Category Archives: Earth Stuff

News of Earth Changes, climate shifts, weather anomalies, volcanoes, etc

Herbicide Causes Shape Changes in Vertebrate Animals

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Herbicide Can Induce Morphological Changes in Vertebrate Animals: Tadpoles Change Shape

ScienceDaily (Apr. 2, 2012) — The world’s most popular weed killer, Roundup®, can cause amphibians to change shape, according to research recently published in Ecological Applications

Rick Relyea, University of Pittsburgh professor of biological sciences in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and director of Pitt’s Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology, demonstrated that sublethal and environmentally relevant concentrations of Roundup® caused two species of amphibians to alter their morphology. According to Relyea, this is the first study to show that a herbicide can induce morphological changes in a vertebrate animal.

Relyea set up large outdoor water tanks that contained many of the components of natural wetlands. Some tanks contained caged predators, which emit chemicals that naturally induce changes in tadpole morphology (such as larger tails to better escape predators). After adding tadpoles to each tank, he exposed them to a range of Roundup® concentrations. After 3 weeks, the tadpoles were removed from the tanks.

“It was not surprising to see that the smell of predators in the water induced larger tadpole tails,” says Relyea. “That is a normal, adaptive response. What shocked us was that the Roundup® induced the same changes. Moreover, the combination of predators and Roundup® caused the tail changes to be twice as large.” Because tadpoles alter their body shape to match their environment, having a body shape that does not fit the environment can put the animals at a distinct disadvantage.

Predators cause tadpoles to change shape by altering the stress hormones of tadpoles, says Relyea. The similar shape changes when exposed to Roundup® suggest that Roundup® may interfere with the hormones of tadpoles and potentially many other animals.

“This discovery highlights the fact that pesticides, which are important for crop production and human health, can have unintended consequences for species that are not the pesticide’s target,” says Relyea. “Herbicides are not designed to affect animals, but we are learning that they can have a wide range of surprising effects by altering how hormones work in the bodies of animals. This is important because amphibians not only serve as a barometer of the ecosystem’s health, but also as an indicator of potential dangers to other species in the food chain, including humans.”

from:    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120402144938.htm

Guerrero, Mexico Strong Aftershock

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Very strong dangerous earthquake / aftershock in Guerrero, Mexico – severe shaking for 17,000 people

Last update: April 2, 2012 at 8:33 pm by By 

Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 6.3
UTC Time : Monday, April 02, 2012 at 17:36:43 UTC
Local time at epicenter : Monday, April 02, 2012 at 12:36:43 PM at epicenter
Depth (Hypocenter) : 12 km
Geo-location(s) :
27 km (17 miles) SSE (148°) from Ometepec, Guerrero, Mexico

Update 20:28 UTC :  The authorities in Puebla, one of the major Mexican cities and approx. 250 km from the epicenter,  have reported NO injures or damage. Good news which we expected at this distance.
Earthquake-report.com calls an area with a radius of about 35 km around the epicenter at high risk for additional damage (to the already damaged houses during the March 20 mainshock).

Update 19:44 UTC :  USGS has increased his intensity mapping prediction. The new estimate mention 17,000 people having felt a severe MMI VIII shaking (damaging environment), 180,000 people a VII MMI very strong shaking.
The new values are bad news and will make this aftershock almost certain a damaging one.
Until now we have No details yet on damage and injuries. As said earlier it will take another 2 to 6 hours to have see first serious assessments of the epicenter area

Update 19:42 UTC :  Intensity report in the most important cities in the greater epicenter area :
VII    Cuajinicuilapa    9,000 people
VII    San Juan Cacahuatepec    4,000  people
VII    Ometepec    18,000  people
VII    San Pedro Amuzgos    4,000  people
VI    San Pedro Jicayan    4,000  people
VI    Santiago Pinotepa Nacional    26,000  people
MMI VII : very strong shaking
MMI VI : strong shaking

Update 19:16 UTC :  Mexican authorities are reporting the strongest shaking in the Costa Chica region. Until now, we have no reports of damage, but we are almost sure that they will appear in 4 to 8 hours.

Update 18:38 UTC :  Helicopters were dispatched 5 MINUTES after the earthquake. The only damage seen was a billboard that fall causing NO injuries. (we are confirming the very swift reaction of the authorities in DF)

Update :  The Mexican seismological agency has increased his initial Magnitude to 6.0. Since the mainshock today, 2 aftershocks of resp. 4.6 and 4.7 have been listed (normal)

Update :  Read also the many felt reports at the bottom of this page

Update 18:29 UTC :  Last time, damage was only reported after several hours or even a couple of days in the epicenter area (one of the poorest areas in Mexico). Most houses are made from brick or in adobe in the greater epicenter area.

Update:
– Security secretary of Mexico City reports that there is NO damage.
– Communications are still working.
– Subway is still working.
Such reports are mostly based on the capital Mexico City or DF.

Update :  Intermediate report from Carlos Robles : Servicio Sismologico Nacional is upgrading the earthquake to 6.0. Saldo blanco (no deaths) is reported. There aren’t reports of damage.

Update 18:23 UTC :  There are NO Nuclear plants or Hydrodams in the greater epicenter area

Update :  EMSC (Seismology Europe) reports now a magnitude of 6.1 at a depth of 10 km

Update 18:18 UTC :  NO tsunami danger as the epicenter of the earthquake is below the Mexican mainland

Update :  Evacuation were held at Mexico city.It was felt strong in some parts of Mexico city.In Coyoacan there are only reports of scared people. (source : Carlos Robles)

I Have Felt It map courtesy USGS – blue lighter, yellow strong shaking

Update : USGS predicts a very strong shaking for 3,000 people in the epicentral area. 164,000 people will have experienced a strong MMI VI shaking and 289,000 people a moderate shaking. As this earthquake is also felt in DF,  the earthquake will have been noticed by millions of people.

Update : As this is an aftershock from the March 20 M 7.4 earthquake,  these aftershocks, even at the current magnitude are very normal !

Update : The president of DF is flying by helicopter over DF areas to overview the situation. He reports that so far no serious damage can be seen from the air

Update : The Mexican media including the local seismological agency are not reachable because of too many connections

for more information and updates, go to:    http://earthquake-report.com/2012/04/02/very-strong-dangerous-earthquake-aftershock-in-guerrero-mexico/

Nevado fel Ruiz Volcano Nearing Eruption?

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Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia May Erupt in “Days to Weeks”

The small steam plume from Nevado del Ruiz, seen on March 27, 2012. Image from INGEOMINAS Colombia.

Some news brought to my attention by Eruptions reader Sherine merited a quick Saturday post. Thedeveloping volcanic crisis at Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia looks like it is continuing to escalate. INGEOMINAS, the Colombian geological survey, released a “special bulletin” this afternoon elevating the alert status at Nevado del Ruiz to Orange Level (II). This means that the signs of activity at the volcano suggest that an eruption is likely in the days to weeks timescale. Marta Calvache from INGEOMINASmentioed that over the past few days the volcano has experienced tremor related to “fluid motion” (likely magma), rock fracture earthquakes at the summit have been increasing in pulses and sulfur dioxide emissions continue to be high.

 

So far, INGEOMINAS thinks any potentially eruption will be smaller than the activity seen during Ruiz’slast eruptive period between 1985-1989. The major hazard from Ruiz is the lahars that can be generatedas ash and other volcanic material mix with melted snow and ice at the summit. There is also the potential for ash fall (especially hazardous for those with respiratory problems) on towns and cities in the area, including Manizalez and Pereira, both of which are less than 50 km from the volcano, and Bogotá, only ~120 km from Ruiz. If you live in the area around Ruiz, be sure to examine the INGEOMINAS volcanic hazard map to see the places with the highest probability of lahars and pyroclastic flows. Taking a look at the INGEOMINAS Azufrado webcam for Ruiz, a plume can be seen coming from the summit area (see below) while the webicorder shows the increasing seismicity as well. You can also get a glimpse of the volcano from an INGEOMINAS webcam in Manizalez.

Webcam capture from March 31, 2012 showing a small plume from Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia.

from:    http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/03/nevado-del-ruiz-in-colombia-may-erupt-in-days-to-weeks/

 

Iwaki Japan Earthquake

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Strong earthquake in Iwaki, Japan

M 5.9      2012/04/01 14:04    Depth 50.0 km     JAPAN – Fukushima-ken Oki
JMA intensity max. 5- (earthquake-report.com considers 5+ as possibly damaging)
The intermediate depth of the epicenter was luckily weakening the impact
Magnitude data provided by JMA Japan
– Epicenter only 9 km (6 miles) NE (53°) from Iwaki, Honshu, Japan
– JMA 5- in Naraha-machi Kitada and Tomioka-machiMoto-oka
– JMA 4 in Koriyama-shi Kaisei*, Shirakawa-shi Shin-shirakawa*, Shirakawa-shi Higashi*, Shirakawa-shi Omotego*, Sukagawa-shi Iwase-shisho*,Nihommatsu-shi Yui*, Nihommatsu-shi Harimichi*, Kawamata-machi Gohyakuta*, Ten-ei-mura Shimomatsumoto*, Nakajima-mura Nametsu*, Ishikawa-machi , Shimoizumi*, Tamakawa-mura Otaka*, Hirata-mura Nagata*, Asakawa-machi Asakawa*, Furudono-machi Matsukawa*, Ono-machi Ono-niimachi*, Tamura-shi Funehikimachi, Tamura-shi Ogoemachi*, Tamura-shi Tokiwamachi*, Tamura-shi Miyakojimachi*, Tamura-shi Takinemachi*, Iwaki-shi Onahama, Iwaki-shi Taira-yotsunami*, Iwaki-shi Nishikimachi*, Iwaki-shi Taira-umemoto*, Soma-shi Nakamura*, Fukushima Hirono-machi Shimokitaba-oyachihara*, Fukushima Hirono-machi Shimokitaba-nawashirogae*, Kawauchi-mura Shimokawauchi, Kawauchi-mura Kamikawauchi-koyamadaira*, Kawauchi-mura Kamikawauchi-hayawata*, Katsurao-mura Ochiai-ochiai*, Shinchi-machi Yachigoya*, Iitate-mura Itamizawa*, Minami-soma-shi Haramachiku-takamicho *
– The earthquake occurred at 23:04 (11:04 PM) local time
– The earthquake was very well felt in Tokyo, although Tokyo was at a distance of 196 km from the epicenter
– The epicenter was following local JMA Japan a little in the Ocean, what surely has weakened the impact.
NO tsunami risk
– The damaged nuclear power plant of Fukushima has been hit by JMA 4 shaking (MMI V to VI), which is reasonable and should not lead to further damage

http://earthquake-report.com/2012/03/31/major-earthquakes-list-april-1-2012/

 

Abiotic Oil Theory

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Here is some information.  Is it true?  The research needs to be done:

Abiotic Oil a Theory Worth Exploring

September 14, 2011 RSS Feed Print

It’s our nature to sort, divide, and classify. We label ourselves to identify political leanings, religious beliefs, the food we enjoy, and the sports teams we cheer. The oil industry too has its own distinct labels which include the “Peak Oil” theorists, those who believe the world is fast depleting the finite supply of fossil fuel; and the pragmatists, those who recognize that engineering and technological advances in oil drilling and extraction continuously identify new reserves that make oil plentiful.

And there’s a third group you may not know. These people are deeply interested in oil and its origins, but their advocacy of “abiotic theory” has many dismissing them as heretics, frauds, or idealists. They hold that oil can be derived from hydrocarbons that existed eons ago in massive pools deep within the earth’s core. That source of hydrocarbons seeps up through the earth’s layers and slowly replenishes oil sources. In other words, it turns the fossil-fuel paradigm upside down.

[Read: How Much Oil is There?]

Perhaps the breakthrough for this theory came when Chris Cooper’s story appeared April 16, 1999, in The Wall Street Journal about an oil field called Eugene Island. Here’s an excerpt:

Production at the oil field, deep in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana, was supposed to have declined years ago. And for a while, it behaved like any normal field: Following its 1973 discovery, Eugene Island 330’s output peaked at about 15,000 barrels a day. By 1989, production had slowed to about 4,000 barrels a day.

Then suddenly—some say almost inexplicably—Eugene Island’s fortunes reversed. The field, operated by PennzEnergy Co., is now producing 13,000 barrels a day, and probable reserves have rocketed to more than 400 million barrels from 60 million. Stranger still, scientists studying the field say the crude coming out of the pipe is of a geological age quite different from the oil that gushed 10 years ago.

According to Cooper,

Thomas Gold, a respected astronomer and professor emeritus at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, has held for years that oil is actually a renewable, primordial syrup continually manufactured by the Earth under ultrahot conditions and tremendous pressures. As this substance migrates toward the surface, it is attacked by bacteria, making it appear to have an organic origin dating back to the dinosaurs, he says.

All of which has led some scientists to a radical theory: Eugene Island is rapidly refilling itself, perhaps from some continuous source miles below the Earth’s surface. That, they say, raises the tantalizing possibility that oil may not be the limited resource it is assumed to be.

More recently, Forbes presented a similar discussion. In 2008 it reported a group of Russian and Ukrainian scientists say that oil and gas don’t come from fossils; they’re synthesized deep within the earth’s mantle by heat, pressure, and other purely chemical means, before gradually rising to the surface. Under the so-called abiotic theory of oil, finding all the energy we need is just a matter of looking beyond the traditional basins where fossils might have accumulated.

The idea that oil comes from fossils “is a myth” that needs changing according to petroleum engineer Vladimir Kutcherov, speaking at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. “All kinds of rocks could have oil and gas deposits.”

Alexander Kitchka of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences estimates that 60 percent of the content of all oil is abiotic in origin and not from fossil fuels. He says companies should drill deeper to find it.

Is abiotic theory the real deal? Is Eugene Island “Exhibit A?”  Look how long it’s taken for this conversation to reach a tipping point!

from:   http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/on-energy/2011/09/14/abiotic-oil-a-theory-worth-exploring

In Come the Sprites

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SPRITE SEASON BEGINS: The first sprites of summer are starting to appear in the skies of North America. The strange thing is, summer is almost three months away. “Sprite season is beginning early this year,” says Thomas Ashcraft, who photographed these specimens last night from his observatory in New Mexico:

“At precisely two minutes and twenty-six seconds after midnight March 30, 2012 there was an incredibly powerful bolt of lightning in the vicinity of Woodward, Oklahoma that spawned these red sprites,” says Ashcraft. “I could see them from two states away!” He also recorded VLF and shortwave radio emissions from the cluster, which you can hear as the soundtrack to this video.

Sprites are electrical discharges that come out of the top of thunderclouds, opposite ordinary lightning bolts which plunge toward Earth. Sprites can tower as high as 90 km above ground. That makes them a form of space weather as they overlap the zone of auroras, meteors, and noctilucent clouds.

Because they are associated with lightning, sprites are most often seen in summer months, “but in the past few days sprites have been reported in Texas (particularly near the Mexican border) as well as here in New Mexico,” notes Ashcraft.

from:    spaceweather.com

Venezuela Earthquake

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Moderate earthquake at the northern coast of Venezuela

Last update: March 31, 2012 at 4:33 pm by By 


M 4.9      2012/03/31 09:47    Depth 9.8 km     VENEZUELA
local time 05:47 – Epicenter location see below
Shallow moderate earthquake close to the northern coast of Venezuela
26 km S Carúpano (pop 112,082) and 94 km SE Porlamar (pop 87,120)

USGS Sucre, Venezuela Mar 31 09:47 AM 4.9 9.8 MAP

from:    http://earthquake-report.com/2012/03/30/major-earthquakes-list-march-31-2012/

Wind Speed, Eclipses, and Temperatures

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Eclipses’ effect on wind revealed

March 29, 2012 by Tom Marshall

Eclipses' effect on wind revealedSolar eclipses don’t just turn the lights out; they also make the wind slow down and change direction.

Scientists compared hourly measurements of wind speed and direction from 121  across southern England during the August 1999  with the output of a high-resolution weather  that wasn’t programmed to represent the eclipse.

The model agreed very closely with the instruments’ readings right up until the eclipse began. It then showed what the weather would have been like if the eclipse hadn’t happened, giving researchers a much more accurate idea of its effects.

‘The eclipse was like a giant ,’ says Dr Suzanne Gray of the University of Reading, lead author of the paper in  A. The study shows that scientists can now use high-resolution weather models to look at  changes of small magnitude, like those caused by solar eclipses.

The results show that average  across an inland cloud-free region over southern England dropped by 0.7 metres per second, and that the wind’s direction turned anticlockwise by an average of 17° – effectively, the eclipse was causing the winds to become more easterly. Temperatures also fell by an average of about 1°C.

Previous work on the subject has been based only on measurements in a few places, rather than from a network as in this case. And it didn’t compare these measurements with a weather model to predict what would have happened without the eclipse.

It’s only recently become possible to do this kind of experiment, after huge improvement in high-resolution  models over the last decade. ‘We could never have done this when the eclipse occurred,’ says Gray, ‘but now we can use the model to get a far better idea of its impact on the wind.’

Temperatures are likely to fall when the Earth is deprived of sunlight, just like they do at night. And the slower wind speeds weren’t unexpected, Gray says – cooling the atmosphere close to the ground removes energy from it, damping turbulence, which will probably mean less wind. But the changes in wind direction were more of a surprise.

The effects were so pronounced that they can be seen even in measurements that are taken hourly, which is very infrequent in the context of such a transient event as an eclipse.

The results seem to fit the ‘eclipse cyclone’ hypothesis proposed in 1901 by H Helm Clayton, one of the first scientists to investigate eclipses’ impact on the weather. He suggested that when the moon’s gigantic shadow falls on the Earth, it causes a core of cold air around which a weak, short-lived cyclone forms, skewing the winds anticlockwise.

from:    http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-03-eclipses-effect-revealed.html

El Hierro Update 3/30

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El Hierro Volcano : Yellow alert – Salvamar Adhara spends a couple of hours above the vent “filming”

Last update: March 30, 2012 at 4:19 pm by By 

Camera used by SCIC for underwater filming

Update 30/03 – 15:42 UTC
–  Joke was (of course) in the port at the return of the Salvamar Adhara who spend a couple of hours above the vent. Based on what we have seen in the past weeks and months, we know that if the Salvamar Adhara remains a while on the sea, it is not for water sampling only (takes very short time). Bathymetry was done yesterday by the BIO Hesperides, so bathymetry should be excluded too. So Joke asked Maria José Jurado, the CSIC representative on board, if she had worked with the floating video camera (it is a camera on a rope pulled by the Salvamar Adhara, not a ROV). She said yes, we did.
Joke continued asking Maria José about what she has seen on the camera. She said that she had some interesting material, but she had to analyze it further on.  She also said, that when the quality would be good enough, CSIC will send it to the Gobierno de Canarias to publish the video.
Joke also asked : was there still some activity ? She said : Yes, we still see some gases coming out of the vent. Joke continued asking : also gases at the surface ? She said : NO.
We will publish Joke’s images from the boat, spectators, camera on board, a few jelly fish in a while.
ER comment : nothing new here of course, at least nothing which surprises us. The jacuzzis we have seen for many days in a row are absolute signs of further degassing.  The main question remains, is there still lava coming out of the vent. The last time we know for sure that that was the case was on March 14 when the ULPGC ROV made a video recording of it.  The latest bathymetry data from CSIC did tell us that the cone was at 88 meter. But this depth was measured at the end of February ! All frequent El Hierro eruption followers have 1 major question. How deep is the crater rim at this moment ?  Is it a coincidence that the Salvamar Adhara starts filming again 1 day after that the  BIO Hesperides measured the depth of the Las Calmas sea floor or cone ? Probably yes or probably not.  At least we know that fresh erupted lava was seen by the ULPGC ROV on March 14, and there are NO indications that this pattern has changed since then. Does this mean that the depth will be less ? Not necessarily. Let us all hope that the results will be published soon in the website of the Gobierno de Canarias.

Update 30/03 – 09:59 UTC
–  Joke told us that the Salvamar Adhara has just been spotted at the main vent, probably taking water samples
– On Jokes images (click on the thumbnails below), the main vent can well be seen as well as a far bigger colored area. There is doubt whether this is current coloring or a stain. We go for the stain.

Update 30/03 – 09:59 UTC
– Joke just send us a morning report. When walking down the lave fields to La Restinga, she stumbled in a AA lava field (thick sharp lava flowing out of a crater at a slow speed) but fell luckily in a lapilli field (small volcanic stones falling out of the sky during an eruption –  more or less like thick ash).  It is a little painful but everything is still functioning (including her cameras)
– While driving down with the bus this morning, Joke saw a jacuzzi, but in the meantime he disappeared again
– Joke told us that she saw technicians at the webcam mast ! Let’s hope that they will leave the webcams untouched as we will never see them again in time if necessary ! As politics are against any further “bad news”, we have no hope at all that they will reactivate the webcam.
– 1 earthquake since midnight.
– continuing microseismicity
– NO change in horizontal GPS deformation

Update 29/03 – 22:20 UTC
Julio del Castillo Vivero has created a fantastic high resolution panoramic image with 60 images from Joke Volta ! (they regularly share their work). The result El Hierro as a color palette
Picture info :  180 meters above sea level – Taken today (29th March) – Mountain Dácila – Finca José Pérez, locals call it Montaña La Restinga

Click on the image to see this great picture in Full Size.

Update 29/03 – 21:20 UTC
– The BIO (Buque de Investigación Oceanográfica) has made a short bathymetry mission stop at El Hierro today during his return trip from Antarctica. Spain has an Antarctica base and during the months November to February, the Antarctic peninsula is merely ice free.
– And to make the day complete, here are the beautiful evening images of Joke Volta

Update 29/03 – 21:04 UTC
– The Spanish Army is really good in public relations. IGN needs to take an example on them. In a press report on the Armada Española website this evening, the bathymetry mission was highlighted.
“El buque ha realizado varias líneas de prospección en una cuadrícula de trabajo situada en las coordenadas: 27º 40´N // 27º 30´N de latitud y 18º 05´W // 17º 55´W de longitud, para determinar el punto de mayor altura del edificio volcánico y comprobar posibles variaciones desde el último levantamiento batimétrico.”
Human translation : The vessel has done several rectangle routes under the coordinates : 27º 40´N // 27º 30´N de latitude y 18º 05´W // 17º 55´W longitude to determine the highest point of the volcano and check any possible changes since last bathymetry.
– Afternoon images Joke Volta (beautiful colors !)

for more information, and updates, go to:

Camera used by SCIC for underwater filming

Update 30/03 – 15:42 UTC
–  Joke was (of course) in the port at the return of the Salvamar Adhara who spend a couple of hours above the vent. Based on what we have seen in the past weeks and months, we know that if the Salvamar Adhara remains a while on the sea, it is not for water sampling only (takes very short time). Bathymetry was done yesterday by the BIO Hesperides, so bathymetry should be excluded too. So Joke asked Maria José Jurado, the CSIC representative on board, if she had worked with the floating video camera (it is a camera on a rope pulled by the Salvamar Adhara, not a ROV). She said yes, we did.
Joke continued asking Maria José about what she has seen on the camera. She said that she had some interesting material, but she had to analyze it further on.  She also said, that when the quality would be good enough, CSIC will send it to the Gobierno de Canarias to publish the video.
Joke also asked : was there still some activity ? She said : Yes, we still see some gases coming out of the vent. Joke continued asking : also gases at the surface ? She said : NO.
We will publish Joke’s images from the boat, spectators, camera on board, a few jelly fish in a while.
ER comment : nothing new here of course, at least nothing which surprises us. The jacuzzis we have seen for many days in a row are absolute signs of further degassing.  The main question remains, is there still lava coming out of the vent. The last time we know for sure that that was the case was on March 14 when the ULPGC ROV made a video recording of it.  The latest bathymetry data from CSIC did tell us that the cone was at 88 meter. But this depth was measured at the end of February ! All frequent El Hierro eruption followers have 1 major question. How deep is the crater rim at this moment ?  Is it a coincidence that the Salvamar Adhara starts filming again 1 day after that the  BIO Hesperides measured the depth of the Las Calmas sea floor or cone ? Probably yes or probably not.  At least we know that fresh erupted lava was seen by the ULPGC ROV on March 14, and there are NO indications that this pattern has changed since then. Does this mean that the depth will be less ? Not necessarily. Let us all hope that the results will be published soon in the website of the Gobierno de Canarias.

Update 30/03 – 09:59 UTC
–  Joke told us that the Salvamar Adhara has just been spotted at the main vent, probably taking water samples
– On Jokes images (click on the thumbnails below), the main vent can well be seen as well as a far bigger colored area. There is doubt whether this is current coloring or a stain. We go for the stain.

Update 30/03 – 09:59 UTC
– Joke just send us a morning report. When walking down the lave fields to La Restinga, she stumbled in a AA lava field (thick sharp lava flowing out of a crater at a slow speed) but fell luckily in a lapilli field (small volcanic stones falling out of the sky during an eruption –  more or less like thick ash).  It is a little painful but everything is still functioning (including her cameras)
– While driving down with the bus this morning, Joke saw a jacuzzi, but in the meantime he disappeared again
– Joke told us that she saw technicians at the webcam mast ! Let’s hope that they will leave the webcams untouched as we will never see them again in time if necessary ! As politics are against any further “bad news”, we have no hope at all that they will reactivate the webcam.
– 1 earthquake since midnight.
– continuing microseismicity
– NO change in horizontal GPS deformation

Update 29/03 – 22:20 UTC
Julio del Castillo Vivero has created a fantastic high resolution panoramic image with 60 images from Joke Volta ! (they regularly share their work). The result El Hierro as a color palette
Picture info :  180 meters above sea level – Taken today (29th March) – Mountain Dácila – Finca José Pérez, locals call it Montaña La Restinga

Click on the image to see this great picture in Full Size.

Update 29/03 – 21:20 UTC
– The BIO (Buque de Investigación Oceanográfica) has made a short bathymetry mission stop at El Hierro today during his return trip from Antarctica. Spain has an Antarctica base and during the months November to February, the Antarctic peninsula is merely ice free.
– And to make the day complete, here are the beautiful evening images of Joke Volta

Update 29/03 – 21:04 UTC
– The Spanish Army is really good in public relations. IGN needs to take an example on them. In a press report on the Armada Española website this evening, the bathymetry mission was highlighted.
“El buque ha realizado varias líneas de prospección en una cuadrícula de trabajo situada en las coordenadas: 27º 40´N // 27º 30´N de latitud y 18º 05´W // 17º 55´W de longitud, para determinar el punto de mayor altura del edificio volcánico y comprobar posibles variaciones desde el último levantamiento batimétrico.”
Human translation : The vessel has done several rectangle routes under the coordinates : 27º 40´N // 27º 30´N de latitude y 18º 05´W // 17º 55´W longitude to determine the highest point of the volcano and check any possible changes since last bathymetry.
– Afternoon images Joke Volta (beautiful colors !)

 

 

Dr. Brian O’Leary on Sustainability

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Radical Innovation, Relocalization and Sustainability

Brian O’Leary, February 2011

One of the most vexing and urgent question of our time is, how can we achieve sustainabiity?  That was the question twenty-seven of us souls mulled over for a week during the Phoenix Gathering here at Montesueños in June 2008 and re-localization was surely a central theme throughout the meeting and afterwards.  But would re-localization in and of itself be enough to solve the sustainability problem?  I don’t think so.  Surely innovation must also play a part in creating the new world.

The technology piece is more elusive to many of us because of a collective lack of awareness of transcendent possibilities that also threaten the status quo, especially the  “free” energy technologies that have shown proofs-of-concept but have been violently suppressed ever since the time of Nikola Tesla.  But many of us are skeptical of even its possibility because we don’t have it now and we don’t understand the complex process of research and development of bold new technologies, which in this case has not at all been supported.   I’m certain we could have it through further development if we so choose, in spite of all the scientific naysaying.  My essay The Turquoise Revolution posted on my website addresses the nagging question of why most scientists, environmentalists and progressives deny the possibility of a future with breakthrough clean energy and water technologies.

This is quite analogous to the development of aviation.  The Wrights had been flying for about two years, with thousands witnessing this, yet the journalist covering the first flights was fired and Scientific American wrote an editorial saying aviation was a fraud.  Well, on the energy question, the Wrights have been flying many times and while we can’t project exactly which specific technology(ies) will be the one(s) we’ll adopt, we are learning the principles that will make it work after further development.  The results can be elegant by imposing the requirement of sustainability throughout the process–unlike the development of nuclear power.

I completely agree that 1950s sci-fi style technology, i.e., monorails, etc, will not do the trick.  But newer, more sustainable technologies could be researched.  When combined with re-localized governance and monetary systems, radical innovation will be necessary for us to have a prayer of achieving a truly sustainable future.  Unfortunately, the earlier Zeitgeist films did not represent these possibilities (I haven’t seen the latest one), and restricts the visionary part of the film to the work of Jacques Fresco of the Venus Project, which is a very limited vision (e.g., monorails) of what we can actually create.
The caveat in doing the research and introducing the technologies is IF they can be responsibly implemented.  This goes back to the question of social/economic/political responsibility at all levels of action, from local to regional to global.  In other words, from my perspective, having seen experimental devices actually work in many laboratories in many countries but where these researchers have been stymied, I can vouch with high confidence that the technology piece can be established and a truly sustainable future can be designed, the hard parts being to undo the suppression and to implement the new projects ethically.

To achieve our shared desire for sustainability, I believe we’re going to need to have protected R&D centers worldwide, or “innovation sanctuaries” (an idea we introduced in one of our breakout groups during the Phoenix Gathering) and a very careful management for the implementation.  I’m talking principally about breakthrough clean energy, water purification/restructuring, and some of the excellent ideas now coming out in restoration ecology and other nature-friendly ideas (e.g., Gunter Pauli’s The Blue Economy). The state-of-the-art of sustainable innovation needs to be much better understood by all of us so we can make intelligent choices rather than flying blind as we are now, where by default, the important decisions are being made at the corporate/government level with no regard to sustainability.  But technology can serve us well if we’re wise about how it should be applied; we needn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.

So I see re-localization as a promising social innovation, with a cross-cut of sustainable R&D carefully introduced into a distributed culture.  Our imperiled planetary environment is a physical situation that calls out for physical solutions that only deeper awareness, knowledge and wisdom can solve.

from:    http://www.brianoleary.info/Radical.html