Earthweek: a diary of the planet
Earlier melt
Researchers working in the Alaskan Arctic have discovered that thick ice deposits that form each winter in North Slope rivers are melting nearly a month earlier than they did 15 years ago. They also found that most of the ice accumulations that don’t completely melt each summer were far smaller in 2015 than they were in 2000.
Out of thin air
A new device that can harvest water out of air with humidity as low as 20 percent, using only sunlight for energy, could revolutionize life in remote, arid regions. The new invention uses an extremely porous material called a metal-organic framework that absorbs 20 percent of its weight in water from even low-humidity air. Sunlight heats the substance, releasing water vapor that condenses into ample water per day for household use. Developers say the invention could be
upscaled to also irrigate fields or greenhouses in areas otherwise too arid to grow crops.
Earthquakes
Panicked residents across northern Pakistan rushed out of their homes before dawn during an unusually strong temblor centered to the north, in Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush mountains. Earth movements were also felt in the MyanmarLaos-Thailand border region, the Northern Mariana Islands, northern New Zealand, northern Chile, the
Peru-Ecuador border region and the eastern Caribbean.
Wildlife disease
Hundreds of water buffalo, impalas and other wild herbivores have died mysteriously north of the Kenyan capital of Nairobi in recent weeks. Veterinarians in Laikipia County have ruled out an anthrax outbreak as the cause. They say initial examinations of the carcasses point to a tickborne disease brought into the region by livestock. Months of severe drought have led to herders illegally invading conservation areas in search of water and pasture, possibly exposing wildlife to new pathogens.
Living fossil
A reclusive muddwelling worm has been found alive for the first time, even though the fossils it leaves behind have hinted at its existence for more than 200 years. About a dozen live specimens of the baseball bat-size giant shipworm were finally discovered in the mud of a shallow Philippine lagoon after an extensive search. Experts soon found that bacteria living in the gills of the creature produce enough food for the worm, which is encased inside a long tube made of the calcium carbonate it secretes. The gunmetal black bivalve also uses hydrogen sulfide in the water as an energy source.
Burmese cyclone
Western parts of Myanmar, also known as Burma, were drenched by 4 to 6 inches of rainfall as Cyclone Maarutha roared ashore from the Bay of Bengal. More than 80 homes were damaged by wind gusts up to 65 mph.
Cyclonic webs
Flooding in midApril across northern New Zealand from remnants of Cyclone Cook caused an untold number of spiders to create a huge veil of cobwebs near the North Island city of Tauranga. Amateur video showed the webs waving in the wind after the arachnids fled to drier ground.