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A Duke University law student driving by a fast food restaurant near campus was slowed to a halt Tuesday when his car fell into a sinkhole.
Rajiv Thairani, 27, from San Francisco, was driving his girlfriend's 2001 Honda Prelude in an empty lot next to a Bojangles restaurant in Durham, N.C., around 2 p.m. when he struck the sinkhole.
"I was going to use the lot to turn around so I just turned into it and my car is relatively low to the ground and the hole wasn't visible from the street," Thairani told ABCNews.com. "My initial reaction was that the ground underneath me had given way, like it had collapsed."
Thairani fell into an eight-foot deep sinkhole. The hole had appeared in the ground the day before but had not been properly marked off, according to Thairani.
© Antara Photo/Fahrul Jayadiputra
"Tourist operators and tourists should understand that no matter how sophisticated the equipment, it's useless if the warnings are not heeded," Surono, the head of the Vulcanology and Geological Disaster Agency (PVMBG) said.
Surono said that from 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday up until 4:20 a.m. on Thursday, a series of tremors shook the mountain, while poisonous gases seeped from the crater.
"Those inhaling the gas [will] not die . . . but can suffer from dizziness and nausea; therefore, we are recommending no activity whatsoever be held within a radius of 1.5 kilometers from the crater," Surono said.
They estimated that 1.6 megapascals of pressure, equivalent to atmospheric pressure of some 15.8 kilograms per square centimetre (226 pounds per square inch), was being exerted on the magma chamber. Volcanic eruptions can be triggered by as little as 0.1 megapascals of pressure, and the reading of 1.6 megapascals is "not a small figure", said senior researcher Eisuke Fujita, according to Kyodo. Mount Fuji, an almost perfectly cone-shaped mountain that stands as one of Japan's national symbols, last erupted in 1707, after an earthquake struck and boosted the pressure on its magma chamber, the report said, citing researchers.
Southwestern China was hit with a series of shallow, damaging earthquakes Friday. The quakes damaged an estimated 20,000 homes and buildings in rural China.
USGS data
USGS data
Hurricane Michael has strengthened to a Category 3 storm, the first one of the Atlantic hurricane season. The hurricane is not an immediate threat to land. Michael's maximum speed sustained winds increased to 115 mph early Thursday. Michael is centered about 1,020 miles west-southwest of the Azores and is moving northeast near 7 mph.
© Weather Underground
More than 500 aftershocks, including one as strong as 5.1 on the Richter scale, continued to rattle Costa Rica one day after a 7.6-magnitude quake jolted northwest Guanacaste province early Wednesday. According to the latest report from Costa Rica's Volcano and Earthquake Watch (Ovsicori), issued at 7:30 am local time (1330 GMT) Thursday, some 530 aftershocks stronger than 2 on the Richter scale have been registered, with the strongest occurring before dawn on Thursday, at 3:07 am (0907 GMT).
The epicenter of the 5.1 quake was also located in Guanacaste, 151 kilometers west of the capital San Jose, and 14 kilometers beneath the earth's surface, seismic experts said. Aftershocks as strong as 6 on the Richter scale are normal as shifting tectonic plates release energy following an earthquake of major magnitude, like the quake on Wednesday, said the experts.
The epicenter of the 5.1 quake was also located in Guanacaste, 151 kilometers west of the capital San Jose, and 14 kilometers beneath the earth's surface, seismic experts said. Aftershocks as strong as 6 on the Richter scale are normal as shifting tectonic plates release energy following an earthquake of major magnitude, like the quake on Wednesday, said the experts.
© Kent Gilbert/XinhuaWilmer Sequeir (R) and his wife Maritsa Villareal (L) watch the debris of their home affected by Wednesday's earthquake, in Nosara, 290 km northeast of San Jose, Costa Rica, on Sept. 6, 2012. Costa Rica's Earthquake and Volcano Observatory counted 530 aftershocks by 13:30 GMT Thursday, including one with a magnitude of 5.1 and three others above 4, after the 7.6-magnitude quake that affected the country on Wednesday.
Continuous gravity measurements of active volcanoes are still not enough used. Most results come from Mount Etna in Italy. Because of expenssivity, gravity measurements are mostly used by oil and mining companies in search for resources.
Anything that has mass has a gravity field that pull objects toward it. Underground monitor can be achieved by looking at Earth's gravity as well. Because Earth's mass is not equally distributed so the planet's gravitational pull is stronger in some places and weaker in others. The flow of magma from one place to another can be detected from above.
© Ontario Ministry of the EnvironmentDead fish line the shore of Lake Erie in Canada
Well, it certainly is eerie.
Tens of thousands of dead fish, along with dead seagulls, washed up on the shores of Lake Erie on Wednesday afternoon in yet another mysterious mass animal death.
Rick Nicholls, Member of Provincial Parliament for the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, is mystified by the mass Lake Erie animal death, telling NewsNet5: "First thing that crossed my mind, is there any potential danger to humans from a health point of view? Secondly, as I got more and more into it, what's the cause of this sudden fish kill in the lake?"
State and federal wildlife officials are investigating a series of active dove mortality events in and around the West Texas communities of Midland, Odessa and Big Spring. The cause has yet to be determined, but poisoning has not been ruled out.
Dove samples have been submitted to the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisc., where initial necropsy findings revealed no conclusive cause of death, according to Dr. LeAnn White, a wildlife disease specialist. Additional disease screening and toxicology test results are pending.
Although there are no known human or animal risks associated with the mortality events at this time, White recommends precautions. One Midland resident reported his dog died shortly after consuming several dead doves, but no autopsy was performed and cause of death was not determined. Conversely, several residents have reported dogs and cats consuming dead doves with no ill effects.
Reports of dead doves and sparrows first surfaced in late July. The total number of birds impacted so far is believed to be less than 250, mostly Eurasian collared dove and white-winged dove.
Dove samples have been submitted to the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisc., where initial necropsy findings revealed no conclusive cause of death, according to Dr. LeAnn White, a wildlife disease specialist. Additional disease screening and toxicology test results are pending.
Although there are no known human or animal risks associated with the mortality events at this time, White recommends precautions. One Midland resident reported his dog died shortly after consuming several dead doves, but no autopsy was performed and cause of death was not determined. Conversely, several residents have reported dogs and cats consuming dead doves with no ill effects.
Reports of dead doves and sparrows first surfaced in late July. The total number of birds impacted so far is believed to be less than 250, mostly Eurasian collared dove and white-winged dove.
© Juan Carlos/ReutersPeople gathered in front of the Supreme Court talk on their mobile phones after being evacuated from buildings following an earthquake in San Jose September 5, 2012. A 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck northwestern Costa Rica on Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said
Residents of the capital San Jose said phones went down, electricity poles rattled on the streets and water flowed out of pools after the 7.6-magnitude quake. The were also unconfirmed media reports of people being treated for injuries.
A spokesman for the local Red Cross said two people died during the earthquake, one from a heart attack. He was not immediately able to confirm media reports the other person had been crushed under a collapsing wall.
Locals were shocked by the force of the quake, the biggest to hit Costa Rica since a 7.6 magnitude quake in 1991 left 47 dead.
