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Weeks old dead whale found on beach in South Taranak, New Zealand

Jeremy Wilkinson and Brittany Baker
Stuff
Wed, 28 Dec 2016 11:12 UTC
Carl Linnell walked up on a washed-up whale near New Plymouth.
© Carl Linnell
Carl Linnell walked up on a washed-up whale near New Plymouth.
A 14 metre whale has washed up on a South Taranaki beach.

Department of Conservation duty ranger Nathan Jones said he was called to a remote beach near Rahotu on Monday evening and said he suspected the dead mammal was a blue pygmy whale.

"The cause of death is unknown at this stage but it has probably been dead several weeks judging by the state of decay," he said.

"If it was on a more public beach we might have to cut it into pieces and get a digger involved, but because it's quite isolated we can just let nature take its course."

The whale was still at the beach on Wednesday evening and Jones asked the public to stay away from it if they saw it.

Carl Linnell said it looked like the whale had been on the beach for a few days.
© Carl Linnell
Carl Linnell said it looked like the whale had been on the beach for a few days.
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Seismograph

Three large quakes hit near Nevada-California state line

Brian De Los Santos
Los Angeles Times
Wed, 28 Dec 2016 01:55 UTC
Three large quakes hit near Nevada-California state line A map showing the location of the epicenter of Wednesday morning's quake near Hawthorne
© Bing
A map showing the location of the epicenter of Wednesday morning's quake near Hawthorne, Nevada
A series of earthquakes were reported Wednesday morning near the Nevada-California state line, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The first temblor occurred at 12:22 a.m. Pacific time with a magnitude of 5.7 near Hawthorne, Nevada. At least seven quakes with magnitudes between 3-5.6 were reported shortly after.

Light shaking was felt as far away as South Lake Tahoe, Fresno, Visalia and Merced.

Comment: See also:

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Seismograph

Magnitude 5.6 quake hits eastern Romania


Sputnik
Wed, 28 Dec 2016 09:11 UTC
Seismograph
© Flickr/ Matt Katzenberger
Seismograph
A 5.6-magnitude earthquake occurred 8 kilometers (about 5 miles) west of Romania's eastern city of Nereju, the US Geological Survey (USGS) reported.

The earthquake occurred at 23:20 GMT at a depth of 81 kilometers, according to the USGS.

No information on casualties or damage from the quake has been provided to date.
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Cloud Lightning

Man killed by lightning on Christmas Eve in Zimbabwe

Simbarashe Sithole
Bulawayo 24 News
Tue, 27 Dec 2016 20:06 UTC
LIGHTNING
A man who was struck by a bolt of lightning in Mvurwi on Saturday has been identified as Cde Tigere, a member of war veterans association.

It is alleged Cde Tigere was struck by lightning in Forester (E) Mashonaland Central where he was heading cattle.

He was a member of ZANU PF and a vice chairperson in Mvurwi district.

His body had decomposed and they called for an emergency burial at his farm in Forester today.

Meanwhile, this is the second time lightning has caused fatal incidents after it killed seven beast on the same Estate in November.
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Snowflake Cold

Snowbanks in Syria: Army copes with extremely rare snowfall


Sputnik
Tue, 27 Dec 2016 20:06 UTC
snow syria
© Sputnik Arabic
Syrian army troops adapt to winter weather conditions and learn to operate amid snowbanks after heavy snowfall hit the country.

A spell of cold weather and heavy snowfalls left Syrian army troops facing an enemy they aren't quite used to dealing with - ice and snowbanks.

After five years of continuously waging war, soldiers of the Syrian army have learned to operate in the most adverse of weather conditions. However, up until now they mostly had to cope with extremely high temperatures in summer (up to 45 degrees Celsius), not the winter chill.

Snowbanks are extremely rare phenomena for the Middle Eastern country's generally warm climate and may become a real challenge for the military and for civilian agencies alike.

Snowfalls have a negative effect on visibility, hampering the military's ability to keep track of enemy movements and making it difficult to conduct precision artillery strikes.

Nevertheless, the soldiers learned to cope with these conditions and manage to deny the terrorists the ability to use the weather to their advantage.

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Cloud Lightning

Lightning bolt kills 2 with 4 others critically injured in Sulawesi, Indonesia

Rosniawanty Fikri
Tempo.co
Tue, 27 Dec 2016 19:56 UTC
Lightning
As many as six people from Takimpo, Buton District, Southeast Sulawesi, were struck by lightning during their vacation on Monday, December 26, 2016. Two of them, Abdul Malik and Lamuhlidin, aged 30, died from the strike.

As of now, four other victims are being treated under critical conditions at Buton General Hospital (RSUD).

Buton Police Chief, Comr. Andi Herman, said that the incident happened when the six tourists were going on a trip on top of Kampung Lama Takimpo Mountains. At around 15.30 Central Indonesian Time, the sky suddenly turned dark and rain fell heavily, which was followed by the strikes of lightning.

"Suddenly there was the thundering sound of lightning and rain. At the same moment, six of the victims were struck by lightning," Andi Herman said on Tuesday, December 27, 2016.
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Arrow Down

Massive sinkhole opens up in Fraser, Michigan


ABC News
Tue, 27 Dec 2016 16:04 UTC
Sinkhole damage
© Mike Campbell/WWJ Newsradio 950
A massive sinkhole in a residential neighborhood north of Detroit forced families to make emergency evacuations over the Christmas weekend.

Residents of more than a dozen homes in Fraser, Michigan, evacuated after the sinkhole was discovered Saturday under one home, according to city officials.

Fraser resident Sue Albu said she woke up Christmas Eve to the sound of splintering brick around her home.

"Loud noises, cracking throughout the evening," Albu told local ABC affiliate WXYZ-TV of the sound. "They got progressively greater."

Alba's neighbor, Derek Loewen, and his father ran over to help, grabbing whatever they could of Alba's belongings to take out of the house.

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Sun

Beautiful circumzenithal arc, two sundogs seen over Illinois

Deborah Byrd
Earth Sky
Tue, 27 Dec 2016 16:36 UTC
Halos like this one around the sun or moon are caused by ice crystal high in Earth's sky. Notice the upside-down rainbow-like arc above. It's called a circumzenithal arc.
Circumzenithal arc and sundogs in Illinois
© Russ Adams
Russ Adams in Pike County, Illinois caught this beautiful scene on December 22, 2016. The upside-down rainbow-like arc above is called a circumzenithal arc. The circle around the setting sun is called a 22-degree halo, and this halo has two sun dogs, or bright spots, visible on it.
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Info

Cheetahs heading for extinction; only 7,100 remain in the wild

John von Radowitz
The Independent (UK)
Mon, 26 Dec 2016 15:06 UTC
The male cheetah cub spots the GoPro camera

The male cheetah cub spots the GoPro camera
Urgent action is needed to stop the cheetah, the world's fastest land animal, from becoming extinct, experts have warned.

Scientists estimate that just 7,100 of the fleet-footed cats remain in the wild, occupying just nine per cent of the territory they once lived in.

Asiatic populations have been hit the hardest with fewer than 50 individuals surviving in Iran, according to a new investigation led by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

In Zimbabwe, cheetah numbers have plummeted by 85 per cent in little more than a decade.

Comment: See also: Megafauna extinction: Many of the world's largest beasts could be extinct by the end of the century

31 large carnivores declining across the world

Conservation body warns giraffes undergoing a 'silent extinction'

African elephant populations facing extinction due to hunting and poaching for ivory

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Attention

Bogoslof volcano alert raised to red by the Alaska Volcano Observatory


Sputnik
Tue, 27 Dec 2016 14:58 UTC
Bogoslof volcano
© NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Bogoslof volcano
The alert level for the Bogoslof volcano was raised to red, the highest rating, after a detection of an ash-producing eruption on Alaska's Aleutian Islands, Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) said in a report.

"An ash-producing eruption started at 14:05 AKST (23:05 UTC) today and is continuing as recorded by seismic data on nearby islands, by lightning, and as seen in recent satellite images," the report read.

It also said that one ash cloud reached around 30,000 feet.

The observatory raised the aviation alert level from a watch to a warning, according to the report.
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