Patching up the ozone hole: The success of the Montreal Protocol
Yorkshire volcanic ash helps to improve flight safety forecasts
Nepal earthquake: The story so far
Amazon rainforest trees “living faster and dying younger” while absorbing less carbon
Asian countries urged to team up on storm science
A melting Arctic and weird weather: the plot thickens
2014 warmest year on record since 1880
Using satellites to map ground movements on Fogo volcano
Iceland’s Bárðarbunga volcano alert raised to level orange
“Microbial gardens” reduce the amount of heat reflected back into space by ice sheets
Will we be losing our crops to climate change?
Tornadoes: Rotating Destruction
Guest Blog: Earthquake threat to Mexico City from the Guerrero seismic gap
INCOMPASS – Investigating The Dynamics Of The Indian Monsoon
Guest Blog: Futurevolc – The Next Step in Volcano Monitoring
Guest Blog: Man-Made vs. Volcanic Air Pollution
UK Smog Alert and Health Risks From Saharan Dust Storm
Guest Blog: The Eruption Of Volcán Tungurahua – February 2014
Warmer and Warmer: 2013 Global Temperatures Follow Long Term Warming Trend
Workshop: Using Satellites to Map Earthquake Hazards
Cyclones, Hurricanes and Typhoons: What’s the difference?
Satellite Earth Observation: Understanding Natural Hazards
Future flood losses in the world’s largest coastal cities
Farming adaptations for a warming world
ICTP Earthquake Tectonics and Hazards on the Continents Workshop
From Science to Action: Lessons learnt from Haiti
Plight of the Bangladeshi
Earthquake hazard for Istanbul
Hi everyone,
Many thanks for your support over the years. We have decided to discontinue this blog due to re-organisations within CGS and the School of Earth and Environment.
Ekbal will continue to blog about all things related to climate and geohazards on his new site at: thepalebluedot.co.uk
Some of the content from this site will also be migrated over to his blog.
You can also follow Ekbal on twitter at @ekh_rocksci.
Many thanks the comments and feedback.
CGS social media
On May 12th 2015, while volunteering with The Salvation Army in Nepal, Michael and his team were hiking in the Sindhupalchowk area trying to reach some isolated villages in the region to see what kind of support could be offered. This are was very close to the epicenter of the 7.3 earthquake that struck that day. Earthquakes in Nepal are notorious for triggering landslides, which kill many Nepalese each year. This footage shows the dangers and magnitude of landslides which can be triggered by earthquakes in this area.
Governments should pay more attention to the role that bamboo and rattan can play in building more sustainable and greener economies, a pressure group has told a UN meeting.
“Bamboo and rattan are not always seen as tools to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals. We believe they bring major opportunities,” the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR), an intergovernmental group based in Beijing, China, told the UN Forum on Forests in New York, United States earlier this month.
“Modern bamboo houses are more flexible in an earthquake, as they flex and absorb some of the energy.”
Hans Friederich, International Network for Bamboo and Rattan
For example, bamboo can reduce soil erosion and restore degraded lands, and ultimately help protect the livelihoods of people who depend on forest ecosystems. Products derived from the two plants could also bring income to millions of people in developing countries, the group says.
INBAR, which has 40 member states, called on policymakers to include bamboo and rattan in their action plans for forest development.
Construction of a 100% bamboo house in Martinique, certified earthquake and cyclone resistant.
Credit: J’ai pris cette photo
INBAR also presented the Global Assessment of Bamboo and Rattan, an initiative that aims to exchange knowledge and data about bamboo and rattan. The assessment is expected to be launched at the World Forestry Congress in Durban, South Africa, in September 2015.
Bamboo and rattan grow across much of the developing world, including in many equatorial countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. They make good alternatives to wood charcoal and cotton fibres, and bamboo can be burned or used in biogas systems to provide a sustainable source of bio-energy.
Bamboo can grow at a rate of up to one metre per day, and can be harvested for productive use after 3-7 years, compared with 10-15 years for conventional trees. Hence, using bamboo as a replacement for other wood would lead to fewer trees being cut down for processing, INBAR says.
“Because bamboo grows quickly it also absorbs carbon quickly, and is what we call a strategic forest resource in the battle against climate change,” says Hans Friederich, director general of INBAR.
But Ramadhani Achdiawan, a researcher from the Centre for International Forestry Research in Indonesia, underlines the importance of forest planning for the long term if countries want to use bamboo and rattan for economic growth. For instance, Achdiawan says that “rattan needs trees to support its growth, so maintaining big trees in forests is very important”.
In its statement, INBAR also told UN representatives about bamboo and rattan’s potential as construction materials to build strong houses and furniture that will withstand natural disasters.
“The recent terrible earthquake in Nepal has highlighted the need to build better for natural disasters,” Friederich says. “Modern bamboo houses are more flexible in an earthquake, as they flex and absorb some of the energy.”
This article was originally published on SciDev.Net. Read the original article.
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Since 1900, 35 earthquakes worldwide have each killed at least 10,000 people. Of these, 26 were in the Alpine-Himalayan seismic belt – a broad “crumple zone” where the African, Arabian and Indian tectonic plates collide with Europe and Asia. Most of these deadly earthquakes were caused by the rupture of faults that had not previously been identified.
CGS scientist Tim Wright is Professor of Satellite Geodesy at the University of Leeds and Director of the Natural Environment Research Council’s Centre for the Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics (COMET). His work has been at the forefront of developing the use of satellite radar for measuring tectonic and volcanic deformation.
Tim was recently invited to present a guest lecture at the Geological Society on his work trying to understand the nature of seismic hazard within the Alpine-Himalayan region.
You can follow Tim on twitter: @timwright_leeds
Further analysis of the newly processed sentinel-1 satellite radar data shows that the area around the Kathmandu region was uplifted in the earthquake, while the area to the north of Kathmandu sunk (subsided).
The red region in the image below shows uplift while the faint blues to the north indicate subsidence. Mount Everest is located to the northeast of Kathamndu.
Processed Sentinel-1 results of the Nepal earthquake deformation. red = mostly uplift, blue = mostly subsidence.
Source: Pablo Gonzalez – LiCS/COMET+
The image was produced by COMET researchers at the University of Leeds as part of the Look Inside the Continents from Space (LiCS) project led by CGS scientist Professor Tim Wright.
New computer modelling results estimate that the amount of lowering experienced in the Everest region could be up to 2.5cm. These numbers are very preliminary and will be verified over the coming days with further research.
A new clearer sentinel 1 satellite image has been produced by COMET researchers as part of the Look Inside the Continents from Space (LiCS) project led by CGS scientist Professor Tim Wright.
For Tim Wright’s preliminary interpretation of the results see our previous post.
Sentinel 1 image of the Nepal earthquake deformation. 1 colour fringe = 10cm of ground deformation.
Source: John Elliot – LiCS/COMET+
The first coseismic sentinel 1 satellite results have now been processed by researchers in the InSARap project.
[edit] For a sharper image of the ground deformation see our latest post.
Tim Wright, CGS scientist and professor of satellite geodesy at the University of Leeds has provided a preliminary interpretation of the new results.
1. The earthquake ruptured East from the epicentre, confirming the observations from seismology.
2. Peak displacement is very close to Kathmandu; the fault under the city slipped significantly.
3. An area at least 120×50 km uplifted, with a maximum slip greater than 1m
4. The fault did not rupture the surface.
5. Area north of Kathmandu subsides. Consistent with elastic rebound from shallow thrust.
[CORRECTION]: The area around Kathmandu is uplifted in the earthquake6. Overall, area at least 120 x100 km moved. Sentinel-1 data invaluable at this scale.
8 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in Nepal after a powerful magnitude 7.8 earthquake shook the country on April 25th, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs (UN OCHA).
Key numbers in need of aid.
Source: UN OCHA
Click on the image below for a link to how best to donate towards aid efforts in Nepal.
More information:
[1] http://www.unocha.org/nepal
Tiny microbial activity on glaciers in the Arctic is reducing heat reflected back into the atmosphere. This effect has previously been overlooked but is expected to increase the effects of climate change in the polar regions.
Over the past few years Professor Liane G. Benning and PhD student Stefanie Lutz, members of the Cohen geochemistry research group in the School of Earth and Environment, have been busy making trips to Svalbard and Iceland to measure the ‘albedo’, the reflectivity, of glaciers and how microbial gardens might effect the amount of sunlight reflected by the glacier.
They discussed their recent trip to Svalbard with BBC’s Paul Hudson on his Weather Show radio channel. As well as talk about watching a solar eclipse from the the North, polar bear attacks, northern lights and news on a big new grant to study glaciers in Greenland!
CLIMATE AND GEOHAZARDS 
