Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

South Asia floods toll passes 2,000 mark


AFP
Fri, 10 Aug 2007 02:01 UTC
The death toll from the worst monsoon floods to hit South Asia in decades passed 2,000 Thursday even as torrents of muddy water receded from millions of acres of farmland and rains shifted west.

Thousands of villages remained under water and threatened by disease, while millions were still displaced, mainly in India and Bangladesh, where the severe floods also destroyed valuable crops.
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Cloud Lightning

Sudan: More Flooding Predicted As Death Toll Exceeds 70


AllAfrica.com
Wed, 08 Aug 2007 18:01 UTC
Sudanese authorities have said forecasts show the level of the Blue Nile River will continue to rise and the situation remains critical in many of the country's states after weeks of torrential rains and flooding that have left more than 70 people dead.

The level of the river, which runs through eastern and southeastern Sudan, has been rising steadily over the past weeks, forcing hundreds of families living along its path to abandon their homes.
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Smiley

Record heat hammers Washington region

David C. Lipscomb
Washington Times
Wed, 08 Aug 2007 17:56 UTC
Today's triple-digit temperatures broke records at all three major local airports this afternoon.

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport recorded a high of 102 degrees, which topped the 101 degree record set in 1930.
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Cloud Lightning

Killer Tropical Storm Moves Toward China


Associated Press
Thu, 09 Aug 2007 17:49 UTC


©AP

Tropical Storm Pabuk moved toward China's southern coast Thursday after triggering landslides that killed 11 people in the Philippines and disrupting power supplies in southern Taiwan.

Pabuk was downgraded from a tropical storm to a tropical depression that lashed China's coastal provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian with heavy rain late Wednesday, the official Xinhua News Agency said. No injuries or damage were immediately reported.

Pabuk then gained force and was again categorized as a tropical storm as it headed southwest at 12 mph early Thursday, Xinhua quoted Lu Shan, chief forecaster of the Guangzhou observatory, as saying. It was expected to hit southern China's Guangdong province late Thursday.
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Bizarro Earth

Earthquake sways buildings in Chilean capital


Reuters
Wed, 08 Aug 2007 16:05 UTC
A moderate earthquake shook the Chilean capital Santiago in the midmorning on Wednesday, causing tall buildings in the city centre to sway.

The magnitude 5.0 quake occurred at 10.14am (14H14 GMT) just off the Pacific coast of Chile, 75 kilometres from the port city of Valparaiso, according to the US Geological Survey.
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Bizarro Earth

Los Angeles Area Hit by 4.5-Magnitude Earthquake

Nick Allen
Bloomberg
Thu, 09 Aug 2007 16:03 UTC
A magnitude-4.5 earthquake struck the Greater Los Angeles area, the U.S. Geological Survey said in an e-mailed statement.

The epicenter of the temblor, which hit today just before 1 a.m. local time, was 45 kilometers (28 miles) northwest of Los Angeles Civic Center and seven kilometers north-northwest of Chatsworth, said the USGS, which measures seismological events.
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Question

Twelve killed by 'mini-tsunami' in Algeria


AFP
Wed, 08 Aug 2007 15:50 UTC
A giant wave described by local residents as a "mini-tsunami" claimed the lives of 12 Algerian bathers last week on a beach in the west of the Mediterranean-rim country, officials said Wednesday.

©MAGELLAN Geographix

Algeria's civil protection agency could give no official explanation for the giant wave that struck a beach near the town of Mostaganem on Friday.
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Bizarro Earth

Massive Mount Steele slide covers entire glacier

Trevor Wales
Canadian Press
Wed, 08 Aug 2007 14:05 UTC
A massive slide that hit Mount Steele could be the largest in the recorded history of the Yukon.

Mount Steele, which stands 5,067 metres tall and is the fifth-highest peak in Canada, recently had two slides take place in the same area, on the northern face of the mountain.

©Peter von Gaza/CP
A massive slide of ice and rock on Mount Steele in the Yukon Territory triggered seismic recorders around the world.

The second slide was by far the larger of the two and occurred on July 24, two days after the original slide.

It was the equivalent of a 3.5-magnitude earthquake and was big enough to generate a seismic signal that could be picked up around the world.
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Bomb

Spain burns fields to kill voles


BBC News
Thu, 09 Aug 2007 10:56 UTC
A plague of field voles in central Spain has led the authorities to resort to controlled burning of fields.

©n/a
Farmers say they have never seen a vole plague like this one
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Cloud Lightning

Tornado Hits Brooklyn with 135 mph Winds

ANAHAD O'CONNOR and GRAHAM BOWLEY
New York Times
Thu, 09 Aug 2007 07:05 UTC
Most of the New York City subway system was back in service by this evening's rush hour after a fierce morning storm disrupted transit service throughout much of the region and unleashed a rare and destructive tornado that whipped southwestern Brooklyn with winds of up to 135 miles an hour.
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