Earth ChangesS


Phoenix

The world's first bionic sea creature: Winter the dolphin gets a prosthetic tail


Daily Mail (UK)
Mon, 05 May 2008 14:22 UTC
Two years ago Winter was the dolphin that could not swim.

Instead of powering through the water with a flick of her tail, the bottlenose could barely waggle from side to side.

She had lost her tail in a crab trap at just two months old and was found floating in distress off the coast of Florida.

Rescuers got her to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida where staff fought to save her life.

Winter survived but there was a problem ... where her tail should have been there was only a stump.

Bionic Dolphin
©Barcroft
The world's first bionic sea creature: Winter now swims and splashes around like any normal dolphin
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Magnify

Earthquake felt in US, St. Louis area


Thetelegraph.com
Mon, 05 May 2008 19:36 UTC
A magnitude 2.7 earthquake centered near Fenton, Mo., shook the St. Louis region around 6:25 a.m. today.
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Magnify

Flood and landslide dangers continue in Norway


Afterposten.No
Mon, 05 May 2008 17:58 UTC


Floods In Otta
©KRISTOFFER ØVERLI
A photo from the landslide area of Otta.

Although most of those who were evacuated from their homes in Otta after Friday's landslides have returned home, flood warnings continue in many areas in southeast Norway.
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Bizarro Earth

6.8 M earthquake strikes near Honshu Island


Associated Press
Wed, 07 May 2008 14:00 UTC
A magnitude-6.8 earthquake struck near the east coast of Japan's Honshu island in the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
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Snowman

Globe may be cooling on Global Warming

Deroy Murdock
Scripps News
Thu, 01 May 2008 03:26 UTC
Australia, the land where sinks drain the other way, has alerted Americans that we see Earth's climate upside down: We're not warming. We're cooling.

"Disconcerting as it may be to true believers in global warming, the average temperature on Earth has remained steady or slowly declined during the past decade, despite the continued increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, and now the global temperature is falling precipitously." Dr. Phil Chapman wrote in The Australian on April 23. "All those urging action to curb global warming need to take off the blinkers and give some thought to what we should do if we are facing global cooling instead."
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Binoculars

Flashback Aussie Finds Meteorite Crater on Google Earth

Brook Borel
Cosmos Online
Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:48 UTC
Sydney: A rare meteorite impact crater in remote Western Australia has been discovered by an Australian geologist using Google Earth.

The Hickman Crater, located in the Pilbara region around 1000 km northeast of Perth, was named for its discoverer, Arthur Hickman, who was using Google Earth to conduct research on channel ore deposits.

If confirmed, the Hickman Crater will be Australia's second largest preserved rim crater - one that has not eroded significantly from its original shape. The crater's rim, which is 80 per cent preserved, stands 30 m above its floor, and consists mainly of rhyolite, a rock similar to granite.

Image
©Google Earth
The Hickman Crater as viewed from satellite
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Bizarro Earth

Chile volcano blasts ash 20 miles high, forcing evacuations

Eduado Gallardo
Associated Press
Tue, 06 May 2008 21:54 UTC
Santiago, Chile - The long-dormant Chaiten volcano blasted ash some 20 miles (30 kilometers) into the Andean sky on Tuesday, forcing thousands to evacuate and fouling a huge stretch of the South American continent.
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Bizarro Earth

First international aid reaches Myanmar after cyclone


Associated Press
Tue, 06 May 2008 21:31 UTC
Yangon, Myanmar - International aid began to trickle into Myanmar on Tuesday, but the stricken Irrawaddy delta, the nation's rice bowl where 22,000 people perished and twice as many are missing, remained cut off from the world.
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Magnify

Florida: Mysterious algae blooms worry biologists

Curtis Morgan
Miami Herald
Sat, 03 May 2008 18:19 UTC


florida algae
©Daivd Walters / Miami Herald Staff
Peter Frezza, a biologist with Audubon of Florida's Keys office, measures water clarity on the Twin Key banks. The photo was taken from just below the surface and reveals the water's green tinge as a result of the algae bloom in parts of Florida Bay.

Algae has turned Florida Bay's waters a murky green, threatening the ecosystem below. What's causing the sudden blooms isn't clear.

Only a day earlier, the heart of Florida Bay's world-renowned fishing ground was clear enough to count turtle grass blades six feet down. Now, Pete Frezza stared into water so thick with algae it looked an awful lot like pea soup.

Stick an arm in and you wouldn't see your hand.
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Fish

Colossal squid goes under the knife in New Zealand

Emily Dugan
The Independent
Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:04 UTC


Colossal Squid
©AP
The colossal squid, which weighs half a tonne, is thought to be the largest ever recovered intact

The sight of an enormous, tentacled creature splayed out on an operating table may seem like the stuff of science fiction, but for scientists in New Zealand tomorrow it will just be another day at the office.

The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa is about to begin experiments on one of the ocean's most enigmatic creatures: the colossal squid. Only dismembered or digested parts of the squid are ordinarily found, but this rare intact specimen was caught in Antarctic waters in February 2007.
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