Earth ChangesS


Igloo

Record snowfall buries Italian village

Record snowfall in the north of Italy has left some people trapped in their homes.

Villagers in Madesimo had to dig their way out of their properties after several days of wintery weather.

Rebecca Donovan reports.


Attention

Gervais beaked whale washes up dead, Cayman Islands

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Marine biologist Tom Quigley stands over the dead whale.
A rarely seen Gervais beaked whale was found washed up dead on the mangroves in Little Cayman.

Scientists from the Central Caribbean Marine Institute have taken measurements and collected tissue samples from the whale in an effort to confirm the identification of the species.

The Gervais beaked whale is not uncommon in Caribbean waters, though they are elusive and rarely seen.

According to Samantha Hamilton of CCMI, the whale, which measured roughly 12 feet and resembles a large dolphin, is the most commonly stranded in North America.

She said whale strandings typically occur when the animal is sick or in response to environmental cues, such as toxic red tides.

Whales have also been known to strand themselves en masse, when one member of a pod beaches. Whale strandings have been recorded throughout history, though more recently military sonar had been highlighted as a potential cause of beaked whales beaching themselves.

Attention

Dead Pygmy Sperm whale found floating in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

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© NOAA
Tests are being done to figure out what killed a whale that was found floating off Pearl Harbor Wednesday morning.

The whale was seen in the West Loch area.

Marine officials say it was a 12-foot-long adult pygmy sperm whale.

It weighed between 800 and 1,000 pounds.

"The cause of death is likely not going to be determined. The whale carcass was unfortunately very decomposed, but they will look at what is remaining of the whale and try to determine a cause of death," said NOAA Regional Marine Mammal Health and Response Manager David Schofield.

Officials say pygmy sperm whales are hard to study at sea because they stay far away from boats.

Attention

15-meter dead whale found beached on Saudi coast

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he image of this whale was captured by a Saudi man who took video of the beached animal.

A 15-meter whale was found beached off the southwest corner of Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

Residents and fishermen found the dead whale washed ashore in the southern province of Jazan.

A video of the dead beached whale shows signs of decomposition and markings from other sea animals eating away at the whale.

A similar incident occurred in 2012 when a 12-meter whale, which reportedly travelled from the Indian Ocean, was found dead in the same area.

Comment: More photos available here at the original source of this story.


Ice Cube

CryoSat shows Arctic sea ice volume up 50% from last year

Measurements from ESA's CryoSat satellite show that the volume of Arctic sea ice has significantly increased this past autumn.

The volume of ice measured this autumn is about 50% higher compared to last year. In October 2013, CryoSat measured about 9000 cubic km of sea ice - a notable increase compared to 6000 cubic km in October 2012.

See evolution:
ice thickness
ice thickness
ice thickness
ice thickness
Over the last few decades, satellites have shown a downward trend in the area of Arctic Ocean covered by ice. However, the actual volume of sea ice has proven difficult to determine because it moves around and so its thickness can change.

Alarm Clock

USGS: Magnitude 6.5 - 31km E of Port-Olry, Vanuatu

Earthquake Vanuatu
© US Geological Survey
Event Time
2014-02-07 08:40:13 UTC
2014-02-07 19:40:13 UTC+11:00 at epicenter
2014-02-07 09:40:13 UTC+01:00 system time

Location

15.060°S 167.339°E depth=117.7km (73.2mi)

Nearby Cities
31km (19mi) E of Port-Olry, Vanuatu
55km (34mi) NNE of Luganville, Vanuatu
314km (195mi) NNW of Port-Vila, Vanuatu
648km (403mi) N of We, New Caledonia
789km (490mi) N of Paita, New Caledonia
Technical data

Attention

Eight miners killed in underground fire after earthquake in South Africa

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© AP / Themba Hadebe
Eight gold miners in South Africa died after a magnitude-2.4 earthquake triggered an underground fire, and rescue teams operating deep below the surface were searching for a ninth missing miner, a mining company said Thursday.

Smoke and a rockfall had hampered searchers struggling to find any survivors after fire broke out 1.7 kilometres underground at the Doornkop mine around 6 p.m. Tuesday, the Harmony company said in a statement. The mine is 30 kilometres west of Johannesburg.

On Wednesday morning, rescue teams located eight other miners who had sought refuge from the fire and brought all of them to the surface within several hours. On Thursday morning, Harmony announced the discovery of eight bodies.

Galaxy

Best of the Web: Signs of Change in January 2014

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Dazzling green fireball filmed above Belgium, January 2014
Mysterious booms across the US, often occuring in and around earthquakes - A series of unusual earthquakes in Australia - More 'strange sky sounds' - More meteor fireballs raining down - Massive sinkholes swallowing houses, cars and people - Storm after storm battering the UK and Western Europe, bringing massive waves, widespread flooding and landslides - Mass whale stranding in New Zealand - Polar Vortex (twice!) freezing most of the US in ice age conditions and making it colder than Mars - Major flooding in Florida, while hurricane-force winds smash into Oregon and the Carolinas - Tonga flattened by most powerful cyclone to hit the region half a century - A strong earthquake hit Puerto Rico - 100,000 people affected by major flooding in the Philippines, while another 40,000 were displaced by heavy rainfall in Indonesia - Bats falling out of the sky as wildfires rage in Australia's record heatwave - 'Winter wildfires' raging across snow-covered US - An eerily quiet Sun that hasn't been seen since the 17th Century - Several volcanic eruptions in Indonesia causing multiple deaths and the evacuation of thousands - Another strong earthquake in New Zealand - More mass animal deaths, including a whole pod of pilot whales off the coast of Florida - Record-breaking snowfall across the US...

2014 has stated with a bang, literally, with a surge of loud booms being heard and felt throughout much of North America. But then again, didn't the last few years start this way? This video includes strange and extreme weather, geological and cosmic events, covering most of the month of January. Things aren't looking good for certain few heavily populated areas...


Bizarro Earth

Plant leaks over 50,000 tons of coal ash into North Carolina river

Dan River
© The Verge
A large reservoir of coal ash is leaking into a river that flows through southern Virginia and North Carolina. The reservoir began leaking on Sunday after a pipe burst, and by Monday had released 50,000 to 82,000 tons of coal ash and 24 to 27 million gallons of contaminated water into the bordering Dan River - in total, enough ash to fill between 20 and 32 Olympic-size swimming pools. Leakage has slowed since, but work is still ongoing to fully seal the pipe.

The river and reservoir sit beside Duke Energy's Dan River Steam Station, a coal-fired power plant in Eden, North Carolina. The station was decommissioned in 2012, but Duke Energy has not finished closing its ash basin, which is around 27 acres in size (pictured above).

"We're working closely with local, state and federal authorities," Keith Trent, Duke Energy's executive vice president, said in a statement on Tuesday. "Company leaders, engineers, scientists, environmental specialists, industry experts and plant personnel assembled at the site have been working around the clock to safely devise both short- and long-term solutions, as well as to continually monitor the effects of the release."

Ice Cube

Slovenia looks eerily similar to the "frozen" kingdom of Arendelle

The European country has been paralyzed by severe ice storms. Thousands were left without electricity, 40% of schools were shut, and residents were advised not to drink tap water, the BBC reported.

slowenien, eis
© Srdjan Zivulovic / ReutersIce covers a World War II monument in Pivka.
slowenien, eis
© Srdjan Zivulovic / ReutersIce-covered road signs in Postojna.