Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Turrialba Volcano in Costa Rica erupting 3 times per hour


Latin America Herald Tribune
Sat, 07 May 2016 19:24 UTC
Turrialba Volcano
© OVSICORI via FacebookTurrialba Volcano erupted at 3:25 p.m. on Monday, May 4, 2015
The Turrialba volcano in central Costa Rica is erupting three times per hour, the National Seismological Network reported Friday.

While volcanic activity remains at the same level of recent days, the tremors accompanying the eruptions are growing less intense, the network said. The ash plume barely rises above the crater's edge, a height of less than 500 meters (1,640 feet).

Turrialba, located some 70 kilometers (43 miles) east of San Jose, entered a phase of increased activity in October 2014, emitting ash, gases and incandescent material. The latest round of eruptions began last week.

Entrances to the national park that surrounds the volcano have been closed as a precaution. Turrialba, which rises 3,340 meters (10,950 feet) above sea level, is Costa Rica's second-highest volcano after Irazu.
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Bizarro Earth

Millions of dead fish wash up on Vietnamese coast

Lindsay Murdoch
Sydney Morning Herald
Fri, 06 May 2016 19:17 UTC
dead fish
© Phuong Tung and Nghe Si/FacebookSome of the dead fish which have washed up on the coast of Vietnam, as reported by locals on Facebook
Millions of fish have washed up dead along a 125-kilometre stretch of the Vietnamese coast in one of the communist country's worst environmental disasters.

Soldiers have been deployed to bury tonnes of fish, clams and the occasional whale that began dying in early April along the north-central coast, including some popular tourist beaches.

Vietnamese officials facing growing anger over the disaster have not announced the official cause of the deaths, which have affected the livelihoods of tens of thousands of families.

Some officials have suggested it may be toxins or algal blooms known as red tide.

But Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has ordered an investigation into how a Taiwanese-owned steel plant received approval to pipe waste directly into the sea.
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Red Flag

Cleveland Volcano in Aleutian Islands under heightened alert after explosion


Alaska Dispatch News
Fri, 06 May 2016 19:13 UTC
cleveland volcano
© NOAASmoke rises from Cleveland Volcano in the Aleutians on Aug. 8, 2011, in this aerial photo provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Alaska Volcano Observatory staff raised the volcano's alert level after detecting an explosion Thursday evening.
The Cleveland Volcano in the Aleutian Islands is again under a heightened alert level from the Alaska Volcano Observatory, after researchers there recorded an explosion Thursday evening.

The observatory issued a statement raising the eastern Aleutians volcano's alert level to watch, and its aviation color code to orange, late Thursday.

Researchers said in the statement they detected an explosion at 6:44 p.m. Thursday using both air pressure and seismic data.

"There are no recent satellite views since the detected explosion. However, previous Cleveland explosions have typically produced ash emissions," observatory staff wrote.

Nearly a year ago, scientists recorded a restless period at the volcano on Chuginadak Island, including an explosion -- but no detected ash cloud -- in July.

In March, an eruption at Pavlof Volcano on the Alaska Peninsula sent an ash plume to an altitude of 20,000 feet, coating the nearby village of Nelson Lagoon and disrupting flights across Alaska as the material drifted northeast across Interior Alaska into Canada.
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Snowflake Cold

Rare May snowfall in northern Chinese cities


CCTV
Mon, 02 May 2016 18:57 UTC
Snow China
Unusual snow in May blanketed the suburb of Beijing and the mountainous region in Chengde City, north China's Hebei Province on Monday, forming an amazingly gorgeous scenery.

Thunder shower hit the Yanqing District of Beijing at dusk on Sunday, with average precipitation reaching 19.1 millimeters from 17:00 on Sunday to 14:00 on Monday. Because of the high altitude of the Haituo Mountain, where the temperature was minus 0 degree Celsius, the rainwater turned to snow.

Elsewhere, the lowest temperature in Wulingshan National Nature Reserve in Chengde City dipped to minus 15 degrees Celsius and the depth of snow was estimated at 18 centimeters.

The current snowfall in May marks the second one in Chengde since 1991, according to local meteorological department.

"It is quite rare to see such snow and it really came all of a sudden," said Wang Jihui, staff member of Wulingshan National Nature Reserve.

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Airplane

7 injured by air turbulence on flight from Dominican Republic

Erin Dooley
abcnews.go.com
Thu, 05 May 2016 18:33 UTC
Plane
Seven people were transported to a hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida after an Allegiant Air jet hit turbulence returning from Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, first responders told ABC News. The flight was bound for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Allegiant Air's Flight 7001, a charter operated on behalf of Apple Vacations, encountered "unreported moderate clear air turbulence" Thursday afternoon and was diverted to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International airport, according to the company.

When the Airbus A319 landed, emergency personnel assisted four flight attendants and three passengers who had suffered multiple injuries, from bruises and lacerations to head injuries -- none life-threatening.

According to airline spokesperson Jessica Wheeler, a nurse aboard the flight assisted crew members following the turbulence, and all passengers were "ambulatory" by the time they were transported to Broward Health Medical Center.

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Airplane

17 passengers hurt as Hong Kong-bound flight hit by severe air turbulence over Borneo


South China Morning Post
Sat, 07 May 2016 18:26 UTC
plane
Passengers travelling from Bali - one of whom was severely injured - were rushed to hospital after plane ran into severe turbulence

Seventeen Chinese nationals were injured, with 12 taken to hospital, today as a Hong Kong Airlines flight departing from Bali, in Indonesia, was hit by severe turbulence.

"Twelve people were rushed to a hospital, one of them with a very serious injury," said Herni Pramuharjo, spokesman of the transport ministry said, according to the Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua. "Five others were treated at the health clinic in the airport. All of them were Chinese nationals."

The incident occurred when the aeroplane was flying over Borneo, about one hour after flight HX6704, bound for Hong Kong, took off from Bali International Airport.
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Cloud Lightning

Lightning bolt kills couple in Bangladesh


en.prothom-alo.com
Sat, 07 May 2016 17:50 UTC
lightning
A couple was killed by a lightning strike at Sikirchar in Chhengarchar municipality of Matlab Uttar upazila on Friday evening.

The deceased were identified as Ayat Ali, 60, and his wife Asabi Begum, 50, of the area.

Local Kamal Khan said a streak of thunderbolt struck Ayat Ali and his wife around 7:30pm while working at their courtyard, leaving them dead on the spot.
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Fire

From Uttarakhand to Canada, the world sees a flurry of forest fires

Shreya Biswas
India Today
Wed, 04 May 2016 11:32 UTC
Forest fire.
© APForest fire.
Here is a list of recent forest fires which have spoiled acres of woodlands and interrupted lives in India and elsewhere in the world.

As drought sucks regions of Maharastra and Telangana dry, the Himalayas are getting singed by forest fires.

From Uttarakhand to Jammu and Kashmir, lack of rainfall and scorching heat are sparking wildfires in dry forests which are getting wafted into residential areas by strong winds. Apart from losing acres of lands to these flames, human as well as animals are literally in the line of fire.

However, India is not the only country suffering. Wildfires seem to be springing up in different parts of the world.

Last year, Indonesia was hit by some devastating wildfires that killed 19 people and led to at least 5 lakh cases of respiratory tract infections as well as 100,000 premature deaths.

This year, the world continues to battle raging wildfires, with India being high on the list:
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Fire

Massive wildfires sweep through mountain forests in North India

biswajeet banerjee
ABC News
Mon, 02 May 2016 11:11 UTC
A major fire in the forests at Ahirikot in Srinagar, Uttarakhand state, India, Monday, May 2, 2016. Massive wildfires that have killed at least seven people in recent weeks were burning through pine forests in the mountains of northern India on Monday, in
© Press Trust of India
Massive wildfires that have killed at least seven people in recent weeks were burning through pine forests in the mountains of northern India on Monday, including parts of two tiger reserves.

With dense black smoke billowing in the skies for kilometers (miles), authorities were urging villagers to be on alert and tourists to avoid traveling to the Himalayan foothills, popular during the summer for their cooler temperatures.

Dozens of fires were spreading unpredictably in the states of Uttarakhand and neighboring Himachal Pradesh, officials said.

"We are struggling to bring the situation under control," forest officer Bhanu Prasad Gupta said in the state of Uttarakhand.

After state firefighters were unable for months to put out the fires, the Indian government sent air force helicopters over the weekend to drop water on blazes covering nearly 23 square kilometers (8 square miles) of pine forests.

After areas were soaked from above, groups of villagers fanned out into the steaming jungle forests and used green-leafed branches to beat out the embers still glowing on the ground.


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Alarm Clock

USGS: Volcano 'recharging' as earthquake swarm strikes Mount St. Helens, Washington

Madison Park
CNN
Sat, 07 May 2016 04:29 UTC
Mount St. Helens 2004
Mount St. Helens is a volcano in the state of Washington, seen here in 2004. It has recently been hit with a wave of small earthquakes.

In the past eight weeks, more than 130 small earthquakes have trembled beneath the surface of Mount St. Helens. At this point, "there is absolutely no sign that it will erupt anytime soon, but the data we collect tells us that the volcano is still very much alive," the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Seismologists reported that there are no anomalous gases,and no signs that the collection of magma, which is the molten rock beneath the surface of the Earth, is getting inflated in the recent swarm of earthquakes at the volcano. Although there are no signs of an imminent eruption, the volcano is recharging, scientists say.

Mount St. Helens is in Washington state, 95 miles south of Seattle and about 55 miles northeast of Portland, OR. The earthquakes have been measured at a magnitude of 0.5 or less and the largest was at 1.3. They've been measured about 1.2 to four miles underneath the surface. With such small magnitudes and such depths, you wouldn't be able to feel the earthquakes on the surface.

But it's not the magnitude that has gotten scientists attention -- it's the frequency.

They've become increasingly common since March 14, "reaching nearly 40 located earthquakes per week," according to the USGS.
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