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Killer starfish threaten Great Barrier Reef

Julian Siddle
BBC
Sun, 16 Feb 2014 09:42 UTC
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The starfish have a voracious appetite
Waves of carnivorous starfish are eating their way through Australia's Great Barrier Reef - and sugar cane farming is being blamed.

Researchers at Australia's Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), just outside Townsville, Queensland, in north-east Australia, have mapped the pattern of destruction.

"Coral cover is half of what it was 27 years ago, coral cover is going down at an alarming rate." Dr Katharina Fabricius, coral reef ecologist and AIMS principal research scientist, told the BBC World Service programme Discovery.

She said the biggest culprit was the Crown of Thorns Starfish (COTs).

"There are three main sources for the coral decline, one is storms, however 42% is attributed to Crown of Thorns Starfish - and just 10% due to bleaching. This compares with 70% due to bleaching for reefs elsewhere in the world , such as in the Caribbean."

Bleaching occurs when corals are stressed by changes in conditions such as temperature, light, or nutrients. They expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissues, causing them to turn completely white.
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Sinkhole opens up under car in Burlington mall parking lot, Massachusetts


boston.cbslocal.com
Thu, 20 Feb 2014 06:40 UTC
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A sinkhole opened up under a car in the parking lot of the Burlington Mall just after 3:30 Thursday afternoon.

The Burlington Fire Department said the sinkhole formed when the pavement buckled as the result of a water main break.

Emergency crews on the scene surrounded the vehicle with cones in the section of the parking lot near Sears.

The mall was closed at 5 p.m. due to water problems caused by the break in the main. The owner of the car was working inside the mall when the announcement was made.

"So we're all like closing the register, cleaning out the store, and then we just like left and went to the parking lot," says Kelly Gordon. "And that's when I saw my car."

Kelly had joked about the situation until she went out to the parking lot. "I was really, really mad and then I started crying when I got on the phone with my dad," she says.

Crews were working to fix the water main break late Thursday night and a spokesperson says the mall will be open at the normal time on Friday.
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Cloud Precipitation

UK Winter wettest on record - Met Office


BBC
Thu, 20 Feb 2014 16:32 UTC
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With a week still to go in the winter, the UK's rainfall record for the season has already been broken.

The incessant storms and rainfall over the past two months have made this the wettest winter since records began in 1910.

According to provisional figures from the Met Office, the UK received 486.8mm of rain between 1 December 2013 and 19 February 2014.

This beat the previous record of 485.1mm of rain set in 1995.
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Blue Planet

5,000-year-old forest unearthed by storms

David Wilkes
Daily Mail
Thu, 20 Feb 2014 22:57 UTC
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These 5,000-year-old trees have emerged on a beach in Mid Wales after peat was washed away during the recent storms
Rising from the beach in a surreal seascape, the remains of these ancient trees have been revealed by the storms.

Thought to date back to the Bronze Age, the shin-high stumps became visible for the first time when the peat which once covered them was washed away in torrential rain and waves pounding the shore.

Now they stud the beach near the village of Borth, Ceredigion, Mid Wales - an area already rich in archaeology, opposite the alleged site of Wales's own take on the lost city of Atlantis.

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Hundreds of dead fish appear on Mallorca shoreline


euroweeklynews.com
Tue, 18 Feb 2014 15:44 UTC
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Hundreds of dead fish have appeared in Mallorca on the shores of Son Baulo.

Investigations have been started by the local council and environmental employees to find out where the fish may have come from and why.

Passers-by were surprised to see dozens of metres of shoreline covered in dead fish, most of which were only three or four centimetres long, although there were a few larger sea bass, weighing in at around two or three kilos.

There have been at least three similar incidents in the area in the past; one investigation found that they had died through lack of oxygen, another tracked the problem down to a nearby hotel with toxic waste on the premises.

In the recent case, no other animals appeared to suffer; so toxic waste is less likely to be the cause.

There is a patch of still water just before the river mouth where, at certain times of the year the levels drop and the water becomes stagnant. Neighbours have suggested that there may be less danger to the fish if the water could run year round into the sea to allow more oxygen to circulate in the water.
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Target

British woman in critical condition after she and her car plunge into yet another sudden sinkhole


South Wales Evening Post
Thu, 20 Feb 2014 14:23 UTC
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Police at the scene of the accident in Caemawr Road, Morriston, Swansea.
A woman is critically ill in hospital after being injured when the ground apparently collapsed from under her car.

Emergency services were called to a house on Caemawr Road in Morriston yesterday morning, and the woman - who is in her 50s - was taken to hospital.

Police have launched an investigating into what happened, and are still waiting to interview her.

It is believed the car at the centre of the probe was parked at the rear of the property when a section of the garden collapsed under it, causing the vehicle to partially fall into a hole injuring her.

A South Wales Police spokesman added: "Emergency services were called to Caemawr Road in Morriston on Wednesday morning following reports that a woman had suffered injuries after being involved in an incident involving a car at the rear of a house.

"The woman, who is in her 50s, has been taken to Morriston Hospital with serious injuries.

"An investigation to establish what happened is underway."

Comment: A rare earthquake also hit south Wales yesterday:

4.1 magnitude earthquake hits south Wales

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Yet another sinkhole opens up in the UK, this time in Southampton

James Franklin
Southern Daily Echo
Wed, 19 Feb 2014 14:08 UTC
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The one metre wide sinkhold at Southampton Sports Centre
A sinkhole has appeared in a children's play area in Southampton.

Flooding has caused part of the Children's Pleasure Park at the city sports centre to disappear.

There is now a hole about one metre wide and up to four feet deep at the site in Bassett.

While the park remains open, three trampolines have been cordoned off as a safety precaution.

Fred Salter, who runs the park, said the hole first appeared on Friday when the area was covered in six inches of floodwater.

He said: I've never seen anything like this before at the sports centre.

"I am worried that it could happen anywhere around here because there was so much water running down the hole.
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Massive sinkhole almost swallows mini-van in Yonkers, New York


westchester.news12.com
Wed, 19 Feb 2014 13:50 UTC
A water main break created a sinkhole that nearly entrapped a brand new mini-van
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A massive crater on a Yonkers street almost swallowed a brand new mini-van overnight.


Rafael Rodriguez tells News 12 he parks in front of his home on Mulberry Street all the time. But, Wednesday morning his van was teetering in the air on an angle over a massive hole. He learned later that a water main ruptured underneath the asphalt, which was already weak from snow and ice. "This was no ordinary pothole, it was a water main break that was happening underneath the surface causing the road to just open up...now, I have my car towed with damage, transmission, body damage and everything," says Rodriguez.

DPW crews on the scene say the hole is 5-feet deep, and the pipe burst was most likely caused by the frigid weather.
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Bizarro Earth

Increase in giant squid discoveries off Japan's coast is 'some kind of omen,' says fisherman

Heather Saul
The Independent, UK
Thu, 20 Feb 2014 13:47 UTC
Giant Squid
© The Independent, UKThe two longest tentacles of one of the creatures caught in the town of Iwami were missing, meaning it could have spanned eight metres.
An increase in the number of giant squid being caught along the Sea of Japan coast is leading fisherman to fear it may be some kind of omen.

A giant squid was taken to the Himi fishing port in Toyama Prefecture on 4 January, and another was discovered in a net off Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture on 8 January, according to The Japan Times.

Three squid were taken to Sado and Himi that measured between three and four metres long, the newspaper has reported.

The two longest tentacles of one of the creatures caught in the town of Iwami in Tottori Prefechure were missing, meaning it could have spanned eight metres prior to its capture.

Several of the creatures have been ensnared in fishing nets. Earlier this month a local fisherman caught a four-metre giant squid off the coast of Sadogashima Island.
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Sinkhole swallows car's wheel in Wallington, London

Mike Pyle
Sutton Guardian
Wed, 19 Feb 2014 13:37 UTC
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A five foot-wide sinkhole has opened up in the middle of a Wallington street.

The hole, which is around three feet deep, opened up and swallowed the wheel of a car in Maldon Road at 9am today.

Police have closed the road between Manor Road and Harcourt Road.

A statement from the police said: "The hole is in the road and is about 5ft wide and 3ft deep. A car had one of its wheels in the hole and the vehicle has now been recovered.

"It is believed the car was being driven at the time the hole opened up. There are no injuries reported. Sutton Council is aware."

Sinkholes have been reported around the country following the recent heavy rains.

The British Geological Survey said the country can expect more holes as the water table recedes following the bad weather.
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The hole, which is around three feet deep, opened up and swallowed the wheel of a car in Maldon Road at 9am.
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