Earth ChangesS


Blackbox

Mysterious Louisiana Sinkhole Raises Concerns of Explosions and Radiation

Christina Ng
Yahoo News / Associated Press
Tue, 14 Aug 2012 09:23 UTC
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A nearly 400-foot deep sinkhole in Louisiana has swallowed all of the trees in its area and enacted a mandatory evacuation order for about 150 residences for fear of potential radiation and explosions.

The 400-square-foot gaping hole is in Assumption Parish, La., about 50 miles south of Baton Rouge.

The sinkhole sits in the middle of a heavily wooded space where it has consumed all of the soaring cypress trees that had been there. Flyover photos show some of the treetops still visible through the mud.

Authorities enacted a mandatory evacuation for between 100 and150 homes in the area, but most people have chosen to stay, according to the Mayor's Office of Emergency Preparedness. If any of the dangers seem to become more imminent, the order will be escalated to a forced evacuation.
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Bizarro Earth

Tofua volcano erupts, sending ash cloud 3,000 feet above Tonga Islands


The Extinction Protocol
Tue, 14 Aug 2012 09:01 UTC
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A "new" volcano just entered the watch list: Out in the Pacific, a pilot observed an ash cloud rising from Tofua volcano to 3,000 ft (ca. 1 km) in the Tonga Islands at 04:42 GMT, VAAC Wellington reports. The volcano last erupted in 2009. - Volcano Discovery.

Historical background: Tofua Caldera, in Tonga, is the summit caldera of a steep-sided composite cone that forms Tofua Island. Tofua Island is in Tonga's Ha'apai island group. Pre-caldera activity is recorded by a sequence of pyroclastic deposits and lavas constituting the older cone, followed on the northern part of the island by froth lavas or welded and unwelded ignimbrite.
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Bizarro Earth

Wildfires threaten homes in several western states


KTAR
Tue, 14 Aug 2012 08:58 UTC
Wildfires have destroyed dozens of homes and threatened hundreds more in several western U.S. states, including Idaho, where an on-duty firefighter was killed by a falling tree. Anne Veseth, a 20-year-old who was in her second season as a firefighter, was killed Sunday as she worked a fire near Orofino, the U.S. Forest Service said. Her older brother also is a wild-land firefighter in Idaho, where 12 blazes are burning.

"The Forest Service is devastated by the loss of one of our own," Forest Supervisor Rick Brazell said.Officials were investigating the death, which came on the same day that another firefighter narrowly escaped a wildfire in southeastern Oregon.

That firefighter was forced to deploy her emergency shelter in an area overrun by wind-whipped flames. She suffered minor burns to a leg and forearm and minor smoke inhalation. Her 20-person federal crew made it to a safety zone and was pulled off the fire. The blaze scorched about 653 square miles in remote terrain straddling Oregon and Nevada, where five ranches in the Kings River Valley were evacuated.

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Bizarro Earth

Unusual weather events identified during the Black Saturday bushfires


Terra Daily
Tue, 14 Aug 2012 08:36 UTC
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Research has revealed that the extremely hot, dry and windy conditions on Black Saturday combined with structures in the atmosphere called 'horizontal convective rolls' -similar to streamers of wind flowing through the air - which likely affected fire behaviour. The study is the first of its kind to produce such detailed, high-resolution simulations of weather patterns on the day and provides insights for future fire management and warning systems.

The work was led by Dr Todd Lane and Ms Chermelle Engel from The University of Melbourne with Prof Michael Reeder (Monash University) and Dr Michael Rezny (ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science).

The team examined meteorological conditions across Victoria on 7 February, 2009. The analysis used a very high-resolution weather forecasting model, which represented the airflow over the entire state on 400 metre weather grids, which are about ten times smaller than the grids used in operational weather forecasting. Weather conditions observed on the day were used to validate the model.
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Cloud Lightning

New storm threatens flood-hit Philippines


Terra Daily
Tue, 14 Aug 2012 08:34 UTC
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Philippine authorities warned Monday an intensifying storm could bring more misery to the flood-battered capital and surrounding areas, where nearly half a million were in evacuation centres.

While flooding that covered 80 percent of Manila last week had largely subsided, vast areas of mainly rice-growing provinces to the north were still under water that in some places remained neck-deep.

Most of the 411,000 people crammed into gymnasiums, schools and other government evacuation centres were in the flooded farming provinces, with many others struggling by living in partly submerged homes.
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Bizarro Earth

Iran quake kills 306; disease fear for survivors


Terra Daily
Tue, 14 Aug 2012 08:31 UTC
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Twin earthquakes that devastated rural villages in northwest Iran on the weekend killed 306 people, most of them women and children, and have sparked fears of disease outbreak, officials said on Monday. Another 3,037 people were injured, of whom 2,011 were given first aid at the scene and the rest were taken to hospital, where 700 surgeries were performed, Health Minister Marzieh Vahid told lawmakers in a report published on the parliament's website.

"We are continuing the search for bodies," she said. Authorities called off rescue operations on Sunday after saying all possible survivors had been recovered.
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Bizarro Earth

Land burning in Southeast Asia kills nearly 15,000 in El Nino years


Terra Daily
Tue, 14 Aug 2012 08:28 UTC
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Forest and land fires in Southeast Asia kill an additional 15,000 people annually when the El Nino weather phenomenon grips the region, scientists have estimated. The deaths are caused by higher particle pollution and higher local levels of ozone, both of which are stressors for the lungs and heart, they said.

Environmental scientists in the United States looked at airborne levels of particles from fires in Southeast Asia from 1997 to 2006. The fires are annual events, set by local farmers to clear fields or forests. But in dry conditions, the fires can ignite carbon-rich peatland soil that can burn uncontrollably for months.

The risk was highest in years of El Nino, the disruptive weather pattern that causes drought and dryness in the tropical western Pacific but heavy rainfall or flooding on the ocean's eastern side.
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Fish

Major Fish Kill Reported On Texas Coast


KWTX.com
Mon, 13 Aug 2012 00:11 UTC
Dead Fish
© Thomas B. Shea / © 2012 Thomas B. Shea The Knop family from Bastrop try to enjoy their vacation on Jamaica Beach Monday despite the appearance of thousands of dead fish on the beach. Crews have been working to clean up beaches frequented most often by visitors and other areas of the island.
Galveston -- Hundreds of thousands of dead fish have washed up on the beach in Galveston, where crews went to work Monday to remove the dead fish.

Peter Davis of the Galveston Island Beach Patrol said Sunday the small shad fish likely were killed by low oxygen levels in the Gulf of Mexico.

Davis estimated hundreds of thousands of fish have died.

Galveston County health officials said the water is fine for beachgoers.

Biologist Steven Mitchell with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said calm conditions and summer heat may have contributed to the fish kill.

He said there's a possibility of a dead zone in the water off Galveston.

Testing is expected this week.
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Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 7.7 - Sea of Okhotsk


US Geological Survey
Mon, 13 Aug 2012 22:37 UTC
Sea of Okhotsk Quake_140812
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Tuesday, August 14, 2012 at 02:59:42 UTC
Tuesday, August 14, 2012 at 12:59:42 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
49.796°N, 145.113°E

Depth:
625.7 km (388.8 miles)

Region:
SEA OF OKHOTSK

Distances:
160 km (100 miles) ENE (66°) from Poronaysk, Russia

361 km (225 miles) NNE (28°) from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia

445 km (277 miles) SSE (160°) from Okha, Russia

1630 km (1013 miles) NNE (14°) from TOKYO, Japan
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Cloud Lightning

Wrecked Airplanes and Power Outages after Texas Storm


The Telegraph
Mon, 13 Aug 2012 15:41 UTC
Thousands of people were without power, buildings were ripped apart and airplanes were damaged at an area airport after storms raged through north Texas.

Aerial footage showed damage to at least 15 small planes and several buildings at Fort Worth's Meacham International Airport after winds reached more than 70 mph.

As the storm tore through the airport, many of the airplanes were tossed around the tarmac and walls and roofs of the nearby buildings were pulled off.

In nearby Denton County, northwest of Fort Worth, The Dallas Morning News reported several structures, including a home and barns, were also damaged.

More than 22,000 people were still without power on Monday, a figure down from the around 50,000 people that had lost power due to the bad weather, the newspaper reported.

No injuries were reported.
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