Preparing for an asteroid strike

THE sight of the solar system's biggest planet being battered by the broken remains of a comet in 1994 left a vivid reminder of our own planet's vulnerability. The scars that remained after the series of giant impacts on Jupiter were more prominent even than its great red spot, and remained visible for months.

This dramatic spectacle was enough to loosen government purse strings, and the funding has supported telescope surveys to hunt down asteroids that could wallop us. A decade and a half after comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 smashed into Jupiter, those surveys have catalogued more than 80 per cent of the near-Earth asteroids larger than 1 kilometre across.

Now we have seen the results of the first exercise ever to test plans for what to do if an asteroid is on collision course with Earth (see Asteroid attack: Putting Earth's defences to the test), and they do not inspire confidence. We still have a long way to go before we can say we are prepared for this cosmic threat.

Improved early-warning capabilities are one cost-effective solution.

There are telescopes on the drawing board that could find objects as small as 140 metres in diameter. That's a big advance on what we can do now, even if objects 30 to 50 metres across are more numerous and therefore arguably more dangerous.

Crack At Turrialbla Volcano Getting Larger

Upon closer inspection, experts of the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR) say that the enormous crater of the Turrialba volcano has gotten larger following last week's activity, which will in turn cause landslides within the crater, which in turn could mean more eruptions.

Unfortunately the cold front that has gripped Costa Rica this weekend has also affected the weather conditions, rain and strong winds, have been clouding visibility of the crater to confirm all the changes.

Geologists and volcanologists were at least able to confirm that the crack on the wall of the volcano is getting larger, confirmed by flybys by helicopters during a break in the weather.

The experts say the constant spewing of gases is causing the crack to get bigger and could collapse the volcano's crater wall, causing the volcano to spew out the falling material.

Area residents, as well as control posts around the volcano, report feeling seismic activity.

The recommendation is to stay clear of the area and authorities are restricting access to the national park, evacuating anyone found within the safety zone.

A "yellow" alert is being maintained.

Haiti earthquake: thousands feared dead

Frantic rescue efforts are underway to free people trapped in the rubble after a massive 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the Caribbean nation of Haiti.

The tremor sparked widespread panic as it brought down buildings including the presidential palace, hotels, a hospital and the UN headquarters in the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince (affected landmarks on Google maps). Large numbers of UN staff were reported to be missing, as well as two American and two Australian citizens.

The quake was the strongest to hit the country in 200 years and was felt as far away as Cuba.

Snow storm buries the U.S. East Coast Seen from Space

The Mid-Atlantic states were completely white on Sunday, December 20, 2009, in the wake of a record-breaking snow storm. The storm deposited between 12 and 30 inches of snow in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. on December 19, according to the National Weather Service.

For many locations, the snowfall totals broke records for the most snow to fall in a single December day.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured the above view of the Chesapeake Bay region as the clouds were clearing on December 20. The snow highlights the courses of the Potomac and Susquehanna Rivers from the Appalachian Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay. The ridges and valleys of the Appalachian Mountains are similarly highlighted. The forested peaks are darker than the snow-covered valleys.

The massive snow storm was a Nor’easter, a powerful storm characterized by a strong low-pressure center that forms in the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean and moves northward up the Eastern seaboard. In the Northern Hemisphere, winds flow in toward the center of a low-pressure area in a counter-clockwise spiral, which means that as the storm heads north, the leading winds come in off the ocean from the northeast.

Philippines Mayon volcano eruption is Immenent

The Philippines Mayon volcano eruption, expected any day now, could pose lingering danger and keep farmers off their land for months.
Tens of thousands of refugees from the area around the Mount Mayon volcano face an anxious Christmas in evacuation centers. Their lives are safe, but they can now only watch and pray that an eruption will not destroy their livelihoods.

Residents from the eastern Philippines could face weeks or even months away from their land, leaving their homes unguarded and fields untended. Officials have learned from previous eruptions of Mayon and other volcanoes in the Philippines: A quick return is not the safest course.

"Will this activity last for months? Yes. In 2006, it emitted ash and oozed lava for two months," says Renato Solidum, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology based in Manila.

Undocumented Volcano Contributed to Extremely Cold Decade from 1810-1819

South Dakota State University researchers and their colleagues elsewhere in America and in France have found compelling evidence of a previously undocumented large volcanic eruption that occurred exactly 200 years ago, in 1809. The discovery helps explain the record cold decade from 1810-1819.

Researchers made the finding by analyzing chemicals in ice samples from snow-capped Antarctica and Greenland in the Arctic. The year-by-year accumulation of snow in the polar ice sheets records what is going on in the atmosphere.

"We found large amounts of volcanic sulfuric acid in the snow layers of 1809 and 1810 in both Greenland and Antarctica," said Professor Jihong Cole-Dai of SDSU's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, the lead author in an article published Oct. 25, in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Cole-Dai said climate records show that not only were 1816 -- the so-called "year without a summer" -- and the following years very cold, the entire decade of 1810-1819 is probably the coldest for at least the past 500 years.

The New Dust Bowl

The Central Valley, the thin, fertile band running down the middle of California, has long boasted the world's richest agricultural economy, reliably producing more than a quarter of the nation's fruits, nuts, and vegetables. But it's done so in defiance of ecological reality. The 70-year-old irrigation system that has pumped water into the otherwise arid valley is proving increasingly vulnerable to shifting weather patterns. It now appears that waterwise, 20th century California was an anomaly, a relatively wet period in the midst of a historical cycle of severe drought.

And the changing climate will only magnify the problem: By the end of the century, scientists predict, Central California could experience temperatures rivaling Death Valley's and face the loss of 90 percent of the Sierra Nevada snowpack, the region's main water source. "Business as usual won't work in the future," says Eike Luedeling, an expert in plant sciences at the University of California-Davis, whose research shows that higher temperatures will likely decimate the state's $10 billion fruit and nut industry. "Especially for tree crops, adapting will require huge investments that probably a lot of small guys can't make anymore."

The sudden collapse of the Central Valley's economy illustrates how climate change can push a fragile region over the edge. Already vulnerable from rampant housing speculation and a dependence on industrial agriculture, the valley never prepared for a prolonged spate of bad weather. In 2008, local bankruptcy filings jumped 74 percent—from about 15,300 to 27,000—a rate of increase twice the national average. Three of the valley's counties were among the nation's six worst for foreclosures, with nearly 85,000 houses lost. The drought is expected to dry up a billion dollars in income and 35,000 jobs, adding to a statewide unemployment rate that recently hit 11.9 percent—the highest since the eve of World War II. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has asked the federal government to declare the region a disaster area.

On the west side of the valley, which is often last in line for deliveries from federal water projects, farmers are selling prized almond trees for firewood, fields are reverting to weed, and farmworkers who once fled droughts in Mexico are overwhelming food banks. In short, the valley is becoming what an earlier generation of refugees thought they'd escaped: an ecological catastrophe in the middle of a social and economic one—a 21st century Dust Bowl.

Deadly Floods Hit Saudi Arabia

JEDDAH: The death toll from Wednesday’s flash floods here has climbed to 106, Civil Defense officials said on Saturday. More bodies are expected to be recovered as cleanup efforts continue with rescue and recovery teams assisted by helicopters. 
Image: A man walks through a flooded street on November 25 after a storm produced heavy rain in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Caren Firouz/REUTERS

Civil Defense personnel also began distributing relief supplies to displaced residents in Abruq Al-Regama district, which was struck by the floods. The aid is being distributed through several support centers. More than 1,200 families have been provided temporary housing.
Spokesman for Civil Defense Capt. Abdullah Al-Amri said 56 bodies were handed over, after identification, to their families and relatives for burial.
An operation center has been set up at the headquarters of Civil Defense in Jeddah, which includes officials from the Border Guard, the Jeddah Municipality and the Health Affairs Department.
Col. Ali ibn Zarban Al-Zahrani, director of public affairs of Border Guard in Makkah province, said his agency has dispatched 65 divers in dinghies to help rescue stranded families and recover bodies. Amateur divers have also joined the recovery efforts.
The Ministry of Transportation announced that Harmain Road would reopen on Sunday. Minister of Transport Jabara Al-Seraisry said all concerned government departments and a number of private companies were working day and night to make the road ready for passengers and pilgrims.
During a walk through of the hardest-hit areas, Arab News noticed growing anger among citizens against civic services. Many citizens said they would file complaints against these departments, accusing them of failure before, during and after the flooding. There are some reports of looting vacant, flooded homes.