Category Archives: Earth Stuff

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

Lascar Volcano Activity — Chile

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– Chile / Lascar (11:47 UTC)
As mentioned already yesterday Lascar volcano in the Atacama desert in Chile is waking up gradually. Sernageomin has detected a lot of earthquakes. Click here for their detailed report published on January 5 (Spanish). A new one is expected soon.
On the webcam this morning, we see sulfur rich fumeroles at the left side of the volcano. Lascar is known to be spectacular if erupting and sending ashes kilometers high in the sky !

Image captures from the Sernageomin webcam near Lascar Volcano Chile

from:    http://earthquake-report.com/2011/12/31/worldwide-volcano-news/

USA Seismic Maps

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– USA / seismic maps : Probabilistic seismic-hazard maps were prepared for the conterminous United States portraying peak horizontal acceleration and horizontal spectral response acceleration for 0.2- and 1.0-second periods with probabilities of exceedance of 10 percent in 50 years and 2 percent in 50 years.

from:    http://earthquake-report.com/2011/07/13/template-earthquake-related-news-july-2011/

Mt. Etna’s First 2012 Eruption

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Mount Etna Erupts (VIDEO)

First Posted: 1/5/12 12:01 PM ET Updated: 1/5/12 12:03 PM ET

Europe’s tallest active volcano Mount Etna erupted for the first time this year.

On Wednesday night, the volcano released a column of ash, and lava was seen running down its eastern flank. The volcano is located on the island of Sicily.

According to Reuters, the eruption caused no damages or air traffic disruptions.

Check out the link below for some ectacular footage from the eruption.

from:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/05/mount-etna-erupts_n_1186391.html

Magma Activity in Three Sisters Area in Oregon

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Magma Causing Uplift in Oregon

Charles Q. Choi, OurAmazingPlanet Contributor
Date: 04 January 2012 Time: 11:22 AM ET
Three Sisters
The Three Sisters area — which contains five volcanoes — is only about 170 miles (274 km) from Mount St. Helens, which erupted in 1980. Both are part of the Cascades Range, a line of 27 volcanoes stretching from British Columbia in Canada to northern California. This perspective view was created by draping a simulated natural color ASTER image over digital topography from the U.S. Geological Survey National Elevation Dataset.
CREDIT: NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

Volcanic activity is causing the earth to rise in Oregon, scientists have found.

Though whether such uplift is a sign of an imminent eruption remains uncertain.

As early as the summer of 1996, a 230-square-mile (600-square-kilometer) patch of ground in Oregon began to rise. The area lies just west of the South Sister Volcano, which with the North and Middle Sisters form the Three Sisters volcanoes, the most prominent peaks in the central Oregon stretch of the Cascade Mountains.

Although this region has not seen an eruption in at least 1,200 years, the scattered hints of volcanic activity here have been a cause of concern, leading to continuous satellite-based monitoring. Now 14 years of data is revealing just how the Earth is changing there and the likely cause of the uplift — a reservoir of magma invading the crust 3-to-4 miles (5-to-7 km) underground.

Uplifting ground

The European Space Agency’s European Remote Sensing and Envisat radar satellites revealed that the terrain deformed in three distinct phases since this uplift began. From 1996 to 1998, the ground rose by 0.4 inches (1 cm) per year. Then, from 1998 to 2004, uplift grew to 1.2-to-1.6 inches (3-to-4 cm) annually. However, for the rest of the decade, uplift declined to only a few millimeters per year, for a total of 9.8 inches (25 cm) of uplift so far.

“The most important implication of our research is that the ground appears to still be uplifting,” said researcher Susan Riddick, a geodesist at the University of Oregon. “Previous researchers believed that the ground uplift, a result of the input of magma deep in the Earth’s crust, had stopped at around 2006. We found that the ground is still uplifting as of late 2010 and may still be uplifting, but at a slow rate.”

By analyzing precisely how the landscape was changing, the researchers suggest the magma pocket behind this uplift has a volume of 1.76-billion-to-2.47-billion cubic feet (50-million-to-70-million cubic meters), enough to fill 20,000-to-28,000 Olympic-size swimming pools.

Eruption monitoring

Since the ground is still rising, “magma may still be accumulating, and as a result, this area needs to be continually monitored to determine whether or not there will be an eruption,” Riddick told OurAmazingPlanet.

“If there were to be an eruption, it would probably not be from a pre-existing volcano that we can see because the uplifting ground area is several kilometers from historically active volcanoes,” Riddick added. “A new volcanic vent would likely form. Lava would be ejected from a vent and fall to the ground to create a cinder cone, which is a steep conical volcano made of lava fragments. We believe it would be a small eruption, because we calculated that only a relatively small amount of magma has accumulated in the earth’s crust so far.”

If the researchers are correct, ” if an eruption were to take place, it would produce a small cinder cone, then the eruption would be localized within the Three Sisters wilderness area and would not pose a great hazard to the public in neighboring towns,” Riddick said. “However, this can change if more magma accumulates at depth, which is why continual monitoring of this area is crucial.”

Riddick and her colleague David Schmidt detailed their findings online Dec. 17 in the journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems.

from:    http://www.livescience.com/17727-magma-causing-oregon-uplift.html

 

2011—Most Costly Disaster Year Ever

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Globally, 2011 Was Costliest Disaster Year Ever

OurAmazingPlanet Staff
Date: 04 January 2012 Time: 03:24 PM ET

From devastating earthquakes to record tornado outbreaks, 2011 was the most expensive year for natural disasters worldwide, according to a new insurance report.

At $380 billion, global economic losses from natural disasters in 2011 were two-thirds higher than in 2005, the previous record year, which had losses of $220 billion.

The magnitude 9.0 Japan temblor in Marchalone caused more than half the year’s losses, according to the report from global insurance firm Munich Re. In the United States, a deadly dozen disasters each caused more than $1 billion in damage.

While 90 percent of the recorded natural catastrophes were weather-related, the big earthquakes were the most expensive disasters,. Normally, it is the weather-related disasters that account for the greatest insured losses, according to the insurance firm. Over the last three decades, geophysical events such as earthquakes accounted for less than 10 percent of insured losses, Munich Re said.

Around 70 percent of economic losses in 2011 occurred in Asia, where 16,000 people were killed in Japan during the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Even without considering the consequences of a crippled nuclear reactor in Fukushima following the quake, the economic losses caused by the quake and the tsunami came to $210 billion — the costliest natural catastrophe of all time.

The magnitude 6.3 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, in February caused $16 billion in damage. Other expensive disasters included tornado season in the United States, which caused $46 billion in damage. Hurricane Irene, the first hurricane to make landfall in the United States in three years, caused $15 billion in damage.

“Thankfully, a sequence of severe natural catastrophes like last year’s is a very rare occurrence,” said Torsten Jeworrek, the Munich Re board member responsible for global reinsurance business, in a statement.

Some 27,000 people died in natural catastrophes in 2011. This figure does not include the countless deaths from famine following the worst drought in decades on the Horn of Africa, which was the greatest humanitarian catastrophe of the year.

from:    http://www.livescience.com/17738-2011-expensive-natural-disaster-year.html

Nature’s Mimicry

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Fish Mimics Octopus That Mimics Fish

ScienceDaily (Jan. 4, 2012) — Nature’s game of intimidation and imitation comes full circle in the waters of Indonesia, where scientists have recorded for the first time an association between the black-marble jawfish (Stalix cf. histrio) and the mimic octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus),

Undescribed by scientists until 1998, the talented mimic octopus is known to impersonate toxic flatfish, lionfish, and even sea snakes by creatively configuring its limbs, adopting characteristic undulating movements, and displaying bold brown-and-white color patterns. Thanks to these brazen habits, it can swim in the open with relatively little fear of predators.

The jawfish, on the other hand, is a small and timid fish. It spends most of its adult life close to a sand burrow, where it will quickly retreat upon sighting a predator.

During a diving trip in Indonesia in July 2011, Godehard Kopp of the University of Gottingen, Germany, filmed an unexpected pairing between the two animals. Like a lackey clinging on to the big man on campus, the black-marble jawfish was seen closely following a mimic octopus as it moved across the sandy bottom. The jawfish had brown-and-white markings similar to the octopus, and was difficult to spot among the many arms. The octopus, for its part, did not seem to notice or care.

Kopp sent the video to Rich Ross and Luiz Rocha of the California Academy of Sciences, who identified the jawfish species. Since this association had not been recorded before, they published their observations online last month in the scientific journal Coral Reefs. The authors surmise that the jawfish hitches a ride with the octopus for protection, allowing it to venture away from its burrow to look for food — a case of “opportunistic mimicry.”

“This is a unique case in the reefs not only because the model for the jawfish is a mimic itself, but also because this is the first case of a jawfish involved in mimicry,” said Dr. Luiz Rocha, assistant curator of ichthyology at the California Academy of Sciences. “Unfortunately, reefs in the Coral Triangle area of southeast Asia are rapidly declining mostly due to harmful human activities, and we may lose species involved in unique interactions like this even before we get to know them.”

Octopus-jawfish video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4kZAgny5eg

from:    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120104153747.htm

Dominican Republic Earthquake

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(As you know, the Dominican Republic shares an island with Haiti.  My concern here is the possibility of another quake related to this one which could potentially affect Haiti also, if not the whole island.  This is a land of great poverty and want.  Even small natural disasters are magnified under such conditions, in terms of the effect on people there.)

Shallow earthquake in the southern part of the Dominican Republic

Last update: January 5, 2012 at 11:32 am by By

Earthquake overview : Moderate earthquake with epicenter in the southern part of the island.  The earthquake has been felt all over the island (including in Haiti)


Epicenter landscape – panoramio image courtesy Elnalouise

11:28 UTC : The Dominican Republic Civil Defense has alerted all of his services minutes after the quake occurred but at the time of writing this update, NO damage or injuries have been reported. Authorities in the direct epicenter area are currently inspecting buildings and public works to assess the situation.

11:04 UTC –  Rock slides have been reported along the road from Azua to San Juan. Drivers are warned to be careful in driving this road.

11:02 UTC – The epicenter has been located 17 km South-East of  Ocoa. Following the local media who are referring the the Dominican seismological agency UASD, the depth of the hypocenter was at 33 km and the magnitude was measures as 5.2. Both USGS and EMSC have reported a magnitude of 5.3 at a depth of 10 km.  33 km or 10 km makes a world of difference towards damaging capability.

– As early stated in this report, the earthquake has been felt almost all over the country but will have been felt also in neighboring Haiti !

– A lot of people are downloading our QuakeSOS iPhone application, but so far people are only testing and sending SAFE alerts.

– reports from the Dominican Republic are talking about people leaving their houses in panic (normal with such a magnitude)

– Maximum recorded (reported) MMI seems to be V = moderate shaking. Moderate shaking damage can be cracks in walls at max., but we will have to wait for a few more hours to be certain that no additional damage has been inflicted.

– The area has a lot of hills (see image)

– Closest villages to the epicenter (errors are possible within a radius of 16 km) : La Palma, Calderon, Hatillo, Agua, Galeon and Bani

– EMSC reports the same values than USGS (5.3 @ 10 km)

– The earthquake occurred during the early morning hours 05:35 AM !, when almost everybody was still sleeping

– the shallow hypocenter (focal depth) makes this earthquake moderately dangerous within a radius of 20 km.

Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 5.3
UTC Time : Thursday, January 05, 2012 at 09:35:29 UTC
Local time at epicenter : Thursday, January 05, 2012 at 05:35:29 AM at epicenter
Depth (Hypocenter) : 10 km
Geo-location(s) :
17 km (10 miles) SSE (149°) from Ocoa, Peravia, Dominican Republic
33 km (20 miles) W (270°) from San Cristóbal, San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic
50 km (31 miles) W (260°) from SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic

for more information and updates, go to:    http://earthquake-report.com/2012/01/05/shallow-earthquake-in-the-southern-part-of-the-dominican-republic/

Quadrantid Meteor Showers 1/4

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EarthSky’s meteor shower guide for 2012

Via meteorblog.com
The first major meteor shower of 2012 is the Quadrantid shower, predicted to peak on the morning of January 4.

The next major meteor shower will be the Quadrantid shower, which is expected to peak after midnight on the morning of January 4, 2012. This shower favors northerly latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. If the peak happens as predicted – at 7 to 8 hours Universal Time – that means eastern North America might be in a good position to watch the 2012 Quadrantid shower. Predicting the peak and the intensity of a meteor shower is always a tricky business, though. No matter where you live, the best time to watch is in the wee hours before dawn on January 4

Use the Big Dipper and the star Arcturus to locate the radiant of the Quadrantid shower

January 4, 2012 in the wee hours before dawn Quadrantids
When we say January 4, we mean in the wee hours before dawn, not that night. Although the waxing gibbous moon lights up most of the night and doesn’t set until roughly 3 a.m. local time, this is about the best time of night to watch for these meteors. Click here to know when the moon sets in your sky. Although the Quadrantids can produce over 100 meteors per hour, the sharp peak only lasts for a few hours, and doesn’t always come at an opportune time. In other words, you have to be in the right spot on Earth to view this meteor shower in all its splendor. If this year’s forecast proves correct, eastern North America, the North Atlantic Ocean and possibly western Europe will be in a fine position to watch this shower. However, meteor showers are notorious for defying predictions. This shower is worth a try at northerly latitudes all around the globe. Face the general direction of north-northeast, but take in as wide an expanse of sky as possible. Watch from about 2 a.m. until dawn.

from:    http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/earthskys-meteor-shower-guide

Myth of the White Buffalo Woman

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Cover image

Lakota dancer ›

 Lakota dancer

White Buffalo Woman

This is a central myth of the Plains tribes, especially the Lakota, or Sioux. It tells how the Lakota first received their sacred pipe and the ceremony in which to use it. It has often been related, for example by Black Elk, Lame Deer and Looks for Buffalo.

In the days before the Lakota had horses on which to hunt the buffalo, food was often scarce. One summer when the Lakota nation had camped together, there was very little to eat. Two young men of the Itazipcho band – the ‘Without-Bows’ – decided they would rise early and look for game. They left the camp while the dogs were still yawning, and set out across the plain, accompanied only by the song of the yellow meadowlark.

After a while the day began to grow warm. Crickets chirruped in the waving grass, prairie dogs darted into their holes as the braves approached, but still there was no real game. So the young men made towards a little hill from which they would see further across the vast expanse of level prairie. Reaching it, they shielded their eyes and scanned the distance, but what they saw coming out of the growing heat haze was something bright, that seemed to go on two legs, not four. In a while they could see that it was a very beautiful woman in shining white buckskin.

As the woman came closer, they could see that her buckskin was wonderfully decorated with sacred designs in rainbow-coloured porcupine quills. She carried a bundle on her back, and a fan of fragrant sage leaves in her hand. Her jet-black hair was loose, except for a single strand tied with buffalo fur. Her eyes were full of light and power, and the young men were transfixed.

Now one of the men was filled with a burning desire. ‘What a woman!’ he said sideways to his friend. ‘And all alone on the prairie. I’m going to make the most of this!’

‘You fool,’ said the other. ‘This woman is holy.’

But the foolish one had made up his mind, and when the woman beckoned him towards her, he needed no second invitation. As he reached out for her, they were both enveloped in a great cloud. When it lifted, the woman stood there, while at her feet was nothing but a pile of bones with terrible snakes writhing among them.

‘Behold,’ said the woman to the good brave. ‘I am coming to your people with a message from Tatanka Oyate, the buffalo nation. Return to Chief Standing Hollow Horn and tell him what you have seen. Tell him to prepare a tipi large enough for all his people, and to get ready for my coming.’

The young man ran back across the prairie and was gasping for breath as he reached his camp. With a small crowd of people already following him, he found Standing Hollow Horn and told him what had happened, and that the woman was coming. The chief ordered several tipis to be combined into one big enough for his band. The people waited excitedly for the woman to arrive.

After four days the scouts posted to watch for the holy woman saw something coming towards them in a beautiful manner from across the prairie. Then suddenly the woman was in the great lodge, walking round it in a sunwise direction. She stopped before Standing Hollow Horn in the west of the lodge, and held her bundle before him in both hands.

‘Look on this,’ she said, ‘and always love and respect it. No one who is impure should ever touch this bundle, for it contains the sacred pipe.’

She unrolled the skin bundle and took out a pipe, and a small round stone which she put down on the ground.

‘With this pipe you will walk on the earth, which is your grandmother and your mother. The earth is sacred, and so is every step that you take on her. The bowl of the pipe is of red stone; it is the earth. Carved into it and facing the centre is the buffalo calf, who stands for all the four-leggeds. The stem is of wood, which stands for all that grows on the earth. These twelve hanging feathers from the Spotted Eagle stand for all the winged creatures. All these living things of the universe are the children of Mother Earth. You are all joined as one family, and you will be reminded of this when you smoke the pipe. Treat this pipe and the earth with respect, and your people will increase and prosper.’

The woman told them that seven circles carved on the stone represented the seven rites in which the people would learn to use the sacred pipe. The first was for the rite of ‘keeping the soul’, which she now taught them. The remaining rites they would learn in due course.

The woman made as if to leave the lodge, but then she turned and spoke to Standing Hollow Horn again. ‘This pipe will carry you to the end. Remember that in me there are four ages. I am going now, but I will look on your people in every age, and at the end I will return.’

She now walked slowly around the lodge in a sunwise direction. The people were silent and filled with awe. Even the hungry young children watched her, their eyes alive with wonder. Then she left. But after she had walked a short distance, she faced the people again and sat down on the prairie. The people gazing after her were amazed to see that when she stood up she had become a young red and brown buffalo calf. The calf walked further into the prairie, and then lay down and rolled over, looking back at the people.

When she stood up she was a white buffalo. The white buffalo walked on until she was a bright speck in the distant prairie, and then rolled over again, and became a black buffalo. This buffalo walked away, stopped, bowed to the four directions of the earth, and finally disappeared over the hill.

Buffalo in the Badlands

A lone bull buffalo in the Badlands

from:    http://www.livingmyths.com/Native.htm#White

Hybrid Sharks

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World-first hybrid shark found off Australia

By Amy Coopes | AFP 

Scientists said on Tuesday that they had discovered the world’s first hybrid sharks in Australian waters, a potential sign the predators were adapting to cope with climate change.

The mating of the local Australian black-tip shark with its global counterpart, the common black-tip, was an unprecedented discovery with implications for the entire shark world, said lead researcher Jess Morgan.

“It’s very surprising because no one’s ever seen shark hybrids before, this is not a common occurrence by any stretch of the imagination,” Morgan, from the University of Queensland, told AFP.

“This is evolution in action.”

Colin Simpfendorfer, a partner in Morgan’s research from James Cook University, said initial studies suggested the hybrid species was relatively robust, with a number of generations discovered across 57 specimens.

The find was made during cataloguing work off Australia’s east coast when Morgan said genetic testing showed certain sharks to be one species when physically they looked to be another.

The Australian black-tip is slightly smaller than its common cousin and can only live in tropical waters, but its hybrid offspring have been found 2,000 kilometres down the coast, in cooler seas.

It means the Australian black-tip could be adapting to ensure its survival as sea temperatures change because of global warming.

“If it hybridises with the common species it can effectively shift its range further south into cooler waters, so the effect of this hybridising is a range expansion,” Morgan said.

“It’s enabled a species restricted to the tropics to move into temperate waters.”

Climate change and human fishing are some of the potential triggers being investigated by the team, with further genetic mapping also planned to examine whether it was an ancient process just discovered or a more recent phenomenon.

If the hybrid was found to be stronger than its parent species — a literal survival of the fittest — Simpfendorfer said it may eventually outlast its so-called pure-bred predecessors.

“We don’t know whether that’s the case here, but certainly we know that they are viable, they reproduce and that there are multiple generations of hybrids now that we can see from the genetic roadmap that we’ve generated from these animals,” he said.

“Certainly it appears that they are fairly fit individuals.”

The hybrids were extraorindarily abundant, accounting for up to 20 percent of black-tip populations in some areas, but Morgan said that didn’t appear to be at the expense of their single-breed parents, adding to the mystery.

Simpfendorfer said the study, published late last month in Conservation Genetics, could challenge traditional ideas of how sharks had and were continuing to evolve.

“We thought we understood how species of sharks have separated, but what this is telling us is that in reality we probably don’t fully understand the mechanisms that keep species of shark separate,” he said.

“And in fact, this may be happening in more species than these two.”

from:    http://news.yahoo.com/world-first-hybrid-shark-found-off-australia-070347608.html