Earth Changes
The total of sinkholes recorded in Rome during the first 10 months of 2018 is 136, a significant increase from the average of 16 chasms per year between 1998 and 2008.
The average annual number of sinkholes registered over the last decade is 90, with the highest number until now recorded in 2013, with 104 chasms.
Sources

The carcass of a hyena shot dead by police reservists after attacking villagers and injuring four people in Wajir North sub-county. Cases of hyena attacks are rampant in the area
The marauding animal descended on two villages at Ingirir and Malkagufu locations in Wajir North sub-county, in an incident that left four people seriously injured.
PANIC
Area chief Abdikadi Omar Dayib confirmed the incident, saying that the elderly herdsman was coming from grazing his goats in Fulo area before the attack that threw the two villages, which are several kilometres apart, into a panic.
Mr Dayib said that the victim suffered more than 20 bites on his hands and legs after trying to free himself from the hyena before scurrying off.
"Instead of the hyena going for the goats it went straight for the herder," said the chief.
He added that the hyena also bit another man, 31 years, injuring his left hand.
A group of women and some boys, however, escaped unhurt after they ran for their lives on seeing the beast.

A dead dolphin is washed up on the beach south of Lowdermilk Park close to North Lake Drive in Naples on Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018.
Blair Mase, a marine mammal stranding coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said tests need to be completed but that it seems the dolphins are being killed by brevetoxin from red tide.
Officials from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission were testing water at beaches and collecting the bodies of dead dolphins and other marine life across Lee and Collier counties Monday.
When water testing results come in Wednesday morning, Mase said she expects to see a spike in red tide counts.
Dolphins aren't the only animals affected by the suspected spike. Mase said dead sea turtles have been found on beaches in Lee and Collier counties and that there are reports of birds dying as well.

A massive sandstorm is seen sweeping through the city of Zhangye in northwest China's Gansu province.
The People's Daily posted footage of the sandstorm advancing through Gansu's Zhangye city to its social media accounts on Sunday. The mass reached 100 metres and blotted out the blue sky as it moved through the city, according to the newspaper and the footage.
Wu Ping, a 58-year-old retiree living in Zhangye, said the sandstorm hit the city around mid-afternoon Sunday.
"The dust storm reached when I was just walking out of my home so I ran back and stayed at home for the rest of the afternoon. I could not see anything through my window. Visibility was very low," he told Bloomberg News by phone from Zhangye.
"Usually we have dust storm here in spring, not in winter. This is probably the worst dust storm I have seen in 10 years."

Huynh Tan Phat Street in Ho Chi Minh City is deeply submerged on the evening of November 25
Torrential downpours that lasted pretty much the entire day caused serious flooding in many districts including District 4, 7, Binh Thanh, Binh Tan, Go Vap by 10pm on Sunday. Electricity was cut in these areas to ensure safety.
According to a report from the HCM City's Department of Transport, 39 streets had been deeply submerged by Sunday afternoon.
"The high floods have caused accidents and knocked down trees," the report said. A tree fell onto Nguyen Van Tan, 60, while he was driving a motorbike on Nguyen Van Linh Street in Binh Chanh District. He died in hospital soon after that due to serious injuries, the report said.
Heavy rains and strong winds have also been reported in some other southern provinces including Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Ninh Thuan, and Khanh Hoa.
Comment: It was reported that rainfall of more than 350 mm (14 inches) fell around Ho Chi Minh City (commonly known as Saigon) causing widespread flooding and travel disruption.
According to Le Dinh Quyet from the Southern Hydro-Meteorological Center, the bout of rain caused by Usagi was the longest and heaviest ever recorded in Saigon history.
See also: Falling tree kills man as severe floods again hit Saigon, Vietnam

Snow chaos: 6,000 flights grounded or delayed as Thanksgiving storm rages on. A cancelled flight waits in a snow storm at the Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey.
The Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend is usually the busiest travel day of the year, as millions of Americans return home from visiting relatives. However, much of the country was snowed in this year, leading to over 1,200 flight cancellations and 5,000 delays, according to FlightAware.com.
Comment: With a grand solar minimum on the way, storms like this are becoming more and more commonplace.
- Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: Top cold and snow records broken during Thanksgiving 2018 blizzard
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A car drives through the pouring rain on Sunday, July 22, 2018, in Annapolis, Maryland.
With four days in the month left to go, November 2018 is now officially the rainiest November on record in D.C., breaking a 141-year-old record, according to the National Weather Service. And the unusually wet month means D.C. is now sitting at the No. 3 spot in terms of the rainiest year on record.
Shortly before 11 a.m. Monday, D.C. hit 7.31 inches of rain for the month, breaking the previous record of 7.18 inches of rain set in November 1877. The rain data is recorded at Reagan National Airport.
Officials told the dpa news agency on Friday that the seven people were killed when floods hit the al-Houreya village in Salahuddin province.
Ali Dodah, the mayor of Shirqat, a town 260km northwest of Baghdad and around 80km south of Mosul, said rains had flooded houses and farms with "some 3,000 people now homeless".
Comment: Update: The Gulf Times on the 26th November reports:
At least 21 people have died and nearly 180 have been injured after heavy rains accompanying sweeping floods battered Iraq over two days, the Iraqi Health Ministry said yesterday.
Women and children were among the dead, the Health Ministry said.
While some drowned, others died in car accidents, were electrocuted, or were trapped when their houses collapsed.
Local media reported that as many as 300 homes have been badly damaged by the floods, especially in Nineveh and Kirkuk provinces. The country's north has borne the brunt of it, and the UN office in Iraq said that the downpour had forced tens of thousands of people out of their homes.
An estimated 10,000 people in Salahaddin province and 15,000 people in Nineveh are in desperate need of help, including families living in displacement camps, the UN said.
In the Al-Sharqat district in Salahaddin, about 250 kilometres north of Baghdad, thousands of homes were left totally submerged by the rains.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi announced in statements earlier that he was establishing a "crisis cell" of security forces and local authorities to co-ordinate a response.

Four have, unfortunately, gone missing in floods hitting 11 provinces across the country over the past three days, Rescue and Relief Organization head Morteza Salimi said on Sunday.
Some 307 received relief services in the aforesaid provinces, Salimi, said, adding that sadly 4 individuals have gone missing in the northern province of Gilan.
Salimi went on to say that in seven provinces including Ardebil, Isfahan, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Zanjan, Fars, Qazvin and Markazi are covered with snow as well.
Eleven rescue and relief teams have been dispatched to the areas affected by snow storms, he concluded.








Comment: View also this short informative video: Sinkholes: The groundbreaking truth