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Fukushima: Pacific Ocean radiation over 3,000 times normal
Japan’s nuclear accident has caused radiation levels in the Pacfic Ocean to rise over 3,000 times normal. Say what?
Top scientists in the field of Marine Chemistry, have done the testing and research and the result is not good. Fukushima’s poison radiated water spewn into the pacific ocean will cause Read more…
Why Oceania Matters
Since World War II, the United States has devoted few resources to the promotion of peace and stability in Oceania. Instead, it has relied on Australia and New Zealand to maintain Western strategic influence in the region. However, faced with a rising China and other emerging security issues, many analysts believe that the United States can no longer take Oceania for granted. Indeed, without the support of the United States and other regional powers, some question whether Australia and New Zealand will be able to sustain their roles as the sole guarantors of peace and stability in the region indefinitely.
Few regional analysts have been as vocal as Ernest Bower, head of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ recently launched Pacific Partners Initiative (PPI),on the issue.
‘Very few US policymakers understand the importance (of Australian and New Zealander contributions to peace and security in Asia since World War II)…these are important US partners, but their views aren’t sufficiently reflected in our policies. This has resulted in US policy not being robust enough to manage security issues in Asia-Pacific in the next century,’ he says. ‘If we don’t shift the policy focus, then we will Read more…
Doomsday fire: Millions of volcanoes are stirring beneath the world’s oceans
In 1993, marine geophysicists aboard the research vessel Melville discovered 1,133 previously unmapped underwater volcanoes off the coast of Easter Island. Though some of the newly discovered volcanoes rose as much as one-and-a-half miles above the seafloor, their summits still remained half a mile below the water’s surface- all this in a comparatively small area of only 55,000 square miles, about the size of New York State. The geophysicists had increased the known supply of underwater volcanoes by more than ten percent just in a matter of months. That was 1993. Today, scientists estimate that there are more than three million underwater volcanoes. That’s a three followed by six zeroes! In 2007, oceanographers Hillier and Watts surveyed 201,055 submarine volcanoes. “From this they concluded an astounding total of 3,477,403 submarine volcanoes must reasonably exist worldwide,” said this article by John O’Sullivan. Hillier and Watts “based this finding on the earlier and well-respected observations of Earth and Planetary Sciences specialist, Batiza (1982) who found that at least 4 per cent of seamounts are active volcanoes.” According to Batiza’s survey, the Pacific mid-plate alone contains an incredible 22,000 to 55,000 underwater volcanoes, with at least 2,000 of them considered active. Thinking Read more…
7.1 earthquake strikes near Vanuatu
A strong 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck off the Pacific islands of Vanuatu and New Caledonia On Tuesday, the US Geological Survey said, but there were no immediate reports of damage and a local official said that a tsunami was not expected.
The quake’s epicentre was 136 km southwest of Isangel in Vanuatu and 147 km north-east of Tadine, in the Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, the USGS said in a bulletin. The quake was 26 km deep.
“Based on all of the local analytical data, a tsunami is not expected within Vanuatu,” an official for the Vanuatu Meteorological Services told Reuters by telephone from the capital, Port Vila.
A receptionist at a hotel in Ouvea in the Loyalty Islands said there was no immediate sign of damage.
“It was not a particularly strong tremor but we definitely felt it. There was no breakage, no damage,” the receptionist at the Hotel Paradis d’Ouvea said.
A large contingent of New Zealand Defence Force personnel are on Espiritu Santo, near the earthquake’s epicentre.
The Navy’s multirole ship HMNZS Canterbury is in the region serving in the “Pacific Partnership” civil aid operation.
It has been at the port of Luganville with the amphibious transport dock ship USS Cleveland, the Australian heavy landing craft HMAS Balikpapan and HMAS Betano.
New Zealand Army personnel are also with the mission.
There have been no reports of injury from the New Zealanders.
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