Red weather warnings are in force in Cantabria, Galicia, the Basque Country and Asturias, after strong winds of between 120km/h and 140km/h, rough seas and colossal waves struck the northern Spanish coast.
Earth Changes
Red weather warnings are in force in Cantabria, Galicia, the Basque Country and Asturias, after strong winds of between 120km/h and 140km/h, rough seas and colossal waves struck the northern Spanish coast.
© Wattsupwiththat
Mesopelagic fish live between 100 and 1000 metres below the surface.
Mesopelagic fish live between 100 and 1000 metres below the surface.
The discovery highlights that mesopelagic fish in the earth's oceans constitute 10 to 30 times more biomass than previously thought.
"This very large stock of fish that we have just discovered that holds 95 per cent of all the fish biomass in the world is untouched by fishers," said the researchers.
Scientists have attributed the secret behind their vast population to their capacity to avoid fish nets and prowling eyes of the birds.
Looming: A large storm cloud covers the Sydney Central Business District on Wednesday
A gigantic storm front moved in over Sydney on Wednesday and residents were quick to upload dramatic pictures of it to the internet.
Huge clouds hundreds of feet high, with some shaped like giant tubes, loomed menacingly over the city during rush hour.
As forecasters warned of heavy rain and flash flooding, Twitter and Facebook became awash with pictures of the looming storm, with one describing the conditions as 'apocalyptic'.
Jason Murray tweeted 'b****y hell' as the storm rolled in. Another wrote: 'Bad time for bike comute home. OK, that's a storm alright.'
Josh Noble thought the clouds reminded him of a certain Hollywood blockbuster.
'It's Independence Day,' he wrote.
A tornado touched down in Mesa over the weekend, something Valley weather experts said is a very rare occurrence for the area.
The National Weather Service in Phoenix confirmed the tornado on Sunday, one day after strong thunderstorms made their way through eastern parts of the Valley.
Debris that included down trees and an empty hot tub tossed over a brick wall confirmed rotating winds consistent with an EF0 strength tornado with speeds up to 85 mph.
"The EF Scale, which became operational on February 1, 2007, is used to assign a tornado a 'rating' based on estimated wind speeds and related damage," explains the NWS website.
While Arizona sees up to 10 tornadoes per year, almost all of them are in the northeastern part of the state.
The winter storms have caused an "unprecedented" wildlife disaster, wiping out thousands of rare seabirds, experts said yesterday.
An estimated 1,600 dead birds have washed up on beaches in Devon, Dorset, Cornwall and West Wales since early last month, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds reported.
The bodies of a further 1,000 seabirds have been recovered from beaches in the Channel Islands, with more than 20 species, including guillemots, razorbills, puffins and kittiwakes, among the dead.
The RSPB said that a "double whammy" of climate change and winter storms was making it harder for birds to find enough fish to survive. The deaths will have a serious impact on breeding colonies.
At least 28,000 birds have perished across the north eastern Atlantic region, with nearly 22,000 washed up along the French coast, the conservationists said.
At 12:54 p.m. the Sonoita-Elgin Fire District (SEFD) was called to the northeast corner of Lower Elgin Road and Rochelle.
"It was very actively burning when we arrived," said SEFD Battalion Chief Kevin Venos adding that the wildfire was brought under containment in less than 30 minutes. He said black smoke could be seen due to a pile of junk that had ignited.
While there was no structural damage, the fire spread into a nearby apple orchard. The density of trees prevented firefighters from bringing in emergency vehicles and so the fire had to be fought using hand tools.
The fire, which is still under investigation, was said to be human caused.
Venos said that despite all the rain, most of the local grasses are considered "fine fuels" and do not retain moisture for very long.
Grand Portage - For moose, this year's winter-long deep freeze across the Upper Midwest is truly ideal weather. The large, gangly creatures are adapted to deep snow: Their hollow fur insulates them like fiberglass does in a house. And the prolonged cold helps eradicate pests that prey on moose, like ticks and meningeal worm, or brain worm. Yet moose in Minnesota are dying at an alarming rate, and biologists are perplexed as to why.
In the 1980s, moose numbered about 4,000 in the northwest part of the state; today, there are about 100. In Northeast Minnesota, the population has dropped by half since 2006, to 4,300 from more than 8,800. In 2012, the decline was steep enough - 35 percent - that the state and local Chippewa tribes, which rely on moose meat for subsistence, called off the moose hunt. The mortality rate rebounded slightly this year, but moose continue to die at twice the normal rate to sustain a population. Researchers elsewhere, along the southern edge of moose territory in New Hampshire and Montana, are also beginning to notice declines in the animals' numbers.
Hundreds of ducks are being found dead along Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, and the state Department of Environmental Conversation says extensive ice coverage is to blame.
The ducks have been found along the Lake Ontario shoreline, the Niagara River, in the open waters of Lake Erie, and Dunkirk Harbor. Conservationists say the fish eating birds found dead are emaciated and lack water-proofing, which is often a side effect of starvation.
Biologists believe the extensive ice coverage on the lakes has forced wintering waterfowl to concentrate in the limited remaining open water. That, in turn, reduces the food for all and, along with severe cold, is killing off the undernourished birds.
Though the mortality rate is difficult to estimate, the DEC categorized it as "extensive."
© USGS
2014-03-05 09:56:58 UTC
2014-03-05 20:56:58 UTC+11:00 at epicenter
Location
14.735°S 169.822°E depth=636.8km (395.7mi)
Nearby Cities
262km (163mi) ESE of Sola, Vanuatu
298km (185mi) ENE of Luganville, Vanuatu
368km (229mi) NNE of Port-Vila, Vanuatu
735km (457mi) NNE of We, New Caledonia
879km (546mi) WNW of Nadi, Fiji
Technical Details
