Earth ChangesS


Tornado2

5 waterspouts, 3 funnel clouds form in one hour in Marquette County, Michigan

Rachel Droze
TV6 FoxUp
Thu, 01 Sep 2016 05:12 UTC
Waterspout over Lake Superior
© Erica Taylor
The National Weather Service confirmed five waterspouts and three funnel clouds formed between noon and one o'clock Wednesday afternoon in areas around Marquette County.

They were spotted between Little Presque Isle and Harvey. One waterspout lasted roughly 20 minutes.

Mike Tapolcai, a Harvey resident, was in Marquette Township Wednesday when he noticed rotation in the sky.

"I was leaving the mall parking lot, I looked to the east and saw a funnel in the sky," Tapolcai said. "It caught my attention so I snapped a shot as quick as I could before I pulled out of the parking lot and pulled onto the highway. I then looked north and saw another funnel."
Funnel clouds in MI
© Michelle Grunert
Jessica Glomp, a Negaunee Township woman, was also in Marquette Township Wednesday with her husband when they saw three different funnel clouds.

"We saw the two that were right next to each other for about five minutes, but then it was blocked by the Menards building," Glomp said. "The longer one, we watched it for at least five to 10 minutes before it started to dissipate."
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Attention

Second dead dolphin in a week found near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina


nbc4i.com
Fri, 26 Aug 2016 15:40 UTC
Dead dolphin
Officials discovered a mature dolphin found deceased on the beach at 17th Avenue North Thursday.

North Myrtle Beach spokesperson Pat Dowling told WBTW that the city's beach patrol notified the SC Department of Natural Resources and Coastal Carolina University and the city's sanitation division collected the animal and kept it on ice until a professor from the marine sciences department at CCU could collect it to perform a necropsy.

Dowling did not know the name of the professor.

This is not the first dolphin to be found dead this week on the SC coast. According to the South Carolina United Turtle Enthusiasts Facebook page, volunteers retrieved a dead female neonate bottle-nosed dolphin off of South Litchfield at Midway Inlet Tuesday.
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Attention

Whale beaches and dies on beach in Volusia County, Florida


fox35orlando.com
Sat, 27 Aug 2016 15:09 UTC
Whale beaches self
© Volusia County Beach SafetyWhale beaches self
A sperm whale beached itself Saturday afternoon in Volusia County, near Ponce Inlet.

Officials say members of the Volusia County Marine Mammals Stranding Team responded with help from the Hubbs-SeaWorld team to try and rescue the whale.

Unfortunately, the whale could not be saved and died on the beach.

It's unclear what caused the whale's death, but its body was taken away for tests.
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Attention

'Intense' shallow 3.5 earthquake strikes southern Spain

Mark Hodge
The Sun (UK)
Thu, 01 Sep 2016 14:37 UTC
The small but intense shake rocked southern Spain terrifying locals and holidaymakers
The small but intense shake rocked southern Spain terrifying locals and holidaymakers
Emergency services were swamped with hundreds of calls as terrified locals felt walls move

An intense earthquake rocked southern Spain to its core last night causing a shopping mall and a cinema to be evacuated near Gibraltar.

Emergency services were swamped with hundreds of calls from terrified locals living in the usually quiet Campo de Gibraltar.

The earth-shattering quake, which measured 3.5 on the Richter scale, rattled southern Spain - causing walls to move and plates to rattle.

The Bahia Plaza and the local cinema in the town of Los Barrios were evacuated by fearless fire crews.
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Fire

Methane outgassing from Arctic lakes faster than ever

Brian Clark Howard
National Geographic
Tue, 30 Aug 2016 13:04 UTC
methane seeps in alaska lakes
© YouTube/NASA Goddard (screen capture)

Seeping methane is driving a global warming feedback loop.

Some Arctic lakes are starting to look like witches' cauldrons.

The above video shows an increasingly common site in northern latitudes. As global warming heats these areas up, the frozen ground is melting. And when permafrost turns from solid ground to looser mud, it releases gases that have been trapped inside.

Much of the gas is methane, which is produced by microbes that feed on prehistoric biological matter laid down before the last Ice Age. The methane bubbles up to the surface, sometimes gently and at other times violently. (Read a magazine feature on this topic.)

As the land softens, it can also slide and sink, sometimes causing damage on the surface to vegetation (see: drunken trees), or breaking buildings, pipelines, or roads. It can also cause depressions that fill with rainwater, which are called thermokarst lakes.


Comment: Recently scientists found new, strange 'methane bubbles' in a field on a Russian island. Here's a small sample we've collected of other recent natural outgassing-related events: It is likely that outgassing of methane (and other natural gases) is coming up from deep below the earth's surface. See also:

SOTT Exclusive: The growing threat of underground fires and explosions

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Attention

Surfer loses two limbs in shark attack near Reunion Island

David Strege
Grind TV
Tue, 30 Aug 2016 12:18 UTC
A 10-foot bull shark was said to be responsible for the attack on a 21-year-old surfer on Reunion Island
A 10-foot bull shark was said to be responsible for the attack on a 21-year-old surfer on Reunion Island
A 6-foot hole in the anti-shark safety nets guarding the beach at Boucan Canot on Reunion Island prompted officials to raise the red flag Saturday, but that didn't stop a dozen or so surfers from entering the water.

"That same morning the nets were inspected a 2-meter hole was found, so they closed the beach," South African surfer Davy Stolk told Zigzag, a surfing magazine in South Africa. "But the swell was big so the guys still hit the water while the waves were breaking over the nets."

Officials were obviously worried about a possible shark attack, and those worst fears were realized when a 21-year-old student from nearby Etang Sale was bitten twice by a 10-foot bull shark, according to Surfing Life and local news outlet LINFO.Re.

Laurent Chardard lost an arm and a foot in the shark attack that occurred around 5 p.m. local time on the island east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.
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Attention

Man nearly loses foot to shark in Ponce Inlet, Florida


wftv.com
Wed, 31 Aug 2016 12:04 UTC
Bull shark
Bull shark
A man's foot was nearly severed Tuesday in a shark attack in Ponce Inlet.

Sam Cumiskey, 25, had surgery and is out of the hospital. He said the attack is a moment that will stick with him forever.

"I'm blessed. If the good Lord wanted to kill me, he would have done it then," he said.

Cumiskey was out surfing on Pone Inlet when he said a 7-foot bull shark bit his left leg.

He was in waters about 5-feet deep when he fell off his board and into the water. That's when he felt the animal latch on to his foot and bite down.
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Black Cat

Lioness attacks man near the town of Savarkundla, India


The Times of India
Sun, 28 Aug 2016 11:50 UTC
Asiatic Lioness
© Steve WilsonAsiatic Lioness
The man-lion conflict that was limited to villages on the fringe of Gir sanctuary area has now come to haunt Savarkundla town in Amreli district close to the protected forests, the abode of the endangered Asiatic lion. A 60-year-old shepherd, Madha Vaghela, was attacked by a lioness near Devla gate on Chalala Road on the outskirts of Savarkundla town on Saturday.

Vaghela was attacked by the lioness, accompanied by two sub-adult cubs, when he was walking with his herd of sheep. Forest officials said that Vaghela could never have imagined that he would become victim of lion attack as the area where the incident took place is surrounded by diamond polishing units and farm land which fall under the Savarkundla Municipality limits.
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Ice Cube

Huge crack spreading across Antarctica ice shelf

Sky Selrach
Nature World News
Wed, 24 Aug 2016 08:13 UTC
crack in Antarctica ice shelf
© NASA/NewsmakersLarge crack in Antarctica ice spreading fast, threatens to cave in.
Scientists focused on Antarctica have been keenly observing the rapid progression of a large crack on the ice. The crack on Larsen C, one of the world's greatest ice shelves found on the northern major ice shelf of the Antarctic Peninsula, is growing to around 350 kilometers. This is as wide as Delaware, according to reports.

Between 2011 and 2015, the crack in Larsen C has grown to 30 kilometers. By 2015, the crack became wider and lengthened to 200 meters. When it was last observed in March 2016, the rift had grown another 22 kilometers and widened 350 meters.

According to a report by Project MIDAS, the rift is now over 130 kilometers or 80 miles. This only means it will take just a little amount of time before an enormous chunk of Larsen C would collapse.

''We previously showed that this will remove between nine and twelve percent of the ice shelf area and leave the ice front at its most retreated position ever,'' explained Adrian Luckman, Daniela Jansen, Martin O'Leary, and members of the Project MIDAS team. ''The trajectory of the rift now implies that the higher of these two estimates is more likely.''

Comment: Scientists have also discovered that thousands of blue lakes of melt water have formed on the surface of Antarctica's glaciers over the past decade. Yet a recent study indicates that the Antarctic peninsula has actually been cooling not warming. See also:

Antarctica, is it melting or not? Man-made global warming can't explain this climate paradox

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Seismograph

Powerful 5.7-magnitude earthquake hits New Zealand

Louise Cheer
Daily Mail (UK)
Wed, 31 Aug 2016 23:53 UTC
new zealand earthquake
© USGSA 5.7-magnitude earthquake has hit off the coast of New Zealand's North Island
A 5.7-magnitude earthquake has hit off the coast of New Zealand's North Island.

The earthquake happened at 10.04am local time on Thursday and its epicentre was near the town of Te Araroa on the east coast of the island.

It had a depth of 25 kilometres and was felt by people north of Te Araroa in Auckland and the Great Barrier Island, the New Zealand Herald reported.

The South Island would also have felt the earthquake as far south as Christchurch, which is more than 1,100 kilometres away from the epicentre.

It was initially recorded as a 5.0-magnitude earthquake, 100km from Te Araroa, before it was upgraded, according to GeoNet.

Following the earthquake, New Zealand's Earthquakes Commission tweeted: 'We hope everyone is okay up on the after that one. Take care of each other and remember the actions - drop, cover and hold.'
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