Earth ChangesS


Seismograph

Magnitude 5 earthquake hits Kalamata on Greek coast

Philip Chrysopoulos
Greek Reporter
Wed, 28 Sep 2016 12:00 UTC
Earthquake Kalamata 29th September 2016
Kalamata, Greece
An earthquake measuring 5 points on the Richter scale shook Kalamata on Wednesday morning, bringing memories of the 1986 tremors that killed 22 people.

The tremors were felt in Kalamata at 10:17 am, while several towns and villages in southwestern Peloponnese felt the effect. According to seismologists, the epicenter of the earthquake was in the Messinian Gulf sea, 14 kilometers south of Kalamata and had a depth of 19 kilometers.

Meanwhile, just before midnight tremors measuring 5.4 points on the Richter shook the islands of Dodecanese, mostly felt in Rhodes. However, seismologists said on Skai radio that the two earthquakes are not related.

Comment: The U.S. Geological Survey also reported 2 other earthquakes in a 24 hour period measuring above magnitude 4 in the regions of Greece and Turkey.

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Attention

Third right whale found dead off Maine coast in 3 days

Kevin Miller
Portland Press Herald
Wed, 28 Sep 2016 18:32 UTC
The carcass of an endangered right whale found floating off Boothbay Harbor sits Sunday in a tractor-trailer that transported it from the Portland waterfront to Benson Farm in Gorham, creating a bit of an overnight spectacle in the streets along the way.
The carcass of an endangered right whale found floating off Boothbay Harbor sits Sunday in a tractor-trailer that transported it from the Portland waterfront to Benson Farm in Gorham, creating a bit of an overnight spectacle in the streets along the way.
Federal fisheries managers and conservation groups raised concerns Tuesday about threats to endangered right whales after two were found dead off the Maine coast and a third was disentangled from fishing gear near Cape Cod.

The spate of three incidents reported in a three-day span is renewing the focus on a whale population that has been growing but remains in a precarious position. Fisheries managers will also be studying the two entanglements, one of which is being now blamed for the death of a female whale just entering its reproductive years.

Saturday, the same day that Maine Marine Patrol and Coast Guard crews were towing the 43-foot-long whale into Portland Harbor, a second, badly decomposed right whale was reported about 8 miles off Mount Desert Rock south of Mount Desert Island. And just two days earlier, whale disentanglement specialists freed a third right whale from hundreds of feed of fishing line and buoys near Provincetown, Massachusetts. That whale survived and swam away.

So on Tuesday, representatives with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and several conservation organizations took the unusual step of highlighting the cases to raise awareness.
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Attention

Furious elk (moose) attacks man and breaks his arm in Sweden


The Local se
Wed, 28 Sep 2016 18:00 UTC
Swedish
Elk in Sweden
A man in northern Sweden had to seek hospital care after a violent attack by an elk.

Presumably, the man had imagined he would have a nice and calm morning walk with his dogs when he left his house in Svappavaara, north-west of Kiruna, at around eight o'clock in the morning.

Instead, he ended up having to go to hospital with a suspected broken arm after a furious elk cow launched a sudden assault on him, reported newspaper Norrbottens-kuriren on Tuesday.

"The man said he was attacked by the elk. He escaped the initial attack, but it came back and he then took a nasty blow to the arm," said police spokesperson Börje Öhman.

Comment: See also:

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Cloud Precipitation

Severe hailstorm hits the town of Cleve, South Australia

SnappyNews
You Tube
Wed, 28 Sep 2016 17:32 UTC
Hail at Cleve
Hail at Cleve
A severe thunderstorm warning was issued across parts of South Australia on Septemeber 28 with winds of up to 140km/h predicted.

Nine News reported almost 4000 properties in the state are without power, with the Eyre Peninsula the hardest hit so far.

The Bureau of Meteorology put out an alert for the Adelaide area, warning of thunderstorms causing reduced visibility, flash flooding & wind gusts.

The video shows a severe hail storm hitting what appears to be the town of Cleve, SA.


Video credit goes to: Facebook/Julie Minge
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Tornado2

Waterspout caught on camera off Orange Beach, Alabama

Jasmine Anderson
weartv.com
Wed, 28 Sep 2016 17:13 UTC
Sydney Elizabeth lives in Indiana, according to her Facebook page.
© Sydney ElizabethSydney Elizabeth lives in Indiana, according to her Facebook page. She said she'd never even heard of a waterspout.
Orange Beach was the perfect place to be for lucky beachgoers in Alabama.

Many people posted their photos of a waterspout that formed in near Orange Beach Tuesday.

Sydney Elizabeth lives in Indiana, according to her Facebook page. She said she'd never even heard of anything like it.

"This was the coolest thing ever! I guess it's called a waterspout," she wrote.


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Attention

2 hunters injured in separate bear attacks in Montana

Jordon Niedermeier
Billings Gazette
Tue, 27 Sep 2016 17:03 UTC
Bear attack
Bear attacks left two Montana hunters injured over the weekend in separate encounters.

The first incident occurred Saturday when a man hunting near in the Cabin Creek area of Gallatin County was calling for elk. He received minor injuries from a bear assumed to be a grizzly, said a Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks news release.

The second attack was Sunday morning. A bear believed to be a female grizzly with two cubs mauled a man who was bow hunting elk on the north side of Tim Miner basin north of Gardiner, the release said.

Both hunters were treated at local hospitals and released.

Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks did not attempt to locate the bears involved. The attacks were determined to be non-predatory and natural responses to close encounters between bears and humans. The bears would have been located if they were suspected repeat offenders or if they were injured during the incidents, said Andrea Jones, FWP spokesperson.
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Attention

Beached pygmy sperm whale discovered in Port Canaveral, Florida


fox35orlando.com
Mon, 26 Sep 2016 14:14 UTC
Distressed pygmy sperm whale assessed by wildlife official as public watches at Port Canaveral boat ramp
© Derrol NailDistressed pygmy sperm whale assessed by wildlife official as public watches at Port Canaveral boat ramp
Officials were unable to save a whale that beached itself in Port Canaveral on Monday. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Brevard County Sheriff's Office were on the scene assisting in the rescue efforts.

Officials say the adult pygmy sperm whale, approximately 10 feet in length, was in "bad condition"when spotted by some passing fishermen.

The fishermen notified FWC officials, who brought the sick and injured animal to the public boat dock, so it could be evaluated by a marine veterinarian from the University of Florida.

The mammal was thin, weak, and was suffering from wet respirations, a symptom of congestive heart failure in whales.

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Cloud Lightning

Lightning storms knock out power to the entire South Australia state; 21,000 strikes in 12 hours

Jonathan Barrett, James Regan and Tom Westbrook
Daily Mail
Wed, 28 Sep 2016 13:45 UTC
Police direct traffic in the central business district (CBD) of Adelaide after severe storms and thousands of lightning strikes knocked out power to the entire state of South Australia, September 28, 2016.
© David MariuzPolice direct traffic in the central business district (CBD) of Adelaide after severe storms and thousands of lightning strikes knocked out power to the entire state of South Australia, September 28, 2016.
Severe storms and thousands of lightning strikes knocked out power to the entire state of South Australia on Wednesday, authorities said, leading to port closures and commuter chaos.

South Australia is the country's fifth most populous state, with 1.7 million people, and is a major wine producer and traditional manufacturing hub.

The Bureau of Meteorology said a vigorous cold front was moving across the state with an intense low pressure system due on Thursday.

"We'll have gale force winds and large seas (across the south of the country); also heavy rain and thunderstorms, which will lead to renewed river rises," it said on its website.

SA Power Networks said repairs to its transmission network were underway.

"There were more than 21,000 lightning strikes recorded over a 12-hour period from midday yesterday on the West Coast, and as a result it is likely some damage has occurred to our distribution network," it said.

The state has been brought to a standstill, with ports closed, trains and trams stopped, traffic lights out and long commuter delays, state agencies said.

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Sun

Hong Kong records hottest September day in 50 years, air pollution levels 'serious' for second day

Christy Leung
South China Morning Post
Tue, 27 Sep 2016 10:15 UTC
Hong Kong ollution levels index
© SCMP/Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department
Hong Kong recorded its hottest September day in more than half a century on Tuesday as the influence of Typhoon Megi brought ­"serious" levels of air pollution to the city for a second day.

Temperatures hit a high of 36 degrees Celsius in Happy Valley as ­Taiwan felt the full force of the tropical cyclone, which is forecast to bring gloomy weather to Hong Kong over the next six days.

The Environmental Protection Department issued a warning after the Air Quality Health Index in Tuen Mun and Tung Chung hit 10+ on Tuesday afternoon, its highest level. That indicates a serious health risk.

It was the second day the city recorded such severe levels of air pollution.

The index in Central reached 10, and it climbed to nine in Yuen Long and Causeway Bay, indicating a "very high" health risk.

The department advised children, the elderly and people suffering from heart or respiratory illnesses to stay indoors as much as possible.

Typhoon Megi, named after the Korean word for catfish, made landfall in Taiwan but was ­forecast to spare Hong Kong. The storm however created stifling conditions in the city on Tuesday, with low visibility and a max­imum temperature at the Observatory's headquarters of 34.9 degrees, constituting the hottest September day since 1963, when September 5 saw the same ­location record 35.2 degrees.

Comment: Temperatures around the world, like the weather, are becoming more extreme. See also:

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Windsock

Typhoon Megi: Deadly storm batters Taiwan and mainland China


BBC News
Wed, 28 Sep 2016 06:54 UTC
Typhoon Megi hits Taiwan
© EPAMegi is the third and worst storm to hit Taiwan in the past two weeks.
At least five people have been killed and hundreds injured by Typhoon Megi, which has battered Taiwan and mainland China.

Megi has now reached eastern China, causing widespread disruption, though it has weakened to a tropical storm.


Comment: Typhoon Megi: Taiwan braces for third severe storm in two weeks

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