WORLD WAR Z: Plagues & Pestilences - Zika Virus Cases Appearing Coast To Coast In The United States, Nearly All Travel-Related; Study Finds More Linked Birth Defects!

© Nacho Doce / Reuters

February 10, 2016 - UNITED STATES - A handful of Zika virus cases have turned up in the United States, but so far, all but one of those infected are people who have recently traveled to affected countries.

On Thursday, KMTV reported two cases of Zika had been identified in Nebraska. Both cases involved women in their 20s who had recently traveled to countries where the virus is spreading.

On Wednesday, the governor of Florida declared a state of emergency in four counties where the virus has been identified. So far, nine cases of Zika have been identified in the state, all of them connected to recent travel abroad.

Earlier this week, Texas health authorities confirmed the first case of Zika in someone who had not traveled abroad to an affected country. The virus is believed to have spread through sexual contact with a person who had recently traveled abroad and become infected. This was only the second reported case of sexual transmission of the disease, and some experts are expressing caution that the scientific link for such transmission is not yet proven. The total number of Zika cases in Texas currently stands at ten.

Zika is a virus transmitted to humans through mosquito bites. The disease causes relatively mild symptoms, including joint pain and red eyes, in about 20% of individuals who are infected. However, the disease has been linked to a serious birth defect called microcephaly, which causes children to be born with smaller than normal heads and damaged brains.

The disease is currently spreading throughout Brazil since an outbreak began in May of 2015. More than 4,000 cases of microcephaly in Brazil are suspected to have been caused by the virus, which is also spreading in Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the spread of the virus an international public health emergency because of the suspected link to microcephaly; however, WHO did not advise pregnant women to avoid affected areas. Some have seen this as politically motivated since Brazil is hosting the Olympics this summer.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has recommended that pregnant women consider postponing travel to areas where the virus is spreading. Women who must travel to these areas are advised to take precautions to avoid mosquito bites.

There is currently no vaccine available to prevent Zika infection. - Breitbart.

New Zika virus cases pop up in 3 states as study finds more linked birth defects

LUIS ROBAYO/AFP/Getty Images

Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee are the latest states to have the Zika virus brought home by travelers returning from South or Central America, or the Caribbean, while a new study has revealed that it may potentially cause more birth defects than suspected.

A 30-year-old Cleveland woman became the first diagnosed case in Ohio, state officials said on Tuesday. Indiana officials similarly reported that another woman had become the state’s first case on the same day, though she was not hospitalized. The women had recently traveled to Haiti and are not pregnant, state officials said.

The age and gender of the first Zika patient in Tennessee remains undisclosed, but officials say the person had returned from South America.

“We have been expecting an imported case of Zika virus disease, and we believe more infections are likely as people travel to and from areas where the disease is currently being transmitted,” the commissioner of the state’s health department, Dr. John Dreyzehner, said in a statement.

Those three states bring the grand total to 13 and the District of Columbia. Altogether, 50 cases of Zika have been diagnosed in the US, all in people who had traveled to one of the 30 countries where the virus is active, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). There was also one case of the virus being sexual transmitted in Dallas, Texas.

In a new study published on Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association Ophthalmology, Brazilian researchers reported finding eye problems in 10 out of 29 newborns infected with the Zika virus, for which there is no vaccine or treatment. Retina atrophy, iris discoloration, and lens dislocations were counted among the birth defects, and in seven out of the 10 cases, both eyes were affected.

The study proves the more well-known birth defect known as microcephaly, where a baby’s head and brain don’t fully develop, isn’t the only risk faced by Zika’s most vulnerable victims.

The first Zika outbreak was identified in Brazil in May of last year, and though it is primarily contracted via mosquito bites, it can also be spread through blood transfusions and unprotected sex, as well as to unborn children whose pregnant mothers are infected. The CDC advises men to use condoms or refrain from intercourse with pregnant women if they have traveled to a high risk country recently. It also recommends that pregnant women be tested two to 12 weeks after returning from afflicted regions.

Four out of five people with Zika don’t experience any of its symptoms, which can include fever, rashes, joint pain, muscle pain, red eyes, and headaches – all of which can last up to a week.

On Monday, the CDC’s Emergency Operations Center began operating at its top emergency activation level – Level 1. The last time Level 1 was enacted was during the Ebola crisis of 2014. It was also activated in 2009 in response to H1N1 influenza and in 2005 for Hurricane Katrina. - RT.

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: Third Day Of Volcanic Tremors At The Kirishima Volcano - Japan Meteorological Agency Warns Of "CATASTROPHIC ERUPTION"! [VIDEOS]

Kirishima of southern Kyushu have one after another volcanic tremors that indicates the movement, such as magma underground,
Meteorological Observatory, it has urged to be aware of the catastrophic blowout phenomenon.

February 10, 2016 - JAPAN - In the vicinity of the Iozan of Ebino Kirishima mountain range that spans Miyazaki Prefecture and Kagoshima Prefecture, on the 10th early in the morning, volcanic tremor that becomes the third time earlier this month has been observed.

With performing the Japan Meteorological Agency is again field survey, we urged to be aware of the catastrophic blowout, such as fumaroles and volcanic gas as volcanic activity has been slightly increased.

And depends on the Japan Meteorological Agency, in the vicinity of the Iozan of the Kirishima mountain range, from before 5:00 on the 10th morning, a small volcanic tremor amplitude is considered to indicate the movement of the hot water and volcanic gas underground has been observed over a period of approximately 2 minutes .


WATCH: Volcanic tremors at Kirishima volcano.

Also, in addition to changes in the small ground with the tremor was observed, volcanic earthquakes have been observed four times up to 6 am and the front and rear of the fine.

The volcanic tremor was observed in the vicinity of the Iozan, is the third time this time following the month 7th and 8th.

For this reason, the Japan Meteorological Agency 10 morning, have carried out a dispatch to investigate the two officials again to local, state and of the fumaroles that up from, such as in the crater, the temperature of the ground in the vicinity of the jet is not spread high range we have examined and whether.

In Iozan now, other than the interval of approximately 30 meters mountain trail through the directly in front of the jet has not been carried out, such as intrusiveness regulation, Miyazaki Prefecture, such as the 10th afternoon, to consider the expansion of regulation to open the conference to have.

Location of the volcano. Google Maps

Kirishima (新燃岳 in Japanese), one of Japan's most active volcanoes. It is actually a group of 18 young, small stratovolcanoes north of Kagoshima Bay: Takachihonomine, Nakadake, Ohatayama, Karakunidake, Tairoike, Ohachi, and Shinmoedake are the principal vents.

Historic eruptions have been recorded since 742 and there are more than 60 recorded eruptions, mainly from Ohachi and Shinmoedake, with the exception of a small lava flow from Iwoyama in 1768. Relatively large eruptions occurred in 788, 1235, 1716-17 and 1768, and in 2011.

A violent eruption started at Kirishima on January 26, 2011, the largest one for more than 50 years.

Background:

The large Kirishima volcanic group covers an NW-SE elongated area of about 20 x 30 km. The late-Pleistocene to Holocene volcanoes are dominantly andesitic in composition and consist of stratovolcanoes, conder cones, maars overlying shield volcanoes. The larger edifices are the centrally located, 1700-m-high stratovolcanoes Karakuni-dake, and the large maars Onami-ike and Mi-ike, located SW of Karakuni-dake. Eruptions in the past 10,000 years have been concentrated along an E-W line of vents from Mi-ike to Ohachi, and at Shinmoe-dake to the NE. Frequent small-to-moderate explosive eruptions have been recorded since the 8th century. Fumaroles are located on North slope of the Karakunidake.

Eruptive history of Kirishima volcano
By most authors, the "Kirishima volcano" is referred to those volcanic edifices overlying (younger than) the Kakuto ignimbrite, related to the Pleistocene Kakuto caldera that formed around 300,000 years ago.

A series of stratovolcanoes, now poorly preserved, grew in the early stage of activity following the Kakuto caldera formation. An interval of volcanic quiet followed until about 60-70,000 years ago, when the present-day stratovolcanoes which make up the Kirishima complex started to grow.

About 35,000 years ago, a major eruption triggered the collapse of Hinamoridake volcano at the northeastern end of the complex. It produced a major debris avalanche that covers the area of present-day Kobayashi City.

22,000 - 18,000 years ago, Iimoiyama and Maruokayama stratovolcanoes and a number of smaller edifices formed.

18,000 years ago, the Old-Karakunidake, Koshikidake and Shinmoedake volcanoes grew.

15,000 years ago, a large eruption built present-day Karakunidake volcano, by rapid accumulation and welding of pyroclastic fall and flow deposits draped over the older cone. Shortly later, lava flows erupted from a vent on the southeast flank of Shinmoedake, building Nakadake.

9000 years ago, Shinmoedake had a larger explosive eruption.

7000 years ago, Old-Takachiho volcano formed from a vent on the southeastern area of Kirishima. Other monogenetic volcanoes that probably formed about that time include Ohataike and Biwaike maar.

6300 years ago, a major eruption from Old-Takachiho volcano occurred and built up the main cone present today.

The next 1000 years, only minor activity if any took place.

About 5000 years ago, Takachiho-no-mine stratovolcano formed on the western slope of Old-Takachiho.

Small lava flows erupted from Fudoike and Ohatayama.

4000 years ago, Shinmoedake had another larger explosive eruption.

The Miike maar formed 3000 years ago, following a powerful explosion that ejected a large pumice deposit and produced base surges.

Only about 1000 years ago, Ohachi volcano formed on the western slope of Takachiho-no-mine and has remained the most active vent of Kirishima volcano since then.

Explosive eruptions from Kirishima volcano
During the past 22,000 years, volcanic activity was concentrated in a zone running NW-SE and in the past 10,000 years mainly from Takachiho volcano in the southeastern part of the Kirishima complex. Kirishima's activity during the past 22,000 years comprises a number of large explosive (vulcanian to subplinian) eruptions that have left important tephra layers, including:

- Karakunidake scoria (ca. 18,000 years ago)
- Kamamuta scoria (ca. 7000 years ago)
- Ushinosune ash (ca. 6500 years ago)
- Miikee pumice (ca. 3000 years ago)
- Araso tephra ca. 700 AD
- Katazoe tephra 788 AD. This eruption was studied by Miyamoto (2005) as an example of a case where 3 types of magma were erupted: basalt, basaltic-andesite and andesite.
- Miyasugi tephra (ca. 1000 AD): several scoria layers from powerful vulcanian-type eruptions, similar to the recent 2011 eruption. They occurred in historic time, but the exact date is unknown.
- Takaharu tephra (ThT) in 1235 AD, the largest tephra layer from an eruption in historic time (subplinian eruption, ca. 0.3 cubic km of ash and pumice)
- Shinmoedake-Kyoho pumice 1716-1717 AD
- Shinmoedake-SHowa ash 1959 AD

Ohachi volcano
Ohachi Volcano is the youngest and most active of the Kirishima group of stratovolcanoes, located at the southeastern part of the group.

It has a considerably large crater compared to the size of the cone, with thick layers of welded scoria visible in the crater walls.

The oldest tephra recognized from Ohachi Volcano is the Araso tephra (AsT), which erupted around 700 AD, thus suggesting that Ohachi is little over 1300 years old.

Ohachi's rate of activity was not constant throughout its history. In its early stage from AD 700 to 1235, 80% of its present-day volume was erupted.

The magma chamber of Ohachi volcano has been estimated to be shallow, at around 4-6 km (ca. 1-2 kbar lithostatic pressure).

Magma discharge rates from Kirishima volcano
Based on magma discharge, the past 22,000 year interval of volcanic activity at Kirishima can be divided in 3 phases:

22,000 - 15,000 years ago: 0.8 million m3 / year

15,000 - 7,000 years ago: a relatively quiet period with only 0.04 m3 average magma output /year

7,000 years ago - present: 0.5 million m3 / year

In total, Kirishima volcano has erupted about 10-15 cubic kilometers of magma during the past 22,000 years. In the earlier period from 22-15,000 years ago, 5 stratovolcanoes, and 2 smaller cones were formed. The eruptions were dominantly effusive (lava flows).

Following an 8000 year long interval with much less activity, the rate of eruptions increased again. Activity in the recent epoch has been more explosive and concentrated in the southeastern part of the complex.

Geothermal activity
The Kirishima volcanic area contains various thermal waters. Hydrogen sulfide springs, acidic sulfate springs and chloride springs are found in geographically narrow zone. Bicarbonate springs are distributed in the Shinkawa ravine in the southwestern periphery of the Kirishima volcanic area and the Hinatayama-Himegi region, both of which are on the southwestern periphery of the Kirishima volcanic area.

Sources:

- Tsutsui et al (2006) "Eruptive History of Ohachi Volcano, Kirishima Volcano Group, Southern Kyushu, Japan", Bull Volc Soc Japan (Kazan), 52: 1-21
- Ryusuke IMURA (1989) "Eruptive History of the Kirishima Volcano during the past 22,000 years" Master Thesis Kagoshima University, March 1989
- Tsuyoshi Miyamoto (2005) "Magma chamber structure of Katazoe scoria eruption, Ohachi volcano at Kirishima volcanoes", PhD thesis, CNEAS, Tohoku Univ.
- Fujita Shun'ichi (2000) "Geochemical aspect on the genesis of the hydrothermal system of the Kirishima volcano and its southwestern area" Journal of the Balneological Society of Japan, v50 (1), pp 1-11

- Volcano Discovery | NHK | News24. [Translated].

FIRE IN THE SKY: "Glowing Object" - Meteor Fireball Caught On Camera Over Saudi Arabia! [VIDEO]

File photo.

February 10, 2016 - SAUDI ARABIA - A glowing object believed to be a large meteor was captured on camera as it crossed Saudi skies at night, a local newspaper reported on Wednesday.

An eight-second YouTube film published by Sabq Arabic language daily showed the object lightened up the sky in the Northern Rafha town as it moved fast from East to North before disappearing.

The paper said many residents captured the object with their mobile phones and quoted well-known Saudi astronomer Khaled Al Zuaq as saying he believes it was a meteor.

"The object appeared to be a large meteor which was seen crossing the Saudi skies at around 10.30 pm," he said.


WATCH: Meteor over Saudi Arabia.

- Emirates 24/7.

GEOLOGICAL UPHEAVALS: Scientists Claim Mysterious Menominee Crack In Michigan Is Unusual "GEOLOGICAL POP-UP" Feature - But Don't Know What Caused It?!

A photo taken in 2010 of the Menominee Crack, a 'pop-up' geological feature. Credit: Wayne Pennington/ Michigan Technological University 

February 10, 2016 - MICHIGAN, UNITED STATES - Seismologists studying a massive crack in the ground that appeared north of Menominee, Michigan in 2010 now think they know what the unusual feature might be. But as they explain in their study published this week in the journal Seismological Research Letters, there are still some mysteries to clear up about the strange geological occurrence in the rural Michigan woods.

A team of scientists led by Wayne Pennington of Michigan Technological University says that the crack, which lies along the crest of a two-meter-high ridge that appeared at the same time, is probably a "pop-up" feature. Pop-ups occur in places where shallowly-buried rock layers spring upward after having been weighed down by rock or ice. Pop-ups—sometimes called "A-tents" for their shape—may develop in places where the earth rebounds upward after an overlying glacier shrinks away, or when rock overburden is removed in a quarry.

However, the last glaciers retreated from Menominee 11,000 years ago—and there isn't any quarrying in the area.

"One of our reasons for publishing this was that in our search of the literature we could find no other mention of modern pop-ups that didn't occur at something like the base of a quarry, where people had removed massive amounts of rock earlier," Pennington explained. "As far as we can tell, this is a one-of-a-kind event."

Residents near Menominee heard a loud noise and shaking in the early morning of October 4, 2010, and soon discovered the crack when they went into the nearby woods to clean up the debris left from removing a big double-trunked white pine tree a few days earlier. The crack split the ground for 110 meters, and was as deep as 1.7 meters in some places. Tree trunks tilted at precarious angles on either side of the fracture. Pennington went to visit the site on his way back home from a scientific conference, he recalled. He paced off some measurements in his dress shoes and collected some GPS data with his phone. "I was completely blown away by it, because it wasn't what I was expecting when I saw it," he recalled. "It wasn't like anything I had seen before."

Trees tilt away from either side of the Menominee Crack 'pop-up' feature. Credit: Wayne Pennington/ Michigan Technological University 

Although the crack was the most dramatic feature, Pennington was intrigued by the new ridge underneath it. "I kept trying to think of ways that there could have been an uplift from a thrusting earthquake or something, but anything like that requires such a huge amount of displacement in order to produce that amount of crustal shortening, that nothing made sense."

He shared the photos and data with his colleagues, until Stanford University geophysicist Norm Sleep pointed out that the feature formed from a shallow-buried layer of limestone, and looked like a pop-up. "This made perfect sense to us," Pennington said, "except for what caused it. And that then became the puzzle."

The researchers needed to get a better look at the rock underneath the ridge to confirm that it was a pop-up, so they turned to a technique called seismic refraction. The technique measures the speed of seismic waves as they travel within layers of the earth, as determined at different distances from the seismic source. In this case, the seismologists used a sledgehammer to strike a large metal ball lying on the ground, and captured the resulting seismic waves.

In broken rock, the waves travel faster as they move parallel to cracks in the rock, and slower when they move perpendicular to the cracks and have to travel across the fractures. The scientists found a pattern of refraction speeds that seemed to be consistent with the intense bending and then fracturing of the brittle limestone of a pop-up feature.

But what caused the pop-up to...pop-up? Without the usual suspects in play, Pennington and his colleagues had to do a little detective work. The limestone in the area may have been stressed almost to the point of cracking when the last glaciers retreated, they say. The recent removal of the double-trunked pine, which may have weighed as much as 2000 kilograms—over two tons—could have been the final straw, allowing the rock to bend upward when that weight was removed. "There's a 60% chance that this explanation we provide is the right one," Pennington noted. "But since we haven't seen this kind of thing elsewhere, and the tree is such a small effect, we wonder if there might be something else."

The seismologists studied aerial photos of the region to see how soil has been removed in the past 50 years from road work and a re-design of the area's drainage system. These changes might have channeled more rainwater below the surface, potentially weakening the rock as it froze and thawed, the scientists suggest.

Pennington said "no one should be losing sleep" over the strange feature, which technically counted as the first natural earthquake in Michigan's Upper Peninsula—measuring less than magnitude 1.

"It may be a one-of-a kind phenomenon," he said. "But if it happens again, we'll be all over it, trying to figure it out." - Phys.org.