Mexico
eklemetti | August 26, 2009The slow summer for volcanic eruptions continue. Only 11 updates in this week's USGS/SI report. Thanks again to SI's Sally Kuhn Sennert for compiling the news!
Highlights this week include (not including Kilauea) include:
Tungurahua in Ecuador produced some minor lahars on August 21 to go with steam-and-gas emissions.
Popocatépetl in Mexico produced an ash plume that reached ~8.2 km / 27,000 feet on August 20 and continued to produce steam-and-ash plumes throughout the week following.
Over on the Kamchatka Peninsula, both Koryaksky and Shiveluch produced significant ash plumes (reaching 3-5…
eklemetti | August 19, 2009Busy today with scouting out some field location for the class I'll be teaching this fall. Here's this week's USGS/SI Weekly Volcano Report. The report is a little more eventful than last week's, so enjoy!
Kliuchevskoi Volcano in Kamchatka, taken summer of 2009 by Theresa Kayzar.
Highlights include:
Three volcanoes on the Kamchatka Peninsula are currently producing ash plumes: Kliuchevskoi, Koryaksky and Shiveluch. Shiveluch has been having the most intense eruptions, but the former two are both producing ash-and-steam plumes that reach over 3 km / 10,000 feet.
Talang in Indonesia saws its…
eklemetti | August 5, 2009We've made it to Ohio! Tomorrow I'll hopefully be returning to regularly scheduled updates, but until then, enjoy this week's SI/USGS Weekly Volcano Report.
Highlights include:
KVERT mentions that seismicity has increased recently at both Kizimen and Kliuchevskoi on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
~4 km / ~13,500 foot steam-and-ash plumes spotted at Colima in Mexico.
Rumbling noises, incandescent ejecta and ~4.3 km / 14,000 foot ash plumes at Fuego in Guatemala. Explosions were increasing as the August began.
It was a busy week in Guatemala, as ash/gas plumes were spotted at Santiaguito and Pacaya…
grrlscientist | July 7, 2009tags: Onion News Network, Mexico, Border wall, US Assholes, humor, satire, streaming video
Disgusted with vacationing Americans and their horrible behavior, this video news report reveals that Mexico is doing something about this: They are building a wall to keep Americans out of their country [1:36]
eklemetti | May 28, 2009Your weekly dose of volcanic activity from the USGS/SI. (a little late thanks to an exciting day of column chemistry).
Some highlights include:
A 3.7 km / 12,000 foot ash plume from Karangetang in Indonesia (great name, eh?)
Lava flows, ash plumes and local ash falls from Slamet in Indonesia.
White and grey ash plumes rises to ~4 km / 13,000 feet from Colima, Mexico.
Blocks up to 2-m across were transported by lahars from Fuego in Guatemala. The volcano also produced ~4.6 km / 14,500 foot ash plumes.
Small ash plume spotted at Barren Island in the Andaman Islands of India.
razib | May 12, 2009Analysis of genomic diversity in Mexican Mestizo populations to develop genomic medicine in Mexico:
Mexico is developing the basis for genomic medicine to improve healthcare of its population. The extensive study of genetic diversity and linkage disequilibrium structure of different populations has made it possible to develop tagging and imputation strategies to comprehensively analyze common genetic variation in association studies of complex diseases. We assessed the benefit of a Mexican haplotype map to improve identification of genes related to common diseases in the Mexican population.…
grrlscientist | April 29, 2009tags: Antigen Shift, Influenza Viruses, molecular biology, virology, microbiology, streaming video
This video discusses the process of antigen shift in influenza viruses, such as the H1N1 "swine flu" that has recently been identified in Mexico and in quite a few other countries, including in NYC [1:18]
tsmith | April 28, 2009Back in 2007, I wrote about an outbreak of swine influenza from an Ohio county fair. The peer-reviewed paper analyzing the swine influenza isolated from that outbreak has just recently come out. From the abstract:
The swine isolate, A/SW/OH/511445/2007 (OH07), was evaluated in an experimental challenge and transmission study reported here. Our results indicate that the OH07 virus was pathogenic in pigs, was transmissible among pigs, and failed to cross-react with many swine H1 anti-sera. Naturally exposed pigs shed virus as early as 3 days and as long as 7 days after contact with…
ddobbs | April 28, 2009Via emails, comments, and so on, quite a few people offered their own explanations for why mortality might be higher in Mexico (as of yesterday), the subject of my Slate piece.
First, though, a correction: I punched my numbers a bit too quickly in computing the flue's hypothetical kill ratios in Mexico, and had everything a decimal point over, and -- and therefore tenfold too understated.
Alert reader johnshade called this to my attention:
You'll want to fix your own "bad math":
"about 100 deaths?suggesting a mortality rate of 6 percent. This is
almost certainly bad math, as the total case…
amillikan | April 27, 2009
Correction appended: This post incorrectly stated the Center for Disease Control as the organization responsible for raising the pandemic threat level. This is the duty of the World Health Organization.
Swine flu outbreaks are raising alarm across the globe and prompting the World Health Organizationto consider raising the pandemic threat level. For the most current interpretations of what's happening from experts on the ScienceBlogs network, see the following category threads: "Pandemic-Preparedness" and "Swine Flu" from Revere at Effect Measure, and "Influenza" and "Outbreak" from Tara…
ddobbs | April 27, 2009
"Swine Flu and the Mexico Mystery," my story on the swine-flu outbreak, is up at Slate. It looks at a question hotly pursued right now: Why does this flu seem to take a much deadlier course in Mexico than elsewhere so far? The answers will suggest much about what's to come.
Of the two two qualities vital to a nasty pandemicm-- to spread readily, and to be deadly, -- this flu,a brand-new strain of swine flu, or H1N1, seems to possess the first: Evidence is high that it spreads readily among humans. In that sense, it's an inversion of the bird flu. Bird flu terrifies infectious disease…
tsmith | April 26, 2009Over the last 24 hours, I've received a few comments and even more emails asking about or discussing the possibility of a "cytokine storm" triggered by the H1N1 swine flu reassortant. Is this what's happening in the cases from Mexico? Discussion after the jump...
Let me begin with a bit of background on what's meant by a "cytokine storm." In response to infection, the body has a number of ways to fight back against the invading microbe. Cytokines are one part of this defense. These are molecules produced by a number of different types of cells in response to infection that act as signals…
tsmith | April 25, 2009Sorry for the radio silence--I've been working on grants and manuscripts like a fiend, and so have tried to limit as many distractions as possible (which, unfortunately, includes blogging). However, the swine flu news is right up my alley, so I do just want to say a few words about it, and point you to some excellent stories already up elsewhere.
First, in case you've not been paying attention to the news in the last few days, there have been 8 reported cases of swine influenza infections in humans (6 in California and 2 in Texas, with additional suspected cases) and reports from Mexico…
eklemetti | April 14, 2009Just a quick note before I'm off to this ...
Llaima
The SERNAGEOMIN is evaluating whether the alert level at Llaima should be lowered to Yellow in the near future (in spanish). Seismic acitivity at the volcano have come down since the eruptions started a few weeks ago and most of the activity now seems to be fumarolic in nature.
Popocatépetl
Popo (as it is also called) continues to produce steam/gas plumes (in spanish), 5 in one day on Monday of this week. However, all the other usual volcanic monitoring parameters (seismicity and the like) are unchanged according to Cenapred (National…
eklemetti | April 6, 2009Popocatépetl from the ISS on January 23, 2001
It might be (and is likely) just normal behavior for Popocatépetl in Mexico, but the volcano produced six plumes over the last 24 hours, according to a report out of Mexico City (in spanish). Officials from El Centro Nacional de Prevención de Desastres (The National Center for the Prevention of Disasters - Cenapred) say that the plumes appear to be mostly water vapor and other volcanic gases, but remind people living near the volcano to be vigilant.
Popocatépetl is only 70 km from Mexico City, so any major eruption from the volcano could…
eklemetti | April 1, 2009For those of you looking for real volcanic eruption news (no, there was no "Yellowstone eruption"), here is this week's SI/USGS Volcano Activity Report.
And speaking of April Fools Jokes, this is by far my favorite (mostly by its combination of volcanoes and baseball. How could you go wrong with two of my favorite things - hat tip to Fletcher for finding the article).
Highlights (beyond Redoubt) include:
Earthquakes, tremors and steam at El Reventador in Ecuador
12,000-15,000 foot (4-5 km) steam/ash plumes were spotted at Colima, the Mexican volcano.
A shockwave was felt 10 km away from Fuego…
grrlscientist | February 4, 2009tags: Golden Rays, cow nosed rays, Rhinoptera steindachneri, Sandra Critelli, image of the day
Golden (cow nosed) Rays, Rhinoptera steindachneri, gathering off the northern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula, near the coast of Mexico. This spectacular scene was captured as the magnificent creatures made one of their biannual mass migrations to more agreeable waters.
Image: Sandra Critelli [larger view].
Looking like giant leaves floating in the sea, thousands of Golden Ray s are seen here gathering off the coast of Mexico. The spectacular scene was captured as the magnificent creatures made one…
grrlscientist | February 3, 2009tags: Golden Rays, cow nosed rays, Rhinoptera steindachneri, Sandra Critelli, image of the day
Golden (cow nosed) Rays, Rhinoptera steindachneri, gathering off the northern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula, near the coast of Mexico. This spectacular scene was captured as the magnificent creatures made one of their biannual mass migrations to more agreeable waters.
Image: Sandra Critelli [larger view].
Looking like giant leaves floating in the sea, thousands of Golden Ray s are seen here gathering off the coast of Mexico. The spectacular scene was captured as the magnificent creatures made one…
grrlscientist | December 8, 2008tags: sunset, Mexico, landscape, nature, image of the day
Sunset with Palm
Rosarito Beach, Mexico.
Image: John del Rio [larger view].