Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

US: Detroit - Woman Tells Story Of Being Nearly Swallowed By Sinkhole

Sikhole
© CLickOnDetroit
Amber Flemings said it only took an instant for panic mode to set in when she realized the SUV she, her mother and her 2-year-old niece were in was being swallowed by a giant sinkhole on Detroit's east side.

Flemings, her 62-year-old mother and 2-year-old niece were on their way home from a dentist appointment on Thursday afternoon when they cautiously began approaching a pool of water along Beaubien and Smith streets.

"The next thing we know, the car just pitched forward and it just started sinking. Water started coming in and the baby just started freaking out," Flemings said.

People nearby pulled the trio to safety.

Flemings said she's grateful the situation was only an inconvenience and nothing more serious. She starts her third year of college this week and has been left without some of her things that were in the SUV.

"I'm actually in the process of moving back into the dorms. So, some of my stuff was in the trunk. So, now we have to deal with the stuff that we lost," she said. "We also have to deal with the fact that now I don't have any transportation to get me to school. Not to mention my mom, who is handicapped, she doesn't have any transportation."

Bizarro Earth

US: Dead dolphins, sea lions found on Oxnard beach

dead dolphin
© Karen Quincy Loberg/The StarEd Stevenson makes a notation on the findings of Ron Barrett as the two volunteers with Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute investigate the report Friday of several dead dolphins on the beach in Oxnard. Barrett said there were four dead male dolphins and an equal number of sea lions on the beach north of Fifth Street.


California -Teresa Camara and her husband, Keith Flanagan, were walking on the Oxnard beach Thursday evening north of Fifth Street when they came across a grisly scene.

"We were having a really good time, we were with our dog, the sun was setting and the weather was beautiful, and then we came up to the first dead dolphin," she said. "And then we found another one, and we looked up and we realized the beach was kind of scattered with dead dolphins."

On Friday morning, volunteers from the Channel Islands Marine and Wildlife Institute found four dead dolphins and four dead sea lions at a site not far from the power plant at Mandalay Beach.

Bizarro Earth

Costa Rica: Experts Keep An Eye On The Turrialba Volcano

Turrialba volcano
© InsideCostaRicaTurrialba volcano.
For over 100 years the Turrialba was dormant, but now is visited weekly by experts who are tracking its changes.

Recently, experts have been investigating new holes in the craters, where the temperature of gas emissions has been rising and forming a single plume of gas that is visible at the top.

The Turrialba volcano records an average of 100 micro quakes daily. In addition, the degassing is affecting production at nearby crop and dairy farms.

To follow the pulse of the temperatures the University of Costa Rica (UCR) has installed infrared cameras, this along with the seismic stations, it will allow experts to learn any drastic change at the volcano in minutes.

Cameras have also been installed at the Poás volcano.

Last July 22 the Ministry of Environment and Telecommunications (MINAET) decided to reopen the Turrialba Volcano National Park, that had been closed since January 2010 activity.

Bizarro Earth

Five Dead as Stage Collapses at Storm-Hit Belgium Festival

Belgian Stage Collapse
© Pino Misuraca, AFP / Getty ImagesA man climbs a ladder beside a tree that fell on a promotions booth during a storm at the Pukkelpop music festival in Kiewit Hasselt on August 18, 2011. A violent storm hit an outdoor rock music festival Thursday in northern Belgium, leaving at least two person dead and 40 others seriously injured, firefighters said. Two stages collapsed, one falling on the concert-goers. Some giant screens also fell down and trees were uprooted by the fierce storm, the Belga news agency reported.
Hasselt - A violent storm that lashed an outdoor rock music festival in northern Belgium killed five people, Hasselt mayor Hilde Claes said Friday.

Ten more were seriously injured with three in critical condition, police said, as two stages collapsed, trees were uprooted and hailstones "the size of golf balls" rained down on petrified youths, witnesses said.

Organizers, who had drawn capacity crowds of 65,000 fans for each of the three days the event was due to run, called a halt to planned performances by global names such as Eminem and the Foo Fighters.

The storm "cost the lives of five people," Claes told a press conference, adding that all five victims were Belgian citizens and that in total 140 people had received medical treatment.

She said initial checks on emergency planning measures, which staff told AFP included "checking trees for their resistance to high winds, and testing the drainage system," left officials confident they had done everything that could be expected of them given such freak conditions.

Youngsters among the thousands of muddy-legged, sorrow-stained figures traipsing away from the campsite after sleepless nights late on Friday morning said no blame could be attached to the authorities.

Tens of thousands of people were attending the outdoor Pukkelpop festival when the storm broke Thursday, toppling one stage on concert-goers at the annual event - already marked by tragedy in recent years.

Bizarro Earth

Fiji Region - Earthquake Magnitude 6.2

Fiji Quake_190811
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 03:54:27 UTC

Friday, August 19, 2011 at 03:54:27 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location
16.526°S, 176.905°W

Depth
413.2 km (256.8 miles)

Region
FIJI REGION

Distances
283 km (175 miles) SSE of Sigave, Ile Futuna, Wallis and Futuna

343 km (213 miles) WSW of Hihifo, Tonga

370 km (229 miles) SSW of MATA'UTU, Ile Uvea, Wallis and Futuna

2396 km (1488 miles) NNE of Auckland, New Zealand

Extinguisher

US: Smoking Steaming Hillside Phenomenon - Southern California

smoke,hillside
© snip /3 ABC

Hope Ranch - An unsolved mystery is smoldering on a dirt hillside below Hope Ranch. Smoke and steam are coming out of the soil, very similar to an event in October of 2006. Geologists have said a landslide five years ago may have opened up a crack in the bluff. That may have added oxygen to an underground super heated tar site.

The hot zone is being controlled with sprinklers spraying waters in all directions.

A fence is up in the area to keep inquisitive beach walkers away.

Santa Barbara County Fire officials say there is no immediate threat to the area or risk to the public.

Stop

Mystery of five shark attacks in a week

Are humans to blame for attacks? Bo Derek backs bill banning shark-fin trade.

Five shark attacks in a week - all in places where the predators are unusual - have foxed experts.

Some marine scientists said the attacks - on a British honeymooner in the Seychelles and four others in Russia and Puerto Rico - could be a result of warmer waters caused by climate change.

Others believe overfishing or more people swimming may be to blame.

But they all agree science does not yet fully understand the behaviour and movement of sharks.

Stop

Two Shark Attacks in Russia in One Day

Image
© Manos MatsakisA hammerhead shark is thought to be the culprit.
The Russian word for shark is "akoohlah," which will be useful for tourists swimming on the country's Pacific coast, in the Sea of Japan. Two people were attacked by sharks in the Far Eastern Primorye Territory in a 24-hour period.

In the first case, a 16-year-old swimming around the Zheltukhina island on Wednesday was bitten in the leg. He is recovering in a Vladivostok hospital.

"The young man's flippers and wetsuit saved him from death. Some 20 meters off the coast, the shark grabbed the man's legs, but the wetsuit served as a protective covering," doctors told Russian daily RIA Novosti.

Another man near Vityaz village had both his arms bit off by a rogue shark. The 25-year-old was about 30 miles from the location of the first incident, and according to reports, he fought off the animal to protect his wife.

Eye 1

US: Pig-Size South American Rodent Spotted in Central California

Image
© Nick Kamp/KSBY/KION
Nick Kamp, who works at a water treatment plant in Paso Robles, Calif., was near a solid-waste pond when he spotted something emerging from the murky water. He quickly snapped a few photos of what turned out to be a capybara, the world's largest rodent, before it slipped back into the water and swam away.

Capybaras resemble huge guinea pigs and can grow to be as large as sheep, sometimes reaching more than 1.3 meters in length. They eat grass, freshwater plants and - to aide digestion - their own feces. The semiaquatic mammals are native to South American marshlands and swamps, but this sighting in central California was not the first.

Bizarro Earth

US: Alaska's mysterious floating orange goo identified as 'rusting' fungal spores but local Eskimos fear fish will be poisoned

orange goo alaska
© NOAA FisheriesThe orange goo that washed ashore near the village of Kivalina was identified as microscopic eggs (shown here) from a crustacean
The mystery of the floating orange goo has been solved.

But the results have only served to increase the fears of the small Alaskan village which spotted the colourful sight struck on their lagoon for the first time ever two weeks ago.

It soon disappeared but the local Eskimo community, which relies on the surrounding waters for its very existence, feared long-term damage to the water quality and particularly the fish and plants they use for food.

At first the leading theory suggested the goo was made up of millions of microscopic eggs.

But now scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have confirmed the presence of fungal spores which create rust, explaining the luminous colour.