The Great Red Comet-Earth Science Chronicles

Arctic Ocean freshwater bulge detected

2012-01-25T12:07:00.000-06:00

UK scientists have detected a huge dome of fresh water that is developing in the western Arctic Ocean. The bulge is some 8,000 cubic km in size and has risen by about 15cm since 2002. The team thinks it may be the result of strong winds whipping up a great clockwise current in the northern polar region called the Beaufort Gyre. This would force the water together, raising sea surface height, the group tells the journal Nature Geoscience. "In the western Arctic, the Beaufort Gyre is...

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25 Indonesian Volcanoes Showing Abnormal Activity

2012-01-16T10:52:00.001-06:00

Twenty-five volcanoes in Indonesia, including Anak Krakatau, above, are showing signs of increased activity, a presidential aide said on Saturday. (Reuters Photo) Padang, West Sumatra. Twenty-five volcanoes in Indonesia are now showing abnormal activity or have been put on alert or watch status, presidential special aide Andi Arief said here on Saturday. “According to official data, 25 volcanoes are now under alert or watch status and they must be given...

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'Off the scale' smog grounds China flights

2012-01-10T09:07:00.000-06:00

Rider battles thick smog in Beijing on January 10, 2012. Picture: AP AP MORE than 150 flights to and from Beijing have been cancelled or delayed as a thick cloud of acrid smog shrouded the city, with US figures saying the pollution was so bad it was off the scale. The national meteorological centre said the Chinese capital had been hit by thick fog that reduced visibility to as little as 200 metres in some parts of the city, while official...

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Bees being turned into 'zombies' by parasite

2012-01-04T13:46:00.002-06:00

Honey bees are abandoning their hives and being turned into “zombies” by a deadly fly parasite in their stomachs. The parasite makes the bees flee their hives and then walk round and round in circles before dying. It also makes them seek out bright lights. The parasite lays its’ eggs inside the abdomen of the honey bee. About a week after the bee dies, the pupae emerge from the throats and heads of the dead bees. Scientists discovered the parasite by accident but they believe it may...

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An island is born in the Red Sea

2011-12-30T11:08:00.001-06:00

The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite captures what appears to be a plume of smoke from a new island Underwater volcanic activity has pushed an previously unseen island to the surface in a remote part of the Red Sea. Fishermen witnessed spewing lava fountains reaching up to 90ft tall on December 19 near the group of islands known as the Zubair Group, off the west coast of Yemen. Days later images released by NASA Earth Observatory show the...

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Flu linked to mysterious seal deaths

2011-12-22T11:22:00.000-06:00

Dead harbor seals were seen on New Hampshire beaches earlier this year. A flu virus similar to one found in birds but not previously detected in harbor seals was the cause of five of 162 recent deaths of the marine animals off the New England coast, federal and state officials said yesterday. The influenza virus, known as H3N8, appears to have a low risk for transmission to humans, they said. But officials are urging the public to be cautious about approaching stranded seals to...

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Hong Kong Issues Bird Flu "Serious" Alert

2011-12-21T11:00:00.000-06:00

Workers place dead chickens into plastic bags after they were killed in Hong Kong. Public hospitals in the city activated their “serious” response level and enhanced surveillance after the government discovered the H5N1-infected chicken carcass. Photographer: Aaron Tam/AFP/Getty Images Hong Kong culled 19,451 birds and banned the sale and import of live poultry until Jan. 12 after the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus was found in a chicken carcass at a wholesale market. The 30 chicken...

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Big climate change could happen fast - and soon

2011-12-14T14:19:00.001-06:00

New research from NASA into the Earth's paleoclimate history indicates we could be facing rapid climate change this century, including sea level rises of many meters. And while international leaders have suggested a goal of limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius from pre-industrial times, Goddard Institute for Space Studies director James E Hansen says that even this would lead to drastic changes. The Earth's average global surface temperature has already risen by 0.8...

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Japan Quake Lifted Seabed 16 Stories—Largest Recorded

2011-12-05T12:20:00.001-06:00

The tsunami-devastated town of Minamisanriku, Japan, is seen in November 2011. Photograph by Greg Baker, AP Japan's devastating March 11 earthquake shifted the seabed by as much as 165 feet (50 meters)—the largest slip yet recorded, a new study says. That's considerably larger than in previous reports, which in May put the shift at 79 feet (24 meters). (See 20 unforgettable pictures of the aftermath of the Japan earthquake and tsunami.) This giant movement probably caused the massive...

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Permafrost loss worse climate peril than thought

2011-12-01T13:04:00.001-06:00

The threat to climate change posed by thawing permafrost, which could release stocks of stored carbon, is greater than estimated, a group of scientists said on Wednesday. By 2100, the amount of carbon released by permafrost loss could be "1.7-5.2 times larger than those reported," depending on how swiftly Earth's surface warms, they said. In volume terms, this is about the same as the amount of greenhouse gases released today from deforestation, they said. But the impact on climate could...

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Autumn's birds delay migration

2011-11-22T14:40:00.001-06:00

Greylag geese are some of the traditional winter visitors to the UK that are delaying their migrations Geese, ducks and swans that spend winter in wetlands of Northern Europe are changing their migration patterns as temperatures rise, say scientists. Researchers in Finland found some waterfowl delayed migrations by up to a month compared with 30 years ago. The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) says that numbers of some very familiar species...

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The European Honeybee Crisis

2011-11-17T13:49:00.001-06:00

FORGET about the recession, there's another crisis plaguing Europe. And lawmakers are so worried, they're quoting Einstein. European lawmakers have voted to urge the EU to top up funding for the beekeeping sector. Picture: Ross Schultz Supplied Bothered by spiking mortality rates for bees, Europe's parliamentarians have voted overwhelmingly to urge the EU to provide more funding for the beekeeping sector. MEPs voted 534 in favour, with 16...

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Get ready for climate change, says UN panel

2011-11-17T12:31:00.001-06:00

The toll from ever-more intense floods, drought, and heatwaves will crescendo this century unless humanity anticipates the onslaught, according to a UN report set to be unveiled on Friday. In an 800-page assessment, the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says global warming will magnify the frequence and force of extreme weather events, and defences must be prepared now to avoid worse misery in the future. "The character and severity of impacts ... depends...

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Tokyo city starts radiation tests on food in shops

2011-11-09T13:51:00.000-06:00

Tokyo government is measuring radiation on vegetables and other fresh food (AFP/File, Yoshikazu Tsuno) TOKYO — Tokyo city government on Tuesday began radiation tests on samples of food bought in shops to reassure residents amid a contamination scare after a major nuclear accident in northeast Japan. It is rare that authorities check on products at the point of sale and the the inspection includes processed food as well as fresh produce. The metropolitan government is measuring radiation on...

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Global Warming Target to Stay Below 2 Degrees Requires More Action This Decade

2011-10-31T10:48:00.002-05:00

ScienceDaily (Oct. 27, 2011) — Climate scientists say the world's target to stay below a global warming of 2 degrees, made at the United Nations conference in Copenhagen in 2009 and Cancun 2010 will require decisive action this decade. A comprehensive review of 193 emission scenarios from scientific literature to date has been published in Nature Climate Change by University of Melbourne and international scientists. This study found the target of 44 billion tons of carbon dioxide...

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Tsunami Debris Floating Fast Toward Hawaii

2011-10-26T13:20:00.002-05:00

Millions of tons of debris washed out to sea by the tsunami that ravaged Japan in March is making its way across the Pacific faster than expected. Computer models originally estimated the first of the debris wouldn't reach Midway Island until spring 2012, but a training ship, the STS Pallada, encountered tsunami debris near Midway in September. “They saw some pieces of furniture, some appliances, anything that can float, and they picked up a fishing boat,” said Jan Hafner, computer programmer...

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Our Crowded Earth

2011-10-24T12:49:00.002-05:00

Already straining to host seven billion souls, Earth is set to teem with billions more, and only a revolution in the use of resources can avert an environmental crunch, experts say. As early as 1798, Thomas Malthus gloomily forecast that our ability to reproduce would quickly outstrip our ability to produce food, leading to mass starvation and a culling of the species. But an industrial revolution and its impact on agriculture proved Malthus and later doom sayers wrong, even as our...

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Global warming 'confirmed' by independent study

2011-10-22T08:45:00.001-05:00

The Berkeley group's record of global land temperature mirrors existing ones closely The Earth's surface really is getting warmer, a new analysis by a US scientific group set up in the wake of the "Climategate" affair has concluded. The Berkeley Earth Project has used new methods and some new data, but finds the same warming trend seen by groups such as the UK Met Office and Nasa. The project received funds from sources that back organisations lobbying against action on climate...

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Climate change a health threat

2011-10-18T12:21:00.000-05:00

Climate change poses an immediate and serious threat to global health and stability, as floods and droughts destroy people's homes and food supplies and increase mass migration, experts have warned. In a statement issued at a meeting in London on Monday, they urged tougher action to reduce climate change including upping the EU target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions from 20 per cent by 2020 to 30 per cent from 1990 levels. "It is not enough for...

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Climate change leading to shrinking animals?

2011-10-17T13:53:00.000-05:00

Arctic Exploration 2002, NOAA/OER Data from many copepods, similar to this one, has given scientist insight into how warming temperatures could cause individual animals to become smaller. Copepods are tiny, water-dwelling crustaceans, and an important part of ocean food webs. This is a large, Arctic-dwelling copepod. Melting ice, outbreaks of disease, more intense storms and more forest fires are just some of the effects scientists say will accompany human-caused climate...

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The Return of the Red Haze

2011-10-05T11:13:00.001-05:00

Red sands … joggers and swimmers on Maroubra beach during the September 2009 dust storm. Photo: Kirk Gilmour It may sound like a 1960s horror movie, but red dust storms such as those that engulfed Sydney and much of Australia's east coast in 2009, could be about to make a reappearance. Researchers say dust storms usually occur after floods, because the water carries lots of sediment along rivers and spreads fine-grain topsoil material across the landscape, much of which...

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25 Signs That A Horrific Global Water Crisis Is Coming

2011-09-19T16:29:00.002-05:00

Every single day, we are getting closer to a horrific global water crisis. This world was blessed with an awesome amount of fresh water, but because of our foolishness it is rapidly disappearing. Rivers, lakes and major underground aquifers all over the globe are drying up, and many of the fresh water sources that we still have available are so incredibly polluted that we simply cannot use them anymore. Without fresh water, we simply cannot function. Just imagine...

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Rising sea levels could take economic toll on California beaches

2011-09-15T12:30:00.001-05:00

Homeowners along Broad Beach in Malibu have been building huge sandbag walls reinforced with truckloads of boulders to stem damage caused by rising seas and stormy tides. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) As rising sea levels eat away at the California coastline over the next century, the advancing ocean could cause hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to beach communities as tourism and tax revenue is swept away, according to a...

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Arctic ice cover hits historic low

2011-09-13T13:00:00.001-05:00

The area covered by Arctic sea ice reached it lowest point this week since the start of satellite observations in 1972, German researchers announced on Saturday. On September 8th, the North Pole's icy skull cap shrank to 4.24 million square kilometres (1.637 million square miles), about half-a-percent under the previous record low set in September 2007, according to the University of Bremen's Institute of Environmental Physics. The Arctic's dwindling summer sea ice is...

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Disasters in US: An extreme and exhausting year

2011-09-04T12:15:00.000-05:00

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nature is pummeling the United States this year with extremes. Unprecedented triple-digit heat and devastating drought. Deadly tornadoes leveling towns. Massive rivers overflowing. A billion-dollar blizzard. And now, unusual hurricane-caused flooding in Vermont. If what's falling from the sky isn't enough, the ground shook in places that normally seem stable: Colorado and the entire East Coast. On Friday, a strong quake triggered brief tsunami warnings in Alaska....

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