Earth Watch Report – Monday May 14th, 2012

Earthquakes

RSOE EDIS

Date/Time (UTC)	Magnitude	Area	Country	State/Prov./Gov.	Location	Risk			Source	Details
14.05.2012 08:55:40	4.4	Pacific Ocean	Northern Mariana Islands		Marasu				USGS-RSOE
14.05.2012 07:20:28	5.0	Pacific Ocean – East	Fiji		Thikombia				EMSC
14.05.2012 07:10:31	4.8	Pacific Ocean	Fiji		Thikombia				USGS-RSOE
14.05.2012 07:20:50	2.5	Asia	Turkey		Cihatli				EMSC
14.05.2012 06:55:35	3.1	Caribbean	Puerto Rico		Islote				USGS-RSOE
14.05.2012 06:30:35	2.2	North America	United States	Alaska	Chickaloon				USGS-RSOE
14.05.2012 06:21:29	2.1	North America	United States	California	Sans (historical)				USGS-RSOE
14.05.2012 05:55:27	5.0	Asia	Japan	Miyazaki-ken	Oryuzako				USGS-RSOE
14.05.2012 06:20:33	5.0	Asia	Japan		Hasugaike				EMSC
14.05.2012 05:30:31	2.2	North America	United States	Hawaii	Waiki‘i				USGS-RSOE
14.05.2012 06:20:55	2.9	Europe	Albania		Arapaj i Eperm				EMSC
14.05.2012 05:15:28	2.6	Europe	Greece		Metokhion Zografou				EMSC
14.05.2012 07:55:53	2.5	Caribbean	Puerto Rico		Campamento Susua				USGS-RSOE
14.05.2012 05:15:56	4.9	North-America	United States	Alaska	Atka				EMSC
14.05.2012 04:56:23	5.2	North America	United States	Alaska	Atka				USGS-RSOE
14.05.2012 05:10:49	5.0	North America	United States	Alaska	Atka				USGS-RSOE
14.05.2012 04:10:27	3.1	Asia	Turkey		Camlikoy				EMSC
14.05.2012 08:25:23	2.2	Europe	Greece		Koundandlaiika				EMSC
14.05.2012 04:20:25	4.2	Middle America	El Salvador	Departamento de Ahuachapan	El Botoncillo				USGS-RSOE
14.05.2012 05:16:21	4.2	Middle-America	Guatemala		Barra del Limon				EMSC
14.05.2012 03:10:44	2.6	Caribbean	Puerto Rico		Corcega				USGS-RSOE
14.05.2012 03:26:07	4.2	Middle America	Panama	Provincia de Veraguas	El Suay				USGS-RSOE
14.05.2012 04:10:49	4.2	Middle-America	Panama		El Suay				EMSC
14.05.2012 02:40:26	4.3	Asia	Afghanistan	Velayat-e Badakhshan	Larki				USGS-RSOE
14.05.2012 03:05:30	4.3	Asia	Afghanistan		Larki				EMSC
14.05.2012 07:21:16	2.5	Europe	Greece		Skala Eresou				EMSC
14.05.2012 03:05:51	2.8	Asia	Turkey		Alakilise				EMSC
14.05.2012 02:05:28	2.6	Asia	Turkey		Bekdemir				EMSC
14.05.2012 01:30:40	4.8	Indonesian archipelago	Indonesia	Propinsi Maluku	Yafila				USGS-RSOE
14.05.2012 02:05:50	4.8	Indonesian Archipelago	Indonesia		Yafila				EMSC
14.05.2012 01:22:03	4.9	Pacific Ocean	Fiji		Vunikondi				USGS-RSOE
14.05.2012 02:06:18	4.9	Pacific Ocean – East	Fiji		Yasawa				EMSC
14.05.2012 01:00:46	2.3	Asia	Turkey		Bespinar				EMSC
14.05.2012 01:01:11	2.9	Europe	Macedonia		Brodec				EMSC
13.05.2012 22:55:28	3.3	Asia	Turkey		Degirmitas				EMSC
13.05.2012 21:55:33	3.0	Europe	Austria		Kosslbach				EMSC
13.05.2012 22:55:55	2.7	Asia	Turkey		Yavaslar				EMSC
14.05.2012 07:30:37	2.4	North America	United States	Oklahoma	Spencer				USGS-RSOE
13.05.2012 21:55:54	2.7	Europe	Austria		Wildpfad				EMSC
13.05.2012 21:00:59	2.3	North America	United States	California	Mercuryville				USGS-RSOE
13.05.2012 21:56:15	4.8	North-America	United States		Amchitka				EMSC
13.05.2012 21:06:07	4.7	North America	United States	Alaska	Amchitka				USGS-RSOE
13.05.2012 20:55:32	5.0	Indonesian Archipelago	Indonesia		Abubu				EMSC
13.05.2012 20:45:39	5.0	Indonesian archipelago	Indonesia	Propinsi Maluku	Abubu				USGS-RSOE
13.05.2012 20:55:53	5.0	Middle-East	Iran		Qal`eh-e Gareh Kuh				EMSC
13.05.2012 20:40:35	5.1	Middle East	Iran	Hormozgan Province	Kuhvar				USGS-RSOE
13.05.2012 20:25:37	2.1	North America	United States	Washington	Saint Helens				USGS-RSOE
13.05.2012 20:56:15	3.4	Europe	Greece		Menetai				EMSC
13.05.2012 21:56:35	2.5	Europe	Portugal		Sagres				EMSC
13.05.2012 20:56:34	3.3	Asia	Azerbaijan		Qimir				EMSC
13.05.2012 18:45:30	3.7	Asia	Turkey		Asit				EMSC
13.05.2012 18:05:40	2.6	North America	United States	Alaska	Yakutat				USGS-RSOE
13.05.2012 17:30:39	2.8	North America	United States	California	Caldwell Pines				USGS-RSOE
13.05.2012 17:40:34	2.5	Asia	Turkey		Rahimler				EMSC
13.05.2012 16:45:34	2.7	Middle America	Mexico	Estado de Baja California	Canon de Guadalupe				USGS-RSOE
13.05.2012 16:55:41	4.3	Middle East	Iran	Ostan-e Ilam	Murmuri				USGS-RSOE
13.05.2012 17:40:53	4.3	Middle-East	Iran		Shahrak-e Jadid-e Dehloran				EMSC
13.05.2012 15:10:35	4.8	South America	Chile	Region de Valparaiso	Quintero				USGS-RSOE
13.05.2012 15:35:33	4.8	South-America	Chile		Quintero				EMSC
13.05.2012 14:45:40	3.6	North America	United States	California	Mercuryville				USGS-RSOE
13.05.2012 15:35:54	4.7	Indonesian Archipelago	Indonesia		Simatorkis				EMSC
13.05.2012 15:00:46	4.6	Indonesian archipelago	Indonesia		Simatorkis				USGS-RSOE
13.05.2012 14:25:45	4.5	Pacific Ocean	Fiji		Ono Levu				USGS-RSOE
13.05.2012 18:45:49	4.5	Pacific Ocean – East	Fiji		Ono Levu				EMSC
13.05.2012 15:36:17	4.5	Pacific Ocean – East	Fiji		Ono Levu				EMSC
13.05.2012 13:55:40	4.8	Atlantic Ocean	South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands		Grytviken				USGS-RSOE
13.05.2012 15:36:39	4.8	Atlantic Ocean – North	South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands		Grytviken				EMSC
13.05.2012 13:30:41	2.2	North America	United States	California	Madrone Soda Springs (historical)				USGS-RSOE
13.05.2012 12:20:35	2.7	Europe	Greece		Ano Kotsanopoulon				EMSC
13.05.2012 11:35:41	2.1	North America	United States	California	San Pedro				USGS-RSOE
13.05.2012 12:20:59	2.7	Asia	Turkey		Ismetpasa				EMSC
13.05.2012 11:25:45	3.1	Middle America	Mexico	Estado de Baja California	Campo Mosqueda				USGS-RSOE
13.05.2012 11:45:42	4.7	Indonesian archipelago	Indonesia		Keudesuie				USGS-RSOE
13.05.2012 12:21:18	4.7	Indonesian Archipelago	Indonesia		Keudesuie				EMSC
13.05.2012 11:26:06	2.6	North America	United States	Hawaii	Volcano				USGS-RSOE
13.05.2012 11:40:49	4.6	Indonesian archipelago	Indonesia		Pasarsungai-pinang				USGS-RSOE
13.05.2012 12:21:37	4.8	Indonesian Archipelago	Indonesia		Pasarsungai-pinang				EMSC
13.05.2012 10:35:34	2.3	North America	United States	Alaska	Mentasta Lake				USGS-RSOE
13.05.2012 10:15:23	2.6	Asia	Turkey		Yagmurlar				EMSC
13.05.2012 09:30:41	4.4	Pacific Ocean	New Zealand	Woodville County	Horoera				USGS-RSOE
13.05.2012 10:15:54	4.4	Australia & New-Zealand	New Zealand		Horoera				EMSC
13.05.2012 09:05:28	2.4	Middle America	Mexico	Estado de Baja California	Canon de Guadalupe				USGS-RSOE
13.05.2012 09:05:49	2.0	North America	United States	Alaska	Point MacKenzie				USGS-RSOE
13.05.2012 13:25:30	2.4	Europe	Portugal		Remedios				EMSC
13.05.2012 09:10:34	2.9	Asia	Turkey		Karabogurtlen				EMSC
13.05.2012 09:10:55	2.5	Asia	Turkey		Gureci				EMSC
13.05.2012 11:15:33	2.2	Asia	Turkey		Marmara				EMSC
13.05.2012 12:21:59	2.2	Europe	Greece		Kalochorion				EMSC

Moderate earthquake kills one in Tajikistan

By AFP

One man was killed when a moderate, 5.7 magnitude earthquake struck in central Tajikistan early Sunday, damaging several buildings.

The most damage occurred in the country’s Garm district, where one man was killed by a collapsing wall, Nargis Nurova of Tajikistan’s emergency situations committee told AFP.

Two buildings were completely destroyed, and several more were damaged, she said. The quake also caused a mudslide, burying alive herds of cows and sheep, she added.

The US Geological Survey located the epicenter of the tremor, which occurred at 4:28 am (2328 GMT Saturday), at around 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of the city of Kulob at a depth of 10 kilometres.

Residents in the capital Dushanbe some 140 kilometres (90 miles) away felt tremors of about magnitude 4.0, a representative of the geophysics department in Tajikistan’s Academy of Sciences told AFP.

The reading was based on the open-ended Moment Magnitude scale, now used by US seismologists, which measures the area of the fault that ruptured and the total energy released.

Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia, is mostly covered by mountains, with earthquakes occurring on a nearly monthly basis.

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Volcanic Activity

Mexico volcano spews huge ash cloud, frightens villagers

By Noe Torres

SANTIAGO XALITZINTLA, Mexico

(Reuters) – Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano spewed out huge clouds of ash and fiery rock overnight, closing a local airport on Saturday and frightening nearby villagers, already on edge after weeks of increased activity.

Popocatepetl, 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Mexico City, shook with tremors that belched out four large plumes of ash on Friday night and Saturday morning, the National Center for Disaster Prevention said in a statement on Saturday.

The biggest expulsion shot an ash cloud 2.5 miles (4 km) into the air and launched glowing rocks more than half a mile (1 km) from the crater, the statement said.

Raul Arambula, a scientist collaborating with the government’s disaster center, said the volcano threw out the most ash and fragments of red-hot rock since authorities raised the alert level last month.

“It was spectacular,” Arambula said. “Of course, it makes you worry about everyone living nearby.”

In Santiago Xalitzintla, a village about 6 miles (10 km) from the volcano, the loud rumblings sent residents running to the town square during the night.

“The volcano is looking serious. It was really roaring strongly last night,” said Juan Castro, 83, who said he was half-deaf but had no trouble hearing the tremors.

The ash clouds forced the airport in the central state of Puebla to suspend operations on Saturday. Billowing ash earlier in the week closed the airport on Tuesday and Thursday.

Civil protection officials in Mexico City said a change in wind patterns could send ash over the capital next week.

Mexico’s disaster center raised the volcano’s alert level to yellow phase three from yellow phase two in mid-April, the third-highest warning on the center’s seven-step scale. There are no plans yet to evacuate nearby residents.

“They told us that we need to be ready because if we have to evacuate, they are going to warn us with the church bells,” said Lizbeth Agustin, a 22-year-old candy vendor who had collected half a pail of ash in the town center of Santiago Xalitzintla.

Popocatepetl has spewed smoke and ash sporadically over the past few years. A major eruption in 2000 forced the evacuation of nearly 50,000 residents in three states surrounding the peak.

(Additional reporting and Writing By Michael O’Boyle; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Icelandic volcano warming up for eruption: Small glacier flood continues at Katla

Jón Frímann
jonfr.com

This is going to be a short blog post. As I am going to be short of table and a cheer for few more days.

It seems that Katla volcano is warming up for a eruption. As I did mention in last blog post. But there is more to this. As the glacier flood that started on the 28. April 2012 continues according to a email that I got from an geologist working at Iceland Meteorological Office. But that suggests two things. That there is currently an ongoing melting of glacier taking place in Katla volcano, or there is a slow drainage taking place from some area in Mýrdalsjökull glacier. But given increased conductivity following this it is clear that this water has been in contact with magma. But that can be seen with the increased conductivity in the water.

There have not been many earthquakes following this events. But from the earthquakes that have happened. It seems that most likely source for current events is close to or the same area that erupted in July 2011. But at the moment this is just speculation based on limited data. It has not been confirmed so far.

The harmonic tremor that started on 28. April 2012. This is Lágu Hvolar SIL station. Copyright of this picture belongs to Iceland Meteorological Office. Used with written permission.This plot shows clearly how the harmonic tremor starts and continues at same level for several days. I do not know if the harmonic tremor is ongoing. But I find it likely, if the small glacier flood is currently going on (that was my last information, but things might have changed during the day). But it is hard for me to know that for sure. But based on latest data from the water monitoring system around Katla volcano, the spike in this glacier flood is most likely over for now. But it impossible to know what happens next in Katla volcano. All that can be done is to wait and see what happens next.

VIDEO: Kilauea volcano’s spattering lava lake continues

  Lava, Volcano

HAWAII VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK, Hawaii: The active lava lake in the Halemaumau crater vent at the summit of Hawaii Island’s Kilauea volcano continues to spatter and spew sulfur dioxide, as a recent video by USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists shows.

From the HVO website:

This Quicktime movie shows spattering that is typical at the margins of the lava lake in Halemaʻumaʻu crater. The slow migration of the lava lake surface is normally towards the area of spattering, where the lava sinks back into the magmatic system. Spatter in this clip is being thrown about 5-10 meters (yards) in height. Views like this are fleeting, however, with the thick gas plume shifting with the winds.

The lava lake has been putting on a show since late 2008, when it was first seen from above by an overflight. Since that time, the crater vent has enlarged, as rockfalls and rim collapses have steadily grown the fiery puka.

Scientists say the lava lake has been generally low at the summit, coinciding with a weak contraction at the summit that started on April 27th. “The summit lava lake levels also peaked on April 27, 2012,” wrote HVO in a recent Kilauea activity update, “and are now generally lower while fluctuating during DI and rise/fall events. Seismic tremor levels have been higher and the increase seems correlated with appearance of a new spattering sink along the southwest edge of the lava lake.”

However, Thursday night into Friday morning, another change. HVO says the summit contraction has slowed; back-to-back, days-long DI tilt events continued during which lava lake levels rose and fell with tilt.

Watch Video Here

Rise and fall of underwater volcano revealed

By David Shukman Science editor, BBC News

The researchers capture images of the underwater volcano using sonar

 

The violent rise and collapse of an underwater volcano in the Pacific Ocean is captured in startling clarity for the first time.

Researchers studying the Monowai volcano, near Tonga, recorded huge changes in height in just two weeks.

The images, gathered by sonar from a research ship, shed new light on the turbulent fate of submarine mountains.

Published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the findings were made during a seabed survey last year.

Underwater wonder

Lead author Tony Watts of Oxford University told the BBC that the revelation was “a wake-up call that the sea-floor may be more dynamic than we previously thought.”

“I’ve spent my career studying the seabed and have generally thought it pretty stable so it’s stunning to see so much change in such a short space of time.”

As many as 32,000 underwater mountains have been identified around the world and the majority are believed to be volcanic in origin. Several thousand of these may be active but a combination of ocean depth and remoteness means that very few have been studied.

This research into the Monowai volcano provides a fascinating insight into the little-known world of submarine geology.

Monowai was first spotted from an aircraft in 1944. Surveys over following years found evidence of significant change – with the sea discoloured and seismic activity detected. Studies between 1978 and 2007 showed the summit repeatedly rising and falling

But this latest analysis compared images gathered on May 14 and then June 1-2 last year and even in that short period the volcano had undergone a transformation.

Travelling on the research ship the R/V Sonne, the scientists first spotted that the sea above the volcano had turned a yellowy-green and gas bubbles were rising to the surface.

According to Professor Watts, “”I had butterflies. The gas was smelling awful – like rotten eggs. We saw a slick ahead of us and with something venting, there could have been a sudden shallowing of the water.”

The team then left the area to carry on with planned research elsewhere but three days later were warned that seismic detectors on the Cook Islands had detected violent activity around the volcano over a five-day period.

“If we had been over the volcano during the eruption, rocks could have hit the hull of the ship – that could have been potentially dangerous.”

Later the ship returned to the scene and the scientists were surprised to see how much the volcano had changed. In the space of a fortnight, one part of the volcano’s summit had collapsed by as much as 18.8m while new lava flows had raised another area by 79.1m. Most striking was the creation of an entirely new volcanic cone.

The researchers believe the changes are larger than at most other volcanoes. Only Vesuvius and Mount St Helens have recorded larger growth rates.

The paper says the speed of growth and change is “a reminder of how rapidly geological processes such as submarine landsliding and volcanism can occur.”

Professor Watts said: “Any movement on the seabed has the potential to create a tsunami. An earthquake suddenly dislocates the seabed. Here a violent disturbance lasted five days with magma oozing out which might be too slow to trigger a tsunami – but it’s unknown.

“This is a violent exchange of rock into the water – it could destabilise the cone and cause a landslide which in principle could cause a tsunami.

The same expedition’s survey produced stunning images last year of a line of underwater volcanoes being carried inexorably to the chasm of a subduction zone, the Tonga Trench.

That research was investigating whether the volcanoes exacerbated or dampened the pressures on the fault line.

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Extreme Temperatures/ Weather

Northeast Ohio wine grapes destroyed by hard freeze

Mark Johnson
newsnet5.com

It was what grape growers in Northern Ohio feared the most. Early Sunday morning, temperatures in the Grand River Valley vineyards of Lake and Ashtabula Counties dropped into the lower and middle 20s. That’s not just a quick frost. That’s a hard freeze. By 9 that morning, most of the primary buds, the growth that gives you the best fruit, were black and shriveled, killed by freezing temperatures.”It was devastating.” said Mary Jo Ferrante-Leaman, of Ferrante Winery in Geneva. “There was just nothing we could do.”

Leaman said the freeze killed 80 percent of this year’s wine grape crop. Ferrante Winery farms 45 acres of vinifera grapes in the prestigious Grand River Valley appellation east of Cleveland. The grape vines began growth early this year due to an extremely warm March. Growers at several area wineries have battled eleven different frost or freeze events from late March through the month of April. All had managed to save the majority of their crops. That is, until Sunday morning.

“We have 6 large wind machines to mix the air and keep the grapes warm,” Leaman said, “but once the temperature drops below 28 degrees for more than a couple of hours, freeze damage begins.”

Temperatures early Sunday were well below freezing for more than 6 hours. “We haven’t seen a freeze like this in at least 12 years,” said Leaman.

Similar reports are coming in from nearby Vineyards as well. Growers at St. Joseph’s Winery & Chalet Debonne report similar devastating losses.

Gene Sigel farms 170 acres of wine grapes in Lake and Ashtabula Counties. He said Monday’s cold “pretty much destroyed the whole 2012 vintage for our wine farmers.” Sigel supplies grapes to several wineries in the area.

“Vines that were brilliant green on Saturday afternoon,” lamented Sigel, “were turned to dry lifeless shoots by the frost on Sunday morning. Fields that stretch as far as the eye can see are simply all dead.”

Vines will grow new buds in a few weeks, Sigel said. The fruit on these buds will be smaller and of lesser quality.

“Fields that froze this week have not frozen in 50-60 years in our area.” he added, “In my case I just bought 54 acres of a neighboring farm last year that has never really frozen like this. The previous owner is 93 years old and has owned the farm I bought since 1956 and never experienced this complete a frost.”

Mary Jo Ferrante is hoping for the best. “With the secondary fruit set, we might be able to produce about a third of what we normally do.”

Ferrante Winery averages about 110-thousand gallons of wine per year. “We won’t have any signature or reserve wines this year.” she said.

On top of that, the cost of saving the grapes keeps mounting. Ferrante just spent $5,000 on propane for the wind machines. “More frosts are still possible.” said Ferrante, “We’ve got to save the grapes we have left.”

Today

Extreme Weather

China

Nanning

Extreme Weather in China on Monday, 14 May, 2012 at 06:10 (06:10 AM) UTC.

Description

Heavy rainstorms have battered several areas in Southern China, destroying houses and cropland. The rain comes after China’s national observatory upgraded the warning level from blue to yellow for a new round of rainstorms over the next few days.Torrential rains have affected South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Several cities, including the capital city Nanning, have issued their first red alert for torrential rain this year. The rain inundated roads and damaged old buildings in several cities.In Hunan province, local authorities say torrential rains have affected the lives of more than 1.9 million people and forced the relocation of almost 80,000 people.Elsewhere, Jiangxi Province was also hit by heavy rains, as the water in some rivers rose above warning levels. In Shicheng city, 84 houses were destroyed and over 1,500 hectares of crop land were inundated. Local authorities have evacuated more than 3,000 people, and continued to monitor the possible geological disasters.Finally, the continued rain raised the water level of a hydro power station in Nanping city, in Fujian Province. It forced the station to empty some of the water, in order to guard against possible heavy rain in the coming days.

13.05.2012

Extreme Weather

Nigeria

Cross River State ,

Extreme Weather in Nigeria on Sunday, 13 May, 2012 at 09:45 (09:45 AM) UTC.

Description

Four persons were reported dead while over 20 others sustained various degrees of injuries in recent windstorm that ravaged 13 out of the 18 local government areas of Cross River state. Of the four, three of them died as the result of tree trunks and walls of residential buildings that felt on them and one died of lightening strike.The injured are being treated in both orthodox and traditional hospitals while one with the fractured skull was referred to a specialist hospital in Enugu for surgery. Samuel Edom, a brother to one of the deceased, Mr. Ekam Ekpishoko (60) in Egoja – Ndim in Ogoja Local Government Area narrated that when the ominous cloud of rain enveloped the community at about 5:00pm on the fateful day everybody hurried to their homes for safety.The rain came down few minutes later in an unprecedented manner amidst windstorm that seemed determined to bringing down the entire community. Edom narrated further; “my brother was in his room with his family while I was in mine in the same building engaging in discussion in loud voices against the sound of the storm and suddenly I heard a loud sound of a tree falling and our home came crumbling down”.A 22 feet tall historic tree which stood about 20 metres from the house was uprooted by the storm and in the process of its falling crushed other nearby smaller trees including palm, mangoes, and oranges bringing down alongside surrounding houses.He said that after the crash, he called out to his brother but only heard wailing from the family members and that when he managed to limp due to injuries he sustained to his brother’s apartment, he found him lying dead, having been crushed by a tree branch. Over 15,000 residential homes, churches, recreational centres, schools, hospitals and market were affected by the storms that swept across the state.Many of the houses were completely uncapped while some were reduced to rumbles. About 20,000 persons were displaced majority of whom were women and children. While some of the victims were accommodated by neighbours, majority were sheltering helplessly in makeshift huts and in very miserable conditions.In his remark, the Yala Local Government Council chairman, Hon. Gabe Ugor said the Council was overwhelmed by the destruction caused by the storm. He appealed for urgent attention from the State and Federal Governments to provide succour to the affected persons.

13.05.2012

Extreme Weather

China

Hunan,

Extreme Weather in China on Sunday, 13 May, 2012 at 09:39 (09:39 AM) UTC.

Description

A bridge in China’s Hunan province has collapsed after days of torrential rain across the country.It is not known how many people were on the bridge when it buckled and fell into the river at around 8:30am (local time).Fire department official Su Tao told Xinhua that witnesses say they saw people falling into the water when the bridge collapsed.He says firefighters have not rescued anyone yet but some people have managed to climb ashore.It is estimated that up to 40 people have been killed in heavy rain and hailstorms in north-west China in the past few days.Nearly 3,500 homes have been destroyed, and about 29,000 people are sheltering in evacuation centres.

Excessive Heat Warning

PHOENIX AZ

Gale Warning

JUNEAU AK
ANCHORAGE ALASKA

Red Flag Warning

FIRE WEATHER MESSAGE

RENO NV
MEDFORD OR
LAS VEGAS NV

SALT LAKE CITY UT

Fire Weather Watch

GAYLORD MI

GRAND FORKS ND

ELKO NV

LAS VEGAS NV

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Storms, Flooding

More rain on the way after China hit by deadly storms

Zhou Ke / Xinhua via Zuma Press

A car is stranded in a flooded tunnel after a heavy rainstorm hit China’s Jiangxi Province on May 12, flooding roads in several cities.

China’s national observatory yesterday upgraded the warning level from blue to yellow for a new round of rainstorms expected to hit the country’s southern regions over next three days.

The National Meteorological Center urged local authorities in south China to strengthen monitoring and guard against possible geological disasters such as landslides.

The national observatory uses a four-tier color-coded weather warning system, with red being the most severe, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

— Reported by eastday.com

Read the full story.

AFP – Getty Images

A young girl makes her way along a mud-covered street after a storm hit the village of Minxian, China. Forty people were killed when a brief but violent hailstorm and torrential rain swept through a mountainous region of northwest China.

40 Die in Chinese Hailstorm

Agence France-Presse

© Signs of the Times

Forty people were killed when a brief but violent hailstorm and torrential rain swept through a mountainous region of northwest China, according to the local government.

Eighteen others remained missing in Min county, a disaster-prone area of Gansu province, while 87 had been sent to hospital, the county government said in a statement on its website.

Officials said 29,300 people had been evacuated after rain and hail battered the county for just 60 minutes late Thursday afternoon.

© Nie Jianjiang/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this May 11, 2012 photo released by China’ Xinhua News Agency, villager Jia Xinping, left, stands next to the remains of his house destroyed by hail and torrential rains in Minxian County in northwest China’s Gansu Province.

It had “wreaked havoc” on all of the county’s 18 townships and had affected more than two-thirds of its 450,000 residents, the state-controlled Xinhua news agency reported.

“Roads were blocked, houses collapsed, farmland was destroyed, and the power supply and telecommunications services were disrupted by the extreme weather,” the agency said, quoting Xu Guangyao, a senior county official.

Min county is 150 kilometres (94 miles) from Zhouqu county, where a rain-triggered mudslide killed about 1,500 people in August 2010.
http://www.reuters.com/resources_v2/flash/video_embed.swf?videoId=234874256&edition=BETAUS

Severe Thunderstorm Warning

SAN ANGELO TX

MIDLAND/ODESSA TX

Severe Thunderstorm Watch

MIDLAND/ODESSA TX

Widespread floods in Kenya kill 15 as 50,000 left homeless

The Citizen

Nairobi – Seven school children are among 15 people who have drowned in the last two days as heavy rains continue to wreak havoc across the country. They were swept away by floods on their way to school, many of which have been ordered closed.

This came as more than 50,000 people in three villages in Elgeyo-Marakwet County were asked to leave their homes for fear of landslides.A team of geologists from the Ministry of Lands toured Kittony, Embobut and Kakisoo villages and directed residents to leave as the heavy rains had eroded the grounds, raising the chances of a landslide.

Two years ago, 15 people were killed in Kittony village and many other injured in a landslide.

Relief agencies warned on Thursday the heavy rains had displaced more than 50,000 people, and destroyed property worth millions of shillings.

In Malindi, about 90 families that had been marooned by floods in Madunguni since Tuesday were rescued on Thursday by the provincial administration and the Red Cross.An 11-year-old class four pupil drowned after a motorcycle taxi he was riding on was swept away by a swollen river in Hamisi district.

Five people, among them three children, died in separate incidents in Central Kenya.In Meru, a nursery school pupil drowned in Mutonga River Gikui location.

The girl was crossing a makeshift bridge that links Keeria and Mutonga villages in Igoji when she slipped.”The young girl slipped and fell off the bridge on Wednesday at around 6.30 pm. The elder sister tried to rescue her but the raging waters overpowered her and a search party recovered the body two kilometres away from the scene of the accident,” said Igoji ward councillor John Kireria.

13.05.2012

Flash Flood

Georgia

Tbilisi [Kura River]

Flash Flood in Georgia on Sunday, 13 May, 2012 at 13:20 (01:20 PM) UTC.

Description

A flood killed five people in Georgia’s capital overnight after torrential rain caused the local river to burst its banks, officials said Sunday.The Agency for Emergency Situations said that a mother with her two children, an elderly woman and an elderly man died in Tbilisi’s Ortachala neighborhood after the Kura River flooded Saturday night. All five were trapped in their homes and crushed when the buildings collapsed. One of the children was six months old; the other was five. At least 30 people sought medical help.According to eyewitnesses, the water in some areas rose to 3 meters (10 feet) and lifted parked cars. Electricity was cut off in a number of neighborhoods.Tbilisi Mayor Gigi Ugulava pledged to provide financial assistance to all flood victims. He was unable to estimate the damage caused by the flood but said it was “quite substantial.”Georgia’s military was assisting the rescue effort by helping to clear debris and evacuate people from flooded areas.Rainy weather in Georgia is forecast for the next three days.

Flash Flood Watch

BLACKSBURG VA

MIDLAND/ODESSA TX

Flood Warning

ANCHORAGE AK

CORPUS CHRISTI TX

LINCOLN IL

AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX

LITTLE ROCK AR

MILWAUKEE/SULLIVAN WI

BOISE ID

Flood Watch

ANCHORAGE AK

FAIRBANKS AK

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Solar Activity

2MIN News May13: NICT Freakout, Spaceweather, Quake Watch

Published on May 13, 2012 by Suspicious0bservers

New Link: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/site/?pageid=event_desc&edis_id=ST-20120513-…

http://www.astrobio.net/pressrelease/4752/ultra-cool-companions-versus-giant-…
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/12/us-protests-idUSBRE84B0A720120512
http://spaceweather.com/
http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/
http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/data.html
http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/
http://umtof.umd.edu/pm/
http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater
http://www.ips.gov.au/HF_Systems/6/5
http://solarimg.org/artis/
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/cme-based/
http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php
http://ccmc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/SWMF_RealTime_browse.cgi
http://grb.sonoma.edu/
http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-torcon-index

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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
(2011 KY15)	15th May 2012	1 day(s)	0.1586	61.7	41 m – 93 m	17.61 km/s	63396 km/h
(2001 BA16)	18th May 2012	4 day(s)	0.1157	45.0	18 m – 41 m	6.66 km/s	23976 km/h
(2010 KK37)	19th May 2012	5 day(s)	0.0058	2.3	19 m – 43 m	10.94 km/s	39384 km/h
4183 Cuno	20th May 2012	6 day(s)	0.1218	47.4	3.5 km – 7.8 km	14.40 km/s	51840 km/h
(2006 KY67)	23rd May 2012	9 day(s)	0.1499	58.3	68 m – 150 m	13.88 km/s	49968 km/h
(2011 KG4)	24th May 2012	10 day(s)	0.1216	47.3	67 m – 150 m	11.50 km/s	41400 km/h
1 AU = ~150 million kilometers,1 LD = Lunar Distance = ~384,000 kilometers Source: NASA-NEO

Powerful Cosmic Force Almost Destroyed Earth  

MessageToEagle.com – In our article Powerful Jet Pointing Directly At Earth we discussed one of the most fascinating cosmic phenomena, known to astronomers as blazars.

A very interesting, but also frightening event took place back some years ago when satellites and observatories suddenly registered an extremely powerful cosmic force that almost destroyed Earth. The explosion, coming from the Bootes constellation was firing material directly toward Earth traveling at almost the speed of light.

The explosion formally named GRB 080319B was detected at 2:13 a.m. EDT on March 19, 2008. It came from the constellation of Bootes.

The event, called a gamma-ray burst, became bright enough for human eyes to see.

In a scientific report, Judith Racusin of Penn State University and a team of 92 coauthors state that observations across the spectrum began 30 minutes before the explosion and followed its afterglow for months.

The team concludes the burst’s extraordinary brightness arose from a jet that shot material directly toward Earth at 99.99995 percent the speed of light.

At the same moment Swift saw the burst, the Russian KONUS instrument on NASA’s Wind satellite also sensed the gamma rays and provided a wide view of their spectral structure.A robotic wide-field optical camera called “Pi of the Sky” in Chile simultaneously captured the burst’s first visible light.The system is operated by institutions from Poland. Within the next 15 seconds, the burst brightened enough to be visible in a dark sky to human eyes. It briefly crested at a magnitude of 5.3 on the astronomical brightness scale. Incredibly, the dying star was 7.5 billion light-years away.

Telescopes around the world already were studying the afterglow of another burst when GRB 080319B exploded just 10 degrees away.

TORTORA, a robotic wide-field optical camera operated in Chile with Russian-Italian collaboration, also caught the early light. TORTORA’s rapid imaging provided the most detailed look yet at visible light associated with a burst’s initial gamma-ray blast.

A powerful jet from the Bootes constellation was directed at Earth. Image credit: NASA

Immediately after the blast, Swift’s UltraViolet and Optical Telescope and X-Ray Telescope indicated they were effectively blinded. Racusin initially thought something was wrong. Within minutes, however, as reports from other observers arrived, it was clear this was a special event.

Gamma-ray bursts are the universe’s most luminous explosions. Most occur when massive stars run out of nuclear fuel. As a star’s core collapses, it creates a black hole or neutron star that, through processes not fully understood, drive powerful gas jets outward. These jets punch through the collapsing star. As the jets shoot into space, they strike gas previously shed by the star and heat it. That generates bright afterglows.

The team believes the jet directed toward Earth contained an ultra-fast component just 0.4 of a degree across. This core resided within a slightly less energetic jet about 20 times wider.

Gamma-ray bursts are the Universe’s most luminous explosions. Image credit: NASA

“It’s this wide jet that Swift usually sees from other bursts,” Racusin explained.“Maybe every gamma-ray burst contains a narrow jet, too, but astronomers miss them because we don’t see them head-on.”Such an alignment occurs by chance only about once a decade, so a GRB 080319B is a rare catch. Could then such a gamma-ray destroy life on Earth? That depends on the nature of the burst and its location. There are two type of gamma-ray bursts. There is a longer, brighter burst and a “short-hard” burst, which lasts less than a second but seems to give off more radiation than a longer burst. If a gamma-ray happened inside the Milky Way, its effects on Earth would be much longer lasting. These bursts of radiation reach the Earth’s atmosphere and cause free oxygen and nitrogen atoms to bang together, and some recombine into ozone-destroying compounds called nitrous oxides.

Short gamma-rays could be caused by dense neutron stars or colliding black holes.

According to researchers, such stellar collisions might occur once every 100 million years in any given galaxy. At this rate, Earth would have been hit by several of these short-hard events over the course of its 4.5-billion-year history.

It is possible that a short gamma-ray was responsible for at least one planet-wide extinction event in the past.

We do not know with certainty what would have happened if the powerful jet from the Bootes constellation would have hit our planet, but we can be thankful it missed our planet.

MessageToEagle.com

See also:
Gigantic Black Hole At The Centre Of The Milky Way Eats Asteroids

Sturm und Drang

 by Stephen Smith

The planet Uranus with a few of its moons. Credit: NASA/ESA and H. B. Hammel

 

Uranus recently erupted with a new bright region in its lower latitudes. Could electrical effects be responsible?

The planet Uranus revolves around the Sun at a mean orbital radius of 2,870,990,000 kilometers, 19 times as far as the Earth. Of course, its most exotic attribute is its inclination to the plane of the ecliptic: 98 degrees past vertical. Astrophysicists have always found the configuration difficult to explain, since their models of Solar System formation demand a distribution of angular momentum from the “primordial nebular cloud” that precludes a planet lying on its side. Their only recourse is to suggest that something hit the giant planet with enough energy to tip it over.

The average temperature on Uranus is -224 Celsius, giving it the distinction of being the coldest planet in the Solar System—colder than Neptune, although Neptune is half again the distance from the Sun. Why Uranus is so cold remains a mystery to planetary scientists.

Uranus possesses a magnetic field, but unlike its two large siblings, Jupiter and Saturn, whose magnetic poles are mostly aligned with their rotational axes, the field is slanted from Uranus’s rotational axis by 60 degrees. This fact also presents something of a conundrum for conventional cosmogony.

Why Uranus (and Neptune) have relatively weak magnetic fields is not easily explained. Standard theory expects a conducting core, probably composed of metallic hydrogen, to act as a dynamo to generate the field. An off-center core would be difficult to explain. However, in an Electric Universe model, an internal dynamo is not necessary. A probable scenario is that rotation of charged particles in the giant planet’s plasma gives rise to the field: a spinning, electrically charged body will induce a magnetic field.

Uranus is 51120 kilometers in diameter, rotating in approximately 18 hours, so the rotational dynamics of its electrically charged atmosphere produces a current sheet between it and Miranda, one of its small moons. The Uranian magnetosphere encompasses its entire family of moons and its ring system, as well.

According to a recent press release, a large bright region has appeared near the lower latitudes. Images taken in near infrared wavelengths by the Gemini North Telescope reveal what scientists are calling an “anvil cloud of methane” rising up from the depths into the sunshine. Reflections from methane ice crystals are supposed to be causing the bright patch.

Over the years, the Hubble Space Telescope has observed many bright spots on Uranus. They appear similar to the bright spots seen in Jupiter’s southern latitudes, as well as in its polar aurorae. The four Galilean moons all leave their marks in Jupiter’s aurora, so the same thing could be happening on Uranus.

On Saturn, a “great white spot” periodically appears in its southern latitudes. As Electric Universe advocate Wal Thornhill wrote: “Saturn occasionally ‘burps’, creating a great white spot 3 times the size of the Earth. It is inexplicable on standard models. However, it is the kind of thing to be expected following an exceptionally powerful lightning discharge deep into Saturn’s atmosphere. The discharge forms a vertical jet of matter from the depths that spouts into the upper atmosphere.”

Perhaps this explanation suits the observations on Uranus. Instead of convection-powered thunderheads of cold methane ice, the spots are jets from intense plasma discharges.

Stephen Smith

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Biological Hazard/Wildlife

More fish deaths in Periyar, India

For the second time in a week, massive fish deaths were reported from Pathalam belt in river Periyar, triggering alarm and protests.

Dead fish were found in bunches on the banks of river on Saturday morning. The local residents and councillors of Kadungalloor panchayat alerted the district Pollution Control Board officials who came and collected the samples of water and fish.

Local residents, fishermen, panchayat members and green activists of Periyar Malineekarana Virudha Samithi (PMVS) blocked the PCB officials when they came to collect the samples, in protest against the negligent attitude of the authorities in checking continuing fish deaths.

Later, police arrested the group of protesters led by panchayat members Joshy, Shiney Sajan, Geetha Sunil, Kabeer, Sudha Devi and activists of PMVS, Anwar C.I., Sainudeen Edayar and Mahesh.
According to environmental experts, low level or absence of oxygen is the major reason for the recurring fish deaths in Periyar.

A similar incident was reported on last Monday on the banks of river Periyar. Earlier, on May 3, fish deaths were reported on the banks of river Muttar, a tributary of Periyar. As per the report of the Pollution Control Board, the fish deaths were caused by lack of dissolved oxygen in river water and by entry of polluted water containing decayed waste into the river.

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Articles of Interest

Biology Stranger Than Fiction
Mind-Controlled Ants Turning Into Zombies12 May, 2012 MessageToEagle.com – Strange things happen in the world of biology. Have you ever heard of ants that can turn into zombies?

These amazing super-organisms that, as we have previosly seen created a huge secret underground megapolis can unfortunately also become deadly victims of mind-control.

For the first time ever, researchers can reveal how an entire ant colony is able to survive infestations by the zombie-ant fungus.

When brain-manipulating parasites invades an ant’s brain and causes it to march to its death at a mass grave near the ant colony, where the fungus spores erupt out of the ant’s head.

The parasite of the zombie-ant fungus is itself a fungus, a hyperparasitic fungus that specializes in attacking the parasite that turns the ants into zombies.

“The hyperparasitic fungus effectively castrates the zombie-ant fungus so it cannot spread its spores,” said Hughes, who is an assistant professor of entomology and biology, and a member of the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics at Penn State.

“Because the hyperparasitic fungi prevents the infected zombie-ant fungus from spreading spores, fewer of the ants will become zombies.”

As part of their research, the scientists created a detailed model that revealed previously unknown details of the interactions between the fungus-infected ants and the parasite-infected zombie-ant fungus.Scientists previously had known that ants defend their colonies against microscopic enemies such as fungal spores by efficiently grooming each other.In this study, the researchers also modeled the effect of ant behavior on limiting infection. “Interestingly, beyond the well known effect of defensive ant behavior, our new research reveals the added effect of the castrating actions of the hyperparasite fungi, which may result in significantly limiting the spread of the zombie-ant fungus” Hughes said.

Ants can become victims of mind-control and commit suicide.The scientists report that only about 6.5 percent of the spore-producing organs of the zombie-ant fungus were viable.

“Even though there are a lot of dead and infected zombie ants in the neighborhood, only a few of the spores of the zombie-ant fungus will become mature and able to infect healthy ants,” Hughes said.

“Our research indicates that the danger to the ant colony is much smaller than the high density of zombie-ant cadavers in the graveyard might suggest.

This complex interaction between ant colonies, their brain-manipulating parasites, and other fungi capable of lending assistance to the colony underscores the need to study social insects under natural conditions.”

Hughes said his team is expanding its efforts and “remains focused on following the exciting theatre played out on the rainforest floor.”

Nature never ceases to amaze!

MessageToEagle.com via Penn State

See also:
Amazing Giant Underground City Created By Ants Discovered

Unknown Energy Source Created The Image On The Shroud Of Turin
Scientists Suggest12 May, 2012 MessageToEagle.com – Few ancient relics have caused so much heated debated and controversy as the Shroud of Turin.

Is it a forgery or the shroud authentic?

This subject has been discussed for years among various experts.

Adding more fuel to the debate, a recent study indicates that the image on the Shroud was formed by a sort of electromagnetic source of energy. But how people living in medieval times have access to such advanced technology?

The study was conducted by a team of researchers from the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), Italy.

The researchers, including Paolo Di Lazzaro, Daniele Murra, Enrico Nichelatti, Antonino Santoni and Giuseppe Baldacchini, successfully created similar effects to the Shroud’s markings using ultraviolet light.

What kind of technology was used to create the image?

In an interview with The Telegraph, Dr Paolo Di Lazzaro was asked whether if this was the most plausible way the image on the Shroud of Turin could have been created?

“We obtained a coloration “similar” to that of the body image on the Shroud.

“Similar” means that it replicates several peculiar characteristics of the Shroud image, including the shallow penetration depth and the hue of color, the lack of fluorescence, and the absence of heating effects on the image formation.

However, our coloration still does not match 100 per cent of the physical and chemical characteristics of the Shroud image.

Till now, nobody was able to replicate all the body image characteristics.

This inability to repeat (and therefore falsify) the image on the Shroud makes it impossible to formulate a reliable hypothesis on how the body image was made.As a consequence, we cannot state ultraviolet light is the most plausible way the original marking was made.Certainly, the radiation-based attempts (ultraviolet light, corona discharge, protons) gave coloration results which are much closer to the Turin Shroud image than the contact paint or chemical attempts are. In particular, the recent results obtained by Prof Garlaschelli using acid, powders and paints show the incapacity of chemistry-based attempts to match the original characteristics at the microscopic level, “Dr. Di Lazzaro explained.

Shroud of TurinDoes Dr. Di Lazzaro’s studies suggest that the Shroud of Turin is not a medieval fake?

“All the attempts to replicate the body image on the Shroud were partially (often totally) unsuccessful.

We must admit it is not easy creating an image that is negative, has 3D encoded information, is extremely shallow, with the color intensity is determined by the surface density of fibrils all having the same RGB value, and which does not fluoresce under UV illumination.

Modern technologies seem unable to produce an image with the characteristics of the Shroud image, even using the most advanced tools like those used in our experiments.

As a consequence, it is unlikely that a forger could have created this image using technologies available in the Middle Ages.

In addition, we must consider the body image is not the only difficult-to-replicate marking.

On the Shroud there are also stains of blood with high levels of bilirubin which would be consistent with a haemolytic process caused by torture, eg whipping (the bilirubin content being only visible by UV lamps, such as those used by policemen to detect organic traces), there is the absence of image under the blood stains, and many other forensic details unknown in the Middle Ages.

How could the image have been produced 800 years ago without any access to modern advanced technology?

According to Prof Christopher Ramsey of the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, the radiocarbon dating results put the relic at 1260 – 1390AD. This means the Shroud of Turin is about 800 years old. This raises the question how our medieval ancestors could posses technology sophisticated enough to create an image that even our modern technology has difficulties to produce.

“I have no experience of radiocarbon dating. As a consequence, I have to accept the opinion of Prof Ramsey.

However, I note we have a problem: there is an object dated 1260AD that has a microscopic complexity such that it cannot be made by a forger in 1260AD.

Does Prof Ramsey have any idea how to solve this contradiction? Can we collaborate to find a solution? Is it possible to organise a team of experts that reconsider both dating and microscopic characteristics of this extraordinary image?” Dr. Di Lazzaro said.

When Dr. Di Lazzaro was asked if he believes the controversial Shroud of Turin could really be the burial clothes of Jesus, he replied: “As a scientist, I think we will never demonstrate the Shroud is the burial cloth of Christ.

Even if it will be shown this cloth is of the first century, we will have a probability, never a certainty. However, I have studied more than 60 peer-reviewed papers on this topic, analysed a lot of microphotographs and microscope images, read sophisticated spectral information, and considered many other scientific data available.

The more one studies the Shroud from a scientific perspective, the clearer it becomes that this image could not have been made by a forger, either medieval or modern. This allows to come back to the “question of questions”: how was the body image on the Shroud made? ”

It would seem that the controversy concerning the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin continues…

@ MessageToEagle.com

See also:

New Controversial Blood Test Determining How Long You Will Live Is Entering The Market

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