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Bizarro Earth

Researchers find cracks in ground near epicenter of Japanese earthquake

Slip after Earthquake
© YouTube Screen Capture
Researchers have found a long tear in the earth near the epicenter of a strong earthquake that jolted the southern Japanese prefecture of Kumamoto early Saturday.

They believe the scattering of cracks, which start on a road and run into a rice paddy, trace the line of a fault that caused the tremor.

Hiroshima University Professor Emeritus Takashi Nakata and his team have been examining the area around Mashiki Town since the magnitude-7.3 earthquake.

They found the deviation that runs through a rice paddy is about 1.2 meters wide. The earth on one side of the line is elevated by 50 centimeters.

Bizarro Earth

7.8 Magnitude earthquake hits Ecuador

Ecuador Earthquake
© Flickr
Quito
An earthquake measuring 7.8 occurred off the coast of Ecuador, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). The number of victims of the earthquake that shook coastal Ecuador earlier in the day has reached 28 people, local media reported, citing Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas.

According to the El Telegrafo newspaper, 16 people were killed in the city of Portoviejo, 10 died in the city of Manta and two others became victims of the quake in the Guayas province.
ecuador earthquake 2016
© USGS
Location of epicenter.
Tremors were recorded at 11:58 p.m. UTC time (02:58 MSK). According to the USGS, the epicenter of the quake was 17 miles away from the coastal town of Muisne and just over 100 miles away from the capital Quito.


Attention

Huge 100m crack opens up along Jurassic Coast in Dorset, UK

Dorset Jurassic Coast crack
© ITV News
A huge crack running 100m (328ft) opened up on a section of Dorset's Jurassic Coast on April 13, 2016. It appeared between Bowleaze Cove and Redcliff Point at Preston, near Weymouth.

The massive crack splits the land in two on the famous Jurassic Coast in Dorset.

The resulting crevasse measures about 250 yards long, up to 3ft wide and 4ft deep on April 12, 2016.

Thousands of tonnes of earth have given way and will continue to slip away, changing the landscape of the renowned coastline.

It is unknown when the cliff will fall down on the beach, but walkers and tourists are now being warned to steer clear of the chasm.

This gigantic landslip was caused by heavy rainfall in the last few months.

Comment: A 400m section of the Dorset Jurassic Coast between Lyme Regis and Charmouth disappeared in 2008, in what was described as the biggest landslide in Britain in a century. See:

Huge landslide hits Dorset's Jurassic Coast


Question

Japanese city of Fukuoka, covered in mysterious foam after earthquake (VIDEOS)

Foam in Fukuoka City
© The Independent, UK
An unexplained carpet of foamy bubbles filled streets in the centre of the southern Japanese city of Fukuoka in the early hours of Saturday morning - shortly after tremors from a devastating earthquake of magnitude 7.3 shook the town.

Twitter users posted pictures of the mysterious foam, with one calling it "disgusting".

"I saw it just after the earthquake," said Kazuki Nabeta, who lives in the busy central district of Tenjin, where the bubbles were found.

Some have speculated that the earthquake may have caused an underground pipe to burst.

"People were posting pictures on Twitter and it was near my house, so I went out to have a look," said Mr Nabeta.

Attention

Update: 32 killed, 70,000 evacuated as Japan hit by 2 powerful earthquakes & devastating landslides (photos & videos)

Japan earthquake damage April 2016
© Reuters
Local residents look at cracks caused by an earthquake on a road in Mashiki town, Kumamoto prefecture, southern Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo April 16, 2016.
Dozens of people are feared trapped under rubble in southern Japan, as the death toll from two earthquakes has climbed to 32. The search for survivors is in full swing, while 70,000 people have been evacuated from their homes to safer locations.

Over 200 aftershocks have hit Japan following the initial Thursday tremor of 6.5-magnitude, which hit the city of Kumamoto on the island of Kyushu. Officials have warned that the risk of further strong aftershocks will linger for about a week.

About 190 of the injured are in serious condition, the Japanese government said.

Only 24 hours later the same areas was struck by a violent 7.1-magnitude earthquake. The Japan Meteorological Agency briefly issued tsunami warnings for the areas that were still recovering from Thursday's devastating tremors.

At least nine people were killed and more than 850 injured in the first quake. The death toll in the second has risen to 29. All in all, 1,500 people have been injured in the quakes, 80 of them seriously, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said. He added that about 70,000 have left their homes.




Fish

We are rapidly approaching an environmental catastrophe: Plastic waste in the ocean will outnumber fish by 2050

plastic in ocean
© unknown
A dump truck full of plastic is unloaded into the sea every minute, and experts say the situation is growing worse, with plastic debris expected to outnumber fish by 2050.

With plastic production currently at a twentyfold increase since 1964, generating 311m tonnes in 2014, a new report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation has revealed we are rapidly approaching an environmental catastrophe — especially where the world's oceans are concerned. This number is expected to double in the next 20 years and almost quadruple by 2050.

New plastics will use 20% of all oil within 35 years, which stands at around 7% today. And, despite the increasing demand, a mere 5% of all plastics are recycled successfully — with 40% ending up in landfills and a third in delicate ecosystems like the ocean. The remainder tends to be burned to generate energy, which has its own environmental impact not only in the pollution this practice generates, but also because it causes more fossil fuels to be used in order to make new plastic products like bags, cups, tubs and consumer devices.

Comment: See also: Not a fish tale: Thanks to ocean pollution humans are ingesting plastic
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Bad Guys

Sixth Extinction continues: Mass deaths of Saiga antelope in Kazakhstan caused by bacteria

Saiga antelope deaths
© Anatoly Ustinenko/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Saiga antelope in 2011, before the mass deaths of 2015.
Almost total decimation of Betpak-Dala's population of 200,000 saiga antelopes in 2015 caused by pathogen that led to hemorrhagic septicemia, say scientists

The mysterious mass deaths of about 200,000 saiga antelopes in Kazakhstan last year was caused by a bacterial infection.

As news emerged in May last year of the near-total decimation of the Betpak-Dala population of saiga antelope, there was plenty of speculation but few concrete answers as to what might have been responsible.

Kazakhstan's mass antelope deaths mystify conservationists

One idea was that rainfall had resulted in widespread, mortal bloat. Perhaps there had been some infectious disease that had wiped out herd after herd. Some even blamed poisoning by toxic rocket fuel spread around Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Comment: Mass die-offs of species large and small are becoming increasing common, does it speak to a fundamental shift in the environment?


Attention

Rare 'megamouth' shark caught off Japan

Fishermen were stunned to when they saw the massive beast

Fishermen were stunned to when they saw the massive beast
An incredibly rare deepwater shark has been caught by terrified fishermen.

The massive 16ft beast was snared in fishing nets as stunned sailors were forced to pull up the monstrous fish - reportedly weighing over a tonne.

The enormous deep sea dweller has been identified as a megamouth shark and was caught five kilometres off the coast of central Japan.

They have only been spotted 60 times since they were first discovered in 1976 - when a deep-sea anchor caught one off the coast of Hawaii.

The sharks dive as deep as 160 metres underwater during the day before rising as high as 12 metres during the night to feed.


 The shark was 16ft long

The shark was 16ft long

Cow

Signs and Portents: Two-headed calf discovered at slaughterhouse in Obidos, Brazil

Two headed calf
© Liliane Viana
Two headed calf
Gruesome remains of a malformed two-headed calf have stunned slaughterhouse staff in Brazil.

The freak creature was discovered in the womb of a slaughtered cow thought to have been too old to produce anymore offspring.

Each fully formed head had a pair of eyes, ears, nostrils and a muzzle, and each sat on separate necks attached to a single body with four legs and a shared tail.

The still born calf, weighing around 5kg and aged around seven months old, was also completely hairless .

Cloud Lightning

Lightning bolt kills man in Boynton Beach, Florida

Lightning
© Warren Dick
A 23-year-old man died after he was struck by lightning in Boynton Beach Friday, as heavy storms rolled across Palm Beach County..

The incident happened just before 6 p.m. while the man was standing under a tree in front of a house on the 200 block of North Palm Drive, police said.

The unidentified man was taken to Bethesda Medical Center, where he died, said Officer Jaclyn Smith, spokeswoman for the Boynton Beach Police Department.