Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

Canada: Gale-force winds slam southern Alberta

Meghan Grant
CBC News
Sun, 27 Nov 2011 17:49 UTC
Calgary enacts Municipal Emergency Plan
calgary windstorm
© Brian BrennanBlown over trees on Second Avenue northwest come dangerously close to power lines.
Gusting winds, hitting as high as 130 km/h in some areas, are wreaking havoc in southern Alberta Sunday.

Gale-force winds, which hit 68 km/h in Calgary at 3 p.m. according to Environment Canada, have triggered the city's Municipal Emergency Plan.

Winds in the city reached up to 91 km/h earlier in the afternoon.

Officials have shut down the downtown core to traffic and pedestrians and have suspended LRT services in that area.

Sgt. Kevin Cain of the Calgary police said windows at TD Square downtown have been blown out, roofing material and debris is flying off downtown buildings and a roof was ripped off at a home in the 100 block of Slopes Grove S.W.
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Radar

US: 6th Earthquake in 4 Days Recorded in Oklahoma


The Associated Press
Sun, 27 Nov 2011 00:00 UTC
Earthquake
© redOrbit
Another small earthquake has been reported in Oklahoma.

The U.S. Geological Survey says a 3.2 magnitude quake struck just before 6 a.m. Sunday about 27 miles northeast of Oklahoma City. The Logan County Sheriff's Office says no damage was reported

On Saturday, a 2.4 magnitude tremor was recorded at about 7 a.m. about 50 miles northeast of Oklahoma City near Sparks.

Sunday's earthquake is the sixth in the area since Thursday, when a 3.7 magnitude quake was recorded near Prague. Three more were recorded Friday.

A 5.6 magnitude quake, the strongest ever recorded in Oklahoma, shook the state Nov. 5. That quake damaged dozens of homes, buckled a highway and caused other damage.

Geologists say earthquakes with magnitudes of 2.5 to 3.0 are generally the smallest felt by humans.
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Arrow Down

So much for Global Warming scare: Arctic ice shrank during Little Ice Age and now in longest decline seen over past 1,450 years

Bob Weber
The Canadian Press
Wed, 23 Nov 2011 11:47 UTC
Image
© Francois Lenoir/ReutersThe sun shines low in the sky just after midnight over a frozen coastline near the Norwegian Arctic town of Longyearbyen in this April 26, 2007 file photo.
Research published in a top scientific journal says Arctic sea ice has declined more in the last half-century than it has any time over the last 1,450 years.

The study, which gives the most detailed picture ever of the northern oceans over the previous millennium-and-a-half, also concludes the current decline has already lasted longer than any previous one in that period.

"When we look at our reconstruction, we can see that the decline that has occurred in the last 50 years or so seems to be unprecedented for the last 1,450 years," Christian Zdanowicz of the Geological Survey of Canada said Wednesday.

"It's difficult not to come up with the conclusion that greenhouse gases must have something to do with this," added Mr. Zdanowicz, one of the co-authors of the report in Nature.
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Fish

US: Massive Estero Bay fish kill a mystery

Kevin Lollar
News-press.com
Sat, 26 Nov 2011 09:25 UTC
fish kill,estro bay
© Brian Hirten/news-press.comKatie McFarland, an FGCU marine biology graduate student, prepares a dead mullet for testing.
Florida - It's a mystery: Something is killing mullet in Estero Bay, but nobody knows what.

Katie McFarland, an FGCU graduate student, first saw large numbers of dead mullet floating in the bay and washed up along the shoreline Friday.

Saturday morning, McFarland took another trip onto the bay to take water samples and saw hundreds of mullet between FGCU's Vester Field Station and New Pass.
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Cloud Lightning

Death Toll Reaches 17 in Sri Lanka Storm, 33 Missing


ColumboPage
Sat, 26 Nov 2011 13:34 UTC
storm Sri Lanka
© skywatch-media.com
Heavy rains along with gusting winds that lashed the southern coastal areas of Sri Lanka Friday killed 17 people and left 33 fishermen missing, the National Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said today.

The DMC officials said 17 people have been confirmed dead and 30 fishermen who ventured out to sea are missing.

Another three people are missing in Monaragala and Anuradhapura districts after heavy rains overflowed reservoirs and streams.

The DMC figures as of this morning reported 33,957 people belonging to 8,359 families have been affected due to the adverse weather condition prevailing in the country.

Matara District of Southern coast has sustained the most damage from the gale force winds, the Assistant Director of DMC, Pradeep Kodipilli said.
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Bizarro Earth

Earthquake Swarm Hits El Salvador, Damaging Homes


Reuters
Sat, 26 Nov 2011 11:56 UTC
San Salvador: More than 700 slight to moderate earthquakes hit an area in eastern El Salvador in a 24-hour period, damaging dozens of homes but hurting no one.

The brief quakes, which started Thursday and ranged from 1.8 to 4.6 in magnitude, have occurred in the municipality of El Carmen, some 163 km (101 miles) east of the capital of San Salvador, the country's National Territory agency said.

Jorge Melendez, in charge of civil protection, said on Friday that 80 homes were damaged by the tremors, known as an earthquake swarm. A hospital in the area showed cracks on the walls but no structural damage so far, he said.

Army troops were sent in to monitor the damaged areas. While authorities have not ordered evacuations yet, many residents of El Carmen chose to sleep in the open and the army was handing out tents.

El Salvador suffered two powerful earthquakes 10 any ten years ago: one of 7.6 magnitude in January 2001 and another of 6.6 magnitude a month later. The quakes killed more than 1,150 people and left about one million others homeless.
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Nuke

Japan: TEPCO Says Radioactive Substances Belong to Landowners, not Us

Tomohiro Iwata
Asahi Shimbun Weekly
Thu, 24 Nov 2011 12:45 UTC
golf course in Iwaki
© Takuma ImamuraOperations at a golf course in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, have been suspended.
During court proceedings concerning a radioactive golf course, Tokyo Electric Power Co. stunned lawyers by saying the utility was not responsible for decontamination because it no longer "owned" the radioactive substances.

"Radioactive materials (such as cesium) that scattered and fell from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant belong to individual landowners there, not TEPCO," the utility said.

That argument did not sit well with the companies that own and operate the Sunfield Nihonmatsu Golf Club, just 45 kilometers west of the stricken TEPCO plant in Fukushima Prefecture.

The Tokyo District Court also rejected that idea.

But in a ruling described as inconsistent by lawyers, the court essentially freed TEPCO from responsibility for decontamination work, saying the cleanup efforts should be done by the central and local governments.
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Cowboy Hat

US, Texas: Groesbeck Mayor: Town Will Run Out Of Water In Two Weeks


CBS News, Huston
Thu, 24 Nov 2011 10:10 UTC
Image
© Sean Gallup/Getty Images
A Central Texas town that the mayor says is two weeks away from running out of water has been given emergency approval to run three miles of pipeline through a state park to draw water from a rock quarry, town and state officials said Tuesday.

Groesbeck Mayor Jackie Livingston said the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department told town officials at a City Council meeting late Monday they could run the line through Fort Parker State Park. But she said construction on the line would not begin until the written contract is received, which should take less than a week.

Towns throughout Texas have been struggling with dwindling reservoirs and water resources as a historic drought parches the state.

Livingston said the town of 6,500 people about 100 miles south of Dallas normally draws water from a nearby river. The river, however, has run dry and the town has purchased a four-month supply of water from a rock quarry seven miles away. The pipeline would bring the quarry water to the town's water treatment facility.
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Bizarro Earth

Indonesia: Is the Anak Krakatau Volcano About to Blow?


news.gather.com
Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:30 UTC
anak krakatau
© swisseduc.chEruption at Anak Krakatua in 2009.
Indonesia's Mount Anak Krakatau volcano has been puffing white smoke the last few days, and scientists are warning locals and tourists to keep away. That could mean that the long suspected eruption of the world's most famous volcano could be imminent.

Actually, this volcano is the remnant of the biggest blast ever recorded on Earth. That was the 1883 eruption of Mount Krakatoa. From the ruins of that gigantic crater left in the land has come forth what is now known as the Anak Krakatau volcano - literally "Krakatoa's Child."

In the time since the original eruption, scientists have gotten much better at predicting when a volcano will have a catastrophic eruption, distinguishing it from the many smaller eruptions which do not harm the local population or environment.

One of the telltale signs is sudden and increased activity like what scientists are seeing in this past week at the Anak Krakatau volcano.
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Evil Rays

Decontamination Work at Homes in Fukushima Not Going Well as Radiation Lingers


The Mainichi Daily News
Thu, 24 Nov 2011 20:06 UTC
A worker uses a high-pressure washer/Fukushima
© MainichiA worker uses a high-pressure washer on the roof of a home while carrying out decontamination work in Fukushima in October.
Work to decontaminate homes and yards in a district here is not proceeding as hoped, as radiation levels persist and decontamination workers worried about their health stay away.

The city began decontamination work in the Onami district on Oct. 18. Located in the mountains in the eastern part of the city, it has been heavily affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster, with radiation in rice over the nation's provisional limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram detected, leading to a ban on rice shipments.

Although monitoring of six homes where decontamination was carried out found an average drop of 70 percent in radiation in front of entrances and on gravel parking spots, there was only a 30 percent drop for roofs and a 25 percent drop for asphalt in the yard. Furthermore, there was only a 22 percent drop for second floor interiors.

The city has suggested that the low effect on the roofs may be due to radiation from the surrounding forests, where decontamination has not been carried out. As for the asphalt, radioactive material tends to stick to it and remain even after being washed, so the city has decided to try removing the top layer of the asphalt.
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