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Bizarro Earth

Fiji Region - Earthquake Magnitude 6.0


USGS
Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:25 UTC
Fiji Quake_220711
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Friday, July 22, 2011 at 06:56:40 UTC

Friday, July 22, 2011 at 06:56:40 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
20.229°S, 178.530°W

Depth:
600.6 km (373.2 miles)

Region
FIJI REGION

Distances:
43 km (26 miles) NNE of Ndoi Island, Fiji

359 km (223 miles) WNW of NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga

400 km (248 miles) SE of SUVA, Viti Levu, Fiji

1949 km (1211 miles) NNE of Auckland, New Zealand
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Blackbox

US: California - Fault system draws questions about Diablo Canyon nuclear plant's safety

Susanne Rust
California Watch
Fri, 22 Jul 2011 10:09 UTC
After the devastating tsunami damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, seismologists in the United States are focusing on a potentially dangerous fault system near the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California.

Perched over Point Buchon on the Central Coast, the PG&E plant was built four decades ago near two active faults: the Hosgri and the Shoreline. The electricity-generating facility on a barren stretch of coastline is about 12 miles from the college town of San Luis Obispo.

While PG&E maintains the Hosgri and Shoreline are too small to threaten the aging plant, some government scientists suspect the faults - acting with others in the region - could produce an earthquake much more powerful than the plant was built to withstand.

For now, the scientists are being cautious. Sam Johnson, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist, was reluctant to speculate about whether the area's fault system is actually much longer, and therefore more powerful, than now predicted.

"I don't want to be the one who says there could be one long rupture," he said in an interview, calling the subject a "hot-potato issue."
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Fish

US: Sick Fish, Fish Kill Reported in Gulf


The Ledger
Fri, 22 Jul 2011 09:18 UTC
fish kill
© Lexey SwallAn unusual arrival of offshore fish, some of them dead, littered the shoreline Monday in North Naples. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is testing water samples and shark tissue to determine the cause of the dark water and fish kill. Scientists suspect low-dissolved oxygen, possibly as a result of a dying algae bloom, are killing the fish. The health department has not advised swimmers to stay out of the water.

Dead fish have been washing up on the beaches at Naples since Monday.

And commercial fishermen out of Madeira Beach and marine scientists have been conducting a survey of fish with sores and deformities in the Gulf of Mexico since the first week of July.

The exact cause of these problems hasn't been pinpointed yet, and the reports have been isolated dating to the winter.

But two possible reasons being mentioned are the Gulf oil spill last April and a "dead zone'' devoid of oxygen.

The St. Petersburg Times reported last week that three 10-day trips into the Gulf from Madeira Beach and Panama City that departed July 6, July 8 and July 18 were searching for fish that might have some sort of disease. They are catching and checking fish from the Keys across to Texas.

The Times report said red snapper and vermilion snapper caught by fishermen showed "wounds straight through their muscle tissue.''
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Attention

Alaska, US: Aleutian Volcano Shows Signs of Impending Eruption

Yereth Rosen
Reuters
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 21:33 UTC
Image
© Wikimedia CommonsThe nearly symmetrical face of Mount Cleveland
Recent satellite images of a remote Alaska volcano along a flight route for major airlines show the mountain may be poised for its first big eruption in 10 years, scientists said on Thursday.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory has issued an eruption advisory for the 5,676 foot-tall Cleveland Volcano, located on the uninhabited island of Chuginadak in the Aleutian chain about 940 miles southwest of Anchorage.

The advisory was based on "thermal anomalies" detected by satellite, the observatory said. Those measurements indicate the volcano could erupt at any moment, spewing ash clouds up to 20,000 feet above sea level with little further warning, the observatory said.

A major eruption could disrupt international air travel because Cleveland Volcano, like others in the Aleutians, lies directly below the commercial airline flight path between North America and Asia, said John Power, scientist-in-charge at the Alaska Volcano Observatory.

The volcano's last major eruption came in 2001, when it blasted ash more than 5 miles into the sky and spilled lava from the summit crater. Cleveland has experienced several smaller eruptions or suspected eruptions since then.
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Radar

New Zealand: 5.1 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Christchurch

Anissa Haddadi
International Buisiness Times
Fri, 22 Jul 2011 02:36 UTC
Christchurch earthquake
© Celsias
An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale hit New Zealand's Christchurch city on Friday morning, Xinhua reported.

According to China's Xinhua news agency there were no reports of injuries or damage, following the earthquake that occurred at 5.39 am local time (17.39 GMT on Thursday).

The quake was centred 40 km west of the city, at a depth of 12 km, said New Zealand Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS).

"The earthquake was felt along the east coast of the South Island from North Canterbury to Dunedin" said the GNS duty seismologist Caroline Holden.

Holden further added that a few more magnitude four quakes are expected in the following days.
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Bizarro Earth

Monsoon Floods Kill 6, Displace More than 10,000 in Southern Bangladesh

Farid Hossain
The Associated Press
Fri, 22 Jul 2011 02:12 UTC
Floods triggered by monsoon rains in southern Bangladesh have killed 6 people, displaced more than 10,000 and washed away shrimp farms close to the Bay of Bengal, authorities said Friday.

The region's Matamuhuri and Bakhkhali rivers overflowed after five days of heavy rain and inundated about 200 villages, chief government administrator Zainul Bari said. The displaced have taken shelter in school buildings in the flood-hit district of Cox's Bazar, he said.

He said flood waters damaged shrimp farms and paddy crops in the affected areas.

Bari said government relief workers are handing dried food and clean drinking water to the displaced.

Also Friday another government official Shafiq Mia said six flood-related deaths have been reported in the area, 296 kilometers (185 miles) south of Dhaka.
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Sun

US: Northeast Braces for Temps Near Boiling Point


The Associated Press
Fri, 22 Jul 2011 05:42 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Mary AltafferVanity Mendez, 11, left, Isaiah Rivera, 6, center, and Jonathan Medina, 11, cool off at an open fire hydrant in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, Thursday, July 21, 2011.
The extreme heat that's been roasting the eastern U.S. is only expected to get worse, and residents are bracing themselves for temperatures near and above boiling point.

Weather service heat warnings and advisories have been issued Friday from Ohio to Maine.

The high temperatures and smothering humidity will force up the heat indexes. Boston's 99 degrees on Friday could feel like 105 degrees; Philadelphia's 102 degrees like 114 degrees and Washington, D.C.'s 103 degrees may seem the same as a melting 116 degrees.

Many cities have opened cooling centers.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
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Info

US, Texas: Severe Weather Across Nation Causes Food Scarcity at Food Bank

Shelley Childers
CBS 7 News
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
The West Texas Food Bank is being hit by months of severe weather across the nation, from droughts to floods it's all taking a toll on how much and what type of food they are handing out.

The food bank is trying to fill two gaps right now, food and finances, and the scarcity of both is very visible.

"If you look around and see all these empty spots in this facility here, they should be filled with food," said Augie Fernandes, the Executive Director of the West Texas Food Bank.

Flooding, quickly followed by severe droughts have caused quite an alarming situation for the West Texas Food Bank.

"A situation where some crops have been burdened by drought and some by flooding and too much water."

Now the food bank, filled with non-perishables is in desperate need for fresh produce.
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Cloud Lightning

Australia: Wild Weather Still Lashing Illawarra Coast


ABC News
Fri, 22 Jul 2011 05:28 UTC
Image
© Google
The State Emergency Service (SES) experienced a busy night in the Hunter and on the central coast but the number of calls-outs has dropped off in the Illawarra.

A heavy weather front continues to dominate the coast, with the Bureau of Meteorology issuing a severe weather warning with very heavy surf for the Illawarra.

In the 24 hours to 9:00am Friday, Fig Tree received 74 millimetres of rain, Bellambi 71mm and Scarborough 62mm.

Grant McClory from the SES says localised flooding is still occurring and houses are experiencing rain damage.

"Total tasks since Tuesday lunchtime add up to only around 80 to 90 tasks," he said.
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Bizarro Earth

Guatemalan woman finds huge sinkhole under bed

James Meikle
The Guardian
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 18:04 UTC
sinkhole
© Johan Ordonez/AFP/Getty ImagesA man inspects the sinkhole in Guatemala City.
Sinkhole, 12m deep and 80cm in diameter, forms at Guatemala City home of 65-year-old Inocenta Hernandez

You may sometimes wish the ground would swallow you up, but for some the danger of disappearing down a deep hole is all too real.

The people of Guatemala City are increasingly unable to trust what's beneath their feet because of treacherous sinkholes.

The latest person to get a shock was 65-year-old Inocenta Hernandez. "When we heard the loud boom we thought a gas canister from a neighbouring home had exploded, or there had been a crash on the street.

"We rushed out to look and saw nothing. A gentleman told me that the noise came from my house, and we searched until we found it under my bed."

Comment: What was once an occasional incident has become a alarmingly regular occurrence - we're getting reports of sinkholes every other day now!

July 17: Tennessee, US: Sinkhole beside Spring Hill's new high school stirs speculation

July 14: Utah, US: Girl dies, father hurt in crash caused by sinkhole

July 14: Florida, US: Tarpon Springs homeowners wonder if homes will be swallowed by sinkhole

July 12: US: Lenoir, North Carolina sinkhole evidence of a possible wider problem

July 7: South Carolina, US: Sinkhole Closes Stephens County Boat Ramp

June 27: Australia: Enormous sinkhole swallows south-east Queensland Rainbow beach

A collection of sinkhole images from around the world

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