- 4355 - EARTH - what happened in 2023? Here are some of the most significant events about planet Earth with climate change continuing to affect our planet and mitigating measures. Broken records, unparalleled weather disasters and some concerning studies have made the headlines in year 2023.
------------------- 4355 - EARTH - what happened in 2023?
- HOTTEST SUMMER ON RECORD. The summer of 2023 was the hottest summer
since records began in 1880. Global warming, fueled by rising concentrations of
greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere, received an extra boost this year from
El Niño, a climate pattern that affects the distribution of warm seawater in
the Pacific Ocean and thus the precipitation and temperatures all over the
world.
-
- Globally, August was 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit
warmer than average for August, and, the period between June and August was
0.41 F warmer than the average of all
previous summers on record.
-
- DEVASTATING MAUI WILDFIRE. The town of Lahaina on Hawaii's Maui island
has turned into a scorched scene of destruction. One of the most shocking wildfires of the
2023 Northern Hemisphere summer was the one that virtually erased the town of
Lahaina, on Maui, Hawaii.
-
- The blaze, which erupted on the
drought-stricken island in the second week of August, spread at an
unprecedented speed, fanned by winds from the passing Hurricane Dora. Nearly
100 people died in the inferno, and thousands of buildings turned to ash,
including Lahaina's Old Courthouse and an early-19th-century church.
-
- RETURN OF EL NIÑO. The warming El Niño climate pattern
developed in the Pacific Ocean this year after seven cooler years, adding more
fuel to Earth's warming ecosystem, which is already plagued by extreme weather
events.
-
- El Niño usually lasts about nine to 12
months and alternates with the cooling pattern called La Niña. Meteorologists
declare El Niño conditions when sea temperatures in the tropical eastern
Pacific rise by 0.9 F above the long-term average.
-
- RECORD-LOW SEA ICE EXTENT IN
ANTARCTICA. For many years, Antarctica
seemed to hold quite steady against progressing climate change. But 2023 showed
that the southern polar ice cap is not immune to the effects of rising
temperatures. Satellites flying over Antarctica during the peak of the
Antarctic summer in late 2022 and early 2023 showed that the extent of floating
sea ice surrounding the continent had shrunk to an all-time low.
-
- In February, only 66% of the area usually
covered with sea ice in that part of the year was frozen over. As Antarctica
moved toward its autumn and then winter months, the sea ice failed to replenish
to its usual level. In September, just after the peak of the southern winter,
researchers reported a record-low maximum annual sea ice extent.
-
- SMOKE FROM CANADIAN WILDFIRES. Smoke from widespread wildfires in eastern
Canada delivered an unpleasant surprise to inhabitants of the U.S. East Coast
in June. For a few days, New York and
Philadelphia topped the list of the world's most polluted cities, which is
usually dominated by Asian metropolises.
-
- The ash particles suspended in the air
produced beautiful very toxic sunsets, which residents were recommended to
enjoy only from behind closed windows. The smoke plumes had been funneled from
the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Nova Scotia by a low-pressure system that
produced steady southeasterly winds.
-
- The smog was so thick that it obscured the
view of Earth-observing satellites imaging the planet from hundreds of miles
above.
-
- CHANGES TO THE TILT OF EARTH'S AXIS. The Earth's tilt has changed because of the
amount of groundwater pumped by humans.
The extraction of groundwater between 1993 and 2010 caused a 31.5-inch
shift in the axis's angle toward the plane in which the planet orbits. In that
period, humans pumped out 2,150 gigatons of water from within the planet's
crust. If such an amount were poured into the global ocean, its surface would
rise by 0.24 inch.
-
- Scientists have known since 2016 that
processes related to climate change, such as the thawing of icebergs, affect
Earth's tilt, but it wasn't until they added the pumped-out water into their
equations that the math matched the observations.
-
- A BRAND-NEW ISLAND. A new island formed off the coast of Japan in
October after an undersea volcano erupted near the island of Iwo Jima some 750
miles south of Tokyo. The eruption hurled chunks of rock as large as 160
feet into the air. These fragments
eventually piled together, creating the new island, which, at 330 feet wide,
can be clearly seen in satellite images. This new island is embedded in
volcanic pumice about a mile from Iwo Jima's coast. -
-
- GIANT CRACK IN EARTH'S CRUST. The
devastating earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria in early February opened a
190-mile-long fissure in Earth's crust, which can be detected by satellites
from space. Such ruptures, caused by the movement of tectonic plates, are
common after powerful temblors. But the one opened by the two 7.8 and 7.5
magnitude quakes, which hit the region in quick succession in the early hours
of February 6, stands out.
-
- The crack's length is a testament to the
enormous amount of energy the
earthquakes unleashed as they destroyed towns and villages in an area
the size of Germany. The earthquakes, the deadliest in Turkish history, killed
nearly 60,000 people in Turkey and over 8,000 in Syria, and left about 1.5
million people homeless.
-
- WORLD'S-LARGEST ICEBERG ON THE MOVE. A European satellite captured images showing
that the world's largest iceberg had broken loose from the coast of Antarctica
and is drifting eastward along the frozen continent's coast. The
1,500-square-mile iceberg, called “A23a”, separated from Antarctica's “Filchner
Ice Shelf” in 1986 but remained stuck at the bottom of the “Weddell Sea” for
nearly four decades.
-
- Scientists don't know what set the iceberg
adrift, but they think it may have thinned due to thawing and become lighter
and, therefore, more buoyant. Using satellites, researchers can track the
iceberg's progress and observe as it moves at about 3 miles per day, carried by
strong winds and ocean currents. “A23a” weighs nearly a trillion tons and is
roughly three times the size of New York City.
-
-
February 12, 2024 EARTH
- what happened in 2023? 4353
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--------------------- --- Thursday, February 15,
2024
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