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Rare river sinkhole opens up and creates whirlpool, leads to man's death at Saddler Falls, Arkansas


The Courier
Tue, 12 Jun 2018 14:35 UTC
A sinkhole opened June 9 under the Spring River’s Sadler Falls in northern Arkansas, causing a fatal boating accident.
© Arkansas Game and Fish Commission
A sinkhole opened June 9 under the Spring River’s Sadler Falls in northern Arkansas, causing a fatal boating accident.
A kayaker bypassed a part of an Arkansas scenic river known as Dead Man's Curve during a weekend trip, but a rare sinkhole created a whirlpool along his alternate channel and dragged him to his death.

Donald Wright, 64, from Searcy, Arkansas, died Saturday at Saddler Falls along the Spring River, said Keith Stephens, a spokesman for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. At least one other person was injured.

Sinkholes are common in the northern half of Arkansas, where subterranean limestone erodes away easily. Small whirlpools are common where bits of land extend into waterways, but having a sinkhole open a whirlpool in the middle of a stream is uncommon.

"I've been here for 40 years. This is the first one I've ever heard forming in a river like this," said Bill Prior, a geologist supervisor at the Arkansas Geological Survey.
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Attention

Brown bear chases fisherman to death in icy river in Kamchatka Krai, Russia


The Siberian Times
Tue, 12 Jun 2018 13:53 UTC
Sergey, 31, got so nervous that he started to throw stones at the bear, trying to scare the animal away

Sergey, 31, got so nervous that he started to throw stones at the bear, trying to scare the animal away
Hungry beast's attack seen by anglers on other shore who shouted to warn him, but could do nothing to help.

Dancer and fisherman Sergey Zhirkov's panic-stricken last moments were filmed by horrified onlookers as a bear helped itself to his fish and ripped apart his boat.

The 31 year old man from Kovran in the north of Kamchatka had climbed the steep river bank to get a phone signal to tell his friends to come and collect him after his fishing expedition.

A bear then clambered into his boat on the shore, ripped it apart, and ate his fish.

Sergey got so nervous that he started to throw stones at the bear, trying to scare the animal away.

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Snowflake

Global cooling: 'Very unusual' June snowfall in Glennallen, Alaska - Up to 8 inches


Ice Age Now
Tue, 12 Jun 2018 12:35 UTC
Glennallen gets hit with over a half a foot of snow, June 10, 2018.
© Eureka Lodge.
Glennallen gets hit with over a half a foot of snow, June 10, 2018.
"People at Eureka Lodge woke to an unpleasant but probably brief return of winter Monday morning."

"The lodge got 6 to 8 inches of snow, owner Darla Fimpel said by phone.

"It was still snowing Monday morning, though, and an employee had started on a snowman.

State plows cleared the Glenn Highway around the lodge, she said.

"The lodge sits above 3,000 feet, high enough that June snows aren't out of the ordinary. The first week in June it's not unlikely for us to get an inch of snow," Fimpel said. "But this much snow is very unusual."

Comment: A video depicting the depth of the snow cover is available here.

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Cloud Lightning

Changing atmosphere: Red sprites and a blue jet seen above Europe's stormy skies

Chad Seabrook
Sott.net
Tue, 12 Jun 2018 09:15 UTC
andromeda galaxy and red sprites
© Petr Horálek / spaceweather.com
Sprite And Andromeda Galaxy Taken by Petr Horálek on June 11, 2018 @ Proseč, Czech Republic
Following a particularly brutal and prolonged winter, Europe is now experiencing an unusually stormy spring period, with epic flooding and damaging hail being documented over the continent. Lightning frequency appears to be increasing too, with France doubling its 2009 record for the month of May, while January 2018 saw some areas of France double average rainfalls.

Accompanying these unusually intense spring storms, typical of late summer, have been 'rare' atmospheric electrical discharges. Red sprites were photographed over the Czech Republic on April 4th, in the US on May 24th and May 30th, and again in the Czech Republic on June 8th. Over a period of 48 hours or so around June 10th, the more elusive blue jet was seen over Hungary:

blue jet hungary June 10th 2018
© Dániel Agocs / Idokep
A blue jet photographed by Dániel Agocs, from Kunhegyes, Hungary.
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Attention

Africa's oldest and largest baobab trees are suddenly dying after thousands of years

Nadia Drake
National Geographic
Mon, 11 Jun 2018 12:00 UTC
One baobab tree has been estimated to be 2,500 years old.
© Alamy Stock Photo
One baobab tree has been estimated to be 2,500 years old.
In South Africa's Limpopo province, a baobab tree once grew so large and stood so strong that its human neighbors decided to do the obvious: They built a pub inside the living tree's thousand-year-old hollow trunk, which measured more than 150 feet around and enclosed two interconnected cavities.

For two decades, the Sunland baobab attracted tourists wanting to knock back a pint in a tree. But in August 2016, one of the monster stems forming the interior wall cracked and collapsed. Eight months later, another huge chunk toppled over, and now, five of the giant Sunland stems have collapsed and died, leaving only half of the tree standing.

Though the Sunland tree's demise could sound like a consequence of human visitation, it's part of an alarming trend: A startlingly high percentage of the oldest, largest baobabs in Africa have died within the last 12 years, scientists report today in the journal Nature Plants.

Comment: Interestingly, at 1,000 years old, one of Wales' oldest oak tree's recently died following a storm, and in India a 700-year-old banyan tree had to be put on a life-saving drip. Also, one of the oldest sequoias in California died last year too.

In the animal world, reports of mass mortality events with no discernible cause appear to be on the rise, alongside a worldwide collapse of insect populations.

When taken together, with the obvious changes to climate patterns, the erratic, shifting of seasons, and the consequential crop delays, damage and failure, there clearly are great changes afoot on our planet which we cannot yet fully account for - but for goodness sake, that doesn't mean it's 'not natural'!

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Compass

Kilauea volcano causes magnetic field distortion - Sends compasses in crazy directions

Paul Baldwin
Express
Tue, 05 Jun 2018 05:33 UTC
Kilauea magnetic field

Hawaii latest: Compasses are being sent crazy by the anomaly
Mount Kilauea, Hawaii's erupting volcano, has a magnetic field which flows in the OPPOSITE direction to the rest of the planet, scientists have discovered

The bizarre finding, which sends compasses into an uncontrollable spin, had scientists baffled - while locals linked it to Hawaiian folklore which attaches deep spiritual significance to the massive volcano which is almost one million years old.

But now the reason for the magnetic volte-face has been explained - and it's even more mind-blowing.

According to geologists the molten rock below the Mount Kilauea caldera contains vast amounts of iron and is effectively a sea of floating magnets.

About 780,000 years ago the rock cooled and simultaneously the Earth's magnetic field inexplicably FLIPPED - the South Pole became the North and the North Pole became the South.

Comment: More on what is arguably one of the most dramatic of all known historical (and possibly future) Earth changes:

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Cloud Precipitation

Flash flooding hits Guadalajara, Mexico - Passengers forced to swim out of rail cars


Mexico News Daily
Mon, 11 Jun 2018 20:25 UTC
flooding guadalajara jalisco
A strong storm struck Guadalajara, Jalisco, yesterday producing flash flooding that affected several parts of the city, including the light rail system from which scores of people had to be rescued.

Water up to four meters deep flooded the Dermatológico station on line 1 and trapped about 40 people inside the carriages of a stationary train.

Civil Protection personnel, firefighters and local residents all contributed to the rescue efforts.

In a video that was live-streamed on Facebook by one stranded passenger, people could be seen waist-deep in water and a distressed baby can be heard crying. In another video, passengers were attempting to swim to safety.

Comment: More footage of the flooding in Jalisco, Mexico:





Meanwhile around the world in the last 24 hours - in Chile:




Saudi Arabia:


Italy:


France:


Germany:


Scotland:


Bulgaria:


Panama:




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Fire

Forest-wide closure ordered in Colorado as firefighters battle raging wildfires


RT
Mon, 11 Jun 2018 15:12 UTC
durango colorado forest fire june 2018
Authorities have issued a forest-wide closure order in Colorado, warning residents and ramblers to stay out of the forest while the threat of wildfires remain high.

Firefighters are braced for more dry weather as they battle to put out raging wildfires in the Centennial State.

A number of fires have plagued parts of Durango and local authorities warning that parched conditions in the area look set to continue. The area bordering New Mexico is known for its acres of natural parks and forests.

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Seismograph

Small earthquake hits western North Carolina with a 'loud boom'


WJBF
Mon, 11 Jun 2018 04:04 UTC
North Carolina earthquake with boom
© USGS/WNCN
A small earthquake hit a county in the North Carolina mountains on Sunday evening, officials said.

The 2.6 magnitude was in Wilkes County less than a mile from the town of Hays, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The earthquake was felt in Blowing Rock, about 40 miles away, officials said.

The quake, which hit around 8 p.m., had a depth of 4.3 kilometers.

A weather website based in the area reported on Facebook that they heard a "loud boom." Others commented on Facebook that they heard two "loud booms."
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Rainbow

'Upside-down rainbow' seen in Newcastle, UK sky

Sean Seddon
Chronicle Live
Sun, 10 Jun 2018 16:00 UTC
Circumzenithal arc over Newcastle
© Lewis Maudlin
Anybody spot an upside-down rainbow in the sky over Newcastle?

The phenomenon occurred over the city on Saturday evening and luckily someone got a picture.

Lewis Maudlin, 24, from Wallsend, was playing pool at his girlfriend's house in Walker when he clocked the uncommon sight.

He said: "It was lovely night, still dead sunny and clear after 7pm.
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