Ocean noise pollution blowing holes in Squid of Heads

Thousands of Humboldt squid died in 2004 before the coast of Oregon and hundreds again in the year 2008. The offender was originally as a shift of the deep sea currents, but a new study pinpoints, the noise of the physical trauma on cephalopods and raises new concerns about the incidents of squid were can inflict.

Dolphins and whales and other marine mammals are not vulnerable to noise pollution from human activities only sea life.

PLANET GREEN: An ocean of plastic... In bird guts

Previous information, the squid may be vulnerable to noise occurred in 2001 and 2003, when giant squid along the coast of Asturias, Spain washed. The fight for the cause be identified, biologists finally concluded that the deaths were most likely related to the presence of ships with seismic air guns for geophysical prospecting of the seabed.

A new study, frontiers in ecology and the environment, published in the journal found that noise damaged cephalopods even low-intensity and can be expected to wash ashore.

In the study conducted by Michel André from the Technical University of Catalonia in Barcelona, biologists made 87 individual cephalopods four species - Loligo Vulgaris, sepia officinalis, Octopus vulgaris and Illex Coindeti - to short sweeps of relatively low intensity, low tones between 50 and 400 hertz (Hz). Then studied the animals of Statocysts - balance and position in the water liquid filled, balloon-like structures, these invertebrates maintain it. André and his colleagues found that immediately after exposure to low frequency sound, the cephalopods showed hair cell damage within the Statocysts. In the course of time was swollen nerve fibres and, finally, large holes appeared.

"If the relatively low intensity, short exposure in our study used, can cause this severe acoustic trauma, then the effects of the continuous, high-intensity noise pollution in the oceans considerable, might be" Andre said in a press release to announce the results.

BLOG: Oceans, to get louder, with climate change

Noise underwater travels far and fast and the sea is full of natural sounds, such as such as snapping shrimp. Therefore many underwater to species adept hearing are extremely sensitive to the Cocaphanie of noise, from boat engines, sonar, the people will by this marine Symphony.

"Can we predictions that, since the Statocyste for balance and spatial orientation makes noise damage to this structure probably cephalopods ability affect would hunt, avoiding predators and even reproduce;" in other words, this would be incompatible with life, "said Andre."

The discovery raises questions, he crossed over just how widespread the effects of noise on the life could be:

"Is the noise situation impact on the entire Web ocean life?" What is beyond, other effects noise on marine damage to auditory reception systems? ?And how far spread and invasive, pollution of the marine environment is sound?

Figure 1: A cuttlefish, sepia officinalis, one of the four species studied for their response to noise pollution. (Image: Corbis)

Figure 2: Researchers found that noise pollution could literally a hole in structures blow need cephalopods to determine their orientation. Photos courtesy Laboratori d ' en Bioacústiques, Universitat Politènica de Catalunya.

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Is Air France abandon Ocean secrets?

反序列化操作 "translate" 的响应消息的正文时出现错误。读取 XML 数据时，超出最大字符串内容长度配额 (8192) 。通过更改在创建 XML 读取器时所使用的 XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas 对象的 MaxStringContentLength 属性，可增加此配额。 第 1 行，位置为 8952。
Richard Quest: what do investigators hope to learn from wreckage of missing Air France jet?Air France flight 447 plunged into southern Atlantic Ocean killing all 228 people in 2009Investigators have not yet established what caused the airliner to crashTests on instruments measuring air speed and pressure seen as one factorExpert: search for wreck "unprecedented in terms of depth and sub-sea terrain"

(CNN) - almost of two years after Air France flight 447 plunged into the southern Atlantic Ocean killing all 228 people aboard, search teams have located what they believe to be the actual wreck site.

Investigators have not yet determined what caused the airliner - which was en route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro - to crash. Large parts of the plan, including both flight recorder, have never been found, despite an extensive search operation that included a French navy submarine.

When did flight 447 go down?

Flight 447 made its last contact with Brazil's Atlantic Control Center (ACC) at around 01: 33 GMT on June 1, 2009, informing the center of the plane's position as it crossed the Atlantic.

Minister: Bodies found 2 years after air crash

Soon after, Brazil's air control contacted Dakar's control center in North Africa and reported that AF 447 was entering an area on its route known for constant bands of severe turbulence, officials said.

There was no further contact with the plane.

Why has it taken so long to find the wreckage?

The area where the Airbus A330 went down is in the mid-Atlantic – two to four days for ships to reach from the nearest ports in Brazil or Senegal in West Africa.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates the ocean depth in the area at 3,000 meters (about 9,840 feet) to 7,500 meters (24,600 ft). Brazilian officials have said the sea depth in the area is around 2,000 to 3,000 meters (6,562 to 9,842 feet).

The latest search covered a 46-mile (75-miles) radius around the last known position of flight 447, investigators said.

According to the French Bureau d ' Enquêtes et d'analyses (BEA), the underwater terrain in this area is rough with underwater mountains and valleys.

"It is a mountain range as big as the Alps," David Lear Mount of flight international told CNN. "There is what always the possibility that the wreckage from the aircraft disappeared down a crevasse." "This is not a flat-bottom environment like the North Sea is."

"Therefore it is of unprecedented search in terms of depth and sub-sea terrain."

What would happen to the wreckage at these depths?

The aircraft's "black box" data recorder - a vital device for crash investigators which records any instructions sent to the aircraft's electronic systems - remains missing but even if it is recovered, it is not certain whether it would still work, according to Lear mount.

"Pressure and corrosion have likely damaged the wreckage, especially as it has been down there for so long." "Flight recorder are not designed to withstand pressures of the depths that this aircraft actually went to."

But he warned that flight recorder recovered from other crash sites have not worked when they should have, with the reverse so true.

Do we know why flight 447 crashed?

No. cause has been determined. Studies of the debris and bodies that were found soon after the crash led the BEA to conclude the plane hit the water belly first, essentially intact. Oxygen masks were not deployed, indicating that the cabin did not depressurize, the BEA said in a 2009 report.

Tests have already brought into question the performance of pitot tubes, which measure the pressure exerted on the plane as it flies through the air, and are part of a system used to determine air speed.

Before it crashed, flight 447 sent out 24 automated error messages that suggested the plane may have been flying too almost or too slow through the thunderstorms, officials have said.

The European Aviation Safety Agency issued a directive in late August requiring airlines to replace pitot tubes manufactured by Thales Avionics on Airbus A330s and A340s. It said airlines should replace them with other Thales tubes and those manufactured by Goodrich.

The lack of speed, wind direction or information so prevented the autopilot system from functioning, said air accident investigator Alain Bouillard said at the time of the crash. "This tells US that the plane has to be, in this case, directed by the pilot," he said.

Flight recorder are not designed to withstand pressures of the depths that this aircraft actually went to.
--David Lear mount, aviation expert

However investigators have subsequently cautioned that these factors alone would't not have been enough to cause the disaster.

What about the weather?

Flight 447 what passing through an area prone to volatile and dangerous weather known as the inter tropical convergence zone (ITCZ), when it went down. The ITCZ is a belt of low pressure that wraps around the planet. Clouds and storms form along it because it is literally where the winds of the world's hemispheres meet.

Here, air and water temperatures are typically in the mid - 80s. The warm, moist air is heated further by the blazing tropical sun. Steamy air, coming off the ocean, rises until it hits cooler, drier free DSL air aloft, forming clouds and thunderstorms.

These gigantic storms contain volatile updrafts and downdrafts that can move at speeds of 100 mph. The height of these storms so can tower to more than 10 miles in the air. Even if you stacked two dozen of the world's tallest skyscrapers on top of each other, they still wouldn't reach the tops of the biggest thunderstorms of the ITCZ.

However Lear mount pointed out that hundreds of airliners pass every day through the ITCZ without incident. "There was another Air France flight 30 minutes behind flight 447 that night and it encountered no problems," he said.

Any other theories?

According to Lear mount, many aviation experts have yet to rule out the human factor. "The crash happened at around 2 am on a dark night when the error messages suddenly appeared and the autopilot tripped out." He said the crew, possibly at their deepest circadian low at this point, suddenly have this problem and they "fixate" on it.

"This is a syndrome," he said. "There have been pilot of accidents where pilots have fixated on correcting a relatively minor problem and lose sight of the macro problem." Now we do not know that, but we do know the aircraft acted as if it what not being controlled purposefully.

"Whether it was out of control - and I doubt this - what is not being controlled it." Imagine it is 2 am and two sleepy pilots encounter a problem. They do not have much to do so they decide to troubleshoot this problem. They fixate on it and forget the autopilot has tripped.

"The airplane meanwhile goes into a lazy spiral descent - the pilots do not notice as it is all very gentle." "And when they look up they don 't believe what their instruments tell them and they get disorientated and can' t recover."

He highlighted a similar case in 2004 when pilot disorientation and loss of control caused a Flash Airlines Boeing 737-300 to crash in the Red Sea shortly after take off from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheikh. Though Egyptian authorities disputed the claim, aviation safety officials in France and the U.S. cited "spatial disorientation" as the likely cause based on evidence available, according to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

View the original article here

Is Air France abandon Ocean secrets?

(CNN) - almost of two years after Air France flight 447 plunged into the southern Atlantic Ocean killing all 228 people aboard, search teams have located what they believe to be the actual wreck site.

Investigators have not yet determined what caused the airliner - which was en route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro - to crash. Large parts of the plan, including both flight recorder, have never been found, despite an extensive search operation that included a French navy submarine.

When did flight 447 go down?

Flight 447 made its last contact with Brazil's Atlantic Control Center (ACC) at around 01: 33 GMT on June 1, 2009, informing the center of the plane's position as it crossed the Atlantic.

Minister: Bodies found 2 years after air crash

Soon after, Brazil's air control contacted Dakar's control center in North Africa and reported that AF 447 was entering an area on its route known for constant bands of severe turbulence, officials said.

There was no further contact with the plane.

Why has it taken so long to find the wreckage?

The area where the Airbus A330 went down is in the mid-Atlantic – two to four days for ships to reach from the nearest ports in Brazil or Senegal in West Africa.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates the ocean depth in the area at 3,000 meters (about 9,840 feet) to 7,500 meters (24,600 ft). Brazilian officials have said the sea depth in the area is around 2,000 to 3,000 meters (6,562 to 9,842 feet).

The latest search covered a 46-mile (75-miles) radius around the last known position of flight 447, investigators said.

According to the French Bureau d ' Enquêtes et d'analyses (BEA), the underwater terrain in this area is rough with underwater mountains and valleys.

"It is a mountain range as big as the Alps," David Lear Mount of flight international told CNN. "There is what always the possibility that the wreckage from the aircraft disappeared down a crevasse." "This is not a flat-bottom environment like the North Sea is."

"Therefore it is of unprecedented search in terms of depth and sub-sea terrain."

What would happen to the wreckage at these depths?

The aircraft's "black box" data recorder - a vital device for crash investigators which records any instructions sent to the aircraft's electronic systems - remains missing but even if it is recovered, it is not certain whether it would still work, according to Lear mount.

"Pressure and corrosion have likely damaged the wreckage, especially as it has been down there for so long." "Flight recorder are not designed to withstand pressures of the depths that this aircraft actually went to."

But he warned that flight recorder recovered from other crash sites have not worked when they should have, with the reverse so true.

Do we know why flight 447 crashed?

No. cause has been determined. Studies of the debris and bodies that were found soon after the crash led the BEA to conclude the plane hit the water belly first, essentially intact. Oxygen masks were not deployed, indicating that the cabin did not depressurize, the BEA said in a 2009 report.

Tests have already brought into question the performance of pitot tubes, which measure the pressure exerted on the plane as it flies through the air, and are part of a system used to determine air speed.

Before it crashed, flight 447 sent out 24 automated error messages that suggested the plane may have been flying too almost or too slow through the thunderstorms, officials have said.

The European Aviation Safety Agency issued a directive in late August requiring airlines to replace pitot tubes manufactured by Thales Avionics on Airbus A330s and A340s. It said airlines should replace them with other Thales tubes and those manufactured by Goodrich.

The lack of speed, wind direction or information so prevented the autopilot system from functioning, said air accident investigator Alain Bouillard said at the time of the crash. "This tells US that the plane has to be, in this case, directed by the pilot," he said.

Flight recorder are not designed to withstand pressures of the depths that this aircraft actually went to.
--David Lear mount, aviation expert

However investigators have subsequently cautioned that these factors alone would't not have been enough to cause the disaster.

What about the weather?

Flight 447 what passing through an area prone to volatile and dangerous weather known as the inter tropical convergence zone (ITCZ), when it went down. The ITCZ is a belt of low pressure that wraps around the planet. Clouds and storms form along it because it is literally where the winds of the world's hemispheres meet.

Here, air and water temperatures are typically in the mid - 80s. The warm, moist air is heated further by the blazing tropical sun. Steamy air, coming off the ocean, rises until it hits cooler, drier free DSL air aloft, forming clouds and thunderstorms.

These gigantic storms contain volatile updrafts and downdrafts that can move at speeds of 100 mph. The height of these storms so can tower to more than 10 miles in the air. Even if you stacked two dozen of the world's tallest skyscrapers on top of each other, they still wouldn't reach the tops of the biggest thunderstorms of the ITCZ.

However Lear mount pointed out that hundreds of airliners pass every day through the ITCZ without incident. "There was another Air France flight 30 minutes behind flight 447 that night and it encountered no problems," he said.

Any other theories?

According to Lear mount, many aviation experts have yet to rule out the human factor. "The crash happened at around 2 am on a dark night when the error messages suddenly appeared and the autopilot tripped out." He said the crew, possibly at their deepest circadian low at this point, suddenly have this problem and they "fixate" on it.

"This is a syndrome," he said. "There have been pilot of accidents where pilots have fixated on correcting a relatively minor problem and lose sight of the macro problem." Now we do not know that, but we do know the aircraft acted as if it what not being controlled purposefully.

"Whether it was out of control - and I doubt this - what is not being controlled it." Imagine it is 2 am and two sleepy pilots encounter a problem. They do not have much to do so they decide to troubleshoot this problem. They fixate on it and forget the autopilot has tripped.

"The airplane meanwhile goes into a lazy spiral descent - the pilots do not notice as it is all very gentle." "And when they look up they don 't believe what their instruments tell them and they get disorientated and can' t recover."

He highlighted a similar case in 2004 when pilot disorientation and loss of control caused a Flash Airlines Boeing 737-300 to crash in the Red Sea shortly after take off from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheikh. Though Egyptian authorities disputed the claim, aviation safety officials in France and the U.S. cited "spatial disorientation" as the likely cause based on evidence available, according to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

View the original article here

Japan's Ocean meets radiation 7.5 million times legal limit - Los Angeles Times

A broker leads earthquake and tsunami disaster between fish at the fish market of Hirakata, Osaka in Kita, Japan, trade, for the first time since the March 11. (Toru Yamanaka / AFP/Getty Images / Bongarts / April 5, 2011)The operator of Japan's Fukushima knit nuclear plant said Tuesday, that it radioactive iodine to 7.5 million times of the permitted in sea water sample in the vicinity of the plant had found, and Government officials imposed a new health limit for radioactivity in fish.

The reading of the iodine-131 was recorded Saturday, said Tokyo Electric Power Co.. Another example taken Monday found on 5 million times of the permitted. The Monday examples were also found contain radioactive caesium in 1.1 million times of the permitted.

The exact source of the radiation was not immediately clear, although Tepco has said that strongly contaminated water from a mine close to the No. 2 reactor were leaking has. The utility initially believed, that was the leak of a crack, but several attempts, the crack seal has failed.

On Tuesday, the company that leak could come instead from a faulty joint said the pit is a tube, so that radioactive water in a layer of gravel under penetrate. The utility said that this would fit "liquid glass" into gravel in an effort to stop more leakage.

In the meantime further Tepco share, what it than water with low radiation into the sea to make room in on-site storage tanks for more highly contaminated water. In all the company said it planned, but on Tuesday morning, it had 11,500 tons of water, less than 25% of that amount will appear.

Although the Government which authorized release of 11,500 tons and said that radiation would quickly diluted and dispersed into the ocean, fish with high readings of iodine are found.

On Monday officials recognized that more than 4,000 Bequerels iodine-131 / kg in a kind of fish called a sand eels caught less than three miles off the coast of the city Kitaibaraki, Ibaraki. The juveniles contained also 447 Bequerels of caesium-137, as problematic regarded as iodine-131, because it has a much longer half-life.

On Tuesday, chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said that the Government was establishing a standard of 2,000 Bequerels of iodine Atom per kilogram fish, allows the same level in vegetables. Previously, the Government had no specific level for fish. An another haul of the eels with 526 Bequerels of cesium was detected Tuesday, about the standard of 500 Bequerels per kilogram.

Fishing of sand removed lances. Local fishermen calls Tepco to stop the release of radioactive water into the sea and demanded that the company they compensate for their losses.

Fishing has in the close to been the plant banned, and the vast majority of fishing activities in the region has stopped tsunami and earthquake damage to boats and port on 11 March was. However, some fishermen are making catches, only to a few buyers due to concerns about the radiation to be found.

It is not clear, which could provide the Fischer Tepco, but has the company Tuesday saying that it "condolence payments" residents to local amounting to 180 million yen ($ 2 million) had to evacuate their homes due to the radiation of the Fukushima plant had offered. A city, refused payment.

The company has yet to decide as residents in the vicinity of the facility for damage, make up for it would, while financial analysts say, the claims could be in the tens of billions of dollars. TEPCO's executive Vice President said on hinges decision on damages Takashi Fujimoto of the company how much the Government are parts of the load.

Edano asked the company to speed up that his decisions on compensation.

For now the company has offered 20 million yen ($240,000) for each 10 villages, towns and cities within 12 miles of the plant give Fujimoto said.

"We hope that they will find it useful for now," he said.

Namie, a city of about 6 miles north of the plant, refused to take the money 20,600. city official Kosei Negishi said, that he and other government officials from a makeshift Office in nihonmatsu, Fukushima city, somewhere else in Fukushima Prefecture, worked and that she faced more pressing issues.

"The coastal areas of Namie hard hit we were by the earthquake and the tsunami but due to the radiation and the evacuation had order still no chance to the 200 people perform a search, are missing," said Negishi. "Why should we use our resources less than 1,000 yen ($12) to everyone, residents spent?"

Tokyo electric power Fujimoto recognised, that was a "gap" in the views of businesses and Namie officials.

TEPCO's shares fell to an all-time low Tuesday covered by the maximum daily trading Grenze--about 18%--362 yen, below the previous record low of 393 Yen in 1951 reached. Share of the company has 80% of their Wertes--nearly 1.1 trillion Yen--since the Quake and tsunami, lost after the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Fujimoto said "We share prices decline very seriously," reporters.

Fujimoto said the company's annual earnings report, which was originally scheduled for April 28, would be moved, but he declined it, all other information.

Julie.Makinen@LATimes.com

Hall is a special correspondent.

View the original article here

Large piece of Air France wreckage found in the Atlantic Ocean

Dirt from the level of Air France, which fell in the year 2009 in the Atlantic Ocean is quite concentrated. This has investigators confident that the aircraft "Black boxes" are stored.

Newly found plane that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 to Paris from Rio de Janeiro is the wreck of an Air France a large and intact in the passenger jet, a French Minister said on Monday.

"This is a large part of the plain, in one piece," Transport Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, France Inter said public radio, a day after investigators announced that level was found parts which condemned to failure.

Kosciusko-Morizet said it was now the "hope for a quick search the black boxes" could be said that investigators what caused the crash, the partly due to allegedly defective speed monitors is been blamed.

The aircraft went all 228 people on Board about halfway between Senegal and Brazil 1 June 2009, in the deadliest crash in Air France to kill history.

"Carried out in the search in the sea to the team on Board last 24 hours... the (ship) Alucia located parts of the aircraft," France's Bureau of investigation and analysis (BEA) said in a statement.

"These elements have been identified by BEA investigators as part of the debris of the A330-203 level, flight AF 447", the crashed, the statement said.

BEA Director Jean-Paul Troadec said that investigators found hope have the aircraft "Black boxes", because the dirt area was relatively concentrated.

"The good news is that area is relatively concentrated debris." And this gives us hope of the "black boxes", ", he said."

TROADEC said, that the parts of the wreckage, which had been found was from "Engines and certain elements of the wing."

A new search for the wreckage on 25 March started with the help of Alucia, a ship exploration of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute-find on the fourth attempt, the debris in the hope discover what caused the crash.

The official reason remains vague, but it has partial blame for the incorrect speed sensors from Airbus was used, with Air France accused response not fast enough to reports that they may be incorrect.

The Alucia came from Seattle on the northwest coast of the United States with three Remus u-boats, which search the ocean floor.

The u-boats have photos of the ruins.

The estimated cost of the search are Air France and Airbus, which will be probed for alleged manslaughter in connection with the crash - pay$ 12.7 million.

TROADEC had previously told AFP that the latest search would try a different approach, with researchers, simply held the debris search specifically for the black boxes, or "Black box".

The latest search contain a much larger area of a 46-mile radius around the last known position of flight 447.

A third search of the sea bed to try to find the black boxes had errors in May ended.

"The determination of the location, a few days after the start of the fourth phase of the search at sea which is sponsored by Air France and Airbus, is very good news," Air France KLM CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon said.

It is hoped that enough information to explain the cause of the crash, he added.

"It can now answers to questions, the families of the victims, our company since June 1, 2009... in terms of the facts, which this tragedy led to," Gourgeon said.

The head of the French Federation, the families of the victims, Jean-Baptiste Audousset, also spoke of "Hope for the families," but the family warned would be cautious and waited for proof.

"It is key that the black boxes are found," said a spokesman for Airbus. "This the only possible way to understand what the accident is led."

View the original article here

Is Air France abandon Ocean secrets?

反序列化操作 "translate" 的响应消息的正文时出现错误。读取 XML 数据时，超出最大字符串内容长度配额 (8192) 。通过更改在创建 XML 读取器时所使用的 XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas 对象的 MaxStringContentLength 属性，可增加此配额。 第 1 行，位置为 8952。
Richard Quest: what do investigators hope to learn from wreckage of missing Air France jet?Air France flight 447 plunged into southern Atlantic Ocean killing all 228 people in 2009Investigators have not yet established what caused the airliner to crashTests on instruments measuring air speed and pressure seen as one factorExpert: search for wreck "unprecedented in terms of depth and sub-sea terrain"

(CNN) - almost of two years after Air France flight 447 plunged into the southern Atlantic Ocean killing all 228 people aboard, search teams have located what they believe to be the actual wreck site.

Investigators have not yet determined what caused the airliner - which was en route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro - to crash. Large parts of the plan, including both flight recorder, have never been found, despite an extensive search operation that included a French navy submarine.

When did flight 447 go down?

Flight 447 made its last contact with Brazil's Atlantic Control Center (ACC) at around 01: 33 GMT on June 1, 2009, informing the center of the plane's position as it crossed the Atlantic.

Minister: Bodies found 2 years after air crash

Soon after, Brazil's air control contacted Dakar's control center in North Africa and reported that AF 447 was entering an area on its route known for constant bands of severe turbulence, officials said.

There was no further contact with the plane.

Why has it taken so long to find the wreckage?

The area where the Airbus A330 went down is in the mid-Atlantic – two to four days for ships to reach from the nearest ports in Brazil or Senegal in West Africa.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates the ocean depth in the area at 3,000 meters (about 9,840 feet) to 7,500 meters (24,600 ft). Brazilian officials have said the sea depth in the area is around 2,000 to 3,000 meters (6,562 to 9,842 feet).

The latest search covered a 46-mile (75-miles) radius around the last known position of flight 447, investigators said.

According to the French Bureau d ' Enquêtes et d'analyses (BEA), the underwater terrain in this area is rough with underwater mountains and valleys.

"It is a mountain range as big as the Alps," David Lear Mount of flight international told CNN. "There is what always the possibility that the wreckage from the aircraft disappeared down a crevasse." "This is not a flat-bottom environment like the North Sea is."

"Therefore it is of unprecedented search in terms of depth and sub-sea terrain."

What would happen to the wreckage at these depths?

The aircraft's "black box" data recorder - a vital device for crash investigators which records any instructions sent to the aircraft's electronic systems - remains missing but even if it is recovered, it is not certain whether it would still work, according to Lear mount.

"Pressure and corrosion have likely damaged the wreckage, especially as it has been down there for so long." "Flight recorder are not designed to withstand pressures of the depths that this aircraft actually went to."

But he warned that flight recorder recovered from other crash sites have not worked when they should have, with the reverse so true.

Do we know why flight 447 crashed?

No. cause has been determined. Studies of the debris and bodies that were found soon after the crash led the BEA to conclude the plane hit the water belly first, essentially intact. Oxygen masks were not deployed, indicating that the cabin did not depressurize, the BEA said in a 2009 report.

Tests have already brought into question the performance of pitot tubes, which measure the pressure exerted on the plane as it flies through the air, and are part of a system used to determine air speed.

Before it crashed, flight 447 sent out 24 automated error messages that suggested the plane may have been flying too almost or too slow through the thunderstorms, officials have said.

The European Aviation Safety Agency issued a directive in late August requiring airlines to replace pitot tubes manufactured by Thales Avionics on Airbus A330s and A340s. It said airlines should replace them with other Thales tubes and those manufactured by Goodrich.

The lack of speed, wind direction or information so prevented the autopilot system from functioning, said air accident investigator Alain Bouillard said at the time of the crash. "This tells US that the plane has to be, in this case, directed by the pilot," he said.

Flight recorder are not designed to withstand pressures of the depths that this aircraft actually went to.
--David Lear mount, aviation expert

However investigators have subsequently cautioned that these factors alone would't not have been enough to cause the disaster.

What about the weather?

Flight 447 what passing through an area prone to volatile and dangerous weather known as the inter tropical convergence zone (ITCZ), when it went down. The ITCZ is a belt of low pressure that wraps around the planet. Clouds and storms form along it because it is literally where the winds of the world's hemispheres meet.

Here, air and water temperatures are typically in the mid - 80s. The warm, moist air is heated further by the blazing tropical sun. Steamy air, coming off the ocean, rises until it hits cooler, drier free DSL air aloft, forming clouds and thunderstorms.

These gigantic storms contain volatile updrafts and downdrafts that can move at speeds of 100 mph. The height of these storms so can tower to more than 10 miles in the air. Even if you stacked two dozen of the world's tallest skyscrapers on top of each other, they still wouldn't reach the tops of the biggest thunderstorms of the ITCZ.

However Lear mount pointed out that hundreds of airliners pass every day through the ITCZ without incident. "There was another Air France flight 30 minutes behind flight 447 that night and it encountered no problems," he said.

Any other theories?

According to Lear mount, many aviation experts have yet to rule out the human factor. "The crash happened at around 2 am on a dark night when the error messages suddenly appeared and the autopilot tripped out." He said the crew, possibly at their deepest circadian low at this point, suddenly have this problem and they "fixate" on it.

"This is a syndrome," he said. "There have been pilot of accidents where pilots have fixated on correcting a relatively minor problem and lose sight of the macro problem." Now we do not know that, but we do know the aircraft acted as if it what not being controlled purposefully.

"Whether it was out of control - and I doubt this - what is not being controlled it." Imagine it is 2 am and two sleepy pilots encounter a problem. They do not have much to do so they decide to troubleshoot this problem. They fixate on it and forget the autopilot has tripped.

"The airplane meanwhile goes into a lazy spiral descent - the pilots do not notice as it is all very gentle." "And when they look up they don 't believe what their instruments tell them and they get disorientated and can' t recover."

He highlighted a similar case in 2004 when pilot disorientation and loss of control caused a Flash Airlines Boeing 737-300 to crash in the Red Sea shortly after take off from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheikh. Though Egyptian authorities disputed the claim, aviation safety officials in France and the U.S. cited "spatial disorientation" as the likely cause based on evidence available, according to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

View the original article here

Japanese nuclear power plant continues to radioactive water leak in ocean - Los Angeles Times

Radioactive water still in the sea Monday after a failed attempt to the leak of the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant with an absorbent polymer, sawdust and shredded paper seal seep.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. officials think that the leak has an 8-inch crack in the concrete pit holding cables located near reactor No. 2 is been. On Monday, Tepco said, it would use a colouring agent to try to trace the path of the leak, Kyodo News reported. The levels of emissions in the pit water are millisieverts an estimated 1000 per hour, a high, but not immediately lethal dose.

Engineers planned injection nitrogen gas in reactors No. 1, 2 and 3 in an attempt to prevent that start possible explosions of the development of hydrogen gas. Explosions in the three reactors the reactor buildings badly damaged in the first four days after the magnitude 9 earthquake and associated tsunami March 11 and the cooling off pumps, the water, provided to the reactors. Government officials say, it last may, months, to fully restore the cooling systems.

Japan's official death toll from the disaster 12,000 on Sunday crowned, about 25,000 U.S. and Japanese forces intensive three-day recovery effort finished. The search is located 78 body, but more than 15,000 people are still officially as missing. Around 160,000 survivors remain in shelters.

The Japanese Red Cross and the Central Community Chest of Japan have collected more than $1 billion, but have yet to distribute cash directly to victims, and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, Sunday to urge that the process be speeded up.

A red cross spokeswoman, Miyoko Kawamura, replied that the payments would probably begin this month.

Edano also said that the Government would have once again independent experts the soil around the nuclear power plant in Fukushima test to reevaluate, whether current evacuation orders should be modified. The Government has people told to evacuate, within 12 miles of the plant and has asked to leave the residents within 18 miles or at least stay inside as much as possible.

The Government is under renewed pressure from groups, including Greenpeace, to his evacuation area, but at the same time, expand inhabitants the 12-mile limit was left looking for permission to return home briefly to collect personal belongings. Officials in recent days have not shown to move characters in both directions, and Edano said Sunday, the current job "a long time," will last even though he conceded that it "tough on people."

Edano added that the Government had reviewed the thyroid function 900 children up to the age of 15 in two villages, Iitate and Kawamata, just outside of 18 miles and showed no signs of exposure to high radiation levels. High levels of radiation were detected in the water and grass in Iitate. Edano said it was the third time that the Government had carried out tests on children in areas outside the 18-mile zone.

The Red Cross has sent more than 200 emergency relief teams to the disaster zone and thousands of volunteers for victims. Still not sold cash payments from the pot of more than 1 billion dollars collected by the Japanese Red Cross and Red Crescent societies and the Central community received chest of Japan.

In past disasters in Japan, independent panels in each prefecture have determined who receives this aid and how much. Edano proposed that this time, which must be streamlined.

"Usually donations are paid by local governments to decide, based on the conditions for the money distribution, independent committees", said Edano. "But this time the Central Government has a role to play in the establishment of an independent Committee", is figure out how to split donations.

Tomohide Atsumi, President of the Nippon Volunteer Network active in disaster, said that the Red Cross has "a policy of stock and provide a high value on equality, and it takes time to determine damage."

On the other hand he said often immediately spent donations to non-profit groups, get. Atsumi said that his organization help funds immediately after the disaster, to buy underwear and other supplies for the evacuated and a bus for volunteers to victims in the Northeast Charter used.

Overall, he said, is Japan or learn, how you balance between order and a more free-form solution in the disaster relief efforts produce. An overemphasis on organization and top-down decision-making, he said, probably more voluntary to the disaster zone prevents faster go.

"The drive be organized is very strong in our importance but people are not good at improvising socially," he said. "I want to use the metaphor of classical music and jazz." Music is our traditional disaster response as classic - it is a conductor of a large Orchestra, a fancy Hall. Disaster relief should be more like Jazz - you can something with a trumpet player, a drummer. "Must not a whole orchestra."

The size and the power of the massive tsunami are how the disaster zone has become more accessible, expert learning more about.

A group of researchers led by Yoshinobu Tsuji of the Tokyo University Earthquake Research Institute studying the tsunami affected area around Miyako, Iwate Prefecture. They found evidence that the waves could have up to 124 M, according to public NHK. You make would beat the highest waves, Japan's northeastern shore since 1896, when the tsunami waves in the Ofunato 125 meters were recorded.

"This tsunami was similar to the tsunami [1896] - and it would have been larger," Tsuji said.

Julie.Makinen@LATimes.com

Hall is a special correspondent. Times staff writer Thomas H. Maugh II in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

View the original article here

Recycling island from Ocean garbage patch

What is driven from plastic, the size of Hawaii, and wind and solar energy? Dutch architect Ramon Parmar is successful with his vision, debris recycling be built Island, plastic floating a floating, sustainable society from a collection of the Pacific Ocean.

Wide angle: Drowning in plastic

K?STER went public with his ideas for recycling island that would support their own agriculture, a community of residents and even tourists from his position somewhere between Hawaii and San Francisco, in the year 2009. His company, desire and mood is architecture, now in the process of designing a prototype of the Habitat 10,000 square kilometres with a grant from the Fund architecture Netherlands (according to the company's site).

Slide show: The Great Atlantic garbage patch

DNEWS VIDEO: WHAT IS AN OCEAN GARBAGE PATCH?

Still, K?STER estimates it will take years, once they begin plastic of the Pacific collecting, before they have enough, to merge (with solar energy) in the island, as he told CTV News. No one really has no idea how much dirt is out there. Although that tends to media, refer to the "garbage patch" as a floating Island, sometimes even contrary to say that it almost double the size of the continental United States, other sources. "The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has a thorough article on" the ' great Pacific garbage patch "De Mystifying".

Also, is that article that the rubble make found in the ocean most plastics, and recycling could island a creative solution for cleaning up and reuse some of it. Algae and compost toilets the island will make fertile, and the living arrangements are presented as urban mixed use. Because the city is float, mood of the people planning connection to the water to keep up with a channel-heavy design. It is from solar powered, and no negative effects on the environment and the remaining fully self-sustaining wave have energy, aiming.

BLOG: Senator James Eldridge describes the Pacific garbage patch

About half a million inhabitants - slightly less than the population of Baltimore - island could reside on recycling. Although I'm sure she could come with some interesting reasons for the move it (shipwreck, saw OASIS, got turned to solar agriculture?), the project itself will probably remain the economic red. Clean up only the ocean, before building begins is a gigantic task of the time, energy and costs that simply mind boggling.

You read the messages answers for more about plastic pollution in the Pacific Ocean and the ongoing saga of "garbage patch" of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation and the interview with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography PhD students, the NOAA ship went, studied the plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean.

View the original article here

Recycling island from Ocean garbage patch

What is driven from plastic, the size of Hawaii, and wind and solar energy? Dutch architect Ramon Parmar is successful with his vision, debris recycling be built Island, plastic floating a floating, sustainable society from a collection of the Pacific Ocean.

Wide angle: Drowning in plastic

K?STER went public with his ideas for recycling island that would support their own agriculture, a community of residents and even tourists from his position somewhere between Hawaii and San Francisco, in the year 2009. His company, desire and mood is architecture, now in the process of designing a prototype of the Habitat 10,000 square kilometres with a grant from the Fund architecture Netherlands (according to the company's site).

Slide show: The Great Atlantic garbage patch

DNEWS VIDEO: WHAT IS AN OCEAN GARBAGE PATCH?

Still, K?STER estimates it will take years, once they begin plastic of the Pacific collecting, before they have enough, to merge (with solar energy) in the island, as he told CTV News. No one really has no idea how much dirt is out there. Although that tends to media, refer to the "garbage patch" as a floating Island, sometimes even contrary to say that it almost double the size of the continental United States, other sources. "The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has a thorough article on" the ' great Pacific garbage patch "De Mystifying".

Also, is that article that the rubble make found in the ocean most plastics, and recycling could island a creative solution for cleaning up and reuse some of it. Algae and compost toilets the island will make fertile, and the living arrangements are presented as urban mixed use. Because the city is float, mood of the people planning connection to the water to keep up with a channel-heavy design. It is from solar powered, and no negative effects on the environment and the remaining fully self-sustaining wave have energy, aiming.

BLOG: Senator James Eldridge describes the Pacific garbage patch

About half a million inhabitants - slightly less than the population of Baltimore - island could reside on recycling. Although I'm sure she could come with some interesting reasons for the move it (shipwreck, saw OASIS, got turned to solar agriculture?), the project itself will probably remain the economic red. Clean up only the ocean, before building begins is a gigantic task of the time, energy and costs that simply mind boggling.

You read the messages answers for more about plastic pollution in the Pacific Ocean and the ongoing saga of "garbage patch" of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation and the interview with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography PhD students, the NOAA ship went, studied the plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean.

View the original article here