Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Magnitude 3.7 - New Mexico

Preliminary Earthquake Report

Magnitude 3.7
# Date-Time Wednesday, June 04, 2008 at 14:02:42 (UTC) - Coordinated Universal Time
# Wednesday, June 04, 2008 at 08:02:42 AM local time at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 36.51N 106.35W
Depth 5.0 kilometers
Region NEW MEXICO
Distances 70 km (45 miles) N of Los Alamos, New Mexico
70 km (45 miles) W of Taos, New Mexico
75 km (45 miles) SE of Dulce, New Mexico
100 km (60 miles) NNW of SANTA FE, New Mexico

Bizarro Earth

Strong earthquake hits Solomon Islands

WELLINGTON -- A strong earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale shook the South Pacific island nation of Solomon Islands early Wednesday, but there were no immediate reports of damage and a tsunami alert has not been issued.

Bizarro Earth

Severe storms blamed for 3 deaths across the US



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©AP Photo/Darron Cummings
Workers remove a tree that fell through the middle of a truck during a tornado in Edinburgh, Ind., Wednesday, June 4, 2008. The weather service confirmed that tornadoes hit the Moscow and Edinburgh areas based on eyewitness reports and a crew will head out Wednesday to investigate the storm damage, meteorologist Dave Tucek said.

ANNANDALE - Severe storms that downed power lines and trees across a large swath of the country Wednesday were blamed for three deaths. A woman died Wednesday afternoon when a tree fell on a vehicle in Annandale, a Washington, D.C., suburb, a fire department spokesman said.

Earlier Wednesday, authorities in West Virginia recovered the body of a 20-year-old man swept away while trying to drive his truck through high water. Gov. Joe Manchin declared a state of emergency in at least 15 West Virginia counties after flooding and mudslides closed numerous roads. Some places reported more than 3 inches of rain.

Bizarro Earth

Drought slowing Old Faithful geyser

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. - New research suggests that several years of drought may have added a minute or two to the eruption cycle of Old Faithful geyser. The geyser used to erupt about every 61 minutes. That cycle lengthened to more than an hour and 15 minutes following earthquakes in 1959, 1975 and 1983.

Now, the eruption cycle for Old Faithful is just over an hour and a half.

Shaul Hurwitz with the U.S. Geological Survey spent nine years studying five geysers in Yellowstone including Old Faithful. The study period covered Yellowstone's wettest winter in a century as well as several years of drought.

Hurwitz speculates that the drought decreased Old Faithful's water supply and has lengthened the time between eruptions.

Butterfly

Manitoba: Unusual sightings are common this spring



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©Bill Stilwell
Red fox pups frolick outside den

Unusual, unique, rare and exciting wildlife sighting are taking place throughout rural Manitoba this spring. Topping the list is a cougar sighting near Plum Coulee, but that is far from the only interesting report.

Near Deleau, Manitoba, a white-faced ibis was photographed recently. While this is unusual, these birds have been spotted at Whitewater Lake for several consecutive years. Perhaps they are expanding their range.

According to information on the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature website, the ibis is listed as "accidental" in Manitoba. Sightings are "infrequent and far outside the usual range and includes species recorded once or twice or only at very great intervals."

Bizarro Earth

Tornado rips through Indiana town, others possible

MOSCOW - Tornadoes ripped through this central Indiana community and skipped over National Guard barracks full of sleeping soldiers as thunderstorms battered the Ohio Valley, authorities said Wednesday.

One person died in flooding caused by thunderstorms during the night in West Virginia.

Bizarro Earth

Parts of Indonesian capital swamped by high tide

JAKARTA - Residents in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, braced for further flooding after a high tide of over 2 meters resulted in flooding in parts of the city on Wednesday.

Authorities in the capital, home to more than 10 million people, had prepared for the unusually high tides with sand bags and wire netting filled with stones following a warning by the World Bank.

flooded street in Jakarta
©REUTERS/Beawiharta
A woman with her son wade through a flooded street in Jakarta June 4, 2007.

Star

US Army: Sun, Not Man, Is Causing Climate Change

The Army is weighing in on the global warming debate, claiming that climate change is not man-made. Instead, Dr. Bruce West, with the Army Research Office, argues that "changes in the earth's average surface temperature are directly linked to ... the short-term statistical fluctuations in the Sun's irradiance and the longer-term solar cycles."

Arrow Down

Global Temperature Dives in May

Confirming what many of us have already noted from the anecdotal evidence coming in of a much cooler than normal May, such as late spring snows as far south as Arizona, extended skiing in Colorado, and delays in snow cover melting in many parts of the northern hemisphere, the University of Alabama, Huntsville (UAH) published their satellite derived Advanced Microwave Sounder Unit data set of the Lower Troposphere for May 2008.

It is significantly colder globally, colder even than the significant drop to -0.046°C seen in January 2008.

The global ∆T from April to May 2008 was -.195°C

UAH
2008 1 -0.046
2008 2 0.020
2008 3 0.094
2008 4 0.015
2008 5 -0.180

Compared to the May 2007 value of 0.199°C we find a 12 month ∆T is -.379°C.

Global Temperature Anomaly
©UAH
Reference: UAH lower troposphere data

Eagle

UK: Man teaches heron to fly by flapping his arms

Gary Zammit, 42, started his training by running in a field with food in his pockets so the bird would follow him, and gain in strength.

He then waved his arms and made the squawking noises until the bird copied him, and eventually took off.

Now it flies at 70ft, and obediently returns when called.

Mr Zammit said: "He never showed any sign of wanting to take off.

"To encourage him to try flying I had to tempt him along with food in the hope that instinct would kick in and he would go up. But for days he just walked alongside me, or occasionally hopped a bit.

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©South West News