SIO15-2012: Natural Disasters

Source: Steve Newman at the San Diego Union Tribune

Earthwatches

September 24, 2012

September 17, 2012

September 10, 2012

September 3, 2012

August 27, 2012

August 20, 2012

August 13, 2012

August 6, 2012

July 30, 2012

July 23, 2012

July 16, 2012

July 9, 2012

July 2, 2012

June 25, 2012

June 18, 2012

June 11, 2012

June 4, 2012

May 21, 2012

May 14, 2012

May 7, 2012

April 23, 2012

April 16, 2012

April 9, 2012

April 2, 2012

March 26, 2012

March 19, 2012

March 12, 2012

March 5, 2012

February 27, 2012

February 20, 2012

February 13, 2012

February 6, 2012

January 30, 2012

January 23, 2012

January 16, 2012

January 9, 2012

September 24, 2012 (for week ending September 21st)

Earthquakes:

• Residents in the Indian state of Sikkim panicked when a relatively mild tremor [magnitude 4.1] struck as memorial services were being held for victims of a quake that killed more than 100 people in the region exactly one year earlier. There were no reports of injuries or damage.
• Earth movements were also felt in Sumatra [magnitude 6.3] and New Zealand capital of Wellington [magnitude 3.3.




Tropical Cyclones:

• Super Typhoon Sanba lashed Okinawa with wind gusts of up to 155 mph before taking aim on South Korea. The third major storm to hit the Korean Peninsula in two months uprooted trees and left at least two people dead in landslides. Also, remnants of Hurricane Nadine brought rain and gusty winds to the Azores. Hurricane Lane spun out and dissipated well off Mexico's Pacific coast.




Eruption of Fire:

The sixth explosive eruption so far this year at Guatemala's Fuego (fire) volcano prompted evacuations and sent some nearby residents to clinics with respiratory ailments triggered by falling ash. Ten shelters were opened to house some of the more than 33,000 people evacuated from areas considered hazardous due to lava flows and dense ash plumes. The volcano is near Guatemala's colonial capital of Antigua.



Dark Arctic Threat:

The U.N. warns that pollution created in the Arctic from oil and gas industries and expanding ice-free shipping could cause the recent record thaw to accelerate even further. The United Nations Environment program cautions that those activities create soot, or black carbon, which falls on the ice and darkens it. That makes the surface soak up more solar heat, accelerating the melt, experts warn. Sea ice on the Arctic Ocean dwindled this month to the smallest coverage ever observed, shrinking 18 percent from the same time last year.



Fisheries Disaster:

The Atlantic waters off the northeastern United States warmed to the highest levels ever recorded during the first six months of 2012, from the surface down to the ocean floor, according to a new government report. NOAA's latest Ecosystems Advisory declared a fisheries disaster in parts of the area, known as the Northeast Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem, due to the record warmth's effects on cold-water fish species. The average sea surface temperature from North Carolina to Maine was just over 50.5 degrees from January to June, compared with the long-term average of about 48 degrees.


• Extreme Temperatures: -120 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 112 deg F Sharjah, U.A.E

September 17, 2012 (for week ending September 14th)

Earthquakes:

• Earth movements were also felt in western China [magnitude 5.7] and New Zealand [magnitude 6.1].




Tropical Cyclones:

• Hurricane Leslie passed harmlessly to the east of Bermuda, while Hurricane Nadine churned the open waters of the central Atlantic.
• Typhoon Sanba was bearing down on Okinawa late in the week.




Eruption:

Three powerful blasts from Nicaragua's San Cristobal volcano prompted authorities to evacuate about 3,000 people from communities around the Central American nation's tallest mountain. Ash soared more than 15,000 feet into the sky and rained down on the nearby towns of El Viejo, El Concho, and Rancheria, according to the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies (INETER). The agency said that activity within San Cristobal had subsided considerably, but could still produce further blasts. The 5,740 foot volcano is located about 90 miles northwest of Managua and has been active since at least 1520. INETER reported that two other volcanoes, Telica and Apoyeque, had shown signs of unrest in recent weeks.



Answer in the Wind:

The Earth provides enough wind energy to power all of the planet's electricity needs for years to come, according to a new study by U.S. researchers. A team from Stanford University and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California used a computer model to show the maximum amount of power that could be produced by the winds. Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change, the researchers say they found that up to 2,200 terawatts of power could be generated by turbines at the surface and aloft, which is more than 100 times the current global power consumption. They say that by spreading out the turbines, rather than clustering them in a few regions, they could extract wind energy with little effect on the overall climate. At the current level of global energy demand, wind turbines might affect surface temperature by about 0.2 degrees Fahrenheit, and affect precipitation by about 1 percent, the report concludes.


• Wildlife Fence:
  A Kenyan organization announced it will build a 6-foot high electrified fence designed to encircle the country's famed Mount Kenya and keep wildlife there inside. Animals that live on the slopes of Mount Kenya, such as elephants, stray outside park boundaries and inflict damage on nearby farms. The nonprofit group Rhino Ark says it will take five years to complete the 250-mile fence, with the first 30-mile stretch expected to be finishing by the beginning of 2014. Kenya's government, which is sponsoring and partially funding the $11 million project, says the level of electrical shock from the fence will not be high enough to harm any people or animals that might come in contact with it. A similar fence was erected over a 12-year period in Kenya's Aberdare Mountains.



• Extreme Temperatures: -113 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 116 deg F Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia

September 10, 2012 (for week ending September 7th)

Earthquakes:

• A wide swath of Coast Rica was jolted by a magnitude 7.6 temblor that wrecked homes and triggered landslides. The shaking lasted for about 30 seconds and was felt in Panama and Nicaragua.
• A massive temblor centered off the eastern coast of the Philippines killed on woman as it caused scattered damage in the region [magnitude 7.6].
• Earth movements were also felt in the Indonesian resort of Bali [magnitude 6.4], eastern Iran [magnitude 5.2], the southwestern Philippines [magnitude 5.8], and Beverly Hills in Southern California [magnitude 3.3].




Tropical Cyclones:

• Hurricane Leslie was bearing down on the Atlantic Island of Bermuda late in the week.
• Tropical Storm Michael passed over open waters of the mid-Atlantic, while Tropical Storm John weakened off Mexico's Pacific coast.




Volcano of Fire:

One of Central America's most active volcanoes spewed lava and ash plumes near Guatemala's colonial-era capital of Antigua. The country's geophysics agency said the eruption of Fuego (fire) volcano lasted 28 hours. Ash fell on nearby villages and towns, reducing visibility.



Water Trap:

More than 70 Kenyan fishermen who became trapped by water hyacinth on Lake Victoria were forced to abandon their boats and be rescued by helicopter. The ordeal had begun to take its toll on the men's health, prompting the extraordinary rescue by the Kenya Wildlife Service. Wind had blown masses of the weed into the boats' paths.



International Alert:

U.S. health officials have warned tourists from across the nation and from 39 other countries that they could have contracted a deadly rodent-borne disease while visiting Yosemite National Park. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention says an unprecedented outbreak of hantavirus has killed two of the six people know to have been infected when they stayed in some of the park's cabins between June 10 and Aug. 24. The disease is spread through the urine, droppings or saliva of infected rodents. Symptoms usually take between one and six weeks to emerge in humans. It's feared that as many as 10,000 park visitors could be at risk of coming down with the disease.


• Crow Extermination:
  Tanzanian officials are using a new weapon to eradicate a species of crow that has plagued the East African country since being introduced as a gift to the sultan in 1897. The Indian house crow steals food directly from humans and carries off valuables such as watches, earrings, and even kitchen utensils. Thousands of the birds have been killed since August with use of the chemical DRC 1339, or the Ralston-Purina product Starlicide. It has been deployed in bait around the capital, Dar es Salaam. The eradication program is funded by Denmark, Finland, and the U.S.



• Extreme Temperatures: -106 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 116 deg F Medina, Saudi Arabia

September 3, 2012 (for week ending August 31st)

Earthquakes:

• The strongest pair of more than 400 earthquakes to strike Southern California's southern desert region within four days caused scattered damage as they flung items off shelves. Most of the damage from the 5.3 to 5.5 magnitude quakes was around Brawley.
• Earth movements were also felt in El Salvador [magnitude 7.3] and Italy [magnitude 4.5].




Tropical Cyclones:

• New Orleans and the Central Gulf Coast were drenched and battered for more than a day by slowly moving Hurricane Isaac.
• At least 18 people died in South Korea when Typhoon Bolaven became the strongest such storm to strike the country in a decade. It had earlier raked Okinawa.
• Taiwan was hit twice by two separate swipes from Typhoon Tembin.
• Tropical Storms Joyce and Kirk formed over the Atlantic while Hurricane Ileana strengthened in the pacific, southeast of Baja California.




Record Melt:

The Arctic sea ice met scientists' expectations by melting to its smallest coverage on record since satellite observations began in 1979. On Aug. 26, the ice extent shrank to 1.58 million square miles, or about 27,000 square miles below the record set on Sept. 18 2007. Since the summer ice minimum doesn't typically occur until middle or late September, experts say the sea ice should continue to dwindle for another two or three weeks. With the Northwest passage through Arctic Canada becoming increasingly ice-free, more commercial and private ships are arriving to traverse the fleeting ice-free corridor.


• Life on Earth:
  The total mass of life on Earth may be about a third lower than previously believed, according to a new study by U.ß. and German scientists. They base that estimate on the amount of carbon now believed to be stored beneath the seabed. Previous estimates were based on drill cores that were taken close to shore or in very nutrient-rich areas. There are up to 100,000 times fewer carbon-bearing cells in open ocean areas due to lack of nutrients there compared to coastal sediments.



• Extreme Temperatures: -106 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 119 deg F Al Ahsa, Saudi Arabia

August 27, 2012 (for week ending August 24th)

Earthquakes:

• Six people were killed when a 6.3 magnitude temblor rocked Northern Indonesia's Sulawesi Island. Numerous homes were wrecked by the quake.
• Earth movements were also felt in northeastern New Zealand [magnitude 4.3].




Tropical Cyclones:

• Typhoon Kai-Tak left at least 27 people dead in its wake across China's Guangdong province and Guangxi region, as well as in neighboring parts of northern Vietnam.
• Taiwan took a hit from former Category 4 Typhoon Tembin.
• Hurricane Gorgon skirted the Azores, in the far eastern Atlantic. Mexico's Gulf Coast was drenched by Tropical Storm Helene.
• Hurricane Isaac hit the Windward Islands with tropical storm-force winds.




Ecuador Eruption:

Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano erupted with large clouds of ash and vapor near the city of Banos, about 110 miles south of Quito. Heavy ash falls were reported in several nearby communities and the eruption was accompanied by strong rumbling noises that were felt miles away.



Greenhouse Swap:

The switch from coal to cleaner and cheaper natural gas by power plants across the United States has allowed carbon dioxide emissions to plunge to the lowest levels in 20 years. Market forces are primarily responsible for the drop, rather than voluntary emission cuts. The U.S. Energy Information Agency, part of the Department of Energy, said in a study published this month that CO2 levels are at 1992 levels due to the shift to natural gas, as well as a lagging economy, conservation efforts, and a greater use of renewable energy. The report says that the U.S. has scut carbon dioxide emissions more than any other country over the past six years.



Fresh Ebola Outbreak:

Another outbreak of the highly contagious and deadly Ebola virus has emerged in Africa. At least 16 people have died of the disease in western Uganda since mid-une and health officials say a new outbreak in neighboring parts of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has killed 10 others. But the World Health Organization says there is no connection between the two outbreaks because two different strains of the virus are involved.


• Monarch Success:
  Illegal logging in the forests of Mexico that are wintering grounds of the monarch butterfly has been virtually eliminated, according to a new study. Vast tracks of fir and pine trees crucial for monarch survival were felled in the mountains of Michoacan state during the latter half of the 20th century, with the wood mainly used for charcoal. To combat the illegal logging, Mexican officials have stepped up patrols through the sanctuary and paid local residents to help preserve the habitat. The colorful butterflies go through several generations as they migrate to and from their summer homes in the northeastern U.S. and Canada. Some believe they return to the same tree that their ancestors left the previous spring. This year has marked the first time that logging has not been found in detectable amounts in aerial photographs since the forest was declared a nature reserve in 2000.



• Extreme Temperatures: -109 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 118 deg F Al Qaysumah, Saudi Arabia

August 20, 2012 (for week ending August 17th)

Earthquakes:

• The death toll reached 306 from twin tremblors that struck Iran's East Azerbaijan province, leaving 3,000 injured. State media reports entire villages were leveled by the magnitude 6.3 quakes, which struck 10 minutes apart.
• Earth movements were also felt in northern Pakistan [magnitude 5.4], and in a wide area from far East Russia's Sakhalin Island [magnitude 7.7] to Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido.




Tropical Cyclones:

• Typhoon Kai-Tak killed three people as it brought flash flood and landslides to already water-logged northern Philippines. The storm was taking aim on China's southern Guangdong province late in the week.
• Tropical Storm Hector churned the eastern Pacific while Tropical Storm Gordon formed in the Atlantic.




Massive Arctic Vortex:

A massive Arctic storm some researchers are calling unprecedented churned the melting seas ice pack north of Alaska and Canada over the past week. Senior researchers Mark Serreze of the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center says the strong cyclone is probably causing the sea ice to melt even faster than its already record pace so far this summer. The giant vortex was formed when two smaller systems merged on Aug. 5 to cover much of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, and the Canadian Basin. Arctic storms have become more frequent and powerful since the 1950s.



Ebola Peaks:

More than 50 days after the first Ebola death was reported in western Uganda, health officials say the outbreak is now "under control" but not fully eradicated. Sixteen people have died since the disease emerged about 10 miles west of the capital, Kampala. The government-owned New Vision daily reports that the Ebola virus was transmitted to the first human by a fatal animal attack in mid-June. The victim was a small child who died almost immediately form the attack after being left unattained by its mother. A sibling who subsequently touched the victim's bite wound fell ill two days later, then became the first official fatality of the outbreak. Nine other members of the same family also succumbed to to the disease.



Genetic Legacy:

Japanese researchers say butterflies collected around Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster zone have suffered genetic damage from radiation that has caused it significant mutations to the insects' legs, antennae and wings. Writing in the journal Scientific Reports, lead author Atsuki Hiyama says that the mutations have been observed even into the third generation of butterflies collected nearby. The mutations were said to be greatest among the insects and their offspring collected in areas with the highest radiation. THe genetic damage seems to have gotten worse over time, even after the most intense residual radiation in the environment has decayed. The findings raise fear for other species, including humans, that were exposed to radiation during the days and week following the Fukushima reactor meltdowns.


• Ozone Hole Deaths:
  Marine plants and animals are being killed at a rapid rate due to strong ultraviolet radiation reaching the Earth's surface through the ozone hole, according to an international team of researchers. While suspected for some time, their findings are t he first to actually measure the steep increase in deaths caused by the jumping ultraviolet B radiation since the 1970s. Writing in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography, the team says the marine life most affected are algae, coral, crustaceans and fish larvae and eggs. This means their losses impact marine ecosystems fro the bottom the top of the food web. While international agreements have prevented man-made chemicals from inflicting further damage to the protective ozone level, it will take decades for the ozone hole to significantly recover.



• Extreme Temperatures: -102 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 124 deg F Death Valley, California

August 13, 2012 (for week ending August 10th)

Earthquakes:

• The Los Angeles metropolitan area was jolted by a light tremor that was followed by several aftershocks [magnitude 4.1].
• Earth movements were also felt in western Nebraska [magnitude 2.7], Denmark and adjacent parts of Sweden [magnitude 4.4], as well as around Christchurch, New Zealand [magnitude 3.9].




Tropical Cyclones:

• Typhoon Haikui unleashed flash floods and inflicted damage from its 93 mph winds when the storm made landfall in eastern China's Zhejiang province.
• Tropical Storm Kirogi dissipated before reaching far northeastern Japan.
• Category 1 Hurricane Ernesto shattered windows and caused other damage when ti made landfall on Mexico's southern Yucatan Peninsula. Its remnants later drenched central Mexico.
• Tropical Storm Forence formed briefly in the far eastern Atlantic while Hurricane Gilma churned the Pacific off Mexico.




New Zealand Blast:

A New Zealand volcano that had lain dormant for more than a century erupted without warning, spewing rocks more than a half-mile from Mount Tongariro's crater. Volcanologists said there had been changes in gas emissions in the weeks leading up to the eruption, and only brief swarms of tremors were detected about 15 to 20 minutes before the snow-capped summit roared to life. It's believed that the small-scale eruption was triggered by a buildup of steam pressure due to magma superheating water inside the volcano. Tongariro last erupted from November 1896 until October 1897 following eruptions in 1869 and 1892.



Climate Change Heat:

NASA scientist announced that the recent spate of scorching summers is almost certainly due to human-driven climate change. James Hansen, who directs NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, writes in The Washington Post that even the grim predictions of global warming he delivered to the U.S. Senate in 1988 were too conservative. In a new report, Hansen and colleagues say the European heat wave of 2003, Russian heat wave/firestorms of 2010 and severe droughts in Texas and Oklahoma last year can each be attributed to climate change brought on by greenhouse gas emissions. He told reporters that this summer's heat could be linked to global warming.



Trading to Extinction:

An undercover investigation warns that sea horses could face extinction within 10 years due to an explosive increase in the amount of creature is illegally used in CHinese traditional medicine. The U.k.'s Daily Mail reports marine biologist Kealand Doyle secretly filmed some of the illegal activities in southern China's warehouses, clinics, and health stores. HE says that at least seven times the official estimate are being killed each year- a total of 150 million of the creatures. "This is an absolute decimation of this unique create, which has been with us for millions of years," said Dole. About 70 countries are now catching and selling sea horses to the Chinese medicine market, where they are used to allegedly cure such things as baldness and kidney infections.


• Conflict Survivors:
  Rangers from Africa's Virguna National Park say they have been able to locate some of the mountain gorillas that had gone missing during the last several weeks of conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. A park blog says that a lull in combat between M23 rebels and government forces allowed rangers to find four of the seven missing primate families, as well as to discover a new baby. "The gorillas circled us and several reached out to touch and smell us," said park warden Innocent Mburanumwe. "They had not seen us for a very long time and seemed calm and curious."



• Texting Sheep:
  Five months ago Scottish researches announced they had developed a "smart collar" to allow cows to send out a text message if in distress, a Swiss biologist says he is designing a similar system for sheep. Wolf expert Jean-Marc Landry from Swiss carnivore research group KORA is preparing to distribute a cellular network-enabled collar to warn when a sheep is about to be lost to a wolf attack. A sheep's heart rate jumps by threefold when threatened by wolves, so a pulse monitor and a GPS tracker are connected to a mobile chip on the collar to alert a shepherd when his flock is threatened. Tests on devices to also emit loud noises or to spray a chemical repellant to frighten off the wolf are also being considered. Landry says the first collars will be deployed in the fall.



• Extreme Temperatures: -112 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 117 deg F Medina, Saudi Arabia

August 6, 2012 (for week ending August 3rd)

Earthquakes:

• A tremor [magnitude 4.6] centered in Bosnia-Herzegovina awakened residents of the Balkan nation in the middle of the night, and was felt in neighboring Croatia and Serbia as well.
• Earth movements were also felt in the Myanmar-India border -magnitude 5.7], along the Guatemala-Mexico border [magnitude 6.0], eastern Virginia [magnitude 2.4], and parts of South Carolina [magnitude 2.8].




Tropical Cyclones:

• Outer bands of Typhoon Saola killed at least 24 people and displaced 180,000 others in the northern Philippines. It later slammed into northeastern Taiwan with winds up to 110 mph.
• Typhoon Damrey brought high winds and downpours to the Chinese coast near Shanghai after drenching southern Japan as a tropical storm two days earlier.




Tropical Arctic Plankton:

A team of international scientists say that for the first time, tropical and subtropical species of marine microorganisms have been found living in the high Arctic Ocean. The researchers say that while the protozoa were carried thousands of miles on a rare type of warm water pulse from the Atlantic that has occurred in the past, the pulses are becoming more frequent with climate change. The tropical plankton were swept north from the Caribbean on warm Gulf Stream currents, which normally fade out somewhere between Greenland and Northern Europe. But a repeat of a kind of current pulse that occurred in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1950s is believed to have brought the non-native plankton much farther north an ever before observed. Arctic waters are also reaching record warmth and have undergone more extensive sea ice melt in recent years than ever before.


• Seal Flu:
  A mutated strain of bird flu has jumped species, killing 62 seals along the New England coast between last September and December, according to a new report. Writing in the journal mBio, researchers from Columbia University and other institutions say they found harbor seals infected with a new strain of H3N8 avian influenza. Most of the fatalities were noted among seal pups less than 6 months old, which suffered severe pneumonia and skin lesions. Columbia researcher Simon Anthony said the virus developed the ability to attack the respiratory tracts of the mammals and may have also become more virulent and easier to catch. Since the H1N1 and H5N1 strains of bird flue have infected humans before, this new seal outbreak could pose a threat to public health, warns scientists.



• Parted Pod Reunites:
  A population of bottlenose dolphins that became split in Australia's Moreton Bay as a result of decades of fishing operations off Brisbane has been reunited due to conservation efforts. The dolphins had lived in two distinct groups, with one foraging on fish discarded by trawlers while the others hunted in the wild. But a ban on the fishing boast in key areas has brought the two groups together to hunt once again. Writing in the journal Animal Behavior, lead author Ina Ansmanno of the University of Queensland, says the dolphins have rearranged their entire social system since the fishing trawlers disappeared. Dolphins are known to live in what is called a fission-fusion society, meaning they gather in groups, then split up to form different groups. The Moreton Bay dolphins were the only known example of a single population of two groups that didn't' associate with each other.



• Fatal Depression:
  Black howler monkeys living at a central Argentina park have been treated with antidepressants after members of the group became so "depressed" that they wouldn't eat. Rio Cuarto's Urban Ecological Park Director Miriam Rodriguez told the Clarin daily that the medication was used on the surviving male primates after four other males "let themselves die of sadness" following the death of two females from old age.



• Extreme Temperatures: -110 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 122 deg F Al Ahsa, Saudi Arabia

July 30, 2012 (for week ending July 27th)

Earthquakes:

• A powerful quake jolted northwestern Sumatra [magnitude 6.6], killing one man and sending panicked residents fleeing their homes.
• Earth movements were also felt in northern New Zealand [magnitude 5.8], southeastern Australia [magnitude 4.5], southern Turkey [magnitude 5.0], southern Mexico [magnitude 5.2], and near Los Angeles [magnitude 3.8].




Tropical Cyclones:

• Typhoon Vicente, the most severe to hit Hong Kong since 1991, left more than 110 people injured as it drenched a wide swath of coastal Guangdong province. Winds were clocked at 87 mph in Hong Kong.




Sudden Melt:

Greenland underwent an extensive melt this month that saw four days of thawing across almost all of the ice-capped island for the first time since 1889. Satellite observations revealed that 97 percent of Greenland's ice cover experienced some degree of surface melting. Until now, the most widespread melts observed by satellite over the past 30 years was about 55 percent. NASA says it is not clear if the sudden and brief melt was due to long-term climate change or f it will affect the overall volume of ice lost this summer. "Ice cores from Summit (an observation point in central Greenland) show that melting events of this type occur about once every 150 years on average. With the last one happening in 1889, this even is right on time," said NASA glaciologist Lora Koening. "But if we continue to observe melting events like this in upcoming years, it will be worrisome."



Beijing Flood Disaster:

Hundreds of people are feared to have perished when floods swamped the region around Beijing, but officials maintain the death toll was only 77. The inundations resulted from the heaviest rainfall on record in parts of China's capital, including more than 18 inches that fell in the district of Fangshan.


• Greenhouse Gas Surge:
  Global carbon dioxide emissions rose by 3 percent last year, with the leading cause of global warming reaching an all-time high of 34 billion tons, according to a report released by the European Commission. The commission's Joint Research Center warned that if the global trend continues, it will be impossible to reach the target of keeping global warming below a 2-degree Celsius rise by 2050.



• Extreme Temperatures: -114 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 122 deg F Al Ahsa, Saudi Arabia

July 23, 2012 (for week ending July 20th)

Earthquakes:

• Residents along the eastern India-Burma border rushed outside when a magnitude 5.6 temblor awakened them in the middle of the night.
• Earth movements were also felt in northeastern [magnitude 4.2] and southwestern [magnitude 4.2] parts of New Zealand.




Tropical Cyclones:

• Flood-ravaged southern Japan was spared a direct hit from tropical storm Khanun, which only skirted Okinawa before drenching much of the Korean Peninsula. Hurricanes Fabio and Emilia lost force when they passed over cool waters off the Pacific Mexico.




Arctic Melt Record:

The recent warmth across much of North America has been accompanied by the Arctic sea ice pack melting to its second-lowest June extent since satellite observations began in 1979. The U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center says that during June, the Arctic lost a record total of about 1.1 million square miles of ice and was running just below the coverage seen during the record year of 2007. The expanse of ice on June 30 was what would normally have been expected on July 21, based on the 1979-2000 average. This was a full three weeks ahead of schedule.



Historic Drought:

Crops across the vast stretch of the United Sates withered as the country's most expansive drought tin more than 50 years was worsened by broiling midsummer heat. By mid-July, more than 2,200 heat records for the month had been broken while another 787 were tied. The accompanying lack of rainfall has placed about 55 percent of the country in at least moderate, short-term drought.


• Locusts and Rebels:
  Swarms of desert locusts threaten to wreak further havoc on parts of northern Mali suffering an armed rebellion by Islamist zealots. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said that it is unable to provide relief and locust eradication measures to Mali's vast desert north "because of political conflict." Heavy rains have created ideal conditions for locusts to breed and spread.



• Extreme Temperatures: -109 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 123 deg F Al Ahsa, Saudi Arabia

July 16, 2012 (for week ending July 13th)

Earthquakes:

• A sharp temblor centered beneath the Mediterranean just south of Turkey was felt widely from Israel to the Greek Islands of the Aegean [magnitude 5.7].
• Parts of Rome were jolted by a relatively minor but rare tremor centered in the Castelli Romani area just southeast of the Italian capital [magnitude 3.5].
• Earth movements were also felt in southern Iceland [magnitude 3.1], Labrador [magnitude 4.4], and southern New Zealand [magnitude 4.5].




Tropical Cyclones:

• Hurricanes Daniel and Emilia formed off Mexico, then moved westward over the open waters of the Pacific. Emilia became the strongest so far this season, attaining Category 4 force briefly to the west of Acapulco. Both storms were predicted to lose force well before reaching waters to the south of Hawaii.




Atlantic Adaptations:

Scientists monitoring an emerging undersea volcano in the Canary Islands since it roared to life last year say the eruption has caused vast changes in the surrounding marine environment. The eruption just south of the island of El Hierro killed or drove away all the fish in the area and significantly altered the water's chemical composition. Scientists from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography say oxygen gas in the water creased by 90 percent to 100 percent in places around the hot volcanic plumes as the water became more acidic. Writing in the open-access journal scientific Reports, Eugenio Fraile-Nuez and colleagues tell how some species have adapted to live in the new, challenging environment. A community of carbon-eating bacteria sprang up in the deep, mainly of which glowed with bright green fluorescence. While at the surface, other plankton appeared to adapt to the warmer waters and the new dissolved elements from the volcano such as copper.


• Human Influence:
  The U.S. government has for the first time concluded that man-made climate change is likely connected to a rash of recent extreme weather events across the country. One of the more economically damaging shifts has been that droughts in Texas are now "roughly 20 times more likely" because of greenhouse gas effects on the atmosphere, according to a new report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Researchers analyzed temperatures and dryness associated with Texas droughts for the past 50 years. Only by factoring in the effects of greenhouse gas warming could the intensity and duration of them be explained, scientists said. "What we're seeing, not only in Texas but in other phenomena in other parts of the world, (are episodes) where we can't explain these events by natural variability alone. They're just too rare, too uncommon," NOAA climate office head Tom Karl told reporters.



• Audible Aurora:
  Finnish scientists have confirmed the existence of aurora sounds described for centuries in folk tales, saying they are formed at the amazing height of only a couple of hundred feet above ground. Sounds associated with the northern lights have been called fleeting and very weak. Researchers from Aalto University say they compared sounds captured by three microphones where auroral sounds were recorded. They say the crackles or muffled bangs are generated about 230 feet above ground, probably by the same energetic particles form the sun that create the northern lights 60 to 200 miles aloft on the edge of space. Much is left to learn about the auroral sounds as they don't occur every time the northern lights are seen.



• Bird Flu Outbreak:
  Officials in Mexico culled 2.5 million chickens in the west of the country in an attempt to contain a bird flu outbreak. The H7N3 strain of the virus was first detected on June 20 in Jalisco state. The federal government declared a national animal health emergency on July 2 as the magnitude of the outbreak became apparent. More than 1 million avian influenza vaccines have been imported from Pakistan, and farming officials say four labs will produce more than 80 million doses of the vaccine in seeds to deliver to farmers. The H7N3 strain is now easily transmitted between people, but the world health officials say it has occasionally caused disease in humans in various parts of the world.



• Summer Infestation:
  A population explosion of cockroaches in the southern Italian city of Naples has pest control teams spraying sewers round the clock in an attempt to avert a further spread of the insects. Health officials blame unseasonably warm weather and unhygienic conditions for the expanding infestation. Local health agency director Maurizzio Scoppa told Agence France-Presse that the hot weather and garbage being left out overnight were major factors. Warnings from some health experts of increased risks of typhoid and hepatitis A have been discounted by city hall. The red roaches common around Naples are also known in Italian as "cockroach of the ship," and have been carried to tropical climates around the world by global shipping.



• Extreme Temperatures: -100 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 121 deg F Ocotillo Wells, California

July 9, 2012 (for week ending July 6th)

Earthquakes:

• An unusually strong quake [magnitude 6.3] knocked out power and damaged homes in northwest China's Xinjian region, where at least 34 people were injured during the shaking.
• Central New Zealand's strongest quake in 119 years [magnitude 7.0] rocked a wide area of the country from an epicenter deep beneath the ocean and between the North and South islands.
• Earth movements were also felt in Japan [magnitude 5.4], northeastern Iran [magnitude 5.3], Anguilla [magnitude 5.1], eastern Georgia [magnitude 2.7], and along the California-Mexico border [magnitude 4.6].




Tropical Cyclones:

• Tropical Storm Doksuri drenched south China's Guangdong province after narrowly missing the northern Philippines days earlier.




Colombian Blast:

Colombia's Nevado del Ruiz volcano produced another violent eruption, which prompted officials to urge nearly 5,000 nearby residents to evacuate. The volcano spewed a plume of ash and vapor more than six miles into the Andean skies. The mountain awakened from 25 years of slumber in September 2010 and has since produced several troublesome eruptions. Officials recently distributed about 30,000 face masks to residents around the volcano to be used if a more violent eruption occurs.


• Sign of the Times:
  The rash of devastating wildfires, searing heat waves and severe storms that the United States experienced in recent weeks are clear indications of the new climate reality that we must all learn to cope with, according to a join advisory statement by a team of leading atmospheric scientists.
  
  "What we're seeing really seeing is a window into what global warming really looks like" said Princeton University geoscientists and international affairs professor Michael Oppenheimer, one of the researchers. "It looks like heat. It looks like fires."
  
  Since Jan. 1, the United States has set more than 40,000 high temperature records, but fewer than 6,000 low temperature records. This is in contrast to most of the 20th century, when record highs and lows pretty much balanced out over time.
  
  "This is what global warming looks like at the regional or personal level," said Jonathan Overpeck, a professor of geosciences and atmospheric sciences at the University of Arizona. "This is certainly what I and many other climate scientists have been warning about." The researchers gave their analysis and predictions at a briefing convened by the science organization Climate Communication.
  
  



• Extreme Temperatures: -97 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 122 deg F Hassi-Messaoud, Algeria

July 2, 2012 (for week ending June 29th)

Earthquakes:

• At least four people were killed and more than 100 injured when a sharp temblor struck southwest China [magnitude 5.5], along the border of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.
• Earth movements were also felt in northern Sumatra [magnitude 5.9], southern New South Wales [magnitude 3.8], the New Zealand city of Christchurch [magnitude 4.0], southwestern Turkey [magnitude 4.8], and a small area of northern Texas [magnitude 43.7].




Tropical Cyclones:

• Florida was drenched for several days by slowly moving Tropical Storm Debby. Torrential rainfall broke records while swamping numerous communities.
• Tropical Storm Doksuri skirted the far northern Philippines while on a track toward the Chinese coast.




Record Melt:

The rapid rate at which Arctic Sea ice melted during the first half of June could lead to an even greater loss by September than was experienced during the record year of 2007. The U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center says that on June 18, floating ice was 318,000 square miles less than on the same day in 2007. The rate of melting between 38,000 to 57,900 square miles per day, which is more than double the long-term average. The retreat coincides with the warmest U.S. spring on record.


• New Mineral:
  Scientists have identified a previously unknown mineral from samples of a meteor that exploded over northern Mexico in 1969. After more than 40 years of research into what was named the Allende meteorite, researchers from the California Institute of Technology discovered the new mineral embedded in what are believed to be some of the first solid materials to coalesce in our solar system, roughly 4.5 billion years ago. Dubbed "panguite," the new titanium oxide is named after Pan Gu, the giant from ancient Chinese mythology who established the world by separating yin from yang to create the Earth and the sky.



• Essentially Despised:
  Humans have tried to stomp them out, spray them into oblivion, and have even theorized that a nuclear holocaust couldn't eradicate cockroaches for the planet. But it turns out that the most despised insect of all is essential to the survival of our planet's delicate ecosystem. According to Srini Kambhampati, chair of the biology department at the University of Texas at Tyler, the planet's 5,000 to 10,000 cockroach species convert decaying organic matter into a lot of nitrogen which plants need as fertilizer.



• Extreme Temperatures: -104 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 120 deg F Mecca, Saudi Arabia

June 25, 2012 (for week ending June 22nd)

Earthquakes:

• Southeast Australia's most powerful quake in more than a century [magnitude 5.2] knocked items off shelves around Melbourne, but there were no reports of significant damage or injuries.
• Light damage was reported in Argentina from a 5.4 magnitude temblor centered in Mendoza province.
• Earth movements were also felt in northern Philippines [magnitude 6.1], Taiwan [magnitude 5.0], northeastern Japan [magnitude 6.4], and southeastern Missouri [magnitude 3.3].




Tropical Cyclones:

• Former Category 4 Typhoon Guchol drenched the heart of Japan, including metropolitan Tokyo, but most of the storm's punch had been lost before it made landfall on the island of Honshu. One fatality was blamed on Guchol.
• Tropical Storm Talim drenched Taiwan and eastern China before giving Japan a second dose of heavy rainfall late in the week.
• At least three people died as Category 2 Hurricane Carlotta lashed Mexico's southern state of Oaxaca.
• Tropical Storm Chris formed over the Atlantic well to the east of New England.




Andrea Eruption:

Officials in Columbia issued 30,000 face masks to residents around the Nevado del Ruiz volcano as the mountain spewed ash and gas high above the Andes. Some living near the rumbling mountain reported hearing "strong, strange noises" coming from the summit of the 17,457-foot mountain. About 150 families were evacuated from along rivers and streams that have their source on the volcano's slopes.



Forest Restoration:

The United States, Rwanda, and groups in Brazil have pledged to restore at least 45 million acres of damaged forests. The commitments were announced on the eve of the Rio +20 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro at a news conference by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the environmental advocate Bianca Jagger. The reforestation efforts are the first step in complying with the Bonn Challenge, which was launched in September 2011 and aims to restore 375 million acres of forest by 2020. The U.S. will initially replant 37.5 million acres in 20 forest watersheds, while Rwanda plans to restore 5 million acres and the Brazilian groups have committed to restoring 2.5 million acres in the Mata Atlantica forest on the country's eastern coast.


• Solar Storm:
  Two large solar flares on June 13-14 sent surges of charged particles crashing into Earth's atmosphere about three days later, igniting brilliant aurora displays. The northern lights were seen on June 16 as far south as Iowa, Nebraska, and Maryland while the southern lights illuminated the night sky in New Zealand on June 17. The flares responsible for the sun's coronal mass ejections were ranked as M-class, or medium intensity, according to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado.



• Bears Can Count:
  Researchers have found that American black bears have the ability to "do something analogous to counting," by conducting experiments in which animals make choices using computer screens. Writing in the journal Animal Behavior, a team from Michigan's Oakland University says it found the animals were able to differentiate between the number of dots shown to them on the screen. Bears were given food if they chose the correct higher or lower number assigned in the test. The team varied the pattern of dots and the background to make sure the ursine number crunches were merely selecting patterns rather than the number of dots. Bears have the largest relative brain size of any carnivore.



• Extreme Temperatures: -101 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 112 deg F Al Ahsa, Saudi Arabia

June 18, 2012 (for week ending June 15th)

Earthquakes:

• As many as 71 people may have been entombed in rubble and dirt ini a wake of a temblor that struck Afghanistan's Baghlan province [magnitude 5.7].
• At least 35 people were injured in southwestern Turkey when they leapt off balconies or jumped through windows during a 5.8 magnitude quake.
• Earth movements were also felt in northern Italy [magnitude 4.5], eastern India [magnitude 3.9], northeastern Taiwan [magnitude 6.5], northern New South Wales [magnitude 4.2], central New Zealand [magnitude 3.8], and coastal Southern California [magnitude 4.0].




Typoon Guchol:

• Typhoon Guchol formed over eastern Micronesia, then gained strength while taking a general northwesterly track over the next several days.




Eruptions:

• Guatemala's Fuego (fire) volcano spewed ash into the sky south of the capital for the third time in less than a month. The country's volcanology institute said that three rivers of lava were also emerging from the crater and flowing down the sides of the moutain. Fuego previously sent pyroclastic flows of searing debris cascading down its slopes on May 19 and May 25. Other than briefly being a hazard to aviation, the eruptions have not posed a threat to any nearby inhabited areas.
• Indonesia' Mount Gamkonora and Mount Dukono volcanoes spewed ash and steam high into the air over North Mauku province. Hundreds of residents living on their slopes evacuated to safer areas.




Arctic Food Shift:

The recent unprecedented melt of Arctic sea ice during summers appears to be causing significant changes to wildlife across the far north. One of the first was revealed when scientists found the largest "bloom" of phytoplankton ever seen beneath an ice shelf. A Stanford University scientists says it was four times more concentrated than any blooms found in the open ocean, and could mark the first major shifts to the Arctic ecosystem due to climate change. Smaller blooms have probably always been a part of the Arctic, but researchers say they are now happening earlier in the summer because of the more rapid melt of the ice pack.



Ocean Warming:

A team of international researches has determined that human activity is the main cause of worldwide ocean warming over the past 50 years. Their report, published in the journal Nature Climate change, says ocean warming over that time is consistent with climate models only if the models include the increases in greenhouse gas during the 20th century. Lead author Peter Gleckler at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California said the scientists tried to determined if the warmer waters could be explained by natural variably alone. But their extensive research concludes that the average warming from the surface down to 2,300 feet of about 0.025 degrees Celsius per decade was primarily due to the effects of greenhouse gas emissions. "Humans have played a dominant role," Gleckler writes.


• Extreme Temperatures: -114 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 117 deg F Podor, Senegal

June 11, 2012 (for week ending June 8th)

Earthquakes:

• A sharp temblor off the southern coast of Java [magnitude 5.9] damaged dozens of structures and injured at least two people. The shaking also caused some damage to hundreds of other buildings.
• Earth movements were also felt in eastern Indonesia's Papua province [magnitude 5.8], Taiwan [magnitude 5.9], southeastern New Zealand [magnitude 4.2], northern India [magnitude 4.3], northeastern Egypt [magnitude 4.1], northern Italy's aftershock zone [magnitude 5.1], and the San Francisco Bay Area [magnitude 3.5].




Cyclone Mawar:

• Flash floods from Typhoon Mawar swept three Philippine children to their deaths while high seas from the storm left size of the country's fishermen missing. The typhoon later skirted Okinawa, where U.S. military personnel report it generated winds gusting up to 47 mph.




Climate Dithering:

While cities around the world are reporting more and more impacts from climate change, a new study suggests those in the United STates are less prepared for what lies ahead than their international counterparts. According to researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in partnership with the ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability USA, 74 percent of U.S. cities have perceived climate change. These include increased storm intensity, higher temperatures, and more precipitation. The researchers also found that U.S. cities were the least active in assessing their vulnerabilities and risk from the changing climate, while those in Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada were the most aggressive in planning for it. Many climate experts blame an orchestrated campaign of misinformation by the energy industry for a lack of resolve among politicians to cope with climate change, or to even acknowledge that it exist.



Tundra Trees:

The greenhouse-driven warming of the Arctic appears to be allowing small trees to emerge across parts of the tundra landscape, according to a new study. Scientists from the University of Oxford and the University of Lapland found that low tundra shrubs, many of which are willow and alder species, have rapidly gown into small trees over the last 50 years. The findings were made across Russia's northwest Arctic coast, and could indicate what is in store across the rest of the Arctic tundra region. The researchers say that the darker color of the expanding trees probably means the region will absorb even more heat from sunlight that previously would have been reflected back into space. This, in turn, could cause the Arctic to heat up even more than the record warming the region has experienced under climate change.



A Rosy Ingredient:

A British biologist says he knows why a salt lake in Senegal can turn a color typical of strawberry milkshake. Lake Retba (Pink Lake) is located only a half-mile from the Atlantic Ocean near the capital, Dakar. It's so salty that, like in the Dead Sea, swimmers can easily float on the surface. Bath University professr of biochemistry Michael Danson says that lake turns such a unique color of pink because of a microorganism known as Dunaliella salina. "They produce a red pigment that absorbs and uses the energy of sunlight to create more energy, turning the water pink," Danson told the Daily Mail. At only 9 feet in depth, Lake Retba can at times be comprised of up to 40 percent of the microalgae, Danson says.


• Locust Menace:
  The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization warns that farmers in Niger and Mali are at "imminent risk" from desert locust swarms that are moving southward from neighboring Algeria and Libya. Local swarms were first reported in January near the Libyan town of Ghat. Ongoing rains and the resulting growth of vegetation along the southern fringes of the Sahara led to an increase in locust populations by mid-May, the agency reports. The FAO also cautions that the recent coup and rebel insurgency in Mali could hamper efforts to control the ravenous insects. The region last faced desert locust swarms during a 2003-2005 plague that affected farmers in two dozen countries across the Sahel.



• Giant Spider Attacks:
  Residents of a small town in far northeastern India have been in a state of panic since the community was overrun b y large and aggressive spiders in early May. Two people are said to have died after being bitten y the non-native spiders, which are reported to have attacked scores of Sadiya residents. "We cannot say for sure that the fatalities were due to the venom; it could have been an allergic reaction to the venom," Dr. L.R. Saikia told the Times of India. He says the two victims had sought treatment from area witch doctors, who cut their wounds with razors, drained out the blood, and burned it. This could have possibly caused a fatal infection. REgional zoologists have yet to determine what type of spiders they are, but believe they could be tarantulas or even an entirely new species.



• Extreme Temperatures: -100 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 120 deg F Sibi, Pakistan

June 4, 2012 (for week ending June 1st)

Earthquakes:

• At least 17 people died in a strong earthquake [magnitude 5.8] that struck northern Italy near where a more powerful seismic jolt had killed seven others on May 20.
• Earth movements were also felt in Swaziland and neighboring parts of South Africa [magnitude 4.0], metropolitan Beijing [magnitude 4.2], southern New Zealand [magnitude 4.4], the Big Island of Hawaii [magnitude 3.5], coastal parts of Los Angeles [magnitude 4.1], and East Texas [2.5].




Tropical Respite Ends:

• A broad swath of Florida and other parts of the southeastern U.S. received drought-breaking rainfall from the slow passage of Tropical Storm Beryl.
• Remnants of Hurricane Bud drenched the Mexican Pacific resort of Puerto Vallarta.
• Typhoon Sanvu churned the open waters of the western Pacific.




Indonesian Eruption:

Sumatra's Mount Merapi spewed steam and ash twice on may 26, but there were no reports of damage or injuries due to the eruption. Indonesian seismologists said the activity followed a string of 30 volcanic tremors earlier in the month.


• Water Cycle Quickens:
  The distribution of salt in the world's oceans has changed over the past 50 years in a trend researchers say is a clear fingerprint of climate change's influence on the global water cycle. Writing in the journal Science, American and Australian scientists say they have found that the water cycle, which transports water from the oceans into the air, then down to the ground and ocean again in rainfall runoff, strengthened by 4 percent during the latter half of the 20th century. "These changes suggest that arid regions have become drier while high rainfall regions have become wetter in response to observed global warming," said Paul Durack of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.



• Light Pollution:
  Humankind's illumination of the world with streetlights is having a profound influence on insects, according to a new study. Researchers from England's University of Exeter found that how close those insects are to streetlights helped some to thrive while it made life for others far more difficult. By trapping insects around the market town of Heltson, and noting their proximity to artificial light, the team found that, in general, insects were more abundant under streetlights. This was especially true among predatory and scavenging species, such s ground beetles and spiders known as "harvestmen" or "daddy longlegs." The researchers say the effect could cascade up the food chain to the birds and mammals that feed on insects. Light pollution is expanding about 6 percent annually around the world.



• Extreme Temperatures: -114 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 117 deg F Mecca, Saudi Arabia

May 21, 2012 (for week ending May 18th)

Earthquakes:

• Far northern Chile and neighboring parts of Peru were rocked by a 6.2 magnitude temblor that knocked out power and toppled some walls in the region.
• Earth movements were also felt in New Zealand's Christchurch [magnitude 5.5], the Tajik-Afghan border region [5.7], northeast India's Assam state [magnitude 5.3], the Alaskan city of Anchorage [magnitude 4.3] and East Texas [magnitude 4.3]




Tropical Respite Ends:

• Tropical storm Aletta became the first named tropical cyclone of the year in the Western Hemisphere when it formed well off Mexico's Pacific coast. Aletta's formation broke a 41-day streak in which there were no named tropical cyclones anywhere on Earth. The U.K. Met Office said that was the longest stretch without such a storm in at least 70 years. Aletta packed sustained winds of only about 45 mph before wind shear caused it to weaken.




Mexican Eruption:

Fresh blasts from Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano spewed fiery rock and caustic ash over residents around the Mexico City suburb of Puebla, already on edge after weeks of ongoing eruption.



Radioactive Findings:

Radioactive contamination from Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster has risen sharply in Tokyo Bay over the past several months rather than decline according to a new study. Researcher Hideo Yamazaki from Osaka Kinki University found that contaminated sludge has accumulated due to runoff into the bay from rivers flowing from highly contaminated regions. This has caused radioactive cesium levels to rise by up to 70 percent since last August, Yamazaki says. The contamination is said not to pose any immediate health risks since no seafood from the bay has been found to exceed government-set standards.



Hotter and Hottest:

The United States has just undergone the hottest 12-month period ever recorded, according to the environment agency NOAA. While the Pacific Northwest and northern parts of California were actually much cooler than normal over the past year, a vast stretch of the Midwest and East were acutely warm and dry. NOAA said that from May 2011 to April 2012, the average temperature in the lower 48 states was 55.7 degrees, 2.8 degrees above the 20th century average. The first four months of 2012 were also the warmest on record, with the average temperature for the contiguous states reaching 5.4 degrees above normal.


• El Nino Fatalities:
  A possibly emerging El Nino ocean-warming off the coast of Peru may be responsible for the huge number of bird deaths along the country's coast, as well as farther south in Chile. Peruvian authorities say the warmer surface waters have sent anchovies and other fish to cooler waters, causing more than 5,000 pelicans and other sea birds to die of starvation. Those fish have migrated southward of Chile, causing huge numbers of birds that feed on them t get caught in Chilean fishing nets. About 2,000 gray pelicans, petrels, gannets, and cormorants have been found on central Chile's beaches during May, many suffering from broken wings and bruises.



• Extreme Temperatures: -89 deg F South Pole, Antarctica; + 117 deg F Matam, Senegal

May 14, 2012 (for week ending May 11th)

Earthquakes:

• Late reports say at least 15 people were injured and more than 1,000 structures were damaged when an earthquake [magnitude 5.6] on May 2.
• Earth movements were also felt in western Iran [magnitude 5.5], central New Zealand [magnitude 4.2], and northern parts of the San Francisco Bay Area [magnitude 4.5].




Eruption Precautions:

Residents in eastern parts of Mexico City have been given masks to protect them from airborne ash should the nearby Popocatepetl volcano erupt violently. The Federal District's Public Safety Secretariat took the unusual measure after the mountain produced a series of blasts in recent weeks.


• Peru Marine Deaths:
  The mysterious deaths of thousands of dolphins and now seabirds during the past few weeks has prompted Peruvian officials to declare a health alert and urge people to avoid a long stretch of affected coastline. At least 5,000 pelicans and other ocean birds washed up on the country's northern coast just weeks after more than 900 dolphins died in the same area. Some scientists say the main cause is seismic testing for oil offshore, while the government and one of the exploration companies say the dolphins succumbed to a virus. Initial tests suggest the dead birds were malnourished, leading officials to say the two die-offs are unrelated.



• Arctic Rebound:
  Some Arctic marine mammals, fish, and birds have increased in numbers as the region undergoes dramatic changes in climate, according to a new report. The Arctic Council released "surprising" results of the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program in Montreal. The report says Arctic marine species have increased overall, driven by rising mammal populations and "dramatic increases" in fish populations. But those numbers appear to have leveled off.



• Homecoming Calls:
  An ornithologist is using recordings to lure back the iconic swallows that once swarmed each spring to the 236-year-old mission San Juan Capistrano. Charles Brown, an expert consulting with the mission, blames urban sprawl for the vanishing birds, which once arrived in large numbers about this time of year from wintering grounds in southern Argentina. Now, hidden speakers play swallow courtship calls for up to six hours each day in a last-ditch effort to woo the cliff swallows back. Curious swallowers have been observed flitting around the speakers and dipping and weaving over the gardens. But non has taken up residence.



• Extreme Temperatures: -100 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 118 deg F Kaolack, Senegal

May 7, 2012 (for week ending May 4th)

Earthquakes:

• Tall buildings swayed in Mexico city as a series of three strong quakes [magnitude 6.0] struck western and southern parts of Mexico.
• Earth movements were also felt in central Peru [magnitude 4.4], metropolitan Tokyo [magnitude 5.8], Tonga and Fiji [magnitude 6.7], metropolitan Los Angeles [magnitude 3.8], and along the California-Mexico border [magnitude 4.1].




Volcanic Pressure:

Lava is building within Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano, threatening to create the mountains first eruption since 2010. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to evacuate from around the volcano on Java when it roared to life nearly two years ago. Officials say blasts during October and early November killed at least 44 people. Now, Japanese researchers say, lava has reentered Merapi's crater, which is expanding and becoming more prone to explosive eruptions. Merapi also erupted in 2001 and 2006, recharging quickly each time.



Emerging Disease:

The World Health Organization says it is "concerned" about an outbreak of a mysterious kin disease that has killed at least 19 people and sickened 171 others in central Vietnam. The disease starts with a rash on the hands and feet that looks like severe buns. The most acute case can lead to high fever, loss of appetite, and eventual organ failure. Initial tests suggest the disease may be caused in part by the Rickettsia bacterium, which is transmitted by lice or fleas.



Earth's Hot Spot:

Satellite observations have identified the world's hottest place, which is actually far hotter than the previously assumed hot spot of El Azizia, Libya. That North African city reported 136 degrees on Sept 13, 1922. BUt the U.S. Geological Survey's Landstat satellites found that Iran's Lut Desert reached 159.3 degrees in 2005.


• Warming Refuge:
  A chain of 32 coral atolls in the Pacific appears poised to become a haven from the effects of climate change, and from the repercussions the warming will have on coral ecosystems elsewhere. A study b the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute found that climate change will affect ocean currents in a way that causes them to bring cool, nutrient-rich water up from the deep Pacific and onto the coral reefs that surround Kiribati. The cooler waters should allow the marine life in Kiribati's atolls to survive, while other coral inhabitants around the world amy not be as fortunate.



• Nuclear Jam:
  A massive invasion of jellyfish-like creatures forced operators of California's Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant to shut down one of its reactors for six days after the salps clogged the intake screens of the facility's cooling system. Salps are small barrel-shaped gelatinous creatures that often link together and float in long rope-like formations. A powerful Pacific storm blew the salps into the intakes on April 26, causing water pressure in the cooling system to drop. The salps have also menaced nuclear plants in Japan, Israel, and Scotland.



• Extreme Temperatures: -98 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 115 deg F N'Guigmi, Niger

April 23, 2012 (for week ending April 20th)

Earthquakes:

• The ground shook for more than a minute around the Chilean capital Santiago and port city of Valparaiso as a 6.7 magnitude temblor struck just a few thousand feet off the country's central coast.
• Earth movements were also felt in southern Kenya [magnitude 4.6], western India [magnitude 4.9], the Thai resort of Phuket [magnitude 4.3], Indonesia's Sunda Strait region [magnitude 5.9], and Sulawesti Island [magnitude 5.7], northern Papua New Guinea [6.8], and central Oklahoma [magnitude 3.9].




Popo Warnings:

Mexican authorities warned residents around the famed Popocatepetl volcano that the mountains' rumblings are becoming increasingly dangerous. The National Disaster Prevention Center warned that the lava dome on the 17,900 foot volcano was showing signs of expansion, increasing the change of explosions that could expel lava bombs and other hot debris over a wide area.



Antibiotic Discovery:

Cave bacteria isolated from contact with humans and other creatures on Earth's surface for millions of years have been found to be resistant to a variety of antibiotics. The discovery, from deep inside Lechuguilla Cave at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, suggests the resistance is primeval, natural, and embedded in the genetic heritage of microbes. It also demonstrates that such resistance emerged millions of years before the widespread introduction of penicillin to fight infection during World War II.



Earth's Hot Spot:

Satellite observations have identified the world's hottest place, which is actually far hotter than the previously assumed hot spot of El Azizia, Libya. That North African city reported 136 degrees on Sept 13, 1922. BUt the U.S. Geological Survey's Landstat satellites found that Iran's Lut Desert reached 159.3 degrees in 2005.


• Jellyfish Jam:
  Jellyfish numbers are increasing in most of the world's coastal waters, according to the University of British Columbia study that confirms observations from many fishermen and beachgoers around the world. They found jellyfish populations growing in 62 percent of the regions studied. Jellyfish have become a greater nuisance to human activities in recent years as they clog intakes of power plants, overwhelm fishing nets, and sting swimmers.



• Extreme Temperatures: -99 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 113 deg F Gedaref, Sudan

April 16, 2012 (for week ending April 13th)

Earthquakes:

• Two massive earthquakes that struck two hours apart off northwestern Sumatra [magnitude 8.6] prompted back-to-back tsunami warnings for the coasts of 28 Indian Ocean basin countries. While shaking from the quakes caused panic as far away as southern India, there were no reports of signifiant damage, injuries, or changes in sea level.




Kelp Contamination:

Kelp collected off several California locations was fond to be contaminated with short-lived radioisotopes a month after last year's nuclear disaster in Japan. Researchers from California State University Long Beach found the greatest contamination of radioactive iodine-131 was about 250 times higher than levels before the meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. But the scientists say the radioactivity had no known effects on the giant kelp, fish, or other marine life, and was undetectable a month later.


• Dead sea dying:
  Scientists warn that human activity around the Dead Sea is threatening the famed Middle East salt lake. Researchers from Tel Aviv and Hebrew universities say they have found through core samples that the Dead Sea nearly died up due to a change in climate more than 100,000 years ago, then later recovered. But they say the current decline is manly due to water being taken for agriculture and other uses out of the Jordan River before it can replenish the sea.



• Bat Disease Source:
  The lethal fungus responsible for wiping out bat populations across the eastern half of the United States over the past six years most likely came from Europe, according to a new study. A team of U.S. and Canadian researchers found the spores that lead to "white nose syndrome" may have been accidentally introduced into America by tourists. The disease gets its name from the telltale white powder the spores create on the noses of infected bats. The fungus is believed to cause bats to repeatedly awaken from hibernation, leading them to exhaust their fat reserves and die long before winter is over. The fungus is now present across parts of North America as well as Europe.



• Toad Cull:
  Thousands of residents, students, and even tourists joined in a massive hunt of cane toads across Australia in an effort to ride neighborhoods of the invasive pests. The amphibians, native to Latin America, were introduced to the country in the 1930s to kill beetles. But with no natural predators, they reproduced rapidly and spread across a wide area, causing considerable ecological damage. The toads were collected in bucket during the cull campaign and later "humanely" gassed by officials. Experts say the campaign is not likely to make a dent in the toads relentless takeover of the Australian countryside.



• Extreme Temperatures: -100 deg F South Pole, Antarctica; + 113 deg F Tillabery, Niger

April 9, 2012 (for week ending April 6th)

Earthquakes:

• A broad swath of southern Mexico, including the capital, was rocked by a powerful aftershock [magnitude 6.0] of a destructive March 20 quake. High-rise buildings in Mexico City swayed for several seconds.
• Earth movements were also felt in northern Chile [magnitude 5.2], New Zealand's North Island [magnitude 4.5], the southern Philippines [magnitude 5.0], Indonesia's Maluku Sea islands [magnitude 5.2], eastern Afghanistan and neighboring parts of Pakistan [magnitude 4.9], as well a sin southeastern Oklahoma [magnitude 4.0].




Tropical Cyclones:

• Torrential rains from passing Cyclone Daphne brought even further misery to flood-ravaged Fiji. Weeks of incessant rainfall in the South Pacific island nation have forced more than 8,000 people into evacuation centers, stranded international tourists, and triggered black-outs that affected the entire main island of Viti Levu.
• Southern parts of Vietnam were drenched by the season's first typhoon. Officials said Typhoon Pakhar was responsible for four fatalities and several injuries due to high winds and downpours affecting Khanh Hoa province.




Caribbean Rumbling:

Montserrat's Soufriere Hills volcano has produced its first significant activity in two years. The montserrat Volcano Observatory said the mountain produced a sequence of tremors, which were accompanied by ash falling from the sky. Soufriere Hills roared back to life in 1997 for the first time in recorded history, killing 19 people and burying much of the island in ash. Eruptions also forced half of the British territory's 12,000 inhabitants to leave.



Warming's Signature:

Temperatures for March were the warmest on record across half of the United States. Cities in more than 25 states, and the District of Columbia, broke records for average daily temperatures. This "year without winter" is evidence of weather variability amplified by the effects of greenhouse gases on the atmosphere, according to climate scientists. "Clearly, this is outstanding and well outside any expectation under an unchanging climate," Kevin Trenberth at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., told LiveScience.com. The warmth has been accompanied by an abnormally high number of destructive tornadoes and other severe storms.


• Mass Dolphin Deaths:
  Many of the 3,000 dolphins found dead along the coast of Peru this year were killed by deep-water sonar systems used during seabed oil exploration, according to one of the country's leading environmental groups. Researchers at the Organization for the Conservation of Aquatic Animals say that they found damage in the dolphins' middle ear bones, which was caused by sonar blasts.



• Extreme Temperatures: -97 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 112 deg F NOGuigm, Niger

April 2, 2012 (for week ending March 30th)

Earthquakes:

• Australia's most powerful earthquake in 15 years [magnitude 6.0] rocked a remote Aboriginal region along the border of South Australia and the Northern Territory. No damage or injuries were reported from the 6.0 magnitude jolt.
• Namibia's second strongest quake on record [magnitude 4.8] caused some items to fall off shelves in the northwest of the country.
• Earth movements were also felt in eastern Turkey[magnitude 5.2], northeastern Japan [magnitude 6.0], the island of Hawaii [magnitude 4.9], and central Chile [magnitude 7.1].




Guatemalan Rumblings:

Geologists in Guatemala warned that two of the country's volcanoes were displaying increased signs of unrest. The National Institute of Seismology, Volcanology, Meteorology, and Hydrology said that Santaguito volcano produced 33 explosions within a 24-hour period, sending debris soaring 2,500 feet above the crater. Ash fell briefly on some nearby homes. Meanwhile, Fuego volcano produced a small blue-and-white plume of vapor and steam.



Tipping Deadline:

Global climate change is approaching a point where the world will be irreversibly hotter no matter what actions are taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to an Australian climate specialist. "If we don't get the curves turned around this decade, we will cross those lines," said Will Steffen, executive director of the Australian National University's Climate Change Institute. He and other specialists, speaking at a conference in London, expressed the urgent need to curb carbon dioxide and other climate-altering pollution before the world warms 2 degrees Celsius. Most specialists agree that is the point at which changes in climate and weather will begin to have severe consequences for humanity and the natural world.


• Months from Extinction:
  Fires and deforestation threaten to kill off Sumatra's endangered orangutan population,hundreds of which could soon perish, according to a coalition of environmental groups. The felling of trees and draining of wetlands to establish palm plantations have reduced the primates' once-expansive habitat on the Indonesian island to a patchwork of small, detached areas. Now wildfires threaten to wipe out the few remaining orangutans that live in them within months if there is a prolonged drought.



• Poaching Arrests:
  A dozen alleged poachers accused of killing at least some of the 300 elephants slaughtered for their tusks in Cameroon so far this year have been arrests. The apprehensions resulted from leads received from villagers through a monitoring program set up by the World Wildlife Fund. The head of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species warned in early march that this year's poaching of elephants is occurring on a massive scale. John Scanlon says there has been an increase in "well-armed poachers with sophisticated weapons (decimating) elephant populations."



• To Feed a Monarch:
  The population of wintering monarch butterflies in Mexico's conifer forest refuge fell sharply again this season in a decline that has continued for nearly two decades. While the actual number of the colorful insects varies widely from year to year, it fell by nearly 30 percent over the past winter, according to experts. They blame the decline on deforestation in Mexico, ongoing drought in Texas and the loss of the plants the butterflies feed on. Chip Taylor, director of Monarch Watch at the University of Kansas, said there needs to be a national effort to save the butterflies, including the creation of "feeding corridors" of milkweed plants, planed along major north-south highways.



• Extreme Temperatures: -92 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 114 deg F Kedougou, Senegal

March 26, 2012 (for week ending March 23rd)

Earthquakes:

• Thousands of homes were wrecked in southwestern Mexico when a 7.4 magnitude quake rocked the states of Oaxaca and Guerrero. It was one of the strongest temblors to hit the country since the deadly 1985 quake killed thousands.
• Earth movements were also felt in Indoensia's easternmost province of Papua [magnitude 6.2], the lower part of New Zealand's North Island [magnitude 4.7], and in the country's Fiordland region to the southwest [magnitude 5.6].




Etna Eruption:

Sicily's Mount Etna produced its fourth significant eruption so far this year, spewing lava and sending steam soaring high above the Italian island. Europe's most active volcano created a four-mile-long plume of ash streaming southeastward over the Ionian Sea. Lava flowed into the uninhabited valley of Valle del Bove.



Japan Nuclear Update:

Radioactive cesium that is believed to be from Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster has been found in plankton nearly 375 miles away in the Pacific Ocean. Researchers made the discovery at levels said to be well below the Japanese government's provisional limit of 400 becquerels per kilogram for seafood. They say that further studies are needed because the radioactive isotope is likely to have accumulated in fish that eat the plankton. Meanwhile, the Environment Ministry announced that levels of cesium have soared to 154,000 becquerels per kilogram in soil around the nearly deserted Fukushima prefecture village of Iitate.



African Blazes:

A string of wildfires around East Africa's snow-capped Mount Kenya has forced elephants and other wild animals to flee for their lives. While hot and dry conditions persist under the region's long-term drought, officials believe the blazes may have been intentionally or inadvertently set. Poachers target elephants that roam the forests on the flanks of Mount Kenya for their ivory tusks, and have used fires in the past to draw attention away from their illicit activities. Other suspected sources of the blazes are honey gatherers, who use smoke to control wild bees. Patrick Wanjohi, the director of the Mountain Rock Lodge, on the lower slope of Mount Kenya, said the burnt forests will not quickly regenerate due to the high altitude. He told reporters that animals are likely to flee into farms at lower elevations, leading to human-animal conflict.


• Bison Return:
  A controversial plan to repopulate the grasslands of the western United States with genetically pure bison from Yellowstone National Park got under way in the dark of night on March 21. Sixty-four of the animals, also known as buffalo, were shipped to Montana's For Peck Reservation, where they will be bred b American Indians who regard them with spiritual reverence. Many of what are called buffalo in the grasslands of the Great Plains are actually hybrids that have been interbred with battle. Those in Yellowstone are said to be from the world's last remaining reservoirs of pure bison genetics. They are also free of disease brucellosis, which can cause pregnant animals to abort their young. Efforts to ship the bison from Yellowstone have for decades been delayed and blocked by cattle ranchers who feel they will compete with cattle for grazing space. Untold numbers of the iconic animals grazed free across the American West until they were slaughtered to near extinction during the late 1800s.



• Pig Farm Blasts:
  Farmers and scientists alike in the American Midwest are baffled by a strange new growth that has emerged during the past few years in the manure pits of hog farms. They are also alarmed by the subsequent explosions caused by the foamy substance, which have killed thousands of animals. The gelatinous foam traps methane, a flammable gas that can ignite and cause catastrophic explosions. One such blast in September leveled an entire barn in Iowa, killing about 1,500 pigs and injuring one worker. Some of the explosions have occurred as farmers poured water on the foam or tired to break it up with machine. A spark from an electric motor or a lit cigarette can also ignite the gas. Researchers say the goop appears to be the byproduct of bacteria, but they don't know which strain or where it came from.



• Tulip Feast:
  An unusually mild winter in southern Ontario led to squirrels eating nearly 10,000 tulips at a Windsor park where brides and other visitors often have their photos taken in front of its elaborate tulip displays. "Squirrels love tulip buds," Jackson Park's supervisor of horticulture, Dave Tootill told the CBC. "There's been a feeding frenzy." He says the city typically uses blood meal in the autumn to prevent the rodents from digging up the flower beds until Arctic chills freeze the ground. But with no deep freeze this year, the ground remained soft enough for the squirrels to burrow through and eat about half of the 20,000 bulbs planted by the city.



• Extreme Temperatures: -86 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 110 deg F Kolda, Senegal

March 19, 2012 (for week ending March 16th)

Earthquakes:

• A tsunami up to 9 inches in height washed onto Japan's northeast coast after the strongest in a series of offshore quakes rocked a wide swath of norther Japan. No damage or injuries were reported [magnitude 6.9].
• Earth movements were also felt in Pakistan [magnitude 5.6, southern Sumatra [magnitude 4.5], and eastern Japan [5.4].




Tropical Cyclones:

• Cyclone Lua brought strong winds and locally heavy rainfall to Australia's remote northwestern coast.
• Cyclone Koji lost force over the open waters of the central Indian Ocean, far from any land areas.




Japanese Blasts:

Southern Japan's Sakurajima volcano spewed rocks and hot ash during several blasts that occurred over a two-day period. Hot stones up to a foot and a half in diameter fell more than a mile from the summit crater. Resident near the volcano in Kagoshima prefecture were warned of further eruptions and falling debris, but no damage or injuries were reported. The Japan Meteorological Agency said Sakurajima's latest eruptions were the most forceful since 2009. Scientists say the mountain has continued to erupt for the past two years, but activity suddenly turned violent on March 12, hurling hot debris a great distance.



Ocean Rise Plan B:

Leaders in the Pacific nation of Kiribti are so concerned about rising sea levels making their islands uninhabitable that they are considering moving all of their higher people to higher terrain in Fiji. President Anote Tong told The Associated Press that his cabinet endorsed a plan to buy 6,000 acres on Fiji's main island, Viti Levu. Tong said the fertile land, being sold by a church for about $9.6 million, could provide a refuge for Kiribati's entire population of 103,000 should their equatorial island homes be swamped by rising seas. Fiji is 1,400 miles south of Kiribati and has not commented on the scheme. "We would hope not to put everyone on one piece of land, but if it became absolutely necessary, yes, we could do it," Tong told the agency. Intruding seawater has already contaminated some of Kiribati's underground freshwater supplies, forcing some villagers to move. Many scientists have predicted that sea level rise will accelerate in the coming decades due to climate change.


• Middle-Aged Marvel:
  Humans who reach middle age are the most evolved creatures on the planet, according to a Cambridge professor. David Bainbridge says this means older men and women have become perfectly adapted to help their families and society without the burden of raising children. And while some aspects of health decline with age, important attributes such as brainpower are at least as keen in a person's 40s and 50s as they were decades earlier. "People below 40 worry about reaching middle age, which i think is very sad," Bainbridge writes in his book Middle Age: A Natural History. He adds that mature women and men have such complex and intertwined roles in society that they are "the most impressive living things yet produced by natural selection." Humans are the only species to stop breeding long before they die, usually stay healthy for at least another 20 years. Bainbridge concludes that this gives an evolutionary boost in which they can teach children and young adults important skills and perspectives to advance the species...if they listen.



• Saltier Solution:
  Scientists announced the development of a new strain of salt-tolerant wheat that could help feed the planet's growing population despite the effects of climate change and diminishing freshwater supplies. A team led b Matthew Gilliham, of the University of Adelaide, found that adding a gene to durum wheat, through non-genetic modification techniques, helps remove sodium that is carried from roots to the leaves. This allows the crop to be grown in salty soils or with water normally too saline to be used for irrigation. Durum wheat is used for making pasta, couscous, and cereal, and is usually more salt-sensitive than bread wheat. The new strain of durum could soon help farmers in northeastern Japan, where last year's tsunami salted vast tracts of farmland to the point they can no longer support conventional rice cultivation.



• Chimp Cops:
  Humanity's closest relatives have developed an early evolutionary form of moral behavior to guarantee the stability of individual groups, according to Swiss researchers. Primatologists from the University of Zurich say they have observed so-called "policing" among chimpanzee groups that provides the conflict resolution necessary to ensure there is peace and order among the primates. The found that high-ranking males and females are almost always the most successful when it comes to intervening impartially as peacemakers. Writing in the journal PLoS ONE, the researchers say they determined the behavior is entirely for conflict resolution and not for the direct benefit of the chimp or chimps doing the policing.



• Extreme Temperatures: -88 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 115 Abu Na'Ama, Sudan

March 12, 2012 (for week ending March 9th)

Earthquakes:

• A sharp magnitude 5.3 temblor injured nine people in the central Philippines as it cracked buildings and broke windows around the provincial capital of Masbate.
• Five people were injured by a comparable quake centered just northwest of the Indian capital of New Delhi [magnitude 5.2].
• Earth movements were also felt in southern Sumatra [magnitude 5.5], the New Zealand city of Christchurch [magnitude 4.4], central Chile [5.5], northern Argentina [magnitude 6.1], Haiti [magnitude 4.6], and the San Francisco Bay Area [magnitude 4.0].




Tropical Cyclones:

• At least 72 people perished on the island of Madagascar from storm-related accidents associated with the passage of Cyclone Irina. An additional eight died when high winds and flash floods from the storm's outer bands lashed southern parts of Mozambique, in southeastern Africa.




Lava Destruction:

A fresh lava flow from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano destroyed the last remaining home in a once-populated neighborhood on the Big Island. Jack Thompson left his home just one hour before a river of molten rock reached the structure, quickly engulfing it in flames. "I got as much stuff out (of) there as was practical, and everything else, had to leave it," Thompson told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald. The lava was "pretty much coming in the back as we were going out the front," said Thompson. HIs loss came nearly 30 yeas after lava flows began spewing from the nearby volcano. Speculative development that began in the late 1950s sprouted homes across Royal Gardens. But all of those nearly 75 residents are now gone in the wake of a string of lava flows that started in 1983.



Miracle Tree:

A new method of making dirty water drinkable from a "miracle tree" has been developed by a U.S. researcher. Pennsylvania State University's Stephanie Velegol announced the development through a podcast on the American Chemical Society's website. The drumstick tree, or Moringa oleifera, was earlier discovered to be able to cleanse water. But one of the processes initially developed was too costly to use on a large scale, while another left water drinkable for only a short period of time. But Velegol found that by extracting a protein from the seeds that kills microbes, then combining it with negatively charged sand, those problems were solved. The resulting byproduct can kill pathogens as dangerous as E. coli and remove sediment from water, says Velegol. Access to clean drinking water is one of the greatest challenges to preventing disease in developing countries around the world. The ability to grow the miracle tree locally and use its seeds to clean water could greatly alleviate that problem.


• Elephant Slaughter:
  At least 200 elephants have been slaughtered for their tusks in the West African nation of Cameroon since mid-January, according to a leading conservation group. The International Fund for Animal Welfare says an armed gang of poachers from Sudan had killed the free-roaming animals in the Bouba Njida National Park, near the border with Chad. Reports from the surrounding area say many orphaned elephant calves have been spotting wandering in the wake of the illegal killing of their parents. The head of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species warned: "This most recent incident of poaching elephants is on a massive scale."



• Spider Plague:
  Southeast Australia's latest flood disaster has triggered a massive invasion of spiders, which have cast an eerie landscape of webs around one New South Wales community. Just as residents of Wagga Wagga were forced from their homes by surging floodwaters, spiders set up huge homes of their own around the town. In a phenomenon known as "ballooning," the arachnids were attempting to escape rising waters by spinning webs on an unimaginable scale across fields and around trees. Taronga Zoo's spider keeper Brett Finlayson told The Age that the invasion of wolf spiders really isn't a threat to humans. "They are doing us a favor. They are actually helping us out," Finlayson said in reference to the spider's ability to trap and eat the massive number of mosquitoes being spawned in the floodwaters.



• Scratching an Itch:
  A young brown bear in Alaska's Glacier Bay National Park has become the first such animal to ever be seen using a tool. Writing in the journal Animal Cognition, Volker Deecke of the University of Cumbria said that the animal he was observing "repeatedly picked up barnacle-encrustted rocks in shallow water, manipulated and reoriented them in its forepaws, and used them to rub its neck and muzzle." The bear was molting and had bit patches of fur hanging off its skin. Deecke believes the bear may have been using the tools to "exfoliate" and to relieve itching. While the use of tools is widespread among primates, only a handful of other mammals have been observed using them. Deecke says bears have the largest brains relative to body size of all carnivores, possibly leading to such skillful behavior.



• Extreme Temperatures: -81 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 108 deg F Gaya, Niger

March 5, 2012 (for week ending March 2nd)

Earthquakes:

• The second powerful quake [magnitude 6.7] to strike the same area of southwestern Siberia within two months tossed items off shelves and caused buildings to sway. A comparable quake during late December damaged dozens of buildings and a bridge.
• Earth movements were also felt in southern Taiwan [magnitude 6.1], northwestern California [magnitude 3.0], and the Oklahoma City area [magnitude 2.6].




Tropical Cyclones:

• The early stages of Cyclone Irinia drenched parts of Madagascar still recovering from two separate this from Cyclone Giovanna during the previous two weeks. Irina was predicted to strike the African mainland in souther Mozambique over the weekend.




Sumatran Eruption:

Indonesia's Mount Merapi spewed ash into the sky of western Sumatra, but there were no reports of damage or injuries. Two blasts, lasting between 10 and 15 minutes, occurred in quick succession, according to the regional Vulcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Center. Since awakening with a comparable eruption last August, Merapi has produced frequent tremors and other signs of volcanic activity.



Warming Brings Cold:

Some residents of northern climates might be excused for being skeptical about predictions of a warming planet n the face of recent bitterly cold winters. But a new study reveals that the Arctic blasts of the past two winter in parts of Europe, Asia, and North America were actually the result of thinning Arctic sea ice, melted by climate change. Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology found that since the polar ice pack shrank to a record low in 2007, there has been significantly above-normal winter snow cover in parts of northwestern and Central Europe, northern and central China, and parts of the northern United States. However, much of North America did buck that trend over the past few months. The study found that circulation changes resulting from less Arctic sea ice include more frequent episodes of blocked weather patterns, which lead to increased cold surges and snowfall over northern parts of the continents.



La Nina Respite:

The La Nina ocean-cooling that just brought southeastern Australia its coolest summer since 1984 and two consecutive years of drought in the southern U.S. has begun to wane, according to meteorologists in both countries. But the director of Norway's Center for Climate Dynamics says the phenomenon may come back even stronger late this year," said Tore Furevik. La Nina emerged in 2010 and has been responsible for weather shifts that triggered famine in East Africa, devastating flooding in Thailand, and the worst drought on record in Texas. While Furevik predicts a La Nina resurgence laster this year, most meteorologists agree that sea-surface temperatures across the tropical Pacific should return to near normal over the next few months, easing the worldwide weather shifts.



Closer Clouds:

A glance at the first decade of this century seems to reveal that the planet's clouds got a little lower in height- about 1 percent on average. Researchers from New Zealand's University of Auckland analyzed observations from NASA's Terra satellite between March 2000 and February 2010, finding that average cloud height declined by about 100 to 130 feet. Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the team said most of the lowering was due to fewer clouds occurring at very high altitudes during the period. Lead researcher Roger Davies cautioned that the 10-year study was far too brief to prove a definite trend. But he says it does seem to indicate something significant is going on with clouds. The study concludes that a further reduction in cloud height would allow the planet to radiate heat into space more efficiently, possibly slowing the effects of global warming. Davie theorizes that this might represent a "negative feedback" process in which the planet is attempting to counteract the effects of climate change.


• Extreme Temperatures: -76 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 108 deg F Birni-N'Konni, Niger

February 27, 2012 (for week ending February 24th)

Earthquakes:

• A sharp jolt originating in the Mississippi Valley's New Madrid Seismic Zone shattered windows and cracked walls as it shook the ground in 13 states. The magnitude 4.0 quake struck in southern Missouri near the convergence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The shaking lasted about seven seconds.
• A swarm of more than 60 tremors jolted the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, the strongest registering a magnitude 3.2.




Indian Ocean Cyclones:

• Madagascar took a second hit from Cyclone Giovanna when remnants of the former Category 4 storm skirted the island's southern tip. At least 23 people perished the previous week as Giovanna's eye cut a path through the heart of the island nation.
• Cyclone Hilwa brought storm-force winds to remote Rodrigues Island in the western Indian Ocean.




Aleutian Rumblings:

Alaska's Cleveland Volcano continues to show signs of unrest, with its expanding lava dome threatening to lead to an explosive eruption. The Alaska Volcano Observatory says pressure is building once again after a blast last December cleared mots of a lava dome that had been growing since October. A second Aleutian volcano, Kanaga, has also started activity, with tremors and small ash clouds being reported by observers. Kanaga lies just 16 miles west of the remote community of Adak.



Ocean Infections:

Marine mammals such as otters, porpoises, seals, and killer whales are increasingly being found dead with infections of parasites and pathogens that usually affect humans, pets, and farm animals. The warning was issued at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Vancouver, Canada. Increased coastal development and runoff from industrialized farming appears to be flushing the pathogens into the oceans.


• Pink Giant:
  A "remarkable" 12.76-carat pink diamond has been unearthed in Western Australia's Kimberley region, according to the mining company Rio Tinto. The rough stone is dubbed the Argyle Pink Jubilee and is undergoing 10 days of cutting and polishing. "A diamond of this caliber is unprecedented- it has taken 26 years of Argyle production to unearth this stone and we may never see one like this again," said company spokeswoman Josephine Johnson.



• Extreme Temperatures: -70 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 112 deg F Oodnadatta, S. Austalia

February 20, 2012 (for week ending February 17th)

Earthquakes:

• A wide area of Costa Rica was rocked by a 5.8 magnitude quake centered just off the country's pacific coast. There were no reports of significant damage or injuries.
• Earth movements were also felt in northern Greece [magnitude 5.3], Switzerland [magnitude 4.2], southern New Zealand [magnitude 4.1], Hong Kong [magnitude 4.2], metropolitan Tokyo [magnitude 4.7], and northwestern California [magnitude 5.6].




Tropical Cyclones:

• Category 4 Cyclone Giovanna struck the highly populated heart of Madagascar, roaring ashore along the island's eastern coast with maximum sustained winds of more than 130 mph. At lest 16 people were killed as the storm ripped roofs off homes and triggered flash floods.
• Remnants of Cyclone Jasmine brought flooding to the south Pacific nation of Tonga a week after the storm skirted New Caledonia and Vanuatu.




Indonesian Ash Blast:

Indonesia's Mount Lokon volcano spewed ash more than 6,500 feet into the sky above the northeastern tip of Sulawesi Island. There were no reports of injuries.


• Eagle Capacity:
  Florida's bald eagle population has grown to the point some wildlife experts believe it can no longer expand into the state's urban environment. Florida has the nation's largest bald eagle population outside of Alaska and Minnesota. The birds nearly vanished in the 1960s due to the use of the pesticide DDT, which caused eggshells to become so thin they collapsed under the weight of nesting parents. But the healthy nesting sites have tripled since the early 1970s- a sign the birds are recovering. Eagles are not expanding their range into the fringes of cities, where state wildlife officials say they face such new hazards as power lines and heavy traffic, which are particularly dangerous for young birds.



• Deeper Dilemma:
  At least one species of seal is now having to dive deeper in search of food due to higher ocean temperatures resulting from climate changes, researchers say. Scientists from Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research tagged more than 30 elephant seals with instruments that measured their dives, which can go to depths of up to 6,500 feet. They found that the marine mammals now have less time to search for food when submerged due to the increased depth they must dive to reach cooler waters. Te researchers caution that seals around Marion Island, in the southern Indian Ocean, are now reaching their physiological limits when diving. This may lead to fewer of them being able to survive in the new, warmer environment.



• Extreme Temperatures: -66 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 113 deg F Mardie, W. Australia

February 13, 2012 (for week ending February 10th)

Earthquakes:

• A temblor centered beneath the southwestern Philippines [magnitude 6.7] left at least 48 people dead as it rocked seven of the country's provinces. The shaking triggered deadly landslides and caused buildings to collapse onto people.
• Earth movements were also felt in eastern Afghanistan [magnitude 4.7, Vancouver Island [magnitude 5.7], and central Utah [magnitude 3.7].




Cyclone Jasmine:

• Cyclone Jasmine lashed the French overseas territory of New Caledonia and the island nation of Vanuatu as it strengthened to Category 4 force midway between the two island groups.




Euro Chill:

After an unusually warm fist half of winter, Europe was plunged into a deep freeze with a snow-covered landscape that killed hundreds of people and left tens of thousands marooned. Temperatures plunged to almost minus 40 degrees in some countries, and officials warn of disastrous flooding once temperatures rise and the snow melts.



Amped Ocean Influence:

El Nino and La Nina outbreaks in the tropical Pacific are expected to have an ongoing increased role in causing weather disasters across parts of the world, according to a University of Auckland study. Writing in the journal Natural Climate Change, lead researcher Anthony Fowler says New Zealanders at least should expect more extreme events such as flooding and drought, in the future.



Ape Vaccines:

Researchers at the UC Santa Barbara caution that it may be necessary to vaccinate apes in the wild to prevent them from falling victim to diseases that threaten their very existence. Writing in the journal PLoS One, lead author Sadie Ryan says it can take several years for ape populations to recover from a flu-like outbreak set off by human contact.


• "Lost World" reached:
  Russian Scientists say they have successfully reached a pristine lake far beneath the Antarctic ice that has been isolated from a changing planetary environment for about 20 million years. The team plans to extract lake water to the surface and let it freeze for later studies.



• Moose Emergency:
  Alaska's now infamously deep snow cover this winter is taking a deadly toll on the state's moose population. More than 600 of the ambling animals have been killed so far this season in high-speed collisions with vehicles and trains across south-central parts of the state.



• Extreme Temperatures: -71 deg F Oimyakon, Siberia; + 112 deg F Vredendal, South Africa

February 6, 2012 (for week ending February 3rd)

Earthquakes:

• More than 100 people were injured and 16 homes were damaged by a 6.3 tremblor that struck Peru's south-central coast near Ica.
• Earth movements were also felt in central Japan [magnitude 5.2], central New Zealand [magnitude 4.5], norther India [magnitude 3.5], Crete [magnitude 4.5], eastern Virginia [magnitude 3.2], central Oklahoma [magnitude 2.4], and Chicago's northern suburbs [magnitude 2.4].




Tropical Cyclones:

• Cyclone Iggy swirled off Australia's northwest coast for several days before eventually dissipating as it moved ashore. Remnants of the storm brought locally heavy rainfall to the sparsely populated region.




Fallout Increase:

The amount of radioactive materials released from Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant rose during January compared with December levels according to the plant's owners. The power company Tepco says it measured 70 million becquerels per hour over the past month, a significant rise from the 60 million observed in December. That rise was said to be due to the "displacement" of radioactive materials, which had settled on the plant's facilities and equipment, during work on reactors 2 and 3.



Glacial Theft:

Chilean police arrested an alleged member of a gang accused of stealing blocks of ice from the country's receding Jorge Montt glacier. Police say the case represents the first known incident of theft of large quantities of historic ice in the world. El Mercurio reports the driver of a refrigerated truck was caught cold-handed with about five tons of ice near the city of Cochrane. Authorities say they have identified other suspects and are tracking them down. While the value of the ice was estimated at only about $6,000, the driver could face charges of robbing part of the country's cultural heritage, according to prosecutor Jose Moris Ferrando. A video released last year reveals Jorge Montt is melting away at a rate of about 0.6 miles per year, which researchers say represents one of the most visible examples of climate change.


• Owl Irruption:
  An unprecedented number of snowy owls have abandoned their typical Arctic winter homes this season, reaching far more temperate climates are far south as Seattle, the Great Lakes, metropolitan Boston, and even Oklahoma. The owls are known to head south in large numbers every few years in what are known as irruptions. But the number seen this winter is far greater than ever before. More birds and less food this winter at high North American latitudes may have driven many of the owls much farther south in search of food.



• Everglades Invaders:
  Large numbers of bobcats, possums, raccoons, foxes, and other animals are being wiped out at an alarming rate in South Florida by a burgeoning population of invasive Burmese pythons, according to a new report. The snakes were former pets that were either released by their owners once they got too big or escaped after Hurricane Andrew wrecked their homes or pet shops in 1992. A new report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science says there has been a decline of as much as 99 percent in the number of medium-size mammal sightings in some areas where thousands of pythons are known be slithering about. Researchers say foxes and bobcats could have disappeared as the snakes ate them, or they could have starved due to the disappearances of small prey like rabbits that were consumed by the snakes.



• Cyborg Rats:
  Experiments designed to help humans overcome brain injuries and some diseases are in the process of turning rats at an Israeli research facility into "cyborgs" or cybernetic organisms. Scientists at Tel Aviv University's psychology department are attempting to replace parts of the rodents' brains with digital equipment. The research aims to help people eventually overcome diseases such as Parkinson's or hose who have suffered a stroke. By swapping damaged brain tissue with a microchip wired to the brain, people would be able to do things that were previously impossible due to injuries or other impairments. But heavily sedating ice and inserting probes into their brains to learn how to do that is being called "grotesque" by animal-rights advocates. Another concern is the question of at what point is replacing human body parts with electronics would a person no longer be human.



• Extreme Temperatures: -65 deg F Fort Yukou, Alaska; + 109 deg F Carnavon, W. Australia

January 30, 2012 (for week ending January 27th)

Earthquakes:

• Residents from southern Mexico to El Salvador were jolted by a 6.3-magnitude temblor centered just off Mexico's Chiapas state.
• Earth movements were also felt in central Chile [magnitude 6.2], the Dominican Republic and neighboring Haiti [magnitude 5.1], northern Italy [magnitude 5.1], northern Sumatra [magnitude 4.8], norther New Zealand [magnitude 4.3], and the Big Island of Hawaii [magnitude 4.7].




Tropical Cyclones:

• Two slow moving tropical cyclones that drenched Mozambique for days left 22 people dead and destroyed the homes of more than 56,000 people. A tropical depression produced torrential rainfall as it swirled through the south of the country Jan. 15-17. Cyclone Funzo then stalled along the central coast the following week, reaching Category-3 force just offshore. The storm brought back memories of catastrophic flooding 12 years ago that killed at least 700 people and displaced 500,000 others in the country's worst disaster on record. Cyclone Ethel lashed remote Rodrigues Island in the western Indian Ocean, but there were no reports of damage or causalities.




Costa Rica Eruption:

Costa Rica's Turrialba volcano produced a burst of activity that shot water, vapor , and ash more than 15,000 feet into the air. Residents reported that ash from the blast showered several communities. The mountain's volcano observatory said that a new fissure broke open on the southeastern flank of the crater during the eruption. Turrialba last produced an eruption in 1866, which sent ash falling as far away as Nicaragua. The mountain has been increasingly active since it began to rumble again in January 2001.



Arctic Freshwater Dome:

A huge dome of freshwater has developed over part of the Arctic Ocean in a trend that could have chilling consequences to the climate of Europe and other lower-latitude areas. Satellite observations dating back to 1955 indicate that strong winds and an ocean current known as the Beauford Gyre have made the sea surface bulge upward. Trapped in this vortex is a mass of freshwater from unusually high river and stream runoff originating on the Eurasian (Russian) side of the Arctic basin. Of concern is what could happen if the winds were to reverse. That could allow the dome to collapse and spill out to the edges of the Arctic and beyond. If the freshwater were to enter the North Atlantic in large volumes, scientists fear it could disturb a current coming from the Gulf Stream, which keeps Europe much warmer than its high-latitude position would normally allow.



One of the Hottest:

Last year's global average temperature was the ninth warmest on record and continued the trend in which nine of the 10 hottest years have occurred since 2000. NOAA said the United States experienced its 23rd warmest year, with an average of 53.8 degrees Fahrenheit. That's about 1 degree above the 20th century average. The agency said the high global temperatures are mainly due to increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, principally carbon dioxide.


• Solar Light Show:
  The strongest solar storm since 2005 sent blasts of charged particles bombarding Earth's upper atmosphere, triggering brilliant aurora displays and forcing jet aircrafts to divert from their usual polar routes. The geomagnetic storm was triggered by a huge solar flare that erupted on Jan. 22. A subsequent surge of charged particles rushed toward Earth at 1,400 miles per second, threatening to disrupt satellite communications an knock out power. Solar physicists say the planet was dealt only a "glancing blow" by the particles two days later.



• All-White Blackbird:
  A genetic mutation has created an unusual blackbird that has been attracting bird-watchers to a park in England's East Midlands over the past few months. Ornithologists say the entirely white plumage of the bird is due to a condition known as leucism, which prevents the usual pigments from being deposited in its feathers.



• Extreme Temperatures: -62 deg F Nuiqsut, Alaska; + 109 deg F Oodnadatta, S. Australia

January 23, 2012 (for week ending January 20th)

Earthquakes:

• Dozens of people were injured when a 5.6-magnitude temblor struck northeastern Iran. The quake was the strongest in 10 years to rock the region around Neyshabour. It shattered windows and was followed by several aftershocks.
• Earth movements were also felt in south-central British Columbia [magnitude 2.8], northern Texas [magnitude 3.2], northern Chile [magnitude 5.6], northern and eastern parts of the Philippines [magnitude 5.7], and Christchurch, New Zealand [magnitude 4.1].




Volcanic Resite:

An Argentina airport that closed for nearly seven months due to volcanic ash from neighboring Chile was able to open for only three days before returning dense ash forced it closed again. The brief reopening had sparked optimism in the Andean foothill resort region and San Carlos De Bariloche after more than a half-year of isolation brought on by the eruption of Puyehue volcano.



Antarctic Wonder:

A group of Antarctic lakes has been measured moving five to 10 times faster than the ice shelf they lie on, a phenomenon that probably doesn't exist anywhere else in the world. Meticulous satellite image analysis by students at the University of Chicago revealed that the locations of 11 lakes on the edge of the George VI Ice Shelf shift more than 1,600 feet a year. Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, Douglas MacAyeal thinks the strange and rapid movement is due to the ice shelf being trapped in a narrow channel between Alexander Island and the Antarctic Peninsula . The subsequent buckling of the ice causes waves to form on the shelf, with the lakes being quickly carried across it in the troughs of the waves.



La Nina Flu:

The La Nina ocean-cooling phenomenon in the tropical Pacific has now been linked to global influenza pandemics. While such outbreaks haven't occurred with every La Nina, they did precede the Spanish Flu that began in 1918, the Asian flu of 1957, the Hong Kong influenza in 1968, and the H1N1 scare of 2009. Columbia University infectious disease transmission expert Jeffrey Shaman says the reason probably lies in how La Nina affects weather patterns, which in turn change bird migration, stopover times, and fitness, as well as bringing different species together. Those factors could cause change in the influenza virus strains as the birds mix and mingle, resulting in new pandemic strains that are later passed on to humans.


• Climate Cleaning:
  A team of researchers from around the world say it has found a way to slow climate change while at the same time preventing millions of deaths from air pollution. While the chief focus on combating global warming has been on reducing carbon dioxide emissions, the scientists say it would be easier, cheaper, and more immediately effective to keep methane and soot from spewing into the atmosphere. To do that, the group recommends 14 practical techniques, ranging from capturing methane from landfills and coal mines along with cleaning up cooking stoves and diesel engines around the world. They said that such methods could cut the amount of average global temperature e rise by 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit by the year 2050. Scientists say that while the recommendations are not the best way to combat climate change, they could provide some breathing room until more comprehensive emission controls can be instituted.



• Sobering Discovery:
  Norwegian scientists say they have discovered why fish become intoxicated and careless when exposed to the high levels of carbon dioxide in water that are expected to prevail in the oceans by the end of the century. Almost 2.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide are dissolved into the world's oceans each year due to human greenhouse gas emissions. This is turning the water ever more acidic. Philip Munday and colleagues from Australia's James Cook University had previously found that if reef fish are put in water with higher carbon dioxide levels than normal, they become bolder and more attracted to odors that they would normally avoid, including those of predators. That risky behavior is no believed to be due to changes to a neurotransmitter receptor called GABA-A. Munday and colleague Goran Milsson at the University of Oslo say the fish can be brought back to their senses by treating them with gabazine, a chemical that blocks the GABA-A receptor.



• Orphan Seal Rescue:
  North Sea tempests have brought a wave of orphaned baby seals to the Dutch coast this winter. Some of the pups have been so young that they had their umbilical cords still attached, meaning they were probably ripped from their mothers before being tossed onto beaches and dikes by tumultuous seas. Some of the infant seals are referred to as "screamers" by those caring for them due to their high-pitched whining. "They are little babies missing their moms pretty much, so it sounds like babies crying," American volunteer Torrey Utne told The Associated Press.



• Extreme Temperatures: -64 deg F Amga, Siberia; + 114 deg F Vredendal, South Africa

January 16, 2012 (for week ending January 13th)

Earthquakes:

• Indonesia's Aceh province was rocked in the middle of the right by a 7.3 magnitude temblor that sent residents rushing into the streets and to higher ground in fear of a tsunami. An official tsunami warning was lifted after no significant changes in sea level were detected.
• Earth movements were also felt in norther Iran [magnitude 5.1], northeastern Japan [magnitude 5.7], and Christchurch, New Zealand [magnitude 5.2].




Tropical Cyclones:

• Severe Tropical Storm Chanda roared into Madagascar's western coast on Sunday, packing maximum sustained winds of about 40 mph. The storm brought more than 11 inches of rainfall within a 48-hour period as it made landfall between the coastal communities of Omorombe and Toliara.
• Offshore oil rigs were shuttered off Australia's northwestern coast as high winds and large surf from Cyclone Heidi lashed the region. The storm made landfall near Port Hedland with maximum winds of 75 mph.




Iceless Age:

The next ice age could be deferred for tens of thousands of years thanks to heat being stored in the atmosphere by greenhouse gas emissions, according to an new study. Based on long-term changes in Earth's orbit around the sun, as well as the tilt and wobble of the planet on its axis, we should be slowly moving toward an end of our modern warm age within about 1,500 years. Those influences that cause the transition back and forth between ice ages and periods when the glaciers retreat were discovered nearly 100 years ago by Serbian scientists Milutin Milankovic. But a group of scientists from London, Florida, and Norway has now calculated that carbon dioxide levels would have to drop by about a third before a shift toward a new ice age could begin. Other researchers have determined that even if all man-made sources of greenhouse gases were suddenly shut down, levels of the climate-altering pollution would remain elevated for at least 1,000 years.



Whooping Drought:

The near-record drought that parched virtually all of Texas last year has also produced an acute food shortage for a wintering flock of endangered whooping cranes. Dried-up streams and lack of local rainfall around the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge have made its estuaries and marshlands too salty for the blue crabs that the birds depend upon to survive. The drought has also wiped out the berries, worms, and insects that they eat. Whooping cranes are America's tallest birds and were once a common sight across parts of the country. By the 1940s, the use of the pesticide DDT and habitat loss wiped out all but 14 of the birds. Careful breeding has restored the population to bout 400 in the wild.



Patagonian Firestorms:

Efforts to battle huge summertime wildfires blackening forests along the Argentine-Chilean border are being hindered by ash from Chile's Puyerhue volcano. The mountain began erupting last June 5. Ash has kept helicopters and water tankers on the ground as firestorms destroyed more than 7,500 acres of forest in Argentina's Patagonian province of Chubut. Extreme heat and an ongoing drought in the region are also making it more difficult to control the fires, official said. The fires are believed to have been intentionally set.



Ambiguous Spring:

Whether it's due to a winter that never came, an early spring, or the arrival of a false spring, nature across some parts of the U.K. is showing signs that usually don't emerge for another two months. Cherry blossoms are popping out around London and several species of animals have not gone into their typical hibernation. Most mornings this January have been filled with the sounds of birds and other creatures doing things not at all expected during this usually bleak time of year. The royal Society for the Protection of Birds is telling those wondering why there are no birds visiting their backyard feeders that they are probably out feeding on the plentiful insects still available in the wild. But not everyone is convinced that wildlife is reacting to an earl spring. "it's almost in limbo: waiting for winter to happen, and it hasn't quite happened yet,: said David Paynter at the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust's Slimbirdge reserve in Gloucerstershire, speaking to the Guardian. The National Trust points out that 2011 produced the earliest spring this century along with a late and unusually warm Indian summer that lingered through December.


• Record Smog:
  Hong Kong experienced its worst air pollution on record last year, prompting residents and businesses to flee the Chinese territory for healthier environments in places such as Singapore. The South China Morning Post reports readings at three roadside monitoring stations showed that Hong Kong' pollution levels were 10 times worse than they were in 2005, exceeding acute levels more than 20 percent of the time. Those levels were exceeded more than a quarter of the time in the central business district.



• Extreme Temperatures: -67 deg F Amga, Siberia; + 113 deg F Twee Riviere, South Africa

January 9, 2012 (for week ending January 6th)

Earthquakes:

• New Zealand's quake-weary Christchurch was rocked by a brief swarm of moderate tremors, the strongest registering a magnitude of 5.5 as it knocked out power.
• The strongest in a series of unprecedented tremors in northeastern Ohio [magnitude 4.0] prompted officials to shut down a well that has been injecting water deep into the ground through a natural gas extraction process known as fracking.
• Earth movements were also felt in northwestern Sumatra [magnitude 5.5], eastern Japan [magnitude 6.7], and the Dominican Republic [magnitude 5.3].




Tropical Cyclones:

• At least 47 storm-related fatalities were reported in southern India following Cyclone Thane's passage across the region on Dec. 30. Most of the storm's damage and deaths occurred along the Bay of Bengal coast between Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu state and the former French enclave Pondicherry.
• Severe flooding from Cyclone Grant in far northern areas of Australia's Northern Territory washed cars off bridges, derailed a train, and destroyed a stretch of the Stuart Highway, which links Darwin with the rest of the country.




Alaskan Ash:

Alaska's restive Cleveland volcano calmed down during the opening day of 2012 after spewing a plume of ash 15,000 feet into the sky on Dec. 29. BUt the ash didn't reach a high enough altitude to pose a threat to key aviation routes between North America and Asia. The mountain has shown signs of an expanding lava dome since last July, according to volcanologists. Its last major eruption was in 2001 when the cone-shaped mountain unleashed three blasts that sent ash soaring as high as 39,000 feet into the air and lava streaming from the summit crater. It has produced brief bursts of activity almost annually since then.



Balmy South Pole:

The Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station record its all-time high temperature of 9.9 degrees Fahrenheit above zero on Dec. 25. That was a heat wave compared to the station's record low of minus 117 degrees in 1982. The previous record high was plus 7.5 degrees on Dec. 12 1978. Records at the South Pole go back to 1957, when the first permanent structure was erected there.


• Paid Protection:
  The ecological devastation of one of the world's most diverse wildlife habitats was at least temporarily put on hold when a coalition of donors paid Ecuador not to begin oil extraction operations there. The country's Yasuni National Park is thought to be home to more mammal, bird, amphibian, and plan species than anywhere else on Earth, as well a being inhabited by two native tribes never before contacted by outsiders. Ecuador said it would halt plans to mine an oil field there if it could raise half of the $7.6 billion in revenue the operation could otherwise earn. An alliance of companies, governments, foundations, and even Hollywood film stars has managed to come up with $116 million, enough to temporarily halt the exploitation of the 722-square-mil heart of the Park.



• Hybrid Sharks:
  Australian researchers say they have found that regional shark species have begun to breed with t heir more common global relatives in a possible adaptation to climate change. Marine biologists from the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries say the discovery of breeding between the two related but genetically different species is unprecedented and has implications for shark specifies worldwide. They say the interbreeding between Australian blacktip sharks and the more common blacktips is creating stronger offspring more able to cope with a wider range of conditions. The Australian blacktips are able to live only in tropical waters, while the hybrids can live 1,200 miles closer to the Antarctic. Up to 20 percent of sharks in some blacktip groups are hybrid. The discovery was made by analyzing genetic material taken from sharks off Australia's east coast.



• Wrong-way Crane:
  A rare Asian hooded crane apparently took a wrong turn during its migration, winding up on the other side of the world in a wildlife refuge in southern Tennessee. About 8,000 of the species normally winter on the Japanese island of Kyushu, which is home to approximately 80 percent of the world's wintering population. Experts believe the crane managed to get to the Hiwassee Refuge, northeaster of Chattanooga, on its own rather than escaping from captivity in North America. The bird's unprecedented appearance at the refuge has drawn hundreds of bird-waters who are also busy observing 5,400 of the more typical sandhill and whooping cranes wintering there. The Tennessee Ornithological Society says this is the first time that three species of cranes have been seen together east of the Mississippi River.



• Extreme Temperatures: -67 deg F Oimyakon, Siberia; + 112 deg F Ceduna, S. Australia

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