January 2014

 

 

January 10, 2014 – CUBA – Even seasoned scientists were surprised by a rare 5.1-magnitude earthquake that struck Thursday afternoon off the northern coast of Cuba, rattling residents on both sides of the Florida Straits. “There is no question that it is unusual where it hit,” said Timothy Dixon, a University of South Florida geophysics professor and earthquake expert. “I have no clue why this earthquake happened.” Dixon said the earthquake — centered about 112 miles east of Havana in coastal waters — happened about 300 miles from a major fault line between southern Cuba and Hispaniola. “Scientists are definitely going to be looking at this one,” he said. “Earthquakes happen periodically in Cuba, but in the south.” The earthquake, which occurred at 3:58 p.m., was not strong enough to cause serious damage, but people reported feeling its effects across the Florida Keys and as far north as Cape Coral on Florida’s Gulf Coast.  “Unbelievable,” said Shelia Cullen, assistant retail manager at the Custom House Museum in Key West.

January 10, 2014 – AUSTRALIA – Animals are collapsing and falling down from the sky as Australia continues to sizzle in record-breaking temperatures. After news of 100,000 bats falling from the sky, reports of kangaroos “fainting” because of exhaustion and scorching heat have circulated in the country. A large number of kangaroos, parrots and emus were reportedly found dead in Winton, one of the hottest spots in Queensland. Winton Shire Council chief executive Tom Upton stated the deaths of animals had as much to do with the prolonged dry season and the heat wave. Hunters claimed to have seen groups of kangaroos staying near waterholes to cool down and seek relief from rising temperatures. Australia’s weather bureau has recorded a temperature of 50 degrees Celsius in the sparsely populated Pilbara region on Jan 9. According to historical records, the highest recorded temperature in Australia was set in 1960 with 50.7 C in Oodnadatta in South Australia. Weather experts say this record may be broken in the coming days if current temperatures continue to rise. Temperature records across Australia have already been broken in the past few weeks with the heat wave’s onslaught. Australian Bureau of Meteorology Climate Monitoring Manager Karly Braganza stated that the delayed arrival of a monsoon in northern Australia is contributing to the sweltering heat. The monsoon is said to have a cooling effect in the region. Mr. Braganza added global warning as another contributing factor to the ongoing heat wave.  

The heat wave in Queensland, Australia, caused 100,000 bats to fall from the sky to their deaths. The RSPCA reported seeing thousands of bats in 25 separate colonies, which were found dead on the ground in southern Queensland, including Boonah, Gatton, Laidley, Mt. Ommaney, Palmwoods and Redbank. The Scenic Rim Regional Council has ordered a massive cleanup to collect the bat carcasses since the stench is beginning to bother locals. Residents near Athol Terrace lookout in Boonah said they have been agonizing over the smell of dead bats for four days. Queensland Health has advised residents not to touch the dead bats. Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young stated that bats should be left alone to avoid the risk of infection with lyssavirus.  The southern hemisphere’s high temperature is in contrast with the deep freeze in some parts of North America caused by a phenomenon known as the polar vortex. –IBT

 January 9, 2014 – AUSTRALIA – Southern Queensland is being gripped by furnace-like temperatures, said the local RSPCA. The has in turn caused mass deaths at least 25 separate colonies have been reported since the weekend, including at Mt Ommaney, Redbank, Boonah, Palmwoods, Laidley and Gatton. RSPCA spokesman Michael Beatty says the heatwave was a significant hit to the population of bats across the state, reports the ABC news station. “The heatwave was basically a catastrophe for all the bat colonies in south-east Queensland,” he said. “That’s obviously going to have a pretty disturbing impact on those colonies and those colonies are vital to our ecosystem.” The smell of bat carcasses has caused problems for locals. The Scenic Rim Regional Council, west of Brisbane, has organized rubbish collectors to clear up the carcasses of about 2,000 bats. Residents near Boonah’s Athol Terrace lookout say they have been putting up with the stench of the dead animals for four days. Hundreds of bats also lie dead in trees and nearby bushes, and are being eaten by maggots.

The council today advised local residents it will not send workers into nearby bushland to collect the remaining bat carcasses, as it could cause further disruption to the nearby colony. One resident has told the ABC she is receiving anti-viral treatment after being scratched by a baby bat while clearing the dead animals out of her tree with a rake. Further north, Lockyer Valley Regional Council says it also faces a massive task of cleaning up thousands of dead bats from around Laidley and Gatton. Sunshine Coast Regional Council has sent workers out to collect thousands more dead bats near Palmwoods. At least 16 people across south-east Queensland are receiving anti-viral treatment after coming into close contact with a bat. Queensland Health is advising people not to touch the animals and to call authorities for help in clearing them away. Sammy Ringer from Bat Rescue echoed those concerns, saying it was best to call a wildlife volunteer or a vet. “Don’t touch them, they’re stressed,” she said. “If they do bite or scratch you and break the skin you can get a vaccination, you can get a shot for the lyssavirus.” –Express

January 8, 2014 – Bukittinggi, West Sumatra – Mount Marapi in West Sumatra, Indonesia expelled thin grey smoke up to 200 meters from the crater into the sky, on Wednesday morning, stated spokesman of the Bukittinggi Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Agency (PVBMG) Warseno. “The volcano spewed smoke after it showed signs of increased activity at 7.28 a.m. local time on Wednesday. Local residents should therefore, continue to stay alert,” he warned.  The volcano, located in the Tanahdatar and Agam districts, West Sumatra, remains on the second highest alert level. People living within 3-km radius of the crater are banned from climbing the volcano. Mt Marapi is one of the active volcanoes in West Sumatra. It had sent out sulfuric volcanic ash, one thousand meters into the sky, on August 3, 2011. The ash had fallen over several areas, such as Agam, Tanahdatar, Padangpariaman and Padangpanjang. The volcano is also considered a conservation area as well as a tourist destination in West Sumatra. When inactive, the mountains adjacent to Mount Singgalang and Mount Tandikek have always been a destination for climbers from within and outside West Sumatra. During every New Year, it is gets crowded with trekkers. –Antara



January 8, 2014 – INDONESIA – Indonesian authorities have been forced to extend a danger zone around Mount Sinabung in Western Indonesia, following an unrelenting volcanic eruption in the region. According to the authorities, Mount Sinabung, located on the island of Sumatra, has erupted more than fifty times since Saturday, spewing searing clouds of gas and lava as high as 4 to 5 kilometer. Tuesday’s overnight booming explosion in Mount Sinabung, however, triggered a panicked evacuation, sending the residents pouring down the sides of the mountain. National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the danger zone in southeast of the volcano was extended from five to seven kilometers radius of the crater. Authorities say the blistering gas has approached residential areas, with soldiers joining the rescue operation in two villages of Jewara and Pintu Besi, about seven kilometers (four miles) from the crater, where house and farmlands have been covered with ashes. More than 20,000 people have already been living in temporary shelters, since the alert status for Mount Sinabung was raised to its highest level in November. Indonesia is the home to dozens of active volcanoes and lies on the major tectonic fault lines known as the “Ring of Fire” between the Pacific and Indian oceans. In 2010, more than 350 people lost their lives, following a series of volcanic eruptions in Mount Merapi in central Java. –Press TV

   January 8, 2014 – CHICAGO – Fountains froze over, a 200-foot Ferris wheel in Atlanta shut down, and Southerners had to dig out winter coats, hats and gloves they almost never have to use. The brutal polar air that has made the Midwest shiver over the past few days spread to the East and the Deep South on Tuesday, shattering records that in some cases had stood for more than a century. The mercury plunged into the single digits and teens from Boston and New York to Atlanta, Birmingham, Nashville and Little Rock – places where many people don’t know the first thing about extreme cold. “I didn’t think the South got this cold,” said Marty Williams, a homeless man, originally from Chicago, who took shelter at a church in Atlanta, where it hit a record low of 6 degrees. “That was the main reason for me to come down from up North, from the cold, to get away from all that stuff.” The morning weather map for the eastern half of the U.S. looked like an algebra worksheet: lots of small, negative numbers. In fact, the Midwest and the East were colder than much of Antarctica. The cold turned deadly for some: Authorities reported at least 21 cold-related deaths across the country since Sunday, including seven in Illinois, and six in Indiana. At least five people died after collapsing while shoveling snow, while several victims were identified as homeless people who either refused shelter or didn’t make it to a warm haven soon enough to save themselves from the bitter temperatures. In Missouri on Monday, a 1-year-old boy was killed when the car he was riding in struck a snow plow, and a 20-year-old woman was killed in a separate crash after her car slid on ice and into the path of a tractor-trailer.

January 7, 2014 – CHINA - Chinese health authorities have reported four more H7N9 infections in three different areas of eastern China over the past 3 days, including the first detection in Shanghai since last April. Also, animal health officials in China have reported more positive H7N9 findings in environmental samples from a live poultry market, supporting the suspicion that such markets are fueling the outbreak in humans. The patient from Shanghai is an 86-year-old man whose H7N9 illness was confirmed Jan 3, according to a statement yesterday from Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection (CHP). Few details about his illness were available in official and media reports, other than that he is hospitalized. Meanwhile, a 34-year-old woman from Zhejiang province is hospitalized in critical condition with an H7N9 infection, according to a separate CHP statement. Her symptoms began on Dec 29 and she was hospitalized on Jan 2; the virus was confirmed in her respiratory samples 2 days later. She is in critical condition. The woman is from the city of Zhuji, and her illness is the first H7N9 case reported in Zhejiang province this year, Xinhua, China’s state news agency, reported yesterday. In the middle of December the province reported two cases, in a 57-year-old man and his 30-year-old son-in-law.


January 6, 2014 – INDONESIA – A volcano on Indonesia’s Sumatra Island erupted at least 77 times over the weekend, sending clouds of potentially deadly superheated gas barreling down the mountain and forcing the evacuation of more villages in the highly populated area. Mount Sinabung has displaced nearly 20,000 people from their homes since sporadic eruptions began in September. Experts have placed it under the highest alert status among the 127 active volcanoes in Indonesia, which is home to more active volcanoes than any other country and has some of the world’s most lethal volcanic activity. More people were evacuated Friday from villages in the path of hot clouds of ash and gases that on Saturday blew more than five kilometers (three miles) down the mountainside, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the national disaster-mitigation agency. ount Sinabung spews lava as seen from the village of Suka Ndebi in Karo, North Sumatra, Indonesia, on Sunday. That was the farthest such clouds,—also called pyroclastic flows,—had traveled to date. Experts say the flows, which move at high speeds and scorch everything in their path, are among the most dangerous volcanic events. When another of Indonesia’s volcanoes, Mount Merapi, erupted in 2010, almost 2,000 kilometers to the southeast on the archipelago country’s main island of Java—dozens of people were killed by superheated gases that tore into their villages far below the summit. The disaster agency said Sunday that Sinabung had erupted 77 times in the previous 24 hours, sending fine particles of ash up to 4,000 meters into the air. That marks a major increase in the frequency of eruptions, although the maximum height of the plumes has fallen to roughly half the peak level last week. Winds have been pushing the ash to the east and southeast, away from Indonesia’s third-largest city, Medan, home to more than two million people. 

  January 6, 2014 – INDONESIA – Authorities have extended a danger zone around a rumbling volcano in western Indonesia after it spewed blistering gas farther than expected. National Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho says more than 50 eruptions on Saturday sent lava and searing gas tumbling out of Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra province down the southeastern slopes up to 5 kilometers (3 miles) away. He said the volcano’s danger zone to the southeast was extended from five to seven kilometers (three to four miles) after the new eruption.  It was still spitting clouds of gas and lava as high as 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) on Sunday, but no casualties were reported. More than 20,000 people have been evacuated from villages around the crater into several temporary shelters. Sinabung has been erupting since September. –Emirates 24

   January 6, 2014 – UNITED KINGDOM – A large sinkhole has appeared in part of the Peak District in Derbyshire. The hole, which eye witnesses said measures about 160ft (49m) wide, has opened up in the village of Foolow. Caver Mark Noble, 58, from Eyam, said he saw the hole during a walk on Christmas Day, but believes the land began to fall the day before. He said he has explored the caves at Foolow in the past as huge cavities were left in the area from an old lead mine. Mr Noble said: “It’s quite a large hole and it’s getting bigger all the time. It’s probably increased by about 10% since it opened up. It is quite interesting but there are two other similar large holes that appeared about half a mile away from this one in the 1970s, so it’s not a new thing.” -BBC 

   January 6, 2014 – ALBANY, N.Y. — Snow-white owls with luminous yellow eyes are thrilling bird-watchers as the magnificent birds set up winter residence at airports, fields and beaches far south of their normal Arctic range. The Florida Times-Union reports that one of the Arctic birds has been spotted since last week in Little Talbot Island State Park. It’s only the third-ever sighting of a snowy owl confirmed in Florida. Park services specialist Peter Maholland says bird watchers have been flocking to northeast Florida to catch a glimpse of the white bird. Snowy Owls are familiar to children as Harry Potter’s pet. They are the largest North American owl, and they’re typically found in Canada and the Arctic. Experts say snowy owls fly farther south when their population spikes or their food source becomes scarce. An invasion of snowy owls has been reported this winter across the Midwest, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. Snowy owls, familiar to children as Harry Potter’s pet, made a noticeable appearance in the northern half of the U.S. in 2011. Bird-watchers recently report on eBird.org snowy owl sightings in dozens of locations across the Midwest, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states as far south as Cape Hatteras, N.C.

 January 4, 2014 – HEALTH – Cases of the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, across Canada and the U.S. are increasing at the approach of the peak flu season of February. The Centers for Disease Control reports that in the U.S., the flu season has hit southeastern states Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas the hardest so far, and it is expected to spread across the nation in the coming weeks. Swine flu has not just affected the southern part of the United States. According the seasonal map issued by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), many states are seeing widespread flu activity. In Wisconsin, 81 people have been admitted to a hospital over a period of a week with a majority of the cases attributed to the H1N1 virus. The biggest concern is the increase in the number of H1N1 incidences, which has doubled in the past two weeks, according to a Jan. 2 WBay report. A death from swine flu was just reported in Santa Clara, CA, as well. In Michigan, emergency departments are filled with hundreds of patients with flu-like symptoms. However, infants on life support because of the H1N1 virus are causing the most concern. North of the border in Toronto, the Montreal Gazette reports that 36 percent of 210 confirmed cases of influenza were H1N1. One swine flu victim has died. This is an increase of 33 percent from this point last year in Canada’s largest city. 

January 4, 2014 – CLIMATE – The bitter cold that gripped the snow-covered northern tier from Cleveland to Boston on Friday shows no sign of easing, as another arctic blast roaring out of Canada threatens to drive weekend temperatures to all-time record lows. The National Weather Service said “dangerously cold temperatures” will slam the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest through the weekend, driving wind chill temperatures in some areas to 50, 60 or even 70 degrees below zero by Sunday night. The weather service warned that “wind chills colder than 50 below can cause exposed flesh to freeze in only 5 to 10 minutes.” Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton announced Friday that all schools in the state would be closed Monday. All-time record cold temperatures are possible in Minneapolis on Monday, according to the weather service. The combination of arctic air with the gusty winds is expected to lower wind chill temperatures to the single digits over the Mid-Atlantic while areas of New England can expect wind chill readings 10 to 20 degrees below zero, the weather service said. Before the full force of the Arctic blast roars in, another winter storm will spread snow and ice from the central Plains to the Great Lakes states this weekend. The heaviest snow is forecast to hit St. Louis, Indianapolis, Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo, AccuWeather predicts, from late Saturday into early Monday. The storm will also bring snow and slippery travel to much of the Ohio and Tennessee valleys, AccuWeather meteorologist Courtney Spamer said. 

January 4, 2014 – EGYPT – At least 17 people have been killed across Egypt in a wave of protests, which saw demonstrators clashing with police forces. Over 50 other people were injured in the violence. Cairo, Alexandria, and Fayoum and Ismailia have all seen deadly scuffles as the Muslim Brotherhood-led National Coalition to Support Legitimacy organized protests on Friday. The protests were part of the Brotherhood’s boycott of the upcoming constitutional referendum. A security official told AP that 17 people died across the country, with 58 people injured nationwide. The Muslim Brotherhood places the death toll at 19. In addition, authorities arrested 122 Brotherhood members for possession of weapons, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The Egyptian government has vowed to confront the Muslim Brotherhood with “full force.” In Nasr City, a suburb of Cairo, police wearing bulletproof vests used tear gas to disperse demonstrators who threw rocks, set tires on fire and assaulted police lines. Security forces also fired teargas at the nearby Al-Azhar University where a number of students were marching.

  January 4, 2014 – GEOLOGY - Mysterious lights that occur before or during earthquakes have been noted by eyewitnesses for centuries but, until now, have baffled scientists. In one example from 1727, a man from New England reported how he felt the ground shake then saw a ball of light roll onto his dog, causing the animal to yelp. In Peru in 2009, a fisherman said he saw the sky turn violet before the earthquake, while in L’Aquila in 2009, a man saw white flashes before the tremor struck. Researchers writing in the publication Seismological Research Letters have now put forward a theory about this mystery glowing, which takes place in geological rifts when the ground is being torn apart. The authors looked at several studies about earthquake lights to propose a mechanism for why they occur, Nature magazine reports. They compiled all the reports of earthquake lights from 1600 to date, focusing on 27 earthquakes in the US and 38 in Europe. Of the 65 studied, 56 earthquakes occurred along ancient or active rift zones. A further 63 took place where geological faults that ruptured were almost vertical – many fault lines have much smaller angles. Lead author Robert Thériault, a geologist at Quebec’s Ministry of Natural Resources in Quebec City, said: “Earthquake lights are a real phenomenon – they’re not UFOs. They can be scientifically explained.”

John Ebel, a geophysicist at Boston College in Massachusetts, explained why there have been problems studying this phenomenon in the past: “It’s just not a regular area of scientific inquiry, because there’s no way to do an experiment on them.” In the study, the authors say that during an earthquake, the rocks grinding against each other generate electric charges that travel up along the fault lines. When they reach Earth’s surface, they create a glow. They believe the steep geometry explains the earthquake lights. Team member Friedemann Freund, a mineral physicist at the NASA Ames Research Center in California, believes a chemical process causes the lights. “When the stress of an earthquake hits the rock, it breaks chemical bonds involved in these defects, creating holes of positive electrical charge,” Nature reports. “These ‘p holes’ flow can vertically through the fault to the surface, triggering strong local electric fields that can generate light.” However, Ebel said there are a number of other reactions that may be responsible for these mystery lights: “It makes enough sense, but that doesn’t mean that it’s right.” Thériault added that while they have not yet got a definitive answer about the lights, awareness of their presence could help as a warning sign for earthquakes. -IBT

January 1, 2014 – NEW YORK – A storm covering 100 million Americans has the ingredients—fluffy flakes, strong winds, and record-low temps—to virtually shutdown everything from Boston to New York. Hold on to your ear muffs, East Coast: A near-perfect mix of snow, wind, and intense cold will bring blizzard conditions to New York City and Boston during the overnight hours on Thursday with a near-record chill to follow. The impending storm promises to be the biggest blizzard since a storm called Nemo paralyzed the northeast last February, and may work to bring the northeast corridor to a standstill. Late Wednesday, Boston mayor Tom Menino announced a full closure of city schools on Friday, a full 36 hours in advance. That city appears likely to take the brunt of the storm.  Blizzard warnings are in effect for Long Island and the Massachusetts coast, just south of Boston, where winds could gust in excess of 50 mph. The National Weather Service defines official blizzard conditions as snow mixed with high winds (greater than 35 mph) that reduces visibility to a quarter mile or less for a period longer than three hours. The New Jersey shore, New York City, and Boston itself should also get in on the blizzard-y action, though perhaps not for the full three hours.

January 1, 2014 – VANUATU - The U.S. Geological Survey says a 6.6-magnitude earthquake has hit the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. There are no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says there is no tsunami warning in effect. The USGS report says the quake hit early Thursday local time, with the epicenter 37 kilometers (23 miles) west of the village of Sola and 443 kilometers (275 miles) north of the capital, Port Vila. The report says the quake was at a depth was 196 kilometers (122 miles). The islands are on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,”  an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin. –ABC

January 1, 2014 – INDONESIA – More than 19,000 people have been displaced by a volcano in Indonesia that has been erupting for months and shot lava into the air nine times overnight. Mount Sinabung on Sumatra sent hot rocks and ash 7,000 meters in the air last night and this morning, National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said. “Mount Sinabung remains on the highest alert level and we have warned there should be no human activity within a five-kilometer radius of the crater,” Mr Nugroho said. “On Monday night, 19,126 people had fled their homes, and we expect that number to rise.” Police and soldiers were patrolling the danger zone to evacuate people who have chosen to stay in their homes, Mr. Nugroho added. Mount Sinabung – one of dozens of active volcanoes in Indonesia which straddles major tectonic fault lines – erupted in September for the first time since 2010 and has been rumbling ever since. In August, five people were killed and hundreds evacuated when a volcano on a tiny island in East Nusa Tenggara province erupted. The country’s most active volcano, Mount Merapi in central Java, killed more than 350 people in a series of violent eruptions in 2010. –ABC

Alaska Volcano erupts: Small, brief explosions were detected at the volcano yesterday evening (21:29 UTC or 12:29 AKST) and this morning at 4:06 UTC (19:06 AKST local time), USGS reported. No satellite images available after the time of the explosion, so uncertain if minor ash cloud generated, but unlikely. “Similar such explosions may continue without warning, and may produce minor ash clouds that are not expected to extend much beyond the volcano, but could produce local fallout on the flanks of the volcano. AVO has received no reports of activity from local observers.” –Volcano Discovery