Earth ChangesS


Bad Guys

New Evidence of a Massive Oil Slick Near Deepwater Horizon Site - Psychopathic BP Denies it exists!!

oil slick
© n/a
A California nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of wildlife has discovered what seems to be a massive oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico near the area of the original Deepwater Horizon spill.

In a flight over the Gulf Tuesday, OnWingsOfCare.org founder and pilot Dr. Bonny Schumaker spotted an oil slick that stretched for nearly 10 miles.

Last week, two Louisiana State University men took a boat into the Gulf and returned with video evidence of large blooms of crude oil swelling up to the water's surface where the doomed oil rig once hovered.

BP had firmly denied that the well is continuing to leak.

"None of this is true," they said in a statement.

Watch this video from OnWingsOfCare.org, uploaded Aug. 30, 2011.

Bizarro Earth

US: Greater Los Angeles area - Earthquake Magnitude 4.1

Image
© USGS
Date-Time:
Thursday, September 01, 2011 at 20:47:07 UTC

Thursday, September 01, 2011 at 01:47:07 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
34.343°N, 118.481°W

Depth:
7.4 km (4.6 miles)

Region:
GREATER LOS ANGELES AREA, CALIFORNIA

Distances:
6 km (4 miles) SE (133°) from Newhall, CA

7 km (5 miles) NNW (328°) from San Fernando, CA

8 km (5 miles) NNE (14°) from Granada Hills, CA

8 km (5 miles) SSE (164°) from Santa Clarita, CA

39 km (24 miles) NW (326°) from Los Angeles Civic Center, CA

Igloo

Surprise Coral Killer Hits Florida: Extreme Cold

Coral Reef
© NOAADazzling life at a coral reef near Florida's Key West. The state's coral reefs have suffered steep declines in recent decades.
Temperature extremes and the destruction they cause have been big news this year, with large swaths of the southern United States in the grip of record-breaking heat waves that devastated flora and fauna.

Yet temperature extremes also take a toll on life that dwells in the ocean, where the results are far less accessible to TV news crews than the bone-dry landscapes and wildfires on display in Texasthis year.

Last year in Florida, it was the unusual cold that wreaked havoc. Researchers have begun to unravel the effects of the frigid weather on some of the Sunshine State's most vulnerable inhabitants. The damage apparently included one of the worst coral die-offs ever recorded in the United States.

Cloud Lightning

Death Toll From Thailand Floods Climbs To 54

Tropical Storm Nock-Ten
© NASA MODISTropical Storm Nock-Ten
The death toll as a result of flooding in various parts of Thailand reached 54 on Tuesday, the government said. Most of the casualties are a result of Tropical Storm Nock-Ten.

The remains of Nock-Ten, which is also known as Tropical Storm Juaning, made landfall in Thailand in late July, causing serious flooding and flash floods in parts of the country. Many regions remain flooded, both because of the storm and monsoon.

On Tuesday, the Thai government said the death toll as a result of the flooding had risen to 54. In addition, some 1.13 million households or about 3.87 million people in 36 provinces have suffered from flash floods and mudslides caused by monsoon and Nock-Ten.

Attention

Uganda: Govt Calls Crisis Meeting As Floods Swamp Country

Uganda mudslide
© AP / Stephen WanderaSurvivors of recent mud slides stand next to a body in the debris at Sisiyi Sub County in Bulambuli district, Uganda, Monday, Aug. 29, 2011.
The government will tomorrow host a special meeting with humanitarian agencies in Kampala to structure a sustainable response to different disasters ravaging the country, a minister said last night.

Separately, the Uganda Red Cross Society reported that mudslides and floods - which killed more than 50 people last month alone - have put the lives of 160,240 Ugandans at risk.

Up to 32,048 households across the country lack food and shelter, the humanitarian agency's spokesperson Catherine Ntabadde said.

She added: "The assessments indicate the current disasters include hailstorms, floods, landslides, food shortage, population movement and health related emergencies."

Bizarro Earth

US: 20 inches of rain? Gulf coast warned for weekend

New Orleans initiated emergency procedures on Thursday after forecasters warned that a weather system in the Gulf could dump up to 10 inches on the flood-prone city over the next five days, and up to 20 inches elsewhere across the Gulf.

"High wind, a lot of rain and it's going slow," New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said in describing the system. "That's not a good prescription for New Orleans."

Image
© The Weather Channel
The system is likely to be come a tropical storm, the National Hurricane Center said Thursday, but even if it doesn't grow it will bring heavy rain.

"We've got a huge area of moisture, we've got a developing wind field ... we're probably going to see some tremendous rain amounts and the corresponding flooding that goes with that," NHC Director Bill Read told reporters in Miami.

Bizarro Earth

New Zealand: 4.9 Shocker Wakes Christchurch

Chirstchurch Quake
© Mark MitchellSmoke rises from the collapsed CTV Building on February 22.
A shallow magnitude 4.9 earthquake has rocked Christchurch early this morning, GNS Science reports.

The quake struck at 3.29am, and was centred 10km east of Lyttelton, off the end of Godley Head, at a depth of 6km.

GNS Science said the quake could have caused minor damage, and had reports it was felt as far north as Hamner Springs and as south as far as Timaru.

Orion said all power had remained connected following the quake.

Christchurch residents turned to Twitter to share their experiences.

Bizarro Earth

Virginia, US Shaken AGAIN: More Than 20 Aftershocks From 5.8 East Coast Earthquake Now Felt

Virginia Quake
© The Daily Mail, UKNew quake: The epicentre of this latest earthquake, measuring 3.4, was just four miles from Mineral, where last week's 5.8 quake started
Central Virginia has been shaken by another aftershock from last week's earthquake that rattled the East Coast.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported a 3.4 magnitude aftershock at 5.09am this morning.

The epicentre was four miles south-southeast of Mineral, the town that was the epicentre of last Tuesday's 5.8-magnitude earthquake.

More than 20 aftershocks ranging from 4.5 to 1.8 have followed the earthquake.

Cloud Lightning

102 die in Nigeria after dam collapse, flooding

nigeria, dam collapse,flood
© NAHeavy rain caused the Odo Ona River to overflow and the Eleyele dam to collapse.
Flooding has claimed 102 lives in southwestern Nigeria, where a dam burst and a river overflowed near the city of Ibadan, officials said Wednesday.

A rain deluge from Friday night to early Saturday caused the Odo Ona River to overflow and the Eleyele dam to collapse, said Yushau Shuaib of the government's National Emergency Management Agency.

Several homes were swept away and temporary camps were set up, Shuaib said.

Cloud Lightning

A bolt from the bleu... Dramatic moment thunderbolt lights up Eiffel Tower

Illuminated in vivid blue and dwarfing neighbouring ­buildings, the Eiffel Tower's impact on the Paris skyline was already dramatic.

But Mother Nature clearly felt she could lend the scene a little added pizzazz.

This remarkable shot of a forked lightning bolt streaking through the sky behind the 1,063ft iron tower was ­captured by amateur photo­grapher ­Bertrand Kulik.

The 31-year-old from Paris - which is known as the City of Light - said: 'The weather was dry and the sky appeared to be completely clear, but suddenly it started to thunder.

'I quickly grabbed my ­camera and put it on a tripod by the window in the hope I could get an action picture - but I never thought I would get such a ­magnificent shot.'