Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

2 Weeks of Flooding in Thailand Kills 57 People


The News & Observer
Wed, 27 Oct 2010 02:34 UTC
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© AP PhotoA Thai boy sits inside his home surrounded by floodwaters near the Chao Phraya River, in Bangkok on Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010.
Heavy downpours that caused rivers to burst around Thailand have killed 57 people in nearly two weeks of flooding that officials are calling the worst in decades, authorities said Wednesday.

The flooding has affected more than 3 million people in 36 of Thailand's 76 provinces, government medical and disaster agencies said. The floods have eased in a third of those provinces.

More than 4 million sandbags were used to erect walls this week in Bangkok along stretches of the Chao Phraya River, which has swelled with runoffs from upper provinces that officials feared could inundate the capital.

So far, flooding in Bangkok has been minimal but riverside residents were warned to be on alert through Friday, after which current high-tide levels were expected to subside.
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Meteor

Flashback SOTT Focus: Cosmic Climate Change is Underway

Niall Bradley
Sott.net
Wed, 19 May 2010 09:45 UTC
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Plane Madness

If you thought the volcanic eruption in Iceland was awesome, wait till you see what Mother Nature has in store for us. Increased seismic activity around volcanoes suggests we can look forward to more spectacular eruptions in the months ahead. Mount Redoubt in Alaska is stirring from its slumber while Mount Etna in Italy threatens to enter a new eruptive period. Preparations are being made to evacuate 3,000 people from the Gaua Volcano on the Pacific island of Vanuatu as renewed activity suggests a large eruption is imminent. The Ischia Volcano off the coast of Naples in Italy has some observers worried, although as SOTT.net pointed out in its Connecting the Dots installment for March, it's the 13 major underwater volcanoes off Italy's southern coast that are scientists' primary concern. Somebody had better contact air traffic controllers in central America and explain to them the intricacies of ash particles and jet propulsion. When an eruption at Guatemala's Santiaguito Volcano sent a plume of ash 30,000 feet into the atmosphere and dusted a large swathe of western Guatemala late April, regional airspace remained open for business. Either politicians there care nothing for airlines' safety or they know something the "experts" in Europe do not.
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Bizarro Earth

Indonesia struggles as tsunami, volcano tolls rise

Slamet Riyadi and Achmad Ibrahim
Associated Press
Wed, 27 Oct 2010 08:36 UTC
damaged building in a village flattened by Monday's earthquake triggered tsunami
© AP Photo/Achmad IbrahimThis aerial photo shows a damaged building in a village flattened by Monday's earthquake triggered tsunami on Pagai island, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010. Planes and helicopters packed with rescue workers and supplies landed for the first time Wednesday on remote Indonesian islands that were pounded by a 10-foot (three-meter) tsunami, sweeping away villages and killing at least 154 people.
Mentawai Islands - Helicopters with emergency supplies finally landed Wednesday on the remote Indonesian islands slammed by a tsunami that killed at least 272 people, while elsewhere in the archipelago the toll from a volcanic eruption rose to 30, including the mountain's spiritual caretaker.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono cut short a state visit to Vietnam to rush home to deal with the dual disasters that struck Indonesia within 24 hours, straining the country's ability to respond.

The first aerial surveys of the region hit by the 10-foot (three-meter) tsunami revealed huge swaths of land underwater and the crumbled rubble of homes torn apart by the wave. One house lay tilted, resting on the edge of its red roof, with tires and slabs of concrete piled up on the surrounding sand.

Two days after an undersea earthquake spawned the killer wave, the casualty count was still rising as rescuers landed for the first time on the Mentawai island chain, which was closest to the epicenter and the worst hit. Bad weather had kept them away previously.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Massive storm sweeps across country

Rex W. Huppke
Tribune
Tue, 26 Oct 2010 12:45 UTC
Storm spawns twisters, downs power lines and leaves considerable damage in its wake

A powerful, 2,200-mile-wide wind storm plowed across the middle of the country Tuesday, spawning tornadoes and brutal wind gusts stretching from the front range of the Rocky Mountains to the eastern Great Lakes.

"It's a huge storm, and it's dominating the wind pattern and the weather over a big chunk of North America," said WGN-TV meteorologist Tom Skilling in Chicago. "And we're not done with this storm yet. The wind is going to blow for another couple days."

Wind gusts Tuesday were in excess of 60 miles per hour in parts of the Midwest, and several tornadoes were reported in Illinois and Wisconsin.
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Cloud Lightning

Video: Tornado Makes Landfall in Texas


Home Video
Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:11 UTC
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A powerful tornado that is associated with the giant storm currently sweeping across the US Midwest made land-fall in Texas yesterday, Oct. 25fth 2010.

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Cloud Lightning

Video: Giant Storm Set To Batter US Mid-West


Msnbc
Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:08 UTC
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Cloud Lightning

Storm Equivalent to Category 3 Hurricane Slams US MidWest


BBC News
Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:33 UTC
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© UnknownTwo Red Cross workers walk away from a barn that was lifted off its foundation by a tornado Oct. 26, 2010, in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin
The Midwestern US is being battered by heavy rain and strong winds by a storm some forecasters are comparing to a category three hurricane.

Forecasters told residents of the state of Illinois to expect the most powerful storm to hit the region in over 70 years.

Tornado warnings were issued across the US from the state of Arkansas to Illinois's metropolitan hub of Chicago.

The storm delayed flights at the city's O'Hare International Airport.

Severe thunderstorm warnings have been announced across the Midwestern US, as the storm continues to charge through the country - moving from North and South Dakota to the eastern Great Lakes, on the border with Canada.

The storm is carrying with it pressure levels similar to a category three hurricane, meteorologist Amy Seeley said.
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Newspaper

Tsunami, Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions Strike Indonesia!


kvia.com
Tue, 26 Oct 2010 11:07 UTC
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© unknownA picture of Indonesia's Mount Merapi taken from Umbul Harjo village in Sleman, Yogyakarta, shows the volcano spewing smoke. Indonesia's Mount Merapi erupted three times on Tuesday, causing thousands to flee and claiming the life of a three-month-old baby as it emitted searing clouds and volcanic ash.
Rescuers battled rough seas Tuesday to reach remote Indonesian islands pounded by a 10-foot tsunami that swept away homes, killing at least 113 people. Scores more were missing and information was only beginning to trickle in from the sparsely populated surfing destination, so casualties were expected to rise.

The fault that ruptured Monday on Sumatra island's coast also caused the 2004 quake and monster Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

Though hundreds of disaster officials were unable to get to many of the villages on the Mentawai islands - reachable only by a 12-hour boat ride - they were preparing for the worst.

"We have 200 body bags on the way, just in case," said Mujiharto, who heads the Health Ministry's crisis center, shortly before announcing a five-fold increase in the death toll.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity due to its location on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire - a series of fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia.
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Better Earth

Indonesian tsunami kills 108, hundreds missing

Sunanda Creagh and Telly Nathalia
Reuters
Tue, 26 Oct 2010 10:15 UTC
tsunami indonesia
© unknown
A tsunami that pounded remote islands in western Indonesia following an earthquake off the coast of Sumatra killed more than 100 people, officials said on Tuesday, and hundreds more were missing.

The 7.5 magnitude quake hit 78 km west of South Pagai, one of the Mentawai islands, late on Monday. Local legislator Hendri Dori Satoko told Metro TV the latest toll was 108 dead and 502 missing.

Most buildings in the coastal village of Betu Monga were destroyed, said Hardimansyah, an official with the regional branch of the Department of Fisheries.

"Of the 200 people living in that village, only 40 have been found. 160 are still missing, mostly women and children," he told Reuters by phone. "We have people reporting to the security post here that they could not hold on to their children, that they were swept away. A lot of people are crying."

Hardimansyah, who has only one name, said 80 percent of the houses in the area were damaged and food supplies were low.
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Question

Mystery Surrounds Black Bear Tracks, Scratches

Chris Potter
GateHouse News Service
Mon, 25 Oct 2010 08:29 UTC
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© UnknownA pine tree suffering from extensive damage from bear bites. Bear bites have been found to coincide with the appearance of trails of carefully retread bear tracks.
Citizens asked to help find, report retread black bear tracks

Hornell, New York - There are still many mysteries about black bears, contends Professor John VanNiel and his Black Bear Management I class at Finger Lakes Community College.

VanNiel and his students are currently investigating a mysterious aspect of bruin behavior - bears that appear to deliberately retread their tracks along a predetermined trail, leaving deep impressions in the earth. A high density of scratched and bitten trees often accompanies these routes.

The phenomenon has been documented in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire. VanNiel and company are asking the general public for help finding similar occurrences in New York state.

"I think some people are reluctant to ask the public (for help) because there's always the chance for misidentification or who knows what, but I have confidence in people," VanNiel said. "I've met enough savvy outdoorsmen that maybe don't have the college degree but still have a lot of woodcraft knowledge and could really be a lot of help in this."

The project was born in July, when VanNiel and conservation technician Sasha MacKenzie journeyed to central Massachusetts to assist researchers at the Walnut Hill Tracking and Nature Center. It was there that they witnessed the phenomenon first hand.
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