Earth ChangesS


Ambulance

US: Mom, 3 daughters from Colorado killed in Wyoming washout

a van
© AP Photo/Wyoming Highway PatrolIn this photo provided by Wyoming Highway Patrol, a van which was carrying four members of a family who died, is seen downstream from washed-out section of Wyoming Highway 130 in the Medicine Bow Mountains in southern Wyoming on Tuesday, July 19, 2011. They were fleeing torrential rains at a national forest campground.
Cheyenne. - Four members of a Colorado Springs family died after their vehicle drove into a washed-out section of a mountain highway in Wyoming and was swept downstream by a raging creek as they fled torrential rains at a national forest campground.

A mother and her three young daughters were killed; only the husband and father managed to escape as the van was carried away.

Officials said debris in the creek blocked large culverts that run under the highway and the water then tore through the roadway, opening a 25-foot-wide, 9-foot-deep breach about 20 miles from Saratoga in the southern part of the state.

The van went into the creek sometime between 1:15 a.m. and 1:40 a.m. and was swept about 75 yards downstream and submerged up to its rooftop, patrol spokesman Stephen Townsend.

Minutes later, a local emergency management official who was responding to the accident hit the same washout and plunged into the creek.

Radar

Japanese tsunami stood at 132.5ft

Image
© APDevastation left by the Japanese tsunami
The tsunami that struck north-east Japan in March rose to a maximum height of 132.5ft, according to researchers, taller than Rio's Christ the Redeemer.

In comparison, Nelson's Column stands 169 feet tall and the pedestrian walkways between the two towers of Tower Bridge are 143 feet above the River Thames. The Rio statue stands at 130ft.

The study by 150 experts from 48 research organisations across the country determined that the wave that roared out of the Pacific on March 11 was the largest to ever hit Japan when it struck the Omoeaneyoshi district of Miyako City, in Iwate Prefecture.

The experts collected data from 5,400 locations the length of the east coast of Japan after the magnitude 9.0 undersea earthquake. The survey used marks left on buildings and trees that rise up the sides of the valley where the town is located to reach a conclusion on the scale of the disaster.

The group had previously estimated the height of the tsunami at 127.6 feet, which was already above the 125.3 feet reached by the previous record wave, which was set by the Minami Sanriku Earthquake in 1896.

Bizarro Earth

Uzbekistan: Earthquake Magnitude 6.4

Image
© USGS
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake hit Uzbekistan, the U.S. Geological Survey said on Tuesday.

It said it struck 30 km south-southeast of Ferghana, a city in the east of the Central Asian country. It said the earthquake was 1 km deep.

Fish

US: Maryland - Chessie the 'Sea Monster"' spotted again

Chessie, Maryland's very own "sea monster" that first made an appearance in the bay 17 years ago, was spotted by boaters on Friday.
Image
© USGSUsing a photo-identification catalog, USGS scientists were able to confirm the manatee was Chessie based on scar patterns

U.S. Geological Survey biologist Cathy Beck verified that the manatee, found by Calvert County boaters, was indeed the same creature that surfaced in 1994. The boaters sent Chessie's photo to the National Aquarium, which forwarded it to the USGS, where Beck verified the manatee's markings, including a long, gray scar on his left side.

"It was a huge surprise," Beck told The Washington Post. "I get a lot of questions every year - 'Have you seen Chessie? Have you seen Chessie?' The answer for 10 years has been, ''No, sorry.'"

Biologists predict that, once the waters cool down, Chessie and his manatee friends will migrate back down to Florida, then future sightings will be uncertain again.

Fish

US: Gulf 'Dead Zone' May Triple in Size

Dead Zone
© NOAAThe Missisippi River dead zone is overloaded with nutrients from upstream sources. This photo shows the color change between the hypoxic (brown) and oxygen-rich (blue) waters.
Researchers measuring the "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico say it is currently about 3,300 square miles but some scientists say it could become much larger.

The so-called "dead zone," caused by nitrogen levels in the gulf related to human activities such as agricultural runoff, occurs when oxygen levels in seawater drop to dangerously low levels, causing severe hypoxia that can potentially result in fish kills and harm marine life.

Researchers from Texas A&M University say the size of the dead zone off coastal Louisiana has been routinely monitored for about 25 years while nitrogen levels in the gulf resulting from human activities have tripled over the past 50 years.

Some researchers predict the dead zone could exceed 9,400 square miles this year, which would make it one of the largest ever recorded.

Binoculars

Five-Year-Old Boy Mauled by Tiger Cub in South Africa

Image
© Xinhua
A five year-old boy is recovering in hospital after he was mauled by an apparently tame tiger cub at a holiday resort in South Africa.

Finlay Holden was stroking the six-month old Bengali tiger's back when it turned around and grabbed his head between its paws.

The little boy was only saved after other holidaymakers and resort staff throttled the growling animal and hit it over the head repeatedly with a walkie-talkie.

His mother, Claire Holden, told how Finlay had screamed hysterically "Mum, make it stop! Make it stop!" as they fought to save him.

"The whole thing was just awful," she said. "There were all these people pulling at the tiger and it wouldn't let go. All I could do was wrap my arms around Finlay and try to keep him calm."

Nuke

US: Rain Threatens to Spread Radiation from Los Alamos National Lab

Los Alamos fire
© n/a
As I previously noted, radioactive waste was dumped into open pits for decades in and around Los Alamos National Lab - including in surrounding canyons.

As I also pointed out, radioactive waste has been stored in canvas tents onsite at the National Labs, and there were some fires within the Lab grounds.

While rain doused the worst of the fires, there is still some radiation in the air. For example, some Plutonium-239, Americium-241 and Cesium-137 was measured in the air around Los Alamos earlier this month.

And the rains have also created a very real risk of flooding that will spread radiation.

Bizarro Earth

Quake in Costa Rica Causes River to Disappear

Guacalito River disappears
© n/aGuacalito River disappears in Costa Rica after Earthquake
Following a series of moderate earthquakes that struck the country Tuesday, residents around the Guacalito River in Costa Rica discovered that the river had disappeared.

Earthquake-report.com reported that sometime after the earthquakes, villagers living near the river, which is located near Armenia de Upala, discovered that the river was dry.

It was not immediately known if the waters of the river had disappeared due to sinkhole activity that can occur after earthquakes or if the earth shaking caused damming that dried up the river near the Miravalles volcano. The quakes were centered near the Nicaragua and Costa Rica border in the same vicinity as the Miravalles volcano.

An entire body of water disappears? Strange but true, and this isn't the first time this odd event has happened.

In 2010, the Iska River in Slovenia disappeared after local residents heard loud crashing and banging overnight. The next morning, the river was dry and the riverbed was full of fish and other creatures. It was believed that the waters of the river had drained through a large crack into an underground riverbed. This disappearance was not believed to have been related to an earthquake.

Attention

Great Barrier Reef, Australia: Dying sea animals concern experts

Image
© Bianca BoxThis turtle was found on July 17 at Second Beach, Tannum Sands.
Experts on the Great Barrier Reef are calling for increased efforts to protect dugongs and green turtles.

The campaign by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority was launched yesterday as news emerged of another dead turtle found at Tannum Sands on the weekend.

GBRMPA is stepping up its efforts to promote smart boating and fishing practices to protect the animals, as record numbers of deaths are being recorded along the coast.

"The evidence is pretty strong that it's a loss of seagrass and loss of condition (that is the main factor in the deaths)," GBRMPA chairman Dr Russell Reichelt said.

"Essentially these animals are actually starving."

Question

India: Scientists at sea over 'missing' jellyfish

Image
© Unknown
Marine biologists are concerned about the "missing" jellyfish that are washed ashore on Mumbai's beaches during the monsoon.

Experts feel it could be due to lack of strong southwest monsoon winds that blow during this time. "This is an unusual phenomenon. The number of jellyfish that gets washed ashore annually is high. However, this year, their numbers seem to have depleted," said Dr Vinay Deshmukh, principal scientist with the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI).

According to the fisherfolk, the arrival of jellyfish on the shores is an indication of the monsoon. "But southwest monsoon winds that start usually from mid-May onwards have not been strong enough this year resulting in the unusual trend," said Dr Deshmukh. According to meteorological data, monitored by the CMFRI, the wind force this year has been between 21 to 27 kmph during May and June. On the other hand, the wind force recorded on July 12 was around 81 kmph.

Comment: Interestingly enough, other parts of the world, and particularly nuclear power plants, experienced jellyfish "invasion".