Earth ChangesS

Cloud Lightning

Floods follow storms

A batch of storms and possibly seven tornadoes damaged houses and closed roads in central and eastern Iowa today as emergency responders gathered early reports of flooding.

Better Earth

Tropical Storm Alma hits Nicaragua

Tropical Storm Alma made landfall on Thursday on Costa Rica's Pacific Coast and blew through to Nicaragua, where 35,000 people were being evacuated.

The Miami-based US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said that a tropical storm warning was in effect for the Pacific Coast of Central America, including Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador.

The eye of the storm was 85km west-northwest of Managua and about 280km east-south-east of San Salvador. According to the NHC report, it was moving northward at 15km an hour and was expected to turn northwest by yesterday.

Maximum sustained winds were near 100kph, with higher gusts.

Fish

Apocalypse in the Oceans

With 150 dead zones in our oceans, some the size of Ireland, author Taras Grescoe argues that there's been a massive die out of sea life.

In pictures, on CSI Miami, and to the naked eye the sea looks the same today as it ever did: blue, green or blue-green, rolling in glassy crashing curls, tormented then serene. It will look this way tomorrow, next year, arguably for eternity. No matter what freaks us out on earth, our species takes great comfort in knowing that the sea always looks exactly the same.

From up here.

Arrow Up

Flashback US: Against odds, glacier grows in cauldron of Mt. St. Helens

On May 18, 1980, the once bucolic ice-cream cone shape that defined Mount St. Helens in Washington state disappeared in monstrous blast of ash, rock, gas, and heat.

It was one of the most powerful explosions ever witnessed by humans and the force of the blast leveled hundreds of square miles of forestland, devastated wildlife and killed over 50 people.

Almost three decades later, the effects of the eruption are readily apparent to the thousands of visitors to the observation points in the sprawling Mount St. Helens volcanic monument.

But time has also muted the effects to some degree. Trees are growing back in some areas, plants have poked up through the ash, animals move through the devastated plains once again.

Image
©KATU

Question

Swallow deaths a mystery at California school

A coach strolling along a wing of classrooms around 7 a.m. saw not a couple dead birds, but around 100. Most were juveniles and adults

Cloud Lightning

U.S. Heartland Storms Toss 90 Train cars, Damage Homes

AURORA, Neb. - A storm bearing hail and possible tornadoes struck central Nebraska Thursday night, damaging businesses, derailing train cars, tearing down trees and disrupting power to thousands.

Nebraska Tornado
©ABC
Scores of tornadoes swept across Kansas and Nebraska Thursday, damaging homes and flipping a 90-car train off the tracks.

People

China warns evacuation possible with flood threat

CHENGDU, China - More than 1 million people may have to evacuate dozens of villages in a Sichuan province valley if an earthquake-spawned lake threatens to burst and flood the region, an emergency official warned Friday.

Ambulance

Rains in China Hamper Work to Clear Earthquake Lakes

Heavy rain in China's Sichuan province disrupted efforts to drain lakes that are threatening survivors of the country's deadliest earthquake in 32 years.

The weather is preventing helicopters carrying earthmoving equipment from flying through the mountainous region, where a lake in Tangjiashan is putting 33 townships at risk, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. The China Meteorological Administration today issued a heavy rain warning for northeast Sichuan, including the disaster zone.

Evil Rays

Strong earthquake rocks Iceland

A strong earthquake measuring 6.1 has hit southern Iceland, 50km (30 miles) from the capital, Reykjavik.

In the town of Selfoss, near the epicentre, buildings were damaged and up to 20 people needed treatment for minor injuries, reports say.

Residents in the capital felt buildings shake and aftershocks were felt in the south-west of the country.

The US Geological Survey said the earthquake struck at 1546 GMT at a shallow 6.2 miles (10 km).

Paul Enarson, Professor of Geophysics at the Institute of Earth Sciences in Iceland, told the BBC that the earthquake happened in an area popular with tourists:

Attention

Volcanic ash causes Chile to cancel some flights

Santiago - Ash from the Chaiten volcano that has been erupting in Chile for nearly a month led the country's flagship airline LAN to cancel flights to a string of small airports on Wednesday.

Winds initially carried most of the ash from the volcano east into Argentina, but it is now being carried north within Chile. Ash clogs jet engines.