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Bizarro Earth

Mega-tsunami hit southeast Asia 700 years ago

Tan Ee Lyn
Reuters
Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:24 UTC
Hong Kong - A mega-tsunami struck southeast Asia 700 years ago rivaling the deadly one in 2004, two teams of geologists said after finding sedimentary evidence in coastal marshes.

Researchers in Thailand and Indonesia wrote in two articles in Nature magazine that the tsunami hit around 1400, long before historical records of earthquakes in the region began.
tsunami hit building at Peraliya
© REUTERS/Buddhika Weerasinghe
A person drives past a tsunami hit building at Peraliya in Hikkaduwa, December 23, 2007.

"Tsunamis are something we never experienced before and after 2004, people thought it was something we would never experience again," Kruawun Jankaew of Thailand's Chulalongkorn University told Reuters by telephone.
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Cloud Lightning

Switzerland: All-time record snow storm triggers delays


Swissinfo.ch
Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:49 UTC
Snow flurries throughout the night and early morning caused numerous delays for travellers using Switzerland's rail system on Thursday.

A heavy, wet snow snapped trees, which fell across tracks. The most affected regions included Zurich, Schaffhausen in the north and the areas around the Gotthard pass in central Switzerland.

Passengers moving between Spiez and Interlaken south of Bern were forced to take buses when rail service there was interrupted around 7am. Broken branches and trees blocked roads.

Farmers in the Bernese Oberland also awoke to snow-related problems. Damaged fences allowed their cows to wander freely.
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Ambulance

At least 215 dead as quake hits southwest Pakistan

Sattar Kakar
Associated Press
Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:53 UTC
Pakistan earthquake
© AP Photo/Arshad Butt
Pakistani villagers look at children who were killed by the earthquake in Ziarat, about 130 kilometers, 80 miles, south of Quetta, Pakistan on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008.
Wam - Desperate villagers clawed through piles of mud and timber looking for victims of an earthquake that collapsed thousands of homes in southwestern Pakistan before dawn Wednesday, killing at least 215 people.

As rescue workers resumed their search Thursday morning, officials said hopes of finding more survivors in the debris left by the 6.4-magnitude quake had dimmed.
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Rocket

Chinese farmers use rockets to scare fruit-eating monkeys


RIA Novosti
Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:25 UTC
Farmers from the small Taiwanese village of Yunlin have been forced to hire fireworks experts to save their harvest from fruit-eating macaques, the China Post newspaper said on Wednesday.

Japanese persimmon orchards have just started to ripen, but are being raided by macaque monkeys. Killing macaques, which are an endangered species in Taiwan, is banned under wildlife protection laws.
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Fish

Singing duets helps sperm whales to bond

David Robson
New Scientist
Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:14 UTC
Sperm whales may take as much pleasure in singing well-timed duets as humans do.

New underwater recordings have shown that the whales carefully coordinate their song to match the calls of their singing partner. The animals appear to enjoy singing to each other, possibly to strengthen relationships among females within the group.

Till now biologists had assumed that the sounds with which whales communicate are mainly intended to scout out other members of their group. But humpback males are thought to woo females with solo love songs, and male killer whales whistle to each other, perhaps to help social bonding.
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Igloo

US: 40,000 still lack power after Northeast storm


Associated Press
Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:33 UTC
Albany, NY - Thousands of utility customers around the Northeast awoke without power Wednesday, a day after the season's first big snowstorm blew through the region.

The wet snow fell on trees still covered in fall leaves, and its weight, combined with gusty wind, sent limbs crashing down on power lines.
snow plow
© Associated Press Photo/Mike Groll
A snow plow clears a highway in Westerlo, N.Y., Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008. The National Weather Service said snowfall totals by Wednesday morning could range from a few inches in areas south of Buffalo and around Albany to 8 to 12 inches in the Adirondacks and the Tug Hill Plateau north of Syracuse.

In upstate New York, more than 40,000 customers remained without power early Wednesday, most of them in the Mohawk Valley, Adirondacks and the Catskills, according to statements by utilities National Grid and New York State Electric & Gas.
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Cloud Lightning

Eyewitness: Honduras flood disaster


BBC News
Wed, 29 Oct 2008 08:37 UTC
Honduras floods

Seventeen out of the 18 regions of Honduras have had flooding of some kind
Heavy rain has soaked much of Central America since the beginning of October.

Honduras is one of the worst affected countries, with more than 30 people dead and 40,000 others forced from their homes.

Claudina Reyes, a Christian Aid representative in Honduras, describes the situation:
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Ambulance

Update: Earthquake kills over 100 in Pakistan


Associated Press
Wed, 29 Oct 2008 07:36 UTC
A government minister says more than 100 people have been killed in an earthquake in southwestern Pakistan.

Minister for Revenue and Rehabilitation Zamaruk Khan says the government is preparing to provide food, shelter and medical care to survivors of Wednesday's quake.
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Bizarro Earth

Pakistan 6.4 Earthquake Kills 31


Associated Press
Wed, 29 Oct 2008 05:15 UTC
Islamabad - A strong earthquake struck parts of southwestern Pakistan early Wednesday, killing at least 31 people, officials said.

The quake struck just after 4 a.m. in Baluchistan, an impoverished province bordering Afghanistan. It had a preliminary magnitude of 6.4, the United States Geological Survey reported.

The province's police chief, Asif Nawaz Khos, said at least 31 people had been killed, and a local mayor said many houses were damaged.

The quake was centered about 400 miles southwest of the capital, Islamabad.
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Fish

Salmon tracked to aid conservation

Alister Doyle
Reuters
Tue, 28 Oct 2008 22:48 UTC
Oslo - Hi-tech devices tracked two small salmon on a 2,500 km (1,550 mile) swim from the Rocky Mountains to Alaska in a step toward understanding fish migrations and protecting stocks, scientists said.

The two salmon, about 14 cm (5.5 inches) long and with almond-sized implants, swam down a tributary of the Columbia River in Idaho into the Pacific Ocean and north past a string of electronic listening devices during a three-month trip.

"We've demonstrated the ability to track animals about the size of a hot dog," Jim Bolger, executive director of the Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking (POST) project, told Reuters. The fish swam the same distance as from Moscow to London.

"We're demonstrating the use of this array to see what's happening in the oceans. Previously we've been searching with a flashlight -- now we feel we are turning on the lights."
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