Word: sumatrans
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...three inches. The law of conservation of angular momentum, however, requires that even under these exigent circumstances, the Earth's angular momentum stays constant, which means the planet must step on the gas (or the brake) to accommodate shifting mass. The same thing happened in 2004 with the 9.1 Sumatran earthquake that triggered the tsunami. That earthquake should have shifted the Earth's figure axis by 2.76 inches and shortened its day by 6.8 millionths of a second, according to computer models...
...Philippines, are blighted by geography. But other disaster-prone nations like Japan manage to surmount these disadvantages. In some ways, natural disasters give these developed economies an excuse for technological improvement. So while Japan invests in high-tech skyscrapers designed to withstand the inevitable next earthquake, the West Sumatran capital of Padang - which scientists long predicted would be shaken by a killer quake because it sits astride one of the world's most active fault lines - was crowded with poorly built buildings that crumbled when the earth shuddered on Sept. 30. Similarly, in the Philippines, the vast flooding triggered...
...quake in that region will be very slim. Still, the Swiss team prepares the dogs for the journey to Pariaman by dunking the dogs in some water to cool them off before they begin their hard work. For long-haired golden retrievers, border collies and other breeds, the torrid Sumatran air is far tougher to endure than the flight over from Switzerland...
...caused almost entirely by human beings. Human expansion, hunting, deforestation and ultimately climate change are eliminating species at a rate up to 1,000 times higher than the evolutionary norm. Species like the Yangtze River dolphin and the golden toad have disappeared, while a range of animals - from the Sumatran tiger to the silky Sifaka lemur of Madagascar are on the brink...
...PNAS study found that by swaying from one flexible tree branch to the next, orangutans actually use less energy than they would if they leaped from branch to branch, or if they climbed down trees, moved on the ground and climbed back up again. (The fact that the Sumatran tiger - before it became critically endangered - was a serious threat to the orangutan probably helped encourage tree travel.) Climbing helps the orangutan adapt neatly to its arboreal environment...