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Yellowstone shakes
JAMES SCHWABEL/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
UPFRONT
Yellowstone shakes IT’S shaking so much, it could be renamed Jellystone. Since 12 June, about 1400 quakes – most of them tiny – have been recorded in Yellowstone National Park in the western US. The earthquake “swarm” is occurring in the Hebgen Lake area. In 1959, a major quake in this region killed 28 people. But geologists monitoring the activity don’t think another big one is on the cards. “Usually, you don’t get swarms before a big quake like that, and it’s too soon after the 1959 quake for enough strain to build up for a repeat,” says Jacob Lowenstern of the US Geological Survey in California, who heads the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. “You’d be looking at the order of 200 years or so for
enough strain to accumulate.” “This is a large swarm but it is not the largest swarm we’ve recorded in Yellowstone,” says Jamie Farrell at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. “Earthquake swarms are fairly common in Yellowstone.” What’s more, the chances of significant activity associated with the Yellowstone supervolcano are slim, says Farrell. “There is no indication that this swarm is related to magma moving through the shallow crust,” he says. “The bottom line is that visitors should definitely not be worried about an impending volcanic eruption of the Yellowstone volcanic system.” Lowenstern says the swarm is still active at a low level. “It could go on for another month.”
Blood donation
three months is long enough for an infection to become detectable in the blood. For the same reasons, sex workers – previously banned from giving blood – will be able to do so three months after their last sex act, as will people who have had sex with a partner at high risk of contracting HIV. “This means we in the UK have a world-leading blood donation policy, based on the latest scientific evidence, and we hope other countries follow suit,” says Alex Phillips of UK HIV charity the Terrence Higgins Trust.
–All shook up–
Ocean parks diluted
where tuna and sharks thrive. Frydenberg is proposing cutting the no-fishing areas of the marine park by 53 per cent “ to enable a continued Australian tuna fishing industry based out of northern Queensland”. But commercial fishing could have profound knock-on effects, says Darren Kindleysides at the Australian Marine Conservation Society. “The Coral Sea is the cradle of the Great Barrier Reef – it replenishes it with new life,” he says. “It makes no sense to cut protections when the reef is already under pressure.”
AUSTRALIA wants to allow commercial fishing in 80 per cent of its marine reserves, up from 64 per cent at present. If environment minister Josh Frydenberg wins approval for his
proposal, announced last week, Australia will become the first country to scale back its ocean protection measures. Marine parks make up 36 per cent of Australian waters, forming areas closed to oil and gas exploration and with restrictions on commercial fishing. Under the proposed changes, one of the hardest-hit reserves will be the Coral Sea marine park adjoining the Great Barrier Reef off Queensland. Strict regulations apply in this zone of 1 million square kilometres – including a fishing ban in half the area – because it is one of the few regions in the world 4 | NewScientist | 29 July 2017
TEPCO
“It makes no sense to cut protections when the Great Barrier Reef is already under pressure”
ENGLAND and Scotland are to ease their rules on blood donation for gay men and sex workers. Since 2011, men who have sex with men have been allowed to give blood, but only after a period of 12 months without sexual activity. This is now set to be reduced to just three months. All donated blood in the UK is checked for HIV and hepatitis B and C. A review of scientific evidence found that, thanks to more reliable screening tests,
Meltdown glimpsed A SUBMERSIBLE robot has spotted what could be melted nuclear fuel in Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi power plant. Following the magnitude 9 Tohoku earthquake in March 2011, a tsunami damaged emergency generators that would have provided power to keep the plant’s reactors cool. This failure led to nuclear meltdowns and explosions that damaged the –A nightmare view of failure– reactors’ containment systems.
UPFRONT
Yellowstone shakes IT’S shaking so much, it could be renamed Jellystone. Since 12 June, about 1400 quakes – most of them tiny – have been recorded in Yellowstone National Park in the western US. The earthquake “swarm” is occurring in the Hebgen Lake area. In 1959, a major quake in this region killed 28 people. But geologists monitoring the activity don’t think another big one is on the cards. “Usually, you don’t get swarms before a big quake like that, and it’s too soon after the 1959 quake for enough strain to build up for a repeat,” says Jacob Lowenstern of the US Geological Survey in California, who heads the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. “You’d be looking at the order of 200 years or so for
enough strain to accumulate.” “This is a large swarm but it is not the largest swarm we’ve recorded in Yellowstone,” says Jamie Farrell at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. “Earthquake swarms are fairly common in Yellowstone.” What’s more, the chances of significant activity associated with the Yellowstone supervolcano are slim, says Farrell. “There is no indication that this swarm is related to magma moving through the shallow crust,” he says. “The bottom line is that visitors should definitely not be worried about an impending volcanic eruption of the Yellowstone volcanic system.” Lowenstern says the swarm is still active at a low level. “It could go on for another month.”
Blood donation
three months is long enough for an infection to become detectable in the blood. For the same reasons, sex workers – previously banned from giving blood – will be able to do so three months after their last sex act, as will people who have had sex with a partner at high risk of contracting HIV. “This means we in the UK have a world-leading blood donation policy, based on the latest scientific evidence, and we hope other countries follow suit,” says Alex Phillips of UK HIV charity the Terrence Higgins Trust.
–All shook up–
Ocean parks diluted
where tuna and sharks thrive. Frydenberg is proposing cutting the no-fishing areas of the marine park by 53 per cent “ to enable a continued Australian tuna fishing industry based out of northern Queensland”. But commercial fishing could have profound knock-on effects, says Darren Kindleysides at the Australian Marine Conservation Society. “The Coral Sea is the cradle of the Great Barrier Reef – it replenishes it with new life,” he says. “It makes no sense to cut protections when the reef is already under pressure.”
AUSTRALIA wants to allow commercial fishing in 80 per cent of its marine reserves, up from 64 per cent at present. If environment minister Josh Frydenberg wins approval for his
proposal, announced last week, Australia will become the first country to scale back its ocean protection measures. Marine parks make up 36 per cent of Australian waters, forming areas closed to oil and gas exploration and with restrictions on commercial fishing. Under the proposed changes, one of the hardest-hit reserves will be the Coral Sea marine park adjoining the Great Barrier Reef off Queensland. Strict regulations apply in this zone of 1 million square kilometres – including a fishing ban in half the area – because it is one of the few regions in the world 4 | NewScientist | 29 July 2017
TEPCO
“It makes no sense to cut protections when the Great Barrier Reef is already under pressure”
ENGLAND and Scotland are to ease their rules on blood donation for gay men and sex workers. Since 2011, men who have sex with men have been allowed to give blood, but only after a period of 12 months without sexual activity. This is now set to be reduced to just three months. All donated blood in the UK is checked for HIV and hepatitis B and C. A review of scientific evidence found that, thanks to more reliable screening tests,
Meltdown glimpsed A SUBMERSIBLE robot has spotted what could be melted nuclear fuel in Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi power plant. Following the magnitude 9 Tohoku earthquake in March 2011, a tsunami damaged emergency generators that would have provided power to keep the plant’s reactors cool. This failure led to nuclear meltdowns and explosions that damaged the –A nightmare view of failure– reactors’ containment systems.