Earth Changes

Super typhoon Nepartak: Six dead in China as tens of thousands flee storm

The Guardian (UK)
Mon, 11 Jul 2016 06:20 UTC

damage in China after super typhoon Nepartak

© Zhang Guojun/AP
A man walks over the wreckage of houses hit by super typhoon Nepartak in Putian city in Fujian province on Saturday.

Nearly 2,000 homes destroyed as storm brings chaos to China's south-eastern coast after hitting Taiwan

A tropical storm in China has killed six people, with at least eight more missing, reports said, after super typhoon Nepartak lashed Taiwan.

By late Sunday more than 200,000 residents in 10 mainland cities had been temporarily relocated and 1,900 homes destroyed, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing the civil affairs ministry.

Power was cut for hundreds of thousands in the south-eastern province of Fujian, while five airports were closed and hundreds of high-speed train journeys cancelled, the Global Times newspaper reported on Monday.

The economic cost was estimated at 860m yuan ($129m).

Comment: See also:

Two powerful earthquakes strike off Ecuador's coast

RT
Mon, 11 Jul 2016 03:20 UTC

© USGS
A shallow earthquake with a magnitude of 6.4 struck Ecuador's north-west coast on Sunday (July 10), said the US Geological Survey.

Two powerful quakes measuring 5.9 and 6.4 struck the coast of Ecuador ten minutes apart, USGS reported.

Both quakes hit an area about 32 kilometers northwest of Rosa Zarate, a town of some 60,000 residents in the Esmeraldas province.

The tremors from the two quakes were felt across a wide area and prompted many people to flee into the streets, according to BNO news. Residents reported power outages in some parts of the province. No reports as to the number of casualties were immediately available.

'The Blob' ocean phenomenon eclipses El Niño

RT
Sun, 10 Jul 2016 22:33 UTC

Mike Blake / Reuters

A giant 'blob' of warm ocean water has had a bigger impact on marine ecosystems than El Niño, according to new research.

The previously believed to be dead phenomenon known as 'The Blob' is an estimated 1,000 miles in diameter and 300 feet deep, and lurks off the coast of California.

'The Blob' was first detected in 2013. A mass of water roughly 1 to 4 degrees Celsius (2 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than its surrounding water. It was credited with causing adverse weather including drought and of affecting marine biology when it fed a toxic algae bloom in the Pacific.

Comment: Additional information on 'The Blob':

10-foot alligator bites woman in Seminole County, Florida

wftv.com
Sat, 09 Jul 2016 18:16 UTC

10-foot gator killed after biting woman in Florida

A woman was hospitalized Friday afternoon after an alligator bit her arm as she waded in the Econlockhatchee River in the Little Big Econ State Forest near Chuluota, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said.

An alligator measuring nearly 11 feet bit the woman at about 2:30 p.m. as she stood in waist-deep water, wildlife officials said.

Wildlife officials trapped and killed the alligator Friday evening.

The woman, who wasn't publicly identified, is expected to fully recover from her injuries.

Rare undulatus asperatus clouds form over Dorset, UK

Euan McLelland
Daily Mail (UK)
Sun, 10 Jul 2016 13:11 UTC

Undulatus asperatus clouds over Dorset, UK

© CloudySkiesPhotography/BNPS
These extraordinary images show a series of wavelike clouds looming over the south coast. The unique formation, known as Undulatus asperatus, develops when undulation in the atmosphere causes air to move up and down

These extraordinary images show a series of wavelike clouds looming over the south coast.

The unique formation, known as Undulatus asperatus, develops when undulation in the atmosphere causes air to move up and down.

When wind makes contact with the base of low-lying clouds, a striking wavy motion then appears.

Although they appear dark and gloomy, they usually dissipate without a storm following.

The incredible shots, taken on an iPhone, were captured by amateur cloud photographer, Simon Hammond, in locations across Dorset.

The 48-year-old said: 'When I first saw them I thought, 'this is something quite special. It was pure luck that I stumbled across them as I hadn't headed out to take pictures.

'I have seen some examples of this formation but never ones as impressive as these.

'They are rare and in the event that they do appear they tend to be short lived, but these hung around for about five hours.'

The Cloud Appreciation Society are clamouring for the cloud shape to be recognised as an official cloud type by the International Cloud Atlas.

If accepted Undulatus asperatus, which translates to 'roughened wave', would be the first new classification in 65 years.

Comment: Further evidence of our changing atmosphere? See also:

Rare atmospheric 'crown flash' phenomenon seen above Moscow, Russia

Davisito de Zabedrosky
YouTube
Wed, 06 Jul 2016 16:32 UTC

Rare and spectacular phenomenon "Crown Flash" seen and captured in the skies of Moscow , Russia, on July 04, 2016 by Alina Abaeva.

(translated by Google)

Wild boar wreaks havoc at restaurant in Korea

jubilantj
allkpop.com
Thu, 07 Jul 2016 16:24 UTC

YTN reported on a wild boar that infiltrated the restaurant around three in the morning on July 7, taking the unwitting patrons by complete surprise in the middle of their meals. Traces of the boar's destruction were marked all over the small restaurant space, including blood stains on the glass and large cracks on doors.

Surveillance footage shows a customer attempting to corner the boar using the food carts that were standing by but the boar's sheer, brute strength was impossible to match with mere carts.

After a minute of trampling about, the boar escaped to the hills located 1km from the restaurant.

Thankfully, no one was hurt, but it was a close call and a harrowing experience for everyone who happened to confront the wild boar.

Meanwhile, police has warned people of more wild boars coming down from the mountains in search of food, particularly as July marks harvest season.

Vanishing act: Why insects are disappearing and why it matters

Christian Schwägerl
Environment 360
Wed, 06 Jul 2016 12:27 UTC

According to global monitoring data for 452 species, there has been a 45 percent decline in invertebrate populations over the past 40 years.

© Science
According to global monitoring data for 452 species, there has been a 45 percent decline in invertebrate populations over the past 40 years.

Insect populations are declining dramatically in many parts of the world, recent studies show. Researchers say various factors, from monoculture farming to habitat loss, are to blame for the plight of insects, which are essential to agriculture and ecosystems.

Every spring since 1989, entomologists have set up tents in the meadows and woodlands of the Orbroicher Bruch nature reserve and 87 other areas in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The tents act as insect traps and enable the scientists to calculate how many bugs live in an area over a full summer period. Recently, researchers presented the results of their work to parliamentarians from the German Bundestag, and the findings were alarming: The average biomass of insects caught between May and October has steadily decreased from 1.6 kilograms (3.5 pounds) per trap in 1989 to just 300 grams (10.6 ounces) in 2014.

"The decline is dramatic and depressing and it affects all kinds of insects, including butterflies, wild bees, and hoverflies," says Martin Sorg, an entomologist from the Krefeld Entomological Association involved in running the monitoring project.

Another recent study has added to this concern. Scientists from the Technical University of Munich and the Senckenberg Natural History Museum in Frankfurt have determined that in a nature reserve near the Bavarian city of Regensburg, the number of recorded butterfly and Burnet moth species has declined from 117 in 1840 to 71 in 2013. "Our study reveals, through one detailed example, that even official protection status can't really prevent dramatic species loss," says Thomas Schmitt, director of the Senckenberg Entomological Institute.

Six-spot Burnet Moth (Zygaena filipendulae)

Comment: Considering the fact that world wildlife populations have declined by 50% since 1970, it would be wise for those individuals who are responsible to take notice of these statistics. But unfortunately, it doesn't seem like "global industry leaders" will stop polluting and destroying the environment any time soon, since there are always profits to be made from the sale of toxic pesticides and other chemical pollutants.

Tractor has near miss with 10-foot wide sinkhole in field at Rehobeth, Alabama

Jim Cook
Dothan Eagle
Thu, 07 Jul 2016 12:02 UTC

James and Kathy Harrell look over a sink hole that formed on their farm land recently.

A few feet to the right or left and James Harrell could have had a big problem on his hands.

Harrell discovered a 10-foot wide sink hole in his peanut field last week. Just a few days prior, a tractor had been plowing the field and just missed rolling over the area where the hole is located.

"If that tractor had been right here, it could have caved it," he said. "That would have been ugly."

This isn't Harrell's first experience with a sinkhole. About 40 years ago, Harrell drove a combine over a sinkhole on some farm property in Cottonwood.

"The frame of the combine was the only thing that kept it from falling all the way in the hole," he said. "I stepped out of the cab onto the roof and was on the ground."

Hong Kong hit by 10,000 lightning flashes within 12 hours

Ernest Kao
South China Morning Post
Sun, 10 Jul 2016 11:07 UTC

Twelve hours of thunder, lightning and rain has the city talking about a night to remember

The city was hit by a whopping 10,000 bolts of lightning during an epic 12-hour overnight thunderstorm, with even meteorologists taken aback by the intensity.

Hong Kong residents were barely starting to cool down from the hottest July day in half a century when the Observatory issued a thunderstorm warning at 6.45pm on Saturday, alerting the public to seek shelter and get off high ground.

In more than five hours up to 12am, the Observatory recorded 5,905 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes, most of them hitting Lantau Island and the New Territories. An amber rainstorm warning was issued on top of that at 9.55am, as downpours lashed parts of Hong Kong with more than 30 millimetres of rain.