Earthweek: a diary of the planet
Not a ‘wholphin’
Researchers in Hawaii spotted a hybrid thought to be between a melon-headed whale and a rough-toothed dolphin off the island of Kauai. Confirmed through DNA analysis, it is the first such hybrid ever found in the wild. But because the so-called melon-headed whale is actually a species of dolphin, “calling it something like a ‘wholphin’ doesn’t make any sense,” said Robin Baird, one of the Washington state-based Cascadia Research Collective researchers involved in the discovery. The hybrid was traveling with a single melon-headed whale, and the two were “found associating with rough-toothed dolphins,” researchers said. The team says that the single male hybrid doesn’t mean a new species is emerging.
Iceberg jam
A massive chunk of Antarctic ice that broke off the Larsen C ice shelf about a year ago has become stuck. It’s now banging up against an ice promontory called the
Bawden ice rise. The giant iceberg, about the size of Delaware, traveled only 27 miles to the northeast before becoming trapped. Such icebergs are typically carried northward into the Atlantic by currents and wind, where they slowly melt. Scientists say the battering of the ice rise by the iceberg could erode the Bawden’s ability to stabilize the nearby Larsen C. If that Antarctic ice shelf were destabilized, it could lead to the collapse of the rest of the shelf, resulting in a significant rise in sea level.
Tropical cyclones
Typhoon Jongdari lashed Japan, abruptly ending a
heat wave that had brought the country its hottest weather on record. Also this week, Tropical Storm Gilma and Hurricane Hector churned the eastern Pacific.
Earthquakes
At least 16 people were killed and more than 300 injured on the Indonesian island of Lombok when a magnitude 6.4 earthquake wrecked buildings and threw some hikers to their death when part of the summit they were standing on collapsed. Earth movements also were felt in northeastern Japan and the San Francisco Bay Area. Vanishing penguins
The population of king penguins in what was once the world’s largest colony has plummeted by nearly 90 percent over the past 35 years, and scientists say they don’t know why. The Île aux Cochons colony in the southern Indian Ocean also was once the second-largest colony of all penguins. But satellite images revealed the number of birds there dropped from 502,400 breeding pairs in 1982 to 59,200 in April 2017. Scientists say that overfishing, feral cats and invasive diseases or parasites could be responsible for the disappearing penguins in the remote French territory.
The type of hemispheric heat waves baking large swaths of the Northern Hemisphere this summer are among the most likely consequences of climate change, according to U.K. researchers. July was the hottest in Sweden for at least 250 years. A team led by Friederike Otto, of the University of Oxford, says such heat is now at least twice as likely due to global warming. The soaring temperatures “are consistent with what we expect as a result of climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions,” said Elena Manaenkova of the World Meteorological Organization.
Island eruption
Vanuatu’s restive Manaro Voui volcano erupted with such force that residents across the entire island of Ambae were told to evacuate for the second time in less than a year. Ash blanketed homes and crops, polluting local water supplies. One resident said noise from the eruption made it hard to sleep, and that ash was aggravating her child’s asthma.