- on Monday: 2.9, 3.1, 3.0,
3.6, 2.9, 3.4, 2.9, 2.7, 3.2, 4.2, 3.1, 3.0, 3.1, 3.0
was felt in four states and was the second in under 12 hours
in the area. It was centered nearly on top of the Mississippi River.
An earlier earthquake about 15 miles away also registered 3.0 on the Richter scale.
Quakes of 4.0 occur only about once every 18 months or so in the New Madrid fault region.
There have been three so far this year with the latest earlier this month near Ridgely,
Tennessee.
Communities are still cut off by the deluge that was impossible to predict.
A major recovery operation was under way in dozens of rural communities that fell victim
to a freak summer storm. It sent flash floods surging through homes and businesses,
leaving a trail of muddy devastation.
Across a 20-mile stretch of North Yorkshire, between the market towns of Thirsk and
Helmsley, Sunday afternoon’s deluge turned small streams and meandering rivers into
raging torrents. The waters were so powerful that they gouged giant craters in roads,
created landslides, swept cars and caravans downstream and demolished buildings that had
stood for more than 200 years. The damage will cost tens of millions of pounds to repair.
"Thunder had rumbled for ages and when the rain came it was like a tropical downpour. It
lasted for about half an hour." Then the Willow Beck River rose suddenly 13ft (4m), burst
its banks and sent a torrent to submerge homes under 6ft of water.
Parts of the northwest have had rainfall equivalent to 140 per cent of what is usual
between November and May, leading to flooding. Meanwhile, many southern areas have had
seven successive months with below-average rain, the lowest recorded since the drought of
1975-76. This summer might see a repeat of the record heatwave of August 2003. This past
winter and spring, a large block of high pressure has sat in the Atlantic instead of over
Europe. Nobody knows why the high pressure developed in the Atlantic.
. During the past 30 years, lightning killed an average of 67 people per year in
the U.S., more than the average per year of deaths caused by either tornadoes or
hurricanes.
, the Ministry of Natural Resources was expecting to see up
to five wildfires flare up by the end of the day on Monday.
, an expert warns. "We're pretty much screwed right now if it
happens tonight," said Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research
and Policy at the University of Minnesota. He pointed to the short-term shortages that
occur when winter storms threaten communities, then suggested people envisage the
possibility of those shortages dragging on for somewhere between 18 months and three
years as the expected successive waves of pandemic flu buffet the world. A flu pandemic
could sicken at least a third of the world's population and kill many millions - a
pandemic is widely viewed as the single most disruptive and deadly infectious disease
event known to humankind.
Monday, June 20, 2005 -
QUAKES -
A magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck off Northern California's coast Sunday, the fifth
moderate or strong tremor to hit the state in a week. "It was just another aftershock 200
km off the coast. Nobody that I'm aware of felt it." The quake's epicentre was 454 km
north-west of San Francisco.
A quake registering 5.5 has occurred in the Ryukyu Islands, Japan.
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.9 shook northern Japan but there was
no risk of a tsunami. The focus of the earthquake was 10km deep in the Niigata region in
the same general area as a quake that killed 40 people and injured thousands last
October. There were no immediate reports of damage.
A strong earthquake registering 5.6 or 5.7 on the Richter scale has jolted Tokyo,
Japan, but there are no reports of casualties or damage.
An earthquake hit an area in eastern Iran on Sunday but there were no immediate
reports of casualties. According to ISNA it was measuring 5.3 degrees on the Richter
scale.
A magnitude 6.0 earthquake south of the Fiji Islands has occurred.
(Link usually available one day only.) Between 20 and 30 aftershocks have shaken Banda
Aceh city and the surrounding area each day following the monster quake that rocked
Aceh on Dec. 26 last year. However, most of the aftershocks were not felt by residents as
they were too weak. The aftershocks mostly had their epicenters some hundreds of
kilometers southwest of Banda Aceh and between 20 and 30 kilometers beneath the sea.
VOLCANO -
"At Yellowstone, "we're watching a trend that shows a larger uplift sustained over
several years." (Previously what we've seen is one year the ground may rise up and
the next year it may subside a few millimeters or centimeters.) "If we continue to see
this accelerated uplift, it might be the early stages (of an event)."
Past events show the caldera erupts every 600,000 years. The last super-eruption was
630,000 years ago, and the current research shows some interesting developments.
Although the pattern of eruptions indicate the caldera is due to blow again, it probably
won't be in our lifetime. "It would not be surprising if another large eruption were to
occur at Yellowstone within the next few 1,000 years. The overall consensus is there's
nothing currently indicating the caldera is on the path of erupting in a big way, but if
it were to begin along that path it wouldn't be a surprise to the geological community."
Currently staff from several universities around the country are researching the
Yellowstone caldera. The caldera is 31 miles across and is referred to as a "super
volcano," one that erupts 1,000 times more ash than a normal eruption.
The United States Geological Survey has reported a swarm of 10 volcano-tectonic
earthquakes (between magnitude 0.5 and 1.75) were occurring beneath or within a few
kilometers of Sarigan Island. Sarigan Island is a volcano, one of many in the Marianas Island chain, but it is a volcano with no previously known modern eruptive history. The detected
activity on Sarigan may be the precursor of that volcano’s first activity since the
Holocene era. It is located about 95 nautical miles north of Anatahan and is the next island north of
Anatahan, another volcano that has recently entered a more violent eruptive phase. The
seismicity on Anatahan has reached its highest since early May. Anatahan's rumbling volcano is displaying small explosions every 10-20 seconds. Anatahan continues emitting a dense ash plume that rose to 10,000 feet in the air.
The Caribbean island of Montserrat, absent from the tourism radar for 10 years while
being pummeled by the Soufriere Hills volcano, will open a new airport July 11 on the
northeast side of the island, which was largely spared the volcano's ravages.
The volcano, which buried the capital city of Plymouth under 40 feet of ash and rock, has
been quiet since 2003.
STORMS -
Flash floods struck North Yorkshire, England -
villages were cut off, roads washed away and nine people were reported missing during a
night of heavy storms. Two RAF helicopters were scrambled to rescue the missing people
when they were tracked down in the market town of Helmsley, which was worst hit, and
where people were rescued from cars, trees and the roofs of isolated homes. Drivers
abandoned their cars and climbed trees to escape rising waters after the River Rye burst
its banks.
Extreme weather ushered in the British summer yesterday as southern England basked in
the hottest June day since 1976, and Scotland and the North were hit by storms and
floods. A forecaster said that the temperature was unlikely to reach such levels again
this month, but the South would enjoy high temperatures for the next seven to ten days.
The ingredients are in place for higher temperatures and a punishing drought this summer,
especially in the South. Reservoirs have endured below average rainfall for seven of the
past eight months and one of the driest winters in the past 100 years. Two contrasting
weather patterns are to blame for the present conditions. A pocket of humid air from
North Africa is driving the heatwave in the South. It originated in the Sahara and
collected moisture as it drifted across the Mediterranean and up the Bay of Biscay to
southern England. A cooler front has been moving from Northern Ireland across the Irish
Sea into Scotland. The collision of the weather patterns has had explosive consequences,
leading to spectacular thunderstorms and heavy downpours across parts of Wales, northern
England and Scotland. In Hawarden, Cheshire, 41mm, or roughly a month’s average rainfall,
fell in two hours yesterday. "Further north there is a risk of golf-ball-sized hailstones
which only happens about twice a year. It’s a normal summer pattern but this time it’s
been rather more dramatic.”
Flooding that has forced the evacuation of about 1500 people in Calgary, Alberta, Canada
swamped or cut off hundreds of homes in the city after two rivers overflowed their
banks following days of heavy rain. A state of emergency remained in force for a second
day as officials feared the Elbow and Bow rivers that merge in the city could swallow
more homes in eight vulnerable neighborhoods. The rain that has pounded the western
Canadian city of nearly one million people for more than a week finally stopped, but
authorities said the danger had not passed. The volume of water gushing down the Elbow,
the smaller of the two waterways, was pegged at seven times the normal amount.
Much of the rest of southern Alberta dealt with similar problems due to the heavy rains
that have swelled rivers and streams throughout the region.
Hundreds of people are without power after a windstorm swept through southern Manitoba,
Canada, early Sunday morning, knocking down trees and powerlines. A tornado touched
down in Gretna near the U.S. border, and hit Emerson, Altona, and Letellier with winds
gusting to 140 kilometres an hour. High winds caused damage at Altona Airport in southern
Manitoba. As many as three twisters were reported in Altona.
The number of "yahoos" tearing up the road with their eyes dangerously glued to the sky
in pursuit of storms is an increasing danger in Canada's tornado alleys, says one of
the country's top storm chasers. Professionals have noticed a marked increase in the
number of people putting themselves and others at risk as they race after storms.
The problem is not nearly as pronounced in Canada as it is in the United States, where
storm chasing tourism thrives and destructive tornadoes strike more often, but it is a
building trend.
HEATWAVE / DROUGHT -
The death toll from a severe heatwave smothering much of India reached 427, as the
weather office reported that annual monsoon rains are moving slowly toward the parched
regions. New Delhi's streets were largely deserted Sunday as the temperature touched 44 C
amid reports of growing water shortages in crowded middle-class residential districts.
On Saturday temperatures in many parts of the country, particularly Orissa and West
Bengal, exceeded 50 C.
Purulia recorded their highest temperature in 50 years.
Severe drought is drying up drinking water in cities and towns across Australia,
threatening to shut down major population centers. Worst hit is the farming town of
Goulburn, population 25,000, southwest of Australia's biggest city, Sydney. Its main dam,
Pejar, is a cracked-earth dustbowl holding less than 10 percent of its 1,000-megalitre
(220-million-gallon) capacity. The town will become the first in Australia to run out of
water in six months, if it gets no substantial rain and if emergency action for new water
supplies fails to work. Goulburn residents are likely to become the first Australians to
start drinking treated sewerage returned directly to their water supply. Goulburn's water
usage has been halved and will be cut further if it does not rain. Each person is now
down to 120 litres a day - a washing machine full - compared with 400 litres in big
cities.
Australia is the world's driest inhabited continent and the vicious cycle of droughts and
floods has been a feature of the landscape since humans arrived millennia ago.
But scientists say global warming is changing rainfall patterns, particularly in the
populated southwest and southeastern corners, causing a long-term drop in annual rainfall
and greater extremes of weather. The current dry spell is so severe that farmers say it
is worse than the 2002 drought, which has been classed as the worst in a century.
AVALANCHE / LANDSLIDE -
The impact of heavy snowfall in the San Francisco Peaks, Arizona last winter is still
being felt. Coconino National Forest officials are considering whether to rebuild, reroute
or just close off a popular hiking trail now buried beneath tons of trees and snow from a
powerful avalanche. The avalanche knocked down trees, some more than 50 feet tall,
cutting a swath more than 100 feet wide down a stretch of Abineau Canyon.
The avalanche may have been the biggest in the area in the past 50 years.
The trail is now buried under up to 15 feet of debris.
A landslide toppled down a shed on Sunday afternoon in the city of Jian'ou, east China's
Fujian Province, where 5 people had taken shelter from rain, killing two women and a
child. One victim was a passenger of a minibus, which was forced to pull up on the road
nearby due to an earlier landslide.
-------
Sunday, June 19, 2005 -
TSUNAMI -
Six months after the tsunami swept into the island of Sri Lanka, demolishing communities
along 400 miles of coast, up to 500,000 survivors have still not been rehoused.
Relief workers warned last week that most of those still in emergency accommodation are
unlikely to have new homes even by the first anniversary of the disaster.
Thousands of them are in emergency tents, while tens of thousands more occupy more solid
housing of variable quality - some of it with sanitation and drainage that relief workers
fear will not cope with the coming monsoon season. The vast numbers still trapped in
transitional accommodation are unable to work and dependent on handouts and the rainy
season is beginning, making it unlikely that any major construction will begin until
December.
STORMS -
A new Portland, Maine marina has suspended operations, a victim of the freak storm
that played havoc with the region's boating community last month. The intensity of the
May 23 storm caught the National Weather Service by surprise. At the time, there was a
large area of low pressure centered off Massachusetts. Meteorologists became alarmed that
night when they saw on the radar a smaller area of circulating winds - within the larger
low-pressure system - heading toward the Maine coast south of Portland, with its winds
moving in a counter-clockwise direction. That night, the Coast Guard's 47-foot rescue
boat ran aground. In Falmouth, nine boats pulled free from moorings and ended up on
beaches, and the waves damaged floats and gangways. From Boothbay to Portsmouth, N.H.,
boats were breaking away from moorings and docks. "We had stuff littered all over the
place." The storm's intensity was surprising for May.
"We are dealing with something above and beyond what was anticipated."
About 2,000 people in Calgary, Canada are being asked to leave their homes
because of unprecedented flooding in the Bow and Elbow Rivers and Fish
Creek. A state of emergency was declared in the city because of the severity of the
threat. "This is a critical situation." Two of four exits from the town northwest of
Calgary are impassable, and "if we lose those (other) exits, we won't have a place to go,
or to get out. " "It's still raining here and still raining upstream and we're confident
we're going to get more water." The Bow River is at the highest level in 10 or 15 years.
Some regions have received as much rain this June as they normally receive all year.
FOREST FIRES -
The frequency of major forest fires can be predicted using relatively simple mathematical
models based on the frequency of much smaller fires. Earthquakes, floods, landslides
and fires all depend on "self-organized criticality" - an accumulation of small changes
that causes an abrupt change in the state of a system. For example, patches of new growth
in a forest gradually form larger and larger areas of fuel that can cause a major
wildfire.
---
Saturday, June 18, 2005 -
QUAKES -
California has been rattled by a fourth notable earthquake in a week, the latest off
the state's northern coast late Thursday, with a strong magnitude of 6.7.
Seismologists are investigating whether it was an aftershock from the magnitude 7.2
earthquake on Tuesday. The latest quake was south of and farther out to sea than the 7.2
quake. There is a good chance it was an aftershock.
Seismologists do not consider it particularly noteworthy that four significant seismic
events occurred within a few days in California and off its coast.
The latest quake was unlikely to be linked to the magnitude 4.9 earthquake that struck
Southern California earlier. That quake was centred near Yucaipa, 125km east of Los
Angeles, according to the US Geological Survey.
The quake shattered glass and jostled shelves in the immediate vicinity and produced
strong shaking felt as far away as San Diego.
A 5.2 quake shook the Anza area of Riverside County in southern California on Sunday.
Southern California typically experiences two to three quakes in the magnitude 5 range
every year.
Does the earth rumbling in California over the past few day mean the "Big One" is
coming? Tom Henyey of the University of Southern California's Department of Earth
Sciences doesn't think so. He says the four earthquakes that ranged in magnitude from
four-point-nine to seven-point-two are not indicative of a huge quake. Although it's
surprising that the four tremors happened so close together, they occurred in areas that
have been seismically active for decades. Nevertheless, some Californians aren't taking
chances and have been purchasing earthquake survival kits.
TSUNAMI -
Scientists are convinced another giant tsunami will one day sweep across the Indian
Ocean. Almost six months after the deadly December 26 tsunami, scientists are keeping
a close eye on aftershocks and the increased earthquake activity around Indonesia as they
try to work out when the next big one will hit. "It could happen any time, it could take
another 20 to 50 years, or another 200 years." A big earthquake is just as likely in the
Pacific Ocean in the region above New Zealand. A tsunami generated from that area could
hit New Zealand and the east coast of Australia, possibly within a decade.
The Indian Ocean tsunami's devastating waves upset some of Sri Lanka's key
ecosystems, the U.N. environmental agency warned Friday.
Nearly six months after the disaster that killed more than 31,000 people in Sri Lanka,
studies have found that the tsunami waves have pushed seeds of so-called alien invasive
species from their coasts farther inland on the tropical island. "We learned in graphic
and horrific detail that the ecosystems, such as coral reefs, mangroves and seagrasses
which we have so casually destroyed are not a luxury. They are lifesavers capable of
helping to defend our homes, our loved ones and our livelihoods from some of nature's
more aggressive acts." Well over 500 million kilograms (1,100 million pounds) of rubble
were created by the tsunami, posing an enormous challenge to the solid waste management
system.
STORMS -
At least eight people have been killed and hundreds injured after a hurricane and
hailstorms whipped through parts of China, destroying nearly 200,000 homes. 825,000
people were affected. Officials have said this year's floods could be worse than
usual.
Severe flooding caused by storms and torrential rains has left up to 48 people dead in
Afghanistan and washed away more than 1000 homes.
A powerful thunderstorm descended on Ocean County, New Jersey, Thursday evening,
knocking down tree branches and leaving flooded streets in its wake. "It just blew up
real quick. It must have been just a freak windstorm. It got very, very windy, very
quick." "It sounded like a train going through the house." The winds lasted for 15 to 20
minutes. "It was so strong." Radar put wind gusts between 65 and 70 mph.
New South Wales, Australia police say they are extremely concerned about the safety of
five Chinese tourists and two guides who are reported missing in the Kosciusko
National Park in a blizzard. Officers are worried because of the extreme weather
conditions.
HEAT WAVE / DROUGHT -
As many as 130 people have died in the past month as a severe heat wave
continues to grip many regions of India.
Meanwhile Officials in the Cyclone Warning Centre said the Southwest Monsoon, which
had remained almost static in the southern districts of the state after entering on June
eighth, was showing some signs of moving. The Bay of Bengal arm of the monsoon, which had
also remained constant for some time, had started moving from the eastern bay to the west
central bay. This may result in coastal districts of India getting rains in two to three
days.
A "hot weather health warning" was launched Friday by El Paso, Texas health
authorities as a string of 100-plus-degree days continued, and as forecasters said the
high could reach 105 on Sunday. There have already been 46 heat- related incidents and
two heat deaths and they are just starting the heat.
Heat and drought are plaguing Arkansas.
"The thing about this drought is that it has come so much earlier. Usually, our droughts
come in July and August, but this has hit us in May and it can be really devastating."
The worst may be yet to come.
---
Friday, June 17, 2005 -
QUAKES -
A magnitude 6.6 (upgraded from 6.4) earthquake off the coast of Northern California
has occurred, near Ferndale - the site of a small cluster yesterday, and near the site
of the 7.4 quake -
200 km (125 miles) W of Eureka, California
200 km (125 miles) W of Fortuna, California
225 km (140 miles) WSW of Crescent City, California
495 km (305 miles) WNW of Sacramento, California
The U.S. state of California has been hit by its second notable earthquake in two
days (now by a third quake). No casualties have been reported in the quake, which had a
magnitude of 4.9 (downgraded from 5.3) and its epicentre near the town of Yucaipa, 126km
(79 miles) east of Los Angeles.
Tremors were reported across a large area spanning the major cities of Los Angeles and
San Diego. It was the fifth quake (now a 6th) to hit the Americas' Pacific coast in the
last week.
Chile is struggling to recover from Monday's 7.9 earthquake, with a toll of more
than 6,000 affected and several million in damages, especially infrastructure such as
bridges, highways and roads. 48 hours after the shake, reports indicate massive
devastation, and indicated that more victims may yet be reported, while recovery efforts
are centered on the transfer of the wounded, restoring basic services and reopening of
roads. Of the 6,018 victims, 835 are staying in temporary shelters while the rest remain
in their homes despite the extent of the damage, in some cases irreparable. There are
water shortages due to power outages in small rural villages like Huara, where ninety
percent of the housing has been destroyed and numerous wounded still wait to be ferried
to the capital.
VOLCANO -
A new crater has formed on the Colima volcano in western Mexico following powerful
eruptions. Volcanologists discovered the crater during a monitoring flight over the 3
860-metre-high colossus. Considerable amounts of volcanic boulders have piled up around
the crater because of continuous explosions. A big rock is now protruding from the
crater. The structural changes are a sign of the continuing explosiveness of the volcano.
Eruptions at a level of past intensity, or even stronger, can be expected.
There is also a risk of debris avalanches, which could develop following heavy rains.
But there is no immediate danger to the population.
The intensity of eruption on the volcano on Barren Island has increased since it
became active on May 28 with a new vent having evolved which is likely to form a new
crater. Unlike earlier eruptions, the present ones were explosive in nature throwing up
lava in the form of pyroclasts, comprising cinders, boulders and lapilli, with great
force up to 100 metres.
A thick column of smoke, gas vapours and ash accompanied the pyroclasts, which were being
blown in a north-easterly direction due to the prevailing wind conditions.
TSUNAMI -
Geologists studying fossils in Alaska and Oregon have discovered what they believe is a
signal that occurred a few years before major coastal earthquakes in the past.
Seismologists have known for some time that really big quakes with the potential to
create a killer tsunami hit the Pacific Northwest coast every 500 years on average. But
the interval in between can vary from just a few centuries to 1,000 years. The last one
struck the area in 1700, so it is not out of the question that another could hit in the
near future. A few years before several large earthquakes in the past, freshwater
foraminifera died out and saltwater species suddenly appeared. This happened because the
coast dropped slightly in elevation, allowing salt water to infiltrate the marshes at
high tide. Two to five years later, a major earthquake struck. Four of the five quakes
studied from the past 3,000 years, including the 1964 Alaska earthquake, were followed by
a tsunami.
The tsunami generated by the 7.2 California quake was almost imperceptibly small
(about one centimeter in height), not worthy of a warning. But the flurry of phone calls,
evacuation orders and activity after the quake showed there are still glitches in the
tsunami warning system.
Because of faulty phone equipment, an emergency broadcast system didn't work in the state
of Washington. To geologists, it was pretty clear within five minutes of the earthquake
that this was not going to produce a tsunami. Yet the evacuations up and down the West
Coast continued because the tsunami warning remained in effect. The seismic signal
detected from the quake put it in the middle of a tectonic plate off California known as
the Gorda Plate - rather than at the edge of the plate where a more massive subduction
quake can take place. The location alone made a major tsunami unlikely.
Word of the tsunami warning was delayed for over an hour because of a mistake on the
part of the National Weather Service. The National Weather Service's Alaska Tsunami
Warning Center issued the tsunami warning at 7:56 p.m., just six minutes after the
earthquake. The tsunami warning was to alert the public that a tidal wave could reach the
coast within 25 minutes of the earthquake. But if you were watching television or
listening to the radio, you likely didn't see or hear about the warning until 8:58 p.m.,
more than one hour later. The Weather Service put out a special weather statement, which
does not active the Emergency Alert System. Not only did the weather service put out the
wrong bulletin, but it took 30 minutes to do it because forecasters could not find the
proper computer code.
If a tsunami had been generated from Tuesday's quake, it would have hit shore in Oregon
before it struck buoys in the ocean that scientists rely on to detect tsunamis.
"Travel time to the buoys was about 48 minutes. Travel time to the coast was 30 minutes."
LANDSLIDE -
A huge mudslide killed at least 21 people when it buried houses and cars in a Guatemalan
highland town, and the government fears more may be dead. Torrential rain pushed
thousands of tonnes of mud and rocks down a hill above the town of San Antonio Senahu.
At least 45 people were injured and an unspecified number are unaccounted for.
A landslide killed five people in the Central Asian nation of Tajikistan.
The five, all from a family of shepherds, died Tuesday in the rockfall 500 km east of
Dushanbe. The slide also dammed a river, creating a small lake that posed a danger to two
mountain villages. Villagers were being evacuated while workers tried to open a channel
and allow the lake to drain.
(Link usually available one day only) A boy is missing and three people are dead after a
landslide hit the remote Loloana Gido village in Nias island on Saturday. The size of
the landslide had made it difficult for the search team to find the missing boy and the
village's remote location meant it was impossible to send heavy machinery there for earth
moving. "This is the first landslide following the earthquake (in March). The landslide
might have been caused by the heavy rains in the island in the last couple of days,
causing landslides in higher ground where land structures are not yet stable after the
earthquake." Residents were alerted to the landslide, which occurred early in the
morning, when they heard a thunderous sound and stones rolled down into the village. The
main landslide occurred next. The dirt had pushed several houses about 20 meters away
from their previous locations. Residents living near the landslide area were told to
leave their villages in case there were more slides.
WILDFIRES -
A warning came out Wednesday from Arizona state fire officials that weather conditions
over the next few days will make Arizona extremely sensitive to wildfires.
The third week in June has historically been incendiary in nature.
The Aspen fire started two years ago today.
The three-year anniversary for the start of the Rodeo-Chediski fire, the largest in state
history, is Saturday. Arizona should expect more blazes of that magnitude.
"I think the major fires are just starting."
FREAK WEATHER -
A thick layer of haze called the ‘Atmospheric Brown Cloud,’ is a new phenomena
considered responsible for the recent climatic anomalies that are throwing life out of
gear across Asia including India. "Environmentalists have been crying themselves hoarse
about these frightening scenarios for years, but they are routinely dismissed as
Cassandras who are raising needless alarms. But ground realities show that across the
world there exist all manners of freak climatic phenomena."
Only five tornadoes have touched down this spring in Illinois - a pace that could
spin up the fewest twisters since 1979 when 12 twisters hit.
This year's five tornadoes are well behind the 22 that usually touch down through May,
and far short of the 54 Illinois saw last year.
Tornadoes could rebound in June, which averages about ten twisters. It is the fourth
driest spring on record which means farmers will likely see an average harvest at best.
Forecasts show dry weather could continue.
CLIMATE CHANGE -
Desertification threatens to drive millions of people from their homes in coming
decades while vast dust storms can damage the health of people continents away, an
international report says. Two billion people live in drylands vulnerable to
desertification, ranging from northern Africa to swathes of central Asia. 41 per cent of
the world's land area is dryland, including most of Australia, the western part of North
America and much of the Andean region of South America.
A just released report is ringing alarm bells over New Zealand's increasing drought
risk. The report predicts a two-to-four-fold increase in severe drought across many
eastern parts of New Zealand by the 2080s. The report is alarming as the areas mentioned
include a large proportion of prime farm land.
Thursday, June 16, 2005 -
QUAKES -
A magnitude 6.3 earthquake off the coast of Aisen, Chile has occurred
1530 km (950 miles) SSW of Santiago, Chile.
A magnitude 5.6 earthquake in the Volcano Islands, Japan region has occurred
260 km (160 miles) N of Farallon de Pajaros, N. Mariana Islands. The same area also had a
prior 5.0 quake yesterday.
Several small quake clusters have occurred in two areas near the 7.2 California quake
area: off the coast of Ferndale 3.7, 3.5, 4.5, 4.6 and off the coast of Petrolia 3.6,
2.9, 2.7. Small aftershocks continue to shake Anza, California, site of the 5.2 quake on
the 12th.
AVALANCHE -
Two army porters were buried alive in a snow avalanche near the Line of Control in
the Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir.
FREAK WAVES -
Scientists believe they have evidence of a wave the size of a 10-story building.
It happened on September 16 last year when Hurricane Ivan stormed across the Gulf of
Mexico and tore into the coast of Alabama, accompanied by 210km/h winds and storm surges
more than 2m high. While still out at sea the hurricane also produced a series of giant
waves, one of which stood 28m from crest to trough, a new world record for a wave. At the
height of the storm the wave reached 40m. By comparison, the tsunami that swept across
the Indian Ocean in December stood about 9m high as it hit shorelines, although in some
parts of Indonesia it was reported to have reached 20m. Scientists predict that if a
future volcanic eruption sends a large part of the island of La Palma in the Canaries
into the sea, it could cause a wall of water 900m high. Reassuringly, they do not expect
it this century. The sea currents generated by the hurricane broke another world record:
the maximum current on the sea floor was 2.25m/s compared with the Gulf Stream, which
reaches top speeds of about 1.5m/s.
CLIMATE CHANGE -
"Climate change, or global warming, is a natural phenomenon observed throughout the
earth's history. However, in the last century, concern has grown at the pace that climate
change has been progressing, particularly because of human activity aggravating and
distorting natural processes... In the short term, climate change can and has led to
increased flooding, drought, famine and eradication of plant and animal species, among
other effects. In the long-term, scientists have warned that global warming has the
potential to cause catastrophic consequences for the planet."
----
Wednesday, June 15, 2005 -
QUAKES -
A 6.3 quake has hit New Ireland, Papua New Guinea.
Eyewitness accounts of the 7.8 earthquake which struck northern Chile on
Monday.
MUDSLIDE -
A mudslide closed a 16-mile stretch of the main highway linking New York City and
Montreal after a storm dropped 6 inches of rain on the area in a few hours. More rain
was likely in the area from the remnants of Tropical Storm Arlene through Friday.
Friday's mountain torrent in China's Heilongjiang province, said to be the worst to hit
the area in 200 years, was caused by two days of heavy rain, killing 88 pupils and
four villagers. Seventeen people are missing.
CLIMATE CHANGE -
The English country garden is unlikely to survive in the South East beyond the next
100 years, scientists say. Climate change means the rolling lawns and herbaceous borders
of Surrey, Kent, Hampshire and Sussex may be replaced by olive groves and grape vines,
more like the Mediterranean. "It is already happening - you can already see fields of
sunflowers." Experts say summer temperatures in the South East are expected to be up to
3C warmer by 2050 with 35% less rainfall. If the current rate of warming continues,
summers could be as much as 6C warmer by the 2080s, the scientists say.
There is a pioneering plan to tackle climate change by capturing CO2 from power plants
and storing it safely in depleted North Sea oil and gas fields.
Carbon capture and storage could be up and running within a decade, by 2015.
A winter of decent insulating snow, followed by early spring with no late frosts, has
basically created bug paradise in Alaska. The jump start has put 2005 about three weeks
ahead of schedule. It's the Incredible Return of the Bugs, sequel to last spring's fierce
hatch, and many people say they've never been pricked and pestered with such vengeance.
"We're talking jillions here: mosquitoes, aphids, dragonflies, midges, gnats, hornets,
beetles and assorted creepy-crawlies." No one keeps statistics; there's no "bug index."
But many people insist they've never seen the like.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005 -
QUAKES -
THE TSUNAMI WARNING AND WATCH STATUS WAS CANCELED FOR
CALIFORNIA, OREGON, WASHINGTON, BRITISH COLUMBIA AND
ALASKA. WATER LEVELS REMAIN NORMAL AT ALL COASTAL SITES.
NO WAVE HAS BEEN DETECTED. HOWEVER SOME AREAS MAY
EXPERIENCE SMALL SEA LEVEL CHANGES.
Aftershocks recorded so far have been small: 3.7, 3.5, 4.5, 4.3
A 7.0 quake has hit off the coast of northern California 91 miles WSW of Crescent
City.
A tsunami warning HAS been issued.
A TSUNAMI WARNING WAS IN EFFECT FOR THE COASTAL AREAS FROM THE CALIFORNIA-MEXICO BORDER
TO THE NORTH TIP OF VANCOUVER ISLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA....A TSUNAMI WATCH WAS IN EFFECT
FOR THE COASTAL AREAS FROM
THE NORTH TIP OF VANCOUVER ISLAND, B.C. TO SITKA,ALASKA. A TSUNAMI COULD HAVE BEEN
GENERATED. TSUNAMIS MAY BE A SERIES OF WAVES WHICH COULD BE DANGEROUS FOR SEVERAL HOURS
AFTER THE
INITIAL WAVE ARRIVAL. (see link for estimated times of initial wave arrival).
Quakes continued in Adak, Alaska with the largest so far measuring 6.8 and the most
recent 5.5 at 6pm CDT - (5.2, 5.0, 4.7, 4.8, 5.0, 4.7, 5.2, 4.2, 4.0, 6.8, 5.1, 4.5, 4.6,
4.0, 5.5)
Small aftershocks continued in Anza, California.
A series of quakes hit the Rat Islands,Aleutian Islands in Alaska this morning - in a one
hour period - (5.2, 5.0, 5.2, 5.2). This is near Adak, Alaska, the same area that had
another cluster of quakes (4.4, 5.7, 4.0, 4.4) on Friday.
A powerful 7.9-magnitude earthquake shook Chile's northern mining region yesterday,
causing at least eight deaths, cutting power and driving residents from their homes in
the port city of Iquique. The quake was also felt in the coastal cities of Arica and
Antofagasta in Chile, in the Bolivian capital, La Paz, and in southern Peru. One man was
confirmed dead in a landslide triggered by the earthquake and five others died after
their car was crushed by a falling boulder on a mountain road. There was no chance of a
tsunami, as the epicentre was in the mountains, not in the ocean. The quake occurred at
6.44pm local time (10.22 AEST) and lasted nearly a minute. Two 4.8 aftershocks have been
recorded.
A magnitude 5.6 earthquake off the West coast of Northern Sumatra has occurred 325 km
(205 miles) SSW of Banda Aceh, Indonesia. At the same time a 5.2 quake hit the nearby
Nicobar Islands.
In Jamaica a 5.1 quake damaged 12 homes and completely destroyed 2 homes in a mostly
rural southern farming area of this Caribbean tourist island over the weekend.
The tremor struck at 11 p.m. EDT Sunday. The quake also triggered a small landslide.
It was the
strongest quake in Jamaica in more than a decade. The tremor is being attributed to
the Rio Minho-Crawle River fault. 13 aftershocks were recorded over a five-hour period.
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake in Tonga has occurred 2250 km (1400 miles) NNE of
Auckland, New Zealand.
People are talking about what Sunday's quake in Anza, California means for the San
Andreas Fault that runs right through the Coachella Valley and is capable of
producing massive earthquakes. The area is still overdue for a major quake. Major quakes
hit the southern section of the San Andreas Fault about once every 150 years. The last
quake hit 148 years ago.
All of
Palm Spring's fire stations are equipped with an earthquake early warning
system.
VOLCANO -
Volcanic activity on Anatahan in the Mariana Islands remained 'moderately high" after the
second strongest eruption sent ash 45,000 feet into the air over the weekend. Tremor
levels remained high, recording small long-period earthquakes that occurred frequently.
The volcano continues to emit a dense ash plume that is rising to 10,000 feet and is
moving southwesterly. The ash plume extends about 160 nautical miles west of the island.
From that point, the plume turned southwest and extended another 400 nautical miles. The
volume of ash emitted by the volcano has yet to be ascertained.
TSUNAMI -
In a huge quake on the Cascadia subduction zone off the U.S. west coast, the two crustal
plates could abruptly slip apart vertically by at least 50 feet in three successive
blocks from south to north, generating a 9.2 magnitude quake. Aside from enormous quake
damage on land for hundreds of miles, estimates are that the resulting tsunami would pile
a wave more than 20 feet high crashing onto the Oregon-Washington coast, inundating
Seattle and the entire Puget Sound region as well as Portland and the mouth of the
Columbia River. Crescent City in California's Del Norte County would see a wave of more
than 11 feet, and the tsunami sweeping the coast at the Golden Gate and Monterey Bay
would be more than 10 feet. At Santa Barbara, the wave height would be 6.5 feet, and
smaller waves would crash against the shore as far south as the tip of Baja California.
Another giant earthquake is nearly a certainty in the unstable coastal regions of Oregon
and Washington, but many scientists are also considering the effect of an event that
would have no precedent in recorded history - and have concluded that an even greater
tsunami might be generated if an asteroid were ever to plunge into the ocean off the West
Coast. Calculations indicate a tsunami from the crash would be far more devastating than
anything known in history: Peak wave heights would reach 17 feet in southern Alaska, more
than 55 feet all along the California coast, 15 feet in Hawaii, and 20 feet at Puerto
Vallarta, Mexico.The specific asteroid that worries most has been designated by NASA
astronomers as 2004MN4, and it is expected to pass within 26,600 miles of Earth less than
25 years from now.
STORMS -
In Taiwan floods caused by torrential rains have claimed three lives and forced
authorities to evacuate hundreds of residents from low-lying areas.
A 65-year-old woman was buried alive by a mudslide at Tsochen. Thousands of homes in
Pingtung were cut off by the floods. Dozens of southern mountainous villages are at risk
of landslides. The Central Weather Bureau warned of persistent torrential rain over the
next few days.
A cyclone has hit the village of Iormuganlo in eastern Georgia, tearing roofs off
houses, tossing people into the air and injuring 13. The storm lasted several minutes and
kilometers of roads and a bridge were destroyed in a deluge in the same region.
Substantial sections of Scotland's road network are at a potentially high risk of
landslides, according to government reports ordered after three major landslips last
year. Roadside drains could be overwhelmed as rainfall increases because of climate
change. Three main routes were blocked when they were engulfed by landslides within a
week of each other last August. Three times as much rain as normal fell that month in
parts of Scotland. "There is a high potential for such events to cause serious injury and
even loss of life although, fortuitously, such consequences have been limited to
date....The lengths of the road and the slope lengths they involve are substantial."
DROUGHT -
Spain and Portugal are suffering one of the worse droughts on record since 1947, with
far-reaching economic consequences. Beef prices have shot up 14% in line with increased
prices for cereal-based animal feeds. Tomato prices rose 11% last month and are now 54%
higher than the same time last year. Canary Island banana prices are up 38% on last year.
The drought also threatens to ruin melon, water-melon, olive, vegetable and citrus crops.
Any surviving produce is clearly more expensive. Spaniards are bracing themselves for a
hard, hot summer. After a week of forest fires, the Portuguese public fear a repeat of
the summer scenario two years ago, when a spate of wildfires left 20 people dead and
destroyed more than 400,000 hectares of land. In the meantime, forest fires are already
ravaging parts of the Iberian peninsula with no significant rainfall predicted until the
autumn.
Drought stress in Ontario, Canada is beginning to have an impact on crops.
Persistent drought and a border dispute with neighbouring Ethiopia is pushing Eritrea
further into poverty and increasing food shortages.
PANDEMIC -
The Chinese government, while denying the reports of human deaths from bird flu, has
adopted emergency measures in Xinjiang, its remote north-western province, and has
sealed off affected areas with roadblocks and closed all nature reserves.
China similarly denies that any people have been infected. But the government admits to
alerting its heath departments around the province to prevent the spread of the disease
and to opening special departments in hospitals for "screening patients with fever".
Unconfirmed reports say that more than 100 people have died, suggesting that the virus
may have evolved to pass from person to person, breaking the final barrier preventing a
worldwide catastrophe and potentially killing up to 50 million people worldwide.
Monday, June 13, 2005 -
There are proposals to set up an international expert panel tasked with reducing the
casualties and damage caused by natural disasters.
"What we're looking at is... setting up a system where the best scientific understanding
of volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis and near-Earth objects striking our planet is pooled
together and brought to those international bodies through the appropriate channels."
The panel would also consider floods, mudflows, tropical cyclones, storm surges and
energy surges from the Sun.
QUAKES -
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake in the Molucca Sea has occurred 155 km (95 miles) NNW of
Ternate, Moluccas, Indonesia (population 83,000).
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake in the South Sandwich Islands region has occurred 3405 km
(2110 miles) SE of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
A magnitude 5.6 earthquake in Southern California has occurred 35 km (20 miles) S of
Palm Springs, California (population 42,000). There were over
250 aftershocks yesterday.
The earthquake that shook the Coachella Valley in California on Sunday morning caused minimal physical damage but it did rattle the nerves of many who felt the rumbling.
The sensation of the earth moving underfoot is enough to make even longtime residents of "earthquake country" uneasy. In addition to the initial jolt - the potential for aftershocks, which are sometimes greater than the first shaking, is higher in the minutes and hours following a quake. The likelihood that any given quake is a precursor to a larger event is about 5 to 10 percent in the moments following the shaking. By early this morning the likelihood that the Anza quake foreshadows a larger temblor is less than 1 percent.
Real-time Forecast of California Earthquake Hazard in the Next 24 Hours.
LANDSLIDE -
A mountain flood that swept through a primary school in north-west China might have
killed as many as 200 people.
A rescue team recovered seven bodies in the northern Viet Nam province of Quang Ninh,
after a landslide triggered by torrential rain killed 11 people on Thursday and stormy
weather caused havoc across Viet Nam.
Meanwhile, rough seas are devastating a 5km stretch of beach that runs through a village
in central Thanh Hoa Province. Since April, the ecological tourism area near the village
of Quang Cu has suffered serious erosion as waves batter the coastline, encroaching onto
land by 15m in places and sweeping away 15,000sq.m of pine forest, as well as threatening
the lives and property of local people. In an effort to limit the erosion damage, Quang
Cu villagers have built a 3km-long embankment about 50m from the sea, but this is proving
ineffective in many areas.
CLIMATE CHANGE -
A senior White House aide, who previously worked as a lobbyist for the oil industry, has
resigned days after it emerged that he edited government papers to play down the
threat of global warming.
The chief executive of BT has become the first boss of a British company to admit that
climate change is already affecting his company, and that environmental damage could
threaten the stability of the world's financial system.
BT boss Ben Verwaayen reveals that extreme weather in the form of flooding and high winds
has hit BT's British operations, and he fears that this is just the beginning.
Carbon dioxide levels are now higher than they have been for the last 420,000 years and
have risen by 34 per cent since 1750.
The heat wave in Canada could be the start of a summer-long trend.
As people in Ontario and Quebec suffer through the first heat wave of
the season, Environment Canada is projecting abnormally high
temperatures this summer across the country. Forecasters expect the current heat wave to
end in mid-week. But climatologists said another one will be along quickly enough.
-----
Sunday, June 12, 2005 -
Our Planet Earth from Space - Every 20 minutes this website shows new images of Earth
from space with all earthquakes of the past 48 hours, current cloud cover, temperatures,
hurricanes, active volcanoes, satellites, day/night zones, the moonphase, natural
disasters and epidemics.
Preparations - If a monstrous global disaster strikes, how will you survive it?
QUAKES -
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake in Sakhalin, Russia has occurred 1935 km (1200 miles) N of
Tokyo, Japan.
VOLCANO -
Volcanic eruptions may be an agent of rapid and long-term climate change, according
to new research by British scientists. Volcanic aerosol [airborne] particles reflect the
Sun's rays back out to space and also create more clouds that have the same effect. It
all helps to cool the planet for a year or two. New findings show that volcanic eruptions
have another, more indirect effect: the resulting sulfuric acid from the volcano helps to
biologically reduce an important source of atmospheric greenhouse gases. At the extreme,
this effect could cause significant cooling for up to 10 years or more. So volcanoes may
exert a more powerful influence over Earth's atmosphere than was thought.
HURRICANE / TROPICAL STORM -
Tropical Storm Arlene came ashore near the Alabama-Florida border on Saturday
afternoon, affecting areas hit by the more powerful Hurricane Ivan almost nine months
ago. At its worst, Arlene's winds reached nearly 100 km/h and heavy rain pounded a
200-kilometre region between Pensacola, Fla. and Mobile, Alabama. As its winds dropped to
about 55 km/h in the evening, officials downgraded Arlene's classification to "tropical
depression." Arlene was expected to move northward along the Mississippi-Alabama state
line, possibly reaching Tennessee by this afternoon.
FREAK WEATHER -
The freak weather season claimed 68 lives yesterday as torrential rains brought
floods to China and mudslides to Peru.
Around 8pm on Friday a fierce thunderstorm – propelled by galeforce winds – tore through
the town of Adelaide, Australia which has a population of 300.
Described by locals as a mini-tornado, it took just two minutes to tear roofs and walls
from 18 homes and public buildings. "It's certainly like nothing seen before in South
Australia." Just three days ago the people of Karoonda were celebrating – after three
months of drought the heavens were opening and their hopes for a decent grain crop were
resurrected. "We've waited three months for rain and we should all be on our tractors but
we have to fix the town first. What's happened here is devastating." Among the worst-hit
was 73-year-old Eileen Burdett whose home was ripped apart. "I just felt some force
telling me to get out quickly...When I looked behind there was the ceiling and water and
dust crashing behind me...I'd be dead if I hadn't got out of that chair."
Toronto has declared an extreme heat emergency, as parts of Ontario and
Quebec swelter through unseasonably hot temperatures. It was about 10 degrees hotter than
normal. Environment Canada warned people to get used to it, because the heat wave seems
likely to continue. "We've had more summer this week than we had all of last year in
Eastern Canada." Extreme heat kills an average of 120 people a year in Toronto, 121 in
Montreal, 41 in Ottawa and 37 in Windsor, Ontario.
LANDSLIDE -
Torrential rains in northwestern Colombia unleashed mudslides Friday on an
impoverished mountainside neighborhood in Colombia's coffee-growing region, killing at
least six people. Another four people were reported missing.
-----
Saturday, June 11, 2005 -
QUAKES -
Quake clusters in recent days:
Alaska -
6/9 Chuathbaluk - 4.8, 3.9, 3.3
6/9 Atka - 3.4, 3.0, 4.0
6/10 Adak (Rat Islands) - 4.4, 5.8, 4.2, 4.4
Indonesia -
6/3 Nias - 5.8, 4.6, 4.5, 4.6, 4.2, 4.5
6/5 Nias - 4.5
6/6 Nias - 4.5
6/9 Nias - 4.6, 4.7
6/10 Nias - 5.5
6/11 N. Sumatra - 5.2, 5.0
-----------------
6/3 Kepulauan - 4.5
6/5 Kepulauan - 4.7
------------------
6/4 Simeulue - 4.6
6/8 Simeulue - 6.1
--------------
6/6 Nicobar - 4.3
6/7 Andamans - 5.0
6/10 Papua, Indonesia - 5.1
Iceland -
6/7 4.6, 4.6, 4.6, 4.4, 4.9, 4.4, 4.6
6/8 5.0, 4.3. 4.7
6/9 4.7, 4.6
VOLCANO -
Anatahan's volcano unleashed its fury anew in another strong eruption that kicked up
ash to 30,000 feet in the air, resulting in an ashfall in the Northern Mariana Islands.
It was a 7-minute long eruptive pulse and one of the vocano's strongest recent eruptions,
second only to the record 50,000 feet last April. The tremor levels have continued to be
variable with occasional small explosions.
TSUNAMI -
Detailed maps identifying the reach of the December tsunami, as well as vulnerable
areas in Tamil Nadu and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands should the disaster recur, have
been prepared. The 'Tsunami Inundation Mapping in the Coastal Districts of Tamil Nadu'
gives detailed information on areas that went under water on December 26 when giant
tsunami waves hit India's coast from 9am to about 2pm. There are about 200 areas in the
eastern coastline which could go under water if such events recur.
Flooding occurred in some areas in Nagapattinam, which are as far as 1.1km away from the
sea. "On an average, inundation occurred at a distance of 50 m to 1.1km from the sea on
Tamil Nadu's coast."
The latest December tsunami analysis shows that waves up to 10m high struck the east
coast of Sri Lanka, while on the west coast the waves dropped to a few metres high as
the tsunami was bent around the tip of the island. On the Indonesian island of Sumatra,
9m-high waves hit Banda Aceh, while waves of more than 15m pounded Lhoknga, 15km to the
southwest. At Lhoknga, wave-driven water was forced inland and up to 25m above sea level.
On a nearby island this "run-up" was more than 31m.
Between Banda Aceh and Lhoknga, waves inundated about 65sqkm.
In some areas, the Sumatran coastline was moved permanently 1.6km inland, after inundated
ground sank and waves scoured away coastal land.
AVALANCHE -
The threat of avalanches lingers in many Western U.S. mountain ranges where it's been an
unusual season for one of nature's more unpredictable phenomena.
Since late October, at least 27 people have died in the United States in avalanches,
which is about the average. What's unusual is that two of the deaths occurred in
developed ski areas, including the most recent one last month in Colorado and another in
January when a teenager was swept off a ski lift near Las Vegas.
In the previous 19 years, just three of the 416 known avalanche deaths in the nation —
well below 1 percent — occurred within ski areas. In southern Nevada, an expert said
there may have been no way to predict the slide that killed a 13-year-old snowboarder at
Mount Charleston. "When this avalanche released, it was unprecedented."
STORMS -
A tornado struck a small village in northeastern China killing nine people and
injuring 14 others.
At least 40 children were killed when a flash flood struck a primary school in
north-eastern China.
Potentially drought-breaking rain fell in parts of the New South Wales, Australia,
far-west. Up to 50 millimetres had been recorded at Ivanhoe, while 20mm fell around
Hillston and 39 at Whitecliffs.
"That'd be the best rain that we've had here since November 12, 2000."
CLIMATE CHANGE -
A leading environmentalist has warned that Australia is now entering long-term climate
change, which could cause longer and more frequent droughts.
He also predicts that the ongoing drought could leave Sydney's dams dry in just two
years. If Sydney's dams dry up, the city's ground water supply would last just 10 days.
Global warming is threatening Australia's chance of returning to a regular rainfall
pattern. The shifting weather patterns as the planet warms up has the tropics expanding
southwards and the winter rainfall zone is sort of dropping off the southern edge of the
continent. Disturbances in the ozone layer - "That is causing wind speeds around
Antarctica to increase and, again, drawing that winter rainfall to the south."
The third phenomena, which is the most worrying, is the recurring El Nino weather
pattern. "That's occurring as the Pacific Ocean warms up, and we're seeing much longer El
Ninos than we've seen before and often now back-to-back el Ninos with very little of the
La Nina cycle, the flood cycle, in between."
Friday, June 10, 2005 -
QUAKES -
A magnitude 5.8 earthquake in the Rat Islands, Aleutian Islands has occurred, 2175 km
(1350 miles) WSW of Anchorage.
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake in the Queen Charlotte Islands region has occurred, 625
km (385 miles) WNW of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
VOLCANO -
Papua New Guinea is a hotspot for volcanic activity. Relief supplies are on their way
to villages where volcanic ash has fallen after the eruption of Mt Langila on the island
of New Britain. More than 2000 villagers around Kilenge and Cape Gloucester on the
island's western end have had their food crops covered and water supplies contaminated by
falling ash. There are numerous cases of respiratory problems, sore eyes and skin rashes
since the increase in volcanic activity began in April. Mt Tavurvur on the eastern end of
New Britain continues to send ash plumes across the nearby town of Rabaul. 9000 Manam
Islanders remain in plantation care centers on the PNG mainland's north coast after the
eruption of their island's volcano in October last year.
This week's eruption of the Volcàn de Colima in the Mexican state of Jalisco exceeded the
magnitude of all minor events in the last 20 years. And if history repeats itself,
some geologists fear the recent activity could be only the beginning of a larger event to
come — one that could parallel or exceed the damage caused by its last major eruption in
1913, which turned the summit into a 500-meter-deep crater and blew ash 125 kilometers
north into Guadalajara. And its base, on which some communities have been built, might no
longer be stable and could itself face an impending collapse. It has taken on a pink,
rust coloration, which means that volcanic gases have altered the slope. "This commonly
feared pastel coloring indicates a weakness in the deposit and the potential for a
collapse."
(photo)
HURRICANE / TROPICAL STORM -
The first storm of the Caribbean hurricane season headed for oil fields in the Gulf of
Mexico causing crude oil prices to top $54 a barrel on Thursday. Last year a severe
hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico produced a record-breaking surge in crude oil
prices.
Tropical storm Arlene was brewing up winds of about 65 kilometres an hour off the
coast of western Cuba. The storm is poised to enter the Gulf of Mexico today, and people
in the U.S. from Florida to Louisiana are being warned to stay alert for weather updates.
Arlene is the first named storm system of the year, with these other names waiting in the
wings: Bret, Cindy, Dennis, Emily, Franklin, Gert, Harvey, Irene, Jose, Katrina, Lee,
Maria, Nate, Ophelia, Philippe, Rita, Stan, Tammy, Vince and Wilma.
U.S. meteorologists say there's a 70-per-cent chance that the 2005 hurricane season will
be worse than usual.
The storm swept already-saturated South Florida with sporadic rain and gusty wind
Thursday as it moved from the Caribbean Sea into the Gulf of Mexico. Particularly
heavy rain spread across central and western Cuba, the Cayman Islands, parts of Central
America and the Florida Keys on Thursday. Forecasters warned of 15 inches by the end of
today in Cuba. Forecasters said heavy downpours up to 5 inches, flooding, rough seas and
other unpleasant conditions could be in store for South Floridians as the sprawling
system pulses north through the Gulf. The storm is not expected to grow into a hurricane.
WILDFIRES -
Dry conditions already fueled a number of fires in Nevada and firefighters there expect
much worse to come. Tens of thousands of acres are on fire at the moment just
northwest of the Las Vegas Valley. For firefighters, it's like ominous foreshadowing in
the movies. Wildfires are not supposed to start this early and be as big in this area.
LANDSLIDES / FLOODING -
At least 12 people died after heavy rains triggered landslides and flooding in northern
Vietnam.
COLD SNAP -
Unseasonally cold weather in June brought snow and floods to much of Europe. Fresh
snow fell Wednesday on parts of Austria and temperatures dipped below freezing in corners
of Croatia, England and Scotland. Cooler-than-usual temperatures and hailstorms have
inflicted millions in damage on crops in Italy. Croatia had snow and strong winds. Heavy
rain flooded several villages in central Serbia.
----
Thursday, June 9, 2005 -
QUAKES -
Another top scientific specialist in tsunamis is warning that continuing earthquake
activity is increasing stress on fault lines that caused the December tsunami, making
them vulnerable to another rupture and another tsunami within a year. His team predicted
a quake in the Indian Ocean region for late March, about two weeks before it occurred.
John McCloskey says the area under the Mentawai Islands west of Sumatra is most at risk
of an earthquake with a magnitude of eight or more on the Richter scale.
The displacement of the earthquakes in March and December changed the stress values
everywhere in the region. The Batu section of the Sunda trench, south of the Mentawai
islands, last ruptured in 1935 and has slowly slipped ever since. As a result, the total
stresses there are probably too low to cause a giant rupture.
Of greater concern to McCloskey is the section of the trench south of Siberut, which is
at the northern end of the Mentawai islands.
This section last ruptured in 1797, which means it has more
than 200 years of accumulated stress waiting to be released. The seismic history of
this section indicates that major quakes strike there about every 230 years. In addition,
the new calculations show that the March earthquake expanded the Sumatra fault's stressed
section by about 125 miles (200 kilometers) and has not relieved any stress there.
Indonesia's Sumatra region is at risk from mega-earthquakes that could trigger waves 10
metres high, the same seismologists say.
An earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale struck off the coast of Sumatra on
Wednesday. The tremor was centered 270 kilometers southwest of Medan, North Sumatra,
and was recorded at 2:34 p.m. (0634 GMT). The quake prompted panic on the island off
Simeulue.
The latest earthquake to hit the Indonesian island of Sumatra has caused massive earth
craters to appear in Thailand's southern province of Trang.
Several houses in Wang Wiset district reported cracks, while officials from the
Department of Mineral Resources have discovered four-metre deep soil craters.
The limestone soil of the area is particularly prone to earthquake-related subsidence, as
limestone is characterized by air bubbles under the soil.
An earthquake measuring 5.5 points on the Richter scale occurred in the northeastern part
of Taiwan on Wednesday.
VOLCANO -
A British researcher says an eruption of Mount Vesuvius near Naples, Italy, could kill as
many as the Indonesia tsunami. Vesuvius is one of the most serious problems facing
Europe. The worst damage from the eruption would likely be caused by rapidly moving
streams of hot gas and ash, called pyroclastic flows.
Much damage is caused by the debris entering buildings through open windows and doors. A
person cowering in a corner might escape the scorching material untouched. A study shows
that heat-resistant coverings on windows and doors could hold the damage down
significantly but serious preparations need to be made in advance.
STORMS -
The Department of Fisheries has warned tourists and trawlers to avoid all activities in
the Andaman Sea until October due to high waves and strong wind, or even storms,
during the rainy season. His advice followed an accident off Thailand's southern resort
island of Phuket earlier this week when a tourist boat capsized, killing one tourist,
while the rest (18) were safely rescued by naval officers. "All marine activities should
particularly be avoided in the Andaman Sea."
Less than a month after a tornado devastated Western Australia's southwest, residents
are again preparing for severe weather, with hail, thunderstorms and strong winds moving
through the region. The State Emergency Service has advised sheep farmers in the state's
south west of the serious risk of sheep and lamb losses, while Perth householders have
been warned to secure loose objects and stay indoors during high winds.
Powerful thunderstorms slammed the Upper Midwest and caused heavy flooding, leaving
one man missing in Minnesota, destroying a small-town city hall in South Dakota, forcing
30 people out of their homes in North Dakota and knocking power out to more than 200,000
customers in the Minneapolis metro area and downing trees. Hail nearly 3 inches in
diameter was reported in Meade County and many other areas also reported hail. Rain
pounded some areas for hours.
LANDSLIDES -
A series of huge landslides has blocked the scenic Beartooth Highway, a major tourist
magnet that winds through a high mountain pass into Yellowstone National Park, likely
closing it all summer.
Construction crews plowed a path around the lowest mud and rock slide south of Red Lodge
on Tuesday and prepared to attack the next slide in the series, but that work only serves
to clear a route for contractors who will have to make millions of dollars in repairs.
The mountainside highway is closed part of the year by snow and typically opens during
the Memorial Day weekend, but on May 19-20 the slides and washouts damaged or destroyed
13 segments of a 12-mile stretch. State officials estimated more than 500 million tons of
debris cascaded down the mountainsides. The slides were blamed on snowmelt and heavy
rain, and water is still flowing across the highway in spots. There have been three very
minor tremors in the same west Yellowstone area within the last seven days: a 1.5
earthquake on June 2, a 1.2 tremor on June 5, and a 1.4 on June 6. Two of the tremors had
epicenters less than 2 miles deep.
A controversial new report published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration finds the northern Gulf of Mexico is sinking much faster than geologists
thought. By century's end, much of southern Louisiana may sink into the Gulf of
Mexico. The Texas coastline, including Galveston, could soon follow. Instead of minimal
geologic subsidence along most of the Louisiana coast, as previously thought, the state's
entire coastal region is sinking at least 5 feet every century. Every building on land
certified as safe from flooding may, in fact, be in danger if Louisiana's benchmarks are
flawed.
DROUGHT -
An urgent appeal for $7.5 million in urgent drought relief for the tiny Horn of Africa
country of Djibouti has received almost no response.
Djibouti is suffering from a worsening drought following three failed rainy seasons. A
severe food crisis threatens three of the country's six rural zones.
Limited rainfall has been insufficient to replenish water catchments and regenerate
pastures. As a result, many of the animals on which Djibouti's pastoralists depend for
survival have died. The situation has been exacerbated by the migration to Djibouti of
pastoralists from neighbouring areas in Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia due to drought in
their own countries.
Portugal, which is suffering though its worst drought in decades, is currently sweltering
through a heatwave. The national weather office has issued a heat warning for eight
of the country's 18 regions because of forecasts that temperatures there would hover near
40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) over the next few days. Over 200 firefighters
are battling a large wind-fueled wildfire.
--
Wednesday, June 8, 2005 -
QUAKES -
A magnitude 5.8 earthquake on the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge has occurred 1050 km (650
miles) ENE of Scott Island, Antarctica and 2820 km (1750 miles) SSE of Wellington, New
Zealand.
VOLCANO -
Officials were evacuating residents of some nearby villages on Tuesday after western
Mexico's Volcano of Fire erupted for the second time in two days, shooting burning
rock high in the air and dusting the region with ash on Monday night around 11pm. A
voluntary evacuation was in effect at the three villages nearest the crater and people in
other towns were urged to be ready to move. The volcano staged spectacular eruptions
Thursday night, Friday morning, and Sunday afternoon (the strongest eruption in decades),
as well as on May 23 and May 30.
Ulawun volcano on the Papua New Guinean island of New Britain erupted on Monday. The
volcano exhaled ash and steam. Ulawun is one of Papua New Guinea’s most active
volcanoes.
On May 24, 2005, Colombian officials ordered 9,000 people living near the flanks of the
Galeras volcano to evacuate, as seismic activity increased and the threat of eruption
loomed. According to reports from Colombia’s Institute of Geology Mining published on
June 1, the volcano is likely to erupt in the coming days or weeks.
Seismologists have located a relatively small and isolated patch of exotic material deep
within the Earth that may be a "root" for mantle plumes that connect Earth's hot and
tumultuous core to the surface. Specifically, the researchers have found a spot at
Earth’s core-mantle boundary, 3,000 km (1,900 miles) deep inside Earth that could play a
pivotal role in the formation and existence of volcanic islands and island chains like
Hawaii. It is an ultra low velocity zone, a region where seismic waves propagate
extremely slowly, under the southwest Pacific Ocean.
LANDSLIDE -
Five people were killed and 11 injured in a landslide caused by heavy rain in
northwestern Colombia on Monday. Hundreds of tons of rocks and mud fell to a road
near Cisneros city, burying a bus and a taxi. Six people were still missing.
The rainy season, starting in March, will last until late June or early July.
This year's heavy rain has left at least 35 people dead and more than 94,000 homeless
in Colombia.
TYPHOON -
Typhoon Nesat is moving north toward Japan over the Philippine Sea with winds of 213
kilometers per hour (115 knots or 132 mph) with gusts to 259 kph (140 knots or 161 mph),
making it the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane. It was the fourth tropical cyclone to
form in the region in 2005.
CLIMATE CHANGE -
A heat wave sweeping through the region for the last two weeks has killed some 100 people
in South Asia up through last Friday. Bangladesh, especially its northern districts,
is responsible for at least one-third of this casualty figure. Weather experts are saying
that the raging heat wave is yet to die down and may even continue for another week. The
extreme weather condition covers a vast swathe of India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh and
is the worst of its kind in recent memory. All the heat should have been absorbed by the
cool monsoon winds and rains, but during the last fifteen-plus days that the heat wave
has been singeing the entire region in South Asia, there has been no rain. The monsoon
should have already begun by now, but the advent of the monsoon has been halted by the
heat wave from the west. Weather forecasters hope that, though delayed, the monsoon rains
will start by the middle of June. In Bangladesh last Friday, the temperature rose as high
as 43 degrees Celsius (109.4 degrees Fahrenheit). The situation is worse in India. In
Andhra Pradesh the temperature reached 45 degrees Celsius and in Orissa at Talcher town
it reached the sizzling 48.5 degrees Centigrade.
Tuesday, June 7, 2005 -
QUAKES -
Fifty-four people have been injured in a strong 5.7 earthquake in eastern Turkey.
The quake jolted Bingol province of eastern Turkey at 10:41 a.m. (0741 GMT), damaging
scores of houses and injuring 54 people. At least 10 aftershocks also shook the
region.
A man is dead, several injured and hundreds left homeless in Lae, Morobe Province, Papua
New Guinea, following a major 6.0 earthquake early Sunday morning. "Many people were
lucky to escape with minor injuries as the houses collapsed on them while they were fast
asleep." Reports say that hundreds of people are homeless.
The Indonesian Institute of Sciences is worried about the possibility of another massive
earthquake that could trigger a tsunami of the west coast of Sumatra, thus
endangering the lives of the 800,000 inhabitants of Padang, West Sumatra.
A seismologist at LIPI's Geotechnology Research Center, Danny Hilman Natawidjaja, told
The Jakarta Post in Padang that the 200-year cycle of huge quakes, centered around
Siberut island and Sipora-Pagai islands in the Mentawai island chain, had almost come
full circle.
"The quakes in Nias and Aceh have definitely increased the possibility of a huge quake in
Mentawai. We are afraid that the 6.9 magnitude quake, with its epicenter in Siberut
island, last April 10, could trigger a truly massive quake," he said.
The April 10 quake was not actually massive, unlike those that took place on Dec. 26 in
the Aceh-Andaman segments and on March 28 in the Nias-Batu islands segments.
In addition, it had not taken place in the Siberut or Sipora-Pagai segments, but between
the two segments. It had also not affected the rising and sinking of the islands.
Based on reports, the massive quake on Dec. 26 in Aceh caused the northern coast of
Simeuleu island to rise by 1.3 meters while the south coast sank by around 50
centimeters. A similar event occurred on Nias island during the March 28 quake. During
the 8.7 magnitude quake, the western part of the island was lifted by about three meters
above the surface of the sea.
Moreover, coastal areas in Laweha district were lifted by an average of 3.5 meters. By
contrast, Banyak and Singkil islands on the western side of Nias sank by about 1.5
meters. However, the quake in Nias failed to produce a tsunami as the epicenter was
located precisely underneath the island. The rising and sinking of the islands along the
west coast of Sumatra was due to natural processes that had been happening since time
immemorial. The same thing would also occur in the two segments of the Mentawai Islands.
The Sipora-Pagai segment was last hit by a magnitude 8.5 earthquake in 1833, while the
Siberut and Sipora-Pagai segments were last hit simultaneously by an 8.3 magnitude quake
in 1797.
"Based on our analysis using the Global Positioning System, the Mentawai islands are
sinking by about a centimeter each year. During the 200 years since the last massive
quake, the islands have sunk by two meters. Then a massive quake occurred again and
raised the islands back up two meters. They are now sinking again gradually at 1
centimeter per year."
The quake that struck the Mentawai islands in 1797 triggered a tsunami in Mentawai and
Padang. Based on historical records, Padang town was hit by a five-meter-high tsunami.
"A similar occurrence is a possibility, with the worst-case scenario being simultaneous
earthquakes in two segments, the Siberut and the Sipora-Pagai segments, which would be
capable of producing a 9 magnitude quake and a tsunami."
Padang is the most susceptible area in the event of a tsunami as 80 percent of its
800,000 inhabitants live only a few hundred meters from the coastline at an elevation of
just five meters above sea level.
"I'm not worried about Mentawai due to its sparse population, most of whom generally live
in villages behind which are hills to which they can flee. There are almost no multistory
buildings there. It's different in Padang, however."
(From the Jakarta Post - National News, June 7)
FREAK STORMS -
Minor flooding along the Laramie River in Wyoming on Monday followed a weekend of heavy
rain and a freak snowstorm that brought down tree limbs all over town.
DROUGHT -
England and Wales have had their driest November to March period in 30 years.
But April 2005 was wetter than average for the UK as a whole.
The dry spell spanned two complete seasons across most of the UK with five consecutive
months of below-average rainfall. Parts of central and south England had just 60% of
their average rainfall. But downpours in west and north Scotland recorded 108% and
120% respectively.
Central Australia had its driest year on record. Dry weather in May in the southern
parts of the Northern Territory perpetuated the "long-running dry spell", leading to many
places experiencing their driest 12 months on record.
The rate of rural suicide in Australia is amongst the highest in the world as farmers
battle the stress of years of drought, failed crops, and mounting debt.
SUPERBUGS -
Drug-resistant "superbugs" causing hospital infections and deaths around the world can
live for weeks on bed linen, computer keyboard covers and under acrylic fingernails.
Some types of the bacteria are now nearly impossible to kill even with the strongest
antibiotics.
---
Monday, June 6, 2005 -
QUAKES -
Three earthquakes measuring 4.8, 4.3 and 4.1 on the Richter scale rocked Taiwan
Sunday, but there were no reports of damage or casualties. Taiwan's worst earthquake,
measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, occurred in September 1999 and left about 2,400
people dead.
A 5.5 quake shook Turkey today - they have frequent small quakes.
VOLCANO -
Mexico's "Fire Volcano" spewed ashes almost 5 km high yesterday, its fiercest
eruption of rock and lava in more than 15 years and its third big explosion in two weeks.
On May 23 and May 30 the volcano, located in a sparsely populated rural area about 482km
from Mexico City, belched lava and glowing rocks, but prompted no evacuations.
Sunday's explosion was 20 per cent larger than the May 30 eruption.
At Barren Island's volcano, lava and fireballs erupt from the crater every few
seconds. On Thursday a Coast Guard helicopter hovered close to the volcano and
another team steered an inflated raft towards the 354-metre high uninhabited island to
collect samples of the lava flowing into the rough sea. This is the only active volcano
along the North-South trending volcanic arc between Sumatra and Myanmar. The sudden
eruption may be an after-effect of the December 26, 2004 tsunami, as predicted by the
Geological Survey of India, say experts. (photo)
TSUNAMI -
View 22 dramatic short videos shot by victims during the December tsunami plus a 10
minute Tsunami Memorial Video.
FLOODING -
Forecasters in China on Sunday warned that the worst flooding was yet to come. A week
of torrential rains and heavy flooding has killed at least 204 people in China and left
79 others missing. Strong rainfall is expected to pound the Yangtze River, China's
longest river, in the coming 10 days and trigger more floods and landslides. In coming
days, the Three Gorges area of the river is expected to see 35 to 50 millimeters (1.4 to
2 inches) of rainfall, more than the typical 30-45 millimeters in previous years. The
river will enter an even rainier period starting mid-June. Thousands of people perish
every year from floods, landslides and mudflows in China, with millions left homeless,
and officials have warned this year's floods could be worse than usual.
The China Meteorological Administration warned last month of an "apocalyptic" summer of
severe drought and floods.
LANDSLIDE -
In Utah a mudslide shut down a mountain highway outside Cedar City on Friday.
The slide was triggered by an avalanche that drove a battering ram of debris onto state
Route 14. "When this came down it just brought the whole forest - millions of tons of mud
and trees and rocks." There was an 8-foot snow fracture line where the avalanche started
near the top of a mountain slope at about 10,000 feet in elevation. The avalanche ran for
two miles down a ravine to the highway, piling debris 300 feet wide before it.
The slide may have been aided by heavy rainfall on Friday, but the mountain slope seemed
ready to release on its own and remains dangerously unstable.
CLIMATE CHANGE -
A new study finds 125 large lakes in the Arctic have vanished as temperatures rose over
the past two decades. The sudden draining could alter entire continental ecosystems.
Many other lakes have shrunk.
The lakes once sat atop permanently frozen soil called permafrost. Other studies have
shown permafrost is melting around the world, causing low-lying ground to slump and rock
to fall from mountains.
Climate changes have doubled the number of hurricanes in the last 15 years.
Tropical storms and hurricanes killed thousands in Caribbean nations last year, and could
claim more lives this year because the region is not prepared to cope with the deadly
natural disasters. "I've warned the world it is not going to get better, it is going to
become worse."
Water is being rationed in half of Spain to save it for domestic use, as parts of the
country suffer the worst drought for 60 years. Swimming pools are empty, city
fountains are turned off and golf courses have been ordered to reduce watering.
Some reservoirs in the south-east are more than three-quarters empty. With no fresh rain
expected in the affected areas until the autumn, authorities have decided they must
protect domestic supplies through the busy summer tourist season. While one half of Spain
gasps for water, the other is well stocked. Spain's green north-west has abundant
supplies.
PANDEMIC -
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the world, `is in the gravest possible
danger'. The Australian Government will this week send out 35,000 kits to health
professionals to help them recognise and manage cases of severe respiratory illness.
The kits provide infection control guidelines and advice on what to expect during an
influenza pandemic. At the launch of the kits in Sydney today, it was said that even the
best advice painted a grim picture for the future.
"On all the best advice we have, we're looking at a whole lot of pretty grim
possibilities."
.
--
Sunday, June 5, 2005 -
QUAKES -
A magnitude 6.0 earthquake in eastern New Guinea, P.N.G. has occurred.
VOLCANO -
The Barren Island volcano is emitting a greater quantity of smoke after heavy rain
had led to a decrease in the flames. Lava is still flowing out of the crater.
WILDFIRES -
*
Lightning sparked nearly two dozen wildfires Friday, burning hundreds of acres in
southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona. Much of Utah has been living under flood
watches as the mountain snowpack melted late in the season after temperatures warmed up.
But the areas that lightning hit Friday were dry enough to start the fires.
*
Crews in Canada have contained a large forest fire that burned dangerously close
to a town in north-central Quebec and caused 700 people to
flee. There is vast devastion there and Chibougamau could be in trouble again if the wind
shifts. There are 72 forest fires burning in the province, covering more than 100,000
hectares. About a third of them are burning out of control. Hot and sunny conditions are
expected through the weekend, but rain is forecast for Monday.
FLOODING -
*
A western Manitoba, Canada, town has declared a state of emergency due to
flooding as other areas of the province struggle to recover from an
earlier deluge. On Wednesday, a rare storm system dumped 150 millimetres of rain on the
southwestern part of the province in less than 12 hours, causing severe flooding.
On Saturday in Strathclair 50 millimetres of rain fell overnight, just as water levels
were beginning to recede. "They're having water coming into town from several different
directions...There's quite a concern because there's a lot more water coming from the
east and the north so the town is in a bad way." More thunderstorms are expected in the
region, where some communities hit by the earlier storm received more rainfall in a
single day than they usually see in half a year.
*
China has dispatched disaster teams to flood-stricken areas, after torrential rain razed
mountain villages, possibly killing hundreds of people. Three days of rain in Hunan
and the western provinces of Sichuan and Guizhou killed at least 88 and left 73 missing.
But with houses uprooted and mountain torrents flattening buildings, many more are feared
dead. The flooding, an annual event in China that causes huge loss of life, has affected
nearly 6 million people so far and caused direct economic losses of 2.47 billion yuan
($300 million). More than 70,000 homes were destroyed and 215,000 people evacuated.
*
Three days of heavy rains have left 24 people dead and more than 29,000 homeless in
Brazil's northeastern state of Pernambuco. A total of 134 homes were completely
destroyed and 1200 more were damaged.
DROUGHT -
It was the sixth driest May in Missouri since the weather service starting keeping
records 111 years ago. Only the years 1901, 1911, 1914, 1932 and 1934 had drier Mays.
1.04 inches of rain fell in May, a month when five inches of precipitation is the norm.
"We're setting on the edge of something really serious." Heavy rains in January brought
the state to a drought-free situation. But below normal rains the past three months has
brought about a moderate drought over much of the state. Statewide, rain totals in March,
April and May averaged 7.13 inches, nearly five inches below normal. With heavy rain in
January, the grass in lawns and pastures didn't put down roots as deep as usual.
"Now that we're drying out, we're starting to see wilting and yellowing of grasses that
we usually associate with the hot months later in the summer."
--
Saturday, June 4, 2005 -
QUAKES -
*
An earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale shook the Indonesian island of Nias
on Friday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or property damage.
*
The 4.0 temblor felt across northwest Tennessee on Thursday caused little damage, but
it was strong enough to remind people they live in one of the country's most active
earthquake zones. The New Madrid seismic zone produces close to 200 quakes a year. But
most are around magnitude 2.0 and unnoticed by anyone but scientists. Quakes of magnitude
4.0, on average, occur once every 18 months or so in the New Madrid region. Yet quakes
measuring just over 4.0 occurred in the area of Blytheville, Arkansas last month and in
February.
TSUNAMI -
*
December 26 tsunami research - An international team of the world's leading
scientists has just returned from the first scientific expedition to dive 4,500 meters
into the Indian Ocean to explore the seabed site of the 2004 Asian tsunami. The mosaic of
photographs the team has released show a 3 meter high x 8 meter wide section of compacted
sediment nearly 3 miles down, only a small part of a huge cliff that was faulted and
upthrust during the enormous earthquake and which undoubtedly contributed to the creation
of the tsunami. The team was "surprised to find absolutely no evidence of deep-sea
animals at the site during a 14 hour dive with the ROV submersible. This is unprecedented
in 25 years of sampling the deep sea."
HURRICANE -
*
The National Hurricane Center is watching a system in the Gulf of Mexico for signs of
tropical development. At this time, forecasters say upper-level winds do not appear
favorable for tropical formation. However, locally heavy rains in Florida will likely
continue for the next day or so. The hurricane center is also tracking a westward-moving
tropical wave near the Windward Islands. Tropical cyclone development is not
anticipated.
*
History reveals that New York and the Northeastern U.S. have been hit hard by hurricanes
before, and with little warning. Scientists say the next major hurricane to strike
the city is a question of when, not if.
Printable hurricane tracking maps
DROUGHT -
*
A five-year drought with little-to-no rain in the Turkana district of Kenya's Rift Valley
Province threatens the traditional pastoralist lifestyle of its communities, who up
to now had managed to survive in the harsh, arid climate of northwestern Kenya.
Water and grazing land have become so precious, in fact, that there has been an increase
in the use of small arms to settle disputes over what little resources remain. Most
riverbeds have long-since dried up, and apart from relief agency-sponsored bore holes,
there is no water. April and May are meant to be the long-rains months for Turkana. This
year, the rains have been sporadic and unpredictable. As the drought has deepened, child
malnutrition in some districts has gone well over the World Health Organization's global
acute malnutrition (GAM) critical threshold of 15 percent. GAM has exceeded 20 percent
and 30 percent in Marsabit and Turkana. The survival of these communities depends on the
June rains of 2005. Without them, analysts believe, the crisis will deepen and create one
of the worst famine scenarios in Kenya on record.
Saturday, June 4, 2005 -
QUAKES -
*
An earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale shook the Indonesian island of Nias
on Friday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or property damage.
*
The 4.0 temblor felt across northwest Tennessee on Thursday caused little damage, but
it was strong enough to remind people they live in one of the country's most active
earthquake zones. The New Madrid seismic zone produces close to 200 quakes a year. But
most are around magnitude 2.0 and unnoticed by anyone but scientists. Quakes of magnitude
4.0, on average, occur once every 18 months or so in the New Madrid region. Yet quakes
measuring just over 4.0 occurred in the area of Blytheville, Arkansas last month and in
February.
TSUNAMI -
*
December 26 tsunami research - An international team of the world's leading
scientists has just returned from the first scientific expedition to dive 4,500 meters
into the Indian Ocean to explore the seabed site of the 2004 Asian tsunami. The mosaic of
photographs the team has released show a 3 meter high x 8 meter wide section of compacted
sediment nearly 3 miles down, only a small part of a huge cliff that was faulted and
upthrust during the enormous earthquake and which undoubtedly contributed to the creation
of the tsunami. The team was "surprised to find absolutely no evidence of deep-sea
animals at the site during a 14 hour dive with the ROV submersible. This is unprecedented
in 25 years of sampling the deep sea."
HURRICANE -
*
The National Hurricane Center is watching a system in the Gulf of Mexico for signs of tropical development. At this time, forecasters say upper-level winds do not appear favorable for tropical formation. However, locally heavy rains in Florida will likely continue for the next day or so. The hurricane center is also tracking a westward-moving tropical wave near the Windward Islands. Tropical cyclone development is not anticipated.
*
History reveals that New York and the Northeastern U.S. have been hit hard by hurricanes before, and with little warning. Scientists say the next major hurricane to strike the city is a question of when, not if.
Printable hurricane tracking maps
DROUGHT -
*
A five-year drought with little-to-no rain in the Turkana district of Kenya's Rift Valley
Province threatens the traditional pastoralist lifestyle of its communities, who up
to now had managed to survive in the harsh, arid climate of northwestern Kenya.
Water and grazing land have become so precious, in fact, that there has been an increase
in the use of small arms to settle disputes over what little resources remain. Most
riverbeds have long-since dried up, and apart from relief agency-sponsored bore holes,
there is no water. April and May are meant to be the long-rains months for Turkana. This
year, the rains have been sporadic and unpredictable. As the drought has deepened, child
malnutrition in some districts has gone well over the World Health Organization's global
acute malnutrition (GAM) critical threshold of 15 percent. GAM has exceeded 20 percent
and 30 percent in Marsabit and Turkana. The survival of these communities depends on the
June rains of 2005. Without them, analysts believe, the crisis will deepen and create one
of the worst famine scenarios in Kenya on record.
--
Friday, June 3, 2005 -
QUAKES -
*
A magnitude 5.8 earthquake in the Nias region of Indonesia has occurred.
* A magnitude 6.1 earthquake in Salta,
Argentina occurred on Thursday.
*
A high magnitude earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale shook the northeastern
region of India on Thursday, causing panic among residents in Assam and Arunachal
Pradesh along the border with China's Tibet region.
*
A moderate earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter Scale was felt in the south of the
Fiji at 2pm Thursday. Seismologists believe that Fiji is in an area where earthquakes
should not exceed 7 on the Richter Scale.
*
A minor 4.0 earthquake struck northwestern Tennessee early Thursday, jarring some
residents awake but causing no reported damage. "I felt my house shake twice, my bed
shook twice and I heard a big boom."
The area where the quake hit is in the New Madrid fault zone, a seismically active area
that runs along the Mississippi River.
VOLCANO -
*
The volcanic eruption on Barren Island, situated near the Andamans, has further
intensified but heavy rainfall and inclement weather has made it impossible to keep
watch on the island. "A fresh survey team today found that lava is spewing out of the
volcano with more intensity and the quantity of gas emission has also increased
manifold." The weather will remain same for at least the next 48 hours, signalling that
keeping an eye on Barren island will be difficult for at least two more days.
There has been a lot of fresh lava deposited on the surface of the island after the
volcanic eruption. The occurrence, coming a decade after its last such fury, will
result in a new map for the uninhabited land nestled in the Indian Ocean. A slew of
post-monsoon scientific expeditions are being planned to take a peek at India’s only live
volcano.
*
Colima's volatile Volcano of Fire staged a spectacular midnight eruption in Mexico,
scattering its flanks with glowing rock and spewing ash on nearby towns early on
Thursday. No injuries or damage were reported. It also experienced explosive eruptions on
May 23 and May 30.
HURRICANES -
*
There is a 77 percent chance of at least one major hurricane making landfall in the
United States this year. An updated forecast by William Gray and his team raises the
predicted number of storms to 15 named storms, with eight of those becoming hurricanes.
Four of the hurricanes are expected to be intense, with sustained winds of 111 mph or
greater.
An earlier forecast predicted a total of 13 named storms and seven hurricanes, three of
which were expected to be intense. Continued warming of the ocean will spur high
hurricane activity in the Atlantic basin this season and increase the probability of a
storm moving inland. "We have adjusted our forecast upward from our early April forecast
and now expect tropical cyclone activity to be about 170 percent of the average seasonal
activity," The long-term average is 9.6 named storms, 5.9 hurricanes and 2.3 intense
hurricanes per year. In the last 10 years only six of the 38 major Atlantic basin
hurricanes crossed the U.S. coastline. In 2004, three major hurricanes made landfall.
Hurricane season officially began on Wednesday.
FREAK / UNUSUAL STORMS -
*
Snow in tropical Somalia, Africa - The first snowfall in this part of the world has
claimed one life and caused extensive damage to properties. Puntland, northeastern part
of Somalia has never recorded snowfall before last night when snow storms with high winds
destroyed homes in Rako town. Aside from this unexplained snowfall on this tropical
land, Somalia has experienced very strange weather in the past few months.
Floods killed people and forced rivers to overflow banks in almost all parts of the
country. Many cities from Hargeisa in the north to Baladweyn in central were affected
badly by heavy rains and floods. Many people were killed and thousands of livestock
washed away by this strange weather. The country is still struggling to recover from last
month’s killer weather.
*
Manitoba, Canada was under tornado and flood watches on Thursday after a day of
exceptionally heavy rain and reports of two tornadoes
touching down in the province's southwestern corner Wednesday night. Heavy rains have
been pummelling the region, giving some communities more rainfall in a single day than
they usually see in half a year. "This is very, very unusual. This kind of storm is going
to be, according to our statistics, a 100-year event kind of thing."
LANDLIDES / AVALANCHES -
*
During the 2004 - 2005 winter season, more than 800 civilians and Army personnel were
reported killed by avalanches in the Pakistan Karakoram / Hindu Kush / Kashmir
mountains. The actual fatalities are probably above 2,000.
"On this trip, I saw the most snowfall I've witnessed in 29 trips to the region since
1993. The Pakistan Meteorological Department has also issued a recent warning for all
2005 mountaineering expeditions" due to the highest snowfall in 40+ years. Twelve
Pakistani armymen were killed by an avalanche in the Siachen area on Thursday. Seven
people are feared dead in an avalanche that swept through the village of Hajipora in
southern occupied Kashmir early Monday.
*
Earlier this year, scientists warned that destructive landslides would be possible in
California and they point to Laguna Beach as a wake-up call for other coastal
communities to be on the lookout for any slight earth movement.
"We're not out of the woods yet." Laguna Beach has been dry since a trace of rainfall
nearly a month ago, but before that, Southern California had its second-rainiest season
on record. The region has gotten nearly 28 inches of rain since last July, more than
double the annual average. Last January, a landslide crashed down into the coastal
community of La Conchita, in Ventura County northwest of Los Angeles, killing 10 people.
DROUGHT -
*
In Arizona, biologists are plucking leopard frogs and eggs out of drying pools and
taking them to museums and zoos to protect the adults and allow tadpoles to develop.
Wildlife experts note that plants and animals have more difficulty adapting to drought in
the forests and mountains. But in the desert, where drought conditions exist 43 percent
of the time, species like the Chiricahua leopard frogs should be better able to adapt.
"When you see frogs declining,it throws a red flag and shows something is going wrong."
*
Imagine Tucson, Arizona looking like Africa. A local researcher worries it could
happen and, as evidence, he points to this year's wildfires. It hasn't been native
grasses that burned. This was buffelgrass. "Buffelgrass is probably the most destructive
plant pest ever to strike the Sonoran Desert." Buffelgrass fires burn so hot, native
plants are too thin-skinned to survive. They die and the buffelgrass thrives. If we don't
get rid of it, instead of Sonoran desert, "you end up with an African savannah that burns
every year."
FUNGUS -
*
A potentially deadly airborne fungus has spread from Vancouver Island, Canada to the
province's mainland, officials from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control warn. Since 1999,
there have been 129 cases of the disease resulting in four deaths on Vancouver Island.
ICEBERG -
*
A 50km-long iceberg is on the move again after more than a month lodged offshore from
Antarctica's Casey station. Personnel at Casey had noticed B15G shift in recent weeks,
pirouetting from its north-south position to east-west.
COMET STRIKE -
*
A comet has been added to the list of potentially threatening near-Earth objects.
Comet Catalina 2005 JQ5 is the largest - and therefore most potentially devastating - of
the 70 objects now being tracked. However, the chances of a collision on June 11, 2085
are very low.
--
Thursday, June 2, 2005 -
QUAKES -
*
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake in Arunachal Pradesh, India has occurred.
*
A magnitude 5.8 earthquake south of the Fiji Islands has occurred.
FLOODING / LANDSLIDES -
*
Heavy rain has triggered floods and mudslides in southern China, leaving about 200
people dead or missing and more than 3500 homes were toppled in Xinshao and Lianyuan
counties in Hunan. "Villagers, cadres and rescuers were washed away by floods. More than
10,000 people were left homeless after their homes were either washed away, flooded or
toppled." More than 60,000 villagers had been evacuated.
*
A massive landslide took place on Wednesday morning on the expressway between Nanchang
and Jiujiang,in east China's Jiangxi Province, breaking off the traffic but no
casualty was reported. Strong rainfalls hit Jiangxi since May 31, bringing about
landslides and mountain torrents in many parts of the province.
*
A major mudslide yesterday destroyed 12 homes and badly damaged at least 15 luxury homes
in the wealthy California coastal town of Laguna Beach, south-west of Los Angeles,
but no injuries were immediately reported. Forty more homes were evacuated. It was not
immediately clear what triggered the slide as there has been no rain in the area for
weeks, although they had a near-record winter rainy season.
*
In a clarification to a story from last week on a freak storm in Cayo, Belize, the
National Emergency Management Organisation has stated that two Santa Elena schools that
suffered damage on Thursday were not in fact official hurricane shelters. According to a
NEMO release, that designation was withdrawn from the buildings at least five years ago
when inspections revealed they did not satisfy the requirements for shelters.
UNUSUAL WEATHER / FREAK STORMS -
*
Unusual weather hit Covington County, Alabama, when the late afternoon showers turned
into a series of at least three different tornadoes cited in various parts of the
county.
If the storms were tornadoes, in all likelihood they were only F-0 - the lowest possible
rating. However, it's more likely the windy storms were something called a mezzo cyclone.
According to weather officials, tracking possible tornadoes of this nature is difficult
because there was no actual "severe" weather associated with the funnel clouds, just
individual periods of intensity that led to the apparent formation of the possible funnel
clouds. The National Weather Service in Mobile explained the difficulties in tracking the
possible tornadoes - and the unusual nature of the weather phenomena.
*
Rainfall is down between 5 and 7 inches in most of Central Illinois since March 1 and
tornadoes are absent.
"The soil is only getting about 35 to 50 percent of the moisture it typically gets."
If they have below normal precipitation for June, they will likely get into a severe
drought condition. When 2005 started, it seemed unlikely Central Illinois would end up in
a drought. It was the sixth wettest January since 1895 with a statewide average of 5.56
inches of precipitation. Central Illinois had average precipitation in February. There
are equal chances Central Illinois will receive average rainfall, about
4 inches, in June. That doesn't mean the drought would disappear, however. "It will take
a long time to get back up to normal."
The lack of springtime rain has helped keep the number of tornadoes to only five.
By this time last year, there had been 54 tornadoes throughout the state. In 2003, there
had been 95 confirmed tornadoes by May 31.
"We've had no confirmed tornado for the month of May. That's quite rare. May is usually
the peak month." The weather service didn't even issue one tornado warning in May,
something that hasn't occurred since 1979. Tornadoes rely on widespread thunderstorms
with hefty amounts of rain. Those types of storms usually come up from the south or the
southwest, but most storms approaching Central Illinois recently have come from the
northwest and had less moisture.
In 2001, Illinois only had six tornadoes by May 31 but had an active July, August and
October.
Wednesday, June 1, 2005 -
QUAKES -
*
An earthquake registering 5.7 on the Richter Scale jolted the Kyushu region in
southwestern Japan on Tuesday.
*
A 5.6-magnitude earthquake rocked Indonesia's tsunami-ravaged Aceh province centered
under the Indian Ocean, 150 kilometers (93 miles) southwest of Banda Aceh on Tuesday,
causing frightened residents to flee homes and other buildings. There were no reports of
damage or injuries.
VOLCANO -
*
Many villagers living in the shadow of Mexico's fiercest volcano, which this week
fired its angriest blast in at least 15 years, shrug off the danger of lava and falling
rocks. Locals feel they are so experienced in volcano watching they do not need
scientists or emergency workers to tell them when to flee. "We will know when we see
danger. The recent explosions are not dangerous for us." A thin plume of white smoke rose
from the volcano on Tuesday morning and the danger of evacuations seems to have
diminished.
WILDFIRES -
*
Several new wildfires were burning Monday in Alaska, including a 1,000 acre blaze
close to the Alaska Peninsula village of Pilot Point. So far this fire season, 165 fires
have burned a total of nearly 10,000 acres. By this time during last year's record fire
season, 91 fires had burned only 214 acres. The major fire season started significantly
later last year than this year. "Just because this fire season began earlier doesn't
automatically mean it's going to be worse, although that is everyone's worst fear."
FREAK WEATHER -
*
Freak weather hit Wicken, England on Monday as a tornado whipped across the sky.
Residents could not believe their eyes when they looked out the window to see the 30ft
high tornado circling the village. Moments before the tornado appeared, the area was hit
with hailstones and immediately afterwards loud claps of thunder were heard, although a
storm never broke. "Giant hailstones turned the streets white in Newmarket, and
thunderstorms and lightning left a trail of destruction elsewhere in the country."
(photo)
*
Weekend storms in southern Arizona were not typical of May weather.
"We had an unusual pattern that developed in the past few days with record heat and
moisture and drier air coming in after that." While visiting the grave site of his son, a
70-year-old Tucson man was struck and killed by lightning Saturday night. Deaths caused
by lightning strikes are unusual in Tucson, even during severe storms.
Typically, severe lightning occurs during the monsoon period from late June to
mid-September.
--
Tuesday, May 31, 2005 -
VOLCANO -
*
An island near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands has experienced a violent volcanic
eruption. The dormant volcano erupted with lava flowing to the ocean. A routine Coast
Guard patrol on Saturday witnessed the eruptions on Barren Island - a thickly vegetated,
three-km-wide strip with a history of volcanic activity dating back to 1787. Inhabited
mostly by rats, birds and goats, this island lies 135 km north-east of Port Blair on the
inner arc extending between Sumatra and Myanmar. Lava from the 1.6 km-sized crater is
reportedly ending up into the sea from the western side of the island. “When we landed,
we saw red fireballs every few seconds and fresh lava on the ground." What is of major
concern was the presence of strange staggering harmonic tremor on the ground all around
the Andaman and Nicobar islands. Barren Island is a northward extension of the
Java-Sumatra volcanic belt. Some geologists have been predicting that the northern
extension of the Java-Sumatra volcanic belt will be the cause of another tsunami soon.
( Quakes in Northern Sumatra so far
today - 5.1, 5.3, 5.2)
*
Mexico's "Fire Volcano" spewed a column of rock, ash and lava almost three miles (5 km)
into the sky on Monday in its largest eruption for at least 15 years, and some say 20
years.
The government was considering evacuating tiny communities around Colima volcano, because
the activity is gradually increasing. A shower of volcano ash closed the airport at the
city of Colima 19 miles (30 km) away and lava crept down the side of the mountain.
"The lava is very dense and is moving slowly. It has caused the grass to burn." The
volcano's last major eruption was in 1913, but it has blown up intermittently in the last
decade.
*
Ash plumes from Anatahan's erupting volcano continue to affect navigational
visibility with ash emissions still going on despite fluctuating seismicity on the
island in the Mariana Islands region.
TSUNAMI -
*
The tsunami that struck their shores five months ago not only killed thousands of
Nicobarese, it cracked the very foundations of their economy and their society.
For thousands of years India's gentle Nicobarese tended their coconut plantations and
reared pigs on the sandy shores of their island paradise. Today, the tribespeople have
turned their backs on the sea, and may be turning their backs on their ancient way of
life. "People have not come out of their shock and trauma. People are scared by the sound
of the waves at night." The bodies may have been cleared away, but little else seems to
have changed since Dec. 26. Village after village has been literally wiped off the
map.
AVALANCHE / LANDSLIDE -
*
About 10 persons are feared to have been buried under a avalanche early this morning at
Kapran in South Kashmir. Fresh snowfall in the upper reaches and rains in the plains
have disrupted normal life in the valley. In February this year, severe snowstorms in the
area and avalanches had left at least 200 persons dead.
*
Communications in Thailand's northern province of Nan have become temporarily paralyzed
due to a landslide following 7 hours of torrential rain.
RAIN / STORMS -
*
Parts of the California mountain ranges received 180 percent of normal snowfall this
year. A quick warming trend has brought flooding to some areas, and a profusion of
waterfalls unlike anything seen for many years.
Waterfalls have sprung up in spots that have been dry for years. Astounding amounts of
water are pulsing off the tops of thousand-foot cliffs. As many as 100 waterfalls are
running hard right now that typically are dry in a normal rain year.
*
Sunday's storms dropped a record amount of rain for that date at Houston's Bush
Intercontinental Airport. A record rainfall of 3.56 inches fell at the airport
Sunday, breaking the old mark of 3.36 inches set in 1978.
*
Lightning killed three people and a man was missing as storms swept Bulgaria,
flooding farmland and destroying roads.
VIRUS -
*
The West Nile virus is more threatening than widely believed, and new research finds
that even so-called mild cases of West Nile fever can impair people for weeks or months.
West Nile was long considered a serious problem only for the elderly and frail, and more
of a nuisance illness for everyone else. Since 1999, the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention have counted more than 16,600 human cases and 654 deaths.
It's sobering news as North America gears up for a seventh season of the mosquito-borne
virus. West Nile's most perplexing complication: polio-like paralysis or severe muscle
weakness that often strikes healthy people in their 30s, 40s and 50s. In much of the
world, West Nile is a fairly mild illness. But the form working its way through the
United States appears similar to a more virulent Israeli strain.
---
Sunday, May 29, 2005 -
QUAKES -
*
A series of quakes hit Rat Islands, Aluetian Islands, Alaska early this morning in a
17 minute span: a 4.2, a 5.1, a 4.6 and a 4.5.
*
A 5.7 quake has hit Southern Sumatera, Indonesia.
*
The March 8.7 earthquake that struck near Nias island off Sumatra was so powerful that it
created about 10 new islands ranging in length from 100 meters to 1.5 kilometers. The
seabed near the northwestern coast of Nias island upheaved about 2 meters due to crustal
movements caused by the quake. The quake also pushed the northwestern coastline out to
sea by up to 1 km.
FREAK STORM -
*
A freak storm hit the one part of Belize generally regarded as an inland safe-haven
during hurricanes and other bad weather. High winds accompanied Thursday afternoon’s
localised thunderstorm. The storm toppled signs, uprooted trees, snapped utility poles,
ripped off roofs ( including a major section of the roof of a school which was a
designated hurricane shelter) and left the community traumatised.
HEAT / CLIMATE CHANGE -
*
Record breaking heat kicked off the Memorial Day weekend across Oregon.
Portland sat at 95 degrees at 5 p.m. Friday, five degrees above the previous record.
Scappoose, Hillsboro and Vancouver, Wash., were all above 90 and Troutdale sat just below
at 89 degrees.
*
Friday the National Weather Service issued its first-ever heat advisory for Seattle,
Washington. The advisory covering the urban corridor from Tacoma north to Everett
was prompted by a second day of record temperatures. Thursday's high temperature of 89
degrees at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport broke a 58-year-old record.
Meanwhile, residents in the Northeastern U.S. were basking in the sun Friday after
several days of rain, blustery winds and temperatures in the 40s and 50s. It was the
third coldest May on record for New England.
*
In London, England temperatures reached over 31C (88F) on Friday - the hottest May day
since 1953 - as a plume of hot air swept across Europe. By Saturday temperatures
across the country dropped by up to 10 degrees.
*
Dikes and dams will not be enough to stop the deluge. With climate change, people will
have to learn to live with floods and tidal waves, scientists at an international
conference said Friday. During the past two years, more than 600 floods have been
recorded in the world, causing the deaths of 19,000 people and damage valued at about 25
billion dollars. The figures do not include the deaths of the 273,000 tsunami
victims.
WILDFIRES -
*
Though 1.19 inches of rain has been recorded in Fairbanks, Alaska so far this May - more
than twice the average - it has done little to abate fire activity in what has been
an uncharacteristically busy spring. Red-flag warnings were issued Friday for the areas
around Delta Junction, Healy, Fort Yukon and Bettles. May's fire activity has been fueled
by dry grasses and duff, with an assist from the highly flammable cotton-like aspen seed
floating on the breeze.
*
For the past six or seven years, Utah's fire season has started earlier than normal - in
May - because of the drought. This year, however, the fire season is expected to
start in mid- to late June, which is more typical historically. With record rainfall
followed by record heat, weeds that have thrived are now dying and drying, ushering in a
potentially dangerous fire season.
PANDEMIC -
*
"An official from China's agricultural department said the death toll from bird flu in
the West of China is five times greater than official reports have stated. The number
of migratory birds killed was much larger than people had thought, he said. He added that
the reports refer only to the death of birds and that no humans have died.
Rumours are rife among experts and throughout the internet that there has been a massive
cover-up. People are saying nobody really knows how bad the situation really is/was.
Rumours abound that many humans have perished."
--
Friday, May 27, 2005 -
QUAKE -
*
An earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale has jolted the northern Indonesian
island of Sumatra.
*
Scientists are urging Portland, Oregon's city planners and emergency services to get
ready for the Big One. They say an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 or greater is overdue
for the Northwest, and that the area is not prepared for the aftermath of such a powerful
temblor. Using geological records and historical data, scientists estimate that a huge
quake hits the area every 500 years or so - the last big quake on the fault line was over
500 years ago. Besides coastal tsunamis, people should expect massive damage to
buildings, bridges and highways if a large quake hits the ocean fault line.
*
The first earthquake in South Africa's recorded history was observed by a ship's captain
passing Robben Island in 1620, but little more of seismological note occurred until
mining began in earnest in the late 1880s.
Today an array of detectors scattered around the country record thousands of tremors each
day, and more than 80% of them are caused by SA's extensive mining industry. SA's gold
mines are the deepest in the world.
VOLCANO -
*
An active underwater volcano has been discovered near the Samoan Island chain about
2,400 miles southwest of Hawaii. During a research cruise to study a Samoan hot spot,
scientists uncovered a submarine volcano growing in the summit crater of another larger
underwater volcano, Vailulu’u. This new volcano, dubbed Nafanua, did not exist just fours
years ago. It has a growth rate averaging eight inches per day, and currently stands at
300 meters, or nearly 1,000 feet. Within decades, continued growth of Nafanua could bring
the summit of this volcano from its current depth of 600 meters to a depth of
approximately 200 meters — close enough to the sea surface that it could provide a
potential hazard to ocean navigation and coastal communities. Such hazards may include
the explosive reaction between red-hot lava and seawater, or tsunamis that may be caused
by the collapse of the newly built volcano.
TSUNAMI -
*
U.S. researchers have designed a house they say is better able to withstand a tidal
wave and are planning to build 1,000 of them in Sri Lanka, one of the countries hit
by last year's deadly tsunami. "The problem in Sri Lanka is the government wants to
relocate people from the coast further inland. This would come at a huge social,
cultural, environmental and economic cost. So the aim of this project is to investigate
technological strategies that could guarantee safety at lower cost."
Each house would cost between $1,000 and $1,500 to build.
LANDSLIDE -
*
Fifteen people, including five children and four women, were killed and many injured in
massive landslides which were perhaps the worst natural disaster to have struck Nagaland
in recent times. Nagaland is in the north-east of India. The series of massive
landslides occurred at Mokokchung town and destroyed a number of houses in the wee hours
catching everyone in their beds.
The landslides were triggered by the heavy rains that lashed Mokokchung throughout the
night.
*
An emergency situation at the Taldinskaya-Yuzhnaya coalmine that is now under
construction in Kuzbass, Russia could have been caused by an underground landslide.
A landslide was apparently triggered by heavy rains, the floods reached the mine tunnel
at a depth of 20 metres through cracks in the soil and washed the roofing, which resulted
in a cave-in that trapped five workers inside on Thursday morning.
All the people stranded underground are alive and communication with them has been
established. Efforts are currently underway to clear away the cave-in, which is
seven-eight metres long.
WILDFIRES -
*
Winter and spring rain patterns boosted the growth of grasses and low-lying vegetation —
setting the stage for a worse than normal fire season in the U.S. Southwest, Northern
Rockies and Alaska, federal wildfire forecasters say. The forests in the higher
elevations of the Northwest and the Northern Rockies have missed out on all their
snowpack. A wetter-than-normal winter caused flooding and mudslides in Arizona, New
Mexico, southern Nevada and Southern California, followed by a dry spring.
Much of the Southwest’s vegetation has already dried. Excluding Alaska, last year was a
relatively mild fire season in the West, burning 1.4 million acres.
CLIMATE CHANGE / HEATWAVE-
*
Climate change threatens to increase the number of the world's hungry by reducing the
area of land available for farming in developing countries.
``In some 40 poor, developing countries with a combined population of two billion,
including 450 million undernourished people, production losses due to climate change may
drastically swell the number of undernourished people, severely hindering progress in
combating poverty and food insecurity.''
*
Since last Friday, record-breaking temperatures have been melting the excessive winter
snowpack in many areas of the Western U.S. - forcing rivers and creeks out of their
banks. Temperatures are breaking records across western Colorado, with the National
Weather Service office in Grand Junction reporting that the city has seen record highs
every day from May 20 to May 23. Flood watches and warnings stretch across most of Utah,
and have done so for most of the past week.
*
A major blackout hit large parts of Moscow on Wednesday morning in the middle of a record
heat wave, shutting down the stock market and cell phone networks and trapping twenty
thousand people in subways and 1500 in elevators. The temperature in Moscow reached
nearly 87 degrees Wednesday afternoon, the highest it has been on May 25 since 1891.
*
The United Nations has held a crisis meeting overnight at the start of a tour of five
countries in southern Africa where the drought is turning deadly. UN officers say
they expect the number of people needing food aid in the region to double in the next 12
months. And in Zimbabwe many people are said to be on the brink of starvation
already.
*
Shellfish beds from Maine to the Cape Cod coast are closed from the largest outbreak of
red tide in 12 years in Massachusetts Bay.
“The current bloom is big, much larger in fact than the last outbreak in the Bay 12 years
ago, and much more widespread. This is an unusual event.” The reasons why are unclear.
PANDEMIC -
*
U.S. health authorities are taking urgent precautions against a 'flu pandemic' that
experts warned could erupt at any time.
"A human flu pandemic could cause 20 percent of the world's population to become ill.
Within a few months, close to 30 million people would need to be hospitalised, a quarter
of whom would die. Although these figures are speculative, they are among the more
OPTIMISTIC predictions of how the next flu pandemic might unfold. Once a pandemic
influenza strain is identified, a vaccine will take many months to produce, and our
current stockpile of antiviral drugs is insufficient to meet the likely demand."
*
There are rumors and recent allegations of the occurrence of human cases of avian
influenza in Qinghai province, China, with fatality rates exceeding 60%.
The descriptions of the human cases were quite detailed. Initial reports described the
deaths of six tourists, points of origin, and names of four fatalities.
A report on 18 locations in Gangcha County was also quite specific, including the number
of infections and deaths for each region. Since there were no reported discharges, the
case fatality rates could go to 100%. In addition to 200 cases in Gangcha Country, there
were small numbers of infections and deaths in surrounding communities. This number and
frequency of deaths in a region with confirmed H5N1 deaths of migratory birds demands a
detailed explanation.
--
Thursday, May 26, 2005 -
QUAKE -
*
A new estimate of the effect of an earthquake along the little-known Puente Hills fault
under Los Angeles, California, shows that damage could occur on an unprecedented scale.
An earthquake of magnitude 7.2 to 7.5 would result in 3,000 to 18,000 deaths; 142,000 to
735,000 displaced households; and up to $250 billion in property damage. The disaster
would be the costliest in U.S. history. A full Puente Hills fault rupture is a rare
event. In 2003, a research team found that the fault had ruptured in earthquakes of
magnitude 7.2 to 7.5 at least four times in 11,000 years.
GEYSER -
*
Yellowstone National Park's tallest and most infamously unpredictable geyser erupted
Monday for the first time since the fall of 2003. The geyser spewed about 11,500
gallons of mineral-rich water during the eruption, much of it spraying the nearby parking
lot. The geyser then slipped into its blustery steam phase.
The geyser, which has had intervals ranging from four days to 50 years, has had more
major eruptions in the past five years than at any time since the early 1980s.
In recent years, Steamboat has erupted once in 2000, twice in 2002 and three times in
2003.
STORM -
*
A state of emergency has been declared by municipal officials in the Lunenburg area of
Nova Scotia, Canada. Residents have been advised to brace for more rain following a
record-setting deluge in recent days. The south shore of Nova Scotia has been hit hard by
torrential rain with 248 millimetres of rain so far this month, more than double the
monthly average.
*
Mountain torrents flushed a bus into a river, leaving 11 people dead and three others
missing in northwest China's Xinjiang region.
The accident happened Saturday in Lop county, which has had continuous rain and flooding
in recent days.
CLIMATE CHANGE -
*
The middle of Europe could become crowded by "climate change refugees" escaping a
thawing Arctic to the north and Mediterranean droughts to the south.
PANDEMIC -
*
Scientists have renewed their warnings about the potential global effect of a flu
pandemic on health and economy.
Experts estimate a fifth of the world's population could be affected, with 30 million
needing hospital treatment and around 7.5 million dying. "The arrival of pandemic flu
will trigger a reaction that will change the world overnight. There will be an immediate
response from leaders to stop the virus entering their countries by greatly reducing and
even ending foreign travel and trade - as was seen in parts of Asia in response to the
severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) epidemic. These efforts are doomed to fail given
the infectiousness of the virus and the volume of illegal crossings that occur at most
borders. But government officials will feel compelled to do something to demonstrate
leadership. Individual communities will also want to bar 'outsiders'. Global, national
and regional economies will come to an abrupt halt."
Wednesday, May 25, 2005 -
VOLCANO -
*
The Colombian government has ordered the evacuation of 9000 people living on the slopes
of the Galeras volcano near the border with Ecuador which scientists say could erupt
soon. "We want vulnerable people to leave high-risk areas." Scientists monitoring tremors
within Galeras, which is just outside the southern city of Pasto, say it could erupt
within days or weeks.
*
Seismicity on Anatahan volcano has been fluctuating, but the USGS said yesterday that it
was intensifying. Volcanic ash emissions have been a major concern for
aviation.
LANDSLIDE -
*
Continuous rainstorms caused a landslide in the county of Ziyuan, southwest China's
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which killed two primary school pupils and injured one
on Monday.
FREAK STORM -
*
In Edinburgh, Indiana, high winds blowing sand across a county road from a farm field
caused zero visibility and two accidents. No one was seriously injured Monday
afternoon on the road just south of Edinburgh, about 25 miles south of Indianapolis.
“Its just a freak thing.” Every time the wind picked up, visibility dipped to a level at
or near zero, depending on wind direction. “I couldn’t see anything, and I couldn’t even
tell if I was on the road.”
*
On Jan. 20, 2005 a solar outburst shocked Earth with the highest dose of radiation
measured in five decades, leaving scientists to rework theories of how space storms
operate and showing that interplanetary space travel will be a deadly serious business.
The tempest arrived frighteningly fast. The raging proton storm peaked in 15 minutes.
Normally, the most intense part of a proton event takes two hours or longer to build up.
"That's important because it's too fast to respond with much warning to astronauts or
spacecraft that might be outside Earth's protective magnetosphere." Scientists are now
scratching their heads over the oddity of this eruption.
"Since about 1990, we've believed proton storms at Earth are caused by shock waves in the
inner solar system as coronal mass ejections plow through interplanetary space. But the
protons from this event may have come from the Sun itself, which is very confusing."
The surprising January flare came on the heels of a series of other very large but
otherwise normal flares from the same sunspot group. Scientists can't say why the fifth
event was so unusual.
VIRUS -
*
Following what Petsmart calls "freakish" circumstances, the company said Tuesday that it
will test its rodents for a virus that killed three people after they received organs
from a donor who contracted the disease from her pet hamster. Experts now believe they
can link at least six deaths of organ transplant patients to a rodent virus, which raises
questions about whether others may have gone undetected and whether the germ also could
spread through blood transfusions. About 5 percent of mice, hamsters and other rodents
carry LCMV and about 2 percent of the general public has antibodies to it, which means
they have been exposed to it at some stage. The virus usually causes little or no illness
in healthy people.
Tuesday, May 24, 2005 -
QUAKES -
*
An earthquake jolted the Johannesburg, South Africa area early on Monday and caused
collapses in a mine of Gold Fields, the world's fourth biggest gold producer. A
rescue team has been deployed following a tremor shortly after 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) on
Monday.
"Paramedics have gone down. All the workplaces collapsed."
The mine was still assessing the impact of the tremor. The company's own equipment
recorded an impact of between 5.5 and 5.8 on the Richter scale.
Earlier this month, five miners died when seismic activity struck at the mine's
number two shaft.
*
The US Geological Survey has opened up a "Real Time Forecast" map for California
earthquakes. The forecasts currently only look out 24 hours. This week a
magnitude-4.7 aftershock in the Parkfield area, where a medium-sized quake occurred last
September, has caused probabilities in the region to jump to around 1%.
TSUNAMI -
*
Countries hit by last December's devastating tsunami around the Indian Ocean will take at
least five to 10 years to recover with the help of international aid. Aceh, the
hardest hit area, suffered losses estimated at $4.5-billion, equivalent to the province's
entire Gross Domestic Product. "There was one tsunami in Asia on December 26, but there
is not [only] one disaster."
VOLCANO -
*
Mexico's "Fire Volcano" erupted today in the western state of Colima spewing lava and
glowing rocks in its biggest explosion since 1999. There were no immediate plans to
evacuate any of the tiny villages that lie around the volcano.
*
As more people move into hazardous areas, Hawaii County has no detailed plan to deal with
any eruption of Mauna Loa that might threaten the South Kona or Kau districts on the
Big Island. Scientists at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory have said Mauna Loa is slowly
building toward an eruption, although there are no signs that it will take place soon.
Ocean View is the worst-case scenario in terms of minimal warning time.
Part of the 4-mile-wide, 5-mile-long subdivision sits on top of Mauna Loa's southwest
rift zone, meaning an eruption could theoretically break out inside the
community.
FREAK STORM -
*
A tornado hit stables in the UK at Coates near Whittlesey, just as hailstones rained down
on Peterborough – turning gardens into a scene befitting Christmas more than May.
The sky suddenly turned black and the wind started picking up.
"It was like something from the film, The Day After Tomorrow. Everything was flying about
in the garden and then, after about 30 seconds, we were left with a scene of total
chaos."
The freak weather hit the home at about 6:45pm on Saturday. Bizarrely, many homes nearby
were unaffected.
*
In Bangalore, India, the city witnessed an unprecedented dust storm and gusty winds,
followed by torrential rain, on Monday evening, throwing life out of gear. The wind
velocity touched a furious 90 kmph. One person was crushed to death and two were injured
when a tree fell on them. Over a hundred trees were uprooted. The city plunged into
darkness when the snapping of power lines caused outages. South Bangalore areas again
reported hailstorms. "This one was more furious than Saturday's." Residents had to remain
indoors as it rained ice pieces. Officials said Bangalore could well see more of extremes
in weather - hot day hours followed by wet evenings.
*
Hurricane Adrian was an unusually early hurricane and it shut down the trade winds in the
entire Caribbean, which, according to both official weather statistics and Bonairian
locals, has not occurred this early in the season in fifty years.
DROUGHT / HEAT -
*
In China more than 800,000 people are without drinking water in western Guangdong
Province because of the continuing drought.
There has been less than 600 millimetres of rain in Zhanjiang since September, 75 per
cent less than the previous year. Xuwen County has had no rainfall for as many as 238
days.
*
Rural Australians may be suffering from a recently identified psychological condition
known as solastalgia, says a researcher conducting the nation's first study into the
effects of drought on mental health.
Solastalgia, or "drought as traumatic environmental change", is among a number of
psychological problems afflicting drought-stricken rural communities.
Solastalgia, is "a form of nostalgia where a negative change in the environment will
affect you...Losing a garden is often quite dramatic, it's often the only thing that's
between them and a vast landscape of dust." Solastalgia describes the pain experienced
when the place a person lives is under assault and destruction, a loss of a sense of
belonging to a particular place and a sense of desolation about its disappearance. "It's
the homesickness you feel when you're still at home." Most of New South Wales has been
drought-declared since 2001, and other states are also affected.
*
In California, the Southland heat wave set a high temperature record and tied two
others Sunday and may have contributed to the deaths of two people. The mercury Sunday
reached 104 degrees at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, breaking the record of 101 set
on May 22, 1988. Temperatures have been running about 10 degrees higher than usual but
should return to normal this week.
*
Record highs were set in Waco, Texas both Saturday and Sunday, the National Weather
Service said, and records may have been broken again on Monday in Central and North
Texas.
WILDFIRES -
*
Intense heat and low humidity are fueling more wildfires around Arizona. Four fires
started over the weekend. Only one is contained.
Monday, May 23, 2005 -
QUAKES -
*
A 5.1 earthquake shook Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta this morning, but there
were no reports of casualty or damage. Some parts of Pakistan have been witnessing a
series of earthquakes from time to time, but these have been mostly of low or moderate
intensity. However, two years back, as many as 22 people lost their lives, when a tremor
struck in the northern parts of Pakistan.
*
A powerful earthquake measuring 5.6 points on the open-ended Richter scale was registered
at the northern tip of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island on Sunday at 06:00 local time. Six
minutes later there was a 5.0 quake in the nearby Nias region of Indonesia, followed a
minute after that by a
5.1 quake. Witnesses in Banda Aceh said many residents ran out from their houses as
the quake jolted the city for about 15 seconds. At around the same time “high tidal
waves” were registered near the coastline of the Indian State of Kerala. Local
authoritiesin India urgently evacuated 15,000 residents and organised 16 tent camps for
refugees on nearby hills.
*
Various aid organizations are using tropical hardwood timber that has been illegally
harvested from nearby mountains to build structures for the local people on the west
coast of the tsunami ravaged island of Sumatra. These individuals certainly need homes
and livelihoods, which will be facilitated with the return of their fishing boats, but by
using materials that negatively impact the local ecosystem on many levels, the stage for
a new disaster is being set. The tropical rainforests in these mountains are among the
most botanically biodiverse and delicate in the world and are home to numerous species,
many of which are already endangered. Deforestation will increase the incidence of
landslides and flooding and reduce the already threatened habitat for endemic species.
CLIMATE CHANGE -
*
Mother Nature has rushed spring forward by nearly 10 days worldwide, on average, in just
30 years. What this means, biologists say, is that the global environment is changing
so fast that the slow evolutionary process of species adaptation can't keep up. Europe's
spring moved ahead 15 days, while North America's has advanced six days, on average. But
areas north of 45 degrees north latitude - from Maine to Washington state - saw spring
species arriving more than 13 days earlier. This has all happened while average global
temperatures have risen about 1 degree Fahrenheit over the past 30 years. The consensus
of mainstream climate scientists is that temperatures will rise another 4 to 10 degrees
over the next century.
Sunday, May 22, 2005 -
QUAKES -
*
A magnitude 5.6 earthquake Sumatra, Indonesia has occurred.
*
A Japanese geologist says he has discovered another tectonic plate under the Tokyo
area, a find that may force Japan to rethink earthquake forecasts and preparations
for the capital. Present government estimates say Tokyo has a 90 percent chance of being
hit by a major earthquake in the next 50 years. If findings are confirmed, the geology of
the Tokyo region is even more complex than current models indicate, with four tectonic
plates layered on top of one another in some areas.
*
A top earthquake expertin Thailand believes the two large dams located in the quake-prone province of Kanchanaburi were created with almost zero tremor tolerance.
He has urged the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand to carry out emergency evacuation drills as soon as possible.
VOLCANO -
*
An eruption of the Galeras volcano in southwest Colombia is likely in the coming days or
weeks. The prediction comes after a surge in seismic activity and higher
temperatures inside the crater.
FREAK TIDE -
*
At least 15,000 villagers were evacuated after a freak tide caused a surge of seawater in
the southern Indian state of Kerala, triggering memories of December's devastating
tsunami. Seawater crashed into fishing hamlets in Trivandrum, Ernakulam, Alappuzha,
Thrissur and Kannur districts. Meteorologists did not say what caused the tide.
STORMS -
*
Flash floods have killed 27 people, many as they slept, in eastern Ethiopia in the
town of Dire Dawa.
BIRD FLU -
*
China has introduced emergency measures to prevent the spread of bird flu after
discovering that migratory birds were killed by the virus earlier this month.
The virus has killed at least 53 people in south-east Asia since late 2003. The World
Health Organization has warned of the great potential threat should the virus develop the
capacity to spread easily between humans.
Saturday, May 21, 2005 -
QUAKES -
*
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake in the Peru-Ecuador border region has occurred.
*
Like slow-moving bookends, two earthquake faults are squeezing northern metropolitan Los
Angeles nearly a quarter inch a year. The strain is rapidly accumulating within an
area 7.5 to 16 miles (12 to 25 kilometers) south of the San Gabriel Mountains, primarily
in the San Gabriel and San Fernando Valleys and nearby hills. The Los Angeles segment of
the Puente Hills Fault is being squeezed the most. It and nearby faults in the area, such
as the upper Elysian Park Fault, may be more likely to break than those elsewhere in
metropolitan Los Angeles.
*
The December 26 tsunami triggered by the underwater earthquake off the coast of Sumatra
left no point on earth undisturbed. "No point on Earth remained undisturbed at the
centimetre level. The earthquake's uplift reduced the capacity of the Bay of Bengal and
the Andaman Sea, raising sea level around the world by about .1 millimetre. If not for
the remarkably slow plate movement at the northern end of the earthquake, there might
have been much more widespread and severe damage on the coasts of India, Myanmar and
Thailand...The rupture opened lengthwise at 5,000 miles per hour during the first 10
minutes of the earthquake. Seismometers in Russia and Australia recorded the event like a
noisy fire engine racing northward."
STORMS -
*
At least 47 Chilean soldiers, mostly teenagers, are missing and believed to be dead after
Wednesday's blinding snowstorm, the worst storm in 30 years in the Andes, which
slammed into the mountain region where they were on a training march. Five bodies of
soldiers frozen to death have already been recovered.
*
A third ferry in southern Bangladesh has sunk in less than a week. A wooden fishing
boat being used as a ferry was carrying about 100 people when it sank in the Meghna River
estuary during a severe storm Thursday night. Since 1997, at least 3,000 people have died
in more than 260 shipping disasters.
*
Hurricane Adrian failed to live up to its billing Friday, quickly fizzling out over
Honduras after striking an unprecedented blow to the Salvadoran coast. Adrian was the
first hurricane on record to directly hit El Salvador.
Officials in Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua reported some small-scale evacuations and
flooding. (photo)
*
Where do hurricanes usually form? There are seven main basins of tropical cyclone
formation.
ICEBERG -
*
A huge wandering iceberg is tearing up the Antarctic. B-15A slammed into the
Drygalski ice tongue a month ago and broke off at least two city-sized chunks. Now it is
poised to strike another feature sticking out from the continent.
At 71 miles (115 kilometers) long, B-15A is the largest free-floating object in the
world. It is expected to lumber into the Aviator Glacier any day now. If B-15A gets
stuck, as it has before, researchers fear it could block sea ice behind it, thwarting
animals that need to move from shore to the open sea.
TSUNAMI -
Here is the complete article from yesterday, as I see that the page is now requiring you
to register to get the info -
"A devastating tsunami could strike Australia's east coast, Tasmania included, sometime
in the next 10 years, a geophysicist has warned.
University of Queensland professor Peter Mora said forecasts showed an earthquake
measuring up to nine on the Richter scale could occur north of New Zealand.
Prof Mora said this could trigger a wall of water up to 10 metres high that would
decimate Australia's east coast.
"There is a high level of seismic activity within the earth's plates surrounding
Australia ... the north-east of Australia is very exposed," he said.
Prof Mora said New Zealand would not act as a buffer for Australia against the tsunami
because of the forecasted position of the earthquake.
"Any islands north, such as Fiji, would be impacted tremendously," he said.
"I doubt North or South America would be affected that much because they are so far away
- but Hawaii would be."
It could strike any part of the mainland's east coast, and even Tasmania.
Possibly, depending on the shape of the seafloor, Melbourne also might be affected.
He said the threat was "very real" and had much more potential than many Australians
thought.
"I think it is a misconception that Australia is safe from natural disasters like
earthquakes and tsunamis," Prof Mora said.
"We are actually very prone."
He said research partners in the US, who had an 80 per cent success rate of forecasting
the locations of large earthquakes, were behind the forecasts detrimental to Australia.
Prof Mora said the US researchers' accurate forecasts included 13 out of 14 earthquakes
in California since 2001 as well as last year's tragic Indian Ocean earthquake that
generated the devastating Boxing Day tsunami.
Although he welcomed the federal government's $68 million commitment towards a tsunami
warning system, he said an international approach to predicting tsunamis' exact impacts
on coastal communities was paramount.
Prof Mora is the director of the University's new Earth Systems Science Computational
Centre, which is part of a push to set up an international institute focused on solid
earth and tsunami computer simulation."
Friday, May 20, 2005 -
Adrian is weakening rapidly after moving inland. At 2 am PDT all coastal warnings for
Guatemala and Honduras have been discontinued by their respective governments and
the Hurricane Warning for the entire coast of El
Salvador has been replaced with a Tropical Storm Warning. The
Tropical Storm Warning will likely be discontinued later this
morning. Continued weakening is expected during the next 24 hours...and the
circulation of Adrian may dissipate before reaching the waters of
the Caribbean Sea.
QUAKES -
*
The Earth is still ringing like a bell today from the December Indonesian earthquake.
The quake rearranged the Earth's surface. "A sizable portion of the Earth was
distorted. Normally, we see deformation of the surface a few hundred kms away. But here
we see deformation 4,500 kms (2800 miles) away, and five or six times the deformation we
have seen in previous quakes." Seismologists now believe that the 9.15 magnitude
earthquake was probably twice as powerful as previously estimated. The violence was also
was more enduring: much of the movement along the fault line happened half an hour after
the initial shock and continued for up to three hours. It set new records - the longest
fault rupture ever seen; the longest duration; and the most energetic swarm of
aftershocks ever observed.
TSUNAMI -
*
A devastating tsunami could strike Australia's east coast, Tasmania included, sometime in
the next 10 years, a geophysicist has warned. Forecasts showed an earthquake
measuring up to nine on the Richter scale could occur north of New Zealand. This could
trigger a wall of water up to 10 metres high that would decimate Australia's east coast.
"Any islands north, such as Fiji, would be impacted tremendously. I doubt North or South
America would be affected that much because they are so far away - but Hawaii would be."
Researchers in the US, who have an 80% success rate of forecasting the locations of other
large earthquakes, are behind the forecasts. The researchers' accurate forecasts included
13 out of 14 earthquakes in California since 2001 as well as last year's tragic Indian
Ocean earthquake that generated the devastating Boxing Day tsunami.
FREAK STORMS / FREAK HAPPENINGS -
*
Troops in Chile's Andes mountains have vanished after a 'snow tsunami'.
Chile's army has launched an airborne search for an entire company of soldiers missing
after the fierce snowstorm in the Los Barris range in southern Chile, close to the
Argentinian border. Five soldiers died and 95 are missing after a "tsunami of snow"
struck during a large-scale exercise. A total of 433 troops were affected by the
unexpected snowstorm. Senior officers based in the capital Santiago were struggling to
respond to the disaster.
*
Brisbane, Australia residents and businesspeople have begun a huge clean-up after freak
storms flooded buildings, felled trees and left hailstones in heaps around the city.
Parts of Brisbane were lashed by a freak hail storm,
with no official warning and little time for residents to take precautions. The storm
began brewing late Thursday afternoon and battered the city a short time later. "It was
absolutely freakish, no notice on the radio, no warning whatsoever."
*
A state of emergency remained in force in New Zealand's Bay of Plenty region
yesterday as authorities and residents started counting the cost of flash flooding
that forced the evacuation of hundreds of people and destroyed or damaged dozens of
houses. One of the worst affected areas was Tauranga, a city of 91,000 people on the east
coast of the North Island, where slips and mudslides destroyed or damaged dozens of
houses. A total of 309mm of rain fell in Tauranga during a 24-hour period from Tuesday
night, about a third of the year's normal rainfall.
*
A Russian village was left baffled yesterday after its lake disappeared overnight.
Fishermen from the village of Bolotnikovo said, "It is very dangerous. If a person had
been in this disaster, he would have had almost no chance of survival. The trees flew
downwards, under the ground." Water in the lake might have been sucked down into an
underground water-course or cave system, but some villagers had more sinister
explanations. "I am thinking, well, America has finally got to us," said one old woman,
as she sat on the ground outside her house.
LANDSLIDE -
*
County public works officials are continuing to try to stabilize a still-moving landslide
in La Honda, California, that ruptured a local road and has forced one family to
leave its home. A landslide in 1998 destroyed several homes in the Cuesta La Honda area,
off Highway 84, and closed Scenic Drive east of Canada Vista. Repairs failed to stabilize
the entire landslide mass. Residents spotted new fissures after heavy rains soaked the
area this spring.
HURRICANES / TYPHOONS / CYCLONES -
*
The first hurricane of the season rumbled toward Central America's Pacific coast on
Thursday, killing two people and forcing thousands from their homes as it lashed the
region with rain. Hurricane Adrian was upgraded from a tropical storm on Thursday
afternoon and threatens to cause flooding and mudslides in El Salvador, Guatemala and
Honduras. Hurricane Adrian will likely break up over Central America, but it could
re-form as a new storm in the Atlantic. Its eastward track makes it somewhat rare,
forecasters said. "It is
a little unusual for a Pacific hurricane to cross Central America and continue
eastward." This afternoon the system is expected to have crossed Central America and
continue on into the Caribbean and keep moving closer to Cuba. It will likely be out of
the Caribbean by Monday morning. If the winds continue to circulate counter-clockwise
after it crosses Central America, the system will keep the name Adrian. However, if the
storm loses the circulation over the mountains and reforms over the Caribbean, it will
get the name Arlene, the first name on the Atlantic names list for 2005. The Atlantic
hurricane season is still two weeks away. Satellite
map.
HEATWAVE -
*
Forecasters predict a record-breaking heat wave over the next four days in Phoenix,
Arizona, with 110-degree temperatures expected nearly a month earlier than normal.
The average date for reaching 110 degrees is June 20. If predictions hold, the
thermometer will get there by Saturday. The sudden increase in temperature comes after an
unusually mild month. The heat wave is due to a strong high-pressure center over
northwest Mexico.
Thursday, May 19, 2005 -
QUAKES -
*
A strong magnitude 6.8 earthquake rattled Indonesia's Sumatra island
today, sparking panic on a nearby island where a large quake killed hundreds in
March, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
*
An earthquake registering a preliminary magnitude of 5.4 jolted Ibaraki Prefecture,
northeast of Tokyo today. There were no immediate reports of injuries or
damages.
*
An earthquake measuring 4.7 on the Richter scale jolted Resadiye town of northern
Turkish city of Tokat today. There were no immediate reports of casualties but the
quake damaged several houses in the town.
*
Residents of Port Hedland, in Western Australia's Pilbara region, have been shaken by an
earthquake measuring 4.8 on the Richter scale.
*
A moderate 5.3-magnitude quake rattled sections of El Salvador Wednesday, but no
injuries or damage were immediately reported.
STORMS -
*
For the second time in four days, a ferry has capsized in waters off Bangladesh, leaving
dozens of people missing and feared dead. A storm accompanied by high winds and heavy
rain struck the double-deck ferry Tuesday as it carried about 250 people along the Padma
River about 40 kilometres from Dhaka.
*
Hundreds of people have been evacuated and houses have collapsed amid flooding and
landslides caused by heavy rain on New Zealand's North Island.
FIREBALL / METEORITE -
*
An exceptionally bright "fireball" was spotted late on Tuesday slicing through the sky
over Finland before exploding over the country's border with Russia. The phenomenon
was witnessed by dozens of people in the eastern part of the country.
HEAT WAVE -
*
Ten people have died in a heat wave in the eastern Indian state of Orissa that has
sent the temperature above 46 degrees celsius. The heat wave has been made worse by power
cuts across the state. Soaring heat has affected most of India, but no deaths have been
reported from other regions.
Wednesday, May 18, 2005 -
QUAKES -
*
Two separate earthquakes measuring 4.1 and 3.6, respectively, on the Richter scale jolted
the city of Zarand, Iran in the southeastern province of Kerman within 20 minutes in
the early hours this morning. People have been sleeping outside this week as multiple
quakes have officals fearing a big one.
*
A 6.0 quake has hit the west coast of Northern Sumatra.
*
Large quakes this morning - 6.2 in Tonga and 6.0 in S. Sandwich Islands.
AVALANCHE -
*
The Indian Army on Monday rescued more than 300 tourists at Nathula Pass in Sikkim after
a massive avalanche had left them stranded for over seven hours.
Equipped with bulldozers, they took seven hours to clear the ice. The team also rescued
seven adults and two children trapped inside a vehicle under 14 ft of snow.
FREAK STORM -
*
Tropical Storm Adrian - The government of El Salvador has issued a tropical storm
watch for the entire coast of El Salvador and the government of Guatemala has issued a
tropical storm watch for the Pacific coast of Guatemala. Satellite
map.
*
Tropical Depression One-E seems to be on an unusual, early-season path toward the coasts
of Guatemala or El Salvador and could cause torrential rains over Central America by
Wednesday.
The tropical depression in the Eastern Pacific is likely to grow into a tropical storm -
perhaps even a hurricane - that could hit Central America by the weekend.
By Tuesday evening, the depression already had top sustained winds of 35 mph -
approaching the 39 mph level at which it would become a tropical storm. Forecasters said
there was a chance it could reach hurricane strength of 74 mph before hitting land.
The storm is likely to be weakened by Central America's mountains, but preliminary
forecasts suggested it could emerge over the Caribbean as a tropical depression and
regain some force while moving toward the Cayman Islands and Cuba. Most Pacific storms
tend toward the northwest, marching roughly parallel to the coastline and then edging out
to sea or veering inland. Since 1966, only one tropical depression has ever hit the
coasts of Guatemala or El Salvador in May.
DISEASE -
*
Baffling diseases are emerging from Africa — Some of the viruses are notorious, such
as Ebola and HIV. Others have less familiar names: Marburg and Lassa fever. But they all
have emerged in recent decades from sub-Saharan Africa, perplexing scientists and, in the
case of HIV, killing millions. Africa is recognized as an ideal incubator for new
pathogens. "For every virus that we know about, there are hundreds that we don't know
anything about."
Tuesday, May 17, 2005 -
QUAKES -
*
Residents of the southern Iranian province of Kerman have been advised by officials to
sleep out under the stars after a string of hefty tremors raised fears of an imminent
"big one". In the space of the last five days, Zarand has been hit by at least five
tremors measuring between 2.7 and 5.4 on the Richter scale. Zarand was hit by a 6.4
Richter scale quake in February, with 612 people killed and 1,400 injured.
*
One in 10: those are the odds, most experts say, that a Big One will hit B.C. and the
U.S. West Coast in the next 50 years. Such subduction quakes have struck off the West
Coast 13 times in the past 6,000 years, about every 500 years. The most recent subduction
quake there hit on Jan. 26, 1700 - releasing about the same force as the killer quake and
tsunami last December. Crustal quakes of magnitude six or seven occur on land in B.C. and
northern Washington state with great regularity. A seven quake can be expected every 30
or 40 years, and a six about every 20.
VOLCANOES _
*
Volcanic eruptions have killed more than 300,000 people since 1500 - from lava flows,
ash falls, mudflows, tsunamis and posteruption starvation. This link has a list of some
of the deadliest volcano activity in the past 500 years, and the approximate death
tolls.
*
Many residents of Indonesia's Sumatra island fled to higher ground before dawn today
after rumors that a notorious volcano had erupted sending a tsunami hurtling toward
the coast.
The panic was prompted by reports that Mount Anak Krakatoa, a volcano off Lampung
province's southern coast between Sumatra and Java islands, had erupted, but when dawn
arrived the rumor was seen to be false.
FREAK STORMS -
*
A freak blizzard and sand storm killed 15 explorers in a mountainous region in the remote
northwest China on Friday. More than 70 explorers, hired by a company connected to
oil giant China National Petroleum Corp., were working in Haixi prefecture in Qinghai
province, bordering Tibet, when they were hit by a "heavy snowstorm, rainstorm and
sandstorm simultaneously. Fifteen explorers were found dead and 13 others injured in the
snowstorm which was unlikely to happen once in a century."
*
NOAA issued a space weather warning yesterday - "This event registered a 9 on the
K-Index, which measures the maximum deviation of the Earth's magnetic field in a given
three-hour period." Possible impacts from such a geomagnetic storm includes widespread
power system voltage control problems; some grid systems may experience complete collapse
or blackouts. Transformers may experience damage. Spacecraft operations may experience
extensive surface charging; problems with orientation; uplink/downlink and tracking
satellites. Satellite navigation may be degraded for days, and low-frequency radio
navigation can be out for hours. Reports received by the NOAA Space Environment Center
indicate that such impacts have been observed in the United States.
HURRICANES / CYCLONES / TYPHOONS -
*
Typhoon Muifa, a small, but potent, typhoon east of the Philippines, has stalled in
the Philippine Sea just east of Manila. Flooding and mudslides will result from the
copious amounts of rain expected to fall over the next 48 hours. Large and powerful waves
have been battering the eastern coast of the northern Philippines. The system is
forecasted to weaken gradually over the next 5 days as it heads towards southern
Vietnam.
*
U.S. forecasters predicted on Monday that up to 15 tropical storms and hurricanes would
form in the Atlantic and Caribbean this year, another busy season on the heels of one
that hammered Florida with four hurricanes and swamped U.S. oil production.
If the forecasters are right, the 2005 hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov.
30, would continue a string of mostly above-average stormy seasons that began a decade
ago.
*
People living on the cyclone hit Cook Islands of Pukapuka and Nassau are again raising
concerns about their temporary housing conditions and an ongoing shortage of fresh
water. Two months after Cyclone Percy struck the islands, some families are still living
in a school building.
CLIMATE _
*
Exotic corals, usually found in "warmer waters", may be making a home for themselves
along the coast of Wales. Divers discovered the pink sea fan and the scarlet and gold
cup coral have already moved into the Irish Sea from the Mediterranean and North Africa.
They are now trying to determine whether species are arriving on warm currents carried by
the Gulf Stream across the Atlantic from the Caribbean.
*
An Environment Canada weather station operator says 2005 will be the warmest year ever
recorded in the northern hemisphere. Wayne Davidson says he's invented a way to
predict the year's weather by measuring the width of the disc of the sun.
He says the bigger the sun on the coldest day of the year, the warmer the year will be.
His observations have noted changes in the appearance of the sun, brighter dusks and
dawns during the community's months-long winter night, and instances when the sun
appeared on the horizon earlier than astronomical timetables dictated.
Monday, May 16, 2005 -
QUAKES -
*
A magnitude 6.6 earthquake south of the Kermadec Islands has occurred, 700 km (435
miles) NE of Auckland, New Zealand.
VOLCANOES -
*
Scientists know that Mount Rainier, an active volcano, will one day awaken as Mount St.
Helens did in 1980. It could gradually build up and explode, or part of it could simply
collapse, perhaps with very little warning. It could happen in 200 years, or it could happen
tonight. One day a rumble that sounds like a thousand freight trains will alert Orting,
Washington, of the danger. If everything works right, sirens will wail and the town's 4,400
residents will have less than 45 minutes to evacuate - or be buried by an avalanche of mud
and debris tumbling off the flank of Mount Rainier. The town was built atop a 500-year-old
mudflow that buried the valley 30 feet deep. The USGS ranks Mount Rainier as the third most
dangerous volcano in the nation. Other studies call Rainier the most dangerous volcano in
the world.
*
A giant U.S. Navy hospital ship has arrived off Papua New Guinea to provide medical aid to
thousands of islanders displaced by volcanic eruptions on Manam Island.
Medical teams will provide assistance to residents of Madang and to about 9000 islanders
evacuated to temporary camps on the mainland after the Manam eruptions in October and
November. The aid program to assist the islanders so far has been labelled a disaster, with
accusations of mismanagement and misuse of funds by disaster relief officials as food and
other aid failed to reach the camps where the young and elderly are now dying.
LANDSLIDE -
*
At least one person was killed and 122 others injured when a pile of rocks collapsed in
central China, burying 18 houses. Rescuers were still trying to establish if anyone
remained missing under the rubble, which came crashing down yesterday evening.
It was not immediately clear what caused the rocks to collapse, or why they were there, but
the pile was the responsibility of a Coal Industrial Group, suggesting the area was a mine
or a quarry. Eighteen houses were buried, some up to 100m away from where the rocks were
piled.
STORMS -
*
A ferocious storm has ripped through the south-west of Western Australia, with severe
winds and torrential rain closing roads, damaging buildings, felling trees, bringing down
power lines and closing schools. A cold front embedded with a line of severe thunderstorms
swept across the state's south-western coastline about 6am. Wind gusts peaked at 142km/h at
Rottnest Island, just off the coast of Perth, and reached 100km/h in Perth suburbs. Staff at
an ABC radio station cheated death when a 38m crane collapsed on their building at the
height of the violent storm.
*
Bangladesh authorities fear at least 100 people have drowned after a ferry capsized in a
remote area of the country's south during high winds and strong currents on the Char
Kazal river near Badnatoli, about 250km south of Dhaka, on Sunday morning.
Sunday, May 15, 2005 -
VOLCANOES -
*
Despite the damage, the Galapagos Island eruption is deemed a 'natural process'.
The volcano erupted and destroyed part of the ecologically delicate Galapagos Islands,
threatening to kill vegetation and some animals on the island of Fernandina.
No humans live on Fernandina, the westernmost island in the formation. The volcano, also
called Fernandina, shot a column of ash and gas 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) into the air while
lava descended its banks. Ecuadorean authorities said they would not declare the island,
which is formed mostly of lava, a disaster area. The eruption has not interrupted air
traffic to and from the Galapagos.
*
Toba supervolcano is showing no signs of impending eruption according to an Australian
scientist. (This link is usually only available for one day, so may not work.)
"I have been misquoted in the press who had me saying that the next supervolcano eruption
would be in Lake Toba, Sumatra. There are around 100 supervolcanoes or calderas around the
world. These have not erupted in the historic times, and therefore it is a matter of time
before one does erupt", said Australia's volcanologist Ray Cas. "Some scientists do think
that some eruptions of these supervolcanoes can be triggered by large scales of regional
earthquakes, of the sort that has been experienced around Sumatra in the last few months.
In other words, there will have to be very large volumes of molten rocks or magma in the
below-the-ground surface, below the volcano. And we will normally see evidence of this, if
that is the case. We'll see increased rates of gas release from gas fumeroles, and the
opening of new gas fumeroles. At present, there is no evidence that, that condition exists
at Lake Toba. But there is no question that in the future some time, the Toba supervolcano
could erupt again. However there is no evidence at the moment that it will happen in the
foreseeable future." {You don't hear alarm bells from the Lake Toba supervolcano?} "At this
stage not. One immediate potential risk could be if there was a fault in Lake Toba, if there
is movement on the floor of the lake, that could generate some tsunamis in the lake."
{How do we know if that happens?} "Once an earthquake occurs, seismologists can actually
calculate where the earthquake occurred. If it is immediately underneath Lake Toba, then it
is likely there has been movement of the crust. The question is whether the movement is
sideways or there is a vertical component. If there is a vertical component, it will almost
certainly trigger tsunamis within the lake."
CLIMATE -
*
Like oil in the 20th century, water could be the resource that triggers armed conflicts at
the end of this century, according to experts forecasting changes in the world's major
rivers caused by global warming. Big increases and decreases in the flow volume of the
rivers will leave some areas parched while putting others under the constant threat of
flooding, according to the research group.
Saturday, May 14, 2005 -
QUAKES -
*
A 6.9 magnitude undersea earthquake rocked Indonesia’s Sumatra Island early today,
triggering panic in several cities. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
The temblor was centred 50 kilometers southwest of the city of Padang on west Sumatra.
*
India's government is funding research into whether emissions of gases from hot springs
could give valuable warnings of imminent earthquakes or tsunamis.
Scientists noticed a dramatic rise in gases coming from deep within the earth at hot springs
in the region days before the Dec. 26 tsunami. "The levels of deep earth gases like helium
shoot up when large plates down below the earth put pressure on each other...This
observation is exciting, but also very frustrating because we cannot predict when or where
the earthquake or tsunami would occur."
VOLCANOES -
*
Cumbre Volcano, in the Galapagos Islands, spewed rivers of lava and sent columns of
steam 7km into the air yesterday. Cumbre is on the unpopulated island of Fernandina, one of
the Galapagos Islands, which are a major tourist attraction.
*
Mexico's famous Volcano of Fire has erupted again, sending up towering plumes of smoke
and ash and starting forest fires. Tuesday's eruption was the most violent since March 2004,
and sent ash into the nearby city of Jalisco. Pieces of burning rock were sent flying more
than a mile away. (Has eruption video and a slideshow - also has video of the New York
landslide.)
*
Author claims cover-up after 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens -
Author Frank Parchman claims Washington State officials knew in 1980 that a major eruption
by Mount St. Helens was imminent, and that they did nothing to warn people in the area.
Parchman claims that six days before the massive May 18 eruption, scientists urged the late
Washington governor Dixie Lee Ray to clear the area around the volcano. The author claims
the governor ignored the warning.
*
The continuous low amplitude tremor on Anatahan Island that began on May 10 and continued
through Wednesday has diminished. Satellite images showed the ash plume diminishing as
well. "The ash is only moderately thick [and] now rises to only 8,000 feet." Vog - volcanic
smog - from the active volcano still extends westward for 550 nautical miles north of
Anatahan to the Philippines.
CLIMATE -
*
Conservative climate and hydrological models suggest that the average sea level will rise by
about a foot by 2050, regardless of what new actions we take to reduce greenhouse gases.
In some cases, entire nations will disappear. One of the consequences of rising seas will be
a surge of "climate exiles" who have been flooded out of their homes in poor countries. Up
to 200 million people could lose their homes to rising seas by 2080. How should those of us
in rich countries deal with this wave of immigrants? As the top greenhouse-gas emitter, the
United States could be expected to absorb 21 percent of the climate-change exiles a year. If
such a program were to start in 2010, the United States would have to be prepared to accept
150,000 to a half-million immigrants a year for the next 70 years or so. (The United States
now allows one million legal immigrants annually).
*
For the first time in three years, the U.S. Drought Monitor does not show exceptional
drought - its most severe category - anywhere in the Western U.S.
STORMS / LANDSLIDE -
*
On Thursday the rain-swollen Simuay river burst its banks and flooded two towns on the
southern Philippine island of Mindanao. A seven year-old boy is missing and more than a
hundred people were displaced. 17 other villages have been flooded and crops destroyed.
Heavy rain has soaked the Cotabato river basin of Mindanao over the past two weeks.
*
Geologists say rock falls are considered a form of landslides, and landslides are fairly
prevalent in Utah this year. A boulder broke loose yesterday and destroyed a Provo bungalow.
Far more dangerous than boulders breaking loose, though, are avalanches. Forecasters say
usually by May the wet avalanche season is over. This year it's just beginning and warm
temperatures forecast for the weekend are going to melt an already unstable snow
pack.
*
Torrential downpours brought by seasonal "plum rain" weather fronts yesterday caused at
least four casualties and disrupted railways services in northern and central Taiwan.
Up to press time last night, rescuers were still searching for four people who were struck
by a landslide in Nantou Country while mountain climbing. During the "plum rain season" from
May to June, weather fronts linger over Taiwan almost constantly.
SOLAR -
*
Increased solar activity causing disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field may cause whales
to run aground in the North Sea, say researchers.
Analysis of whales stranded between 1712 and 2003 shows that more are stranded when solar
activity is high. 87 of the 97 reported sperm whale strandings over the past 300 years in
the North Sea region occurred when the length of the Sun's activity cycle was below
average.
*
A coronal mass ejection is heading for Earth following a strong solar flare on May 13th.
Sky watchers should be alert for auroras when the cloud arrives on May 14th or 15th. The
display, if it materializes, will be best over high latitudes - e.g., Alaska and Canada.
But CMEs sometimes spark auroras over lower latitudes, too.
Friday, May 13, 2005 -
QUAKES _
*
Three separate mild earthquakes ( 4.6, 3.6, 3.9 ) jolted Marivan and Zarand, two Iranian
cities in the western and southeastern provinces of Kurdestan and Kerman, Thursday and
Friday. Marivan was also shaken last March by an earthquake with its epicenter in Iraq.
Zarand was hit by a strong 6.6 magnitude earthquake on February 22, 2005, which claimed over
600 lives and leveled some 20 villages.
*
A large number of small quakes are continuing to occur in Baja, California.
*
Quakes on Thursday - A 6.5 quakes occurred on the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge, a 5.7 in the Solomon Islands, a 5.1 in
Northern Sumatra, and 2 small quakes in Turkey, one in Haiti.
On Wednesday a cluster of 6 quakes, 4.3 and up, hit Iceland.
DROUGHT -
*
An acute water shortage in central India has made it tough for men of one village to find
wives because families are reluctant to condemn their daughters to a life of hardship,
fetching water. It is quite unusual in rural villages not to have an arranged marriage at a
young age, but nearly a tenth of the 1,200 residents in Karhod are bachelors between the
ages of 25 and 60.
Thursday, May 12, 2005 -
QUAKES _
*
A moderate earthquake measuring 3.8 on the Richter scale shook eastern France.
*
Rescuers have recovered the bodies of five miners a day after a tremor caused tunnels to
collapse at a gold mine near Johannesburg. Five others were rescued.
*
A 4.1 earthquake early Sunday morning in Napa County, California has geologists rethinking
about the probabilities of a strong temblor along the Green Valley Fault in Solano
County.
Geologists say the quake could be an indication that the fault, which they believe is a
finger of the better-known San Andreas Fault, could be more active than many believed,
particularly if the Contra Costa County segment trembled at the same time. Scientists offer
two theories about Sunday’s shaker. They say it either relieved some surface pressure and
will likely go dormant for a time, or the temblor indicates that pressure deeper in the
fault could be building.
*TSUNAMI -
*
Discovery Channel and the BBC are teaming up for a new two-hour documentary special entitled
'Journey to the Heart of the Tsunami'. The filmmakers are attempting to understand what
caused December's devastating tsunami, with camera crews exploring the Indian Ocean seabed.
The first dive took place Wednesday. The film will air this fall.
*
Life in hundreds of tent camps across Indonesia's tsunami-devastated countryside on the
northern tip of Sumatra island is brutal.
The people in the camps are being cared for by a veritable Noah's Ark of aid groups that
have set up shop in a land that looks like it's been through a nuclear holocaust. The
government in Jakarta, 1,700 km (1,100 miles) away, has been slow to allocate money while
promised international aid has been held up as Indonesia created a reconstruction agency to
manage cash inflows. 187,625 people are living in tent camps, 108,833 are living with
friends and relatives, and just 69,930 are living in the crude wooden barracks the
government has built.
Overall, the government has said there are nearly 600,000 homeless.
HEAT -
*
Updated guidance on how to cope in a heatwave has been issued by the U.K. government's
health adviser as the country gears up for hot temperatures.
Early indications hint at a warmer than average July and August this summer. In 2003, about
27,000 people across Europe died directly because of the heat. "The UK has one of the
highest rates of 'excess' winter deaths in the European Union and we do not want the same
needless suffering to happen throughout our hotter summers too."
STORMS / LANDSLIDE -
*
More than $5 million in flood damage prompted officials in north central Idaho to declare a
state of emergency, while wild storms drenched parts of southern Idaho, turning farm
fields into mud bogs and intersections into ponds. The National Weather Service warned of
possible mud and debris slides in parts of north central Idaho. Four consecutive days of
heavy showers in pockets of a state that is in the midst of a persistent six-year drought
brought a mix of despair and relief. In Nez Perce County the tally was $5.33 million in
damage from a series of flash floods Friday and Sunday afternoon. Along Garden Gulch, a
rural canyon east of Lewiston, residents were still digging out from beneath a 5-mile-long
pile of mud and debris that came cascading down the hillside after a violent rainstorm
Sunday afternoon.
*
A large-scale landslide in Monday night in northern China's Shanxi Province, buried 24
farmers whose fates are still unknown. Sixteen residents survived the catastrophe which
engulfed 11 houses.
*
Towns and villages across Chechnya have been seriously affected by floods caused by
recent heavy rains.
Wednesday, May 11, 2005 -
QUAKES _
*
A South African miner died and four others were trapped two kilometres underground after a 3.2 quake caused tunnels to collapse in a gold mine west of Johannesburg. On March 9 a quake hit a pit in Stilfontein, 160km south-west of Johannesburg, killing one miner and leaving 38 others trapped underground for about 12 hours.
CLIMATE CHANGE -
*
South Africa will be split into two extreme climate zones in the east and west within the next 50 years. The Western and Northern Cape will become more drought-stricken while Limpopo, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal will endure long dry spells followed by torrential rain and flooding. Bleak predictions of how climate change would impact on water supplies and agriculture were presented by the South African National Biodiversity Institute at a meeting.
*
Extreme weather events, such as storms and heat waves, can vary substantially in frequency and severity in a region depending on how vegetation responds to global warming. As vegetation responds to climate change, those changes in ground cover may affect where and how often extreme weather events occur. "Changes in vegetation cover can push the region toward more or fewer extreme events – it depends on where you look." As vegetation responds to the greenhouse effect, the number of extremely hot days could double in frequency in semi-arid areas, such as the Great Basin and the California coast in the U.S.
*
Climate change is already affecting the growth of plants, the productivity of farms, and habitats for animals in Australia. "Atmospheric temperatures are increasing, oceans are becoming warmer, sea levels are rising, rainfall patterns are changing. The amount of sunlight reaching the earth's surface directly is falling, as are evaporation rates from land-based water bodies and potential evaporation rates from the soil and vegetation."
*
Climate change researchers have detected the first signs of a slowdown in the Gulf Stream — the mighty ocean current that keeps Britain and Europe from freezing .
They have found that one of the “engines” driving the Gulf Stream — the sinking of supercooled water in the Greenland Sea — has weakened to less than a quarter of its former strength. Such a change could have a severe impact on Britain, which lies on the same latitude as Siberia and ought to be much colder. There are two other areas around the north Atlantic where water sinks, helping to maintain circulation. Less is known about how climate change is affecting these.
The weakening of the Gulf Stream is destabilizing currents worldwide, and will lead to radical climate changes in other areas. The nature of these changes is not known, and the current US administration has blocked US environmental agencies from studying the phenomenon, so the severity of its effect in this country is not under study. At the least, food production and liveability in the eastern half of North America will be severely challenged. (Did you see 'The Day After Tomorrow' movie?!)
SUNSPOTS -
A big spot is growing on the sun - again. Sunspot 758 is almost as wide as the planet Jupiter; two days ago it was sparse and unimpressive. Like sunspot 756 in late April, this new active region demonstates how quickly big sunspots can materialize - even during solar minimum.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005 -
QUAKES -
*
Another strong earthquake hit Tuesday morning, local time, in the same area of the Indian
Ocean where two giant quakes have struck since last December. The latest temblor was 6.5
magnitude and hit several hundred miles to the southeast of the main quake area.
A 4.9 quake hit Minahasa, Sulawesi, Indonesia. A 5.4 hit near the north coast of Papua,
Indonesia. A strong 5.5 aftershock also shook the capital of Indonesia's Aceh province, Banda Aceh,
yesterday at 8:30am, prompting panic among the population. Inhabitants rushed out of their
homes and offices and gathered in the streets as the earthquake hit. Since December's quake
there have been more than 1,000 subsequent earthquakes and significant aftershocks in the
area. Hundreds of the aftershocks, more than a dozen of them significant, have struck near
northwestern Sumatra since the major quake there occurred March 28.
*
Greece's Peloponnese peninsula was rocked early today by an earthquake measuring 4.4
points on the Richter scale. The area was hit by earthquakes of similar strength in
2002.
CLIMATE -
*
A leading weather expert has warned China may face an apocalyptic summer of severe drought
and floods. Two massive rain belts are predicted for the months of June to August that
will impact the area between the Yangtze River and the mid- to upper reaches of the Yellow
River. Prolonged drought may be felt in the rest of the country, with less rainfall expected
in many areas. Northeastern Sichuan and western parts of Tibet, as well as parts of southern
Guangdong and Hainan provinces, are suffering the worst drought in 50 years.
*
Record temperatures in many parts of New South Wales, Australia have worsened the big
drought with 87 per cent of the state now officially drought-declared.
*
Scientists who monitor climate changes believe that increased rainfall is a sign of global
warming. They argue that a global warming trend should be measured not just with a
thermometer but with other weather gauges, including rainfall counts. Weather is becoming more
extreme - the best evidence for this is the 24-hour rainfall amounts, and those numbers are
going up.
STORMS -
*
One dead in Romania floods, 1,000 homes damaged.
*
Haiti calls for storm season help as floods kill 11.
*
For more than 250 years the cause of lightning strikes has been a mystery, but now
scientists believe they have traced the answer to cosmic rays from outer space.
A major experiment in Florida is now being prepared to test the theory that cosmic rays -
from the sun and other stars - are a crucial element in causing thunderbolts.
Monday, May 9, 2005 -
*
A strong aftershock measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale shook the capital of Indonesia's
Aceh province, Banda Aceh, today prompting panic among the population.
*
Ashes blanket areas surrounding Mount Kanlaon in the Philippines as the volcano continues
to show signs of activity. Ashes and steam clouds rose from 300 to 500 meters above its
crater. There have been volcanic earthquakes from its activity during the 24-hour seismic
monitoring period.
*
A landslide threatened townhomes in Utah again on Saturday as several bands of showers and
thunderstorms passed through central Utah on Friday and Saturday. The landslide was moving
as fast as two feet an hour Saturday morning, raising concern for the four townhomes it
is threatening. The leading edge of the slide was moving so fast Saturday morning that it
was crumbling as the mayor watched. But by Saturday night the movement had slowed
significantly. The next storm is expected to begin moving into the area late today and
should last into Wednesday.
*
In Malaysia, the drought that has lingered from the beginning of this year has forced
people in at least 10 villages in the Gual Periok state constituency to use water from
swamps and rivers for their daily need. Wells in the villages, located on high ground, have
dried up.
*
Steak and lamb could be off the menu for many Australians this winter as meat prices climb
because of the worsening drought. Almost half of the country's farming land is
drought-affected. And the situation is unlikely to improve any time soon, with rainfall for
the first four months of the year the second-lowest on record.
Sunday, May 8, 2005 -
*It was a nice quiet news day, I couldn't find anything to report.
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!
Saturday, May 7, 2005 -
TSUNAMI AFTERMATH -
*
There is a largely unreported psycho-traumatic epidemic in the tsunami hit areas.
There have been few confirmed reports of disease outbreaks, but WHO estimates that up to 10
percent of people who were caught up in the tsunami and were not already experiencing mental
problems were affected seriously enough to require psychological support.
WHO officials believe that half of those suffering from post-tsunami psycho-traumatic
problems will eventually recover even if they receive no support.
But that leaves an estimated five per cent of the affected population – tens, possibly
hundreds of thousands - at risk. Resources to tackle this are not available.
WHO is committed to a six-month plan designed to ensure that next time a major disaster
breaks, its mental effects will not be under-played.
VOLCANOES -
*
The Yellowstone caldera has been classified a high threat for volcanic eruption,
according to a report from the U.S. Geological Survey. 18 volcanoes are in the very high
threat group. Yellowstone is classified with 36 others as high threat. Yellowstone ranks
21st most dangerous of the 169 volcano centers in the United States.
Recurring earthquake swarms, swelling and falling ground, and changes in hydrothermal
features are cited in the report as evidence of unrest at Yellowstone. They do not paint
the devastating picture portrayed in a recent TV docudrama but said smaller threats exist.
For example, a lower-scale hydrothermal blast could scald tourists strolling along
boardwalks. Emissions of toxic gases from the park's geothermal features also pose a threat.
Five bison dropped dead last year after inhaling poisonous gases trapped near the ground due
to cold, calm weather near Norris Geyser Basin.
FREAK STORMS -
*
A freak hail storm dumped several inches of ice on southern Oaxaca City, Mexico and
killed at least seven people on Thursday. The overnight storm pelted the city with ice,
causing the roofs of shacks to cave in and leaving more than 30 centimetres of hail in some
areas.
FIREBALL / COMET -
*
A widely reported fireball over Spain this year appeared on Jan. 29 at 10:30 p.m.
Another passed over the northwestern U.S. at 7:40 p.m. on Saturday, March 12.
On April 24 a dazzling fireball streaked across the sky in the northeastern U.S. "It was
such a weird thing...The ball was very distinct, and bright, bright green, and had a long
bright white tail." The great fireball of April 25, 1966, occurred 39 years ago almost to
the day from this year's event. It was seen by thousands from Washington, D.C., to eastern
Canada and was the most widely observed and photographed fireball of its time.
*
A Russian court has ruled that an astrologer can proceed with a lawsuit against the U.S.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for its plans to bombard a comet.
The astrologer claims the destruction of the comet will "disrupt the natural balance of the
universe."
Friday, May 6, 2005 -
QUAKES -
*
A magnitude-4.1 earthquake hit Kern County, California on Thursday but no damage or injuries
were reported. The temblor struck at 7:29 p.m. and was centered 13 miles east of
Maricopa and 24 miles south-southwest of Bakersfield. A magnitude-5.1 earthquake struck in
the same area April 16 and was felt as far away as downtown Los Angeles. Several dozen
aftershocks followed that quake.
*
After years of debate about the safety of Milliken Dam, the city of Napa, California, will
bore holes in the concrete face to permanently lower storage capacity by 30 percent.
City officials have been keeping the reservoir, located in the hills above the Silverado
Resort, less than full since 2000 when the state said the dam might fail in a major
earthquake. The planned fix will lower the water level 16 feet below full. If the Green
Valley Fault, located a mile away, should let loose, the dam should remain intact.
*
Can one earthquake cause another? A developing theory holds that quakes can pressure
highly stressed fault lines and trigger subsequent seismic events. Some scientists believe
that some faults can be ruptured by less pressure than that needed to inflate a car tire.
The orientation of a fault — north-south or east-west — can affect how a fault responds to
seismic stresses. "Over the long term, [a regional stress field] produces faults of similar
orientation. So when [a fault is acted upon], it almost always increases the stress on the
neighboring fault, because if they have the same orientation, it increases the stress."
*
In the wake of the Sunday 4.1 earthquake and aftershocks that shook large portions of
Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and north Mississippi, residents need to think about
ways to protect their homes and families. The 4.1 magnitude quake was minimal compared
to what the region's New Madrid fault zone is capable of producing. Take a safety-check walk
around your home, know how to shut down your home's utilities, assemble a disaster kit
(or purchase a top-of-the-line one - this is the
website of a loyal reader of 'Global Disaster Watch'.)
*A 6.3 and a 5.7
quake struck off the coast of Panama - apparently far enough out to sea that they caused no
damage, I could find no news reports.
PANDEMIC -
*
The world needs to plan now for the next flu pandemic. Governments must speed up the
approval of new flu vaccines and the
resources to inject them or the next pandemic will kill hundreds of
millions of people and bring the global economy to a halt, a leading
expert on infectious diseases says.
SOLAR WEATHER -
*
With solar minimum near, the sun continues to be surprisingly active.
"Sunspots are devilishly unpredictable. They're made of magnetic fields poking up through
the surface of the sun. Electrical currents deep inside our star drag these fields around,
causing them to twist and tangle until they become unstable and explode. Solar flares and
CMEs are by-products of the blast. The process is hard to forecast because the underlying
currents are hidden from view. Sometimes sunspots explode, sometimes they don't."
WAVES -
*
In the past, some scientists wrote off "rogue waves" as rare or even mythology. However,
new satellite data collected by the European Space Agency’s ERS satellites has confirmed
what too many ship captains have come to know. Ocean waves that rise as tall as ten-story
apartment buildings are a leading cause of large ship sinkings. A scientific team counted
more than ten individual giant waves around the globe more than 75 feet high during a
three-week period. Rogue waves are more common than most people realize, and scientists are
starting to predict when and where they will strike.
Thursday, May 5, 2005 -
QUAKES -
*
At least four people are now reported killed and 26 others injured when an earthquake measuring 5 on the Richter scale jolted the western Iranian town of Borujerd on Tuesday.
*
A strong 5.6 undersea earthquake rocked parts of Indonesia's tsunami-ravaged Aceh province Wednesday, prompting people to flee their homes, but there were no reports the temblor generated any giant waves. Witnesses said the quake jolted the provincial capital of Banda Aceh for about 30 seconds. Previous to this quake Wednesday there was a 5.0 quake in Nias, Indonesia; a 5.2 in Northern Sumatra, Indonesia; a 5.4 in the Nicobar Islands, India region; and a 5.4 in the Mariana Islands. Also on Wednesday was a 5.9 quake in Tonga, a 4.8 in Nias and a 4.9 in Simeulue, Indonesia and a 5.4 in the South Sandwich Islands.
FREAK WEATHER -
*
Almost six years to the day after Ulladulla, Australia was covered in a meter of hail, another freak hailstorm swept across town leaving a trail of devastation in its wake.
In the early hours of April 27, 1999 Milton and Ulladulla was blanketed in more than a metre of hail causing chaos for residents. In a bizarre turn of events another freak hailstorm Friday April 29 wreaked havoc on the community causing millions of dollars in damage to homes, cars and businesses. The Department of Meteorology said Friday's freak hailstorm was an isolated and very rare incident with a sudden onset. "There was intense activity from eight kilometres in the atmosphere...Severe storms are very rare in April compared to the summer months and the warm weather conditions would have contributed to the hailstorm on Friday."
STORMS -
*
At least 28 people have been killed and scores injured in torrential rains in the past four days in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The region has suffered severe storms since the weekend, bringing hail, rain and high winds that damaged homes and crops, uprooted thousands of trees, brought down telephone poles and killed 400 livestock in at least six districts. The pre-monsoon rains were likely to continue for two more days. Parts of the state have been hit by six successive years of drought that have reportedly driven some 6000 farmers unable to meet loan payments for seeds and pesticides to commit suicide.
*
Earth is about to glide through a stream of space dust trailing Halley's Comet, producing a mild but beautiful shower of meteors called the eta Aquarids. The shower is most intense over the southern hemisphere, where dark-sky observers might see one meteor every few minutes or so. Northern hemisphere rates are much lower but not zero.
When should you look? The shower's peak spans May 5th and 6th. Try the hours before local dawn on both dates.
WILDFIRES -
*
In Alaska, five to seven fires likely kept burning from September to May underneath the snow cover after a record 6.7 million acres of the Interior burnt last summer. "It's really similar to a coal fire" that follows the seam underground. "It will keep moving and moving and moving." Spruce duff burns in all directions at up to an inch a day. If it reaches snow or permafrost, that portion of the fire dies. But another arm will keep moving forward, or sideways, or down. Over three or four months, a small hot spot can grow into a fire 10 feet square. Nearly 50 fires gave the 2005 fire season a hectic start over the past week. A stubborn Billy Creek fire is the only one among those that is suspected of overwintering. Though record temperatures last week contributed to many of the blazes, officials don't expect a repeat of last year's epic season, when fires raged from June through August. It will depend mostly on how many lightning strikes occur and whether precipitation levels are close to normal.
AVALANCHE -
*
A massive avalanche has injured as many as seven climbers and obliterated their Camp 1 on Mt Everest. The huge wall of ice and snow hit the 6000m-high camp early yesterday. Freezing temperatures and heavy snowfalls have blanketed the area in recent days.
There are as many as 22 expeditions and 200 people on Everest. The snow and the massive wave destroyed most of the tents at Camp 1 (between 40 and 60, depending on the sources). After the avalanche, only 5 tents remained undamaged. Surprisingly, there have been no reports on missing climbers. Right now all the expeditions are positive that there have been no fatalities. Several expeditions, some in a seriously injured state, have begun to be evacuated down from the mountain by a group of Sherpas.
It is the second accident to hit the mountain this week. On Sunday an American fell more than 10 metres to his death on the Khumbu Icefall.
Wednesday, May 4, 2005 -
QUAKES -
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At least one person was killed and 26 others were wounded in a strong 5.0 quake which hit Iran near the western city of Boroujerd on Tuesday. The quake heavily damaged four villages: Hassankhani, Tabrijan, Ganjineh and Delikhan. Another tremor measuring 4.1 on the Richter scale shook the city today. Seven earthquakes measuring from 2.8 to 4.1 on the Richter scale have shaken Boroujerd in the past one week.
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Sunday morning, May 1, at 7:37:32 am, yet another moderate earthquake struck on the New Madrid Fault. It measured magnitude 4.1, the same as the quake of just over two months ago on February 10. Once again seismic forces ripped a fracture the size of a 160-acre farm through the basement rock, this time 10 kilometers below the Little River drainage, 6 miles west-southwest of Dell, Arkansas. Residents of Keiser a few miles south reported the shaking intensity in their town as high as level VI, strong enough to cause some damage. The New Madrid Seismic Zone, stretching from east central Arkansas to the southern tip of Illinois, is a major source of concern. The fault zone fractured in 1811 and 1812, producing a series of giant earthquakes felt across what is now the eastern half of the United States and the strongest earthquake to strike the contiguous 48 States in recorded history.
The USGS says there is a one in ten chance of another giant earthquake on the New Madrid Fault in the next fifty years.
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A magnitude 5.7 earthquake in central Peru has occurred.
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A magnitude 5.7 earthquake south of the Mariana Islands has occurred.
VOLCANOES -
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Although Anatahan volcano's eruptive activity in the Mariana Islands has declined since Sunday, several
long-period earthquakes have been occurring since Monday. The largest was 2.0 magnitude. There were also significant ash emissions yesterday morning. A thick ash plume has reached Philippine airspace.
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The 10 most dangerous U.S. volcanoes ranked by both the destructive capacity of each volcano, along with the people and property at risk. 1. Kilauea, Hawaii - erupting now.
2. St Helens, Washington - erupting now. 3. Rainier, Washington 4. Hood, Oregon 5. Shasta, California 6. South Sister, Oregon 7. Lassen Volcanic Center, California 8. Mauna Loa, Hawaii - signs of unrest. 9. Redoubt, Alaska 10. Crater Lake, Oregon
LANDSLIDES -
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Officials in a small Quebec village are assessing the risk of a major landslide after three smaller slides in the past week forced almost 100 people from their homes. Heavy rains have also opened up a large fissure in the earth on the hillside above the centre of the village, located 75 kilometres northeast of Quebec City. "It's an immense block of ground
... "You couldn't remove it in one day." Some people are concerned for the village's very existence.
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Ecologists are worried about possible radioactive contamination after a landslide dumped debris into a Kyrgyzstan river near aging uranium ore dumps. About 300 thousand cubic meters of material fell in the Mayli-Say River near old and poorly maintained uranium ore dumps in the western Osh province of Kyrgyzstan. The landslide caused the river to change its path but so far has not damaged the uranium dumps. Millions of people in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan potentially are at risk. Rains expected in May could cause other landslides.
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An unexpected landslide stuck Ramban town in India yesterday, pulling down two-storys of the well-known Shaan Hotel and eight shops in the town market. The landslide, caused by incessant rains in the area since morning, buried over 40 people, who were rescued by police contingents. Hundreds of vehicles are stranded.
FREAK WEATHER -
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A freak storm that lasted about two minutes has killed at least five people and left a trail of destruction across Tamil Nadu, India, especially Chennai city. The storm, said to be the tail-end of a cyclone that lashed the east coast with winds at 99 km per hour, hit early Monday.
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Freak snowfall fell in the tribal belt of Himachal, India since Sunday.
The continuous bad weather was unusual for Shimla and other mid-hills during the month of May, except for 1987 when Shimla town had snowfall on May 5.
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Freak weather conditions in Scotland created a mini tornado which damaged around 30 homes in a village. “It was very bizarre. It was like a gale, a very bad winter storm, but it was confined to the very local area."
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An unusually harsh winter followed by heavy spring rains has pushed the rivers of Central Europe higher than their typical spring levels.
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More and more areas of Australia are once again heading for serious drought - one of the worst droughts in Australia's history. In recent months temperatures around the nation have been soaring to levels never seen before. There are warnings of a new El Nino. And yesterday the Bureau of Meterology reported that the last three months were the second driest on record.
Tuesday, May 3, 2005 -
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Two strong, shallow earthquakes on the West Coast of South Island, New Zealand early today reportedly caused minimal damage. The first quake, measuring 6 on the Richter scale, struck at 3.35am 10km south of Haast, and was strong enough to wake people on the other side of the Island. The second quake, five minutes later, measured 5.7 and was 10km southwest of the town. Both quakes were between 10km and 15km deep. The first shake was felt in Christchurch as a strong, sharp swaying for about 10 seconds. The aftershock was felt for about five seconds. The centers of the two earthquakes had been close together and close to the Alpine Fault, which runs almost the length of the South Island. But the quakes appeared to be a kind of pushing up motion, rather than along the fault, so were probably not directly related to the fault. The second earthquake was larger than normal for an aftershock, but otherwise there had been fewer and smaller aftershocks than would have been expected. A couple of magnitude 3 aftershocks had been felt, but for a shallow magnitude 6 earthquake, several magnitude 5 aftershocks would have been expected.
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When lava and water mix they can explode like a giant bomb, said a pair of geologists studying an unusual volcanic event on Monserrat in the West Indies.
In July 2003, a massive pyroclastic flow of red hot ash and lava from the Soufriére Hills volcano on Monserrat hit the sea and created a massive steam-driven explosion.
The blast wave of steam, volcanic ash and rock flattened everything in a three-square-mile area, killed animals more than 1,000 feet up the side of the mountainous island, scorched plants and softened the plastic on a local seismometer.
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A cyclone that has brought squalls up to 25-36 meters per second to the south of the Kamchatka peninsula is gradually subsiding and moving eastwards to the Pacific Ocean.
Meanwhile, the storm warning is still in effect for ships off the Kamchatka coast. The height of waves reached five meters near the south-eastern coast of the peninsula.
The cyclone approached Kamchatka from the Okhotsk Sea May 1. The cyclone is moving eastwards south of the peninsula, and its impact is still significant. Snow, rains and squall were registered practically in all districts of the region. The impact of the cyclone will be strong on the peninsula for another day. Weather forecasters also noted that unsteady weather will persist on the south of Kamchatka over sea winds for another five days.
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Increasing levels of CO2 are causing the amount of space debris orbiting the Earth to increase faster than previously thought.
While CO2 is causing a global rise in temperature at the Earth's surface, it has the opposite effect in the upper part of the atmosphere known as the thermosphere. Here, in a region of space that contains the International Space Station and many other satellites, the temperature and the atmospheric density are falling rapidly. It will take longer for satellites to re-enter the atmosphere in the later half of this century, which will put the satellites at greater risk from collisions with orbiting debris.
Monday, May 2, 2005 -
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The December Indonesian earthquake could be the first of a series of giant quakes that will rock the world in the next 10 to 15 years, scientists have warned.
They found that quakes such as the one in Indonesia can destabilise the whole of the earth's crust, so that one is followed by others, often thousands of kilometres away, within a few years. "The four biggest earthquakes of the 20th century all happened within 12 years of each other, a pattern we see repeated with other quakes over many decades."
The Mediterranean is among areas at high risk, particularly the coasts of Greece and Turkey and the scientists are urging the installation of a tsunami warning system there as a matter of urgency. At least 232 tsunamis have hit Europe since prehistoric times. "Many of them were so powerful that they altered the course of civilisation."
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A mild 4.1 earthquake centered in northeastern Arkansas was felt across a wide area of the nation's center Sunday morning, in Missouri, southern Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and northern Mississippi in addition to Arkansas. No major damage was reported.
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An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.9 jolted the southwestern Japanese island of Kyushu, rattling the city of Fukuoka and extensive surrounding areas on Sunday, but causing no major damage. The quake was said to be an aftershock of the magnitude 7 quake that hit the northern Kyushu area on March 20.
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169 volcanoes in the United States and its territories have little or no regular monitoring and need to be watched for potential eruptions, a new report warns. The U.S. Geological Survey said Friday that monitoring gaps exist for volcanoes in Alaska, California, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, Wyoming and the Northern Mariana Islands that could pose a hazard both on the ground and to aviation and they are calling for a 24-hour, seven-day Volcano Watch Office and increased monitoring at many of the peaks. Since 1980, 45 eruptions and 15 cases of notable volcanic unrest have occurred at 33 U.S. volcanoes.
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After sending thousands of panicked villagers fleeing their homes when the eruption began on 17 April, Mount Karthala on the Grande Comore Island has been largely stable and has not released any lava or toxic gas as initially feared. No deaths or injuries have been reported. While the activity of Karthala has receded over the past week, vulcanologists do not rule out the possibility of a new eruption in the coming weeks or months.
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Anatahan volcano on Saturday erupted with its second strongest activity for the year but on Sunday activity dropped.
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74,000 years ago on the island of Sumatra, the eruption of Toba Volcano was the largest eruption in the last two million years, and, according to some theories, almost wiped out our human ancestors. The scale of the Toba eruption is difficult to comprehend. Pyroclastic flows (hot flows of ash and pumice) covered an area of at least 20,000 square kilometers (7,700 sq mi), with deposits as thick as 600 m (2,000 ft) near the vents.
Ash fall was widespread over much of southeast Asia. An ash layer approximately 15 cm (6 in) thick was deposited over the entire Indian subcontinent.
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Unusually high giant 6-7 foot high waves have been lashing some parts of India's Andhra Pradesh coast leading to panic. The unusual phenomenon revived memories of the killer tsunami of December 26 and fishermen and others living near the coast ran to safety.
"Ever since the December 26 quake, which triggered the tsunami, changes have been occurring in the ocean. The cause of this turbulence may be landslides and movement of rocks in continental shelves," explained the director of the Visakhapatnam Cyclone Warning Centre.
He added that while there was no need for panic, people along the coast should take precautions. The colour of the waves, said eyewitnesses, was normal, unlike the tsunami waves. The unusual tidal waves were first experienced Wednesday night at Uppada and seen again on Thursday morning and evening at various coastal points.
"I have never seen such high tidal waves," said a fisherman in Uppada. He and dozens of others stopped fishing and moved to higher places.
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Along the Oregon coast, ancient 55,000-year-old spruce trees that were buried in a landslide are suddenly visible. Why they have now been unburied is a mystery whose answer may lie in rising sea levels, more intense wave action, or a period of greater storm activity. "At times in our past, the sea level was much higher, and at other times, the coast line was miles out into where the ocean now is."
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Two people drowned and an elderly woman was missing after flash floods swept through a village in Siberia's Irkutsk region, forcing the evacuation of 222 people on Friday.
The Biryuza river, blocked by massive ice and swollen after abundant rains, flooded the village's streets for hours, destroying 24 homes and damaging 93 more. Floods have also threatened the city of Krasnoyarsk some 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) northwest.
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Flood situation report in the country of Georgia.
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More than 30 people have been killed in flash floods in Saudi Arabia.
Heavy rains and high winds combined to sweep cars off roads and destroy houses in the southern Asir province and the city of Jeddah. Jeddah was reportedly pelted with hail, power lines collapsed and metre-deep waters surged through the streets. Local media have described the storms, on Wednesday and Thursday, as the worst in more than a decade.
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Spain has suffered its driest winter and early spring since records began almost 60 years ago. Rainfall from November to the end of March this year was 37 per cent below the average for the period and the lowest since records started in 1947. Neighbouring Portugal is suffering its worst drought for 25 years.
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For the world’s limited numbers of tsunami scientists, knowledge of the shape of the seabed is a crucial part of their quest to discover the danger zones. Scientists know more about the surface of Mars than about the ocean floor of our own planet.
*More than four years after solar maximum, the sun continues to produce big sunspots. There's one transiting the solar disk now that's about five times wider than our entire planet Earth - in other words, big enough to see with the unaided eye, but do not stare at the blinding sun. Visit http://Spaceweather.com for safe solar observing tips, plus a movie of the growing 'spot'.
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There is an alarming disparity among international humanitarian response efforts. While the Sudan and the tsunami-affected countries are receiving strong financial support, the response to most humanitarian crises around the world remains severely under-funded and neglected. Only 9% of the requested funds have been committed for all other emergency appeals in the first quarter of 2005.
