On January 27, 1967, tragedy struck the space race, as the AS-204 mission (better known by its later name of Apollo 1) suffered a malfunction during a training exercise on the launch pad, causing a fire that ultimately killed all three crew members onboard. The deaths of Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee prompted NASA to completely redesign its command modules, delaying any further missions. Nearly 21 months later, Apollo 7 became the next manned mission to completed and launched.
Big Tokyo Earthquake Likely within the Next Few Years
A big earthquake is much more likely to hit the Japanese capital, Tokyo, in the next few years than the government has predicted, researchers say.
The team, from the University of Tokyo, said there was a 75% probability that a magnitude 7 quake would strike the region in the next four years, while the government states that the chances of such an event are 70% in the next 30 years.
The warning comes less than a year after a massive earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan’s north-eastern coast. Yet, the last time Tokyo was hit by a big earthquake was in 1923, when a 7.9 magnitude quake killed more than 100,000 people, many of them in fires.
Researchers at the University of Tokyo’s earthquake research institute based their figures on data from the growing number of tremors in the capital since the 11 March 2011 quake. They say that compared with normal years, there has been a five-fold increase in the number of quakes in the Tokyo metropolitan area since the March disaster.
Costa Concordia: An Ecological Disaster?
Even as the search continues for any further survivors of the Costa Concordia accident, questions are being asked about the potential environmental impact.
We have a big ship with tanks full of fuel, aground on an island in a sea fringed with natural protected areas. So the worst case scenario is pretty bad.
Elena Moutier, a scientific consultant working at the park, told BBC News that an oil spill there would be a disaster. ”The Maremma Park is one of the most important regional parks in Italy, for the landscape, the ecosystem and the richness in endemic species of plants and animals,” she said.
However, all of this is in the realms of the potential, not the actual. As far as we are aware- and sources including the salvage company Smit and environmental group WWF concur- there has been no fuel spillage so far.
The big risk in the meantime would be if the vessel began breaking up. However, during a news conference on Tuesday morning, contractors were optimistic that it would not.
A map of the protected areas surrounding the location of the shipwreck:
I know most everyone is sick of hearing about this horrifying Costa Concordia capsize, but as the death toll was officially raised to 11 earlier today, I wanted to share this image.
On Monday, the shipping newspaper Lloyd’s List said it had been able to trace the course of the Costa Concordia though information from satellites.
The paper issued a graphic comparing Friday’s sailing with an earlier sailing by the vessel, suggesting that Friday’s route had deviated far from its usual course.
What could possibly be the reasoning behind this specific and drastic deviation from the usual course?
