Earthquake off the coast of Alaska.

A few minutes before midnight on Friday 4 January 2012 (a few minutes before 9.00 am on Saturday 5 January, GMT), the United States Geological Survey recorded a magnitude 7.5 Earthquake at a depth of 9.8 km, off the southeast coast of Alaska, roughly 335 km south of Juneau. This is a large quake, and quite shallow, and the USGS predicted there to be a 31% chance of fatalities occurring, though no reports of casualties or serious damage have emerged. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration initially issued a tsunami warning, but this was withdrawn after two hours.

The location of the 4 January quake (black star), and the areas likely to have suffered the worst shaking. Areas within the blue circle will have felt shaking, and within the green circle damage to buildings may have occurred. USGS.

Alaska lies on the North American Plate, with the Pacific Plate underlying the ocean to the south. The Aleutian Trench runs along much of the south coast of Alaska, with the Pacific Plate being subducted beneath this and passing under Alaska as it sinks into the Earth. The 4 January quake occurred in the far southeast of the state; east of the extent of the Aleutian Trench. Off the coast of southeast Alaska the Pacific and North American Plates pass one-another horizontally, with the Pacific Plate moving northward and the North American to the south (a transform plate margin). This is not a smooth process, and the plates frequently stick together, then break apart as the pressure builds up, causing Earthquakes.

Witness reports can help geologists to understand the processes going on in Earthquakes. If you felt this quake you can report it to the USGS here.

See also Earthquake off Vancouver Island, Magnitude 7.7 Earthquake hits coast of British Columbia; tsunami threatens Hawaii, Seismic activity on Little Sitkin, Seismic activity on Mount Spurr, Alaska and Earthquakes on Sciency Thoughts YouTube.

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Oil rig runs aground on Sitkalidak Island on New Years Day.

On 21 December 2012 the Shell Oil Exploration Rig Kulluk left the port of Dutch Harbor on Unalaska Island, Alaska, with the intention of reaching the port of Seattle, in Washington State. It did this despite extremely poor weather conditions, apparently to avoid paying a tax bill that would be incurred if the rig remained in Alaska on 1 January, attempting to make the voyage in winds described as 'near-hurricane force'. On 28 December the rig ran into trouble, when one of the vessels towing it, the Edison Chouest Offshore operated Anchor Handling Tug Supply Vessel Aiviq, suffered an engine failure. This lead to a loss of control of the Kulluk, which dragged the two attached vessels, the Aiviq and the Alert 16 km towards the rocks of Kodiak Island over the following four days, before a cable connecting the Aiviq to the Kulluk snapped and the struggle was abandoned to avoid the loss of the towing vessels. The vessel eventually ran aground on 500 m deep rocks of Sitkalidak Island.

The Kulluk on rocks of Kodiak Island. AP.

The United States Coast Guard has formed a unified incident command with companies involved in the salvage operation, including experts brought in from Dutch company Smit Salvage. A total of 630 people and twenty-one vessels, are said to be involved.

The Kulluk is in the Arctic as part of a Shell plan to drill for oil in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, a project which has provoked considerable controversy with environmental groups concerned that the rigs will not be able to operate safely in Arctic waters, and which has bee dogged by problems from the outset. In February 2012 protestors from Greenpeace occupied the Nobel Drilling vessel Nobel Discoverer, which will be forming the other part of the two-drilling rig operation. In December 2012 the Nobel Discoverer was again detained, this time by the US Coast Guard for safety reasons. A third vessel, the Arctic Challenger failed to meet seaworthiness requirements for some months. 

This new disaster has renewed calls for the US Department of the Interior to rescind Shells permits to drill in the Arctic. The event will also cost the company severely in financial terms, as it will be forced to reimburse all costs incurred by the recovery operation, as well as the original tax bill, estimated at US$6-7 million, since the vessel never made it out of Alaskan waters. 

Shell has issued no statement other than to confirm that there was no loss of life in the incident, that the rig was not leaking any oil, and that it will cooperate fully with the US Coast Guard.

See also Amnesty International reports on the 2012 Bodo Oil Spill, Greenpeace activists occupy drilling ship in New Zealand, Oil spill off the coast of Nigeria, The UN reports on oil pollution in Ogoniland, Nigeria and Drilling for oil on the Ningaloo Reef.

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A new species of Corythoderine Scarab Beetle from Cambodia.

Scarabs of the Tribe Corythoderini are small Beetles found living in the nests of Termites, found across much of Africa and south Asia. They are tolerated by the Termites, and apparently produce secretions which the Termites use in some way, though the relationship is not well understood.

In a paper published in the journal Zootaxa on 20 November 2012, Munetoshi Maruyama of the Kyushu University Museum describes a new species of Corythoderine Scarab Beetle from Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the first time a member of the group has been found in the country.

The new species is named Eocorythoderus incredibilis, meaning the Incredible Dawn-Corythoderine (dawn because this is the furthest east any member of the group has been found. It is a millimeter long, flightless brown Beetle, found living in the fungus-gardens of the Termite Macrotermes gilvus, the first time a Corythoderine has been found living with a Termite in the genus Macrotermes; they are more usually associated with the genus Odontotermes.

Eocorythoderus incredibilis in dorsal view. Maruyama (2012).

Eocorythoderus incredibilis (Top) being carried by a Termite. The Beetle retracts its legs while being carried, and the Termite caries it by a projection on its back, similar to one found on Termite nymphs, (Bottom) in lateral view, with arrow indicating the projection by which the Termite carries it. Maruyama (2012).

See also Two new species of Ground Beetle from the Pyrenees, Six new species of Jewel Beetle from Southeast Asia, A Rove Beetle from the Late Triassic of Virginia, A new species of Blister Beetle from southeast Iran and Two new species of Semiaquatic Rove Beetle from China.

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Eruption on Mount Pacaya.

Mount Pacaya is one of Central America's most active volcanoes, having erupted at least 23 times in the last 500 years. It is located 30 km southwest of Guatemala City on the rim of the ancient Amatitlán Caldera, a 14 by 16 km structure that was last active in the Pliocene, between 5.3 and 2.5 million years ago. The volcano forms a massif on the rim of the older caldera, comprising the Cerro Grande Lava Dome, the eruptive MacKenney Cone, and the Cerro Chino Crater, which was last active in the nineteenth century. Pacaya is visible from Guatemala City, and its frequent small Stombolian Eruptions (ejections of lava bombs and incandescent ash) make it a popular tourist attraction.

MacKenney Cone, Pacaya Volcano, Guatemala. Steve McKenna.

On 28 December 2012 the Instituto Nacional de Sismologia, Vulcanologia, Meteorologia, e Hidrologia reported three explosions on the volcano, resulting in an ash plume that rose 500 m into the air and drifted to the southwest. This persisted till 1 January 2013.

The volcanoes of Guatemala, and Central America in general, are fed by the subduction of the Cocos Plate beneath the Caribbean Plate along the Middle American Trench, which runs roughly parallel to the southwest coast of the isthmus. As the Cocos Plate sinks into the Earth, it passes under Central America, which lies on the western margin of the Caribbean Plate. As this happens it is heated by the friction and the heat of the planet's interior, causing the sinking plate to partially melt. Some of the melted material then rises through the overlying Caribbean Plate as magma, fueling the volcanoes of Central America.

See also Earthquake off the coast of Guatemala, Eruption on Mount Poás, Costa Rica, Seismic activity beneath Apoyeque, Eruption on San Cristobal, Nicaragua and Volcanoes on Sciency Thoughts YouTube.

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The Earth approaches its perihelion.

On 2 January 2012 at 4.38 am, GMT, the Earth will reach its perihelion; the closest point on its orbit to the Sun. The Earth orbits the Sun at an average distance of 149 598 261 km, but its orbit is not completely circular, it has a slight eccentricity which takes it from a perihelion of 147 098 290 km in January to an aphelion of 152 098 232 km in July. 

The Earth's Aphelion and Perihelion. My Dark Sky.

This means that the Earth is at its closest to the Sun in the middle of the Northern Hemisphere's winter, counterintuitive to most of the planet's population. This is, however, purely coincidental; the Earth's season's are not caused by its distance from the Sun, which only varies by 3.3%, but rather by the tilt of the planet. The Earth is currently tilted at an angle of 25.5° to its plane of orbit (this varies on a timescale of tens of thousands of years, but remains fixed from the point of view of any human observer), causing the Sun to appear to rise higher and lower in the skies of each hemisphere as the year goes by. In the northern winter the Southern Hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun, so that the days are longer there (and in around the Southern Solstice in December, permanently above the horizon at the South Pole). In addition the Sun being directly overhead means that the energy from the Sun has to pass through less of the atmosphere before it reaches the surface of the Earth, so that less energy is lost to the atmosphere, causing the surface to warm.

How the tilt of the Earth relative to its plane of orbit causes the seasons. ESA.

See also The Southern Solstice and The Earth reaches its aphelion.

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Two new species of Aromobatid Frog from Panama.

The Aromobatid Frogs are a Family of Poison Dart Frogs from Central and South America. Unlike other members of the group, the Aromobatids lack the ability to sequester alkaloids in their skin, making them non-toxic. Due to this they lack the bright colours typically associated with Poison Dart Frogs, instead having cryptic (camouflaged) colour schemes resembling those of temperate Frogs.

In a paper published in the American Museum Novitates on 21 November 2012, Charles Myers of the Division of Vertebrate Zoology (Herpetology) at the American Museum of Natural History, Roberto Ibáñez of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Balboa and the Departamento de Zoologia at the Universidade de São Paulo, Taran Grant, also of the Division of Vertebrate Zoology (Herpetology) at the American Museum of Natural History and César Jaramillo of the Facultad de Medicina at the Universidad de Panamá and the Círculo Herpetológico de Panamá describe two new species of Aromobatid Frogs from the highlands of east-central Panama (which lack a formal name). Both new species are places in the genus Anomaloglossus.

The first new species described is named Anomaloglossus isthminus, meaning from the Isthmus (of Panama). It is described from a number of specimens collected by Ibáñez and Jaramillo in 1997, and a single museum specimen from 1974. Anomaloglossus isthminus is a 19-23 mm brown and green Frog, the females being larger than the males. The males call from concealed locations during the day. The Frogs were found in forest streams at altitudes of between 300 and 810 m.

Anomaloglossus isthminus in life. Myers et al. (2012).

The second new species of Frog is named Anomaloglossus astralogaster, meaning 'spotted belly'.The species is named from a single female specimen collected in 1985 and preserved in alcohol; the original colour of this Frog is unknown, though it has lighter coloured spots on its abdomen. The Frog is 22 mm in length.

The only known specimen of Anomaloglossus astralogaster. Scale bar is 10 mm. Myers et al. (2012).

See also New species of Frog from Japan, How Cow pats help the spread of the Invasive Cane Toad in northern Australia, Three new species of Frog from the Peruvian Andes, New species of Robber Frog from Panama and A cryptic species of Ground Frog from southern Chile.

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A new species of Encyrtid Wasp from the Western Ghats of India.

Entrycid Wasps are a family of highly specialized parasitoid Wasps, primarily targeting members of the Order Hemiptera (True Bugs), but with members of the group adapted to target other parasitoid Wasps (hyperparasitism) and Ticks. Some species exhibit a trait called polyembryony, in which one egg develops into a number of genetically identical individuals, which are (surprisingly) not all physically identical, with some members of the batch growing more rapidly to form a 'soldier cast' that defend the others against rival Wasp larvae, but which never mature and become adults.

In a paper published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa on 26 August 2012, Sudhir Singh of the Forest Entomology Division at the Forest Research Institute in Uttarakhand and Y.B. Srinivasa of the Institute of Wood Science and Technology in Karnataka describe a new species of Entrycid Wasp from the Western Ghats of India.

The new species is named from a single female, collected by fogging (spraying with insecticide, then collecting everything that falls out an Indian Copal Tree at an altitude of 128 m, near Virajpet in Karnataka State, India. The tree was about 40 m high, with its lowest branch 22 m above the ground; it was fruiting at the time of the study.

The species is placed in the wide-ranging genus Neastymachus, which is known from Asia, Africa, Australia and Central America, and given the specific name punctatiscutellum, due to the punctate reticulate sculpture of the scutellum (network of spots on its back). Neastymachus punctatiscutellum is a   1.65 mm yellowish-white wasp.

(Top) Neastymachus punctatiscutellum in dorsal (above) and lateral (bellow) views. (Bottom) Detail of the scutellum, from which the species takes its name. Singh & Srinivasa (2012).

See also New species of Ichneumon Wasp from Columbia, New species of Ichneumon Wasp from Jalisco State in central Mexico, A Hatchet Wasp preserved in Tertiary amber from Mexico, Three new species of Braconid Wasps from the Late Cretaceous of Magadan Province in the Russian Far East and Three new species of Braconid Wasp from Peru.

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