Earth ChangesS


Binoculars

Austrailia: Swamp shark sightings

Image
© Noah Schultz-ByardThe original blurry image of the shark.
Everybody is talking about the rumours of a four metre shark that has been seen in the Little Topar Swamp between Broken Hill and Wilcannia.

Terrorising locals and striking fear into the hearts of passersby on the Barrier Highway, the shark has reportedly been spotted by many people.

No one has seen it moving yet, but there is a theory which claims that the little known 'Far West Desert Shark' (Deserto-fictumo-piscenious) is actually unable to move, due to being made entirely of tin.

Regardless of what it is made from, or whether it is an actual shark, grave fears are held for what might happen if the shark ever gets a taste for human flesh.

Distressed locals say that they are now unable to enjoy the swamp as they normally would.

Bizarro Earth

Scientist: Baby dolphin deaths unprecedented

New Orleans - A scientist says the deaths of about two dozen baby bottlenose dolphins is unprecedented in 30 years of studying dolphin deaths in the Gulf of Mexico.
dolphin
© telegraph.co.uk /cc

Moby Solangi says the Institute of Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, Miss., has no record of previous mass deaths in which the majority were infants.

The recent deaths occurred in birthing areas off Mississippi and Alabama. Six bodies intact enough for dissection were a mix of stillborn, premature and full-term calves that died shortly after birth.

Solangi says possible causes include cold winter and disease. He said scientists are investigating whether there was a link to the BP oil spill. But he says only one dolphin species - and no other kind of animal - appears to be dying in unusual numbers.

Sun

Sunspots Overhead: Solar Flares Are Back

Giant gobs of incandescent gas are hurtling towards Earth! Satellites to fall from the sky! Sun in giant eruption as solar flares toast astronauts!

Sadly, no. No astronauts have been harmed in the making of the latest round of breathless excitement infecting the mainstream media as the sun begins to get more active. Although astrophysicists, radio hams and climatologists are genuinely thrilled that solar cycle 24 has at long last begun, and there's been more activity on the sun's surface over the last couple of weeks than in many months previously, we're still at the low end of what will probably be a very quiet few years.

The cycles are eleven years long and are most visible as changes in the number of sunspots. At the bottom of each cycle, the sun can go for weeks without visible sunspots: at the top of a lively cycle, there can be hundreds a year.

For reasons we still don't understand, there are quite dramatic changes in the peak levels of each cycle: the sun's been going through a noisy patch for the last thousand years or so, but is now calming down faster than we expected.

Cycle 24 is late and is going to be quiet overall, but it's on its way up - and with sunspots come solar flares. We haven't had those for a while, hence the excitement recently when a couple of reasonably modest ones kicked off (and failed, unsurprisingly, to have much of an effect).

Heart - Black

Starving Eagles "Falling Out of the Sky'

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© Lyle Stafford/The Globe and MailA Bald Eagle sits on a log in the Squamish river in Brackendale, BC.
When David Hancock saw the bald-eagle count on the Chehalis River drop from more than 7,000 to fewer than 400 over a few days in December, he knew a crisis was coming.

Earlier this week, news reports that starving eagles were "falling out of the sky" in the Comox Valley, on Vancouver Island, confirmed his fears.

Wildlife rescue centres on the Island have reported birds growing so weak from hunger that they fall out of trees, or fly so clumsily they hit things. One crashed into a roof.

Mr. Hancock said a collapse of chum salmon runs has left British Columbia's bald-eagle population without enough food to make it through the winter, leaving them weak from hunger and forcing thousands of birds to scavenge at garbage dumps.

Reports of starving eagles have been coming in from all over the Lower Mainland but seem concentrated in the Comox Valley, he said.

"This is what I said would be happening," said Mr. Hancock, a biologist, publisher and author of The Bald Eagle of Alaska, BC and Washington.

Snowman

Canada: Snow Blankets Victoria and Fraser Valley

Heavy snow blanketed many areas of the South Coast of B.C. on Wednesday morning, including Victoria and the Fraser Valley between Chilliwack and Hope, causing traffic chaos on the roads.

East of Vancouver, Highway 1 eastbound near Lickman Road was shut down after a semi truck jackknifed. There were reports of several other vehicles in the ditches slowing traffic in other areas.

The cold conditions are forecast to continue for the next few days, but most of the snow is expected to pass south of Vancouver.


Igloo

US: Nowata, OK Experiences 100 Degree Temperature Swing In One Week

Our weather is hard to believe, even for Oklahoma. The sunshine and above normal temperatures are a much needed change from our record breaking snowfall and bitter cold temperatures.

Folks in Nowata sure deserve it. That's where it got down to 31 below zero, but no one is complaining now. What a difference a week makes in Oklahoma weather, especially in Nowata.

One week ago it was minus 31, now? Lots of sun and 75 degrees


Attention

Canada: Small Quake Rattles Southwestern Ontario: No Injuries or Damage Reported

A minor earthquake gave a mild shake to the southwestern Ontario town of Wheatley on Wednesday morning as most people began their workday.

No injuries were reported from the magnitude 3 quake.

But Janet Drysdale, a seismologist from Natural Resources Canada, said some people may have felt a rumble around 9:21 a.m.

"Some people close to the epicentre would have felt some minor shaking," she said.

They also may have heard a bang or a sound suggesting a furnace exploding, which Drysdale called normal and attributed to a big release of seismic energy in the atmosphere.

Alarm Clock

US: Lake Pillsbury, California area hit by 4.3-magnitude earthquake Tuesday

A 4.3-magnitude earthquake occurred Tuesday evening near Lake Pillsbury, with residents on the other side of the county reporting that they felt the temblor.

The quake occurred at 8:49 p.m., according to the US Geological Survey.

Its epicenter was located six miles north of Lake Pillsbury, 16 miles southwest of Alder Springs and 22 miles east northeast of Willits. The US Geological Survey said it was recorded at a depth of 9.1 miles.

The quake was immediately preceded by two 2.9-magnitude earthquakes - one at 8:44 p.m., located on the same epicenter as the big quake but at a depth of 7.1 miles, and the second at 8:45 p.m., at a depth of 4.8 miles but located seven miles north of Lake Pillsbury.

At 9:17 p.m. a 2.4-magnitude quake occurred seven miles north of Lake Pillsbury, followed at 10:14 p.m. by a 2.8-magnitude quake six miles north of Lake Pillsbury, US Geological Survey records showed.

Radar

US: More seismic monitors to be installed in Arkansas

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© UnknownNew Madrid Fault Zone
The U.S. Geological Survey is installing two more seismic monitors in north-central Arkansas where more than 750 earthquakes have been recorded in the past six months.

Arkansas Geological Survey geohazard supervisor Scott Ausbrooks told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette the monitors will be placed near Guy and Greenbrier to help pinpoint the earthquakes. Other monitors were installed last fall.

Scientists have said they're not sure if the earthquakes are occurring naturally or are a result of fluid injections by oil and gas drilling companies.

Geologists say quakes of magnitude 2.5 to 3.0 are generally the smallest felt by humans.

Bizarro Earth

Laos: Earthquake Magnitude 4.6

Image
© USGS
Date-Time:
Wednesday, February 23, 2011 at 15:53:17 UTC

Wednesday, February 23, 2011 at 10:53:17 PM at epicenter

Location:
18.926°N, 101.734°E

Depth:
16.2 km (10.1 miles) (poorly constrained)

Region:
LAOS

Distances:
96 km (60 miles) E (80°) from Muang Nan, Thailand

116 km (72 miles) SSW (203°) from Louangphrabang, Laos

141 km (88 miles) NW (318°) from VIENTIANE, Laos