Earthquakes
RSOE EDIS
| Date/Time (UTC) | Magnitude | Area | Country | State/Prov./Gov. | Location | Risk | Source | Details | ||
| 09.08.2012 11:45:40 | 2.1 | Asia | Turkey | Mu?la | Yatagan |  |
 |
|
EMSC |  |
| 09.08.2012 11:46:04 | 3.4 | South-America | Chile | Bío-Bío | Lebu | |
|
|
EMSC | |
| 09.08.2012 11:15:44 | 2.5 | North America | United States | Alaska | Ugashik |  |
|
|
USGS-RSOE | |
| 09.08.2012 11:46:24 | 4.9 | South-America | Brazil | Estado de Pernambuco | Fernando de Noronha (Distrito Estadual) | |
|
|
EMSC | |
| 09.08.2012 11:20:30 | 4.9 | South America | Brazil | Estado de Pernambuco | Fernando de Noronha (Distrito Estadual) | |
|
|
USGS-RSOE | |
| 09.08.2012 11:46:41 | 2.1 | Asia | Turkey | Sivas | Nasir | |
|
|
EMSC | |
| 09.08.2012 10:50:30 | 2.2 | North America | United States | Hawaii | Honaunau-Napoopoo | |
|
|
USGS-RSOE | |
| 09.08.2012 10:25:32 | 2.2 | North America | United States | Alaska | Willow | |
|
|
USGS-RSOE | |
| 09.08.2012 10:40:23 | 4.8 | Europe | Russia | Kuril’sk | |
|
|
EMSC | |
|
| 09.08.2012 11:00:39 | 4.6 | Asia | Russia | Kuril’sk | |
|
|
USGS-RSOE | |
|
| 09.08.2012 11:01:40 | 3.7 | Pacific Ocean | New Zealand | Canterbury | Tai Tapu | |
|
|
GEONET | |
| 09.08.2012 11:02:11 | 4.9 | Pacific Ocean | New Zealand | Southland | Tuatapere | |
|
|
GEONET | |
| 09.08.2012 09:25:33 | 2.7 | North America | United States | Nevada | Mina | |
|
|
USGS-RSOE | |
| 09.08.2012 09:35:25 | 2.1 | Asia | Turkey | Mu?la | Bodrum | |
|
|
EMSC | |
| 09.08.2012 09:30:30 | 5.2 | Atlantic Ocean | Saint Helena | Saint Helena | Levelwood | |
|
|
USGS-RSOE | |
| 09.08.2012 09:35:44 | 5.2 | Atlantic Ocean – North | Saint Helena | Saint Helena | Levelwood | |
|
|
EMSC | |
| 09.08.2012 08:30:26 | 2.7 | Europe | Greece | West Greece | Rio | |
|
|
EMSC | |
| 09.08.2012 08:10:31 | 4.8 | Asia | India | Arun?chal Pradesh | Along | |
|
|
USGS-RSOE | |
| 09.08.2012 08:30:49 | 5.0 | Asia | India | Arun?chal Pradesh | Along | |
|
|
EMSC | |
| 09.08.2012 07:40:34 | 2.3 | North America | United States | California | Pearsonville | |
|
|
USGS-RSOE | |
| 09.08.2012 07:25:20 | 2.2 | Asia | Turkey | Yalova | Korukoy | |
|
|
EMSC | |
| 09.08.2012 06:46:08 | 2.6 | North America | United States | Alaska | Lowell Point | |
|
|
USGS-RSOE | |
| 09.08.2012 07:25:41 | 2.9 | Asia | Turkey | Manisa | Golmarmara | |
|
|
EMSC | |
| 09.08.2012 08:31:08 | 2.2 | Europe | Albania | Dibër | Shengjun | |
|
|
EMSC | |
| 09.08.2012 07:26:01 | 4.5 | North-America | United States | Oregon | Yachats | |
|
|
EMSC | |
| 09.08.2012 06:40:33 | 4.5 | North America | United States | Oregon | Yachats | |
|
|
USGS-RSOE | |
| 09.08.2012 07:26:45 | 2.2 | Europe | Greece | North Aegean | Skopelos | |
|
|
EMSC | |
| 09.08.2012 06:20:21 | 2.7 | Europe | Bosnia and Herzegovina | Republika Srpska | Sipovo | |
|
|
EMSC | |
| 09.08.2012 06:20:51 | 4.3 | Pacific Ocean – Middle | Solomon Islands | Lata | |
|
|
EMSC | |
|
| 09.08.2012 05:40:26 | 4.3 | Solomon Islands | Lata | |
|
|
USGS-RSOE | |
||
| 09.08.2012 06:21:13 | 2.7 | Europe | Greece | Thessaly | Armatolikon | |
|
|
EMSC | |
| 09.08.2012 05:15:32 | 2.3 | Europe | France | Alsace | Eschbach-au-Val | |
|
 |
EMSC | |
| 09.08.2012 07:50:21 | 2.6 | Caribbean | British Virgin Islands | Road Town | |
|
|
USGS-RSOE | |
|
| 09.08.2012 05:01:58 | 5.6 | Middle America | Mexico | Baja California Sur | Cabo San Lucas | |
|
|
USGS-RSOE | |
| 09.08.2012 05:15:55 | 5.1 | Middle-America | Mexico | Baja California Sur | Cabo San Lucas | |
|
|
EMSC | |
| 09.08.2012 05:16:26 | 4.6 | Indonesian Archipelago | Indonesia | South Sumatra | Pagaralam | |
|
|
EMSC | |
| 09.08.2012 04:35:31 | 4.6 | Indonesian archipelago | Indonesia | South Sumatra | Pagaralam | |
|
|
USGS-RSOE | |
| 09.08.2012 04:10:22 | 2.4 | Asia | Turkey | Van | Yuvacik | |
|
|
EMSC | |
| 09.08.2012 04:10:44 | 2.7 | Asia | Turkey | Nev?ehir | Kozakli | |
|
|
EMSC | |
| 09.08.2012 03:05:25 | 3.0 | Europe | Greece | West Macedonia | Livadheron | |
|
|
EMSC | |
| 09.08.2012 02:35:26 | 2.1 | North America | United States | California | Yorba Linda | |
|
|
USGS-RSOE | |
| 09.08.2012 03:05:46 | 2.0 | Asia | Turkey | Sakarya | Hendek | |
|
|
EMSC | |
| 09.08.2012 08:15:32 | 3.3 | Caribbean | Puerto Rico | San Juan | San Juan | |
|
|
USGS-RSOE | |
| 09.08.2012 07:27:05 | 4.1 | Europe | Russia | Tyva | Shagonar | |
|
|
EMSC | |
| 09.08.2012 01:35:30 | 2.8 | North America | United States | California | Cloverdale | |
|
|
USGS-RSOE | |
| 09.08.2012 07:27:24 | 3.0 | Asia | Azerbaijan | Neftçala | Sovetabad | |
|
|
EMSC | |
| 09.08.2012 05:16:49 | 2.2 | Europe | Romania | Paltin | |
|
|
EMSC | |
|
| 09.08.2012 02:00:27 | 3.3 | Europe | Greece | Central Greece | Domokos | |
|
|
EMSC | |
| 09.08.2012 02:00:53 | 5.3 | Atlantic Ocean – North | South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands | Grytviken | |
|
|
EMSC | |
|
| 09.08.2012 01:05:31 | 5.3 | Atlantic Ocean | South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands | Grytviken | |
|
|
USGS-RSOE | |
|
……………………………..
CORRECTED-Los Angeles rattled by two 4.5 quakes within 10 hours
(Corrects time of first quake to just after 11:20 p.m. in 3rd paragraph)
Aug 8 (Reuters) – A magnitude 4.5 earthquake struck near the Southern California town of Yorba Linda for the second time in just over 10 hours on Wednesday, rattling the Los Angeles area, but no damage or injuries were immediately reported.
The latest quake was recorded shortly after 9:30 a.m. (12:30 p.m. EDT) 2 miles (3 km) northeast of Yorba Linda, an affluent Orange County community southeast of Los Angeles that was the birthplace of the late former President Richard Nixon and houses his presidential library and museum.
It was centered about 5.5 miles (9 km) beneath the surface. The earlier temblor occurred at about 11:20 p.m. on Tuesday in about the same area at about the same depth, and was followed by more than a dozen smaller aftershocks overnight, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The two 4.5-magnitude quakes were both felt as far away as downtown Los Angeles, about 35 miles (56 km) away, where rattling and rumbling was felt for several seconds at a time.
Earthquakes measured at 4.5, capable of causing light to moderate damage close by, are considered fairly modest seismic disturbances and are relatively common in Southern California. (Reporting and writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Sandra Maler)
**********************************************************************************************************
Volcanic Activity
Are Volcanos the New Source of Geothermal Energy?
Here’s a scary thought: scientists are testing the idea of pumping water into the sides of a dormant volcano in Oregon at pressures great enough to evoke small earthquakes. Why? Apparently, the boiling bowels beneath our feet hold tremendous promise for geothermal energy.
According to a report MIT submitted to the Department of Energy, two percent of the heat some six miles below the ground could provide 2,500 times as much energy as the country currently uses. By employing a technique called Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), several million gallons of water are blasted at high pressures through artificial wells over 10,000 feet deep. When the water reaches the hot rocks, it returns to the surface through a second well as scalding hot water, where its heat can then be harvested for power.
Backed by the DOE, Google and others, AltaRock Energy and Davenport Newberry Holdings have been exploring ways to tap geothermal energy from the Pacific Northwest volcano, and will put their knowledge to the test this summer at Oregon’s Newberry Volcano.
Read More in Energy Digital’s Hottest Summer Issue
“We know the heat is there,” Susan Petty, president of AltaRock, told the Huffington Post. “The big issue is can we circulate enough water through the system to make it economic.”
Over the last century, engineers have been tapping the heat in the earth’s crust for power by gathering hot water or steam bubbling near the surface to spin turbines that create electricity. Places with hot rocks lacking cracks or water to deliver the stream is the new frontier. That’s where EGS comes into play.
“Hydrofracking” versus “Hydroshearing”
By drilling deep into the rocks where water is then pumped in, steam can be drawn out, a process known as hydroshearing. Though it sounds similar to hydrofracking, scientists claim that the technique used in this scenario is entirely different, which will not pollute groundwater with toxic chemicals.
But what about triggering earthquakes? The effects of pumping the water deep into the ground will be measured using sensors that will provide microseismicity data to scientists to ensure that the water is getting the right exposure and not triggering seismic activity. Fracking, on the hand, pumps wastewater deep underground, which has likely led to recent earthquakes in Arkansas and Ohio.
The team working on the project will be closely monitoring earthquake activity around sites like Newberry. Furthermore, a new international protocol came out earlier this year urging EGS developers to keep projects out of urban areas, while being upfront with local residents so they know what is going on.
The prospect of a major quake at Newberry is very low, according to Ernie Majer, a seismologist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. No significant faults exist in the area and it is far enough from population centers to make damages highly unlikely. The layers of volcanic ash built up over the millennia hinder any shaking.
“That’s the $64,000 question,” Majer said to the Huffington Post. “What’s the biggest earthquake we can have from induced seismicity that the public can worry about.”
Still, EGS is attractive, because unlike wind and solar, geothermal power is not dependent on weather conditions and it could significantly expand the potential of clean energy in the US. Although natural geothermal resources only account for about 0.3 percent of total US electricity production, MIT predicts that EGS could bump that number up to 10 percent within the next 50 years at prices competitive with fossil-fuels.
From there, the potential is even greater. Throughout the West, where hot rocks are especially close to the surface, geothermal could provide half the country’s electricity, according to a 2008 USGS assessment.
“The important question we need to answer now,” said Colin Williams, the USGS geophysicist who compiled the assessment, “is how geothermal fits into the renewable energy picture, and how EGS fits. How much it is going to cost, and how much is available.”
| 09.08.2012 | Volcano Activity | New Zealand | Northland, [Tongariro Volcano] |  |
|
Volcano Activity in New Zealand on Monday, 06 August, 2012 at 17:51 (05:51 PM) UTC.
| Updated: | Thursday, 09 August, 2012 at 06:24 UTC |
| Description | |
| It has now been confirmed that the White Island volcano erupted; the first time since 2001. White Island tended to have volcanic episodes which lasted a few months to a few years, so this could just be the start of more to come, GNS vulcanologist Michael Rosenberg said. Scientists were scrambling to figure out yesterday whether the volcano, off the coast of Whakatane, had erupted earlier this week, but a visit to the island this morning confirmed it had. An ash cloud of about 200-300 metres suggested it was a weak eruption, GNS vulcanologist Brad Scott said. “This is the first ash emission from White Island since February 2001 and represents the start of a new phase of volcanic activity at White Island,” Scott said. “Visitors to White Island are now at the highest level of risk since the end of the 2001 eruptions. ‘‘Additional hazards to visitors to the island now include the health effects of volcanic ash and acid gas exposure, including respiratory issues, skin and eye sensitivity to acid gases.” Black ash was still charging out of a vent on the south-west corner of the crater, while new craters had been formed from material ejected from the explosion, Scott said. The island showed volcanic activity at 11.30pm on Tuesday, less than 24 hours after Mt Tongariro erupted for the first time since 1897. Although the two volcanoes are on the same tectonic plate, the eruptions were not connected, Rosenberg said. While Mt Tongariro continued to emit steam and gas, White Island was now only emitting ash. Ashfall from White Island is isolated to the immediate area, which is 48km off the Bay of Plenty coast. The volcano is New Zealand’s most active and largest cone, but only a quarter of it is visible as the rest is under sea. It is privately-owned but is a hot tourist spot, with many sight-seeing tours by either boat or plane. The last big eruption, in 2000, saw a new vent develop, displaced the main crater lake and formed a new 150 metre-wide crater. It followed a series of eruption episodes, which first started in 1998 and ended in February, 2001, Rosenberg said. | |
New lakes formed by Mt Tongariro’s eruption
The Department of Conservation says three new lakes have been created by Mount Tongariro’s eruption on Monday night.
The weather improved enough on Wednesday morning for a helicopter carrying a team of scientists to fly over Te Maari craters for the first time since the eruption.
DoC’s Nic Peet says a stream that flows from the crater has been dammed by material from the volcano, forming three new lakes.
He says heavy rain may cause the lakes to overflow and for water to head down the mountain.
Steam billowing from the Te Maari area, as seen from the base of the Alpine Crossing.
PHOTO: RNZ
But it is estimated there is only up to 10,000 cubic metres of water that is dammed, which is smaller than the crater lake atop Mount Ruapehu.
GNS Science says there was also a debris flow streaming 2 km from the crater that destroyed everything in its path.
No further volcanic activity has been noted on Mt Tongariro but steam is still billowing from the Te Maari craters that erupted on Monday night, and authorities remain on alert.
Reporting from the base of the mountain on Wednesday morning, a Radio New Zealand reporter said steam was pouring from vents around the craters about one and a half kilometres from Ketetahi Hut.
GNS Science says three new vents formed in the eruption. One is thought to be at the northern end of the mountain peak and two are close together at the southern end.
Tape and traffic cones are blocking access to the Ketetahi carpark, as the Tongariro Alpine Crossing is currently closed, as are four huts on the mountain.
Weather conditions improved enough on Wednesday morning to allow an observation flight to go up and give scientists their first proper look at the mountain since the eruption: low cloud had prevented earlier efforts.
GNS Science vulcanologist Craig Miller says they hope to gather data that can be compared to data in recorded before the eruption.
He says a vehicle on the road below the mountain will also be taking readings from the plume of steam coming off Tongariro to measure the concentration of gas and what type of gases they are.
The official threat warning was lifted on Tuesday afternoon, but the mountain is still steaming and scientists say it could erupt again at any time with little or no warning.
Listen to more on Morning Report
| Today | Volcano Activity | Colombia | Departmento de Cauca, [Sotara volcano] | |
|
Volcano Activity in Colombia on Thursday, 09 August, 2012 at 07:46 (07:46 AM) UTC.
| Description | |
| The recent increase in seismic activity under Sotarà volcano promted INGEOMINAS to raise the alert level from yellow (unrest) to orange (eruption warning) yesterday afternoon. The increase had been detected on June 24, 2012 and since that date, 6891 earthquakes have been recorded, i.e. an average of 150 quakes per day. Most of them (5177) are of very small magnitude, but the remaining 1714 quakes were of significant energy (local magnitudes 0.1-2.2) and concentrated in an area between 0.1 and 5 km northeast of the volcanic summit at depths between 2 and 6 km. None of these events were felt by inhabitants of the communities surrounding the volcano Sotará. The deformation network shows a possible inflation process towards the northeast sector of the volcano, which correlates with the epicentral zone of seismicity reported and suggest that magma is rising there, and might (or might not) lead to an eruption in a near to medium future. During the month of July geochemical surveys showed no significant changes in temperatures of hot springs in the area. INGEOMINAS stresses that this activity does not pose any immediate danger to the communities aroud the volcano. However, it should be said as well that this could change quickly. |
***********************************************************************************************************
Extreme Temperatures/ Weather
| Today | Heat Wave | USA | State of California, [Southern regions] | |
|
Heat Wave in USA on Thursday, 09 August, 2012 at 06:00 (06:00 AM) UTC.
| Description | |
| Several record-high temperatures for the day were set Wednesday as Southern California continued to sizzle in a summer heat wave that could become even hotter in the coming days. Woodland Hills peaked at 107 degrees, breaking by 1 degree a record that was set in 1982, the National Weather Service said. Records were also set in Riverside County. Ramona hit 101 degrees. That broke a record of 99 set in 1998, forecasters said. Th desert community of Thermal hit 115 degrees, which beat a record of 114 recorded in 2004. Triple-digit temperatures were also recorded in places such as Palmdale, which topped out at 107 degrees, and Elsinore, where the high was 111 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. Downtown Los Angeles at USC was 89 degrees. Forecasters said Thursday and Friday could be the hottest days. The heat could couple with monsoonal moisture, sparking thunderstorms in mountain and valley areas. |
| Today | Heat Wave | USA | State of Nevada, [Las Vegas valley] | |
|
Heat Wave in USA on Thursday, 09 August, 2012 at 03:14 (03:14 AM) UTC.
| Description | |
| The Las Vegas valley is under an excessive heat warning until 9 p.m. Friday. Anyone out in the heat is advised to take precautions to avoid heat-related illnesses. Drink more water than usual and avoid alcohol, sugary drinks and very cold drinks, the Centers for Disease Control advises. The elderly, very young children and people with mental illness or chronic diseases are the most vulnerable. “Because heat-related deaths are preventable, people need to be aware of who is at greatest risk and what actions can be taken to prevent a heat-related illness or death,” the CDC reported. The warning went into effect at noon for areas below 4,000 feet in elevation. Several additional cooling stations opened Wednesday to assist those looking to get out of the heat. Because of a state law, NV Energy customers who are behind on their power bills will not have their power shut off on them during the heat wave. The daytime temperatures are expected to remain above 110 degrees for the next five to seven days. |
| 08.08.2012 | Heat Wave | USA | State of Arizona, Phoenix | |
|
Heat Wave in USA on Wednesday, 08 August, 2012 at 11:25 (11:25 AM) UTC.
| Description | |
| Valley agencies scrambled to beat the heat Tuesday as scorching temperatures soared over 110 degrees – as they will continue to for the rest of the week. “We are just going to sit in the heat,” said spokesman Mark O’Malley of the National Weather Service in Phoenix. “Down here in the Valley, it’s going to get between 110 to 115 degrees every single day through the weekend.” The National Weather Service extended its excessive-heat warning through Sunday evening. A very strong high-pressure system that ripped through Texas and Oklahoma, setting record highs there, is to blame for the unusually high temperatures that also are lasting an unusually long time, O’Malley said. Relief is on the horizon toward the middle of next week. The Phoenix Fire Department saw a spike in heat-related calls for exhaustion and dehydration, said spokesman Capt. Scott McDonald. He advised people to limit their outdoor exposure and to stay hydrated. In one case Tuesday, a 25-year-old lost hiker suffering from dehydration was rescued by paramedics and flown off Camelback Mountain by helicopter, McDonald said. Those hoping to escape the heat for other climes might see their plans temporarily foiled:The Federal Aviation Administration said flight delays are possible with such extreme heat, though no flights had been delayed as of Tuesday evening. On the ground, with temperatures on asphalt or concrete rising 15 to 20 degrees above air temperatures, Arizona Department of Transportation crews were advised to drink enough fluids, take adequate rest breaks, wear protective sun gear and use a buddy system to watch for early signs of heat-related illness in their co-workers. As of late Tuesday, no ADOT employees reported heat-related illnesses this week, but there have been three reports of non-fatal heat-related illnesses this summer, said spokesman Dustin Krugel. For the Valley’s poor and homeless residents, there was added help, too. The Salvation Army has been providing chilled water at stations throughout the Valley and will continue to do so today. On Monday, the charity distributed more than 1,260 bottles, said Melissa Axman, community-relations director. Additionally, Central Arizona Shelter Services is working with the Lodestar Day Resource Center to provide extra beds this week for homeless people seeking heat relief, officials said. As for how to stay cool, just use common sense, McDonald said. “Stay hydrated, stay inside, limit your time in the heat.” |
…………………………………..
Brutal July heat a new U.S. record
(CNN) — The July heat wave that wilted crops, shriveled rivers and fueled wildfires officially went into the books Wednesday as the hottest single month on record for the continental United States.
The average temperature across the Lower 48 was 77.6 degrees Fahrenheit, 3.3 degrees above the 20th-century average, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration reported. That edged out the previous high mark, set in 1936, by two-tenths of a degree, NOAA said.
In addition, the seven months of 2012 to date are the warmest of any year on record and were drier than average as well, NOAA said. U.S. forecasters started keeping records in 1895.
Animated map: U.S. drought in 2012
Drought killing future Christmas trees
Midwest farmers wait for rain
Ag. Secy. on drought relief distribution
Drought is good business for someAnd the past 12 months have been the warmest of any such period on record, topping a mark set between July 2011 and this past June. Every U.S. state except Washington experienced warmer-than-average temperatures, NOAA reported.
The high temperatures have contributed to a “rapid expansion” of drought across the central United States, NOAA found. Dozens of cities and towns already have seen the mercury hit record levels this summer, and three states — Nebraska, Kansas and Arkansas — saw record dry conditions between May and July.
That’s battered American farmers’ corn and soybean crops, driven farmers to sell or slaughter cattle they can’t feed and spurred the U.S. Department of Agriculture to designate more than half of all U.S. counties as disaster zones.
Think it’s hot? Imagine living here
NASA scientist links climate change, extreme weather
Past 12 months warmest ever recorded in U.S.
S. Korea heatwave kills more than 830,000 poultry
by Staff Writers
Seoul (AFP)
 |
South Korea’s extended heatwave has taken its toll on both humans and animals, with more than 830,000 chickens or other poultry reported dead as of Wednesday.
The agriculture ministry said 786,512 chickens, 40,780 ducks, 3,000 quail, 336 pigs and five cows have died since July 20, when the peak temperature began hovering above 33 Celsius (91.4 Fahrenheit) in most areas.
The stifling heat also killed seven people in June and July, the health ministry said, mostly elderly people working in fields or greenhouses.
Temperatures have stayed above 35 C for 12 days in much of the country, causing massive blooms of algae in rivers.
Sales of electric fans and air conditioners have soared. On Monday the state power company warned that reserves were dangerously low and urged people to switch off appliances, as usage reached a record.
The meteorological administration says relief is in sight starting Friday, with midday temperatures dropping to the customary August figure of 30C from the weekend.
Related Links
Weather News at TerraDaily.com
| 09.08.2012 | Extreme Weather | South Africa | [Statewide] |  |
|
Extreme Weather in South Africa on Wednesday, 08 August, 2012 at 08:39 (08:39 AM) UTC.
| Description | |
| People slowly came outside despite the cold wind Tuesday across South Africa, pointed their mobile phone cameras to the sky and opened their mouths to taste a rare snowfall that fell on much of the country. The snow began Tuesday morning, part of an extreme cold snap now biting into a nation still in its winter months. By mid-afternoon, officials recorded snowfall across most of South Africa. However, forecasters acknowledged snow remains so unusual that they typically aren’t prepared to provide details about snowfall in the nation. The snow closed some roads and at least one high-altitude pass. The snowfall also closed several border posts in the country. As the snow fell, workers at offices in Johannesburg rushed outside. Some twirled and danced as the flakes fell. One man rushed to the top of a snow-covered hill and slid down, using a cardboard box as an improvised toboggan. Despite the cold and the snow, beggars who line traffic lights in the city continued to ask passing motorists for cash. The snow grew heavier in the afternoon in Johannesburg, covering rooftops and slicking roads. Snowflakes are a rare commodity in Johannesburg, even during winter. South African Weather Service records show it has snowed in Johannesburg on only 22 other days in the last 103 years. The last snow fell there in June 2007. In Pretoria, the country’s capital, flurries filled the sky during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. It was the first snowfall there since 1968, the weather service said. The cold weather is expected to last a few days. |
Rare Snowfall Stuns Johannesburg
The Weather Channel
AP Photo
A man slides down a hill after a rare snowfall in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Tuesday, Aug. 7. Temperatures dropped to below freezing Tuesday morning as snow flurries blew through South Africa’s commercial hub, dusting the city in white.
AP Photo
People react to the rare snowfall in Johannesburg. The South African Weather Service says extreme cold will blanket much of the nation over the next few days.
JOHANNESBURG — People have poured out of offices, pointed mobile phone cameras to the sky and opened their mouths to taste a rare snowfall now blanketing South Africa’s city of Johannesburg.
The snow started falling Tuesday morning, sending workers rushing outside. Some twirled and danced as the flakes fell. One man rushed to the top of a snow-covered hill and slid down, using a cardboard box as an improvised toboggan. The snow grew heavier in the afternoon, covering rooftops and slicking roads.
Snowflakes are a rare commodity in Johannesburg, even as South Africa endures its winter months. The South African Weather Service says it has only snowed in Johannesburg 22 other days in the last 103 years. The service says snow last fell here in June 2007.
***********************************************************************************************************
Storms, Flooding
| Active tropical storm system(s) | ||||||||||
 |
||||||||||
| Name of storm system | Location | Formed | Last update | Last category | Course | Wind Speed | Gust | Wave | Source | Details |
| Ernesto (AL05) | Atlantic Ocean | 02.08.2012 | 09.08.2012 | Hurricane I | 270 ° | 111 km/h | 139 km/h | 7.32 m | NOAA NHC | |
Tropical Storm data
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kirogi (13W) | Pacific Ocean | 05.08.2012 | 09.08.2012 | Tropical Depression | 325 ° | 65 km/h | 83 km/h | 4.57 m | JTWC | |
Tropical Storm data
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kirogi (13W) | Pacific Ocean | 05.08.2012 | 09.08.2012 | Tropical Depression | 325 ° | 65 km/h | 83 km/h | 4.57 m | JTWC | |
Tropical Storm data
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gilma (07E) | Pacific Ocean – East | 07.08.2012 | 09.08.2012 | Hurricane II | 285 ° | 130 km/h | 157 km/h | 4.88 m | NOAA NHC | |
Tropical Storm data
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
…………………………………..
Ernesto Races Across Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula
Tropical Storm Ernesto spun across Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula Wednesday after forcing the evacuation of thousands of tourists and fishermen from beaches in Tulum and the Costa Maya.
There were no immediate reports of storm deaths or major damage, though Ernesto ripped down billboards, toppled trees and cut electricity service as it hit the cruise ship port of Mahahual shortly before midnight Tuesday as a hurricane with sustained winds of 85 mph (140 kph).
“In many places the windows were shattered,” said Flori Cruz, a 27-year-old cook from the beach town.
Ernesto had weakened to a tropical storm while moving over land Wednesday, with winds near 50 mph (85 kph), but it was expected to regain hurricane strength after emerging over the southern Gulf of Mexico in a region dotted with offshore oil rigs on course for a collision with the coast near the city of Veracruz.
The storm was located over the southwest part of the peninsula and was moving west at 15 mph (24 kph).
State oil company Petroleos Mexicanos announced Tuesday it was closely monitoring the storm, but did not report any plans to evacuate oil rigs.
Chetumal, the capital of Quintana Roo state, was the closest sizable city and officials moved more than 1,300 tourists there from resorts in Mahahual, Bacalar and other spots that were expected to see heavier rain and wind.
In the city of Tulum to the north, some 6,000 tourists sheltered in hotels away from the beach.
Luana Antonicelli, a 23-year-old tourist from Melbourne, Australia, said she and her 20-year-old brother left their beachfront cabana surrounded by tropical jungle and decided to spend the night at the Hotel Tulum, a 20-room, one-story building about two miles (three kilometers) inland.
“The people at our hotel told us to come into town because it’s too dangerous to stay there,” Antonicelli said.
She said most people at the Hotel Tulum were hunkering down inside their rooms even though it was only raining lightly Tuesday night.
“It’s a bit annoying because I want to be on the beach, but these things happen,” Antonicelli said, adding that she and her brother decided to stay outdoors as much as possible. “I see it as an adventure.”
Authorities also prepared two kindergartens in Tulum as shelters, and tourist guide Cruz Garcia came to one from Punta Allen, a low-lying coastal settlement.
“To be over there is a risk because the tide rises and there could be a disaster,” Garcia said, adding that he twice went through strong hurricanes while living in the neighboring state of Campeche.
Soldiers and police evacuated all residents of Punta Allen and other low-lying coastal settlements, said Luis Gamboa of Quintana Roo’s Civil Protection office.
Two cruise ships scheduled to dock on the Riviera Maya put off their arrival.
The storm struck south of the big resort areas of Cancun and the Riviera Maya, but officials prepared shelters there as a precaution.
On its way to Yucatan, the storm swirled over open sea parallel to Honduras’ northern coast, but officials there said the storm hadn’t caused damage or injuries.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Gilma neared hurricane strength in the Pacific Ocean about 645 miles (1,040 kilometers) southwest of the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California, with winds near 70 mph (110 kph). The storm was not expected to threaten land.
———
Associated Press writers Antonio Villegas in Tabasco, Mexico; Alberto Arce in Tegucigalpa, Honduras; and Luis Galeano in Managua, Nicaragua, contributed to this report.
Typhoon sows destruction after landing in China
by Staff Writers
Shanghai (AFP)
 |
A strong typhoon ploughed into China’s eastern coast on Wednesday, the country’s third in a week, knocking down buildings and cutting off power to hundreds of thousands of people, state media said.
Typhoon Haikui made landfall early on Wednesday morning in Zhejiang province south of Shanghai, after authorities moved more than 1.5 million residents out of the path of the storm, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Zhejiang had yet to report deaths or injuries, it added.
The typhoon quickly weakened after landing south of Ningbo city, the China Meteorological Administration said, but warned that Haikui was still packing winds of up to 137 kilometres (85 miles) per hour.
The storm had cut off electricity to nearly 400,000 households in Zhejiang province, Xinhua said. In Ningbo city two houses collapsed including a workers’ dormitory but firefighters rescued all twelve trapped people, it said.
Haikui did not make a direct hit on Shanghai, but officials warned the biggest impact might be from rain and wind later on Wednesday as the typhoon moved northwest through Zhejiang into Anhui province.
Shanghai, mainland China’s financial hub, raised its most severe typhoon signal, red, shortly before midday on Wednesday and urged people to stay home.
The central government was forecasting up to 400 millimetres (16 inches) of rain for some regions affected by the typhoon.
The Shanghai stock market opened for trading as usual, but flights at the city’s two airports were halted and some long-distance train services in eastern China were suspended, reports said.
Construction sites and public parks were ordered to be shut.
“The biggest influence of Haikui should occur today with large gales and heavy downpours,” Xu Ming, a researcher with the city’s weather bureau, told the Shanghai Daily.
Shanghai officials have moved 374,000 people to emergency shelters, amid fears the storm could be the worst since 2005, when Typhoon Matsa killed seven people in the city.
Haikui is the third typhoon to hit China in a week, after two battered other parts of the country over the weekend, killing 23 people, Xinhua reported earlier this week.
Typhoon Saola left 14 dead in the central province of Hubei while nine people were killed in the northeastern province of Liaoning by Typhoon Damrey, it said.
China is hit by typhoons every summer, normally affecting its eastern and southern regions.
Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
When the Earth Quakes
A world of storm and tempest
Philippine capital battles deadly floods
by Staff Writers
Manila (AFP)
 |
More than a million people in and around the Philippine capital battled deadly floods Wednesday as more rain fell, with neck-deep waters trapping both slum dwellers and the wealthy elite on rooftops.
Monsoon rains that have pounded Manila for more than a week eased slightly overnight, but the government said between 60 and 80 percent of the megacity remained under water, and the bad weather was likely to persist throughout the day.
“The roads in some areas are like rivers. People have to use boats to move around. All the roads and alleys are flooded,” civil defence chief Benito Ramos told AFP.
The death toll in Manila and nearby provinces rose to 20 on Wednesday, including nine members of one family who died in a landslide.
The worst hit parts of Manila were mostly the poorest districts, where millions of slum dwellers have built homes along riverbanks, the swampy surrounds of a huge lake, canals and other areas susceptible to flooding.
In Santo Domingo, a creekside shantytown, mother-of-three Anita Alterano recounted how her family escaped the floods that submerged their one-storey home by walking over the roofs of houses until they reached high ground.
“We initially just decided to climb up on the roof where we were safe but wet. We waited for rescuers but it took so long for anyone to notice us,” said Alterano, 43.
“So we got a rope, I tied myself to my husband and my children, we clambered from roof-to-roof… until we reached a school. But the problem is we have no water and food.”
Alterano spoke to AFP while wading through the waist-deep water trying to get back to her home to salvage some clothes and food.
Nearby, rescue workers from the local fire brigade tried to retrieve other residents still stranded on their roofs. But the fire brigade had only one, non-motorised aluminium dinghy.
Some of Manila’s richest districts were also affected, including the riverside community of Provident where water had inundated the ground floors of three-storey mansions.
Inside the gated village of about 2,000 homes, rescue workers on a motorised rubber boat drove past submerged luxury cars to retrieve children and the elderly from rooftops.
Across Manila and surrounding areas, 1.23 million people were affected by the floods, forcing 850,000 of them to seek help from rescue workers, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
Nearly 250,000 of them were sheltering in schools, gymnasiums and other buildings that have been turned into evacuation centres, while others were staying with relatives and friends, the council said.
Despite the chaos which paralysed much of the city on Tuesday, the government ordered its employees and private sector workers back to their jobs, while the stock market resumed trading.
Twenty people were confirmed killed in the latest barrage of rain that began on Monday, the council said, after two other provinces reported their first flood-related deaths.
They brought the number of people killed by the monsoon rains across the Philippines since late July to 73, according to authorities.
The Philippines endures about 20 major storms or typhoons each rainy season, many of which are deadly.
But this week’s floods in Manila, a sprawling city of 15 million people, were the worst in the capital since 2009, when tropical storm Ketsana killed more than 460 people.
The typhoons and storms typically start in the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean, then roar west towards the Philippines and onwards to other parts of southeast Asia, or further north to Taiwan, mainland China and Japan.
In China, authorities moved more than 1.5 million people out of the path of Typhoon Haikui before it slammed into the east coast on Wednesday morning.
China’s financial centre Shanghai avoided a direct hit, but flights and some train services were suspended there and officials warned the biggest impact might be from rainfall later on Wednesday.
Haikui was the third typhoon to hit China in a week, with 23 people dying in the barrage of storms, according to Chinese state media.
Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
When the Earth Quakes
A world of storm and tempest
Hurricane Ernesto makes landfall in Mexico
by Staff Writers
Cancun, Mexico (AFP)
 |
Hurricane Ernesto made landfall late Tuesday in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula after churning across the Caribbean Sea and drenching the coasts of Honduras and Belize, forecasters said.
Ernesto — a category one on the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale — struck land near the town of Mahahual in Mexico’s Quintana Roo state, the US National Hurricane Center said, citing radar data from Belize.
The storm — the second hurricane of the Atlantic season — was packing maximum sustained winds of 140 kilometers (85 miles) per hour and was moving west at a speed of 24 kph, the Miami-based center said in a bulletin.
The Yucatan peninsula is home to bustling holiday destinations such as the resort city of Cancun and the island of Cozumel, but authorities in Quintana Roo state noted that there were few tourists in the area where the storm hit.
Nevertheless, state tourism secretary Juan Carlos Gonzalez said more than 200 emergency shelters had been set up to accommodate more than 80,000 people if necessary.
Mexico’s defense ministry said it had mobilized about 1,000 soldiers to remain on alert in the area.
Hurricane warnings were in place along the entire coast of Belize and up the east coast of the Yucatan in Mexico as far as Cancun and Cozumel.
The storm, which began drenching Caribbean countries last week, was bringing high winds and heavy rain. In mountainous areas of Honduras, a total of up to eight inches (20 centimeters) of rainfall was possible, the NHC warned.
“These rains may produce life threatening flash floods and mudslides over higher terrain,” the NHC added.
This is the second hurricane, and the fifth named storm, in the Atlantic Ocean since the season began on June 1.
Chris, which strengthened to hurricane force on June 21, stayed far off land, and vanished without causing any damage.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has forecast a “less active season, compared to recent years.”
The agency predicts there could be between nine and 15 tropical storms before the season ends in November, of which around half could become hurricanes.
The forecasters predict just a handful will become more powerful — and dangerous — category three or higher storms.
Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
When the Earth Quakes
A world of storm and tempest
| 09.08.2012 | Flash Flood | Philippines | National Capital Region, Quezon City |  |
|
Flash Flood in Philippines on Tuesday, 07 August, 2012 at 05:30 (05:30 AM) UTC.
| Description | |
| Torrential rains pounding the Philippine capital on Tuesday paralyzed traffic as waist-deep floods triggered evacuations of tens of thousands of residents and the government suspended work in offices and schools. Incessant downpours set off by the seasonal monsoon overflowed major dams and rivers in Manila and nine surrounding provinces and put authorities on alert. The death toll from last week’s Typhoon Saola, which battered Manila and the northern Philippines for several days, has climbed steadily to 51. The head of the government’s rescue agency, Benito Ramos, said there were no immediate reports of new casualties early Tuesday after the rains pounded already saturated Manila for more than 24 hours. Vehicles and even heavy trucks struggled to navigate water-clogged roads, where hundreds of thousands of commuters were stranded overnight. Many cars were stuck in the muddy waters. The La Mesa dam, which supplies water to the capital of 12 million people, spilled excess water for a second time early Tuesday into the rivers flowing into Quezon city, a middle-class Manila suburb, as well as the neighborhoods of Malabon, Valenzuela and Caloocan, where several villages were submerged. Along the swollen Marikina River, police were deployed to move more than 5,000 residents away from the riverbanks in what Vice Mayor Jose Cadiz said was an enforced evacuation. The operation started after the City Hall sounded the alarm bell. The Philippine Stock Exchange in the financial district of Makati, which was also flooded, was closed Tuesday. Also closed was the U.S. Embassy along Manila Bay in the historic old city, which was drenched out last week when a storm surge pushed the water over the seawall. “The embassy is closed today due to excessive flooding in the streets and concern for the safety of our employees and consular applicants,” Ambassador Harry Thomas Jr. said in an announcement. |
************************************************************************************************************
Radiation / Nuclear
| 08.08.2012 | Nuclear Event | Belgium | Province of East Flanders, [Doel Nuclear Power Station] | |
|
Nuclear Event in Belgium on Wednesday, 08 August, 2012 at 18:29 (06:29 PM) UTC.
| Description | |
| Belgium has halted one of its seven nuclear reactors on suspicion that one of its components might be cracked, the country’s atomic power regulator said Wednesday. “We have found anomalies,” said Karina De Beule, spokesman for the ACFN, the federal agency for nuclear control. The agency is “evaluating these anomalies, if they can cause cracks,” De Beule said, adding that the 1,006-megawatt Doel 3 reactor will remain shut at least until the end of August. The incident–at the moment classified level 1 in a scale where Chernobyl-style explosions are level 7–risks triggering renewed controversy about the use of nuclear energy in Europe, where authorities are seeking to ensure safe operations at sometimes ageing reactors, while at the same guaranteeing a reliable electricity supply. Last year’s atomic scare in Japan has heightened public concerns about the dangers of using nuclear power, prompting several European nations to reconsider their energy provisions. Germany has said it will shut all its nuclear plants by 2022, and Belgium decided recently to stand by earlier plans to exit nuclear energy by 2025. De Beule said that several scenarios are possible, between two extremes: the anomalies might end up being nothing important, or more thorough analysis might find out that they threaten the integrity of the reactor. The news comes as the European Union’s executive body is working on the final version of a report about the safety of Europe’s nuclear plants. The Fukushima accident had such an effect on European public opinion that the EU decided to carry out safety checks, called stress tests, on all of its plants, and the results are due to be released by the end of the year. GDF Suez SA (GSZ.FR), the French energy giant that operates Belgian nuclear plants through its unit Electrabel, confirmed that the reactor will remain closed. “The reactor has been halted since June for regular control. Halt for maintenance has been extended, to allow additional inspections,” a company spokesman said. The incident has no impact on the health of workers, nearby residents or the environment, the company said. |
************************************************************************************************************
Climate Change
Research Links Extreme Summer Heat Events to Global Warming
by Staff Writers
Greenbelt, MD (SPX)
 Earth’s Northern Hemisphere over the past 30 years has seen more “hot” (orange), “very hot” (red) and “extremely hot” (brown) summers, compared to a base period defined in this study from 1951 to 1980. This visualization shows how the area experiencing “extremely hot” summers grows from nearly nonexistent during the base period to cover 12 percent of land in the Northern Hemisphere by 2011. Watch for the 2010 heat waves in Texas, Oklahoma and Mexico, or the 2011 heat waves the Middle East, Western Asia and Eastern Europe. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio. Download hi-res visualization. |
A new statistical analysis by NASA scientists has found that Earth’s land areas have become much more likely to experience an extreme summer heat wave than they were in the middle of the 20th century. The research was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The statistics show that the recent bouts of extremely warm summers, including the intense heat wave afflicting the U.S. Midwest this year, very likely are the consequence of global warming, according to lead author James Hansen of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York.
“This summer people are seeing extreme heat and agricultural impacts,” Hansen says. “We’re asserting that this is causally connected to global warming, and in this paper we present the scientific evidence for that.”
Hansen and colleagues analyzed mean summer temperatures since 1951 and showed that the odds have increased in recent decades for what they define as “hot,” “very hot” and “extremely hot” summers.
The researchers detailed how “extremely hot” summers are becoming far more routine. “Extremely hot” is defined as a mean summer temperature experienced by less than one percent of Earth’s land area between 1951 and 1980, the base period for this study. But since 2006, about 10 percent of land area across the Northern Hemisphere has experienced these temperatures each summer.
In 1988, Hansen first asserted that global warming would reach a point in the coming decades when the connection to extreme events would become more apparent. While some warming should coincide with a noticeable boost in extreme events, the natural variability in climate and weather can be so large as to disguise the trend.
To distinguish the trend from natural variability, Hansen and colleagues turned to statistics. In this study, the GISS team including Makiko Sato and Reto Ruedy did not focus on the causes of temperature change. Instead the researchers analyzed surface temperature data to establish the growing frequency of extreme heat events in the past 30 years, a period in which the temperature data show an overall warming trend.
NASA climatologists have long collected data on global temperature anomalies, which describe how much warming or cooling regions of the world have experienced when compared with the 1951 to 1980 base period. In this study, the researchers employ a bell curve to illustrate how those anomalies are changing.
A bell curve is a tool frequently used by statisticians and society. School teachers who grade “on the curve” use a bell curve to designate the mean score as a C, the top of the bell. The curve falls off equally to both sides, showing that fewer students receive B and D grades and even fewer receive A and F grades.
Hansen and colleagues found that a bell curve was a good fit to summertime temperature anomalies for the base period of relatively stable climate from 1951 to 1980. Mean temperature is centered at the top of the bell curve. Decreasing in frequency to the left of center are “cold,” “very cold” and “extremely cold” events. Decreasing in frequency to the right of center are “hot,” “very hot” and “extremely hot” events.
Plotting bell curves for the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, the team noticed the entire curve shifted to the right, meaning that more hot events are the new normal. The curve also flattened and widened, indicating a wider range of variability.
Specifically, an average of 75 percent of land area across Earth experienced summers in the “hot” category during the past decade, compared to only 33 percent during the 1951 to 1980 base period. Widening of the curve also led to the designation of the new category of outlier events labeled “extremely hot,” which were almost nonexistent in the base period.
Hansen says this summer is shaping up to fall into the new extreme category. “Such anomalies were infrequent in the climate prior to the warming of the past 30 years, so statistics let us say with a high degree of confidence that we would not have had such an extreme anomaly this summer in the absence of global warming,” he says.
Other regions around the world also have felt the heat of global warming, according to the study. Global maps of temperature anomalies show that heat waves in Texas, Oklahoma and Mexico in 2011, and in the Middle East, Western Asia and Eastern Europe in 2010 fall into the new “extremely hot” category.
Related Links
Goddard Space Flight Center
The New Climate Dice
A Common Sense Climate Index: Is Climate Changing Noticeably?
GISS Surface Air Temperature Analysis
NASA GISS: Dr. James E. Hansen
Weather News at TerraDaily.com
************************************************************************************************************
Solar Activity
3MIN News August 8, 2012: Noctilucent Clouds
Published on Aug 8, 2012 by Suspicious0bservers
TODAY’S LINKS
Meteor Smoke: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/07aug_meteorsmoke/
China Typhoon: http://www.weather.com/news/deadly-typhoon-china-20120806
Snow in South Africa: http://www.weather.com/news/rare-snow-johannesburg-20120807
Satellites: http://www.rt.com/news/proton-rocket-emergency-situation-024/
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]
NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/cme-based/ [CME Evolution]
NOAA Bouys: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/
RSOE: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php [That cool alert map I use]
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]
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!]
************************************************************************************************************
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 | |||
| (2009 BW2) | 09th August 2012 | 0 day(s) | 0.0337 | 13.1 | 25 m – 56 m | 5.27 km/s | 18972 km/h | ||
| 277475 (2005 WK4) | 09th August 2012 | 0 day(s) | 0.1283 | 49.9 | 260 m – 580 m | 6.18 km/s | 22248 km/h | ||
| (2004 SC56) | 09th August 2012 | 0 day(s) | 0.0811 | 31.6 | 74 m – 170 m | 10.57 km/s | 38052 km/h | ||
| (2008 AF4) | 10th August 2012 | 1 day(s) | 0.1936 | 75.3 | 310 m – 690 m | 16.05 km/s | 57780 km/h | ||
| 37655 Illapa | 12th August 2012 | 3 day(s) | 0.0951 | 37.0 | 770 m – 1.7 km | 28.73 km/s | 103428 km/h | ||
| (2012 HS15) | 14th August 2012 | 5 day(s) | 0.1803 | 70.2 | 220 m – 490 m | 11.54 km/s | 41544 km/h | ||
| 4581 Asclepius | 16th August 2012 | 7 day(s) | 0.1079 | 42.0 | 220 m – 490 m | 13.48 km/s | 48528 km/h | ||
| (2008 TC4) | 18th August 2012 | 9 day(s) | 0.1937 | 75.4 | 140 m – 300 m | 17.34 km/s | 62424 km/h | ||
| (2006 CV) | 20th August 2012 | 11 day(s) | 0.1744 | 67.9 | 290 m – 640 m | 13.24 km/s | 47664 km/h | ||
| (2012 EC) | 20th August 2012 | 11 day(s) | 0.0815 | 31.7 | 56 m – 130 m | 5.57 km/s | 20052 km/h | ||
| 162421 (2000 ET70) | 21st August 2012 | 12 day(s) | 0.1503 | 58.5 | 640 m – 1.4 km | 12.92 km/s | 46512 km/h | ||
| (2007 WU3) | 21st August 2012 | 12 day(s) | 0.1954 | 76.0 | 56 m – 120 m | 5.25 km/s | 18900 km/h | ||
| (2012 BB14) | 24th August 2012 | 15 day(s) | 0.1234 | 48.0 | 27 m – 60 m | 2.58 km/s | 9288 km/h | ||
|
|||||||||
……………………….
Meteor Smoke Makes Strange Clouds
| Play ScienceCast Video | Join Mailing List |
August 7, 2012: Anyone who’s ever seen a noctilucent cloud or “NLC” would agree: They look alien. The electric-blue ripples and pale tendrils of NLCs reaching across the night sky resemble something from another world.
Researchers say that’s not far off. A key ingredient for the mysterious clouds comes from outer space.
“We’ve detected bits of ‘meteor smoke’ imbedded in noctilucent clouds,” reports James Russell of Hampton University, principal investigator of NASA’s AIM mission to study the phenomenon. “This discovery supports the theory that meteor dust is the nucleating agent around which NLCs form.”
Noctilucent clouds are a mystery dating back to the late 19th century. Northern sky watchers first noticed them in 1885 about two years after the eruption of Krakatoa. Ash from the Indonesian volcano caused such splendid sunsets that evening sky watching became a worldwide past time. One observer in particular, a German named T.W. Backhouse who is often credited with the discovery of NLCs, noticed something odd. He stayed outside longer than most people, long enough for the twilight to fully darken, and on some nights he saw wispy filaments glowing electric blue against the black sky. Scientists of the day figured they were some manifestation of volcanic dust.
Eventually Krakatoa’s ash settled and the sunsets faded, but strangely the noctilucent clouds didn’t go away. They’re still present today, stronger than ever. Researchers aren’t sure what role Krakatoa’s ash played in those early sightings. One thing is clear, however: The dust behind the clouds we see now is space dust.
Mark Hervig of the company GATS, Inc, led the team that found the extraterrestrial connection.
“Using AIM’s Solar Occultation for Ice Experiment (SOFIE), we found that about 3% of each ice crystal in a noctilucent cloud is meteoritic,” says Hervig.
The inner solar system is littered with meteoroids of all shapes and sizes–from asteroid-sized chunks of rock to microscopic specks of dust. Every day Earth scoops up tons of the material, mostly the small stuff. When meteoroids hit our atmosphere and burn up, they leave behind a haze of tiny particles suspended 70 km to 100 km above Earth’s surface.
It’s no coincidence that NLCs form 83 km high, squarely inside the meteor smoke zone.
Specks of meteor smoke act as gathering points where water molecules can assemble themselves into ice crystals. The process is called “nucleation.”
Nucleation happens all the time in the lower atmosphere. In ordinary clouds, airborne specks of dust and even living microbes can serve as nucleation sites. Tiny ice crystals, drops of water, and snowflakes grow around these particles, falling to Earth if and when they become heavy enough.
Nucleating agents are especially important in the ethereal realm of NLCs. The clouds form at the edge of space where the air pressure is little more than vacuum. The odds of two water molecules meeting is slim, and of sticking together slimmer still.
Meteor smoke helps beat the odds. According AIM data, ice crystals can grow around meteoritic dust to sizes ranging from 20 to 70 nanometers. For comparison, cirrus clouds in the lower atmosphere where water is abundant contain crystals 10 to 100 times larger.
The small size of the ice crystals explains the clouds’ blue color. Small particles tend to scatter short wavelengths of light (blue) more strongly than long wavelengths (red). So when a beam of sunlight hits an NLC, blue is the color that gets scattered down to Earth.
Meteor smoke explains much about NLCs, but a key mystery remains: Why are the clouds brightening and spreading?
In the 19th century, NLCs were confined to high latitudes—places like Canada and Scandinavia. In recent times, however, they have been spotted as far south as Colorado, Utah and Nebraska. The reason, Russell believes, is climate change. One of the greenhouse gases that has become more abundant in Earth’s atmosphere since the 19th century is methane. It comes from landfills, natural gas and petroleum systems, agricultural activities, and coal mining.
It turns out that methane boosts NLCs.
Russell explains: “When methane makes its way into the upper atmosphere, it is oxidized by a complex series of reactions to form water vapor. This extra water vapor is then available to grow ice crystals for NLCs.”
If this idea is correct, noctilucent clouds are a sort of “canary in a coal mine” for one of the most important greenhouse gases.
And that, says Russell, is a great reason to study them. “Noctilucent clouds might look alien, but they’re telling us something very important about our own planet.”
Author: Dr. Tony Phillips| Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA
| More Information |
|---|
|
AIM (Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere) — mission home page Strange Clouds — Science@NASA Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery — spaceweather.com NLC Observing tips: Look west 30 to 60 minutes after sunset when the Sun has dipped 6o to 16o below the horizon. If you see luminous blue-white tendrils spreading across the sky, you’ve probably spotted a noctilucent cloud. Although noctilucent clouds appear most often at arctic latitudes, they have been sighted in recent years as far south as Colorado, Utah and Nebraska. NLCs are seasonal, appearing most often in late spring and summer. In the northern hemisphere, the best time to look would be between mid-May and the end of August. |
*************************************************************************************************************
Earth
A Brand New “Blue Marble” View of Earth
by Nancy Atkinson
Want to stay on top of all the space news? Follow @universetoday on Twitter
Europe’s latest geostationary weather satellite has captured its first image of Earth, and it’s a beauty! The Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) instrument on the Meteosat Second Generation-3 (MSG-3) satellite was launched on July 5, 2012, and has since been in the commission stage. ESA says it will still be a couple of months before it is ready for operations.
SEVIRI provides enhanced weather coverage for Europe and Africa in order to improve very short range forecasts, in particular for rapidly developing thunder storms or fog. It scans Earth’s surface and atmosphere every 15 minutes in 12 different wavelengths, to track cloud development. SEVIRI can pick out features as small as a kilometer across in the visible bands, and three kilometers in the infrared.
MSG-3 is the third in a series of four satellites. In addition to its weather-watching mission and collection of climate records, MSG-3 has two secondary payloads.
The Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget sensor measures both the amount of solar energy that is reflected back into space and the infrared energy radiated by the Earth system, to better understand climate processes.
A Search & Rescue transponder will turn the satellite into a relay for distress signals from emergency beacons.
You can see a high resolution version of the image from ESA here.
Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/96673/a-brand-new-blue-marble-view-of-earth/#ixzz230NvNLjb
*************************************************************************************************************
Biological Hazards / Wildlife / Hazmat Environmental Pollution
| Today | Biological Hazard | USA | State of Colorado, [Logan County] | |
|
Biological Hazard in USA on Thursday, 09 August, 2012 at 03:21 (03:21 AM) UTC.
| Description | |
| A deadly disease that hasn’t been seen in Colorado for 31-years has been found in the northeast part of state. The Colorado Department of Agriculture is currently investigating an anthrax case in Logan County; one deceased cow is confirmed to have been infected with the disease, approximately 50 dead cattle are suspected to have been exposed. One location has tested positive and adjacent ranchers are being notified. No cattle left the location prior to the quarantine. No cattle entered the food chain. “The risk is minimal outside the affected ranch. We believe, at this point, that anthrax is confined to that specific premises,” said State Veterinarian, Dr. Keith Roehr. “Colorado has not had an anthrax case in 31 years but anthrax outbreaks are not uncommon in the Western United States. We are dedicated to providing the necessary response to ensure that the investigation works quickly to limit the spread of this disease.” The premises has been quarantined and people, cattle, and equipment that may have come into contact with anthrax are being monitored during this investigation. “Our focus is on the potential for human exposure,” said Dr. Tony Cappello, district public health administrator for the Northeast Colorado Health Department.”We are currently conducting our own public health investigation and contacting individuals that have been involved with the livestock. Anthrax is not spread from person to person and exposure is limited only to those who had contact with the affected cattle or the immediate area.” Anthrax can develop naturally in soil; the spores can become active in association with periods of marked climatic or ecologic change such as heavy rainfall, flooding or drought which can then expose the anthrax spores to grazing livestock. Outbreaks of anthrax are commonly associated with neutral or alkaline soils. In these areas the spores apparently revert to the vegetative form and multiply to infectious levels so that cattle, horses, mules, sheep and goats may readily become infected when grazing such areas. Anthrax is a serious disease because it can cause the rapid loss of a large number of animals in a very short time. Often, animals are found dead with no illness detected. Appropriate carcass disposal is being used to prevent further soil contamination. Producers should consult their veterinarians and vaccinate their livestock, if deemed appropriate. Humans or animals can become infected by coming in contact with infected animals, soil or water. Anthrax infection can be treated with antibiotics, especially if caught in the early stages. | |
| Biohazard name: | Anthrax (cow) |
| 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 | China | Province of Jiangsu, Lianyungang [Ganyu County] | |
|
Biological Hazard in China on Thursday, 09 August, 2012 at 03:20 (03:20 AM) UTC.
| Description | |
| Two villagers are being treated at a local hospital for anthrax, an infectious disease, in Ganyu county, Lianyungang, East China’s Jiangsu Province. “There are indeed two villagers who have diagnosed of anthrax in the county, but we are not very clear on the details,” an unidentified staffer at the disease control and prevention center of Lianyungang, told the Global Times. The two villagers were sent to the Lianyungang No.4 People’s Hospital with swollen, festering and blackened skin. Laboratory tests confirmed they are suffering from the highly infectious disease. Five other villages with skin irritations have been quarantined. The seven villagers, along with three others, slaughtered a sick bull that had been transported from another province. The three villagers who have not shown any symptoms are taking preventive medication. The source of anthrax infection is herbivores including cattle, sheep and mules. It is listed as a Grade-B infectious disease by Chinese authorities. Anyone who comes in close contact with an animal stricken by anthrax will be infected. “Every year China has anthrax cases, which can be treated with antibiotics,” reported guokr.com, a Chinese science website. | |
| Biohazard name: | Anthrax |
| 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 Georgia, Cornelia | |
|
Biological Hazard in USA on Thursday, 09 August, 2012 at 03:16 (03:16 AM) UTC.
| Description | |
| Cornelia officials are urging people who live within about one-half mile of Irvin and Hoyt streets to exercise extra caution as a possibly rabid cat is loose in that area. “At approximately 7:30 [Wednesday] morning, I received a call from dispatch alerting me of a person that had called in on Irvin Street … and reported that a cat had attacked her at the addresses around 356 and 367 Irvin Street,” said Cornelia Animal Control Officer Corey Palmer. “She advised dispatch that the cat just came out and attacked her. It had no provocation.” “That’s a tell-tale sign of rabies,” said Cornelia Chief Marshal Jeff Barron. Palmer and Animal Control Officer Richard Burton responded to Irvin Street. Upon pulling up near the old Fleming Foodservice building, Palmer said another vehicle stopped and told him she had been bitten as well, but had not had a chance to report it yet. “She got attacked,” Palmer said. “She said she came out to her car and the cat was underneath the car, and it just came out from underneath, no big deal. Then, all of a sudden, the cat was crawling up her leg and bit her.”The ACOs began looking for the cat, but had no luck locating it. A black cat that was located was shown to the victim, who said it was not the one that attacked her. Shortly thereafter, a person living on Hoyt Street reported that he had gotten scratched by the cat. That was the last time anyone had contact with the cat, until shortly after 1 p.m. At that time, the cat was reported to be in the area of the former Fleming Foodservice on Irvin Street. Animal control officers again responded, with no contact with the cat. Prior to the second sighting, the cat’s initial victim, who asked that her name not be used, described what happened when she was attacked. “I was walking down Irvin Street to Fieldale,” the victim said, adding the cat was coming down the road across from house number 367. “The cat was coming down that road and it starts running at me, and it just runs up the back of my leg and grabs a hold and bites me,” she said. She said the cat later got her hand when she tried to shield a woman and children that were walking by the animal. The cat remained at large late Wednesday afternoon. City officials ask those in the area to take extra precautions when walking, to keep their pets inside, and to closely monitor children playing outside until the animal has been caught. | |
| Biohazard name: | Rabies (cat) |
| 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: | suspected |
| Today | Biological Hazard | USA | State of Texas, Pflugerville | |
|
Biological Hazard in USA on Thursday, 09 August, 2012 at 03:11 (03:11 AM) UTC.
| Description | |
| A swarm of Africanized bees attacked four people and shut down a business park in Pflugerville Wednesday morning. The intersection around Rowe Ln. and FM 685 was shut down for nearly four hours while emergency crews worked to round up the buzzing pests. The colony of bees, which reportedly numbered between 100 and 200 thousand, had built their hive in some old office furniture that was disposed of in front of a local business in the area. As an employee walked into his place of employment, located on Rowe Ln., the bees became agitated and started to attack. The man was taken to the hospital with more than 300 bee stings, according to Austin/Travis County EMS. A Pflugerville motorcycle patrol officer was stung upon first arriving on the scene, and two other men who were also working at the site were attacked. According to bee expert Keith Huddle, the situation could have been a lot worse. “They could have easily been the first deaths of the year. The death count is amazingly low considering the other years,” said Huddle. Huddle removed the colony and the queen from the hive. All four of the victims are expected to make a full recovery. EMS urged people to stay away from the area Wednesday morning into the afternoon due to the high bee activity in the area. The intersection around Rowe Ln. and FM 685 has been reopened. | |
| Biohazard name: | Bees attack (Africanized bees) |
| Biohazard level: | 0/4 — |
| Biohazard desc.: | This does not included biological hazard category. |
| Symptoms: | |
| Status: | |
…………………………………….
Following Chevron fire, respiratory complaints, calls for transparent investigation
Richmond Confidential
Two burnt smokestakes were visible at the Chevron refinery Tuesday morning. Photo by Tyler Orsburn.
Richmond residents this morning woke up to the lingering smell of burnt oil from Chevron’s Richmond Refinery, which caught fire last night following a leak. Firefighters and engineers at the plant put the main fire out early this morning, and Chevron reported that its engineers were monitoring a controlled burn as a safety measure to contain pressure.
Cyclists head towards Point Richmond, a suburb that overlooks the refinery.
Hundreds of Richmond residents have reported suffering from a variety of respiratory problems following the fire that gutted part of Chevron’s Richmond Refinery Monday night, according to a press release circulated by Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo.
The center, which activated its Incident Command Center shortly after the fire erupted in Chevron’s diesel refinery, admitted 181 residents overnight complaining of eye irritation and respiratory ailments after inhaling smoke from the fire. “Now that people are waking up, DMC is currently experiencing a second wave of individuals seeking services,” the center reported in a statement released Tuesday morning. “We expect, and are prepared for, a high demand at the hospital throughout the day.”
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District, which sent inspectors to take air samples Monday night, released an announcement Tuesday morning that results are expected later this afternoon. In the meantime, they stated, “Local air quality monitors show minimal impacts from the fire, with pollution levels well below the federal health standards. Weather conditions were favorable at the time of the incident – surface winds were light and heat pushed the smoke upwards where stronger winds aloft helped to disperse it.”
On the streets and in recreational areas around the 2,900-acre refinery, which borders a park on its western edge, residents woke up to the aftermath of the blaze, with a strong smell of burnt oil still saturating the air as a grey pall of smoke lingered over the hills.
“It does smell really bad this morning, much worse than last night,” said Randy Williams, a Richmond resident who went on his early morning bike ride along I-580. “We thought it would be better now that the fire seems to be out.”
Rick Gerrod, a Richmond resident, drove to the eastern edge of the Richmond Bridge early this morning, one of the worst affected areas downwind from the plant and photographed wildlife in the park area.
Rick Gerrod sits in his car outside Chevron’s premises on Richmond Parkway.
“It smells like oil. I could go and see a doctor if I wanted, and get a diagnosis saying I have a respiratory illness as well,” Gerrod said. “Chevron is in the business of making money, they aren’t doing themselves much good if they’re blowing themselves up and setting themselves on fire.”
This came as Richmond mayor Gayle McLaughlin called on Chevron to be fully accountable to local authorities on the effects of the fire on the community and the environment. McLaughlin said the city would demand full transparency in investigations to establish the full impact of the refinery fire on the health of Richmond residents and the environment.
“We live with this potential bomb, if you will, in the city of Richmond,” McLaughlin said. “We’ve had these explosions of one magnitude or another ever few years. In 2007 there was a fire as well and it wasn’t this big, but it brought forward a lot of concerns.”
McLaughlin said Chevron has not always been forthcoming with information on the environmental and health effects of its operations in Richmond, often using proprietary protection as a way of withholding information. “Chevron needs to be very forthright with what potential problems may occur again. Then we can weigh in on whether or not that it’s acceptable,” she said. “Our interest is for the protection of our residents. Big corporations like Chevron has its profits as its bottom line but for the city of Richmond and its residents our health is the bottom line.”
Chevron’s refinery sits on a 2,900-acre property that borders the park.
McLaughlin said the city would seek the assistance of independent investigators and scientists in reviewing the data collected in environmental impact and air quality assessments following the fire. ”We want to know what type of toxins were in smoke that has been released. There’s been a filing with the state that indicates there were diesel-grade materials,” McLaughlin said.
The fire may also have an economic cost to the city, she said. Some businesses in Point Richmond were forced to close early and BART shut down two stations as people scurried indoors in compliance with the shelter-in-place called after the fire broke out. “Many people lost work time, people were unable to get the kind of transportation they needed. I think community impact data is very valuable,” McLaughlin said.
In a statement, Chevron said the main fire had been extinguished by 7:15 am Tuesday morning, and safety officials had allowed a small controlled burn as a safety measure to reduce pressure.
Chevron’s Richmond Refinery was still smouldering this morning.
“This is helping to ensure more hydrocarbons don’t escape,” the statement read. “This is similar in concept to how refineries utilize flares.”
The company is hosting a town hall meeting tonight at 6 pm at the Richmond Memorial Auditorium.
Chevron’s handling of the fire has met with mixed reactions from residents, with some saying the corporation handled the public fallout from the accident well, while others have reservations.
“Chevron is a good neighbor,” said the owner of a Point Richmond coffee shop who did not wish to give her name.The shop receives a lot of business from the Chevron plant, which employs at least 1,200 people. “If it wasn’t for Chevron, we wouldn’t be getting any business here,” she said.
Concerns have been raised over Richmond’s phone alert system, with many residents saying they did not receive alerts after the outbreak of the fire. McLaughlin said the phone alert system issue would be on the agenda for the town hall meeting.
“I think that’s an ongoing issue of concern,” she said. “I got many calls and emails from residents that they weren’t called at all or called three hours later. … People said they saw the bellows of black smoke before any sirens went into effect. It should be tightened up so everything happens in a 1-2-3 way. As soon as accident occurs sirens should go off and robo-calls should go out immediately.”
The town hall is expected to allow residents to weigh in on what should be done to reduce the impact of Chevron’s operations on the health of the community and the environment, she said.
“The issue of Chevron in our community has been an issue as far as, probably as far back as 1902, but certainly in recent years,” she said. “We want to have them understand the concerns of the community. This is not a community that is just trying to raise issues for the sake of bashing Chevron. This is a community that has direct experience of going through these periodic explosions and fires that have caused problems, concerns and fears in their lives. It is up to residents to get voices further heard and I’ll work to give them every opportunity to be heard.”
Andres Soto, Richmond organizer for Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), the environmental justice organization that forced Chevron to review its project proposal for an upgrade of the plant after suing the oil giant over a shoddy environmental impact report, disputed Chevron’s version of the events that led to the fire at the Richmond refinery. ”People throughout the community heard a series of explosions and Chevron is saying that there were no explosions,” Soto said.
He also said that environmental watchdogs want to know more about the liquid that has been burning. “The unit that blew up is the unit where the crude oil first comes into the refinery and they start warming it up. That allows the oil to be diverted in to different parts of the refinery and turned in to gasoline and jet fuel and other pesticides,” said Soto. “Question becomes, what kind of crude is in there — is it dirty crude or lighter crude? Either way there is a whole slew of highly volatile chemicals that are produced and that’s what was spewed out in to the environment.”
Soto said the chemicals released into the air following yesterday’s blaze could include sulfur compounds, hydrocarbons and and trace metals, all of which pose health hazards. Representatives from CBE are expected to participate in the town hall meeting tonight and will hold a rally at 5:30 prior to the meeting in front of the Richmond Auditorium.
“We plan on having community members there to speak out about what they’re doing at the refinery that is so problematic, as well as the complete inadequacy of the warning system,” Soto said. “What we know is that stuff is going to eventually come down. If it comes down into El Sobrante, there is potential for it to get into the water supply. This is a regional issue.”
Update 4:15 pm: In a press release, Doctors Medical Center has updated the total number of patients seen with smoke-related complaints since the fire started to “over 300.” The main complaints continue to be eye irritation and respiratory problems, the medical group stated.
For people who are concerned they may be suffering from smoke-related illnesses, please follow Contra Costa County’s Public Health Department Guidelines at www. cchealth.org/emergencies and seek services when needed.
You can read our previous coverage, with photos submitted by readers, here. You can read our full archive of Chevron-related stories here.
Mexico destroys 8 mn chickens amid bird flu outbreak
by Staff Writers
Mexico City (AFP)
 |
Eight million chickens have so far been slaughtered in Mexico and 66 million more were vaccinated in a bid to contain a bird flu outbreak in the west of the country, authorities said Tuesday.
The agriculture ministry said in a statement that during the vaccination process in the Los Altos region of Jalisco state, diseased chickens were identified, leading to the destruction of the flu-carrying fowl.
Food safety officials say the outbreak, which was first detected on June 20, is confined to Los Altos, which is an egg-producing area. Inspections in other parts of the country have not turned up any signs of the disease.
A national animal health emergency was declared at the beginning of July, and the prices of both eggs and chickens have skyrocketed.
Mexican authorities hope to vaccinate 80 million fowl in the first phase of its program, and then analyze the results before proceeding to phase two.
The virus responsible for the outbreak, H7N3, has occasionally caused human disease in various parts of the world, according to the United Nations, but has not shown itself to be easily transmittable between humans.
Some bird flu strains, such as H5N1, have caused serious infections in people. The World Health Organization has documented 607 human cases of bird flu since 2003, 358 of which were fatal, according to July data.
Authorities in Guatemala have stepped up safety checks on its border with Mexico to keep bird flu from spreading into the country.
Related Links
Epidemics on Earth – Bird Flu, HIV/AIDS, Ebola
| 08.08.2012 | Environment Pollution | Ghana | Brong-Ahafo Region, [Ahafo Mine (Newmont Gold Ghana Limited)] | |
|
Environment Pollution in Ghana on Wednesday, 08 August, 2012 at 11:19 (11:19 AM) UTC.
| Description | |
| The Centre for Environmental Impact Analysis (CEIA), an environmental integrity non-governmental organisation, said the 3,000 fishes that were discovered dead in a dam at Newmont Gold Ghana Limited (NGGL) Ahafo Mine on January 3, 2012 was as a result of cyanide spillage. A report published by CEIA said toxicological analysis of water in the dam where the dead fishes were discovered indicated the presence of large concentration of cyanide and other heavy metals – by-products of gold mining activities. Newmont had attributed the fish-kill to over-population of fish and depletion in oxygen supply, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has since January 3, 2012 to date not published the results of its investigations into the incident. CEIA presented the results to farmers living in hamlets and cottages surrounding the dam at Damso on Wednesday August 1, 2012. Mr Samuel Obiri, a Researcher at CEIA, who made the presentation, said quantities of chemicals used in the manufacture of pesticides and other agro-chemicals such as DDT found were negligible and, therefore, could not have caused the fish-kill. He said the cyanide in the dam water sample was 1,400 per cent above the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) level for safe water while that in the fish sample was 80 per cent above it.Mr Obiri said the presence of arsenic in the water was 5,830 per cent above WHO’s safety level while that in the fish was 383 per cent above it. He said cadmium was 190 per cent above WHO safety level in the water sample and that in the fish was 575 per cent above the safety level. Mr Obiri commended the farmers for not picking the dead fishes for sale in the markets at Ahafo Kenyasi; Sunyani, Kumasi or Accra. “You could have picked them, smoked them and sent them to Accra to go to sell them. More than 3,000 fishes could have been sold for more than GH¢200 and that of course is a huge amount at the rural economy level,” he said. During question time, Mr Morin Lebi, a farmer, wondered whether they could drink water from boreholes since it had become apparent that dangerous chemicals had been seeping from the tailings dam into the fresh water dam. Forty-eight farmers from the surrounding hamlets and cottages attended the meeting. Mr Kwame Agbeko Azumah, Communication Manager of the NGGL Ahafo Mine, told GNA that they have not yet received a copy of the report and would respond appropriately when it was made available to them. According to a committee set up by the government, Newmont in October 2009, misinformed the public about the extent of cyanide spillage at its Ahafo Mine, and added that NGGL was negligent and accused the Company of attempting to cover up the extent of the cyanide spillage. The committee imposed a fine of seven million Ghana Cedis on the company, which it paid. |
**************************************************************************************************************
Articles of Interest
ALERT Crust Destabilization Happening NOW 8.08.2012
Published on Aug 8, 2012 by ichicax4
61% of people believe an event will happen soon, only 15% are prepared for it.
Tracks are shifting, sinkholes, sand geysers, bride collapses, gas releases…we have had NUMEROUS reports of high radiation levels in many cities over the past week…remember prior to the Japan earthquake huge quantities of radon gas were released from fault zones.
MIT article here: http://www.technologyreview.com/view/424033/atmosphere-above-japan-heated-rap…
How close do you live to a nuke plant: http://money.cnn.com/news/specials/nuclear_power_plants_locations/
It appears our crust is destabilizing…please post any videos or links to sinkholes, train derailments, or other anomalies that I may have missed.
Google Map of events: https://maps.google.com/?authuser=0
Washington State: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2180067/Roy-Rosalee-Ballinger-watch-h…
Sand Geyser/New Madrid Interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69JefpPAlxo&feature=player_embedded
Missouri: http://articles.ky3.com/2012-08-06/sinkhole-swallows-part_33070373
Baltimore: http://www.abc2news.com/dpp/news/region/baltimore_city/water-main-break-flood…
Brooklyn: http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-bay-ridge-sinkhole-20120801,0,2386815.story
Philadelphia: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/photo-galleries/2012/07/23/south-philadelphi…
Monmouth Beach, New Jersey: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Jersey-Shore-Sinkholes-Monmouth-Beach-14…
Cherry Hill, New Jersey: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48466502/ns/local_news-philadelphia_pa/
Atlanta: http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/sinkhole-closes-part-of-1489079.html
Santa Barbara, CA: http://www.noozhawk.com/article/073112_highway_192_at_westmont_road_sinkhole/
Louisiana: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLcVmCEpF5g&feature=player_embedded
St. Lawrence derailment: http://poleshift.ning.com/profiles/blogs/fatal-train-derailment-on-the-st-law…
Raliegh, WV: http://www.wvnstv.com/story/19189386/bridge-collapse-behind-raleigh-train-der…
and http://www.register-herald.com/todaysfrontpage/x44823996/Roadways-blocked-aft…
Florida: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bn5T2mUR5Zg
Florida again, a few blocks away: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLdr5AJCgqg&feature=player_embedded
Atlanta again, this time derailment: http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/story/19171626/train-derails-in
Know County, Indiana: http://www.14news.com/story/19176504/train-dereailment-in-knox-co
Cramerton, NC: http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/Investigation-clean–165297876.html
Waxhaw, NC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi3nTHGx4ic&feature=player_embedded#!
Gaston County, NC: http://www.digtriad.com/news/local/article/239478/57/Train-Derails-In-Gaston-…
Union County, NC (from May): http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=14704390
Buenos Aires, Argentina: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/06/2935952/argentine-commuter-train-derail…
Morocco: http://english.sina.com/world/2012/0802/492542.html
Sinkhole, Montana: http://www.nbcmontana.com/news/Sinkhole-threatens-Butte-woman-s-home/-/145946…
Erie Canal, Albany, NY: http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article983557.ece
Willard, Montana: http://articles.ky3.com/2012-08-06/sinkhole-swallows-part_33070373
Additional links from sub added 8.9.2012:
*************************************************************************************************************
[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.]
The eruption sent ash clouds over the area, causing disruptions to flights
A man pushes his bicycle through murky floodwaters in Quezon City in suburban Manila, Philippines JAY DIRECTO/AFP/Getty Images
Family Survival Protocol - Microcosm News 
