Nuclear TestingThe U.S. Department of Energy conducted...

Nuclear Testing

The U.S. Department of Energy conducted a series of underground explosions involving radioactive plutonium, but the force of the blasts was not great enough to cause a thermonuclear reaction. The agency says that these “subcritical” tests do not violate the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, but opponents of the blasts believe they could undermine the spirit of the agreement and provoke other countries into conducting similar experiments. The first test was code-named Stagecoach. It involved 225 pounds of high explosives detonating against five packages of plutonium in a sealed chamber 960 feet below ground at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico

Bengal Storms

At least 200 people were killed and thousands of others injured when a tornado ripped through 10 villages in eastern India’s West Bengal and Orissa states. Thirty-five of the victims were children who were studying when the storm destroyed their classrooms. The death toll across the region was expected to rise, and relief crews were sent to heavily damaged communities.

El Nino Time

Scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced that a faster-moving atmosphere caused by El Nino has affected the Earth’s rotation, making the days longer than normal. February 5th was said to be the longest day--about 0.6 milliseconds longer than usual. The cumulative increase of the Earth’s day reached about a tenth of a second earlier this year, but subsequent increase in the rotation has brought it back to very close to normal. The complete rotation of the planet is now only approximately 0.4 milliseconds longer than the usual 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.09053 seconds.

Deadly Smoke

Wildfire on the island of Borneo produced a massive cloud of smoke that caused almost 300 cases of pneumonia. At least two people died from the pollution, and pedestrians have returned to the practice of wearing face-masks. Wildlife on the island is also being hit hard.

Earthquakes

The most powerful earthquake of the year struck the remote and uninhabited Balleny Islands region south of New Zealand, prompting officials to issue tsunami alerts for a wide area of the South Pacific. Remote buoys and coastal observations later detected no significant rise in ocean level.

Earth movements were also felt in northern New Zealand, Indonesia’ Banda Sea region, eastern Japan, northern Afghanistan and central Italy.

Madagascar Swarms

The worst infestation of African migratory locusts in 40 years on the island of Madagascar threatens to devour the Malagasy Republic’ rice crops. The swarms cover an estimated 24 million acres in the south of the country, and U.N. experts fear that a shift in prevailing winds next month may push the insects northward toward the fertile central plateau. Aerial application of pesticide is being conducted while farmers spray their fields by hand in a desperate attempt to save their crops.