Tuesday, November 30, 2010

[californiadisasters] Fire Danger Decreases, But Need For Care Remains

Fire danger decreases, but need for care remains, fire officials say

By Adam Foxman
Ventura County Star
Ventura County Star
Posted November 30, 2010 at 6:54 p.m.

The 2010 fire season is being called an aberration — and that's a good thing.

From 2006 to 2009, wild fires burned 100,000 to 286,000 acres each year in the Los Padres National Forest. In 2010, fires burned less than 3,000 acres in the forest.

"It was just an aberration," said Andrew Madsen, a spokesman for the Los Padres National Forest, of the 2010 fire season. "It was very unusual."

Madsen said it's hard to pin down any one cause for the quieter season. A little luck in the places where this year's fires occurred, above average rainfall, more success by firefighters and safer behavior by people could all have contributed, he said, adding that some of the region's recent wildfires were human-caused.

Temperatures have turned colder and 2 to 4 inches of rain accumulated in much of Ventura County since the beginning of October, more than the average, according to the county Watershed Protection District. Most parts of the county had slightly more rain than normal during the last water year, from October 2009 to this September.

As of last week, fuel moisture around the county was near the historical average and above critically dry levels, according to the Ventura County Fire Department.

As winter approaches and the risk of fast-moving brush fires continues to decrease, local fire departments have begun trimming back their seasonal focus on wildland blazes.

The Ventura County Fire Department this week lowered the amount of resources it sends to initial brush fire reports, just days after the U.S. Forest Service announced the reduction of fire restrictions in Los Padres National Forest, officials said. Both departments also dismissed seasonal firefighters who work during the peak of the fire season.

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View entire article here; http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/nov/30/fire-danger-decreases-but-need-for-care-remains/

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[californiadisasters] EQ Symposium on Risk of Collapsing Buildings Stirs Some Controversy

UCLA conference brings together seismic experts and structural engineers to assess retrofit needs. But some see a conflict in sponsorship by firms that stand to benefit from construction work.

By Rong-Gong Lin II, Los Angeles Times

December 1, 2010

It began more than three years ago, when a half-ton piece of stucco fell from the Theme Building at Los Angeles International Airport.

Engineers scrutinized the structure and discovered the arched landmark — the inspiration for the jet-set architecture in "The Jetsons" — was at risk for collapse or irreparable damage in an earthquake.

The discovery came not from a government mandate but because the airport's owner, Los Angeles World Airports, a city agency, decided to reevaluate the structural fitness of the half-century-old structure in light of the stucco failure.

The revelation resulted in a $10-million effort to voluntarily seismically retrofit the building. To some earthquake experts and structural engineers, the renovation underscores the need for property owners to focus on seismic retrofitting even when it is not mandated by building codes or government laws.

The story of the Theme Building will take center stage Wednesday at a symposium at UCLA called "Imminent Danger," which will bring in speakers from Caltech, LAX and UCLA to talk about the threat from and economic impact of building collapse in an earthquake.

<SNIP>

View entire article here: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-earthquake-scare-20101201,0,164471.story

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Re: [Geology2] Huge 1,000-ton boulder carried down mountainside by power of Icelandic volcano

The article cites the deaths of two lesser-known volcano photogs but ignores the more famous and significant death of the Kraffts.

On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 9:34 PM, Lin Kerns <linkerns@gmail.com> wrote:

Brute force: Huge 1,000-ton boulder carried down mountainside by power of Icelandic volcano

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:37 PM on 26th November 2010

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[Geology2] Huge 1,000-ton boulder carried down mountainside by power of Icelandic volcano

Brute force: Huge 1,000-ton boulder carried down mountainside by power of Icelandic volcano

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:37 PM on 26th November 2010

Towering above the landscape that surrounds it, this huge boulder is a graphic display of the awesome force created by an erupting volcano.

The 1,000-ton rock, which stands more than 50 feet high, tumbled to the valley floor after the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland earlier this year.

The giant stone was released by ice in a glacier that melted thanks to the fantastic heat produced by the erupting volcano. The melting glacier caused a meltwater flood, which swept the rock down the mountainside with it.

A huge rock stands isolated from the main debris pile and towers over the small figure of a man. The weight could be close to 1,000 tons

Clouds of ash spewing from fissures in the volcano caused travel chaos across Europe for months as flights were grounded and holidaymakers were left stranded.

Icelandic photographer Ragnar Sigurdsson spent weeks capturing the dramatic scenes as the volcano continued to erupt, including flying over the bubbling crater.

Some of his most awe inspiring pictures show lightning storms within the darkened plume of the volcano, caused by water vapour from the nearby glacier releasing energy in response to the superheated ash cloud.

He has captured more than 10,000 images of the volcano as red hot lava was thrown into the air and compiled three book volumes entitled Untamed Nature.

Sigurdsson, 52, chose to fly into the epicentre of destruction on a mission to record the spectacular wrath of one of nature's most deadly phenomena.

He and geologist co-writer Ari Trausti Gudmundsson have now made a selection from 10,000 of Ragnar's pictures of the catastrophe.

Interest generated by their first two sell out editions of 'Eyjafjallajokull: Untamed Nature', spurred the duo to add new personal accounts, giving fresh insight into the drama, in their brand new third edition.

Lightning is seen in the large eruption clouds at the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, Iceland. Static charges build up in the cloud until lightning flashes and releases a charge.

Traveling Iceland in a converted military Land Cruiser Ragnar was able to record spectacular and unique images of the Icelandic eruption as it unfolded on a global scale.

'Once all the airports started shutting down I knew this was a major story of global significance,' said 52 year-old Ragnar, from Iceland.

'This eruption clearly had a great impact on the whole world.

'However, because of the intensity of the experience it was actually a rush for me and was exciting to be involved in such a hands-on way.

'Getting the very best shots I can is a great reward. Personally my favourite picture is an aerial shot of the crater taken while flying at low altitude, in high wind speeds and the door of the plane taken off so I didn't have to shoot through glass.

Huge clouds loom over the volcano as more lightning crackles

'I could feel the heat of the volcano against my face as we made our pass.

'It was taken with a telephoto lens and an extremely high ISO, which can make pictures grainy, but it turned out to be a pin sharp shot. I couldn't have been more pleased.'

Ragnar Th. Sigurdsson specialises in dramatic volcano photographs

But Ragnar's profession is not without danger, with many photographers perishing in powerful eruptions.

The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens famously killed National Geographic photographer Reid Blackburn.

In 2008 German volcano photographer,Thomas Reichart also died while attempting to photograph Mount Etna.

'You can never really say you know when it's safe,' said Ragnar. 'I always just get a feeling from my experience with volcanoes that it's safe to stay or time to go.

'And when it's time you make sure you get out of there.'

Ragnar's and wife Asdis Gissurardottir travel together on all their trips.

'We're a team and it's important that we make all our decisions together,' said Ragnar.

Eyjafjallajokull's crater measures 1.8 miles wide and 2.5 miles across. From 3-5 March there were almost 3000 earthquakes at the epicentre of the volcano.

The ash cloud reached 55,000 ft with piping hot lava measuring an amazing 1000 degree centigrade spewing 400 ft into the air.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1333403/Brute-force-Huge-1-000-ton-boulder-carried-mountainside-power-Icelandic-volcano.html#ixzz16pqp7bYe

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[Geology2] Volcano eruption affects Indonesia's environment, tourism

Volcano eruption affects Indonesia's environment, tourism

by Abu Hanifah

JAKARTA, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- The recent eruption of Merapi volcano located in Indonesia's Central Java province has damaged the biodiversity in conservatory forest around the volcano and several tourist destinations located near the volcano.

An official supervising the Merapi forest conservatory said that string of eruptions that had been going on since late October this year has damaged 43 percent of the conserved forest covering 6,410 hectares of area, located in Sleman, Boyolali and Magelang regencies in Central Java.

Total cost from the damage in the Merapi Conservancy Forest is estimated to reach 5.5 trillion rupiah (about 610 million U.S. dollars).

"That estimation was excluding the cost from the damage of 10 hectares of research forest located near the volcano," Tri Prasetyo, head of Merapi Conservatory Forest said.

Due to the damage in the conserved forests, Tri said that villagers around the volcano are facing imminent danger from landslide and flash floods.

"The scorched trees in that damaged area can no longer withhold the soil or massive water from floods. It is actually the secondary impact from a volcano eruption," Tri said in a recent report published by a local media.

He said that efforts to rehabilitate the conserved forest are facing problems with the alert status imposed on the volcano by the authority, saying that it would be very dangerous to carry out the rehabilitation efforts under the volcano's alert status.

Tri furthermore said that it would take 40 to 50 years to see the conserved area back to the condition before the eruption.

"Most 0f the pine trees scorched by the hot clouds were the large ones with 40 to 50 centimeters of diameter. It takes a very long time to grow those trees up to that size," he said.

Besides the huge cost from the damage in conserved forest, the volcano eruption also hampered the tourism business that consists of ancient temples and small resorts.

A potential loss of 17 million rupiah (about 1,800 U.S. dollars) per day was resulted from the volcano eruption that ensued until recently, earlier reports said.

Indonesia reopened the Borobudur temple for public this week after the world's largest Buddhist temple was cleaned from the volcano ashes covering all over its construction.

The authority has reopened airport in Jogjakarta, a town close to the volcano, after it was closed down for weeks due to the volcano's ash that endangers flights from and to the city.

Losses also reported from the damages of hundred hectares of snake fruit plantations ran by the public living around the volcano. Earlier reports said that the losses have reached billion of rupiah.

The eruption of the country's most active volcano has claimed more than 300 lives since its eruption that commenced late October. Most of the victims died from the volcano's hot clouds that invading their villages.

Editor: Fang Yang

Source

(Note the name of the editor. :-) Cute.)

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[Geology2] East Coast Earthquake

Magnitude 3.9 - OFF THE EAST COAST OF THE UNITED STATES

2010 November 30 15:45:59 UTC

Earthquake Details

This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.

Magnitude	3.9
Date-Time	Tuesday, November 30, 2010 at 15:45:59 UTC Tuesday, November 30, 2010 at 10:45:59 AM at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location	39.799°N, 71.927°W
Depth	6.6 km (4.1 miles) (poorly constrained)
Region	OFF THE EAST COAST OF THE UNITED STATES
Distances	127 km (79 miles) SSE (153°) from Quogue, NY 127 km (79 miles) SSE (162°) from Southampton, NY 128 km (79 miles) SSE (148°) from West Hampton Dunes, NY 137 km (85 miles) SE (144°) from Shirley, NY 188 km (117 miles) SE (145°) from Bridgeport, CT 197 km (122 miles) ESE (120°) from New York, NY
Location Uncertainty	horizontal +/- 26.2 km (16.3 miles); depth +/- 36.5 km (22.7 miles)
Parameters	Nph= 16, Dmin=204 km, Rmss=0.75 sec, Gp=320°, M-type=local magnitude (ML), Version=1
Source	Lamont-Doherty Cooperative Seismographic Network (LCSN)
Event ID	ld60011606

Did you feel it? Report shaking and damage at your location. You can also view a map displaying accumulated data from your report and others.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Quakes/ld60011606.php

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[Geology2] Secret of Big Caves Revealed by Math * By Alexandra Witze, Science News

Secret of Big Caves Revealed by Math

By Alexandra Witze, Science News
November 30, 2010 |
5:45 pm |

Spelunkers look at a cave and wonder how to explore its deepest reaches. But physicists look at it and wonder how it got there in the first place.

A new mathematical analysis solves a longstanding cave-formation puzzle: how a trickle of water laced with carbonic acid manages to quickly dissolve rock to create massive conduits. The trick, it seems, is that fluid flow focuses rapidly in certain channels, which grow at the expense of others and allow the acid to penetrate deeply.

"Most of the models in cave formation today don't have this mechanism at all," says Piotr Szymczak, a physicist at the University of Warsaw. He and his colleague Anthony Ladd, a chemical engineer at the University of Florida in Gainesville, lay out their new equations in a paper to appear in Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

The work could improve understanding of the safety of dams, waste storage sites, or anywhere else fluid might be seeping through the ground.

For more than a century, researchers have known the basics of how limestone caves form: A tiny fracture opens in the rock, perhaps due to some internal stress, and water begins percolating through it. Most water contains some carbon dioxide, making it a weak acid that can eat away at the calcium carbonate in limestone. The question is how that dissolution can happen fast enough to produce deep penetration and allow long cave systems to form. The longest known system in the world is Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, with at least 580 kilometers of passageways.

Earlier work had suggested that the rate at which rock dissolved could speed up dramatically when the fluid is nearly saturated with carbon dioxide. But the new study can explain cave formation without invoking such a mechanism, says Szymczak.

The researchers showed how the equations describing fluid flow in the rock always contain a mathematical instability. The fact that this instability exists means that very soon after a fracture opens, fluid flow begins to focus along tiny ripples and build some bigger channels at the expense of others. "This mechanism of channeling speeds your dissolution time quite a lot," says Szymczak. "That's what allows it to penetrate so deep."

The mathematical analysis is likely to bring new insight into ideas that have been circulating since the 1990s, when the notion of focused flow in limestone was first proposed, says Harihar Rajaram, a hydrologic engineer at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The new work, says Szymczak, builds on that foundation by showing that the instability always exists in the math, no matter what materials are involved.

The work, he adds, could help explain why caves sometimes form faster than expected beneath dams. The equations might also help improve modeling of how fluid seeps through rocks, a key question raised about the once-planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.

The researchers next want to look into what happens when engineers inject liquid carbon dioxide from power plants deep underground, in an attempt to keep the carbon from entering the atmosphere.

Image: This simulation shows how fluid flow (in this case, from left to right) can lead to deep penetration in a rock. At first (panel at left) channels begin developing almost equally, but over time (right) certain channels gain in size at the expense of others. Credit: Piotr Szymczak

Source

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/cavern-formation-math/

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VOLCANO MADNESS

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

[californiadisasters] Fire Danger Decreases, But Need For Care Remains

Fire danger decreases, but need for care remains, fire officials say

[californiadisasters] EQ Symposium on Risk of Collapsing Buildings Stirs Some Controversy

UCLA conference brings together seismic experts and structural engineers to assess retrofit needs. But some see a conflict in sponsorship by firms that stand to benefit from construction work.

Re: [Geology2] Huge 1,000-ton boulder carried down mountainside by power of Icelandic volcano

Brute force: Huge 1,000-ton boulder carried down mountainside by power of Icelandic volcano

[Geology2] Huge 1,000-ton boulder carried down mountainside by power of Icelandic volcano

Brute force: Huge 1,000-ton boulder carried down mountainside by power of Icelandic volcano

[Geology2] Volcano eruption affects Indonesia's environment, tourism

Volcano eruption affects Indonesia's environment, tourism

[Geology2] East Coast Earthquake

Magnitude 3.9 - OFF THE EAST COAST OF THE UNITED STATES

2010 November 30 15:45:59 UTC

Earthquake Details

[Geology2] Secret of Big Caves Revealed by Math * By Alexandra Witze, Science News

Secret of Big Caves Revealed by Math

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