Earth ChangesS


Attention

Third dead whale found within a month off central Vietnam

Nghe An
Thanh Nien News
Tue, 12 Apr 2016 15:59 UTC
Local fishers hold a funeral ceremony for a dead whale in Nghe An Province on April 8, 2016.
© Tuoi TreLocal fishers hold a funeral ceremony for a dead whale in Nghe An Province on April 8, 2016.
At least three dead whales have been found in the central province of Nghe An over the last month, local media reported.

In the latest incident, on Monday afternoon, some tourists found the carcass of a whale on Cua Lo Beach.

The whale measured around one meter in length and 40 kilograms in weight. There were some wounds on its body.

Local fishers then held a ritual burial for the whale, which they considered sacred.

Three days earlier, a 44-year-old fisher also found a dead whale near the same beach. The whale was around 1.5 meter-long and weighed 80 kilograms.
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Sun

Bhubaneswar, India shatters all time heat records at 45.8°C, unprecedented heatwave continues


Skymet Weather
Tue, 12 Apr 2016 04:38 UTC
record heat in Bhubaneswar, India
© biswanath swain A stretch of National Highway near ISKCON temple wears a deserted look as Bhubaneswar registered a record temperature on Monday
The capital city of Odisha, Bhubaneswar, is under the grip of severe heat wave this summer season. While the city recorded its highest day temperature at 43.2°C on 5th April, the mercury has been settling several notches above than the normal. Due to an unprecedented heatwave, the Naveen Patnaik government has ordered the closure of all the schools till April 20.

The city recorded the maximum temperature on Sunday which was the highest in Odisha and second highest in India. But beating its own record, city witnessed the highest ever maximum temperature on Monday evening at 45.8°C.

The all-time highest maximum temperature for Bhubaneswar stands at 45.0°C.

Heatwave is experienced when the maximum temperature over a place is above 40°C and five to six degrees above normal average temperatures.

While April is just half way through and temperatures are setting new records every other day, peak summer months may bring more harsh weather to several cities of East India.

Bhubaneswar has been witnessing a long dry spell since March 21, which has led to sharp rise in the mercury. Due to absence of any rain or cool winds, the temperatures has been on a higher side.

According to Skymet weather, the heat wave conditions in East India including Odisha and Jharkhand is likely to continue for another week.

Comment: Unusually harsh summer heat kills 66 in India's Telangana state

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Attention

Magnitude 5.6 earthquake recorded near Kiska Volcano, Alaska


Island Crisis News
Mon, 11 Apr 2016 21:17 UTC
Alaska 5.6 earthquake
An earthquake with preliminary magnitude of 5.6 has been recorded near Kiska Volcano, Alaska on 11 April 2016 20:10:35. The earthquake epicenter was located at precisely 109km SW of Kiska Volcano, Alaska and at a depth of approximately 28 km. A provisional tsunami alert have been issued for the region following this earthquake. Other details about the earthquake were not immediately available, and there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. We will update this report as soon as we have more information.

Below is a map showing the location of the earthquake and additional information pertaining to the exact location of the epicenter.
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Wolf

Dingo bites toddler on beach in Western Australia

Ruth Doherty
travel.aol.co.uk
Mon, 11 Apr 2016 18:52 UTC
Dingo
Dingo
A two-year-old girl has been bitten by a wild dog during a beach picnic on a holiday in Western Australia.

The Dwyer family were holidaying at the Kooljaman resort at Cape Leveque, 220km north of Broome, on Friday evening when the attack occurred.

Christine Dwyer, 27, said they were having an evening picnic on the beach when the animal approached her daughter Stella and attempted to steal her stuffed toy elephant.

Speaking to ABC News, Christine explained: "[Stella] tried to crawl away and was crying and it just ran back in and grabbed her on the lower back and buttock.

Comment: See also: Dingo euthanised after attacking tourist on Fraser Island, Australia

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Fire

Rumbling Africa volcano Nyiragongo has Goma Observatory experts concerned

Mark Robinson
The Weather Network
Sat, 09 Apr 2016 16:23 UTC
volcano Africa Nyirangongo
© The Weather NetworkNyirangongo volcano in new phase of activity
The question I keep getting when I tell people that I jumped into Nyiragongo, an active volcano in the Democratic Republic of Congo is: "What did you do to the mountain!?"

It's an odd question, but it makes sense when you realize that Nyiragongo is suddenly undergoing a new, more active phase. And it's got the volcanologists at the Goma Observatory worried.

New activity in the crater over the last few weeks has spurred the scientists into action as a new vent has opened up on the ledge just above the lava lake. This was preceded by a series of earthquakes that knocked large rocks off the crater walls that I had only recently scaled.

The ledge that the vent opened on is the one that I didn't make it down to, but the rest of the team did. However, I did stand directly above the area in which it opened, but, at the time, I took no notice of the nondescript ground far below me. I had zero inkling that less then 10 days after I left, magma would boil out of a newly formed crack in the earth.

The vent has formed on the side of the caldera closest to the city of Goma at the base of the mountain. In addition, new fumoroles (gas and steam vents) have opened up on the flank of the volcano close to where lava erupted in the 2002 eruption. In that eruption, 147 people lost their lives and over a third of Goma was destroyed.

Comment: Though Africa get far less publicity than other parts of the world, Mother Nature has been very active there . This map only shows Earth change activity since January of 2016. Click play to view.



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Bizarro Earth

Massive 2015 Alaskan landslide triggering mega-tsunami estimated to be biggest non-volcanic landslide in North American history


The Watchers
Sun, 10 Apr 2016 00:00 UTC
landslide tyndall glacier
After a period of heavy rains, about 200 million metric tons of rock tumbled down a remote Southeast Alaska mountain. The massive landslide, lasting about 60 seconds, occurred on October 17, 2015, and landed on the toe of Tyndall Glacier and into Taan Fiord in Icy Bay, Alaska.

The event generated a local megatsunami that sheared trees more than 152.4 meters (500 feet) up on a peninsula within the fiord. It was big enough to register at the nearest tidal gauge 155 km (96.3 miles) away. For comparison, the 2011 tsunami in Japan reached about 39.6 meters (130 feet) above sea level.

This event, now estimated as the biggest nonvolcanic landslide, by volume, in North America's written history, was registered by special seismograms monitored by the Global CMT Project at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory whose seismologists Göran Ekström and Colin Stark have invented a new technique that uses seismic waves to detect landslides in remote areas where they might otherwise go unrecorded.
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Cloud Precipitation

Floods in Malawi leave at least 12 dead and force thousands to evacuate

Benard Juma
Floodlist
Mon, 11 Apr 2016 12:17 UTC
FLOODS MALAWI
© Malawi 24
Heavy rains which have persisted in the Northern and Central regions of Malawi for several days have led to fatal floods in some low-lying areas.

At least ten people are feared dead and hundreds of families displaced. A number of buildings and homes were also reported to have collapsed due to the floods. Many road networks were flooded and rendered impassable.

Mzuzu

According to Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), two people suffered serious injuries when a wall of their house collapsed after heavy rain. Both victims were taken to Mzuzu Central Hospital but both later died. Hospital administrator confirmed the deaths of a ten year old and an eleven month old child.

There are also unconfirmed reports that as many as 10 people have died as a result of floods in districts of Mzuzu.
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Binoculars

Wrong time, wrong place: Lost snowy owl seen in Cornwall, UK

Lyn Barton
Plymouth Herald
Sun, 10 Apr 2016 10:51 UTC
Snowy owl
Snowy owl
The scene of engine houses against the backdrop of a crisp blue sky might be fairly common in Cornwall, but what is not is the small white bird nestling in the hedgerow.

This snowy owl, which was snapped by photographer Adam Whitehouse, was probably trying to gather its bearings after flying way off course.

The eye-catching birds are native to Arctic regions in North America and Eurasia rather than the tip of West Cornwall.

Mr Whitehouse said the pretty white visitor stopped off for a spell at St Just on April 4 and was pictured here just above Kenidjack Valley.
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Fish

Thousands of dead fish found on beach in Samoa

Blue Chen-Fruean
Samoa News
Sat, 09 Apr 2016 21:00 UTC
goatfish
Goatfish
It was a horrific scene according to villagers, where thousands of dead juvenile fish washed ashore and were laid out on one side of Amouli Beach.

Employees of the Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources (DMWR) were dispatched to the area after concerned villagers called.

Thousands of dead juvenile fish were found on the shores of Amouli village this past Wednesday. Exactly what caused it is unknown at this time.
© Ekueta Schuster/DMWRThousands of dead juvenile fish were found on the shores of Amouli village this past Wednesday. Exactly what caused it is unknown at this time.
Samoa News spoke to two DMWR employees who confirmed that samples of the water have been shipped off island for analysis and testing, to determine if there are nitrites, or ammonia in the water — pollutants that may have contributed to Wednesday's unexpected event.

The group of dead fish included species of rabbitfish (lo), squirrelfish (malau), and goatfish (i'a sina).

DMWR's Alama Tua explained that DMWR staff biologists would test the fish to determine the cause of death. The American Samoa Environmental Protection Agency (AS-EPA) is also on board, assisting DMWR in trying to find out what happened.
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Rainbow

Stunning double rainbow, mammatus clouds create epic sky over Newark, Delaware


Strange Sounds
Fri, 08 Apr 2016 20:29 UTC
A double rainbow is an awesome meteorological phenomenon on its own. But when mammatus clouds appear at the same time... It becomes epic. This is what happened in the sky of Newark, Delaware on April 7, 2016.
Double rainbow in Delaware
© Weatherman111 via Instagram
In a double rainbow, a second arc is seen outside the primary arc, and has the order of its colours reversed, with red on the inner side of the arc.
Double rainbow
© jackiefabs218 via Instagram
Mammatus are pouch-like cloud structures and a rare example of clouds in sinking air. Sometimes very ominous in appearance, mammatus clouds are harmless and do not mean that a tornado is about to form.
Mammatus clouds
© Mraaronprice via Instaram
In fact, mammatus are usually seen after the worst of a thunderstorm has passed. Mammatus are long lived if the sinking air contains large drops and snow crystals since larger particles require greater amounts of energy for evaporation to occur.

Mammatus typically develop on the underside of a thunderstorm's anvil and can be a remarkable sight, especially when sunlight is reflected off of them.
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