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When emergency technicians in Fukushima attempted to cool the overheating reactor with seawater, they didn't realize they'd be enabling a set of incredibly accurate calculations that would allow researchers half a world away to calculate how bad the leak had been, and where it was going in the environment. More »
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This week, a group of geologists report that they've found a lost continent off the coast of Scotland. 55 million years ago, about 10 million years after dinosaurs died out, a chunk of the seafloor erupted from beneath the water. It created a small continent that existed for at least a million years, covered in dramatic mountains and valleys, and irrigated with streaming rivers. Eventually the landscape sank back beneath the waves, its once-sunny mountains buried beneath 2 kilometers of seabed. More »
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The Olympic Games first began in the ancient Greek city-state of Olympia. For all its fame, the city suffered a mysterious fate, destroyed by an unknown natural disaster. Now it looks like tsunamis were the culprit...despite being 30 kilometers inland. More »
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About 4.4 billion years ago, a Mars-sized planet crashed into Earth. This cataclysmic event actually made Earth melt, and the fallout from the collision became the Moon. So how did Earth's earliest organic molecules hang on during these apocalyptic times? More »
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If you live in Hawaii, California, British Columbia, Alaska or Baja California, here are some bad news: According to computer models made by scientists at the International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, all the debris washed out by the Japan tsunami is coming your way. More »
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In the wake of the massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake that has devastated Japan, an obvious question arises...why didn't we see it coming? The fact is that earthquake prediction has long baffled scientists, and the current consensus is that it's actually impossible. More »
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The nuclear disaster in Japan has left many people in danger of exposure to radiation and radioactivity. Some are simply fearful. What exactly is this radiation? And what threat does it pose? We've got some answers below. More »
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Nuclear War Survival Skills, by Cresson H. Kearny, is a book that was once only available to people in the U.S. military, but now it's available to everybody for free online. Packed with all the information you need to survive a nuclear attack, it's the perfect guide for survivalists or science fiction writers trying to conjure up a world after the bomb. Keep this book around for all kinds of disasters, because it deals with everything from post-nuke communications tech to finding water. But it also has some chapters devoted to your apocalyptic comfort, too. More »
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In this video captured yesterday in Toowoomba, Australia, the city's East Creek rises dramatically after 6 inches of rain falls in 30 minutes. The waters easily carry away parked cars. Watch this jarring footage taken from a nearby office building. More »
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The site of the worst nuclear accident in history is going to open for business as soon as next year. Take a hike around the facilities and check out the catfish in the cooling pond. More »
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After a massive blizzard dumped 17 inches of snow on Minneapolis last night, the inflatable roof of the Minnesota Vikings' Metrodome just couldn't deal with the weight. Watch an entire stadium buckle before the force of nature. More »
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This disaster always seems to happen in movies, but the chances of this occurring in real life are slim. But inquiring minds want to know — what's NASA's protocol for a float-away astronaut? More »
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We've seen what would happen if the Moon disappeared. Now see an image of what a 1936 issue of Science and Mechanics says will happen if the Moon drops out of orbit into the Earth. [Via Modern Mechanix.] More »
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Want to know where you should live if you are hoping to avoid the next catastrophic earthquake, flood, megavolcano, or storm? Consult our map of disaster hot zones of the world. More »
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Vampire Bill knows that the world is approaching the next Ice Age, and yet no one will believe him! Watch Stephen Moyer give his best "angry scientist" in the new trailer for the adaptation of James Follet's disaster novel, ICE! More »
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This news is certainly going cause a lot of angry mascara tears. Rumor has it Dirk Diggler himself, Mark Wahlberg, is in talks to take the lead in the new Crow film. Yikes. More »
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Here's an aerial view of Hungary's toxic spill, which threatens to become an international environmental disaster, from NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite. Click through for a close-up that shows the devastation more clearly. More »
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The horrifying, heartbreaking pictures of Ajka, Hungary, look like a natural disaster, like Hurricane Katrina. But they're not. This flooding is the result of a deadly spill from an alumina plant whose reservoir burst open. Warning: dreadfully upsetting photos below. More »
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Research published in Science shows that the BP oil leak pumped out approximately of 4.4 million barrels of oil before being completely capped. That's around 185 million gallons, or 700 million liters. Scientists from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory studied high resolution footage of the plume, and used a technique known as optical plume velocimetry to gauge the volume. From this, they state that between 22 April and 3 June the output was 56,000 barrels per day, ±21%, after which it increased to 68,000 barrels per day, ±19%, until it was capped on the 15th of July. This is a rate substantially higher than those originally put forth by the Government or BP, which originally started at just 1,000 barrels per day, but in line with current estimates. More »
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Today scientists revealed the results of an investigation into the severity of the Deepwater oil spill. The plume of petroleum hydrocarbon chemicals measures a staggering 22 miles long, and has settled in a deep underwater layer (see photo). More »
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A gamma ray burst hitting Earth would seriously harm the plankton that are responsible for a significant fraction of photosynthesis. That would cause a massive spike in carbon dioxide levels, potentially causing a mass extinction...and it's quite possibly already happened. More »
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What I like about this montage of clips from Supervolcano - a BBC show about the Yellowstone megavolcano exploding - is that there is no messing around. We get all the crucial pillars of fire and no distracting plot. More »
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That's not a happy rocket-launch picture. South Korea lost contact with its Naro-1 rocket right after launch, and the Koreans believe it exploded at 43 miles. The Koreans were attempting to launch a scientific satellite to cope with climate change. More »
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Kevin Costner once boasted that he could have cleaned up the Exxon Valdez spill in a week. Now he'll get a chance to show what he can do — BP is buying his oil/water separation machines. [Inhabitat and WWL] More »
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8 out of 17 snake species across the globe have gone into a death spiral - some species have shrunk nearly 90 percent in the past decade. Scientists are scrambling to understand why. More »
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Want to know whether groundwater is rising near your farm, or if ocean temperatures are rising alarmingly? Or maybe you want to track oxygen levels in water near the BP oil spill? Now you can. More »
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This map mashup allows you to position the BP oil disaster on top of any region in the world. It's a good way to wrap your mind around how huge this thing really is. [via If It Was My Home] More »
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No, this image is not Photoshopped. It comes from Guatemala City today, where damage from a tropical storm - including 3 giant sinkholes - has forced 120,000 people to evacuate. Here's how you can help refugees. More »
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The fast-growing kudzu vine may be responsible for more toxic emissions of ozone than cars. Not only are these plants releasing chemicals into the air that harm humans, but they are spreading unchecked across the Eastern US. More »
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This incredible video of the BP oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico was taken by a man who flew over it yesterday. It "seemed to stretch all the way across the horizon," he says. More »
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Cryptococcus gattii is an airborne fungus usually found in the tropics. But researchers announced today that new, deadly strains are thriving in Oregon, and spreading. These strains kill 25% of people who come into contact with them. More »
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It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel SO BORED AND ANGRY. If Fritz Leiber's 1965 Hugo winner proves anything, it's that the award isn't a stamp of guaranteed quality. More »
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Two days ago, an earthquake hit the island of Haiti, claiming thousands of lives and destroying huge parts of Port-au-Prince. But among the collapsed city buildings, a tent city of survivors is growing. More »
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Early this morning, an object that was most likely a small asteroid zoomed past Earth, narrowly missing a collision course. Now a European astronomer says it's possible that this object could be part of the ESA's Venus probe. More »
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If Roland Emmerich needs ideas for his next film, he should give digital artist Steve McGhee a call. McGhee's images capture an array of disaster scenarios, from eco-apocalypses and nuclear explosions to tentacled alien monsters firebombing the streets. More »
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Roland Emmerich's 2012 is jammed with every cliche and trope ever found in a Hollywood disaster movie, while giving the Earth an over-the-top pummeling. It's a reasonably fun flick at times, if you don't think about it...at all. More »
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On Tuesday night, most of the vast country of Brazil was plunged into darkness for several hours when the power grid went down. There is no consensus on what caused it. Was this a model for infrastructure breakdowns to come? More »
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The permanently troubled Spider-Man musical took a couple of steps in the right direction towards being able to open yesterday; not only did the show get a new lead producer, but an actor was finally announced to play Peter Parker. More »
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A few days ago, megastorm Jimena was a category 4 hurricane in the Pacific, bashing its way to Baja California. As these satellite photos show, Jimena still looked awe-inspiring even when it diminished to a tropical storm. More »
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Want to know how the world of the Death Race remake got its start? Yeah, me neither. Paul W.S. Anderson has a origins story in the works penned by Tony Giglio. Spoiler alert: it's about cars, and killing people with them. [Shock Till You Drop] More »
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