Prophecy, Drought, Earthquakes, Famine, Pestilence, War, and Strange Weather.

[Shammu]

Undersea volcano eruption caught on tape

By HIROKO TABUCHI, Associated Press Writer Fri May 26, 7:15 PM ET

TOKYO - An unmanned probe got within feet of a violent underwater eruption in the Pacific Ocean, returning with the clearest footage ever captured of seismic activity under the sea, a team of Japanese and U.S. researchers said.

The footage, released Thursday by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, shows gray ash and rock spewing from the underwater NW Rota-1 volcano as it erupted in October.

Lava streams down the volcano, which is 1,800 feet under water in the Mariana Arc volcanic chain, some 60 miles north of the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam.

The Japanese-American research team also collected sediment samples, team leader Yoshihiko Tamura said. The Hyper Dolphin probe went as close as 7-10 feet from the eruption.

"We believe it's the first time anybody has captured quality footage of an underwater eruption from such a close distance," Tamura said.

Analysis of the footage and sediment could help explain how repeated eruptions of underwater volcanos eventually give rise to islands and even continents, Tamura said.

"Further research could shed light on the very fundamentals of how land masses are formed," he said.

Preliminary research findings are reported by Tamura, Robert W. Embley of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other team members in this week's edition of the journal Nature.

Undersea volcano eruption caught on tape

[Soldier4Christ]

Nearly 3,000 dead in Java quake

More than 2,800 people have been killed and thousands more injured by a strong earthquake that struck the Indonesian island of Java, officials have said.

The quake, measuring 6.2, flattened buildings in a densely-populated area south of the city of Yogyakarta, near the southern coast of Java.

Witnesses said people fled as their homes collapsed around them, after the quake struck early in the morning.

Electricity and communications across the city were also down, police said.

At least 2,900 people have been injured, and many more are still thought to be trapped under rubble and collapsed buildings.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called on rescuers to work around the clock, as he visited the area with a team of Cabinet ministers on Saturday.

He has also ordered the military to help evacuate victims.

Yogyakarta's airport was closed. Local media said the runway had cracked and part of a roof had caved in.

Yogyakarta is near the Mount Merapi volcano, which threatened to erupt earlier this month, forcing thousands of people to be evacuated.

Experts were divided over whether the quake would affect Merapi, but there are reports of heightened activity at the volcano. There was an eruption soon after the quake which sent debris some 3.5km (2 miles) down its western side.

Officials said that although the area affected was coastal there was no tsunami resulting from the quake.

The quake hit at 0554 local time (2253 GMT Friday), around 25km (15 miles) south of the city of Yogyakarta, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.

Yogyakarta, Indonesia's ancient royal capital and one of its biggest cities, is about 440km (275 miles) south-east of the capital, Jakarta.

"The earthquake was felt to be massive - larger than the locals here say they've felt in their lives," said Brook Weisman-Ross, regional disaster co-ordinator for Plan International children's charity in Java.

"I was shaken from my bed... As furniture was falling, concrete chunks started falling from my hotel room as people were running out in panic in their bedclothes," he told the BBC.

He said there was extensive damage across the city and that many of the smaller, older houses had collapsed.

But a wide swathe south of the city, in the Bantul and Kulonprogo regions, appears to be the worst hit.

The BBC's Orlando Guzman in Yogyakarta says every other house on the main road south of the city is either flattened or seriously damaged.

Another correspondent in the area, Andrew Harding, says there are a number of dead bodies by the side of the road.

Aftershocks

Local radio said there were not enough doctors to cope with the numbers of injured.

People were ferried to hospital in lorries and buses, or made the journey on foot, because of a shortage of ambulances.

Aftershocks have forced medical staff to move injured patients outside.

Orlando Guzman says people here, who have been living in fear of a volcanic eruption for weeks, are very much still on edge. Many are still afraid to go back to their houses.

Mosques, churches and hospitals have been housing people who have fled their homes.

"We're still afraid. We don't want to go home," said Hendra, one of hundreds of people who took refuge at Yogyakarta's Marganingsih Catholic Church.

Indonesia is in a zone known as the Pacific "ring of fire", which is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity.

In December 2004, a huge earthquake off Indonesia's coast killed hundreds of thousands of people across the Indian Ocean by triggering a tsunami.

[Soldier4Christ]

3,500 die in earthquake at dawn



DOCTORS treating the survivors of a massive earthquake that killed more than 3,500 people on the Indonesian island of Java ran out of anaesthetic last night as hospitals were overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster.

So many mudbrick homes in the ancient royal city of Yogyakarta and the surrounding area were flattened that Oxfam warned the number of dead and injured could rise into the tens of thousands. Up to 95% of homes were destroyed in some villages.

The wounded were stretched out on plastic sheets and newspapers outside overflowing hospitals and wounds were being stitched without pain relief.

“We need help here,” said one doctor at Muhammadiyah hospital in Bantul, the closest to the epicentre. At the nearby Dr Sardjito hospital, bodies were lined up in a hallway.

Kevin Freedman, 25, in Yogyakarta, said countless injured were being trucked, bussed and biked to the Muhammadiyah.

“People were lying on mats on the ground and there was blood everywhere. It was a shocking scene,” he said. “There were hundreds of broken bones and many head wounds.”

The earthquake, measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale, struck just before dawn local time as most of the city’s 800,000 people were sleeping.

Hotels and government buildings caved in, roads and bridges were destroyed and mass graves were dug as rescuers pulled more and more bodies from the rubble. The Red Cross said 200,000 had been left homeless in the region.

A 70-year-old food vendor sobbed next to his dead wife. “I couldn’t help her,” he said. “I was trying to rescue my children — and then the house collapsed.”

Another man said his neighbour had lost 11 members of his family.

Fearing a repeat of the tsunami of Boxing Day 2004, which devastated stretches of coastline on the neighbouring island of Sumatra, many people headed for the slopes of Mount Merapi, one of the world’s most active volcanoes.

The earthquake triggered fresh activity in the volcano, which spewed out a two-mile plume of ash and debris, and people were warned to leave for fear of an eruption.

[Soldier4Christ]

Quake unleashes volcano threat


A powerful earthquake flattened homes and hotels in central Indonesia early today as people slept, killing more than 3,000 and injuring thousands more in the nation’s worst disaster since the 2004 tsunami. “The numbers just keep rising,” said Mr Arifin Muhadi of the Indonesian Red Cross.
The powerful earthquake in central Indonesia has its epicentre close to the rumbling Mount Merapi volcano. The activity increased soon after the temblor as hot clouds and debris avalanched some 3.5 km down the western flank of Mount Merapi.
Sixteen hours after the quake struck, the number of dead stood at 3,068, said the social affairs ministry official with two-thirds of the fatalities occurring in the devastated district of Bantul.
Bambang Dwiyanto of the energy and mineral ministry said the two events did not appear to be directly related, but warned that today’s earthquake could still trigger a larger eruption.
Almost all people had already been evacuated away from the volcano’s danger zone, and there were no reports of injuries as a result of the eruption. The magnitude 6.2 quake struck at 5.54 a.m. near the ancient city of Yogyakarta as most people were sleeping, causing death and damage in many nearby towns.
Houses, hotels and government buildings collapsed, sending hysterical survivors running through the streets. Many roads and bridges were destroyed, hindering efforts to get pickup trucks filled with wounded to hospitals, already overflowing with patients.
Some villagers started digging mass graves. “I couldn’t help my wife,” said Subarjo, 70, sobbing as he sat beside her body. “I was trying to rescue my children... and then the house collapsed. I couldn’t help her.”
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who ordered the army to start evacuating victims, arrived in densely populated Central Java province this afternoon with a team of Cabinet ministers to oversee rescue operations.
Doctors struggled to care for the injured, hundreds of whom were lying on plastic sheets, straw mats and even newspapers outside the overcrowded hospitals, some hooked to intravenous drips dangling from trees.

[Soldier4Christ]

Death Toll Keeps Rising

Indonesian Quake Kills More Than 4,300

BANTUL, Indonesia — Exhausted and grieving survivors dug through their crumpled homes Sunday searching for clothes, food and valuables after a powerful earthquake hit central Indonesia, killing more than 4,300 people.

The magnitude-6.3 quake struck early Saturday and injured thousands more in the heart of densely populated Java island, in the country's worst disaster since the 2004 tsunami. It also triggered fears that a nearby rumbling volcano would erupt and caused serious damage to the world-famous 9th century Prambanan temple.

The disaster zone stretched across hundreds of square miles of mostly farming communities in Yogyakarta province. The worst devastation was in the town of Bantul, where more than 2,700 people were killed and 80 percent of the homes were flattened.

"I have to start my life from zero again," said Poniran, whose 5-year-old daughter Ellie was killed in the quake.

Poniran dug up his still-breathing daughter from the rubble of her bedroom, but she died in a hospital awaiting treatment along with hundreds of others.

"Her last words were 'Daddy, Daddy,"' he said.

At least 4,332 people were killed in the quake, according to figures provided by the Social Ministry and a Idham Samawi, a government official in one of the affected districts.

Tens of thousands spent the night Saturday sleeping in any open space available — on streets, in cassava fields, even on the narrow paths between rice fields. Power and telephone service was out across much of the region, adding to the terror of some 450 aftershocks, the strongest measuring 5.2.

Survivors searched the ruins of their homes on Sunday for anything still usable and complained that they hadn't received any aid.

"We're short of everything — clothes, food, water, all are gone. We are poor people, but our lives still matter," said Budi Wiyana, 63, whose house was destroyed.

Doctors struggled to care for the injured, hundreds of whom were lying on plastic sheets, straw mats and even newspapers outside overcrowded hospitals, some hooked to intravenous drips dangling from trees.

Bloodstains littered the floor at Yogyakarta's Dr. Sardjito Hospital, along with piles of soiled bandages and used medical supplies.

Relatives fanned victims in the heat in temporary shelters set up in the parking lot and corridors.

"We have too many patients and they're still arriving," said Aru, a doctor, adding that the hospital had received more than 2,000 patients.

Though some corpses were pulled from the rubble early Sunday, residents in villages visited by reporters said there were few people or bodies trapped beneath collapsed houses, mostly simple brick and wood structures.

But in Peni, a small village on Bantul's southern outskirts, 20 residents were not ready to give up. They found the bodies of a woman and her three children Saturday, and were still trying to find the family's father, Purwoko.

Most of the dead were buried in village graveyards within hours of the disaster, in line with Islamic tradition.

In Peni, villagers set up simple clinics to treat injuries, but were hampered by shortages of medicine and equipment. A group of women cooked catfish caught in a nearby pond for dozens of people huddled under a large tent.

The earthquake hit at 5:54 a.m., caving in tile roofs and sending walls crashing down. Survivors screamed as they ran from their homes, some clutching bloodied children and the elderly.

The quake was the latest in a series of disasters to hit Indonesia — including the 2004 tsunami that killed 131,000 people in Aceh province, terrorist attacks, a widening bird flu outbreak and the threat of eruption from nearby Mount Merapi.

The quake's epicenter was 50 miles south of Merapi, and activity increased soon after the temblor. A large burst spewed hot clouds and sent debris cascading some two miles down its western flank. No one was injured because nearby residents had already been evacuated.

Bambang Dwiyanto of the Energy and Mineral Ministry could not say whether the quake caused the volcanic activity but warned that it could trigger a larger eruption.

International agencies and other nations pledged millions of dollars of aid.

Officials said the famed 7th century Borobudur Buddhist temple, one of Indonesia's most popular tourist attractions, was not affected by the quake. But Prambanan, a spectacular Hindu temple to the southeast, suffered serious damage, with hundreds of stone carvings and blocks scattered around the ancient site.

It will be closed to the public until archeologists are able to determine whether the foundation was damaged, said Agus Waluyo, head of the Yogyakarta Archaeological Conservation Agency.

Close to 1 million tourists visit the Borobudur and Prambanan temples every year.

[Shammu]

Indonesian Quake Survivors Hunt for Food, Clothing

Sunday , May 28, 2006

BANTUL, Indonesia — After sleeping outside in streets and fields, Indonesian earthquake survivors scavenged their wrecked villages Sunday for food, clothing and anything of use as the death toll rose to more than 4,300. Some 200,000 people were left homeless.

Waves of aftershocks compounded the terror of the magnitude-6.3 quake, which flattened villages and towns on densely populated Java island early Saturday — Indonesia's worst disaster since the 2004 tsunami. Power and phone service remained out amid fears that a nearby rumbling volcano might erupt.

Nations worldwide hurried to send food, supplies and funds. The Rome-based U.N. World Food Program said a plane with medicine and medical personnel was en route, as were eight truckloads of fortified noodles and biscuits. The U.N. children's agency UNICEF said it was ready to send tents, hygiene kits, health kits and school supplies.

The worst devastation was in the town of Bantul, which accounted for three-quarters of the deaths. One man dug his 5-year-old daughter out of the rubble of her bedroom only to have her die in a hospital awaiting treatment with hundreds of others.

"Her last words were 'Daddy, Daddy,"' said Poniran, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.

"I have to start my life from zero again."

Some bodies were pulled from the collapsed brick-and-wood houses early Sunday in villages visited by reporters, but few were believed to still be trapped. Most of the dead were buried within hours of the disaster, in line with Islamic tradition.

In Peni, a hamlet on Bantul's southern outskirts, 20 residents searched for a neighbor, Purwoko, after finding the bodies of his wife and three children. Villagers set up simple clinics despite shortages in medicine and equipment. Women cooked catfish caught in a nearby pond for dozens of people huddled under a large tent.

The quake hit hundreds of square miles of mostly farming communities in Yogyakarta province, causing damage to the world-famous 9th century Prambanan temple. As many as 450 aftershocks followed, the strongest magnitude 5.2.

At least 4,332 people were killed, according to government figures, and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent said at least 200,000 people were left homeless.

Many people spent Saturday night sleeping in any open space available — on streets, in cassava fields, in narrow rice groves. On Sunday, exhausted and grieving, survivors searched the ruins of their homes and complained that aid was slow in arriving.

"We're short of everything — clothes, food, water, all are gone. We are poor people, but our lives still matter," said Budi Wiyana, 63.

Countrywatch: Indonesia

Doctors struggled to care for the injured, hundreds of them lying on plastic sheets, straw mats and even newspapers outside overcrowded hospitals. Some were hooked to intravenous drips dangling from trees.

Bloodstains littered the floor at Yogyakarta's Dr. Sardjito Hospital, along with piles of soiled bandages and used medical supplies. Relatives fanned victims in the heat in temporary shelters set up in the parking lot and corridors.

"We have too many patients and they're still arriving," said Aru, a doctor, adding that the hospital had received more than 2,000 wounded.

The earthquake hit at 5:54 a.m., caving in tile roofs and sending walls crashing down. Survivors screamed as they ran from their homes, some clutching bloodied children and the elderly.

The quake was the latest in a series of disasters to hit Indonesia: The 2004 tsunami that killed 131,000 people in Aceh province, terrorist attacks, a widening bird flu outbreak, and the threat of eruption from nearby Mount Merapi.

The quake's epicenter was 50 miles south of the volcano, and activity increased soon after the temblor. A large burst spewed hot clouds and sent debris cascading some two miles down its western flank. No one was injured because nearby residents had already been evacuated.

Officials said the famed 7th century Borobudur Buddhist temple, one of Indonesia's most popular tourist attractions, was not affected. But Prambanan, a spectacular Hindu temple to the southeast, suffered serious damage, with hundreds of stone carvings and blocks scattered around the ancient site.

It will be closed to the public until archeologists are able to determine whether the foundation was damaged, said Agus Waluyo, head of the Yogyakarta Archaeological Conservation Agency. Close to 1 million tourists visit the Borobudur and Prambanan temples every year.

International agencies and nations across Europe and Asia pledged millions of dollars in aid and prepared shipments of tents, blankets, generators, water purification equipment and other supplies. The United States promised $2.5 million in emergency aid; the European Union granted $3.8 million.

Indonesian Quake Survivors Hunt for Food, Clothing

[Shammu]

First Tropical Storm of Season Forms off Mexico's Pacific Coast

Sunday , May 28, 2006

MEXICO CITY — Aletta became the first tropical storm of the season in the eastern Pacific on Saturday when it formed about 100 miles south of the Mexican coastal resort of Acapulco.

Forecasters predicted it would head toward land but later change direction, skirt the coast and head out to sea.

Mexico issued a tropical storm watch for a 240-mile stretch of coast from Punta Maldonado to Zihuatanejo, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami reported.

Tropical Storm Aletta had winds of about 40 mph and was expected to reach wind speeds as high as 60 mph. Forecasters were predicting heavy rainfall to the Mexican coast.

The storm was moving north at about 7 mph, but forecasters did not expect it to reach the coast before turning back out to sea.

First Tropical Storm of Season Forms off Mexico's Pacific Coast

[Shammu]

Indonesia quake toll tops 5,000
Mon May 29, 2006 8:50am ET12

By Achmad Sukarsono

YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Aid trickled in on Monday for survivors of an earthquake that killed more than 5,000 people on Indonesia's Java island, but tens of thousands of homeless still foraged on their own for food and shelter.

Many survivors who were injured or whose homes were destroyed by the quake spent a rainy second night in the open on the grounds of hospitals and mosques or in makeshift shelters beside the rubble of their houses.

The 6.3 magnitude quake's official death toll reached 5,136, according to the government's Social Affairs Department, though the governors of the two affected provinces, Central Java and Yogyakarta, put the figure at a lower 4,395.

The tremor early on Saturday was centered just off the Indian Ocean coast near Yogyakarta, the former Javanese royal capital.

Government figures put the number of injured at 2,155, but the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said there were 20,000 injured and more than 130,000 homeless, of which 40 percent are children.

Hospital lists of the dead also showed children and old people, who had a harder time scrambling from houses as they collapsed, as disproportionately represented among the victims.

Those who survived were meanwhile struggling to get by.

In the hard-hit Bantul area of the island, Sutrisno, carrying his 13-month-old baby son, said his village had been reduced to rubble. He has been living in a tent since Saturday. 

"Food is still hard to get, aid is still lacking ... I don't know when help will come," he told Reuters.

Suripto, from the same village, said: "I don't know why help has been slow to (reach) the poor people."

Many who lost their homes lack even tents, and government and aid agencies say shelter is a top aid priority, along with clean water. The United Nations will ship three, 100-bed field hospitals, tents, medical supplies and generators in the next three days.

"These are the most pressing needs," said a spokeswoman for U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland.

Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla announced on Monday that survivors would be given 200,000 rupiah ($21) each for clothes and household items, while families would get 12 kg (26.4 lb) of rice. People will also be compensated for damaged homes.

BURYING THE DEAD

Yogyakarta's provincial secretary, Bambang Susanto Priyohadi, said the pace of aid needed to be stepped up.

"The aid has come since last night from the U.N. But when I checked this morning, the amount is very minimal," he said. "For such a large number of victims, we at least need 5,000 tents. At the moment we only have less than 100.

Priyohadi said evacuating the dead was another priority.

"It has been two days and those bodies probably have decomposed and if we do not move them away from the pockets of population, they could turn into sources of disease."

Up to 35,000 homes and buildings in and around Yogyakarta were reduced to rubble.

Although the aid was arriving slower than some wished, the international community has rallied, pledging millions of dollars as well as medical relief teams, disaster experts and emergency supplies.

Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari said doctors and medicines were being sent to affected areas to prevent outbreaks of diseases such as measles and malaria.

Health and hygiene kits for tens of thousands of people as well as water supply carriages, had reached the hardest-hit area of Bantul, John Budd, UNICEF spokesman in Jakarta, told Reuters.

The World Food Programme was distributing 30 tonnes of enriched biscuits, enough to feed 20,000 people for a week.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla has put relief and rebuilding costs at around 1 trillion rupiah ($107 million) and said the government aimed to complete reconstruction within a year.

The quake badly damaged power facilities and deprived tens of thousands of electricity, and authorities were struggling to deliver aid to a disaster zone of hundreds of square miles.

Social Minister Bachtiar Chamsyah urged understanding. "I have already told you that the area destroyed by the quake is very large ... We need time.

Saturday's quake was the latest misfortune to hit the world's fourth-most populated country after Islamic militant bombings, bird flu outbreaks and the massive 2004 quake and tsunami.

A vulcanologist said the quake heightened activity at nearby Mount Merapi, a volcano that has been rumbling for weeks and sporadically emitting hot lava and highly toxic hot gas.

Saturday's quake was one of the worst disasters in modern Indonesia's history. The worst, the December 26, 2004 quake and its resulting tsunami, left some 170,000 people dead or missing around Aceh. Indonesia sits on the Asia-Pacific's so-called "Ring of Fire", marked by heavy volcanic and tectonic activity.

Yogyakarta, 25 km (16 miles) from the coast, is a tourist center. Ancient and protected heritage sites such as Borobudur, the biggest Buddhist monument on earth, dot the area.

Borobudur survived the quake but the Prambanan Hindu temple complex suffered some damage. Local media said parts of Yogyakarta's centuries-old royal palaces had also collapsed.

Indonesia quake toll tops 5,000

[Shammu]

Volcano spews smoke, lava in the Comoros

Mon May 29, 4:26 AM ET

MORONI, Comoros - A volcano has erupted on the main island of the Comoros archipelago in the Indian Ocean, forcing dozens of people to flee their homes, residents said Monday.

The 7,700-foot Mount Karthala began belching lava and smoke Sunday evening, lighting up the sky with orange flames that were visible in many parts of Grand Comore, the largest of the three Comoros islands, said Julie Morim of the Karthala Observatory.

Morim said she flew over the volcano with South African soldiers and saw "a lava lake with a big fountain in the middle." She said there was no danger of the lava flowing over the rim of the crater.

Mount Karthala last erupted in April 2005. No one was killed, but tens of thousands of villagers left their homes.

Moroni, the capital of the Comoros with a population of 50,000, sits at the foot of the western slope of Mount Karthala.

The Comoros, a former French colony with a population of 770,000, lies about 185 miles east of Mozambique and 250 miles west of Madagascar.

Volcano spews smoke, lava in the Comoros

[Shammu]

Volcano's lake turns from blue to red

By RAY LILLEY, Associated Press Writer Sun May 28, 11:58 PM ET

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A lake atop a rumbling volcano on the South Pacific island of Ambae has changed color from blue to bright red, puzzling scientists.

Mount Manaro, one of four active volcanos on the island nation of Vanuatu, has been showing signs of erupting for only the second time in 122 years.

"We are still ... trying to understand this change of color in the lake from blue to red," Geology and Mines Department director Esline Garae said by telephone Monday from Vanuatu's capital, Port Vila.

She said two scientists on Ambae Island were monitoring Lake Vui as well as seismic activity on the 5,000-foot Mount Manaro.

If the change of color "comes from new activity in the ground or just chemical change in the lake — these are two things I want to know from those guys before I can say anything" about the danger posed by the volcano, she said.

Mount Manaro last erupted in November 2005, forcing half the island's 10,000 inhabitants to evacuate their villages. An 1884 eruption killed scores of villagers.

New Zealand volcanologist Brad Scott said Lake Vui's color was "quite a spectacular red," but what had caused it "is the $64,000-question."

He said water samples from the lake would help determine what was happening in the crater and below it.

The color change could be a chemical process or gas from molten volcanic rock or something else coming into the lake, he said.

Three other volcanos in Vanuatu — Lopevi, Yasur and a two-crater volcano on Ambryn Island called Marum and Benbow — have spewed rocks, ash, smoke and steam in recent weeks.

Vanuatu, formerly the New Hebrides Islands, is made up of 13 main islands located about 1,400 miles east of Australia.

Volcano's lake turns from blue to red

[Shammu]

90 die from extreme heat in Pakistan

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) -- At least 90 people have died of dehydration, diarrhea and sunstroke in a monthlong spell of extreme summer heat in eastern Pakistan, an official said Monday.

Two weeks ago, 75 people had been reported to have died of heat in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province but the has toll increased, said Javed Asghar, a health adviser to the provincial government.

"At least 90 people have died due to the heat" in the past month or so, he said.

Many of the deaths were reported in southern Punjab and were caused by dehydration, diarrhea, sunstroke and other heat-related ailments, he said.

Summer temperatures have shot up across Pakistan, reaching 49 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit) in some parts of Punjab.

Rain is forecast for some areas in Punjab, which will likely provide relief from the heat, said Ikramuddin, an official at the state-run Meteorological Department in Lahore, Punjab's capital. Like some Pakistanis he uses only one name.

Temperature fell in Lahore Sunday night when the city received some rain, he said.

90 die from extreme heat in Pakistan

[Shammu]

Mysterious glowing clouds targeted by NASA

17:07 26 May 2006
NewScientist.com news service
Maggie McKee

Glowing, silvery blue clouds that have been spreading around the world and brightening mysteriously in recent years will soon be studied in unprecedented detail by a NASA spacecraft.

The Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) mission will be the first satellite dedicated to studying this enigmatic phenomenon. Due to launch in late 2006, it should reveal whether the clouds are caused by global warming, as many scientists believe.

"Noctilucent" clouds, which glow at night, form in the upper atmosphere, at an altitude of about 80 kilometres, and their glow can be seen just after sunset or just before sunrise.

"Even though the Sun's gone down and you're in darkness, the clouds are so high up, the Sun is still illuminating them," explains AIM principal investigator James Russell at Hampton University in Virginia, US. Russell described the mission on Thursday at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Baltimore, Maryland, US.
Bigger and brighter

The clouds were first observed above polar regions in 1885 – suggesting they may have been caused by the eruption of Krakatoa two years before. But they have spread to latitudes as low as 40° in recent years. "They're also getting brighter, and each year there are more of them than in the previous year," Russell told New Scientist.

Many researchers believe this proliferation is down to human activities. "You need three things for clouds to form: particles that water can condense onto; water; and cold temperatures," says Russell. He says pollution and global warming are thought to be responsible for two of those factors.

Atmospheric water may be boosted by livestock farming and the burning of fossil fuels, which spew methane into the atmosphere: sunlight breaks down the methane, releasing hydrogen that can bond with oxygen to form water.

And greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide actually help to cool the upper atmosphere, where the clouds form. That is because the atmospheric density is so low at that altitude that the gases cannot trap heat as they do closer to the Earth's surface, and the heat is simply radiated into space.
Alien ice

As yet, it is not clear what the source of the particles that "seed" the clouds is. The clouds form during the local summer months, when the pole is bathed in perpetual sunlight. So one possibility is that warm air rising above the pole could carry dust upwards from lower atmospheric altitudes, onto which water can condense.

But the dust could also have a cosmic source, dropping into the atmosphere from space. "It may be there's a constant supply of particles but a changing temperature and water environment makes the conditions right to grow ice particles," says Russell.

AIM will use three instruments to study the clouds. One is a suite of four cameras that will provide panoramic views of the poles and clouds. Another, called the Solar Occultation for Ice Experiment (SOFIE), will study the chemistry of the ice particles and clouds – measuring molecules such as methane. It will also observe the Sun through the atmosphere to measure how much sunlight is dimmed by dust in the atmosphere.

The third instrument, called the Cosmic Dust Experiment, is a plastic film that sits on top of the spacecraft. It will record every "hit" from a dust particle that rains down on it from space.
Cloud umbrella

"We want to know why the clouds form and why they vary," says Russell. "If there is a human connection, it'll tell us that we're doing something to the atmosphere and that we need to determine what the long-term consequences are."

Some scientists speculate that the clouds might actually help mitigate global warming, says Russell. "If these clouds were to continue to grow and cover broad areas of Earth, they would form something like a thin, semi-transparent umbrella," he told New Scientist. "They would reduce the amount of solar rays making it to the ground, so they could actually reduce the effects of global warming."

The AIM satellite will launch into a polar orbit from California's Vandenburg Air Force Base. Russell says it may lift off in December, but its exact launch date has not been set because mission planners are still working to minimise vibration forces on the spacecraft due to its Pegasus XL launch rocket.

Mysterious glowing clouds targeted by NASA

Luke 21:11 There will be mighty and violent earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences (plagues: malignant and contagious or infectious epidemic diseases which are deadly and devastating); and there will be sights of terror and great signs from heaven.

[Shammu]

Ring of fire goes through new cycle
Leigh Dayton, Science writer
May 29, 2006
AFTER a powerful earthquake flattened homes and buildings on the central Indonesian island of Java on Saturday, residents could be forgiven for wondering if there's a worrisome geological link between the magnitude 6.2 quake that hit near the ancient city of Yogyakarta, the rumbling of nearby volcano Mount Merapi and the devastating 2004 Boxing Day earthquake and tsunami.

If so, they'd be correct, says Priyadi Kartono, of Indonesia's National Co-ordinating Agency for Surveys and Mapping.

"There is certainly a connection between the December 26 quake that triggered giant waves that swept much of Aceh and the one that jolted Yogyakarta on Saturday," he said.

Dr Kartono told The Jakarta Post that both events were triggered by the movement of the tectonic plates underlying Indonesia and the Indian Ocean.

The quake that struck near the famed temple at Borobudur was only the most recent in a series of disasters to hit Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, because of its geologically unstable position on top of the bumping and grinding plates.

"Yogyakarta and the rest of Java island are located in the Ring of Fire belt, where the Eurasian and Indo-Australian plates stack on each other and create regular movements which cause earthquakes," said Wahyu Supri Hantoro, of the Bandung-based Centre of Geotechnology at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences.

Indonesia is home to the world's largest collection of volcanoes - 76 - and after the Boxing Day disaster University of Ulster seismologist John McCloskey predicted more quakes due to the stress placed on neighbouring faults.

Before Saturday's earthquake, so-called pyroclastic flows of ash and hot toxic gases began spilling from Merapi, in the heart of central Java.

Bambang Dwiyanto of the Indonesian Energy and Mineral Ministry warned yesterday that the earthquake might trigger a larger eruption from the volcano.

"It will influence the activities of Mount Merapi, particularly in the lava dome," said Dr Dwiyanto, head of the ministry's geological division.

The recent earthquake and activity on Mount Merapi raises concerns that a so-called "super-volcano" on nearby Sumatra might erupt.

If it did, the catastrophic blast would toss hundreds of thousands of cubic kilometres of rock and ash into the atmosphere, dwarfing the eruptions of Krakatoa, Mount St Helens, Pinatubo and any conventional volcanic explosions over the past tens of thousands of years.

"These super-volcanoes are potentially the greatest hazard on earth, the only greater threat being an asteroid impact from space," Monash University vulcanologist Ray Cas told The Australian last year.

Ring of fire goes through new cycle

[Shammu]

Storms kill 28 in India, wreak havoc in financial capital
Jun 01 7:23 AM US/Eastern
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Lightning storms and monsoon rains lashing parts of India have killed at least 28 people and wrought havoc in the country's commercial capital Mumbai, officials and witnesses have said.

Strong winds with speeds of about 65 miles (100 kilometres) per hour, lightning and heavy rains killed at least 18 people and injured 21 in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh overnight, police said Thursday.

"At least 18 people were killed in different incidents of house collapse and lightning," police spokesman Manish Awasthi told AFP in Lucknow, provincial capital of Uttar Pradesh.

The Press Trust of India (PTI), quoting officials, said nine people had been killed Thursday by lightning in various incidents in the eastern state of West Bengal.

In the western economic hub of Mumbai, the early-arriving monsoon caused travel chaos and brought back memories of last year's devastating floods that left hundreds dead.

One man drowned in the stormy sea off Mumbai and commuters were stranded for hours late Wednesday because of flooded roads and late-running trains.

The monsoon rains arrived several days earlier than expected and city officials had not yet completed anti-flooding measures, including finishing a project to dredge a river that runs through the city.

"It has taken one heavy rainfall at the beginning of the season for the authorities to have been caught unprepared," said an editorial in the DNA newspaper.

Environmentalist Anil Bhatia said the city was better prepared for the rains this year after record rainfall in July 2005 swept away slum dwellings, cut electricity and severed the city from the rest of the country for a day.

Neglected drainage facilities and rampant illegal development, that left natural waterways blocked, were blamed for many of the problems.

Bhatia said decades of people flowing into the city of nearly 20 million, development and concreting of green spaces had all added to the city's drainage woes.

"Land use change has become so predominant, I would say it would take up to five years before we have a (anti-flooding) system in place again," he said.

The annual monsoon rains began sweeping through India in late May and the several months of rain are vital to the country's agriculture.

Further south, off the coast of Kerala state, the Coast Guard was Thursday searching for two boats with 22 fishermen aboard that went missing last week, PTI said.

Police said the worsening weather conditions influenced by the annual monsoon were causing concern for the safety of the fishermen.

Storms kill 28 in India, wreak havoc in financial capital

[Shammu]

A New Category for Super Hurricanes?

By Diane Lacey Allen
The Ledger

2006 HURRICANE NAMES
Alberto
Beryl
Chris
Debby
Ernesto
Florence
Gordon
Helene
Isaac
Joyce
Kirk
Leslie
Michael
Nadine
Oscar
Patty
Rafael
Sandy
Tony
Valerie
William

LAKELAND -- Before the monstrous Hurricane Katrina slammed Louisiana and Mississippi last year, it strengthened into a jaw-dropping Category 5 -- the benchmark for the most destructive hurricanes on the Saffir-Simpson rating scale.

Katrina grew well beyond the 156 mph that put it into the highest possible category. Before its run in the Gulf was over, its winds intensified to 175 mph.

Today, as hurricane season begins, forecasters warn of another active season.

The latest prediction from William Gray's team at Colorado State University calls for 17 named storms for the 2006 season. Nine storms are expected to become hurricanes, and five of those are expected to have winds of 111 mph or greater.

Meteorologists continue to debate whether global warming is fueling more powerful storms. But the past two seasons have seemingly turned the Atlantic and Gulf into hurricane machines.

Whether this year will bring more super storms remains to be seen, but science publications and bloggers have posed another question: Is it time to add a Category 6 to adequately describe storms with winds of at least 175 mph?

Hurricane forecasters have no "Finger of God" to denote a killer storm as Hollywood did in the weather-cult classic "Twister."

But the real-life Fujita Scale, which ranks tornadoes by the amount of destruction caused, has a theoretical "F6." Such a rating is reserved for the "inconceivable tornado" with winds of 319 mph to 379 mph.

Gray's hurricane forecast for this season, which runs through the end of November, says there is an 82 percent chance that at least one major hurricane will make landfall in the U.S. this season. There is a 69 percent chance a major hurricane will strike the East Coast, including the Florida peninsula, and a 38 percent chance one will strike the Gulf Coast, according to the forecast.

The prediction follows the 2005 season, which was the most destructive in recorded history, with 28 named storms, 15 hurricanes and seven intense hurricanes.

Katrina was the costliest and one of the five deadliest hurricanes to strike the United States, according to a National Hurricane Center report.

If weather gurus were to expand the Saffir-Simpson scale, Category 6 would probably start at 175 mph. And storms like Katrina would make the cut.

But some weather experts wonder whether the idea of a Cat 6 is little more than fodder for a movie plotline. A recent film, after all, pushed the survival envelope to "Category 7: The End of the World."

"I'm not sure what that does more than terrify people further," said Mark Johnson, a University of Central Florida statistics professor who helps run a Web site that projects storm damage.

"I don't really know if it would make that big a difference. When you're talking at Category 5, you're already talking about a catastrophic hurricane. What's more than catastrophic?" said Jennifer Colson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Ruskin.

There is also a concern that adding a category would put a Category 3 storm, which at 111-mph-plus is considered a major hurricane, in the middle of the pack and conceivably could convince people that a strong storm is "average."

"It might," said Colson. "It's really hard to say what people's perception of it might be. Certainly, we've had so much activity the past two years. People say, `Well, I've been through this category storm and it wasn't that bad.' The more you're through it, the more it kind of deadens your senses to it . . . It's always our concern, even with thunderstorms."

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Hurricane Center do not have plans to change the present Saffir-Simpson scale.

"That doesn't mean it won't happen down the road," said Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist and public affairs officer with the NOAA National Weather Service headquartered in Silver Spring, Md. "But right now, there are no plans."

And there's no real rush, says Jay Baker, a behavioral geographer with Florida State University.

"Until we start seeing a lot of Category 5 hurricanes making landfall and start seeing a difference between 175 mph storms and 155 mph storms . . . I don't see any advantage to an additional category," said Baker.

Only three recorded Cat 5 hurricanes have made landfall in the United States. They were the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, Hurricane Camille in 1969 and Hurricane Andrew in 1992, according to NHC statistics. Katrina, which was a Category 5 in the Gulf, weakened before landfall.

But storms fluctuate in strength -- and categories.

"I kind of prefer numbers rather than a category," said UCF's Johnson. "It's not just wind speed, but also the influence of the waves and storm surge."

Feltgen says it doesn't matter where a storm ends up being classified.

"A hurricane is a hurricane is a hurricane," he said. "They are as deadly as a Category 1 as a Category 5."

A New Category for Super Hurricanes?