Indonesia Volcano Forces Mass Evacuation, Shuts Bali Airport

By FIRDIA LISNAWATI and STEPHEN WRIGHT, Associated Press

KARANGASEM, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities ordered 100,000 people to flee Monday from an erupting volcano on Bali that forced the island's international airport to close, stranding large numbers of travelers.

Mount Agung has been hurling clouds of white and dark gray ash about 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) into the atmosphere since the weekend and lava is welling up in the crater, sometimes reflected as a reddish-yellow glow in the ash plumes. Its explosions can be heard about 12 kilometers (7 1/2 miles) away.

Videos released by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency showed a mudflow of volcanic debris and water known as a lahar moving down the volcano's slopes. It said lahars could increase because it is rainy season and warned people to stay away from rivers.

The agency raised the volcano's alert to the highest level early Monday and expanded the danger zone to 10 kilometers (6 miles) in places from the previous 7 1/2 kilometers. It said a larger eruption is possible.

The volcano's last major eruption in 1963 killed about 1,100 people.

Spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told a news conference in Jakarta that the extension of the danger zone affects 22 villages and about 90,000 to 100,000 people. He said about 40,000 people have evacuated but others have not left because they feel safe or don't want to abandon their livestock.

"Authorities will comb the area to persuade them," he said. "If needed we will forcibly evacuate them." About 25,000 people were already living in evacuation centers after an increase in tremors from the mountain in September sparked an evacuation.

Lava rising in the crater "will certainly spill over to the slopes," Sutopo said.

Villager Putu Sulasmi said she fled with her husband and other family members to a sports hall that is serving as an evacuation center.

"We came here on motorcycles. We had to evacuate because our house is just 3 miles from the mountain. We were so scared with the thundering sound and red light," she said.

The family had stayed at the same sports center in September and October when the volcano's alert was at the highest level for several weeks but it didn't erupt. They had returned to their village about a week ago.

"If it has to erupt let it erupt now rather than leaving us in uncertainty. I'll just accept it if our house is destroyed," she said.

Bali's airport was closed early Monday after ash, which can pose a deadly threat to aircraft, reached its airspace.

Flight information boards showed rows of cancellations as tourists arrived at the busy airport expecting to catch flights home.

Airport spokesman Air Ahsanurrohim said 445 flights were canceled, stranding about 59,000 travelers. The closure was in effect until Tuesday morning, though officials said the situation would be reviewed every six hours. It had a ripple effect across Indonesia, causing delays at other airports because Bali's I Gusti Ngurah Rai airport is a national hub with many transiting flights.

Bali is Indonesia's top tourist destination, with its gentle Hindu culture, surf beaches, and lush green interior attracting about 5 million visitors a year.

A Chinese tour service, Shenzhen PT Enjoy Bali International, had about 20 groups totaling 500 to 600 travelers from the Chinese cities of Wuhan, Changsha and Guangzhou in Bali, according an executive, Liao Yuling, who was on the island.

"They are mostly retirees or relatively high-end, so they don't say they are especially anxious to rush home," she said by telephone.

The company was waiting to see whether Bali's airport might open on Tuesday, said Liao. If not, she said buses and ferries would be arranged to take travelers to Surabaya on Java, where the company's charter flights could pick them up.

"We are not really affected because the volcano is too far away. It is about 70 kilometers (45 miles) from us," said Liao. "We only can say we saw pictures of it on television."

Indonesia's Directorate General of Land Transportation said 100 buses were being deployed to Bali's international airport and to ferry terminals to help travelers stranded by the eruption.

The agency's chief, Budi, said major ferry crossing points have been advised to prepare for a surge in passengers and vehicles. Stranded tourists could leave Bali by taking a ferry to Java and then traveling by land to the nearest airports.

Indonesia's tourism ministry said member hotels of the Indonesia Hotel and Restaurant Association will provide a night's free accommodation to people affected by the airport closure.

Ash has settled on villages and resorts around the volcano and disrupted daily life outside the immediate danger zone.

"Ash that covered the trees and leaves is very difficult for us because the cows that we have cannot eat," said Made Kerta Kartika from Buana Giri village. "I have to move the cows from this village."

Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" and has more than 120 active volcanoes.

___

Wright reported from Jakarta. Associated Press writers Ali Kotarumalos in Jakarta and Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this report.

10 Things That Will Happen if Humans Suddenly DISAPPEARED

Disease, famine, climate change, and unstable despots with access to weapons of mass destruction – these are just some of the ways the humanity can get wiped off from the face of the planet.

Extinction, after all, is an inevitable part of nature and no single species is safe from it, not even the human race. It is a way of nature to “reboot” itself and start over.

Unfortunately for the human race, despite all our advancement in technology and science, it would seem that we are speeding up our time here on earth rather than making it a bit more worthwhile.

Hurricanes of incalculable power and several powerful earthquakes have rocked cities across the world. Ferocious conflicts in war-torn regions continue to plague its inhabitants, indiscriminately taking away their lives seem to see no end in the near future. Large cities in developed countries – countries that you would expect to find a more efficient and environmentally safe way to produce energy – contribute more to the depletion of natural resources and the worsening conditions of the climate.

Whatever our grisly end may be in the future, Mother Nature will continue to live on without the human race. So in today’s list, we are counting down 10 likely scenarios that can happen once humanity is completely gone from the planet earth.

10. DARKNESS

Within a few hours of humanity’s disappearance, the entire world will go dark – not in the Biblical sense though.

Since we have made great accomplishments in the fields of energy and technology, it comes as no surprise that there is no corner of the globe that ever goes dark because of our use of electricity to power our homes and cities.

However, when we finally get wiped out, there will be no one left to keep the power plants running and the generators going. One by one, every neon light, every bulb, every street lamp will go dark as power begins to shut down, plunging the globe in darkness.

9. NUCLEAR CHAIN REACTION

With power finally shutting down, we will see – well, the earth will see – a massive chain reaction of nuclear meltdowns from every single power plant in each nuclear powered country.

Without power keeping these plants’ cooling systems operational, these plants will begin to meltdown within a month and the following explosions will be much stronger and much deadlier than the combined meltdowns of Fukushima and Chernobyl.

8. FLOODING

In just a few days after our extinction, our underground railways and tunnels will be flooded and completely submerged because the pumps that divert water and sewage from the tunnels will stop operating and begin to fill up until it eventually spills into our underground infrastructures.

Speaking of sewage, since everything has already shut down, sewage treatment plants will also cease to operate and the result would be the backing up of tons of waste that we have left behind. It would later on spill out of drains and start a flood of sewage that will most definitely poison existing plant-life and some animals that have survived whatever took out humanity.

7. FALLING STARS

Within a year of our extinction, the skies will be a sight to behold as one by one all the satellites that we have launched into space will plummet back to earth having no means of being powered and maintained.

The sight will most likely resemble a meteor shower with streaks of light illuminating the night sky.

And while we do have dozens of satellites that we have launched much further from the earth, even these will fall out of orbit and come crashing back to the planet in a burst of flames as it enters the atmosphere.

6. THE DECLINE OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS

Only a few weeks after our sudden extinction, many of our domesticated animals and pets will drop dead because of starvation and dehydration.

Most likely, many of our furry and feathered friends will be locked up in our homes or in their cages or in barns when the human race dies out – and without having no one to attend to them, these animals that we have bred for our leisure or enterprise will kick the bucket because they would have no means to sustain or feed themselves.

The smart ones that may find a way out of our homes may survive a few days longer but these domestic breeds of pets – especially the smaller ones like your aunt’s Chihuahua or your frisky little terrier – will end up being on the menu of much larger, predatory wildlife that may have already encroached upon places that humans used to occupy.

Suffice to say that the extinction of humanity will also be the extinction of the Shih Tzu and other small animal breeds.

5. WILDLIFE TAKEOVER

Speaking of animals, when the massive cities that we have built and the suburbs that we once occupied have been devoid of our presence, animal life will begin to return to these places that we have forced them out of.

A good example of this scenario in a microcosm is Chernobyl. When the area was turned into a no man’s land after the devastating meltdown of its nuclear power plant, wildlife and even vegetation returned to the region. Wild dogs and birds have returned and began bringing back life – albeit a radioactive and highly contaminated one – to Chernobyl.

On a massive scale, wildlife is bound to return to places that were once their natural habitats; marking new territories and steadily repopulating areas.

4. CRUMBLING MONUMENTS

Overtime, structures – especially those that are made of steel – will crumble and collapse. Monuments like the Eiffel Tower and structures such as the Golden Gate and Brooklyn bridges will practically disintegrate due to rust and zero maintenance.

As vegetation slowly creeps in to retake the land, concrete structures would also break apart as roots and vines force their way into a structure’s cracks and crannies.

Perhaps the only man-made monuments that will last for decades after our extinction, or even hundreds of years after would be monuments made out of stone such as the Great Pyramids at Giza and Mount Rushmore.

3. WATER WILL RECLAIM A LARGE PORTION OF THE EARTH

At the height of mankind’s expansion of territories and the great discoveries of new lands, we have paved ways to new regions by building dams and forcing water out of places where they should be.

Delta cities, man-made islands, and places where water has been diverted to create a hospitable place to create habitat will be swept away by the very same element we have tried to command once we have all bitten the dust as a species.

Without anyone to maintain them, dam walls – no matter how thick and fortified – will break and release tons and tons of water. When it does, many areas will be sunk in water, turning them back into the rivers and swamplands that they used to be.

Bodies of water such as the Colorado river will once again flow into the Gulf of Mexico and the Hoover Dam will crumble to give back the river that it kept contained for decades if not centuries.

2. THE DESERT’S REVENGE

When we are all gone, the cities we have built in desert lands such as Las Vegas and Dubai will be devoured by sand and turn back into its state as a desert.

With only the monuments that we have built and the structures that we have put up as ghosts of what was once our flourishing civilization, these desert cities will be nothing more than just arid landscapes against the blazing backdrop of the sun.

Even massive areas in the western hemisphere such as Mexico and California will turn back to the parched landscapes that they used to be as homes and buildings begin to deteriorate and the heat form the sun dries up the land once more.

1. MOTHER NATURE TAKES IT ALL BACK

Within just two decades of our extinction, Mother Nature will fully reclaim the earth as vegetation will return and spread.

Despite the fact that humankind was able to cultivate certain species of vegetation to make it more palatable and much more edible, without our skilled hands however, the green will return back to its natural state and many of the plants and vegetables we all know and see in our salads will be virtually unrecognizable in their true, wild states.

Also, as an added bonus to the earth upon our extinction and because of the return of greenery and vegetation, the air will drastically change and be much cleaner than it ever was because pollutants will be absorbed, processed, and basically cleansed by plants; eventually clearing up the earth’s atmosphere and restoring it overtime.

Nearly Half of US Cancer Deaths Blamed on Unhealthy Behavior

By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — A new look at cancer in the U.S. finds that nearly half of cancer deaths are caused by smoking, poor diet and other unhealthy behaviors.

That's less than commonly-cited estimates from more than 35 years ago, a result of new research methods and changes in American society. Smoking rates have plummeted, for example, while obesity rates have risen dramatically.

The study found that 45 percent of cancer deaths and 42 percent of diagnosed cancer cases could be attributed to what the authors call "modifiable" risk factors. These are risks that are not inherited, and mostly the result of behavior that can be changed, like exposure to sun, not eating enough fruits and vegetables, drinking alcohol and, most importantly, smoking.

A British study conducted in 1981 attributed more than two-thirds of cancer deaths to these factors.

The study used 2014 data and was conducted by the American Cancer Society. It was published online Tuesday in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

"We thought it was time to redo those estimates," said Dr. Otis Brawley, the cancer society's chief medical officer and one of the study's authors.

Smoking was the leading risk by far, accounting for 29 percent of deaths. Excess body weight was next at 6.5 percent, and alcohol consumption was third at 4 percent.

The authors ran separate calculations for different types of cancer by age group and gender to try to account for how risk factors affect different groups of people, then added them together to understand the national picture.

Among the findings:

— Smoking accounted for 82 percent of lung cancers.
— Excess body weight was associated with 60 percent of uterine cancers and about one-third of liver cancers.
— Alcohol intake was associated with 25 percent of liver cancers in men and 12 percent in women; 17 percent of colorectal cancers in men and 8 percent in women; and 16 percent of breast cancers in women.
— Exposure to ultraviolet radiation from sunlight or tanning beds was associated with 96 percent of skin cancers in men and 94 percent in women.

Richard Clapp, a professor emeritus of environmental health at Boston University expects the new numbers to be will widely cited and used to make decisions about how to spend money on cancer prevention, just as the influential British study from 1981 by researchers Richard Doll and Richard Peto has been.

Clapp said there is still room for improvement, however. He said the study doesn't address how two or more risk factors, like smoking and drinking, might work together in some cancer cases and deaths.

Also, aside from secondhand cigarette smoke, the researchers did not to include outdoor or indoor air pollution because the data on the cancer risk from pollution is not detailed enough to understand the national impact, said the study's lead author, Dr. Farhad Islami.

Magnitude 3.7, 2.9 Quakes Rattle Oklahoma Town Early Sunday

EDMOND, Okla. (AP) — The U.S. Geological Survey has recorded two earthquakes that struck near a central Oklahoma town.

Both temblors hit just east of the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond early Sunday. The first quake had a preliminary magnitude of 3.7 and struck at 2:12 a.m. The second quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 2.9, followed soon after, hitting at 2:20 a.m.

There were no immediate reports of injury or severe damage.

Thousands of quakes have struck Oklahoma in recent years, many linked to the underground injection of wastewater from oil and natural gas production. Researchers have also linked earthquakes in Kansas, Texas and other states to wastewater injection.

Several oil and gas producers have been directed to close wells and reduce injection volumes in others, including two near the recent temblors.

China's Former Internet Regulator Under Investigation for Corruption

BEIJING (AP) — China's former top internet regulator and censor is being investigated by the ruling Communist Party's anti-corruption arm, the agency said Tuesday.

The party's anti-graft watchdog agency said in a brief statement on its website that Lu Wei is suspected of "serious violations of discipline." Until Tuesday's announcement, Lu had been deputy head of the party's propaganda department.

Lu was known as a hard-liner responsible for leading the government's efforts to tighten control over domestic cyberspace and championing the party's position that governments have a right to filter and censor their countries' internet.

He wielded enormous power over what 700 million Chinese internet users could view online and acted as the gatekeeper for technology companies wishing to do business in China.

No details were given in Tuesday's announcement, which comes after a party congress at which President Xi Jinping was given a second five-year term as party chief. Lu is the most senior Chinese official to be investigated since the party congress closed late last month.

Lu was suddenly replaced as cyberspace chief in June last year by his deputy, Xu Lin. Lu held on to his concurrent position of deputy head of propaganda but kept what observers thought was an uncharacteristically low profile.

Appointed in 2014 as China's top internet regulator, Lu held high-profile meetings with top executives from foreign technology and internet companies, including Apple chief executive Tim Cook, Microsoft's Satya Nadella, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Lu took a hard line in demanding tough security checks on imported foreign tech products and keeping out foreign internet companies and social networks like Facebook in the name of preserving social stability.

Lu's departure from the position has not led to any changes or easing of such demands and restrictions on information.

In recent years China has pushed cybersecurity regulations aimed at limiting technology imported from the West, which Beijing officials say is necessary given Edward Snowden's allegations of U.S. spying via "backdoors" inserted in exported U.S.-made hardware.

Lu worked his way up the ranks of China's official Xinhua News Agency from a reporting job in the city of Guilin in southern Guangxi province in the early 1990s to becoming the agency's vice president from 2004 to 2011. He was vice mayor of Beijing from 2011 to 2013.

Russia Confirms Spike in Radioactivity in the Urals

By NATALIYA VASILYEVA, Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities on Tuesday confirmed reports of a spike in radioactivity in the air over the Ural Mountains while the suspected culprit, a nuclear fuel processing plant, denied it was the source of contamination.

The Russian Meteorological Service said in a statement Tuesday that it recorded the release of Ruthenium-106 in the southern Urals in late September and classified it as "extremely high contamination." Russian authorities insisted, however, that the amount of Ruthenium posed no health risks.

France's nuclear safety agency earlier this month said that it recorded radioactivity in the area between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains from a suspected accident involving nuclear fuel or the production of radioactive material. It said the release of the isotope Ruthenium-106 posed no health or environmental risks to European countries.

Last month, when reports of a trace of Ruthenium over Europe first appeared, Russia's state-controlled Rosatom corporation denied any leak. Rosatom reaffirmed Tuesday that the Ruthenium emission registered by the state meteorological service hadn't come from any of its facilities.

Rosatom said it's committed to the highest standards of transparency and is working closely with international organizations to identify the potential source of the emission.

The Russian meteorological office's report, however, noted high levels of radiation in residential areas adjacent to Rosatom's Mayak plant for spent nuclear fuel. Air samples in the town of Argayash in late September-early October, for example, showed levels nearly 1,000 times higher than those recorded in the previous months.

The Russian Natural Resources Ministry which oversees the meteorological office in a statement later on Tuesday sought to reassure the public, claiming that the radiation levels there still were lower than those deemed to be dangerous.

Mayak in a statement on Tuesday denied being the source of contamination. The plant said it has not conducted any work on extracting Ruthenium-106 from spent nuclear fuel "for many years."

Mayak, in the Chelyabinsk region, saw one of the world's worst nuclear accidents on Sept. 29, 1957, when a waste tank exploded, contaminating 23,000 square kilometers (9,200 square miles) and prompting authorities to evacuate 10,000 residents from neighboring regions.

Some details of the disaster were first released to the public in 1989 as part of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's openness campaign, but the exact scope of its impact on the local population has remained unclear. Environmental activists said the damage has been compounded by other accidents, leaks and the discharge of liquid waste.

In 2004 it was confirmed that waste was being dumped in the local Techa River. Nuclear regulators say that no longer happens, but anti-nuclear activists say it's impossible to tell given the level of state secrecy.

In 2016, Associated Press reporters visited a village downstream from Mayak where doctors have for years recorded rates of chromosomal abnormalities, birth defects and cancers vastly higher than the Russian average. A Geiger counter at the riverbank in the village of Muslyumovo showed measurements 80 to 100 times the level of naturally occurring background radiation.

A decades-long Radiation Research Society study of people living near the Techa River, conducted jointly by Russian and American scientists, has linked radiation particularly to higher rates of cancer of the uterus and esophagus.

The Nuclear Safety Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences, which oversees safety standards for the country's nuclear industry, has insisted that Mayak's nuclear waste processing system presents no danger to the surrounding population.

Environmental pressure group Greenpeace said in a statement on Tuesday that it would petition the Russian Prosecutor General's office to investigate "a possible concealment of a radiation accident" and check whether public health was sufficiently protected.

___

Vladimir Isachenkov contributed to this report.

FBI Releases Letter from D.B. Cooper. Confirms Conspiracy and Cover-Up

Who was DB Cooper and what ended up happening to him may go down as one of the greatest mysteries in U.S. history? To this day, no one knows his real name and no one knows what happened to him after he jumped out of that plane with $200,000 over 40 years ago. But a letter that was released recently released from the FBI’s archives may well deepen this infamous mystery.

In case you’re not familiar with this case, on Nov. 24, 1971, a man calling himself D.B. Cooper hijacked Northwest Airlines Flight 305 with 36 passengers on board by using a briefcase he said had a bomb in it.

Cooper demanded $200,000 and several parachutes, then ordered the plane to fly him to Mexico. While the plane was en route, Cooper jumped out into the night. The authorities tailing the plane did not see cooper jump, and he nor the money was ever seen again. The FBI contends that Cooper could not have survived the jump, but no body was ever recovered.

Since then there have been many theories about what happened to D.B. Cooper. Some say he did indeed die in the jump, some say was Minnesota resident Kenneth Christiansen there are even those who claim he was actually a she.

And now according to a carbon copy letter that turned over to the FBI 3 weeks after the hijacking. D.B Cooper not only survived the jump, but his heist was also covered up by the FBI to hide their embarrassment.

The letter, which was sent by someone claiming to be D.B Cooper says:

"Sirs,
I knew from the start that I wouldn't be caught.
I didn't rob Northwest Orient because I thought it would be romantic, heroic or any of the other euphemisms that seem to attach themselves to situations of high risk.
I'm no modern day Robin Hood. Unfortunately, I do have only 14 months to live.
My life has been one of hate, turmoil, hunger and more hate. This seemed to be the fastest and most profitable way to gain a few fast grains of peace of mind. 
I don't blame people for hating me for what I've done, nor do I blame anybody for wanting me to be caught and punished, though this can never happen.
Here are some (not all) of the things working with the authorities:
I'm not a boasting man
I left no fingerprints
I wore a toupee
I wore putty make-up
They could add or subtract from the composite a hundred times and not come up with an accurate description, and we both know it. I've come and gone on several airline flights already and am not holed up in some obscure backwoods town. Neither am I a psychopathic killer. I've never even received a speeding ticket.
Thank you for your attention.
D.B. COOPER"

The letter was obtained by a private team investigators led by Thomas Colbert TV and film executive and his wife Dawna thru the Freedom of Information Act and told the Dailymail that:

"This was the biggest secret of the whole investigation, not revealed until two FBI agents wrote books in 1984 and 1991 and discreetly mentioned it," Colbert explains.

"No fingerprints of value" were recovered anywhere Cooper was in the aircraft, including on his drinking cup. The only man outside the Bureau to know that would be Cooper.
'And, I might add, none were found on this fifth DBC letter or the earlier four. Highly unlikely we have two separate Coopers with the same meticulous habit.'

---

Sources:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/11/19/fbi-releases-1971-letter-that-d-b-cooper-sleuth-says-could-be-from-notorious-hijacker.html

https://dbcooper.com/

Real Animal-Shaped Rocks Sculpted by Nature

Astonishing Animal-like Natural Rocks Found Around the World

Can these be mere coincidences or is there something more profound at work here? 

All around the world, boulders and other rock formations are naturally sculpted into all kinds of animal shapes. Over a mind-boggling number of years, wind, water, and other kinds of erosion have gradually brought these rocks to life, so to speak. 

Let's take a look

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Polar Bear. Credit: italyfaves

Polar Bears

Found in La Maddalena Archipelago, Italy, how can you not see a white polar bear sitting there? The slope of the back, the head and neck, and it even has two ears!

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Credits: webshots, purpleslinky, roadsidenut, purpleslinky

Cats, Snakes, and More

Near an extinct volcano on the Easter Islands, lots of unusual forms appear.

A river rock in Oregon's Willamette River hides a giant snake!

In Moab, Utah there's a place called Hole in the Rock with weather-worn cat-like stone sculptures.

And some kind of creature in Japan's Matsushima Bay.

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Credits: nmnet, naturalarches, elisasjourneys, Waymarking

Camels

Giant rock camels were found in the deserts of New Mexico, Arizona, and in Cappadocia, Turkey.

The last one in Illinois' Garden of the Gods, is missing its head because vandals destroyed it. 

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Credits: walkingalong, americansouthwest, queenvalleyproperties, forestcamping, travelblog, advenphoto

Elephants

There seems to be a lot of elephant gods because one of the most common rock animals is the elephant. 

Pt. Reyes National Seashore, California.

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada

Middle Left: Queen Valley, Arizona.

Middle Right: Elephant Rock, Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Bottom Left: Stone Forest, Shi Lin, China

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Credits: blogspot, taniamarie, Hamed Saber

Elephant, Alligator, Lion

Arizona's Monument Valley is home to more examples of these natural beauties.

Bottom Left: Alligator in Valley of Kings, Egypt.

Bottom Right: Lion in Alisadr Cave, Iran.

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Credits: richardandjo, amazonaws, planetware, wikipedia, wrensnaturenotebook

Dogs & Penguins

Top Left: Dog in Albany, Australia

Top Right: Turtle in Hundred Islands National Park, Philippines

Middle Left: Bird in Flinders Chase National Park, Kangaroo Island, Australia.

Bottom Left: Yawning Hippos in Wave Rock, Australia

Bottom Right: Penguins Snuggling in Head on the Isles, Scilly, Italy

Magnitude 6.0 Earthquake Shakes Japan Sparking Tsunami Fears

Magnitude 6.0 earthquake shook Japan's Hachijo-jima island at 7:42am UTC 2017-11-09. 

Hachijo-jima is a volcanic island in the Philippine Sea home to 8,000 people and 287km south of Tokyo, Japan. This 6.0 magnitude quake came 14 hours after a 4.6 magnitude one in the same area. 

Japan is sitting in the "Ring of Fire" where about 80% of Earth's earthquakes occur. Fortunately, there are no reported deaths or building damage and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not issue any tsunami warnings. 

This may trigger frightening memories of the Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdowns from a 2011 9.0 earthquake tsunami, which has since mutated sea life in the Pacific Ocean. 

Largest US port complex passes plan to reach zero emissions

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The largest port complex in the nation has set goals to drastically reduce air pollution over the next several decades.

The plan approved Thursday at a meeting of the governing boards of the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach outlines strategies for improving equipment and efficiency to eventually move cargo with zero emissions.

The ports estimate that the cost of the efforts ranges from $7 billion to $14 billion, but the plan does not make clear who will pick up the tab. And detailed plans for implementing each program will require approval by each port's harbor commission.

"Collaboration will be critical to our success," Long Beach Harbor Commission President Lou Anne Bynum said in a statement. "Moving the needle to zero requires all of us — the ports, industry, regulatory agencies, environmental groups and our communities — to pool our energy, expertise and resources."

The plan has raised concerns that the enormous cost of the clean air goals could make the two ports less attractive in the face of competition from ports on the East and Gulf coasts.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Pacific Merchant Shipping Association President John McLaurin told commissioners he fears the cost "and its potential negative impacts on port competitiveness and the one in nine jobs in the Southern California region that are reliant on the ports."

The neighboring ports 20 miles south of downtown Los Angeles are the single largest fixed source of air pollution in Southern California, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

Main points of the plan include clean-engine milestones for trucks, creating incentives to speed up fleet turnover to near-zero and zero-emission trucks, and efficiency programs for truck reservations and staging yards. The timeline for achieving a zero-emission truck fleet is 2035.

Other elements include requiring terminal operators to use zero-emission equipment by 2020, if possible, or the cleanest available equipment.

The plan also pursues electrification of terminal equipment and expands on-dock rail, with a goal of moving 50 percent of all cargo out of the ports by train.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach sprawl over more than 23 square miles (60 square kilometers) of land and water. They handle about 40 percent of U.S. container import traffic, about 25 percent of total exports, and together rank as the ninth-largest port complex in the world, according to the ports.