Pacific Nations Breathe Sigh of Relief

The much-feared tsunami that followed in the wake of the Chilean earthquake turned to be, thankfully, a tempest in a teapot.

As it stands now, only Robinson Crusoe Island and Easter Island seem to have suffered serious damage. However, since this particular tsunami is a series of waves rather than one unified one, many nations are still wary even as they call off the threat alert.

Eduardo Avila has an excellent post on Global Voices Online, and points to a resident of Easter Island, Alejandro Tucki (@JanoTC), who tweeted a photo (see above) of a rock wall turned to debris by the tsunami.

Robinson Crusoe Island Deluged

Aishwarya Bhatt of thaindian.com is reporting that Robinson Crusoe Island has been devastated by the tsunami that formed in the wake of the latest Chilean earthquake.

"...the Robinson Crusoe Island, which is an integral part of the Juan Fernandez Archipelago, has already been deluged. It was reported that Chile’s Robinson Crusoe Island has already been smashed by huge waves, after the massive earthquake. Chile’s Robinson Crusoe Island is a very remote island, and it is located around 700 kilometers from the mainland. The Chilean President Michelle Bachelet announced that 2 ships with relief material have already been dispatched to the Robinson Crusoe Island."

Next in line for the disastrous tidal wave would be Easter Island. Easter Island is currently being evacuated, and what happens there will give us a closer look at what is in store for Hawaii, Australia, the Philippines and many other Pacific nations.

The tsunami sirens will next be sounded on Hawaii, at 6am local time.

Tsunami Warning Across Pacific Rim

A massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck the coast of Chile at 3:34am this morning, setting into motion a tsunami that threatens the entire Pacific Rim, and points as far away as Australia and Antarctica.

Several substantial aftershocks followed, including ones measuring 6.9, 6.2 and 5.6.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has issued a warning for Chile and Peru, and a less-urgent tsunami watch for Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica and Antarctica. The PTWC has issued its highest alert for Hawaii, where incoming waves could cause damage along the coastlines across the island chain.

The largest earthquake ever recorded occurred in the very same region, on May 22, 1960. The 9.5 magnitude earthquake killed thousands and left millions homeless in Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines. Damage was even reported as far out as the United States West Coast.

People in coastal areas, such as the tourist-filled Waikiki, will be instructed on a possible evacuation scenario. Public alert sirens will be sounded again three hours prior to the estimated arrival time of the tsunami wave.

"If you're in an evacuation zone, police or civil defense volunteers would instruct you to evacuate, or instructions will come out over the radio and TV," she said.

Breaking news on this disaster will follow here. Stay tuned.

Where Wonders Await Us

Michael Sigman on HuffPo has a great bit about Obama's budget cuts for NASA space exploration and the hilarious book A Martian Wouldn't Say That by Leonard Stern and Diane Robinson.

However, the part that most interests us for our purposes here is this succinct bit of wisdom:

In a December, 2007 NYRB piece titled Where Wonders Await Us, Tim Flannery discusses two books -- The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss by Claire Nouvian and The Silent Deep: The Discovery, Ecology and Conservation of the Deep Sea by Tony Koslow -- full of astounding information and mind-blowing photos of the ocean depths. Our ignorance of this vast world is startling. Flannery: "Despite the fact that less than one percent of the ocean deep has been mapped, today our explorations are restricted to depths of six thousand meters or less."

Deep sea exploration is far cheaper and faster than space travel, and it even holds promise for helping us explore the heavens. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute notes that "Ocean research reveals fundamental planetary forces which support thriving communities of life, on and below the seafloor, that hold key clues to the evolution of life on Earth and the possibility of life on other planets."

Free Tilikum

By now you've no doubt heard about the tragedy at SeaWorld, and people are wondering why Tilikum would do something do such a thing to his own trainer.

Consider this: Tilikum was kidnapped, separated from his family, has no real friends, no meaningful sex besides coerced mating, and is confined to a tank the size of a kiddie pool.

If any sort of entities did the same thing to you, you might eventually try to kill your captors too. As Captain Pike told the Talosians, humans prefer death to captivity. Orcas, being even more sensitive and intelligent than humans, clearly feel the same way.

Amazingly, some are calling for Tilikum to be put down and destroyed. We say Tilikum was acting in self-defense.

Thankfully, SeaWorld, is announcing that Tilikum will not be killed, but of course, they're merely saying that because they don't wish to gut their golden calf or kill their cash cow.

Raymond Graham, writing in the Times Colonist, says it best:

The death of Dawn Brancheau is tragic -- but not more so than the last 28 years of slow death that Tillikum has experienced and the similar experiences of other highly intelligent creatures.

Anomalous Underwater Lines Near Cuba

The fascinating Satellite Discoveries site has some interesting aerial images that reveal peculiar lines and crosshatching on the ocean floor near Cayo Santa Maria and between Cayo Rosario and Cayo Cantiles off the coast of Cuba.

Click here to view the images.

Jan Mayen: The Gates of Hell

Jan Mayen Island (71°N 8°30'W) is a remote Norwegian property in the Arctic Ocean, home to only a dozen or so scientists who are there to maintain a meterological station and a LORAN-C Station.

Norway, seeking to explore for oil and natural gas in its more remote properties, has now turned its eyes to Jan Mayen. According to Marianne Stigset at Bloomberg:

“This is extreme exploration,” Bente Nyland, head of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, said in an interview on the island on Sept. 23. “You’re in an area where you have very little control, so you need to have a lot more knowledge before you can start any activity.”

BP, Europe’s second-largest oil company, estimates the Arctic Ocean may hold around 200 billion barrels of oil equivalent, or 25 percent to 50 percent of the world’s undiscovered hydrocarbons. The U.S. Geological Survey last year estimated the area to hold 90 billion barrels of oil.

Exploration will also have to deal with the island's extreme unpredictability: it has Beerenberg, a 2,277-meter volcano that could erupt again at any moment (it last blew in 1985and is overdue for another), and earthquakes are rampant here. According to Stigset, dense fog and heavy winds often make landing on the island impossible for sometimes as long as a week. Access by sea is limited by reefs.

Jan Mayen Island is said to have been discovered in the 6th Century, by the Irish monk St.Brendan. His ship sailed past it during a volcanic eruption and the monk literally thought he had arrived at the gates of Hell. The nickname has since stuck.

Ocean Once Covered Much of Mars

From Newser:

A single huge ocean fed by rivers once covered much of the northern half of Mars, according to a new analysis of the planet’s network of valleys. The researchers say their computer analysis—which replaces maps hand-drawn from satellite images in the ’90s—shows that Mars was once much rainier and more humid than initially believed, making the existence of life much likelier.

“All the evidence gathered by analyzing the valley network on the new map points to a particular climate scenario on early Mars,” the lead researcher tells the Telegraph. “It would have included rainfall and the existence of an ocean covering most of the northern hemisphere, or about one-third of the planet’s surface.”