Earth ChangesS


Bad Guys

US: Swarm of Tiny Earthquakes Stretches From Belfast to Bucksport

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© The Associated Press
Searsport, Maine - As many as 30 tiny earthquakes have been detected over the last few days in the area between Belfast and Bucksport, but geologists say there's no cause for alarm.

"Microquakes is what we call them," Henry Berry, a bedrock geologist with Maine Geological Survey, said in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon. "Unless you were right there, you wouldn't notice them."

But plenty of people have been noticing, Searsport Police Chief Dick LaHaye said Tuesday afternoon, just minutes after he dispatched an officer to Savory Road, where a resident had called to inform authorities about another earthquake.

They've responded to calls about gunshots and shotgun blasts, calls from people who felt their feet vibrate along with the earth and calls about things falling off shelves - all of which were determined to be related to the earthquake, he said.

"We'll continue to investigate," LaHaye said. "There's obviously something going on. It's outside of the police purview at this point, but we'll continue to respond to any and all calls that come in."

The quakes have all measured less than 2 on the Richter magnitude scale, according to a press release from the Maine Department of Conservation. On that scale, the threshold at which damage can occur is magnitude 5.

Blackbox

Strange cosmic ray hotspots stalk southern skies

Cosmic rays crashing into the Earth over the South Pole appear to be coming from particular locations, rather than being distributed uniformly across the sky. Similar cosmic ray "hotspots" have been seen in the northern skies too, yet we know of no source close enough to produce this pattern.

"We don't know where they are coming from," says Stefan Westerhoff of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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© NSF/B GudbjartssonIceCube uses detectors buried in Antarctic ice
Westerhoff and colleagues used the IceCube neutrino observatory at the South Pole to create the most comprehensive map to date of the arrival direction of cosmic rays in the southern skies. IceCube detects muons produced by neutrinos striking ice, but it also detects muons created by cosmic rays hitting Earth's atmosphere. These cosmic ray muons can be used to figure out the direction of the original cosmic ray particle.

Cloud Lightning

US: Kentucky - More Heavy Rains, Flooding Concerns

Heavy rains have returned to the Bluegrass.

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© WTVQ
Lexington has been receiving the rains throughout the morning, and it will continue falling throughout the day.

Areas in Franklin, Woodford, and Scott counties are also seeing heavy rains bring causing big concerns for drivers as water is ponding on roadways.

As flooding intensifies in western Kentucky, the commonwealth has opened a Regional Emergency Coordination Center at the Benton Armory in Marshall County. The center assists local emergency response efforts, allowing local, state, and federal officials to coordinate broad emergency responses across the region. Governor Steve Beshear is planning to return to western Kentucky, where flooding has forced evacuations and National Guard troops
have been sent in to help.

Beshear was planning to visit Paducah, Hickman and Benton today. On Monday, officials said more than 100 troops were helping with evacuations in the cities of Ledbetter in Livingston County and Hickman in Fulton County. Smithland was also being evacuated. The lower Ohio River is expected to crest at 58 feet, three feet above an earlier prediction.

Cloud Lightning

US: Heavy Rains Drench North Texas

The steady rain for much of the day made driving a miserable task for North Texans today.

"Yeah, going kind of slow, trying to be safe," said Driver Eddie Rocha.

"I think it's ridiculous. I want to expect the sun out, not rain. It makes us drive slower to work, from work and to work," said Dallas Resident Maribel Jaramillo.


Cloud Lightning

US: Hawaii forecast calls for another day of wild weather

There is a weather disturbance nearby that has triggered the thunderstorms, heavy rains and even hail on Kula, Maui.


Currently most of the storm activity is centered over Maui county and Oahu.

However, downpours occurred over all islands from the Big Island and Kauai included.

Molokai and Lanai are seeing heavy downpours and on Oahu the heavy's rains are over central Oahu near Milalani but could move on to other areas.

Cloud Lightning

US: Rain May Curb Grain, Oilseed Output Globally, Oil World Says

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© Unknown
Rainfall and cold weather has delayed planting of grains and oilseeds in Canada, Russia, Ukraine and the U.S., threatening already-low global inventories, Oil World said in a report today.

In the U.S., the world's biggest exporter of corn, soybeans and wheat, heavy rains through Midwest and Plains states have made fields too wet for planting, the researcher said. Rain in Canada has delayed seeding of spring wheat and canola, and cold, wet weather has kept farmers in Russia and Ukraine from seeding spring grains, according to Hamburg-based oilseeds analysts Oil World.

"The major threat is to be seen in planting delays caused by very wet fields and local flooding" in Canada, Oil World said. "In recent weeks the low temperatures have slowed melting of a comparatively thick snow cover on already saturated fields. There is the risk of considerable additional flooding in parts of Saskatchewan and Manitoba."

About 13 percent of planned corn was sown in the U.S. as of May 1 versus 68 percent a year earlier, Department of Agriculture data show. About 3 percent of Russian grains were seeded as of April 21, about half of what was in the ground at the same time last year, according to Oil World. In Canada, canola and wheat seeding are behind the normal schedule.

Igloo

Winter in May? Its snowing in Poland!

Wroclaw in snow
© ForumWroclaw in the snow, May 2011
About 10 thousand people in Lower Silesia region are left without electricity due to the heavy snowfall.

Wet, heavy snow broke branches in many places, damaging power lines of high and medium voltage.

Bomb

US: Explosion at Birds Point Levee Missouri

Missouri levee explosion
In this image taken from video, an explosion lights up the night sky as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Monday breaches the Birds Point levee in Mississippi County. Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh of the Army Corps of Engineers gave the order to blow a two-mile hole into the Birds Point levee in southeast Missouri.

Bad Guys

US: A Record 226 Tornadoes Recorded Over 24 Hours Last Week


According to the National Weather Service, 226 tornadoes were recorded from Wednesday morning to Thursday morning, and that's a record for a 24-hour period.

From Wednesday to Friday, 312 tornadoes may have formed.

The previous record for a single weather event was April 3-4, 1974, when 148 twisters were recorded.

Read the details in the preliminary report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Bizarro Earth

US, Texas: Smaller Earthquakes Could Mean A Large One Is Coming

Four Earthquakes Border Region In One Week

In the past week, the El Paso region has had four earthquakes at least 4.2 in scale. Seismologist Aaron Velasco tells KFOX14 the earthquakes could foreshadow a large scale earthquake in El Paso.

These earthquakes all happened in a remote area of Chihuahua, Mexico. They were still pretty close to the U.S. border.

Most El Pasoans KFOX 14 spoke with said they never worry about earthquakes because they don't think we're on a fault line. Velasco said the mountains in El Paso are proof that we are on one or more fault lines. "The hazard is not zero here in El Paso," said Velasco. "It's low compared to California and Japan, but at any particular time that means that we could have an earthquake."

Emergency services and Red Cross experts told us that the best thing El Pasoans can do is to prepare themselves for an earthquake. They recommend keeping a go-bag, or emergency kit with things like: AM/FM radio, flashlight, fresh batteries, bottled water, a first-aid kit, and even a whistle in case you get trapped somewhere.