Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

Hundreds dead in Brazil floods

Rescuers dig through shattered homes for survivors after floods and landslides rip through a mountainous region.

brazil floods serrana region
© EPAMany residents of the three main towns in Serrana region have been made homeless by the floods
More than 350 people have been killed after floods and landslides devastated towns and villages in a mountainous area near Rio de Janeiro.

Rescue workers were digging desperately on Thursday in an attempt to reach people buried after the equivalent of a month's rain fell on the Serrana region in less 24 hours, toppling houses and buckling roads.

"It's like an earthquake struck some areas," Jorge Mario, the mayor of Teresopolis, where at least 168 people were reported to have died, said.

"There are three or four neighbourhoods that were totally destroyed in rural areas. There are hardly any houses standing there and all the roads and bridges are destroyed."

Television images showed emergency workers going through the ruins of collapsed homes in a search for survivors, but often finding only bodies.

Cloud Lightning

Fiji Islands: Flooding in Western and Eastern Division

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Continuous rain has led to flooding in most parts of the Western and Eastern Division.

The heavy downpour continues in Rakiraki, Tavua, Ba, Lautoka, Korovou and Naqali.

The Department of National Roads said people are still stranded on the main highway to Rakiraki town near Vaileka as the highway is still flooded and closed to traffic.

The FSC road and crossing, the Waimari and Korotale roads are also flooded.

Cloud Lightning

Indonesia: Wild Weather Destroys Homes In 2 Provinces

Extreme weather in two provinces has damaged hundreds of houses and left scores homeless, officials said on Thursday.

On the East Nusa Tenggara island of Flores on Wednesday, high waves that reached as far as 100 meters inland swept away at least 18 houses in Sikka district's Nangahale village, said Fransiska Palan Bolen, secretary of the province's Natural Disaster Management Agency (BNPD).

No injuries were reported in the incident.

Fransiska said the affected villagers had been evacuated to emergency camps and that her office had sent personnel, supplies and food to help the victims.

Phoenix

Strange beams of light over Ottawa area due to ice crystals in air

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© Ruben, Reader PhotoLight pillar over Gatineau Park early Tuesday morning.
If you saw funny lights in the sky before dawn Tuesday, you were looking at light from the ground filtered through millions of tiny airborne ice crystals.

People across Ottawa and up into Gatineau Park reported seeing beams of light shooting straight up from the ground about 6 a.m., and some said the effect was like hundreds of searchlights.

Geoff Coulson, a meteorologist from Environment Canada, says there was nothing unusual about the lights. The unusual part was the atmosphere.

Beaker

UK: Yellow Foam Washed Up on Bournemouth Shore

A strange substance found on Bournemouth shore is similar to that washed up on Hayling Island beaches.

The bright yellow foam, which tests reveal is 80 per cent castor oil, caused several beach closures in Hampshire and Sussex.

Seafront Development Manager Chris Saunders said: "Our Seafront Cleansing team spent yesterday removing a majority of the material.

"We are working closely with the Environment Agency, and Maritime and Coastguard Agency, and will continue to monitor the situation closely."

Fish

Queensland Flood Waters Threaten Great Barrier Reef

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© Norman Kuring/Ocean Color Web/NASANASA's Aqua satellite captured this image of the Queensland coast on 4 January. It shows a thick plume of sediment emerging from the Burdekin river mouth and heading for the Great Barrier Reef
Flood waters in Brisbane reached a 4.46-metre peak at 5.30 am local time today - lower than the 5.2-metre peak predicted earlier this week. By noon, the Bureau of Meteorology reported that the Brisbane river was at 3.91 metres and steady.

But with an offshore cyclone now forecast, Reuters reports that further floods are feared - and Brisbane already faces a clean-up operation that may last for months, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

As things stand, 15 people are now confirmed dead, and a further 61 people remain missing, reports Australia's Broadcasting Corporation. The environmental implications of the floods are also likely to be profound.

A week ago, fears of a plague of crocodiles and snakes - including venomous taipans, brown snakes and red-bellied blacks - in the Queensland area made the news.

Fish

Queensland Flood: Bull Sharks Spotted Swimming Down The Main Street In Goodna - 30km From The Coast

Bull Shark
© The Daily TelegraphThe bull shark is a shallow water creature, and can tolerate fresh waters.

Two bull sharks have reportedly been spotted swimming down the main street of a flooded Queensland town, 30km inland.

Butcher Steven Bateman spotted two bull sharks swimming near his Goodna shop yesterday - one of several reports of a sharks in Goodna's main street.

Ipswich local councillor Paul Tully confirmed it was a bizarre but true story out of Queensland's flood disaster.

"It would have swum several kilometres in from the river, across Evan Marginson Park and the motorway,'' Cr Tully told The Queensland Times.

"It's definitely a first for Goodna, to have a shark in the main street.

"I know Steve (Bateman) and he wouldn't say he saw a shark unless he really saw one."

Igloo

New Englanders Dig Out After Snowstorm

New England Blizzard January 2010
© Jessica Hill/Associated PressRoy Williams of Westfield, Massachusetts, shovels snow from in front of his car on a ramp to Interstate 91 south during a winter storm in Windsor, Connecticut, on Wednesday.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick lifted a state of emergency Thursday, one day after blizzard conditions pounded his state and created hazardous travel conditions across New England.

Hundreds of schools remained closed in Massachusetts as crews continued to clear snow and to salt icy roadways, according to state Emergency Management spokesman Peter Judge.

The state's 250 National Guardsmen -- who were mobilized as a precautionary measure on Wednesday -- were relieved from duty by Thursday morning, Judge said.

Delta Air Lines canceled more than 200 Delta and Delta Connection flights in an effort to minimize delays, the airline said. It had canceled 1,300 flights Wednesday because of the storm.

Amtrak, which had suspended rail service between New York City and points north, resumed full service by Thursday morning, according to Amtrak spokesman Cliff Cole.


Sun

Strange Phenomenon: Sun rises two days early in Greenland, sparks fear

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© Unknown

The sun has arrived two days early in Greenland according to KNR Radio. It usually rises on January 13th but for some reason rose on 1/11/11 this year.

Inhabitants from the area appeared worried when witnessing the strange phenomenon. "The sun is not supposed to be here until January 13th, something isn't right" a 74 year old local reported to KBR radio. [1]

Some scientist believe the melting of ice sheets is what caused the phenomenon. "The constellation of the stars has not changed and if it did the data of Earth's axis and rotation would be monitored minute by minute all over the world," said Wolfgang Lenhardt, head of the geophysics department at the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG).

Bizarro Earth

Mysterious Infection is Killing B.C. Salmon

Sockeye Salmon
© John Lehmann/The Globe and MailA male sockeye salmon attacks another male as they make their way up the Adams River at Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park north of Chase B.C. October 12, 2010.
Large numbers of sockeye salmon are dying in the Fraser River, before spawning, because of a mysterious virus, new research suggests.

Historical records show that some fish always die en route to their spawning beds, but since the early 1990s the problem has become increasingly acute - with more than two million fish dying in some years. Researchers have long puzzled over what was causing the seemingly healthy fish to suddenly stop swimming and turn belly up.

A large team of researchers from the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans and three Canadian universities has now found most of the fish that die before spawning have a common "genomic signature" - or a pattern that shows changes have taken place in an array of genes activated to fight infection.

"Our hypothesis is that the genomic signal associated with elevated mortality is in response to a virus infecting fish before river entry and that persists to the spawning areas," says the report published in the journal Science on Thursday.

Studies on the spawning grounds show more than 70 per cent of the salmon that died before spawning had the genomic signature.