MASS FISH DIE-OFFS: Migratory Patterns And Disaster Precursors - Thousands Of Dead Fish Found On Beach In Samoa?!

April 10, 2016 - SAMOA - It was a horrific scene according to villagers, where thousands of dead juvenile fish washed ashore and were laid out on one side of Amouli Beach.

Employees of the Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources (DMWR) were dispatched to the area after concerned villagers called. Samoa News spoke to two DMWR employees who confirmed that samples of the water have been shipped off island for analysis and testing, to determine if there are nitrites, or ammonia in the water — pollutants that may have contributed to Wednesday's unexpected event.

The group of dead fish included species of rabbitfish (lo), squirrelfish (malau), and goatfish (i'a sina).

DMWR's Alama Tua explained that DMWR staff biologists would test the fish to determine the cause of death.

The American Samoa Environmental Protection Agency (AS-EPA) is also on board, assisting DMWR in trying to find out what happened. - Samoa News.

PLANETARY TREMORS: Strong 6.2 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Off Samoa - USGS! [MAPS + TECTONIC SUMMARY]

USGS earthquake location.

March 8, 2016 - SAMOA - A 6.2 magnitude earthquake has struck off the Samoa islands, Geoscience Australia and the US Geological Survey (USGS) reported, adding that the epicenter of the quake is about 200km from Apia, the capital and largest city of the island country.

Apia has about 37,000 residents.

The earthquake depth is 29.8 km, USGS said. The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) put the depth of the earthquake at 2km. According to the most recent USGS estimate, the magnitude of the quake is 5.8 and it took place just 96km from the town of Hihifo in Tonga.

USGS shakemap intensity.

There have not been any reports of injuries or damage, and no tsunami warning has been issued.

The part of South Pacific Ocean where Tonga and Samoa are located is considered to be one of the most seismically active areas of the world due to high rates of convergence between the Australia and Pacific plates, the USGS said.  - RT.

Seismotectonics of the Eastern Margin of the Australia Plate

The eastern margin of the Australia plate is one of the most sesimically active areas of the world due to high rates of convergence between the Australia and Pacific plates. In the region of New Zealand, the 3000 km long Australia-Pacific plate boundary extends from south of Macquarie Island to the southern Kermadec Island chain. It includes an oceanic transform (the Macquarie Ridge), two oppositely verging subduction zones (Puysegur and Hikurangi), and a transpressive continental transform, the Alpine Fault through South Island, New Zealand.

USGS plate tectonics for the region.

Since 1900 there have been 15 M7.5+ earthquakes recorded near New Zealand. Nine of these, and the four largest, occurred along or near the Macquarie Ridge, including the 1989 M8.2 event on the ridge itself, and the 2004 M8.1 event 200 km to the west of the plate boundary, reflecting intraplate deformation. The largest recorded earthquake in New Zealand itself was the 1931 M7.8 Hawke's Bay earthquake, which killed 256 people. The last M7.5+ earthquake along the Alpine Fault was 170 years ago; studies of the faults' strain accumulation suggest that similar events are likely to occur again.

North of New Zealand, the Australia-Pacific boundary stretches east of Tonga and Fiji to 250 km south of Samoa. For 2,200 km the trench is approximately linear, and includes two segments where old (greater than 120 Myr) Pacific oceanic lithosphere rapidly subducts westward (Kermadec and Tonga). At the northern end of the Tonga trench, the boundary curves sharply westward and changes along a 700 km-long segment from trench-normal subduction, to oblique subduction, to a left lateral transform-like structure.

Australia-Pacific convergence rates increase northward from 60 mm/yr at the southern Kermadec trench to 90 mm/yr at the northern Tonga trench; however, significant back arc extension (or equivalently, slab rollback) causes the consumption rate of subducting Pacific lithosphere to be much faster. The spreading rate in the Havre trough, west of the Kermadec trench, increases northward from 8 to 20 mm/yr. The southern tip of this spreading center is propagating into the North Island of New Zealand, rifting it apart. In the southern Lau Basin, west of the Tonga trench, the spreading rate increases northward from 60 to 90 mm/yr, and in the northern Lau Basin, multiple spreading centers result in an extension rate as high as 160 mm/yr. The overall subduction velocity of the Pacific plate is the vector sum of Australia-Pacific velocity and back arc spreading velocity: thus it increases northward along the Kermadec trench from 70 to 100 mm/yr, and along the Tonga trench from 150 to 240 mm/yr.

The Kermadec-Tonga subduction zone generates many large earthquakes on the interface between the descending Pacific and overriding Australia plates, within the two plates themselves and, less frequently, near the outer rise of the Pacific plate east of the trench. Since 1900, 40 M7.5+ earthquakes have been recorded, mostly north of 30°S. However, it is unclear whether any of the few historic M8+ events that have occurred close to the plate boundary were underthrusting events on the plate interface, or were intraplate earthquakes. On September 29, 2009, one of the largest normal fault (outer rise) earthquakes ever recorded (M8.1) occurred south of Samoa, 40 km east of the Tonga trench, generating a tsunami that killed at least 180 people.

Across the North Fiji Basin and to the west of the Vanuatu Islands, the Australia plate again subducts eastwards beneath the Pacific, at the North New Hebrides trench. At the southern end of this trench, east of the Loyalty Islands, the plate boundary curves east into an oceanic transform-like structure analogous to the one north of Tonga.

Australia-Pacific convergence rates increase northward from 80 to 90 mm/yr along the North New Hebrides trench, but the Australia plate consumption rate is increased by extension in the back arc and in the North Fiji Basin. Back arc spreading occurs at a rate of 50 mm/yr along most of the subduction zone, except near ~15°S, where the D'Entrecasteaux ridge intersects the trench and causes localized compression of 50 mm/yr in the back arc. Therefore, the Australia plate subduction velocity ranges from 120 mm/yr at the southern end of the North New Hebrides trench, to 40 mm/yr at the D'Entrecasteaux ridge-trench intersection, to 170 mm/yr at the northern end of the trench.

Large earthquakes are common along the North New Hebrides trench and have mechanisms associated with subduction tectonics, though occasional strike slip earthquakes occur near the subduction of the D'Entrecasteaux ridge. Within the subduction zone 34 M7.5+ earthquakes have been recorded since 1900. On October 7, 2009, a large interplate thrust fault earthquake (M7.6) in the northern North New Hebrides subduction zone was followed 15 minutes later by an even larger interplate event (M7.8) 60 km to the north. It is likely that the first event triggered the second of the so-called earthquake "doublet".

More information on regional seismicity and tectonics

- USGS.

EXTREME WEATHER: Cyclone Ula Slams Into Tonga Damaging Homes And Infrastructure - First Pacific Cyclone Of 2016; Hundreds Evacuated; State Of Emergency Declared!

The cyclone reportedly damaged 40 homes in Tuvalu. © Tusi Finikaso/Facebook

January 2, 2016 - TONGA - Hundreds of people have evacuated from their homes in Tonga as severe tropical cyclone Ula slammed into the tiny Pacific kingdom.

There are no reported casualties as Prime Minister Akilisi Pohiva declared a state of emergency before the storm hit "in order to prevent or minimise the loss of human life, illness or injury".

The northern island of Vava'u took the brunt of the category three cyclone which was packing winds up to 150 kilometres per hour.

"We are very happy that there are no casualties, police checked with hospitals and town officers to confirm that," the chairman of the National Emergency Management Office, Siaosi Sovaleni, told a press conference.

"We had 11 evacuation centres, over 390 people were relocated to these evacuation centres."

Ula formed early on Thursday in the South Pacific between Tuvalu and Samoa and was initially expected to remain a category one storm as it tracked west-south-westerly.

However, it intensified to category two late on Thursday then to category three as it approached Tonga.

The storm brought down trees, damaged crops, and the main airport was closed to domestic flights.

Map tracking Cyclone Ula

The director of the Tonga meteorological office, Ofa Fa'anunu, said it was fortunate there was little moisture around which would have intensified the severity of the storm.

"On another day it would probably have become a (maximum) category five," he said.

"If the moisture had been present it would have been the right ingredients for development into a much stronger system."

The official Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre said in an advisory that Ula had "very destructive winds" with "very high to phenomenal seas" causing flooding in low-lying areas.

The hurricane warning for Vava'u was downgraded to a storm warning early on Saturday afternoon.

The tropical cyclone warnings for other island groups in Tonga were also downgraded.

The storm is expected to weaken Sunday as it heads towards Fiji.

But cyclone warnings remain in place in Tonga and Fiji's National Disaster Management Office issued a strong wind and heavy rain warning ahead of Ula's approach.

In January 2014, Tonga was hit by Cyclone Ian which left one person dead, 4,000 homeless and destroyed crops on outlying islands. - ABC Online.

PLANETARY TREMORS: Very Strong 6.5 And 6.4 Magnitude Earthquakes Rattle Samoa, Tonga As Seismic Uptick Continues Along The Pacific Ring Of Fire - No Tsunami Warning Issued! [TECTONIC SUMMARY + MAPS]

March 30, 2015 - TONGA - Strong earthquakes have struck off the South Pacific nations of Tonga and Samoa, but there have been no immediate reports of injuries or damage and no tsunami warning has been issued.

The US Geological Survey said the first quake had a magnitude of 6.4 and a depth of 11 kilometres, striking 109km northeast of Tonga's Hihifo district on Monday night.

It was followed 30 minutes later by a magnitude-6.5 quake that had a depth of 15km and struck 99km northeast of Hihifo.

Leveni Aho, Director of Tonga's National Emergency Management Office, said his staff was trying to make contact with officials on the islands near the epicentre, but had not received any reports of damage. No tremors were felt on Tonga's main island, located about 600km south of Hihifo, he said.

"I think if there was anything significant, it would have been reported by now," Aho said.

In Samoa, the quake was felt throughout most of the islands, and lasted less than a minute, said Filomena Nelson, assistant chief executive officer of the nation's Disaster Management Office. There were no reports of damage, she said.

The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said there was no threat of a tsunami.

A Samoa Police Headquarters spokeswoman in Apia said the earthquake lasted about 20 seconds, but was not severe.

"It was like a small shake and that was it."

There were no initial reports of damage in Apia, she said.

New Zealand's Geonet duty seismologist John Ristau said there was no tsunami threat as a result of the quake.

Earlier on Monday, a powerful quake rattled the South Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea, generating a small tsunami but prompting no reports of injuries or damage.

Earthquakes are common in the region, which lies on the "Ring of Fire" - an arc of earthquake and volcanic activity that stretches around the Pacific Rim.

USGS shakemap intensity.

The quakes came just hours after a major 7.5 quake struck of the coast of Papua New Guinea coast, near the town of Rabaul, in the country's northeast.

A tsunami warning was issued soon after the PNG quake, though the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said no destructive, Pacific-wide tsunami was expected.

The quake hit 55 kilometres southeast of Kokopo, the capital of East New Britain province that's home to about 26,000 people, according to the US Geological Survey.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, which initially warned that waves as high as 3 metres were possible, said later the threat had mostly passed. - Stuff.

Tectonic Summary - Seismotectonics of the Eastern Margin of the Australia Plate

The eastern margin of the Australia plate is one of the most sesimically active areas of the world due to high rates of convergence between the Australia and Pacific plates. In the region of New Zealand, the 3000 km long Australia-Pacific plate boundary extends from south of Macquarie Island to the southern Kermadec Island chain. It includes an oceanic transform (the Macquarie Ridge), two oppositely verging subduction zones (Puysegur and Hikurangi), and a transpressive continental transform, the Alpine Fault through South Island, New Zealand.

Since 1900 there have been 15 M7.5+ earthquakes recorded near New Zealand. Nine of these, and the four largest, occurred along or near the Macquarie Ridge, including the 1989 M8.2 event on the ridge itself, and the 2004 M8.1 event 200 km to the west of the plate boundary, reflecting intraplate deformation. The largest recorded earthquake in New Zealand itself was the 1931 M7.8 Hawke's Bay earthquake, which killed 256 people. The last M7.5+ earthquake along the Alpine Fault was 170 years ago; studies of the faults' strain accumulation suggest that similar events are likely to occur again.

USGS plate tectonics for the region.

North of New Zealand, the Australia-Pacific boundary stretches east of Tonga and Fiji to 250 km south of Samoa. For 2,200 km the trench is approximately linear, and includes two segments where old (>120 Myr) Pacific oceanic lithosphere rapidly subducts westward (Kermadec and Tonga). At the northern end of the Tonga trench, the boundary curves sharply westward and changes along a 700 km-long segment from trench-normal subduction, to oblique subduction, to a left lateral transform-like structure.

Australia-Pacific convergence rates increase northward from 60 mm/yr at the southern Kermadec trench to 90 mm/yr at the northern Tonga trench; however, significant back arc extension (or equivalently, slab rollback) causes the consumption rate of subducting Pacific lithosphere to be much faster. The spreading rate in the Havre trough, west of the Kermadec trench, increases northward from 8 to 20 mm/yr. The southern tip of this spreading center is propagating into the North Island of New Zealand, rifting it apart. In the southern Lau Basin, west of the Tonga trench, the spreading rate increases northward from 60 to 90 mm/yr, and in the northern Lau Basin, multiple spreading centers result in an extension rate as high as 160 mm/yr. The overall subduction velocity of the Pacific plate is the vector sum of Australia-Pacific velocity and back arc spreading velocity: thus it increases northward along the Kermadec trench from 70 to 100 mm/yr, and along the Tonga trench from 150 to 240 mm/yr.

The Kermadec-Tonga subduction zone generates many large earthquakes on the interface between the descending Pacific and overriding Australia plates, within the two plates themselves and, less frequently, near the outer rise of the Pacific plate east of the trench. Since 1900, 40 M7.5+ earthquakes have been recorded, mostly north of 30°S. However, it is unclear whether any of the few historic M8+ events that have occurred close to the plate boundary were underthrusting events on the plate interface, or were intraplate earthquakes. On September 29, 2009, one of the largest normal fault (outer rise) earthquakes ever recorded (M8.1) occurred south of Samoa, 40 km east of the Tonga trench, generating a tsunami that killed at least 180 people.

Across the North Fiji Basin and to the west of the Vanuatu Islands, the Australia plate again subducts eastwards beneath the Pacific, at the North New Hebrides trench. At the southern end of this trench, east of the Loyalty Islands, the plate boundary curves east into an oceanic transform-like structure analogous to the one north of Tonga.

Australia-Pacific convergence rates increase northward from 80 to 90 mm/yr along the North New Hebrides trench, but the Australia plate consumption rate is increased by extension in the back arc and in the North Fiji Basin. Back arc spreading occurs at a rate of 50 mm/yr along most of the subduction zone, except near ~15°S, where the D'Entrecasteaux ridge intersects the trench and causes localized compression of 50 mm/yr in the back arc. Therefore, the Australia plate subduction velocity ranges from 120 mm/yr at the southern end of the North New Hebrides trench, to 40 mm/yr at the D'Entrecasteaux ridge-trench intersection, to 170 mm/yr at the northern end of the trench.
Large earthquakes are common along the North New Hebrides trench and have mechanisms associated with subduction tectonics, though occasional strike slip earthquakes occur near the subduction of the D'Entrecasteaux ridge. Within the subduction zone 34 M7.5+ earthquakes have been recorded since 1900. On October 7, 2009, a large interplate thrust fault earthquake (M7.6) in the northern North New Hebrides subduction zone was followed 15 minutes later by an even larger interplate event (M7.8) 60 km to the north. It is likely that the first event triggered the second of the so-called earthquake "doublet".

More information on regional seismicity and tectonics

- USGS.

MONUMENTAL EARTH CHANGES: Precursors To A Global Coastal Event - 800 Feet Tall Deep Sea Waves Discovered In The Pacific Ocean; Rise Up To Be Taller Than Some Skyscrapers!

September 12, 2013 - PACIFIC OCEAN - They would be the ultimate in big wave surfing. Scientists have discovered waves that rise up to be taller than some sky scrapers.

However, rather than being found on sun kissed beaches in exotic locations around the world, these waves are three miles beneath the surface of the ocean.

The waves rise up due to ridges on the ocean floor of a narrow channel to the north west of Samoa that forces cold, saltier water to rise up into the warmer water above.

Researchers found the waves, which are also known as internal waves, form at the boundary between two layers of water with different densities in a deep ocean trench in the South Pacific Ocean.

These form 800 foot waves that rear up and then plunge hundreds of feet down into the dense water on the other side of the sill. However, each wave takes around an hour to break.

So while it might never be possible for surfers to ride these enormous waves, the scientists say these waves play an important role for mixing nutrients in the ocean.

Professor Matthew Alford, an oceanographer at the University of Washington who led an expedition to the channel, known as the Samoan Passage, said: “Oceanographers used to talk about the so-called ‘dark mixing’ problem, where they knew that there should be a certain amount of turbulence in the deep ocean, and yet every time they made a measurement they observed a tenth of that.

“We found there are loads and loads of turbulence in the Samoan Passage, and detailed measurements show it’s due to breaking waves.”

The findings are published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

The layers of water form because dense cold water in Antarctica sinks into the deep Pacific Ocean and is forced through a 25 mile gap north east of Samoa.

Researchers found the waves form at the boundary between two layers of water with different densities in a
deep ocean trench known as the Samoan Passage in the South Pacific Ocean Photo: WaveChasers APL

Around six million cubic metres of water pass through the gap every second – around the same as 35 Amazon Rivers.

Dr Alford and his team lowered specially designed "wave chaser" instruments three miles to the seabed and took measurements over thirty hour periods of the turbulence at the boundary between the cold dense water and warmer water above.

They found that as the dense bottom layer of water flows over two consecutive ridges in the Samoan Passage, it causes them to form lee waves, like air rising over a mountain.

These become unstable and break, causing the dense cold water to mix with the upper layers.

Professor Alford said this helps to explain why dense cold water does not permanently pool at the bottom of the ocean.

The waves may also play a role in stimulating global currents.

They believe waves like this form at other locations in the Samoan Passage and elsewhere in the ocean.

At their most powerful, some internal waves can sweep submarines off course or cause them to surface.

“In addition to the primary sill, other locations along the multiple interconnected channels through the Samoan Passage also have an effect on the mixing of the dense water.

"In fact, quite different hydraulic responses and turbulence levels are observed at seafloor features separated laterally by a few kilometres, suggesting that abyssal mixing depends sensitively on bathymetric details on small scales.


WATCH: Wave Chasers - Deep Flows Through the Samoan Passage Instruments & Measurements.

“Climate models are really sensitive not only to how much turbulence there is in the deep ocean, but to where it is.

“The primary importance of understanding deep-ocean turbulence is to get the climate models right on long timescales,” Alford said.

Professor Alford, who is a surfer himself, added that these deep sea waves would make for a dull surfing experience.

He said: “It would be really boring. The waves can take an hour to break, and I think most surfers are not going to wait that long for one wave.” - Telegraph.

DISASTER IMPACT: IMF - Cyclone Evan's Economic Impact on Samoa as Bad as 2009 Tsunami!

December 22, 2012 - SAMOA - The economic impact of Cyclone Evan on Samoa will be at least as bad as the deadly tsunami that caused widespread damage in 2009, the International Monetary Fund says.

Photo: The IMF says Samoa will take a long time to fully recover from Cyclone Evan. (Instagram: @rob_ahsam).

The IMF's resident advisor on the Pacific, Yangzheg Yang, said it will take a long time for the country to recover and restore vital infrastructure. "It's quite devastating, a lot of houses have been blown away, collapsed roads and bridges washed away. Water and electricity facilities are all badly damaged, so it's pretty horrific," Mr Yang told Radio Australia. He said there was also considerable damage to agricultural crops which could cause food shortages. Tourism operators have also been badly affected. "The impact of this cyclone is probably just as great, if not greater, than the damage caused by the tsunami in 2009," he said. Mr Yang said the cyclone's impact on Fiji was less severe than initially feared. - Australia Network News.

Samoa’s power utility is negotiating to hire additional diesel generators because damage from Cyclone Evan cut power production by about 60 percent. The general manager of the Electric Power Company, Tile Tu’imalealiifano, says a head pond at a hydro plant on Upolu was wrecked by a landslide. And he says flooding washed away a pipe from a second head pond that provided cooling at the main diesel generation plant. Mr Tu’imalealiifano says that pond is a mass of fallen trees and other debris. He says with both ponds out of action, the impact is significant.

“Both the power plant as well as the diesel station because the cooling system of our diesel main station feeds from the pipe line of that hydro scheme. So we are not only having problems with the hydro plant itself but the main diesel power station that feeds to whole island. It is about 60 percent of the capacity. So we are trying to cope with what we have.”

The general manager of the Electric Power Company, Tile Tu’imalealiifano. The government has said it hopes to have power available to all the island by tomorrow. - Radio New Zealand.

EXTREME WEATHER: Cyclone Evan Rips Through Samoan Islands - Kills 2, Widespread Damage, Knocks Out Power For The Entire Country!

December 13, 2012 - SAMOA - The Pacific nation of Samoa faces up to two weeks without electricity, officials said Friday, after a cyclone that killed two people and sent hundreds fleeing to safety destroyed its main power station. Cyclone Evan hit on Thursday afternoon, uprooting trees, tearing roofs off houses and flooding the capital Apia, prompting the Samoan government to declare a disaster and order a massive clean-up operation.

Satellite image of Cyclone Evan over Samoan islands.

However, in a welcome reprieve for the battered nation, forecasters said fears had abated that the storm, described by witnesses as the worst in decades, would return and hit the city for a second time. "Power is off for the whole country... Tanugamanono power plant is completely destroyed and we might not have power for at least two weeks," the Disaster Management Office (DMO) said in a statement. It said hospitals and other essential services were using standby generators, with water supplies also out and most roads cut off by fallen trees and power poles as hundreds of people languished in evacuation centres. A DMO spokeswoman said there had been at least two confirmed deaths, while media reported a number of children were missing after being swept away when Apia's Vaisigano river burst its banks.

Tropical storms are relatively common in Samoa but residents said they had little warning about the ferocity of Cyclone Evan. "This is the biggest one I've been through and I've been through difficult situations in the Pacific (before)," New Zealand's high commissioner in Apia, Nick Hurley, told Radio New Zealand. "The unpredictable nature of this one has made it quite different.

The forecast winds did not give any indication of how strong the impact was going to be." New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said the air force was on standby to fly aid to the remote nation if needed, but initial indications were that emergency supplies stockpiled in Samoa would suffice. Apia was braced for a second hit from the cyclone earlier Friday but McCully said forecasters now believed that was unlikely. - The News.

EXTINCTION LEVEL EVENT: Pacific Reef Sharks Are Vanishing Near Populated Islands - As Many As 90 Percent Have Disappeared?!

As many as 90 percent of reef sharks have disappeared from reefs near populated islands, a new study finds.  The research is the first to provide a large-scale estimate of reef sharks in the Pacific, a group of species that includes the gray reef shark, the whitetip reef shark and the tawny nurse shark.

Curious gray reef sharks (Carcharhinus amlyrhynchos) at Kure Atoll, Papahanaumokuakea Marine National
Monument, Hawaii were studied as part of a study published April 25 in the journal Conservation Biology.

"We estimate that reef shark numbers have dropped substantially around populated islands, generally by more than 90 percent compared to those at the most untouched reefs," said study leader Marc Nadon, a doctoral candidate at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science. "In short, people and sharks don't mix."  Nadon and his colleagues pulled shark sighting data from more than 1,607 dives at 46 reefs in the central-western Pacific, which included reefs near the Hawaiian islands and American Samoa as well as extremely isolated reefs nearly devoid of human influence.  Though eight species of shark were seen on the dives, the researchers excluded sharks, such as hammerheads, that aren't dependent on reefs. That left them with five shark species to tally: gray reef sharks, blacktip reef sharks, whitetip reef sharks, Galapagos sharks and tawny nurse sharks.  

Combining that data with information on human population, habitat complexity, availability of food and sea-surface temperatures, the researchers created models comparing the numbers of sharks at pristine versus human-impacted reefs.  "Around each of the heavily populated areas we surveyed — in the main Hawaiian Islands, the Mariana Archipelago, and American Samoa — reef shark numbers were greatly depressed compared to reefs in the same regions that were simply [farther] away from humans." Nadon said in a statement. "We estimate that less than 10 percent of the baseline numbers remain in these areas."  The devastation of sharks in areas near human civilization could be the result of illegal fishing, incidental killing or fishing for sport, the researchers report Friday (April 27) in the journal Conservation Biology. Human impact on the reef fish that sharks call dinner could also play a role. Human influences were shown to outweigh natural influences, such as warmer water temperatures, the researchers found.  "Our findings underscore the importance of long-term monitoring across gradients of human impacts, biogeographic, and oceanic conditions, for understanding how humans are altering our oceans," said Rusty Brainard, head of the coral reef ecosystem division at NOAA's Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, which conducted the shark surveys. - FOX News.

PLANETARY TREMORS: 6.0 Magnitude Earthquake Rocks Tonga!

A 6.0-magnitude earthquake rattled Tonga today, but there were no immediate reports of damage and no tsunami warning was issued.

The undersea earthquake struck at a depth of 33 kilometres, about 126 kilometres from the capital, Nuku'Alofa. Officials at the country's national emergency office were not immediately available to comment.

Tonga, almost 2000 kilometres northeast of New Zealand, lies on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire", where continental plates collide, causing frequent volcanic and seismic activity. Nine people died in Tonga in an earthquake-triggered tsunami in October last year that also killed 143 people in Samoa. - Herald Sun.

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: GEOLOGICAL UPHEAVAL - Deepest and Most Explosive Underwater Eruption Ever Seen Happening Near Samoa!

An underwater volcano bursting with glowing lava bubbles - the deepest active submarine eruption seen to date - is shedding light on how volcanism can impact deep-sea life and reshape the face of the planet.

Submarine eruptions account for about three-quarters of all of Earth's volcanism, but the overlying ocean and the sheer vastness of the seafloor makes detecting and observing them difficult. The only active submarine eruptions that scientists had seen and analyzed until now were at the volcano NW Rota-1, near the island of Guam in the western Pacific. Now researchers have witnessed the deepest active submarine eruption yet. The volcano in question, West Mata, lies near the islands of Fiji in the southwestern Pacific in the Lau Basin. Here, the rate of subduction - the process in which one massive tectonic plate dives under another, typically forming chains of volcanoes - is the highest on Earth, and the region hosts ample signs of recent submarine volcanism.

Scientists discovered West Mata in 2008 during a survey of the northeast Lau Basin. Explosive eruptions were seen in the following year there using a remotely operated underwater vehicle - the first eruption was called Hades, the second Prometheus, both occurring at a depth of approximately 3,900 feet (1,200 meters). The nearly continuous eruptions generated spectacular incandescent gas-filled bubbles of lava up to 3 feet (1 m) wide. Gas flowing through the glowing lava could sometimes look flame-like in appearance, scientists said. "It was absolutely stunning and exciting, something we'd never seen on the seafloor before," researcher Joseph Resing, an oceanographer at the University of Washington in Seattle, told OurAmazingPlanet. "People were just ecstatic." The rich soup of chemicals these eruptions spew out helps fuel communities of deep sea organisms at West Mata. For instance, the researchers witnessed shrimp colonies grazing on mats of microbes on the rocks. Deep-sea volcanism such as this might have nurtured the first life billions of years ago - "we might see the same ingredients here as the ones used to make the first organic molecules on Earth," Resing said. This submarine eruption is the deepest seen yet, about 2,200 feet (700 m) deeper than NW Rota-1. This was deeper than scientists had expected to see explosive eruptions. Water pressure goes up the further down you go, "so as pressure goes up, the ability of gas as it comes out of magma to cause explosions is diminished, and the thought was that you wouldn't get explosive eruptions below about 1,000 meters (3,300 feet)," Resing said. 

Eruptions at centers of ocean floor spreading - where the majority of eruptions on Earth happen - generally seem to occur in relatively short episodes lasting hours to months, but West Mata appears to have erupted near continuously since it was first observed in 2008. This might be because magma is focused there, instead of being spread across many volcanoes at once. "However, this is a question that we don't currently know the answer to," Resing said. Samples the researchers gathered from West Mata revealed the volcano is spewing out boninite, a kind of water-rich lava never before seen, newly made and hitherto only unearthed in ancient deposits. Boninite is always linked with subduction zones, and these pristine samples could help yield new clues about subduction, especially its early stages. Subduction plays a key role in shaping the face of the planet by consuming and recycling material from the oceanic plates. "One thing about the deep sea is that we still don't have the best idea of what's going on down there," Resing said. "The overlying ocean and its vast size makes it a relatively unexplored place. I'd like to continue exploration of the seafloor - I'd like humanity to know what else is on planet Earth and what else we can learn about it."  Resing and his colleagues detailed their findings online Oct. 9 in the journal Nature Geoscience. - Our Amazing Planet.

PLANETARY TREMORS: 5.6 Magnitude Earthquake Rattles Tonga!

A 5.6 earthquake hit Tonga on Monday, June 27, 2011 at 00:30:30 UTC. The quake  had a depth of 43.1 kilometres (km) or 26.8 miles and was located at 17.080°S, 173.649°W. The epicentre was 125 km (77 miles) south of Hihifo, Tonga; 177 km (109 miles) northeast of Neiafu, Tonga; 414 km (257 miles) southwest of Apia, Samoa; and 2471 km (1535 miles) northeast of Auckland, New Zealand.