Earth ChangesS


Attention

Dead pgymy sperm whale found near Melbourne Beach, Florida

Jim Waymer
Florida Today
Tue, 19 May 2015 13:16 UTC
Image
© Tim Shortt/Florida TodayA pgymy sperm whale beached Monday morning at Spessard Holland Park.
Biologists suspect severe heart disease, coupled with 10 feet of rope and piece of a plastic bag in its stomach, caused a 10-foot pygmy sperm whale to beach itself Monday at Spessard Holland Park.

"It's really, really sick," Megan Stolen, a research scientist with the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute, said shortly before the whale was euthanized. "It's very, very skinny."

The whale showed signs of severe heart disease, Stolen said.

But biologists plan to examine the whale's remains to test for the so-called morbillivirus. They'll test whether that measles-like virus, which killed more than 1,600 dolphins since July 2013, also contributed to the pygmy sperm whale's death.

The virus has been killing bottlenose dolphins along the Atlantic Coast for more than two years in the worst outbreak of the virus in almost three decades.

Read More...
Cloud Lightning

Storm chasers blasted by baseball-sized hail while filming tornado in Elmer, Oklahoma


9 News
Tue, 19 May 2015 11:29 UTC
tornado damage
© Reuters / Mike StoneA cowboy hat lies among the debris of destroyed homes after a tornado swept through the area the previous night in Van, Texas May 11, 2015.
As if driving through America's Tornado Alley wasn't hard enough, try dodging hail stones the size of baseballs.

Two wild-weather researchers have recorded their harrowing escape from a supercell tornado they were monitoring in the US state of Oklahoma.

The researchers were driving as they filmed some roiling clouds off in the distance, near the town of Elmer, when a vortex of air and moisture combined and started hurling large chunks of ice at them.
Read More...
Arrow Down

Sinkhole closes street in Traverse City, Michigan

Michael Walton
Traverse City Record-Eagle
Tue, 19 May 2015 12:22 UTC
Image
© UnknownElmwood Ave closed due to sinkhole
Motorists who drive up and down Elmwood Avenue will need to find a new way to get where they're going while a large sinkhole blocks their route.

The roughly four-foot deep sinkhole broke up the roadway just south of Medical Campus Drive at about 1:30 p.m, said Dave Green, Traverse City's director of public services.

A plywood board covered the hole Monday afternoon, supporting a traffic barrier and surrounded by orange cones and yellow caution tape. Elmwood Avenue was closed to through traffic between Seventh and Eleventh streets as work crews marked utility infrastructure locations for future repair work.

Comment: Check out:

Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Hawaiian volcano on brink of eruption

Brett Smith
RedOrbit
Tue, 19 May 2015 01:10 UTC
Kilauea Volcano
© Thinkstock
Kilauea, on the Big Island of Hawaii, is one of the more active shield volcanoes in the Aloha State and observers at the United States Geological Survey are saying that the odds of a major eruption have increased significantly in recent days.

"Activity at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano continues to change, as shown by a pronounced drop in the level of the lava lake within Halemaʻumaʻu Crater, a change in the summit area deformation pattern, and the concentrated earthquake activity in the southern part of the caldera and upper Southwest Rift Zone," a recent statement from the USGS said.

A lake of molten rock near the summit of the volcano had risen to record-high levels, but, as the USGS statement pointed out, the lava level has subsided, dropping almost 500 feet. As lava levels have been rising and falling, a series of earthquakes have radiated out from Kilauea.
Read More...
Snowflake Cold

Two cold temperature records broken in Saskatchewan, Canada

Thomas Piller
Globalnews.ca
Mon, 18 May 2015 13:01 UTC
Image
© Neil Longmuir/Global News
Environment Canada says a couple of cold temperature records were established on the May long weekend in Saskatchewan. It released a weather summary early Monday morning.

An arctic high pressure ridge settled over southern areas of the province last night producing clear conditions and widespread frost.

A new record low temperature was set in North Battleford at -4.5°C. The previous mark was set in 1895 at -3.3°C.

Swift Current also broke a record at -5.9°C, beating out -5.6°C, which was set in 1923.

The federal agency says these figures may be preliminary and do not constitute a final report.
Read More...
Bug

Millions of tiny spiders fall from the sky in Australia


Independent.ie
Fri, 15 May 2015 09:48 UTC
spider rain australia
Paddocks in Albury show the extent of the 'spider rain'.
Millions of tiny spiders recently fell from the sky in Australia, alarming residents of a small town who suddenly found themselves covered in the creepy critters.

Such a scene might seem the stuff of nightmares, however, there is a perfectly natural explanation to strange phenomenon.

This month's eight-legged downpour in the country's Southern Tablelands region is just the most recent example of an event commonly known as 'spider rain'.

The phenomenon, dubbed 'angel hair' by some, sees spiders climb to the top of plants and trees and leap off, using a streamer of silk to catch the breeze and carry themselves into the air.

The event can sometimes lead to entire fields and towns covered in a thin blanket of the silk.

Scientists believe the technique - known as ballooning - is what has allowed arachnids to colonise virtually every continent on Earth.

Comment: The phenomenon has also been reported in Brazil and Argentina:

Read More...
Cloud Lightning

3 people killed by lightning as heavy rains flood Guangxi, China


South China Morning Post
Mon, 18 May 2015 18:33 UTC
Image
© XinhuaResidents clear debris from a river in Ronghsui county.
Three people died from lightning strikes in mainland China's Guangxi area and an unknown number of others were missing in floods as heavy rain hit the autonomous region, state media reported.

More than 60,000 people in 11 counties were affected by the storms, Xinhua reported.

The "six horses" statue - an attraction in the Li River - has been almost completely submerged by floods, according to reports.

Local governments had evacuated more than 2,400 people, Xinhua reported. At least 152 houses collapsed and nearly 700 were damaged, it said. Twelve rivers had high water levels and traffic was blocked in remote regions

Read More...
Cloud Lightning

Twisted weather: 19 tornadoes wreak havoc, down power in central US states (images)


RT
Sun, 17 May 2015 17:04 UTC
tornado damage
© Reuters / Mike StoneA cowboy hat lies among the debris of destroyed homes after a tornado swept through the area the previous night in Van, Texas May 11, 2015.
At least 19 tornadoes have struck the mid-US this weekend damaging homes and causing blackouts, according to weather channels. The worst affected states are Oklahoma and Texas, which were hit by hail and destructive storms.

Minnesota, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Iowa and Louisiana have all witnessed the wayward and harsh whims of May's weather.

A tornado touched down near the town of Ogden in Iowa, on Sunday.


On Saturday, a "multi-vortex" tornado hit southwest of the towns of Murdock and Rosen in Minnesota on Saturday. Broken Arrow in the northeastern part of Oklahoma also reported a twister, which caused structural damage and power outages in the area. A separate and large tornado struck southwestern Oklahoma.

"Elsewhere in Oklahoma, tornadoes were reported 9 miles [14 km] south of Anadarko, near Meers and Elk City along Interstate 80," the Weather Channel said.

Read More...
Arrow Down

At least 33 killed in Colombian landslide


BBC
Mon, 18 May 2015 16:17 UTC
landslide in Columbia
At least 33 people have been killed in a landslide in Antioquia province in north-west Colombia, officials say.

The director of Antioquia's Disaster Prevention Department told local media 20 people had been injured.

Heavy rains caused the river Liboriana to burst its banks, triggering the landslide.

Much of the village of Santa Margarita, south-west of the provincial capital Medellin, was reportedly swept away when the landslide hit early on Monday.

Police in Antioquia put the number of dead at 39.
Read More...
X

Second eruption in 2015 at Piton de al Fournaise volcano


Volcano Discovery
Sun, 17 May 2015 15:03 UTC
Image
A new eruption, so far small, began this Sunday at 13:45 from a fissure vent at the the southeast slopes of the Dolomieux crater inside the Enclos next to the Château Fort cone.

An intense seismic crisis with 5-7 earthquakes per minutes started 55 minutes before the onset of the eruption, as magma pushed its way to the surface. A few minutes after the beginning of the quakes, significant deformation of the Dolomieu crater rim could be measured as well.

The prefecture of La Réunion triggered alert phase 2 and closed access to the Enclos.

The new eruption seems to be similar in its (small) size and vent location as the last one that occurred between 4-16 February this year. Both probably originate from a same shallow magma reservoir that by early 2015 had grown enough to produce eruptions at the surface.

Frequent (several per year), but generally small eruptions have been a typical feature of Piton de la Fournaise during much of the volcano's recent past decades.

Comment: Reports of eruptions and volcanic activity since May 1:



Read More...