Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Envisat captures volcanic eruptions in Japan

Image
© ESAAcquired today by ESA's Envisat satellite, this image shows smoke pouring from Mount Shinmoedake, a volcano in the Kirishima mountain range on Japan's southern island of Kyushu.
Shinmoedake, which featured in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice, started erupting on 27 January after being quiet for 52 years. Eruptions spewed ash and smoke as high as 3000 m.

The Sakurajima volcano, further south, is also visible in the image. Sukurajima has been erupting almost constantly since 1955, producing thousands of small explosions every year.

The image was acquired on 4 February at 01:25 GMT by the MERIS instrument in full resolution mode.

Cloud Lightning

State on guard as another storm closes in

roof collapse
© WHDH
Auburn, Massachusetts - State officials renewed their warnings yesterday about the danger of roof collapses, as weather forecasters said a storm today could drop up to 6 new inches of snow on some parts of the region.

"This is not a reason for panic, it's a reason for care and diligence,'' Governor Deval Patrick said at a midday news conference in Auburn. "This is a very tough time, a very tough set of circumstances. But people can do things to keep themselves, their families, and their co-workers safe.''

He said the warning signs of collapse from heavy snow and ice included doors sticking or opening on their own because the jambs have become out of line. Leaks, windows jamming, and cracking sounds are other signs, the governor said during a visit to Interstate Battery Center in Auburn, whose circular roof collapsed Thursday. No one was injured.

Snowflake Cold

Tulsa Residents Trapped By Snow 4 Days After Storm

tulsa,snow storm
© Tulsa World, Christopher Smith / APTim Houchin walks in the snow to work downtown, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2011 in Tulsa, Okla. Blizzard conditions struck the Tulsa area stranding motorists and shutting down much of the city.
Marnie Fernandez had four children and a sick husband at home Friday but almost no milk or toilet paper. The blizzard that dumped 20 inches of snow, sleet and ice on Tulsa on Tuesday still had the area paralyzed, and while Fernandez had her driveway shoveled, several inches of snow and higher drifts blocked the streets of her neighborhood.

She had only a few granola bars and fruit snacks for the kids and worried that a new storm would collapse her roof. Looking outside, she watched water leak through the lights on the roof's overhang as it started to snow again.

"I've never seen anything like this where people literally can't get out of their houses," said Fernandez, 39, who's lived in Oklahoma most of her life. "You just realize you're not in control and you're at the mercy of Mother Nature."

Cloud Lightning

Tropical Storm Continues to Pound Australia

yasi
© APA library in the small community of Cardwell, Australia, is without a roof and badly damaged after Cyclone Yasi brought heavy rain and howling winds, February 4, 2011
Cyclone Yasi, which pounded northeastern Australia Friday, moved south as a tropical depression Saturday, bringing downpours and flash floods to the Melbourne region.

The Bureau of Meteorology said more than 175 millimeters of rain fell in parts of Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city, while powerful winds downed trees and power lines.

Queensland officials 2,000 kilometers to the north say the coastal communities of Cardwell, Tully and Mission Beach bore the full brunt of Cyclone Yasi, which made landfall early Thursday carrying winds as high as 300 kilometers an hour.

Cloud Lightning

Philippines: 5 die in Surigao landslides, floods

Five people have been killed in landslides and floods caused by heavy rains in Surigao provinces, authorities reported Friday.

Police found the bodies of Nenita Corpuz, 57 and Julie Culapu, 47 in Barangay Pantukan, Carrascal town in Surigao del Sur, around 7 p.m. Thursday.

Police said that Corpuz and Culapu were visiting their rice farms amid heavy rains when they were buried by a landslide.

In Surigao del Norte, Carlio Benocilla, 26 and Raymund Bonotan, 25 were also killed in a landslide in Barangay Masgad in Malimono town in Surigao del Norte.

Cloud Lightning

Hurricane force winds, rain and snow batter Scotland

Scotland was battered by a triple whammy of hurricane-strength winds, torrential rain and driving snow today forcing the closure of schools and causing problems on roads and communications.

The far north and north west bore the brunt of the weather as the storm tore in from the Atlantic this morning.

And tonight Strathclyde police advised drivers not to travel unless absolutely necessary.

One amateur weather station at Ness on the Isle of Lewis recorded a Hurricane gust of 91mph with more heavy weather expected tonight.

Schools and many businesses in the Western Isles closed at lunchtime to prepare for the high winds and heavy rains.

While the Northern Isles and Hebrides were facing winds of up to 90mph the central belt experiencing winds of 60-70mph on Thursday evening.

Bizarro Earth

Dead fish wash up on Florida shore

dead fish
© CNN
Sebastian - Biologists from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said they believe a lack of oxygen is what caused thousands of fish to die at Sebastian Inlet State Park.

WPBF 25 News alerted the FWC after u local user jhazel uploaded photos of the dead fish that had washed ashore Friday morning.

"I saw the fish jumping out there and I thought it was going to be a really good day for fishing, and then I noticed over here in the surf that they're all dead," fisherman Jeff Johnson told WPBF 25 News.

FWC biologists arrived to assess the situation and take water samples as people watched.

"It's a little shocking, yes," Johnson said. "I don't know if there's chemicals in the water or the temperatures that caused this."

Biologists said it's neither.

Bizarro Earth

Brazil - Thousands of dead fish in the Pantanal

dead fish
© Rhobson T. Lima/O Pantaneiro
Mato Grosso Do Sul, Amazon Region - At Aquidauana, pantanal region of the Mato Grosso do Sul state, shoals of painteds, pacus, golden fishes, cacharas - and even stingrays, are floating dead in Rio Negro, one of the largest in the Amazon River basin.

The estimated Environmental Policy is of that several tons of fishes died, adding that the authorities and experts, they still do not have the scale of the ecological disaster.

Biologist of the State Institute of the Environment, Robert Gill Machado, noted the phenomenon, considered of great proportion, after flying over the region of sub-basin of Rio Negro. At this place fishing is banned. The area is considered one of the nurseries of fish breeding of the Pantanal.

According to the technicians of the Institute the symptoms that occur in this case are the same symptoms of other instances of the genre. The fish are dying putting their heads out of water trying to obtain air, due to lack of oxygen in the water. This deficiency is due to the large volume of ash produced by burned, which is carried by runoff along riverbeds of the wetland.

Cloud Lightning

Best of the Web: Chicago Blizzard 2011 - Thunder Snow - Strike!

There was a lightning flash and I almost dropped my camera. Who knew thundersnow existed?


Bizarro Earth

Best of the Web: Volcanic hell: Japan entering new stage of geological upheaval

shinmoedake
© Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images A plume of smoke rises from the crater of Mount Shinmoedake in the Kirishima mountain range of Kagoshima prefecture, Japan.
Shinmoedake, a volcano on Japan's southern island of Kyushu, erupted again as the government said it will send officials to the area to help local authorities create an evacuation plan.

The 1,421-meter (4,660 feet) volcano in the Kirishima range erupted at 9:42 a.m. local time following three eruptions yesterday, sending a plume of ash and smoke as high as 3,000 meters, a branch division of the agency said in a statement. The plume was drifting east-northeast toward Miyazaki Prefecture's Pacific coastline, the statement said.

The government plans to send a group of natural disaster officials to the area as early as Feb. 7, Shigeo Ochi, an official at the Cabinet Office, said in a telephone interview today. Japan's Meteorological Agency is maintaining a level 3 alert for Shinmoedake, indicating an eruption "may seriously affect places near residential areas." Evacuations are carried out when the alert reaches the maximum 5.