Earthweek: a diary of the planet
Record heat persists
The first three months of this year were the hottest worldwide since record-keeping began 136 years ago. The warm spell was punctuated by a record-setting March, when Earth’s average temperature was 56.4 degrees Fahrenheit, breaking the previous record set in 2010 by 0.09 degree, according to the U.S. agency NOAA. Climate experts there and at NASA also say that the last 12 months have been the hottest ever recorded. NOAA said in a report that pools of warm water across the tropical Pacific and in the northeastern Pacific Ocean contributed to the record warmth. Those conditions are predicted to linger for at least the next few months, possibly through the Northern Hemisphere autumn.
Primitive diversity
Samples of germs taken from once-isolated indigenous people in Venezuela’s Amazon region found that the tribesmen’s seclusion from the outside world until recently has allowed them to keep the highest diversity of bodily bacteria ever observed among humans. The trillions of mainly beneficial bacteria our bodies need for digestion and immunity have come under assault over the past 75 years by the use of antibiotics, while also being diminished by the more sanitary conditions people enjoy in modern life. Writing in the journal Science Advances, researchers say that comparing bacterial DNA from the Amazon’s Yanomami villagers with samples from U.S. residents reveals that microbes are about 40 percent less diverse in the American population. The findings support the theory that lower microbial diversity now found in the developed world may be linked to immune and metabolic diseases like allergies, asthma and diabetes.
Poisoning ‘success’
New Zealand’s contentious program to eradicate rats, possums and stoats by dropping toxins and placing traps has brought the populations of those pests to undetectable or very low levels at most sites, officials say. The country’s Department of Conservation announced that its field monitoring of sites across the South Island shows that a small number of the endangered birds the program was intended to protect died during the poisoning. But they said a 1-in-15-year bumper crop of beech seeds would have fueled a huge population explosion of the invasive pests had the poisoning program not been launched last year. The department also said the breeding success of rock wren, robin and other bird species was significantly higher in areas treated with the controversial poison known as 1080.
Earthquakes
A sharp temblor centered near Japan’s southernmost islands off Taiwan triggered a brief tsunami alert and killed one person in Taipei. The lone fatality from the 6.4 magnitude quake occurred when the shaking sparked the explosion of an electricity transformer that ignited a deadly fire.
• Earth movements were also felt in coastal Oman, southern Sumatra, central New Zealand, California’s desert resorts and central Oklahoma.
Brazilian twister
A rare Brazilian tornado killed two people and injured about 120 others in the southern city of Xanxerê, also damaging about 500 houses as it tore through the community. Authorities in the state of Santa Catarina said 200,000 homes and businesses were left without power after the twister toppled power lines.
Eruption
Southern Chile’s Calbuco volcano erupted for the first time in more than 42 years, spewing a huge ash cloud that prompted authorities to evacuate about 1,500 nearby residents. Aviation officials diverted air traffic around the mountain, located 625 miles south of the capital of Santiago and near the popular tourist town of Puerto Varas. The 6,500foot Calbuco produced its last eruption in 1972 and is considered one of Chile’s three most threatening volcanos. In March, Villarrica volcano, also located in southern Chile, produced a spectacular eruption. It briefly sent a plume of ash and fountains of lava high into the Andean sky.
Worm rain
Out of all of the various reports of fish, frogs and other creatures observed falling from the sky, Norway’s rain of worms may be among the hardest to believe. The country’s media were peppered with reports of earthworms apparently falling from the sky as the landscape near Bergen began to melt in mid-April. Biology teacher Karstein Erstad came across an untold number of the invertebrates, lying on top of snow up to 3 feet deep. He believes it would have been impossible for them to have crawled through the thick snowpack. “It was earthworms wherever I went. There must have been thousands,” said Erstad. Experts believe the worms could have been swept up by strong winds after they emerged from the ground and carried to the snow-covered area. Since Erstad’s discovery, tales of “worm rain” have come in from other areas near Bergen and as far away as the Swedish border.