A 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit a remote and mountainous area of northeastern Afghanistan Tuesday morning, shaking buildings in the capital, Pakistan, Tajikistan and India. The earthquake in Badakhshan province was about 200 miles northeast of the capital, Kabul, where residents felt shaking buildings and some windows were shattered. There were no immediate casualty reports.
"It was a very strong earthquake," said Agha Noor Kemtoz, the provincial police chief of Badakhshan, which shares a border with Pakistan, Tajikistan and China. "My room was shaking and the light was swinging back and forth." The U.S. Geological Survey said the 6.2-quake was centered 40 miles south of Faizabad and hit at 8:05 a.m. Damage reports from northeastern Afghanistan are often slow to trickle in, because of the region's remoteness and a lack of communication facilities.
The quake was felt across northern Pakistan, including in the capital, Islamabad, 280 miles away. It also was felt in Tajikistan and in the Indian and Pakistan-administered portions of Kashmir, where a severe earthquake in October 2005 left thousands dead and caused widespread destruction. Badakhshan _ the most remote area in Afghanistan _ is home to the towering mountains of the Hindu Kush and is a region prone to earthquakes.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/03/2007 08:37 ||
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#7
All those poor Shirpas that will be put out of work when they have to flee the melting granite! Woman and children will be most effected, of course.
Won't be hard, they make the stuff up. Back in my old days in school, a species was defined pretty much by the ability to reproduce viable off springs, that which could in turn reproduce. Today they make up new species because it has a different coloring or bone structure variance even though it can mate and make viable off springs within its community. Now if they applied the same definition today to humans they now apply to other creatures on this rock, we wouldn't have "races", we'd have separate species.
Best example in the U.S. is the cutthroat trout, which has been subdivided into about a dozen different "species" in order to:
1. Allow the government to restrict human activity in certain areas.
2. Keep the grant money flowing in for scientists studying these "species".
I'm an avid fisherman and if that's all I cared about, I'd be very happy indeed to let these "scientists", ecoextremists, and big-government types have their way and save every last trout in every stream so that I could fish for them.
But as a grownup with concerns outside one of my hobbies, I realize that this practice is bad and dishonest science, and may be used for nefarious purposes. The fact is, ALL of these various cutthroat races can reproduce with each other and make fully functional offspring.
If two individuals can reproduce and make viable, reproductively functioning offspring, they are of the same species, period. That is, and should remain, the defining characteristic.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
04/03/2007 17:12 Comments ||
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#12
no mo uro - ever fish Lahontan or Pyramid outside Fallon, NV? - great cutthroat fishing. My grandparents lived in Fallon, so when we visited in summer - that was a "must do"
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/03/2007 17:56 Comments ||
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Strangely enough, one person who has actually spent years studying Himalayan Glaciers has another take...
Some experts have questioned the alarmists theory on global warming leading to shrinkage of Himalayan glaciers. VK Raina, a leading glaciologist and former ADG of GSI is one among them.
He feels that the research on Indian glaciers is negligible. Nothing but the remote sensing data forms the basis of these alarmists observations and not on the spot research.
Raina told the Hindustan Times that out of 9,575 glaciers in India, till date, research has been conducted only on about 50. Nearly 200 years data has shown that nothing abnormal has occurred in any of these glaciers.
It is simple. The issue of glacial retreat is being sensationalised by a few individuals, the septuagenarian Raina claimed. Throwing a gauntlet to the alarmist, he said the issue should be debated threadbare before drawing a conclusion.
However, Dr RK Pachouri, Chairman, Inter-Governmental Panel of Climatic Change said its recently released fourth assessment report has recorded increased glacier retreat since the 1980s.
This he said was due to the fact that the carbon dioxide radioactive forcing has increased by 20 per cent particularly after 1995. And also that 11 of the last 12 years were among the warmest 12 years recorded so far.
Surprisingly, Raina, who has been associated with the research and data collection in over 25 glaciers in India and abroad, debunked the theory that Gangotri glacier is retreating alarmingly.
Maintaining that the glaciers are undergoing natural changes, witnessed periodically, he said recent studies in the Gangotri and Zanskar areas (Drung- Drung, Kagriz glaciers) have not shown any evidence of major retreat.
"Claims of global warming causing glacial melt in the Himalayas are based on wrong assumptions," Raina, a trained mountaineer and skiing expert said. He rued that not much is being done by the Government to create a bank of trained geologists for an in-depth study of glaciers.
Posted by: John Frum ||
04/03/2007 21:11 Comments ||
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Days of heavy rain and spring snow melt have swelled the once trickling Kabul river, which breached its embankments early Monday, destroying 170 homes in the capital, the UN said, adding that an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 people have been affected by floodwaters.
Flooding and avalanches across the country have killed at least 51 people and destroyed hundreds of homes over the last 11 days following warm weather and heavy downpours across much of Afghanistan, officials said Sunday.
Aid agencies are trying to reach an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 families - approximately 20,000 to 25,000 people - affected by the floods and avalanches, said Aleem Siddique, spokesman for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. Reliable figures on the number of victims are hard to come by because most of the affected areas are remote and lack communications and access.
The Kabul river breached its embankments around 2 am Monday, but affected families were promptly evacuated and no casualties have been reported, Siddique said. In Parwan, 350 people were airlifted to safety over the weekend, and the World Food Program is delivering food supplies for about 1,000 families, he said.
Afghan soldiers safely evacuated 350 families from Sayed Khel district in Parwan when swollen rivers forced their evacuation, while another 33 families were given assistance in the Shin Wari district, said Maj. Christopher Belcher, a US military spokesman. This shows the dedication of the Afghan security forces to the safety of the people of Afghanistan, Belcher said.
In Bamiyan, 60 homes were reportedly destroyed by an avalanche Sunday night, Siddique said. The area is difficult to access because of flooding, which has reportedly killed about 28, he said.
In Daykundi, about 2,500 people in eight districts have been badly affected by flooding, and it is anticipated that more flooding is to come as the snow continues to melt, Siddique said. In Panjshir, avalanches and floods have affected six districts, killing nine people and destroying 40 homes. Afghanistan has endured about a decade of drought, and Afghans say that this years spring rains are heavier than theyve seen in years.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2007 00:00 ||
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Dozens of people are believed to have died in the Solomon Islands after an underwater earthquake propelled a 10m (33ft) tsunami into coastal villages, washing away entire communities in one of the worlds poorest and most remote nations.
A state of emergency was declared yesterday by Manasseh Sogavare, the Prime Minister, as aftershocks from the magnitude 8.0 earthquake shook the countrys Western province and rescue teams struggled to reach thousands of refugees sleeping out in the open. The tsunami alert triggered evacuations across the Pacific.
In Australia officials closed East coast beaches, warned fishing boats to come in and cancelled ferry services in Sydney Harbour. Residents left homes, hospitals and schools and fled to higher ground.
Outside Cairns there were traffic jams as panicked locals even those living inland and well above sea level fled the city while others abandoned their cars in lowlying areas. Gary Schofield, of Cairns disaster management group, said that authorities knew the tsunami was unlikely to strike the regions shore but were unable to stop the panic.
Seismologists issued a warning that there was a 50 per cent chance of a second equally powerful earthquake striking anything between a few hours and several weeks after the first. The Solomon Islands have suffered six double earthquakes in the past 90 years.
No wave was detected in Papua New Guinea, the Solomons nearest neighbour, allaying fears that there would be a repeat of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, which killed 280,000 people across the Indian Ocean. There were no reports of damage from elsewhere.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
D *** nged mile-wide, Earth-passing birthday asteroid(s).
#4
We had tv updates constantly here, shortly after the Earthquake struck the Solomon Islands. It was 'predicted' that the Tsunami would land in my City at around 11:30am, but nothing came of it. The whole East Coast along Australia was virtually shut down.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit a remote and mountainous area of northeastern Afghanistan Tuesday morning, shaking buildings in the capital, Pakistan, Tajikistan and India. The earthquake in Badakhshan province was about 200 miles northeast of the capital, Kabul, where residents felt shaking buildings and some windows were shattered. There were no immediate casualty reports.
Outside Cairns there were traffic jams as panicked locals even those living inland and well above sea level fled the city while others abandoned their cars in lowlying areas. Gary Schofield, of Cairns disaster management group, said that authorities knew the tsunami was unlikely to strike the regions shore but were unable to stop the panic. 
