News & Politics - Weather, Nature and Environmental News #2 ~ I'm Walking on Sunshine

**sunnykerr** · 06-21-2011, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Tornadoes rip through Nebraska

Tornadoes have swept through central Nebraska, damaging buildings and throwing parked train carriages from their tracks.

US authorities say dozens of tornadoes were reported in Nebraska and Kansas.

Footage shows tornadoes tearing through York County and Silver Creek in Nebraska on Monday.

Source

There's footage on the page. It's pretty dramatic, though fortunately it seems like damages were to structures, not to human lives.

So far anyway.

Comfortably Numb · 06-21-2011, 04:25 PM

Tftnt!

**sunnykerr** · 06-21-2011, 04:29 PM

You're welcome!

Comfortably Numb · 06-21-2011, 06:24 PM

LINK028.html

Weather Cuts U.S. Sugar

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NEW YORK—Bad weather on both sides of the U.S. border could crimp the country's sugar supply this year, driving up prices for the sweetener.
A drought in Mexico, which supplies close to half of the United States' imported sugar, is expected to clip output for the 2011-12 sugarcane harvest.
A scarcity of sugar could contribute to rising food prices, as the sweetener is commonly found in many of the foods Americans eat. The U.S. Department of Labor's food index has risen 3.5% in the 12 months ended May 30, and organizations such as the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization have predicted global food prices will continue to soar as demand for grains, meat and other staples outstrips supplies.
Flooding caused by snowmelt and a rainy spring in the Midwest delayed planting of sugar beets, the source of more than half of domestic sugar production in the U.S. The shorter growing season has put in doubt just how much sugar the beets will provide when they are harvested in the autumn.
The supply situation became more clouded last week, when the president of Mexico's National Sugar Cane Producers Union, Carlos Blackaller, said dry weather there could reduce supplies by as much as 10%.
The U.S. consumes about 11 million tons of sugar each year, about one-third of which is imported.
Under the North American Free Trade Agreement, the U.S. receives an duty-free sugar from Mexico. But the government limits low-tariff or duty-free imports of sugar from other countries to protect domestic producers.
The government sets a fiscal-year quota every summer at the 1.2 million-ton minimum dictated by the World Trade Organization.
The so-called tariff rate quota cannot be changed under U.S. law until April 1, when most of the domestic sugar crop has been harvested and sold. So as Mexico and the U.S. face crop problems, some food-makers may be forced to import high-tariff sugar from other producers, costs that could be passed on to consumers.
"We'll definitely have to open up the TRQ to help meet demand," said Cory Martin of the American Bakers Association, an industry group whose members include General Mills Inc. and Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corp. "We constantly have to ask [the government] for that. We just don't have enough supply to meet demand in this country."
Raw sugar futures settled Tuesday at 27.49 cents a pound for July delivery on IntercontinentalExchange, near a 2½-month high.

Another crop taking a hit for the wonky weather this year. This is a bad one, we love our sugar.

**sunnykerr** · 06-22-2011, 08:23 PM

And we use in so many different ways.

Basically, food is screwed this year. Between the American and Chinese droughts, the American and Canadian floods (not to mention the Latin American ones). And the E. coli stuff in Europe?

Yeah. something's up with food.

Comfortably Numb · 06-24-2011, 02:36 AM

LINK

Quote:

Major quakes strike in Pacific off Alaska

Fri Jun 24, 2011 1:23am EDT

Print This Article

[-] Text [+]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - A major earthquake of 7.4 magnitude struck in the Pacific Ocean more than 1,000 miles west of Anchorage on Thursday, prompting a brief tsunami warning for part of the remote Aleutian Islands chain.
No damage or injuries were reported. The warning, which extended for roughly 800 miles -- from Unimak Pass, northeast of Dutch Harbor, westward to Amchitka Pass, west of Adak Island -- was canceled after a little more than an hour.
A tsunami wave measuring just 6 centimeters tall was recorded at Nikolski, a tiny Aleut village on the island of Umnak, and a 10-centimeter wave was observed at Adak, said Becki Legatt, a spokeswoman for the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska.
The coast of the entire Alaska peninsula and all of the Alaska mainland were never considered to be threatened.
The quake struck shortly after 7 p.m. local time at a depth of about 25 miles. A second tremor of magnitude 7.2 hit in the same vicinity of the Aleutians a half-minute later, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
Quakes of 7 to 8 magnitudes and higher are relatively common in the Aleutians but are generally of little consequence because the island chain is so remote and sparsely populated.
"This is a very seismically active area," said Randy Baldwin, a USGS geophysicist with the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado.
A tsunami warning means all coastal residents in the warning area who are near the beach or in low-lying regions should move immediately to higher ground and away from harbors and inlets, including those sheltered directly from the sea.
(Reporting by Yereth Rosen in Anchorage; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Philip Barbara)

At least they didn’t get a tsunami, and no injuries occurred. The ground is still grumbling.

**sunnykerr** · 06-24-2011, 06:40 PM

What I don't understand is how they can call the waves that did register "tsunami waves" when they only measured a few centimetres tall.

I guess tusnami refers to their point of origin and no their size?

Comfortably Numb · 06-25-2011, 09:16 AM

That confused me too. But I think it just means a wave that was made by an underwater earthquake or volcano.

**sunnykerr** · 06-25-2011, 06:23 PM

That's the only thing that makes sense to me.

Comfortably Numb · 06-26-2011, 11:19 AM

I wonder how many more of these things we are going to get before the end of the year?

**sunnykerr** · 06-26-2011, 06:07 PM

I don't know. I would imagine we'll get about the same average as any other year.

Comfortably Numb · 06-26-2011, 07:56 PM

LINK

Quote:

Monday, June 27, 2011 8:26 AM EST
Six strong quakes strike at Ring of Fire in the past week

By CAF

In March, a magnitude 9.0 undersea megathrust earthquake, now known as the Great East Japan Earthquake, hit Japan. One of the five most powerful earthquakes in the world overall since modern record-keeping began, the quake created a tsunami, killed more than 15,000, destroyed billions worth of infrastructure and caused a number of nuclear accidents.
On Sunday, a strong 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck near the coast of Indonesia's Papua province. There were no immediate reports of damage or tsunami warnings issued.
Aside from Indonesia, during the past week moderate to strong earthquakes have hit Japan; nations in the Pacific like Fiji; Latin American countries like Chile and Argentina; Alaska in the United States; and even Antartica.
The Irish Weather Online reported that 2011 is on target to record the largest number of earthquakes in a single year for at least 12 years.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, earthquakes with magnitude of at least 5.5 that have hit during the past week include:
* June 20. A strong 6.5 magnitude earthquake struck the Antofagasta region of Chile Monday afternoon.
* June 21. A 6.1 magnitude quake hit Santa Cruz Islands
* June 22. A magnitude 6.7 quake struck off the coast of Honshu, Japan, prompting authorities to issue a tsunami alert for the northeast of the country. A series of large tremors measuring greater than 5 have been recorded since the quake.
* June 23. A 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit the sparsely populated Fox Islands region of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, USA. The quake hit just two days after a 5.1 magnitude earthquake hit the Rat Islands region.
* June 24. A 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck The Solomon Islands in the south-western Pacific Ocean. It was the third strong earthquake to hit the region during the week.

* June 24. A 6.3 quake off the Santa Cruz Islands struck.
* June 24. A 5.6 quake off Hokkaido, Japan Region, struck.
* June 25. A 5.7 magnitude quake off the south of the Fiji Islands struck.
* June 26. A strong 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck near the coast of Indonesia's Papua province. The quake struck at a depth of 36 kilometers, 161 km from Enarotali, at 9:16 p.m.
According to Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency, the epicentre from last Sunday's quake was on land 32 km southeast of Waren, a town on the northern coast of Papua island. The 6.4 magnitude quake was followed by two strong aftershocks, the first of magnitude 5.3, the second of magnitude 5.5, the agency said. The quake did not or does not generate a tsunami, according to the Indonesian agency. However, according to The Associated Press, the quake caused panic among residents.
Earthquakes and the tsunamis that they generate usually cause panic in Indonesia. In 2004, the 9.3 magnitude quake off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia created a tsunami with waves of up to 30 meters, which killed an estimated more than 150,000 people in northern Sumatra.
The Richter Scale
The Richter magnitude scale was developed in 1935 by Charles F. Richter of the California Institute of Technology as a mathematical device to compare the size of earthquakes. The magnitude of an earthquake is determined from the logarithm of the amplitude of waves recorded by seismographs.
Generally, for locations near the epicentre, these effects may be observed:
Magnitude Description Earthquake effects
------------ --------------- -----------------------
5.0-5.9 Moderate Can cause major damage to poorly constructed buildings over small regions. At most slight damage to well- designed buildings.
6.0-6.9 Strong Can be destructive in areas up to about 160 kilometres across in populated areas. Occurrence is 120 per year
7.0-7.9 Major Can cause serious damage over larger areas. Occurrence is 18 per year
8.0-8.9 Great Can cause serious damage in areas several hundred kilometres across. Occurrence is 1 per year.
9.0-9.9 Great Devastating in areas several thousand kilometres across. Occurrence is 1 per 20 years 10.0+ Massive Never recorded, widespread devastation across very large areas; This has never been recorded.
"Ring of Fire"
Indonesia and the other nations affected by the recent quakes sit on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," where the meeting of continental plates causes high seismic activity, and is frequently hit by earthquakes. The Ring of Fire is an arc stretching from New Zealand, along the eastern edge of Asia, north across the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, and south along the coast of North and South America. Large numbers of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the Ring of Fire. The Ring of Fire is composed over 75% of the world's active and dormant volcanoes.
Australia?
The Ring of Fire excludes Australia because the continent lies in the center of its tectonic plate.
According to Geoscience Australia, although Australia is not on the edge of a plate, the continent experiences earthquakes because the Indo-Australian plate is being pushed north and is colliding with the Eurasian, Philippine and Pacific plates. This causes the build up of stress in the interior of the Indo-Australian plate which is released during earthquakes.
In Australia, earthquakes above magnitude 5.5, such as the 5.6 magnitude event in Newcastle in 1989, occur on average every two years. About every five years there is a potentially disastrous earthquake of magnitude 6.0 or more. Australia's largest recorded earthquake was in 1941 at Meeberrie in Western Australia with an estimated magnitude of 7.2 but it occurred in a remote, largely unpopulated area.

So we had another quake in Indonesia. Had no idea about this ring of fire, makes so much sense of why so many happen in that area.

**sunnykerr** · 06-27-2011, 03:27 PM

That would certainly explain why that region of the world seems so very active.

Mind you... have you ever heard of supervolcanoes? I saw a Nova program on them a while back. They are pretty much what they sound like. Volcanoes, just ginormous in size.

For instance, Yellowstone National Park apparently owes much of its topography to being a supervolcano (or on a supervolcano?). When it last erupted, it is estimated that the ash cloud covered most of North America. And when it erupted, it spewed its entire magma content in the air very quickly, so that the ground around it caved in on itself.

Apparently, the border between Ontario and Quebec also sits on what was once a supervolcano.

Fortunately, the Nova program intimated that they don't "blow" very often. But can you imagine?

Comfortably Numb · 07-01-2011, 10:33 AM

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/06/30/los-alamos-wildfire-lab.html
Los Alamos wildfire near nuclear lab may

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A wildfire threatening the nation's premier nuclear weapons laboratory and a community in northern New Mexico is poised to become the largest fire in state history.

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The fire near Los Alamos has charred nearly 376 square kilometres, or 37,529 hectares.
The blaze has been growing daily, and is close to surpassing New Mexico's largest fire, the Dry Lakes fire, which charred more than 38,040 hectares in the Gila National Forest in 2003.
Crews have managed to contain only three per cent of the fire near Los Alamos. They're bracing for winds of up to 72 km/h Thursday afternoon.
Fire information officer Sandra Lopez says crews are dealing with rugged, steep country, hot temperatures and erratic winds.
Nuclear laboratory officials in Los Alamos say it could be a few days before they'll know the extent of how experiments at the facility that created the first atomic bomb have been affected by a shutdown caused by the wildfire.
Lab director Charles McMillan, who last month took over management of the lab that sits atop desert mesas, said Wednesday that teams will quickly figure out how things stand as soon as they're able to return.
'The nuclear materials are secure.'—Nuclear engineering Prof. Barry Scheetz, Penn State University
The lab has been shut down since Monday, when all of the city of Los Alamos and some of its surrounding areas — 12,000 people in all — were evacuated.
There was no word on when it will reopen, but it was expected to remain idle at least through Friday.
Officials said the Los Alamos National Laboratory has some 10,000 experiments running at the same time that have been put on hold.
"We have a range of projects, some of them have shorter time deliverable, some of them are years to decades," McMillan said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Among the work delayed are experiments run on two supercomputers, the Roadrunner and Cielo. The National Security Administration's three national laboratories — Los Alamos, Sandia and Lawrence Livermore — all share computing time on Cielo, which is among the world's fastest computers.
Also delayed is work on projects ranging from extending the life of 1960s era B61 nuclear bombs to studies on how climate change affects ocean currents. The computer allows scientist to look at different scenarios, including changes in currents and the melting of the ice caps.
Fire officials late Wednesday said they're confident that the fire won't spread onto the lab and the town of Los Alamos.Marian Romero-Yeske, an employee at the Los Alamos nuclear lab, left, volunteers at the Food Depot sorting donations as Felina Trujillo looks for groceries on Wednesday in Santa Fe, N.M. Trujillo is among wildfire evacuees and is staying with friends in Hernandez, N.M. (Luis SÃ¡nchez Saturno/The New Mexican/Associated Press)
On Monday, nearly half a hectare of lab property burned, raising concerns about possible contamination from material stored or buried on lab grounds. As a precaution, the government sent a plane equipped with radiation monitors over the lab. Samples analyzed so far from some of the lab's monitors show nothing abnormal in the smoke.
Lab authorities described the monitoring from the air as a precaution, and they, along with outside experts on nuclear engineering, expressed confidence that the blaze would not scatter radioactive material, as some in surrounding communities feared.
"The nuclear materials are secure," said Penn State University nuclear engineering Prof. Barry Scheetz, who has served on National Academy of Sciences nuclear review boards and has been to Los Alamos several times. "There's multiple redundancy in the protection of this material."
Anti-nuclear groups have sounded the alarm about thousands of 55-gallon drums containing low-grade nuclear waste — gloves, tools, even paper notes and other contaminated items — about two miles from the fire. Lab officials said it was highly unlikely the blaze would reach the drums, and that the steel containers can in any case withstand flames and will be sprayed with fire-resistant foam if necessary.
The lab works on such topics as renewable energy and particle physics, solar flares, forensics on terrorist attacks, and studying the AIDS virus at the molecular level to help scientists develop strategies for developing vaccines.
The lab also did early work on the human genome project.

Okay I am thinking maybe it’s time to globally shut down nuclear stuff, they are only secure until they aren’t you know?

**sunnykerr** · 07-01-2011, 09:16 PM

Well, of course I agree that nuclear energy has a lot of potential for catastrophe... but the flip side of that argument is that this isn't the first wildfire to have come close to a nuclear plant and it probably won't be the last.

So far, with the exception of Fu.kushima, danger has been averted.


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