N 13° 6.000, E 131° 0.000 17 120 148 Typhoon I. 295 15 JTWC 13th Sep 2012 04:24:21 N 14° 48.000, E 129° 48.000 13 167 204 Typhoon II. 335 17 JTWC 13th Sep 2012 11:08:12 N 15° 36.000, E 129° 30.000 17 213 259 Typhoon IV. 340 19 JTWC 14th Sep 2012 05:10:27 N 18° 12.000, E 129° 42.000 19 278 296 Super Typhoon 360 20 JTWC Current position Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave feet Pressure Source 15th Sep 2012 10:32:07 N 23° 24.000, E 128° 42.000 20 204 250 Typhoon IV 345 ° 15 JTWC Forecast track Date Time Position Category Wind km/h Gust km/h Source 16th Sep 2012 12:00:00 N 30° 36.000, E 127° 36.000 Typhoon III 157 194 JTWC 16th Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 27° 24.000, E 127° 54.000 Typhoon III 167 204 JTWC 17th Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 34° 0.000, E 127° 54.000 Typhoon II 139 167 JTWC 18th Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 43° 0.000, E 130° 18.000 Typhoon I 93 120 JTWC 19th Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 52° 30.000, E 135° 6.000 Tropical Depression 65 83 JTWC

Nadine (AL14)

Atlantic Ocean

11.09.2012

15.09.2012

Hurricane I

50 °

120 km/h

148 km/h

3.96 m

NOAA NHC

  Tropical Storm data

Share: Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 1 Storm name: Nadine (AL14) Area: Atlantic Ocean Start up location: N 16° 18.000, W 43° 6.000 Start up: 11th September 2012 Status: Active Track long: 1,122.87 km Top category.: Report by: NOAA NHC Useful links: Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale FEMA – How To Prepare for a Hurricane Effects of a Hurricane USA – National Hurricane Center

Past track Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave Pressure Source 12th Sep 2012 05:01:17 N 17° 48.000, W 45° 12.000 24 65 83 Tropical Storm 300 13 1004 MB NOAA NHC 12th Sep 2012 10:46:22 N 18° 36.000, W 46° 36.000 28 74 93 Tropical Storm 300 15 1001 MB NOAA NHC 13th Sep 2012 05:34:52 N 20° 42.000, W 50° 6.000 26 111 139 Tropical Storm 305 17 990 MB NOAA NHC 13th Sep 2012 11:12:43 N 21° 30.000, W 51° 18.000 26 111 139 Tropical Storm 305 17 990 MB NOAA NHC 14th Sep 2012 05:11:31 N 25° 0.000, W 53° 42.000 24 111 139 Tropical Storm 330 17 989 MB NOAA NHC Current position Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave feet Pressure Source 15th Sep 2012 10:59:20 N 30° 42.000, W 51° 24.000 24 120 148 Hurricane I 50 ° 13 985 MB NOAA NHC Forecast track Date Time Position Category Wind km/h Gust km/h Source 16th Sep 2012 12:00:00 N 31° 6.000, W 45° 30.000 Hurricane II 130 157 NOAA NHC 16th Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 31° 12.000, W 48° 42.000 Hurricane II 130 157 NOAA NHC 17th Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 31° 12.000, W 42° 6.000 Hurricane II 130 157 NOAA NHC 18th Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 33° 0.000, W 36° 0.000 Hurricane I 120 148 NOAA NHC 19th Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 35° 30.000, W 33° 0.000 Hurricane I 111 139 NOAA NHC 20th Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 37° 30.000, W 31° 30.000 Tropical Depression 93 111 NOAA NHC

Kristy (EP11)

Pacific Ocean – East

12.09.2012

15.09.2012

Tropical Depression

310 °

74 km/h

93 km/h

5.49 m

NOAA NHC

Tropical Storm data

Share: Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 0 Storm name: Kristy (EP11) Area: Pacific Ocean – East Start up location: N 16° 42.000, W 106° 0.000 Start up: 12th September 2012 Status: Active Track long: 596.57 km Top category.: Report by: NOAA NHC Useful links: Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale FEMA – How To Prepare for a Hurricane Effects of a Hurricane USA – National Hurricane Center

Past track Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave Pressure Source 13th Sep 2012 05:35:33 N 18° 0.000, W 107° 24.000 15 83 102 Tropical Storm 295 11 1002 MB NOAA NHC 13th Sep 2012 11:10:36 N 18° 30.000, W 108° 30.000 17 83 102 Tropical Storm 295 15 1002 MB NOAA NHC 14th Sep 2012 05:12:13 N 19° 42.000, W 111° 6.000 17 83 102 Tropical Storm 295 15 1000 MB NOAA NHC Current position Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave feet Pressure Source 15th Sep 2012 10:36:05 N 21° 48.000, W 114° 36.000 15 74 93 Tropical Depression 310 ° 18 1001 MB NOAA NHC Forecast track Date Time Position Category Wind km/h Gust km/h Source 16th Sep 2012 12:00:00 N 24° 12.000, W 117° 30.000 Tropical Depression 56 74 NOAA NHC 16th Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 23° 6.000, W 116° 6.000 Tropical Depression 65 83 NOAA NHC 17th Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 25° 6.000, W 118° 18.000 Tropical Depression 46 65 NOAA NHC 18th Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 26° 30.000, W 118° 30.000 Tropical Depression 37 56 NOAA NHC 19th Sep 2012 00:00:00 N 27° 0.000, W 117° 30.000 Tropical Depression 37 56 NOAA NHC

………………………………………….

Flash Flood

India

State of Uttarakhand, [Bageshwar district]

Flash Flood in India on Friday, 14 September, 2012 at 13:19 (01:19 PM) UTC.

Description

Four persons died after being swept away by flash floods triggerred by incessant rains in Kapkot area of Uttarakhand’s Bageshwar district, officials said on Friday. Madhuri Devi and her husband Bishan Singh were swept away after a flash flood occurred in Kapkot last night following torrential rains, Disaster Management and Mitigation department officials said. Another man Dhumar Singh is also feared to have been swept away in the flash flood that hit Kapkot but his body is yet to be recovered, they said. Flash floods also occurred at Jagthana and Kahark Tana Toli villages in the district claiming the lives of a 20-year-old woman and a man respectively, they said.

14.09.2012

Flash Flood

Indonesia

West Sumatra, [Padang region]

Flash Flood in Indonesia on Friday, 14 September, 2012 at 13:17 (01:17 PM) UTC.

Description

A flash flood following incessant rain struck parts of Padang in West Sumatra on Wednesday night, killing four people and making dozens of others homeless. Idel, 30, a local resident involved in the search and rescue, said on Thursday that the four were buried by landslides at Kampong Ubi, Pauh district. “When we heard about the incident, lots of us rushed to the spot and at about 9 p.m. members of the search and rescue team arrived,” Idel said. The SAR team found the body of a six-year-old girl, Najwa, at around 1 a.m. on Thursday and the body of Jamaris, 50, one hour later. The bodies were taken to a house of their relatives about a one-hour walk from the incident site. Around 7 a.m. the SAR team found another body, identified as Nila, 20, disinterred by local residents using hoes and other makeshift rescue equipment. Several hours later the body of the fourth victim, two-year-old Salva, was also found. Head of the West Sumatra Disaster Mitigation Agency’s logistic and emergency unit Ade Edward said that the landslide took place at 5 p.m. after three hours of heavy rain. The two houses of the victims very engulfed in mud, Ade said, adding that three others living in the ill-fated houses had managed to flee in time.“The SAR team managed to arrive at the location several hours later as many parts of the roads leading to the location were flooded,” Ade said. He explained that the search was halted after finding the four victims. However, 24 families have been forced to live in temporary accommodation centers. Heavy machinery was used on Thursday to clean the rubble. The landslide occurred five kilometers from Andalas University campus in Lamau Manis on the slopes of Bukit Barisan by the Batang Kuranji river, one of the major rivers dividing Padang. No official data on damage to buildings and public infrastructure have yet been released, but at least seven houses in a number of locations were washed away. The heavy rain had caused Batang Kuranji river to overflow, inundating dozens of houses by up to two meters. Meanwhile, a sedan was trapped in floodwaters not far from Semen Padang cement factory. Both Batang Kuranji and Batang Arau rivers also overflowed on July 24, 2012, damaging 33 houses in eight subdistricts.

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Radiation

Thyroid disease rate spiked to 43.7%, “About 1 in 2 children have nodule or cyst in Fukushima city”

Fukushima Diary

Posted by Mochizuki

Healthy children are decreasing in Fukushima.

43.7% of children turned out to have nodules or cysts in Fukushima city.

Fukushima local government conducted thyroid test for under 18 living in Fukushima city.

The target persons were 53,619 and 44,959（83.8%）had the test. The test was conducted from 5/14 to 8/31/2012.

On 9/11/2012, they released the result of 42,060 of them, which they finished the test with by 8/24/2012. (The results from 8/25 to 8/31/2012 are not published yet.)

The result showed 18,119 (43.1%) of them have thyroid nodules (≦5.0mm) or cysts (≦20.0mm) and 239 (0.6%) of them have thyroid nodules (≧5.1mm) or cyst (≧20.1mm).  In total, 43.7% of the children who had the test in Fukushima city turned out to have nodules and cysts.

In their previous test, it was 35.8%, which means it spiked up by 7.9%. (cf. Thyroid nodules rate in Fukushima is 20 time higher than in Chernobyl)

The ratio of women to have nodules and cysts (≧3.1m) was 130%  of the one of men.

Recommended article..Yamashita “I cut down the compensation amount to save the Gov, and the people.”

Source 1 2

Iori Mochizuki

88 Bq/Kg from well water in Minamisoma Fukushima

Fukushima Diary

Posted by Mochizuki

Cesium is penetrating into ground water. People are having less and less safe water.

88 Bq/Kg of cesium was measured from well water in Fukushima.

On 9/11/2012, ministry of the environment announced they measured 88 Bq/Kg of cesium from well water in Odaka Minamisoma city, Fukushima.

The sample was taken in June and July of 2012. The safety limit is 10Bq/Kg. They measured cesium more than 10 Bq/Kg at 2 of 436 locations. They also measured cesium less than 10Bq/Kg from 4 of 436 locations.

They commented, they found something like mud in the well water that they measured 88 Bq/Kg of cesium from.

Source

Iori Mochizuki

 

 

 

Ministry of Education, Science and Technology’s report “110m Ag measured in North Kanto”

Fukushiima Diary

Posted by Mochizuki

It’s not only cesium, not even only strontium, but also radioactive silver is leaked from Fukushima plant.Radioactive silver, 110mAg was detected in Gunma, Tochigi and Ibaraki.On 9/12/2012,  Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology published their latest radiation monitoring map.The measurement was conducted from 12/13/2011 to 5/29/2012.

Because the half-life is 249.95 days, it’s re-calculated to be the amount of 3/1/2012.

The map shows 110mAg (≦ 100 Bq/m2) scattered in Gunma, Tochigi, and Ibaraki prefecture.

Source

Iori Mochizuki

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Epidemic Hazards / Diseases

Niger floods and cholera claim 162 lives: UN

by Staff Writers
Niamey (AFP)

Floods in Niger have killed 81 people since July, the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs announced Thursday, adding cholera outbreaks have killed a further 81 people.

“The last update of the toll of the floods dating from September 11 indicates that 527,471 people have been affected by the bad weather and 81 people have lost their lives,” OCHA said in a statement in Niamey.

The previous toll established by the authorities was 68 dead and 485,000 people affected in the Sahel nation in west Africa.

Thousands of homes, schools, health centres and mosques have been destroyed, along with large quantities of food supplies, according to the authorities.

The UN office also reported outbreaks of cholera, which have claimed 81 lives since the start of the year, mainly in the west of the country.

Cholera is spreading fast in at least four places, making 3,854 people sick and notably affecting the Tillaberi regions lying by the Niger river and close to the border with Mali, OCHA said.

In the provinces and in the capital, where the Niger river level is rising significantly, most of the people stricken by flooding are being housed mainly in schools, as well as mosques and public buildings.

While preparing to move flood victims to more appropriate accommodation, the government has postponed the start of the school year from October 17 until October 27.

In neighbouring Burkina Faso, heavy rains have killed 18 people and made 21,000 homeless since June. Senegal and Nigeria have also been affected by the bad weather.

Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
When the Earth Quakes
A world of storm and tempest

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Solar Activity

3MIN News Sept 14. 2012

Published on Sep 14, 2012 by Suspicious0bservers

TODAY’S LINKS
Winter Plant Survival Map: http://phys.org/news/2012-09-warmer-temperatures-usda-zone-obsolete.html
Guatemala Volcano: http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fgw-guatemala-volcano-20120913,0,2071860.story
Eruption video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er0uCzOm9zY
Cold Coming: http://www.weather.com/news/weather-forecast/cool-pattern-central-east-20120913
Quennsland Drought: http://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/coolangattas-dry-half-century/22412
Watch Typhoon Sanba: http://www.hurricanezone.net/westpacific/animations.html
Sunspot Class: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpdir/latest/SRS.txt

REPEAT LINKS
Spaceweather: http://spaceweather.com/ [Look on the left at the X-ray Flux and Solar Wind Speed/Density]

HAARP: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/data.html [Click online data, and have a little fun]

SDO: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ [Place to find Solar Images and Videos – as seen from earth]

SOHO: http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater [SOHO; Lasco and EIT – as seen from earth]

Stereo: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/images [Stereo; Cor, EUVI, HI – as seen from the side]

SunAEON:http://www.sunaeon.com/#/solarsystem/ [Just click it… trust me]

SOLARIMG: http://solarimg.org/artis/ [All purpose data viewing site]

iSWA: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/iswa/iSWA.html [Free Application; for advanced sun watchers]

NASA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov:8080/IswaSystemWebApp/iSWACygnetStreamer?timestamp=…
NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/

US Wind Map: http://hint.fm/wind/

NOAA Bouys: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory: http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/Default.php

RSOE: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php [That cool alert map I use]

GOES Xray: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sxi/goes15/index.html

JAPAN Radiation Map: http://jciv.iidj.net/map/

LISS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/operations/heliplots_gsn.php

Gamma Ray Bursts: http://grb.sonoma.edu/ [Really? You can’t figure out what this one is for?]

BARTOL Cosmic Rays: http://neutronm.bartol.udel.edu//spaceweather/welcome.html [Top left box, look for BIG blue circles]

TORCON: http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-torcon-index [Tornado Forecast for the day]

GOES Weather: http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/ [Clouds over America]

RAIN RECORDS: http://www.cocorahs.org/ViewData/ListIntensePrecipReports.aspx

EL DORADO WORLD WEATHER MAP: http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/satellite/ssec/world/world-composite-ir-…

PRESSURE MAP: http://www.woweather.com/cgi-bin/expertcharts?LANG=us&MENU=0000000000&…

HURRICANE TRACKER: http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/tracker

INTELLICAST: http://www.intellicast.com/ [Weather site used by many youtubers]

NASA News: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/

PHYSORG: http://phys.org/ [GREAT News Site!]

QUAKES LIST FULL: http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/seismologist.php

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Space

Earth approaching objects (objects that are known in the next 30 days)
Object Name	Apporach Date	Left	AU Distance	LD Distance	Estimated Diameter*	Relative Velocity
(2002 EM6)	15th September 2012	0 day(s)	0.1833	71.3	270 m – 590 m	18.56 km/s	66816 km/h
(2002 RP137)	16th September 2012	1 day(s)	0.1624	63.2	67 m – 150 m	7.31 km/s	26316 km/h
(2009 RX4)	16th September 2012	1 day(s)	0.1701	66.2	15 m – 35 m	8.35 km/s	30060 km/h
(2005 UC)	17th September 2012	2 day(s)	0.1992	77.5	280 m – 640 m	7.55 km/s	27180 km/h
(2012 FC71)	18th September 2012	3 day(s)	0.1074	41.8	24 m – 53 m	3.51 km/s	12636 km/h
(1998 FF14)	19th September 2012	4 day(s)	0.0928	36.1	210 m – 480 m	21.40 km/s	77040 km/h
331990 (2005 FD)	19th September 2012	4 day(s)	0.1914	74.5	320 m – 710 m	15.92 km/s	57312 km/h
(2009 SH2)	24th September 2012	9 day(s)	0.1462	56.9	28 m – 62 m	7.52 km/s	27072 km/h
333578 (2006 KM103)	25th September 2012	10 day(s)	0.0626	24.4	250 m – 560 m	8.54 km/s	30744 km/h
(2002 EZ2)	26th September 2012	11 day(s)	0.1922	74.8	270 m – 610 m	6.76 km/s	24336 km/h
(2009 SB170)	29th September 2012	14 day(s)	0.1789	69.6	200 m – 440 m	32.39 km/s	116604 km/h
(2011 OJ45)	29th September 2012	14 day(s)	0.1339	52.1	18 m – 39 m	4.24 km/s	15264 km/h
(2012 JS11)	30th September 2012	15 day(s)	0.0712	27.7	270 m – 600 m	12.60 km/s	45360 km/h
137032 (1998 UO1)	04th October 2012	19 day(s)	0.1545	60.1	1.3 km – 2.9 km	32.90 km/s	118440 km/h
(2012 GV11)	05th October 2012	20 day(s)	0.1830	71.2	100 m – 230 m	6.96 km/s	25056 km/h
(2009 XZ1)	05th October 2012	20 day(s)	0.1382	53.8	120 m – 280 m	16.87 km/s	60732 km/h
(2006 TD)	06th October 2012	21 day(s)	0.1746	68.0	88 m – 200 m	13.03 km/s	46908 km/h
(2009 TK)	06th October 2012	21 day(s)	0.0450	17.5	100 m – 230 m	11.10 km/s	39960 km/h
(2004 UB)	08th October 2012	23 day(s)	0.1995	77.6	240 m – 530 m	14.65 km/s	52740 km/h
277830 (2006 HR29)	11th October 2012	26 day(s)	0.1917	74.6	190 m – 440 m	7.88 km/s	28368 km/h
(2008 BW2)	11th October 2012	26 day(s)	0.1678	65.3	3.1 m – 6.8 m	11.10 km/s	39960 km/h
(2005 GQ21)	12th October 2012	27 day(s)	0.1980	77.0	620 m – 1.4 km	23.86 km/s	85896 km/h
(2012 GV17)	12th October 2012	27 day(s)	0.1500	58.4	160 m – 370 m	16.11 km/s	57996 km/h
256004 (2006 UP)	14th October 2012	29 day(s)	0.1374	53.5	65 m – 140 m	3.06 km/s	11016 km/h
(2005 ST1)	14th October 2012	29 day(s)	0.1319	51.3	230 m – 510 m	12.88 km/s	46368 km/h
(2011 OB57)	14th October 2012	29 day(s)	0.1553	60.4	17 m – 37 m	4.95 km/s	17820 km/h
(2012 KB4)	14th October 2012	29 day(s)	0.1271	49.4	22 m – 49 m	4.98 km/s	17928 km/h
1 AU = ~150 million kilometers,1 LD = Lunar Distance = ~384,000 kilometers Source: NASA-NEO

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Biological Hazards / Wildlife / Hazmat

14.09.2012

Biological Hazard

USA

State of Nebraska, [Nebraska-wide]

Biological Hazard in USA on Friday, 14 September, 2012 at 13:16 (01:16 PM) UTC.

Description
The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission says a viral disease has spread to deer populations across much of Nebraska. Epizootic hemorrhagic disease spreads from deer to deer by the bite of a small insect known as a midge. Game and Parks says the virus is suspected in the reported deaths of more than 2,200 Nebraska deer this year. The disease causes hemorrhaging within the deer’s body. Deer suffering from the virus may develop a high fever and seek water, which is why many deer killed by the disease are found in or near water. The disease is not a threat to humans. The commission wants people to report to their nearest Game and Parks office any deer deaths that may be attributed to this disease.
Biohazard name:	EHD (epizootic hemorrhagic disease)
Biohazard level:	2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:	Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
Symptoms:
Status:	confirmed

14.09.2012

HAZMAT

USA

State of Texas, Halliburton

HAZMAT in USA on Friday, 14 September, 2012 at 03:03 (03:03 AM) UTC.

Description

The Texas Department of State Health Services is looking for piece of equipment containing potentially dangerous radioactive material that was lost Tuesday by an oil and gas crew in a rural part of West Texas. The sealed radioactive source, a small stainless steel cylinder approximately 7 inches long and an inch across, contains Americium-241/Beryllium….The cylinder is stamped with the words “danger radioactive” and “do not handle” along with a radiation warning symbol. Anyone who sees it should stay at least 25 feet away and notify local law enforcement. This type of device is used to evaluate oil and gas wells and is usually stored in a protective shielding. A Halliburton crew was transporting it from a well outside of Pecos to another well south of Odessa. On arrival, the crew noticed the shielding was not locked and the device was missing. DSHS is assisting law enforcement with the search and investigating the loss of the radioactive material.

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