http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/quiz-habitat.html
How much do you remember about Habitats?
Try this 6-question Multiple Choice Quiz!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
How much do you know about natural disasters?
Quiz yourself on Natural Disasters!
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http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/natural-disasters/quiz-natural-disasters.html?fs=video.nationalgeographic.com
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Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Can Animals Sense Earthquakes?
Can Animals Sense Earthquakes?
Maryann Mott
for National Geographic News
November 11, 2003
The belief that animals can predict earthquakes has been around for
centuries.
In 373 B.C., historians recorded that animals, including rats, snakes and weasels, deserted the Greek city of Helice in droves just days before a quake devastated the place.
Accounts of similar animal anticipation of earthquakes have surfaced across the centuries since. Catfish moving violently, chickens that stop laying eggs and bees leaving their hive in a panic have been reported. Countless pet owners claimed to have witnessed their cats and dogs acting strangely before the ground shook—barking or whining for no apparent reason, or showing signs of nervousness and restlessness.
But precisely what animals sense, if they feel anything at all, is a mystery. One theory is that wild and domestic creatures feel the Earth vibrate before humans. Other ideas suggest they detect electrical changes in the air or gas released from the Earth.
Earthquakes are a sudden phenomenon. Seismologists have no way of knowing exactly when or where the next one will hit. An estimated 500,000 detectable quakes occur in the world each year. Of those, 100,000 can be felt by humans, and 100 cause damage.
One of the world's most earthquake-prone countries is Japan, where devastation has taken countless lives and caused enormous damage to property. Researchers there have long studied animals in hopes of discovering what they hear or feel before the Earth shakes in order to use that sense as a prediction tool.
American seismologists, on the other hand, are skeptical. Even though there have been documented cases of strange animal behavior prior to earthquakes, the United States Geological Survey, a government agency that provides scientific information about the Earth, says a reproducible connection between a specific behavior and the occurrence of a quake has never been made.
"What we're faced with is a lot of anecdotes," said Andy Michael, a geophysicist at USGS. "Animals react to so many things—being hungry, defending their territories, mating, predators—so it's hard to have a controlled study to get that advanced warning signal."
In the 1970s, a few studies on animal prediction were done by the USGS "but nothing concrete came out of it," said Michael. Since that time the agency has made no further investigations into the theory.
Erratic Behavior in Dogs
Researchers around the world continue to pursue the idea, however. In September 2003 a medical doctor in Japan made headlines with a study that indicated erratic behavior in dogs, such as excessive barking or biting, could be used to forecast quakes.
There have also been examples where authorities have forecast successfully a major earthquake, based in part on the observation of the strange antics of animals. For example, in 1975 Chinese officials ordered the evacuation of Haicheng, a city with one million people, just days before a 7.3-magnitude quake. Only a small portion of the population was hurt or killed. If the city had not been evacuated, it is estimated that the number of fatalities and injuries could have exceeded 150,000.
The Haicheng incident is what gave people hope that earthquakes might be predictable, says Michael, and what prompted the animal behavior studies by the USGS.
It was later discovered, though, that a rare series of small tremors, called foreshocks, occurred before the large quake hit the city.
"It was the foreshock sequence that gave (Chinese officials) the solid prediction," Michael said.
Still, the Chinese have continued to look at animal behavior as an aid to earthquake prediction. They have had several notable successes and also a few false alarms, said Rupert Sheldrake, a biologist and author of the books, Dogs that Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home and The Sense of Being Stared At.
A reproducible connection between animal behavior and earthquakes could be made, he said, but "as the Chinese have discovered, not all earthquakes cause unusual animal behavior while others do. Only through research could we find out why there might be such differences."
Sheldrake did his own study looking at animal reactions before major tremors, including the Northridge, California, quake in 1994, and the Greek and Turkish quakes in 1999.
In all cases, he said, there were reports of peculiar behavior beforehand, including dogs howling in the night mysteriously, caged birds becoming restless, and nervous cats hiding.
Geologists, however, dismiss these kinds of reports, saying it's "the psychological focusing effect," where people remember strange behaviors only after an earthquake or other catastrophe has taken place. If nothing had happened, they contend, people would not have remembered the strange behavior.
Reporting Strange Behavior
Sheldrake disagrees. Comparable patterns of animal behavior prior to earthquakes have been reported independently by people all over the world, he said. "I cannot believe that they could all have made up such similar stories or that they all suffered from tricks of memory."
More research is needed and is long overdue, said Sheldrake, who proposes a special hotline or Web site where people could call or write in if they saw strange behavior in their animals. A computer would then analyze the incoming messages to determine where they originated. A sudden surge of calls or e-mails from a particular region might indicate that a quake was imminent.
The information would be checked to make sure the observations were not caused by other circumstances known to affect the behavior of animals, such as fireworks, or changes in weather. And to avoid issuing false warnings, Sheldrake said, the data would be used in conjunction with other monitoring devices such as seismological measurements.
"Such a project would capture the imagination of millions of people, encourage large-scale public participation and research—and would be fun," he said. "What is holding this research back is not money but dogmatism and narrow-mindedness."
Maryann Mott
for National Geographic News
November 11, 2003
The belief that animals can predict earthquakes has been around for
centuries.
In 373 B.C., historians recorded that animals, including rats, snakes and weasels, deserted the Greek city of Helice in droves just days before a quake devastated the place.
Accounts of similar animal anticipation of earthquakes have surfaced across the centuries since. Catfish moving violently, chickens that stop laying eggs and bees leaving their hive in a panic have been reported. Countless pet owners claimed to have witnessed their cats and dogs acting strangely before the ground shook—barking or whining for no apparent reason, or showing signs of nervousness and restlessness.
But precisely what animals sense, if they feel anything at all, is a mystery. One theory is that wild and domestic creatures feel the Earth vibrate before humans. Other ideas suggest they detect electrical changes in the air or gas released from the Earth.
Earthquakes are a sudden phenomenon. Seismologists have no way of knowing exactly when or where the next one will hit. An estimated 500,000 detectable quakes occur in the world each year. Of those, 100,000 can be felt by humans, and 100 cause damage.
One of the world's most earthquake-prone countries is Japan, where devastation has taken countless lives and caused enormous damage to property. Researchers there have long studied animals in hopes of discovering what they hear or feel before the Earth shakes in order to use that sense as a prediction tool.
American seismologists, on the other hand, are skeptical. Even though there have been documented cases of strange animal behavior prior to earthquakes, the United States Geological Survey, a government agency that provides scientific information about the Earth, says a reproducible connection between a specific behavior and the occurrence of a quake has never been made.
"What we're faced with is a lot of anecdotes," said Andy Michael, a geophysicist at USGS. "Animals react to so many things—being hungry, defending their territories, mating, predators—so it's hard to have a controlled study to get that advanced warning signal."
In the 1970s, a few studies on animal prediction were done by the USGS "but nothing concrete came out of it," said Michael. Since that time the agency has made no further investigations into the theory.
Erratic Behavior in Dogs
Researchers around the world continue to pursue the idea, however. In September 2003 a medical doctor in Japan made headlines with a study that indicated erratic behavior in dogs, such as excessive barking or biting, could be used to forecast quakes.
There have also been examples where authorities have forecast successfully a major earthquake, based in part on the observation of the strange antics of animals. For example, in 1975 Chinese officials ordered the evacuation of Haicheng, a city with one million people, just days before a 7.3-magnitude quake. Only a small portion of the population was hurt or killed. If the city had not been evacuated, it is estimated that the number of fatalities and injuries could have exceeded 150,000.
The Haicheng incident is what gave people hope that earthquakes might be predictable, says Michael, and what prompted the animal behavior studies by the USGS.
It was later discovered, though, that a rare series of small tremors, called foreshocks, occurred before the large quake hit the city.
"It was the foreshock sequence that gave (Chinese officials) the solid prediction," Michael said.
Still, the Chinese have continued to look at animal behavior as an aid to earthquake prediction. They have had several notable successes and also a few false alarms, said Rupert Sheldrake, a biologist and author of the books, Dogs that Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home and The Sense of Being Stared At.
A reproducible connection between animal behavior and earthquakes could be made, he said, but "as the Chinese have discovered, not all earthquakes cause unusual animal behavior while others do. Only through research could we find out why there might be such differences."
Sheldrake did his own study looking at animal reactions before major tremors, including the Northridge, California, quake in 1994, and the Greek and Turkish quakes in 1999.
In all cases, he said, there were reports of peculiar behavior beforehand, including dogs howling in the night mysteriously, caged birds becoming restless, and nervous cats hiding.
Geologists, however, dismiss these kinds of reports, saying it's "the psychological focusing effect," where people remember strange behaviors only after an earthquake or other catastrophe has taken place. If nothing had happened, they contend, people would not have remembered the strange behavior.
Reporting Strange Behavior
Sheldrake disagrees. Comparable patterns of animal behavior prior to earthquakes have been reported independently by people all over the world, he said. "I cannot believe that they could all have made up such similar stories or that they all suffered from tricks of memory."
More research is needed and is long overdue, said Sheldrake, who proposes a special hotline or Web site where people could call or write in if they saw strange behavior in their animals. A computer would then analyze the incoming messages to determine where they originated. A sudden surge of calls or e-mails from a particular region might indicate that a quake was imminent.
The information would be checked to make sure the observations were not caused by other circumstances known to affect the behavior of animals, such as fireworks, or changes in weather. And to avoid issuing false warnings, Sheldrake said, the data would be used in conjunction with other monitoring devices such as seismological measurements.
"Such a project would capture the imagination of millions of people, encourage large-scale public participation and research—and would be fun," he said. "What is holding this research back is not money but dogmatism and narrow-mindedness."
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Earthquake in China (7.8)
http://earthquake.michaelzhao.net/ video
China earthquake kills thousands
The death toll from the most deadly earthquake to hit China in more than three decades today reached nearly 10,000 in Sichuan province alone, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Worst hit was Sichuan province's Beichuan county, where a further 10,000 were feared injured and 80% of the buildings were flattened, including eight schools and one hospital.
As reports trickled in from areas that had been cut off since the earthquake hit this morning, the death toll is expected to rise.
There are fears over some 900 students buried in a secondary school in the city of Dujiangyan, also in Beichuan county.
Photos posted on the internet revealed arms and a torso sticking out of the wreckage of the school as dozens of people scrambled to free the students using small mechanical winches or their bare hands.
Xinhua news agency reported that 50 bodies had been recovered from the debris, but did not say whether there were survivors.
Dale Rutstein of Unicef China, said Sichuan was one of the poorest provinces in China, which would add to the scale of the disaster.
"There are a lot of people living in marginal areas that are difficult to get to and a lot of the buildings in those areas are substandard and could collapse very quickly," he said.
The 7.8-magnitude quake struck 57 miles north-west of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. Tremors from the quake, which struck at 2.28pm (6.28am BST), were felt as far away as Thailand and Vietnam.
"We felt continuous shaking for about two or three minutes. All the people in our office are rushing downstairs. We're still feeling slight tremblings," said an office worker in Chengdu.
The US Geological Survey said the quake was centred 6 miles below the Earth's surface.
In Sichuan, phone lines were cut and a website for the Aba prefecture, which includes Beichuan county, said the quake had severed several major highways in the region and communications were down in 11 counties.
A chemical plant collapsed in Shifang city, to the south-east of the epicentre, burying hundreds of people and sending more than 80 tonnes of toxic liquid ammonia leaking from the site, state media reported.
The prime minister, Wen Jiabao, had rushed to the area and the president, Hu Jintao, ordered an "all-out" rescue effort, Xinhua reported.
Rescue teams were trying make contact with cut-off areas. Thousands of army troops and paramilitary People's Armed Police were taking medical supplies to the region, state television said.
Wen appealed for people to rally together. "This is an especially challenging task," he said, reading from a statement. "In the face of the disaster, what's most important is calmness, confidence, courage and powerful command."
The quake is the worst to hit China in 32 years since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake in north-eastern China which claimed up to 300,000 lives.
There was no visible damage in Beijing, about 930 miles away, but tremors were felt. The showpiece Bird's Nest Olympic stadium, which is built to withstand a 8.0 quake was unscathed, a spokesman for the Olympic organising committee said.
The region most severely affected is largely populated by Han Chinese but has sizeable Qiang and Tibetan populations. Wenchuan county, the epicentre of the quake, according to Sichuan seismologists, is also home to the Wolon nature reserve, a centre for research on giant pandas.
The Sichuan seismology bureau reported 313 aftershocks has prompted many residents, including hospital patients, to remain outdoors.
Wyndham Jamesof Save the Children said the timing of the earthquake would contribute to higher fatalities.
"The earthquake was about 2.30pm and is a time when most children are in school. There are also other institutions like orphanages and hospitals that could be affected," he said, adding that the official death toll was a conservative estimate.
State television has been broadcasting advice for those trapped in the earthquake, telling people to "keep calm and conserve energy". Survivors have been told to "seek water and food, and wait patiently for rescue".
Mark Tran, Elizabeth Stewart and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Monday May 12 2008 00.04 BST
China earthquake kills thousands
The death toll from the most deadly earthquake to hit China in more than three decades today reached nearly 10,000 in Sichuan province alone, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Worst hit was Sichuan province's Beichuan county, where a further 10,000 were feared injured and 80% of the buildings were flattened, including eight schools and one hospital.
As reports trickled in from areas that had been cut off since the earthquake hit this morning, the death toll is expected to rise.
There are fears over some 900 students buried in a secondary school in the city of Dujiangyan, also in Beichuan county.
Photos posted on the internet revealed arms and a torso sticking out of the wreckage of the school as dozens of people scrambled to free the students using small mechanical winches or their bare hands.
Xinhua news agency reported that 50 bodies had been recovered from the debris, but did not say whether there were survivors.
Dale Rutstein of Unicef China, said Sichuan was one of the poorest provinces in China, which would add to the scale of the disaster.
"There are a lot of people living in marginal areas that are difficult to get to and a lot of the buildings in those areas are substandard and could collapse very quickly," he said.
The 7.8-magnitude quake struck 57 miles north-west of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. Tremors from the quake, which struck at 2.28pm (6.28am BST), were felt as far away as Thailand and Vietnam.
"We felt continuous shaking for about two or three minutes. All the people in our office are rushing downstairs. We're still feeling slight tremblings," said an office worker in Chengdu.
The US Geological Survey said the quake was centred 6 miles below the Earth's surface.
In Sichuan, phone lines were cut and a website for the Aba prefecture, which includes Beichuan county, said the quake had severed several major highways in the region and communications were down in 11 counties.
A chemical plant collapsed in Shifang city, to the south-east of the epicentre, burying hundreds of people and sending more than 80 tonnes of toxic liquid ammonia leaking from the site, state media reported.
The prime minister, Wen Jiabao, had rushed to the area and the president, Hu Jintao, ordered an "all-out" rescue effort, Xinhua reported.
Rescue teams were trying make contact with cut-off areas. Thousands of army troops and paramilitary People's Armed Police were taking medical supplies to the region, state television said.
Wen appealed for people to rally together. "This is an especially challenging task," he said, reading from a statement. "In the face of the disaster, what's most important is calmness, confidence, courage and powerful command."
The quake is the worst to hit China in 32 years since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake in north-eastern China which claimed up to 300,000 lives.
There was no visible damage in Beijing, about 930 miles away, but tremors were felt. The showpiece Bird's Nest Olympic stadium, which is built to withstand a 8.0 quake was unscathed, a spokesman for the Olympic organising committee said.
The region most severely affected is largely populated by Han Chinese but has sizeable Qiang and Tibetan populations. Wenchuan county, the epicentre of the quake, according to Sichuan seismologists, is also home to the Wolon nature reserve, a centre for research on giant pandas.
The Sichuan seismology bureau reported 313 aftershocks has prompted many residents, including hospital patients, to remain outdoors.
Wyndham Jamesof Save the Children said the timing of the earthquake would contribute to higher fatalities.
"The earthquake was about 2.30pm and is a time when most children are in school. There are also other institutions like orphanages and hospitals that could be affected," he said, adding that the official death toll was a conservative estimate.
State television has been broadcasting advice for those trapped in the earthquake, telling people to "keep calm and conserve energy". Survivors have been told to "seek water and food, and wait patiently for rescue".
Mark Tran, Elizabeth Stewart and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Monday May 12 2008 00.04 BST
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