Michael Pritchard invented a new water bottle that filters out the dirtiest water and makes it drinkable. Clean water is usually taken for granted by those of us who live in places where it is readily accessible, so when we find ourselves in a situation where drinkable water isn't similarly available, we might find ourselves choosing dehydration over drinking what we find.

The appropriately named Lifesaver bottle, as seen in the picture, instantly filters out the water without the use of chemicals. The bottle even filters out fecal matter (yes, it cuts the **** out). Basically the water filters out anything longer than 15 nanometers.

Because of such a stringent filter, it even takes out viruses - typically 25 nanometers long - a feat even conventional water filters don't do. The filter automatically shuts off after it expires, preventing dirty water from coming through.

The idea was inspired in Pritchard after the tsunami disaster in South-East Asia last 2004 and Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana in 2005. Fresh, drinkable water was sparse in both situations and refugees had to wait for days for supplies. "Something had to be done. It took me a little while and some very frustrating prototypes but eventually I did it," said Pritchard.

The new invention, which can distill 4,000 to 6,000 litres without changing the filter, is expected to revolutionize the way water is supplied to disaster stricken areas, military troops, and happy campers everywhere.

Ranongga, one of the islands comprising the Solomons, is now officially 10 feet higher above sea level than it originally was due to the tectonic plane grind that caused the magnitude 8 underwater quake last week.

The earthquake triggered a 30-foot high tsunami that wiped out most of the coastal settlements and killed 34 people, with many others still missing. With most of the fishing industry of the archipelago decimated, the once pristine island paradise faces another blow.

Fishermen are trying to go back to operations to help maintain the food supply in their respective locales but the rise of the island after the quake destroyed the coral reefs that house and serve as the breeding grounds for the fish. The parts that did manage to survive the cataclysm are now baking in the sun and left an unstable environment for marine ecosystem.

The tourism industry is also permanently compromised. The Solomons were once considered among the best diving spots in the world for its diverse and vibrant marine neighborhood that housed thousands upon thousands of species. With two of the archipelago's income generators down indefinitely, the national government is now considering alternative measures to sustain life for its citizens.

Foreign help is continuously being supplied by the international community in an effort to alleviate the suffering caused by the disaster. Diving experts say that the reefs and the diving spots may recover in a few years as the main reefs further out sea have managed to remain intact, however, things remain unstable for the moment as the people and the environment enter the recovery phase.

Countries in the South Pacific are bracing themselves for what could be tail-whips of an underwater earthquake and tsunami that happened a few hours ago killing at least 13 people.

The earthquake hit magnitude 8 on the Richter scale and the epicenter was detected 220 miles off the coast of the Solomons. The death toll registered has not included those missing as the 30-foot wave battered villages along the beach.

Even in the deluge, authorities said that it was fortunate that everything happened in the morning, prompting people to take notice and allowing civil defense measures to be conducted.

Australia is now on full alert and has closed beaches and stopped harbor activities in Sydney. Similar precautionary alerts have also been raised in Hawaii and Japan to safeguard live sand avoid incidents that happened in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Tsunamis are often triggered by offshore earthquakes. The movement in the ocean floor causes water to be drawn back farther than it usually is along the coast. That creates the artificial and extreme "low tide." The educated know it's time to run when they see a phenomenon like that.

The Oregon Coast is dotted with strange structures sticking out from the sand. After further inspection, it was discovered that they were actually tree stumps and root networks.

There are a number of theories about how the grotesque formations came about. General consensus is that about 300 years ago, a massive tsunami hit the coast, leveled an entire forest, changed the whole landscape - maybe squashing a local tribe or two - and leaving the eerie monuments.

Guy DiTorrice, dubbed Oregon Fossil Guy for his expertise in beach fossils, says that the sand levels are particularly low, allowing for the structures to surface. Sand levels are dictated by certain conditions like tides, weather, and currents. He thinks that there might be more things rising out from the sand if the levels drop even more. He says that those levels would be great for fossil hunting.

There are also other theories regarding the ghost trees. It might have been a massive earthquake that sank the land and submerged the poor trees. Another theory is the human factor. It might have been just loggers from the 1700s who razed the coastline for a number of different reasons.

Another such site nicknamed "ghost forest" was found, and scientists theorized that it was a result of an earthquake so strong that it split the land and dropped everything - trees and all - straight into the sea.

  

Tsunamis seem to be one phenomenon our planet shares with the mighty Sun. Scientists have reportedly spotted a major flare earlier this week using a prototype of a new solar telescope in New Mexico.

Formerly identified as a Moreton wave, the spotted tsunami-like shockwave "rolled across the hot surface, destroying two visible filaments of cool gas on opposite sides of the visible face of the Sun."

According to K.S. Balasubramaniam of the National Solar Observatory in Sunspot, NM, while these large scale 'blast' waves happen infrequently, they are undoubtedly powerful. "They quickly propagate in a matter of minutes covering the whole Sun, sweeping away filamentary material."

The captured 'tsunami' occurred like the splash form a rock thrown into a pond. Scientists saw this as a brightening from compressed and heated hydrogen gas. The two filaments that disappeared for a few minutes cannot be accounted for by the scientists if they were indeed blown off or were just compressed, hence the temporary invisibility.

Skywatchers in Alaska, Canada and the very northernmost United States are encouraged to stick their heads out this weekend for colorful Northern Lights. Apparently, there seems to be a stormy space season going on up there. There is a 40% chance of more major flares through this weekend, in fact, says forecasters.