Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

Devastating tornadoes plague U.S. history


RT.com
Mon, 20 May 2013 20:21 UTC
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© Reuters / Richard RoweA huge tornado approaches the town of Moore, Oklahoma, near Oklahoma City, May 20, 2013

As the displaced residents of the Oklahoma City suburbs came to terms with the devastation around them Monday night pundits were already speculating that the tornado was one of the worst to ever hit the US, a dubious distinction for the newly homeless.

The most destructive twister struck Ellington, Missouri at approximately 1:01 pm on March 18, 1925.The Great Tri-State Tornado traveled through Missouri before entering Illinois and finally dissipating in rural Indiana more than three hours after the vortex was first spotted.

At least 695 people were killed in the Tri-State tornado with another 2,027 injured and $16.5 million in damage (over $1.4 billion in today's dollars). The tornado registered as an F5, the highest possible on the Fujita scale. Unfortunately, like Monday's tragedy in Oklahoma, areas with schools were the worst hit, with nine in all being demolished.
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Bug

Brood II is here: The moment thousands of cicadas burst into life from underground in Virginia yards after 17 years

Helen Lawson
The Daily Mail, UK
Wed, 22 May 2013 13:47 UTC
Cicadas have begun to surface across the East Coast of the U.S.

So far the majority of sightings have been in Virginia and other southern states

Further north the weather has been too cool but the emergence of Brood II emergence isn't expected to be too far away

The cicadas invasion of the East Coast has begun, with the insects spotted everywhere from Virginia to Massachusetts.

The infestation, named Brood II by scientists, has not been seen since 1996. Before that it last appeared in 1979.

So far the majority of sightings have been in Virginia and other southern states, where some people have found hundreds in their backyards accompanied by the insects' loud chorus call.
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The invasion has arrived: Cicadas swarm outside a house in Fredericksburg, Virginia, while two cats look on through a screen door

Further north the weather has been too cool in the likes of New England and New York for a full-blown Brood II emergence, but it isn't expected to be too far away.

Cicadas are expected to emerge from the ground in the billions in the next couple of weeks as soil temperature reaches 64 degrees Fahrenheit.

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Bizarro Earth

Indonesia's Sangeang Api volcano - elevated seismic activity triggers alarm


The Extinction Protocol
Wed, 22 May 2013 10:19 UTC
An increase in seismicity since 26 April triggered VSI to rise the alert status from 2 to 3 on a scale of 1-4 (from "Waspada," "watch" to Siaga," alert). For the moment, only degassing has been observed as surface activity. A similar increase in seismic activity was observed in Oct 2012, when the alert was raised as well and then reduced again in November. The last eruption at the volcano occurred in 2009. - Volcano Discovery
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Bizarro Earth

Costa Rica's Turrialba volcano emits massive ash and gas trail


The Extinction Protocol
Wed, 22 May 2013 10:16 UTC
At 5 a.m. Tuesday morning, the Turrialba Volcano, located east of the province of Cartago, began to spew gas and ash from two crater openings, the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (Ovsicori) reported. By 8:30 a.m. a significant amount of volcanic material was released from the two openings of volcano, "which may indicate that these materials come from deep areas," Ovsicori said. "It is uncertain what will happen.
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Volcanologists are heading to the site to evaluate the activity," the statement said. Experts said Tuesday's activity is "normal for an active volcano such as Turrialba," but they recommended all nearby communities remain vigilant in coming hours. The released material fell into grasslands and communities in the canton of Turrialba and reached some three kilometers west of the crater. The trail of gases and ash can be seen from various locations in the provinces of Cartago, San José, Heredia and Limón. Public access to the volcano area was closed last year due to the activity. The Turrialba Volcano also emitted material in 2007, 2010 and 2012. The last eruptions of the volcano were in 1884. - Tico Times
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Question

Caribou numbers plummet on Baffin Island by 95%

Marc Montgomery
Nunavut Department of Environment.
Wed, 22 May 2013 05:58 UTC
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© Canadian PressA caribou pauses near the Meadowbank gold mine near Baker Lake, Nunavut in 2009. New data suggest the south Baffin Island population has declined by more than 95 per cent in the last two decades
It's a shocking decline. In the past 20 years, caribou numbers have dropped by about 95% in the southern region of the island

A survey by the territory of Nunavut in northeastern Canada conducted in 2012 and released last Thursday, confirms what elders and hunters have been saying, that it's getting much harder to find caribou there.

Estimates from the early 1990's put the herd number between 60-thousand to 180 thousand.

This recent survey, announced by Nunavut's environment minister, James Arreak, is the first comprehensive count of the animals. Elders, hunters and communities have expressed The survey report is called "Estimating the Abundance of South Baffin Caribou.
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Music

Herbrandston residents 'tortured' by mystery low frequency noise


Western Telegraph, UK
Sat, 18 May 2013 21:13 UTC
Residents
© Western TelegraphSome of the sufferers Steve Ingram, Paul Chesher, Jane Ingram, Marilyn Woosey, Gill Peace, and Louise Cleaver.
Wales - A group of Herbrandston residents have reached breaking point after a 'torturous' mystery noise made life in the village a 'living hell'.

Jane and Steve Ingram said life at their quiet Herbrandston home became unbearable when a low, drowning noise started keeping them awake at night.

Jane, who began to hear the drone back in 2009, said she hasn't had a full night's sleep in years and has even considered moving house.

She said: "At first it was a noise similar to a car engine running. I would get up in the middle of the night to see if there was a car out there, and there never was.

"And when I put my head on the pillow, I hear big machines drilling underground. It's torturous."

Over the last few years the noise has been described as a constant humming, a low drone, or vibration, which goes on and off throughout the night.

The couple thought the noise was emanating from one of the two oil refineries or LNG facilities on their doorstep, and last August they contacted Port Health and the Environment Agency, which launched an investigation.

Although the investigation detected low frequency noise at 63 Herz (42decibels), its source remained a mystery.
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Attention

Huge sinkhole swallows and kills FIVE factory workers in Shenzhen, China


Raw Story
Tue, 21 May 2013 10:09 UTC
Sinkhole
© Agence France-PresseChinese rescuers prepare to move a dead body found in a sinkhole in Shenzhen, on May 21, 2013.
Five people died when a 10 metre (33 feet) wide sinkhole opened up at the gates of an industrial estate in Shenzhen, the southern Chinese boom town neighbouring Hong Kong, local authorities said Tuesday.

The Shenzhen Longgang district government said on its verified page on Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter, that five people had died and added that it was investigating the incident.

The sinkhole formed just outside the Huamao Industrial Park in Shenzhen on Monday evening, at a time when many factory workers would have been changing shifts, according to the website of Beijing-based newspaper the Guangming Daily.

Comment: Gotta love that throwaway line!
"Sinkholes in China are often blamed on construction works and the country's rapid pace of development."
Yeh right!

The planet is clearly opening up, with more and more sinkholes appearing and more and more people being killed by them.

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Igloo

Rapid cooling triggered Bronze-Age collapse and Greek Dark Age

Robert Felix
IceAgeNow
Tue, 21 May 2013 17:08 UTC
ice age
Of course the politically correct verbiage is "climate change."

Between the 13th and 11th centuries BCE, most Greek Bronze Age Palatial centers were destroyed and/or abandoned throughout the Near East and Aegean, says this paper by Brandon L. Drake

A sharp increase in Northern Hemisphere temperatures preceded the wide-spread systems collapse, while a sharp decrease in temperatures occurred during their abandonment. (Neither of which, I am sure - the increase or the decrease - were caused by humans.)

Mediterranean Sea surface temperatures cooled rapidly during the Late Bronze Age, limiting freshwater flux into the atmosphere and thus reducing precipitation over land, says Drake, of the Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico.

This cooling and ensuing aridity could have affected areas that were dependent upon high levels of agricultural productivity. The resulting crop declines would have made higher-density populations unsustainable.

Indeed, studies of data from the Mediterranean indicate that the Early Iron Age was more arid than the preceding Bronze Age. The prolonged arid conditions - a centuries-long megadrought, if you will - lasted until the Roman Warm Period.

Comment: Speaking of 'collapse of civilization', read Laura Knight-Jadczyk's latest research
Comets and the Horns of Moses (The Secret History of the World) for a more enlightened study of civilization's recurring collapses.

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Cloud Grey

Survivors pulled from Oklahoma tornado debris as toll falls - lowering deaths to 24

Carey Gillam and Ian Simpson
Reuters via Yahoo News
Tue, 21 May 2013 11:55 UTC
Emergency workers pulled more than 100 survivors from the rubble of homes, schools and a hospital in an Oklahoma town hit by a powerful tornado, and officials lowered the death toll from the storm to 24, including nine children.

The 2-mile (3-km) wide tornado tore through Moore outside Oklahoma City on Monday afternoon, trapping victims beneath the rubble, wiping out entire neighborhoods and tossing vehicles about as if they were toys.

Seven of the nine children who were killed died at Plaza Towers Elementary School, which took a direct hit, but many more survived unhurt.
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© REUTERS/Gene Blevins People look at the destruction after a huge tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma May 20, 2013.
"They literally were lifting walls up and kids were coming out," Oklahoma State Police Sergeant Jeremy Lewis said. "They pulled kids out from under cinder blocks without a scratch on them."

The Oklahoma state medical examiner's office said 24 bodies had been recovered from the wreckage, down from the 51 they had reported earlier. The earlier number likely reflected some double-counted deaths, said Amy Elliott, chief administrative officer for the medical examiner.

"There was a lot of chaos," she said.
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Cloud Grey

Moore, Oklahoma - Incredible tornado aftermath images


Flickr - Yahoo News Gallery
Tue, 21 May 2013 11:47 UTC
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Additional Images - a collection of photos from photographers who were in the Oklahoma City area on Monday and Tuesday.
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