A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience
Waldo Canyon fire
Rick Wilking: Covering natural disasters is a strange thing. You get there all in a huff, as fast as you can after the tragedy, and then try to seek out the major damage. You document all that, often busting hump for very long days, for a week or more depending on how bad it is. (Photos)
Continue reading… “Waldo Canyon fire revisited”
Could social media save you from a natural disaster?
Facebook and Twitter are helping to improve and speed up responses to natural disasters and health emergencies by involving members of the public, it has been claimed.
Social media allowed an ”unprecedented” two-way exchange of information between the public and those given the task of preparing for and responding to major events such as earthquakes, floods and infection pandemics, said researchers…
The volcano consists of inter–connected conduits, sills, and dikes that allow magma to rise from deep within the Earth.
Months of volcanic restlessness preceded the eruptions this spring of Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull, providing insight into what roused it from centuries of slumber.
Continue reading… “Reawakening of Icelandic Volcano!!!”
Powerful volcanoes potential to shift rain patterns
Scientists have long known that large volcanic explosions can affect the weather by spewing particles that block solar energy and cool the air. Some suspect that extended “volcanic winters” from gigantic blowups helped kill off dinosaurs and Neanderthals. In the summer following Indonesia’s 1815 Tambora eruption, frost wrecked crops as far off as New England, and the 1991 blowout of the Philippines’ Mount Pinatubo lowered average global temperatures by 0.7 degrees F — enough to mask the effects of manmade greenhouse gases for a year or so.
Continue reading… “Volcanoes Have Shifted Asian Rainfall”
A new approach to desalination being developed by researchers at MIT and in Korea could lead to small, portable desalination units that could be powered by solar cells or batteries and could deliver enough fresh water to supply the needs of a family or small village. As an added bonus, the system would also remove many contaminants, viruses and bacteria at the same time.
The Feb. 27 magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile may have shortened the length of each Earth day.
Continue reading… “Chilean Quake May Have Shortened Earth Days”
When Earth was young, it exhaled the atmosphere. During a period of intense volcanic activity, lava carried light elements from the planet’s molten interior and released them into the sky. However, some light elements got trapped inside the planet. In the journal Nature, a Rice University-based team of scientists is offering a new answer to a longstanding mystery: What caused Earth to hold its last breath?
Continue reading… “Upside-Down Answer for Deep Mystery: What Caused Earth to Hold Its Last Breath?”
The United Nations’ climate science panel is facing further embarrassment after claims it incorrectly linked global warming to a rise in natural disasters. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change claimed in 2007 that the world had “suffered rapidly rising costs due to extreme weather related events since the 1970s”, suggesting that part of the increase was down to global warming.
\The ocean is a potentially vast source of electric power, yet as engineers test new technologies for capturing it, the devices are plagued by battering storms, limited efficiency, and the need to be tethered to the seafloor.
Continue reading… “Engineers Use Aerospace Approach to Design Wave Energy System”
In 2005, a gigantic, 35-mile-long rift broke open the desert ground in Ethiopia. At the time, some geologists believed the rift was the beginning of a new ocean as two parts of the African continent pulled apart, but the claim was controversial.
Continue reading… “African Desert Rift Confirmed As New Ocean In The Making”
“There is a likely chance of tsunami waves reaching the shores of Israel,” says Dr. Beverly Goodman of the Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences at the University of Haifa following an encompassing geo-archaeological study at the port of Caesarea. “Tsunami events in the Mediterranean do occur less frequently than in the Pacific Ocean, but our findings reveal a moderate rate of recurrence,” she says.
Research at the University of Liverpool has shown it is possible to develop an ‘invisibility cloak’ to protect buildings from earthquakes.
Continue reading… “‘Invisibility Cloak’ Could Protect Against Earthquakes”
