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Peeved pachyderm: Elephant goes on the rampage in Kerala, India

 Elephant picking up vehicles and smashing them.

Pick-up van: A religious festival went awry when an elephant began picking up vehicles and smashing them. Devidasan was taking part in a festival at the Bhagavathi Temple in Kerala on Thursday
A religious festival went awry when an elephant began picking up vehicles and smashing them.

The great creature, named Devidasan, was taking part in a festival at the Bhagavathi Temple in the south Indian state of Kerala on Thursday.

However he proved to be at the end of the tether when he started destroying vehicles in his path.

He picked up a motorbike with his trunk before proving his herculean strength by grabbing an auto-rickshaw as though it were a toy and smashing it on the ground.

Devidasan then turned his violence on a nearby pick-up van, throwing it into the air three times before overturning it on its side.

Two mahouts (people who work with elephants) were on the back of the animal throughout the ordeal trying to control him.


Fire

Methane explosion in Russian coal mine kills 4, dozens trapped

Severnaya coal mine explosion
© Vorkutaugol
At least four miners were killed after a structural collapse at a coal mine in northern Russia, and the rescue operation was further complicated by a second explosion when emergency workers were trying to reach dozens of miners trapped underground, officials and media reports said Friday.

About 110 coal miners were underground at the "Severnaya" coal mine — operated by the Vorkutaugol company in the northern region of Komi — when a seismic jolt caused part of the structure to collapse on Thursday, the regional branch of the Emergency Situations Ministry said in a statement. Shortly before midnight, 80 of the miners had been rescued, the ministry said. Eight of them had suffered injuries.

Rescuers have also recovered the bodies of four more miners, while 26 others were listed as missing as of Friday afternoon, according to Russian media reports.

About an hour after the initial jolt, when attempts to evacuate workers were already underway, the mine suffered a second "explosion," Vorkutaugol technical director Igor Paykin said, the Interfax news agency reported Friday.

The second blast caused additional structural collapses in the mine, stoked a fire, and caused clouds of smoke to fill the mine shaft, Paykin was quoted as saying.

"It appears impossible to extinguish it [the fire] through ordinary methods," he said, Interfax reported. "We will look into the option of temporarily isolating the combustion section."

Comment: According to Vorkutaugol, the mine's owner, a methane explosion was responsible for the tragedy. The company said:
"According to preliminary data, the accident at the Severnaya mine was caused by the sudden discharge and explosion of methane in the mining area. This was confirmed by Russian Emergency Situations Ministry laboratory tests,"



Arrow Up

Indonesia's Mount Sinabung erupts twice in one day, spewing ash and smoke 3,000 meters high

Mount Sinabung eruption
© Youtube/BBC News
The Sinabung volcano in Indonesia erupted twice yesterday, sending avalanches of smoke as high as 3,000 metres to the east.

Authorities were closely monitoring Mount Sinabung on Sumatra, one of Indonesia's main islands, after putting it on the highest alert level in early June 2010.

Agus Salihin, a volcanologist at the Sinabung observation post, said the eruption was one of the biggest since early last year.

Sinabung volcano has been erupting continually since 2010 after being dormant for 400 years.

The Indonesian government said an area as far as 3.5 kilometres away had been declared a high-risk danger zone.

The government has set up an evacuation plan for civilians in the area and evacuated everyone in the high-risk danger zone.


Comment: For more information check out SOTT's Earth Changes Monthly Summaries at the bottom of our front page.


Red Flag

70-foot waves hit Hawaii

Giant wave
© Clark Little/Facebook
North Shore
Waves with up to 70-foot faces rolled into Oahu's North Shore on Monday, forcing an hours-long closure of Kamehameha Highway and damaging homes, according to Hawaii News Now.

On Tuesday, National Weather Service officials said the swell was one of the strongest surf events in Hawaii in the last 50 years. And, they warned, another swell is on its heels.

At least one home sustained serious damage from the waves, officials said, and they feared other homes were at risk. Officials also said surf had undermined the foundation of a lifeguard stand at Laniakea.

Waves toppled a Haleiwa home's seawall, undermined the home's foundation and washed away a tree. Waves were also showering cars, creating hazardous driving conditions and pushing rocks onto the roadway.



Ice Cube

4-inch hail pellets found in Pembroke, North Carolina

Large hail
© Adrienne Locklear
Large pellets of hail were found in North Carolina after a powerful storm made its way through the state.

US National Weather Service Wilmington NC shared a photo of two pieces of hail measuring about four inches each next to a ruler for comparison.

Large hail fell in Pembroke, NC
© Jason Lloyd
Large hail fell in Pembroke, NC
"Large hail fell in Pembroke, NC from a tornado-warned supercell in Robeson county earlier this evening - check this out!" They wrote while crediting Jason Lloyd for taking the photo.

A commenter shared a photo of seven large pieces of hail that also measured about three inches wide.

The storm left several homes across North Carolina damaged as tornado warnings were announced in various parts of the state.

Cloud Precipitation

Roads blocked after flooding in Jakarta, Indonesia

Flooding in the streets of Jakarta, 26 February 2016.
© BPBD
Flooding in the streets of Jakarta, 26 February 2016.
In Indonesia, Jakarta's Disaster Management Agency, BPBD, reported earlier today that heavy rainfall in Greater Jakarta and the surrounding areas has caused flooding across several parts of the city, causing traffic problems and some damage to buildings.

BPBD say that most of the rain fell in just one hour during the evening of 25 February 2016. In East Jakarta, the rain left flood water up to 90cm. BPBD say that around 40 people have been evacuated from their homes in Cakung.

Flooding has also been reported in areas of West and South Jakarta, and also in North Jakarta, in particular Kelapa Gading and Cilincing.

Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (Badan Meteorologi, Klimatologi, Dan Geofisika - BMKG) has predicted further rain over the weekend for Greater Jakarta, surrounding areas and across many parts of Indonesia.

Camera

Symbolic? Northern Lights take the form of a phoenix over Iceland

northern lights phoenix
© Hallgrimur P. Helgason/Caters
These dramatic images of the aurora borealis appear to show a phoenix rising from the ground
What do you reckon? Is this mesmerising image up there with the best recent pictures taken of the Northern Lights?

Shot in Iceland, it shows what looks like a huge phoenix with wings outstretched rising in to the night's sky.

It was captured by photographer Hallgrimur P. Helgason in Kaldársel, who said he had been shooting for an hour when the mythical creature appeared.

'It's really a thrill shooting the aurora, especially when they are so playful like they were that night,' said the 64-year-old.

Arrow Down

Large sinkhole swallows pickup truck in Gilbert, Arizona

truck in sinkhole in Gilbert, Arizona
© KPHO/KTVK
Christian Wolf said he was traveling around 45 mph when his truck went into the sinkhole.

Traveling in the Town of Gilbert this morning? You might want to avoid Greenfield Road.

A sinkhole has closed Greenfield Road between Germann and Queen Creek Roads.

One vehicle was swallowed by the sinkhole, but no other injuries or property damage has been reported.

It is unclear why the road collapsed.

This is the second sinkhole to appear in the East Valley in two weeks. A sinkhole on February 5 killed a farmer in Queen Creek.


Comment: For more information on this phenomenon see: Sinkholes: The groundbreaking truth


Snowflake

Snow way out: Blizzard leaves crew stranded on Antarctic ice-breaker

ice-breaker hit by blizzard
© ABCScienceOnline / YouTube
A crew of 68 people remain stranded on board a polar research ship more than a day after it broke from its moorings and ran aground near Australia's oldest harbor in the Antarctic Circle.

The Aurora Australis, a 94-meter long ice-breaking ship, was ripped from its anchoring as a raging blizzard hit Mawson Station, East Antarctica, on Wednesday morning.

Efforts are being made to bring the crew back to base. However, the blizzard conditions are hampering the operation.


Footage recorded from inside the stricken vessel shows strong gusts of ice and snow battering the upper deck.

Cloud Grey

Sea of clouds cascading over mountain like a waterfall filmed in China

Phenomenon: The formation danced around the mountain top for several hours

Phenomenon: The formation danced around the mountain top for several hours
Nature lovers were given a treat when this sea of clouds rose majestically over a mountain before sliding down the side like a waterfall .

This breathtaking video shows the fast-moving clouds sweeping over the landscape as the sun rises on the horizon.

The stunning spectacle took place early on Wednesday morning over Mount Lu, in China's Jiangxi Province.

CCTV News reports that the incredible formation danced around the mountain top for several hours, attracting a large number of people with cameras.