Earth ChangesS


Igloo

Blizzard Causes 100 Car Pileup in North Dakota I-94 Blocked

Interstate 94, Highway 10 to close at 7 p.m.

Detroit Lakes, Minnesota - (6:30 p.m.) The Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Minnesota State Patrol will close Interstate 94 from Moorhead to Alexandria and Highway 10 from Moorhead to Detroit Lakes at 7 p.m. due to hazardous road conditions. The highways will remain closed until further notice.


Snow plows will be pulled from all area state highways and interstates in Mahnomen, Clay, Becker, Wilkin, Otter Tail, Traverse, Grant, Douglas, Big Stone, Stevens, Pope and Swift counties. Motorists are advised not to travel until conditions improve and Mn/DOT and the Minnesota State Patrol open the roads.

Motorists should plan accordingly. When a road is closed it is illegal to travel in that area. Motorists can be fined up to $1,000 and/or sentenced to 90 days in jail. In addition, if travelers need to be rescued from a closed road, other expenses and penalties will apply.

Attention

Now It's Snowing -- in Phoenix

With plunging temperatures and lingering cloud cover, Valley residents caught a rare glimpse of what many thought were brief periods of snow flurries Thursday.

Sightings were reported in Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Fountain Hills, Cave Creek, Carefree, Peoria, Glendale and Anthem, Apache Junction, Mesa and parts of Phoenix.

However, National Weather Service officials said that what people actually saw was a phenomenon called graupel -- soft hail that freezes higher in the atmosphere and as it comes down, warms and melts a little, much like a snowflake.

X

Arizona, US: Officials closing in on cause of mysterious bat die-off at bridge

Arizona Game and Fish officials are a few steps closer to unraveling the mystery behind the death of 69 bats under an east-side bridge even as more are found dead.

Another dozen bats were found dead Tuesday and Wednesday under a bridge on East Speedway where the road crosses the Pantano Wash.

Rabies has been eliminated as a cause of death after three bats found under the bridge Monday morning tested negative for the disease, said Mark Hart, a spokesman for the Arizona Game and Fish Department. Test results came back Wednesday morning.

It could be a week or more before the department receives the results of testing for white-nose syndrome, but officials say it is unlikely Tucson bats acquired the fungal infection. First documented in upstate New York in 2006, the syndrome has killed millions of bats in the East and has spread as far west as Oklahoma.

Fish

Haiti investigates dead fish mystery

Image
© Unknown
Click here to watch the video.

Authorities near the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic are investigating the mysterious death of scores of fish in a lake.

Environmental officials are testing samples, while the government tries to allay fears that it is linked to a deadly cholera epidemic.

Michel Chancy, the Haitian Agriculture Minister, said: "At this time we cannot connect this problem with cholera. Cholera affects people, not fish. The fish don't have anything to do with cholera. Something else caused this problem. It could be something toxic, a disease."

Igloo

US: Western states blitzed with storms, snow and rain

Image
© Rob Schumacher / The Arizona Republic via AP Brian King of Cypress, Calif., scrapes snow and ice off his pickup truck Thursday morning in Flagstaff, Ariz. King, trying to return home from a Christmas trip, was trapped in Flagstaff due to the blizzard that closed Interstate 40 and Interstate 17.
New Mexico and Colorado in path of storm that closed roads, cut power in California, Arizona and Nevada

Phoenix - Blizzard conditions were moving across the West on Thursday after shutting down major roads in Arizona, blasting California and Nevada with frigid winds and leaving an area of western Washington in a white-out on Wednesday.

Heavy snow fell in some mountainous regions on Wednesday and rains soaked lower elevations, cutting power to thousands and causing numerous traffic tie-ups and accidents.

A blizzard warning was issued in parts of Arizona on Wednesday, and forecasters warned the system would move into neighboring New Mexico on Thursday. Colorado's mountains could see up to two feet of snow by Friday.

Below is an overview by state.

Recycle

Sanitation Department's Slow Snow Cleanup was a Budget Protest

new york, blizzard
© Gregory P. MangoOn East 7th Street between Greenwood Avenue and Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn, NY. This street in Brooklyn has yet to be plowed. It could be one of the worst blocks in Brooklyn.
These garbage men really stink.

Selfish Sanitation Department bosses from the snow-slammed outer boroughs ordered their drivers to snarl the blizzard cleanup to protest budget cuts -- a disastrous move that turned streets into a minefield for emergency-services vehicles, The Post has learned.

Miles of roads stretching from as north as Whitestone, Queens, to the south shore of Staten Island still remained treacherously unplowed last night because of the shameless job action, several sources and a city lawmaker said, which was over a raft of demotions, attrition and budget cuts.

"They sent a message to the rest of the city that these particular labor issues are more important," said City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens), who was visited yesterday by a group of guilt-ridden sanitation workers who confessed the shameless plot.

Bizarro Earth

Exceedingly Rare Indiana Earthquake Felt In Chicago

An exceedingly rare earthquake struck central Indiana Thursday morning, and some Chicagoans felt tremors.

Image
The 3.8-magnitude earthquake was centered about 15 miles east-southeast of Kokomo, Ind. and about 50 miles north-northeast of Indianapolis, and was felt around 6:55 a.m. Chicago time.

The epicenter was five miles southeast of the rural town of Greentown in Howard County, Ind.

John Steinmetz of the Indiana Geological Survey said there have only been two earthquakes of equal or greater magnitude in central Indiana in the past 175 years.

Comment: The Sott editors received an e-mail today from a reader who lives near the epicenter of the earthquake:

Having recently re-read "Secret History" and Laura's series on comets and asteroids I thought you might be interested.

We live approx. 20 miles from what is being described of the epicenter of the small ( initial news reports placed it at 4.2 and then dropped it to 3.8 ) earthquake in central Indiana at about 7:55 this morning, 12/30/10.

The "quake" was immediately preceded ( approx. 3 to 4 seconds ) by the sound of an explosion. My wife and several others, according to reports on local news stations thought something had either exploded,run in to or fallen on their homes. Our trash service was in front of our house at the time and my wife thought maybe the truck had somehow hit our house and as she went to check the shaking started. Having read Laura's work I just thought this might be of interest to the SOTT team. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Thanks for your time,

Kelly W.
Noblesville ,IN


Bizarro Earth

Small Earthquake Hits Near Central Oregon

A small earthquake has struck in central Oregon.

The U.S. Geological Survey says a 3.6-magnitude temblor struck at 1:17 a.m. Thursday and was centered near the town of Maupin, about 90 southeast of Portland.

The USGS website showed that the quake's intensity was light and very few people reported feeling it.

Quakes of this magnitude rarely cause any problems.

Comment: From USGS:

Date-Time:
Thursday, December 30, 2010 at 09:17:46 UTC

Thursday, December 30, 2010 at 01:17:46 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
45.132°N, 120.932°W

Depth:
16.6 km (10.3 miles) set by location program

Region:
Oregon

Distances:
13 km (8 miles) ESE (112°) from Maupin, OR

20 km (12 miles) NW (316°) from Shaniko, OR

23 km (14 miles) SE (124°) from Tygh Valley, OR

140 km (87 miles) ESE (107°) from Portland, OR

Location Uncertainty:
horizontal +/- 1.1 km (0.7 miles); depth fixed by location program

Parameters:
NST= 41, Nph= 42, Dmin=12 km, Rmss=0.33 sec, Gp= 97°,
M-type=duration magnitude (Md), Version=1

Source:
Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network

Event ID:
uw12300917


Bizarro Earth

US: Earthquake Magnitude 3.8 - Indiana

Image
© USGS
Date-Time:
Thursday, December 30, 2010 at 12:55:21 UTC

Thursday, December 30, 2010 at 07:55:21 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
40.427°N, 85.888°W

Depth:
4.9 km (3.0 miles) set by location program

Region:
Indiana

Distances:
20 km (15 miles) ESE of Kokomo, Indiana

20 km (15 miles) WSW of Marion, Indiana

40 km (25 miles) S of Wabash, Indiana

75 km (50 miles) NNE of Indianapolis, Indiana

Alarm Clock

Cold Spell Endangers Florida's Manatees

manatees
© Carol Grant / Getty ImagesA little snuggling to keep the blood flowing in chilly waters.

Folks up and down East Coast aren't the only warm-blooded creatures fleeing the cold this week.

Manatees - the giant marine mammals with paddle-shaped tails - are swimming en masse from colder-than-usual Gulf of Mexico waters into warmer springs and power plant discharge canals, reports the Associated Press.

Earlier this week, more than 300 manatees swam into the outflow of Tampa Electric's Big Bend Power Station.

Said Wendy Anastasiou, an environmental specialist at the power station's viewing center: "It's like a warm bathtub for them. They come in here and hang out and loll around."

2010 has proven to be a particularly deadly year for the gentle giants, which can weigh 1,200 pounds and grow to 10 feet long.