Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Indonesia orders evacuations as volcano threat peaks


Agence France-Presse
Mon, 25 Oct 2010 00:58 UTC
Indonesia raised its alert for Mount Merapi to its highest level on Monday and ordered people living near the rumbling volcano to move immediately to safer ground. Seismic activity has escalated dramatically at the volcano on the densely populated island of Java, with increasing lava spurts and about 500 multi-phased volcanic earthquakes recorded over the weekend, officials said.

The state office of volcanology upgraded its alert level to red at 6:00 am (2300 GMT), signalling an eruption could be imminent.

"The magma has been pushed upwards due to the escalating seismic energy and it's about a kilometre (mile) below the crater," government volcanologist Surono said.

People had been ordered to evacuate a danger zone of 10 kilometres (six miles) from the crater of the 2,914-metre (9,616-foot) mountain.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Earthquake Magnitude 4.6 - Wyoming


United States Geological Survey
Sun, 24 Oct 2010 15:10 UTC
Image
© USGS
Date-Time:
Sunday, October 24, 2010 at 17:43:59 UTC

Sunday, October 24, 2010 at 11:43:59 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
43.626°N, 110.331°W

Depth:
5 km (3.1 miles) set by location program

Region:
WYOMING

Distances:
40 km (25 miles) ENE of Jackson, Wyoming

60 km (35 miles) W of Dubois, Wyoming

95 km (60 miles) NNW of Pinedale, Wyoming

530 km (330 miles) WNW of CHEYENNE, Wyoming
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Newspaper

California, US: Three Beaches Closed After Deadly Shark Attack


The Associated Press
Sat, 23 Oct 2010 23:28 UTC
Image
© Spencer Weiner/AP PhotoAirmen 1st class Daniel Clark, left, and Staff Sgt. Keri Embry, post a sign warning surfers of a recent shark attack Friday, Oct. 22, 2010, at Vandenburg Air Force Base, Calif.
A string of beaches on California's Central Coast were shut down Saturday and there was no word on when they would reopen after a deadly attack on a bodyboarder from what some scientists said was probably a great white shark, authorities said.

The three beaches north of Santa Barbara - including Surf Beach where the attack took place - would be closed at least through the weekend and officials on Monday would decide when to reopen them, said Jeremy Eggers, spokesman for Vandenberg Air Force Base, which owns the beach property.

Eggers said he expected base officials would reopen the beaches Monday, but there was too much uncertainty and confusion surrounding the attack to say for sure.

"There's a lot of fog and friction in these kinds of situations," said Eggers. He said his bosses determined the shutdown "was the right thing to do as a safety precaution."
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Binoculars

Dolphins "Walk" on Water


The Telegraph, UK
Sat, 23 Oct 2010 03:29 UTC
Dolphins in the wild are teaching themselves to "walk" with their tails along the surface of water, biologists have claimed.


The mammals, which are celebrated for their playful natures, are developing the skill "just for fun", according to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) in Australia.

Dolphin tail-walking has no known practical function and has been likened to dancing in humans.

WDCS researcher Dr Mike Bossley, who has observed Adelaide's Port River dolphins for the past 24 years, said he had documented spectacular tail walking in two adult female dolphins, known as Billie and Wave.
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Bizarro Earth

Thai floods 'worst in 50 years'

Zoe Daniel
Science Centric
Wed, 20 Oct 2010 22:13 UTC
Image
© ReutersResidents carrying their belongings wade through floodwaters in Nakhon Ratchasima province, north-east of Bangkok, in Thailand.
A quarter of Thailand has been inundated in the worst flooding in half a century with riverside areas of Bangkok set to be affected by rising water.

The death toll from the floods has now risen to 12 and is mainly attributed to flash flooding which has washed away homes.

Four people died in Buriram, in eastern Thailand, as waters gushed through the streets, while the death toll in severely affected Nakhon Ratchasima has risen to four.

The central provinces of Rayong and Trat have both reported one casualty, while a further two people were killed in Lopburi.

Rescue teams have helped evacuate stranded people by boat, as homes and huge swathes of farmland have been deluged.

The area to the north-east of Bangkok is worst affected after twice the amount of rain compared to this time last year.
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Cloud Lightning

7 die in typhoon-triggered landslide at temple


msnbc.com
Fri, 22 Oct 2010 11:50 UTC
Image
© Associated PressEmergency rescue team members extract a body from the flood debris caused by passing Typhoon Megi at a temple in Ilan county, north eastern Taiwan on Friday.
Seven people were killed when a mudslide buried a Buddhist temple and a bus containing 19 Chinese tourists was missing Friday, as one of the worst typhoons in 50 years battered Taiwan.

Six other people were missing and a number of vehicles were trapped on a highway as Typhoon Megi swept toward southern China, where landfall is expected late Friday or Saturday.

The storm earlier killed 26 people and damaged homes and crops in the Philippines.

Megi dumped a record 45 inches of rain in Taiwan's Ilan county over 48 hours. It had winds of 90 mph and was about 275 miles southeast of Hong Kong on Friday evening local time, the Hong Kong Observatory said.

The seven people who died were at the White Cloud Temple in Suao city along the eastern coast when it was engulfed by the mudslide, Taiwanese cable TV stations reported.
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Cloud Lightning

Two dozen missing in Taiwan as typhoon nears China


XinNews
Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:34 UTC
Image
© HKO/AFPTwo dozen missing in Taiwan as typhoon nears China
Typhoon Megi unleashed torrential rains over Taiwan leaving two dozen people missing and hundreds more trapped by landslides Friday, as it bore down on cities along China's southeast coastline.

Megi, the strongest storm to hit the northwest Pacific in two decades, has already killed at least 36 people in the Philippines and was expected to make landfall late Friday or early Saturday in Fujian province in southeast China.

Authorities have evacuated more than 150,000 people from low-lying areas of the province, while 10,000 others have been moved to safer ground in Guangdong. Thousands of fishing boats have been ordered not to put to sea.

"Megi could bring the largest concentration of rainfall this year and will have a serious impact on the province's coast," Fujian's civil affairs department said in a statement.

Projections by the Hong Kong Observatory showed the typhoon was likely hit near the southern Chinese cities of Xiamen and Shantou -- between them home to more than seven million people.
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Bizarro Earth

Earthquake Magnitude 6.9 - Gulf of California


US Geological Survey
Thu, 21 Oct 2010 14:25 UTC
Image
© USGS
Date-Time:
Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 17:53:14 UTC

Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 11:53:14 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
24.843°N, 109.171°W

Depth:
10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program

Region:
GULF OF CALIFORNIA

Distances:
105 km (65 miles) S of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico

125 km (75 miles) SW of Guamuchil, Sinaloa, Mexico

140 km (85 miles) NE of La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico

1200 km (740 miles) WNW of MEXICO CITY, D.F., Mexico
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Bizarro Earth

Southern China braces for deadly typhoon

Min Lee
Associated Press
Wed, 20 Oct 2010 11:47 UTC
Image
© AP PhotoA boat sails past docked ships at a port in Haikou, in south China's Hainan province, Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2010. Residents scrambled to stockpile food and authorities ordered ships to remain docked as southern China geared up Wednesday for a super typhoon after it killed 15 people and wiped out crops in the northern Philippines.
Residents stockpiled food and ships were ordered to dock Wednesday as southern China braced for a typhoon that has already lashed the northern Philippines amid floods that have killed more than 70 people across Asia.

Typhoon Megi packed winds of 140 miles per hour (225 kilometers per hour) when it struck the Philippines on Monday. Philippine officials reported 20 deaths, including several people who drowned after being pinned by fallen trees. The storm damaged thousands of homes and flooded vast areas of rice and corn fields.

Late Wednesday, Megi was about 350 miles (550 kilometers) southeast of the southern financial hub of Hong Kong and expected to eventually hit the southern Chinese coast, the Hong Kong Observatory said on its website.

The storm's winds have weakened to 110 mph (175 kph), but are expected to build strength over the next two days before losing steam again Saturday, when the typhoon is projected to make landfall in China's Guangdong province, the observatory said.
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Bizarro Earth

"We Are Destroying Life on Earth," UN Conference Claims


FoxNews.com
Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:00 UTC
dead,planet
© UNEPA recent U.N. biodiversity study said global environmental damage caused by human activity in 2008 totaled $6.6 trillion.
A U.N. biodiversity conference aims to address a simple problem: "We are destroying life on Earth," said the head of the U.N. Environment Program.

The world cannot afford to allow nature's riches to disappear, the United Nations said on Monday at the start of a major meeting to combat losses in animal and plant species that underpin livelihoods and economies. The U.N. cited the worst extinction rate since the dinosaurs vanished 65 million years ago, saying it's a crisis that needs to be addressed by governments, businesses and communities.

A U.N.-backed study this month said global environmental damage caused by human activity in 2008 totaled $6.6 trillion, equivalent to 11 percent of global gross domestic product.
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