Earthweek: a diary of the planet
Outbreak ends
South Korean health officials declared an end to an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), which has killed 36 people in the country and caused widespread social and economic disruption since it emerged in May. The declaration came as U.S. researchers announced that an experimental MERS vaccine has shown promise in animal studies. The deadly virus first appeared in Saudi Arabia and nearby countries in 2012, leaving hundreds dead and health officials scrambling to contain it. The recent South Korean outbreak was the only one to emerge outside the Arabian Peninsula. Officials in Seoul were initially criticized for a slow response during the early days of the outbreak. But quarantine measures were soon introduced that confined nearly 17,000 people to their homes and kept the disease from spreading beyond medical facilities.
Sea of weeds
Some of Mexico’s most renowned beaches have been overrun by huge mats of floating seaweed, leaving officials unable to cope with the magnitude of the invasion at the height of the summer tourist season. Mounds of the sargassum seaweed have washed up along nearly the entire lengths of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean coasts of Quintana Roo state, home to Cancun, Tulum and the Riviera Maya. Gov. Roberto Borge told reporters that while the exact cause of the invasion is unknown, experts say it could be due to high levels of nutrients in the ocean, changes in ocean temperatures or climate change. Environment department officials say they are taking great care during the removal not to disturb endangered sea turtles at the peak of the nesting season, or the sun-seeking tourists.
Heat fatalities
A summer of unusual heat in the Pacific Northwest is threatening to kill at least a quarter million sockeye salmon swimming up the Columbia River to spawn. Large numbers of the fish have already perished due to prolonged air temperatures above 100 degrees, which have combined with low flows on the Columbia to create warm waters that stress the sockeye and make them more susceptible to disease. The unusual warmth came as the Columbia saw the third-highest number of sockeye returning from the Pacific to spawn since 1960. With temperatures in the waterway hitting the mid-70s, which is life-threatening to the fish, officials began releasing cooler water from several reservoirs upstream in an attempt to prevent further fatalities. “We’ve never had mortalities at this scale,” said Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife fisheries manager John North. Both Oregon and Washington have halted sports fishing in affected areas.
Tropical cyclones
Storm-force Cyclone Komen destroyed dozens of makeshift homes in southern Bangladesh as it moved ashore from the Bay of Bengal late in the week. Three people were killed when trees fell on their homes.
• Southern areas of Japan were soaked and buffeted by gales from weakening Typhoon Halola.
Earthquake
One person was killed in Indonesia’s easternmost province of Papua as a 7.0 magnitude quake damaged several buildings. The victim slipped and fell during the quake. The temblor was centered near the community of Mamberamo Raya, where a 160-foot stretch of roadway was also damaged.
• Earth movements were also felt in coastal Queensland, northern Pakistan, south-central Alaska, the interior of Southern California, the Panama-- Colombia border region and a wide area of Oklahoma and Kansas.
Caribbean alert
Undersea rumblings from the southeastern Caribbean’s submerged Kick ’em Jenny volcano prompted officials to briefly issue an orange alert for the nearby island of Grenada. More than 200 tremors were detected near the volcano during July, but activity began to subside on July 25. The volcano’s most powerful eruption on record occurred in 1939, when ash and gas were observed on the ocean surface and a series of tsunamis up to 6.5 feet in height surged onto nearby islands.
Crowing order
Japanese researchers say they have found that social ranking among roosters determines which is first to crow at the break of dawn. It’s long been understood that chickens know their place based on a “pecking order.” Writing in the journal Scientific Reports, scientists from Nagoya University say the rooster’s crowing mechanism is initially governed by its internal biological clock. But the one that first gets to proclaim “cock-a-doodle-doo” at dawn is based on its dominance ranking. The scientists found that once the bossiest rooster is removed, the next in line takes over the role while others nearby then chime in like a ripple effect. “We have discovered that roosters live in a strictly linear hierarchy, where social ranking reflects the order to announce the break of dawn,” said lead researcher Takashi Yoshimura.