September 7, 2013 – Venezuela - Amazing Natural Phenomenon: The Mysterious Catatumbo Lightning Or Venezuela’s Everlasting Lightning Storm. The mysterious “Relámpago del Catatumbo” (‘Catatumbo lightning’) is a unique natural phenomenon in the world. Located on the mouth of the Catatumbo river at Lake Maracaibo (Venezuela), the phenomenon is a cloud-to-cloud lightning that forms a voltage arc more than five kilometre high during 140 to 160 nights a year, 10 hours a night, and as many as 280 times an hour. This almost permanent storm occurs over the marshlands where the Catatumbo River feeds into Lake Maracaibo and it is considered the greatest single generator of ozone in the planet, judging from the intensity of the cloud-to-cloud discharge and great frequency.
September 6, 2013 – JAPAN – A seamount in the northwestern Pacific Ocean may be the largest volcano on Earth, and could rival the largest in the solar system — the mighty Olympus Mons on Mars — according to oceanographers. Tamu Massif, a well-known seamount off Japan, turns out to be one continuous shield volcano, about the size of New Mexico or the British Isles, said geophysicist William W. Sager, lead author of a study published online Thursday in the journal Nature Geoscience.
September 6, 2013 – PHILIPPINES - A strong 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck off the northern Philippines late Friday, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, officials said. The quake was recorded at 7:33 pm local time (1133 GMT) with an epicenter about 42 kilometers (26 miles) south of Uyugan town in the Batan Islands, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said.
September 5, 2013 – COSTA RICA – The United States Geological Service (USGS) recorded a magnitude 6.0 earthquake 44 km west of Sardinal, in Costa Rica’s Guanacaste province at 6:29 a.m. this morning. The USGS reports that the quake struck at a depth of 41.7km. ICR has received reports of shaking in the popular tourist destination and beach community of Playas del Coco, described as three strong jolts over the course of about a minute. The Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica (OVSICORI) has yet to record the event, but reported a magnitude 3.8 temblor 39 km southwest of Manzanillo de Santa Cruz, also in the province of Guanacaste, a few minutes after the event reported by USGS. OVSICORI reports that quake having struck at a depth of 5 km. There are no reports of injuries or damage at this time. Today marks one year to the day when a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck the Nicoya Peninsula, also in the province of Guanacaste, on September 5th, 2012. That quake occurred at 8:42 a.m. local time. –Inside Costa Rica
September 5, 2013 – Indonesia - A new eruption could be underway at the volcano. VSI raised the alert to 3 (Siaga, alert) on a scale of 1-4, following the observation of incandescent lava at the summit and glowing rockfalls on the eastern side into the Batuawang ravine. Strong degassing generates a plume rising up to 500 m. Satellite images show a hotspot at the summit as well. These observations suggest that new magma has been arriving at the summit where mild strombolian activity is taking place. If this activity increases, the occurrence of dangerous pyroclastic flows is a likely scenario, similar to what happened at Fuego volcano in Guatemala a few days ago. All news about: Karangetang volcano. –Volcano Discovery
September 4, 2013 – JAPAN - A moderately large vulcanian explosion occurred this morning, producing significant fallout of lapilli and small bombs in several kilometers distance. Cars parked at the Arimura Lava observatory observation point to the south of the volcano were damages and windshields broken, at a distance of about 4 km. There are no reports of injuries to people. The ash plume from the eruption rose to approx. 12,000 ft (3.6 km) elevation, i.e. about 2.5 km height.
September 4, 2013 – SYRIA - Israel has carried out a joint missile test with the US in the Mediterranean, amid heightened tension over possible Western military strikes on Syria. The test came as the US Congress prepared for its first public hearing on a possible military response to alleged chemical weapons use by Syria. Earlier, the UN confirmed that more than two million Syrians were now refugees from the 30-month conflict. More Syrians were now displaced than any other nationality, it said. A senior Israeli defense official confirmed to the BBC that a missile had been fired on Tuesday to test its defense systems. The defense ministry said Israel’s Arrow missile defense system had successfully detected and tracked a Sparrow medium-range guided missile fired as part of the test.
September 4, 2013 – SYRIA – Palestinian Islamic Jihad has warned that it may respond if Israel enters any war in Syria, as expectations rise of a possible US strike on Syria. A high-ranking official from Islamic Jihad told Al-Monitor that — upon request from Iran and Syria — Islamic Jihad may lob rockets at Israel if the events develop toward an all-out war against the Syrian regime and if Israel enters the war. The source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “Up until now, there has been no decision within Islamic Jihad to bomb Israel in response to an aggression on Syria.
September 4, 2013 – PERU – On the evening of Sept. 1, the Ubinas Volcano in Moquegua registered two small eruptions. A third eruption occurred the following day, and now the volcano has errupted twice more, bringing the total to five eruptions in less than 48 hours. A number of news outlets have reported that the volcano’s sudden burst of activity has caused alarm in the area, which has been intensified by the appearance of a column of volcanic gases and ash that has reached a height of two kilometers. Now scientists have begun an investigation at the site to determine the exact cause of the eruptions.
September 4, 2013 – ALASKA - A magnitude 6.5 earthquake was recorded Tuesday in waters off Alaska’s remote Aleutian Islands region, where a 7.0 quake hit just last week. The Alaska Tsunami Warning Center said there was no danger of a tsunami from the quake that hit Tuesday afternoon. The quake was centered about 50 miles south-southwest of the tiny community of Atka, Alaska, at a depth of about 24 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Earthquakes, even large ones, are very common in the area, scientists say. Dozens of aftershocks have been recorded since Friday’s big quake.
September 4, 2013 – JAPAN – A strong earthquake shook the Tokyo area and eastern Japan today, though no injuries or damage were immediately reported. The Japan Meteorological Agency said the quake registered a magnitude of 6.9 but was centered offshore near Torishima, part of the Izu Islands about 600km south of Tokyo. The USGS registered the earthquake as a 6.5 magnitude event. A quake of that magnitude is at the upper range of a “strong” earthquake capable of causing major damage to buildings in populated areas.
How many uncontacted tribes are still left?
No one knows for sure. At a rough guess, there are probably more than 100 around the world, mostly in Amazonia and New Guinea, says Rebecca Spooner of Survival International, a London-based organization that advocates for the rights of indigenous peoples. Brazil’s count is likely to be the most accurate. The government there has identified 77 uncontacted tribes through aerial surveys and by talking to more Westernized indigenous groups about their neighbors.
There are thought to be around 15 uncontacted tribes in Peru, a handful in other Amazonian countries, a few dozen in the Indonesian part of the island of New Guinea and two tribes in the Andaman Islands off the coast of India. There may also be some in Malaysia and central Africa.
Have they really had no contact with the outside world?
Most have had a little, at least indirectly. “There’s always some contact with other isolated tribes, which have contact with other indigenous people, which in turn have contact with the outside world,” says Spooner.
Many of the Amazon tribes choose to avoid contact with outsiders because they have had unpleasant encounters in the past. The Mashco-Piro, for example, abandoned their settled gardens and fled into the forest. According to Glenn Shepard, an ethnologist at the Emilio Goeldi Museum in Belem, Brazil, this happened after rubber companies massacred tribes people at the turn of the 20th century.
Some researchers refer to such tribes as “voluntarily isolated,” rather than uncontacted.
Are there guidelines for how best to approach such tribes?
In Peru, laws prohibit outsiders from initiating contact with isolated groups in most cases. They also provide protected areas where tribes can live in peace — though loopholes allow oil and mining companies into those areas. Brazil has similar laws and policies that allow contact only in life-threatening situations.
Anthropologists have an ethical obligation to do no harm to their research subjects, according to the American Anthropological Association. However, they are rarely the first people to make contact with indigenous groups — missionaries and resource developers almost always get there first, says Kim Hill, an anthropologist at Arizona State University who has worked with several recently contacted tribes.
Why would tribes choose to end their isolation?
Often, they feel forced out by encroaching civilization, says Spooner. Survival International has documented cases where settlements have been bulldozed and tribes people harassed or killed. This leaves the survivors feeling like they have no option but to give up.
Others suggest that tribes may seek contact with outsiders because they begin to trust their intentions, Hill says. Modern medicine, metal tools and education can also exert a powerful pull.
What happens then?
Often, there is a lot of disease because the tribes people are exposed to novel pathogens. It is not uncommon for half the population to die of respiratory illness, unless outsiders bring sustained medical care, Hill says.
September 3, 2013 – GUATEMALA – A phase of increased lava flow activity occurred this morning from about 6 am local time, generating a series of pyroclastic flows that descended several ravines on different, but mostly the southwestern side of the volcano. The volcano has been in moderate effusive activity for at least the past two weeks, feeding relatively small lava flows on the upper steep slope. A sudden increase in effusion rate seems to have caused the destabilization of the lava flows, generating rockfalls that turned into pyroclastic flows.
September 3, 2013 Mexico battles two new outbreaks: Two new outbreaks of H7N3 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) have been reported – the first in a village flock of quails and the second in a flock of commercial layers. The Mexican veterinary authority has sent Follow Up report no. 10 dated 31 August to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). The report covers two new outbreaks of HPAI, later identified as the H7N3 sub-type.
September 02, 2013 –PERU – The Peruvian government has extended to nine more regions a state of emergency called to cope with unusually cold weather and heavy snowfall. At least two people have died and 33,000 others have been affected by the cold spell, local officials say. Tens of thousands of animals have frozen to death over the past week.
September 02, 2013 – RUSSIA – Throughout history, large volcanic eruptions have been known to influence climate. This summer, the Midwest experienced a cold wave referred to as “Julytober” following the June eruption of Mount Sheveluch in Russia. Experts continue to compare this eruption to others from history and debate whether it could have induced the cooler Midwestern weather. “Large Russian volcano eruptions tend to cool the Midwest,” Historical Climatologist Evelyn Browning-Garriss said. When a volcano erupts, if it is large enough, it can send debris miles into the stratosphere. The stratosphere is the atmosphere above where weather takes place, approximately 6-8 miles off the ground. “Sulfur dioxide combines with water in the atmosphere to provide sulfuric acid aerosol droplets that reflect incoming solar radiation,” PhD Research Geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Volcano Observatory David Schneider said.Although the eruption of Mount Sheveluch in June was minor compared to previous eruptions like Mount Pinatubo, two years before in 2011 there were two big eruptions in Russia and Iceland.
September 02, 2013 – ENVIRONMENT – Climate change is helping pests and diseases that attack crops to spread around the world, a study suggests. Researchers from the universities of Exeter and Oxford have found crop pests are moving at an average of 3km (two miles) a year. The team said they were heading towards the north and south poles, and were establishing in areas that were once to cold for them to live in. The research is published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Currently, it is estimated that between 10% and 16% of the world’s crops are lost to disease outbreaks. The researchers warn that rising global temperatures could make the problem worse.
September 1, 2013 – INDONESIA – A powerful 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck off eastern Indonesia on Sunday, the United States Geological Survey said, but no tsunami warning was issued. The quake struck in waters near the Barat Daya islands in Maluku province, 411 kilometres (254 miles) east of Atambua and 425 kilometres south of Ambon, the USGS said. It was at a depth of 132 kilometers. It is understood the quake hit at a depth of 114km in the Banda Sea just before 10pm AEST. –Times of India
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