Welcome Guys

Video Of Tropical Storm Washi Philippines

Written By esperanza on Tuesday, December 20, 2011 | 5:45 PM

Tropical storm Washi has devastated coastal areas of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, Philippines.The view from a storm Washi very sad. Homes were destroyed, the tree collapsed and cars were overturned. Residents who lost their homes were forced to take shelter in refugee camps.

Based on the record of the Philippine Red Cross, until Monday, December 19, 2011, the death toll from the storm Washi reached 652 people. The possibility of the death toll to rise. Section, 900 people are reported missing has not been known to live or die.

Washi storm has passed the southern Philippines on Monday morning local time. More than 135 thousand inhabitants the second largest island in the Philippines affected by the storm is expected, and 47 thousand of whom were in evacuation centers, as published by CNN.

The government says the survivors are now really need clean water, medicines, and more shelters. United States and China has offered assistance to provide food assistance, clothing, shelter, and energy to assist in the rescue. Filipinos can breathe a little sigh of relief because the Board of Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Philippines did not issue a storm warning of aftershocks. However, they still have to clean up the devastated areas after the storm.

Areas most severely affected by floods is Iligan and Cagayan de Oro, where many houses are swept away by floods that rush when you're fast asleep. The Philippine government said was criticized for being less intense storm warning. See the video area of ​​Iligan and Cagayan de Oro that the storm-ravaged

5:45 PM | 0 comments | Read More

Washi Storm Already Kills 1,000 People

Philippine President Benigno Aquino yesterday pledged assistance to flood victims in the southern region. Until yesterday the death toll and missing reached 1,000 people. The Philippine government has finally announced the status of a national disaster after floods and landslides causing loss of nearly 1,000 people. Washi storm induced disasters have also caused tens of thousands of people homeless.

Aquino visited the island of Mindanao to inspect the Port of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan are submerged mud and garbage. Hundreds of corpses are rotting feared could spread the disease. "I guarantee that the government will help you rebuild your home. However, we ask that you do not go back to where you live before a disaster-prone, "said Aquino, quoted by AFP.

Aquino promised to fix the roads and damaged irrigation systems, relocate residents to a safe area of ​​the disaster, as well as installing an early warning system for river water levels across the country so that it can help people avoid similar disasters in the future. The government said as many as 957 people were killed and 49 people missing after the floods that hit the two port cities and surrounding areas on Friday night (16/12) during a tropical storm Washi. Washi storm brought heavy rain that made the river overflow, resulting in flooding and landslides in the middle of the night. The number of victims continues to grow as several bodies being dragged out to sea are found.

"They are under the water surface during the first three days, but now, when the bodies were decomposing, they float on the surface of the water," said Benito Ramos, head of the Philippine Civil Defense Agency. Mass funeral plans were announced the day after yesterday was postponed because local officials want to take fingerprints and DNA samples for identification. Ministry of Justice urged the Philippines to do a good documentation of all deaths

"The first priority is to relocate to an area which is no longer harm them," said President Benigno Aquino, Tuesday (12/20/2011), in a meeting in Cagayan de Oro. He promised the government would seek to prevent casualties as small as possible in the event of a disaster of this magnitude again.

Washi storm that hit the Philippines, Saturday (17/12/2011) and then, causing flood flash floods and landslides in various areas. Recent data reported by the Philippine National Disaster Agency said the death toll was 957 people and 49 people missing. Total casualties 338,000 people in 13 provinces with 43,000 people still displaced. Areas most severely affected in the two cities, the city of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan in Mindanao region.

Aquino's spokesman, Ricky Carandang, said, with the announcement of the status of a national disaster, it is more free to open help from the outside. In addition to channeling relief and rehabilitation, one of the things that are also of concern is the anticipated spread of the disease after disaster.
5:33 PM | 0 comments | Read More

Scientists set to find out is there life on mars

Written By esperanza on Saturday, November 26, 2011 | 5:51 PM

Scientists have been trying to find signs of life on the planet for decades and while some signs have been quite encouraging, they have not been able to find a definitive answer to the question.

This time, yet again, NASA has opened up the chapter in search for extraterrestrial life on Mars. "I'd be surprised if we landed on the surface (of Mars) and didn't find something that looked like it could have been a formerly habitable environment," said California Institute of Technology planetary scientist John Grotzinger, lead researcher for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory.

In the past, several missions have been launched to find life on Mars. A successful mission called the Viking program touched down on Mars in 1976 and found evidence of biological activity. However, those results couldn't be relied upon due to their contested results.

This new mission by NASA is termed Curiosity. It is not going to be a life-detection mission like its predecessors, rather, it is intended to chemically analyze the landing site known as Gale Crater for habitats that could have supported life.

Curiosity is going to be the fourth rover, the previous ones being Pathfinder, Spirit and Opportunity - which all probed for life and even signs of water on Mars. The findings from these previous missions provided overwhelming evidence that Mars was once a warmer and wetter place. These signs show that Mars once sported an ocean, rivers and other water bodies on its surface. The sign of water in turn points towards the sign of life on the planet.

"One of the ingredients of life is water. We're now looking to see if we can find other conditions that are necessary for life by defining habitability or what does it take in the environment to support life," said Mary Voytek, director of NASA's astrobiology program.

Curiosity will reach its destination in August, 2012.
5:51 PM | 0 comments | Read More

How Science is Improving Our Understanding of Nature

Written By esperanza on Tuesday, November 22, 2011 | 11:21 PM

For centuries, scientists have engaged in research that has increased our understanding of nature and how natural forces work to create and sustain the world and universe we see today. The purpose of science is to follow a process of making careful and unbiased observations in order to generate knowledge about the world through tested theories based on the scientific observations. Although theories may not guarantee the absolute truth about a particular scientific theory, the idea is to get as close to an accurate approximation of the truth. The result will lead to a more accurate and credible understanding of how the natural world works.

Scientists seek to learn as much as possible about the nature of the world. By using intellect, the aid of scientific study devices, and formulated scientific hypothesis, scientists now have a better understanding of nature. For instance, the principles of motion and the law of gravity are applicable when studying other parts of the universe, even if we have yet to travel to these areas. The same principles can be applied to other forces such as seeking to understand ocean tides, bird migrations, earthquakes, and hurricanes. Scientists study patterns both in the natural world and in laboratories using technologically advanced research devices to gather data, take measurements, and make their observations and create their scientific theories. The result is an improved understanding of nature.

Science also helps us understand how we evolved. By studying such elements as fossils of species that once roamed the earth millions of years ago, various rocks and other matter located deep within the earth, skeletal remains of dinosaurs, and the remains of prehistoric man and early primates, scientists have made many significant discoveries about how we evolved. In fact, such famous scientists as Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Albert Einstein, and Charles Darwin, have all contributed important theories and data that have brought us even closer to understanding how the universe emerged and developed.

How science has reconstructed the events in the history of the planet and its life forms have led to remarkable improvements and insight into how nature works. For instance, by studying the contours of the ocean floors, the shape of continents, the effects of a volcano eruption and earthquake, and where different fossils have been found, we get a better understanding of why our continents reside where they are and how human populations and species migrated and evolved to what we see today. We also get a better understanding of the results of the ice age and the effect it had on the types of species we have today. Understanding how the world evolved and the changes that took place also helps us to better understand current world problems such as the effects of Global Warming which is essential to finding ways to slow it down. By understanding how nature and its natural forces work, we are better able to come up with ways to manage the planet and its inhabitants.

Because science relies heavily on accurate and unbiased data, there is a constant development of advanced techniques and instruments which has lead to many astounding discoveries in the world and universe. For instance, the Hubble Telescope has resulted in many astounding discoveries about the stars, planets, black holes, and even far away galaxies. With advanced computer systems and other technologically advanced instrument, the future for scientific discovery looks bright concerning our understanding of the history of the universe and the history of life on earth.
11:21 PM | 0 comments | Read More

Saturn's Rings And Other Planetary Rings

Saturn's most notable feature is obviously its massive rings. But there Saturn's rings aren't as special as you think it turns out all of the gas giant have rings. But Saturn's rings are just much bigger. But why are Saturn's rings bigger how do rings form read on and lets find out.

Before we start lets define a planetary ring a planetary ring is a flat disk of dust and ice particles that orbit a planet. All of the gas giants have rings but they are much smaller. Jupiter has the second biggest Uranus the third and Neptune has the least impressive ring system.

Scientists find it very odd that Uranus has a bigger ring system then Neptune since Neptune is actually bigger then Uranus and there for should have a bigger ring system. However this might be attributed to the fact that Neptune has more clumpy ring. But Uranus also rotates differently because it rotates on its side and the rings are parallel to this rotation and are hence on their side as well. So the lesson from this is simply that Uranus cheats.


Scientists don't really know how a planetary ring forms but one of the theories has to do with the Roche limit. The Roche limit is kinda hard to explain without a graph but for the purpose of simplicity small objects that have a low density will break up as they come closer to the sun. They will then turn into dust which could then be intercepted and captured by the gravity of the gas giants who are further away from the sun. This is why some people think that maybe even Pluto has a ring or two since if this was true then being a gas giant would not be necessary.

It is an enigma that Saturn's rings are so massive compared to Jupiter's despite Saturn's lesser gravity. However if the Roche limit is the cause of the rings then maybe the simple fact that Saturn is further away from the sun could be a factor. However there is also another factor why. Maybe the fact that Jupiter has such a large gravity is the reason why it has a smaller ring system. Over time sections of the rings begin to condense and form into moons at which point they are drawn in by the gravity of the planet and are destroyed (or they become shepherd moons but I will get to that in a little while). However Saturn might have achieved a balancing act being able to hold the ring without destroying it.

The shepherd moons are well named as its their job to keep the edges of the ring defined. They orbit the outer rim of the rings and any dust particles that want to get out of the ring first have to go through the shepherd moons. Which either rocket the dust out quickly send them back into the rings or captures them.

5:44 AM | 0 comments | Read More

Tectonic Earthquake Basics and How Tsunamis Form

Written By esperanza on Sunday, November 20, 2011 | 10:02 AM

The term tsunami has been adopted by the scientific community in recent years to define the powerful and destructive waves that are caused by earthquakes, landslides, and other similar events that have the ability to suddenly displace large amounts of water. The term tidal wave was used to mean the same thing prior to the introduction of tsunami, but fell out of favor due to tides being - by definition - caused by a gravitational effect.

Having said that, tsunami isn't exactly a spot-on term for what needs to be described either. Tsunami is a Japanese term literally meaning harbor wave - but it's not like harbors are the only places on the coast that have need for worry when a large submarine earthquake hits in close proximity. In any case, these are the generally accepted definitions and I'm not one to question or dispute its place.

In order to understand how tsunami are formed, you have to first understand how earthquakes are triggered - as earthquakes are responsible for most devastating tsunami. An earthquake is the result of the sudden release of large to enormous amounts of built-up energy in the Earth's surface due to plate tectonic friction. Tectonic plates are fragments or sections of the Earth's lithosphere, and can be thought of to float on the bed of magma comprising the lower asthenosphere.

Tectonic Plate Boundaries

These tectonic plates are about 50 miles thick and are continually moving, exhibiting a combination of three movement-relationships with their neighboring plates. The locations at which these movements occur are known as tectonic plate boundaries:

Convergent plate boundary. This is where tectonic plates will collide with each other, resulting in either a subduction zone or a continental collision. A subduction zone is where one plate will move beneath the other, and a continental collision is when two plates collide, resulting in a formation of a mountain range.

Transform plate boundary. This is where tectonic plates will slide past each other, at times resulting in the build-up of potentially earthquake-triggering friction due to "getting caught" on irregular geometry.

Divergent plate boundary. This is where tectonic plates will move in opposite directions creating a gap where magma rises, gets cooled by the seawater, and solidifies into rock, replacing the lithosphere that is lost in convergent plate movement.

All three forms of plate boundaries have the ability to trigger earthquakes, although divergent plate boundaries move apart on one end, transform and convergent plate boundaries must also occur simultaneously on the remaining ends. This built-up energy caused by friction at the tectonic plate boundaries is what triggers an earthquake when the stress is suddenly released.

And when the released stress is in a convergent plate boundary, where one tectonic plate is violently and suddenly pushed upward, it can displace a monumental volume of water. Where one tectonic plate is pushed upwards, it is called a reverse or thrust fault, and when it's pushed downwards, it's called a normal fault. Although thrust faults are one of the chief causes of tsunami, normal faults can't usually generate enough energy.
10:02 AM | 0 comments | Read More