Quake Interactive

Japan Earthquake: Major Tsunami Damage - FoxNews.com
This interactive page gives you the latest news, information about how nuclear reactors work, forces of nature like earthquakes and tsunamis, and historic earthquakes. I especially like the animation that shows the nuclear reactor under "Nuclear Concerns".
A word of correction: If you look at the "strongest earthquakes", the graphic mislabels the 1960 Chile earthquake (9.5) and the 1964 Alaska earthquake (9.2). They're switched. Remember your geography. You know where Chile and Alaska are.

Coal-Powered Power Plant is in the News

Is power plant to blame for poor pecan crop?
Austin gets much of its electricity from the Fayette Power Plant, southeast of Austin. It burns coal, so it produces sulfur dioxide, a polluting gas. The amount of pollution it produces is under legal limits, but some people think it still is enough to harm crops in the area. Experts disagree, and this shows how it takes a lot of scientific study to come to find out the truth. There aren't any easy answers.

Oil Leak Stopped...

BP caps well; oil stops gushing into Gulf
It's been a while since my last blog entry. Summer's been busy!
Oil has been spilling into the Gulf for about three months now, and the well has finally been capped. We'll be watching over the next two days to see if the cap will hold.

NY Times Multimedia Oil Spill Coverage

Multimedia - Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Multimedia - Multimedia Feature - NYTimes.com
There's lots to look at here about the current oil spill: How it's spreading, How it happened, Efforts to stop and contain it, and more.

Oil Spill Is Growing in the Gulf

See how the oil spill grows in the Gulf of Mexico - USATODAY.com
The Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20 and has been spilling at least 210,000 gallons a day since then. Efforts to stop it haven't worked so far. This page from USA shows where the oil is and how it's spreading

For more information, try:
NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

Ecoregions in Biomes

 
National Geographic Wild World (Online Conservation Atlas)
If you want to explore all the ecological areas within the biomes of the world, this is the place. The National Geographic Society and World Wildlife Fund have teamed up to describe all the eco-regions of the world. You can spend hours clicking and traveling by the web all over the world. What eco-region do you live in?

Climate Change Can Be Good for Some Species!

FOR KIDS: A Global Warming Flap - Science News
If you're a butterfly, at least if you're a small heath or a common blue butterfly in Europe, you hope the climate really IS warming up. Over the last 30 years, the average temperature in central Europe is up 1.5 degrees. That's not much, but it makes for a longer breeding season for these butterflies. That's good for them!