Last update: February 8, 2013 at 10:23 am by By Ashish Khanal
Image courtesy EMSC
Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 3.3
Local Time (conversion only below land) : 2013-02-08 00:19:09
GMT/UTC Time : 2013-02-07 23:19:09
Depth (Hypocenter) : 5 km
from: http://earthquake-report.com/2013/02/07/minor-earthquake-the-netherlands-on-february-7-2013/
Snows begin in Northeast U.S. as historic Nor’easter strengthens |
Snow has begun falling from New York City to Massachusetts, where blizzard warnings are flying in anticipation of the arrival of one of the most severe and dangerous Nor’easters in U.S. history. The great storm, dubbed “Nemo”, has just emerged into the waters off the coast of Virginia, and is predicted to “bomb” to a central pressure of 975 – 980 mb by Saturday afternoon. Cold, Arctic air spilling southwards behind a strong 1038 mb high over Canada will collide with warm, moist air over the Atlantic, where ocean temperatures are unusually warm–about 5°F warmer than average over a large swath from New Jersey to Nantucket, Massachusetts. The contrast between the cold and warm air will help intensify the storm, and the unusually warm waters will pump large quantities of moisture into the air, which will be capable of feeding record-breaking snows over New England. The latest NWS forecast for Boston calls for 22 – 30″ of snow by Saturday morning, with additional snows though Saturday afternoon. Since Boston’s all-time heaviest snow storm is 27.5″ (February 17-18, 2003), Winter Storm Nemo has a chance of exceeding that. According to NWS, here are the top snowstorms since 1936 for Logan Airport:
1. February 17-18, 2003 27.5″
2. February 6-7, 1978 27.1″
3. February 24-27, 1969 26.3″
4. March 31-April 1, 1997 25.4″
5. January 22-24, 1945 22.8″
6. January 22-23, 2005 22.5″
7. January 20-21, 1978 21.4″
8. March 3-5, 1960 19.8″
9. February 16-17, 1958 19.4″
10. February 8-10, 1994 18.7″
11. January 7-8, 1996 18.2″
11. December 20-22, 1975 18.2″
11. December 26-27, 2010 18.2″
The weight of all that heavy snow on rooftops will create the danger of roof collapses. In addition to the heavy snow, the storm will bring coastal wind gusts over hurricane force, and moderate to major coastal flooding. During the peak of the storm, Friday night into Saturday morning, snowfall rates of 2 – 3″ per hour can be expected. These intense bursts of snow may be accompanied by lightning and thunder. The cites of Hartford, Providence, and Portland are all likely to get more than a foot of snow, and two feet of snow will probably fall along a swath from South Central Connecticut to Southwest Maine, with isolated amounts of 3′. Ferocious sustained winds near 50 mph will occur at the coast, with wind gusts in excess of hurricane force–74 mph. The combination of heavy snow and high winds will make travel extremely dangerous or impossible, with near-zero visibility in white-out conditions. The snow and high winds are likely to cause many power outages.
Figure 1. Predicted snowfall for Winter Storm Nemo from Friday’s 00Z run of the European (ECMWF) model. The highest snowfall amounts (> 24″) are predicted for Long Island, Southern Connecticut, and Eastern Massachusetts, including Boston. This forecast assumes that the ratio between liquid water equivalent and snow depth will be 10:1. In some areas away from the coast, this ratio may be closer to 15:1, leading to snow amounts near 36″.
Figure 2. Predicted wind speeds in knots at 7 am EST Saturday, February 9, 2013, from the 00Z February 8, 2013 run of the European (ECMWF) model. The model is predicting sustained winds of 50 knots (57.5 mph) will be just offshore of Cape Cod and Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. Multiply by 1.15 to convert knots to mph.
Serious coastal flooding expected in Massachusetts
The high winds from the storm will drive a damaging storm surge of 2 – 4′ along the coast of Eastern Massachusetts Friday night and Saturday morning. High tide Friday night will occur between 9:30 – 10 pm EST, and minor to moderate coastal flooding is expected along east and north-facing shores, when the storm surge of 2 – 3′ rides in on top of the tide. Battering waves of 8 – 17′ will hit the coast south of Boston in Cape Cod Bay, causing severe beach erosion. Of greater concern is the flooding that will occur during the Saturday morning high tide cycle, as that is the time of the new moon, which will bring the highest tide of the month. The ocean’s height near Boston varies naturally by about ten feet between low tide and high tide, so it matters greatly when the storm surge arrives, relative to the tidal cycle. Thus we speak of the “storm tide”–how high the water gets above the high tide mark, due to the combination of the storm surge and the tide. During Hurricane Sandy, on October 29, 2012, a potentially very damaging storm surge of 4.57′ hit Boston, but arrived near low tide, so the water level during the peak surge did not rise above the normal high tide mark. Fortunately, it appears that the peak storm surge from Nemo will arrive at the time of low tide early Saturday morning, and the surge will have fallen about a foot by the time the high tide arrives near 10 am EST Saturday. As of 9am EST on February 8, 2013, the latest storm surge forecast from the GFS model was calling for a storm tide of about 3.4′ above high tide (MHHW, Mean Higher High Water) in Boston on Saturday morning. This would cause minor to moderate flooding in the city, and would be approximately the 10th highest water level on record. The official top 5 storm tides since 1921 at the Boston tide gauge, relative to MHHW, are:
1. 4.82′ – February 7, 1978 (Blizzard of 1978)
2. 3.92′ – January 2, 1987
3. 3.86′ – October 30, 1991 (Perfect Storm)
4. 3.76′ – January 28, 1979
5. 3.75′ – December 12, 1992
More serious flooding is expected in Cape Cod Bay to the southeast of Boston, where the northeast winds from the storm will pile up a higher storm surge. A storm surge of 3 – 4′ is predicted from Scituate to Sandwich Harbor Saturday morning. The surge will be accompanied by battering waves 18 – 26′ feet high, and major flooding and significant coastal erosion is expected. Major coastal flooding is also expected on the east end of Nantucket Island.
Severe beach erosion is also expected along the north and northeast facing shores of Long Island, NY, where a storm surge of 3 – 5′ will combine with 4 – 8′ breaking waves. Minor to moderate coastal flooding is expected along western Long Island Sound. New York City is expecting a 2 – 4′ storm surge, which will cause mostly minor flooding, with a few areas of moderate flooding.
Figure 3. Coastal flooding hazards during the high tide cycle on Saturday morning, February 9, 2013, as predicted at 5 am EDT Friday, February 8, 2013, by the NWS Boston.
from: http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/article.html
I guess, the folks in the Northeast will not need to find Nemo. It seems Nemo is finding them:
Dr. Jeff Masters’ WunderBlog |
| Posted by: Dr. Jeff Masters, 3:43 PM GMT on February 07, 2013 | +18 |
A potentially historic Nor’easter is brewing for the Northeast U.S., where blizzard watches are up for much of eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The storm, dubbed “Nemo” by the Weather Channel, is expected to bring heavy snows of 1 – 2 feet, coastal wind gusts over hurricane force, and moderate to major coastal flooding. During the peak of the storm, Friday night into Saturday morning, snowfall rates of 2 – 3″ per hour can be expected. These intense bursts of snow may be accompanied by lightning and thunder. The cites of Boston, Hartford, Providence, Portland, and Burlington are all likely to get more than a foot of snow, and two feet of snow will probably fall along a swath from the western suburbs of Boston to Southwest Maine. With the Nor’easter generating these heavy snows expected to bomb out with a central pressure of 972 – 976 mb, the rapid flow of air around this low pressure center will generate ferocious sustained winds near 50 mph at the coast, with wind gusts in excess of hurricane force–74 mph. The combination of heavy snow and high winds will make travel extremely dangerous or impossible, with near-zero visibility in white-out conditions. Total snowfall from the storm is likely to rank in the top ten for Boston since weather observations began at Logan Airport in the 1950s. Here is the current top-10 list for Logan Airport:
1. February 17-18, 2003 27.5″
2. February 6-7, 1978 27.1″
3. February 24-27, 1969 26.3″
4. March 31-April 1, 1997 25.4″
5. January 22-23, 2005 22.5″
6. January 20-21, 1978 21.4″
7. March 3-5, 1960 19.8″
8. February 16-17, 1958 19.4″
9. February 8-10, 1994 18.7″
10. January 7-8, 1996 18.2″
10. December 20-22, 1975 18.2″
10. December 26-27, 2010 18.2″
Figure 1. Predicted wind speeds in knots at 7 am EST Saturday, February 9, 2013, from the 00Z February 7, 2013 run of the European (ECMWF) model. The model is predicting sustained winds of 50 knots (57.5 mph) will affect Cape Cod and Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. Multiply by 1.15 to convert knots to mph.
Serious coastal flooding expected in Massachusetts
The high winds from the storm will drive a damaging storm surge of 2 – 4′ along the coast of Eastern Massachusetts Friday night and Saturday morning. Of particular concern is the flooding that will occur during the Saturday morning high tide cycle, as that is the time of the new moon, which will bring the highest tide of the month. The ocean’s height in Boston varies naturally by about ten feet between low tide and high tide, so it matters greatly when the storm surge arrives, relative to the tidal cycle. Thus we speak of the “storm tide”–how how the water gets above the high tide mark, due to the combination of the storm surge and the tide. During Hurricane Sandy, on October 29, 2012, a potentially very damaging storm surge of 4.57′ hit Boston, but arrived near low tide, so the water level during the peak surge did not rise above the normal high tide mark. As of noon EST on February 7, 2013, the latest storm surge forecast from the GFS model is calling for a storm tide of about 3.4′ above high tide (MHHW, Mean Higher High Water) on Saturday morning, which would cause only minor flooding in Boston. This would be the 10th highest water level on record in Boston since tide gauge records began in 1921. According to former NHC storm surge expert Mike Lowry, who now works for TWC, the official top 5 storm tides at the Boston tide gauge, relative to MHHW, are:
1. 4.82′ – February 7, 1978 (Blizzard of 1978)
2. 3.92′ – January 2, 1987
3. 3.86′ – October 30, 1991 (Perfect Storm)
4. 3.76′ – January 28, 1979
5. 3.75′ – December 12, 1992
More serious flooding is expected in Cape Cod Bay to the southeast of Boston, where the northeast winds from the storm will pile up a higher storm surge. A storm surge of 3 – 4′ is predicted from Scituate to Sandwich Harbor Saturday morning. The surge will be accompanied by battering waves 20′ feet high, and major flooding and coastal erosion is expected. Major coastal flooding is also expected on the east end of Nantucket Island.
Figure 2. Coastal flooding hazards during the high tide cycle on Saturday morning, February 9, 2013, as predicted at 12 pm EDT Thursday, February 7, 2013, by the NWS Boston.
I’ll have an update on the storm Friday morning.
Jeff Masters
from: http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2344
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| Punxsutawney Phil, the weather-predicting groundhog. CREDIT: Alan Freed, Shutterstock |
From the perch of “Gobbler’s Knob,” a local hillside in Punxsutawney, Penn., a famous, roly-poly rodent named Phil has predicted an early spring, or put another way, the groundhog did not see his shadow today (Feb. 2), Groundhog Day.
Every year, the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club rises early with their charge and takes Phil the groundhog, a rodent that usually lives in an enclosure in the Punxsutawney Memorial Library, to Gobbler’s Knob for the weather-prediction ceremony. This year is Phil’s 127th prognostication.
“Punxsutawney Phil, the King of the Groundhogs, Seer of Seers, Prognosticator of Prognosticators, Weather Prophet without Peer, was awakened from his borrow at 7:28 a.m. with a tap of the President’s cane,” announced the Groundhog Club. The statement went on to say, “And so ye faithful, there is no shadow to see an early Spring for you and me.
Legend has it if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, six more weeks of winter weather are in store; if he doesn’t see a shadow, spring is around the corner.
How much stock
should we put into Phil’s forecast? His handlers say the furball makes accurate predictions 100 percent of the time. Statistics tell a slightly different story: According to the Groundhog Club’s records, Phil has predicted about 99 long winters and 15 early springs, with nine years of records lost. Those predictions have been right only 39 percent of the time — 36 percent if you look at post-1969 predictions, when weather records are more accurate.
“He sees his shadow about 80 percent of the time and the other 20 percent he doesn’t,” Bill Deeley, who was one of Phil’s handlers, taking care of the groundhog for about 16 years, told LiveScience in 2010. “He’s pretty darn accurate,” said Deeley, who is now president of the Groundhog Club’s Inner Circle. The president is responsible for translating Phil’s proclamation of whether or not he saw his shadow.
So how did Phil become such a prestigious prognosticator?
The legend of the groundhog’s forecasting powers arguably dates back to the early days of Christianity in Europe when clear skies on the holiday Candlemas Day, celebrated on Feb. 2, meant an extended winter. The tradition was then brought to Germany, with the German twist being that if the sun made an appearance on Candlemas, a hedgehog would cast its shadow, thus predicting six more weeks of bad weather. More specifically, the legend states: “For as the sun shines on Candlemas Day, so far will the snow swirl in May …”
As some of Pennsylvania’s earliest settlers were German, they continued the tradition upon noticing a large population of groundhogs, which resemble the European hedgehog.
Phil’s kin in the wild are likely still snoozing. For these groundhogs, hibernation generally begins in October and ends in March or April (not on Feb. 2). During this deep sleep, groundhogs curl up into tight balls with their heads tucked between their hind legs. Their heartbeats slow from some 100 beats a minute to as few as 15; the body temperature drops from 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius) to 46 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees C); and breathing slows. This depressed state allows animals to conserve energy and live off their fat stores during the harsh winter months when food is scarce. [Sleep Tight! Photos of Snoozing Animals]
Even though pampered Phil doesn’t go into a deep sleep like his outdoor pals, the groundhog does begin to slow down on eating and activities as the days get shorter. “Our groundhog will eat 12 months out of the year,” Deeley said in 2010. “He’s like an eating machine from April until September 15,” before he starts to slow down.
from: http://www.livescience.com/26808-groundhog-day-punxsutawney-phil-spring.html
Last update: February 2, 2013 at 10:52 pm by By Armand Vervaeck
VERY IMPORTANT : There are NO tsunami warnings or advisories for this earthquake (source JMA Japan)
Update 14:33 UTC : JMA Japan reports a Magnitude of 6.4 at 120 km depth which is VERY GOOD NEWS !
Update 14:29 UTC : Preliminary Magnitude of this very strong earthquake : 6.7
JMA 5+ intensity (moderately dangerous) at the following locations : Tokachi-chiho Chubu, Kushiro-chiho Chunambu, Nemuro-chiho Nambu
Intensity map courtesy and copyright JMA Japan
Most important Earthquake ata:
Magnitude : 6.7
Local time at epicenter : 2013-02-02 23:17:33 UTC+09:00 at epicenter
Depth (Hypocenter) : 93 km
Geo-location(s) :
Tokachi-chiho Chubu
Kushiro-chiho Chunambu
Nemuro-chiho Nambu
61km (38mi) SE of Obihiro, Japan
68km (42mi) SSE of Otofuke, Japan
81km (50mi) SW of Kushiro, Japan
106km (66mi) E of Shizunai, Japan
826km (513mi) NNE of Tokyo, Japan
Update 22:48 UTC : No other news or no other reports from FDMA Japan. Today’s earthquake was one with a happy end but was also a grim reminder of the March 11, 2011 tsunami earthquake.
Earthquake-Report.com senses the same way of reacting against powerful quakes in Japan and in Chile. Both countries had massive quakes the last couple of years and people are very well prepared these days. Exchanging experiences on what happened is a part of the routine. The shaking map below is based on the USGS data which are way stronger than the JMA data (M6.9 @ 102 km vs M6.4 @ 120 km). Based on the many reports we have received from Hokkaido, ER goes for the Japanese JMA scenario.
Update 17:30 UTC : FDMA Japan has just published a new report confirming 6 injured persons (all of them in Hokkaido)
Kushiro area: two people injured (minor injury)
Kushiro town: one person injured (minor injury)
Obihiro: 1 wounded (minor injury)
Kitami: 1 wounded (minor injury)
Anping town: one person injured (minor injury)
for more information and updates, go to: http://earthquake-report.com/2013/02/02/strong-earthquake-felt-in-hokkaido-japan/
Wild weather week ends; Mississippi River rises out of danger zone |
As wunderground’s Angela Fritz wrote in her blog today, the powerful tornado that ripped through Adairsville, Georgia, northwest of Atlanta, at 11:19 am EST Thursday morning, killing one person, has been rated a high-end EF-3 with 160 mph winds. At least seven other tornadoes in the outbreak were EF-2s. Damaging winds reports for the 2-day period numbered 597, the highest 2-day January total since NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center (SPC) began tabulating these in 2000. The severe weather outbreak was fueled an air mass that set many all-time January records for warmth and moisture, as detailed by our weather historian, Christopher C. Burt, in his latest post, A Wild Ride Weather-wise for the Eastern Half of the U.S. the past Four Days.
Figure 1. Damage to the Daiki Corporation factory in Adairsville, GA, after the January 30, 2013 EF-3 tornado. Image credit: Dr. Greg Forbes, TWC.
Figure 2. Severe weather reports for the month of January; 597 reports of damaging winds were recorded January 29 – 30. Image credit: NOAA/SPC.
Mississippi River rising
This week’s storm brought widespread rains of 1 – 2″ to Missouri and Illinois, along the drainage basin of the stretch of the Mississippi River that was so low as to threaten to stop barge traffic. Happily, the rains have caused the river to rise by more than seven feet over the past week, along the stretch from St. Louis to Thebes, Illinois. Thanks to this much-needed bump in river levels, plus the future run-off that will occur from the snows that have accumulated in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa, I expect no potential low water closures of the Mississippi until June at the earliest. According to today’s newly-released Drought Monitor, though, the area of the contiguous U.S. in moderate or greater drought remained unchanged at 58% this week. It will be dry across the core of the drought region for at least the next week; the GFS model is predicting that the next chance of significant precipitation for the drought region will be Saturday, February 9. Don’t bet on this happening, though, since the model has been inconsistent with its handling of the storm. The drought has killed hundreds of thousands of trees across the Midwest, and many more will succumb during the next few years. According to Brian Fuchs, a climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center, drought was present in at least isolated spots in all 50 states of the U.S. for the first time in history during 2012.
Figure 3. The water level in the Mississippi River at St. Louis was at -4′ early this week, just above the all-time record low of -6.2′ set in 1940. However, rains from this week’s storm have raised water levels by seven feet. Image credit: NOAA/HPC.
Figure 4. The liquid equivalent of melting all the snow on the ground present on February 1, 2013. Widespread amounts of water equivalent to 0.39″ – 2″ of rain are present over Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa, which is near average for this time of year. When this snow melts, it will raise the level of the Mississippi River and aid barge navigation. Image credit: NOAA/National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center.
Links
Adairsville Tornado Recap, Photos, and Video from Angela Fritz
A Wild Ride Weather-wise for the Eastern Half of the U.S. the past Four Days by wunderground’s weather historian, Christopher C. Burt.
Tornado Expert Sees “Staggering” Damage in Georgia
Have a great Groundhog’s Day and Super Sunday, everyone!
Jeff Masters
They’re back!
Why are these so-called “mysterious loud booms” being heard so often around the world?
Once again, mysterious loud booms and shaking are back, this time in Oklahoma, Alaska, Massachusetts, South Carolina, and Indiana, if in fact they ever left.
Maybe, not so mysterious after all, just major earth changes rattling the planet.
Many people know the cause of the mysterious loud booms and shaking. The powers-that-be have known for decades, but for reasons known only to them, they refuse to inform the public, while others who know the truth of what is happening and will tell are often not believed.
So there you have it – the mysterious loud booms continue and the “cause remains unknown.”
Planet X (Nibiru) is stressing Planet Earth. As earth stretches and pulls apart in stretch zones, loud booms are created by the air above the areas slapping together. For example, the continental United States is being diagonally stretched, roughly from San Diego to the Northeast with a bow or curve developing between Alaska and San Diego. The loud booms being heard and the shaking being felt are the result of a tearing or stretching Earth.
When a fault-line moves, you get an earthquake, but when earth pulls apart, you get loud booms and shaking.
For those living in stretch zones and hearing these loud booms, it might be wise to keep a close check on your home and the ground around you for suddenly appearing cracks and sinkholes, and exploding manhole covers, houses, and gas lines.
Oklahoma, Guthrie and Boley (Jan 2-3, 2013): Mysterious booms heard in Guthrie. People living in Guthrie have been reporting mysterious unnerving booms around town. Descriptions are similar. Very loud noticeable booms were heard twice on Wednesday, Jan 2, between 7 and 9 p.m.; some houses shook slightly. On Thursday night Jan 3, a 3.7 quake at a depth of 6 miles rumbled near Boley, Oklahoma in Okfuskee County (VIDEO).
South Central Alaska (Jan 3): Loud booms were reported from Eagle River to Mat-Su Valley between 8 and 10 p.m., buildings and furniture shook. Those hearing the booms agree it was a strong and persistent noise, not sonic booms. A woman living in Peters Creek heard several loud booms and, after about a minute of silence, a rumble that caused her chandelier to shake. Thinking it might have been an earthquake, she checked online, but (of course) nothing was listed for that time – 8:05 p.m.
(Note: As so many are aware, the USGS downgrades or drops earthquakes regularly from its reports and has been doing so for quite some time now. So, we may never know for sure whether the rumbling and shaking felt in Peters Creek was caused by an earthquake. Ask yourself, why would USGS lower quake magnitudes or drop quakes from their reports?)
Massachusetts, Marblehead and Salem (Jan 5): Salem and Marblehead police officers searched for the source of a large boom that prompted a multitude of 911 calls around 1:34 a.m. They were unable to locate a source. One resident reported a loud boom accompanied by a flash of light near Salem State University. This is not the first time loud booms were reported in this area late at night.
South Carolina, Red Bank in Lexington County (Jan 6): For the past two weeks, Red Bank residents have reported loud booms that sometimes rattle windows and are heard either late at night or early in the morning, most recently on Sunday evening, Jan 6. The FAA and the military have confirmed they are not sonic booms, and USC seismologists have no record of seismic activity in the area.
Evansville, Indiana (Jan 6): Loud booms were reported by many in Evansville on Jan 6. Evansville Dispatch received several calls reporting what sounded like a huge explosion. Nothing was found and neither USGS or the Air Force had anything to report.
For those living in stretch zones and hearing these loud booms, remember to keep a close eye on your home and the ground for suddenly appearing cracks and sinkholes and the like. Remember, there are those “in the know” who will not tell you the truth about what is happening, and there are those “in the know” who will tell you an uncomfortable truth and not be believed.
Who should you believe – those “in authority” who say they are sonic booms (often in the middle of the night?), or should you believe your lyin’ eyes and ears? The choice is yours.
from: http://www.examiner.com/article/loud-booms-again-oklahoma-alaska-mass-south-carolina-and-indiana-jan-2-6
Jan. 28, 2013: Talk about a close shave. On Feb. 15th an asteroid about half the size of a football field will fly past Earth only 17,200 miles above our planet’s surface. There’s no danger of a collision, but the space rock, designated 2012 DA14, has NASA’s attention.
“This is a record-setting close approach,” says Don Yeomans of NASA’s Near Earth Object Program at JPL. “Since regular sky surveys began in the 1990s, we’ve never seen an object this big get so close to Earth.”
Earth’s neighborhood is littered with asteroids of all shapes and sizes, ranging from fragments smaller than beach balls to mountainous rocks many kilometers wide. Many of these objects hail from the asteroid belt, while others may be corpses of long-dead, burnt out comets. NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program helps find and keep track of them, especially the ones that come close to our planet.
2012 DA14 is a fairly typical near-Earth asteroid. It measures some 50 meters wide, neither very large nor very small, and is probably made of stone, as opposed to metal or ice. Yeomans estimates that an asteroid like 2012 DA14 flies past Earth, on average, every 40 years, yet actually strikes our planet only every 1200 years or so.
The impact of a 50-meter asteroid is not cataclysmic–unless you happen to be underneath it. Yeomans points out that a similar-sized object formed the mile wide Meteor Crater in Arizona when it struck about 50,000 years ago. “That asteroid was made of iron,” he says, “which made it an especially potent impactor.” Also, in 1908, something about the size of 2012 DA14 exploded in the atmosphere above Siberia, leveling hundreds of square miles of forest. Researchers are still studying the “Tunguska Event” for clues to the impacting object.
“2012 DA14 will definitely not hit Earth,” emphasizes Yeomans. “The orbit of the asteroid is known well enough to rule out an impact.”
Even so, it will come interestingly close. NASA radars will be monitoring the space rock as it approaches Earth closer than many man-made satellites. Yeomans says the asteroid will thread the gap between low-Earth orbit, where the ISS and many Earth observation satellites are located, and the higher belt of geosynchronous satellites, which provide weather data and telecommunications.
“The odds of an impact with a satellite are extremely remote,” he says. Almost nothing orbits where DA14 will pass the Earth.
NASA’s Goldstone radar in the Mojave Desert is scheduled to ping 2012 DA14 almost every day from Feb. 16th through 20th. The echoes will not only pinpoint the orbit of the asteroid, allowing researchers to better predict future encounters, but also reveal physical characteristics such as size, spin, and reflectivity. A key outcome of the observing campaign will be a 3D radar map showing the space rock from all sides.
During the hours around closest approach, the asteroid will brighten until it resembles a star of 8th magnitude. Theoretically, that’s an easy target for backyard telescopes. The problem, points out Yeomans, is speed. “The asteroid will be racing across the sky, moving almost a full degree (or twice the width of a full Moon) every minute. That’s going to be hard to track.” Only the most experienced amateur astronomers are likely to succeed.
Those who do might experience a tiny chill when they look at their images. That really was a close shave.
from: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/28jan_2012da/
Last update: January 29, 2013 at 12:38 am by By Armand Vervaeck
Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 6.1 (preliminary)
Local time at epicenter : local time 22:38:55
Depth (Hypocenter) : 22 km
Geo-location(s) :
227 km E Almaty (pop 1,204,762 ; local time 22:38:55.2 2013-01-28)
185 km NW Aksu (pop 340,020 ; local time 00:38:55.2 2013-01-29)
101 km E Tyup (pop 13,437 ; local time 22:38:55.2 2013-01-28)
44 km SW Koshkar (pop 311 ; local time 22:38:55.2 2013-01-28)
Update 17:04 UTC : USGS reports M6.0 at a depth of 10.6 km
All reporting seismological agencies are reporting a very shallow and thus very dangerous earthquake. M6.0 is a potentially deadly earthquake in this area of the world.
Update 17:02 UTC : The earthquake occurred in the triangle of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and China (Xinjiang). We do fear that this earthquake will be damaging to some extend.
It is now dark in the area and we fear that electricity will be down. No electricity means a lot of uncertainty to reach the epicenter area and to do some rescue works.
The area is sparsely populated.
Update 16:58 UTC : EMSC has update their records to M6.1 at a depth of 10 km, less but still VERY DANGEROUS
Update 16:51 UTC : EMSC reports a Magnitude of 6.5 at a depth of 2 km. Various data which will become better the following minutes.
Update : The first notice reaching us is a preliminary Magnitude of 6.1 at a depth of 22 km = Very dangerous
Update : based on the many visitors from Kazakhstan, we think a major earthquake occurred there.
for more information and updates, go to: http://earthquake-report.com/2013/01/28/very-strong-earthquake-in-kazakhstan/
(ps: if you can, please donate to earthquake report. They do an amazing job.)
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| CREDIT: Dreamstime |
The hands of the infamous “Doomsday Clock” will remain firmly in their place at five minutes to midnight — symbolizing humans’ destruction — for the year 2013, scientists announced today (Jan. 14).
Keeping their outlook for the future of humanity quite dim, the group of scientists also wrote an open letter to President Barack Obama, urging him to partner with other global leaders to act on climate change.
The clock is a symbol of the threat of humanity’s imminent destruction from nuclear or biological weapons, climate change and other human-caused disasters. In making their deliberations about how to update the clock’s time this year, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists considered the current state of nuclear arsenals around the globe, the slow and costly recovery from events like Fukushima nuclear meltdown, and extreme weather events that fit in with a pattern of global warming.
2012 was the hottest year on record in the contiguous United States, marked by devastating drought and brutal storms,” the letter says. “These extreme events are exactly what climate models predict for an atmosphere laden with greenhouse gases.” [Doom and Gloom: 10 Post-Apocalyptic Worlds]
At the same time, the letter did give a nod to some progress, applauding the president for taking steps to “nudge the country along a more rational energy path,” with his support for wind and other renewable energy sources.
“We have as much hope for Obama’s second term in office as we did in 2010, when we moved back the hand of the Clock after his first year in office,” Robert Socolow, chair of the board that determines the clock’s position, said in a statement. “This is the year for U.S. leadership in slowing climate change and setting a path toward a world without nuclear weapons.”
The Doomsday Clock came into being in 1947 as a way for atomic scientists to warn the world of the dangers of nuclear weapons. That year, the Bulletin set the time at seven minutes to midnight, with midnight symbolizing humanity’s destruction. By 1949, it was at three minutes to midnight as the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union deteriorated. In 1953, after the first test of the hydrogen bomb, the doomsday clock ticked to two minutes until midnight.
The Bulletin was at its most optimistic in 1991, when the Cold War thawed and the United States and Russia began cutting their arsenals. That year, the clock was set at 17 minutes to midnight.
From then until 2010, however, it was a gradual creep back toward destruction, as hopes of total nuclear disarmament vanished and threats of nuclear terrorism and climate change reared their heads. In 2010, the Bulletin found some hope in arms reduction treaties and international climate talks and bumped the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock back to six minutes from midnight from its previous post at five to midnight. But by 2012, the clock was pushed forward another minute.
from: http://www.livescience.com/26258-doomsday-clock-5-minutes-midnight.html