Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Mysterious underwater vortex filmed in Thai lake

Mystery Swirl
© YouTube Screen Capture
A mystery vortex filmed swirling around in a lake in Thailand has left witnesses baffled.

The whirlpool was spotted in the aqua blue waters of Cheow Lan Lake, a dammed reservoir in Khao Sok National Park in the Surat Thani Province, and lasted for about two minutes.

The swirl left a long, wide trail of white bubbles as it moved through the water in a seemingly random figure-8 path in the video published on YouTube (watch video below) last week.

Attention

Thousands of tiny red crabs continue to wash up on California beaches

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© Credit: KTLAThousands of dead or dying red crabs washed up onto the sand at Huntington Beach on June 15, 2015.
Thousands of small crabs native to the waters off Baja California have washed up on beaches in Orange and San Diego counties, coating the sand in a spiky layer of red.

The crustaceans — Pleuroncodes planipes, known as red crabs, or tuna crabs — began appearing in great numbers last week. Out of the water, they become stranded and typically perish, leaving their bodies to decay on the beach.

The crabs were first reported in San Diego and then ventured up the coast, with thousands appearing as far north as Huntington Beach on Sunday. They were also reported in Newport Beach in January, according to the Los Angeles Times.


Binoculars

6.0 magnitude earthquake strikes off East Indonesia; no tsunami warning issued

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© theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com
An earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale jolted North Sulawesi province in the eastern part of Indonesia earlier Tuesday, but it was not potential for tsunami and left no casualties, an official said in Jakarta.The quake struck at 04:04 a.m. Jakarta time Tuesday with epicenter at 71 km northeast Sangihe Island of the province and with the depth at 71 km under seabed, an official of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency told Xinhua over phone.

"The shakes of the quake were felt moderate. It was not potential to trigger tsunami and did not cause damage. The condition of the people is normal," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of the national disaster management agency told Xinhua via phone after the quake.

Previously at 00:40 a.m. Jakarta time Tuesday another quake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale struck off East Nusa Tenggara province in central part of Indonesia, the official of the meteorology and geophysics agency said.

The quake was centered at 64 km southeast of the province and with the depth at 65 km under seabed, he said.

Sutopo also confirmed that the quake did not cause any damage.

Indonesia is prone to quake as it lies on a vulnerable quake- hit zone called "the Pacific Ring of Fire."

Comet

Washington's Puget Sound skies dotted with 'fire rainbows'

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© Jen Brazas
The thin, wispy clouds floating around the Puget Sound region Monday usually do nothing more than give the blue skies a little bit of character.

But today, they were giving the skies a little bit of color.
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© Brian Willard Roetger
We had a number of reports of rainbow arcs in the sky -- both in a circular halo around the sun and just lighting up some clouds near the horizon -- a circumhorizontal arc, otherwise known informally as "fire rainbows."

They're both caused by the same thing -- those thin clouds are made of tiny ice crystals that at a certain angle to the sun will refract the sunlight like a prism. The type of arc they create are based on cloud position and shape of ice crystal -- and we had two rather common ones Monday.

Comment: This has been happening often in recent years, all over the world, and we suspect for the same reason that 'meteor smoke' gives rise to noctilucent clouds:

SOTT Exclusive: NASA blowing meteor smoke as noctilucent clouds intensify


Wolf

Phoenix family dog attacks 4-year-old girl; dad kills it and gets arrested

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The 4-year-old girl mauled by a pit bull terrier.
A Phoenix girl is recovering after being mauled by the family dog and her father is facing a list of charges for shooting the animal after the attack.

Nevaldo "Chris" Ford said his 4-year-old was in the backyard playing with family when he heard screaming. He ran outside to find his dog, Toben, biting his daughter's head.

Ford said he wrestled the dog off the girl, threw the animal to the ground and ran his daughter into the house.

While family tended to the little girl and waited for an ambulance, Ford went back into the yard with a rifle.

"I didn't even know him at that point; he wasn't the dog I raised. " Ford said, "I just knew he was going to attack someone else."


Question

House-shaking loud bang baffles Auckland residents (again)

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© File photo/NZ HeraldThe mysterious sound was heard in the Auckland suburbs of Onehunga and Mangere Bridge on Sunday night.
A house-shaking explosion noise has baffled Auckland residents.

The mammoth bang was heard by residents in the suburbs of Onehunga and Mangere Bridge about 10.30pm on Sunday. One reader who wrote in to the Herald said they could feel the house shake.

The scary noise sounded "super sonic" and no one knew what it was, the woman said.

Residents turned to Twitter to find the source of the mysterious noise - but no clues have turned up yet. Dean Taylor tweeted: "What was that Big Bang in Onehunga just now?" Twitter user Peter Tainui said it might have been related to the mystery bang or explosion heard in the same area a couple of weeks ago. "What/who the hell is the cause?" he asked.

Another loud bang stumped residents in the Onehunga, Three Kings, Mt Roskill, Epsom and Mt Albert area on May 30. One Twitter user at the time said it sounded like a loud boom, thunder or an explosion.

Comment: See also: Mysterious bangs heard in Auckland


Attention

North Korea hit by worst drought in a century compounding chronic food shortages

drought north korea
The UN's food safety organisation said it was monitoring North Korea's situation closely and was ready to provide help
Reclusive North Korea said on Tuesday it has been hit by the worst drought in a century, compounding chronic food shortages in a country where the United Nations says almost one third of children under five are stunted due to malnourishment.

The North's KCNA news agency said paddies around the country including the main rice farming regions of Hwanghae and Phyongan provinces were drying up due to lack of rainfall. Paddies require enough water to keep rice plants partially submerged to grow.

"The worst drought in 100 years continues in the DPRK, causing great damage to its agricultural field," KCNA said, using the short form for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The U.N. resident coordinator for North Korea, Ghulam Isaczai, last month warned of a looming crisis due to last year's drought caused by the lowest rainfall in 30 years.

Cloud Lightning

Flash flood watches in effect for central Texas and Houston as Tropical storm heads toward coast

tropical storm bill trajectory
Tropical Storm Bill hurtled toward the Texas coast from the Gulf of Mexico early on Tuesday with heavy rains and strong winds, the National Weather Service said, weeks after floods killed about 30 people in the state.

Flash flood watches were in effect for central Texas and the Houston area, regions where floods last month swallowed thousands of vehicles and damaged homes.

The storm was projected to hit the coast at Matagorda Bay and churn through central Texas toward Austin.

Heavy rain had already drenched parts of Texas over the weekend, pushing already high rivers closer to overflowing their banks.

Around Houston, the fourth-largest U.S. city, 10 inches (25.4 cm) or more of rain could fall by Thursday, and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, a world-renowned cancer treatment facility, said it was postponing surgeries.

Attention

Small eruption at Mount Asama near Tokyo

volcano eruption
© ReutersA light scattering of ash pointed to an eruption of the most active volcano on Japan's main island of Honshu

A volcano near Tokyo erupted early on Tuesday, the latest in a series of volcanic incidents to hit Japan in recent months.


Mount Asama, one of Japan's most active volcanoes, is believed to have spewed a small quantity of ash, but Tokyo was not affected, according to Kyodo News.

A warning against the dangers of falling rocks within a mile radius of the mountain, which is located 87 miles northwest of the capital, was subsequently issued by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

Experts have been keeping a close eye on the 8,425 feet volcano in recent months, with tremors detected since April and a subsequent surge in sulphur dioxide emissions.

mount Asama
© ReutersPoor visibility due to thick clouds meant that it was not immediately possible to establish whether there was an a eruption

Cloud Precipitation

Turtle falls from the sky during hailstorm in China

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© CEN The Yellow-bellied turtle can live up to 40 years
OAP Fu Yiting, 63, was sitting in front of his house watching the storm in the village of Liaocheng City in east China's Shandong Province, when he saw the Yellow-bellied turtle plunge from the sky and land on a patch of grass.

Thinking at first it was a large rock that had been knocked of his roof, Fu was stunned to find it was a yellow-bellied slider turtle.

Picking it up, he rushed inside to put it in a basin of water.

The Yellow-bellied slider, which can live up to 40 years and frequently basks on shore, on logs, or while floating.

Now confused Fu wants to know how this one landed in his garden.