March 2007

A M6.9 earthquake struck Japan earlier today, killing one person, injuring over 200 others and creating a 6 inch tsunami. The earthquake was centered 225 miles northwest of Tokyo and knocked down homes in the city of Ishikawa and caused landslides along the west coast of the country.

This earthquake also marks the first time that Japan’s earthquake early warning system was tested. The system works by detecting the first seismic waves that travel out from an earthquake and estimates the overall intensity of a quake, before the surface waves arrive. Theoretically, this may allow citizens to have a few seconds of time to get to safety and provide utilities time to shut off critical services such as gas and electricity lines. In this case, Japan’s Meteorological Agency was able to issue a tsunami warning one minute after the quake struck, allowing residents to get to higher ground.

Also see the USGS web page on this earthquake. More pictures available here.

Last weekend, the lahar that has long been expected to flow down Ruapehu finally happened, as the crater lake’s tephra dam finally gave way. Fortunately, due to planning and early alarm systems put in place, no one was injured.

Within a few hours of the first alarms from Ruapehu, teams of volcanologists from Massey University in Palmerston North were already on the way to take precise measurements of the lahar and its flow path.

Also, found this video on YouTube, looking at the lahar as it passed the Tangiwai Railway Bridge.

Thanks to Ron Schott for clueing me in to this event.

Paleontologists have discovered a new species of mammal in China that existed 125 million years ago. Dubbed Yanoconodon allini, the animal was only about 5 inches long. Among the notable finds in this species is a relatively complex middle ear that appears to bridge the gap between later mammals and early organisms related to mammals.

Mammals have highly sensitive hearing, far better than the hearing capacity of all other vertebrates, scientists have found. Consequently, paleontologists and evolutionary biologists have been searching for more than a century for clues to the evolutionary origins of mammal ear structure.

Regardless of over all climate change, rising levels of CO₂ in the atmosphere from human activity will threaten marine life in the Earth’s oceans.

Researchers from the University of Illinois and the Carnegie Institution found that the oceans will absorb increased amounts of CO₂ present in the atmosphere and increase the overall acidity of the oceans.

As the acidity of the oceans increases, organisms with hard shells will find it more difficult to exist. Ken Caldeira, of the Carnegie Institution,explains that unless we find a way to cut carbon dioxide emissions, “coral reefs will go the way of the dodo.”

A rule issued last month by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service prevents scientists from publicly speaking about polar bears, climate change or sea ice at various international meetings. Environmentalists and former members of the Department of Interior are saying this is censorship.

Of course this type of thing isn’t a surprise coming from the current administration:

The Bush administration has been under fire for several years for allegedly trying to curb the speech of government scientists who produce studies that contradict the administration’s positions, particularly on global warming.

Scientists in the Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have been chastised for speaking to reporters, and some have been asked to submit papers and lectures to high-level managers for review. Political appointees at NASA have turned down journalists’ requests for interviews with scientists, and the Minerals Management Service has allowed journalists to interview scientists, including on polar bear observations, only if the agency could record them.

I don’t like to editorialize too much, but stuff like this makes me furious. Al Gore spoke at the AGU conference in San Francisco this past December and raised some interesting points. There is an onus on us as scientists to spread the word, talk about our research and get more involved in matters of public policy and not let ourselves be shut down by the powers that be.