Earthweek: a diary of the planet

La Niña watch

Meteorologists from some of the world’s weather agencies say there is an increasing chance the La Niña ocean-cooling phenomenon will develop in the Pacific during the next few months.

U. S. climate scientists estimate there is a 55 percent to 65 percent chance that La Niña will become established before the end of the year. Typical impacts of the ocean cooling during December through February are wetter-than-normal weather across the western Pacific, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, as well as in the Pacific Northwest and the Ohio Valley.

La Niña also brings unusually dry conditions to East Africa and parts of eastcentral China. The southern United States typically becomes drier and warmer than normal.

Earthquakes

An earthquake centered just off southern Mexico’s Oaxaca state rattled nerves in a country already hit by two recent quake disasters. Earth movements also were felt in central Iran, northwestern California and northeastern Arkansas.

Tropical cyclones Hurricane Ophelia lashed Ireland as the strongest postTropical low to hit the island since former Hurricane Debbie struck from the west in 1961. Ophelia also came closer to Western Europe than any other hurricane in recorded history. Meanwhile, Typhoon Khanun lashed far southern China and Typhoon Lan was taking aim on Japan’s Honshu Island late in the week. Social cetaceans

Whales and dolphins have been found to live in tightly knit social groups. They talk to one another in complex relationships and develop regional dialects similar to humans. Some can even call one another by name. British, Canadian and American researchers say this advanced cetacean culture is due to the size of the marine mammals’ brains. Writing in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, the scientists say that after studying 90 different species, they found overwhelming evidence of these sophisticated social and cooperative behavioral traits similar to those in human cultures.

Penguin starvation Researchers say that only two out of 18,000 Adélie penguin chicks managed to survive in an Antarctica colony where extensive sea ice had forced the adult birds to venture 60 miles farther than usual to find food for their young. An “unprecedented rainy episode” was said to have worsened the crisis. It was the second time in four years that such starvation has been observed at the colony on Petrels Island. Though Antarctica’s overall summer sea ice has recently dwindled to a record low, the expansive sea ice around the penguin colony was an exception.

Hungry bears

Two people were killed by bears in Russia’s Far East this fall due to dwindling food sources, according to a forestry worker. Authorities on Sakhalin Island say they had to shoot and kill 83 of the bears during the past week because of their aggressive behavior. They said there are not enough fish, berries and nuts for the bears to store up their usual fat reserves for winter. In addition, overfishing of local salmon has led to the bears’ hunger.

Eruption

Japan’s Mount Shinmoedake volcano spewed ash over four nearby cities in Miyazaki prefecture during its first eruptions in six years. Blasts that occurred three days apart sent ash soaring as high as about 7,500 feet above the crater. The Japanese broadcaster TBS aired images of elementary school students wearing helmets and face masks on the way to their classes near the base of Shinmoedake.