Turkish quake fault line getting more active, expert warns

Turkey
The massive earthquake fault line running beneath Turkey’s inland Sea of Marmara is showing heightened levels of activity, according to a leading seismic expert. The last major quakes along the fault line, in August and November 1999, caused massive damage and left some 20,000 people dead. The greater Anatolian Fault Line, which runs from near the Iranian border through to Greece has been increasingly active in the Marmara region of late. This movement is particularly noticeable in the Marmara’s southern and northern regions and in the Gulf of Saros, which lies at the head of the Gallipoli Peninsula. This activity suggests there could be a higher risk of an earthquake occurring in the region.

Noctilucent Clouds Seen Over Ireland

Ireland
Just before daybreak on May 5th, experienced sky watchers in Northern Ireland were surprised by a sudden apparition of noctilucent clouds (NLCs). "I was outdoors looking for eta Aquarid meteors when I spotted an eerie glow between my neigbour's houses." reports Martin McKenna of Maghera, Co. Derry. "The strong blue color was unmistakable--it was an NLC."

Noctilucent clouds are mainly a summertime phenomenon and it is very unusual for them to appear so early in May. "In my long years of observing NLCs, this is the earliest I have ever seen them."

These sightings only add to the mystery of NLCs. High-latitude "night-shining clouds" were first reported in the 19th century after the eruption of super-volcano Krakatoa. At the time, the clouds were widely thought to be associated with the volcano. Long after the ash settled, however, NLCs persisted. In recent years they have intensified and spread with sightings as far south as Utah and Colorado. What causes the phenomenon? A NASA spacecraft named AIM is orbiting Earth on a mission to find out.

The early onset of NLCs could herald a spectacular season to come.

Readers, browse our 2007 NLC Photo Gallery for observing tips.

Arctic Ice More Vulnerable to Sunny Weather

The Arctic
The shrinking expanse of Arctic sea ice is increasingly vulnerable to summer sunshine. New research finds that unusually sunny weather contributed to last summer’s record loss of Arctic ice, while similar weather conditions in past summers did not have comparable impacts. "In a warmer world, the thinner sea ice is becoming increasingly sensitive to year-to-year variations in weather and cloud patterns. A single unusually clear summer can now have a dramatic impact." Summer sunshine produces more pronounced melting than in the past, largely because there is now less ice to reflect solar radiation back into space. As a result, the presence or absence of clouds now has greater implications for sea ice loss. Last summer's loss of Arctic sea ice set a modern-day record, with the ice extent shrinking to a minimum of about 1.6 million square miles (4.1 million square kilometers) in September. That was 43% less ice coverage than in 1979, when accurate satellite observations began. In addition to solar radiation, other factors such as changes in wind patterns and possibly shifts in ocean circulation patterns also influence sea ice loss. In particular, strong winds along regions of sea ice retreat were important to last year's loss of ice.

The Earth is Moving Beneath Western Washington

Washington State
An unfelt seismic event is taking place beneath western Washington. Earlier in the week, seismographs in the southern Hood Canal area began recording bursts of low-level shaking associated with what is called an episodic tremor-and-slip event. If this episode behaves true to form, the tremor will move north beneath the Olympic Mountains and across to Vancouver Island during the next two to three weeks. This the fifth so-called slow-slip event to be recorded since the phenomenon was discovered in 2002. Slow-slip events, or silent earthquakes, occur at a depth of about 25 miles and can last for several weeks. Though they are unfelt by humans, they can release as much energy as a large earthquake. Since they were first discovered in the Puget Sound region, such events have occurred regularly about every 14 months. The current slow-slip event was expected to start between mid-February and mid-April, and the first evidence that it had begun turned up on Sunday.

Tsunami alert: Indonesia braces for disaster

Breaking Earth News
Indonesia
Padang, Seismologists have warned that Padang, which lies near the colliding Indo-Australian and Eurasian tectonic plates, is most at risk from a final segment along the zone shifting to unleash a massive amount of energy. The zone's other segments have already cracked, including a large portion off Aceh, at the tip of Sumatra, which triggered the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. In the last week alone, quakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 have hit off Sumatra, while in September 2007, the island's Bengkulu province was badly damaged in an 8.4-magnitude quake that killed 23 people - each quake piling more pressure onto a stretch that must finally snap. "A lot of strained energy is still accumulated near the Mentawai islands." Measures and infrastructure to protect Padang's 900,000 residents from the fall-out, notably a tsunami, are being installed at a snail's pace. Evacuation shelters exist only on paper, roads are yet to be widened to provide escape routes, cash is in short supply and only some residents have been educated about the dangers.

Quake swarm keeping nerves on edge

Arizona, USA
SWARM - Psychologists and earthquake experts say that following Yuma's recent spate of earthquakes and aftershocks, it's no surprise that some people feel a bit jumpy or hypersensitive to the possibility of yet another rumble. Many native and longtime Yumans have commented that they don't remember experiencing as many relatively strong quakes in such a short period of time as the current series, or "swarm," of quakes, which began Feb. 9. "One of the purposes of anxiety from a biological perspective is to put us in a heightened state of alertness so we can respond to whatever is going to occur. So when you have major events like these quakes there are many people who are going to genuinely feel they are sensing something." Over the past weeks of occasional earthquakes, there have been reports about people sensing the onset of yet another quake, which in time doesn't fully unfold. The experience then leaves people to wonder if they are simply sensitive to smaller quakes or if it's all in their minds. Experts say matters are only made worse given the fact that scientists for years have been warning this part of the world about "the big one" coming one day.

A magnitude 4.8 quake was felt in the Yuma area at 12:31 p.m. Friday, followed minutes later by a magnitude 4.4 aftershock. This swarm of quakes began Feb. 9 when an earthquake measuring 5.5 was felt in Yuma. That quake has been followed by numerous aftershocks, some striking twice in one day. Aftershock quakes have so far measured from magnitude 2.1 to 4.7. Experts with USGS said the Friday quake was likely just another aftershock related to the recent BAJA CALIFORNIA SWARM over the past several weeks. Quakes measuring 2.9 and 4.1 followed within minutes of Friday's initial temblor. A 4.7 quake in the same region was felt on Wednesday. Recent quakes have originated south of Mexicali, Baja California.

OTHER LOCALS
GREECE - An earthquake measuring 4.9 on the Richter scale struck southern Greece on Friday, the fifth significant tremor to hit the country in just over a week. The quake hit at 6.57am (local time) off the coast of Zante in the Ionian sea. It was felt across the island and in the western Peloponnese, but no victims or damage was reported. The epicentre was 235km west of the Greek capital Athens. Greece accounts for half of Europe's earthquakes and there has been an increase in seismic activity in recent days. Since February 14, the Peloponnese has been hit by three quakes measuring at least six on the Richter scale, while a 4.4-magnitude tremor was registered on Sunday near Mount Parnitha, north west of Athens. None of them caused major damage.

NEW ZEALAND - SWARM - Another earthquake was recorded near Matata in the Bay of Plenty at 2.51am on Saturday. The 3.3 magnitude quake was centred 10km north of Matata. It was 2km deep. It was the seventh small earthquake to be recorded this month to date near Matata. There is a significant swarm of quakes in the region: more than 2000 tremors have been recorded in the Matata area since the beginning of 2005. Recent quakes have all been shallow and are part of what's called an extensional process in which the East Cape and Northland are pulling apart. As a result, a crack is growing at the rate of about 1cm per year in the Bay of Plenty. But it doesn't pose any risk, as it's being filled in with pliable rock and sediment as it grows.

What Caused the Deadly Tornadoes

WASHINGTON (AP) — All the right ingredients combined for Tuesday's killer tornadoes, especially warm moist air and a shifting weather pattern courtesy of the La Nina phenomenon. Just one thing was off: The calendar.

The Feb. 5 killer tornadoes — at least the 15th deadliest U.S. outbreak on record — had all the earmarks of a batch of twisters usually seen in March, said several meteorologists.

It was farther north than most February tornadoes and stronger, said Joseph Schaefer, director of the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla.

Tornadoes do happen in February, but a study by Schaefer two years ago found that winter tornadoes in parts of the South occur more frequently and are stronger when there is a La Nina, a cooling of Pacific waters that is the flip side of the better known El Nino. In 1971, a deadlier February outbreak in the Mississippi Delta killed 121 people.

But Tuesday's weather violence, which killed at least 50 people, was noteworthy. February tornadoes usually pop up near the Gulf Coast, not in Kentucky or Tennessee, said University of Oklahoma meteorology professor Howard Bluestein.

Part of the explanation is record warmth. It was 84 degrees in Oklahoma before the storm front moved through on its path of destruction. On Tuesday, 97 weather stations broke or tied records in Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky — the hardest-hit states.

Meteorologists are quick to say they cannot blame global warming. There is not enough good data over enough years with weather events as small as tornadoes, to draw such conclusions.

Shifting heat layers above Arctic to blame for ice crisis

Breaking Earth News
The Arctic
Image: Sunset over the Arctic

PARIS (AFP) — The dramatic loss of the Arctic ice cap may have been triggered by disruption to the thermal layers of atmosphere stacked over Earth's far north, according to Swedish research to be published Thursday.

The study, published in Nature, offers a new explanation for the rise in the Arctic's surface temperature, which over the past century has been nearly two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), or twice the global average.

Until now, the big suspect in "Arctic amplification" has been reflectivity of sunlight.

When the Sun's rays hit snow or ice, most of that solar energy bounces back into space -- but as those melting surfaces give way to dark-blue sea, the heat is absorbed instead.

This self-reinforcing process, called a feedback, is an established factor in accelerating warming in snow and ice.

But Stockholm University scientists led by Rune Graversen believe a possibly bigger cause for Arctic warming could be changes in heat transport in the middle of the troposphere, an atmospheric band that extends 10 kilometers (seven miles) above Earth's surface.

Asia's mega-deltas in frontline from flood risk

Asia's massive delta cities have most to fear from catastrophic storm floods driven by climate change, according to an OECD report.

Of 136 port cities assessed around the world for their exposure to once-in-a-century coastal flooding, 38 percent are in Asia and27 percent are located in deltas, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said.

Publication of the report coincided with an 11-day UN conference in Bali, Indonesia, aimed at shaping a long-term response to the climate peril.

Today, around 40 million people around the world are exposed to coastal flooding in large port cities, according to the report.

The top 10 cities most at risk, in terms of exposed population, are Mumbai, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Miami, Ho Chi Minh City, Kolkata, Greater New York, Osaka-Kobe, Alexandria and New Orleans.

RI lost 24 islands by disasters, environmental damage

BREAKING EARTH NEWS
INDONESIA
Gorontalo (ANTARA News) - Indonesia has so far lost 24 islands because of natural disasters and environmental damage, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Freddy Numberi said here on Thursday.

He said four islands disappeared when a massive tsunami devastated Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) province on December 26, 2004, while 20 others in Riau province and in the Seribu island group in Jakarta Bay had also vanished because of unbriddled exploitation and environmental damage.

Consequently, Freddy Numbery said, the total number of islands in Indonesia had declined from 17,504 to 17,480.

"Scientists have even predicted that Indonesia could lose at least 2,000 islands by 2030 if the government fails to anticipate it and take preventive measures," the minister said.

New Zealand glaciers retreat due to global warming

Image: An iceberg off Dunedin. New Zealand's largest glaciers are retreating fast in the face of global warming and could disappear altogether, scientists said on Nov 19.

WELLINGTON (AFP) -New Zealand's largest glaciers are retreating fast in the face of global warming and could disappear altogether, scientists said Monday.

A report by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) said the volume of ice in New Zealand's Southern Alps had shrunk almost 11 percent in the past 30 years.

More than 90 percent of this loss was because the 12 largest glaciers in the mountain range were melting due to rising temperatures, NIWA said.

The glaciers have passed a threshold, causing the ice to collapse and creating large lakes at their base, the report said.

"The 12 big glaciers with these pro-glacial lakes have passed a tipping point," said NIWA's principal scientist Jim Salinger.

"It is not yet clear whether the glaciers will disappear completely with future warming, but they are set to shrink further as they adjust to today’s climate," he said.

"And it is already clear that they will not return to their earlier lengths without extraordinary cooling of the climate, because the large lakes now block their advance."

Chile's San Rafael glacier fast disappearing

Image: A piece of ice from the San Rafael glacier falls into the water
EARTH CHANGES

SAN RAFAEL GLACIER, Chile (AFP) — Chunks of glacial ice tinkled in whisky glasses as chilled tourists gazed in wonder from their boat at the massive San Rafael glacier and the markers tallying its losing battle against global warming.

"How can we stop this," asked German visitor Herman Kirst, 70, reflecting on the 100 meters (yards) that the glacier has shrunk this year, and every year since Captain Luis Kochifas began ferrying tourists to this spot in 1978.

"How sad, how devastating it is to think that all this, one day, could disappear," added Kirst, after being told the 30,000-year-old glacier has receded a total of 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) since 1871.

Global warming, Chilean scientists say, has done the most damage to the glacier, which lies 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) south of Santiago.

With the rising temperatures, more melting occurs at the face, sending huge icebergs crashing into the ocean reflecting the sun's rays in blue and turquoise.

Graphic showing Chile's 30,000-year-old San Rafael glacier, which has receded 12 kilometres since 1871

Floods devastate millions of lives

Millions of people have been affected by severe flooding as storms swept parts of Mexico, the Carribean, Vietnam and Australia in the past fortnight.
Image: Floodwaters swept through the city of Villahermosa in Tabasco, Mexico

Tropical Storm Noel brought heavy rain that devastated parts of central America and the Carribean. The Mexican states of Tabasco and Chiapas saw the worst flooding in the area in more than 50 years, with aid agencies estimating more than a million people were affected. The storm also triggered floods in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, just weeks after the region had been hit by heavy rain, adding to the death toll. More than 70 people were killed by flooding in Vietnam and more than 90,000 homes were deluged in the central province of Phu Yen. Just last month 89 people died after Typhoon Lekima triggered floods and landslides and officials fear another tropical storm, Peipah, could hit the country in the next few days. Hundreds of people in the Australian state of Victoria were also left counting the cost after flash flooding swept through homes and businesses. A freak hail storm also hit Colombia in South America this week, blocking roads with ice before melting and leaving the streets awash with water. Although the individual incidents cannot be attributed directly to climate change, scientists predict that extreme weather events such as floods will become more frequent and intense as average global temperatures rise.

Related News
CUBA - A massive evacuation was carried out on Monday in the eastern municipality of Cauto River due to severe flooding.

Collier Glacier is shrinking

Image: Mary Hare, of La Pine, and Diana Eddleston, of Bend, hike past Middle Sister’s Collier Glacier in late July. In the top photo, circa 1910, the glacier reached the ridge they are walking on — more than a mile farther than it is today

BREAKING EARTH NEWS

OREGON, USA

BEND, Ore. - Between the North Sister and Middle Sister in Oregon's Cascade Range, Collier Glacier has advanced and receded for hundreds of thousands of years. But like many glaciers, it is headed in one direction these days: backward.

It is in serious peril, says geologist Ellen Morris Bishop of the Fossil-based Oregon Paleo Lands Institute. "We have basically a really sad picture of Collier Glacier today."
Geologists blame among other things a warming climate, altering the landscape and perhaps the availability of water to high-elevation ecosystems. Collier is shrinking faster than most of the 35 glaciers in the state.
"Now everything is just in a chaotic shrink," Bishop said.


RELATED NEWS
Disappearing Glaciers
Like others worldwide, Central Oregon’s Collier Glacier is shrinking – ‘We have basically a really sad picture’

Oceans are 'soaking up less CO2'

Global Warming Alert
The amount of carbon dioxide being absorbed by the world's oceans has reduced. Results of a 10-year study in the North Atlantic show CO2 uptake halved between the mid-90s and 2000 to 2005. Scientists believe global warming might get worse if the oceans soak up less of the greenhouse gas. Researchers said the findings were surprising and worrying. "It is a tremendous surprise and very worrying because there were grounds for believing that in time the ocean might become 'saturated' with our emissions - unable to soak up any more." That would "leave all our emissions to warm the atmosphere". Of all the CO2 emitted into the atmosphere, only half of it stays there; the rest goes into carbon sinks. There are two major natural carbon sinks: the oceans and the land "biosphere". They are equivalent in size, each absorbing a quarter of all CO2 emissions.

Severe September Flooding in Brazil

Brazil, S.A.
Heavy rainfall in late September 2007 caused severe flooding in Brazil’s southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul. More than a dozen cities declared a state of emergency. Several people were killed, and as many as 4,000 lost their homes.

This pair of satellite images (above) captured roughly two weeks apart shows the extent of the flooding. Made with a combination of visible and infrared light, the images highlight the location of water on the surface. Depending on how muddy and/or shallow it is, water will appear blue to nearly black: the shallow, muddy water of the Patos Lagoon appears blue, while the Atlantic Ocean (lower right) is nearly black. Vegetation appears bright green, and clouds are turquoise or white. On September 10, a swath of smoke from intense fires burning in the surrounding countries cuts diagonally across the scene.

TORRENTIAL RAINS
BREAKING EARTH NEWS
Nimba Flood Worsens
Guinea, Ivory Coast Borders Closed

NIMBA COUNTY, Floods in Nimba have worsened during a second week of heavy downpour, leaving the St. John on the border with Guinea and the Cestos River along the Ivory Coast border to burst their banks, forcing the two borders to close down.
Image: One of the flooded areas in Sanniquellie City Photo by Ishmael Menkor

JUST IN: Climate change melting Kashmir glaciers

BREAKING EARTH NEWS
FROM THE AP NEWS WIRES

Himalayan glaciers are melting fast in Indian Kashmir as a result of global warming, without due attention paid to the issue in recent years.

A report by Action Aid entitled "On the Brink?" called for urgent cuts greenhouse gas emissions to help save the region's fragile environment.

Himalayan glaciers are the headwaters for Asia's nine largest rivers, crucial for the 1.3 billion people who live downstream. The melting glaciers could endanger water supplies for hundreds of millions of people, the report said.

"Emission of greenhouse gases is the biggest threat to Kashmir's ecology and environment," said Arjimand alib, head of Action Aid's Kashmir chapter, releasing the report in Srinagar, summer capital of the revolt-hit region.

"Many of the areas have seen a complete disappearance of small glaciers. In other areas, the height of the small glaciers has reduced to over one-fourth of the original height," the 28-page report from the non governmental group warned.

AP/DT

Greenland's Jakobshavn glacier sounds climate change alarm

EARTH CHANGES





JAKOBSHAVN GLACIER, Greenland (AFP) - The chaotic cavalcade of blueish ice tumbling into the sea from the world's fastest-moving glacier is sounding a daily climate change alarm, say scientists ahead of International Polar Day on Friday.

The Jakobshavn Glacier, on Greenland's west coast, is melting twice as fast as 10 years ago and advancing toward the sea at 12 kilometres (seven miles) per year, compared with six kilometres (three and a half miles) before.

In its 4th Assessment report issued earlier this year, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the world's oceans could rise by 50 centimeters (20 inches), putting tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions of people at risk by century's end.

But that estimate does not factor in the latest findings about the melting of glaciers in Greenland and loss of ice in Antarctica, which many experts say could eventually increase sea levels, and the rate at which they rise, by several fold.

Jakobshavn, moving toward the ocean at a clip of 30 to 40 metres a day, is but a single icy tongue reaching out from the Greenland icesheet, a massive block of ice and snow up to three kilometres (1.9 miles) thick covering 80 percent of the island, which is four times the size of France.

If the sheet's entire 2.85 million cubic kilometres (685,000 cubic miles) of ice were to melt, it would lift sea levels by seven metres (23 feet), swamping every major coastal city in the world.

Indonesia's big one 'on its way'

Photo: A crack caused by a quake breaks the pavement along a road in Lais, North Bengkulu,

PADANG, Indonesia (CNN) A team has established a network of position-markers, linked by satellite, that show a constant creep, northeast, among the islands on Indonesia's Indian Ocean frontier. The first one was placed in August 2002. The 30 measuring stations along Sumatra's western coast tell an ominous tale. Driven by the plate beneath the Indian Ocean, the entire coastline is flexing, as the earth literally bends. The pressures are already enormous, and at some point, probably soon, they will become intolerable. The implications are terrifying. "Eventually it has got to release in (the form) of a giant earthquake." It may be a rare magnitude-9 quake. Scientists are now examining the evidence that they believe indicates the arrival another giant earthquake, and possible tsunami - with the plates so tightly sprung, they believe it will happen sooner, rather than later. "Whenever I am in Padang I think about my escape routes, almost every moment."

VIDEO PRESENTATION
'Run Like Hell'

Glaciers Melting At Record Rates - So Fast They Are Causing Earthquakes

NBC Photo Scenes from Greenland

Greenland

Sept. 2007

The Greenland ice sheet is melting so fast, that the giant kilometer long chunks of ice that are breaking off are actually causing earthquakes. People monitoring this situation say that the rate at which the ice is pouring water and ice into the ocean is much faster than the IPCC’s very conservative reports. It is becoming more and more apparent that the IPCC was hobbled in it’s (still dire) predictions by political considerations.

Some Greenland glaciers (like the one at Ilulissat) are now flowing three times faster into the sea than it was 10 years ago.

Robert Corell, chairman of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, said in Ilulissat yesterday: “We have seen a massive acceleration of the speed with which these glaciers are moving into the sea. The ice is moving at 2 metres an hour on a front 5km [3 miles] long and 1,500 metres deep. That means that this one glacier puts enough fresh water into the sea in one year to provide drinking water for a city the size of London for a year.”

If Greenland where to melt completely it contains enough water to raise worldwide sea levels by over 21 feet. Scientists on the scene say that the estimates of sea level rise in the IPCC report were based on data two years old. The predicted rise this century was 20-60cm (about 8-24ins) , but with current levels of melting that estimate when viewed with facts on the ground would be at the upper end of the minimum. They think that it could be two metres (6 feet). Two feet, 6 feet, you know whats the difference. Well a 6 foot rise would be absolutely catastrophic for millions of coastal residents world wide.

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The Greenland Meltdown