Drifting apart: Amazing underwater photos that show the growing gap between two tectonic plates

Swimming through an area of extreme natural beauty, this diver surveys the underwater canyons on his either side.

But this British scuba diver is actually between two tectonic plates.

Alex Mustard, 36, dived 80ft into the crevice between the North American and Eurasian plates near Iceland to capture these spectacular photos.

Mr Mustard snapped away as he and his dive partners swam through fresh water canyons Silfra, Nes and Nikulasargja, which are up to 200ft deep.

He also took photos of the Arnarnes Strytur chimney, which forms a cloudy plume as 80C water is ejected from Earth's crust and hits the cool 4C seawater.

Mr Mustard, from Southampton, said: 'The photos show diving in the unique underwater world of Iceland which, like on land, is formed by the volcanic landscape of the country.

'Many people visit Iceland to see these features on land but they also continue underwater.

'For a scuba diver these are spectacular places to visit - being able to fly through the clear water and explore the fault lines in three dimensions.

'I have dived all around the world and this is almost certainly the clearest water I have ever been in.

'Many people have an experience of vertigo from the sheer walls and clear water.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1385589/The-growing-gap-Eurasia-North-American-tectonic-plates.html#ixzz1M41jGd9D

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Rich Russians Buy Bunkers on Apocalypse Angst

Terrorism can be good for bunker builders. An apocalypse can be even better for business.

Danila Andreyev started building “panic rooms” three years ago, when fears of terrorist attacks and commercial disputes turning violent created demand in Russia. Now he’s selling “survival bunkers” for as much as $400,000 each to capitalize on angst over theories the world will end next year.

“I myself am not a believer in doomsday scenarios,” Andreyev, 31, whose Spetsgeoproekt company is completing 15 bunkers at hidden locations across Russia, said at his office in central Moscow. “But when you start hearing clients talking about the end of the world, it gets you thinking.”

While Russia has been a target for terrorists, with 37 people dying in a blast at Moscow’s busiest airport in January, more people are looking to protect themselves from what Andreyev calls a “global cataclysm” in 2012 based on predictions such as interpretations of the ancient Mayan calendar.

Northwest Shelter Systems, a company based in Sandpoint, Idaho, that specializes in nuclear bomb shelters, has seen the number of inquiries from potential customers rise as much as 60 percent since the March tsunami and earthquake in Japan, Allen Thompson, vice president, said by e-mail.

The Vivos Group, a California-based bunker builder with a website that features a meteor striking Earth, said requests for a shelter in one of its facilities jumped by 10 times since the disaster, which left about 25,000 people dead or missing.
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“Hundreds of applications” come from Russia and other former Soviet states, Vivos founder Robert Vicino said by e- mail. The nearest Vivos shelter is at an unidentified location in centralEurope, he said. It costs about $25,000 per person.

“Every person has a different belief or sense of what may be ahead for all of us,” Vicino said. “Vivos is not about 2012, but having a life assurance solution for our families for whenever disaster strikes.”

Vivos is building facilities in the U.S. and elsewhere. It said in January it was considering buying a two-story bunker constructed for the U.K. government in 1990 in rural Scotland.

Spetsgeoproekt, which stands for Special Geological Projects, plans to open a showroom in the affluent Moscow neighborhood of Rublevka this year and is expanding into Russia’s regions, Andreyev said.

The company’s bunkers range from 35 to 90 square meters (377 to 969 square feet). Maintaining the unit, including the air system, runs about $2,500 a year, he said.
MORE:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-12/apocalypse-angst-adds-to-terrorist-threat-as-rich-russians-acquire-bunkers.html

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IDF: Unrest along Israel's northern borders bears Iran's 'fingerprints'

The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday accused Iran of orchestrating two waves of fighting along its northern borders, as Palestinian protesters tried to infiltrate from Syria and Lebanon during demonstrations to mark Nakba Day, which commemorates the "catastrophe" of the creation of the State of Israel.

At least eight people were reportedly killed on the two frontiers, when IDF troops opened fire on masses of protesters attempting to infiltrate into Israel. The protests, IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai said, bore Iran's "fingerprints."

"We are seeing here an Iranian provocation, on both the Syrian and the Lebanese frontiers, to try to exploit the Nakba day commemorations," he said.

The IDF confirmed opening fire as scores of Palestinian refugees spilled into the town of Majdal Shams, which runs along Israel's border with Syria. At least four people, apparently Palestinian refugees, were killedt.

Mordechai also confirmed that the IDF fired at a crowd of Lebanese protesters who approached the border with Israel and began vandalizing the fence. The spokesman had no details on the number of casualties, but Lebanese sources said there had been four fatalities.

Syria is home to 470,000 Palestinian refugees and its leadership, now facing fierce internal unrest, had in previous years prevented protesters from reaching the frontier fence.

"This appears to be a cynical and transparent act by the Syrian leadership to deliberately create a crisis on the border so as to distract attention from the very real problems that
regime is facing at home," said a senior Israeli government official who declined to be named.




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IDF worried border protests just beginning

Demonstrations and violence in North likely just the promo for what can be expected in September ahead of Palestinian statehood declaration.

The successful infiltration on Sunday by a group of just under 100 Syrians into the Druse village of Majdal Shams on the Golan is being viewed by the IDF as just the beginning.

As demonstrations like these gain momentum ahead of the planned declaration of statehood by the Palestinians in September, this type of protest could become a common occurrence along Israel’s various borders.

On Sunday, the IDF dealt with four simultaneous fronts – Syria, Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. While all expectations were for extreme violence in the West Bank – units that were training on the Golan Heights were transferred as reinforcements to the WestBank last week – it turned out to be the quietest of the four.

The surprise was Syria. While the IDF was aware of the demonstrations that were scheduled for the border area opposite Majdal Shams – known as the “Shouting Hill” since relatives shout to each other across the border – it did not expect it to be any different than in past years.

This was a mistake, since the Northern Command did not take into account the current instability in Syria and embattled President Bashar Assad’s possible interest in turning the spotlight away from his violent crackdown on his own people to Israel.

According to senior IDF officers, Assad’s regime quietly encouraged the demonstrators to infiltrate Israel, possibly with the hope that the IDF would shoot indiscriminately, kill dozens of people and shift the world’s and the Syrian people’s focus from his ruthlessness to Israel.

“Thankfully, this did not happen, thanks to responsible action by commanders on the ground,” one senior IDF officer said.

There is also concern in the IDF that global Jihad groups which operate in Syria will takeadvantage of the lawlessness on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights – made clear by the demonstrators’ ability to cross into Israel without being stopped by the Syrian military – to attack Israel. Some of these groups are believed to have an arsenal of short-rangeKatyusha rockets that could be used to fire into Israel.

The protesters who rammed the border appeared to have mostly been Palestinian refugees who live in camps near Damascus. It is difficult to imagine that they could have traveled to the border in such numbers without the regime either approving the demonstration or at the very least turning a blind eye to it.

In the short term, the IDF will need to launch a probe to discover where it went wrong, not just in its assessments but mostly operationally to determine how 100 or so foreign nationals succeeded in breaching a border and entering sovereign Israeli territory. In the long term, the concern within the IDF is that these types of civil disturbances and so-called border protests will become routine.

Jerusalem Post

MORE:
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=220705

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Gold could hit $2000: Deutsche Bank

Gold, which reached a record $1,577.57 an ounce on May 2, may surge a further 30 percent by January as investors seek to protect themselves from “economic uncertainty,” according to Deutsche Bank AG.

“I’m bullish on gold despite its current levels,” Hal Lehr, Deutsche Bank’s managing director for cross-commodity trading, said in an interview in Buenos Aires. “It could reach $2,000 dollar an ounce in the next eight months.”

Investors including George Soros and John Paulson invested in gold as the metal surged over the past year amid a sovereign debt crisis in Europe, economic turmoil in the U.S. and civil unrest in the Middle East. This month‘s record was a sixfold gain since the precious metal’s low in August 1999.

Gold fell 1.6 percent on May 4 after the Wall Street Journal reported that Soros Fund Management LLC sold precious-metal assets. Soros’ fund held shares in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest exchange-traded product backed by gold, and the iShares Gold Trust at the end of 2010, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings show.

Gold rose for a third day in New York today as concern about Europe’s debt woes spurred demand for precious metals as a protection of wealth. Standard & Poor’s yesterday downgraded Greece’s credit rating for the fourth time since April 2010. Gold for June delivery rose $6.10, or 0.41 percent, to $1,509.3 an ounce at 9:03 a.m. on the Comex in New York.

Bullion rose for six consecutive weeks through April 29 as the metal is seen as a hedge against inflation around the globe. Central banks in China, India and the European Union, among others, have increased interest rates in recent weeks as policymakers seek to control consumer prices with tighter monetary policy.

The U.S. Federal Reserve has kept the benchmark rate between zero percent and 0.25 percent since December 2008 and pledged to purchase $600 billion in Treasuries through June to stimulate the economy. Standard & Poor’s earlier last month revised its debt outlook for the U.S. to negative from stable.

The U.S. Treasury Department projects the government could reach its debt ceiling limit of $14.3 trillion as soon as mid- May and run out of options for avoiding default by early July.

Lehr’s so-called cross-commodity team was created by Deutsche last year to handle large investments in commodities without distorting prices with sudden inflows of cash, he said. The team focuses on investment opportunities in a portfolio of commodities, as opposed to looking at individual commodities.

Lehr declined to offer a breakdown of all the commodities that form his portfolio, though he said he’s also bullish on corn, which has risen 92 percent in the past 12 months.

“I believe that over the next two to three years we will continue to see price levels in the $700 range although I believe the prices for this July crop will rise to over $800,” he said. “Corn crops are obviously very weather dependent and now that ethanol and biodiesel have become so important, we see strong price support for corn from bio-diesel and ethanol.”
Financial Post


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