The Shinmoe-Dake Volcano in Japan erupted just two days after the earthquake. Check out the links below:
http://nation.foxnews.com/culture/2011/03/14/japans-shinmoe-dake-volcano-erupts
The Shinmoe-Dake Volcano in Japan erupted just two days after the earthquake. Check out the links below:
http://nation.foxnews.com/culture/2011/03/14/japans-shinmoe-dake-volcano-erupts
by NANCY ATKINSON on MARCH 11, 2011
Check out the full article at
http://www.universetoday.com/83996/just-to-be-clear-the-moon-did-not-cause-the-earthquake-in-jap
Anyhow here is how it starts:
We’re getting a lot of visitors to our site today, many searching for information about earthquakes, tsunamis, and the ‘SuperMoon’ phenomenon. Just to be clear, the Moon did not cause the earthquake in Japan. Several scientists have posted articles online today clarifying the topic, and all of them, in no uncertain terms, agree that the the upcoming perigee of the Moon — where it is closer than usual in its orbit to Earth — had nothing to do with the earthquake and ensuing tsunami. Tammy discussed this yesterday, but as we often do, we’ll also point you in the direction of an article by astronomer Phil Plait about this topic, and another by Ben Goldacre, who completely debunks an article that appeared in the Daily Mail about the possibility of a connection between the two events.
In addition, Dr. Jim Garvin, chief scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, has provided some answers to questions about the ‘supermoon’ phenomenon, below:
According to one USGS scientist, the recent earthquake off the northeastern coast of Japan has moved the large island’s coast by 8 feet and shifted the Earth’s axis of rotation by almost four inches (10 cm).
Other reports are stating while only about 1500 deaths have been officially acknowledged as of 36 hours after the quake the final death toll will likely be in the tens of thousands.
Update: The USGS has released an earthquake dataset and browser-enabled Google Earth explorer plugin to view earthquake data in real-time. Click here view. Interesting to see the plate movement arrows. Looks like the Pacific plate is explanding!
X-FLARE: March 9th ended with a powerful solar flare. Earth-orbiting satellites detected an X1.5-class explosion from behemoth sunspot 1166 around 2323 UT. A movie from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows a bright flash of UV radiation plus some material being hurled away from the blast site:
Movie formats: 4 MB gif, 1.2 MB iPad, 0.3 MB iPhone
A first look at coronagraph images from NASA’s STEREO-B spacecraft suggests that the explosion did propel a coronal mass ejection (CME) toward Earth. This conclusion is preliminary, however, so check back later for updates.
After four years without any X-flares, the sun has produced two of the powerful blasts in less than one month: Feb. 15th and March 9th. This continues the recent trend of increasing solar activity, and shows that Solar Cycle 24 is heating up. NOAA forecasters estimate a 5% chance of more X-flares during the next 24 hours.
fr/spaceweather.com
fr/Whitely Streiber’s Unknown Country:
Hundreds evacuate as Japan volcano erupts
(AFP) – 5 hours ago
TOKYO — Hundreds of people living near a Japanese volcano that has been spewing columns of smoke and ash thousands of metres into the air were forced to evacuate their homes Monday, a local official said.
More than 600 residents of the town of Takaharu in Miyazaki prefecture, on the eastern outskirts of the erupting Mount Shinmoedake, were sheltering in school gyms and community halls, an official said.
Municipal authorities had issued an evacuation advisory for 1,158 residents in high-risk districts near the 1,421-metre (4,689-foot) volcano earlier Monday.
The mountain in the Kirishima range in southwestern Japan has been belching smoke and ash into the air since late Wednesday, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
The agency has widened the area that it fears could be hit by a torrent of high-temperature gas and ash from two kilometres (1.24 miles) to three kilometres from the peak.
It added that the dome of lava inside the volcano’s crater, which grows as pressure increases from below, was now five times larger than it had been on Friday.
For the complete article, go to:
And in Washington:
Swarm of Quakes detected on Mt. St. Helens
by KGW Staff
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 9:10 AM
Updated today at 9:10 AM
Interesting video of what other planets would look like relative to the moon. Jupiter is kind of scary:
http://bradblogspeed.com/what-would-neptune-look-like-if-it-orbited-ea
fr/spaceweather.com
V-TOPPED LIGHT PILLARS: Light pillars are a common sight around cities in winter. Urban lights bounce off ice crystals in the air, producing tall luminous columns sometimes mistaken for auroras. But the light pillars Mike Hollingshead saw last night near a corn mill in Blair, Nebraska, were decidely uncommon. “They had V-shaped tops,” he explains, “and some of the Vs were nested.” Here is what he saw:
“These light pillars are not just rare, they are exceptional!” declares atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley. “Ordinary pillars are produced by plate-shaped ice crystals roughly half way between you and the light source. These are different. Their rarely seen flared tops show that they were made bycolumn-shaped crystals drifting slowly downwards and aligned horizontal by air resistance.” …