Earth ChangesS


Wolf

Stray dogs kill 4 children within a week in 2 Uttar Pradesh villages, India

Nazar Abbas
The Times of India
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 16:30 UTC
Stray dogs
Representative image
Villagers in Kundarki sub-division of Moradabad have taken to the streets in protest after two more children, six-year-old Abdul Samad and 10-year-old Rehnuma, were mauled to death by strays. Two days ago, two kids were killed by dogs in another village. In all, eight children have fallen to dog attacks in the area this year. Officials are unable to understand how the number of canines has gone up again when 160 dogs were caught in the area and released into the wild just last month.

The situation has become so grim that the administration now wants trained shooters and tranquiliser guns to deal with the menace. The district magistrate has ordered a probe into the growing number of dog attacks.

Abdul Basit, sub-divisional magistrate, said, "The alarming frequency of dog attacks indicates that the canines here may have developed the habit of eating human flesh and find easy prey in children. On occasions, we have placed pieces of animal meat in jungles in our bid to lure them into traps, but they didn't eat it." The administration has also blamed forest officials for not providing assistance in catching dogs. "The forest department says the problem is out of their purview as jungle dogs are not categorised as vermin," Basit added.

Six-year-old Abdul Samad was attacked by a pack of over a dozen dogs in Bhishmpur village of Kundarki on Tuesday when he was playing near a field along with four other children. "My son resisted the dogs and fought them for 10 minutes before he fell down. By the time other children informed others and he was rescued, it was too late," said his father Ibne Hasan. Ten-year-old Rehnuma was killed by dogs in Chitupur village on Monday.
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Question

Texas residents report loud boom, house shaking - cause unknown


ABC 13
Tue, 06 Dec 2016 18:58 UTC
Lake Jackson water tower
© lakejackson-tx.gov
People living in and around Lake Jackson took to social media to report hearing a loud boom around 2 p.m. Tuesday.


Lake Jackson police posted on Facebook that they got calls on the boom and reached out to the industrial plants and were trying to find the source, but hadn't been able to.


Plants in the area also report having no problems.

Police are still working to figure out what caused the issue, but no damage or injuries have been reported.
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Attention

Safari leader killed by elephant in Malawi

Julian Robinson
Daily Mail
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 16:12 UTC
A safari leader has died after his vehicle was flipped over by an elephant
A safari leader has died after his vehicle was flipped over by an elephant
A safari leader has died after his vehicle was flipped over by an elephant which then attacked him when he got out and took a photograph.

Norwegian Sigurd Halvorsen was taking a group of four tourists and two other guides around the Majete Game Reserve in Malawi when the enraged animal rammed into them.

The elephant battered the car against a tree and turned it over before the terrified passengers managed to escape unhurt.

Halvorsen, from Haugesund in Norway, started taking pictures when he believed he was at a safe distance - only for the huge animal to launch an attack.

His family insist that he was not using a flash despite claims in Malawi media, according to Norwegian website Haugesund Avis.
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Seismograph

Precursor to eruption? Dozens of earthquakes rattle a Chilean volcano, alert status raised

Erik Klemett
WIRED
Fri, 02 Dec 2016 15:02 UTC
Cerro Hudson eruption in Chile
© John Warburton-Lee/Getty ImagesDead trees in the River Ibanez valley killed by ash from the Cerro Hudson eruption in 2011.
Last night, the ONEMI (Oficina Nacional de Emergencias) and SERNGEOMIN (Chilean Geological Survey) in Chile raised the alert status for the area around Cerro Hudson in the southern Andes.

Normally, raising the alert status like this is due to an acute change, when the behavior of the volcano shifts suddenly. However, this time, the elevation to Yellow alert status at Cerro Hudson is due to accumulated events over the past month.

Dozens of small earthquakes have occurred since the start of November, none stronger than M3.2. But their location (in geographic space and depth) are similar to those before the last eruption of Hudson in 2011. The number of earthquakes hasn't increased much above the baseline activity at an active volcano like Hudson, but energy released by the largest earthquakes has been increasing over the past few months.

Combine that with the fact that the earthquakes have the character of those associated with magma movement, and the SERNAGEOMIN and ONEMI decided to treat Hudson with an abundance of caution, setting up a 3.5 kilometer exclusion zone around the volcano.
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Attention

70-Mile-Long Crack Opens Up in Antarctica

Stephanie Pappas
Live Science
Tue, 06 Dec 2016 18:47 UTC
Antarctic ice crack
© NASA/John SonntagA huge crack can be seen in the Antarctic Peninsula's Larsen C ice shelf in this aerial image snapped on Nov. 10, 2016, as part of NASA's IceBridge mission.
An ominous crack in an Antarctic ice shelf as wide as a football field is long takes on an otherworldly beauty in a new aerial image.

Snapped by scientists on NASA's IceBridge mission, the shot shows a rift in Larsen C, an ice shelf that is floating off the Antarctic Peninsula. When the crack eventually spreads across the entire ice shelf, it will create an iceberg the size of the state of Delaware, according to IceBridge. That's around 2,491 square miles (6,451 square kilometers).

As of Nov. 10, when the IceBridge scientists observed this crack, it was 70 miles (112 km) long and more than 300 feet (91 meters) wide. The dark depths of the crack plunge down about a third of a mile (0.5 km), all the way through the ice to the ocean below.

Comment: See also:

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Wolf

Pit bull terrier seriously injures four-year-old boy in Pocatello, Idaho

Misty Inglet
localnews8.com
Mon, 05 Dec 2016 12:52 UTC
Dog attack
A four-year-old boy is recovering Monday night after he was attacked by a pit bull Sunday afternoon.

The boy is currently in his mother's custody and was living with her. The pit bull was owned by the mother's boyfriend.

The attack happened just off Highway 30 in a camper home next to the Idaho Salvage Pool. Greg Hamann, the boy's father, said his son went into the kitchen to talk to his mom. That's when the pit bull attacked. Hamann said they don't know why the dog would have attacked.

Now his son has a lot of healing to do. The attack damaged two of the boy's facial nerves, which control movements, like smiling. Other wounds damaged the spit glands, the upper lip and below one eye.

dog attack
It took surgeons six and a half hours of surgery to repair the damage. Hamann said there were so many stitches no one could even get an exact count, but he said there's more than 1,000. He said his son will not only have a long to recovery physically, but emotionally.

"He's going to have to do a lot of counseling because he's going to be terrified," Hamann said. "A poor four-year-old don't know what's going on when something like that happens. So it's going to take a lot of time and a lot of counseling, a lot of love."

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Seismograph

Magnitude 6.2 earthquake rocks Trinidad and Tobago


Jamaica Observer
Tue, 06 Dec 2016 10:52 UTC
6.2 magnitude earthquake rocks Trinidad and Tobago.
© UWI Seismic/ Image from social media6.2 magnitude earthquake rocks Trinidad and Tobago.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 rocked Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday evening sending people into the streets and throwing items of the shelves of some stores and supermarkets.

The Seismic Research Centre (SRC) at the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) said that the quake, which occurred at 5:42 pm (local time), was located at a depth of 29 kilometres.

It said the 6.2 magnitude quake was felt in many parts of the country including Scarborough in Tobago.

The location was Latitude: 11.04N, Longitude: 60.70W.

Many people in the west of the capital scampered out into the streets as the buildings shook, throwing many items to the ground.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damages.

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Attention

More than 20 people killed and dozens of buildings collapse after 6.5 quake in Indonesia (Update)


RT
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 03:11 UTC
6.5-magnitude earthquake struck the town of Pidie, Indonesia's Aceh province
© Zian Muttaqien / AFPA badly damaged building is seen after a 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck the town of Pidie, Indonesia's Aceh province in northern Sumatra, on December 7, 2016.
More than 20 people have been killed and many are feared trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings after a powerful 6.5 earthquake struck off Aceh province on Indonesia's Sumatra island, according to officials.

A press officer at the provincial disaster agency said that more than 20 were killed, according to Xinhua news agency.

The Vice Regent of Pidie Jaya, Said Mulyadi, told MetroTV news that there may be as many as 20 dead and 40 injured.

The Red Cross put the number of fatalities at 20.

Comment: Update: (09.25 CET) The death toll has risen to at least 54 with dozens still feared trapped following the earthquake.

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Nuke

Tsunamis a threat to Britain's coastal nuclear power plants


RT
Mon, 05 Dec 2016 17:21 UTC
UK Nuclear power plant
© Suzanne Plunkett / ReutersHunterston B Nuclear Power Station in West Kilbride.
Britain's nuclear power stations are at risk from tsunamis caused by undersea landslides, scientists have warned. Marine geologists at Durham University found that the British Isles have been hit by more tsunamis than previously believed, including one wave which reached a height of 60 feet. Scientists are urging the government to take the threat of tsunamis seriously, warning that they could damage critical infrastructure on the coast, such as nuclear power stations, ports, and oil terminals.

New evidence has shown that the giant waves can be triggered by underwater landslides, as well as earthquakes, as was the case with the 2011 tsunami that killed 16,000 people in Japan in 2011. These landslides cause billions of tons of mud to break away from the seabed and tumble downwards, creating a suction hole in the sea above. Water then rushes to fill the void, creating a giant wave.

Researchers are urging the government to take steps to protect nuclear and other key installations from tsunamis, which are likely to occur more than once every 10,000 years.

Durham University professor of marine geology Peter Talling said: "We believe the government should consider adding tsunamis to the National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies." The register sets out plans for rare, but potentially devastating disasters, such as flu epidemics and floods.

Talling, who leads the Landslide-Tsunami Consortium, cites the Storegga landslide as an example of how powerful and destructive this underwater threat could be. The landslide, which took place 8,200 years ago, saw a chunk of sediment larger than Scotland detach from the sea floor off Norway. "Storegga caused a tsunami 20 meters high in Shetland, 11 meters high in Norway and three to six meters high in Scotland," he said.

Professor David Tappin, of the British Geological Survey, said it was important to prepare for such hazards. "If you plan for such events before you start building, you can protect against them," he said.

Comment: More than once every 10,000 years doesn't seem like much chance of it occurring unless, of course, you are in year 9,999 since the last one. However, things can change rapidly...

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Cloud Precipitation

Severe flooding due to heavy rainfall kills 14 people in Thailand


abc.net.au
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 20:05 UTC
Much of the municipal area of Nakhon Si Thammarat was flooded on Tuesday
Much of the municipal area of Nakhon Si Thammarat was flooded on Tuesday
Severe flooding due to heavy rain in southern Thailand has killed 14 people, including five students, the Interior Ministry said.

Six days of floods have affected 582,345 people in 11 of Thailand's 76 provinces, the ministry said in a statement — one person is reportedly missing, while three others have suffered injuries.

Trains have also been halted in one province off the Gulf of Thailand as the rails there were submerged under rising floodwaters.

Southern Thailand is a popular destination for visitors due to its scenic islands and beaches, and the floods are expected to put a dent in the area's tourist industry, with the high season running from November to February.


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