Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Weeks of 8/11/13 through 8/31/13
August 28, 2013 – KYRGYZSTAN – Health officials fear an outbreak of bubonic plague in central Asia after a teenage boy died from the disease and three more were admitted to hospital in Kyrgyzstan. Temirbek Isakunov, a 15-year-old from a mountain village near the border with Kazakhstan, reportedly died from the disease last week after eating an infected barbecued marmot. Kyrgyzstan’s emergency ministry said a young woman and two children from a different village who came into contact with Isakunov were hospitalized on Tuesday with the high fever and swelling around the neck and armpits characteristic of bubonic plague, local news outlets reported. A total of 131 people, including 33 medical personnel, have been quarantined, although none of them have yet exhibited symptoms of the disease, the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda in Kyrgyzstan reported. The health ministry continues to find and quarantine people who came into contact with the teenager, according to its director. Kazakhstan has stepped up its border control with Kyrgyzstan and is operating quarantine points in light of the possible outbreak, the news agency Tengrinews reported. The Kazakh health ministry is searching out people who might have come into contact with the dead teenager, and is also determining where animal carriers of the disease might be moving between the two countries, according to a ministry official. The bacteria that cause bubonic plague are typically transmitted from rodents to humans via flea bites but can also be contracted through direct contact with infected tissue. Some local authorities in Russia have also grown wary over the incident, since citizens of Kyrgyzstan do not need a visa to enter the country and, according to the newspaper Izvestiya, more than 500,000 Kyrgyz work in Russia. According to TV news report in Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth largest city, checkpoints in the airport there are inspecting all those arriving from countries with a high bubonic plague risk. A Russian public health official said cases of bubonic plague were registered in Kazakhstan every year, and the disease existed naturally in parts of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Russia, Izvestiya reported. –Guardian
August 28, 2013 – SYRIA – The U.S. could hit Syria with three days of missile strikes, perhaps beginning Thursday, in an attack meant more to send a message to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad than to topple him or cripple his military, senior U.S. officials told NBC News on Tuesday. The State Department fed the growing drumbeat around the world for a military response to Syria’s suspected use of chemical weapons against rebels Aug. 21 near Damascus, saying that while the U.S. intelligence community would release a formal assessment within the week, it was already “crystal clear” that Assad’s government was responsible.
August 28, 2013 – JERUSALEM — During the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Israel endured dozens of Scud missiles launched by Saddam Hussein’s forces, but refrained from retaliating because of U.S. concern that Israeli involvement would fracture the international coalition it had built against Iraq. As the United States prepares for a possible military attack against the Syrian government over its alleged use of chemical weapons, Israeli leaders are making it clear that they have no intention of standing down this time if attacked. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday issued the starkest warning to date in response to recent saber-rattling by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government, which has said it might respond to a U.S. strike by attacking Israel. ‘We are not part of the civil war in Syria, but if we identify any attempt whatsoever to harm us, we will respond with great force,” Netanyahu said after huddling for a second consecutive day with key Cabinet members to discuss the possible ramifications of a U.S. strike against Syria.
Israel calls up reservists: Ahead of the US strike on Syria, the Israeli security cabinet in special session Wednesday, Aug. 28, ordered the partial mobilization of select, qualitative IDF reserve forces: Rocket, Air Force, missile interception, Home Defense command and intelligence units. Anti-missile Arrow, Patriot and Iron Dome systems were spread out more widely than ever before across the country. U.S. and Syria wound up last military preparations for the US strike. Barring last-minute hold-ups, debkafile’s military sources report the American operation is scheduled to start Friday night, early Saturday Aug. 30-31. In the past 24 hours, the US Air Force finished a major buildup at the big US Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. B-1B bombers and F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets were brought over from other US Mid East air facilities on the Omani island of Masirah and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. On the opposite side, the Syrian army Tuesday started scattering personnel, weapons and air assets to safe places to reduce their exposure to damage and losses from US assaults. Our military sources report that personnel, tanks and artillery of the Syrian Army’s 4th and Republican Guard Divisions, which are held responsible for the Aug. 21 chemical attack on civilians, were being moved into fortified shelters built last year against potential foreign military intervention. –Debka
August 26, 2013 – ROME, Italy – Italian experts have been puzzled by the overnight appearance of what looks like a volcanic geyser erupting steam and gases 5 meters into the air. What appears to be a new fumarole appeared near Rome’s International Fiumicino airport Saturday morning. A vent producing small geyser-like fountains of steam, water and mud was suddenly opened in the ground near a road crossing near Fiumicino. Geologists are currently examining the phenomenon. It is still a bit unclear whether it is not a man-made accident caused by a broken pipe or similar (which might well be the case). As La Repubblica statess, first inspections however indicate that it is in fact a new natural vent. Obviously, there are also already some speculations whether it could be related to volcanic activity. The nearest possibly still active volcanic system in the area is the Monti Albani, an old but possibly not yet extinct volcanic complex located 20 km SE of the capital. Its last known activity there took place about 20,000 years ago. New volcanic activity in the suburban area of Rome itself is certainly not a completely impossible, but quite unlikely scenario. More data will be needed to shed light on this. “From Mt. Etna in Sicily up to the Alban hills around Rome, there is a good deal of volcanic activity,” Alberto Basilli, a seismologist at the Italian National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology told the Daily Telegraph. –Volcano Discovery
August 26, 2013 – SYRIA – Russia issued a stark warning today against renewed calls for foreign military intervention in Syria after an alleged chemical weapons attack near Damascus last week. In a pair of statements, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesman drew comparisons between the current situation in Syria and the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and urged countries “not to repeat the mistakes of the past.”
August 24, 2013 – CHINA - A virus called H7N7 has been discovered in chickens in China, according to a new study published in the journal Nature. A team of Hong Kong researchers found the virus in about 25 percent of the fowl sampled, many of which also had the H7N9 virus. By testing the H7N7 virus on ferrets, the researchers found that it can be transmitted to mammals.
August 24, 2013 – JAPAN - The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant said on Thursday new spots of high radiation had been found near storage tanks holding highly contaminated water, raising fear of fresh leaks as the disaster goes from bad to worse. The announcement comes after Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) said this week contaminated water with dangerously high levels of radiation was leaking from a storage tank.
August 23, 2013 – GUATEMALA – A major eruption occurred yesterday evening. Starting at 17:45 (local time), the top part of the Caliente lava dome collapsed and produced a series of relatively large pyroclastic flows and explosions. Ash plumes rose more than 2 km to elevations of 4 km altitude. The cause of the eruption was likely the accumulation of pressurized magma and gas under the dome composed of viscous (solid) lava. The pyroclastic flows affected mainly the south, southeast and NNE sides. Bombs from explosive activity were ejected to distances of 500 m. –Volcano Discovery
Earthquake swarm reported near NW volcanoes: Three earthquakes rattled an area northwest of Mount St. Helens on Friday, continuing what geologists say is a mini-swarm of earthquakes not related to the nearby volcano. The latest quakes, on Friday, were a 3.7-magnitude quake at 2:38 p.m. Friday, followed by a 3.4 at 6:08 and a 3.1 at 6:12 p.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. A report from the USGS on Friday said the quakes have been centered about 13 miles northwest of Mount St. Helens at a depth of about 8 miles. They were described as tectonic in origin and not directly related to the volcano. The report said such earthquakes are common in areas around Mount St. Helens and Mount Hood. It said another mini-swarm of earthquakes also occurred about six miles southwest of Mount Hood. Volcano-related seismic activity at the two volcanoes themselves were at normal background levels, the USGS said. –The Columbian
August 23, 2013 – SAUDI ARABIA – Bats in Saudi Arabia appear to be the source of a mysterious virus that has claimed the lives of 47 and sickened 96 in the Middle East and Europe since last September, health officials reported Wednesday. For more than 15 months, officials have tried to determine what sparked the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). They have identified bats with similar viruses in Africa and Eastern Europe, but had not yet found an exact match to MERS.
August 22, 2013 – LOUISIANA - Assumption Parish officials on Wednesday released a video showing the sinkhole swallowing several trees in a matter of seconds. The video, posted on the city’s blog, is described a “slough in” that happened around 7:15 p.m. Wednesday. The collapse comes a little more than a year after an area around Bayou Corne dissolved into liquefied muck. The sinkhole, discovered Aug. 3, 2012, has grown to 24 acres, and 350 residents in the tiny community have no end in sight to their evacuation order because the hole continues to widen. The state of Louisiana earlier this month said it is suing Texas Brine LLC for the environmental damage and massive sinkhole that officials say was caused by the collapse of a salt dome cavern operated by the company. The sinkhole is in a swampy area of Assumption Parish about 40 miles south of Baton Rouge. –NOLA
August 22, 2013 – JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesian authorities have been warning local villagers in East Nusa Tenggara Province about increasing volcanic activities in the area in recent days. “The people around the areas should continue to practice caution” despite there not having been fresh volcanic activity on Wednesday, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the spokesman of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency.
August 22, 2013 – INDONESIA - Mount Hobalt, an underwater volcano off the coast of Lembata island, East Nusa Tenggara, briefly erupted on Tuesday but did not cause any damage, officials and residents said. “Based on information received from the head of the Center for Vulcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation [PVMBG], the mountain erupted Tuesday morning,” Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), said.
August 22, 2013 – MEXICO – A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck Mexico’s Pacific coast today (Aug. 21), shaking buildings in the resort town of Acapulco. The quake was felt as far inland as Mexico City. The temblor hit at 7:38 a.m. local time (8:38 a.m. ET), about 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of Acapulco. The earthquake was centered at a depth of about 18 miles (30 km), initial reports estimate. A magnitude-5.3 aftershock followed 24 minutes after the initial temblor, according to the United States Geological Survey.
August 21, 2013 – COSTA RICA - The Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (OVSICORI) recorded two phreatic eruptions at the Poas Volcano yesterday morning. The first eruption occurred at 9:55 a.m. and reached a height of between 2 to 3 meters. The second eruption occurred at 11:16 a.m., reaching an estimated height of 10 to 15 meters. The Director of OVSICORI, Victor Gonzalez, said the eruptions were not unusual for Poas, though did say that the low level of the volcano’s lagoon, despite significant rainfall, was striking. The National Emergency Commission (CNE) maintains a green alert in Turrialba, Poas and Rincon de la Vieja due to phreatic eruptions and seismic activity in recent months. Poas last erupted in 2011. –Inside Costa Rica
August 21, 2013 – SYRIA - Syria’s opposition accused President Bashar al-Assad’s forces of gassing many hundreds of people – by one report as many as 1,300 – on Wednesday in what would, if confirmed, be the world’s worst chemical weapons attack in decades. Western and regional countries called for U.N. chemical weapons investigators – who arrived in Damascus just three days ago – to be urgently dispatched to the scene of one of the deadliest incidents of the two-year-old civil war. Images, including some taken by freelance photographers and supplied to Reuters, showed scores of bodies including of small children, laid out on the floor of a clinic with no visible signs of injuries.
August 21, 2013 – JAPAN - Japan’s nuclear crisis escalated to its worst level since a massive earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima plant more than two years ago, with the country’s nuclear watchdog saying it feared more storage tanks were leaking contaminated water. The U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Wednesday it viewed the situation at Fukushima “seriously” and was ready to help if called upon.
August 20, 2013 – ATLANTIC - Previously, oceanographers thought the Atlantic Ocean seafloor didn’t spit out as much iron as other regions. However, a recently discovered plume of iron billowing from the depth of the Atlantic Ocean suggests the seafloor may be pumping iron like a young Arnold Schwarzenegger. The oceanic iron cloud spreads for more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) across the Atlantic from west of Angola, Africa, to northeast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The iron-rich waters flow 1,500 to 3,500 meters (4,921 – 11,482 feet) beneath the surface of the ocean. The complete extent and shape of the iron plume remains to be discovered. “We had never seen anything like it,” said Mak Saito, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute scientist and lead author of the study, in a press release. “We were sort of shocked—there’s this huge bull’s-eye right in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean. We didn’t quite know what to do with it, because it went contrary to a lot of our expectations.”
August 20, 2013 – NEW YORK – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 300,000 Americans are getting Lyme disease every year, and the toll is growing. “It confirms what we’ve thought for a long time: This is a large problem,” Dr. Paul Mead tells Shots. “The bottom line is that by defining how big the problem is we make it easier for everyone to figure out what kind of resources we have to use to address it.”
August 20, 2013 – NEW ZEALAND – A volcano off New Zealand sent a plume of steam two kilometers (1.24 miles) into the air Tuesday, although volcanologists described the eruption as small and said it was over in minutes.
August 20, 2013 – MANILA – Flooding caused by some of the Philippines’ heaviest rains on record submerged more than half the capital Tuesday, turning roads into rivers and trapping tens of thousands of people in homes and shelters. The government suspended all work except rescues and disaster response for a second day. Officials reported at least seven people dead, 11 injured and four missing. The dead included a 5-year-old boy whose house was hit by a concrete wall that collapsed. His two adult relatives also were injured.
August 19, 2013 – RUSSIA – Up to 100,000 people may be evacuated from flood-hit regions in Russia’s Far East. Water levels at local reservoirs have already reached historic highs, and officials say the floods raging in the area are expected to continue rising even further. Floods are currently affecting over 32,500 locals living in over 5,000 homes. Over 17,000 residents have already left the area over the disaster. Viktor Ishayev, Russia’s Minister for the Far East, said that “in the worst-case scenario up to 100,000 people could be evacuated” from the Amur, Khabarovsk and Jewish Autonomous Regions.
August 19, 2013 – JAPAN – A volcano has erupted in south-west Japan and coated a nearby city with a layer of ash. People in Kagoshima wore raincoats and used umbrellas to shield themselves from the ash after the Sakurajima volcano erupted yesterday afternoon. Local media said drivers had to turn on their headlights and reported the ash resembled driving through snow at night.
August 19, 2013 – IDAHO – More than 10,000 homes are threatened by a furious Idaho wildfire, including getaways owned by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Hanks and Bruce Willis, after an all-out “ground and air attack” failed to stop the blaze spreading to more than 126,000 acres, according to latest reports from the U.S. Forest Service.
August 17, 2013 – NEPAL – Half a million chickens are to be culled in a district on the outskirts of Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, as efforts to combat a major outbreak of bird flu are stepped up. Tens of thousands of birds have already been killed in what government officials have described as one of the country’s worst outbreaks of avian flu.
August 17, 2013 – ALASKA – Seismic unrest is being reported at another Alaskan volcano. Tanaga is a 5,924-foot (1,806 m) stratovolcano located in the remote Aleutian Range of the U.S. state of Alaska. There have been three known eruptions since 1763. The most recent was in 1914 and produced lava flows. According to the Earthquake Report, a swarm of seven earthquakes have struck near the volcano in the last 24 hours- the strongest of which was a 4.7 magnitude. This may suggest magma intrusion under the volcano.
Number 69: Iceland - A small phreatic eruption seems to have taken place yesterday at the ice-covered Kverkfjoell central volcano. The steam-driven (no fresh magma involved) explosion followed a small glacial flood on 15 August the Kverkjökull glacier released into the Volga river and was probably a result of the pressure release during the flood. –Volcano Discovery
Kliuchevskoi (Kamchatka): A new eruption began at 06:30 UTC on 15 August, KVERT reports. Accompanied by strong tremor, strombolian activity has been taking place in the summit crater. Incandescence at the summit of the volcano’s summit were observed at night and a gas-steam plume containing small amounts of ash rose up to 18,000 ft (5.5 km) a.s.l. and drifted to the north-east of the volcano on August 16. Satellite data showed a big and bright thermal anomaly over the volcano on August 15-17. –Volcano Discovery
August 17, 2013 PARBAT: Banau Secondary School in northern Parbat has been shut temporarily after students mysteriously started falling unconscious in the school.
“It has been happening for the past one month. The students started to shiver, cry, and scream and shout without any reason, due to which the school has been shut,” said Principal Chakra Pun. “Last Friday, a student started crying all of a sudden during the morning assembly, and other students who went to placate her, also started crying after a while,” said the principal. The incident halted the school’s academic activities on Friday leading to closure of the school.
“Most of the victims are teenage girls studying in grades VII, VIII and IX,” said Bhuwan Gurung, a teacher at the school.
As more and more students started showing such symptoms and the cause behind it could not be figured out, the villagers have started tying pieces of holy cloth (dhwaja) around their wrist and other parts of the body in the name of goddess Saraswoti, but the problem has not been solved.
Though the unconscious students were taken to a nearby sub-health post, the health facility suspected that ‘mass hysteria’ might have gripped the students at school, the principal said. According to a medical representative, it will gradually disappear if it were mass hysteria.
August 16, 2013 – NEW ZEALAND - A 6.5-magnitude earthquake has struck south of New Zealand’s capital Wellington, sending panicked workers and residents into the streets just weeks after a similar tremor struck the city. The quake hit 10 kilometres south-east of the town of Seddon at a depth of eight kilometres and has been followed by at least seven aftershocks, all measuring more than magnitude 4.4. So far, there have been no reports of injuries or major damage to buildings. There was no specific threat of a widespread tsunami, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre. The main tremor was originally reported as 6.0-magnitude by NZ GeoNet. The US Geological Survey (USGS) measured the quake as 6.8-magnitude. The quake was later downgraded to a 6.5. The University and business district were evacuated. Local reports said the quake was felt as far away as Gisborne, Auckland and Hamilton.
August 15, 2013 – CAIRO – Egypt’s military rulers on Thursday faced international condemnation over the bloody crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood protesters, with France warning of the threat of “civil war” and Turkey demanding UN action. At least 525 people were killed in Wednesday’s assaults on two Cairo protest camps of supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in the worst violence the country has seen in decades.
August 15, 2013 – BAGHDAD, Iraq – Car bomb attacks killed at least 34 people in Baghdad on Thursday but the Interior Ministry said it would not allow al Qaeda, which it blames for a surge in sectarian violence, to turn Iraq into another Syria. More than 100 people were wounded in at least eight blasts, one of which was near the “Green Zone” diplomatic complex, part of a wave of bloodshed that has taken the monthly death toll in Iraq to the highest levels in five years.
August 15, 2013 – ATHENS - Greece’s jobless rate hit a new record high of 27.6 percent in May, official national data showed on Thursday as the country staggers under austerity linked to its international bailout. Record joblessness is a nightmare for Greece’s two-party coalition government as it scrambles to hit fiscal targets and show there is light at the end of the tunnel after years of unpopular tax rises and cuts to wages and pensions. Unemployment rose to 27.6 percent from an upwardly revised 27.0 percent reading in April, according to data from statistics service ELSTAT and was more than twice the average rate in the euro zone which stood at 12.1 percent in June.
August 15, 2013 – ALASKA - Mount Veniaminof , an 8,225-foot peak 25 miles southwest of Chignik Lake and 485 miles from Anchorage which first rumbled to life in early June of this year, is again showing signs of elevated activity, spitting at least one cloud of ash and steam into the air earlier this week and featuring higher levels of seismic activity and surface temperature. One plume on Monday rose to a height of about 12,000 feet, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory. Meantime, NASA recently flew over the volcano and snapped a spectacular satellite picture showing the way that fresh ash is painting the peak, topping off the snow falling at the higher elevations of the mountain. –Alaska Dispatch
Merapi Volcano: The volcano continues to produce small explosions every now and then. Local press reported two small eruptions this morning. The first one occurred at 7:49 am (local time WIB), producing an ash plume of 300 meters height, and the second at 8:32 am with an ash plume rising 600 meters. The alert status had previously been raised from Normal to Alert (level 1 to 2) on 3 August and an exclusion zone of 3 km radius around the crater is in place. –Volcano Discovery
August 15, 2013 – INDONESIA - Hundreds of evacuees of the eruption of the Rokatenda volcano on Palue Island, East Nusa Tenggara, are suffering from illnesses at three rescue centers, sparking claims the government has not provided enough assistance. “It seems like the central government is not paying enough attention.
August 13, 2013 – CLERMONT, Fla. — An official at the Florida resort where a villa was partially swallowed into the ground says it doesn’t appear the sinkhole on the site is growing. Summer Bay Resort President Paul Caldwell told reporters during a news conference Tuesday that engineers examined the 100-foot sinkhole at Clermont resort and determined there’s no reason to believe it will grow. Caldwell says the resort remains open, but with three buildings still unoccupied. The resort is taking claims from guests staying in the collapsed building. Guests from two adjacent buildings that also were evacuated are being allowed in with escorts to retrieve possessions.
August 13, 2013 – COLOMBIA – The U.S. Geological Survey said a strong earthquake of 6.7 magnitude occurred in the Pacific Ocean about 59 miles (95 km) west southwest of Mutis, Colombia. The quake hit at 10:43 a.m. local time (11:43 a.m. EDT/1543 GMT) at a shallow depth of 2.7 miles (4.4 km), USGS said. There were no immediate reports of damage, and the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center, which covers this region of the Pacific, said no tsunami warning was issued. –Reuters
August 12, 2013 – PHILIPPINES – The most powerful typhoon to hit the Philippines this year triggered landslides and floods on Monday, disrupting power and communication links to leave one man dead and 13 fishermen missing, weather and disaster officials said. Typhoon Utor, packing winds of 150 km per hour (93 mph) near its center and gusts of up to 185 kmph, regained strength as it moved out of northern Luzon island towards the South China Sea, headed west-northwest at 19 kmph, the officials said. The coastal town of Casiguran in Aurora province, 343 km northeast of the capital Manila, suffered the worst damage, after the typhoon set off landslides that blocked its only access road. “About 90 percent of our agriculture was destroyed or damaged, particularly rice and corn crops and coconut plantations,” Aurora governor Gerardo Noveras told ANC television, adding that the full extent of damage was still unknown.
August 12, 2013 – HAWAII – The U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) recorded a 4.8 magnitude earthquake beneath the Big Island early Sunday morning. It was recorded at 5:54 a.m. about 5 miles south of the summit of Kilauea Volcano and at a depth of about 20 miles. Several aftershocks followed, the largest of which was a 3.4 magnitude earthquake at 6:06 a.m. According to Wes Thelen, HVO’s Seismic Network Manager, “these earthquakes were most likely structural adjustment of the Earth’s crust due to the weight of the island on the underlying mantle.” Many Big Island residents reported feeling the shaking and the HVO says people as far away as Oahu and Maui reported feeling the earthquake. Almost 400 reports received within the first hour of the earthquake. No injuries were reported. –Khon2
Monday, August 5, 2013
Weeks of 7/14/13 through 8/10/13
August 5, 2013 – NEAR GOODLAND, Kan. — A mysterious, massive hole in the earth is attracting visitors to western Kansas. Geologists and engineers are still trying to determine how and why the ground gave way in this particular spot south of Goodland in the middle of someone’s pasture. “Man had nothing to do with this. This is a God thing,” said Larry Townsend, Wallace County Sheriff. “There’s no oil well around here. There are no irrigation wells anywhere near. This is something that just happened.” The sink hole is about 200 feet across and 90 feet deep. Some people have let their curiosity overtake their caution and have hiked down into the cavity, but the sheriff warns that hiking into it is a bad idea because they don’t know what’s under it and if it will further collapse. –Fox 4KC
August 5, 2013 – TOKYO — A strong 5.8 magnitude earthquake shook northeastern Japan on Sunday in the same region devastated by a giant tsunami and temblor 2-1/2 years ago, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.0 struck shortly after midday, and was centered off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture, and 50 kilometers (30 miles) below the seabed. The earthquake was later downgraded to a 5.8 event by the USGS.
August 5, 2013 – JAPAN - Highly radioactive water seeping into the ocean from Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is creating an “emergency” that the operator is struggling to contain, an official from the country’s nuclear watchdog said on Monday. This contaminated groundwater has breached an underground barrier, is rising toward the surface and is exceeding legal limits of radioactive discharge, Shinji Kinjo, head of a Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) task force, told Reuters.
August 5, 2013 – DETROIT - A massive cloud of black dust that swept across the Detroit River into Windsor, Canada this week has been linked to piles of petroleum coke, a by-product of tar sands oil illegally stored in Detroit by Koch Carbon. Though much has already been said of the tar sands oil industry, which is currently experiencing a boom and has spurred several high profile pipeline expansions across the US, the accumulation of the petroleum coke, commonly referred to as pet coke, along the Detroit riverfront went largely unnoticed until this week. A dust cloud which flew over Detroit and into Windsor this week was found to carry elevated traces of lead, sulfur, zinc and vanadium, which is possibly cancer-causing in humans in prolonged or elevated exposure, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a France-based organization. The US Department of Health and Human Services and the US has not yet classified whether vanadium is carcinogenic.
August 5, 2013 – KAMCHATKA – Russia’s northernmost active volcano churned out ash to a height of up to five kilometers (three miles) in the country’s Far East, local Emergencies Ministry’s department reported on Monday. The 3,283-meter (10,771 feet) Shiveluch volcano increased activity in May 2009 and has been periodically spewing ash from three to ten kilometers.
Paluweh Volcano (Indonesia): A partial collapse of the lava dome occurred yesterday and produced an explosion and (probably) pyroclastic flows. An ash plume rose to about 3 km (9,000 ft) altitude. Our friend Aris who visited the area after the event reported that bombs were ejected to up to 1 km distance and estimates that the collapse removed about 20% of the dome. –Volcano Discovery
August 2, 2013 – NORWAY – Researchers at the University of Bergen (UiB) has discovered hundreds of volcanoes in the deep sea around Norway. The area may be Norway’s new National Park or billion-profit generating region.The unique findings were discovered in Norwegian waters along a 1500 km long volcanic mountain range, which stretches from Jan Mayen to the Fram Strait between Svalbard and Greenland. Prior to this white spots on the map, we knew nothing about what was there. But using technological tools we have been able to map the ocean floor. The last volcano was found a few weeks ago and is just 20 meters below sea level, – says Rolf Birger Pedersen, professor at the Centre for Geobiology (UiB). By discovering Loki’s Castle, as the area is called, now researchers from UiB can observe unknown volcanic underwater world toogether with hundreds of undersea volcanoes and various heat sources. There is not only a totally unique wildlife, but also rich metal deposits. Each field has an estimated value of 1-3 billion NOK. How much economic value they may have in the future is too early to say. The environmental and legal aspects are important issues. Iron, zinc and copper are just some of the metal deposits that exist, but the unique microorganisms will also be an important step in bioprospecting. That searching for valuable biological and active components from marine organism, which can be used for research and development of new medicines. – The Nordic Page
August 2, 2013 – WYOMING – The world’s largest geyser has exploded to life at Yellowstone National Park for the first time in eight years, sending a high-pressure burst of steamy water 300 feet into the air, a park official said on Thursday. The stream of 160 degree water released on Wednesday night by the so-called Steamboat Geyser lasted for roughly 10 minutes, delighting a small number of “geyser gazers” who have waited years for such a show, Yellowstone spokesman Dan Hottle said.
August 1, 2013 – JEDDAH, SA – Three more confirmed cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus infections in Saudi Arabia have been recorded, the Ministry of Health said on Thursday. A statement posted on the ministry’s website said one of the patients is a 67-year-old woman in Riyadh, who had been suffering from various chronic diseases. She is now under intensive care, receiving the health care and proper treatment. The two other cases are both women health workers, one of them living in Asir region and the other in Riyadh. “They have mild symptoms but their health status is stable,” said the MOH. The new cases bring to 92 the total number of people who have contracted the virus worldwide, including 71 in Saudi Arabia.
July 30, 2013 – MILAN, Italy - A tornado has ripped through a suburb of Milan, injuring 12 people and damaging buildings and vehicles. Video shot by witnesses on their mobile phones captured the twister tearing through an industrial region in Grezzago, leaving a trail of devastation as it destroyed cars, overturned trucks and uprooted telegraph poles. “We were inside there and a lorry crashed into the wall and came through it,” said Stefano Grimoldi, who was caught up the carnage. “Then all the windows broke and we couldn’t understand what was happening.” He added: “Look there is no more roof, no more doors, there’s nothing left. Witnesses described the incident as terrifying. “It came from over there – the next little town along in Pozzo D’Ada,” explained witness Luca Mariani. “Then it came through here, Grezzago, then it went towards Trezzo,” added his friend Anthony Farchica. “It lasted, I’m not sure, the time it took, ten minutes or a quarter of an hour,” they added. Firemen, civil protection and other rescue services rushed to the scene. Although no deaths have been reported there are reports of a dozen injuries. –
July 30, 2013 – HAWAII - A flood advisory remains in effect for Hawaii Island at least through 6:15 p.m. as the brunt of Tropical Storm Flossie moved past Hilo and East Hawaii and began pestering Kailua-Kona and West Hawaii with heavy rains and high winds. The lower Puna and Kau areas appeared to be the most badly hit portions of East Hawaii. The Hawaii Police Department reported fallen trees on Highway 132, the Pahoa-Kapoho Highway in the area of Lava Tree State Park. The highway was closed around noon but reopened about 2:30, Hawaii County Civil Defense officials said. More than 6,000 customers of the Hawaii Electrical Light Co., mostly from Volcano to Pahoa, lost power after high winds knocked down power lines in various areas of Puna, said Kristin Okinaka, HELCO deputy corporate communications officer. At the peak there were about 6,300 homes and businesses without power, according to Hawaii Electric Light Co. That included 2,800 customers from Volcano to Glenwood, 2,200 customers from Kalapana to Nanawale and 1,300 in Panaewa.
July 29, 2013 – SIBERIA, RUSSIA - Did the Arctic region break a heat record? According to English-language outlet The Siberian Times, temperatures of 32 degrees Celsius, or 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit, were recorded in the Siberian city of Norilsk on July 21. The average temperature in July in the region is 13.6 C, or 56.48 F. Weather historian Christopher C. Burt explains on the website Weather Underground that the entire Russian Arctic region has seen warm weather as of late. Burt adds that Norilsk has seen its warmest nights in recent days — some 20.2 C, or 68.26 F — and that wildfires have erupted in the region. However Burt and The Siberian Times disagree as to whether the warm weather spell is a record. According to the Siberian Times, the recent spike broke the 31.9 C (89.42 F) record set three decades ago, while Burt believes the current record stands at 32.2 C (89.96 F).
July 29, 2013 – FRANCE – Seven people died yesterday on a series of beaches in the south of France which are hugely popular with British tourists. High winds which reached speeds of up to 80 mph and unpredictable currents were blamed for the so-called ‘Black Sunday’ in the Herault department, which is on the Mediterranean coast. At least three other people were tonight in a ‘serious condition’ after escaping from the sea. Like the deceased, they had been enjoying high summer temperatures on the beaches of Palavas-les-Flots, Carnon, La Grande-Motte, Valras and Vendres. ‘Conditions were hugely treacherous, yet many people did not seem aware of this,’ said a spokesman for the local lifeguards. ‘Swimmers who ventured out too far found themselves swept further out by high winds and big waves. Four of the victims died on the beaches, at sea or inland after resuscitation attempts failed, while three others died in hospital.
July 29, 2013 – NEW ZEALAND - A ‘‘severe’’ quake this morning in Cook Strait caused damage and was felt as far away as Auckland. It also increased the probability of further severe aftershocks, GeoNet seismologist John Ristau said. Did this morning’s quake cause any damage for you? The 5.4-magnitude quake struck at 1.07am today, just over a week since a 6.5 magnitude Cook Strait earthquake, which caused damage around Wellington. Today’s quake was 12km deep and 20km east of Seddon in Cook Strait. It was followed by a swarm of smaller quakes.
July 29, 2013 – SAUDI ARABIA – A Saudi man has died of the coronavirus Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), the Saudi Health Ministry said on Saturday, raising to 39 the number of deaths from the SARS-like virus in the kingdom where it first emerged last year. “The Ministry of Health has announced the death of one case, who had been previously announced to be infected with this virus in Asir, may Allah have mercy upon him,” the ministry said in a statement.
July 26, 2013 – GUATEMALA - Seismic and surface activity have increased during the past days, characterized by the appearance of continuous tremor and more frequent strombolian explosions, the latest special bulletin of INSIVUMEH notes. This suggests a batch of fresh magma is currently rising. The Guatemalan scientists think that it is likely that strombolian activity will increase and perhaps a lava flow will appear on the flanks of the volcano in the coming days. Already, the intra-crater cone has surpassed the rim of the crater by 4 meters and is now visible from outside. – Volcano Discovery
July 26, 2013 – HEALTH - Researchers found evidence of a “lunar influence” in a study of 33 volunteers sleeping in tightly controlled laboratory conditions. When the Moon was round, the volunteers took longer to nod off and had poorer quality sleep, despite being shut in a darkened room, Current Biology reports. They also had a dip in levels of a hormone called melatonin that is linked to natural-body clock cycles. When it is dark, the body makes more melatonin. And it produces less when it is light. Being exposed to bright lights in the evening or too little light during the day can disrupt the body’s normal melatonin cycles.
July 25, 2013 – KANSAS – As sunrise brings fresh light to the aftermath of strong storms in southern Kansas from Tuesday night, authorities are beginning to assess the toll. Hail as large as baseballs was reported in east Hutchinson, according to Reno County Emergency Management. Winds estimated as high as 100 miles an hour were reported in southern Reno County near Pretty Prairie. The town itself was hit hard by hail and strong winds, knocking down trees and blocking streets. “Please Please Please stay away from Pretty Prairie for now. They are not letting people into town at this time,” a post on Reno County Emergency Management’s Facebook page implored. A hail stone measuring 4.75 inches in diameter fell near Yoder in eastern Reno County and hail as large as tennis balls was also reported. More heavy rain strong winds struck Argonia in Sumner County Tuesday night, which was still picking up the pieces from Monday night’s microburst storm that ripped portions of the roof off the high school and elementary school.
July 25, 2013 – TEXAS – (backwards storm) On July 14, a low pressure system that started in the Eastern United States retrograded under a ridge of high pressure to the north over the last couple of days. This storm system moved from east to west, which is extremely unusual for this hemisphere. We’ve seen these move east to west for a short period of time, but this one will make it to Southern California by the time it weakens. The upper level system is known as an easterly wave; however I’d like to call it a super easterly wave based on the distance it is going to travel. This particular system will have traveled from one side of the country to the other once it has stopped moving west, diving from there into Mexico, gathering up monsoonal moisture to be put into Nevada and Southern California later in the week into next week. Rainfall estimations across parts of Central Texas could be over 2-4″ of rain, with more rain (above 6+” possible in parts of South-Central Texas. Severe storms, including tornadoes, hail, and damaging winds will be possible from Texas, New Mexico, and parts of Arizona through the next few days. –The Weather Space
July 24, 2013 – SEATTLE - A new study has found that heat waves are increasing in the western portions of the Pacific Northwest, but not the kind most people envision, with scorching hot days of temperatures reaching triple digits. These heat waves occur at night. Researchers documented 15 examples of “nighttime heat waves” from 1901 through 2009 and 10 of those have occurred since 1990. Five of them took place during a four-year period from 2006-09. And since the study was accepted for publication in the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, another nighttime heat wave took place at the end of this June, the authors point out. “Most people are familiar with daytime heat waves, when the temperatures get into the 100s and stay there for a few days,” said Kathie Dello, deputy director of the Oregon Climate Service at Oregon State University and a co-author on the study. “A nighttime heat wave relates to how high the minimum temperature remains overnight. “Daytime events are usually influenced by down slope warming over the Cascade Mountains, while nighttime heat waves seem to be triggered by humidity,” said Dello, who is in OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. “Elevated low-level moisture at night tends to trap the heat in.” In their study, Dello and co-authors Karin Bumbaco and Nicholas Bond from the University of Washington defined heat waves as three consecutive days of temperatures at the warmest 1 percentile over the past century. Using that standard criterion, they documented 13 examples of daytime heat waves during the time period from 1901 to 2009. Only two of those occurred in the last 20 years.
July 22, 2013 – JAPAN – A strong vulcanian explosion occurred last night at 11:02 GMT (20:02 local time), following several hours of near complete calm at the volcano. A loud cannon-shot bang accompanied the explosion, which generated a large mushroom cloud that reached 12,000 ft (3.7 km) altitude and engulfed the NE half of the Sakurajima peninsula and was followed by several smaller ones within about half an hour. The volcano and much of the surrounding areas remained under the ash plume for several hours until it started to clear up again. In the hours after the explosion, the Showa crater continued to emit ash plumes in often near-continuous pulses, sometimes reaching several 100 m height, but with no visible incandescence or audible sounds. –Volcano Discovery
Large explosions at Ecuador volcano: An increase of activity occurred yesterday. IGPEN recorded 3 strong pulses of volcanic tremor since midnight 20-21 July (local time), which were accompanied by strombolian activity and strong explosions that produced loud roars, heavy gunfire sounds, and vibrations that rattled floors, windows and doors of houses in areas nearby.
July 22, 2013 – CHINA – Two powerful earthquakes have struck China’s north-west Gansu province, killing at least 94 people and leaving more than 400 others injured. The first earthquake near Dingxi city had a magnitude of 5.9 and was shallow, with a depth of just 9.8 km (6 miles), the US Geological Survey said. Just over an hour later, a magnitude 5.6 quake hit the same area, it added. In 2008, an earthquake in Sichuan province left up to 90,000 people dead and millions homeless. A factory worker in Minxian county told AFP that he felt “violent shaking” and “ran to the yard of the [factory] plant immediately. Our factory is only one floor. When I came to the yard, I saw an 18-storey building, the tallest in our county, shaking ferociously, especially the 18th floor,” he said. The area has been hit by 371 aftershocks, according to the Earthquake Administration of Gansu province. Tremors were felt in the provincial capital, Lanzhou, and as far away as Xian, 400km (250 miles) to the east.
July 22, 2013 – INDONESIA - One of Indonesia’s most dangerous volcanoes spewed material a kilometer into the air near Yogyakarta, a university town and center of Javanese culture, sending hundreds of villagers fleeing. A short, massive rumbling was heard from Mount Merapi in the predawn hours Monday, the country’s disaster agency said, after which a cloud of ash and fine sand fell for several hours as far as 14 kilometers from the peak on the island of Java.
July 21, 2013 – WELLINGTON, NZ - A 6.9-magnitude earthquake has struck New Zealand, rattling the capital Wellington and some other cities. The quake was later downgraded to a 6.5 by the USGS. The quake on Sunday hit 57km southwest of Wellington at a depth of 10.1km, the US Geological Survey said. There were no immediate reports of major damage and injuries after the earthquake but some water mains were broken, windows smashed and power lines downed.
July 19, 2013 – WELLINGTON, NZ – A 4.3 quake hit the east coast of New Zealand tonight, following a 4.5 magnitude quake in central New Zealand this afternoon, and a 5.7 earthquake that rattled people in Wellington and Blenheim this morning. Geonet reported tonight’s quake was 20 km east of Te Araroa, a settlement on the east coast of the north island, near the southern edge of the Bay of Plenty. The quake was 62 km deep and hit at 11.42pm. GeoNet reported this afternoon’s was of a “strong” intensity, 35 km east of Seddon, at a depth of 15 km. The quake hit at 3.21pm. The first quake struck at 9.06 am and was centered 30km east of Seddon, south of Blenheim, at a depth of 8 km. Rated as severe, it turned Wellington office workers white-knuckled as it swayed high-rises in the capital, with buildings also being rocked in Blenheim. The shallow tremor was felt as far away as Christchurch and New Plymouth.
July 19, 2013 – DR CONGO, Africa – Recent NASA satellite images from 11 June 2013 show a thick steam and gas plume rising from a pit crater in the summit caldera of Nyamuragira volcano. No evidence of lava close to the surface was found, while the lava lake in neighboring Nyiragongo remains well active and visible on the same images. Nyamuragira’s plume was rich in water vapor — which condenses rapidly in the humid tropical air — and sulfur dioxide, which lends a blue tint in natural-color satellite imagery.
July 19, 2013 – HEALTH – Health authorities in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have reported six new cases of the SARS-like coronavirus, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday. The latest infections of four women and two men aged between 26 and 42 bring the global total to 88 cases, including 45 deaths, the United Nations agency said in a statement.
July 18, 2013 – PERU – The man in charge of monitoring the Sabancaya Volcano confirmed to the Peruvian daily, El Comercio, that the recent wave of earthquakes in the Arequipa region were caused by the volcano. “We´re in the sphere of influence of the Sabancaya Volcano, so all of the earthquakes we´ve experienced in the last few days were in fact caused by the volcano,” Domingo Ramos Palomino told the daily. He went on to explain that though there has been increased activity around the Sabancaya, there is not enough evidence to predict an eruption in the near future.
July 17, 2013 – QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Scientists say lava flow and ash and gas emissions have intensified at a second Ecuadorean volcano, Reventador, as the full-bore eruption of the Tungurahua cone continues. Ecuador’s Geophysics Institute says the lava flow on Reventador’s southern flank has increased since Saturday but poses no immediate threat to villagers in the region 60 miles (100) kilometers) east of the capital, Quito. The 11,400-foot (3,475-meter) volcano is nearly three times that distance from Tungurahua to the southwest. It has been roaring since Sunday, when 200 people were evacuated from its flanks and one pyroclastic blast was heard as far away as the coastal city of Guayaquil. Tungurahua is 16,480 feet (5,023 meters) high and has been active since 1999. Reventador had its last big eruption in November 2002. –Big Story
July 15, 2013 – COSTA RICA - A significant earthquake swarm has started late on 13 July at the volcano and is continuing. This could indicate a rise of magma in progress and could eventually lead to new eruptions in the near future. The stratovolcano is 3,340 m (10,958 ft) high and is about 45 minutes from the Atlantic slope town of Turrialba. The summit has three craters, one of which has fumaroles and sulfur pits. The largest of the craters has a diameter of 164 feet (50 m). Turrialba is adjacent to the Irazú volcano and both are among Costa Rica’s largest volcanoes. It had at least five large explosive eruptions in last 3500 years. The Turrialba volcano last erupted in 2011. –Volcano Discovery
July 15, 2013 – ANTARCTICA – A 7.3 magnitude earthquake has struck south of Bristol Island in the South Sandwich Islands. No tsunami alert exists, however. The massive 7.3 magnitude earthquake began today July 15, 2013 far out to sea, far from Argentina and Chile’s coast, officials tell news. It was initially reported as a 6.8 magnitude quake before being upgraded. The large earthquake today began moments ago. It erupted at 12:03 pm local time, officials tell news. It also posted a moderate depth. USGS indicates to news that the quake starting twenty miles below sea level. But the quake was far from land when it began. Officials tell news that the quake was closest only to one island. The quake began one hundred thirty miles southeast of Bristol Island in the South Sandwich Islands.
July 15, 2013 – ECUADOR – At least 200 people have been evacuated after a volcano in Ecuador erupted and spewed ash miles into the air. The “strong explosion” at the Tungurahua volcano could be felt hundreds of miles away, the Geophysics Institute reported. It spewed stones, gases and ash more than 5 km (3.1 miles) into the sky, authorities said. The clouds of ash and gas could be seen as far away as the capital Quito, about 153km (95 miles) north of the volcano.
August 5, 2013 – TOKYO — A strong 5.8 magnitude earthquake shook northeastern Japan on Sunday in the same region devastated by a giant tsunami and temblor 2-1/2 years ago, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.0 struck shortly after midday, and was centered off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture, and 50 kilometers (30 miles) below the seabed. The earthquake was later downgraded to a 5.8 event by the USGS.
August 5, 2013 – JAPAN - Highly radioactive water seeping into the ocean from Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is creating an “emergency” that the operator is struggling to contain, an official from the country’s nuclear watchdog said on Monday. This contaminated groundwater has breached an underground barrier, is rising toward the surface and is exceeding legal limits of radioactive discharge, Shinji Kinjo, head of a Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) task force, told Reuters.
August 5, 2013 – DETROIT - A massive cloud of black dust that swept across the Detroit River into Windsor, Canada this week has been linked to piles of petroleum coke, a by-product of tar sands oil illegally stored in Detroit by Koch Carbon. Though much has already been said of the tar sands oil industry, which is currently experiencing a boom and has spurred several high profile pipeline expansions across the US, the accumulation of the petroleum coke, commonly referred to as pet coke, along the Detroit riverfront went largely unnoticed until this week. A dust cloud which flew over Detroit and into Windsor this week was found to carry elevated traces of lead, sulfur, zinc and vanadium, which is possibly cancer-causing in humans in prolonged or elevated exposure, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a France-based organization. The US Department of Health and Human Services and the US has not yet classified whether vanadium is carcinogenic.
August 5, 2013 – KAMCHATKA – Russia’s northernmost active volcano churned out ash to a height of up to five kilometers (three miles) in the country’s Far East, local Emergencies Ministry’s department reported on Monday. The 3,283-meter (10,771 feet) Shiveluch volcano increased activity in May 2009 and has been periodically spewing ash from three to ten kilometers.
Paluweh Volcano (Indonesia): A partial collapse of the lava dome occurred yesterday and produced an explosion and (probably) pyroclastic flows. An ash plume rose to about 3 km (9,000 ft) altitude. Our friend Aris who visited the area after the event reported that bombs were ejected to up to 1 km distance and estimates that the collapse removed about 20% of the dome. –Volcano Discovery
August 2, 2013 – NORWAY – Researchers at the University of Bergen (UiB) has discovered hundreds of volcanoes in the deep sea around Norway. The area may be Norway’s new National Park or billion-profit generating region.The unique findings were discovered in Norwegian waters along a 1500 km long volcanic mountain range, which stretches from Jan Mayen to the Fram Strait between Svalbard and Greenland. Prior to this white spots on the map, we knew nothing about what was there. But using technological tools we have been able to map the ocean floor. The last volcano was found a few weeks ago and is just 20 meters below sea level, – says Rolf Birger Pedersen, professor at the Centre for Geobiology (UiB). By discovering Loki’s Castle, as the area is called, now researchers from UiB can observe unknown volcanic underwater world toogether with hundreds of undersea volcanoes and various heat sources. There is not only a totally unique wildlife, but also rich metal deposits. Each field has an estimated value of 1-3 billion NOK. How much economic value they may have in the future is too early to say. The environmental and legal aspects are important issues. Iron, zinc and copper are just some of the metal deposits that exist, but the unique microorganisms will also be an important step in bioprospecting. That searching for valuable biological and active components from marine organism, which can be used for research and development of new medicines. – The Nordic Page
August 2, 2013 – WYOMING – The world’s largest geyser has exploded to life at Yellowstone National Park for the first time in eight years, sending a high-pressure burst of steamy water 300 feet into the air, a park official said on Thursday. The stream of 160 degree water released on Wednesday night by the so-called Steamboat Geyser lasted for roughly 10 minutes, delighting a small number of “geyser gazers” who have waited years for such a show, Yellowstone spokesman Dan Hottle said.
August 1, 2013 – JEDDAH, SA – Three more confirmed cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus infections in Saudi Arabia have been recorded, the Ministry of Health said on Thursday. A statement posted on the ministry’s website said one of the patients is a 67-year-old woman in Riyadh, who had been suffering from various chronic diseases. She is now under intensive care, receiving the health care and proper treatment. The two other cases are both women health workers, one of them living in Asir region and the other in Riyadh. “They have mild symptoms but their health status is stable,” said the MOH. The new cases bring to 92 the total number of people who have contracted the virus worldwide, including 71 in Saudi Arabia.
July 30, 2013 – MILAN, Italy - A tornado has ripped through a suburb of Milan, injuring 12 people and damaging buildings and vehicles. Video shot by witnesses on their mobile phones captured the twister tearing through an industrial region in Grezzago, leaving a trail of devastation as it destroyed cars, overturned trucks and uprooted telegraph poles. “We were inside there and a lorry crashed into the wall and came through it,” said Stefano Grimoldi, who was caught up the carnage. “Then all the windows broke and we couldn’t understand what was happening.” He added: “Look there is no more roof, no more doors, there’s nothing left. Witnesses described the incident as terrifying. “It came from over there – the next little town along in Pozzo D’Ada,” explained witness Luca Mariani. “Then it came through here, Grezzago, then it went towards Trezzo,” added his friend Anthony Farchica. “It lasted, I’m not sure, the time it took, ten minutes or a quarter of an hour,” they added. Firemen, civil protection and other rescue services rushed to the scene. Although no deaths have been reported there are reports of a dozen injuries. –
July 30, 2013 – HAWAII - A flood advisory remains in effect for Hawaii Island at least through 6:15 p.m. as the brunt of Tropical Storm Flossie moved past Hilo and East Hawaii and began pestering Kailua-Kona and West Hawaii with heavy rains and high winds. The lower Puna and Kau areas appeared to be the most badly hit portions of East Hawaii. The Hawaii Police Department reported fallen trees on Highway 132, the Pahoa-Kapoho Highway in the area of Lava Tree State Park. The highway was closed around noon but reopened about 2:30, Hawaii County Civil Defense officials said. More than 6,000 customers of the Hawaii Electrical Light Co., mostly from Volcano to Pahoa, lost power after high winds knocked down power lines in various areas of Puna, said Kristin Okinaka, HELCO deputy corporate communications officer. At the peak there were about 6,300 homes and businesses without power, according to Hawaii Electric Light Co. That included 2,800 customers from Volcano to Glenwood, 2,200 customers from Kalapana to Nanawale and 1,300 in Panaewa.
July 29, 2013 – SIBERIA, RUSSIA - Did the Arctic region break a heat record? According to English-language outlet The Siberian Times, temperatures of 32 degrees Celsius, or 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit, were recorded in the Siberian city of Norilsk on July 21. The average temperature in July in the region is 13.6 C, or 56.48 F. Weather historian Christopher C. Burt explains on the website Weather Underground that the entire Russian Arctic region has seen warm weather as of late. Burt adds that Norilsk has seen its warmest nights in recent days — some 20.2 C, or 68.26 F — and that wildfires have erupted in the region. However Burt and The Siberian Times disagree as to whether the warm weather spell is a record. According to the Siberian Times, the recent spike broke the 31.9 C (89.42 F) record set three decades ago, while Burt believes the current record stands at 32.2 C (89.96 F).
July 29, 2013 – FRANCE – Seven people died yesterday on a series of beaches in the south of France which are hugely popular with British tourists. High winds which reached speeds of up to 80 mph and unpredictable currents were blamed for the so-called ‘Black Sunday’ in the Herault department, which is on the Mediterranean coast. At least three other people were tonight in a ‘serious condition’ after escaping from the sea. Like the deceased, they had been enjoying high summer temperatures on the beaches of Palavas-les-Flots, Carnon, La Grande-Motte, Valras and Vendres. ‘Conditions were hugely treacherous, yet many people did not seem aware of this,’ said a spokesman for the local lifeguards. ‘Swimmers who ventured out too far found themselves swept further out by high winds and big waves. Four of the victims died on the beaches, at sea or inland after resuscitation attempts failed, while three others died in hospital.
July 29, 2013 – NEW ZEALAND - A ‘‘severe’’ quake this morning in Cook Strait caused damage and was felt as far away as Auckland. It also increased the probability of further severe aftershocks, GeoNet seismologist John Ristau said. Did this morning’s quake cause any damage for you? The 5.4-magnitude quake struck at 1.07am today, just over a week since a 6.5 magnitude Cook Strait earthquake, which caused damage around Wellington. Today’s quake was 12km deep and 20km east of Seddon in Cook Strait. It was followed by a swarm of smaller quakes.
July 29, 2013 – SAUDI ARABIA – A Saudi man has died of the coronavirus Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), the Saudi Health Ministry said on Saturday, raising to 39 the number of deaths from the SARS-like virus in the kingdom where it first emerged last year. “The Ministry of Health has announced the death of one case, who had been previously announced to be infected with this virus in Asir, may Allah have mercy upon him,” the ministry said in a statement.
July 26, 2013 – GUATEMALA - Seismic and surface activity have increased during the past days, characterized by the appearance of continuous tremor and more frequent strombolian explosions, the latest special bulletin of INSIVUMEH notes. This suggests a batch of fresh magma is currently rising. The Guatemalan scientists think that it is likely that strombolian activity will increase and perhaps a lava flow will appear on the flanks of the volcano in the coming days. Already, the intra-crater cone has surpassed the rim of the crater by 4 meters and is now visible from outside. – Volcano Discovery
July 26, 2013 – HEALTH - Researchers found evidence of a “lunar influence” in a study of 33 volunteers sleeping in tightly controlled laboratory conditions. When the Moon was round, the volunteers took longer to nod off and had poorer quality sleep, despite being shut in a darkened room, Current Biology reports. They also had a dip in levels of a hormone called melatonin that is linked to natural-body clock cycles. When it is dark, the body makes more melatonin. And it produces less when it is light. Being exposed to bright lights in the evening or too little light during the day can disrupt the body’s normal melatonin cycles.
July 25, 2013 – TEXAS – (backwards storm) On July 14, a low pressure system that started in the Eastern United States retrograded under a ridge of high pressure to the north over the last couple of days. This storm system moved from east to west, which is extremely unusual for this hemisphere. We’ve seen these move east to west for a short period of time, but this one will make it to Southern California by the time it weakens. The upper level system is known as an easterly wave; however I’d like to call it a super easterly wave based on the distance it is going to travel. This particular system will have traveled from one side of the country to the other once it has stopped moving west, diving from there into Mexico, gathering up monsoonal moisture to be put into Nevada and Southern California later in the week into next week. Rainfall estimations across parts of Central Texas could be over 2-4″ of rain, with more rain (above 6+” possible in parts of South-Central Texas. Severe storms, including tornadoes, hail, and damaging winds will be possible from Texas, New Mexico, and parts of Arizona through the next few days. –The Weather Space
July 24, 2013 – SEATTLE - A new study has found that heat waves are increasing in the western portions of the Pacific Northwest, but not the kind most people envision, with scorching hot days of temperatures reaching triple digits. These heat waves occur at night. Researchers documented 15 examples of “nighttime heat waves” from 1901 through 2009 and 10 of those have occurred since 1990. Five of them took place during a four-year period from 2006-09. And since the study was accepted for publication in the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, another nighttime heat wave took place at the end of this June, the authors point out. “Most people are familiar with daytime heat waves, when the temperatures get into the 100s and stay there for a few days,” said Kathie Dello, deputy director of the Oregon Climate Service at Oregon State University and a co-author on the study. “A nighttime heat wave relates to how high the minimum temperature remains overnight. “Daytime events are usually influenced by down slope warming over the Cascade Mountains, while nighttime heat waves seem to be triggered by humidity,” said Dello, who is in OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. “Elevated low-level moisture at night tends to trap the heat in.” In their study, Dello and co-authors Karin Bumbaco and Nicholas Bond from the University of Washington defined heat waves as three consecutive days of temperatures at the warmest 1 percentile over the past century. Using that standard criterion, they documented 13 examples of daytime heat waves during the time period from 1901 to 2009. Only two of those occurred in the last 20 years.
July 22, 2013 – JAPAN – A strong vulcanian explosion occurred last night at 11:02 GMT (20:02 local time), following several hours of near complete calm at the volcano. A loud cannon-shot bang accompanied the explosion, which generated a large mushroom cloud that reached 12,000 ft (3.7 km) altitude and engulfed the NE half of the Sakurajima peninsula and was followed by several smaller ones within about half an hour. The volcano and much of the surrounding areas remained under the ash plume for several hours until it started to clear up again. In the hours after the explosion, the Showa crater continued to emit ash plumes in often near-continuous pulses, sometimes reaching several 100 m height, but with no visible incandescence or audible sounds. –Volcano Discovery
Large explosions at Ecuador volcano: An increase of activity occurred yesterday. IGPEN recorded 3 strong pulses of volcanic tremor since midnight 20-21 July (local time), which were accompanied by strombolian activity and strong explosions that produced loud roars, heavy gunfire sounds, and vibrations that rattled floors, windows and doors of houses in areas nearby.
July 22, 2013 – CHINA – Two powerful earthquakes have struck China’s north-west Gansu province, killing at least 94 people and leaving more than 400 others injured. The first earthquake near Dingxi city had a magnitude of 5.9 and was shallow, with a depth of just 9.8 km (6 miles), the US Geological Survey said. Just over an hour later, a magnitude 5.6 quake hit the same area, it added. In 2008, an earthquake in Sichuan province left up to 90,000 people dead and millions homeless. A factory worker in Minxian county told AFP that he felt “violent shaking” and “ran to the yard of the [factory] plant immediately. Our factory is only one floor. When I came to the yard, I saw an 18-storey building, the tallest in our county, shaking ferociously, especially the 18th floor,” he said. The area has been hit by 371 aftershocks, according to the Earthquake Administration of Gansu province. Tremors were felt in the provincial capital, Lanzhou, and as far away as Xian, 400km (250 miles) to the east.
July 22, 2013 – INDONESIA - One of Indonesia’s most dangerous volcanoes spewed material a kilometer into the air near Yogyakarta, a university town and center of Javanese culture, sending hundreds of villagers fleeing. A short, massive rumbling was heard from Mount Merapi in the predawn hours Monday, the country’s disaster agency said, after which a cloud of ash and fine sand fell for several hours as far as 14 kilometers from the peak on the island of Java.
July 21, 2013 – WELLINGTON, NZ - A 6.9-magnitude earthquake has struck New Zealand, rattling the capital Wellington and some other cities. The quake was later downgraded to a 6.5 by the USGS. The quake on Sunday hit 57km southwest of Wellington at a depth of 10.1km, the US Geological Survey said. There were no immediate reports of major damage and injuries after the earthquake but some water mains were broken, windows smashed and power lines downed.
July 19, 2013 – WELLINGTON, NZ – A 4.3 quake hit the east coast of New Zealand tonight, following a 4.5 magnitude quake in central New Zealand this afternoon, and a 5.7 earthquake that rattled people in Wellington and Blenheim this morning. Geonet reported tonight’s quake was 20 km east of Te Araroa, a settlement on the east coast of the north island, near the southern edge of the Bay of Plenty. The quake was 62 km deep and hit at 11.42pm. GeoNet reported this afternoon’s was of a “strong” intensity, 35 km east of Seddon, at a depth of 15 km. The quake hit at 3.21pm. The first quake struck at 9.06 am and was centered 30km east of Seddon, south of Blenheim, at a depth of 8 km. Rated as severe, it turned Wellington office workers white-knuckled as it swayed high-rises in the capital, with buildings also being rocked in Blenheim. The shallow tremor was felt as far away as Christchurch and New Plymouth.
July 19, 2013 – DR CONGO, Africa – Recent NASA satellite images from 11 June 2013 show a thick steam and gas plume rising from a pit crater in the summit caldera of Nyamuragira volcano. No evidence of lava close to the surface was found, while the lava lake in neighboring Nyiragongo remains well active and visible on the same images. Nyamuragira’s plume was rich in water vapor — which condenses rapidly in the humid tropical air — and sulfur dioxide, which lends a blue tint in natural-color satellite imagery.
July 19, 2013 – HEALTH – Health authorities in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have reported six new cases of the SARS-like coronavirus, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday. The latest infections of four women and two men aged between 26 and 42 bring the global total to 88 cases, including 45 deaths, the United Nations agency said in a statement.
July 18, 2013 – PERU – The man in charge of monitoring the Sabancaya Volcano confirmed to the Peruvian daily, El Comercio, that the recent wave of earthquakes in the Arequipa region were caused by the volcano. “We´re in the sphere of influence of the Sabancaya Volcano, so all of the earthquakes we´ve experienced in the last few days were in fact caused by the volcano,” Domingo Ramos Palomino told the daily. He went on to explain that though there has been increased activity around the Sabancaya, there is not enough evidence to predict an eruption in the near future.
July 17, 2013 – QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Scientists say lava flow and ash and gas emissions have intensified at a second Ecuadorean volcano, Reventador, as the full-bore eruption of the Tungurahua cone continues. Ecuador’s Geophysics Institute says the lava flow on Reventador’s southern flank has increased since Saturday but poses no immediate threat to villagers in the region 60 miles (100) kilometers) east of the capital, Quito. The 11,400-foot (3,475-meter) volcano is nearly three times that distance from Tungurahua to the southwest. It has been roaring since Sunday, when 200 people were evacuated from its flanks and one pyroclastic blast was heard as far away as the coastal city of Guayaquil. Tungurahua is 16,480 feet (5,023 meters) high and has been active since 1999. Reventador had its last big eruption in November 2002. –Big Story
July 15, 2013 – COSTA RICA - A significant earthquake swarm has started late on 13 July at the volcano and is continuing. This could indicate a rise of magma in progress and could eventually lead to new eruptions in the near future. The stratovolcano is 3,340 m (10,958 ft) high and is about 45 minutes from the Atlantic slope town of Turrialba. The summit has three craters, one of which has fumaroles and sulfur pits. The largest of the craters has a diameter of 164 feet (50 m). Turrialba is adjacent to the Irazú volcano and both are among Costa Rica’s largest volcanoes. It had at least five large explosive eruptions in last 3500 years. The Turrialba volcano last erupted in 2011. –Volcano Discovery
July 15, 2013 – ANTARCTICA – A 7.3 magnitude earthquake has struck south of Bristol Island in the South Sandwich Islands. No tsunami alert exists, however. The massive 7.3 magnitude earthquake began today July 15, 2013 far out to sea, far from Argentina and Chile’s coast, officials tell news. It was initially reported as a 6.8 magnitude quake before being upgraded. The large earthquake today began moments ago. It erupted at 12:03 pm local time, officials tell news. It also posted a moderate depth. USGS indicates to news that the quake starting twenty miles below sea level. But the quake was far from land when it began. Officials tell news that the quake was closest only to one island. The quake began one hundred thirty miles southeast of Bristol Island in the South Sandwich Islands.
July 15, 2013 – ECUADOR – At least 200 people have been evacuated after a volcano in Ecuador erupted and spewed ash miles into the air. The “strong explosion” at the Tungurahua volcano could be felt hundreds of miles away, the Geophysics Institute reported. It spewed stones, gases and ash more than 5 km (3.1 miles) into the sky, authorities said. The clouds of ash and gas could be seen as far away as the capital Quito, about 153km (95 miles) north of the volcano.
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