Earth ChangesS


Question

New Zealand: Hundreds of Snapper Wash Up on Beaches

Australasian snapper
© Fir0002/WikipediaAustralasian snapper

Hundreds of dead snapper have washed up on Coromandel beaches, leaving holidaymakers perplexed.

People at Little Bay and Waikawau Bay, on the north-east of the peninsula, were stunned when children came out of the sea with armfuls of the fish and within minutes the shore was littered with them.

Charlotte Pearsall, whose family have lived at Little Bay for the last 30 years, said she had never seen anything like it.

''It was so surreal,'' she said. ''It's such an incredible waste - it could've fed the whole northern tip of the Coromandel.''

People with binoculars said the snapper stretched as far as they could see and boaties reported ''a carpet of floating fish further out to sea all along the coast''.

''We initially thought 'woohoo a free feed' but they had really cloudy eyes and you could see the birds had been at them. Some of them had no eyes,'' Pearsall said.

Her parents called the Department of Conservation and were told it was most likely the fish had starved due to weather conditions, but Pearsall did not think that was the case as many of the fish looked big and healthy.

Bizarro Earth

Ongoing Eruption of Tungurahua, Ecuador

Tungurahua volcano_1
© NASATungurahua volcano.
According to Ecuador's Instituto Geofisico, the Tungurahua volcano was active throughout the last weeks of 2010, with reports of ashfalls on towns near the volcano and explosions that sounded like cannons. Steam and ash plumes were observed rising as high as 36,000 feet (11 kilometers) above sea level.

These two images show Tungurahua as observed by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite on Jan. 1, 2011.

The top view is a natural color image, while the one below is enhanced with shortwave and near-infrared wavelengths. Both show a small plume wafting up from the snow-capped summit through a break in the clouds. The shortwave infrared better discriminates between the plume and clouds, while showing the heat coming from the summit caldera.

Bizarro Earth

4 of Colombia's Volcanoes on Yellow Alert

Nevado del Huila Volcano
© EPA
Colombia's Mount Machin and the snow-capped volcanoes Galeras, Huila, and Ruiz have been put on yellow alert after elevated activity, reports La Patria.

Authorities recorded small earthquakes in the Tomila district late last week. The most significant of these was a earthquake that measured 2.3 on the Richter scale and occurred at 5:22 pm on January 1, 2011. The earthquake was felt by residents of Cajamarca, near the Mount Machin.

Geologist Monica Arcila noted that seismic events of this type are frequent in the area and people should not worry.

Igloo

Emergency declared as blizzards bring massive blackouts to Moscow region

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© Denis VoroninEmergency declared in Moscow region districts hit by blackout
Moscow region Governor Boris Gromov on Sunday declared a state of emergency in a range of the region's populated areas due to continuing massive power outages, Gromov's spokesman Andrei Barkovsky said.

The emergency situation regime will be in force until the appearance of new instructions from Gromov, the spokesman added.

Earlier in the day, Moscow United Electric Grid Company (MOESK) announced that heavy snowfalls and strong winds have cut electricity supply to over 88 populated areas outside Moscow.

Massive blackouts began in the Moscow Region on December 26 after an ice storm. Freezing rain broke many power transmission lines, causing serious power outages.

Igloo

Three Russian Ships Frozen in 30cm Thick Sea Ice - Over 500 Passengers Stranded

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© JTB PhotoThe vessels became trapped by thick ice in the Sea of Okhotsk
Russian ice breakers are battling through 30 centimetre thick ice to reach three ships with over 400 passengers and crew that have been stranded in the north Pacific since December 30.

The refrigerator vessel Coast of Hope, Commonwealth and a research vessel Professor radioed for help on after becoming trapped in thick ice on Thursday.

Local authorities dispatched two ice breakers to help the stricken vessels.

The Magadan reached the fishing vessels in the Sea of Okhotsk by Sunday evening local time, Russian media reported. But a second, larger, ice breaker, the Makarov, is still two days away.

An ice rescue ship was unable to help the three vessels because of the danger it too could become stranded, Transport Minister Igor Levitin told Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, on Saturday.

Igloo

Florida: December Coldest on Record for Tampa Bay Area

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© Willie J. Allen Jr. / TimesDecember freezes killed about 75 percent of the tropical fish, including these tiger barbs found Monday, at Oak Ridge Fish Hatchery in Plant City.
It's official, Tampa Bay: December 2010 was the coldest December in recorded history.

Overall, the average daily temperature, the high and the low divided by two, was about 10 degrees below the norm for the month.

Tampa set a new record low at 53.2 degrees, besting the previous record of 54.5 degrees in 1935. It was even colder than January 2010's record-breaking cold snap.

St. Petersburg's 56.3 degrees beat a record of 56.9, also from 1935.

In Hernando County, Brooksville set a record at 52 degrees. The previous low was 54.1 in 1935.

St. Leo, in Pasco County, also set a record at 51.6 degrees, breaking the previous low of 52.1 in 1935.

Several areas throughout west-central and southwest Florida also set record lows.

Comment: Arctic Oscillation? "La Nina"? Or another sign of the weakening Gulf Stream?

Ice Age Now! Damaged Gulf Stream affects Jet Stream - Lord Stirling


Radar

Second earthquake in a fortnight hits the North of England

Image
© UK Daily Mail
Earthquake measured 3.6 on the Richter scale - People living near the epicentre describe a 'rumbling' noise

The second earthquake in a fortnight rocked the North of England last night.

People near the epicentre in Ripon, in North Yorkshire, reported hearing what they described as an 'explosion' or a 'rumbling' when the quake hit.

It measured 3.6 on the Richter scale and experts estimate the tremor happened four miles below ground level.

Just a fortnight ago Coniston, in Cumbria, was struck by tremors measuring 3.5.

Last night's earthquake happened just after 9pm and caused worried people to run from their homes to safety.

It was felt across Cumbria, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire.

Chris Allinson, 17, was watching television with his family in Ripon when the quake rattled their home.

The A-level student, who is studying at Giggleswick School, said: 'I heard a loud rumbling like the sound of a big tractor passing the house outside.

'Things started shaking and the dogs started barking. It got louder and louder and I jumped up to get outside.

'Then there was just this rush of sound like a snowdrift falling from a tiled roof, and after that, silence. We stood outside and stared at each other.'

Bizarro Earth

Death Toll in Philippine Landslides and Flooding Rises to 13

The death toll from landslides and floods triggered by days of heavy rains in the Philippines has risen to 13 after rescuers found more bodies, officials said Tuesday.

Civil defense administrator Benito Ramos said nearly 13,000 people have sought shelter in schools and gymnasiums turned into evacuation centers in 12 provinces on the country's eastern seaboard.

The dead include six children, three of them dug from a wall of mud that buried their homes Sunday as they slept in the central Philippines' St. Bernard township. The town in Southern Leyte province had one of the country's worst disasters in 2006 when a mudslide buried the entire village of Guinsaugon, with more than 1,000 people killed.

President Benigno Aquino III ordered an investigation into why deaths again occurred in St. Bernard, a town known prone to landslides. He also ordered the quick evacuation of residents in areas susceptible to landslides and flood "to reduce the risk that these communities are facing."

Ramos said of the 13 dead, eight died of drowning while the rest were killed in landslides. One person missing in Southern Leyte, he added.

Cloud Lightning

More than 200,000 displaced by Australian Floods

The flood area in Eastern Australia is larger than the state of Texas.

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Arrow Down

US Sees Massive Drop in Bumblebees: Study

bumblebee
© AFP
Weakened by inbreeding and disease, bumble bees have died off at an astonishing rate over the past 20 years, with some US populations diving more than 90 percent, according to a new study.

The findings are of concern because bees play a crucial role in pollinating crops such as tomatoes, peppers and berries, said the findings of a three-year study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Similar declines have also been seen in Europe and Asia, said Sydney Cameron, of the Department of Entomology and Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois, the main author of the study.

"The decline of bumble bees in the US is associated with two things we were able to study: the pathogen Nosema bombi and a decline in genetic diversity. But we are not saying Nosema is the cause. We don't know," said Cameron. "It's just an association. There may be other causes."

He added that the decline is "huge and recent," having taken place in the last two decades.