Earth ChangesS


X

Over 30 dead seals washed ashore in Caspian


RIA Novosti
Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:23 UTC
Employees at an oil company have discovered the carcasses of 32 seals along the northern Caspian Sea coast near the Kalamkas oil field in Kazakhstan, the republic's emergencies ministry said on Friday.

The region has already been plagued by a similar tragedy in March 31 - May 14 2007, when a total of 928 seals, including 710 baby seals, died near the Kalamkas oil field.

A research group from Kazakstan's Biological Security Research Institute and Institute of Microbiology and Virology cited the phocine distemper virus (PDV), which has been blamed for the deaths of fin-footed mammals all over the world since 1988, as responsible for the deaths.
Read More...
Cloud Lightning

US, Massachusetts: Lightning starts fire

Michelle Laczkoski
Milford Daily News
Wed, 02 Apr 2008 12:02 UTC
When police knocked on Donna Lemire's door late Tuesday night and told her to leave, it was not an April Fool's joke.

A passing storm brought torrential downpours and lightning, which struck outside her building in the Shadowbrook Condominium complex around 11:30 p.m., causing a water pipe to burst and flames to erupt from the third floor ceiling.

Fire Lt. Mark Nelson said a lightning bolt struck a tree outside 17 Shadowbrook Lane, traveled into the ground and through Lemire's building.



Image
©Rachel Juzapavicus
A lightning strike Tuesday night at 17 Shadowbrook Lane in Milford shattered the window of this car, started a fire and burst a water pipe at the condo complex.

Read More...
Arrow Down

India: Hailstones hit huts, humans & cattle - Ice from sky but not in darjeeling


The Telegraph
Wed, 02 Apr 2008 11:54 UTC
Hail stones the size of cricket balls flattened about 100 huts, injured three persons and killed cattle in the Bindol gram panchayat area last night.

The storm had started around 9.30pm and grew with each passing minute till it stopped two hours later. A fresh shower of hailstones hit the area again early this morning.

"First came the wind. Strong gusts blew away roofs of tiles and tin. Then came the hailstones. As the night progressed, the size of the stones increased and they came hurtling down, some of them as big as cricket balls," said Narayan Bhowmik, a tea stall owner in Bamua, 20km from here and one of the worst hit areas. The storm left scars across a 9km radius.

Image
©Nityananda Sarkar
A heap of hailstones in front of a house in Bindol
Read More...
Cloud Lightning

Tornado hits central Arkansas


Associated Press
Fri, 04 Apr 2008 08:31 UTC
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The National Weather Service says an unknown number of people were injured when a tornado swept through the Little Rock, Arkansas, area last night. At the North Little Rock Airport, the tornado destroyed a hangar and several small planes and left several others flipped over onto their wings.

Gregory Greene has lived in this part of Tornado Alley for all of his 39 years and had never seen a tornado.
Read More...
Butterfly

Tasmania Hurricane-Force Winds leaves a $2m bill

Linda Smith
The Mercury
Thu, 03 Apr 2008 21:27 UTC
TASMANIANS embarked on a massive clean-up effort yesterday after hurricane-force winds caused damage around the state costing millions.

Homes were left without roofs, major roads were blocked by fallen trees and power lines, boats broke their moorings and debris littered the streets as winds of up to 176km/h stormed through in a wild-weather blitzkrieg.
Read More...
Laptop

Storm knocks news sites offline

Darren Osborne
The Australian Business
Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:18 UTC
A number of major news websites have disappeared from the internet this morning following wild storms across south-eastern Australia.
Read More...
Nuke

Flashback Electric Earth: The Brandberg Massif

Stephen Smith
Thunderbolts.info
Mon, 25 Jun 2007 19:48 UTC
The deserts of Namibia hold many unusual geological structures that stretch the imagination and defy conventional explanation. Are electric discharges responsible for their formation?

Brandberg - Electric Earth - Namibia
©NASA/USGS
Read More...
Umbrella

Still More Rain Forecast this Week for Arkansas after Flooding


Pine Bluff Com
Wed, 02 Apr 2008 19:38 UTC
Little Rock (AP) - More rain will fall in Arkansas during the week, likely adding more water to already flooding rivers in the state's eastern sections.
Read More...
Cloud Lightning

Wilpena Pound: An Electrifyingly Intriguing Geological Feature

Stephen Smith
Thunderbolts.info
Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00 UTC
The Flinders Range contains some of the most unusual geological formations in Australia. Indications of gigantic electric arcs are unmistakable.

In several previous Picture of the Day articles we have considered the geological history of the Australian continent and found that there are several disconformities in the appearance and structure of many formations. The famous "Red Center" is particularly noteworthy because Uluru, Kata Tjuta and other monolithic stone tors stand in isolated grandeur above the relatively flat landscape.

The Flinders Range is a rugged outcrop of sandstone and quartzite that begins about 250 kilometers north of Adelaide and stretches for 800 kilometers. The mountains are extensively folded and fractured, with several deep gorges cut through them. One of the most unusual features in the range is Wilpena Pound, a natural amphitheater of stone covering 83 square kilometers, with interior dimensions of 11 kilometers by 8 kilometers.

Wilpena Pound
©Unknown
Wilpena Pound, Flinders Range, South Australia
Read More...
Stop

A swarm of so-called "killer bees" attacked two people and a dog in Phoenix


Associated Press
Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:50 UTC
The dog was chained up in the backyard when the Africanized honey bees attacked.

The dog's owner Chantel Armenta tried to get him free but could not, and when she ran in the house, the bees followed, stinging her and her husband.

Her husband is allergic to bee stings and had to be rushed to the hospital. He is expected to live, but the dog may not.
Read More...