Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

Sydney storm: man dies after being swept into stormwater drain

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© Cam O'Neill/TwitterFlooding in Rosebery, Sydney.
A man is dead, a truck driver has severe injuries and two people have been struck by lightning as wild weather battered Sydney.

A month's worth of rain fell on parts of the city on Monday afternoon when an area of low pressure passed slowly over the city towards the Illawarra.

Sydney's south bore the brunt and at Lucas Heights a man died after being washed into a stormwater drain.

Paramedics were called to the Lucas Heights waste management and recycling centre on New Illawarra Road at 3.15pm, but were unable to save the man. He died at the scene and is believed to have drowned.

"Unfortunately there was nothing we could do," a NSW ambulance spokesman said.

Comment: Earlier this month: Apocalyptic storm front appears over Sydney, Australia


Bizarro Earth

Call for probe into trails in the sky

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Persistent contrails, not 'chemtrails'
In the wake of trails observed in the sky over the past few days, the Gaia Foundation is calling on the transport and environment authorities to investigate whether airline companies are involved in geo engineering tests over Maltese airspace to affect climatic conditions.

The environmental organisation said these trails hang in the sky for several hours, leading to cloud formation, and could be seen covering huge areas and forming massive clouds on satellite images.

"Many times, planes have been seen actually switching these trails on and off, creating even more suspicion of some intentional acts of commission. The engineering of clouds to manipulate climate is a reality and has been recognized by the scientific community and geo engineers in particular as a possibility for many years," it said.

The environmental organisation said the airline industry is obliged to act with the utmost transparency and accountability, and air traffic regulators have an obligation to investigate and provide all related environmental information in line with the principles of the Aarhus Convention, which have become part of European Law.

The foundation said it had been carrying out its own investigations to propose more thorough policies and regulations to ensure that Malta's skies remained free of any form of geo engineering carried out by foreign corporations.

Comment: They're not 'chemtrails'; they're regular contrails, it's just that the atmosphere's composition is changing.

Interesting that it's become so obvious now that mainstream media outlets have no choice but to cover it.

And rather than actually investigate the phenomenon, what ready-made smokescreen do they reach for?

Why, the pre-prepared 'chemtrails conspiracy theory' of course!

Chemtrails? Contrails? Strange Skies

Chemtrails, Disinformation and the Sixth Extinction


Cloud Lightning

Lightning kills 114 sheep and 12 cows in Achacachi, Bolivian Andes

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© Excelsior.
Lightning killed 114 sheep and 12 cows in an Aymara village in the Bolivian Andes, an official in the area said.

Dead sheep were scattered on the hill with the charred wool, said Friday by telephone to The Associated Press Panfilo Chura, secretary of the mayor of Achacachi, 80 kilometers north of La Paz where the community Yacachi Grande is located in which the phenomenon occurred on Thursday afternoon.

The lightning was so loud that it seemed that the sky was broken, a witness told the PAT television. The roar threw down the shepherd and flock Angelino Ventura, 80, who was unhurt owner. Ventura broke down in tears on Friday and said he lost all his cattle.

Satellite

NASA proposes using satellites to 'predict' increasing sinkholes


Texas sinkhole
© Source: APSudden...A massive sinkhole near Daisetta, Texas, which swallowed oil field equipment and vehicles after suddenly appearing in 2008 and then continuing to grow.

RADAR images taken from planes or satellites could some day be used to predict where sinkholes might form.

The possibility of an early-warning system stems from new NASA research into a monstrous sinkhole that opened in Louisiana in 2012, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of residents.

Two NASA researchers examined radar images of the sinkhole area near Bayou Corne.

Cathleen Jones and Ron Blom discovered that the ground near Bayou Corne began shifting at least a month before the sinkhole formed - as much as 25 centimetres towards where the sinkhole started.

Since its formation, the sinkhole has expanded to 25 acres and is still growing.

The NASA findings raise the possibility that engineers eventually could develop a way to predict the location of sinkholes.

Blue Planet

Sinkhole in Marion County, West Virginia getting bigger

Marion, WV sinkhole
© unknown
The giant sinkhole that opened up on Pleasant Valley Road near the gateway connector in Fairmont has gotten even worse.

It shut down the road on Thursday, and now crews aren't sure when it can open again. The problem has been lifted out of the hands of the Department of Highways and set into the Department of Environmental Protection.

When the DOH set to work repairing the 20-foot-deep hole, another old mine shaft started collapsing under their equipment and they were forced to stop. The hole on Friday was twice the size it was on Thursday, and it's stretching under the ground in all directions. DOH officials said they've had some problems with mine subsidence before, but never anything like this.

Alarm Clock

USGS: Earthquake magnitude 6.0 - 87km NW of Iquique, Chile

Earthquake 6.0  Chile
© USGS
Event Time
2014-03-23 18:20:03 UTC
2014-03-23 13:20:03 UTC-05:00 at epicenter
2014-03-23 19:20:03 UTC+01:00 system time

Location

19.744°S 70.811°W depth=34.6km (21.5mi)

Nearby Cities
87km (54mi) NW of Iquique, Chile
150km (93mi) SSW of Arica, Chile
201km (125mi) SSW of Tacna, Peru
239km (149mi) SSE of Ilo, Peru
456km (283mi) SW of La Paz, Bolivia

Technical data

Chart Bar

Fracking: 14 earthquakes recorded in Oklahoma since Friday

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© Leonard Observatory/Google MapsQuakes this year in Oklahoma
The U.S. Geological Survey has recorded 14 earthquakes in Oklahoma since about 9:30 p.m. Friday, the largest being a magnitude 4.0.

The 4.0 magnitude quake was recorded at 10:05 p.m. Friday about seven miles south of Langston. Three other quakes of magnitude 2.9, 3.0 and 3.3 were recorded Saturday afternoon in the Medford area.

The other quakes ranged from magnitude 2.4 to 2.9. No injuries or damage are reported.

Geologists say earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 to 3.0 are generally the smallest felt by humans.

Black Magic

'Fire-nado' forms during controlled burn near Denver, Colorado

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© KMGH
It's that time of year when firefighters around the state are conducting controlled burns to minimize the risk from wildfires later.

But sometimes a combination of wind and heat make strange things happen at fire scenes.

Thomas Rogers with South Metro Fire and Rescue was shooting video when a large whirlwind of tumbleweeds blew up 200 feet in the air a controlled burn at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge at midday on March 14.

"You don't see that very often," a firefighter says on the video.

"The whirlwind pulled the fire across the control line, causing burning tumbleweeds to start a spot fire," according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the Refuge.


Attention

Three killed by massive landslide in Oso, Washington state

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A large rescue operation began soon after the landslide struck on Saturday
At least three people have been killed and several badly injured in a huge landslide in a rural area of the north-western American state of Washington, officials say.

The landslide destroyed six houses and covered a road near the town of Oso, about 90km (55 miles) north of Seattle.

It was at least 41m (135ft) wide and 54m deep, local authorities said.

They say that two people were killed at the scene and one died in hospital. The injured included a six-month-old boy.

Bizarro Earth

Worm evolves to eat corn that was genetically engineered to kill it

Beetle
© The Independent, UK
Nature has fought back against biotechnology, with rootworms now being able to stomach corn that was genetically modified to poison the pests.

While an awe-inspiring demonstration of nature's endurance, the development could cause billions of dollars worth of damage to US crops.

Named after the pesticidal toxin-producing Bacillus thuringiensis it contains, Bt corn makes up 75% of the US's corn crop, but scientists' predictions that rootworms would evolve to overcome the poison were largely ignored by farmers, companies and regulatory bodies, who have been accused of "squandering the benefits of genetic modification."

Bt corn was first planted in 1996 as an alternative to insecticides which cause more ecological damage, and quickly caused the numbers of the voracious worm to plummet.