Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

5.6 magnitude earthquake hits eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, killing two children

Aaron Ross, Bienvenu-Marie Bkumanya and Eric Walsh
Reuters
Fri, 07 Aug 2015 09:33 UTC
usgs shake map DROC earthquake
A 5.6 magnitude earthquake that struck eastern Democratic Republic of Congo early on Friday killed at least three people, the government spokesman said.

The quake hit 24 miles (40 km) north of Bukavu, not far from the border with Rwanda, at 3:25 a.m. on Friday, said the U.S. Geological Survey, which initially reported the quake at magnitude 5.8.

"There were three deaths - two children in a house in Bukavu. There was also a police officer near the airport," government spokesman Lambert Mende told Reuters.
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Fire

Methane blast kills three Czech miners


Prague Post
Fri, 07 Aug 2015 11:53 UTC
Czech mine methane blast
© STRINGER/TURKEY / REUTERSThe exact cause of the blast is under investigation. File photo
Karviná, North Moravia, Aug 7 (ČTK) — Three people died and another two were injured in a methane blast in the Darkov mine in Karvina, north Moravia, last night, Marek Síbrt, spokesman for the OKD company that owns the mine, told journalists today.

The accident occurred during the drifting of a tunnel late on Thursday evening, Síbrt said.

Rock seems to have fallen out during the drifting. Due to this, the methane was released and subsequently ignited, he added.

"Undoubtedly, a seismic phenomenon occurred. Immediately after this, methane was suddenly released," Bohuslav Machek, spokesman for the National Mining Administration, said.

"As a result, the mixture of methane and air was lit up," Machek said.

The dead men were aged 32, 38 and 39.

"As far as these geomechanical signs are concerned, this is one of the most serious problem of Czech mining that really worries us in coal mining," Machek said.
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Cloud Lightning

Lightning bolt kills 3 girls in Bihar, India


daijiworld.com
Thu, 06 Aug 2015 10:43 UTC
Image
At least three minor girls were killed and three others seriously injured on Thursday when they were struck by lightning in Bihar, police said.

The accident took place in Nauranga vilage in Katihar district.

"They were killed when they were taking a bath in a pond," a district official said.

Three women were injured when lightning struck them in separate incidents.

Source: Indo-Asian News Service
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Cloud Lightning

Lightning bolt kills motorcyclist near Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico

Uriel J. Garcia
The New Mexican
Thu, 06 Aug 2015 10:21 UTC
Image
What began as a celebratory ride to the 75th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota ended in tragedy when a husband and father of three from Rio Arriba County was struck and killed by a bolt of lightning.

Juan Daniel Trujillo, 37, was on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle in pouring rain Saturday on U.S. 64 near Tierra Amarilla when lightning hit his left hand, said his brother, Michael Trujillo.

Juan Trujillo's wife, Maria, was following him in a truck, also bound for Sturgis. She saw him trying to pull over because of the storm, but the lightning strike occurred before he could, Michael Trujillo said in a phone interview Thursday.

Juan Trujillo, of the village of Los Ojos, was the second person in New Mexico killed this year by a lightning strike, according to the National Weather Service. Motorcycles were involved in both fatalities, and in the last three lightning deaths in New Mexico.

Lightning struck Kalina Jinzo, 40, in May while she was on the back of a motorcycle driven by her boyfriend. They were in Carrizozo, also traveling in a rainstorm. Jinzo, a mother of three, worked at Sandia National Laboratories.
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Attention

5.3 earthquake in Mexico Sea of Cortez


RT
Fri, 07 Aug 2015 10:15 UTC
Image
© earthquake.usgs.gov
A 5.3 magnitude earthquake has struck off the coast of Mexico, USGS reported. The quake occurred 119 kilometers from the city of San José del Cabo.

The tremor took place 142 kilometers from the city of La Paz at 04:34 GMT. The town has a population of about 200,000 people and is 148 kilometers from Cabo San Lucas with nearly 70,000 inhabitants.

San José del Cabo, in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur, has a population of about 70,000 people.

Mexico is considered one of the most seismically active regions in the world and has a long history of earthquakes, USGS says.

In July 2014, at least five people were killed after a powerful 7.1-magnitude quake struck the southern Mexican state of Chiapas and neighboring Guatemala.
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Binoculars

Rare endangered albatross seen off Maryland coast

Rachael Pacella
delmarvanow.com
Fri, 07 Aug 2015 09:38 UTC
Image
© Clive HarrisA yellow-nosed albatross
The albatross is the most romanticized and least seen bird along Maryland's coast.

The legends are foreboding. The birds are perceived as the souls of lost sailors. Spotting one means a storm is coming and killing one, even accidentally, is bad luck.

But July 15 when one flew by Capt. Monty Hawkins' boat 20 miles out in the Atlantic, it didn't bring any ill. It brought excitement.

"I knew I'd seen something vastly different," he said.

Hawkins sent a message to birder Mark Hoffman and was able to identify the bird as a yellow-nosed albatross, an endangered albatross species with a wing span of 6 1/2 feet and a life span of 30 years, according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

Seeing an albatross off Maryland is very rare, Hoffman said.

Comment: The bird involved above maybe the same individual seen further north earlier in the same month off Iceland, see also: Lost yellow-nosed albatross from the South Atlantic turns up near Reykjavík, Iceland

Another albatross species turns up in the wrong hemisphere, this time on Suffolk coast, UK

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Attention

Neurotoxic algae that is poisonous to marine life and humans advancing along the Pacific coast


RT
Thu, 06 Aug 2015 03:25 UTC
algae bloom
© NASA / Reuters Algal blooms visible as swirls of green are seen in Lake St. Clair, on the border of Michigan and Ontario, Canada, in a NASA Landsat 8 satellite image taken July 28, 2015. Picture taken July 28, 2015.
A huge patch of blooming toxic algae stretching from California to Alaska appears to be both denser and vaster than scientists predicted. It poisons seafood, and may trigger short-term memory loss in humans.

Concerns were voiced after the latest conclusions from research by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were made public.

The microscopic algae, brown in color, now forms a ribbon, of nearly 65km in width and 200 meters deep, and is located in the unusually warm waters of the Pacific.

The unprecedented bloom is affecting local seafood businesses and the tourist industry: On Tuesday, shellfish producers off the coast of Washington doubled the territory which had to be shut off for fishing after toxic components were discovered in crab meat.

The seafood in the contaminated areas contains domoic acid, neurotoxic, and highly harmful to people, fish and marine life in general. In people it can cause amnesic shellfish poisoning, which in severe cases results in the loss of short-term memory, among other things.

Comment: This warm blob off the west coast may be causing weather anomalies throughout the U.S. and is affecting marine ecosystems. The warm area could be attributed to increased quantities of CO2, methane out-gassing and heat coming up from below, i.e. passing up through the oceans from within the planet, heating and acidifying the planet's oceans. There has been a sharp rise in observable volcanic activity on the planet's surface recently and the vast majority of the planet's volcanoes are located underwater.

Is Warm Anomaly in Pacific Ocean - the 'blob' - linked to weird weather across the US?

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Attention

Muskox attacked tourist in Norway


newsinenglish.no
Fri, 19 Jun 2015 17:12 UTC
Image
Moskus have roamed the mountains of Dovre for many years.
One of the large, horned musk ox that roam the mountains of Dovre in central Norway attacked a German tourist near the Kongsvoll mountain lodge on Friday. The tourist, a man in his 70s, was rescued after an ambulance, helicopter and police rsponded to the call for help.

There had been reports earlier in the day of the normally shy musk ox (called moskus in Norwegian) spotted along the E6 highway that runs over the mountains. Another hiker in the area reported seeing moskus on a trail in the area as well, according to wildlife authorities.

The extent of the German tourist's injuries were unclear, "but the man was conscious," emergency operations lader Wiktor Pederson of the Sør-Trøndelag Police District told state broadcaster NRK.
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Attention

Dead whale found at Malpe beach, India: 3rd in coastal district in 15 days


daijiworld.com
Thu, 06 Aug 2015 16:15 UTC
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Dead whale found at Malpe beach
In the third such incident of its kind in the coastal districts in the last few days, a dead whale was found at Malpe beach here on Thursday August 6.

The whale was spotted by the locals early morning on Thursday.

The whale was in a decomposed state, with the tail separated.

Locals suspect that it might have been hit by a ship and died due to injuries.

The whale was a rare sight at Malpe beach and attracted a number of curious locals.

Udupi city municipality workers have buried the carcass near Malpe seashore.
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Wolf

Fox attacks man in Dutch garden


dutchnews.nl
Thu, 06 Aug 2015 14:39 UTC
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© Eduard Plate
A hungry fox pacing next to a chicken coup in the garden of a family home in Zeewolde has attacked the person filming its actions on a mobile phone.

Eduard Plate, who is a Flevoland provincial councillor for the VVD, spotted the fox hanging around his neighbours' chickens on Wednesday afternoon and started filming it. After a few seconds the fox turned and saw Plate. It leapt at him, forcing him to run off and stop filming.

Plate called in pest control experts who caught the fox and took it to Lelystad where it was killed, RTL news reports.

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