Earth ChangesS


Frog

'Millions' of frogs shut down major Greek highway

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© AP Photo/Aggelioforos, Pavlos Makridis
Greek officials say a horde of frogs has forced the closure of a key northern highway for two hours.

Thessaloniki traffic police chief Giorgos Thanoglou says "millions" of the amphibians covered the tarmac Wednesday near the town of Langadas, some 12 miles east of Thessaloniki.

"There was a carpet of frogs," he said.

Authorities closed the highway after three car drivers skidded off the road trying to dodge the frogs. No human injuries were reported.

Bizarro Earth

Watch the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in real time

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© New Scientist
Can't believe that the wretched Deepwater Horizon oil pipe is still leaking? Now there's a way to check for yourself.

BP has set up a live video feed of the biggest leak, which is available online 24/7.

The video shows oil spewing from the end of the riser pipe, the larger of two leak points on the seafloor. This pipe initially ran vertically from the blowout preventer on the sea bed right up to the surface but collapsed when the surface fire was put out. The graphic below (available as a pdf) illustrates the setup.

The riser insertion tube, which has been jammed into the riser pipe and is currently capturing roughly 2000 barrels of oil a day, is hidden by the spewing oil in the video.

The live stream should make interesting viewing tomorrow, 27 May, as BP attempts a "top kill" by pumping heavy mud into the blowout preventer to try to stop the flow entirely.

Ambulance

Canada: Man Attacked by Bear

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© David Cooper/Torstar News ServiceBear attack victim Gerald Marois, 47, of Waubaushene, Ont., described the terror he endured as a giant black bear repeatedly tried to drag him out of a tree.
Mauled man tells of bear attack

Gerald Marois heard the bear before he saw it.

"I turned around and he was about 50 feet away - one of the biggest bears I had ever seen in my life. He looked at me and moved sideways a bit, I start backing up and he just charged me. He came full blast, man."

Marois, 47, a retired steelworker and experienced hunter from Waubaushene, was mauled by a large black bear Tuesday evening in a remote wooded area about 30 kilometres northwest of Orillia.

He was airlifted to Sunnybrook hospital, where he gave a reporter a terrifying account of his near-death encounter.

Marois was planting a food plot in a small clearing about 45 metres (150 feet) inside the bush line, where he planned to hunt deer in the fall - "My dad taught me that's where you get the big buck" - when the bear came up from behind him.

Bizarro Earth

Magnitude 6.4 - Southeast of The Ryukyu Islands

Japan Earthquake_260510
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Wednesday, May 26, 2010 at 08:53:08 UTC

Wednesday, May 26, 2010 at 05:53:08 PM at epicenter

Location:
25.796°N, 129.956°E

Depth:
10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program

Distances:
235 km (145 miles) E of Naha, Okinawa, Japan

600 km (375 miles) ENE of Ishigaki-jima, Ryukyu Islands, Japan

645 km (400 miles) S of Kagoshima, Kyushu, Japan

1440 km (890 miles) SW of TOKYO, Japan

MIB

Gulf Oil Spill Could Have Been Sealed in 8 Hours Anytime

gulf oil spill

Ladies and Gentlemen:

The Deepwater Horizon sinking caused twisted 21 inch riser piping to start leaking in three places at 5,000 feet in the Gulf Seabed. Sadly the proven methods to stop the leak still have not been used since 042010 until today at 052010 for reasons unknown. BP, Governor of Florida and Governor of LA were all given, along with the President, the Counter Pressure Plug information from a UK inventor Branko R. Babic as he invented same in 1991 for Kuwait Oil Fires above the ground and they will work underwater with ROV welding special thick steel tubes with washers to be welded to the interior while the tubes allow full flow of gas, oil, water through tubes into the gulf.

ROV's can be used to weld underwater the 5 inch thick washers compressed with thick rubber washers against the inside pipe sealing off all leaking oil, gas and water while the straight through pipe could take the contents flowing through to the top of the sea into barges. Keep in mind the CPP with flow pipe has a ball valve wheel operated to shut down the flow and BP could then try to seal the BOP stopping the leak entirely.

BP and Horizon personnel reviewing the messages since 041610 first started denying the idea had merit and they put a straw type pipe six inches inside with rubber flaps then started drawing off oil and gas from one leaking area but BP refused to consider the CPP Invention of Branko R. Babic or suggestion to use a "Jet Swet' type invention to seal the big pipe and allow the small pipe to function until welded in place then the ball valve would shut down the well so they could try to use the BOP to seal.

Fish

Gulf Oil Spill Could Foul Cuban Waters

Havana, Cuba - At a nesting area for green sea turtles on a beach in western Cuba, scientists dig for baby sea turtles.

Faced with a host of predators at the water's edge, only a few lucky ones will survive under the best of circumstances.

But yet, Cuba's sea turtles may face another danger -- the massive and growing BP oil spill some 500 miles to the north.


Bizarro Earth

Will Dormant Mt. Baekdu Volcano Awaken?

Mt. Baekdu
© Korea Times fileCheonji, the crater lake at the top of Mt. Baekdu.
Mountain Baekdu, a dormant volcano on the border between North Korea and China, is showing signs of a possible eruption in the near future, experts warned Tuesday.

"Baekdu could erupt anytime soon," said geologist Yoon Sung-hyo at Pusan National University, who has monitored the nation's highest mountain (2,744 meters) for any changes. "A variety of indicators are backing this scenario. The thing we should try to predict is when. It's clear it's imminent."

The geologist cautiously raised speculation that an eruption could take place in a couple of years.

According to historical records, Baekdu was an active volcano. Major activity in the 1960s created a caldera on its peak, whose circumference is nearly 14 kilometers with an average depth of 213 meters and maximum of 384 meters.

Volcanic ash from this eruption has been found as far away as the southern part of Hokkaido, Japan, according to records.

Small-scale eruptions were recorded roughly on a centurial basis - in 1413, 1597, 1668 and 1702. The latest volcanic eruption recorded at the 2,744-meter mountain was back in 1903.

Bizarro Earth

Alert Level Raised for Aleutian Island Volcano

Anchorage, Alaska -- Scientists are raising the alert level for Cleveland Volcano in Alaska's Aleutian chain after satellite data has indicated thermal anomalies.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory on Tuesday raised the level to advisory status.

There is no real-time seismic network at the volcano. Scientists say unrest there is frequent, and short-lived explosions with ash plumes up to 20,000 feet can occur without warning and may not be detected by satellites.

Cleveland is about 940 miles southwest of Anchorage, on a remote and uninhabited island in the Aleutians chain.

The observatory says the last significant eruption of the 5,676-foot volcano began in February 2001 and eventually produced a lava flow that reached the ocean. There were minor eruptions in January, June and October 2009.

Bizarro Earth

Magnitude 6.3 - Northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Azores Earthquake_250510
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at 10:09:06 UTC

Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at 08:09:06 AM at epicenter

Location:
35.342°N, 35.940°W

Depth:
10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program

Distances:
625 km (390 miles) SW of Santa Cruz das Flores, Azores, Portugal

740 km (460 miles) WSW of Horta, Azores, Portugal

960 km (590 miles) WSW of Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal

2400 km (1490 miles) W of LISBON, Portugal

Cloud Lightning

Kenya: Floods Death Toll Rises to 100

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© Unknown
Nairobi - More than 100 people have been killed by floods and thousands others displaced as the rains continue to wreak havoc.

Some 500 families have been displaced in Trans Nzoia District by the floods that have destroyed human life and vegetation.

Kenya Red Cross Society communications officer Nelly Muluka said some of the displaced families risked contracting waterborne diseases.

She said medical officers had been sent to parts of North Rift, Nyanza, Coast and North Eastern to assist displaced families.

"Public health officials have been dispatched to sensitise the families on how to avoid contracting waterborne diseases," said Ms Muluka.

Also at the risk of contracting water-borne diseases are more than 3,000 internally displaced families in transit camps in the North Rift.

"There are fears of outbreak of contagious diseases due to (poor) hygienic condition in some of the camps," warned Mr Patrick Nyongesa, Kenya Red Cross Society North Rift manager.