FIRE-EARTH Bulletin NO. 88

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

FIRE-EARTH Bulletin NO. 88 has been released.

Related links

https://feww.wordpress.com/2-bulletin-board/

 

No. of Days left: 691

M7.5 Quake Strikes Near Tecpan de Galeana, Mexico

SEISMIC HAZARD
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Powerful quake occurs 37km N of Tecpan de Galeana, Mexico

The powerful earthquake struck near the middle America Trench in the western state of Guerrero, north of the famous resort of Acapulco. It  shook buildings in the capital Mexico City some 265km away.  There were no reports of casualty or major damage as of posting.

Earthquake Details [USGS/EHP]

Magnitude: 7.5Mw
Event Time:2014-04-18 14:27:29 UTC
Location: 17.585°N, 100.741°W depth=48.6km (30.2mi)
Nearby Cities:

• 37km (23mi) N of Tecpan de Galeana, Mexico
• 53km (33mi) NW of Atoyac de Alvarez, Mexico
• 56km (35mi) E of Petatlan, Mexico
• 81km (50mi) S of Ciudad Altamirano, Mexico
• 265km (165mi) SW of Mexico City, Mexico

EQ Location Map

Earthquake Location Map. Source: USGS/EHP.

FIRE-EARTH Earthquake Forecast

The next two FIRE-EARTH Earthquake Forecasts will appear in Bulletin No. 88, to be released on April 18, and Bulletin No. 89, on April 20, 2014.

Related Links

• FIRE-EARTH Bulletin NO. 86 April 15, 2014
• FIRE-EARTH Bulletin NO. 85 April 13, 2014
• M6.6 Quake Strikes Nicaragua April 12, 2014
• Strong Quakes Strike Nicaragua, Coastal Chile April 11, 2014

• CHILE MEGA EARTHQUAKE WARNING – REVISION 3 April 7, 2014
• MEGA EARTHQUAKE WARNING – REVISION 2  April 3, 2014
• Two Powefull Aftershocks Rock N Chile Coast April 3, 2014
• Disaster Declared for Chile Quake Zone on April 2, 2014
• M8.2 Strikes Coast of Chile April 2, 2014

Major Disaster Declared for Montana

EXTREME WEATHER & CLIMATIC EVENT
ICE JAMS & FLOODING
FEDERAL DISASTER DECLARED
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White House Declares Federal Disaster in Montana (DR-4172)

The 3-0 has declared a major disaster in the State of Montana in the areas affected by ice jams and flooding during the period of March 1-16, 2014.

Areas worst affected by the disasters are  the counties of Broadwater, Dawson, Golden Valley, Jefferson, Lake, Musselshell, Park, Pondera, Prairie, Ravalli, Richland, Rosebud, Sanders, Stillwater, and Wheatland.

Additional designations may be made at a later date if requested by the state and warranted by the results of further damage assessments, said FEMA.

Latest Major Disaster Declarations

• Federal Disasters
• Drought 2013
• Agricultural Disasters Index

How Your World Continued Shrinking

ENVIRONMENTAL HOLOCAUST
EXISTENTIAL THREAT
HEAVY METAL POLLUTION IN SOIL
CADMIUM, NICKEL, ARSENIC …
POLLUTED SOIL, SMOG, CONTAMINATED WATER
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Trinity of Death: Contaminated Soil, Smog and Polluted Water

Fifth of the farming land in China is contaminated, according to a joint report issued by the country’s Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Land and Resources.

The report, based on  surveys  conducted between April 2005 and December 2013, found 16.1 percent of the land including 19.4 percent of the farmland in the Chinese mainland contaminated with heavy metals.

Nearly 83 percent of the polluted land is contaminated with cadmium, nickel and arsenic.

[Note: Based on the data available, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies cadmium, nickel and arsenic and their compounds as “carcinogenic to humans.”]

“The general condition of the land is ‘not optimistic’ as the quality of farming land is worrying and deserted industrial and mining land suffers serious pollution,” said Xinhua citing the report.

The levels of cadmium contamination rose by 50 percent in southwestern and coastal regions and 10 to 40 percent in other parts of China between 1986 and 1990, said the report.

File photo shows low-lying land near the Dabaoshan Mine heavily polluted with waste metals. Soil pollution has severely worsened in Guangdong province, home to more than 3,000 mines, since 2008, according to the Guangdong Institute of Eco-environment and Soil Sciences. A survey conducted by the institute found that  40 percent of the soil throughout the province were tainted with heavy metals. [Source: China Daily]

Dangerous levels of cadmium were detected in rice produced in central China’s Hunan Province, the country’s top rice-growing region, which caused a public outcry last year.

“Heavy metal pollution alone has resulted in the loss of 10 million tonnes of grain and the contamination of another 12 million tonnes annually, incurring 20 billion yuan (3.17 billion U.S. dollars) in direct economic losses each year,” said the report citing official estimates.

“The main pollution source is human industrial and agricultural activities,” the report said. Collection, storage, transfer and disposal of dangerous waste are currently unregulated.

“Compared with air and water pollution, soil pollution is more difficult to control and remedy, taking a much longer time and needing more resources,” a researcher at Chinese Academy of Sciences told Xinhua.

The report cites the Dabaoshan coal mine in Shaoguan City in Guangdong, as an example.  Since the 1970s, untreated coal residue and wastewater from the mine  has contaminated the soil in the surrounding region up to 44 times above the national limit.

“Known to produce some 6,000 tons of copper and 850,000 tons of iron ore annually, the mine has produced a growing amount of sludge and wastewater that has contaminated some 585 hectares along the lower sections of the Hengshui River running atop the mountain,” said China Daily.

At least 250 cancer-related deaths associated with soil pollution were recorded in Shangbai village, located downstream of the Dabaoshan mine, between 1987 and 2009.

In 1990, a farmland area of 0.06 hectares near Dabaoshan Mine could yield about 350 kilograms of rice, but by 2010 it could only grow less than 100kg due to heavy soil pollution, said Li Deng’e, a despondent 74-year-old villager, who sprays ever-increasing amounts of pesticides on her land to slow down the daily erosion, reported China Daily.

Mass Evacuation Ordered after UBINAS Eruption

VOLCANIC HAZARD
STATE OF EMERGENCY
MASS EVACUATIONS
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Ubinas Volcano spews 3.2km-high plumes of toxic ash

Some 4,000 residents and more than 40,000 animals are being evacuated to a “safety zone” about  20km from Peru’s most active volcano.

Villagers are concerned for the health of their livestock, a major source of income. “In the district of Ubinas alone, there are an estimated 40,000 llamas and alpacas.” A significant percentage of these animals could be seriously affected by the silica ash, which  contaminates their grazing areas after each significant eruption, local sources have said.

The silica ash from the  eruption damages crops, polluting water sources, and threatening villagers and their livestock.

“The Ollanta Humala’s administration declared a state of emergency in nearby provinces, which will provide financial assistance for those affected by eruption of the Ubinas volcano, in southern Peru’s Arequipa region,” reported Andina news agency.

A major eruption in 2006 forced mass evacuations and killed livestock that consumed ash-contaminated fodder, said the report.

Ubinas Volcano erupted multiple times in September 2013 after three years of dormancy. Image credit: ANDINA

The massive 5,670-meter volcano is located about 70 kilometers from the city of Arequipa (metro pop: ~ 1,260,000), and 1,250km south of the capital Lima, close to the country’s Pacific coast, about  230 km east of the Peru-Chile trench and about 150 km above the Benioff-Wadati plane, where the Nazca plate is subducting under the continental part of the South American Plate.

Related Links

• Peru Declares State of Emergency as Ubinas Erupts Again September 13, 2013
• Ubinas Volcano Erupts 6 Times in 60 Hour September 5, 2013