Lit Motors’ C-1 two-wheeled vehicle is an engineering feat that could revolutionize the way we travel. Photo: Jennifer Berry, Earth911
Is it a motorcycle? A car? Or something in-between? Meet the C-1 by San Francisco start-up Lit Motors.
The fully enclosed motorcycle/auto uses hypersensitive gyros to balance. It puts out over 1,300 pounds per foot of torque; Lit’s Founder and CEO, Daniel Kim, told Reuters that “It takes a baby elephant to knock it over.”
The C-1 is fully electric and capitalizes on the fact that most people commute to work alone. The smaller and more compact design, plus its emission-free engine, make it more economical to drive. More importantly, its design requires fewer resources to manufacture it in the first place (its electric battery is about one-third the size of a conventional electric car battery). It can hit speeds of 120 miles per hour and has an estimated 200-mile range.
Even though the vehicle is small, I had the chance to sit inside the C-1 at the Fortune: Brainstorm Green Conference. It was surprisingly roomy – even for others who top my 5-foot-1-inch height whom I watched give it a try. A second rider can snag a seat in the back for a short ride.
You can toss your cell phone in the recycling bin as well, because the C-1 is enabled to bring traffic, construction, and adverse weather condition information straight to the vehicle so you can decide on a different route.
The C-1 will not be the final name of Lit Motors’ approximately $24,000 creation, so while you’re waiting for it to hit the showroom in 2014, you can suggest a name in the comments below.
Remind anyone of a favorite arcade game? The new moon passes over the sun in this Feb. 21 image taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. The partial eclipse was visible only from space.
The next partial solar eclipse Earthlings will be able to see will occur May 20, with views visible from Asia, the Pacific and western North America.
CREDIT: NASA/SDO
On Sunday (May 20), a solar eclipse will blot out the sun for viewers across much of Asia, the Pacific and western North America. These days, eclipses aren’t a big mystery — they occur when the moon passes between Earth and the sun. But throughout history, the sun’s significance, along with its mysteriousness, have yielded an array of solar myths.
From the fearsome figures that try to devour the sun to nine lost suns of the Chinese sky, here are the stories that have sought to explain our nearest star.
How Hou Yi shot the sun
In ancient Chinese mythology, the sky had not one, but 10 suns. Every day, the solar goddess Shiho would pick up one of these suns (also her sons) and wheel him across the sky in her chariot. In the meantime, the other nine would play among the leaves of the mythical Fusang tree, believed to be more than 10,000 feet tall.
This system worked well until the day that the suns grew bored of their responsibility. They decided to run across the sky all at once, planning to generate enough light and heat so that they could all take a few days off. Instead, this solar scamper dried up rivers, scorched the Earth and led to widespread drought.
Taking pity on suffering mortals, the sun god Dijun called in the expert archer Hou Yi. With 10 magic arrows, the story goes that Hou Yi was to discipline the irresponsible suns. The archer stalked and killed nine suns and would have snuffed out the last as well if a young boy hadn’t stolen his final arrow, saving Earth from perpetual darkness.
Ancient Chinese myth also holds that solar eclipses were caused by a demon or dragon devouring the sun, leading to a tradition in which people would play drums or bang pots to scare the sun-eater away. In actuality, Chinese astronomers seemed to understand eclipses as natural phenomena dating back at least as far as 720 B.C., with older observations scratched into bones dating back perhaps 3,000 years.
Chased by wolves
In ancient Norse legend, the sun goddess Sol travels through the sky chased by the wolf Sköll, who intends to devour her. (Sköll’s brother Hati does the same to the moon at night.) Eclipses were said to be a sign that Sköll was dangerously close to catching Sol.
In fact, the Norse believed that one day, the sun would finally be devoured. Mythology foretold a huge battle called Ragnarök, in which major gods would die and the Earth would be engulfed in a massive flood. This apocalypse would wipe the Earth, clean to be repopulated by a pair of human survivors.
Sailing the sun boat
One of the most important deities in the Egyptian pantheon was Ra, the falcon-headed sun god. Legend had it that every day Ra captained a boat crewed by gods across the sky. (This boat was called Mandjet, or the “Boat of Millions of Years” — an underestimate, given that our star is actually about 4.5 billion years old.)
At night, Ra returned to the east via the underworld, bringing light to the dead. It was a treacherous journey: Apep, an evil serpent god, attempted to stop Ra by devouring him. Solar eclipses were thought to be days when Apep got the upper hand, though Ra always managed to escape.
Jealous star
According to a Cherokee legend, the sun long ago grew jealous of her brother the moon because the people of Earth always looked at her with twisted-up faces and squinted eyes, while they smiled at his gentle light. The sun’s daughter lived in the middle of sky, so every day, the sun stopped to visit her. Angry at humans for their ugly expressions, the sun began using these opportunities to send down so much heat that people began to die of fever.
The humans turned to the Little Men, who in Cherokee legend were friendly, magical spirits who dwelt in the forests. The Little Men said that the sun must die, so they turned one man into a rattlesnake and another into a fearsome antlered serpent called the Uktena.
The rattlesnake arrived at the sun’s daughter’s house to wait for her arrival. But while he was waiting, the sun’s daughter opened her door. The rattlesnake accidentally bit her, killing her. When the sun came to see her daughter, she discovered her dead and began to weep, flooding the Earth with her tears.
Desperate to please the sun and stop the weeping, the people of Earth made an attempt to rescue the dead daughter from the land of ghosts, but failed. When they returned, the sun began to weep even harder. To distract her, the people began to dance and play music until she finally became happy again.
Slowing down the sun
The Maori people of New Zealand tell a tale about a long-ago time when the days were shorter than they are now. The hero Maui often heard his brothers lamenting the lack of light during the day. He decided to solve the problem by taming the sun. Although his brothers were skeptical, they and their tribe helped Maui weave a net out of flax.
Maui and his brothers then set out to the east to find the sun’s resting place. They covered the entry to the sun’s cave with nets and smeared themselves with clay to protect against the sun’s heat. When the sun emerged, it fought and struggled in the nets, but the brothers held firm. Maui began to beat the sun — some stories say he had an ax, others a club made of the jawbone of an ancestor — until the star was so weakened that it could no longer race across the sky. According to the legend, that is why the sun travels so slowly in the sky today.
SOLAR ECLIPSE THIS WEEKEND: On Sunday, May 20th, the Moon will pass in front of the Sun, producing an annular solar eclipse visible across the Pacific side of Earth. The path of annularity, where the sun will appear to be a “ring of fire,” stretches from China and Japan to the middle of North America:
An animated eclipse map prepared by Larry Koehn of ShadowandSubstance.com shows the best times to look. In the United States, the eclipse begins at 5:30 pm PDT and lasts for two hours. Around 6:30 pm PDT, the afternoon sun will become a luminous ring in places such as Medford, Oregon; Chico, California; Reno, Nevada; St. George, Utah; Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Lubbock, Texas. Outside the narrow center line, the eclipse will be partial. Observers almost everywhere west of the Mississippi will see a crescent-shaped sun as the Moon passes by off-center.
Because this is not a total eclipse, some portion of the sun will always be exposed. To prevent eye damage, use eclipse glasses, a safely-filtered telescope, or a solar projector to observe the eclipse. You can make a handy solar projector by criss-crossing your fingers waffle-style. Rays of light beaming through the gaps will have the same shape as the eclipsed sun. Or look on the ground beneath leafy trees for crescent-shaped sunbeams and rings of light.
INCOMING CME? A coronal mass ejection (CME) that flew off the sun’s western limb on May 17th might hit Earth after all. NOAA forecasters say a shock wave from the blast could deliver a glancing blow to Earth’s magnetic field on May 18th or 19th. The CME, pictured below, was propelled by an M5-class solar flare from departing sunspot AR1476.
The speckles in the movie are caused by energetic protons hitting the observatory’s detector. Those protons may have been accelerated in part by the shock wave en route to Earth.
According to NOAA, there is a 40% chance of minor geomagnetic storms and a 15% chance of strong storms when the shock arrives. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.
May 18, 2012 – Moderate earthquakes in Afghanistan and Algeria
Algeria earthquake
The earthquake is very shallow (if preliminary data will be confirmed). Epicenter is approx. 20 km from Brida and approx. 30 km from Aflou. Brida has a population of 5,742 (1998 cencus) and Aflou has a population of 48,000 inhabitants. Earthquake-Report.com has no certainty at all about the faith of this 2 villages. The epicenter location given by seismological agencies has almost always an error margin of +10 km. We do not see major problems if the epicenter will be confirmed where it is located now, but when closer to one of both villages or towns, damage cannot be excluded.
– The earthquake happened in the Sahara Atlas at a approx. altitude of 1,400 meter.
Update 13:39 UTC : EMSC has changed its parameters from M5.1 to M4.7 and from a depth of 2 km to a depth of 5 km. These latest values are far better (less dangerous) than the initial ones.
Moderate earthquake relatively close to Kabul, Afghanistan
The epicenter of this earthquake was only at 38 km from Afghanistan. EMSC and USGS data versions are completely different in focal depth at the time of writing (13:25 UTC). EMSC reports a depth of 80 km and USGS a depth of 10 km. This kind of difference in focal depth is almost like early morning and sunset !
Moderate earthquake shakes the interior of Honshu, Japan We have a sudden surge in people from Japan, which indicates mostly an earthquake
We have NO earthquake data yet, but max. JMA intensity is 4 so far.
– The epicenter of this earthquake was in between Sano and Tsukuba, inland. The depth of the hypocenter makes it a far away felt earthquake. The way people felt this earthquake is another proof that similar magnitudes and similar depths are being felt completely different from one area to another.
– The earthquake has been well felt in Tokyo too (see experience reports).
– JMA 4 intensity (scale from 0 to 7) at Ibaraki-ken Nambu, Tochigi-ken Nambu, Saitama-ken Hokubu and Saitama-ken Nambu. Earthquake-report.com uses 5+ as a potentially damaging intensity. The greater Tokyo area was reported as a JMA 3 intensity
Strong (harmless) earthquake off the coast of Chile
The epicenter was located at more than 500 km out of the coast. The Magnitude is totally harmless to generate a tsunami. The hypocenter depth is 10 km and indicates that the earthquake was generated by tensions in a separating oceanic plate (separating Nazca and Antarctic plates area). The satellite map below shows the dividing area very well.
I don’t mean to sound seditious here, but I have a rebellious plan to combat the ills that many corporations are perpetrating in the name of fighting grime and germs. My main gripe is about the environmental pollutants from cleaning and personal care products that we wash down our drains and into our water systems, resulting in situations like the chemical triclosan (a pesticide added to many products as an antibacterial agent) being found in dolphins.
So the simple plan is to encourage everyone to use baking soda in any of these 51 applications. Besides showing kindness to aquatic life, we can also protect ourselves from the array of toxins in household cleaning products. Conventional cleansers can expose us to multiple chemicals linked to asthma, cancer, and other documented health problems.
Baking soda also makes a perfect stand-in for many personal care products, which are adding their own twist to the toxic tangle of pollutants and personal health (mainly in the form of synthetic fragrance (and it’s almost all synthetic), sodium laurel sulfate, and parabens).
So exactly how does baking soda fit into my scheme to make the world a better place? Baking soda, aka sodium bicarbonate, helps regulate pH—keeping a substance neither too acidic nor too alkaline. When baking soda comes in contact with either an acidic or an alkaline substance, it’s natural effect is to neutralize that pH. Beyond that, baking soda has the ability to retard further changes in the pH balance, known as buffering. This dual capability of neutralizing and buffering allows baking soda to do things such as neutralize acidic odors (like in the refrigerator) as well as maintain neutral pH (like in your laundry water, which helps boost your detergent’s power). It’s a simple reaction, but one that has far-reaching effects for a number of cleaning and deodorizing tasks. And so without further ado, I’ll remove my scientist cap, put on my rebellious housekeeper’s cap, and get this folk-wisdom revolution rolling…
Personal Care
1. Make Toothpaste
A paste made from baking soda and a 3 percent hydrogen peroxide solution can be used as an alternative to commercial non-fluoride toothpastes. (Or here’s a formula for a minty version.) You can also just dip your toothbrush with toothpaste into baking soda for an extra boost.
2. Freshen Your Mouth
Put one teaspoon in half a glass of water, swish, spit and rinse. Odors are neutralized, not just covered up.
3. Soak Oral Appliance
Soak oral appliances, like retainers, mouthpieces, and dentures, in a solution of 2 teaspoons baking soda dissolved in a glass or small bowl of warm water. The baking soda loosens food particles and neutralizes odors to keep appliances fresh. You can also brush appliances clean using baking soda.
4. Use as a Facial Scrub and Body Exfoliant
Give yourself an invigorating facial and body scrub. Make a paste of 3 parts baking soda to 1 part water. Rub in a gentle circular motion to exfoliate the skin. Rinse clean. This is gentle enough for daily use. (For a stronger exfoliant, try one of these great 5 Homemade Sugar Scrubs.)
Pat baking soda onto your underarms to neutralize body odor.
6. Use as an Antacid
Baking soda is a safe and effective antacid to relieve heartburn, sour stomach and/or acid indigestion. Refer to baking soda package for instructions.
7. Treat Insect Bites & Itchy Skin
For insect bites, make a paste out of baking soda and water, and apply as a salve onto affected skin. To ease the itch, shake some baking soda into your hand and rub it into damp skin after bath or shower. For specific tips on bee stings, see Bee Stings: Prevention and Treatment.
8. Make a Hand Cleanser and Softener
Skip harsh soaps and gently scrub away ground-in dirt and neutralize odors on hands with a paste of 3 parts baking soda to 1 part water, or 3 parts baking soda to gentle liquid hand soap. Then rinse clean. You can try this honey and cornmeal scrub for hands too.
9. Help Your Hair
Vinegar is amazing for your hair, but baking soda has its place in the shower too. Sprinkle a small amount of baking soda into your palm along with your favorite shampoo. Shampoo as usual and rinse thoroughly–baking soda helps remove the residue that styling products leave behind so your hair is cleaner and more manageable.
10. Clean Brushes and Combs
For lustrous hair with more shine, keep brushes and combs clean. Remove natural oil build-up and hair product residue by soaking combs and brushes in a solution of 1 teaspoon of baking soda in a small basin of warm water. Rinse and allow to dry.
11. Make a Bath Soak
Add 1/2 cup of baking soda to your bath to neutralize acids on the skin and help wash away oil and perspiration, it also makes your skin feel very soft. Epsom salts are pretty miraculous for the bath too, read about the health benefits of epsom salt baths.
12. Soothe Your Feet
Dissolve 3 tablespoons of baking soda in a tub of warm water and soak feet. Gently scrub. You can also make a spa soak for your feet.
Cleaning
13. Make a Surface Soft Scrub
For safe, effective cleaning of bathroom tubs, tile and sinks–even fiberglass and glossy tiles–sprinkle baking soda lightly on a clean damp sponge and scrub as usual. Rinse thoroughly and wipe dry. For extra cleaning power, make a paste with baking soda, course salt and liquid dish soap—let it sit then scour off.
14. Handwash Dishes and Pots & Pans
Add 2 heaping tablespoons baking soda (along with your regular dish detergent) to the dish water to help cut grease and foods left on dishes, pots and pans. For cooked-on foods, let them soak in the baking soda and detergent with water first, then use dry baking soda on a clean damp sponge or cloth as a scratchless scouring powder. Using a dishwasher? Try these energy saving tips.
15. Freshen Sponges
Soak stale-smelling sponges in a strong baking soda solution to get rid of the mess (4 tablespoons of baking soda dissolved in 1 quart of warm water). For more thorough disinfecting, use the microwave.
16. Clean the Microwave
Baking soda on a clean damp sponge cleans gently inside and outside the microwave and never leaves a harsh chemical smell. Rinse well with water.
17. Polish Silver Flatware
Use a baking soda paste made with 3 parts baking soda to 1 part water. Rub onto the silver with a clean cloth or sponge. Rinse thoroughly and dry for shining sterling and silver-plate serving pieces.
18. Clean Coffee and Tea Pots
Remove coffee and tea stains and eliminate bitter off-tastes by washing mugs and coffee makers in a solution of 1/4 cup baking soda in 1 quart of warm water. For stubborn stains, try soaking overnight in the baking soda solution and detergent or scrubbing with baking soda on a clean damp sponge.
19. Clean the Oven
Sprinkle baking soda onto the bottom of the oven. Spray with water to dampen the baking soda. Let sit overnight. In the morning, scrub, scoop the baking soda and grime out with a sponge, or vacuum, and rinse.
20. Clean Floors
Remove dirt and grime (without unwanted scratch marks) from no wax and tile floors using 1/2 cup baking soda in a bucket of warm water–mop and rinse clean for a sparkling floor. For scuff marks, use baking soda on a clean damp sponge, then rinse. Read Natural Floor Cleaning for more tips on avoiding toxic floor cleaners.
21. Clean Furniture
You can make a homemade lemon furniture polish, or you can clean and remove marks (even crayon) from walls and painted furniture by applying baking soda to a damp sponge and rubbing lightly. Wipe off with a clean, dry cloth.
22. Clean Shower Curtains
Clean and deodorize your vinyl shower curtain by sprinkling baking soda directly on a clean damp sponge or brush. Scrub the shower curtain and rinse clean. Hang it up to dry.
23. Boost Your Liquid Laundry Detergent
Give your laundry a boost by adding ½ cup of baking soda to your laundry to make liquid detergent work harder. A better balance of pH in the wash gets clothes cleaner, fresher, and brighter.
24. Gently Clean Baby Clothes
Baby skin requires the most gentle of cleansers, which are increasingly available, but odor and stain fighters are often harsh. For tough stains add 1/2 cup of baking soda to your liquid laundry detergent, or a 1/2 cup in the rinse cycle for deodorization.
Use a baking soda solution (4 tablespoons Baking soda in 1 quart warm water) to clean and deodorize smelly sports equipment. Sprinkle baking soda into golf bags and gym bags to deodorize, clean golf irons (without scratching them!) with a baking soda paste (3 parts Baking sodato 1 part water) and a brush. Rinse thoroughly.
27. Remove Oil and Grease Stains
Use Baking soda to clean up light-duty oil and grease spills on your garage floor or in your driveway. Sprinkle baking soda on the spot and scrub with a wet brush.
28. Clean Batteries
Baking soda can be used to neutralize battery acid corrosion on cars, mowers, etc. because its a mild alkali. Be sure to disconnect the battery terminals before cleaning. Make a paste of 3 parts baking soda to 1 part water, apply with a damp cloth to scrub corrosion from the battery terminal. After cleaning and re-connecting the terminals, wipe them with petroleum jelly to prevent future corrosion. Please be careful when working around a battery–they contain a strong acid.
29. Clean Cars
Use baking soda to clean your car lights, chrome, windows, tires, vinyl seats and floor mats without worrying about unwanted scratch marks. Use a baking soda solution of 1/4 cup baking soda in 1 quart of warm water. Apply with a sponge or soft cloth to remove road grime, tree sap, bugs, and tar. For stubborn stains use baking soda sprinkled on a damp sponge or soft brush. Here’s how Sustainable Dave washes his car.
Sprinkle the cutting board with baking soda, scrub, rinse. For how to more thoroughly clean your cutting board, see How To Clean Your Cutting Boards.
32. Deodorize Trashcans
Sprinkle baking soda on the bottom of your trashcan to keep stinky trash smells at bay.
33. Deodorize Recyclables
Sprinkle baking soda on top as you add to the container. Also, clean your recyclable container periodically by sprinkling baking soda on a damp sponge. Wipe clean and rinse. Learn about how to recycle everything.
34. Deodorize Drains
To deodorize your sink and tub drains, and keep lingering odors from resurfacing, pour 1/2 cup of baking soda down the drain while running warm tap water–it will neutralize both acid and basic odors for a fresh drain. (This a good way to dispose of baking soda that is being retired from your refrigerator.) Do you know what you’re not supposed to put down your drains?
35. Deodorize and Clean Dishwashers
Use Baking soda to deodorize before you run the dishwasher and then as a gentle cleanser in the wash cycle.
36. Deodorize Garbage Disposals
To deodorize your disposal, and keep lingering odors from resurfacing, pour baking soda down the drain while running warm tap water. Baking Soda will neutralize both acid and basic odors for a fresh drain.
37. Deodorize Lunch Boxes
Between uses, place a spill-proof box of baking soda in everyone’s lunch box to absorb lingering odors. Read bout safe lunch boxes here.
38. Remove Odor From Carpets
Liberally sprinkle baking soda on the carpet. Let set overnight, or as long as possible (the longer it sets the better it works). Sweep up the larger amounts of baking soda, and vacuum up the rest. (Note that your vacuum cleaner bag will get full and heavy.)
39. Remove Odor From Vacuum Cleaners
By using the method above for carpets, you will also deodorize your vacuum cleaner.
Odors settle into car upholstery and carpet, so each time you step in and sit down, they are released into the air all over again. Eliminate these odors by sprinkling baking soda directly on fabric car seats and carpets. Wait 15 minutes (or longer for strong odors) and vacuum up the baking soda.
42. Deodorize the Cat Box
Cover the bottom of the pan with baking soda, then fill as usual with litter. To freshen between changes, sprinkle baking soda on top of the litter after a thorough cleaning. You can also use green tea for this purpose!
43. Deodorize Pet Bedding
Eliminate odors from your pets bedding by sprinkling liberally with baking soda, wait 15 minutes (or longer for stronger odors), then vacuum up.
44. Deodorize Sneakers
Keep odors from spreading in smelly sneakers by shaking baking soda into them when not in use. Shake out before wearing. When they’re no longer wearable, make sure to donate your old sneakers.
Gym clothes of other odoriferous clothing can be neutralized with a ½ cup of baking soda in the rinse cycle.
47. Freshen Stuffed Animals
Keep favorite cuddly toys fresh with a dry shower of baking soda. Sprinkle baking soda on and let it sit for 15 minutes before brushing off.
Miscellaneous
48. Camping Cure-all
Baking soda is a must-have for your next camping trip. Its a dish washer, pot scrubber, hand cleanser, deodorant, toothpaste,f ire extinguisher and many other uses.
49. Extinguish Fires
Baking soda can help in the initial handling of minor grease or electrical kitchen fires, because when baking soda is heated, it gives off carbon dioxide, which helps to smother the flames. For small cooking fires (frying pans, broilers, ovens, grills), turn off the gas or electricity if you can safely do so. Stand back and throw handfuls of baking soda at the base of the flame to help put out the fire–and call the Fire Department just to be safe. (And, you should have a fire entinguisher on hand anyway, here’s why.
50. Septic Care
Regular use of baking soda in your drains can help keep your septic system flowing freely. 1 cup of baking soda per week will help maintain a favorable pH in your septic tank.
51. Fruit and Vegetable Scrub
Baking soda is the food safe way to clean dirt and residue off fresh fruit and vegetables. Just sprinkle a little on a clean damp sponge, scrub and rinse. Here’s another way to clean your vegetables as well.
OK, so there are my 51 suggestions (with a little help from the Arm & Hammond baking soda site, thank you). Do you have any tips or tricks that I missed? Please share in the comments.
About the Author
Melissa Breyer is a writer and editor with a background in sustainable living, specializing in food, science and design. She is the co-author of True Food (National Geographic) and has edited and written for regional and international books and periodicals, including The New York Times Magazine. Melissa lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 4.3
UTC Time : Thursday, May 17, 2012 at 08:12:01 UTC
Local time at epicenter : Thursday, May 17, 2012 at 03:12:01 AM at epicenter
Depth (Hypocenter) : 5 km (3.1 miles)
Geo-location(s) :
Very close to Timpson, Texas
45 km (27 miles) NE of Nacogdoches, Texas
Update 14:23 UTC : A lot of people are very concerned that an even bigger earthquake may be striking the area. First of all we have to say that aftershocks which are stronger than the initial mainshock are only happening now and then. The vast majority of aftershocks are less powerful than the mainshock and are gradually getting weaker. Although very rare, it can not be excluded neither as today’s aftershock is showing. Aftershocks may also be expected in this case.
Update 14:14 UTC : news-journal.com (PanolaWatchman.com) writes that Shelby County Sheriff’s dispatcher Jacob Allen said the only injury report received so far was an elderly woman who fell out of her bed and cut her arm. Allen said the quake caused broken windows and fallen dishes, but no major damage had been reported.
Update 14:13 UTC : Following the Texas State Historical Association, earthquakes were reported in Rusk in 1891, Center in 1981, and Jacksonville in 1981. In other words, they are extremely rare in this area of the country.
Update 14:10 UTC: The home security camera inside a Texas house (location unknown) shows the kind of shaking that was experienced. Based on this footage, we believe that it must have been not too far from the epicenter. Although the origin of the video cannot be traced, earthquake-report.com has no reason to believe that this was a setup.
Update 09:31 UTC : Earthquake-Report.com does thank the Texas people for sharing their experience with the rest of the world (especially with their fellow Texans). I Have Felt it descriptions are still the best Earthquake value to be found. Magnitudes and Focal depths are of course important, but every earthquake (even with the same values) will be felt differently all over the world.
Update 09:28 UTC : On May 10, we had a surprisingly “more than normal” number of earthquakes in unusual areas. It all started in Timpson, Texas with later during the day moderate quakes in Indiana and Oklahoma! We are of course very curious to see if a similar occurrence will be the case today. Normally, we do not expect it to happen again.
Shaking map courtesy USGS – Greenish area is the Moderate shaking area
Update 09:14 UTC : Last earthquake gave only few moderate aftershocks, which hopefully will be the same today.
Update 09:09 UTC : Timpson and Tenaha are the towns where a Moderate shaking will have been experienced. Center, Carthage, Logansport, Nacagdoches, San Augustine, Tatum and Henderson will have experienced a (theoretical) light shaking. The area beyond this radius a weak to very weak shaking. These theoretical scenarios are based on the earthquake parameters in combination with the Felt intensity of historic earthquakes.
Update 09:07 UTC : Today’s earthquake happened in the middle of the night (03:12 local time), which is always a very scary experience for the people living close to the epicenter. A very shallow hypocenter adds to this experience.
Update 08:56 UTC : EMSC (European seismological agency) reports an initial M4.6 at a depth of 2 km. As you can imagine, we prefer the USGS data as most accurate in this case as USGS has a lot of equipment all over the territory.
Update 08:53 UTC : Based on theoretical estimates, 14,000 people will have experienced a moderate shaking and 143,000 people a light shaking. At Earthquake-Report.com, we can confirm these intensity expectations (based on the felt reports we have received).
Same epicenter area than the May 10 earthquake which was (only) M3.9. Only 6 km from Simpson, TX
The Experience report we received minutes after this aftershock, was right in stating that it felt stronger then the initial one. Serious damages are not to be expected, at max. a few cracks in walls and objects who are falling from shelves etc.
Earthquake May 10 – M3.9 This is what we wrote on the May 10 earthquake : Moderate earthquake below Timpson, Texas
” I was sitting at the computer when the entire house shook. I thought someone had ran into the house.” said Caroline Davis from Timpson. The earthquake was initially reported as a M3.9 earthquake and later decreased to a M3.7 at a very shallow depth of 5 km. Some local media are reporting the epicenter just South East of Garrison, although USGS maps the epicenter clearly below Timpson. Based on the Magnitude and the kind of shaking Caroline Davis has felt, we think the present location below Timpson is right. Defining the exact epicenter of an earthquake is always very difficult. It needs complex computing and an error margin is always included in the reporting of the seismological agencies. In this case the Horizontal error margin is 10.4 miles and the vertical 1.9 miles.
The max. shaking intensity as reported by people who have felt it was MMI IV (light shaking) to V (moderate shaking), enough to be scared seriously if you feel it.
The earthquake was felt well in a radius of 15 to 20 miles around the epicenter. Felt by few people in a radius up to 75 miles.
Some people reported a shaking of ca 10 seconds.
No damage or injuries have been reported so far. Earthquake-Report.com, following earthquakes worldwide every day of the year, expects NO damage or injuries from this earthquake. Fallen objects are always a possibility though. Update : According to a meteorologist at the NWC, no damage has been reported in the area. He said he did not know how an earthquake could have hit the area, as there are no significant fault lines. Update : A resident from Garrison county said the earthquake caused cracks on bricks at his house.
Check out this video on GMO trees, what they are, how they are, and think about it. oH, and as always, do the research:
Video Information
The largely unknown potential danger to human health and the environmental health of our planet posed by the planned introduction of genetically engineered trees is explored in “Silent Forest.” Narrated by Dr. David Suzuki, the film lays out, in compelling detail, the dangers of open-air plantations of these untested man-made trees. And the added problem of intellectual property rights. “A Silent Forest” is a wake-up call to the dangers of genetic engineering of trees and the impact it could have on all of us.
3D bathymetric view of Monowai caldera in the Kermadec Islands. The red cone in the foreground is Monowai cone. You can see the scars of collapses on its slopes along with new domes near the summit. Image courtesy of Oregon State University by Susan Merle.
I saw (and was sent) a lot of articles about the findings from Anthony Watts and others in Nature Geosciences on the submarine volcanism in the Kermadec Islands north of New Zealand. A group of geologists were lucky enough to stumble across an eruption of Monowai in 2011 and in doing so, they set off a series of discoveries that seem to indicate that Monowai is a very active submarine volcano. Monowai is a fairly complex caldera volcano that has seen quite a bit of activity that has been captured either through subsurface acoustics or by finding the telltale signs of an eruption beneath the sea – discolored, bubbling water, pumice rafts – stuff like what we saw during last year’s activity at El Hierro. Watts and his collaborators were able to carefully map the volcano to find what the changes at Monowai have been during these eruptive periods and it boils down to something we find familiar for terrestrial volcanoes: collapse and healing, sometimes quite rapidly.
If you’re a close watcher of volcanic activity, you know that if a volcano erupts andesite, dacite to rhyolite, you can produce sticky domes of lava that can oversteepen and collapse. That is what happens on a regular basis at places like Soufriere Hills on Montserrat and Shiveluch in Kamchatka (amongst many others). These domes or spins can become incredibly impressive – the spine that formed at Pelee in Martinique in 1902-1903 was almost 300 meters tall and it eventually collapsed in 1903. However, these examples are all from terrestrial volcanoes.
Figures 6a and 6b from Watts et al. (2012) showing the changes in the shape of Monowai in the Kermadec Islands over the last 8 years. You can see the growth and destruction of domes and spines on the volcano across the years.
This new study at Monowai may have captured a collapse like this, followed by new growth of a dome at a submarine volcano. Over the course of 14 days of mapping, the team found that the seafloor depth changed, first dropping almost 19 meters, then surging back almost 72 meters. That is quite a dramatic shift for only 2 weeks. This activity coincided with earthquake activity at Monowai was well, so even though the eruption was seen, the clues of changing seafloor depth – possibly a collapse followed by new lava – and seismicity all point to eruptive activity. If you look at their vertically-exaggerated views of the seamount (Figure 6a and b, above), it becomes quite clear that domes or spines of lava come and go from the summit area of Monowai, just like you might seen at its terrestrial brethren. Now, these cycles had been recognized at Monowai before, but this is the first time that the results of an eruption was caught in the act.
One of the implications that the authors push in the article is that these rates of activity are very rapid – and surely they are. The estimates of ~0.001-0.008 km3 of new material erupting within a few weeks – that works out to annual eruptive rates of ~0.11-0.63 km3*. I do worry a bit about their comparision of average growth rates at global volcanoes with these data, even looking at the last few years are Monowai. Volcanoes are notoriously inconsistent with their growth and have periods of heightened activity that punctuate long periods of low activity – they even point this out by comparing the average growth rate between 2007-2011 (0.08 km3) versus the rate they observed in the two weeks in 2011 (which would have produced, if constant over 4 years, ~2.8 km3). Whether or not “growth rates at Monowai are larger than all other oceanic volcanoes, including Montserrat, Azores, Hawaii, Iceland and the Canary Islands” is truly significant and not merely a product of small sample sizes we have for the volcanic history of many submarine volcanoes is unclear. However, it does show how dynamic some submarine arc volcanoes might be, which should come as little surprise considering the mischief their terrestrial counterparts can produce.
*Note: A few readers wondered why certain articles on this study insisted on reporting all volumes as “Olympic size swimming pools” of lava. Beats me, honestly. I know some writers love those comparators, but maybe we can give the reading audience some credit after you mention the comparison once.
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