Australian Dust Storm Photos Suggest Fearsome 'Red Wave' Off Continent's Western Coast

An intense dust storm in Western Australia allegedly led to the creation of a "red wave" off the coast of Onslow Wednesday evening.
Officials with the country's Bureau of Meteorology told the Newcastle Herald the "red wave" spectacle was caused by a combination of wind and rain that kicked up rust-colored sand and dust into the air and forced the cloud of debris out to sea.

Photos of the fearsome storm, provided to The Huffington Post by Perth Weather Live, are so stunning some question has been raised whether or not they're even real. While there have been no official reports confirming the storm, as of Friday afternoon, no one has proven the photos are fake.
“We were steaming along in the boat just before sunset and the storm was casually building in the distance, then it got faster and faster and it went from glass to about 40 knots in two minutes,” said Brett Martin, one of the photographers on the boat, to The West Australian. "It was like a big dust storm under a thunderhead, there was a lot of lightning but not a lot of rain.”
The pictures depict a weather phenomenon similar to the haboob -- a massive cloud of dust kicked up by strong winds -- that struck Phoenix in the summer of 2011.
According to The Herald, the sun-obscuring dust was propelled by wind gusts of more than 60 mph. Despite damage the storm caused on land, however, research suggests the sediment it carried may be beneficial to sea life.
A similar storm near Sydney in 2009 triggered a bloom in phytoplankton, tiny organisms that serve as the basis for much of the ocean's food chains. ABC Science reports that in addition to the ecological health boost, researchers estimate the 2 million tons of phytoplankton triggered by the storm captured 8 million tons of CO2 from the earth's atmosphere.
This latest storm follows a barrage of natural disasters that have hit Australia recently: A scorching heat wave has prompted the addition of new colors to weather maps previously unable to display temperatures that hot; wildfires have destroyed nearly 100 homes in the southeast of the country; and a Category 3 cyclone is expected to make landfall sometime Friday.

Credit : Huffington Post

Gulf Oil Rig Explodes Off Louisiana's Coast

An oil rig exploded off the coast of Louisiana on Friday morning.
The oil-gas production platform, located south of Grand Isle, is owned by Black Elk Energy. A spokesman for the company confirmed to KHOU.com that the rig fire sent four to a hospital and two more are currently missing.
Although some reports suggest two workers are dead, a Coast Guard spokesman addressing the oil rig fire told WWLTV that there were no confirmed deaths.
Associated Press story on the oil rig explosion continues below:
Coast Guard Capt. Ed Cubanski told a news conference in New Orleans the well was not producing at the time and no oil was leaking. A small amount of oil spilled from the rig when workers using a torch cut into a 75-foot-long, 3-inch-wide line on the platform. Cubanski said a sheen one-half mile long and 200 yards wide was reported in the area.
"It's not going to be an uncontrolled discharge from everything we're getting right now," Cubanski said.
The fire had since been extinguished, said Coast Guard spokesman Drake Fore. He said Coast Guard aircraft and boats were searching for two missing people. Nobody was believed killed in the fire.
Taslin Alfonzo, spokeswoman for West Jefferson Medical Center in suburban New Orleans, said four injured workers were brought to the hospital in critical condition with second- and third-degree burns over much of their bodies. Three arrived by helicopter at 9:55 a.m. and one by helicopter at 10:10 CST.
Two were sent by ambulance to the Baton Rouge Burn Center. Two others were to be sent later. She could not release identities or any other information.
The production platform owned by Black Elk Energy is about 25 miles southeast of Grand Isle, La. The Coast Guard said 26 people were aboard the platform at the time of the explosion.

The platform is for oil production from an established well, unlike the Deepwater Horizon rig, which was drilling an exploratory well for oil giant BP in mile-deep water when it blew up and triggered a massive oil spill in 2010. That site is well to the east of Friday's explosion.
Cubanski said the platform appeared to be structurally sound. After the April 2010 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon, that rig burned for about 36 hours before suffering structural collapse and sinking to the Gulf floor.
The Black Elk platform is in 56 feet of water. Cubanski said 28 gallons of oil were in the broken line.
The Coast Guard got the call about the fire at 8:42 a.m. CST.
A federal official in Washington said a team of environmental enforcement inspectors was flying to the scene.
David Smith, a spokesman for the Interior Department's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, said the team was dispatched from a Gulf Coast base by helicopter soon after the Coast Guard was notified of the emergency. Smith said the team would scan for any evidence of oil spilling and investigate the cause of the explosion.
Black Elk is an independent oil and gas company headquartered in Houston, Texas.
The company's website says it holds interests in properties in Texas and Louisiana waters, including 854 wells on 155 platforms.

Credit : Huffington Post