Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Panic After Powerful Quake Rocks Taiwan


Agence France-Presse
Sat, 25 Feb 2012 22:12 UTC
Taipei: A shallow 5.9-magnitude earthquake sent panicked people fleeing onto the streets in Taiwan's second-largest city of Kaohsiung on Sunday as rail services were temporarily suspended.

The quake struck 57 kilometres (35 miles) east of the city at 10:34 am (0234 GMT) at a depth of just four kilometres, the US Geological Survey said.

The Hong Kong Observatory measured the quake at magnitude 6.0, while Taiwan's Seismology Centre put the magnitude at 6.1. TV footage showed residents of Kaohsiung running into the streets, fearing their buildings might collapse. Services on a high-speed railway linking Kaohsiung with Taiwan's capital of Taipei in the north were halted temporarily, railway officials told AFP.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or major damage. The greater metropolitan area of Kaohsiung has a population of nearly three million people. Taiwan is regularly hit by earthquakes as the island lies near the junction of two tectonic plates.

In September 1999, a 7.6-magnitude tremor killed around 2,400 people in the deadliest natural disaster in the island's recent history.
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Info

Hogs Going Wild in Islamabad, Pakistan


Associated Press
Sat, 25 Feb 2012 01:37 UTC
Wild Boars
© Associated PressWild boars are found all over Pakistan, and are one of its major agricultural pests, which can weigh up to 180 to 220 pounds (80 kilograms to 100 kilograms) and have razor sharp teeth. Adult males come armed with upward curving tusks.

With a police officer wounded and the presidential palace breached, the Pakistani capital has launched a fresh offensive against a uniquely feared enemy in the Muslim country, the city's ever expanding population of wild boar.

Each night, packs of the hairy beasts emerge from Islamabad's river beds, parks and scrubland to rifle through the overflowing rubbish bins of its mostly wealthy residents and growing number of restaurants.

City authorities are laying poison and have announced free hunting permits to cull the wild pigs' numbers. But to make sure residents don't get caught in the crossfire, they only allow shotguns. There have been few takers. Hunters are wary of getting arrested by the police, or even worse, getting mistaken for a terrorist.

The animals can weigh up to 180 to 220 pounds (80 kilograms to 100 kilograms) and have razor sharp teeth. Adult males come armed with upward curving tusks. While they scurry off at the site of humans, they charge when cornered, alarmed or wounded and are a major cause of traffic accidents in the city.

The latest chapter of man versus hog played out in a city center police station last week.

"Someone shouted 'watch your back' but before I could look round the animal had hit me," said Sajjad Hussain, who was on duty when the animal slipped in past the high, razor wire-topped blast walls after guards opened the gates to let in a car.

Hussain had a gash in his stomach that required eight stitches and is on medical leave.
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Bizarro Earth

Mud Pool Draws Hordes of Wildlife and People in Malaysia


New Strait Times
Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:28 UTC
Mudflow
© Lano LanVisitors at the mud volcano in Tabin Wildlife Reserve, Lahad Datu, where its pool has overflowed to about the size of a football field, three times bigger than its normal size.
A rare phenomenon is attracting a beeline of "visitors" at the mud volcano in the Tabin Wildlife Reserve in Lahad Datu.

Volcanic mud has been spewing at least twice to three times more actively than normal since last week. This has created an overflow of the sulphuric substance that has spread over an area as big as a football field. Apart from excited guests at the nearby Tabin Wildlife Resort, the number of wild animals, too, appears to have increased at the mud pool.

(Volcanic mud is believed to contain curative properties with iodine, bromine, calcium and magnesium. According to Wikipedia, since the mud solution has no significant toxic substance, it is used as a curative agent for mud baths at spas. Mud baths have existed for thousands of years and can now be found in high-end spas in many countries of the world.)

The mineral-rich pool serves as a salt lick for animals at the Tabin Wildlife Reserve, including endangered species such as the Sumatran rhino and the pygmy elephants.
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Snowflake

Winter Storm Slams US's Midwest; New York, New England Up Next


MSNBC
Fri, 24 Feb 2012 01:00 UTC
Image
© MSNBC
A winter storm left a "stripe of snow" across the Midwest before heading toward upstate New York and northern New England on Friday morning, weather.com reported.

Meteorologist Tim Ballisty predicted that Chicago could receive "a half foot or more" of snow.

"On Thursday into Friday, look for a stripe of snow to lay down from the Dakotas into Iowa, northern Illinois, far northern Indiana and lower Michigan," he added. "The bulk of the heaviest snow will fall south of Milwaukee -- closer to the Wisconsin/Illinois border."

Appearing on NBC's Today on Friday, weather.com's Mike Seidel reported that at least 130 flights had been delayed at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. He added that prior to Thursday, Chicago had received only 16 inches of snow all winter.
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Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 4.3 - Island of Hawaii


US Geological Survey
Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:25 UTC
Image
© USGS
Date-Time:
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 13:52:45 UTC
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 03:52:45 AM at epicenter

Location:
19.438°N, 155.309°W

Depth:
5.7 km (3.5 miles)

Region:
ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII

Distances:
8 km (5 miles) W (261°) from Volcano, HI

19 km (12 miles) W (259°) from Fern Forest, HI

21 km (13 miles) WSW (237°) from Mountain View, HI

38 km (24 miles) SW (218°) from Hilo, HI

335 km (208 miles) SE (128°) from Honolulu, HI
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Question

Mysterious Sky Sounds Baffled Early Explorers Too


weirdaustralia
Mon, 20 Feb 2012 22:32 UTC
meteors
© n/a
Mysterious sky sounds have been heard right across the world in recent times, reaching an apparent crescendo as we tentatively step into the much-anticipated, and often feared, year of 2012. Are these unknown sounds from the heavens a portent of doom from an impending apocalypse? Are they the result of top secret weather manipulation technology or electromagnetic weaponry? Or are their origins more mundane, such as the simple misidentification of everyday modern machinery?

Well, perhaps the answer to the enigma is none of these, as it appears our early explorers were similarly baffled by such strange sounds seemingly emanating from clear night skies.

Accounts from early explorers and settlers of hearing strange sounds of unknown origins in our skies were published in Phenomenal Sounds in the Interior of Australia - Are They Terrestrial or Atmospherical? - a pamphlet by Mr T. Gill from a report of the deliberations of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, held in Melbourne in December 1913.
'"I am somewhat diffident in submitting to the geographical section of this association the following particulars, chiefly obtained from explorers' journals and personally from explorers and old bushmen who have traversed the interior of Australia," Gill wrote. "I do not presume to offer any explanation as to the cause of the phenomena reported here, but humbly submit the reports and opinions of various travellers on the mysterious sounds which are of frequent occurrence in certain localities, and which bewilder all who have heard them."
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Bizarro Earth

US: Mystery Grows As More Livestock Dies In Maury County


Disclose.tv
Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:01 UTC
Horse
© News Channel5.com

Tennessee -- Horses are dying and now cattle as well and detectives in Maury County have been at a loss to explain how or why it is happening. First, seven seemingly healthy horses turned up dead last week at a Hampshire farm in Maury County. The state performed a necropsy and released the results.

"They ruled that it's undetermined. The cause of death cannot be determined at this time. It is a mystery. We don't know what happened," said Detective Terry Chandler with the Maury County Sheriff's Department.

Now Detective Chandler is investigating more deaths: Two dead cows at a farm across from the one where the seven horses were found. And he's consulting with police looking into more mysterious horse deaths in Dickson and Giles county.

Chandler said there is no evidence anyone is intentionally harming the animals.

He said they have not ruled out the possibility the livestock died from eating contaminated hay or a poison plant. It's possible the toxins were not detected by the state testing.
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Bizarro Earth

Satellite Captures Enormous 90-mile-wide Storm That's UNDERWATER


Daily Mail, UK
Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:25 UTC
A Nasa satellite has provided jaw-dropping pictures of a huge 'storm' brewing under the sea.

The swirling mass of water - which measures a whopping 93 miles wide - has been spotted off the coast of South Africa by the Terra satellite on December 26.

But there's no need to alert international shipping, or worry about the poor fish that might find themselves in an endless washing cycle - the body of water poses no threat.

Underwater Storm
© Caters News AgencyStunning image: The 90-mile-wide whirlpool, spotted off the coast of South Africa by Nasa's Terra satellite, looks deadly but it more likely to create life by lifting nutrients from the ocean floor.
Indeed, it is more likely to create life by sucking nutrients from the bed and bringing them to the surface.

The sea storms - which are better known as eddies - form bizarre whirl shaped shapes deep beneath the ocean's surface.

This counter-clockwise eddy is thought to have peeled off from the Agulhas Current, which flows along the southeastern coast of Africa and around the tip of South Africa.
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Bizarro Earth

Japan quake studies suggest harder jolt to US Pacific Northwest possible

Sandi Doughton
SeattleTimes.com
Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:31 UTC
Image
© Nevada Seismological Laboratory, University of Nevada, RenoThe red dots represent aftershocks from the Japan quake, which roughly trace the area that shook hardest there. Superimposed on a map of the Northwest, the result shows where the strongest ground motion is likely to strike during the next quake on the Cascadia subduction zone, the underwater fault marked by the black line. The green line is the relative location of Japan's subduction zone.
Studies of last year's giant Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan suggest that shaking from a Cascadia megaquake could be stronger than expected along the coasts of Washington, Oregon and British Columbia, researchers reported Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Scientists are still unraveling last year's giant Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and some of what they're finding doesn't bode well for the Pacific Northwest.

Detailed analyses of the way the Earth warped along the Japanese coast suggest that shaking from a Cascadia megaquake could be stronger than expected along the coasts of Washington, Oregon and British Columbia, researchers reported Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

"The Cascadia subduction zone can be seen as a mirror image of the Tohoku area," said John Anderson, of the University of Nevada.

Anderson compiled ground-motion data from the Japan quake and overlaid it on a map of the Pacific Northwest, which has a similar fault - called a subduction zone - lying offshore.
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Sun

Icelandic Volcano Fimmvörðuháls Erupts During Aurora Borealis

Juliette Dawson
LongIslandPress.com
Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:58 UTC
A photographer from Britain, James Appleton, has captured breath-taking pictures from Iceland, reports The Huffington Post. He captured both magma and northern lights in one shot. He stood just a few yards from an erupting volcano in order to take the pictures and they just might be one of nature's most amazing sights.
Image
© James Appleton
James was willing to go within a few hundred feet of an erupting volcano after working alongside vulcanologists in Iceland, and found out about Fimmvörðuháls who from his Icelandic friend. He explained, "She informed me of the eruption, and I knew immediately I had to try and get out to see it."

Not only did James have to deal with the harsh flames of the volcano, but he also had to face the frozen temperatures of a harsh Icelandic winter in order to take his remarkable pictures. "The closest I got was probably only a few hundred meters away," said James.
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