Earth ChangesS


Arrow Down

Large sinkhole emerges in street in Adelaide, Australia

A giant sinkhole opened up outside one family's house.
© 7 NewsA large sinkhole opened up outside one family's house.
Residents in the Adelaide suburb of Elizabeth North had a shock when they woke up to see a gaping sinkhole in front of their homes.

A burst water main on Homington Road left bitumen collapsing in front of one family's eyes.

"The road actually lifted up and then just collapsed back into the ground," resident Chris Orange said.

"We were slowly watching bits of bitumen just break off from the sides, and it slowly got bigger and bigger."

Water was cut off in the area while crews worked hard to repair the road.


Comment: Recommended watching: Sinkholes: The groundbreaking truth


Water

Saving the world's albatrosses: 'The war is against plastic and they are casualties on the frontline'

Albatross ... ‘They are loving, sensitive and graceful,’ says Jordan.
© Chris JordanAlbatross ... ‘They are loving, sensitive and graceful,’ says Jordan.
Following his shocking photographs of dead albatross chicks and the diet of plastic that killed them, Chris Jordan's new film is a call to action to repair our broken relationship with planet Earth

We are living in a plastic age and the solutions may seem glaringly obvious, so why aren't all 7.6 billion of us already doing things differently? Shocking statistics don't guarantee effective change. So what's the alternative? American photographer and filmmaker Chris Jordan believes the focus should be on forcing people to have a stronger emotional engagement with the problems plastic causes. His famous photographs of dead albatross chicks and the colourful plastic they have ingested serve as a blunt reminder that the planet is in a state of emergency.

While making his feature-length film Albatross, Jordan considered Picasso's approach: "The role of the artist is to respect you, help you connect more deeply, and then leave it up to you to decide how to behave."

Comment: View as well: We are rapidly approaching an environmental catastrophe: Plastic waste in the ocean will outnumber fish by 2050

These seabirds are choking on a plastic ocean

Dead whale found with more than 30 plastic bags in its stomach off Sotra, Norway


Seismograph

Late night 5.2 earthquake strikes Galapagos Archipelago

galapagos earthquake march 2018
© USGSParts of Ecuador are along the dreaded Ring of Fire.
A tremor measuring 5.2 in magnitude hit Ecuador's Galapagos Islands, the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) reported.

The epicenter of the earthquake was located 14 kilometers off the coast Fernandina island. The tremor struck at about 10:00 p.m. local time. There have been no reports of damage or injuries so far.

Fernandina Island is the third largest island of the Galapagos. The island is a shield volcano that has been erupting since April 11, 2009. A shield volcano is a type of volcano usually built almost entirely of fluid lava flows.

Parts of Ecuador are along the dreaded Ring of Fire - an area in the Pacific Ocean which has a large number of seismic and volcanic activity.

Snowflake

Late winter storm dumps 10 inches of snow overnight in Lexington, Kentucky

Trees weighted down by heavy snow fell on vehicles on Hartland Pkw.
© Charles BertramTrees weighted down by heavy snow fell on vehicles on Hartland Pkw. In a Lexington. Reports of up to 10 inches of snow in parts of Central Kentucky.
A winter storm that dumped up to 8 to 10 inches of snow in Lexington overnight clogged secondary roads and weighed down or broke limbs and power lines Monday.

Lexington police responded to three injury collisions and 41 non-injury collisions from 4:45 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. Officers also responded to 73 motorist assists in that time frame and 65 traffic hazards, such as trees down, low hanging wires and particularly poor road conditions. Some of those included vehicles that ran off the roads.

Susan Straub, a spokeswoman for the city of Lexington, said since around 4:45 a.m. the vast majority of those 65 traffic hazards -- about 50 -- were for downed trees. City crews were working to remove the road hazards, Straub said.


Cloud Precipitation

Hailstorms, unseasonal rains damaged 476,000 hectares of crops in February across India

Maharashtra has been the worst hit so far
© Javier CandeiraMaharashtra has been the worst hit so far.
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, informed the parliament today that hailstorms and unseasonal rains have caused huge damage, especially to northern states in India. Hailstorms and unseasonal rain caused damage to 4.76 lakh hectares of crop in February in Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Karnataka.

While responding to an unstarred question regarding damage to crops due to unseasonal rains and hailstorms, he said Maharashtra has been the worst hit so far, with the state having the highest share of crop areas affected. Maharashtra is followed by Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh (see Table). Around 300,000 hectares of crops like jowar, gram, wheat and horticulture crops like orange, grapes, bananas, and vegetables were damaged.

Cloud Precipitation

Rare hailstorm kills girl and scores of animals in Ghana

hail
Four communities in the Krachi East Municipality have suffered from a rare hailstorm accompanied by strong winds that ravaged property, killing a girl and scores of domestic and wild animals.

The affected communities are Ayiramu, Katanga, Yabrae and Kparekpare, where Abena Manu, a six year old girl, was trapped by a falling wall, which killed her instantly with two others being injured in the millieu with broken bones..

The injured are recuperating at the Worawora Hospital in the Biakoye District.

The large ice pellets also killed ducks, fowls, goats, lambs as well as bush rabbits, grass-cutter and partridges.

Attention

Siberian tiger rampages through Russian village killing dogs

Parents were afraid to let their children out of the house even to go to school on dark mornings as she 'was not afraid of street lights, or people shouting'
Parents were afraid to let their children out of the house even to go to school on dark mornings as she 'was not afraid of street lights, or people shouting'
A tiger terrorised a Siberian village roaming the streets and killing fierce guard dogs before dragging them away to feed her hungry cubs.

Parents were afraid to let their children out of the house even to go to school on dark mornings as she 'was not afraid of street lights, or people shouting'.

Rangers sedated and captured the endangered animal amid fears locals in the village of Aleksey-Nikolskoye, north of Vladivostok, would shoot her.

They were puzzled by the big cat's behaviour in entering a village to kill chained up dogs instead of hunting prey in the wild, as they are usually wary of humans.

Comment: View also: Two dogs die in attacks as deep snow pushes British Columbia cougars out of forests


Attention

Rare Irrawaddy dolphin found dead in Cambodia

The dead dolphin was found near a dam.
© Rasmei NewsThe dead dolphin was found near a dam.
An Irrawaddy dolphin was found dead on Saturday in Stung Treng province, near the border of Laos' Don Sahong region, where Lao authorities are constructing a hydropower dam.

Environmental activist Chum Huot said yesterday that villagers in the Preah Rumkel community found the dead dolphin and he suspects that it died due to a lack of food resources.

"This dead dolphin could have died due to a lack of food because of the construction of the Don Sahong hydropower dam upstream," he said. "The currents are now unfavourable and there is a lack of fish for the dolphins."

Tek Vannara, executive director of the NGO Forum, said the dam was just two kilometres upstream from where the dolphin was found dead.

Cloud Lightning

Woman dies after lightning strike in Nepal

lightning
A woman from Letang municipality-9 in the district died while two others got injurywhen the lightning occurred last night.

The lightning coupled with rainfall struck 32 year old Gita Ghimire, who later succumbed to injury during the treatment at a local Pathari Hospital.

Two others injured in the incident are- Gita's sister-in-law, Menuka Ghimire, and neighbour Dhan Bahadur Rai.

Police Inspector at Area Police Office, Letang, Khagendra Khadka informed that the injured ones were undergoing treatment at BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences.

Snowflake Cold

More than 700,000 animals in Mongolia die from severe wintry weather

DEAD ANIMAL
A total of 710,740 animals have died so far this year in Mongolia due to the extreme wintry weather known as "dzud", the country's meteorology service said Wednesday.

The dzud is a brutal weather phenomenon in Mongolia where a dry summer followed by a frigid winter kills vast numbers of livestock either by starvation or cold.

Snowfall covered up to 50 percent of the country, with 66 administrative subdivisions in 12 provinces experiencing dzud or near dzud conditions, Mongolian National Agency for Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring said in a statement.