Earth Changes
The 4.2 magnitude quake occurred near Swansea, south Wales, around 2.30pm at a depth of six miles.
Residents across the UK - from Bristol to Cornwall - have reported tremors in its aftermath.
In all 263 cetacean strandings were reported around the country, which was 44 more than the previous highest level of 219 in 2013.
Dr Simon Berrow, chief science officer of the IWDG, said that the increase in strandings in recent years has been "unprecedented".
He told Cork's Cry104FM: "At least 12 species were report, with the common dolphin being by far the most common, with harbour porpoises a distant second."
He added that deep diving offshore species washed up rarely, with sperm whales becoming stranded on three occasions.
Higgins Storm Chasing shared the video overnight.
"Watch this absolutely CRAZY explosion from a lightning strike hitting power lines during the height of our storm chase!" the post reads.
"It was so blinding it took us a while to work out what had actually happened.
Rain earlier in the day caused a number of slips on State Highway 6, including between Whataroa and Haast, Westport and Greymouth, and at Barrytown, but the road is now open.
MetService forecaster Cameron Coutts said most of the lightning strikes were out to sea.
He said the the heavy rain warning for Buller was lifted at 5pm, but the West Coast was in for more heavy rain on Sunday, particularly around Fiordland.
The downpours came ahead of warnings of gales and heavy rain from Cyclone Gita, expected to make its way to New Zealand early next week.
In a Facebook post, Claudia Campbell described how an apparently playful aquatic encounter between "Goldie" and a trio of otters took an unexpected turn.
"Goldie spotted an otter swimming not too far away. Like any dog, Goldie decided to swim towards to the otter to investigate," she wrote on Wednesday. "The three otters proceeded to grab Goldie, and pull her under the water."
Campbell said the attack occurred while the 27 kilogram dog was in the care of a dog walker at a local beach. She said the dog walker ran into the ocean to wrestle Goldie away from the otters.
"The otters had Goldie almost fully submerged with only her nose showing above water. If the dog walker had not been able to intervene, this may have had an awful ending," Campbell wrote. "They had a solid hold on her."
But according to a scientific study published this month, the Southeast's colder winter weather is part of an isolated trend, linked to a more wavy pattern in the jet stream that crosses North America. That dipping jet stream allows artic air to plunge into the Southeast. Scientists call this colder weather a "hole" in overall global warming, or a "warming hole."
"What we are looking at is an anomaly," said Jonathan M. Winter, an assistant professor of geography at Dartmouth College and the principle investigator in the study. "The Southeast is the exception to the rule."
Comment: Breitbart reports an alternative view to this 'hole in global warming' theory:
The evidence suggests that winters across large parts of the U.S. have been getting colder. In other words, the recent, sometimes record-breakingly cold weather many Americans have been experiencing over winter is not anomalous but part of a cooling trend.
Clearly these facts don't fit well with the "global warming" narrative. So - as we reported earlier this year here - the alarmists and their amen corner in the liberal media have gone into full denial mode, either by claiming that extreme cold weather is simply another sign of global warming or that it's anomalous and therefore not characteristic of climate trends. Or even, in the case of NOAA, actually fiddling with the raw temperature data and adjusting the charts so as to hide the cooling altogether.
The Spanish archipelago was struck by up to 70 small quakes, recorded between Monday and Wednesday, reaching between magnitude 1.5 and 2.6 on the Richter scale.
Andgovernment officials announced more quakes were felt between 3am and 6.30am this morning at magnitudes of between 2.1 and 1.5.
Most of them were located in the area of Los Canarios, in Fuencaliente, and in El Pueblo, Villa de Mazo, although they have also been registered in El Paso and Tazacorte.
The Canary Government has now stepped in and called for an urgent meeting to take place on Friday to discuss why the quakes are happening again and what might happen in the future.
The seismic activity is the latest to hit the Spanish islands, popular with British holidaymakers, after it was struck by a flurry of earthquakes in October last year.

Splintered old growth trees block the July Creek Trail along Lake Quinault in Olympic National Park after being toppled by a mysterious windstorm in the early hours of Jan. 27, 2018.
During the early hours of Jan. 27 more than 100 gigantic old growth trees fell on the north shore of Lake Quinault.
The resulting thud at about 1:30 a.m. was strong enough to register as a small earthquake, according to a seismic monitor at Quinault.
Fallen trees, their splintered trunks left pointing in the air, blocked North Shore Road and damaged utility lines along a 1,000-foot stretch. The sides of the blowdown area were about one half-mile long.
Officials from Olympic National Park knew some sort of wind event was the culprit but nearby weather stations reported only light breezes that night. Radar didn't show any storms.
University of Washington climatologist Cliff Mass investigated the mystery like, in his words, Sherlock Holmes.
The fallen trees in the affected area near July Creek were all facing south. The wind had to come from the north.
"The strong winds could not have been the result of microburst associated with a thunderstorm or strong convection," Mass wrote on his weather blog. "Weather radar showed no such feature and the lightning detection network had no strikes in the region."
Theories abounded on the park's Facebook page: Experimental military equipment, tornado, Sasquatch.
The quake hit the southwestern Mexican state of Oaxaca, United States Geological Survey (USGS) reports. Situated closest to the epicenter is the municipality of Pinotepa de Don Luis, with a population of some 6,700. Tremors were felt as far as Mexico city, with locals posting videos of shaking trees and buildings to social media. Alarms went off across the capital and thousands of people flooded into the streets.
Comment: Quakes shake Pacific plate as Ring of Fire activity returns
UPDATE: Feb 17th - additional reporting:
Magnitude-7.2 earthquake slams south, central MexicoAlso See: Earthquake swarm hits Canary Islands' La Palma
A powerful magnitude-7.2 earthquake shook south and central Mexico Friday, causing people to flee swaying buildings and office towers in the country's capital, where residents were still jittery after a deadly quake five months ago.
Crowds gathered on Mexico City's central Reforma Avenue as well as on streets in Oaxaca state's capital, nearer the quake's epicenter, which was in a rural area close to Mexico's Pacific coast and the border with Guerrero state. There were no immediate reports of deaths.
"It was awful," said Mercedes Rojas Huerta, 57, who was sitting on a bench outside her home in Mexico City's trendy Condesa district, too frightened to go back inside. "It started to shake; the cars were going here and there. What do I do?"
She said she was still scared thinking of the Sept. 19 earthquake that caused 228 deaths in the capital and 141 more in nearby states. Many buildings in Mexico City are still damaged from that quake.
See:
- 7.1 magnitude earthquake hits southern Mexico - Buildings collapse in Mexico City - Quake strikes on anniversary of 1985 'big one' (VIDEOS, IMAGES) - UPDATES
- Mysterious 'earthquake lights' explained after Mexico's huge quake?
Mexican Civil Protection chief Luis Felipe Puente tweeted that there were no immediate reports of damages from the quake. The Oaxaca state government said via Twitter that only material damages were reported near Pinotepa and Santiago Jamiltepec, but that shelters were opened for those fleeing damaged homes.
The Mexico City Red Cross said via Twitter that the facade of a building collapsed in Mexico City's Condesa neighborhood, which was hit hard on Sept. 19. A video showed people walking through a dust cloud. But reporters at the scene later found no evidence of a collapse at the location given.
About an hour after the quake, a magnitude 5.8 aftershock also centered in Oaxaca caused tall buildings in Mexico City to briefly sway again.
USGS seismologist Paul Earle said Friday's earthquake appeared to be a separate temblor, rather than an aftershock of a Sept. 7 earthquake also centered in Oaxaca, which registered a magnitude of 8.2. The Sept. 19 earthquake struck closer to Mexico City.
The Sept. 7 quake killed nearly 100 people in Oaxaca and neighboring Chiapas, but was centered about 273 miles (440 kilometers) southwest of Friday's earthquake, Earle said.
In Mexico's capital, frightened residents flooded into the streets in Condesa, including one unidentified woman wrapped in just a towel, but there were no immediate signs of damage.
"I'm scared," said Rojas Huerta, recalling five months ago when buildings fell as she ran barefoot into the street. "The house is old."
A few months later, a unique team was brought in to help restore the damaged ecosystem. They have four legs and a penchant for careening at high speeds through the forest.
Border collies Das, Summer and Olivia were outfitted with special backpacks brimming with seeds. Then they were sent on a mission, let loose to race through the ruined forests. As they bounded and darted, their packs streamed a trickle of seeds. The hope is that these seeds will take root and sprout, bringing the forest slowly back to life one tree at a time.
The job is a serious one, but for the dogs, it's an excuse to have fun, says their owner, Francisca Torres.
Comment: "Border collies are supersmart!" This is a great example of a very smart dog owner giving her working dogs an important task in helping to restore the damaged ecosystem.














Comment: A Sott.net reader wrote in to tell us that she felt it too: The British Geographical Survey says an event of this magnitude only happens in the UK every 2-3 years. Actually, there have been about 7 similar-strength quakes in the UK in the last 3 years alone...
22 May 2015 - A 4.2 magnitude earthquake 'causes homes to shake' in Kent, UK
25 May 2015 - Magnitude 3.0 earthquake recorded in North Wales
29 Jan 2015 - Britain's second earthquake in 48 hours strikes in East Midlands
7 Mar 2016 - Earthquake 'shook houses' in south-east England
3 Jan 2017 - 3.9 magnitude tremor strikes off UK coast - biggest quake for nearly a decade
4 July 2017 - Earthquake recorded off Shetland was largest in UK for nine years
5 Aug 2017 - Scottish Highlands are rocked by their biggest earthquake for 30 years