Earth Changes
© AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell
Smog blankets scyscrapers along Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City, Thursday, March 17, 2016. An air pollution alert in greater Mexico City was extended to its fourth day, with authorities saying that despite slight improvements smog levels remained at almost 1 1/2 times acceptable limits in some areas.
Smog blankets scyscrapers along Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City, Thursday, March 17, 2016. An air pollution alert in greater Mexico City was extended to its fourth day, with authorities saying that despite slight improvements smog levels remained at almost 1 1/2 times acceptable limits in some areas.
The haze that shrouded the second-largest city in the Western Hemisphere for four days never reached the worst periods in the 1980s and 1990s, but ultimately resulted from the fact that there are still too many cars on the crowded streets.
"You have to recognize that we are doing better, but it's still not ideal," Javier Riojas, a specialist in environmental sustainability at the Universidad Iberoamericana, said Friday.
Authorities declared the city's first Phase 1 pollution alert since 2005 on Monday due to high ozone levels blamed on a thermal inversion, which traps airborne contaminants from releasing upward into the atmosphere. Mexico City typically sees its worst air smog during the winter-spring dry season when warm, still air settles in the high-altitude basin ringed by volcanic mountains.
© USGS
The offshore quake was registered at the depth of over 15 miles, 76 miles to the northeast of the inhabited Barbuda island and its city of Codrington.
There were no immediate reports of tsunami threat.
"It was loud enough that it made me turn my head," Flynn said. "I thought it was coming from the (Mississippi) Fire Academy, but there was nothing going on there."
A caller in Jackson said he heard the boom, which he thought was coming from Pearl, as far away as downtown Jackson.
Another caller said the lights went out briefly between Pearl and Brandon after he heard the boom.
Entergy spokeswoman Mara Hartmann said there was a 3-4 minute transmission-related outage Thursday morning near Old Fannin Road in Flowood that affected industrial customers, but no residential customers. She said that the cause is under investigation.
An elephant, which turned unruly during the Makayiram Purappad at the Bhagavathy temple, Thaikkattussery, near here, killed its mahout and created panic in the area for hours on Tuesday late night.
Suresh, 55, of Kallettukara, was killed when he was trying to tether the elephant. The elephant Choppies Kuttisankaran, who turned violent and attacked its fellow elephants at the Makayiram Purappad ceremony, ran around 20 km before it was tethered at Marathakkara by 12.30 a.m.
The elephant attacked the mahout while he was trying to bring it under control at Thaikkattussery. Though the mahout was rushed to hospital his life could not be saved. The attempt to tranquilize the elephant was not successful.
© Via Facebook/Ian Warne
Ian Warne was walking with his dog, when he suddenly spotted something incredible in the sky. Angel wings started to form as the sun rose in the sky above a Cornish beach. Is it the sun or is it an angel?
© Via Facebook/Ian Warne
© Sergio Quintana
Moraga Police: a traffic pole fell into this sink hole and punctured a gas line, prompting them to evacuate area.
Moraga Police: a traffic pole fell into this sink hole and punctured a gas line, prompting them to evacuate area.
Moraga police said residents of 60 to 100 homes have been asked to shelter in place as PG&E crews repair the gas main break.
The break occurred at 5 p.m. at Center Street and Rheem Boulevard after a traffic signal pole fell into a sinkhole and ruptured a gas line, Acting Police Chief Jon King said.
About 450 people from nearby businesses were evacuated because of the break, which was producing a strong odor in the area.
Police said customers of the Rheem Theater, 24 Hour Fitness and other businesses in the area have been evacuated.
© Rodrigo Villamayor
The phenomenon was captured by several people on Sunday in different departments of our country, which had a colorful morning thanks to the beautiful weather phenomenon that was shared on social networks.
Both the solar halo and the circumhorizontal arc atmospheric optical phenomena are produced by the behavior of the Sun with clouds. The first, also called Antelia or iris ring, is produced by the reflection of light of the sun on the ice crystal clouds.
© Eduardo Villalba
The difference in the common rainbow is that it is shorter, thicker and not caused by the refraction of light in water droplets, but through ice crystals in clouds.
© Screenshot via YouTube/StormChasingVideo
Here a close view of this awesome tornadic supercell engulfing Macomb, Illinois:
© NBC
A 12-inch pipe near First and Clinton streets burst at about 6 a.m., authorities said. Water from the main flooded one block and caused a sinkhole that which engulfed a parked car.
Utility workers spent most of the morning getting the car out of the sinkhole. Once the car was removed, they began trying to repair the broken main.
"I went to get breakfast and on the way back we couldn't see the car so for a little bit we thought they towed it away," said car owner Phil Snyder. " As we got closer we could see the rear end of the car sticking out of the ground."
Comment: See also: A million children in Africa suffering severe acute malnutrition after years of drought linked to El Niño