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Bizarro Earth

3,000 Dolphins Found Dead on Peruvian Beaches due to Oil Companies Acoustic Impact


Fox News Latino
Mon, 02 Apr 2012 11:12 UTC
dead dolphin
© Fabiola Valle

Lima, Peru - So far in 2011, some 3,000 dead dolphins have washed up on the beaches in the northern Peruvian region of Lambayaque, supposedly having died from the effects of petroleum exploitation in the area, the daily Peru21 reported Sunday.

According to the science director for the Scientific Organization for Conservation of Aquatic Animals, or ORCA, Carlos Yaipen, the deaths of the oceanic mammals was due to a "marine bubble," an acoustic pocket that forms as a result of using equipment to explore for petroleum below the seabed.

"The oil companies use different frequencies of acoustic waves and the effects produced by these bubbles are not plainly visible, but they generate effects later in the animals. That can cause death by acoustic impact, not only in dolphins, but also in marine seals and whales," Yaipen told the daily.
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Question

Did You Hear That Boom? Residents Report Saturday Night Sounds that Shook Homes

Jessica Schrader
Ferndale Patch
Sun, 01 Apr 2012 16:30 UTC
Michigan, US - Ferndale Police are investigating what might have caused three loud booms and light flashes that shook homes and concerned many local residents Saturday night.

The booms were heard around 9:30-10 p.m. and may have originated near the area of Hilton and Marshall. More than 40 people posted on Ferndale Patch's Facebook page about the incidents - describing flashes of light seen in the sky, their homes vibrating with the noise, and helicopters heard overheard following the sounds.

A Ferndale Police dispatcher said last night at 12:30 a.m. that they investigated the noise but could not find its cause. He said fireworks were a possibility.

Ferndale Police Lt. Casey O'Loughlin said Sunday morning that he was not aware of any reports made but said loud booms can be caused by fireworks.

"That's usually what loud booms turn out to be are fireworks," he said.

In Ferndale, any type of fireworks that explode or leave the ground are illegal, he said.

O'Loughlin said he was not aware of any helicopters being sent out.
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Sun

'Astonishing' Heat in March Set Records for the Month in US

Doyle Rice
USA Today
Sun, 01 Apr 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© Alex Wong/Getty ImagesA woman sits against a tree in the warm weather as cherry trees blossom near the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C.
For tens of millions of Americans, last month was the warmest March in their lifetimes.

Meteorologists used the terms "staggering," "astonishing" and "incredible" to describe the heat across the eastern two-thirds of the nation that set thousands of temperature records for March in cities and towns from the Dakotas to Maine to Florida.

"It's almost like science fiction," weather historian Christopher Burt of the private forecasting company Weather Underground reported last month.

Several large cities - including Atlanta, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Nashville, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Tampa and Washington - had their warmest March since records started being kept.

It was nearly a record warm March for New York City, Philadelphia and Denver, too. But temperature marks fell just short, and March will be recorded as a second-place finish, the Weather Channel reported.
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Attention

Japanese Experts Warn of Earthquakes that Could Produce 34-Metre Tsunamis


The Guardian, UK
Sun, 01 Apr 2012 14:03 UTC
Report following disaster last March finds waves pose bigger threat than previously thought and could inundate Pacific coast
tsunami
© The Associated PressA tsunami hits residences in Natori, Miyagi prefecture, last March after the largest earthquake in Japan's recorded history hit the country's east coast.

Much of Japan's Pacific coast would be inundated by a tsunami more than 34 metres (112 feet) high if an offshore earthquake as powerful as last year's occurred, according to a government panel of experts. They report that a wave of such height could result from any tsunami unleashed by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake in the Nankai trough, which runs east of Japan's main island of Honshu to the southern island of Kyushu.

An earlier forecast in 2003 put the potential maximum height of such a tsunami at less than 20 metres (66 feet).

The revised tsunami projections, contained in a report posted on a government website, are based on research following last March's magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami, which spawned a 14-metre (45-foot) wave that devastated most of Japan's northeastern coast, triggered meltdowns at a nuclear power plant and killed around 19,000 people.

The catastrophe and the ensuing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, prompted sweeping reviews of Japan's disaster preparedness and criticism over apparent failures to take into account potential risks.
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Bizarro Earth

Relief wells, 'heavy mud' plug being tried to stop North Sea gas leak


CNN
Sat, 31 Mar 2012 10:09 UTC
Large volumes of gas continued Friday to gush into the North Sea from an offshore oil platform.
© CNNLarge volumes of gas continued Friday to gush into the North Sea from an offshore oil platform.

Large volumes of gas continued Friday to gush into the North Sea from an offshore oil platform, with energy giant Total trying two divergent methods in hopes of stopping the leak.

Scottish Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead said Friday that authorities are prepared for the worst, but he added that it is believed that the "gas condensate" now flowing into the water "will evaporate naturally into the atmosphere."

"As such, the current environmental risk continues to be minimal," Lochhead said.

The Elgin platform sprang a leak Sunday, prompting the evacuation of 238 people from the platform and the adjacent Rowan Viking drilling rig, according to Total executive Philippe Guys. The leak seems to have started as workers were sealing the well in the North Sea, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) east of the Scottish city of Aberdeen.
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Heart - Black

Gulf's Dolphins Pay Heavy Price for Deepwater Oil Spill

Peter Beaumont
The Guardian
Sat, 31 Mar 2012 17:17 UTC
dead dolphin
© shutterstock
A new study of dolphins living close to the site of North America's worst ever oil spill - the BP Deepwater Horizon catastrophe two years ago - has established serious health problems afflicting the marine mammals.

The report, commissioned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA], found that many of the 32 dolphins studied were underweight, anaemic and suffering from lung and liver disease, while nearly half had low levels of a hormone that helps the mammals deal with stress as well as regulating their metabolism and immune systems.

More than 200m gallons of crude oil flowed from the well after a series of explosions on 20 April 2010, which killed 11 workers. The spill contaminated the Gulf of Mexico and its coastline in what President Barack Obama called America's worst environmental disaster.

The research follows the publication of several scientific studies into insect populations on the nearby Gulf coastline and into the health of deepwater coral populations, which all suggest that the environmental impact of the five-month long spill may have been far worse than previously appreciated.

Another study confirmed that zooplankton - the microscopic organisms at the bottom of the ocean food chain - had also been contaminated with oil. Indeed, photographs issued last month of wetland coastal areas show continued contamination, with some areas still devoid of vegetation.
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Better Earth

Medieval warming WAS global - new science contradicts IPCC

Lewis Page
The Register
Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:56 UTC
Image
© unknownikaite
More peer-reviewed science contradicting the warming-alarmist "scientific consensus" was announced yesterday, as a new study shows that the well-documented warm period which took place in medieval times was not limited to Europe, or the northern hemisphere: it reached all the way to Antarctica.

The research involved the development of a new means of assessing past temperatures, to add to existing methods such as tree ring analysis and ice cores. In this study, scientists analysed samples of a crystal called ikaite, which forms in cold waters.

"Ikaite is an icy version of limestone," explains earth-sciences prof Zunli Lu. "The crystals are only stable under cold conditions and actually melt at room temperature."

Down in the Antarctic peninsula that isn't a problem, and Lu and his colleagues were able to take samples which had been present for hundreds of years and date their formation. The structure of Ikaite, it turns out, varies measurably depending on the temperature when it forms, allowing boffins to construct an accurate past temperature record.
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No Entry

Western Australia Beaches Closed After Fatal Shark Attack


ABC News
Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:35 UTC

Western Australian authorities have spotted a shark in the same area where 33-year-old Peter Kurmann was attacked and killed.

Police say Mr Kurmann, from the town of Vasse, near Busselton, had anchored his boat about 1.7 kilometres off Stratham Beach and was diving for crayfish with his brother when he was attacked just after 9:00am (AWST).

The shark is believed to be a four-metre great white, and a patrol plane has spotted a similar sized shark south of the attack site, about 600 metres offshore.

Tony Cappelluti from the Department of Fisheries says a boat has gone to the area.

"We will attempt to take it. Whether we destroy it is an issue that'll be decided at the time by the relevant people able to give that order," he said.

Mr Kurmann's body was brought to shore two hours after the attack, along with the boat he and his brother had been using.
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Bizarro Earth

San Diego rattled by 3 loud booms, violent shaking following tremor 4 miles from Palomar Observatory


The Extinction Protocol
Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:51 UTC
Image
© USGS
The USGS confirmed a small earthquake struck San Diego County Thursday night. The quake struck with a magnitude of 3.3 and at a depth of 7 miles at 11:09 p.m. The epicenter of the earthquake was four miles south-southeast of the Palomar Observatory, 17 miles northeast of Escondido and 39 miles north-northeast of San Diego, according to a computer-generated USGS report.

News stations in the area said they received over a dozen calls from concerned viewers who described the earthquake as very loud and said it was accompanied by three eerie booms. There were also reports of violent shaking. No injuries or damage was reported the tremor. No one in our generation remembers so many small tremors across the world triggering so many sonic booms. One has to wonder what is happening in the earth beneath our feet.
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Bizarro Earth

Ten more dolphins stranded on the Cape; annual total rises to more than 200

Colin A. Young
Boston.com
Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:14 UTC
stranded,dolphin
© Cape Cod Times/Steve HeaslipRescue workers on Lieutenant Island in Wellfleet this afternoon, where six dolphins have stranded. At least two have died. Ten other dolphins stranded in an area further north in Wellfleet today. Two of those were rescued and may be released later in Provincetown.

At least 10 more dolphins stranded themselves on the beaches of Cape Cod this week, a Cape-based animal welfare group said. The strandings raised the annual total to more than 200 in just three months, an unusually high number that has left scientists scrambling to find a cause.

"This week we had 10 common dolphins strand in various locations including Brewster, Wellfleet, and Orleans," Michael Booth, spokesman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said. "We had four strand on Monday - one in Wellfleet and three in Brewster."

Six more dolphins stranded Tuesday -- two in Wellfleet, three in Brewster, and one in Orleans, Booth said.
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