Earth ChangesS


Info

Moderate quake hits remote area in southeast Iran

Iran says a magnitude 4.6 earthquake has rattled a remote region in the southeast.

State TV says the quake hit around 3 a.m. Friday in a sparsely populated area outside the town of Faryab in Kerman province. It says the quake didn't cause any casualties or damage but sent residents running out of their homes in panic.

The U.S. Geological Survey put the quake's magnitude at 4.5, with the epicenter about 648 miles (1,043 kilometers) southeast of Tehran.

Iran is located on seismic fault lines and is prone to earthquakes, experiencing at least one slight quake a day on average.

Some 26,000 people were killed by a magnitude 6.6 quake that flattened the historic southeastern city of Bam in 2003.

Igloo

Corrupt Science: Arctic Scientist Charles Monnett Under Investigation

Image
© The Associated Press / Subhankar BanerjeeThis undated file photo shows a polar bear in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Federal wildlife biologist Charles Monnett, whose observation that polar bears likely drowned in the Arctic helped galvanize the global warming movement, was placed on administrative leave as officials investigate him for scientific misconduct. Investigators’ questions have focused on a 2004 journal article that Monnett wrote about the bears, said thePublic Employees for Environmental Responsibility group that is representing him. Monnett was told July 18 that he was being put on leave, pending an investigation into "integrity issues."
Just five years ago, Charles Monnett was one of the scientists whose observation that several polar bears had drowned in the Arctic Ocean helped galvanize the global warming movement.

Now, the wildlife biologist is on administrative leave and facing accusations of scientific misconduct.

The federal agency where he works told him he was on leave pending the results of an investigation into "integrity issues." A watchdog group believes it has to do with the 2006 journal article about the bear, but a source familiar with the investigation said late Thursday that placing Monnett on leave had nothing to with scientific integrity or the article.

The source, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing investigation, wouldn't comment further.

The watchdog, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, filed a complaint on Monnett's behalf Thursday with the agency, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.

No Entry

US, Minnesota: Massive sinkhole triggered by Burnsville water main break


If you doubt the power of water, try taking a drive down County Road 11 in Burnsville.

Just be ready to slam on the brakes... hard.

An apparent water main break has triggered a massive sinkhole across the southbound lanes of County 11 between McAndrews and Palomino Drive.

The sinkhole is more than 30 feet deep and at least 30 feet across. Crews worked through the night on the problem and hope to have the road open sometime on Thursday or Friday.

Attention

US, Indiana: Airport Runways in No Danger After Sinkhole Discovery

The runways at the Monroe County Airport appear to be in no immediate danger after sinkholes were discovered in May.


Cloud Lightning

South Korea: Seoul officials under fire for allegedly "man-made" disasters as "freakishly heavy downpour" toll hits 59

Image
© AFP, Jang Seung-YoonSouth Korean men take pictures of a mass of mud after a landslide hit a street in southern Seoul
Authorities came under fire Friday for allegedly "man-made" disasters in South Korea as the toll from this week's record rainfall rose to 59 dead and 10 missing.

Among the dead were 16 killed when mudslides hit southern parts of Seoul on Wednesday and 13 who perished in a landslide in the Chuncheon region, 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of the capital.

Three others died in a landslide at Paju north of Seoul.

Experts and news media attacked Seoul city authorities, accusing them of making the situation worse through an allegedly reckless development of hills near residential areas in the south of the capital.

Some hillsides were redeveloped into public parks and hiking tracks, meaning rainwater could not be absorbed so easily, and natural waterways were changed to make artificial lakes, critics said.

Question

New Zealand - Dogs Maul Dozens of Sheep in Shock Attack

Sheep Attacked
© Paul Taylor

Three dogs have savaged about 40 sheep on a Rotorua farm in the worst attack in memory, animal control officers say.

The animals caused between $8000 and $10,000 worth of damage when they killed the mostly pregnant ewes yesterday, Rotorua District Council animal control supervisor Kevin Coutts told NZPA.

"The farmer's pretty gutted. It's almost half his flock gone."

A passerby saw the carnage and contacted animal control about 3.15pm, he said.

One of the dogs, a labrador cross, was shot by animal control officers, but the other two - a mastiff cross and a huntaway cross - escaped.

"We're not talking the menacing breeds here," Mr Coutts said.

Bad Guys

US: Fracking Operations Cause Thousands of Earthquakes in Arkansas

Geologists say fracking wastewater disposal wells in central Arkansas caused an outbreak of thousands of minor earthquakes.

The Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission placed a ban on fracking wastewater wells in the area yesterday. A moratorium on well activity had been in place for months as geologists investigated a possible link between fracking activity and the outbreak of more than 1,200 earthquakes that measured lower than 4.7 in magnitude.

Fracking is a common term for hydraulic fracturing, a controversial gas drilling method that involves pumping water and chemicals deep underground to break up rock and free natural gas.

Fracking produces millions of gallons of wastewater, and the gas industry has been experimenting with different ways to dispose of it.

Bizarro Earth

Earth Is Getting Fatter

Earth's Girth
© NASAData from GRACE, twin satellites launched in 2002 that make precise measurements of Earth's gravity, suggest ice loss is in fact changing the shape of our planet.

(ISNS) - Like many of its inhabitants, the Earth is getting thicker around the middle - that's what a new study out this week says. The increased bulge is due to the melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.

The Earth was never perfectly round to begin with, due to its spin. Just as an ice skater's skirt flutters up and away from her skates during her pirouette, water on Earth is more concentrated at the equator than at the poles.

As recently as 22,000 years ago, several miles of ice covered much of the northern hemisphere. Since the downward pressure of land-based ice has reduced as the ice melted, the land underneath has "rebounded" causing the Earth to become more spherical, said Steve Nerem, an aerospace engineer at the University of Colorado at Boulder and co-author of a new analysis of the Earth's bulge.

"It's a bit like a sponge, and it takes a while to come back to its original shape," Nerem said.

Scientists had observed the bulge shrinking for years, but then something changed. Around the middle of the 1990s, they noticed that the trend reversed and the Earth was getting fatter, like a ball squeezed at the top and bottom -- but until recently they didn't have the tools to understand why.

Cloud Lightning

US: Pennsylvania girl, 11, hit by lightning on sunny afternoon

Image
Canonsburg, Pennsylvania - An 11-year-old western Pennsylvania girl is recovering after she was struck by a bolt from the blue.

Lisa Wehrle tells the Observer-Reporter newspaper of Washington, Pa., that the sun was shining when her daughter, Britney, was struck by lightning Friday, apparently from a storm several miles away.

Lisa Wehrle says, "There was no rain. It was a beautiful day. All she heard was some thunder."

The lightning hit Britney as she was walking down a hill in North Strabane Township with a friend about 2:30 p.m. that day. The bolt hit her on the left shoulder, leaving a burn-like mark and exited her wrist, where it left another mark.

She was treated at a Pittsburgh hospital. Doctors discovered her arm was broken, but otherwise she's OK.

Cloud Lightning

US, Iowa: Record rainfall, flash flooding and fires in Dubuque

10.92 inches of rain fell in Dubuque overnight and rain continues to fall over eastern Iowa. That's a record for the day in Dubuque, and the most of any July day in history. There were unofficial reports of 12 inches in Galena and Peosta.


The rain caused widespread flash flooding, which covered parts of Highway 20 and forced officials to shut down both directions of traffic. Highway 20 was closed between Epworth and Peosta and also from mile marker 313 to the Illinois border. Highway 52 was closed from mile marker 51 to 52.

There were tornado warnings earlier in the evening Wednesday, but there have been no confirmed reports of tornado touchdowns or damage.

Dubuque County emergency responders were busy all night long helping people stranded in vehicles and putting out fires started as a result of the weather.