Earth ChangesS


Attention

4.4 earthquake recorded off Barbados


Nation News
Wed, 28 Oct 2015 14:57 UTC
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© UWI Seismic Research CentreThe quake was located 128 kilometres to the northeast of Bridgetown.
The University oF the West Indies Seismic Research Centre recorded a 4.4 magnitude earthquake off Barbados at 10:05 this morning.

The quake was located 128 kilometres to the northeast of Bridgetown at Lattitude 13.91N and Longitude 58.78W.

It occurred at a depth of 49 kilometres.
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Blue Planet

U.N. climate agency claims ozone hole at the South Pole is fluctuating wider

Tom Miles
Reuters
Fri, 30 Oct 2015 09:29 UTC
ozone hole widens
© news.agu.orgSouth Pole's ozone hole is bigger than Russia and China combined.
The U.N.'s weather and climate agency said on Thursday there was no cause for alarm about a record-size hole this month in the ozone layer that shields life on earth from the sun, as it should shrink again. The ozone hole that appears over Antarctica fluctuates in size, normally reaching its widest in the polar spring as extreme cold temperatures in the stratosphere and the return of sunlight unleash chlorine radicals that destroy ozone. Last year, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said it detected the first sign of ozone recovery, largely thanks to a 1987 ban on gases that cause ozone depletion, but said it could be a decade before the hole begins shrinking. This year, a colder than usual stratosphere widened the hole to a peak of 28.2 million square km (10.9 million square miles) on Oct. 2, bigger than Canada and Russia put together.

It was a record for a hole recorded on Oct. 2 of any year, and the hole has remained at daily record levels on every day since then, the WMO said, citing data from NASA. Over the 30 days around the peak, the hole averaged 26.9 million square km, making it the third largest, after 2000 and 2006. "This shows us that the ozone hole problem is still with us and we need to remain vigilant. But there is no reason for undue alarm," WMO Atmospheric and Environment Research Division senior scientist Geir Braathen said in a statement. "Overall, however, this does not reverse the projected long-term recovery in the coming decades," the statement said.

Comment: If it ain't broke...don't fix it. The ozone hole and its variability are natural occurrences, not a manmade phenomena. Interestingly enough, a colder stratosphere is said to be the widening agent, a consistent cooling trend not to be dismissed nor ignored.

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Meteor

Gloversville, New York residents report loud boom followed by earthquakes

Rachel Yonkunas
News10
Wed, 28 Oct 2015 23:05 UTC
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© news10.com
Reports of houses shaking, explosions and earthquakes were the talk around Gloversville on Wednesday.

People in downtown Gloversville felt their buildings shaking because the U.S. Geological Survey said an earthquake struck about a mile west of the city. But many people felt and heard a loud boom, and they still don't know what caused it. "It, like, rattled the whole house," Raven Holmberg-Gonzalez said.

Holmberg-Gonzalez didn't know what happened when she felt her entire house move just before 5 p.m. "It felt like vibration but really, really heavy, and I couldn't believe it," she said. "I thought somebody fell in the house." But the vibration was a 2.5 magnitude earthquake, according to USGS. The USGS reported it hit a mile west of downtown Gloversville.

Steven Smith is a civil engineer. He used to work in Atlanta doing earthquake design for buildings in Indonesia. He wasn't surprised the shaking he felt at work was an earthquake. "It seemed like it was actually on the third floor of my office building," he said. "And I thought somebody dropped something very heavy." But many people, including Smith, said they heard a loud boom during the earthquake. They said it sounded like thunder.


Comment: Space rocks are a certainly a possibility. A loud boom, followed by ground shaking are one of the hallmarks of an overhead meteor explosion.

Forget About Global Warming: We're One Step From Extinction!

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Blue Planet

Massive crack in earth mysteriously opens up in Bighorn Mountains

David Strege
GrindTV
Fri, 30 Oct 2015 13:58 UTC
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Hunters on a private ranch in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming stumbled upon an incredible and mysterious scene: a massive crack in the earth that in some places resembles a mini Grand Canyon.

SNS Outfitter & Guides first reported the anomaly on its Facebook page on Friday, saying it "appeared in the last two weeks on a ranch we hunt in the Bighorn Mountains. Everyone here is calling it 'the gash.' It's a really incredible sight."

Comment: The earth is opening up on every contintent. See our events map for more incidents:



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Roses

Chile's Atacama desert blooms with spectacular carpet of flowers following historic rainfall

Tia Ghose
Live Science
Thu, 29 Oct 2015 12:07 UTC
Atacama desert in bloom
© EFE The Atacama desert has had heavy rains - resulting in a gorgeous carpet of pink flowers
The Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on Earth, is experiencing a riot of color as a rare springtime bloom of flowers covers every hillside.

The explosion of color is the result of rains that swept through the region earlier this year, watering seeds that had lain dormant in the ground for years.

The Atacama Desert typically gets just 0.6 inches (15 millimeters) a year in rainfall, though some places in the region, such as Arica, receive even less, experiencing between 0.04 and 0.12 inches (1 and 3 mm) of rain a year. [See photos of the beautiful blooms in the Atacama Desert]

Most of the time, the desert is an otherworldly, forbidding landscape of steep, rocky hillsides, salt lakes and old lava flows. However, this year, the heaviest rains in two decades hit the region, causing mudslides and overflowing rivers that killed 28 people. In one day in March alone, the town of Antofagasta, Chile was battered with 0.9 inches (23 mm) of rain, the equivalent of seven years of precipitation, turning the entire town into a river of mud, according to The Weather Channel.

Those rare winter rains also watered the parched landscape, nourishing flower seeds that had been buried in the ground for years. The result? A dazzling carpet of pinks, oranges, yellows and purples as far as the eye can see.

Comment: The wonder of nature. Such beauty following the deadly floods earlier this year and record snowfall in recent times.

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Alarm Clock

Plastic bags and fishing nets found in stomach of dead whale

Lorraine Chow
EcoWatch
Thu, 29 Oct 2015 12:25 UTC
dead whale
A mature sperm whale found dead in Taiwan had vast quantities of plastic bags and fishing nets filling its stomach, highlighting the devastating toll of marine pollution.

According to the Association Foreign Press (AFP) news agency, the 15-meter (49-foot) whale was first found stranded near the town of Tongshi on Oct. 15.

Coastguards and scientists returned it to the sea, but three days later, the same whale was found dead around 20 kilometers (12 miles) away.

After conducting an autopsy of the whale, local marine biologists reported that there was enough plastic bags and fishing nets found in its stomach to fill an excavator bucket.

Professor Wang Chien-ping, head of the whale research center at National Cheng-Kung University, told the AFP that while the whale might have died from many causes, such as heart or lung disease or infections, trash was also a culprit.

"The large amount of man-made garbage in the stomach could reduce its appetite and cause malnutrition," he said. "It was likely a critical cause of death."

About 80 percent of the sperm whale's diet is giant squid, so this whale might have mistaken plastic bags for food.

He Chih-ying, spokeswoman for The Society of Wilderness conservation group, spoke about how ocean trash is a major plague to marine life.

"We frequently heard of marine animals killed after swallowing lots of garbage, but this one was the biggest in size for many years," she told the AFP.

The harmful effects of marine pollution have been choking the entire marine food chain, from plankton to much larger creatures.

Comment: We may very well be past the point of no return!

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Cloud Lightning

Costa Rica's Turrialba volcano spews ash in powerful eruption


International Business Times
Thu, 29 Oct 2015 03:17 UTC
Costa Ricas Turrialba volcano
Costa Ricas Turrialba volcano released a column of gas and ash into the sky on Tuesday (26 October) in the latest of a series of eruptions at the majestic volcano. According to officials, the eruption occurred at 8.37am local time (2.37pm GMT) and was a little bigger than recent activity at the site. Geologist Floribet Vega said that dozens of eruptions have been registered at Turrialba in recent days.

Comment: See our latest video recap of some of the other earth changes that occurred in September:

SOTT Earth Changes Summary - September 2015: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs

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Fire

Gibraltar Fire: Evacuation warnings for Santa Barbara and Montecito, CA hills


89.3 KPCC
Thu, 29 Oct 2015 00:00 UTC
Gibraltar Fire
© lompocrecord.comAerial fire retardant drop on 70+ burning acres of hillside.
A brush fire broke out in the hills above Montecito and Santa Barbara in the pre-dawn hours Thursday and quickly grew, fanned by high winds and dry Santa Ana conditions. The Gibraltar Fire had grown to about 70 acres by 9 a.m. Evacuation warnings are in effect for some communities in the area.

The fire started a half mile from Camino Cielo, west of Montecito Peak. Windy, dry Santa Ana conditions are fueling the fire, which was first reported at 5:16 a.m., according to the Montecito Fire Protection District.

Santa Barbara County fire Capt. Dave Zaniboni told the Associated Press winds of 25 mph are pushing the fire to the east. A helicopter and 10 engines are on scene to assist hand crews working on the ground, and a unified command is being established with Montecito Fire, the U.S. Forest Service and Santa Barbara city and county fire departments.

Northerly gusts are expected to shift to the northeast Thursday night, becoming the first significant Santa Ana wind event of the season, AP reports. When those winds sweep down the mountains toward the sea, they create dangerous air turbulence that can prevent aircraft from getting close enough to drop, said Jim Kunkle, a contractor who runs the Santa Maria Air Tanker Base.

Two firefighting aircraft were unable to drop retardant because of air turbulence as of 8:45 a.m. One other air tanker made a successful drop of 1,200 gallons. The Forest Service has ordered more than 10 tankers, Kunkle said via a statement from the emergency management office. "They're going after everything they can get," he said.

Updated 10:38 a.m.: Evacuation warning zone expanded

The Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management has expanded the areas under evacuation warnings. The area now includes zones 2 through 5.
Gibraltar fire chart
© unknownGibraltar Fire at the northern edge of Santa Barbara and Montecito, CA, threatens residences.

Comment: The Santa Ana winds, that funnel down the face of the mountain range towards the cities of Santa Barbara and Montecito, increase exponentially as evening approaches, complicating the efforts of firefighters and greatly increasing the risk of fire tornadoes and exploding trees. A full-out initial effort offers the best advantage to achieve a quick containment, especially in steep and remote terrain. That window can be frightfully small.

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Ice Cube

Greenland wiping away all records for ice gain this year


Steven Goddard
Thu, 29 Oct 2015 18:07 UTC
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Greenland is blowing away all records for ice gain this year. They have gained almost 200 billion tons of snow and ice over the past two months, which is more than 50% above normal. The surface of the ice gained more than 200 billion tons during the previous 12 months.

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Cloud Lightning

Lightning strikes kill three farmers in India


The Hindu
Thu, 29 Oct 2015 16:40 UTC
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The monsoon rain claimed three lives in Karur and Perambalur districts on Wednesday. All of them were killed by lightning strikes.

While one incident was reported at Padalur in Perambalur district, another was at Lalapet in Karur district. Sources said lightning hit when S. Chidambaram (50) and his mother Chinnammal (70) were harvesting onion at a field in Padalur when they were struck by lightning.

Passersby shifted them to the nearby Primary Health Centre where both of them were declared brought dead. The victim, who was killed by lightning in Lalapet, was identified as Meera alias Saradha (40). She was working in a betel field when tragedy struck her.
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