Earth ChangesS


Arrow Down

Update: Second sinkhole opens on same street in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, forcing almost 30 homes to evacuate

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© Brian Johnson
A second sinkhole has opened along North 4th Street in Harrisburg, leading to possible evacuations for some residents.

City officials said the second hole opened about 11 p.m. Monday night, resulting in the loss of water, gas and sewer service to the neighborhood.

"Due to the prolonged loss of these utilities, the city's Department of Public Works is recommending the immediate evacuation of affected residents at addresses 2102 to 2163 N.4th Street," a city news release states.

Twenty-nine homes are affected. The evacuation is not an order, just a recommendation by the city.

Cloud Lightning

Extreme weather events and Earth changes in December 2012

Strong earthquakes, multiple fireballs, record flooding, record snowfall, record cold temperatures, record tornado outbreaks, enormous sinkholes, super-typhoons, 'two suns' in the sky, volcanic eruptions, mass murder of innocents... all in just one month. What on (or off) Earth is going on?

Source


Arrow Down

Trash truck gets stuck in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania sinkhole

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© Matthew Kemeny/The Patriot-NewsA Harrisburg trash truck get stuck in a sinkhole in uptown this morning.
Harrisburg -- North Fourth Street is closed between Woodbine and Maclay streets in uptown after a sinkhole opened up this morning, catching the back wheels of a city trash truck.

Officials shut off water to that section of the street as they prepared to tow the truck from the gaping hole around 11 a.m.

Officials did not have an idea when the road will reopen.

Windsock

Extreme weather and weird phenomena of the second half of December 2012


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4.8-magnitude quake hits France

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A 4.8-magnitude earthquake hit southwest France on early Monday, without reports of casualties, the French Central Earthquake Bureau reported.

The quake occurred at about 0:35 a.m. local time (2335 GMT on Sunday) in the area of Pau, with the epicenter being monitored at 43.18 degrees north latitude and 0.24 degrees east longitude, according to the earthquake bureau.

There have so far been no reports of casualties or property losses.

Blackbox

Double deja vu on December 31st? Up to 300 starlings litter roadway and fields in Seymour, Tennessee

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Residents and those passing by near Dogwood Hills subdivision on Boyd Creek Highway Sunday afternoon were met with an unusual scene. Dozens of dead birds littered the highway and surrounding fields after falling from the sky.Sgt. Robert Stoffle of the Sevier County Sheriff's Department said a call about the birds came in around 1:15 p.m. He said a witness reported seeing the birds in flight before turning back around to see them on the ground.

"It covered one lane of traffic," Stoffle said of the bodies of the birds. Estimates of the number of birds varied from between 30 and 60 up to 300. They appeared to be starlings.

While the vast majority of the birds were dead by the time The Mountain Press photographer arrived, several were still alive, convulsing and flopping their wings on the ground.

A count of the birds on the scene stopped at around 50, when not even half of the visible birds were tallied. Perhaps dozens more were scattered in a nearby field, which was flooded from the recent rainfall. As far as 60 yards from the main site of the birds, individual starlings were found.

Comment: Radar Dopppler images confirm overhead 'turbulence' cause of 2011 mass bird death case in Beebe, Arkansas
Meteoric Deja-vu: Exactly one year later, dead blackbirds fall again in Beebe, Arkansas
A Sign for the New Year: 1,000 Birds Fall From the Sky in Beebe, Arkansas
Situation Update More than 5000 birds fall dead from Sky in Arkansas 12-31-2010 New Years Eve


Bizarro Earth

Don't panic? Preliminary data suggests earthquakes are indeed increasing worldwide

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Earthquakes and Volcanic eruptions have always been closely related. For instance, if you look at a map of quakes worldwide and compare it to a map of volcanoes, you'll find that they match closely. Both earthquakes and volcanoes occur at the boundaries of tectonic plates, which make up the Earth's surface. Earthquakes are caused by the release of pressure built up when the plates spread apart or move past each or under each other. In slightly more complicated ways, magma is generated at most plate boundaries, and this magma rises to the surface to form volcanoes. In recent weeks, earthquakes have exponentially increased in magnitude worldwide, worrying some researchers as they provide the fuse that ignites volcanoes.

The movement of magma within a volcano causes earthquakes, usually small ones. Earthquakes are also caused by adjustments to the flanks of volcanoes and the plates under volcanoes.

For decades, a source of powerful earthquakes and volcanic activity on the Pacific Rim was shrouded in secrecy, as the Soviet government kept outsiders away from what is now referred to as the Russian Far East.

In the last 20 years research has shown that the Kamchatka Peninsula and Kuril Islands are a seismic and volcanic hotbed, with a potential to trigger tsunamis that pose a risk to the rest of the Pacific Basin.

Comment: Something Wicked This Way Comes


Snowflake

As the U.S. digs out, even more snow on the way


While communities from the Midwest to the Northeast and even the southern U.S. are digging out after a massive storm blanketed much of the country, the Northeast is now bracing for more snow over the weekend.

Two storm systems will combine into one and bring light snow to the major cities in the Northeast. Most areas in the northeast will see 1-3 inches of snow with isolated amounts of 4 inches in the higher elevations Saturday morning from Philadelphia to New York and into New England.

This week's winter blast is accounting for at least 15 deaths -- most of them on the nation's roads.

"This is really bad out here. I see accidents everywhere. There are police everywhere. It's no joke," an Ohio woman told Good Morning America.

Ice Cube

Icy conditions lead to tour bush crash in Oregon, 5 killed

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© Oregon State Police via KOIN-TVThe scene of a tour bus crash in eastern Oregon on Dec. 30, 2012.
La Grande - Authorities say five people died and about 20 more were injured in a tour bus crash on an icy stretch of interstate in Oregon.

Police say the bus lost control around 10:30 a.m. on the snow- and ice-covered lanes of Interstate 84 in eastern Oregon. The bus crashed through a guardrail and went down an embankment a few hundred feet.

Rescue workers are using ropes to help retrieve people from the crash scene. State police say the charter bus was carrying about 40 people, but they did not say where the vehicle was traveling to or from.

The bus crash was the second fatal accident in Oregon on Sunday morning due to icy conditions. A 69-year-old man died in a single-vehicle rollover accident. CBS affiliate KOIN-TV in Portland reports both the 26-year-old driver, who is expected to survive, and the deceased passenger were wearing safety restraints.

Source: The Associated Press

Ice Cube

Think the UK weather is bad? Try Inner Mongolia

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A freezing blizzard hits the Xilin Gol region of Inner Mongolia, leaving drivers stranded in sub-zero temperatures with visibility as low as ten metres.

A freezing blizzard pummeled the Xilin Gol area of China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Saturday morning, severely affecting road traffic.

On the No. 308 provincial highway, vehicles found themselves stuck in deep snow as severe blizzards lowered visibility from 200 metres to less than ten metres in just ten minutes.

The blizzard started on Friday night and brought almost one metre of snow to the highway by the morning.