Environment

A leading earthquake scientist has said that the San Andreas fault in Southern California is ready to blow any day now. According to Thomas Jordan, director of the Southern California Earthquake Center, the San Andreas fault is “locked, loaded and ready to roll”. Latimes.com reports: “The springs on the San Andreas system have been wound very, very tight. And the southern San Andreas fault, in particular, looks like it’s locked, loaded and ready to go,” Jordan said in the opening keynote talk. Other sections of the San Andreas fault also are far overdue for a big quake.

A nuclear waste leak in the U.S., which has become known as ‘Americas Fukushima’, has left 33 workers ill from exposure to radiation, as authorities scramble to clean up the facility at the Hanford Site in Washington state.  The leak was found back in 2011 on the inner hull of one of the site’s 28 double-wall storage tanks. Weather.com reports: The previous leak posed an insignificant threat, but workers came across an even larger leak in recent weeks while attempting to clear the inner hull of its remaining waste.

By EconMatters

The mild winter has Nat Gas stocks at record levels, but the last time this many natural gas rigs went offline in 2012, prices rebounded to the $5 level nicely on a long trending trade. Traders and Investors are trying to anticipate and evaluate the likelihood of this move in Natural Gas happening again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfyGxfjSLfU

The devastating wildfire that has already forced all 88,000 residents to flee Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada, exploded tenfold in size on Thursday, cutting off evacuees in camps and shelters north of the city. Firefighters are trying to battle the out-of-control blaze, which has already destroyed homes and is threatening infrastructure. Wildfire Spreads in Fort McMurray https://t.co/WP4HnKjL7T#NASApic.twitter.com/7dUTDAmqRd — NASA Earth (@NASAEarth) May 5, 2016 Officials estimated that 1,600 structures had been damaged or destroyed by Wednesday night.

Submitted by Wolf Richter of Wolf Street

Freight Rail Traffic Plunges: Haunting Pictures of Transportation Recession

292 Union Pacific engines idled in Arizona Desert

Total US rail traffic in April plunged 11.8% from a year ago, the Association of American Railroads reported today. Carloads of bulk commodities such as coal, oil, grains, and chemicals plummeted 16.1% to 944,339 units.