Phoenix Dust Storm Timelapse

Above is a video of another massive dust storm consuming south Phoenix, Arizona on July 18, 2011. This one measured 3000 feet high. These storms occur when a strong wind front picks up loose sand and dust from the dry surface. They can often be triggered by major thunderstorms nearby. They are more common in the Arabian peninsula and the Sahara, two of the main terrestrial sources of airborne dust. Photographed below is a dust storm touching down in Al Asad, Iraq on April 27, 2005.

Japan Earthquake & Tsunami Footage

Here are a series of videos capturing the raw power of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck Japan. Videos captured massive waves hitting the port of Sendai city. Youtube erupted with cell phone videos documenting the flooding in nearby towns, a gigantic whirlpool forming, and an airport runway being submerged. This video was shot from inside the same airport as it faced the oncoming waves.

2012: The World Isn't Ending

The rumors have been flooding the internet for years and as we approach that infamous date, the media hype-machine is at its peak. You might hear words like Apocalypse, Armageddon, and Doomsday being loosely thrown around. Books have been published on the topic, programs about it have been aired on TV networks including The History Channel and The Discovery Channel, and a few years ago the major motion picture 2012, starring John Cusack, became one of the year's highest grossing films. So what's really going on here? Should we give up our jobs and focus on outfitting underground bunkers to make those last moments with our loved ones as pleasant as possible while we await our impending doom? Simply put: NO! There are a number of theories out there attempting to support this idea of mankind's demise, but they're all wrong:

The Mayan Calender

The Mayan Civilization lived by a Long Count linear calender lasting approximately 144,000 days, which was a period of time known as a b'ak'tun. According to Mayan stories of creation, the Gods failed in their first three attempted worlds. They succeeded on the fourth attempt and placed mankind into this world. The previous world was said to have ended after 13 b'ak'tuns (5125 years). The date marking the end of the third world and the start of the fourth world was set at August 11th or 13th, 3114 BC. This means that the current world will reach the end of its thirteenth b'ak'tun on December 21st or 23rd, 2012 AD.

Although the calender's cycle comes to an end, records show that the Mayans believed a new cycle would begin, just as it had in the past. Associating the end of the cycle with the end of the world has been called "a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in." In fact, the present day Mayan groups living in Guatemala have adopted an entirely new calendar system, and no longer consider the 13th b'ak'tun significant. Furthermore, Mayan elder Apolinario Chile Pixtun has acknowledged that "apocalypse" is a concept introduced by the Western world and has no connection with Mayan beliefs.

Polar Shift or Geomagnetic Reversal

This theory stems from observations that our planet's magnetic field is weakening, and implies that there will be a shift of the north and south poles. To add some more spice to the story, approaching solar storms are supposed to speed up the process. Some of this is partially true, in that the Earth does naturally go through geomagnetic reversals (the last one occurring 780,000 years ago) and we are affected by periodic solar storms.

The doomsday supporters try to paint the picture of this geomagnetic reversal as an overnight ordeal that will flip Earth and create chaos. In reality, the process is thought to take 5000 years to complete and has no particular start-date. In regard to the solar storms, astronomers do not expect the approaching storms to be anything out of the ordinary, and have found no evidence that links them to kick starting a polar shift.

Planet X Nibiru & Alien Invasion

These are two of the most imaginative theories. The first suggests that a massive unknown planet is on a collision course with Earth. This is simply impossible, since we would already be aware of the presence of such an object if it were supposed to hit us within the next two years. The second suggests hostile extraterrestrial lifeforms taking over. Sure, aliens could invade, but we have yet to prove that aliens exist, let alone are capable of invading.

Nostradamus & Einstein

Once all of the other theories have been exhausted, some people turn to the predictions of the great astrologer Michel de Nostradamus. His prophecies are gathered from four-line poems which were written in the 1500s. Analyzing the content of these poems is highly subjective and must be taken with a grain of salt, especially considering that they are written using vague, ambiguous language in an effort to avoid his own persecution by the Christian church.

A more modern figure, Albert Einstein, supposedly said something on the lines of: "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man." Not to play down the importance of bees on our planet, but we must keep in mind that Einstein was a physicist, not a beekeeper.

In this day and age, fear and paranoia run ramped through our society. Companies in different industries try to capitalize on this by feeding the public with sensationalism. It is important to maintain a healthy dose of skepticism when taking in this sort of information, especially when science-fiction writers are co-authoring documentaries on The History Channel. All in all, the world is not coming to an end on 2012, but if you still don't feel comfortable, listen to this statement released by Donald Yeomans, the head of NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission:

Russian Wildfires

Just yesterday Russian Federation President Dmitry Medvedev officially declared a state of emergency for seven regions in the middle of raging wildfires. The emergency zones are in the republics of Mariy El, Mordovia, Vladimir,Voronzeh, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and Ryazan. There will be a full scale involvement of Army and Interior Ministry troops to battle the fires. So far the death toll in the wildfires has risen to 40, the Interfax reported.

The incredible footage above was shot by a group of volunteers trying to evacuate the Tamboles village. For a moment they appear trapped in the midst of hell on earth. Warning: for those who understand Russian there is explicit language that might not be suitable for some readers.

Guatemala Sinkhole

Earlier this week a massive sinkhole opened up in Guatemala, which managed to suck up a three story building during the process. The hole, located in the dense downtown core of Guatemala City, is 30 meters across and 60 meters deep. This is the second major sinkhole in Guatemala to open up in the last three years.

A sinkhole is a naturally occurring cavity in the ground, frequently found in limestone bedrock, which is caused by water erosion as the liquid travels from the surface to the depths beneath. They often vary in size from less than a meter to several hundred meters both in diameter and depth. This hole in particular comes in the wake of Tropical Storm Agatha. The image above was released by the nation's own government to show the tremendous effects of the deadly storm. The video below (RussiaTV) shows footage of the sinkhole as well as some additional images:

Iceland Watches Katla Closely

The world has been severely impacted by the March 2010 eruption of glacial volcano Eyjafjallakokull. Flights coming in and out of Europe were halted for one week due to drifting volcanic ash and dust that made for potentially dangerous flying conditions. Recently most flights have been resumed, but the threat of an eruption still exists, and attention has been diverted to Katla, a neighboring volcano with a repeated history of even more violent eruptions.

Katla peaks at 1512 meters and is located east of the smaller glacier Eyjafjallajokull. It is also partially covered by the Myrdalsjokull glacier with an area of 595 km². The major concern for geophysicists is that the recent eruption will trigger an even more powerful eruption of Katla, which has been the historical trend. Eyjafjallojokull has blown 3 times in the past thousand years, in 920AD, in 1616, and between 1821 and 1823. Each time it set off Katla.

The volcano normally erupts every 40-80 years and its last eruption was in 1918, shown in the photograph above, which was sold at an auction to Bjornsog Toggle. Following the 2010 eruption Icelandic President Olafur Grimsson released a statement "the time for Katla to erupt is coming close... we [Iceland] have prepared... it is high time for European governments and airline authorities all over the world to start planning for the eventual Katla eruption".

Eruptions like this put our small world into perspective. One volcano erupts and it can have an enormous impact on the rest of the world. For example, consider Iceland's worst modern time eruption in 1783 when the Laki volcano blew. The lava shot 1.4 km into the air and more than 120 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide was released into the atmosphere, which would transform the world. The results included Britain's notorious "sand summer", creating havoc with harvests in France, and changing the climate so dramatically that New Jersey recorded its largest snowfall and Egypt experienced one of its most enduring droughts. For now we can only wait and hope for the best...

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Also known as the Pacific Trash Vortex, this massive accumulation of marine litter (mostly plastic) is located in the central North Pacific Ocean, approximately between 135 to 155W and 35 to 42N. The exact size of this floating island of garbage is unknown, although estimates range from the size of the state of Texas to one larger than the continental United States. Although the existence of this garbage buildup was predicted in a 1988 NOAA publication, its actual confirmed discovery did not come until 1997 when Charles Moore came across it after the Transpac sailing race. Oceanographers were alerted and gave the region the title "Eastern Garbage Patch" (EGP).

Marine debris has been amalgamating all over the world's oceans, and it is assumed that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch formed by the similar mechanisms: oceanic currents. The garbage patch is located in a seemingly stationary region of the North Pacific Ocean located in the middle of many strong currents. It draws in waste materials from across the entire ocean, including coastal waters off Japan and North America. As debris becomes trapped in the currents, the floating plastic is gradually moved towards the center by wind-driven surface currents. Moore's description of the patch as a massive accumulation of plastic is slightly misleading. The process of disintegration means that the plastic particles in most of the patch are actually too small to be seen. In a 2001 study, researchers found concentrations of plastics to be 334,721 pieces per km squared, with a mean mass of 11.27 lbs per km squared.

As the plastic is disintegrating into smaller and smaller particles, many of them are sinking deep into the ocean and affecting many levels of the food web. These small pieces of toxic-filled plastic have been known to be consumed by jellyfish, which are then eaten by larger fish. Some of the long-lasting larger pieces of plastics are consumed by marine birds and animals, including sea turtles and the albatross.

The initial cleanup steps are now underway as groups are taking samples and attempting to raise awareness of the issue. Make no mistake though, irreversible damage has already been done. Cleaning up the plastic will be a costly and difficult endeavor, one which might be thwarted by a buildup of more plastics likely to be occurring at a faster rate.

Yikes, Hurricane Ike!

Hurricane Ike has already raged through the Caribbean islands. It is currently a Category-2 and nearing on the coast of Texas, USA. The storms prognosis is not looking good for American residents, especially for those in Houston and Galveston. The whole area could be covered with 15-20 feet of water. This quote is taken directly from the National Weather Service:

"PERSONS NOT HEEDING EVACUATION ORDERS IN SINGLE FAMILY ONE OR TWO STORY HOMES WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH. MANY RESIDENCES OF AVERAGE CONSTRUCTION DIRECTLY ON THE COAST WILL BE DESTROYED. WIDESPREAD AND DEVASTATING PERSONAL PROPERTY DAMAGE IS LIKELY ELSEWHERE."

10's of thousands of people are already on the roads getting out of there. I will update the situation as news comes in.

Exploding Whale

This post might not be about something recent, but it's still quite remarkable. In 1970, a huge sperm whale beached at Florence, Oregon. In an attempt to deal with the massive rotting carcass, the Oregon Highway Division decided to blow it up using dynamite. Since this was a rare occurrence, they did not have any previous trials to investigate in order to determine the proper amount of dynamite to use.

This entire ordeal became famous after columnist Dave Berry wrote about it. The footage of the clean up gone wrong has circulated all over the internet, check it out here:

Hot Ground

The ground in a certain region of Southern California, in Ventura County, has reached a scorching temperature of over 800 degrees. This was noticed after the land got so hot that it started a brush fire and burned three acres last month. By the time firefighters hit the scene, nothing but smoldering dirt remained.

"We are a little perplexed at this point, to tell you the truth," the Ventura County Star quoted geologist David Panaro as saying. "This is not your usual geological detective story."

One theory is that natural hydrocarbons, such as oil, are burning deep in the earth and seeping out through cracks in the region, forcing the surface to quickly heat and generate smoke.

Allen King, a former geologist with the U.S. Forest Service recently stuck a thermometer into the ground and got a reading of 550 degrees — so hot that it melted the glue holding the sole of his boots together.

Montreal Anomaly

Two large tornado-like waterspouts were spotted over Montreal on June 23rd as a result of an approaching severe thunderstorm. Environment Canada confirmed that the first waterspout formed in Montreal's east end at 1:15 pm ET in the St. Lawrence River. Simultaneously, a second waterspout formed about 70 km northeast of the city.

This "waterspout" is a spinning funnel column of water and vapour that forms between a cloud and the earth. Generally they are weaker than a tornado, and usually occur in tropical regions. They are frequently reported in areas like Florida, off the coast of Key West.

Heads Up!

On September 16, 2007, a meteor traveling at 24,000 km/hour struck into the southern Peruvian town of Carangas. This 1 to 2 meter-long boulder created a 15 meter deep crater, shown above two days after impact.

Previous theories stated that objects like this would break apart and scatter before reaching the ground. New analysis of particles at the crash site indicate that the meteor stayed intact as it streamed through the Earth's atmosphere. Research presented this month at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference suggests that the fragments were likely trapped and smoothed into an aerodynamic shape by the shock wave created by its movement through the atmosphere.

The meteor's surprising arrival is making the scientific community question how many more may have similarly crashed into Earth. Although, I can't help but wonder how many more are still to come...

Extra Butter Please

The feud between activists and whaling fleets has been ongoing since last November. Recently, activists from a Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel have allegedly attacked a Japanese ship off the coast of Antarctica. Their method of "non-violent chemical warfare" was throwing containers filled with a mild form of acid made from rotten butter. Apparently, the acid stings if it comes in contact with the eyes.

Officials in Tokyo condemn these actions, claiming that four members of the Nisshin Maru's crew were injured. Sea Shepherd's Paul Watson, who is currently aboard the vessel, denies these allegations.

The Japanese plan to kill upwards of 900 minke whales + 50 fin whales during the expedition. According to their government, they pursue whaling for scientific research purposes. Critics are skeptical of their motivations, and claim that data can be collected without killing the whales.

Here is some footage from the activist's viewpoint:

Here is some footage from the Japanese vessel's viewpoint:

Something You Wouldn't Want To Step On...

A group of scientists from University College London and Stony Brook University, New York, have made a recent discovery in Madagascar. They have managed to unearth a fossil of what has been dubbed 'the frog from Hell'. This 70 million year-old fossil frog, once thought to be unique to South America, now suggests that Madagascar, India, and South America may have been linked during the time of dinosaurs.

The frog is similar to now living Horned Toads (ceratophryines) as it has a squat body, huge head and wide mouth. Not including legs, its body length was up to 40 cm, totaling to a weight of around 10 pounds, making it roughly twice the size of its largest living relatives.

Professor Susan Evans of the UCL Department of Cell & Developmental Biology says: "This frog, a relative of today's Horned toads, would have been the size of a slightly squashed beach-ball, with short legs and a big mouth. If it shared the aggressive temperament and 'sit-and-wait' ambush tactics of living Horned toads, it would have been a formidable predator on small animals. Its diet would most likely have consisted of insects and small vertebrates like lizards, but it's not impossible that Beelzebufo might even have munched on hatchling or juvenile dinosaurs."