Clipmarks | amgumen's 'disasters' clips

Going Down: Death Rates Due to Extreme Weather Events

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 05:37:12 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com

During our discussion of the preposterous news story from Pravda, claiming this headline: “Earth begins to kill people for changing its climate” a scientist dropped in to provide us some insight into his latest paper. It was highly relevant at the time since one of the repeating themes we see in the mainstream (and not so mainstream) media is the attribution of increasing death due to severe weather events to “global warming”.

But that is not supported by the real data, it is a false premise.

Despite the recent spate of deadly extreme weather events – such as the 2003 European heat wave and the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons in the USA – aggregate mortality and mortality rates due to extreme weather events are generally lower today than they used to be.

Globally, mortality and mortality rates have declined by 95 percent or more since the 1920s.

Clip Source: wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com

Clip Source: wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com

But there is always this recurring complaint that “there are more natural disasters now than 50-100 years ago”

avalanche control structures

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 20:16:06 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: deputy-dog.com

the deflecting dam

deflecting dams exist with one objective in mind: to divert the flow of an oncoming avalanche away from the populated area beneath the shifting snow. this is done using angled walls and one of the most successful examples can be found at flateyri in iceland (see above) where a triangular deflecting dam can be clearly seen above the village. the dam was built following a fatal avalanche in 1995 and since its construction the dam has successfully diverted at least 2 more large avalanches.

the catching dam

supporting structures

Tags: disasters, technology

Fires in Southern California

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 04:22:33 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: earthobservatory.nasa.gov

Fueled by the powerful Santa Ana winds that whip from the hot inland desert to the cool Pacific Ocean, 12 large wildfires raged in California on October 23, 2007. The fires clouded the air over the Pacific with dense plumes of smoke that stretched across hundreds of kilometers.

The lower image shows a close-up view of the Witch Fire, burning between Los Angeles and San Diego. At the time the image was taken, the fire had burned 145,000 acres, destroying hundreds of homes and commercial buildings, and threatening thousands more,

As the top image shows, the Witch Fire was not the only destructive fire burning in southern California. As of October 23, fires from the Mexican border to north of Los Angeles had burned more than 1,300 homes and forced more than half a million people from their homes, reported CNN. Windy weather pushed the flames through brush and grass dried from drought.

Tags: disasters, nature

Ten deadliest natural disasters

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 02:38:31 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: www.answers.com

Rank	Event	Location	Date	Death Toll (Estimate)
1.	1931 Yellow River flood	Yellow River, China	Summer 1931	1,000,000-4,000,000
2.	1887 Yellow River flood	Yellow River, China	September-October 1887	900,000-2,000,000
3.	1970 Bhola cyclone	Ganges Delta, East Pakistan (Now Bangladesh)	November 13, 1970	500,000-1,000,000
4.	1938 Yellow River flood	Yellow River, China	1938	500,000-900,000
5.	1556 Shaanxi earthquake	Shaanxi Province, China	January 23, 1556	830,000
6.	1839 India Cyclone	Coringa, India	November 25 1839	300,000+
7.	1642 Kaifeng Flood	Kaifeng, Henan Province, China	1642	300,000
8.	2004 Indian Ocean earthquake/tsunami	Indian Ocean	December 26 2004	280,000
9.	1976 Tangshan earthquake	Tangshan, China	July 28, 1976	242,000*
10.	1138 Aleppo earthquake	Syria	1138	230,000

Ten deadliest natural disasters

Tags: environment, climate, science, interesting

Greece Fire

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:20:39 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: www.zuzafun.com

Tags: photography, disasters

Titanic collection

Sun, 20 May 2007 23:27:47 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov

A view of the bow and railing of the RMS Titanic

Clip Source: www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov

A view of the bow of the RMS Titanic

Clip Source: www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov

A view of the steering motor on the bridge of the Titanic

Clip Source: www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov

Rusticle hanging from the stern section of the RMS Titanic showing secondary growths during maturation.

Clip Source: www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov

A view of the bow of the Titanic from a camera mounted on the outside of the Mir I submersible.

Clip Source: www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov

A view of the bathtub in Capt. Smiths bathroom. Rusticles are observed growing over most of the pipes and fixtures in the room.

Tags: science, interesting, disasters

Tsunami risk of asteroid strikes revealed

Tue, 08 May 2007 03:20:23 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Tsunamis triggered by asteroid impacts cause a disaster similar to the 2004 Asian tsunami once every 6000 years on average, according to the first detailed analysis of their effects.

Researchers have assumed that tsunamis would make ocean impacts more deadly than those on land

The pair first calculated the chance of various size asteroids reaching the Earth's surface, and then modelled the tsunamis that would result for asteroids that hit the oceans.

For example, the model shows that waves radiating from the impact of a 300-metre-wide asteroid would carry 300 times more energy than the 2004 Asian tsunami. You can view movies of impact simulations in the North Atlantic, South Pacific, Gulf of Mexico and Pacific (all in .mov format).

Tags: disasters, environment, geology, science

Deadliest Tsunamis

Tue, 08 May 2007 00:40:57 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: geology.about.com

10 Deadliest Mediterranean Sea Tsunamis

Date	Source	Deaths
1410 BCE	Greek islands	100000+
28 Dec 1908	Italy	10000+
6 Feb 1783	Italy	1500+
11 Jan 1693	Italy	1000+
20 Sep 1867	Greece	12
16 Oct 1979	France	10
13 Dec 1990	Italy	6
9 Jul 1956	Greece	4
20 Oct 1859	Greece	2
11 Sep 1930	Italy	2

10 Deadliest Indian Ocean Tsunamis

Date	Source	Deaths
26 Dec 2004	Sumatra	225000
27 Aug 1883	Java/Sumatra	36500
26 Jun 1941	Andaman Sea	5000
3 Sep 1861	Sumatra	1700
16 Jun 1819	Arabian Sea	1543
28 Nov 1945	Arabian Sea	1000+
16 Feb 1861	Sumatra	905
2 Apr 1762	Bay of Bengal	500
19 Aug 1977	Sunda Islands	500
4 Jan 1907	Sumatra	400

10 Deadliest Atlantic Tsunamis

Date	Source	Deaths
1 Nov 1755	Portugal	60000
7 Jun 1692	Jamaica	2000
30 Jan 1607	England/Wales	2000
3 Oct 1780	Jamaica	300
7 May 1842	Haiti	300
6 Dec 1917	Nova Scotia	200
4 Aug 1946	Dominican Rep	100
7 Sep 1882	Panama	65
11 Oct 1918	Puerto Rico	42
18 Nov 1929	Newfoundland	29

10 Deadliest Pacific Tsunamis

Tags: disasters, geology, science

the K-T extinction – 65.0 m.y. ago

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 23:29:15 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: www.mala.bc.ca

the catastrophic extinction at the end of the Cretaceous (the K-T extinction – 65.0 m.y. ago) was the result of the impact of major extra-terrestrial body

On the other hand, one of the popular alternative explanations – a 500,000 year long period of eruptive activity of the Deccan basalts in India – still has some life in it

The massive clouds of dust raised by the impact blocked sunlight sufficiently to produce global darkness for as much as a few years.

Both within the oceans and on land was life decimated to the extent that only around 25% of species survived.

With near-zero oceanic productivity at the sites studied, deposition of limestone ceased, and the only deposition was the slow accumulation of suspended clay particles.

After several thousand years the ecosystem recovered and limestone deposition was re-established.

There was a high turnover rate for planktonic species to begin with, but after several thousand more years populations began to stabilize.

Tags: disasters, environment, geology, science, volcanoes

The Siberian Traps were the largest volcanic eruption in Earth history

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 23:16:34 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk

The Siberian Traps were the largest volcanic eruption in Earth history and they occured right at the same time as the largest extinction event in Earth history

Present coverage including associated pyroclastics is just under 2 million square kilometres which is an area greater than that of Europe.

Estimates of the original volume of the traps range from 1 million cubic km up to 4 million cubic km.

The eruptions lasted at full intensity for about a million years which coincides with the extinction

The largest eruption in historic memory occured on Iceland in 1783-84 spewing out 12 cubic km of lava onto the island (the Siberian Traps erupted about 3 million cu km)

Ash and sulphur aerosols can remain in the upper atmosphere for 100's to 1000's of years which would be enough to cause a significant glaciation. At the end of the Permian period the biggest ever drop in sea level in history occurred.

Tags: climate, disasters, environment, geology, science, volcanoes

No acceleration in sea level rise

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 05:23:08 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: www.climateaudit.org

sea levels were higher during the Medieval Warm Period (1000 years ago) than the depths of the Little Ice Age (550 years ago) and are currently between those two extremes today. It’s also apparent that the sea-levels have been broadly rising since at least the end of the last Ice Age.

The water level measurements show no acceleration in sea level rise

It’s not always well documented where the measurements for the data on which the [IPCC] scenarios are based

Tags: change, climate, geology, disasters, people

Gassy blast from prehistoric volcanoes heated Earth

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 15:56:05 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Ancient volcanoes may have caused a dramatic warming of the Earth's atmosphere that raised sea temperatures and killed off many marine species, resulting in a "planetary emergency,"

That triggered a 222,000-year period of warming that raised sea surface temperatures by 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees F) in the tropics and more than 6 degrees Celsius (11 degrees F) in the Arctic and increased the acidity of the oceans.

The resulting "planetary emergency," as scientists have called it, wiped out 30 percent to 50 percent of the planet's deep sea creatures.

volcanic eruptions began about 61 million years ago and then it took another 5 million years for the mantle to weaken, the continent to thin and the molten material to rise to the surface

Scientists made the link between the volcanoes and the warming period, known as the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum, by matching layers of ash in east Greenland with those in marine sediments in the Atlantic Ocean.

Tags: climate, disasters, environment, geology, nature

April 26th, 2007- 21st Anniversary of the Chernobyl Disaster

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 04:52:05 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: www.belarusguide.com

Tags: disasters, environment

Death from across the galaxy

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 16:56:39 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: www.world-science.net

Recently, gamma-ray bursts were recognized as some of the most energetic astrophysical events since the Big Bang” that gave birth to our universe

It is undeniable that damage to the biota could be severe if a burst strikes (or has struck) the planet.

at least one has already struck Earth, causing the so-called Ordovician Mass Extinction 450 million years ago. The Earth’s second most devastating extinction, it destroyed an array of the life forms that had flourished until then, restricted in that time to the seas

For thick-atmosphere planets, a gamma-ray burst’s ultraviolet rays would kill 90 percent of D. radiodurans at distances ranging from 13,000 to 62,000 light years, about two-thirds the galactic width, the researchers calculated

Gamma-ray bursts are thought to emerge mainly from the poles of a collapsing star

Planets not lying in these cones would be comparatively safe; the chief worry is for those that do

Tags: climate change, disasters, environment, geology, science

The Nation's Top 10 Natural Disasters

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 00:07:11 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: www.breitbart.com

Prior to Hurricane Katrina, the nation's 10 deadliest natural disasters.

1. Galveston (Texas) Hurricane, 1900, estimated 8,000 deaths

2. Great Okeechobee Hurricane in Florida, 1928, estimated 2,500-plus

3. Johnstown, Pa., Flood, 1889, estimated 2,200-plus

4. Louisiana Hurricane, 1893, 2,000-plus

5. South Carolina-Georgia Hurricane, 1893, 1,000-2,000

6. Great New England Hurricane, 1938, 720

7. San Francisco Earthquake, 1906, 700

8. Georgia-South Carolina Hurricane, 1881, 700

9. Tri-State Tornado in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, 1925, 695

10. Labor Day Hurricane that hit the Florida Keys, 1935, 405

Tags: climate, disasters