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Cloud Lightning

Torrential rains inflict severe damages in Eastern China


Xinhua
Fri, 22 Aug 2014 00:00 UTC
East China flooding
© Xinhua
Rescuers deliver food to residents trapped by rain-triggered flood in Lishui City, east China's Zhejiang Province, Aug. 20, 2014.
Nearly 65,000 people in east China's Zhejiang Province have been evacuated after torrential rains caused floods in some cities, said the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters on Thursday.

Nearly half a million people in the cities of Lishui, Jinhua, Wenzhou and Shaoxing have been affected by persistent downpours since Aug. 8, with the worst-hit Lishui suffering direct economic losses of 1.058 billion yuan, it said.

Statistics from the provincial hydrological bureau showed that the province's average precipitation has reached 204 millimeters over the past fortnight, the highest since 1951 excluding the influence of typhoons.

By Thursday, 853 houses have collapsed, while 26,100 hectares of croplands have been damaged, of which 1,400 hectares of crops were totally destructed. The losses inflicted upon cash crops were estimated at 160 million yuan.
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Alarm Clock

Iceland evacuates area near Bardarbunga volcano amid eruption fears


RT
Thu, 21 Aug 2014 06:30 UTC
Bardarbunga volcano
© Reuters / Sigtryggur Johannsson
A warning sign blocks the road to Bardarbunga volcano, some 20 kilometres (12.5 miles) away, in the north-west region of the Vatnajokull glacier August 19, 2014
Tourists were evacuated from around Iceland's Bardarbunga volcano, as seismic activity has increased in the area. The possibility of the volcano waking up has evoked memories of the 2010 aviation chaos, caused by another eruption in Iceland.

Seismic activity in the Bardarbunga vicinity has not been decreasing, the Icelandic Meteorological Office reported on Thursday.

"The highest magnitude during the last 24 hours was about 3.8, measured at 23:38 last night (20th August)", the agency's statement said.

There were around 1,000 small earthquakes detected in the area Wednesday that prompted the evacuation of about 300 tourists.

"The area is now closed and has been evacuated," Iceland's Civil Protection Authority said on its website. "These actions were taken following seismic activity around the Bardarbunga caldera in the last few days."

The agency also said it would carry out further air patrols over the volcano to make sure no one was left there.

If the volcano doe start to erupt, it would lead to the Vatnajokull glacier which sits over it melting.
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Cloud Lightning

Canada: Thunderstorm leads to major flooding in Winnipeg, Southern Manitoba

Joanna Adams
The Huffington Post Canada
Fri, 22 Aug 2014 05:51 UTC
winnipeg flood
© Twitter/SamanthaNAmaral

A severe thunderstorm left Winnipeg and other parts of southeastern Manitoba under water on Thursday evening, after an estimated 50 to 75 millimetres of rain fell on the region.

CBC News reports at least two vehicles were partly submerged due to flooding, at the popular underpass at Higgins Avenue and Main Street, in Winnipeg. According to the network, other cars and transit buses remained stuck in place nearby as the heavy rain shut down streets, overwhelmed storm sewers, and cut off power to street lights.

Soon after, residents took to Twitter to catalogue the effects of the storm.
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Blue Planet

Gulf of Mexico turns Blood Red along Florida Coast, aquatic life at risk


The PCMD Gazette
Wed, 20 Aug 2014 03:59 UTC
blood water florida
The coastal plains of Florida are facing serious threat from a large Red Tide bloom which has not been seen for almost a decade.

The Red Tide is posing devastating infestation on the marine life of Florida. The incoming tide has already claimed lives of thousands of fish in the Gulf of Mexico and it is now reported to be closing in on the coast. The Red tide bloom is expected to wash ashore striking the mainland in around two weeks.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, the bloom is spread about 80 miles in length and approx 50 miles in width in Gulf of Mexico but presently the tide is from 40 to 90 miles offshore.
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Bizarro Earth

Large holes forming near the New Madrid Fault and a giant crack in the Earth in North Mexico

Michael Snyder
EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
Thu, 21 Aug 2014 23:21 UTC
Earthquake Map
© endoftheamericandream.com
Earthquake Map.
Did you know that the number of big earthquakes during the first three months of 2014 was more than double the yearly average of what we have experienced since 1979? And did you know that the number of earthquakes in the central and eastern U.S. has quintupled in recent years?

If you do not believe this, just keep reading. We live at a time when earthquakes are increasing in frequency and severity. And we are starting to see some very unusual activity in places that have been quiet for a very long time.

For example, large holes are starting to mysteriously appear in Indiana near the New Madrid fault zone. And a giant crack in the ground nearly a kilometer long has appeared in northern Mexico. Could these be indications that even greater earthquake activity is on the way?

Most Americans don't realize that the greatest earthquakes in U.S. history happened along the New Madrid fault zone. Back during the early part of the 19th century, a series of immensely powerful earthquakes rattled the entire eastern half of the nation. Documents that we have from that era say that those earthquakes were so powerful that they were felt more than 1,000 miles away. And there are many that believe that if we had a similar earthquake today that the damage caused would almost be incalculable.
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Ice Cube

Another sign of impending Ice Age? Glacier-like hazards discovered during the summer on Ben Nevis, Scotland


BBC
Thu, 21 Aug 2014 15:56 UTC
Image

Experts are investigating the North Face of Ben Nevis
Hazards common in arctic and alpine areas but described as "extremely unusual" in the UK during the summer have been found on Ben Nevis.

A team of climbers and scientists investigating the mountain's North Face said snowfields remained in many gullies and upper scree slopes.

On these fields, they have come across compacted, dense, ice hard snow call neve.

Neve is the first stage in the formation of glaciers, the team said.

The team has also encountered sheets of snow weighing hundreds of tonnes and tunnels and fissures known as bergschrunds.

The large, deep cracks in the ice are found at the top of glaciers.
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Fish

Yet another mass death of anchovies on the California coast - fourth such incident in 5 weeks

Samantha Weigel
San Mateo Daily Journal
Thu, 14 Aug 2014 14:39 UTC
Image
Visitors and residents near Foster City's Gull and Marlin parks may have witnessed a natural phenomenon last weekend as thousands of anchovies died and washed ashore on the lagoon's beaches because their sheer volume depleted the oxygen they needed.

Once city officials noticed the dead fish washing ashore and in the lagoon, which is fed by the Bay, they immediately began to test the water and have since cleaned most of them up, said Public Works Superintendent Mike McElligottt. The quality of the water was safe, however, it did show it was depleted of more oxygen than usual, McElligottt said.

Although the event was unusual for Foster City and hasn't happened in at least the 10 years McElligottt said he's worked for the city, there is a biological explanation for it.

"This particular incident has not happened. But we have had fish die off about five or six years ago due to a red tide," McElligottt said. "We tested (the lagoon) for dissolved oxygen, it was low in those areas and I didn't realize what was going on until I called the National Marine Fisheries Service."

Comment: See also: Third mass die-off of anchovies in three weeks, Santa Cruz, California

Unknown substance found in water off Capitola Beach, CA - thousands of fish dead

Huge school of anchovies swarms off La Jolla, California - attracting hundreds of thousands of seabirds

      Read More...
Question

Deep-sea skate fish found on Spanish Banks beach, Vancouver

Nick Eagland,
The Province
Fri, 08 Aug 2014 14:25 UTC
Image
© Maria King
This photo submitted by Maria King shows the skate that washed up at Spanish Banks beach in Vancouver.
A stingray-like skate has washed up on the shores of Vancouver.

In an email with photos of the skate sent to The Province, Marie King said she found the bottom-feeding fish at Spanish Banks during low tide Sunday afternoon.

Eric Taylor, director of the Beaty Biodiversity Museum and a UBC zoology professor, said it's hard to be certain what kind of skate it is without seeing the actual specimen, but observed that it looks like a "rather large longnose skate, which is a native marine fish."

Taylor said he sometimes sees squid, dogfish and small sharks washed up on the beach, but skates show up less frequently.

"It's not extremely rare," he said. "I've seen, certainly, lots of things like skate egg cases - these are sort of tough little leathery things colloquially known as 'mermaid's purses' - that wash up."

Taylor said skates might be spotted near sandy areas around Stanley Park or Spanish Banks at very low tide in the spring, when they're not busy crushing small fish, crustaceans and mollusks on the ocean floor with their "pavement-like jaws".

Skates aren't a threat to humans, but can become lunch for sea lions and sharks, Taylor said.
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Arrow Down

Shocking! 100,000 elephants killed in Africa between 2010 and 2012


The Times of India
Tue, 19 Aug 2014 13:19 UTC
Image
Poachers killed an estimated 100,000 elephants across Africa between 2010 and 2012, a huge spike in the continent's death rate of the world's largest mammals because of an increased demand for ivory in China and other Asian nations, a new study published on Monday found.

Warnings about massive elephant slaughters have been ringing for years, but Monday's study is the first to scientifically quantify the number of deaths across the continent by measuring deaths in one closely monitored park in Kenya and using other published data to extrapolate fatality tolls across the continent.

The study, which was carried out by the world's leading elephant experts, found that the proportion of illegally killed elephants has climbed from 25 percent of all elephant deaths a decade ago to roughly 65 percent of all elephant deaths today, a percentage that, if continued, will lead to the extinction of the species.
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Bizarro Earth

Ozone-depleting compound persists, NASA research shows

Elizabeth Howell
Universe Today
Thu, 21 Aug 2014 13:31 UTC
Ozone
© NASA
The ozone hole over Antarctica on Aug. 18, 2014. Purple and blue represent zones with the least ozone, while yellow and red show thicker areas. Data sources come from multiple NASA, European Space Agency and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellites.
Some bad news in the fight to protect Earth's ozone - one of the banned compounds that attacks this protective atmospheric layer is still being produced, somehow.

That compound is called carbon tetrachloride, which used to be common in fire extinguishers and dry cleaning. But those who have signed the Montreal Protocol in 1987 reported no new emissions between 2007 and 2012.

So how is it that new research found atmospheric emissions are persisting at 30% of peak production, even with no new emissions being reported?

"We are not supposed to be seeing this at all," stated lead author Qing Liang, an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. "It is now apparent there are either unidentified industrial leakages, large emissions from contaminated sites, or unknown CCl4 sources."
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