Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

US: More dolphins found: 3 washed up Friday; 14 total dead in October, which is 'not normal'

Karen Nelson
SunHerald.com
Fri, 28 Oct 2011 10:21 UTC
dead dolphin
© Courtesy Institute For Marine Mammal StudiesThis young male Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, found on the beach in Long Beach, was one of three dead dolphins found along the Mississippi Coast on Friday.

Gulfport -- So far in October, 14 dead dolphins have washed ashore in Mississippi and Alabama.

Three were found Friday in Mississippi -- one on Deer Island, one floating 200 yards off the beach at Cowan Road and one on the beach in Long Beach.

"Generally, you don't see this in October," said Moby Solangi, director of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies. "This is not normal."
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Cloud Lightning

Spain: Elderly British couple swept to their deaths in Benidorm flash floods

Tom Worden and Lee Moran
Daily Mail, UK
Sat, 22 Oct 2011 01:54 UTC
Image
Swept away: In video footage which is slowly emerging of the flood, cars and vans can be seen being literally carried away by the water
A British couple have been killed in flash floods following torrential rain in Spain.

The married holidaymakers, aged 72 and 70, were seen clinging desperately to parts of a market street cafe in the quiet seaside resort of Cala Finestrat on the Costa Blanca.

According to one eyewitness, a market stall, which was being washed along by the flood water, smashed into them and carried them away.

It has now emerged that the town's council was fined 83,000 Euros in July 2010 for asphalting the bed of the ravine, where the market was held, without permission.

Dramatic new footage has emerged showing the ferocity of the flood water.

In a four minute video the brown water carries away cars, furniture and viewers can see frantic people wading through the path of the flood trying to grab possessions.
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Cloud Lightning

Record-breaking rainfall brings sudden and severe flooding to Dublin, Ireland


France 24
Tue, 25 Oct 2011 01:36 UTC
Image
Water cascades down a staircase at Dundrum shopping centre in south-east Dublin. Image taken from a video posted on Youtube by Showars.
Dublin's officials began the onerous task of piecing the capital back together again on Tuesday after a torrential downpour the day before swelled the city's main waterways, causing them to burst their banks. Water spilled over into the streets, and the flooding quickly prompted Dublin's City Council to enact its "major emergency plan", which saw it send out Council staff and the Dublin Fire Brigade to help assist in the disaster.

According to Ireland's national meteorological service, Met Eireann, the Dublin region saw 82.2mm of rainfall Monday, the equivalent of one month's worth and by far the most since records first began there in 1954.

As rain continues to dump down on Dublin on Tuesday, the city has begun to take stock of the damage. Thus far, the flooding has wreaked havoc on transportation to and from the capital, with significant delays on several of Dublin's main routes and its DART commuter train service. Homes, main arteries and even one of the city's largest commercial complexes, Dundrum shopping centre, have been inundated with water.
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Bizarro Earth

Argentina: Three-Eyed Fish Caught Near Nuclear Power Plant


Practical Fishkeeping
Fri, 28 Oct 2011 21:52 UTC
Has real life imitated fiction? It seems that Blinky, the three-eyed goldfish from The Simpsons may not be such a far-fetched idea, following a recent discovery in Argentina!

A group of fishermen on a reservoir in the Córdoba province of Argentina landed something a little bit different. The fish they caught had an extra eye.

The reservoir where the three-eyed wolffish was reeled in has hot water from a nearby nuclear facility pumped into it, prompting concern among locals.

One of the fishermen, Julián Zmutt told infobae.com: "We were fishing and we got the surprise of getting this rare specimen. As it was dark at that time we did not notice, but then you looked at him with a flashlight and saw that he had a third eye."

Rather unsurprisingly, the fishermen decided not to eat the fish, which is instead to be tested to see whether the mutation actually occurred as a result of something in the water.
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Info

Dam Explosion Restores Environment

Emily Sohn
Discovery News
Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:04 UTC
Condit Dam_1
© Discovery News

This week, PacifiCorp Energy opted out of complying with new fish passage rules for one of its hydroelectric facilities in Washington State. Instead, the utility company figured it would be cheaper to demolish the 125-foot tall, 98-year old Condit Dam, allowing the White Salmon River to flow freely again into the Columbia River, three miles downstream.

Videos of the explosion, shown below in slow motion, and below that with background information, are fascinating to watch. The massive release of water illustrates just how much a dam can alter a landscape.

It took a little over an hour for an upstream reservoir to drain through the blasted hole. Further demolition of the structure will continue over the next year.

Steelhead and salmon can now resume unimpeded swims up and down the river. Rafters and kayakers have a new stretch of whitewater to get psyched about. And scientists will surely stay tuned to see how environment restores itself with a huge pile of concrete blocking its way.
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Bizarro Earth

Near the Coast of Central Peru - Earthquake Magnitude 6.9


US Geological Survey
Fri, 28 Oct 2011 19:20 UTC
Peru Quake_281011
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 18:54:33 UTC

Friday, October 28, 2011 at 01:54:33 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location
14.515°S, 76.009°W

Depth
23.9 km (14.9 miles)

Region
NEAR THE COAST OF CENTRAL PERU

Distances
51 km (31 miles) SSW of Ica, Peru

112 km (69 miles) S of Chincha Alta, Peru

201 km (124 miles) W of Puquio, Peru

288 km (178 miles) SSE of LIMA, Peru
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Bell

Best of the Web: Obama Has Declared Record-Breaking 89 Disasters So Far in 2011

Amy Bingham
ABC News
Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:28 UTC
Image
Hurricane Irene
From Hurricane Irene, which soaked the entire East Coast in August, to the Midwest tornadoes, which wrought havoc from Wisconsin to Texas, 2011 has seen more billion-dollar natural disasters than any year on record, according to the National Climatic Data Center.

And as America's hurricanes, floods, tornadoes and wildfires set records this year, so too has President Obama in his response to them.

During the first 10 months of this year President Obama declared 89 major disasters, more than the record 81 declarations that he made in all of 2010.

And Obama has declared more disasters - 229 - in the first three years of his presidency than almost any other president signed in their full four-year terms. Only President George W. Bush declared more, having signed 238 disaster declarations in his second term, from 2005 to 2009.

But while the sheer number of bad weather events played a big role in the uptick in presidential disaster declarations, Obama's record-setting year may have something to do with politics as well.

Comment: There may be a political element to the trend set by Bush in the higher numbers of environmental disasters being declared within the US, but that alone does not account for the global increase in earthquakes, tsunamis, flooding and other weather extremes.

The Cs Hit List: Prophecy, Prediction, and Portents of Things to Come

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Radar

Magnitude-6.9 Earthquake Rattles Peru Coast


The Associated Press
Fri, 28 Oct 2011 14:00 UTC
Image
© UnknownMap indicating Peru's location on a map of S. America.
Lima - A magnitude-6.9 earthquake centered off Peru's central coast sent people running panicked into the streets Friday in cities badly damaged by a killer quake four years earlier. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

People who had lost loved ones and homes in the earlier quake were badly shaken and some broke into tears.

"It felt like the one in 2007 because it was very strong," Felix Sihuas told RPP radio. He said he was buried under rubble for six hours in the Aug. 15, 2007, quake, which killed 596 people and largely destroyed the town of Pisco.

Friday's quake was considerably less violent in Lima, a city of 8.5 million people some 180 miles (290 kilometers). The capital shook for about 30 seconds in a series of moderate, swaying movements.

The U.S. Geological Survey said Friday's quake was centered 31 miles (51 kilometers) south-southwest of Ica, a provincial capital of about 200,00 people which suffered widespread damage in the 2007 quake. It was at a depth of 21.7 miles (35 kilometers).
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Bizarro Earth

Ash Cloud Rises Above Restive Chilean Volcano


Associated Press
Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:46 UTC
Chilean Volcano
© AP Photo/Aysen Regional GovernmentOct. 27, 2011: Chile's Hudson Volcano released three huge columns of steam and ash that combined in a cloud more than 3 miles high.
Santiago - Chile's Hudson Volcano released three huge columns of steam and ash that combined in a cloud more than 3 miles high on Friday, threatening a much larger eruption that had authorities in Chile and Argentina on red alert.

Chilean officials evacuated 119 people from the immediate area, and other nearby residents prepared to flee as melting snow and ice caused the Aysen river to overflow its banks.

The steam and ash was coming from three craters, ranging from 650 feet to 1,600 feet wide, and with earthquakes shaking the mountain, a major eruption could occur within hours or days, Chile's national geology service said. Already, a plume of ash and steam spread 7.5 miles to the southeast, toward Argentina.
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Attention

US: Gulf Dolphin Deaths Deemed 'Unusual Mortality Event'

Virginia Chamlee
The Florida Independent
Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:52 UTC
Dolphins
© AP / Bullit Marquez

Several reports out today detail the bacterial infection behind a string of dolphin deaths that have occurred since last year's Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Brucellosis, a bacterial infection, has been identified in at least five of 21 tests of stranded dolphins.

A representative of the National Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told CNN that the dolphins could be dying because the bacteria has become more lethal, or it could simply "be more severe, because the dolphins are more susceptible to infection." In either scenario, the root cause seems to be severe environmental stress, which could have been brought on by the BP oil spill.

Teri Rowles, coordinator of the National Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program, told the St. Petersburg Times' Craig Pittman that the oil "could have impaired the dolphins' ability to respond to the bacterial infection."

Investigators, however, still haven't officially pinpointed the cause.
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