Earth ChangesS


Nuke

Meet Mike, the most radioactive fish ever from Fukushima

Almost two years after the awful nuclear disaster occurred, a fish caught near Fukushima on Friday January 18th had a record-breaking level of radioactive contamination over 2500x the legal limit. TEPCO measured 'Mike the Murasoi' at 254,000 becquerels per kilogram (with the limit for edible seafood at 100 becquerels).

As Le Monde reports, the previous record (caught on August 21st 2012) was a mere 25,800 becquerels/kg. As further precautions, TEPCO is installing new nets 20km around the Fukushima Daichi site to avoid highly contaminated fish gettig too far and being consumed by other species. While Mike's family are no doubt distraught (at him being caught and being so radioactive), it appears (somewhat disappointingly) that there is no apparent third eye, lazer fins, legs, or other 'expected' 'blinky' malformations.

Mike - the slightly crispy looking Marusoi...
Radioactive Fish
© ZeroHedge.com
Doesn't look anything like Blinky...
Blinky
© ZeroHedge.com

Snowflake Cold

Snowpocalypse Russia: 'Snow tsunami' swallows streets, cars, buildings

Image
© bigpicture.ru
On Friday, Moscow was on a verge of traffic collapse as more than 10 inches of snow fell on the city, which is more than half of January's average. Thousands of passengers were stranded overnight in the capital's major airports, as several dozen flights were delayed.

Muscovites woke up and found their cars, driveways and houses buried under a thick layer of snow, with city workers unable to get to smaller streets. Moscow's Yandex app showed traffic at level 10, the highest possible, as strong winds created blizzard conditions and built imposing snow drifts.

Additional images

Snowflake

Blanket of snow covers parts of Europe

Parts of Europe, including Russia, France, Austria and the UK have seen heavy winter snowfall.


Snowflake

Europe hit by blizzards, air traffic havoc, deaths

Image
Extreme winter weather swept across western Europe Saturday, leaving thousands of passengers stranded at London's main international airport and claiming several lives in Spain, Portugal and France, including those of three Mali-bound soldiers.

The frigid temperatures also caused delays and cancellations on major railway lines including the Eurostar train service, and transport authorities warned of further traffic disruptions with more blizzards forecast for Sunday.

In London, thousands of passengers were forced to camp out on the floors of Heathrow Airport overnight as hundreds of flights to and from the British capital were cancelled.

"There are lots of bodies lying around in the airport. If feels like there's been a natural disaster," Jerry Meng from Los Angeles, whose flight to New York was cancelled, told British broadcaster BBC.

Snowflake

Meteorologists confounded, as snow disappears from Chicago skies

Image
Whether you like it or not, we will officially break another record for no snow today, according to the National Weather Service. "It's pretty incredible," said NWS meteorologist Gino Izzi. "It's the middle of January and there's no snow on the ground. Dallas, Texas has had more snow than us." Izzi said the last time we have gone this far into the season without a 1-inch calendar day of snowfall was Jan. 17, 1899.

If we get no snow today - and there is none in the forecast through the weekend - it's a record. Additionally, it's been 326 days and counting since we've had a 1-inch snow cover on the ground. That record was officially broken nine days ago, according to Izzi. "If you think about it, we're just a little over a month away from basically going an entire year without snow in Chicago," Izzi said. Izzi attributes the lack of snow, in part, to luck. "Some of it has just been luck but there have been some pretty good storms that have missed us," he said.

While snowfall is not in the stars for the area, very cold temperatures are. "We're watching a little system Sunday night that will bring a really, really intense cold snap - the coldest we've been in nearly two years," Izzi said. Highs will "struggle" to reach the teens by Monday into Tuesday. "We could have lows not very far from zero," Izzi said. The Illinois Tollway will launch its Zero Weather Road Patrols this weekend to assist drivers stranded in their cars during times of extreme cold. - Chicago Tribune

Snowflake

Portions of northern India blanketed with largest snowfall in 8 years

Image
The Queen of the Hills, as Shimla was fondly called by the British, recorded the highest snowfall on a single day January in the past eight years, a Met official said here Saturday. Manmohan Singh, director of the meteorological office here, told IANS that the town recorded 38.6 cm snow in the past 24 hours, the highest in the first month of the year since 2005.

"The maximum snow in a day in January was recorded was in 2005. It was 33.2 cm Jan 18," he said, adding: "On two consecutive days (Jan 17 and 18 this year) the town got 63.6 cm." Singh said snow and heavy rain in the region in the past two days was mainly due to induced cyclonic circulation with the western disturbances.

As per records of the Met office, there was no snowfall at all in Shimla for two consecutive years in January from 2006. In 2008, there was just 1 cm snow throughout the month, while it was 8.7 cm in 2009, 1.8 cm in 2010 and 8.5 cm in 2011. In 2005, there was 94.3 cm snow in January but it was spread over seven days (Jan 17, 18, 21, 22, 27, 28 and 28).

Arrow Up

Sydney scorches in record high temperatures of 46.5 degrees (115.7°F)

Image
Sydney endured its hottest ever day on Friday, with records smashed across the city and thousands of people suffering from the heat. The mercury topped 45.8 at Sydney's Observatory Hill at 2.55pm, breaking the previous record set in 1939 by half a degree. The city's highest temperature was a scorching 46.5 degrees (115.7°F), recorded in Penrith at 2.15pm, while Camden, Richmond and Sydney Airport all reached 46.4 degrees. More than 220 people had been treated for heat exposure or fainting by late afternoon, the Ambulance Service of NSW said.

The heatwave also stranded thousands of commuters, with dozens of trains delayed as steel wires buckled and a hose used to run a key signaling system melted. On the central coast, the heat caused an overhead wire to buckle onto a train at about 1.30pm, trapping about 250 passengers for half an hour. The monorail ground to a halt, spitting sparks that started a soon-extinguished grass fire next to Darling Harbour. More serious fires raged across NSW and Victoria, including about a dozen blazes that burned out of control in coastal regions of NSW from the Hunter Valley to the south coast. In Victoria a man's body was found in a burnt-out car in the town of Seaton in Gippsland. The victim, who is yet to be identified, was the first victim of the bushfires this summer. The conditions in NSW were hellish, firefighters said. "This has made for very difficult conditions and there are a lot of very active fires.

Question

UFO blamed for millions of dead fish off Japan's coast, but where are the sources?

Dead Fish
© ScienceNet.cn

Plenty of fringe news outlets are reporting that an estimated 50 tons of dead fish have washed up on the shores of Okinawa, Japan this week, and while plenty of outlets are guessing that the cause of the mass death is due to everything from a lack of oxygen in the water to low temperatures, there's at least one source claiming that the event was caused by chemicals released from a UFO that crashed in December.

The millions of dead fish are said to be "bleeding from the eyes" and many covered with severe burns. Veteran's Today reported that an "inside source" with the Japanese government is aware of the strange occurrence, and the true cause is a foreign aircraft being sought by the Japanese Navy in a secret mission.

"I can confirm to you the dead fish appearing on Okinawa's coast is a direct result of the UFO crash," said the source. "We have scientists stationed on the JS Kurama, the vessel at sea responsible for bringing the spacecraft up to the surface, and they have informed the Prime Minister they believe a strange substance is oozing from the damaged ship and causing noxious fumes to rise to the surface.

Not only is it killing any surrounding fish in the immediate vicinity but the fumes are making it difficult for the salvage crew aboard the ship to breath. The salvage operation has been halted for several hours due to this new development. The scientists fear a new and very dangerous alien chemical is infiltrating the seas and thus killing sea life."

Cloud Precipitation

Fukushima debris hits Hawaii

Image
© Reuters / Handout
Debris set adrift by the 2011 Japanese tsunami has made its way to Hawaii, triggering concerns over the unknown effects of the radiation it may carry from the meltdown of the Fukushima reactor.

Debris has washed ashore the islands of Oahu and Kauai and the state's Department of Health has been asked to test some of the incoming material for radiation levels. Refrigerator parts, oyster buoys, housing insulation, storage bins, soda bottles, toys, fishing nets, plastic trash cans and even Japanese net boats have all washed up on Hawaiian sands in the past few weeks, triggering serious environmental concerns over both water pollution and radiation exposure.

Long-term exposure to radiation can cause cancer, gene mutations, premature aging and in severe cases, death. The consequences of the influx of debris are unknown, causing local agencies to advocate precaution in picking up the Japanese debris.

After a Kona fisherman discovered a 24-foot Japanese net boat floating along the Hawaiian coast early this month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began an investigation to trace where some of the items have come in from and possibly find its owners.

Evil Rays

Lack of oxygen sends waves of dead fish ashore in Pawleys Island, South Carolina?

Image
© Courtesy viewer Lisa Mahan
When you go to the beach you don't expect to find hundreds of dead fish covering the shore."One time I was here I saw a bunch of jellyfish," Said resident Bill Vogel. "They were all on the shore but nothing like this, it's really weird." Pawleys Island isn't the first place this week to see the dead Menhaden fish on their shores. DeBordieu Beach had the same issue the day before, according to Chief Michael Fanning of the Pawleys Island Police Department. Events like this happen from time to time, last year an influx of Star Fish were found on the same beaches, Fanning said.