Japan's Nuclear Crisis

The latest update on Japan's ongoing nuclear crisis.
http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre72a0ss-us-japan-quake/

Super Moon

Since we recently studied the tides and the forces that generate them, I thought the linked article from National Geographic would be interesting.  http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/news/breakingorbit/2011/03/sizing-up-the-supermoon.html

The full "super moon" was gigantic last weekend.

Japan Earthquake

The included image shows epicenter locations of the few days before and after the huge Japan earthquake and tsunami.  Foreshocks are shown with dashed lines; aftershocks with solid lines.

Japan is obviously on the Eurasian Plate, not the North American.  See...even NASA makes an occasional mistake.

Pray for the affected people! A lot.

Tsunami

I hope you guys have been following the news regarding the M 8.9 earthquake in Japan and the resulting tsunami.  Click here for the USGS detailed technical info regarding this major quake: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2011/usc0001xgp/

Check out FOX, CNN, and The Weather Channel, for lots of video clips and commentary.

Food, Food, Food

Phytoplankton, the mostly microscopic, plants that are the ocean's biggest food source, not to mention the planet's, could play a significant role in climate change.

Follow the link to a recent fascinating article from NASA's Earth Observatory.  http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/OceanProductivity/?src=features-recent

Enjoy.

More Algae?

Continuing with the algae theme...haha just kidding.

Seriously though, algae are so important to the proper functioning of marine environments.  And they can be intimately connected with its dysfunction as well.

Excellent article on algae blooms and genome sequencing from WHOI: http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=7545&tid=282&cid=90450&ct=162

Enjoy.