Earth ChangesS


Sun

Guatemala declares state of calamity in 17 drought-hit regions


Shanghai Daily
Tue, 26 Aug 2014 00:00 UTC
Guatemala drought
© Daniel Leclair/Reuters
Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina on Monday declared a state of calamity in 17 of the country's 22 departments, where as many as 200,000 rural and indigenous families whose livelihoods depend solely on farming are said to have been afflicted by a severe drought in those areas and a potential famine.

"At a cabinet meeting this Monday, we signed a governmental decree that declares a State of Calamity in 17 departments as a result of the effects on agriculture of the prolonged drought," the president said in a tweet.

The decree, which requires legislative approval, would allow emergency assistance and humanitarian aid to be delivered to families in the affected regions which have been without rainfall for two months and suffered crop losses.
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Bizarro Earth

Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, sinkholes and flooding all in one: Iceland examines Bardarbunga volcano 'cauldrons'


BBC
Thu, 28 Aug 2014 08:09 UTC
barbarbunga cauldrons
Scientists in Iceland say they are examining several 'cauldrons' found near Bardarbunga volcano, which could potentially be a sign of an eruption.

The cauldrons, depressions in the volcano's surface, each between 10-15m (49 ft) deep and 1km (0.6 miles) wide, were seen during a flight on Wednesday.

Iceland's Met Office said they were formed "as a result of melting, possibly a sub-glacial eruption."

Bardarbunga volcano has been hit by several recent tremors.

The area experienced a magnitude 5.7 earthquake on Tuesday. Experts say these earthquakes are caused as magma flows beneath the ground, cracking the rocks as it moves.

The Met Office has kept its aviation warning level - indicating the potential threat of volcanic activity to air travel - at orange, its second-highest.

Comment: Iceland's Bardarbunga volcano: Magma moving towards new volcanic system

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Attention

Iceland's Bardarbunga volcano: Magma moving towards new volcanic system

Rebecca Morelle
BBC News
Tue, 26 Aug 2014 08:00 UTC
monitoring volcano
The University of Cambridge is monitoring the area with 70 seismometers
The magma from Iceland's Bardarbunga volcano could be moving towards another large volcanic system.

Data recorded by a team from the University of Cambridge suggests that 50 million cubic metres of molten rock has moved in the last 24 hours.

If it continues on a northern trajectory it could feed into the Askja volcanic system, potentially triggering a large eruption.

Prof Bob White said: "It's headed straight for it."

But he cautioned that volcanoes were hard to predict.

"It's moving at about 4km a day towards Askja, and if it keeps going it will get there in a few days," he told BBC News.

"We know there is a lot of molten rock sitting under the ground beneath Askja, which is a major volcanic system. If this molten rock hits that, we know it is likely to trigger it to erupt.

"But who knows, it may just stop. It is still at 5km-depth, and it is possible it could freeze there and not a lot more will happen. That is perfectly plausible."

Comment: Click Play below to see the volcanic activity around the world map for the month of August. The Ring of Fire is active as well as the "usual suspects" in Europe:



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Attention

Major seismic event imminent? Strange glowing lights seen by pilots over part of the Pacific Ring of Fire

Jonathan O'Callaghan
Daily Mail, UK
Tue, 26 Aug 2014 13:06 UTC
Image
Strange lights have been spotted near the Russian peninsula of Kamchatka (image by Dutch pilot JPC van Heijst). The sighting was made by pilots flying from Hong Kong to Alaska. The glow came about 20 minutes after a vertical lightning bolt was seen
* Strange lights have been spotted near the Russian peninsula of Kamchatka

* The sighting was made by pilots flying from Hong Kong to Alaska

* The glow came about 20 minutes after a vertical lightning bolt was seen

* Dutch pilot van Heijst ruled out squid-fishing-boats as the origin

* He says the cause may have been an underwater volcano

* An ongoing investigation is taking place to find out what happened

A pilot and his co-pilot have spotted a mysterious orange and red glow over the Pacific Ocean.

The strange lights were spotted south of the Russian peninsula Kamchatka during the flight of a Boeing 747-8 from Hong Kong to Anchorage, Alaska.

And while no explanation has yet been given, it's thought that they may have originated from the explosion of a huge volcano under the surface of the ocean.

Comment: Note that the pilots saw "an intense flash of light like a lightning bolt, directed vertically up in the distance". While there was no thunderstorm in the area, this does not preclude some form of electrical discharge event, which can and have occurred in virtually cloudless skies. A photo of a 'blue jet', or sprite, was photographed above Australia a few days later.

What could the red blobs be then?

Note that they occurred at the same time as the string of strong earthquakes hit the western side of the Americas (California, Peru, and Chile, on August 24th). So these lights may be another form of 'earthquake lights' that appear with episodes of subterranean stress, pockets of illuminated plasma between charged layers of the atmosphere.

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Bizarro Earth

Seismologists suspect another large Napa quake may be coming: Over 100 minor quakes reported in the last 24 hours, more predicted


CBS SF Bay Area
Tue, 26 Aug 2014 13:25 UTC
Image
A USGS map of seismic activity near the epicenter of Aug 25 quake in Napa Valley
North Bay residents who were shaken by Sunday morning's South Napa Earthquake haven't been given much of a chance to settle down, based on United States Geological Survey measurements of seismic activity in the area.
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Question

Rare blue lobster caught on the coast of Portland, Maine

Chris Gee
Daily Mirror, UK
Tue, 26 Aug 2014 11:56 UTC
Image
© James LaPlanteA blue lobster caught in Portland
Meghan LaPlante, 14 was lobster fishing with her father Jay when they discovered "Skyler', who is an extremely unlikely colour for a crustacean

An almost unique sea creature made landfall earlier this week - a blue lobster.

Jay LaPlante and his 14-year-old daughter Meghan, were out at sea hauling traps off the coast, near Portland, Maine, when they unloaded a pot containing the spectacular two-pound azure lobster.

Meghan quickly christened the crustacean Skyler, presumably as she is the same shade as the sky.

Comment: See also this report from last month: Rare blue-colored red king crab caught in Nome, Alaska

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Map

August 24, 2014: 7.0 earthquake strikes Peru + 6.7 in Chile + 6.0 in California + Iceland erupting = major unrest occurring

Michael Zanitch
Dutchsinse
Sun, 24 Aug 2014 08:03 UTC
earthquakes 24 august
Past 36 hours of earthquakes (up to 700pm CDT Aug. 24, 2014) shows a series of large events in South and North America. California having its first “destructive” earthquake in 25 years near San Francisco, Peru having a 7.0M event, and Chile having a 6.4M event.

Another large earthquake has struck the Pacific ring of fire.

On top of today's 6.0M in Central California, on top of yesterdays 6.7M earthquake in Chile, now we see a 6.8 magnitude (upgraded to 7.0M) event in Peru.

Overall, we are seeing a major uptick in earthquake activity occur. On top of Icelands large volcanic eruption, I would say now is a good time to have a plan and be prepared.

I'd still be watching near Vancouver Island. Salton Sea should show something soon as well. Notice the earthquakes stopped in Oklahoma temporarily.. the pressure has been "transferred" temporarily...

But to where? Where has the pressure transferred? Since we first saw the 6.7M yesterday in Chile.. now the 6.0M in California.. this makes me think its a NW pressure transfer which is occurring like all those deep asthenosphere earthquakes which were happening at the 350mile deep range.

Comment: Why is our Earth so seismically and volcanically active this summer? And don't forget that hundreds of methane plumes are erupting along the U.S. Atlantic coast! Things must be reaching a tipping point of sorts. Earth Changes and the Human Cosmic Connection has all the answers. A little spoiler: each one of us help create - or not - these conditions on our planet.

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Cloud Precipitation

Flash floods devastate parts of southern South Korea

Jung Min-ho
The Korean Times
Mon, 25 Aug 2014 00:00 UTC
South Korea floods
© YonhapCars are afloat in a flooded area in Geumjeong, Busan, Monday. Heavy rain hit the southern part of the country, causing flash floods, landslides, and suspension of subway service in some areas.
At least five people are dead and four are missing after heavy rainfall hammered Busan, Changwon and other southern parts of the country Monday.

Four women were killed in flash floods in Busan, while one woman was found dead in a public bus that had been swept into a flooded stream in Changwon.

The Changwon victim is believed to have been in her 30s or 40s. Police said at least five passengers had been aboard the bus, and that rescue operations were underway.

In Dongnae-gu, northern Busan, rescue workers found two women trapped in a submerged car. They were immediately taken to a hospital, but were later pronounced dead.

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Cloud Lightning

Half a million left homeless as devastating floods hit Bangladesh

Dayna Evans
gawker.com
Mon, 25 Aug 2014 11:15 UTC
Bangladesh flooding
© Associated Press
Flooding during Bangladesh's yearly summer monsoon season has forced 500,000 residents into homelessness and caused scores more to lose their crops. Streets throughout the northern area of the country have reportedly been swept away.

The Wall Street Journal reports that heavy rainfall in India has resulted in huge numbers of the densely-populated country's population being left without access to safe shelter.

Via the WSJ:
Experts at the Flood Forecasting and Warning Center in Dhaka said two of Bangladesh's main rivers, the Meghna and the Brahmaputra, continue to rise, leaving people in 14 of Bangladesh's 64 districts either marooned or forced to seek shelter on higher ground.

"The main rivers continue to flow above danger levels due to heavy rainfall upstream in India," said Sazzad Hossain, an engineer at the flood forecasting center. "We expect the situation to worsen in the next 72 hours."
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Question

Unusual whale behaviour during migration in Cook Strait, New Zealand


radionz.co.nz
Sat, 23 Aug 2014 16:00 UTC
Image
A humpback whale breaches while crossing the Cook Strait, New Zealand.
A researcher says warmer than expected sea temperatures could be the explanation behind the unusual behaviour of whales migrating through the Cook Strait this year.

A team of Department of Conservation researchers and former whalers took part in the Cook Strait Whale Survey from 14 June to 12 July, to spot humpback whales migrating from Antarctic waters to breeding grounds in the South Pacific.

Project leader, Nadine Bott, said 92 humpback whales were spotted this year, slightly down from the record number of 106 in 2012.

Ms Bott said the whales behaviour was unusual compared with previous years.

"We had a lot of milling behaviour, a lot of surface activity behaviour, where the whales are jumping out of the water. Basically general mucking around kind of behaviour, which you don't typically see in a migrating population."

"They've normally always been on a very straight route from South to North through the strait, and if they do deviate from it they return quickly to the same bearing. This year they were all over the place" she said.

Comment: See also: Whales turn up in unusually high numbers in the seas around Ireland

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