Weather-Related Disasters Average to 335 Events Every Year Since 2005

Summary: Weather-related disasters are becoming almost daily occurrences worldwide, with an average of 335 events every year in the decade between 2005 and August 2015.

3D view, using TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) Precipitation Radar, from the west of rainfall structure within area of disturbed tropical weather; on Tuesday, May 6, 2014, rain fell at rate of 66 millimeters per hour (about 2.6 inches) in stormy area of India (5.2 degrees N 77.1 degrees E); tallest thunderstorm towers, forming over Sri Lanka, had heights pushing to altitudes above 13 kilometers (about 8 miles); storm's heavy winds produced "prawn rain" as fish, uplifted by storm from rivers, rained upon village of Chitaw; images and captions by Hal Pierce (SSAI/NASA GSFC): Generally not subject to copyright in the United States, via NASA Global Precipitation Measurement

Weather-related disasters average almost daily occurrences in the decade between 2005 and August 2015, according to the United Nations report The Human Cost of Weather Related Disasters published online Nov. 23, 2015.

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction bases its findings upon a 10-year database of weather-related disasters whose occurrences average to 335 events per year. UNISDR considers weather-related disasters events that affect at least 100 people, kill at lease 10 or require declarations of a state of emergency or international assistance. Thirty years of data-recording demonstrate for weather-related disasters recurrence intervals that are up 14 percent from 1995 to 2004 and twice those from 1985 to 1994.

Asia emerges as the most impacted region.

UNISDR finds the greatest number of global weather-related disasters since 2005 occurring by country in the United States, with a 10-year-total of 472 events.

Combined totals of 1,166 give Asia the regional lead with 441 weather-related disasters in China, 288 in India, 274 in the Philippines and 163 in Indonesia. The last two decades have peaks in 2002 with 100 million experiencing China’s sandstorm and 200 million India’s drought, and in 2008 with Cyclone Nargis’s 138,000 deaths. The Emergency Events Data Base identifies the highest incidence of and the severest impacts from drought in Africa, with EM-DAT records of 136 events since 1995.

Floods and heat waves join droughts and storms as EM-DAT’s world-deadliest weather-related disasters.

Asia claims seven of the top 10 countries for highest absolute number of people affected by weather-related disasters and also holds the regional lead for weather-related disasters: Christiana Figueres @CFigueres, via Twitter Nov. 26, 2015

Atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that causes the global warming that produces heat waves, keeps rising every year over the last three decades.

EM-DAT lists 90 percent of all heat wave deaths as happening in high-income countries and 89 percent of all storm-related deaths as occurring in low-income countries. Debarati Guha-Sapir, professor at the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) at UCL University in Louvain, Belgium, mentions that “Floods are definitely increasing.” Margareta Wahlström, head of UNISDR, notes that heavy rainfall events and poor construction planning cause floods, which claim 2.3 billion affected, homeless, injured people since 1995.

More than 47 percent of global weather-related disasters since 1995 occur as floods.

Weather-related disasters provoke 16,000 cold-related, 148,000 heatwave-related, 157,000 flood-related and 242,000 storm-related deaths.

Estimated $250 billion to $300 billion yearly losses quantify weather-related events at 90 percent of global disasters, versus 10 percent for geophysics-related earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes.

The CRED and UNISDR co-authored report reveals: “While scientists cannot calculate what percentage of this rise [in weather-related disaster incidences and impacts] is due to climate change, predictions of more extreme weather in future almost certainly mean that we will witness a continued upward trend in weather-related disasters in the decades ahead.”

The report serves up sobering facts for the 21st Climate Change Conference of Nov. 30 to Dec. 12, 2015, in Le Bourget suburb of Paris, France.

Weather and Climate Related Disasters in the Last 20 Years, infographic by UN OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) Design Team, published by UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016: UNISDR @unisdr, via Twitter Nov. 26, 2015

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

3D view, using TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) Precipitation Radar, from the west of rainfall structure within area of disturbed tropical weather; on Tuesday, May 6, 2014, rain fell at rate of 66 millimeters per hour (about 2.6 inches) in stormy area of India (5.2 degrees N 77.1 degrees E); tallest thunderstorm towers, forming over Sri Lanka, had heights pushing to altitudes above 13 kilometers (about 8 miles); storm's heavy winds produced "prawn rain" as fish, uplifted by storm from rivers, rained upon village of Chitaw; images and captions by Hal Pierce (SSAI/NASA GSFC): Generally not subject to copyright in the United States, via NASA Global Precipitation Measurement @ http://pmm.nasa.gov/node/1117

Asia claims seven of the top 10 countries for highest absolute number of people affected by weather-related disasters and also holds the regional lead for weather-related disasters: Christiana Figueres @CFigueres, via Twitter Nov. 26, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/CFigueres/status/669934240365215746

Weather and Climate Related Disasters in the Last 20 Years, infographic by UN OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) Design Team, published by UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016: UNISDR @unisdr, via Twitter Nov. 26, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/unisdr/status/669817042942492672

For further information:

Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters CRED and The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction UNISDR. The Human Cost of Weather Related Disasters 1995–2015.
Available @ http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/COP21_WeatherDisastersReport_2015_FINAL.pdf

Christiana Figueres @CFigueres. 26 November 2015. ".@UN report shows 90% of disasters are weather-related. Another wake up call ahead of #COP21." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/CFigueres/status/669934240365215746

“The Human Cost of Weather Related Disasters (1995 – 2015).” ReliefWeb > Updates > 23 November 2015.
Available @ http://reliefweb.int/report/world/human-cost-weather-related-disasters-1995-2015

Miles, Tom. 23 November 2015. “Weather Disasters Occur Almost Daily, Becoming More Frequent: U.N.” Reuters > Edition U.S. > Green Business.
Available @ http://reliefweb.int/report/world/human-cost-weather-related-disasters-1995-2015

UNISDR @unisdr. 26 November 2015. "The state of the world since COP1 1995. We need a #COP21 deal to reduce these losses." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/unisdr/status/669817042942492672

Humans Share 70 Percent of Their Genes With Atlantic and Pacific Ocean Acorn Worms

Summary: Apparently humans share 70 percent of their genes with two Atlantic and Pacific Ocean acorn worms, according to a study published in Nature Nov. 18, 2015.

"Caption The acorn worm Saccoglossus kowalevskii is common in brackish, shallow water on the Atlantic coast. Its newly sequenced genome is telling biologists about the genes responsible for pharyngeal gills in the hemichordates and chordate structures such as the pharynx, which in humans includes the jaws, tongue, voicebox and various glands and muscles between the mouth and throat."; credit Chris Lowe, Stanford University: No usage restrictions, via EurekAlert!

Humans appear to share 70 percent of their genes with two Atlantic and Pacific Ocean acorn worms, according to a study published online Nov. 18, 2015, in the open-access journal Nature.

The 61 co-authors base their findings upon the results of genome sequencing for two species, Ptychodera flava off Hawaii and Saccoglossus kowalevskii in the Atlantic Ocean. The entire genetic material from each of the two marine worms with acorn-shaped heads can be compared with other sequenced genomes, such as that of humans. The comparison of the genomes of people and the worms describes a 70 percent match on 14,000 of the human total of 20,000 to 25,000 genes.

The results expose a common shared ancestry.

Research co-leaders Takashi Kawashima in Marine Genomics and Oleg Simakov in Molecular Genetics at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Japan find deuterostomal lineages.

Scientists give the name deuterostomes (“mouth second” literally, because the anal opening develops before the oral) to all of that ultimate ancestor’s backboned and spineless descendants. Oleg Simakov, study corresponding author, holds: “Acorn worms are our most ancient deuterosome relatives, dating back to the origin of deuterostomes, around 570 million years ago.”

The comparative genome sequencing of acorn worms, people and 32 animals indicates that all deuterostomes appear to share the same 8,716 gene families (similar gene sets).

The co-researchers judge particularly research-worthy a deuterostome-only gene cluster regarding breathing and feeding.

Scientists know of only deuterostome group members as having specialized slits near the esophagus to let water bypass the digestive tract and circulate through the mouth. The co-researchers link the genes that control specialized feeding in acorn worms to those that develop gills in some deuterostomes and pharynxes and thyroids in others. Seventy percent genomic overlaps may not produce similar physical features when the controlling genes let complex human structures and simple worm structures get similar jobs done.

Daniel Rokhsar of Okinawa Institute’s Molecular Genetics Unit notes: “The presence of these slits in acorn worms and vertebrates tells us that our last common ancestor also had them, and was likely a filter feeder like acorn worms today.

Further research offers insights into only humans and other deuterostomes sharing with algae and bacteria 12-plus genes affecting protein modification and secondary and sialic acid metabolisms. It promises to help reconstruct genetic divergence paths from the original shared deuterostome ancestor by sequencing the genomes of other chordate (back-supported) and echinoderm (hedgehog-skinned) descendants. The combined expertise and cumulative experiences qualify the 61 co-researchers for answering these and other evolutionary questions by “defining the deuterostome ancestor and illuminating chordate origins.”

Research into the original deuterostome ancestor raises questions regarding the ultimate human ancestor, Mitochondrial Eve of 140,000 years ago and Y-chromosomal Adam of 338,000 years ago.

Genome-sequencing serves to close the 232,000-year gap between emergences of deuterostomes and humans.

inch-long acorn worm, with slits highlighted; photo by Casey W. Dunn courtesy of Nature: UC Berkeley News @UCBerkeleyNews, via Twitter Nov. 19, 2015

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

"Caption The acorn worm Saccoglossus kowalevskii is common in brackish, shallow water on the Atlantic coast. Its newly sequenced genome is telling biologists about the genes responsible for pharyngeal gills in the hemichordates and chordate structures such as the pharynx, which in humans includes the jaws, tongue, voicebox and various glands and muscles between the mouth and throat."; credit Chris Lowe, Stanford University: No usage restrictions, via EurekAlert! @ https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/900358; (EurekAlert! news release URL @ https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/765529); (former URL @ http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-11/uoc--awg111915.php)

inch-long acorn worm, with slits highlighted; photo by Casey W. Dunn courtesy of Nature: UC Berkeley News @UCBerkeleyNews, via Twitter Nov. 19, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/UCBerkeleyNews/status/667419714696671233

For further information:

Bhatia, Guneet. 20 November 2015. "Humans Share 70 Percent Of Their Genes With This Slimy Seabed Worm." International Business Times.
Available @ http://www.ibtimes.com/humans-share-70-percent-their-genes-slimy-seabed-worm-2193289

Doctor, Rina Marie. 19 November 2015. "Genome Sequencing Reveals Slimy Seabed Worms Share 70 Percent Of Human Genes." Tech Times.
Available @ http://www.techtimes.com/articles/108398/20151119/genome-sequencing-reveals-slimy-seabed-worms-share-70-percent-of-human-genes.htm

Feltman, Rachel. 19 November 2015. "This weird worm is a surprisingly close cousin of ours." The Washington Post > News > Speaking of Science.
Available @ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/11/19/this-weird-worm-is-a-surprisingly-close-cousin-of-ours/

Reuters. 18 November 2015. "Worm species is distant human relative." YouTube.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyr0j8Kutw0

Sanders, Robert. 19 November 2015. "Acorn worm genome reveals gill origins of human pharynx." Berkeley News > Mind & Body, Research, Science & Environment.
Available @ http://news.berkeley.edu/2015/11/19/acorn-worm-genome-reveals-gill-origins-of-human-pharynx/

Simakov, Oleg, et al. "Hemichordate genomes and deuterostome origins." Nature 527 (Nov. 26, 2015): 459-465. DOI: 10.1038/nature16150
Available @ http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v527/n7579/full/nature16150.html

UC Berkeley News @UCBerkeleyNews. 19 November 2015. "We diverged from the acorn worm 570 million years ago. Here's what became of our gills." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/UCBerkeleyNews/status/667419714696671233

University of California-Berkeley. 19 November 2015. "Acorn worm genome reveals gill origins of human pharynx." EurekAlert! > Public Releases.
Available @ http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-11/uoc--awg111915.php

Weisberger, Mindy. 18 November 2015. "You Share 70% of Your Genes with This Slimy Marine Worm." LiveScience > Animals.
Available @ http://www.livescience.com/52843-acorn-worm-genome-sequencing.html

Five Minutes Between Magnitude 7.5 and 7.6 Earthquakes in Peru

Summary: Magnitude 7.5 and 7.6 earthquakes in Peru November 24, 2015, have no casualties or damages despite gas, mining, and oil projects in inland Madre de Dios.

USGS ShakeMap of second Peruvian earthquake, 7.6 magnitude, Nov. 24, 2015, at 22:50 Universal Coordinated Time: USGS ShakeMap, Public Domain, via USGS Earthquake Hazards Program @ USGS Earthquake Hazards Program

No casualties or damages are reported from magnitude 7.5 and 7.6 earthquakes in southern Peru that occurred within five minutes of one another Nov. 24, 2015, in the Madre de Dios region.

Southern Peru borders Bolivia, near whose northwestern frontiers is the magnitude 7.5 earthquake's occurrence at 5:45 p.m. Eastern Standard Time [EST] (22:45 Coordinated Universal Time [UTC]). Peru’s southern borders continue northward along Brazil, near whose western borders lies the occurrence of the ensuing, magnitude 7.6 earthquake at 5:50 p.m. EST (22:50 UTC). The United States Geological Survey described the earthquakes as deep, down 373.2 miles (601.61 kilometers) with the first and 380.1 miles (611.71 kilometers) with the second.

Locals entertained a third earthquake’s “moderate” occurrence.

The USGS found epicenters in the Madre de Dios region 107 miles (172.19 kilometers) west-northwest of Iberia and 184 miles (296.12 kilometers) northwest of Puerto Maldonado.

Within 7.0 to 7.9 magnitude ranges, the earthquakes got “strong” descriptions, for shaking Brasília 154 miles (247.84 kilometers) eastwards and Lima 423 miles (681 kilometers) westwards. Abraham Levy, director of the weather firm Ambiand, held: “It’s such a deep movement that it moves out further and is felt over a wider area.” The earthquake zone is in the sparsely populated jungle interior where fewer than 1,000 people live even though gas, mining, and oil projects proliferate despite earthquakes.

Geophysicists join seismologists in considering Tuesday’s seismic activity generally unthreatening to scattered populations.

Inland locations well away from the coast kept Tuesday’s two earthquakes from generating tsunamis, which form according to the epicenter and the magnitude of the earthquake.

Coastal Peru lies on the southeastern segment of the Pacific Ocean’s Ring of Fire of earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes from the Americas, through Asia, to Australia. Depth, epicenter and magnitude merge to generate the biggest, longest tsunamis when subduction zones, where the Pacific Plate goes under the various continental plates, produce earthquakes. Fault lines need not be visible to be dangerous, as evidenced by the tsunami-generating subduction zone trenches off American, Asian, Australian, New Zealander and Tongan shores.

The South American trench off coastal Chile and southern Peru offers ample proof.

Geophysicists and seismologists peg the descriptions of moderate, strong, major and severe to the respectively increasingly severe earthquake moment magnitudes of 6, 7, 8, and 9.

The 9.5 magnitude earthquake of Valdivia, Chile, May 22, 1960, qualified the South American trench for the most disastrous earthquake-generator in the world, ever since 1900. But Peruvians remember the Peru-Chile trench as the source Aug. 15, 2007, of the 7.9 magnitude earthquake responsible for 519 deaths and the destruction of Pisco. An earthquake that, like Tuesday’s, endangers no people starts Paddington Bear on transoceanic stowaways from Peru to London after Uncle Pastouzo’s death and Aunt Lucy’s retirement.

USGS reports tally no wildlife impacts so Aunt Lucy is safe in Lima.

map of earthquakes 1900-2016 along South American arc (Nazca Plate and South America Plate); devastating Aug. 15, 2007, coastal Pisco earthquake is designated as M8.0 2007: USGS (U.S. Geological Survey), Public Domain, via USGS Earthquake Hazards Program

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

USGS ShakeMap of second Peruvian earthquake, 7.6 magnitude, Nov. 24, 2015, at 22:50 Universal Coordinated Time: USGS ShakeMap, Public Domain, via USGS Earthquake Hazards Program @ USGS Earthquake Hazards Program @ https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us100040x6#shakemap?source=us&code=us100040x6

map of earthquakes 1900-2016 along South American arc (Nazca Plate and South America Plate); devastating Aug. 15, 2007, coastal Pisco earthquake is designated as M8.0 2007: USGS (U.S. Geological Survey), Public Domain, via USGS Earthquake Hazards Program @ https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/tectonic/images/southamerica_tsum.pdf

For further information:

Associated Press. 25 November 2015. “Magnitude-7.5 Quake Shakes Sparsely Populated Area of Peru.” Fox News > World.
Available @ http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/11/25/magnitude-75-quake-shakes-sparsely-populated-area-peru/

Bond, Michael. 2014. A Bear Called Paddington. Illustrated by Peggy Fortnum. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Byrne, Kevin. 26 November 2015. “Two Magnitude-7.6 Earthquakes Strike Eastern Peru.” AccuWeather > News.
Available @ http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/breaking-magnitude-75-earthqua-1/53806101

King, Paul. 2014. Paddington [(DVD) videorecording]. Beverly Hills, CA: Anchor Bay Entertainment.

"M 7.6 -- 173km WNW of Iberia, Peru." USGS Earthquake Hazards Program > Earthquakes > Earthquake Lists, Maps, and Statistics > World -- Magnitude 7+ in 2015.
Available @ https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us100040ww#executive

"M 7.6 -- 211km S of Tarauaca, Brazil." USGS Earthquake Hazards Program > Earthquakes > Earthquake Lists, Maps, and Statistics > World -- Magnitude 7+ in 2015.
Available @ https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us100040x6#executive

“Magnitude 7.5 Quake Strikes Peru: USGS.” Daily Times > Foreign > November 25, 2015.
Available @ http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/foreign/25-Nov-2015/magnitude-7-5-quake-strikes-peru-usgs

"M 8.0 -- near the coast of central Peru." USGS Earthquake Hazards Program > Earthquakes > Earthquake Lists, Maps, and Statistics > World -- Magnitude 7+ in 2015.
Available @ https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usp000fjta#executive

"Seismotectonics of South America (Nazca Plate Region)." USGS Earthquake Hazards Program > Earthquakes > Earthquake Lists, Maps, and Statistics > World -- Magnitude 7+ in 2015.
Available @ https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us100040x6#region-info

USGS Earthquakes @USGSEarthquakes. 24 November 2015. "7.6 - Peru-Brazil Border Region: Date: Tues, 24 Nov 2015 22:50:52 UTC Lat ..." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/USGSEarthquakes/status/669319417529024512

Armed, Dangerous Atlantic Blue Sea Slug in Queensland, Australia

Summary: The armed, dangerous Atlantic blue sea slug floats past the Australian Royal Navy and the Border Force to wash up on beaches in Queensland, Australia.

Washed ashore at Bronte Beach, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Atlantic blue sea slug is also known as blue glaucus, blue ocean slug, blue sea slug, lizard nudibranch and sea swallow; Sunday, March 3, 2013, 18:25: Sylke Rohrlach from Sydney, CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

Armed and dangerous and Handle with Care advisories never appear on Glaucus atlanticus when the Atlantic blue sea slug evades Australian Royal Navy and Border Force vessels and floats to Australian shores.

The Atlantic blue ocean mollusk brings stunning blue iridescence and subtle grey greenness to white-sanded beaches in Queensland, northeast Australia, through a recently stranded specimen spotted Nov. 20, 2015, by Lucinda Fry. Mother Nature codes into brilliant body colors cautions of unexpected resistance and unpleasant consumption for potential predators.

Taxonomists do likewise with scientific classification systems since zoologists consider the Atlantic blue sea mollusk an echinoderm (hedgehog skin). Hard, minute, needlelike formations of calcium carbonate emerge on the Atlantic blue marine slug’s colorful exterior.

Eyewitnesses to live and washed-up specimens and researchers of museum collections find as many as 84 fingerlike cerata (wax-looking shell) protruding from the interior of the armed and dangerous blue alien. The spicules give terrifying looks to Atlantic blue ocean slug diminutive, slender, 3-centimeter- (1.18-inch-) long exteriors of bilateral (two-sided) symmetry, creeping tube feet and minimal exoskeleton. The mini-needles have defensive roles and storage capacities through the hardness of the mini-spikes and the poison within their interiors.

The Atlantic blue sea slug is a fearless predator of such hydrozoans (water animals) as jellyfish and polyps.

Scientists judge the Atlantic blue marine mollusk’s top defensive adaptations to be exterior countershading and mini-spiking and interior discs and mucous.

The Atlantic blue ocean mollusk keeps poison from the Portuguese man-of-war stored inside the spicules to cause death to natural enemies and pain to human handlers. Hard discs and protective mucous let the Atlantic blue sea mollusk swallow the Portuguese man-of-war’s cnidoblasts (nettle cells) filled with nematocysts (explosive stinging capsules and threads) without suffering the consequences that nevertheless are experienced by the armed and dangerous blue alien’s prey.

Countershading makes sure that the other defensive adaptations work since the Atlantic blue marine slug has body colors of blue, blue-green and grey.

No one and no thing notices the Atlantic blue ocean slug floating quietly through surface tension on the waters of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans.

The ability to swallow air bubbles for storage in the belly and the capability to take on the look of surface waters thanks to a blue under-side and the below-surface look through a grey upper-side offer ample opportunities for the Atlantic blue sea slug to elude flying and swimming predators by floating upside-down from one destination to another and from one food chain encounter to the next.

Life cycles and natural histories in the busiest southern routes of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans provide photo opportunities for amateurs and specialists, locals and residents, when predilections for warm currents draw the Atlantic blue marine mollusk, alive or dead, to the beaches of Australia, Mozambique and South Africa.

Atlantic blue sea slug (Glaucus atlanticus) out of water; Wednesday, Sep. 12, 2012: Imtorn, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Washed ashore at Bronte Beach, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Atlantic blue sea slug is also known as blue glaucus, blue ocean slug, blue sea slug, lizard nudibranch and sea swallow; Sunday, March 3, 2013, 18:25: Sylke Rohrlach from Sydney, CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blue_dragon-glaucus_atlanticus_(8599051974).jpg

Atlantic blue sea slug (Glaucus atlanticus) out of water; Wednesday, Sep. 12, 2012: Imtorn, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glaucus_atlant..jpg

For further information:

DNews. 23 November 2015. "Captivating Blue Dragon Sea Slug Washes Up in Australia." Seeker.
Available @ http://news.discovery.com/animals/captivating-blue-dragon-sea-slug-washes-up-in-australia-151123.htm

Epic Wildlife. 7 June 2013. "Deadly Sea Creature - Blue Angel." YouTube.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MfLTRkPHpo

Gravity May Reshape Innermost Martian Moonlet Phobos Into Rocky Ring

Summary: Gravity may reshape innermost Martian moonlet Phobos into a rocky ring after its future breakup, a study published Nov. 23 in Nature Geoscience finds.

artist's impression of ringed Mars resulting from gravitational crushing of Martian moonlet Phobos; "Caption Mars could gain a ring in 10-20 million years when its moon Phobos is torn to shreds by Mars gravity."; credit Tushar Mittal using Celestia 2001-2010, Celestia Development Team: No usage restrictions, via EurekAlert!

Millions of years in the future, when innermost Martian moonlet Phobos gravitationally breaks up into orbiting debris, Mars may share with the solar system’s gas giants of Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn and Uranus the prominent feature of a ring system.

A study published online Nov. 23, 2015, in Nature Geoscience suggests that the heavily damaged, porous, weak materials composing much of the larger and innermost Martian moonlet, Phobos, will break up in 20 to 40 million years and then orbit as a ring of debris around the Red Planet for 1 million to 100 million years. Analysis by the study’s two authors reveals that not all of the moonlet’s fragments will be captured in an orbiting ring.

Co-authors Benjamin A. Black, a postdoctoral scholar, and Tushar Mittal, a graduate student, both in the Department of Earth and Planetary Science at the University of California, Berkeley, write: “Any large fragment of Phobos that is strong enough to escape tidal breakup will eventually collide with Mars in an oblique, low-velocity impact.”

The gravitational pull, known as tidal force or stress, increasingly exerted by Mars on Phobos is pulling the moonlet ever closer toward its planetary host, at a rate of 6.5 feet (2 meters) each century. The tidal force responsible for the inward migration by Phobos as an intact moonlet eventually will break up the ring, causing the debris to impact the Martian surface at the equatorial region, which lies in the plane of the moonlet’s orbit.

Co-author Tushar Mittal describes the innermost Martian moonlet’s exceptional status: “Phobos is unique in that it is currently one of only a couple of inwardly evolving moons in our solar system that we know about. However, since inwardly evolving moons inadvertently self-destruct, it is possible that more inwardly migrating moons may have existed in the past.”

Earth observers might have difficulty in viewing a Martian ring with an amateur telescope because the darkness of the moonlet’s composite materials does not encourage good light reflection. The shadow cast by the ring onto the Martian surface, however, could be discerned.

Mars is the only one of the four terrestrial, or Earth-like, planets with more than one moon. Its second moon, Deimos, is smaller and slower than Phobos and makes an outer orbit of Mars.

As the only known inwardly migrating moon in the solar system, Phobos offers glimpses of the early solar system through its distinctive satellite profile. The co-authors note: “Our analysis of the evolution of Phobos underscores the potential orbital and topographic consequences of the growth and self-destruction of other inwardly migrating moons, including those that met their demise early in our Solar System’s history.”

Grooves on Phobos, thought to be produced by tidal forces (mutual gravitation pull of Mars and Phobos), could indicate the moon's structural failure leading to possible shaping as orbital debris; credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona: Karl B. Hille, "Mars’ Moon Phobos is Slowly Falling Apart," NASA article Nov. 10, 2015, Generally not subject to copyright in the United States, via NASA

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

artist's impression of ringed Mars resulting from gravitational crushing of Martian moonlet Phobos; "Caption Mars could gain a ring in 10-20 million years when its moon Phobos is torn to shreds by Mars gravity."; credit Tushar Mittal using Celestia 2001-2010, Celestia Development Team: No usage restrictions, via EurekAlert! @ https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/572849; (EurekAlert! news release URL @ https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/541988); (former URL @ http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/104038.php?from=312689)

Grooves on Phobos, thought to be produced by tidal forces (mutual gravitation pull of Mars and Phobos), could indicate the moon's structural failure leading to possible shaping as orbital debris; credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona: Karl B. Hille, "Mars’ Moon Phobos is Slowly Falling Apart," NASA article Nov. 10, 2015, Generally not subject to copyright in the United States, via NASA @ https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/phobos-is-falling-apart;
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA Goddard Photo and Video), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/22531952669

For further information:

Black, Benjamin A.; and Tushar Mittal. "The demise of Phobos and development of a Martian ring system." Nature Geoscience, vol. 8 (2015): 913-917. Published online Nov. 23, 2015. DOI: 10.1038/ngeo2583
Available @ http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ngeo2583.html#affil-auth

GeoBeats News. "Scientists Say Mars Could End Up With A Ring." YouTube. Nov. 23, 2015.
Available @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdYuG7lnLJw

Redd, Nola Taylor. "Mars May Become a Ringed Planet Someday." Space.com > Science & Astronomy. Nov. 23, 2015.
Available @ http://www.space.com/31195-mars-may-get-rings-like-saturn.html
Zubritsky, Elizabeth. "Mars’ Moon Phobos is Slowly Falling Apart." NASA > Mars. Nov. 10, 2015.
Available @ https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/phobos-is-falling-apart

Sheet Web Spiders Invade North Memphis Fields and Houses in Tennessee

Summary: Sheet web spiders invade North Memphis fields and houses in Tennessee during Thanksgiving week, according to WMC Action News 5's report Nov. 23, 2015.

photographs of sheets of spider silk in North Memphis by WMC Action News 5 @WMCActionNews5, via Facebook Nov. 23, 2015

Frost-like spider webs are taking over a half mile (0.81 kilometers) of southwestern Tennessee in the area of May Street and Chelsea Avenue in North Memphis, according to WMC Action News 5's report Nov. 23, 2015.

The spider webs bring just days before Thanksgiving the frosty precursors of a white Christmas to the grasses of the Afro-American historic 19th- and 20th-century district in downtown Memphis. Residents calculate the harmless sheet web spider populations to run in the millions. They describe spider invasions from the fields to house exteriors and interiors.

Ida Morris, a North Memphis resident interviewed by WMC Action News 5, explains that “I’ve seen about 20 on my porch just in the last day.”

Neighborhood resident Debra Lewis finds that “It’s like a horror movie. They’re just in the air; they’re flying everywhere. They [are] all on the house, on the side of the windows.” The sheet web spiders get inside the same way that people do, according to neighborhood resident Frances Ward: “When I got up this morning, it was like spiders all over my door; they were coming in my house.” Neighborhood residents hurry their families inside and out of houses to minimize the entry points.

Ida Morris indicates that residents need help: “Clean this area up and spray for these spiders and make it safe. There are kids running around. A spider could bite the kids or anything.”

Susan Riechert, former president of the Arachnological Society and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in Knoxville at the University of Tennessee, judges the sheet-like web-making and sudden swarms not at all unusual for the animal, the location and the season: “Young juvenile spiders of most families disperse by sending out a swath of silk threads that may be over a meter [3.28 feet] in length. Particular air currents favor ballooning. This would explain the fact that thousands to hundreds of thousands may take off at the same time. Caught by the air currents, the spiderlings have no control over where they will land, but it is not surprising that they may fall in the same area.”

Mild autumns keep survival rates high. Ballooning events leave ecosystems healthy when spiders consume springtime aphids, flies, leafhoppers and mosquitoes. Professor Reichert minimizes the wait until early 2016: “Totally harmless. Without mouth parts that would even be large enough to pierce our skin.”

Whether using fangs and venom glands or not, spiderlings number among unpleasant surprises since Memphis Zoo curator Steve Reichling cautions: “It’s a mass dispersal of the millions of tiny spiders that have always been in that field, unnoticed till now. It could be juveniles -- millions -- in a big emergence event, or adults of a tiny species -- probably a sheet web spider -- leaving for some reason possibly knowable only to them.”

spiderling at takeoff point (high point in habitat) for ballooning (catching air or electric currents by releasing threads from abdomen); sketch by Chris Buddle: Chris Buddle @CMBuddle, via Twitter May 23, 2015

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

photographs of sheets of spider silk in North Memphis by WMC Action News 5: WMC Action News5 @WMCActionNews5, via Facebook Nov. 23, 2015, @ https://www.facebook.com/WMCActionNews5/posts/10153292436207756

spiderling at takeoff point (high point in habitat) for ballooning (catching air or electric currents by releasing threads from abdomen); sketch by Chris Buddle: Chris Buddle @CMBuddle, via Twitter May 23, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/CMBuddle/status/602081602571743232

For further information:

Bill's Home Service @bugzaz. 24 November 2015. "Spider invasion in Memphis! You know who to call if it ever happened in Southern Arizona!" Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/bugzaz/status/669221766930141184

Chris Buddle ‏@CMBuddle. 23 May 2015. "From ballooning spiders to the taxonomy of ant-mimics . . . it is Spiderday!" Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/CMBuddle/status/602081602571743232

euronews (in English). 22 November 2015. "US: Giant spider web sets Memphis residents on edge." YouTube.
Available @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnQZuZoN5u4

Feltman, Rachel. 23 November 2015. "A Giant Blanket of Spiderwebs Appeared in Tennessee, But Don't Panic." The Washington Post > News > Speaking of Science.
Available @ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/11/23/a-giant-blanket-of-spiderwebs-appeared-in-tennessee-but-dont-panic/

Madden, Ursula. 20 November 2015. "Millions of Spiders Infest Mid-South Neighborhood." WMC Action News 5. Updated 23 Nov. 2015.
Available @ http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/story/30573866/millions-of-spiders-infest-mid-south-neighborhood

Nagesh, Ashitha. 21 November 2015. "Don't Panic, But a Town Has Just Been Taken Over by Millions of Spiders." Metro.
Available @ http://metro.co.uk/2015/11/21/dont-panic-but-a-town-has-just-been-taken-over-by-millions-of-spiders-5517606/

WMC Action News5 @WMCActionNews5. 23 November 2015. "At first glance this may just look like frost on the ground, but it's actually millions of spiders showing out in one Mid-South neighborhood." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/WMCActionNews5/posts/10153292436207756

Laser Beams Refrigerate Water in University of Washington Study

Summary: Infrared laser beams refrigerate water, according to a University of Washington study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Nov. 20, 2015.

"Caption As they are cooled by the laser, the nanocrystals developed by the UW team emit a reddish-green 'glow' that can be seen by the naked eye."; credit Dennis Wise/University of Washington: Usage restrictions -- With credit, via EurekAlert!

Laser beams are able not only to heat things up but also to cool them down, according to a study published Nov. 20, 2015, by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences for the multidisciplinary journal’s preprinted edition.

The study’s five co-authors base their findings upon their experiments with infrared laser beams cooling water by about 2.2 degrees Celsius (36 degrees Fahrenheit). The results of the experiments confirm and contradict previous research. They describe the refrigeration of water under everyday conditions and parallel earlier research regarding the laser refrigeration of bulk crystals in vacuums to temperatures around 90 degrees Kelvin (minus 183.15 degrees Celsius, minus 297.67 degrees Fahrenheit).

And yet lasers since the earliest experiments always emit heat.

Co-author Peter J. Pauzauske, assistant professor of materials science and engineering in Seattle at the University of Washington and scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, finds: “Typically, when you go to the movies and see Star Wars laser blasters, they heat things up. This is the first example of a laser beam that will refrigerate liquids like water under everyday conditions. It was really an open question as to whether this could be done because normally water warms when illuminated.”

Experiments with lasers heating things up go back to 1960 whereas those with beams cooling things down go back to demonstrations of 1995 at New Mexico’s Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The experiments in University of Washington laboratories have practical applications and theoretical implications even though cooling lasers may be available far later, not imminently early, in the 21st century. Immediate commercialization of the development, which runs “the laser phenomenon in reverse,” is postponed by the high costs, high power and intensive energy implicit in cooling laser beams with multiple crystals. Co-researchers Matthew J. Crane of the department of chemical engineering, Peter J. Pauzauskie, Paden B. Roder of the department of materials science and engineering, Bennett E. Smith of the department of chemistry and Xuezhe Zhou of the department of materials science and engineering judge designing the proper instrumentation and devising the proper method major hurdles already overcome.

Microscopic tractor beam-like laser traps keep one nanocrystal in place in a liquid-filled chamber for illuminating and interpreting its shadow as the liquid cools and the crystal changes from warmer blue-green to cooler red-green. The instrumentation and the method let the co-researchers refrigerate cell culture media and saline solutions featured in genetic and molecular research. The low-cost hydrothermal process may halt biological, defensive and telecommunications-lasered application meltdown.

Dr. Pauzauskie notes: “Few people have thought about how they could use this technology to solve problems because using lasers to refrigerate liquids hasn’t been possible before. We are interested in the ideas other scientists or businesses might have for how this might impact their basic research or bottom line.”

"Caption This instrument built by UW engineers (from left) Peter Pauzauskie, Xuezhe Zhou, Bennett Smith, Matthew Crane and Paden Roder (unpictured) has used infrared laser light to refrigerate liquids for the first time."; credit Dennis Wise/University of Washington: Usage restrictions -- With credit, via EurekAlert!

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

"Caption As they are cooled by the laser, the nanocrystals developed by the UW team emit a reddish-green 'glow' that can be seen by the naked eye."; credit Dennis Wise/University of Washington: Usage restrictions -- With credit, via EurekAlert! @ https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/875500; (EurekAlert news release URL @ https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/633232); (former URL @ http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/103463.php?from=311951)

"Caption This instrument built by UW engineers (from left) Peter Pauzauskie, Xuezhe Zhou, Bennett Smith, Matthew Crane and Paden Roder (unpictured) has used infrared laser light to refrigerate liquids for the first time."; credit Dennis Wise/University of Washington: Usage restrictions -- With credit, via EurekAlert! @ https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/103462.php?from=311951

For further information:

Langston, Jennifer. 16 November 2015. "UW team refrigerates liquids with a laser for the first time." UW Today.
Available @ http://www.washington.edu/news/2015/11/16/uw-team-refrigerates-liquids-with-a-laser-for-the-first-time/

NewsBeat Social. 23 November 2015. "Scientists Create Real-Life Freeze Ray." YouTube.
Available @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXVgtJFrtlo

Roder, Paden B. "Laser refrigeration of hydrothermal nanocrystals in physiological media." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 112, no. 49 (Dec. 8, 2015):15024-15029. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1510418112
Available @ http://www.pnas.org/content/112/49/15024.abstract

VOA News.23 November 2015. "Defying Logic, Lasers Used to Refrigerate Water." Voice of America > Science & Technology.
Available @ http://www.voanews.com/content/mht-lasers-used-to-refrigerate-water/3070351.html

Dark Matter in Triangulum II, Dead Dwarf Satellite of Milky Way Galaxy

Summary: Dead dwarf satellite Triangulum II has the universe's highest dark matter concentration, says a paper in The Astrophysical Journal Letters Nov. 20, 2015.

"This three-dimensional map offers a first look at the web-like large-scale distribution of dark matter, an invisible form of matter that accounts for most of the Universe's mass. The map reveals a loose network of dark matter filaments, gradually collapsing under the relentless pull of gravity, and growing clumpier over time. The three axes of the box correspond to sky position (in right ascension and declination), and distance from the Earth increasing from left to right (as measured by cosmological redshift). Note how the clumping of the dark matter becomes more pronounced, moving right to left across the volume map, from the early Universe to the more recent Universe."; credit NASA/ESA/Richard Massey (California Institute of Technology): Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A dead dwarf satellite appears to hold the universe’s record for highest concentrations of dark matter, according to a paper published Nov. 20, 2015, by The Astrophysical Journal Letters in its open-access edition.

The honor belongs to Triangulum II, a recently discovered compact stellar system at the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy. The faint, small dwarf galaxy 117,000 light years away from Earth contains about 1,000 stars. The DEIMOS (Deep Extragalactic Imaging Multi-Object Spectrograph) on W. M. Keck Observatory’s telescope II near the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii detects in Triangulum II’s galactic center six stars that are sufficiently luminous for examination of stellar velocity, inference of gravitational force and measurement of galactic mass.

Co-authors Judith G. Cohen and Evan N. Kirby of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Puragra Guhathakurta of the University of California Lick Observatory at Mount Hamilton and Joshua D. Simon of the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Pasadena estimate a total mass far greater than may be expected from considering only how observable matter makes Triangulum II appear.

The five co-authors find Triangulum II’s high mass and low luminosity similar to that of Segue 1, a Milky Way satellite and the universe’s faintest galaxy. Dead galaxies such as Segue 1 and Triangulum II generate no new stars. Both have a handful of central stars moving inexplicably faster than the other 1,000 stars.

One theory is dark matter, whose presence may be suspected when stars move unexpectedly fast. Supersymmetric WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) of dark matter jostle one another and, in the mutual annihilation, may produce gamma rays.

Astrophysicists know that dead, faint galaxies have theoretical likelihoods of emissions detectable by space-based gamma-ray observatories.

Results and theory lead Evan Kirby, Assistant Professor of Astronomy and study leader, to summarize: “The total mass I measured was much, much greater than the mass of the total number of stars -- implying that there’s a ton of densely packed dark matter contributing to the total mass. The ratio of dark matter to luminous matter is the highest of any galaxy we know.”

Triangulum II models dynamic equilibrium or tidal disruption. Ten co-researchers at France’s University of Strasbourg note in “Triangulum II: A Very Metal-Poor and Dynamically Hot Stellar System” of Oct. 16, 2015, for The Astrophysical Journal Letters: “We favor the scenario in which Tri II is a dwarf galaxy that is either disrupting or embedded in a stellar stream but cannot completely rule out that it could be a disrupting globular cluster.”

Dr. Kirby observes: “If it turns out that those [13] outer stars aren’t actually moving faster than the [6] inner ones, then the galaxy could be in what’s called dynamic equilibrium. That would make it the most excellent candidate for detecting dark matter with gamma rays.”

"Caption Dwarf galaxies have few stars but lots of dark matter. This Caltech FIRE (Feedback in Realistic Environments) simulation from shows the predicted distribution of stars (left) and dark matter (right) around a galaxy like the Milky Way. The red circle shows a dwarf galaxy like Triangulum II. Although it has a lot of dark matter, it has very few stars. Dark matter-dominated galaxies like Triangulum II are excellent prospects for detecting the gamma-ray signal from dark matter self-annihilation."; credit A. Wetzel and P. Hopkins, Caltech: Usage restrictions -- With image credit, via EurekAlert!

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

"This three-dimensional map offers a first look at the web-like large-scale distribution of dark matter, an invisible form of matter that accounts for most of the Universe's mass. The map reveals a loose network of dark matter filaments, gradually collapsing under the relentless pull of gravity, and growing clumpier over time. The three axes of the box correspond to sky position (in right ascension and declination), and distance from the Earth increasing from left to right (as measured by cosmological redshift). Note how the clumping of the dark matter becomes more pronounced, moving right to left across the volume map, from the early Universe to the more recent Universe."; credit NASA/ESA/Richard Massey (California Institute of Technology): Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:COSMOS_3D_dark_matter_map.png; CC BY 4.0 International, via ESA Hubble @ http://spacetelescope.org/images/heic0701b/

"Caption Dwarf galaxies have few stars but lots of dark matter. This Caltech FIRE (Feedback in Realistic Environments) simulation from shows the predicted distribution of stars (left) and dark matter (right) around a galaxy like the Milky Way. The red circle shows a dwarf galaxy like Triangulum II. Although it has a lot of dark matter, it has very few stars. Dark matter-dominated galaxies like Triangulum II are excellent prospects for detecting the gamma-ray signal from dark matter self-annihilation."; credit A. Wetzel and P. Hopkins, Caltech: Usage restrictions -- With image credit, via EurekAlert! @ https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/872160; (EurekAlert! news release URL @ ); (former URL @ https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/103633.php?from=312204)

For further information:

Caltech @Caltech. 18 November 2015. "Caltech's Evan Kirby finds #DarkMatter dominates in nearby dwarf galaxy." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/Caltech/status/667055959806599168

Dajose, Lori. 18 November 2015. "Dark Matter Dominates in Nearby Dwarf Galaxy." Caltech > News.
Available @ http://www.caltech.edu/news/dark-matter-dominates-nearby-dwarf-galaxy-48790

GeoBeats News. 21 November 2015. "Dead Galaxy Could Contain A Wealth of Dark Matter." YouTube.
Available @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYOug1V6-Mo

Kirby, Evan N., et al. 16 November 2015. "Triangulum II: Possibly A Very Dense Ultra-Faint Dwarf Galaxy." The Astrophysical Journal Letters, vol. 814, no. 1. DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/814/I/L7
Available @ http://arxiv.org/pdf/1510.04433v1.pdf

Navarro, Alyssa. 20 November 2015. "Dead Galaxy At Edge Of Milky Way Hosts Highest Concentration Of Dark Matter." Tech Times.
Available @ http://www.techtimes.com/articles/108824/20151120/dead-galaxy-at-edge-of-milky-way-hosts-highest-concentration-of-dark-matter.htm