Worldwide Wicked Weather
2011 Earthquakes Visualization Maps
Even if you weren't watching closely last year, you couldn't miss the large number of strong earthquakes. Over time it is hard to grasp how many there were. So someone in Japan put together the two videos below. The one on the left shows all the earthquakes in the world above magnitude 4.5 as a timelapse video. The video runs 9 minutes and 2 seconds.
Japan suffered the most devastating earthquake of 2011, a 9.0 magnitude on March 11. There were 15,846 confirmed deaths, 3,320 missing and 6,011 reported injuries. The video on the right shows the visualizations maps for Japan only. In this case they have visualized all of the earthquakes above M3.0. These videos help you appreciate just how bad 2011 really was.
Mysterious Dolphin Beachings Persist on Cape Cod
(CBS/AP) WELLFLEET, Mass. - There's no good spot on Cape Cod for dolphins to continue this winter's massive and unexplained beachings, but a group of 11 has chosen one of the worst.
The remote inlet down Wellfleet's Herring River is a place where the tides recede fast and far, and that's left the animals mired in a grayish-brown mud one local calls "Wellfleet mayonnaise."
Walking is the only way to reach the animals, but it's not easy. Rescuers crunch through cord grass and seashells before hitting a grabby muck that releases a footstep only after a sucking pop. One volunteer hits a thigh-deep "hole" and tumbles forward. The mud covers his face like messy war paint the rest of the morning.
Rescuers make a quick assessment once they reach the animals. One dolphin is dead, but the other 10 appear healthy, and some bang their tails in the shallows, struggling to move. Rescuers decide the best course is to wait for the incoming tide to free the dolphins, then boats can try to herd them out of trouble. The only other alternative is hauling them to a waiting trailer, and open water. But the trailer is nearly a mile away. -Source
Cyclone Giovanna Remains Threat to Madagascar
After wreaking havoc across Madagascar, Tropical Cyclone Giovanna continues to spin off the country's southwestern coast. Southern Madagascar will remain at risk for locally damaging winds and flooding rain through the weekend.
Earlier this week, Giovanna roared across east-central Madagascar as it made landfall near Toamasina with 120-mph winds, equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane. At least 65 people are confirmed dead with over 11,000 homeless, according to Newstime Africa.
Saturday morning, EST, the center of T.C. Giovanna was located off the southern tip of Madagascar, about 570 miles south-southwest of Antananarivo, a city in central Madagascar. -Source
Disasters, Continuing to Climb, Inflict Record Insurance Losses in 2011
Natural disasters struck the globe at a violent pace last year that reflects a rapid rise of damaging weather events like thunderstorms, floods and wildfires over the past 30 years.
There were 820 major disasters in 2011, including a parade of springtime storms in the United States that unleashed nearly 1,900 tornadoes, barrages of pelting hail and flood-feeding rainfall. Last year's 69 major thunderstorms killed 617 Americans and caused $47 billion in damages, nearly $25 billion of which was insured. That shattered the previous record for insured losses by about $12 billion. It was set in 2010.
The string of thunderstorms underscores a climbing incidence of meteorological catastrophes in the past three decades. Insurers could count on losing about $2 billion from storm damage in the early 1980s. Now the annual average loss is above $10 billion, according to the giant reinsurer Munich Re. -Source
New Report Says Fukushima at High Risk for Earthquakes
A 5.2-magnitude earthquake has struck near the eastern coast of Honshu, Japan. This quake occurred at 7:34 a.m local time on Wednesday, Feb. 5. The quake occurred quickly after the release of a new study revealing that there is an increased earthquake risk for the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
The magnitude 9 earthquake that struck Japan on March 11, 2011, has reactivated a seismic fault close to the Fukushima plant, according to a report released by the European Geosciences Union.
"They're on the ring of fire, the area around the Pacific Ocean that has active volcanoes and is quite active in terms of its faultiness," AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist Mike Pigott said. "It's always been historically active. There's been a recent concentration of earthquake activity. When you have a big quake like that (referring to last March), you're not just going to see aftershocks for days, weeks or months. They can potentially last for years as the fault tries to re-settle." -Source
2011 World Earthquakes Visualizations Maps
2011 Japan Earthquakes Visualizations Maps
