Scotland Covered in nowIt’s cold, temperatures are projected to go down as low as -20C. The recorded record low of -16.1C was in Altnaharra which is located in the northern parts of Scotland. The lowest temperature of the winter of 2010 was -22.3C.

Approximately 850 schools have been shut down and 3,000 houses were at sometime without electric power. Scottish Hydro is hoping to have all homes back online by late tonight. Extra personnel have been brought in to help fix the problem.

Being out on the roadways is very dangerous and there are many abandoned vehicles along the way. There have been many roads shut down to hazardous conditions. Travel by air has also been affected with the closing of the Edinburgh Airport at 1800 GMT. Travel by trains has also been interrupted. A ski resort located in the Highlands, Lecht Ski Centre, also had to close down for the day. Emergency areas were set up to help shelter stranded motorist. At first there were 60 people who were looking for protection from the weather by 2000 GMT on Sunday. By Monday, there were 669 people staying there. The weather has been predicted to grow worse this week.

What surprised me about this video was how this particular area should be more than used to winter weather, especially as we start to go into December.  Even if I was a bad blizzard is seems the vulnerability of this community should be low. So, this makes me wonder, what (in anything) was so special about this storm that allowed it to make headlines? From what it looked like, it was a particularly large blizzard for a ski resort to close down and must have been in a particularly populated area.

 

Discovered on LIDAR Images

New Fault Identified in Central Idaho

Researcher at Idaho State University Discovers the Fault on LIDAR Image

Republished from a September, 2010 press release by Idaho State University.


While looking at a highly detailed new topographic image of Idaho’s Sawtooth Range, Idaho State University geosciences professor Glenn Thackray had an "eureka moment" when he discovered a previously unknown active earthquake fault about 65 miles, as the crow flies, from Boise. ISU researchers estimate the fault has been active twice in the last 10,000 years, about 4,100 and 7,000 years ago.

The researchers examined a Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) image. LIDAR is a remote sensing system used to collect topographic data with aircraft-mounted lasers capable of recording elevation measurements at a rate of 25,000 pulses per second and can have a vertical precision of about six inches. The images can be displayed so they don't show an area's vegetation. Four years ago while doing some research on glaciers in the Sawtooth Range, Thackray was examining a high-resolution, "bare-earth" LIDAR image of the mountains: this is when he noticed a line running through the image in the vicinity of Redfish Lake.

"The black line stood out and I thought that it had to be an earthquake fault," Thackray said. "It was long suspected that there was an active fault in the Sawtooths, but without the LIDAR technology it would have been exceptionally hard to find."

Documenting the Fault on the Ground

Since that time, ISU researchers have been on the ground documenting the fault that is at least 25 miles long and could be as long as 40 miles. It is located on the eastern edge of the range and comes within about five miles from the town of Stanley. A portion of it runs through the upper end of Redfish Lake. It runs along the range approximately from near Stanley Lake to at least as far south as Petitt Lake.

65 Miles from Boise - Idaho's Largest City

“The reason this discovery is so important is that it is within the heavily visited areas of the Sawtooth National Recreation area, very close to the town of Stanley, and within 65 miles of Idaho’s largest city, Boise, and the most populated area in the state,” Thackray said. “We would like to know how big the earthquakes are along this fault and how active it is.”

Land-Use, Emergency Planning, Building Codes

Thackray emphasized that the fault is cause for concern, but not alarm, for visitors to and residents of the Stanley-Sawtooth area, and to the residents of the Wood River or Boise valleys. The discovery may have implications for land-use and emergency planning, and perhaps building codes. Depending on the magnitude of a potential earthquake, it could do damage to surrounding areas.

Other Major Faults in Idaho

There are few major, active faults in Idaho. Idaho’s three other major faults run along the base of the Lost River Range (where the famous Borah Peak magnitude 7.3 earthquake, the largest ever recorded in Idaho, occurred in 1983), the Lemhi Range and the Beaverhead Range. Faults are break in the earth’s crust, along which rocks and the earth move. Typically, the earth is moving up on one side of the fault, and moving down on the other.

"It's the movement of the rocks that are important. That is what creates an earthquake hazard," Thackray said.

How Active is the Fault?

After discovering the fault on the LIDAR image and then confirming its existence on the ground, ISU researchers had to determine whether it was an active fault, defined as a fault that has featured an earthquake within the last 10,000 years. Determining whether the fault was active was a challenge for the researchers because most of the fault is located within the Sawtooth Wilderness and Recreation Area.

"Normally, to test a fault you could take in a Cat or backhoe and dig up sediment and rock and use carbon dating to date the occurrence of previous activity," Thackray said. "But we couldn’t do that because the fault is in a wilderness area."

Unexpected Data from Biologists

This is where a little luck and scientific serendipity came into play. Other ISU researchers, biological sciences professor Bruce Finney, postdoctoral researcher Mark Shapley, and ISU geosciences graduate student Eric Johnson, were doing lake sediment core sampling of lakes in the Sawtooths, including Redfish Lake, to study the historical record of sockeye salmon returning to the area. While drilling through the sediment in the upper portion of Redfish Lake the researchers hit levels where there were landslide deposits interrupted the regular accumulation of sediment deposits.

"We were able to date the occurrence of the most recent fault activity by using those drilling samples from the large landslides in Redfish Lake," Thackray said.

"There is a lot that we still don’t know about this fault, but our studies have revealed the outline of its history," he added.

As far as warning and mitigation go, I think this state pretty much has it covered.  Idaho took the correct steps and provides an optimal model for other states to follow (inside and outside the US). They detected the issue, determined the seriousness of the hazard without disrupting the environment, and are keeping a watchful eye on the fault without panicking.  Another thing I like about what they’re doing is they are planning ahead.  They are going to instill evacuation routs, new building codes and whatever mitigation methods necessary to protect the people of Boise, Idaho.  I think that early detection is key in this case and further research about the potential risk of the area will help educate the people on what they can do in the mean time.  Some key things that other nations at risk can take away from this are the importance of early detection, installment of building codes, evacuation routes and public awareness.

Refer to Indonesia Page

Another Indonesian Volcano Threatens to Erupt

Nov 23, 2010 10:11 AM ET

By OurAmazingPlanet Staff

Indonesia is on alert again for a possible volcanic eruption, this time from Mount Bromo, located on the eastern end of the Indonesian island of Java, according to news reports.

The eruption red alert comes just a couple weeks after Mount Merapi's relentless erupting killed more than 300 people. [Related: Mount Merapi's Devastation Seen from Space.]

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"We raised the status of Bromo to the highest red alert level at 3:30 pm (0830 GMT) today. There's a chance of an eruption soon," government volcanologist Surono told AFP.

Bromo started rumbling to life on Nov. 8, the AFP reports, and plumes of smoke and ash were rising from the summit crater on Tuesday (Nov. 23).

But Bromo, unlike Merapi, lies in a less populated region, within the Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park. Merapi has displaced more than 200,000 people from nearby villages.

Bromo is a fairly active volcano; it last erupted was in 2004, killing two tourists.

Bromo is located in the center of the Sandsea Caldera, itself only a portion of the larger Tengger Caldera (a caldera is the circular depression in the center of a volcano's summit). The Sandsea caldera formed around 8,000 years ago, in what must have been a massive eruption. Subsequent volcanic activity formed the cluster of cinder cones in the caldera's center, including Bromo.

According to Erik Klemetti of Big Think's Eruptions blog, Bromo is a different type of volcano than Merapi, one that tends to have smaller eruptions that blech out ash and perhaps small lava flows, but doesn't produce the large pyroclastic flows — scorching rivers of gas and rock — that stratovolcanoes like Merapi do.

Indonesia itself is a very volcanically and seismically active region that lies along the infamous Pacific Ring of Fire. One of the largest volcanic explosions in history, that of Krakatoa in 1883, occurred on the tiny volcanic island of the same name between Java and Sumatra, killing some 40,000 people. The remnant of that spectacular eruption, called Anak Krakatau, has also been rumbling and producing smoke recently.

It's a good thing that this volcano is in an isolated region unlike Merapi. If this wasn't the case, there would be much more serious consequences on our hands.  This recent activity is still of great worry however. If this trend continues (refer to the page on Indonesia's volcanoes), then they could very possibly be starting to face problems closer to densely populated areas.  This is a subject that I hope volcanologists are all over because this pattern could help lead to a future disaster which would allow the government to take mitigation action.

Earthquake risk high in Panama, data suggests

Last Updated: Thursday, November 18, 2010 | 3:01 PM ET .CBC News
A file photo showing a U.S. tanker leaving the Miraflores locks of the Panama Canal on its way to the Pacific Ocean beside a ship carrying grain. New research suggests the canal and nearby Panama City face a significant risk of a large quake. (Alberto Lowe/Reuters)Two faults that run through central Panama have ruptured both independently and in unison over the past 1,400 years, suggesting that Panama City and the Panama Canal face "a significant seismic risk," new research suggests.

That conclusion followed a seismic hazard study undertaken as part of an ongoing expansion of the Panama Canal to allow for larger ships.

Researchers studied the Limon and Pedro Miguel faults and found that both are seismically active and have relatively short recurrence rates for large earthquakes. Recurrence rates are estimates of how frequently quakes are likely to hit a given area.

The Pedro Miguel fault actually runs between two of the locks on the Panama Canal. This fault last ruptured in 1621, resulting in a devastating earthquake.

"That earthquake resulted in nearly [three metres] of displacement where the fault crosses the canal," said lead author Thomas Rockwell, a geologist at San Diego State University. "Another such earthquake today could have dramatic effects."

The authors argue that the Pedro Miguel fault's location and rate of activity should be taken into account in the expansion of the Panama Canal and its new lock system.

The researchers say they found evidence that both the Pedro Miguel and Limon faults may have failed at the same time around 700 AD.

The authors say the apparent ability of these two faults to rupture in unison poses danger to the canal.

"While no fault passes though or beneath any critical structures, the area and structures would be subject to significant shaking," they wrote.

The capital is also at risk, the study's authors say.

"As Panama City lies only a few kilometers from the Pedro Miguel fault, renewed activity on this fault could cause substantial damage to structures that were not designed for strong shaking," they write.

The research is published in Thursday's Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America


Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/11/18/panama-earthquake-risk.html#ixzz15kdG6axC

This article I found quite humorous actually.  I stumbled upon it shortly after watching House Hunters on HGTV.  The particular episode was about a couple looking for a 2 million dollar summer home in Panama.  Their family lived and worked in Florida and liked Panama for its cheap real estate.  I guess there is a flourishing community of semi-wealthy Americans building multimillion dollar homes Near the Panama Canal.  This makes me wonder how many of them are actually knowledgeable of the area and the danger it holds.  I would greatly advise anyone looking into placing their life savings in this area, to maybe do some background reading to make sure their home will still be standing in the years to come.

I thought it was interesting how not only is this a major faut in the seemingly inactive interior of the United States, but how the fault lines are independent of one another. This means that if one earthquake happens, it doesn't necessairly release strain along the entire fault line. Even more interesting however is where these fault lines are located. Not only are they at the base of the mountain, which increases slope failure, but the heavily populated area gives rise for concern. It's good to see that the state of Utah is taking major strides to improve old buildings as well as increasing codes for important new structures such as schools. The hazard poses some more serious effects than the obvious associated with a typical large earthquake however. Some of the most seveare that come to mind are water contamination and nuclear waste. Because so many of these are in direct relation to the fault lines, mitigation of these disastrous effects is nearly impossible. Even though the state is taking strides in improving structures, more work needs to be done to make sure toxic waste is not spewed everywhere.

Potential Face-off

So even though this isn't directly related to natural disasters, it is a pushing issue. If China and the US get into heat with each other then it will be a disaster for sure! Very interesting, a must see.

Potential for Mass Wastage?

Meltwater flowing through ice sheets can carry warmth to the interior via crevasses, fractures, and large drains called moulins. A new modeling study shows that such warming can greatly accelerate the thermal response of an ice sheet to climate change: An ice sheet can respond on the order of decades, rather than the centuries projected by conventional thermal models. Ice flows more readily as it warms, so a warming climate can increase ice flows much faster than previously thought.
"We are finding that once such water flow is initiated through a new section of ice sheet, it can warm rather significantly and quickly, sometimes in just 10 years, " said lead author Thomas Phillips, a research scientist with the University of Colorado at Boulder and NOAA's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). "We've termed this process cryo-hydrologic warming."
Phillips, University of Colorado engineering professor Harihar Rajaram, and CIRES Director Konrad Steffen described their model results in a paper published online this week in Geophysical Research Letters.
Conventional thermal models of ice sheets do not consider the presence of water as a warming agent within the ice sheet – those models primarily consider heating by warmer air on the ice sheet surface.  In water's absence, ice warms slowly in response to the increased surface temperatures from climate change, often requiring centuries to millennia to happen. "This would be correct if water only flowed on the ice surface without the opportunity to go into it," said Phillips.
However, the Greenland ice sheet is not one solid, smooth mass of ice.  As the ice flows towards the coast, grating against bedrock, crevasses and new fractures form in the upper 100 feet of the ice sheet. Meltwater flowing through these openings can grow "ice caves" and networks of pipes that can carry water through the ice, spreading warmth.
To quantify the influence of that meltwater, the scientists modeled what would happen to the ice sheet temperature if water flowed through it for just eight weeks every summer, about the length of the active melt season.
"The key difference between our model and previous models is that we include heat exchange between water flowing through the ice sheet and the ice," said Rajaram.
The result was a significantly faster-than-expected increase in ice sheet warming, the research team reported. The warming could take place on the order of years to decades, depending on the spacing of crevasses and other "pipes" bringing warmer water into the ice sheet in summer. Several factors contributed to the warming and resultant acceleration of ice flow:

1. Slower cooling: Some of the water that flows into the ice sheet can stay liquid even through the winter, slowing seasonal cooldown.
2. Basal lubrication: A warmer ice sheet is more susceptible to increases in flow by long-understood mechanisms, such as basal lubrication of the ice.
3. A downward spiral of damage: Water cascading into ice can warm the surrounding ice and also re-freeze, creating further cracks in the more vulnerable, warm ice.

Taken together, these interactions between water, temperature, and ice velocity spell even more rapid changes to ice sheets in a changing climate than currently anticipated, the authors concluded.
In fact, the authors compared observed temperature profiles from Greenland with  model results. Unless the cryo-hydrologic warming was accounted for, they could not explain observations.
"The fact that the ice temperatures warm rather quickly is really the key piece that's been overlooked in models currently being used to determine how Greenland responds to climate warming," Steffen said. "However, this process is not the 'death knell' for the ice sheet. It'll still take thousands of years, if not a multiple thereof, for the ice sheet to disappear."
Collaborators on this project include the Aerospace Engineering and Sciences, Geography, and Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering departments at the University of Colorado at Boulder. This study was supported by NASA Cryosphere Science Program grants and is published online in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Download a copy of the paper here.

Contact:

Thomas Phillips, CIRES, 303-492-4829, Thomas.Phillips@colorado.edu
Harihar Rajaram, CU, 303-492-6604, Hari@colorado.edu
Konrad Steffen, CIRES, 303-492-8773, Konrad.Steffen@colorado.edu
Morgan Heim, CIRES Communication, 303-492-6289, Morgan.Heim@colorado.edu

Haiti Quake Risk May Still be High
Released: 10/29/2010 4:23:04 PM

Contact Information: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey Office of Communication 119 National Center Reston, VA 20192

---

The fault initially thought to have triggered January’s devastating earthquake in Haiti is likely still under considerable strain and continues to pose a significant seismic hazard, according to a study published online in Nature Geoscience Sunday.
U.S. Geological Survey geologist Carol Prentice led a team of scientists to Haiti immediately after the earthquake to search for traces of ground rupture and to investigate the geology and paleoseismology of the area.
Using geological field observations, and interpretations of satellite imagery, aerial photography, and light detection and ranging, the researchers sought evidence of deformation from the 2010 quake and determined the main strand of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault did not rupture in the January quake, as was initially thought.
They also documented evidence of geologically-young ground ruptures on the EPG Fault, which they believe may have formed during earthquakes that struck Haiti in 1751 and 1770. Because the EPG Fault did not rupture the surface in January, little, if any, accumulated strain on that fault was released during the quake and the hazard remains high.
The EPG Fault is a tectonic plate boundary similar to the San Andreas Fault in California. The January Haiti quake was similar in many respects to the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Like the Haiti quake, the Loma Prieta quake did not produce primary surface rupture and did not occur on the main San Andreas Fault. However the fault that ruptured during the 1989 quake is part of a complex set of nearby faults whose movement is driven by the plate-boundary tectonics, much like the setting of the Haiti earthquake.
This study was published online this week in Nature Geoscience, as part of a special issue on the Haiti earthquake.

This article was quite surprising to me.  I thought that because the Haiti earthquake was so large, it must have released a great amount of strain. Because this wasn’t the case however, the reconstruction process is called into question.  Considering the complexity model, mitigation for this future event is a little more complicated.  Because of the nation’s poor economy, I wonder if it would be beneficial to rebuild the city of Port Au Prince.  If there is a larger quake on the way and headed for the same city, would it be smarter to completely relocate? Would it even be possible to restructure the city so it would be strong enough to survive another disaster such as their last one? It is important to take into account how much funds the government and aid agencies are able to put forth in the rebuilding project, where this future earthquake will occur, and if it would be beneficial to relocate the people elsewhere.