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US: 8 Injured in 41-Vehicle Pileup on I-75 in Kentucky


The Associated Press
Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
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© The Associated Press/The Cincinnati Enquirer/Patrick Reddy Emergency crews work the scene after a crash along Interstate 75 that involved about 30 cars during snowy conditions Monday, Jan. 2, 2012 near Dry Ridge, Ky.
Police say eight people have been injured in a 41-vehicle pileup that shut southbound Interstate 75 for hours on a day when scattered snow showers pelted northern Kentucky.

Kentucky's Kenton County police department issued a statement saying six of the injured were taken to hospitals, but none of the injuries was life-threatening. It said cars and other vehicles collided on southbound lanes at 12:22 p.m. Monday just north of Crittenden and south of Cincinnati.

Police say 23 vehicles had to be towed before southbound lanes reopened at 2:45 p.m. A news photo showed cars sprawled across several lanes and beside a shoulder with accumulated snow. Authorities say the cause is under investigation.

Meteorologist John Denman with the National Weather Service in Louisville said snow showers fell around the state Monday.
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Bizarro Earth

Greece: Increased Seismic Activity at Dangerous Santorini Caldera


Volcano Discovery
Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:10 UTC
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© Expolrecrete.comThe eruption of the Santorini Volcano
The seismic unrest beneath Santorini which had started in July 2011 continues into 2012, greeting the world with a small swarm of quakes beneath the caldera.

The slightly increased number of quakes is concentrated on the volcano-tectonic Kameni line, which stretches SW-NE through the caldera and extends outside, especially to the NE where the submarine volcano Kolumbo is located 8 km off the coast. The alignment defines a tectonic graben structure underlying Santorini and has been used for rising magma for nearly all past eruptions of the volcano.
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Attention

Indonesia: Recent Earthquakes Rattling East Java Have Agitated Volcanoes


The Extinction Protcol
Thu, 29 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
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© lombokmarine.comMount Semeru or Gunung Semeru
People living in the vicinity of three volcanoes in East Java have been warned to be on the alert as they were showing signs of increased volcanic activity. The three volcanoes are Mt Ijen, Mt Semeru and Mt Bromo. East Java district disaster management head Timur Siswanto said the authorities were in a state of readiness to handle any volcanic disasters and had established command posts for relief work should any of the volcanoes erupt.

He was reported as saying by the local media that Mt Ijen was showing the most activity and that people living in its vicinity had been warned not to come within a 1.5 kilometer radius of the mountain. Besides the above three, five other volcanoes - Mt Gamalama (Ternate Island, Moluccas), Mt Papandayan (Garut, West Java), Gunung Karangetang (northern Sulawesi ), Gunung Lokon (northern Sulawesi) and Anak Krakatau (Sunda Strait) - were also reported to have started "rumbling."
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Cloud Lightning

South Africa: New Year's eve storm kills 5, 4 missing


News 24
Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:10 UTC
Johannesburg - Five people have been confirmed dead following extreme weather that brought high winds and floods to the KwaZulu-Natal midlands areas of uMsinga and uMvoti on New Year's Eve, SABC radio news reports.

Four remained missing and 22 were being treated in hospital.

Provincial premier, Zweli Mkhize, on a visit to families left destitute, said he was worried that bodies were being found that did not match the identities of people reported missing.

"That means we have a challenge in estimating the numbers of people that have died," he said on air.
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Alarm Clock

UK: Is a super-volcano just 390 miles from London about to erupt?

Ted Thornhill
Dailymail.co.uk
Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:09 UTC
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© UnknownHidden menace: Laacher See looks tranquil, but beneath its waters lies a volcano that could devastate Europe.
A sleeping super-volcano in Germany is showing worrying signs of waking up.

It's lurking just 390 miles away underneath the tranquil Laacher See lake near Bonn and is capable of ejecting billions of tons of magma.

This monster erupts every 10 to 12,000 years and last went off 12,900 years ago, so it could blow at any time.
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Bizarro Earth

20 Tons of Dead Fish on Norway Beaches

Ralf Lofstad
Dagbladet
Mon, 02 Jan 2012 12:41 UTC
Dead Fish
© Jan-Petter JØRGENSENMYSTERY: How, or why, tens of tons of dead herring suddenly fills the beach on the resin, no one has a definite answer. Here, Jan-Petter Jorgensen dog Molly on inspection New Year's Eve (Google translated).
The inhabitants of Troms could hardly believe their eyes on the morning of New Year's Eve, a very large amount, an estimated 10 to 20 tons of dead herring washed up on the beach, writes Northern Lights. Tromsø city is the ninth largest urban area in Norway by population. The city is warmer than most other places located on the same latitude, due to the warming effect of the Gulf Stream which originates at the tip of Florida. Various theories abound for the incident but no one knows for sure what's happened in the popular hiking area in Nordreisa municipality.

However, various theories have been tossed around, explains Jan-Petter Jorgensen (44), who stumbled upon the mass death in sight on the beach with his dog Molly. People say that something similar happened in the 80′s, and there is speculation among others on the river which flows into the ocean behind a promontory on the site, may have had something to do with it. Maybe the fish have been caught in a deprived oxygen environment, and then died of fresh water? Jorgensen estimates each individual fish to be of 100-150 grams, and that the total might be about up to 20 tons. Now he's worried about what might happen if no one comes and removing carcasses.

Source: Dagbladet (translated)
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Bizarro Earth

Ohio, US: Ohio finishes the year with earthquake as fears grow it was caused by oil drilling


Associated Press
Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Ohio Nearby
© CNNNearby: Officials are saying that the 10 earthquakes in Ohio this year- including Saturday's 4.0 one- are likely caused by drilling for oil and gas
The latest in a series of minor earthquakes in northeast Ohio hit on Saturday, this time reaching a magnitude of 4.0 on the Richter scale.

The tremor sent some stunned residents running for cover as bookshelves shook and pictures and lamps fell from tables.

The quake struck Saturday afternoon in McDonald, outside of Youngstown, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Area residents said a loud boom accompanied the shaking, but sheriff's dispatchers from several counties in the area said there were no immediate reports of damage.

A few miles from the epicenter, Charles Kihm said he was preparing food in his kitchen when he heard a noise and thought a vehicle had hit his Austintown home.

'It really shook, and it rumbled, like there was a sound,' said Mr Kihm, 82.

'It was loud. It didn't last long. But it really scared me.'
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Bizarro Earth

Norway: Landslide Forces More Evacuations

Nina Berglund
Norway International Network
Sun, 01 Jan 2012 23:32 UTC

More than 50 persons were evacuated from their homes when a large landslide ripped through a rural area outside Trondheim on Sunday. It was a brutal start to the New Year, following a string of storms that also forced evacuations in western Norway earlier in the week.

Geologists said it was too early to determine exactly what caused the landslide at Byneset in Trøndelag, which extended over around half-a-kilometer of farmland. One geologist told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) that the ground in the area was characterized by unstable clay and that the stormy weather of the past week may have contributed to the landslide.

Catastrophe alarm

It set off full catastrophe alarms Sunday morning but by the end of the day, no homes had been destroyed and no lives lost. The evacuations were made because of the unstable groundmass.

"We're not at all certain that the slide is over," Kari Øvrelid of the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) told NRK. "We need to keep monitoring this."

She said the danger of more landslides had been reduced, but 22 persons remained under evacuation orders Sunday night. Police, civil defense personnel, geologists and local government officials were using special equipment to monitor ground movement in the darkness. There were also concerns that the huge volumes of earth would clog local creeks and set off flooding.
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Bizarro Earth

US: 4.0 earthquake strikes in northeast Ohio


Associated Press
Mon, 31 Dec 2012 19:36 UTC
McDonald - Officials said Saturday they believe the latest earthquake activity in northeast Ohio is related to the injection of wastewater into the ground near a fault line, creating enough pressure to cause seismic activity.

The brine wastewater comes from drilling operations that use the so-called fracking process to extract gas from underground shale. But Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director Jim Zehringer said during a news teleconference that fracking is not causing the quakes.

"The seismic events are not a direct result of fracking," he said.

Environmentalists and property owners who live near gas drilling wells have questioned the safety of fracking to the environment and public health. Federal regulators have declared the technology safe, however.
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Bizarro Earth

Magnitude 7.0 quake hits Japan


Associated Press
Sun, 01 Jan 2012 03:24 UTC
Tokyo - A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck under the sea south of Japan on Sunday, shaking buildings in the capital but causing no apparent damage or tsunami.

The quake struck near the uninhabited island of Torishima in the Pacific Ocean, about 370 miles south of Tokyo, and its epicenter was about 230 miles below the sea, the Meterological Agency said. It did not generate a tsunami.

Buildings in the Tokyo area shook, but no damage or injuries were reported. Express trains in northern and central Japan were suspended temporarily for safety checks but later resumed.

No abnormalities were reported at power plants, including the crippled nuclear power plant in northeast Japan hit by the March earthquake and tsunami, public broadcaster NHK reported.
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