Earth ChangesS

Magnet

The mystery of the missing Goa beach

Panaji: The stunning Sinquerim-Candolim shoreline disappears from June to January. This isn't a natural phenomenon, it is the effect of a 240-m-long ore carrier sitting a mere 300 metres from the beach since the last eight years.

In Goa, most beach stretches are partly submerged during the three-month monsoon period because of the turbulent tides.

By October, the waters recede to reveal the sandy shore. Not however, in this tourist centric beach stretch.

Cloud Lightning

Belleville school zapped by lightning

Illinois, U.S. - Workers this morning repaired a basketball-sized hole created when lightning struck near the roof of Roosevelt School in Belleville.

District 118 Superintendent Matt Klosterman said the strike was at about 8:50 a.m. Tuesday where fifth and sixth grade classrooms are located. No students were in the area at the time because they were at Jefferson School for field day. Field day was canceled by the storm.

Frog

California: Frogs invade Rosedale neighborhood

Bryant and Laura Loke said thousands of tiny frogs that have invaded their Rosedale neighborhood.

They said on any given day, the little critters can been seen hopping their way through yards, and even into homes.

Bell

Mysterious Arctic whale under threat from changing habitat



narhwal
©Paul Nicken
The narhwal's spiral tusk has been likened to that of the mythical unicorn.

Polar bears may get more attention - and later this week a
court-ordered decision by the US government will almost certainly see
them listed as a threatened species - but new research suggests the narwhal, the mysterious whale with a long spiral tusk, may be more at risk from climatic change. Researchers fear that the narwhal is so attuned to its environment, so narrow in its range of habitat and specific in diet, that it may be one of the least able of Arctic mammals to adapt to rapid warming in the high north.

Hourglass

Tsunami quake in 2004 may have had a hand in latest disaster

FORCES that triggered the earthquake in China on Monday may have been born in the geological event that triggered the tsunami on Boxing Day 2004, killing more than 230,000 people, an Australian seismologist says.

Bizarro Earth

Magnitude 6.1 quake hits Sichuan, China

WASHINGTON - A 6.1-magnitude earthquake shook Sichuan province in China on Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported, five days after a massive tremor killed tens of thousands of people.

USGS reported the latest earthquake, which follows scores of slightly less strong aftershocks during the week, was nearly 50 miles deep and hit 49 miles west of Guangyuan.

Alarm Clock

Thousands flee China quake area over flood fears

Beichuan, China - Thousands of Chinese earthquake victims fled areas near the epicenter Saturday, fearful of potential floods from a river blocked by landslides.

Soldiers carried older people out of Beichuan town - one of the areas hit hardest by the magnitude 7.9 quake Monday - while survivors cradled babies on a road jammed with vehicles and people. The death toll jumped to near 29,000.

Bizarro Earth

US: Prince George's residents briefly displaced by sinkhole

Camp Springs - Residents of a Prince George's County neighborhood were roused this morning by firefighters and told to leave their homes because of a sinkhole that developed overnight in the rain-soaked ground.

prince george sinkhole
©AP
This carport was damaged when a sinkhole formed behind a row of homes in Camp Springs, Md.

No Entry

Red tide outbreak forces ban on North Shore shellfishing

Red tide has spread from central Maine to Gloucester, making it unsafe to harvest soft shell clams or mussels from those coastal waters, state officials said.

Cloud Lightning

US: Lightning ignited house

Waco, Texas - Fire officials determined that a lightning bolt around 10 a.m. today caused a ranch-style house at 3920 Austin Ave. to catch fire.

Its owner, 63-year-old Dub Allen, is a tugboat operator, who was out-of-town at the time of the fire.

Waco fire investigator Charles Lindorfer said lightning struck a metal chimney near the back of the house. The fire caused extensive water and smoke damage, he said, however, the contents in the home were not a total loss.