Towns Drowning in Central Europe

NOW YOU DON’T SEE THEM!!

The First Phase of Collapse in Central Europe Has Started.

Severe flooding caused by torrential rain in central Europe has killed at least a dozen people, cutting off towns and forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents from drowning towns and villages by helicopter, reports say.

People look at a flooded street in the town of Chrastava,  Czech Republic, August 7, 2010. Credit: Reuters/David W Cerny. Image may be subject to copyright. See Fair Use Notice.

Swollen rivers are overflowing their banks and large scale flooding in parts of Czech Republic, Germany and Poland are causing bridges, roads and buildings to collapse.

“Water levels have reached record highs in eastern Germany and central Europe as a broken dam in Poland flooded rivers and forced residents from their homes.” A report said.

Water levels in Goerlitz, Saxony, Germany, reached their highest ever, the report said.

“Water levels were highest in Zgorzelec on the river Neisse at 7.4 meters [normal water levels are 1.7m,]” Polish broadcaster TVN24 said. Parts of the city were submerged and several historic buildings have been damaged.

Related Links:

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Collapse of Pakistan May Have Started
• Pakistan Floods Kill 1,600
• Between Hell and High Water
• Remember this Image! [Posted by edro on September 4, 2008]

• Disaster Forecast: The United States
• Index of Human Impact on Nature (HIoN) March 2008
• Earth’s Human Induced Antiphase Nears Completion
• Energy Dinosaurs
• Collapse Headlines 28 July 2010

• Earth: Wounded and Feverish
• 2010 Disaster Calendar
• 2010 Disaster Calendar [JULY]
• 2010 Disasters
• Collapse Diary

Fresh Water, Anyone?

Giant ice island calves off Greenland glacier

Greenland glacier calves ice island 4 times the size of Manhattan, UD  researcher reports

An “ice island” four times larger than Manhattan calved from Greenland’s Petermann Glacier on August 5, 2010, the biggest such event in the Arctic in 48 years, Andreas Muenchow, a researcher at the University of Delaware reported.

The new ice island is about 100 square miles (60 square km) with a thickness up to half the height of the Empire State Building (height 450m), Muenchow said.

“The freshwater stored in this ice island could keep the Delaware or Hudson Rivers flowing for more than two years. It could also keep all U.S. public tap water flowing for 120 days.”

Satellite image acquired on Aug. 5, 2010, shows the huge ice island calved from Greenland’s Petermann Glacier. Source: Prof. Andreas Muenchow, University of Delaware.

“Petermann Glacier, the parent of the new ice island, is one of the two largest remaining glaciers in Greenland that terminate in floating shelves. The glacier connects the great Greenland ice sheet directly with the ocean.” UDel reported.

Greenland’s Petermann Glacier in 2009. Source: Prof. Andreas Muenchow, University of Delawar

The ice island is expected to enter Nares Strait, a waterway between northern Greenland and Canada.

“In Nares Strait, the ice island will encounter real islands that are all much smaller in size,” Muenchow said. “The newly born ice-island may become land-fast, block the channel, or it may break into smaller pieces as it is propelled south by the prevailing ocean currents. From there, it will likely follow along the coasts of Baffin Island and Labrador, to reach the Atlantic within the next two years.”

More…

Related Links:

• May Global Temperature Warmest on Record
• Welcome to Anthropogenic Hell 2010
• Greenland Glacier Slides Much Faster in Summer
• Valley of the Rocks Avalanche: Deafening Thunder
• Collapse Headlines – 15 July 2010

• 2010 Disaster Calendar [April]
• Greenland Ice Sheet Losing Ice Mass
• Iceberg off Mertz Glacier ‘disrupt ocean currents’?
• The Great Antarctic Peninsula Ice Shelf Extinction
• Arctic ice cover third-smallest area on record

• Bay of Bengal Island Disappears
• Collapse Diary

Moscow Chokes

Image of the Day:

Planes diverted, businesses closed, government employees told to wear masks!

“Looking at the overall duration (of the pollution), today’s smoke level is the worst yet,” said Alexei Popikov, an expert on air quality at Moscow’s state-run pollution monitoring agency.

Tourists walk along Red Square in central Moscow amidst heavy smog, caused by peat fires in nearby forests, August 6, 2010.  Credit: REUTERS/Alexander Natruskin. Image may be subject to copyright.

“The deadliest wildfires in nearly four decades have killed at least 50 people and left thousands homeless as entire villages of wooden houses burned down. Russia has also announced a temporary ban on grain exports after crops were ravaged.” A report said.

Related Links:

• July the Month of Instantaneous Combustion
• Collapse Headlines 28 July 2010

• Moscow heat breaks 130-year record
• Severe Drought Grips Southern Russia

• World Sizzling in Hottest Year to Date
• U.S. Had 8th Warmest June, Wetter
• U.S. Had 8th Warmest June, Wetter
• Earth: Wounded and Feverish
• Collapse Diary

• Kansas heat wave kills 2,000 cattle
• 2010 Disaster Calendar [JULY]
• 2010 Disasters

Indonesia Earthquake Warning

Large Earthquake Could Strike Banda Sea, Indonesia

Fire-Earth’s EarthModel simulations show a large earthquake could strike Banda Sea, Indonesia possibly close to the west coast of Irian Jaya Barat.

Related Links:

• Middle East Earthquake Warning
• Taiwan Earthquake Warning
• Peru Earthquake Warning
• FEWW Earthquake Links

Latest Significant Earthquakes

Summary of Significant Seismic Events in the Last 36 Hours

[NOTE: Allow an additional  0.3Mw  to 0.6Mw to compensate for USGS/EHP political downgrading of the following quake magnitudes.]

Magnitude 7.0 – NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

• Date-Time: Wednesday, August 04, 2010 at 22:01:43 UTC
• Location 5.768°S, 150.776°E
• Depth 44 km (27.3 miles) set by location program

10-degree Map Centered at 5°S,150°E

Earthquake Location Map. Source: USGS/EHP. Enhanced by FEWW.

Magnitude 6.0 – EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS

• Date-Time: Wednesday, August 04, 2010 at 23:48:02 UTC
• Location: 45.964°N, 153.216°E
• Depth: 33.6 km (20.9 miles)

Magnitude 6.4 – ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA

• Date-Time: Wednesday, August 04, 2010 at 12:58:24 UTC
• Location: 51.426°N, 178.607°W
• Depth 27 km (16.8 miles)

Magnitude 6.4 – EASTERN NEW GUINEA REG, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

• Date-Time: Wednesday, August 04, 2010 at 07:15:33 UTC
• Location: 5.521°S, 146.793°E
• Depth: 213.6 km (132.7 miles) set by location program

Magnitude 6.0 – SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS

• Date-Time: Wednesday, August 04, 2010 at 04:46:21 UTC
• Location: 26.953°S, 177.148°W
• Depth: 23.7 km (14.7 miles)

Magnitude: 6.3 – MOLUCCA SEA

• Date-Time: Tuesday, August 03, 2010 at 12:08:26 UTC
• Location: 1.243°N, 126.277°E
• Depth: 42.8 km (26.6 miles)

See Also:

New Wave of Powerful Quakes Jolts the Planet

Related Links:

• Global Earthquakes Tempi Rising
• 3 Waves of Significant Quakes Strike Our Planet

• Strong Earthquake Jolts SoCal – July 7
• M6.5 Strikes East Coast of Honshu, Japan

• Strong Earthquake Strikes Oaxaca, Mexico
• Strong Earthquake Strikes East of Honshu, Japan

More Links:

• FEWW Volcano Links
• Volcanoes
• FEWW Earthquake Links

Fire-Earth Quake Forecasts and previous events:

• Strong Earthquake Strikes Nr Pandan Philippines
• Strong Earthquake Strikes Mindanao, Philippines
• Latest Earthquakes Magnitude 5.5 + (see entry for FEWW Forecast).

Tropical Storm Colin – Satellite Images

Tropical Depression Four Strengthens into Tropical Storm Colin

Colin is the third tropical storm of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season.

TS COLIN – IR (NHC Enhancement) Satellite Image. Source: CIMSS. Click image to enlarge.

TS COLIN Summary of status at 5:45UTC on August 04, 2010 [Estimated by Fire-Earth]

• Location: Near 16.9N 57.5W
• Position: About 465 km (250NM) NNE (27.3 degrees) of Barbados
• Max Sustained Winds: 60 km/hr
• Wind Gusts: 85 km/hr
• Movement: WNW (290 degrees) at 30 km/hr
• Max Wave Heights: 1.2m (4 feet)

A natural-color image of Tropical Storm Colin captured by MODIS on NASA’s Terra on 9:40 a.m. EDT (13:40 UTC). Click image to enlarge. Download large image (3 MB, JPEG)

Image shows the storm’s rainfall amounts, as measured by NASA’s TRMM, on August 2, 2010. Source: NASA. Click image to enlarge. Download large image (121 KB, JPEG)

Collapse of Pakistan May Have Started

As the First Phase of Pakistan’s Collapse Begins, the Prospect of Civil War Looms

The worst ever floods in Pakistan have severely impacted at least 3 million people: UNICEF

The flooding catastrophe has claimed the lives of up to 3,000 people in less than a week, and the damage will likely worsen dramatically as more heavy monsoon rains are forecast.

Tens of thousands of homes, businesses and people’s livelihood have been washed away as entire villages are submerged by floodwater.

There’re severe shortages of drinking water, food, shelter, medicine and sanitary material. It’s only a matter of time before water-borne diseases such as cholera could create epidemics.

“Most roads linking flood-hit areas have been blocked and 91 bridges have been either washed away or damaged, so access to affected areas is still a challenge.” Adnan Khan, spokesman for the Crisis Management Authority in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa was quoted as saying.

“The main problem there is outbreak of diseases, especially in Nowshera district where hundreds of dead animals are lying on the ground and there is a shortage of machinery to remove them.”

“Since the flood hit our area, I did not see any food or relief packets from the government. Their offices have been washed away or damaged,” said a local school teacher in Swat Valley.

Residents take shelter on high grounds from floods in Risalpur, located in Nowshera District, in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province July 30, 2010. ACredit: REUTERS/Adrees Latif. Image may be subject to copyright.

Deluge Buries Pakistan Province

Download large image (7 MB, JPEG) — Image acquired July 31, 2010

Download large image (9 MB, JPEG)  Image acquired August 1, 2009

The above images were captured by MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite on July 31, 2010 (top), and August 1, 2009 (bottom ). “These images show the Indus River in northwestern Pakistan. Both images use a combination of infrared and visible light to increase the contrast between water and land. Water varies in color from electric blue to navy. Vegetation is green and bare ground is pinkish brown. Clouds range in color from nearly white to pale blue-green.” Source: NASA E/O. Click images to enlarge.

Related Links:

• Pakistan Floods Kill 1,000

• Between Hell and High Water
• Remember this Image! [Posted by edro on September 4, 2008]
• Disaster Forecast: The United States
• Past Decade Warmest on Record
• Collapse Diary

• 2010 Disaster Calendar
• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Index of Human Impact on Nature (HIoN) March 2008
• Earth’s Human Induced Antiphase Nears Completion
• Energy Dinosaurs

Collapse Headlines: August 2, 2010

Flooding near the North Korean border has cut water supplies to  a third of a million people in China

Flooding has damaged water pipelines leaving about a third of a million people without tap water since Saturdays in Tonghua, an industrial city in NE China’s Jilin Province bordering N. Korea, officials said Monday, the official media reported.

How Many Gorges Dam?

Massive amounts of  garbage and debris washed down the Yangtze River by recent floods pose a new  threat to China’s Three Gorges Dam.  The garbage is so thick in some places,  people can stand on it, state media quoted a senior official as saying.

“The large amount of waste in the dam area could jam the miter gate of the Three Gorges Dam,” Chen Lei, director of the key water project department under the China Three Gorges Corporation, told China Daily in an interview, the report said.

“Such a large amount of debris could damage the propellers and bottoms of passing boats,” he said. “The decaying garbage could also harm the scenery and the water quality.”

“A layer of garbage about 60 cm thick covering an area of more than 50,000 square meters began to form in front of the dam when the rainy season started in early July, the Hubei Daily reported.” The report said.

Related Links:

• Three Gorges Dam Could Collapse

• Collapse Diary
• 2010 Disaster Calendar

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Index of Human Impact on Nature (HIoN) March 2008
• Earth’s Human Induced Antiphase Nears Completion
• Energy Dinosaurs

Dozens Killed or Injured in Another China Coalmine Blast

Coalmine explosion in China’s Linfen City kills 15, injures more than 20 others, including children

The explosion occurred at the dormitory area of Liugou Coal Mine of Yicheng County,  Linfen City, north China’s Shanxi Province, at about 3:40 a.m. local time on Saturday, a report said.

The officials, however, first lied about where the blast had occurred, but later admitted that it was the dormitory area, where a number of children are believed to be among the victims.

The mine is owned by the Yangquan Coal Industry (Group) Co. Ltd, whose senior official said the casualty number could further rise, according to the report.

Related Links:

• Killing the Fabric of Life on Earth

• Disaster Forecast: The United States
• Collapse Diary
• 2010 Disaster Calendar

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Index of Human Impact on Nature (HIoN) March 2008
• Earth’s Human Induced Antiphase Nears Completion
• Energy Dinosaurs

Earlier Headlines:

• Energy, Mining Disaster Headlines – 20 July 2010
• Two People Killed in 3rd Gas Explosion in 2 Days
• Texas Gas Pipeline Explosion Follows Explosion at W Va Gas Well
• 2010 Disaster Calendar [JUNE]
• China Mine Explosion Death Toll Rises to 21

• Pollution Kills, OK?

• Russian Mine Disaster: At least 11 Dead, 41 Injured
• Shipping Disasters Update – May 6
• 2010 Disaster Calendar [May]

• Want a Mandate to Kill Life on the Planet?
• Year of Mine Explosions, Too?
• China Officials’ April Hoax
• Another China Mine Disaster Kills 12, Traps 32

Pakistan Floods Kill 1,000

Death toll in Pakistan floods reaches 1,000

Deadly floods have severely affected at least one million people, so far.

Described as the regions worst ever deluge, the floods have cut off the major city of Peshawar, with population of three million.

Military personnel and rescuers are unable to reach flooded areas because all transportation routes and communications lines have been severed.

More rain is forecast for the coming days, which could carry floodwaters from swollen rivers further south of the country.

Flooding in NW Pakistan

Download large image (5 MB, JPEG) —–  acquired July 30, 2010

Download large image (5 MB, JPEG)    —-    acquired June 5, 2010

The above images were captured by MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite, using a combination of infrared and visible light for increased contrast between water and land, on July 30, 2010 (top), and June 5, 2010 (bottom). “The images show the lower Indus River, not far from Pakistan’s coast. Both images . Water appears in varying shades of blue, vegetation is green, and bare ground is pinkish brown. Clouds are bright turquoise.”

The image from July 30 shows the Indus River “shows significantly higher water levels along the” major river.  “The Jhelum, Chenab, and Sutlej Rivers, as well as a number of smaller tributaries, feed into the Indus, and higher water levels are also apparent along those river channels. The city of Jacobabad appears inundated on July 30, and the patch of electric blue northwest of the city also suggests flooding.” Source: NASA E/O. Click images to enlarge.

Related Links:

• Between Hell and High Water
• Remember this Image! [Posted by edro on September 4, 2008]
• Disaster Forecast: The United States
• Past Decade Warmest on Record
• Collapse Diary

• 2010 Disaster Calendar
• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Index of Human Impact on Nature (HIoN) March 2008
• Earth’s Human Induced Antiphase Nears Completion
• Energy Dinosaurs