December 2, 2013 (for week ending November 29th)
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Earthquakes |
Three strong quakes in Northeastern China's Jilin province damaged scores of homes and sent thousands of residents repeatedly scrambling out of buildings. The strongest hit at 6:04am local time on Nov. 22 at a depth of 21 miles, according to the US Geological Survey. A somewhat weaker jolt struck 30 minutes later in the same region. A 5.0 magnitude temblor hit there the following day.
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Other earthquakes occurred in Iran [magnitude 5.6], Peru [magnitude 5.5], and Texas [3.3]. You can read about the Iranian quake here, and the Peruvian quake here.
Cyclone Lehar struck the same stretch of southeast Indian coast hit a week earlier by Cyclone Helen. The storm was also the third to rake the Andhra Pradesh coast this autumn, including Cyclone Phailin, which caused extensive damage to the region in mid-October. Lehar weakened from a Category-1 storm over the central Bay of Bengal to tropical storm force before making landfall on Thursday.
Japan may have gained an additional patch of territory thanks to a volcanic eruption that created a new island in the Pacific. The Japan Meteorological Agency says the islet is about 660 feet in diameter just off the coast of Nishinoshima, which is a small, uninhabited island about 600 miles south of Tokyo and 140 miles north of Iwo Jima.
A young woman in Taiwan has contracted a new strain of influenza A, which is very similar in structure to the H7N9 bird flu that killed 45 people and infected 139 people in China last year. The H6N1 strain is believed to have come from infected poultry and reacts to the same drugs that combat other strains of bird flu, like Tamiflu and Relenza, according to Taiwan's Centers for Disease control. Researchers there say H6N1 is widespread in poultry, but no reported cases of transmission to humans have been found. The Taiwanese patient fully recovered, and no trace of the virus was found in the 36 people with whom the woman had close contact.
The Lazarus Project has been able to briefly bring back the gastric-brooding frog, which became extinct in 1983. The amphibian was unique for its ability to swallow its eggs and give birth through its mouth. Researchers used DNA from some of the frog species' tissue that had been kept frozen for 40 years. They then deactivated eggs from a distantly related frog and swapped the nuclei with that from the extinct frog. It's hoped that the technique could also resurrect other animals.
- Extreme Temperatures: -51.0 degrees Fahrenheit in Rabbit Kettle Hot Springs, Canada; 105.4 degrees Fahrenheit at Nullagine, W. Australia.
November 25, 2013 (for week ending November 22nd)
A 5.5 magnitude quake rocked Tokyo skyscrapers and halted rail service briefly when it struck just 30 miles east of the Japanese capital on Saturday evening. The Japan Meteorological Agency said the quake was centered beneath Chiba prefecture, which neighbors Tokyo, at a depth of 39 miles. It occurred at 8:44 p.m. local time.
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Hurricanes |
An unprecedented Mediterrenean storm struck the Italian island of Sardinia with such force that it was dubbed "Cyclone Cleopatra". The storm dumped almost 18 inches of rainfall within an hour and a half, causing rivers to burst their banks and flood waters to sweep away cars with explosive force.
Weeks of powerful blasts from Sumatra's Mount Sinaburg volcano prevented thousands of people from returning to their homes after nearly a month in evacuation centers. THe volcano has been erupting on and off since mid-September. Besides sending massive plumes of ash soaring high above northwestern Sumatra, Sinaburg also unleashed a fast-moving avalanche of super-heated ash, lava chunks and vapor cascading down its flanks. Prior to 2010, Mt. Sinaburg had not erupted for 400 years.
Emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the burning of fossil fuels will reach a record amount of 36 billion tons this year, according to a report prepared by an international team of scientists. The findings of 49 researchers from 10 countries were prepared for the Global Carbon Project, and highlighted a 2.1 percent increase over the last year's levels and a 61% increase since 1990.
The deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus that has killed at least 65 people, mainly in the Middle East, often goes undetected among those infected, according to a new study. European researchers estimate that for each of the roughly 155 confirmed cases of the respiratory disease, five to 10 may have been infected and gone unidentified. For a comprehensive summary of the virus by the WHO, click here.
- Extreme Temperatures: -55.5 degrees Fahrenheit at Rabbit Kettle Hot Spring, NW Territory, Canada; 112.1 degrees Fahrenheit at Matam, Senegal.
November 11, 2013 (for week ending November 8th)
The latest in a series of sharp quakes (magnitude 4.8) in northeastern China's Jilin province injured two people and wrecked an unspecified number of buildings at midday on Sunday.The 4.8 magnitude jolt lasted about five seconds and was centered near the town of Changanhua in Qian Gorlos Mongol Autonomous County, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center. Late reports by the official Xinhua news agency say that the Oct. 31st quakes injured a dozen people and damaged about 5,000 homes.
Super Typhoon Haiyan skirted islands and atolls of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau as it took aim on the central Philippines late in the week. With maximum sustained winds exceeding 160 mph, the storm posed a threat of catastrophic damage to the area of anticipated landfall on Samar Island. Meteorologists predicted that the storm would weaken to Category-4 force just before reaching the Philippines, but still be generating maximum winds of 155 mph and high storm-surge tides. It is likely to go down in the record books as the strongest storm to form on the planet this year.
A consortium of scientists from around the world announced the discovery of a new virus from a Chinese horseshoe bat that is a close genetic match to the coronavirus that caused the 2003 SARS outbreak. The researchers call the new virus WIV1 and say stored antibodies from seven earlier SARS cases were able to knock it out. Bats are known reservoirs of many types of pathogens that have developed the ability to infect people.
Levels of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane reached record highs in 2012, according to new figures released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The WMO says that atmospheric carbon dioxide rose to 393.1 parts per million (ppm) in 2012, up by 2.2 ppm from the previous year. Levels of methane also reached record highs in 2012 of 1,819 parts per billion. Scientists say that the gases can continue to become more concentrated in the atmosphere even with fewer emissions, affecting climate for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
The deep waters of at least part of the Pacific Ocean have heated up 15 times more quickly over the past 60 years than in the past 10,000 years despite a temporary lull in overall global warming of the atmosphere, according to new research. The study, led by Yair Rosenthal of Rutgers University, confirms earlier studies that showed the absorption of heat by the world's oceans has recently been buffering the air from the full effects of climate change. "We may have underestimated the efficiency of the oceans as a storehouse for heat and energy" said Rosenthal. "It may buy us some time-but how much time, I don't really know-to come to terms with climate change. But it's not going to stop climate change".
Alaskan scientists are expressing concern over the volume of radioactive contamination reaching the state’s coastal waters from Japan’s meltdown-plagued Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Douglas Dasher, a researcher at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Marine Science Institute, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that he fears radiation in Alaskan waters could reach levels once caused by Cold War atomic testing. Official statements from Japanese and American officials have assured that radiation will be dissipated to insignificant levels by the time it reaches Alaska and other parts of North America. But a previously top secret memo from the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission said that was not necessarily the case from atomic testing contamination.
- Extreme Temperatures: -76.9 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 114.2 deg F Dampier, W. Australia.
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November 4, 2013 (for week ending November 1st)
Smoke created by the burning of Hindu and Sikh funeral pyres and the smoldering of incense in Buddhist temples, Muslim graveyards and various shrines is creating almost a quarter of the greenhouse gas emissions on the Indian subcontinent, according to a new study.They found mango bark, cow dung, camphor, leaves, vermillion and cow urine being burned in the process. Such burning creates toxic volatile organic compounds, including formaldehyde, benzene, styrene and butadiene, the researchers told the journal Nature. Funeral pyres emit large quantities of “brown carbon aerosol” gases, which are considered the second-largest contributor to global warming.
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Earthquakes
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- Quake and Small Tsunami hit Northeastern JapanA magnitude 7.3 aftershock of the 9.0-magnitude Fukushima earthquake shook a broad areas of northeastern Japan, including metropolitan Tokyo. Tsunami heights of up to 2 feet were reported.
- Other significant earthquakes occurred in China's Jilin province (magnitude 5.3), Taiwan (magnitude 6.3), southeastern New Zealand (magnitude 4.2) and along the Panama Costa Rica border (magnitude 5.1).
Weather conditions worsened across the northern Philippines on Thursday as Typhoon Krosa approached from the east. The storm was predicted to bring between 5 and 10 inches of rainfall to northern Luzon island before moving on to the South China Sea by late Friday.
Elsewhere, Tropical storm Raymond regained hurricane strength in its second week off of Mexico, and Tropical Storm One became the first cyclone to form in the western Indian Ocean basin this season.
Scientists say they have found three new species of animals in a tropical rain forest region of northern Australia they describe as a "lost world". Researcher Conrad Hoskin of James Cook University and colleagues made the discoveries on an expedition into Queensland's remote Cape Melville mountain range on the Cape York Peninsula. In a region isolated for millions of years, a bizarre-looking leaf-tail gecko was found thriving, along with a gold-colored skink and a boulder-dwelling frog that had never before been seen by scientists.
The sun produced four of its most powerful types of solar flares within a four-day period, sparking concerns of problems for Earth. The severe geomagnetic storms created by such intense solar eruptions can disrupt satellite and high-frequency radio communications as well as power grids. The latest solar eruptions occurred in an area of the sun that should not bring a direct hit to Earth, but scientists were on the alert should the planet receive a glancing blow.
Sumatra's Mount Sinabung volcano spewed black ash nearly 2 miles into the sky above far western Indonesia, forcing villagers who had just returned home from a previous eruption to flee again. There were no reports of injuries or fatalities. Nearly 15,000 residents were forced from their homes in mid-September when the mountain suddenly roared back to life with two explosions. Local vulcanologists failed to notice signs of rising magma, slight uplifts in land and minor volcanic tremors prior to the blasts.
- Extreme Temperatures: -86.5 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 109.2 deg F Curtin Air Force Base, W. Australia.
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October 28, 2013 (for week ending October 25th)
A sharp temblor in Sumatra's quake-prone Aceh province killed one villager, injured two others and damaged about 160 homes and other buildings. The 5.2 magnitude shaking was felt across many parts of the province, including the capital, Banda Aceh. A massive temblor in December 2004 killed 170,000 people in Aceh province and generated a massive tsunami that killed many others across the Indian Ocean.
Thousands of residents in southwest Mexico's Guerrero state were evacuated from flood-prone areas as Hurricane Raymond churned the Pacific just offshore. The region is still recovering from deluges and massive landslides triggered by Tropical Storm Manuel in September. Officials had been slow to respond to that storm.
Indian villagers near the border with Myanmar report that an "eruption" with a lava-like flow has charred trees and plants on a nearby hillside. Locals in the Manipur state village of Tusom say a deafening sound was accompanied by a flow of the hot liquid. India's only other known mud volcanoes are in the remote Andaman Islands, in the eastern Bay of Bengal.
At least one species of monkey has been found engaging in polite back-and-forth "conversation" similar to humans. The discovery, published in the journal Current Biology, could help explain how humans evolved to take turns before speaking. Marmosets are a friendly and peaceful species of monkey that help one another raise their young. Princeton University's Asif Ghazanfar discovered they don't call at the same time, but instead wait for about 5 seconds after another has finished "talking" before responding. This behavior differs greatly from chimps and other great apes, which don't vocalize much at all and don't take turns when they do.
An extremely hazardous concoction of air pollution and fog blanketed the major Chinese city of Harbin and surrounding northeastern areas of the country, forcing schools to close and the cancellation of all air traffic. Public buses also stopped running. Particulate pollution, which doctors say is the most destructive to lungs, was measured at over 500 micrograms per cubic meter, with some downtown Harbin locations reaching as high as 1,000. The World Health Organization says a reading over 300 is hazardous and recommends no more than 25.
Radiation levels have soared in the groundwater beneath Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the wake of torrential typhoon downpours and the forced release of radioactive water being stored around the plant. Officials estimate that 400 tons of radioactive groundwater are now flowing into the Pacific each day. That's in addition to any runoff from rain on the surface. The level of radiation in a drainage ditch at the facility has also risen exponentially, according to the plant's operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO). Water contaminated with radioactive materials flowed into the ditch when Typhoon Wipha hit the area on Oct. 2. TEPCO says much of the water evaporated, leading to the surge in the density of beta particle- emitting materials in the remaining water.
The hole above Antarctica in Earth's protective ozone layer reached its greatest extent of the year on Sept. 26, but it was smaller than in recent years, according to scientists who monitor the phenomenon. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration reports that this year's hole covered about 7.3 million square miles on that date, compared to more than 8 million square miles last year and more than 10 million square miles during the record year of 2006. But NOAA points out that ozone concentrations at an altitude strongly influenced by man-made ozone-depleting chemicals only dropped to about 25 Dobson units, compared with the less than 10 Dobson units in recent years. "We cannot say that this represents recovery, but it is certainly good news to see this year on the higher side of the average ozone range," said NOAA's Bryan Johnson. Link to NASA page.
- Extreme Temperatures: -79 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 111 deg Matam, Senegal.
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October 14, 2013 (For week ending October 11th)
Romania's most powerful trembler in four years awakened residents in the east of the country as well as in neighboring Moldova before dawn on Sunday. The 5.3 magnitude quake was centered about 90 miles NNE of Bucharest at a depth of 83 miles.
Typhoon Fitow stormed into China's Fujian province shortly after midnight on Tuesday, packing winds of up to 93 mph when it made landfall near the town of Shacheng, according to the country's National Meteorological Society. At least 10 people died in flash floods and mudslides in neighboring Zhejiang province, where more than 8 inches of rain fell as the effects of Fitow hit the region over a three-day period.
The world's oceans are now more acidic than they have been for at least 300 million years, which scientists who made the discovery warn poses a threat of mass extinction of marine species worldwide. The change in the ocean's chemistry is said to be due to carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Findings published in the program's State of the Ocean's report say that there is a lag of several decades between CO2 being created by human activities and the resulting ocean acidification. This means that even if world leaders drastically reduced emissions now, further acidification and warming of the oceans are inevitable.
Experts at Canada's Vancouver Aquarium say that they are puzzled by what is causing thousands of sunflower starfish, or sea stars, to die in the waters of Vancouver Harbor and Howe Sound. What is even more startling is the way the creatures perish-by quickly dissolving in a phenomenon the aquarium has dubbed Sea Star Wasting Syndrome.
- Extreme Temperatures: -90.9 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 110.3 deg F Adrar, Algeria
October 7, 2013 (For week ending October 4th)
Southwestern Pakistan was jolted by another deadly earthquake, just four days after a much more powerful temblor devastated parts of the region. At least 22 new fatalities brought the combined death toll to more than 600 in Baluchistan province, where as many as 200 were made homeless by the quakes. This aftershock registered a magnitude of 6.8 and struck shortly after noon local time on Saturday.
The strongest typhoon or tropical storm to strike the Vietnamese coast this year uprooted trees, damaged homes and triggered flash floods in northern and central parts of the country. Typhoon Wutip left at least 60 people missing when it sank three fishing boats before striking the Vietnamese coast late Monday as a Category-2 storm, about 60 miles northwest of the port of Hue.
The greater summertime melt of Arctic sea ice due to recent climate change has forced thousands of walrus onto a remote barrier island in northwestern Alaska. Residents of the Inupiat Eskimo village of Point Lay, about 700 miles northwest of Anchorage, alerted officials to the approximately 10,000 walrus left without their usual sea ice habitat. Hungry, desolate and confused, the animals have resorted to crowding onto small slivers of land just off Alaska's arctic mainland.
- Extreme Temperatures: -81.4 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 113.0 deg F Mecca, Saudi Arabia
September 30, 2013 (For week ending September 27th)
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Pakistan Earthquake Kills 500 and Creates New Island |
A sharp temblor wrecked buildings and killed at least 515 people Wednesday afternoon in western Pakistan as its shaking was felt as far away as New Delhi. The quake also appears to have been related to a new island that suddenly emerged out of the Arabian Sea at the same time, more than 200 miles away. The 7.7 magnitude quake lasted almost a minute when it struck at 4:29 p.m. local time. Seismologists suspect the latest new island will also be a temporary feature and was caused by jets of mud, sand and water that were thrust upward by the force of the strong seismic movement. Others say a mud volcano was forced into eruption to create the island by shockwaves from the distant earthquake. Pictures and a further explanation can be found here).
The largest typhoon of the year left a vast trail of destruction from the northern Philippines to the Chinese Mainland, with at least 34 people reported dead in its wake. Super Typhoon Usagi had a diameter of 680 miles, with its spiraling outer bands extending from the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Chinese coast.
Fishing off northeastern Japan's Fukushima coast resumed after officials said radiation in marine life there from meltdowns at the Fukushima Dalichi nuclear plant proved "minuscule". Leaks into the Pacific from the crippled facility last month forced trial fishing operations to be put on hold. New tests found that 95 of the 100 different fish and other kinds of seafood examined were free of any radioactive substances.
Northwestern Nicaragua's Telica volcano startled nearby villagers at dawn on Wednesday with a sudden blast that sent ash soaring above its crater. The National System for Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (SINAPRED) warned residents to protect their water and food supplies from falling volcanic debris, but activity soon subsided.
- Extreme Temperatures: -86.4 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 115.9 deg F Mecca, Saudi Arabia
September 23, 2013 (For week ending September 20th)
A wide stretch of central Greece was jolted Monday evening by a moderate earthquake that was also felt in Athens. The 5.3 magnitude jolt was centered about 75 miles northwest of the Greek capital beneath Amfiklia, a town in the Phthiotis region, according to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Center.
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The broad and entwined circulations of Tropical Storm Manuel and the Pacific and Hurricane Ingrid in the western Gulf of Mexico created "historic" flooding and mudslides that affected a vast area of Mexico. Distant outer bands of Manuel triggered catastrophic inundations and slides in Acupulco. Many areas from Guerrero to Baja California received flash floods and slides as Manuel churned northwestward before eventually dissipating off western Baja.
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Tropical Storm Man-yi Brings Japan 'Unprecedented' Rains:
Almost the entire length of Japan was drenched by Tropical Storm Man-yi, which forced a quarter of a million people into shelters and added a new factor to the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. Nearly 20 inches of rainfall fell within a 48-hod period, causing rivers to burst their banks and producing "unprecedented" flooding in the historic city of Kyoto.
Arctic sea ice melted to the lowest extent of the year on Sept. 13, reaching the sixth-lowest coverage in the 1979-2013 satellite observation record. The approximately 2 million square miles of ice coverage left on that date was still much higher than last year's record low.
- Extreme Temperatures: -89.1 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 115.3 deg F Abu Hamed, Sudan
September 16th, 2013 (For week ending September 13th)
Guatemala's strongest quake in nearly a year wrecked a few poorly built homes in the west of the country late on Sept. 6. The U.S. Geological Survey said the 6.6 magnitude quake struck at 6:13 p.m. local time near the Guatemala-Mexico border along the Pacific coast.
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Hurricanes |
- Bermuda Roughed Up by Tropical Storm Gabrielle 2.0: A reformed tropical storm Gabrielle lashed Bermuda before later drenching Canada's Maritime Provinces and eventually dissipating over the far North Atlantic.
- Hurricane Humberto Almost Breaks a Record: Hurricane Humberto tied with 2002's Hurricane Gustav in becoming the latest hurricane to form during the Atlantic hurricane season. Humberto was the 8th tropical storm to form during the 2013 Atlantic season, which runs from June1 to Nov. 30.
The world's largest volcano, and one of the biggest in the entire solar system, has been discovered on the Pacific seabed about 1,000 miles east of Japan. A team of scientists from the University of Houston found that the now-dormant volcano covers an area of about 120,000 square miles and is about 145 million years old. It is thought to have become dormant after a relatively brief period of activity during which it formed in the late Jurassic period.
The company that operates Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant conceded that highly radioactive water has reached the groundwater beneath the meltdown-plagued facility. Water samples from a well at the plant contained 3,200 becquerels per liter of beta-ray-emitting materials, including strontium, according to the Tokyo Electric Power Company.
Attacks by rabid hyenas in eastern Zimbabwe are forcing residents to remain indoors at night and leaving many too afraid to collect food even during the day. [I]t says an expanding population and development are now bringing humans into contact with the mainly nocturnal predators.
A cloud of particles from deep space streaming past Earth in an "interstellar wind" has significantly changed direction over the past 40 years, according to observations from 11 separate spacecrafts. The movement of the Earth and solar system through the Milky Way creates an apparent wind that doesn't have much of an effect on our planet. But turbulence within the cloud, which is bout 30 light-years across, appears to have shifted the wind's direction by 6 degrees in only 40 years.
- Extreme Temperatures: -97.8 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 116 deg F Salah, Algeria.
September 9, 2013 (for week ending September 6th)
Five people were killed and hundreds of homes were wrecked early Saturday when a 5.8 magnitude quake struck near the popular tourist destination of Shangri-La, in southwestern China. The shanking triggered landslides that killed one of the victims and destroyed hundreds of homes along the border of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, according to authorities. The quake struck at 8:04 a.m. local time about 5 miles directly beneath the city of Benzilan, in Deqin county.
Southern Japan's Kyushu Island was drenched by Tropical Storm Toraji, which made landfall on its southern coast on Wednesday. The Japan Meteorological Agency said the storm had the potential to produce up to 12 inches of rainfall in some locations.
Peru's Ubinas volcano produced five thermal blasts within a two-day period, sending ash and volcanic gases soaring high above the norther Andes Mountains. Geologists say the explosions were due to the accumulation of melted snow in Ubinas' crater. Prior to 2006, it had been previously dormant for nearly 40 years.
The U.N.'s chief climate scientist says the world is at "five minutes before midnight" when it comes to the deadline for averting severe climate change. Rajentra Pachauri told reporters that humanity can no longer be content kicking the can down the road in coping with greenhouses gas emissions that are the root cause for a warming planet. A leaked draft of the first volume two weeks ago said that human activity is almost certainly behind climate change.
A gang of elk held a Swedish man captive in his own home for hours after the animals became drunk from eating fermented apples on the homeowner's lawn. Drunken elk are a recurring problem at this time of year in Sweden. In 2002, a drunken bull elk was shot after it attacked an 8-year-old boy.
A Maine fisherman made a 1-50 million catch when he pulled in a lobster that is almost exactly half orange and half brown. North Atlantic lobsters are typically greenish-brown in color and turn red only after being cooked.
- Extreme Temperatures: -107.3 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 120.2 Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
September 2, 2013 (for week ending August 30th)
The western English seaside city of blackpool was jolted by a rare quake, centered just offshore beneath the Irish Sea. The British Geological Survey said the quake hit at 10:58 a.m. local time about 15 miles west of Blackpool.
More than a dozen perished along Mexico's Gulf Coast from flash floods and mudslides triggered by the sudden development of Troical Storm Fernand. Fernand attained tropical storm force for only 15 hours before breaking apart over the rough interior of Mexico. But it produced winds of up to 40 mph and torrential rains that triggered slides that came down on most of the 13 victims' homes.
The Sunshine State's 633 miles of tourist attracting beaches are beginning to suffer from a shortage of sand unlike anything ever seen before. For decades, constant erosion by tides, hurricanes, tropical storms and other forces has been replaced with offshore sand sucked up from the ocean floor. But the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers warns that even that source is running out in some spots. Miami-Dade County will use up its offshore resources by next February. Officials are considering trucking in sand from mines in central Florida.
An area known as one of the driest places on Earth received a rare snowfall and flood-producing rains, which were reportedly the heaviest in three decades. Somes parts of Chile's Atacama Desert have never recorded any rainfall at all, while the region's average annual precipitation is only about .6 inches.
The vast Midwest groundwater reserve that lies beneath 8 states is being drained so rapidly for agriculture and other uses that it could be mostly used up within 50 years, researchers warn. A team from Kansas State University found that a portion of the High Plains Aquifer, called the Ogallala Aquifer, will be nearly 70 percent drained by the year 2060 if current use and recent climate conditions prevail until then.
- Extreme Temperatures: -108.2 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 114.8 Akjoujt, Mauritania.
August 26, 2013 (for week ending August 23rd)
- Southwest Mexico Homes Damaged by Sharp Quake: A strong quake that rocked Mexico City buildings hundreds of miles from the epicenter collapsed eight homes near Acapulco before dawn on Wednesday. The 6.2 magnitude quake struck 34 miles east of the Pacific resort at the relatively shallow depth of 12 miles beneath Guerrero state.
- Fresh Quake Roughs Up Central New Zealand: New Zealand's capital of Wellington was jolted by a 6.6 magnitude quake that sent panicked workers and residents into the streets less than a month after a comparable quake also roughed up Wellington.
A powerful blast from Japan's Mount Sakurajima volcano sent a massive plume of ash blowing over the city of Kagoshima, where residents used masks, raincoats and umbrellas to shield themselves from the falling debris. The August 18 eruption sent ash soaring 3 miles into the atmosphere, making it the highest plume ever recorded from the volcano. Vulcanologists point out that Sakurajima has erupted every few hours or days since 1955, and shows no signs of calming down. It is also one of the world's most active volcanoes.
Northern Taiwan and China's Fujian province were struck by category 1 typhoon Trami. Downpours from the storm caused local flooding on Taiwan, and winds were clocked at just over 100 mph where it made landfall on the Fujian coast.
The seemingly endless crisis at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster had deepened during August. Fresh toxic leaks from the crippled power plant's post-tsunami meltdowns prompted the country's nuclear agency to warn that a worst-case scenario is approaching. The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, now says an additional 80,00 gallons of contaminated water have been spewed from a metal holding tank. Hundreds of other tanks are said to be at risk.
The meteor explosion that caused extensive damage around the Russian city of Chelyabinsk on Feb. 15 also sent a massive plume of airborne debris into Earth's stratosphere, where it lingered for months. The bus-sized meteor, which weighed 11,000 tons, detonated about 15 miles above the surface, sending out a burst of energy 30 times greater than the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
Scientists in Saudi Arabia say they have found the emerging MERS virus in an insect eating bat, very near to where the first known human case of the deadly respiratory disease was reported. While the same coronavirus, or one very similar, was recently found in Arabian Peninsula camels, researchers say the strain found in the bat is identical to what has infected at least 96 humans, of which 46 have died.
- Extreme Temperatures: -96.9 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 121 Death Valley, California, USA.
August 19, 2013 (for week ending August 16th)
A sharp temblor on Sunday in southeastern Tibet's Qamdo prefecture wrecked houses and damaged roads near the epicenter, but there were no reports of casualties. The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter was at the relatively shallow depth of 12 miles.
A sudden burst of searing hot volcanic debris killed six people who were sleeping on a beach on the tiny Indonesian island home of Mount Rokatenda volcano. The victims on Palue included three adults and two children who had not evacuated despite warnings since last October that the mountain was becoming more dangerous.
The world's strongest tropical cyclone so far this year left at least seven people dead as it crossed much of the Philippine island of Luzon as a Category-4 storm. Almost 42,000 people were left homeless on Luzon and Cebu islands after Utor toppled light structures, ripped the roofs off of homes and buildings and inundated farms.
The greatest mass die-off of dolphins along the eastern United States in 25 years has carcasses showing up on beaches from New York to Virginia at a rate that is seven times higher than usual. Government scientists have declared it an "unusual mortality event" and are investigating the cause, said Maggie Mooney-Seus of NOAA Fisheries. Tissue samples from three of the dead dolphins found in New Jersey tested positive for morbillivirus.
A Norwegian fisherman, known in the country's Arctic outpost of Kjollefjord as the "crab king", is fighting back after the government banned him from displaying live snow crabs to tourists because officials say the practice can make the crustaceans "seasick". Kjell Sorbo was ordered to cease the practice because "it is not natural for a crab to be exposed to strong light, heat and noise outside of water," the country's food agency declared.
Scientists believe they may have found an important clue into how the emerging MERS virus has come to infect nearly 100 people, mainly in the Middle East or among those who have travelled there. A new study into what "reservoir" may be fueling the outbreak found that antibodies for the MERS coronavirus, or one very similar, are widespread among dromedary camels in the region.
- Extreme Temperatures: -80 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 117 Death Valley, California.
August 12, 2013 (for week ending August 9th)
- A 5.8 magnitude quake jolted the same region of northeastern Japan devastated by the MArch 2011 great earthquake and tsunami. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said the August 4 quake was centered near the coast of Miyagi prefecture and shook a side area that included the Fukushima nuclear contamination zone.
- Earth movements were also felt in northern India [magnitude 5.2], southern Greece [5.1], far southwestern England [2.2], Trinidad [4.1], southern Mexico [5.1] and Canada's Pacific coast [5.4].
- Northern Vietnam and China's Hainan Island were drenched by Tropical Storm Mangkhut. Tropical Storm Mangkhut made landfall abouth 65 miles south of the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi as a minimal storm on Wednesday.
- Elsewhere, Hurricane Henriette reached Category-3 force as it moved west across the Pacific.
Russia's restive Shiveluch volcano exploded with a blast of ash that soared three miles above the Kamchatka Peninsula. RIA Novosti reports the 10.771-foot mountain has seen an increase in activity since May 2009, periodically spewing ash into the sky. For a photo of this ash plume, click here.
The sun's magnetic field is expected to "flip" within a few months, part of an 11-year cycle of activity that could affect Earth's climate, electronics and power grids. Such a flip occurs every 11 years in conjunction with what's known as the "solar maximum," or period of greatest solar activity. Stanford University solar physicist Phil Scherrer says that when the flip occurs, the sun's polar magnetic fields "weaken, go to zero and then emerge again with the opposite polarity." For a video on why this occurs, click here.
An international team of researchers has found that marine life is adapting to a warming climate far more quickly than land-based life. Their three-year study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, reveals that marine species are moving away from the tropics at an average of 45 miles per decade, compared to only 4 miles per decade for those on land.
For an article on this subject by the Scientific American, click here. Also, UC Berkeley's article focuses more on land animals and how climate change affects them as well. To read it, click here.
Hot-headed passions are likely to create more human conflict in the decades ahead as the world's climate warms, according to a new study by economists at the University of California Berkeley. By looking at the historical impact of sudden surges in temperature or changes in rainfall, they found that warming and extremes in rainfall, from both drought and downpours, seem to be linked to spikes in violence. This was found to be true for conflicts between groups more than for acts of violence between individuals. The researchers crunched the numbers of 60 studies from disciplines like archaeology, criminology, economics and psychology, for periods from 10,000 B.C. to the present, in coming to their conclusion. You can read the study here.
Dolphins may be better at remembering long-lost friends than humans, based on a new study that found the marine mammals can identify former companions more than 20 years after they last swam together. Researchers from the University of Chicago discovered the ability after playing back the vocalizations of 42 Atlantic bottle nose dolphins that had been kept in captivity over decades, with their associations carefully documented. Individual dolphins demonstrated profound reactions when exposed to recordings of dolphins they had been with even decades earlier, compared to calls from those they had never met.
- Extreme Temperatures: -80 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 117 Death Valley, California.
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August 5, 2013 (for week ending August 2nd)
Parts of Hawaii were soaked by the remnants of Tropical Storm Flossie, which weakened to a depression just before skirting the island chain. Storm-force winds and powerful lightning still struck parts of the state, knocking out power briefly to the entire island of Molokai and other small areas.
The operators of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant concede that highly radioactive groundwater has leaked into the Pacific from beneath the oceanside facility, leading to fears of contamination of marine life. Tokyo Electric Power Co. says it believes the groundwater is being fed by water in trenches around the reactors, which contain high levels of Tritium, Cesium, Strontium and other unnamed substances.
Rising amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) from the burning of fossil fuels are having a catastrophic, decaying effect on some marine life, according to new research. Scientists from Scotland's University of St. Andrews say that increased acidity in the oceans due to more CO2 in the air is causing something comparable to tooth decay for tiny organisms known as foraminifera, or forms. The drop in ocean pH due to the greenhouse is reducing the number and sizes of theses shells, with many becoming deformed. This makes it far more difficult for the creatures to feed.
Scientists are skimming the waters of the North American Great Lakes this summer to see how pervasive a pollutant known as "microplastic" has become. Scientists are finding increasing amounts of tiny plastic particles in the water and lake beds that are, in part, what is left when plastic bottles and other items break down over time. New studies hope to find out if the particles are soaking up toxins in the water, possibly contaminating fish that eat them.
- Extreme Temperatures: -110.6 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 118.4 deg F in Akjoujt, Mauritania.
July 29, 2013 (for week ending July 26th)
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Earthquakes:
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- Nearly 100 Dead in Central China Quake:
A temblor in China's western Gansu province killed nearly 100 people and left more than 1,000 others severely injured. The 5.9-magnitude quake caused about 1,200 buildings to collapse.
- Strongest Quake Since 1942 Damages New Zealand Capital:
Central New Zealand's strongest quake since 1942 burst water mains, smashed windows and downed power lines around the capital city of Wellington [magnitude 6.5].
- A moderate earth movement was felt in eastern Afghanistan and adjacent areas of Pakistan [magnitude 4.6].
- The fourth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season formed off the coast of Africa on July 24th. Tropical Storm Dorian was predicted to remain well below hurricane force as it moved toward the Windward Islands.
- Tropical Storm Flossie formed in the Eastern Pacific well off Mexico.
Indonesian officials urged residents around Java's Mount Merapi to remain calm after the volcano belched steam and debris with a huge explosion. But hundreds fled their villages along the slopes of Indonesia's most volatile volcano out of fears of an even more violent event. Geologists said the blast was not an eruption, but rather due to rainwater building up pressure when it came in contact with ground made hot by subterranean lava.
French scientists said they have discovered two viruses so different from anything ever seen on Earth that they might as well have come from outer space. The new "Pandoravirus" species are so named because "opening" them has spawned many questions about the nature of life. One was found in a freshwater pond near Melbourne, Australia, and the other off the coast of Central Chile. They are larger than any other viruses ever discovered, and more than 90 percent of their genes are new to science. Viruses are technically not alive because they can't generate their own energy. It's thought that the Pandoraviruses were once live, self-supporting cells that downsized themselves to viruses by becoming parasites. To learn more about these new viruses, click here for a link to Wikipedia.
It is not in human nature for our species to make war, according to new research published in the journal Science. Some scholars say that humankind inherited the inclination to wage war from its closest relative the chimpanzee, which exhibits a kind of war between groups. But two researchers from Finland's Abo Akademi University say that's not the case and believe war developed with the rise of modern civilization, which caused conflicts over resources such as agriculture and livestock. "When we looked at all the violent events about 55 percent of them involve one person killing another. That's not war," said Fry. "When we looked at group conflicts, the typical pattern was feuds between families and revenge killings, which is not war either."
Ravens and crows in eastern British Columbia are being afflicted by a mysterious paralysis that has left at least dozens dead. Wildlife rehabilitation expert Leona Green said the first reports of the mysterious avian ailment started coming in from around the peace region from Fort St. John to Tumbler Ridge in late May. It's feared that the birds are suffering from the effects of West Nile virus, of which they are especially susceptible.
Increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels are causing deserts of the world to bloom with new green foliage, according to a new study. The increased greenhouse gas allows the plant to extract more carbon from the air, lose less water to the air or both, according to the study.
- Extreme Temperatures: -106 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 124 Death Valley, California.
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July 22, 2013 (for week ending July 19th)
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Earthquakes:
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- Northern Algerian Quake Injures 24, Damages Buildings:
Eleven people were injured when a sharp quake struck near the Algerian capital of Algiers [magnitude 4.9].
- More than a dozen homes were wrecked by a 6.0 magnitude quake in a remote part of southern Peru.
- Earth movements were also felt in northern India [4.4] (click here to read more about the Indian Quake), Taiwan [5.3], the Dominican Republic [4.9] and the southern parts of the San Francisco Bay Area [3.4].
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Tropical Cyclones:
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- Typhoon Soulik Adds to Catastrophic Floods-Slides in China:
More than 100 people were confirmed dead after typhoon Soulik unleashed floods and landslides that caused buildings to collapse in eastern China. Two other fatalities were reported on Taiwan.
- Tropical Storm Cimaron moved ashore a few days later just south of where Soulik made landfall.
An eruption of Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano sent a large plume of ash, stones and vapor soaring more than 8 miles into the sky above the Andes. Tungurahua has been intermittently active since it roared back to life in 1999 after remaining dormant for more than 80 years. For a video and more information on this eruption, click here.
Chinese living in heavily polluted northern areas of the country have their lives cut by an average of 5.5 years because of airborne toxins, compared with those living in the relatively cleaner south. A report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences said widespread use of coal in the north is the main factor.Using official data from Chinese sources, an American, an Israeli and two Chinese scholars found that decades of burring coal have led to more deaths from cardio-respiratory diseases for people living north of the Huai River, which is considered the dividing line between northern and southern China.
Marine scientists said the booming shark population inside Fiji's fishing reserve proves that conservation efforts can help save the fish from extinction. Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of Western Australia used underwater 3-D video systems to record data at eight outside its boundaries. Writing in the journal Coral Reefs, researchers said they found two to four times the number of sharks inside the sanctuary than outside, where fishing is allowed. The most likely reason for higher shark densities within the reserve is a significantly higher availability of prey fish compared with adjacent, unprotected areas, the researchers said. Shark populations have recently plunged in many areas of the world, mainly due to the demand for shark fins in Asian cuisine. Click here for more information.
The deep injection into the ground of wastewater byproducts from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has caused a significant increase in U.S. earthquakes since the practice has recently become more widespread. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reports that there were more than 300 earthquakes above magnitude 3.0 from 2010 to 2012, which is a five-fold increase from the average number of 21 tremors per year measured from 1967 to 2000. Columbia University scientists caution that powerful earthquakes thousands of miles away can trigger swarms of minor quakes near injection wells as the arriving seismic waves help release the local built-up pressure.
- Extreme Temperatures: -104 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 121 Death Valley, California.
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July 15, 2013 (for week ending July 12th)
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Earthquakes:
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- El Salvador Rocked by Offshore Earthquake:
El Salvador was struck by an offshore 5.9 magnitude quake. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck at 8:52 p.m. local time about 25 miles south of San Salvador at a depth of about 60 miles.
- Earth movements were also felt in South Africa [magnitude 4.7], the Bangladesh-India border region [4.2], western Sumatra[6.0], Papua New Guinea [6.8] and New Zealand's Hawkes Bay region[4.9].
Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano spewed ash 2 miles into the sky to the southeast of Mexico City, where residents of the capital awoke to find a fine layer of volcanic ash on their cars. Those who live much closer to the volcano, and those in the path of prevailing winds from around "Popo", have endured much thicker accumulations, which have coated their crops and homes over the past two weeks as the volcano has erupted with greater force.
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Tropical Cyclones:
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- Tropical Storm Chantal Drenches Carribean Islands:
Tropical Storm Chantal drenched parts of the Windward Islands, Hispaniola and Cuba. Maximum sustained winds from the storm never strengthened much over 45 mph, keeping storm damage to a minimum across the region. For more on hurricane Chantal, click here.
- Hurricane Erick skirted Mexico's Pacific coast in recent days. Click here for more information about hurricane Erick.
The invasive water hyacinth plant is again threatening the choke the waters of Africa's greatest lake, endangering fishing along the Kenya-Uganda border. The plant virtually disappeared a few years later, some believe due to the introduction of a weevil intended to control the plant's growth. But huge mats of the floating plant have re-emerged.
The World Health Organization has issued fresh details on a severe respiratory disease that has killed at least 40 people since September. The agency said recent victims of the MERS virus have suffered less severe symptoms than those in the initial cases, and some infections the past few weeks had no symptoms. The new details mean that the previous estimated death rate of 50 percent from infection is likely too high. Most of the victims have been in Saudi Arabia and adjacent countries.
- Extreme Temperatures: -96 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 125 Death Valley, California.
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July 8, 2013 (for week ending July 5th)
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Earthquakes:
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- Sumatra Quake Kills 24 and Injures Hundreds More:
At least 24 Indonesians were killed and more than 250 others were injured when a powerful earthquake [magnitude 6.1] destroyed homes near the northwestern tip of Sumatra. The ground shaking also triggered a landslide at a coffee plantation that killed at least one man and left two others missing.
- Minor Damage Reported From Ongoing Tuscan Quakes:
Italy's western Tuscany region was jolted by the second moderate quake within a 10-day period, causing slight damage [magnitude 4.5]. It was the most powerful of the dozens of tremors that have rattled the region since a 5.2 magnitude quake hit on June 21.
- Earth movements were also felt in south-central United States [magnitude 3.0], Taiwan [5.4], northern India [5.0] and the middle East [5.2].
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Tropical Cyclones:
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- Typhoon Rumbia Drenches South China: Typhoon Rumbia became the second tropical cyclone to strike South China's Hainan Island in less than two weeks.
- Hurricane Dalila churned the eastern Pacific off Mexico.
The shock wave from the Feb. 15th meteor explosion over Russia was so intense that it traveled around the planet twice, according to new research. The finding was made by examining data from a global network of interments designed to detect nuclear blasts. Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, researchers said they looked at ultraslow frequency acoustic waves, known as infrasound, and found the Chelyabinsk fireball caused the most powerful event ever recorded by the network. To watch NASA's video on the meteor, click here.
Australian government lawyers are arguing in the International Court of Justice that Japan's annual whale hunt is nothing more than commercial slaughter of the marine mammals under the guise of science. Australia's case before the International Court of Justice in The Hague is countered by Japan's claims that its hunts are legal under a 1946 convention that allows limited catches for scientific research. But Australia argues that killing whales for research "only makes sense if there is a question that needs to be answered... a meaningful question." Most commercial whaling has been halted since 1986 under an international moratorium.
A second consecutive wet, cool and unsettled summer across Britain has wiped out large populations of bees, moths, and butterflies, according to a new National Trust report. It warns that the drop in the number of winged insects could cause birds and bats to go hungry for the remainder of this year.
Scientists warn that catastrophic wildfires, like the one that killed 19 firefighters in Arizona, are part of a new "normal" for the environment of the American West. Arizona has warmed faster than any other state since 1970, with temperatures rising at a rate of 0.72 degree Fahrenheit per decade. A policy of putting out all fires that was established about 1900 has also disrupted the natural rhythm of the landscape, leaving vast amounts of flammable material piled up and ready to catch fire under the hotter and warmer conditions of the 21st century.
- Extreme Temperatures: -85 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 129 Death Valley, California.
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July 1, 2013 (for week ending June 28th)
- An unusually strong quake centered beneath northern Italy at midday on June 21st prompted many schools to evacuate as a precaution. The 5.2-magnitude shaking caused walls of some older buildings to collapse, but there were no reports of injuries.
- Earth movements were also felt in the central Indonesian island of Lombok [magnitude 5.2], the northern Philippines [4.4], northern Tunisia [2.6], northern New Jersey [2.1] and north-central Washington [4.3].
- Tropical Storm Bebinca drenched South China's island province of Hainan before losing force over far northern Vietnam. More than 12 inches of rainfall and storm-surge tides swamped farmland and burst flood barriers in some locations.
- Elsewhere, Hurricane Cosme churned the open waters of the eastern Pacific off the Mexican coast.
- New research by the United Kingdom's meteorological office reveals that the air pollution from industry and vehicles may have kept down the number of Atlantic hurricanes during the 20th century. The burning of fossil fuels in Europe and North America throughout the 19th and 20th centuries released large quantities of particulates, or aerosols, into the air. Aerosols can increase the brightness and life span of low-altitude clouds over the ocean, which, in large numbers, can cool bodies of water like the North Atlantic. According to a series of computer simulations created for the study, Atlantic hurricane activity was suppressed over the last 100 years due to such cooling. But efforts to clean up the air on both sides of the Atlantic have reduced aerosol emissions, especially through the phasing out of coal-burning power plants. This has caused the cooling effect to wane. The study suggests that the recent increases in Atlantic hurricane numbers could be the result of that cleaner air.
Ash and cinders from Alaska's Pavlof volcano soared five miles into the sky as the mountain erupted with greater force than at any time since it roared to life in mid-May. "For some reason we can't explain, it picked up in intensity and vigor," said Tina Neal, an Alaska Volcano Observatory geologist. The U.S. National Weather Service issued an ash advisory for the area around the Alaska Peninsula, about 600 miles southwest of Anchorage, where Pavlof is located. Ash dusted nearby King Cove, but the plume of volcanic debris did not reach an altitude high enough to interfere with trans-Pacific jetliner routes. For more information and a photo of this plume, click here.
Madagascar risks having two-thirds of its crops overrun by locust swarms if it fails to act now, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization has warned. The country's worst locust infestation in 60 years has spread across a wide swath of the nation by early April, and the agency says it has been falling short in its efforts to raise funds from Western donors to combat the plague. Experts say there are now more than 500 billion locusts on the island nation, chomping through about 100,000 tons of vegetation each day. To learn more about this plague of locusts, click here.
Meteorologists and ocean experts are puzzled by a freak tsunami-like surge last month in the Atlantic that swept people off rocks and tossed divers onto reefs. More than 20 tide gauges from Bermuda and Puerto Rico to the northeastern coast of the United States recorded the rare phenomenon on June 13. Some believe that a rare and powerful derecho, which had just caused widespread damage over the northeastern U.S., generated an even more rare phenomenon known as a meteotsunami, or a tsunami caused by weather. Another possibility is that an undersea landslide could have caused the sea changes. NOAA's tsunami monitoring director says he plans to take a boat with sonar out to the continental shelf to see if such a slide actually occurred.
- Extreme Temperatures: -91.3 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 119.3 Salah, Algeria.
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June 24, 2013 (for week ending June 21st)
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Earthquakes:
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- Rare Russian Quake Wrecks 500 Homes: More than 500 homes were damaged by the strongest quake to strike Russia's Kemerovo region in 100 years [magnitude 5.3]. Geologists said the quake was triggered by coal-mining activity.
To learn more about this earthquake, click here.
- Earth movements were also felt in Crete [magnitude 6.2], the northern Philippines [4.4], central Peru [4.6], western Guatemala [6.5], central Mexico [5.8] and near Oklahoma City [3.1].
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Tropical Cyclones:
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- Tropical Storm Leepi Spins over Western Pacific:
Tropical Storm Leepi became the second such storm in a week's time to drench Japan. Its developing outer bands then brought locally heavy rain to Taiwan and Okinawa while the storm's central circulation became better organized late Tuesday and Wednesday.
- Tropical Storm Barry came ashore along Mexico's Gulf Coast.
A third Alaskan volcano has shown signs of unrest, causing scientists to raise the alert level southwest of Anchorage. The Alaska Earthquake Observatory said it had detected an increase in surface temperatures and tremors around Veniaminof volcano, on the Alaska peninsula. The volcano has erupted about a dozen times over the past 200 years, with the most significant activity occurring between 1993 and 1995. In 2008, it spit out several minor bursts of ash. The latest activity comes just over a month after nearby Pavlof volcano awakened, joining Mount Cleveland volcano in spewing ash.
Agricultural burring in Sumatra has sent the worst clouds of smoke in 16 years blowing into nearby Singapore and Malaysia. Skyscrapers were shrouded in haze as Singapore pedestrians were forced to endure the acrid smell of burning vegetation from hundreds of miles away. Health officials urged residents to remain indoors as air quality levels reached unprecedented levels on Thursday. Singapore's National Environment Agency said it had alerted Indonesian authorities to do something about the fires that were polluting the region's air. But the Indonesian forestry ministry said firefighters were already tackling the blazes and water-dropping aircraft would be deployed only if local governors asked for it. So far, they have failed to do so. Massive bring occurs each year at this time as farmers clear land or plantation owners fell forests for illicit expansion. Regulations prohibiting burning are seldom enforced.
New research has found that the widespread use of common pesticides can kill up to 42 percent of invertebrates in a region, which makes up about 95 percent of all animal species. A team of German and Australian researchers studied the impact of the chemicals on the biodiversity in flowing waters of Germany, France and the Australian state of Victoria. The study examined the effects of insecticides and fungicides that have been deemed "safe" for widespread use. Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists warn that some of the insects being killed, like mayflies, caddisflies and dragonflies, are important food sources for other animals.
Crowds of people rushing from an emergency situation can often look like ants scattering during a crisis. And those insects are helping researchers from Australia's Monash University design buildings that can be evacuated quickly. There is little available data on the best places to put exits and obstructions, like support columns, when designing office buildings, transport hubs or sports arenas. And researchers say it would be impractical and even unethical to fake an emergency to test how people would react in a forced evacuation. So Monash researcher Majid Sarvi and colleagues used a citronella insect repellant to make Argentine ants flee from structures that had different exits and obstructions. They found ants were able to evacuate most effectively from exits located in corners of buildings rather in the middle of hallways. That's where they tended to jam up and become confused.
The world's population is likely to increase from 7.2 billion people to 8.1 billion people by 2025, and to 9.6 billion by 2050, according to the United Nations. The new projections are a little higher than the U.N.'s last population estimate from 2011. While the statistician who authored the report says more needs to be done to address imbalances in population growth between poorer and wealthier countries, the new upward estimates should not be cause for panic. John Wilmoth says the world was able to more than double its food production as the population doubled between 1960 and 2000. But others say that supplies of energy and other natural resources may not be able to keep up with the demands of a growing global population.
- Extreme Temperatures: -97 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 118 Adrar, Algeria.
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June 17, 2013 (for week ending June 14th)
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Earthquakes:
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- Australian Outback Rocked by Rare Quake:A remote Aboriginal community in the Australian outback was jolted by a rare quake [magnitude 5.8] that cracked pavement but otherwise caused no significant damage.
- Earth movements were also felt in northeastern New Zealand [magnitude 4.5] and central Oklahoma [3.4].
Some parts of Japan were drenched by Tropical Storm Yagi as the disturbance passed 200 miles south of Tokyo. It was a threat mainly to shipping.
To learn more about Typhoon Yagi click here.
Far East Russia's Shiveluch volcano spewed ash nearly 30,000 feet into the sky above the Kamchatka Peninsula. Russia's northernmost active volcano wasn't a direct threat to residents in the remote region, but it did prompt an alert for trans-Pacific flights between North America and Asia.
Decades of drought across parts of Africa have been caused in part by air pollution generated continents away. Researchers from the University of Washington found that sulfur-laden particles in the air from coal-burning factories in the Northern Hemisphere from the 1960s through the 1980s contributed to the arid conditions. The particles slowed warming north of the equator, forcing tropical rain bands to shift southward, away from the Sahel region during the 1970s and 1980s.
The American West's reputation for being a wild and dusty place has been enhanced in the past few decades by an increase in the amount of dust being blown around the region. Scientists cite various factors, such as more frequent windstorms and droughts and the ways land is being used. Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder said the dust clouds can reduce air quality and visibility, and in the worst cases, force highways to be shut down. Redistributed dust is also changing the chemical makeup of soil across a wide area.
Bird-watchers who play back birdsongs on their smartphones to attract wild birds can stop the creatures from performing important tasks such as feeding their young, experts warn. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said it is receiving more reports of people playing birdsong recordings so they can photograph the birds or observe them up close. "It is selfish and shows no respect to the bird. People should never use playback to attract a species during its breeding season," said society spokesman Tony Whitehead. Bird expert Chris Thain told the BBC that people would be "devastated" if they realized how much harm the use of the apps can cause to wildlife.
- Extreme Temperatures: -109 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 109 Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
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June 10, 2013 (for week ending June 7th)
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Earthquakes:
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- Taiwan Quake Kills 4:Four people died when a 6.3-magnitude quake struck the heart of Taiwan. "This is the biggest quake to hit this year. "As the origin of the quake was shallow and it happened in the center of the island, its velocity could be felt island wide," Lu Pei-ling, deputy chief of the seismology center, told reporters.
- S. Philippines Quake Injures 10:Ten people were injured in the southern Philippines by a 5.6-magnitude quake that damaged buildings on Mindanao island. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered about 3 miles east-northeast of the community of Carmen, where much of the damage occurred.
- Earth movements were also felt in the Indian city of Kolkata [magnitude 4.1], the Sinai Peninsula [4.8], the Greek capital of Athens [4.4] and the southern Hawaiian islands [5.3].
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Tropical Cyclones:
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Tropical Storm Andrea spun off Florida's Gulf Coast, then made landfall in a remote area north of Tampa with maximum winds about 60 mph. Andrea was the first named storm of the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season.
A deadly tornado that struck just west of Oklahoma City on May 31st was the widest ever recorded in the United States, and was the most powerful on the five-point enhanced Fujita scale. The 2.6-mile-wide twister had maximum wind speeds that reached 295 mph, according to the U.S. National Weather Service. It was the second five-point twister to strike the Oklahoma City area in less than two weeks. For more information on the tornado and its aftermath, click here.
The underwater buzzing, whirling and thumping noises generated by maritime traffic have been modeled for the first time on a global scale. Mathematician Michael Porter and geologist Laurel Henderson, who mapped the noise, said they hope a better understanding of the ocean's "soundscape" will be used to find ways to reduce its impact on marine life. Ocean noise pollution caused by commercial and military ships is considered a threat to whales, dolphins, fish and squid, which use sound to navigate, feed and avoid predators.
Scientists studying fish contaminated by radiation from Japan's 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster said the radioactivity is far too low to cause any health concerns for seafood lovers. Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nick Fisher of Stony Brook University and colleagues said even if Japanese citizens were to eat their average annual diet of tuna, they would be exposed to the same amount of radiation one would get from cosmic rays during a single transcontinental flight.
Just like some humans, chimpanzees and bonobos are prone to throwing tantrums, pouting and generally acting like poor sports when they don't get what they want, a new research study has shown. Monitoring the two species of large apes in the Republic of the Congo, researchers from Yale and Duke universities saw how the animals responded after winning or losing two decision-making games. When the primates got stuck with the less-favored food reward during either game, they would often huff, moan, scratch and bang their fists.
- Extreme Temperatures: -98 deg F South Pole, Antarctica; + 121 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
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May 27, 2013 (for week ending May 31st)
A massive 8.3 magnitude quake centered off Far East Russia's Kamchatka Peninusla cause tremors that frightened residents as far away as Moscow, more than 4,000 miles to the west. The epicenter's depth of nearly 375 miles allowed tremors to be felt across a dozen regions spanning Russia.
Hurricane Barbara slammed into a remote stretch of southern Mexican coast Wednesday during the second-earliest landfall for a eastern Pacific hurricane since record-keeping began in 1966. Barbara was a minimal hurricane with maximum winds of about 75 mph when it reached the coast near the border of the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Chiapas.
The U.N. health agency warns that a new deadly virus, which causes SARS-like symptoms, has the potential to spread further around the world and has a global death toll now of 27. A total of 49 patients have been infected by what's being called the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus, or MERS-CoV for short. It emerged last September in Saudi Arabia, and most of the cases have occurred on the Arabian Peninsula.
Humanity's improvident use of water threatens to drive most of the 9 billion people on earth into an acute shortage of the precious commodity within at least one or two generations, scientists warn.
- Extreme Temperatures: -99.2 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 119.2 Dongola, Sudan.
May 21, 2013 (for week ending May 24)
Aftershocks rumbled along the Ontario-Quebec border after a 4.4 magnitude quake near Ottawa on May 17 was felt as far away as Detroit and widely across New York state. The epicenter was about 10 miles northeast of Shawville, Que. Less than 10 minutes after the initial quake, a 4.2-magnitude aftershock was also recorded near the same epicenter.
Alaska's Pavlof volcano produced the most explosive blast in its current eruptive phase, sending ash soaring 15,000 feet into the air. The Alaksa Volcano Observatory (AVO) said clouds of ash, steam and vapor occasionally reached 22,000 feet. Lava from the eruption, coming into contact with Pavlof's snowcap, created a huge cloud of steam that soared high above the mountain located about 625 miles southwest of Anchorage.
Traces of radioactive cesium from Japan's crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant have been found in water and plankton collected from all 10 points monitored across a vast stretch of the western Pacific. The isotopes cesium-134 and cesium-137 were found in the tiny plantlike creatures from the coast of Japan's Hokkaido Island to Guam. Scientists say the isotopes were being dispersed across the Pacific in plankton, and were accumulating up the food chain as the tiny creatures were eaten by larger marine life.
Global warming is occurring at a slower rate than previous models have predicted, according to a study published in the science journal Nature Geoscience. Authored by an international team of climatologists from eight countries, the article argues that in light of this slowing trend current projections of extreme climate change in the near future should be revised. Read the full argument here.
Efforts to restore wild cranes to the southern British landscape after a more than 400 year absence are paying off. The Great Crane Project of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) has been raising the birds and reintroducing them in the southwest of the country for the past three years. Now, the first egg resulting from that reintroduction has been laid. Its nest in under round the clock guard by the WWT and may be viewed online through a telescopic webcam.
- Extreme Temperatures: -102.6 deg F U.S. Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station; + 122.0 Jacobabad, Pakistan.
May 13, 2013 (for week ending May 17th)
Iran was struck with the third deadly earthquake within a month when a 6.0 magnitude temblor killed a child and injured 20 others. A provincial official told state media that the 70 villages had suffered severe damage from the quake, which was followed by a series of aftershocks, ranging in magnitude from 4.1 to 5.2.
Activity at Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano intensified, prompting officials to raise the alert level as lava bombs were tossed more than a half-mile from the crater. Vulcanologists cautioned that the volcano's lava dome could expand and unleash increasingly powerful blasts of ash and lava.
Bangladesh and neighboring parts of Burma were spared a major catastrophe when Cyclone Mahasen weakened over the Bay of Bengal before making landfall.A storm surge did cause some flooding along the coast, but the magnitude of destruction was far, far less for a country accustomed to nearly annual devastation from cyclones and monsoon storms.
A gray whale that was sighted off the coast of Namibia in early May was the first-ever appearance of the marine mammal south of the equator. The species has been extinct in the Atlantic since the 18th century and has been mainly confined to the north Pacific. One was also sighted in the Mediterranean in May 2010.
Overfishing of the world's oceans is the leading cause of an unprecedented jellyfish population boom, a new study claims. Published in the Bulletin of Marine Science, the report argues that the unrestricted fishing of small open-water fish, such as sardines and herring, has reduced the number of creatures that jellyfish compete with plankton and other forms of food. Because jellyfish will also feed on fish larva, this boom will only make it that much more difficult for overfished species to recover, the study warns. read the full study here.
- Extreme Temperatures: -102 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 118 Matam, Senegal.
May 7, 2013 (for week ending May 10th)
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Earthquakes:
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- Southwest Iran Quake Strikes Where April Temblor Killed 37:A sharp quake struck near Iran's main nuclear reactor, in the southwestern city of Bushehr [magnitude 5.1]. While there were no reports of damage or injuries, a stronger quake in the same area last month killed 37 people and nearly leveled two villages.
- Earth movements were also felt in central New Zealand [magnitude 3.7], St. Kitts and Nevis [5.8] and in southeastern Idaho [4.2].
Four German tourists and their local guide were killed when one of the Philippines' most active volcanoes exploded, sending boulders "as large as cars" raining down on the climbers. The blast at Mayon was caused by rainwater coming in contact with superheated volcanic material.
Measures to protect Earth from a catastrophic impact by an asteroid or other near-Earth objects (NEOs) are being developed in a four-year plan by the European Space Agency. The plan comes less than three months after a meteor exploded over Russia's Ural region, injuring hundreds. There are currently 10,000 NEOs with orbits bringing them relatively close to Earth. Detlef Koschny, head of the agency's NEO study office, says more coordinated scans of the sky each night are necessary to find currently undiscovered NEOs. Studies to determine if it would be more effective to deflect threatening asteroids with an explosion or an impact by a large object are also being discussed.
Baboons may be as skilled as a human child at distinguishing between different amounts, a new study has shown. In a series of trials conducted by psychologists at the University of Rochester, a small group of olive baboons was shown to be generally successful at choosing which of two plastic cups contained more peanuts. The baboons were not counting the legumes one by one, a skill that only humans are known to have for quantities greater than three or four. Instead, the researchers believe that the primates used a rough "eyeballing" technique. This is similar to the way that human toddlers, who have not yet learned to properly count, size up differences in quantity.
A new SARS-like virus that emerged in September claimed five more victims in late April and early May, killing a total of 18 people and infecting 30 since its initial spread. Two of the latest patients were being treated in an intensive-care unit in Saudi Arabia, according to the country's health officials. The viral strain causes what is now being called MERS, or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. Infection causes acute pneumonia and kidney failure. Most of the virus' victims have been in or from around Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, but authorities say they are unable to determine why. Click here to learn more about the MERS virus.
- Extreme Temperatures: -104 deg F South Pole, Antarctica; + 117 Matam, Senegal.
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May 6, 2013 (for week ending May 3rd)
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Earthquakes:
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- Dozens Injured in Northern India Quake: A sharp quake [magnitude 5.4] centered in northern India's Jammu and Kashmir region killed one person and injured 59 others. The shaking wrecked several buildings and caused cracks to appear in many others. About 25 students were hurt in their damaged schools.
- A mild tremor shook the Marina del Rey coast near Los Angeles [magnitude 3.2].
Tropical Cyclone Zane briefly threatened to roar ashore along northern Queensland's coast after forming over the Coral Sea. But the storm became disorganized and brought only locally heavy rain and gales when it made landfall late in the week on the Cape York Peninsula.
Small particles released by plants in warmer weather could help to boost cloud production and reduce the effect of global warming, a new study suggests. By surveying nearly a dozen forests across Europe, North America and southern Africa, the team of Finnish physicists found that in warmer weather, plants tend to emit higher concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the atmosphere. When these small, floating chemicals bind with water vapor, they can create the "seeds" of clouds. With more VOCs in the air, we can expect to see more clouds in the sky. That could be good news for those concerned about climate change. As warmer weather leads to higher levels of cloud production, more sunlight will be deflected back into space and prevented from warming the surface of the Earth. Click here to learn about a prospective research project, funded by a grant from Bill Gates, to whiten clouds in the hopes of reducing global warming.
Crude oil that polluted the Gulf of Mexico during the Deepwater Horizon disaster is still causing health defects in at least one species of fish that is an indicator of the region's marine ecosystem health, researchers say. A team from universities in California, South Carolina and Louisiana has monitored the killifish since the disaster occurred in April 2010. Writing in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, they say that Gulf killifish embryos exposed to sediment from oiled locations have developmental abnormalities that include heart defects, delayed hatching and reduced hatching success.
With the help of offshore wind farms, German scientists are about to reintroduce lobsters to the water around a North Sea island that was once home to untold numbers of the crustaceans. World War II bombing of Helgoland sent tons of toxins into the water, killing off most of the creatures. Heinz-Dieter Franke of the Biological Institute Helgoland hopes the rocky foundations of the new North Sea wind farms will provide good habitats for the lobsters.
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Blocked Migration:
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A rare sequence of spring snowstorms across the northern Great Plains is causing difficulties and even starvation for some migratory birds. While it's not unusual to get a single snowstorm in April, the weekly storms during late March and the first half of April have taken their toll, according to bird expert Kent Jensen of South Dakota State University. He and others beneath North America's Central and Mississippi migratory "flyways" have found dead robins in their backyards. The birds were emaciated and had even burned up their breast muscles for nutrition in a last-ditch effort to survive. "The ground to the north in North Dakota and Canada is still frozen, and we're only getting occasional thaws that allow the birds to feed from the ground here in eastern South Dakota," Jensen tells Earthweek.
A growing chorus of public health specialists is sounding the alarm for a deadly strain of bird flu that has so far killed 23 people in China. "This is definitely one of the most lethal influenza viruses we have seen so far," said Keiji Fukuda, an epidemiologist with the World Health Organization. Most of the reported H7N9 infections have occurred in or around Shanghai. Other confirmed cases were reported in Beijing and in the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui and Henan. There was a single confirmed case in Taiwan. Symptoms include fever and coughing. There is no evidence to suggest that the virus can be transmitted between humans.
The mass annual calving of wildebeests in Tanzania is increasingly bringing domestic cattle into contact with a deadly virus that kills livestock but doesn't harm the wild animals. The malignant catarrhal fever virus is deposited onto grassland in the birth fluids of female wildebeests and by the nasal secretions of their newborns. Livestock become exposed when they later graze over the same area, and they die quickly from the infection. There is no cure or vaccine. Masai and Sukuma herders once were able to move their animals far from the wildebeests during calving season, but most of those lands have been taken by farmers, investors and even residential developers.
- Extreme Temperatures: -87 deg F South Pole, Antarctica; + 115 Matam, Senegal.
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April 29, 2013 (for week ending April 26th)
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Earthquakes:
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- Afghan Quake Kills 7: At least 7 people have been killed, dozens injured and numerous homes destroyed by a powerful earthquake that hit eastern Afghanistan Wednesday afternoon. The 5.6 magnitude jolt was centered in the Hindu Kush mountains about 15 miles northwest of the city of Jalalabad.
- Powerful Quake Kills Nearly 200 in China's Sichuan Province: China's most deadly earthquake in three years killed at least 196 people and injured 12,000 others in the southwestern province of Sichuan Saturday morning. Thousands of homes were wrecked by the 6.6 magnitude shaking. The quake also triggered huge landslides in the mountainous region surrounding the epicenter.
Whether a shark hunts near the surface or in the shadowy depths may depend on the season, the time of day and even the fullness of the moon. By watching 39 gray reef sharks living near the coral reefs of the West Pacific nation of Palau, a group of Australian marine biologists observed that the sharks would typically swim at more shallow levels during winter than beneath the waxing sunlight of spring. The study concludes that a better understanding of these patterns of movement should be used to protect sharks from overfishing.
A viral strain that causes measles in humans has killed more than 100 dolphins that have washed up on the western coast of Italy so far this year, according to marine mammal experts. "The deaths could be caused by food shortages that weaken the animal, making them more easily exposed to disease and parasites," Italy's Ministry for the Environment said in a statement. The epidemic mostly affected young dolphins under the ages of 15-20 years.
According to new research from the Florida Institute of Technology, thunderstorms also emit "dark lightning". It is made up of energetic blasts of X-rays and gamma rays that possibly expose jet passengers to excessive doses of radiation. Packing a million times more energy than its visible counterpart, dark lightning could theoretically pose a threat to those flying near storms. Dark lightning is thought to occur once in every thousand bolts of electric lightning.
The goal of limiting global climate change to only 2 degrees Celsius of warming since the start of the Industrial Revolution is slipping out of reach, according to a draft summary being prepared by climate experts for publication next year. A 22-page draft summary says that governments may have to find ways to artificially suck greenhouse gases from the air if they don't make deep cuts in carbon emissions by 2030.
- Extreme Temperatures: -91.8 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 114.8 Matam, Senegal.
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April 22, 2013 (for week ending April 19th)
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Earthquakes:
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- Scores Dead in Iran's Strongest Quake in 50 Years: The most powerful earthquake to strike Iran in more than 50 years [magnitude 7.8] caused widespread destruction and an unknown number of casualties on each side of the Iran-Pakistan border.
- At least nine people were injured when a 5.1 magnitude quake struck southwest China's Yunnan province.
- Earth movements were also felt in Japan's southern Honshu Island [magnitude 5.8], northern Papua New Guinea [6.8], northeast India [4.4], Hawaii [4.4] and along the southern Quebec-Ontario border [3.1].
Mexico's famed Popocatepetl volcano spewed a large cloud of dense ash that fell to the ground in several towns near Mexico City. "Popo" occasionally produces blasts of steam and ash, at times accompanied by glowing rocks.
Millions of people across Africa and parts of Asia could become destitute and face a mounting threat of starvation in the coming decades as greenhouse gas-induced climate change shifts how and where crops can be grown. That was one of the issues being discussed at an international conference in Dublin, convened to examine the link between food security and global warming. Many researchers and activists there believe climate change may spell lower crop yields, higher food prices and widespread hunger later on in the 21st century. "We are struggling to feed a rapidly growing population under a changing climate," said Eamon Gilmore, foreign affairs minister of Ireland. As the climate of the Earth continues to change, there are concerns that extreme weather and changing seasonal precipitation patterns will limit both crop yields and livestock production.
New evidence suggests that certain regions of Antarctica are now experiencing more intense summer ice melt than at any time in the last thousand years. After analyzing a 1,200-foot-deep ice core taken from James Ross Island, off the Antarctic Peninsula, Australian and British climatologists found that the rate of melting has increased dramatically over the last 50 years in particular. Using the same method, the research team found that the coldest observable period on the peninsula was 600 years in particular. Compared to those record conditions, the current rate of ice melt is 10 times more intense and has spiked in the last half-century. To learn more about why this increase in melting has occurred, click here.
A rare sequence of spring snowstorms across the northern Great Plains is causing difficulties and even starvation for some migratory birds. While it's not unusual to get a single snowstorm in April, the weekly storms during late March and the first half of April have taken their toll, according to bird expert Kent Jensen of South Dakota State University. He and others beneath North America's Central and Mississippi migratory "flyways" have found dead robins in their backyards. The birds were emaciated and had even burned up their breast muscles for nutrition in a last-ditch effort to survive. "The ground to the north in North Dakota and Canada is still frozen, and we're only getting occasional thaws that allow the birds to feed from the ground here in eastern South Dakota," Jensen tells Earthweek.
The high demand for shark fin soup is causing an alarming rise in the killing of dolphins off the coast of Tanzania, which an official says fishermen use illegally as bait for the predatory fish. Most dolphins have been protected by the country's fisheries laws since 2009. But tourists report seeing the "distressing" killing of dolphins within plain sight. While the slaughter of dolphins to feed the illicit shark fin market may be disturbing, experts warn that as many as one in fifteen of all sharks are fished from the world's oceans each year. It's often just for their fins.
- Extreme Temperatures: -94 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 117 Matam, Senegal.
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April 15, 2013 (for week ending April 12th)
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Earthquakes:
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- Iran Quake Kills 37 and Devastates Two Villages: Two villages in Western Iran were essentially leveled by a powerful temblor [magnitude 6.3] that killed 37 people and injured nearly a thousand others.
- Earth movements were also felt in eastern Indonesia's Papua province [magnitude 7.1], south central Burma [5.2] and the far northern Philippines [5.8].
Scientists said they have developed two processes to use the carbon dioxide (CO2) greenhouse gas pollution created by burning fossil fuels as an alternative fuel itself. Laboratory-scale experiments have been successful in doing so by using the three most abundant and inexpensive resources available- sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water. A full-scale commercial facility would use a field of mirrors to focus sunlight onto a central reactor. In it, CO2 captured in calcium oxide panels placed in smokestacks of coal-fired power plants would be the initial fuel source. The concentrated sunlight would break down the stored CO2 with water to form carbon monoxide and hydrogen, which are two components of "synthesis gas," or "syngas." It can easily be converted to hydrocarbon fuels such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
Eerie sounds like those out of a science-fiction film are about to ring ears across the eastern United States. Every 17 years at this time, like clockwork, Brood II cicadas crawl out of the ground from North Carolina to New England. The bugs live underground for nearly two decades, feeding off fluids that gather near the roots of plants. They emerge by the billions when the temperature reaches 64 degrees Fahrenheit. The Brood II, red-eyed cicada is smaller than the larger common cicada, which has green eyes and comes out every year. The red-eyed cicadas fill the air with high-pitched buzzes. Their periodic emergence and return to the ground actually help aerate soil, and they provide food for birds and other animals. The 1.5-inch-long insects do not sting or bite. They spend their two-week lives above ground climbing trees, shedding their crunchy skins and reproducing. To learn more about these noisy insects, click here.
- Extreme Temperatures: -99 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 115 Bordj Badji Mokhtar, Algeria.
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April 8, 2013 (for week ending April 5th)
A new study shows that the world's oceans are warming significantly under the influence of greenhouse gas-induced climate change, especially the deeps. They found that dimmed sunlight due to massive volcanic eruptions in the early 1980s and 1990s briefly reversed an otherwise profound trend of ocean warming.About 90 percent of the energy added to the global environment by human activities was found to have gone into the ocean. You can read the whole study here.
Madagascar's worst locust plague in 60 years has infested more than half of the island's crops and has prompted a U.N. warning of potential food shortages. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says that half of the island's population could be at risk of hunger as the insects continue to devour crops.
Puzzling patterns of grass rings that blanket parts of southwest Africa have left casual observers and even experts scratching their heads for centuries. Fairy circles can reach 50 feet in diameter and are most common in Namibia. The indigenous Himba people have since prehistoric times attributed the rings to a higher power. But botanist Norbert Juergens of Germany's University of Hamburg says that they lowly termites the true force that creates them. In what's called a symbiotic relationship with the circles, the termites benefit from the moisture that gets trapped inside the circles. Read more about it here.
One of the most severe storms on record inundated the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires on Tuesday, leaving half the city submerged and many residents stranded on rooftops. Nearly 6 inches of rain fell over parts of the city in two hours during an overnight cloudburst. It was the heaviest April rainfall in a century for the capital.
One of Pennsylvania's largest bat habitats has suffered an almost complete die-off this past winter. A leading state biologist says the deaths are the result of a lethal fungal infection that has decimated bat caves and mines across swath of the eastern United States during the past few years. According to the leading theory on the origin of the disease, the deadly fungus was brought to North America by spelunkers carrying its spores on their clothing after exploring caves in Europe.
Unprecedented numbers of starving sea lion pups are swimming to shore in California, straining local animal care centers and puzzling marine biologists who have yet to determine what is ailing the sea mammals. The pups are being found along the beaches malnourished, severely dehydrated and without their mothers. They are being taken to local marine mammal rescue facilities, like SeaWorld in San Diego. "We think the mothers are having to go out farther and stay out longer to find food and the pups begin to forage on their own after they've been alone for some time," says Sharon Melin, a wildlife biologist at the federal agency. She adds that it is very unusual to find a sea lion pup without its mother.
Extreme Temperatures: -102.8 degrees Fahrenheit in Vostok, Antarctica; +113.0 degrees Fahrenheit at Matam, Senegal.
April 1, 2013 (for week ending March 29th
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Earthquakes:
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- Taiwan Earthquake Kills One and Cracks Buildings: A powerful temblor [magnitude 6.0] centered in the heart of Taiwan killed at least one person and injured about 20 others.
- Earth movements were also felt in southern Mexico [magnitude 5.5], Guatemala [6.2], Trinidad [4.8] and the Scottish Highlands [2.0].
Indonesia's Mount Lokon volcano spewed ash more than a mile into the air above Sulawesi Island for the second time in a week. Lokon roared to life in July 2011 after 20 years of slumber. It has since produced several eruptions.
A team of chemical engineers in China has manufactured the lightest solid material ever produced, which they claim will one day play a major role in cleaning up pollution. The material is called a graphene aerogel and has about one-sixth the density of air. It's also extremely absorbent, capable of soaking up to 900 times its own weight. This quality makes it a potentially invaluable tool for environmental cleanup efforts, says Gao Chao at Zhejiang University's Department of Polymer Science and Engineering. For more information on this new material, click here.
The beaches of Chile's Coronel Bay were blanketed with a carpet of red from countless thousands of dead crabs and shrimp that mysteriously washed ashore. Local fishermen suggested the deaths could have been caused by local power stations that use seawater as a cooling agent. The power firm, Endesa Chile, denied the allegations. The company's project manager said its own studies indicate the die-off "is due to the flow of deep waters coming from the continental platform. Induced by currents of wind on the ocean."
One group of businesspeople not complaining about the seemingly endless winter in eastern North America this year is the region's producers of maple syrup. Those who collect sap from Wisconsin and Ontario, eastward to New England, say the prolonged cold is perfect for a good harvest. Last year, an abrupt warming sent sap rushing up through the trees so quickly that production was cut in half. For many, it was the worst harvest in five years.
- Extreme Temperatures: -102 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 112 deg F Matam, Senegal.
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March 25, 2013 (for week ending March 22nd)
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Earthquakes:
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- Tremor Jolts New Zealand's Largest City: The strongest tremor to jolt Auckland, New Zealand in six years left sidewalks cracked but otherwise cause no significant damage [magnitude 3.9]
- Earth movements were also felt in south eastern China [magnitude 4.3] and eastern Europe [4.3].
The third straight year of population decline for the North American monarch butterfly has brought the number of these orange-and-black insects to the lowest levels ever reliably measured. Six of the past seven years have also seen numbers decline, bringing the population to only one-fifteenth of what it was in 1997. Scientists said it is no longer possible to attribute the decline to just yearly or seasonal events that have always affected the species. The World Wildlife Fund is one of the groups that sponsored the butterfly census. It says climate change and agricultural practices, particularly the use of certain pesticides, are to blame.
Natural selection has caused at least one bird species to evolve with shorter wings that help it avoid being struck by passing vehicles. Charles Brown at the University of Tulsa has collected bodies of swallows that became roadkill in the past 30 years. Swallows often build nests on highway bridges, making them prone to becoming traffic fatalities. Brown has measured the wings of such dead birds in relation to those n=snagged in nets. He found that the wings of vehicle-killed birds grew longer over the study period , while the general population of the birds grew shorter wings. It's believed that the shorter wings allow birds to make sharp turns more quickly- and escape being hit by vehicles.
Florida is experiencing a string of manatee deaths because of red tide algae blooms along its southwestern beaches. Meanwhile, marine biologists said they don't know what's killing manatees along the eastern coast because there have been no reports of red tide, and the weather hasn't been cold enough to play a role. Want to know more about manatees? Click here.
- Extreme Temperatures: -93 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 114 deg F Matam, Senegal.
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March 18, 2013 (for week ending March 15th)
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Earthquakes:
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- Southern California Rattled by Mild Quake and Aftershocks: Much of Southern California was jolted by a relatively moderate quake centered in the mountains of Riverside County. The temblor had a 4.7 magnitude.
- Earth movements were also felt in south-central Alaska [magnitude 4.4], Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula [5.6], far western China's Xinjiang region [5.2] and in Trinidad and adjacent parts of Venezuela [4.6].
A shift in winds over the eastern Caribbean blew potentially harmful gas from Montserrat's Soufriere Hills volcano into the neighboring island of Antigua. Antigua's National Office of Disaster Services warned people with sensitive eyes and respiratory problems to remain indoors. Activity within Soufriere Hills was said to be relatively low, but the mountain was emitting an average of 368 tons of sulfur dioxide each day. A catastrophic eruption in 1997 killed 19 people on Monteserrat and buried much of the British territory in ash. Nearly half of the island's inhabitants moved elsewhere in the wake of the disaster.
The mysterious organism allegedly discovered by Russian scientists who drilled deep into a buried Antarctic lake may have been nothing more than contamination. That's according to the head of the laboratory where the alleged bacterium was found. Researchers from the St. Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute had announced evidence of an unfamiliar strain of bacteria in water samples pumped up from Lake Vostok. But the laboratory leader said that further analysis determined that the material was instead from drilling fluid or other substances used in the extraction. For more information, click here.
Climate change has caused some villages in northeastern India to become flooded or wash away entirely because of more extreme rainfall. The trend has resulted in some rivers across the region to migrate from established channels that people have used for thousands of years. One study found that some rivers shifted more than a mile, and that some riverside villages got wiped out as a result. These roving waterways have most severely affected the Himalayan state of Arunachal Pradesh.
A dramatic greening is in progress in high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere as a warming climate allows vegetation to grow much farther north, researchers say. The northern greening is most noticeable in the increased abundance of tall shrubs and trees growing in areas that were recently far too harsh in winter for them to survive.
- Extreme Temperatures: -85 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 114 deg F Bossangoa, C. African Rep.
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March 11, 2013 (for week ending March 8th)
Far East Russia's Plosky Tolbachik volcano created lava flows across the otherwise frozen landscape of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The closest settlement to the eruption is the remote community of Klyuchi, about 30 miles away. Plosky Tolbachik began erupting November 27th for the first time in 36 years.
Clouds of desert locusts swarming over Egypt in recent weeks arrived in Israel as that country was preparing to observe Passover. According to the Bible, a plague of locusts was one of 10 plagues God imposed on Egyptians for enslaving and abusing ancient Hebrews. Israel Radio said a large swarm of the ravenous insects darkened the skies over southern Israel as they arrived in fields across the Negev desert, where they caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. Israeli officials were preparing pesticides to be sprayed on farmland to keep the insects from munching on more crops.
Russia's military intelligence agency is reported to be readying a new weapon for special operations- a platoon of mice. The rodents will replace dogs in detecting explosives, ammunition and people being hidden, such as hostages. The tiny troops could soon be used throughout Russia's secret service operations. Animal experts told Russian media that mice have a better sense of smell than dogs and take only a couple of weeks to train. The training involves teaching the rodents to make certain body poses when they detect certain dangers. For more information on these military mice, click here.
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Water Depletion:
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Groundwater beneath the cradle of civilization is being pumped out much faster than it is being replenished, according to new satellite measurements. A study of space-based observations finds that the freshwater reserves in the Tigris and Euphrates river basins in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran are being depleted faster than anywhere other than in India. Using information collected by NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites, researchers were able to estimate the overall groundwater depletion. They say between 2003 and 2010, there was a net loss of 35 cubic miles of water. The scientists from NOAA, NASA and the University of California Irvine say that is roughly equivalent to all the water in the Dead Sea simply disappearing.
As many as one in fifteen of all sharks on Earth are fished from the oceans each year, leading many to fear the species is on the path to extinction. A new study has offered the first tentative tally of the number of sharks killed by humans each year, many illegally. Writing in the journal Marine Policy, lead author Boris Worm of Canada's Dalhousie University estimates that some 97 million sharks were caught and killed in 2010. The global; shark fin market, which the study estimates to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, is the primary driver of aggressive shark fishing.
People living in the area most directly affected by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster face a slightly higher risk of developing certain cancers, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a new report. The WHO report estimates that female infants living within the 12 miles of the plant at the time of the disaster face a 70 percent higher risk of developing thyroid cancer later in life that comparable babies living outside the contaminated area.
- Extreme Temperatures: -78 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 113 deg F Vredendal, South Africa.
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March 4, 2013 (for week ending March 1st)
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Earthquakes:
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- East Timor Quake Panics Capital Residents: Residents of East Timor ran into the streets in panic as a 5.7 magnitude temblor struck the tiny country. The U.S. Geological Survey placed the undersea quake about 125 miles east of the capital, Dili, beneath the Timor Sea at a depth of about 22 miles.
- Earth movements were also felt in Vanuatu [magnitude 6.1], Hong Kong and adjacent Guangdong province [4.5], central Japan [5.7], northern India [3.8], Haiti [3.5] and Arkansas [3.6].
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Tropical Cyclones:
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- Cyclone Haruna Kills 23 on Madagascar: At least 23 people were killed and thousands of others were made homeless when powerful Cyclone Haruna slammed into a remote stretch of Madagascar's southwestern coast on February 22nd.
- Cyclone Rusty Lashes Northwestern Australia: Category 2 Cyclone Rusty roared into a remote stretch of northwestern Australia, veering eastward just before making landfall and sparing Port Hedland.
Residents around southern Peru's rumbling Sabancaya volcano evacuated due to tremors from the mountain that damaged some of their homes. National defense officials say about 80 homes sustained damage from the strongest of more than 500 tremors that jolted the area on February 22-23. The 20,000-foot volcano has been spewing intermittent smoke trails since January 15th. Sabancaya, which means "tongue on fire" in the native Quechua language, was dormant for 200 years before roaring back to life in the 1980s and 1990s. It has produced only small eruptions since that time.
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World Health Alert:
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Public health experts expressed growing concern over the spread of a new SARS-like virus as the disease claimed its sixth known fatality worldwide. The patient, who died in a London hospital on February 17th, may have been infected by a family member who had traveled to the Middle East. The virus was discovered in Saudi Arabia last September and is simply known as "novel coronaries," or NCoV for short. Related to viruses found in bats, it's known to have infected at least 12 people around to world, half of whom died. NCoV belongs to the same family of viruses as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). In the early 2000s, SARS killed roughly 800 people worldwide. The symptoms of both include fever and respiratory problems.
New Zealand's gardeners and wildlife experts wonder where the country's iconic monarch butterflies have gone this summer. They have failed to return after a cold and tough winter dampened their breeding grounds on the South Island. "We've heard from many monarch lovers in Canterbury and Otago that the monarchs haven't returned this summer- and it's something that's got us baffled," says Jacqui Knight, secretary of the Monarch Butterfly N.Z. Trust. While related to their North American counterparts, New Zealand monarchs don't migrate vast distances. They adapt to local conditions.
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Ancient Birthplace of Agriculture Being Pumped Dry:
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Groundwater beneath the cradle of civilization is being pumped out much faster than it is being replenished, according to new satellite measurements. A study of space-based observations finds that the freshwater reserves in the Tigris and Euphrates river basins in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran are being depleted faster than anywhere other than in India. Using information collected by NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites, researchers were able to estimate the overall groundwater depletion. They say between 2003 and 2010, there was a net loss of 35 cubic miles of water. The scientists from NOAA, NASA and the University of California Irvine say that is roughly equivalent to all the water in the Dead Sea simply disappearing. For more about this Middle Eastern water loss, click here.
A Russian official is proposing a unified international monitoring system to prevent Earth from being struck by a catastrophic blast from space. Following the destructive meteor breakup over southern Russia on February 15th, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev assigned a deputy, Dmitry Rogozin, to find ways to prevent far worse disasters. Anti-missile and aerospace defense technologies in use today are mostly ground-based and designed to detect incoming objects from the ground, rather than those coming from space, Rogozin said. He proposes a network structured under the umbrella of the United Nations to detect and deflect meteors or asteroids before they reach the planet.
- Extreme Temperatures: -72 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 116 deg F Gobabeb, Namibia.
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February 25, 2013 (for week ending February 22nd)
- A wide area of eastern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan was rocked by a sharp quake centered along the border of the two countries with a magnitude of 5.2.
- Earth movements were also felt in eastern Taiwan [magnitude 4.5], the southern Philippines [6.2], northern New Zealand [5.7], southern Italy [4.9] and interior parts of San Diego County [3.4].
Cyclone Haruna formed and gradually intensified over the Mozambique Channel. It reached Category 2 force and developed a broad eye as it approached the southern tip of Madagascar late in the week. Outer bands of the storm were bringing locally heavy rain that caused rivers to rise on the nearby African mainland. Find out more about Cyclone Haruna by clicking here.
People living in the shadow of Java's Mount Merapi volcano are threatened by tons of volcanic debris left by a 2010 eruption that could cascade down the mountain without warning during this rainy season's downpours. Merapi is one of Indonesia's most dangerous volcanoes. The 2010 eruption released poisonous gases and a rain of ash that fell on an area home to millions. The danger now is due to the accumulated ash on the summit and flanks of Merapi, which could mix with torrential rain and flow down mountain streambeds with catastrophic force.
Public health experts expressed growing concern over the spread of a new SARS-like virus as the disease claimed its sixth known fatality worldwide. The patient, who died in a London hospital on February 17th, may have been infected by a family member who had traveled to the Middle East. The virus was discovered in Saudi Arabia last September and is simply known as "novel coronaries," or NCoV for short. Related to viruses found in bats, it's known to have infected at least 12 people around to world, half of whom died. NCoV belongs to the same family of viruses as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). In the early 2000s, SARS killed roughly 800 people worldwide. The symptoms of both include fever and respiratory problems.
A common anti-anxiety medication now found in rivers and ponds downstream of sewage treatment plants can alter the behavior of wild fish, a new study has shown. Writing in the journal Science, Swedish researchers at Umea University showed that when wild European perch are exposed to certain concentrations of the psychiatric drug oxazepam, they become more active, less social and more frenetic in their feeding patterns. they are also more likely to swim alone in dangerous, open water. The pharmaceutically emboldened fish are both more likely to seek out wider hunting grounds and to be eaten as prey. This change in behavior may have unpredictable consequences on both the evolution of the species and on the ecosystem as a whole, the study warns. To learn more about the medication's effects on the fish, click here.
The only known bear living in Switzerland was killed by a wildlife marksman after the animal frequently visited populated areas and became unafraid of humans. Known as "Mike" by his local admirers and those who followed his Twitter feed, the animal was said to pose a threat to posh Alpine resorts such as St. Moritz and Davos. Swiss media websites are filled with overwhelmingly negative comments over the shooting. For more on the story of Mike the bear, click here.
- Extreme Temperatures: -71 deg F Vostok, Antarctica; + 110 deg F Nullagine, W. Australia.
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February 18, 2013 (for week ending February 15th)
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Earthquakes:
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- Quake Damages Buildings in SW Colombia: At least 15 people were injured when a 6.9 magnitude temblor wrecked homes in southwestern parts of Colombia. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck at 9:17 a.m. local time about 3 miles east-northeast of the Colombian town of Yacuanquer at a depth of just under 9 miles.
- Earth movements were also felt in central Chile [magnitude 5.7], Trinidad and Tobago [4.9], New Zealand's South Island [3.8], northern India [4.7], western China's Qinghai province [5.3] and western Nevada [5.1].
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Tropical Cyclones:
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- South Seas Tropical Storm Haley Skirts Polynesia: Tropical Storm Haley brought squalls to southernmost islands of French Polynesia. Such storms rarely form so far south in the Pacific.
- Cyclone Gino passed over the open waters of the central Indian Ocean.
A new U.K. based study of more than 3 million births in nine countries has shown that exposure to air pollution is linked to low birth weights. The more pollution, the lower the birth weight, the report concluded. Being undersized at birth has been linked with infant mortality as well as a host of diseases and chronic health problems. Click here for a study done at UCLA concerning the effects of pollution on babies.
Polar bears may need to be fed in the wild, housed or relocated by humans within the next few decades to help them survive a warming climate, according to a new report. Climate change has resulted in accelerated loss of Arctic sea ice, which polar bears rely on to hunt for food. If the Arctic becomes ice-free during summer within the next few decades as predicted, many bears will starve. Twelve scientists from Arctic countries have crafted a crisis management plan designed to save as many as possible of the world's estimated 20,000 remaining polar bears. Part of the plan would be to have zoos take in as many bears as they can hold.
Canada geese get a wing up in raising their young thanks to beavers that help their nesting ponds thaw almost 11 days earlier than lakes without the toothy creatures. Researchers from the University of Alberta report that beaver activities like building lodges and foraging for food help thaw the waters of their ponds. This creates a more welcoming habitat for geese migrating north in spring to nest. The open waters also help out a number of other creatures, such as moose, deer, coyotes and birds.
A south Korean geologist warns that North Korea's latest nuclear test on Feb. 12 threatens to jolt a nearby volcano into a new eruptive phase. Yoon Sung-ho of Pusan University told the Yonhap News Agency that the force of the blast could help reactivate the dormant Mt. Baekdu, which lies just north of the blast site along the North Korea-China border.
- Extreme Temperatures: -70 deg F Oimyakon, Siberia; + 110 deg F Kalamunda, W. Australia.
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February 11, 2013 (for week ending February 8th)
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Earthquakes:
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- Devastating Tsunami Kills 9 in Solomon Islands: At least nine people died in the Solomon Islands after an 8.0 magnitude temblor generated a tsunami up to 5 feet in height. Click here for details on this earthquake and its aftereffects.
- Earth movements were also felt in the northern Philippines [magnitude 4.6], New Zealand's South Island [3.8], Taiwan [5.5], Japan's Hokkaido Island [6.9] and along the Georgia-Tennessee border [2.8].
The Russian capital has received more snowfall so far this winter than it has in the past century. The 7 feet of snow had snarled traffic and created backups on the roadways around the capital that could have starched from Moscow to Madrid. Some commuters who were stranded in early February took as long as 10 hours to get home. Click here for photos of the snow masses.
Pressure from environmental groups and customers has forced a major paper supplier to stop its deforestation operations in Indonesia. The company, Asia Pulp and Paper, announced its new conservation policy after clearing nearly 5 million acres of Indonesian tropical forest since 1994. Areas felled included key habitats for the country's dwindling tiger and orangutan populations. Only trees from farms will be harvested in the future.
Poachers have killed more than 11,000 forest elephants over the past decade in Gabon's Minkebe National Park. The increased demand for ivory in Asia has enticed the poachers to kill the jumbos for their tusks. Click here to find out what the Wildlife Conservation Society plans to do to stop the poaching.
Carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. fell to their lowest levels since 1994 last year, with greenhouse gas emissions from the country's power plants seeing a 4.6 percent drop for 2012 alone. Overall CO2 emissions fell by 13 percent over the past five years as new energy-saving technologies were adopted, including a switch from coal to wind, solar and cleaner-burning natural gas. The figures were released by the Business Council for Sustainable Energy. America's improvement in emissions is offset by the burst in air pollution being generated in developing countries such as China.
- Extreme Temperatures: -68 deg F Oimyakon, Siberia; + 115 deg F Mardie, W. Australia.
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February 4, 2013 (for week ending February 1st)
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Earthquakes:
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- Northern Chile Quake Sparks Panic: The northern half of Chile was jolted by a strong quake [magnitude 6.8] that knocked out windows and sent residents rushing into the streets.
- Quake Rocks Northern Italy Buildings: Much of north-central Italy was jolted on Jan. 25 by a 5.0 magnitude quake that caused tall buildings in Milan and other cities to sway. Institute official Alberto Michelini said the quake was centered about 18 miles north of Viareggio, a Tuscan Sea Resort.
- Earth movements were also felt in southeastern Kazakhstan [6.0], New Zealand's South Island [3.8], the southern Philippines [5.0], Taiwan [5.5], southeast Alaska [6.0] and eastern Texas [4.1].
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Tropical Cyclones:
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- Indian Ocean Cyclone Drenches Madagascar and Nearby Islands: The Seychelles were swamped by more than a month's worth of rainfall within a single day as outer bands of developing Cyclone Felleng swept over the western Indian Ocean island republic. The storm later reached Category 4 force as it passed between Madagascar and the French overseas territory of Reunion.
- Cyclone Garry brought locally heavy rains to the Cook Islands, but the South Pacific storm spared the archipelago any significant damage.
Far East Russia's Plosky Tolbachik volcano spewed jets of hot lava up to 650 feet above the Kamchatka Peninsula's frozen wintertime landscape. The volcano roared back to life in November after lying dormant for almost 40 years. Volcanologists say the eruption may be creating the first lava lake ever recorded on the Kamchatka Peninsula. Click here to see some photos of the lava flows.
Researchers say they have found that lightning can cause headaches and migraines, even if those suffering them don't know the electrical storms are around. Scientists at the University of Cincinnati aren't exactly sure how lightning and headaches are related, but the electromagnetic waves or increased ozone from the lightning could be the culprits.
Bacteria and other tiny life forms are thriving high in Earth's atmosphere as they are carried around the world by prevailing winds, according to new research at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Some of the bacteria and other organic material, living up to 6 miles high, are believed to have an effect on the weather. Researchers think that common sea spray catapults them from the top of the ocean up into the atmosphere.
Around 900 dolphins were slaughtered by a group of disgruntled villagers in the Solomon Islands over a financial dispute between them and an environmental charity. The Earth Island Institute had convinced villagers in 2011 to stop the regular slaughter in exchange for funding for sustainable fishing, alternative energy and water sanitation projects. But apparent mismanagement of the funds angered some, who resumed the hunt and killed the marine mammals for their meat and teeth.
- Extreme Temperatures: -58 deg F Dawson, Yukon Terr. ; + 111 deg F Twee Riviere, South Africa.
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January 28, 2013 (for week ending January 25th)
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Earthquakes:
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- Northwest Sumatra Quake Kills 1:One child was killed and a dozen other people were injured when a 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia's quake-prone province of Aceh. Most of the injuries were due to walls collapsing during the shaking.
- Earth movements were also felt in central New Zealand [magnitude 5.2], the central Philippines [5.4], northern Taiwan [5.5], southern Portugal [3.8], south-central Alaska [4.3] and metropolitan Dallas-Fort Worth [3.0].
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Tropical Cyclones:
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- Tropical Storm Garry Threatens Cook Islands: Samoa and American Samoa were soaked by passing Tropical Storm Garry. The storm formed near the French Pacific territory of Wallis and Futuna and was expected to reach hurricane force while approaching the Cook Islands late in the week.
- Tropical Storm Oswald formed briefly along the eastern shores of far northern Australia's Gulf of Carpenteria. Tropical Storm Peta drenched northwest Australia.
Hawaii's Kilauea volcano underwent an explosive increase in activity in mid-January. The level of lava inside the volcano's summit lava lake has reached a historically high level. Flows of lava from the swollen lake drifted downslope and reached the ocean at several locations, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Volcanologists believe the constant flow since it began its latest eruptive phase 30 years ago has probably prevented a massive explosion from the volcano's main crater. For photos of these ocean entries and lava flows click here.
A fish contaminated in waters off Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was found to have levels of radiation over 2,500 times the legal safe limit for seafood. Scientists from plant operator Tokyo Electric Power say massive nets are being installed about 15 miles offshore to try to prevent contaminated fish from migrating. The plant was hit by a tsunami in March 2011, which resulted in reactor meltdowns that spewed radioactive contamination.
Dozens of species of flowers bloomed weeks earlier than ever before in Massachusetts and Wisconsin during the unusually warm springs of 2010 and 2012. Researchers suggest this is evidence that plants are adapting to a changing climate. They say records going back over 150 years indicate that wildflowers keep blooming earlier as the climate gets warmer. They found that for every degree of Fahrenheit the temperature increases, many flowers come out about 2.3 days earlier. Some of the data used in the study go back to observations left by Henry David Thoreau. The famed naturalist spent more than five years starting in 1852, collecting information on the dates of spring blooming around his beloved Walden Pond.
A common antibiotic added to many soaps, cosmetics and toothpastes has been found to be contaminating Minnesota's famed lakes. Analysis of core samples by the University of Minnesota reveals that the amount of triclosan has slowly increased in at least eight lake beds since the compound was introduced into products in the early 1970s. When exposed to sunlight and chlorine in the water, triclosan breaks down into a toxic dioxin that may prove harmful to the environment.
- Extreme Temperatures: -66 deg F Oimyakon, Siberia; + 116 deg F Penrith, NSW Australia.
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January 21, 2013 (for week ending January 18th)
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Earthquakes:
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- Upcoming Olympic Venue Jolted by Tremor: A mild earthquake jolted the site of the upcoming 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The 3.8 magnitude jolt was felt on the upper floors of tall buildings in the Black Sea resort. A suspected underwater volcano was reported during the previous week to have melted a fiber-optic cable running off the coast of Sochi, affecting communications between the city and neighboring Georgia.
- Earth movements were also felt in northern Tasmania [magnitude 3.4], south-central Alaska [4.6], central Oklahoma [3.2] and the coast of Maine [2.4]
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Tropical Cyclones:
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- Cyclone Narelle Shears Apart off Western Australia: Former Category 5 Cyclone Narelle remained well off that Western Australia coast as it moved southward across the far eastern Indian Ocean. The storm was a threat only to shipping lanes.
- Tropical Storm Emang passed over open waters of the Indian Ocean.
Italy's Stromboli volcano north of Sicily produced spectacular lava flows and plumes of ash that soared high above the island that shares its name. The volcano has been in a nearly continuous state of eruption since 1934, but the latest activity was so intense that it frightened even longtime residents. Mayor Marco Giorgianni had to assure the island's 500 inhabitants that they were not at risk.
Black soot spewed into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, wood and cropland has a far greater impact on climate than previously thought, according to new research. In a report published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, scientists say the pollutant is second only to carbon dioxide as the most powerful driver of climate change. They add that black carbon also kills more than 1 million people each year who breathe it in. The report says tackling soot would have an almost immediate cooling effect on the planet because of the brief time it remains suspended in the atmosphere. You can read the study here.
Decades of overfishing in the Pacific have caused populations of tuna and similar species there to plummet, according to a new report. The International Scientific Committee to Study the Tuna and Tuna-Like Species of the North Pacific Ocean paints a grim picture of the future for what are the most popular fish sold in markets around the world. The joint Japan-U.S. fisheries research organization cautions that Pacific bluefin "is near historically low levels" and being fished beyond its ability to reproduce. For more information on these low levels of tuna, click here.
- Extreme Temperatures: -66 deg F Oimyakon, Siberia; + 121 deg F Moomba, New South Wales
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January 14, 2013 (for week ending January 11th)
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Earthquakes:
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- Offshore Alaska Quake Triggers Tsunami Alert: Long stretches of Alaska and British Columbia coastlines were put briefly on a tsunami warning after a 7.5-magnitude offshore quake struck. many residents rushed to higher ground, but only a small change in sea level occurred.
- Earth movements were also felt in Taiwan [magnitude 5.2], far northeastern India [4.5],western Nepal [5.0], northwestern Burma [5.8], the northern Aegean Sea region [5.8] and southwestern France [4.0].
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Tropical Storms:
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- Weak Tropical Storm Sonamu Churns South China Sea Tropical Storm Sonamu formed over far western parts of the Philippines, producing locally heavy rain and squalls as it passed by the disputed Spratly Islands. The storm took an unusual southward path, eventually dissipating off the Malaysian portion of Borneo.
- Cyclone Narelle formed over the far eastern Indian Ocean, between Indonesia and Western Australia.
The suspected eruption of a submerged volcano beneath the northern Black Sea is reported to have damaged a fiber-optic cable connecting the southern Russia city of Novorossiysk with the Georgian port of Poti.
The intensity of Australia's unprecedented heat wave is sending temperatures off the charts. The country's Bureau of Meteorology added a new color to the maps that predict high temperatures. The new scale features a pink shading for areas where temperatures were predicted to reach 126 to 129 degrees on January 13th and 14th. Such temperatures have never before been reached. The country's all-time high was set in the South Australian community of Oodnadatta on January 2nd 1960, when the mercury reached 123.2 degrees. To see the new heat index on a map of Australia, click here.
Two months without rainfall and temperatures soaring above 113 degrees set the stage for devastating wildfires in five of Australia's six states. Flames driven by near hurricane-force winds sent thousands fleeing their homes especially across the island state of Tasmania. The acute threat comes after several years of cooler and wetter conditions that aided forest growth and created ideal conditions for the current wildfire disasters.
The intensity of Australia's unprecedented heat wave is sending temperatures off the charts. The country's Bureau of Meteorology added a new color to the maps that predict high temperatures. The new scale features a pink shading for areas where temperatures were predicted to reach 126 to 129 degrees on January 13th and 14th. Such temperatures have never before been reached. The country's all-time high was set in the South Australian community of Oodnadatta on January 2nd 1960, when the mercury reached 123.2 degrees. To see the new heat index on a map of Australia, click here.
- Extreme Temperatures: -63 deg F Oimyakon, Siberia; + 120 deg F Lenora, W. Australia
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January 7, 2013 (for week ending January 1st)
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Earthquakes:
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- A sharp temblor centered in eastern Afghanistan's Hindu Kush Mountains sent people rushing into the streets 250 miles away, in the Indian-administered Kashmir Valley [magnitude 5.8].
- Earth movements were also felt in northeastern Japan [magnitude 5.5],central Taiwan [5.4],north-central New Zealand [5.0] and along the Mexico-Guatemala border [5.3].
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Tropical Cyclones:
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- Typhoon Wukong Kills 20 in Central Philippines: Typhoon Wukong unleashed floods and mudslides in the central Philippines on Christmas Day that killed at least 20 people and rendered more than 20,000 other homeless. For more information on the typhoon, click here.
- Cyclone Freda Ravages Solomon Islands Crops: Crops and infrastructure in parts of the Solomon Islands were severely damaged when Cyclone Freda formed over the archipelago.
- Cyclone Dumile skirted the Indian Ocean island of Reunion.
- Tropical storm Mitchell formed briefly off northwestern Australia.
Maritime traffic off California's largest ports will be rerouted under new regulations designed to protect whales from collision with ships. Migrating blue, fin and humpback whales are frequently hit by ships in California's coastal waters. The slow-moving and endangered marine mammals are highly vulnerable to ship strikes, since many of their feeding and migration areas overlap with shipping lanes. The international Maritime Organization has now approved vessel lane changes on approaches to San Francisco Bay and the the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, as well as in the Santa Barbara channel. Click here for a story on a whale struck and killed by a ship headed for Port of Los Angeles.
Hospitals and clinics have a new tool to combat the spread of drug-resistant superbugs. Robot-like devices that spray a mist of hydrogen peroxide are effectively killing these pathogens, according to a report by Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. The procedure works by sealing rooms of former sick patients and spraying a nearly invisible layer of the inexpensive compound on all surfaces. A neutralizing agent is then sprayed to convert the hydrogen peroxide into its harmless water and oxygen components. In the report, published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, researchers say the new disinfecting method reduced by 64 percent the number of patients who later became infected with any of the most common drug-resistant organisms.
The steep topography at the southern tip of Greenland has been found to create a profound effect on local wind currents and the ocean circulation of the entire North Atlantic. Winds forced around the cape instead of over it by topography become "tip jets" in wind acceleration similar to what allows and airplane wing to create lift. The jets interact with the ocean below, chilling the warm Gulf Stream current and causing it to sink as it becomes colder and denser.
- Extreme Temperatures: -62 deg F Toko, Siberia; + 114 deg F Esperance, W. Australia
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