New Delhi - Just days after a massive earthquake hit Sikkim, the northeastern state was on Thursday hit by flash floods. The flash floods hit Lachung, located in north Sikkim district near China border, damaging at least two houses, including one Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) camp. As many as 100 people have been stranded due to the flash floods that occurred on Thursday.
Earth Changes
© Kyodo News / AP
Local residents wade through a flooded street caused by approaching typhoon in Nagoya, central Japan, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011. Thousands of people in central Japan have been advised to evacuate as the powerful typhoon approaches. The storm system has already triggered floods that have left two people missing.
Local residents wade through a flooded street caused by approaching typhoon in Nagoya, central Japan, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011. Thousands of people in central Japan have been advised to evacuate as the powerful typhoon approaches. The storm system has already triggered floods that have left two people missing.
Typhoon Roke caused no immediate problems other than broken security cameras at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, which had been in its path overnight. The plant had been sent into meltdown by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and efforts are still under way to bring the reactors under control.
Hiroki Kawamata, spokesman for plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., said several cameras set up to monitor the plant were damaged, but that there had been no further leaks of radioactive water or material into the environment.
"We are seeing no problems so far," he said.
The storm passed just west of the plant on its way north late Wednesday. The typhoon brought new misery to the northeastern region, dumping up to 17 inches (42 centimeters) of rain in some areas.
© USGS
Satellite images show lava is building in the crater at the summit of 5,675-foot Cleveland Mountain on an uninhabited island about 940 miles southwest of Anchorage, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory.
"It's forming a dome-shaped accumulation in the crater," said Chris Waythomas of the U.S. Geological Survey, the observatory's acting scientist in charge. "We call these things 'lava domes.' It looks like a muffin top."
Lava domes form a lid on a volcano's "plumbing," including the chamber holding the magma. When they grow big enough, lava domes become unstable and will sometimes collapse, decompressing the magma chamber and leading to an explosion, Waythomas said.
© Unknown
Stuart Smith, an attorney in New Orleans, broke the news of a newly-sighted oil spill in mid-August in the general vicinity where BP's oil spill began. Shortly thereafter, a Times-Picayune story quoted a spokesperson from BP saying that the sheen was likely from a different and abandoned well - certainly not BP's well at Mississippi Canyon block 252 (MC 252) - Deepwater Horizon's Macondo well.
On August 24th, the Mobile Press-Register reported seeing oil near where the Deepwater Horizon met its demise and photographs on the Gulf Restoration Network's blog followed. Without a doubt, oil had been found near the failed Macondo well, and an oil production vessel was found onsite, as well. Oil samples were collected from the site and sent to Louisiana State University (LSU) for testing.
Likely in response to so much media attention, on August 25th, BP issued an official response: "BP and the US Coast Guard have conducted multiple surveys of the area in recent days and found no evidence of oil sheens in the Macondo vicinity."
© Gretchen Freund, Postmedia News
Victoria - The sound of lengthy whale blows, echoing through the fog in Robson Bight, caught whale researcher Marie Fournier's attention Monday as she kept watch at an OrcaLab outpost.
Then, out of the fog, swam two massive fin whales - something never previously documented in Robson Bight, off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island.
Fin whales, the second largest animal after blue whales, are starting to return to B.C. waters after being almost wiped out by decades of whaling, but they usually prefer the open ocean and recent sightings have been several kilometres offshore.
"I was completely surprised. I had to do three or four double takes to make sure what I was seeing," Fournier said.
The identity giveaway was the size of the animals, estimated at about 22 metres, and their huge blows, reaching five metres into the air, said Fournier, who then called Jared Towers, a Fisheries and Oceans research technician.
When Towers arrived to take identification photographs he discovered that he photographed one of the whales in Hecate Strait last summer.
"Just by luck it turned out to be the same animal," Towers said.
It is hoped that the growing catalogue of photos will give some idea of the size of the fin whale population off Canada's west coast, he said.
Wildlife officials have discovered thousands of dead fish along the Arkansas River in Little Rock and were still counting carcasses on Tuesday, a day after an angler reported seeing dozens of dead white bass.
"We are on the river trying to determine the extent of the fish kill," said Keith Stephens, public information coordinator for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
Wildlife investigators said the dead fish were mainly white bass, which are common in the river, and were between 5 and 8 inches long. Most were found near the foot of the Two Rivers Bridge, an 80-foot pedestrian bridge that opened in July.
In a highly unusual move, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District has issued a smog health alert for tomorrow, Wednesday, the third day in a row. Residents are urged not to drive and to avoid vigorous outdoor exercise except in the early morning.
Bay Area smog levels are expected to be unhealthy again tomorrow, Wednesday, for the third day in a row, according the region's air quality monitoring agency.
"It is extremely rare for 3 alerts to be called in a row!" Nick Tiano, a communications consultant for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, said in an email.
"Air quality in the Bay Area is forecast to be unhealthy for the third day in a row tomorrow, Wednesday, September 21," according to a district news release.
"This late seasonal hot spell is expected to create conditions for unhealthy air quality for the third day in a row," Jack Broadbent, executive officer of the agency, said in a statement. "We're urging everyone to make clean air choices, such as taking public transportation, reducing energy use, and refraining from using gas-powered lawn equipment, to keep pollution levels down."
The agency advises against outdoor vigorous exercise on Spare the Air days, except in the early morning hours when ground ozone levels are lower. Wood-burning is banned on such days.
© El Cerrito Patch
Bay Area smog levels are expected to be unhealthy again tomorrow, Wednesday, for the third day in a row, according the region's air quality monitoring agency.
"It is extremely rare for 3 alerts to be called in a row!" Nick Tiano, a communications consultant for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, said in an email.
"Air quality in the Bay Area is forecast to be unhealthy for the third day in a row tomorrow, Wednesday, September 21," according to a district news release.
"This late seasonal hot spell is expected to create conditions for unhealthy air quality for the third day in a row," Jack Broadbent, executive officer of the agency, said in a statement. "We're urging everyone to make clean air choices, such as taking public transportation, reducing energy use, and refraining from using gas-powered lawn equipment, to keep pollution levels down."
The agency advises against outdoor vigorous exercise on Spare the Air days, except in the early morning hours when ground ozone levels are lower. Wood-burning is banned on such days.
© Alistair Brightman
Build up of green gunk on the beach at Pialba.
Build up of green gunk on the beach at Pialba.
The Department of Environment and Resource Management and the Fraser Coast Regional Council were both scratching their corporate heads over the unknown flotsam, unable at this stage to even say whether it is a type of seaweed or algae.
The weed appears to be clumps of soft, dark green strands about 10-30cm in length, and members of the public have told the Chronicle about an awful smell it makes after being left behind in the sun at low tide.
The council also confirmed they had received a complaint from the public about the algae/seaweed.
Violent storms across Italy that led to four deaths over the weekend caused damage and disruption on air, port and city transport systems on Monday, officials said.
Six underground subway stations in the capital Rome that were closed due to flooding overnight disrupting the morning rush hour reopened in the early afternoon. Buses took travellers between stops.
Palermo airport on the island of Sicily was forced to close for 40 minutes after a tornado whipped a Falcon 2000 aircraft off the runway, throwing it against police and emergency vehicles.
The storm also ripped free the 'Suprema' ferry from its moorings at Palermo port, causing a small boat nearby to sink before running into an English destroyer, the Monmouth, which was undamaged.
Six underground subway stations in the capital Rome that were closed due to flooding overnight disrupting the morning rush hour reopened in the early afternoon. Buses took travellers between stops.
Palermo airport on the island of Sicily was forced to close for 40 minutes after a tornado whipped a Falcon 2000 aircraft off the runway, throwing it against police and emergency vehicles.
The storm also ripped free the 'Suprema' ferry from its moorings at Palermo port, causing a small boat nearby to sink before running into an English destroyer, the Monmouth, which was undamaged.
© The Times of India
Unprecedented rains over the past week have swamped parts of China.
Unprecedented rains over the past week have swamped parts of China.
Unprecedented rains over the past week have swamped parts of northern, central and southwest China, and although the affected region is breathing a tentative sigh of relief as the downpours pause, rivers continue to swell.
The ministry of civil affairs said in a statement that the rain had forced authorities to evacuate more than 1.2 million people from their homes.
"Constant strong rainfall has caused serious flood disasters in Sichuan (southwest), Shaanxi (north) and Henan (central China) -- 12.3 million people were affected, 57 died and 29 are missing," it said late on Monday.
