EARTHWEEK
Iceberg alley
Atlantic Canada’s “Iceberg Alley” has been clogged with an unusually high number of icebergs this spring and summer, with many still floating through the Gulf of St. Lawrence and along the Labrador coast.
Gabrielle McGrath, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard’s International Ice Patrol, says it has so far been the 18th worst ice season since records began in 1900.
About 1,000 icebergs have been counted so far this season in Atlantic shipping lanes, due in part to accelerated melting of Arctic sea ice and the Greenland ice cap.
Earthquakes
A magnitude 7.7 temblor 125 miles east of Russia’s remote Bering Island prompted a brief tsunami alert across the Pacific. No tsunami was reported.
• Earth movements also were felt in northern Sumatra, Indonesia’s northern Sulawesi Island, northeastern Japan, metropolitan Sydney, southern Peru, Crete and western Montana.
Ocean sanctuary
About 735,000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean have been declared one of the world’s largest marine sanctuaries as the Cook Islands moves to help protect its territorial waters for future generations.
The island nation has a population of only about 10,000, living on 15 islands. But its position between New Zealand and Hawaii with no nearby neighbors means it controls a huge maritime territory.
The move to establish the marine reserve, known as Marae Moana, was approved by the country’s traditional leaders.
New volcano
Residents in the central Mexican town of Pueblo Viejo fear a volcano may be forming beneath their feet as subterranean heat rising to the surface has burned some of their goats.
The soil temperature in parts of the small Michoacán community has soared to more than 480 degrees Fahrenheit, causing the local soccer field to break apart while releasing steam, ash and vapor into the air.
Pueblo Viejo is about 200 miles from a relatively new volcano called Parícutin. It emerged from a cornfield in 1943 and within a year had grown to more than 1,000 feet tall.
Cross-species nursing
Visitors to Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Conservation Area were startled to see a 5-yearold lioness known as “Nosikitok” suckling a leopard cub estimated to be just 3 weeks old.
“I know of no other example of interspecies adoption or nursing like this among big cats in the wild,” said Luke Hunter, chief conservation officer of the big cat conservation group Panthera.
He said that if the cub manages not to be killed by the lioness’s pride and grows to maturity among the lions, it is likely to revert to normal behavior for its species.
Coral bleaching
Some of the world’s northernmost coral reefs are being hit by the coral bleaching phenomenon that has ravaged reefs around the world.
Warming ocean temperatures are blamed for reef destruction, especially during strong El Niño episodes.
Hiroya Yamano, of Japan’s National Institute for Environmental Studies, says there was large-scale coral bleaching in his country’s subtropical Okinawa chain.
He said the warming waters are driving the coral northward to Japan’s main islands of Kyushu, Shikoku and Honshu.
The U.S. agency NOAA said last month that coral bleaching may be easing after three years of high ocean temperatures.
Tropical cyclones
Fourteen people were killed and dozens of homes wrecked when Typhoon Talas hit Vietnam.
• The lower Windward Islands received a soaking from minimal Tropical Storm Don.
• Hurricane Fernanda and Tropical Storm Greg churned the eastern Pacific.
Universal Uclick