Earth Changes

Baked Alaska - Unusual heat wave hits 49th state

Rachel D'Oro
Associated Press via Yahoo News
Wed, 19 Jun 2013 12:38 UTC

A heat wave hitting Alaska may not rival the blazing heat of Phoenix or Las Vegas, but to residents of the 49th state, the days of hot weather feel like a stifling oven - or a tropical paradise. With temperatures topping 80 degrees in Anchorage, and higher in other parts of the state, people have been sweltering in a place where few homes have air conditioning.

They're sunbathing and swimming at local lakes, hosing down their dogs and cleaning out supplies of fans in at least one local hardware store. Mid-June normally brings high temperatures in the 60s in Anchorage, and just a month ago, it was still snowing. The weather feels like anywhere but Alaska to 18-year-old Jordan Rollison, who was sunbathing with three friends and several hundred others lolling at the beach of Anchorage's Goose Lake.

"I love it, I love it," Rollison said. "I've never seen a summer like this, ever." State health officials even took the unusual step of posting a Facebook message reminding people to slather on the sunscreen. Some people aren't so thrilled, complaining that it's just too hot. "It's almost unbearable to me," said Lorraine Roehl, who has lived in Anchorage for two years after moving here from the community of Sand Point in Alaska's Aleutian Islands. "I don't like being hot. I'm used to cool ocean breeze."

Tornado touches down at Denver International Airport

P. Solomon Banda
Associated Press via Yahoo News
Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:00 UTC

© AP Photo/Scott Morlan
This Tuesday, June 18, 2013 image provided by Scott Morlan shows a tornado that touched down near Denver International Airport.

Radar indicated a tornado briefly touched down Tuesday over the east runways of Denver International Airport, where thousands of people took shelter in bathrooms, stairwells and other safe spots until the dangerous weather passed, officials said.

Airport spokeswoman Laura Coale reported no damage. Nine flights were diverted elsewhere during a tornado warning that lasted about 40 minutes, she said.

A 97 mph wind gust was measured at the airport before communication with instruments there was briefly knocked out, said National Weather Service meteorologist Kyle Fredin.

Chris Polk, a construction foreman, was working on a renovation project just outside the airport's main concourse when he got the tornado warning at 2:15 p.m., looked up and saw a funnel cloud. He and his crew ran inside and took shelter with some 100 people, including luggage-toting passengers, inside a basement break room as tornado sirens sounded.

"It got pretty crazy around here," Polk said.

Asked whether he was nervous when he spotted the funnel cloud, he shrugged. "No, I'm from Missouri," he said.

Everyone inside the break room was calm, Polk added.

Huge 'dead zone' predicted in Gulf of Mexico

Douglas Main
LiveScience
Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:26 UTC

A very large dead zone, an area of water with no or very little oxygen, is expected to form in the Gulf of Mexico this year - a trend in recent years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Computer models put together by scientists predict that the zone will cover an area between 7,286 and 8,561 square miles (18,871 to 22,173 square kilometers) this summer, the typical time for such zones to form. The large end of the estimate is roughly the size of the state of New Jersey, and would be the largest dead zone ever recorded. The biggest one recorded to date, in 2002, reached 8,481 square miles (21,966 square km).

Meanwhile, models predict the dead zone in the Chesapeake Bay will be smaller than usual.

Manam volcano erupts in Papua New Guinea

The Extinction Protocol
Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:07 UTC

An eruption with a small ash plume was reported this morning and VAAC Darwin issued an advisory. A low level ash plume was also visible on Nasa's Aqua Modis image at 15:45 UTC. This is the volcano's second eruption this year. The volcano unleashed an ash cloud in early January. - Volcano Discovery

5.6 magnitude quake shakes Peru's capital

Reuters via Yahoo News
Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:31 UTC

A 5.6 magnitude earthquake shook buildings in Peru's capital on Tuesday, Peru's geological survey and Reuters witnesses said.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damages from the quake centered in the Pacific Ocean about 73 kilometers (45 miles) west of the city.

USGS data ranks it at 4.6 magnitude

Yet another mysterious mass fish die-off in North America - Temple, Texas

kcentv.com
Mon, 17 Jun 2013 10:38 UTC

Temple Community Puzzled Over Dead Fish Pond

kcentv.com - KCEN HD - Waco, Temple, and Killeen

It's a mystery that has people in Central Texas scratching their heads.

Hundreds of fish turning up dead in a Temple pond this weekend.

When lifelong Temple angler Eloy Machuca came to Miller Park today he saw something he didn't expect.

"I come down here to release some fish, usually little ones so kids can catch them, but I've never seen this many," Machua said.

What he saw were dead catfish hundreds of them.

"I would say 90 percent of them are dead."

Florida: Indian River Lagoon mystery ailment killing dolphins, manatees, pelicans

Craig Pittman
Tampa Bay Times
Sun, 16 Jun 2013 09:55 UTC

The Indian River Lagoon on Florida's east coast has long been known as the most diverse ecosystem in North America.

Its 156 miles of water boast more than 600 species of fish and more than 300 kinds of birds.

The lagoon is not just an ecological treasure. To the towns along its edge - Titusville, Cocoa, Melbourne, Vero Beach and Stuart, among others - it accounts for hundreds of millions in revenue from angling, boating, bird-watching, tourism and other waterfront activities.

But these days the Indian River Lagoon has become known as a killing zone.

Algae blooms wiped out more than 47,000 acres of its sea grass beds, which one scientist compared to losing an entire rainforest in one fell swoop.

Then, beginning last summer, manatees began dying. As of last week, 111 manatees from Indian River Lagoon had died under mysterious circumstances. Soon pelicans and dolphins began showing up dead too - more than 300 pelicans and 46 dolphins so far.

Dead fish reported at Milford Reservoir, Salina, Kansas

Tim Unrah
Salina Journal
Sat, 15 Jun 2013 09:09 UTC

Don Phillips and Larry Riat were both amazed and perplexed about a week ago when they fished at Milford Reservoir.

The amazing part included a massive run on channel catfish as they fished from a boat, using jig lures.

What alarmed and perplexed the 76-year-old retirees was the thousands of dead carp and other less desirable species in the water and on the shore.

"There were two dead carp about every foot. They were floating in the water about everywhere," said Riat, of Abilene.

The channel catfish were spawning, said Phillips, of Salina.

"We caught many, many of them and turned them back," he said. "They were good eatin' size."

The pair were after walleye and crappie. They caught a few crappie, but turned them back.

But what they wondered about most was the dead carp.

Why the dead carp?

Fisheries officials at the lake have been fielding reports about dead fish -- 99 percent of them carp -- for a couple of weeks, starting from the north end, said R.J. Harms, Milford operations manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Violent explosion shakes Mexico's Popcatepetl volcano

The Extinction Protocol
Tue, 18 Jun 2013 09:07 UTC

Mexico's active Popocatepetl volcano has registered a massive explosion spewing ash and incandescent rock almost 4 kilometers high. Authorities have warned that winds could blow the ash cloud as far away as Mexico City. Inhabitants of villages up to 25 kilometers from Popocatepetl (colloquially known as 'Don Popo') rushed out of their houses when the massive explosion reverberated through their homes. Esther Matinez, resident of Amecameca municipality, told Mexican publication La Jornada that the blast was like a rocket explosion. Around 4.5 million people live within a 50-kilometer radius of the active volcano, 650,000 of whom are considered to be at high risk.

Massive section of ocean floor off the coast of Portugal beginning to fracture

The Extinction Protocol
Tue, 18 Jun 2013 09:05 UTC

A new subduction zone forming off the coast of Portugal heralds the beginning of a cycle that will see the Atlantic Ocean close, as continental Europe moves closer to America. Published in Geology, new research led by Monash University geologists has detected the first evidence that a passive margin in the Atlantic Ocean is becoming active. Subduction zones, such as the one beginning near Iberia, are areas where one of the tectonic plates that cover Earth's surface dives beneath another plate into the mantle - the layer just below the crust. Lead author Dr João Duarte, from the School of Geosciences said the team mapped the ocean floor and found it was beginning to fracture, indicating tectonic activity around the apparently passive South West Iberia plate margin. "What we have detected is the very beginnings of an active margin - it's like an embryonic subduction zone," Dr Duarte said.