Earth & Space Weather

India says nearly 6,000 missing a month after devastating floods

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Reuters.com - July 15, 2013

Posters of missing people, caused by the flash floods and landslides, are placed on a gate as an Indian Air Force helicopter lands at a base in Dehradun, in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand June 26, 2013. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui

(Reuters) - India officially declared on Monday that nearly 6,000 people were missing a month after flash floods ravaged large parts of its northern state of Uttarakhand, but stopped short of saying they were presumed dead.

The figure of 5,748, based on tallies of missing persons from around the country, was the first official estimate following weeks in which the numbers of dead and missing fluctuated wildly from a few hundred to several thousand.

Their families will now be eligible for financial relief, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna told a news conference, adding that his government would pay 150,000 rupees ($2,500) to families in the state, besides compensation from the federal government.

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Space Weather Update~ CME PASSAGE

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CME PASSAGE: Magnetic fields in the solar wind intensified on July 13th, indicating the possible passage of a minor CME past Earth. The encounter did not immediately trigger geomagnetic storms. NOAA forecasters remain optimistic, however, placing the odds of a polar geomagnetic storm on July 14th at 65%. Aurora alerts: text, voice.

WEAK IMPACT, BRIGHT LIGHTS: A weak CME impact on July 9th gave sky watchers more than they bargained for. Although the blow was feeble, both ends of the Earth lit up with auroras that persisted for nearly two days. Minoru Yoneto photographed the display from Queenstown, New Zealand:

"I did not expect to see big, bright Southern Lights from such a weak CME impact," says Yoneto. "Yet they were definitely present on July 10th." Sky watchers in Canada and northern-tier US states from Michigan to Washington saw similar displays right up until sunrise on July 11th.

Finding the Hidden Volcanoes of Colombia

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WIRED.COM BY ERIK KLEMETTI, July 10,2013

Culture Volcans, a volcano blog (in French), alerted me to something interesting in Colombia. The Colombian geological survey, INGEOMINAS, is installing its first seismometer at the little-known volcanic area known as Laguna San Diego (or Volcan San Diego) in the province of Caldas. San Diego is one of the northernmost outposts of potential volcanism in Colombia and very little is known about the volcano — and you’d likely miss it if you weren’t looking. The Landsat 7 image of the area taken 2002 shows the lake that lies within a small crater whose rim has clearly been weathered and vegetated. The lake itself is small, only about a kilometer across and about 1.3 kilometers long while the crater in which the lake is nested is only ~2.5 by 3 kilometers. Perched on the edge is a small stratovolcano (or possibly a cinder cone) of unknown age known as Morro de San Diego. All in all, a fairly small geographic feature nestled in the mountains 90 kilometers southeast of Medellin. As I said, not much is known about Volcán San Diego

Read More: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/07/finding-the-hidden-volcanoes-of-colombia/

Ancient undersea volcanoes off Antarctica hold climate secret

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latimes, Geoffery Mohan-July 13,2013

Ancient undersea volcanoes off Antarctica hold climate secret

Geologists from the University of Texas, Austin, have discovered a sunken chain of volcanic islands that may have blocked an ocean current around Antarctica tens of millions of years ago. The discovery could help explain anomalies in ancient climate data, which could improve models used to predict Earth's future climate as carbon dioxide builds in the atmosphere. (NASA Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer)

 

Ancient volcanoes discovered deep in the ocean off Antarctica may explain a climate mystery critical to predicting Earth’s fate as humans pump more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

University of Texas geologists dredging thousands of feet below the surface of the central Scotia Sea off the southeastern tip of South America hauled up volcanic rock after their sonar mapping showed formations that looked uncannily like a sunken island chain.

Typhoon Soulik made landfall in northern Taiwan, now moves toward mainland China

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TheWatchers- by Chillymanjaro - July 13, 2013

Typhoon Soulik made its first landfall in northern Taiwan with wind gusts reported to 113 knots (210 km/h). Heavy rainfall and strong winds continue to affect central and northern Taiwan. There was one reported death related with Typhoon Soulik's landfall in Taiwan.

As the system continues to track west towards Fuzhou, China heavy rainfall will continue to batter much of central and northern Taiwan, causing flash flooding and mudslides.Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau reports maximum accumulated rainfall amount of 743 mm at Wufeng Township, Hsinchu County. The bureau estimated that the aggregate rainfall in the mountainous areas in Hsinchu, Miaoli, Nantou and Chiayi counties could top 1,000 mm.

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