USGSWed, 09 Apr 2008 10:05 UTC
The following is a release by the United States Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center: An earthquake occurred 85 km (55 miles) SSW of Isangel, Tanna, Vanuatu, 175 km (110 miles) NE of Tadine, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, 275 km (170 miles) S of PORT-VILA, Efate, Vanuatu, 1800 km (1120 miles) ENE of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia at 5:46 AM MST, Apr 9, 2008 (11:46 PM local time in Loyalty Islands). The magnitude and location may be revised when additional data and further analysis results are available. No reports of damage or casualties have been received at this time.
The term "Collins Street farmer" was given a new meaning last week, as Melbourne, along with most of the state, was inundated by dust caused by fierce winds which reached more than 130 kilometres per hour.
The dust was topsoil from farms across south-eastern Australia, including large tracts of South Australia and northern Victoria.
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| ©Unknown
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| Dust sits over Swan Hill last week
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A 61-year-old woman was killed by lightning in Shanghai on Tuesday, shortly after the local observatory issued a warning.
Yu Jinyun and her husband, Xie Baoren, 62, were struck by a bolt of lightning at 7:55 a.m. while riding a motorbike on a bridge. Yu died instantly while Xie was rushed to hospital.
The Shanghai Observatory issued a lighting warning at 6:46 a.m. and upgraded it at 7:27 p.m.. It also issued a strong wind warning.
MSNBCMon, 07 Apr 2008 16:58 UTC
No injuries reported after 3.7 magnitude tremor woke residents
Falls City, Texas - A small earthquake awoke residents in south Texas, but there are no reported injuries.
The U.S. Geological Survey says the 3.7 magnitude quake happened shortly before 5 a.m. Monday about 45 miles southeast of San Antonio.
Unlike so many of the hapless victims on TVOne's daily Crimewatch (also known as One Network News) I have recently been lucky enough to be in two right places at the right time.
In December last year, at the UN conference in Bali, I heard Viscount Monckton present a paper prepared by himself, the Australian Dr David Evans and our own Dr Vincent Gray (who were at Bali, too) that showed while the IPCC models predict that greenhouse gases would produce an extensive "hot spot" in the upper troposphere over the tropics, the satellite measurements show no such hotspots have appeared.
Monckton and Evans found a large part of this discrepancy is the result of some basic errors in the IPCC's assessment of the Stefan-Boltzmann equation. When they applied their revised factor to the effect of greenhouse gases, the temperature rise was about a third of that predicted by the IPCC.
So by late last year we not only knew IPCC forecasts of atmospheric global warming were wrong; we were beginning to understand why they are wrong.
Over the past 3,000 years, almost every major earthquake on California's San Andreas fault was closely linked in time with an earthquake on the Cascadia subduction zone, an offshore fault off the Olympic Peninsula, new research shows.
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| ©Keith Thorpe / PDN
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The first lungless frog has been discovered lurking in the jungles of Borneo.
The enigmatic amphibian, dubbed Barbourula kalimantanensis, apparently gets all the oxygen it needs through its skin.
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| ©David Bickford / LiveScience
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| The first lungless frog has been discovered lurking in the jungles of Borneo.
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Fishermen have expressed concern over the large-scale death of fish at the Karachi coast. They demanded of the concerned authorities to conduct a survey to learn the actual reasons behind the death of the fish and to take effective steps to address the problem.
Hundreds of dead fish, including Mullet, Bohi and other species, have been seen at the seashore near Baba, Bhit, Shamspir and Salehabad islands, the premises of Karachi Fish Harbour (KFH) and other coastal villages for the last couple of days.
Residents of the Iron Range and other parts of northern Minnesota are digging out from under at least 2 feet of fresh snow.
The grand prize for the most snowfall goes to Virginia, Minn., where 32 inches piled up between Friday night and this morning. More than a foot fell in the northern Minnesota community of about 9,000 people since Sunday evening, the National Weather Service said.
Anti-submarine sonar may have killed a group of whales found dead in the Hebrides in one of Britain's most unusual strandings, scientists believe.
Five Cuvier's beaked whales, a species rarely seen in British waters, were discovered on beaches in the Western Isles on succeeding days in February. Another animal from a related species was discovered at the same time.
