From the University of California at Santa Barbara - By Julie Cohen |

Most of North America's megafauna - mastodons, short-faced bears, giant ground sloths, saber-toothed cats and American camels and horses - disappeared close to 13,000 years ago at the end of the Pleistocene period. The cause of this massive extinction has long been debated by scientists who, until recently, could only speculate as to why.

A group of scientists, including UC Santa Barbara's James Kennett, professor emeritus in the Department of Earth Science, posited that a comet collision with Earth played a major role in the extinction. Their hypothesis suggests that a cosmic-impact event precipitated the Younger Dryas period of global cooling close to 12,800 years ago. This cosmic impact caused abrupt environmental stress and degradation that contributed to the extinction of most large animal species then inhabiting the Americas. According to Kennett, the catastrophic impact and the subsequent climate change also led to the disappearance of the prehistoric Clovis culture, known for its big game hunting, and to human population decline.

In a new study published this week in the Journal of Geology, Kennett and an international group of scientists have focused on the character and distribution of nanodiamonds, one type of material produced during such an extraterrestrial collision. The researchers found an abundance of these tiny diamonds distributed over 50 million square kilometers across the Northern Hemisphere at the Younger Dryas boundary (YDB). This thin, carbon-rich layer is often visible as a thin black line a few meters below the surface.

Hundreds of people in a California town have no water after wells ran dry during the state's drought.The small town of East Porterville in Tulare County has about 7,300 residents, and at least 300 homes have been without water for weeks.

"We can't shower. We're wearing dirty clothes. My kids had to wear dirty clothes to school this morning," said Elizabeth Baker. "I had to go across the street last night to get water for my kids from the fire department."

The county set up a 5,000-gallon water tank for residents to help with flushing toilets and irrigation, but now drinking water is the problem. They had to distribute more than 15,000 gallons of drinking water last week.

There are fears the problem could be even worse as people believe some people aren't reporting their wells have gone dry out of fear their landlords will evict them, or their children will be taken away. In fact, the county didn't know how dire the problem was until they were tipped off by a nonprofit group.

Donna Johnson has been delivering water to those in need for months. She's even taken out a loan to pay for the water.

Images from space show the massive Hurricane Marie poised to swallow another tiny storm off the Pacific coast of Mexico.

Newly released photos from NASA show the big and little storms swirling side by side. The images were taken by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Earth-watching GOES-West satellite yesterday (Aug. 26) at around 8 a.m. EDT (5 a.m. PDT).

But Karina may not be such a substantial snack by the time Marie devours her. With winds that slowed to 30 miles per hour (48 km/h), Karina weakened from a tropical depression into a remnant low-pressure system last night, after roaming the Pacific for two weeks, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) announced.

Aaron Frost, 25, was travelling home from work when he was caught in a freak ice storm which caused him to lose control of his BMW and crash into a concrete barrier

A motorist died when a hail storm turned a busy road into a thick sheet of ice, an inquest heard.

Aaron Frost, 25, was travelling home from work when he was caught in a freak ice storm.

He lost control of his BMW saloon and crashed into a concrete barrier at the side of the road.

The car then hit a lamp post and overturned before coming to rest on its side in a ditch.

The inquest heard the kitchen fitter was travelling back home to Bognor Regis, West Sussex on the on the A27 near Emsworth, Hampshire.

The Icelandic Met Office has lowered its aviation warning from red to orange near the Bardarbunga volcano, which saw an eruption begin overnight.

The new alert, the second-highest, means that aviation authorities can now decide if planes may travel over the volcano's airspace.

Scientists said a fissure eruption 1km (0.6 miles) long started in a lava field north of the Vatnajokull glacier.

The volcano has been hit by several recent tremors.

The Icelandic Met Office confirmed to the BBC that since no ash was detected in emissions from the volcano's eruption, it was now possible to downgrade the earlier alert level.

Civil protection officials said Icelandic Air Traffic Control had closed the airspace above the eruption up to a height of 5,000ft (1,500m), but now some aircraft will be able to pass over the volcano if aviation authorities give airliners the go-ahead.

The fissure eruption took place between Dyngjujokull Glacier and the Askja caldera, according to a statement from the Department of Civil Protection.

Hundreds of tiny dead fish have been found washed up in Mullion harbour.

The beach was left littered with the small whitebait at low tide after they became stranded.

The same phenomenon has been reported all along the south coast as far as Dorset over the past two weeks.

The fish get driven into shore after they are chased by predators - in this case mackerel.

Bob Felce, who has written a book on the history of the cove, said it was an extremely rare sight.

"It is a rare occurrence. One fisherman who has lived here for over 60 years says he can only remember this happening on two or three previous occasions," he said.

"Mullion is an enclosed, small harbour so the trap was laid when they chased them in. The coast around the Lizard has been full of mackerel for a couple of weeks; I had a few hours in a boat off Coverack last week and you could almost walk on them.

Miami pair Alejandro Jimenez and Lisset Rendon become first people to be bitten by American crocodile, wildlife officials say

Two swimmers taking an early morning dip in a Florida canal have earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first humans in the United States to be bitten by an American crocodile, wildlife officials say.

Alejandro Jimenez, 26, and Lisset Rendon, 23, came face to face with the 9ft reptile at 2.30am on Sunday, after taking to the water during a house party in Gables by the Sea, an upscale neighbourhood of South Miami where saltwater crocodiles are prevalent.

As Jimenez recovered in hospital Tuesday from bite wounds to his torso and hands, and his girlfriend, who was bitten on her shoulder, rested at home, trappers continued to scour the canal for the giant critter.

Residents say there are at least three large crocodiles living in the water behind their homes and have given them the nicknames Pancho, Snaggletooth and Streetwalker, the last apparently noted for taking late-night strolls across roads in the neighbourhood.

"A major theory is that oceans can and have produced methane gas, and was responsible for the Permian Mass Extinction. This explosion killed up to 95% of life on earth during that period. A seafloor basin of methane saturated water may have a breaking point. An earthquake, underwater landslide, or even a meteor impact could have triggered this, and suddenly, like shaking a giant soda bottle, the deepest part of the ocean would have exploded in a deadly storm of methane bubbles."

Something similar happened in 1986 in Lake Nyos in the nation of Cameroon in Africa. This created a ground level carbon dioxide cloud that killed many nearby villagers. This is also mentioned in this video. Watch it below:

An earthquake with magnitude 5.6 occurred between the Peloponesse and the Cyclades in Greece at 6:44 am on Aug 28, 2014.

The epicenter was located beneath the seabed about 140 kilometers (86 miles) south of Athens and near the island of Milos.

There have been no reports of injuries or damages, however, the shock was widely felt in Athens and Crete.

The U.S. Geological Survey gave a preliminary magnitude of 5.6, while the Greek Institute of Geodynamicsr gave it as 5.7.

These incredible photos capture the biblical-like scenes in Madagascar where a plague of locusts - numbering in their billions - have descended on the country's farmland for the third year running.

An enormous dark cloud of the flying insects is pictured obscuring the sky in the east African island country's capital of Antananarivo, sparking panic for Madagascar's nine million agricultural workers.

After first occurring in 2012 - the gigantic plague is no longer a phenomenon but an annual migration of the bugs - which can each eat their own body weight in food every day.
Left to themselves, the locusts would devastate the country's agriculture, each consuming around two grams of food each day that they are among crops.

Desperate farmers have been attempting to protect their land by starting fires and increasing their use of insecticides, the Independent reports.