Earth ChangesS


Attention

Domesticated elephant kills tour owner in Indonesia

Ni Komang Erviani
The Jakarta Post
Fri, 28 Apr 2017 12:46 UTC
Elephants cross an oil palm plantation in Langkat regency, North Sumatra, recently.
© Apriadi GunawanElephants cross an oil palm plantation in Langkat regency, North Sumatra, recently.
The owner of a company that provides elephant facility tours was killed by one of the elephants at his park.

I Nyoman Levi Suwitha, 60, was attacked by a male Lampung elephant on Friday at Bakas Levi Rafting and Elephant Tours in Bakas village, Klungkung regency, about 30 kilometers from Denpasar, Bali.

Klungkung Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Arendra Wahyudi told The Jakarta Post that Nyoman Levi came to the elephant cage at around 10:20 a.m. local time soon after he arrived from Denpasar. When he was feeding the elephant, the animal suddenly attacked him. During the incident, the elephant lifted up Nyoman Levi and slammed his body on the ground, leaving him unconscious.
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Fire

Russia declares state of emergency, as wildfires hit village in Siberia, burning to ground


RT
Sat, 29 Apr 2017 08:40 UTC
Russian village burns
© Ruptly
Rescuers have managed to save all the residents of a Russian village before the settlement located on an island in Irkutsk Region burned to the ground. The spread of wildfires across Siberia has prompted authorities to declare a state of emergency.

Hundreds of people were trapped in the village of Bubnovka surrounded by water as a massive fire was ripping through their homes. Luckily for some 435 residents, local Emergencies Ministry staff were conducting anti-flood drills in the area and rapidly reacted to the incident.


Responding the distress call, they rushed to the scene to evacuate the villagers. Using an air cushion rescue boat, the responders brought people to safety. No one was harmed.


Despite efforts by the local team of firefighters, the entire village of 86 houses burned down in the suspected wildfire, the governor's press service told RIA Novosti.


"It was impossible to bring additional [firefighting] forces because of the fact that Bubnovka is located on the island. Gusty winds contributed to the spread of fire," the governor's office said.


The Investigative Committee, however, has opened a criminal case to see if any negligence was involved.
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Attention

Tropical storms produce radiation bursts

Anthony Watts
Watts Up With That?
Fri, 28 Apr 2017 21:25 UTC
hurricane
© NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE MODIS Rapid Response TeamDuring a period of rapid strengthening on Aug. 23, 2012, Typhoon Bolaven launched its only TGF from an outer rain band located nearly 490 miles (785 km) from the storm’s center (roughly bottom center of the full image). The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image of Bolaven the following day.
About a thousand times a day, thunderstorms fire off fleeting bursts of some of the highest-energy light naturally found on Earth. These events, called terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs), last less than a millisecond and produce gamma rays with tens of millions of times the energy of visible light. Since its launch in 2008, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has recorded more than 4,000 TGFs, which scientists are studying to better understand how the phenomenon relates to lightning activity, storm strength and the life cycle of storms.

Now, for the first time, a team of NASA scientists has analyzed dozens of TGFs launched by the largest and strongest weather systems on the planet: tropical storms, hurricanes and typhoons. A paper describing the research was published March 16 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.
"One result is a confirmation that storm intensity alone is not the key factor for producing TGFs," said Oliver Roberts, who led the study at the University College Dublin, Ireland, and is now at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. "We found a few TGFs were made in the outer rain bands of major storms, hundreds of kilometers from the powerful eye walls at their centers, and one weak system that fired off several TGFs in a day."
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Seismograph

6.8 quake strikes off Philippines triggers tsunami warning


RT
Fri, 28 Apr 2017 21:20 UTC
Philippines earthquake
© USGS
A 6.8 earthquake has struck south off the island of Mindanao, triggering a warning of "hazardous tsunami waves" for the coastline of islands in the Philippines, according to the US Geological Survey and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that tsunami waves could reach 300km from the epicenter of the earthquake, which was recorded at 6.8 on the Richter scale.

Waves reaching up to 1 meter above normal tide levels are possible in the Philippines, while some coastlines in Indonesia, Malaysia and Palau could expect waves up to 30 centimeters higher than usual, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.
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Bizarro Earth

Chile rattled by more than a dozen off-shore earthquakes


Global News
Fri, 28 Apr 2017 21:21 UTC
Chile
More than a dozen moderate earthquakes have rattled the Chilean coast within just over two hours, the most powerful of them registered at magnitude 5.9.

The continued rattling prompted some cities to suspend classes and give workers the afternoon off. There are no reports of damage or injury.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the strongest hit at 12:30 p.m. (1530 GMT). That magnitude 5.9 shake was centred about 26 miles (41.5 kilometres) southwest of Valparaiso and about 65 miles (110 kilometres) west of the capital, Santiago.

It was followed within about two hours by 15 other quakes of magnitude 3.8 to 5.7, centred in the same region.

A magnitude 6.9 quake shook the same general region on Monday.

Comment: Shallow 5.7 magnitude earthquake rattles Chile

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Cloud Lightning

Lightning bolt kills 55 sheep in Ballari, India


The Times of India
Sat, 29 Apr 2017 19:31 UTC
Around 55 sheep killed due to lightning
Around 55 sheep killed due to lightning
Around 55 sheep were killed due to lightning at Ujjaini village on the outskirts of Kudligi town in Ballari district on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday.

The incident happened when shepherd Pakkirappa was staying in a field along with the sheep. "There were thundershowers all through the night and at one point of time, lightning struck the flock of sheep killing 55 of them,'' Fakkirappa said.

Fakkirappa has informed the revenue officials about the loss and sought compensation. A team of revenue department officials and veterinary doctors visited the spot.
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Seismograph

Shallow 5.7 magnitude earthquake rattles Chile


Las Vegas Review Journal
Fri, 28 Apr 2017 19:14 UTC
chart
A 5.7 magnitude earthquake rattled buildings in the Chilean capital Santiago on Friday, the most powerful in a string of tremors that struck central Chile during the afternoon.

The United States Geological Survey said the tremor at around 1:05 p.m. local time (1605 GMT) was magnitude 5.7, with a depth of 9 miles ( 14 km) and an epicenter 12 miles (20 km) west of the coastal town of Valparaiso.

No damage was reported by the emergency office and the navy said the quake had not been severe enough to cause a tsunami.

The area has been shaken by dozens of quakes over the last week, including a 6.9 magnitude tremor on Monday, which caused no serious damage.
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Attention

100 million pounds of spoiled onions disposed of in Idaho and Oregon

Sean Ellis
Capital Press
Sun, 23 Apr 2017 18:30 UTC
Most of the 100 million pounds of onions ruined in Idaho and Eastern Oregon this winter have been properly disposed of.
Most of the 100 million pounds of onions ruined in Idaho and Eastern Oregon this winter have been properly disposed of.
The Idaho-Oregon onion industry has managed to dispose of virtually all of the estimated 100 million pounds of onions that were lost this winter when dozens of sheds collapsed under the weight of unprecedented snow and ice.

Both states extended their deadlines for disposal of cull onions from March 15 to April 15 this year and most of the onions were properly disposed of before that date, officials in both states said.

With the deadline looming last week and a lot of onions still not disposed of, the state of Oregon gave the Lytle Boulevard landfill in Malheur County emergency permission to build another trench to handle the onslaught of culls.

"They significantly ramped up (the amount of onions they were taking) and pretty much everything is disposed of at this point," Lindsay Eng, director of certification programs for the Oregon Department of Agriculture, said April 20.
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Attention

River of snow crashing down the Rocky Mountains filmed in British Columbia

Rachael Burford
Daily Mail
Thu, 27 Apr 2017 18:20 UTC
The group were visiting the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia, Canada, on April 21 when they saw the avalanche
The group were visiting the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia, Canada, on April 21 when they saw the avalanche
A small group of mountaineers captured the dramatic moment a huge avalanche fell feet from their path.

The group, from Spain, were visiting the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia, Canada, on April 21 when a river of snow came crashing down the mountain.

Skier and mountaineer Jurek Ziemkiewicz captured the avalanche on camera.

The footage shows the moment the group spot the snow approaching from above and race to get out of the way.

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Cloud Precipitation

Extreme amounts of rain hit Dominican Republic


The Watchers
Fri, 28 Apr 2017 16:10 UTC
dominican republic flooding
More than 17 000 people were forced to evacuate after dangerous weather system dumped extreme amounts of rain on the Dominican Republic over the past couple of days. Within 24 hours, some regions saw up to 400 mm (15.7 inches) of rain, causing rivers to overflow. This is the same weather system that dumped heavy rain on Jamaica and southern Haiti this week, claiming at least 6 lives.

According to ONAMET, country's meteorological office, a weather station in the southern city of Barahona recorded 396 mm (15.6 inches) of rain within just 24 hours on April 23. Overall, this region received most of the rain over the past 7 days, more than 900 mm (35.4 inches).
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