#prakash mathema

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Spotted owlets perch on a tree branch in Kathmandu, Nepal

Photograph: Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images

#prakash mathema #photographer #afp via getty images #spotted owlets #owls #bird photography #tree branch #kathmandu #nepal #nature

[sheltiechicago]

Bhaktapur, Nepal

Hindu devotees participate in a religious procession during the month-long Madhav Narayan festival

Photograph: Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images

#prakash mathema #photographer #afp via getty images #bhaktapur #nepal #culture #hinduism #religion #madhav narayan festival #religious procession

[divinum-pacis]

March 2024: Bhaktapur, Nepal Dancers await their turn during the Nawa Durga Nach Hindu festival on the outskirts of Kathmandu Photograph: Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images

#religion #hinduism #hindus #people #nepal #divinum-pacis

[projectourworld]

Spotted owlets perch on a tree branch in Kathmandu, Nepal. Photograph: Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images. Guardian Wildlife Pictures #owlets #kathmandu #nepal #craftedbynature

[xtruss]

A snow leopard, slowly bouncing back in numbers thanks to the introduction of more sustainable grazing methods and training of herders as conservation guards, looks into a remote camera in Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬. Photograph: United Nations Environment Programme/Reuters

Whooper swans are seen during a snowfall at Rongcheng swan national nature reserve in Shandong province, China 🇨🇳! Photograph: VCG/Getty Images

A few scraps of food attract a buzzard and a red kite and the two tangle for the food in Aberystwyth, UK 🇬🇧. Neither bird was hurt. Photograph: Philip Jones/Alamy Live News

A dog feeds her puppies during snowfall in Turkey 🇹🇷. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

A European robin fluffs up his feathers to try to keep warm while perching on a twig on a cold afternoon by the woods in Clayfield Copse, Berkshire, UK 🇬🇧. Photograph: Geoffrey Swaine/Rex/Shutterstock

Migratory birds fly at sunset over Hongze Lake wetland scenic area in Sihong County, China 🇨🇳. Photograph: VCG/Getty Images

A saiga cares for her two calves in Kazakhstan 🇰🇿. The critically endangered saiga antelope is mainly found in Central Asia. Photograph: Daniel Rosengren/RSPB/Reuters

A cormorant catches a fish in the waters of Taudaha Lake on the outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal 🇳🇵. Photograph: Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images

Swans glide through a wintry landscape in Bennekom, Netherlands 🇳🇱. Photograph: Hollandse Hoogte/REX/Shutterstock

Hares by 14-year-old Thomas Easterbrook from Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, winner of the portfolio category in the RSPCA Young Photographer Awards 2022. Photograph: Thomas Easterbrook/RSPCA/PA

[dudewhoabides]

A mud-covered farmer plays in a rice paddy field during National Paddy Day, which marks the start of the annual rice planting season, in Tokha village on the outskirts of Kathmandu on June 29, 2022.

Photographer: Prakash Mathema

[brthrx]

The summer from hell was just a warning

Wildfires, hurricanes, floods, extreme heat and other climate disasters rocked the globe this summer as climate change worsens record-breaking extreme weather events. | Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images (man); Matthew Thayer/Maui News via AP (fire); Julio Cortez/AP Photo (D.C. smoke) It’s been a summer of norm-shattering extremes — with temperatures beyond human memory, catastrophic floods from…

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[arun-pratap-singh]

Nepali hospitals return bodies from air crash to grieving families

Family members and relatives of victims who died in a Yeti Airlines plane crash, weep outside a hospital in Pokhara on January 16, 2023. (Photo by Prakash MATHEMA / AFP) by Sagar GHIMIREAgence France-Presse POKHARA, Nepal (AFP) — Nepali hospital staff began the grim task of handing over bodies to grieving families on Tuesday after a plane with 72 people on board crashed, the country’s worst…

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[bouxmounir]

Accident d'avion au Népal : 21 corps retrouvés, un disparu - 30/05/2022 à 17:21

Accident d’avion au Népal : 21 corps retrouvés, un disparu – 30/05/2022 à 17:21

Proximité de passagers d’un avion écrasé dans l’Himalaya, en état d’alerte, le 30 mai 2022 à l’aéroport de Pokhara, au Népal (AFP/PRAKASH MATHEMA) Vingt-deux corps ont été retrouvés en route vers une montagne de l’Himalaya au Népal, où un avion avec 22 personnes à bord a été abattu dimanche, a annoncé lundi l’armée. “Des corps du Vingt-et-un ont été récupérés et des équipes sont à la recherche…

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#actions CAC 40 #Bourse #Bourse de Paris #Boursorama #citations #indices conçoit #investir #investissement #mandats #SICAV #traqueurs

[agelessphotography]

A Hindu performs a ritual covered by 108 lit oil lamps on the 10th day of the Dashain festival in Bhaktapur, Kathmandu, Nepal, Prakash Mathema, 2019

#photography #prakash mathema #2010s #nepal #photojournalism #color photography #hinduism #dashain #kathmandu #bhaktapur #2019

[hinducosmos]

Stolen Nepali Statue Returns to Its Temple After Decades in Us

A centuries-old sculpture of two Hindu gods was re-installed at its temple in the Nepali capital Kathmandu on Saturday, nearly 40 years after it was stolen and later emerged in the United States.

The stone statue of the gods Laxmi and Narayan was repatriated to Nepal in March by the Dallas Museum of Art and the FBI after a months-long investigation by Nepali and American activists and officials.

It was taken from the temple in 1984 and appeared on display at the Dallas museum six years later, on loan from a collector.

📷 Devotees carry the sculpture in a palanquin, in Patan on the outskirts of Kathmandu (AFP/PRAKASH MATHEMA) (via Yahoo News)

#Ardhanari #Vaikuntha Kamalaja #Vishnu #Lakshmi #temple murti #sculpture #hindu #hinduism #Nepal

[sitting-on-me-bum]

A spotted owlet takes a rest in a hole in a wall in Kathmandu.

PRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP via Getty Images

#prakash mathema #photographer #afp via getty images #spotted owl #kathmandu #nature #owl

[ecoamerica]

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

#ACLA24 #ACLA24Leaders #youtube #youtube video #climate leaders #climate solutions #climate action #climate and environment #climate #climate change #climate and health #climate blog #climate justice #climate news #weather and climate #environmental news #environment #environmental awareness #environment and health #environmental #environmental issues #environmental justice #environment protection #environmental health #Youtube

[sheltiechicago]

Kathmandu, Nepal

A woman hangs red chillies to dry outside her house in Khokana village

Photograph: Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images

#prakash mathema #afp via getty images #kathmandu #nepal #culture #travel photography #red chillies #khokana village

[divinum-pacis]

March 8, 2024: Kathmandu, Nepal Young Hindus look at the Pashupatinath temple during the Maha Shivaratri, an annual festival dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva Photograph: Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images

#religion #hinduism #hindus #people #maha shivaratri #nepal #divinum-pacis

[projectourworld]

Kathmandu, Nepal

Mud-covered farmers play in a field during National Paddy Day, which marks the start of the annual rice-planting season, in Tokha village

Photograph: Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images / Guardian #riceplanting #nepal

[xtruss]

Why Scientists Are Starting To Worry About The Moon Shrinking

Some Seismic Activity is Near the Lunar South Pole, Where NASA Wants to Send Humans

— By Kasha Patel | February 4, 2024 | The Washington Post

Stargazers across large swaths of the globe had the chance to witness a rare "super blue blood moon" on Jan. 31, 2018. NASA is aiming to send humans back to the lunar surface by 2027. Photograph: Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images

For hundreds of millions of years, our moon has been shriveling like a raisin. Now, scientists say that decrease in circumference is leading to shallow moonquakes — including near NASA’s potential sites for human visits.
“A concept that I think that many people have is that the moon is this geologically dead body, that something on the moon never changes,” said lunar geologist Tom Watters. But “the moon is a seismically active body.”
Studies of moonquakes date back to the Apollo era. More than 50 years ago, astronauts placed seismometers around the near side of the moon’s surface to record trembles. The most powerful shallow quake was located near the south pole, which is near landing spots for NASA’s Artemis III mission to send people back to the moon, potentially in 2027. The lunar south pole region is enticing because it contains permanently shadowed regions that some speculate could have water-based ice.
In a new study, Watters and his colleagues state that this powerful quake is tied to a group of currently seismically active faults, which were created as the moon has shrunk. Quakes in the area could trigger landslides from loose rocks and dust from surrounding craters, according to models.

Other researchers say we still don’t have enough information to determine hazardous places to land on the moon.


How A Shrinking Moon Could Lead To Quakes


The moon’s shrinking has been measurable, but small. It has contracted about 150 feet in diameter over the last few hundred million years. Much of the shrinking is driven by natural cooling of our moon’s molten core. As the core cools, the moon’s surface contracts and adjusts to the change in volume. As it shrank, portions of the crust pushed together to form ridges known as thrust faults.

Moonquakes are different from earthquakes in a few key ways and can last much longer, sometimes for hours. Photograph: NASA/LRO/LROC/ASU/Smithsonian Institution

The shrinking of our moon has negligible effects for Earth. The change in size won’t alter the occurrence of eclipses, for example. Its mass also isn’t changing, so Earth’s tides are not affected differently.
There’s no reason Earthlings would need to be concerned with a shrinking moon — unless we move there.
“The idea is not to discourage anyone from exploring the south pole of the moon,” said Watters, a senior scientist emeritus in the National Air and Space Museum’s Center for Earth and Planetary Studies. “But just to make sure that it’s understood that it’s not a benign environment.”
Like on Earth, these faults are often associated with seismic activity. The thrust faults can appear like a wall tens of meters high — detectable but certainly no mountain. Thousands of small thrust faults have now been discovered across the moon, thanks to high-resolution imagery from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The fact they remain on the surface, instead of being eroded to nonexistence, means they must be young and probably active, Watters said.
When they located the thrust faults in images, team members reanalyzed data from the Apollo seismometers. Using an algorithm, they were able to narrow down the thrust faults that were likely triggered the moonquakes. They found the largest earthquake — a magnitude of 5 on the Richter scale near the south pole — was linked with a cluster of likely still active faults.

To determine potential damage, the team modeled surface slopes in the south polar region to see if any areas were more susceptible to landslides from seismic shaking. It found some slopes in permanently shadowed areas, like the Shackleton Crater that is one of the potential landing sites for the NASA’s Artemis III mission, was very prone to landslides than seismic activity. Even a light amount of shaking triggered landslides along its steep walls.
“It’s not like a huge mass of material, but it’s still significant enough that you wouldn’t want to be anywhere near it,” Watters said.
Moonquakes are different from earthquakes in a few key ways. They can last much longer on the moon, sometimes for hours. Because of the moon’s weaker gravity, a quake will also feel much stronger than on Earth. Even a moderate amount of shaking could take you off your feet, Watters said.
The study brings “more evidence that there are moonquakes and some of them may be relatively large,” said geophysicist Allen Husker, who was not involved in the research. The combination of the moon’s shrinking and pull from Earth “combine to make these moonquakes larger than we would have guessed beforehand.”

How The Quakes Could Affect Future Human Visits


Even if the quakes are big, they don’t occur too often. Husker’s research estimated that shallow moonquakes occur about once every 100 days on average across the entire lunar surface. It would be very serendipitous if a quake hit right where the astronauts land for a few days.

This May 13, 2019 shows a view of the moon from Cannes, in southern France. Photograph: Laurent Emmanuel/AFP/Getty Images
The hazard, he said, would be important to protect against if and when people build an outpost for visiting or even living on the moon — much like a strengthening a building in earthquake-prone areas in California.

“Future moon bases should be installed far from seismic sources to avoid damage or built to withstand seismic shaking,” said Husker, also a researcher professor at California Institute of Technology. “If we can map those as we have done on the Earth, then we can avoid them.”
Not everyone is convinced of this potential hazard, though. One separate study published in 2022 concluded that shallow moonquakes from these thrust faults would be weaker than what this new research describes. It also wouldn’t affect many areas on the moon, including the majority of Artemis III landing site candidates.
Senthil Kumar, an author of the 2022 study, said his “stand remains the same” despite the new research. In fact, the new study presents “one of the rarest possibilities."
“It is too early to argue for such hazard scenarios to Artemis sites, [which] might devastate the lunar base,” said Kumar, a researcher at the National Geophysical Research Institute in Hyderabad, India.
To make an accurate hazard assessment, he said the scientific community needs a better understanding of the local site conditions, properties of potential moonquake sources and the conditions that would propagate the seismic ground motion.
The best way to get some of those details is probably to go to the moon.

#Scientists #Moon 🌙 🌕 🌖 Shrinking #NASA #Seismic Activity #Lunar South Pole