Earth ChangesS


Attention

770 earthquakes in Yellowstone Park in 2 weeks: 'More than normal' say scientists

Michael Becker
Idaho State Journal
Fri, 23 Jun 2017 06:13 UTC
Yellowstone earthquake swarm
© USGS
Almost 770 earthquakes have been recorded in Yellowstone Park over the past two weeks — more than normal but not a sign of volcanic activity, scientists say.

As of 11:30 Friday morning, 769 quakes had been recorded in the current swarm, said Jamie Farrell, a research professor of seismology at the University of Utah.

The swarm, which began June 12, is ongoing, he added, though the frequency of earthquakes has slowed down a bit. Typical swarms comprise 10 to 50 quakes, Farrell said.

"As of now, everything that we can see looks like these are tectonic in origin," he said. "There's no volcanic signature to any of these events that we've found."

The university's seismograph stations have tracked a single quake in the magnitude 4 range, a temblor near West Yellowstone on June 15 that has been the largest of the swarm to date.

Comment: Yellowstone supervolcano is hit by 464 earthquakes in just ONE WEEK

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Tornado2

Video shows dust devil turning into a fire tornado at Russian gas field

Brittany A. Roston
Slash Gear
Fri, 23 Jun 2017 16:55 UTC
red sky
There's no shortage of entertaining videos from Russia, and while most of them involve balls of fire shooting through the sky, this one is a bit different: a dust devil made its way over to an open flame and transformed into a fire tornado. Thanks to a witness who was quick with their camera, the entire process was caught on video (vertically, that is, but it works well in this case).

The video was recently posted by Storyful on its YouTube page, where it simply attributes it to 'Anonymous.' According to the video description, the dust devil formed on a Russian gas field where an open flame was present on one of the pipes. The dust devil — which was pretty big to start with — made its way over to the fire, eventually encasing it.

The results are predicable — the fire was pulled up into the swirling wind, forming a twisting funnel of fire. After seemingly playing with the fire for a minute, the dust devil eventually backs off, going from clear and flaming to dusty and huge. It's quite satisfying, and even better that no one was hurt.

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Sun

Ring seen around the sun in eastern Virginia

Mike Stone
WTVR
Thu, 22 Jun 2017 11:47 UTC
While it doesn't happen every day, we are occasionally treated to a funky sky phenomenon of a halo around the sun or moon.
Sun halo in Sandston, VA
© WTVR
This ring is caused by cirrostratus clouds, which are made of ice crystals. They are found above 20,000 feet. They can get quite thick, but sun or moon light can be seen through them.

This light is refracted through the ice crystals, and this causes the halo. At times, the clouds can be very thin and hardly visible until the halo is shown.

We often see cirrostratus clouds increasing ahead of a front or storm system. Thursday afternoon's halo was caused by moisture being thrown into our area by the remnants of Tropical Depression Cindy.
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Attention

Rincón de la Vieja volcano eruption blasts over 2000 meters in Costa Rica

Laura Alvarado
The Costa Rica Star
Fri, 23 Jun 2017 09:03 UTC
Blasts at Costa Rica's Rincón de la Vieja Volcan
Blasts at Costa Rica's Rincón de la Vieja Volcan
The National University's Volcanology and Seismology Research Institute (OVSICORI), reported an eruption at the Rincón de la Vieja Volcano in Guanacaste at 2:56 p.m. this Friday, June 23, where the column reached 2000 meters above the crater and 3,916 meters above sea level, (12844.48 ft).

According to the report by OVSICORI, the eruption registered is phreatomagmatic, which means it results from the interaction between magma and water. This type of eruptions usually contains juvenile magmatic clasts.

The activity was short, only lasting one minute, There are no reports of ash-fall for the time being, but the explosive and violent eruption caused once again a small pyroclastic flow, meaning a current of hot gas and volcanic matter such as rocks that heads down the north slope of the volcano forming a lahar. The lahars that form as a product of eruptions in this volcano usually affect the rivers Pénjamo, Azul and Quebrada Sufrosa.

Volcanologists recommend staying away from these rivers since the water level can increase suddenly.

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Seismograph

Shallow earthquake measuring 5.8 magnitude strikes Beira, Mozambique

Avinash Nandakumar
India Live Today
Sat, 24 Jun 2017 08:50 UTC
CHART
An earthquake measuring 5 point 8 magnitude struck 60 kilometers (37 point 28 miles) northwest the Mozambique city of BEIRA, the United States Geological Survey said today.

The USGS put the depth of the tremor at 10 km (6. 21 miles).

The USGS says Mozambique lies on a huge East African continental rift that is associated with shallow earthquakes. The most recent major quake to strike the region took place in Mozambique in 2006. It measured magnitude 7.0 and killed two people.

A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.5 has struck Botswana, with shaking felt across southern Africa, including South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe on April 32017
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Tornado2

At least three tornadoes and a microburst hit Quebec in one day; 'It's quite unusual' says Environment Canada


CBC.ca
Wed, 21 Jun 2017 10:25 UTC
Quebec tornadoes
© Peter Rodgers/Facebook The tornado that hit the Saguenay region Sunday on Lac Kénogami travelled as fast 180 kilometres an hour and hit a class 2 on the Fujita scale, according to Environment Canada meteorologist Marie-Ève Giguère.

Cyclones carved kilometres-long paths near Lac St-Jean and Mont-Laurier

Three tornadoes touched down in Quebec last weekend — all in one day.

Environment Canada confirmed in a statement that "at least three tornadoes and a microburst affected the province" Sunday.

"It's quite unusual," meteorologist Marie-Ève Giguère told CBC News Wednesday.

"On average in Quebec, we confirm about six tornadoes every summer, so three on the same day is definitely a rare occurrence."

The tornadoes carved paths several kilometres long in the Lac St-Jean and the Mont-Laurier regions, as well as the Laurentides Wildlife Reserve between Quebec City and the Saguenay.

Two of the tornadoes - the ones in Lac St-Jean and near Mont-Laurier - hit Class 2 on the Fujita scale, meaning their winds reached 180 kilometres per hour.
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Arrow Down

Landslide buries more than 100 people in China after torrential rain


RT
Sat, 24 Jun 2017 03:22 UTC
China landslide
© CGTN
Massive search efforts are underway in China's Sichuan Province after a landslide destroyed dozens of houses, reportedly burying at least 100 people underneath the rubble.

Torrential rain in Maoxian County triggered the large landslide which destroyed around 40 households in Xinmo Village, Xinhua reports. Around 100 people are feared trapped underneath the dirt and debris.

The disaster happened in the Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture and struck at around 6:00am local time.

Some 500 people are now part of the search and rescue efforts after authorities mobilized manpower and deployed resources, including excavation equipment, to save the trapped villagers.

The landslide has also blocked about a two-kilometer section of a local river course.

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Blackbox

"Something must be attracting them": Thousands of harp seals surround Russian drilling rig in Arctic Circle


RT
Fri, 23 Jun 2017 22:45 UTC
Harp seals drilling rig pechora sea
© Sergey Dolya / YouTube
An enormous herd of harp seals has occupied every free ice floe as far as the eye can see around Russia's Prirazlomnaya offshore oil drilling rig located in the Pechora Sea, inside the Arctic Circle.

"I've never seen anything like this. There are thousands of them!" says an astonished oil rig worker, who did not wish to identify himself, during a minute-long video that was sent to the Russian explorer and travel writer Sergey Dolya, who posted it on his blog.

Harp seals migrate annually between their birthing and feeding grounds and the Arctic, where they spend the summer, often traveling in excess of 4,000 km in large colonies.

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Wolf

Dangerous dog attacks rocket across Lancashire, UK; 70% increase in 2 years


2RB
Fri, 23 Jun 2017 19:28 UTC
canine attack
© Angela Antunes / CC by 2.0
2BR has got hold of figures showing dangerous dog attacks have increased by 70% in two years.

We asked Lancashire Police to tell us how many of these incidents they investigated.

In 2014, they recorded 162 dangerous dog attacks.

But the year after, that had shot up to 499.

Last year, they had to investigate 545 incidents involving dangerously out of control dogs.
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Seismograph

Seismologists study massive Yellowstone earthquake swarm

Justin Ayer
NBC Montana
Thu, 22 Jun 2017 18:18 UTC
seismograph
Seismologists are studying a swarm of 500-plus earthquakes that have rattled the Yellowstone Park area since June 12.

Most are centered 8 miles north-northeast of West Yellowstone. That is just a few miles east of the Hebgen Lake Basin, the site of the historic 1959 quake. That one measured 7.3 on the Richter scale, killed 28 people and created Quake Lake, near the Gallatin National Forest.

Mike Stickney, of the Earthquake Studies office at Montana Tech, said earthquake swarms are normal this time of year. He says many are smaller. When we checked we found dozens that measured under 2.0 on the Richter scale.

Comment: Yellowstone supervolcano is hit by 464 earthquakes in just ONE WEEK

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