Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet (April 4, 2014)

Whaling's End
Japan was ordered by the World Court to halt its annual slaughter of whales in the Antarctic under the pretext of scientific research.  Japan then announced it was cancelling its hunt for the first time in a quarter century.  The ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) was a victory for Australia, which has fought for years to prove there is no scientific reason for targeting 850 minke whales and 50 endangered fin whales each year.  Critics have said Japan's harpooning of the marine mammals is strictly to provide whale meat for domestic consumption under the ruse of research.  But changing appetites and cost cutting may have a far greater impact than the ICJ ruling.  Stockpiles of whale meat have doubled over the past 10 years.  The government-subsidized program operates at a sizable deficit, while the whaling mother ship, the Nisshin Maru, is due for an overhaul.
Long-Haul Fallout
Migratory seabirds that spend part of the year around New Zealand after flying in from Japan's coastal waters are being checked for contamination from the Fukushima nuclear disaster.  A study by the University of Auckland is investigating whether radioactive cesium has entered the New Zealand ecosystem or food chain via the shearwaters, known in New Zealand as muttonbirds.  Vast amounts of contaminated water from the meltdown-plagued Fukushima Daiichi plant have poured into the Pacific since the disaster began in March 2011.  Fish there have since been measured with unsafe levels of nuclear contamination.  Because the shearwaters feed on seafood, it is feared the long-haul birds could be carying radioactive debris many thousands of miles around the Pacific Rim.
Tumbling Nuisance
A plague of tumbleweeds has hit parts of Colorado this spring with mounds of the rolling debris piling up against homes so high that some residents resorted to calling authorities to be rescued.  Masses of the dried weeds have also posed a high risk of wildfires across the front range.  Experts say the "opportunistic invaders" need just a sprinkle of water to sprout and grow into maturity before drying into woody orbs suitable for use in Western movies.  And sprinkles are just what the drought-resistant plants got back in October, allowing them to thrive unchecked by grazing livestock, which ranchers had by then moved to greener pastures.  Subsequent high winds broke off the weeds from their roots, allowing them to spread seeds as they tumbled across the plains.
Earthquakes
An estimated 17 million Southern California residents were jolted on the afternoon of March 28 by a 5.1 magnitude quake centered in interior parts of the Los Angeles Basin.  The brief but powerful shaking burst water mains, tossed items off shelves and caused other scattered damage.
*     Northern Chile was rocked by a massive "great" earthquake that killed six people and triggered a local tsunami that smashed between 70 and 80 boats near the offshore epicenter.
*     Earth movements were also felt in eastern Romania, southeastern New Zealand, Panama and in America's Yellowstone National Park.
Tropical Cyclone
Cyclone Hellen strengthened to one of the most powerful such storms on record in the northwestern Indian Ocean just before striking northwestern Madagascar.
Smog-Dust Pall
Parts of England were blanketed with record high levels of choking smog, which was worsened by a plume of dust that blew in from the Sahara Desert.  Many motorists awoke to find their vehicles coated with the red dust.  Smog reached the top of the official 10-point scale of air pollution in Norfolk, the East Midlands and Yorkshire.  Greater London suffered with smog that reached level 7.  The environment department said the smog was caused by pollution from Britain and industrialized areas of neighboring Europe that stayed in place because of light winds.
Volcanic Instinct?
Videos posted online of bison apparently fleeing Yellowstone National Park at about the same time the area was jolted by the strongest quake since 1980 have sparked fears of a catastrophic eruption.  The geothermal park sits atop a massive super volcano that produced a series of violent eruptions in prehistoric times. Catastrophic blasts 2 million years ago covered half of North America with ash and wiped out populations of prehistoric animals, according to the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO).  So bloggers and survivalists say the videos clearly show the park's bison have been "running for their lives" due to instincts that warn them of impending disaster.  But the YVO denies there is an increased threat of eruption, pointing out that the bison videos were posted weeks before the March 30 quake.  Seismologists have said a Yellowstone eruption is unlikely to occur within the next thousand or even ten thousand years.