Earth ChangesS


Snowflake

Winter storms bring up to 30 inches of snow to the southern Sierra - 5 feet possible before the weekend


City News
Thu, 29 Nov 2018 19:07 UTC
snow
Snow at Mammoth Mountain on 28th November
The Latest on the series of winter storms bringing heavy snowfall to the Sierra and Lake Tahoe (all times local):

10:05 a.m.

More than a foot (30 centimetres) of snow has fallen at some ski resorts around Lake Tahoe.

The National Weather Service in Reno reported more than 2 feet (61 cm) of snow was recorded on the ridgetops early Thursday in the southern Sierra south of the mountain lake where as much as 5 feet (1.5 metres) is possible by the weekend.

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Seismograph

Strange seismic event 'shook' the planet for 20 minutes on November 11 - And no one felt it

Cheyenne MacDonald and Harry Pettit
Daily Mail
Wed, 28 Nov 2018 22:58 UTC
Seismic signals originating off the coast of the small French island of Mayott
© Leo Delauncey / MailonlineSeismic signals originating off the coast of the small French island of Mayott were detected at seismology station ranging from Chile to New Zealand.
Mysterious seismic waves picked up by monitoring stations from Madagascar to Canada were most likely caused by an underwater volcano, an earthquake expert claims.

A low-rumbling that could not be felt above ground was detected on November 11 and narrowed down the origin to a region just off the coast of the island of Mayotte.

They were similar to those typically seen after large earthquakes, which are known to travel great distances - but, no such earthquake took place.

Theories as to what caused the cryptic rumble ranged from a slow earthquake to an undetected meteor strike.


Comment: This has created a buzz in the scientific community, because seismic signals from earthquakes and volcanic eruption are 'spikier' and don't look 'harmonious' like this.
Strange seismic waves rippled around the world and scientists don't know why

Here in New Zealand, GeoNet seismologist John Ristau said he saw his contemporaries discussing the unusual activity on Twitter when it first happened.

"It is a very strange signal and it can be seen pretty much everywhere around the world. The signal is clearly not like a regular earthquake, it's more like a burst of energy."
Strange waves rippled around the world, and nobody knows why

Helen Robinson, a Ph.D. candidate in applied volcanology at the University of Glasgow: "They're too nice; they're too perfect to be nature," she joked. "What baffles me is how evenly spaced out they were," she said. "I have no idea how to explain that."
Geologists Joke About 'Sea Monster' After Mysterious 30-Minute Rumble Emanates from Waters Near Madagascar

One segment of the signal also featured several high-frequency blips, each separated by roughly a minute of time, a bit like a regular, ticking clock. Stephen Hicks, a seismologist at the University of Southampton, highlighted the phenomenon in a November 12 tweet.

"Something biggggg, yet strangely slow, sent seismic rumblings around the surface of much of the planet yesterday," he wrote. [...]

"It's like a ringing bell. If you want to get a very low frequency, a very low tone, you need that bell to be huge," Ampuero explained.
It's gotta be something cosmic. Did Earth just get 'pinged'?! (And no, not by 'aliens' - rather, by something "bigggggg" but as yet unseen...)

By the way, one week later, this happened:

Despite unusually quiet Sun, solar wind recently produced 'musical waves' in Earth's magnetic field

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Attention

28 whales dead in 'inexplicable' beaching in Victoria, Australia

Benjamin Ansell
9news.com.au
Wed, 28 Nov 2018 13:29 UTC
A stranded whale is checked over.
A stranded whale is checked over.
Wildlife authorities have said it's unclear what caused twenty-eight whales to become stranded at a remote beach in Far East Gippsland.

The mass beaching at the Croajingolong National Park between Petrel Point and Rame Head was first spotted by aircraft pilot Grant Shorland senior yesterday about 4pm.

Three wildlife experts that were flown in by helicopter found one dead humpback whale and 23 dead pilot whales.

Four of the pilot whales were earlier in a critical condition, but died this afternoon; two were euthanised, while the remaining two died of natural causes.

Pilot Grant Shorland said he was shocked and saddened by the mass stranding, which is the state's worst in more than 30 years.


Comment: They're coming thick and fast now. This from New Zealand just a few days ago: 145 stranded pilot whales die on New Zealand beach

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Snowflake

Storm dumps more than 30 inches of snow on parts of Western New York with Perrysburg getting almost 3 feet

Josh Bazan
wkbw.com
Wed, 28 Nov 2018 12:46 UTC
Perrysburg snow
© Josh Bazan ‏Snow in Perrysburg.
In the course of a few short days, mother nature dumped a whole lot of winter weather across Western New York. For Perrysburg in Cattaraugus County, that translated into 35.2 inches of snow, as reported by the National Weather Service's Buffalo office at 3 p.m., Wednesday.

"[I] woke up this morning and it seemed like there was another foot which was just crazy, unbelievable," Craig Papiernik said. He spent most of the day clearing his and his neighbors' driveways with his stepson Christian.

Comment: 60 inches? It's not even December!

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Arrow Down

Sinkhole swallows truck in central Taipei, Taiwan

Keoni Everington
Taiwan News
Thu, 29 Nov 2018 12:27 UTC
Stuck truck
Stuck truck
A sinkhole suddenly opened up and swallowed a blue construction crew truck as it turned the corner in front of a park in central Taipei's Zhongshan District yesterday afternoon (Nov. 28).

At 3 p.m. yesterday afternoon, as a blue truck driven by a construction engineer started to make a turn at the corner of Xinshou Park across from No. 303 Jilin Road, and behind the Landis Hotel, in the heart of Taipei City, it suddenly started to sink into a hole that rapidly opened. As the truck started to sink deeper and deeper, the driver leaped out, fearing for his safety, according to Apple Daily.

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Fire

'Catastrophic' bushfires tear through Queensland, Australia - Evacuations ordered

Max Margan
Daily Mail Australia
Wed, 28 Nov 2018 23:07 UTC
queensland bushfires
Firefighters have been brought in from interstate to deal with the crisis, which is far from over with hot conditions expected to continue for days
Nearly 10,000 people have been told to flee immediately as more than 100 fast-moving blazes tear through Queensland amid the state's bushfire crisis.

Thousands of people were evacuated from communities in central Queensland after catastrophic fire conditions on Wednesday.

Early on Thursday, residents of two more communities - Campwin Beach and Sarina Beach south of Mackay - were woken by police and emergency text messages telling them they were in danger and to move to safety immediately.

About 140 bushfires were burning across an almost 2,000km stretch from Yungaburra, south of Cairns, to Mount French, west of the Gold Coast.


Comment: Right now Australia seems to be experiencing all four seasons, and their extremes, in one: Although summer in the northern hemisphere saw similar conditions with devastating drought and wildfires, and even epic flooding: Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: California Wildfires, Climate Change, And The Impossible Brexit

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Wolf

Coyote attacks three year old in Placentia, California


Culver City Observer
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 19:54 UTC
Coyote
© Getty ImagesCoyote
A coyote attacked and bit a attacked a three year old child playing in a park in Placentia. The child was bitten in the head. Placentia police officers shot and killed the coyote after locating it.

The attack is a warning to Culver City residents and neighboring communities to be vigilant as coyotes move into residential areas.

In Carlson Park over 50 small animals have been killed or disappeared as the result of coyote attacks. Similar reports are coming in for neighboring communities in Culver City.

Comment: It seems that coyotes are becoming gradually less and less wary of humans and so embolden during some encounters as to launch attacks on young children. See these reports gleaned over the last 6 years for many examples:

Coyote attacks 9-year-old child in Davie County, North Carolina

Coyote attacks 3-year-old girl on front porch in Snoqualmie, Washington

Coyote attacks of 6-year-old boy in Irvine, California; spate of 3 attacks locally over the past few months

Coyote bites on humans increasing in Southern California

Residents on alert after coyote attacks father and toddler in Forbes, California; six attacks in the area since May

Spate of coyote attacks on four children in Irvine, California

Woman rescues 3-year-old girl from coyote attack in Irvine, California

Coyote attacks second young girl in Rye, New York

3-year-old Chicago boy attacked by a coyote

Girl, 2, attacked by coyote in Cypress Cemetery, California

3 rare coyote attacks within 10 days in California and Oregon

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Attention

Mother and baby killed by grizzly bear in Yukon, Canada: Coroner


CTV News
Tue, 27 Nov 2018 19:38 UTC
Bear attack
A mother and her 10-month-old baby are dead after being mauled by a grizzly bear outside their remote Yukon cabin.

The Yukon Coroner's Service said Valerie Theoret, 37, and her baby girl, Adele Roesholt, were killed by the animal near Einarson Lake, an isolated area north of Whitehorse.

The service said it learned of the deaths on Monday from Theoret's husband, Gjermund Roesholt, who said he was charged by the grizzly bear about 100 metres outside the family's cabin.

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Attention

Popocatépetl volcano in Mexico registers 68 exhalations in 24 hours


Yucatan Times
Tue, 27 Nov 2018 14:57 UTC
volcano
Mexico's National Center for Disaster Prevention (Cenapred) reported that in the last 24 hours, the Popocatépetl volcano registered 68 exhalations accompanied by water vapor, gas and light amounts of ash, as well as four volcanotectonic earthquakes.

Cenapred reported that the Alert Traffic Light is in Phase 2 Yellow, which is why the Popocatépetl could continue with explosive activity of low to intermediate scale, mild to moderate ash rains in nearby populations are expected, as well as possible pyroclastic flows and short range mudflows.

The National Center for Disaster Prevention asked the population not to approach the volcano, and much less the crater, due to the danger involved in the fall of ballistic fragments and indicated that in case of heavy rains should move away from the bottoms of ravines by the danger of landslides and mudflows.

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Doberman

Hyena seriously injures three people in Malawi


Malawi 24
Tue, 27 Nov 2018 13:19 UTC
hyena
Hyena
A hyena on Sunday attacked and seriously wounded three people, including two boys aged nine and 11, in Ntcheu.

The other victim has been identified as Chisomo Thembakako aged 33.

Police in the district say there was pandemonium in the two villages following the appearance of the hyena that terrorised the communities.

The wild animal first attacked Thembakako at Kasisi 1 village, Sub-Traditional Authority Tsikulamowa in the district.

Comment: One day later: Stray hyena attacks villages, injures 4 in Kenya

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