Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

US: Pennsylvania - Swatara Township asking geological experts to investigate explosion-like shaking

Swatara Township officials have requested the assistance of the U.S. Geological Survey and other experts to investigate a shaking -- that feels like explosions -- that people near the township building are reporting.

There are no major construction projects, and the shaking seems to be located right around the township building, according to officials.

Image
© Unknown

Comment: The reader may be interested in the Comments from the locals at the bottom of the article.


Eye 1

New Zealand: First oiled penguins signal trouble

oiled penguin

This penguin’s natural colour is white and blue. He is being cared for by a veterinarian in Te Maunga.

Two oil-drenched penguins have been found washed up on Bay of Plenty beaches today, covered in the oil spilling from container ship Rena on Astrolabe reef.

The two blue penguins were found covered in oil on Papamoa and Little Waihi Beach this afternoon and have been taken to a specialist treatment facility in Te Maunga.

Wildlife Response Centre Director Brett Gartrell is attending to two blue penguins stricken by the oil and says to be helping two birds this soon highlights the coming danger.

Snowman

Britain's barmy weather! Snow falls in Scotland just days after heatwave brought south second crop of strawberries in six months

  • Walkers hit snow covered peaks after Indian Summer highs at the weekend
  • 'Spring' lambs are being born four months early due to weather confusion
  • Farmers are picking crops of strawberries - and it's OCTOBER
  • Hailstones the size of frozen peas pelt an area where it's just topped 85F
Britain's crazy weather took another nutty turn today as snow fell in the Highlands while farmers in the south picked strawberries - and all just days after the country baked in the hottest October on record.

Cairgorm in the Highlands was the first place in the UK to experience the chill of winter as the ski slopes on the Scottish resort experienced the first dump of snow.

The mountain range south of Inverness saw temperatures plunge overnight turning the hillside white.

Image
© unknownWeather shock: The first snow of winter fell overnight in Cairngorm in the Highlands of Scotland just days after thousands enjoyed a heatwave in the South East of England
Image
© unknownDeep and crisp and even: Walkers at Cairngorm in the Highlands are among the first to enjoy the frosty delights of winter

Igloo

First snow of winter falls in Scotland - just days after record October heat

Scotland snow
© Alistair GrantFirst snow: Ski lifts on Cairngorm, Scotland, on Thursday (Picture: Alistair Grant)
The first snow of winter has fallen in the UK on Thursday - remarkably, just a few days after the hottest October day ever recorded.

Snow coated mountains were visible across the Scottish Highlands on Thursday as an Arctic storm caused foot-high drifts, near hurricane-force 70mph winds and an 18C temperature plunge - with ski resorts planning to open in just five weeks.

Cairngorm reported two inches and foot-high drifts, with the white stuff also coating Glencoe, Glenshee and on the Nevis Range.

Overnight temperatures on Wednesday dropped to a bitter 1C at Cairnwell, Grampians, and more snow is due on another chilly night on Thursday, with frost in sheltered parts of northern England and Scotland.

Bizarro Earth

South of Kermadec Islands - Earthquake Magnitude 6.1

Kermadec Quake_071011
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Friday, October 07, 2011 at 08:58:29 UTC

Friday, October 07, 2011 at 08:58:29 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
32.389°S, 178.902°W

Depth:
40 km (24.9 miles)

Region:
SOUTH OF THE KERMADEC ISLANDS

Distances:
106 km (65 miles) S of L'Esperance Rock, Kermadec Islands

359 km (223 miles) SSW of Raoul Island, Kermadec Islands

762 km (473 miles) NE of Auckland, New Zealand

1136 km (705 miles) NNE of WELLINGTON, New Zealand

Igloo

Western Australia: Freak hail storm traps Bunbury couple

Bunbury hail
The hail storm which wreacked havoc through Ferguson Valley on Sunday.
Local residents fought their way out of a ditch during the freakish spring hail storm on Sunday.

Brenda and Michael Joubert were on a leisurely Sunday drive when they became caught up in the middle of a hail storm in the Ferguson Valley.

The couple pulled their car over to the side of the road under a tree to prevent the car from being damaged but all of the water forced the car to slip sideways into the ditch.

Bizarro Earth

Micronesia: Earthquake Magnitude 5.8 - State of Yap

Image
© USGS
Date-Time:
Thursday, October 06, 2011 at 07:37:03 UTC

Thursday, October 06, 2011 at 05:37:03 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
9.712°N, 138.292°E

Depth:
35.7 km (22.2 miles)

Region:
STATE OF YAP, FED. STATES OF MICRONESIA

Distances:
27 km (16 miles) NE of Yap, Micronesia

493 km (306 miles) ENE of KOROR, Palau

818 km (508 miles) WSW of HAGATNA, Guam

899 km (558 miles) WSW of Rota, Northern Mariana Islands

Bizarro Earth

U.S. Government Joins Probe of Mysterious Seal Deaths

Seal
© Andreas Trepte / Wikimedia Commons

Federal officials have joined an investigation into the mysterious deaths of young harbor seals on beaches across three New England states as the number of dead seals rose to 49.

Seals began washing up on the beaches of northern Massachusetts, New Hampshire and southern Maine last week, said Maggie Mooney-Seus, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's office in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

"Some of them have been decomposed," she told Reuters on Wednesday. "We're hoping we're not going to see a lot more. We don't know at this point what's caused it."

The densest cluster of seal deaths has been along New Hampshire's 18-mile (30-km) coast, where 17 seal carcasses have been recovered since Friday, said Tony Lacasse, a spokesman for the New England Aquarium in Boston.

The aquarium has conducted autopsies on three of the least-decomposed seals and found that they all had an adequate layer of blubber to survive.

Bizarro Earth

Argentina: Earthquake Magnitude 6.2 - Jujuy

Image
© USGS
Date-Time:
Thursday, October 06, 2011 at 11:12:29 UTC

Thursday, October 06, 2011 at 08:12:29 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
24.181°S, 64.250°W

Depth:
9.5 km (5.9 miles)

Region:
JUJUY, ARGENTINA

Distances:
106 km (65 miles) E of San Salvador de Jujuy, Jujuy, Argentina

129 km (80 miles) N of El Quebrachal, Salta, Argentina

135 km (83 miles) ENE of Salta, Salta, Argentina

1274 km (791 miles) NNW of BUENOS AIRES, D.F., Argentina

Bad Guys

Environmental Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico: The Escalation of BP's Liability

Louisiana seafood distributor Dean Blanchard
© Erika Blumenfeld/Al JazeeraLouisiana seafood distributor Dean Blanchard, with recently found oil taken from a nearby marsh
"If you got caught humping another woman - [if] you're both naked and caught in the act - you'd want BP to explain to your wife how it didn't happen."

This colorful analogy was proposed by Dean Blanchard, a seafood distributor on Grand Isle, Louisiana, to explain oil giant BP's continuing machinations to evade liability in the aftermath of the April 2010 disaster.

During a recent discussion in his office, Blanchard told Al Jazeera that the fishing waters off Louisiana are only producing one per cent of the shrimp they formerly produced. "Half of the local fishermen have shut down," he stated. "They are dying. And [as] for the fishing, every day they are hauling dead porpoises in front of my place. I have a claim filed with BP, but none of us in the seafood business are being paid."

Speculating that he may soon have to close down his company, Blanchard spoke for hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents who remain angry and frustrated when he added: "I worked 30 years to establish my business, and now BP has destroyed my life."