Earth ChangesS


Binoculars

Giant Fungus Discovered in China

Matt Walker
BBC News
Mon, 01 Aug 2011 00:38 UTC
Image
© Yu-Cheng DaiSmall fragments have broken off the single giant fungus
The most massive fruiting body of any fungus yet documented has been discovered growing on the underside of a tree in China.

The fruiting body, which is equivalent to the mushrooms produced by other fungi species, is up to 10m long, 80cm wide and weighs half a tonne.

That shatters the record held previously by a fungus growing in Kew Gardens in the UK.

The new giant fungus is thought to be at least 20 years old.

The first example of the new giant fungus was recorded by scientists in 2008 in Fujian Province, China, by Professor Yu-Cheng Dai of the Herbarium of biology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shenyang and his assistant Dr Cui.

"But the type collection was not huge," Prof Dai told BBC Nature.

However, "we found [the] giant one in Hainan Province in 2010."
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Papua New Guinea - Earthquake Magnitude 6.8


USGS
Sun, 31 Jul 2011 20:32 UTC
PNG Quake_310711
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Sunday, July 31, 2011 at 23:38:57 UTC

Monday, August 01, 2011 at 09:38:57 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
3.569°S, 144.844°E

Depth:
16.8 km (10.4 miles)

Region:
NEAR NORTH COAST OF NEW GUINEA, P.N.G.

Distances:
134 km (83 miles) E of Wewak, New Guinea, PNG

211 km (131 miles) NNW of Madang, New Guinea, PNG

701 km (435 miles) NNW of PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea

2787 km (1731 miles) NNW of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia
Read More...
Cloud Lightning

Earthquake-Ravaged Japan Now Overwhelmed by Rain - 296,000 Evacuated


Herald Sun
Sat, 30 Jul 2011 05:43 UTC
Image
© Herald Sun Residents stand beside a flooded street caused by heavy rain in Sanjo, Japan.
Floods claimed their first victim in Japan and nearly 300,000 people were urged to flee their homes as a weather system that killed dozens on the Korean peninsula swept the country.

Local governments in the central province of Niigata and tsunami-hit Fukushima issued the guidance today after the national weather agency urged citizens to be on maximum alert against more flooding and mudslides.

Helicopter footage on NHK showed bridges over the Shinano River in Niigata partially submerged, while trees and telephone polls had been knocked down. Kamo City in Niigata was extensively flooded, with roads submerged.

Forecasters warned that the rains could continue to be torrential after reaching 1000 millimetres to date in Sanjo City, Niigata, 250km northwest of Tokyo, since they started on Wednesday.

A total of 296,000 people had been asked to evacuate their homes by this afternoon, according to public broadcaster NHK, but no compulsory orders were issued despite muddy swollen rivers, broken dykes and flooded houses.
Read More...
Fish

Australia: Thousands of dead fish have washed up along 8km of Lake Alexandrina's shore

Michael Milnes
Adelaide Now
Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:26 UTC
dead fish
© The Advertiser One of the fish washed up dead on the shores of Lake Alexandrina. Picture: Michael Milnes.

With the health of the River Murray and Lower Lake system at its best in years, the mass "fish kill" is a mystery.

Point Sturt resident Dot Ratcliffe said she was alarmed to find the problem when she went kayaking on the lake yesterday morning. "I saw them (extending) about 400m out in to the lake," she said.

"It's terribly upsetting, very distressing. There are thousands of fish washed up, something you do not want to see. I have been living here for 10 years and never seen anything like this."
Read More...
Igloo

Ice Age Threat Should Freeze EPA Global Warming Regs

Shannon Goessling
The Washington Examiner
Tue, 26 Jul 2011 15:16 UTC
ice
© n/a
Rather than spiraling into a global warming meltdown, we may be heading into the next ice age.

The U.S. National Solar Observatory, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and astrophysicists across the planet report that the nearly all-time low sunspot activity may result in a sustained cooling period on Earth.

The news has sent global warming theory advocates scrambling to discount and explain away the impact on global temperatures. However, the "news" is not really that new.

Many reputable scientists have been warning for decades that we are nearing the end of the 11,500-year average period between ice ages. And the last similar crash in sunspot activity coincided with the so-called "Little Ice Age" in the 1600s that lasted nearly a century.
Read More...
Cloud Lightning

US: Tropical storm heads for Texas - and the drought-hit state is overjoyed


The Daily Mail
Fri, 29 Jul 2011 15:11 UTC
The prospect of a storm warning is normally cause for most American states to prepare for the worst.

But rather than bracing themselves for relentless rain and destructive cyclones, locals in Texas are welcoming the perfect storm in the hope it will end the state's months of drought.

Parts of Texas are 15 inches short of their average rainfall this year, meaning the predicted downpours from Tropical Storm Don are being actively welcomed.

Image
© AFP/ Getty ImagesOn its way: A graphic shows Tropical Storm Don brewing near the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, with the cyclone expected to hit Texas over the weekend
The storm's five to seven inches of predicted rain will help alleviate Texas's water shortages and dying crops when the cyclone sweeps in from the Gulf of Mexico.
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Deadly Tornado Hits City in Russia's Far East


RT.com
Sun, 31 Jul 2011 13:26 UTC
One person has been killed and twenty eight others injured as a powerful tornado hit the Russian far-eastern city of Blagoveshchensk.

The tornado was so powerful that it tore the roofs from houses, turned over vehicles, flattened trees and smashed windows in several buildings.

Local authorities have introduced a state of emergency in the city, Itar-Tass news agency reports. 200 people and 50 vehicles are already involved in the cleaning operation.

Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Vanuatu - Earthquake Magnitude 6.2 - Jul 31


USGS
Sun, 31 Jul 2011 13:19 UTC
Vanuatu Quake_310711
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Sunday, July 31, 2011 at 14:34:50 UTC

Monday, August 01, 2011 at 01:34:50 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
16.998°S, 171.588°E

Depth:
23.1 km (14.4 miles)

Region:
VANUATU REGION

Distances:
361 km (224 miles) ENE of PORT-VILA, Efate, Vanuatu

377 km (234 miles) NE of Isangel, Tanna, Vanuatu

503 km (312 miles) ESE of Luganville, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu

2224 km (1381 miles) N of Auckland, New Zealand
Read More...
Cloud Lightning

Northern Japan Battered by Floods


Storyful
Sun, 31 Jul 2011 12:32 UTC
Image
© From: @ohyoohyoko
Northern Japan has been battered by torrential rain and floods killing one person. Niigata and Fukushima prefectures have been the areas worst hit with a number of people missing and 400,000 advised to evacuate their homes as authorities fear potential landslides. The floods strike nearly five months after northeastern Japan was struck by an earthquake and subsequent tsunami that killed over 13,000 people.
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Hot Weather Persists in Central United States

Jim Forsyth
Reuters
Sun, 31 Jul 2011 09:42 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Kevin LamarqueA Civil War re-enactor sits in the shade of his tent in the Union Army Camp to avoid the blistering heat in Manassas, Virginia July 21, 2011.
Sticky heat was expected to smother much of the country's midsection in coming days as hotter than usual temperatures continued to roast parts of the Midwest and South, forecasters said on Sunday.

Areas of Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma were under excessive heat warnings with heat advisories issued for a large swath of the Central United States, according to the National Weather Service.

Heat and humidity were forecast to continue with air temperatures and heat index readings climbing well into the triple digits for parts of the region at least through midweek.

"It's pretty incredible to just be locked into a pattern of this kind of dry heat for this long for the Southern Plains," said AccuWeather.com senior meteorologist Dan Pydynowski.

"There doesn't seem to be any relief in sight," he said.
Read More...