Earth ChangesS


Attention

New eruption at Kadovar Island volcano in Papua New Guinea

Ash plumes rise from the volcano on Kadovar Island in the South Pacific.
© Brenton-James GloverAsh plumes rise from the volcano on Kadovar Island in the South Pacific.
An island volcano in Papua New Guinea erupted again Sunday, sending plumes of steam and ash into the air.

Thousands of people have been evacuated from islands surrounding Kadovar Island off the South Pacific nation's north coast since the volcano there began erupting on Jan. 5. Flights nearby have been canceled due to the risk posed by ash plumes and ships were warned to stay away from the island.

Experts warned last week that seismic activity beneath the volcano meant that a major eruption could be imminent.

Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has previously said state resources were being made available to support evacuations and he has warned northern coastal communities to be alert for possible tsunamis.

Snowflake

Snow blocks 5,000 kilometers of roads in Morocco

snow
© Saadia Dinia
The Moroccan Minister of Transport, Abdelkader Amara, told parliament on Monday that nearly 5,000 kilometers of national, regional, and provincial roads were closed this year due to "exceptional" snowfall.

To address the unprecedented road conditions, the Moroccan Ministry of Equipment, Transport, and Logistics mobilized 117 snow plows. Amara also made a public reminder that, before getting behind the wheel, Moroccans can use the application "MaRoute" to access the most recent information about the state of the roads across the country.


Attention

Over 1,000 turtles stunned by the unusually cold weather are rescued off Florida Panhandle

Rescued turtles are transported to Gulf World Marine Park, with the hopes of rehabilitating them and releasing them back in the bay
Rescued turtles are transported to Gulf World Marine Park, with the hopes of rehabilitating them and releasing them back in the bay
More than 1,000 sea turtles stunned by unusually cold weather have been rescued from waters off the Florida Panhandle this month.

U.S. Geological Survey sea turtle expert Margaret Lamont said cold-stunned sea turtles began appearing in St. Joseph Bay in early January as freezing temperatures gripped the region and water temperature in the Gulf of Mexico plummeted.

'It's now over 1,000, maybe up to 1,100,' she told the Tampa Bay Times, referencing the number of turtles that had been collected so far from the bay.

That number is usually 30 or 40.

Wolf

Baby girl killed by stray dogs in Raipur, India

canine attack
© Angela Antunes / CC by 2.0
A 14-month-old girl was mauled to death by stray dogs here today, police said.

The horrific incident took place in Anupam Nagar area today morning when the girl was playing outside her house, a police official told PTI.

CCTV footage of the spot showed the child, Riya Sahu, crawling on the street when two stray dogs attacked her, he said.

The dogs bit her severely before other residents of the area rushed and drove them away, he said.

Riya was taken to a local government hospital where she was declared dead.

Attention

Dead, decomposing whale found on beach in Auckland, New Zealand

The whale's body appeared to have been bitten by sharks.
The whale's body appeared to have been bitten by sharks.
The body of a dead and partially decomposed whale has been disposed of at sea after washing up on an Auckland beach.

Beachgoers alerted surf lifesavers of the gruesome sight at Murrays Bay, on the North Shore, just after midday on Saturday.

Lifeguard Spencer McGarry inspected the body at 1.30pm.

He suspected it was a dead minke whale.

Arrow Down

Humongous sinkhole opens up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Massive sinkhole opens up on Taggert Street in Fishtown on January 19, 2018.
© Thom Carroll/PhillyVoiceMassive sinkhole opens up on Taggert Street in Fishtown on January 19, 2018.
Sinkholes have a weird way of upsetting a viewer's sense of order in the world.

You see a gigantic hole in the street and it makes you think you've survived some kind of earthquake. The reality is that infrastructure can fail for any number of reasons.

Around noon on Friday, neighbors on Fishtown's tiny Taggert Street — a single block connecting E. Norris and E. Dauphin Streets — were stunned to see a giant sinkhole form outside one of the rowhomes.

"Tons of rats were flying out of the hole," one witness told PhillyVoice.

Another neighbor and longtime Fishtown resident said the incident may have been related to a plumbing issue.


Windsock

Large dust storm engulfs Mardin, Turkey turning sky dark red

dust storm in Turkey
Strong winds carrying dust from Syria and Iraq hampered daily life in southeastern Turkey on January 19, 2018. Reduced visibility and air quality affected southeastern provinces of Diyarbakır, Şırnak, Mardin, Şanlıurfa and Batman.

Dust clouds accompanied by muddy rain engulfed the area turning the sky dark red. In Mardin province, which was the most affected from the storm, the disabled, unwell, and pregnant women in public offices were given a day's leave from work according to the Daily Sabah.

It reduced visibility across the Kurdistan Region also, down to two kilometres in Erbil, five in Duhok, four in Kirkuk, and less than half a kilometre in Tuz Khurmatu.


Ice Cube

Global warming theorists tripping over themselves to explain America's brutally cold winters

Deadly cold disrupts US
One of Shakespeare's persistent themes in Hamlet is that when people set out to fool others, it will eventually catch up with them. Repeatedly he emphasises that "purposes mistook fall on their inventors' heads", that such people end up "hoist with their own petard", or get caught like a "woodcock" in their own trap.

There was a delightful example of this on our letters page last week, when that well-known propagandist for global warming, Bob Ward, tried to challenge what I had written about the recent series of unusually cold winters in North America.

Mr Ward is employed by the Grantham Institute at the London School of Economics, sponsored by a climate change-obsessed billionaire, and challenges anyone who publicly questions global warming orthodoxy. His point last week was to claim that, contrary to what I had written, recent US winters have not been unusually cold at all.

But the only evidence he could cite to support his point was the latest figures from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), suggesting that seven out of the past 10 US winters have in fact been "warmer than average".

Comment: It's not just the US or even the northern hemisphere which is experiencing such harsh winters:


Seismograph

Magnitude 6.3 earthquake jolts northern Chile

Chile earthquake
© USGS
The temblor, which was deep at 110 kilometres, struck at 10:06 p.m. local time on Saturday, epicentred at Tarapaca

The US Geological Survey says a magnitude 6.3 earthquake has struck northern Chile.

The quake, which was deep at 110 kilometres, struck at 10:06 p.m. local time on Saturday. The epicentre in Tarapaca was 76 kilometres east of the city of Putre, and 118 kilometres southeast of the Peruvian city of Tacna.

No tsunami threat

Local media in Chile said there were no immediate reports of damage and that the navy's oceanographic service had discarded the possibility of a tsunami.

An earthquake with a similar strength shook Tarapaca last October.

Tornado2

US's first tornado of 2018 touches down during rare storm in Virginia

Virginia tornado
© JOHN BOYER/Times-DispatchA radar map from 10:02 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 12, shows storms that formed a tornado in northern Amelia County. The tornado formed in the rotating, “S”-shaped segment of the thunderstorm between Amelia Court House and Powhatan, near the county line.
The country's first tornado of 2018 has descended upon one Virginia county.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports a rare midwinter tornado uprooted trees and destroyed a carport during its two-minute existence on Jan. 12, in northern Amelia County. No injuries were reported.

A survey team from the National Weather Service confirmed Tuesday that the damage along the 0.4 mile (0.6 kilometer) path was evidence of 95 mph (150 kph) winds. The storm's unlikely appearance is attributed to that day's unusual warmth and shearing wind in the lower atmosphere.

January is tied with November as the second-lowest month for tornado activity in Virginia. On average, Virginia experiences only 19 tornadoes in a given year. Amelia County was last hit by a tornado in 2013.

The central Virginia county is considered part of the greater Richmond area.