Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

USGS: M6.0 - 50km W of Sardinal, Costa Rica

6.0 Costa Rica Earthquake
© USGS
Event Time
2013-09-05 12:29:15 UTC
2013-09-05 06:29:15 UTC-06:00 at epicenter

Location

10.586°N 86.106°W depth=18.0km (11.2mi)

Nearby Cities
50km (31mi) W of Sardinal, Costa Rica
67km (42mi) WNW of Santa Cruz, Costa Rica
73km (45mi) W of Liberia, Costa Rica
86km (53mi) NW of Nicoya, Costa Rica
171km (106mi) S of Managua, Nicaragua

Technical Details

Snowflake Cold

Hundreds of skiers trapped at New Zealand's Mt Hutt

Hundreds of skiers are stuck on New Zealand's Mt Hutt after freak weather forced its closure.

Image
© Georgie BoydHundreds are stuck at Mt Hutt
A combination of drifting snow and poor visibility has been blamed. While ski area management were aware of an approaching front and poor forecast, the situation deteriorated quickly, Mt Hutt ski area manager James McKenzie said.

There are 316 people trapped on the mountain.

"We made a decision to close the mountain at 11.30 this morning and a number of people made it safely down the road," he said.

"However at midday a combination of new snow blowing around everywhere and wind gusts of up to 45km/h, especially around the Saddles, meant visibility along the upper section of the access road deteriorated to the extent we closed the road completely.

"Guest safety is of paramount concern and we're continually assessing the conditions. We won't rush to get people down until visibility improves.

He said the skiers were doing well.

"We've got plenty of food, hot drinks and space up here in the base building, so if we do have to hunker down into the hours of darkness our guests will be warm, dry and well looked after."

Cloud Precipitation

Floods, landslides kill 8 in northern Vietnam

Ha Giang flooding Vietnam
© XinhuaFile photo taken on July 10, 2013 shows a flooded area in north Vietnamese province Ha Giang.
Floods and landslides in the past two days have killed at least eight people in northern Vietnam, according to the Central Committee for Flood and Storm Control of Vietnam on Thursday.

Of the death toll, one person was in Ha Giang province, three in Lai Chau and four others in Lao Cai. In addition, some 14 people were injured and 10 others still missing, said the committee.

Heavy rains in the region also caused severe damage to houses and crops, of which nearly 120 hectares of crops and aquacultures were affected.

The committee warned that heavy rains may continue over the next few days in northern Vietnam and instructed relevant agencies to immediately handle the consequences to help local people stabilizing their life.

Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.0 - Northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Mid Atlantic Quake_050913
© USGS
Event Time
2013-09-05 04:01:35 UTC
2013-09-05 01:01:35 UTC-03:00 at epicenter

Location
15.209°N 45.167°W depth=10.0km (6.2mi)

Nearby Cities
1378km (856mi) NNE of Remire-Montjoly, French Guiana
1380km (857mi) NE of Cayenne, French Guiana
1380km (857mi) NE of Kourou, French Guiana
1388km (862mi) NNE of Matoury, French Guiana
1446km (899mi) NE of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, French Guiana

Technical Details

Bizarro Earth

Taylor County man falls in what he believes is a sinkhole

taylor sinkhole

Paul Harmon was cutting some limbs of a tree..with a chainsaw, when he suddenly felt himself falling.


"The next thing I knew I was in the ground," said the Lebanon Rd. resident.

The ground beneath him was gone, and he was instantly eye level with grass.

"I was hanging. I wasn't on my feet, I was hanging like this, and I had recently seen stories in Florida about sinkholes and was thinking this is what is happening to me," he said.

He didn't know how deep the hole was or how much further he could fall.

Fish

Thousands of fish killed by waste from Chinese plant

Fu River Dead Fish
© Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesA resident cleared dead fish from the Fu River on Tuesday in Wuhan, China.
Hong Kong - Thousands of dead fish floating along a 19-mile stretch of a river in Hubei Province in central China were killed by pollutants emitted by a local chemical plant, provincial environmental officials said Wednesday.

Environmental protection officials said tests on water taken from the Fu River upstream from the metropolis of Wuhan revealed that extremely high levels of ammonia in the water were caused by pollution from a plant owned by the Hubei Shuanghuan Science and Technology Company.

The tests, conducted by environmental officials from Xiaogan City, revealed ammonia concentrations downstream from the plant as high as 196 milligrams per liter. The World Health Organization notes that naturally occurring ammonia appears in surface water at concentrations of about 12 milligrams per liter, while the similar figure for drinking water is around 0.02 milligrams per liter.

People

36,000 more people face urgent evacuation in flood zone as crisis deepens in key cities

Water levels hit record high levels in both Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk-on-Amur on Tuesday.
Image
© Alexander KolbinTens of thousands across eastern Russia have been evacuated due to flooding which some experts blame on global warming.
Water levels hit record high levels in both Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk-on-Amur on Tuesday. 'The water continues to rise in the Khabarovsk territory. The Komsomolsk-on-Amur area is at worst risk', presidential envoy to the Far East Federal District Yury Trutnev told a meeting with prime minister Dmitry Medvedev.

The water level hit the 805-centimetre mark in Khabarovsk by 9 am and 820 cm in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, he said.

'This will make the additional evacuation of 36,000 people necessary', said Trutnev, as reported by Interfax.

Already tens of thousands across eastern Russia have been evacuated due to flooding which some experts blame on global warming.

Snow Globe

Ice delays supply barge for Western Arctic communities

Sea Ice in the Arctic Ocean
© Canadian PressAs much as 30 to 40 per cent of the Arctic Ocean remains covered in ice
Several communities must wait a few more days for fuel resupplies. Ice buildup in the Amundsen Gulf is responsible for barge delays that have many Northern coastal communities running short on supplies.

Normally, a supply barge arrives in the area in early summer to replenish stocks of fuel and other necessities in those communities. But this year, that trip is being held up by ice. As much as 30 to 40 per cent of the Arctic Ocean remains covered in ice.

"We have not seen ice with this type of coverage in quite a few years and I really don't know how far back we might've seen it," says Bill Smith, a spokesman with Northern Transportation Company Ltd., which services the communities.

"It's the opposite of what we've been seeing for the last few years where, generally, ice conditions have been improving from a transportation perspective."

Ice Cube

Tom Coburn: I'm a 'man of science' and the Earth is moving into a 'mini-ice age'

Image
Even though his state was battered by tornadoes and extreme weather this year, Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn (R) is more convinced than ever that global warming is a hoax, and that this Earth is actually due for a "mini-ice age."

In a speech to the Tulsa Regional Chamber of Commerce on Monday, Coburn said that the United States was not growing as fast as it could because "we're not taking advantage of the wonderful natural resources that we have in our country, that we're limiting our capability through over-regulation and interference in the private sector."

Although the Chamber told Raw Story that they were only making Coburn's opening remarks available on YouTube, Tulsa World published a few of the senator's thoughts about climate change from the question and answer portion of the event.

Cloud Precipitation

China floods affect more than 5 million in border province

Heilong River flooding
© (Xinhua/Ma Ling)The Heilong River has swelled since mid-August, with some sections of its middle and lower reaches seeing their worst floods in history.
Floods and heavy rain have affected more than 5.2 million people in the Sino-Russian bordering province of Heilongjiang, local authorities said on Wednesday.

As of Monday, residents from 904 towns and townships have been affected by the floods, and among them, 331,000 people have been relocated, said the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters.

The floods have also caused 18,300 houses to collapse and roads to be temporarily cut off on 1,315 occasions, according to the headquarters, adding that total economic losses for the province are estimated at 19.1 billion yuan (3.12 billion U.S. dollars).

More than 8,000 relief workers are still battling the floods.

The Heilongjiang River has swelled since mid-August, with some sections of its middle and lower reaches seeing their worst floods in history. The water levels of Nenjiang River and Songhua River have also exceeded their warning level for weeks.

The provincial water resource department estimates the water levels of mainstream Songhua River and Heilongjiang River to recede and return to normal after Sept. 20 and 30 respectively.