Earth ChangesS


Hourglass

Two Good Friday earthquakes rock southern Costa Rica

A series of earthquakes rocked the southern Costa Rican city of Pérez Zeledón and could be felt in the capital, San José, starting at 12:32 p.m., reported the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica, OVSICORI.

The first quake had a magnitude of 4.8 with an epicenter some 10 kilometers from Pérez Zeledón. A magnitude-5.2 aftershock at 12:42 p.m. was followed by a magnitude-2.3 temblor at 12:50 p.m., according to initial reports from OVSICORI.

The temblor was strong enough to drive some families out of their homes in Pérez Zeledón and crack the walls of homes in the beach town of Uvita, according to reports received by The Tico Times. Some beachgoers on the Caribbean even felt the quake.
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Comment: 4.6 magnitude Costa Rican earthquake produces more than 70 aftershocks


Cow Skull

California drought: Where will all the people go when the mass migration starts?

no swimming
© peripitus
The drought in California is getting a lot worse. As you read this, snowpack levels in the Sierra Nevada mountains are the lowest that have ever been recorded. That means that there won't be much water for California farmers and California cities once again this year. To make up the difference in recent years, water has been pumped out of the ground like crazy. In fact, California has been losing more than 12 million acre-feet of groundwater a year since 2011, and wells all over the state are going dry. Once the groundwater is all gone, what are people going to do? 100 years ago, the population of the state of California was 3 million, and during the 20th century we built lots of beautiful new cities in an area that was previously a desert. Scientists tell us that the 20th century was the wettest century in 1000 years for that area of the country, but now weather patterns are reverting back to normal. Today, the state of California is turning back into a desert but it now has a population of 38 million people. This is not sustainable in the long-term. So when the water runs out, where are they going to go?

I have written quite a few articles about the horrific drought in California, but conditions just continue to get even worse. According to NPR, snowpack levels in the Sierra Nevada mountains are "just 6 percent of the long-term average"...

Attention

Mount Sinabung volcano eruption in Indonesia triggers evacuation

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The Mount Sinabung volcano in Indonesia's North Sumatra province erupted on Thursday afternoon, spewing a column of ash by up to two kilometers into the sky and triggering a small-scale evacuation, an official said on Friday. A powerful burst of hot ash was spread from the rumbling volcano, heading four kilometers to the south of the crater and one kilometer to the southeast, according to Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency, Xinhua reported.

Some of the villagers living near the volcano were evacuated to safer places, Sutopo said. 'Some of residents of Sibintun village have to be evacuated by force by officials to other places,' he told Xinhua. Others at the Sigrang Garang, Kutagunggung and Sukanalu villages located three kilometers away from the crater were panic-stricken as they prepared for evacuation, according to Sutopo. 'The officials keep conducting patrol and monitoring at the field,' he said. Roads were damaged as a result of lava floods, Sutopo said.

The 2,475-metre Mount Sinabung had erupted on June 29 after erupting on and off from September 2013 to February 2014, which left 15 people dead and more than 30,000 others internally displaced. Mount Sinabung is among over 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, which is prone to seismic upheavals owing to its location on the 'Pacific Ring of Fire'.

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4.2 magnitude earthquake hits Alaska's Cook Inlet

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© Media.jrn.com
Seismologists say a light earthquake that struck Alaska's Cook Inlet region was felt in at least one town.

The Alaska Earthquake Center says the 4.2 magnitude quake occurred at 5:15 a.m. Thursday about 44 miles southeast of Newhalen.

The earthquake was felt in the Kenai Peninsula town of Homer. There are no immediate reports of damage from the earthquake.

Cloud Lightning

Student captures spectacular footage of 2 planes struck by lightning over Seattle

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The first lightning strike is slowed down to show it as a three-pronged bolt which hits the plane.

A Washington state student filming a Seattle thunderstorm captured footage of lightning striking two planes as they approached the airport.

Owen Craft, a University of Washington student, said he was trying to catch lightning strikes on camera Wednesday night in the University District when he ended up capturing footage of two plans being struck by lightning during their approaches to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

"I was stunned for a second because I couldn't believe what I just saw," Craft told KOMO-TV. "After the second [plane] got hit, I knew I was on to something spectacular!"


Fish

Large number of poisonous porcupine fish found dead on Taranaki beach, New Zealand

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A poisonous porcupine fish washed up on a New Plymouth beach.
A wave of poisonous porcupine fish have washed up on a New Plymouth beach.

Ted Burrows said he was out walking between the Waiwhakaiho groyne and Fitzroy Beach on Monday morning and estimated up to 50 of the fish had washed ashore.

Burrows said he had seen the fish washed up before, but only two or three at a time.

Department of Conservation marine ranger Callum Lilley said the fish were present in Taranaki waters and he had encountered them on the beach two or three times over the past 10 years.

He said the fish, a close relative of pufferfish, were poisonous and DOC would dispose of them. He said they might have washed up on other beaches as well.

"We do have them offshore out here and occasionally we do have a whole lot wash ashore," he said.

Ice Cube

Elk herd of at least 31 perishes after breaking through ice on Palisades Reservoir, Idaho

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© John StephensonAt least 30 elk crashed through the ice of Palisades Reservoir recently and drowned.
An eye-opening cluster of dead elk is decaying on the shores of Palisades Reservoir after an unusual but natural occurrence of a herd venturing onto thin ice and breaking through.

The elk crashed through the ice on March 21 near where the Snake and Greys rivers meet at the southeast corner of the reservoir, which straddles the Wyoming-Idaho border, Wyoming Game and Fish Department regional supervisor Tim Fuchs said. The elk were later pulled to shore.

Warden Todd Graham responded to a call the day of the event and found 31 dead elk floating, Fuchs said.

"They kind of straddled the state line," Fuchs said. "Twenty-five were on the Idaho side and the remainder on the Wyoming side."

There were likely more dead elk that had drifted off, he said — potentially as many as 50 total.

Comment: See also: 100 cows die after falling through lake ice in South Dakota


Fish

Thousands of dead fish turn up off Lantau Island, Hong Kong

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© Gary StokesDead fish floating near Discovery Bay.
Thousands of dead fish have been found floating in rubbish between Peng Chau and Discovery Bay.

One scientist said they could have been killed by an algal bloom that starves fish of oxygen, or waste dumped in the water.

Pictures seen by the South China Morning Post showed some had washed up on a beach in Peng Chau, off the northeast coast of Lantau Island.

Islands District Councillor Josephine Tsang Sau-ho said: "The fish are around half the size of a palm. There were thousands of them when they washed up and they really smell."

She said fishermen had told her trawling was not to blame.

The fish were found on Thursday and workers later cleaned up the beach. The Marine Department said around 80 catties of dead fish were cleaned up from water in the area yesterday.

Wolf

Grey wolf attacks woman's dog in Lake Forest, Illinois

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Wolf
A 100+-pound grey wolf attacked a pet in Lake Forest last month, a local resident told MySuburbanLife.com.

In the early morning hours of March 11, Mary Kong let out her two dogs in her fenced backyard but one came running back immediately. While using a flashlight to search for Scottie, a 17-pound mixed former shelter dog, Kong spotted what she says was a 100- to 120-pound grey wolf.

"He had Scottie all the way in his jaw, both sides," Kong said.

The animal dropped Scottie upon being noticed and Kong was able to guide herself and both dogs back to safety fairly quick.

Thankfully, Scottie has made a full recovery. He suffered two deep lacerations on either side of his chest.

Cloud Lightning

Remarkable footage of rare tornado tearing through a desert city in northern India

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© Weather UndergroundInfrared satellite shows strong storms moving across the desert state of Rajasthan, India on Sunday, March 15. Timestamp is eastern time.
Remarkable, close-up video shows a dark and ominous tornado rolling through a city in northern India in mid-March. Winds whip as the photographer tries to hold the camera steady to capture the large, dusty funnel.

The Indian newspaper Rajasthan Patrika writes that the tornado touched down in the city of Bikaner in the state of Rajasthan in northern India.

The paper doesn't give a date for the tornado except to say that it was on a previous Sunday. Looking at satellite, it seems likely that it touched down on March 15, as intense storms swept across the state.

The tornado ripped up trees and power lines, and left more than 50 families displaced, reports Rajasthan Patrika. The paper also writes that there were no fatalities, though livestock were killed.

It's difficult to estimate how strong this tornado was in terms of the enhanced Fujita scale just by watching the video. The state of Rajasthan is almost entirely desert, and Bikaner's average annual rainfall is just over 10 inches. This tornado kicked up a lot of that dry desert dust which might have made it look more intense than it actually was, though it's impossible to give the twister a rating without seeing what kind of damage it caused on the ground. In any case, even weak tornadoes have winds of around 100 mph and can inflict severe damage along its path.


Comment: Rajasthan has experienced an interesting series of celestial events in the recent past. Check out: India: Dense celestial shower again over Rajasthan.

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