Earth ChangesS


Attention

South Africa: Rising Tide of Acid Mine Water Threatens Johannesburg

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© AlamyParticularly at risk is the central business district which is built over the central basin and is home to some of Africa's biggest firms
A toxic tide of acid mine water is rising steadily beneath Johannesburg which, if left unchecked, could cause earth tremors, power blackouts and even cancer among residents, experts have warned.

The water is currently around 600 metres below the city's surface but is rising at a rate of between 0.4 and 0.9 metres per day, meaning it could overflow onto the streets in just under a year and a half.

Because it would take 13 months to build a pumping station to clear the water, a legacy of 120 years of mining around Johannesburg, the state has just four months to find the millions of pounds needed to fund it.

It is currently locked in negotiations with multinational mining firms who have profited from the area's rich natural resources over who should pay and how much.

Announcing a task force of experts set up to deal with the issue yesterday, Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said she was hoping that the potential dividends from tapping a new water supply for human consumption and use in industry would entice investors.

Bizarro Earth

New landslip buries 100 rescue workers in Guatemala

A massive landslide buried up to 100 people who were trying to dig out a bus caught in deep mud, killing at least 22 people with dozens more feared dead, as torrential rains battered Guatemala.

Emergency workers recovered 22 bodies from the landslide on a major highway northwest of the capital, and they warned it could take two days to dig out all the victims.

Bizarro Earth

Tropical Storm Hermine Threatens Mexico, Texas

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© National Hurricane Center/ReutersTropical storm Hermine is seen in this satellite image courtesy of the National Hurricane Center.
Tropical storm Hermine has formed in the Gulf of Mexico and warnings have been issued from Tampico, Mexico to the Baffin Bay on the south Texas coast, the National Hurricane Center said on Monday.

Hermine, the eighth tropical storm of the season, carried maximum sustained winds of 40 mph was located about 190 miles east-southeast of Tampico, Mexico. it was moving north at 8 mph.

U.S. forecasters said it was expected to turn toward the northwest and increase in speed on Monday.

"The center of Hermine is expected to approach the coast of northeastern Mexico or extreme southern Texas in the warning area early Tuesday morning," the Miami-based hurricane center said.

Bizarro Earth

New Zealand: Canterbury Fault Had Not Ruptured For At Least 16,000 Years

Wellington, NZPA - The fault that ruptured and produced the magnitude 7.1 earthquake in Canterbury on Saturday appears not to have ruptured for at least 16,000 years, scientists said today.

The earthquake produced a 22km-long surface rupture and up to 4m of horizontal displacement in alluvial terraces that were deposited about 16,000 years ago at the end of the last glaciation.

When the last ice-age ended, rivers brought large amounts of gravel from the high country and distributed it throughout Canterbury, many metres thick in some places.

"Before Saturday, there was nothing in the landscape that would have suggested there was an active fault beneath the Darfield and Rolleston areas," manager of the Natural Hazards Platform at GNS Science Kelvin Berryman said.

Geologists had no information on when the fault last ruptured as it was unknown until last weekend.

"All we can say at this stage is that this newly revealed fault has not ruptured since the gravels were deposited about 16,000 years ago."

Dr Berryman said it was highly likely there were other "hidden" faults around New Zealand which might be capable of producing large earthquakes in the future.

The fault had been accumulating stress for thousands of years and failed catastrophically when the stresses exceeded a certain threshold.

Better Earth

Giant Iceberg Enters Nares Strait

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© ESA
ESA's Envisat satellite has been tracking the progression of the giant iceberg that calved from Greenland's Petermann glacier on 4 August 2010.

This animation shows that the iceberg, the largest in the northern hemisphere, is now entering Nares Strait - a stretch of water that connects the Lincoln Sea and Arctic Ocean with Baffin Bay.

The Petermann glacier in northern Greenland is one of the largest of the country's glaciers - and until August it had a 70 km tongue of floating ice extending out into the sea.

The glacier regularly advances towards the sea at about 1 km per year. Earlier this year, satellite images revealed that several cracks had appeared. Envisat radar images showed that the ice tongue was still intact on 3 August but, on 4 August, a huge chunk had detached.

Calvings from the Petermann glacier are quite common, but one of this magnitude is rare. Less significant events took place in 2001, in 2008 when a 27 sq km iceberg made its way south to Davis Strait, and in 2009.

Bizarro Earth

Guatemala mudslides kill at least 38; 2 buses hit

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© Associated PressPeople stand in front of a bus partially covered by a landslide, due to heavy rains, on the Pan-American highway at Tecpan, Guatemala, Saturday Sept. 4, 2010.
Nahuala - Torrential rains from a tropical depression caused landslides that have killed at least 38 people in Guatemala - some of them rescuers trying to save people already buried under a wall of mud.

In the village of Nahuala, about 200 rescue workers searched through mud and rocks for bodies Sunday after two slides in the same spot killed at least 20 along a highway leading northwest of the capital toward Mexico. Another slide closer to Guatemala City killed at least 12.

Suagustino Pascual Tuy, a Nahuala police officer, said he and several others rushed to the highway with picks and shovels after hearing radio reports of the fallen earth, which had buried two pickup trucks and a bus at kilometer 171 of the Inter-American highway.

Pascual Tuy said the crowds were able to rescue several people alive including his nephew, who was driving one of the pickups.

"He is in critical condition, but thank God we were able to get him out alive," he said.

Pascual Tuy said people were still digging through the rubble when the mountain above them began crackling. He shouted a warning, but moments later the second slide buried a number of rescuers. Pascual Tuy ran for his life and the slide only caught his legs.

Cloud Lightning

Heavy rains trigger flooding in Australia

Victoria flooding
© UnknownThunderstorms and heavy rains have triggered flooding in most areas of Victoria
Thunderstorms and heavy downpours have triggered massive flooding in Australia's Victoria State, threatening the safety of hundreds of homes.

"Many communities and individuals across the state have been affected by flooding from heavy rain over this weekend," said Victoria Premier John Brumby on Sunday.

The State Emergency Services say the army has been called in to help assess the damage inflicted by the floods.

This is while residents are working together to sandbag businesses and homes to protect them against rising floodwaters.

Arrow Up

New Zealand earthquake: ground moved by 11ft

Christchurch earthquake
© EPAA taxi is covered in rubble on Manchester St, Christchurch
A massive earthquake caused the ground beneath the New Zealand city of Christchurch to shift up to 11 feet.

The magnitude 7.1 quake on Friday night in New Zealand was larger than the one that killed 200,000 people in Haiti this year and appeared to have opened a new fault line.

Mark Quigley, a geology professor leading a team investigating the cause of the quake, said: "One side of the earth has lurched to the right."

Much of the centre of Christchurch remained sealed off and under curfew for a second night on Sunday.

More than 500 buildings have been badly damaged. Two men were seriously hurt by falling masonry but there have been no reports of deaths.

Bizarro Earth

20 Killed in Guatemala Floods, President Alvaro Colom Declares Emergency

At least 20 people were killed in Guatemala in landslides triggered by weeks of driving rains, according to figures released by national emergency and rescue services.

President Alvaro Colom has declared a national emergency in the wake of the disaster.

"Top priority at present is dealing with this emergency. There are no funds left to deal with earlier disasters like the one caused by tropical storm Agatha," in late May, Colom told reporters after a surveying tour of the country Saturday

He said damage estimates across Guatemala after weeks of rain stood at 350-500 million dollars, or 40 percent of the damage wrought by Agatha, which killed 183 people in Central America, including 165 in Guatemala earlier this year, and left thousands homeless.

Bizarro Earth

Tonga: Earthquake Magnitude 6.1

Tonga Quake_040910
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Saturday, September 04, 2010 at 08:52:01 UTC

Saturday, September 04, 2010 at 09:52:01 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
17.270°S, 174.000°W

Depth:
37.1 km (23.1 miles)

Region:
TONGA

Distances:
150 km (90 miles) S of Hihifo, Tonga

155 km (95 miles) N of Neiafu, Tonga

445 km (275 miles) NNE of NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga

2430 km (1510 miles) NNE of Auckland, New Zealand