Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

Rio de Janeiro's Christ the Redeemer struck by lightning

Steve Wilson
The Telegraph
Sat, 18 Jan 2014 15:11 UTC
Iconic statue of Christ overlooking Rio de Janeiro sees right thumb damaged by lightning strike.


The iconic statue of Christ overlooking Rio de Janeiro has been damaged during a storm.

Officials said Friday that the right thumb was chipped, apparently by a lightning strike Thursday night.

The middle finger of the right hand had been chipped during a storm last month.

The 125-foot Christ the Redeemer statue sits atop a steep mountain and is often hit by strikes.

The statue underwent a $4 million renovation in 2010 to repair badly eroded parts of its face and hands.
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Fish

Argentina: 10 Injured in carnivorous fish attack


Associated Press
Sat, 18 Jan 2014 14:40 UTC
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© AP Photo/La Capital, Silvina SalinasA man is treated after he was bit by a palometa, a type of piranha, while wading in the Parana River in Rosario, Argentina, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2013. Lifeguards director Federico Cornier said Thursday that thousands of bathers were cooling off from 100 degree temperatures in the Parana River on Wednesday when bathers suddenly came to them complaining of bite marks on their hands and feet. He blamed the attack on palometas, ”a type of piranha, big, voracious and with sharp teeth that can really bite.”
Attacks by a school of carnivorous fish have injured at least 10 people bathing in an Argentine river since Thursday.

The attacks took place in the Parana River in Rosario some 300 kilometers (186 miles) northeast of Buenos Aires. Seventy people who were cooling off from high temperatures were also injured there in late December by the same piranha-like fish. They included seven children who lost parts of their fingers or toes.

The latest attack by the "palometas" was confirmed Saturday. They've been described by the local director of lifeguards as "a type of piranha, big, voracious and with sharp teeth that can really bite."
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Snowflake

Several skiers and snowboarders killed in separate Alpine avalanches


EuroNews
Fri, 27 Dec 2013 22:26 UTC
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© Daily Beast
A series of avalanches in the Alps have claimed several lives over the past couple of days.

Despite repeated efforts to resuscitate him, a 24-year-old Frenchman died on his way to hospital on Thursday, at Bardonecchia in the Italian Alps above Turin.

He had been snowboarding and was apparently struck by an avalanche caused by other off-piste skiers.

Reports in Italian media say police have opened an investigation for manslaughter.

At Courchevel in the French Alps a mountain worker and his son were both hit by a wall of snow as they tried to reach their chalet refuge.

The boy survived but his father, an experienced mountaineer, was killed.

Two other teenage skiers died in separate avalanches, at Serre-Chevalier and at La Plagne.
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Bizarro Earth

Mysterious moon halos over Finland


SpaceWeather
Sat, 18 Jan 2014 12:21 UTC
Luminous halos around the Moon are nothing unusual, especially in wintertime Finland where the air is so often filled with ice. Crystals of frozen H2O catch the moonlight and bend it into a circular ring of light. A few nights ago, however, Sauli Koski of Muonio, Finland, witnessed a halo that was not circular, but elliptical:
Moon Halo
© Sauli Koski
"On Jan. 15th, the weather changed. As the temperature dropped from -7C to -37C, there were all kinds of ice halos to photograph," says Koski. "The best and rarest were these elliptical forms that lasted more than 20 minutes."

Although physicists have been studying ice halos for decades, not all are understood. "Elliptical halos are one of the puzzles," says atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley. " We can simulate them by invoking hexagonal plate-like crystals topped by almost flat pyramid faces. However, the simulations do not fit very well and such crystals are unphysical. Crystal facets like to form along planes where there are lots of atoms or molecules - almost flat pyramids do not fit the bill at all. Perhaps some peculiar distorted snowflake types instead?"

"These mysteries all add to the spice of halo observing, the beautiful, the unexpected, the unexplained, something new!"
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Info

500 flying foxes found dead from heat stress in Yarra Bend Park, Kew, Australia

Fiona Sexton and Greg Gliddon
Herald Sun
Wed, 15 Jan 2014 12:09 UTC
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© Valeriu CampanMichele Phillips says that her Oakleigh South Animal Shelter has been inundated with heat stressed wildlife, including this possum, and urgently needs donations of food and hydrating fluid.
Up to 500 flying foxes died at Yarra Bend Park yesterday after the extreme heat decimated the colony.

Animal rescuers are tending the animals on both the Boroondara and Darebin sides of the river, with rescuers describing the sight as "horrific".

The South Oakleigh Wildlife Shelter's Michele Phillips said the extreme heat had caused the creatures to literally "drop out of the trees".

"It's a nightmare. We lost so many yesterday," Ms Phillips said.

Rescuers are rallying at the Kew park with water spray and rehydrating fluid, trying to save thousands of remaining flying foxes.

"When they drop to the ground we are trying to rehydrate them, and we are spraying the ones still in the trees," Ms Phillips said.

Victorian Advocate of Animals spokesman Lawrence Pope said rescuers were finding many dead animals, and others barely alive.
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Galaxy

Heaven and Earth: Unusual natural events and strange phenomena from around the world in December 2013 and January 2014

Last Messages
YouTube
Sat, 18 Jan 2014 10:42 UTC
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Chicago from the air: frozen in January 2014
Heaven and Earth / A collection of amateur and media video reports from December 5, 2013 to January 15, 2014

Fireballs, strange lights in the sky, massive sinkholes, new islands, erupting volcanoes, powerful tidal surges and storms, the jet stream going haywire, mass animal deaths... in terms of Earth Changes and other strange phenomena, it looks like 2014 is picking up where 2013 left off!


This new series replaces "20** IS STRANGE". It's pretty much the same thing - cataloguing unusual natural events and other strange phenomena. The biggest change is the title ;)

This is an educational/teaching and research purposes only video. This application is not commercial and is free to use.
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Eye 2

Man bitten by snake after he killed it, Werris Creek, Australia

Samantha Townsend
The Telegraph , Australia
Sat, 18 Jan 2014 06:37 UTC
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© Source: News LimitedJake Thomas in the Werris Creek Cemetery where he was bitten on the left hand by a red belly black snake 40 minutes after he chopped it in half with a shovel.
Jake Thomas thought there would be no risk of a bite from a red-bellied black snake 45 minutes after cutting it in half.

He was wrong.

The "dead" snake turned on the 66-year-old and bit him twice on the hand.

Mr Thomas, a volunteer who mows the local cemetery at Werris Creek where his daughter Kim is buried, came across the snake during his usual clean-up. It was in a vase on a headstone.

Fearful about other people's safety, Mr Thomas cut the snake in half. Like most people would, he had thought the strike had killed the snake, so he left to finish off the rest of the cemetery maintenance.
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Question

Dead sea creatures wash up along northern coast of Peru

Rachel Chase
The National
Thu, 16 Jan 2014 06:22 UTC
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© Liz Tasa/El ComercioA dead sea turtle found in Piura
Specimens of several different species, including sea turtles and dolphins, have been found near Sechura, in Piura.

A mysterious and morbid phenomenon has overtaken a beach near Sechura, in the Peruvian region of Piura. A substantial number of semi-decomposed sea animals have washed up along the coast, and no one knows why or what killed them.

According to RPP Noticias, 22 dolphins, 17 sea lions, and 23 sea turtles have been found along a stretch of 20 kilometers.

RPP reports that specialists are awaiting results from tests performed on tissue samples collected from the deceased specimens. The samples were sent to the laboratories of the Ocean Institute of Peru (Imarpe) in Lambayeque for research and investigation.

Silvia Rumiche, environmental specialist in Piura, told RPP that the animals' "state of decomposition [indicates] that these species have been dead for two weeks. However, other remains in a skeletal state have been verified as well, and according to the biologists, this prevents them from being able to take samples in order to determine the causes of death."

RPP reports that no solid hypotheses about the animals' causes of death can be formed until laboratory results from tissue samples are available. At this time, it is not believed that the animals were killed by humans.
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Fish

Temperature shift blamed for fish deaths in Clinton Lake, Illinois


The Pantagraph
Thu, 16 Jan 2014 06:11 UTC
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© Timothy KneppWalleye (Sander vitreus)
A large winter fish kill at Clinton Lake near DeWitt has been attributed to recent fluctuations in water temperatures.

A wide selection of species, including walleye, bass, crappie and channel catfish, was among more than 5,300 fish located Tuesday by a fisheries biologist from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

The fish were found between the Illinois 48 and DeWitt bridges, near the hot water channel for the Clinton Power Station, said IDNR spokesman Tim Schweizer.

"Abrupt changes in water temperatures are not uncommon at a power plant lake" and likely caused the fish kill, said Schweizer.

Lake fishing should not be negatively impacted, said Schweizer.
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Bizarro Earth

Western Kansas sinkhole continues to deepen

J. Schafer
KMUW
Wed, 07 Aug 2013 16:26 UTC
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Eh, where'd the land go?

A massive sinkhole in western Kansas continues to grow. The sinkhole recently developed in Wallace County, near the town of Sharon Springs. By the time it was noticed by a rancher, the hole was more than 200 feet across and 90 feet deep. The sinkhole has taken many by surprise, though not Rex Buchanan, who heads the Kansas Geological Survey.

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