Earth ChangesS


Binoculars

Montana, US: Woman Recounts Bear Attack as Caught Grizzly ID'd

Matthew Brown and Ben Neary
The Associated Press
Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:54 UTC
Image
© Matthew Brown/AP PhotoAn unidentified U.S. Forest Service Employee closes the gate at the entrance to the Soda Butte Campground in Cooke City, Mont., Thursday, July 29, 2010.
One of the survivors of a deadly grizzly bear attack said Thursday she realized her only hope was to play dead after feeling the bear's jaw clamp onto her arm in the middle of the night.

Wildlife officials were testing the DNA of a bear captured at the site of the early Wednesday mauling to confirm it was the animal that also killed a Michigan man and hurt another camper near Yellowstone National Park, but they said they were confident they had caught the right animals.

"Something woke me up, and a split second later, I felt teeth grinding into my arm," Deb Freele of London, Ontario, said from her bed at a Wyoming hospital. "I realized, at that split second, I was being attacked by a bear, but I couldn't see it.

"It was behind me and I screamed. I couldn't help it - it's kind of like somebody else was screaming," she told The Associated Press. "And then it bit me harder, and more. It got very aggressive and started to shake me."
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Bizarro Earth

More than 30,000 trapped by floods in China's northeast


Terra Daily / Agence France-Presse
Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:09 UTC
Image
© Unknown
More than 30,000 people are thought to be trapped by floodwaters in a town in northeast China, state media said Wednesday, as torrential rain that has killed over 300 in two weeks continues.

China is struggling with its worst flooding in a decade tat has left 1,405 dead or missing since the beginning of the year and caused at least 26 billion dollars in damage, and authorities have warned of more to come.

In the central city of Wuhan, tens of thousands of people have been evacuated as authorities brace for flood crests from the Yangtze River and one of its tributaries to converge there.

More than 200 rescue workers have been sent to northeastern Jilin province's Kouqian town to reach 30,000 residents thought to be trapped after a nearby reservoir overflowed, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The local train station was also surrounded by water with over 80 people trapped inside, it said.
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Bizarro Earth

EPA: 1M gallons of oil may be in Michigan river


Associated Press
Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:20 UTC
Image

EPA says 1 million gallons of oil may have spilled in Mich. river, governor criticizes cleanup.

Federal officials now estimate that more than 1 million gallons of oil may have spilled into a major river in southern Michigan, and the governor is sharply criticizing clean-up efforts as "wholly inadequate."

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released the update Wednesday night, shortly after Gov. Jennifer Granholm lambasted attempts to contain the oil flowing down the Kalamazoo River. She warned of a "tragedy of historic proportions" if the oil reaches Lake Michigan, which is still at least 80 miles downstream from where oil has been seen.

Granholm called on the federal government for more help, saying resources being marshaled by the EPA and Enbridge Inc., which owns the pipeline that leaked the oil, were "wholly inadequate."
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Bizarro Earth

Philippines: Earthquake Magnitude 6.6 - Moro Gulf, Mindanao


USGS
Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:44 UTC
Moro Quake_290710
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Thursday, July 29, 2010 at 07:31:56 UTC

Thursday, July 29, 2010 at 03:31:56 PM at epicenter

Location:
6.474°N, 123.379°E

Depth:
618.8 km (384.5 miles)

Region:
MORO GULF, MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES

Distances:
128 km (80 miles) SW (229°) from Cotabato, Mindanao, Philippines

151 km (94 miles) ESE (109°) from Zamboanga, Mindanao, Philippines

152 km (94 miles) S (185°) from Pagadian, Mindanao, Philippines

943 km (586 miles) SSE (164°) from MANILA, Philippines
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Binoculars

New garbage patch discovered in Indian Ocean

Lori Bongiorno
Yahoo News
Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:38 UTC
Image
© NOAAMap of the five ocean gyres
Scientists recently announced the existence of a garbage patch in the Indian Ocean - the third major collection of plastic garbage discovered in the world's oceans. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, located in the North Pacific Ocean gyre, is well known. And more recently scientists confirmed the existence of a second garbage patch in the North Atlantic gyre.

Marcus Eriksen, cofounder of 5 Gyres Institute, reports that all of the 12 water samples collected in the 3,000 miles between Perth, Australia, and Port Louis, Mauritius (an island due East of Madagascar), contain plastic.

"We did find another large concentration of plastic debris," says the marine scientist who co-founded 5 Gyres Institute with his wife, Anna Cummins, to research plastic pollution in the world's oceans. The team works in collaboration with Algalita Marine Research Foundation and Pangaea Explorations.
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Bizarro Earth

Scientists Discover and Image Explosive Deep-Ocean Volcano


NOAA
Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:25 UTC
underwater volcano
© NOAA and NSFROV Jason gets a close view of magma explosions and lava flows on West Mata volcano (May 2009).
Scientists funded by NOAA and the National Science Foundation recorded the deepest erupting volcano yet discovered, describing high-definition video of the undersea eruption as "spectacular." Eruption of the West Mata volcano, discovered in May, occurred nearly 4,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, in an area bounded by Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.

Imagery includes large molten lava bubbles approximately three feet across bursting into cold seawater, glowing red vents explosively ejecting lava into the sea, and the first-observed advance of lava flows across the deep-ocean seafloor. Sounds of the explosive eruption were recorded by a hydrophone and later matched to the video footage.

"We found a type of lava never before seen erupting from an active volcano, and for the first time observed molten lava flowing across the deep-ocean seafloor," said the mission's Chief Scientist Joseph Resing, a chemical oceanographer at the University of Washington who collaborates with NOAA through the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean. "Though NOAA and partners discovered a much shallower eruption in 2004 in the Mariana Arc, the deeper we get, the closer the eruption is to those that formed most of the oceanic crust."
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Bizarro Earth

US: Earthquake Magnitude 5.3 - Off Coast of Oregon


US Geological Survey
Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:51 UTC
Image
© USGS
Date-Time:
Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 16:12:06 UTC

Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 09:12:06 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
43.770°N, 125.802°W

Depth:
10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program

Region:
OFF THE COAST OF OREGON

Distances:
135 km (85 miles) WNW of Coos Bay, Oregon

170 km (105 miles) SW of Newport, Oregon

210 km (130 miles) WNW of Roseburg, Oregon

255 km (160 miles) WSW of SALEM, Oregon
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Bug

Britain "Facing Tarantula Invasion," RSPCA Warns

Andrew Hough
The Telegraph
Wed, 28 Jul 2010 02:00 UTC
Image
© CascadeRebecca Hall holds the Chilean rose tarantula at Smithills Open Farm
Britain could be facing a tarantula invasion after a number of the spiders were discovered in gardens in some parts of the country, wildlife experts have warned.

The RSPCA has issued an alert urging people to be on their guard amid fears a large batch of the spider has escaped in the north of the country.

The alert came after two separate incidents involving 10cm-wide Chilean Rose tarantulas in Bolton, Greater Manchester.

The rare arachnids, capable of blinding people by spitting hairs in their eyes, were both found in back gardens within two miles of each other.

Both spiders are the same age, breed and gender.
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Bizarro Earth

New Zealand: Snapper Wash Up in Mystery Incident

Gill Alcock
Waiheke Marketplace
Wed, 28 Jul 2010 03:48 UTC
Mystery Incident
© Stuff.co.nzFish Supper: A seagull feasts on one of the hundreds of snapper washed up on Oneroa Beach.

The Ministry of Fisheries is asking for help from Waiheke residents after hundreds of fish were washed up on one of the island's beaches.

Walkers on Oneroa Beach last Thursday were stunned to discover dead snapper "every couple of steps".

While seagulls enjoyed a five-star feast, an honorary fisheries officer visited the beach to count and check the size of the specimens.

Ministry field operations manager Greg Keys says the incident is under investigation but there are many possible causes.

To rule out one possibility - whether the fish had been poisoned by algae - some of them will be tested for poison.

But Mr Keys says the fish could have escaped from a split net from a commercial fishing boat. Mr Keys says he has heard reports of similar occurrences on the Coromandel.

"It can happen accidentally from split nets or when there are too many fish and they spill over the side of the net, or the fishing boat might dump them."

Meanwhile, Department of Conservation marine ranger Guy Toogood says he understands the fish were too small to have come from a commercial take.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Oil spill could reach Lake Michigan by Sunday

Chris Zoladz
Detroit Free Press
Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:57 UTC
Kalamazoo River
© John Grap/Battle Creek EnquirerOil from the spill is clearly visible in the Kalamazoo River between the Ceresco Dam and Historic County Bridge Park today in Battle Creek.

Battle Creek area residents are being warned to stay away from the Kalamazoo River because of a major oil spill.

An estimated 840,000 gallons of oil leaked into a creek Monday that feeds into the river.

Area media were reporting that odor from the spill hung heavy over Battle Creek this morning.

"It is unknown at this time how far the spill has traveled and exactly what areas have been affected. It is assumed due to the current level of the Kalamazoo River and the speed of the current that the entire Emmett Township area and beyond has been affected," according to an advisory issued today by the Emmett Township Public Safety Department.
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