Earth ChangesS


Attention

Line of sinkholes in Florida county could be sign of more to come

Caitlin Johnston
Tampa Bay Times
Thu, 13 Jun 2013 00:00 UTC
sinkhole
© DIRK SHADD | TimesA sinkhole that killed a man in Seffner in March is one in a line of sinkholes in Hillsborough County.
Homes in the sinkhole-plagued community of Seffner could be sitting on a fracture line linking them to about 20 other sinkholes, including the 20-foot-deep pit that opened under a home in February and killed Jeffrey Bush.

And as Hillsborough County enters what one geologist labels "sinkhole weather," the potential for sinkholes to form will only increase.

Since Bush's death brought national attention to sinkholes here, they seem to be sprouting all over Hillsborough, including several in the past week.

"You'll get areas that just seem to get active," said Sandy Nettles, a private geologist in Palm Harbor. "It could be any number of things that actually stimulated it, but usually once they start rolling into an area, you get more action."

In Plant City, Tom Manus was told to leave his home on North Country Hills Court after a sinkhole was discovered under his porch Saturday.

On Sunday, a Bob Evans restaurant in Seffner was closed after employees found cracks on the ceiling, floor and walls. Geological tests are ongoing, but that type of damage is associated with sinkholes.

Later that day, a Tampa family on Jean Street was asked to evacuate after a sinkhole developed in the front yard. The home is east of Hesperides Street and a half mile north of Hillsborough Avenue.
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Arrow Down

Five years on, two large sinkholes are still swallowing street in Cape Girardeau, Missouri

James Long
KFVS
Fri, 14 Jun 2013 11:33 UTC

Five years ago, we reported on sinkholes becoming a problem on South Sprigg Street.

The problem has gotten much worse over time, and could close part of the street for good.

Sinkholes have been in the news a lot over the past few months.

There was the man who died in Florida after his home was swallowed by a sinkhole.
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Cloud Lightning

Massive storm system surges toward U.S. Mid-Atlantic coast

Sarah Brumfield
Yahoo News
Thu, 13 Jun 2013 16:31 UTC
Lightning Chicago
© AP Photo/Dr. Scott M. LiebermanLightning erupts over downtown Chicago on Wednesday, June 12, 2013, as a line of powerful storms cross over the Midwest.
A massive storm system surged Thursday toward the Mid-Atlantic after causing widespread power outages and flash flooding, but largely failed to live up to its fierce billing through the Upper Midwest.

The Washington, D.C., area braced for the storms, and the National Weather Service issued severe thunderstorm watches and warnings for much of the region. Forecasters warned that the storms could produce damaging winds and large hail, and said the threat would run from early afternoon to early evening Thursday. A flash flood watch was in effect. Morning thunderstorms caused relatively minor damage. In Maryland and Delaware, officials reported trees down, roads closed, and tens of thousands of power outages after a line of heavy thunderstorms moved through.

In Washington, the Office of Personnel Management said federal agencies in the area would open but that workers would be allowed to take unscheduled leave or work from home. In Delaware, thousands were without power and a 19-year-old woman who works at Plumpton Park Zoo in Rising Sun, Md., was struck by lightning and sent to the hospital.
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Attention

1,000 homes evacuated in 'most destructive wildfire in Colorado's history'

Nicholas Riccardi
Yahoo News
Thu, 13 Jun 2013 16:21 UTC
Colorado wildfire
© APThe Black Forest wildfire is now the most destructive in Colorado history.
Residents of 1,000 homes in Colorado Springs are being ordered to evacuate because of a wildfire that's already destroyed at least 360 houses.

Thursday's evacuation order is the first within the city limits. About 38,000 people already have been evacuated because of the fire that started in a populated, wooded area east of the city.

The city of about 430,000 people is also asking residents of 2,000 more homes to be ready to evacuate because the fire has reached a designated trigger point.

The blaze in the Black Forest area is now the most destructive in Colorado history.

Comment: Bearing in mind that the bar was set by last year's 'most destructive wildfires in Colorado history', locals have got to be asking themselves, like El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa above, "What's up?"...

Reign of Fire: Meteorites, Wildfires, Planetary Chaos and the Sixth Extinction

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Attention

Peacock deaths suggest re-emergence of deadly virus


The Express Tribune
Mon, 10 Jun 2013 12:34 UTC
Image
Hyderabad: At least 14 peacocks have reportedly died and several others have fallen ill in various villages in Thar over the last four days, setting off alarm bells about the resurgence of a fatal virus.

Reports about the death of peacocks have emerged in Mithi, Diplo and Nagarparkar tehsils. Though Thar's villagers may harbour concerns about the emergence of the Newcastle Disease Virus - or Ranikhet, the wildlife department has yet to verify the deaths and maintains that the birds may have died of other causes.

The illness, along with a severe deficiency of vitamins and minerals, affects birds' nervous systems. An acute shortage of water, sweltering heat and a very low yields of millet, maize and other plants which the peacocks feed on, results in the deficiency.

When infected, the peacocks start to feel dizzy and whirl to their deaths. According to unconfirmed reports, more than 300 died last year in the same season. Heman Das, a resident of Sajai village in Diplo, said, "They spin round and round for two to three minutes and then after a brief rest, continue the behaviour again relentlessly."
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Arrow Down

New subduction zone forming off Spain's coast

Becky Oskin
OurAmazingPlanet
Thu, 13 Jun 2013 11:12 UTC
Subduction zone
© João Duarte/GeologyPossible future scenarios for the subduction zone developing off Spain's coast.
A budding subduction zone offshore of Spain heralds the start of a new cycle that will one day pull the Atlantic Ocean seafloor into the bowels of the Earth, a new study suggests.

Understanding how subduction zones start is long-lasting mystery in plate tectonics, said lead study author João Duarte, a research fellow at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

Subduction zones are key players in creating supercontinents and opening and closing Earth's oceans. In a subduction zone, one of Earth's tectonic plates dives beneath another, sinking into the mantle, the layer under the crust. As oceanic crust disappears, continents may draw closer together and collide, as has happened numerous times in the history of the planet. Subduction zones also spawn the biggest earthquakes on the planet, as in Japan, Chile and Alaska.

On the flip side are passive margins, the seamless transition between oceanic and continental crust, as is seen along eastern North America and northern Europe.

But while northern Europe may have a gentle transition, the folded and fractured seafloor offshore of southwestern Spain leads scientists to think Earth's crust is poised on the brink between the two types of plate boundaries.

"We are precisely in the transition between a passive and an active margin. The plate is breaking in two and starting to converge," Duarte told OurAmazingPlanet in an email interview.
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Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.7 - ENE of Flying Fish Cove, Christmas Island


US Geological Survey
Thu, 13 Jun 2013 12:25 UTC
Flying Fish Cove Quake_130613
© USGS
Event Time
2013-06-13 16:47:23 UTC
2013-06-13 23:47:23 UTC+07:00 at epicenter

Location
10.030°S 107.182°E depth=11.1km (6.9mi)

Nearby Cities
170km (106mi) ENE of Flying Fish Cove, Christmas Island
313km (194mi) SSW of Kawalu, Indonesia
313km (194mi) SSW of Singaparna, Indonesia
314km (195mi) S of Banjar, Indonesia
423km (263mi) S of Jakarta, Indonesia

Technical Details
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Arrow Down

Third of all honeybee colonies in England did not survive winter

Alison Benjamin
The Independent, UK
Thu, 13 Jun 2013 11:53 UTC
British Beekeepers Association attributes worst losses since survey began to washout summer leading to long winter, exacerbated by late spring

Image
© Lewis Whyld/PAThe level of honeybee colony losses across England is more than double what it was last year, up to 33.8% from 16.2% in 2012, the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) said.
More than a third of all honeybee colonies in England died over the winter, according to figures from the British Beekeepers Association, the worst losses since its winter survival survey began.

On average, 33.8 colonies in every 100 perished over the long winter of 2012-13 compared with 16.2% the previous winter. In the south-west of England, more than half of all colonies were wiped out and in the northern part of the country 46.4% didn't survive.

In Scotland and Wales, honeybees fared no better. The Scottish beekeepers association, which has yet to complete its annual survey, predicts losses of up to 50%. And bee farmers in Wales have reported 38% losses.

The BBKA attributed the alarming high bee mortality to the poor weather during 2012 continuing into 2013 and exacerbated by the late arrival of spring.

"The wet summer prevented honey bees from foraging for food, resulting in poorly developed colonies going into winter. When they could get out there was a scarcity of pollen and nectar. Honeybee colonies which are in a poor nutritional state become more vulnerable to disease and other stress factors," said a BBKA spokeswoman.

Many beekeepers also reported incidence of "isolation starvation", when the cluster of bees in the hive becomes too cold to move close enough to eat their food stores in another part of the hive, and so starve.
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Attention

Wettest autumn since records began and coldest spring in 50 years destroys UK wheat supply

John Vidal
The Guardian
Thu, 13 Jun 2013 04:54 UTC
Image
Wheat? The UK will be lucky if it can harvest anything this summer
Wet autumn followed by cold spring has led to one of the smallest harvests in a generation, hitting food production

The wettest autumn since records began, followed by the coldest spring in 50 years, has devastated British wheat, forcing food manufacturers to import nearly 2.5m tonnes of the crop.

"Normally we export around 2.5m tonnes of wheat but this year we expect to have to import 2.5m tonnes," said Charlotte Garbutt, a senior analyst at the industry-financed Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board. "The crop that came through the winter has struggled and is patchy and variable. The area of wheat grown this year has been much smaller."

Analysts expect a harvest of 11m-12m tonnes, one of the smallest in a generation, after many farmers grubbed up their failing, waterlogged crops and replanted fields with barley. According to a National Farmers Union poll of 76 cereal growers covering 16,000 hectares, nearly 30% less wheat than usual is being grown in Britain this year.

Britain is usually the EU's third biggest wheat grower but it will be a net importer for the first time in 11 years. "Our poll is a snapshot but it is extremely worrying. If this plays out nationally, we will be below average production for the second year in a row," said NFU crops chair Andrew Watts. "If the experts are to be believed and extreme weather is to become more frequent, we must look at ways of supporting the industry."


Comment: What the 'experts' neglect to mention, largely due to ignorance, is that there is nothing industry can do about it.


Comment: How refreshing to see a mainstream article on the topic of food prices and climate change without any absurd references to 'man-made global warming'.

And yet, despite seeing how serious the situation is now, they still believe everything will just somehow work out...

Warning: extreme weather is only going to get even more extreme.

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Igloo

Peru: Heavy snowfall hits Arequipa

Manuel Vigo
PeruThisWeek
Mon, 10 Jun 2013 21:01 UTC
Heavy Snow
© Peru21/Reference
Heavy snowfall has hit the Arequipa region in southern Peru over the past few days, El Comercio reported.

According to the daily at least 80 homes in the district of San Juan de Tarucani were affected by the snowfall.

District Mayor Floro Choque said local residents were worried about the impact the low temperatures would have on the health of their alpacas, and said he would ask the central government for food and medicine for the 33,000 alpacas in the area.

"The snow that fell over the past three days has covered the grass in the district, and animals don't have anything to eat," Choque said.

The mayor added that the district was also lacking warm clothing for children and the elderly, as well as roofing sheets for homes.

According to the daily between 25 and 35 centimeters (9.8 and 13.7 inches) of snow fell on San Juan de Tarucani over the past few days.

The Arequipa region has seen a drop in temperatures over the past month. Last week strong winds led to the temporary closure of the regional airport's runway.
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