Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2008

Photo (wallpaper) of the most warming defense against extreme polar weather.

by Tertulia Team

Solstice Full Moon and Mars

24th December 2007 - Mars approaching Moon - 03:20 am

23th December - Conjunction Of Mars and Moon - 23:30 pm

Full Moon on 23 December 2007 (Sintra, Portugal)

Full Moon on 24 November 2007 (Montejunto, Portugal)

Winter storm pounds northeastern United States

BOSTON, Dec 16 (Reuters) - A snowstorm that blanketed parts of the Midwestern United States barreled into New England on Sunday, bringing snow, freezing rain and high winds that grounded flights and made driving treacherous.
Roads were slick with snow and ice, and local airports reported hundreds of flights canceled across New England.
Upstate New York received as much as a foot (30 cm) of snow, while the storm spared New York City, leaving only a coating of icy slush. Thousands of people were without power in New Jersey, Long Island and parts of Connecticut.
In New England, about 8 inches (20 cm) of snow fell around Boston, though the precipitation changed to rain across coastal areas by afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.
It dropped more than 10 inches (25 cm) across parts of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Forecasters said high winds would continue through the evening and parts of northern New England could receive as much as 14 inches of snow. They warned that with sub-freezing temperatures expected overnight, much of the rain that fell on the region late in the day would turn to ice.
The wintry blast came a week after a Midwest ice storm was blamed for 13 deaths and cut power to hundreds of thousands.

Volcanic Eruption by Vatnajökull Glacier Imminent?

Hundreds of small earthquakes have been detected in the region Upptyppingar since Friday last week, located about 20 kilometers east of the volcano Askja and north of Vatnajökull glacier. Experts say a volcanic eruption may follow.

Most of the earthquakes occurred at a depth of 13 to 15 kilometers. If their source moves closer to the surface by a few kilometers, the likelihood of a volcanic eruption increases, Sigthrúdur Ármannsdóttir, a geographer at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, told Fréttabladid.
There were, however, fewer earthquakes in the area yesterday than in the days before, but that may only be a temporary condition, Ármannsdóttir said.
According to Magnús Tumi Gudmundsson, a professor in geophysics at the University of Iceland, the area north of Vatnajökull glacier is volcanically active though there has not been an eruption there for 1,000 years. The volcano Askja last erupted in 1961.

More evacuations ordered as B.C. ice jam grows

An ice jam described as unstable and unpredictable forced more residents to leave their homes in Prince George, B.C., on Saturday. About 40 evacuation notices were delivered Saturday morning to people in a low-lying area of the city as officials examined a trail of slushy ice extending for six kilometres along the Nechako River. In total, about 50 evacuation orders have been issued over the past week. Another 12 business owners were ordered to leave, while a number of businesses in a light industrial area along River Road remained closed on the weekend because flooding made them inaccessible.

Molten Lava May Be Melting Greenland's Ice Cap

Global warming may not be the only thing melting Greenland. Scientists have found at least one natural magma hotspot under the Arctic island that could be pitching in. In recent years, Greenland's ice has been melting more and flowing faster into the sea — a record amount of ice melted from the frozen mass this summer — and Earth's rising temperatures are suspected to be the main culprit. But clues to a new natural contribution to the melt arose when scientists discovered a thin spot in the Earth's crust under the northeast corner of the Greenland Ice Sheet where heat from Earth's insides could seep through. The corner of Greenland where the hotspot was found had no known ice streams, rivers of ice that run through the main ice sheet and out to sea, until one was discovered in 1991. What exactly caused the stream to form was uncertain. "Ice streams have to have some reason for being there, and it's pretty surprising to suddenly see one in the middle of the ice sheet." The newly discovered hotspot, where Earth's crust is thinner allowing hot magma from Earth's mantle to come closer to the surface, is just below the ice sheet and could have caused it to form. What caused the hotspot to suddenly form is another mystery. "It could be that there's a volcano down there, but we think it's probably just the way the heat is being distributed by the rock topography at the base of the ice."

US Plains ice storm leaves 270,000 without power

NEW YORK, Dec 10 (Reuters) - An ice storm knocked out power to more than 270,000 customers in the Central Plains and Midwest on Sunday and Monday, local power companies reported Monday morning.
The system entered Oklahoma early Sunday, bringing freezing rain that caused significant ice accumulation on trees and overhead power lines. The weight of the ice downed tree branches and power lines, cutting power.
That system has now moved into Kansas, Missouri and Illinois.

Over the next day or so, meteorologists expect the storm to move across Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, likely knocking out more customers as it moves. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino, editing by Matthew Lewis)


These trees are hundreds of years old and huge and limbs and trees are everywhere, it is sad. The pictures that my daughter sent were weird, because the ground was still warm enough to keep the streets clear, although ice laden tree branches were taking out power lines and transformers all over town. Last report had 100,000 people in Tulsa alone without power. With more weather on the way and falling temperatures, it could get really bad. Here is a picture, this morning, of the tree in my daughter's front yard. It had already lost a lot of the bigger branches and she had to have them dragged out of her driveway just to get the car out of the garage. Note the splitting branch in the center of the pic... another one getting ready to go.

Cyclone Daman reduced to storm

Tropical cyclone Daman has now been reduced to a storm after causing damages in several areas in Fiji. “We had been talking about tropical cyclone Daman simply because it was a grade four hurricane and last night we had taken that off simply.
“This is because it is now a storm and still weakening further so that is simply why we have taken out the word ‘severe’ from the special weather bulletin for Fiji,” said he.
Celua added gale force wind warnings continue to remain for some islands in the Lau group.


Houses lose roofs as Daman passes by

Hurricane Daman (category 4) flattened and partially damaged seventeen homes on Cikobia Island.
National emergency operations centre - DISMAC head acting Commissioner Samuela Sadranu told fijilive that 13 houses in Vuninuku and Nalele village were without roofs as they were blown away early this morning while four homes were completely flattened.He said there are still no reports of any injury or causalities.

‘Daman worse then Kina’


Aerial assesment on Daman


Daman heads for Tonga


Rain eases, but danger not over

SUVA: Rain that caused flooding in low-lying areas in the central and southern divisions of Fiji and claimed a life eased yesterday.
But the Nadi weather office has warned that the heavy trough of low pressure over the Fiji group could lead to further rain and flooding.

A landslide in Colo-i-Suva forced all traffic to be diverted through the Kings Road. Some motorists were stuck for hours waiting for the road to clear.
Thousands of chickens were buried in the landslide and houses damaged.
The flood-prone Navua district near Suva suffered heavy damage. Parts of the town and some residential areas were under water.

Fiji braces as Cyclone Daman intensifies, heads toward populated islands - Cat. 4

A powerful tropical cyclone packing wind gusts up to 250 kilometers an hour (155 miles an hour) headed Friday toward northern Fiji, where islanders braced for heavy rain and coastal sea surges overnight, officials said.

Cyclone Daman, rated a category 4 cyclone by the South Pacific nation's Nadi Meteorological Center, was expected to cause "major flooding" and "pretty serious damage" to islanders' houses and to low-lying coastal areas after smashing ashore later Friday, senior forecaster Matt Boterhoven said.

Big waves a California dream for local surfers

Photo By Rob Varela/Staff Photographer a surfer rides a fifteen-foot wave and tries to avoid others as they paddle out Wednesday at the Rincon, near the Ventura/Santa Barbara County line. Area surfers enjoyed another banner day as high surf hit Ventura County beaches, ahead of an impending storm.

Photo By Rob Varela/Staff Photographer
A surfer gets caught in a wall of white water Wednesday at the Rincon, near the Ventura and Santa Barbara County line. Area surfers enjoyed another banner day as high surf hit Ventura County beaches ahead of an impending storm.

70 feet deadly wave in Santa Cruz, California

Legendary Monterey Bay surfer Peter Davi, 45, drowned at Ghost Tree on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Monterey County Coroner's Office. According to Ghost Tree local Don Curry, the day started out incredibly. Thirty foot sets that stretched out to 70'+ wave faces rolled into the scenic Ghost Tree. It was the biggest Ghost Tree had ever been ridden.In the mid-morning, Davi, who was paddling into the waves, broke his leash and began swimming in. One tow team offered Davi a ride in but the surfer refused. Another tow team offered Davi a PFD but again Davi refused according to Curry.

Winter Season Arrives Early To The WestCoast

Surfing 14 mt waves in Ireland

Alistair Mennie is one of the pioneeers of tow surfing in Ireland having experienced big wave spots in Hawaii. Photo: Kelly Allen

Duncan Scott, 29, from Newquay in Cornwall is dwarfed by the waves estimated at 55ft (16.7m) breaking on the reef at Mullagmore Head in Donegal Bay on the west coast of Ireland. Picture: Kelly Allen

The waves are thought to be bigger than the record 44ft (13.4m) swell officially recorded in Galway Bay in 2005. Photo: Kelly Allen

Midwest Storm Closes Airport, Expected to Bring 16 Inches of Snow

DES MOINES, Iowa — Snow and ice plastered a wide area of the Midwest on Saturday, disrupting campaigning by presidential hopefuls, making highways hazardous and closing Des Moines' airport.
The National Weather Service posted winter storm and ice warnings across parts of Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, the eastern Dakotas and northern Michigan, although some warnings were lifted by midday. Six to 16 inches of snow was forecast in parts of Minnesota.

Volcano Popocatépetl is smoking

El Popocatepetl lanzó hoy una fumarola de vapor y ceniza que alcanzó una altura de unos 3 mil metros. Las autoridades mantienen la alerta amarilla, que implica que no hay riesgo para la población
AFP

Puebla, México (1 diciembre 2007).- El volcán Popocatépetl, situado 60 kilómetros al sureste de la Ciudad de México, lanzó hoy una espectacular fumarola de vapor y ceniza que alcanzó una altura de unos 3 mil metros, informaron las autoridades. "Se trató de un evento explosivo grande, totalmente diferente a los que habíamos visto desde el año 2000 y que está relacionado con la ruptura de un domo de lava formado al interior del cráter", explicó el director del Plan Operativo Popocatépetl, Ramón Peña. A pesar de la fumarola, que comenzó a las 6:20 horas, las autoridades mantienen la alerta amarilla, que implica que no hay riesgo para la población. En la ciudad de Puebla, la más cercana al volcán, comenzó a caer ceniza un par de horas después de la exhalación y se esperaba la caída de dicho residuo en varias comunidades en los estados de Puebla y Tlaxcala. Durante los últimos 13 años, el volcán ha incrementado su actividad en el mes de diciembre. La semana pasada lanzó una fumarola de unos dos kilómetros de altura, pero en esa ocasión no expulsó ceniza. Desde 1994 miembros del Ejército Mexicano restringen el acceso al volcán, el segundo más alto de México con 5 mil 452 metros sobre el nivel del mar, en un radio de 12 kilómetros.

November quakes >5.8

2007-11-29 19:00__14.95N__61.22W__141___7.4__MARTINIQUE REGION, WINDWARD ISL.
2007-11-29 03:26__36.88S__97.62W___10___6.3__WEST CHILE RISE

2007-11-27 11:50__11.03S_162.21E___ 40___7.1__SOLOMON ISLANDS
2007-11-27 04:27__16.15N_119.97E___ 64___5.9__LUZON, PHILIPPINES

2007-11-26 13:51__37.37N_141.54E___ 30___5.8__NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN

2007-11-25 19:53___8.06S_118.62E___40___6.8__SUMBAWA REGION, INDONESIA
2007-11-25 17:41___2.27S_100.43E___ 40___5.9__KEP. MENTAWAI REGION, INDONESIA
2007-11-25 16:02___8.28S_118.41E___ 40___6.7__SUMBAWA REGION, INDONESIA
2007-11-25 02:52___2.79S_101.19E___ 74___6.1__SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA

2007-11-23 01:26___4.73S_151.87E__ 190___5.9__NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G.

2007-11-22 23:02___4.79N__95.12E___ 40___6.0__NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
2007-11-22 08:48___5.89S_147.06E__ 100___6.7__EASTERN NEW GUINEA REG., P.N.G.

2007-11-20 17:55__22.73S__70.40W___40___6.1__OFFSHORE ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE
2007-11-20 15:28__29.73S_178.03W___60___5.9__KERMADEC ISLANDS, NEW ZEALAND
2007-11-20 12:52___6.89S_155.67E___ 51___6.0__BOUGAINVILLE REGION, P.N.G.

2007-11-19 00:52__21.07S_178.73W__533___6.6__FIJI ISLANDS

2007-11-18 05:40__22.60S__66.14W__190___6.0__JUJUY PROVINCE, ARGENTINA

2007-11-16 03:12___2.25S__77.96W__129___6.7__PERU-ECUADOR BORDER REGION

2007-11-15 17:18__22.58S_175.10W___13___6.5__TONGA ISLANDS
2007-11-15 15:05__22.88S__70.12W___33___6.9__ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE
2007-11-15 15:03__22.74S__70.44W___37___6.3__OFFSHORE ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE

2007-11-14 15:40__22.17S__69.97W___40___7.8__ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE
2007-11-14 04:29___1.54N_127.04E__ 118___5.9__HALMAHERA, INDONESIA

2007-11-12 00:25__10.49N_146.04E___ 10___6.2__EAST CAROLINE ISLANDS, MICRONESIA

2007-11-10 23:42___0.43S__99.04E___ 10___5.9__SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
2007-11-10 23:19___3.27S_100.50E___ 35___6.2__SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
2007-11-10 01:13__52.12S_159.50E___ 30___6.5__MACQUARIE ISLAND REGION

2007-11-04 20:35__67.09S_111.52E____ 2___5.9__ANTARCTICA

2007-11-02 22:31__55.52S_128.73W___33___6.1__PACIFIC-ANTARCTIC RIDGE

7.3 quake in Martinique

2007-11-29 19:00:18__14.95N_61.23W__153km__ 7.3__MARTINIQUE REGION, WINDWARD ISL.

3 small quakes in English Channel

2007-11-29__11:11:01__50.12N__0.93E__2km__3.1__ENGLISH CHANNEL

2007-11-28__14:46:08__50.12N__0.92E__2km__2.9__ENGLISH CHANNEL

2007-11-28__08:09:09__50.13N__0.89E__5km__2.8__ENGLISH CHANNEL

Extreme high tidal around the globe

FREAK TIDAL SURGE CAUSES HAVOC IN INDONESIA AND ELSEWHERE

INDONESIA
Global warming is partly to blame for flooding in Jakarta that has forced thousands of evacuations and cut off a highway to the international airport, Indonesia's environment minister said Tuesday.
Authorities pumped out some of the water, which was 23 feet (7 meters) deep in the worst hit areas and washed more than a mile (1.6 kilometers) inland Monday, said Iskandar, an official at Jakarta's flood crisis center. At least 2,200 houses were inundated, some with chest-deep water.

VIETNAM
High tides on the Sai Gon River in the last two days caused 38 sections of dike to collapse, flooding many houses in Thu Duc, Binh Thanh and Cu Chi districts. High tides on the rivers of Tuy An Song Cau in the south central province of Phu Yen caused 50 houses to collapse and sank 11 fishing vessels. Local authorities in the districts were continuing to evacuate people living in high-risk areas. The two-way lanes across Ca Pass have been blocked by huge rocks that had fallen on the road.

link


Ocean swallows town in Atafona, Brasil

The Brazilian town of Atafona, is being swallowed by the ocean as rising temperatures speed up erosion.Researchers say a total of 183 buildings have been destroyed and the Marine lighthouse moved twice in the past 30 years.

link

Essex on flood alert after freak high tide

link

The Essex coast was on flood alert Sunday night after a FREAK TIDE engulfed a popular waterfront, completely swamping a number of cars. The surge happened at Brightlingsea at around noon when a spring tide led to the sea rising over the town's hard and as far up as the Waterside fish and chip restaurant.

Tides trigger tremors deep inside the Earth

A new mystery faces scientists who study stresses that trigger earthquakes both large or small: Even the rise and fall of the ocean's tides are strong enough to trigger pulses of underground tremors that periodically send seismic faults slowly slipping beneath the northwest coast, quake researchers have found.

The scientists, led by a young researcher who will soon join the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, came upon their puzzling discovery after installing highly sensitive seismic detectors on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington and across Vancouver Island in British Columbia. Readings from the detectors revealed that twice a day when it's high tide, the strength of the faint tremors increases, and twice a day at low tide, those underground tremors grow fainter.

And because it's the moon's gravity, as well as the sun's, that causes the tides to rise and fall, those heavenly bodies are, in fact, exerting their legendary influence from afar to alter seismic activity deep beneath the Earth's surface.

But no one knows how or why gravity should reach into the Earth's deep interior, conceded geophysicist Justin Rubenstein, whose work and that of his colleagues appeared in Thursday's online version of the journal Science Express.

Tremors are like tiny earthquakes, but they can never be felt on the surface. Seismologists have long known that when volcanoes are about to erupt, the Earth shudders in tremors along cracks deep beneath the volcanic mountains as the molten magma rises.

But six years ago, Berkeley seismologists performing in-depth earthquake analysis along the San Andreas Fault near quake-prone Parkfield in southern Monterey County recorded episodes of similar faint tremors far beneath the Earth's surface.

Cruise ship goes down off Antarctica

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - A Canadian cruise ship struck submerged ice off Antarctica and began sinking, but all 154 passengers and crew, Americans and Britons among them, took to lifeboats and were plucked to safety by a passing cruise ship.

The Chilean navy said the entire MS Explorer finally slipped beneath the waves Friday evening, about 20 hours after the predawn accident near Antarctica's South Shetland Islands.

No injuries were reported although passengers reportedly endured subfreezing temperatures for several hours as they waited in bobbing lifeboats for a Norwegian liner that took them to a Chilean military base in the region.

Hailstorm triggers cluster bomb blasts

A HAILSTORM has caused hundreds of cluster bombs to explode in south Lebanon, the National News Agency said.
The cluster bombs were dropped by Israel during its war with Hezbollah guerrillas last year.
The hailstones, as big as walnuts, fell in a number of valleys in south Lebanon, the agency said.
When cluster bombs burst, they spread bomblets over the ground and vegetation.
Air- or ground-launched, the bombs often fail to explode on impact.
Cluster bombs have killed 30 people since the war. Dozens more have been wounded.

Heavy rain in Lisbon - 19th November

Em casa de um amigo durante o pico da carga de água que assolou Lisboa na noite de 19 de Novembro.

Large object behind Holmes

It looks like a bow wave ... Really strange!

Cyclone toll reaches 1,100 in Bangladesh

DHAKA, Bangladesh - A cyclone that slammed into the coast with 150 mph winds killed at least 1,100 people, isolating remote towns and villages swamped by a storm surge or hemmed in by piles of debris, aid workers and a Bangladeshi news agency said Friday.

Tropical Cyclone Sidr roared across the country's southwestern coast late Thursday with driving rain and high waves, leveling thousands of flimsy huts and forcing the evacuation of 650,000 villagers, officials said.

The United News of Bangladesh news agency said reporters deployed across the devastated region made their own count in each affected district and reached a toll of 1,100.

The government, which earlier put the death toll at 242, has acknowledged its trouble keeping count — with power and phone lines down in most remote areas — and said it expected the official number to rise significantly.

World’s Largest Supercollider Could Destroy the Universe

The Cernier Company or CERN, the world’s largest physics research firm, is currently in the process of building what would be the world’s largest working supercollider. Known as “Large Hadron Collider,” or LHC, the device is 27 kilometers (16.7 miles) long and resides in a tunnel approximately 100 meters beneath the Franco-Swiss border, just outside of Geneva.

By accelerating protons toward each other at 99.999999% the speed of light the LHC can recreate conditions similar to those that resulted from the Big Bang, ultimately alighting a great deal about the particles and forces that comprise our Universe. A press release from CERN better illuminates their intent for the project.

LHC functions by accelerating two counter-rotating beams of protons toward each other at high speeds. By cooling magnets to near absolute zero (-273 degrees celcius) with an enormous cryogenics system, the LHC can move particles toward each other at speeds only one millionth of a percent away from the speed of light.

And while Physicists have the logistics of the LHC well in hand ideas about its outcome are strictly theoretical. According to one scenario tiny black holes could be produced which hopefully would decay into what is known as Hawking radiation (the tinier the black hole, the faster it evaporates). If these black holes fail to decay, however, the consequences could be disasterous. CERN software developer Ran Livneh has expressed some concerns about the project.

Despite these theoretical discrepencies the LHC project will continue as scheduled toward its launch in 2007. Mankind has never progressed itself due to fear of the unknown. Although the results of the Large Hadron Collider could potentially be disasterous, the intellectual consequences of not conducting the experiment could be equally so.

MILLIONS TO EVACUATE AS CYCLONE SLAMS INTO BANGLADESH

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) -- A powerful cyclone slammed into Bangladesh on Thursday night, tearing down flimsy houses, toppling trees and power poles, and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes in the low-lying nation.

Tropical Cyclone Sidr swept in from the Bay of Bengal packing winds of 149 mph (240 kilometers per hour), buffeting southwestern coastal areas within a 155-mile radius of its eye with heavy rain and storm surges predicted to reach 20 feet high.
Sidr's eye crossed the Khulna-Barisal coast near the Sundarbans mangrove forests around 9:30 p.m. (11:30 a.m. ET), the Bangladesh Meteorological Department said. It was centered over the Baleshwar River in Barguna district.
In the coastal districts of Bagerhat, Barisal and Bhola, residents said the storm flattened thousands of flimsy straw and mud huts, and uprooted trees and electric poles.
"We sitting out the storm by candlelight," resident Bishnu Prashad said by phone from Bagerhat.
At least 620,000 people had moved into official shelters and 3.2 million people were expected to be evacuated in all, said Ali Imam Majumder, a senior government official in Dhaka.
WATCH VIDEO

No casualties were immediately reported, but rescue teams were on standby, forest official Mozharul Islam said in Khulna.
Communications with remote forest areas and offshore islands were temporarily cut off.
"We have taken all precautions," Majumder said.

Bangladesh a low-lying delta nation, is prone to seasonal cyclones and floods that cause huge losses of life and property. The coastal area bordering eastern India is famous for the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans, a world heritage site that is home to rare Royal Bengal Tigers.
The Meteorological Department had put the country's three major maritime ports -- Chittagong, Mongla and Cox's Bazar -- on the highest level of alert.
Ferry service and flights were halted across the coastal region.
Ships were warned to return to shore. Volunteers helped evacuate villagers to cyclone shelters, built of concrete on raised pilings. Some took refuge in "mud forts" built along the coast to resist tidal surges.
Schools, mosques and other public buildings were also turned into makeshift shelters.

Many of the fishing boats in the region's coastal waters put down anchor at nearby shoals and islets that dot the South Asian country's shoreline.
The sea resort of Cox's Bazar was deserted after Wednesday's warning. Dozens of tourists were stranded in the offshore coral atoll of St. Martins as rough seas forced cruise boats and ships to stay ashore.

Study: Circulation Shift May Be Melting Arctic Sea Ice

Global warming may not be the only reason Arctic ice is rapidly melting, a new study suggests.
A University of Washington team, analyzing data from a NASA satellite and NOAA deep-sea pressure gauges, concludes that the Arctic Ocean is undergoing a circulation reversal.
The reversal appears to be tied to a decade-long atmospheric cycle known as the Arctic Oscillation, which could explain part of the past two decades' dramatic fluctuations in sea ice.
"Our study confirms many changes seen in upper Arctic Ocean circulation in the 1990s were mostly decadal in nature, rather than trends caused by global warming said study team leader James Morison, according to a NASA press release.

Morison's researchers say the data show that between 2002 and 2006, Arctic water circulation began a process of shifting from a counterclockwise to a clockwise pattern.
A clockwise pattern dominated before around 1990, when the recent counterclockwise pattern set in, the study concludes

"While some 1990s climate trends, such as declines in Arctic sea ice extent, have continued, these results suggest at least for the 'wet' part of the Arctic — the Arctic Ocean — circulation reverted to conditions like those prevalent before the 1990s," Morison said.

Arctic sea ice minimums varied greatly during the first part of 1990s, then declined gradually before stabilizing somewhat around 2000.
But this past summer saw a sharp reduction, with only about half as much ice in August and September as was recorded during the 1980s

• Click here for the full NASA press release.

7.7 strong quake in Antofagasta, Chile

This one was very strong. Look at the Live Seismic Server (link). It reminds me Dec 2004.

2007-11-14 15:40:50.3 22.20S 70.02W 50km 7.7 ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE

Comet Holmes Bigger Than The Sun

" Spectacular outbursting comet 17P/Holmes exploded in size and brightness on October 24. It continues to expand and is now the largest single object in the Solar system, being bigger than the Sun (see Figure). The diameter of the tenuous dust atmosphere of the comet was measured at 1.4 million kilometers (0.9 million miles) on 2007 November 9 by Rachel Stevenson, Jan Kleyna and Pedro Lacerda of the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy. They used observations from a wide-field camera on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), one of the few professional instruments still capable of capturing the whole comet in one image. Other astronomers involved in the UH program to study the comet include Bin Yang, Nuno Peixinho and David Jewitt. The present eruption of comet Holmes was first reported on October 24 and has continued at a steady 0.5 km/sec (1100 mph) ever since. The comet is an unprecedented half a million times brighter than before the eruption began. This amazing eruption of the comet is produced by dust ejected from a tiny solid nucleus made of ice and rock, only 3.6 km (roughly 2.2 miles) in diameter. "

link

Do we have comet-killer spacecraft out there?

Oklahoma - 16 foot TESLA tower

Oklahoma man erects a 16-foot-tall tesla coil behind his house!















link

More on Holmes

Entre o dia 30 Outubro (à direita) e o dia 11 Novembro (à esquerda) - note-se a diferença de escala...

Devem estar a gozar connosco....

Afinal o "asteróide" era a nave espacial Rosetta ????

news.bbc.co.uk

Europa - Nevão gera caos em aeroportos

O forte nevão que atingiu ontem a Europa afectou o funcionamento dos aeroportos de Munique e Praga, tendo sido declarado o estado de emergência em algumas zonas da Bósnia e Montenegro (Balcãs). Cerca de 200 voos foram cancelados em Munique, enquanto outros foram desviados para o aeroporto de Nuremberga. Nos Balcãs, a neve levou ao corte de estradas em Montenegro e ao encerramento de escolas na Bósnia. Temperaturas baixas e fortes ventos atingiram também várias zonas da Áustria, França, Itália, Espanha e Polónia.

Holmes upgrade - 10th November

Most of the big telescopes are missing in action, why ?
The biggest object in our solar system, and growing and expanding by the day, and no images.

You know why ?

People would freak-out and panic...


( Será uma pena que a nossa comunicação social não tenha dito nada sobre este corpo celeste.
Provavelmente ainda o poderá fazer depois de ele ter "desaparecido" das proximidades da Terra.
Como fizeram com o cometa McNaught....)


























image comes from this report(Oct 31st)
http://www.scitech.ac.uk/PMC/PRel/STFC/comet1.aspx


























It's still growing and expanding ...


























This is a estimate location of P-17.