Earth ChangesS


Attention

100,000 sea stars found stranded on Fripp Island, South Carolina

Rebecca Lurye
The State (South Carolina)
Sat, 27 Dec 2014 15:49 UTC
Image
© Rick Stein
Thousands of starfish were stranded on Fripp Island on Christmas Eve, likely because of the day's stormy weather, according to a marine veterinarian.

Al Segars of the S.C. Department of Natural Resources said he had not looked into the stranding, but said strong winds could have caused the creatures, also known as sea stars, to wash ashore. Christmas Day beachgoers estimated that roughly 100,000 sea stars were on the beach.

The Sea Islands experienced the same thing last year, Segars said.

"I wouldn't say it's anything out of the ordinary," he said. "These guys are just sitting on the bottom, so if you've got a strong wave action, they can't fight the current."

George Sedberry, a science coordinator in national Office of Marine Sanctuaries, said he has not studied this stranding but offered other possible explanations for the sea stars' deaths.
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Cloud Grey

Philippines: Tropical Storm Jangmi triggers flash floods and landslides leaving at least 29 dead, 10 missing


Sputnik
Tue, 30 Dec 2014 15:45 UTC
At least 29 people have been reportedly killed and 10 are missing in flash floods and landslides triggered by Tropical Storm Jangmi which is hitting the Philippines for the second day.
Image
© REUTERS/ Erwin Frames
Flash floods and landslides, caused by a Tropical Storm Jangmi, known locally as Seniang, have left at least 29 people dead and 10 missing after hitting the Philippines for the second day running, according to AP reports.

The eye of the storm was 108 kilometers southwest of central Iloilo City, moving west at 19 kph toward western Palawan Island, the agency quotes the government weather bureau as saying on Tuesday afternoon.

At least 12 people died when a landslide swept away two vans and six houses near a mountainside highway in eastern Catbalogan City, said Mayor Stephanie Uy-Tan.

She added that voices could still be heard from one of the vans and that rescue efforts were ongoing.

Thousands were evacuated ahead of the storm's arrival, with most expected to be sent home later Tuesday as floodwaters start to recede.

But some residents in vulnerable areas ignored the evacuation warnings, she said.

"The rains were really strong and people thought the storm won't be too strong based on the news," The Indian Express quotes her as saying.


Comment: Normalcy bias at work.
THE MISCONCEPTION: Your fight-or-flight instincts kick in and you panic when disaster strikes.

THE TRUTH: You often become abnormally calm and pretend everything is normal in a crisis.
See also: 58 Cognitive biases that screw up everything we do

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Attention

Over 1,200 sea turtles have washed up on Cape Cod beaches during December


wildlifeextra.com
Tue, 30 Dec 2014 15:33 UTC
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Sea turtles depend on warmer waters for their survival
Over the past month a record number of sea turtles, most of which have been critically endangered Kemp's Ridley Turtles, have been rescued from stranding on the beaches of Cape Cod in New England, reports the Massachusett Audobon Society.

Normally, around 90 sea turtles strand on the Cape on their migration from the beaches of Mexico to Cape Cod Bay.

Sea turtles spend the warmer months in Cape Cod waters, then swim south to Mexico for the winter each autumn beginning in November. But some turtles get "caught" by the hook of Cape Cod.

Sea turtles that take their body temperature from the environment around them and when the water temperature of the Bay gets down to 50 degrees F they become cold-stunned.
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Red Flag

Large volumes of methane being released in Arctic Ocean

Brett Smith
redOrbit.com
Sat, 27 Dec 2014 21:53 UTC
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© NASAKara Sea is a section of the Arctic Ocean between Novaya Zemlya and the Yamal Peninsula on the Siberian mainland. Siberian permafrost extends to the seabed of the Kara Sea, and it is thawing.
Researchers from Norway and Russia have found significant amount of the greenhouse gas methane is leaking from an area of the Arctic seabed off the northern coast of Siberia.

According to the team's report in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, the melting of permafrost on the seafloor of the Kara Sea is releasing previously-sequestered methane.

"The thawing of permafrost on the ocean floor is an ongoing process, likely to be exaggerated by the global warming of the world´s oceans," said study author Alexey Portnov at Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Climate and Environment (CAGE) at The Arctic University of Norway.


Comment: Global warming isn't the culprit. Melting sea ice means that vast amounts of fresh water have spread into the North Atlantic. The lack of salt in, and low temperatures of the water will have the effect of sinking the North Atlantic drift which will cause the Jet Stream to swing much lower than usual (The North Atlantic Drift helps to keep the Jet Stream at high latitudes) which will in turn lead to much cooler temperatures over Northern Europe and, ultimately, the entire Northern Hemisphere. So we are looking at GLOBAL COOLING, NOT 'Global Warming'.


Permafrost is considered soil that has been permanently frozen for at least two years and is usually much thicker on land where temperatures can stay far below the freezing point for months on end.

"Bottom water temperature is usually close to or above zero. Theoretically, therefore, we could never have thick permafrost under the sea," Portnov explained.

He added that 20,000 years ago, during the last ice age, the sea level dropped nearly 400 feet.

"It means that today´s shallow shelf area was land. It was Siberia. And Siberia was frozen," Portnov said. "The permafrost on the ocean floor today was established in that period."
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Wolf

3 residents attacked by possibly sick coyote in Fremont, California


abc7news.com
Fri, 26 Dec 2014 20:09 UTC
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© ABC7 NewsResidential street in Fremont where a coyote was killed by police after attacking three people on Christmas Day.
On Christmas afternoon, Fremont police received several calls about coyote attacks.

The first call came in at 5:41 p.m. about a 42-year-old man who was walking to his car parked in front of a home in the 3100 block of Starr Street when a coyote bit his leg, according to police.

The man apparently ran with his children toward a house and the coyote followed the group. Everyone was able to get inside before the coyote followed, police said.

The man was then driven to a hospital to treat the bite.

Officers responded to the area, but could not find the animal.
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Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.1 - 12km SSE of Cagayancillo, Philippines


US Geological Survey
Mon, 29 Dec 2014 17:50 UTC
Philippines Quake_291214
© USGS
Event Time
2014-12-29 09:29:41 UTC
2014-12-29 17:29:41 UTC+08:00 at epicenter

Location
8.602°N 121.504°E depth=37.9km (23.5mi)

Nearby Cities
112km (70mi) SSE of Cagayancillo, Philippines
143km (89mi) NW of Titay, Philippines
149km (93mi) NW of Ipil, Philippines
152km (94mi) SW of Asia, Philippines
666km (414mi) S of Manila, Philippines

Scientific Data
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Binoculars

Bean goose from Eurasia takes a wrong turn and winds up on the Oregon Coast

Jessica Robinson
nwnewsnetwork.org
Fri, 26 Dec 2014 18:07 UTC
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© Sarah Swanson A tundra bean-goose (top) has been spotted at the Nestucca Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.
A bird rarely seen in North America has turned a small bay on the Oregon Coast into a major destination for bird watchers this winter.

Sarah Swanson and her husband Max Smith run a blog in Portland called the Must-See Bird Blog. They tried to explain what it's like to spot a tundra bean-goose at Nestucca Bay in Oregon.

"It's just so exciting, I'm trying to compare it something for a non-birder," Swanson said.

"Maybe it's like running into a celebrity at the mall, someone you've always idolized," Smith suggested.

Yes, in the celebrity news of bird watching this has been a top story. It's the first-ever confirmed sighting of a tundra bean-goose in the lower 48. Usually these brown and gray geese spend their winters in Asia and Europe.

In birding parlance, seeing one here is a "mega-rarity."

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Snowflake Cold

French Alps hit by massive snowfall, thousands of cars stranded


RT
Sun, 28 Dec 2014 16:55 UTC
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© AFP Photo/Jean-Pierre ClatotA car is stuck in the snow on December 27, 2014 on the road to Les Saisies ski resort in Savoie, central-eastern France.
Massive snowfall, aggravated by strong winds and ice in the French Alps, has trapped thousands of holidaymakers, with up to 15,000 people forced to spend Saturday night in emergency accommodation centers in the Savoie region in southeastern France.

Conditions remained difficult on Sunday, a spokesman for the Savoie prefecture said. Authorities set up shelters in a dozen towns for stranded tourists in the area.

The chaos on Saturday left nearly 2,000 passengers stranded at Chambery airport in southeastern France. A spokesman for the Savoy region, which comprises roughly the territory of the Western Alps between Lake Geneva in the north and Dauphiné in the south, said: "We have not estimated the number of people who spent the [Saturday] night in their cars."

Comment: See also: Snow and icy weather sweeps across Europe, stranding drivers

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Binoculars

Warbler that should be wintering in western Mexico turns up in Louisiana

Jonathan Olivier
The Courier
Sun, 28 Dec 2014 15:48 UTC
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Lucy's Warbler. It is normally found in the Sonoran desert and winters along the Pacific coast of northern Mexico.
A bird rarely seen in Louisiana was among 130 species heard or spotted on Grand Isle during the National Audubon Society's annual winter bird count.

A Lucy's warbler, which normally lives in the U.S. Southwest or in Mexico, was the exciting find of the day on Grand Isle, said Chris Brantley, who organized the count on Louisiana's only inhabited barrier island and one of nearly 30 planned around Louisiana between mid-December and Jan. 5.

There are only a few records of the bird ever being seen in Louisiana, Brantley said.
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Range Map

Comment: Similar recent reports of birds losing their way across the Northern Hemisphere: Four lost flamingos fly NORTH for the winter and turn up in Siberia

Wrong place, wrong time: European robin turns up thousands of miles away in China

Rare bird from Mongolia turns up in Wakefield, UK

Wrong time, wrong place: Rare bird found in Barrie, Canada

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Snowflake Cold

Snow and icy weather sweeps across Europe, stranding drivers


The Bismark Tribune
Sun, 28 Dec 2014 11:32 UTC
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© Arne DedertA man clears the street during snowfall in Wiesbaden, Germany, Saturday Dec. 27, 2014. Weather forecasts predict colder temperatures and snowfall for Germany.
Snow and icy weather swept through parts of Europe on Saturday, stranding drivers overnight and leaving thousands of homes without power in Britain.

Snow also covered parts of Switzerland and southwestern Germany, and more than 20 centimeters (nearly eight inches) of snow has fallen in higher parts of Germany's Black Forest.

Many motorists in Britain were forced to abandon their cars or were trapped in vehicles for hours after becoming snowed in. Dozens of people traveling from Sheffield to London spent the night in a church after their bus became stuck.

Parts of northern England saw 11 centimeters (4.3 inches) of snow. Western Power Distribution said 36,000 customers were without power, and another 69,000 had short interruptions to supplies. Staff worked through the night to reconnect customers, but thousands in the East Midlands region were still affected.

Liverpool's John Lennon Airport and Leeds Bradford International closed late Friday as workers cleared snow from the runways. The airports have reopened.

British weather forecasts predict more snow showers, mainly in the north, though the main threat would be ice on roads.

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