10 Worst Energy-Related Disasters of 2011

 4. Pipeline Explosion in Kenya

 On September 12, 2011, a fuel pipeline exploded in a densely populated area of Nairobi. The explosion was so powerful it flattened homes and reduced some bodies to dust. According to the Red Cross, at least 75 people were killed in the explosion, while other reports suggest more than 100 people died. 118 people were admitted to hospitals with injuries from the blast. The exact cause of the explosion has not been determined. Police believe the pipeline may have been punctured in an effort to steal fuel. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Raila Odinga says a mechanism on the pipeline failed, allowing fuel to spill into a drainage ditch where it ignited -- most likely the result of a lit cigarette. Odinga called the explosion the "worst energy-related disaster in Kenya's history."



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Notable Feathered Dinosaurs: Scansoriopteryx

Scansoriopteryx (Greek for "climbing wing"); pronounced SCAN-sore-ee-OP-ter-ix

Habitat:
Woodlands of Asia

Historical Period:
Early Cretaceous (130-125 million years ago

Size and Weight:
About one foot long and one pound

Diet:
Insects

Distinguishing Characteristics:
Small size; extended claws on each hand

About Scansoriopteryx:

Like the feathered theropod to which it's most closely related--Epidendrosaurus--Scansoriopteryx is thought to have spent most of its life high up in trees, where it poked out grubs from underneath bark with its unusually long middle fingers. However, it's not clear if this dino-bird was covered with feathers, and it appears to have been incapable of flight. So far, this genus is known only by the fossil of a single juvenile; future discoveries should shed further light on its appearance and behavior.

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Check out Bob's Dinosaur Blog !

Bob Strauss is a freelance writer and book author; one of his specialties is explaining scientific concepts and discoveries to both a lay and professional audience.

Bob Strauss is the author of two best-selling question-and-answer books that range across the expanse of science, biology, history and culture: The Big Book of What, How and Why (Main Street, 2005) and Who Knew? Hundreds & Hundreds of Questions & Answers for Curious Minds (Sterling Innovation, 2007).

Fossils: Megalosaurus, Buckland's Research

Engraving from William Buckland's "Notice on the Megalosaurus or great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield", 1824. Caption reads "anterior extremity of the right lower jaw of the Megalosaurus from Stonesfield near Oxford".


More discoveries were made, starting in 1815, again at the Stonesfield quarry. They were acquired by William Buckland, Professor of Geology at the University of Oxford and dean of Christ Church. He did not know to what animal the bones belonged but, in 1818, after the Napoleonic Wars, the French comparative anatomist Georges Cuvier visited Buckland in Oxford and realised that the bones belonged to a giant lizard-like creature. Buckland then published descriptions of the bones in Transactions of the Geological Society, in 1824 (Physician James Parkinson had described them in an article in 1822).

By 1824, Buckland had a piece of a lower jaw with teeth, some vertebrae, and fragments of pelvis, scapula and hind limbs, probably not all from the same individual. Buckland identified the organism as being a giant animal related to the Sauria (lizards) and he placed it in the new genus Megalosaurus, estimating the animal to be 12 m long in life. In 1826, Ferdinand von Ritgen gave this dinosaur a complete binomial, Megalosaurus conybeari, which was not used by later authors and is now considered a nomen oblitum. A year later, in 1827, Gideon Mantell included Megalosaurus in his geological survey of southeastern England, and assigned the species its current binomial name, Megalosaurus bucklandii. It would not be until 1842 that Richard Owen coined the term 'dinosaur'.

Fossils that Changed Dinosaur History: Megalosaurus

  

Cover of Robert Plot's Natural History of Oxfordshire, 1677 (right), and illustration of a fossilized lower extremity of a Megalosaurus femur (left) taken from that book. The bone was described by Richard Brookes in 1763 and jokingly named Scrotum humanum

Megalosaurus may have been the first dinosaur to be described in the scientific literature. Part of a bone was recovered from a limestone quarry at Cornwell near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England in 1676. The fragment was sent to Robert Plot, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford and first curator of the Ashmolean Museum, who published a description in his Natural History of Oxfordshire in 1676. He correctly identified the bone as the lower extremity of the femur of a large animal and he recognized that it was too large to belong to any known species. He therefore concluded it to be the thigh bone of a giant human, such as those mentioned in the Bible. The bone has since been lost but the illustration is detailed enough that some have since identified it as that of Megalosaurus.

150 years later--after further discoveries-- it was given its name, Greek for "great lizard," by the early paleontologist William Buckland.



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Most Amazing Places on Earth: The Crack of Silfra

Image Credit: Rene Frederick/Getty Images

Adjacent to Lake Thingvalla, you'll find Silfra Crack. Filled with crystal-clear, glacial meltwater, this narrow slit plunges 66 feet (20 meters) into the Earth. It makes for a rather chilly descent, but sight-seeking divers make the pilgrimage each year to dive between the continents. Experienced cave divers can explore depths of more than 148 feet (45 meters) by swimming into the Silfra cave system.

Visitors frequently describe the Silfra diving experience as one of floating weightlessly through space. The glacial waters filter through miles of volcanic rock before emptying into the crack.



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10 Worst Energy-Related Disasterf of 2011

5.  Oil Spill in Northwestern Alberta

Image credit: Rogu Collecti/Greenpeace

On April 29, 2011, Alberta suffered its worst oil spill in 36 years when a pipeline broke spilling 28,000 barrels of oil into a remote area of the boreal forest. The spill occurred just 300 meters from local waterways. The Lubicon Cree Nation is settled 10-kilometers east of the spill. The town of 300 was enveloped by odours which caused several members of the community to become sick. It took five days before Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner became aware residents were being adversely affected by the spill. Even then, he "could not say for sure" if the odour making residents sick was coming from the spill.


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Amazing Places on Earth: Uluru the Monolith

Image Credit: Harvey Lloyd/Taxi/Getty Images

Image Credit: Harvey Lloyd/Taxi/Getty Images

In "Avatar," a noble, indigenous people fight to protect their sacred landmarks against an invading culture. If you're pining for that sort of drama, then look no further than Australia's Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Here you'll find mighty Uluru, one of the largest geologic monoliths in the world.

Dubbed "Ayers Rock" by Europeans, the 5.8-mile (9.4-kilometer) wide slab of arkose (a type of sandstone) resonates with sacred significance for the Anangu people. Aboriginal paintings pepper its base, as well as caves and waterholes held sacrosanct in the spiritual tradition of Tjukuritja. While the Anangu have visited the site for roughly 22,000 years, they only regained legal ownership of the land in 1985 after a century of European rule.

Uluru is the visible tip of a much larger rock slab that extends deep into the Earth. In ages past, this tip was underground as well, but hundreds of millions of years of erosion have reduced the surrounding landscape. Uluru gets its red complexion from clay and rusted iron minerals within the sandstone. At dusk and dawn, the monolith takes on even darker, crimson hues.

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Notable Feathered Dinosaurs: Rahonavis

Rahonavis (Greek for "cloud bird"); pronounced rah-hoe-NAY-viss
 
Habitat:
Woodlands of Madagascar

Historical Period:
Late Cretaceous (75 million years ago)

Size and Weight:
About one foot long and one pound

Diet:
Probably insects

Distinguishing Characteristics:
Small size; feathers; single curved claw on each foot

About Rahonavis:

Rahonavis is one of those creatures that triggers enduring feuds among paleontologists. When it was first discovered (an incomplete skeleton unearthed in Madagascar in 1995), researchers assumed it was a type of bird, but further study showed certain traits common to dromaeosaurs (better known to the general public as raptors). Like such undisputed raptors as Velociraptor and Deinonychus, Rahonavis had a single huge claw on each hind foot, as well as other raptor-like features.

What is the current thinking about Rahonavis? Most scientists agree that raptors counted among the early ancestors of birds, meaning that Rahonavis might be a "missing link" between these two families. The trouble is, it wouldn't be the only such missing link; dinosaurs may have made the evolutionary transition to flight multiple times, and only one of these lineages went on to spawn modern birds.


 _______________________________________________________________
Check out Bob's Dinosaur Blog !

Bob Strauss is a freelance writer and book author; one of his specialties is explaining scientific concepts and discoveries to both a lay and professional audience.

Bob Strauss is the author of two best-selling question-and-answer books that range across the expanse of science, biology, history and culture: The Big Book of What, How and Why (Main Street, 2005) and Who Knew? Hundreds & Hundreds of Questions & Answers for Curious Minds (Sterling Innovation, 2007).

Energy Policy On Ice

Drilling Risk in Gulf and Arctic 

Floating ice and other challenges confound current efforts to drill for oil off Alaska's coast. (AP PHOTO)

Thousands of miles apart, in vastly disparate environments, the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska's Chukchi Sea have something in common: Both illustrate the increasing futility of an energy policy heavily dependent on oil.

The risks in the Gulf's offshore drilling became brutally apparent in April 2010, when a BP deep-sea well exploded, killing 11 oil rig workers and causing a massive spill of almost 5 million barrels of crude. The disaster led to new regulations for offshore drilling.

In the Chukchi Sea, off Alaska's northwest coast, the challenge is not the depth of the water but the ice upon it. Floating sheets of ice, along with powerful waves, have confounded Royal Dutch Shell's so-far six-year, $5 billion effort to drill offshore. Approaching winter and persistent problems with an oil-containment barge recently forced Shell to postpone its efforts for another year.

The difficulties and risks, both in the Gulf and in the Arctic -- as well as off the east and west U.S. coasts and in shale formations -- were summed up in last Tuesday's Herald-Tribune by Houston Chronicle columnist Loren Steffy: "Quite simply, the easy stuff is gone. All require expensive and time-consuming drilling techniques."

Consequently, claims by candidates or elected officials that America could achieve oil independence if government would only get out of the way are just a lot of hot air.

The U.S. Department of Energy has established that America has only 2 percent of the world's proven oil reserves. Yet, we use 25 percent of the world's supply.

Only the high price of oil (more than $90 a barrel) pushes companies like BP and Shell to attempt to extract it from mile-deep wells or the frigid Arctic seas. Read More

Notable Feathered Dinosaurs: Protarchaeopteryx

Protarchaeopteryx (Greek for "before Archaeopteryx"); pronounced PRO-tar-kay-OP-ter-ix
 

Habitat:
Woodlands of Asia

Historical Period:
Early Cretaceous (130-125 million years ago)

Size and Weight:
About two feet long and a few pounds

Diet:
Probably omnivorous

Distinguishing Characteristics:
Small size; feathers on arms and tail

About Protarchaeopteryx:

Some dinosaur names make more sense than others. A good example is Protarchaeopteryx, which translates as "before Archaeopteryx," even though this birdlike dinosaur lived tens of millions of years after its more famous ancestor. In this case, the "pro" in the name refers to Protarchaeopteryx's supposedly less advanced features; this dino-bird seems to have been considerably less aerodynamic than Archaeopteryx, and was almost certainly incapable of flight.

If it couldn't fly, why did Protarchaeopteryx have feathers? As with other small theropods, this dinosaur’s arm and tail feathers likely evolved as a way of attracting mates, and may (secondarily) have given it some "lift" if it had to make a sudden, running leap away from larger predators.

 _______________________________________________________________
Check out Bob's Dinosaur Blog !

Bob Strauss is a freelance writer and book author; one of his specialties is explaining scientific concepts and discoveries to both a lay and professional audience.

Bob Strauss is the author of two best-selling question-and-answer books that range across the expanse of science, biology, history and culture: The Big Book of What, How and Why (Main Street, 2005) and Who Knew? Hundreds & Hundreds of Questions & Answers for Curious Minds (Sterling Innovation, 2007).

Big picture: Spill

 by Daniel Beltrá '

Daniel Beltrá says aerial photography offers a humbling perspective. Photograph: ©Daniel Beltra/Greenpeace

It was the world's worst offshore oil spill: 5m barrels spewing from the BP-run Deepwater Horizon rig into the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 people, marine life and devastating hundreds of miles of coastline. From a Cessna floatplane 3,000ft above the Louisiana coastline, photographer Daniel Beltrá captured the carnage. It was only from this height, he said, that the magnitude of the spill – and the futility of the clean-up operation – became apparent. "It was like trying to clean an Olympic pool full of oil while sitting on the side using Q-tips."

An environmental specialist who often works for Greenpeace, Beltrá prefers aerial photography, because it offers a humbling perspective, shrinking the scale of the planet to more human proportions and thereby revealing its fragility. This lofty viewpoint often shows the beauty of the natural world: in the case of a disaster, though, that can be unsettling. Here, the surface of the ocean is marbled with spectacular, iridescent blue and flashes of orange that resemble molten rock, and the rig, at first glance, might be a Hindu temple.

In the two years since the wellhead was sealed, the fallout has continued. BP has embarked on a selling spree of oilfields and refineries in an attempt to raise funds for the clean-up bill – estimated at $38bn. The company is working towards a settlement with the US government, with both sides trying to establish how much damage was done, and how much BP should pay.

The environment is counting the cost, too. Most recently, waves caused by Hurricane Isaac in August dumped oil from the spill on two Louisiana beaches. Beltrá, meanwhile, is documenting low levels of sea ice in the Arctic. He is one photographer unlikely to be out of work any time soon.

Spill is on show at the Prix Pictet/Power exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery, London SW3, from 10-28 October.

10 Worst Energy-Related Disasters of 2011

 6. Coal Mine Blast in Pakistan

Image credit: Ahmad Saleem

On March 20, 2011, a series of three methane gas explosions occurred in a coal mine in Baluchistan, Pakistan. 43 miners were killed in the blast. It is reported that two people survived the disaster by not going into the mine that day. The mine is owned by the state-run Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation and was leased to a contractor. Two weeks prior to the explosion, the contractor had been asked to shut the mine down due to an excessive accumulation of methane gas.

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10 Worst Energy-Related Disasters of 2011

7. Coal Mine Explosion in China

Lao Ye Temple Coal Mine Shaft. Image credit : LHOON via Flickr

On October 29, 2011, a gas explosion at the Xialiuchong Coal Mine in Hengyan, Hunan killed 29 miners and injured 6 others. Accidents at coal mines in China are not uncommon, as many mines disregard safety standards. In 2011, 1,973 miners were killed in accidents.  The government, however, continues to increase its safety measures, and the actions are having a positive effect -- the 2011 death total was 19% lower than that of 2010.


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10 Worst Energy-Related Disasters of 2011

8. North Sea Oil Spill

 

The Gannet Alpha platform. Image credit: Royal Dutch Shell

On August 10, 2011, an oil leak was discovered on the Gannet Alpha offshore oil platform operating off the coast of Scotland. The leak spilled 1,300 barrels of oil into the North Sea. The Gannet Alpha is owned by Exxon and Shell. Although much smaller than other international oil spills such as BP's in the Gulf of Mexico or Shell's in the Niger Delta, this spill is the largest the North Sea has seen in the last ten years. Research by The Guardian shows there are an average of 294 spills in the North Sea every year. However, the spill in August 2011 was more than four times larger than all of the oil spills combined in the North Sea in 2009.

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