Homes destroyed by brush fire in Yavapai County, Arizona.

At least two homes and about a dozen outbuildings have been destroyed in a brush fire that swept through the Poquito Valley, to the northeast of Prescott, Arizona, on Friday 11 May 2018, according to the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office. Nobody was injured in the outbreak, over a hundred people in the area were evacuated for several hours as a precaution.

Firefighters tackling a brush fire in Yavapai County, Arizona, on 11 May 2018. Les Stukenberg/AP.

Brush fires are a common event in Arizona, with over 400 reported so far this year, though this weeks incident, which was reportedly started by a car crash, is considered to have been exceptional due to the rapid spread of the fire, which was fuelled by high winds and dry conditions in the area.

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Democratic Republic of Congo hit by Ebola outbreak.

The World Health Organisation has reported an outbreak of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever in Equateur Province, Democratic Republic of Congo, after two people tested positive for the Virus which causes the disease this week. Eighteen people are reported to have died in the remote town of Bikoro on Lake Tumba, with another sixteen showing symptoms of the disease as of 11 May 2018. Teams from the World Health Organisation and Médecins Sans Frontières have been deployed to the region to provide assistance to local medical agencies, with an experimental vaccine against the disease developed since the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak being deployed for the first time in the hope of halting the spread of the disease.

Scientists at the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale in Kinshasa, where blood samples collected from hemorrhagic fever victims in Eqateur Province, Democratic Republic of Congo, tested positive for the Ebola Virus this week. WHO.

Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever is caused by RNA Viruses of the genus Ebolavirus. It has a reputation for being the world's deadliest viral disease, at least in part due to the 1995 film Outbreak, though this is probably slightly inaccurate as about 50% of victims survive, making it less deadly than diseases such as Rabies. However it is extremely contagious, with know known cure, and has a tendency to rapidly overwhelm local health systems as health workers themselves are infected. 

Ebola begins with a fever similar to that caused by Influenza or Malaria, which tends to come on rapidly two-to-three weeks after infection (during at least part of which time the patient is already infectious). This tends to be followed by extreme respiratory tract infection, headaches, confusion, rashes and tissue necrosis and heavy bleeding. Death is generally caused by multiple organ failure.

The only known treatment for Ebola is intensive rehydration, which can improve the survival prospects of patients greatly, accompanied by anticoagulants and procoagulants to mange the diseases attacks on the circulatory system, analgesia to cope with the pain of the disease and antibiotics and antimycotics to prevent secondary infection. Due to the highly contagious nature of the disease it is recommended that healthcare workers wear full-body protection to maintain a barrier between them and their patients; a daunting prospect in the tropical regions of Africa where the disease is endemic.

Ebolavirus is thought to have a non-human animal vector, since its rapid onset and high mortality rate appears to preclude a permanent residence within Human hosts. Surveys of wild animals have found Ebola infections in Rodents and Great Apes, however these were affected by the disease in a similar way to Humans, and are therefore unlikely permanent hosts. The most likely vectors are thought to be Fruit Bats or small Primates, which are endemic to the areas where the disease occurs and which are widely eaten; cooking meat probably kills the virus, but there is a distinct danger of infection while preparing carcasses. 

 Electron micrograph of an Ebola Virus particle. Frederick Murphy/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Wikimedia Commons.

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Tasmania hit by flash flooding.

Parts of Hobart and southeastern Tasmania have been hit by flash flooding after record-breaking rainfall in the area this week. Hobart received 129.2 mm of rain in 24 hours on Thursday 10-Friday 11 May 2018, the highest rainfall within 24 hours ever recorded in May in the city, and only the fifth time that rainfall in excess of 100 mm has fallen within 24 hours in the area at any time of year, with over 40 mm falling in one hour, the highest rainfall ever recorded in Hobart, while 236.2 mm of rainfall was recorded over the same period on Mount Wellington, the highest rainfall in 24 hours ever recorded in Tasmania.

 Floodwaters in Hobart this week. Patrick Gee/The Mercuary.

There are no reports of any casualties in these floods, but a number of people had to be rescued from vehicles and local emergency services are warning against unnecessary travel. Cars have been swept away in parts of Hobart, with many homes and businesses effected by flooding, as well as hospitals and the University of Tasmania. High winds have also caused damage to many homes, as well as knocking down trees and power lines; about 12 000 homes are thought to be without power across southeaster Tasmania.

Debris on the streets of Hobart, Tasmania, following flooding this week. Edith Bevin/ABC.

The flooding has been linked to a low pressure system over the Pacific Ocean to the northeast of Tasmania. Low pressure systems over oceans are caused by warming of the air over the ocean, which causes the air over the affected area to rise, while fresh air is drawn in from elsewhere and in turn be warmed and rise. At the same time the heat causes high levels of evaporation from the ocean, so that the rising air is also waterlogged. Eventually this air rises high enough in the atmosphere that it matches the pressure of the air around it, at which point it stops rising and drifts with the prevalent wind. Eventually it passes into cooler areas, where it starts to lose its water as precipitation (rain), as cooler air cannot hold as much evaporated water as warmer air. As land has different thermal properties to water, this often means that the cooler areas encountered by the warm, waterlogged air are over land, leading to high rainfall in coastal areas. This system has also been linked to snowfall in New South Wales this week.

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Fissure eruption on Mount Kilauea, Hawai'i, leads to evacuations and destruction of homes.

Mount Kilauea, a 1247 m shield volcano (dome shaped volcano made up largely of layers of lava) on eastern Hawai'i (or 'Big') Island, began erupting on Thursday 3 May 2018, when lava began to spew  from a 150 m rift on the eastern flank of the volcano, prompting local authorities to enforce a mandatory evacuation in the neighbourhoods of Leilani Estates and Lanipuna Gardens, both about 40 km from the crater of the volcano. Since then about 35 homes in the Leilani Estates have been destroyed by lava, although the main threat to human safety is not considered to be the lava, which is slow moving and can generally be avoided, but from poisonous sulphur dioxide gas which is also emitting from the fissure.

Burning homes ignited by lava in Leilani Estates, Hawai'i, on 6 May 2018. Trevor Hughs/USA Today.

The eruption has caused a 300 m drop in the level of the Halema‘uma‘u Lava Lake in the caldera of Mount Kilauea, as lava escapes from the fissure, which has concerned vulcanologists at the Hawai'i Volcano Observatory, as the shrinking lake has led to debris falling into the crater, something which has historically led to explosive eruptions on the volcano when the lava lake begins to refill and finds its way obstructed (explosive eruptions on shield volcanoes are otherwise extremely rare. This last happened in 1924, when about 14 tonnes of material was thrown from the caldera in a series of explosive eruptions caused by steam building up beneath debris that had fallen into the crater, throwing a material up to 270 m from the crater and resulting in the death of an onlooker.

Ash column over  Mount Kilauea on 3 May 2018. USGS.

The islands of Hawai'i have formed as a result of hotspot volcanism, with a mantle plume hotspot currently located under Big Island, Hawai'i, and each of the other islands being the result of previous activity from the same hotspot, with the oldest Islands in the northwest and newest in the southeast. A volcanic hotspot is an area where magma from deep inside the Earth is welling up through the overlying plate (in this case the Pacific) to create volcanism at the surface. Volcanoes move as they erupt, swelling as magma enters their chambers from bellow, then shrinking as that magma is vented as lava.

The position of the Hawai'i Hotspot relative to the islands of Hawai'i. Joel Robinson/USGS/Wikimedia Commons.

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Comet C/2016 R2 (PANSTARRS) reaches perihelion.

Comet C/2016 R2 (PANSTARRS) will reach its perihelion (the closest point on its orbit to the Sun) slightly after 2.00 pm on Wednesday 9 May 2018, when it will be approximately 2.60 AU from the Sun (i.e. 260% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter). The comet will be in the constellation of Auriga seen from the Earth, though it will not be visible without a fairly good telescope.

Comet C/2016 R2 (PANSTARRS), close to the star Gamma Tauri on 5 January 2018. Chris Schur/Sky and Telescope.

C/2016 R2 (PANSTARRS) was discovered on 7 September 2016 by the University of Hawaii's PANSTARRS telescope. The name C/2016 R2 (PANSTARRS) implies that it is a non-periodic comet (C/) (all comets are, strictly speaking, periodic since they all orbit the Sun, but those with periods longer than 200 years are considered to be non-periodic), that it was the second comet (comet 2) discovered in the first half of September 2016 (period 2016 R) and that it was discovered by the PANSTARRS telescope.

 The orbit and current position of Comet C/2016 R2 (PANSTARRS). The Sky Live 3D Solar System Simulator.

C/2016 R2 (PANSTARRS) has an estimated orbital period of 20 800 years and a highly eccentric orbit tilted at an angle of 58.2° to the plain of the Solar System, that brings it to 2.60 AU from the Sun at perihelion (260% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun, considerably outside the orbit of Mars); to 1510 AU from the Sun at aphelion (1510 times as far from the Sun as the Earth or 50 times as far from the Sun as the planet Neptune, reaching the innermost part of the Oort Cloud.

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Earthquakes off the Knapdale coast, Argyll and Bute, Scotland.

The British Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 2.6 Earthquake at a depth of about 8 km off the east coast of Knapdale, in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, slightly before 7.20 pm  British Summertime (slightly before 6.20 GMT) on Sunday 29 April 2017. This was followed by a second event with a Magnitude of 2.5 in roughly the same place at about 7.15 am British Summertime (about 6.15 am GMT) on Tuesday 2 May. These were not major events, and presented no threat to human life or property, but were felt in Tarbert, Achahoish, Ardrishaig, Minard, Clachan, Tayvallich, Srondoire, Lochgilhead, Portavadie, Colintraive, Isle of Gigha and Dunoon. 

 

The approximate location of the 29 April & 5 May 2018 Knapdale Earthquaked. Google Maps.

 

Earthquakes become more common as you travel north and west in Great Britain, with the west coast of Scotland being the most quake-prone part of the island and the northwest of Wales being more prone  to quakes than the rest of Wales or most of England.

 

Britain is being pushed to the east by the expansion of the Atlantic Ocean and to the north by the impact of Africa into Europe from the south. It is also affected by lesser areas of tectonic spreading beneath the North Sea, Rhine Valley and Bay of Biscay. Finally the country is subject to glacial rebound; until about 10 000 years ago much of the north of the country was covered by a thick layer of glacial ice (this is believed to have been thickest on the west coast of Scotland), pushing the rocks of the British lithosphere down into the underlying mantle. This ice is now gone, and the rocks are springing (slowly) back into their original position, causing the occasional Earthquake in the process. 

 

(Top) Simplified diagram showing principle of glacial rebound. Wikipedia. (Bottom) Map showing the rate of glacial rebound in various parts of the UK. Note that some parts of England and Wales show negative values, these areas are being pushed down slightly by uplift in Scotland, as the entire landmass is quite rigid and acts a bit like a see-saw. Climate North East.

 

Witness accounts of Earthquakes can help geologists to understand these events, and the structures that cause them. If you felt the 29 April quake, or were in the area but did not (which is also useful information) then you can report it to the British Geological Survey here, or if you felt the 2 May event, or were in the area but did not (which is also useful information) then you can report it to the British Geological Survey here.

 

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Pristimantis erythros: A new species of Rain Frog from the high paramo of southern Ecuador.

The Andes Mountains of South America are form one of the most biologically diverse regions of the Earth, due to the huge range of habitats found on the slopes of the mountains as they cross a vast span of climatic zones. The paramo ecosystem is found on the high slopes of the northern Andes between northern Peru and Venezuela, with outliers in the mountains of Panama and Costa Rica in Central America. This ecosystem is found above the forest-line (around 3000 m in this area), but below the permanent snow-line, and is dominated by bush-grasses, rosette and cushion plants, mycrophyllous and dwarf shrubs, and geophytes. Amphibians are generally rare in high-altitude environments, but the paramo is home to a wide variety of Frogs, including many insular species with very limited ranges, cut off from other areas of similar environments on separate mountains.

In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 20 April 2018, Juan Sánchez-Nivicela of the Laboratorio de Herpetología at the Museo de Zoología de la Universidad del Azuay, and the Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad, Elvis Celi-Piedra and Valentina Posse-Sarmiento, also of the Laboratorio de Herpetología at the Museo de Zoología de la Universidad del Azuay, Verónica Urgiles, again of the Laboratorio de Herpetología at the Museo de Zoología de la Universidad del Azuay, the Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad, and of the Department of Biology at the University of Central Florida, Mario Yánez-Muñoz, also of the Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad, and of the Museo de Zoología at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, and of the Diego Cisneros-Heredia, once again of the Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad, and of the Instituto de Zoología Terrestre & Museo de Zoología, Instituto Biósfera and Instituto de Geografía, at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, and of the Department of Geography at King’s College London, describe a new species of Frog from the high paramo of southern Ecuador.

The new species is placed in the genus Pristimantis, the most specieous genus of terrestrial vertebrates known with almost 500 species commonly known as Rain Frogs, and given the specific name erythros, meaning red. This species is a distinctive red colour, with a short snout and granular skin on its head and back. Females of this species are larger than the males, with examined female specimens reaching 38.8–42.6 mm, compared to 36.7–37.0 mm in the males.

Lateral, dorsal and ventral views of living specimens of Pristimantis erythros. Left, male; right, female. Sánchez-Nivicela (2018).

The species was found in an area of paramos on the Cajas Massif, at altitudes of 3450–3500 m, mainly in terrestrial Bromeliads (Puya hamata) and Grasses (Neurolepis villosa), near to small streams. Given the small are in which the Frog were found, and the fact that this area was not in a protected area, Sánchez-Nivicela et al. recomend that the species be listed as Critically Endangered under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.

 Habitat of Pristimantis erythros in type locality. Sánchez-Nivicela (2018).

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