Earth Changes

Strong wave sweeps away 33 in east China

Winny Wang
shanghaidaily.com
Fri, 03 Aug 2007 14:28 UTC

Rescuers have recovered three bodies swept away by a freak tide yesterday in Qiantang River, Zhejiang Province, Xinhua news agency said today.

Eight others were still missing, the report said.

©AP Photo/EyePress

Residents crowd near the levee of the Qiantang River to watch rescue workers search for people who were swept away by a wave in Hangzhou, eastern China's Zhejiang province, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2007.

The bodies of two women and one man were found. Relatives began identifying the bodies at 9:50am today, the report said.

The tide hit a group of tourists and locals about 4pm yesterday at a T-shaped levee in the mouth of the Qiantang River. At least 33 people were washed away and 22 have been rescued.

Do extragalactic cosmic rays induce cycles in fossil diversity?

Phil Berardelli
ScienceNOW Daily News
Wed, 01 Aug 2007 22:17 UTC

Researchers may have uncovered the reason why Earth's biodiversity mysteriously plummets periodically. They have found that a rollercoaster-like wobble in the sun's orbit around the center of the Milky Way galaxy regularly moves Earth closer to a source of dangerous intergalactic cosmic rays.

©Mikhail Medvedev/University of Kansas

The solar system's rollercoaster-like path around the galaxy periodically makes it vulnerable to lethal radiation from intergalactic space.

Ireland: Flooding into the record books as summer months are wettest ever

Aideen Sheehan
Independent.ie
Thu, 02 Aug 2007 17:10 UTC

Dubliners have endured the wettest summer since records began - but the rest of the country didn't have much to smile about either.

More rain fell on Dublin in June and July than in any of the 170 years for which records have been kept, Met Eireann revealed yesterday.

Summer storm causes damage across Southern Finland

Helsingin Sanomat
Thu, 02 Aug 2007 14:43 UTC

A sharp summer storm and galeforce winds swept across Finland on Tuesday. Following the storm, trees falling on power lines left thousands of households without electricity in various parts of the country. Still last night, several homes in the municipality of Nurmijärvi in Southern Finland faced power cuts caused by the gales.

©Helsingin Sanomat

Australia's Torres Strait islands at risk from global warming

Peter Michael
The Courier Mail
Thu, 02 Aug 2007 14:35 UTC

Global warming is not just a theory in Torres Strait - it is lapping at people's doorsteps.

The phenomenon is a visible reality as rising sea levels threaten to erase centuries-old island communities.

Roads have been swallowed whole, buildings washed out, graveyards swamped and houses flooded in six of the most vulnerable low-lying island communities.

©OMC

Albino sparrows spotted in UK

BBC News
Thu, 02 Aug 2007 14:06 UTC

A pair of rare Albino sparrows have turned up in County Antrim.

The pure white birds, which lack the the common sparrow's usual brown, grey and black pigmentation, were spotted in a garden near Islandmagee.

©BBC

A keen birdwatcher captured the rare footage of the sparrows.

Czech basin might have arisen through mighty cosmic impact

Prague Daily Monitor
Thu, 02 Aug 2007 11:34 UTC

Some experts are starting to support the theory that the fall of a giant meteorite some 2 billion years ago may have created the Czech basin, surrounded by mountain ranges, reminding of a crater and easily detectable from high altitudes, writes the weekly Tyden out today.

Two Strong Earthquakes Strike Sakhalin, East Russia

Aaron Sheldrick
Bloomberg
Thu, 02 Aug 2007 06:30 UTC

Two strong earthquakes, one of magnitude 6.2, struck near Sakhalin Island in eastern Russia today, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Two people were killed and Japan's government said a small tsunami hit Hokkaido.

The first, stronger quake struck 81 kilometers (50 miles) west of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Sakhalin and 205 kilometers north of Wakkanai in Hokkaido at 1:37 p.m. local time, the USGS said on its Web site. The quake's depth was 5 kilometers. The second quake, of magnitude 6.1, occurred at 4:22 p.m. eastern Russian time in the same area with a depth of 21 kilometers.

Chantal leaves 'havoc' behind in Newfoundland

Ken Meaney
CanWest News Service
Wed, 01 Aug 2007 20:47 UTC

Chantal's quick two-step with eastern Newfoundland Wednesday likely caused millions of dollars in damages, officials say.

Post-tropical storm Chantal dumped up to 150 millimetres of rain in places on the eastern third of the Island, flooding towns and and washing out dozens of roads.