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A pilot on a Hawaiian Airlines flight said a plume-like cloud “shot” in front of the plane moments before severe turbulence that left more than two dozen people injured and damaged the aircraft last month, federal officials said Friday. The pilot, a captain on the Dec. 18 flight from Phoenix to Honolulu, said conditions were smooth and on-board weather radar showed no turbulence as they flew above a layer of cirrostratus clouds at an altitude of between 37,000 and 38,000 feet, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report on the incident. Just after 10 a.m., when the...

A massive plume of dust referred to as a Saharan Air Layer (SAL) could reach U.S. Gulf Coast states this weekend, according to AccuWeather. On Tuesday, weather models show SAL traversing the Atlantic. The expectation is this enormous plume of dust will sweep across the Caribbean and into the Gulf of Mexico by the end of this week, reaching the U.S. Gulf Coast by Saturday. “A large batch of dust was evident on satellite photos from the start of this week and was beginning to enter the Caribbean. “It is possible, but not a certainty, that this dust will make...

Upon examining a wealth of existing research dating as far back as the 1950s, the authors of the paper explain that flushing a toilet that contains fecal matter can produce bioaerosols that remain in the air for an extended period of time. Much of the research suggests the material remains in the air for up 8 minutes after the toilet was flushed.

Since January 2017, low levels of radioactive Iodine-131 contamination have been detected over various European countries. Highest levels have been detected in Poland. The radioactive particles were first detected in Finland. Source is anyone's guess, but the initial area of detection and area of highest concentration point to Russia. I disagree with the blog's conclusion that this is likely to be a nuclear test since I-131 has a short half-life of 8 days. More likely, there's an ongoing issue with a Russian nuclear reactor. (Doesn't have to be a power station - could be a sub or other naval reactor.)

What appears to be an enormous ash cloud rising from the eruption of a long dormant volcano named Puyehuein southern Chile on June 4, 2011, isn’t quite matching up with the location of the recorded earthquakes today in the immediate area. “The Cordon Caulle (volcanic range) has entered an eruptive process, with an explosion resulting in a 10-kilometer-high gas column,” Chilean state emergency office said.The thing is, for some unknown reason, as of this writing, eight earthquakes near magnitude 5 have shook the earth near the Puyehue volcano. The problem is, the earthquakes are located 20 to 40 miles away...

There it is as the lead story on the Drudge Report this morning: UN: `Plume’ To Hit US Friday. The scare tactics employed by the world’s largest bureaucracy, the scandal-ridden United Nations, make Frankenstein look like a choir boy. “A United Nations forecast of the possible movement of the radioactive plume coming from crippled Japanese reactors shows it churning across the Pacific, (is there any other way to fly?) and touching the Aleutian islands on Thursday before hitting Southern California late Friday.” (Drudge, via New York times, March 16, 2011). First we get to read about the deadly “plume” coming...

One thing is for sure. The president of the U.S. will not perform his job, he will not gather the proper experts together to formulate a best guess on the radiation heading our way. And he will not hold a press conference. Instead, he's heading down to South America, well out of the way of the radiation plume heading our way. If his wife and kids go with him, then you know it's going to be far worse than they are letting on.

LOS ANGELES – The Pentagon and NASA experts have determined that a billowing contrail seen streaking into the skies above Southern California was likely caused by an airliner and not a missile. The phenomenon recorded Monday evening by a TV news helicopter created a media sensation and a vapor trail of commentary across the Internet about the possibility of a secret missile firing. But the military insisted it knew of no rockets launched in the area. Defense Department spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said Wednesday that officials were satisfied it was an airplane contrail distorted by camera angle, winds and other...

NEW ORLEANS – Marine scientists have discovered a massive new plume of what they believe to be oil deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico, stretching 22 miles from the leaking wellhead northeast toward Mobile Bay, Alabama. snip David Hollander, associate professor of chemical oceanography at the school, says the thick plume was detected just beneath the surface down to about 3,300 feet. He says it's more than 6 miles wide.

Coming To America: The Big Volcanic Ash Plume Joe Weisenthal Apr. 18, 2010, 9:53 PM The latest images from the London Met Office, via AshAlerts.com, show the ash cloud extending in the direction of North America. No clue yet on whether it will be disruptive. It's certainly something to watch though.[snip]

Seismic experiment gives best evidence yet for mantle plumes. Geologists have obtained the best image yet of a plume of hot rock that rises from Earth's deep mantle and fuels the volcanoes of the Hawaiian islands. The study, led by geophysicist Cecily Wolfe at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in Honolulu, reveals the structure of the plume down to at least 1,500 kilometres. Critics have questioned in recent years whether such plumes even exist. "This is a spectacular experiment that succeeded in getting data for putting the plume theory to the test," says Wolfe. The results are published this...

May 2, 2007—Jupiter's most turbulent moon, Io, is renowned among scientists for its flashy volcanic displays. But even experts were surprised when they saw this plume of gas vaulting nearly 200 miles (320 kilometers) over the moon's north pole. The giant frozen jet—about as tall as the state of New Hampshire is long—spewed from a volcano known as Tvashtar in February, just as NASA's New Horizons spacecraft was cruising by on its way to Pluto. The passing craft captured several images of the event, providing an unprecedented view of volcanism on Io, the most geologically active body in the solar...

Global Warming Needs “New Look” at Mechanisms Involved As Europe struggles with another week of sub-zero temperatures- (Russia and the Ukraine have reported –40 degree temperatures and considerable loss of life)- recent discoveries have been causing “the Greenhouse Gas Gang” some additional loss of composure. Last year, according to the January 14,2006 of “New Scientist” magazine, environmental engineer Frank Keppler, and his colleagues at the Max Planck Institute discovered that living plants emit a significant portion – 10% to 30 % ,depending on the season – of the methane –a more serious greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide- that makes its...

The former deputy assistant attorney general who helped draft the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act blasted Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald on Wednesday, saying he may be getting "creative with law" in order to justify questionable indictments. "If you don't have a clear violation, you should not become what's called 'creative with the law,'" Toensing told ABC Radio host Sean Hannity, after noting that the statute she co-authored was never intended to apply to cases like Leakgate. Toensing said she based her concern on a February report in the Chicago Tribune, which noted, "Probably Fitzgerald's greatest talent was finding creative ways...

Connect the dots: 1) Heard about a new (small) eruption of Piton de la Fournaise. 2) Piton de la Fournaise is the current "expression" of the La Reunion mantle plume. 3) Thought about what happened when the Indian subcontinent passed over the La Reunion plume = Deccan Traps volcanism. 4) Tried to find a good picture of the Deccan Traps. 5) Discovered that one of the few places to see Deccan Trap basalt layering is Lonar Crater. 6) Lonar Crater is said to be the only impact crater on volcanic basalt. 7) Found remote sensing and surface pictures of Lonar...

WASHINGTON--The White House went on the defensive Monday amid a barrage of questions...about...Karl Rove and whether he had disclosed the name of a covert intelligence operative.... President George W. Bush's chief spokesman, Scott McClellan, declined to repeat his earlier assertions that Rove, the deputy White House chief of staff, had had nothing to do with leaking the name of the operative, Valerie Plame of the CIA, to get back at her husband, a former U.S. ambassador who had publicly challenged Bush administration policy.... "The president directed the White House to cooperate fully with the investigation, and as part of cooperating...

BALTIMORE - The Hubble Space Telescope has given astronomers a sneak preview of what they might see July 4 when a NASA probe strikes a comet, creating a cosmic display that may be visible with the naked eye in part of the Western Hemisphere. One of a series of photos taken by the orbiting observatory while preparing for the Independence Day encounter shows a 1,400-mile plume of dust spewing from the comet toward the sun. Johns Hopkins University astronomy professor Paul Feldman said light from the sun most likely heated a pocket of volatile gas trapped beneath the surface, causing...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 - A top House Democrat called on Attorney General John Ashcroft on Friday to explain why the Justice Department was letting federal officials cooperate in a Congressional inquiry into the case of Samuel R. Berger despite a current criminal investigation. The representative, Henry A. Waxman of California, the senior Democrat on the Government Reform Committee, said the department position regarding Mr. Berger, a national security adviser to President Bill Clinton accused of mishandling classified documents, was at odds with how inquiries tied to the Bush administration had been handled. "For example, in the investigation into the leak...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 January 02 Mt. Etna Eruption Plume Credit: International Space Station Crew, NASA Explanation: Mt. Etna has been erupting for hundreds of thousands of years. In late October of last year, however, earthquakes triggered a particularly vigorous outburst from this well known volcano on the Italian island of Sicily. Local schools were closed and air-traffic re-routed as hot lava poured out and ash spewed out and settled as...