Thousands of dead fish could be seen in Portland Harbor Saturday.

Acting Portland harbor master Kevin Battle calls it a "fish kill". He says it appears bigger fish like stripers chased smaller fish into the harbor, eating them. When that happens, Battle says the fish use up lots of oxygen and more fish die in the process.

Battle says as many as 10,000 fish were floating in the harbor. He says this is the first time he's seen this in Portland in eight or nine years.

What caused thousands of blue mussels to appear along the shoreline in the Jamesport area this week hasn't officially been determined. However, a local biologist believes the culprit may be rising water temperatures in the Long Island Sound.

"They've been hit with these consecutive heat waves that are just too hot for them," said Christopher Gobler, the associate dean and researcher with the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook.

State Department of Environmental Conservation officials concurred.

"It is likely that high water temperatures due to the prolonged hot temperatures we have experienced this summer is the cause," DEC spokesperson Aphrodite Montalvo said.

Just two days after lightning killed 300 reindeer in Norway, lightning killed nineteen cows in Texas. Witnesses say lightning hit a tree just north of Hallsville during the storm, killing the cows that were standing underneath it for shelter.

It was a tragic ending for the cows trying to get relief from a storm. Victor Benson saw it happen.

"All of a sudden, a lightning bolt came down and the cows just fell," he explained.

"In the blink of an eye a lightning bolt, and there was lightning everywhere, but just one (bolt) and it was over," he added.

Nineteen cows were killed as a result of that strike, about a third of the herd in the pasture where they were. A mark is still visible on the tree where the lightning hit.

Related: 323 Reindeer killed by lightning strike in Norway

The monsoon floods in India's Ganges river this year have broken previous records, officials have told the BBC.

They said water levels reached unprecedented levels at four locations in northern India.

The highest record was in Patna, the state capital of Bihar where flood waters reached 50.52m (166ft) on 26 August, up from 50.27m in 1994.

Floods across India this year have killed more than 150 people and displaced thousands.

'Unprecedented'

"We have also recorded unprecedented flood levels at Hathidah and Bhagalpur of Bihar state and Balliya of Uttar Pradesh," chief of India's Central Water Commission GS Jha said.

"In all these four places, the floods crossed the previous highest flood level and they all were unprecedented."

Bihar is one of the worst flood-hit states in India with at least 150 deaths and nearly half a million people evacuated.

Neighbouring Uttar Pradesh has also been severely affected by floods in the Ganges.

Mexico's Colima or "Fire" Volcano spewed a large column of gas and ash some 2,400 metres (7,874 feet) high into a blue sky. According to officials, the latest eruption took place on Monday at 10:19am, or 04:19pm GMT. The Fire Volcano, officially known as the Colima Volcano, is part of the Pacific's Ring of Fire.

Mexico contains over 3,000 volcanoes, but only 14 are considered active. Major eruptions in Mexican history have included the 1953 eruption of the Paricutin Volcano in Michoacan, the 1982 eruption of Tacana Volcano in Chiapas and the 1986 eruption of the Colima Volcano.

Take a look at the attached image! It's what appears to be a rare "fire rainbow" in Lavonia, Georgia, captured by Stacey Wood. This occurs when the ice crystals in the high level clouds refracts the sunlight in just the right way.

It is not caused by fire, so the name "fire rainbow" can be misleading. When it is fully formed, it will make a complete arc across the clouds.

We don't see these very often, so I am thrilled that Stacey got this snapshot!

A sudden boom shook homes and rattled nerves for Lake-area residents on Wednesday afternoon, but so far, no one is claiming responsibility.

The incident occurred between 4 and 5 p.m. on Aug. 24, and Camden County Sheriff's Office Sergeant Scott Hines acknowledged the department's dispatch office received a flurry of phone calls immediately afterward. But Hines said he has no idea what caused the boom.

Many speculated the noise and vibration came from a sonic boom—created by an aircraft breaking the sound barrier. Fort Leonard Wood is only about 40 miles from the Lake of the Ozarks, as the fighter-jet flies, but the base's communications office pointed out that while the National Guard does fly out of there, they only fly A-10 Thunderbolt II "Warthogs", which have a max speed of about 439 miles per hour, far short of the 768 mph needed to break the sound barrier.

No aircraft flying out of Fort Leonard Wood could have caused a sonic boom, the FLW communications office said. The B-2 Stealth Bomber flies out of nearby Whiteman Air Force Base—in fact, the base hosts 20 bombers. But the B-2 only hits Mach 0.95 (630 mph) at top speed.

However, the T-38 Talon training jet flies out of Whiteman, and it can reach Mach 1.3 (858 mph). Could the boom have come from a T-38 training session? A public affairs officer at Whiteman stated, "The aircraft stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base all fly at sub-sonic speeds, so the noise would not have resulted from one of our aircraft."

Could Boeing be the culprit? The company's St. Louis facility focuses on defense, space and security. As of Thursday at close of business, multiple calls to Boeing had not produced any clear information about the matter.

Two giant holes opened up Saturday afternoon in the southbound lanes of Florida's Turnpike near Hard Rock Stadium, snarling traffic and closing lanes and two exits.

Crew continued to repair the sinkhole-like openings early Sunday morning and lanes reopened after 10 a.m.

"No one was hurt. That is our mission, said Joe Sanchez, a spokesman for the Florida Highway Patrol.

"Can you imaging a car, doing 75 miles per hour, running into this?

The openings aren't natural-occurring sinkholes because they were caused by a broken water line under a southbound section of the turnpike just north of Northwest 199th Street in Miami-Dade County.

Southbound traffic iwas diverted to the Homestead Extension (821) of the Turnpike. The 2X (NW 199th St.) and 4X (County Line Road) exits were shut down.

FHP said it was notified of the holes at 1 p.m. Saturday. There were no immediate reports of damage to vehicles or injuries related to the holes in the highway.

A one-year-old girl has died after a pit bull attacked her in Hermanus.

Police say the family dog, a power breed, attacked the child and her grandmother for no apparent reason yesterday.

The girl suffered severe bite marks on her head and body.

Her grandmother is recovering in hospital.

The police's Frederick Van Wyk says, "The pit bull, a family dog, was taken to Hermanus' animal welfare and put down. The grandmother was transferred to a nearby hospital for medical treatment. We've opened an inquest docket for further investigation."

A woman who was arrested for driving under the influence also faces additional charges in connection with sparking a wildfire in Calaveras County that prompted evacuations Sunday.

The fire was reported just after 1 p.m. east of San Andreas after California Highway Patrol officers were investigating a report of a woman driving up Mountain Ranch Road as her car was emitting sparks, officials said.

Officers arrested Renee Hogan for driving under the influence, CHP said.

Investigators said they determined Hogan was driving her 2002 Kia Rio on a right rear rim that was creating sparks. Her vehicle later burned as the flames spread.