Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

US: New Eruption Starts At Alaska's Cleveland Volcano

Cleveland volcano
© Schaefer, JanetLocation of Cleveland volcano and other Aleutian volcanoes.
One of Alaska's most active volcanoes has started erupting, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO).

The 1,730 m (5,676 ft) high Cleveland Volcano, also known as Mount Cleveland, began erupting early on Tuesday. However, the stratovolcano's remoteness is limiting opportunities for its study, reported the AVO which is relying heavily on satellites for monitoring.

According to the AVO: "Without a real-time seismic network on the volcano, AVO is unable to track local earthquake activity related to volcanic unrest, provide forecasts of eruptive activity, or confirmation of explosive, ash-producing events. AVO is monitoring the volcano using satellite data as it becomes available. Such data suggests that effusive eruption of the lava dome in the summit crater is possibly continuing."

One of the most active volcanoes in the Aleutian Arc, Cleveland has erupted at least 21 times in the last 230 years. A VEI 3 eruption in 1944 produced the arc's only direct volcanic fatality. Most recently Mount Cleveland has erupted three times in 2009, and twice in 2010.

Attention

Pakistan: Magnitude 5.7 Earthquake Recorded in Parts of Karachi

Seismological Network of Pakistan Meteorological Department has recorded an earthquake, with a magnitude of 5.7 in some parts of Karachi on Wednesday morning. The epic center of the quake was a site near Kharan, in Balochistan, said a Met Department's press release. Jolts were also felt in Balochistan, with depth of earthquake registered to be 45.Km at 27.82 latitude towards North and 65.17E longitude towards East.

Radar

US, South Carolina: Minor earthquake hits Upstate city

The U.S. Geological Survey says a small 2.3 magnitude earthquake has been reported in the northwestern part of South Carolina.

Minor tremors were felt for a few seconds at 12:27 p.m. Tuesday. No injuries were reported, and area law enforcement agencies said they didn't receive calls from people calling about the tremors.

A geophysicist with the agency, Julie Dutton, says she doesn't think many people would have felt the earthquake.

The earthquake was centered in Gray Court, about 30 miles south of Greenville.

Source: The Associated Press

Radar

US: Small Earthquake Rattles South Dakota's State Capitol

The South Dakota Capitol and other buildings shook briefly Tuesday as a rare earthquake hit the state's capital city.

The U.S. Geological Survey's Earthquake Center confirmed an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 3.4 struck about one mile west of Pierre at 2:45 p.m. CDT. There were no immediate reports of damage, but people in the city reported hearing multiple booms and feeling buildings shake.

Eric Stasch, operations manager at U.S. Army Corps of Engineering's Oahe Dam, said an initial check indicated the quake had caused no damage to the massive earthen structure. Officials planned to conduct a more thorough check of the Missouri River dam, located about five miles upstream from Pierre, later Tuesday.

The three motion detectors at the dam were not tripped by the earthquake, Stasch said.

Clock

US, Illinois: Palatine Sinkhole Fix Will Take a While Longer

Image
© Bill ZarsWork continues on the 20-foot sinkhole that formed at Hicks and Dundee roads in Palatine after a torrential rainfall more than two weeks ago.
The two-week time frame officials provided when estimating how long it would take to close the massive sinkhole that formed on Palatine's north side after a 100-year storm hit the area has come and gone.

Fixing the 15-by-20-foot opening at the northwest corner of Hicks and Dundee roads quickly proved complex because of the utilities involved, as well as the discovery of buried bracing material from when the sewer line was originally built, Public Works Director Matt Barry said.

The sinkhole formed July 23 about 30 feet below the surface when a sewer line collapsed in the wake of a torrential downpour - 5.43 inches of rain in three hours.

Barry said he went to the scene Monday and found crews still in the excavating phase, so it's premature to say how much longer repair work will take.

No Entry

US, Missouri: Sinkhole Closed Section of Prospect for Six Hours in Kansas City

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© Brandon Billinger/KSHBBoth directions of Prospect were closed on Aug. 8, 2011, from 67th Street to 67th Terrace in Kansas City, Mo., due to a large sinkhole.
A section of Prospect Avenue was closed Monday for about six hours in Kansas City, Mo., due to a large sinkhole.

The sinkhole was reported before 2:30 p.m.

Officials closed Prospect from 67th Street to 67th Terrace. By 8:30 p.m., the roadway was reopened to traffic.

Colleen Doctorian with Water Department said an 8-inch main caused the break.

Approximately 25 customers were affected by the water main break.

Arrow Down

US, Pennsylvania: Excessive Rain Causes Widespread Sinkholes in Palmyra


Excessive rain has caused a sinkhole mess in Palmyra, Lebanon County.

Residents said on Tuesday, you live with the risk of sinkholes living in Palmyra, "I'm not nervous," said Sandy Forker. Forker added, "Who knows - my house may go in."

But after last weekends, heavy rains, residents said they haven't seen so many sinkholes sprout up all at once.

Cherry and Duke Streets, the Rite Aid Parking lot, and Franklin Street were some areas where sinkholes formed over the weekend.

One of the worst areas however was between Kevin Collins' home on North Grant Street.

Bizarro Earth

US: Terrified Tourist Hit by Falling Glacier on Tracy Arm Fjord

Glacier Collapse
© News.co.auTourists were hit by ice as a part of the glacier collapsed.
This is the terrifying moment a boat full of tourists came within a few metres of being engulfed by falling ice from a glacier.

Screams of panic can be heard as tourists are struck by ice while on a tour of the Tracy Arm Fjord - a deep fjord over 48km long in the Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness, Alaska.

One female tourist fell amid the panic and broke her leg, The Sun reports.


Cow Skull

Thousands of Famine Victims in Somalia Abandoning Farms

Somalia famine
© ReutersA Somali boy milks his cow outside his tent in Medina Xoosh district in Mogadishu (File Photo - January 12, 2011)
A senior U.N. official says thousands of people in famine-stricken Somalia are abandoning their farms in search of assistance. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) representative for Kenya and Somalia warns this mass movement risks overwhelming international aid efforts, and says FAO is taking measures to try to keep people from leaving their land.

The FAO representative says the situation of drought and famine in Somalia is worsening. Luca Alinovi notes five regions in south and central Somalia have officially been declared famine zones, and he expects famine to spread to other regions.

Bizarro Earth

Will the Planet Mimic the Fate of Easter Island?

Easter Island
© The Daily Galaxy
"We'll undergo the same fate as the people on Easter Island." - Frank Fenner, virologist.
Eminent Australian scientist Professor Frank Fenner, who helped to wipe out smallpox, predicts humans will probably be extinct within 100 years, because of overpopulation, environmental destruction and climate change.

If past is prologue, 70,000 years ago the human population was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa, apparently because of drought, according to an analysis by researchers at Stanford University. The estimated the number of early humans may have shrunk as low as 2,000 before numbers began to expand again in the early Stone Age.

Tiny bands of early humans, forced apart by harsh environmental conditions, coming back from the brink to reunite and populate the world. Truly an epic drama, written in our DNA." Wells is director of the Genographic Project, launched in 2005 to study anthropology using genetics. The report was published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

The migrations of humans out of Africa to populate the rest of the world appear to have begun about 60,000 years ago, but little has been known about humans between Eve and that dispersal. The new study looks at the mitochondrial DNA of the Khoi and San people in South Africa which appear to have diverged from other people between 90,000 and 150,000 years ago.