Alcohol kills 2.5 million people worldwide: WHO

Harmful use of alcohol kills 2.5 million people annually and is the eighth leading factor for deaths globally, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.

Of the 2.5 million people, 320,000 people are between 15 and 29 years of age, it said.

For the first time, representatives from 193 member states of the WHO have reached a consensus at the World Health Assembly May 17-21 on a resolution to confront the harmful use of alcohol.

The resolution urges countries to support initiatives to tackle the problem.

Ten recommended target areas for policy intervention include health services' responses, community action, pricing policies and reducing public health impact of illicit alcohol. The WHO was urged to support countries to implement the strategy and monitor progress.

Alcohol kills 2.5 million people worldwide: WHO- Hindustan Times

6 comments RSS Posted by Alluri Girish at 6:33 AM

Food inflation rises to 16.49 percent In India

India's annual food inflation edged up for the second straight week, rising to 16.49 percent for the week ended on May 8, official data released today showed.

The food inflation stood at 16.44 percent the previous week, up from 16.04 percent for the week ended April 24.

Data on the wholesale price index (WPI) released by the commerce and industry ministry showed that food inflation rose though the index for this group dropped marginally during the week under review.

The primary articles index was up 16.19 percent, compared to a rise of 16.76 percent during the previous week. Fuel prices rose 12.33 percent during the week ended on May 8, against a similar increase during the last week.

Following are the rise and fall in prices of some essential food items over the 52-week period:

- Pulses: 33.65 percent

- Milk: 21.12 percent

- Fruits: 17 percent

- Rice: 7.72 percent

- Cereals: 6.37 percent

- Wheat: 4.74 percent

- Potatoes: (-)30.36 percent

- Onions : (-) 16.01 percent

The overall annual rate of inflation in April stood at 9.59 percent.

The government, farmers and consumers alike are hoping that the monsoon will be good this year after last year's erratic and rainfall.

Over 60 percent of India's cultivable land is rain-fed, and hence the monsoon plays a critical part in food grain output and economic growth.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee drove home the importance of monsoon rains when he said recently that in India monsoon is "the real finance minister".

The India Meteorological Department has forecast normal rainfall during the June-September monsoon period. The seasonal rainfall is likely to be 98 percent of the 50-year average this year. (IANS)

Food inflation rises to 16.49 percent

4 comments RSS Posted by Alluri Girish at 3:02 AM

No tsunami threat to India due to Indonesia earthquake

There is no immediate tsunami threat to the Indian mainland and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands due to the earthquake which hit Indonesia today morning, the Indian government said.

"However, there is a possibility of a mild rise in the sea water level," the government said in a statement.

The union home ministry has advised the coastal states and union territories to take appropriate precautionary measures, it added.

Indonesia issued a tsunami warning after the 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck off the Sumatran coast of Aceh province.

DPA reports, quoting the Indonesian Meteorology, Geophysics and Climatology Agency, said the quake was recorded at 0559 GMT, with the epicentre 66 km southwest of Maulaboh in West Aceh district.

There were no reports of damage or casualties. (IANS)

No tsunami threat to India due to Indonesia earthquake

2 comments RSS Posted by Alluri Girish at 2:59 AM

Cyclone builds in south India, oilfield closes

A cyclone intensified over the Bay of Bengal on Wednesday, forcing a southern Indian oilfield to shut and cut its gas output, and the evacuation of some 50,000 people in the region, officials said.

Officials also voiced concerns the cyclone, with wind gusts of up to 155 kph (100 mph), could slow the progress of the monsoon rains, vital for India's trillion-dollar economy.

Tropical Cyclone Laila was set to hammer the coast of the southern state Andhra Pradesh on Thursday, prompting Reliance Industries to stop oil production and reduce gas output from the region by 10 per cent, company sources said.

"We are monitoring the situation and if we find that the cyclone will directly hit our facilities, then our FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading facility) may have to be taken to a safer location," said a company source, which declined to be named, as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

The cyclone is forecast to move towards Orissa after striking Andhra Pradesh, but it is likely to weaken by the time it reaches the Paradip port, a hub for iron ore exports.

G.K. Biswal, deputy conservator of Paradip port, said port authorities were on alert although they did not expect any disruption.

Concerns for monsoon

Last year some forecasters blamed a cyclone in May for the failure of monsoon rains, but scientists are divided about the impact of tropical storms on the monsoon.

India has been hit by street protests due steep food prices, partly the result of last year's poor monsoon rains.

"We have to observe the post-Laila scenario," said Ajit Tyagi, the director general of India's Meteorology Department.

Tyagi said the weather office was standing by its forecast last month, which said the June-September monsoon rains would be 98 per cent of average.

Monsoon rains reached India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands and several parts of the Bay of Bengal on Monday, three days ahead of schedule.

"Conditions are favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon," the weather office said in its latest five-day forecast.

Local officials said heavy rainfall would help the rice crop that will be sown next month as rains would boost soil moisture and facilitate ploughing.

"Due to pre-monsoon rains, summer planning has started. If the state receives rain, the ploughing will further pick up," said Babaji Giri, director of the agriculture department in the eastern state of Orissa.

Officials in Bangladesh said they had also alerted ports and fishing vessels.

Heavy rains and lightning have already killed 10 people in Andhra Pradesh.A cyclone intensified over the Bay of Bengal on Wednesday, forcing a southern Indian oilfield to shut and cut its gas output, and the evacuation of some 50,000 people in the region, officials said.

Officials also voiced concerns the cyclone, with wind gusts of up to 155 kph (100 mph), could slow the progress of the monsoon rains, vital for India's trillion-dollar economy.

Tropical Cyclone Laila was set to hammer the coast of the southern state Andhra Pradesh on Thursday, prompting Reliance Industries to stop oil production and reduce gas output from the region by 10 per cent, company sources said.

"We are monitoring the situation and if we find that the cyclone will directly hit our facilities, then our FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading facility) may have to be taken to a safer location," said a company source, which declined to be named, as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

The cyclone is forecast to move towards Orissa after striking Andhra Pradesh, but it is likely to weaken by the time it reaches the Paradip port, a hub for iron ore exports.

G.K. Biswal, deputy conservator of Paradip port, said port authorities were on alert although they did not expect any disruption.

Concerns for monsoon

Last year some forecasters blamed a cyclone in May for the failure of monsoon rains, but scientists are divided about the impact of tropical storms on the monsoon.

India has been hit by street protests due steep food prices, partly the result of last year's poor monsoon rains.

"We have to observe the post-Laila scenario," said Ajit Tyagi, the director general of India's Meteorology Department.

Tyagi said the weather office was standing by its forecast last month, which said the June-September monsoon rains would be 98 per cent of average.

Monsoon rains reached India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands and several parts of the Bay of Bengal on Monday, three days ahead of schedule.

"Conditions are favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon," the weather office said in its latest five-day forecast.

Local officials said heavy rainfall would help the rice crop that will be sown next month as rains would boost soil moisture and facilitate ploughing.

"Due to pre-monsoon rains, summer planning has started. If the state receives rain, the ploughing will further pick up," said Babaji Giri, director of the agriculture department in the eastern state of Orissa.

Officials in Bangladesh said they had also alerted ports and fishing vessels.

Heavy rains and lightning have already killed 10 people in Andhra Pradesh.

Cyclone builds in south India, oilfield closes- Hindustan Times

1 comments RSS Posted by Alluri Girish at 8:43 PM

Even plants cannot help cool earth if CO2 is in excess: Study

Contrary to the belief that plants could help cool earth, scientists have found that they will directly warm the land surface when there is excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

A recent global scale model study points to an emerging consensus that the physiological effects of increasing atmospheric CO2 on plants on land will contribute to global warming beyond what is caused by the ‘radiative’ effects of CO2, Prof. Govindasamy Bala of Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, one of the authors of the study, said.

Carbon dioxide warms the earth because it is a greenhouse gas. However, elevated CO2 in the atmosphere causes plants to transpire less and provide less ‘evaporative cooling’, he said.

“For scientists trying to predict global climate change in the coming century, the study underscores the importance of including plant biology in their climate models,” Bala, who conducted the study jointly with Long Cao and Ken Caldeira of Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford University, said.

Explaining plant physiology, Bala said, “The CO2—physiological effect arises from a change in plant transpiration rate under elevated atmospheric CO2“.

“On a hot day, we sweat more, release more water through pores in our skin and cool ourselves. Similarly, while doing photosynthesis (food production process in plants using photons from sun), plants cool the environment by releasing water through the pores called stomata on the surface of leaves,” Bala said.

“But stomata opens less widely and the canopy sweats less when CO2 is increased which causes a decline in plant transpiration and thus warming of the land surface,” he said.

“Plants do photosynthesise and remove CO2 from the atmosphere and thus could help in cooling down the warming planet,” Prof. Bala said.

Plants have a very complex and diverse influence on the climate system, Prof Ken Caldeira from Stanford said, adding .

“plants take CO2 out of the atmosphere, but they also have other effects, such as changing the amount of evaporation from land surface. It’s impossible to make good climate predictions without taking all of these factors into account.”

An increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration influences climate both directly through its radiative effect (trapping long wave radiation) and indirectly through its physiological effect (reducing transpiration of land plants), he said.

“We compared the climate response to radiative and physiological effects of increased CO2 using the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) coupled Community Land and Community Atmosphere Model,” he said.

The paper was published in the May 3—7 online edition of Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences.

“The scale is important when we deal with global climate change. For average land, plants transpire about 25 cm of water each year. With doubling of CO2, this amount goes down to 20 cm. This change of 5 cm is about the same magnitude as decrease of evaporation from deforestation or annual global water extraction by humans for irrigation and other consumptive use,” the scientists said.

The greenhouse warming effect of CO2 has been known for a long time but Prof Bala and his colleagues were concerned that it is not as widely recognised that CO2 also warms planet by its physiological effects on plants.

“There is no longer any doubt that CO2 decreases evaporative cooling by plants and that decreased cooling adds to global warming. This effect would cause significant warming even if CO2 were not a greenhouse gas,” lead author Cao said.

In their climate modelling study, scientists doubled the concentration of atmospheric CO2 and recorded the magnitude and geographic pattern of warming from the greenhouse and physiological effects. They found that over the entire global land surface, the effects from physiological change account for 15 per cent of warming.

The scientists also found larger runoff from the land surface in most areas for elevated CO2, as more water from precipitation bypasses the plant cooling system and flows directly to rivers and streams.

“We find that the impact of physiological effect is stronger than greenhouse effect on land surface hydrology,” Prof. Bala added.

http://beta.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/article432057.ece?homepage=true

3 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 4:03 AM

Maheshwar hydro-power project lands up in environmental clearance mess again

This project—first proposed in 1983— continues to be marred by rehabilitation issues, with the MOEF issuing work-suspension orders and eminent activists demanding compliance with the missive

The controversies surrounding the much-delayed Maheshwar hydro-electric power project refuse to die out. In a recent development, the ministry of environment and forests (MOEF) has sent a construction work suspension order to Shree Maheshwar Hydel Power Corporation Ltd. While meetings are being held to reconsider the MOEF order with the prime minister, eminent personalities have written to the prime minister seeking compliance to this missive.

In a letter dated 23 April 2010, the MOEF stated that the reply submitted by Shree Maheshwar Hydel Power Corporation Ltd has been reviewed and found non-satisfactory. The reasons stated were involving negligible work on resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R). Thus, the ministry demanded immediate suspension of the ongoing construction work for the project.

Later, on 10 May 2010, the MOEF wrote to the company that the directions in the earlier letter are being amended to the extent that only seven gates, which are yet to be made functional and under installation may be completed before the onset of the monsoon.

According to Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) activists, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, chief minister, Madhya Pradesh, has asked prime minister Manmohan Singh to cancel the MOEF order on grounds of it being “false and baseless.” The PMO had called a meeting in this regard on 7 May 2010 and they will be meeting again today.

In a release, the NBA stated that Rajendra Sachar, retired Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court; Kuldip Nayyar, a veteran journalist and ex-Member of Parliament; Surendra Mohan, veteran socialist leader and ex-Member of Parliament and Swami Agnivesh, President, World Council of Arya Samaj have written a joint letter to the prime minister asking him to affirm the order of the MOEF suspending the construction of Maheshwar dam, and not to let the private project promoters trample on fundamental and statutory rights of the oustees.

This hydro-electric power project was first proposed in 1983. However, it was rejected by the concerned authority in 1986. The reason for rejection was stated as non-submission of environment management plans. Later in 1994 the project was awarded environmental clearance subject to certain conditions, based on the environment management plan (EMP) submitted by the Narmada Valley Development Authority (NVDA). In 2001, the NVDA decided to hand over the project to a private player S Kumars and the environment clearance was transferred to the company.

During the same period, the MOEF constituted a monitoring committee to study the resettlement and rehabilitation compliance of this project. The committee after inspection suggested that the project authority should prepare a comprehensive R&R action plan with an implementation schedule and submit it before the financial closure is achieved after which construction work could be started. However, in 2006, the project authority started the construction work without submitting the comprehensive R&R action plan with time schedule. Thus, the MOEF ordered immediate suspension of construction work, on which the project authority managed to get a stay order from the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

Thereafter, the project was in constant tussle with the environment ministry and environment groups. The recent dispute was triggered by a visit from the monitoring committee’s visit to the site. The committee expressed dissatisfaction on the rehabilitation issue.
Maheshwar hydro-power project lands up in environmental clearance mess again - Moneylife: Personal Finance Magazine

0 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 4:00 AM

Take environmental safeguards before implementing projects: Governor

Proper environmental safeguards must be taken before any new project is started in the mountains and river valleys of Sikkim, Governor B P Singh said in Gangtok Sunday.
"This was particularly relevant in the case of roads and hydel projects as the mountains of Sikkim are geologically fragile and that the state government and locals alike should be extra vigilant in such cases because developments must go on but their negative impacts must be minimized to the extent possible," Singh said.
Sikkim’s resource is all nature based and sensitive to environmental changes and this reality the state government should be compelled to work and progress within this limitation, Singh stated.
On tourism he said "since our tourism resources are all nature based and exposed to environmental and ecological impacts, we should try maintain a balance between quality and quantity tourism after assessing our carrying capacity."
He further said that our ultimate goal should be to encourage local private initiatives to manage tourism affairs and the government’s role should be limited to being a facilitator and a regulator.
Take environmental safeguards before implementing projects: Governor- Hindustan Times

0 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 3:59 AM

SMS alert for kitchen gas leaks

In a bid to prevent rising kitchen fires, a group of young innovators, technologists and engineers has developed a cooking gas alarm and SMS system to prevent accidents due to leak either from stove or rubber pipe.
Even when no one is at home, the resident gets an SMS on his or her mobile phone about the impending danger in case of a gas leak with the help of the innovative gadget put together by a Bhubaneswar-based company 'RoboticWares'.
''We are working to make common man's life more simple and secure. We are targeting military, medical, consumer and industrial sector as a potential market of robots," says CEO of RoboticWares, Kushal Nahata.
Claiming that some 7,000 people suffer burns every year due to cooking gas leak, he said fire can be prevented with the help of remote gadgets which can help switch off the cylynder after getting an alert.
Another significant addition to the company's kitty of innovative products is Remote Video Surveillance known as 'Far Eye' which provides a complete software solution for office or home security, he said.
"Far eye monitors home or office round the clock, captures motion event using webcam and saves into compressed video clips. It enables one to remote video surveillance from anywhere in the world," said the chief technology officer of RoboticWares, Gaurav Srivastav.
SMS alert for kitchen gas leaks- Hindustan Times

0 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 3:49 AM

News Around World: Green on top

Green on top, or face $100,000 fine, city propose

Toronto is poised to become the first city in North America to make green roofs mandatory on most new buildings and set standards for their construction.

A city committee yesterday considered a proposed bylaw that would require roofs on new buildings with an area of 5,000 square metres or greater to be 30% to 60% covered by vegetation. The bigger the building, the more planted space it would have to have--otherwise fines of up to $100,000 could be levied.

As drafted, the bylaw would cover mid-to high-rise condos, retail space and office towers, but exempt low-rise, large-scale industrial, nonprofit housing and public buildings such as schools.

But even as Toronto's powerful development industry was urging the city to slow down and keep green roofs strictly voluntary, local politicians were complaining the draft bylaw was too cautious for a metropolis vying to be the most environmentally minded on the continent.

Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone, who helped bring the city's first power-generating windmill to the Exhibition grounds, said he was "disappointed" the first draft of the bylaw was so "tepid."

Mr. Pantalone asked city staff to come back in a month with a proposal that would include schools, low-rise buildings on "Main Street" and even private residences.

"Either we are the leading city in the world or we're the ones who looked in the mirror and got scared," he said.

BILD -- the Toronto and GTA Building Industry and Land Development Association -- was quick to urge city politicians to reconsider.

The association sent a letter to the city's chief planner expressing reservations and proposing a pilot project first instead of a full-scale bylaw.

"We have significant concerns with the city's proposal to require and govern the construction of green roofs. We continue to advocate that green roofs be implemented on a voluntary basis," it stated.

"If the home-building and development industry are provided with various incentives, this approach would assist the city with its objectives, while not forcing green roofs on those who may choose to use other forms of sustainable development for their projects."

Since his election in 2003, Toronto's hybrid-driving Mayor David Miller has put the environment front-and-centre on the municipal agenda, setting up a LiveGreen office to promote eco-friendly living, offering rebates for low-flush toilets, banning bottled water sales at city hall, taking on the coffee industry over the disposable cup and studying climate change within civic boundaries.

A new city report touts the environmental benefits of rooftops covered largely in plants and organic material as opposed to asphalt or metal.

These include "reducing the urban heat island effect and energy consumption, improving air quality and storm water management and creating opportunities for biodiversity and habitat creation and beautification of the city."

Steve Daniels, who sat on a green roof technical advisory committee representing BILD, said developers are interested in working with the city to create more green roofs. But he said they can add "hundreds of thousands of dollars ... if not more" to the cost of a project.

"The range can be anywhere on the lower end from $18 a square foot to around $28 a square foot. It's somewhere in that range that we're looking at for an added cost," Mr. Daniels said.

"It's always a concern. Compounded with development charges, compounded with application fees that go up, it's a cumulative effect. So this is just another added cost that has to be factored in at the end of the day."

On top of that, he said there is trepidation about how the new bylaw, which derives its authority from the City of Toronto Act, would mesh with the Ontario Building Code and other city zoning requirements, such as those that call for outdoor amenities for high-rise condos. Those amenities often end up on the rooftop.

Stephen Upton, vice-president development planning at building giant Tridel, pointed out that once installed, the rooftop shrubbery has to be left untouched for two years to allow it to take root.

More information is also required about the longevity of green roofs and how much should be budgeted in a condo corporation's building fund for future replacement.

"I think there's still quite a bit left to be understood, digested and refined," Mr. Upton said. "Toronto green standards, those are things that shouldn't be mandated but should be encouraged."

But while the developers were balking at the bylaw, environmental groups were urging Toronto to move further and faster.

Steven Peck, president of the 10-year-old Torontobased group Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, said the city's efforts could create jobs and be on the "leading edge" of the technology.

"We're very concerned that there's been a watering down of the requirements and we're concerned it will set a negative precedent for cities elsewhere in North America," Mr. Peck said, adding Toronto is "perched on the edge of really starting to get serious about implementing green roofs."

The issue will return to the planning and growth committee for further debate on May 6.

News Around World: Green on top

0 comments RSS Posted by Alluri Girish at 11:07 PM

Protected forest areas may be critical strategy for slowing climate change

"Deforestation leads to about 15 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, more than all the cars, trucks, trains, ships, and planes on earth. If we fail to reduce it, we'll fail to stabilize our climate," said Taylor Ricketts, director of World Wildlife Fund's science program and lead author of the study. "Our paper emphasizes that creating and strengthening indigenous lands and other protected areas can offer an effective means to cut emissions while garnering numerous additional benefits for local people and wildlife."
The authors highlight analyses showing that since 2002, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has been 7 to 11 times lower inside of indigenous lands and other protected areas than elsewhere. Simulation models suggest that protected areas established between 2003 and 2007 could prevent an estimated area of 100,000 square miles of deforestation through 2050. That is roughly the size of the state of Colorado, representing enough carbon to equal 1/3 of the world's annual CO2 emissions. Within these efforts, location matters; protected areas in regions that face deforestation pressures would be most effective at truly reducing emissions.
"This study reinforces the wisdom behind global investments in protected areas," says Gustavo A.B. da Fonseca, co-author of the study and Team Leader Natural Resources of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). "In addition to protecting globally important species and ecosystems, the 2,302 protected areas supported by the GEF alone span over 634 million hectares and together store an impressive 30 billion tons of CO2"
International policies for compensating forest nations for REDD are under active negotiation. To access the resulting funds, developing countries will need to develop programs and institutions to reduce forest emissions. "Protected areas represent a valuable component of national REDD programs since they already contain the necessary institutions and infrastructure to handle funds, strengthen protection and generate results," said Claudio Maretti, Conservation Director, WWF Brazil. "Establishing protected areas usually clarifies land tenure and the associated carbon rights, which has been a sticking point in some negotiations."
In addition, the study estimates that the cost of creating and better managing protected areas is lower than many other options to reduce emissions from deforestation. Completing and managing a network of protected areas in the developing world might require $4 billion USD annually, which is roughly 1/10 of the capital that could be mobilized by international REDD policies.
According to the study, forest nations can strengthen the role of protected areas in their REDD strategies by:
Identifying where Indigenous Lands and Protected Areas would most effectively reduce deforestation rates and associated emissions;
Establishing national monitoring to measure deforestation rates and quantify carbon emissions reductions;
Establishing insurance mechanisms for illegal logging or forest fires;
Providing indigenous groups and local communities the information and capacities they need to participate;
Distributing payments transparently to reward those responsible for reducing emissions.
Protected forest areas may be critical strategy for slowing climate change

0 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 10:05 PM

Earthquake in Chile: A complicated fracture

After closer analysis of the seismic waves radiated by this earthquake during the first 134 seconds after start of the rupture, the researchers came to the conclusion that only the region around the actual epicentre was active during the first minutes. In the second minute the active zone moved north towards Santiago. After that the region south of Concepción became active for a short time. This rupturing trend agrees well with the distribution of the aftershocks during the following three days, as observed by the GEOFON-measuring network of the GFZ up to 03.03.2010.
In the year 1960, the strongest earthquake measured at all to date, with a magnitude of M=9.5, had its origin at Valdivia, south of the region affected now. "The quake of 27 February connects directly to the rupture process of Valdivia," explains Professor Jochen Zschau, Director of the Earthquake Risk and Early Warning Section at the GFZ. "With this, one of the last two seismic gaps along the west coast of South America might now be closed. With the exception of one last section, found in North Chile, the entire earth crust before the west coast of South America has been ruptured within the last 150 years."
The underlying plate tectonic procedure is such that the Nazca-Plate as part of the Pacific Ocean Floor moves eastwards with approximately seventy millimetres per year, collides with South America and thereby pushes under the continent. The hereby developing earthquakes belong to the strongest world-wide. In the course of about one century, the Earth's ruptures completely in a number of strong quakes from Patagonia in the South to Panama in the North. Even Darwin reported, in his diary, of the strong earthquake in Concepción on 20 February 1835 and the resulting Tsunami.
In order to examine the aftershock activity in the now fractured seismic gap, scientists from the GFZ are travelling to Chile on March 13, 2010 where, together with the Chilean Seismological Service, they will set-up a seismological-geodetic network in the area of Concepción-Santiago. Partners from Germany (IFM Geomar, Kiel; Free University of Berlin) and from abroad (Institut de Physique du Globe, Paris; University of Liverpool; United States Geological Survey; IRIS) are also taking part in this measuring campaign. The mission will last about three months. The results, one expects, will be able to provide an insight into the mechanisms of the fracture in the Earth’s crust. This activity is financed on the German side by the GFZ.
Scientists from the GFZ have been examining the collision of the Nazca plate and the South American continent since 1994. As a result of numerous expeditions and measuring campaigns in this area this Potsdam Helmholtz Centre avails of the probably the most dense data record on such a subduction zone. “Within the framework of the DFG Priority Programme “Deformation processes in the Andes”, and with the Geotechnology Project TIPTEQ we have just been able to collect a unique data record for the southern part of the Andes” says Professor Onno Oncken, Director of the Department Geodynamics and Geomaterials at the GFZ, and leader of these studies. "The current quake puts us in the position to precisely compare the tectonics before and afterwards, a unique situation both internationally and in Earth science."
Earthquake in Chile: A complicated fracture

0 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 10:01 PM

Large Earthquake Hits Chile, Generates Tsunami Across Pacific

Tsunami warnings were issued for Hawaii, as well as Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Japan, and other countries along the Pacific coastline, as the giant waves triggered by the earthquake reverberated through the entire ocean.
This earthquake occurred at the boundary between the Nazca and South American tectonic plates. The two plates are converging at a rate of 80 mm per year. The earthquake occurred as thrust-faulting on the interface between the two plates, with the Nazca plate moving down and landward below the South American plate.
Coastal Chile has a history of very large earthquakes. Since 1973, there have been 13 events of magnitude 7.0 or greater. The February 27 shock originated about 230 km north of the source region of the magnitude 9.5 earthquake of May, 1960 -- the largest earthquake worldwide in the last 200 years or more. This giant earthquake spawned a tsunami that engulfed the Pacific Ocean. An estimated 1600 lives were lost to the 1960 earthquake and tsunami in Chile, and the 1960 tsunami took another 200 lives among Japan, Hawaii, and the Philippines.
Approximately 870 km to the north of the February 27 earthquake is the source region of the magnitude 8.5 earthquake of November, 1922. This great quake significantly impacted central Chile, killing several hundred people and causing severe property damage. The 1922 quake generated a 9-meter local tsunami that inundated the Chile coast near the town of Coquimbo; the tsunami also crossed the Pacific, washing away boats in Hilo harbor, Hawaii.
The magnitude 8.8 earthquake of February 27, 2010 ruptured the portion of the South American subduction zone separating these two massive historical earthquakes.
A large vigorous aftershock sequence can be expected from this earthquake.
Large Earthquake Hits Chile, Generates Tsunami Across Pacific

0 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 9:55 PM

Permafrost thaw may accelerate Arctic groundwater runoff

They ran the simulation under three scenarios, starting with three initial surface temperatures (-2, -1.5, and -1 degrees Celsius, or 28.4, 29.3 and 30.2 degrees Fahrenheit), corresponding to different permafrost thicknesses. In each case, they increased the average seasonal surface temperature by 3 degrees C (5.4 degrees F) over 100 years, an average of model predictions for temperature increase in the Arctic over the next century.
After the warming period, in each scenario the temperature was then held constant for the next 1100 years.
The authors found that although the initial distribution of ice influences the response, in all cases groundwater flow to streams and rivers accelerates over time. In fact, the results indicate that substantial increases in groundwater flow are likely over the next few centuries even if surface air temperatures stabilize at current levels.
The research is published in Geophysical Research Letters. Authors include V. F. Bense: School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK; G. Ferguson: Department of Earth Sciences, Saint Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada; H. Kooi: Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, VU University, Amsterdam, Permafrost thaw may accelerate Arctic groundwater runoff

0 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 2:02 AM

Global Warming: Is making carbon 'SAFE' the answer?

The concept, called SAFE (Sequestered Adequate Fraction of Extracted) carbon, is put forward by scientists from Oxford University and the University of Wyoming in a Commentary article published online today in a special issue of Nature Geoscience focusing on carbon sequestration.
The researchers suggest that fossil fuel producers could be mandated to sequester a steadily increasing fraction of the carbon they extract from the ground, with the fraction set to reach 100 per cent before total emissions into the atmosphere exceed an agreed total, with the costs passed on to fossil fuel consumers.
Their work explores the policy implications of research published earlier this year which showed that it is the total amount of carbon released into the atmosphere over all time that principally determines the risk of dangerous climate change, not the rate of emission in any given year.
'The neat thing about SAFE carbon is that is breaks the apparent conflict between short-term economic development and long-term climate protection,' said Dr Myles Allen of Oxford University's Department of Physics, an author of the paper with Dr David Frame, of Oxford University's Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, and Chuck Mason, of the Department of Economics and Finance at the University of Wyoming.
Dr Allen added: 'We would no longer be asking a country like India to accept limits on their consumption. Instead, we would be saying that as long as you use SAFE carbon, you can go ahead and consume as much as you like. Of course, unlike a comprehensive emission permit or carbon tax regime, mandatory sequestration would not generate massive new government revenues or provide a mechanism for modifying consumer behaviour, but depending on your political perspective, that might be considered a good thing. We didn't save the Ozone Layer by rationing deodorant.'Global Warming: Is making carbon 'SAFE' the answer?

0 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 2:02 AM

Northern South America rainier during Little Ice Age

The authors analyzed two new records of oxygen isotopes (which track precipitation levels) from cave formations in northeastern Peru. They attribute the higher rainfall in northern South America during the LIA to cooler spring sea surface temperatures in the tropical North Atlantic.
Furthermore, the authors note that some studies have shown that during the twentieth century, a significant amount of rainfall variability in northern South America was related to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), with higher rainfall occurring during La Niña conditions.
However, the authors determine that the ENSO was probably not as significant an influence on rainfall during that time period as it is now.
The authors suggest that the results point to a need to reevaluate some ideas about hydroclimate change over South America during the past millennia.
The research is published in Geophysical Research Letters. Authors: Justin Reuter, Lowell Stott, and Deborah Khider: Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA; Ashish Sinha: Department of Earth Sciences, California State University, Carson, California, USA; and Hai Cheng and R. Lawrence Edwards: Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
Northern South America rainier during Little Ice Age

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Indian Ocean climate event recurs quicker with global warming

To learn more about IOD patterns, Nakamura et al. studied a 115-year coral record from Kenya. They analyzed coral oxygen isotope ratios, which trace rainfall anomalies, to reconstruct IOD variability. The results add to evidence that the IOD has been occurring more frequently in recent decades. The researchers find that before 1924, the IOD occurred approximately every 10 years, but since 1960, IOD events have been occurring approximately 18 months to 3 years apart.
The authors suggest that global warming effects on the western Indian Ocean have driven the observed shift in IOD variability and note that the IOD has replaced the El Niño-Southern Oscillation as the major driver of climate patterns over the Indian Ocean region.
The research is published in Geophysical Research Letters. Authors include Nobuko Nakamura, Hajime Kayanne, Hiroko Iijima, and Toshio Yamagata: Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan; Timothy R. McClanahan: Marine Programs, Wildlife Conservation Society, New York, New York, USA; and Swadhin K. Behera: Frontier Research Center for Global Change, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokohama, Japan.

Indian Ocean climate event recurs quicker with global warming

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