Earth ChangesS


Health

Baby loses part of face after attack by family ferrets in Darby, Pennsylvania

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© Wikimedia Commons.
A one-month-old Pennsylvania baby is hospitalized after she was attacked by three family pet ferrets and sustained severe facial injuries.

According to WPVI, sources have said that the incident took place on Thursday in the child's Darby Borough home.

The mother of the infant allegedly placed the child in her car seat downstairs and then went to the upstairs of the home. During that time, the three pet ferrets got out of their cage, attacked the baby girl and chewed her face.

The parents' heard the child's cries and found the ferrets attacking her.
The baby was transported to a Children's hospital. She lost 25 percent of her face in the attack.



Magic Wand

Beach washed away by freak high tide is returned next day in Porthleven, UK

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© SWNSBare beach: The scene at Porthleven beach after the high tide washed away virtually all the sand
Residents in the Cornish village of Porthlevel woke one morning last week to find all the sand on their beach had disappeared, but are now celebrating after it came back

Residents in a seaside town where the entire beach was washed away by a freak high tide are celebrating - after it came BACK.

Locals in Porthleven in Cornwall were left scratching their heads after a severe high tide removed ALL the sand on their beach, and replaced with jagged rocks covered in seaweed and algae.

Photos from the scene showed promenade steps that used run down into the lush sand leading to a sharp drop onto rocks.

But locals were celebrating today after the sand was brought back - leaving them with a golden coast again.

Sun

'Three suns' appear over Mongolia in rare anthelion phenomenon


Three suns appear in the horizon over Mongolia, in an a rare optical illusion known as anthelion. The middle sun is the actual star which appears daily in the sky, while the other two are smaller reflections. The phenomenon occurs in extremely cold temperatures when the sun's light reflects off snow crystals in the air

Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.8 - 84km NNE of Port-Vila, Vanuatu

Port-Vila Quake_230115
© USGS
Event Time
  1. 2015-01-23 03:47:27 (UTC)
  2. Times in other timezones
Nearby Cities
  1. 84km (52mi) NNE of Port-Vila, Vanuatu
  2. 218km (135mi) SE of Luganville, Vanuatu
  3. 453km (281mi) NNE of We, New Caledonia
  4. 610km (379mi) NNE of Dumbea, New Caledonia
  5. 84km (52mi) NNE of Port-Vila, Vanuatu
Scientific Data

Attention

Dead gray whale discovered at Seattle ferry terminal

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© Ted S WarrenA dead whale floats under a dock at the Colman Dock Washington State Ferry Terminal in Seattle, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015
A 30-foot gray whale has turned up dead under the Washington state ferry terminal in downtown Seattle, where its stench is wafting into the noses of thousands of daily commuters.

A Washington State Ferries spokeswoman, Susan Harris-Huether, says the whale was found just before 11 p.m. Wednesday. She says people are reporting that the smell is "not good."

Harris says it's under a dock, but ferry service Thursday wasn't affected.

A spokesman with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday that officials believe the whale may have been there for about a week. Michael Milstein says it's not known yet why the animal died, how it got there or other details.

He says NOAA will work with ferry officials and others to move the animal so a necropsy can be conducted.

Source: Associated Press

Arrow Down

Miracle escape for couple as watery sinkhole swallows their car in Tampa, Florida

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The car was removed from the water around 4am on Monday
A car plunged into a massive, watery sinkhole late Sunday evening - forcing the couple inside the vehicle to flee as it continued to be engulfed.

Ashley Guzman was with her boyfriend Christopher Atkinson when the incident took place at the intersection of North 20th Street and East Yukon Street in Tampa, Florida, she told WTVT.

'Right when I got out the car it just - like the floor just started cracking towards me,' she told the affiliate station. 'That's when I started panicking more and I started yelling at him so he could get out.'


Hardhat

Oil pipeline leak causes saltwater and crude oil to spill into Missouri river

oil leak williston north dakota
© AP Photo/Williston Herald, Zack NelsonIn this photo taken Jan. 12, 2015, crews dig up land at a saltwater spill site near Blacktail Creek outside Williston, N.D. A North Dakota health official called the 70,000 barrel spill the state's largest during the state's current oil boom.
Nearly 3 million gallons of saltwater and an unknown quantity of crude oil have leaked from a North Dakota pipeline into a creek that feeds the Missouri River, by far the largest spill of its kind in the state's history, officials said.

The leak, from a four-inch saltwater pipeline operated by Summit Midstream Partners LP approximately 15 miles north of Williston, occurred sometime earlier this month and was reported to state officials on Jan. 7.

It's not clear what caused the leak and an investigation is underway, a Summit spokesman said.

The leak does not pose a threat to drinking water supplies, the North Dakota Department of Health said in a statement released on Wednesday. Summit said it does not believe wildlife was affected.

The spill was first publicly reported on Jan. 8, though Wednesday's statement from the Department of Health was the first to mention the spill's volume.

Comment: Despite assurances that the leak poses no danger to drinking water supplies or wildlife, the fact that the saltwater is a byproduct of fracking is a cause for concern. The numerous chemicals used in the fracking process are highly toxic, and the oil industry is not likely to 'own up' when profits are at stake.

Fracking Hell: The Untold Story


Arrow Down

Horse rescued from sinkhole in Arroyo Grande, California

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Rescued: This horse was eventually able to get out of a sinkhole on Tuesday
Fire officials worked together to help a horse get out of a sinkhole it fell into near Arroyo Grande, California on Tuesday.

Cal Fire San Luis Obispo's Twitter account posted multiple updates on the horse's rescue Tuesday.

The fire department first tweeted at 11:34am on a report of a 'horse stuck in hole' on Sunray Place.

The department quickly updated at 11:53am, writing 'Horse is trapped in a sink hole. The incident is off of Noyes Rd. USAR [Urban Search and Rescue] team is responding. Veterinarian has been contacted.'

Attention

Wild elephant tramples tourist couple to death in India

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© Rahula Dassenaieke
A middle-aged couple from Ahmedabad was trampled to death by a wild elephant in Kerala's Periyar Tiger Reserve on Wednesday.

Bhupendra B Ravel (52) and his wife Jagriti (50) were killed by the elephant while they tried to click its photo during a trek in the Gavi forest region in the PTR. The camera flash is said to have provoked the elephant. The couple, accompanied by a forest tour guide, was on a trekking trip organised by the Kerala Forest Development Corporation.

Gavi, close to the Sabarimala temple, is a deep forest and has in the past few years emerged as a key centre for tourists interested in wildlife and forest trekking. Since there are a lot of wildlife including tigers and elephants in Gavi, there are restrictions on visitors and trekking is allowed only on the package run by the KFDC, which has arranged accommodation and other facilities for visitors within the forest.

Attention

Elephant kills forest worker in India

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For the first time, an employee of the state forest department was killed in an elephant attack in the state. On Tuesday late evening, Bharat Singh Chaudhary, a 49-year-old forester, was killed by a female leopard at Kolhu in Kotri area of the forest division.

Anil Dutt, principal chief conservator of forests, (wildlife) told TOI, "It is for the first time that a forest employee has been killed by an elephant in the state. During Monsoon last year, one daily wager of the department was killed by a leopard. In this particular case, the surprise factor made the elephant to charge at the employee. At the turn of the road, he came in contact with female elephant which got shocked with his presence. Both elephants and bears kill people due to the surprise element."

According to Nitishmani Tripathi, divisional forest officer of Lansdowne forest division, Bharat Singh was walking to his quarters from Kotri area to Kolhu section which is just one km away. Another employee was few meters behind him. It had become foggy by that time. Chaudhary heard the sounds of the elephant and held back for some time. After being assured that animal must have crossed over, he moved ahead. But the female elephant which was very much present there became insecure and attacked him.