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Out of control nightmare: tremors increasing at massive 13-acre Louisiana sinkhole


The Extinction Protocol
Tue, 02 Apr 2013 14:30 UTC
The head of Louisiana's Department of Natural Resources named 13
Image
scientists and other experts Friday to serve on a blue-ribbon commission tasked with determining the long-term stability of the area around northern Assumption Parish's sinkhole. The 13-acre sinkhole and consequences of its emergence and continued growth, such as methane trapped under the Bayou Corne area, have forced the evacuation of 350 residents for more than seven months. The sinkhole, found in swamps between Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou on Aug. 3, is believed to have been caused by a failed Texas Brine Co. LLC cavern mined into the Napoleonville Dome.

Members of the new panel are being asked to set up scientifically based benchmarks in regard to the sinkhole and then determine when they have been met in order to give assurances that the Bayou Corne area is safe for the return of evacuated residents. "The work of this commission is crucial to the future of public safety in the Bayou Corne area," DNR Secretary Stephen Chustz said in a prepared statement announcing the 13 appointments. "We must ensure we have done all that we can to get the right people to provide the right answers in making recommendations for the future of the people who want to return," Chustz said. The secretary made the appointments in consultation with Jim Welsh, state Commissioner of Conservation, and Kevin Davis, director of the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, the statement says.
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Bizarro Earth

Faint 'red arcs' spotted over Europe

Charles Q. Choi
OurAmazingPlanet
Tue, 02 Apr 2013 11:01 UTC
Red Light
© Boston University Center for Space Physics
An image of red light taken from Italy in 2011.

Glowing red arcs invisible to the naked eye have now been detected high above most of Europe using advanced cameras pointed at the sky.

When streams of high-energy, charged particles come rushing from the sun to batter Earth, they cause what are called geomagnetic storms. These events are disruptions in the magnetosphere, the part of Earth's atmosphere dominated by the planet's magnetic field.

The most dramatic effects of these storms are giant, bright auroras in Earth's polar regions, but the tempests result in other striking consequences as well, such as faintly glowing red arcs high up in the ionosphere. This is the electrically charged part of Earth's atmosphere, stretching from about 50 to 370 miles (85 to 600 kilometers) above the Earth.
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Ice Cube

Welsh hill farmers reel as melting snow reveals carcasses of ewes and lambs

John Vidal
Guardian.co.uk
Tue, 02 Apr 2013 08:56 UTC
Image
© Chris Jackson/Getty Images
A heat lamp keeps a one-day-old lamb warm on a farm in Wales. Others though have not fared as well. The frozen carcasses of thousands of heavily pregnant ewes and new-born lambs have been found as the snow melts.
Hill farmers in Wales face one of their worst crises in 60 years as the melting snow reveals the carcasses of thousands of heavily pregnant ewes and new-born lambs. Many animals remain buried under snow drifts, farmers have been unable to get food to starving survivors and the bitter weather forecast to continue for at least a fortnight.

"It's the worst we've known at this time of year since 1966 when I left school," said Emyr Jones, president of the Farmers Union of Wales, who keeps 1,000 ewes on la nd near Lake Bala on the edge of Snowdonia in north Wales."We won't know exactly how bad the situation is until the snow goes finally, but we know losses will be high. The lambs are being frozen to death before they can even stand. It's impossible for farmers to find some sheep in the mountainous areas," he said.
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Bizarro Earth

Sinkhole swallows two cars in parking lot near Montreal airport


The Windsor Star
Tue, 02 Apr 2013 08:53 UTC
Two cars fell into a sinkhole that opened up Friday in a parking lot near Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport. The cars didn't completely disappear - the nose of one of the cars slipped into the hole while the side of the other car was partially submerged.

A spokesman for Montreal's airport authority says the hole is just under a metre deep and covers an area of about five metres long and three metres wide.
Image
© Graham Hughes / The Canadian Press
A man looks inside a sinkhole that opened up at a parking lot at Montreal Airport on Friday, March 29, 2013, after two partially-submerged cars were pulled from the hole.
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Ice Cube

Austria's ice-cold weather paralyzes agriculture


Austria Times
Tue, 02 Apr 2013 08:49 UTC
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Farmers and drivers are worried about winter returning to Austria. As fields are covered in snow, farmers cannot plough the fields. This will lead to problems with summer crops. A Siberian cold front is sweeping over many parts of Europe. Heavy snow is falling in Moscow, there are winter storms in the Ukraine and the ice-cold weather has paralysed the agriculture in Styria.

The long winter is stopping farmers from working on the fields. Summer crops are especially affected by this. According to Karl Mayer of the Styrian Chamber of Agriculture, the harvest could thus be severely affected. Under normal weather conditions, the summer crops are sowed at the end of February. The latest possible time in the South is the first week of April and the second week of April in North Styria. But even these dates will not be possible this year.

The wet and cold weather also leads to the fact that fields cannot be driven on by tractors at the moment. This is why not only the sowing has to wait but also the fertilisation.
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Snowflake Cold

Blizzard grips Poland, leaves 100,000 without power

Matthew Day
The Telegraph
Mon, 01 Apr 2013 21:53 UTC
Image
© Getty Images
Over 100,000 people in Poland have been left without power as the country battles with a paralysing blanket of snow that also brought chaos to its transport system.
Heavy snow falls dumped as much as 10 inches across the country on Sunday, and more is forecast for Monday as an unusually prolonged winter maintains a severe grip over the Central European country.

In an Easter address to Poland Bronislaw Komorowski, the Polish president, described the weather as a bad "April Fool's Day joke".

Engineers from electricity companies struggled to restore power to towns and homes after the weight of snow brought power lines down and caused tree branches to snap and bring more lines down. The worst affected regions were to the east and south of Warsaw where as many as 80,000 people were left without power.
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Cloud Precipitation

11 killed in flash floods in Mauritius capital


Bloomberg Business Week
Mon, 01 Apr 2013 16:14 UTC
Port Louis, Mauritius - Officials say flash floods blamed on climate change killed at least 11 people in the capital of the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. Officials said most drowned in rivers of water that rose swiftly Saturday in a pedestrian underpass and an underground car park.
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Mauritius has declared a day of national mourning after flash flooding kills at least ten.
Torrential downpours slammed Port Louis. The meteorological office reported 152mm (6 inches) of rain fell in less than an hour. It warned there could be more storms. Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam declared Monday a day of mourning. On national radio Sunday he blamed climate change for the floods.
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Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.0 - E of Miyako, Japan


US Geological Survey
Mon, 01 Apr 2013 15:55 UTC
Miyako Quake_010413
© USGS
Event Time
2013-04-01 18:53:17 UTC
2013-04-02 04:53:17 UTC+10:00 at epicenter

Location
39.528°N 143.196°E depth=12.5km (7.8mi)

Nearby Cities
107km (66mi) E of Miyako, Japan
107km (66mi) E of Yamada, Japan
112km (70mi) E of Otsuchi, Japan
116km (72mi) ENE of Kamaishi, Japan
526km (327mi) NE of Tokyo, Japan

Technical Details
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Attention

Starving sea lion pups mysteriously washing up on southern California beaches


CBS Los Angeles
Fri, 29 Mar 2013 12:59 UTC
Scientists and rescuers in Malibu are working to solve a mystery as dozens of dying sea lion pups are washing up on the beach, and no one knows why. Employees from the California Wildlife Center have worked feverishly to try and save the pups, though many were found already dead.

"I've never seen anything like this," said Jonsie Ross, one of the rescuers from the center. "It just looks like malnutrition to me." Officials say hundreds of sea lion pups continue to wash ashore along the LA coastline starved, sick, or dead. The pups are showing up in record numbers, causing great concern. "Even if I think people have been prepared, we never would have imagined the numbers that are coming up on the beach," said Ross.

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    Attention

    Second mass crustacean stranding on Chilean beach

    Weiru Fang
    Santiago Times
    Wed, 27 Mar 2013 09:44 UTC
    Image
    © PDI Press Office
    Fishermen wait for initial conclusions of investigative report, consider legal action as beach turns red again.

    Thousands of shrimp and other crustaceans once again washed up on shore in Coronel, after a nearly identical incident in southern Chile last week drew worldwide media attention and prompted an investigation by local officials. Coronel spokesperson Cristian Acosta told The Santiago Times that the new wave of dead shrimp washed up Tuesday afternoon, covering up to a mile of the beach and turning it red. The number of shrimp is roughly the same as the first mass stranding last week.
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