Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

Belize assesses damage as first storm causes flooding, death

BELMOPAN - Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow has declared a national emergency following the deaths of five people, including three children, and the destruction in some areas of the country as a result of heavy rains caused by Tropical Storm Arthur.

Bizarro Earth

Magnitude 3.5 - Arizona

Earthquake Details
Magnitude 3.5
Date-Time

* Wednesday, June 04, 2008 at 23:32:35 UTC
* Wednesday, June 04, 2008 at 04:32:35 PM at epicenter
* Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 36.386°N, 112.591°W
Depth 5 km (3.1 miles) set by location program
Region ARIZONA
Distances

* 20 km (13 miles) NNE (27°) from Supai, AZ
* 55 km (34 miles) NW (313°) from Grand Canyon Village, AZ
* 59 km (37 miles) S (173°) from Kaibab, AZ
* 72 km (45 miles) S (184°) from Kanab, UT
* 141 km (88 miles) ESE (109°) from Mesquite, NV
* 237 km (147 miles) E (84°) from Las Vegas, NV


Bizarro Earth

Magnitude 3.7 - New Mexico

Preliminary Earthquake Report

Magnitude 3.7
# Date-Time Wednesday, June 04, 2008 at 14:02:42 (UTC) - Coordinated Universal Time
# Wednesday, June 04, 2008 at 08:02:42 AM local time at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 36.51N 106.35W
Depth 5.0 kilometers
Region NEW MEXICO
Distances 70 km (45 miles) N of Los Alamos, New Mexico
70 km (45 miles) W of Taos, New Mexico
75 km (45 miles) SE of Dulce, New Mexico
100 km (60 miles) NNW of SANTA FE, New Mexico

Bizarro Earth

Strong earthquake hits Solomon Islands

WELLINGTON -- A strong earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale shook the South Pacific island nation of Solomon Islands early Wednesday, but there were no immediate reports of damage and a tsunami alert has not been issued.

Bizarro Earth

Severe storms blamed for 3 deaths across the US



Image
©AP Photo/Darron Cummings
Workers remove a tree that fell through the middle of a truck during a tornado in Edinburgh, Ind., Wednesday, June 4, 2008. The weather service confirmed that tornadoes hit the Moscow and Edinburgh areas based on eyewitness reports and a crew will head out Wednesday to investigate the storm damage, meteorologist Dave Tucek said.

ANNANDALE - Severe storms that downed power lines and trees across a large swath of the country Wednesday were blamed for three deaths. A woman died Wednesday afternoon when a tree fell on a vehicle in Annandale, a Washington, D.C., suburb, a fire department spokesman said.

Earlier Wednesday, authorities in West Virginia recovered the body of a 20-year-old man swept away while trying to drive his truck through high water. Gov. Joe Manchin declared a state of emergency in at least 15 West Virginia counties after flooding and mudslides closed numerous roads. Some places reported more than 3 inches of rain.

Bizarro Earth

Drought slowing Old Faithful geyser

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. - New research suggests that several years of drought may have added a minute or two to the eruption cycle of Old Faithful geyser. The geyser used to erupt about every 61 minutes. That cycle lengthened to more than an hour and 15 minutes following earthquakes in 1959, 1975 and 1983.

Now, the eruption cycle for Old Faithful is just over an hour and a half.

Shaul Hurwitz with the U.S. Geological Survey spent nine years studying five geysers in Yellowstone including Old Faithful. The study period covered Yellowstone's wettest winter in a century as well as several years of drought.

Hurwitz speculates that the drought decreased Old Faithful's water supply and has lengthened the time between eruptions.

Butterfly

Manitoba: Unusual sightings are common this spring



Image
©Bill Stilwell
Red fox pups frolick outside den

Unusual, unique, rare and exciting wildlife sighting are taking place throughout rural Manitoba this spring. Topping the list is a cougar sighting near Plum Coulee, but that is far from the only interesting report.

Near Deleau, Manitoba, a white-faced ibis was photographed recently. While this is unusual, these birds have been spotted at Whitewater Lake for several consecutive years. Perhaps they are expanding their range.

According to information on the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature website, the ibis is listed as "accidental" in Manitoba. Sightings are "infrequent and far outside the usual range and includes species recorded once or twice or only at very great intervals."

Bizarro Earth

Tornado rips through Indiana town, others possible

MOSCOW - Tornadoes ripped through this central Indiana community and skipped over National Guard barracks full of sleeping soldiers as thunderstorms battered the Ohio Valley, authorities said Wednesday.

One person died in flooding caused by thunderstorms during the night in West Virginia.

Bizarro Earth

Parts of Indonesian capital swamped by high tide

JAKARTA - Residents in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, braced for further flooding after a high tide of over 2 meters resulted in flooding in parts of the city on Wednesday.

Authorities in the capital, home to more than 10 million people, had prepared for the unusually high tides with sand bags and wire netting filled with stones following a warning by the World Bank.

flooded street in Jakarta
©REUTERS/Beawiharta
A woman with her son wade through a flooded street in Jakarta June 4, 2007.

Star

US Army: Sun, Not Man, Is Causing Climate Change

The Army is weighing in on the global warming debate, claiming that climate change is not man-made. Instead, Dr. Bruce West, with the Army Research Office, argues that "changes in the earth's average surface temperature are directly linked to ... the short-term statistical fluctuations in the Sun's irradiance and the longer-term solar cycles."