Earth ChangesS


Attention

Bear attacks increase in Annapurna, Nepal

Shiva Sharma
ekantipur.com
Thu, 25 Dec 2014 12:26 UTC
Image
Asiatic black bear
A significant increase has been noticed in the tendency of Asian black bear entering human settlements, damaging crops and attacking humans in Annapurna Conservation Area which is said to be a suitable habitat for the animal, according to a survey conducted by the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP).

The study carried out a year ago has shown an increase in the incident of bear attacks, raising questions about security of local residents in the area.

Local people who enter nearby forests in the region to collect fodder are falling victim to bear attacks. Bhadra Bir Nepali, 41, of Parche was attacked last August when he went to collect fodder for his livestock. Likewise, Bal Bahadur Gurung of Dhampus was also seriously injured in a bear attack in the same month.
Read More...
Arrow Down

Sinkhole swallows 3 cars in Melbourne, Australia


sbs.com.au
Tue, 16 Dec 2014 11:31 UTC
Image
© Grant StevensonA sinkhole in Port Melbourne threatened to flood 50 homes at one stage, Melbourne Fire Brigade commander said.
Residents in a Melbourne suburb woke today to find a massive sinkhole that swallowed cars and trees.

Firefighters were called to Port Melbourne early on Tuesday after a 350mm cast iron water main ruptured under Liardet Street.

Witness Vanessa says she thought a tsunami had hit the waterside suburb.

"I heard car horns, car alarms going off erratically. I thought someone had broken into my car," she told Fairfax radio.

"I went out there, opened up my front door and saw two cars swallowed up in the street right outside my front door and all this water gushing down the street in front of me.


Comment: See also: Woman falls into three metre deep sinkhole in Melbourne, Australia

Read More...
Attention

'Tame' hippo attacks people for the second time in 4 weeks, South Africa


news24.com
Tue, 23 Dec 2014 11:17 UTC
Image
Jessica the tame hippopotamus would never intentionally hurt a person, a man who was reportedly attacked by the animal said on Tuesday.

"I worked with her for two years, she knows me and I did the tours with the people," Stephen Jansen van Rensburg said.

"There is no way that she will hurt anybody intentionally, maybe by accident, I mean look at my hand but never intentionally. Wish these people will stop sensationalising it."

Jansen van Rensburg said a report in the Beeld newspaper on Tuesday was sensationalising the incident that happened on Saturday when he put his hand in the 14-year-old hippopotamus's mouth.

Beeld reported that paramedics on the scene said Jansen van Rensburg was swimming with his girlfriend and friends when Jessica made a dash for them. His hand was bitten while he wrestled with Jessica and tried to stop her.

Paramedic Pieter Papdorf was quoted as saying Jessica's owners were more worried about the traumatised Jessica than the bleeding Jansen van Rensburg and took her to a quiet place where they massaged her to calm her down.

"He bled a lot. His left thumb was hanging on skin. The muscle was torn and the rest of his hand was badly injured," he was quoted as saying.

However, Jansen van Rensburg said it looked worse than it was. He said he put his hand in Jessica's mouth and she closed her mouth and a small tusk pierced the webbed part of his left hand between his thumb and index finger.

"My thumb is definitely not hanging. A small piece of skin is the only thing that is missing, it is not that serious at all. It looked way more serious," he said.
Read More...
Cloud Grey

Polar stratospheric clouds spotted by observer in Norway


Space Weather
Tue, 23 Dec 2014 20:52 UTC
A possible outbreak of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) is underway around the Arctic Circle. Unlike normal grey-white clouds, which hug Earth's surface at altitudes of only 5 to 10 km, PSCs float through the stratosphere (25 km) and they are fantastically colorful. Ivar Marthinusen sends this picture of the phenonenon from Skedsmokorset, Norway:
Image
"Right after sunset on Dec. 22nd, the clouds were so bright they were uncomfortable to look at directly," says Marthinusen.

Also known as "nacreous" or "mother of pearl" clouds, these icy structures form in the lower stratosphere when temperatures drop to around minus 85ºC. Sunlight shining through tiny ice particles ~10µm across produce the characteristic bright iridescent colors by diffraction and interference. Once thought to be mere curiosities, some PSCs are now known to be associated with the destruction of ozone.

"Nacreous clouds far outshine and have much more vivid colours than ordinary iridescent clouds, which are very much poor relations and seen frequently all over the world," writes atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley. "Once seen they are never forgotten."
Read More...
Arrow Down

Massive sinkhole opens up in Berkshire, England garden


BBC
Wed, 17 Dec 2014 20:17 UTC
Image
The hole appeared nearly a fortnight ago and has been growing ever since
A "massive" sinkhole has appeared in the front garden of a house in Berkshire.

The 10m (32ft) wide and 5m (16ft) deep crater formed outside the family home of Sarah Jenkins, in Upper Basildon, near Reading.

Ms Jenkins said: "It's massive and it's getting bigger all the time."

Consultant engineer Dr Clive Edmonds described it as "one of the larger of the hole sizes to appear".

The hole first appeared on 5 December but is continuing to grow.

Ms Jenkins added: "The only access to our property has been across our neighbour's garden.

"It's taken out quite a bit of the driveway and garden and it's sitting underneath my children's climbing frame, so it's very serious.

"It's dangerous. Living with this is absolutely dreadful."
Read More...
Attention

Hippopotamus attacks and kills woman in Malawi


maravipost.com
Wed, 24 Dec 2014 20:05 UTC
Image
A hippopotamus attacked and killed a womanin the Vwaza WildlifeReserve early Tuesday morning where she had gone to fish in Lake Kazuni.

Rumphi Police and Vwaza Wildlife Reserve official confirmed the incident in separate interviews and identified the deceased as Dorica Banda, 36, from Chauluntha Village in the area of Traditional Authority Mpherembe in Mzimba District.

Rumphi Police Spokesperson Victor Khamisi said the deceased was among a group of poachers who had gone into the protected area to fish.

"While they were casting their nets, a hippopotamus suddenly emerged and charged at them before it went for Banda, who was at the time in the water, and attacked her.

"When she shouted for help, the rest of the group ran away, leaving her at the mercy of the beast," Khamisi said.
Read More...
Binoculars

Robin seen in the dead of winter in Bethel, Alaska

Charles Enoch
kyuk.org
Fri, 19 Dec 2014 19:28 UTC
Image
© Kevin MorganA robin spotted in Bethel December 17th.
A rare winter robin has been spotted in Bethel and it has folks wondering what exactly it means. Locals and a biologist say they think it has to do with climate change.

Bethel resident Myron Angstman spotted and videotaped a robin outside his window on Wednesday(12/17). He says that's not the only unusual thing he saw. Angstman says his wife looked out through the kitchen window and saw a red squirrel hanging out with the robin.

"And the red squirrel bounded into the feeder and chased the robin out and the robin came and landed in a tree by the kitchen window. So then we got a good look at it and we got some pictures," said Angstman.

Angstman says the robin was eating bird seed because the bugs it would normally feed on are nowhere to be found in the winter. He adds that in his 40-years of living in Bethel, he's never seen a robin in the middle of December.

"It's always really spring before they get here. They don't show up in the end of winter at all. It's usually May sometime, usually late May I think, but it's usually pretty warm out when you see your first robin," said Angstman.
Read More...
Ice Cube

Violent volcanic blasts ripped through West Antarctic ice sheet twice

Becky Oskin
Live Science
Wed, 17 Dec 2014 19:12 UTC
West Antarctic subglacial volcanoes
© Nels IversonA map showing the deep West Antarctic divide ice core, the Byrd ice core and the location of three subglacial volcanoes.
Volcanoes punched through a remote part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet twice in the last 50,000 years, according to research presented Monday (Dec. 15) here at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

Distinctive layers of brown ash in a deep ice core are evidence of violent volcanic explosions that occurred about 22,470 and 45,381 years ago, near the West Antarctic divide. Their source, however, is a mystery.

The closest active volcanoes that rise above the ice are more than 185 miles (300 kilometers) away, said study leader Nels Iverson, a volcanologist and graduate student at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro. Powerful eruptions from these peaks have dusted the West Antarctica divide with ash, leaving glassy shards embedded in younger layers of the ice core. However, the ash particles described here Monday are too blocky and coarse to travel long distances, even on Antarctica's fierce winds. The ash is also chemically different from eruptions at the distant volcanoes. And to draw the circle in tighter, neither ash layer appears in an ice core drilled about 60 miles (100 km) to the southeast.

Comment: See also:

Active volcano could erupt underneath ice in Antarctica

Antarctica, is it melting or not? Man-made global warming can't explain this climate paradox

Read More...
Binoculars

12 endangered vultures rescued after fleeing severe cold in Nepal, Bhutan and India


The Daily Star (Bangladesh)
Wed, 24 Dec 2014 17:44 UTC
Image
Twelve critically endangered Himalayan Griffon vultures have been rescued after they fell on the ground in several areas of Panchagarh.

Officials of Rajshahi and Dinajpur forest departments and Panchagarh district administration rescued the rare vulture species from Mirgarh, Malipara, Station Road, bus terminal areas of the district.

Tapan Kumar Dey, conservator (Wildlife) of the forest department, said the vultures had flown from Nepal, Bhutan and Himachal of India.
Read More...
Cloud Precipitation

Malaysian national park receives heaviest rainfall in more than 40 years

Al-Zaquan Amer Hamzah
Reuters
Wed, 24 Dec 2014 05:48 UTC
Image
© Malaysia Official Man Utd Fan Club/TwitterTwitter screen grab of the flood.
Nearly 60 foreign tourists are among almost 100 people stranded at a resort in a Malaysian national park lashed by its heaviest rainfall in more than four decades, staff said on Wednesday, and authorities are sending boats and a helicopter to rescue them.

About 84 guests, including travelers from Canada, Britain, Australia and Romania, and 10 staff members at the Mutiara Taman Negara Resort, in the East Coast state of Pahang, were marooned after riverbanks overflowed, a resort official told Reuters.

The local fire and rescue department was sending boats and looking for a safe spot for a helicopter to land, he said.
Read More...