Windsor, Canada as seen from Detroit. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)
March 7, 2016 - ONTARIO, CANADA - A droning, industrial hum that for years perplexed and disturbed locals in Windsor, Ontario, near the U.S.-Canada border, reemerged in recent months.
The monotonous, reverberating sound and its accompanying vibrations – known as “the Windsor hum”—has returned to haunt the city’s residents, according to the Windsor Star.
And this time it’s louder than ever.
Mike Provost, a resident on Windsor’s Hillcrest Boulevard, has kept records of the hums heard throughout his neighborhood, he told the newspaper. He noted a particular blast on Saturday, Feb. 27, that “shook everything … like a pounding on the wall."
“Some people complain about dishes rattling, windows rattling,” Provost told the Star. “It can get real disturbing.”
Concerns about the hum first arose several years ago on the western and southern ends of Windsor, which lies just south of Detroit across the Detroit River. One night in 2012, more than 22,000 residents phoned government officials about the hum during a call-in event.
A 2013 report in On Earth magazine described how the incessant sound disturbed thousands of residents in that time, “vibrating their beds, wrecking their concentration, making their toddlers cranky. Some even blamed it for killing their goldfish.”
The hum jolted resident Gary Grosse out of sleep at 2 a.m. one night, the magazine reported, driving him to try to hunt down the source in his car. Another resident, Sherry Kelly, heard the hum, too, but feared people would think she was crazy if she mentioned it.
The crew of a SyFy channel show even visited Windsor in 2013 and floated the idea that the hum was connected to HAARP, a U.S. communications program that conspiracy theorists said could control minds or the weather, depending on whom you ask. The show found no conclusions.
After myriad complaints, a 2014 report by the Canadian government linked the noise pollution to the work of U.S. Steel, based on Zug Island – a mass of land in the Detroit River just over the U.S.-Canadian border, the Star reported.
Experts think the hum could be the traveling sound of distant blasts from industrial furnaces releasing pressure on the American island, but jurisdictional complications have hamstrung Canadian officials in investigating operations there.
U.S. Steel, for its part, has cast doubt on the notion that it causes the hum.
An attorney of River Rouge, Mich., the municipality that oversees Zug Island, told the Star in 2012 that it didn’t have resources to look into the problem.
“We are not going to pay for something that is for somebody else’s benefit because this is not a problem affecting us,” David Bower said.
According to Provost, the Windsor resident tracking the hum’s return, the jolting noises have been worse around 8 p.m.
“Come on, give me a break,” he said. “Let us get some sleep. Let us get some peace and quiet.” - USA Today.
Strombolian eruption at Tungurahua on March 2, 2016. (Photo: E. Gaunt - OVTIGEPN)
March 7, 2016 - EARTH - The following constitutes the new activity, unrest and ongoing reports of volcanoes across the globe.
Tungurahua (Ecuador):
The volcano is in a phase of mild to moderate strombolian activity.
Incandescent bombs are ejected to the upper slopes of the volcano,
generating avalanches. Ash plumes rise up to a few km above the crater
and drift mostly in westerly directions.
Apparently, the large
vent-clearing explosion on 27 Feb has opened the conduit to allow a
sustained slow rise of magma and more gradual release of gas pressure in
small discrete explosions (= strombolian activity).
In its latest report, IGEPN published a series of remarkable photos taken during cloud-free periods at night.
Nevado del Ruiz (Colombia):
An explosion occurred at the volcano this morning, producing an ash
plume that rose 3000 m above the summit. The eruption was accompanied by
Ash falls occurred later in several nearby towns to the NW including
Chinchiná, Villamaría, Manizales and Palestine.
Nevado del Ruiz' eruption column. (Photo: Luis Guillermo Velásquez / La Patria)
The regional La Nubia airport was closed today after noon.
Shiveluch (Kamchatka): The lava dome continues to be very active, generating frequent rockfalls
and small glowing avalanches on the SW side as well as, more rarely, on
the SE side as can be seen on today's time-lapse video.
WATCH: Time-lapse of Shiveluch.
A larger event might have taken place after dark, as Tokyo VAAC reported
an ash plume to 18,000 ft (5.4 km) altitude this morning 08:20 UTC
(17:20 local time in Kamchatka).
Copahue (Chile): The activity at the volcano, near-constant degassing with sometimes ash
emissions, has decreased over the past weeks. Ash venting has become
less frequent and intense, and the glow from E Agrio crater that had
been visible at the crater disappeared.
Weak steam/ash plume from Copahue.
According to the Chilean scientists from SERNAGEOMIN who monitor the
volcano, the current activity of the volcano is being caused by the
interaction of a small volume of new magma under its highly active
shallow hydrothermal system - none or little of this magma reaches the
surface itself, but the heat transfer into the circulating fluids causes
fragmentation by small explosions and the emission of gasses and
particles (ash). This activity reflects in a continuous tremor signal of
moderate intensity.
Scientists concluded that the new magma volume has been too small to
greatly affect the internal balance in the hydrothermal system. Other
geophysical parameters such as rate of degassing and deformation are
mostly within normal levels of the volcano. It is therefore expected
that the current activity continues in the coming weeks to months at
fluctuating rates. This includes possible short-lived phases of more
pronounced sporadic phreatic to strombolian explosions.
Chripoi (Kurile Islands, Russia): A new eruption might have taken place at the volcano this afternoon. Based on satellite imagery, Tokyo VAAC reported an ash plume to estimated 20,000 ft (6 km) altitude that drifted east.
Whether or not an eruption took place still needs to be confirmed.
Alaid (Northern Kuriles):
A new eruption is occurring at the volcano, satellite images show. A
pronounced steam plume with possible ash content can be seen drifting
west from the volcano, at estimated 13,000 ft (4 km) altitude. In
addition, NASA's MODIS and VIIRS sensors have been detecting an intense
heat source from the volcano's summit lately.
Steam plume from Alaid volcano. NASA Suomi NPP satellite image
Bromo (East Java, Indonesia):
The latest eruptive cycle of the volcano might have ended. No more
eruptions (explosions, ash emissions) have been observed during the past
2 weeks and seismic activity has returned to normal levels as well, our
friend Oystein Andersen from Jakarta reported.
Tokyo VAAC raised the aviation color code to orange.
Suwanose-jima (Ryukyu Islands):
The (probably) strombolian-type activity that had started a few days
ago continues at the Otake crater and is visible as bright glow from
neighboring islands.
Glow from Suwanose-jima's active crater.
Manam (Papua New Guinea):
New activity has been reported from the volcano this morning. A pilot
reported an ash plume at approx. 10,000 ft (3 km) altitude extending 50
km to the SE. A plume, along with a thermal signal, can also be seen on
the latest satellite image.
Ash plume from Manam volcano
You can find photos and more detailed reports of the latest eruption at his website.
Telica (Nicaragua):
The volcano has remained mostly calm during the past 24 hours. Sporadic
weak ash emissions occurred at night, but glow could no longer be seen
from the crater.
Ash emission from Telica.
Masaya (Nicaragua):
The activity of the lava lake in the Santiago crater has been
increasing in the past week. In a recent bulletin, INETER mentions that
the previously two ponds in two adjacent vents have now joined, probably
as a result of erosion by the violently degassing and convective lava.
The following video taken on the 1st of March gives a good impression:
WATCH: Activity at the Masaya lake.
Nevados de Chillán (Central Chile):
A small eruption occurred at the volcano again yesterday, the first
activity since the mild explosive activity on 7 February. Starting
around noon, the volcano began to emit a steam plume of variable
intensity, sometimes mixed with ash. The activity took place at one of
the new craters that had formed in early February.
Eruption of Nevados de Chillan volcano
According to
SERNAGEOMIN, seismicity and other monitored parameters had shown little
fluctuations during most of February, but then started to increase at
the end of the month, possibly related to a slowly ascending body of
magma. Yesterday's new activity is likely the result of this and could
be a precursor of more activity in the near to medium future.
Bagana (Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea):
Based on Himawari-8 satellite data, Darwin VAAC reported an ash
emission from the volcano at 7,000 ft (2.1 km) altitude last evening,
creating a plume that drifted 100 km to the NE. Aviation color code is
at Orange.
Kilauea (Hawai'i): The activity of the volcano remains essentially unchanged. Rising magma
levels under the east rift zone briefly caused an overflow of lava that
erupted from a spatter cone within the southern part of the Puʻu ʻŌʻō
crater.
Thermal image of the lava overflow inside Kilauea's Pu'u 'O'o crater
This activity started around 8:15 a.m. local time yesterday (2 Mar),
covered part of the crater floor and ceased at about 15:00 local time.
No lava flowed beyond the crater. According to HVO, "this type of
activity is not unusual for Puʻu ʻŌʻō, and does not reflect a
significant change in the ongoing eruption".
At the summit caldera, rising magma levels temporarily brought the
surface of the lava lake inside Halema'uma'u back in sight from the
Jaggar Museum overlook in the early morning hours before receding.
Scattered surface flows remain active on the 'June 27th' flow field,
all within about 6.0 km (4 mi) of Puʻu ʻŌʻō and do not currently
threaten any nearby communities. Seismicity and deformation are within
normal levels throughout the volcano.
Popocatépetl (Central Mexico): No significant changes in activity have occurred over the past weeks.
Bright glow at the summit crater indicates that the lava dome in its
inner crater continues to grow slowly.
Intermittent weak to moderate
explosions (on average 2-3 per day) sometimes produce ash plumes that
rise up to 1-2 km and rarely eject incandescent material outside the
crater.
WATCH: Glow from Popocatepetl volcano.
Fuego (Guatemala):
The volcano's activity started to drop again to normal levels
(intermittent small explosions) yesterday evening - the most recent
paroxysm has now ended.
View of Fuego volcano.
Barren Island (Indian Ocean):
Weak eruptive activity continues at the summit vent of the remote and
rarely directly observed volcano, satellite data indicates.
A
thermal hot spot has been present regularly during recent weeks, and on
cloud-free days, a steam-gas plume can often be seen drifting from the
island that sometimes contains some ash.
Steam (and ash?) plume from Barren Island on March 1(red spot is a
thermal anomaly detected by the VIIRS radiometer onboard NASA's Suomi
NPP)
What exactly the activity is
like is difficult to say, but most likely is mild strombolian activity
and/or the occasional presence of a (very small) lava lake in the summit
crater.
Poster from the 2004 science fiction film The Day After Tomorrow.
March 7, 2016 - EARTH - In their “hottest year ever” press briefing, NOAA included this
graph, which stated that they have a 58 year long radiosonde temperature
record. But they only showed the last 37 years in the graph.
I combined the two graphs at the same scale
below, and put a horizontal red reference line in, which shows that the
earth’s atmosphere has not warmed at all since the late 1950’s
The omission of this data from the NOAA report, is just their latest
attempt to defraud the public. NOAA’s best data shows no warming for 60
years. But it gets worse. The graph in the NOAA report shows about 0.5C
warming from 1979 to 2010, but their original published data shows no
warming during that period.
Due to Urban Heat Island Effects, the NOAA
surface data shows nearly one degree warming from 1979 to 2010, but
their original radiosonde data showed no warming during that time.
Global warming theory is based on troposphere warming, which is why the
radiosonde data should be used by modelers – instead of the UHI
contaminated surface data.
NOAA’s original published radiosonde data showed no net troposphere warming from 1958 to 2010, when the data set ended.
The next graph shows how NOAA has altered their 850-300 mb temperature data since 2011. Another hockey stick of data tampering.
The earthquake at was centred near the Oxfordshire-Buckinghamshire border
March 7, 2016 - ENGLAND - An earthquake with a magnitude of 2.3 has been recorded in Oxfordshire, the British Geological Survey (BGS) has confirmed.
Residents in Chinnor and Thame as well as Princes Risborough, Aylesbury
and Bledlow in Buckinghamshire reported feeling shaking late on Sunday.
The BGS said the earthquake, centred on the village of Emmington, happened at 23:11 GMT.
Seismologist Glen Ford said: "The fact it was noticed makes it a bit special."
A caller to BBC Radio Oxford, who lives in Chinnor, said: "The
whole place shook - it was more than a wind and rattled the windows."
People also took to social media to post comments after experiencing the late-night movement.
Anna Edwards tweeted: "Earthquake or explosion? Something moved in S Oxon. Felt in Chinnor & Thame."
Chris White tweeted: "Bucks earth quake? We felt it, house shook, low noise!"
Emily Smith also posted: "Magnitude 2.3 earthquake in Bucks last night, that explains the house shaking then."
The BGS said the quake was one of about a dozen felt in the UK each year.
Mr Ford said: "Old geological faults still get activated by the stresses
which are put on them from the major fault lines we have, and every now
and again these pressures are released with a small earthquake."
He added: "It was a very small earthquake, but in UK terms it was significant as it was actually felt by the general public - 90% of earthquakes go completely unnoticed." - BBC.
