Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet (Sept. 13, 2013)

Interstellar Wind Shift
A cloud of particles from dep space streaming past Earth in an "interstellar wind" has significantly changed direction over the past 40 years, according to observations from 11 seperate spacecraft.  The movement of the Earth and solar system through the Milky Way creates an apparent wind that doesn't have much of an effect on our planet.  Scientists had thought the wind's direction would remain pretty much constant for millions of years given the vast distances of interstellar space.  But turbulence within the cloud, which is about 30 light-years across, appears to have shifted the wind's direction by 6 degrees in only 40 years.  It's either that, or the solar system is only about 1,000 years from punching out of the cloud, according to an international team of NASA researchers.  The findings are helping scientists map Earth's location and movement within the Milky Way.
Hyena Terror
Attacks by rabid hyenas in eastern Zimbabwe are forcing residents to remain indoors at night and leaving many too afraid to collect food even during the day.  The Herald reports that the animals had previously gone after only livestock.  But it says an expanding population and development are now bringing humans into contact with the mainly nocturnal predators.  "We used to hear hyenas laughing from a distance, and everyone knew that they would not travel all that way to attack humans," councilman Charles Mukanwa told the Harare-based daily.  "But now the situation is different.  We have people who are building their houses where the wild animals used to dominate."  A recent attack took villagers by surprise as one of the apparently rabid animals attacked people sitting in their huts.
Radioactive Dilema
The company that operates Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant conceded that highly radioactive water has reached the groundwater beneath the meltdown-plaqued facility.  Water samples from a well at the plant contained 3,200 becquerels per liter of beta-ray-emitting materials, including strontium.  The discovery is likely to complicate efforts to seal off the groundwater by freezing the land around the plant.  Meanwhile, a group representing Japanese fishing cooperatives has slammed the government's plan to dump radioactive water from tanks at the plant into the Pacific as a way to cope with the increase in leaks.
Tropical Cyclones
Hurricane Humberto virtually tied with 2002's Hurricane Gustav in becoming the latest first hurricane to form during the Atlantic hurricane season.  Humberto skirted the Cape Verde Islands as a tropical storm before attaining hurricane force at nearly the same hour Gustav did on the morning of Sept. 11.
*   A re-formed Tropical Storm Gabrielle lashed Bermuda before later drenching Canada's Maritime Provinces and eventually disipating over the far North Atlantic.
Earthquakes
Guatemala's strongest quake in nearly a year wrecked a few poorly built homes in the west of the country late on Sept. 6.  Shaking from the temblor was felt widely from southern Mexico to El Salvador.
*   Earth movements were also felt in western Romania, eastern Afghanistan and neighboring parts of Pakistan, Indonesia's northern Sulawesi Island and around Anchorage, Alaska.
Massive Volcano
The world's largest volcano, and one of the biggest in the entire solar system, has been discovered on the Pacific seabed about 1,000 miles east of Japan.  A team of scientists from the University of Houston found that the nowdormat volcano covers an area of about 120,000 square miles and is about 145 million years old.  The massive basalt structure that forms the volcano came from a single point of eruption located at its center, according to lead researcher William Sager.  The volcano's new name, Tamu Massif, is a combination of the abbreviation for Texas A&M University, where Sager worked for decades, and the French word for "massive."
Stork 'Spy' Eaten
A migrating stork that was "jailed" in Egypt late last month under suspicion of being a winged spy, then later released, has been killed and eaten by villagers, according to the country's leading conservation group.  Dubbed "Menes" after initially being incarcerated, the stork was carrying a large electronic tracking device that European wildlife researchers were using to plot its migration.  Nature Conservation Egypt (NCE) soon convinced officials in the Qena government.  280 miles southeast of Cairo, to release the guileless jailbird.  But within days, villagers near Aswan had killed and eaten Menes.  "Storks have been part of the Nubian diet for thousands of years, so the actual act of eating storks is not in itself a unique practice.  However, the short-lived success story of getting Menes released was mot enough to keep him safe till he exited Egypt," NCE said on its Facebook page.