Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

20 Tons of Dead Fish on Norway Beaches

Ralf Lofstad
Dagbladet
Mon, 02 Jan 2012 12:41 UTC
Dead Fish
© Jan-Petter JØRGENSENMYSTERY: How, or why, tens of tons of dead herring suddenly fills the beach on the resin, no one has a definite answer. Here, Jan-Petter Jorgensen dog Molly on inspection New Year's Eve (Google translated).
The inhabitants of Troms could hardly believe their eyes on the morning of New Year's Eve, a very large amount, an estimated 10 to 20 tons of dead herring washed up on the beach, writes Northern Lights. Tromsø city is the ninth largest urban area in Norway by population. The city is warmer than most other places located on the same latitude, due to the warming effect of the Gulf Stream which originates at the tip of Florida. Various theories abound for the incident but no one knows for sure what's happened in the popular hiking area in Nordreisa municipality.

However, various theories have been tossed around, explains Jan-Petter Jorgensen (44), who stumbled upon the mass death in sight on the beach with his dog Molly. People say that something similar happened in the 80′s, and there is speculation among others on the river which flows into the ocean behind a promontory on the site, may have had something to do with it. Maybe the fish have been caught in a deprived oxygen environment, and then died of fresh water? Jorgensen estimates each individual fish to be of 100-150 grams, and that the total might be about up to 20 tons. Now he's worried about what might happen if no one comes and removing carcasses.

Source: Dagbladet (translated)
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Bizarro Earth

Ohio, US: Ohio finishes the year with earthquake as fears grow it was caused by oil drilling


Associated Press
Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Ohio Nearby
© CNNNearby: Officials are saying that the 10 earthquakes in Ohio this year- including Saturday's 4.0 one- are likely caused by drilling for oil and gas
The latest in a series of minor earthquakes in northeast Ohio hit on Saturday, this time reaching a magnitude of 4.0 on the Richter scale.

The tremor sent some stunned residents running for cover as bookshelves shook and pictures and lamps fell from tables.

The quake struck Saturday afternoon in McDonald, outside of Youngstown, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Area residents said a loud boom accompanied the shaking, but sheriff's dispatchers from several counties in the area said there were no immediate reports of damage.

A few miles from the epicenter, Charles Kihm said he was preparing food in his kitchen when he heard a noise and thought a vehicle had hit his Austintown home.

'It really shook, and it rumbled, like there was a sound,' said Mr Kihm, 82.

'It was loud. It didn't last long. But it really scared me.'
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Bizarro Earth

Norway: Landslide Forces More Evacuations

Nina Berglund
Norway International Network
Sun, 01 Jan 2012 23:32 UTC

More than 50 persons were evacuated from their homes when a large landslide ripped through a rural area outside Trondheim on Sunday. It was a brutal start to the New Year, following a string of storms that also forced evacuations in western Norway earlier in the week.

Geologists said it was too early to determine exactly what caused the landslide at Byneset in Trøndelag, which extended over around half-a-kilometer of farmland. One geologist told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) that the ground in the area was characterized by unstable clay and that the stormy weather of the past week may have contributed to the landslide.

Catastrophe alarm

It set off full catastrophe alarms Sunday morning but by the end of the day, no homes had been destroyed and no lives lost. The evacuations were made because of the unstable groundmass.

"We're not at all certain that the slide is over," Kari Øvrelid of the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) told NRK. "We need to keep monitoring this."

She said the danger of more landslides had been reduced, but 22 persons remained under evacuation orders Sunday night. Police, civil defense personnel, geologists and local government officials were using special equipment to monitor ground movement in the darkness. There were also concerns that the huge volumes of earth would clog local creeks and set off flooding.
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Bizarro Earth

US: 4.0 earthquake strikes in northeast Ohio


Associated Press
Mon, 31 Dec 2012 19:36 UTC
McDonald - Officials said Saturday they believe the latest earthquake activity in northeast Ohio is related to the injection of wastewater into the ground near a fault line, creating enough pressure to cause seismic activity.

The brine wastewater comes from drilling operations that use the so-called fracking process to extract gas from underground shale. But Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director Jim Zehringer said during a news teleconference that fracking is not causing the quakes.

"The seismic events are not a direct result of fracking," he said.

Environmentalists and property owners who live near gas drilling wells have questioned the safety of fracking to the environment and public health. Federal regulators have declared the technology safe, however.
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Bizarro Earth

Magnitude 7.0 quake hits Japan


Associated Press
Sun, 01 Jan 2012 03:24 UTC
Tokyo - A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck under the sea south of Japan on Sunday, shaking buildings in the capital but causing no apparent damage or tsunami.

The quake struck near the uninhabited island of Torishima in the Pacific Ocean, about 370 miles south of Tokyo, and its epicenter was about 230 miles below the sea, the Meterological Agency said. It did not generate a tsunami.

Buildings in the Tokyo area shook, but no damage or injuries were reported. Express trains in northern and central Japan were suspended temporarily for safety checks but later resumed.

No abnormalities were reported at power plants, including the crippled nuclear power plant in northeast Japan hit by the March earthquake and tsunami, public broadcaster NHK reported.
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Nuke

Japan: DIY Cesium Scanning Store May Be 'New Normal'

June Hongo
The Japan Times
Sun, 01 Jan 2012 13:41 UTC
food sample in a radiation detector
© Yoshiaki MiuraHot or not: Hiroko Aki, a resident of Nagareyama, Chiba Prefecture, places a food sample in a radiation detector Oct. 11 at Bec-Miru, a DIY irradiation scanning store in nearby Kashiwa.
Kashiwa, about 30 km northeast of Tokyo, is known for its humble beginnings as a 1970s bedroom community for Tokyo workers.

The tranquil residential city of 406,000 in Chiba Prefecture rarely enters the national spotlight, except when Kashiwa Reysol, the local soccer team, is playing at home.

But on a street just six minutes from JR Kashiwa Station, the Bec-Miru facility that Motohiro Takamatsu opened in October is turning heads by offering residents a chance to scan their own groceries, garden soil and other items for radiation.

"To have Kashiwa become contaminated with radiation, that was a big deal for me," the software engineer and accidental entrepreneur said in a recent interview with The Japan Times.

Takamatsu imported several LB 200 gamma spectroscopy machines from Germany to equip his new shop, which allows anyone to check items for contamination from the Fukushima nuclear crisis for a fee of ¥980 per 20 minutes.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Thousands of Blackbirds Fall to Their Death in Arkansas Town for Second New Year's Eve In a Row

Megan Keneally
Dailymail.co.uk
Sun, 01 Jan 2012 08:43 UTC
Ancient Mayan legend says that 2012 will bring the end of the world.

A small Arkansas town might have shown the first example of that as approximately 5,000 blackbirds dropped dead from the sky last night in the early hours of the new year.

As if the incident was not strange enough, it is the second time in two years that the birds have fallen as the calendar year change

Image
© ABC newsOn the streets: Estimates put the dead bird count well into the thousands.
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Snowflake

US, Michigan: Great Lakes winter storm warning issued


Msnbc.msn.com
Sun, 01 Jan 2012 08:21 UTC
Bad weather also expected to hit area west of DC on Monday

Winter storm warnings were issued for several states near the Great Lakes and an area west of Washington D.C. by the National Weather Service early Sunday.

It issued its "first major winter storm" warning of 2012 at 3:51 a.m. ET Sunday for parts of Michigan, saying snow, sleet and rain along with strong winds were expected Sunday.

The NWS later issued other storm warnings for parts of Pennsylvannia, Indiana, Minnesota and Wisconsin near the Great Lakes.

The Michigan warning was due to begin at noon Sunday and last until 7 p.m. ET Monday.
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X

'The world's dirtiest oil': Satellite photos reveal the relentless expansion of Canada's controversial tar sands industry

Damien Gayle
The Daily Mail
Sat, 24 Dec 2011 05:40 UTC
These satellite photos show the mine that launched Canada's controversial tar sands industry.

The mine at Fort McMurray, on the banks of the Athabasca River, in cold, remote Alberta, had already been operating for 17 years at the time a U.S. satellite pictured it.

Today the Canadian tar sands are recognised as one of the world's largest oil reservoirs.

Image
© NASA/Landsat/USGSJuly 23, 1984: The Fort McMurray tar sands mine in Alberta had been operating for 17 years by the time this photo was taken from space by the U.S. Landsat satellite
The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates the recoverable oil sands reserves at more than 170million barrels - more than any other nation except Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

But extracting the resource is both economically and environmentally costly.
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Bizarro Earth

Japan - Earthquake Magnitude 6.8 - Izu Islands


US Geological Survey
Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:02 UTC
Japan Quake_010112
© USGS
Date-Time
Sunday, January 01, 2012 at 05:27:54 UTC

Sunday, January 01, 2012 at 02:27:54 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location
31.416°N, 138.155°E

Depth
348.5 km (216.6 miles)

Region
IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION

Distances
242 km (150 miles) SW of Hachijo-jima, Izu Islands, Japan

365 km (226 miles) S of Hamamatsu, Honshu, Japan

393 km (244 miles) S of Shizuoka, Honshu, Japan

495 km (307 miles) SSW of TOKYO, Japan
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