Earth ChangesS


Igloo

Czech Republic: Frost seriously damages fruit crops

frozen appple
© Profimedia.cz
Last week's surprising frost which passed through the Czech Republic damaged this year's fruit crop. Growers estimate the damage at hundreds of millions of Czech Crowns. The Fruit Union claims that these are the highest losses in decades.

Some fruit growing businesses could face an existential problem, says the Fruit Union. The association's president Martin Ludvík wants to negotiate with the Ministry of Agriculture.

According to the latest estimates the severe frost damaged under 6400 hectares of orchards, this represents 37 percent of all fertile orchards in the Czech Republic. "Harvest from the effected areas will be minimal or none at all," said Ludvík. About 24 percent of orchards sustained moderate damage and 39 percent have not sustained any major damage.

Cloud Lightning

US: Louisiana Spillway to Open, Flooding Cajun Country

Robert Jones /rising flood waters
© AP Photo/Rogelio V. SolisIn a May 12, 2011 photo, Robert Jones, 53, is afraid the rising flood waters behind his house will flood him out by the weekend in Yazoo City, Miss.
Lake Providence, Louisiana - In an agonizing trade-off, Army engineers said they will open a key spillway along the bulging Mississippi River as early as Saturday and inundate thousands of homes and farms in parts of Louisiana's Cajun country to avert a potentially bigger disaster in Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

About 25,000 people and 11,000 structures could be in harm's way when the gates on the Morganza spillway are unlocked for the first time in 38 years.

"Protecting lives is the No. 1 priority," Army Corps of Engineers Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh said aboard a boat from the river at Vicksburg, Miss., hours before the decision was made to open the spillway.

The opening will release a torrent that could submerge about 3,000 square miles under as much as 25 feet of water in some areas but take the pressure off the downstream levees protecting New Orleans, Baton Rouge and the numerous oil refineries and chemical plants along the lower reaches of the Mississippi.

Hourglass

U.S.: Sharks Dying by the Dozens Due to Internal Bleeding

leopard shark
© Upsilon AndromidaeLeopard Shark

Dozens of leopard sharks have been washing up dead in California since April, and now a necropsy shows at least one of the sharks died of massive internal bleeding, such that blood was even coming out of the shark's skin, according to a Daily News report.

The necropsy, conducted by the California Department of Fish and Game, uncovered "inflammation, bleeding and lesions in the brain, and hemorrhaging from the skin near vents." According to the Daily News story, bleeding was additionally detected around the tested female's other internal organs.

Bizarro Earth

Costa Rica - Earthquake Magnitude 6.0

Costa Rica Quake_130511
© USGSEarth Location
Date-Time:
Friday, May 13, 2011 at 22:47:55 UTC

Friday, May 13, 2011 at 04:47:55 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
10.105°N, 84.261°W

Depth:
70 km (43.5 miles)

Region:
COSTA RICA

Distances:
25 km (16 miles) WNW (303°) from SAN JOSE, Costa Rica

126 km (78 miles) SSE (153°) from San Carlos, Nicaragua

137 km (85 miles) W (275°) from Limon, Costa Rica

Fish

U.S.: Dead walleye showing up by the thousands in Ohio

dead fish,walleye
© James Proffitt/News-MessengerThe city beach in Port Clinton is littered with dead walleye ranging from 15 to 24 inches.

Port Clinton -- As anglers from more than a dozen states are trying to figure out how to catch the largest walleye this week, Ohio Department of Natural Resources biologists will be trying to figure out what killed thousands of others recently.

"I'm hearing thousands or tens of thousands maybe, on the high side," said biologist and ODNR Lake Erie Program Administrator Roger Knight. "This is something out of the ordinary."

According to Knight, there are several possible causes.

Bizarro Earth

US: Mammatus Clouds Over Minnesota

On May 10th, a severe storm captured national attention when it dumped golf-ball-sized hail on a Minnesota Twins baseball game. "I missed the hail," reports John Rogers of New Hope, Minnesota, "but I got a nice view of the clouds that formed after the storm passed." He snapped this picture in waning twilight at 8:30 pm local time:

Mammatus Clouds
© John Rogers
These are mammatus clouds. Named for their resemblance to a cow's underbelly, they sometimes appear at the end of severe thunderstorms when the thundercloud is breaking up. Researchers have called them an "intriguing enigma," because no one knows exactly how and why they form. The clouds are fairly common but often go unnoticed because potential observers have been chased indoors by the rain. If you are one of them, dash outside when the downpour stops; you could witness a beautiful mystery in the sky.

Better Earth

Red sky at night: Sicily looks on as Mount Etna erupts in spectacular fashion

After reports of mysterious mass animal deaths around the planet, photos of a fierce volcanic eruption might confirm that the end of the world is nigh.

Thankfully, these magnificent pictures of Mount Etna's latest eruption are merely a chance to revel in the awesome power of nature rather than a reason to start stocking up on canned goods.

The 3,329-metre (10,922-feet) volcano erupted for around an hour yesterday evening, lighting up the Sicilian sky and providing amazing scenery for the village of Milo, just 12 kilometres away.
Image
© ReutersFire in the hole: Mount Etna spews lava on the southern Italian island of Sicily yesterday evening
Etna is Europe's tallest and most active volcano and has seen increased activity in recent months yet its seismic might poses no immediate threat to the nearby towns and cities.

According to the Italian Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, a slight increase in Etna's volcanic tremors had been recorded on Tuesday, reaching its peak at 7am local time yesterday.

The activity diminished but at 9:30pm local time on Wednesday night, Etna roared into life sending lava spewing down its sides.

Bad Guys

Expert says eruption of Etna volcano linked to earthquake in Spain

Image
© Unknown
Rome - The eruption of the Etna volcano in southern Italy early Thursday is connected to the earthquakes that rocked the Spanish region of Murcia, killing 12 people and injuring more than 170 others, a seismology expert said Thursday.

"We are currently witnessing an intense seismic activity in the entire Mediterranean area from Spain all the way to Malta which has a certain impact on regional volcanoes," said Domenico Patane, director of the Sicily office of Italy s National Geophysics Institute.

Patane said volcanoes are like windows from where underground magma surfaces and it's normal that they respond to earthquakes occurring in a geographic proximity.

"The Spanish eastern coast hit by the quake, after all, lies close to Italy, in the Mediterranean. Both Spain and Sicily are on the same earth plate," he said.

The earthquakes in Spain on Wednesday, which could be felt in Madrid, reportedly had their epicenter near the towns of Lorca and Totana in the Murcia region. The initial tremor of 4.4 magnitude was followed by a quake of about 5.2 magnitude.

Cloud Lightning

US: Town that faces being wiped off map: Flood waters engulf every home in Mississippi community

It's a terrible waiting game for around 350 people evacuated from the camps at Tunica Cutoff.

With the Mississippi River 10ft out of its banks and heading towards a crest (peak) of 48ft on the Memphis gauge, county planners and emergency management officials fear that flood waters will enter nearly all the now-abandoned homes on the unprotected side of the levee.

On the bloated Mississippi River, the town of Tunica Cutoff, sits an hour's drive south of Memphis - recent flood waters have done significant damage to the town's housing and has left residents wondering if they'll have a community to return to when the water recedes.

CBS News reports that there are about 300 homes in the small town, and they have all been flooded.
Image
© EPAHigh waters: Residents in Tunica Cutoff are worried it may never be rebuilt owing to the cost of building the town again from scratch

People

US: Slow migration unfolds in flood's path

Yazoo City - A slow migration is unfolding here as people and wild animals - hogs, deer and snakes among them - seek higher ground from the floodwaters rising inexorably along the Mississippi River and its tributaries.
Image
© AP/Robert RayFloodwaters invade downtown Vicksburg on Wednesday. Historic Vicksburg, the site of a pivotal Civil War battle, has been one of the hardest hit cities. All along the river's path, residents are worried about the flood's impact on homes and farmland.
Brett Robinson drove slowly down River Road near his Yazoo City farm on Thursday, gazing out over corn fields now beginning to look more like lakes. He stopped his truck, pulled out a rifle and shot dead a wild hog swimming through his corn. He'll lose the crop anyway, but that hog could be a nuisance long after the water recedes.

"We lose a lot of crops to them," he said of wild pigs. "We can lose 40 acres in a night. They can give birth three times a year and have 15 in a litter."

Wild pigs multiply faster than farmers can deal with them. Yet the rising flood is driving them into the open, giving farmers an opportunity to kill them as wild animals seek higher ground.

Not far away, a raccoon clung atop a power pole, perched above several feet of water. Nearby, a snake swam through the inundated corn. Ants are seemingly everywhere and fish sought to swim against the current as water washed over a road.