Rapidly Inflating Volcano Creates Growing Mystery

OurAmazingPlanet
Wed, 19 Oct 2011

How long has this been going on? Uturuncu, a Bolivian volcano that is inflating at an incredible rate.

Should anyone ever decide to make a show called "CSI: Geology," a group of scientists studying a mysterious and rapidly inflating South American volcano have got the perfect storyline.

Researchers from several universities are essentially working as geological detectives, using a suite of tools to piece together the restive peak's past in order to understand what it is doing now, and better diagnose what may lie ahead.

It's a mystery they've yet to solve.

Uturuncu is a nearly 20,000-foot-high (6,000 meters) volcano in southwest Bolivia. Scientists recently discovered the volcano is inflating with astonishing speed.

"I call this 'volcano forensics,' because we're using so many different techniques to understand this phenomenon," said Oregon State University professor Shan de Silva, a volcanologist on the research team.

Underwater Volcanic Eruption

National Geogrpahic News
Thu, 20 Oct 2011

Whitecaps churn in the Atlantic off West Africa as an underwater volcano erupts off Spain's Canary Islands on Monday.

Whitecaps churn in the Atlantic off West Africa as an underwater volcano erupts off Spain's Canary Islands on Monday.

Since last week, the volcano has been spewing gas and fragments of smoking lava, staining the ocean surface green and brown, as seen above.

Spanish authorities have closed a port on Hierro island, ordered ships away from the island's village of La Restinga, and banned aircraft from flying over the island's southern tip, according to the AFP news service.

Six hundred residents living at the port were evacuated Tuesday.

Deepest and Most Explosive Underwater Eruption Ever Seen Happening Near Samoa Hotspot

Our Amazing Planet
Thu, 20 Oct 2011

Double magma bubble forms at Hades Vent at West Mata submarine volcano. An underwater volcano bursting with glowing lava bubbles - the deepest active submarine eruption seen to date - is shedding light on how volcanism can impact deep-sea life and reshape the face of the planet.

Submarine eruptions account for about three-quarters of all of Earth's volcanism, but the overlying ocean and the sheer vastness of the seafloor makes detecting and observing them difficult. The only active submarine eruptions that scientists had seen and analyzed until now were at the volcano NW Rota-1, near the island of Guam in the western Pacific.

Now researchers have witnessed the deepest active submarine eruption yet. The volcano in question, West Mata, lies near the islands of Fiji in the southwestern Pacific in the Lau Basin. Here, the rate of subduction - the process in which one massive tectonic plate dives under another, typically forming chains of volcanoes - is the highest on Earth, and the region hosts ample signs of recent submarine volcanism.

The End of the World as We Know It? An Internal or External Shift?

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The Quickening

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Occupy Wall Street: 20,000 To Gather On September 17th

Huffington Post
September 15, 2011

Labor-Community Coalition activists march down Wall Street, during a protest against budget cuts and bank practices, in New York, May 12, 2011. Thousands of activists protested around the New York Stock Exchange to call on Mayor Michael Bloomberg to close alledged loopholes and stop destructive bank practices that destroy communities and cost taxpayers billions instead of enacting layoffs and budget cuts that hurt working families and low-income New Yorkers. AFP PHOTO/Emmanuel Dunand (Photo cred

On Saturday, September 17th, organizers for the event Occupy Wall Street are calling for 20,000 individuals to join their cause for government and corporate change by way of peaceful, non-violent protests.

The large-scale event, originally published back in July by Adbusters, a not-for-profit magazine aimed to "topple existing power structures," was inspired by the revolutionary events that swept through the Middle East earlier this year. The group's site reveals their hopes to transform Lower Manhattan into an "American Tahrir Square."

How exactly will the group invoke such radical change? Details have yet to be revealed but Occupy Wall Street organizer, Will Russell, a grad student at Hunter College, explains to the Village Voice, that yoga, pitched tents, and dancing to 'Thriller' will be sure to take place.

The hacker group, Anonymous, also announced their participation in a video released below.



Saturday's events have garnered traction through various social media outlets, including Twitter, which has seen the use of the hasthtag, #OccupyWallStreet. The group's Facebook event directs protestors to meet at Bowling Green Park at noon and then at 3pm to move to One Chase Manhattan Plaza for a people's assembly.

Earthquake Magnitude 3.2 Strikes Long Beach and Los Angeles

lalate.com
Thu, 18 Aug 2011

A Southern California earthquake today August 18, 2011 struck moments ago centered in Long Beach; the earthquake was felt over sections of Los Angeles and Orange Counties.

Today's earthquake was of a marginal magnitude.

But because it struck at a narrow depth, it was felt over a wide section of the South Bay and Southern California.

Ten minutes ago, at roughly 2:43 PM PST, a 3.2 earthquake struck Los Angeles County. Its epicenter was south east of Long Beach. Unlike previous earthquakes this year in the region, today's quake was not centered out in the Pacific Ocean.

Rather initial statements by USGS issued to news indicate that the quake was centered just a few blocks west of Pacific Coast Highway. Initial reports put the quake centered closest to the intersection of E7th Street and Park Avenue. It was centered apparently just north of the American Golf Pro Shops on the 9th Hole of the local Recreation Park Golf Course, near the East 7th street corridor.

Earth Opening Up? Strange Chemical-Like Odor in San Diego, California, US Area: Navy, Coast Guard Investigating

10 News
Wed, 17 Aug 2011

 

Authorities are investigating reports from around San Diego County of a strong, chemical-like odor.

People began making emergency calls about 2 p.m. to report a pervasive and pungent smell variously described as akin to kerosene, diesel fuel, bus exhaust, lighter fluid and other petroleum-based substances, according to Maurice Luque, a spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.

On Wednesday afternoon, 10News received dozens of calls from residents who said they smelled what they believed was jet fuel in the air.

Residents from areas such as Encinitas, Solana Beach, Pacific Beach, Mira Mesa and La Jolla all reported the odor. Residents living in inland areas such as North Park, Hillcrest and Rancho Bernardo told 10News they smelled the odor in their area

Smoking Steaming Hillside Phenomenon - Southern California

3 ABC
Sun, 14 Aug 2011

Hope Ranch - An unsolved mystery is smoldering on a dirt hillside below Hope Ranch. Smoke and steam are coming out of the soil, very similar to an event in October of 2006. Geologists have said a landslide five years ago may have opened up a crack in the bluff. That may have added oxygen to an underground super heated tar site.

The hot zone is being controlled with sprinklers spraying waters in all directions.

A fence is up in the area to keep inquisitive beach walkers away.

Santa Barbara County Fire officials say there is no immediate threat to the area or risk to the public.

     

Pesticides Damaging Australia's Great Barrier Reef: Government Study

International Business Times
Mon, 15 Aug 2011

Agricultural pesticides are damaging Great Barrier Reef - one of the world's great natural wonders - according to a report by the Australian government on water quality.

The report stated that farmers are using to many toxic chemicals that are seeping into the water - in fact, almost 25 percent of horticulture producers and 12 percent of pastoral farmers are believed to using pesticides regarded as unacceptable.

Pesticides of toxic concentrations have been detected 38 miles inside the reef.

The severe flooding as well as cyclone Yasi that hit the region earlier this year are believed to have worsened the problem by sending pollutants into the ocean.

The report particularly blamed pesticides used by the sugar cane industry in northern Queensland province.

Australia: Dugong deaths 'ecological disaster'

Daily Mercury
Mon, 25 Jul 2011

Environmentalists have again warned of an ecological disaster at the southern end of Queensland's Great Barrier Reef, following the discovery of a dead dugong.

It was found washed up on a beach in Gladstone Harbour, the fourth dugong, along with three dolphins and 40 turtles that have been found washed up around the harbour since May.

Friends of the Earth spokesman Drew Hutton said he had seen first-hand the destruction around the harbour since construction of the LNG facilities had started.