Powerful 6.9Mw Quake Strikes Bonin Islands, Japan

Magnitude 6.9 Earthquake Strikes Bonin Islands, Rattling Japan’s Entire Eastern Seaboard

The quake struck at a depth of about 480km, too deep to cause a tsunami.

Earthquake Location Map. Cross shows epicenter of the 6.9Mw quake, while the colored bubbles indicate  the intensity at various monitoring centers in Japan. Source: Japan’s Meteorological Agency (JMA). Image may be subject to copyright.

Quake Details (JMA)

• Time Occurred:  12:25 (JST) 30 Nov 2010
• Epicenter: 28.4N, 139.7E
• Dept: 480km
• Magnitude: 6.9 Mw
• Region Name:  Ogasawara-shoto Seiho-oki (Bonin Islands), Japan Region

Distances (USGS)

• 335 km (210 miles) WNW of Chichi-shima, Bonin Islands, Japan
• 455 km (285 miles) NNW of Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, Japan
• 525 km (325 miles) S of Hachijo-jima, Izu Islands, Japan
• 810 km (500 miles) S of TOKYO, Japan

Japan Earthquake Forecasts (FEWW)

• Honshu Earthquake Warning
• Fire-Earth Quake Forecast: Japan Earthquakes
• Earthquake Forecast: Tokyo, Japan
• Earthquake Forecast 2009

Related Links:

• M6.5 Strikes East Coast of Honshu, Japan
• Strong Earthquake Strikes East of Honshu, Japan
• FEWW Volcano Links
• Volcanoes
• FEWW Earthquake Links

earthquake forecast, Honshu Earthquake Warning, Tokyo Bay earthquake, Tokyo Earthquake Forecast

Mt Bromo Eruption Closes Airport

Java’s Bromo Volcano Erupts

Ash from Mt Bormo forces nearby Malang city’s airport to close

Indonesian government raised the eruption threat warning to code red, the highest alert status.

“The ash contains chemical substances which could cause engine trouble” to planes flying nearby, officials said.

The volcano was reportedly ejecting columns of ash into the air to a height of about 700 meters (2,300 feet).

The volcano is expected to continue erupting for “many days”  a government volcanologist said.

Tengger Caldera

Photo by Indonesia Department of Information

The 16-km-wide Tengger caldera is located at the northern end of a volcanic massif extending from Semeru volcano. The massive Tengger volcanic complex dates back to about 820,000 years ago and consists of five overlapping stratovolcanoes, each truncated by a caldera. Lava domes, pyroclastic cones, and a maar occupy the flanks of the massif. The Ngadisari caldera at the NE end of the complex formed about 150,000 years ago and is now drained through the Sapikerep valley. The most recent of the Tengger calderas is the 9 x 10 km wide Sandsea caldera at the SW end of the complex, which formed incrementally during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. An overlapping cluster of post-caldera cones was constructed on the floor of the Sandsea caldera within the past several thousand years. The youngest of these is Bromo, one of Java’s most active and most frequently visited volcanoes. (Source: GVP)

Related Links:

• Krakatau Powers On
• 33 volcanic tremors rock Mt. Bulusan
• Mount Merapi Eruption Satellite Image

• 3 Explosions Heard at Krakatau Volcano
• More Indonesian Volcanoes Could Erupt Simultaneously [Probability ≥ 0.55]
• Singapore Sling

Latest Entries on Mt Merapi

• Merapi’s latest eruption the deadliest so far
• 2010 Disaster Calendar [NOVEMBER]

• Mt Merapi Erupts Again, 70,000 Evacuated
• Mount Merapi Erupts Repeatedly
• Tsunami Claims 200 After 7.7Mw Quake Strikes Indonesia

• 2010 disasters
• 2011 SIX TIMES MORE DISASTROUS THAN 2010
• Collapse Diary
• 2010 Disaster Calendar

More Volcano Links

• A New Era of Intense Volcanic Unrest May Have Begun
• World’s Dormant Volcanoes Firing
• VolcanoWatch Weekly [16 September 2009]
• Sinabung Getting More Serious
• Sinabung Erupts Again

FEWW Volcanic Activity Forecast

• Sumatra’s Mt Kerinci Erupts
• Volcano Watch Weekly: 23 April 2009
• Weekly Volcano Watch: 16 April 2009
• Weekly Volcano Watch: 2 April 2009
• Tonga’s Metis Shoal may be erupting
• Rumble III Volcano “blew its top!”

Other Related Links:

• FEWW Volcano Links
• Volcanoes
• FEWW Earthquake Links

What came before the Big Bang?

Another Big Bang [Probably!]

Ye Olde Universe May Be Cyclical

Despite the physical cosmologists attempt to feed you their gobbledygook about the Big Bang and blame the first few moments after the event for the evolution of laws of nature, “God particle,” etc., “conformal cyclic cosmology” (CCC) precludes the need for a “magical” beginning.

Concentric circles in WMAP data may provide evidence of violent pre-Big-Bang activity. Sky region indicating the low variance circles. Credit: V. G. Gurzadyan and R. Penrose.

Now all you have to worry about is WHO or WHAT PUMPED in the INITIAL UNIVERSE MATERIAL?

Cosmologists Vahe Gurzadyan (Yaravan) and Roger Penrose (Oxford)  have found what they believe is evidence of events that predate the Big Bang (the last one), which supports CCC.

According to CCC theory the same object may have been subject to the same processes more than once, radiating out energy shockwaves.

“I was never in favour of it [Inflationary theory,] even from the start,” said Penrose.

“Inflation is supposed to have ironed all of these irregularities out.”

“How do you suddenly get something that is making these whacking big explosions just before inflation turns off? To my way of thinking that’s pretty hard to make sense of.”

Seven Year Microwave Sky [January 2010]
 

The detailed, all-sky picture of the infant universe created from seven years of WMAP data. The image reveals 13.7 billion year old temperature fluctuations (shown as color differences) that correspond to the seeds that grew to become the galaxies. The signal from the our Galaxy was subtracted using the multi-frequency data. This image shows a temperature range of ± 200 microKelvin. Credit: NASA / WMAP Science Team

“But if you’re not accepting inflation, you’ve got to have something else which does what inflation does,” he explained to BBC News.

“In the scheme that I’m proposing, you have an exponential expansion but it’s not in our aeon – I use the term to describe [the period] from our Big Bang until the remote future.

“I claim that this aeon is one of a succession of such things, where the remote future of the previous aeons somehow becomes the Big Bang of our aeon.”

A question for Gurzadyan and Penrose:

WHY would there be any trace of a prior Big Bang in a completely RECYCLED Universe?

FEWW Reflection Theory

Blog Moderators have developed a “Reflection Theory: Double the Nothing,” which makes a lot of aeons more sense …

Sky Photos

Spiral Cloud Formations Over North and South Pacific Ocean

Spiral cloud formation over the North Pacific Ocean on November 26, 2010 at 3:00UTC. Source: MTSAT-1R/Digital Typhoon.

Spiral cloud forming simultaneously over the South Pacific Ocean on November 26, 2010 at 3:00UTC. Source: MTSAT-1R/Digital Typhoon.

Full view.  Click image to enlarge.

U.S. Drought Outlook

2011: The Year of Extremes

Click image to enlarge. Source: NWS/NOAA

Latest Seasonal Assessment – Drought continued to slowly expand and locally intensify in a broad area across the southern and southeastern states, the lower Mississippi Valley, and the lower Ohio Valley northward through Indiana and southern Michigan. Based on the Seasonal Outlook for December 2010 – January 2011, which relies primarily on climate anomalies typically observed during La Niña episodes, drought persistence and broad expansion is expected from central and southern Texas eastward along and near the Gulf Coast through the southern Atlantic Seaboard. Chances for drought improvement increase away from the coastal plains, with some improvement forecast across the upper South, and broad-scale improvement expected from southern portions of the middle Mississippi Valley through the lower Ohio Valley and points north. As in areas farther east, the drought region in northeastern Arizona is forecast to persist and expand, covering large sections of the southern Four Corners region by the end of February. The recently-expanded drought across the central High Plains is also expected to persist through this period, which is their driest time of year climatologically. Farther west, limited drought improvement is expected across central Nevada, but more substantial improvement seems likely in western Wyoming and across the drought region in northeast California, southern Oregon, and adjacent areas. In Hawaii, the seasonal increase in rainfall and a modest tilt of the odds toward a wetter than normal winter season should bring limited improvement to the areas affected by drought, but the large, long-term precipitation shortages recorded in these areas will likely preclude any widespread, substantial improvement by the end of the period.  Source of Forecast: NWS/ CPC

Related Links:

• Disaster Forecast: The United States
• 2011 Much More Disastrous
• FEWW DISASTER FORECAST 2011

• Collapse Diary
• 2010 Disaster Calendar
• Energy Dinosaurs

Sure enough humans broke the sound barrier on land, too!

But lacked the intelligence to stay within nature’s ethical boundaries…

Brief History of Mankind

January–October 2010 tied with 1998 as the warmest on record: NOAA

*Indicates a tie (Source: NOAA)

Notes:

• Global Ocean tied with 2003 as the second warmest January–October on record.
• Global Land and Ocean tied with 1998 as the warmest January–October on record. The second warmest such period occurred in 2005.
• Southern Hemisphere Land and Ocean tied with 2002 and 2003 as the second warmest January–October on record.

Global Highlights

• During January–October 2010, the global combined land and ocean surface temperature was 0.63°C (1.13°F) above the 20^th century average of 14.1°C (57.4°F) and tied with 1998 as the warmest January–October period on record [since 1880.]
• The global average land surface temperature for the same period was the second warmest on record, behind 2007.
• The global average ocean surface temperature for the period tied with 2003 as the second warmest on record, behind 1998.

October 2010 Selected Climate Anomalies and Events Map

Click images to enlarge (Source: NOAA)

January-October 2010 Global Land and Ocean plot

January-October Global and Hemisphere plots

Precipitation

Precipitation was quite variable on a global scale. The areas with the wettest anomalies during October 2010 included the southwestern coast of Canada, most of Central America, northern South America, northern Scandinavia, parts of the west coast of Africa, much of southern and southeastern Asia, southern Japan, parts of Micronesia and the Philippines, and southeastern Australia. The driest anomalies were present the northwestern coast of Canada, parts of the southern United Statees, northern Mexico, Colombia, eastern Peru, and parts of southern India. (Source: NOAA)

October 2010 Precipitation Anomalies in Millimeters

October 2010 Precipitation Percent Departures

The most current data available at Global Surface Temperature Anomalies page.

Related Links:

• Past Decade Warmest on Record

• China is crumbling one mountainside, a mine, couple of cities, two dozen dams …  at a time
• Death toll from China bridge collapse rises to 37, with 29 others still missing

• 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

• 2010 Disasters
• 2011 SIX TIMES MORE DISASTROUS THAN 2010

GHG Concentration at Record Level: WMO

Brief History of Mankind

Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at record levels: the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

The average mixing ratios of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) reached record level in 2009,WMO reported.

• CO2 concentrations ~ 386.8 ppm
• CH4 ~ 1,803 ppb
• N2O ~ 322.5 ppb

These values are greater than the corresponding atmospheric concentrations in pre-industrial times (~1750) by 38%, 158% and 19%, respectively.

In the twenty year period between 1990 and 2009, the combined radiative forcing—the balance between atmosphere’s incoming and outgoing radiation—for all persistent greenhouse gases increased by 27.5%, with CO2 accounting for about 80% of the increase, according to the NOAA Annual Greenhouse Gas Index.

Source: WMO GHG Bulletin

Carbon Dioxide (CO2)

Carbon dioxide is the single most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, contributing 63.54 %2 to the overall global radiative forcing. It is responsible for 85% of the increase in radiative forcing over the past decade and 83% over the last five years. For about 10 000 years before the industrial revolution, the atmospheric abundance of CO2 was nearly constant at ~ 280 ppm (ppm = number of molecules of the gas per million molecules of dry air). This level represented a balance among the atmosphere, the oceans and the biosphere. Since 1750, atmospheric CO2 has increased by 38%, primarily because of emissions from combustion of fossil fuels (8.7 Gt carbon in 2008, http://www.globalcarbonproject.org/), deforestation and landuse change. High-precision measurements of atmospheric CO2 beginning in 1958 show that the average increase in CO2 in the atmosphere (airborne fraction) corresponds to ~ 55% of the CO2 emitted by fossil fuel combustion. WMO

Source: WMO GHG Bulletin

Related Links:

• UAE, Australia, USA and Canada top list of polluters
• House Passes Emissions Bill
• New York Cognitive Dissonance
• World CO2 Emissions [2007 / 2008]
• Carbon Footprint of Your Dollar
• The Billionaires’ contribution to CO2 pollution

• CO2e

Krakatau Powers On

Indonesia’s Krakatau: The Unfinished Story

Anak Krakatau ejects a thick plume of ash, steam and volcanic gases on November 17, 2010. This true-color image was acquired by NASA’s ALI on EO-1 as the activity at the volcano was beginning to wane. Source: NASA-EO

Mt Krakatau, Sinabung and Merapi Volcanoes Location Map. Source of the original map: USGS. Map enhanced by Fire-Earth. Click image to enlarge.

Krakatau Islands Location Map. Original map enhanced by Fire-Earth.

The Island Map (Simkin and Fiske, 1983). Image may be subject to copyright.

Krakatau Image by Landsat Pathfinder Project (Dated May 18, 1992)

William Ashcroft painting “On the Banks of the River Thames” in London, November 26, 1883 [Exactly three months after Krakatoa’s cataclysmic 1883 eruption.]

The Krakatoa eruption affected the climate driving the weather patterns wild for the next 5 years. Average global temperatures fell by about 1.2 °C in the following years, returning to normal only in 1888.

The violent explosions [August 27, 1883]

Krakatoa is a volcanic island in the Sunda Strait located between Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. Both the volcano and island group share the same name.

Four enormous explosions almost entirely destroyed Krakatoa island on August 27, 1883. The violent explosions were reportedly heard in Perth, Western Australia,  some 3,500 km away. It was heard even on the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius, about 4,800 km away.

The shockwave from the last explosion, which ejected volcanic matter 80 km into the atmosphere, echoed around the planet seven times.

An 1888 lithograph of the 1883 violent explosion of Krakatau.

The eruption ejected about 21 cubic kilometers of volcanic matter and completely destroyed two-thirds of the Krakatoa island.

Related Links:

• 3 Explosions Heard at Krakatau Volcano
• More Indonesian Volcanoes Could Erupt Simultaneously [Probability ≥ 0.55]
• Singapore Sling

Latest Entries on Mt Merapi

• Merapi’s latest eruption the deadliest so far
• 2010 Disaster Calendar [NOVEMBER]

• Mt Merapi Erupts Again, 70,000 Evacuated
• Mount Merapi Erupts Repeatedly
• Tsunami Claims 200 After 7.7Mw Quake Strikes Indonesia

• 2010 disasters
• 2011 SIX TIMES MORE DISASTROUS THAN 2010
• Collapse Diary
• 2010 Disaster Calendar

More Volcano Links

• A New Era of Intense Volcanic Unrest May Have Begun
• World’s Dormant Volcanoes Firing
• VolcanoWatch Weekly [16 September 2009]
• Sinabung Getting More Serious
• Sinabung Erupts Again

FEWW Volcanic Activity Forecast

• Sumatra’s Mt Kerinci Erupts
• Volcano Watch Weekly: 23 April 2009
• Weekly Volcano Watch: 16 April 2009
• Weekly Volcano Watch: 2 April 2009
• Tonga’s Metis Shoal may be erupting
• Rumble III Volcano “blew its top!”

Other Related Links:

• FEWW Volcano Links
• Volcanoes
• FEWW Earthquake Links

33 volcanic tremors rock Mt. Bulusan

Bulusan ejects a 2-km column of ash and steam into the air

At least 500 families have been evacuated from areas near the volcano. About 3,000 families (15,000 people) in 18 villages have so far been affected by the ash eruptions.

Mt. Bulusan remains under Alert Level 1 that prohibits the public from entering  the 4-km radius of the Permanent Danger Zone (PDZ).

Meanwhile the  municipal council in the town of Sorsogon has declared “a state of calamity” following  repeated ash eruptions from Bulusan Volcano and threats of lahars and  pyroclastic flows into the local rivers.

The ash explosions from  Bulusan Volcano has already “affected Barangays (villages) Cogon, Monbon, Tinampo, Bolos, Gulang-Gulang, Bagsangan, Mapaso and Gabao and the rivers of Patag and Cadac-an in this town,” according to a report.

Mount Bulusan ash explosions shower Sorsogon town in Bicol region south of Manila, Philippines on 21 November 2010. Photo credit:  EPA/ALDRIN RECEBIDO. Image may be subject to copyright.

Related Links:

• Mount Merapi Eruption Satellite Image

• 3 Explosions Heard at Krakatau Volcano
• More Indonesian Volcanoes Could Erupt Simultaneously [Probability ≥ 0.55]
• Singapore Sling

Latest Entries on Mt Merapi

• Merapi’s latest eruption the deadliest so far
• 2010 Disaster Calendar [NOVEMBER]

• Mt Merapi Erupts Again, 70,000 Evacuated
• Mount Merapi Erupts Repeatedly
• Tsunami Claims 200 After 7.7Mw Quake Strikes Indonesia

• 2010 disasters
• 2011 SIX TIMES MORE DISASTROUS THAN 2010
• Collapse Diary
• 2010 Disaster Calendar

More Volcano Links

• A New Era of Intense Volcanic Unrest May Have Begun
• World’s Dormant Volcanoes Firing
• VolcanoWatch Weekly [16 September 2009]
• Sinabung Getting More Serious
• Sinabung Erupts Again

a year is a long time …

Brief History of Mankind

A Last Look at Planet Earth – II

Death by Lethal Pollution

“Troubled Waters” by U.S. PRIG

Accumulation of toxic pollution in the environment is one of the dynamics that is driving the ecosystems to the verge of collapse. In the worst case scenario, which could unfold by as early as 2012¹, about 20% the world’s cities become unsustainable and begin to collapse. Massive waves of human migration from the affected areas create domino effect that causes the collapse of most of the remaining population centers. It may be too late to make a significant difference to the final outcome; however, we still have the option to change the worst case scenario! See Collapsing Cities

Mother Nature using her defense mechanisms to ensure the cycle of life? Or our lifestyles killing what’s left?

NASA satellites capture images of about 14 massive wildfires raging in Southern California, which have scorched about 1,500 square kilometers from Ventura to Mexico. Posted on October 24, 2007

NASA: Satellite image of the New York metropolitan area

What would you say [do] to the Mayor when 6 feet of flood waters inundates the entire NYC metropolitan area well before 2050 because he didn’t cut the emissions to zero in 2007?

According to a National Snow and Ice Center report in May, the Arctic ice cap was melting much faster than predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and was now about 30 years ahead of IPCC forecast.

Google: Pornography, Online Gambling and Energy

“We’re busy assembling our own internal research and development group and hiring a team of engineers and energy experts tasked with building 1 gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal. Google’s R&D effort will begin with a significant effort on solar thermal technology, and will also investigate enhanced geothermal systems and other areas.” Google said.

The Shrinking Antarctic Ice Sheet

Earth’s Shrinking Antarctic Ice Sheet
Credit: Ben Holt Sr., GRACE team, DLR

“Dust fall” in the West in the last 100 years is up to seven times heavier than at any period in history.

A dusty scene near Canyonlands in Utah. Dust in the West has increased by 500 percent since the 1800s. [Photo Credit: Jason C. Neff, University of Colorado at Boulder.

How Much Water?

Average national water footprint per capita (m³/capita/yr). Green indicates a national average water footprint of equal to or smaller than global average. Countries marked in red have a larger water footprint than the global average. Source: A. Y. Hoekstra et al. 2005. Water footprints of nations: Water use by people as a function of their consumption pattern.

This Planet NO GOOD for Farming!

Once A Forest!

From Chernobyl with Love

In Case of Armageddon, or Postdiluvian Catastrophes, Don’t Panic!

Doomsday Vault (Image Credit: AFP)

Photo Credit: Mari Tefre/Global Crop Diversity Trust

Continued …

Related Links:

• A Last Look at Earth

A Last Look at Earth

The Lagoons of Sivash, Ukraine

Sivash, Ukraine. This natural-color image was captured by the Thematic Mapper on NASA’s Landsat 5 satellite  on June 6, 2010. Source: NASA

Yukon Delta, Alaska

The Yukon Delta’s sinuous waterways, which empty into the Bering Sea, was captured by the Earth-observing Landsat satellites  in a 2002. Source: NASA

False-color satellite image of the Yukon Delta, Alaska, USA. acquired on 26 May 2002. Source: NASA

“Stunning” Ice Patterns

Greenland fjords. Image acquired in 2001. Source: NASA

Continued…

2,000 dead fetuses found at Bangkok Buddhist temple

Image of the Day:

What 2,000 dead fetuses look like!

The remains, wrapped in plastic bags, were hidden in the temple’s mortuary, just 3 days after the police had found 348 other corpses nearby. Image: AFP via BBC. Image may be subject to copyright.

Related Links:

• Remember Rohingya?
• Thailand’s 1st Phase of Collapse May Have Started
• Deadly Floods Hit Southern Thailand

THE EVIL THAT MEN DO

Bleeding Heart!

How to Turn the World’s Fourth Largest Lake into a Desert

The Bleeding Heart of Central Asia! The vast salt plain that encompasses what was once the Aral Sea is now called the Aralkum Desert. Image Source: ESA. Click image to enlarge. Download HI-RES (JPEG 818 kb)

Original caption: This Landsat image features the heart-shaped northern tip of the western half of the Large Aral Sea (or South Aral Sea) in Central Asia. The whitish area surrounding the lakebed is a vast salt plain, now called the Aralkum Desert, left behind by the evaporating sea. The Thematic Mapper on Landsat 5, jointly managed by NASA and the US Geological Survey, acquired this image on 24 July 2010. ESA supports the Landsat series as a Third Party Mission, meaning it uses its ground infrastructure and expertise to acquire, process and distribute Landsat data to users.

Map of Aral Sea. Source: World Bank.

Once described as the world’s fourth largest lake, fed by two major rivers of Amu Darya in the south, and the Syr Darya in the north,  Aral Sea spanned an area of about  70,000 km² with a total volume of more than 1 trillion cubic meters  (1,000 cubic km) in 1960. The bountiful sea provided annual catches of about 50,000 tons without fail.  The scenic deltas of its major tributaries, dotted with dozens of smaller lakes, were rich wetlands and marshes teeming with life, covering an area larger than half a million hectares.

The Aral Sea has been shrinking steadily since 1960, as water was diverted for irrigation. It reduced to a pond measuring about 8% of its original size in 2007, and split into three lakes: North Aral Sea, and the two heavily shrunk eastern and western basins of the South Aral Sea.

The south-eastern lake completely disappeared last year, leaving behind the south-western lake, now a thin strip of shallow water. (See image).

Aral Sea captured by MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite –  true-color image dated March 26, 2010. A plume of dust blows from the sediments of the South Aral Sea toward the southeast, along the Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan border. Northeast of the plume, two red outlines indicate hotspots associated with fires.The lakebed sediments, prone to forming dust plumes, have become a repository for salt, fertilizers, and pesticides and pose a threat to human health in the region. Source: Nasa/Modis website.

Two images of Aral Sea. L: 2008. R:1989.  Source: Nasa

This natural-color satellite image shows the Aral Sea on August 16, 2008. The colored contour lines show the approximate shorelines of the sea since 2000. The image is from the MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite. The contour lines are based on MODIS data. The image documents the progress of a conservation plan to stabilize the North Aral Sea, and the continued decline of the South Aral Sea. Deeper, clearer waters are darker blue; shallower, murkier waters are greenish. Source: NASA

Related Links:

• UNSG Calls Aral Sea “Shocking Disaster”

UAE, Australia, USA and Canada top list of polluters

Most Unethical Countries Worst Polluters

UAE, Australia, USA, Canada, Netherlands and Saudi Arabia are the worst CO₂ polluters: Report

The United Arab Emirates, Australia, the United States and Canada have the worst overall records for emitting carbon, based on their  current and historic emissions, says a report.

A new study, which rates 183 countries on their CO₂ emissions from energy use, has identified United Arab Emirates (UAE), Australia, USA, Canada, Netherlands and Saudi Arabia as the world’s six worst polluters in relation to CO₂ pollution.

UAE (1), Australia (2), USA (3), Canada (4), Netherlands (5) and Saudi Arabia (6) are the only countries rated by the report as ‘extreme risk’ because of their high CO₂ emissions from energy consumption.

“The poor performance of UAE and Saudi Arabia is reflective of a near 100% reliance on fossil fuels and their use of energy intensive desalination plants to produce drinking water. Saudi Arabia was the 11th highest global emitter in 2008 with 466 MtCO2. However, the desalination process that produces 70% of the country’s drinking water accounts for 50% of CO₂ emissions. UAE dropped 15 places from last year to take the bottom spot due to a huge 25% jump in its overall carbon output between 2006 and 2008 and a 20% rise in per capita emissions.  Maplecroft recognises that desalination is a positive way to address water security but high emissions underline the need to find more energy efficient innovations.” The report said. See full report.

Related Links:

• House Passes Emissions Bill

• New York Cognitive Dissonance
• World CO2 Emissions [2007 / 2008]
• Carbon Footprint of Your Dollar
• The Billionaires’ contribution to CO2 pollution

• CO2e

Mount Merapi Eruption Satellite Image

Merapi NOT Consulted about the Golf Course

Large pyroclastic flow runs along Gendol River south of Mt Merapi

This false-color satellite image from the ASTER instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite shows evidence of a large pyroclastic flow along the Gendol River south of Mount Merapi. Light gray volcanic deposits (either from pyroclastic flows or lahars) fill the course of the Gendol. Just north of the Merapi Golf Course (light red feature) is a much wider area where a pyroclastic flow spread across the landscape, causing almost total devastation. Within this dark gray area, most of the trees were knocked down and the ground was coated by ash and rock. The flow deposits are largely surrounded by healthy vegetation, colored bright red. A light gray ash plume extends the west of the volcano, guided by the prevailing winds. Near the plume, heavy ashfall has coated the fields and forests, coloring them dull red to gray. Image and caption: NASA E-O. Click image to enlarge. Download large image (2 MB, JPEG)

Related Links:

• 3 Explosions Heard at Krakatau Volcano
  More Indonesian Volcanoes Could Erupt Simultaneously [Probability ≥ 0.55]
  Singapore Sling

Latest Entries on Mt Merapi

• Merapi’s latest eruption the deadliest so far
• 2010 Disaster Calendar [NOVEMBER]

• Mt Merapi Erupts Again, 70,000 Evacuated
• Mount Merapi Erupts Repeatedly
• Tsunami Claims 200 After 7.7Mw Quake Strikes Indonesia

• 2010 disasters
• 2011 SIX TIMES MORE DISASTROUS THAN 2010
• Collapse Diary
• 2010 Disaster Calendar

More Volcano Links

• A New Era of Intense Volcanic Unrest May Have Begun
• World’s Dormant Volcanoes Firing
• VolcanoWatch Weekly [16 September 2009]
• Sinabung Getting More Serious
• Sinabung Erupts Again

Kiwifruit disease plagues New Zealand

At least 13 kiwifruit orchards covering 500 hectares infected

Outbreak of a bacterial disease is destroying New Zealand’s kiwifruit industry, with an estimated turnover of NZ$1.5 billion [$1.1 billion.]

Italian orchards have been devastated by PSA in the past two seasons. Photo: Stuff NZ. Image may be subject to copyright.

The pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae (Psa) bacteria has been found on at least 13 major orchards, covering 500 hectares, in the Bay of Plenty, an area which produces about 80 percent of the country’s crop, according to reports.

Colonization of vascular tissues by Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae can result in foliar wilting at the beginning of the season (A. chinensis cv. Hort 16 A). Courtesy: Plant Protection Service of Emilia-Romagna region (IT). Source and more images.

An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease on top of the PSA could spell the economical collapse of the toxic country.

Related Links:

• Are you allergic to kiwifruit?
• Why did 63 percent of all British households abstained from eating New Zealand lamb in 2008?
• New Zealand Visitor Health Warnings

• Truth About ‘100% Pure New Zealand’
• The Poisoning of New Zealand
• Hermaphrodite Lamb Born With Seven Legs
• Toxic Sludge
• Toxic Country – Diseased Food

More Related Links:

• Truth About ‘100% Pure New Zealand’
• The Poisoning of New Zealand
• Hermaphrodite Lamb Born With Seven Legs
• Toxic Sludge
• Toxic Country – Diseased Food
• 1080
• NZ indiscriminate aerial applications of the potent poison 1080

3 Explosions Heard at Krakatau Volcano

More Volcanic Unrest in Indonesia

Villagers flee after Krakatau explodes 3 times

Krakatau Erption in 2008. Credit: Thomas.Schiet. Click image to enlarge.

About 1,000 Villagers fled the area after three loud explosions were heard from Mount Anak Krakatau, reports say.

“We received information that the number of earthquakes increased to 933 on Friday. This is harmless as long as the villagers still stay at least two kilometers away,” Anto Pambudi, head of the team observing Mt. Anak Krakatau said.

The alert status for the volcano has now been raised to “caution.”

Mt Krakatau, Sinabung and Merapi Volcanoes Location Map. Source of the original map: USGS. Map enhanced by Fire-Earth. Click image to enlarge.

Krakatau Islands Location Map. Original map enhanced by Fire-Earth.

The Island Map (Simkin and Fiske, 1983). Image may be subject to copyright.

Krakatau Image by Landsat Pathfinder Project (Dated May 18, 1992)

William Ashcroft painting “On the Banks of the River Thames” in London, November 26, 1883 [Exactly three months after Krakatoa’s cataclysmic 1883 eruption.]

The Krakatoa eruption affected the climate driving the weather patterns wild for the next 5 years. Average global temperatures fell by about 1.2 °C in the following years, returning to normal only in 1888.

The violent explosions [August 27, 1883]

Krakatoa is a volcanic island in the Sunda Strait located between Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. Both the volcano and island group share the same name.

Four enormous explosions almost entirely destroyed Krakatoa island on August 27, 1883. The violent explosions were reportedly heard in Perth, Western Australia,  some 3,500 km away. It was heard even on the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius, about 4,800 km away.

The shockwave from the last explosion, which ejected volcanic matter 80 km into the atmosphere, echoed around the planet seven times.

An 1888 lithograph of the 1883 violent explosion of Krakatau.

The eruption ejected about 21 cubic kilometers of volcanic matter and completely destroyed two-thirds of the Krakatoa island.

Related Links:

• More Indonesian Volcanoes Could Erupt Simultaneously [Probability ≥ 0.55]
• Singapore Sling

Latest Entries on Mt Merapi

• Merapi’s latest eruption the deadliest so far
• 2010 Disaster Calendar [NOVEMBER]

• Mt Merapi Erupts Again, 70,000 Evacuated
• Mount Merapi Erupts Repeatedly
• Tsunami Claims 200 After 7.7Mw Quake Strikes Indonesia

• 2010 disasters
• 2011 SIX TIMES MORE DISASTROUS THAN 2010
• Collapse Diary
• 2010 Disaster Calendar

More Volcano Links

• A New Era of Intense Volcanic Unrest May Have Begun
• World’s Dormant Volcanoes Firing
• VolcanoWatch Weekly [16 September 2009]
• Sinabung Getting More Serious
• Sinabung Erupts Again

FEWW Volcanic Activity Forecast

• Sumatra’s Mt Kerinci Erupts
• Volcano Watch Weekly: 23 April 2009
• Weekly Volcano Watch: 16 April 2009
• Weekly Volcano Watch: 2 April 2009
• Tonga’s Metis Shoal may be erupting
• Rumble III Volcano “blew its top!”

Other Related Links:

• FEWW Volcano Links
• Volcanoes
• FEWW Earthquake Links

100MPH Winds Batter Britain

Strong winds and torrential rains cause flash floods across much of Britain, after a week of Arctic storms

The winds were reportedly the strongest to hit the UK for many years

Waves of up to 20ft batter the promenade at Southsea seafront, Portsmouth, England. Photo credit: Solent News,

Many properties in southern England were flooded forcing scores of families out of their homes, reports say. Flooding also caused extensive damage in other parts of the country, as well as in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Wight.

Strong winds with gusts of up to 100MPH fell trees, ripped tiles off roofs and downed power lines… at least one woman was killed after  she was impaled by a branch of a tree that fell on her car.

The disasters followed  a week of arctic weather including several inches of snow that fell in some parts of the country.

Related Links:

• Photo of the day!
• UK Flooding [Includes EDRO Forecast]

Gobi Tries to Bury E China

Fast-moving sand from Gobi Desert reaches as far as east coast of Japan

When will large parts of China be buried under 6 feet of sand, in 2010, 2011, or 2012?

Download large image (3 MB, JPEG) — Image acquired November 11, 2010

A true color image of North China Plain, Shandong Peninsula and the Bo Haitaken was taken by MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite as sand  from Gobi Desert blew across the region. Source: NASA E-O.

A dust storm that blew through Asia’s Gobi Desert on November 10, 2010, quickly intensified as the day wore on. When the MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image at 1:50 p.m. Beijing time (5:50 UTC), the dust plumes were considerably thicker than they had been just two hours earlier. Smaller dust plumes also appeared north of the Mongolia-China border. Source of image and caption: NASA E-O.

The dust from Gobi Desert passed over the East China Sea, and the Sea of Japan on November 12, 2010, when MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite took this image. “A veil of dust forms an arc hundreds of kilometers long, and extends from the Yellow Sea to the northern Sea of Japan. Thick dust also blows over the nation of Japan. In the northeast, clouds hide parts of the dust plume. Although skies appear mostly dust-free over the Korean Peninsula, weather reports from November 11 and 12 reported widespread dust over Seoul, the location of the Group of 20 summit.” Source of image and caption: NASA E-O. [Image added November 13, 2010.] Download large image (7 MB, JPEG).

 

Related Links:

• TC Phet, SST and Intercontinental Dust Storms
• Killer Dust Storms Strike India, Middle East

• SW China on the precipice of catastrophe
• Humongous Dust Storm Sweeps Africa
• Australia: World’s Smallest Continental Dust Bowl
• Could Dust Storms Bury Sydney, Australia?
• Washington: Thousands of Tons of Topsoil Lost in Dust Storm

• Australia: Uranium Dust Threat Real?
• And dust to dust …
• The Mesopotamian Dust Bowl
• Image of the Day: Sandstorm in Saudi Desert

More Indonesian Volcanoes Could Erupt Simultaneously [Probability ≥ 0.55]

Singapore Sling May Follow

Mt Merapi releases them all: Ash plumes, lahars, pyroclastic flows, sulfur dioxide …

Image shows concentrations of sulfur dioxide release by Mt Merapi volcano between November 4 and 8, 2010. The image was processed from data acquired by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA’s Aura spacecraft. “Sulfur dioxide is measured here in Dobson Units: The greatest concentrations appear in dark red-brown; the lowest in light peach. Typically used to measure ozone, the Dobson Unit is the number of molecules of gas that would be required to create a layer 0.01 millimeters thick at a temperature of 0 degrees Celsius and a pressure of 1 atmosphere (the air pressure at the surface of the Earth).” Source: NASA E-O.

Latest Entries on Mt Merapi

• Merapi’s latest eruption the deadliest so far
• 2010 Disaster Calendar [NOVEMBER]

• Mt Merapi Erupts Again, 70,000 Evacuated
• Mount Merapi Erupts Repeatedly
• Tsunami Claims 200 After 7.7Mw Quake Strikes Indonesia

• 2010 disasters
• 2011 SIX TIMES MORE DISASTROUS THAN 2010
• Collapse Diary
• 2010 Disaster Calendar

Related Links

• A New Era of Intense Volcanic Unrest May Have Begun
• World’s Dormant Volcanoes Firing
• VolcanoWatch Weekly [16 September 2009]
• Sinabung Getting More Serious
• Sinabung Erupts Again

FEWW Volcanic Activity Forecast

• Sumatra’s Mt Kerinci Erupts
• Volcano Watch Weekly: 23 April 2009
• Weekly Volcano Watch: 16 April 2009
• Weekly Volcano Watch: 2 April 2009
• Tonga’s Metis Shoal may be erupting
• Rumble III Volcano “blew its top!”

Other Related Links:

• FEWW Volcano Links
• Volcanoes
• FEWW Earthquake Links

• Earth’s Climate: A Solar Powered System

First France, Then Germany, Now Britain

When Did the ‘Poor’ Matter!

How Europe’s Ordinary Folks Are Being Pushed Out of the Pod

Images of the Day:

F**K FEES!!

More than 50,000 students and university lecturers took to the streets of London to protest against higher education fees. [Photo: Getty Images. Image may be subject to copyright.]

“Hundreds of coachloads of students and lecturers travelled to London from across England for the demonstration in Whitehall, with 2,000 students also travelling from Wales and a further 2,000 from Scotland,” a report said.

Take This: Cornered by the Rich-Only System

Demonstrators clashed with police in London during a protest against government plans to raise university education fees by 300 percent and cut university funding in the UK. [Photo: Reuters. Image may be subject to copyright.]

The World’s Most Unethical ‘Democracy’

“We won’t go back. Look, even if we wanted to, we shouldn’t go back to the idea that university is free,” said David Cameron, UK Prime Minister.

Demonstrators were protesting against UK government plans to treble university fees, cut tertiary education funding by 40% and wipe out all scholarships except for maths and science.

Who said the WAR RACKET was cheap, Mr Prime Minister?

Related Links:

• Obama condemns 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan
• The War Racket: Okinawa Base Lives
• War is a Racket [By the U.S. Marines Gen. Smedley D. Butler

Honshu Earthquake Warning

Waves of Intense Seismic Activity Could Strike Eastern Honshu, Japan

The earthquakes could affect a wide region within 100 to 150 km radius of Tokyo Bay area.

Related Links:

• M6.5 Strikes East Coast of Honshu, Japan
• Fire-Earth Quake Forecast: Japan Earthquakes

• Earthquake Forecast: Tokyo, Japan
• Earthquake Forecast 2009

• Strong Earthquake Strikes East of Honshu, Japan
• FEWW Volcano Links
• Volcanoes
• FEWW Earthquake Links

Atomkraft? Nein Danke!

German Democracy in Action

Most people in Germany OPPOSE nuclear power

17,000 riot police mobilized to suppress anti-nuclear protesters

Anti-nuclear protesters block the main road to Germany’s interim nuclear waste storage facility in the northern German village of Gorleben November 7, 2010. ‘Atomkraft? Nein Danke’ means ‘Nuclear power? No thanks.’ Credit: REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch.

“German police used truncheons and teargas [and water cannons] Sunday to clear rail lines as they clashed with anti-nuclear activists trying to disrupt a shipment of nuclear waste heading to a storage dump.” More…

Rivers Dictate Life and Death

Nile River valley and Nile Delta

Almost 99 percent of Egypt’s population lives in the Nile River valley and Nile Delta

Nile Delta. False-color image acquired by Landsat 7  on 17 September 2006. Source: NASA

ISS View: Nile River Delta at Night

An astronaut photograph of the SE Mediterranean Sea, viewed  from the International Space Station. Image taken on October 28, 2010. Astronaut photograph ISS025-E-9858 was taken on October 28, 2010. Source: NASA-EO

The light intensity show the distribution of population in Egypt as well as its neighboring countries/regions. Almost 99 percent of Egypt’s 80 million population lives in the Nile River valley and Nile Delta, in an area of about 40,000 km², or less than 4 percent of the country’s total area.

Massive Coral Die-Off

Massive deep-sea coral die-off found near BP oil disaster source in GOM

Large colonies of bottom-dwelling coral were found covered in a black substance, most probably crude oil, at a depth of about 1,400m (4,600 feet) near the damaged Macondo wellhead, NOAA scientists said.

This dying coral was found covered in a dark substance, near the damaged Macondo wellhead. Could it be oil from the BP oil disaster in GOM? Image source: NOAA

“Corals do die, but you don’t see them die all at once,” said cruise lead scientist Charles Fisher of Penn State University. “This … indicates a recent catastrophic event,” he told National Geographic News.

“The proximity of the site to the disaster, the depth of the site, the clear evidence of recent impact, and the uniqueness of the observations all suggest that the impact we have found is linked to the exposure of this community to either oil, dispersant, extremely depleted oxygen, or some combination of these or other water-borne effects resulting from the spill,” Fisher said.

Related Links

• Oil Disasters
• Fisher Deep-Sea Lab