Earth Changes

21 children taken to hospital after storm hits Edmonton camp

CBC News
Wed, 03 Jul 2013 00:00 UTC

Minor injuries at Our Lady Queen of Peace Ranch

Twenty-one children were taken to hospital after a thunderstorm ripped through a camp in northeast Edmonton Tuesday night.

The storm swept through Our Lady Queen of Peace Ranch at around 9:30 p.m., knocking over tents.

"There's been some scrapes and bruises, cuts and abrasions, that sort of thing for injuries," said District Fire Chief Darrell Dublanko. "There hasn't been any significant injuries, life-threatening or anything like that."

The camp is in a valley and the storm whipped through in a matter of several minutes, Dublanko said.

About 200 children were at the camp at the time. All have been accounted for and have been moved inside the main building.

"They're happy and have their sleeping bags inside now, instead of in the tents," Dublanko said.

According to the website, the camp gives children who face physical, mental, financial or emotional challenges a chance to experience the outdoors.

Extensive forest fires prompt smog warnings in southern Ontario, Quebec

Scott Sutherland
Yahoo! Canada News - Geekquinox
Tue, 02 Jul 2013 00:00 UTC

The National Capital region was shrouded in haze on July 2nd

Hazy, smoggy conditions settled down over southern Ontario and southern Quebec Tuesday, caused by forest fires burning in northern Quebec.

A smog warning is in effect for most of southwestern Quebec - from Gatineau to Montreal to Drummondville - and a smog advisory has already been effect for eastern Ontario, which was expanded all the way through Toronto and Hamilton.

Typically, smog warnings and advisories are caused by stagnant weather conditions causing industrial and car pollution to build up and 'cook' into ozone, fine particulate matter and a mix of other pollutants. However, according to CBC News, this current advisory is mostly due to smoke that is blowing into the warning areas from an extensive forest fire near James Bay, which has consumed around 250,000 hectares of land so far.

Noctilucent clouds intensify

Spaceweather
Tue, 02 Jul 2013 19:00 UTC

The "noctilucent daisy" continues to expand and intensify as summer unfolds. Observers in central-to-northern Europe are reporting vivid, nightly displays of NLCs. Just hours ago, Alan Tough photographed these over Lossiemouth, Moray, Scotland:

"This was another spectacular display of noctilucent clouds," says Tough. "I arrived in Lossiemouth in time to see the Moon rising and managed to capture its glitter path on the River Lossie."

2013 is shaping up to be a good year for NLCs. The clouds surprised researchers by appearing early this year, and many bright displays have already been recorded. Once confined to the Arctic, NLCs have been sighted in recent years as far south as Utah, Colorado, and Nebraska. They might spread even farther south in 2013.

Observing tips: Look west 30 to 60 minutes after sunset when the sun has dipped 6^o to 16^o below the horizon. If you see luminous blue-white tendrils spreading across the sky, you've probably spotted a noctilucent cloud.

Nine weird German weather phenomena

The Local
Wed, 12 Jun 2013 17:04 UTC

Floods are ravaging huge swathes of Germany, plunging towns underwater and causing billions of euros in damage. Yet the country is no stranger to meteorological madness, and as this week's Local List reveals more unusual weather phenomena.

Whether scorching hot or unfathomably freezing, Germany has seen a lot of strange weather in its time. We've dug through the archives and brought you the coldest of the cold and the hottest of the hot - which some readers might remember as being the summer of 2003.

Yet in 1816, summer never came. Crops died and poverty swept over much of the world after a volcanic eruption in Indonesia through the world's weather system off-kilter.

With summer slowly creeping in we shouldn't have to worry about that this year though, but there are always a chance of tennis-ball sized hailstones or even tornadoes, to worry about. And let's not even think about the military simulating terror attacks by changing the weather.

Butterfly decline a worrying portent

The Canberra Times
Mon, 01 Jul 2013 15:14 UTC

Butterflies are the essence of cool in the insect world, a favorite muse for poets and songwriters who hold them up as symbols of love, beauty, transformation and good fortune.

But providing good fortune apparently goes only one way. As humans rip apart woods and meadows for housing developments and insecticide-soaked lawns, butterflies across the US are disappearing.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service recently announced that two brown, moth-like butterfly subspecies are likely extinct in south Florida, which some entomologists say is ground zero for the number of butterfly species on the verge of annihilation.

The rockland grass skipper went missing in 1999, and the Zestos skipper hasn't been seen since 2004. Several other species, such as the ebony-and-ivory-colored Schaus swallowtail, are listed as endangered, and many others are threatened, including the silvery Bartram's hairstreak.

"We look at it as a signal that we've got a serious problem with butterflies and other insects and pollinators here in Florida," said Larry Williams, a supervisor for the ecological services program at Fish and Wildlife. "We're looking at this as sort of a wake-up call that we need to be watching butterflies more closely."

At least one species of butterfly has vanished from the United States, along with the two subspecies in Florida. Seventeen species and subspecies are listed as endangered nationwide, and two are listed as threatened.

Shallow 3.6 magnitude earthquake strikes under Lake Erie: residents report "gigantic explosion", homes rattled

The Extinction Protocol
Tue, 02 Jul 2013 12:45 UTC

An earthquake of preliminary magnitude 3.6 struck early yesterday, beneath Lake Erie, just outside of Cleveland, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The temblor's epicenter was 4 miles (6 km) northwest of Fairport Harbor, Ohio. It originated 3.7 miles (6 km) deep and struck at 3:48 a.m. local time (07:48 UTC), the USGS reports. Some light shaking was felt in coastal towns just northeast of Cleveland, but no damages were reported, according to The Columbus Dispatch. Damaging earthquakes are rare in the region. The largest temblor on record in the Northeast Ohio seismic zone struck in 1986 with a magnitude of 4.8, according to the USGS. That quake, which caused minor property damage and a few injuries, was felt over a wide area from Illinois to New York.

In Ohio, Lake County officials received multiple calls. "I heard a gigantic explosion, and it rumbled entire house," one caller said. "I'm sorry; I'm like shaking so bad right now," she went on. The quake was felt in places like Perry, and Fairport Harbor. Even Eileen Steele of Mentor heard the pictures on her walls shake. "It was pretty significant, like an explosion had gone off far away and you kind of feel the rumble from it," said Steele. "This was different. The bed shook," she said. All of her animals were alert and scared too, especially her dog. According to the United States Geological Survey, this was a 3+ magnitude earthquake. Even At the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, this seismograph machine picked up the activity at 3:49 a.m. The machine is part of the museum's Earthquake Zone display, which is full of information about the natural disasters. But the kind of shaking and rumbling some Lake County residents felt, is something they don't want to experience again. "It was scary," Steele said. - Live Science , Fox8

USGS data

Powerful 6.1 magnitude earthquake injures dozens in Indonesia's Aceh province

GlobalPost.com
Tue, 02 Jul 2013 12:28 UTC

A powerful 6.1 magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia's northwestern Aceh province, on the island of Sumatra. Dozens have been reported injured. The epicenter of the quake was roughly 55 kilometers from the town of Bireuen, a regency of the larger Aceh province, and took place at 7:37 AM local time according to data from the US Geological Survey.

Although it's unknown how many were injured, Sky News estimates"at least 50 people," and numerous buildings have collapsed as an effect of the powerful tremblor. The quake appears to have shaken the provincial capital of Banda Aceh, which is located at the northern tip of the Sumatran land mass. "I see many houses were damaged and their roofs fell onto some people," said central Aceh district resident Bensu Elianita to the Associated Press. "Many people were injured but it is difficult to evacuate them due to traffic jams."

15 new species of birds discovered in Brazil

wildlifeextra.com
Sun, 30 Jun 2013 12:11 UTC

New crow and spectacular tree creeper amongst new discoveries

Since the second half of the nineteenth century Brazilian ornithology has not made a significant contribution to enlarging the knowledge of Brazilian biodiversity, but that is about to change in a major way.

15 new species!

15 new species of birds from the Brazilian Amazon will be formally described for the first time in a number of scientific articles published in July, and will also appear in a special volume of the Handbook of the birds of the world.

The authors of the descriptions belong to three national research institutions-the Museum of Zoology of the University of São Paulo (MZ-USP), Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (Inpa), Manaus, and Emí-lio Goeldi Paraense Museum (MPEG), Belém - and to the Museum of Natural Science at the State University of the Louisiania (LSUMNS), United States.

Not since1871, when Austrian August von Pelzeln described 40 new species, have so many new birds from Brazil been described simultaneously.

Gulls feasting on whales? In Argentina, yes

Antoine Raux
newsdaily.com
Mon, 01 Jul 2013 06:46 UTC

It's a weird, lopsided fight if ever there was one: seagulls divebombing to attack and feed on the fat of 50-ton whales and their babies. And the birds are winning.

The battle, new in recent years, is playing out in the South Atlantic off the coast of Argentina's Patagonia region, and is not known to be happening in waters elsewhere in the world that are home to the mighty mammals.

The effect of all the relentless nibbling is a pernicious disruption of an eco-system. One theory as to why it is happening there is an overpopulation of seagulls -- in this case, the kelp gull.

Whales use these Argentine waters to mate, give birth and nurse their young, and what with all the airborne harassment, whales are taking new evasive measures as they swim, separating mothers from their calves and denying them nourishment.

Whales do not have lips for sucking, so mothers expel a thick milk in the water for their calves to ingest. The babies need more than 100 litres of it per day.

"With each attack this process is interrupted, and it is a crucial moment for the growth of the whales," said Mariano Sironi, director of studies at Argentina's Institute for Whale Conservation.

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.1 South of Bireun, Indonesia

US Geological Survey
Tue, 02 Jul 2013 03:20 UTC

Event Time
2013-07-02 07:37:02 UTC
2013-07-02 14:37:02 UTC+07:00 at epicenter

Location
4.698°N 96.687°E depth=10.0km (6.2mi)

Nearby Cities
55km (34mi) S of Bireun, Indonesia
72km (45mi) SE of Reuleuet, Indonesia
74km (46mi) SW of Lhokseumawe, Indonesia
87km (54mi) NE of Meulaboh, Indonesia
581km (361mi) WNW of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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Earth Changes

21 children taken to hospital after storm hits Edmonton camp

Extensive forest fires prompt smog warnings in southern Ontario, Quebec

Noctilucent clouds intensify

Nine weird German weather phenomena

Butterfly decline a worrying portent

Shallow 3.6 magnitude earthquake strikes under Lake Erie: residents report "gigantic explosion", homes rattled

Powerful 6.1 magnitude earthquake injures dozens in Indonesia's Aceh province

15 new species of birds discovered in Brazil

Gulls feasting on whales? In Argentina, yes

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.1 South of Bireun, Indonesia

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