Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Germany: Sinkhole Swallows Car Overnight

sinkhole
© Deutsche Presse-AgenturNovember 1st 2010. Tiefenort, Germany. Depth is about 65 feet (20m).
A large sinkhole opened up overnight in the middle of residential area in Thuringia, sucking a nearby auto into its depths and forcing authorities to evacuate residents, police said on Monday.

The crater, measuring some 40 by 15 metres, appeared in the town of Schmalkalden, a police spokesperson said. The hole is believed to be some 20 metres deep, she added.

No-one was injured in the incident, but another vehicle near the hole is in danger of falling into the hole.

A number of homes in the vicinity were evacuated, and a large contingent of police and fire fighters were out trying to secure the site.

Authorities remain uncertain of what may have caused the sinkhole.

Comment: From The Telegraph, UK:

An unexplained 25m "crater" has appeared beneath a village in central Germany, swallowing a car




Cloud Lightning

Flash floods leave four dead in Vietnam

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© UnknownLast month's floods killed more than 130 people in Vietnam.
Flash floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains have left four people dead and two more missing in south-central Vietnam, officials say.

The National Steering Committee on Flood and Storm Control reported a downpour of 165 to 545 millimeters of rain over the last three days in the worst-hit region, DPA reported.

Flood waters have destroyed nearly 600 houses in central and southern parts of the country. More than 5,000 hectares of rice paddies have gone underwater.

More rain has been forecast for the coming days.

This is the latest in a series of deadly storms hitting Vietnam this autumn. Last month's floods killed 134 and left six missing in Vietnam.

Figures show that annual heavy rains and floods have killed an average of 750 people in the pacific nation for each of the past 10 years.

Arrow Down

Thailand's worst flooding for decades claims 100 lives, 5 million affected

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© MCOT
Extensive flooding in central Thailand this month killed up to 100 people and affected 5 million others, officials said Saturday.

Unusually heavy monsoon rains since Oct 10 caused flooding in 38 of 76 provinces, swamping 640,000 hectares of farmland and causing more than 10 billion baht ($333 million) in damage, the disaster prevention and mitigation department said.

It said 22 provinces were still partly submerged.

At least 100 people died during the past three weeks, mostly from drowning, the Emergency Medical Institute said.

Many died attempting to catch fish in the floodwaters, officials acknowledged. The institute said it would launch a campaign to teach more Thais how to swim.

Public Health Minister Jurin Laksanawisit said Friday that medical teams had treated 229,398 patients for flood-related ailments. Half of the patients suffering foot infections.

Comment: Footage from CNN:




Cloud Lightning

Weather in US reflects political turmoil as Midwest battered by 56 tornadoes in two days

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© Associated Press
Residents of US states from North Dakota to North Carolina are cleaning up after a fierce storm unleashed driving rain, blustery winds, heavy snow and 56 tornadoes in just two days.

The National Weather Service said the storm had caused the second-largest October tornado outbreak on record.

Injuries from the storm have been reported in states across the US.

Conditions in many states returned to normal on Thursday as the storm made its way north-east toward Ontario.

But windy weather is still being felt in some regions in the Midwest, the Great Lakes and the Ohio Valley.

Hourglass

French may bid adieu to oysters

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The herpes virus is devastating oyster populations

French oyster farmers are sounding the alarm that their business is on the verge of collapse. The much-loved mollusc is at risk of disappearing from plates due to a virus that is wiping out populations.

Over the past three years, the "huitres creuses" or cupped oysters Laurence Maheo produces have been struck by the herpes virus, which has been killing vast numbers of baby oysters throughout France and the rest of Europe.

"It's very possible that in three or four years there won't be anymore oyster farmers in France," she said last week at the Salone del Gusto, a five-day event organized by Slow Food, an international movement for the protection of biodiversity and traditional food production.

Cloud Lightning

Hurricane Tomas Hits Eastern Caribbean

Hurricane Tomas damage
© Chris Brandis/Associated PressA woman walks by damaged power lines and infrastructure after the storm hit St. James parish, Barbados, on Saturday.

Hurricane Tomas caused extensive damage to the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent on Saturday night, before weakening to a Category1 storm.

The Category 2 storm was packing winds of 155 km/h when it made landfall. It tore the roofs from homes and knocked out electricity all over the island. But as the storm moved northwest over the Caribbean early Sunday, the winds were clocked at 150 km/h.

St. Lucia, Barbados and Martinique were tallying the damage done by Tomas earlier Saturday. Torrential rain made a number of roads impassible in Barbados and high winds destroyed roofs in several communities.

Authorities in St. Vincent said they had unconfirmed reports that three people died during the storm, including two men who might have been blown off a roof.

Bizarro Earth

New Britian Region: Earthquake Magnitude 6.1 - Papua New Guinea

PNG Quake_311010
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Sunday, October 31, 2010 at 16:38:49 UTC

Monday, November 01, 2010 at 02:38:49 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
6.604°S, 150.241°E

Depth:
5.6 km (3.5 miles)

Region:
NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Distances:
90 km (55 miles) ESE of Kandrian, New Britain, PNG

115 km (75 miles) S of Kimbe, New Britain, PNG

460 km (285 miles) NE of PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea

2325 km (1450 miles) N of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia

Bizarro Earth

Pacific: Earthquake Magnitude 6.4 - Antarctic Ridge

Pacific Quake_301010
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Saturday, October 30, 2010 at 15:18:38 UTC

Saturday, October 30, 2010 at 05:18:38 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
56.767°S, 142.613°W

Depth:
20 km (12.4 miles) set by location program

Region:
PACIFIC-ANTARCTIC RIDGE

Distances:
3480 km (2160 miles) SE of WELLINGTON, New Zealand

Bizarro Earth

Russia hit by another natural disaster

Volcano eruption
© Press TV
The eruption of two volcanoes in the region of Kamchatka in eastern Russia has blanketed the town of Ust-Kamchatsk in ash.

Klyuchevskaya Sopka, Eurasia's highest active volcano which stands 4,750 meters (15,584 feet) high, started to spew ash on Ust-Kamchatsk on October 22.

Also Sopka Shiveluch began erupting on Thursday spewing ash approximately 6 miles into the air and the streaming down of lava.

More than 5,000 townspeople were forced to stay at home with their windows shut, while all public institutions, schools and businesses remained closed.

Fish

Newly Disclosed Government Documents Conclude GE Salmon Pose A Critical Threat To Marine Environments

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Expert fisheries agencies prohibit growing engineering salmon in open-water net pens under the Endangered Species Act. FDA declined to disclose evidence during September hearings on Aquabounty Salmon.

Adding a new twist to the controversy over genetically engineered (GE) salmon, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) revealed today that, in recent hearings on transgenic fish, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) knowingly withheld a Federal Biological Opinion by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) prohibiting the use of transgenic salmon in open-water net pens pursuant to the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA).

"This adds further evidence that in fact GE salmon pose a serious threat to marine environments and is another compelling reason for the FDA not to approve the fish for commercial use," said Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director of the Center for Food Safety. "While the FDA applauded the company's choice of land-based containment as responsible, it never revealed that it is illegal in the U.S. to grow genetically engineered salmon in open-water net pens."

The Biological Opinion and supplemental information, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, challenge claims by AquaBounty Technologies, the developer of the GE salmon, that the transgenic fish pose no threat to marine environments. The GE Atlantic salmon under consideration was engineered with growth hormone genes from an unrelated Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and DNA from the anti-freeze genes of an eelpout (Zoarces americanus).